WHY DO MY PAGE BREAKS NEVER WORK?

Bah.

Holy crap, another chapter! Yes! And so soon! Woo! I get bored in the day, so I may be updating this a lot. Anyway. Down to the important stuff: Thank you very much andalitebandit-6 and Mosquito Number 13 for your marvelous reviews :D They make me happy as all living hell, ; so keep em coming, people! Anywho … enough philosophy. Onto the story.

(Chapter 2)

Zim had always hated lunch. It was his least favorite subject; least favorite class – had been since the first day of skool. He never understood this whole obsession with … food. He had never needed it (of course, that could be due to his PAK) and it tasted absolutely revolting. He grimaced at the ketchup and rice on the tray in front of him and shoved it away, looking around the cafeteria. Sometimes he wondered why he even wasted his monies on this filth. Just to appear more 'normal'? It's not like he ate it anyway.

His scanning eyes quickly locked onto Dib from across the room, and Zim dropped his head onto his arms, squinting an eye at the human and frowning. Dib was stabbing his own hideous lunch with a plastic spoon, completely ignoring the video game addict to his left. Zim could feel himself studying Dib for several long seconds, grimacing at the sight of his scythe-like hair and that ridiculous blue shirt he wore every single day. He could hardly believe his misfortune at being partnered with this disgusting beast.

"So … SICKENING," Zim spat as he stood, letting out a heavy sigh as he trudged across the cafeteria towards the demon, hands fidgeting as he walked. Dib hardly even flinched as Zim approached the table. "We're going to your house after school today, yes?" Zim said simply once he had reached the other side of the cafeteria, and defensively folded his arms tightly across his chest. Dib looked up from his tray, his eyes growing a scandalized glint to them as he glanced the alien over.

"MY house? We're going to YOURS today!"

"NO. We were just at mine yesterday!"

"No, we weren't! We were at mine!"

"Liar!"

"You tried to set my couch on fire when it reclined with you on it!"

"…Liar!"

"Why do you two have to have your stupid fight by ME?"

Zim and Dib both looked to Gaz, slightly peeved by the creepy, wrath-filled tone her voice had taken on. She even gave them the liberty of glancing up from her Game Slave at their silence. "Well, seriously. Go have your little love banter in the bathroom or something. I don't want to hear it."

"Love banter?" Zim asked confusedly, and gave a small mocking laugh. "Revolting wormbaby, that would mean we're-" He froze as his eyes widened, contorting his face into a look not unlike Dib's current one – as if he was going to projectile vomit all over Gaz's face. "OH, EW. GROSS!" He gagged and grasped at his throat. "DISGUSTING! You humans are even more nauseating than I thought! Me? With the DIB!"

"Really, Gaz. That's … just sick. He probably doesn't even have a … you know…" Dib grimaced.

"I'm PERFECTLY functional down there, thankyouverymuch!" Zim spat in one long string of words, huffily taking a small leap back at the obscenity of this conversation. "Not that YOU need to know!"

"No, I didn't," Dib growled. "And if you'll excuse me, I have some puking to get to in the bathroom." He scowled and stalked away, hands in fists at his side.

"That's right! Run! Run while you can!" Zim shouted after him. "My very presence sickens you, you miserable beast! Run!" He was greeted with a juice box to his head shortly afterwards, and made a point to glower evilly at Gaz before storming back off to his own table in a huff.

(later that day)

"Your sister sickens me."

Dib looked up from the poster he had been sketching on for the last 10 minutes to give Zim a dark glower. Zim had been toying around with some type of device since he had gotten to Dib's house (a location they had bickered about upon setting the first step out of the skool). This project had definitely made him quite lax about his secrecy around Dib. "You know, you could actually DO something other than play around with your stupid alien … whatever that thing is," Dib replied bitterly, hunching back over and drawing a few more bullets onto the poster board.

"I AM doing something," Zim snapped as he rapidly pressed buttons on the control in his hands. "I have to research you filthy humans and your… rees-pire-a-tary … system. So shut your noise tube!"

"Respiratory," Dib automatically corrected, not even bothering to look up. "And for the record, there's no such thing as a noise tube. There's a voice box and vocal cords, but no noise tube."

