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Finale	By : Spacefille Category: +G through L > Invader Zim > AU/AR-Alternate Universe-Alternate Reality Views: 5244 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Invader Zim, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
- 6
Author's notes: This is the "Christmas Special" chapter! Writing this was very amusing as it is June and Christmas is about the last thing on my mind. Needless to say I spent a good deal of this chapter listening to Christmas carols at the same time to get myself in the mood. :D
Thanks once again to my very wise beta, J. Random Lurker, for her writing help and advice and to all my reviewers for their support. :)
~~~
Chapter 5
~~~
Year 1, Weeks 3-6
Two weeks passed like the slow ticking of a watched clock. Dib, no matter how many times he tried to hack on his home computer or on his mobile laptop, came no closer to discovering the hows and whys of what, exactly, his dad was doing for the military. All the information pertaining to his father's work appeared to be completely under lock and key. All he knew was the professor was currently located on a military base about an hour's drive outside of the city. And, whatever it was it was he was doing was occupying all of his time... his show even went off the air, opting to play reruns at various times during the day when nothing else good was on.
Beyond that curiosity nothing much changed in Dib's life. He worked though his feelings, at least as much as he wanted to, and came to a big fat 'I don't care' on the subject. Seeing as he didn't see any sort of relationship between him and the small Irken continuing, he refused to think about it anymore. It was a one time deal. Since he had discovered that he couldn't kill the alien, even more now that they had been intimate at one point, Dib lost all interest in the alien aspect of the paranormal. It was almost like old news to him now. Been there, done that...
As for the small Irken, Zim had started coming to school again, but his presence was barely noticeable. The alien was cautious, almost fearful as he ghosted through the halls. Dib had even tried to approach him a couple of times, but Zim was quick to disappear before he could very close.
Which is why he was so surprised when he did approach him on his own time...
It was less than a week before school let out for Christmas vacation and Dib had been in the library at the time. He was on his laptop monitoring something he found vaguely interesting-- a cold war like situation his country was presently engaged in with another country. He had learnt about the same sort of thing happening before in his history class, and opted for considering it a slightly relevant thing to keep an eye out for.
He saw the shadow fall over his laptop and keyboard before anything else. Dib looked up. The alien was standing on a chair on the opposite side of the table from him. It made him tall enough to hover above him and his lap top. A wide grin was on Zim's light green face.
Dib sighed and looked back down. "What is it Zim?" He asked in a bored tone as he continued to type away.
"Oh, nothing much." Zim replied airily. "Beyond the fact that I, Zim! Have come up with a MAGNIFICANT plan to take over your Earth... that's all."
Dib looked up again with a raised eyebrow. "And you're telling me this... why?" He asked slowly.
Zim stopped posturing and blinked at the human boy in a decidedly confused manner. "... because that is what we do?" He said finally. He thrust a finger at himself. "I try to take over your planet." He turned his finger back towards Dib. "You try to stop me. Yes?"
"That is what we DID, yes..." Dib replied, looking away again.
If Dib had been looking at the alien right then, he would have seen the awfully hurt look that crawled across his face. After a moment though, the alien had regained his momentum. "Ah but you see this plan is truly ingenious!" He thrust his finger into the air. He dropped his voice conspiriously. "But, earth boy, you can only see it if you come to my base..."
"Ha! Haha!" Dib let out a short bark of humorless laughter, looking back up at the alien with a good deal of incredulity on his face. "Do you by any chance remember what happened LAST time I went anywhere near your base?" Dib questioned in a dry sarcastic voice. The alien's eyes widened at his words and he actually fell back... then jumped off his chair. He continued to stare at Dib from where he stood on the floor.
"Now think about that, and consider maybe WHY I'm not going to go anywhere NEAR your base voluntarily." Dib said sharply. 'Whoboy,' He thought to himself when he was done speaking. 'We still have a little bit of bitterness with us, don't we?' He hadn't actually thought himself to be still angry about the incident, and the fact that Zim had been blatantly ignoring him since, until he spoke.
