ZADR
Fandom: Invader Zim
Pairing: ZimxDib
Theme Set: Epsilon
Rating: Pg-13 to R
Notes: semi-colon abuse, light angst, implied sexual acts
1. Motion: They went through the daily motions of torturing one another; while at night they discarded the insults for touches, the glares for brutal kisses.
2. Cool: To his surprise, the Irken’s skin was cool to the touch; that did not prevent the other from heating his own flesh to unimaginable heights.
3. Young: He hissed at the human, discomforted at his tears, the only testament to how young his mate was- his ability to express his pain.
4. Last: He cuddled close to Zim, the contact cold comfort to the fact that he was the only human spared in the conquest; nothing alleviated the ache of being the last of his species.
5. Wrong: As ruby eyes stared at him, he shuddered; he wondered, not for the first time, why he wasn’t ashamed of something so dreadfully wrong- after all, Zim was far from an ideal partner.
6. Gentle: He hated when the Dib looked at him that way; Irkens were far from gentle and the warmth in his gaze was too foreign, too alien, for him to fully understand.
7. One: Smirking, he leaned down to whisper in the other’s ear, “You can’t escape me. You don’t want to”; he was right, the two of them were too bound together to ever be separated again.
8. Thousand: They spoke a thousand, poisoned words to one another; the only ones that came to matter were the sparse pleasantries and the almost affectionate threats, kept out of unshakeable habit.
9. King: He smiled in triumph, serrated teeth bared in pleasure; Dib sat at his side, toasting to their new empire, even if the Invader was the only one of them a king.
10. Learn: He sat, crying silently, tears glossing his amber eyes; “Why? Why don’t I ever learn? He doesn’t care.”
11. Blur: Over the years, the lines dividing them had blurred; first from enemies to rivals to reluctant allies to passionate lovers.
12. Wait: Long, thin fingers drummed against the desk, Dib staring through the computer screen at the now inactive lot; Zim had been gone for months now, the base eerily still, but he could wait.
13. Change: He glared, his eyes flashing molten amber; the fact that his partner stood holding a laser to his head, old maniacal grin in place, proved that he was a fool for having thought he would change.
14. Command: His body shook, hands fisted at his sides, ruby eyes widened in disbelief; could he follow that order, know what it would to Dib?
15. Hold: Any time Zim presented him with something that could be perceived as tenderness, he grew wary; just this once, he relaxed into the arms draped around his waist, reclining to rest against the Irken’s chest.
16. Need: He ran claws through the dark hair of his sleeping “mate”, telling himself over and over that he did not need this; maybe, through repetition, it would finally gain some merit of truth.
17. Vision: Once, when he had again been called insane, he’d claimed to be a misunderstood visionary, and mentioned nothing of what he saw; if they had known that his vision was of this- he and his enemy standing side by side as civilization fell- they would have known how potent their accusations were.
18. Attention: He watched as the girl, he couldn’t recall her name, laid Valentines’ meat upon Dib’s school desk; he growled to himself, angered by the attention she was lavishing on what was his to destroy.
19. Soul: He knew that Irkens were birthed from machines, Zim had told him as much, and idly wondered if that meant his lover had no soul; then he would watch him- yell at GIR, working at the Computer- and the presence of emotion convinced him that it didn’t matter.
20. Picture: He tugged Zim in front of the camera- “Let me go! Let go of me, Dib-human!”- Smiling, he slung an arm around the Irken- “Stay still. All you need to do is smile, damn it.”- And the resulting flash caused the Invader to stumble; Zim hadn’t hated the picture, but often complained about it; Gaz still found it hilarious, though.
21. Fool: He was foolish for having thought that anyone would believe him; he was a bigger fool for having fallen in love with someone he utterly despised.
22. Mad: It is madness, the way that they live; the hate and attraction twisting them until nothing but that madness remains.
