With all the (possibly) useful technology gathered, both Zim and Dib can pat themselves on the shoulder. Now all that's needed is to put it to use. Still, Dib needs to wake up first.
To say that he had slept well would be far from the truth. Apparently staying up late coupled with life-threatening danger made it hard to fall asleep, even on the edge of losing consciousness from exhaustion. In the end, Dib had neither any idea when he fell asleep, how long he was asleep for, and could barely register which day it was when he finally opened his eyes.
The first thing he was met by was the blinding light from the sun that shone through his window. The sheer pain his eyes felt made him scream for a moment, before rolling off the bed and onto the floor. Once his sore eyes had recovered, he slowly adjusted to the morning light. When he felt he could open his eyes for more than a few seconds, he started fumbling after his glasses like someone with a terrible hangover. Which wasn't far from the case, considering the headache pounding against his skull. Making his hand walk across his bed to his nightstand, he finally managed to grab them and put them on. Only to realize his blurry vision had shielded him from most of the pain, as the clear and focused view of the world practically overloaded his brain.
After getting past that, the final battle was at hand. With unsteady hands and shaking legs, he used his bed as support while raising himself from the floor. His toothpick-like legs shook under all his weight but got steady again after a few moments. With that, he let out a long and guttural sigh, as he prepared to greet the day. He started by looking around his room, coming to the surprising conclusion that he had remembered to take off his coat and nice clothes before jumping into bed. Even his boots, while still lying on the opposite sides of the room, had at least not dirtied his bed. With that little bit of confidence, he tumbled along the floor toward his bedroom door. Opening it, he was met by the low but easily recognizable sound of the TV downstairs.
Slowly he made his way across the hallway and barely managed to walk down the stairs without falling over. Following the sound of the TV, he quickly ended up in the doorway to the living room. There on the sofa, sat Gaz and stared blankly at the flashing lights on the TV screen. Even in his barely awake state, he noticed she was still in her clothes from last night.
"Good…morning." He muttered, his mouth muscles barely responding to the inputs from his brain.
"Morning." She replied quickly with a little nod, before returning to the TV. "Slept well?"
"...No," Dib answered honestly.
"Well, that's a waste, since you've been gone most of the day."
"Come on, it's still morning, right? There's nothing wrong with sleeping for a little longer than usual." He said, before subconsciously looking over at the clock. Only to realize that it was 2 pm.
"...Okay, maybe I overslept a bit. How about you, when did you stop playing?"
"Oh, I finished it an hour or two ago. It was fine. Too many fetch quests." Gaz explained, and Dib slowly unpacked her sentence.
"Wait, did you stay up all night just to finish the game?"
"Ye." She half-heartedly replied.
"Alright, that gives you no excuse to judge me for my sleeping schedule. And shouldn't you be, oh I don't know, IN BED AND GETTING SOME SLEEP YOU INSOMNIAC?" Dib exclaimed, compelled by the small brotherly instinct that had managed to remain after all those years.
"No, because, unlike you Dib, I don't suffer from such weak needs as sleep. You should know that."
"...Have you been talking with Zim again? You sound like him."
"Not important Dib. What's important is you don't bother me about useless things, like sleep. Not when I can manage without it so easily."
"Yeah, then what's that for?" Dib asked, pointing to the living room table in front of her. One side was completely covered in hollow cans of energy drinks, while the other was filled with empty coffee mugs.
Gaz looked at the mess, and for once couldn't come up with a suitable response to her brother.
"Those might have helped a little."
"A little," Dib mumbled sarcastically under his breath, before yawning and stretching his arms.
With that, he went into the kitchen to get some very late breakfast. He took some toast and waited like a zombie for them to be done, before lazily scraping a layer of butter over it. He planned to take it upstairs to eat in peace and walked past Gaz in the living room. Neither of them reacted, at least until Dib was about to walk through the doorframe. At which point Gaz decided to mention something off-handedly.
"Oh yeah, you and Zim are on TV."
