SURPRISE! This story is finally being finished! I know I made everyone wait a long time but yeah, life got in the way. A lot. A lot of life got in the way.

And it's a shame because this really was already mostly done before I dropped off the face of the earth for a few years. I really didn't have to do a ton of editing and writing on this one.

Anyway, for everyone waiting on baited breath this is the final chapter of this lovely little story so without further stalling, ENJOY!

You could cut the silence between them with a knife. It seemed every other sound in the lab was now deafening in volume. Any movement caught the eye, any pin drop echoed through the home.

And yet they still hadn't said a thing. A full minute had passed, and all the two would do was stand there and glare at one another.

Gaz was as stubborn as they come but Zim was a very close rival.

In Dib's opinion, they were both being rather childish. Oh sure, Dib couldn't brag at being a casanova by any means but he'd like to think that if he was in a similar situation he'd at least have the guts to just outright admit how he felt about someone.

Besides, Gaz being here and willing to hear Zim out meant that they didn't have to make things even more complicated. Who knows what 'amazing plan' Zim might well have come up with to try and win Gaz's good side back.

Probably something to do with weasels or something equally stupid.

He could be doing something, anything, more interesting than sitting and being witness to two of the most bull headed people on the planet try and talk their feelings out. Ugh, and it was his sister and some disgusting green alien idiot as well, what did he ever to do deserve this?

... oh yeah, well, he got Zim fired and led to him having his memory wiped and almost dying. Fine, karma won this round.

Finally it was Zim who broke the silence. "I don't know why you're making me do this."

"I want to see if you can do it." Gaz quickly replied like the answer had been stored in her head the whole time.

"You already know, you were spying." Zim countered with equal swiftness.

"That doesn't matter." Gaz replied again. "You have to say it to my face."

There was another long, uncomfortable silence between them. Zim was itching to get out of here, he couldn't just up and say this kind of stuff to Gaz. Not only was it not in his character to do so, but also because, well, it was Gaz. Since when did Gaz care so much?

He spent a moment wishing that he could just reverse time. Everything was so much more simple when he was tiny and stupid and didn't know about things like affection and feelings and how to impress girls. Why did everything have to just... change? In such a short amount of time? And worse, thanks to his memory loss, he couldn't even pinpoint the moment it changed.

He only knew that it had, somehow, somewhere.

Gaz was thinking the same thing, oddly enough. Part of her wished for Zim to take this step, to finally acknowledge how he'd changed, how everything had changed and to finally move on from whatever arrested development he'd been suffering from all those years... and yet part of her did not. Part of her wished he would never remember and she could go back to being protected and defensive and hiding herself from the world.

Zim had exposed something in her and now it was out there for everyone to see, even Dib could tell. Her feelings, her inner self, had never been so open for attack.

Though Zim would never attack her, she knew that... but she needed to hear it. She had to, otherwise all that she had opened up to Zim would be made worthless.

"I... erm..." The alien looked around before pointing to Dib. "He should leave. He's distracting me."

Dib went to agree before Gaz interrupted. "He's a witness. He stays."

The young boy grumbled and went back to pouting and poking at Fallout Shelter on the tablet he was pretending to be absorbed in. He was never going to get out of this room. And to think, he could be upstairs watching Rifftrax or mastering Dwarf Fortress. Anything was better than sitting and watching these two growl 'I love you' at each other. The thought of it literally made him shudder. He had no idea how he was going to put up with this nonsense from now on.

Zim finally took a deep breath and looked away from Gaz. "I do not know what you've done to me, Gaz-beast, I don't know what's happened in the weeks we've actually been talking together but I... I don't feel the same as I used to."

"I never expected you too." Gaz replied slowly. "You've... grown."

"That's a bit obvious."

"No you moron. I mean inside." Gaz snapped but took a deep breath to relaxing again. "It's unmistakable you know. In the way you walk around, the way you talked to me. You were... calmer, I dunno, it was odd at first but then I got used to it. It suits you better than being a idiot."

"I still hate the human race you know, you're all smelly pig-morons." Zim quickly responded with a slight smirk.

"And I totally agree." Gaz added with her own smirk. "Just like you're still loud and pointlessly overdramatic."

Zim didn't respond but the smile on his face said volumes.

"See, you've grown. You would have leapt down my throat at that before."

The irken paused at this before looking down and awkward once more. "Nothing makes sense any more. I... I'm not sure what I'm really supposed to be doing with myself."

"I don't think anyone really knows." Gaz replied with a shrug. "But you've never really had a choice, have you? You've been pushed into one thing or another." The teenager looked to Zim's eyes. "You only wanted to blow things up because that's all anyone told you to do."

