The next morning, Driver woke up in an especially good mood.
She opened the windows of the second floor to a pleasantly crisp air. She washed her face and made her bed. Then she climbed downstairs with quiet, careful steps: she didn't want to wake up Zim in case he was still sleeping.
But when she peeked in the living room, she didn't see Zim on the sofa: it was Cat, instead, who was sleeping in his place, curled up in the exact spot she'd left him the evening before.
"Zim?" she called. Nobody answered.
She looked to the right, in the kitchen: no one else was on the ground floor. All the blinds were still closed shut.
She looked at Cat, peacefully snuggled up. Maybe he could still sense Zim's smell, and that's why he'd come down and fallen asleep there during the night: for some reason, he seemed to have taken an immediate liking to him.
The blankets she'd given Zim had been neatly folded and laid on one of the couch's armrests. She imagined him struggling to fold those blankets many times bigger than him, and she smiled, endeared. How so uncharacteristically thoughtful and polite of him.
That was well and good but... where was Zim now?
She turned and headed to the pendulum clock on the other side of the room; she arranged the hands to point at four hours and twenty minutes respectively, then turned a small lever on its right side: the clock slid to the left, and she entered the hidden passage that led to the basement below.
For some reason, a panicked thought insinuated in her that she wouldn't have found Zim there either. That he'd taken his stuff and left during the night. Now that she thought about it, it wasn't so implausible, was it? He'd acted so oddly the previous night- and that included his sudden friendliness and willingness to collaborate with her, not to mention his apology. And he had told her he didn't want to work or stay on her planet anymore. In that case, how would she explain his disappearance to the Boss? Would she ever even see him again? She realized now that leaving him in that state, all alone, the night before had been pretty reckless of her. She should have at least convinced him to keep on working for them before leaving...
But as she climbed down the stairs, she noticed she could hear a faint sound of sorts coming from the repair bay.
She peeked past the wall and saw Zim there, at his usual worktable, with his protective glasses on: he was using a blowtorch on a metal plate, and he was as focused and as precise as ever.
Driver let out a deep breath of relief. Then, she called to him:
"Hey, Zim! Good morning!"
Zim's antennae perked on his head in a motion of surprise. He turned the blowtorch off and raised his face up to look at her.
At this point usually came the part where he scowled at her and told her to hurry up with whatever it was that she'd come to bother him with, and then go away and leave him alone.
But that didn't happen. Zim simply removed his goggles, leaving them hanging from his neck.
"Oh. Good morning, human" he casually greeted her.
Driver's heart skipped a beat: his ruby eyes were so big and pretty. He hadn't looked so handsome and adorable since the first night she'd met him. Also, 'Good morning'? From him? Hearing it felt so unnatural, it almost made her dizzy.
She walked towards him, arms behind her back, trying to appear confident. But within, she was unsure and cautious. Had they really made up? For real? Did that mean she could interact with him normally, without being yelled at for the littlest perceived misstep?
Only one way to find out.
"Did you sleep well?" she asked.
"So I did" he nodded. "I have to say, sleeping did feel rather… reinvigorating".
Driver nodded back. He did look well rested. He wasn't all like the night before, all sad and bummed.
"Bet it's the couch. All the guys I invite to sleep on it say that the morning after" she commented.
Zim stared at her with wide-open eyes, his face twisted by a mixture of horror and disgust.
"Haha, don't worry, I'm joking!" she giggled. His expression was so comically expressive, she hadn't been able to keep a straight face for more than two seconds. "You're the first one to sleep there besides me and my cat".
Zim's horrified expression turned into a scowling one.
"Ha-ha. Very funny" he replied sarcastically. But there was no real anger or resentment to it.
Wow. Had she made a joke like that in the previous days, she would have had a vicious verbal attack coming. She'd made such a risky joke on purpose, in fact. But instead, Zim seemed so... calm. And polite. Even his body language was more loose and less snappy. So they were really… cool now?
And to say, that all it had taken was a life-threatening fire incident. Uh.
She needed to make a note of that.
"Uhm, but seriously, uh… How do you feel… emotionally, this morning?" she asked.
Zim hesitated for a moment.
"I feel... better, human" he answered, just as carefully as she had. And as he did so, he averted his eyes.
For a moment, he looked like he was about to add something; an awkward clearing of his throat, accompanied by an intense staring at his own fidgeting fingers, signified that he wouldn't.
"So, uh. I see that you're working again" she pointed at the worktable and the plate on it.
"Oh, yeah!" Zim's face beamed with renewed confidence. Talking about work was evidently much more comfortable for him than to talk about his feelings. "Yeah, I was about to patch the missing plate on the left flank. After that, there are a couple of minor issues to fix in the ventilation and the plumbing systems. And then, I believe the ship will be ready for a test drive" he explained.
"Nice" she smiled. "So I get you're gonna keep working for us?"
"I am" Zim nodded. "I, eh… thought about it, and concluded… this would be the best possible choice for me after all"
"I am glad, Zim" she nodded back. "You're doing a splendid job here".
Zim looked down, looking all shy and unsure. His hands were fidgeting even harder. She was about to go ahead and propose they headed up for breakfast, when Zim unexpectedly spoke again:
"Human, I've been thinking about it, and..." he muttered. "Ehhhh..."
He scratched the back of his head, looking either uncertain or embarrassed about whatever he was about to say.
