Author's Notes/Reminder: I don't own Invader Zim and there isn't going to be any romance. I take forever to post, usually on purpose. Slow plotline movement. Angst.
I'm pretty sure this is my stress reliever story. It's messed up my humor story 'Don't Call Me' once or twice. Writing two fanfics with completely opposite genres at the same time kind of messes with the atmosphere a bit. Oh well. Live and learn.
Mask
A week of recovery had brought enough healing for Lard Nar to attempt walking. He hadn't seen the red Tallest since the day Irk's other leader came barging into Purple's room, and quite frankly he would be happy if he never did again. The red Tallest made him feel nervous… if Purple didn't jump in to defend him, he would be dead right now instead of plotting his escape.
Unfortunately he'd never been good at making plans which was why he always relied on Spleenk's suggestions. He didn't have his crew now, so he had to depend on himself. Besides, any idea he came up with had to be better than Spleenk's would have been… right?
But why were plans so hard to think of? He envied Zim a bit. The Irken had been nothing but trouble in the labs, but he could come up with plans at the drop of a hat... even if they were usually stupid and destructive.
"Well you got the standing part down," Purple commented from the entrance.
Lard Nar cringed. He hadn't seen Purple since early that morning. Or at least, he was pretty sure it had been morning.
"Are you going to try moving too?"
"I'm getting there," Lard Nar grumbled.
"Woe, no need to get defensive," Purple remarked raising both hands in mock defense. "I'm just joking with you."
The purple-eyed Tallest smirked. He had gotten himself a black eye and a bloody lip, yet he didn't seem to care.
"What happened to you?" Lard Nar asked, hoping to stall long enough for the Tallest to get bored and leave. He was pretty sure he was going to end up falling on his face at some point, and he was wishing to do that in private.
"Fell down the stairs," Purple shrugged.
Lard Nar raised an invisible brow. "Wearing a hover belt…?"
"Yup."
"And the stairs gave you a black eye..."
"Nah, it was probably the railing."
Lard Nar narrowed his eyes at the Tallest. "You're lying."
"And you…" Purple began as he came a bit closer. He bent down to look the Vortian in the eye. "Are stuck," he finished, giving Lard Nar a flick to the forehead which caused him to fall backwards.
Lard Nar glared up at the Tallest who stood over him laughing.
"You really don't care that you look like a wreck?" Lard Nar questioned him sceptically.
"Nope, not really," Purple replied as he extended his hand to the Vortian. "Come on. We don't have hover-belts your size, so you're going to have to get this walking thing down."
"Yeah I know, I don't want to be bed-ridden forever either," Lard Nar grumbled as he reached to take Purple's hand. When he realized what he was doing, he recoiled.
Purple laughed and straightened up. "For an enemy of the Empire, you're awfully trusting aren't you?"
"That isn't funny…"
"Haa… ok, but in all seriousness, do you think you can get up on your own?"
Lard Nar was silent for a moment. "No..." he muttered.
"Yeah, I didn't really think so," Purple remarked crouching down and taking him by the wrist. With one easy tug the Vortian was back on his feet. "Compared to getting up, this should be the easy part."
"You have experience?" Lard Nar muttered dryly, pulling away.
Purple paused for a few moments before responding. "Actually... yeah. I kind of do."
"The stairs," Lard Nar stated resisting the urge to roll his eyes at the Tallest's lame cover-up.
"They're tricky," Purple agreed, ignoring the Vortian's sarcasm. He grinned and moved back a bit. "The good thing about it though is you eventually learn how to land somewhat."
"You still got a black eye," Lard Nar reminded him.
"It's better than a broken arm," Purple responded, not losing his smile for a moment.
Lard Nar bit his tongue and carefully moved one of his arms behind his back. He thought the Tallest was threatening him.
With a sigh, Purple took a seat on the chair beside the desk and brushed back his antennae. "Not what I meant..." he said. His eyes flicked towards the door; they narrowed. "Hmm... that's not good." He cleared his throat. "You can come in now."
The door slid open, and a drone appeared. The shorter Irken appeared dazed. He had his red hood up over his face. When he walked he seemed to carry a limp.
"Ah, you... you who ever you are," Purple remarked. "What is it? Trouble with the 'stairs' again?"
"Forgive me my Tallest... but..." the poor technician couldn't complete his sentence. He collapsed before he could form another word.
Purple laughed and shook his head. "Oh goodie." He got up and turned to Lard Nar who was still frozen in place. The Vortian was staring at the Irken lying on the ground.
"Show him the way out when he wakes up," Purple told him. "I'll be back later."
"What are you going to do?" Lard Nar asked.
"Fix those stairs," Purple replied as he left the room.
Once the Tallest was gone, Lard Nar risked taking his first uneasy step. It was hard to keep his balance. His legs felt so weak.
The Irken lying on the ground wasn't opening its eyes.
"Hey..." the former captain spoke.
The technician didn't move.
Lard Nar carefully made his way over to the fallen Irken, taking slow easy steps. His legs were beginning to ache quite badly. He ground his teeth and did his best to ignore it.
"Come on, you're an Irken for Vort's sake..." he slowly bent down and tapped the unconscious technician's antennae. Still, there was no movement.
The Irken had a limp. How bad could its injuries possibly be?