23. Child: He remembers Dib as a child- angry, cynical, and with a thirst to prove himself- and compares him to the not-yet adult he is now- bitter, depraved, and cynical; he never admits that he sometimes wonders which of them is better.
24. Now: In the past, he had kept his treasures hidden under his bed; now, after having seen Zim skulking around nearby, he has them buried deep in his mind, afraid someone will try to uncover them.
25. Shadow: Once, on one of his many ‘trips’ through the Dib’s house, he’d noticed a picture of a woman with amethyst hair and sad green eyes; he later found out that it was the mother and he’d come to curse her for the shadow of loss her death had cast forever over her son’s life; he was the one who was supposed to make Dib miserable.
26. Goodbye: There had been no farewell; simply a dark-hearted cackle and a gaze of shine less amber as everything fell apart.
27. Hide: When the lust had first heated his body, he’d denied it; eventually, he gave in and pinned his surprised adversary to the wall of lockers, furiously claiming his mouth.
28. Fortune: He didn’t have much, but what he did have was more than enough: all consuming fury, dementia, and an unhealthy dependency of Dib’s efforts to stop his plans of domination.
29. Safe: He never felt secure- not with living with Gaz or the distant memories of his mother’s cold strength; ironic that he found peace with something more dangerous than both.
30. Ghost: It had taken hours to clear away the blood stains, though no amount of cleansing got the feeling of it off his hands; over the following days, he was plagued with horrid hallucinations and nightmares; in his weaker moments, he wondered if Dib was haunting him like the specters he had so fervently believed in.
31. Book: Having given in to another of GIR’s whims, he was subjected to providing photos to fill the album; still, he’d been surprised when he flipped through the pages to find pictures of his archenemy, revealed in various displays of emotion; after the realization, he found himself drawn to gazing at the photographs to gain a better understanding of the Dib.
32. Eye: Their lives were rough, both weathering stormy turmoil; they only achieve a balance when with each other, their opposite yet similar natures calming when together.
33. Never: There are things neither will ever do- they’ll never surrender and they’ll never quit; even when both are exhausted, pale flesh coated with sweat and jade skin covered in scratches, they’ll never admit that they thrive off the feelings they ignite in one another.
34. Sing: The three of them were pressed tight together in the Cruiser, metal digging into flesh, skin pressing to skin; Dib nearly lost it when GIR started to sing the “Doom” song, the only thing stopping him Zim’s scream for the robot to stop immediately and for Dib to “stop grinning like that”.
35. Sudden: The change in their relationship was sudden and entirely unexpected; it began with the shocking sensation of being slammed into the wall, a kiss claimed in unwanted lust.
36. Stop: A lithe tongue licked down his neck, a shudder of pleasure racing down his spine; he couldn’t stop himself from enjoying it- he wasn’t sure he wanted to.
37. Time: Over the years, his hate for Zim had matured; where he had despised him for being inhuman, for preventing him from reveling the truth, he later loathed Zim for having made him fall in love with him.
38. Wash: An insane urge to wash himself would often overtake him; maybe, subconsciously, he hoped the hour-long showers would purge himself of the taint Zim had caused.
39. Torn: Pinned beneath Zim, deliciously breathless, he was unable to focus; as he came spiraling back from heavenly oblivion, he finally became aware of his crisis- when the time came, could he really give this up, even for mankind?
40. History: Their pasts were drastically different, Zim’s filled with an education that spoke of brutalizing weaker races, that promoted conquest and complete obedience, Dib’s brimming with the tragic pain of his mother’s loss and a childhood with peers that ruthlessly jeered; their meeting each other made their lives more hellish, but also bearable.
41. Power: The Invader was always boasting of his power; a careless comment on Dib’s part- “What power?”- Zim’s retort- “You’ll never taste my power, worthless pig-beast.”- Ended with Dib panting, licking a bloody lip; a souvenir from the Irken letting him have a taste of something he says the human will never have.
