To answer a question that a few people have asked me in the past, Amy is sort of based on me, like curiosity and love for the weird and wonderful, but she's a lot nicer than I am as I have a very quick temper, haha. So to answer the question, she was based on me at the start and has ddeveloped into a character all her own over time. XD onward to the one-shots!

Dib has been avoiding Amy since her birthday for a good week now, but when he finally shows up, he's got a very strange question to ask her… Set after the 'Birthday of Wonder and Doom'.

It had been a good week since I'd had possibly the best birthday in my life. So why didn't I feel happy? Maybe it was because I had the rest of summer to look to with no plans whatsoever. Maybe it was because it was my first summer in my new home. Or maybe it was because it had also been a good week since I'd seen Dib. And that had been at my birthday 'party'. I smiled at the memory. We'd been standing in the corner of the room together, then he'd brushed his lips against my cheek and bolted. I'd made the stupid mistake of following him. You did it wrong. If you're going to kiss me, then kiss me.

Oh no, it was my fault. I'd pushed him into a corner and now he was too freaked out to see me. Great, well done Amy. The only proper friend I'd made and now he was gone because I'd been an idiot. I groaned and buried my head in my pillow. It wasn't as if I hadn't tried getting in contact with him, but he was never there. Gaz said that he was out 'doing some of his paranormal nerd stuff'. Maybe he was. But he normally invited me along for that stuff. Well, oaky, I knew the mistake I'd made… and now I had to live with it.

I'd been moping around the house for the full week and the walls were starting to close in around me. From my bedroom window, I could see the green-blue walls of Zim's house. I shrugged, he probably didn't want to see me, he rarely did, but I needed some interaction or else my sanity was at stake. Closing the door behind me, I made my way across the front yard and knocked on his door. Instead of Zim opening the door, he simply tapped the glass of the window to the right to get my attention.

"Zim is very busy human, I have no time for your infiltrations today!"

I rolled my eyes, "I'm not here to infiltrate, I just came for a visit."

He eyed me suspiciously from behind the window, "Oh really, then why is he here?"

I arched my brow in confusion and turned on my heel to follow his gaze. Instantly, my throat ran dry and my eyes widened. At the end of the pathway was a figure clad in a black trench coat and raven hair styled in a scythe-like spike. I swallowed thickly. He just stood there with his hands hanging limply at his side. His slightly jittery eyes darted to my torso and back up again. I looked down subtly at myself and blushed. I was wearing the purple coat he'd given me for my birthday.

"Uh, hi." He said sheepishly.

"Hi." I returned.

He walked up to me and nodded, chewing his lip nervously, "Long time no see."

So he was aware of it then, "Yeah," I forced a laugh, "avoiding me or something?"

"No, no, just been sorting out… stuff."

"Yeah, me too. Lots of stuff."

Oh god this was just getting uncomfortable now. It wasn't helping with Zim tapping on the window like a grumpy old man.

"You can leave the yard now! Leave the yard of Zim!" he demanded.

It was like we couldn't hear him. Dib eyed me over again and cleared his throat.

"The coat suits you."

I nodded, "Thanks. Thanks for getting it for me."

Do I leave? Do I carry on making dead-end conversations? I didn't know, and neither did he by the looks of things. Part of me wanted to give him a hug, just to shatter the tension, another part wanted to smack him in the mouth, also to break the tension. Let's be honest, either way would have made a change in atmosphere.

"Have I done something wrong?" I blurted out before I could stop myself, I reddened and looked down at my shoes, not wanting to see his reaction, "It's just… I haven't heard anything from you since my birthday and, well, I thought we had a good time and, if I've done something wrong… I'd like you to tell me."

He jolted, "No you haven't, no way! I just figured that, you know, you…"

"Spit it out Dib-worm and get off my lawn!" Zim cried through the window.

"Can it, lizard!" Dib snapped, tossing a pebble at the alien, it just bounced pitifully off of the glass and onto the grass.

I allowed myself a smirk, trying not to start laughing at their bickering. Dib sighed and tried to compose himself.

"I've been thinking a lot lately and, you know, we've known each other for a while now, right?"

