XXX

Alright, and here we continue.

XXX

After Ann had to go home, Zee ended up standing in front of Mr. Membrane's front door. Zim's front door. He didn't exactly know why he was there, and he hadn't been invited, but regardless, there he was.

And so, he reached up and pressed the doorbell.

He waited for a few moments, hearing movement from inside, and then the door opened, revealing Mr. Membrane in casual clothing. The teacher stared at him for a long while before slowly reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose, something he'd noticed the man did a lot.

"Zee," Mr. Membrane sighed. "Remember what I said about using a different disguise when you come here?"

Oh.

"I forgot."

"… Yes, I noticed that," Mr. Membrane replied, shoulders drooping. "Just try to remember next time, okay?"

"Okay."

"… Just come in," he directed. "You're here to talk to Zim, right?"

After a moment of thought, Zee nodded.

"Alright. He's in the lab right now, but he'll probably come up for dinner in a few minutes, so you can wait in the kitchen if you want. I kinda have to keep an eye on the stove," the man told him.

"Okay."

Zee followed him inside, closing the door behind himself and soon found himself in his teacher's kitchen. It wasn't all that different from their own kitchen, though it had a different color scheme and decorations. Functionally, though, it appeared to have the same components.

Mr. Membrane went over to a pot, stirring its contents with a wooden spoon.

"So. Is Zim showing you how to make more weapons or something?"

"No. I just have some questions."

"Questions? About what?"

"Irkens."

Mr. Membrane gave the pot a few more stirs before turning a dial to shut off the heat.

"Why can't you ask Bee?"

"Zim knows more about humans. Plus, he's a lot older."

Mr. Membrane paused.

"Wait, how old is Bee?"

"Thirty-seven. So she's pretty young."

"Oh. Right, Irkens live a lot longer than humans," Mr. Membrane hummed.

He started opening cabinets and getting out plates.

"Zee, do you want any?" he offered, his hand hovering over a third dish.

"No. I'm supposed to go home," he replied. "I just… ended up here."

Mr. Membrane began to set the table.

"… I'm guessing you don't mean you got lost."

"No."

"Alright…," the teacher breathed out. "Is something wrong?"

"… I don't know."

Before the man could ask anything else, there was a noise followed by the sound of light footsteps. A moment later, Zim was standing in the doorway of the kitchen. The older Irken blinked at them.

"Oh. So the kid's back," Zim pointed out the obvious before going over to the table. "I see you were impressed by my extensive knowledge of Irken weaponry."

Without missing a beat, Zim grabbed one of the plates of food Mr. Membrane had set out and gobbled it up.

"Well, lucky for you, I, the OUTSTANDING Zim, am in the middle of building a weapon, the likes of which you've never seen before!"

Mr. Membrane finished eating the normal-sized bite of food he had taken.

"Actually, Zee said he wanted to ask you some questions."

"ABOUT MY WONDERFUL WEAPONS!"

"I'm pretty sure it's something else, Zim."

"Hmmmmm?" Zim hummed suspiciously, leaning closer to Zee, who pretty much just stared back at him, not leaning back like most other people would have. "Alright then, come on."

And with that, Zim directed Zee to follow him into the living room.

XXX

Dib remained in the kitchen like the last time Zee came over, though this time he was eating dinner instead of grading papers. He wanted to give the two aliens a little privacy, but the distance was small and the door was open, so he couldn't help hearing Zee's quiet voice, let alone Zim's booming one.

"So? You have questions, and you need me to answer them," Zim spoke proudly. "It's understandable since I'm clearly the most intelligent being on this miserable planet."

"You know about Irkens and humans right?" Zee asked quietly.

"Of course I do!" Zim shouted. "It's not like I've spent years on this dirt ball and learned nothing. So just get on with the questions already!"

Dib was somewhat surprised that Zee didn't point out that he'd already been asking questions.

"… So, Irkens are usually either male or female, right? Like humans?"

Oh. From that alone, or at least that combined with what happened earlier, Dib thought he might have some idea of what kind of questions Zee had.

