Hi, any readers that find this. Just a quick update, and an apology. Life has been crazy for me the past month or so, and I may or may not have had some mental health issues, causing me to delete this impulsively. Luckily for me, has a backup system that holds deleted fics for two weeks, so I was able to restore it. I realized that I love writing, I love this story, and I want to finish it. If only one person out there enjoys it with me, that's good enough for me. I'm sorry for dipping on you guys, I am happy to say I've made steps to stabilize my mental health, and I've also made a personal goal of writing more. So expect another chapter soon! Thank you all so much for reading, it means the world to me.

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As Gaz slowly started to wake, she relished in the warmth and comfort of the guest bed before she realized that she was wrapped in something tighter than a blanket. Forcing her eyes open to take in her surroundings almost felt like a chore, her brain telling her to ignore it and go back to sleep, but she wanted to know. She wasn't sure what she was expecting, but opening her eyes to realise the soft fabric pressed against her forehead and cheek was Zim's t-shirt wasn't it. Her mind, thick with sleep, slowly began to piece together exactly how she was curled up in the bed. Her arms were tucked together up against her chest, pressed up against the slightly breathing solid wall in front of her… Zim's chest. She could feel his chin pressing gently into the top of her head, and realized she was tucked into the crook of his neck. The embarrassing cherry on top was figuring out that her right leg was wedged in-between his. Her cheeks flushed, and she carefully pulled her leg back, hoping she wasn't going to wake Zim. She tried to scoot backwards away from him, but the arms wrapped around her weren't budging. She huffed in frustration and felt that at the very least her annoyance and embarrassment at the situation was making her wake up.

Although… she mused to herself that this really wasn't so bad. She was warm and comfortable, and Zim's soft breathing was almost relaxing to listen to. She tried to simply relax and enjoy the moment, but she found her mind wandering to think on the events of the past few weeks. Everything that's happened lately in her life is so insane, she feels that maybe any moment she'll wake up from this dream back in her apartment… but, as that thought flits through her brain, she prays that if it is a dream, she'd like to dream a little longer.

Zim is so… strange. She barely knows him really, and yet here she is, cuddled up in bed with him. His arm is wrapped tightly around her waist, and if it were anyone else she would rip it off and attack, but she doesn't want to do that. In fact, she kind of likes it. It's strangely comforting to her.

The mere thought of physical contact like this being comforting makes her frown. This is not who she is, this is not what she's like. She doesn't like people, in general. They're loud and gross and annoying and are rude and judgemental. And yet, here she is, cuddled up in the arms of a man she barely knows. Gaz sighs, and closes her eyes tight to think. What does she know about Zim?

Well… He's smart, at least to some degree. He clearly knew enough about robotics and computers to attempt to fix Gir, even if it was unsuccessful. He likes movies and sugar and all the little doodles that Gaz does. He has a dry sense of humor, and doesn't like Dib. Gaz rolls her eyes at the memories of the two of them bickering. Zim… Zim likes stars, he likes spaghetti, his antenna twitch when he's nervous, and… and he likes Gaz. She feels herself blush at that, but she can't deny it. He smiles when he sees her, and listens to what she has to say intently when she's talking. It's nice that he cares. Gaz turns that idea over in her brain. It's a nice feeling, when someone cares about you. She didn't know it could make her feel this warm inside.

There's no way to tell what time it is without looking at the clock, she realizes. The bedroom is as dark as it was the last time she woke, the only light coming from a night light, and the bright light leaking out from underneath the door to the hallway. It might be morning? A sound of a chair squeaking in the kitchen suddenly confirms this hypothesis for her. It must be morning at the least. Gaz sighs, and tries to pull back away from Zim again, and this time it works. She scoots back a few inches, and looks up, only to notice with a blush that her movements have woken him up. His large red eyes open slowly, blinking a few times as he focuses on her face. In the darkness of the room, his eyes are almost reflective of the little light present.

"Good morning." He mumbles, his breath warm on her face, making her all the more aware that her face is only inches away from his.

"Uh, good morning." She replies, trying to keep her voice from rising in pitch. God, this is mortifying! It's hard to tell in the darkness, but Gaz almost swears she can see him smile.

"Sleep good?"

"Yeah… Did you?" Her throat suddenly feels so dry, her voice coming out almost raspy. He's silent for a few moments, as if in thought, and then the weight around her waist disappears as he moves his arm up. His arm reaches up behind her shoulder, and she's not sure he realizes exactly what he's doing, but he gently pulls a bit of hair out of her face, moving his arm back down to her waist as he responds.

