Dlbn: Sorry for the delay! Let's get right to it.

Nbld: Review Corner! Thank you to Zim'sMostLoyalServant and Invader Johnny for reviewing! Candy for you both!

Zim'sMostLoyalServant: Ah, he's about halfway there ^^" Thank you! She's one of my favorites of the OCs in here. There's a hint of ZAGR if you squint, yes. It was one of the first pairings I liked from Invader Zim, so I eluded to it a bit here. But no, they won't end up together or anything like that.

Invader Johnny: Eventually he'll start getting his head up above water again. He's just a little lost. Not seeing things, no. it's not the official pairing for this fic, but its one of the first two I liked from the series. I'm more of a ZADR an but the more ZAGR stuff I read, the more it becomes my favorite.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot and the OCs that you should know by now. Anything canon belongs to Invader Zim. I make NO money off writing this.

000

Sila looked around Zim's living room with mild fascination after school that day.

"Meets minimal requirements but still looks flashy. Very you, Jun." Sila commented.

"Oh, ha-ha, so funny."

"Glad you think so."

"I don't."

"My pride."

"Can take a hit.

"Where are you crashing, Sila?" Lahna asked.

"I don't know. In my ship I guess for now."

"That's cramped."

She shrugged. "Whatever."

"You can stay here if you want." Zim answered. "Not like you haven't slept at my house before."

"I haven't slept here before."

"You know what I meant."

"Thanks, Jun."

"You're welcome."

"I live here, too, now." Lahna stated.

"Nah, thought you just came over to see the gnomes."

Lahna rolled her eyes. "They will grow on you."

"So will a canker sore, but I don't want one of those."

"Not what I…oh, never mind…"

"Guess it settled then." Zim shrugged. "Welcome home, Sils."

"Don't get all mushy on me, Jun. That ain't you."

"Just trying to be nice. Fuck." Zim flopped down on his couch. "Shoot a guy for trying, would ya?"

Sila pointed her fingers at him like a gun. "Bang."

"Thanks, asshole."

"You're welcome, dumbass."

"We're sure you're friends, right?" Lahna laughed.

"The best."

"Why else would we be able to treat one another like shit and get away with it?"

"Damn straight." Sila stretched, audibly cracking her back. "What's there to do around here for fun?"

"Not much." Zim shrugged. "I normally just hang with my friends, study, work. Normal high school shit."

"Wait a second, you work here? Like have a job?"

"Government credits run out, Sila. When you're out, you're out." Zim explained. "You need Earth money to buy Earth crap."

"So, you got a job?" Sila sighed, flopping down next to him. "Maybe you have changed, man…"

"Hey, not for nothing, but most of me has stayed the same."

She smirked at him. "This poor, unsuspecting planet."

"Fuck you, too."

She shoved him. "I'm the only broad that wouldn't get on her knees for you, and you know it."

"Hey, you're forgetting about me." Lahna commented.

"The only non-related broad. Better?"

"Much." Lahna sat next to Zim. "We have video games if you wanna play…I picked up Grand Theft Auto the other day…figured it would give us a little taste of home."

"Grand Theft Auto, eh?" Sila smirked. "Sounds like my kind of game."

000

Turned out it was Sila's kind of game when she finished the entire thing in three days. Gaz had been slightly impressed, though she wouldn't admit it. Iggins had gushed over it, which had annoyed the plum haired gamer, but he didn't seem to notice. Gaz was probably just annoyed that her gaming partner was gushing over some novice gamer. Zim would be kidding himself if he thought it was anything more, though Keef insisted it meant more than it did. They somehow ended up lounging at Zim's house that weekend. It hadn't made much sense for three of them to drag themselves to Keef or Gretchen's house when they lived together already. They only really hung out at Gretchen's and Keef's for a reason. Todd's absent parents would have a fit if they came over, Melvin's parents didn't allow girls in the house because of an incident that send Melvin's older brother to prison a year and a half ago, Screamy had a baby sister that only got to really sleep when he was gone-shocker-, and Gaz's place was off limits with Dib and his friends there…also a shocker. So, for the first time, Zim's place it was. He made the computer shut down an hour before the others came over, and he shut down Gir the night before when he'd woken up to the robot crying because Sila had punched him in the face for staring at her while she slept on the couch. He didn't know why she didn't just stay in his room. They did that all the time growing up. Then again, she wasn't living with him before, so that could have been it. He couldn't help but feel that something was off, though.

"I wonder when the other new girl is going to show up." Keef stated, absent mindedly stirring a straw in his cup of soda. "She was supposed to start Thursday, but she never did."

"Maybe she's got some moving stuff going on or something." Sila shrugged. "Took me time to get settled, too."

"And now you have to get settled again because you moved in with Zim." Gretchen smiled. "It's nice of you to take her in."

"Hey, we've been friends since we were, what? Six? Seven?" Zim wondered. "And her family took me in when I had nowhere to go before, so why not return the favor?"

"I was seven, you were six." Sila commented. "So you're only letting me stay here because of some imaginary debt you owe my mother and her lame ass ex-husband? Real nice, man, I thought you wanted me here for me."

"Ex-husband?" Zim ignored his friend's usual sass. "They're not together anymore?"

"Nah, he was hooking up with some broad on the side and caught something." Sila chuckled.

"Caught what?" Todd asked softly, as if afraid it wasn't his place.

"The pot my mother chucked at his frigging head."

