WARNING! This chapter is rated, uhhhh, high teen, for... Uhh... Dib being his usually creepy stalker self andgoing too far/Zim nudity? More or less. ZADR!
Kayla; Yes, you should get an account! :D And thank you, I think I sort of know what you're talking about, but tips would still be appreciated. I seem to do best with simple tips that tell me exactly what to do -cause I'm stupid? XD -
Leddybug; Yes, I'm afraid I'm not very nice to Gir am I? ._.' I just have a hard time writting for him. He's completely random, but still has a personality. Most people seem to either just use quotes from the show, or make him sound like a twelve year old with two much suger who's trying to be funny and failing. I don't wanna do that... So I kill him? :P I don't know. XD It does seem to be one of few ways to knock Zim off his high horse and get him to feel sorrow and maybe understand people better. He's close to Gir, like... An annoying little brother, sort of, so he's one of the few things Zim holds dear enough to be effected by. Also yes, there will be some preditor-Zim, but I'm hoping to save most of that lovely creepiness for 'Prisoner of Nightmares'.
InsomniaticFrenchToast; Dib's obsession is VERY creepy. ;) And I'm afraid it's going to get more so. He is one poor, neglected little boy with a rather diseased, thoroughly consumed and obsessed mind. It's part of what makes him such a fun character. And you're right- in case it isn't clear, yes, he has feelings for Zim, but not exactly 'love'. Not yet. At the moment it's mainly centered on his need for attention and obsessive compulsive clinginess to an alien who; while he denies this; he thinks is highly attractive in his inhuman, foriegnity. He just needs to be close to someone he can talk to and spend time with and do things with; he's NEVER had that before. A single freind would be a great big chunk of heaven to him.
To everyone else, thanks for the love and encouragement! Please keep up the reviews! :D
~~~•~~~
The alien conqueror was late again the next day. Dib whipped his head around the moment the classroom door was slammed open by the little green person, and the earthling grinned, trying not to laugh out loud. He wasn't sure if the stiffled light giggles flitting around in his chest, were caused more by the irken's current upsetted looks, or his own lack of sanity.
Zim's hair was ruffled, sticking out everywhere, fluffed, spiked, and knotted, all accidentally. The artificial 'wig' substance was spilling down the back of his neck and down his face, partially covering his eyes, which were encaged in darker rings of skin.
All in all, he looked a little bit better then yesterday. Maybe whatever was wrong was improving?
Zim had come to school again. That was what mattered. Dib wondered cheerfully whether his obsession's absence was finally over.
The boy considered the dark rings around the alien optics with both scientific curiosity, and unhealthy awe. Irkens got that too? Was it from lack of sleep, like with a human? But Irkens didn't need sleep so that couldn't be right. Maybe exhaustion... Hmmm...
The fabulously bright red uniform was wrinkled and seemed weathered, less striking. The same went for the invader's skin tight black pants, and his gloves and boots had lost their polished-until-raw look.
Dib cocked his head, watching every sharp yet fluid movement as the Irken swung into his chair, once again ignoring the scolding he got from their seemingly vampiric teacher. A minute or two passed in empty normalicy.
Suddenly anxious, Zim threw a pointed glance across the room, seeing Dib, right in his chair where he belonged, watching the alien stiffly yet dreamily. The Irken smiled in an amused way, giving an almost darkly pleased look, in response to the male's presence, before settling back in his seat, reaching around himself to open and feel through a small compartment in his pak, soon pulling out a notebook and a very expensive, fancy looking pen.
The Irken tapped one end of the pen on his chin, then began scribbling something in his notebook. Dib's eyes widened in interest and determination. At last, Zim was doing something. Maybe even something worth watching! Compulsively, he pulled his legs up so his feet braced on his seat, getting himself into a kneeling position on his chair for more hight, and leaned over, holding onto his desk to keep from falling right out. He was trying in a very conspicuous mannor, to see across the classroom and decipher what sort of drawings or letters were being formed through the black ink staining and flowing into the white paper from the decorative, shiny pen.
