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"And this is for what?" small and green (and also annoyed, but no more than usual) individual asked, holding the object in question in front of himself.
"For whom." slightly taller, yet much paler one of the two corrected the other. Receiving nothing but a puzzled and somehow demanding stare however, he added: "for your dog."
Zim and Dib; alien and human, looked at each other in silence for a short while. It was 6th of December and during school lunch the day before, Dib mentioned something about "meeting him in the park, 6pm sharp".
Whatever that was all about, the ex-invader had nothing better to do ever since the fail of his mission, so it wasn't hard to convince him to come. And just as the peace of the moment was starting to settle in, with all the stars in the night sky and snow slowly swirling, falling down on the ground, "the dog" ran up to them in full speed on both of his stubby hind legs.
Giggling uncontrollably and swaying side-to side it snatched the black material harness, which was held by Zim so far.
Due to the force of an old habit, irken wanted to scold his robot helper, but halted himself. It was a gift for the guy after all, why shouldn't he enjoy it in his own unconventional way?
Now watching the aforementioned robot - Gir, doing his best to put on the thing, Zim couldn't help himself but ask for one more thing, which was..
"What is that exactly? It looks... inconvenient."
"Well, to be fair-" Dib replied almost instantly, smiling slightly in what could be a sense of pride from knowing more than the tech-savvy alien "It is a product designed to make your life just about WAY more convenient!"
"You see.." he continued, taking a short break to help Gir unwrap himself and put on the harness correctly "Sometimes, residents of Earth do need their dogs in places dogs generally are not allowed to access."
"Like school?"
"Aha, just like school! Or shopping malls, or public transport.. The list is quite large actually. But, what matters is that people who need their dogs with them at all times, are able to do it with proper training and these vests! I figured since, you know.."
The teen paused for a while and scratched his head. How should he address this, in a way that won't hurt Zim's pride? It wasn't big news to both of them that the alien's anxiety symptoms doubled in strength after the Florpus incident, which was alarming, since often times he had no one to ease him when these happened. Until one day Dib learned about the so-called "service dogs".
"..But, for what it's worth, i did my research and coded a few basics on a small disc- it's not all of it, but it's enough for Gir to get the gist of it. I think."
This quick mention managed to get the robot pup to stop spinning around and look at the data drive curiously. It managed to get Zim's attention too.
"Wait, so you're saying.. This could put an end to Zim's..?"
Zim made a vague gesture with his clawed hand, unwilling to put a name on his mental health problems.
"Not entirely, but with Gir's help you'll be able to go through the "scary moments" much quicker.... and hey, who knows, maybe we'll be back to our scheduled shenanigans by next year!"
Cautiously listening invader now grinned in a way that seemed way more natural for him, and all at once turned to face his talk buddy while dramatically pointing at him at the same time.
"Oh, you'd WISH Dib-stink!!! Face it, scary moments or not, Zim will always win!!!!!"
And as if to prove his point, the alien burst into what would be his first maniacal laughter since a good few months, and turning back around on the heels of his boots, ran away as fast as his little legs could carry him.
Activating his sidekick instincts, Gir screamed something unintelligible and ran right after his master, both of their carefully handmade red scarfs and earmuffs satisfyingly contrasting on the pitch whiteness of the snow.
Dib stood in place silently, letting the other two run around in the distance screaming and laughing. He would go home eventually, but it was just such a treat to see them so carefree (wasn't that what the magic of Christmas is all about?), and when Zim turned around for the last time, signing off by screaming "WE WILL DUEL AGAIN OR ZIM IS NOT THE MIGHTY INVADER ZIM" at the boy, he smiled.
"And Happy Christmas to you, alien"