ZADR Orange Chapter 130

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

Raising a brow at Zim's words to Dib, Stella couldn't help but cut in before Dib even had the chance to say anything more. "You wiped his dad's memory? Is that even possible?" she said, not believing a word of it.

Zim snapped at her. "Of course it is, stupid human!" he exclaimed, voice holding a hint of annoyance in it.

Crossing her arms, Stella rolled her eyes at him. "Prove it." she said, just to get under his skin.

Grabbing hold of Zim's arm with both hands, afraid he would do something to blow his cover, Dib gave it a small tug.

About to pull out the device and flash Stella's memory away right then and there, Zim whined when Dib stopped him then looked at the hybrid pleadingly, wanting to do it so bad.

Pressing one of the Irken's hands to his belly where one of the smeets was kicking, Dib sent Zim his own pleading look.

Mellowing at the feel of the smeets, Zim sighed and leaned into Dib. "I'm sorry." he apologized to the boy.

"It's not worth it, Zim...It never is..." Dib pressed his cheek to Zim's arm.

Zim nodded slowly. "I know..." he said, reaching around to hold Dib close.

After a few more moments, Stella smirked back at Zim. "Pft...I knew it. Your boyfriend probably just ran away from home." she said, standing up straighter now to send Zim an all too superior look.

"Stella! That's enough! You don't understand the situation, and you have no idea what Dib's been put through in the past few months."

Holding Dib closer, Zim glared at her and growled loudly.

Glaring back at Zim, Stella then looked up at Jack. "But wouldn't it be against the law or something not to turn him in if you obviously know where he is? After all, his dad still has custody of him, doesn't he? Otherwise, he wouldn't be putting up all these posters in the first place." she said, hoping to stir up some trouble for them.

"No, he doesn't!" Zim glared more. "He forgot he kicked both Dib and Gaz out. So Dib lives with me now and Gaz lives with Tak." he said, absolutely refusing to let Stella turn them in.

His antennae falling back, Dib couldn't help but cringe at the mention of Tak.

"Your mate doesn't really look like the picture anymore anyways. But are you planning on informing his sibling and Tak of these posters?"

Zim nodded. "We'll have to now..." he said, turning to face Purple.

Dib looked back up at Zim at those words. "You don't think Gaz will get mad, do you?" he asked, knowing his sister would come to the conclusion eventually that Zim was the one who must have done SOMETHING to make their father forget everything that had happened between them prior to this moment in time.

Zim sighed. "I don't know, Dib..." he said, his antennae drooping slightly.

Dib's own antennae drooped at that answer. "Great...Just more reason for her to not want to see me..." he said, entire body slumping now.

Zim nuzzled him. "I'm sorry, Dib...First the pregnancy. Now this..." he said, closing his eyes in a defeated manner.

"Pregnancy? What pregnancy?" Stella looked over at Zim and Dib awkwardly, still trying to piece things together in her head.

Eyes growing wide and antennae perking, Dib turned back to face her, a look of panic on his face now. "P-Pregnancy? H-He didn't say pregnancy! H-He said...Uhm..." he looked about desperately, trying to think of another word that might rhyme with it.

Zim shook his head. "No, I said pregnancy. Tak is pregnant." he said before trying to calm Dib down again.

"O-Oh...Yeah...R-Right..." Dib said, hugging himself, all the day's stresses beginning to get to him, leaving him somewhat shaken and on edge.

Knowing his nerves were fried, Zim nuzzled him. "Come on, Dib. Let's make this quick." he said, just wanting to get it over with before Dib had another meltdown of some sort.

"...O-Okay..." Dib agreed, following Zim back over to where his sister had returned back to work while Tak, rather than playing video games, sat patiently, waiting for her to finish.

"Gaz-human?"

"What do you want, Zim?"

"Gaz. Dib is worried if something bad happened to either him or myself, you would ignore his smeets because you have your own now."

"Zim!" Dib's antennae drooped as he bowed his head down to look at the ground. "...Just forget it...She's going to have enough to deal with having a new smeet on the way...It wouldn't be fair to ask her to help with them knowing that already...That's why I didn't want to ask Jack or Rose either...The only reason we came over here was to warn her about the posters..." he said, not wanting Zim to throw their problems on her now, knowing she had her own to deal with already.

Gaz eyed Dib. "Dib, just because I have my own problems doesn't make yours unimportant. Same with Jack and Rose. EVERYONE has their own problems, but that doesn't mean they won't help you when you need it." she said, finding Dib's reasoning stupid.

"But that's just it! I already know you would all be willing to help if I asked! It's just the burden of it all that's getting to me! Why should I feel the need to ask you to take on my own problems?! I don't want things to be like that! Not when you're burdened enough as it is!"

"Dib, they're my nieces and nephews! It's not a burden. It's family."

"How can you say that so confidently?! How can you say that when we come from the most screwed up and broken family on the face of this Earth...? Mom's dead, dad abandoned us, and we barely even see each other anymore ever since he kicked us out of the house. Can you even consider that to be a real family when it's obvious everything else in our lives is trying to tear us apart in two different directions?!"

"Dib... Things happen..."

"No, Zim...Things happen to other families. But these aren't just "things" we're dealing with. They're catastrophes! It's like our family was cursed from the start to fail. Ever since I was born, my entire life has consisted of one catastrophe after another, and no matter how hard we try to pick ourselves up and move on, fate just doesn't seem to want to leave us alone because it just continues to throw more and more problems our way! And so I ask myself every single day whether it's even really worth it to keep on trying when I know it will all just end in failure like everything else in my life."

Holding Dib close, Zim sighed. "Was Zim a catastrophe?" he asked, feeling a bit hurt by Dib's words.

Dib fell silent for a few moments. "...No...You could never be a catastrophe, Zim...What was a catastrophe was nearly losing you all those times...Every fight we had, that time you removed your PAK because you thought my life would be better off without you, even just that time you wiped my memory...Those were all catastrophes...But the biggest catastrophe of all would be if I ever lost you permanently..." he said, keeping his eyes averted to the ground.

Zim nuzzled him. "I won't let that happen, Dib. And who knows...Maybe all this bad stuff is happening now for a reason. Maybe something good is just around the corner." he said with a small smile, trying to lift Dib's spirits again.

A/N: And there you have it for Chapter 130. =3 Until next time~