It was all he could feel.
Dropping to one knee, Dib glared across the road at his green-skinned nemesis, trying not to show more signs of pain than were neccessary. Zim's horrible, high-pitched laughter filled the eerily calm night sky. Spider legs sprouting from his back, Zim slowly approached his downed victim.
It was a wild chance, but it was the only one Dib had. Reaching into an inner pocket on his trenchcoat, he pulled out a thin, long bottle filled with a swirling, pink liquid. As Zim drew near, Dib reared back, slinging the bottle at the Irkin invader's face. At the same time, Zim was slinging one of his spider legs out in a slashing motion.
The bottle hit and broke on Zim's face at the same time that Dib was sliced open by the robotic limb. Both cried out in pain, scrambling away from one another. Dib was the first to recover, holding a hand to his right arm and smirking through clenched teeth at Zim, whose face seemed to be burning.
"Feeling a little sore, ZIM!" Dib barked, pained laughter now filling the calm air. "It's something dad cooked up! So far, it's melted everything I've tested it on!"
"I'm not EVERYTHING!" Zim roared, charging at Dib, who wasn't expecting Zim to rush him. Only one of the Irken's eyes were open, the other sizzling painfully as the pink liquid slid down his face. From out of his back, Zim produced another gadget. Not another leg, however. Dib wasn't quite sure what he was looking at. It was almost like a giant, pink scythe of sorts, connected to a deep purple handle that seemed to be glowing.
"I won't let you have the last laugh in this fight, DIB!" Spat Zim, pulling his arm back and shooting it forward. And, as if casting a line to fish, the bladed end of the whatever-it-was shot out from the base.
Dib, who had been running to escape Zim's enraged charge, had to dive to one side as the blade nearly took a chunk out of his back. Dib quickly rolled onto his back and was about to leap back to his feet when he saw something that made his blood run cold. The bladed weapon was hovering not ten feet above him, swaying back and forth like a pendulum.
Zim's hissing voice broke through the silence. "How do you like my new invention, you pitiful flesh-basket? I call it the CUTTY...Thing!"
"Cutty Thing?" Dib asked, momentarily forgetting his peril. "Yeah, that's real original, Zim!"
"SILENCE!" Zim shrieked. Jerking his arm quickly a few times, the blade proceeded to back up slightly before flying down and piercing Dib's left side.
oOoOoOoOoOoOo
Dib's scream carried through the house, waking up the only other person asleep in it. Though she was familiar with the various screams of Dib, Gaz hadn't heard one quite like that in a long, long time.
When she opened the door to her brother's room it was to find Dib sitting up in bed, looking as if he was having trouble breathing. One hand was under his shirt, clamped around his left side. The other was tightly squeezing a spot on his right arm. His eyes were wide open and he was staring down at his bedsheets, which were completely tangled and half off the bed.
"Dib?"
Dib's eyes darted up to meet Gaz's. The girl had to forced a shudder away. She hadn't quite remembered a time where Dib had seemed this. Whatever this was. It wasn't pleasant.
Cautiously approaching the bed, Gaz asked, "Nightmare?"
"Yeah..." Dib breathed out. "Sorry. Didn't mean to wake you up."
"You probably woke up the whole neighborhood." Gaz commented, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "So what was it about?"
"That stupid fight again." Dib scowled, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. "I can't stop dreaming about it. And it always ends in the same place. I'm tired of waking up feeling the pain of that attack all over again..."
Gaz stared at her brother for a few seconds before prodding him in the side he had received the Cutty Thing scar on.
"Oww! Quit it."
Lifting her head slightly, Gaz prodded the spot again.
"Oww! Quit it."
Gaz smiled faintly, curled up her fingers, and slugged Dib in the side.
"OWW! QUIT IT!" Dib howled, scooting back on his bed, clutching his side, and glaring at his sister.
"See? You're fine. Your problem is you think too much. Stop thinking." Gaz said.
"...I do not think too much. I can't help what I dream about!" Dib retorted.