"Yes. Better, thank you." His voice drops off almost into silence, but his tone is clear. He really is grateful.

"U-um…" Gaz clears her throat as she struggles to think of what to say. "It's probably morning."

"Yes?"

"Yeah, we should get up soon, I think." In response, Zim sighs unhappily, nuzzling his face closer to hers.

"I am happy here…" He whines.

Gaz rolls her eyes at his childishness. "Come on, we can't stay in bed all day."
"Why not?" He says, sounding innocent enough, but there's a trace of something else in his voice she can't identify.

"B-because routines, and stuff, and we need to eat breakfast?"

"I am hungry…" He muses. "But you are warm." Gaz struggles to think of a response, glad that the darkness of the room is hiding the blush in her cheeks when she's saved by a knock at the door.

"Zim, Gaz? I made breakfast, if you would like some?" Phil's comforting voice fills the room, and with it comes the recognition of the smell of bacon. Gaz's stomach growls, pushing her into action.

"Yes!" She says, propping herself up on her elbow, ignoring Zim's disappointed whine. "We'll be right there, thank you!"

"Of course!" Phil says cheerfully, followed by the sound of him walking away.

Gaz pulls herself further out of Zim's grip, rolling over to reach out and fumble for the bedside lamp, bathing the guest room in a warm yellow glow.

"C'mon Zim." She says as she flips the blankets over to get up on her side of the bed. "Time to get up, you laze!"

"What?" She looks over her shoulder to see he's propped himself up onto his elbows, that funny look of confusion on his face.

"Laze, lazy… uh, just get up!" She laughs slightly, grabbing a change of clothes and heading for the attached bathroom to get dressed. The bathroom door clicked closed, and Zim immediately flopped back down, pressing his face into the pillow. He was comfortable, he thought to himself. Although more than that, he wanted Gaz to come back to bed. He fought back the embarrassing flush in his face that came with that thought. He simply liked the comfortable calmness he felt when he was around her. This new planet was so strange, and archaic, but it had her. He pressed his face deeper into the pillow, reaching out to draw the other pillow into his chest. If he closed his eyes and focused on the slight smell of her shampoo, he could imagine that comfortable feeling for just a minute longer.

Unfortunately for Zim, his brain never lets him rest. His thoughts drifted to the night before, and the interesting turn of events that they went through. He didn't trust Phil, not one bit. Zim was waiting for the moment when his suspicions about Phil were confirmed, but until then, he knew to lie low but be on alert. He pushed Phil from his mind, and struggled to break through the foggy, broken memories of the early evening. Gaz told him he ingested some sort of drug on accident, and that he would be fine, but the mere thought of doing drugs at all made his stomach turn. The last thing Zim wanted was to end up like him. No. He's stronger than that, he reassured himself. He'll be fine. But in his focusing on those hazy memories he remembered the soldiers cornering him. They had… they had guns, and he just stood there, useless. He dug his claws into the pillow angrily at the thought. Just like always, he was useless. He was too weak and slow to save his own mother, and just like then, he almost got Gaz killed. Tears pricked at the corner of his eyes, and he breathed in a shuddering breath to try and calm himself. Maybe it would be best if he left-

"Zim, come on, it's time to get up." He jerked in surprise, rolling over quickly to see Gaz standing in front of the bathroom door, her hands on her hips in a playful manner. However, the smirk melted away when she saw his face. "Hey, what's wrong?" She dropped her hands to her sides, and took a step forward. In his annoyance at being caught in his sadness, Zim rolled back over away from her.

"I am fine." He said clearly.

"You can't honestly believe I'm going to believe that." The bed shifted slightly as Gaz sat down on the edge of the mattress. Zim squeezed the pillow, and curled his legs tighter into his chest. A sensible part of his mind gently prodded him, telling him he was acting like a petulant child, but he ignored it. He wanted Gaz to go away so he could sulk in peace.

"Please tell me what's on your mind?" She placed a hand on his shoulder in comfort, gently rubbing her thumb as well. Zim huffed, but rolled over towards her slightly, turning his head just enough to see her.

"I fail you." He muttered.

"What?"

"I fail you! I did not shoot." He enunciated clearer this time. He wanted her to understand. The thumb rubbing his shoulder paused, making him think she was reacting the way he expected her to.

"What are you talking about?"

