"I hate my life."
It was true. Too true for him to want to think about. He was ridiculed by everyone. The most he couldmake of his life was chasing a completely incompetant alien around. Even if he became famous, what would he do with the rest of the time given to him? Would he be able to provide for both himself and his sister when their father passed away? And if he couldn't, what would become of them?
The future wasn't any better than the present to Dib. He was nothing but a punching bag to countless people in the present... but thinking about the future scared him in a way he hated to admit. It wasn't so much his own failing that chilled him - it was Gaz. He couldn't fail her. Even though she seemed to outright hate him, he vividly remembered times when he had been able to make her smile or laugh.
He could count them on one hand.
But, he reasoned, he was anything but a quitter. He had put up with the stares and hushed conversations this long. He could see them through to the end, whenever it might come.
Sitting up in bed and rubbing at the back of his head - he hadn't bothered doing anything with his spike for the night - Dib decided on something. Xmas was coming up, after all. And even if it was a horrible, horrible bastion of doom and chaos, Dib was still able to recall a time when Xmas was a happy time for him. Well... for the most part...
There was that time when he was five when Gaz nearly put his eye out with her brand-new game system. Curse his father for ever getting her into those!
And then, a year later, he had gotten some really good surveillance equipment. Gaz had seen fit to drop it all from the roof to see if it bounced. Sadly enough for Dib, it didn't.
And on and on it went like this. It was a miracle that Dib had retained as much equipment as he had. But that was probably due mostly to the fact that, once Gaz had started to go to Skool, she had really found out what a nutjob her brother was. It had been a long, long time since Gaz had set foot in Dib's room.
It was almost like an unspoken law of the house. Neither set foot in the other's room for any reason whatsoever. Dib had mentally added an 'except in case of emergencies' clause, but never verbally admitted to doing so. Dib was quite certain that Gaz would rather die, trapped under a pile of whatever-the-hell-she-had, than be rescued by Dib and kept alive.
Lifting his arm up to check his watch, he saw that it was almost ten at night. With an uneasy plot forming in his mind, Dib got off his bed, wincing at the pain that was sent through his body. His latest fight with that stupid Irken invader had left him feeling the worse for wear. His arms body felt like they were asleep. And not in the 'I sat funny for awhile' way. No, this was more in a 'It aches! Why does it ache! WHY!' sort of way. His lower back felt as if it needed to be popped in a few places. And, most annoying of all, his right knee was hurting for no apparent reason at all.
Grabbing his trenchcoat and gingerly slipping it on, Dib began searching for his piggy bank. He had gleamed money through various sources for long enough to buy the whole of the awful Skool if he wanted. But he would be leaving that for a much more evil place in the near future. It would be throwing money away. Which, if he stopped to think about it, he was going to be doing anyway. Only this way, it was for a much better cause.
They hadn't celebrated Xmas the last few years. Gaz was never in a mood to celebrate anything, much less a festive occasion. And Dib... Well, he had been chasing Zim around the previous year. He probably would again this year, for that matter. But at least there would be one present left out, if nothing else.
Smashing the wild-eyed piggie with a conveniently-placed hammer, Dib counted out enough money to get what he needed - it made a sizable dent in his self-kept bank account. But then, if he, for whatever reason, should fail to stop Zim... Well... He wouldn't be needing the rest of it, anyway.
Stuffing the cash into his pants pocket, he headed for the door, hissing as he stepped out into the dim light of the upstairs hallway. The lights were off downstairs and, peering to his left, he saw that Gaz's light was off, as well. That certainly made things easier. He could hopefully get out, make his purchase, and return within an hour. The store wasn't that far away. He only hoped a competant employee was working the late shift. He didn't want some greasy teenager with oily, oozing zits grabbing at what he wanted.
Taking a deep breath, Dib quietly opened the front door and stepped out into the frigid, winter night.
oOoOoOoOoOoOo
Days passed. Eventually, Xmas Day arrived. Of course, Dib hadn't been able to sleep the previous night. So he did the only thing he could: He went to spy on Zim. This proved to be outright stupid. He wound up in even worse condition than he had been in earlier that week. His arms were aching all over, but every time he went to rub at one spot, the pain would seemingly jump to another.