"Of course you do. Something has to be going on inside of that enormous head of yours. Have you tried asking Dad to shrink it?" Gaz asked.
"My head isn't big!" Dib scowled, scooting back further.
"Of course it is." Gaz said, swinging her legs up onto the bed and giving slow persuit to Dib. "It's gigantic. How you don't topple over is something I don't think I'll ever understand."
"You're acting really weird tonight, you know that?" Dib said, backing up against his headboard. "...Weirder than usual, I mean."
"I'm not weird. I'm logical. Now lay down and go back to sleep." Gaz said, peering into Dib's eyes.
"I'll just have the nightmare again. I always do." Dib said, shrugging. "If I have it once in a night, it's not going to go away."
Gaz cracked her eyes open slightly. She then reached out, grabbed Dib by the legs, and yanked him down so that he was laying face-up. She then flopped down beside him and repeated, "Go back to sleep."
Dib blinked. It had been a while since Gaz had physically moved him. He had almost forgotten how abnormally powerful she could be when she wanted to. He began to protest, but Gaz's hand clamped over his mouth before he could utter a single word.
"It's the middle of the night. You woke me up. I'm sleepy. You're sleepy. So let's sleep. We can talk over pizza when we get up." Gaz said. With that, she settled herself in against her brother and closed her eyes.
"...Why do I never get to decide anything?" Dib asked to the silence that had fallen over his room.
"Too much time thinking, not enough talking. Sleep now." Gaz mumbled from somewhere around the vicinity of his right shoulder.
oOoOoOoOoOoOo
When Gaz woke up, daylight had rolled in. She wasn't sure what time it was and she didn't have the energy to check. Thankfully, Dib's room was even darker than her own in the daytime, keeping only a faint trace of the sun's light inside of it. She briefly wondered where her bobblehead of a brother had wandered off to at such an early hour... then wondered if it was even early at all. Scowling, she curled up and tugged the blankets over her head.
Gaz stayed curled up in the darkness and warmth of Dib's bed until something forced her into opening her eyes. Pepperonis. Hot, greasy, overcooked pepperonis! And cheese! Enough cheese to plug up a water buffalo! And it was... getting closer?
Dib burst into the room like a derelick, pizza-toting version of the Kool-aid Man, complete with "Oh yeah!" exclamation upon entering without dropping any of the things he was carrying.
"Gaz! Time to get up! Pizza's done cooking. Brought you some cola, too. Figured you'd be as thirsty as I was when I got up." Dib said, skidding to a halt next to his bed and setting two glasses of pop down on his nightstand. He turned to face the lump under his blankets, tilting his head.
Slowly, ever so slowly, Gaz emerged from underneath. Her hair was an utter mess after trying to settle in under the blankets and her nightshirt was half off one of her shoulders. Her eyes were open wide and staring longingly in the direction of the reheated pizza.
Dib rolled his eyes and held a plate out. "Oh, hurry and take it before you 'cute' me to death." He said, sitting on the edge of his bed and digging into a slice of his own.
"Shut up." Muttered Gaz around a mouthful of food. She quickly emerged fully from under the blankets and leaned back against the headboard. "How long've you been up? And what time is it?"
"About an hour, and ten in the morning." Answered Dib, hissing as the first pepperoni slid off on a bite it had no business being a part off, burning his tongue. "Gahh! Haht! HAHT!"
Gaz snorted.
Quickly grabbing his pop and taking a long drink, Dib let out a sigh of relief before glaring at his sister. "Yeah, like that hasn't happened to you before..."
"I'm more careful." Gaz stated.
"Are not. I remember when you were four and had your first pizza. You did the exact same thing." Dib said.
"How do you remember stupid things like that?" Gaz asked.
"It isn't stupid." Dib replied automatically.
"Of course it is. You're weird. Stop being weird, Dib." Gaz said, crunching into the remaining crust of her first slice.
"I'm not weird. I just catalogue memories well." Dib replied with a firm nod. "I'm very thorough. And besides, any memory involving you is worth remembering."
