For those of you who happen to be interested, I am currently using Willow as one of my main Invader Zim role-play characters. If you want to check up on what she's up to in the role play (which exists in a different IZ universe than this story, so some details may seem strange) you can go to her livejournal account. Her username is Willow_One.

I had one HECK of a time posting this, only half of it would show up when I did a preview. I don't know what end the problem is on, I suspect it's mine. My MS word is corrupt.

***

"What's this all about?" I ask, confused, as Gregg meets me after work and puts a blindfold over my eyes. He grins brightly. "You silly girl, you know they put the results of the scholarship tests out the very next day, where military tests can be a week of finger-biting nervousness!"

"What does that have to do with this blindfold?" I ask, terrified that he's going to say that he doesn't want me to see my test results.

"I already saw your results, and… I'm taking you out of a congratulatory dinner!"

I sink into his arms. "Congratulatory?" I ask, excited. Congratulatory. That means…

"You passed by a three-point margin! Way to cut it close, girl!" he laughs, tickling me under my chin. "But you made it, and that's the important part."

"Oh Gregg!" I laugh nervously, almost feeling the butterflies float out of my stomach. "I can't believe I made it! I can't believe I made it!"

Even though I'm still blindfolded he picks me up and spins me around. I can feel his fingers under my arms and feel the wind blowing my antennae gently sideways, and I can hear the sound of his gentle laughter.

When he lets me down I press my face into his chest, breathing deeply. "I love you so much," I whisper breathlessly, still exhausted from letting the tense laughter flow out of me.

He kisses my antennae gently, drawing his slender tongue sensually down their length. "Come on, if we don't get to the restaurant soon we'll lose our reservation."

Dinner at the restaurant is heaven. I've never been treated like such a princess before, even at the tallests' royal celebration. The waiters are gentlemen. They politely ask if we'd like to see the wine list, which Gregg politely accepts. I'm a bit nervous as I'm not much of a drinker, but Gregg assures me he knows what to order.

"How are you paying for this?" I ask.

Gregg grins sideways at me. "Charging it to my card and paying it off with my test-passing bonus, of course."

"Of course," I answer. He and I both know that scholars don't get a test-passing bonus, so there's a bit of an awkward silence before the waiter returns, pad and pencil in hand.

Once he's gone, I turn back to Gregg. "Aren't you counting your chickens before they hatch? I mean, what if you don't pass."

Gregg waves me off. "Not going to happen," he smiles at me. "You worry too much, but I loves ya for it anyway."

"I worry too much?" I ask, looking down into my drink.

"If you're worrying about worrying too much, isn't that your answer?"

I find myself only nibbling on my salad, no matter how much it must cost. I don't like the dressing. For someone used to common processed things, fresh food is a bit of a surprise and a shock. Still, I get as much down as it is within me to do so. I don't want to make Gregg disappointed.

"When is your test?" I ask, stirring up the dressing with my salad fork.

"I got a slot three days from now. Can you believe it? Three days and we're going to be married."

"If you pass…

"WHEN I pass! Stop worrying!"

"But you hardly ever study…"

Gregg laughs, grasping my hands in his. "Honey, it's mostly an action-based test! I just have to be able to do things! The intelligence tests will come once I've served the period required in the army before they'll allow you to try and move up to Fleet Commander or higher. I can do anything they ask of me. I've passed every practice test I've taken in the last two weeks with a margin of twenty or more points! I have absolutely nothing to worry about."

As the main coarse is set down, I smile at Gregg. "I hope you're right, darling. I really hope you're right."

Gregg laughs again. "My little Original. Such a worrier!"

My antennae stand up a bit. I've told him not to call me his little anything, as I don't feel right when he does, but now is not the time or the place to bring it up. I'd only give myself indigestion and ruin a perfectly lovely dinner.

I end up carrying my dessert home in a little Styrofoam box, as I was too full from the luscious dinner to possibly even think of eating it. Gregg thought it would be a waste to throw it out, however, and I agreed. So here I am, carrying a piece of some kind of chocolate pie through the corridors of the Massive.

"Hey, we're getting near Willow's place."

Gregg's antennae twitch in annoyance that I've pointed it out. "Is she ALL you think about?"

My antennae droop miserably in response. "She's… really the only Irken I know…"

"I'll find you some other girls to hang out with. Orig, Willow is not a nice girl. She's a loud freak. I don't want that rubbing off on my cute lil' Original."

"Gregg, I told you I don't like to be called lit…"

A door on the mezzanine corridor above us being thrown violently open interrupts me. Gregg, in a reaction more from his soldier reflexes than from actually thinking about what was going on, pulls me into the shadows under the corridor. Above our heads, someone stomps into the hallway. I recognize Raine's voice instantly.

"If you walk out that door, don't you dare come back!"

The stomping stops, and then Willow cat-calls back, "Like I'd ever want to!" The stomping then angrily resumes.