"That's great, see you later-WAIT WHAT?!" He yelled, dropping the plate with the toast on the floor. By a miracle the plate didn't shatter, though his toast had, of course, landed face-first on the ground. But he was too preoccupied by what Gaz had said to care. He stormed back into the living room and stared frantically at the TV screen. It was showing some standard gameshow, and Dib started wondering if she was making fun of him.
"W-what channel?!"
"I think a few channels down." His sister said, before switching channels in the opposite direction.
"Give me that!" Dib said before ripping the remote out of her hand. Luckily for him, she had practically melted into the couch and wasn't about to get up anytime soon.
He started going down the different channels, waiting fanatically for him to recognize himself on screen. A part of him hoped it was just a joke, but as the memories from the night before flooded in, it seemed more inevitable that the two of them had caused enough trouble to be noticed by the news.
To his horror, he was completely correct, as on a random news channel, a certain tall building was shown. He turned up the volume, jumped on the couch, and sat next to Gaz. The same reporter as when Dib first learned of the building was talking, seemingly standing in the same palace as before.
"As you can see, we're currently in front of the venue which last night suffered a horrendous break-in. Two unidentified maniacs wreaked havoc at the New Age Science Exhibition and stole a mountain of technology still not available to the public. Their motive is not yet known, though one can only speculate what these two criminals have in mind with such priceless inventions. Oh, and here we can see the overseer of the hired private security detail, Benedict Watchman."
Dib wasn't too keen to hear the voice of that man, still having flashes of his voice following them down corridors. But to his surprise, the man wasn't going to give his piece about the situation. Instead, the cameraman moved the focus toward the entrance, where a group of police officers were dragging away a man. He was screaming and yelling and it didn't take long for Dib to recognize the voice.
"Now way…that's-"
"Yes, Benedict Watchman everyone. The supposed security overseer for the exhibition had after last night's event been investigated by public officials. To their horror, they discovered something much worse than incompetence. It was uncovered that Mr. Watchman had used an unknown amount of the building's budget to install illegal security measures inside the building itself. We don't know for sure what all these measures entail, but we DO know that one includes a hallway filled with dangerous lasers and even one where the utility corridors are set to go up in flames. This has been confirmed to have caused millions of dollars in damage. We took a statement from Mr Watchman's assistant, where he commented: 'I'm not sure what I expected. I should probably have guessed something was wrong when he literally set fire to the building.' He has declined to comment further without the presence of a lawyer. Meanwhile, Mr. Watchman has not been available for an interview, though some people claim that he is raving about helicopters, snipers, and…wait, am I getting this right, a UFO? And…aliens? Well as you can hear, poor Benedict Watchman has lost his mind and will probably only find employment as security at the nearest insane asylum. As a final note, officials have released this sketch of the criminals."
What came up on screen was a poorly drawn portrait of Dib and Zim. Zim's eyes were almost bulging out of his head and his green skin looked less like a skin disease, and more like something that would be on a century-old ghoul. Dib's head meanwhile was twice the size that it was in real life, and his face was twisted in an unnervingly wide smile. Poor Dib didn't even have time to say anything before Gaz erupted into a laughing fit. Only once she was done did he look at her with squinted eyes, looking for even a hint of regret for laughing at him. But of course, she just went back to normal and stared at the screen.
"That was the breaking story for today, now to the weather." The reporter finished, and as soon as the weatherman came on Dib switched channels.
"...My head's not that big."
"If you say so," Gaz commented. "You two made quite a mess. Not that you ever DON'T ruin something when you're together. I sure hope Dad doesn't recognize your wanted poster."
"Even if he did, I'll tell him I've been home the entire night, I'm sure he wouldn't question it too much."
"Aren't you forgetting something?"
"Forgetting whaaaaaaa-shit." Dib blurted out as he remembered the rather unfortunate fact that his dad just happened to have attended that event.
"Uhuh," Gaz muttered apatheticly.
"I'm going to have to think something up for when Dad asks me about that. He's…H-he's not home, is he?!" He stammered, quickly looking around for his father's towering figure.