It looked like the alien was writing in his native script; lots of tiny, curving, sharp shapes and hard, solid blocks that needed to be shaded in.
Dib leaned over further, squinting, taking one hand off his desk to adjust his glasses. It was almost impossible to see from this distance.
"Get outta my space creep!"
The kid seated beside Dib suddenly grabbed his attention by snatching a firm fist full of the black haired boy's shirt collar, and pulling/pushing him to the side and away from them. Dib tried not to lose his balance as he was twisted sideways in his chair, but a shove against his back had him falling out of his desk to land on hard tile.
Zim had heard the kid snapping at Dib, but he didn't pay attention until he heard the judicial thud. At that his head snapped up, eyes wide, to see what happened. Unexpected anger bubbled fast and strong in his midsection.
Several kids laughed and called the young human names, and Ms. Bitters icily told him to get back in his desk where he belonged. Dib just drew in an awkward breath, blinking several times to get his senses back, as he leaned forward, grabbing the edge of the chair to hoist himself back into place.
A soft noise made him pause and adjust his glasses while looking around confused. It wasn't in any way related the taunting snickers of his peers as he sat back into place, more like the sound of animalistic snarling. His eyes found Zim and stuck, as they always seemed to; about everything.
-Dib had a hard time denying the idea that his staring might have something to do with a not-quite-scientific interest in the alien's 'perfect, and superior' body.-
Was that Zim?... It was, wasn't it? No human could make that noise, but it still seemed... odd, to hear it from Zim. Only on the rarest and most threatening occasions, did Zim resort to 'primitive animalistic noises', and that generally pertained to things like grunts, muffled annoying whines, and other vocalizations that humans were perfectly capable of. This was a growl.
The extra terrestrial had a vicious glare jumping from person to person in the classroom. Retractable claws were straining the tips of Zim's three digit gloves as he griped his desk with strength to murder. His mouth was a strait line, but Dib could tell his teeth were gritted.
Human filthies! Dib was so superior to all of them and they dared treat him like that? This planet was messed up. Zim wanted to strangle them all one by one. It might help his stress.
That growl had obviously originated from Zim.
Dib cocked his head, studying all the more... 'merciless' bits of the Irken conqueror. Long strong limbs for running, grabbing, holding captives suffocatingly still. Lots of pearl white fangish teath, delicate looking little black claws that slid out into longer, curved talons. That deep, throaty rumbling threatening snarl.
Dib had theorized for a while that, despite fizzling on contact with every earth meat Dib had thrown at him so far, Irkens showed signs of a preditorial ancestry.
It seemed unnervingly, disturbingly thrilling to the boy. He squirmed a little in his seat, somehow feeling ever more captivated by the creature of fantasy and science fiction.
How long had Irkens been evolving for? How many millions of years beyond the human race? They seemed so close to perfection, yet they still held these little things from their primitive past.
Just how much animalistic carnivore traits HAD they retained?
It was... interesting. Mind consuming, for Dib.
Zim seemed simply soaking in an unnatural beauty and dangerous, jerky grace.
The insults and chuckles and whispers over Dib's fall had stopped, everyone had their attentions back to the front of the class. Simple minds, short attention spans.
Zim looked over at Dib again, seeming perhaps slightly pleased in some way, satisfied, before going back to whatever he was putting in his notebook.
Dib wondered obsessively what Zim was doing, but common sense kept him in chains, restrained from leaning over the kid next to him again and trying to peek.
Just like yesterday; the bell rang, the kids ran out screaming. Zim sighed, finished the last scraps of what he was doing, then snapped his book shut before a certain boy who'd dashed across the room, got a chance to see inside. Dib pouted where he stood, right behind Zim, leaning into his space obnoxiously, hands on the back of the irken's chair. His eyes had barely taken in a symbol or two of what master-plan the irken had created on the paper. Maybe the boy could snatch the note away when Zim wasn't watching?
