summary : ask me again my i keep you here pet [zadr

disclaimer : invader zim owns me, not the other way around

CORRODE

02 : TEMPTATION

Dib exhaled deeply, curling closer in on himself.

It was cold, real cold, and the pile of blankets at his side seemed to call to him. It was a temptation - an oppertunity to get warm, get comfortable... give in.

But giving in to the hospitality meant giving in to Zim, something the boy had refused to do... even if dying of cold and starvation was the only other option.

He was no Pet, no slave to this Irken invader, no traitor to his people.

No matter how right Zim had been about the way they treated him, and no matter how tempting the alien made giving in sound.

A loud shout tore Dib from his repetitive train of thought and his head twisted so he could look up to the monitor Zim had left for him to watch.

Gaz was yelling, screaming and kicking at the bars of her cage.

"You're wasting your energy," Dib scolded, his voice sticky and rough with disuse.

Zim had been gone three days now, and without his visits Dib didn't have much to say. The humans that brought him his food and bedding weren't conversationalists as a rule.

A rule Zim enforced very harshly.

"I'll always protect you Pet," Zim had said, practically cooed to the caged boy. He shifted slightly and with a wet and meaty thuck of a dead slave hitting the cell floor he retracted the spider leg he had used as a weapon. "Even if it's from your own silly excape plans."

At the memory, Dib's eyes flickered from his sister on screen to the darkness behind it - where Zim usually sat.

He shuddered, knowing that all to soon his alien tormentor would be back.

Dib recurled his body tightly, allowing his gaze to refocus on the screen, watching Gaz tantrum so violently. Her screams were all but incoherient and the volume on low anyway, but the message was clear enough. She was begging for release from her prison.

"I thought you were tough," Dib muttered huskily, a nasty sneer in place, "he's already broken you."

The screams didn't stop or fade in the lightest, but Dib's mind managed to tune her out completly.

"All I wanted was to save the world," Dib muttered darkly, "to protect mankind from this one-alien invasion. But no one would listen..."

He sat up slowly, ignoring the rush of cold that raced up his spine.

"No one trusted me. Not my classmates, not my councilor... not even my goddamn family," Dib shot a glare at the screen, "the only one that beleived me was the alien I was trying to expose." The words were muttered bitterly and sounded so much like giving in that Dib groaned and pulled his knees up to his chin as he clenched his eyes shut.

"Everyone beleived Zim. The freaky new kid who sounded more insane then I ever could." He sighed and buried his chin into the arms he had lounged over his knees, "even when he was standing over me out of costume and in his clean-cut invader uniform - nobody would beleive me."

"They're unworthy," the sly but surprisingly soft voice that haunted Dib whispered from the shadows, "so unworthy Pet."

A pale light flickered on behind the bars, just enough for Dib to make out the Irken's form.

Dib opened his eyes just to narrow them at Zim.

The invader chuckled lightly. "Ask me again why I keep you here Pet, I have so missed your screams and shouts." A few, softly clicking footsteps Zim to his usual place before the cage.

Dib was tired, cold and hungry. So very close to giving up - but never willing to give in. He was, however, to worn to argue. "Why do you keep me here Zim?"

Another dark chuckle, Zim not expecting compliance. Not even the sarcastic and bitter compliance he recieved, "You sound so tired, look so thin," he tutted before stroking bars before him almost lovingly, "I keep you here for me," he promised, voice low and conspiritual, "I keep you here because you are the only one worthy of me."

Dib lost his glare, let it drop along with his eyelids. "You almost make it sound like you care," he muttered.

"But I do care Pet," Zim informed him lazily, "I care more then those unworthy 'classmates', that insane councilor," a pointed claw tapped against the monitor at Zim's side, "I care much more then those hurtful, hatelful meatbags you call family."

"I will not give into you," Dib's voice was determined, though clearly lacking energy and drive, "I am not a traitor."

Pink eyes were obscured half way by green eyelids as Zim narrowed his eyes slightly, his smirk still in place. "You don't understand anything, do you Pet? It's my planet now, Zim's. Not joining me is betrayal and joining me just proves your worth."

Dib scowled and fell silent again, tightening his hold on his knees.

"Put a blanket on tonight Pet, I promise it wont turn you into my slave," Zim chuckled, voise almost nasty, "remember you'll need your strength. Gaz-thing is waiting."

With a flicker of lights and the sound of slow footsteps, Zim turned to go. He walked slowly though, softly, and just managed to hear the slow shifting of material as Dib pulled a blanket atop himself.

Zim's lips twitched upwards a little, and his eyes seemed to glow in the darkness.

x.o.x.o.x

Authors Notes: Hmmm, sorry microwaved noodles! I was planning on writing it the way you suggested, but this was so much smoother it took over! But if you continue to read, a chapter like the one you suggested is planned for a later installment!

-edit : gosh, hopeful i've cut out a few of those darn 'lazilys', tell me if i missed a few!-

Much love readers!