"Oh." The Irken replied in a small voice. He fidgeted for a moment, then moved off to the side. Suddenly he grasped his chair he moved it over to set it beside Dib and sat in it, much to the human's irritation. He didn't say anything though, merely glanced at him out of the corner of his eye and kept on clicking on sites on his laptop.
"Whatcha doing?" Zim asked after a moment.
Dib let out a frustrated sigh. "Nothing that would interest you." He replied.
"Try me," Zim stressed.
Dib made a face. "Ookay..." He said. He sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Two nations on our world right now are fighting." He described in layman's terms. "Mine and... someone else's." He gestured to his monitor's screen, where a map of the world was. "Right now both sides are just ignoring each other and developing weapons. Every once and a while their terrorists attack our side, but we haven't done anything yet..." He paused. "This is stupid." He added, glancing at the alien out of the corner of his eye. "You're not even a citizen of this WORLD, let alone country..."
Zim cocked his head to the side in a curious way. "So?" He asked.
"So? So--" Dib fell back in his chair with a sigh. "So nothing I guess." He said, a little surprised that he had come to such a conclusion. "I guess you have no wonderful solutions on how to solve this problem now do you?"
"Of course I do!" Zim replied. With a flourish he brought a fist down into his other hand. "You crush your enemies beneath your feet! Subject them to your awesome might! Then you'll never have to worry about them and their icky terrorist-ness again." Dib almost smiled. "That may work for you," he said. "But human nature isn't like that Zim." He explained. "As long as people are still alive, Zim, uprisings will occur. There will always be terrorism and rebellions."
The alien blinked at him naively. "So destroy them all." He said simply.
Dib brought his hand up to rub it across his forehead like he had a massive headache. "They can't do that either Zim," He explained in a slightly strained voice.
Zim threw up his arms in frustration. "So what do you want then?" He asked. "Obviously if your enemy wishes to destroy you, you destroy them first, do you not? Otherwise you will continue fighting until BOTH of you are destroyed!"
Dib opened his mouth... and then closed it again. "You know you might actually have a point..."
"Of course I have a point!" Zim replied. "By Irk, why does Zim even bother? All I have to do is wait around for you stupid stink beasts to destroy yourselves! Then. Then you shall be RIPE for conquest!"
"Well I imagine a few humans would be left, even if..." Dib began.
Zim wasn't done his rant yet. "Then a new order can be brought to this world... an IRKEN order!" He finished triumphantly.
Dib snorted and eyed the alien. "We need an Irken order like we need a bad disease, Zim."
Zim looked at him like he had two heads. "Nonsense." He replied in a self assured voice. "An Irken order would be very good for you pitiful creatures." That comment angered Dib slightly, but instead of retorting right away he instead closed his eyes and counted to three. "So... what? You think we should all become drones and bow down to one almighty Irken overlord?"
"Yes," Zim replied like it was the most natural thing in the universe.
"So you mean... you right?" Dib thrust a finger at the alien.
"Yes. Of course." Zim replied.
"What about your 'Tallest'?" Dib asked, a bit sarcastically.
Zim shifted in his chair. "Them too," He replied.
Dib shook his head slowly. Zim was incredible. Still. "This is coming from the person whose said leaders are selected based on height," He commented dryly.
"At least my leaders are not selected based on their ability to make stupid faces on the TV-type thing." Zim shot back.
"My leaders are NOT..." Dib stopped himself quickly, affording himself a glance at Zim.
The alien had the faintest smile on his face.
Dib's jaw fell open. "Did you just make a joke?" He asked incredulously.
The smile wavered, then faded away. "I know not of jokes, human." The alien replied solemnly.
Dib let out a short bark of laughter, his face splitting into a grin. "I think you just did!"
The alien looked uncomfortable and shifted in his chair again. Suddenly he got off it. "I am going now." He announced. "I have much to do!"
"Oh. Okay..." Dib watched as he turned away. "Zim?" He called after him.
Zim turned back part way. "Yes... earth stink?" He questioned.
