A.N. Thanks to Computer-slave (I already knew the Devart thing), Rahh Gumba Foo (XD yeah, that whole thing kinda came out of the blue. . .) rarofdoom, and Raman Noodle (XD love your new name) for reviewing.

Chapter Two- To Tail is to Stalk

"It'll only be for one week," Tak says, "two at most. When we're gone, Kacer's going to watch you, okay?"

"But. . .but uh," Clox says. He's sitting on his mother's lap, looking slightly crushed, "Why d-do you gotta, uh, gotta go away?"

"Daddy and I are taking a trip," Tak explains, "because sometimes when you're living with two insane children and two insane robots, it's nice to get out alone once in awhile."

Clox nods, as if he fully understands, and has accepted this information. Mimi, however, is glaring at Tak, as if to say, "I'm not an insane robot." And Tak just sticks out her tongue in reply. Clox sees this and begins giggling madly.

"Stupid Mimi!" he says.

Tak whacks him (not hard) upside the head and says, "Be nice to her. She can blow out your brains, you know."

So Clox is silenced.

"Is Gir comin' ta Kacer's with us?" Pin asks from the corner of the room. She's leaning against Gir's back, who is staring at the television in a trance.

"No," Tak says, "I figured I'd do something nice to the girl for once. . ."

Pin looks heartbroken. Huge tears well up in her eyes and then she begins to sob, "I dun want you and Daddy to go!"

And Clox, who apparently feels a need to copy the moods of those around him, begins to sob as well.

Tak just has a deadpan expression, and when Zim enters the room, unknowing to the crisis of the crying children, she turns to him and says, emotionless, "Um. Help."

Zim observes the scene briefly in slight anxiety, but then stands up, straight and determined, and marches, in typical Zim-manner, over to Pin. He glances down at her and says sternly, "Pin. You want to be an invader one day, don't you?"

For a slight second, Pin looks up, her sobs quieting a bit, and then she hiccups, and nods.

"Well," Zim continues, trying very hard to keep the sterness in his voice consistent, "Invaders face any adversity with their heads held high! They do not dwell on their troubles! They destroy them! And they definately DO NOT cry!"

Pin looks up in admiration and hope, as she sees her father getting quite fired up, whereas Tak just sighs, as a way of saying, "Oh, here we go. . ."

Pin stands up straight, wipes her tears away harshly, then salutes.

"Yes sir!" she says.

Zim smiles triumphantly, then turns to his son.

"And you! Clox! You want to be a-! . . .uh. . .what is it you wanna be again?"

"A chef!" Clox says, happy once more.

"Really. . .? But. . .you would do so well as an invader. . .a chef is just stupid. . ."

Tears begin to form in Clox's eyes again, and Tak hisses warningly, "Zim. . ."

"Um, I mean," Zim continues, "A chef is. . .uh. . .anyway! If you cry, your tears will taint your meals! TAINT! Do you wish for that to happen!"

"N-no, sir!" Clox says, alert.

"Good!" Zim shouts. "No child of ZIM will cry over such a-!. . .what were you guys crying about anyway?"

"We're crying cause we're gonna miss you!" Pin says.

She and her brother run over and each hug one of his legs. Zim looks down at them in surprise, then up at Tak, and looks about to cry himself.

"I'm gonna miss 'em too," he chokes.

Tak just throws her head back in exasperation.

"Oh my god, Zim!"

"You guys'll miss Tak too, right?" Zim says, patting his kids a bit awkwardly on the head.

They both nod vigorously, then rush over to their mother and hug her, saying, "Yessum! We'll miss you a WHOLE lot, Mama!" She looks up to Zim now, only she is crying, and she's glaring too.

"I will get you for this Zim," she growls, hugging her children back.

He just snickers in return.

"Time for bed," Tak says suddenly, pushing Pin and Clox away, and wiping her eyes, "now."

They nod, and jump down from the couch.

"G-g'night!" Clox sys, and he hugs Tak quickly, and runs into the kitchen, then disappears into the garbage can.

Zim stares after him, and says more to himself then anyone else, "He really wants to be a chef. . ."

