Title :: The Price to Be Me

Fandom :: Invader Zim

Pairing :: ZADR ( Zim and Dib Romance)

Beta :: Mad_Luc (Love to him)

Author's Note- Hey guys! This is the (Re-Re)Edited version of TPTBM Chapter 1!-confetti- I did some major re-vamping and editing to it, so I hope you guys like it! Drop me a line if you don't mind, and read away!

And if you didn't notice, I added more bits here and there, but not too much to be worried about! Thanks guys!

Fights and Waffles –

The halls of Hi Skool were supposed to be empty when class was in session. But instead, they were crowded with greasy teenagers trying to catch a glimpse of the scene unfolding in the middle of the mob. In the center, there were two males, one pale skinned, and the other…green skinned. There were shouts erupting from the middle, something along the lines of 'brain-washing', alien-scum, and filthy earth monkeys. Both males were glaring daggers at each other the entire time, so neither noticed the crowd of brain-dead teens surrounding them, this event occurring quite often for everyone.

The males were both quite tall, each close to an impressive six foot one, the green male about only an inch or two less than the other. Both had black hair, but their styles were different. One had a scythe lock; the other sported a Devil's Lock haircut today. They were both skinny, unnaturally so even.

The paler boy, Dib, was always mocked in his childhood for having a rather large head. But now that he had matured, he seemed to have grown into the size of his head, and he was rather well proportioned. It now looked like his head was just slightly larger than normal, yet he was still ridiculed for it. His scythe lock of hair had gotten longer over the years, and it now curled over his head, brushing the back of his neck. His face was more angled and defined, and his eyes were a deeper gold color than when he was young. Other than that, he was the same old insane Dib Membrane.

"Stupid Dib-monkey! You accuse Zim of something false! Zim would never try and brain-wash all of the adult-units in this educational facility to try and extract their information of this pathetic dirt-ball of a planet!" The green teenager shouted at the other, smirking with his arms crossed. It was easy to see that he knew that he would be the victor of this fight.

Zim hadn't changed much either over the years. He still had a horrible disguise, just a wig and contact lenses for his eyes, but he had definitely gotten taller. And apparently with height, comes knowledge for the Irken race; or at least most of it. It was true, Zim was now a lot smarter than he used to be, but he still sometimes acted just as he had five years ago when he first arrived on Earth. His wig changed from time to time, even sometimes weekly, but the contacts were the same as the first day he got them.

Dib was about to retort to Zim's comment, but he stopped himself before he even started, giving the Irken a blank look. He sighed softly and only then did he look around to the other teenagers in the hall.

"You guys didn't catch a word of that, did you?" Dib asked them dejectedly.

The other teens just stared blankly for a moment before throwing paper balls at Dib's head and started muttering things like, "Stupid insane Dib!" and "What the hell is he talking about?" as they dispersed out into the greasy air of the town, the final bell ringing at last.

"Why do I even try anymore?" Dib asked himself, watching the others rush from the school. He almost got trampled by a few stray students and teachers eager to leave, but he skirted towards the side before he was hurt.

He looked to Zim, noticing that he also had moved towards the lockers, but he was standing with his arms crossed over his chest. He had a wide smirk on his face, and he just looked straight at Dib with his blue contacts smugly.

Dib just sighed, shaking his head in shame, having been defeated by his peers' stupidity once again. "I give up with them, I'm going home…" he said as he adjusted the strap of the messenger bag on his shoulder, turning away from Zim. He didn't bother to step around the paper balls, being used to this kind of treatment by now.

"Aw, but Zim was just starting to have fun!" Zim said, talking in third person like usual. He clasped his three fingered hands behind his back, looking up at the yellowed ceiling as he followed the other down the hall.

Dib stepped out into the sunlight, wincing slightly when the sun hit his eyes through his glasses, making him turn away slightly. Dib took that moment to look back at the one following him, knowing he would be there, and smirking ever so slightly when he saw Zim wince as well, the sun apparently out to get everyone with its deadly rays today.

They started off of the Hi Skool boundaries, onto the sidewalk, where they walked side by side. They walked along in silence, this having become a usual thing for them both.

The two boys had always been close to each other, even when they were 'sworn enemies', but they started acting more like friends when they were in Middle Skool. It had been the same for the most part, Dib was still called crazy, and Zim was still known as the strange foreign kid with green skin. But halfway through their 7th grade year, Zim had disappeared from Skool altogether.

Just before he disappeared, Zim had decided to drop in on His Almighty Tallest to give them a report of how things were going. They were there, eating snacks, but they did not realize that Zim was on the screen, so they just continued their conversation. He was going to speak up, but he soon heard exactly what they were talking about. The Tallest were talking about him, laughing and recalling that fateful day once more of them sending him away to Earth. And even though through his entire stay on that planet before that moment, he had believed in his mission, hearing it from the Tallest that it was all a lie, made it finally sink in for him.

Zim had gone into what you could call a 'downward spiral of depression', and he had hidden away in his base for three months. No one saw him during that time, not even Dib with his spy equipment. During those three months of hiding, Dib had come to find that he worried over Zim a lot, and he even found himself truly caring if he was alright or not. He even tried to break into Zim's base every once in awhile, only to be almost obliterated by Zim's computer or GIR in defense mode.

The Irken came back in the spring of 7th grade, and he still tried to act the same, but Dib could tell something very bad had happened to him. Dib began to show him that he cared for the Irken, and they started to get closer, but they were always very wary of each other. Their relationship was very fragile, and Zim would sometimes revert back to his old self, but they were both very grateful for each other's companionship.

They grew together after that, as friends and part-time rivals, both mentally and physically.

