This fic is sort of weird.. It has no real purpose, truthfully. It is a songfic, so if you don't like those you may want to abandon ship. I don't know why I wanted to write it. I was listening to my cds and this song made me think of Zim for some odd, weird, stoopid reason, so I decided to make a fic out of it. I don't know how to classify this fic either, it's a little angsty, a little angry, a little funny. heh. PG-13 for my filthy mouth! Please write me a review! I made some corrections since I first uploaded it.

Disclaimer junk: I do not own Invader Zim and nobody paid me to write this.. I also don't own "Wild Child" by Enya, but I do own one of her cds..

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It was a beautiful, sunshine infested day. The children were playing dodgeball on the playground, jumping rope, climbing on the jungle-gym, playing games on their Gameslave 2's, or making the lives of their classmates into a general living hell. Cute little blighters, really. There was love, there was hate, there was almost a whole world in itself contained in the microcosm that was the skool playground. Sometimes Zim hated it so, yet sometimes he wondered at it. He would have never admitted it to anyone, but he did. He could appreciate the way human children grew up. When he thought about it, Irken smeets didn't really have much of a childhood at all to enjoy. There were no silly games unless it was a game made out of destroying something, no elementary skool crushes, no hair pulling.. well, there was antennae pulling sometimes, but that was besides the point! That was part of their training for destruction!

All it really was was 'Welcome to life Irken child, report for duty,' then training, training, food, training, destroying, establishing who was the best... the life of a warrior from the very first breath. He sat down on the grass under the shade of a tree and just watched them. The games were sort of... fun.. looking. If the children actually didn't treat him as a social outcast, he may have wanted to join in. He knew it was futile, though, because every time he tried to play a game he would make a fool of himself and they would laugh at his lack of dirt-child knowledge, or would hurt him intentionally just to laugh some more. Pitiful fools. He felt his anger rise for a moment, gritting his teeth, but he let it go. He knew what it was like to be cast out of the main circle, a 'loser' as some of them called him, before he came to Earth anyway, so he kept putting it out of his mind. He wasn't about to try and get more popular with these.. children beasts. His mission was to please his Tallests. He knew that they weren't expecting him to do so, he had picked up on it everytime he reported in, and he was starting to care less and less about what they thought of him now. He was ashamed of himself.

"They may be traitorous thoughts, but I..." he trailed off as he talked to himself, not wanting to voice out loud that he just didn't care. He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard a gentle rustling and some small, electronic beeping noises. Gaz sat down on the opposite side of the tree, facing away from him. He peered around the tree at her and watched her play her Gameslave 2 for a while. She seemed to take no notice of him, and he liked it better that way. He admired the way that she chose the path of the loner, not caring if she fit in with the other filthy children at all. From what he had observed about the Humans and also his own people, it was a brave path to take.

He turned back around and shut his eyes, resting against the tree. He tuned out the noises of the children and the beeping of Gaz's game, and just rested. He rested, listening to the birds chirping somewhere above him, the sounds of their tiny wings and the leaves rustling...

Ever close your eyes?

Ever stop and listen?

He felt oddly peaceful, no hatred ran through him like it usually did, he was almost in a sort of trance.. he didn't sleep, but this seemed to be almost how he had imagined it would be, but he was aware of pretty much everything around him, including the fact that Dib was in the tree above him somewhere, watching him closely. That boy.. a smirk twitched on the corners of his mouth.. that boy was his hell. He wouldn't have questioned that thought, not even in a fit of madness. Yet, even the irritation that the Earth-boy caused him didn't bring him out of his peaceful state. It was an unearthly sort of peace, one so seldomly achieved, almost meditative as he allowed himself to focus on his thoughts alone.

A louder rustling from above him. He opened his large eyes and stared up into the tree, smiling as Dib tried to conceal himself behind a larger branch and leaves. "Dib-human," he said, a sarcastic tone in his voice. "You really should come down from that tree before you set back your evolution by a few thousand years and no one can tell the difference between you and one of your smelly monkey-cousins." Gaz snickered at this, turning her Gameslave 2 off and getting up. The bell had just rung for them to go back to class.