He trudged back inside just before sunrise, careful not to track any snow in. He couldn't afford anything to go wrong. Of course, his being completely trashed wasn't helping anything. But it was all for the better, really. As he shakily made his way up the stairs, he turned to smile crookedly at the large package that was taking up the better part of the couch and coffee table. Dib had had to pull the table closer so the package wouldn't topple onto the floor.
Opening the door to his room as softly as he could, Dib slipped inside and closed it behind him. He crossed the short distance to his bed, slipping his trenchcoat off and tossing it onto the back of his computer chair.
"Another one ruined." He muttered as he fell, face-first, onto his bed, his lower body hanging off it at an awkward angle. With some effort, and no small amount of groaning, he managed to pull the rest of himself up onto the bed. He kept himself conscious just long enough to hear the telltale signs of Gaz waking up. Then he smiled and let the darkness wash over him.
oOoOoOoOoOoOo
The first thing Dib realized when he woke back up was that it was dark out. The second thing he realized was that his face didn't hurt. Given that he had fallen asleep with his glasses on, it really should have. His nose should have been aching like crazy, in fact. But it wasn't. After a moment, Dib frowned. His eyes had already adjusted to the darkness, so why the hell was everything still so blurry?
That's when he saw them. On the edge of his bed, folded up, were his glasses. They were as blurry as everything else, but the faint amount of moonlight drifting in through his window caused them to shine. Thoroughly confused, Dib reached out and slipped his glasses back on, sucking in a sharp breath as his collarbone popped loudly.
Rolling onto his back, Dib let his eyes slip shut again. A few minutes passed by before he noticed that something didn't quite feel right. For one thing, the house was eerily silent. Given what he had picked up for Gaz, that just didn't make sense. If anything, the house should be booming from explosions and heavy bass riffs.
With a noise somewhere between a sigh and a groan, Dib sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He wasn't sure how long he had even been out. Checking his watch as he headed for his door, he saw that it was only a quarter past eight. Things definitely should have been louder.
Warily, he slowly opened his door and peeked out. Seeing nothing in his immediate field of vision, Dib opened the door further and stepped out into the hall. Quick glances left and right revealed that no one was waiting to leap at him the moment he left the confines of his bedroom. A light was on downstairs, though.
Heading for the stairs, Dib raised an eyebrow at what he saw when he descended. Gaz was asleep on the couch, a controller in her hands. Her present had been unwrapped - cautiously, it looked like - and hooked up. A pair of overly-long earphones were plugged into the TV, which had a red and blue screen declaring "GAME OVER - CONTINUE?" on it.
Well, that explained the lack of noise. But it raised another question. Why had Gaz bothered with the headphones at all? Surely, she would have loved waking him up with the sounds of vampire piggies getting killed left and right.
Stepping around the large, empty box and the wrapping paper that stood between him and the couch, Dib slowly approached his sister. Sitting down as carefully as he could, he looked at the controller in Gaz's hands, then glanced up to her face again. Feeling strangely brave, he reached out to try and work the controller away from her fingers. Of course, this proved frustratingly difficult, as even in sleep, Gaz had a vice-like grip on the blasted thing.
The slight jarring was enough, though. Gaz's eyes opened slightly, narrowing quickly as the light from the TV flooded them. She then turned to stare at Dib, who was in mid-reach in another attempt to get the controller away from her.
"What are you doing?" She asked.
"Uh... Nothing! Nothing. Just making sure you were asleep!" Dib said, his voice cracking as he spoke.
Gaz stared at him for a few seconds before letting go of the controller and pulling her headphones off. Setting them down on the arm of the couch, she turned back to Dib and asked, "What?"
Blinking, Dib shrugged. "You didn't look comfortable."
"So?"
"So... I... um... I was going to move you?" Dib tried.
"Move me." Repeated Gaz.
"Uh...yeah. You know, to your room? Upstairs?"
"I know where my room is, Dib." Gaz stated, starting to look impatient.
That wasn't a good sign, Dib thought, his heart starting to race. When Gaz became impatient, Bad Things happened. Usually to him, since he was usually the closest.
Before he could ponder his potentially impending doom, Gaz spoke again. "You didn't roll over and break your glasses."
