Five Years Later

From the outside, it seemed like a relatively normal day in the green and pink house at the end of the street. Voices could be heard through the window, and the neighbors wondered at what was happening in it this time before shrugging their shoulders and going back to their own business, the way they'd been doing since that strange building had popped up overnight so many years ago.

Today was Nebula's birthday. Or Twix's, rather- she'd grown a liking for Zim's name, something he lorded over Dib every time she chirped it out when someone asked. Gir had been tasked with putting up streamers, but had merely tangled them around the lamp and couch as if they were police tape and the living room had been declared a crime scene. There were a few balloons, all of them green with smiley faces scrawled on with marker. The tile of the floor had been completely covered up by a mountain of blankets, not unlike the nest that had occupied it years prior, but this time there were four figures, not two or three.

Zim and Gir looked the mostly the same as they had when they'd landed on Earth over a decade ago, although Gir had been dented up and smoothed over so often his metallic body had slight bumps all over it. Gir was paying rapt attention to the TV, while Zim was watching Dib and Twix.

Dib had stubble and his favorite trench coat. He also had his daughter rolling over onto his lap, looking up at him through thick goggles.

"I want to call aunt Gaz."

"We can once the delivery gets here. Otherwise, Gir's going to eat it while we're distracted."

She stuck her tongue out, stuffing her hands in the front pocket of her overalls. "Fine…"

"Besides, don't you want cake?" Zim grinned, and she popped up, antennae leaning forward.

"I can have it before dinner?" Her tone was bright. Dib rolled his eyes, but stood up, moving over to the fridge. She bounced in place. "Can I, can I?"

"Since they're not on time, I don't see why not. Not like Zim doesn't have dessert before dinner half the time anyway or anything." He blew a strand of hair out of his face, vowing to cut it the same way he'd been deciding to for two and a half months. (Hair care was low on the priority list for someone with as busy a schedule as he did, thank you very much.) She hugged the blanket to her chest, a big smile across her face as Dib fumbled with the lock. (After her second and third birthdays, it had become a necessary precaution. Gir didn't understand the importance of birthdays and had destroyed it, and It wasn't a pretty sight for anyone involved.)

"I made one without milk or eggs this time, just to be safe. The grocery store is terrible with accommodations and I haven't done it myself in years, so if it's lopsided, I don't want to hear anything, got it?" Dib set the birthday confection down, and the light thud of the metal tray against the table was all the cue she needed to rush over, pulling herself up to her tiptoes to examine it.

It may have been a little lopsided, but a cake was a cake in her opinion, and this was a good one at that. It was frosted in purple with her full name, and decorated with white and yellow sprinkles that indicated stars, not to mention those little hard frosting-thingies that were shaped like flowers. "It's so good…"

It was Dib's turn to grin as he ruffled her hair. "Glad to see I passed inspection. Zim?"

"The taste is what really matters, and that remains to be seen." He grabbed a fork and slid it right through the corner, then stuffed the piece in his mouth.

"Hey! Birthday girl gets the first bite!" Dib reached for Zim, who used the Pak's mechanical legs to jump back, just out of Dib's reach.

Zim swallowed. "Hmm… not your best work, but it's better than I expected." It was moist, at least, and Dib's last attempt at vegan anything had nearly destroyed Zim's taste buds, so it was a moderate success. As long as Twix liked it, though...

"Gee, thanks." Dib crossed his arms, not noticing Twix picking up one of the other forks and taking some for herself. "Any other comments before I drag you back down to my level?"

The doorbell rang. "What about 'the pizza's here'?" Zim smirked, and Dib bumped at the metal legs with his hip, sending Zim off-balance as he went to answer it. Gir reached the door first, though, waving a fistful of bills. The girl there looked relieved.

"Oh, thank goodness. I heard so many stories about this house-"

Dib cleared his throat. "Ahem."

"Eep!" She shoved the pizza into his chest, snatching the bills from Gir before slamming the door.

"Well, you just gave her a 200% tip, if those were the twenties on the counter," Dib grumbled, and Twix started giggling. At that, Dib turned to see frosting staining her lips. "Hey!"