Where was this going? "Yeah, quite a while." I agreed cautiously.

"And we've, you know, k-kissed… like on the cheek and stuff and… you know… so I was thinking…"

His cheeks were starting to burn almost as much as mine were, "Yes…?"

He looked over my shoulder to glare at Zim who was apparently still listening, "Shall we go somewhere else?"

"No! Wait Dib-monkey! This is getting interesting!" Zim moaned, pressing his face against the glass, "Not often does Zim see the Dib embarrass himself so!"

I giggled but bit on my lip to stop it, "Go on." I pressed.

Dib sighed and looked at me hopefully, he took a deep breath and blurted out: "Doyouwanttogoonadatewithme?"

I blinked, only able to pick out a few choice words, none of which made sense on their own, "Uh, a little slower please?"

He took another breath and muttered, "I was thinking, that, if you wanted to… would you g-go on a d-date… with me?"

My breath caught in my throat. I could feel Zim's eyes burning the back of my head and it really wasn't helping. Did he seriously just say that? I'm sure he did, but did I mishear him or something? One minute he was avoiding me and the next, this? I noticed that my mouth was open slightly so I snapped it shut. He was starting to wring his hands in anticipation. Oh god how long had I been silent for?

"So, after a whole week of avoiding me and not talking to me, you think you can ask me on date?"

I deliberately made my expression unreadable. His pupils dilated as he wracked his brain for the right answer.

"Uh, yes?" he blinked, "I mean no, no! Um, maybe? Yes? No?"

I smirked shyly at his stumbling, revenge achieved! Yes, call me evil but I had deliberately asked him that to make him squirm. Now, to get rid of my cursed guilt! I punched his arm playfully and grinned.

"Yes."

He paused, tilting his head in confusion, "What was that?"

I opened my mouth to answer but my words were washed away by the high pitched sounds of machinery. Two hot beams of red shot past my head while another set missed Dib's feet by inches. We turned to see the gnomes starting to swarm. Zim stood in the window with a remote in his hands, directing the garden security with an irritated scowl.

"She said yes, Dib-worm! Now get away from the house of Zim, you bore me!"

I ducked another set of beams and held Dib grab my hand and pull me along the path until we were safely out of reach. He ducked down behind the garden fence and pulled me down with him. I flattened my back against the wood and gasped for breath. I looked down and noticed that his hand was still gripped onto mine.

"So… yes?" he asked nervously, also gasping for air.

I smiled, "Yeah. Yes."

He leant back and smiled almost with disbelief.

"So…" I pressed, smirking slightly.

"So?" he repeated, looking confused.

"So, where are we going?" I laughed.

His eyes widened, "Oh right, yeah, sure." He paused for thought, "Uh, movie? Tomorrow? And, uh, we could go to Bloaty's after, you know, if you like? Or if you don't then -"

I chose to cut him off before he started babbling again, "Movies and Bloaty's sounds great."

He nodded and seemed to breath another sigh of relief, "Oh uh, shall I come by yours at, uh, seven?"

Seeing his nervous smile made me giggle, "Yeah, really looking forward to it."

It was at this point that he looked down and noticed that he was still holding my hand. Out of habit, he snatched it away, but then remembered the conversation we'd just been having and looked unsure as to whether he should replace it or not. Instead, he simply patted it lightly before peering up over the top of the fence. He nodded that it was all clear and helped me to my feet. As I was brushing myself down, a thought suddenly made me pause. I arched my brow at him questioningly.

"How come you were going to Zim's anyway?"

He blushed, "I wasn't… I was going to yours, but then I saw you there instead. Why were you heading to Zim's?"

I shrugged, "I was bored, and look where it got me" I grinned.

He eyed me with a smirk, but it quickly vanished as he glanced down at his watch, "I've got to go, my dad's coming home tonight and I promised I'd be there when he arrived."

I nodded in understanding, "So, until tomorrow then?"

He smiled and nodded eagerly, "Sure."

