"You don't need all twenty blankets."

"Yes, I do."

"No, you really don't." Dib picked one up. "You get as many as we can carry in one trip, got it? You're just going to have to move all of them back upstairs soon anyway, unless you-" Dib clicked his tongue. "Oh, it might be a good idea to keep them all in the lab, since I doubt you want to give birth up on the ground floor."

"Of course not!" One of Zim's eyes started twitching.

"Alright, fine, we'll carry them downstairs."

"But the food is up here."

"So leave half of them up here and half downstairs."

"But I want all of them!"

Dib buried his face in the blanket and resisted the urge to scream. "Pick your favorites and take those down, then."

Zim deliberated with a 'hmmmmmm…' for an agonizing thirty seconds, before panning his gaze over the nest. "Those four."

"Okay, four is good. I can do four." Dib dropped the one he was holding, and Zim snatched it up. Dib waded through the nest. "Okay, this one, this one, and…?"

"The blue one, and the one that's checkered. It's soft."

"Got it." Dib bundled them up- he could barely see anything unless he craned his neck, but it was better than crying to carry the entire nest with him. "I'll just come back for the parts."

"Mm." Zim had grabbed a pillow as well as a blanket, and the frozen pizza was balanced on top.

Well, whatever. If Zim wanted to drop little cheese-bits everywhere, that wasn't Dib's problem. He was the neat freak anyway.

"Computer, take us down to the lab." There was a whirring, but no elevator, and Dib took in a slow, deep breath. "Please?"

"Got it." The elevator opened up and Dib walked carefully over to it- before stepping on one of Gir's toys and falling flat on his face. Luckily, he landed on top of the blankets he'd been carrying, but he'd gotten a mouthful of fabric and his ribs ached more than they should have.

"Ugh…" Dib rubbed his head, dropping the blankets to start rummaging around. "What's in here?"

"Nothing," Zim said, blinking, before his eyes widened and he started whistling. Dib glared at him.

"That doesn't look like nothing to me, Zim." He found a few more squeaky toys, but none of them- wait. "Is that my suitcase?"

"That could be anyone's suitcase."

"No, it's got the Eyeball symbol I stencilled in years ago. Why did you even take this?" Dib fiddled with the latch. "Aw man, you busted the lock! Were you trying to get in?"

"Of- of course not!"

"All I had in this one was clothes anyway, at least." Dib sighed. "Great, I'm going to need the laser to even get back in. I liked this suitcase. What were you trying to do anyway?"

"Nothing! You were going to assemble the missile, no? We should do that."

"Zim."

Zim shifted the blankets he was holding, and had to catch the pizza from falling off. "I'll set things up!"

"Zim, you can't just steal and break my stuff for no reason."

"It wasn't for no reason."

"What was it, then?" Dib raised an eyebrow, and Zim headed over to the elevator.

"Don't you want to get that missile built?"

"You're avoiding the question, Zim." Dib grabbed a few blankets at random, following him. "If this is just another weird nesting thing, I need to know before I wake up to you stealing the clothes right off my back."

"I wanted it, that's all there is to it," Zim said as he climbed into the lift. He tried to lean casually against the wall, but Dib could hear his breathing as he carefully avoided the mess on the ground to stand next to him.

"You could have asked."

"Would you have let me have it?" Zim asked, and Dib thought for a moment.

"Probably not, but that's just because I've had that one so long it has sentimental value. You could have had the other bags, but you kind of destroy a lot of what you get your hands on."

Zim gasped. "How dare-"

"Zim, you just blew up part of the missile. It's not an insult, it's just a fact." Dib tapped his foot as the elevator took them down. "You need to work with me on this."

"Hmmph." Zim turned away as they entered the lab, trying to march away but only succeeding in waddling about ten feet before dumping his little pile of blankets on the floor and curling up in them. He picked up his frozen pizza and tried to take another bite, then growled. Dib dumped his blankets on top of Zim's head.

"There you go. Don't bug me unless it's something important, okay? The Santa showed up on the twenty-third last year and I'd rather be prepared."

Zim grumbled something that sounded suspiciously like 'worm' and Dib pulled open the cabinet and tugged on a pair of goggles before heading back to the elevator to grab the parts. He had work to do.

Apparently, according to Zim, 'something important' involved 'I want juice but it's hard to get up', 'there's a spider in the blankets', and 'the robot cat your father-creature sent back is licking me and I want it gone but I don't want to just melt it, why don't I want to melt it?'. Three hours later, Dib had only finished about a fourth of the blueprint after listening to Zim blubbering over the metal kitten. When Dib had last seen the robot, it had settled on top of Zim's boot and he was watching it flick its tail.

"Dib?"

Dib nearly snapped the handle of the blowtorch in half as Zim's voice echoed through the lab. Again . He'd move to another room if he wasn't afraid Zim was going to fall on his face and suffocate, at this point. " What? "

"She's moving too much!"

Dib tugged the goggles up, the elastic band snapping against the sides of his skull as he turned in the hover-chair. Zim was holding his stomach with wide eyes. Dib sucked in a deep breath, walking over to crouch in front of him. Zim tugged up his shirt, to show-

Oh, wow . Dib could see little bumps under the skin, shifting around. "Geez, she is." Dib set his hand on top of one of the bumps, and it moved below his palm. "You getting all worked up must have worked her up too."

Zim stared down at himself, and at Dib's hand. "Can you calm her down?"