Gaz blinked, looking up through her eyelashes at Dib in the middle of trying to get a string of cheese to break free from the rest of the pizza slice.
"...Like this one." Dib murmured. He then sighed and stared off across the room. "Gaz, what's going on with us?"
"Nothing is."
Another sigh. "Of course there is... I doubt my suddenly getting you a nice Xmas present was enough to completely change how you act around me... so... what is it?"
"Nothing." Gaz said, polishing her second slice of pizza off quickly and scooting towards her brother. "Nothing's special, nothing's going on, and nothing's strange. Can't I enjoy the holidays for once?"
"Gaz..." Dib began. "What...?"
Leaning up against her brother's side, Gaz resumed munching on her breakfast. "And besides... don't you like this?"
Dib couldn't argue against that. "But we're siblings, Gaz... what would other people think if they saw us acting like this?"
"There won't be other people. No one will know." Gaz stated.
"How can you be so sure?" Dib asked.
"Because I trust you to keep it a secret, no one would dare ask ME, and whatever we do together, we do behind closed doors." Said Gaz. "And so what if people did find out? It's not as if the two of us are popular. Who cares what the idiots at skool think? If you haven't noticed, Dib, the world is insane. This... is nothing in comparison to some of the stuff that's going on out there."
Dib blinked. "...Yeah, well. Okay, so... where does that leave us? I mean... do you... y'know..." He faltered for a moment. "I mean... why on earth would you want to be around me all the time?"
Gaz turned to look up and into Dib's eyes. "Who else would I be with? Zim?"
A horrible parade of images made its way through the Main Street of Dib's mind, causing him to violently shudder.
"And who else would you be with? ...Zim?"
Dib twitched, suddenly setting his plate down and holding his stomach. "Gaz, please, I'm eating here..."
"So...if it's just you and me... it makes sense. Or whatever passes for sense in this stupid world." Gaz said, finishing her final slice. "You gonna eat those?"
Dib looked over at the slice and a half still on his plate. "...You can have them" He said, shaking his head. "Seriously, Gaz, are you sure you're feeling alright? Because if you aren't, I can..."
Dib was shushed by a finger on his lips.
"Don't you remember what I said last night?" Gaz said. "You think too much. Cut it out, you idiot."
Dib sighed, handing his pizza over to his sister and leaning back on his arms. Licking his lips, he tried to say something... paused... then shook his head. It took another couple of minutes before he gained enough courage to try again. "You know... you looked really cute when you finally crawled out from under the covers."
"I'm not cute." Gaz said around a mouthful of pizza. "I've never been cute."
"You used to wear winged teddybear footie-pajamas." Deadpanned Dib.
"Shut up."
Smirking, Dib leaned forward. "Make me."
"...What?"
"I said make me!" Dib said, feeling more courageous. Gaz still had pizza left. Gaz did not leave pizza to do anything. Hence, he was safe. Or at least, he should have been. He hadn't expected his little sister to reach for her cola, take a sip, and pour the rest of it onto Dib's lap.
"GAH! COLD!" Squealed Dib, hopping up and dancing around for awhile, tugging the soaked area of his jeans away from his body. Glaring daggers up at Gaz, he growled, "I will get you for that."
"Not if you want to live long enough to see the grass again." Calmly stated Gaz.
With a swiftness he had developed from years of fighting Zim, Dib leapt over to his nightstand, procurred the largest icecube still surviving, and in one fluid motion dropped it down the front of his dear sister's nightshirt.
The reaction was both hilarious and frightening. For a moment, nothing at all happened. Then, slowly, Gaz set the remaining half a slice of pizza down, stood up, tugged out the bottom of her nightshirt...and charged at Dib.
Dib squawked, getting tackled backwards to the floor. Pinning him down, Gaz lowered her face so it was mere inches from Dib's, seething. "That... was... COLD."
"Yeah, it was!" Dib agreed, bottom lip poked out... which must have looked quite ridiculous, given his glare.
