A/N: My arse hurts. Er… anyway, it's nearly been a week since I updated, so I decided I'd get a wriggle on and start chapter 7. Yeah… Damn, I stink like sweat. Been dancing for an hour for no reason. And I'm very thirsty…

…

Yeah. Ahem. Well, here's chapter 7 for your enjoyment- and thanks to everyone who reviewed ^_^ Much appreciated.

No witty line today. Make one up yourself.: I do not own Invader Zim, or any characters in it (except for my lovely original character and her family). So nyah, suck my arse if you have a problem with it.

Warning: Okay, everyone. Here's the lowdown. This fic here is rated R for a reason. It is going to include more than mild swearing, sexual references (both lesbian, gay and straight), sex scenes (lesbian and possibly gay), violence, murder, attempted murder, and, of course, giggly teen sleepovers. I missed a few things out whilst writing this the first time: It also includes mention and the possibility of incest and nudity… I'm so stupid…

Rose's funeral was on the Saturday after the Tuesday she had died on. Violet had only gone to school on Friday, having missed Wednesday and Thursday. Her her cheeks were blotchy when she did arrive, and although most of her classmates said a kind word or two, she went missing around lunchtime, and Dib didn't see her until after lunch.

Both Dib and Gaz were invited to both the funeral and wake, although neither of the two really knew Rose. Dib suspected that Violet only allowed them to come for some comfort, but she mainly stuck with her parents and brother during the ceremony. She also appeared to not know that either of her two friends were there, although she and Dib spoke for ten minutes. Dib also mentioned that afterwards, during the wake, and it seemed as if she had not even noticed it.

About a third of the way into the wake, Violet disappeared. About a quarter of an hour later, Dib finally found her in her room, staring out the window. He gently tapped on the door with one finger, and the soft sound broke the girl out of the trance she appeared to have put herself in. Turning around, Dib noted that her cheeks had the same, blotchy appearance that they had when she arrived at school on Friday. He closed the door behind himself, and walked towards his friend. Violet allowed herself to be pulled into a hug, her face buried in Dib's crisp, white shirt. Stroking her hair slowly, Dib stared out the window at the house next door Violet had a view of.

'Nice house next door…' Dib commented lightly, trying to cheer up the girl up, although she wasn't crying. Violet let out a choke laugh, although it seemed forced.

'Yeah… Every night at nine o'clock, the husband and wife go to bed and have sex for half an hour.' She mumbled into his shirt, her hands clenching onto it tightly.

'And you know this how?' Dib asked, still stroking Violet's hair.

'That window there is their bedroom. They're noisy.'

Dib chuckled, releasing Violet when she wriggled out of her arms. She wiped her cheek, although no tears were present, and leant against her wall. Dib looked about her room, trying to keep her thoughts off the fact they were at her sister's wake. 'You've done a lot of cleaning… No more boxes' he finally settled for.

Violet nodded, rubbing her arms. 'Yeah… Did it on Thursday… I needed something to do, y'know. So… yeah.'

Dib bit his lower lip, suddenly realizing how overly neat her room was. There wasn't a trace of dust or dirt anywhere, her bed covers were smoothed down as if they'd been ironed flat, and Dib guessed if he looked in her drawers, everything would be folded. He heard Violet sigh, and she headed to her bed, sitting down upon it. Dib grabbed her swivel chair and sat down on that, leaning against the desk. There was silence in the room, Violet staring at the ground, Dib watching her intently. There was a quiet knock on the door.

'Yeah?' Violet looked towards the door, looking rather miserable. The door opened, and Gaz stuck her head in. 'Come in… There's a real party going on…'

Dib bit his lower lip, his glasses sliding down his nose as he turned his gaze to the ground. Violet's dry sarcasm ended bitterly, her cheeks growing redder until it looked like she was blushing. Gaz stepped in, shutting the door behind her, and sat down on the foot of the bed, a foot or two away from Violet. There was a silence in the room, not even the sound from downstairs penetrating the door. It was as if they were the only people alive. Violet finally spoke, lifting her gaze to Dib.

'How's your arm? It looked kinda nasty before…'

Dib rubbed the arm he had injured, giving a shrug. 'Nothing bad. Just feels like a sunburn.'

Violet gave a nod, and snatched a pillow. She hugged it tightly, pulling her knees to her chin, the cuffs of her trousers swishing together. There was another awkward silence, Violet rocking back and forth occasionally. Dib slipped off the chair, and walked over to Violet, sitting beside her, an arm around her waist. She shut her eyes, and rested her head upon his shoulder. Gaz spoke softly.

