A/N: Hmmm...What to say this week...Meh...I've got nothing. Just enjoy this update of ZADR Orange. Chapter 19 for those of you reading. =3 And remember, feedback, faves, and adds to story alert lists are all much appreciated. 8D So we hope you all enjoy. =3

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/Professor Membrane: Notgonnadie

Dib: Me

Gaz: Both of us.

Beta: Notgonnadie

Gaz couldn't take it anymore. She was sick and tired of having to listen to her father complain about every imperfection he found in Dib. So dropping her video game, she couldn't help but send Professor Membrane an icy glare. "Dad, SHUT UP! We ARE lumped together! I'm gay too!" she voiced out before stomping her way over to the stairs to the lab. "If you were home more, you would have known this about us!" she turned to scream back at him before storming down the stairs, just mad enough at Membrane to help Dib save Zim.

Jumping at the sound of his sister stomping down the stairs, Dib quickly turned his head to look back at her. "G-Gaz?" he couldn't believe his eyes as he watched her with come up next to him so she could kneel down and take up her own towel to help him dry Zim off.

Glaring back at Dib, Gaz merely snapped at him. "Well, don't just sit there staring at me like a moron! Get the disinfectant from the downstairs bathroom!" she ordered, pointing back up the stairs with one hand, using her other one to continue drying off Zim.

Snapping out of his stupor at her words, Dib quickly nodded his head. "Right!" he wasted no time at all in getting up to do just that, running back upstairs and grabbing what Gaz had instructed him to retrieve.

Meanwhile, back up in the kitchen, Membrane merely stood where he was, shocked as he slowly began to shake his head. His kids...BOTH his kids..."I don't understand it..." he said under his breath to himself, too oblivious to have ever noticed such a thing before, now causing him to start rethinking his views on OTHER things...Including a few things Dib had told him over the years.

Back in the lab, Zim couldn't help but whimper in pain, his breathing heavy as his PAK now had him heavily sedated. Falling into that pond had done a LOT of damage however, making it still hurt somewhat. "D-Dib?" the others name slipped past his lips.

Returning with the disinfectant his sister had told him to get as well as some bandages, Dib quickly made his way over to Zim's side. "Here I am! Please, Zim, just hang in there!" he kneeled back down next to his sister and handed her the bottle of disinfectant. "Here! Use this on the wounds on his face! I need to get these wet clothes off of him so I can dry off the rest of his body!" he instructed her urgently, wasting no time in pulling Zim's shirt up his body and over his head so he could drape a towel over his chest and stomach before moving on to his pants, which he hesitated to undo, blushing somewhat and looking away to the side shyly. Carefully beginning to undo the Irken's pants, trying to do so without having to look at the other's anatomy, Dib took care to cover up the lower half of his body with another towel once he had gotten them off all the way, deciding to work with that half of his body later after he had finished cleaning up the wounds on his chest.

His breathing beginning to stabilize a little bit, Zim continued to inhale and exhale very shallowly.

Looking over at Dib, Gaz somehow managed to show just a little bit of worry on her face. "Is he going to be okay?" she asked, not liking the sound of his breathing at the moment.

"I-I don't know...I hope so. He fell into the pond at the park, and his base's computer refused to help me. Then it kicked us out on the street! A-And as much as I wanted to get some kind of revenge on it for doing that to us, I-I knew I had to get Zim medical attention somewhere that would be safe, so naturally I thought to come here. I mean, where else could I have gone? It's not like I could have taken him to a hospital for help. Th-That would have given him away!" he exclaimed, recounting the events back to her that had led up to this moment.

Nodding her head in response, for once not commenting on Dib's whiney attitude, she merely turned back to continue her work on him with the disinfectant.

Too drugged up to really notice anything at the moment, Zim struggled to move his hand, too numb to know anything except that he wanted Dib. "Di-b-uh..." he wheezed, his eyes squeezed shut. "S-oory..." he tried to make out words to the other before letting his hand fall back down, too much of a strain to keep searching for the one he wanted.

"Zim!" Dib exclaimed before gingerly reaching forward to take Zim's hand in his own, petting the top of it with the fingers on his free hand before bringing it to his lips to kiss gently. "I'm right here, Zim...I'm right here..." he reassured the other, nuzzling the hand to one of his cheeks as he let his eyelids slip closed and a few stray tears roll down onto Zim's hand before returning to his work on his chest, pouring some of the disinfectant onto a portion of one of the towels and then dabbing it gently against Zim's wounds, taking care not to hurt the Irken too much.

Hissing through his teeth at the anesthetic but doing nothing more than that, knowing it was for his own good, Zim couldn't help but feel as though he deserved much worse for yelling at Dib so much over nothing.

