Who Needs Sleep? (ZaDr)

Chapter 2

The lunch bell rang. Zim got up and stretched, making sure to keep an eye on Dib. Currently the boy was shielding his face from the alien.

Odd... he thought.

Suddenly the teenager shot up out of his seat, knocking his coffee cup onto the floor. "Shoot," he grumbled, watching the brown liquid pool around the cup. He bent down to pick it up when a blank look crossed his face.

Zim walked over to the young boy, bending down and grabbing the cup. Sure, they were nemeses, but Zim didn't hate Dib. If he wasn't doing well, Zim didn't want him to get in trouble for something as small as dropping a cup.

"Dib, are you alright?" God, why were his eyes such a nice color? Zim stared into them, awaiting an answer.

"I- Yeah, just- Um..." Dib was... blushing? He looked at the ground, trying to wipe up the coffee with his hand.

Zim grabbed his hand and lifted it off the ground. "Use this," he said, holding out a tissue. Dib tentatively reached out his other hand to take it.

"I won't bite," Zim said. He looked closely at the boy's hand, following a scratch down to Dib's wrist, which was covered by his trench coat. The alien traced it in his mind, wondering how his enemy had gotten it.

"Why are you helping me?" Zim almost didn't hear the question; he had been very focused on the boy's hand. "Hmm? Oh, I just- can't stand messes." That wasn't exactly a lie. He really did hate messes.

Dib stood up as soon as he finished cleaning up the coffee, tissue dripping wet. "Right. Thanks," he muttered. "Well, see you later."

Zim watched his rival leave the classroom, leaving him with more questions than he already had.

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Dib walked out of Skool. He wasn't supposed to, but he really didn't care about any stupid rules right now. He headed in the direction of Starbucks, ready to get another coffee.

He wasn't allowed to have coffee, either, but he'd been drinking it since he was thirteen, whenever he was working late trying to stop Zim. If his dad found out... If his dad found out, he wouldn't care. He would only care if his precious Gaz was doing it behind his back.

Dib felt like he wasn't even supposed to have existed sometimes, like he was a mistake. That's why he tried so hard to impress his dad, but he could never manage to get his dad's attention, never mind approval.

Dib kicked a rock. Stupid. STUPID. I shouldn't be thinking like this.

Why not? a voice in his head chimed in. It's not like anyone would care.

"GOD, why can't you just SHUT UP?" he screamed to himself. A few people turned to face him, but he didn't care. He arrived at the cafe and ordered his drink.

He waited for it in silence. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a familiar looking green dog. He turned around to address the robot.

"GIR, what are you doing here?" The little robot looked up at him and waved.

"HIIIII, MARY! Master asked me to keep an eye on ya! Sooo... How ya doin'?"

Dib felt his face grow hot. Zim was trying to watch him. That explained why he helped Dib that morning. But why? Had he seen something?

"Mary, are you blushiiinng?" GIR asked in a sing-song voice.

"No, GIR. I'm not." Dib was angry. Why? Why would he ever think that Zim might actually care about him? No one cared about him, he knew that. So why would he hope that maybe someone would?