I do not own Invader Zim, okay? I am glad you all like this story so much. Anyway, I don't have much else to say, so enough of this A/N, on with the fic!
Mrs. Lopez smiled as she saw Tak come in and bring Dib along. "Ah, Kat, this must be the young man you saved from out in the desert?" She asked.
"Yes, and he's getting an appetite back." Tak smiled.
"Well then, I will get onto my specialty. I know how you are when you eat, and a young man would need a lot." Mrs. Lopez smiled as Dib waved sort of embarrassed.
He turned to Tak who seemed to be unsure of if she should help Mrs. Lopez or stay with Dib. Thinking for a second, she figured she would get him something to drink, then head back and see if he wanted her company, or Mrs. Lopez needed help and this way she could take care of that without seeming like she was confused. Frankly, since she saw Dib, so much came back to her. Just that confusion she had from when she had met him all those years ago. She did not know if she actually cared for Dib or that she just wanted to use him as a means to an end. He was smarter than the rest of the humans but also a male of the species just entering puberty, even if he was aware of it or not and she could use her feminine charm to get past his defenses. It being around Valentines Day had helped to make the notion easier when she gave him some meat. Looking in a stainless steel pot that was hanging up, she sighed trying to wonder if she did look like her old disguise, just older or not. It must not have been anything too remarkable because she was sure that with the battle afterwards that no matter what state he was in, Dib would have reacted more negatively to her presence than wondering if they had sex in a brothel. However, he was still delirious from the heat, so it was likely it hadn't come to him yet. Besides, he might see right through my disguise name. Not like it's hard to think of….
"Stay put there, I'll get you something to drink." Tak said as she followed Mrs. Lopez to the kitchen. Tak ignored anything Dib was going to say and headed to the dishes and grabbed a cup.
"You may want to give him the lemonade." Mrs. Lopez said. "Very sweet and it's cool. I don't want to give him some tea until maybe later tonight." She smiled as she looked at a bush of greenthread that was blooming in the rear of the establishment. "Amazing those things are still in bloom. I can dry plenty for when they aren't."
"I'll do that." Tak said as she scooped some ice and poured a glass of lemonade and took it to Dib. "Here."
"You keep pumping me full of water, I'll be the only person to die of overhydration in the desert." Dib said.
"You're lucky you didn't become a desiccated mummy. You would have if I wasn't going for one of my hikes you idiot." Tak scoffed. Dib raised his hand and opened his mouth to say something when Tak looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "You know, I am not wrong." Dib then dove in closer but then paused again. "You know I'm right."
Dib sulked and stuck his middle finger up at Tak. He pulled over the lemonade and took a sip. "Not bad."
"Oh, I knew you'd love it." Mrs. Lopez said. "Have some chips, it will be a little while on the food. I am honestly going to make them chimichanga style. Have the fryer going good, might as well use it." She smiled as she nodded, and Dib reached for a chip and dipped it in some salsa provided.
"Not bad." He spoke. "Where do you get your salsa from?"
"Mrs. Lopez makes it." Tak explained. "She's very discriminating on what vegetables she gets. She'll order from the same suppliers many of the casinos do for their upscale restaurants. She would love to grow enough to supply the place itself but well, you know."
"Running this place is busy enough." Dib smiled.
"And it's much more work here to grow large enough scales of vegetables to supply one's self. Mrs. Lopez will often go wandering for herbs and flowers because she will make teas and medicine with them." Tak explained as she reached over and grabbed a chip and took a big dip into the salsa and smiled. Dib looked annoyed. "What? I saved your life after all." Tak teased. "I think that some of the chips and salsa is fair payment." Dib pulled the plate of chips and salsa closer to himself and munched on them in an annoyed silence. "Well with that attitude I may not take you to your car to help you recover what you can." She teased.
"Sorry." Dib sulked pushing the chips out show an act of apology.
"Dib, I must ask you, how spicy do you like your food?" Mrs. Lopez came in with a smile.
"Somewhat…." Dib said. "I mean I like noticing it but don't wanting it burning going out." Tak rolled her eyes at the crude comment.
"I understand perfectly." She smiled running back into the kitchen. "Be back in a jiffy. You sure are going to be hungry."
Tak cracked a smile. It was kind of charming how Mrs. Lopez was. She had taken care of her when no one else would and showed her that not every being in the universe was total garbage. Dib looked up at the blanket hanging on the wall. Tak smiled at it. She loved the purple, magenta, black and white scheme that was used. "Interested in the art?" Tak asked.
"I mean I guess." Dib said. "Made locally?"
"I should say so!" Mrs. Lopez said as she placed two plates of chimichangas on the table, one in front of Tak and one in front of Dib. "Here you go. My special chimichanga. You'll never guess what I use for the meat." Dib's eyes widened mid bite at this. "It's just venison. My son brought some he had taken down last season." Tak laughed at Dib's expression.
