A/N: Meh...I'm not apologizing for updating late this week. I did that on purpose. It's getting hard to keep up with Monday updates when I'm so tired after getting home from school. I may just change it to Tuesdays from now on. We'll see. Just depends on how I feel. I don't even really feel like updating now, but I guess I will just to get it over with. Blah Blah Blah...yadda yadda yadda. You guys know the drill. Here be Chapter 17 of ZADR Orange for those of you who have been waiting. Much thanks and love to those of you who have faved or added the story to your story alert list. And remember that feedback is much appreciated. Not that I have to keep reminding you guys about that. You all already review whether I tell you that or not. Anyways, we hope you all enjoy. Ugh...Too tired to add smiley face... -_-; (This be my tired face.)

Warnings: Extreme OOCness

Rating: M for later chapters

Disclaimer: We do not own Invader Zim, nor any of the characters from it. We do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Zim/Computer: Notgonnadie

Dib/Gaz: Me

Beta: Notgonnadie

Watching Gaz's back as she was about to leave, Zim quickly spoke up to catch her attention again. "About what?" he asked, wanting to know what was so important that Dib's father felt the need to send Gaz all the way over here to tell Dib.

"Well, for starters, he's missed out on at least three days of school this week, but what really caught his attention were Dib's grades on the report cards they just sent out a few days ago. Apparently, he's failing in two or three classes." Gaz said from her spot, turning her head to send Dib a pointed glare.

Knowing himself that he hadn't been doing all too well this semester due to falling asleep during classes after late nights spying on Zim, Dib paled somewhat.

"School shmool. What good will that place ever be in his life?" Zim just seemed to brush the whole thing off as though it was nothing.

Shrugging at that response, Gaz merely turned as though to leave again. "Personally, I could care less whether he does well in it or not. But it does matter to Dad whether he's doing well in it, especially since one of the classes he's failing is a science class." she said, heading for the door.

"Oh." Zim rolled his eyes, understanding now. "REAL science too, I'll bet." he sighed before snuggling more into Dib. "Tell your father Dib is taking tutoring and will have his grades up in a few days." he said just as Gaz was about to head out the door.

"Tell him yourself! I'm not your messenger!" Gaz snapped, stopping in her tracks and turning back around to glare at the two of them. "And make it snappy! I'm tired of his complaining!" she said before turning to storm back home, slamming the door shut behind her.

Dib by now had shrunk so far down in his seat that he was practically hidden behind the other.

Turning back to Dib, Zim stroked his hair soothingly. "Are you okay?" he asked, noticing how pale the other had become.

Having been spacing out on the Irken, Dib jumped slightly at his question. "U-Uhm...Y-Yeah...I guess...I-I just don't know what I'm going to tell my dad...Wh-What if he wants me to come home?" he said, knowing Zim had wanted to keep him longer than just a day.

"You look human enough. I don't think he would even notice..." Zim kissed him, obviously not catching on to what going home would mean in terms of Dib no longer being able to stay at the base. "But to be safe...COMPUTER!" he demanded his computer's attention.

Had it eyes, the computer would have rolled them. "Again with this?" it said in a rather annoyed voice.

"Hack the school's computer and change Dib's grades to all A's!" Zim just seemed to ignore the computer's tone of voice.

Sighing, the computer merely did as it was told. "Fine...I will..." it said rather listlessly.

Just blinking wide eyes at Zim's command to his computer, Dib couldn't believe what the other was suggesting. "That's cheating..." he informed the other as though the Irken didn't already know.

"So? You know all of this information already, don't you?" Zim really could care less whether it was cheating or not.

Shifting his gaze down to his fingers, Dib, out of habit, began to play with them as he usually did when he got nervous about something. "Well, yeah...I guess..." he confessed, still feeling rather uneasy about this however.

"Then there is no need to prove to these humans that you know it. What would be the point?" Zim finished off his argument for why it would be alright to do this.

"I guess..." Dib somewhat gave in, still looking rather uncomfortable with the situation.

Antennas drooping at the nervous look on Dib's face, Zim seemed to reconsider his command. "Would you rather get yelled at for it?" he asked, not wanting to feel guilty about this in the end.

"I'd rather get yelled at once than get yelled at twice for being caught cheating..." Dib admitted, looking away to the side.

