Author's Note: I've seen this kind of idea roaming around for ZADR fanfics on this site, so I decided to give it a try myself. Unfortunately, it turned out to be WAY too long, but I rant a lot in my writing so it can't be helped.

Disclaimer: I do not own the show Invader Zim or any of the characters in it.

Most of the students had been hoping that due to the unexpected downpour of snow that covered the town today, they would be free to take a break from school. But unfortunately, that had not been the case.

It was cold alright, only it apparently wasn't cold enough for the school to be closed. As usual, they trudged through the snow on their way into the dilapidated building (it was really quite perplexing as to how it hadn't collapsed in on itself after all these years.)

But surprisingly, the rest of the school day had not turned out to be as miserable as it usually promised to be. During recess time, the school administrators at least had the decency to entertain them with some indoor activities, which were tolerable enough.

Although a lot of the students ended up hardly putting any attention into these indoor activities, choosing to preoccupy their free time in other ways. One green skinned student in particular, Zim, had decided to ignore everything else his other classmates were doing.

Zim ignored nearly every single one of them. Yes, nearly every single one with the exception of the one student that had always stood out to more than the others did, Dib. To call Dib only a little weird was the understatement of the century.

Oh, he was definitely weird, but he was so much more than that. So much more. Dib was not only just weird, but he was also strange, unfathomable, fascinating, intriguing, perplexing, astounding, breathtaking, overwhelming, and every other word that Zim felt fit to describe his enemy.

He was the only human on this rolling dirt ball of filth who even had enough intelligence to see through his BRILLIANT disguise, he was the only human he felt he could relate to on some level, he was the only human Zim knew who he, dare he admit it, the Irken could ever see as an equal.

Perhaps this was why lately, the invader found that he couldn't stand it when Dib didn't give him attention. Perhaps this was why Zim felt his body peculiarly heat up when the human was nearby. Perhaps this was why Zim found himself staring at his enemy in class for much longer than necessary.

The sworn enemy in question suddenly looks up from the science book he's reading, unable to ignore the feeling of someone's eyes staring at him. Dib curiously looks around at other students in search of which one was staring, receiving crude gestures and jeers in his direction as he does. Then Dib's eyes direct him to the last person he would expect be to staring at him; Zim.

Zim startles as the human notices him from across the room, sending him a questioning look. The Irken quickly tears his attention away, pretending to seem as if he wasn't even thinking about the human, let alone staring at him.

Dib arches an unimpressed eyebrow towards the alien's weirder than usual behavior, muttering something under his breath that sounds distinctively close to, "Creepy alien."

Still a little perturbed by how the Irken had been staring at him, Dib scoots his desk a bit further away from Zim's before he resumes reading. Somehow certain that Dib's suspicion must have been lulled by now, the invader peers back over only to see that the human is no longer in his previous sitting area.

Feeling a little more disappointed than he should be Zim sighs glumly, unsure how to spend his time now. He lies down on his desk; messing around with a pencil of his that GIR had chewed on so much it was almost unrecognizable.

He looks around curiously at the projects his fellow classmates are working on, discovering that few of them are in act working on the indoor activities. Zim had been so distracted he hadn't even noticed that this activity had to do with something called "arts and crafts."

Apparently this…arts and crafts was compelling them to create crudely drawn pictures and other little paper made designs that were drowned in so much glue and glitter that Zim couldn't even figure out what they were supposed to be.

Then his attention is averted towards a group of giggling girls sitting a couple of desks away from him. Zim curiously peers over towards what they're working on, which doesn't happen to be drowned in a mess of glue and glitter. Instead what they had designed were a bunch of hearts in all kinds of bright vomit-inducing colors.

It was enough to make him do exactly that, vomit. He wasn't really listening but he could hear them talking about "crushing" or harboring affections for some of their fellow classmates. Zim looks up when he sees Dib, who had been reading previously, sending them an irritated glare.

"Excuse me, some of us here are TRYING to read! Quiet down back there!" Dib harshly reprimands the giggling girls, his patience having worn completely thin with everything interrupting his reading.

"Only you are, nerd!" A classmates from nearby replies, one that Zim has come to recognize as Chunk. Students join him in laughing derisively in Dib's direction as they toss things at him, sharp pencils, scissors, and erasers.

Geez, was that last thing that they threw a STAPLER? But thankfully, Dib manages to expertly dodge the stapler without even looking up from his book. By the disinterested look on the boy's face as he ignored their mistreatment, it didn't take a genius to figure out that Dib had long ago grown accustomed to it.