For a moment Dib had no idea what he was going to say. He knew he was going to say something... but what he really wanted to question Zim on... perhaps something to do with the fact that Zim's personality had changed quite a bit in the last little while. 'Why are you avoiding me?' It just wouldn't come out right. Especially in light of the fact that he had just refused to play with Zim like old times again. On that subject, maybe he should ask the alien what, exactly, had just happened. They had had a conversation. A real conversation. Finally Dib shook his head slightly. "Never mind." He said.
Zim's eyes widened. "Never mind?" He repeated. "Do not waste my time then!" The alien completed in a high and mighty voice, instantly shattering all brief thoughts of friendship that may have been dancing around in Dib's head. With that the alien turned and marched right back out of the library, his legs stiff. Dib stared after him as he went.
~~~
During the last week of school before Christmas vacation Dib watched with mixed horror and embarrassment as Zim return to his regular old egocentric self. He no longer ghosted through the halls of the school, but rather walked, stiff legged and with his nose in the air, looking every inch the Irken Invader that he was when he had first arrived on the planet, much to Dib's utter frustration. Now whenever he tried to talk to the Irken, he would only get the cold shoulder or be told off in Zim's usual ranty manner. Once Zim had even decided to jump up on a table to yell at Dib about being perfectly normal in front of the entire grade 9 class, much to Dib's utter embarrassment. Zim hadn't done that since Elementary Skool. He had sat there, with his head in his hands and listened more than watched as the teacher kicked Zim out of the room for disrupting the class. As he left the little Invader had shouted at Dib from the door that he'd never get him, which had left everyone staring at HIM...
He was embarrassed, partly for the Irken and partly for himself. Frankly he couldn't believe that what was only a short time ago he was the one right up there yelling right back at Zim. He was used to people staring at him... but people stared at him when he spoke, not when he was being silent. And now he was being silent.
He was also quickly discovering that Zim acted up only if there were other people around... preferably huge amounts of them. Like the entire cafeteria for example. It was making everyone in the school avoid the two of them, not that they didn't already.
Then came the day Dib just couldn't take it any longer. He exploded.
It was the last day of classes and he stood outside and to the side of the front doors of the school. He was up to his knees in a snow bank (it decided to dump a great amount of the white stuff a day previous) waiting for his sister to emerge from the building so that they could walk home together.
Zim did so first. Dib watched out of the corner of his eye as the alien shivered for a moment, clenching his coat closer to himself. He looked like he was dressed in more than enough layers to keep a normal person toasty warm in Arctic North Pole-ish conditions, let alone NJ weather. Dib snorted softly.
"Merry Christmas Zim," He called out to him in a somewhat cheery voice despite himself. Hey, it was the last day of classes for a whole two weeks, he figured he'd at least make an attempt to be civil.
The alien turned and looked at him, a surprised expression crossing his face for a very brief moment. It quickly turned into a condescending look.
"I know not of your silly traditions human," Zim declared, waving him away in a dismissing gesture. "Nor have I any desire to learn." He made his way down the steps and began to walk away.
Dib swore under his breath, any cheerfulness he felt fleeing quickly. Zim DID know what Christmas meant... he had tried to take over the earth once at Christmas, dressed up as Santa Claus no less. So he was obviously lying, on purpose. "Why are you being such an idiot all of a sudden?!" Dib suddenly yelled after him.
Zim walked a couple more steps before turning back suddenly. He shook his fist at Dib from the safe distance he was currently at. "I know not of this idiot-ness, foolish earth creature!" he declared... loudly. Loud enough that people stopped and glanced in his direction as well. "And I have no desire to learn about that either," with that Zim turned back around again and continued to walk off.
Dib seethed. Who would have thought that just Zim's voice could make him so upset? But he was. Just the fact that he KNEW Zim had the ability to be nicer than that, or at least smarter than that. People were stupid and tended not to see things in front of their own eyes, but reverting back to the stupid Invader act was just dumb. 'When did I start caring whether he exposes himself or not?' The stray thought ran though his head.
He didn't know. All he knew was people were staring and he was VERY close to shaking with rage. "You know what? FUCK you Zim!" He finally yelled out loud. Loud enough that the several kids around him that hadn't already stopped and stared did so. At that particular moment Dib didn't really care.