"In the night… the army, I did not shoot. I did not. I am, I am… I am broken."

"Zim." Gaz's tone was serious, and she leaned forward as she spoke. "Listen to me. You were under the influence, remember? I told you this. You were on drugs. It's not your fault." At the mention of drugs, Zim felt his squeedlyspooch twisting painfully.

"Yes. My fault. I did not shoot."

"No, I swear it isn't. And everything turned out okay, remember? We're okay."

"I can not help you. How can I help you if I am broken?" His voice cracked, and he swallowed the dry lump that was growing in his throat.

"You are not broken. I will not entertain this notion, that something that was entirely not your fault, makes you broken. It's not true."

"But-"

Zim was interrupted by knocking at the bedroom door.

"Breakfast is getting cold!" Announced Phil's cheery voice. "Not to rush you two, but I can't keep Gir calm forever." He laughed slightly, and then waited for a response.

"Oh, okay, we're coming right now!" Gaz stood up, grabbing a hold of Zim's wrist, and furtively pulled his arm. "Come onnnn." She whined. "No moping today, okay?"

"Okay." Zim finally sat up, flipping the blankets over to stand up. Gaz smiled in approval at him, which always brought that warm feeling, and the two of them walked out into the hall.

The smell of eggs and bacon wafted in the air from the kitchen, making Zim and Gaz realize that they were in fact hungry. However, the strangest thing was Gir, sitting calmly at the dining table, coloring on a piece of printer paper. An open pack of crayola crayons was next to him, and he was actually quiet for once, utterly focused on the task at hand. The two of them were just staring at Gir in silence when Phil emerged from the kitchen.

"Ah! Glad to see you up!" He smiled warmly, and gestured for them to sit down at the table. "I uh, well, I'm not sure what you like to eat, so I made eggs, bacon, and toast. I also have some bagels?"

"Wow, Phil, you didn't have to do that." Gaz said as she sat down at the table, still eyeing Gir in wonder.

"Nonsense! You're my guests after all!" He pulled out a chair for Zim, but Zim didn't budge from his spot standing behind Gaz. He simply narrowed his eyes at Phil. Phil's lips twitched downward, the hint of a frown, but he quickly smiled to mask it.

"So, what will it be for breakfast?" He clasped his hands together, rubbing them slightly as if he was excited for the day ahead. Which he probably was.

"Uh, eggs, bacon and toast sounds great! Extra bacon for this one, please." She gestured at Zim. "He likes meat."

"Sure thing." He started to turn towards the kitchen, but paused, his eyes landing on Zim. "Hey Zim, you okay?"

"Fine." Zim said quickly in a low voice. Phil's eyebrows narrowed in concern, and he pointed at him.

"Your hands are shaking." Almost instantaneously, Zim shoved his hands into the pocket of the hoodie he wears.

"I'm fine." He ground out. Phil nodded his head slightly, raising his hands as a gesture of backing off, and then retreated into the kitchen.

"Please sit down?" Gaz asked, a note of concern on her voice. As if being broken out of a thick concentration Zim jerked at the sound of her voice, but after a few seconds of standing in confused silence his brain registered what she said, and he pulled out the chair next to her to sit.

"Are you okay?" She whispered.

"Yes. I'm fine."

Gaz narrowed her eyes in suspicion, but decided to let it go for now. She could only push him so far.

"So, Phil." She said, raising her voice so he could hear her. "How did you get Gir to be so… calm?"

"Simple! He's a child, er, like one, so I asked myself, 'what do children like?' And dug out some crayons for him." Phil returned from the kitchen with a plate in each hand of food, handing the more bacon-laden one to Zim, and the other to Gaz.

"Oh, he's not a child." Gaz paused. "I mean, he's not supposed to act like one."

"He's not?"

"No. He's broken, he broke when Zim crashed. He tried to fix Gir, but he doesn't have the tools he needs to fix him properly."

"I see."

"Yeah." Gaz began to dig into her breakfast, and Phil went back into the kitchen to get his own breakfast.

"Don't just pick at it." She scolded Zim. "Eat your breakfast, you need food to grow up big and strong." She said, laughing to herself. Zim grumbled something unintelligible, but he begrudgingly started to eat.

As Phil walked back into the dining room, Gir seemed to finish his drawing, as he held it up triumphantly for Phil to see. Politely, as any adult would do for a child, Phil set his breakfast down to give Gir his full attention.

