Chapter Two
Zim felt emotionally frustrated, if there were two things he wasn't fond of was being ordered by Dib, and having Dib make him feel the simmer of guilt. Gir and Mini-moose watched on the couch as Zim worked out his homework. He felt empty, and grumpy. He only wanted to humiliate Dib like he had all the years, but now Dib was so upset that he didn't even want to talk with Zim, at all. Gir floated over to Zim, "Awww! Looks like someone had a break up!" he flailed. Zim slammed his book and glared at Gir, a blush forming on his cheeks, "Time for COUPLE COUNSELEEEEENG!"
"No, Gir! The Dib-filth and I did not break up! There can be no breaking up...if there was no...couple romance thing in the first place!" Zim yelled.
Gir was soon dancing with a phone, "OPRAH! OPERA! TIME TO CALL IN OPRAH!"
"Meh! Meep! Meh! Meep!" Mini-moose chimed in.
Zim paled, "No! No! NO! There will be no calls for Oprah, or Wendy!" he sighed, rubbing his head, "Dib was easier to deal with when he was just a little earth monkey! But now he's becoming an adult and is filled with...extra human body chemicals that make his brain act all funny!" he crossed his arms, "He's getting harder to control every year!"
Mini-moose hovered next to him, "Meep…"
"What?! APOLOGIZE?! Zim apologize to the Dib?!" Zim shrilled.
"Meh meep meh meh meh meep…!"
Zim was silent, "Well, it is true that I do get awfully bored without his big headed dumb face trying to interfere with my plans…" he pondered, "Ugh...does this mean I have to cheer Dib up myself?! This filthy human and his emotions! I bet it was his idea for revenge for taking his precious earthling first kiss!" Zim despised that thought of trying to make Dib happy in order to continue their nemesis rivalry, but if Dib felt disinterested and pushed back, there had to be an intervention.
Dib felt equally frustrated, but more in a sense he couldn't believe Zim's behavior. Dib knew Zim had a hard time understanding human socializing or human society as a whole; but this...this was too much. Zim was never one to respect anyone else's space, so it felt weird and annoying he was trying to turn the tables on Dib and get back to their usual routine. "Talk to me", "Please talk to me" such words made Dib's chest ache, and it hurt more that it came from Zim's mouth.
Dib didn't take his usual bike route to return home, feeling his troubled mind would be more at ease at the park than that of his house. Dib parked his bike onto the bench not far from the lake. He noticed a group of young women from his language class poorly attempting to insult him, making jeers of "stupido". It was clear they were making fun of him, just because he was able to clear the Spanish poem, was enough petty motivation. Dib had mellowed out considerably, but he hated this treatment. Dib acted out of his anger and flipped the bird at them, "Que te folle un pez!" it was a dirty expression, but it got the point across, but Dib didn't feel any better or happier. He slumped on the bench after. He remembered Zim being mesmerized by the way he spoke, he wasn't like those girls, Zim actually had been absorbed in Un Amor because of Dib.
Did that mean anything? Zim could get impressed by anything like a child, he had seen that look about Peepi, but in the middle of Un Amor, was he...almost infatuated?
Dib's body was reacting at thinking about Zim's expression, the dumbstruck awe like the emperor listening to the nightingale, and how it was rather exciting to feel validated. Dib held his head. No, no, no, and fuck no. Zim couldn't be easily forgiven for forcing himself onto Dib as if he was a piece of meat. He covered his mouth with his palms and yelled into them at the notion that Zim could possibly feel sympathy. "Great, Dib, you're having a temper tantrum in the middle of the park...you're eighteen and can't even handle your own emotions!" he groaned, "Becoming an adult needs to come with an instruction manual."
Dib soon heard the rustling of grass as someone was running towards him; he expected Zim with his come back to me routine, only for his eyes to widen when he recognized those rectangle sunglasses and long trench coat, he almost fainted. Oh no...Bill the Paranormal Investigator, this idiot wouldn't be able to tell a real UFO from a Frisbee.
"Hey! Hey! I haven't seen you in six years, amigo!" Bill greeted.
