Broken?

"Come Dib-thing! Now we must procure the human sanitary items!"

Dib groaned and rubbed his nose, why had he agreed to this again? He wondered as he watched the invader marching along ahead of him. Oh, right. Because he was losing his mind.

It had been a few months since him and Zim's. . . weird moment outside the skool, where he had told Zim his insecurities and Zim had actually-well. . .made him feel better about them. It was still too weird to think about. But since then the alien had been acting, not nicer really, but he always seemed to show up whenever he felt himself getting lost in that self-loathing pit he sometimes got into, and dragging him off somewhere, whether to a fight or just wherever the invader decided to go for the day. It was kind of freaking him out actually. It wasn't like they were friends, they still fought for the fate of the Earth on a daily basis, they were just. He honestly wasn't sure what to call it. But it wasn't friends. After all, friends didn't get into fistfights on a regular basis-well, unless they were like, magical martial artists who had to fight each other to train to save the world, or something. He had the feeling he had been watching too many movies lately. But, right. Zim. He wondered how the alien knew when he was feeling bad. Maybe he could smell feelings or something alieny like that.

He tilted his head and grabbed his chin in thought. Actually, that could be really helpful; he wondered if there was a way to harness something like that. Of course, he would have to somehow get Zim's cooperation, and this was assuming that Zim could smell feelings, or sense them in some way but-wait Zim had stopped and was looking at him funny-crap was he talking to himself again? Had he just said all that out loud?

Zim smirked and put a hand on his hip. "Why yes Dip-stink, yes you were. And for your information, I can not smell feelings, or whatever your idiotic human pig brain has thought up," He raised his head arrogantly, "The Dib-human is just easy to read. Now come along. We still have your Idiot planet's germs to fight." He proclaimed as he started marching down the stained sidewalk again.

Dib realized he had no idea where they were, which was probably a bad thing to be when in the presence of his alien not friend. This was so stupid. Zim could turn on him at any moment! Why was he trusting the idiot alien? And okay, he had asked himself that quite a few times over the last few months and still hadn't found an answer. He would wonder if it was some kind of mind control except he knew when he started trusting the alien, he just didn't understand why. Stop. Don't get lost in thought again. Where were they? He looked around, confirming what he had already vaguely noticed, they were on a sidewalk somewhere in the middle, or possibly the outskirts, the buildings weren't quite as tall as in the heart, of the city, the usual tall dull brickwork of buildings to his right, with the curb and the road to his left; he still had no idea where they were, he had never been to this part of the city before. He only hoped that Zim knew where they were, otherwise it was gonna be a long day. And you know, that Zim wasn't leading him to his untimely doom, that would be bad.

He chuckled. Not sure if it was from the ridiculousness of the whole situation or if he was just nervous.

He was still looking around for familiar landmarks when he saw it, a sign that didn't seem to follow the unspoken rule that all buildings within a 100-mile radius use dull, unsaturated versions of all colors. What the sign had on it was rather odd too.

Dib stopped next to the storefront to examine it. He vaguely wondered how long it would take Zim to figure out he had stopped. The sign didn't have a name on it, or at least not one that he could see, it seemed to have some sort of rainbow on it; although, it didn't really look like a rainbow. . .actually, "Is that an infinity symbol?" Yep. That was definitely an infinity symbol painted with all the colors of the rainbow, that was . . . weird; but he felt like he'd seen it somewhere before. He walked closer to the window to peer inside. He couldn't really make out any details inside, and the shop didn't have a window display, but it seemed to be lit with those odd lights that are supposed to mimic the sun's light instead of fluorescent bulbs. Ok, now he was intrigued, this place was a mystery and he had to solve it. Or at the very least figure out where he had seen that symbol before.

The door hissed silently as he opened it, apparently no bells attached, odd. But admittedly not unwelcome. He looked around. The store's lighting seemed to be fairly similar to the light outside, not too bright but still easy to see in. The shop seemed to carry a little bit of everything, he could see a section for toys and those little hand puzzle things in one section, while another spot seemed to be devoted entirely to stuffed animals and blankets, he saw a section filled with nearly overflowing, but still oddly organized, bookshelves. Another area seemed to have different pieces of jewelry and was labeled 'Stim/Fidget Jewelry'

He walked over to that last section, wondering what a stim was and how jewelry could fidget. He examined the pieces of metal and plastic that covered the shelf and realized that every one of them seemed to have some sort of moving part, huh. "Oh, you use the jewelry to fidget, the jewelry doesn't fidget. That makes much more sense." Although he wasn't sure why you would want to, after all, weren't you supposed to try your best to stay still? It occurred to him that he shouldn't still be using advice that came from therapists that had hated him. He was pretty sure they wouldn't have gone out of their way to embarrass him, they didn't care enough for that but-his thought derailed as he spotted the same infinity symbol on a moving pendant. He frowned at it. "Alright, what are you?" He grabbed the tiny box the necklace was in and went to find the counter. Surely they would know what it was.