"Oh, I just never had one with venison..." Dib covered as Tak laughed.
"Well, it's likely better than the stuff you get at Krazy Taco." Tak said. "At least you know what this used to be."
Dib sighed, "You have a point Kat. I mean Krazy Taco has silicone dioxide in their meat."
"And it's not because you've been eating it out when a sand storm blew up." Tak smiled.
"Ooooh, I recall when Kat had that happen to her. Had brought it all the way back from Vegas. How she kept it warm, I will never know as it's like 90 miles from here." Mrs. Lopez said.
"And it had been a long time since I had one." Tak growled.
"Well, I made you the same things so much better right quickly, so you don't need to subsist of food like that." Mrs. Lopez then looked at Dib.
"What?" He asked as if Mrs. Lopez was judging him for his favorite fast food. "I visited the Krazy Taco cantina when I had arrived into Vegas before heading down the extraterrestrial highway." He pleaded as Mrs. Lopez and Tak rolled their eyes.
"Like that place is special. I mean it's a tourist trap, but the biggest thing that is a plus is that you can have tequila in your frozen Baja blast." Tak said. "And you know I don't drive afterwards. I do that when I decide I want to spend some time in the hustle and bustle of the city. Which isn't often."
"Oh, I understand. We all need to be around others at some times." Mrs. Lopez nodded.
"So..." Dib said noticing that Tak didn't want to talk more along that line. "Kat said you made that blanket." He pointed to the one she had mentioned earlier.
"Why yes!" Mrs. Lopez smiled. "My grandmother was native. Hopi or Navajo, I don't remember right now. But I learned it from her. And I am very, very, very good at it. I have been offered thousands for my weavings. But I could never accept. It is from my heritage, and I will never sell it out."
"Same reason why you just don't open a Mexican restaurant out here." Tak said. "You'd have all the snob locals coming out here"
"Ugh." Mrs. Lopez said rolling her eyes. "I recall when Vegas wasn't so big. Always a little rowdy, but it used to be such smaller. One woman I know who does ceramics had lived there for God knows how long now. When she moved in, the house was on the edge of town. Now it's smack dab in the middle of it." She sighed. "My how time flies." She then stared down Dib as if she was reading his mind. "So, what are you going to do now?"
"Well, I need to go back and get my car and any of my stuff that may be left, and I don't know... go back home. And be ready for my sister to laugh at me when I tell her what happened." Dib rolled his eyes.
"And just how old are you again?" Tak asked.
"21." Dib said. "Why?"
"If they are that awful to you, why stay out there?" Tak said as Mrs. Lopez smirked at her, as if she could sense that maybe, just maybe Tak had a crush on Dib. "What?" she said to Mrs. Lopez. "Dib's an adult now, free to do what he wants and with his brains, or dumb luck that he could make a good go of it." Dib blushed and looked away.
"You actually have faith in me not screwing things up?" Dib said.
"I can sense these things." Tak said. "And if Mrs. Lopez thinks you have sense too, well she has her way of things..."
"That I do." Mrs. Lopez said proudly. "I guess it comes with living as long as I have, you learn things." She took a chip from the basket and ate it. "Oh, I don't want much to eat myself. I rather keep the young ones like you fed so that you can grow up big and strong." Both Dib and Tak rolled their eyes at this. "You two both think you are all grown up, but some day, you will see. "
Look no offense Mrs. Lopez, but I have lived the equivalent of 160 Earth years at this point, you're likely what, 70? 80? You are half my age if we are talking in the same planet's time frame. I do know you mean well, but you do not know what I do. Tak thought as she took a bite of the chimichanga. "I was thinking of driving Dib to his car, so he can pick up where he left off. At least so he doesn't have to wander the desert again, seeing how crap he was at it." She teased at him.
"It wasn't that I was crap... just a lot of unfortunate things happened." Dib blushed, ashamed of what had happened that lead him to become exhausted in the desert.
"Like what?" Mrs. Lopez inquired.
I can't lie to her, she's a sweet old lady. Dib took a breath. "You have to agree to not make fun of me. I grew up on the East coast, I haven't spent much time in the desert."
"I will listen and not judge. Same Kat?" Mrs. Lopez said looking at Tak.
"Of course. If I thought you weren't worth helping, I wouldn't have." Tak said.
"Oh yes you would have. You are too good a person to do something as awful as leave someone to die." Mrs. Lopez smiled. You don't know the half of it. Tak thought as she rolled her eyes back. "Okay maybe those people who left you for dead in the desert. They deserve it. But Dib didn't do a thing to you. Oh, what you don't know about Dib and I could fill a novel. But I guess my disguise is good enough that Dib isn't making the connections...