"Nope. I honestly forget he was even out." She answered with a little bit of reassurance she hid between her words.
"Alright, that gives me something to worry about later. Guess that's preferable…in some way."
It was then that the phone started ringing, giving Dib a little shock.
"Oh yeah, the phone has been ringing since 6 am. You might want to get that."
"Why didn't you take it yourself?!"
"It stops after a minute or so and starts again about an hour later and I'd rather not get up from the couch," Gaz explained and Dib didn't feel like it was worth discussing her laziness. At least not that day in particular.
With a disapproving gaze, he waddled over to the phone and took it up to his ear, wondering who it could be.
"DIB-BEAST?! IS THAT YOU?!" Zim screamed very loudly into the phone, giving Dib a few seconds of tinnitus. The alien sounded less than thrilled and he could already tell he hadn't gotten near enough sleep to deal with an angry Zim.
"Yes, Zim it's me, I-"
"WHY HAVE YOU BEEN IGNORING ME?! ME! HOW DARE YOU IGNORE ZIM YOU IGNORANT WORM?!"
"Dude, for God's sake, I've been sleeping!" Dib yelled into the phone and made Zim silent on the other end. But only so he could explode once again.
"WHAT KIND OF FEEBLE EXCUSE IS THAT, DIB-THING?!"
"Its… it's not an excuse-"
"NEVER MIND! GET YOUR SLOW AND INEFFICIENT BUTT OVER TO MY BASE, WE HAVE WORK TO DO PIG-BRAIN!"
"You know that you don't have to yell, right?"
"Huh?!"
"I said you don't have to-"
"HUH?!"
"YOU DON'T HAVE TO YELL-"
"WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING AT ZIM?!"!
"He's going to kill me through his sheer stupidity one day, I swear," Dib said, slamming his head into the nearest wall.
"I heard that," Zim responded with a more responsible tone, though Dib decided to ignore his comment.
"Zim, why are you calling?"
"Why do you think, stink-brain?! We have work to do, the tracker won't build itself!"
"Do you already want to start on that? I know it's important, but wouldn't we-...wait…you're actually willing to let me…help you build it?"
Dib could practically hear the silence emanating from the other end. He would have thought that Zim had disconnected if it wasn't because he could hear GIR goofing around in the background.
"I…I wouldn't phrase it like that! I'm not letting you help me, I'm ordering you to! See, massive difference." Zim replied and Dib sure was happy that the alien couldn't see his smile.
"Sure, sure, I'll let you have that. Now, I can be over in a moment, and then we can go over the plans and-"
"Expresso."
The word flew so swiftly through the air that Dib almost didn't notice it.
"...As I was saying, we can then-"
"Expresso!"
This time the word flew with a more demanding tone and Dib realized that it was coming from his sister.
"...Excuse me for a moment."
"W-what?! YOU'RE NOT EXCU-" Zim's voice was muffled as Dib put the phone down with the speakers facing the table.
"What are you going on about?!" Dib asked, gaining a tired groan in response.
"Dib, I don't which, but either the energy drinks or coffee is failing me, because I can't really move my legs anymore…or eyelids. So do me a favor and get me some coffee, now that you're going out anyway. Specifically, I want you to get me an iced caramel macchiato."
"Wow, want me to get a pillow for you while we're at it? I don't know if you've noticed, but Zim is on the phone-"
"Yes, I noticed, between your inane arguments and the screaming that feels like it's going to make my head explode."
"Well, then you know I have to deal with him first. Maybe I can get you something later, but I really-"
"Do it now, or I'm telling Dad what you did last night."
At first, Dib thought she was bluffing. But as she managed to turn her head toward him, he could see the famous face that had threatened him throughout his childhood, even past her exhausted expression.
"*Sigh*, sometimes I don't know which of you is worst. The alien or YOU."
"Me, so get to work. Thank you."
"How thoughtful of you." He sarcastically said as he turned back to the phone, Zim's screaming barely distinguishable from outright gibberish. "Can you at least tell me where I can get one?"
"From the cafe."
"...What cafe?"
"Ask Zim."