He reached for the technician's neckband and pulled it down. The Irken's face was discoloured; a dark green and blue mess. Blood was dripping from its mouth.
Next, he carefully turned the Irken onto its back and worked on opening the rest of the uniform. He reeled back and nearly lost his balance when he saw the extent of the technician's injuries.
"Don't..." the Irken curled close to himself and let out a small whimper of pain. He had no energy to fight back regardless of what the Vortian did.
Luckily for him, Lard Nar was more prone to feel sympathy and compassion, even if the recipient was from a race the former captain disliked. "You should be in the med-bay..."
"Can't..." the Irken wheezed. "It was... Closed d-down... didn't want... ughh..."
"Take your time," Lard Nar told him. "Both of us aren't going anywhere."
The Irken sucked in a quivering breath. "You're... lucky... to have... Tallest's favor..."
Lucky? Lard Nar nearly scoffed at this, but instead he grit his teeth and managed a nod. He hadn't felt very lucky since his ship was shot down and his crew was killed... but Purple was acting very strange. Not only had the Tallest saved him, Purple had also helped him recover. Maybe there was a bit of luck in there somewhere... for whatever the blasted reason was, the purple Tallest liked him.
"On second thought, you probably shouldn't be talking so much..." Lard Nar said as he did up the technician's uniform in-order to hide the ugly bruises. "Internal bleeding isn't very pleasant."
The semi-conscious Irken mumbled something else, but Lard Nar couldn't make it out. He breathed a sigh and rubbed his forehead. It was too bad he hadn't taken any medical courses...
Purple returned a while later, looking a bit tired, but it appeared he hadn't received any further injuries. His shoulders slumped and his antennae drooped, but he continued to wear his smile. "Well... that was exhausting..." he paused and glanced down at the Irken still lying on the ground. Lard Nar had covered him with a blanket. The Vortian had used up most of his energy attempting to move around freely and had fallen asleep, seated in the Tallest's chair.
Purple sighed and began to push the Irken out into the hallway with his foot. "Stupid drone..." he muttered. "Lard Nar! Wake up!"
Startled by the sudden harshness in the purple Tallest's voice, Lard Nar lost his balance and nearly fell. He clung to the back of the chair and narrowed his eyes at Irk's leader.
"What...?"
"Did he wake up?"
"Yeah."
"Then why isn't he out of my room!"
"What...?" Lard Nar repeated in his blurry-eyed state of wakefulness. "It's not like he can move or anything. He's been beaten half to death."
"I don't want him in here..." Purple growled. "They're nothing but cowardly mooches... always trying to get me to..." he paused when he realized what he was saying and cleared his throat. With a final kick, the technician found himself out in the hallway. The door slid closed and Purple turned his gaze to the bed.
"Oh, and by the way, you'll be sleeping on the floor from now on," Purple told him. "Slaves don't get any kind of comfort here."
Lard Nar stared at Purple wordlessly. Perhaps something had happened between him and Red... or maybe this was the Tallest's true nature coming to the surface.
"You'll also accompany me everywhere... including the places where Red is. He hates you, but because you're my property, he shouldn't try anything."
"Uh huh..." Lard Nar continued to glare. No matter how much he thought about it, nothing Purple did made any sense to him, but he'd been in the business of resisting the Irken Empire long enough to know common self-defence. He wasn't helpless. He'd still fight with everything he had if an Irken, Tallest or not, tried to start something.
"I'm going to sleep," Purple remarked flopping down on the bed. "Don't wake me... for any reason."
"Fine, whatever," Lard Nar growled sliding off the chair. "I'll just go wander then."
"Fine..." Purple muttered. "If you get into trouble, it'll be your problem."
"I'll just tell them you told me to do it," Lard Nar stated as he carefully made his way to the door. Walking was still a bit of a pain, but he knew he wouldn't improve very much if he didn't push himself at least a little bit.
"Do what?" Purple still refused to look at him. He was lying face-down on the bed.
"Setting the ship on fire, something like that," Lard Nar replied.
"Ha ha... you'll be shot instantly before you have a chance... and I also have this."
The Tallest pulled a small remote from his pocket and held it up. "This connects to your collar. It'll zap you if I press this button. The intensity of the shock depends on my mood, and right now it's terrible."
"I'm still going out..." Lard Nar muttered. "I've got to at least find cleansing chalk to get some of this blood and ash off... "
"Get a new uniform too while you're at it."
"Like helk."
"Fine, but you better be back before I wake up, or you'll get one nasty shock."
More Notes: Anyone who would speak like that to the Tallests would probably be dead by now. Just throwing that out there. The pocket is somewhere between the bands at the Tallest's mid-section. I only remember this because of the sandwich.
Poor nameless technician. He couldn't make it past the stairs apparently. Yes. Purple is acting oddly lenient towards Lard Nar while Red is... something else. More will be explained as the story progresses. Most of the chapters have already been written in advance. I don't like to start posting until I have a good chunk of the story already complete... I wonder why that is.
Of course my computer could always get another virus, forcing me to purge the entire system, and causing me to lose all of my files. I'm hoping that will be a one time thing. -sigh- I suck at rewriting.
Wow my notes are scattered. Review only if you have a strong desire to. I'll update whenever. Ok. Bye.