"Now it's gonna be seven. Good-fucking-bye!" Dib was getting ready to get on his bike until Bill snatched his hand, "Hey! Let go, ya creep!" What was with him and older men that constantly dragged him along through their failures?
"Listen...take a deep breath...I actually got a job for you."
"Uh-huh…what is it? Just because we work in the same field doesn't mean I respect you."
Bill rose an eyebrow, perplexed, this was the same screaming twelve year old from six years, "Wow, man, you sound even more jaded than that one song about jaded!" Bill remarked.
"You're the absolute last person I want to comment about my life, Bill!" Dib snapped, "What's the job?!" He'd play along with Bill, for a while, then the moment Bill was lost in a faux paranormal Dib would ditch him. Bill made Zim feel much more tolerable in Dib's eyes, at least Zim sometimes listened, unlike this loaf of brains.
"I think you're going to love this one, amigo!"
"Please stop that, I'm not your little student boy anymore," Dib was getting agitated, but he couldn't just leave.
"Oh...uh, in that case, in Lay-mans terms, we're dealing with a cult!"
Dib raised an eyebrow.
"Of cow headed mask freaks who call upon spirits from the artificial sun!"
Dib covered his face with both his palms, "Bill! This is why I'm not going anywhere with you!" he yelled, before barking orders of, "Show me your folders!" Bill looked bewildered at the rage Dib had on his expression but handed him the beige folders. Dib sorted through them, they were the same as before: UFO (X), Bigfoot (X), Ghosts (X). Dib sighed, Bill was hopeless, until he came upon a folder that said: Robin Hill Massacre Monster (?).
"What's this?"
"Oh that? That's recent."
Dib held back the urge to drive off right there, "Gee, I couldn't tell!" he said sarcastically, "I mean, can you explain what this is, or do I have to contact my people?"
"It's said the farm on Robin Hill that used to belong to a serial killer harbors a creature so foul and inconceivable, that it drives humans absolutely mad at the sight of it!"
Dib had to admit, he felt rather intrigued, his school passed around urban legends of Robin Hill around November to October to keep the freshman scared, or dare them to stand on the other side of the fence not far from the barn. Zim of course, came to the conclusion that any farm containing a monster inside of it, that he was going to deal with it with a flamethrower. Zim treated the planet like he already owned it, so, anything vaguely alien gave him the need to act like an old man with a shotgun. Zim was adamant the earth was his; although it felt like the little blue dot was owning him instead. Dib rubbed his temples, his thoughts always drifted to Zim.
Zim was walking in the park, rehearsing and thinking of how to apologize to Dib. He wasn't used to apologizing to someone other than Gir or Mini-moose and apologizing to a human was such a delicate thing especially to a human who was under emotional stress like Dib was. "Dib worm, I am so sorry for taking your juicy lips...no, no...Dib, I'm sorry I pinned you to...no, that sounds more horrible!" Zim fumed before his eyes widened when he noticed Dib and Bill in the distance. A hot heat in his chest formed and his mind grew blank from jealousy. He vaguely remembered seeing that stupid agent a few times, but oh, what utter gall did that stupid human have to see Dib now! Dib and Zim were more familiar with each other! Zim felt his teeth grind to see Dib burst out laughing in the middle of their talk.
That laugh, that smile…
Zim didn't want to admit it but he felt upstaged by Bill. Bill was at least another human, and he was an investigator, the same as Dib. Zim noticed Bill walking in his direction heading to the bathroom area of the park. He hugged behind a tree and watched Bill go inside, Zim soon followed him a hasty idea taking form; after a few minutes, a bright light came from the windows.
Zim held an alien disguise pen and allowed the blue waves to form him into Bill, before tossing the unconscious agent into the stall, and out of sadistic delight shoved his face in the toilet.
"Hope you enjoy your bath, you disgusting human worm!" Zim kicked Bill deeper into the porcelain throne.
Dib checked his watch waiting for Bill to finish going to the bathroom, yawning; since Zim was well disguised as Bill, Dib wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Dib sighed in relief seeing Bill, Zim could have sworn he felt the same after yesterday, "Okay, are you going to take me to Robin Hill now?"