"I'd rather-- not," Zim was almost out of ear shot but his words drifted back to him, said in a sing song voice.
Dib shook as he watched Zim's disappearing back. Fuck him. Fuck him. The alien knew EXACTLY what he was doing. If he knew the meaning of the word "fuck" he knew about Christmas and the rest of it. Obviously. Which meant he was just doing this to piss him off.
Well it was working. Dib wanted to yell... scream more... and right now he wanted more than ever before to run after the alien and beat the shit out of him. He didn't even know at what point he had lost control so badly, but he was going to do something he would seriously regret if he didn't do something to calm down RIGHT now...
"That went... well..." Gaz observed drily. Her brother, who was currently red faced and looked like he was going to kill, looked up and gave her a surprised look. Gaz gave him a half shrug back and walked down the steps to join him.
That was all Dib needed. He drew in a shaky breath... one, then another one and deliberately stuck balled fists into his pockets.
Gaz accepted that silently. The brother sister pair began to walk towards home, in the opposite direction that Zim had went in.
"Not that I care or anything," Gaz said after a long moment of silence. She turned and raised one eyebrow at her brother. "But he IS an alien you know."
'What's that supposed to mean? Of COURSE I know he's an alien, I haven't been following him for the last four years for no reason at all!' Dib stopped his words before they could spew from his mouth in full rant form. He understood what his sister was trying to imply. Don't go and get his expectations too high. Zim was an alien. An incredibly self centered one who always thought about himself and no one else, and, as far as Dib knew, had no conscience, nothing that would define him as 'human'. Getting mad at him was like getting mad at a small child. It was pointless and would only add to the alien's delight. Grr... why did he keep forgetting recently? Dib drew in a deep breath. And another. "Yes I KNOW," He grumbled finally.
Gaz looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Do you?" She asked.
Dib glanced down at her. Gaz met his gaze levelly and Dib found he was the one that had to look away first.
"Yes," He mumbled. He stuck his hands deeper in his pockets and hunched forwards as he trudged through the deep snow.
"Good," Gaz said. That was the end of the conversation. She pulled out her Game Slave X out of her pocket and began to play it, shutting her brother and everything else around her out as she usually did.
~~~
The days up until Christmas Eve crawled by just as slowly as school it's self. The only reason why Dib preferred the solitude of the Christmas season to school was that he was thankfully left alone for the extent of it. There was no Ms. England and her questions. There were no other students bugging him about being a nerd, geek, freak, whatever, whenever he spoke of things their lack of interest and lack of intelligence couldn't completely comprehend. There were no stares. There was no Zim, which was a relief beyond words.
There was only him and Gaz. And his computer. And his sister's games. The professor wasn't even there either... he was still on the military base, doing whatever top-secret thing they had him doing.
The blow came on the morning of Christmas Eve. He woke up and walked down the stairs just in time to hear Gaz say "Why not?" at the holographic projection of their Dad in the kitchen.
Dib looked at her, then at the holodad.
"Oh hello there Son!" The projection declared. "How are you?"
"Ur... good," Dib replied a bit fuzzily, rubbing the side of his head. He had just woken up...
"Dad!" Gaz said quickly, distracting their father back to her.
"Oh that's right!" The professor said. "Son, Daughter, I will not be able to make it back this Christmas." He said. He held up a hand to stifle the question of why that was just about to make it's way out of Gaz's mouth. "Work, I'm afraid, is holding me up here... I cannot return. However!" He raised his hand and pointed upwards in a triumphant gesture. "If you look in the living room you will see that there are Christmas gifts for the both of you..."
Both of them turned and padded into the living room. Sure enough a fully decorated and lit tree sat in the corner of the room, with two large wrapped presents beneath it. Dib blinked. That hadn't been there the night before. Not that he hadn't expected a Christmas tree at some point during the holiday season, but he didn't always get one. In fact some years they forgot Christmas all together, choosing to all sit around and watch the news on Christmas Eve while sipping eggnog. That was what Christmas meant to their family.
Dib turned back. He caught the stormy look on his sister's face out of the corner of his eye before he looked up at his dad's projection again.