"I... suppose..." Zim shrugged slowly. "I've already changed my appearance. I guess a new direction couldn't be too bad." He chuckled suddenly. "Maybe just focus in on tormenting Dib."

"Hey I'm right here you know!" Dib waved a hand at them, but they ignored him.

"Or making a better gaming system. You just need a challenge, that's obvious." Gaz mused slowly.

"You're a challenge." Zim suddenly responded with a grin.

Gaz blinked in shock. "... Zim. Did you just flirt with me?"

Zim's grin fell instantly and he looked away. "No! Zim does not flirt!"

"Just for the record, going to kick your ass later for flirting with my sister, Zim." Dib called out once more from the lab.

"Oh shut up, it was cute!" Gaz called back with an annoyed tone.

Zim seemed horrified of course. "ZIM is not cute!"

"That's not for you to decide." Gaz shot back suddenly. "And I still need to hear you say it."

"I will not say anything in front of... him." Zim grumbled out and pointed a thumb over to the human boy sitting in the lab.

Even from the top of the staircase it was obvious Dib rolled his eyes. "Alright, fine." He sighed loudly and put his hands over his ears then called out. "Go ahead."

Gaz folded her arms. "I'm waiting."

The moment became tense, at least for Zim it did. This was it. This was the culmination of everything that had happened to him in the last couple of weeks. The weeks that he had lost, and yet, had changed him regardless. Changes that memory couldn't erase, changes to himself that he had made not because of some order or some demand from some far distant pair of rulers. Changes he had made because he had wanted to. Because someone in his life had actually made him want to change and get better.

Zim spoke in a low tone and he moved a hand up to his arm, rubbing it slowly. "Zim doesn't- I don't, want to go back to the person I was before. I mean I still hate your sibling-spawn and this stupid pig-stink planet which will one day bow to my-"

"Ah-hem."

"Oh, right." Zim nodded, he was getting off track. But this was the hardest part after all. "Gaz I..." His spoonch twisted into a tight knot and he felt like the air was seizing up in his lungs. Everything that was irken in him was telling him that what he was about to do was the most un-irken thing imaginable, heck, it was almost human. And yet... it felt like the right thing to do. Possibly the first truly right thing he'd ever felt in his life. "I... care about you. Deeply. You mean more to me than destroying this planet and everyone on it." He paused as he looked into Gaz's amber eyes, his voice fell low and into something Zim had never really felt before. Sincerity. "Nothing has ever been that important to me."

Gaz felt, despite the cliché of it all, like the happiest girl in the world. And considering she usually surrounded herself with gothic darkness and anti-social frowns, that was certainly saying something.

In the next moment, Gaz's arms had swung around Zim's shoulders and she pulled him into a tight hug, finding the action both warming and a little strange. Zim's new tallness was going to take some getting used to, she could tell. The other part was of course because she had never hugged someone before, not willingly anyway. And yet an action she would have once considered an invasion of personal space was something that made her feel giddy and happy. She didn't have to hug him, but she wanted to, and that made all the difference.

"Ow! Gaz! Still healing!"

"Oh, sorry." Gaz let him go but the grin wouldn't leave her face. However, what she did do was take his hand softly, something that caused the irken's green cheeks to go a slightly darker shade. "I care about you too, Zim. Deeply" She scoffed at herself. "I can't believe I'm saying this. I feel like an idiot." It was obvious to her that Zim wasn't the only one who had changed.

The experiences they'd shared, the bonding they'd had. It had changed her just as much as it had changed him. She wasn't caught up in her own head any more, angry at everything around her because she had no one to connect to. Zim had offered her something she never knew she need. Friendship. And more than friendship. Something deeper and more important. Something she never thought she'd ever have in her life.

"So are you two dating now?" Dib called out suddenly from the lab, causing Gaz to shoot a dark frown at him.

However before she could reply Zim's long fingers curled in a squeeze around her hand and the irken called out. "Quiet Dib-stink! Zim has yet to officially declare Gaz his official love-mate, so keep your giant head out of it!"

"Am I?" Gaz mused to the irken with a growing sense of happy butterflies in her stomach. She felt almost a little dizzy at the prospect. She never thought she would get this emotional over anything in her life.

"Yes, you are." Zim declared with a toothy grin, which faltered only for a moment. "If... you will accept such an offer. Officially I mean."

"Of course I will, you ti-erm-big idiot." Gaz's eye's met Zim's and with all the

"Super." Dib's reply floated up from the lab. "I'll just go find a bucket to be sick in then."

Gaz rolled her eyes at her brother's comment but kept her eyes on Zim. The butterflies in her stomach became even more pronounced as she quietly said, "You know there is a human custom to make these things official."

Zim raised an antennae at this, "Custom? I know of no custom."