"But you're not cheating! And you won't get caught for it anyways. These people are too stupid to notice." Zim tried to convince Dib that they COULD pull this off without being caught.

Knowing Zim was right but not wanting to admit it, Dib sighed. "Yeah...I guess..." he gave in yet again but this time for good.

Nuzzling Dib affectionately, Zim quickly changed the subject so as to take Dib's mind off of it. "So, what would you like to do today?" he asked although he was already comfortable in Dib's lap again.

Blushing a bit, Dib brought his gaze back to blink down at Zim again. "Uhm...Wh-Whatever you feel like doing today, I guess..." he said, not particularly interested in doing anything at the moment.

"Oh, come on! Don't put it on me! You pick! We could go to the park or take a trip to outer space. Anything!" Zim insisted that the other choose.

"Uhm...Well, it's been so long since I last did anything that didn't involve chasing after you, that I can't recall what I used to do for fun before then...But I guess a walk in the park sounds pretty nice for starters." Dib said before sending the Irken a small smile.

Grinning wide, Zim nuzzled Dib some more. "Then I shall grab my disguise." he said before hopping off of Dib to snatch up his wig and contacts from a shelf next to the wall and put them on. "Well, let's go, Dib-love." he smirked a bit, heading for the front door.

"Well, wait a second! Don't I need to take off this disguise first?" Dib stopped the other before he could open the front door.

"Of course not. You look human enough." Zim said, turning around and grinning. "Besides, you're supposed to be getting used to it, remember?" he reminded the other the whole reason for why he had even wanted to try out a disguise first.

Blushing again, Dib looked away momentarily to give it some thought. "Well, what about my eyes? Shouldn't I at least do something about them before going out?" he asked, concerned somebody might notice the alienness of them.

"Come on, Dib. There is really no need to. No one ever notices when my eyes are showing." Zim protested, pulling out his contacts. "But if it makes you feel better, I won't use the contacts..." he began to say just to be interrupted by Dib.

"No! I-I mean...I don't want you taking any chances by doing that. It would be worse if somebody caught you than it would be if somebody caught me." his voice fell down to a whisper as he dropped his gaze to the ground.

Blushing a bit at Dib's concern for him, Zim nodded. "O-Okay...But there's really nothing to worry about. No one's going to notice." he reassured the other.

"I hope so..." Dib said, standing up from his spot on the couch so he could follow Zim over to the door.

"I know so." Zim smiled, grabbing tight to Dib's arm and leading him out the door.

Peeking his head out the door to have a look around and make sure nobody was watching them, Dib at first took only a few hesitant steps outside with Zim.

"Come on, Dibby." Zim smiled even more, tightening his grip on Dib's arm. "This is what it will be like if you become a hybrid." he said, walking further out of the house and then out of the yard, pulling Dib with him.

Blushing at the nickname, Dib looked around a bit more before following closely behind Zim, remaining right by his side as he kept on high alert.

Smiling, Zim held Dib's hand tightly as the two of them walked to the park arm in arm, no one seeming to notice or really CARE about how inhuman the two looked.

Beginning to relax somewhat after a while of walking, Dib slowly began to enjoy his walk with Zim as he looked around at everything he hadn't had the time to stop and appreciate over the past 5 or so years.

Having by now started to hum to himself, Zim merely watched as all the other humans around them just seemed to rush about with their busy schedules, too busy with their own lives to appreciate the beauty around them, causing him to sigh and shake his head. "They really don't deserve this place, you know..." he said, as though he hadn't spent the past 5 years trying to destroy it.

Eyes falling half lidded, Dib could only send Zim a rather unimpressed look in response to those words. "I thought you hated this place..." he reminded to other.

Zim merely shrugged, however. "To an extent...But I mostly hate the creatures on it...The planet is actually quite beautiful." he said before leaning over to kiss Dib. "Like some other things, or persons, I know." he smirked deviously at Dib.

Blushing at Zim's words and the small kiss, Dib quickly shifted his eyes away from the disguised alien. "You didn't used to think that about me before..." he commented on Zim's compliment.

