Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

It was supposed to be a morning like any other, but as Gaz walked down the stairs in to the kitchen, she suddenly felt something very iffy in the air.

Annoying.

Her suspicion rised even more as what - or rather, who - was inside the room. Dib. She watched silently as her brother bounced in his chair in excitment, looking like a little kid thinking Santa is gonna come at any moment with a bag full of presents just waiting to be opened. It only served to piss her off more. She sat herself next to him, waiting for Foodio to come over and serve breakfast as usual. What wasn’t usual though, was the abscence of her father, Professor Membrane. It pained her not to see him in his usual spot, right next to them, and it made her thing of the times where they would meet only once a year. This time, the reason as to why he wasn’t with them wasn’t because of his job, rather, Dib’s birthday was coming soon and Membrane insisted on flying all the way to Norway just to buy some Kraken-related souvenirs from the people who lived there. Gaz tried to protest against it, said that it really wasn’t neccessary and that Dib would be happy even if dad didn’t buy him anything and just was there with them for his birthday, but she knew well enough at this point what kind of person her father was, and that any and all complaints would be met with a ‘I’ve already made up my mind’ look in return. Fine, then. She was already used to her family being very, irritatingly stubborn, she also was, after all.

As Gaz contemplated all this, her brother started getting only louder and louder, almost bursting with the need to tell her about whatever crazy plan he had thought of to stop Zim.

‘’Okay, I know I’m gonna regret asking, but you’re being extremely annoying at this moment and I’d rather you simply tell me instead - what is it?’’ now that she was looking directly at Dib, observing him, she noticed the small, round vial in his grasp, clutching it so tightly that she thought it might just break. Dib didn’t seem to notice that, though.

‘’Okay!’’ he said, and Gaz could practically feel her head splitting at the volume in which he spoke- no, yelled. Because when Dib is being infuriating, he has to raise his infuriatingness level to a hundred. Gaz covered her ears and glared back at him. Yet again, Dib just ignored her. The little prick.

‘’Dear Gaz, see this little thing in my hand?’’ he raised his right hand and pointed at the vial Gaz noticed earlier. Inspecting it now, she could observe the eye-bleeding neon pink color that the thing possessed. When she squinted, there seemed to be tiny, dark green crystal-like things floating inside it, glistening at every little movement of Dib’s. He smiled up at her, the smug expression making Gaz’s fist clench under the table ‘’This vial is my-’’

‘’New, amazing plan to stop Zim from destroying our planet, which he got over trying to do years ago! Woah!’’ she finished his sentence in the most condescending voice she could manage. The jab at his expense was clear as day, but Dib only grimaced and turned his head her way to give her a quick glare.

‘’As I was saying, before I got rudely interrupted’’ he gives a pause here, for which his sister only shrugged in response ‘’This vial here will help me in stopping- I mean-’’ Gaz raises her eyebrow at him ‘’It will help me in… exposing Zim to the public as an alien. Yeah. That’s it. And then I will finally be an official member of the Swollen Eyeball, and the people - and dad- will finally believe me!’’ as Dib continued to talk to more himself rather than Gaz, Foodio came from around the corner to give each of them a plate, knife and a fork. He then procided to serve them freshly made pancakes.

‘’Enjoy your food, kids!’’

‘’Thank you’’

‘’Thanks’’

Dib took a bite from his pancake, then continued ‘’I got it from some old lady who didn’t speak english well, but told me that this thing will make my greatest enemy feel miserable!’’ he said with his mouth full. Gaz’s face twistedin disgust.

It seemed that Dib was finished with his little one-man dialogue.

A bit of silence.

Then, Gaz narrowed her eyes. Dib visibly swallowed.

‘’How much’’

‘’Whatever do you mean? Dib answered, a little too fast to just be confused. Gaz bared her teeth, holding her fork tightly.

‘’How much did it cost?’’ she pointed knowingly at the vial with her fork.

‘’Oh, um-’’ Dib shivered at the glare sent his way, he clutched the bottle with his hand, the other discreetly taking a hold of his backpack, ready to book it out of there at any moment. ‘’Just- Maybe- A little over-’’ if looks could kill, Dib would be killed, revived and then killed again by Gaz ‘’…Fifty dollars?’’

‘’And from where, pray tell, did you get those ‘fifty dollars’, Dib?’’ The amount of sweat on Dib’s forehead could fill up a bucket at this point. Gaz busied herself with shooting daggers at his giant head.