Zim's eyes widened. Bill and Dib were going there of all places?! Zim scoffed, no doubt for privacy purposes. Zim started fuming, "Oh, uh...yes, of course to...Robin Hill!" Zim said. Dib raised an eyebrow.
"Why do sound like that?"
Crap, the voice replicator was broken. "Uh, j-just had a smoke break and, um, inhaled too much!" Zim explained.
"But, you sound like you inhaled helium," Dib pointed out, "You kinda sound like Zim…" Dib winced, "Damn, I just can't get that jerk out of my head." Seeing Dib so troubled and depressed made Zim's chest ache, he sighed and placed his palms on Dib's shoulders. Dib looked surprised at such a kind gesture and looked up at him.
"Don't…" Zim sighed, his cheeks pink, "Don't dwell on it…"
"It's hard not to. You don't know how I feel, Bill," Dib moved his hands aside, "You weren't there when he touched me. I don't even want to bring it up, it's too humiliating and embarrassing to talk about."
Zim hated the guilt now, it was making his heart feel like it was dropping from a twelve story building, "You sure you can't?" Zim asked. He just had to know from a clear answer.
Dib threw his hands up in frustration before they sagged to his sides, "Zim...stole my first kiss, but I don't care at this rate. It wasn't the kiss that I hated...but, he got on top of me, said he wanted to...to stimulate me more!" he slumped over his bike, "He was such a creep!" Zim flinched. He started to understand more clearly why Dib reacted so violently and his hasty explanation. Zim clenched his fist, Dib was right all along, he didn't go too far, he apologized at least. Zim was the one who crossed a line that only some depraved humans had gone, the kiss should've been enough, but Zim was over him like some sick shit. It wasn't their usual jabs and one ups, it was depravity, the kind Zim had started to loathe.
"Do you...do you hate this Zim?" Zim asked hesitantly.
"I don't ever want to see him again!" Dib roared from pent up anger.
Zim never knew humans can be this broken, strip a soldier of all he cares for and they make the same boom like thunder, but this was no soldier on the front of the Armada; this was Dib. His nemesis, who he despised for so long interfering with his plans and conquest. Zim should have felt glee at the sight of this, but he didn't.
Zim felt hot tears starting to bubble, but quickly wiped them away, and his breath was getting heavier.
"It's all right, Bill...it's kind of you to cry for me, but Zim and I aren't friends to begin with. Let's just...get going, I don't want to talk anymore about it...about him."
Zim felt reluctant to move but he started following after Dib to Robin Hill and it's desolate farm. Zim sometimes looked at Dib, trying to read his face and expressions. Zim wished he could read his mind, but a young man's suffering like that...Dib was in a dark place. Zim clutched his chest briefly, an unknown pang of heaviness adding to the weight: regret.
Robin Hill road used to be an old farm in the 1950s but it was now a sagging farm with mold clinging against the white picket fence like leeches, and the farmhouse looked like a rotting corpse, the sunflower colored paint was cracking and peeling with vines threatening to pull it apart as the windows hung open and the broken door resembled a gaping mouth of terror: DIE PIG! HOPE YOU ROT U FUCK! Was written on with red spray paint by angry civilians.
This entire acres of farmland used to belong to a serial killer; such living conditions made one think of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but this was the reality of the red sky laced city, this murder made a body pit and blamed it on a monster on his farm. Dragon Gregg's, in 1963,declared he did not kill those bodies in the pit, a boiling devil killed them. He ended up rotting in jail, dying of a stroke, still declaring his innocence but became a boogeyman alongside the mysterious farm devil. Despite the NO TRESPASSING sign being worn out that it almost read NO TRESPISSING, Dib and Zim ignored it. Dib chained up his bike to the fence and fished out a mini EMF detector. Dib turned it on and it started making noises at Zim's trench coat pocket. Zim bit his lip.
"Bill, why is your pocket making my EMF device go nuts?"
Oh shoot, Dib was catching on. "Oh, uh, that? Um...a special investigator phone! It releases...magnetic energies to, uh...keep me alert?" Zim said quickly. Dib looked heavily unimpressed, almost annoyed.
"Is it a Count Coco-fang radar?" Dib asked.
"Yes?"
