[A/N: apparently "sense of balance" can be called "equilibrioception." And also i guess this 'sense fic' is for a lack thereof, idk. No idea why this one came out so FREAKING long, it's not even good. It's not important why, but they have a bigger ship here than Zim's regular Voot.

They're probably kida ooc here. /

TW/CW: dizziness, imbalance, vertigo, minor head injury/concussion, broken glasses, blurry vision, riding in a vehicle, pain, minor frustration, worry, supporting weight, assisted walking, weird flirting, head scan, anti-gravity, cuddling]

Zim was a pretty decent pilot because of all of the training that he had for it. He could navigate channels as small as human capillaries, and hold his own well in dog fights using literal planets as ships. He wasn't at all perfect at it, but his companions knew that he was probably the best of all of them; and that he got particularly touchy when anybody made any remarks about his flying.

His landing however….

It felt fine breaking past the outer parts of the atmosphere, but something hit somewhere around the mesosphere that made the ship rocky and hard to keep a handle on. Zim tried to keep it steady: he adjusted levels and flipped switches and held on tight to the controls. Dib tried to help as well, being the ship's copilot. It was probably quite how bumpy it already was that made him nervous and not able to concentrate as much as he needed to.

They must have hit a current of turbulence or something, as the ship jumped and jostled around, and flung its passengers around in the cabin. Dib hit his head against the console, and Zim was tossed out of and back into his seat. Despite the violence, Zim heard how hard Dib collided with his controls, and even the crunching of his glasses getting smashed. He grunted, but Zim shook himself back into concentration so that he could take over all of the controls and get them somewhere safer.

It took some doing, but they finally got back to the base. As soon as he could, Zim jumped out of his seat and went over to Dib to see if he was alright. He was sitting up in his seat, but he had his head in his hands and was clearly unable to do much. "Dib, are you okay??!" He leaned on his arms to try to get a look at his face.

Dib's head hurt really badly. He would have been worried about a concussion, that is, if he wasn't sure that the ship was still making crazy maneuvers here on solid ground. He squinted his eyes because he wasn't able to see things clearly, but that wasn't helping his current condition. He groaned at the pain and frustration about everything that was going on. "Zim, Zim! We gotta land first!!"

Zim made a confused face and shook his head. "What?? No, no, we already landed, Dib-guy."

He grunted. "Ah, d-did we???" He smothered and clenched his face with another pained grunt. He whined.

"You hit your head pretty badly." Zim looked around to try and find his glasses, which were underneath the control panel. He reached down to grab them and found that some of the plastic broke around one of the lenses, and that there was a crack going through the glass. "And your glasses broke." He scooped them up into his pak with one of his mechanical arms. "We'll get new ones later. Right now, let's get you out of the ship." He held onto one of Dib's arms and helped pull him up to his feet.

"Ah!!" Dib slipped down and tried to grab himself by the console and the back of the chair. Zim tripped forward from it. "Zim, are you sure the ship has landed??! It feels like we're still in the air!"

Zim looked at him with concern. "Y-yes Dib, we're in the bunker now." He leaned forward and tried to get Dib to put his arm over his shoulders. "Come on. We'll get you to the medbay to see if anything can be fixed."

Zim sternly pulled Dib up out of the chair. Dib tried to support himself with the console so that he didn't completely crush Zim. Zim tried to tug him along so that they could at least get out of the cramped cockpit. Dib stopped just before he was outside of the ship and clenched his hands hard around the doorframe. Zim almost tumbled forward because Dib stopped so suddenly. "Dib! We need to get off the ship!" He wrapped his arms around his waist and tried to push him into the bunker.

Dib held on tight in his stance. "N-no, Zim!!" He sounded nervous. "W-we're too high up. I'm scared i'm gonna fall."

Zim was getting frustrated, but Dib's voice was so genuinely uneasy that he stopped pushing him. "You're not gonna fall." He spoke gently and softened his grip to give him a sweet hug. "Zim'll help you stand." Zim unfurled two of his mechanical legs to be outside of the cockpit to give them more support.

Dib shivered because he was still nervous. He took a few seconds to move the foot that was closer to Zim to be on the ground. It didn't seem as far away as he thought it was, which gave him a little bit of confidence that he really could get out of the ship. Zim jumped out, but held on to Dib's body so that he wouldn't be afraid or fall. He could feel how tense Dib was as he tried to move his other foot to stand up. He continued to hold onto the doorframe, but both of his feet were on the ground now.

"See?? It's not so bad." He stretched out his other two spider legs so that they had a very good amount of stability between them, even if Dib did trip at any point. "Now let's get you to the medbay to get you scanned."

Dib took a minute to change his grip from the doorway to Zim's shoulder. Zim held him tight and did his best to be just as solid as the ship. Dib noticed this, but was still shaky because he couldn't seem to find the floor beneath his feet. Zim moved one of his sprider legs to be close and just ahead of Dib to give himself strength on the opposite side of his friend. Dib wrapped his arm around Zim's leg and tried to use the support to try and walk better on his own so that Zim didn't have to completely carry him with his body.

Zim was surprisingly patient with this. The medical room wasn't far away, being only a floor below the main house for easy access, but it was taking them quite a while to even get to the elevator. Dib was only able to move one pace every few seconds, spending time in between each to try and stand upright enough to take another step. They were all uneasy and careful, and he squeezed Zim's shoulder occasionally when he felt like he might actually fall. Zim returned the pressure to show that he understood that he needed more physical support with those steps, and because he wanted to provide a sense of comfort despite his condition. "Easy. Easy…"

They finally got to the elevator. "You should probably lean against the wall." Zim suggested. Dib put a hand against it. "I'll keep you standing so that you don't have to worry about getting up from the floor." He stood in front of him and bent his legs to support Dib from underneath his arms. "Computer, take us to the medbay." Dib whined when he felt it move, but Zim kept his legs firm underneath him. He raised himself up to loom a bit higher than Dib and softly leered at him straight in the eye just to mess with him. "You're doing great, baby."

