Silver Beast Girl Midnight: gasp! I shocked you! I kind of shocked myself. I randomly came up with this idea. To be honest, I wasn't entirely sure WHAT I was doing until the third chapter.

drowningsiren: You're about to find out! Yay for me keeping you at your computer for over a week o.O; Sorryyyyyy hah.

Darky: I love writing GIR, just because he's a complete screwball and he's fun to just let loose and do whatever the hell you want with him xD Thankies! hands you a cookie

andalitebandit-6: Hey! Someone's actually following my madness! Yay! .

Lunar Lilly Muse: Woo! Thanks! Here's another one 8D

GalaxyDancer: I always wondered if Zim ever got the flu or something if it'd have the same outcome, ever since the Germs episode. Hmm.. I might have to investigate that in another fanfic hah.

WyattTheEd: Muah! Splodey socks frickinglove,yo. Thanks very much!

W.N.: Ewww, I didn't really think about that o.O; Pukey alien kiss, graugh. Thanks for everything - I leeev for comments like this! glomps you majorly and showers you in tacos and other such goodies I update now because I know what story withdrawal is like!

The second the skool bell rang, Zim bolted through the classroom door, urging himself to make it home without Dib catching up to him. His lungs were burning with the pressure from breathing so panicked as he skidded to a halt outside the skool's doors, but he didn't care – his first thought was to get… away from…

"Dib," Zim whispered numbly as he stood at the top of the steps. Dib was already waiting at the bottom of the stairs, arms crossed and eyebrows slanted. Zim bit down on his tongue and casually working his way down the steps. He silently cursed as he tottered down them – his short legs had always given him trouble with these stupid things. He remained silent as he strode past the male, completely unblinkingly. Dib simply trotted after. "How did you get out here so fast?" he asked curiously as the human caught up.

"Window," Dib answered vaguely. "So, I figure today we'll have those posters finally finished, and I have the whole report written. We can take turns reading it."

"Sure. Whatever," Zim mumbled, inspecting his gloved fingers for several long seconds as they made their way out onto the sidewalk.

"Yeah," Dib responded half-heartedly, glancing over at Zim. Zim was still staring at his nails. All at once, Dib just gave a frustrated grunt, and Zim's wrist was snatched up tightly in Dib's bony fingers. Zim let out a surprised squeak and was jerked behind a tree and slammed up against the trunk. "LOOK," Dib spat, jabbing Zim sharply in the chest. "I don't know WHAT the hell that was yesterday, but it wasn't my fault. If you're going to be all weird about it, fine. I just want to get this STUPID project done and over with without any other problems. Okay!"

Zim didn't answer – just looked blankly from Dib's finger in his chest to sheepishly up to the human's eyes.

"OKAY!

"Okay, okay. Fine. Jeez," Zim retorted, slapping Dib's hand away from him and shoving past, his hands balling into tiny fists. "Oh." He stopped in mid-stride and turned slightly back to make eye contact. "If you touch me again … I will destroy you." He started back off.

"I'd like to see you try," Dib scoffed, trotting to catch up to him. "You're probably wasting half of your energy right now on not barfing all over the sidewalk."

Zim froze in mid-step again, his mouth hanging slightly agape. "How … why … how could…"

"You don't have your collar thing on," Dib said dully, raising an eyebrow. Zim pressed his hands all around his throat.

"Liar!" he shouted simply, raising his head high and storming down the sidewalk. Dib just paused and folded his arms, giving Zim a look until he teetered to a stop as well. "It stopped working last night," Zim mumbled furiously. "Apparently it only works after so much sickness. Okay? Happy now?" He started back down the sidewalk, fuming. "Jeez." He forcibly crossed his arms and hunched his shoulders as Dib trailed up behind him.

"Yes," Dib said shortly, shoving his hands into his pockets as they walked.

Before long, they were in front of Zim's house, and Zim was growing increasingly more nervous. He felt like he was betraying his race with this stupid project – just willingly allowing this beast inside his base? It was unthinkable. He threw himself at the door as they made their way up the walkway and flung his arms across the doorway. "You touch anything. ANYTHING. And I SWEAR, you horrible Dib creature, that I will-"

"I know, I know. Reign some kind of doom down on me. Got it."

