With a yawn and a dark glare at the wall that dared to get in his way as he walked down the hall Dib prepared to make the too long trek to the coffee pot. He walked out into the main hall and could see the pot as the doors slid open. Dib smiled slightly and got ready to make his way over to it when…
"Boo!" Zim yelled, appearing in Dib's line of vision upside down with a horrible grin on his face. He was clinging to the doorway with his spider legs and holding himself low enough so that he was face to face with Dib.
Dib's tired brown eyes widened as his body jolted awake at the sight of his worst enemy. "YAH!" he yelled and jumped about a foot into the air, away from Zim's maniacal grin. He slammed into the nearest wall and put his hand on it for support while he held his other hand to his chest.
Zim began to cackle loudly as he climbed up the wall and onto the ceiling, out of Dib's reach. Dib could hear soft sniggering coming from in the room he was trying to enter and he would have bet anything it was Cyborg and Beast Boy. "What are you, FIVE?" Dib yelled irritably as he walked into the room and glared at Zim.
Zim continued to laugh as he clung to the ceiling. "NO Dib-stink-worm!" Zim yelled. "I'm actually 19 of your years! I am also VICTORIOUS!" he yelled.
"At what? Annoying me?" Dib yelled back as he crossed the room to get to the coffee pot.
"Yeah," Zim replied in a 'well duh' kind of voice. "What's the point of being under the same roof as your worst enemy if you can't annoy them?"
Dib replied under his breath so that no one could hear him, not even Zim. However, it didn't take much imagination to figure out what he probably said. Zim grinned wickedly and dropped lightly from the ceiling onto the floor, landing cat like before Gir squealed loudly and ran into Zim, knocking him over.
Dib smiled and toasted Zim with his now full coffee cup. "Cheers!" he said happily to the grumbling Zim on the floor.
"Shut your gaping noise tube you smelly headed dirt worm," Zim snapped as Gir squealed incoherent babble into Zim's ear.
Dib rolled his eyes and took a healthy quaff of his morning beverage. "Whatever," he muttered.
"Get off me Gir," Zim hissed and pushed his overly affectionate robot off of his chest. Gir cheered as he rolled off Zim and began to roll on the floor singing the 'Doom Song'.
"Morning," Cyborg greeted the slightly more alert Dib.
Dib yawned and put on his glasses. "Yeah, morning," he replied. "Oh man, I don't want to sit still for another ten hours any time soon," he groaned as he stretched his arms above his head.
"Stiff muscles?" Cyborg asked.
Dib nodded and took another drink. "Yeah, my back hurts the worst," he said, twisting his back and wincing.
"That's because your inferior biology doesn't allow for you to be productive without massive amounts of rest and energy," Zim said haughtily with a smirk. "It's just your weak body telling you that you are pathetic and…" Zim's antennae twitched as he tried to think of another synonym but found his translation program coming up short. "Weak…" he finished offhandedly.
"Hey, I'm in pain because I saved you!" Dib replied coyly.
"And I never recall asking for your help, huuuu-man!" Zim shot back while crossing his arms and sticking his figurative 'nose' in the air.
"I did it because I knew it would piss you off," Dib countered while taking another sip of his coffee. "How does it feel to be in debt to your worst enemy, ZIM," Dib said with a grin that matched Zim's own.
Zim glared at him then walked over to the couch to pick up his portable handheld. "I won't be in debt for long, monkey-brains," he said sneakily. "You better be really sure of yourself on the battlefield of DOOM once we start fighting for real. Because if you're not, your pathetic little life will be extinguished like crazy rubber balloons on a hot day."
"Once again you make no sense!" Dib said with a grin. "But that's okay. I'm sure your superior technology isn't at fault for your weird speech patterns."
Zim gave Dib a glare that could kill kittens and walked out the door without retorting. Presumably, he wanted to work on his 'secret' whatever it was alone. Which was all fine and dandy with Dib. He wasn't one for talking with Zim any longer then he absolutely had to.