"I'm sure you two kids will be all right," The professor said with a laugh in his voice.
Gaz glared. "When are you coming HOME, dad?" She asked.
The professor chuckled. "Just as soon my work here is done, dear," He said. "Merry Christmas to you both!" And with that the holo vid shut off again.
For a long moment Dib looked at it. Then he turned and looked at his sister.
Amazingly enough, where Gaz had had an angry look a moment before, she now had an impassive look on her face.
"Gaz?" Dib asked.
"Don't bug me," Gaz replied grumpily. With that she turned and stomped out of the room.
Dib stared after her in the direction that she left in, then his shoulders slumped forwards suddenly. "I'm... going back to bed," He announced at nobody. With that he turned around and did so.

He woke up again sometime in the early afternoon. After making one last futile attempt at hacking into the military's classified files to find out what his dad was doing (when did the security get so good anyway?) he wandered downstairs to make himself something for dinner. He vaguely noticed that his sister was curled up in a chair in the living room, her head bent over her sketch pad... drawing something. He shrugged and walked into the kitchen.
It was a little while later when he wandered back into the living room with a sandwich in hand. He stopped briefly at the tree and peered down at the gifts.
Sure enough, like ever year, the one to Gaz was labeled from "Professor Membrane! and Dib" and his was labeled from "Professor Membrane! and Gaz". It saved on his apathetic sister from actually having to shop for presents for the two to be pooled into one. It was fine by him as well... he had no idea what to get the girl either. She always got what she wanted when she wanted it anyway, whether it was a new book or her GS X the very moment it came out.
Dib looked up from the presents again and glanced at his sister. She still sat on the chair, hunched over her sketch pad, fall of her purple hair obscuring part of her face. He couldn't see what she was drawing, but he guessed from her posture she didn't want him to see what she was doing. He looked at the blank black holo vid screen.
'Damn this Christmas is going to suck,' He thought to himself miserably. He made his way across the living room to the window. He drew the blind aside and peered out of it. Silently he took in the rapidly darkening street, and the array of Christmas lights that decorated about every second house. Every house seemed to have their windows lit as well, indicating that they at least had people in them. 'Their Christmas' will be with family,' Dib continued to think moodily.
  "What could possibly be important enough to keep Dad away at Christmas anyway?" He burst out suddenly. "I mean yeah sure, he's never home ANYway, most of the time, but Christmas?! The whole entire COUNTRY has a day off at Christmas--"
"I don't care," Gaz's bored voice drifted at him from the chair.
Dib turned part way and looked at her for a moment. She hadn't changed any, still hunched over her sketch pad with pencil clenched in hand. He turned back to the window. "I mean this just sucks! Couldn't he had at least TRIED to take time off?"
Now Gaz looked up. "Why are you asking me?" She asked.
Dib wasn't done yet. "Every body else has a nice happy family, or at least a parent or SOMEone that cares SOMEwhat for them... but here we are... we're nothing but 'the Professor's roommates'. I mean COME ON! Why couldn't he--"
"No. One. Cares. Dib!" Gaz finally snapped at him out of frustration and returned her attention to her drawing.
Dib froze. He turned away from the window and stared at her for a long moment. When she didn't look up from the picture she was still hunched over drawing, he squared his shoulders. Turning he walked out of the living room and took the stairs up to his room two at a time.
He felt bitterly disappointed as he flopped down on his bed in the semi-darkness of his room. For a long time he just lay there, staring at the far wall, many different ugly thoughts going through his head at once.
Gaz was right, he realized slowly. No one cared.
Gaz didn't care. His dad certainly didn't care.
And then the ugliest thought of all came to him like a dark insidious whisper. 'Have you ever considered killing yourself?' It asked.
"No." Dib replied out loud, rather adamantly. That was one thing he would never do.
'No?' the voice asked. 'Why not?'
"Because."
'Come on Dib, you have to give me more than that. ... No one likes you. Everything you do is point*less* and worth*less*. The counselor at school thinks you should be committed to a mental institute... don't argue with me, you know she does. Your sister hates you. Your dad couldn't care less if you live or die and thinks you're crazy as well. You've had sex. Once. With an alien, who hates you just as much if not more than anyone else in the world...'