"How would he…" Just then he was struck by curiosity and hurried over to the phone. It was a mix of confusion and wonder that made him dying to know how Zim was connected to some random cafe. He picked up the phone and let Zim finish his latest rant.
"-AND I WILL TEAR YOUR UGLY, STINKY FLESH FROM YOUR SKELETON AND STUFF IT SO FAR UP YOUR SQUEEDLY-SPOOCH THAT-"
"Zim relax, Gaz was just asking me for something."
"AND YOU INTERRUPTED OUR CONVERSATION REGARDING THE MOST IMPORTANT OF IMPORTANT TOPICS TO CONVERSE WITH SOME STUPID HUMAN FEMALE?! No offense to the Dib-sister."
"I'm sure she doesn't care. But anyway, she actually wanted you to help me get something for her."
"...You're asking the incredibly talented and incredibly BUSY Zim to be an errand boy?" Zim asked questingly.
"Hey, I'm not asking you to do anything! Gaz just wanted me to get a coffee or something for her. She said to get it from some kind of cafe and that I should ask you about it."
"Oh, that cafe. Yes, Zim knows that one." The alien replied rather matter-of-factly.
"...The hell you mean you know that one?" Dib asked in utter disbelief, as he honestly expected Zim to say that he had no idea what Gaz was talking about.
"I MEAN I KNOW WHAT THE PLACE YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT IS, KEEP UP DIB-THING! We can meet in front of my base and go down there."
"O-okay," Dib said, surprised at how easily he managed to get Zim to go along with it. Or rather, surprised he didn't actually have to do anything. His curiosity about this fabled cafe only grew and he started to think that Gaz sending him on an errand might not be as big a waste of time as he thought.
"Alright, I'll meet you there. Oh, and also, I already told you about calling my house, so could you-..." He immediately froze as he realized that something wasn't adding up.
"Zim?"
"Eh?"
"How are you calling me right now?"
"...With a phone-thingy."
"No-I MEAN, yes that's what you're doing, but, how exactly are you able to contact me?"
"...With your number-thingy."
"Zim, I've literally blocked you from ever being able to contact my house. Any signal coming out of your base to my home is immediately shut down, it's impossible for you to call me from your house!"
"..."
"...Where are you right now?"
"..."
"Ziiiiiiiiiim?"
"Excuse me young man, but can I use the phone? I need to call my grandson…also, what are you doing in my house?" An elderly woman's voice said, coming out of the phone from Zim's end.
"QUIET, STUPID OLD BAG OF SKIN! CAN'T YOU SEE ZIM IS MAKING AN IMPORTANT CALL?!"
"Oh, dear me, sorry." The woman muttered.
"Zim, are you in someone's house?"
"SEE YOU AT MY BASE!"
"Zim-" Dib didn't have time to chastise the alien as the phone call quickly ended and left Dib with the droning sound of the phone.
With a blank expression, he put the phone down and stumbled over to Gaz.
"I think Zim just broke into someone's house to call me." He said, with a slightly horrified tone.
"You sound surprised," Gaz commented confused.
"Well, sometimes I like to think that my life is normal and that my only friend isn't some wannabe world-conquering alien."
"That seems like a lost cause."
"You don't say."
"Well, anyway, seems you're going. Enjoy your date with your boyfriend."
"It…IT'S NOT A DATE! AND HE'S NOT MY BOYFRIEND!" Dib angrily yelled back, though it seemed to only amuse Gaz even more.
"Sure sure. Now Dib, could you please hurry, for the other half of my caffeine has stopped working and I'm about to fall asleep."
He debated with himself to continue fighting Gaz's statement but concluded that it did little more than make him look crazy. Instead, he let out a frustrated sigh before answering.
"I can't promise how quickly I'll be back. How about you just go up and rest, and then I can come back with-"
Dib was cut off as the sound of Gaz slamming her forehead into the living room table echoed throughout the house. There was a moment of silence where he was worried all the caffeine had caused her to get a heart attack. But luckily she started snoring and he was reassured that she was just sleeping. He then quickly went up and changed clothes into some proper boots and his trenchcoat. As he came back down and was just about to leave, he looked back at the living room. He could feel his instincts kick in and surmised that he might as well do something rather than feel guilty about it later.
