Winter break came and went far too quickly in Dib's opinion (and he was sure his students shared the sentiment).
He spent most of the break tinkering in the lab he and Zim shared, though his father had insisted that he and Gaz come to visit him on Christmas. As if forcing them to spend time with him now could make up for a childhood of near-constant neglect.
Dib had arrived back at his childhood home with a familiar tightness in his chest. He always hated coming back here, though he still felt nostalgic about certain things. He supposed the issue was less the house itself and more that he didn't want to have to spend the day with his father. He'd spent his entire childhood idolizing the man and trying to get his attention, and it never worked. The most he'd get was being called crazy, and if he was really lucky, a lecture about how everything he was interested in was worthless.
Gaz had figured out that trying to get attention, let alone love, from their father was pointless so much earlier than him, and he wasn't sure if that was better or worse. Would it have been better for his little sister to have been able to live in the same ignorance as him for a while longer and delay the heartbreak, or was his delayed realization the reason why it hurt so much?
But now that Professor Membrane was growing older, now that he spent a bit less time in the lab, now that his children had moved out, now that he realized what it was like to come home to an empty house day after day after day, now he wanted to spend time with them.
And despite any feelings Dib had on the matter, he strolled up to the door and rang the doorbell.
It opened after a few moments, revealing Gaz behind it. She must have gotten there before him. She took one disinterested look at him and turned back to shout:
"Dib's here!"
Then, she turned around and went back inside, leaving Dib to follow behind her. She immediately flopped onto the couch and began playing something on her phone while Professor Membrane stood from his chair.
"Ah, son! I see you've made it!" the man observed. "You didn't bring your little foreign friend?"
Dib sighed.
"No, dad. Zim doesn't celebrate Christmas."
Definitely not after Zim's failed attempt at using the holiday in his attempts for world domination, he didn't.
"Yes, well, I don't like celebrating Christmas, either- especially not when a certain jolly man is skulking about- but here I am, making time to see my children!" the scientist spoke.
Dib resisted the urge to pinch his forehead.
"Even if Zim did celebrate Christmas, why would he come to your house instead of going to visit his own family?" Dib questioned, choosing to ignore his father's deliberate attempt to point out 'what a great father he was being'.
And sure, Zim didn't really have family, especially not on Earth (unless you counted Gir), but Professor Membrane didn't really need to know that.
"Because children usually bring their partners home to meet their parents when they've been together as long as you two have," came the answer.
Oh, not this again-
"Dad," Dib spoke, voice serious. "Zim and I are not a couple. We're roommates. That's it. And even if we were, you've already met him."
His father let out a chuckle.
"You don't need to hide it, son. You're an adult, and you can make your own decisions on who to date," the man told him. "But surely you don't believe that I, Professor Membrane, could be that dense? You've been obsessed with him since you were a child, and now you live together. SIMPLE MATHEMATICS!"
This time, Dib really did pinch his forehead.
Ever since Dib came out as gay during high school, his father had acted like some puzzle piece finally clicked in place and concluded that Dib's obsession with Zim wasn't because he was an alien (because 'aliens aren't real, Dib'), but was really because he had a crush on him. Which he didn't. Yes, Dib could see how people could misunderstand, especially since they lived together, but Dib didn't really see Zim like that. They'd gone from enemies to friends, and that's where the feelings stopped. Any feelings Dib had toward Zim were completely platonic (or just plain annoyance). And based off of the conversation he'd overheard Zim having with Zee, romantic relationships generally weren't even a thing with Irkens.
So, yeah, Dib understood how it might look from the outside, but he'd corrected his father a hundred times already that they weren't in a relationship, and the man just never listened. Well, Dib supposed it was just one more thing on the mountain of things Professor Membrane didn't want to listen to.
"Whatever," Dib sighed under his breath. "Did you get the cans of beans, or do I need to go to the store?"
XXX
Winter break was weird, Zee decided.
The children of Earth just got a random week and a half off of school in the middle of winter for no real reason. Or at least, no reason that seemed to make sense to Zee. He was pretty sure winter break was positioned intentionally so that students wouldn't have school on Christmas, even though many of his classmates didn't even celebrate the holiday. And yet, everyone seemed to pretend that wasn't the reason why they had time off. Or, at least, they pretended that whenever he tried to ask what the purpose was. Whenever they had to explain it, they tried to dance around the fact that Christmas wasn't celebrated by everyone, but at the same time, Zee heard people referring to it as 'Crismuss Brake'.
Eventually, he just chalked it up to being another weird human thing, and he didn't particularly care enough about this topic to pursue it any further.
Whatever the point was, it had at least given him a chance to read more books between the relatively low volume of homework. One assignment actually happened to be a book report, which he'd done on an incredibly dramatic story about adultery.
Even though he didn't have school, Bee still had to work (aside from 'Crissmus Day' itself), so he was home alone most of the day until she got back. He'd also spent some time with Ann, but they had to go visit family for a few days, so he hadn't seen them in a while.
At the moment, he was flipping through a recipe book, looking for something Bee might like that he could make. Both of them were able to cook a few basic things, most of which were more along the lines of 'fruit on a stick cooked over a fire because we couldn't find any packaged snacks and we're incredibly desperate' than complicated meals. They'd learned how to make a few more things over the years, and they'd learned quite a bit on Earth, seeing as they intended to stay for a while, but Zee sometimes had the desire to learn a few more recipes.
Currently, he was debating whether he should go with something safe like cake or doughnuts, or if he should try to expand into something like chicken and waffles. He'd had a much easier time than Bee in getting used to non-snack foods, and she wasn't always so willing to try them. She'd eat waffles, but the chicken was debatable. For some reason, she seemed to be under the impression that it was deadly. But maybe she'd be okay with it if it was covered in syrup?