When they started Hi Skool, they didn't much care about learning the same things over again for the millionth time, but they both decided that going there was better than doing nothing. They tried to pass the time together in Skool, doing whatever they could think of. And that included fighting.

A silent agreement was made between them though. They had established that they were always friends, but they constantly picked fights and taunted one another to make their days exciting. They even had their own daily routine. They would meet the other in the morning; find something they could fight about until it escalated up until lunch, where they would get deeper into the fight, and it always ended up in the halls or other large areas, the final rounds of the fight taking place there.

But no injuries were made. No major ones at least, and never on purpose. Never.

They were accustomed to each other's company now, and they were almost never apart during the day. They knew a lot about each other, and they knew their boundaries. Dib knew to limit his talk of Zim's 'mission', and to never mention his leaders, because this brought major problems between the two. Zim knew that Dib didn't like talking about his deceased mother-drone, and that talking about his many failures brought pain upon himself.

Dib found out why Zim had disappeared for so long back then, and he grew to hate the Tallest just as much as Zim now did, even thought the Irken would never straightforwardly admit it. Dib couldn't believe that Zim's leaders would send him away to an uncharted planet with an 'advanced' SIR unit, just to get rid of him. It was horrible and so very wrong, and they both knew it. It was sad that only the human could admit it though.

In turn, Zim knew that Dib had a troubled childhood, even before the Irken came to his planet. His mother-unit died when he was still very young, and the Dib-sister acted as if she hated him. Not to mention that his father-unit was constantly leaving them to go work with his SCIENCE.

So they relied on each other for companionship when it was needed and rivalry when they craved a fight. Zim's mission was still always on his mind, since that was what he was programmed to do (even though he was made a food service drone after Impending Doom 1), but he didn't put much thought or effort into his attempts anymore. And Dib was still obsessed with his paranormal science, but he had begun to get interested in regular SCIENCE as well to try and get his father to notice his existence.

But now, Zim and Dib were walking down the littered sidewalk, both zoning in and out of awareness of the goings on. It was Dib who broke the silence as they got closer to their destination, which was the Irken's base.

"Zim, were you really trying to brain-wash the teachers to get information?" Dib was confused as to why Zim would do this. "Because you and I both know that they aren't very smart…"

Zim looked at the human with an all-knowing smirk before answering, "No Dib-human, Zim was just trying to extract information from his English teachers mind for the answers on the test that she is so rudely throwing onto Zim's class tomorrow!" He cackled slightly, now knowing every right answer to the five hundred point test they were getting. And the best part was, he programmed the information into his pak, so he wouldn't forget any of it!

"Are you serious?" Dib looked at him incredulously, since even though he hated school, he still needed good grades. "Geez, Zim! You should've let me get the answers too! You of all people know how much I need to-"

Dib was cut off mid-sentence by a loud 'BOOM' coming from Zim's strange little green house at the end of the cul-de-sac.

They exchanged a glance before running up to the Irken's base. Zim opened the door with the men's room sign on it quickly and sprinting inside. He didn't get far before he slipped and fell onto the hard floor, getting strange yellow goo all over himself. Dib didn't stop quickly enough either, and he soon followed Zim's example, falling face first onto the sticky goo-covered floor. Zim wiped his face off, glaring daggers at the small green, and now yellow, dog in the middle of it all, holding a plate of deformed waffles.

"GIR! WHAT THE SMEET ARE YOU DOING!?" Zim shouted, propping himself up with his arms before his spider legs came out of his Pak and lifted him out of the goo.

"Lookit! I made you waffles!" Gir said as he smiled, holding out the yellow waffle-things, that looked like they were crawling towards Zim and Dib, squeaking softly as they twitched.

Zim's fists clenched as his spider legs brought him down in front of his defective SIR, death showing in Zim's eyes.

"Master? Aren't you gonna eat my waffles?" Gir asked with an innocent smile still on his dog face.

Zim answered him with a growl, lunging at the little disguised robot, hands out and ready to tear the little thing apart. Gir screamed and laughed insanely, running away from the Irken, his arms flailing above his head as he screamed, running around in all different directions before crashing into the wall. The waffles had been thrown into the air as he began running, and the plate landed with a crash on the floor, shattering.

Dib was still trying to get to his feet, but kept falling as he laughed and lost his balance. Gir did this a lot, but he really made a mess this time. He felt a scratching on his leg, and he cried out in shock as he saw one of the mutated waffles trying to crawl up his leg. He stood up quickly, and he stamped his foot on it, squishing it to pieces.

Dib did the same with the others that were surrounding him until they were all just pieces of twitching waffle. He sighed in relief, looking over at the still fuming invader, seeing that Gir had run outside and down the street screaming. He shook his head slightly, walking over to Zim carefully over the twitching 'food' and goo.

Zim sighed, finally calming himself again before calling his computer into awareness. "Computer!"

"Whaaaaaat?" the computer asked, quite bored and uninterested. Zim's eye twitched at the response, trying to stay calm, and glancing over at Dib, motioning for him to follow as he walked through the kitchen to the secret hall and into the elevator. Over the years he had made additions and adjustments to his base, including an actual elevator instead of a toilet or trash can. He had kept those though, since Gir had cried for an hour after he had gotten rid of them.

"Computer, make sure this mess gets cleaned up, and when Gir comes back, make sure he doesn't make another mess up here!" he said as he stepped into the elevator, Dib following a moment later. They were both covered in the yellow goo and looked quite ridiculous; Zim's wig having slid a little out of place and Dib's glasses splotched and skewed on his face. They heard a whined 'fiiiine' from the computer as the doors swished shut, lowering them into the labs below the house.