Ever feel alive?

"How did you know I was up here? I didn't make a sound," Dib said irritably. He started to climb down, then he lost his footing and came crashing down with a yelp. A barrage of water balloons fell down with him, having been shook out of the tree. They splattered everywhere, covering Zim and himself with water and mud, Gaz had managed to duck behind the tree just in time. The Irken's eyes widened as his skin started to sizzle. He bit his lower lip in an effort not to scream and made a small strangled sound instead as he tried to shake the water off. The human boy tried to supress a laugh as he cleaned the water off of his glasses, whiping them on his blue shirt. Gaz walked away muttering something about how she didn't want to believe they were related. Damn those DNA tests...

"Another victory for Earth!" Dib smiled at Zim, watching with delight all the pain that he was causing the incredibly small alien.

"Oh yes, a thrilling victory," the alien glared at him as he spoke. "I just want to make you aware that I hate you." The steam was still coming off of his skin as it burned, but his immense irritation with Dib turned him a brighter shade of green and made his insides burn at the same time. An insane urge to destroy this planet was surging through his veins again. A bird chirped overhead and then a soft plop was heard, and that anger turned to laughter as Zim almost fell over, pointing at Dib.

And you've nothing missing

"Ohhh gross!" Dib shouted as he pulled off his trenchcoat. Zim was doubled over in laughter now.

"The... human is covered in bird dookie!" He managed to gasp out between snickers. "Surely your victory is not as sweet now, Dib, seeing as how your own Earth-birds are against you." He left Dib there, making his way back into the skool, laughing evilly and looking up at the sky. "WONDEROUS AIM, WRETCHED FLYING BIRD-BEASTS!"

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Dib was late to class because he had to clean off his jacket in the skool bathrooms. He couldn't go to class with bird shit all over it, after all. That would just be.. disgusting. Ms Bitters didn't even say anything to him when he walked in, she was droning on about how the sun would incinerate the earth sometime in the future and that they were all doomed. She had handed out some boring worksheet about it and everything. Half of the kids were snoozing at their desks, drooling on their papers or staring at the cieling with vacant expressions. The other half were attempting to finish the worksheet, which was apparently a bunch of fill in the blank questions about space. Dib glanced over at Zim, leaning around the snoozers in the first row.

Zim was reading a book, his worksheet and a pencil neatly in the corner of his desk, every question answered correctly. Surely the humans, especially the Dib could expect no less from him. He was.. ZIM! When Ms Bitters had handed out the work sheet 15 minutes before he had made a small, disgusted sound and finished it within seconds. Though his plans never worked, at least his brain was funtional. The worksheet was full of questions that smeets knew the answers to within their first year of life. Some of the past worksheets had questions like: How does a wormhole function? What is exotic matter? What happens when a star implodes? How long does it take for a sun to destroy everything within billions of miles of itself? Pretty easy stuff...for him anyway.

He busied himself with a book about ancient earth creatures, marvelling at their size and their immense power. He mused silently whilst staring at a diagram of a tyrannosaurus' gigantic head, wondering why they really died out, it seemed that not even human scientists knew for sure. A spitball hit his cheek, causing him to shudder in disgust. He looked over at the Dib-human first, since he was usually the culprit of Zim's misery. Dib was busy finishing his worksheet, so Zim glanced around the room at the other hideous dirt-children. Torque Smacky, the big oaf, was sitting in the far corner today, shooting spitballs at his targets randomly. One of Zim's eyes twitched and he shook his mighty Irken fist at him. Irritating, spit-ball shooting, worm-brained bastard.. Would this day never end?

You don't need a reason

Let the day go on and on

It was going to be a few more hours (it felt like days) before class would be over, he looked up at the clock, then out the window.. the sky was darkening. Zim gasped loudly, no one looked at him but Dib, who looked out the window and smirked triumphantly. Zim jumped up, raising his hands into the air. "Ms Bitters?" he asked loudly.

"What is it Zim?" She said with a sort of snarl.