‘’Listen, I knew you would say no if I asked, so I-’’

‘’Dib’’

‘’I’m sorry, okay?’’ he stared at his younger sister pleadingly.

‘’You’re not, because you’re an absolute asshole and I don’t even know why I bother anymore-’’

‘’But I am sorry, Gaz! I shouldn’t have because…uhh…’’

‘’Seriously? You can’t even find one good reason not to steal from me?’’ She only glared harder, anger making her shake a little.

‘’It was for greater good, okay?’’ He said and at this point Gaz simply through her fork at him, aiming straight for his head. He yelped in suprise, and hurriedly ran for the door.

As he sprinted past his neighbours, he only hoped Gaz would come down when he’s back from skool. Really, why was she angry in the first place? She should be thanking him, for trying so hard to save Earth from that evil, green-

He noticed the bus stop sign right as he came into contact with it. Hard. He clutched his bleeding nose, his forehead getting redder from the hit. He breathed heavily as he tried to calm his racing heart. He could feel the blood dripping from his nose. Frustrated, he wiped it off with the sleeve of his coat, which now was stained red. Great. He tried not to think about it however, trying to focus his mind on somethin less aggravating.

He sat down on the bench next to the damned sign and placed his purple-colored backpack next to him. It had circle-shaped pins on it, they were of a bunch of different cryptids Dib learned about over the years, so yeah, a lot of pins. The legendary Bigfoot was placed in the middle of the backpack, as it was the only paranormal creature Dib had the pleasure to actually see. He started decorating his backpack a few months ago and ever since he’d constantly add new things to it, for example, just yesterday he bought a keychain of a small ghost making a ‘scary’ face, along with it he bought one with an alien on it. Once he was walking with Zim and GIR in the park, he decided to finally give Zim the gift, and at first, the alien refused and said that he didn’t ‘want this garbage’, but as Dib was retracting his hand back into his coat, flushed from anger and embarrassment alike, because who the hell does he think he is, that prick, Zim snatched the keychain right out of his hand and Dib just stared blankly at the alien as he attached Dib’s present to his own, turquoise school bag, now decorated with a small, cute scary ghost. Dib’s face got even redder after that, out of anger, he told himself.

Ever since he started hi-skool, he developed this routine of meeting with Zim in the mornings while waiting for the bus to take them, usually, Zim would be the first one to greet him (as in, throw some dumb remark about his head), but since this time Dib couldn’t really stay at his home to finish his breakfast, he just stared into the distance, watching as some old man feeded birds on a bench similiar looking to the one Dib was currently sitting on, he watched the trees, their green leaves rustling around because of the wind, his weird, scythe-like hair moving in rhytm to them. His mind started wandering around his plan then, what he should do to get Zim to drink the pink fluid. The easiest way possible would be to simply provoke the alien into doing what he wanted. He smirked a little at the thought of what effects may take place after Zim gulps down the drink, he didn’t really count on it simply killing him, actually, he was specifically told by the old lady that the outcome would be less physical and more… emotional. At least that’s what he thinks she meant, but due to the language barrier, he wasn’t hundred precent sure. Either way, Dib hoped it would make the alien suffer, if only a little, and before he could stop it, a smirk appeared on his face. He closed his eyes for a moment and he exhaled happily.

He stayed like this until a he heard a voice speaking right next to his ear. He jumped a little, but pretended not to be startled in the least, he brushed the nonexistent dirt off from his black coat (yes, he still wore it, because it made him look ‘mysterious’) turned his head and found himself being face-to-face with Zim in his disguise. They were so close he could see the pink of his real eyes hidden behind the fake contacts. He scooted away as far on the bench as he could, an angry look on his face.

‘’What’s with the smile? Happy to see me?’’ He glared at Zim, and he hoped it was at least a little intimidating. It wasn’t.

‘’Zim’’ a scoff from Dib made the alien grin, his mouth widening unnaturally, well, unnaturally for a human, of which Zim was anything but. ‘’Of course not, space boy. I’m never happy to see you.

‘’Your words wound me, Dib’’ he sighted dramatically, and after a pause he added ‘’Just kidding’’ his smile got even bigger, if possible. ‘’So, what got you so happy, then?’’

‘’It’s none of your business’’ Dib wouldn’t budge.

‘’Okay, but what’s with the nose?’’ he snickered ‘’And the forehead, too?’’

‘’None of your business!’’ Dib answered a little louder this time, and tried very hard to hide the faint blush that appeared on the tip of his ears.