"Birthday girl gets first bite, right?" She grinned, the frosting painting purple over her teeth.

"And dad goes last, apparently." Dib crossed the living room in a few easy strides, setting the pizza box down. Gir was salivating, and Dib ripped the cheap cardboard top off, chucking it in all its grease-soaked glory at him. He immediately started gnawing on it, allowing the others to grab their own pieces of the plain cheese.

"To five years," Zim said, raising his slice before stripping the cheese off of his piece with his teeth and tossing the bread to Gir, who immediately turned to it from the box, stuffing it in his mouth.

"To five years," Twix and Dib chorused in unison, taking their own bites of the pizza. There were a few minutes of chewing, and Twix used her fork to scoop more cake unto her plate, alternating between cake and pizza. She even added some frosting and a flower to the cheese, something Zim immediately copied. Dib wondered to himself if she was going to keep up these tastes when she got older, Zim thought it was the best thing since lightspeed travel, and she just reached for another piece. She even tried to put one of the flowers in the space where a missing tooth had yet to regrow, but kept accidentally biting it in half.

"Phew…" She slumped back in her chair when she'd finished two pieces and several forkfuls of cake.

"No sleeping yet- do you want candy?" Zim marched over to the side table elevator, and she slid off her chair, running over.

"Is that even a question?"

"A rhetorical one," Dib replied, walking over with a smile. She was looking up with Zim with wide eyes he could just barely see through the goggles, bouncing on her heels before pulling him into a hug. Her cheek squished against a soft layer of chub that had developed since her birth, one she'd always known him to have. (And one that Zim had complained about when it came to fitting behind the machines in the lab, but Dib and Twix had nuzzled into it enough that he never really tried to lose it.) Gir hopped in after them, licking his chin to taste all the extra grease.

Layers of metal flew past the translucent elevator door, and a grin split her face like a banana through a bowl of ice cream as she saw the whole lab had been bathed in blue light, her favorite color this month. The lab table and IVs from the incident last week (that added celery to the growing list of allergies) had been cleared away, and Mina the robot cat was stretching in the corner, settled on her lavender pillow. Zim crossed the room, bending down to reach behind the main console as Twix and Dib stepped off the elevator to wait. Tiny squeaks of excitement could be heard, and Dib muffled a laugh at just how eager she was.

"Where, now where is it- ah!" Zim triumphantly held aloft a piñata, shaped like a- well, it was probably a donkey, but some sort of four-legged creature with longish ears. "Computer, string this up, the way I told you to."

"Can I get a-"

"Please?" Twix looked up, pulling up her goggles so her ruby eyes shimmered, and there was a sigh.

"That's not going to work on me, kid. I don't have a heart to tug at. But the 'please' is nice." Rope dropped from the ceiling, and a magnet glued to the back of the piñata stuck to one tied to the end of the rope. Dib grabbed a blindfold, tying it around her eyes and pushing the goggles further up on her head.

"Hey!"

"No cheating," Dib said. "You know the rules."

"Hit it as hard as I can!" She replied with gusto.

Zim cackled. "I can't believe this isn't something on irk- beating things up until candy falls out? It's incredible!"

"Well, clearly they just never understood true partying." Dib held Twix's shoulders, turning her around once, twice, three times "Alright, give it your best shot." Dib gave a thumbs up she couldn't see, and she stumbled a few steps before slamming the bat as hard as she could into the nearest object- which ended up being Gir.

He gave a cheer as he soared through the air. "I'm flying!"

"Sorry, Gir!" She called back as he hit the ceiling, before winding the bat up again, tongue sticking out as she aimed in the opposite direction. Zim had to dodge out of the way, but he nudged her the proper direction, and within a minute of merciless beating upon the paper-mache, candy began to rain from the sky. Gir had run back to collect handfuls, and Mina started gnawing on one of the wrappers as Twix pulled the blindfold off and her goggles back on. Zim had settled in Dib's lap, and Twix dropped next to them with her own handfuls, unwrapping a chocolate bar.

"So, one to ten, rate your birthday," Dib said, and she dropped her chin into her hand.

