ZADR Orange Chapter 119

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

Tightening his grip on the bed sheets beneath him, Dib could hardly bear to even look at Zim in that moment as the other's actions had been anything but called for. "I can understand you being mad at Stella, but did you really have to be so hard on her younger sister?" he pulled his knees in to himself, as though to protect his own smeets from Zim's brash nature.

Zim looked at Dib completely lost. "What are you talking about?" he asked, Dib's body language only confusing him even more.

"I'm talking about you pushing her six-year-old sister off the bed just because she touched your antennas!"

Zim looked around the room and then back at Dib. "What?" he looked worried for the other now. "Are you okay?" he then asked, not knowing what Dib was yelling at him for or what had set him off in the first place.

"What do you mean 'What'? You just shoved Stella's sister off the bed! Quit acting like you have no idea what I'm talking about!" Dib glared slightly at Zim, irritated by how lightly the other seemed to be treating said situation. "I know you were mad, but that still didn't give you the right to do that...What if it had been one of our own smeets, and somebody had decided to shove one of them off a bed?!" he tightened his grip on the bed sheets even more at the thought.

"Well, I would have killed them." Zim growled slightly before shaking his head to clear it of such thoughts. "But I really don't know what you're talking about..." he said again, feeling as though he were being blamed for something he had no memory of even doing.

Dib merely narrowed his eyes on Zim. "Don't give me that! I saw you just now doing exactly that to Stella's sister!" he said, standing up from the bed. "Now, when you're ready to apologize to her, I'll be waiting downstairs!" he then said before storming out of the room in a huff.

"...I don't know what you're talking about though..." Zim sighed and flopped back down onto the bed. "What just happened?" he then asked himself as he stared up at the ceiling, uncertain whether he should go after Dib or not.

Stalking into the kitchen where Stella and Kira were sitting at the table and Jack was preparing them some pancakes, Dib, meanwhile, slumped into the chair across from Stella, who merely glared at him before looking away, obviously still ticked off about what his boyfriend had done.

Without even turning from what he was doing, Jack proceeded to greet the hybrid upon his arrival. "Ah, good morning, Dib. Would you like some pancakes?" he asked, none the wiser to the tension that currently hung in the air.

"No...Thanks..." Dib sounded ticked himself as he went to rest his head in his arms at the table.

Jack glanced over at him. "Something wrong, Dib?" he then asked, able to pick up on the other's irritation in that moment.

"Do you mean other than Zim being a complete ass?" Dib said somewhat harshly.

"Oh no." Jack turned around to face Dib. "What's happened now?" he asked, wanting to know what the two were fighting about this time.

"Why don't you ask Stella? She was there. And unlike somebody else I know..." Dib glared back in the direction he had come from, "...she won't pretend like she has no idea what I'm talking about." he said, really not wanting to get into it again after the fight he and Zim had already had about it.

Cocking an eyebrow, Jack looked over at Stella now. "Stella? What happened?" he asked, having put his cooking on hold until he got a straight answer from at least one of them.

Pouting, Stella fisted her hands at the table. "That jerk up there shoved Kira off the bed! Just because she touched his stupid hair things." she put her hands on the top of her head to crudely imitate Zim's antennae.

"I told him he should apologize, but now he's acting like he has no idea what I'm talking about...I can't believe him!" Dib slammed one of his fists angrily against the table. "I can't believe he'd act this way! Especially when he knows we're expecting..." he stopped himself suddenly, eyes growing wide before he glanced over at Stella. "I-I mean, when he knows we're expecting to umm...to babysit for you and Rose when you have your baby!" he tried to cover up what he had almost said out loud in front of Stella and Kira.

Wondering why he had paused and what he was trying to cover up, Stella eyed Dib curiously for a moment.

Confused, Jack merely shook his head. "Well…I have no idea, Dib…I'm not exactly good at things like this...Relationships are more Rose's strong point...But maybe...Maybe you should tell Purple and see if he knows anything about why Zim would act that way." he suggested before turning back to face the hot pan on the stove.

"Pft...Like that will do any good...I think I've known Zim long enough to tell when he's just being a complete jerk about something...I mean, this is just like him! He gets so worked up over the stupidest things!" Dib sighed. "But I guess I could ask him when he gets up..." he said, unable to deny that there had definitely been something off about Zim that morning.