He went back into the room and looked at his sister, her face still plastered to the wooden surface. Carefully he started moving her away from the table, while worried that she had some kind of self-defense mechanism that activated when she was unconscious. The amount times he had thought she was asleep while she wasn't, had given him slight paranoia about the subject. But he moved her back to the couch without problems and let her head rest on the armrest. Deciding to do the whole thing properly, he even went and got a blanket he put over her.
"I'll get your iced caramel…whatever it was." He muttered, before going back to the front door. "See you."
As he closed the door and started walking over to Zim's base, he realized he had forgotten to ask for money, which meant that was paying for it.
"You better be happy about that coffee," Dib mumbled as he walked off.
It didn't take him too long to reach Zim, as usual. The route had long since been stuck in his head and he could practically imagine the entire path he had to take. So while in an auto-pilot state, he was surprised to see a little green figure standing in front of Zim's house. If there was any doubt who it was, the yelling certainly dispelled any doubt.
"THERE YOU ARE DIB-STINK! I've been waiting!" Zim yelled angrily as he crossed his arms.
"ME! Zim! Waiting!" He repeated.
"Wow, you actually came out to meet me? I'm flattered." Dib said as he walked up to the alien.
"Yes, be flattered. Zim doesn't hurry himself just for anyone!" He answered with a puffed-up ego.
"But you'll do it for me?" Dib commented with a smug grin, as he looked with satisfaction as Zim's expression dropped. It looked for a moment like the alien was about to defend himself, but in the end, he gave up.
"Yes…but don't think that has anything to do with you! I just have a bad tendency to care about STUPID little insignificant things …like you." As the words left Zim's mouth, Dib noticed a slight blush on the alien's face. He himself was also blushing a little as he took in Zim's words. After all, he did say he cared about…in his usual roundabout way.
"Oh, um…g-good to know." He replied nervously, scratching the back of his head, cursing himself for being so awkward.
"L-let's go Dib-thing, Zim has already wasted enough time waiting here!" The alien commanded, and Dib couldn't decide whether Zim really was impatient or hoping to escape from the embarrassing situation.
"Sounds like a good idea," Dib replied, and with that, they started walking, with Zim in front.
He seemed confident enough to lead them through the city, so Dib didn't question where they were going. Sometimes Dib recognized where they were, but most of the time he was completely clueless. He guessed it was a consequence of having no social or party life. But that was something to regret in his thirties, so he followed closely behind the alien without complaint.
When they finally reached the cafe, Dib was slightly shocked. He had expected some kind of punk cafe with skulls decorating every surface and rock music blaring so soundly you couldn't hear yourself think. Instead, what he was met with was a fairly standard suburban cafe. It was a beige building decorated mostly in red and pink colors, with several chatty and practically glittering people sitting in chairs around white, round tables. The few workers that came out seemed to have a fake smile plastered on their faces. Dib didn't know much about cafes but even he thought that the place seemed almost like a facade on first inspection, in the same way a suburbia would.
"You…sure this is the place?" He asked, but as he looked to his side, Zim was already gone.
"ARE YOU COMING DIB-WORM!" Zim suddenly yelled, already nearing the edge of the cafe. Dib's heart dropped for a moment as all the heads turned to look at them. But strangely enough, once they saw that it was Zim, they went back to their business like nothing had happened.
"Do you really need to scream like a maniac when I'm five meters away from you?!" Dib hissed, rather liking the idea of keeping his public humiliation that day to a minimum.
"YES!" The alien yelled before walking past the tables and into the cafe itself, with Dib hurrying in after him.
Inside it was more of the same, with a counter along the wall on the opposite side of the door. There were more tables like those outside, which mostly all were taken. On the desk were several glass displays, filled with mostly cakes and mini-sandwiches. On the wall behind the desk were several blackboards with the menu items written with chalk.