"Ehhh. You, uhmmm..." he stammered.
Driver eyed him curiously. What could he possibly want to say to her that was so difficult to spell out? She stayed still and quiet, she even held her breath, as if any kind of movement on her part could potentially disturb his trail of speech.
"You said… if I ever needed anything, I could always ask you, right?" he said, his eyes now meeting hers.
"Uh, yes. I do believe I said so" she confirmed.
"So if I asked you a question, you would answer it, yes?"
"Yes, of course"
"Okay. Well. Let's say, strictly hypothetically speaking" he said, trying to force a casual tone, "that you happened to lose something in space… how would you find it?"
… really? That's it?
Disappointing.
What kind of question was that even?
"It depends. Mainly on the dimensions of the object in question. Small things are practically impossible to find if you don't know exactly where to look. How big is this thing that you lost?"
"Haha, nooo! I didn't lose anythiiing!" he cackled, waving his hand dismissively, "This is all an hypothesis!"
Sure it is.
"I was talking hypothetically" she lied.
"Well, the hypothetical thing that someone somewhere (not me!) hypothetically lost is quite huge! Uhm, planet-sized, in fact" he explained.
Driver blinked. That actually peaked her interest.
Is… is this about the Earth?
Zim had been extremely secretive about the Earth so far. It made sense that he wouldn't want to discuss the matter openly. From what she could piece together from the strands of information he'd given her, Zim had come to the Earth as part of his Invading mission. For whatever reason, he'd had to leave the planet, and after that he'd been unable to find it again and complete his mission. It made sense, she supposed, but could someone really be so clumsy as to be unable to find the planet they were supposed to conquer? After they had already been on it? True, the Earth wasn't on any star maps, since its galaxy was way past the edge of what was considered Space Civilization, but still…
And besides, the way he'd phrased it was very bizarre. He'd talked as if the planet was lost, not him. She was dying to know what his deal with her natal planet was, but asking him too directly would make him close himself again for sure. Going along with his request would be her best bet to know more.
"Universal Projector Maps are able to detect almost all average planets and planetoids. Some of them have huge ranges. If you can't find something with one, moving it to scan new areas should do the trick. They're also quite common, aren't they?" she was surprised that an expert engineer and space-traveler like Zim wouldn't know about UPMs.
"What if… Someone Somewhere already tried using one, but it didn't work? In any and all ways possible?"
I see, of course. I should've expected something trickier than that.
"Then I guess it comes down to how Someone Somewhere has lost this planet-sized thing"
"Hypothetically speaking, right?" he made sure.
"Yes, hypothetically speaking" she patiently assured him.
"Well, what if… Someone Somewhere… turned this planet-sized thing's gravitational pull sideways? And then that-"
"Wait, wait, what? Sideways? You mean with the gravity pulling from outside the planet-thing instead of within?" she closed her hands in a ball, then opened and moved them in opposite directions to mimic the motion she had in mind.
"No, not inside out, sideways. From west to east" Zim moved his finger in a twirl. Like a blender.
"H… how and why would one even do that?"
"That's not important right now" he dismissed her question. "Point is, what if that made the planet-sized thing turn so hard on itself that it created a spacial rift in its core and then the planet-sized thing collapsed on itself and then disappeared into the spacial rift without a trace left? Hypothetically" Zim said all in one breath.
She couldn't believe her ears. First: Zim had a more than impressive ability with tongue-twisters.
Second, and arguably more importantly: the thing he'd just described was literally insane. Zim had really done something like that? He had made reality collapse on itself inside a planet? Him? Avid schmoothy drinker Zim?
Who IS Zim, even?
Still, she tried to answer his question:
"Well… spacial rifts still lead somewhere. Couldn't you simply trace where that spacial drift leads to?"
"What if the spacial rift disappeared with the planet-sized thing?" he asked back.
She poked her lips in a thoughtful expression.
"Tracking back a route that doesn't exist anymore…"
So this was what had been eating at Zim for the past weeks.
He'd lost the planet he was supposed to conquer (the Earth, no less) through an untraceable space portal. Now she understood why he was so anxious about it: an entire planet under his responsibility, and he had managed to make it disappear altogether.
Quite impressive, she had to say, probably the universal scientific breakthrough of the century, but undoubtedly a complete disaster from the perspective of his superiors.
She had her fair share of experience around space, but still had never heard of something like that ever happening. Was there even anyone who could know the solution to such a problem?
Suddenly, she got an idea.
Snap, she snapped her fingers:
"You know what! I think I know someone who might know the answer"
"Really? Who?" Zim asked, his antennae perking up on his head.
"Mister Krassmann! He knows everything there is to know about space and time! I bet he could at least provide some good advice!"
"Ooh!" Zim touched his lips with his fingers thoughtfully. "I see. And who is this Krass-man?"
"Y... your employer, Zim. You talked to him less than a week ago..."
"Oh, yes, yes, right!" he nodded his head decisively. Something about that gesture made her think he would soon forget about the Boss' name a third time. Possibly even more.
"Well, can you contact him and ask?"
"Ah-"
Driver paused.
Yes. She could, in fact, contact him and ask. And then what? What would Zim do once he had the solution to get his mission back on track? His loyalty was to his Empire. Not to Mister Krassmann, their contract, or her. If the Boss really had the answer to his question, she was pretty sure Zim would have run straight out of her house, never to be seen again, and no one would have been able to stop him.