"Well, yeah," Zim answered. "But some humans have a mixed phenotype or an unexpected phenotype, and on Irk, biological sex doesn't really matter. I mean, we're grown in test tubes, so it's not like what human females do."

There was a short pause in which Zee probably nodded.

"On Earth, your disguise is meant to be a man, right?" Zee asked.

"Usually, yeah. Most men on Earth are male, so it's just more convenient that way."

"Before I started school, I didn't know that humans had genders other than men and women. But my friend Ann is neither."

"Okay. And?"

"… I feel like that's easy for me to understand. I don't really feel like either since it never really seemed to matter before. But…," Zee's voice was wavering. "On Irk, no one gets married, right?"

Dib suddenly regretted deciding to stay in the kitchen rather than retreat to his room, but it was too late now. He would have to go through the living room to get the stairs. He felt like this conversation really wasn't one to be eavesdropping on, though.

"Of course not," Zim scoffed. "It no longer holds any reproductive value, and having ties like that would inhibit the abilities of Irken soldiers. I mean, even before we figured out how to reproduce mechanically, Irk never had a system like the marriage systems here on Earth. There was some sort of coupling system though, a long, long, time ago."

This next pause was a lot longer.

"… Do you know if any Irkens ever… like… dated, like humans do? Bee never really mentioned that sort of thing happening, but maybe she just doesn't know or she didn't feel like mentioning it…"

"Uh, no, not really. Or at least, probably not since about the same time that we started growing smeets in test tubes," Zim answered, somewhat awkwardly. "Like I said, that sort of thing is a liability, so if it's not necessary, there's not a lot of reason to keep it around. Usually those sorts of feelings get turned off when… Oooooooh."

Zim had apparently just realized something.

"That stuff gets turned off once smeets are a few years old, usually, along with some other modifications to their paks," Zim said. "But Bee never did that to you, did she?"

"… Should she have?"

He heard Zim breath out a long sigh.

"Welp, my first reaction is to say yes, since that's what I'm supposed to say," Zim replied. "But honestly, heck if I know. I did get that stuff turned off, so I don't see the appeal in it. But, hey, it's not like you're a soldier or anything. You don't… need to be efficient."

Silently, Dib facepalmed. Even if Zim had gotten a lot better with this stuff over time, he was still a product of the Irken Empire, and he really could be explaining this a little differently.

"So, what, you like someone and you don't know if Irkens are supposed to do that?"

"… I don't know," Zee said uncertainly. "I kinda wanted to know… if Irkens can be gay? I guess not though if we're usually programmed to not like anybody."

"Yeah, that's not really a word on Irk. So. Again, it's been a while since it would have even been relevant."

Even though he felt bad about listening, Dib also felt bad for Zee. It was pretty likely that he was one of the only, if not the only Irken alive who was experiencing this. Bee can't help him understand these feelings if she's been programmed not to feel them. Zim really can't either. And Zee's friend Ann is human, so they wouldn't be able to understand his experience as a different species. He was pretty sure Ann didn't know Zee was an alien, so any advice or support they could give would be through an entirely human lens. Dib could understand these feelings, and he at least knew about Zee, but he didn't think he was exactly in the right kind of position to help with this, either.

Especially since none of this was something Zee was even intentionally confiding in him.

"Based on this line of questioning, I'm guessing you think you're gay."

"… I don't know. Maybe."

"Okay, well, if it's a maybe, then there's evidence why it's possible. So what's the evidence?"

"I don't know… I like a lot of books about it… and I got upset earlier when Mr. Membrane explained that Chadley was being mean when he called me gay, and then I got upset when I told Ann about it, which is weird since I don't… I don't usually cry about stuff."

Still in the kitchen, Dib grimaced. He knew something was off with Zee earlier. Zee had been upset about it, but when Zee seemed to brush it off like usual, he didn't try to push the issue. He'd let himself get distracted by Zee's fixation on understanding the one specific part of what he said. He'd thought Zee was getting frustrated about not understanding Chadley's intentions. And maybe he was frustrated, but maybe… telling Zee about people potentially hating him for something he couldn't control, before he even knew if that's what he was…

He couldn't have really known beforehand, but it made sense why Zee would be upset.