Dib squeezed his eyes shut and pressed the heels of his hands to his temples, knocking his glasses as he did so. They teetered from his face and fell to the blankets below. Dib ignored them, intent on exorcising his inner demons. "Go away," He whispered out loud. "Go AWAY..."
'Yup. You should probably just kill yourself. It would save everyone a lot of trouble...'
Dib said nothing.
'There are razors in the bathroom. You could try slitting your wrists...'
"No." Dib replied stubbornly. "Everyone at school does that." ... At least if the hallway gossip was to believed. And he always did think himself to be somewhat above his fellow students. 'I'm better than them...'
'Oh REALLY?' The voice in his head seemed to chuckle. 'Too bad... you might actually...' The voice dropped into a silken whisper. '*Like* it...'
"Shut up," Dib replied automatically.
'Fine then. Let's see...' The voice continued cheerfully. 'Your family hates you... so does Zim, who by the way, was your proof and now you won't even try to catch him. Real smart... now you have nothing to live for. And you actually think you're better than the people at your school? Really Dib?'
Dib squeezed his eyes shut again. "Shut UP..." He felt tears well up in his eyes and bit his lip, hard, forcing them back. He would not cry. He wouldn't. 'You're *not* going to get me.' He thought angrily. 'So I'm smarter than them... I'll find something to live for. I'm smart. I don't NEED Zim's proof.'
'Ha! Haha! So you don't need Zim. Great big deal. Now what are you going to do? Capture Big Foot? Who are you going to tell when you do?'
  "So I won't do that. I'll find something. I'm smart." Dib repeated though clenched teeth.
'Don't you see Dib? No one CARES. How long are you going to keep this up Dib?' The mind voice began to twist into something with a familiar mocking lit. 'Really...' It laughed. 'Stupid foolish earth creature...'
Dib's eyes flew wide with shock. "Shut up! Shut up, SHUT UP!" He shouted loudly, pounding the sides of his head with the heels of his hands. "Get out of my head!" The voice in his mind laughed as he grabbed his glasses and flung himself off of his bed in one smooth motion. He was out of his bedroom door an instant later.

A moment or so later found him down the stairs and at the front door. Gaz was no where to be seen. With a violent tear he had removed his jacket from the closet and shrugged it on, stuffing his glasses into his pocket as he did so.
"I'm going out," He shouted into the house. With that he was out of there, the front door wrenched closed behind him with a slam.
He didn't even know where he was going as he ran blindly down the darkened streets of the city. He didn't really care either... he couldn't see it. All he knew was multicolored blurs of Christmas lights and decorations as he made his way past now darkened houses. He didn't know where he was going. He didn't care... all he knew was that the voice in his head was blessedly silent as he ran. All he could hear was his harsh panting and the blood pounding in his ears...
And then he turned a corner and saw it. Green unearthly light shone down on him from the house at the end of the bay.
Zim's house.
Dib stopped. For a long moment he stood there, half bent over and panting, with his hands on his knees to hold him up and wondered as he stared at the ground what he would do. He stood there so long in fact, that the sweat that was rolling down his face began to freeze and he shivered ever so slightly in the wind. He straightened. After a moment he took his glasses back out of his pocket and replaced them on his face. Slowly he began to trudge towards the house.
He reached it. And stared. The gnomes... which he had been so used to still sat in the front yard of Zim's house. However in the recent snow fall someone had decided to pack snow about them to make them look like little snow men. Their red eyes stared almost balefully out from the packed snow as if to accuse him. Pizza slices were packed into the snow as well to form lopsided mouths. A slow smile started to twitch at Dib's lips. It slowly turned into a grin.
Haha, good ol' Gir. That crazy robot. He felt better already.
He looked up at the house one last time, then slowly turned around, intent on walking home again. He made it about two steps when the sound of a door being opened behind him called his attention back to the house.
Zim stood in the doorway. He was looking at the human warily.
Dib blinked, surprised, then turned back again and, when it appeared that Zim wasn't going to do anything or say anything, walked back to the fence, a half questioning look on his face.