"Huh? Oh, yeah... They were on the edge of the bed." Dib said, crossing his eyes as if trying to look at his own glasses properly. "I know I feel asleep with them on, though. Not sure how they got over there."
"Someone must have taken them off for you." Gaz said, hitting the start button to continue her game. "Where did this come from?"
Looking up, Dib looked first from his sister to the TV. "Oh, that? Well... It's Xmas, right?"
"So?"
"What do you mean 'so?'? That's why it's here. Because it's Xmas" Dib said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Do you have any idea how much these cost?"
"About five hundred and seventy-seven dollars, why?" Dib said, realizing too late what he had just said.
Smashing the start button again to pause, Gaz turned to glare at Dib suspiciously. "Where did you get five hundred and seventy-seven dollars?"
"Uh... Well... I... Kinda had some backup cash. For... uh... special occasions. Or medical bills. More the latter. Especially recently..." Dib babbled, scowling off at a random bit of carpet as he thought back to his last hospital visit.
"Where'd it come from?"
"Oh, mostly from various paranormal magazine contents. And the rare TV spot, of course." Dib said, shrugging. He winced immediately as his shoulder let out a cry of pain.
Gaz tilted her head as she looked at him, then turned back to the TV and unpaused her game. The two sat in relative silence after that. The headphones were still plugged in, but the audio was coming through them so loud that even Dib could hear. Gaz ran through the 3D world, sniping vampire piggies out of the air with a five-barrelled shotgun.
As Dib pondered the physics behind such a device, something that hadn't made any sense clicked into place in his brain. Raising an eyebrow, he looked to Gaz, finding her in one of her mid-game trances.
"You did it." It wasn't a question.
"Of course I did." Murmured Gaz, gaze not tearing away from the screen.
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"Oh."
Frowning, Dib leaned back on the couch and continued to watch. At least Gaz seemed to like the Game Master 10K. Much more advanced than her usual Game Slave models. As much as he shelled out for the thing, it jolly well better have been!
It didn't stop the questions from swirling in his mind, though. Why had Gaz bothered taking off his glasses? That meant a number of things. First, Gaz had entered his room for the first time in years. Second, it meant that she hadn't tried snapping a mousetrap on his eyelid or something. And third, it meant that she obviously didn't mean to wake him up. It was all distinctly Un-Gaz-like.
But then, he reasoned, what HE had done must have seemed very Un-Dib-like to his sister. He had never gotten her a present since he had started bringing in the occasional cash prize. He wasn't even sure why he had done so this year. But then, as Gaz beat the boss of what appeared to be the fourth world in the game, it happened. It was so small that only Dib would have probably noticed. But he was good at reading Gaz's expressions. And he was positive that a smile, no matter how faint and brief it had been, had crossed her face.
Ahh, yes. That was the reason.
"Pig gore aside, it's been a nice day. At least we didn't get a blizzard this year." Dib randomly commented, turning his head to look out one of the windows. Snow had fallen in the past weeks, yes,
but not enough to build up seriously.
Not getting a reply, he eventually left his spot on the couch and went over to properly gaze outside. The snow was falling slowly and in big flakes that night. A slight breeze caused the trees to move from time to time and the moon kept trying to peek out every so often from behind a cloud.
It really had been a nice day. And it was turning into an even nicer, if rather confusing, night. Dib let his eyes unfocus as he tried working over everything he had been through recently. His fights with Zim. His thoughts of Gaz. His falling in a patch of black ice and nearly breaking both his back and the Game Master on his walk home. Damn, but that thing had been heavy.
And what on Earth had just happened? He and Gaz had just had a civilized chat, awkward and brief though it had been. And it seemed as if she didn't hate him entirely. That was a reassuring thought. His emotions must have reached his face, because a moment later, he heard Gaz say, "If you're going to grin like an idiot, get away from the window. I don't want anyone seeing you staring off into the night with a big, dopey smile on your face."
Dib's eyes focused again and he was about to reply when he realized two things. One, Gaz's voice came from closer than it should have and two, something was around his midsection. Blinking and looking down, he gaped. That 'something' appeared to be Gaz's arms. Which would, in turn, explain why she sounded closer.
