The weeks that followed Dib and Zim's new found friendship were rocky at best, neither having very much practice at it. All of Zim's friends previous had been considered more as tools, a means to reach his ends, and Dib, well, people just didn't like him.

Eventually they got into a smooth routine, however. Zim had been allowed free from the brig at the request of Dib, and pretty much slept on the human's floor.

"Like a sleep over!" Dib had said, trying to be optimistic. This earned him a punch to the face and Zim received a mattress the very next day.

Zim wasn't eager to trust Dib at first, the irken putting his back to the wall, just incase the big headed creature got any ideas. But after several nights of restless sleep Zim gave up. Even if the Dib-worm did try something he could easily defend himself.

Dib always woke up first, nudging the irken awake so they could do their individual rituals of hygiene and cleanliness. Dib would take a shower and brush his teeth and, for the benefit of Zim, dry his hair. Zim would just quickly run some cleansing chalk over himself in the corner of the room he'd claimed for himself and put on some horrible human clothing that had been provided for him.

It was simple jeans and a black t-shirt, but it was all the human's had to provide until the manufacturing wing of the space station was fully operational.

To make Zim feel better Dib would always comment on Zim's attire, telling him it looked good on him, and that at least it fit. Zim would scowl, but accepted the compliments and from there they went about their day.

Dib had a job on the space station. He over saw the creation of anti-irken weapons, having been making them since he was eleven anyway. With his help they had created at least fifteen different types of fire arms that were lethal to irkens specifically. Zim wanted nothing to do with this and for the three hours Dib had to go and inspect the latest advancements Zim wondered the halls.

There was nothing really to do yet to occupy ones time on the station except watch movies, if you had managed to save any, and play games with imaginary balls. Not that Zim would be invited to play any real games anyway. For the first time in his life, it seemed, Zim noticed the scorn on people's faces when they looked at him, and the hatred. Despite his being exiled from his race people seemed to have nothing but contempt for him. Not that he cared. The moment he had the means he would get off that human insect hive anyway. He would go find somewhere else to start his lonely life.

Then, just as thoughts of escaping were creeping up into his head, Dib would find him and they'd go back to Dib's sister's room and play some video games with her, only pausing for meals until it was time for bed or she kicked them out. Then they would spend the rest of the time discussing things of science or other races until they fell asleep.

"Alright jerk-wads. Time to stop mooching off my fun. I need to concentrate." Gaz declared quietly one day, squinting an eye at Zim and Dib, sitting on HER bed, playing HER piggy race game.

"Concentrate, on what?" Dib asked, but began putting the game up anyway.

"The manufacturing department is almost finished. I'm going to be in charge of overseeing the entertainment needs of the people here. In short, I'm going to be making video games." Gaz said simply, grabbing a few of her favorite games and putting them into her old school back-pack. "These are going to be copied for people to play now. But in a few years we should be able to start making new ones."

"Wow, who would have thought? Gaz is going to be the one who brings HAPPINESS to these people instead of doom." Dib said which earned him a book thrown at his head. This made Zim snicker.

"You'll hush." She declared, hands on her hips. "It's not like I'm doing this for charity. Dad also wants to start a credit system. Get some monetary flow going. But since the economy is basically nonexistent now he has to start over from scratch. He says the development of things people don't actually need will help get things going. So in about a year stores will be opening to sell these games, along with snacks and other things people don't really need, but will want. That way we can get some cash flow going instead of people just getting things for free."

"Makes sense." Dib said, rubbing the red spot blooming on his forehead.

"Clothes are also going to start being made. Of course none of them are going to be in fashion, since there aren't any real designers. But a lot of people here have learned to sew and can copy what is already here. So people should be able to get new ones." Gaz explained.

"Hey, you'll be able to buy new clothes." Dib said, throwing a smile at Zim.

"But how will I earn the credits?" Zim pointed out. "I'm not allowed to have a job here. They won't let me near anything that will wind up in another human's hands."

"They'll need your help eventually Zim." Gaz pointed out. "Once everything is back to normal they'll want you to give them information so they can take the fight to Earth."

"What!?" Zim cried. "No, I won't do it! They can't make me!"

"Zim, you can't honestly-." Dib began, but was cut off.

"Everyone has their price, Zim." Gaz said, smirking. "You will give up the information eventually. But don't do it for free, got it? Make betraying those ass-wipes who want you dead REALLY worth it. If nothing else you won't feel so bad for it later."

Zim grew silent and Dib just looked on worriedly. The Tallest were a touchy subject for Zim. He never liked talking about it. He just hoped one day he would so that the humans could take their home back.

It was a little maddening after a while, Zim deduced. People not liking you was one thing, but then the pranks started. Someone flooded the hall of the living quarters, leaving Zim trapped in his room. Then someone, probably someone close to the science department, set up random motion censored mist sprayers along Zim's usual walking route, earning him a blast of finely misted water every couple of feet.

