One Night Stand

by OysterChateau

After a night of passion together (sort of), a space-stranded Zim and a wanted human outlaw form a reluctant alliance to achieve their respective goals. But as they work together for their own interests, the feelings from that first night start to resurface... (ZimxOC)

18. Under the Sky of Nortyne 111

A heads-up: for whomever is interested, I'm editing the first chapters to make them fit better with the story and style I'm writing with right now; so far I've rewritten parts of ch1-2-3;

BEFORE YOU READ THIS CHAPTER: it contains a lot of musical references *cue booing sounds*, almost all the songs are fairly easy to search by title or lyrics, but for the last one (you'll know which one once you reach it) it's best if you refer to this version here: watch?v=11_aneHVaz8 (just paste it after youtube's main link), as this is how I imagine it sounds in the story, at least instrumentally.

---

"'It solely feeds on Plaktlart'. Seven letters" Driver pensively tipped the pen on the magazine's page.

"Mmh... 'Schlorp'. Try 'Schlorp'" Zim suggested.

"Oooh, yeah. That way horizontal eight makes sense. Thanks!" she scribbled the answer into the boxes.

"Hahaha, I thought 'Schlorps' were those sounds dogs make when they drink" she joked.

"Mmh? No, they are these giant things with long necks that have moss and plants growing on them" he corrected her, her joke completely flying over his head.

"Brrr" he then shivered with disgust. "They're filthy".

Driver shook her head in joking disapproval.

"You find everything filthy, Zim. Moss and plants aren't- oh!"

Beep beep beep. An alarm sound rang from the panel control, a small green light blinking with it above the keyboard.

"What's that mean?" Zim asked.

"It means we're here!" Driver smiled at him with excitement, "We've arrived!"

Driver uncrossed her legs and put the magazine and the pen aside. She pressed a couple buttons on the panel, and a wandering red dot appeared on the windshield's screen; when it fixed on a luminous object in space, it expanded, turning into a bigger, green circle, with four arrows pointed to its center.

"There it is!" she pointed at the dot inside the circle, "That's the place with the lab! We should be there in half an hour!"

Zim's eyes widened, and his mouth stretched into a big, enthusiastic smile.

"Really?!" he exclaimed, putting his hands on the panel and pulling himself closer to the screen, eyes fixed on the dot.

"Yes! Finally! It's finally time for the last part of my plan! I can practically see Earth's filthy surface before my eyes!" he beamed with joy, and he evilly rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

"Finally, we'll be able to leave this damn ship" Driver echoed in a sigh of relief, letting her body loosen and lean limp on her chair. "I can't wait to stretch my legs!"

"What kind of place is it?" Zim asked.

Driver pressed the necessary buttons so that the ship would display the information available on the planet.

"It's on a planet named... Nortyne 111. It's marked as a bio-hazardous planet and it's completely unpopulated" Driver read. "Day cycle of 20 hours, average temperature of 36 degrees; mix of poisonous gases in the atmosphere. Mmmh. We'll have to wear protective suits".

"I guess it's a good cover for the lab! Maybe it's underground- ohhh! I hope it's underground! Just like my base!" Zim happily clapped his hands, talking as if an underground bunker was some kind of all-included luxury resort.

Driver also looked at the dot. She may have not been as enthusiastic as Zim about closing herself in yet another box made of cold hard metal and cement, but after so much time spent in it, she would have taken anything over her small ship. Finally, something new and exciting!… in a good way, this time! Well, for Zim, anyway. He was clearly overjoyed to start building his machine, and she did like to see him happy. And even though she couldn't help him in that, she would have probably found something better to do there than cooking, cleaning, and crossword puzzles… so she hoped, at least. Maybe she could even set a teleporter, and finally tend to her home!

She deactivated the autopilot and started steering the ship herself; she glanced at Zim, to her side, who was happily swinging his little legs back and forth; his smiling lips started humming a quiet, but excited tune.

"Mm mmm mm mm" he sang, and Driver smiled to herself; she wasn't sure he was aware of that habit of his, singing when lost in thought, and- wait.

That tune was… oddly familiar. Where had she heard it before?

She listened to it more closely, and finally recognized it.

"Heeeey!" she exclaimed. "That's 'Holiday' by Green Day, isn't it?"

"Hm? What is?" he distractedly asked, without even turning to her.

"The song you're singing!"

"Eh? Ooh, yeah, yeah, I think it is" he nodded, eyes still fixed on the planet.

"Right on, Zim! Did they still play their music on Earth even after all these years?"

"I dunno. I never really explored Earth's music. It's such a useless, frivolous distraction..." he mumbled, his insults lacking their usual punch as the approaching destination distracted him.

Driver rolled her eyes.

Here we go again. Playing 'Mister I-pretend-not-to-like-stuff-I-actually-enjoy'.

"No?" she sardonically asked, "Then where did you learn the song from, hm?"

"Your mp3 player".

Driver's foot slammed down on the brake and the ship abruptly halted, making the whole structure and the two passengers within violently shake.

"WARGH- What the-?!" Zim jerked forth and back, the seat belt holding him on his seat.

He turned to her, and his angry look turned into an utterly confused one as he saw her, staring at him, wide-eyed and horrified.

They stared at each other for a moment, in complete silence, save for the low hum of the ship's engines.

"Y-you..." Driver finally whispered, her voice coming out strained and dry, "… you used my mp3 player?!", her question ending in a squeak.

"Uh..." Zim shrank in his seat fearfully, still confused, but aware that what he'd done must have been very, very wrong. "Y-you said I could use anything on the ship to pass the time! Since I get so bored at night!" he tried to defend himself.

Her eyes instinctively darted to the drawer under the panel control, where she always kept her mp3 player when not in use. How could she neglect to hide it from him?!

"I-I mean, yeah, but NOT the mp3 player!" she retorted in a shrill voice.

"Why not?!" he asked.

"Because it' s personal!"

"How is music personal?!" he protested.

"It's the music I like! The music I've liked for more than ten years! It's very personal! What-what songs did you listen to?!"

"Well, uh..." Zim's hands guiltily fiddled in his lap, "I-I think I ran through almost all of them".

Driver cringed, her cheeks flaring up, as in her mind flashed all the embarrassing songs she'd saved on that device: the anime openings, the nightcore remixes, the Disney songs, the dumb, some times obscene pop songs, the downloaded tracks with 'YouTube' still in the title...

She gulped, somehow finding the courage to ask one more question.

"Did you see the playlists too?" she quietly whispered.

"You mean the folders called 'Sad', 'Love', 'Angry', 'Sexy'-"

"Aaaaaaahhhh!" she wailed, embarrassment at an all time high, "I-I made that system in middle school! It was practical, so I kept it! I-I don't even like many of the songs anymore! I just keep them for sentimental value!"

Zim stared back at her with a curious expression.

He blinked a couple times, like he was considering something

"... Driver..." he slowly spoke, "... are you being shy?"

"U-uh-" she stuttered, taken aback by his question.

"Pfff, ha!" she scoffed, attempting to put herself together. "No, of course not!"

She turned, looking straight ahead at the space in front of her, and restarted the ship.

"I'm just... surprised, that's all!" she went on to explain, steering the ship forward again. "No one but me ha d ever listened to my mp3! I had just assumed you wouldn't use it, even though it was technically included in 'all the things in the ship' you could use!… I know it doesn't make much sense in hindsight, but yeah!" she convincingly nodded.

Zim kept staring at her.

When she turned back to him, she saw him with his chin rested on his palms, elbows on the panel, looking at her with a smug, malicious smile.

"... what?" she asked.

"You know. I was never sure what humans meant when they called something 'cute'. Now I do" his smirk deepened, and the emphasis he put on that last part set her cheeks on fire.

Driver turned again, face completely red and heart pounding.

"Ha-ha. Look who's talking" she pouted, unable to conceal her very real, very apparent shyness, "You're embarrassed about everything!"

"Yeah, but not right now! Haha!" Zim gloated, throwing his hands behind his head in a nonchalant gesture and leaning against his seat's back. "But don't worry, Driver. I do kinda like your music. Especially the angry, scream-ey stuff. I don't really get what's so embarrassing about it, to be honest! Although…" and he shot her a lascivious look, "… I'm glad I got to see your shy, bashful side, for once".

Driver gulped, his embarrassing words tickling her ears.

"Hah. How cheeky you are..." she quietly commented, hoping that he wouldn't continue that discussion any further, because she was clearly losing it.

Luckily for her, that didn't seem to be his intention, but the smug expression that still lingered on his face probably meant that it was because he felt he'd won.

Driver huffed, flustered at her own helplessness, and tried to concentrate on their approaching destination instead.

Nortyne 111 became visible -that is, it became more than a simple dot of light- shortly after: it was all blue, its surface divided in smaller 'patches' of various shades of that same color; only the two poles were different, sprinkled with a white tint; though it immediately reminded Driver of Earth, she didn't pay it much mind: as an Earthling, she was probably a biased party; many planets reminded her of Earth.

But as they went on to breach the atmosphere, she realized that the similarities with Earth weren't limited to the color pattern alone: the clouds they were traveling through also looked like the ones on her home planet, and contrary to the information she'd read, the air appeared clear and clean. She ran a diagnostic of the surrounding atmosphere, just to be sure, and sure enough, any and all results for poisonous gases came in negative.

"Weird" she commented, "The air make-up is similar to Earth's, at least up here. No signs of poison"

"Maybe the poison is all near the surface?" Zim suggested, and he almost sounded hopeful. "If it's that heavy, it must be a highly deadly one too!"

"I don't know, Zim..." she murmured, dubious. "With this high concentration of water in the air, the surface might- OH MY GOOOD!" she let out a shrill scream.

"WHAT?!" Zim jumped on his seat, "What, was it NOW?!"

"That's an OCEAN! It's an ocean, right?!" she pointed out of the windshield.

Zim followed her finger, to look at the immense expanse of glimmering, blue water that covered the planet's surface under them.

"I hadn't noticed because the ground is blue too, but that's all water! Oh my God, it had been years since I last saw a planet with this much water!" she gushed with the utmost enthusiasm.

"Ah, yeah, that's... great" Zim put on strained smile. "Maybe it's all… poisoned water?"

But Zim's theory of a poison ocean got more and more improbable as they approached the surface, and so did the data the ship had provided them with, which was either outdated, or had been falsified to keep people away, because Nortyne 111 was literally full of life: the ground wasn't blue because of the dirt's make-up; that color belonged to the plants sprouting from it.

Driver held her breath before that beautiful spectacle, her initial enthusiasm turning into pure awe: there were shores, lines of white sand marking the border between the water and the land; and beyond them, plants. Blue plants everywhere, like a second, solid ocean next to the water one.

As they got closer, they became more and more defined to her eyes: grass, bushes, trees, forests. At one point, Driver could have sworn she saw something running among the grass, probably an animal.

As her ship approached the surface, the ship's analysis confirmed that the temperature, too, was different than the listed one and much, much warmer. Basically the temperature of a nice, average spring day in a temperate climate on Earth.

Basically, the only accurate part of the report was that there didn't seem to be any people there beside the two of them.

They were now very close to the location of the secret laboratory, and Driver couldn't wait to step on the surface, while Zim's mood had apparently dipped down in the opposite direction: the more the original info on the planet was discredited, the more disappointed he looked. He really had hoped to work on a poisonous, glacial, barren ball, hadn't he?