'Do you want something to drink?'

Violet gave a nod. 'Yeah, okay…'

The younger girl moved to her feet, and headed out of the room, the door closing behind her with a soft click. Violet opened her eyes, and stared at the ground.

'D'you still like Zim?'

Dib was unsure how to respond to the question, so he remained silent, and just stared at snow-white wall.

'Dib?'

'I dunno, Violet.'

Violet shifted slightly, and Dib was worried she was going to pull away. Instead, she wrapped an arm around his waist, and resumed resting her head on Dib's shoulder. 'You can tell me the truth; you can't control what you feel and stuff… I won't be mad'

Dib considered what she said, and gave a nod. 'Then yeah… I do still like him… Despite his… Malicious ways.'

Violet just gave a nod, a soft sigh escaping her lips. 'Okay, Dib.'

Her bedroom door was opened once more, and Gaz stepped in, holding a glass of water. Kicking the door shut, she headed towards Violet, and handed her the cold glass. She pulled away from the male, and took a sip, her eyes shut.

'Thanks, Gaz…' she whispered, head hanging. Dib wriggled uncomfortably, and stood. Violet blinked up at him, and pursed her lips together.

'I'll just… go, okay?' he mumbled. He was beginning to grow a little bit embarrassed, being as he knew he should hate the Irken for possibly destroying Violet's family for a while, if not forever, yet he couldn't tell his feelings that.

Violet just gave a nod, and Dib scooted out of the room. Silence filled the room once more, and Gaz sat down beside the other girl. Leaning towards her desk, she set the glass on it, and hugged herself.

'Did the police come around?' Gaz finally asked. Violet nodded.

'Yeah… Just told them what I said I would on Tuesday. They didn't ask too much, because Mum shooed them out when I began to choke up.'

Gaz nodded. 'They come 'round to my house, too. Just asked what time you left, and stuff.'

Violet nodded, rubbing the back of her neck. There was a break in the conversation once more, both girls just staring at one spot on the floor. Finally, Gaz began to talk once more.

'Why don't you cry?'

'I beg your pardon?'

'Why don't you cry? You didn't cry at the funeral, you didn't cry at school, according to Dib. And you're not crying now, although you're very red, and it's more or less obvious that you want to. A lot of people cried, except your brother, but I guess that'd be a guy thi-'

Violet cut Gaz off, her eyebrows knitting together. 'Mum doesn't like us crying.'

'Huh?'

Violet shifted to face Gaz, her hands folded in her lap. 'Onyx, Rose… and I, we were never allowed to cry. If we did, Mum would yell at us and tell us there's no point in crying. It does nothing. I haven't been allowed ever since I can remember, and I think the only time I did cry was when I was a baby, and I suspect I grew out of that very quickly.'

Gaz scratched her cheek, taking in what Violet said. 'Why is that? Why doesn't she like you crying? She cried, and so did your Dad.'

Grabbing the pillow she had been holding earlier, Violet gave it a tight squeeze. 'She said she couldn't handle it when people cry, her children included. So… We just didn't cry. Didn't matter the situation- grazed knees, sprained ankles… I didn't cry when I broke my nose, either, although I really wanted to.'

'You shed a tear on Tuesday, though.'

'I didn't mean to. It was an accident.'

Gaz hung her head, gnawing on her lower lip. 'Oh.'

'Gaz?'

Gaz lifted her head. 'Yeah?'

Smiling softly, Violet let go of her pillow. 'Thanks for being there that night. Dib's great and all- a real friend- but I don't think he'd know what to do if he was in your place. He just seemed like a stunned mullet, whereas you held onto Rose until the very end.'

Gaz's cheeks seemed to turn a slight shade of pink, although it couldn't be called a blush. 'It's all right… I just did it because I think it would have been mean otherwise… Although I have been called a bitch.'

'Is it true you dated Steven?'

There was an uneasy silence, and Gaz realized it must have been the first time since Tuesday Violet brought him up.

'Yeah. Only to piss Dib off. Although I found out he was more of a jerk than I thought. He was a bad kisser, too, although all the girls he ever dated said he was great.'

Violet snorted, and ran her finger over the lining of her shirtsleeve. 'Yeah, well… You don't seem to be the type of person to be sucked into things like that.'