Zim hmm’ed in response, deep in thought for a moment. And just as Dib turned around, thinking the conversation was finally over, Zim continued:

‘’You might just be right dib-thing, I mean’’ a sly smirk was shot at Dib, who already knew where this was going. ‘’Honestly, who’d - in the whole universe - would actually be interesed in what is going on in your big, huge, enormous, humongous-’’

‘’OKAY! I get it, Zim, you are making fun of my head. I got the point, so just shut up’’ Dib couldn’t believe how fast Zim could make his happy mood go right into a sour one, but somehow, he always managed to do it. He could only hope for the bus to hurry up, but in the meantime, to occupy himself he started humming to himself, Zim studied him carefully, quiet again, and Dib couldn’t help the nervous sweating at the sudden, undivided attention on his person. He wasn’t used to being looked in the first place, but the sceptical gaze Zim was sending his way was overkill. He stopped humming, coughed into his fist and craned his neck, looking to the opposite side of where Zim was sitting, suddenly extremely interested in the cursed bus stop sign. A few more minutes passed, but to Dib it felt like hours of continuous torture. Zim still refused to say anything, at all, or to even just turn the fuck away from him and he can’t take this anymore-

‘’Will you quit that?’’

‘’What are you planning, dib-smelly?’’

They said at the same time, then turned into silence once more. This time, though, Dib was staring right back at Zim, jaw hanging low in suprise.

He composed himself fairly quickly, inhaled through his nose, and he was ready, he’s gonna lie like he never lied in his life, he can do it and Zim won’t be fixing him with that mistrustful look anymore. Yup.

‘’No-thing-g’’ he managed to utter, his voice trembling like crazy.

Yeah, that definitely didn’t make him look even more suspicous.

Whatsoever.

He tried again ‘’I mean- there really isn’t much on my mind right now, o-or ever. Yeah. Since I’m, like, just a dumb, stinky human, right, Zim?’’ please let the ever arrogant Irken buy this crap.

The violet eyes looked at him for just a while longer, but then the alien just turned around with a huff and said ‘’Of course you are, you stupid, gross little-’’

‘’Oh would you look at that! Our bus is here!’’ Dib interrupted, because, no, he isn’t about to listen to Zim trash-talking him for the next - however long he insisted on.

He hopped into the bus the second the doors opened, and sat himself furthest away from his peers, he learned from his younger days that the other kids didn’t and would never get to like him. He’ll always be ‘’the freaky kid’’ in the eyes of others. He saw Zim approaching him, so he hurriedly put his backpack in the free sit next to him. The alien just narrowed his eyes at him and sat two rows from Dib. The boy let out a sigh of relief at that. He looked out the window and watched as blurry images passed him as the bus drove to skool. A mother and a child walking into a bakery. A cat eating from a garbage can only to be scared away by some teenagers snickering. A game shop that opened not too long ago and to which his sister went to often with him to check out new games. They’d often play some of them together afterwards. His mind drifted off from one topic to another. Just as he was trying to guess what Gaz might’ve bought him for his birthday, the bus reached the hi-skool. This time, he took his time walking out, waiting calmly for everyone else to leave the vehicle before him, however as his feet landed on the ground, he noticed Zim was waiting for him, tapping his foot impatiently on the pavement and telling him to hurry up. He smiled slightly at that, and followed Zim to the skool grounds.

-  -  -  -

The dib-thing was all happy-go-lucky today, which was already suspicious enough. In all the years Zim lived on the stinky planet called Earth, he’s never seen anyone this happy on a Monday morning, even more so if the person in question was Dib, of all people. Whatever the little rat was knotting, Zim would find out. Preferably soon. He didn’t like being in the dark.

He didn’t like when Dib was hiding things from him.

In the first place, Dib hiding anything is weird in of itself. The boy’s mouth doesn’t shut up most of the time, whether it be because he’s eating, snoring, staring at Zim in suprise with his jaw dropped, like the dumbass he is, or - oh Irk - or just talking. So. Much. Talking. From Zim’s calculations the Dib’s mouth was open about 90% of the time. He was so annoying Zim just wanted to shut his mouth up. Preferably with his own mouth.

Zim suddenly stopped walking, which made Dib slam into him, and the boy fell back on his ass with a loud THUD, Zim however, was still standing like a brick wall in the middle of the hallway.

‘’Ow, what the hell, Zim?’’ He cried out as the pain hit him, he stood up slowly, rubbing his sore back ‘’Why are you just standing there? Did you short-circuit or something, alien?’’

He did it, again.