Then again, he could also cover a doughnut in syrup.
XXX
Yes, winter break definitely went by far too quickly.
His students were clearly still on holiday mode and not really paying attention in class even though they were now back from break and not approaching it and they really needed to start covering the curriculum again, or he was gonna have to rush through something else later.
The only one who seemed to be paying attention was Zee, except Dib eventually realized that Zee had apparently developed a habit of doodling over break, and he had barely taken any notes at all.
By the end of class, Dib felt more relieved by the bell than his students, he was sure.
XXX
Dib came home to find that Zee had come over again. He wasn't sure what disguise he'd used to get there, whether it was his usual one or not, as he was currently in his Irken form (or at least, he better have been wearing some kind of disguise). He and Zim were in the kitchen, and based on the appliance sitting on the counter, they were making waffles. Zim appeared to be helping a bit begrudgingly, but he was, nonetheless, helping.
"Hello, Dib-worm," Zim greeted him as he hopped off the stool he'd been standing on.
"Hey. Making… waffles?" Dib inquired.
"Yep."
"Oh," Dib spoke, moving toward the coffee maker. "So, waffles?"
"I wanted to make some for Bee," Zee supplied quietly, not removing his gaze from the bowl he was mixing.
"Okay," Dib nodded. "Not saying you can't, but why are you making waffles here?"
"I was looking at recipes, and I thought I should make some waffles, but we don't have a waffle iron," Zee explained. "And then I realized that we've just been eating the frozen kind, so. Waffles."
"… Well, alright then. Just don't make a mess, you two."
XXX
Zee didn't stay very long, leaving shortly after they were done cooking with a paper-towel-wrapped stack of waffles in hand. He seemed happy enough with his success at preparing waffles from a mix, but he knew that Zim didn't exactly feel the same way.
Honestly, he was surprised they even still had that waffle iron. They never really used it, as Zim had more-or-less refused to even acknowledge waffles existing anymore, and Dib got tired of watching Zim get mopey whenever he made them himself.
Sure enough, Zim was still sitting quietly on the couch an hour after Zee had left, so Dib figured he should say something.
"Ya know, you could've just said no when Zee asked to use the waffle iron. Or even said no when he asked if we had one," Dib pointed out with a sigh as he sat next to him. "You didn't have to help him make waffles if it was going to upset you so much."
"Oh, please," Zim scoffed. "I'm not upset over something as petty as waffles."
"What are you upset about, then?"
"Nothing!" Zim denied. "What, I can't sit on the couch? I thought you liked it when I shut up."
Dib rolled his eyes.
"You never shut up unless you're upset."
"Well, I guess that makes you a jerk then, doesn't it?"
"Zim," Dib sighed. "I'm not an idiot. You literally haven't touched a waffle since Gir made you eat a hundred of them when I was a kid, and you've moped every time you're around them ever since he left. I can pick up on patterns of behavior, you know."
At this, Zim scoffed again, crossing his arms as he glared down at the floor.
"So, what? You want me to talk about my ~feelings~?" Zim spoke scornfully. "It's not that deep, human. The kid wanted to make waffles, so I figured we'd do that today instead of weapons."
"Except it's waffles."
"It's just waffles," Zim insisted. "Maybe I've moved on and don't cry like a baby over a stupid bread disc. It's not even like waffles were his thing. He was crazy about those damn tacos, and you don't see me crying about them."
"… I don't see you eating them, either."
"Oh, shut up."
Dib put his hands up.
"Look, you don't want to admit that you're upset, fine," Dib acquiesced. "But why'd you decide to help Zee? He probably wouldn't have been upset if you said no. I mean, I'm not sure how much you care about upsetting him, but I think you care at least a little, so."
Zim shot him a glare.
"Wow, you've managed to be even more annoying than usual today, Dib-worm. Going for a new record? 'Cuz you'll have to try harder than that," Zim spat before deflating slightly. "Look, it really doesn't matter. If he wants to go travel and do his own thing, then let him. He only ever came to Earth for my mission, and that never even existed, so he might as well do what he wants. There's no point in forcing him to stay when there's no reason he has to. I'm not going to live my life avoiding anything that reminds me of him, because that's pathetic. If I feel like making some stupid waffles with an annoyingly tall teenager, then that's what I'm gonna do."
Despite the venom that Zim tried to infuse into his words, the rant just came out sounding sad. Of course, Dib knew that Zim missed Gir, but he also knew that Zim's general approach was to act like he didn't and that Gir's absence didn't matter. He knew that Gir hadn't come back in a long time now, and neither of them had any way of knowing when he would come back (and, more pessimistically, if he ever even would). He wanted to tell Zim that Gir would probably come back eventually, but it would possibly be a lie if he did. Gir was distractible at the best of times, so even if he wanted to come back, he might end up taking so many detours that it wouldn't really happen. And that's if he wanted to. If he didn't…
Well, at least the postcards told them that he wasn't dead. Honestly, Dib was a little surprised the robot hadn't gotten hit by a bus or something by now, considering his general lack of awareness of his surroundings.
That was something, at least.
And maybe it is a good thing for Zim to finally move on, or at least, to be able to live his life. If Gir came back, then great. And if not, well, Zim would still be able to live perfectly well.
He let out a long breath of air.
"Okay," Dib accepted, knowing that Zim wasn't going to admit to anything else tonight. "Well, we have a whole bunch of waffles now. Want to have some for dinner?"
Zim pulled a disgusted face.
"Hell, no," he denied vehemently. "I still can't forget the taste of those things. It's like their DNA injected itself into my tongue."
XXX
Zee's book report was on the Scarlet Letter.
XXX