Double Crossed (Invader Zim)

Chapter 8

I didn't realize I'd fallen asleep until I woke up under the tree on the hill. The stars were out, and a glance at my phone told me that it was almost 9 p.m. Zim is sitting on the edge of the cliff, staring out into space. I wonder if he's thinking about his home. Quietly, I get up and walk over. Before I can even sit down, Zim's antennae perk up.

"You were sleeping for awhile," he states. Nothing else. Almost as if he didn't want to break the peaceful silence.

"Uh-huh. Humans do that, I guess," I answer awkwardly, scratching the back of my neck as I sit down next to Zim, legs dangling over the ledge.

Zim turns towards me. "We can do this, right?" His eyes look almost pleading, and I wouldn't forgive myself if I told him we had a chance of failing, so instead I nod.

"Of course. We've got three weeks. That's plenty of time." Saying this makes me feel a bit more confident. "Yeah, we can totally figure this out." I say this last part mainly to myself.

Zim smiles a little, looking down at the grass. "We can figure this out," he breathes, repeating my words, almost like motivation. Then he looks back at me. "I was thinking of a few ideas while you were sleeping," he starts.

"Alright. Shoot," I say, then, seeing Zim's confused expression, say, "Oh, it's a figure of speech. It just means that I'm listening."

But as he talks, I can't say that that's true. Questions run through my head the whole time.

At first, when I'm staring right at him, trying to listen, I think, 'I wonder if he sees in a different way. Does the colour of his eyes affect that?'

Then I recall him saying something about ocular implants, which are installed at the same time as Paks, which as well confuse me. 'Maybe I could ask him how Paks work. It's a bit obscure.'

Of course, he's talking the whole time, unaware of my inner monologue, but as he's speaking, I notice his tongue. I'd seen it before, but it only just occurred to me how different it looks compared to a human tongue. It looks coarse and thin. 'I wonder what his tongue feels like.'

"What?"

Oh shit, I said that out loud. I can feel my cheeks getting hot, and once again wonder about the ocular implants. I really hope he can't see in the dark. "Uh... Nothing?" I try lamely.

Zim raises an eyebrow. "Not good enough. What did you say?"

"Fuck... Alright, I asked you what your tongue felt like," I say reluctantly. I wouldn't have even said it at all if I didn't already know how persistent Zim is.

"I never thought about that," Zim says, and sticks out his tongue. He looks down at it, flicking it around as if observing it for the first time. "It is pretty different than a human's huh? I guess I could wonder what your tongue feels like too."

God dammit. It would help if he didn't say those things. Innocence isn't a blessing for everyone, I guess. And it doesn't help that Zim is sitting next to me, flicking around his tongue like it's totally normal. I have to keep my head bowed and look at the town to keep from staring.

"Anyways, before you interrupted me," Zim starts, and I finally look back at him now that his tongue is back where it belongs, "we could use this area as a base. It's seems like no one comes here. The only problem would be explaining to your family units why you aren't home."

I shrug. "I'll just tell them I'm out looking for Bigfoot or something. They'll definitely leave me alone." As I say this, it occurs to me just how sad that sounds. Is it bad to question whether or not your family loves you?

Zim nods and falls backwards. His arms are bent awkwardly under his head, as if he's only doing it for how it looks. I decide to fall down next to him, and we both just gaze up at the cosmos, which I've seen very little of, and Zim has probably seen light years beyond our solar system.

"Do you know what constellations are?" I ask Zim.

"I recall something about a Big Dipper," Zim answers, and I can almost hear the air quotes around the words.

"That's actually called an Asterism. There's only a small difference. Asterisms are basically constellations within constellations. The Big Dipper is part of the constellation Ursa Major." I point to the sky, tracing the stars with my fingers. "Some stars can only be seen in one half of the world, since Earth doesn't turn on an X axis."

"X axis?" Zim asks, and I can hear him sounding out the word as he says it. He sounds like someone just learning a new language. It's pretty cute, actually.

"Yeah, it means that... Well, the Earth spins like this," I say, holding up my arms and doing a demonstration with my hands, rotating one around the other, "which is a Y axis. An X axis would be if it moved like this," I explain, changing the direction of the rotating hand to go up and around the other.

"Fascinating," Zim says, and I could've sworn I heard a smile in his voice. I consider turning my head to see his, but we're kind of close together, so that might be a bad idea. "The Earth is different than Irk in a lot of ways. You guys don't go through extensive training to become warriors or healers, or anything like that. You just take things at your own pace. Humans can choose what they want to do, and learn things as they come. Irkens have all their knowledge shoved into them as soon as they're created. We don't get a chance to see the beauty in things, because we already know all of it. In a way... humans are kind of lucky."

I'd never even thought about that. Irkens are technically all grown up when they're born, even though one of their years is ten years for humans. They're younger than us in a way, but much more mature.

"So, if Irkens are supposed to know everything as they're born, why do you not know about Earth and it's culture?" I ask. It would make sense that he would already know everything about Earth.

"We're only programmed with all of our known information. Since Earth isn't well-known amongst Irkens, it's language and ways are all learned through second-hand observation." Zim answers.

Finally, I decide to turn towards him. He's staring hard at the stars. "Earth is such a small part of the universe," he says, with a hint of awe in his voice. "You guys see so little of everything around us, and yet you're content with what you have. Irkens just keep conquering planets because we're not happy with what we have. Maybe if we just slowed down, though, we could actually see some of the beauty that we aren't programmed to know." Zim turns toward me, and our faces are now really close, but he doesn't seem to care. "The beauty of 'home'."