Dib was already kind of shaking, and having Zim do that while he was cornered like this made him feel even more nervous. He shrunk back and breathed hard, but he wasn't able to feel the warm pink that dusted his face. Zim's zipper grin widened on his smug face.

He fell back to his feet before the elevator stopped so that he could be there to support Dib when it did that final jolt. He hugged tightly around his waist and looked up at him lovingly as he felt Dib react to the sudden lack of motion. Dib quivered and breathed deeply for a minute as he tried to stand up all the way again. "You've got it, Dib. You can do it." He gently pushed Dib up away from the wall from where he was under his arms. Zim helped guide him out of the elevator with the two taking a position almost as if they were about to start waltzing.

When they were on solid ground yet again, Zim moved to support Dib the way that he had been. It wasn't much farther now, and Dib finally had confidence and trust enough that the two of them would get there without him getting hurt. It still took him a while to get there, but not nearly as long as it took to get through the bunker.

Zim led him to the examination table and pivoted them both so that Dib didn't have to do it on his own to sit on it. It was far shorter than a table in a regular doctor's office, so he didn't have much of a problem sitting down. He held on to Zim's arms for a few more seconds, but Zim intended to help him lay down anyway. Dib pulled his knees up and Zim wrapped his arm around his shoulders to guide him down. He moved to help him straighten out his legs as well, and Dib watched him do all this with soggy, appreciative eyes.

"Computer! Run a head scan on Dib. Report any abnormalities and treatment options."

A mechanical arm reached down just in front of Dib's face and fanned a spray of bright light from his crown to his chin. Dib closed his eyes tight to not be blinded, as the light burned his corneas; but both of those things made him feel even dizzier than he did when he was trying to walk. He grunted, but did what he could to stay still, even though he lacked the reference for it.

"Analysis complete. Minor concussion centered in the frontal lobe. Very minor trauma at brain stem. Minor vestibular system damage. Some burst blood vessels in facial region may result in bruising. Conclusion: balance problems imminent. Symptoms of concussion predicted to last approximately 8 days. Bruising predicted to last 3 days."

Dib groaned. "Eight days..???"

Zim shook his head in disappointment at his flying. He touched his hand to Dib's scalp and pet him softly. "Report treatment options."

"Reduce mental and physical exertion, and reintroduce gradually. Pain medicine can help. Does Dib still wear glasses?"

Zim sighed. "They broke when he hit his head. I'm going to replace them after this." Dib looked up at him with big eyes.

"Resuming use of corrective lenses will aid balance recovery."

Zim held his own cheek. "Yeahp. It will." He wiped his face. "How are you doing, Dib? How do you feel lying down???"

"Umm… i think this might be worse than trying to walk. I-i… i don't know where the ground is." He glanced around the exam table.

"I was afraid of that." He shook his head. "Well, it won't last too much longer. But for that to happen i am going to carry you somewhere else. Computer, get me the hover gurney." A flat bed without wheels floated from underneath one of the counters in the room to be next to the exam desk. Zim lifted himself again so that he could reach over it. He wrapped one hand underneath Dib's leg as far as he could reach while still reaching for his far shoulder. He blew out air before giving a heave to try and pull Dib onto the gurney. It took him a little bit of doing, but he managed to get him onto the gurney almost completely by himself.

He strapped Dib down and huffed to catch his breath. "Okay. Now we go." Zim walked the gurney out of room and down the hall, heading for the elevator again.

Dib tried his best to stay steady on the moving bed. He spread his legs with his feet pointed outward and held onto the edge of the gurney with his hands. He closed his eyes and focused on his breathing when his stomach started feeling upset with motion sickness. Dib opened his eyes at one point and looked up at Zim with humbled appreciation as he continued to push the bed along.

"Computer, take us to the anti-gravity chamber." Dib was concerned with a lot of things at that moment, but he still managed to think to himself 'we have an anti-gravity chamber???'

When they got there, Zim unbuckled the strap over Dib's body. "Computer. Anti-gravity simulation on."

"Processing."

He smiled back down at Dib again. "Okay buddy. There's just one thing that you need to do now. Just push yourself up off of the gurney."

Dib felt like this was a difficult task: he didn't understand how he was supposed to actually do that. He thought about it, and came up with pushing his body away from the bed with his limbs as the way that would probably work best. He breathed in deeply and closed his eyes, and did as he was told.

Zim moved the bed out of the way and gently launched himself off of the floor with one of his boots. He aimed himself to slowly collide with Dib, and grasper at his coat. Dib opened his eyes and watched as Zim pulled them around so that they could face one another and hold each other's arms. "How do you feel in here??"

Dib breathed deeply a couple of times but kept his vision on Zim. He still wasn't able to tell where the floor was, but he wasn't able to have any kind of idea of where it was either. There was no longer a "down" that he could fall, or an "up" that he'd need to pull himself towards. He gulped. "It's… it's not so bad here."

Zim sighed with relief. "That's good." He smiled at Dib apologetically. "You did a very very good job, Dib. You're a very very good boy. I'm… i'm sorry that i made you hit your head. I'm gonna do whatever i can to help you until you feel better."

Dib smiled appreciatively. "Thank you, Zim. I'm already feeling better just being here with you."

Zim smiled again and pulled the two of them close together. He wrapped his arms around Dib's body and his legs around his thighs. Zim snuggled his face against Dib's neck and sighed. "I love you so much, Dibby."

Dib returned the hug, wrapping Zip up with his whole body. "I really really love you too, Zim." And the two floated together for a long while.