Author's Notice:
This chapter is mainly for explaining purposes~ Stuff starts to get moving along in chapter four, as well as some smut I know you all have been waiting for. Thanks for all the lovely reviews so far!
"Red Velvet"
'Chapter Three'
Dib had tried to make the earlier hours of the day as enjoyable for Cyan as possible. They had spent all night watching movies until the little girl couldn't keep her eyes open anymore and Dib was finally forced to put her in bed before he wandered into his own room to sleep.
He wasn't able to get anything else out of her, if she had seen or heard anything prior to the conversation in the bedroom, which was a good and bad thing. It could mean she hadn't heard anything else, or that she had somehow developed a more secretive streak and she just wasn't going to tell.
He didn't know what to do with the situation.
The new threat Zim posed, Dib wasn't sure what to really do about it. It was even bigger than just destroying the world; he was going to try and uproot them, send them into space on this asinine adventure towards galactic conquest.
It was insane!
Was there even anything he could do about it? Did he have to revert back to their childhood and start infiltrating the lab again trying to spoil Zim's plots?
…but it wasn't that simple anymore.
Through the years Zim had gained a little more cunning; or perhaps it had always been there, just not in view of Dib. He had started to encrypt things on his computer and despite even Dib's best efforts he wasn't able to even find anything out of the ordinary in the lab – which meant Zim was getting better at hiding things.
Dib was starting to wonder if there was any chance at all for him to sway Zim's mind, and he was starting to severely doubt himself.
He felt such a weight on his shoulders; he just didn't know what to do about it. It drained him, slowly but surely and he was having trouble focusing at his job and he was starting to have trouble sleeping.
Zim was really going to do it, wasn't he?
Go on this suicide mission, drag him and Cyan, and get them all killed in space, wasn't he?
Dib groaned, leaning forward as he held his head in his hands.
He was currently sitting on the edge of his bed, just trying to catch his thoughts and try and not depress himself in the process. It took him another whole minute before he finally started to dress down for bed, setting his glasses on the night table as he discarded his clothing to the floor – leaving him clad only in his boxers.
With a tired sigh he sunk down under the silk blankets, nuzzling his head into the large pillows, letting his eyes slip closed.
He just couldn't help it when his mind started to wander; replaying past images that led up to where he was now.
Their first kiss had been an accident.
It just wasn't supposed to happen when fighting your enemy. But, one day, out of the blue, the usual bickering led to a fist fight which led to a wrestling match which led to the final snapping of the tension that had always hung between them.
So there, in the confines of Zim's lab, they had somehow managed to smash their faces together; their lips meeting in an awkward kiss.
Whether accidental or actually intentional it wasn't entirely clear.
But, it happened.
The first chaste kiss melted into more with the first sweep of tongues, the first taste of saliva, the first press of body against body in a more intimate manner.
Clothing had been discarded sometime between their need to touch, taste, and claim.
Before either of them knew everything changed.
Dib's heart skipped at the memory, at all the feelings rushing back. The thought of that single most passionate moment still struck a cord in him – still gave him the false hope that Zim might've loved then, might've felt something other than a feral possession.
But now Dib wasn't so naïve.
A few weeks after Dib started to feel sick.
It was gradual at first; he originally thought he just might have a common cold or maybe a weak flu. But, as the sickness remained even after a few months Zim had finally decided to test him – since he didn't want to catch whatever horrible disease Dib had.
The news had astonished Dib.
Zim had informed him he was pregnant and the invader was far from happy. He ranted about how they shouldn't have been compatible, how Dib's body shouldn't have been able to incubate anything he had injected into him.
Past all the denial, the yells, the anger…
Dib declared he would keep it despite Zim's constant urges to destroy the thing and move on.
There was nothing to be done about it.
Dib was pregnant and that was that.
Dib opened his eyes half-way, staring at the wall on the opposite side of the bed as memories continued to float slowly towards the surface of his conscious; emotion starting to strum in his veins.
That was the single most wonderful and awful experience Dib had ever had.
He remembered what it was like to have something growing in him, it freaked him out at first, but as the months drew on he had opened up and it hadn't been so bad. Other than the sickness and some back pains he didn't have any other conflicts like normal 'expectant mothers' had.
He didn't have mood swings and he didn't crave anything unusual.
If anything it just felt like he had the flu and he slept more often than he used to(which wasn't saying much since he often went days on end without sleeping).
The incubation had been easy, but the birth…
Dib reached down to touch his stomach, feeling the long precise scar that went from hip to hip.
Zim had explained to him how the smeet would travel; how this sort of thing worked. The genetic material Zim shot into him was akin to sperm though instead of seeking an egg all it needed was to bond with Dib's DNA. Also, unlike sperm, Zim's genetic material could only create a single smeet per injection.
