Starships and Spitwads

by icypinkpop

Pairing: Zim & Dib Friendship (ZaDF)

Disclaimer: Jhonen Vasquez gets all the glory for these two.

Warnings: Not many…Perhaps a little OOC-ness, and slight language.

Author's note: Well this is a…surprising return. How long has it been since I posted any fanfiction?

I couldn't help but want to write a story about these two. Apparently I live under a rock, because at the ripe old age of 19 I've only now discovered Invader Zim. And what a great discovery that was.

This really isn't supposed to be ZaDR-y, but going in with preconceived notions takes out all the fun, so please, I encourage you to interpret it as you wish.

My overall goal in writing this was to stay as in-character as possible. I love these guys, so I wanted to capture them as best I could. I hope that you can give me some feedback on how you think I did.

Enjoy!

o~o~o~o~o~o~o

o~o~o~o~o~o~o

It took Dib a few moments to get used to the lack of Zim in his bedroom. His head buzzed unendingly as he stared blankly into the room, startled out of any coherent thoughts other than a lone prevailing one.

That's the smartest thing he's ever said…

Suddenly on his feet, Dib ran to the window quickly and peered out into the blackness, squinting around for any sign of his captive. His palms felt sweaty as he grabbed the ledge of the window, fingers shaking slightly as an intense desperation began to pervade every breath and pulse of his system. Zim wasn't getting away.

Climbing out onto the roof without a second thought, he crawled over the surface slowly and kept his eyes wide. No trace…where could he have gone so suddenly?

The sound of small footsteps brought his gaze down towards the street. He gasped at the sight of the little alien with his rope still dragging behind him, watching the seeming difficulty he was having with running off. Immediately sure of the direction Zim was taking, Dib scrambled to the edge of the roof and leapt off the edge, stumbling as he slipped on the grass and promptly falling on his side.

Seconds later, he was up and running, following the green and pink mass down the street as fast as he could force his legs to carry him.

"Zim…" Muttering more to himself than anyone, the boy followed his captive around a corner and down the next street over, surprised by how quickly Zim seemed to be able to run when the little alien was staggering and swerving a little every now and then. Hot on his trail, he turned a roundabout and winced as a gust of cold early-morning air smacked him painfully in the face, eyes stinging. Gasping for breath already but determined to catch up, he hopped over a discarded cola can and almost paused when he realized which street he was on, Zim at least twenty feet away and gaining distance.

His base!

He had to get to Zim before he could go in there! Dib didn't have a good method for breaking into his base quickly enough without the lawn gnomes or GIR forcing him off the property. There was still that duct he had used a few days ago, but that would take too much time and he didn't have a screwdriver or anything…

Leaping forwards, Dib resolved in that moment to catch Zim before he had to think of a Plan B. His heart dropped in his chest when that familiar men's room door slammed shut just a few seconds before he reached the doorstep, leaving a stillness in the air that made Dib's horrible head-buzzing swell up in volume.

Zim was gone…

Knuckles white, Dib reached up and grabbed onto the sides of his hair tightly, staring in disbelief. He didn't know why it upset him so, and it didn't occur to him to try and figure it out. He just needed Zim to stay. A creeping feeling of dread was bubbling up in his gut, sending rushes of unease through his system and intensifying his tremors. This wasn't right…

Zim wouldn't do what he thought he might do, would he?

"…let me in!" he demanded to the door, reaching out to pound his shaking fists on what was actually metal disguised as wood.

"I know you're in there, Zim! Come out! I-I'm…I won't dissect you or anything!" he shouted, genuine this time. He didn't want Irken organs. Not outside their body, anyways. The thought of flashing cameras and newspaper headlines were making his head surge with pain. No, not that…

"I just want to talk to you!"

Not sure himself whether he was speaking lies or not, he repeatedly banged on the door and sunk to his knees clumsily, gripping the knob and trying pitifully to break in. Why couldn't he just have one, one single break in his miserable life? Why wouldn't GIR run out and let him in? Why wouldn't Zim kick that door open and laugh at his absolutely pathetic state?

A sudden gust of air sent Dib's head upwards towards the sky. He watched in absolute horror as the familiar Voot rose into sight, one single, desperate urge overriding the pain, discomfort, sadness he was feeling…

He had to get up there.

Brain working seemingly of its own accord, Dib stuck a foot out and managed to hoist himself onto the ledge of Zim's window. He reached up with both hands and gripped the top of the window, and then the gutter attached to the roof, wavering in place. With a breath of focus, he pulled himself up to stand atop the ledge of the window, using the gutter to balance and another metal pipe to pull himself onto the flat inner platform where the Voot sat.

