Together: Mother

 Chapter 8


 "and in today’s lesson..." Dib rolled his eyes across the room at Zim, bored out of his mind. Zim snickered, miming taking a gun to his head. Dib yawned and slumped back in his seat; flipping open his notebook. He started to sketch a picture of Zim, 'Maybe I'll give it to him after class.' Dib had gotten very skilled at drawing, especially Zim, from his years of doodling his face onto his investigation notes.

            "Oooh look who’s all lovey-dovey over his booooyfriend." the monster-sized kid beside him taunted, chuckling to himself. That was common, kids making cracks about Dib and Zim being a couple. Normally, Dib would blush and sputter some lame, half-thought comeback; but not today. Not when he was still glowing happy from the night before at Zim's. “Go to hell, Heff."

           The bully huffed, taken back at the boy’s nonchalance at the insult, 'Oh, he'll pay.'

       

           "Now, one last announcement before we can all get back to our miserable, useless lives. Due to the large drop in test scores, your parents will all receive phone calls instructing them to love you less." A collective sigh fell over the class; they'd heard it a million times before.

         “Bet your parents got plenty of those calls, huh, Dib?” Heff whispered in his ear menacingly. “Bet they couldn’t care less about a little shit like you.”

        Dib kept his eyes straight ahead, trying to ignore the below-the-belt jab.

        “Yep,” Heff continued, determined to get a reaction. “Your old man cares more about those experiments of his than you. Wonder if he could make himself a better son than a pathetic one like you.”
         Dib felt the gulp rise up in his throat, cutting off his breath, ‘Don’t react…you’ve always known Dad didn’t care, this isn’t new news.’

       “Then there’s your MOTHER….” The word struck Dib like a bullet, his hand flew to his chest; half expecting to feel blood drip onto his hand. “She must have REALLY despised you. I mean she up and died to get away from you.” The tear trickled down Dib’s cheek, sparkling as it went.  

        “Dib?” Zim asked from across the room; he hadn’t heard what Heff had said, but had seen the tear. Dib head shot up and looked eyes with him. Zim’s eyes were so full of concern, so soft. Teeth sinking into his lower lip, Dib snapped. He bolted from the room, rubbing furiously at the tears he wished weren’t falling. “Dib!” Zim yelled after him, echoed by the door slamming closed.

       “What did you do?” Zim hissed, turning on Heff. The boy was still doubled over laughing; nearly falling out of his chair. “What did you do to Dib?” Zim repeated, rushing from his seat. That ended Heff’s laughter in a heartbeat, “What did you say, loser?”

        “What. Did. You. Say. To. Dib?” Zim forced out between clenched teeth, he could feel his anger bubbling up under his skin. He looked more menacing than anyone his size should be able to.

       “I didn’t say anything.” Heff answered; that cocky grin still plastered on his face, but Zim could see sweat beading on his forehead.

     “You’re lying! Tell Zim what you said! Tell me!” He demanded, furious.

     “I-“

   “Tell Zim!”

   “I just-“

   “Tell Ziiiiim!”

   “Would you wait a seco-“

   “TELL ME!!!!”

   “OK! FINE! I just made fun of his parents! Really! Nothing bad…”

     Zim hissed through his teeth, an angry whistle. “You insignificant, pathetic human!” He huffed, moving towards the door. “Zim will deal with you later!”



        “Dib? Are you in here?” Zim whispered into the boy’s bathroom. No answer came besides the quiet sobbing echoing off the tile walls. Sighing, Zim stepped in, clicking the lock behind him. He found the human leaning against the wall, knees hugged to his chest, and his face buried. “Dib-sweet…” If Zim had a heart it would have broken when Dib lifted his head. Tears crashed down his cheeks, leaving little rivers of misery. He had bitten through his lip, a little trickle of blood shimmering on it.

        “I-I’m f-fine….” Dib lied, his voice shaking; he looked away from Zim; ashamed to have lost it so much.

      Zim didn’t say anything; it was pretty plain that Dib wasn’t fine. Silently, he reached around the boy, cradling in his arms. Dib nestled in to him, laying his head against him. “My mom didn’t hate me…” He whispered, more to himself than to Zim.

      “I know.” Zim sighed into his hair, softly

          "She didn't...." He looked up at Zim, "I was only six...I-I don’t think she did...."

          "Shhh, Dib-sweet. I'm sure your female parental unit loved you." He cooed, running his fingers through the black locks.

         "She just got sick, you know?" Dib continued, unable to stop himself. "I was six, I didn't know what that meant back then. I thought it was like every other time someone got sick. She said she'd get better quick and I believed her, you know, when you're a kid you'll believe whatever your parents told you. She didn't...get better I mean. She just kinda....faded away. She went in the hospital and never came back out. Me and Gaz didn't see her for nearly a year....she didn't want us to see her and be sad. I don’t think she realized we were sadder NOT seeing her." Fresh tears slid down his cheeks. "I didn’t know back then but she had cancer....really bad. I remember the doctor saying, "It's a blessing." when she finally died, "She's out of pain now." I'd wanted to kill that bastard...."

           "My family kind of....broke.....after that. Dad couldn't look at us without seeing our mother; he buried himself in his work. Gaz....she was just a little girl; she didn't understand why mom 'left us'. She was normal before Mom died, yeah I know, shocking right? She actually used to be a regular, sweet little girl, but when mom died she just got...angry. She was mad mom left us, she was mad dad ignored us...mad at her big brother for not making it all better. It just got easier for her to be angry and bitter than to feel anything else. "

           "What about you?" Zim asked, squeezing the boy against him, he didn't know what to say to comfort him. Sympathy....empathy....comfort, none had ever been in the Irken vocabulary. So he just held onto the human tight.

           "I got into paranormal investigating. I know it’s stupid but....what I'd gotten into first was ghosts. They said that people became a ghost if they had unfinished business. Who would have more unfinished business than a mom who left two kids?  I never found her though; I gave up eventually and researched other monsters and well, aliens." Dib gave his boyfriend a tear filled wink. Feeling a few more droplets slip out he drew his sleeve angrily "God, It’s been ten years, I shouldn't still be crying over this." he tried to laugh off his tears, but only making his sobs choke him harder.

            “Shhh, Dib-sweet, it’s ok to be sad.” Zim repeated Dib’s words from nearly a week ago. “It’s ok to cry.”

            “I love you, Zim.” Dib chuckled, burying his face in the Irken’s shoulder.
         
           “I love you too.” Zim said, his voice wistful. “I think we found our ‘something more US’.”

            “Hmm?” Dib hummed, grinning.

          “Emotions….sharing these emotion things.” Zim said, blushing darkly. “Irkens never shared them and you have no one to share them with…besides Zim. So that is something US.”

         “I like that, Zim.” Dib agreed, pulling himself up to give a peck to the alien’s cheek.