Grave Misunderstandings. [ZaDr/TaGr] (Invader ZiM AU) (wip)

All Dressed Up With Nowhere To Go

Dib dashed down the colorful, cold, stony hall in a frantic attempt to get away once again. Wake up, wake up..! He was constantly muttering and internally screeching to himself. Wake up, Membrane! This is all fake, you're really going insane..! He backed himself against the wall for just a second. Just close your eyes... you'll wake up once you try to sleep! Or, maybe you just found some strange mushrooms in the forest and ignored all your teachings..? He listened to himself, slamming his eyes shut and imagining being back home... playfully arguing with his sister before her wedding... silently judging Tak... fireplace cracking...
"Where've you gone off to?" A frightfully familiar voice flowed from down the walls, compelling Dib to open his eyes and hit the pavement with his dress shoes.
Dib ran into several strange spectres, nearly slipping or slamming against the wall. Soon enough, he found a cliff. Surely he could climb up it to the top and make his way six feet above! The high voice of the corpse groom was following behind Dib, pushing him up the side of the cliff. He grabbed the rigid rocks, reddening his hands as he climbed up with his spaghetti-like arms. His breathing quickened, he got closer to the top. The dead man's voice seemed to vanish and it felt like Dib would be successful. He finally reached for the ledge...
Grabbing the corpse's booted ankle.
"Well, you could've just taken the stairs, silly-brain," he reached a hand out to Dib. Dib refused to take the rotting, finger-missing hand and froze; probably not a very good idea since he was holding himself up on a cliff. The groom sighed, lifting Dib up over the ledge and onto his legs. "Oh, isn't this just amazing? After such a long time, I finally get what I deserve..!" He spun around on his bony legs, reaching out to hold around Dib who was desperately trying to avoid that at this point.
"Uhh...very. But, heyy... you seem like a nice guy and all, but, I kinda need to go back up," Dib sounded just a bit passive-aggressive, but the rotting one didn't seem to catch that.
"How could you want to? This place is perfect for someone like me..! And now, us." The boy finally took Dib's arm, dancing them over to sit on a couch, which, soon further inspection, was just an open coffin full of cushions.
Dib sighed heavily, slamming his head into his hands repeatedly for a few seconds. "Look, I'm sorry... you seem very... lovely, but, I don't even know your name."
"Oh..!" The thing smiled a torn smile. "I am Zim."
"Dib..." Dib sighed again, this time grabbing the back of his head. His breathing was a bit loud for the next few seconds as a weird, burning tension built up in his chest and stomach. He tried to get himself to calm down, eventually just holding his head between his legs and letting the room stop spinning. "D-Dib..."
Zim watched it all. "...you have very nice sounding breath."
"O-oh, uh... th-thank you..?" Dib figured that was meant to be a compliment. "Oh. Right. You... don't h-have any." Dib began thinking more, which slowed the anxiety build up a bit. "Hey... how does that e-even work? You... you're dead. And hey, you're moving and talking and lifting things up; no muscle, no blood, no circulation... how?" He paused. "...or is that rude to ask?.."
Zim giggles a funny giggle. "It's not, Dib-mate; don't worry." Dib tensed at the name. "Honestly? Even I'm not sure. It may just be magic, it may just be chance, may just be love..." he slowly rested his head on Dib's tensed shoulder.
"May just be sudden attachments..." a rabbit's ear poked out from a fold in ZiM's suit, which Zim pushed back in with a single finger.
"Quiet, you."
Dib gave Zim a questioning look, but he just shrugged. "But, either way... I thought I'd never come back again. However..! Zim's business on this planet isn't finished yet!" He grinned, and Dib wondered how many times he was going to refer to himself in the third person. "Oh! I almost forgot..." Zim bent over the couch, reaching for a box to hand to Dib. "A wedding gift."
Dib, while extremely hesitant and full of nervousness, was pretty curious to see what the dead thing was trying to give to him. A real gift? An organ?
The answer: bones.
Dib examined the bones inside of the box, avoiding the ones with greenish flesh still attached. "Oh... thank you..." a corner of his mouth went to the side some more.
Then, all of a sudden, the box shook and fell. When it hit the floor, the pieces stilled everywhere--Zim just smiling and watching. The bones became to shake and so did Dib's, until they all warped back together to form a shape of a dog. It wobbily clicked up to Dib, somehow panting.
"...dog?" Dib stated the obvious.
The little dog yipped, leaping up on Dib's pants.
"A dog!!" Dib grinned, holding the green dog a bit close to him.
"That's Gir..." Zim smiled. "Named after my brother."
The dog rolled around against Dib, barely hanging on ears flopping around. Dib messed with them, smiling at the dog. He thought for a second about what Zim said--he hadn't really thought about the fact that this corpse had family, let alone a real life. "...is he down here? Your brother?"
Zim's smile slightly shifted to a bit of sorrow. "No... my family's still alive. I doubt they'd like to see me like this, though."
"My family definitely w..." Dib stopped suddenly, an idea growing in his large head. "...ould. Definitely would. In fact, they'd be thrilled that I'm married, too..! We should go meet them."
Zim perked back up. "Now?"
"As soon as possible!" Dib was growing more anxious to get out, his heart now rushing in his sore chest.
Zim grinned, jumping up with his hand in Dib's. Quite literally; it snapped off as Zim leapt. This disgusted Dib. "It might be a longshot, but I know how to get up fairly quickly..!" His severed hand pulled Dib up, placed down Gir, and they began walking out. Gir barked, just turning around and slamming into the wall.
"Eddie?" Zim called out as they entered a tall, nearly-fallen building. The exterior matched the interior; cracks and decaying stone with peeling off paint, yet covered in still-standing religious objects. Books were scattered throughout the floors. "Eddie, are you awake?" Zim pushed up a dusty trap door to the top floor. "Hello?"
A tired skeleton with a bashed in skull and cracked glasses looked up from his desk. "Hm..? I..." he noticed Zim coming out from the floor. "...Zim..! You're looking quite alive there.
"This is my husband, Dib," the corpse proudly announced to the skeleton, pulling the poor groom along.
"My congratulations. Wherever did you find him?"
"With the breathers..." he paused, thinking of a transition. "Speaking of, we'd like to go up. Upstairs; to the land of the living?" Zim motioned upward, holding tightly to Dib. "It's urgent."
The skeleton casually began to drag out a tattered book. "I do believe I have something of use..." he skimmed through the faded and torn pages, until finally landing upon one with an: "Ah!" He searched for various bottles, mixing and melting different matters together.
After a minute, the creation began to bubble and release steam. He raised the final glass into the air, and downed the entire thing. "Ah, that did the job... now, as for getting you two up..." he grabbed a ceramic boy figure and smashed it onto the counter. The boy shattered, leaving nothing but dust and a small egg-looking thing inside. "This will bring you to life and back. When you wish to return here, simply say, 'hopscotch'."
"Hopscotch?" Zim raised a torn eyebrow.
"Yes, 'hopscotch'. Didn't you ever play it on your skool grounds?"
"...well, a couple times...but I'd get pushed."
"Ah." The skeleton stood up, and cracked the egg over the newlyweds' heads.
And with that, the world around them began to vanish.