By the next month after these pranks had started Zim was covered in chemical burns, a few of which were starting to scar. Some people had even been ballsy enough to confront him, pelting him with water balloons. When it didn't let up Dib decided to handle things, and angrily stalked form the room, being pelted with a few balloons himself.

The very next day Membrane released an announcement that water was to be rationed. There was no gardens to water, so water was to be used only for hygienic purposes or for drinking. Anyone caught doing otherwise would have to face the penalty of a week in jail and would be minus a couple hundred credits when that system finally got up and running.

The attacks suddenly stopped but for the random kid every once in a while. But after a while that faded out too.

That didn't make Zim feel any better though.

He was light-years from home, his own race despised him, thought he was a defect, and the only place he had to call home now also hated him. No, they more than hated him. It seemed everywhere he went people wanted him gone or dead or the next best thing. It began to once again eat at him from the inside out.

One morning, Zim and Dib had been friends for a couple of months now, Dib woke up first, as was usual, and went to nudge the irken awake. He wouldn't respond. This worried the human, and he pulled Zim out from under the covers and out from his tightly curled ball. The irken's antennae immediately pressed to the back of his head and he winced as though in pain.

"Zim?" The human asked, petting Zim's head as he'd done the night of the irken's breakdown. "Zim, what's the matter?"

"My head." The irken claimed, burying his face against the human's black pajama shirt, blocking out the scorching light. "It hurts."

"Where, what kind of hurt?" Dib asked, scooting up onto the bed. It was awkward to have the irken so close. He hadn't really thought about it the first time, but now... it made him blush.

Zim motioned to the front of his face with a twirling finger, mumbling something like, "Frontal.. lobel... area."

"Can irken's take aspirin?" Dib asked, stretching to reach his night stand drawer where he kept a bunch of pain relievers in a zip lock bag. They hadn't started manufacturing the bottles yet and he pretty much had to make them himself.

"Dunno." Zim croaked. "Never tried. Don't think... not a good idea."

Dib stopped reaching then, just holding Zim's head gently, hoping the pressure would at least help Zim to cope.

"How bad is it?" Dib asked after ten minutes of sitting there.

"Bad... bad bad." Zim whined, wrapping his arms around Dib's back and holding himself to the human's chest.

"What do you think is causing it?" Dib asked, being sure to be quiet in case it was anything like a human migraine. He would get those sometimes and no one was ever that considerate for him.

Zim could only shrug. He did know what was causing it, but saying it would require using his voice and at this point he was just gritting his teeth and bearing it. Usually in cases like this his pak would make his body release its own pain killers and maybe a few extra endorphins, but no one had been able to take the jammer from his pak and so he was left virtually useless. Alive, but in an extreme amount of pain.

Dib, after a half an hour of sitting there, finally had to move. He grabbed the irkens pillow and said, "Here, shield your eyes with this, I'll go turn the lights off."

The irken eagerly took the pillow, burying his face in it so hard, Dib was worried about the alien's breathing. So quickly he got up and turned out the light. The room fell to almost complete darkness, but Dib could see Zim move the pillow from his face.

"Better?" The human whispered as he went to kneel next to Zim. "I need to take a shower. Think you'll be alright?"

Zim nodded, humming in the positive before leaning against the wall.

Dib frowned. He felt pity for the irken. He was under so much stress it was a wonder Zim wasn't having these problems before.

"Why don't you hop in my bed?" Dib offered, motioning to the metal framed bed. "It'll be a little more comfortable if nothing else."

Zim again nodded and began crawling towards in. He got in under the sheets and curled up with his face under the pillow.

"I'll be quick." Dib assured, slipping into the adjoining bathroom and shutting the door before turning on the lights.

After showering and blowing his hair dry, along with a little teeth brushing to keep his morning breath from setting Zim's head ache worse he turned the light back off and slipped out of the bathroom. Zim hadn't moved since he went in there.

"Zim?" He whispered, going to sit on the edge of the bed and pull the pillow off gently.

Zim didn't fight, but he gave a grunt to show that he was awake.

"Is it any better?"

"No," Zim rasped, shaking his head. Something was wrong with Zim's voice.

"Zim... are you crying?" Dib was astonished, he almost couldn't continue whispering.

"No!" Zim said quickly, but the sob in his voice betrayed him.

"Zim? Are you ok? What's wrong?" Dib asked, feeling for the irken's face. Indeed tears were streaming down his cheeks. Or maybe it was blood? Only a physical injury could cause this response in someone like Zim, right?

"Everything." Zim said, giving up his front and sitting up. He sounded angry and a little desperate. "Did you know Dib, that I'm one in only a handful of irkens to ever be banished?"

Dib was quite, but even if he had something to say to that Zim didn't give him a chance before plowing on.

