Professor Membrane sighed, falling heavily onto his bed. He acted confident, but in reality, he wasn't sure about the move. France was a long way from the US, after all, and… well, he'd miss Membrane Labs, and his house, and the small area they lived in. He'd only moved a few times, and they were only moving from his parents' house, to an apartment, to a small house, to the house he lived in at the moment. He had never really even moved to another city.
He stared at the ceiling. Gaz was super upset about this. He wondered how long it would be until she forgave him for this. He thought about what happened that night. Gaz never cried in front of him. The last time he'd seen her cry was, literally, when she was a baby. When she and Dib were toddlers, while Dib would cry over a scraped knee, Gaz hardly flinched when she broke her arm. If an inanimate object hurt Gaz, she would react by throwing it or breaking it… hmm. Maybe that was Gaz's way of crying. Instead of crying, she would be angry.
Professor Membrane sighed loudly and got up. He couldn't sleep, and figured that maybe eating something would make him tired.
He walked down the stairs as quietly as he could. When he reached the kitchen, Gaz was there, very much to his surprise. She turned and looked at him, and he could see that her eyes were shinier than usual. He saw Gaz rub her eyes. Probably wiping away tears.
"Hello," he said quietly. Gaz didn't reply. He sighed and got himself some cereal, the kitchen briefly being illuminated by the light of the refrigerator.
"Why do we have to do this?" Gaz said, sniffling.
Professor Membrane sighed. "Because, Gaz, I'm being offered a job there. It's important that I take it."
"I know that, but… what's wrong with the job you have now?"
"Nothing—"
"Then. Why. Are you. Giving… it… up?" Gaz said through grit teeth.
"I'm not. I'm simply changing the location."
"WHY?!" Gaz boomed. She took her arm and swung it across the table, hitting a glass of milk. It soared through the air, hitting the front of Professor Membrane's pajama shirt and splashing it in his face. He narrowed his eyes, a gesture that he had never done to Gaz. He only narrowed his eyes if he got extremely angry with someone. He saw Gaz's expression change to one of regret.
"D-Dad, I'm… I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…" she looked as if she was going to cry all over again.
Professor Membrane was too angry at the moment to be sympathetic, though. "After you clean up the mess on the table and floor," he said, shaking, "go straight to your room. Also…" he looked around and eyed Gaz's GameSlave 2 on the counter. "I'll be taking this for a while. You need to learn how to behave."
Gaz stood there for a minute, mouth agape. She tried to say something else, but Professor Membrane was already speed-walking out of the kitchen. He ran into the bathroom, washed his face, and changed his shirt, but the anger remained.
When Professor Membrane returned to his bed, he had an even worse time falling asleep than before. He didn't even let Gaz apologize…
He turned over. Well, she shouldn't of splashed milk in his face either! He had a right to be angry with her.
But still. The move was probably harder for her than for him. Gaz tended to internalize her emotions, and because of that they were rather explosive when released. He did a bad job at being the adult in that situation.
He laid there and thought of the differences that awaited them in the future. Professor Membrane was the only one out of the three that spoke French, and this was because he'd studied three years of it in high school. He'd forgotten so much… eugh. The thought of it made him shudder. It wasn't exactly his best class either. Great, so basically none of them spoke the language. And… well, obviously a new place of work. He would name it Membrane Labs 2. Coming up with a new name was much too hard, and he liked it when stuff was named after him, so…
Gaz and Dib's school would be different, too. Luckily, they would be going to a small, American school, so at least they didn't have to learn French just to go to school.
He sighed. Moving. It was a lot of work, especially since there were only three people in the house. He would have to pack all of the stuff in his basement lab In addition to the upper floors, and… his building lab too. He flipped over on his stomach and buried his face in the pillow. He was already exhausted thinking about it.
Suddenly, Professor Membrane heard something. He sat up. It was… whimpering? From Gaz? But Gaz never cried out loud. In the rare occasion that she did cry, it was undetectable.
No, Professor Membrane thought. I was stern on her, and she deserved it.
Still, though. He felt bad for her. She was just a kid, and this was a big change.
He heard a giant sob from Gaz's room, followed by coughing. She's crying so hard she's coughing, Professor Membrane thought. He listened for a while longer, but he didn't hear anything else from Gaz's room, but he got up anyway.
"Gaz?" he whispered. No answer.
He walked quietly down the hall, making sure to avoid the creaky parts of the floor, which he'd memorized perfectly. He slowed down. Huh. He'd lived here for so long, he'd memorized the floors.
He carefully opened the door. Gaz was laying on her side, facing away from him.
"Gaz?" he whispered. There was no reply.
"Gaz?" he said again. "I'm very sorry about getting mad, but you shouldn't have done that…"
Again, no reply. When Professor Membrane walked closer, he noticed that Gaz was sleeping, but definitely not very peacefully. She still had tearstains on her face.
Professor Membrane snuck out of the room and back into his own, and he grabbed Gaz's GameSlave. He ran back into Gaz's room and set it down on the bed, near her hands. "I'm sorry, Gaz," he whispered.
"It's okay, dad," he heard Gaz whisper back as he closed the door.