The goth sighed but she was not annoyed. Rather, it was a sigh of acceptance, knowing that she would have to take the first step in this and probably plenty of other things down the line. But she had always been the teacher in the relationship, she didn't mind keeping that role as long as she could keep him. "Here, let me show you."

And at that she pulled him a little closer. As if the world was moving in slow motion, she went onto her tip toes, her lips moving closer to Zim's, the dizziness and the butterflies almost rising to a pitch...

Then suddenly she paused and in a flash she turned, throwing her arm up to her nose and sneezing so loudly her whole body shook.

"Gaz-mate, this is a very unusual custom." Zim spoke as Gaz sniffled to herself. "However if you wish I shall do the same."

"You idiot." Dib called up as he approached the staircase. "I think she's caught a cold."

"I have not!" Gaz snapped back, trying to hide the fact she was completely thrown off by her own involuntary action even though her cheeks had flashed a bright, embarrassed red. However even as she spoke she realised that the excited, maddening butterflies in the stomach were suddenly changing. One moment ago they had been one of almost manic, unfamiliar nervousness. Now they actually felt more like she really was going to be sick. She suddenly sneezed again, causing Zim to jump a little and her dizziness seemed to get a little worse.

"You're sick? My love-mate is sick?!" Zim's eyes were wide, then suddenly he pointed a sharp claw over to Dib and snapped. "I BLAME YOU FOR THIS!"

"Hey I- well, okay, well I probably did pass it to her. Sorry. Running into the storm didn't help any though." Dib shrugged, though inside he felt a little glad that he didn't have to witness Gaz kissing Zim. He was spared of that horror for now, though he knew from now on he was going to have to get used to a lot of new things. Change wasn't just coming for Zim and Gaz, it seemed. "Take her upstairs, Zim. I'll make her some soup."

"Yes! You will concoct this so-called soup for her, ZIM COMMANDS YOU!" He turned to Gaz and looked to her eyes, his own full of a sort of manic, caring worry for his new girlfriend. Girlfriend. The idea was still so foreign to Zim and yet the second his eyes landed on Gaz he knew that was what he wanted, he wouldn't be happy any other way. Gaz made him happy and that was all the justification he needed to go against his training, his tallest and the old way he had run his life. Gaz's happiness made him happy, that was all there was to it now. "Gaz, I will prepare your bedroom for maximum recovery, no protests! Zim am loyal to you and you alone, therefore your health is now my top priority!"

"I don't need-" Gaz sneezed again suddenly, followed by a somewhat embarrassing sniffle, and for Zim that seemed to seal the deal. He turned her around, took her hand, and began pulling her softly along. His grip wasn't tight or commanding but something that was so natural he didn't even notice it, even if his new girlfriend did. It was caring. The kind of firmness that spoke of a deep desire to protect this one person in whatever way they could.

Gaz let a smile ghost her lips as she allowed her new boyfriend drag her upstairs. Her big moment with him had been ruined but in a way she supposed that was bound to happen. It seemed the precedence was that they were a couple who moved slowly, carefully and at a pace they set only by one another. She supposed their first kiss would come in it's own time, when it felt comfortable arriving.

Until then she would have to accept that now she had a boyfriend now. This crazy, ultra-loyal and maddeningly stubborn alien who still wanted to doom the world despite being fired from a job he'd never been good at anyway. Her life was no longer just all hers, alone in her world isolated world.

And that was one thing she wouldn't change for the world.

The End.

So there you have it! I hope everyone enjoyed reading this story and I thank you all dearly for reading and being my loyal test subjects (those who are still reading this of course).

Writing this really was a ton of fun. Trying new things was so fun and I felt as though the story really came together well. It's a nice, neat package that I think some of my other stories really lack. I also like this ending a lot because it ended on something that felt fun and in character with the rest of the story. Dib and Zim don't stop being enemies, though it's hinted that an understanding may come between them at last. Zim still wants to take over the earth and Gaz still hates mostly everyone. And yet the changes in them are still there, subtle and growing but I feel still within their personalities.

Anyways it's not up to me to tell you what I thought of everything, it's up to you dear readers to tell me via reviews or angry emails or carrier pigeons or however you wish to express your opinion.

References:

Fallout Shelter: It's a great IOS/Android game set in the Fallout universe, totes check it out.
Rifftrax: The guys from MST3K do a commentary track you play when watching movies. It's the funniest stuff you will probably ever hear. Probably. Check thems out.
Dwarf Fortress: A BLACK HOLE THAT MUST BE AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS. It's actually a free downloadable game online that's easily one of the hardest, most complex, most life consuming games I've ever played. Very fitting that a big nerd like Dib would pick it up.

So yes, thank you so much for reading and enjoying this fic to the very end and I encourage you all to go and write or draw or do whatever you wish to be creative in your own way!

Toodles!