Zim raised an eyebrow as he approached. "What do YOU want?" He asked. He stepped down from the front door as well and made his way about half way down his sidewalk. He pointed suddenly, his eyes flying wide. "You aren't here to try to capture me again are you?" Suddenly he lowered himself into a crouch and looked like he was just about to sprout his spider legs.
Dib blinked again, then smiled slightly and shook his head. "No." He replied. He made a hand motion in the vague direction of the snowmen lawn gnomes. "I'd be pretty stupid to try, don't you think?" He questioned dryly.
Zim relaxed... barely. He still eyed the human suspiciously. "Well then... what ARE you here for?" He asked.
"I was just out for a... er, walk." Dib shrugged and turned away again. "I'm going home now..."
There was silence for a moment. And then Zim said something that stopped him in his tracks.
"You've changed Dib human."
Dib stopped. Slowly he turned back around and even more slowly he reapproached the Invader's house. Zim watched from where he was standing as he neared, his face holding neither hostility on it nor acceptance.
'And you haven't changed at all,' Dib thought back. 'Except you did... huh.' He watched the alien as well. He suddenly realized with stunning clarity why Zim had been acting up the last couple weeks at school. It was because he HAD changed. Dib had too... he had outright refused to play with Zim any longer... refused to chase him and try to capture him or do whatever. He had left Zim with nothing to do. Well that would explain the behavior. Zim probably figured that if provoking him into friendly fights wouldn't work any more, than he'd provoke him into less than friendly ones. It was one way to get what he wanted out of the human...
"Humans change Zim," Dib explained as he reached the fence again. He eyed the alien. "I'm not a little kid anymore. Well I mean I am, but I'm not a little little kid anymore. I grew up."
Zim cocked his head to the side in an almost curious gesture. "I don't like it," He said stubbornly.
Dib held his hands wide and shrugged. "I can't do anything about it Zim. Ut!" He held up a finger to silence a protest that it looked like Zim was about to utter. "And I don't want to either," He amended. "I like me the way I am," He silenced the voice in his head that seemed to suddenly want to laugh at him and call him a hypocrite.
Zim was giving him the evil eye. "I don't like you," He said matter of factly.
Dib shrugged. "That's really not my choice now is it?" He almost laughed out loud at the confused look on Zim's face and prided himself in the mature way he was handling this conversation. For someone who had been screaming at himself just a little while previous, he felt he was doing very well indeed.
"Tell you what." Dib said, leaning up against the side of Zim's picket fence with amusement dancing in his eyes. "I personally have been having a crappy day, but it is Christmas Eve. How about we try to have a conversation without screaming and yelling at each other for once?"
He could tell by the continued confused look on Zim's face that the Irken was having difficulty understanding him. He'd lost him somewhere...
"Here I'll go first." Dib tilted his head backwards, taking in the stars that had decided to come out between his house and here and watched as the puffs of transparent white that came from his mouth dissipate into the night air. After a moment he looked back down at the Irken. "How was your day?" He asked. Simple enough.
The Irken blinked. For a long moment Dib though he wasn't going to reply-- then he did. "Entirely uneventful and full of colorful-ish substances!" Zim declared. "GIR makes me watch that foolish television thing with him all the TIME now that there is no more earth school." He made a violent gesture behind himself at the house. "I am beginning to intensely hate that jolly man and his trolley pulled by antlered cows..."
Dib actually laughed out loud. Zim's head whipped back around to peer at him out of squinted eyes. "Um, Santa Claus, sled and reindeer," Dib corrected.
"Yes, those too," The Irken agreed.
Dib was about to open his mouth to ask something else when the door of the house crashed open. A green blur erupted out of it, shot forwards and landed at Zim's feet. "HI Dib!" Gir declared in his high pitched robot voice, waving enthusiastically at the boy. Then he turned his attention upwards to peer at Zim. "Masta! The show with the Christmas Dookie is on!" He said excitedly.
Zim looked bored. "Is it?" He replied.
"Yes!" Gir squealed something unintelligible and launched himself at his master's leg. Dib chuckled softly at the look of instant dislike on Zim's face as the alien attempted to pry him off. He knew that feeling all too well.
