I had fun writing this chapter! Chapter 5 hopefully won't be too far behind; but we'll see! I'm visiting family soon so we'll see how much time I have to write!

Edit: The FFN should be fixed now!

Enjoy!

Chapter 4: Bonds

Dib sighed, staring down at his phone. The screen was cracked beyond repair. He blamed the damage on his faceplant into the tree branches. He'd lost a few things when the Bigfoot hit the tree. He still wasn't sure he was ever getting the tree stand back. He dropped it on his bed, resigning to replace it later. He'd been lucky that the sim card was salvageable. For now, he had a plan to set in motion. He poked his head out of his room and looked down the stairs where Gaz was at the couch.

Gaz grimaced down at her Game Slave as her character bit the Big One yet again. She sighed heavily, restarting the level once more. She refused to be beat by it. She was oblivious when Dib stalked down the stairs, his gear pack already over his shoulder. He stopped behind her, watching her die in the boss fight again. Gaz paused, the death screen taunting her for a few moments before she started to shake. Dib feared she'd break the Game Slave for once and spoke up.

"Hey, Gaz—"

"No."

Dib stood there for a moment. "I didn't even ask yet."

"No."

Dib groaned, tilting his head up before he tried one last time. "Please hear me out? I need help."

"Go ask Zim, I'm busy."

"You're playing your game, you're not busy." Dib mumbles. Gaz paused the boss fight, glaring at him over her shoulder. Dib held his hands up. "It's interesting, I promise."

"No. Leave me alone before I hurt you," Gaz says. She died again. Gaz stared at the screen for a long time. Dib stared with her.

"So, do you wanna—"

"DIB—"

"C'MON, PLEASE!"

"I don't want to hear it," Gaz shouts, whirling around and giving him a good punch to the arm. Dib grunted and held it. It didn't hurt nearly as bad as some of Zim's punches could be. He rubbed at the sore spot.

"Don't be such a jerk!" Dib says. He spoke his next sentence hastily, knowing that if he didn't, Gaz would just check out of the conversation entirely and he needed her focus to get an answer. "I need help watching Zim, and not in a spying kind of way, I'm actually worried about him."

"You?" Gaz asks incredulously. "Worried about him? For what?"

"Look, he's been acting really weird. He isn't leaving his guard gnomes on, he hasn't left his base in over a week, his door has been unlocked recently—exceptwhenitcomestoharrassingmewithit—and he's… just… really not all there? I don't know what happened, but it's got me on edge."

"Shouldn't you be happy about this? Maybe he'll finally leave," Gaz says. She turned back around harshly. She didn't expect Dib's face to fall a little at the notion, though, and turned back around to him curiously. She raised an eyebrow at him. "What, you don't like the sound of that? You dead in the brain, or something? That should be a good thing."

Dib knew, deep down, that was what his goal had been for a long time. Finding a way to beat Zim was all that had mattered. Until about a week ago when he saw Zim looking utterly defeated, with a destroyed base, and he wasn't sure how to handle that. Dib knew he didn't want Zim to leave. He wanted Zim back to normal. Normal with a less murderous edge, if possible. But to do that he needed to know why, and Zim had been less than forthcoming. And that was being nice about it.

"I just… need you there for a few hours. Please. I'll buy you whatever game thing you want, regardless of price," Dib begins. Gaz stared to perk up to the idea already and Dib held out his finger. "On the condition I don't have to buy some new console or piece of equipment. I'm not financing some crazy VR set up so you can play a shoot-em-up."

Gaz deflated a little with a groan. "FINE, that's fair, I guess. I'll come along."

Dib blinked. He'd expected to have had to bribe her more. He had budgeted his bank account just minutes ago under the anticipation that's what he'd have to do. "Wait, really?"

"Do you want me to change my mind?" Gaz threatened.

"No!" Dib threw his hands up. "Not at all, I'm ready when you are!"

