Just as Long as You're Near Me By: Kichara Chapter One: Just Friends

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The wild cheers of so many people became one great shout of joy as navy blue hats were tossed into the air to join the cheers hanging there. Dib grinned to himself as he watched it all, his own hat still gripped tightly in one hand. A tap on his shoulder demanded his attention and he turned around, meeting the blue eyes of the person behind him.

"Aren't you going to throw your hat in the air?" Zim asked, motioning to the item.

"Dib shrugged with a smile. "Seems kind of stupid. How am I supposed to find it if I want to keep it as a souvenir if I throw it around?"

The alien grinned. "Makes sense. I'm still trying to figure out what the purpose of tossing around an article of clothing while shouting like the earth monkey you are is."

Dib snorted, giving him a slight push and started walking off, away from the crowd and with the alien close behind. "It's just tradition that humans usually have once they finish skool and attend their graduation ceremony."

"And you didn't do it."

"Um. no." Dib stopped under the shade of a tree, laughing as he realized he was defending something that he thought was stupid to begin with. "Guess not." He sat down, back against the tree's trunk and looked up at the bright blue sky that peeked through the leaves. "Damn, it's a nice day out for this."

Zim nodded, sitting down in the grass next to him. "Good thing. I wouldn't have come to an outdoor occasion if it was going to rain."

"Well, I'm glad you came. Thanks. I know you thought it was really stupid and didn't wanna come, but.thanks for coming with me." He smiled in gratitude and Zim returned the favor, nodding in understanding. Gaz had had an interview for a college upstate and hadn't been able to come because of it and Dib's father had been too busy, of course.

The ex-Invader sighed, picking at the soft grass. It really wasn't fair, this whole thing was really important to Dib, and there hadn't been anyone to share it with him. "Yeah, you should be grateful." He growled, although the tone was all bark and no bite (and the both of them knew it.). 'I thought only girl humans wore these."

Dib sighed, rolling his eyes for the umpteenth time when referring to the subject that day. "It's a robe, Zim. I told you that. It's OKAY for guys to wear them."

Zim glared at him thoughtfully, one eye squinting at the human. "You're SURE?"

"Actually." Dib looked down at the dark blue folds of them outfit and his lips curled up into a little smile. "Not really. It does really look like a dress, doesn't it?"

It was Zim's turn to roll his eyes now and he leaned over, giving Dib a friendly shove. "Stupid."

The young man fell over with a yelp of protest, but instead of getting up; he lay there, laughing genuinely. 'I sure as hell wouldn't wear it out into public." He gasped out, picturing himself walking around in a grocery store in the robes.

Zim watched the other quietly, a soft smile forming on his lips. "You're certainly in a good mood." He remarked after a long moment of watching the human giggle to himself as he rolled around on the ground.

Dib sat up, a huge smile plastered on his lips. "Guess so. It's such a good feeling though, y'know? I mean, we're all done with hi skool and we don't have to worry about it anymore. No more homework assignments."

"No more boring labs." Zim added, nodding in agreement.

"No more irritating teachers and of course."

"No more cheerleads!" They exclaimed together, laughing again.

Zim took up Dib's former spot against the tree trunk, smiling to himself. The boy's insatiably good mood had been catching up with him all day and he g=found it impossible to keep a big goofy grin off his own face. When they usually hung out with each other, it wasn't too hard to keep up a falsetto with a glaring face, but today. it was different, harder to keep up.

Impossible, actually, he mused silently, smile still in place. Dib scooted over to sit next to him, back pressed against the tree's bark, shoulder lightly touching Zim's as he closed his eyes, still smiling. The Irken glanced over at Dib's peaceful face and his head titled to the side thoughtfully.

"You know, Gaz would have come today, if she could have." Dib's eyes snapped open, amber orbs fixing on Zim's face.

"Huh?"

"She wanted me to tell you that she really did want to come to see you today, but if she didn't go up for that interview, she wouldn't have any chance of getting into the college." Zim explained gently, carefully watching Dib's face. It looked relieved and still glowed with happiness.

"Really?"

A nod. "Really. You know how she is about talking to people directly, so I guess that's why she told me."

"That's good to know. Thanks Zim." The paranormal obsessor leaned back against the tree, his eyes slipping shut again.

