Double Crossed (Invader Zim)

Chapter 17

When the room goes quiet, it's surprisingly deafening. You know, like when you've been in a really loud area, like an amusement park, for a long time, and then you get into the car, and the silence is unnatural? It's like that, almost. The only difference is that when you go to an amusement park, you aren't usually mentally scarred when you leave. Just a few minutes ago, I'd have embraced death. It seems extreme now, and the speed of my mood change has left me a little bit woozy, actually.

Zim is still standing in front of me, holding the device out, just like he had when he'd used it. He hasn't moved since Gaz disappeared, and his eyes are peeled open. I don't think I've seen him blink since I opened my eyes after the panic.

Resisting the temptation to pass out, I make my way over to Zim on wobbly knees. I decide not to touch him for now, in case he's still mad, but at the moment, he doesn't seem to be feeling anything but trauma, based off of his expression.

Surprisingly, he recovers quicker than I thought he would, and he falls to his knees. "Were you being serious?"

"About what?"

"You told her you wanted to die," Zim says, sounding far away. He doesn't look at me, just stares blankly ahead. "You don't want to die... r-right?" The last word is mangled, like he's about to cry. I don't think I could deal with that. Zim is usually so confident, and cocky, that seeing him break down would scare me more than anything I've ever seen.

Instead of answering him, I kneel down next to him and wrap my arms around him. Haphazardly, he lifts a hand to gently grab one of my arms in some form of acknowledgment. It doesn't seem like he's capable of anything more than ginger movements right now.

Even though I know that we're in a dangerous place right now, I don't rush Zim. I don't want to risk upsetting him, because that would cause him to freak out, bringing us back to square one.

"So... why did you save me? You made it very clear that you'd given up on yourself," I mutter, trying not to speak too loudly or quickly. "What made you change your mind?"

To my surprise, Zim actually laughs a little bit. "Seriously? Even I'm afraid of your sister, Dib." It takes almost all of my strength not to react strongly to my regular name as he continues. "The sincerity of your voice when you confronted her... it would take me days to prepare for something like that. Especially for the part that came after."

"I don't even know why she got so mad. I know that she likes being better than everyone else, but she usually just ignores any insults I say to her. Then again, I've never been that mad. I can't believe she just took my pictures, let alone showed them to someone," I grumble, still a bit frustrated with her.

"Speaking of which," Zim starts, finally turning to face me, "why did you have pictures of me in the first place?" He grins smugly when my face heats up.

"Science! They were for science," I say hotly. Honestly, I have no idea why I kept those pictures, rather than sending them to the Eyeball or something like that.

"Uh-huh." Zim grins, standing up. He wipes at his face- which, when he'd turned to me, I'd noticed was wet with tears- and starts looking around the room, most likely for a means of escape. "If there was some sort of map, we'd be able to find a way out," he says, confirming my thoughts.

"We can't just leave," I argue. "If we don't do something about Membrane first, he'll keep looking for you. I would suggest wiping his memory, but he's too smart for that."

Zim seems to mull this over. "Well, we'll still need a map to find wherever it is he should be working at the moment."

I try to remember the halls and doors that I ran through on my way here. Did I see any kind of directory? I tug on my sleeve, only to remind myself that my coat is gone. I grab the glove off of the ground and put it on, even though I can't be seen with or without this disguise, now that Zim is with me. "I should probably return this uniform to the staff room," I say, unable to think of any place I'd seen a map.

Zim doesn't say anything, but grabs me with two of his metal legs and uses the other two to grab onto a large vent on the ceiling and pull us through. Once we're up, we move a few good feet from the opening, Zim behind me. I lean towards the gap to make sure no one's entered the room in the time that we took to get up here.

Once I'm completely sure that we're fine, I turn around and kiss Zim. It feels like forever since we were together, and I'm dying to get closer, even if it is just for a little bit. His tongue is coarse and aggressive against mine, and I wrap one hand around his neck, pulling him closer to me.

His arms wrap around my torso, almost instinctively, it seems, until he's sitting in my lap, with his legs extended behind me. I can't tell if it's the heat of the moment or the stuffy vent- or both- that's causing me to sweat. Zim's bare chest bumps against me as he tries to get closer, and I tug at him to try and help, even though we're pressed up against each other so closely that it does virtually nothing.

My ears are filled with the sound of my blood rushing through my head, and I arch my neck, moaning in pleasure as Zim starts kissing my neck. I lean back, propping myself up on my elbows, closing my eyes. Zim makes his way back up to my mouth, and I collapse onto my back, wrapping my arms back around Zim's neck as he leans over me.

The sudden bang from falling onto the vent under me snaps me back into reality, and my head shoots up as I realize where we are. My sudden movement catches Zim off guard and my forehead smashes into his face.

"Gah! Dib, you-" The rest of his sentence is incomprehensible, since he starts speaking in grunts and clicks.

"Um... what?"

"Some humans begin to speak in their first language when startled, right?" Zim asks, rubbing at his cheeks. "Same with Irkens."

My face is still burning from the previous situation, and I wipe at it in attempts to cool down. "So, that was Irken?" I ask.

Zim nods, but doesn't acknowledge it any further. "We should check the room to make sure no one's come in while we were..." Zim stops and coughs awkwardly, "um, distracted." Quietly, he crawls to the edge of the opening in the vent and looks down into the room.

As risky and out of the way as it may have been, I really enjoyed that kiss. Okay, well, maybe it was a little bit more than just a kiss, but nonetheless, I definitely enjoyed that. The pain in my forehead has died down; I've obviously had worse, and it's really nothing compared to the cut down my arm. 

Speaking of which, the wind from Gaz had blown the bandages off, and now the humidity of the vent is causing pus to grow on the sides of my cut. As I'm wiping the pus off on my jeans, Zim turns around quickly and grabs me by the shoulders.

"We need to get out of here."