Things couldn't have gotten any stranger if they tried. Not that Dib really minded. It was just that Gaz sneaking up and him and putting her arms around him made him nervous. She had always beckoned him over to her when they had been younger, seemingly wanting to be hugged. But he would always end up getting smashed in the face with some large, blunt object. Dib wrinkled his nose at the memory.
"...And don't sneeze all over my hands. I don't want your weird germs all over me." Gaz added, seeing his reflection in the window.
"...You don't have a frying pan behind your back, do you?" Dib asked, trying to peer around the reflection of his annoyingly-large head to see his sister, who practically seemed hidden behind him.
"Not unless I magically sprouted another arm." Gaz replied in a voice that seemed twice as dry as usual.
"Oh... Yeah. Both arms around me. Right." Dib said, feeling like an idiot. "...So... What are you doing, then?"
"You're an idiot." Gaz stated. "Why are you an idiot?"
Not finding that answer to his liking, Dib collected his thoughts. And, after careful consideration, decided to reply as intelligently as he could, given the situation.
"Buh?"
"What does it look like I'm doing, you idiot?"
"Well... It looks like you're hugging me. But you don't hug people. Especially when that people -- er... person -- is ME." Dib said, eyebrows raised as if stating the obvious.
"I'm not hugging you." Gaz said.
Brow furrowed, Dib asked, "Then what are you doing?"
"Obviously trying to crush the remaining air out of your feeble lungs." Said Gaz.
"...Oh. Okay." Dib said, frowning further.
"Stop that. You look like someone just stuffed a lemon in your mouth" Gaz grumbled.
"I can't help it, this is weird!" Dib declared.
"Yes. It is." Agreed Gaz.
"Well, then why are you still doing it?"
"Because I can."
"That isn't a reason!"
"Of course it is."
Groaning, Dib let out a defeated sigh. Even if they both lived to be horrible, filthy old people, he didn't think he'd ever best his sister in an argument.
"So you're trying to crush my frail little lungs?" Dib asked. "Is there any particular reason?"
"Because you're an idiot. Didn't we go over that?"
Blowing a frustrated breath out through his nose, Dib then asked, "Okay, so aside from my being an idiot, is there a reason you're doing this?"
"...Not really." Gaz replied.
"Oh."
"We're going to be stuck indoors if it keeps snowing like that." Said Gaz, peering around Dib's head to look out the window. She didn't sound disappointed in this.
"Looks like it." Dib agreed, eyes aside to look at Gaz's reflection. Same as normal to most people. But Dib could see the faint traces of another smile.
"Shouldn't you get back to your game?" Dib asked a few minutes later.
"I stopped for the night. My hands are hurting." Gaz said.
"Oh. Well..." Dib began, unsure of how to finish his sentence. The whole night just kept getting stranger and stranger. Not only was Gaz outwardly showing emotion towards him - emotion that wasn't in the 'hatred' category, no less - but she had stopped playing on a new game system to do so. For an extended period of time.
So lost in thought, Dib wasn't aware until a good while later that Gaz had leaned up against his back at some point. Her grip around him had also loosened. He could feel her head resting against the back of one of his shoulders. And, judging by the sound of her breathing, she had fallen asleep.
Dib tried getting out of the hug-that-wasn't, but once more was stymied by his sister's ridiculous vice-like grip. He couldn't pry her fingers apart and he really didn't want to wake her up. But neither could he simply slip down and out of her grasp, curse his enormous head! Sighing, he managed to move around so that he was actually facing Gaz, who didn't seem to have any problems with sleeping on her feet.
Quickly working out a plan, Dib cautiously wrapped his arms around Gaz's waist, lifting her up slightly and taking a few baby steps toward the stairs before setting her back down again. It was hard to move properly, all things considered. But he was bound and determined to not only get Gaz into her own bed, but to also break free of her death grip.
It took nearly an hour just to get up the stairs, with almost a dozen instances where Dib nearly went tumbling back to the first floor. And if he went tumbling, Gaz would be following him whether she wanted to or not. And that, he was certain, would ruin whatever strange, peaceful mood that had taken control of the two of them.