Zim relaxed, watching the sky appear and disappear through the leaves above them as they swayed in the breeze. Wearing a dress and having to be around some of the humans he detested the most for more than three hours more than he had to today was worth this, this moment right now.

He and Dib had been close friends for years now, back since middl skool. Or that was what they defined it as, Dib had pointed out, one day while they were reflected on past matters. At that time they were supposed "enemies", as they'd been since second grade. By that time, though, the warfare was more fun and games than either of them actually trying to kill each other. The hatred the two had smoldered over for years had slowly dissipated into a sort of weird friendship that neither of them would admit to. And they would have grand wars with monkeys and nerf guns under the pale moonlight nightly, rather than rapid vampire weasels and lasers cannons, both insisting that they were, indeed still enemies, and that they were still hating and trying to kill each other. Right.

So it hadn't been all that hard to make the transfer to actual friends when Zim had gotten a call from Tallests one day while they were in eighth grade, telling him he was a failure as n Irken and that he was banished to Earth. The events from that day had been extremely blurry, but Zim could still remember the mind-fuzzed actions quite well. He'd sat on the cold floor before the blank screen for hours before somehow getting over to the elevator and going up to the house. From there, he'd trudged out of the house and somehow managed to end up at Dib's door. And it had gone on from there.

Zim and Dib still kept up the "enemies" act from time to time, somewhat from pride, but mostly because it was fun. Zim didn't have anybody besides Dib and Gir, and it had been sort of weird, but...

"HI!!!" A sudden voice squeaked and the boys both yelped in a unified surprise as the owner of the high-pitched voice squealed and landed in Dib's lap. "I brought you flowers!" Gir exclaimed, holding out a bouquet of carnations and shoving them into the boy's face.

"Why would you get Dib flowers, Gir?" Zim asked slowly, eye narrowed in confusion.

The Sir unit squealed, clinging to Dib happily. "Cuz he's soooooooooo pretty in his dress!!!! Congradamulations, Dib!!!"

The human laughed, wrapping an arm around Gir's disguised body, the other taking the flowers from him. "Thanks Gir. But Zim's pretty too, right?"

The deranged robot gasped loudly, turning to gaze at his master. "He IS!!!!!!" With that, he tackled the Irken with enough force to send him to the ground in a jumbled-up pile with his "advanced" Sir unit clung to his chest, nuzzling it.

"Pain in the ass." Zim growled at Dib, eye twitching in irritation. The human only laughed in response, thoroughly enjoying the show.

"Gasp!!" Gir sat up on Zim's chest, peering down at the Irken intently for a long moment. Then he jumped off him, grabbed one of his arms and pushed him forward with unnatural strength. Caught off guard, Zim fell forward, falling onto Dib. Time stopped as Dib stopped laughing, looking into his friend's eyes, which were as wide as his own.

Gir clasped his tiny hands to his chest, head tilting to the side as he looked at the two. "There! Now you're pretty together! Awwww!!!!"

"You...ah..." Zim managed out, trying to figure out what to say, where his nose would be only inches from Dib's.

"Um..." Dib was just as speechless as they sat still for an unknown amount of time. And then they realized what position they were in.

"Ack, sorry!" Zim scrambled to get off of the human, scooting back. He turned his attention to Gir, as he was unable to come up with anything coherent for Dib at the moment. "Gir, what are you doing?!"

"Watchin' you guys be pretty." The insane robot replied, giggling happily.

"Um, so..." Dib interjected, beating his brains for something to break the awkwardness. "You, uh, still wanna go play paintball tomorrow, right?"

"Oh yes, yes. Paintball, good. Tomorrow, right. Masculine stuff, yes." Okay, so that coherent thing was being a bit slow in returning to him.

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Y'know, I had a whole opening and closing notes for this chapter already done, and then my writing disc vanished on me, so I had to re-write this friggin' chapter and now I'm not awake enough to come up with anything worth reading. In fact, why the hell are you even reading this? Are you damaged? So yeah... and stuff.

Marveling Over the Wonders of Country Crock and Fighting Sleep as Evil Rapid Vampire Weasels (God, I love that expression- I came up with it meself ^^) Like to Take My Underwear When I Do,

Kichara

P.S. Goose.