When a Human Likes an Alien

The Call

Dib started the next day by getting prepared to fight his long standing enemy. He was actually excited to see him again, but he told himself that it was only because he got to ask about yesterday. He hurried out the door and practically ran down the street, not before he heard his sister yell something. "Have fun with your boyfriend." "Zim isn't my boyfriend, Gaz!"

As he ran down the street, he realized he should conserve energy and breath, so he started walking instead. He tried to think of all the things that could be wrong with Zim. He came up with a few things, but figured it was something he would never think of.

Zim was making a few finishing touches on his newest plan before he remembered Dib would be fighting him today, and he most likely had questions about the previous day. That foolish human always had questions for Zim. It got annoying. But Zim didn't want to be ignored again, so he let the human ask whatever he wanted. He went up into the 'house' part of his base and waited for his enemy to show up.

As soon as he saw Dib walk down the street, Zim put on his disguise and stepped out of the base. "I knew you wouldn't be able to stay away, Dib-thing! You're very predictable, you know," Zim stated, with his normal, mater-of-fact tone. This was definitely how Zim should be acting, which somehow set Dib slightly at ease. Yet he wasn't sure why. It couldn't be that he actually cared for this small green space boy, could it?

"Please come inside, I hate wearing this wig when we fight, and just in general." Zim wasn't as rude as he usually is, so naturally Dib complied. He followed Zim into the base and watched as he took off his contacts and wig, and then sat down on the couch. It was strange, but he patted the spot next to him signaling for Dib to sit there too. "I'm guessing you really just came to ask me some questions, so ask away, I'm not going to fight you until you throw the first blow."

"Well first, I wanted to know what made you act so weird yesterday."

Zim hesitated before saying, "I had received a call from The Tallests about a week ago and they suggested that I act more serious if I wanted to be more successful. I tried it for a week and didn't get any further with my plans than I usually do, so I called them not long after you left to tell them I didn't work any better being more serious, so I wouldn't try anymore."

"So you basically told them they were wrong? That's hilarious. How did they react?"

"Zim did no such thing! You lie!!"

"Okay, fine. But I also got excited to come over here and throw a couple punches, so, can I? We haven't fought in a while so I figured you wanted to."

"Of course I do, your the enemy." With that, Zim leapt off the couch and tackled Dib to the ground. Zim scratched and Dib punched, both of them leaving marks on the other. Just as Zim was about scratch Dib's glasses off, he heard the computer alerting him to a call. "It's from The Tallests, would you like to answer?"

"Of course I would you stupid machine! Just hold on!" Zim yelled and quickly got off of Dib, shooing him away so The Tallests wouldn't see him. "Well, answer it, stupid hunk of metal!"

"Ugh, fine." Zim sure has one weird computer, Dib thought.

As the screen turned on, The Tallests were in full view, and Purple was eating snacks, as usual. "Zim, we have something... quite important, that you need to know," Red started off, not exactly knowing how to break the news.

"What is it, my Tallests? Am I going back to Irk?" Zim sounded slightly hopeful, he usually did whenever he talked about going home.

"No Zim, quite the opposite, actually." Red almost didn't want to tell him. He didn't want Purple to do it though.