Driver parked her ship on a hilly patch of land, a few steps from the ocean (she'd let out an exulting squeal when she'd noticed the place they would have to go to); they disembarked with their own clothes, as they were clearly in no need of any protective suit, and Driver immediately ran away from her ship to take a better look at the surrounding landscape.

She didn't think it was possible, but the planet was even more beautiful when looked at from its surface: in front of her, an immense valley of blue hills; a light breeze was caressing the grass, making it really look like the waves of an ocean. In the distance, past the haze, stood a chain of high, blue mountains with white snow on their peaks. Above, blue sky, white clouds lazily floating about. Her eyes returned to the grass, where she noticed small, colorful dots scattered all around, yellow, pink, white: flowers, probably. A bug of some kind passed buzzing in front of her, and flew away in the fields.

She turned around: there was a gentle decline, upon which the grass got sparser and sparser until a white beach began; and beyond it, of course, the ocean, the real, water one. To her right, behind the hills on their ground level, were tall , dark rocks, forming a cliff on the sea. If she concentrated, she could hear the sound of the waves, breaking against it. But besides that, it was complete and utter silence: that purest kind of silence that could only be found in uncontaminated nature.

Driver had been completely paralyzed from that view; for a moment, she became incapable of forming any coherent thought: she just stared at the scene around her, mouth agape, breath cut short, eyes wide open.

This is Heaven, isn't it? Or at least, that's the closest thing to it that you can find while you're still alive...

She looked at the sun's blinding reflection on the water, glimmering out there on the edge of the distant horizon, and a smile stretched so wide on her face it almost hurt her cheeks; overwhelmed by her emotions, she felt a surge of heat behind her nose, and her eyes started watering.

"Oh my God..." she whispered, "It's beautif-"

"It's horrible!" Zim's whiny, shrill voice came bleating from behind her.

She looked down at him, standing beside her, pouting and with his arms crossed in disapproval.

"Whaaat?! Zim are you joking?! Are you blind?! Look at this place! It's like we just landed in Paradise!" she yelled, utterly outraged and shocked.

"You call me blind?! I only see this place as the heap of grass, dirt and salt that it is!" Zim angrily kicked the ground, overturning a small clump of dirt and grass, "Where's the poison I was promised?!"

"Hey, don't do that! You meanie!" Driver knelt to put the grass back in its place, roots down. "We could be the first people who set foot on this planet in... centuries! And the first thing you do is kicking a defenseless plant!"

Driver lovingly patted down on the grass, fitting it back in its place; Zim stared down at her with huge, appalled eyes.

"Are you... crying, Driver?!" he asked her.

"I-I mean, can you blame me?!" she dried her eyes with her hand's palm, and sprang right back to her feet.

"This place is everything I could ever dream of! A whole - virgin - planet! How RARE is that?! Oooh, we gotta go to the beach! Too bad I don't have a swimsuit- oh, who cares?! I'll do it without one! And we gotta see those mountains! We can go there with the ship! Do you think there are fruit-bearing trees on this planet? There must be, right? And who knows what kind of animals live here! Fish? Birds? I gotta see it all! We-"

"Hey, hey, HEY!" Zim harshly interrupted her, waving his arms up in a 'stop' sign. "This is all very interesting and all, but we have a job to do! Leave your weird fascination with virgins-"

"I beg you not to use that wording, Zim"

"-aside, and help me find the laboratory!" he put a hand through a pad in his PAK and drew out the key to the laboratory, still wrapped by the piece of paper with its coordinates.

"The frolicking in the grass-lands can wait for after we've located and inspected the lab!"

"... Oh..." she sighed, her expression falling. Right about now, closing herself inside some dark, technological space, away from all that natural, bright beauty, was the exact opposite of what she wanted to do.

"Well... I guess you're right, but-"

"No buts. Now follow me" he ordered in a tone that left no room for retorts.

He turned to one side, and drew something else out of his PAK: an ambient scanner.

"It should be very close. In a 100 meter radius from where we are..." he stated, holding the tablet-shaped scanner up and pressing the buttons on it to set the correct parameters.

Driver looked at Zim, working on his device.

She turned back, and looked at the beautiful, blue, shiny sea.

Back at Zim.

At the sea.

At Zim.

At the sea.

Having made up her mind, Driver turned to Zim one last time, and gave him an utterly apologetic look.

"Hold onto that thought, Zim. It'll take one minute" she raised her index up.

Zim's confused eyes turned from the device to her.

"Hold onto-"

Heeded by the irresistible call of the sea, Driver turned and happily trotted down the grassy decline.

"Where are you going?! Driver!" the incredulous voice of Zim called her ; but her eyes and attention were wholly focused on the beach and the ocean in front of her.

She reached the white sand, and the creaking sound of the sand grains under her boots was enough to conjure in her a deeply nostalgic and bittersweet feeling.

She halted, and took a moment to savor the fizzy, salty sea breeze caressing her face and going up her nostrils, as well as the sweet, sweet sounds of the waves washing up the shore.

Zim's little creaking footsteps announced his arrival on the beach, and his irritated voice definitely broke that initial enchantment:

"Driver! What on Irk are you doing?!"

" I'm so sorry, Zim" she apologized , though unable to contain a smile in front of him. "I've missed this sight so much! It's just so beautiful, I needed to see it now!"

"It's. Just. WATER" Zim punctuated each word with an increasingly stronger shake of his hands. "We were looking for the LABORATORY. Quit playing around, and come help me!"

"I know, I know, but please!" she begged him, "After we get to work I might not be able to do this for a long time! Please, give me just one second, and I'll come with you right away!"

"One second for what?!"

Driver quickly sat down on the sand, and started untying her boots.

"Driver…?" Zim took a few more steps toward her.

Driver took off her right boot and sock; then worked to get the left ones off too.

"What are you doing?" Zim repeated with utter confusion.

"Look, Zim. I don't expect you to understand. Irk probably doesn't even have an ocean-"

"Of course it doesn't! It's a civilized planet!"

"The point, Zim, is that humans have a unique connection to nature, that many aliens have long lost!" she explained, letting her second boot fall to the ground.

Driver jumped back up, now completely barefoot; she shivered, the feeling of the sand under the soles of her feet evoking even more distant memories.

"And that means, that sometimes we gotta get some 'nature time'. It's actually encoded in us, genetically. You understand?" she went on.

Zim silently blank-stared at her: evidently, he didn't.

Driver turned again, and walked toward the ocean.

Her eyes widened with child-like wonder and anticipation: the sun above was pleasantly warm, while the water appeared more and more pristine as she approached, the sand clearly visible under its surface for the first few feet in.

Her heart raced with excitement: maybe she could even take a dip in!

"Aaahhhh, Driver, nooo!" Zim let out a horrified shrill, probably having guessed her intentions, "That's so unsanitarily gross! Who KNOWS what's in that water-"

Driver ignored his protests, and joyfully jumped into a wave with both her feet.

Something that she immediately regretted doing, especially so quickly: that water was so freezing cold, it felt like she'd jumped in a bucket full of ice daggers; any and all sensations coming from half her leg down was cut off, except for the acute stinging of the ice cold water, penetrating through her skin and her flesh.

Her body instantly paralyzed, and she suffocated a pained yelp in the middle of her throat.

Frozen in place (literally), Driver pitifully, shamefully looked back at Zim, desperate, wide-open eyes swelling with tears.

"... Ziiiiiiiiiiiiiim" she whined in an acute voice.

Zim's antennae perked up, his annoyance turning to genuine concern for her.

"What?! What's wrong?!" he tensed up, getting into a battle stance, imagining maybe that she'd just really been attacked by an unknown marine creature.

"T-The water is f-freezing c-cooold!" she helplessly waved a hand at him, "Help me out of heeeere!"

Zim's pose loosened back, and he impatiently rolled his eyes.

"Just come out of there, you!" he put his hands on his hips, like a strict parent giving her a scolding, "If I don't see you back on land in five seconds, I'll leave you here!"

"Aw, geez!" Driver hobbled out of the water as fast as her frozen limbs allowed her to. "I don't know what's colder, you or this water!"

She walked back to him, shivering, the sand grains sticking to her wet feet, the mild warmth of the ground feeling pleasant on her frozen skin.

Zim looked up and down, between her feet and her face, in that same 'scolding-parent' pose.

"Do we need to amputate?" he sarcastically asked.

"W-well, actually, I've heard putting your feet in frozen water is very healthy for blood circulation!" she explained, somehow pushing through the crippling shivering of her body.

"I'm pretty sure not freezing your limbs is much healthier than putting them in a frozen, filthy puddle of water!"

Driver let out a silent chuckle and nodded, another shiver shaking her; she curled her toes, and moved her feet in the sand so that it'd bury them and help her dry faster.

Zim's expression softened, noticing her discomfort.

"Er... do you need a towel? A blanket?" he proposed.

"Nahhh, it's fine!" she smiled, "I can wipe them in the grass-"

"NO!" Zim barked, "Stay here. And don't move. I'll bring you something to wash yourself with".

And with that, he used his PAK legs to climb up the hill and into the ship.

Driver let out another silent giggle.

That was totally worth it.

"Now that that unnecessary tangent has been closed, let's focus on our real job!" Zim impatiently tapped his foot on the grass, "Or do I have to expect you to run off to the mountains too?"

"Of course not, chief!" Driver saluted him, tapping the heels of her boots together, "I'm fully ready and focused on finding the lab!"

"Good. Because if you freeze yourself again, I won't be there to help you" he narrowed his eyes at her. "Now..."

Zim turned his scanner back on, setting the coordinates again.

"As I was saying, the lab must be very close, and it must be underground. We have that, at least. I was almost afraid I'd have to work outdoors".

Oh yeah. How awful would have that been..., she falsely lamented.

Zim turned on himself, holding the scanner up in front of his face, looking through his screen, the sensors on the other side analyzing the environment around them. He started walking back towards the ship, and Driver followed him.

As they walked past it, Zim's scanner picked up on something to the left.

When they turned around the hill behind the ship, it became obvious where the laboratory was: there was a metal door there, embedded in a grassy hill, completely disharmonious with the rest of the scenery.

Driver smiled, as it reminded her of a hobbit's house, only with a metal, futuristic door for an entrance, and no windows.

Zim raised the key and inserted it into the lock, right in the middle of its handle wheel. He turned it to the right, and the mechanism inside clicked.

He put his hands on either side of the handle wheel and tried to turn it: it didn't even budge.

He tried to turn another time, a third, a fourth, his efforts accompanied by a series of increasingly more frustrated 'Ngggh!'s.

"Alright, wait up" Driver stepped in.

She stood by the wheel's right, and grasped that side firmly.

"You push from there, I'll do it from here" she instructed him, and he positioned himself accordingly.

"On the count of three, two, one-"

Driver pushed down on the handle, putting all her weight on it, while Zim pushed it up from the opposite side: the wheel handle finally rotated, a loud metallic sound coming from inside the door.

From there, they started rotating it with their hands, synchronizing their movements, the task getting easier and easier as they went on.

Finally, the mechanism emitted the same sound from earlier a second time, and the door creaked open towards the outside.