Zim laughed. "Now I know where you get it from."

"I swear, I wish killing him was the reason I went to Juvey. Such bullshit, man."

"You were in Juvey?" Screamy wondered.

"Yeah, and now the entire city knows." Sila rolled her eyes. "It was a while ago."

"I don't remember this."

"Yeah, it was after you up and left for Gram's." Sila shrugged. "Don't worry about it."

"What did you do?" Gretchen wondered. "Sorry, it's probably not my place!" She turned bright red.

Sila laughed. "Relax, Gretchen, it's fine."

"O-Okay…"

"Got caught selling."

"Figures." Zim rolled his eyes. "Why am I not surprised…? You didn't bring that shit here, did you?"

"You kidding? Everything I had was at my mother's place, and that went up in smoke." Sila laughed. "Quite literally. Insurance fraud. Way to go, mother."

"Your entire family is a circus."

"Look who's frigging talking."

Zim smirked. "I know."

"Your mom burned down your house for insurance money?" Keef asked. "That's awful…what did you sell?"

"Pills." Sila answered. "And yeah, she did. Whatever. Her stupidity, not mine."

"What happened to Kye?"

"Fuck if I know. Child services snatched him up while I was in Juvey." Sila answered. "I haven't heard a damn thing since. No one has. And I've had people looking high and low, so no one say yet or something, cause yet will never come."

"Maybe his name is different?" Todd asked. "Sometimes when people take in kids, they change their entire name."

"He was five. It wasn't like he'd get the concept of a new name. And if he did, he'd probably remember his original name now."

"That's true. There would be some record of him."

"Watch him be the next new kid."

"I will shit a god damn brick, Jun."

"We know it's a girl, though." Gretchen offered.

"Yeah, but we might get more after her. I mean, come on. We've had three this year, including her, alone." Zim commented.

"But no one since you." Gaz piped up, not looking away from her game as usual.

"This must be the year for new kids."

"Apparently." Keef sighed. "New kids, new personalities…it's a year of new."

"Let's not discuss that."

"This issue with that Dib kid…what the hell? He turned on you guys something bad, eh?" Sila wondered.

"I don't know what we did…"

"It's the popularity they dangled in front of him." Gaz grunted. "My brother has always wanted to fit in; you all know this. Maybe if he wasn't such a freak as a kid, he would have fit in a long time ago and we wouldn't be having this discussion."

"This sounds like an interesting story." Sila leaned forward to see the gamer on the other side of the couch. "Do tell."

Gaz shrugged. "He was obsessed with the paranormal. And I mean obsessed. Tried to raise the dead, chased after ghosts, claims Bigfoot was in our garage, always going on about how aliens exist and when they come kill us all, we'll see how right he is. Damn idiot always wanted to catch one and dissect it. Everyone thought he was a total loser."

"I liked him since we were kids. I don't know why I did." Gretchen shrugged.

"A lapse in judgment, hon." Sila informed her.

"A big one."

"But then Zim showed up and started hanging with me and these guys. Dib was grateful Zim saved his ass the day he showed up and wanted to be friends." Gaz shrugged one shoulder. "Things kind of fell into place after Dib sat with us one day."

"First time he noticed I existed." Gretchen laughed. "Called my notebook cute."

"I remember that. You were as red as Sila's frigging hair." Zim commented.

"Yeah. But then Dee came along…"

"This year." Zim sighed. "She's a freshman, and she's managed to turn our entire group upside down and inside out. I don't know what Dib sees in her."

"She's the first girl that showed a romantic interest in him." Gaz stated. "But, clearly, he was just blind with Gretchen."

"Obviously…"

"She moved here when I was in eighth grade." Gaz went on. "Means she started after Dib got out of his alien phase. She only knew him from gym class earlier this year. I don't know how that escalated so quickly…she's Torque's cousin. Torque always made Dib's life a living hell."

"And Dib's paying him back by stopping him from fighting me and getting kicked out of games." Zim sighed. "I swear, your brother never uses the brains he was given."

"I've known that for years." Gaz answered. "About time you saw it, too."

"He's smart, then? Book smart, I mean. Clearly he sucks at relationships." Sila commented.

"So do you, but we've been friends since we were kids."

"Because I'm the only loyal fucker you got, and you're the only loyal fucker I got." Sila answered, ignoring how the others seemed to get uncomfortable with her profanity. "I mean, the guys wouldn't do anything against either of us, but it's different, y'know?"

"Yeah." Zim nodded. "It was just you and me for the longest time til Gabe came around."

"Well, you, me, and the dumb little shits you'd bring home."

Zim flushed. "Let's not talk about that…"
"You've had a lot of girlfriends, Zim?" Gretchen wondered. "You've never mentioned that."

"Nah, only four of them I consider anything serious. Nothing beyond having fun together one night. Mini-golf, bowling. That kind of shit."

Just not the kind of shit he was full of.

"Zayne was one of them. The most recent one, too." Sila stated. "Didn't put up with his shit, gave it to him as good as he got it. Shit, she was a younger version of me; knew what she wanted and what everyone else was about. Didn't take no shit. Seriously, Jun, bad move."

"I had no choice. I was fourteen and homeless…"

"What happened?" Keef asked.

"My dick of a father kicked me out."

"I always thought it was odd you live alone!" Screamy shouted.

"Not really alone…"

"Not anymore."

Not ever.