ZADR Orange Chapter 71

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: Notgonnadie

Dib: Me

Enjoy. =3

Zim sighed. "Maybe..." he looked away. "Maybe we just weren't really supposed to be together, Dib..." he said, his voice just barely that of a whisper.

Antennae perking suddenly, Dib snapped his head up to stare at Zim with wide, tearful eyes when he said that. Then, without any warning at all, he pulled away from the other, his antennae drooping as he took a few steps back before turning to head for the elevator, a complete wreck now.

"D-Dib?" Zim sighed heavily and finally gave up, worn out from trying so hard. Holding his head in his hands, he curled up on the spot. "I just don't know what to do..." he said to the quiet room.

Shakily making it to the elevator, Dib collapsed onto his knees inside it and broke down as it brought him up to the house level of the base. Upon coming to a halt, he picked himself up and made his way over to the couch in the living room, looking back behind himself as though waiting to see whether Zim would come after him or not.

When five minutes passed with no sign of the other trying to stop him, he gave up all hope of having a successful relationship with Zim and headed for the door, telling himself this would be the last time he left, only this time it would be permanently.

He didn't have to think about where he was going this time as he headed out into the darkness towards Jack's and Rose's house, knowing that if he headed for Tak's base at 5:00 in the morning, either she or Gaz would surely kill him for waking them up so early.

"Master, your mate left." the computer said to annoy him.

"...I know...He can't stand me anymore...I don't know what else to do. I've tried everything!" Zim balled up again, deciding he wasn't going to leave that spot. He figured Dib would probably go stay with Tak and Gaz, or, more likely, with Jack and Rose, but he didn't care. He forced himself not to care. Dib would be better off without him around to make his life hell. "I'll just sit here till I die...then he'll be able to be happy..." he said to himself.

Meanwhile, across town, Jack yawned as he went to answer the door, having been asleep and not expecting anyone at this time of day. "Hello?" he said wearily as he opened the door. His eyes snapped open upon seeing who had knocked. "Dib?" he asked, in a bit of shock.

Sobbing uncontrollably at this point, Dib stood outside the door. "I'm sorry...I didn't know where else to go..." he hugged himself, antennae falling back as he gasped for air in between sobs, just wanting to fall down and die right then and there. He physically felt as though his heart had been painfully ripped out, stomped on, and then thrown to the side.

"Oh, Dib." Jack wrapped his arms around him, pulling him into the house. "It's okay. Come on. Tell me what happened." he tried to coax Dib into explaining things.

Practically hyperventilating at this point, Dib shook violently in Jack's arms. "He...He broke up with me..." he said, that being the only thing he could manage to get out before curling in on himself.

Jack's eyes widened more. "Oh, Dib." he pulled him into a tight hug. "I'm so sorry..." he led Dib over to the couch to let him sit down. "Are you sure he broke up with you? Zim didn't seem like that kind of person when we met him..." he said, trying to make sense of the situation.

"H-H-He said he thought we weren't meant to be together...A-And then when I left, he didn't even try to stop me...HE JUST WANTED ME TO LEAVE FOR GOOD THIS TIME!" Dib breathed heavily, doubling over when he felt a sharp pain ripping through his abdomen. He was panicking.

"Dib? Dib, calm down! Please just breathe slowly. Come on. You're going to hurt yourself and the babies if you don't!" Jack rubbed his back carefully, trying to help.

Having gone too far into shock to stop himself from panicking, Dib could hear Jack's words but otherwise couldn't respond.

Yawning, Rose made her way down the stairs tiredly. "Jack? What's going on down here?" she asked, all the commotion downstairs having woken her up.

Worried, Jack looked up at Rose. "Rose, he's hyperventilating! Quick! Get a bag or something! We need to calm him down!" he ordered her, pointing in the direction of the kitchen.

Gasping upon seeing Dib, Rose ran to the kitchen, bringing back a paper bag, which Jack used to cover Dib's mouth.

Struggling a bit to pull away, Dib, however, just seemed to panic even more at having the paper bag placed over his mouth, his mind in a complete daze as a feeling of light-headedness began to overtake him.

Pulling the bag away as Dib seemed to slump in his hold, Jack sighed and rubbed the boy's back gently.