Zim squinted an eye at him, but slowly swung his door open, crossing his arms as he entered. He swatted the parent-bots out of the way as he walked in, Dib following closely behind in slight confusion. Since he had fled Zim's house yesterday … he'd changed everything. The couch was pushed to the other side of the room, the TV was on its side with nowhere to go, there were random side tables strewn around. "S-sorry about … this," Zim said brusquely. "I was just switching some things. Around."

"I can see that," Dib answered slowly, glancing around the room. "Er… why?" Zim swung sharply around to glare at him.

"What? What is it to you? Do I need a REASON to do something like this now, you filthy head brain of smell!

"Well … yeah. You don't just do something like this for nothing, Zim." Dib grimaced at a moldy pizza box in the corner that GIR was wolfing slices out of. "Especially when you haven't changed anything in your house for, like, a year."

"Insolent fool boy," Zim snapped. He crossed his arms. "Why would I tell you anyways, you gr … mf… and your disgusting mouth filled with … with … corn, still!"

With that, Zim quickly exited the room, hands in balled fists at his sides. "WHAT is his obsession with CORN?" Dib wondered aloud, glancing around and finally catching his gaze on GIR. GIR shrugged and went back to his pizza. Dib trotted after Zim in order to catch up.

"We can work in here," Zim mumbled, gesturing to the kitchen table. "Seeing as the living room is in disarray and there is no WAY you are ever going anywhere el-GIR, STOP EATING THAT HORRIBLE DIRT!" He scowled as GIR quickly glanced up, trying to pull off innocent with his cheeks bulging with greasy cheese. "Seriously! You're gonna make me sick!" GIR swallowed all of the pizza in one gulp, looking slightly upset at having to dispose of it, but turned that duty-mode red in a second and slapped his hand against his forehead.

"YES, PIZZA LORD!" GIR shouted, picking up the box high over his head and running to the trash can with an Indian war cry. He dumped it in and calmly walked out, whistling 'Jingle Bells' as he strode, flopped onto his side, and switched on the TV without any thought. Some show with rabid squirrels attacking hamsters was on, and GIR started giggling. Zim rolled his eyes and collapsed in a chair at the table, rubbing his temples. Dib glanced over at him, frowning as he pulled their posters and all that business out of thin air.

"I finished mine last night. And yours looks about done. So we just have to split up this stupid report."

"Wait, you wrote the report too?" Zim mumbled out through his fingers, peeking through two of them to give Dib a weird look.

"Well, yeah…"

"…Why? That was a five-page report…"

"I know. I don't care. It was pretty easy."

To be truthful, the report had taken Dib about six hours just to finish the stupid thing, but he wasn't about to tell Zim that.

Zim shook his head and pulled his hands away from his face with a withering sigh, grabbing the report off the table and flipping through it. "Well … five pages … we each read two and a half. So. I'll take the two and a half easiest ones…"

Dib actually allowed himself a laugh as he pulled it back. "Nice try."

Zim shrugged and gave a tiny smile. "It was worth a try." He ran his gloved fingernail against the edge of the table as Dib flipped through, trying to find a way to split all of it up. He glanced over at Zim, frowning again as the alien looked down at his feet and scowled.

"Zim?"

Zim jumped. "Eh? Huh? Whuh? What?"

"…You okay?"

"Does it look like I'm okay, feeble Dib thing?" Zim coughed. "Dib." He grimaced again and set his head down on his arms.

"If you need to, like, go puke or something … just go."

"I DON'T need to, thank you very much," Zim spat, rubbing his eyes roughly and finally just peeling out his contacts and throwing them onto the floor beside him. Grah, I don't even CARE anymore. he thought angrily as he pulled his wig off two, glaring threateningly at the human as if to challenge him to argue. Dib just shrugged and looked back down at the report, completely unfazed. Zim just pulled a bitter face and went back to glaring at his shoes. Dib just grabbed a conveniently placed highlighter off of the table and started drawing marks as to where he would read or where Zim would read.

"Here. That's even enough," he sighed, blindly shoving the paper at Zim. Zim picked it up with one hand and frowned, flipping through, confused.

"Wait – what's mine and what's yours?"

"The yellow's mine and the … not yellow is yours."

"Er, okay." Zim flicked through a few more pages and shrugged. "Fine. Looks all right to me."

Dib nodded. "Okay."

And there was an awkward moment of silence.

Dib twiddled his thumbs under the table, glancing around the room as Zim swung his legs under the table. "Sooo," Dib finally mumbled, his eyes finally landing on Zim. Zim ignored him, crossing his arms defensively and staring off into the floor tiles. "Why?"