With a huff, and a quick distasteful frown in Dib's direction, as if sensing the human's thoughts, Zim turned himself away from the teen, swung his arm around behind himself, and thrust the book inside a compartment in his pak, snapping it shut with emphasis. Dangit.
After that the alien stood up quick but stiffly, twisting on his heals, and he marched out of the classroom. He didn't bother to even look at Dib. The human frowned, nervous verging on hurt.
The Irken had always insisted on his superiority, and that Dib was below him, unworthy, like dirt. But as long as the alien looked him in the eye, ranted, and fought with him, even showed an occasional calm friendliness such as letting him borrow something once a year on high interest... Dib had never put weight on his supposed 'inferiority' as a human. Now that he was being ignored, it seemed Zim had put some weight on his words. It felt awful to be unnoticed by the one person whom he'd always counted on for attention. Predictably, he hurried after the invader like a well trained dog on a leash.
Zim heard his rushed footsteps as the boy caught up to him and grinned for a hidden second. Exactly as planned. The Dib was quite pathetically dependable due to his neediness for attention.
The extra terrestrail had had nothing to do for a while. No transmissions since when they'd stopped coming in suddenly a few nights ago. He needed something to do now.
Perhaps... If Dib was a good boy... Zim might try a little... Experiment.
That was what it would be to him. Why would he bother studying something as complicated as human 'love' if not for amusement and self serving intrigue? It certainly wouldn't help his mission. It would be a... A side project.
And for now he'd just be starting to look into it a tiny bit, when he felt like it, to see if he'd enjoy it at all.
When Zim thought about it, he'd also prefer to keep Dib more or less sane if he could. A vegetable-brained arch nemesis could be killed by just pushing them out of a chair. Not very exciting at all. Yes, if Dib wanted this 'love' with him, and needed to be with him for his sanity's sake, like he'd insisted... Then... Maybe.
Zim smirked triumphantly to himself, expressive eyes reflecting his deep level of thought, as he put a finger to his mouth.
Hmmmmm, indeed! He'd follow up his maybe with a light yes, do some research, all just for something to do, and the learning experience, not to mention he was curious how the boy would be effected. The Dib was so obedient already. It would be interesting, Zim thought, to be in a position of even more control over him.
If the idea of the relationship became disturbing to the Irken, he could sever it and walk away at any time right? Have everything go back how it was- have everything go his way, either way, right?
For now though, he'd have a plan to work on... Later. When he felt like it.
The cracked up, sickly pale and darkened brown hallway echoed the footsteps of the two as once again they'd been left behind in the lunch rush. Zim seemed to be leading, with Dib just a step or two behind him, but the alien wasn't really watching where he was going.
Dib cleared his throat. At the sound, Zim's thoughts popped and he almost turned to look at the human, but then decided to keep acting as unaware of Dib's presence as possible, see how that affected his future slave. He continued to stare strait ahead, and hold down the paranoia telling him to keep an eye on the boy only a step behind him and to his left. His proud little inhuman chin was up in the air, eyes appearing bored with everything in the world, lower lip out in a pout, trying to appear depressed like before, yet still dignified.
It actually looked pretty dumb. Dib had a hard time not laughing or asking Zim jokingly if he was high or something.
In truth, the idea of possibly starting this new side-mission had the invader feeling much more happy and alive and full of Zim-ness and purpose then before. The depression was fading a little at last, with his mind off his shattered life and empire.
"So... How have you been?" Dib's voice had a shy hesitance, trying to find some way to start a conversation, but immediately feeling that what he'd chosen to say was dumb and condemning himself for it. The boy fell back a step or two, staring at his feet, fumbling his hands into his pockets.
Zim spent several seconds considering whether to answer with a half truth or complete lie, and how to make himself sound most uncaring, and still more or less ignore Dib.
He shrugged his thin, almost femininely fragile shoulders, and grunted out a little 'meh' noise.
