A/N: Holy shit, you guys! Can you believe what you're actually seeing? Another update in less than a month? Yes, it's true. I've been making more of an effort to get these chapters out faster, by pretty much working on them between any breaks I can get while at work. And I'm happy to say the new movie most definitely lit a fire under my butt to continue this fanfiction (Not that it ever went out to begin with, but a little motivational inspiration every now and then never hurts in the long run). ;) Anyways, that being said, I hope you guys enjoy this quick update. This, and many of my other stories, are very much on my brain as of late. So much so that I've been losing sleep over working on them (I get home so late most nights but can't prevent my internal alarm clock from waking me up early in the mornings to get a little more writing in). Hahaha. XD As such, let's hope this wave of motivation keeps me going for a while longer. I'm also still working on revisions for this story, but VERY slowly as it were. So I hope it will become a little less cringeworthy soon enough. Lol.

ZADR Orange Chapter 198

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

Flushing up considerably at the lick he received from his mate, Zim pouted back at Dib sulkily before turning his gaze away to glower at his plate in silent protest of the other's continued fussing. "It tasted good..." he reasoned irritably, his moody retort doing little to deter Dib's attempts at cleaning his face however.

"Well, I certainly hope our smeets don't eat like you do." Dib said, bringing up a napkin to properly clean away the rest of the syrup and powdered sugar."Otherwise feeding them might turn out to be a fairly messy ordeal." he said, only pulling away once he was certain he'd gotten the majority of it.

Resigning to his fate, Zim could only blush a further shade of green at that observation. "I'm not that bad..." he huffed out childishly, turning in his seat and crossing his arms as though mildly offended.

"Well, I guess we'll see then..." Dib smirked at the Irken bemusedly, all the while sending him a half-lidded love gaze. There was no denying he wanted their smeets to look like Zim, the thought alone causing him to try and imagine their faces already. "...They'll look just like their daddy when they're born." he then whispered more to himself than anyone else as his eyes milled about the perimeter of Zim's face fondly.

"Hmm?" Zim cast his mate a curious look, none the wiser to the trend of thoughts currently passing through Dib's head in that moment.

"A-Are you ready to get going then?" Dib quickly changed the subject, deciding that it'd be best to navigate away from his current thought processes.

"Well..." Zim tilted his head to look back over at Jack and Rose, Rose only halfway done with her food and Jack having barely started with his. "Shouldn't we wait for them first?" he reminded the other casually, his offhand question almost immediately sending Dib into a small fluster.

"O-Of course!" Dib blushed at his own inane forwardness. "I-I didn't mean to rush anybody! I j-just meant, as soon as you guys are done and ready to go..." he looked away to one side awkwardly, his nervous fiddling about with the tablecloth only accentuating his embarrassment all the more. He still had no idea where they were even going after this anyways, so it wasn't like he and Zim could just leave without Rose and Jack.

Rose smiled and reached out a friendly hand to pet Dib's arm soothingly. "It's alright, Dib. We know what you mean." she assured understandingly.

Unlinking his fingers from the folds of the tablecloth, Dib blushed an even brighter red at the pet but otherwise seemed to calm back down somewhat.

Smiling himself, Jack went to take another bite of his food. "So I'm guessing you two liked it?" he asked, their nearly empty plates already speaking for themselves.

"Yes!" Zim nodded his head fervently, his lively head gesture blending effortlessly with the enthusiasm in his voice. "Hmm...Perhaps you can do the food at our wedding." he then proposed, more than willing to give more of Jack's cooking a try now.

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time I've done food for a wedding. So, sure. Why not?" Jack agreed as a smile spread across his features.

Mirroring Jack's smile with a grin of his own, Zim looked over at Dib excitedly. "Is that okay with you?" he asked, his toothy grin drawing Dib's attention away from his prior embarrassment.

