A/N: Ugh...You know something I just can't stand about FF reviews. When people feel the need to whine and bitch about all the things they hate in a story just to say, "Oh, but I love it otherwise." Seriously. If all you people are going to do is point out everything you hate about the story, then don't even both reviewing in the first place. Now don't worry. I'm not talking about anybody mentioned in today's reviews. But we DID get a review from another girl on here for a different chapter of this story. I found her review to be very rude and not even worth responding to. She told us that the story was very whiny and stupid. Well, if you ask me, her review to us was very whiny and stupid. Honestly, we already know the flaws of our story. As I've said many times, this story is written for the fun of it, not for perfection. We're not asking people to point out what they hate about the story. Nor are we asking for any kind of criticism. All we're asking is for feedback on how you guys are LIKING it. So please keep your guys' comments fair when it comes to this story. We already acknowledge this isn't a story we're trying to make better or anything like that. It's just for FUN. Don't turn our review section into a war by pointing out all the apparent "flaws" you see in it. Because ZO is an RP, and we acknowledge at the beginning of each and every chapter, that yes, this story IS OOC. Can't deal with it? Then just don't read it. That said, allow me to update Chapter 54 of ZADR Orange for you all. And as always, we hope you guys enjoy. Feedback be much appreciated as are faves and adds to story alert lists.
Warnings: Extreme OOCness
Rating: M
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: Notgonnadie
Dib/Rose: Me
Beta: Notgonnadie
Unaware of the gaze fixed upon him, Zim could only smile in his sleep, balling up in his spot on the couch. "Mmm..." he sounded out in his sleep comfortably.
Smiling back at him, Dib returned his eyes to his still fairly small belly. "Maybe...it won't be so bad after all..." he whispered to himself, looking back out the window. Knowing he wasn't ready to raise three babies let alone even one, he at least knew he needed to try, wanting to give them the best he could. "I guess we should start preparing..." he then whispered quietly to himself, hugging himself a bit.
Sleeping on, Zim remained out cold for the next several hours, leaving Dib to sit by a small bench near the window.
Staring out into the night until the first rays of sunlight began to peek out from behind the hills, Dib spent the majority of the night just watching the stars outside, something he hadn't done in a long time, all the while stroking his stomach gently. It wasn't until he heard Zim shifting that he shifted his gaze over to look at the other. Then, standing back up from his spot, Dib made his way back over to the couch to kneel down near the Irken, resting his arms right next to him, his head in his arms as he watched the alien sleep. Smiling, he then reached out a hand to stroke the others face gently, the feel of soft skin beneath his hand something he had missed in the days he had been gone.
Opening his eyes a crack at the feel of Dib's cool hand on his face, Zim stretched out a bit and yawned. "Mornin'" he then mumbled, still fairly tired out despite the long sleep he had just had.
Smiling down at him, Dib leaned in to nuzzle the Irken's neck gently. "Morning...Did you sleep well?" he asked, knowing the other hadn't slept for nearly a week.
Letting out another yawn, Zim stretched some more as he went to sit up in his spot. "Better than I have in the past week." he said before snickering to himself, knowing he hadn't slept at all then.
His antennae drooping a bit, Dib could only sigh at those words however. "...That's not funny, Zim..." he said in a whisper before hiding his face in Zim's shirt and tightening his grip a bit on his uniform, almost as though he were afraid to let go of him ever again, having truly been worried about him.
Smile vanishing, Zim then sighed also. "I know it's not, Dib...I'm sorry you were worried...but I was worried too!" he exclaimed, his only reason for not having slept being the fact that he had been searching high and low for Dib.
Flinching back a bit at the others yelling, Dib refused to meet Zim's gaze again. "Well, you didn't have to be...I was planning on heading back to your base yesterday right before you showed up..." he huffed out a bit.
A look of surprise coming to Zim's face at that bit of information, Zim could only stare wide-eyed at Dib for several long, silent moments. "R-Really? You were?" he then looked away ashamed. "...I'm sorry...I-I was just so worried..." he suddenly felt a little foolish for having handled the situation in the way he had.
Feeling tears springing back to his eyes again, Dib couldn't help but sob gently against Zim. "I didn't want you to hate me forever for leaving...Because I can't do this alone, Zim...I can't...And I didn't want to do what Gaz suggested when I first went to her..." his voice shook unsteadily.
"I could never hate you! Though I used to pretend to..." Zim tried to comfort his hybrid, wrapping his arms around Dib and pulling him close. "What did she suggest?" he then asked, curious now as to what advice Gaz could have possibly given him about the situation.
Hiding his face even more in Zim's chest, Dib could only shake his head against the other. "She said I should just abort them if I wasn't able to handle it! B-But I could never do that! I'm not a murderer! And it's not their fault any of this is happening!" he sobbed against Zim, reluctant to pull away anytime soon.