Watching Dib work in silence, Gaz slowly stepped back after a moment to allow him access to Zim's head. "How did he fall in anyways?" she asked, knowing there had to be more to this than what Dib was telling her.

Stopping his work at Gaz's question, Dib's entire body seemed to tense up before relaxing again and drooping. "We...were in the middle of an argument...I said some really horrible things to him. He got upset and then...then he tripped over a man's cane and fell straight into the pond...But I never meant for something like that to happen! It was an accident! I dove right in after him, but for all I know, it may be too late...If his wounds are bad enough, he could die from this..." he bowed his head, his tears starting up again.

Shaking her head at Dib's words, Gaz merely sighed. "You really are stupid, aren't you?" she said before walking up to Zim again and pulling at some of the skin on his face, some of it tearing off.

Flinching momentarily, Zim quickly relaxed again at the action.

"He's already healing himself." Gaz said, dropping the dead, burned skin flakes into Dib's currently three-fingered hand. "If your story's right, he was only in there for a few minutes." she rolled her eyes a bit.

Groaning a little, half in pain and half numb, Zim could feel his PAK now redirecting the anesthetics to the still wet half of his body, leaving the dryer half to be in pain.

"...He's still soaking wet though..." Gaz said before glancing at Zim's still covered lower half. "And that end might be needing it more than this one." she pointed to his upper half, an evil grin coming to her face as she headed back towards the stairs. "I think I'll let you do that part." she seemed to tease him cruelly.

Face lighting up a bright red at Gaz's last few words, Dib looked back towards the lower half of Zim's body, still covered by the towel. Despite feeling uncomfortable about it, he knew he had to take care of Zim's lower half and approached it slowly. Squeezing his eyes shut, he whispered a quiet apology to the other.

"Sorry about this, Zim..." he said before taking another towel to begin at Zim's legs, doing his best to work around the other's groin area, keeping the towel there for the time being until he had finished with the wounds on Zim's legs. Then, realizing that he at least had to take a peek at the Irken's unmentionables to make sure they had come out unscathed, Dib reached a shaking hand down to lift the towel, lowering it a split second later, his face on fire now although relieved to see that other than an already healing burn mark, there was nothing bleeding down there that he would have to clean up.

Cold now that the burning had for the most part stopped, Zim shivered in his spot on top of the table. "Dib...?" he murmured, cracking his eyes open to look for Dib or at least a blanket or something warm to wrap himself in.

Looking up at Zim, Dib came to kneel down closer to him, bringing a hand up to press to his forehead, his other hand reaching for Zim's hand. "I'm right here, Zim...I'm right here..." he leaned down to kiss the alien on the forehead.

Sighing at the kiss, Zim could only shake his head. "I'm sorry..." he apologized again.

"No...No, don't be..." Dib shook his own head. "It wasn't your fault...It was mine..." he kissed Zim's forehead again. "It was all my fault..." he then pressed his forehead to the Irken's so he could place another kiss where the others nose would be if he were human.

"And I should be the one apologizing to you...I'm sorry..." he lightly brushed his lips against Zim's, nuzzling his face to his and breathing in shakily.

Blushing somewhat, surprised by the attention that normally he would never get, Zim laughed a bit uncertainly. "Heh...If this is the treatment I get, maybe I should get hurt more often." he joked, nudging Dib back a bit.

Frowning at that statement however, Dib closed his eyes and let a few stray tears slip down his cheeks. "Please don't..." he said in a truly broken tone.

Antennas lowering again, Zim looked away somewhat awkwardly now. "Sorry...It was a bad joke..." he reached for Dib's hand and held it as tightly as he could. "I'm still cold, Dib..." he looked back up at the other, pouting a little. "Could you warm me up? " he asked, just wanting Dib's closeness more than anything else in that moment.

Eyes snapping wide open at Zim's statement, Dib quickly pulled away, somewhat flustered now. "Oh! S-Sorry..." he apologized again before quickly removing his trench coat to place over the other before standing up. "Wait here. I'll be right back." he said before quickly dashing upstairs to get something, returning a minute later with a large, warm-looking blanket to place over him. "Here. This should help you to warm up. S-Sorry about that. I-I had to remove your wet clothes." he blushed again before shifting his gaze to the side shyly.

A/N: And there you have it. Your weekly update of ZADR Orange. And look! Dib removing Zim's clothes. (Hurr) XD Don't let that fool you though. No smex until chapter 34! Until then, you'll all just have to be happy with the chapters I post here. So look forward to Chapter 20 next week and have a nice day. =3 Now, let me take this time to respond to those of you who reviewed.

