"Walkin' through a winter wonderland, doo-dee-doo..."
GIR sang softly to himself as he opened the door, nubby little arms filled with bags of brightly wrapped gifts. He managed with difficulty to get the door opened, but the bags burst and fell forward all over the living room floor. "Oopsy!" GIR giggled, clapping his hands over his mouth.
"GIR...?"
The little robot looked up, startled. Master was sitting on the couch in the dimly-lit room, staring at the TV. He was trembling softly, hands in front of his eyes and tears running down his face.
GIR frowned. "Mastah? What's wrong?"
Zim let in a deep, shuddering breath and sobbed again, then slowly lifted his face. There was a haunted look in his eyes.
"Two, GIR. I knew from the beginning, when they first told us about his heart, that there would be two." He let out another series of sobs and pointed at the TV. "But three, GIR? Three sizes? That's---just---so---beautiful!"
And with that he broke down crying once more, and was inconsolable for the rest of the night.
Originally I was going to do this chapter with Gaz. This comes off...slightly more in-character. ;-)
And for next year, I think I'm going to use the idea I was going to use this year, but set aside because I thought it would be too much time and work---a "Grinch" parody called "How the Zim Stole Christmas." And yes, I know that someone else just posted that exact same thing with that exact same title yesterday. I swear, I came up with it before I saw that. And I probably wasn't even the first to, either. Anyway, (singing) Merry Slightly-Late Christmas, please leave a review!