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Hope	By : LadyNephero Category: +G through L > Invader Zim > AU/AR-Alternate Universe-Alternate Reality Views: 1600 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Invader Zim, nor do I make any money from this work.

Chapter List
- 5
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Of three things, Dib was sure. One, that Zim was an alien. Two, that insulting Zim’s ego would, indeed, get you punched. And three, if Dib got one more head injury, he would be reduced to a drooling moron. In a daze, Dib reached up to touch at his face and make sure everything was still in order. His hand came back sticky with his own blood, and considering he was having a hard time breathing, he was sure the source was his nose. Blearily, he tried to remember just what had happened, and why he was lying on the faded tile of the kitchen floor.
                He blinked, and touched at his nose again. Gaz’ roommate had come in, he remembered, and then… and then…
                And then Dib had apparently made the stupid mistake of opening his stupid mouth and saying stupidly, “Do I know you?”
                It was an honest question, really. If Dib did know it, he was sure he would have remembered. Even if his early memories were little more than a grey fog, he thought he would remember a four foot, green-skinned ball of wrath. Falling out of a tree in Louisiana or not, that was something you didn’t just get knocked out of you, right? Right?
                Zim hadn’t taken the question well. Almost immediately, its face had darkened, and before Dib even knew what was happening, Zim’s fist had connected with the bridge of his nose and sent him right to the floor. He vaguely heard Gaz shouting, but for the life of him, he couldn’t quite focus on her words. What he did notice was Zim wasn’t shouting back, and as he blinked, he saw the alien was standing stock still as Gaz chewed it out.
                Well, that wasn’t fair at all. He was sure she was using profanity far more insulting than a question of identity, but Zim did nothing but stand at attention for it. Slowly, Dib picked himself up off the floor, brushing imaginary dirt off of his jacket and doing his best to ignore the way Zim was glaring at him.
                Punched by an alien. That was a new one. Dib pressed the sleeve of his jacket to his face to stem the blood flow, and took his chance to get a better look at the tiny creature. Its fists were still clenched, and Dib thought he saw a faint smear of red on the knuckles, of which there were only two. Even more curious than Zim’s hand structure was the faint bit of smoke that rose from the blood spatter, as if something were burning. Judging by how Zim subtly twitched its hand, it seemed like it was its skin that was doing the burning.
                That was interesting. Was his blood acidic to it? No, that was stupid. But Dib logged the idea away regardless, intent on studying it later. Right now he had much more important matters to attend to.
                Like the fact his baby sister was living alone with an alien. A violent alien. Sibling instincts overriding common sense, he stepped forward and in between Gaz and Zim, and promptly shoved the smaller figure up against the fridge. Something sparked in Zim’s eyes, and for a reason Dib wasn’t sure he wanted to fathom, it grinned.
                “You sure you want to play this game with an Irken elite, little boy?”
                “Oh for fuck’s sake,” Dib yelped a bit as he was forcibly pulled off of Zim and shoved aside, his sister between them and fixing both of them with a dark glare. “Measure your dicks later, you’re giving me a goddamn headache.”
                “It hit me!” Dib protested, admittedly childishly. Zim made a derisive noise, and Dib glared at it. Zim wasn’t paying attention, however; it had already moved back to the fridge and was pulling out a large pitcher of what looked like iced tea but for all the sharpie marks over the plastic, Dib couldn’t quite tell. Really, how big and how many times did one have to write their own name over something?
                “You could have warned me, ‘Line.” Zim said, and Gaz gave a shrug that could almost be seen as apologetic. If you squinted.
                “He didn’t really give me much warning, either. I tried texting you.”
                “Pfft, feeble technology. May as well have sent me one of your Moore’s codes.” Zim dismissed the notion, and Gaz rolled her eyes.
                “Listen, greenbean, just because you think a damn cell phone is beneath you doesn’t mean it’s my fault you don’t know when shit happens.” Zim continued to ignore her as it poured the tea into a big-gulp cup, and Gaz rolled her eyes even harder as Zim walked right out of the kitchen and down to the basement. “Freaking asshole.”
                “Okay, seriously. What the hell are you doing with that thing?” Dib growled, jerking his head in the direction Zim had disappeared in. Gaz, already annoyed, whirled on him and fixed him with a dark glare.
                “’That thing’?”
                “I don’t know if you noticed, Gaz, but that’s an alien! An ALIEN.”
                “Gee, I hadn’t noticed at all! Suddenly, the bizarre penis makes sense.” She said, and she used Dib’s stunned silence to return to the kitchen table. “Sit down and eat your stupid food, moron.”
                “You… you’re not… INVOLVED… with…”
                “Involved? No.” Gaz said, and Dib breathed a small sigh of relief. Still unsure as to whether the alien anatomy thing was a joke, he returned to the table and sniffed through his bloody nose. Suddenly, his fries looked a lot less appetizing when there was the taste of blood in his mouth. He took a swig of soda to wash out the taste, but it stubbornly lingered.