Gaz eyed hm suspiciously the entire time she slipped her shoes on. She paused at the door. "Do I need to bring anything to bludgeon anything with?"

"Um, no. You should be fine."

Gaz sauntered over to the coat closet. She pulled out her bat and waltzed out the door to Dib's truck. Dib caught up to her after locking the door. Gaz looked at the tarp over the window and turned to him curiously.

"It's…. just don't ask," Dib sighs.

"Zim?" Gaz asks. Dib shook his head, turning a little harshly around the corner.

"Gir."

"..But?"

Dib sighed, rubbing at his temples at a stop sign. He was almost at Zim's base at this point. He almost wished Gaz was less attuned to his own mannerisms. Especially when it came to Zim. It wasn't as if the two were overly sharing in any aspect of their lives—one never knew what made a weakness until it was exploited, after all—but those late nights on a rooftop had given Dib the opportunity to experience more of Zim's behaviors and he'd learned how to pick out when Zim was lying. Gaz had learned over years of being his sister. Dib stopped at the edge of Zim's lawn.

"But he was in here. It was raining, okay? I was going to give him a ride home and then Gir did that," Dib says. Gaz flicked her gaze to it again.

"Yeah, ok."

She climbed out of the truck, stopping on the sidewalk for him. Dib ran around the truck and stuck his toe into the property line. As he expected, the gnomes did nothing. Gaz looked them over. She pushed Dib aside and kicked at one. Dib's anxiety spiked a moment when she did. She looked back at him, pausing to stare disappointed at his hunched over form as if he were waiting for an explosion before she kicked it again.

"Are they broken?" she asks. Dib straightened up, trying to brush himself off and seem more dignified.

"No. Like I said they've been like that at least all weekend. I think he just turned them off. This is just one part of the 'he's being weird' bandwagon you find yourself on," Dib sighs. Gaz blinked a few times and looked him in the eyes.

"Ok, I admit, that's weird for him." She says. She quickly adds, "Not for me, but that they aren't shooting you is weird."

"What?"

"They never dared shoot me," Gaz says simply. She waltzed past the gnomes like a woman experienced in the idea she wasn't going to be blasted to smithereens. Dib was incredibly jealous as he followed behind her.

"That is unfair on so many levels," he griped. Gaz stuck her tongue out at him, knocking.

"You never said what we'd do," she says, spying a camera slip out of the walling for a moment before it disappeared again. She watched the door expectantly.

"I was assigned to look at a haunted house. I wanted to bring Zim, but I don't know if he'll say yes, and I need you to watch him while I'm busy."

"Sounds like you just want backup in case he adds your body to the house's count," Gaz says. Dib snorted. It wasn't entirely confident sounding. Gaz cocked a brow at him. She could hear a faint whirring noise from inside.

Zim held the door open a crack, his red eyes glaring daggers at the siblings. "What?"

"What yourself, move it," Gaz says. She made to try and force the door open. Her shoulder hit it instead, the door remaining in place. She glared at Zim through the small opening between door and frame. She thought she could probably poke him in the eye right now. She refrained, instead focusing on her hand, trying to push the door open but it wouldn't budge. "Hey—"

"Leave."

"Open the door, bug."

Zim stared at her a moment. Gaz's face hit the door as he slammed it shut. Dib gaped, taking a step back. Gaz started to shake. She kicked the door harshly, denting the metal.

"HEY!" Gaz screamed. The camera popped back up on the outer wall. Gaz eyed it a moment before she sighed heavily, reigning in her anger a moment. "Open the door, or I'll open it."

There was a pause. The camera disappeared and Zim cracked the door open again. Dib leaned around Gaz to wave at him. Zim glowered at him.

"You're dead." Gaz says, sticking her foot in the door and held it open so Zim couldn't shut it on her again. Zim didn't seem to react at all to the threat. That threw Gaz off, a little, with the new lack of care on his end. She was used to Zim making some hasty excuse that doubled as an insult. Or at least a scream. "Are you—"

"Okay, so Zim, I had a question," Dib cuts in, ducking under Gaz's arm. Zim turned his attention on Dib instead.