Zim's permanent departure was possibly one phone call away. Just the day before, when Zim was still a rude lunatic mooching off her in her basement, Driver would have been more than happy to get rid of him. Maybe zapping his butt on his way out. But now…
She gazed down at Zim. He was looking at her, with big, hopeful, pretty eyes. They'd known each other for a little less than a week, and he was already the most interesting, mysterious person she'd ever met.
More time. I need more time to know him, her mind declared, with an absolute tone that left no room for rebuttals.
"… actually, I can't contact him right now" she finally said. "You see, he's all… caught up in a very dangerous job. So until he's back, no contact allowed"
"But this is an emergency! My mission is on the line! Can't you try? Don't you know where he is, at least?" Zim pleaded.
Driver gulped. Already she was regretting her lie. Still, she couldn't just go back on it, could she?
"He didn't tell me where he'd go. And he usually never answers calls unless he's the one to call first".
That last part was true, at least. Mostly. Usually.
Zim let out a frustrated grunt, and crossed his arms.
"When can I speak to him, then?" he asked.
"In one week!" she promptly answered. "He and I are supposed to meet on the planet Ghjitif 89-r for a mission. I'll bring you along and you'll speak to him there. He'll even bring you your payment!"
Zim sighed, defeated.
"Very well, I suppose. I have to repair my Voot Cruiser first anyway".
She nodded in agreement. Yes, very well. Just a one-week delay on his mission. And he had to repair his ship anyway, right? Her lie was no big deal at all! Although… she still felt a bit guilty...
He did try to kill you. It's just one week, to make sense of the time you've spent together. To find out who he really is. It's no big deal at all, she assured herself.
"Say, why don't we go and have breakfast? I'm starving" she proposed.
Zim was a little taken aback at first. But then, he accepted:
"Sure. Let's go".
He took the goggles off his neck and put them next to the plate on the worktable; then he removed his working gloves: under one was his usual black glove. Under the other one were still the white bandages from the previous night. She'd almost forgotten, with how well he seemed to move, that he was still wounded.
Zim made his way towards her.
"How's your arm doing?" she asked.
"Good, good" he waved it around for proof. "We Irkens heal very quickly, you know?"
Driver nodded and smiled at him.
"You know, I'm very happy you are still working with us after all"
"... are you?" he asked, uncertain.
"Yeah, sure. I have a feeling that this time, things are gonna work out between us" she winked.
Zim turned his face away and coughed, to hide his visible blushing.
"Hm" he mumbled.
Driver walked to the upper floor, and Zim followed behind her, keeping his eyes low all the way to the kitchen.
The following days played out very differently from the ones before.
Of course, it wasn't like she could immediately trust someone who had thrown so much vitriol her way. And yet, the contrast between the rude, arrogant Zim from the previous days and the Zim she saw now, not only one night after, was so stark, he might as well have been replaced by a completely different person.
The fastness and seamlessness with which he had integrated politeness and niceness almost gave her whiplash. From that very first morning, in fact, Zim behaved in a radically different manner: he gobbled up all the stir-fried eggs, toast and orange juice she'd offered him without one single complaint about imaginary eggshells or excess lash lack in salt, and even ended his breakfast with a 'That was good. Thank you. See you later, human'. Driver stared at him leaving the table with an astonished expression, like she'd just been paid a visit by a sort of mythical creature.
Moreover, in the late afternoon of the same day, a big package landed on her planet: it broke the atmosphere, and glided gracefully to the grassy field in front of her house thanks to a parachute. A small sheet of paper was tied to it, reading 'XOXO' in a neat handwriting that she recognized as Mister Krassmann's. She informed Zim that the parts for his Voot Cruiser had arrived, and this boosted his good mood even more: he unwrapped the package and examined the parts with the most gleeful, excited expression she'd seen on him so far. She invited him to have dinner with her that evening, to celebrate the event, and not only did he happily accept, he even agreed to have a toast with her (with fruit juice, of course. She wasn't sure he'd ever risk touching alcohol again); he smiled and giggled all evening all the way until she went to sleep, as he told her what he was gonna do to fix his Cruiser, how he was gonna do it, how he was gonna paint and tweak the new non-Irken parts to fit with the rest of the vehicle, all with the most genuine child-like glee and over-excitement.
From that dinner on, his friendliness wasn't the only thing that became consistent, but eating food together also became a habit. A couple times she even managed to have him take an afternoon break and have tea together. This might not seem like much, but in her eyes it was a fundamental development: sharing food together was the most basic form of civility between people after all. This way, they became part of each other's routine in a pleasant way. Zim finally didn't feel like an intruder in her house, but like a true collaborator, maybe even a (admittedly temporary) roommate.
He'd use that time to update her on the development of his work, especially the one on his Cruiser; she could barely understand what he was saying whenever he delved too much into the technical details, but his passion was enough to engage even someone as technologically-illiterate as her.
Technology was his passion, clearly, his comfort zone, it was the thing that brought him the most happiness, and he was very much glad to finally be able to talk about it with another person, even if she couldn't really add much insight to the conversation. Though he did seem melancholic at times, Zim had started smiling again, and it was such a pretty, sincere, infectious smile, of course she'd want to see more of it. She also suspected that his love for technology was especially true for his sentient robots, like the 'Gir' who he'd apparently left on Earth. It made sense why he'd have such a soft spot for him.
