Four years later and Zim was still not Ruler of Earth. He needed time – that’s what he kept telling his kinsmen. Of course they agree’d with him and egged him on only to laugh behind his back later.

Being 14 in Earth years, Zim learned it was time to enter High School like every other Earth-child. Zim was sure this would be easy, another thing to succeed and shrug off. Zim didn’t know he’d have every class with Dib, and that the days would be much longer.

On his first week, Zim discovered that high school students were even dumber than elementary school kids. No one questioned his green skin and everyone called Dib weird for being so obsessed with ‘that ugly Zim kid.’ Much to Dibs chagrin, nothing had changed. Zim was still an alien, still bent on conquering Earth, and no one noticed. Not even his own father.

During Zim’s first year, he was horrified to discover that he was becoming more and more human like in appearance. Beyond his human disguise of slicked back hair and large black eyes, he was looking more and more human as the months passed.

His skin remained green, but he began to grow hair. It came out black and silky and always pushed back. His eyes grew rounded, but remained bright and pink, and the most disturbing and disgusting thing of all? He grew a set of human ears! They were pointed at the tops, but human nonetheless. He was thankful that at least he did not grow pupils and so his eyes remained the same, even if a little rounder than before.

More than that, he could stand water. He no longer hid home when it rained, instead he ventured out beneath an umbrella like all the other Earthikans.

Dib was not blind to these changes. He followed Zim home from school and was equally, if not more so, horrified to see Zims new human like appearance. Sure it was a weapon, he fled home to tell his dad.. who ignored him.

A month after Zim’s change, he began to think of it as a good thing. Sure, now he looked like a weird human but at least he didn’t have to bother with his disguise anymore. He stuffed the wig and contacts away for some other time, if needed.

Zim soon discovered the very great down side of this new appearance: Dib was even more obsessed with him than usual. He followed him around constantly, demanding to know why he looked the way he did and if it was some new ploy to destroy the Earth.

It wasn’t… but Zim didn’t tell him that. What he did tell him was to ‘get lost’ and ‘leave me alone, idiot Dib.’ He also had a lot more use of his gnomes now than ever before.

Dib did not get lost, he did not go home, and he frequently tried to think of ways to break into Zim’s house to see what he was up to. His plans all failed except one. It had been luck, really. He’d over heard Zim talking to that robot “dog” about their broken gnomes and how they were to fix them. It was the perfect night!

He got 10 feet in when Zim tackled him to the floor. Dib was just as skinny as Zim, if not a little bigger, and he was at least as strong but he couldn’t fight his way from beneath Zims body. Zim had him pinned and took 5 minutes to yell at him about his stupidity and how he’d never out smart “THE MIGHTY ZIM!”

After the first two minutes, Dib stopped struggling enough to catch the narrowed gaze of those pink eyes and he spent the last 3 minutes staring up at Zims face.

That night, he had trouble falling asleep. Zim’s eyes haunted him. When sleep finally did settle over him, his dreams were filled with that steady weight of Zims body pressed into his.

Zim watched Dib closer after that night. He hadn’t given much thought to Dibs physical appearance – but now that he really looked at him he could note the small differences he hadn’t noticed before.

Dibs hair was longer, he tucked it behind his ears and blew at the ebony strands that got into his eyes with a frustrated scowl. His eyes were black – he’d never noticed before. He’d never stared long enough to notice but they were most definitely black. That was interesting, the darkest color Zim had ever seen in a humans eyes was brown. But black? That was alien-like, and it thrilled him for reasons he couldn’t quite grasp.

Zim also noticed that he no longer wore those glass things that humans had dubbed ‘glasses.’ He wondered how the human could read properly without them, since he’d read that humans with glasses usually had eye sight deficiency.

The Dib’s clothing hadn’t changed much. He still usually wore darker colors, but his wrists became adorned with small rubber bracelets that he constantly plucked at and removed as if he couldn’t decide whether he liked them or not.

Dib was doing just that one day when he looked up to see Zim looking at him. Dib’s eyebrow rose questioningly and his mouth was forming into a scowl. Why was that alien looking at him?

Zim just laughed and looked away.

That struck Dib in a way he could only call ‘stupid’. Every other sense became ignored, everything around him phased away until Zim was the only thing there. Zim had never laughed at him, not like that. Not in a way humans laughed. Zim always laughed psychotically, maniacally. It was always a laugh that meant he was succeeded – or thought he was going to succeed. Zim’s laugh had always meant trouble before. Now it meant something else completely and Dib didn’t know just what that was.

After that day, Dibs attention focused even more intently on Zim – but in a different way than normal. Now he tried to pick out all of Zims new human characteristics.

At first he had trouble picking them out. Zim focused on his school work the way a smart student who wanted to learn did – but that just meant he was trying to learn more about humans in order to conquer Earth. So that wasn’t necessarily human, right?

Zim glared at everyone, but he always had.

He didn’t take special interest in anyone it seemed. His entire interest was more on how to conquer humans than who they were. However, Zim did pay special attention to him. Dib caught Zim staring at him when the alien didn’t know he was watching him from the corner of his eye.

The first time this happened, Dib looked at him pointedly, and asked simply: “Why are you staring at me?”

Zim seemed surprise. His pink eyes widened a fraction and he opened his mouth – but then he sneered and looked away. “Idiot Dib” he’d said simply, quietly, and Dib growled and turned away again.

After this, Dib never mentioned it again but he noticed Zim’s stare many times. Zim’s gaze never settled or turned away with hatred or anger the way Dib expected it to. His eyes remained wide, and sometimes he gnawed on his bottom lip while he watched him.