So, once the material was launched and it bonded it would travel in Dib's system and attempt to find a sufficient spot to attach and grow. It happened to rest under Dib's stomach, or around in those organs, forming itself into its own little bubble – much like a woman's womb.
Irkens were compatible with a lot of species, but not all, and Zim had just assumed humans would be one of the species Irkens weren't compatible with.
Obviously, that hadn't been the case.
When it was time to birth the baby it had came as a shock.
It had finished incubating between the fifth and sixth month mark which caught both of them off-guard. Luckily they had been in Zim's base when the over-whelming pains hit and Zim had gained his wits quick enough to get Dib down into the lab where it would be easiest to work.
There was no way the thing would get out of Dib – he wasn't a female, there was no opening for it, so literally the creature was attempting to burst itself out of Dib's abdomen.
Dib had felt hot blood in his mouth, running down his chin; he felt spasm upon spasm of pain in his body and at times he didn't know if he was going to make it.
Having no background information on this type of pregnancy Zim basically just panicked. Upon seeing the blood and watching Dib's body convulse in pain the invader had felt true fear, thinking he might lose Dib to his own stupidity – he just didn't want to take that chance.
He had told Dib he was going to inject it, kill it before it could cause more harm, before it could do anymore damage to his insides.
Zim had started to fuss with instruments by the table, his hands frantic to find what he was looking for. He kept trying to reassure Dib once the thing was dead he could bother with pain killers, would be able to safely perform surgery and not this half-assed attempt he would be trying right now.
Dib had been conscious enough to say he didn't want that – didn't want the baby dead; feeling some sense of maternal protectiveness even amidst the insane amount of pain and trauma.
Zim had been resolute in his demand that it was going to happen, that the smeet was going to die, and as he aimed that syringe Dib went hysterical. The human had started thrashing, attempting to get off the table and Zim had to restrain him.
Dib was between crying and yelling and his pallor was getting paler and paler.
Zim decided the added stress wasn't worth it; Dib could further harm himself, especially if he kept moving and he might miss, he might poison the human instead. With a growl of frustration Zim had done what he didn't want to do.
Zim had finally raised the scalpel, and cut Dib clean from hip to hip – nearly gutting him.
The blood was everywhere, Dib had screamed himself silly; his eyes had rolled back into his head and before he knew unconsciousness had taken him.
Dib fingered the scar, closing his eyes again.
Zim had saved them somehow.
Dib had woken up in a tube full of purple gel. He remembered gasping for air only to find the gel oxygenated; it took him a whole five minutes to fully understand the situation, to comprehend everything that had went on.
He remembered Zim's shocked face outside the tube, remembered when the Irken had pulled him from the goo and embraced him.
Zim had actually hugged him; held him so tight he felt like he might get broken in half. Zim had said things to him in his native language, frantic clicks of words Dib didn't understand but he was too moved by the embrace to care enough to ask.
They stayed like that for an eternity before Zim had finally let him go trying to pretend nothing had happened; but the emotion was still spasmed on the Irken's expression.
Three weeks he had been in that glass cylinder, three weeks and Zim hadn't left his side. Behind the snaps of how weak humans were, and how much time Zim had wasted, beyond all that Dib had actually began to think Zim cared.
Somewhere in the Irken there had to be something.
But before he could think anymore realization hit him like a ton of bricks and he asked for their child, his voice breaking at the thought it could have not made it. He didn't see it in any of the other tubes around him or in the lab in general.
For some reason Zim's expression turned darker as he gestured to the lighted part of the lab. The alien handed the human his coat and Dib gratefully took it – his body starting to shiver from the cold on his wet skin.
Their smeet was there, curled up in a make-shift blanket of a towel.
Zim had said it was a female.
Dib was floored by the sight of her snuggled in that towel; her little face looking so smooth with a dark patch of hair on top of her head as well as two wilted antennae. He also noticed three distinct spots of green running along the right side of her chin. A smile broke out on his face and he reached for his infant, picking up the sleeping bundle and holding it tenderly to his chest.
He didn't even have words to express everything he was feeling in that single moment.
Right then, he knew, despite all the pain, it had been worth it. So very worth it.
Zim broke the mood by saying the thing was defective.
Defective.
Dib didn't know why he said that, he still didn't know why.
Zim never gave Cyan the time of day and he especially hated being alone with her. No matter how hard Dib tried to push them together it just didn't work.
Dib sighed to himself, rolling over on his back and letting his eyes slip shut.
He didn't want to think anymore.
He was just done with the entire day; he wanted it to just go away.
Dib forced himself to relax, letting himself be lured by the sinfully soft bed and the inviting blankets caressing his naked skin. His breathing slowly started to even out and before he knew he had slipped unconscious.