A strong, cold air current rose up and hit them , carrying with it a distinct smell of damp, and mold.

Like the breath of an ancient monster, buried inside the earth.

Both shivering at that chill wind touching their skins, they cautiously peeked through the dark aperture: the only thing visible from there was a flight of stairs, descending down into the ground.

Zim was the first to step forth: he lead the way down the dimly lit, dusty stairs, his walk confident despite that creepy first impression, eyes wide open and antennae up and attentive.

That tunnel was a little too low for Driver, and she found herself forced to bend her head forward as she climbed down the stairs; luckily at least, it wasn't as dark as she thought it would be going down: along with the light coming from the sun above, there seemed to be some kind of faint illumination coming from below, too; it turned out to be an open door, right at the end of the stairs.

They crossed its threshold, stepping into the underground chamber: the faint light they'd seen came from a second underground door, located exactly opposite to that first one on the other side of the room.

Driver's eyes, still used to the bright, sunny day outside, couldn't make out but some vague, dark silhouettes in that dim light.

Zim tried to put a remedy to that, clicking on a light switch on the wall to his right, but nothing happened: the power had been cut out.

He then opted for a much simpler, more immediate solution, and used the flashlight from his PAK instead to illuminate the room: it was larger than she had expected, at least three times the control room of her own ship, not to mention there were four more chambers other than that one, with that open door in the bottom, two closed ones on the left, and one more on the right. As for the room they were in, there were two big tables on either side, chock-full with all sorts of weird instruments; Driver couldn't quite tell what exactly they were, both because she wasn't at all knowledgeable about laboratories, and because they were completely covered in a thick layer of dust, and what looked to be spiderwebs. Everything in the room was, really, from the floor, to the ceiling lamps above, to the cabinets against the walls; not to mention the smell of mold, which down there was even worse than the one the wind had carried up.

Zim moved the flashlight left and right, mouth agape and eyes widened in an expression of shock as he scanned the dusty, dark room; his light hit a particular point on the floor, and a big, black bug scurried with its little legs under a cabinet nearby, frightened.

"Zim" Driver whispered, "I think I just saw your uncle running under that cupboard".

Zim gave her a nasty glare: he either didn't get her joke, or was in no mood for laughter. Probably both.

"Look at this place!" he exclaimed, his feet angrily tapping on the floor as he walked further into the room.

"Yeahhh..." she probed a table's surface with her finger, and she scooped up a big dust ball, leaving a straight, clean trail behind. "Damn. It's more dust than metal in here" she commented.

"It's unusable!" Zim squeaked, looking over the instruments on the tables as he balanced himself on his PAK legs.

"Aw, don't be like that! It's just a little dust! And mold. And cockroaches-"

"It's completely contaminated!" Zim yelled back. "And who knows if the lights and heat even work!"

"Don't be so negative, Zim!" Driver reassured him, walking over to look at the room beyond the open door. "I'm sure everything is functional despite how it looks. Mister Krassmann would never hand us something that doesn't work!"

"Oh, sure! He's aaall about functional, yet he was completely fine with handing us this… this shack, full of dust and mold!" Zim retorted behind her.

"Well- oh, wow" Driver breathed out as she looked at that second room. "Come look at this, Zim" she called to him.

Zim joined her on the platform she was standing on, immediately beyond the open door. The room it lead to was, to say the least, huge: its floor was way lower than their level, a long metal ladder to their right leading down to it; immediately noticeable was a big, round platform, approximately in the center of it, with two big machines on either side: one reminded her of a miniature crane, while the other had three metal arms attached to it; positioned in a circle concentric to the platform were more desks with computers and monitors: that was probably a bay for the reparation and construction of ships, like the one under her house, but much bigger and more advanced; behind it all, in the opposite wall of the room, was another big, closed metal door.

But it was the walls around the room and the ceiling above that captured her attention the most: the walls of the room were made of stone, the same dark stone she'd seen outside.

We're inside the cliff, the one on the shore, she deducted , they probably built the lab inside a cave underground.

The stone walls had been excavated in a semi-square shape, which rose up above them, becoming progressively smaller until it reached the ceiling. There, embedded in its stone, was a big, circular skylight: the source of light that illuminated both rooms from within; its metal frame was arranged in an elegant floral shape, and behind its glass was the blue, clear sky of the planet.

"Are you still calling this a shack?" Driver asked Zim, cocking an eyebrow up.

"Yes I am!" Zim barked, turning his head sharply at her. "Look at this place! It's a complete mess!"

"But it's so big! And cool! You can even see the sky while you work!" she pointed at the skylight.

"That useless, fancy glass ceiling is the REASON why this place is so moldy and dusty! Look!" he pointed at a patch of the skylight between two metal bars; now that she looked at it more attentively, she noticed that there was no glass in it: it had probably been broken.

"That hole let all the water and wind and mold and dirt in!" Zim continued, and he pointed at something below her, on the floor.

"Look! There's even a puddle on the ground!"

Driver followed his finger to find that yeah, there was. A big puddle of murky water, to the bottom left of the circular platform, the floor all around it ruined by the dampness. How had she missed that?

"This is gonna take forever to clean up and fix!" Zim continued, his voice sounding desperate and frustrated.

"Aw, Zim. I know it looks like a lot, but it's not as bad as it seems!" Driver reassured him. "We'll tidy this all up in no time! I thought you liked physical labor-"

"When it's not superfluous!" Zim angrily protested, throwing his little clenched fists up above his head, "This yet another delay on my mission that I did not need! I was expecting a clean laboratory! Not this… this DUMPSTER! I KNEW that Krass-monster was gonna play me dirty!"

"Oh, Zim I'm sure he didn't imagine it'd be this dirty-"

"Well, it IS!" Zim shrilled, and his voice cracked on that last syllable; his loud voice echoed through the big room.

Zim let his arms hang limp at his sides; his antennae made a similar motion, falling behind his head, and his expression changed from angry to discomforted.

He looked down and turned away from her.

"Nothing ever goes right..." he moped, "Why's everything so difficult?"

Driver dropped her smile, her enthusiasm replaced by concern for him.

Oh, man. He really was upset about it, wasn't he?

She guiltily scratched one of her arms. Had she known that the laboratory verged in that state, and what reaction Zim would have had at it, she would have never goofed off like she had: she needed to make up for it, now.

"Awww. I'm sorry, Zim" she knelt, and gently hugged him from behind; she kissed his cheek, and rested her chin on his shoulder.

"Let's just focus on getting the lab ready, okay? I'll be helping you. I promise we will finish in no time" she comforted him with a sweet voice. "I know it would be better if we didn't have to do it, but consider this a warm-up before the real work: we can see it as an occasion to get familiar with the equipment! No?"

"… I guess" Zim sighed, relaxing his body in her hug.

Driver kissed his cheek again.

"Okay?" she whispered into his ear.

"Yeah..." he mumbled. "I'm... sorry I yelled..."

"It's okay. I'd have yelled too if I were you".

Zim turned his head, and his lips lightly touched hers; she responded with a gentle peck, and his mouth tried again to grab at her lips. He was about to turn around, too, supposedly to kiss her better, but she pushed herself up from his shoulders and stood back up.

"The pleasure is supposed to come after the duty, Romeo" she grinned down at him.

"Uh-" he confusedly frowned, "Who?"

" Alright!" she clapped her hands together, "Let's go about this with order. Let's start with the rooms in the back: we need to switch the lights back on, and to look for cleaning supplies. You take the former, I'll take care of the latter".

Following her plan, they went back into the smaller chamber and inspected the other three rooms: the ones on the left were a 'bedroom' with six cryogenic beds, stocked one on top of each other in pairs, and a bathroom with a toilet and a shower very similar to the ones from Earth ("Woah! This place is deluxe!", Driver had commented); the one on the right was a storage room, where they found the small electric generator that powered the first floor's lights, as well as the cleaning supplies. And while they were finally able to illuminate the place by turning the generator on, the supplies were completely unusable: they rags and mop were so rotted, dusty and molded, and the detergents so old, they would have probably dirtied the place even more instead of cleaning it; ao in the end, they ended up borrowing all the necessary from Driver's ship, including a whole separate garbage bag to dump the dust and spiderwebs in: had they tried to suck all that stuff up with the vacuum, they would have undoubtedly clogged it.

The first thing they cleaned were the tables, one for each. Zim had convinced her to put on gloves for once ("If you don't I'll never let you touch me with your bare hands again!" he'd threatened her), and she'd found that plucking out the first layer of dust with her fingers was a much smoother job than going in with the rags directly: the first poor piece of cloth she'd used had been reduced to something very similar to a dead old rat with the first three swipes.

That hadn't discouraged her, however: she'd soon found her pace again, and diligently worked to get all the dust off those weird alien instruments, one by one, careful not to somehow ruin them or break them. It might have sounded like a tedious job, but she didn't mind it at all: she liked to work with her hands, and she liked cleaning up and reordering things.

Zim, however, seemed to be in a pretty sour mood: even with the bright, yellow ceiling lights on, his expression was so dark, working there at his own table with his eyes down, a sulky expression on his face. What could she do to distract him?

Then, as she got to clean the third or fourth object, she realized she'd found something that might have just done the job.

"Heyyy, Zim!" she called to him, "I might be mistaken, but… isn't this an audio amplifier?"

"Mmm?" he turned his head up to look at the object in her hands. "It seems so" he confirmed.

"Hmmm…" she thoughtfully examined it. "Do you think it would work with my mp3 player?" she asked.

She'd brought it down there with her, just in case she'd have to work far from Zim and get bored, and one of the ports on the audio amplifier's side looked very much compatible with its USB connector.

"Yeah, sure. It's a universal amplifier. That means it goes with everything"

"Oh… Are you sure? The Earth and its technology are pretty isolated" she doubtfully looked between the port and the connector. "I don't think 'universal' should be taken literally-"

"Of course it should!" he dismissively waved a hand at her, while the other kept on cleaning, "Words have meanings! What's the point of 'em otherwise?"

Well. That did make sense! … sort of.

Driver turned on the audio amplifier, and plugged the mp3 player into its port; she selected the right song, and hit play.

Sure enough, the audio amplifier worked perfectly, even with that admittedly primitive Earth device, and Holiday's guitar-and-drums intro resonated out of its speaker and into the room.

Zim turned his head up again, confused, his antennae high up on his head.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"This place is so gloomy and quiet. Music will help warm it up!"

"It's distracting" he pouted, going back to his task, "Turn it off"

Yeah. That's the point.

"How is it distracting? We're just cleaning! It's gonna make us go faster!"

"Pfff!" he scoffed, "How can music make us go-"

'Say, hey!' BJ Armstrong's voice sang from the two combined instruments.

"Ohhh, here it comes!" she urged Zim to shush as the music's pace picked up, becoming faster, louder.

"There! Just focus on the rhythm, and your body, too, will follow it! It's scientifically proved, you know?" she explained.

Zim's frown deepened as he removed a particularly large spiderweb from a drill-shaped object.

"Whatever. Fine. But don't turn the volume any louder" he grumbled.

'Hear the sound of the falling rain, coming down like an armageddon flame-'

"I thought you liked this song, Zim" Driver retorted, annoyed that he would force her to talk over those catchy vocals.