The next night, it was coming painfully close to seven and I was sure that I was going to have an asthma attack. I looked in the mirror and felt like something was just off. I'd wanted to play it safe and go for my leggings and denim jeans with a nice top, but my darling mother had other ideas… So I'd been forced into a flipping skirt. My black skirt that held multiple belts of different colours and my dark purple top that I'd worn on my birthday. Sure, it looked okay, and it went well with the coat that Dib had bought me, so that was one positive. It just looked like I was trying too hard. Sure it was a date and all, but, he was still my best friend. Wow this was confusing…

There was a knock at the door and my heart jumped into my throat. I could hear my mum answering the door and talking to someone. Why was I so nervous? She'd spoken to Dib loads of times, why was this so different? I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself down. I looked at my reflection and looked at myself forcefully. Don't think of it was a date. You are going to the movies with your friend and the heading for a pizza. That's all.

I went downstairs and saw Dib standing there waiting for me. He straightened up and smiled, his eyes widening slightly at the sight of my skirt. I cringed, I hated this thing so much… Too late now.

"Ready?" I asked, smiling to try and fight any blushing that was bound to happen.

"Yeah, ready." He breathed.

As we walked down the sidewalk towards the movie theatre, I wasn't sure if I was meant to take his hand or not. They kept brushing against each other softly, but he never made a move and after the incident on my birthday, I was a little hesitant to. He cleared his throat and ran a hand nervously through his hair.

"You, uh, you look great, you know." He muttered.

A hint of a smile crept to my face, "Thanks, you're looking pretty dapper yourself."

Dapper? Where the hell did that come from?

"So what movie are we seeing?" I asked hurriedly.

We reached the theatre and examined the showings. There were two films due to start in the next ten minutes. One was a rom-com that looked like a tired re-write of every other rom-com in the world. The other was a thriller about a guy who wakes up to find the world over-run with weird creatures and has to save the world… I eyed Dib playfully, knowing exactly which one he wanted to see. And to be honest, so did I, you see one rom-com you see them all. He looked at me, waiting for me to choose.

"All things considering," I smirked, pointing at the thriller poster, "this one seems more realistic."

He chuckled, "Can't argue with that."

After some debating, we finally agreed that if he bought the tickets, I would by popcorn and drinks. Within minutes, we were taking our seats in front of the large screen and sorting out our stuff. I stood up to remove my coat but felt a soft tug and found that Dib was already taking it in his hands, sliding it off of my shoulders gently. I smiled appreciatively and took my seat to the right of him. Wow, he was really trying to impress me, wasn't he? I thanked the lord when the room started to darken so that he didn't see my cheeks reddening. The trailers for future movies started playing and I noticed that Dib's hand was placed carefully on the arm-rest. Was I meant to take it? Or was he just more comfortable with his arm twisted like that so the palm faced upwards? I swallowed and chose to make a compromise with myself. I moved my arm so that it also rested there, just on the edge so that our fingers were just off brushing each other. There we go, now he could make the move and take my guess work away.

He nodded towards the screen, "See anything you like the look of?"

I bit down on my tongue to stop myself from blurting something stupid out and simply shrugged, "A few things don't look too bad."

He glanced down and smiled shyly, snapping his eyes back up to the screen.

Finally, the movie started playing. Within the first ten minutes, I could tell that this was going to be a seriously creepy flick. Now I wasn't one to be scared of films like this, in fact quite the opposite especially as of late. Hanging around with Dib and Zim really strengthened my nerves… for the most part. But for the first thing in a movie to be a man waking up and slithering creature half-way into his ear and snaking into his brain with blood spurting out; it's not something you expect so soon. I watched in amusement as Dib's eyes widened in awe at the creatures and how to hero of the story battled his way through them with almost comical ease. He leaned in closer to me and whispered:

"That's gonna be me one day." He nodded, "No aliens or monsters are gonna get in my way."

I nodded in agreement, "I don't doubt it."

He grinned at me and leant back in his seat, tilting the tub of popcorn towards me. I took a small hand full and popped them one at a time into my mouth. He nudged my arm to get my attention. I looked over and he tossed one into the air and caught it skilfully in his mouth. I rolled my eyes and followed suit, tossing two together and catching them both. His eyebrows raised with an impressed aura and he tried to copy me. One landed in his mouth while the other flew off course and bounced off of his glasses. I sniggered and tossed another two into the air, tilting my head ready to catch them. Just as gravity was about to kick in, Dib swooped his hand across and snatched them out of the air, smirking in triumph. I poked my tongue out at him and bounced another piece off of his glasses.

