FINNAAAALLLYYY. An update from me! I bet you guys thought I was dead, huh? Well no, in all actuality I went visiting my dearest girlfriend Mari (her DA page is linked on my profile) and spent New Years with her. She lives 4000 miles away in the US :3 so it was quite the trip and back. I also got caught up in doing a lot of coursework and all that madness. So no worries, I'm back now and hopefully we'll be getting back onto a regular writing/updating groove.

So yes, another chapter here! This one has a nice twist at the end I feel, and it's nice as I was worrying that the story was moving a little too slowly.

Anyways, enough of my babbling. ONWARD AND UPWARD!

Something was wrong. Zim wasn't sure what it was but something was wrong. Maybe it was himself, maybe there was a glitch in his programming somewhere that was causing these feelings. Maybe he was just ill with something, heck, Zim didn't know. What he did know however was that it was getting in the way of his training.

"Dammit Zim, what the hell is wrong with you?" Gaz spat out as she leaned over the irken, here eyes frowning down at him. "Can't you keep your head in the game for ten minutes? I was getting a high score there!"

"My apologies, Gaz-stink." The irken muttered as he picked himself back up, the last echoes of their simulation vanishing around them. "I was... distracted."

By his damn teacher. What was it about her that kept drawing his eye to her?

"You practically walked in front of that rocket," She scolded again, "What the hell were you thinking?"

He knew what he was thinking. He was thinking that she was on a high score roll and he wouldn't let that be stopped by a cheep shot from a hologram. The thing is though was why? Why did he do that? It was such a pointless action, no not just pointless, but detrimental to his own high score! And yet... he still had felt the need to stop a rocket with his face just so she could get the bonus points.

Why?

"I wasn't looking." He lied quickly. "My irken senses were blinded by your stupid human... ness." He finished with a roll of his hand.

"Yeah well next time just try and tune me out, kay?" Gaz chuckled a little, something she had been doing a lot lately, but Zim was sure she had yet to notice.

"Affirmative," the small irken agreed, brushing himself off, "For now however my belly rumbles for protein and sugar."

"Whatever." Gaz replied again, turning and looking over to the doorway to the hologram room. She was always bored when Zim got his 'sugar and protein' snacks, mostly because she couldn't eat any of them. She'd tried one of them and recoiled instantly, it being the most sour and sugary thing she'd ever tasted. "Can you make Gir make me a pizza?" She wondered out loud as the small irken began marching ahead of her in his odd marching step.

"... I'm going to imagine you didn't say that," Zim countered loudly, "Just as I'm still in the process of deleting the memory of the last time you asked Gir to make you a pizza."

Oh yeah, that. Huh. That hadn't been the most pleasant of experiences. Gaz shook her head, the images of cheese covered walls still fresh in her mind. "... how about we go out?"

The words seemed to just slip from her tongue, no real thought behind it. However, the moment she spoke she almost seemed to regret it. Why? It wasn't like it meant anything, even though it would technically be the first time she would have ever been out to eat with a boy who wasn't her brother.

The request surprised the irken slightly, however, he already knew his answer, even the idea didn't seem altogether... unpleasant. "I cannot eat earth foods, you know that." Zim scolded her. "We'll eat here."

"Oh come on, I've seen you, you can eat some things," She did have a point. Years of staying on this planet had done some good to his digestive tolerance after all, even if most food was still stomach burningly awful to him. "I know you like noodles."

"Noodles?" Now THAT perked his interest as it was one of the few human foods that he could eat without throwing up, although only as long as it was vegetable noodles. He doubted his body would ever be able to handle the meat of this world.

"... alright," He shrugged as the two stepped into the shuttle room elevator. "But you pay."

"What?" Gaz growled, "You're way more loaded than I am!"

"But it was your idea!" Zim counted quickly, "Therefore you have to pay! Besides, I can never understand your stupid earth moneys."

The young goth huffed, "Fine," and for a moment Gaz was about to say 'but you buy the next'. Than she realised this was most likely to be a one off, which again made it all the more strange. Why was Zim even agreeing to this? And why couldn't she get the word 'date' out of her head? It wasn't like she even liked Zim that way, although she had to admit, in the three days since their first fighting session together she had grown to... tolerate Zim a little more. Some of his quirks were less annoying and, dare she say it, kinda funny.

Besides, one thing she couldn't deny was that her lunchtimes were now much more entertaining. She and Zim would sit and discuss battle tactics, she'd tell him about how to punch properly and he'd tell her embarrassing secrets about Dib she didn't know. Like how he still had his old blue security blanket hidden under his pillow.