"You realize you must suffer now." Gaz stated.
"I won't suffer. I know your weakness." Said Dib, cryptically.
"I have no weaknesses." Stated Gaz.
"I think you do." Dib said, a smirk slowly forming.
"Like what?"
"Me." Whispered Dib, raising his head far enough for his lips to make contact.
oOoOoOoOoOoOo
"I hate my life."
It was true. Too true for him to want to think about. He was ridiculed by everyone. The most he could make 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 even live long enough to have a future? If something happened to him...
Dib sighed, which was immediately followed by a sharp intake of breath as he placed the icepack onto his left eye again. The day hadn't started well. Dib wasn't sure why he had been expecting it to pick up at any point. His bright move of exploiting his 'sweet' little sister's 'weak point' turned out to be the wrong thing to do for some reason.
At least he didn't have to worry about Gaz being alone if anything did happen to him. Gaz had a mean, mean left jab. It definitely hadn't been the reaction Dib was hoping for. Whatever was going on in his sister's mind, it obviously wasn't fully planned out. She seemed to want to be closer to him, in every way possible, apparently... But when he had made the first real move, she had gone wide-eyed, smashed him in the eye, and made a quick escape back to her own room.
That had been almost five hours ago. And the swelling still hadn't gone down.
Laying on his back in bed with the icepack in place, Dib could only stare up at the ceiling and wonder what had gone so horribly wrong. Was his sister just toying with him? Had she simply been acting nicer out of thanks for the game system? Why had she sat and talked with him about meaningless things? Why had she insisted on falling asleep next to him? Why had she fled?
Closing his good eye, Dib tried to find the answers to his questions. But none came. Either everything was one big game, or Dib had simply advanced too far and scared Gaz off. Neither was particularly appealing. And neither helped to stop the pain he was feeling. Pain that had absolutely nothing to do with his black eye. He wasn't entirely sure what it was, as he had never experienced it before. But it hurt. It hurt more than all of the scars on his body combined. And, though he didn't know the cause of it all, Dib was certain that the blue stuff he had used to heal his previous wounds wouldn't solve the problem this time.
Feeling frustrated, and more than a little depressed, Dib sat up and proceeded to slip out of bed. Walking over to his window, Dib peered out. The skies were still grey and overcast, as if ready to unleash another hellish blizzard at any moment. The snow was still piled ridiculously high on the ground, but the city had finally mobilized their grunts and cleared the streets.
Sighing again, Dib moved his curtains aside and opened the window up, kneeling in front of it to let the cold winter breeze brush against his sore eye. He didn't notice movement nearby; didn't notice something drawing closer. It wasn't until it was just outside his window did something in him warn him that all wasn't right.
"Hello, DIB."
oOoOoOoOoOoOo
Gaz had spent the last few hours curled up in her bed, lost in thought. Her left hand was aching. She hadn't figured on Dib's giant head to be so blasted hard. She hadn't figured on punching him, either. But she had. And then she ran. She could only imagine what was going through her brother's head at the moment.
She wasn't sure why she had punched him, really. It wasn't as if the kiss had been sudden or anything. Maybe it was just how it had unravelled. The last place Gaz had intended to get her first kiss by Dib, in his room, while straddling his body. But it had happened. And there was no way to take it back.
Gaz wasn't even sure she wanted to.
She knew what was going on between them. Ever since she had walked downstairs that day to find a large present with her name on it. She had spent the longest time just trying to imagine why Dib had bothered buying her anything, much less something so expensive. He knew he wasn't going to get anything, as usual, so why get her something? Why had he been so nice to her? When had he stopped spending every waking hour talking about Bigfoot and UFOs and Zim? When had he developed all of those hideous scars?
Tugging her blanket up over her cold legs, Gaz let her eyes slip shut. But that didn't help - she kept seeing the scene replay itself over and over again in her mind. Eyes quickly opening again, and with a faint blush on her face, Gaz rolled onto her back to stare up at the ceiling. A few minutes passed before she had to tug her blanket up further. Why the hell was it so cold in the house? The thermostat was up past 80. It should have been an oven, if anything.