Dib's eyebrows went up and pinched together and he looked unhappily to the side. Why was Zim ignoring him? Did he do something wrong recently?
...
Was this all about him asking for a relationship? His face warmed up a degree or two. That had been almost a week ago now. It was starting to fade from his regular thoughts. It seemed like an unspeakable stupidity of the past. Zim seemed to want little to do with Dib now, after that... But he'd left that note in his locker! He had to be considering it! Zim wouldn't hesitate to say a very flat, angry, insulting 'no' if he wanted to- and he kindof had when Dib initially asked... But then, apparently, he'd changed his mind?
That... That note WAS from Zim right?
Dib had an epiphany of horror, that maybe someone at school was playing a wicked, wretched joke on him, but then he tossed the thought away. The letter had been one word, incredibly spartanic.
Someone would have to know the two of them incredibly well, AND know of Dib's visit to the irken's base the day before.
That ruled out every person on earth...
Except...
Gaz. And Dib wouldn't put it past her to do something like that. She seemed to know everything about everyone.
He wasn't sure what purpose meddling in his life on this level would serve her though.
No, the note was from Zim. It had to be.
At least he wanted to believe it was.
The Irken studied his fingers as he thought, still walking down the memorized route of several hallways, almost to his destination, going at a slow, leisurely pace. He still hadn't the slightest interest in the deadly 'food' of the planet, but to appear normal he still had to at least show up in the cafeteria every school day.
Zim was feeling Dib's eyes on him from behind, something he was absurdly used to yet annoyed and uncomfortable with at the same time.
His pak-brain was still focused on the human's question for some reason. How HAD he been? A very vague inquiry, but Zim knew how this piece of the boy's culture worked. People said, "I'm okay." without thinking, unless they were having an absolutely terrible day and were very honest, in which case they complained away to the person who'd asked. Zim had been having an absolutely terrible few MONTHS, and he was a very honest soldier... However he was also pretending to ignore Dib, for no reason whatsoever except that he felt like screwing around with Dib's head to relieve some stress. So he answered 'meh.' How incredibly clever of him! At least he thought it was clever.
Zim thought everything he did was clever. When it wasn't- it was someone else's fault.
However his current attempt to ignore the earthling didn't stop him from beginning to wonder how Dib had been lately. Zim had seen so little of him, he'd been so busy. What did the boy do when his alien wasn't around to bother and stalk? Did the lack of Zimness affect the male's sanity like Dib had mentioned? Curiousity won the irken over. Without turning to look over his shoulder, Zim questioned;
"And how has Dib been?"
The boy jerked his head up, startled. He really hadn't expected the self-centered alien to return such a more or less caring, or at least customary, inquiry. Especially not after giving such an uninterested answer.
A light smile flickered on the Dib's lips.
"I've been bored as hell, ready to pull my own hair out."
Zim raised his eyebrows without looking back at the human. He'd never heard someone answer quite that way before. And why would Dib want to pull his nice, fluffy head fur out? Strange little eartheniod...
The boy wondered if it would be out of place for him to add how desperately he'd missed Zim- or did the invader already know?
When they reached the cafeteria, they somehow split from each other again, without thought, thanks to habbit. Dib sat beside his sister, and Zim sat alone at his table in the corner, poking his food with a white plastic fork in such a forlorn way that Dib wanted to go sit by him. For some reason though, he couldn't make himself get up and walk over. The teen just wound up arguing quietly with himself all through lunch about it.
Recess was brief, and Zim made himself scarce that day. Even his nemesis, who'd become so perfect at hounding him down, following some invisible trail or instinct to the alien, was unable to find Zim; though in all fairness he didn't really look much. Nervous hope and embarrassment were still forcing him to give Zim space, at least until his all-altering decision about their relationship was made more clear.
Was he still even considering it? Or had it faded from the invader's flawed memory?
Either way, Dib didn't see much more of Zim for quite a while.