"I told you I do not want your presence here." Zim says. Dib faltered a little in his confidence. But he'd already bribed Gaz to get her there. He was in it, now.

"I wanted to ask if you wanted to join us on a ghost hunt! Really simple. Just get some evidence and get out type deal. Super easy," Dib says as he gave Zim and Gaz both a thumbs up. Zim stared at him almost hopelessly. He sighed heavily, opening the door a little more.

Gaz shoved herself inside before Zim could change his mind. She stopped halfway into the living room, having expected Gir to come crashing through the ceiling to greet them. She turned to the kitchen, spying GIr on the table. She ignored the steadily rising anger in Zim's body language as she looked around the room. When she finally feigned noticing, Dib slipped in when he had the chance and Zim slammed the door shut behind them.

"What possible reason do you two have for invading my base?" Zim asks. "Had I not made it clear?"

"You had, and then you cowered in my lap like a kitten," Dib whispered. Zim stomped on his foot. Dib only just managed to hold back his scream. Gaz feigned ignorance at their bickering, instead moving to grab at Gir. She wondered if he was always this child-like. She picked Gir up.

"Do not compare an almighty Irken to a kitten!"

Gaz turned to them quizzically, holding Gir up like a doll she was inspecting. "What?"

"What?" Dib parroted. Gaz stared him down a moment before ignoring them. Dib turned to Zim, who looked rightfully angry, and he smiled meekly at him. "Sorry?"

"Get out."

"Okay, don't be so hasty," Dib starts.

"Mary!"

Gir tackled Dib by the head, knocking him right on the floor. Gaz smirked. She walked up to stand beside Zim to watch Gir wrestling Dib on the floor for a minute until Dib could finally sit up. Gaz flicked her eyes over to Zim, looking him up and down. She had to admit, Dib was right that Zim wasn't quite himself. She snapped her fingers at him, earning her a low growl as he turned to her.

"You're on edge." She says. Zim glared at her, turning back to watching Gir mess with Dib's face. Dib already looked tired.

"Gir, I saw you, like, yesterday," Dib says. Gir ignored the logic and tried to climb on his head again. "NO."

"You get some bad news?" Gaz asks nonchalantly. She watched Zim's antennae flick closer to the front of his skull. "Calm down, space bug, I don't wanna be here, either."

"Then why are you?" Zim asks. "And do not say that you care."

Gaz raised a brow at him. She could hear the underlining spite and venom in his voice; though she wasn't sure why it was present. She hummed a little. Zim glowered at the noise.

"Well, I don't care. Dib bribed me." Gaz confesses. Zim turned away almost immediately at her answer, looking both satisfied and annoyed. Gaz thought, for a moment, she also saw disappointment. "Dib, however."

"Do not—"

"He can't help himself and seems to actually give a shit, so stop being a grade A ass and loosen up," Gaz orders. She set her hand on his shoulder, squeezing it a little. She caught the nervous flick of his antennae at her touch. "And go disguise it up, we're being dragged on a stupid adventure."

"Is it in his disgusting truck?" Zim asks.

"Definitely."

Zim groaned. His PAK provided his wig and contacts regardless. Dib stood up, absolutely beaming but confused.

"Wait, so you're going to come?!" he asks. He held Gir like a stuffed bear to keep him from wriggling free as easily in his grasp. "How come it took her like two minutes?"

"Because she is an actual threat," Zim says, pulling his door open. Gaz shot Dib a finger gun at his offended gasp. He mumbled something under his breath and Zim tried to trip him on his way out the door. "Don't be sore about it."

"I'll be sore about what I want," Dib snapped back. He climbed into the truck, setting Gir on his lap. Gaz held the door open for Zim. He eyed the truck in disgust. Gaz shoved him inside. Zim hissed, taking up the middle seat. Gaz slammed the door shut behind her.