For a while now Zim’s been having weird thought about his enemy-turned-friend-but-not-exactly, Dib. The infuriatingly tall, lanky Dib with his stupid big head and long legs pretty amber eyes and a dumb smile he put on sometimes when he was having fun spending time with Zim and thought the alien wasn’t looking. Or the goofy grin he got whenever the topic of any paranormal activity came up, how he fiddled with the hem of his coat - almost the exact same he used to wear when he was a kid, this one bigger though as he grew taller by a good few inches, but Zim was pretty sure the Dib stored the old one somewhere in his closet - when he was nervous or embarrassed or plain bored. How he’d always bring GIR a snack whenever he came over, and proudly flop on the couch next to Zim with the little robot crawling onto his lap. Even when Dib was being gross Zim couldn’t help but stare in adoration. How he cried when ‘Mysterious Mysteries’ got cancelled and his snot was dripping from his nose, so Zim prepared pudding - his favourite! - and hot tea to calm him down. His bottom lip was quivering sligtly and his hands were trembling (and he dared to call Zim the drama queen) and one of Zim’s own anntenae flickered in the sheer need to take a grip of his hand in his own, but he held back, like always.

Frustration probed his insides left and right, but his face betrayed no emotion as he stood, hunched over a little as he stared at his feet. He felt tapping on his shoulder and heard Dib asking what’s wrong, a worried look not so well hidden behind a ‘neutral’ expression. One more thing to love about the Dib, he always wore his emotions on his sleeve, even when he didn’t want to, and there was always so many of them flooding in at the same time that it often left Zim confused at what exactly it was that Dib was feeling, but he was pretty certain that the boy didn’t fully know either. It was fascinating to see, the reason mainly being the fact that Irkens themselves were taught not to show any kind of emotion from the moment they emerge from their individiual capsules as smeets. By the end of their smeethood, they are basically rid of any and all emotions that could be viewed as a weakness, and the only way to recognize what an Irken might be feeling like at the time is by their anntenae, which Irkens have a harder time taking control of, even as adults. Zim is one of them, and even though Dib is the smartest human Zim knows, he’s also the dumbest and most oblivious one, so the alien is confident in the fact that the dib-stink will never notice how his anntenae sometimes hover over him, or touches his hair and face when Zim is distracted and doesn’t pay enough attention to move away, until Dib tells him to stop because it tickles and the alien scuttles a little further from him (but he always inches closer to Dib after a while passes, this time however with his anntenae in mind).

He puffed out his chest, held his head up high and started walking to their shared class as if nothing happened, knowing fully well Dib was staring at him, confused.

Zim didn’t have the time to meddle over these weird, mushy feelings he had for the human, right now, he had to focus on the fact that the Dib was planning something. Probably some way to stop the him from taking over the Earth, which he’ll do anyway, because of course he will. Just not right now. He’ll get to doing that soon-ish. Definitely.

They share most of the classess on Monday’s, so it should be relatively easy to spy on his- on Dib. As for the times they don’t share their classess, let’s just say it won’t be the first time Zim goes out of his way to watch Dib from the bushes through the classroom window, and hey, he got caught only twice.

-  -  -  -

The lunchtime came, and Dib decided to make his move.

He walked enthusiastically past the other tables, food tray in hand, the food consisting of some sort of grey goo, mashed potatoes(?) and carrots, so the usual. He also had a bottle of PoopCola in lying at the bottom of his backpack, he grinned.

Before lunch he went to the bathroom and locked himself in the last cabin, just in case Zim was hiding somewhere and observing Dib for any suspicious behaviour. He’s done so before - stalking Dib that is - and Lord knows he’s most likely doing it again, right this moment. Dib looked right, left, up and down (even checked under the toilet seat, and regreted it right after), just in case the alien really had no sense of personal space and privacy (he has made Dib question whether he has any more of it on more than one occassion, and Dib really didn’t want to remember what happened on those very occasions and he shudders at one particular memory. He always checks twice if the door to the bathroom is locked now.

He dumped the whole thing into the PoopCola drink (the lady told him he is supposed to make Zim drink little by little of the fluid every day, but he didn’t have time for this, and, really, how would he even pull that off? Even now, offering Zim a drink was already a stretch, and he could only hope the other boy will drink it), sealed the bottle shut and shook it a little for good measure, just in case Zim (somehow) saw the unnatural neon pink color floating above.

No, Dib was not being paranoid, not at all. He just didn’t want to underestimate his greatest enemy, so such precautions were to be expected, obviously.

He stuffed the now empty vial and the PoopCola into his backpack, opened the door of the bathroom stall and walked out.