"Figures...I expected as much…" Dib sighed, climbing over the fence, "Well, let's get this over with before the cops find us."
Zim almost felt his heart go rapid and his head spin in panic, Dib had a sense of alertness that would have put animals on similar instincts to shame. Zim could barely focus once they walked into the barn, it was spacious with three floors and a shed, along with stalls for cattle and horses. Dib was absorbed in the investigation, taking any reading and observation into account in a notebook for his studies, taking samples, almost hunkering down like his own detective. Dib looked so calm and in his element, Zim's heart felt a soft sensation like a feather tickled him. He liked seeing Dib like this, it was made Zim a moth to a flame, and he was almost down trodden when Dib wanted to leave his rivalry and follow real science. Zim sat next to Dib on a piece of hay and just observed him; but something deep inside ached for closer contact, something forbidden, like what started the wedge in the first place. Zim swallowed. Just a touch wouldn't hurt right? Just one innocent touch? Dib was absorbed in thought and Zim figured he wouldn't noticed.
Zim raised a palm as slowly as he would with a delicate flask in his lab before just laying it on Dib's leg. Zim almost felt winded that he managed that, and felt like he opened a window as new smells enveloped his senses. Had Dib always smelled this way? Zim never noticed, he used to smell quite wretched, is this what human maturity did as someone as old as Dib? Zim didn't notice at first but he was panting. He felt heat rise all over his body. It was getting too much like he could drown in this ambrosia.
"Bill, did you take any-" Dib's face bumped into Zim's face, and unable to endure this new flood of emotions collapsed with Zim. Zim was over him, but the atmosphere felt different. Zim felt different, "...Notes?"
"Dib…" Zim breathed, "Oh Tallest...what did you do to me?" he wheezed. He felt weightless, as if he was dead but his body and soul were bound by an earthly wire.
Dib looked confused, he heard that term before, but his bewilderment of the entire situation just brought up blanks, "What...what are you talking about?"
"Did...did you lace me...with something?" Zim panted.
Dib shook his head, heat rising to his cheeks recognizing this type of reaction was due to sexual stimuli, "B-Bill...c-come on...I'm in Highschool and-" Zim's eyes started to water, now he was growing frustrated with the lack of acknowledgement as much as a wall between them. This stupid disguise! Zim closed his eyes and threw the pen against the wall, as it smashed into pieces of alien metal, wires and lights, Bill's image faded like a washed out painting. Zim was now staring, bordering on tears, with his face still hot but his lenses were puffy. Dib was amazed. He had never seen Zim so soft, not this soft.
"I'm not Bill!" Zim yelled.
Zim expected a snarl or shove, but he did neither; Dib did declare he never wanted to see him again, but here they were face to face. They were like magnets, opposites, they'd clash and stick but if one was on the other side of a wall, the other magnet would return to the other. This was exhausting for them both.
"I'm...not...that stupid agent!" Zim added firmly, "I. Am. Zim!"
Dib felt his feelings swirl, his own tears starting to swell at the sight of Zim's new found emotions. "You...you idiot…" Dib choked, "You idiot!" Zim stroked his cheek and felt his tears, before wiping them away, feeling his emotions and instincts were unbridled. Zim's body was on autopilot, and yet he treated Dib like a delicate doll. If Zim broke you, Zim can fix you. "I hate you…" Dib coughed out, "I hate you so much…"
Zim stroked his hair with a tenderness he never knew he had, to think this young man with rough edges, and tantrums was once the overly loud, annoying boy who chased him years ago. Zim had placed the blinds over his eyes, he saw Dib as the boy he was six years ago, but as Dib said. People change, sometimes time just changes people. "Is...is this still hate?" Zim asked softly. Dib closed his eyes, too flustered to answer, too embarrassed to say to Zim what this really was. If Dib said it, then he himself believed it too.
"Why did you lie again? Why did you even want me back? You knocked me down as far as you go. There's nothing left to take, you won. You won this big, dumb, stupid round."
Zim gripped Dib's hands, "Zim has won absolutely nothing without you in it…" he gently took off Dib's glasses. Dib let out a gasp and trembled, expecting a needle, maybe, "Please, Dib, look at me."