Antennas twitching, Zim could only tilt his head to one side. "How would you know?" he said before turning away, still looking at Dib out of the corner of his eye. "How do you know I wasn't in love with you from the start? Maybe that's why I kissed you..." he continued on, smirking as he rolled his eyes a bit, Dib not catching it however. "...Or...Maybe I've just been teasing you this whole time to take over your planet." his smirk then grew cruel as he teased the other lightly.

Having already opened his mouth to speak, Dib was quick to close it at hearing Zim's last few words. "You make it really hard for me to trust you...I don't think you loved me from the start, nor do I understand why you kissed me...But...But I do think you've meant everything you've said to me over the past few days and perhaps only find me beautiful now because of this disguise..." he tried to keep his voice from shaking as a hurt look came to his face at the thought.

Flinching a bit at Dib's last few words, Zim could only shake his head vigorously. "I-I didn't mean it like that!" he defended before drooping visibly. "I..." he started before shaking his head slower now. "Never mind..." he sighed out heavily, leaning up against Dib.

"But it's true, isn't it? You like the way I look better with this disguise...Kind of like everybody else..." Dib said in a quiet voice, slumping a bit where he stood.

Visibly flinching again, Zim seemed hesitant to pull away from Dib as he could feel the other slumping against him. "But I'm NOT like everybody else, Dib! Honest! You've got me all wrong!" he exclaimed defensively.

"And what does it matter whether I've got you all wrong or not if there's a chance you may just be using me to take over the planet?" he questioned the other, his voice holding little emotion to it.

A/N: And there you have it. Your weekly update of ZADR Orange. Ah...Poor paranoid Dib. You'd think Zim would know by now not to tease him about something like that. XD Anyways, Chapter 18 should be up sometime next week...maybe...if I feel like it... so we hope you'll all look forward to that. But really, you all should. Something's about the happen in the next chapter to poor Zimmeh. 8O (Oh noes). Now let me take this time to respond to those of you who reviewed.

To Illisandria Carthain: Ah...I see. Well, until your internet life is back off of your iPod and onto a regular computer, I shall wait patiently for your add. =3 And, yes. We be buddies now. (Hug) Yeah, that comment about Chaos being your beta sounded a little fishy to me at first. Thanks for clearing that up. XD But she really does write great stories and RPs. I love the ideas that pop out of her head. Makes our RP so much more enjoyable to write. Though, honestly, we've come close to ending this RP a few times without finishing because of our readers' ignorance. The people over on DA especially just don't take the time to read the author's notes I put up. -_-; They often forget to credit her for the story and either credit her as just the beta or don't credit her at all when they post fanart. Pisses me off to no end. I don't write author's comments to be ignored. And she's very impartant to this story. Her parts are full of awesome. And I know for a fact that I couldn't write them even half as well as she does. As for your weekly question, it varies. Sometimes we'll go days or even weeks without working on it. Other times we'll get a lot done in one day. And on still other times, we'll get a little done in a day. Just depends on whether we're both free and whether we actually feel like working on it at the time. At the moment, I'd say we're getting a little done each day. But we both have school at different times, so it's hard to get a lot done. Not to mention she's two hours ahead of me. So at night when I get home, she's only got a few hours to be online before she should be getting into bed for the night. Hope that answers your question. Can't really give an estimate when it comes to hours though. We're both very busy. But we do what we can to get things done. So we thank you very muchly for the Licky-Stix to go along with our SuckMunkees. Surely those shall give us the energy needed to keep on top of our projects. X3

To SuperSaiyanKiri: Yayz! I'm so happy to see that we have yet another new reader and reviewer. =3 And, I'm glad to hear we updated just in time for you to read that last chapter. XD Hopefully the wait for this new chapter wasn't too horrible. And, yesh! Teh antennae be full of luuuv. X3 Well, hope this chapter answers your question about what the professor wants. As you'll see soon, he'll be entering the story very shortly here. Thank you muchly for taking the time to read and review, and we hope to hear from you again soon. =3

To lillybean queen of the i ocean: We're glad to hear it. Thanks for reading and reviewing. =3

To Turquoise ebonyfox: Yep. =3 We'll be getting into that part of the story very shortly here as well. If only it were as easy as putting on a disguise though. XD