"Ehhh" Zim shrugged, "It's okay. But I don't really wanna think about 'holidays' while I'm working"

"It's not literally about holidays" she explained, "It's an anti-war, anti-government song".

Zim's face contorted in an expression of absolute contempt.

"Of course it is. You humans can't do anything right, can you?"

"Hmmm. Very well" she maliciously grinned, "If the subject of the song is the problem, how about this one?"

Driver stopped the song right before the first chorus could begin, and switched to a different playlist: the 'Love' playlist.

She hit the shuffle option, and the first song started playing:

'So she said, 'What's the problem, baby?' 'What's the problem?', I don't know, well, maybe I'm in love! (Love!)'

Zim's antennae perked up, the music distracting him again from the cleaning.

"Nooo-" his frown deepened.

'… I think about you day and night, it's only right, to think about the girl you love. and hold her tight. so happy together...' the song changed.

"No! Stop!" he shrieked, "Turn it off! This one is even worse!"

"'Worse'? 'Worse' how?" she chuckled.

'...Til the end of time, Yeah Iiiii, will LOVE you, BABYYYYyyyy, Aaaaaaaalwaaaaaays, and Iiiii'll be there, Foreeeever aaaaand a day, aaaaaaalways-'

"Aaaahhh! This isn't fair!" he recoiled like a vampire before holy water, hands pressed against his ears, face turned to one side as if to hide it from her.

"It's not my fault you were embarrassed about your music! And now you're trying to even that up!"

"Nooo..." she lied, barely containing her laughter. "Why would you be embarrassed at this anyway? Is there something in these songs you can relate to?" she evilly smirked.

Zim timidly peeked from behind his arm, hands still pressed on his ears.

"… How about you, uh? It's your music after all" he insinuated.

"Hahaha" she chuckled, "A little bit, yes".

Zim stared at her in that same position, his cheeks all flared up, as she switched the song back to 'Holiday', from the top.

"Let's just listen to something more neutral, shall we?"

"Okay, fine!" Zim spat. "ONE song, that's it! And believe me, I won't be taking ANY pleasure in it!"

The veracity of Zim's assessment eventually became dubious, as the mp3 player's whole musical library was listened to thrice over course of the two days they spent cleaning up and fixing the lab.

After they wrapped the work on that first floor up, some time later on the first day, they descended to 'floor zero' as, they named it: like before, the power needed to be restarted, and the instruments needed a good sweeping, only on a much bigger scale. Oh, there also was a whole puddle of water to drain on the floor. And a ceiling with a hole in it.

But first of all, they inspected the room beyond that huge metal door: it turned out to lead to another big cave, this one even closer to the sea, the sound of its waves thundering inside its stone walls; it had been arranged as a parking garage, with at least a dozen of ship-parking platforms built in its floor, all empty: whoever that laboratory had belonged to, had taken everything but their instruments with them. Ironically, because it had been sealed so well, that cave was the cleanest room in the whole structure.

So they divided up their work: Zim got to fixing the ceiling, the very source of all that dust and mold, as well as taking care of the power generator and the furnace, found in a second, bigger storage room, which apparently needed some maintenance. As for Driver, she took up the duties of desk-cleaning and puddle-draining.

And for the whole time, the amplified music from her mp3 served as background while they worked; it was so weird, openly sharing her music tastes with someone after hiding them for so long, but also somewhat liberating, at the same time, especially since he hadn't paid any mind to the whole thing; in fact, she now felt pretty silly for ever placing any worry on it at all.

Moreover, and it might have just been an impression, but the music really did help them go faster; and at the very least, Zim's mood had a very evident improvement: as they cleaned and fixed, he soon realized that under all that dust and filth, that was actually a pretty good lab. With that, his enthusiasm slowly returned: his expression lighted up, he started keeping a list of all the instruments in the lab, and would occasionally gush with excitement whenever he found a particularly useful one; sometimes, she would even find him humming to the rhythm of the currently playing song.

She herself maintained a steady, busy rhythm for that first day; but when night came, all of her tiredness hit her at once, and she fell asleep as soon as she lay on her cot. Waking up early the next morning proved very difficult, and her stamina wasn't nearly as high as the previous day's.

Zim's energy, on the other hand, seemed to be inexhaustible: the only pauses they had were their meals, and even then Zim only had a quick snack for the sake of keeping her company; afterwards, he would just go back to work, like it was nothing. Despite her protests, he showed no intention of stopping for the night either, during which he kept on working all alone: she often forgot he had a literal battery on his back, and that for that he barely needed to rest or eat.

Obviously, though she felt a bit guilty for it, she couldn't keep up with his pace: she'd started out as the one with the most enthusiasm and energy, but by the second day she ended up becoming the most tired and lethargic one.

Later on, sometime into the second afternoon, with her legs all sore and her mind dazed, Driver finally gave up: she slumped onto one of the chairs, and let out a deep, tired breath. The work on the lab was almost done anyway: everything broken had been fixed, the dust was almost all gone, and they'd even un-shrunk all the material they'd bought at Tiyo's market to build the machine.

She turned the mp3 player off, and looked up at the skylight: the sky outside was still bright. The surface must have looked beautiful, like it had the day before. She huffed with regret: they'd ended up spending both days inside, and she still hadn't gotten the chance to see more of that planet beside the little patch of land between the lab and her ship. Too bad.

"AHEM. If I may have your attention..." Zim spoke up all of a sudden.

Driver looked up: Zim was standing in the middle of the room, back straightened and feet joined, holding a garbage bag in one hand.

He raised his other hand, this one holding a small speck of dust: he dramatically let it fall in the bag.

"THE LABORATORY IS READYYYY!" he triumphally roared, throwing his clenched fists up in the air.

"With this FILTHY laboratory fixed and cleaned up, I can finally commence conssstruction on the intra-spacial traveling machine, to BRING BACK the Earth and DESTROY ALL HUMANS ONCE AND FOR ALL!" his hot loud voice echoed on the cave's walls.

"Yaaaay!" she smilingly clapped "Destroy the humans! Your Plotting Villain Voice sounds especially good today!"

"Why, thank you, Driver-human!" he sweetly smiled back at her.

"But there's still a lot to do!" he assumed a more serious expression, putting his hands behind his back. "This time, there won't be any room for mistakes! Along with making the reaction controllable, I'll have to conduct a few additional experiments: we'll need a secure way to come back from the spacial sacks, of course, as well as a way to locate them. And since so little is known about them, I'll have to do a thorough research of the phenomenon to-"

Zim went on with his explanation, and Driver nodded, getting the gist of it but not the particulars, his speech a little too detailed and technical for her tired brain. Zim eventually noticed that, because at one point he stopped and asked:

"Everything okay, Driver?"

"Oh, sure. I'm sorry" she massaged her closed eyes, "I'm just a bit tired"

"That's quite alright" he nodded understandably. "You've worked your ape meats quite a lot. I can wrap up the rest on my own! You can go and rest!"

"But Zim! We need to celebrate your success!" she retorted, "You need some rest too!"

"Aw, shucks!" Zim waved a falsely-dismissing hand at her, "You're very thoughtful, human, but I don't need any rest! To be honest, I can't wait to get to working on the machine right away!"

"That's fair" she nodded, "I just wish I could help you more. I was barely able to keep up with you today..."

She lifted her face up and let it bask in the sunlight coming through the glass ceiling, eyes closed and body stretching.

"… You really like this planet a lot, don't you?" Zim asked.

"Does it show?" she asked sarcastically.

"You keep looking at that ceiling window! Speaking of which, I should really just remove it and replace with protective rockets…" he thoughtfully added.

"Oh, no, Zim! Please, leave it there!" she pleaded, "It's so pretty!"

Zim confusedly tilted his head, very much reminding her of a puppy.

"What is it exactly that you like so much about it?" he asked.

"The skylight? Well, it's so bright, and it's just so cool to be able to see the sky above you even though you're indoors!"

"Actually, what I meant was, what is it about the outside that's so great to you, that you'd want to see it at all times?"

"Oh. Well, it's just..." she struggled to find the aptest words to describe how gorgeous she found that planet to be (if they even existed, that is, which she highly doubted), "the beach, the ocean. The mountains. The uncontaminated nature! It's like I'm back on Earth, only it's even better! This is almost exactly how I wish my own planet was!"

"I… see… I think" Zim scratched his head in visible confusion. "If that's the case, why don't you terraform this planet to suit your taste? It's already very similar to Earth's natural state, so it should be easy! I could help-"

"No no, Zim! I could never do that to the plants and animals that already live here! Maybe if I ever find an empty, barren one..."

Zim narrowed his curious eyes.

"Why do you like... nature so much?"

"It's just so... beautiful! It's- it's kinda hard to explain, to someone who doesn't see it" she replied; many aliens seemed to have very different beauty standards than humans, even regarding nature, and Irkens appeared to fit in that category too. "Also, I guess it reminds me of the places from my childhood. Like where my grandparents lived. Or where my parents sometimes took me on hikes".

Zim's antennae straightened up and his eyes widened in utter surprise:

"You- you have a family, Driver?! Since when?!"

"Uuhhh… since… always? Like, of course I do. Everyone on Earth has one. Even animals and plants, in a sense"

"Oh. Right. I think I remember reading that, somewhere…" he pensively scratched his chin.

"Irkens don't have families?" she asked him.

He shook his head.

"Awww, Zim!" she let out a saddened cry, "You grew up without parents?" because that would explain a lot, she mentally finished.

"Not in the human sense, no. Is your family still on Earth?" he shrugged off her concern, uninterested in talking any further about his own parental situation.

"I suppose so, yes" she confirmed, "Wherever that is now"

"Oh, yeah. Heh, sorry about that" Zim awkwardly apologized.

"It's okay, don't worry!" she shook her head.

"Don't you miss them?"

"Mmm… ehhh. Sometimes. I do miss my grandparents, I guess. There's a lot that I had to pick up on my own that I could have just asked them instead. Y'know, cooking, sewing, farming, gardening. I learnt the basics of those from them"

"I see" Zim nodded.

"Well, fret not, Driver!" he then proudly patted on his chest with his fist. "Once the machine is built, you'll be able to see them again and ask whatever you need to learn!"

"Oh, no, hahaha!" she chuckled, "They're all dead. Have been for a long time, since before I went to space!"

"Oh- oh" Zim's smiling expression fell, "I'm sor-"

"Anyhoo, as I was saying, this place is gorgeous, and I can't wait to see and visit it all! Ohhh, maybe I could take a little trip tomorrow! If that's okay with you, of course!" she went on with her enthusiastic speech.

Zim seemed to be reflecting on her words for a bit; when he spoke again, he did so in a quiet, timid voice:

"... can I... come too?"

Driver widened her eyes. She couldn't have heard him right, no?

"What?" she asked.

"Well, uh- actually, I've been thinking, since you've had to stay inside for me the whole time…" Zim looked down, his index fingers shyly circling one another, "We could, uhm… do some… couple stuff together? … this evening? Since there's a beach here, we could take a stroll along it, and, uh- watch the sunset, too, maybe? That way we get to do the couple things and you get to see the planet!"

"Oh..." she breathed out, left speechless for a moment, "I-I mean, yeah, that'd be great, but what about the machine?"