"Alright, let's get this over with."

"You two could at least pretend to be a little excited," Dib grumbles. Gir giggled in his lap, tapping away at the wheel. As long as Gir didn't try to drive the truck, Dib wasn't worried about it. Gaz and Zim answered his jab simultaneously.

"No."

Dib sighed. He could handle two uncooperative 'partners' for one day. He had to get this to work somehow. He stopped in front of an old house, one that Zim noted was in an old neighborhood that seemed to be empty. He knew it wasn't—he could hear the heart beats of several humans in the area—but the street was empty and looked all but abandoned save for the cars in the driveways. Gaz turned to Dib accusingly.

"Are you allowed on this property?"

"It's public property… now," Dib says. Zim banged his head on the dashboard. "Stop it."

"No."

"Okay, let's just get inside," Dib says. He shoved Gir onto Zim and pushed the two out of the truck.

Gaz grabbed her bat from behind the seat and swung it over her shoulder. Zim took a tentative step away from her range. Dib dropped Gir, who immediately clung to Gaz's leg. Dib came around the front, stopping by Zim to stare at Gaz and Gir. Gaz seemed unperturbed and uncaring about the robot dog clinging to her leg. She blinked at Dib once.

"Right. So, I just need one EVP and then we can go. That sound acceptable to the two of you?" Dib asks snarkily. Gaz nodded, knowing it would annoy him if she answered seriously.

"You will drop me off at my base after this and that is final," Zim says. Dib could live with that kind of arrangement. So long as he knew that Zim was alive and well for the day he could leave him for the rest of the night.

"Fair enough. Okay, so I wanted to start in the basement…" Dib said, wandering his up the sidewalk as he looked over his backpack's contents. He almost tripped more than once up the stairs with his focus taken by the backpack. On his third trip Zim caught the back of his jacket and hoisted him up.

"You need to watch your footing," Zim says sternly.

Dib flushed, pulling out his EMP detector. Gaz checked his shoulder on her way past him to the door. Dib opened his mouth to scold her, only to stop when she harshly kicked the door open in one attempt. Zim gave a small noise of approval. Dib rubbed at his temples.

"Okay… it's public property, technically, but can you not break it?" Dib asks. Gaz grunted, stepping inside.

"Why is it technically public property?" she asks.

"The Swollen Eyeball bought it because of all the stories about ghosts so that they could investigate it," Dib says. Zim narrowed his eyes at him.

"You're lying." Zim says.

"You're paranoid."

"You didn't deny it."

"You two better get in here before I make you because I'm not spending all night here," Gaz threatens. Both boys hurried inside. Dib kicked the door shut behind them.

"Okay, so, can you two do some EMP work for me?" Dib asks. He was met with equally unimpressed stares by both of them.

They're too alike, Dib thinks. He tossed them each a recorder. Gaz caught hers and Dib could see her contemplate tossing it back before she kept it. Zim caught his and did throw it back at him. Dib wasted no time in tossing it back again.

"Please?" he asks. Zim sighed, turning the recorder over in his palm.

Excellent.

"To record you just hit this button," Dib started. Zim held the recorder out of his reach.

"I'm aware of how to use it," Zim says.

"Oh, alright. You guys take the upstairs, I'll be downstairs. If you need me, just holler okay?"

"Won't need to," Gaz says, already moving to the stairs. Dib felt his eyebrow twitch. Zim shrugged, following her up.

The house itself wasn't anything to be impressed by, in Zim's opinion. The Membrane household was far better in size and layout. Even with the rooms devoid of furniture the house felt small. Gaz was toeing doors open and glancing inside before moving onto the next one. Zim thought, idly, that they should be doing what Dib had asked but he couldn't bring himself to care enough to try.

"So, what's bugging you, bug?" Gaz asks. Zim's antennae flick irritated under his wig. When she was met with silence she tried again. "C'mon, you can at least scream about it."