42. Bother: In the first months of their changed relationship, both had ignored what had happened; after a while, Gaz got tired of them avoiding each other and the increase in their bickering; frustrated, she ended up locking them in a closet, threatening to ‘doom’ them if they broke out; afterwards, neither bothered with their previous act of denial.
43. God: Zim finds many human rituals beyond his understanding; the one that most eludes him is humanity’s faith in something they can’t see; his confusion grew after Dib tried to explain the fundamentals of Christianity to him-“Why would they worship a thing that makes its own foul offspring suffer?”- He thinks he understands a little when it was put in comparison to the reverence he has for his Tallest or compared to Dib’s unfailing trust in him.
44. Wall: Sometimes, after they’ve argued, and sometimes with no prompting at all, Zim will isolate himself from Dib; no amount of pleading or insults will breach the barrier he had set up; those are the few times Dib actually considers the fact that Zim may be suicidal.
45. Naked: They never confront it; not even when they are ripping each other’s clothes and masks away do they face it; they’d rather tear each other apart than face the bare truth, in all its horrifying aspects.
46. Drive: Dib and Zim are very different; The Invader wants to reign over Earth, while the other lives to thwart him; both are ruled by their drives and their passions, despite how unwanted those urges might be.
47. Harm: Zim has all kinds of implements of torture; he’s often had fantasies where he uses them on Dib; he doesn’t realize that he causes the human the most pain with his careless words and dismissive actions.
48. Precious: As he and the Irken eagerly stumble into the bedroom, he reflects that their harsh kisses are one of the precious few times Zim is quiet; the rest of those times are when the Invader watches him sleep, but he is not aware of those.
49. Hunger: Its another fight, another normal night, but things change once they exchange blows; crimson streaking a lense of his glasses, he leers hungrily at Zim, desiring more; rubies burn back at him, the thirst in them so intense as to be frightening.
50. Believe: He believed in the vastness of the stars, in the hope they symbolized; now he believes in one thing: Zim; his only dream centers around exposing the Irken for what he really is- It doesn’t matter that that dream soon becomes sinfully distorted.
Pairing: ZimxDib
Theme Set: Epsilon
Rating: Pg-13 to R
Notes: semi-colon abuse, light angst, implied sexual acts
1. Motion: They went through the daily motions of torturing one another; while at night they discarded the insults for touches, the glares for brutal kisses.
2. Cool: To his surprise, the Irken’s skin was cool to the touch; that did not prevent the other from heating his own flesh to unimaginable heights.
3. Young: He hissed at the human, discomforted at his tears, the only testament to how young his mate was- his ability to express his pain.
4. Last: He cuddled close to Zim, the contact cold comfort to the fact that he was the only human spared in the conquest; nothing alleviated the ache of being the last of his species.
5. Wrong: As ruby eyes stared at him, he shuddered; he wondered, not for the first time, why he wasn’t ashamed of something so dreadfully wrong- after all, Zim was far from an ideal partner.
6. Gentle: He hated when the Dib looked at him that way; Irkens were far from gentle and the warmth in his gaze was too foreign, too alien, for him to fully understand.
7. One: Smirking, he leaned down to whisper in the other’s ear, “You can’t escape me. You don’t want to”; he was right, the two of them were too bound together to ever be separated again.
8. Thousand: They spoke a thousand, poisoned words to one another; the only ones that came to matter were the sparse pleasantries and the almost affectionate threats, kept out of unshakeable habit.
9. King: He smiled in triumph, serrated teeth bared in pleasure; Dib sat at his side, toasting to their new empire, even if the Invader was the only one of them a king.
10. Learn: He sat, crying silently, tears glossing his amber eyes; “Why? Why don’t I ever learn? He doesn’t care.”
11. Blur: Over the years, the lines dividing them had blurred; first from enemies to rivals to reluctant allies to passionate lovers.
12. Wait: Long, thin fingers drummed against the desk, Dib staring through the computer screen at the now inactive lot; Zim had been gone for months now, the base eerily still, but he could wait.