"It's not that surprising," Tak says, "he's been cooking since he was three days old."

"It's all your fault!"

"How is it my fault?"
"Your cooking poisoned him, he had no choice but to feed himself! He would've never found out he was good at it if you never-"

"I did not poison him! He just got. . . a little sick for a few hours."

"He was dying!"

"He was not!"

"Dun worry, Daddy." This came from Pin, who's tugging on the bottom of Zim's shirt. She has a proud grin. "I'm gonna be an invader, just like you!"

With the aid of her spider legs, she reaches up and kisses him on the cheek, then exits the room just as her brother did.

Zim looks a little shocked, but then he turns to Tak with a grin, and says, pointing in the direction Pin just left, "Now she has promise."

"Oh, go to bed Zim."

"Only if you join me."

"Do you want a soda or something?" Kacer asked.

Tak shook her head sharply.

"No," she said, "I feel like I'm gonna be sick."

But Kacer walked to the refridgerator anyway and took out a Poop cola can. She handed it to Tak.

"Soda might help," she said.

So Tak opened the lid and chugged the liquid down in nothing flat. Kacer seemed rather impressed, and she said, "So. . .are you okay?"

Tak looked as though she was going to choke on her drink. Instead, she just grimaced and said, ". . .Zim asked me to. . .join him. . ."

"Join him where?"
"In union."

Kacer blinked, confused.

"He asked me to marry him," Tak said, in terms Kacer was more familiar with.

The young girl, having apparently overlooked Tak's distress over the whole ordeal, shrieked happily and clapped her hands together.
"Oh my goodness!" she said, her eyes widening in excitment. "What did you say?"

". . .nothing."

"Nothing?" Kacer echoed, looking slightly dissapointed (and confused, but that wasn't new).

"I just ran. He asked me," Tak said, then sighed, "and I ran. It was so stupid. He didn't even build up to the moment or anything, he just randomly asked me, I don't even know how serious he was."

"When did this happen?"

"Like. . .ten minutes ago."

"Oh my."

"Yeah."

After a brief silence, Kacer asked, "So, what's your answer gonna be?"

"I don't know. I mean, sure, I lo-. . .like him now, but if we join, we'll basically be stuck together for the rest of our lives, and then that might interfere with things. I may never be able to take the Irken elite test, and just because I decided to be with Zim? I mean, it'd be nice between now and the test, but what about after? It might be like nothing ever happened, I'll just leave Earth, and we'll forget about each other, and then if we ever reunite, we'll be enemies again, with my stupid luck-"

Tak appeared slightly hysterical at that point, and she just started to rambled, until Kacer asked softly, "Do you love him?" and then she froze.

After an awkward pause, she threw her arms in the air and said, "Dammit! Do you know we can hardly tell each other how we feel! Yet he can ask me to marry him without a second though, how screwed up is that!"

"Well," Kacer said thoughtfully, "maybe youd on't have to tell each other all the time. You could just show each other."

"We cannot thank you enough for your assistance. As soon as we find a way to repay you, we'll-"

"It's no problem. Just win the war, and we'll call it even."

"Dib? Who're you talking to?"

Dib faces away from his computer for a minute, and looks to the doorway, where a rather agitated Gaz is standing. Paying no mind to his sister's irritation, he smiles proudly and says, "Well Gaz, if you must know, I'm talking to-"

"Be quiet," Gaz snaps. "Your dumb girlfriend's on the phone."

She chucks the phone at Dib, and it ends up smacking into his head, which knocks him off the chair. As he climbs back up and grabs the phone, he turns to glare at Gaz, but she's already gone.

He sighs, then says into the phone, "Hello?"

"Hey Dib, it's Kacer."

"Yeah. . ." he's looking at the computer in dissapointment, as he comes to realize his previous transmission's been cut, "What's up?"

"Tak and Zim left today."

"For good?"

"Nah. It's like. . . a honeymoon type thing or whatever. It should only last a week or something. They left me with their kids."

"For a week?"

"Yeah."

"Good luck with that."