"GIR!" Zim shouted. "Release your master immediately!"
"You come watch it TOO~!" Gir replied happily.
"FINE Gir," Zim replied. "But! Only if you let go of me RIGHT--"
Gir had already let Zim go and had zipped back into the house with a "yaaaaaaaaaaayyyy!!!". The door slammed shut on Zim's "Now."
The alien winced slightly and glowered at nothing at particular for a moment, muttering something under his breath about fixing circuits before he returned his attention to Dib, who was chuckling.
"I'm glad you're finding this so INCREDIBLY amusing, earth stink," He said stiffly.
Dib sobered up immediately and cleared his throat. "Sorry," he apologized.
Zim eyed him. "I must go," he said in way of reply. "Is our conversation type thing..." he wiggled his fingers. "Done?"
Dib shrugged and put his hands back in his pockets. "I suppose," He said, still smiling slightly.
Zim looked relieved. "Oh good," He said. He turned away.
Dib did as well, then hesitated and turned back again. It couldn't possibly go as badly as the last time he said it... "Merry Christmas Zim."
Zim turned back again and squinted at him silently.
"It's proper to say 'Merry Christmas' back," Dib encouraged gently. "Or at least 'Seasons Greetings' or something like that." He added.
An eyebrow raised. Zim's eyes darted about and he muttered something Dib couldn't quite make out... something to the effect of 'foolish earth traditions'. After a moment the Irken looked back at him. "Merry Christmas Dib human," He said, politely enough.
Dib grinned. "Very good," He said. "See ya!" With that he turned away with a little wave and began to walk off towards home.
After a moment of watching the human walk away, Zim turned and walked back into his base, a pensive frown on his pale green face.
~~~
It was late and the house was silent when he got back to it. The front door was locked as well... Gaz had probably already gone to bed. Dib had to go around to back and open the door with the experimental handprint unlock thing the professor had installed some months previous. Lucky for him it opened... after zapping him a couple of times.
He climbed the darkened stairs up to his room. He opened his door and closed it behind himself again with a small sigh. Something crunched slightly under his foot.
Dib flicked on the bedroom light. Leaning down he picked up the piece of paper he had stepped on. He stared. It was a picture, drawn on thick art paper no less. He took it over to his desk and carefully smoothed it out. It was amazingly well done. It had an alien drawn on it... one that looked a lot like Zim. The alien's head was tilted up and he was staring at a massive array of stars all about him, a forlorn look on his face. Almost as if he wanted to be up in the stars as well. Behind him was the backdrop of their city.
A slow smile began to spread across Dib's face. He flipped the picture over and looked at the back. Sure enough, in his sister's messy writing scrawled the words "Merry Christmas, Dib. From Gaz."
He hadn't even known she could draw that well. She never liked to show him her doodles, especially not recently. The picture was several times better than what HE could ever do. After a moment more of looking at the picture in amazement he picked it up and exited his room with it. He walked down the hall to his sister's room and after a moment of hesitation knocked on her door.
"What?" Gaz grumped at him from inside the room.
Dib pushed open the door. Gaz lay sprawled on her bed, playing her game slave.
"Did you draw this?" Dib asked, holding up the picture.
"Gee..." Gaz replied without even really looking up. "What do you think?" She said sarcastically.
Dib grinned and shook his head slightly. "I think it's awesome," He said finally, truthfully. "You're really good you know that?"
Gaz scowled for a moment, then switched off her GS X and laid it next to her on the bed. "Thanks," She muttered at him.
Dib smiled. "No problem. Just thought you'd like to know that." He turned to go again, then turned back again. Gaz looked up at him with her customary scowl, but for some reason it didn't look as harsh as it usually did. "And Gaz?" He added.
One of Gaz's eyebrows quirked upwards ever so slightly.
"Merry Christmas," Dib said.
Gaz suddenly found something hugely fascinating with toying with a piece of one of the blankets beneath her hand. After a moment she looked back up at him and managed a half smile. "Yeah." She replied. "Merry Christmas to you too."
~~~
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