He'd done enough of that already and wasn't keen on drawing Dib's attention.

"No. What are you even talking about?" Zim asks. Gaz toed open the last door on the left and found the frame of a bed. She waltzed up to it, temporarily postponing her answer to Zim in favor of kicking one of the legs. The bed frame fell apart almost immediately. Gaz backtracked quickly from the dust.

"Ugh. Well, you're agitated. More than usual."

"I am always like this." Zim insists. Gaz rolled her eyes at him. He let out a low hissing growl, but she was unperturbed by it. Unlike Dib, she found the odd sound mixture to be something cool, rather than uneasy. She swung around to him.

"Give it a rest. You're not that subtle. Or, do you just not care?" Gaz asks. At Zim's silence she kicks down the last door to find another empty room. It was a sour disappointment. "This house is a major let-down. I should have just told him to screw off."

"I could have told you that," Zim says. Gaz tapped the bat on her shoulder, regarding him.

"And how come you're hiding it?" she asks. Zim gave her a curious look. "What? You're clearly very pissed about something. And since you haven't tried to kill Dib—"

That you know of, Zim thought.

"—then it doesn't have to do with him, so what is it?"

"And I ask again why you're asking," Zim says, charging up to her.

To her credit Gaz didn't waver and glared him down instead. Gaz glowered at him, tapping the bat on her shoulder again. It made Zim uneasy. He was use to Dib at least backing up a step to retain a semblance of space between them should it get physical. Gaz's refusal to do so gave the impression that she thought she could win in a fight. Zim only partially doubted the validity of that. Gaz raised the recorder up, turning slowly away from him, but giving him a long side-eye as she did.

"If anyone is actually here, say 'fuck'."

Dib sat on the only wooden crate in the entire room. The basement was almost the entire size of the house and largely barren. He bobbed his knee, unsure if he should remain quiet in case he heard screaming or talk so he could actually try and get an EMP. All in all, the reports of the house were unimpressive. It was the consistency that was the draw. Consistent EMP activity with every investigation and sometimes objects moving around or being thrown. Dib figured that may be why the place was mostly empty. More than one Swollen Eyeball Investigator had gotten beamed in the head by something that was having a rough afterlife. Hell, Dib had been beamed in the head more than once.

He raised the recorder, turning it over in his palm. He was more occupied with how well Gaz would be able to wring something out of Zim about his behavior than getting any actual evidence. Dib had, for all intents and purposes, come to the conclusion that if Zim wasn't going to be forthcoming with him—possibly not until another rooftop stargazing session, or ever—then Gaz might be able to get something. He wasn't entirely sure what Zim's opinion of Gaz was. He just knew it wasn't the same as whatever opinion Zim had on him. He rolled the recorder in his hand again, resting his cheek on his other palm.

He figured he should, at least once, try to get an EMP since that was at least constant. He wasn't reporting this to anyone—it was really a personal trip. Using the Swollen Eyeball as a cover story was never something Dib considered his best interest; but, given he got actual compensation from successful hunts and investigations he knew it would sway Gaz and Zim just that little bit that he had needed. It hardly worked, but it worked sometimes and that was good enough a strategy for him.

"If anyone is here, can you say something?"

He holds the recorder out, waiting patiently a few moments before pulling it back.

"Did you die in the house?"

He repeated the same actions. He heard a faint voice and beamed. There was no way it hadn't been caught on the recorder and he was eager to hear it when he got home, but for now he had more questions to ask. He opted to keep them vague enough until he might be able to hear something with his own two ears. If Zim were there, he probably could hear it better.

Dib went on and on, content to wrack his brain with any question that was appropriately vague enough. He asked what their profession had been, how old they were, if they knew they were dead, if they could move on, and most importantly, if they were human. Dib held out that monsters could be ghosts, too. He knew the possibility was there, despite how much others in the Swollen Eyeball brushed his idea off, given a ghost was either a conscious manifestation, or a soul. And no one said monsters were without either—save a few.