"Hah, well, I've been waiting for so long, what's a couple more hours gonna do? It's not like the lab is gonna get up and run away while we're away! … I hope" he let out an embarrassed laughter.

"But… a stroll on the beach, the sunset… it doesn't sound like your type of fun! We don't have to-"

"If it's a thing couples do, I wanna try it! And besides, uhm..." he then added even more timidly, hands behind his back and feet moving left and right on the floor, "This is your success too. I, uhm… would have never gotten here, if it wasn't for you. If this is something that will make you happy… I wanna be a part of it too"

"Oh my God, Zim..." Driver slowly got up from her chair and approached him.

"That is so romantic!" she squeaked, hands joined and eyes watering.

"Mmmh… I guess..." Zim whispered, his chin now so down it was touching his neck.

Driver jumped forward and squeezed him in a tight hug, her heart overflowing with joy.

"Oh, thank you, Zim! Thank you so much!" she lulled him in her arms, "It's gonna be so much fun! Ohhh, we could have dinner out there too, on the beach! It'll be like one of those super-cheesy dates you see in movies! I could even light up a fire with my portable bonfire!"

"S-sounds good, Driver" he barely managed to gasp out, his hand patting on her back.

Driver adjusted her full backpack on her back, the objects inside clinking together. She looked down, holding out her hand, and Zim tentatively took it. They smiled at each other, and Zim awkwardly held his other thumb up in an 'OK' sign.

And then, they started walking. They began from the little grassy decline near the ship, and then along the white beach.

Driver was beyond excited, paying attention to every little detail she laid eyes upon: the waves, the sky, the sand, the grass, the mountains far in the distance: everything was so familiar, yet foreign at the same time. Having the blue grass on one side and the blue water on the other almost confused her sense of orientation at times: it really was like they were walking between two oceans.

So they walked like that, among all that blue, hand in hand, the breeze, the sound of their footsteps and their occasional, brief exchanges being the only sounds they heard.

The only times when Driver didn't feel like they weren't the only animated beings on that planet -and they weren't many- were when they say the local animals: a flock of white birds, flying above the sea on the horizon; a couple bugs buzzing in the area between the beach and the fields; even a pack of… somethings, moving among the grass on a distant hill. The closest they came that day to a creature of that world were the seashells they saw on the beach's sand.

Driver stopped to carefully look at each and every one of them, no matter how little of a glimpse she could actually catch of them, and always with the same excited and curious expression on her.

Contrary to her expectations, Zim didn't complain even once: he accompanied and followed her patiently through her every whim, without ever uttering a word unless unprompted. While at first he'd appeared a bit on edge, looking out for any potential alien threat, he'd later relaxed, attuning to her placid, carefree pace. He didn't look bored, though, like she'd initially feared. In fact, at times he almost appeared… curious in his surroundings. Which was very weird, because Zim had only ever expressed contempt (at worst), or disinterest (at best) for anything non-Irken. Unless of course it was a weapon. accompanied her.

Unfortunately, it became dark fairly quickly: the days on Nortyne 111 were shorter, and the evening came soon, the sun setting to the east of the planet. So Driver picked a spot on the grass field near the sea, laid down a bath towel, the biggest she could find on her ship, and they sat on it, watching the sunset together. Later on, when it became too dark, she lighted up her portable bonfire -basically a small portable oven, only it produced actual flames, like a campfire, which she usually kept in case she got stranded in space.

The sky changed colors, from light blue to a palette of pink, red and orange, just like the one on Earth; the air became chiller, but never cold.

Driver wore her jacket and snuggled closer to Zim, as they ate the very sandwiches he had prepared for her back when she'd gotten hurt by the kid-that-shall-not-be-named; she even got to uncork one of the bottles of champagne they'd stolen from Tiyo, and Zim, probably due to his unusually good mood, had drunk a whole glass of it without complaint.

Eventually, the bright sunset colors were replaced by the black, starry night sky: as Driver had expected, the stars and galaxies were perfectly visible through Nortyne 111's clear sky, as well as its three moons: out there in the distance, the ocean and the sky became one whole, indistinguishable from one another, while their little campfire painted their surroundings with a bright red light.

Driver's heart was practically throbbing with joy: she hadn't taken an excursion in God knows how many years, and to do that with her special person, well… not even in her wildest dreams could she'd ever even imagined that.

Driver put an arm around his shoulder, and kissed the top of his head.

"Thanks for doing this for me, Zim" she smiled, "I know this is not really your thing. Sorry if you got bored"

"No problem. This is actually kinda nice" Zim nodded, his body leaning against hers, "The sea is fine, as long as you look at it from a distance. It's weird to walk around a planet I don't want to destroy. Or research to destroy. Also… I didn't really get why 'sun-sets' were considered ro-mantic, but, uhm..." he took a brief pause, as if reflecting on how to properly conveying his thoughts: "I think I get it now. And why you like to look at nature, too".

Driver looked at Zim with a mixture of surprise and amusement, encouraging with her eyes to go on and explain his reasoning.

"I-I mean, uhm, the arrangement of colors is pretty nice on the eye. So, you know" he moved his hand in circles, looking once again for the right words.

"… yeah. Pretty colors" he concisely finished.

"Awww, really? You're not saying it to make me happy, are you?" she hugged him tighter, gently pulling him closer to her side.

"I-I mean, uhm" he shyly cleared his throat, yet finding the courage to look up at her in the eye, "I do want to make you happy. But I really meant what I said! Since this is something you like, I thought… there might be some merit to it".

"Awww, that's so sweet!" she leaned down to kiss his forehead; she moved her hand on his nape, to affectionately scratched it, and he looked back down, mumbling a muffled "Yeah, yeah..."

"I'm serious. This date is actually so romantic" she continued. "What happened to you, hm? Where did you learn how to treat a lady so well?"

"Ha! I'm an Invader, Driver" he proudly crossed his arms on his puffed chest, trying to mask his underlying embarrassment, "To thoroughly research foreign customs is one of my many natural talents"

"Oooh, is it? So..." Driver moved her hand away from him to pick up the audio amplifier with her mp3 player attached: she'd brought it along just in case they'd feel like listening to some music, though that natural silence had just turned out to be too relaxing to ruin.

She showed him the device, and smirked.

"… is music part of your research too, or do you genuinely like it?"

Zim narrowed his eyes at her.

"I never said I don't like music. Like your pretty 'landscapes', it can be pleasant on the senses. That doesn't mean it's anything more than noise"

"Aw, but that's such a… reductive way to see it!" she shook her head, torn between continuing the argument, and the knowledge that she'd probably be unable to communicate her alien point of view to him. "Doesn't Irk have music?"

"Well, yeah, of course it does!" he retorted, "But it's not at all like your emotional, mopey, wimpy human music! Irken music is designed to inspire us! Like, to keep our morale up before a battle, or to celebrate our victories on our enemies!"

"'Designed'?" Driver scoffed, "Such an unfeeling way to put it-"

"Yeah, literally!" he nodded, "We have computers that design the most inspiring music possible! You humans didn't invent music theory, you know?"

"You use computers?" Driver cocked an eyebrow up, "Are there no artists?"

"Obviously not!" he conceitedly denied, "It's not even a real job! Why waste precious Irken units, coding them as art-drones?"

"Mmmh…" she nodded, "Not gonna lie, Zim. That sounds atrocious, in every conceivable way".

Zim was about to angrily retort something, when she interrupted him:

"But I am curious to hear a song written by a computer. Sing me an Irken song!"

"Er-!" Zim stuttered, his eyes widening in surprise. "... Sing for you?"

"Yeah! Unless you have recorded Irken music to show me!"

"But- uhm, I mean..." he hesitated, clearly embarrassed at the prospect.

"What? I thought you were proud of your 'inspiring Irken songs'" she grinned. "Now that I think about it, I never heard you sing anything from Irk… only human songs" she thoughtfully tapped her chin with her index finger, "Mmmh, could it be that you actually prefer Earth mus-"

"Nonsense!" Zim protested, "Irken music is obviously superior! Here, I'll show you!"

Zim scooped a bit farther from her, sitting on his crossed legs, and cleared his throat again. Driver wondered if he knew how easy it was to manipulate him.

"Oh! And remember:" he suddenly pointed a finger at her, "If you laugh at me, you won't live enough to see another sun-dawn on this miserable blue ball. Got it?"

"Hahaha!" she chuckled, resting her chin on her palm, her eyes attentively pointed at him.

"As if I'd ever allow you a killing blow" she winked at him.

Zim scoffed, seemingly flustered before her boasting.

Then he took a deep breath; and he started singing.

As much as she'd joked around about it, Driver listened silently and respectfully.

Like she'd imagined, it sounded pretty much like a march song, with a fast, catchy tune at its base, which Zim punctuated by clapping his hands on his knees.

The Irken language, as it turned out, sounded pretty weird, at least to her human ears: it was difficult for her to distinguish between different words, and it had a lot of 'sch' and 'oo' sounds, with occasional harsh, emphasized inspirations.

But what surprised her the most was his singing itself: she would have never expected it, but Zim's voice was very… in tune. Melodious, even.

Zim went on singing for around one minute, enough for her to get the gist of the song. Once he was done, he timidly looked up at her, nervously waiting for her reaction.

"Wow, Zim" she breathed out, impressed. "You've got a beautiful singing voice"

"Eh, uhm..." he embarrassingly scratched the back of his head, "Thanks".

"That was actually pretty good! What is that song about?"

"'The bloody massacre of planet Chotlyn's firstborns and also all its other inhabitants'. That's the literal translation of the title, anyway"

"Ah. Uhhh… wellll… at least it is catchy" she commented. "Really makes me wanna go out and slaughter the firstborns of the nearest planet and also the rest of the inhabitants..."

"See? It even inspired you, a human!" Zim pointed out, missing her sarcasm completely, "At least our music has a practical purpose! What's the point of 'sad' music? I can get 'love' music since you humans are obsessed with the stuff, or 'holiday' music, since you like to lazy around so much, or 'anti-war' music since you're such weaklings-"

"Yeah, Zim, I get it" she interrupted him. "Well, sometimes, you wanna listen to music that resonates with your state of mind! It doesn't have to have a purpose! Sometimes, it's enough to just feel things, without doing anything!"

"… mmmh…" Zim seemed to reflect on her words for a while, both his hands joined under his chin, his brows frowning.

"But… what about the songs that have no spoken words? How do you know what it's supposed to make you feel? Especially without even the title telling you?"

"Well, I guess it's on you? And it depends on the melody itself?" she shrugged. "Hey, wait… you mean I have something like that on my mp3? Where?"

"Here, lemme show you".

Zim picked the mp3 player from her lap, pressing on its buttons to look for the right song.

"Here" he finally said, "This song, for example, is titled 'The Tale of Beren and Lúthien'. But there are no words! What am I supposed to do here? Invent a story for it myself?"

"Oh? Oooh, I love that one!" she smiled, "But that's the acapella version! I totally forgot to download the original back then, but that one does have lyrics! Aaahh, I still remember the original YouTube video it's from! It's actually a fansong of an old love poem, first written in 'The Book of Lost Tales' by J.R.-"

"Driver! Driver..." Zim waved his hands at her, and shook his head, looking completely lost.

