Work Text:
You picked at your nails boredly, barely registering the words emanating from the TV before you. Some sort of kids show was playing, something about an alien or whatever. You weren’t particularly paying attention.
A faint buzzing noise hummed through the air, followed by the crackling pops of electricity. You looked up, furrowing your brows in confusion as you surveyed the room around you. The show droned on in the background as you spotted a circular spot where reality almost looked… fuzzy; it was like you needed glasses to look at it specifically.
The hairs on your arms rose as static seemed to fill the air around you, the popping and fizzing growing in volume before reality seemed to rip itself apart before you. An electric blue portal took the place of the blurry shape, a swirling, ovular hole not unlike something you’d see out of a sci-fi show.
Your eyes felt like they were about to fall out of your skull by this point. You hesitantly brought yourself to your feet, taking a few steps towards the literal hole in your living room.
“I’m dreaming,” you whispered. “This isn’t real. I got so bored I fell asleep…”
You reached the portal, gazing into it. You repeatedly told yourself that you were simply dreaming all of this, but the way the air buzzed around you told you otherwise.
“ aaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAHHHH! ”
You jolted as a voice started to be heard, jumping out of the way just in time for someone to literally fly out of the portal, landing face down on the—thankfully—carpeted floor of your living room. They skidded a few feet dramatically, groaning from the impact.
You had no warning as something else whizzed past you, falling further than the first person did. They hit the wall with their back, sliding down it, and you couldn’t help but notice they were… green?
The first person groaned again, picking themself up. You looked back at them as they slowly gained their bearings. They seemed to be a teenage boy, no older than twelve. He had large, rounded glasses, a pure black trenchcoat, and a blue shirt with a white ghost on it.
He shook his head, his eyes darting around the room in confusion before he jumped up excitedly.
“IT WORKED! THE PORTAL GUN WORKED!”
The second person blinked their eyes open, rubbing their head and glaring at the boy. “SHUT YOUR DISGUSTING MOUTH, DIB-STINK!”
You blinked. Neither individual had seemed to take notice of you yet; both were too wrapped up in their new surroundings and yelling at each other to acknowledge you.
‘Dib-stink’ ran to the green kid, grabbing a fistful of the front of his bright magenta shirt and shaking him wildly. “DON’T YOU GET IT? WE JUST JUMPED UNIVERSES! Who knows what cryptids they have here! What weird, gross monsters that I can find and expose to the world !” He kept shouting. These two were already giving you a migraine.
You cleared your throat, crossing your arms as they both conveniently decided to pay attention to you now.
“Would either of you like to explain what the fresh fuck is going on here?”
It was then that the boy realized he was, in fact, standing in the middle of a stranger’s house.
“Ah, well…” he started, averting his eyes in sudden bashfulness. “I was-”
“-THE DIB HAS KIDNAPPED THE GREAT AND ALMIGHTY ZIM!” The green kid, apparently named ‘Zim’, shouted suddenly, making both you and Dib flinch from how loud he was.
“I DID NO SUCH THING!” he turned to face Zim and the two began bickering quickly.
You sighed, pinching the bridge of your nose. A particularly loud line from the TV that was still on drew the attention of the trio.
“Wait… is that… me?” Dib asked, stepping closer to the TV. He squinted at it for a second, gasping when a suspiciously familiar green figure came on screen.
Zim narrowed his eyes at the TV. “WHAT IS THIS? WHY AM I ON YOUR ENTERTAINMENT DEVICE?” he pointed at you accusingly, as if you had trapped a version of him in the TV yourself.
“...it’s a TV show?” you said, completely done with everything going on at this point. You paused the TV, thankful for the brief silence aside from the ever-present humming of the portal still sitting in your living room.
Dib gasped again, louder this time. “I HAVE A TV SHOW?! AM I FAMOUS? DO PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT ZIM?? AM I-”
“-Okay, calm down. One annoyingly loud question at a time, please,” you sighed, rubbing your eyes.
He muttered a quiet ‘sorry’, taking a second to decide on a question good enough to start. Zim merely tapped his foot impatiently, waiting for Dib to finish fawning over the fact he had a show about him.
“What’s the show called?”
You paused. “Um…”
He interrupted you again, beginning to ramble. “The Amazing Adventures of Dib? Dib the Defender of Earth? Dib the Paranormal Investigator?!”
He bounced in place, looking up at you expectantly with stars practically glowing in his eyes.
You grimaced. “It’s um… it’s called ‘Invader Zim’...”
He froze, while Zim barked out a laugh.
“YES! VICTORY FOR ZIMMMM!!” he threw his fists in the air triumphantly.
Dib slumped over, disappointed. He kicked at the air, staring down at the ground. “Man, can’t even have one thing…” he muttered.
You opened your mouth to speak, maybe even comfort the boy, when a purple-haired girl stepped out from the portal. She squinted angrily at the two, who trembled and held onto each other while their eyes widened fearfully.
“ Dibbb… ” she growled, shaking a fist at the frightened boy. “Tonight is my turn to pick where we get to eat for family dinner night. I am not waiting another year for this just because you decided to mess around with Zim again.”
She stomped towards him, grabbing him by the wrist and dragging him back to the portal.
“No! Wait! This is an incredible scientific discovery! Gaz- sto-”
He was cut off as he was pulled back through the portal. You blinked at it, looking back at Zim who had merely been watching the whole interaction take place.
He stared back at you for a moment before finally deciding to speak. “Well, human-”
“Y/N.”
His eyes narrowed in annoyance. “Do not interrupt ZIM! As I was saying, your existence doesn’t seem to bother me as much as most of your gross, smelly members of your species do.”
You raised an eyebrow. “Thank you?”
“I WASN’T DONE!”
You sighed for the millionth time today, gesturing for him to continue.
“You may be useful in my plans to take over Earth and defeat the Dib-beast, so Zim shall give you this,” he pinned a small, round object to your shirt before you could object. “You will keep that on you AT ALL TIMES!”
You stared at him in exhaustion, eyeing his obviously fake wig and his purple eyes. Seriously, how did no one in that show not know he's an alien? “Sure, whatever.”
That seemed to satisfy him enough, as he closed his eyes and tilted his head towards the ceiling, standing in some sort of military pose with his hands clasped behind his back.
“Zim shall return!”
In a split second, he was in the portal, gone. Any trace of him and Dib, save for the weird trinket Zim had pinned to your clothes and the dent in the wall he made from his not-so-graceful crash landing in your living room, was gone. You observed the aforementioned trinket, feeling a headache thrum against the sides of your head painfully.
Well… you thought.
Definitely not a dream.