Earth Traditions

Slipping the small box into an inside pocket of his trench coat, Dib hurried to catch up with the person walking in front of him. "Hey, wait up!"

She paused, looking over her shoulder. "Oh, Dib. What?"

"I know you probably have stuff planned for after school, but uh, I just wanted to talk to you for a moment…" he said, after catching his breath.

Tak turned to face him completely. "Okay, what?" While she did want to return to her base and continue with her plans to ruin Zim's life in any way possible (a fun hobby of hers) she did make time for this one, rather interesting human.

"As you probably know, this was our last day before Christmas break, and I just uh… wanted to give you a little something." Dib didn't know why, but he often found it difficult to talk to her. He didn't know if it was because he knew he was talking to an irken, one of Zim's kind, or if it was because… he kinda liked her. As in… sorta had a crush on her- he shook his head and forced himself to focus.

"Oh, that's right." Tak nodded. "You humans exchange gifts around this time of year. One of those strange Earth traditions."

"Yeah. That. And I don't know if I'll be able to see you before school starts back, so I'll just give you this now… I wasn't really sure what you'd like, but I saw this and thought… well, here." Feeling embarrassed, Dib took out the gift-wrapped box and handed it to her.

She carefully unwrapped it without tearing it, and then took the lid off.

Inside was a silvery pendant with a beautiful teardrop-cut amethyst set in it. When she lifted it up, she saw that it was a necklace, with a thin silver chain. She stared at it for a few moments, turning it over, not sure what to say.

Growing worried at her silence, assuming she didn't like it, Dib said, "Irkens probably don't care much for jewelry, but I just thought it looked nice, it… well it matches your eyes." He looked down to hide his blush.

Then he jolted in surprise when she pulled him into a hug, before slowly putting his arms around her too, smiling. It was always strange touching her when her hologram was in place; it was a combination of a hologram and a force field, so he could actually feel her 'hair'. It was surprisingly realistic.

Realizing what she was doing, Tak quickly pulled away, coughing and looking back down at the necklace. "This is really pretty. Thank you."

"Heh, no problem." Dib really wished he would stop blushing.

Tak noticed the redness of his cheeks but didn't comment on it; she knew he liked her, but she wasn't really sure how she felt about him, so she refrained from doing anything to get his hopes up. She put the necklace on, having to struggle for a moment to get it to clip, but it eventually did. "How does it look?"

Dib nodded in approval. "Looks good, but… I'd kinda like to see what it'd look like with you out of disguise."

She looked around. "I don't think that would be wise, there are houses and people…"

"Just for a moment," Dib urged. He much preferred seeing Tak as an irken than a human. Her natural eyes were so beautiful compared to the holographic ones.

She sighed in defeat. "Fine. For you, I will." She mentally ordered her hologram to turn off. It did, allowing her irken self to flicker into view.

Dib couldn't help smiling. The amethyst matched the color of her eyes almost perfectly. He started to reach toward her, but caught himself, forcing his hand back down to his side. "Yeah. You look great."

She smiled at the compliment. Oh, that boy was so obsessed with her… she wished she could return his affections, but her ingrained belief of not needing anyone was very strong, just as it was in most soldiers. Even if she wasn't really a soldier, that's still the way she was raised. "Thanks." She quickly activated her disguise again, and put the box and wrapping paper in her pocket to throw away later.

They walked together for a while, until they had to take different roads to get home.

"I guess I'll see you in a few weeks," Dib said.

"Yes…" Tak looked down her road, and then reached into her other pocket. "Since it's a tradition and all, I uh… I got something for you too."

"Really?"

Tak pulled out a booklet, which was small enough to fit in a pocket, but had nearly a hundred pages. Its cover was leathery, with embroidered UFOs and assorted symbols on it. "I saw you admiring this journal, I figured it'd be really useful. Since you're always running around in the woods and chasing things, now you can keep notes too. And it's pocket-sized, so you can carry it easily…"

Dib accepted the gift, grinning as he drifted his fingers across the smooth cover. "Yeah, I… I was gonna go get this eventually, I've been needing a pocket journal. Thanks."

"No problem. See you next year, Dib. Merry Christmas." Tak headed down the road that led to her base.

"What? Oh, yeah! See you then! And Merry Christmas!" he called after her, and then turned to head toward his own home, flipping through the journal. He hadn't expected her to actually get him something… it seemed that even she couldn't resist following a few Earth traditions.