"I don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about, and you know it. Just cut to the important part, and tell me what it's about"

"Hahaha! Well, ok. The important part, is that the original version has words in it. It's a love story-"

"But of course it is"

"-about a mortal man who falls in love with an elf girl"

"An elf?!" Zim scoffed, "You mean one of Santa's slaves?"

"Hahaha, no, no!" she chuckled, "These ones are more like, uhm... forest spirits. Or, uh... an angel-human mix... or-or a demigod! Irkens do have some kind of religion and spirituality, no?"

Zim slowly nodded, looking absolutely dumbfounded.

He gave up midway, pretending to understand what was being discussed, and more honestly shook his head.

"Well, what's important is that elves are magical and immortal, okay? So Beren sees Lúthien, or Tinúviel, as he nicknames her, dancing in a forest, and they fall in love. There's a bunch of adventures that happen in the middle, but in the end they find each other again! Only Lúthien has to give up on her immortality to stay with him!" she excitedly explained, "The song is very sweet, especially this version here! I wish you could hear the full song, with the lyrics!"

"Mm-mh" Zim nodded, "That does seem pretty interesting" he commented. "Do you know the words?"

"I used to, yes" she nodded back, "That's why I only downloaded the voiceless version. I used to sing it to myself a lot!"

"I see" Zim smiled.

He kept staring at her.

She stared back at him.

"… well?" he asked, after a while.

"… 'well' what?" she asked, confused.

"… you're not gonna sing it for me?"

"Uh- what?!" Driver exclaimed, unwittingly having the same reactions has he'd had.

"Yeah, come on!" he encouraged her. "I sang for you. Now you do it for me!"

"Y-yeah, but, it's- I-I don't sound as good as you do!" she retorted.

"Oh, please!" he dismissed her worries with a shake of his head. "Even if you sound bad, I'll pretend to like it!"

"Uh. Very comforting..." she mumbled. "Anyway, I doubt you'll like it. It's a sappy love song. You don't-"

"Oh, come onnn!" he whined, "You made me all curious about it, and now you won't show it to me? It's just you and me!" he spread his arms apart, showing her the empty, dark environment around them, "What are you embarrassed for?"

"I'm not embarrassed!" she lied. "Okay, fine. But do not complain if you find the song too sweet, alright?"

"Deal!" Zim decisively nodded.

He handed her back her mp3 player, and she looked down at it, dubious.

She was pretty enthusiastic about showing Zim the stuff she liked. And that day, he'd seemed to appreciate everything that she'd thrown at him. But this-

She looked up, and saw him, expectantly staring at her.

Oh, come on. Don't be such a child. It's just singing. He already did that for you, too. Why be so shy now? More than Zim?! It's so unlike you!

Face red, Driver pushed through her embarrassment, and turned the mp3 player on.

When the sweet music started playing, with its harp and its flutes, coming out of the audio amplifier's speakers, she couldn't believe she'd actually pressed down play.

She looked up again: Zim was staring at her, his face illuminated by the nearby bonfire, the shadows it formed on his rendering his expression even more needlessly serious and focused than it was.

This is such a terrible idea. Why did I agree to this? I don't even sing well! Just turn it off and refuse, no one is forcing you-

But as the right note played, her mouth moved as if on its own, singing the initial verse, as she still clearly remembered it:

"The leaves were long, the grass was green, the hemlock-umbels tall and fair - and innn the glade, a light was seen - of stars in shadow shiii-mmering - Tin-uuuúviel was dancing there, to music of a pipe unseeeen. And light of stars was in her hair, and in her raiment glimmering..."

She swallowed deeply: she'd been so embarrassed while singing that first verse, she'd had to knowingly dissociate to sing it correctly, and her throat had become desert dry.

She looked away from Zim's chest -she'd been absolutely incapable of looking at his face directly- concentrating instead on her backpack instead, next to the bonfire.

She took another deep breath in: now came Beren's introduction. She lowered her voice, trying to assume a more somber tone:

"There Beren came - from mountains cold, and lost he wandered uuun-der leaves, and wheeere the Elven-river rolled, he walked alone and so-rro-wing - he peeeered betweeeen the hemlock-leaves, and saw in wonder flowers of gold - up-on her mantle and her sleeves, and her hair - like shadow following..."

Driver turned to look at the valley beyond the bonfire: three moons, hovering high up on the sky, showering the land with their silver; they were so bright, they visibly delineated the hill's grassy contours.

Driver took in another deep breath, the sight managing to calm her down:

"Enchantment healed his weary feet - that over hills were doomed to roam, and forth he hastened, strong and fleet, and grasped at moonbeams glistening - through woven woods in Elvenhome, she lightly fled on dancing feet... and left him lonely, still to roam, in the silent forest listening..."

She waited again for the musical interlude to end. She was finally getting the hang of it, wasn't she? Her heart rate too had almost returned to normal at this point!

But as she soon found out, she'd spoken way too soon; she sang the first few words with confident decision:

"He heard there oft the- uh, the sound of feet as light as -leaves..."

While the harmonious music kept playing, Driver abruptly stopped.

Her heart dropped: crap. She'd forgotten she'd forgotten that passage. Of course, that song was so long! And she hadn't listened to it in ages! Why was she so sure she'd remember it?!

Driver guiltily looked up at Zim, her cheeks burning, her thumb on the mp3 main button, ready to stop the music.

"I-I'm sorry" she stuttered, "I-I don't remember this part-"

"It's okay" Zim shook his head, completely unphased by her mistake, and just as invested as he was before.

"Just sing what you remember" he encouraged her.

Driver swallowed again, flustered, but comforted by his words. And continued, following his advice:

"… He sooought her eveeer, wandering faaar, where leaves of yeaaaars - were thickly strewn, by light ooof moooon and ray of sun in frosty heavens shiveriiing".

She raised her voice a bit for this next part: whoever had cut the voice out of the song, had mercifully left part of the choir intact, so that it'd cover her false notes:

"Her mantle glinted in the moon, as on a hill-top high and far - she danced, and aaat her feet was strewn - a mist of silver quiveriiiing..."

Now cue for a long, musical pause. She looked out in the valley.

At the very least, it complimented that beautiful scenery perfectly. If only it wasn't connected to her public humiliation…

She cleared her voice, ready to sing the last (thank GOD) part of the song. Still, despite all her embarrassment, she tried her hardest to properly communicate the joyful tone of those verses:

"When winter passed, she came aaagain, and her song released the sudden spring, like rising lark, and falling rain, and melting water buuubbling - He saw the elven-flowers spriiing - about her feet, and healed again. He longed by her to dance and sing - upon the grass untroooubliiing"

She took in a big breath, ready for the highest note of the song:

"Again she fled, but swift he came: 'Tinuuúviel! Tinuuuúviel!', he called her by her elvish name; and there she halted liiiistening".

She turned her head towards Zim, and this time worked up the courage, somehow to look at him in the eye.

Zim looked back at her, his eyes wholly focused on her, like she was telling him the most important story in the world.

"… One moment stood she, and a spell his voice laid on her: Beeeren came, and doom fell on Tinuuúviel, that in his arms lay glistening - as Beren looked intooo her eyes - within the shadows of her hair, the trembling starlight of the skies - he saw there mirrored, shimmering. Tinúviel, the elven-fair, immortal maiden elven-wise, about him cast her shadowy hair, and arms like silver gliiimmering".

Zim made himself more comfortable, resting his face on his palms, his undecipherable eyes still fixed on her.

"Long was the waaay that fate them bore, o'er stony mountains cold and grey. Through halls of ireon and darkling door, and woods of nightshade morrowless, the Sundering Seas between them lay, and yet at last, they met once mooore. And long agooo, they passed awaaay. In the forest singing so-rrow-leeess…"

The flute and lutes still played a few notes; after one last whisper from that choir, the song finally came to its conclusion, ending on a bittersweet note.

Driver looked at Zim, holding her breath: she had no idea whatsoever what his reaction might be. Truly, he hadn't acted so unpredictably since -well, since the time he'd tried to kill her in her own house.

Luckily, she didn't have to wait for long: shortly after, Zim's head stretched up from his hands, and he spoke, with outraged disappointment:

"... So that's it?! They finally get together and they die?! That's so lame!"

"Pfff, hahaha!" she laughed at his exaggerated reaction, "Everyone dies, silly! They still stayed together for a long time, we just don't hear it from the song!"

"But Tinúviel could have lived forever! That Beren practically condemned her! He knew she would die if she stayed with him, but he ran after her anyway!" he retorted, "That's so selfish!"

"Fair point. But it was Tinúviel's choice to be with him. And Beren also fought to be with her. It's been cut from this version, but he did!"

"Well, but if elves are so powerful and magical, why didn't Tinúviel just make Beren immortal too?"

"Hmm" she reflected. "I'm pretty sure that's impossible in the universe they live in. Unless you want to literally damn your soul"

"That's just some cheap storytelling!" Zim disapprovingly shook his head, "Just an excuse for the author to shoehorn in his fussy human 'moralitee'!"

"Haha, wow, Zim! I'm surprised you know so much about fiction, since you care so little about art!" she pointed out.

"I've watched my share of Earth TV to know the basics!" he explained.

"By the way, I think you're taking this too literally" she retorted. "This story is about how people are willing to sacrifice anything for love! And besides, in reality, no one can be with someone else forever! People die. And people lose their loved ones. That's the people this story is for".

Driver turned off the mp3, grateful that she could finally close that super-embarrassing chapter, and that Zim was apparently not gonna comment on her singing.

"You know, the author wrote this story about his wife. I bet he had thought about how one of them would have to leave the other, sooner or later. So I guess he wrote the story in advance to console whomever of the two would survive the other. In the end, his wife did die before him".

Zim's sass suddenly left his face, and he looked at her with his big, attentive eyes again. He'd probably been surprised by that sudden change of tone.

"But Beren and Tinúviel were together till the very end! And they did so 'sorrowless'. That's way more luck than real people get in life!" Driver tried to end her speech on a more positive note.

She put the audio amplifier and her mp3 player back in her backpack, and closed it.

She took one more glance at the valley spread under the night sky: it was getting late. Soon they would have to hurry up, and come back to the ship and the lab.

Before that, though, there was still one more thing she wanted to do: so she turned off her portable bonfire, readjusted herself on the towel, and lay down, torso on its fabric and legs on the grass, to look at the stars.

To call that jeweled sky breathtaking would have been an understatement, with those uncountable stars and galaxies stretching in the endless depths of space.

"Have you ever tried stargazing, Zim?" she asked Zim.

"No" he calmly replied, "What's that?"

"You just lie down and look at the stars" she explained, resting her hands on her belly. "They look completely different from when you're standing. It makes you realize how small you are compared to the cosmos".

Driver had expected Zim to spit one of his nasty, snarky remarks about how 'it was just an optical illusion', and how she should stop with her 'nonsensical human nonsense'.

Instead, he kept quiet. He scooped closer to her, and lay beside her.

She took a quick glance at him, and saw him calmly looking up at the sky, in her same position, with his joined hands on his stomach.

What was… up with him today? Where had all his Irken rudeness gone? Why so much patience, and curiosity for her human behaviors?

She doubted he would give her a straight answer if she asked: he would have probably denied he was acting weird at all.

Driver had just turned back to the stars, knowing that trying to find that out would be pointless, when Zim went on to speak and ask yet another weird thing:

"Has it ever happened to you, Driver? Someone you loved, dying?"