Until recently, Zee hadn't even had the words to describe what he might have been feeling. Had he just wondered what was wrong with him, with only another Irken who didn't understand to help support him? Or maybe this was the first time he was feeling something like this, and those feelings were being overshadowed by a societal prejudice that Zee only somewhat understood.

"And… And I think… I think I like my friend Ann like the characters in the books like each other. Some of the stuff seems like it's the same thing," Zee continued. "And Ann brought me to this club the other day, and some of their friends explained some stuff. They said that a gay person likes people of the same gender. So if Ann is neither, and I don't feel completely like either, and I like Ann… It makes sense if I use the definition? I don't know, though, since some people like the same gender and other genders. And I'm not even sure if I like Ann, I just think I might, but it's confusing so I don't know."

Again, Dib was surprised by how much Zee talked outside of class. Was it just because Zim was Irken, or was he usually like this when he was given the opportunity? If Chadley's bullying had gotten to him today, had it actually been bothering him this whole time, possibly without even Zee himself noticing? Was he quiet in class because everything he said or did got judged?

"Well I don't know either."

Ah, yes, Zim. The King of Tact.

"Who cares what some random humans think?" Zim continued. "I mean, Dib's gay, and he's actually one of the more tolerable humans. Humans are wrong about stuff all the time, so if one stupid pig-smelly acts like a jerk, he's probably just being a stupid human. If he bothers you, you could always just experiment on him."

The better parts of Zim's attempt at comfort aside, Dib felt himself momentarily freeze at Zim just casually outing him. Sure, he's been out of the closet for years at this point, and he didn't exactly mind having people know, but he also didn't exactly go around announcing it at work. He mostly wanted to avoid homophobia and intrusive questions, so it's easier if his students just aren't really aware of it. It prevents certain students' parents from kicking up a fuss, at least.

Well, thankfully, Zee wasn't exactly a gossip. He highly doubted the alien was going to spread his calc teacher's sexuality around the school. But still, he should probably have another conversation with Zim about not revealing other people's personal information without permission, especially now that Zee has decided to confide in the older Irken.

Actually, maybe this was karma for him semi-accidentally eavesdropping.

"… Ann said something similar to that earlier."

"Hm. Well, see, that's 3 out of 4. So this so-called 'Chadlee' is probably just a particularly stupid human, and of course, much stupider than me," Zim concluded. "The math works out."

"I guess so…," Zee sighed. "I should probably go home… Thanks for answering my questions."

"Yeah, yeah. Next time, ask more questions about weapons so I can really show off my knowledge."

"Okay."

And with that promise that Zee was likely going to continue showing up at their house, Dib heard the front door open and shut.

XXX

So, I kinda headcanon Irkens as not having the same understanding of gender as humans. In the show, I do think there's an attempt to have both male and female Irkens, but it also kinda seems like they aren't really treated very differently? Idk, I just kinda get a vibe of like, a militaristic society where gender roles, at least, just don't serve a purpose because they just need soldiers regardless of gender (which isn't perhaps the best basis of an ungendered society, but Irk is literally an imperialist regime).

So, in connection, I kinda think of Zee, Bee, and Zim as nonbinary (especially Zee, though)? And Zim and Bee are kinda aro/ace, but like, that's a little wobbly too since that was kinda forced on them, so they don't know how they would feel otherwise (though, tbh, I have a hard time imagining Zim in a romantic relationship).

And Zee's sexuality and gender aren't super concrete? He uses he/him pronouns but doesn't think of himself as a man (kinda like how I'm nonbinary, but I primarily use she/her pronouns and typically present somewhat femininely, often just out of convenience), largely because the notion of Earth genders wasn't really something he knew about until recently. But during his time on Earth, he has started to absorb some understanding of things like that and kind of identifies with it. And he does like Ann, but pretty much beyond them, he doesn't really know who else he might be attracted to.

Hooooo, I'm low-key giving myself a headache. I hope I'm not being too confusing.

XXX