"I know that you have told me that I cannot have a restroom break for the rest of the skool year, but I have a MIGHTY NEED to use the restroom.. it was Mayonnaise and Corn day in the lunch room again and something is bubbling within my shreiking and writhing insides," he stared at her hopefully. She sighed in disgust at the poor doomed child before her and pointed to the new hall-pass(es), which were a pair of fire-extinguishers that were attached to two of those exploding collars by long chains, one to latch around each wrist.

"Very well, Zim. You may go," she grumbled. Zim stared at the hall passes as she latched them onto his wrists. This forced him to rethink his plan.

"Remember, they will explode if you leave skool grounds." Her old, wrinkled lips twitched a little, and she shoved him out the door.

"Wretched exploding hall passes," he ranted as soon as she shut the door in his face. He started dragging the fire-extinguishers down the hall, they made a loud, dull noise as they scraped across the tiles on the floor. He stopped and leaned against the wall for a moment, putting his hand under his chin as he stood there thinking.

"Hey you! Where's your hall pass?!" The insane hall monitor had just jumped out of nowhere, pointing at Zim with a manic look in his eyes. He hadn't been quite the same since Zim had stolen his liver. The Invader flattened himself against the wall, mildly startled.

"Foolish Hall-beast!" Zim held up his thin wrists, showing the boy the new hall passes attached to him. Disappointed that he had no one to sentence to a hellish detention, the hall monitor slunk off, making little grumbly noises. Zim stood there for a moment, then a lightbulb appeared over his head. He ran down the hallway to the skool art room, the fire-extinguishers clattering loudly behind him on the ends of their chains. He looked through the window to see if anyone was inside. The room was dark. "The young ones aren't here yet, it must be their turn to play the filthy outside games.." He reached behind him and pulled a small device out of his PAK and picked the lock on the door, then ran inside.

"Paste, must have paste," he searched everywhere, pulling open drawers and knocking things over until he finally found an entire shelf of nothing but the blessed bonding substance.

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He didn't return for more than an hour. Ms Bitters looked annoyed, but she pretty much always looked that way. Her lecture had changed to horrible tropical diseases and how some of them would rot the flesh right off of your body. He sat at his desk and stared at her as she talked, feeling a little disgusted, yet intrigued that such things still ran rampant on the planet. Some of the other children looked horrified, which brought a smile to his face. Eventually though, like so many of the other days in Ms Bitters' class, he started to tune her out and stare at the clock once again. He only did this when he was convinced she wasn't going to say anything else that would help him in his quest for world domination, or when he just didn't feel like thinking up another brilliant plan that day. Today was not one of his brilliant plan sort of days, he just wanted to go home.

Dark clouds were covering the sky outside. Dib stared at the Irken suspiciously, knowing that he had obviously not been in the bathroom that whole time, seeing as how Zim had stopped attempting to eat the cafeteria food. Finally, after a very very very long amount of time, the bell rang and all of the children escaped from the skool to go back to their houses in their little neighborhoods.. Zim stared up at the clouds once he was outside. He did not rush home, but he walked slowly. Since he didn't have to worry about the rain, that feeling of peace came back to him again. He eventually passed Dib and Gaz on their way home. Gaz was still playing her Gameslave 2, and Dib's eyes just followed him, full of suspicion as always. He was taken aback when Zim didn't threaten him or insult him as he usually did, he seemed detached. In fact, Zim hadn't threatened him with death or doom all day.

It started raining, and Zim stopped walking and just stared up at the sky again. He didn't know why he was doing that so much today, but it was nice. His eyes closed again, feeling the cool water on his face.

Let the rain fall down

Everywhere around you

Gaz put her gameslave away and pulled her umbrella out of her backpack. Dib paused and just watched Zim's peculiar behavior. The alien didn't notice as Gaz stepped around him. "Dib, what are you doing? Come on," she called to her brother, who was still staring at the Irken.

"You go on, Gaz, I'll catch up," he said, standing in front of Zim now and raising an eyebrow. She shrugged and kept going. If he wanted to get soaked, that was fine with her. Dib watched Zim for a while, trying to think up reasons that the Invader was acting so strange. "Zim?" he asked cautiously. No response. He walked in a circle around him. Zim opened his eyes slowly.

