Invader Zim ZADR: How did we get here?

Chapter 20: A little breather

I'm back! And with another chapter no less! This time Dib and Zim have gotten back from their mission and might need a little breather. Well, just Dib at least. But everything might not just be over yet, not until Zim says so.

"So...are you satisfied?" Dib asked unenthusiastically from Zim's couch, as he lay casually with a leg and an arm hanging from the side. Meanwhile, GIR was sticking a wet, greasy piece of pizza into the human's face, waiting for them to accept.

"DO YOU WANT IT?! DO YOU WANT IT?! DO YOU WANT IT?!-"

Dib was long past caring at that point, as he just stared emptily up at the ceiling. Zim on the other hand was busy organizing and fiddling with the tech that they had salvaged from the warehouse. He would masterfully disassemble the machine one after another, throwing the things he needed into a dedicated 'useful' pile and the rest into the 'trash' pile. Names Dib had given the piles out from the two words the alien kept repeating whenever he had disabled something.

"Useful, trash, useful, useful, trash, trash, trash, useful-"

It seemed that Dib's question finally made its way into Zim's head, as the alien stopped his endless pattern, and looked over at the resting human.

"Oh...well, I wouldn't say that this heap of Earth trash can satisfy me. But...it's passable." Zim replied with a self-happy smile, congratulating himself for his endless generosity in giving such a meaningful compliment. Not that Dib caught on to that.

"Great," Dib said back, though it sounded like it was more to himself than to Zim. The alien tried to go back to sorting the components, but couldn't help looking back at the exhausted human on his couch. He tried to ignore it, but for some reason, he couldn't regain his focus.

"By the Tallest! What's wrong now, human?" He asked with a hint of hostility, most likely blaming the human for distracting him from his work.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm resting."

"And do you HAVE to do that on my couch?" Zim asked with a slightly irritated tone, not looking forward to cleaning his couch from all the human germs the Dib-thing must be carrying.

"Well, I was too tired to walk all the way home, and since I CARRIED you all way to your house, I thought the least you could do was lend me your couch."

"Shshshshshshs we don't talk about that!" Zim angrily hissed, hoping they could both lay that whole thing to rest and let it be forgotten. Most hopefully in a grave. Or a ditch.

"But why are you even so tired? You've never seemed so exhausted after fighting Zim." He questioned, with the human shrugging in response. After thinking about it, an evil grin spread on the alien's face, as a realization hit him.

"HAH! It's probably your inferior earth-monkey body starting to weaken after all these years."

Dib was just about to argue with him when he thought it over for a moment and started to see some sense in the green bug's words.

"Oh god, maybe I AM starting to get old!" He muttered in panic. While he was quick to dismiss the idea it had something to do with his age, another reason came to him.

"Or...it might be from all the stress I've experienced from dealing with you on a daily basis."

"HEY! It's not Zim's fault that your weak little body can't handle constant near-death experiences." Zim shot back with an annoyed tone while crossing his arms. He expected a shot fired back from the human but was disappointed to find him just staring silently at the ceiling. Zim considered leaving it at that, but the thought that he might have hurt the pitiful human's feelings left him feeling rather down. For whatever reason, he couldn't possibly understand. As he at first hesitated, he ended up letting out a grueling grown, before walking over to the couch. GIR had stopped stabbing Dib in the face with the pizza and was instead busy devouring it himself. Dib didn't have much time to react before Zim started padding him on the head as if he was a dog.