"I'm also the youngest irken to ever even almost fail an existence evaluation. The youngest to even have one. I think I'm one of the irkens with the most 'est's to claim ,and that's not even a good thing!" He was starting to breathe hard. "I was the shortest invader. I killed the most people accidently, I killed the most Tallests of any irken. I'm the first to ever visit Earth and the first to ever be arrested and tried on Earth! I'm the worst irken ever and I'll never see my home again!"

"Zim," Dib said, pulling the irken to him again. He let the alien cry on him as he continued what was possibly his sanest rant ever.

"And now I'm here! But you and I are the only people who want me here! All of your people hate me and I'm not even responsible for what happened to them! I'm burned! I can't go anywhere without having the back and front of me drilled with glares! They don't even have the decency to hate me behind my back!"

Zim reached his arms around Dib again and pressed his face into the human's chest again as he cried. Dib allowed this, rocking the irken back and forth, uttering soothing words into the alien antennae in front of him.

"It's alright, Zim. You're here with me. Nobody in this room hates you."

"There's no one in this room." Zim felt the need to point out through his tears.

"That's not true." Dib argued, laughing through his nose, which made Zim's antennae twitch. He did it again. Another twitch. "I'm in this room."

The crying ceased momentarily. This was true he supposed.

Zim was at a loss for words, so Dib just kept uttering soothing things to the irken, whispering encouragements and silly phrases into antennae, laughing that nosey laugh occasionally, all of which made Zim's antennae twitch uncontrollably.

Without warning the irken looked up at Dib, eyes droopy with what Dib assumed was fatigue. Letting all of that go must have taken a lot out of Zim, he thought.

He was proven wrong as Zim leaned up and placed a kiss on Dib's mouth.

If he hadn't been so shocked, Dib reflected after the fact, he probably would have screamed.

He was glad he was shocked.

The human's eyes went wide and he leaned back as though trying to see the scene better, but Zim just followed him, keeping his lips firmly attached to Dib's. When Zim finally pulled away he looked at Dib expectantly.

"What?" The human stammered, moving a hand to his mouth as though to shield it or to feel for poisonous fluids. "What was that for?"

"I thought it would make you feel more comfortable." Zim said, moving to his knees so he could raise himself above Dib.

"Why would you figure that?" Dib asked, leaning back and even scooting up the bed a little ways from Zim.

"Because it's usually customary behavior." Zim stated simply, the sobs falling from his voice as he seemed to even get excited. "Usually irkens skip straight to this part." And with that he practically lunged forward, pulling the towel Dib wore from around his waist, not having had time to get dressed yet.

The human practically squealed, staring wide eyed at his only source of coverage, now floating to the floor some ways from his current position.

"What are you doing!?" Dib shouted.

"Surely you know." Zim said, giving Dib a strange look. "You and I shared a sexual education class, remember?"

Oh yes, Dib remembered.

"What- what I meant is... why?" Dib asked, quickly grabbing his pillow to shield his groin as Zim began to inspect him.

"I really don't have time for rational conversations." Zim said with a sigh and lunged forward again, trapping Dib to the head board with hands on either side before once again descending on the human's lips.

This kiss was much more fierce, a long, thin tongue breaking past Dib's lips to find his own, human tongue. It twined rounded the muscle, , squeezing and pulsing in a way that made Dib stop trying to break free. He'd never kissed anyone before. The thought of swapping spit even seemed gross, but it appeared irken spit wasn't so bad, especially with an irken tongue doing those... things. In fact, their spit even seemed to taste good, something Dib stored away for later.

Zim took Dib's suddenly still form as permission to continue. He lowered his hands, grabbing Dib's hips in order to move him to the middle of the bed, half dragging his ass there and laying the human down.

Dib accepted, still dazed as Zim pulled from the kiss and clutching the pillow to his nether regions.

"Can I have that?" Zim asked with a smirk, pointing to the downy thing. Dib nodded and Zim took it, throwing it in the same direction as the towel.

Dib half expected to be probed then and there with some kind of anal monitoring device, but instead Zim began to peel at his own clothes. First he pulled off the blue pajama top. It was a spare of Dibs that he let the irken used... as was a lot of things. Not wanting to fight with buttons the alien just pulled it over his head.

Next to go was the boxer shorts he wore as bottoms. Both items went the same way as the towel, ending up somewhere on the floor.

Dib was surprised that they would both end up in an equal state of undress. He figured Zim would stay fully clothed during the whole thing, but apparently he was confident enough in his body to show it off to Dib.

He didn't bother to hide anything, even sitting back to let Dib's eyes explore.

His eyes strayed a little too long on one particular area of anatomy, making Zim grin.

Without warned the irken took a hold of the backs of Dib's knees, pushing them up to the poor human's shoulders, just about folding him in half.

"Now," He said, zipper like teeth being exposed form one end of his face to the other in a smirk. "The fun part."