"Maybe if you stop yelling at me to come over every ten minutes she'll fall asleep."

"But Gir falls asleep even when I'm yelling at him. "

"Gir's a robot, she's- I dunno what the technical term would be besides hybrid, but organic. Most people don't calm down if you scream around them." Dib blinked. "Man, we're really going to have to adjust to that, I don't think you have a low volume setting."

Zim made a disgruntled mumble, leaning back against the blankets. "It will be fine."

"Yeah, I hope so…" Dib shook his head to clear it. "Anyways. You said you were going to be quiet, remember?"

"I promised no such thing!"

"You-" Dib pinched the bridge of his nose. "Can you promise it now? I really don't want to have to face Santa relying on your weapons with you barely able to walk."

Zim snarled. "I can handle anything! Better than you can, even, I'm an elite soldier-"

"Twenty minutes ago you couldn't handle a spider!" Dib stood up. "I need some air. Computer, can you keep him away from the equipment?"

"He's my master, not you."

Dib took a very slow breath in as Zim glared at him with narrowed eyes.

"Please?"

"Fine, but only because I don't want to waste time repairing anything. You have an hour."

"Good enough." Dib swept over to the lift. "Ground floor." It started to rise, and Dib crossed his arms and blew a lock of hair from his eyes with a huff.

"Geez, you're touchy today."

"He's being insufferable!"

The computer didn't reply to that, slamming to a stop and Dib headed directly out the door, slamming it shut hard enough behind him that the gnomes sprung to life. The one wayward one in the back that never properly recognized his signature had been programmed in took a shot until Dib made it past the property line.

Zim was just…. he just… ugh! The busy store from earlier, the explosion and almost losing the ability to talk, ruining Dib's stuff, and then being so annoying about every little thing Dib couldn't even do something that would help both of them?

The same fire he'd felt back in middle skool whenever he'd heard Zim's voice was turning around in his stomach and he stuffed his hands further into his coat.

Dib stomped through the snow, nearly slipping on ice more than once until he threw the door to his house open.

"What, did he kick you out?" Gaz was doodling in her sketchbook at the table.

"No, he was just- just- argh!" Dib pulled the chair out with a squeaky wail as it was dragged on the the tile, before burying his head in his arms. "He's acting like an annoying little kid!"

"You realize you two are having an annoying little kid." Gaz's pencil scratched as she blew a bubble of grape-smelling gum.

"I know, but no kid could be as annoying as he's been today. He almost blew us both up." Dib's voice was muffled through his sleeves.

The bubble popped. "So? What's new about that?"

"Because it's not just him anymore! He's carrying a kid, who could get really hurt if he pulls the same dumb shit he's been doing for years, and he's been really clingy." Dib groaned. "We really weren't ready for this."

"No, you really weren't," Gaz said, flipping a page and starting to scribble again. Dib turned his head to look at her.

"Gee, thanks."

"You knew what you were getting into," Gaz tilted her head a little. "I mean, it's Zim . He's a moron. You knew that."

"Yeah... ugh, I'm an idiot." Dib dug the heel of his palms into his eyes underneath his glasses, the lab goggles still strapped to his head.

"You've got two choices. Either mope around like a baby, or figure this out."

"How am I supposed to figure out what to do if I have no idea what the right thing is? Everything used to be so much easier- he was evil, I was the good guy. Now I've got to think about it."

Gaz made a broad stroke with her pencil. "Not my problem."

"But-"

Gaz raised her head, opening her eyes just wide enough that Dib could feel her gaze piercing his soul. "Look. Do you want to treat the kid like Dad treated us, like roommates and science experiments?"

"I-"

"This is your chance to not fuck things up. I'd take it." She settled back in her seat, and Dib swallowed.

"Yeah. I'll- I'll just go before Zim sets himself on fire or something."

"Good call."

The walk back to the base was freezing- Dib hadn't noticed when he'd stormed over, but now the slush splashed up to sink into his boots where his pants were tucked into them. Luckily, the gnome in the back had stopped working again as Dib elbowed the door open.

"How was my time?"

"Five minutes to spare."

"And Zim?"

"Pouting."

Dib stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Alright, take me back down to the lab."

The elevator went too slow- or maybe his brain was just running too fast.

"Dib-beast!" Zim yelled as soon as it opened into the lab, wearing the blankets like a cape with bits of tomato sauce around his lips. The pizza must have finally thawed enough to eat. "Why did you just leave? "

"I told you, I needed some air." Dib strode across the lab and sat down next to him. "Are you okay?"

"I've- eh? Yes, I'm fine, but she's still-" Zim yawned. "Still moving around too much."

"Only a few more weeks. You'll live." Dib glanced over at the partially-finished missile before sighing. "I'm not getting anything else done tonight. We've got two weeks until Christmas, I'll deal with it later."

"Don't you want to protect us?"

"I can do it tomorrow. Besides, we can make a plan for what to do if Keef shows up again."

"That does sound like fun," Zim admitted. "Fine, you can continue the building of the launcher tomorrow." He tried to push himself up in the pile, but his legs wobbled and he threw his arms out to try and balance.

Dib scooped him up, and this time, Zim didn't protest, setting one arm on top of his stomach and pointing with the other to the ceiling. "To the planning room!"

"To the planning room," Dib agreed. He could still see the movement from where the shirt didn't cover, and swallowed.

They could do this. One step at a time.