~~~•~~~
At the end of the day, the roles were reversed.
Even though Zim tried to look bored, and conceal his intent as he wandered around aimlessly, -invaders needed no one! No one!- he was in truth, seeking out the earthling. He had nothing important to say to Dib, just wondering, not hoping of course, just wondering,
"Really, I do not care... Really..."
if the boy intended to stalk/walk him home.
But now, to Zim's mild anger and deeper disappointment, he was the one who couldn't find the other. Had the boy already gone home? How upsetting. He thought he'd trained the smelly mammal better then that...
~~~•~~~
No. Dib hadn't gone home. He had gone to Zim's home, with his school backpack full of tiny spy cams he'd gotten from his dad's work.
He wanted to finish his little job before the Irken returned, when he was as unnoticeable as possible. If he wanted a relationship with Zim, it would best if the alien didn't know of his stalking rituals.
But he couldn't stop. He needed Zim, every waking moment...
Whenever Zim left his base, all security went to the main entrances, and anything really important. The rest of the monitoring became less efficient by a long stretch.
Dib knew this, among thousands of other little tips for breaking in to his enemy's lair. He'd become quite the pro at it actually.
While it still racked his nerves and made his heart beat heavy with the anticipational fear of getting caught, Dib managed to place every spy cam without detection. It was barely even something to tell about, it seemed too easy.
~~~•~~~
Dib got back home, the same way he got into Zim's place; without a single interesting event.
Gaz had been home for a while. She was watching TV and didn't return his 'hello'.
The boy was used to this, but still waited sadly for a second or two to see if he'd be noticed. Gaz ignored him, just like Zim had at school. Melancholy, he turned away and left her alone.
By now it was supper time. Dib put together a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for himself, then, same as every day, went strait up to his room, grabbing his laptop off its table, plopping down on his bed, and opening up the camera feed from Zim's house. He had a minute or two to lay himself down comfortably and eat a bite or two from his sandwich, before Zim came home. The alien was notably late, carrying shopping bags which he dropped lazily on the entrance room floor. Dib wrote this down on a sheet of paper he had handy, and tried to zoom in and see what Zim had bought himself. The bags were labeled from a home improvement and construction project store Dib knew, which meant tools and supplies like metal and wood bits, odd little rubber things, nails, screws, bolts and the like. Zim was making something and apparently needed earth technology. Strange. Usually he bought everything he needed through Irken networks and assembled everything with his own machinery. Was he running out of supplies and improvising earth stuff?
The alien stood in the center of the room and sighed, looking around in complete boredom. He walked a few hesitant steps toward the kitchen, then sped up slightly, apparently having decided what to do with himself.
All the while, wide, curious, amber eyes watched his every move, their owner laying on his stomach on his bed, never glancing away from the screen.
Zim passed in and out of view of one or two cameras, on his way down into and throughout his lab. To Dib's surprise and great interest, the camera in a new room he'd just found, showed the door opening and a certain someone stepping in. Zim had gone strait there. Wonderful! Dib wouldn't have to wait long at all in discovering what the area's purpose was! Dib fidgeted in interest, taking another large, quick bite out of his sandwich.
The room was comparatively small, and very bright and clean looking. There was a counter, a few doors for small cupboards, and a place with lots of tiny holes in the floor and in the ceiling above it, like ducts for some substance to come from or go into.
Zim walked strait over towards the counter, then reached down, grabbed the edge of his uniform,
And in one swift, overly simple movement,
Zim yanked the garment over his head and off, tossing it on the counter, now shirtless.
Dib almost choked slightly on his food, feeling as though some large weight had been dropped inside his chest, or something were squeezing him. He... Hadn't quite expected that... He'd never even seen Zim in a different outfit, let alone shirtless. He swallowed heavily, and he felt a strange tingle of... Was it shock, or a guilty sort of 'less-then-good, I-shouldn't-be-watching' anticipation, when Zim reached down to tug off his pants as well.