Another topic they talked about regularly was the Earth, of course. Despite how much time he'd spent on Earth (more than one year, apparently), the things Zim actually knew about it were often either imprecise or ridiculously wrong; for example one time, he'd asked her how humans could breathe during their sleep, if they kept their eyes shut: it'd taken her a full hour to convince him that earthlings did not, in fact, breathe through their eyes. He'd never had a human he could openly discuss the Earth with, so his ignorance made sense, she guessed. He seemed to be listening to her more for the sake of nefarious future ploys than genuine cultural curiosity, but that didn't matter much to her: this was a good way to have updates on her old planet without stepping too close to it. Apparently, she wasn't missing out on anything, as things had only gotten worse in every way since her departure (even before Zim accidentally made the planet disappear into thin air).
Soon, however, their conversations branched into other, more personal topics, as they started sharing more info about themselves and their experiences -not in an overly deep way, since the secrecy of their jobs as well as their own regard for privacy prevented them from opening beyond a certain point, but Driver still got to know him much better, and in doing so she realized they had more in common than she ever thought.
For one, they were both hard workers: neat, clean (something VERY important in a man), and precise; they both hated lazy, disorganized people and generally preferred to either work alone or people with their same work ethics - this being applied in very different fields, of course, because she wasn't at all well versed in science or mechanics: her areas of expertise were farming and criminal activities, the latter of which he was particularly interested in.
That's the thing, she usually had to keep her criminal and civilian lives rigorously separated when interacting with people, but Zim, too, appreciated aspects of both those life styles: just like her, he could actually be a pretty laid back guy. They liked to have their moments of peace and calm, and enjoyed the value of a lazy, relaxing day (so long as their jobs permitted it) as much as they appreciated the kind of excitement that only dangerous activities like thievery or kidnapping or other sorts or less than honest pastimes could bring. They often shared stories about the most destructive and fun weapons and spacecrafts they'd had the pleasure to use. Zim had many more examples of course, like the invisible mech that he had regretfully had to destroy to save his cover (how lucky, still! Driver had wanted to pilot a mech for years), but she had a true talent to put a funny, entertaining spin on her crime-related adventures. And she grew to love making him laugh.
Zim was way more complex than she'd given him credit for. Yes, he could be arrogant, and brash, and stubborn, but he was also extremely passionate, and determined, and confident. He could be bashful and naive, but when his pride didn't compel him to lie he could be very spontaneous and genuine. He was extremely smart, a brilliant scientist, and a very hands down, logical person (whenever his emotions didn't get in the way). He had a whole hidden inner world that he rarely showed to people, brewing just under the surface of bravado that he liked to paint on himself. He had a sweet tooth, he liked video games, and he was really fond of the color purple.
The state of their relationship didn't go beyond the 'amicable colleagues' tier, but at this point, it was undeniable that against all her better judgment and wishes, she undeniably, irremediably had one big crush on him.
She loved his company, and already looked forward to the next conversation they would have the moment they started one. She would catch herself gawking at him, and fantasizing about him when he was gone. Just thinking about him could make her blush, and her heart would hasten its pace every time she saw him smile. The bad blood that had flowed between them just a few days before had completely dried up, it had evaporated into thin air along with her resentment for him: this was the real Zim, the Zim she'd met in the gloomy space bar on that first night, the Zim she'd clicked so well with since the beginning.
Zim had made it pretty clear, unfortunately: romance wasn't a thing on Irk, and he wasn't interested one bit in it. Obviously, she was gonna respect that choice. She'd never been lucky in romance anyway, so she was kind of resigned that none of her flings would ever result in anything more to begin with. She was fine with just fancying him from afar, really. Unrequited feelings like that were bound to fade over time anyway.
… And yet… she was also pretty sure that Zim was pining after her as well.
How did she know that? Well, at first it was little things. It might as well have been her crush-fueled imagination playing tricks on her. But as time went on, the evidence kept piling up: she'd catch him staring at her, in the corner of her eye, and when she'd turn he'd avoid her gaze and play dumb to it. He'd make lots and lots of compliments on her food, as if to make up for all the fake critiques he'd made on it. He'd get very excited and enthusiastic whenever he came up with something to show her or to tell her about, mainly things that would make him appear smart, brave, or otherwise put him in a good light. Most importantly, he seemed to get overly nervous whenever she got too close, even with something as simple as her sitting next to him. Whenever she, in turn, complimented him, he suddenly became shy and touched his face to hide his blushing.
One evening, when her curiosity became too much for her to handle, she tried putting her theory to the test, with the most benign, most neutral attempt at flirting possible (in case she was wrong then, he probably wouldn't have noticed it).
He was laughing at a joke she'd just made about fast food mascots dying from napalm poisoning, when she threw in a:
"You have a very pretty smile. I'm glad you've been showing it more often lately"
Zim had suddenly stopped laughing, his lips pursed into a thin line. His cheeks had darkened, and his eyes had evasively darted to one sight.
"A-ah… ehm… thank you, human" he'd stuttered. "You, ehhh... I mean… yeah. Thank you".
She noticed that the sides of his mouth were twitching: like he was consciously keeping himself from smiling, embarrassed to show his smile to her now that he knew she liked it.