"Zim!" The human ran up to the pod and reached out, vaguely noticing the alien's surprised expression as he sat in the drivers seat with both antennae perked up. Suddenly, a whole stream of words and images began to gush through the squishy innards of Dib's brain, sending painful shocks of remembrance down his spine. Unable to control himself, he staggered back a couple of feet, remembering.

He remembered all those late nights staying up, planning for Zim's imminent downfall at the hands of a particular piece of technology or Irken-based knowledge. He most certainly felt that burning anger that he usually did when dealing with Zim, but this time it was different. It wasn't anger at Zim for trying to destroy his home planet, like usual. It wasn't even anger at everyone else for laughing him off when all he wanted was to save their lives.

Immediately, Dib felt like his body was home all at once to each and every bruise, bitten lip, and black eye he had endured as a result of hunting Zim, or as a result of being teased for doing so. Breaths shaky, he lunged out and grabbed the sides of the pod, memories and words echoing around in the back of his mind. His glasses were flung off with the force of his movement, but Dib didn't pay any attention to the resounding crack.

"You told me I belonged here, Zim," Dib forced out in a whisper, clinging to the edge of the metal with white fingertips and staring through blurry eyes at the fuzzy green figure.

Zim shall kill you. That is all Zim has left to do.

"It was you. You said…all you had left to do was fight me. You know, get me out of your way so you could take over the world. I mean, you do still wanna do that, right?"

The wind howled over the rooftop behind them in the distance, burning Dib's eyes as he continued to look up stubbornly. What he wanted to say didn't make any sense, but somehow it felt right to say it.

"Doesn't that…doesn't that mean you belong here, too?"

The human could only watch as his nemesis stared downward with equal force. He blinked in surprise, however, when those red eyes softened just slightly, only to harden again into a look of loathing so strong Dib almost felt like it hurt. It hardly occurred to him that that was strange. How many times had Zim given him pointedly hateful looks? But it just…did.

"You do belong here, Dib-human," Zim replied simply, hand drifting over closer to the control panel. Before Dib could utter a word of protest, or joy, or anything, the hatch on the Voot began to slide shut, leaving only enough room for one more hiss to make its way out.

Dib scrambled to keep a grip on it, fingers squeaking as they slid off fruitlessly.

"But Zim belongs to nothing."

The immense power of the gust that shot back at him sent Dib flying backwards over the roof, backside colliding with the stucco of the landing platform. Wincing, he stared up and watched the tiny dot that was the cruiser rushing off into the starry distance, becoming a small light among the cluster of bright spots before disappearing into the dark oblivion completely. Eyes reluctant to move away, the boy stuck his hands into the pockets of his trench coat, open mouth closing briefly, only to smile and stare down hardly at the roof between his feet.

Before he knew it, he was laughing. Slowly, his head hung, fingernails curling bitterly against the white metal. He paused. It took him a second to realize why it sounded so quiet- the buzzing had stopped, and all he could hear was…nothing. He didn't even hear birds, or crickets. Just the gentle whoosh of the air, and he could feel that more than he heard it.

This shouldn't have changed anything. Swallowing, Dib looked down at his hands and then down at his feet, fingers scratching at the platform absently. Every night was like this, really. He always ended up in some place alone, lonely but always with the ghost of his thoughts floating over him. Swaying on a swing set, sneaking through a park, sprinting aimlessly with nowhere he wanted to go and no one he wanted to be. It shouldn't have been any different.

But it was. It was a different world now, Dib thought to himself, as he looked up at the stars that hurt his eyes now somehow instead of soothing them. It wasn't a world that would open its arms the moment he proved his worth. It wasn't a world he could save, or a world where he could stand up and be smiled at and have his hand shaken. It wasn't a world where he could go out and blend into a crowd, or sit and have a glass of juice in a cafeteria without someone throwing a paper airplane at his head. It wasn't even a world where he could take a walk.

This was a world where his mind, his body and his mouth would never stop running.

Grinning, he giggled a second time bitterly, voice loudening exceedingly as the moments passed by. Snickers turned into chuckles, which then turned into full-fledged gasps of rasping laughter, sending a sharp ache through his gut that sharply shot up into his head, bringing several small beads of moisture up in the corners of his eyes.

"They wanted you dead? They cut you off? You're all alone?"

Everyone said he was crazy. He wished he were.

"H-hah…who's all alone now?" he asked nobody and wiped at his eye, feeling his glasses crunch behind his back as he lay down and stared up into space.

o~o~o~o~o~o~o

o~o~o~o~o~o~o

Sorry this is so short (and probably riddled with typos). I'll make up for length in the next chapter, I promise.