Space

notes: written for tumblr ZADR Week for the prompt...'space' (creative titling, I know). I didn't exactly do it justice here, but I borrowed the dalacareal creature from strange-irkens on tumblr bc it eats Irkens and is generally metal af.

thanks for reading and I would love to hear your thoughts! c:

Space, in the eyes of the Irken Empire, was nothing but a commodity. Planets existed only to be destroyed or conquered, all individuality and diversity swept away to be remade according to the Tallest's will. Like any loyal soldier, all Zim had ever been focused on was becoming an Invader and claiming a planet in his own name - any planet, whichever his almighty leaders desired - to bask in the glory and recognition that was rightfully his.

Earth was...not quite what he imagined.

Here, he was "space boy", a nickname both mocking and accusatory, with an underlying jealousy. Because Zim had experienced things Dib - or any of his fellow worm babies - could barely comprehend, and Dib talked about "space" like no Irken ever would: with awe and wonder, insatiable curiosity and longing to know more, to see beyond what his ignorant dirt-clod of a home planet could ever tell him. He'd question Zim relentlessly about Irkens, about other alien species, all the planets he'd been to, the creatures he'd seen - but Zim was loyal to his Empire, he'd never consider giving up such secrets to his sworn enemy!

But maybe he would drop the odd tidbit of knowledge here and there - a diversionary tactic, that was all, further evidence of his superiority. Dib was less of a threat to his schemes if Zim could keep him hanging off of his every word. And maybe it...wasn't entirely intolerable, the feeling of actually being listened to, someone - even if it was the Dib rather his Tallest - looking at Zim with the fascination and admiration he clearly deserved but was less used to receiving.

And so, eventually, Zim shows him.

They bicker their way across the galaxy, about where to go, how to get there, whether they're lost or not. Dib almost gets them killed when he steers the ship dangerously close to a sleeping deadly dalacareal, because he has the self-preservation sense of a particularly stupid smeet. Zim comes close to shoving him out of the airlock on an hourly basis, and yet...there are moments in between. When he catches Dib just gazing out into the infinite vastness of space, still and quiet and amazed by what Zim would consider the most mundane and unremarkable planets and creatures. He glances back at Zim with starlight in his eyes and softly, cautiously says that this is...nice, when the universe isn't ending and they're not actively trying to kill each other. Maybe they could do this more often.

And maybe, eventually, Zim begins to understand: space is freedom, a multiverse of uncharted territory and untapped possibilities. Planets and species and creatures even Zim hasn't encountered before, so far outside the Empire's jurisdiction he may never have known they existed, were it not for...this. For Dib.

This is the space to simply be, escaping the confines and expectations of their home planets. To do and feel things that would have marked Zim as a traitor and defective on Irk, Dib as a freak and degenerate on Earth. To hold hands where it isn't treason; to snuggle into the crook of Dib's arm and steal his warmth as they looking up at the stars; to kiss and touch and explore each other, mapping out constellations of freckles and scars, discovering the furthest reaches of each other's bodies and beings, cataloguing and devouring every gasp, laugh, moan, chirp and purr. Space to get completely and utterly lost in one another, as if nothing else mattered or ever existed in the universe other than Zim and his stupid, stinky, brilliant human.

Space to be, and space to belong, and to understand that where they belong is together.