"Hey… hey… HEY! You come back here right now!" Raine screams.

"Make me!" Willow snaps back, still stomping across the floor. Gregg and I huddle behind a plant, not wanting her to see us if she comes downstairs and think we're spying on her. After all, who would believe such a meeting was coincidence?

"Fine, if you're going to be that way!" a second set of boots stomps across the mezzanine.

"Hey, let go! Let go!" Willow shouts, and the sound of something hard like a fist colliding with something soft, like a belly, reaches us. There's no cry of pain or anything to indicate that Raine felt anything, however, so we wonder what she really hit.

"Put me down! Put me down! I don't like being carried!"

"Shut up or I'll bust your jaw open, you lousy pest."

"I'll take your nuts off! Don't think that I won't!"

"Shove it," Raine says dully, and the sound of boots once again storms overhead. Willow gives out a string of Irken curse words that I would frankly be ashamed to repeat, before the slamming of a door cuts away the sound of her voice.

Gregg and I sit in stunned silence for a few moments behind the plant. We're not used to mated couples sweating such bodily violence upon one another. Something went wrong with that couple, very wrong. I'm curious to find out what it is, but for some reason I'm afraid that if I know it will spread like a virus and taint my full-hearted love for Gregg.

Gregg seems to notice I'm shaking, and puts his arm around me.

"Angel, we won't be like that, will we?" I sob, lying my head on his shoulder.

"Sssh, sssh. No. Never," he says, looking back up at the ceiling.

A janitor sweeps by, looking boredly at us. "Don't mind that. They're always like that. If they carried out half the things they threatened, they'd both be dead six times over. Just two weeks ago the girlie chased the guy down the hall with a butcher knife from the kitchen. We all thought she was really going to get him that time, but her heels tripped her up."

"That's horrible. Doesn't anyone try to stop them?"

The janitor laughs, leaning on his broom. "What, and lose the best reality television we've had in years?"

I lean against Gregg as we walk back to our incubator. "Orig? You okay?" he asks softly, noticing that I haven't said anything.

"Just tired. Want to put my dessert in the cooler and go to sleep."

There's a long pause as we just walk down the hall in tandem. "You're thinking about Willow."

"How can she stand having such a… CREEP… for a mate? Why doesn't she leave him?"

"Maybe it's a codependent relationship. Maybe she thinks she can't get another man if she leaves him."

I frown, biting my left index finger. "Willow doesn't seem like the kind to worry about having a man."

We walk along some more. "Then it's probably financial. Look at all the nice things she has, probably out of the poor guy's hard earned monies."

"Raine was threatening Willow as much as Willow was threatening Raine. I don't think you can call him the 'poor guy."

"Whoa, whoa," Gregg says, pulling me to a stop. "We're fighting about WILLOW?"

I laugh at Gregg's expression. "You're right, that's the last thing I want us to fight about." I lean up on my tiptoes and give him a kiss on the eyelid. "I just want to know that you love me."

He massages my hands. "I do. I honestly do. Orig, prove to me that you love me. Prove that we're not going to end up like those two. Make love to me, tonight."

"… Tonight…"

"Yes, tonight. Right now, right in our warm incubator!"

"No."

Gregg's face falls. "Why not?"

"Not until we're mates," I repeat, putting my pie in the cooler. I notice the box is squished; I think I sat on it while we were hiding from Willow and Raine. I hope flat pie is still good pie.

"But… but… oh, fine. Fine," Gregg says, crossing his arms and stomping his left foot.

"You're cute when you're angry," I reply, taking my night uniform out of the "hers" cubby. "Be back once I've changed."

"O-kay," Gregg pouts, giving me sad smeet eyes. His eyes yank a string attached to my heart. I do love him, but do I love him enough? Maybe I should give in…

No, no. I have to stick to my morals or he'll never respect me once we're mates. Willow told me that, but I don't dare tell Gregg that. He'll accuse me of letting her corrupt my feminine side, whatever that's supposed to mean. I don't really understand and I don't ask because I don't want to start a fight.

That night, once I know Gregg is sound asleep, I slip out of the incubator. Taking Moby with me, I wander back to that viewing platform from my first night alone. I set Moby down, feeling the coldness of the platform under my bare feet. "Starlight, star bright, first star I see tonight…"

I pause, closing my eyes slowly. "Thank you for brining me a friend. Thank you for bringing me two good friends, both of whom I love in very different ways. If you could only make them get along, I'd be so grateful to you…" I sigh, opening my eyes again.

Somewhere inside me that I won't admit to, I'm wondering if Gregg really is "the One" for me.

Moby squeals happily, jumping up and down. "Look master, a shooting star! Wish on it and your wish HAS to come true!"

I trace the movement of the star across the window with my short green fingers. The only thing I could want, I think as I watch the star, is to know I've found my true happiness.