By animeninjaNIPPON

All right readers, the moment you've all been waiting for...or not. This story keeps going back-and-forth between ZADR, ZADF, and both of them being enemies. This chapter contains ROMANCE...of sorts.

Dib woke up with a slight headache. Zim was eating a bag of Irken curly fries. Gir popped up in Dib's face, offering him a brainfreezy. "It's GOOD!" he promised.

Still half-asleep, Dib took the freezy with a nod of gratitude toward the robot. Zim grumbled, "About TIME you stopped SLEEPING!"

"Good morning to you too, Zim." Dib sipped the freezy. "If it even is morning..." He noted that they were still in space. A long silence followed. "Hey Zim...what do you think you'd really be doing if we'd never met?"

"For your INFORMATION - " Zim began, then figured there was no sense in lying about his status and replied hurriedly, "Working for Sizz-Lorr."

"Well, it's probably better than what my life would have been - I mean, at least you get to meet other aliens." Dib sipped the freezy again as Zim pondered this new information. "Me, I'd just stay on Earth, looking for signs of the paranormal and failing every time...Probably never go to prom, or kiss a girl, or even- "

"Prom? Kiss?" Zim inquired. "What IS all THIS?"

"Oh yeah - uh, prom is just like a dance party thingy at skool." Again, Dib drank from the frozen beverage, rather savoring the taste.

"And what is 'kiss'? Is that a dance?"

"No, it's..." Dib tried to explain a kiss, but recalling what he found out when he defined a crush, he began to get a little nervous. "It's something humans do when they like each other."

"Does it involve 'crushing'?" Zim slammed his fist into his palm to illustrate his point.

"Sort of. It's actually more involved than that - you have to know the person reeeaaally well..." Dib thought he sounded like an idiot, so he cut to the chase. "They - put their mouths together." He could feel his face heat up.

"EWW!" Zim made a face. "Why do you DO such disgusting rituals?"

"I dunno...it's supposed to feel good."

"You LIE!"

"I don't know! I've never done such a thing! I've only heard stories!"

"Well, if it is so GOOD," Zim sneered, "PROVE IT!"

Dib dropped his brainfreezy in shocked stupor. "You want me to KISS you? But - but you're - you're - "

"YOU are the LAST REMAINING HUMAN!" Zim answered. "Who's going to KNOW?"

"Well, it goes like this, I think..." Dib put his arms around Zim's shoulders, much to the Irken's discontent.

"What are you DOING?" Zim ducked out of the partial embrace.

"You wanted me to show you what a kiss is like." Dib kept reminding himself, We'll find a way to correct the past, this would never have happened anyway, this is probably my only chance, and we ARE friends...Whoa, where did THAT come from? He made the wise choice to stop thinking and just do what he was going to do.

"OK, try it again, worm baby." Zim sat up straight again.

Dib repositioned his arm around Zim. "If I'm doing this favor for you, YOU have to call me by my name!"

"DIB. There - are you HAPPY?"

Dib slipped his other arm around Zim's waist and shifted so he was pressed against the alien. "Close your eyes..."

Zim did so, and as he did he heard his robot helper shriek, "AAAAH! Master, he gonna EAT YOU!"

"AAH!" Zim opened his eyes and broke away again.

"Gir, can you close your eyes and count to a thousand in Portuguese?" Dib asked. "Please?"

Gir complied, and Dib decided to try a different approach. He leaned against his side of the ship and lightly brushed Zim's arm with his hand. "OK, come here."

Dib gave an awkward smile as Zim turned to him. Zim crawled up to Dib, where he was greeted by the human's embrace. Dib could feel his own heart beating and his body shaking, and so could Zim. "Dib. Are you having a seizure?"

"What? No - I'm just nervous..."

"Is that normal?"

"For a first kiss - yes." Dib placed his hand on Zim's shoulder. "Don't you feel nervous?"

"IRKEN INVADERS do not FEEL SUCH THINGS!" Zim proudly replied.

"Well, I'm not an Irken or and Invader!"

"Dib." Zim put his own arm around Dib's neck, resting his other hand against the human's chest. "I think I can do this now."

"OK..." Dib closed his eyes and tightened his grip on Zim. "Wait - "

"NOW WHAT?" Zim released Dib entirely.

Dib let Zim go. "Aren't you affected by water?"

"So..."

"Well, the chemical make-up for human saliva includes water, and... Won't that kill you?"

"I don't know." Zim was starting to freak out.

"Well...only one way to find out..."

"HEY!" Zim complained. "You WANT to kill me!"

"No, that's why I stopped!"

"But you want to kiss me..."

"Yes! I mean, no! Wait, I mean, as long as you're not going to suck out my soul or anything like that!"

"I can DO THAT? COOL!"

"NOT cool! I'm your friend!"

"Oh. Right." Zim looked ahead into outer space.

"We have a world - no, a universe to save." Dib placed his hand over Zim's. "Until we know for sure that we won't kill each other by kissing, we can't kiss each other until after we fix the past."

"Eh, I guess that makes sense." Zim looked over at Dib and ended up looking right into his amber eyes. At that moment, Zim finally realized what nervousness was like - well, in the same way Dib was feeling it.

Said human leaned in closer to Zim. "Or we can try it now..."

"I DID IT!" Gir came crashing down between the two would-be lovebirds. "Where's my prize?"

"Uh..." Dib reached down to the floor to see if he could scavenge up anything he could present to Gir. His fingers closed in around a small piece of paper. "What's this?"

He picked it up and looked at it. "ZIM, LOOK! It's the time warp directions!"

"Does this mean..."

"YES!" Dib nearly jumped out of his seat. "We can go back in time!"

End of part nineteen