She'd had an initial doubt that Zim might have on the contrary felt uncomfortable about her words, but that seemed unlikely when she noticed, from the next day on, that Zim was seeking her attention even more, trying to come up with even more positive facts about him that she could comment on.
All her compliments seemed to put him in that state, too, or close. 'You are very smart, Zim!', 'Wow, Zim. That's so impressive!', 'You're so funny, Zim! Tell me another story!', each time Zim would become all flushed and struggle to talk straight, like the giddiness and pride at her compliments were too much to handle, fidgeting with his hands or the edge of his tunic to get all the steam out.
He'd get unnecessarily flustered even whenever she'd try and propose to do something together that wasn't eating or drinking tea, like watching a movie, or playing video games together.
"Oh! Eeeh… I'd… really like to…" he'd initially seem to be seriously considering the offer, and yet
"... buuut I have to work! Yeah, eh. Gotta finish fixing those ships by the end of the week" he'd invariably throw in this justification and retire back into the repair bay.
Which made sense, she guessed, but he really looked like he was kind of avoiding her on purpose. What would a couple more hours off do to his work anyway?
Once she realized that Zim might secretly like her, Driver began flirting with him. Not in an overt way, of course. She didn't want to upset him after all. She was just mostly curious how he would react, curious to find what exactly his true feelings about her were.
She threw in small, ambiguously flirty lines that complimented his handsomeness or his charm. The most she had done had been reaching to his hand, while they were sitting on the sofa drinking tea, and closing her pinky finger on his.
His hand had twitched, but he hadn't moved it away. His speech had suddenly become much more stuttering, and he'd seemed to be cold sweating. After a while, when she was about sure that he was gonna have a heart attack, she let go with the excuse of washing her empty cup.
"A-anyway, I gotta get back to work! See you later!" Zim had bid a hasty goodbye behind her and bolted to the safety of the basement.
It was all very cute and endearing as much as it was confusing. Did Zim dislike romance or not? She wasn't sure things would ever actually escalate beyond this point, but… on the fifth or so day after the fire accident, that's exactly what happened. In a way that she hadn't even planned on.
She was working in the vegetable garden behind her house, picking up the lettuce that had ripen and collecting it in a wicker basket, when she noticed Zim, standing on the small wooden porch in front of the backdoor.
She was surprised: she'd never seen him outside of the repair bay outside of meal time.
"Oh, hey. What's up?" she greeted him.
Zim moved his hands behind his back.
"Human, the fixes on your space ship have been completed, as part of our deal" he announced in a very professional-sounding tone, and he tilted himself on his feet. "We should go for a test flight, if you're free"
"Oh, that's great! Yeah, just let me finish here, I'm almost done" she said as she picked the basket and carried it from the garden over to the porch.
But she did it a little too quickly, because the basket's edge hit against one of the steps and a few pieces of lettuce fell from the cram-full basket and onto the wooden floor..
"Oops" she set the basket down and started putting the lettuce back in it. Much to her surprise, Zim, too, knelt to help her.
"Hey, thanks!" she smiled.
"Mh. Why don't you have robots do this for you?" he asked.
"I like manual work" she replied. "And I don't like machines handling my food".
"You use the microwave, the oven and the fridge" he pointed out, "Those are all machines that handle food"
"Cooking is different from handling. I'm a traditionalist, you know"
"Teleporters and ray-guns aren't gonna be human traditions for another three thousand years at least" he chuckled.
"Oh, alright. Let's put it this way then: if I had robots do all the work, I would die of boredom. And, it makes for a good workout. Happy now?" she said as she put the last piece of lettuce in the basket.
"I guess it makes slightly more sense" he shrugged as he patted his hands together to get rid of the dirt. The gloves he wore were mismatched: one was his usual, shiny black glove, while the other was a thicker, purple-hued working glove.
Now that reminded her...
"Hey, how's your arm doing?" she asked.
Zim looked down on his right arm for a moment. According to Zim, Irkens healed ten times faster than the average human. And by looking at it, yeah, it wasn't hard to believe: just on the second day after the accident, he'd been able to get the gauze off already.
Unfortunately, he didn't have any spare gloves to match his black one, so until now he'd been forced to use one of his working gloves, while he waited for a proper replacement to arrive via mail.
"My arm is perfectly fine, human" he replied with a confident nod as he raised the purple-gloved hand.
"Can I see it?" she asked.
"Uh… Yeah, sure" Zim took his working glove off with a bit of insecurity.
Driver removed her own work gloves, the ones she had used in her garden, and reached out for his hand.
She took it in hers, holding it with her thumb in his palm, and looked at his arm: the signs of the scalding were now barely visible as pale, vague marks on the skin's surface. Soon it would regain its healthy green color. Looking at it up close, she noticed that there were a couple of dark, purple veins visible under the thin skin on the wrist; the surface on his palm was completely smooth, with no fingerprints. His hand was overly soft for someone who'd worked his whole life- but that was probably because he made sure to wear gloves all day long.
"You Irkens are really incredible. It's all healed already after a few days" she commented.
"Uh… O-of course! Irkens are the most perfect life forms in the universe after all, ha!" he bragged, but his voice was lacking in the confidence he would have normally exhibited while gloating about his species. That was normal, she supposed: he got like that whenever she'd stay too close to him for too much time.