There was no Dib worm, no Dib monkey, or not even Dib filth, and the tone Zim had used was gentle and tender. This had to be a dream, this had to be a cruel fucking dream.
"Please, Dib, it hurts me when you're not looking at me...I won't hurt you."
Zim's husky low tone was giving him goosebumps, and he felt so hot with Zim over him, he felt like he was gonna pop his cherry. Dib slowly opened his eyes, "You're cruel, talking to me like this, and...standing me over like this…" Dib said, tears dripping onto the hay, "Making my body feel funny every time, you're a shit." Dib was pulling him closer in a way to feel his warmth, he was being buttered up by Zim's tone, "I hate you…"
Zim felt a rush of excitement when their chests brushed against the other, Dib let out a gentle "Ahn…" as the contact got more intense. Zim and Dib's faces were touching so closely, the other could feel the others heartbeat.
"You're an animal…" Dib breathed, the world was spinning and he was feeling Zim's cheek.
"Let me do this the right way for you," Zim said softly, "Do I have consent to kiss you?"
"Yes…" Dib sighed. The two were lost in a spell once their lips made contact, Zim felt his body be filled with a warm electricity as he tasted Dib. This is how a real first kiss felt, no wonder Dib said the first one didn't matter, with how good it felt under equal mutual feelings could never compare to the sensation of it being forced when the other wasn't ready. Zim deepened it more, his breathing getting heavy and Dib letting out whines that this tongue play can drive him off the edge. Zim felt his body grow tired yet satisfied when Dib let out a gasp comparable to coming out from holdings one breath underwater and coming up for air. It was just a make out session but it felt comparable to sex as they laid next to each other in a tired heap.
"You actually...listened...to me…" Dib said catching his breath.
"Of...of course…" Zim panted, "Human...bodies...are sacred temples...right?"
Dib looked too tired to comment. The blush on his face was apparent that Zim wanted to laugh; he never was that good at hiding his emotions. "We...we're still not...a couple…" Dib slowly replied in exhaustion, "But...thank you...that was...my best...first kiss…"
Zim held Dib close to his chest, letting the young man doze off. Everything that happened at this moment felt like a fairytale, but with no Fairy Godmother, but it felt like magic, a spell of such passion that allowed their bodies to be this close; perhaps when the first dawn broke, and the rooster crowed three times, the spell would break. Zim let out a small yelp when Dib cuddled closer. He sighed, wishing time would stand still for this precious moment. If there was a Fairy Godmother...please let this moment last longer…
Dib woke up with a jolt, remembering he didn't finish last nights homework and it was all ready morning, his coat, pants, and shoes felt itchy from the hay that clung on. "Oh fucking shit!" Dib yelled, "Calloway is gonna kill me!" Zim let out a tired groan of annoyance, since Dib was so loud as he rested. He leaned over and shook Zim's shoulder, "Zim! Wake up! It's morning, we're going to be late for class!" Zim yawned tiredly, groaning again.
"It's Saturday...you big head idiot."
"Just because you have no concept of time, doesn't mean.. " Dib took out his phone, his eyes widening in surprise, "Oh...it is Saturday." Zim laughed tiredly.
"Who has no concept of time?"
"Don't rub it in! You ditch classes more than me!" Dib refuted.
"It's called a bathroom break," Zim replied.
"You mean your bathroom breaks."
Zim paused, slowly sitting up, and stretching. Dib shyly turned his head away as if they were naked, in truth, they were; at least emotionally. "I want coffee," Zim said looking at Dib as if it was an order.
"Then go get coffee," Dib replied in exasperation.
"Get it for me."
"I'm not your wife."
"Get it for me anyway."
