"Be quiet! " Zim tugged the hoodie over his stomach. He groaned as his stomach gave another gurgle and shoved his head under the pillow. "I already fed you a plate and a half of nachos, what else do you want?"

Dib was out for the night- he had been called in because some old experiment of his had gone rogue and was attempting to assimilate part of the lab, or something like that. It had been urgent enough to make Dib swear for a solid two minutes. Honestly, Zim hadn't really been paying attention, because he'd been trying to add last-minute touches to the Pak for the smeet. Dib had draped the hoodie he'd been wearing all day over Zim's shoulders like a blanket and made him promise that he was just checking things over and not doing any work with the tools. Zim had tugged it on when Dib had left, after insisting he take one of the good laser guns. It smelled like him and calmed the racing in his chest. He'd be back soon. He'd call. Nothing would happen.

He had then rotated the tiny Pak in his palm- it was rudimentary, but it would get the job done. The atmospheric processor was still working, as was the base code to allow it to absorb her personality as it developed.

Right now, that Pak was next to the lab table where he'd be giving birth. (They were going to add blankets, but the idea of mussing the entire nest up with birth goo made Zim shudder.) That was something that they had planned for the fifth of the month, as that was when his Pak had alerted him that the smeet had 'completed its development' and they'd prepared bottles for when she arrived.

That had been two days ago.

Now, he was still starving, still achey, and his skin felt ready to rupture if he moved wrong. His body had been cramping all day, particularly his hips. Oh, and it was past ten at night, and she was still settled as firmly in his spooch as the day she'd been conceived. He was starting to wonder if she even knew which way she was supposed to go to get out.

Another nudge from the inside had him tugging the thick, warm fabric up. "You get out this way." He tapped his inner thigh, rolling the leg when his hip began to cramp. "Not this way." He drummed his stomach. "Don't you want to meet your wonderful parents?" She didn't reply, but his stomach growled again. "Great, somehow you got Gir's appetite. How is that even possible? You're more stubborn than a three-week stain." He rolled over to his back, and his Pak clicked. When he craned his neck, he could see that the lower ports were starting to gently pulse. Huh. That was new. Well, of all the strange things that had happened to it, a bit of glowing wasn't that bad in the grand scheme of things.

He laid in the pile for a few more minutes before she kicked again. His antennae twitched, trying to scent out sugar in the house, but anything around was unpalatable- and Gir had destroyed most of his best stash yesterday.

Zim hissed- with Dib out of the house, it was going to be up to him to get the food she so desperately wanted. He rolled back, then forward, then back again, managing to see-saw his way up to a standing position.

Great, his hips ached even more from this angle, but getting up was half the battle. Luckily, Dib had left a twenty-dollar bill inside the pocket of the hoodie- more than enough to find something to sate their behemoth of a smeet. "I'm doing this for you, you know. Be grateful!" Still no reply. He hoped she'd be more chatty once she was out as he pulled on his wig and contacts.

For good measure, he grabbed a hat to shove on top of the wig before sucking in a deep breath. "No sugar craving will make a fool out of Zim!" He threw the door open- only to get a blast full of freezing cold wind in the face.

Zim sputtered before digging a scarf out of the closet, wrapping it three times around his neck and then trudging out into the snow. Luckily, it wasn't snowing, but unluckily, he had to walk carefully to avoid ice patches that he couldn't see half the time over his stomach.

Every time he almost slipped, his hips twinged again- if he pulled a muscle, he was dragging his favorite blankets down to the recharge chamber to heal it. He needed to be in top form to give birth, after all.

Few shops were still open this late- he was headed to the one that never closed, something he had taken advantage of several times over the years. (Usually when Gir refused to stop begging for something.) It was called a convenience store for a reason, at least- it was convenient when he needed to get something at hours that were normally strange for humans without anyone asking too many questions. Now, however, even being more than a few steps outside the door was in-convenient.

The store windows he passed on the way were dimmed and he could see his reflection, something he hadn't in ages outside of Dib's little logs. Zim turned, one hand settled above the smeet. His middle looked like he'd swallowed a dodgeball- or even bigger, if he was honest. Whoof. He'd be glad to get to carry her in his arms soon. Still… his lips quirked up in a smile as the fabric with the man of moth stretched over the skin. Another cramp jolted him back to his current mission.