"Oh, Dib..." Zim pulled Dib close, holding him tightly. "I-I had the option to do that...wh-when I first found out...It wouldn't have hurt you, and you could have been asleep during the operation and never known..." he sniffled, holding Dib tighter as though the boy would disappear were he to let go. "I couldn't do it either though...I-I can't bear to watch you be in pain...But I can't get rid of them either..." his voice then fell down to a quieter whisper. "They haven't even had a chance to live yet." he closed his eyes, ashamed he had even thought to do it at first.
"I-I'm scared...B-But I never would have been able to live with myself if we had done something like that!" Dib trembled a bit in Zim's arms.
Smiling sadly down at Dib, Zim merely rubbed up and down on Dib's back. "Then we have only one problem...How to make sure you'll be okay." he said, knowing it would be painful for Dib no matter what they did.
Lifting his head to send Zim a more serious look, Dib then glared a bit at the Irken. "Well, how exactly do the males on your planet give birth then? Because up until you said anything, I wasn't even aware that there was any difference in my anatomy that would make that physically possible!" he blushed, having been too embarrassed to even explore his new anatomy any closer after Zim had told him he was pregnant.
"Well, as far as I can tell, it's a lot like human females." Zim kept as serious a look on his face as Dib. "Once the eggs are ready, you'll lay them from your slit." he then poked Dib, trying to be more lighthearted now. "Right between your legs..." he pointed to where his slit would be.
Feeling anything but lighthearted in that moment, Dib's face could only light up a bright red at those words, his eyes wide as he gulped. "What slit?" he knew he would regret asking, not even realizing that he had such a thing on his body to begin with.
His own eyes growing wide, Zim blushed himself. "O-Oh...You, um...didn't know you had one?" he swallowed nervously. "Uh...Well, you do...Um...I could show you...if you want..." he looked away to make sure nobody else was around, blushing even more.
"I don't want to see it!" Dib stopped the other before he could do anything, shaking his head violently, his blush only deepening as he pulled the blanket over his head to hide under, so horribly embarrassed now.
Blushing uncontrollably now, Zim quickly scooted in to wrap an arm around Dib again. "...I could show you where it is at least..."he said quietly to the other, knowing Dib would have to have a better grasp of his new anatomy by the time the smeets came.
"No! No, no, no, no, no! I don't want you to show me where it is! You already told me so just drop it already!" Dib refused to listen, gripping the blanket tighter, no longer wanting to come out from underneath the blanket. He was beyond embarrassed at this point.
"O-Okay...I'm sorry." Zim apologized, taking hold of the covers to try and pull them off of Dib's head. "We can talk about something else if you want..." he offered to change the subject, sensing how uncomfortable their current conversation was making Dib.
Not wanting the other to see how red his face had grown, Dib pulled back when he felt Zim trying to remove the covers from him.
"Oh, come on, Dib." Zim giggled a little. "Let go of the covers." he tried even harder to yank them off of Dib.
Not at all amused by any of this, Dib, however, could only scoot back even more. "No!" he held them tighter by his sides, refusing to let Zim get even one side up.
"Come on, Dib...You don't have to hide from me. You don't have anything I haven't seen before." Zim tried to coax the hybrid out of his hiding place.
But Dib could only stiffen even more at Zim's words, pulling away a bit more when he felt Zim's hands trying to remove the covers once again. "Perver-!" he got cut short, tumbling to the ground with a pained yelp when he reached the edge of the couch.
"Eep!" Zim squeaked, jumping off the couch immediately to help Dib. "Dib? A-Are you okay? Are you hurt? Where are you hurt? Did you break something? Irk, you did, didn't you? What did you break? Don't move! Zim will call an ambulance! AHH! I can't! We're aliens! Wait! But you're half human so...Wait! The smeets! Are you okay?" he panicked, not knowing what to do.
Unable to answer any of Zim's questions in that moment, Dib just laid there, trying to catch his breath as he sobbed, having temporarily knocked the wind out of himself, causing him to gasp for air.
Rubbing the sleep out of one of her eyes and yawning, that's when Rose tiredly entered the room to see what all the yelling was about. "Hey, what's going on in here?" she asked in a tired voice.
Still spazzing out, Zim paced in a circle around Dib, yanking at his antennas. "Dib is down! Dib is down!" he kept running back and forth next to Dib, not knowing what to do in his current state. "Pick him up? No, he could be injured! Heimlich? No, not choking! Gah! Diiib!" He yanked even harder on his antennas, frazzled.
Watching Zim for a few confused moments, Rose then walked over to where Dib had fallen and helped him to sit himself up slowly and carefully, removing the blanket from over his head and pulling him into a gentle hug. "There, there...You're fine..." she wiped the tears from Dib's eyes as he slowly began to calm again.