He downed the rest of his needed dose of caffeine and winced as he rubbed his stiff arm muscles. Raven looked up from the book she was reading and raised an eyebrow. "Sore muscles?" she asked.
Dib nodded, "Yeah. My arms and my back really hurt," he said with a hiss as the tried to work the knots out of his back.
Raven sighed and shut her book. "Don't do that, you'll hurt yourself," she told him pointedly.
Dib stopped kneading his back and looked at her. "Well?" he asked.
"I know some stretches that should help," Raven offered in an offhanded voice. "Want me to teach them to you?"
Dib looked at his coffee cup and realized that he did not have enough caffeine coursing through his veins. "Ummm… give me two more cups of coffee, then yes, I'd like that."
Raven nodded and returned to her book. Dib sighed and poured himself another cup of coffee and sipped it. "I can't believe I'm actually going out of my way to help Zim," he said while shaking his head. "I mean, I totally hate his guts but somehow it just seems like the right thing to do. I know what I said last night about him being an individual and all, but he's still a complete asshole."
"Do you make a habit out of talking to yourself?" Raven asked without looking up from her book.
"Yes, yes I do," Dib replied and gulped down more coffee. "Usually people aren't around to overhear me though," he said with a coy grin before he polished off his second cup.
Raven rolled her eyes and continued to read while Cyborg and Beast Boy both hid laughter.
Robin and Starfire chose that time to come into the tower and looked around at the early morning scene. "Does Zim usually make a habit of sitting on top of airplane lights and using his handheld?" Robin asked curiously.
Dib snorted into his newly poured cup of coffee as the image came easily to his mind. He coughed a little and looked up at Robin. "Not that I know of," he replied, clearly amused. "However, my guess is that he wanted to get as far away from the 'filthy humans' as he possibly could."
The corner of Robin's lip curved upwards in a tiny smile. "Ah," he replied. "That sounds about right."
Dib shrugged and gave a short laugh. "Well, Zim is Zim I guess. He won't change, or at least, not for another… four hundred years or so," Dib laughed. "And this is almost tame too. I'm surprised nothing hasn't blown up yet."
"Well… the blowing up of anything would be particularly bad," Starfire said slowly. "However, is the fact that Zim is by himself not concerning anyone else?"
"Zim can take care of himself," Dib said kindly. "What's more is that he would probably be insulted by your concern. So, to be honest, I wouldn't even bother."
Starfire sighed. "I do not like the Irken race," she admitted. She paused and crossed her legs in mid air as if she was trying to think of what to say next. "But, after the conversation we had last night about individuality, I decided that perhaps it was all right to…" she frowned searching for a word that didn't include 'like' or 'friend' as she knew that was impossible.
"Accept him?" Dib offered. "Yeah, it's hard. You can't exactly like him, or call him your friend but really, what anyone wants is to be accepted. Zim is different, he has a place here, I guess. As long as he doesn't actually end up taking over the world, everything should turn out fine."
Starfire nodded. "It is in my nature to try and make friends of the people I wish to help. But, I do not think this will happen, will it?"
"Nope," Dib replied bluntly. "But that's okay. Gir and Minimoose will appreciate your efforts," he said honestly. "If you can get them to understand your efforts that is."
Starfire laughed. "Speaking of friends, are we friends Dib?" she asked suddenly.
Dib blinked. "I…guess?" he offered.
"Yay, new friend Dib!" Starfire cheered and gave Dib a hug that left the boy clutching his coffee cup and looking very confused as Starfire flew away.
"She likes openly declaring friendship," Robin explained. "It's just her way of greeting someone new, kind of."
"Ah," Dib said and drained his third cup of coffee. "Well, it's nice to have a friend," he admitted. "At least I'm not the crazy person anymore."
"No more crazy then the alien sitting on the top of the tower," Robin pointed out. "I'm going down below to monitor transmissions from our atmosphere to see if I can find anything out. Want to come?"
Dib shook his head. "Raven offered to help me stretch out first. I'm a little sore from sitting still for ten hours yesterday."