"Oh, yeah. It has" she nodded.

"Who?"

"Mostly old relatives"

"What is it like, when that happens?"

"Oh, uhm... Well..." she thought so little about it those days, that it was hard remembering the exact sensations and thoughts it had caused in her. Still, she tried her best to describe it to him:

"It's different for everyone, I guess, but for me... it's not something you see right away. You notice it overtime, especially in the little things. Some days you feel like seeing, or talking to that person... but you can't. It's natural, I know, but it's still so surreal that people can just... stop existing. It's like there's a hole now in your life, where that person used to be, and it can't ever be filled. But you get used to it, eventually" she lastly added in a more positive voice.

"More people come into your life, and your memories start to fade, and in the end you only occasionally ever think about it. It doesn't even hurt at one point, because what you do remember about them feels more like a dream than something that really happened".

Silence fell for a few moments, Zim seemingly processing and pondering on her explanation.

"I see" he simply replied in the end.

It was probably a hard concept to grasp, for someone who'd never had such an experience. To be fair, death was probably a very hard concept to grasp for all aliens, since they mostly all lived for an absurd amount of time.

Everything turned quiet again, and Driver found it harder and harder to keep her eyelids open. She'd definitely drunk too much, and she would have done well coming back to the ship again if she wanted to spend the night in her bed.

However, Zim came out with another question, distracting her from her intent:

"Driver?"

"Yes?" she sleepily responded, her eyes tired and half closed.

"What was your life like on Earth?"

That question actually managed to pull her out of her sleepy state, her eyes fluttering open and her heart rate increasing.

Few people had ever asked her that question (formulated more as 'What did you do on your home planet?'), and she'd always replied l ying through her teeth: she was completely unprepared to answer with the truth.

"Oh, hahaha!" she chuckled. "So much time has passed. I can barely remember".

From the corner of her eye, she saw Zim turning his head and looking at her.

"... and?" he insisted. "What do you remember?"

Driver hesitated.

She really didn't want to touch that argument, especially on such a pleasant night. But she didn't want to lie to him either...

"... Oh, Zim. I would bore you" she dismissed him with a half smile. "I was just a normal, ordinary Earth girl, up until they abducted me. The stories I can tell about my life afterwards are much more interesting-"

"But I already know about all that!" Zim retorted, "You always tell me about those, but I have no idea where you come from!"

"Well..." she turned to him and shot him a suave look and smirk. "Mysterious women are way hotter, don't you think?" she said with a suggestive wink.

Zim didn't laugh, nor appeared to be flustered in the slightest: rather, he looked annoyed, his eyes narrowed and frowning.

"Why is it, that whenever I ask something serious about you, you always change the subject or turn it into a joke?"

Driver blinked, her smile dying on her mouth.

Ooof. Busted.

"Er-" she stammered. "Because- because it isn't that important! C'mon, Zim, why are you so curious today?"

"Why shouldn't I?" he retorted, rolling on his left side to look at her better. "Of course I'm curious, you're my partner!"

Driver didn't turn to him, keeping her eyes pointed up instead.

"There's nothing to know, Zim. I really wouldn't know what to tell you" she mumbled, in a tone she hoped would make clear to Zim that she didn't want to continue that conversation any further.

Zim stared at her for a moment.

Then, he went on to say:

"This is so unfair. You always say I should tell you all about myself, especially if it upsets me! And I do, I don't hide anything from you! So why can't you do the same?"

Driver took in a deep breath, and clenched her fists.

Now he was really testing her patience...

"No one is obligated to tell anything to anyone. Ever" she stated, turning to return his gaze.

"Also, I'm not even upset. I'm just sleepy, a nd I wanna go to bed-"

"Yes you are!" Zim retorted, "I can tell!"

"No I'm not!" she protested, irritated.

"At least tell me why!" Zim glossed over her words, raising his voice. "Why don't you wanna talk to me about your past?!"

"Because- because, Zim, not everybody likes to talk about themselves!" she raised her voice over his, exasperated to put an end to his questions.

Zim's expression softened, changing from vexed to genuinely concerned.

"Why don't you like to talk about yourself?"

"I- uh..."

Her and her goddamn mouth. Where had her smooth talk gone to? This was the third time she let something slip in front of him that she wanted to keep secret...

"Look, I just don't. Okay? Let's- Let's just forget about this" she proposed, starting to lift herself up with her elbows.

"I gotta go to bed anyway. Tomorrow I-"

A hand gripped her arm, keeping her from getting up.

"Why are you pushing me away?"

Driver turned back to him.

He had pronounced that last sentence with such a sad, worried tone, his face and eye matching it, that she became paralyzed where she was, her body still lying on the towel.

"I'm… not pushing you away" she lied.

"You are, though" Zim retorted in a disheartened voice, "It's like you don't trust me"

"It's not that I don't trust you, Zim..." I don't trust anyone at all, she mentally finished.

Zim lowered his head and eyes in a shy, maybe even ashamed gesture; the hand on her arm, however, tightened its grip.

"I get why you… wouldn't… trust me" he murmured very, very quietly.

Driver frowned, confused at his words.

Before she could reply with anything, Zim continued:

"I used to be pretty, uh… harsh with you, in the beginning- and, and, I was…! … a jerk. I admit it. But it was all an act!" he spoke with great difficulty, guilt emitting from his every word, "I just didn't know how to deal, with, er, liking someone, so-"

"But, Zim, what does this have to do with anything?" she interrupted him, sincerely confused by that change of subject.

She lifted herself further up, sitting upright and getting in a more comfortable pose -and also one from which standing up and leaving would have been easier.

"Anyway, as I already told you, it doesn't matter anymore. We're well over all of it. So let's just forget about it and-"

"But that's the point, you were hurt!" he insisted, moving his hand down from her arm to her wrist.

"I… guess?" she tentatively said, still not seeing the correlation. "But I'm not anymore. And you apologized. So it's all good now".

Zim seemingly hesitated from a moment.

Then, he took a big breath, and said:

"Like with Earth? And your dead grandparents?"

"Uh-" Driver almost choked hearing those words.

It was so- so unnatural, to hear that subject being brought up as a serious issue rather than a sort of dark joke. Her heart even skipped a beat, an uncomfortable shiver irradiating from it and into all of her body, like she'd just been punched in the chest.

Zim's grip on her wrist loosened, as he switched to holding her hand instead. Her eyes followed that movement, as if hypnotized.

"My point is, Driver..." Zim spoke again, his voice so uncharacteristically full of worry and understanding, "… that I'm trying to be a good partner. I wanna make up for the time I acted like a jerk! I- I wanna be for you what you are for me!"

Driver looked down at their joined hands.

Zim's thumb was affectionately stroking her hand's back. Above, he was still half-lying on the towel, raised on his elbow, and undoubtedly watching her with an unchanged worried expression. Yet she dared not look back a him.

"I've told you so many things that I hadn't told anyone" he continued. "And, from what I understand, it's fine! Because partners are exceptions, right? They're the ones you can always tell anything!… no?" he timidly added at the end, looking for confirmation.

Driver absentmindedly nodded, a silent "Yeah..." escaping her mouth, eyes still pointed down at their hands.

"Also… uhm… heh, I can tell pretty well, when someone is hiding something out of shame" he added, a pinch of self-irony to that statement.

Another sting to her heart. Gosh. Zim wasn't pulling any punches, was he?

"I get that you don't wanna talk about it, but… whenever Earth comes up, you look so… sad" he went on to explain, "Like, you do look happy, especially when you talk about what you like about it, but you also, always look sad".

Driver kept looking down. Her free hand started picking at the towel's fabric, and she hoped he wouldn't notice.

"I just want you to… feel comfortable confiding with me, like I do with you. If something on Earth made you suffer… I'd like to know" Zim pleaded one last time, gently pulling her hand towards him.

Driver let out a half-huff, half-choked laughter, a strained smile on her face. Though there was little she actually felt like laughing about.

She felt so… upset. And ashamed. No, worse than that, she felt like a storm was going on inside her - literally, her insides were churning out so much, she felt physically nauseous.

What's going on?! Is this 'Make-Driver-uncomfortable' Week?!

She almost considered saying that joke out loud, but then realized just how… immature that would have been.

Driver bit the inside of her cheek. Zim was absolutely right. She constantly went on about how repressing pain and emotions was bad and wrong, yet constantly did it herself all the time. And maybe, most shameful of all… he was a bit right about her not trusting him. And… he was a bit right about her feeling like the better partner.

This whole conversation had come as a huge surprise, too: she would have never expected him to catch onto her real feelings so well, or to try and pry into them.

Such a good girlfriend I am, she berated herself, I act like I'm such an expert on relationships, but I can't even give my boyfriend some basic trust. Like I didn't try to play him dirty too, in the past…

"Uh- Driver?" Zim called to her in an uncertain voice, "Did I say something wrong? I-"

"No, Zim" she shook her head. "You're right. I'm... I'm a hypocrite, heh".

Driver took a deep breath. After all the effort he'd put in confiding in her, she definitely owed him the same level of trust, too: if he'd done that, then so could she.

So she looked up at him again, trying to put on a positive facade.

"Alright, I'll tell you. But you have to promise not to judge me. And not to laugh" she forced out a smile at him.

Zim simply nodded at her, a serious expression on his face.

Driver lay back on the towel, mostly so she could have something else to look at while she spoke -the beautiful starry sky above.

Zim kept holding her hand, through all her subsequent speech.

She took another deep breath.

Alright. Let's rip this bandage off. Like with the singing.

"My life on Earth was... unpleasant, to say the least" she started, "Especially near the end".

She took a moment to think on how to continue: she had never talked to anyone about it, so she wasn't sure on where to start from, or on how to go about it; she really, really wished she'd at least prepared her speech beforehand.

"I never got along with my peers. So I didn't have many friends. I was, uhm, kind of a weirdo, by their standards, with my... weird music tastes and my passion for nature. Although, that hasn't changed much, has it?"

She ended that first paragraph with a chuckle, throwing Zim a quick, complicit glance.

But Zim didn't laugh: like with the song before, he seemed to be taking all of this so deeply seriously. If at least he'd giggled, like she'd wanted to suggest with that tip of hers, telling all of this would have been so much easier...

Driver looked back up at the sky, this time with the intention not to look at Zim again until she was done with it.

Zim's hand gave hers a soft, quick squeeze, encouraging her to continue.

"My... parents didn't really care for my social life, nor my passions... nor anything that made me happy, to be honest" she continued. "Like, at first, they were great. We had our hikes, and our trips, and the afternoons at the park- but as I got older and went to school, everything changed. They became so... serious. Like they were my employers, instead of my family. As long as I got good grades at school, and did everything they told me to, they were satisfied... no matter how lonely I was. They had, like... planned my whole life from there on out, and all that mattered at that point was that I followed along that plan-"

Driver ended that part somewhat abruptly: the area behind her nose and eyes had started burning and swelling, like she was about to cry , and her heart had started beating abnormally fast.

She squinted, and took another deep breath.

Why?! Why was this so upsetting for her?! She barely ever thought about her old life and the people in it anymore. And so much time had passed since. She was absolutely sure she was well past all of it! She should have been! So why was she fighting back actual tears now?!