The alien's anatomy and biology had always been a facination of Dib's, but seeing him naked... Somehow that seemed... Different. It shouldn't have been. He should have felt normal 'scientific curiousity', but something else was coming in to play.
Dib felt strange. Not quite ill, not quite light-headed, and much too thoroughly interested, unable to look away, heart beating faster and heavier then before. As his cheeks reddened, he came to realize the situation more realisticly, and take in the somehow mindblowing fact that he was really seeing Zim... Uncovered.
Zim had removed all his clothes, left them in a pile on the counter. The alien was completely naked.
The fault-less expense of soft looking green skin, the light curve of his sides- non-masculine but barely enough to seem particularly feminine either. Zim's body was the farthest thing from muscular. He was thin, but not starving, and had such a deceivingly fragile look to him. Small, almost bony shoulders, his hips were small as well, but curved enough to be noticeable, and draw the male to stare, helplessly interested, at the irken's pelvis area.
"He has nothing... Visible... That a human would have in that area... I wonder how ...different, he is..."
The boy's face was flushed red, and he bit his lip, some unknown feeling pulsing invisibly and silently through him.
Seeing Zim, of all people, naked, should not have been as satisfying as it seemed to be for the teenager's hungry over-abundance of long ignored hormones.
The alien walked across the room towards the place where there were holes in the floor and ceiling and pressed a button in the wall. Dib's wide eyes followed the movement and traced up the alien's legs. A pinkish purple gas seeped up from the floor, to be sucked into the ceiling vent.
Was this how the Irken cleaned himself? Like how humans took bathes, except instead of scrubbing with soap and water he just had to stand in some thick vapor?
For once, Dib couldn't care less about such scientific questions.
His mind was just focused on how very, very naked Zim was, because that seemed much, much more important right now for some reason, and he'd never felt this way before but it was a very good, tingly, exciting sensation and he was thoroughly enjoying himself, not really stopping to think, compulsive, taking it all in. His breathing rate had changed. His eyes were fixed, roaming all over on the beautiful alien who he'd known was attractive, but hadn't imagined could be so unspeakably more so when undressed.
Gorgeous red eyes, and easily breakable, long, sleek, cutely perked antenna, the compact, shorter, more spherical ribcage, the inhumanly thin limbs with their pretty little claws. It was inhuman, so wasnt it... Not very good... That Dib found these things so appealing? What was that called? Wasnt there a name for- yeah, Xeno... Xenophiliac? That didn't sound like a very desireable label.
Still the boy watched. Dib licked his lips, squirming, uncomfortable in a nice new way.
He wasn't sure when fascination turned into a lusting desire, but it had, and sometime around when his wonderings shifted towards more and more touchy-feely subjects, Dib finally seemed to realize what exactly, in blunter terms, he was doing.
He was watching Zim while the alien was naked.
A sensation of awful guilt flushed through him and quickly spoiled his enjoyment of Zim's sexy, exposedness. In a sudden moment of decision, he slammed his computer shut and off, swallowing thickly, having forgotten his supper entirely, leaving the sandwich. He'd lost his appetite.
That could not have been what it was. That couldn't have happened. If Zim had stripped down to skin, Dib wouldn't have sat and watched... Would he have?
But he did.
And if he did, it would have been purely for science, right?
It hadn't been.
And watching a naked ALIEN had turned him on. He was... left with a lot to think about.
Wasng that unnatural? Wrong?
He knew he needed Zim, and... Liked... Him. But attraction... LUST, that was something else, something he'd never felt before and knew nothing of and had no one to ask for advice about. Even if his dad would bother talking to him about such 'interests' and 'feelings,' wouldn't the fact that Zim was an alien scramble that up a little?
He decided to go to bed and try to sleep that night. He'd lost interest in spying.
That had been just too unexpected. Over the line. His observing of Zim shouldn't have gone that far.
He felt awful... And he couldn't get the images out of his head.