Through all of this, we'd taken our attention off of the movie and didn't notice how the hero had walked right into a trap set by the creatures. Everything went deadly quiet, and we didn't even notice. All of a sudden, one of the creatures pounced out of nowhere, giving off a blood-curdling screech that echoed around us. I jumped and let out a muffled shriek while Dib yelped in surprise, sending his arms flailing in the air. Slowly, I peeked my eyes open and blushed as I realised that in my shock I had leant over so I was no with my cheek pressed against Dib's shoulder. He looked down at me and smiled sheepishly. I didn't know why until I noticed that his arms had circled around my shoulders defensively. Dib gave a nervous laugh and started to pull away when I realised, I didn't want him to. Trying not to look too obvious, I pretended that I hadn't noticed our closeness and adjusted myself so that I was properly leaning on his shoulder. I could feel him looking at me with wide eyes. Slowly, his arms relaxed, the right draping over my shoulders and the left across his lap to the arm-rest between us, taking my hand.

"Uh, is this… is this okay?" he stammered.

I nodded, "I think so, uh, are you okay?"

I heard him swallow, "Sure, I'm fine."

If this had happened a week ago, I would be panicking. I'd be convincing myself that he's just a friend and that I was kidding myself. Not now. Weird. Was this weird? It felt a little weird, but not in a bad way. I put it to the test and moved my hand the he had taken so that our fingers laced together. It felt… warm, not just his touch but warm inside too. This still made no sense to me. But I kind of liked it. Yeah, I liked it.

Soon after, the movie came to an end. Dib and I groaned at the cliché cliff-hanger ending. The kind where it looks like everything's okay and then out of nowhere, something happens that changed things just as the credits start to roll. I furrowed my brow in thought; that sounded familiar for some reason… Anyway, I went to pull my coat on when my hand caught on something and made me stumble back to my seat. Dib looked at me curiously then smiled sheepishly as it turned out it was his hand that had stopped me moving. He snatched it away worriedly and tried to make it up to me by helping me with my coat.

"Sorry," he muttered.

"It's okay, did you enjoy the movie?" I asked, for some reason feeling nervous again.

He grinned, "Yeah! Man, those monsters didn't stand a chance, shame about the ending though…"

"Well they might make a sequel that way."

"Ah, sequels are never as good as the original." He rolled his eyes as we made our way outside.

"Not always true, 'Invasion of A.I Destruction 2' was way better than the first one." I retorted, thinking back to a movie we'd seen a few months prior.

"I'll give you that, but name three more movies there the sequels were better." He folded his arms challengingly.

My mouth opened ready to argue, when I found that I couldn't actually think of anything to argue with. Instead, I childishly poked my tongue out at him and turned away in a mock sulk. He raised an eyebrow and crept up behind me, jabbing his finger right below my ribs, making me jump and shriek with laugher. Why was it that he never missed? Every single time he was right on target, making me fall into fits of giggles without fail. I swatted him away and tried to catch my breath. He waited for me with an entertained grin on his face.

"One day you're going to pay for every single time you've done that." I gaped, pointing with pretence warning.

He shrugged, "Sure you will."

He was mocking me, but he was doing so playfully, so I didn't care.

"So, uh, do you want to head to Bloaty's?" he asked

"Sure, I'm starving."

Thankfully, the restaurant was only two streets away so it wasn't that far a walk. We sat down at a booth in the corner and checked out the menu. I stared tapping my foot in thought and examined the list of pizzas before me. Dib shifted anxiously.

"Do you want to get one to share or, you know, it's up to you."

I chewed the inside of my cheek, "Sharing's good," feeling a need to settle a score, I smirked and hid the menu, "See anything you like?"

His head snapped up to look at me, picking up on the repeated phrase from earlier, "Maybe, b-but the m-menu's in the way."