Sighing, Jack returned to the pancakes. "Oddly enough, Dib, Zim just doesn't seem like the kind of person to act that way without a reason..." he said, not wanting to take sides in the matter after having gotten to know both Zim and Dib.

"Maybe not with people he likes...But I saw it with my own two eyes! I was sitting right next to him when it happened! He was totally out of line!"

Jack shook his head. "I don't know what to say, Dib..." he sighed again and continued cooking.

Leaning in, Stella then proceeded to whisper into Dib's antenna. "You know, he's not just a jerk, but he's also hiding things too." she said in a quiet voice that only Dib could hear.

"Hmm?" Dib looked back at Stella, confused. "Hiding things? What do you mean by that?" he asked, knowing Zim could be a jerk sometimes, but unsure about what she meant by 'hiding things' other than his identity.

Stella grinned wide. "Well, he was showing something to Aunt Rose yesterday while you were gone at dinner. My mom asked what it was and he snapped that it wasn't any of her business. But it has something to do with you. I saw him put it in his back pack." she pointed a thumb to right where Zim's PAK would have sat on his back.

"Hiding something...that has to do with me?" Dib now looked really confused. "What would he be hiding from me though? He tells me everything..." he said, antennae drooping as he recalled the last time Zim had lied to him during the course of their relationship.

Stella shrugged. "Who knows, but Aunt Rose and Uncle Jack all seem in on it." she said, having noticed Jack take Zim somewhere shortly before dinner had begun last night.

"Th-They do?" Dib sent her a worried look before lifting his gaze back up to Jack. "I-Is it true he's hiding something from me, Jack?" he then asked, unsure whether he believed Stella about that or not.

Accidentally touching the hot pan, Jack yelped suddenly at Dib's question. "Wh-What? What do you mean?!" he asked all too nervously as he didn't want to be the one to blow Zim's surprise.

"Zim. Is he hiding something from me? Stella says he was showing off something to Rose yesterday at dinner while I was upstairs and that you knew about it too."

"Uhh, what? That's absurd." Jack laughed nervously. "Zim isn't hiding anything from you." he tried to cover up the initial shakiness in his voice.

Looking back down at the table as his antennae drooped, Dib could only sigh at those words. "I really hope you're right, Jack..." he said, not wanting to think about Zim lying to him again.

Smiling, Jack returned to the pancakes.

Fidgeting in his seat a bit before standing up to leave the kitchen quietly, Dib then headed on into the living room where Purple was sitting awake on the couch, seemingly watching some TV show that Rose's nephew seemed to be absorbed in with his father. Upon approaching closer, he then realized it was his father's show and a fairly old episode at that.

Purple noticed Dib approaching. "Mm, hi there." he waved to the other when he entered the room slowly.

"...Hey..." Dib dropped his gaze back down to the ground as he slumped down into the seat between Purple and Blaze's father on the couch. "What are you watching?" he then asked as though he didn't already know.

"I'm not really sure, but it's interesting." Purple said before looking back at the screen.

"What? You've never heard of Professor Membrane's show? The guy's a genius! He's had this show for nearly 20 years now. They're showing an all-day marathon today starting with some of the oldest episodes."

Purple laughed a little. "This guy's a lunatic..." he said as he watched the Professor zipping across the screen, performing all sorts of insane experiments.

Looking away, Dib spoke under his breath. "...You can say that again..." he said before then looking up when he heard a more feminine voice breaking through the sound barrier.

Blaze's father whistled lowly. "That may be, but for a lunatic, he sure did snatch up a good-looking wife. Shame they never had any kids. I heard his wife died a few years after this show began airing." he said, only recalling that the professor's wife had taken a leave of absence around the time the show first began picking up popularity on television.

"Hmm..." Purple nodded. "That's a real shame..." he said, unable to help but empathize with such a fate.

Staring at the image of his mother, smiling and moving about the screen with such grace, her voice something he had nearly forgotten about, Dib's antennae could only droop even lower. "What...What did she see in him...?" he gripped at the couch cushions tightly, hands shaking slightly as he did so.

Purple shrugged. "Probably what Zim see's in you. Or what I see in Red...We can't help who we fall in love with..." he said, not taking notice at first of Dib's inner struggle.

A/N: And there you have it for Chapter 119. =3 Until next time~