To Invader Ang: Lol. XD Trans-species crossdressing, eh? You have no idea how much closer to the truth that statement really is for this particular story. XD Just you wait. As you'll see much later on, that's not the only type of cross-dressing Dib'll be doing in this story. X3 And I would have to agree with you on that. Irken/hybrid Dib be very sexy indeed. X3 Thanks for the bologna-flavored, Dib-shaped cookies. They were delicious. X3

To kaoru1174: Lol. Oh, yes. I figured something like that might have happed when I didn't see a review from you last chapter. But I give you guys a week to read and review, so I'm not inclined to wait longer than I have to. Glad you got one in on time this week though. =3 As for what Dib looks like, you could always check the links in my profile to fanart pictures we've received or done ourselves for this story. The second to last one posted in there at the moment should be the official preview image for that chapter done by Notgonnadie for our story. And, yes. Of course Gad knew is was Dib. But then again, Gaz knows EVERYTHING. XD And indeed it was quite awkward...for Dib, at least. XD I think Zim liked it though. Well, here be the next chapter to satisfy your ZADR Orange needs. =3 I'm afraid the RAPR doesn't come for quite a LONG, LONG time still though. X'D And we shall certainly do our best to keep up the great work. Hope to talk to you soon again. =3 So until next time.

To Casykirby: Lol. Well, you have much to look forward to then. You'll find out in a few chapters whether Dib decides to go through with the change or not. But until then, here be a new chapter for you that we hope you enjoy just as much. 8D And thanks for being such an awesome reviewer. We really do love to hear when you guys are enjoying the story so much. And we enjoy writing it. I just hope we reach an eventual ending. All the work we've put into it will be so much more worth it if we manage to reach the ending we're shooting for. Until then, however, it be your guys' reviews that keep us going. So thanks for the encouragement. =3

To Vithian: Well, thank you for taking the time to respond back to me. =3 We really do love picking up new readers along the way. So we're glad you were able to find this story amongst the hundreds of ZADR stories already out there. =3 We thank you for your kind words. We really do work very hard on this story and try to keep it as interesting as possible. Sorry if it kept you up late though. ^^; Our story has a tendency to do that to people. There really isn't enough RAPR love in the world though. Funny when you consider what a popular pairing it is. I mean, IZ fans only need watch the show to see it. It's as obvious as the fact that Keef is gay. XD But anyways, we're glad to hear you'll be sticking with our story for now. Hopefully none of the future chapters scare you away in the long run. But if you can put up with us for that long, I can assure you this story will come out to be quite long indeed. Well over 100 chapters if we can keep it up. At least, it looks to be over 100 chapters from looking at the amount we've written for it so far. I'll have to double check again though. In all honesty, I've ficafied around 70 chapters of it so far. Yet there's still so much more to go. And we're still writing it, so I have no idea how much more we'll be writing before finally reaching the end we're shooting for. Guess we'll just have to keep working at it and wait to see. I can assure you though that much more is scheduled to happen in this story, starting with the next chapter. We're just now coming upon another plot twist, so hang on tight and keep your eyes open for future chapters to come. =3

To ashxtaz: Well, hello! 8D So nice of you to join us. Thank you muchly for the kind comment. We're glad to hear you're enjoying it so far. Role playing with someone always makes writing a whole lot easier. And practice. Mustn't forget practice. Keep at it and I'm sure you'll become a great writer someday as well. =3 You'd be surprised how much you can improve in only a few short months if you just keep at it. Thanks for taking the time to read and review. We hope to hear from you again soon. =3

To ClockwerkOrange: -_-; (Not impressed.) Look. For the last time, Notgonnadie and I write this story just for fun. We're not writing it for your guys' amusement. We write it for our own. If you don't like it, don't read. And don't waste our time commenting about what you don't like about it. That's not really our problem, and we're not changing the story just because you don't like some aspect about it. Also, I don't update this story slowly here because we're slow at writing it. In fact, we're much farther ahead in this story than you could possibly imagine. I update it weekly because I have a life and don't waste all my time working solely on updating this story quicker. If I really wanted to, I could have posted around 70 or more chapters by now. But I don't, because the update process on FF is really annoying. So stop complaining about how slowly this story gets updated. It's updated slowly for a reason. And it's not meant just to piss you all off. With that said, I think I'll find my own surgeon to sew back in my organs since yours is creepy. Here be the next chapter in case you feel so inclined to continue reading it despite it containing content you hate. Now, have a nice day~.