I peered over the edge of the menu to raise my eyebrows at him, impressed and somewhat taken back by his bold attempt. His cheeks turned slightly rosy as he returned his eyes downwards.

"Is a large pepperoni okay?" he asked.

"Sounds lush."

He tilted his head, "Is that another welsh tern?"

"Yeah, it means nice, great, sweet, brilliant; a generic positive term really." I shrugged, "So you could say that the weather's lush; the food is lush; the idea sounds lush; you're lush…"

I bit my lip and ducked my eyes downwards, that last one slipped out before I could stop it. Dib blinked at me and smiled sheepishly, signalling that he was going to order the food. As he left, something felt odd around my foot. I looked down where I had been tapping it, all this time thinking it had been smoothing along the table leg. No, the table legs were at the edge, not the middle, so what… Oh great! My hand smacked against my brow. All this time I'd been rubbing my foot against Dib's leg, no wonder he was so jittery! I held my head in my hands and groaned inwardly. Geez Amy what is wrong with you?

It wasn't long before Dib returned with our pizza, balanced carefully in his hands along with two plates. He set it down and smiled, giving the signal to dig in. We ate in near silence, not really knowing what to say. It wasn't awkward as such, just a little too quiet. There was a question that had been bothering me for some time now, and I wasn't sure if I should bring it up, but my curiosity was vastly getting the better of me.

"Dib, how come you chose to ask me on a date now? I mean, I'm glad you did but, you know?" oh sometimes I wished I could keep my mouth shut.

Dib swallowed his mouthful and furrowed his brow, "Well…I guess because I'm always around you I thought that we were just friends, but then, on your birthday… I was a little confused. So I chose to stay away for a while and see if I could make sense of it but, you know, couldn't. So I figured; this made as much sense to me as anything else. So, I went for it." He finished stammering and eyed me, "Why did you say yes?"

Why did I say yes? That was a very good question and held a very anxious answer. Mainly because I wasn't so sure of it myself.

"Um, I suppose because… I missed you. I've seen you pretty much everyday since I moved here, so it didn't really feel, you know, right. Sorry, it sounded better in my head."

"Nah, don't worry. Mine wasn't much better." He smirked, "But, you did actually want to go on a date with me, did you?"

Had I made him that nervous? "Well, yeah of course I did. You did actually want to ask me on one, did you?"

"Yeah…" he smirked and quirked his shoulders in thought, "I guess I did. But having a demonic alien shouting at me while doing so wasn't what I had planned…"

I laughed, "I'm sure he wasn't expecting it either."

He sniggered, "If he tries it again, we'll set your sister on him."

"I'd be more worried about your sister!"

We joked for a little longer before we chose it was getting late and was time for us to leave. It was strange how the weird feeling from earlier had seemed to fade the longer I spent with him. I tried to make Dib take my share of the bill, but he point blank refused. I huffed at it stubbornness and waited until we were walking at a steady pace down the sidewalk before discreetly slipping the money into his coat pocket. Victory, I smirked to myself. Walking side by side, our hands started brushing again. This time, Dib laced his fingers through mine and looked at me warily for permission. I granted it with a smile and flexed my fingers around his in return.

All too soon we were nearing my house. I had to admit, I was feeling a little disappointed that it was over. Against all my worries, I'd had a really good time, with minimum embarrassment and even less awkwardness. I made us stop before we got too close to mine, not wanting my mum to come outside and see us just yet. Dib chewed the inside of cheek anxiously.

"So, did you have a good time?" he asked hopefully.

I grinned playfully, "It's been lush."

He chuckled, "Yeah, lush…"

Dib wasn't letting go of my hand and I wasn't quite ready to do so myself. I looked up at him expectantly, yet not knowing what to expect. He took a breath.

"Uh, so I'll see you tomorrow?"

I deflated inwardly, "Sounds good, I take it Zim's been hatching a lot of plans over the week."

"Yeah, you know I overheard a call me made that…" he trailed off, "Well, it wasn't that important, you know?"

I blinked in shock, "Who are you and what have you done with Dib?"

He laughed, "Still here, and Zim's still going down!"

I pretended a sigh of relief, "So tomorrow?"

