ZADR Orange Chapter 97

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

Giggling a bit at Purple's observation, Rose reached her hand back into the other bag of clothes. "I guess he was thinking the same thing." she said, digging into the bag and pulling out the frog night shirt and pants. "See. He's a froggy." she smiled wide, holding the shirt up to be seen.

Grabbing it from her, Purple smiled wide and hugged it. "I'd give anything to see Zim in this." he snickered into his hands. "I wonder if I can convince him to put it on." he tried to imagine Zim wearing it.

Rose smiled a little. "Would you keep Zim alive?" she asked.

Purple looked back at her confused. "Hm? I-I wasn't planning on having him any other way...Of course I want him alive...I never said I wanted or was going to allow him to die..."he said.

"Well, Zim said his leaders had the power to end his life..."

"Well, yes. But that doesn't mean I want to..."

"What about your mate?"

"Eh...W-well, yeah...Red has already tried a few times...But I didn't tell him where I was leaving to so suddenly, and I made sure to talk to the Control Brains before I left in case he assumed I came here...I asked that they not let Red convince them to shut Zim down in the event that he ever went to them...I've actually been doing this for a while now...Every few years I go to them, asking that they continue to keep with their word not to kill Zim and not to let Red convince them otherwise."

"You have?" Zim asked, looking a bit surprised now as he had just entered the room and overheard the conversation.

Purple turned to look back at Zim. "Of course I have. You don't honestly think I'd be stupid enough to allow Red that option. He would have tried it long ago if I hadn't been there to stop him. It probably would have been his first resort. Why else do you think he would be going through all the trouble to try and find different ways of killing you? Going to the Control Brains would have been much easier." he said.

Smiling sadly, Zim looked down at the floor, his eyes watering up a little. "Thank you...I-I guess I owe you my life..." he said.

Looking away also, Purple blushed. "I-I'd rather you give me some advice rather than your life...B-but preferably after your mate has woken up...I-It's kind of a question for the both of you..." he said.

"Oh?" Zim looked up curiously. "If it's that important...Should I wake him up?" he asked.

"No, no! It can wait! After all, he's the one carrying the smeets. I-I wouldn't want to wake him up if he's tired."

Zim nodded a little guiltily. "Yeah..." he said.

After a few moments of silence, Purple finally spoke up again. "So...D-Does he know that I'm here...?" he asked.

Zim nodded a little. "He knows you're coming at least...Tak kind of ruined our outing...We just found out you were coming almost a half hour ago..."he said.

Purple flinched back a tiny bit. "Ooooh...I, umm...suppose he was pretty upset about it then...P-Perhaps feeling a little like Red does whenever we're around each other...So...W-Would you rather I stayed over at Tak's base while I'm here...?" he asked, now feeling as though he were intruding.

"NO! No, I don't trust her or Gaz...It's okay if you stay here..."

Purple still looked somewhat uncertain. "A-are you sure? Will your mate be alright with that? B-Because I really wouldn't mind if he didn't want me here..." he said.

"No, it's okay. You wanted both of our help, after all...And we would probably never get out enough to help if you weren't here..."

"Well, okay...But I'll only stay if he agrees to it too...O-Otherwise, I'll leave and just go back to Red..."

Zim gave him an odd look. "Okay, what's wrong? You never stutter this much." he said.

Antennae falling back as he shuddered, Purple closed his eyes tightly, trying to keep from breaking down and just telling Zim why he had come in the first place. "Nothing..." he willed his voice not to shake though his body showed it. He just wanted advice, he kept assuring himself, and he didn't want the other to know that anything was wrong.

Zim stared disbelievingly at him. "Come on. Out with it. I know you better than that. What's wrong?" he asked.

"IT'S BECAUSE HE WON'T TOUCH ME, OKAY?!" Purple exploded in an upset tone when Zim wouldn't just let it go. "He won't touch me, he won't talk to me, hell, he won't even look at me anymore!" he exclaimed.

Zim's antennae drooped. "Oh...I'm sorry...I can't help feeling this is my fault. It probably is actually..." he said.

Not having meant to explode on the other like that, Purple brought up a hand to wipe at his eyes. "No...No...It's not your fault...Red is just being...so stupid..." he said.

"Because he hates me...And thinks we still have something going on..."

Purple breathed in shakily. "I don't know how to make him believe me...I feel as though this is all my fault...I never should have told him all those years back that I was keeping you as an alternate mate if things hadn't worked out between us..." he said.

Looking away, Zim blushed. "No...But you should have told me...I thought we had called it off for good..." he said.

"It was only because I wanted to have smeets! I thought that maybe...if things hadn't worked out between Red and I, and you were still single...I might be able to win you back over and convince you to be my permanent mate...But that blew up in my face...A-And I gave up on it the second I found out you had already acquired a new mate...B-But I must have given up on it too late because now Red thinks there's something going on between us...All because I wanted to start trying to have a smeet with him...But we haven't been able to the few times we've tried...He thinks that I think it's his fault...But maybe I'm just afraid to find out it might be me...That I might be the reason we haven't been able to have any..."