'I'm not. I only care about pizza, reading and being left alone. And Chinese food.'

'You don't seem to care about being left alone right now.' Violet pointed out, letting her shirt sleeve go.

'True…'

Another silence began, and Violet squirmed over, resting her head on Gaz's shoulder. Gaz stiffened, and turned her head to look at Violet. The girl's eyes were closed, a strand of her dark hair falling over her cheek. The black in it, which appeared to have been dyed in, was now only hanging around the tips, her natural coffee-colored hair contrasting with her pale skin. At a closer inspection of her face, Gaz could see a scatter of freckles along her nose, a few pimples mixed among them. Her blotchy cheeks from holding in her tears hid most of the freckles and blemishes on her face, however. There was a small bump in the structure of her nose, although it didn't seem to present being as it was just above the hook of her nose, and Gaz guessed that the bump was there from when she broke her nose. By now, Violet's breathing had started to grow into a slow pattern, and it appeared she had fallen into a sleep. Gaz had the urge to exit Violet's room, although it would be difficult being as Violet was still on her shoulder, and was slowly sinking down, and would soon fall into her lap.

Letting out a somewhat annoyed sigh, Gaz tried to entertain herself by naming animals in alphabetical order.

Ant… Beaver… Camel… Dog… Elephant… F… F… Frog! Ergh, Elephant, Gir- oh, fuck, my shoulder's fallen asleep. Just my luck I end up having someone fall asleep on me. She is cute when she's asleep though.

Looking back down at Violet, Gaz lifted her free hand, and brushed a strand of hair from Violet's face, tucking it slowly behind the girl's ear. A faint smile crossed her lips as she leant over, having another inspection of her face. There were a few odd scars on her face, one running down the length from her eyebrow to the top of her ear, another one above her lip.

I'll have to ask her about those later… Gaz thought, tracing the line of the one above her lip with her fingernail. The touch seemed to jerk Violet out of her sleep. Her hand went up, and snatched Gaz's wrist in an instant.

'What were you doing?!' she hissed, before realizing who it was. That didn't make her release Gaz's wrist though.

'Nothing, I was just looking.'

'At what, exactly?'

'Your face.'

Violet raised a brow, and finally let go of Gaz. 'Why?'

Gaz shrugged. 'I don't know, you fell asleep and I just kind of… looked. I was going to ask you about the scars near your eyebrow and your lip, though…'

Violet shifted uncomfortably, and rubbed her face. 'I got this one,' she pointed to the one near her eyebrow. 'When I fell out of the tree. And this one…' her finger moved to her lip, lingering there for a moment. 'When I was at my old school. I got into a fight with another girl and she hit me in the mouth when I told her she had blubber lips. Honestly, they were huge.'

Gaz smirked, and let out a laugh.

'She nearly smashed my teeth, but I caught her hand in time. She had this huge ring on her finger, though, and it cut all the way through the skin and I had to get a few stitches.' She sighed lightly, and grabbed Gaz's hand. 'Yeah, so… That's the story of the scars on my face. Tune in next time for the tale of how I ran into a parked car.'

'You ran into a parked car?'

'Yup.'

'How?'

'I dunno.'

Gaz snickered and watched as Violet ran her fingers over Gaz's palm. Her laughter halted, and she silently looked on, her hand starting to tingle as Violet made patterns across the soft flesh. A sigh fell out of her throat, and Gaz glanced up. Violet lifted her head, silently, her pale eyes locking onto Gaz's darker ones. With seeming no control over her body, Gaz felt herself leaning over to Violet, the tip of her nose brushing across Violet's. Their lips were so close, Gaz could feel her nerve endings almost tingling. Within seconds their lips would touch.

That is, they would, if there hadn't been a knock on the door. Violet snapped away suddenly, her head glaring at the door. Dib entered, raising a brow as Gaz fell off the bed, having lost her balance when Violet had jerked away.

'Um… Your mum wanted to know if you wanted some pie…'

'Er, sure… I'll be done in a minute.'

Dib nodded, and shut the door, heading back down the corridor. Violet turned to Gaz who had picked herself up, and was fixing her shirt. Moving off the bed, Violet nodded towards the door.

'Come on, Mum makes great pie.'

Gaz nodded, and turned to the door, her cheeks now seeming to burn. 'Alright.'

A/N: So… You like? Not like? I didn't think Violet and Gaz could she kiss… Just yet, anyway. Heh…

Well, review, and I'll hug you all ^_^ Because I can.