OKAY! So I've hit a block with my fanfics; but inspiration for some kind of Zim and Dib Friendship type deal hit me, so here's part one. Part two (if I can make it long enough) I think will lean more toward the biological.
Enjoy this, though! I like thinking about aliens and all the information about them physically and traditionally. With a few alien OCs of my own, it's not surprise xD haha. Enjoy this! Wow, it's kinda long xDD

~(*)~

Curious Dib: part 1

Three years. That's how long it had been since Zim had practically stopped trying to conquer the Earth. They may not have been friends, per say, but more like tolerated acquaintances if anything else. Sure, he still tried every now and then, but they both knew that without the Irken Armada, Zim wouldn't be able to keep control of the Earth anyway.

Several times Zim had pondered leaving and finding a quiet place to live out the rest of his days; traveling from time to time. But all the Irken supplies automatically sent to him were sent to his base. He was stuck here. To him, Earth had become another exile; perhaps one more suited for him according to his Tallest. He didn't mind most of the time. He had grown quite accustomed to the Earth's wilderness. The smell appealed to him. Often, he wondered what the nonexistent forests on Irk had been like. Just as he had told Dib once upon a time:

"You have plants on your planet?" Dib had asked.

"What kind of a stupid question is that?"

"I mean, what kind of plants do you have?" Dib asked again; ignoring the insult.

"None. Irk was converted to all metal and buildings a long time ago. Before my time," Zim had answered.

After the few years that passed; Zim came to the conclusion that the Dib-stink's curiosity had grown too great to hold back anymore. He had begun asking as many questions as possible between fights that came ever more infrequently.

The last real fight was over a year ago. The last "scuttle" was just a few months prior about their height. Dib had had a growth-spurt, and therefore physical bullying had gone down. Not that it stopped the verbal abuse. But any physical harm at all came from the very few physical fights the two had. Zim had gotten angry with Dib bragging about his own height difference while Zim had grown barely over a foot. Gravitational difference had been the major, if not only, factor. Zim had give Dib a black eye and several bruises; while he himself had gone away with nothing but detention.

Finally Zim broke down. He was sitting in a tree, his leg hanging off the branch lazily when Dib found him. "Hey Zim!" Zim groaned and looked down at the human. "I got a question!"

"You always have a question, Dib-stink!" Zim shouted back down. It was very nearly one in the morning. Zim had used his voot runner to go out into the forest and enjoy the night air without worry of his disguise; which he had off. And had been hoping to get away from the questioning Dib for at least a while. Now it had backfired. "Answer one of mine. How did you find me?"

"I was looking at the sky when I saw you fly for the trees," he answered immediately. "Now my turn!"

"Oh, Irk," Zim groaned, sitting straighter in the branch.

"Can I join you?"

Zim looked down at him in surprise. Not a question about Irkens or Zim himself for once? Zim sighed and considered it for a moment. He figured it couldn't hurt anything anymore and extended a mechanical leg. Before Dib could grab onto it, the leg's pointed ends grabbed under his shirt collar and hoisted him up onto the branch. "Whoa! Haha, cool!"

Zim hid the smile and sat Dib down across from him. As he steadied himself Zim started picking at the hem of his gloves. Dib studied the three fingers hidden by the leather-like material. Zim eyed him and could just feel the question forming in his mouth. "What?"

"Can I see your claws?" Dib asked. Zim's antennae perked, the equivalent of a raised eyebrow. He pulled off his gloves and held out his hands, letting Dib examine them. He dozed out for a while until he felt a tug on his wrist. Dib was turning his hand over in his own and moving the fingers this way and that.

"Interesting.." he mumbled. Zim's eye twitched a bit as Dib continued to move the claws and test the sharpness.

"Dib." Dib ignored the call of his name and picked at one of the claws. Zim gave a tug and Dib let his hand go. "If it were not for these gloves you'd have many more scars."

"Really?" Dib asked skeptically. Zim narrowed his eyes and ran his hand along the tree, easily scrapping deep cuts into the bark. "OH."

"Yes," Zim said simply, replacing his gloves.

"What about your pak? That's what you call it, right?" Dib asked.

"Yes. It is what keeps me alive-"

"Alive? It's your life system, or something like that? Were you born with it? Did you have to have it put on? I noticed a lot of Irkens have it, even your leaders. Does it hurt to lean against the tree with it protruding like tha-"

"Stop!" Zim shouted, covering his antennae, which had flattened against his skull. "Your babbling is irritating the great Zim!"

"Sorry."

Zim sighed. "YES. It is what is keeping me alive. If removed I die in ten minutes of your Earth time. We are not born with them. They are attached after we leave the tube. Metal chords, or cabels as they more accurately are defined by your dictionary, are attached to our spine to keep them anchored."

Zim enjoyed the disgusted face Dib gave before continuing. "It holds memory, countless amounts of information that it automatically records, it holds my personality, tools, and my extra limbs."

"EXTRA limbs? What extra limbs?"

"The spider-like legs I use to climb and such things,' Zim explained.

"Those aren't organic, though!"

"They are still considered limbs."

"Okay, what about your antennae?"

"Expression, hearing, gender-"

"You tell whether an Irken is female or male by the antennae? How?"

"Stop interrupting me," Zim stated. Dib nodded an agreeing and waited for Zim's response.

"A female's are more... decorative than a males. But most females also have purple eyes, not crimson."

Dib's curiosity soared, despite finally being answered. The feeling of finally nowing more about Irkens other than weaknesses was an amazing feeling. He racked his brain for another quiestion he had always wanted to ask. "How about your feet?"

"What?" Zim gave Dib a strange look to accompany the odd question. "What about Zim's feet?"

"You have toes? Are they clawed, too?"

"...You're very odd, Dib-stink," Zim said, starting to remove his boot. Dib again ignored the insult turned nickname and looked at the foot. There wasn't much room in the small boots, so it made sense that there weren't very many toes if any at all. Two on each foot.

"Cool," Dib said, looking at them. Before he could grab the foot as well, Zim replaced his boot.

"Anything else?" he asked. Dib tilted his head.

"Hmm... Nope. Not yet. Maybe tomorrow, when I think of more," Dib said. "Can you let me down? We're pretty far up."

Zim's mechanical leg hoisted Dib up and back to the forest floor. As he ran off toward the city. Zim waited for several more minutes before climbing back down himself. He removed his gloves and began to climb down, using the mechanical legs for extra support to keep from falling.