"Whaddya got there buddy?" Phil leaned down to look at the drawing, but the smile on his face quickly twisted into concern. The drawing was odd, to say the least. Messily scribbled with heavy hand pressure, just like any child drawing, but the subject of the artwork is what gave Phil pause. A red and green blob was scribbled near the bottom of the picture. If Phil squinted, it almost looked like a person, except for the boundless greens that extended far past the red and green figure. Above that blob, was another form, this one mostly red. More clearly a person, but the jagged edges of it's form made it feel more unfriendly than a typical child's drawing. The figure additionally seemed to have a long thin tail, curling in the air.

"Gir, what is this?" Phil asked gently. Gir 'smiled' the way he did, but then the lights in his eyes flickered, and the smile faded. Within a second, it was back, and the little robot shrugged.

"I dunno!" He squealed, turning back to the table to grab another sheet of paper to draw on. Phil stood up, staring more at the drawing in his hands.

"What is it?" Gaz asked, breaking him out of his concentration.

"Oh, nothing really. I'll uh, I'll hang on to it though. I think that's why little Gir here gave it to me!" He said, finishing off his thought with a smile. He leaned back into the kitchen to place the paper on a counter, and then came back into the dining room, pulled out a chair, and sat down to eat.

"So, did you two sleep well last night?" Phil asked politely. Gaz's hand paused midair as she moved the fork covered in scrambled eggs as she considered the question.

"Yeah." She opened her mouth to eat, but paused again as she added on to her statement. "Well, more or less."

"More or less? Was the room too cold?"

"Oh no, the room was perfect, really! I've missed sleeping on a real bed." She joked. "No, it's just Zim doesn't… he doesn't sleep well regardless." Her voice dropped off as she spoke, her hand absentmindedly twisting the fork in the scrambled eggs.

"Ah. Zim, is there anything I can do that would make your stay more comfortable?"

Zim stared silently at Phil, holding so still that if it wasn't for his chest moving as he breathed, he could be mistaken for a statue. His stillness didn't last for long, as Gaz elbowed him in the side.

"Ao!"

"Phil asked you something." Gaz hissed, jerking her head in Phil's direction. Zim sighed, his antenna lying flat against his head, and he glared at Phil.

"No. I am fine." He looked down at his food, and angrily jabbed his fork into his plate, but didn't eat anything. Gaz stared at him in bewilderment for a few seconds, before turning to face Phil.

"I, I'm sorry about his behavior…"

"It's alright." Phil said with a kind and good-natured smile. "I'm sure he's quite stressed to be on a new planet."

"Yeah, honestly I can't imagine."

"Culture shock, maybe. I'm not an expert on aliens, just guessing."

"No, no, I think that's a good guess. Hey, speaking on alien experts, where's Dib?"

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Okay, so stick shift driving wasn't quite as easy as Dib remembered it being, but he was getting the hang of it. He was still embarrassed over his freak out at 'breaking mothman's car' when he tried to start it and then stalled the car. Phil just laughed at him. Dib scowled to himself at the memory. Whatever, he was driving fine now, and had only stalled the car three more times since then. He was doing great! Abuelo would be proud.

Dib successfully got to the supermarket, and purchased about three pounds of granulated sugar, hoping that would last Zim for a while. What a weird eating habit. Dib shook the thought of the alien from his mind. He was going to relax while being away from that weirdo, goddamnit! Get some coffee, get some breakfast, just enjoy the town, he told himself. No rush to get back to the bunker anytime soon.

Pulling into the sleepy main street of the town, Dib spotted a coffee shop up on the left, called The Coffee Grinder. He let out a relieved breath at seeing the shop. It seemed to be the only coffee place in town, so Dib hoped that it was at least decent coffee. It wasn't hard to find an empty spot that was also conveniently close to the shop, and Dib was proud to park the car with only stalling it once. Maybe he was just nervous from making the car stall, or maybe it was the caffeine withdrawal that was making his hands shake. Hopefully it was the withdrawal, Dib thought to himself. He wanted to relax and be calm, mentally and physically.

A small bell was positioned just inside the threshold, ringing when the door opened to alert workers that a customer had entered. Surprisingly for a small town, the coffee shop was fairly busy. Most of the tables had people enjoying coffee and breakfast, and there were a few people in line. Dib walked up to stand and wait, and let his mind wander as he waited to be served.

