The crib was shaped like an egg, and Zim's patience was about to snap like the shell of one. This should have only taken a few hours, but his arms couldn't bend the metal like he usually could, and now his bones ached. He groaned, arching his back and hearing a CRACK in his lower spine when he stretched far enough. He looked down at the curve of his abdomen, under the blue of Dib's old shirt. "I'm making this for you, you could appreciate it a little more, you know!"

"Appreciate what?" Dib walked into the room, Gir at his heels.

"The crab."

"The crib?"

"Yes, yes, that's what I said." Zim pulled the goggles off his face, waving the drill and getting tiny metal shavings on his cheeks as it whirred. "It's taking longer to build than I anticipated."

"You need any help?"

"Oooh!" Gir scrambled past Dib, hopping up into the shell of the crib and squirming through the space left by the unwelded bars. Zim grabbed one foot, yanking him back, and Gir squealed as he was thrown through the air from the force, landing right in Dib's arms.

"It's not done yet, the shields could have fried your AI," Zim tossed Gir's foot back at him. It zipped back to its rightful place. Dib moved to set him down before Gir clung to him and scrambled up his arms.

"Oh, okay, you're on my head now." Dib looked up to see Gir waving happily at him before walking over to Zim.

"To answer your question, no, I don't need any help." Zim huffed. "I should have been done already, but it was being difficult. These parts must be wrong. I'll have to order more."

"Do you have a blueprint?"

Zim tossed it to him, and Dib knelt down, unfurling it. He winced as Gir gripped his hair, leaning over to try and get a better look as well.

"Ooooh, you making a pony?"

"No, a crib." Dib scanned over the sheet. "Okay, the base construction doesn't look too hard… it's just an oval. So you're going to only have a few bars and the rest is a force field?"

"Gir's gotten his head stuck in things way too small for him before. I don't want to be pulling the smeet out too."

"The soundproofing's build into the shield, and then only you and I and Minimoose can get through… that's a good idea." Dib ran his fingers over it. "Man, your handwriting is terrible."

"Is not! I can read it just fine."

"That's because it's yours. " Dib squinted. "Okay, this part is in irken… cloaking?"

"I found some discontinued Megadoomer blueprints, and this way I can keep them away from Gir if I want to! If he rolled it around that probably wouldn't be good. Smeet brains are gooier than normal brains, it'd get all splattered."

"You want to make a floating crib, with the baby inside… invisible." Dib said slowly. "So you can't see it."

"Only sometimes, so Gir doesn't try and bat it around. Every time I make something, he has to get his grubby little hands on it."

"I sure do!" Gir chirped.

"We did practice with cloaked objects at basic training," Zim added. "It's not like I'd lose it."

"Yeah, you would. You're just making it harder for yourself. Making it so you can mute outside sound so they can sleep is a good idea, but it doesn't need a ton of tech."

"Of course it does, they'll only have the best." Zim scoffed. "If I'm doing this, I'm doing it right."

"I don't know how 'right' this is," Dib said, running a finger along one of the curved bars. "It's probably better than having hard corners, though. Babies run into stuff a lot, right?"

"Don't ask me, you're the species that needs smeet cages that aren't for punishment," Zim said, pulling his goggles back on. "When I was put in something like this, it was usually because I 'blew something up' or 'was a threat to myself and others.' " He made finger quotes as he scoffed. "They put the fireworks near the bunks, what did they expect?"

"Man, I'm glad you didn't show up in my class until recently, you must have been terrible when you were actually my age." Dib grimaced. "Although fireworks would certainly have broken up the doom and gloom when Miss Bitters got going."

"That was the point!" Zim pointed the drill tip at Dib. "See, you get it and you weren't even there! Holosims are so boring without actual gore." He stood up, stretching before pawing at the back of his neck. "Your shirt is strange. The collar is too itchy, how did you stand this?"

"That's probably the fleas."

"What?"

Dib grinned. "Yeah, my dad accidentally let radioactive fleas loose a few years back, I'm still picking them out of my stuff sometimes."

Zim clawed at the shirt. "Get it off, get it off!" He yanked it over his head, but it caught on his collar, tearing nearly in half. Dib snickered.

"Zim, I was joking. It's probably just the fact that it has a tag."

"Tag? You mean that infernal little strip in the back?" Zim pulled the shirt the rest of the way off, ripping the fabric more. It wasn't like he was putting it back on now, joke or no. That tag was very irritating.

Dib nodded. "Yeah, they can be annoying to me too. Give me a second." He turned, Gir shrieking happily as he headed down the hall. Zim flipped the remains of the shirt over, reaching into the collar and rubbing the tag between his thumb and index finger. It was so scratchy , why would humans torment themselves with something like this?

Gir started singing the theme song to some cartoon show that Zim couldn't recall the name of, and he could hear when Dib returned by the increase in volume. Dib's eye was twitching as he handed Zim another folded shirt, and Zim grinned. Living with Gir took some getting used to.

"Here, this one doesn't have a tag on it, I cut it off ages ago."

Zim pinched the edges and lifted it up, letting the dark blue fabric fall open to reveal… a neon green shape in the middle. It was an oval with a point on the bottom, and had two tilted disks like eyes. He squinted.

"What is this supposed to be- is this an alien?"

"Yeah. It was that or the shirt we all got for participating in the middle school talent show- you remember that?"

"I remember you were a terrible singer," Zim said, tilting it from side to side to examine it further.

"And I can't believe you were actually a really good one. Seriously, what are the odds?" Dib said. "Knife juggling was kind of overboard, though."

"I don't do things halfway," Zim said, looking down at his uniform. The skin at the bottom was still visible. He'd torn the first shirt trying to get it over the collar. If it didn't fit anyway… He set the shirt down, pulling at the back of his collar to pop the harder part over his head.

"Yeah, I think that's pretty obvious by now," Dib said with some bemusement. "You look like a dog with one of those medical cones on their head, by the way."

"Silence!" Zim snapped, yanking hard enough to catch his antennae as the entire top came off. Dib fell quiet, staring at Zim now clad only in gloves, tights, and boots. The curve of his belly was more obvious without any top as opposed to when he just pulled it up, something Zim noticed immediately. He had intended to immediately replace it with the new shirt, but his hand lingered over the skin, floating just above it for a moment before making contact.

"Hey, are they moving around right now?" Dib asked, scooting a little closer on his knees. He moved to touch Zim's hand, but Gir slid off his head, landing in between them.

"Oooh, you're getting fat!"

"Gir!" Zim glared at him. "I am not! That's... eh- the smeet's space. "

"Hi," Gir said almost reverently, setting his hand on the skin next to Zim's. It was cool, and Zim had to suppress a shudder at the shiver it sent up his spine. Gir gave a little squeeze before pulling back, and Zim's left antenna twitched. He reached for the shirt, tugging it on fast before Gir decided he should give it a kiss or something.

Zim's fingers pinched the bottom of the shirt, holding it out so he could see the design upside down. "And normal humans wear clothing declaring themselves alien property like this?"

"Yeah, I told you it was in my- hey, it's not saying you're alien property, just that you like aliens!"

"Well, I asked about normal humans, not about you."

Dib smacked him with the sleeve of his coat, but Zim laughed hard enough over his own joke that it was well worth it.