"What happened?"

"...He said Zim broke up with him..."

"What? B-But why would he do that? I thought they were getting along so well when they left."

"I don't know...There might be more to this than what he told me, but he started panicking before I could ask..."

"Jack, he's pregnant...What is he going to do if Zim isn't there for the birth of those babies?" Rose looked up at Jack worriedly.

Jack shook his head. "I'm going over there. I'll wait till morning... But I'm going to see what's going on. Will you stay with Dib while I'm gone?" he asked, turning to look back at her.

"O-Of course...We can't just leave him here all alone." Rose said, scooting in closer to Dib so she could shift his weight off of Jack and into her lap, running one of her free hands through his hair softly. "Do you think we should wait until Dib wakes up first though?" she asked, wanting to get a clearer story from him before they did anything too rash.

Rubbing his head, Jack nodded. "Yeah. Maybe he'll be more willing to give his side of what happened..." he sighed, agreeing to wait.

QQQ

Everything was spinning, merging together in a sickening way when Dib next awoke. He could hear voices calling out to him, but it took him several minutes to focus on who it was speaking. Groaning out dizzily, he tried to blink his eyes open though it made him want to hurl. Closing his eyes again, he was at least relieved to recognize the voice as he turned his head to one side before responding in a weak voice.

"Dib...Dib..." Rose called out, stroking his face gently. "Dib, are you alright?" she asked when she realized he was beginning to respond a bit.

Dib groaned again. "Rose?" he asked, wanting to make sure it was her and not just his imagination.

"Oh, thank goodness! Jack! Jack, he's waking up!"

Dressed in regular clothes now, Jack rushed into the room. "Dib, are you okay?" he asked.

Attempting to sit up but finding himself being bowled over by another bout of dizziness, Dib could only respond with another weak groan. "Oooowww..." he whimpered, wanting to cry from the pain in his head but willing himself not to, knowing it would only make him feel worse in the end.

Rose stroked his hair lightly. "Dib? Are you okay?" she asked one last time when he didn't answer the first two times.

"Can you tell us what happened?"

"Oh, lay off for a minute, Jack. Let him wake up."

Breathing shallowly, Dib didn't even attempt to move again as all he could do was lay there. He did, however, make another attempt to open his eyes just a bit to try and get an idea of where he was.

Smiling softly, Rose continued petting him. "Feeling better?" she asked, just rephrasing their earlier question.

"Mmm...M-My head hurts..." Dib said as his vision jumped about again, this time less from dizziness and more from the tears that were beginning to well up in his eyes again. He had been hoping it was all just a terrible dream, but now he was certain. Zim was really gone and hadn't come after him like he had hoped. Things were over between them.

A/N: And there you have it for Chapter 71. =3 Before I get to spamming you guys with another mass updatage however, allow me to respond to those of you who reviewed.

To lillybean queen of the i ocean: Thanks a ton for the reviews on the last three chapters. =3 I'm happy to hear your loving and still finding the story awesome. And try not to worry too much about poor Dibbles. Both he and Zim will be sure to come out on top in the end. Thanks for reading~

To Kuro: Lol. XD You're very welcome for the chapter overload. And allow me to say your welcome for the chapter overload I'm about to post again today. =3 I really do hope you continue to enjoy the chapters as they come out. And yes. I agree. XD Dib probably would be staring at something like that all night long, if not at Zim. As for the computer, I like to just think Zim's computer is lazy and doesn't get bossed around as much as Zim and Dib are currently pushing it. I mean, Zim certainly wasn't relying on the computer TOO much before Dib came along. XD But anyways. As for Jack and Rose's house, as I'm certain you noticed in this chapter, it is a rather safe haven for the both them and actually sets the stage for a lot of this story in the future. This story certainly does have several ups and downs. So I'm glad you can enjoy the content moments that come in between the more dramatic. And things are definitely easier without NGD. As for where it's being posted, there are only two places this story currently resides. And one of those places is FF. I doubt I'll be posting it anywhere else though. It gets plenty enough attention both here on FF and on DA. So I'm happy. ^^ Anyways, thanks again for reading. =3 Until next time~