Dib raised an eyebrow, "You...do realize we're in an allegedly haunted farm, right?" Zim rolled his eyes as if Dib said a terrible joke. He cleaned Dib's glasses with a cloth and placed it back on him. Dib said nothing as they followed outside, the clouds in the distance threatened to create a rainstorm after a few hours but Zim and Dib ignored the warnings as they drove together on Dib's bike to the closest Raybucks for coffee. After they ordered, Dib said he had to use the bathroom. Zim's mind started to drift watching him leave, curious how much he had grown underneath his clothes. Zim didn't tell to Dib, but during the kiss, his hands had wandered wanting to touch Dib beyond kisses. Zim wanted more moans, the sound of Dib's pleasure under his touch...under his body…
Zim was craving Dib. It was as if Zim had tasted alcohol, he got to taste him last night. He wanted another. Zim checked their receipt number to be called before going into the bathroom. Zim's eyes widened at the scene of Dib relieving himself, after Dib zipped up his fly he yelped seeing Zim. He washed his hands and glared at him, flustered.
"Oh…" Zim said, impressed, "So that's how those look like when human males get older! What an odd location for a tail!"
Dib's mouth was agape, "Jesus, your mouth really has no filter does it?!"
Zim blinked, "What's a mouth filter?"
"I'm 5 seconds away of shoving a stick of soap into your stinking gob!" Dib snapped in embarrassment. Zim stared briefly, before laughing in amusement.
"Nice to see not all of you has changed."
Dib sighed, "Why did you come in here? I'm fine, okay?" he asked. Zim leaned against the paper towel dispenser.
"I just...wanted to talk…"
Why did it have to be the bathroom?! Dib lamented mentally, "A talk?" Dib asked again. Zim just nodded. "I forgave you okay? I'm just kinda...sorta happy you understood me." Zim looked annoyed, his face turning into a flinch.
"Not that...the kiss itself."
Dib's knees felt weak again. He was about ready to flee but Zim stopped him, nearly shoving him against the wall, but it wasn't with violent malice. "I...I don't understand it completely yet. C-can we kiss again?" he asked innocently.
"How many times do I have to tell you?!" Dib yelled, "We're not a couple! It was a one time thing and just one time, stop getting so greedy about it!" he kicked Zim's legs but Zim didn't wince.
"Would you kiss me more if we were a couple?" Zim inquired.
"D...don't ask such questions like that!" Dib said, his cheeks hot, "W...we...we're not lovers! I...I doubt you even feel that way! I'm not your guinea pig, and I'm not gonna spread my legs just because you order it!"
Dib tried to squirm away, a wriggle here and there and kicking his legs, trying his best to at knee the alien in the groin; but Zim had grown some extra upper body strength, making sure the physical scale wasn't tipping to Dib's favor, height be damned at this rate. Zim was a B+ physical ed student, if he could have stopped slacking once in a while due to schemes, he could be an A. Zim felt at home with the border rough training so Dib could barely keep up, Zim gained such benefits if only due to pride of wanting to squash Dib one day.
"Dib, you're just gonna tire out," Zim said in concern since Dib didn't eat yet.
Dib stopped and caught his breath, "You're such...a jerk."
Zim took a deep breath, slowly leaning in, "Dib, I...I can't li-"
The bathroom door burst open, Bill's head and half of his suit was covered in toilet water, with flies dancing around on his head at the stench. "Hey, have you seen a doppelganger that looks like me but sounds like he inhaled an entire helium can?!" Bill demanded. Dib blinked in surprise before side eyeing Zim.
Zim let go of Dib, feeling as though he was even more caught red handed and Bill walked in at an awkward time.
"Uhh...yeah, he's at the weenie factory," Zim said. Dib placed his hands to his hips, unimpressed once Bill rushed out there door.
"You know that factory is dangerous."
Zim waved him off, "I could care less about that stupid agent. Let's go, you need to eat, right?" Dib couldn't argue, now he was craving coffee with a breakfast meal. During their time eating and drinking coffee, Dib was relieved that Zim was quiet, munching on three donuts and a large cup of Robusta coffee while Dib stuck with a breakfast sandwich with a brioche bun and an Espresso Macchiato. Dib quietly drank his cup sometimes noticing Zim was giving glances.
"So…" Dib started, "Why did you pretend to be Bill in the first place?"
Zim spat out his coffee onto a nearby barista out of shock, causing the worker to slap him with a food tray before huffing away. Dib cupped his cheek.