Give into it now

Let the day surround you

"What's going on, Zim? You're not acting... normal.. Well, you never act normal, but.. you're even stranger today." Still no response from Zim.

You don't need a reason

He tried splashing him with puddle water next, nothing. "Answer me, damn it, Zim," he pushed the alien backwards a little, still nothing. Zim's expression had become on of vacant... almost bliss? Finally, out of frustration he knocked the Irken into a puddle. Water flew everywhere. Zim stared up at him, that peaceful feeling gone again. He glared at the human before him.

"Do you mind?" he asked in irritation. "You're kind of ruining this for me." Dib stared at him in shock.

"Ruining what?" He was confused. Zim usually showed nothing but hostility towards everything around him, what evil thoughts could he have possibly ruined if Zim was having them all the time?

"Listen to me, human," Zim said softly, pushing himself up and out of the puddle. "I am up to nothing today, I have no devastatingly evil plans in mind that you must save your planet from, no diabolical schemes to put explosives in your food.. you can thank the food-monkeys for your stomach problems.." He paused, listening to the rain again.

Let the rain go on and on

"It is my request," he started again, almost losing his train of thought, "that you leave me alone today. I am going to go home now, and enjoy this 'rain' as you call it, as peacefully as inhumanly possible. I realize that this may come as a shock to you, but I do find it quite.. pleasant." The blissful feeling was creeping back into him as he looked around in a daze. "Your planet is quite.. beautiful sometimes." After he said this he quickly covered his mouth as if it was quite possibly the foulest thing that had ever come out of it. Dib just stared at him as if he had grown two heads.

"What did you just say?" his bespectacled eyes were wide. There was no way that he had heard that correctly.

What a day, what a day to take to

"ZIM said nothing, nothing I tell you! Horrible human, putting words in my mouth!" Zim gritted his teeth as he raged, he didn't want to believe he was actually starting to like living on Earth, it was preposterous. But, the feelings he was having lately proved that to be correct. He was still far from actually enjoying the inhabitants of Earth, but the Earth herself was beautiful to him. He cursed himself silently.

What a way, what a way to make it through

What a day, what a day to take to a wild child

"Sure, Zim, whatever," Dib said, smirking widely. So he had heard Zim correctly after all. He looked like he was seconds from just flat out laughing at the Irken in front of him. He had taken great pleasure in Zim's look of horror when he admitted that he thought Earth was beautiful, and he had never expected that Zim would say something like that either. With his rantings about this ball of filth, this dirt-planet, it seemed like something Dib wouldn't have heard if he and Zim had lived there for another million years. "So that's what's wrong with you.."

"Fool! There is nothing wrong with ZIM! You are.. imagining things with that inferior brain of yours!" Zim clasped his hands behind his back and walked away from him. Dib just shook his head.

"Sad, sad Zim.. I hope you aren't the best they could send from your planet, because if that's the case you all won't stand a chance," the boy called after him, tauntingly. Zim stopped walking and clenched his fists tightly. He stomped back to the Dib-human and just stared into his eyes.

"Don't talk to me."

Only take the time

From the helter skelter

"What's the matter now, Zim? Upset because you just conquered on of your weaknesses only to show me another?" Dim asked him smugly. Zim wanted to hurt him very, very badly... Irkens did not show weakness, ever.. and if they did.. he didn't want to think about it.

"Dib-human," Zim started slowly, trying to calm himself. Think of the rain, think of the rain.. "You know less than you think you know," he smiled, then knocked Dib backwards into the same puddle he had been in just a few minutes before.

Every day you find

Everything's in kilter

Zim stared down at the now officially soaked and glaring Dib. "I don't need to explain myself to you, human," he grabbed the boy's hand and hauled him back to his feet. "Now, please leave me alone.. until tomorrow. You can bother me again tomorrow."

You don't need a reason

Let the day go on and on

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Well, that's it.. the end. If you haven't heard the song "Wild Child" by Enya, I highly recommend that you do.