There were two registers, with the left one having a small line of two people. On the right, there was only one person left, who quickly got his coffee and wandered off. They went over to take his place, and the man behind the register smiled as a greeting. However, he didn't manage to get a word in before Zim spoke.
"HELLO DISGUSTING HUMANOID! IT IS I, ZIM!" The alien announced, leaning on the counter, and Dib felt the color from his face drain away.
"Good day to you Zim! Will it be the usual?" The man asked, completely unfazed by Zim.
"YES, AND MAKE IT QUICK."
"We also need Gaz's drink. It was iced… something-something…argh, dammit." Dib muttered, after coming over the secondhand embarrassment on Zim's behalf.
"Oh, also, make sure to get the thing Dib-sister usually haves," Zim said, saving the day.
"Wait, you really call her that to EVERYONE?!"
"Of course, why wouldn't I?" Zim replied with genuine confusion.
Only a moment later did the man place two cups with straws and lids on the counter. Almost like a rhythm Zim pulled out some money seemingly out of nowhere and laid it down before grabbing the cups.
"YOU HAVE BEEN OF MINIMAL SERVICE, CUP-MAKER! THE DAY YOU FAIL WILL BE THE DAY ZIM ENDS YOUR MENIAL EXISTENCE."
"Come again!" The man cheerfully said before turning his attention to the next customer.
Dib followed the alien out, almost like he was in a haze. Zim led him over to an empty table and sat the cups down before taking a seat. Dib sat down on the opposite side of the alien and stared at the cup with 'Gaz' written on it. Fortunately, it seemed he didn't need to pay for it after all.
"You know you don't HAVE to demean servers, right? They're just doing their job." Dib said, but as Zim looked at him with a bewildered expression, he understood he wasn't going to get through to him.
"Alright, maybe you don't know." He said, before resting his face on his hand.
Meanwhile, Zim took off the lid from his cup and picked up a sugar shaker on the table. He unscrewed the top and dumped all of it into the cup, before putting on the lid again. Dib had no idea what it was Zim was drinking, but apparently, it wasn't sugary enough.
"So…this is something you do regularly with Gaz?" Dib asked as Zim started drinking from his straw.
"Sometimes." He replied, with a surprisingly timid tone.
"And you didn't think of inviting me?" He continued to ask, though he felt a bit bad about it almost immediately after. It wasn't like he was obligated to be a part of everything in Zim's…even though he had slightly made that his life goal.
Surprisingly, the alien seemed unsure about what to say, as he looked around almost nervously.
"It…it didn't cross Zim at the time. When I think about the Dib-beast, this isn't usually the first thing that comes to mind."
"You can say that twice. I'm surprised that Gaz even managed to drag you out to a place like this. I thought you hated places like these."
"Oh, I do!" Zim replied with a devious smile. "The Dib-sister does too, so we usually discuss how much we hate it. You might be somewhat of a fun rival for Zim, but the Dib-sister is unparalleled when it comes to discussions about hating you human worms."
"I'm not surprised," Dib said with a short chuckle. "Still…what happened? Did she just invite you or…"
Zim took another long sip before he answered.
"Yes…"
"And you just, said yes? Why?!"
"I don't know!" Zim uttered with an irritated tone. "I don't know why I do HALF the stupid useless things with you, and yet, here I am."
There was a short moment of silence, where Dib regretted going so hard on Zim, and tried his best to come up with something to say that would deescalate the situation.
"I…I guess I know the feeling. It wasn't like I planned to become friends with the biggest threat to humanity." He remarked, earning a surprised and joyful expression from the alien for just a movement. Perhaps that was why he looked at the ground awkwardly as he kept speaking.
"But, here I am, and I don't know about you, but this is perhaps one of the best parts of my life so far." Dib continued, deciding he might as well go all out with the honesty now that he had got going.
He looked back at the alien, only to be met by a confused and perplexed gaze, that seemed almost to look past him into the horizon. DIb was worried he might have said something to make Zim freeze up, but eventually, he started to say something.