God, this was all so fucking weird. For the first time Dib let himself reflect on everything that happened. He couldn't deny that he was weirdly disappointed about Phil. Yeah, he finally achieved a life goal of his to find mothman… but Phil is so completely different from what he was expecting that it didn't feel real. Then again, Phil did say that he wasn't the original mothman, so maybe the real one is out there still! Like… a cousin, or something. Does that mean there are moth-families? When mothmen have children are they mini mothmen, or are they caterpillars? Do they make cocoons instead of puberty?

Dib squeezed his eyes shut. He needed a break. This was all getting so weird and complicated and he had a million questions for Phil but so far all of his answers were just so frustrating. How did he attend school? Go to Europe? Where does he get money from, or his clothes? Who is his fiancé?

Stop it, he told himself. He knew he would just endlessly work himself up over nothing if he let this continue. Dib tried to focus on his surroundings. A small bookcase to his left was full of mothman themed reading material. Dib frowned at that. Normally that would make him excited, but now it just made him think of Phil. To his right, a large cutout stand of mothman. Now Dib was beginning to feel that the universe was mocking him. God is real, and he's very cruel, Dib thought sardonically.

He realized he'd been waiting for a few minutes now, and finally tuned in to what was going on in front of him. The cashier was arguing with the customer at the register, the woman who was in front of him.

"But what's wrong with it?" She said angrily, her red hair shifting as she turned her head. Her voice immediately struck Dib as being very familiar…

"Ma'am, we don't accept this currency here. Did no one at the airport tell you?"

"But…" She stammered, and Dib realized where he heard that voice before, and her hair! It was the same woman he bumped into at the diner! Immediately he stepped up to the counter, and realized exactly what the argument was about. In her hands were several British pounds, not American dollars. She glanced at him as he stood next to her, a small look of surprise mixed with annoyance on her face.

"Hey, I uh, I'll pay for her coffee." He offered, pulling out the credit card Phil gave him. The barista smiled happily, looking very grateful that this argument was over.

"That's very kind of you!" She said, in that stereotypical customer service voice. "What can I get you?"

"Uh, whatever she got." Dib stammered, his mind muddled slightly by his desire to look cool to this woman, who was currently grumbling to herself as she shoved her money in her pocket.

"Okay! Two medium roast coffees coming right up!" Good, Dib thought, he liked medium roast. He looked down, and smiled at her, not quite sure what to say to her, but he wanted to say something.

"What." She said tersely.

"Uh-"

"Here ya go!" The barista interrupted, placing two cups of coffee onto the counter. "The milk and sugar is over there, feel free to help yourself!" Dib and the woman both grabbed their coffee, and made their way over to the side counter to make their coffees the way they liked it. She added cream, and slowly stirred her coffee as she suspiciously watched Dib as he added sugar.

"Uh, do you want some?" He asked, offering the canister to her.

"No."

"Okay." Dib awkwardly put the canister down and stirred his coffee. "Um-"

"Why did you do that?" She said suddenly, her eyes narrowed, almost in distrust.

"Well, I mean, it's a nice thing to do, good for karma and all that… Plus, I feel bad for knocking you down the other day."

"Oh." She took a tentative sip of her coffee, but didn't take her eyes off Dib. "Thanks, then."

"No problem! Oh, and if you take that money to a bank, you should be able to switch it out for US currency."

"I… will do that. Thank you." She turned as if she was going to leave, and Dib panicked. He didn't want her to go yet!

"W-wait!" He said, a little too loudly. "Can we… sit down? Uh, there's only one table left, but we can share, and I um, I've always wanted to go to England and maybe you can-"

"Fine." She interrupted, and walked briskly towards the table. Dib stood still in shock for a second at that having worked, but he recovered quickly to go sit down with her. He didn't really know what to say, but finally he was sitting, having coffee with a pretty lady, so he cleared his throat to speak.

"So uh, what's your name?"

"Autumn."

"That's a nice name! It goes with your hair…" Dib winced to himself as she stared at him blankly.

Thanks." She paused to take another sip of her coffee, regarding him with less than hidden suspicion. "What is your name?"

"Dib Membrane." He blurted out before thinking. Fuck! He mentally kicked himself at his slip up. How could he be so stupid!

"Nice to meet you." She said simply, weirdly showing no recognition of his name. That was odd, and while Dib felt very lucky that she didn't recognize it, it was very rare when someone didn't recognize his name. Must be from somewhere remote in England, he surmised.

"So, what brings you to Point Pleasant?" Dib asked, hoping to successfully strike up conversation some time today.