He walked up to the person at the counter, a woman with dark blonde hair sporting an abundance of bracelets, and wearing a shirt with the same symbol on it. This was getting a little ridiculous. He cleared his throat and held the box with both hands. "Um, excuse me?" he said, fully prepared to have to say something several times to get her attention, even though the little store was silent.

To his surprise, she responded to the first inquiry, "Oh, hello! Do you need some help with something?" She smiled, and leaned over the counter a little more, presumably so she could see him better.

He gaped. Yeah, it was rude but, well, nobody even talked to him until he started raising his voice, even in places like stores. Sometimes he wondered if he had done something in a past life to warrant being ignored, but he figured he just wasn't imposing enough. He shook his head to clear it. "Oh! Uh, yeah actually." He set the little box on the counter. "I was hoping you could tell me what this was."

She looked at it, a little confused, "The necklace?"

Dib blushed, he probably should have been more clear. "Ah, no. Sorry, the symbol on it. It also outside on the sign and that shirt you're wearing and I feel like I've seen it before but I can't remember where and not remembering stuff like that really bugs me aaaand I should stop talking now." Oh, jeez. Now she was gonna think he was some kind of big-headed freak.

The woman smiled. "It's no trouble," Or maybe it would be fine. Okay. Well, don't look a gift horse in the mouth. "It's actually the neurodiversity symbol."

"Neuro. . .diversity?" Yep, he had never heard that word.

She nodded. "Right, it's a symbol that represents neurodiversity, it's like, the idea that people with certain developmental disorders aren't broken or have something wrong with them, they're just wired differently, and that what makes them different is an important part of their person and that without it they be the same person anymore." She frowned. "Um, did that make sense? I'm not the best at explaining things."

Dib nodded, and picked the little box with the necklace in it back up and looked at it. Developmental disorders? "I think so, you said developmental disorders, do you mean like Autism?" He looked back up at her warily, oddly afraid of the answer.

She smiled and leaned more comfortably on the counter. "Yep, they're actually the ones who started the idea, or well, an Autistic person came up with the word, from what I understand. It also applies to things like Adhd."

His eyes widened. "Really?" he whispered. It just didn't seem real. The idea that there wasn't anything wrong with him. Admittedly, Zim seemed to be trying his best to get him to believe that these last few months; but here was someone else; a complete stranger at that, telling him the same thing. He sniffed, and felt his eyes well up. Oh no. Nonononononono. He would not cry. Certainly not here.

The woman blinked, and seemed to realize something, "Oh," she smiled kindly, "Are you Autistic?"

He blinked rapidly. Then rubbed his eye. Not gonna do it not gonna do it. "Uh Y-yeah." He laughed weakly. "Yeah, I am."

The woman opened her mouth to reply when the door slammed open, "Dib-stink! I demand you explain yourself!" Oh, so that's how long it would take, he thought briefly.

He glared at the alien, eyes quickly drying, thank goodness. "Zim, have you done that at every store between here and wherever you realized you lost me?"

"Yes."

Dib sighed. Well, he supposed he wasn't surprised. "If you must know I saw a store I wanted to go into." He smiled at the clerk. "Do you think you could ring this up for me?" He held up the box.

"Sure thing." She grabbed the box and quickly rang it up, before handing him the bag. "I also put some flyers in there about the movement the symbol is for as well as, some about, um," It seemed to occur to her that the boy's acquaintance was in the store now.

"Stuff about Autism?" He asked

She nodded, relieved. "Yeah, If you want to read them."

Zim's eyes narrowed. Autism? He knew that word. He hissed, and marched up to the counter, "Listen human pig smelly! If you have upset the Dib-stink you shall feel the wrath of ZIM!"

Dib glared at the alien. "Ok, first of all, I can fight my own battles, and second of all, she didn't do anything. So knock it off!" He looked back at the clerk, "Thanks for everything." With that said he started toward the door.

Zim laughed. "Ha! Of course you can't fight your own battles! You're just a human pig smelly! This is why you need the great ZIM to rule you all!"

Dib scoffed, "You know what, just for that, I'm not gonna tell you what I bought." The invader hated secrets.

"WHAT! Don't you dare Dib-stink! TELL ME!"

"Ok, I won't tell you." He smirked

"ARgh!"