Now, he was hovering over the ever so annoyed alien and trying to hide the mischevious smile that was forming at the corners of his mouth already. He put down his tray and sat down quickly, on the opposite side from Zim.

‘’Hi Zim!’’ he said, a little too loudly and the excitment was so clear in his voice he cursed himself, aloud, and when he realized his yet another mistake, he cursed himself again, in his mind this time though.

Zim scoffed up at him, and well shit, Dib shouldn’t’ve sat across from him, the alien’s fake, creepy eyes made Dib squirm a little in his sit.

‘’What is it, big head’’ I know you’re planning something and I’m not falling for it.

‘’Oh, nothing, like, important, I-’’ his voice wavered, so he took a deep, harsh breath and willed himself to calm down ‘’I just thought you might be a little thirsty, since it’s so hot today and all-’’

‘’What are you talking about? It’s pretty windy outside-’’

‘’So will you just- Do you want- um-’’ Dib started stammering over his words the more he talked, his hands already nervously fiddling with his coat ‘’I have- uhh- here’’

He grabbed for his backpack, and after a second of shuffling through books took out a bottle of PoopCola.

‘’I want you to, you know, drink. So here, take it, please’’ he mentally slapped himself.

To his suprise however, Zim was slightly taken aback by this. His face softened, his wig moving around a little, probably because his anntenae were moving around out of…

Dib wanted to say nervousness, but that couldn’t be it. Sure, Zim got nervous sometimes, actually, he used to get nervous all the time before the Florpus thing happened, but even then, he didn’t get nervous because of something like this, like he thought Dib just wanted to buy him the Cola because he was being nice-

Dib felt a lump in his throat appear, suddenly disgusted with himself.

Because Zim trusted him now, didn’t he? They would bicker and fight all the time for hours on end, but not like they used to. There was no real bite behind Zim’s remarks, and Dib would lie if he didn’t think it was fun when they spent time together, like watching TV on Zim’s couch or talking about all the different planets in the universe late at night, and what Zim did on each one of them, sitting on the roof of Dib’s house, looking up at stars.

Dib willed himself out of his own thoughts, just about to tell Zim that he should forget Dib said anything and not drink the PoopCola, but when he looked up he was met with an evil grin of Zim’s. The hell?

‘’I don’t know, Dib, why don’t you try it first?’’

‘’What’’

‘’You heard Zim, drink up’’

‘’What’’

‘’Cheers, Dib!’’ Zim said loudly, the grin now devious, like he knew, and he knew that Dib knew he knew.

Dib considered jumping off a cliff.

‘’I don’t- I don’t think that’s a very good idea, Zim’’

‘’Oh, but Zim insists!’’ he gently, too gently takes the bottle out of Dib’s sweaty hand and opens it in one, swift motion, he then holds it up for Dib to take.

‘’Really, Zim, I- I’m not really thirsty right now’’ Dib manages to mutter out, trying to think of any possible way to get out of this situation.

But part of Dib that he hates so much right now, wants to take Zim up for his challenge. Really, what’s the worst that could happen? He was told that he won’t die from this by the old lady, so there shouldn’t be any long lasting harm, right? He didn’t notice Zim lowering the bottle, the obvious ‘’I’m just joking, dumbass’’ on the tip of his tongue. His face scrunched up in determination as he yanked the PoopCola out of the alien’s hand, and started chugging.

Zim’s eyes almost fell out of his eye sockets as he watched Dib gulp the drink in seconds, he was so shocked at first, that when he came to his senses, Dib already downed almost half the bottle.

He quickly shoved the offending item out of Dib’s reach and shook him by the shoulders, hard.

‘’Dumbass! I didn’t think you would actually- WAS IT POISONED?!’’ He yelled histerically, as Dib just looked at him, his expression one of shock at Zim’s reaction.

Then he realized that no, he was not dying, he didn’t even feel bad or anything. He smirked up at Zim.

‘’Ha! See, I’m no chicken, and I don’t even feel the slightest bit sick! Victory for-’’

Dib didn’t get to finish his sentence, instead, he started throwing up all over himself, the table and Zim.

-  -  -  -

Dib was lying in his bed, face paler than ever. He finally stopped throwing up two hours ago, but only because there wasn’t really anything to throw up anymore. The skool nurse called for his dad immediately, but, as he was still somewhere in Norway, he couldn’t come to pick Dib up. Dib assured her that he’ll be fine in a short while, and he’ll go home early by bus. She looked at him worriedly but complied.

