From Me To You

Gaz went home. She decided that she would deal with her brother just to be able to get fresh clothes. As much as she could care less for tradition, she would wear all black. She did not want anyone to think that she was insulting her father's memory. That was another reason that she hated this. If it was just her, she knew that her Dad would not mind her wearing whatever she wanted to. Thinking of which, when she went to the memorial service, people would want her to talk. She almost decided to forget the whole thing and not to go at all.

"Gaz," Dib said as she came through the door. "You decided to come home."

She shrugged. "I will need to change clothes if I'm going tomorrow."

Dib's face changed, he was not smiling, but he definitely looked relieved.

"But I only want to go to the burial," she added. "I don't want to sit through a bunch of religious people and science freaks talking." She waited for his refusal so that she could argue with him.

He looked her face over, obviously aware that she wanted to fight. "The burial will be twelve. I ordered pizza, your favourite. You're just in time, it's still hot. I haven't touched it."

Gaz went into the kitchen where Dib gestured. She opened the lid to see he had told her the truth. It was her favourite, she was surprised he remembered, and it was all there piping hot. She pulled out the cutter and cut out a piece. The taste reminded her of when Dad would take her to Bloaty's. The memory brought tears to her eyes, but she managed to blink them back. Chewing on a mouthful of cheesy goodness she cut out another piece, sliding it on a plate. She turned to see Dib, staring out the window. His face looked even more drawn, his body thinner then it had in the past. She jabbed his arm with the plate.

"You don't eat enough, you'll probably faint during the memorial service," she told him.

He took the plate and chewed slowly on the pizza. "And you'd want to miss that?"

"My brother making a fool out of himself?" she asked. "I see that everyday. That's nothing new." She went and sat down at the table. After a minute he joined her and they sat there eating pizza in silence.

-

Gaz woke up in the morning at eight o'clock. Groaning, she hit the snooze button and wondered why on earth or any other planet she set the alarm on for that early on a weekend. Remembering the funeral, she slowly woke up, just lying there and staring at the ceiling. She set it early because she had to watch her father be stuck underground. She would never see him again. And because of this she had to spend thirty minutes getting into her funeral clothing.

She got up, walking over to where she had set it out the night before. She rid herself of her pajamas, hair still slightly wet from her shower at four in the morning. She slid on her midnight blue blouse and then grabbed her black tights and pulled them on while sitting on the ground. She then put on her black A-line skirt and then a black bodice with silver clasps over the blouse. Wrapping her silver belt around all of that and tying her gloves up at her elbows, she went searching for her knee high boots to avoid wearing her ankle boots which were the only ones she could find yesterday. She stopped at 8:50, remembering that she was supposed to meet Zim at nine thirty. She had forgotten to call him, or something to tell him that she was not going until twelve. She decided that if she did not go when she said she was he was not going to come. Sighing in irritation, she grabbed her black leather jacket and headed down the stairs to get something for breakfast.

"You know you don't have to be up this early," Dib said, holding out a plate of toast to her.

"Didn't know how long it would take to put on this thing," she pulled at one of the sleeves, then took the plate. "I thought that I'd go for a walk beforehand."

"Go ahead," Dib fixed his suit's jacket in the hall mirror, by habit, and without even realizing it he grabbed his leather trench coat and put it on over his suit.

"I was going to do it whether you told me to or not," she frowned, putting the plate down on the counter, a piece of toast in hand.

"Right then," he opened the door. "See you at twelve," he went out and closed the door. Gaz looked at her toast, suddenly not hungry. She waited a few minutes before she grabbed an object off the floor and headed out the door.

She did take a small walk before heading to Zim's. She stared at the stupid lawn gnomes that the alien insisted that everyone normal had. Ignoring as they continued to watch her, she rang the door bell.

Much to her dismay, Zim's little robot opened the door, wearing his green dog outfit.

"Masta' say you late!" the robot shrieked.

"Where's Zim?" she asked, only wanting to talk with as little amount of idiocy as possible.

"We're's eating waffles!" Gir grabbed her skirt and pulled her in. Gaz normally would have let Gir pull as hard as possible and still not moved, but she was afraid of getting it ripped. She examined it as soon as Gir let go to make sure that there was no syrup on it.

"You're late," she immediately put her skirt back down as Zim's head appeared around the archway into the "kitchen," a fork in his mouth.

"I don't have to go to the memorial," Gaz said, flattening her skirt. "So we don't have to go until eleven thirty."

"Oh," he looked a bit annoyed. "Gir! Leave her belt alone!"