Blinking back at Zim, Dib nodded his head slowly, a small smile playing along his lips at the suggestion. "O-Of course. We'd love it if you did the food for our wedding, Jack. And I think the smeets would like it too." he said, running a hand over and down his belly to cup it near its base.

"Well then." Jack rose to leave the table, returning just a moment later with a menu in his hand. "Go ahead and bring this home with you in the meantime. You can look through it and decide on what you want to be made for the big day." he said, reaching out to transfer it over to Zim.

Zim nodded and took the menu without hesitation, his eyes almost immediately trailing its contents closely as he and Dib allowed the two humans to finish their meals.

Scanning through the large selection of items, Dib could already see a number of dishes he'd like to have at the event. "Maybe we should make a list, Zim. The top three dishes you'd like to have at this and the top three I'd like to have at it. And then maybe a few small desserts. Oh! And drinks too!" he said ardently as his eyes eagerly maneuvered through each section of the menu's vast selection.

"Umm...Okay then." Zim smiled at his mate, glad that Dib was getting excited about this.

Continuing to look through the menu until Rose and Jack had finished their food, it wasn't until Jack had retrieved a small container for him to keep the rest of his steak in that Dib finally looked up.

"Alright. Ready to hit the road? We have just one more stop to make for you two love birds and then we can drop you off at home if you'd like. You can just pick up the rest of your stuff later. Or...Jack could drive it over to you. Whichever you'd prefer." Rose said as she shifted in her seat to stand with Jack's help.

"Uhh..." Zim inclined his head to look back over at Dib. "You choose." he insisted, not really minding either way himself.

"H-How about we call you?" Dib said, rubbing his large belly and attempting to sit up in his spot. He didn't want to inconvenience Jack and Rose by having them drive over their stuff, but at the same time, walking all the way over there in his current condition didn't sound all too enjoyable either. "Maybe I can just get Zim to fly over in his ship and get it later on." he then suggested, rejecting his initial idea in favor of a more compromising solution.

"Are you sure, Dib? It's really no trouble." Jack assured.

"I'm sure. I'm sure. You don't mind, right Zim? It will probably only take you a few minutes at most to pick it all up and fly it back to the base. Plus it will give you an opportunity to actually get out of the house...You know...in the event I REALLY start annoy you." Dib said, twisting in his seat slightly to face Zim now. He was starting to doubt how much more he could actually do the farther along he got in his pregnancy.

"What do you mean? You don't annoy me...Maybe frustrate me sometimes...but..." Zim trailed off slowly.

Dib's antennae fell to vanish just beneath the tousled strands of his loosely pulled back hair. "...I know I'm hard to be around sometimes...A lot of the time actually...But that's why I think it would be good for us if you went out to get our stuff yourself...You know...for the times when we DO need a little time apart to cool off..." he spoke carefully, not wanting to spark another argument over the matter.

"What do you mean?" Zim asked again, still not fully grasping what the other was trying to say.

Not wanting to answer that question, Dib resisted the urge he had to look away from the other. "...I mean...for the next time we get into an argument about something..." he continued, his antennae drooping down even lower on his head now. "We're always fighting it seems...A-And it's always my fault...So I figured if you leave the base for just a few minutes at least, before things get really bad, then maybe...maybe our arguments won't be as bad..." he explained uneasily, his insides suddenly knotting up with guilt for having even brought any of this up in the first place.

At hearing all that, Zim couldn't help but droop visibly. "I-I don't want to leave you though...even if it is for only a few minutes..." he said with a note of strain in his voice, still rather shaken up himself by his separation from Dib following the events that had taken place on his leaders' ship.

"Oh..." Dib looked back over at Jack and Rose discreetly. He still didn't want them to have to bring over their stuff and so breathed out a heavy sigh instead. "Then I guess we'll BOTH fly over to get our stuff later..." he said in a tired voice to them.

Sensing that Dib was angry with him now, Zim simply remained silent as he feared saying anything more that might upset the hybrid further.

A/N: And there you have it for Chapter 198. Until next time~