"…What year did you die? …What's your name? …Do you know what year it is?"

Gaz stomped her foot, shoving her bat in Zim's face. "Look, lizard-boy, you're running my idiot brother ragged! Just tell him you're fine and—"

"He will not listen!" Zim insists, slapping the offending length of wood away. "And you do not believe it, either, apparently!"

"I don't," Gaz confirms. "I know rage like an old friend. And you're full of it."

"And it is not your business why," Zim seethes. That comment, whatever it had been that did it, seemed to strike a nerve in Gaz. Zim could see her fighting not to swing the bat at him. He refused to step down, however. He wasn't about to do that when she hadn't. He was not going to appear weak in front of her of all people.

"You're acting weirder than normal. You're pissed as hell. You're refusing to discuss it. You're surprised Dib won't back down? Really?" Gaz prods. Zim glowers at her, turning his head harshly away and crossing his arms. If she really acted on that whim to strike him, his PAK would defend him just fine. An antennae twitched under his wig and he glanced towards the door. Gaz tapped her bat on the floorboards to regain his attention.

"It's a haunted house, whatever you heard is normal, I'm sure." Gaz says plainly.

"Hn." Zim turned back to her. "I do not have to explain myself to him. That is final."

"That's final, but he's all you've got, bug-brain. And you know that." Gaz says with her own finality. Zim gripped his sleeve harder. "Well? Isn't he?"

Zim didn't want to admit it, but she was right. Dib, especially compared to anyone else on the planet that wasn't in his immediate family, was the only person Zim could even hold a decent conversation with. The reality of that was painful. He knew he didn't want Dib to know what had happened, if not just so that his opinion of Zim remained as unchanged as possible, and if that meant worrying the boy over something like a lethargic attitude and a destroyed base, then so be it. Zim was also aware that Gaz shared her brother's overzealous eagerness to get something done when she wanted to. It manifested differently, but it seemed every Membrane had an intensity about them.

"You gonna tell me, then? Since I don't care like Dib would?" Gaz asks after a few minutes. Zim raised (as well as it could manage under the wig) an antennae at that notion. When he was silent Gaz groaned. A groan that turned into a growl shortly after. She was very quickly losing her patience with him. She ran her hand over one side of her face. "How about a hint?"

"…Something incredibly upsetting happened, yes. I have been… dealing with it." Zim says. Gaz pauses, making a split between two fingers to glare at him.

"That isn't a hint. That's just regurgitating what I already know," she says. She regarded him closely. Close enough that it put Zim on edge and he gripped his recorder just a little tighter. "Did you get left behind here, or something?"

Zim's fist clenched and the recorder shattered in palm. Gaz flinched, but didn't react further than that. Zim could see her body tense, ready for… anything he might do. He hadn't been prepared for her to guess it right on her first try. He hadn't been prepared for her to guess at all. He felt the rage building up inside him again and he didn't like it. He hated it. He hated the reminder. He hated that it was so obvious to her. The reaction had been instantaneous—he hadn't even realized what he'd done until he felt the blood trickling down his fingers. Gaz's eyes fell down to the small puddle forming at his foot. The pink-ish blood was bright enough it almost looked like it was glowing.

Zim abruptly turned on his heel and stomped out of the room. Gaz paused a moment, unsure if she should follow, before she briskly walked after him. He was at the bottom of the stairs before she was at the end of the hall. Dib came out from the basement, spotting Zim as he rammed through the front door in the wrong direction. The door didn't have a chance, its hinges snapping as it splintered against Zim's shove to open it. It crumpled in large pieces on the front porch as Zim stomped away. Dib caught the broken recorder in his hand and then followed the trail of blood droplets up the steps to where Gaz was trudging down the stairs. She looked solemn.

"What the hell happened?" Dib asks.

"I figured out what pissed him off so much," Gaz says. She nodded to the blood trail. "And made a mess. I'll grab a towel from the truck."