The walk was twice as long as normal- trying to avoid ice he could barely see made progress slow, and his back fiercely protested moving as much as he was. Giving up now would be tantamount to admitting failure, though, something Zim wasn't about to do. Especially not with his stomach groaning again.

"What is that?" He set one hand under his belly, bracing it. "Is she just hungry?"

"The smeet's position fzzt shifted."

"She moves around all the time. What's different now?"

"Labor has begun," the Pak declared, and Zim perked up.

"Oh! So she's finally moving. I'll pop over to the store and be back before anything even happens. Labor takes some time, no?"

His Pak didn't reply to that. "Yes, it does, I have time," Zim said confidently, even as his stomach turned. "Now, what shall we get with these monies Dib has so helpfully left…" He pulled the bill out of the hoodie pocket, curling his fingers around it before pushing open the door to the corner store. The little bell jangled above his head.

The employee at the counter was about Dib's age, with a face full of acne and deep bags under his eyes."Hi, welcome to the- wait, which store is this again?" He looked down at his nametag. "The Little Corner Shop, right. If you have any questions-"

"I require no assistance, station drone!" Zim called out, slowly making his way over to where the food was kept. "Hmm… what do I want…" His eyes scanned the shelves, candies shoved haphazardly into the boxes. "No coconut, no- gah!" His stomach flipped, and he set a hand on top of it, feeling her shift inside. "You have to work with me, smeet." He gnawed on his lower lip as he discounted each of the pieces of candy for one reason or another. "Don't like the smell, don't like the peanuts, too gooey…" Zim just kept going past the chocolate to the snacks. "Nacho flavor- no, I had some earlier and she didn't like them enough. Nothing spicy. Why on irk are there banana chips?"

The ache in his stomach intensified, and then faded again. Good, she knew to wait. Zim tapped his chin, tugging the hoodie down over his stomach because the bottom was starting to feel a little cold.

"It is chocolate you want, isn't it? You'll want the best of sweets, for the best of-" Something wet began to drip down his leggings and Zim froze. He couldn't see over the smeet, but after setting a glove between his legs and pulling back, it wasn't just sweat- light pink fluid was soaking his thighs. It smelled sort of like an energy drink. "Oh, that is disgust- "

"ZIM!" The tinkly bells were nearly ripped out of the mechanism above the door as Dib threw it open. He was still in the labcoat from work, and there were scratches crossing his cheeks. Zim snarled at the sight of them.

"Who dares hurt-"

"The computer said you were in labor? The GPS is a piece of shit, it took me way too long to find- oh, fuck. " Dib crouched down, staring between Zim's legs. "Your water broke."

"It's all squishy, I want it- gah!" Pain throbbed through his body, concentrating in his lower abdomen, and Dib scooped him up as he grabbed his stomach. He could feel Dib's freezing hands on his warm thighs and gasped.

"We're going home right now."

"But I want candy!"

Zim could hear Dib's teeth grinding together. "We've got candy at home, come-"

"Gir ate all of it, I want a Twix!" Zim shoved the twenty-dollar bill up at Dib's face, and Dib grabbed one off the shelf, balling up the twenty to chuck it at the cashier before running out of the store. Zim's grip tightened on Dib's shirt, the warm liquid mixed with the cold night running shocks up his shaking legs. He tried to unwrap the chocolate, but his hands were rubber and he nearly dropped it three times before he ripped the plastic off with his teeth and shoved it all into his mouth at once.

Dib's long legs got them back to the base in half the time, and Zim had stuffed the wrapper into his hoodie pocket. The door banged open when Dib kicked at it, getting an annoyed 'Hey!' from the computer.

"Lab, now!"

"Geez, I only told you because you called back in a panic. Don't tear my insides up."

"I'm the one whose insides are tearing up!" Zim shrieked at a particularly harsh contraction, the slick between his legs frozen to the skin now and making him incredibly uncomfortable. Dib's panic was overtaking any sense to keep Zim still like he should have been doing, and he headed for the table. "Blankets!"

"I'll get them, just give me- ah!" Dib carefully set Zim down on the table, hurrying over to the pile of favorite blankets bundled up in the middle of the lab. He picked them up and dumped them behind Zim, sucking in a deep breath. "Let's do this."

Zim fumbled to pry his wet leggings off, laying back on the blankets as his Pak kept pulsing irritably at him.

This was going to be a long night.