Figuring she couldn't delay it any longer if she didn't want to freeze her lower body off, Gaz slipped out of bed and left her room. But the temperature was still set at around 84. Frowning, she tapped it a few times to make sure it wasn't giving her a faulty reading. But at 84 it stayed. Taking a deep breath, Gaz looked up the hallway, towards Dib's room. Maybe he would know what was going on.
"Dib?" Gaz murmured, putting a hand up to his door. "Hey. Dib?"
Getting no response, Gaz couldn't help but repress a sigh. He probably didn't want to speak to her. Not after getting slugged in the face for no real reason. She was just going to have to slip something on over her legs, that was all. And maybe grab her jacket, as well. She was just turning to leave when a cold blast of air blew across her feet.
"...Dib, did you open your window and fall asleep again?" Gaz called out. It had happened before. ...But even doing that, it shouldn't have been so cold in the house.
Still getting no response, and getting highly annoyed at being unable to work out the cause of the sudden coldness, Gaz grabbed the doorknob and shoved the door to her brother's room open.
It took her a moment to fully take in what she was seeing. Nearly all of the outer wall to Dib's room had been vaporized somehow. Everything within the room looked as if it had been in some kind of tornado. Items were strewn about here and there, clothes littered every inch of the place. Snow had been blown in and had built up in small piles here and there.
And on the wall above his headboard, in a small crater, was Dib. His clothes were shredded, blood was pouring out of several large cuts on his face and arms, and he seemed to be stuck where he was smashed. His head hung forward, but the rest of him still seemed firmly planted into the crater.
Gaz rushed over, hopping onto Dib's bed to tug him away from the wall. How had all of this happened without her knowing! How did a large chunk of the house get destroyed without making any sound!
"Dib!" Gaz whispered upon getting Dib laying flat on his bed a few minutes later. "Dib, wake up!"
Getting no response, Gaz groaned. Dib was heavy. And she was quite sure that she couldn't lug him around very easily. Thinking back to something he had told her previously, Gaz slipped off of Dib's bed and raced out of the room and downstairs. Throwing open the door that led into their father's lab, Gaz began looking around for it.
oOoOoOoOoOoOo
When Dib opened his eyes next, another pair were staring down at him. After a few minutes of this, Dib finally let out a quiet groan. "Your room?" He asked.
"Yeah. What happened to yours?"
"Zim." Dib grumbled.
"How come I didn't hear anything?"
"Dunno. He was using some weird gun-looking thing that shot neon pink laser things at me. Didn't make any noise... After that didn't work, he just smashed my head into the wall, kicked me in the crotch, then flung me aside and left." Dib said. "...Got anything to drink? My throat hurts."
"There's some soda left in that can." Gaz said, motioning towards her nightstand.
"Thanks..." Dib sat up enough to get a decent drink, then frowned. "...Hey, how come I'm not feeling as bad as I should be?"
"Blue stuff." Gaz said.
"What, you found it again? ...Thought dad had run out." Dib said, blinking.
"Apparently not. Now lay back down. You might have a concussion. No getting up and chasing after him." Gaz ordered.
"Wasn't planning on it." Dib said, flopping back down.
"Good." Said Gaz, crawling over Dib and laying down next to him. "Feeling tired or anything?"
"Not really. I do have a headache, though."
"Yeah, I couldn't find a way to get the blue stuff into your big head. Sorry."
"My head is NOT big!" Dib scowled.
"Yes it is." Said Gaz, yawning.
Dib looked over at her, then searched the room for a clock. "...Wow, I've been out of it for six hours?"
"Something like that." Murmured Gaz, curling up on her side somewhat.
"Tired?"
"Of course I'm tired. Do you have any idea how long it took to find and apply the blue stuff and drag you in here? You're heavy. You're a very heavy thing. Go to the gym, Dib." Gaz muttered.