But Zim couldn't get used to it. He couldn't get used to seeing those wretched classmates of theirs treating the very human who was supposed to be their savior lowlier than dirt.

He didn't understand why Dib didn't retaliate against it, he had every right to! Yet instead he chooses to just take it, as he's doing now. Zim knew he wouldn't stand for receiving such abuse from his peers (not that he ever had to worry about that) without ripping off at least one of their limbs.

Zim knew Dib could fight back, he'd seen the human fight back against him numerous times. So he didn't understand why he didn't do that at times like these. Was Dib truly so loyal to his fellow humans? Would he not even lash out at them just because he was so adamant about protecting his planet and the people on it?

They didn't even DESERVE all the effort he put into saving this rolling ball of filth. Dib didn't deserve to be treated so horridly by these ungrateful inferior stink beasts. If Dib let him, Zim could take out every single one of them for daring to even lookat the human funny.

But why should Zim care anyways? Zim was Irken, he shouldn't be feeling this way for another living creature, a human no less. He shouldn't even be slightly concerned for his enemy's wellbeing.

Irkens weren't concerned for anyone but themselves. Zim tried to remind himself of this every day, but it didn't seem to change anything. It didn't seem to change the feelings he was developing, it didn't change that he had been outraged whenever he saw anyone looking at Dib for too long, it didn't change the fact that he CARED for Dib.

He cared for Dib...

Yes, he cared for him.

Zim didn't understand these unfamiliar emotions enough to say whether or not they had gone beyond just simply caring for the human, but they were enough to greatly affect him. He wished he could destroy these wretched emotions that were causing him so much suffering, but at the same time he didn't want to let go of them.

During the entire time he had been raised on Irk, Zim had never felt anything like this. And it was all the Dib's fault. He was enduring all of this torture because that human had infected him with them. He had infected Zim with revolting feelings that were determined to let themselves be heard.

Zim leans back far enough to catch another glimpse of the human, heaving a wistful sigh. Zim wanted so badly to walk up to Dib right now and profess these newfound feelings, but he knew he shouldn't, he wouldn't, he COULDN'T. He couldn't bear to witness Dib's reaction, which would inevitably be a negative one.

But he had to do something about the emotions or else they would surely drive him insane. As he lays back down on his desk to brood, he suddenly forms an idea. The irken lifts open his desk to pull out a sheet of paper and gets his chewed up pencil ready for his new task.

Zim inhales a shaky breath as he stares at the blank sheet of paper in front of him. What was wrong with him? This should be easy, in fact there was no easier way to confess his feelings at this moment. It wouldn't kill him to just simply write the words out.

If those inferior humans could write little hearts with their crushing's name in them, Zim surely could. He could write out these mushy emotions FAR better than they could ever hope to! Yes, Zim can do this! He was capable of succeeding in anything he put his mind to.

Oh Irk.

He can't do this.

He can't bring himself to write THAT word. That disgusting four letter word those humans use to describe affection. He hated hearing it, he hated it when humans said it, and he hated thinking about it.

The last thing he wanted to do was write it. Despite his overwhelming brilliance, Zim can't can't think of any other way around writing that word. The revolting, disugsting, horrendous, pitiful excuse of a word.

Frustration overwhelming him, Zim slams his head on the desk repeatedly in a fit of seething anger, until it his temper tantrum brings the other students' attention to him. He pauses in his actions as they stare strangely at him, an awkward silence settling in the classroom for a moment.

Then he clears his throat awkwardly, before composing himself and calmly sits back down. Eventually the students lose interest, much to Zim's relief.

Zim averts his own attention back to the sheet of paper, giving it a dirty glare as if it's done something unforgivable to him. He didn't care how intimidating that piece of paper tried to make itself look, he WILL be the one to remain victorious in this battle.

Summoning up all of his courage, the invader hesitantly lifts up the pencil with a quivering hand, taking his time to write. Zim closes his eyes as he writes as if he expects the paper to explode the very second he writes down that horrid word. Once he's done, he cautiously opens his eyes to see what it looks like.

In crumply, almost unreadable handwriting are the words, 'Zim Loves Dib.'

As Zim takes these words in, his heart starts beating faster, his face flushes, and the faintest smile crept up on him. His body was overwhelmed with an unfamiliar feeling that he didn't understand but he couldn't say it was unpleasant.

In fact, he could even say he liked the fluttery, excited, giddy feeling that he was experiencing now. He REALLY liked it. Almost as much as he liked the very human who had caused them.

Looking at the message scrawled on the piece of paper one last time, Zim decides that perhaps this icky love feeling wasn't so icky after all.