Dib wasn’t quite sure what he imagined himself doing when he was twenty years old.

Yet sitting on top of an alien spaceship, attempting to repair it with what he assumed was the alien version of a blowtorch, all while an alien stood in the corner of his shed flipping through old textbooks she had found hadn’t crossed his mind as an option.

“I’m surprised you’re even letting me touch this thing.” He said flicking the blowtorch on and bringing it down to the hard exterior of the ship.

Tak flicked her eyes up for a second but didn’t seem bothered to return his gaze for much longer.

“Welding the outside of my ship is hardly a complex task, I think even your Earth weasels could accomplish it. I’ll rip off your hands before I let you lay a finger on anything important.”

The two of them were currently at a truce because of Zim. Whenever they were at a truce it was always because of Zim. At the moment he was attempting a plot that would end in the universe getting sucked into a massive space toilet and well... despite their past issues both Dib and Tak agreed they would never let such a thing happen so here they were. Allies for now and enemies once the toilet problem was resolved. This was how it always worked for the two of them.

Dib finished with the top of the ship and began to climb down to take a look at the back of it. As he was moving down he noticed that Tak seemed to have stop flicking through the books and stopped on a certain page in a biology text. He peered over to see what had caught her attention... and it just so happened to be information about the human reproductive system.

If Dib were a teenager he might be flushed by the idea but going against what everyone in High Skool said about him, he had managed to get laid enough to be over such awkwardness.

“Are you really that confused by how other species reproduce?” Dib asked her. He had long ago accidentally learned that Irkens were born from test tubes, another weird similarity he seemed to share with her along with being an outcast. Tak scoffed at him in response.

“You seem to see I’m as moronic as the other Irkens in your life. No there are... surprising similarities.” She said sounding a bit lost in her thoughts.

“Hmmm.” Dib’s response was casual, his thoughts at the moment were the complete opposite. First as a researcher, secondly as an adult male. As a researcher he had always tried to pry any information about Irkens and their culture out of Zim. Aliens had always fascinated him and learning about his enemy was important for Earth’s survival. As an adult male... well aliens always fascinated him and he accepted he was a bit of a xenophile as early as puberty.