"All right," Robin replied with a smile. "Cyborg, Beast Boy, I want you two to come and help if I need it."
"Coming!" Beast Boy said as he finished off his tofu eggs and bacon.
"I still can't believe you eat that stuff," Cyborg said as they walked out of the main room.
"Dude, its just tofu! It tastes like the real thing!" Beast Boy replied in a scandalized voice.
"Have you ever had the real thing?" Cyborg asked.
"No…" Beast Boy admitted slowly. "Have you ever had tofu?" he asked.
"No," Cyborg replied shortly. "But still…" his argument faded off as they disappeared down the stairs.
"Ready?" Raven asked from Dib's elbow, making the teen jump.
"Uhhh, yeah, sure," Dib said nervously. Raven was quiet and seemingly angry almost all the time so he wanted to step lightly when he was with her.
Raven sat down and took a deep breath. "Okay, first, cross your legs and take several deep breaths to relax your body," she instructed.
Dib sat clumsily down and did just as he was told. When he looked up he saw Gir sitting next to him, giggling. "Can I dooo iiit?" the robot asked.
Dib laughed. "Sure," he said and nodded to Raven, relaxing a little more as the girl almost, but not quite smiled.
"All right, this first stretch helps to loosen the back muscles and your quads," she said as she leaned forward.
Dib awkwardly tried to mimic her while Gir just flattened himself. Robots were well known for their dexterity from lack of muscle.
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Zim typed furiously on his handheld as he glanced up at the sky. He narrowed one eye and gazed at a cloud for a second before returning to his programming. He sucked in a deep breath and exhaled slowly, wincing at the sudden sting in his lung-like organs. It had become very humid over the past few hours and he could tell from past experience that it was going to rain very soon. He would have to return to the shelter of the tower soon if he didn't want to get wet.
Zim hissed in displeasure as he thought about this. If only he had taken his paste bath earlier! "Stupid FILTHY huuuuumanssss…" he hissed under his breath as the humidity slowly became more and more unbearable. "How can they think that I will stay here without planning something?" he asked himself. "They're stupid ideals of TRUST and HOPE will be their downfall," he said with a smirk. He held a stylus over the handheld and frowned. "I don't understand," he admitted quietly. "Oh well," he concluded. "It's their fault."
Everything was silent for about ten minutes until he couldn't stand it any longer. The heavy air was condensing on his skin and making it hiss as it reacted to the water molecules. He entertained the thought of going to his Voot but decided against it because he did not know how… waterproof it would be if a violent storm were to come. It was a vacuum sealed object when it came to space but it recycled air, so if it were to recycle air during a storm, worst case scenario would be that it would take in the humid air and then trap him inside the Voot with it. Zim shivered at the idea as he went inside the tower. No, that would not be a very good idea.
Giving one more death glare to the sky for good measure, Zim jumped off his perch and walked into the shelter of the Tower before it began to pour outside. Zim took in a deep breath and regretted not taking a paste bath earlier. Then again, it wasn't exactly his fault that his civilization decided that it would be better if he was turned into a drone. He glared at the door and went downstairs to an empty living room.
Zim looked around, trying to make heads or tails of what happened, then decided that it wasn't really wasn't worth his trouble. He walked over to the half circular couch and flopped down into it to continue work on his matter destroyer bomb.
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Well, here you have it. The next part of the story. Things will be light for a few chapters before I dive back into the thick of it. Hee, Zim, he's such a little kid. Anywho, thanks so much for the reviews! They make me feel very happy inside.
Oh and, I'm not sure if Gaz will appear in this fic, but Tak should be showing up shortly. After this arc, at least. So, heads up for that. AND the scene where Zim is yelling 'boo' at Dib has been illistrated. It's at DeviantArt by the pen name 'NekoSalosa' if you want to see it.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Edit: Oh and, forgot to say: if, you ever need anything explained or if you have a question, go ahead and ask it in your review or PM me. Chances are I'll either answer you in the author's notes or PM you back. Just in case anyone is confused.