Gaz turned her head to see Gir working on her belt. He pulled away when Zim yelled at him though, running away screaming about tea time. Zim walked over to her.

"Why do you keep that?" she pointed at the "dog" as he continued to run, even though he was already faced with the wall.

"Why? My Tallest trusted me with him," Zim looked proud. "Want some waffles?"

Gaz opened an eye at him. "What's in them?" She expected some weird alien ingredient to be named, but what he said completely surprised her.

"Oh, there's waffle in them," Zim informed her. "We just ran out of the soap ones. But the hot dog ones are just starting."

Gaz could not believe it. Again, although she could care less, she wondered how he managed to stay unnoticed for this long, even though people were idiots.

"Is that all?"

"Gir was going to do a pizza one," Zim shrugged, not seeming that interested in it.

"I'll have that then," Gaz figured it couldn't hurt to try it.

"Sure then," Zim went back into the kitchen. Gaz followed him, seeing a floating brown thing out of the corner of her eyes. She turned to see that floating moose thing that Zim had said was with him all along. "Gir! Forget your hot dog waffles! No one wants to eat them!"

"Fonzo loves them!" Gir protested, flinging a bit of the hot dog batter at the wall.

"Make the pizza ones Gir," Zim rolled his lensed eyes.

"Pizza!" screamed Gir, doing many random things that Gaz was not sure had anything to do with cooking.

Zim sat down at his place at the table, which was already piled with waffles. He picked up a newspaper and proceeded to read it, a pig hung over the chair behind him. Gaz sat down at the other side, pushing the soap waffles away from herself. She wondered if she should tell Zim that people didn't eat soap, but figured with as paranoid about germs as he seemed, he probably thought that eating soap helped.

"Pizza coming up!" Gir slid a huge plate piled with waffles on it in front of her. They all looked like normal waffles, making her wonder if he even put the pizza in it. Slowly, she picked up the fork that just so happened to be in the top waffle and cut at one, deciding she really didn't need the syrup that only Gir was eating. Especially since he was eating it straight from the bottle and she did not want any of the robot's saliva on her food, considering he was a robot and he shouldn't have saliva in the first place. She stuck it in her mouth and chewed on it experimentally.

Zim looked around the stacks of waffles and at her. "Any good?"

She shrugged. "It's okay." She actually liked it a lot. "And it doesn't seem to be making me sick-"

"Better only eat five then," Zim said suddenly, voice somewhat muffled by the food. Gir came to the table and started stuffing his face, allowing Gaz to see Zim over the waffles.

"I think I'll only have one," she said, cutting into it again.

"Suit yourself," Zim shrugged, throwing the paper out the window. A dog yelped and then there was silence. "Gir! Eat the rest of these waffles!"

There was no need of him saying that, for Gir had already cleaned up the entire table except the two that Gaz pulled off of her plate before Gir ate them and the plate. Gaz had a good look at what Zim was wearing, which was his everyday since skool clothing. They couldn't have been the same ones, considering the little he had grown at least would have made those a bit too small, but they looked the same.

"Your not wearing that are you?" she pointed at his uniform.

Zim stared at her finger, then where she was pointing. "Yes I am," he nodded, as if just sating someone's curiosity.

"No," Gaz glowered at him. "You are not wearing that to a funeral."

"Why not?" Zim glared back at her. "This is what Zim wears!"

"Not to a funeral is that what Zim wears," she slammed her hand on the table.

"Oh?" Zim scoffed. "And what will Zim wear?"

"You'll have to wear a suit to the funeral," she put another piece of waffle in her mouth, signaling the end to any debate.

"And where will Zim get one of these, suit-es?" he asked her.

"Suit," she corrected. "And I guess we'll just have to go and buy one."

"You think that you'll get Zim in a suit?" Zim bristled. He then stopped and thought about it. "What do suits look like?"

"Try one, you might like it," Gaz said sarcastically, finishing her waffle. Zim appeared to be arguing about it to himself, but she ignored that as she glared at Gir, who was staring at her. "Come on, we only have two hours to get you a suit."

Zim scowled. "Fine."

Gaz headed for the door, stopping and turning towards Zim. "You have money for this right?"

"Yes," he replied, annoyed.

"Good," she responded, going out the door.

"Gir, be good and stay in the house today," she heard Zim command behind her. Gir squealed something she could not decipher, and neither, it seemed, could Zim as he just closed the door behind him.