Zim took the decency to ignore that last bit as he scanned through pages of information, his eyes growing more and more squinted by the second. "This is infuriating! Why must there be so much to these systems!"

"I dunno. Humans are pretty complex, I guess. Just because all Irkens have is your … squiggly spoot … or whatever the hell you called it … doesn't mean we're inferior or something though."

"Squeedly spooch. And I never said inferior," Zim retorted, his voice more quiet this time. "Just annoying." He flickered through more pages, printing out random bits and pieces through the top of the device he was clutching in his fingers and tossing it onto the ground. "I need a break. This is hurting my eyes." He watched for several long seconds as Dib drew one last thing onto the poster, and frowned upon him hesitating briefly.

"Zim … do you ever wonder why people keep thinking we're gay?"

Zim looked up with confusion, cocking an eyebrow in response. "Gay? What is this 'gay' you speak of?"

"You don't know what it is?"

"…No…"

"Do you have any, like, same-sex-dating Irkens or … whatever?"

Zim hesitated, looking down at his hands and debating whether he should share that bit of information or not. "Irkens … don't really have a gender. We adapt to a situation. Yes, we have 'males' or 'females', but we're not really ruled by it. Unlike humans." He glanced up. "I never understand that stupid tradition anyways. Women being supposedly weaker than men are. It's completely ridiculous. You're practically the same once you rule out the issues of anatomy." He folded his arms. "Why? What does it matter what gender one chooses to be with?"

Dib looked slightly taken aback by this random burst of open-ness from the male, but continued on. "Well, personally, I don't really care, but it … tends to be really controversial for humans. Guys are supposed to be with girls. Or whatever. It's, like, a scandal for two males or two females to be together. And I always wondered why everyone thought we were gay. Since we hate each other so much."

Zim simply grimaced. "People think that about us?"

"What?"

"That we're … dating!"

"…Well, yeah."

"That's disgusting."

"Didn't you ever think about why kids followed you around, calling you a fag all day?"

"I wonder why they would call somebody 'a bundle of sticks'."

Dib opened his mouth and shut it, slowly slapping his hand to his forehead. "No, Zim, that's not what they mean."

"It's not?"

"No."

"…Well … then what is it?"

Dib toyed with this for several long seconds, and frowned. "It's an insult for someone who's gay. Like … calling you 'alien scum' or something."

Zim looked back down at his hands, frowning and looking all the more confused. "I see…" He glanced up in time to catch Dib's patient stare and blanched. "What!" He leaned back. "I'm not one! Well, at least I don't think so. How do you even know?"

"I dunno," Dib retorted. "I'm not either. I don't even know how you know when you like anybody."

"Me neither," Zim said crossly, pressing his fingertips together. "But…" He trailed off and shook his head. "Never mind."

"What?"

"NEVER. MIND."

Dib frowned as Zim picked his small electronic device back up and began sifting through information again, mumbling incoherently to himself as he did. Dib just picked up the poster off the floor and gathered together all of the markers. "Maybe you should go home. We've already been here for over an hour." Zim tore his eyes away from the computer screen and looked up to the clock, slightly surprised to see what was upon it.

"Sweet jumping jellybean, we have!" he said, shutting off the device and clambering to his feet. He glanced over at Dib as he shoved it into his PAK and slowly thought over what he said. "I mean, I thought it was longer. Time passes slowly when you hate who you're with." He stood in the same spot for a few seconds longer, hands defensively coiled into fists as Dib shoved the poster behind the couch and gave him an odd look.

"Sure. Let's just work at your house tomorrow, huh?"

"No! We won't!"

"Why not? We've gone here the last two days!"

"Because … we just can't."

"Why do you not want me in your base so badly?"

Zim simply gave Dib a look.

"Well, besides the obvious."

"I think the obvious is quite enough incentive, DIB."

Dib frowned and eyed him over. "Fine. One more day here. But we're going to work at your house at least once in this stupid project."

Zim sighed angrily and rubbed his fists into his temples. "FINE. But I'm warning you … try anything funny…"

"I won't," Dib mumbled half-heartedly, for once actually meaning it. "I'll … see you then. Then."

"Sure," Zim responded, glancing the house over once more before heading to the door and finally leaving.