CH3

"Alright space boy moment of truth," Gaz reminded him as he looked down at the circular mound earth food with fear and disgust. She took a slice and put it on her plate then she put one on his. He stared at it looking at the puddles of oil resting on top of the melted cheese. He looked up at Gaz who had already begun to rip into her slice and appeared to be enjoying it very much.

"Maybe if you explained what this 'pizza' is made of I can more easily accept putting it into my mouth," Zim speculated.

"Sure;" she said with her mouth half full. The stuff on the bottom is bread, the red stuff in the middle is tomato sauce and there's some spices mixed in. The white stringy stuff is cheese and these things are pepperoni."

"Ah, yes;" he tried to sound positive. Then ever so gingerly he picked up the slice with his finger tips; he raised it to his eyes and held it length wise to get a good look of its insides. He then began examining the triangular object closely.

"This 'bread' you called it," he integrated. "What is it made from?"

Gaz rolled her eyes as she munched on her crust. "Don't you know anything?"

"Well up until this exact moment I had no reason to care what bread was made of!" he sanpped.

"Flour." She told him wryly.

"You mean those smelly things that grow in people's yards?" he wondered suspiciously.

"No its wheat! You know -a grain!" she snapped shortly. "There's some yeast and water in there too."

"And these to-mat-os;" he continued to question. "Where do they come from?"

"The ground," she explained as she grabbed another slice of pizza for herself.

"And these spices you speak of…" he squinted his eyes a bit to see if he could spot any. "Are they dead?"

"Quite." She mocked, wondering what kind of spices he was familiar with if he felt the need to ask if they were dead or not.

"Cheese…" he began to speak his thoughts out loud. "…made from fermented milk, aloud to age and its moisture removed. He then looked back a Gaz. From what animal did the 'milk' come from to make this cheese?"

"Cow I guess and before you ask, the pepperoni comes from pork," she was relieved to think the questioning was finally over. "Now are you gonna eat that or do you want me to find you a cook book?"

Zim took a deep breath and put the tip of the pizza slice to his lips, letting the dough touch his teeth. Slowly he opened his mouth just a crack and nibbled off just a tiny piece.

'It burns!' he screamed in his head, then quickly realized it wasn't burning him; it was just hot from the oven. Courageously he took another tiny bite and then another.

'Not…so bad,' he admitted to himself. Perhaps I have found something enjoyable on this planet after all!'

The more he chewed the more confident he became. In fact he began to practically gobble the pizza up faster than Gaz had ever seen anyone eat pizza before.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" she yelled. "Come up for air once in a while!"

"Air I've had plenty of sense I came to this wretched place," the alien informed her while he took the last slice. "It's nourishment I've been denied."

"How long has it been since you last ate?" she wondered.

Zim thought about her question and seemed to be counting something up in his head as he continued chewing on the pizza.

"Not sure," he admitted. "I lost track of the days after about six months went by."

Gaz's jaw could have hit the floor. "Six months! You went without food for more than six months! Didn't you get hungry?"

"Hungry!" Zim yelled. "I hadn't eaten a damn thing for over six months! I was fricking starving!"

"Well if you were so hungry, why didn't you just eat something?" she wondered.

"I forgot to bring enough Irken food canisters with me before I came here," he explained indignantly.

"And you would rather starve than try something new? Did you really think earth food would be so awful?" Gaz asked curtly. "You're an idiot!"

"I am not an idiot!" the green man proudly defended himself. "I'm…just a picky eater that's all. I always have been. Now are you going to eat your crust?"

"Yes." She replied in a nearly threatening tone. She then quickly picked up the piece of crust that she had left on her plate.

"Very well then," Zim stated gallantly as he began to slide out from his seat. "Now that I've learned not all earth food is atrocious I may start eating once again." Then he looked at Gaz who was finishing up the last of her crust. "Just answer me this, why did you do this for me?"

Gaz smiled slightly. "Well I had two reasons; first, if I were an alien on some planet I would hope someone would help me out even with just the basics. And second," her grin seemed to twist itself into something maniacal. "If you learn to eat earth food then that's one less thing Dib can yammer about."

"Ah, I see," Zim grinned back at her. He was nearly about to thoughtlessly leave without as much as a 'thank you' when I pang of guilt hit him.

'I reallyn should give her something for her trouble. At least to let her know I appreciated this; ah I know,' He reached over to Gaz and grabbed her cheek and gave it a good hearty pinch and a wiggle.

"No need to pinch me back," he smiled boastfully. "You've done enough for me already tonight."

"Maybe a little too much," she considered out loud as she now rubbed her sore cheek as she watched him walk out the door and head back to his creepy home.

-THE END