"You know what's strange? You only have three fingers, but you are so much better than me at handling objects. I'm actually a bit envious" she continued as she casually turned his hand in hers.
No reaction whatsoever on Zim's part. Now that was weird.
"What?" she frowned as she looked up at him.
"Uh- I- I mean-" he didn't seem brave enough to articulate what was wrong, but his hand gave her a hint when his fingers twitched around her thumb.
She hadn't really thought about how that would look, but maybe touching and looking at him like that was a bit… equivocal.
"Oh! I'm sorry-" she moved her hand away.
"It's okay-" their hands accidentally brushed together as they each tried to get away from one another.
Neither of them was quick enough to move their hands again, so they stayed there, in midair, with their fingertips touching.
Driver inadvertently locked her eyes into his in one of the most awkward accidental stare offs of her life: for a solid, terribly long five seconds, they both gawked at each other incapable of breaking their eye contact.
"Uhm-"
"Uh-" Zim's big eyes twitched, as well as his mouth, like he was trying to say something.
The same thing happened to her. Maybe she was watching him so intently that her brain decided to emulate him: and her mouth slightly opened and closed too.
The whole thing must have been very comical to look at from the outside: they probably looked like two out-of-water fish who were stupidly staring at each other as they gasped for air. It certainly felt to her like she was drowning, at least.
When her mouth twitched again, Zim's neck ever so slightly stretched, pushing his face towards her. Driver instinctively neared her face too, and Zim's eyes slowly closed. His lips puckered, as if…
Oh my God. He wants me to kiss him!
Driver leaned in more decisively, guided only by pure instinct, her lips also puckered up, ready to kiss him; her left hand spread his right one open, and their fingers intertwined: his fingers fit in the three spaces between her thumb and her ring finger, palm against palm, and then-
Zim reacted in an abrupt, violent at that gesture, like he'd just touched something extremely hot: he swept his hand free from her loose hold, with a strength and velocity that managed to hurt her own hand, and exploded with an anger she'd grown unaccustomed to:
"WHAT WAS THAT?!" he shouted as he jumped back away from her.
"W-What was what?" she asked back, completely disoriented.
"The THING! That you just DID!"
"I don't- I didn't do an-"
"You almost KISSED me!" he accused her.
"Me?! YOU almost kissed me!" she retorted.
Zim gritted his teeth, seemingly becoming furious at that accusation: his four mechanical legs erupted from his PAK and launched towards her. That gesture, coupled with his angry expression made him genuinely scary, a far cry from his usually small and cute appearance: he startled her enough to fall backwards, landing on her lower back, and she barely kept herself from rolling down the porch's steps with her elbows.
Zim had been so fast, she took a solid five seconds to realize what he'd done: the four legs were firmly planted in the wooden floor around her. Zim was suspended right above her, staring down at her in an angry scowl: she very much felt like she'd been locked inside a cage with a vicious predator. A shiver of fear passed through her body: all this time, she'd forgotten that Zim was actually a dangerous alien soldier.
"Don't play with me, human!" Zim growled, "You've been acting weird for days now! But I know exactly what your game is!"
"My… game?"
Admittedly, she had been flirting a bit with him in the past few days, but she didn't think it would be this noticeable. She didn't think he would react this badly. Maybe she'd grossly overestimated his naivety...
Zim flexed his metal legs, getting closer to her:
"You LOVE me, don't you? Don't try to deny it, human-worman! The Krass-man has told me all about it!"
What the-
What he said ignited a spark of anger within her:
"He WHAT?! What the HELL did he tell y-" Zim interrupted her by uncovering the laser gun on one of the PAK's upper legs and pointing it right under her chin.
Driver stared up at him, wide-eyed and terrified. So much for having turned a new leaf...
"And now your loveness has infected me! ME! ZIM, infected by a horrible human disease!"
"What... in the world are you talking about?" she asked him, utterly confused.
"GRRRRAHR, you!" Zim growled in frustration. "Your alco-hol! Your hands! Your filthy kisses! Ever since you… we… ever since I met you, my mind has been PLAGUED by those disss-gusting memories! I can't stop THINKING about you, and your- your- your TOUCHES! It's the only thing I think about, and I- I actually want to- Y-YOU have done something to my PAK! Y-yes, it's the only explanation! That alcohol made those THINGS stick to my BRAIN! Like a brain virus! In my brain!"
Driver stared at him, speechless.
So... his problem was… that he was attracted to her? And he was blaming his attraction on her, as well as having drunk wine, once? He was… he was basically calling her a temptress, wasn't he?
"… Zim" she said quietly. "That's not how any of that works-"
"YES IT IS!" he screamed "I SAID IT IS, AND SO IT DOES!"
She closed her mouth: clearly, reasoning wasn't an option whenever Zim was this upset.
Driver looked at the PAK legs looming over her, at the laser gun pointed straight at her face. She wasn't sure how exactly she was supposed to feel about all this: angry, maybe? Indignant and outraged that he was once again blaming her for something she wasn't responsible for at all? Should she slap the laser away, kick him in the face, reach for the gun she kept hidden under one of the wooden boards of the porch and shoot him?
Well, there was anger in her, of course. No one would be happy to be held at gunpoint in any circumstance. But she wasn't sure that was the correct course of action to take, because she finally understood: Zim was repressed. He was emotionally, physically (and highly probably sexually) repressed.