They walked in silence, Zim with his normal army drill like walk. Neither of them tried to bring up a conversation, which Gaz was glad for, since she did not want to bring Zim to the funeral a tangled mess. They found themselves back at the mall. The fountain which she had been sitting at before was not working, most likely because of the frozen temperatures of the night before. It was December alright, even though it had not snowed yet. Gaz felt the cold morning air go straight up her legs, berating her for not finding those knee high boots. She wished she remembered to put on some stockings instead of tights.

They finally came up to a store that had suits called (taken out for copyright purposes). Gaz went up to the front counter.

"That guy needs a suit," she told the guy there, pointing back at Zim. "Measure him and get the one closest to his size."

The guy rose his eyebrows. "What does a skool kid need with a suit?"

"Just do it!" Gaz growled at him.

The guy gulped. "Yeah, first we need to do the measurements of your friend-"

"He's not my friend," she told him, going back over to Zim.

"Go with him, he'll see which one is your size," she went to sit down on the bench.

Zim's eyes widened. "What all does this measuring entail?" As she didn't answer, he growled. "Oh you wretched-" Fortunately for Zim the employee pulled him back before he could actually say something to get on her violent nerves.

She looked up as she heard the man ask for the amount of money that the suit was. Zim had thankfully stayed in his suit so she did not have to make him change back. He walked over to her, fuming. She looked him over. Despite his stupid wig, she would have to say that he did not look half bad. She pushed that thought out of her mind as he looked down at her on the bench.

"Well, at least you don't look so bad that I'd have to kill you," she said.

"I hope you're happy with what that earth monkey did to Zim!" he exclaimed.

"What?" she looked up at him. "Did he molest you?" She almost felt like smiling at that comment, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it.

"He poked me with a stick!" he shouted.

"Uh huh," Gaz got off of the bench and looked for her watch, which she remembered that she wasn't wearing. "What time is it?"

Zim brought up his own watch. "Ten hours and fifty-three minutes." He had started wearing a watch when he had begun to be able to say the time without a clock around. He did not find that normal.

"Right," she sighed, wondering what she could do in forty minutes. "I guess we could wander the mall, go to a wig store..."

"Zim does not want to 'wander the mall'!" Zim exclaimed, folding his arms.

"Well, too bad," she headed down in the direction she last remembered any wigs in. She figured while she was giving Zim a new look, he could use a better hairstyle, since any hairstyle would be better then his current one. She heard Zim grumble, but he followed her.

"Here you go," she said, stopping at a window with faceless heads wearing fake hair.

"A wig store?" Zim looked at the name of it. "Why on Glorfintchon did you come here?"

"To get you a new wig," she pulled his wig forward as he grabbed it to prevent her from pulling it off.

"Zim does not want another wig!" Zim protested.

"Well, Zim didn't want to wander the mall either, and look what he's been doing," Gaz stepped in to examine the wigs. "I think we'll stick with black to cover your antennae..."

"What antennae?" Zim asked loudly, as if people had heard her in the first place. She threw one of the wigs at him."What makes this better?"

"It doesn't have pointy hair!" she yanked off his wig, causing him to put the other one on to hide his head. She examined her choice. Sure, it made him look a bit unruly, but it was near one hundred percent better then his previous head gear. She decided that would have to do.

"Look who's talking!" Zim poked at her hair. Gaz just was about to strangle him, but he tripped over his other wig which she had dropped on the floor. She grabbed the necessary money out of his pocket.

"A wig for him," she told the person on the counter, counting out bills.

-

"I'm thirsty," Gaz was not really thirsty, she was just now curious how much money Zim normally carried with him. Zim did not seem aware of her curiosity and just started to look around.

"There're sodas over there," he pointed.

"I don't want a soda," Gaz shook her head. "I want some hot chocolate."

"Hot... chalk-o-lat?" Zim asked, looking confused.

"Hot chocolate," Gaz corrected. "It's a drink, most normal for this season. Didn't you read up on stuff like that when you were pretending to be Santa?"

"No," Zim responded simply. "But I supposed if everyone else drinks this, hot chocolate, we must go and get some as well."

"Good then," she pulled him into a cafe and up to the front. "Two hot chocolates," she told the person behind the counter. It took three minutes of waiting (of which Zim was not very patient) before they were handed their drinks. Gaz sipped at hers slowly while Zim took an experimental sniff at it.

"Watch out, it's hot," she said without much thought. Zim nodded and wrapped his hands around it, seeming just as cold or colder then Gaz was. Gaz rebuked herself for that comment, it would have been fun to see Zim burn his weird, serpentine tongue. She headed outside, deciding that mall (now that Zim was starting to like it) was getting a bit crowded for her tastes. The last time it was this crowded, someone made her drop her pizza (Dib). He payed immensely for his foolishness.