She slipped past Dib. He went the opposite direction back up the stairs until he found the starting point. He could hear Gaz sigh as she started to wipe what she could off the floor. He raced back down the stairs. She threw another towel at him and he got to work at the staircase.

"What happened?" he asks again. Gaz gave a huff of air and wiped harsher at the floor.

"I think he was dumped here. Like trash. He probably just found out," Gaz says. Dib jerked his head up at her. She met his gaze and sighed, taking a break once she'd reached the stairs. She climbed up to his step and sat down. "I asked if he was left behind here. He broke the recorder, like immediately, and looked like he was ready to die. He ran off."

"…Is he okay?" Dib asks dumbly. Gaz shot him a look.

"Does he look okay to you?" she asks.

"Okay, dumb question. Should we go get him?"

"No, I'm not going near him right now. Let him burn through whatever he's feeling first," Gaz says. She climbed to the second land, getting to work on the blood there as well. "This shit is staining the floor."

"I'll bring bleach another time." Dib sighs.

"Did you know something about this? Why he was acting this way?" Gaz calls down.

"I… I didn't know concretely anything, but… I knew it wasn't good," Dib confesses. Gaz sighed, laying out on the floor.

"I can't believe you dragged me out here for this," she says. Dib's shoulders bristled.

"Well, now you know why I was worried, right?!" Dib shouted. Gaz shot up, glaring at him from the staircase landing.

"I didn't care! If he left, I wouldn't care!" she shouts. Dib paused, standing.

"Liar! You would, too!"

"Why would I? If he left you wouldn't be going to the doctor's for a broken bone every other month. And I wouldn't have to put up with his screeching. And you'd be elated because "the Earth is finally safe", or whatever." Gaz shoots back. She huffed, pausing just long enough that she ended up cutting Dib off before he could speak. "I mean, it'd be boring. It would be really fucking boring if he left… but, it's not like I wouldn't find something else."

"I thought you didn't care," Dib says. Gaz kicked the wall lazily with a huff. She didn't care. She thought she didn't care. She couldn't deny the tinge of concern when she saw Zim's blood starting to pool on the floorboards. She groaned, sitting up.

"I didn't."

"…"Didn't"?"

"I… look, I don't want to think about it. We can comfort your boyfriend tomorrow," Gaz says, waving him off as she started down the hall again.

"Not my boyfriend."

"Girlfriend?" Gaz calls.

"No!"

"…Bi-friend—?"

"Would you knock it off?! I want to go home already!" Dib shouts, rubbing furiously at the blood in the hallway now. Gaz smirked, focusing on the puddle that had been left in the bedroom. It wasn't coming up easily. It had somewhat congealed. That didn't make much sense to her, given blood usually didn't do that, but it was alien blood so she really couldn't be sure if really was unusual for Irkens.

Dib rolled out of bed with a groan. He had a mission today and he was going to see it through. He looked up at the recorders on his desk. He hadn't even bothered to check them when he'd gotten home the prior night. Gaz's might have something on it; if she'd bothered to ask anything at all. His was likely to have a lot more. He'd have to splice off the end when Zim's stomping overtook his own question before he sent it in, however. He sniffed his hands. They still smelled of bleach. He had wanted to put off going back until today, but he couldn't be sure he'd really be safe from getting a trespassing charge if he went in broad daylight and he couldn't be sure no others would try to investigate the house tonight. Gaz had helped him bleach away anymore blood. It had stained the floor, but it was better than a random Swollen Eyeball member finding alien blood in one of the organization's properties.

Dib grabbed Gaz's recorder and flipped it on to play back.

"If anyone is actually here, say 'fuck'."

Dib promptly shut it back off with a grimace. Of course, she would ask that first. He could finish hearing it later. He wasn't in the mood. Dib tossed it back onto the desk and changed. He was going to have to be prepared for the gnomes to be on once he got to the base. He grabbed a handheld mirror from his bathroom. He wasn't sure if deadly lasers could be refracted; but it was worth a shot.