Zim's gaze flickered sharply over to Dib. "What?"

"Why … me?"

"Eh?"

"For your … you know what."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"For 'the Chill'."

Zim swallowed. "Nothin'."

"You know? Irken heat? Same as a stupid cat's except you go cold instead of hot and there's a lot of puking involved?

Zim's entire body frame seized up. His eyes looked icy as he looked over to the human. "You. Couldn't possibly. Know. What you're… talking. About."

"I still have Tak's ship? I know a lot more than you probably think, Zim."

Zim's eye was beginning to twitch. He clenched his hands tightly together under the table to keep from leaping across it and punching Dib in the face right then and there. "But … still … you could never … The Chill? How?"

"I just told you!'

"Yes, yes, Tak's ship and all that." Zim squinted an eye and looked away. Dib frowned and ducked his head to try to see into his eyes.

"Zim?"

"Eh? What?"

"…Uh, I asked you something."

Zim was frozen again. He gave a thick swallow, but nothing more. He just looked down to his hands and shook his head. "Er … well … it's … it's complicated. A long story really."

"We have time."

"Well … then … on second thought … it's not long. Or complicated. It's so simple … your head would explode."

"So simple … my head would explode?"

"Yes."

Zim stood and started back towards the living room, starting to push a table into the corner and hunching his shoulders. Dib leaned over his chair, trying to see in, and just finally followed. "Zim … what the hell are you doing?"

"I'm moving a TABLE, you miserable … thing!" Zim shouted, his voice cracking slightly on 'table'. "What does it LOOK like I'm doing?"

"Why?"

"You ask too many questions." Zim shoved the table so hard into the corner that a piece of plaster toppled onto the wooden surface. "Look. You should leave. It's none of your filthy business."

"Hey, you're MY project partner and YOU'RE the one that jumped at me the other day! If I'm curious, it's all your fault, Zim! So don't pretend to be all innocent! Or something!"

Zim glanced back at Dib over his shoulder, his jaw squaring angrily as he headed back into the kitchen. "I … awelllithawjoowoo."

"…That … was not English."

"I said I, uh … I thojoowah."

Dib shook his head.

"I thought you would, okay!" Zim stormed over to the table and started sweeping imaginary crumbs off the table. "There's not an Irken around for miles for this stupid … CHILL. I studied human behavior and … well, you were the closest to applying. It said someone closer than a friend." Zim swallowed. "Seeing as I don't HAVE any friends … I went by the saying that you keep your enemies closer." He folded his arms. "There! I've told you! NOW will you leave?"

Dib frowned. "An Irken around for miles? Don't you have a space ship?"

"No, I flew here all on my own with pretty little pink wings!" Zim responded sarcastically. "OF COURSE I have one, you … person!"

"So why can't you just fly to a planet?"

"Because Irk is six months away, DIB. Excuse me if I don't want to deal with…" Zim shuddered. "THIS for another six months." He sighed and grimaced. "At this rate, I would think I have to." He scowled more, this time moreso in Dib's general direction. "Wouldn't that just make you so happy. The alien leaving for a whole YEAR."

Dib wrinkled his nose as Zim threw his hands up in the air in disgust and started back into the living room. His pacing was making both of them nervous. "Actually…" Dib blanched. "Well, yes! It would be nice!" He crossed his own arms.

"Look, could you just leave?" Zim snapped. "PLEASE, Dib, just LEAVE."

Dib opened and shut his mouth. "I … w-"

"Dib!"

Zim's eyes were wide and pleading for the first time Dib could ever remember, and he just started stuttering again, at a complete loss for words.

"Go! Now! I don't want to hear another sound un-"

"Fine!"

Zim started at the sudden bark-y, abrupt tone in Dib's voice. "Eh?"

"F-f-fine. I'll … do it."

Oh, snap! I leave you with a cliff hanger! I'm evil, I know. Please don't let the sporks hurt too much! But not the outcome may be in your hands! WILL Dib chicken out! WILL GIR interfere somehow with his doomy madness! WILL the rating of this story be booted up to an M next chapter! The suspense ... headexplodey! I'll have the next update up sooner. Just much madness with spirit week and marching band and ... meep! This took forever to type. I promise the next will come faster.

Keep the reviews coming! I love them more than the Mountain Dew that keeps me living O.O; And THAT'S saying something!