Stopping in his tracks, Zim stood back now, silent, feeling slightly embarrassed and stupid at how he had reacted to the other falling off the couch.
Unable to help but let out a small giggle at the look on Zim's face in that moment, Rose smiled more encouragingly back at Zim now. "You really should learn to remain more calm about things like this, Zim. It's not very helpful to Dib if you panic." she said, knowing Zim was just jittery now that the reality of Dib's pregnancy was hitting them.
Ashamed, Zim could only drop his eyes to the floor however. "I-I'm sorry..." he apologized, not having meant to make such a big deal out of nothing.
Merely smiling back at him, Rose couldn't help but continue as she held Dib closer. "You know, you remind me a lot of Jack back around the first time I told him I was pregnant. He was so overprotective, but throughout the years, he's learned to not sweat the small stuff so much." she knew Zim would mellow out some as the pregnancy progressed.
Scuffing at the floor with his feet, Zim couldn't bring his gaze back up to look at either of them any longer. "Y-Yeah..." he said, almost unsure.
"Don't worry, Zim. The way you're acting is perfectly normal as a first time father. But trust me, things will get easier a little further into the pregnancy. The hardest part is always the beginning with all the morning sickness. At least...I think..." Rose tried to cheer him up despite only knowing about up to only the fifth month or so.
A/N: And there you have it. I'm in a bit of a hurry to get this posted so I can get to some online spring cleaning, So I'll quickly answer reviews now and then hopefully come back later to clean out my FF profile a bit. It feels a bit...unorganized at the moment, like a lot of other things. So until next time, you guys~
To lillybean queen of the i ocean: So very glad to hear it! 8D
To kikidon11: Thank you for understanding, kikidon. ^^ I noticed you made a DA account though and added me. =3 If you'd ever like to talk outside of reviews here on FF, do feel free to send me a message on DA. =3 I'm on DA often enough, after all. Though, the account you watched of mine has been a bit inactive as of late. If you'd like me to PM you my currently more active DA account, please let me know. =3 I upload a lot of ZADR art there. It's what I like to call my "Drama-Free" account because of all the shit that goes down on my other account. DA can be such a drama-intense place sometimes. I need an account I can escape to every once in a while to enjoy what that site should REALLY be about. The art. It's why I joined in the first place. That's why I gotta keep this drama-free one under wraps for a while. I figure, seeing as how you're new, it couldn't hurt to tell you where I'm really hiding most of the time on that site. XD And I know already that you'll more than likely appreciate the ZADR art I post. =3 I'm glad to hear the updates here brighten your day though. =3 Just for that, here be another quick update. ^^ So we hope you enjoy and look forward to hearing back from you really soon. =3
To InvaderSammeh: Lol. XD Well thank you. =3 We appreciate your kind words each and every chapter. ^^ And we hope you'll enjoy this next chapter update as well. It seems like so long ago we first started writing this story. I'm glad we've managed to draw in at least some keepers who will continue to read despite our choppy chapter updates. XD Anyways, much love to you for reading and reviewing. Until next chapter~
To Mrs Inuyasha Kagome: Lol. XD Well, you know. I actually know somebody on DA who posted a picture of that scene from our story. X3 Even animated the stars so they sparkled. I don't know why it is so many people seem to like that filler scene, but I'm not complaining. XD Thanks for reading and reviwing. We look forward to hearing back from you again soon. XD
To Illisandria Carthain: Lol. XD Well, trust us. As questionable as some of our plot points may be, they DO all have a purpose. Things will start piecing together more in the near future.
And don't worry about the late review. XD I have another day off school today so I have plenty of time to update this story again. =3
Meh...Thanks for the suggestion but no thanks. I don't really care whether the OC is realistic or not. I just plain don't support CannonxOC pairings EVER. It's just a pet peeve of mine when people insert CannonxOC pairings into a story. And what some people might think realistic, I still see as being mary suish just for the fact that they're even trying to self-insert a character like that whom one of the cannon characters falls in love with. It just kind of ruins the original universe for me. I can understand OCs so far as serving as extra characters. But not serving as love interests. In cases such as that, I find the plot line to become less than believable. So while I appreciate the suggestion, I'm going to have to take a pass. Sorry. ^^;
Moving on, we're glad to hear you enjoy the way we characterize Rose and Jack. =3 We needed two characters who could kind of serve as the glue holding together Zim and Dib's relationship. They bring an element to the story that we otherwise wouldn't have been able to achieve had Zim and Dib been going through this alone. =3 Not to mention, they're just a cute couple to play around with. X3 And they've come a long way since we first decided to add them to the story. We've developed them to a point where we can hardly imagine ZO without them. =3
Thanks again for alway taking the time to read our story. And, as always, we can't wait to hear back from you next chapter. ^^ (P.S. NGD got back to me about your last question. Her least favorite character is Gir. Hope that satisfies your curiosity. )