13. Change: He glared, his eyes flashing molten amber; the fact that his partner stood holding a laser to his head, old maniacal grin in place, proved that he was a fool for having thought he would change.
14. Command: His body shook, hands fisted at his sides, ruby eyes widened in disbelief; could he follow that order, know what it would to Dib?
15. Hold: Any time Zim presented him with something that could be perceived as tenderness, he grew wary; just this once, he relaxed into the arms draped around his waist, reclining to rest against the Irken’s chest.
16. Need: He ran claws through the dark hair of his sleeping “mate”, telling himself over and over that he did not need this; maybe, through repetition, it would finally gain some merit of truth.
17. Vision: Once, when he had again been called insane, he’d claimed to be a misunderstood visionary, and mentioned nothing of what he saw; if they had known that his vision was of this- he and his enemy standing side by side as civilization fell- they would have known how potent their accusations were.
18. Attention: He watched as the girl, he couldn’t recall her name, laid Valentines’ meat upon Dib’s school desk; he growled to himself, angered by the attention she was lavishing on what was his to destroy.
19. Soul: He knew that Irkens were birthed from machines, Zim had told him as much, and idly wondered if that meant his lover had no soul; then he would watch him- yell at GIR, working at the Computer- and the presence of emotion convinced him that it didn’t matter.
20. Picture: He tugged Zim in front of the camera- “Let me go! Let go of me, Dib-human!”- Smiling, he slung an arm around the Irken- “Stay still. All you need to do is smile, damn it.”- And the resulting flash caused the Invader to stumble; Zim hadn’t hated the picture, but often complained about it; Gaz still found it hilarious, though.
21. Fool: He was foolish for having thought that anyone would believe him; he was a bigger fool for having fallen in love with someone he utterly despised.
22. Mad: It is madness, the way that they live; the hate and attraction twisting them until nothing but that madness remains.
23. Child: He remembers Dib as a child- angry, cynical, and with a thirst to prove himself- and compares him to the not-yet adult he is now- bitter, depraved, and cynical; he never admits that he sometimes wonders which of them is better.
24. Now: In the past, he had kept his treasures hidden under his bed; now, after having seen Zim skulking around nearby, he has them buried deep in his mind, afraid someone will try to uncover them.
25. Shadow: Once, on one of his many ‘trips’ through the Dib’s house, he’d noticed a picture of a woman with amethyst hair and sad green eyes; he later found out that it was the mother and he’d come to curse her for the shadow of loss her death had cast forever over her son’s life; he was the one who was supposed to make Dib miserable.
26. Goodbye: There had been no farewell; simply a dark-hearted cackle and a gaze of shine less amber as everything fell apart.
27. Hide: When the lust had first heated his body, he’d denied it; eventually, he gave in and pinned his surprised adversary to the wall of lockers, furiously claiming his mouth.
28. Fortune: He didn’t have much, but what he did have was more than enough: all consuming fury, dementia, and an unhealthy dependency of Dib’s efforts to stop his plans of domination.
29. Safe: He never felt secure- not with living with Gaz or the distant memories of his mother’s cold strength; ironic that he found peace with something more dangerous than both.
30. Ghost: It had taken hours to clear away the blood stains, though no amount of cleansing got the feeling of it off his hands; over the following days, he was plagued with horrid hallucinations and nightmares; in his weaker moments, he wondered if Dib was haunting him like the specters he had so fervently believed in.
31. Book: Having given in to another of GIR’s whims, he was subjected to providing photos to fill the album; still, he’d been surprised when he flipped through the pages to find pictures of his archenemy, revealed in various displays of emotion; after the realization, he found himself drawn to gazing at the photographs to gain a better understanding of the Dib.
32. Eye: Their lives were rough, both weathering stormy turmoil; they only achieve a balance when with each other, their opposite yet similar natures calming when together.