Staring at Purple with an all too sad look on her face, Rose couldn't help but reach out to pull him into a small hug. "Ohh." she patted Purple's head. "I know exactly how you feel..." she said, remembering all the hard times she and Jack had been through.

"B-But how could you? You at least have a smeet!" Purple pointed in the direction Zim had taken Dib. "And it looks like you're about to have another one! But I haven't even been able to conceive once since we've tried! And now Red is giving up on even trying with me!" he exclaimed.

"Well, it was still very difficult. It took forever to finally conceive...And then we kept losing the babies before they could be born..."

"But we never gave up trying."

"S-So you think it's still possible that Red and I could have a smeet someday...?" Purple asked, playing with his fingers nervously as he looked back over at Rose. "I mean...Red doesn't even want to try any longer, and every time I even bring it up, he tells me to just drop it because he doesn't think I'd be able to take care of one properly...He doesn't even want to give me a chance to try!" he exclaimed.

"Of course you can." Rose petted his head. "Just trick him into making it. Act like you don't want a smeet anymore, then get him in bed." she said.

"Do you think something like that would really work? I mean...How would you convince your mate into getting into bed with you without letting on that that's the reason you want him in bed? I could tell Red I don't want a smeet anymore...B-But I'd have to have a really good excuse for making him sleep with me!"

"Well, do you two celebrate any special days throughout the year? Like the day you first met? Or your first time making love?"

Jack stood back with Zim, watching the two converse and feeling slightly uncomfortable with the conversation, convinced that they may be at it for a while now.

Zim looked up at Jack. "Want to get a snack or something?" he asked.

"Heh..." Jack laughed somewhat nervously. "Yeah, I think we better. They're probably going to be talking for a while now." he said as he turned to follow Zim into the kitchen, which was unfortunately close enough to the living room that they could still hear every word Rose and Purple were saying. Sighing, he took a seat at the table before smiling at Zim.

Zim smiled back nervously. "Looks like I cause a lot of problems, huh?" he said.

"Heh...I don't think any of what they're talking about out there is really your fault though. But it doesn't really matter. Rose loves helping solve other people's problems."

"Yeah...I've noticed that. It's like because she never had her own smeets, she sort of adopted everyone else's."

"Well, she loves children, whether they're her own or not. I'm fairly certain she'd still be this way even if she had had her own children."

Zim laughed a little. "I wouldn't doubt it...I wonder how Dib's doing..." he said.

"Do you want to go check?" Jack asked, standing up from his seat as though to go with the other, if not for Dib's sake then his own to get away from the conversation coming from the living room.

"Yeah..." Zim nodded and stood up. "You coming too?" he asked.

"Yeah...As much as I love Rose, I don't think I can listen to anymore of this conversation coming from her. It only reminds me that she has a somewhat devious side to her too." Jack shuddered.

Zim laughed. "Everyone does." he said, heading for the toilet. "Well, come on then." he said.

Jack smirked at that remark. "Does that mean you've found some kind of devious side to Dib too?" he asked.

"Well, Dib WAS always trying to dissect me..."

Jack couldn't help but laugh at that. "Oh, wow. Now he told us he spent a lot of time trying to expose you over the years, but I guess he forgot to mention THAT little detail. I suppose it's safe to assume that that devious side to him is gone now though, right?" he said.

"Well, I'm not sure...I hope not. That was one of my favorite sides of him."

Jack laughed again. "So, what? Are you saying you have some kind of dissection fetish now?" he joked a bit.

"Wha-NO!"

"Alright. Alright. I was just playing with you." Jack said in a still somewhat amused voice. "But anyways. What is it that you like about Dib wanting to dissect you then? That's kind of a weird side to like about somebody." he said.

"Not dissection! I just like his deviousness." Zim blushed. "I like a lot of things about Dib...He's tall, at least taller than me, and he was a very worthy adversary...Though to be honest, I probably could have destroyed the planet and him if I had ever wanted to..." he said.

"Well, I'm glad you didn't..." Jack smiled nervously at the other before looking back ahead of himself. "But I guess I can understand that. You mean you like a more assertive Dib. K-Kind of like how he was back at the mall when he was telling that girl to back off from his sister." he said.

"Yeah! Like that!" Zim grinned wide. "That was great..." he said.

Amused, Jack smiled. "I take it that's a side of Dib you rarely see nowadays compared with how he must have been in the past...So I guess it must be something of a treat for you to see him get like that every once in a while." he said.

"Yeah, it is...But if I stirred him up myself, he'd just break down now instead of getting that way..." Zim said, sighing a bit as he really missed that side of Dib.

A/N: And there you have it for Chapter 97. =3 Until next time~