The massive globe of white-hot plasma known as Sol lit the dozing teen's face with soft rays of sunlight, far too early for his taste. He hissed at the mild assault to his state of peace, wanting to lift his arms to cover his face – only to find that they had prior occupations. Something warm and slightly soft was against his chest, and his lanky arms were encircling it.

What… was that? Wasn't blankets, hopefully wasn't a giant rat (thankfully didn't smell like one). The reason he wasn't jumping to his feet like a poorly trained stuntman was… hmm. He felt sort of sleepy and content. Normally he'd be up and running by now if it wasn't a frigid winter day.

Could it be to do with the thing pressed into his chest?

Still struggling to regain full awareness, the sleepy teen let his eyes fall half-mast. A soft whiffling noise was just barely present. At this point Dib would be usually reaching for something hard and heavy. Why did he feel so at ease? A glimpse of stark skin told him he wasn't wearing his coat, and no blankets could be seen. Yet it was mid-autumn. He should've been cold, but he felt anything but. What could possibly produce such intoxicating warmth?

Kicking his legs out in a stretch, Dib rolled over; this action elicited a soft groan from the slightly-plush thing on his chest, which in turn had the half-mast eyes snapping wide and the teen reaching for his glasses before he remembered he'd left them on. He looked down.

Eh? What was Zim doing on his chest?

Dib blinked several times, nonplussed and feeling still very muddled. Was the little green alien trying to crush him in his sleep? If so he was doing a poor job at best, never mind that it was almost physically impossible for the tiny thing to crush him without some kind of aiding piece of furniture.

Looking down at the Irken's face stuffed that theory into a hole and boarded said hole up. He looked unnaturally calm and relaxed, possibly happy or at least content? Wait – Zim enjoyed sleeping against Dib? Weren't they en-… oh.

Memories of last night were creeping warily back into his sleep-drugged brain, overriding his confusion and kicking it out on its rear. He remembered; Zim had had a nightmare, they had cuddled. Dear lord, they had cuddled.

In a slightly more normal state of mind than a few hours ago, the boy felt a light heat assail his cheeks. Ugh, stupid hormones. They must be what were causing him to feel… kind of pleased. The alien's face looked so calm in sleep – his normally rigid features had softened, looking almost innocent, which made an inexplicable, slightly sick feeling flicker up within. Dib almost wanted to say he looked sweet. Almost. Hell, there was no one to hide it from, was there? He certainly thought this face looked better on Zim than the haunted mask the alien had worn waking from his troubled sleep; that raw, tortured demeanour had sent chills right down through Dib's spine.

If cuddling made that contagious fear go away, Dib was more than willing to put up with it; not to mention the Irken's warmth was more effective than a hot water bottle. Besides, he felt too lazy to push Zim off him.

Nevertheless, the teen sighed and shifted a little – then winced when sharp needles were released from his tailbone. Man, his butt was killing. He shuffled awkwardly backward and propped himself up more on the makeshift trench coat-cum-pillow.

The sleeping bundle shuddered and yawned a bit, showing those unnatural pink zipper-teeth which had always looked a little frightening to Dib (to say the least), and unfurling his lekku in the process. The insectile feelers stood straight atop Zim's head for a few seconds and shuddered, and the human's eyes were inadvertently drawn to them.

Loathe to admit it, Dib had always had, well, a little soft spot for those glossy appendages; the way they jumped and twitched at the slightest change in their owner's surroundings had drawn his eye on more than one occasion. Oddly enough, he'd found little information on them during his hacking sprees, but he could determine that, in a nutshell, they were sensitive. He wondered how sensitive…

He flinched when the alien stirred again, feeling caught out and a little guilty; but Zim only hummed and curled up a little, a soft rumbling heard by the teenager. Dib couldn't help but grin at the sound; it was so funny to hear the nefarious alien conqueror purring like a meek little kit. It seemed to make light of all that had happened over the past week, and radiated an odd sense of peace, which infected Dib. Zim's feelers gave small quivers, which made him smile more. Would it hurt to touch them? Not roughly, only a light touch? Zim'd barely feel it, or so he thought.