"You got it." He tilted his head, "Amy, would you ever, you know, do this again? With me?"

"Another date, you mean?" I waited while he nodded, that weird feeling I had, it was long gone by this point, "Yeah, I think I would."

"Really? Great! I mean, okay, sure… So, uh, bye I guess…"

Dib grinned goofily which made me giggle. He leant forward and shakily wrapped his arms around me in an awkward goodbye hug. I returned it and felt his warmth against the night air. We lingered for a moment before he started to pull away. He lifted his head upwards, but forgot to move his arms, so now our bodies were pressed together and faces inches apart. His eyes widened behind his glasses and I looked away, blushing slightly. Should I make the first move and let go? No, I'd wait him out like last time.

Suddenly, his hand came under my chin, forcing me to look up at him again. His amber eyes were quivering with anxiousness. I watched him curiously, waiting to see what happened next. Slowly, he started to tilt his head forward so his nose brushed mine. Before I could stop myself, I joined him in the middle to that my breath was fogging his glasses. Without warning, he closed the gap and pressed his lips against mine. He lingered for a moment before going to pull away, but I leant over with him so regain contact. He breathed into me and caressed my lips in his, not trying anything too bold just yet. I instinctively grabbed his coat and pulled him so that his body was fully pressed against mine.

This was unlike any of the other times we'd kissed. All those times we'd occasionally brush one another's cheek in secret or dive in for a peck and then bolt… they were nothing compared to this. This was soft, comforting and… soaking!

"AGH!" We cried, breaking apart as something icy cold and wet rained down over us.

I gasped for air and pushed my sodden hair from my eyes. Dib had been knocked off his feet, his hair drooping from the water. Coughing and spluttering, I turned to glare at the sound of bellowing laughter behind us. Where we had stopped before we reached mine, it suddenly hit us as to whose house we were in front of. In the front yard, a green dog was waving at us, holding a hose-pipe in his paws.

The creature dropped it, pointing at a figure in the doorway, "Masta told me too!"

"Man Zim, seriously?" Dib spluttered, getting to his feet.

"Zim told you earth-meats earlier that I do not wish to have to by my house! Especially performing whatever disgusting display that was! Zim could have sworn you were going to inhale one another!"

GIR widened his eyes in awe, "Really? Ooooh! Do it again! Do it again!"

My cheeks burned and Dib took a step forward, "You'll pay for that one you stupid space-monster!"

I held out a hand to stop him. Letting the embarrassment fade away, I smirked at Zim playfully.

"Okay Zim, we're sorry. Now you know what you deserve as a reward for your… victory?"

He arched his brow at me warily, "What's that, Amy-beast?"

I indicated down to my dripping stature and held out my arms, taking a slow step towards him, "A good old fashioned hug."

The aliens eyes widened in horror at the sight of the water, "You wouldn't dare!"

"Wouldn't I, Zim? Wouldn't I?"

Just as I was about to take another step towards him, he grabbed GIR and darted back inside his house, slamming the door behind him, "Stay away from Zim you wretched water-human thing!"

Folding my arms, I looked towards Dib smugly, "Victory for Earth!"

He laughed, "Yeah!"

I joined him in laughter until I started shivering from the icy water and the chilly night air. He walked me to my door and watched while I pulled out my keys. I lingered for a moment, choosing not to head inside just yet.

"Do you want to dry off a bit first before you go home?"

"Huh? Oh no, I'll be fine, thanks." He shifted, "So… I'll see you tomorrow."

I laughed at the amount of times we'd been over this, "Yes, tomorrow."

This time he didn't hesitate, swooping down and placing a gentle kiss on my lips, lingering for a moment before waving goodbye. I smiled shyly and waved back, watching as he walked off down the side-walk. Just before he was about to vanish behind a corner, he peered over his shoulder and grinned when he saw I was still here. He waved again, and then he was gone. I leant against the door and felt a sigh escape me. The only part of my body that was warm, were my lips.

Dib. Dib Membrane… my best friend… I chuckled inwardly as I stepped inside. Who would have thought it?

A/N:

Oh it was fun writing this, let me know what you think of this little romance and if it should blossom or not XD