"Your friends left you to die in the desert?" Dib asked. "Just how the hell does that happen? Who would do something like that to you?"
"Spill your guts first and then I might mine." Tak scowled.
"It's kind of a sensitive topic for Kat you see." Mrs. Lopez explained.
"Oh, I understand." Dib smiled reassuringly at Tak. "So, I had started wandering towards Area 51. I have always found the greater galaxy interesting. Thinking we may not be alone in this universe. No way we could be. It's so big, it's just mathematically impossible." He took a drink of the lemonade. "So, I always kind of observed the stars, listened to radio signals from space. I mean you can look it up on YouTube or other internet sites, the sounds each of the planets in our solar system make, and just the wonders of this universe that others we can see. And if an alien race comes here, well they are bound to be far superior technologically when it comes to travel. Possibly even found ways to make use of wormholes or travel faster than light."
"Like that hyperspace stuff from Star Wars?" Mrs. Lopez said as Tak and Dib looked at her amazed. She didn't seem the type to be interesting in that. "What? I have lived long enough to learn to like what I like, and I like that series. Besides, that Grogu is too cute."
"You would think that wouldn't you..." Tak scoffed.
"Do you want me to talk about what I think of Din Djarin?" Mrs. Lopez said as Tak shook her head and stuck out her tongue. "Thought so."
"Kind of." Dib said. "I mean it's a good way to think of it if you aren't into quantum physics." He paused thinking if she should mention his childhood battle with Zim to the point where he finally realized what Gaz had been saying for years. Zim's too dumb to take over the Earth. Tak bit her lip, wondering if Dib would talk about it. "But let's just say that my fascination was not shared by many I knew. One girl I knew did before um... moving away." He said referring to the first meeting he had with Tak, who sighed in relief. "Another one did as well but when she went through puberty, she became the embodiment of the ugly duckling and when she became popular, I was discarded." Tak knew who he was likely talking about and scoffed.
"Bitch." Tak said.
"While that is a rather crude way to say it, I would have to agree with Kat's sentiments." Mrs. Lopez nodded.
"So, I decided to use this summer break to explore the Nevada desert for aliens or see what Area 51 is up to." Dib said. "And when I parked my car, I headed out and made camp one night. Woke to a rattlesnake making noise near me with a scorpion on my stomach. I ran and then about midday I downed my canteen, as that's the only thing I had on me and found a mother mountain lion snarling behind me, so I ran again. That's when Kat found me."
"So, you weren't a total idiot." Mrs. Lopez said. "Just unlucky and kind of scared."
"Kind of?" Tak asked.
"Well, I would be understanding of his reaction." Mrs. Lopez said with a shrug. "You are a rare one Kat. I have yet to find anyone as headstrong, fearless and loyal as you."
"I suppose you are right about Dib's situation." Tak said. "Unlucky and not everyone is me." She looked at Dib. "I'll take you to get your car and from there, you can do whatever the hell you want."
"Thanks." He said as he began to quickly eat the burrito.
"AND..." Mrs. Lopez said getting up. "You will wait a few days until you recover more." Dib began to protest when Tak spoke up.
"Normally a doctor would order you to wait a week to do physical activity and your body temperature will fluctuate for several weeks as your system recovers. These complications can take several months to really go away, and you're now more vulnerable to it again. Least we can do is make sure you are in good enough shape to make a long drive back to the city. I mean it's bound to be more than it is from here to Vegas, and that's 90 miles." Tak explained.
"Fine." Dib said. "I am not going to fight with you on this. I learned well from my sister when a woman is insistent on something, to let it go and not argue."
"Well, with wisdom like that, you would make a good husband someday." Mrs. Lopez laughed. "Took my husband decades to really figure that one out." She laughed as Dib and Tak blushed and quickly looked away. She smirked at this knowingly. "I have a few things to check on, and Kat it's almost time to do the monthly reports."
"Yes Mrs. Lopez." Tak said. "And I will make sure Dib is comfortable."
"Not too comfortable." She teased. "He's still recovering and doesn't need to do anything strenuous," Tak turned bright red. "I think you two are cute together, I am too old to pussy foot about things like that."
"I'll get the reports done." Tak said still red in the face.
"Thank you." Mrs. Lopez said heading back to the kitchen.
So how was that? Good? Bad? Short? Long? Let me know in a review. And yes, you have heatstroke once, it does a lot to you. I did research and there's an interesting Chubbyemu video on YouTube about a coin miner who was admitted to the hospital after passing out from heat stroke. I often watch his stuff for medical info. It's fascinating. Anyway, this is a fanfic not a research paper. I don't have much else to say here on this one, so remember to read, well you just did and review. Ciao for now,
Otherrealmwriter
Aka
Realm.