The touch was more of a stroke, but no sooner had he put pressure on the antenna than a loud, explosive purr came from the Irken. Dib reeled, saved himself from toppling; and stared, blinking rapidly. How did that even work? How could such a tiny creature make a noise like that?

And the vibrations, dear lord; he bit his lip. Thoughts of stopping were foremost in his mind, but his hand kept stroking the antenna. It gave happy little tics that made Dib feel strange, and the mild squirming from Zim made him feel stranger. Six sharp little talons kneading into his shirt shrieked stop and be murdered, and so did the little mewls now being produced by the alien.

Dib, however, was aware that he'd gone much too far, Much much too far. He forced down the blush and forced his hand to stop, which it did reluctantly.

The mewls died off with a short chirp of displeasure, and the purring subsided slightly. But it was still rather potent, and was getting to him. Okay. Okay. Perhaps now was a good time to get Zim off him. Maybe even wake the alien – although he seemed to be enjoying his rest. Hmm, what to do? Dib pondered for a few seconds, before coming to the conclusion that he would get out from under the Irken (his legs were cramped and his butt was still killing), get some food out of his bag (he couldn't remember when he'd last eaten) and then decide what to do about Zim. Keeping in mind that he was technically in his (possibly former) rival's base, or at least where he had made his home; so Zim was technically his host. Even if the host was currently unconscious and injured, must be polite to the host rather than sitting here deciding what to do with him…

Wow. It really had been a rough night if his train of thought was this skewed.

It then occurred to him that he hadn't done any of this yet, so he proceeded to put the first step of his makeshift plan into action. Only he didn't get past hoisting the alien up. The claws were stuck in his shirt.

Dib bit his lip. Right. He could handle this; a little jiggle should do it.

It didn't.

He tried harder. He got them stuck in further.

It was rather impressive that Zim didn't wake up.

Fine. Okay, it was still good. He'd simply have to pry the little claws out, one by one. Easy! Tentatively, Dib took a grasp of the first claw in his thumb and forefinger, and pulled. It came out cleanly. Success! Now the second one. God, the purring was distracting him. In more ways than one. Stop it, nasty hormones! I don't need your intervention right now! He eased the second claw out, and the purring stopped.

Zim whined.

Dib blinked confusedly at the alien for a heartbeat, checking he was fine. It was just a whine. He's probably starting to wake up. He nodded, moving his dextrous fingers onto the third stuck claw.

Zim wailed.

"The f-!" Dib sat bolt upright, thoughts scattered and terrified. Zim grit his teeth, talons clenching and digging into the skin, hard. Dib stifled a yelp and tried to move backward, but the assailed assailant went with him.

The alien freaked out at the sudden movement, shrieking and digging his claws in further. Aghh! Stoppit!

"Zim!" The frightened human stopped himself shaking Zim's shoulder, remembering last time. "ZIM! He choked down a yelp of his own; Irken claws were painful.

The alien was twisting odd sounds together. He seemed to be saying a word, one Dib couldn't wrap his brain around among all the other thought processes that were clashing in his head. He heard it clearly once and something unusual struck through; it somehow reminded him obscurely of one of those old legends he'd loved as a kid. It kindled a spark of connection within him, but it was instantly whisked away as Dib succeeded in pulling the traumatised Irken off him; and watching as said Irken sprawled on the floor.

The green creature lay still for a long, long, stretching heartbeat, seeming so long that Dib's fear increased. The next moment huge magenta orbs flew open and a very startled alien sat up, facing the pale yellow daylight and the tawny-eyed boy with wide-eyed confusion in the eyes of both.

A/N: Ohh man. I wrote antenna fluff XD
It had to happen sometime...

I was going to have a different ending, but I wrote in this ending in celebration. Celebration that I finally know where I'm going with this! *o* Save that I still don't know what the ending is.

Enjoy, for the awkward fluff is coming to an end! (For now at least)

I'm glad I waited until this morning to edit and upload this time.

Oh yeah. I think I can safely say that this story is now pretty much a ZADR XD

I said I was going to answer reviews by PM didn't I? *falls to knees* I'm so sorry!