"Hmm…. ten."

"Ten good or ten bad?" Dib raised an eyebrow, and she smiled, taking a bite of the bar.

"Ten good," was mumbled through a mouthful of chocolate as Dib's hip buzzed. He tugged out his phone.

"Didn't you say you wanted to call Gaz?"

"Oh, oh, is that her?" She nearly pushed Zim off Dib's lap, reaching for the phone, and Dib laughed.

"I'm answering it, I'm answering it!" He hit the green 'answer', and Gaz's face filled the screen, looking for Twix and smiling slightly when she saw her.

"Are those two bugging you?"

"No… not any more than usual, anyway," Twix said with a laugh. Zim crossed his arms.

"I refuse to take this slander from my own smeet."

"I love you, don't test me." She pushed at him, and he pushed her back, nearly off of Dib's leg. Gaz cleared her throat.

"Anyway. I've got some old toys I think you'd like, so get Dib to bring you over. And happy birthday, five's a big one."

"It sure is! I'm, uh…" She looked up at Dib. "How old are you again?"

"Twenty-three."

"I'm catching up with you!"

Dib lightly flicked at the tip of her good antenna. "You sure are."

"You have twenty times longer to catch up with me," Zim added.

"So what did they do?" Gaz asked.

"I got a chemistry set, and some gloves for when I dig around outside, and some heat-sensors in my goggles, and a book, and cake and pizza and candy!" She held up some of the candy as proof.

"Sounds cool. I'll see you later."

"Can I see your sketchbook when I come over?" Twix asked.

"How's the new game going, by the way?" Dib asked. "You said they kept stalling development."

"Sure, you can see it." She turned to Dib. "Four rewrites and they keep shifting the tone every time, so my old concepts don't fit. At least I get decent creative freedom." She shrugged. "It's better than the last one that just went under. I really liked the vampire dinosaurs in that one."

"That's good, at least. I'll see you then." Dib nodded as Gaz ended the call and Twix fell back on the floor, cushioned her the thick hair.

"Best birthday ever…"

"Better be careful or Gir's going to eat all of it," Dib said, and she shot back up.

"No!" She started stuffing handfuls of it into her pocket, and Zim followed her lead, holding the bottom hem of his top to use the fabric as a makeshift bowl. Dib popped a jawbreaker in his mouth and settled back on his hands to watch them. He kept watching as they started to chase each other around for the last tootsie roll before she ended up falling asleep on his lap, draped over him like a tiny, adorable blanket.

Zim sat next to them, combing his gloves through his hair and carefully pulling apart the knots in it. "I can't believe how soft you've made me," He muttered, and Dib grinned, gently tweaking the tip of his left antenna.

"You did it to yourself."

"She's good, though."

Dib took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as he felt her even breathing against his leg. "Yeah. She is."

"Besides." Zim hesitated for a moment, uncertain, and Dib waited. "I enjoy this mission more than the last one."

"Why, because being a parent is more rewarding than blowing stuff up?"

"Nothing is more satisfying than blowing things up, don't be ridiculous," Zim scoffed. "But I gave this one to myself, and she's- she's learning from us, not just a simulator. When there's problems, we fix them."

"And hopefully we get better at it when she grows up, the celery thing was a close call…"

"She's strong, she'll be fine." Zim continued to fuss with her hair.

"It's no real loss anyway, celery just tastes like crunchy water. But hey! Parenting's a new kind of adventure, one no irken's done in eons. You're doing pretty good considering that, I'd say." Dib nudged Zim, who leaned against him.

"You're not doing too terrible yourself, human."

"Love you, space boy." It was said with practiced ease now, and Zim's lips quirked up in a smile.

"I love you too."

Twix was asleep, but if she hadn't been, she would have agreed with both of them. As it was, she smiled at an unseen dream and curled closer, content.

A/N: And... scene. I've already begun to post the sequel on ao3 and will start posting it here soon. Check out the series there for an extra Halloween chapter (check the tags for warnings, it involves gore and some potentially uncomfortable stuff) and a short story about Twix and Zim that was a contest prize. Thanks everybody for reading. :D