And yet, instead of closing up, like she usually did, she ended up going on and saying even more than she planned to:

"When my grandparents all passed away, it became even worse. I couldn't go to the countryside anymore, the only safe place I had left. I, uhm-"

She had to close her eyes, and collect herself. Those faces and sights she hadn't seen in such a long time, and that she would for sure never see again, came all flashing in front of her. Any more talking, and she really would have cried.

Her free hand scratched her eyelids, wiping a tear that had just formed.

"... I never saw them again. Ever. My life now was all in the city. With all its grey and concrete and foul air..." she murmured.

"I had a bit of a rebel phase after that, and as you can imagine... my parents didn't take it well" she went on to tell. "When my grades dropped, they became so angry. My home life was hell. They would always scream at me, and say such... nasty things. A couple of times they even-" (hit me) "... got physical. Near the end, they basically locked me up in my room, without any of my stuff besides my school books. Until I became the perfect daughter again. It was the most miserable time of my life. Good thing it didn't last long, but still... by that point, I would basically cry myself to sleep every night. Hoping that I would somehow wake up in the world of my childhood the next day..."

She squinted again, pushing back another possible fit of crying. She realized now that her hand was very wet. Zim couldn't really feel it, of course, since he was wearing gloves- but that also meant it was all her, producing that sweat, wasn't she?

Her other hand tugged at her shirt.

"Heh, well, let's be real though" she breathed out a forced chuckle, "I kinda had it coming, didn't I? If I hadn't been so shy and awkward, the kids in school wouldn't have picked on me. And if I had stood up for myself from the start, I wouldn't have wasted my childhood trying to appease my parents. I was so weak, back then... and pathetic, and naive, and stupid. I really thought the school and my parents had the whole world in their hands".

She swallowed, and took a good look at the sky above her.

She smiled then, the starry sky reminding her what had come next.

"But then, a bunch of alien criminals abducted me, and brought me together with them, among the stars. And just like that, puff! That life I thought was all set in stone for me was completely swept away! Like a leaf in the wind, or... a dirty, empty plastic bag in the wind I guess, hah!" she smugly scoffed.

"I joined their gang for a while; then I set up my own little business, and began building my house. And you know what I learnt?"

Driver lifted her hand to the sky, in a triumphant, liberating gesture.

"School and jobs and money and laws and all that crap don't matter in the real world! They're all made up! This is real!" she waved her hand around, grossly pointing at the natural landscape that surrounded them. "This is the real world! The sky and stars and plants and sea and wind, and bugs! They don't care about all that stuff! We're the ones that made it all up, and who force each other to live by the rules! But none of it matters to the Universe! This is the life we were made for! If you're just brave enough and get past all your preconceptions, you can literally do whatever you want, and no one can stop you!"

She squeezed Zim's hand tight, excitement swelling in her heart.

"From then on, I vowed to live my life however I wanted. And that's exactly what I did. I realized that all the things that had been drilled in my head were lies, that held me back! I became stronger, and smarter. And now look at me! I have my own business, and my own home. I have the free life I've always wanted. I know I've sworn off ever seeing my parents again, but I'd die to see the faces they'd make, knowing I could only become happy and independent once I got literal light years away from them! Although, well. They would probably disapprove, since it was all my choice and not theirs".

She finally turned to him, now that she was sure she could take his gaze without breaking in tears.

But his expression totally took her by surprise.

She had imagined pity on his part, or confusion, or even dismissal. Instead, his expression was just... neutral. Like before, when he'd listened to her song.

"I don't think you should hate your past self so much, Driver" he said.

Driver blinked, taken aback by his words.

"I mean-" he lifted himself up again with his elbow, and scooped a little bit closer to her. His other hand remained well gripped around her.

"-Even if Past-you was weaker and less experienced, she was the only one who could ever become you! You see any of your other school-mates, flying their own space ships, owning their very own planet? Of course not! They all remained on their filthy little planet, living their miserable, ordinary Earth lives!" he smiled at her, voice full of... admiration.

"That means that even back then, Past-you was amazing in her own right! And also, well-"

He squeezed her hand, holding it now with both of his.

"... the one fated to become the amazing Present-you definitely didn't deserve anything she got from her puny schoolmates, or her ill-suited parental units".

Driver stared at him for a moment. Speechless.

"Hah, I hadn't, uhm..." she looked down, sliding her face on the towel, and looking away from him before he could see her yet again wet eyes.

"I had... never considered that..."

"You should have!" Zim smiled at her.

He passed an arm under her neck, and got his hand on the back of her head. With that, he gently nudged it towards him.

"You know, I have been to Skool, and I agree that it's just a bunch of nonsensical junk learned and taught by vapid, stupid people! You did very well escaping! And you did it all on your own! A lonely human in space! With no military training! That's simply amazing!... you know you're amazing, right?"

"Heh" she chuckled.

She felt a tear, streaming down her cheek. When had anyone last told her a compliment like that? She honestly couldn't remember...

"I wish I had your confidence, Zim..."

"My human should definitely have my confidence!" he excitedly remarked. "Come onnn, say it! Say you're amazing!"

"Hah… I am... uh... amazing, hehe-" she somehow managed to say. She didn't know if the hiccups she was talking through were giggles or sobs.

She didn't really feel that way, but as long as he did... it was more than enough, for her.

"Of course you are! You are Zim's human!" he echoed, like those words had been her own idea. "And, I know I'm not supposed to say it, because being a criminal is dangerous and all, but I'll make sure you never feel like you felt on Earth again! I promise!" his hands gave hers another squeeze, his voice sounding endlessly positive and confident.

Driver wiped her eyes.

She looked up at him, through her glassy gaze.

"Be careful with those words, chief" she murmured. "I think I really am falling in love with you".

Zim widened his eyes at her, his bravado seemingly leaving him all at once.

"Uh-"

Driver snuggled her face in the crook of his neck, and hugged him tight with one arm.

"Thank you" she said, pressed against his warmth.

"Heh, no problem!" he awkwardly replied.

"I'm, uh. I'm sorry your parents were mean to you"

"Its' fine. I don't need them"

"Ha! Clearly you don't! They were holding you back! You're way better off without them!"

"Thanks for saying that. It means a lot for me to hear that. Uhm… I'm sorry, Zim. For being so childish, and for… underestimating you. I-I didn't think you..."

"Could understand?" he finished for her. "That's fair. I'm kinda surprised at myself, too. But it's fine if we're both evil, right? Only between evil people can we sincerely vow not to be evil at each other!"

"Hahaha! I suppose so" she nodded. "I'll never doubt you again. I swear".

Driver closed her eyes. She listened for Zim's heart, beating under her ear. She felt so comfortable, so secure, so… liberated, and free, that she relaxed to the point of nearly falling asleep.

"Uhm. Are you sleeping?" he asked her.

"Hmm, no..." she moved her head up, so that her face was next to his.

"I'm just resting my eyes. I'll go to bed in a bit... Let's just stay like this for a little bit..."

But the very next moment, her tired mind had already forgotten what she'd just said. A few minutes later, she'd already drifted off to sleep.

Zim's ruby eyes blinked in the dim moonlight.

He tried ever so slightly to move his torso, and the arm wrapped around it limply budged with it. He listened for Driver's breath, and found it to be slow and regular: she had definitely fallen asleep.

He supposed he should have woken her up. Or maybe tried to carry her back to her bed.

He lifted his antennae up, and they picked up the light vibrations of a gentle breeze. He couldn't really see much from where he lay, but the entire valley around them sounded still, calm and quiet.

Just a few more minutes. What's the hurry anyway?

Zim looked up, at the starry sky. Driver was right: looking at it from down there was completely different from when he was in a space ship, or standing up. The biggest difference was, it didn't look like a distant, flat background: it looked deeper, and all-pervasive. And it kept changing.

At first, it was giant dome, erect high above him. But as his eyes focused, the space between the stars began to dilate, until it became like a dark, bottomless ocean, swallowing him from every direction.

At one point, he was so engrossed in that view, he became completely incapable of distinguishing up from down, or of telling if he was still lying down or if he had stood up.

Zim's body instinctively jerked, and he held onto Driver's arm: for a moment there, he'd felt like he was about to slip forward and fall into the space above him, like he'd been standing on the very edge of a never-ending cliff.

He squinted, finding relief in the contact with Driver's body, and the ground under his back.

When he opened his eyes again, he turned them to Driver: her face, rested a mere inches from his, wore a content, peaceful expression, the soft moonlight painting her features; below it, her shoulder rhythmically rose and lowered; from her mouth came a faint, sweet aroma of wine.

His hands gripped the fabric of her sleeve.

'It's because I love you'

'I think I really am falling in love with you'

His mind replayed those words over and over again, like a loop, had done so with the first one for days, continuously, since she'd first uttered them.

Without any real intention or active effort on his part, his neck stretched forward and his mouth pecked her lips with a light kiss.

He drew back, his eyes still lingering on her.

Now it was clear, why she always knew exactly how he felt. She had been bottling up a lot of

(sadness)

(loneliness)

(shame)

too, hadn't she?

Seeing her being so sad about her had broken his heart. But being able to console her had filled him with joy and pride: finally, for once, he'd been able to return, at least in part, what she'd done for him. Now, he felt, they were finally even.

He turned back to the sky, this time careful not to focus too much with his eyes, lest he 'slipped forward' again.

Staring up now at the stars, he felt completely devoid of any emotion, but... not in a bad way. It was more like anything concerning his mission, or the Earth, or the Empire, or anything else in his life was light years away, in space and in time, un-urgent, unimportant.

Normally, he would have probably felt ashamed, or even horrified of feeling such apathy for his duties, but even such emotions were too away for him to care.

The Universe could have ended right now and here, and he wouldn't have cared.

As long as she was safe in his arms and he was safe in hers.

Whatever it was, that was between them... whatever it was, that he felt for her... it would have never truly died, no matter what. He was sure of that. It would have long survived past the decay of their bodies, past the passage of time, past the collapse of reality itself.

Or, well. Something like that.

... this uncaring contentment, this absolute confidence and security, no matter what happened... was this... happiness?

He had always imagined happiness would have come with fiery explosions and flashing lights, along with the screams of his dying, defeated enemies and the praises of a thousand Irken voices chanting his name.

Instead, this was quiet, and peaceful, and intimate. The person by his side wasn't even Irken.

Maybe this was all a delusion coming from the music, the wine, the talk he'd had with Driver, and the starry sky.

Almost certainly it was, but that didn't matter either: for once, he felt like he could allow himself to just enjoy that blissful sensation as long as it lasted.

So he stayed like that, lying down, the stars twinkling above him, and Driver by his side. He didn't sleep, not quite, though he dozed off a couple times, but more from relaxation than real, true slumber.

He spent his time looking at the stars, and at her, and one of the few coherent, concrete thoughts his devoid mind managed to produce, was how fun it would have been, when Driver would have woken up and they could have properly stayed together again.

Eventually, after what had felt like an endless night, the sun slowly rose up again from the west.

The black sky became blue, then pink, then of a blue tint again, this time lighter, the stars and moons progressively fading.

And shortly thereafter, Driver's eyes fluttered open, her arm tightening around him.

When she came to and saw him, still lying in her hug, the first thing she did was smiling at him.

And he smiled back.