A/N: This one is for you, my sweet Peyton.

"There it is, Mommy! There's my star!"

"They aren't stars, Dib. They are the records I made of every planet I ever picked up a recording from!"

The room was cold, dark until all the glowing orbs suddenly burnt themselves awake. Dib danced from one shiny, brightly colored ball to another. Finally, he stayed near his personal favorite. This particular one was red and pink swirling around it, purple clouds floating around it. The little boy had fallen in love with it within two seconds of seeing it one time.

"Did you get any more messages from it, Mom?!" Dib held the hologram carefully in his hands as it reflected in his glasses.

"Yeah, actually," Erin, his mother, told him, kicking a box away from the lab area with one foot. "More stuff about this war and snacks...for some reason. They really like snacks!"

"Snacks, huh?," Dib asked, turning to her for a brief second before going right back to the planet. "I like snacks, too! Do you think if I met some of them and gave them snacks...we'd be friends?"

Erin frowned. Friends...the one thing that Dib was lacking more than a proper father. She wished instantly that her love could be enough, that it could keep her baby safe and happy forever.

But it couldn't. And she knew that Dib felt that crushing loneliness everyday.

"Dib...Honey? Come here."

Dib scampered over to her, giggling when she took a knee to his height.

"I want you to listen, okay? No matter who tells you different, never stop dreaming or loving or doing anything that makes you happy! I wanna see that smile on your face in your brightest days, okay? One day...one day you'll find someone who will love you for who you are and put up with you no matter what. And on that day...," She leaned their foreheads together. "I want to see the biggest and most beautiful smile on your face. I want to see you so happy that your face breaks. Can you promise me that?"

"Okay, Mommy!," Then he was back to his star. "I'm gonna find this place one day! And when I do, I'm gonna-"

-5 years later-

"-kill you!"

Dib laughed as he felt the wind hit him and his enemy both as they tumbled down the hill.

"You will not! Zim shall end you first, pig-smelly!"

Claws tugged at his hair, his foot connected with a squeedily-whatever, and all the while the two of them had started laughing. Dib couldn't remember what laughing like this had felt like for a little while.

"Zim...! I'll...b-beat you!"

"You are as dumb as your big-feets if you think that!"

"It's bigfoot!"

"Whatever! Pigfoot, then!"

The two of them tussled until Dib somehow or other ended up on top of the lizard.

"Big...foot... the missing link between human and ape."

"Eh?," Zim tilted his head. "Missing...link?"

"Yeah! It's like..."

Dib stopped, remembering his mom suddenly. One day...one day you'll find someone who will love you for who you are and put up with you no matter what. Dib looked down at that 'someone', then leaned down to breathe in his antennae.

"It's like what you and me are. The missing link in each other's lives...Irken."

"How'd you know what my race was called?"

"A little light. My special star. You're from my star..." Dib smiled for the first time in a while before the two resumed fighting again.

And on that day I want to see the biggest and most beautiful smile on your face.

I'm gonna find them and make the most special one my friend, mommy!

I know you will, Dib. I know you will.