"Y-you're the one to talk!" Zim pointed an accusing finger, "You were seeing that Bill human at the park and wanting to go to that...that farm...in private!" Dib was taken aback at such an accusation, and the implication that Dib meeting Bill was more intimate in nature.
"Wait, you seriously think Bill and I were...dating?"
"I...I saw you laughing and…"
"Zim, he's just a walking hack of a paranormal investigator! That's all he is! He was my mentor for career day! If you heard the utter garbage he spat out, you'd laugh at him too! I was just gonna go along with him, and ditch him."
Zim didn't want to admit it out loud, but he felt a relief there was nothing romantic going on between Dib and Bill. Dib was still looking at Zim, with his shoulders crossing, trying to understand his mindset.
"Were you jealous?" Dib asked.
Zim felt himself be put on the spot, but his mouth started running before his brain could follow, "NONSENSE! Why would Zim be jealous of other humans seeing you?"
Dib raised an eyebrow, "Because you stole Bill's identity, dunked him in the toilet and pretended to be him to get closer to me? Or, am I wrong?"
"Uh…" Zim felt nervous but was also astonished Dib had more power in the conversation than he did. Dib was probably more adjusted to how Zim acted than Zim had initially thought, once you get used to a person, you can almost read them completely. Zim had read Dib at the farm, but the tables had turned, Dib had him exposed like an open book, although some pages were kept behind lock and key, "...I wanted to keep you...safe," Zim felt like kicking himself, what a weak excuse.
"Oh really, that's how you're going to plead your case? It was over my safety?!"
Zim felt agitated and snapped out, "Let's just drop it!" starting Dib, causing the young man to be quiet and scoot his chair closer, "I just...felt bad, about us, distancing from each other. I...earned your forgiveness...let's just drop it there."
Dib rubbed his forehead tiredly before yelping out when the flash of a camera went off in front of him and Zim. "Hey, watch where you-" Dib's eyes widened when he noticed and recognized who took the picture, the blonde hair that went down her shoulders like horns and that obnoxious pink dress and white sneakers, "Jessica?!"
"Oh good God," she laughed, "I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it."
Zim felt himself bubble in a furor, "It...it's not want you think! Shut your noise tubes, you cow!" he tried grabbing the smartphone, yet the blonde teenager was taller than him and kept it out of arm's reach. Dib felt all the color from his face drain.
"Sooo…" Jessica cooed, "You and Zim going through some sort of domestic? There are tons of rumors about you guys hooking up and going on and off. So I just thought...I'd have some fun."
"Go back to salivating over, Chunk, you bitch," Dib said, not in the mood. Jessica tutted him.
"Dib, I heard you say to Zim that you guys aren't lovers, right?" she teased.
"Yeah so?"
"If you don't want me to print out this incriminating evidence...then, Dib...I want you and Torque to have a romance session in the basement of the school."
Zim slammed his fist on the table, "Don't let that birdbrain muscle worm touch him!" he snapped. Jessica laughed, waving her phone around.
"Gee, Zim, you sure are getting awfully defensive about Dib touching another man," Jessica teased, "Or did you want to pop the dweeb first and pass him around?"
Zim couldn't control his body, he slapped Jessica so harshly that her lips and nose were bleeding, and she curled up, gasping.
"The only popping that will happen will be me pulling out your hair if you don't leave Dib and I alone!" Zim grabbed the phone when she was hunched over and smashed it into pieces with his boot.
"Take it outside…!" Another barista called. Jessica looked to be on the verge of tears and ran out the front door. Zim sat back down with Dib. Dib felt his heart flutter, amazed Zim stood up for him like that.
Dib rolled his bike beside Zim as they walked even though Dib wanted to head home, and take a bath and get some sleep, he just didn't feel ready to part with Zim and let him leave; not yet. "Um...Zim?" He asked shyly, "Can you stay over a while?"
Zim paused, "What for? We're not friends, right?"
Dib flushed slightly, feeling perturbed that his own words were thrown back at him. "Well, yeah...but…" he blushed, "You wanted to learn about...socializing and...intimacy?"
Zim stopped walking and looked at him, "I thought you didn't want me near you? Why the change in tune?" he asked. Dib stopped and gave a shy glance.
"Because I realized...you're changing too."