To Casykirby: Lol. Of course you were put as first comment. XD Like I said, I respond to you guys in the same order you all review. You just happened to be the first reviewer last week, so I responded to you first. And you were the first reviewer this week, so once again, you get responded to first. X3 Anyways, ah, yes. Poor Zimmeh got hurt bad in that pond water. You have to imagine it's far more poluted than even rain water is. But Dibbeh will take care of him. This kind of thing actually happens a lot in this story. XD You can practically set your watch to it. Big fight, life-threatening situation, make-up. It's like a never-ending cycle for these two. XD And Professor Membrane is slow. Or at least ignorant. Of course, he doesn't take the truth well in this story at first, as you'll see in a chapter or two. But oh well. He'll get over it. Anyhow. Glad to hear you at least enjoyed that last chapter. And we hope you continue to enjoy the chapters to come. So until next time. ^_~

To Meta-Knight-1-fan: Lol. We're glad to hear you're enjoying the story so much. XD And we really like ZADR too. Membrane is an ass in this story at first, but that's only because he's in a bit of shock at the moment, as I'm sure you can imagine. He'll get over it eventually though. XD Personally, I actually really like Membrane's character. It just kind of depends on how he's being portrayed. But anyways, we shall certainly continue to write this story. =3 Every day it seems like we get just a little closer to bringing this story to an end in our RPing.

To lillybean queen of the i ocean: Glad to hear it. =3

To Illisandria Carthain: Oh, well congratulations on doing well at your marching exhibition. =3 I'm glad to hear it. And I look forward to reading what you're putting together then. Of course, Dib still cares about Zim. He couldn't ever stop caring about Zim even if he tried. Though he does have trust issues in this story. I'll give you that. But can you really blame him considering the family he grew up with? Of course he's going to be somewhat of a whiny bitch. He has his reasons though. We torment both Zim and Dib a lot in this story. So he has every right to act that way. And Membrane. Where do I even begin with him? He is a douche. And probably deserves such a trophy at this point in the story, but for the record, he IS in quite a bit of shock at this point. He'll get over it later in the story though. XD Anyways, as for your weekly question, I'd have to say yes. I do have other works on DA. Though it depends on what you mean by works. If you mean "works" as in artwork, then yes, I do post lots of artwork on DA. If you mean other stories however, then yes. I also have most of the stories posted here also posted over on DA with the exception of The Love of One (It's a total piece of crap. Trust me. Don't read it.) And another story of mine that I did with ZimPLUSDib, called In the Dark, is posted over there as well because it got removed from FF. Of course, the majority of these works are all posted on my old, orangechidna account. My ZADRfan1 account is a little bare in comparison. But I do try to keep up with posting things at least once a month, whether it be on that account or my silk screen account: kbrd. But we will most definitely keep up with this story. So keep your eyes open for updates. And for the record, DA will no longer be hosting updates for the story. The only two places being updated from now on will be here on FF and over on the website we made for the story. So make sure to read our journals and bookmark the link I leave to that website if you haven't already. Thanks for reading. =3

To SuperSaiyanKiri: Lol. Awwwz...Yes, Membrane is an ass at this point in the story. But that doesn't mean you should hate him in EVERYTHING you read. He actually can be portrayed as a good character if given the chance. Of course, he's in a bit of shock at the moment, so that's why he seems like such a bad character. But he'll get over it later in the story. XD Anyways, I certainly hope so. Though really, it's not just a little randomness. It's a whole LOT of randomness. And randomness that not many people like. So I really can't say how many people will stick with it. But until we reach that point, I guess we've got the majority of you hooked for at least a few more months. XD So thanks for reading and reviewing and we hope to hear back from you soon. X3

To Vithian:Yesh! There had to be at least one homophobe in this story and Membrane was the perfect candidate for it. XD Of course, we plan on pulling him out of it eventually in the story. So don't bash on him too hard. He'll come around after the shock wears off. XD Lol. And, yes. We're hoping it will be at least. 81 chapters is the longest I've seen a ZADR story reach thus far. And I feel fairly confident we'll be passing that marker very soon. Actually, we probably have already. XD I just haven't ficafied that far yet. XD As for the sequels, we've already for the most part plotted out a lot of the second story. And at least a little of the third if we ever get into them. But until then, we'll stay focused on finishing up this story for now. As you'll see soon enough, this isn't the only water scene Zim has to suffer through in this story. But it's probably the worse, given it's pond water and that's much more polluted than rain water. And as for the random old man, he was thrown in there during one of Notgonnadie's parts. So praise her for that. XD Thanks for reading and reviewing. Can't wait to hear back from you. =3

To Watermelondrea: Ah, don't worry about it too much. I'm certain he'll be more understanding once the shock wears off. XD Thanks for reading and reviewing. X3

(Wow. Not many of you responded this week compared to what I normally get in reviews. Lol. XD I hope we're not losing you guys already. We weren't expecting to start losing people until at least Chapter 39. XD)