"Um. . .if they start to get out of hand. . .could you maybe. . .come over and help me out?"

Dib pauses a moment, then says, "The last time I saw them, Clox bit me."

"Yeah well. . .Pin likes you, I think! You can take care of her! I'll handle Clox. . .I just. . .can't do this alone for a full week. . ."
"Fine, fine, just tell me when you need help."

"Okay. . .um. . .Dib?"

"Yeah?"

"I kinda need help. . ."

Zim reclines as best as he can in the rather cramped voot cruiser. He yawns and says to Tak, "We're lost, aren't we?"

"No, we're not!" Tak snaps. She's hunched over the console, rather tensely, poking at various buttons and such. "We just should've taken my ship! It's far easier to pilot then this stupid thing!" She jabs one more button violently, then bangs her fist against the side of her seat in frustration.

Zim leans ahead and looks to the console in curiosty. Then his antennas shoot up in alarm and he says, "Have you been going north this whole time?"

"Oh! I don't know!" Tak says, burying her face into her hands.

"Tak!" Zim says urgently. "Planet Spotch is south!"

"Then you pilot! We've been traveling for hours, it's gonna take forever to get there!"

"Or. . ." Zim starts slowly.

"Or. . .?"

"Or," Zim says again, a sly grin creeping across his face, "we don't have to go to Spotch. . ."

"Yeah?" Tak asks, forming an identical grin. "What do you have in mind?"

"Well, we could. . ."

"Yes. . .?"

"Tail the Massive!"

"Zim! You've got to be kidding me!"

"What? We don't get a chance to do something like that everyday!"

"Idiot. . " Tak mutters, shaking her head slightly, then she looks up and says in a clear voice, "Listen Zim. My plans for this trip just involve you and me, spending time alone. They do not involve stalking the Tallest-"

"We wouldn't be stalking them! Just. . . following them. . ."

"Zim, you contact them every stupid day-"

"But they haven't seen me in person for six years!"

"What makes you think they want to see you now?"

Zim's bottom lip quivers for a slight second, and he looks offended; but he regains his composure rather quickly, and says, waving his hand around nonchalantly, "That's a foolish question, Tak! The Tallest love it when I come to see them!"

"Zim, you are such a-"

"Such a?"

"Such a. . . dumb. . .person. . ."

"Dumb! You dare call your own mate dumb!"

"Yeah. Yeah I do. . ." Tak just seems kinda bored now, and Zim continues to spaz .

"Well, you wanna know what you are?" he shouts, pointing an accusatory finger at Tak. She just kinda yawns, and he continues, "You! You're. . . mean. . ."

"That hurt, Zim. Really."

"DON'T MAKE FUN OF ME!"

Tak just snickers, and then before Zim can yell any further, she randomly jumps him. Which had been a playful move, but Zim thinks she's trying to kill him.
"What on Irk are you doing!" he shouts. "That didn't really hurt you, did it!"

And then Tak kisses him, and he kinda realizes she was only playing around. So he kisses her back, and this carries on for a little bit, until Zim ends up getting backed into the wall and slamming his head.

"Ow!" he cries out, lunging his head forward and (accidently) smacking against Tak's.

She falls back, and when she gets up, she's wincing and rubbing her head, and she says, "Well that was a turn-on, Zim. . ."

"Sorry. . ." he mutters.

Tak just reaches over, and begins to rub the back of Zim's head. But then she looks up, and freezes.

"Zim," she says slowly, her eyes focused past the window, "You weren't planning to tail the Massive from the start, were you?"

"Nooo. . .what makes you say that?"

Tak just points out the window, glaring. Zim looks up, and some short distance away, is the Massive.

"Heh. Funny we didn't notice it before now," he says.

". . .I don't like you," Tak says.

End of Chapter Two. . .

Next chapter. . . 'The death of Pop-Pop Bunny'. . . which'll include:

-A Johnny the Homicidal Maniac reference

-Gir. . .only just in a flashback. . . but still!

-Joon (of course)

Random crap: I got this weird bug/spider/whatever bite right above my hip. . . tis very freakish. . .