Zim cringed and lowered his head in shame, wishing Dib wasn't here to see him like this. He felt the human gently pry his claws away from his blood-splattered left shoulder.

"What did you do to yourself in the two hours I have been gone?" Dib demanded, voice thickly laced with concern. "H-how did you do this?"

Zim grunted, attempting to ignore the excruciating pain stabbing through his arm. "Gaz." He grumbled.

"Gaz stabbed you?" Dib said incredulously. "Why?"

"Game Slave broken." Zim muttered, staring blankly at the floor. "Accident."

Dib clacked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, frowning critically at the wound. "You're bleeding really bad, Zim. God, I can't leave you alone for five minutes."

He snatched a roll of gauze off the rack of Irken medical supplies next to them. He carefully wiped the blood away from the still oozing from the injury. Zim winced in pain as Dib tenderly began to swathe his abrasion in the crimson gauze.

"Accident." Zim repeated, looking up at the exasperated human shyly. "Gir."

"You're going to have to talk in complete sentences for me to understand you, alien." Dib said, yanking the bandage tighter around the Irken's arm.

The yank caused Zim to emit a loud, pained yelp and pull away from his counterpart. "No! Bad human!" He practically shrieked. "Don't!"

Dib snickered before stroking the alien's antennas down. "Calm down." He murmured softly, scooting closer to the pouting Irken. "Hold still, you wuss."

Zim pouted harder and squirmed uncomfortably as Dib tightened the bandage again. "Gir tried to…eat the Game Slave and when I tried to stop him, Gaz, uh…stabbed me. With a fork. Multiple times."

Dib stared at him. "You're crazy, Zim." He said with a sigh, shaking his head and helping the alien to his feet.

"Sorry." The alien answered. "Big-headed boy." He tacked on slyly.

Dib growled at him beneath his breath, rolling his eyes and stalking away. Zim scurried after him, smirking evilly.

"What happened to thank you?" Dib asked as the elevator whisked them up to the top floor of their base.

"It blew up." Zim replied, waving Dib off and stepping out of the elevator.

Dib sighed, pursing his lips and following the alien into the kitchen. "Okay. What happened to your welcome?"

"Oh, that blew up too." Zim answered, grinning at the human. "Happy now, Dibblet?" He asked.

Dib couldn't help grinning back, unintentionally seductive. Zim flopped down into a chair at the table, Gir dancing over holding a plate of…goop.

"Guess who made waffles!" Gir shrieked.

"Not you I hope." Dib grunted, miffed by the prospect of eating Gir's mystery food. You never knew what the little robot put in his dishes.

"MEEEE! I did!" Gir screamed suddenly, throwing the plate of goop onto the table in front of them. "Eat up, Master!" He thwacked Zim on his injured shoulder, seemingly not noticing the wound.

"OOWWW!" Zim shouted, flinching away from the defective SIR unit. "GIR! Do not touch your master!" He screamed.

"Awww…I sowwy…" Gir mumbled. "I love you piggy! I loveded you!" He shrieked madly before dancing over to his rubber pig.

Zim sighed before leaning into Dib's gentle massaging hand on his un-harmed shoulder. "Mmm…" He hummed as the human began to stroke his antenna.

"You're really tense, have you ever seen a chiropractor?" He muttered absentmindedly.

"A chiro-whater?" Zim asked.

"Massage therapist." Dib replied, moving closer to stroke the other antenna.

"Mmm…"Zim hummed, closing his eyes and leaning back against Dib's chest. "No."

"You should, you're sooo tense…" Dib murmured softly, leaning in and brushing his lips along his jaw line.

Zim made a strangled whiney noise in his throat and turned to face his counterpart. "Dibblet…" He moaned.

"Hmm?" He paused mid-stroke, glancing over at the Irken. "What?"

"I'm going to use you as a CHIRO-prac-TOR from now on." He said in a slightly horny tone.

Dib snorted. "So now I'm a slave, a chiropractor, a love-monkey, and practically everything else to you?" He asked, smiling lovingly at the alien.

Zim nodded, yawning. "I'm tired, Dibblet." He muttered.

Dib's smile widened as he scooped the clearly exhausted Irken into his arms and carried him over to the couch. Zim snuggled into him as Dib sat them on the couch, tucking his feet under himself and closing his eyes.

"Then go to sleep." Came the late reply.

The pair settled in, not noticing when Gir hurried downstairs and flicked the lights off, bathing them in darkness. "Goodnight, alien scum." Dib whispered.

"'Night, Dib-stink…" Zim whispered back into the shadows, creating the last waking memory of the day and drifting into a dream world.

His dream world was filled of images of world domination and the Irken Empire accepting him back into the ranks…but with Dib Membrane at his side, just as evil, just as pleased.