That's what this all boiled down to. That's why he'd been acting in such erratic, contradictory ways: there was a conflict happening within him, between the half that desired her, his most primal half that she had inadvertently awakened, and the austere, cold, loveless Irken half that was trying to suppress the first.
The friendly, charming Zim that she was crushing on wasn't fake: he was confused, and stressed. He was just doing what he thought his culture wanted from him, the culture that had so far barred him from experiencing any sort of intimacy: he should be treated with compassion, not scorn.
If you keep making excuses for him you'll end up dead, her voice of reason tried to warn her. But as she looked up and met his big ruby eyes, another thought, born from a much more reckless, primal part of her arose:
He wants you as much as you want him. So what's stopping you?
That's right: why have this devolve into a pointless fight, when they both desired each other?
The Zim she'd grown to crush on deserved at least an effort on her part, to be saved by his own inhibitions.
Even so… she couldn't completely let go of her rightful anger.
All this time, she'd let him insult her and boss her around without any resistance: that's why he thought that he was in charge, why he thought he had any right to attack her on her own property. Even the Boss himself had tried to manipulate him in some way, apparently -and there would be a time when she would bring this up to him too, of course.
Well, that's enough of that. I won't let two aliens get away with bullying me, she decided. That was the first rule of survival in outer space: never let anyone boss you around. As sad as Zim's background was, she still hadn't repaid him for what he'd done to her...
She levered on her hands and slowly sat upright. Zim stared at her with narrowed eyes, his gun menacingly following her face.
Driver tried to loosen her expression and she gave Zim a soft, suave smile.
"Aw, Zim, Zim, Zim" she spoke in a mellow, persuasive voice, each time emphasizing his name more and more. "If you wanted me this much, you should have just asked"
"... Eh?" Zim breathed out, suddenly confused.
"If you wanted to kiss me so badly, you should have just asked" she repeated more explicitly.
Zim's confident, enraged expression fell all at once, quite literally, it crumbled like the most badly constructed house of cards: his antennae dropped behind his head, and his tense mechanical legs loosened up, lowering him pretty much at her face level.
Driver smirked. That had worked even better than she'd though.
She casually pointed the laser away with her fingertips. Zim allowed that so passively, it might as well have been completely unattached from his control.
She reached for his face, and gently cupped his cheeks with her palms: Zims' body became as stiff as a board, and he began panting.
"I-I don't w-want you-" he stammered, but he opposed no resistance whatsoever to her movements: it was like all of a sudden he'd become trapped in a sort of paralyzed panic.
She pulled his face closer to hers, her lips puckering up; Zim closed his eyes as she pulled him nearer and nearer, and he parted his lips.
When her mouth came into contact with his, she gently took his lower lip between her teeth, and then… she bit down on it. Hard. So hard that she tasted a faint taste of blood on her tongue.
Zim jerked his head backwards with pained, acute shrieking:
"OWWW! YOU BIT ME! YOU BIT ME! What is WRONG with you, you crazy APE?!" he flailed his arms around as a string of magenta-colored blood dripped from his mouth and down to his chin.
Still, Driver not only kept her hands firm on his cheeks, but she pressed them down, so that she could move his face back in front of hers and force him to look at her.
"That was for pointing a gun at me. Again" she explained. "And for leaving me to die in that bar, too".
Zim grabbed her wrists and thrashed, enraged.
"I did NOT leave you to d-" Driver strengthened her grip on his cheeks, mushing his lips together and silencing him.
"This is the last time you threaten me. Got it?" she abruptly changed her tone into a colder, commanding one, fixing her eyes firmly into his: he was visibly caught off guard and intimidated by that.
"B-but-" he tried to protest. His feet were now touching the floor between her legs, and she was looking down on him: she had effectively turned the tables on him.
"Put. Those legs. Back. In." she menacingly spelled out to him, her face inches away from his.
Zim kept his scared eyes wide open and fixated on hers; eventually, his mechanical legs retired back into his PAK with a series of reluctant mechanical motions.
When the plates on Zim's PAK all closed, she let her grip on his cheeks loose, and placed her hands on his shoulders instead.
"There. Now we're even. You see, it's easy, really. If you're good to me, I'll be good to you..." she tried to move a hand under his chin, but he quickly slapped it away.
He took the occasion to jump back, a good and secure five feet away from her.
"Don't touch me!" he growled; he rubbed his lip, then looked at the blood smeared on the back of his hand:
"You drew BLOOD! How dare you make me spill my precious BLOOD!"
"You were holding me at gunpoint"
"No I wasn't!" he firmly denied, "You're crazy, woman! CRAZY!"
She chuckled.
"Yeah, a bit" she agreed. Especially considering the type of men I'm into. "But you know, if only you were more honest about your own feelings, nothing of the sort would have happened, and you'd enjoy life a lot more-"
"I DID enjoy my life!" Zim shrieked. "I HAD a perfectly enjoyable life until YOU showed up!" he pointed an accusatory finger at her.
"Oh, Zim, why are you doing this to yourself?" she opened her arms, exasperated, "Why shouldn't you do something you really like?"
"I- I DON'T want to-"
"I can keep a secret, you know?" she said in a quieter voice. "No one will know. You are safe to do whatever you want when you're with me".