A few minutes later and he had gotten to her bedroom door. Slipping a hand up and over Gaz's arms, he tentatively reached for the door knob. It had been ages since he had been in her room. But if she could go into his room, he could go into hers. At least this once. It was for a good cause, after all.
Indeed, her room remained much like it always had; almost as dark as Dib's was. The only difference is that Gaz's room had varying shades of dark purple and blue scattered throughout the black. Dib waddled over to Gaz's bed with his sister in tow. Now came the hard part. How in the blue blazes was he going to both break Gaz's not-a-hug and get her into bed without waking her up?
In nothing else, Gaz was a heavy sleeper. If over an hour of being lifted up and put back down repeatedly hadn't made her wake up, few things probably would. This being said, a plan, hackneyed though it was, began forming in Dib's mind.
Moving into position, Dib began toppling over backwards, making sure he had a firm grasp around Gaz as he did so. He landed with a soft 'whump' on her bed, on his back. Slowly, he scooted backwards until the two of them were completely on the bed.Then, Dib turned so that they were actually facing the right direction. Once he had accomplished this, he carefully rolled to one side. And then, as slowly as he could manage, he began crawling upwards out of his sister's 'lung-crush.'
As absurd as it was, it actually worked. Dib made it off of Gaz's bed with a satisfied and very tired smile. He wouldn't be able to cover her up, since he hadn't thought to pull the blankets back before keeling over onto the bed. So he did the next best thing. Quietly rushing back to his room, Dib returned with one of his trenchcoats -one that HADN'T been mangled by Zim yet -and draped it across Gaz's body.
Admiring both his handiwork and how peaceful Gaz looked for a few minutes, Dib eventually turned and softly made his way from Gaz's bedroom. He was thoroughly worn out. But the night had definitely gone much better than he could ever have planned it to. As he slipped into his own bed, a smile crossed his face. For the second time that week, Dib fell asleep with his glasses on.
oOoOoOoOoOoOo
Author's Notes: This'll be the only set of notes for this fic, so lemme blather a little. I needed a break from my ongoing Harry Potter fic and, seeing as how I just got the first two Zim DVDs, I thought I'd jot up something. Given the painful lack of DAGR fics on FFN, I thought I'd do my part to fill the massive gap. Being that it's a DAGR, more than a bit of OOCness was needed. But I think that goes without saying. Most Zim romance fics have to have the characters being OOC. It's just how that world is.
I plan to keep this short. I have four chapters planned out and I've gotten roughly a fourth of chapter 2 finished already. I'm not sure about chapter titles, so that'll probably take me an hour to think of.
I'm awful with chapter titles.
I don't really date the story, so just imagine Dib and Gaz being whatever ages you think they'd be for it. I thought about addding some Zim and GIR moments between scenes or somesuch to show what they're upto over the snowed-in holidays... But decided against it since this is a fairly straightforward fluff fic.
Despite saying it'll be four chapters, it may be whittled to three or extended to five. I'm also bad at keeping to chapter guides, as anyone who's read my other stuff can tell you.
Come on, people! Write more DAGR fiiiiics! Or at least some lesser-used pairings. I've not seen a lot of Tak lately, for instance. I like me some Dib x Zim stuff... and I may one day rewrite my older Zim stuff, which is both horrible and stupid. I really should get rid of all my older junk. But we definitely need more DAGR fics.
Oh, and I'm sorry if the formatting comes out kinda wonky. I'm new to using the document manager thingy to HTMLize my stuffs. But it's the quickest to use. And, though I've tried to spot and change all instances of characters FFN doesn't like anymore, the occasional one might pass by unnoticed. I really shouldn't edit at 5AM, huh? ...One thing I'm noticing that's distinctly weird is that after one of those scene dividing line break things... there ain't no damn blank line before the next part begins... but there is a double gap between that paragraph and whatever's directly after it. I...cannot seem to change this. It's either like that or there's a double gap RIGHT after the divider and then everthing beyond it's fine. Oi oi... ...Eventually, I just got tired of trying to fix it and decided on the oOo's.
So...yeah. Them's my 'notes,' as they are. Mostly just a lot of blathering, as stated at the start. I don't expect much response to it, as I really just wanted to write a DAGR out of the sheer lack of them. The moose demanded it, after all. And who am I to say no to the moose?