"This is good!" Zim said surprised, finally sipping at the chocolate, he then proceeded to gulp the contents down, as if drinking it quickly would savor it.

"And people say women like chocolate," she watched him down the warm liquid. He proceeded to cough as it must have slightly burnt his throat. "Idiot."

"Very good," Zim looked at the Styrofoam cup, completely ignoring the fact that he had been in pain a few seconds before. "I must get more of this, hot chocolate."

Gaz stared at her cup, remembering she wasn't really thirsty. It tasted good, but for some reason-

"Here," she handed her cup over to Zim. He gleefully took it (without thanks) and started to drink it more slowly.

"Zim?"

"Yes?" he looked over at her.

"I already drank that. Germs." She watched as he was between throwing the cup in the air and taking another sip. He looked lost, but very afraid of the germs that she had mentioned. While he was nervously contemplating that, though Gaz thought it would have been easier for him to go and buy more hot chocolate, he ran into someone coming out of the alleyway.

"Watch where you're goin' man!" the guy spat, missing Zim by a mile and hitting Gaz's boot. She felt in need to intervene for righteous punishment, but Zim was already about to attack.

"Watch where I'm going? You need to watch! You are faced with your future slave master! Apologize to Zim!"

"I think not," the man grabbed a hold of Zim's shoulder, though that caused him to have to bend down. "Look boss! Another idiot!"

"You tore my coat, jacket thing!" Zim pulled at a single loose thread.

Great, a stupid gang, Gaz wanted someone to pay for her shoe, but decided not to get herself into a mess that might be a little too big for her to get out of.

"Be a gentleman! Don't forget we have a lady in our presence as well!" the person who spoke, "Boss," and five other thugs came out, thinking that they looked cool.

"Lady? I don't see any ladies?" Zim looked at the seven of them, then at Gaz.

"No Zim, you're wrong," Gaz stepped forward next to him. "I see eight of them."

All of them frowned except for Zim, who was already frowning and had not done the math to realize that he had been included in that statement. Then, one of the guys laughed.

"I like her boss. Hey, little man, when your girlfriend breaks up with you, be sure to let me know."

"Girlfriend?" Zim asked. "Heh? Of... of course that would never happen!" He turned to face Gaz quickly. "What's a girlfriend?" he whispered.

Gaz rolled her eyes. "Look," she eyed the guy holding Zim's right arm. "We have somewhere to go, so either you let go of him, or you wish you never heard of gravity."

"Oooooh, tough talk," the first one said. "I agree, I like you. Very feisty. But this guy would have to be out of the way," he lifted Zim up by the arm, which proved to be a fatal mistake.

Gaz was about to do something, but Zim proved to be faster then she, which was also a surprise, considering she could normally outdo Zim in anything he challenged her to. His pak, which she knew of because of Dib, brought out his mechanical legs (another Dib discovery) and skewered the person in front of him, who hadn't even had enough time to change his face. When Zim pulled it out of his chest, his face turned to one of shock as he let go of the alien and dropped to the ground. Zim brought a few more things out of his pak, a few that consisted of lasers as he shot the others as some attempted to run. In only a few seconds, they were all dispatched. Gaz couldn't help her eyes widen at the carnage. Not that blood was normally an issue for her, it was more of the timing. First, if Zim could have done this he should have been able to take over the earth a long time ago. Second, they were dead. Dead, just like her father, from no wish of their own. Just a turn of luck that caused them to bump into the wrong people.

Zim patted himself down, not a speck of blood on him. "Annoying Earthenoids..." he muttered.

"You killed them," Gaz said in a monotone, kneeling down next to the guy who had gotten one of Zim's mechanical appendages in him. She was very careful to hold her skirt up to not get it in the blood, her shoes just outside of the puddle.

"I heard that gangs are not very important, so I'm not worried of anyone tracking them to me," Zim shrugged. "They were asking for it! This is what happens to those who mess with Zim!"

"They were just stupid!" Gaz shouted down at the corpse. "Stupid Humans!" She felt the tears on her face, though she knew at any other time she would care less for these people. "You had no right to choose that they died today!" She felt her nails dig into her palms. Just like that person had no right to end Dad's life! Stupid chemicals! No right at all!

It was quiet for a while. "I don't understand what you are-"

"You murdered them just as well as that idiot murdered Dad!" she screamed at him. Again, she attempted to pull herself back together as she wiped the tears off of her face, standing up. She gathered in a breath, letting her frozen breath back out. "We're going to be late," she said, going down the sidewalk.

Ah, and Fonzo makes another cameo appearance. Don't you just love Fonzo?