Zim stared at her, astonished. Seemingly considering that option and everything that it implicated. His lip was actually bleeding pretty badly: another string of blood almost reached the base of his chin, only stopped by his fingers pressed on it.
"I'm sorry I bit you, Zim. You scared me" she sincerely apologized.
Zim snapped out of his thoughts and his expression turned into a scowl again:
"Y-yeah you better be! You're gonna pay for this, I swear!" he threatened her, but his pose was still somewhat on the defensive, with his legs slightly bent and his right arm raised, as if to protect him from an eventual attack from her.
Using her hands, Driver scooped herself forward towards him, legs crossed.
"I'm serious. I'm really, really sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you that badly. Here..." she reached into a pocket in her pants, and drew out a cloth-made handkerchief.
"I'm NOT letting you touch me again!" Zim protested, one hand raised to keep her away.
"I just wanna wipe you..." she tried to reach his lips with the handkerchief, but he wrestled her arm away.
"I said no! I said- ARRRGH, I HATE YOU!" he shrieked when the handkerchief reached his lips.
Driver wiped his chin clean, then pressed the handkerchief down on his cut lip.
Zim flinched: he wasn't really putting up a serious fight, but his eyes were full of anger and frustration. He had the tiniest droplet of a tear in the corner of his left eye, probably as a result of the pain. His arms were raised up, tense, his fists clenched. He was holding his breath in and he was shivering all over.
She had already seen him like that, but knowing now that this was partly a performance, mostly the result of his inner turmoil, that he wasn't actually angry at her as a person, made him seem much more manageable.
The white fabric of the handkerchief turned into the same, hot pink of his blood.
Even his blood is kind of pretty, she absent-mindedly thought.
Zim flinched again as she pressed down on his cut once more.
"Does it hurt that much?" she asked.
"Don't pretend to care now! This is YOUR fault!" Zim snapped at her.
"Mmm… Should I kiss the pain away?" she proposed, and she leaned in towards him.
"Kis- Keep that human nonsense to yourself!" Zim put his hands on her shoulders and pushed them.
"Aw, come on. I promise I won't bite you" she caressed his right cheek with her free hand; she wrapped the other one behind his back and gently nudged him towards her.
"NO! Stop! I-I don't want your stupid, dirty kisses!" Zim protested, but his legs were actually following the nudges of her arm, and his hands weren't even trying to push her away: they were instead closing behind her head, in a sort of hug.
"I-I'm warning you! H-human-" Zim's protests died in his throat as she planted a soft kiss on his lower lip, right on the ripped skin.
Driver gently sucked on it: the taste of his blood flooded her mouth, salty and metallic.
A shiver ran through Zim's body, and his fingers dug into her back; if he had fingernails, she would be bleeding now, too.
"G… gross..." he fumbled.
She pressed further, deepening her kiss, both her arms hugging and pulling him towards her.
Now that she was finally kissing again, she remembered why exactly she'd found him so irresistible on that first night they'd made out: how had she even got through these many days without this?
A sort of fiery heat flared up in her guts: she'd realized that all this time she had been starving.
Passion took over her, her kisses became faster and sloppier, as she pressed harder against his lips; her hands worked up and down on his back, from his shoulders, to his PAK, to his lower back.
She slid her tongue into his mouth, and Zim let out a muffled whimper. She couldn't taste blood on him anymore: she'd made sure to suck it all, and it probably couldn't come out anyway now that she was pressing on the cut.
Driver pushed him back and back, until his body had to lean on her grip for support, still enclosed inside her arms. Small, muffled noises came from behind Zim's mouth.
Driver moved down, allowing him the space to breathe, and kissed his neck.
"Aah!" he yelped, his whole body tensing up, "No! Not there-!"
"Sorry" she immediately drew away. Maybe she was being a bit too hasty and aggressive.
"How about your lips then?" she smirked, giving his lips a little peck. "Do you like it more like this?"
"U-uh…" Zim whimpered, his glassy eyes squinting. His face was dark with a vaguely rosy hue and his lips were trembling. A new drop of blood formed on his cut, and Driver moved in to kiss it away, more softly this time.
This time, Zim finally started responding to her kisses: his lips pecked hers, his mouth closed around her upper lip, his hands even cupped her cheeks to hold her face in place.
The corners of her lips curled into a smile. It was so good to see him desiring her again. Kissing her again.
Their kisses progressively slowed down, until their lips finally parted.
They looked at each other: they were both blushing, and sweating, and panting.
Zim showed her another, but much weaker scowling expression. His eyes seemed teary, like he was on the verge of crying.
His cut was beginning to bleed again. It would probably be wise to patch it up for real, instead of kissing it.
"You alright?" she asked.
Zim's frown deepened, as if to ask 'You're asking NOW?'. A low, disgruntled growl came from his throat.
"Oh, come on. Don't give me that look. Don't you prefer it when I'm sweet to you, Zim?"
Zim's scowl deepened even more at that, his hands clawed painfully into her back.
"Mark my word, human" he hissed, "I will never, NEVER forgive you for all of this!"
Driver loosened her hug, and Zim sharply stood up, glaring at her, all worked up, as if expecting another kissing attack from her.
Driver's heart was still pounding. This was a clear sign of good things to come, she was sure.
"Well" she smirked, "that also means you will never forget me, doesn't it?"