After he got home he was met with a scrutinizing glare of his little sister, who has been already informed of his… skool incident, well, she didn’t know exactly what happened, since Dib was too sick to explain the situation to the nurse, the kids at lunch could care less about the two alien freaks and Zim seemed to completely vanish (well, he probably didn’t vanish, but Dib didn’t see or hear from him at all later on), but he was sure that Gaz had a pretty good idea on what might have occurred, and he would’ve probably been terrified of her if he didn’t feel so tired and gross at the time. After he stopped vomitting every half hour he went to the bathroom and brushed his teeth over and over, but the taste of vomit just wouldn’t leave. He groaned in frustration and pain in his lower abdoment, after which he walked himself back to his bed, or at least tried to, because from what Gaz told him he didn’t even make it back to his bed and instead passed out on the floor. She had to get him back in and he promised her that he’ll pay her back tenfold.

Now, lying in bed he could feel his head splitting apart, it hurt so much he would’ve been screaming if it wasn’t for his sore throat.

Note to self: If you ever encounter the old lady who said that the psychical pain would be minimal, tell her this: fuck you.

Other then immense pain though, he didn’t really feel any different. He began to think that he might have just been scammed out of his (sister’s) money - like usual - when the sudden urge to see Zim appeared.

He reasoned that it was because he felt guilty for making Zim doubt him for being such a shitty brat to him, but there was more to it than that.

And it felt so, so strange.

Like if he didn’t see Zim right the fuck now, he’ll die. Where is he? His home base? Still in skool? Maybe he’s waiting just outside Dib’s door, worried about him but too anxious to come inside and see him, I want to see him right now and embrace him and kiss him and-

‘’How are you feeling?’’ Gaz asked as she stepped into Dib’s room, a cup in her left hand and pills in the other. She looked composed, like Dib’s condition didn’t faze her at all, but he could practically feel the worry coming off from her. He averted her gaze and instead looked up at the ceiling of his room. He still had stars drawn on it with the paint that glows in the dark, and now with it almost being evening, he could faintly see the drawings, there as they’ve always been. I want to look at stars with Zim, we could even hold hands and kiss in the moonlight.

His ears burned at the last thought and he quickly turn back to look at Gaz, because her glare at least kept his mind off from wandering to Zim, and whatever those thoughts were supposed to be.

‘’Well?’’ she asked, again, this time more persistent.

‘’Well’’ he said, suprising himself with how raspy his voice had sounded ‘’I’m not throwing up anymore, at least’’ he finished, his words coming out in form of a whisper by the end.

‘’Good, now sit up’’ she orders him and he obliges. She hands him the painkillers and then the water to gulp them down with ‘’Okay, now you simply rest until you’re fully cured’’

‘’I know, the nurse told me this, like, ten times over’’ he almost rolled his eyes at his sister, but thought better of it.

‘’Then finally get it through your thick, giant skull and don’t try to fight with Zim for the next few days, no less than a week, actually’’ she crossess her arms and watched Dib for a second longer before saying ‘’Understand?’’

‘’I won’t be fighting with Zim anymore. Ever. I care too much about him’’ He said, his voice way calmer than it was seconds ago, and his eyes started sparkling, or maybe it was just Gaz’s own eyes playing tricks on her, she was just about to ask about it but then she blinked and the spark was gone. She must’ve been seeing things.

‘’You serious?’’ she asked, one eyebrow raised high in disbelief.

‘’Yeah! I- I mean, I think so. Yes.’’ Dib looked kind of confused, his eyes wider than before and searching and staring in front of him into nothingness. He must’ve been more tired than she thought. Another sigh escaped her and she started walking towards the door, ready to let Dib get his well (un)deserved rest. She’ll go to Zim’s house later and ask him about what happened at skool, as the whole ‘don’t want to fight anymore’ came quite out of nowhere, well, sure, she expected Dib to realize that the whole ‘enemies’ thing with Zim should be buried in the past already, but she knew her brother well enough to know that the realization wouldn’t just come to him like that. She wondered if the weird pink vial had anything to do with it… she’ll let it go for now.

‘’I’ll be leaving then, don’t forget to take your pills, if you need me to refill your cup just call me’’

‘’Okay, thanks’’

‘’You owe me’’

‘’Okay’’

‘’Don’t forget that you owe me, okay?’’

‘’Okay’’

‘’And never do anything stupid like that again, okay?

‘’…’’

Gaz looked over at Dib, sleeping peacefully. She turned off the light in his bedroom.

‘’Goodnight’’

She closed the door.