33. Never: There are things neither will ever do- they’ll never surrender and they’ll never quit; even when both are exhausted, pale flesh coated with sweat and jade skin covered in scratches, they’ll never admit that they thrive off the feelings they ignite in one another.
34. Sing: The three of them were pressed tight together in the Cruiser, metal digging into flesh, skin pressing to skin; Dib nearly lost it when GIR started to sing the “Doom” song, the only thing stopping him Zim’s scream for the robot to stop immediately and for Dib to “stop grinning like that”.
35. Sudden: The change in their relationship was sudden and entirely unexpected; it began with the shocking sensation of being slammed into the wall, a kiss claimed in unwanted lust.
36. Stop: A lithe tongue licked down his neck, a shudder of pleasure racing down his spine; he couldn’t stop himself from enjoying it- he wasn’t sure he wanted to.
37. Time: Over the years, his hate for Zim had matured; where he had despised him for being inhuman, for preventing him from reveling the truth, he later loathed Zim for having made him fall in love with him.
38. Wash: An insane urge to wash himself would often overtake him; maybe, subconsciously, he hoped the hour-long showers would purge himself of the taint Zim had caused.
39. Torn: Pinned beneath Zim, deliciously breathless, he was unable to focus; as he came spiraling back from heavenly oblivion, he finally became aware of his crisis- when the time came, could he really give this up, even for mankind?
40. History: Their pasts were drastically different, Zim’s filled with an education that spoke of brutalizing weaker races, that promoted conquest and complete obedience, Dib’s brimming with the tragic pain of his mother’s loss and a childhood with peers that ruthlessly jeered; their meeting each other made their lives more hellish, but also bearable.
41. Power: The Invader was always boasting of his power; a careless comment on Dib’s part- “What power?”- Zim’s retort- “You’ll never taste my power, worthless pig-beast.”- Ended with Dib panting, licking a bloody lip; a souvenir from the Irken letting him have a taste of something he says the human will never have.
42. Bother: In the first months of their changed relationship, both had ignored what had happened; after a while, Gaz got tired of them avoiding each other and the increase in their bickering; frustrated, she ended up locking them in a closet, threatening to ‘doom’ them if they broke out; afterwards, neither bothered with their previous act of denial.
43. God: Zim finds many human rituals beyond his understanding; the one that most eludes him is humanity’s faith in something they can’t see; his confusion grew after Dib tried to explain the fundamentals of Christianity to him-“Why would they worship a thing that makes its own foul offspring suffer?”- He thinks he understands a little when it was put in comparison to the reverence he has for his Tallest or compared to Dib’s unfailing trust in him.
44. Wall: Sometimes, after they’ve argued, and sometimes with no prompting at all, Zim will isolate himself from Dib; no amount of pleading or insults will breach the barrier he had set up; those are the few times Dib actually considers the fact that Zim may be suicidal.
45. Naked: They never confront it; not even when they are ripping each other’s clothes and masks away do they face it; they’d rather tear each other apart than face the bare truth, in all its horrifying aspects.
46. Drive: Dib and Zim are very different; The Invader wants to reign over Earth, while the other lives to thwart him; both are ruled by their drives and their passions, despite how unwanted those urges might be.
47. Harm: Zim has all kinds of implements of torture; he’s often had fantasies where he uses them on Dib; he doesn’t realize that he causes the human the most pain with his careless words and dismissive actions.
48. Precious: As he and the Irken eagerly stumble into the bedroom, he reflects that their harsh kisses are one of the precious few times Zim is quiet; the rest of those times are when the Invader watches him sleep, but he is not aware of those.
49. Hunger: Its another fight, another normal night, but things change once they exchange blows; crimson streaking a lense of his glasses, he leers hungrily at Zim, desiring more; rubies burn back at him, the thirst in them so intense as to be frightening.
50. Believe: He believed in the vastness of the stars, in the hope they symbolized; now he believes in one thing: Zim; his only dream centers around exposing the Irken for what he really is- It doesn’t matter that that dream soon becomes sinfully distorted.