[A/N: doing "pressure" here bc i don't wanna do the other senses i have planned and bc i couldn't think of anything for "chemoreception" that i didn't already do (taste and smell uhgg) I did my best to make it different than a "touch" thing (but tbf the one that i called "touch" wasn't written w that intention, oooor fit the criteria so). And also the scary stuff???????? And Zim sleeps here, so pretend to HC that for this. It's kinda short.

TW/CW: tactile descriptions, sleeping/sleepy/tired, waking up, sharing a bed, stress, anxiety, fear, touching/petting, hugging/cuddling, comforting]

Zim had gone to bed exhausted, falling asleep soon after finding a comfortable spot on the bed. He slept facing the wall with his back facing the rest of the room. This configuration would be a sin, completely unheard of if he was still part of the Irken military: he would never be caught dead leaving his guard so far down. But now he had been relieved of duty for a few years already, and he was in a place that was just about the safest that he had right now, with enough friendly companions to feel almost 100% at ease to be so vulnerable. He was still anxious; but he was getting better at putting his defenses aside when he could.

He heard the bedroom door quietly open and close as he was still unconscious. The moments between then and when he felt a shift in the bed woke him up enough to comprehend what was happening. There was a mass that tilted the mattress behind him, which made a cold split between his body and the thin blanket that he had over him. The split grew to an uncomfortable gap, but was soon filled in with something warmer.

The solid density shifted the center of gravity of the bed. Zim's little body tilted and slid to comply, but was hindered by the rest of the environmental difference that had sat beside him. A familiar, ample branch reached over his midsection and gently laid upon his body. The heat on his back materialized against him as well, and something hard and round (and enormous) rubbed against the top of his own head.

It felt clear that something wasn't right. Dib usually jabbered on for a while, even when Zim was fully asleep. And he wasn't the type of person that was into spooning, especially so close. This kind of cuddling: coming in and using Zim like a teddy bear; this only happened two or three times before, at least that Zim could remember. Sometimes researching horrible monsters that absolutely did exist on this planet, in this dimension at 3:42am all alone in a literal alien base is not something for the faint of heart, but Dib could usually handle himself well enough.

Zim's eyelids twitched, but he didn't have the strength to open them. He turned his head less than a full inch, "Hnn," he mumbled. "Ssee ssum'thinnn scerryy??"

Dib grunted, rubbing his forehead into Zim's skin and pulling his little body close to him. The solid material of his pak pressed hard against his sternum. Whatever made Dib come in here like that stirred him enough to not care about that discomfort like he usually did.

Zim tried to not fall asleep immediately. "What wzz eht?"

Dib felt as if the air was heavy and stale. His heart was beating fast against Zim's pak, and his eyes dodged around even when they were closed. The cold creeping up his back lessened when he got under the covers, but even the mention of wanting to speak of the monster made it feel like it might be right behind him, or hiding somewhere deep in the shadows of the corners of the room. His muscles tensed hard until they were sore. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Thet'sss okeyyy…"

But the vision was still clear behind his eyelids, burning molten inside of his brain. A thin, pale figure towered over his whole life with almost no end in sight, even at the ground it stood upon. Its smoky tendrils suffocated his lungs and the whole world around him, binding him completely and mercilessly in place with no chance of the thought of escape. It had long, mechanical talons that would rip the soul from his very being if they were ever unsheathed, but were far from the most intimidating thing about this creature. Its emotionless, glassy eyes curved down at him and tore apart all of his dreams and hopes, all of the comfort and confidence, and every last shred of tender humanity in Dib into dust, atoms, and obliterated anything that remained. It was here, it was here. In his mind, in his nightmares, and any waking thought that it could ever reach. He shook as if he were frozen to his core, and his eyes couldn't hold back the tears that proved how truly terrified he was.

Zim felt the tremors all around him: in the hand on his chest and through the pak on his back and in the mattress underneath him. The anxiety around him made his own heart beat faster and made mind conjure up beasts that could be rattling Dib so harshly. He thought it was just a scare that was causing all of this, which always made Zim anxious because the passive fear from reading about horrifying things didn't usually affect Dib in this way. But when he felt a few droplets of warm water touch his skin, he knew that this wasn't anything ordinary that was terrifying his partner so badly.

Zim stretched his limbs in place for a second: only enough to give him the strength to flop his body to the opposite side. His knee and elbow barely stabbed into the mattress, and dropping his weight made a tiny quake. The stiff arm at his waist remained there as he changed position, which suggested that this embrace really was important to Dib. Zim scooted to remove the distance between them, and let gravity pull his chest against Dib's.

Zim swung his arm over and carefully reached for where he roughly thought Dib's face was. He touched his palm to just past his temples, and brushed Dib's hair with his fingers as he traced the outline to his cheek. "Zim'll keep ya safe." Zim sleepily craned his neck to try to connect his lips to Dib, kissing somewhere between his lip and his chin. Zim pulled his arm over Dib's shoulder and gave him a tiny exhausted squeeze before nuzzling his face against Dib's collarbone.

Dib held him close, and breathed deeply to relax a bit. Zim was obviously too tired to keep him safe if the monster really was in the room with them, but Dib knew that he meant what he said and would do his absolute best to keep his word. And that his presence here in his arms alone meant that the monster wasn't here in the room with them. Dib pulled Zim close to his body and snuggled into him. "Thank you, Zim." He still breathed heavily. "I… I-i love you."

Zim smiled at the confines as he drifted off again. "I love you much, Dibby."