"Sorry?"

"You know, what brought you here? You uh, into all the mothman stuff?"

Autumn looked at him as if he had grown another head, but he felt thankful she didn't simply get up and walk away.

"No… I'm just traveling."

"Cool…" Dib fumbled for what to say next. "So, uh, you enjoying the states so far?"
"Sorry?" Autumn said, looking a mixture of confused and annoyed as she sipped her coffee.

"Y'know, the states? Sorry, something we call it here, um… America, ha, this country?"

"Oh, yes, it's…" Autumn looked around the cafe and wrinkled her nose. "Quaint."

"Ah, do you miss home then?"

Autumn paused as she was putting the mug down, and then spoke softly. "No, not really. It is nice to travel and be away."

"Yeah, I get that. Sometimes I don't even feel like… Oh nevermind." Dib took a sip of his drink, struggling to think of what to say. He didn't want her to get bored and leave, but he wasn't sure what to say. They sat in awkward silence, drinking their coffee, and although he could have realized it was nice in it's own right to be sitting peacefully with a pretty woman, he was too nervous to think of that silver lining. Maybe he could break the silence by asking her about England? He always wanted to visit, so maybe she had some good suggestions for-

"What are they doing?" Autumn suddenly spoke, and he snapped his head up to pay her his full attention.

"Huh?"

Autumn sighed with annoyance, and lifted her hand slightly to point behind Dib. "Those two. What are they doing?" Dib turned around in his seat, searching for what it was that she was pointing to. Nothing unusual seemed to be happening in the cafe, just people mingling and talking normally. He turned back around to look at Autumn in confusion.

"What are you talking about?"

"Them! Those two, waving their hands!" Dib turned back around, and looked again. Sure enough, he realized what she was talking about. Two customers in the line, waiting to order were signing to each other.

"Oh…" He whispered to himself. Facing Autumn, he scooted his chair in and began to explain.

"They're signing. You know, sign language?"

"They're signing?" Her voice sounded strangely hollow, but Dib chalked it up to her surprise.

"Yeah, I mean, it's american sign language, so I guess it must look different than what you're used to?"

"O-oh, yeah, it does look different." She pursed her lips together, and continued to stare over Dib's shoulder at the customers. He glanced back at them just to see if they were doing anything wrong, but they weren't, so he was a little unsure on why she was acting so weird.

"Are you okay?"

She finally looked at him, and swallowed. "Yeah, I just… I haven't ever seen anyone sign in public before."

"Really? That's why you didn't know what it was?"

"Yeah… Well actually, I do know what sign language is. My sister… My sister is deaf, actually."

"Oh, so you know sign language? That's so cool!" Dib grinned excitedly. "I've always wanted to learn, maybe you could show me a few signs?"

"No." She said sharply, and then blushed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to sound so harsh, I would just rather not."

"Th-that's okay! Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you." He frowned at his mug of coffee, mentally slapping himself for that blunder.

"It's okay. I'm not upset." She sipped her coffee, and leaned back into her chair to get more comfortable, folding her free hand over her lap. Her face returned to a stoic and focused demeanor, and Dib couldn't help but find it admirable. She looked so focused. Autumn radiated intelligence and confidence, and Dib wanted to figure out a way to impress her, or get her interested in him.

"So, Autumn, how is it you ended up in Point Pleasant and don't know anything about Mothman?" Dib mentally cringed as he realized that he brought up mothman, again. But to be fair, he reasoned, meeting Phil meant it was kind of on his mind.

"Oh, I'm just travelling, and… I like photography. What is this mothman?"

"Oh really? I like photography too! And you know what, don't worry about it. It's a paranormal thing, so it's complicated and I uh…" Dib's voice dropped off as he realized that he didn't know what to say now that everything he thought he knew was flipped on its head.

"Paranormal?" Genuine confusion was on her face, but Dib found it hard to believe she hadn't even heard of the subject!

"Yeah, you know, weird, unexplainable things that the government pretends aren't real. Bigfoot, mothman, mermaids, a-aliens." The last word caught in his throat as he realized that he probably shouldn't be mentioning aliens, just to be safe.

"Oh, I know what aliens are." She said confidently. "I just didn't know there was a word for that category."

"Well, there is! Would you like to know more…?" Dib crossed his fingers under the table and held his breath as he waited for her response. Autumn swirled her coffee as she thought briefly, and then she sighed and nodded.

"Sure. Might as well."