"I'll admit…this may be the most boring, disappointing, and wasteful period of my existence…but in a strange way I do feel…fulfilled," Zim said as if the word was completely foreign to him.
Still, Dib couldn't help but smile, and before he knew it, he accidentally let his hand slip up on the table. Like it had a mind of its own, it slithered over to Zim's side and sneakily made contact with one of the alien's claws. Both looked down at the scene and back at each other, the two of them blushing with embarrassment. Whatever they planned to do as a reaction was interrupted when they heard a group whispering, directed towards them. They looked to the side and on the other side of the street was a group they somewhat recognized from their school. There was some pointing, though it quickly stopped once they realized they were noticed. Quickly, the group then started walking away while avoiding eye contact. Both were shocked so much they completely forgot that they were touching hands, even though they were still doing it.
"What was that about?" Zim asked confused.
"They were probably thinking we were on a date or something-" Dib explained without much thought and it was too late when he realized what he had said.
"A…what 'date'?" The alien asked, only further puzzled by Dib's reaction.
"Oh uh…NOTHING, it means absolutely nothing!" He said with a comically nervous smile, taking the chance to take his hand back.
Zim didn't notice and instead stared silently at him for a few moments before taking another long sip.
"You're not trying to deceive me, are you Dib-thing?"
"NO, why would I do that?!" Dib said, before laughing almost hysterically.
I'm digging myself into a ditch, aren't I?
He thought to himself, as he waited for Zim to respond.
To his surprise, Zim took another sip and then sighed with an almost disappointed tone.
"You humans are one of the weirdest species I've ever met."
Whew, he seemed to let it go. Good, I don't know how he would have responded otherwise. After all, it's not like this is an actual date. No, we're just two friends sitting at a cafe together talking. Yep, completely normal, as long as both have only platonic feelings for the other. Which I have… totally.
Hoping to change the subject as much as possible, Dib decided to track back to what led to all the events that had happened that day.
"Alright, so, do you have all the technology you need to build that tracker thing?"
The alien seemed almost surprised at the question and needed a moment to think of what to say.
"Uhm, uh, YES, even though it's of LAUGHABLE quality compared to what I'm used to, but because we're talking about ME, then it should do."
"Good, so…you really wanted my help with building it?" Dib asked expectingly.
"UGH, yes, haven't I already humiliated myself enough on that topic? You're the only person on this dirt-ball capable of even COMPREHENDING how to help with its construction, and besides, I feel it's been some time since I probably demonstrated how ludicrously awful your dirt-ball technology is." He explained with his usual proudness that Dib had somehow managed to find charming after all this time.
"See it as your reward for assisting me. And for managing to not ruin everything with your wormy-hands."
"Sounds like something that might actually be interesting AND not life-threatening. I'm in. I need to get some stuff and tools first, so how about I come by tomorrow?"
"You're as stupid as I thought if you think I'll let you touch anything Irken with your useless human tools!"
"If it worked on an Irken spaceship, I think it will work on oversized radar." He fired back with an assured smile, that Zim had to relent to in the end.
"...Fine. Then come by tomorrow and our work can begin. Now, should we leave or-"
"Well, we don't need to leave right now." Dib interrupted him to say, with a certain boldness, just as Zim was about to jump out of his seat. "I'm sure Gaz can wait, so how about we sit and talk…just a little more?" He continued, squinting his eyes, unsure of what the alien would say.
Fortunately for him, Zim seemed to think it over for a moment and then smiled with a strange affection Dib rarely saw.
"...I guess that doesn't sound…completely disgusting…even if it is with you Dib-beast." He replied with a teasing smile, sitting back on the chair.
There they sat for a little longer, talking and discussing, forgetting everything else around them. All the while one thought was stuck in Dib's head.
…Okay, maybe it's a bit like a date…just a little bit…
Here we have the end of the newest chapter. As always, hope you enjoyed it. I won't lie, we're reaching the final part of this story, so I just want to say the reception to this story has been fantastic. It's been a joy writing this story and sharing it with you. See you next time, and have a nice day.