"...Yeah, you have to be tired. You're more incoherent than usual." Dib said.
"...And what's that supposed to mean? I'm always coherent. You're the idiot always babbling about skunk apes and leprechauns." Gaz said, glaring up at her brother.
"It was trying to steal my underwear!" Cried Dib. "It's the TRUTH!"
"No one would want your underwear." Gaz stated, shifting her position enough to use Dib's shoulder as a pillow. "How's your body feeling, anyway?"
"Lower back's kinda sore. Other than that, I feel okay." Said Dib. "...You know, if you want to take a nap or something, you can. I'm not going to fall asleep."
"I know."
"Oh. ...Gaz, look, about earlier, I--"
Gaz clamped a hand over his mouth before he could get any further. Blinking, he looked down at her again. She had her head down, so he couldn't see her expression.
"I shouldn't have punched you." She said after a few minutes of silence.
"...I shouldn't have kissed you." Dib replied, sighing.
"It's fine. I just wasn't expecting it." Gaz said.
"Aren't unexpected kisses the best kind, though?" Dib asked.
"Why are you asking me? It's not like I've kissed anyone before." Gaz said.
"Neither have I. Okay, um... new rule. No unexpected kisses?"
"I guess. Now stop talking. You need to heal."
"What, is talking going to stop the healing process?"
"It will if I wind up knocking you out to shut you up again." Gaz said, tilting her head enough for Dib to see that she was giving him the evil eye.
"...Right! No talking, then!" Squeaked Dib.
"Good." Said Gaz, snuggling in against her brother and smiling faintly. She was surprised when, a few minutes later, Dib's arms wrapped around her, offering up a slight squeeze. This, of course, did little to push Gaz's sleepiness away. It was still early, but Dib had forced her to exert more energy than usual. She wasn't the type of person to run a marathon, after all. And she considered doing a mad dash for something she didn't even know the appearance of, applying it, and lugging Dib into her room just as bad.
"Get some sleep." Dib whispered. "I'm good at staying awake for long periods of time. I won't fall asleep, too."
"Nn." Was all Gaz could reply in her half-asleep state. Damn it all, but she was comfortable. She had no business being so comfortable. Especially when she really needed to stay awake to make sure her idiot of a brother did, too. Concussions and sleep didn't tend to mix well. ...But, she figured, it was Dib. If he hadn't received a concussion from all the insane crap he had done up to date, Gaz didn't think Zim catching him off-guard - again - could give him one.
All higher forms of thought abandoning her, the girl draped an arm over her brother. Partly to ensure that he wasn't going to sneak off and try seeking revenge as soon as she drifted off, partly because it was comfier laying that way. Moving her head around to try and find a nice, soft spot on what she sleepily murmured to be a 'boney-ass shoulder,' Gaz eventually drifted off. It had been a very long and very odd day.
oOoOoOoOoOoOo
Author's Notes: Huttah! Third chapter finished, after all this time! I got the third Zim DVD awhile ago. Gaz, Taster of Pork has hopped up to around the top of my favorite episodes list. For obvious reasons. It's a cute Dib and Gaz episode, it has them HOLDING HANDS, and it showed Gaz's adorable winged teddybear footie-pajamas. Who knew she liked such cutesy stuff?
One chapter left, folks. You know, the whole first kiss and Zim's subsequent offscreen appearance and attack weren't planned. But something needed to spice the chapter up, as it was fairly standard and rather bland up to that point.
Any flames and the like will be shrugged off and giggled at. If you've taken the time to read three - or even ONE - chapter(s) of this and left a scathing, flaming review... Well, that's your problem. I made you waste time that you'll never get back! NEVEEEEER! ...As for the people who LIKE the fic, your reviews are always appreciated. I still wanna see more DAGR fics around. The few I've been able to dredge up were all random smutfics. I demand more fluff. FLUFF!
Because if you can write fluff into the Zim universe, you can write pretty much anything. Gymkata!