The trip to the noodle house wasn't that long. Zim simply put on his terrible disguise flew them there in his ship, disguising itself with a rather handy cloaking device. It was slightly surprising to the young woman, as Gaz had never been inside his ship before. Even though it was cramped, Gaz couldn't help but feel slightly prideful. She bet Dib had never been in Zim's ship.

There were few good tasting human meals, just as there were few good humans in general however Prof Chow's Noodle House was one of those few places that Zim actually liked.

"I'm thinking of kidnapping this Prof Lee and making him cook food so I may send it to my Tallest," Zim continued as he sat down, "They will surely send me more tanks and other blowy-uppy-stuff if I do!"

"Right," Gaz replied, sitting across from him. Again, that horrible little word 'date' would not leave her mind. This wasn't a date though, this was just two friends getting dinner together. Friends did that, right? She was sure they did. Wait, she was calling Zim her friend now? "Well what are you getting?"

"Food, duh," Zim frowned at her from across the table, "Why else would we be here?"

"... very witty," The teenager commented with a frown, "Any other smart ass comments you want to make?"

The irken smiled, for a moment, a sly intelligence flashing through his eyes as it sometimes did, "Only if you have any more smartass observations."

"Touché," Gaz fought back a smile. He was getting better at their banter, she'd noticed he was starting to react a little quicker, even at times daring light insults. Whether this was his natural boldness shining through or if he was feeling the same sense of companionship Gaz felt she wasn't sure. In some ways she wanted to leave it at that and yet, something inside her wanted to know more, to answer that little burning question in the back of her mind. Why was this fun?

The arrival of the waitress, a small yet well shaped jewish girl with sightly tanned skin and sunshine blond hair was a welcome break from her thoughts. She ordered the chow mien and Zim ordered a bowl of vegetable noodle soup. Zim got no drink, Gaz got a Mr Pib.

"So... erm..." She quickly put the straw to her mouth, the feeling of odd social awkwardness washing over her. What was she supposed to talk about? The training? They'd already done that today.

Zim too felt the odd sense of awkwardness, thus he took a stab in the dark. "So how is the Dib-beast? Is his pathetic body improving?"

"Yeah," Gaz replied, looking to one side for a moment, "He stopped sneezing on everything. I think he'll be fine by Monday."

"Not good," The irken mumbled to himself, "My training is not nearly complete."

Gaz was pleasantly surprised at this. She had thought that Zim was actually getting along well, he was certainly doing better at defending himself but his strength was still far below hers. "You still want to train? Even by next week?"

"Of course," Zim replied with a tone that sounded like he'd expected her to do so anyway.

"... But what about Dib? He's already noticed I come home later than normal, he only asked once but still, he'll notice something." The one time he'd asked Gaz just threatened to kick his ass, that shut him up in no time. But she knew her brother, he was told to shut up and that only made him want to find out even more.

Deny Dib something and he bent his whole being on getting it.

"I will deal with Dib," The irken replied with a simple wave of a hand, "I've been dealing with him for years, I can keep doing so even now."

"Yeah but he'll notice me standing in the background while you slap each other like girls." Gaz spoke with a smirk. "What will you do then?"

Zim paused, thinking for a moment before looking up, his contacts growing wide. "I will hide you! He can't find you if you're hidden."

The young teenager just blinked, "... right. I propose that we maybe break it up, we train on certain days, you fight Dib on the other. That way he keeps out of our business."

The irken considered this proposal, it worked, but... something was bothering him. It felt in some way connected to the feelings he'd been having lately whenever he saw Gaz, yet he couldn't name it. He spoke, but as he spoke, he did not recognise the way his voice sounded. "But that means we'll see each other less."

The tone of his voice was at once, blank, yet pulling, yet blunt in it's honest. Was he upset? Or just stating the obvious? She tried to search his eyes but whether it was his contacts or that he was damn good at hiding his feelings she didn't know but she found nothing within them. Only an intense curiosity to see how she would reply.

"... well it's not like we're friends, right?" She folded her arms and avoided his eyes.

She didn't see him say it but she heard his reply and inside, a piece of her which had been building this whole week crumbled.

"Right."

GASP DRAMATIC ENDING GASP.

So yes, time to kick some extra drama juice into this and have some more fun writing the growing romance between the two. I have some other ideas in mind as well, so it's all looking bright.

The first reference here is Prof Chows, aka, the awesome DOC CHE'S NOODLE HOUSE. Love eating at that place.

Also, the waitress who serves them is Zimadonna, aka, a good friend of mine on DA who has some awesome IZ art up :D CHECK HER OUT.

That's all for now folks. Please tell me what you liked, didn't like etc etc and next week you're all getting a pleasent surprise... a chapter focused on a certain scythed haired, flu ridden paranormal detective...