                “So… how did you two even…?”
                “He showed up at an art show I was in a last fall. It just kinda happened, really.”
                “Are you completely insane? You just moved in with a stranger? What if it was some crazy stalker or something?”
                “Well, HE wasn’t, was HE?” Gaz’s eyes were narrowed dangerously, but Dib ignored the warning signs. He was entirely too fixated, as he often was. He’d see something and he’d unrelentingly focus on it to the point where nothing else mattered. And right now he was focused on Zim.
                “Fine, HE could have been some crazy stalker. But that’s not the point, Gaz! That thing’s a dangerous monster!”
                That was the entirely wrong thing to say. For the second time, Dib was on the kitchen floor clutching his nose. At least Gaz had held back; it didn’t feel like anything was broken. Dib glared up at her through his pain, his hand clenched over his face.
                “The hell was that for?”
                “That was for calling someone you barely know a monster!” She shouted back at him, looking about ready to throw another punch. Or stomp him into the kitchen floor, that was always another option. “Now you listen to me, and you listen carefully. Yeah, he’s a fucking alien, whoop dee flippin’ doo. But he isn’t a monster and I’ll be fucked if I let you turn him into one. So you have two choices, Dibeid. You can either play nice, or you can get the fuck out. Got me?”
                For a long moment, Dib was simply stunned. None of this made even the slightest bit of sense. It was entirely unlike Gaz to be this attached to anything that wasn’t a video game. Hell, there were times where Dib wondered if she wasn’t like those weirdoes on the internet who spent the better part of their day collapsed in a fit of emotions over the latest exploit of their favourite character. The fact that she cared enough to publicly display it was something altogether new. Even to her own brother.
                “Jesus, you barely know the guy, you said so yourself! He just showed up out of nowhere. Why the hell do you suddenly care so damn much?”
                “Yeah, a year ago, asshole, I think I know him a little better than you!” Suddenly she seemed on edge, a fact that didn’t escape Dib’s perception at all. The pain in his head seemed to amplify the more she shouted, and Dib took her sudden defensive posture as an opportunity to get to his feet and get out of range.
                “That doesn’t answer my question, Gazline!”
                “Just drop it!”
                “I am not just dropping the fact my sister can’t give me a goddamn reason why it’s okay for her to be living alone with something that isn’t even from the same planet!”
                “Since when is coming from the same planet a prerequisite for being decent? Are you even hearing yourself?”
                “Are you?” Dib gestured at his own face, well aware of the lingering taste of blood. “What about any of this is okay? He punched me for not knowing who he was! What makes you think you can trust him?”
                “It’s because he’s safe!” Gaz roared, suddenly. “It’s because unlike the rest of the goddamn human population, he doesn’t take one look at my wardrobe and think I’m free game! It’s because he asks permission! It’s because I could get drunk off my ass, and he won’t use it as an excuse to cop a feel! It’s because for all his evil alien technology, he doesn’t break into my room when I’m not home and go through my goddamn underwear drawer!”
                Dib was stunned, not sure where any of this was coming from. The last one was far too specific, and his throat suddenly felt too dry.
                “Your—“
                Gaz huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, and Dib felt like the biggest tool in the universe. How many years had he seen that same gesture, and never recognized it for the protective embrace it was?
                “My last landlord. It’s why I needed to move out so badly.”
                “Wh…” Dib spluttered, his mind suddenly breaking down with this new bit of horrifying information. His stomach gave an unpleasant lurch, and immediately his mouth worked to compensate. “Why didn’t you tell me? Did you call the police? Where the fuck is he, I’ll rip him in half, I—“
                “What the fuck could you do, you can barely hold your own against someone half your size.” Gaz spat, and she tensed even further the more he spoke. “And I had no goddamn proof. Who the hell was going to believe me?”
                “I would! Someone would have, if you just told me or, or even dad—“
                “I told Zim. He fronted the cash for the house. He got me the fuck out of there, and you know what else? He didn’t bring it up again. He never lorded it over me, he didn’t look at me like some poor miserable fuck, or…”
Gaz’s voice broke, subtly, almost inaudibly, but Dib noticed. She gave a barking sort of laugh then, and the heel of her hand went up to her eye and pressed against it, smudging at thick eyeliner until it damn well looked like she had a black eye. Dib’s stomach twisted, painfully, and before he even knew what he was doing, he had pulled her into a tight hug. Gaz tensed immediately, but for a single moment she did nothing to stop him. And then she pushed him away, letting out another barking laugh.
                “Jesus, what is this, afterschool special hour? Fuck off…” the words were empty of any real malice, and Dib simply stood there, his nose still bleeding and his face still throbbing in pain.
                “I’m sorry… I just… I don’t trust him. But… but okay. I’ll… I’ll be nice, okay?”
                “What makes you even think you have a choice in that?” Gaz replied, and Dib thought he heard a note of relief in her voice. Or maybe he was just hearing things.
- 5
- 6
- 7
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