Dib thought about the stare so much that he feared his grades would slip, but no matter how many times he tried to forget about Zim and just concentrate he was unsuccessful.

Dib wasn’t safe from thoughts about Zim any where he went. He laid in bed at night and thought about the alien and how strange he’d become. His thoughts often went back to that night when he’d broken into Zim’s house and the way he’d growled at him before he’d thrown him out, the warmth of Zims body over his. These thoughts often made him warm, ignited tingles that ran into a growing heat low in his stomach.

It was during these times that Dib curled into a ball and tried to forget about Zim all over again.

Zim’s determination for conquering the world took a back burner to his determination to watch Dib.

Dib wasn’t stupid – he admitted this grudgingly, he was the smartest human he’d ever come in contact with. Of course, that didn’t say much. Most humans were fucking stupid. But Dib was very, very smart. And Dib also hated him, and loved Earth.

This made Zim laugh, it amused him this humans love for an Earth that ignored him. An Earth that didn’t care about his opinions and his determination to keep all its creatures safe. Dib hated him by default because he was here to take everything Dib wanted away. He was here to be the ruler of these humans, and Dib would not stand for that.

But something within the human had changed. Zim noticed it after Dib had caught him staring. The fire within Dib was burning low, burning out, and Zim couldn’t help but feel disappointed.

Of course, he couldn’t say why, but there it was. Disappointment nestled within him like a hard weight he couldn’t lift. Had he really enjoyed all those fights with Dib? It seemed unfathomable. Ridiculous, even! He, Zim, mighty over-lord to be.. enjoy fighting with a human? Of course not.

Then why?

Dib had changed. Zim saw it in the way he looked at him, eyes large and dark and full of..something. Something Zim couldn’t name, but tried so hard to.

Zim’s thoughts circulated around Dib. Their past, their prescience, the way Dib looked at him..

There was simply not enough time in the day to think about Dib, apparently, because Zim found himself lying in bed at night still thinking about him. Dib’s scowl, the way Dib blew at his hair in frustration, Dib’s clever sneakyness, and Dibs dark eyes. The eyes were the worse, they ignited something strange within him that he tried to ignore, but failed. The tingles raced up and down his back, wrapped him in their flaming embrace, and settled low in his stomach. Dib had only ever ignited anger within him and this new feeling felt good, not like anger which felt like something hot but unpleasant twisting in his stomach. This new heat was nothing unpleasant at all.

After a month, Dib decided his new feelings must be Zim’s new weapon to make him weak and distracted.

This was not going to happen. Dib’s determination was now to protect himself and conquer Zim’s weapon.

It was easy to find Zim Monday morning. The alien was in the locker rooms, 15 minutes after everyone else had gone outside to play basketball. Dib knew he never played, but every time he’d told the coach, Zim was no where to be find for proof. After a while, Dib had stopped trying and grudgingly allowed Zim to skip.

They had the same class, so Dib easily found Zim leaning against the cold, grey lockers.

Zim regarded him with surprise at first, those pink eyes widening the way they had when Dib had demanded to know why he was being stared at. Then Zim’s mouth twisted into a smirk and he laughed. Dib shuddered, not from fear or disgust but from the surprise he still felt at the sound of Zim’s human-like laugh. “What are you doing here Dib? Come to get me in trouble again? Haven’t you learned your les-“

Dib’s eyes narrowed, mouth forming a pout before he spoke in a slightly raised voice that cut Zim off mid-sentence; “What are you doing to me? What is this you’ve done? Take it away or else I’ll…” but he trailed away. Dib had taken enough time to figure out that this was all Zim’s fault but he hadn’t taken the time to figure out what he’d do if Zim didn’t cooperate – and he usually didn’t.

Zim’s eyes widened again, “What are you talking about?”

He usually had an inkling when Dib accused him of something. This time he came up blank, but a thrill made his stomach jump. It’d been a long time since he’d fought with Dib.

Dib scowled at him and came closer, his boots squeaking on the concrete floors, “Don’t act stupid! You know what I’m talking about and I want you to make it stop.” He was so close to Zim now, he can smell him. Flowers, Zim smelled oddly like flowers. This new discovery made his thoughts pause, but he quickly recovered to snarl, “I’m not falling for it Zim.”

Zim actually laughed again, tilted his head back and laughed. Dib growled and came even closer until they were nose-to-nose, “Don’t you dare laugh at me!”

Zim’s laughter stopped suddenly and he was stoney faced as he said, “Or you’ll what?”

Dib had almost forgotton how irritating Zim could be. How angry Zim could make him. However, usually when Zim made him angry they weren’t as close as they were now, unless they were fighting..

Dib growled, a sound that made Zim’s newly grown eyebrows shot up and his eyes to widen, and that thrill shoot straight to the heat building low in his stomach.

“I’ll..” Dib began, then he growled again and Zim had no time to react because Dib had launched himself at him and crushed his mouth against his.

“Mmph-“ Zim tried to speak but Dib was biting at his lips and growling like an angry cat.

When Dib finally pulled away, his pale face was reddened and Zim was struck, for once, completely silent.

Dib’s hand lifted shakily to his mouth, where his fingers brushed at his pink lips. His dark eyes widened and he made a startled noise before turning and running out of the locker room.

Zim listened to the thunk and squeak of Dibs boots until his own thoughts returned in a slow, sluggish manner. One thought stood out from the rest: Dibs lips were soft.