He left without Gaz. She was still passed out from coming home so late and he didn't want to risk her stuffed animal security system trying to wake her. He hadn't risked it for three years, now. He wasn't sure if they were still even on; but he wasn't about to try and see. Once he'd made it to the edge of Zim's lawn he paused. The gnomes were staring straight ahead, as always, all lined up in their neat rows. He set his toe into the lawn's perimeter. The gnomes didn't react.

Dib sighed, disappointed but also relieved. He wasn't getting lasered to death; but that meant his only hope that Zim had any sense of self security at all was if the door was locked. He pushed it open easily. He really had to get a key to lock it himself if Zim wasn't going to. Dib walked inside, looking around the living room. Gir was on the kitchen table, gorging on a tub of melting ice cream. He turned and caught sight of Dib, waving and getting droplets of melted sugary goodness across the kitchen.

"Mary!"

"Hey, Gir… where's Zim? The labs?" Dib asks as casually as he could muster.

"MHM! He's reeeeallly mad!" Gir says in a tone that was all too happy. Dib felt sweat start down his back.

"You don't say…" he mumbles, starting for the elevator. "I-I'm going to see if I can make him less mad."

"Okay!"

Dib stated down the elevator, swaying on his heels uncertainly. A small beep hit the elevator microphone. "What are you doing here?"

"Hey, Computer."

"Hey, human. Answer my question."

Dib's eyebrow twitched. "I'm here to see Zim, obviously."

"You're sure about that?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Just wondering," the Computer says before the elevator stopped and started to rise again.

"H-Hey! C'mon, let me see him!" Dib shouted, banging on the sides of the tube.

The Computer didn't answer. The elevator stopped on a floor Dib wasn't sure he'd been on until he stepped out and recognized it from one of his recons of the base. He'd found it had food stores and other supplies, but that was largely it. A few lights started to blink along the floor, going out and coming back on in a flowing pattern down the hall. Dib hesitated a second before following them. It took a few minutes of walking, but eventually they stopped at a door that was ajar.

"Zim?" Dib called. He could hear movement on the other end and Zim bent around the frame to see him. Dib paused before reaching the door. "Um. Hey."

Zim was silent. He looked Dib up and down and then behind him.

"Gaz is still at home and Gir is upstairs," Dib says. Zim's shoulders relaxed a little. "Are you…"

Dib stopped short at the exasperated glare Zim was starting to shoot his direction. Right, dumb question. He tried again.

"Aaare… you feeling better?"

"…I am feeling confused as to why you're here," Zim says. Dib could have clocked him in the jaw. He was too stubborn sometimes.

"Because we're friends and I'm concerned. Firstly, you were bleeding—"

"We are not friends," Zim cuts in. Dib bristled. He lunged forward, grabbing Zim's wrist harshly to pull him closer.

"Do not even think for a second that we are not friends," Dib says. Zim tried to pull away but Dib held on. "If I wasn't your friend, I wouldn't have made such an effort to check up on you, I would have taken advantage of your incredibly concerning lack of security, and I would have left you out in the rain. And if you weren't my friend you wouldn't have saved me on the Bigfoot hunt. Am I right?"

Zim was silent. He appeared to be studying Dib's features for something. He gave a half-hearted and experimental tug against Dib's grip. It wasn't breaking any time soon unless Zim hurt him. And he could force himself free, if he really wanted to, but he didn't. He just stared at Dib and Dib glared back at him as he waited for the answer.

"ZIM. Am I right? If we were still really enemies, would we have helped each other?" Dib asks impatiently.

"...No."

"Then we are not enemies."

"… …Yes?"

"So, that makes us friends." Dib concludes.

"I…" Zim shoved Dib's hand off him. It might leave a bruise; but he found it hard to care. "I do not… understand the concept of a friend. Irkens don't have friends."

"Yes, you do. What about Skoodge?"

"What about Skoodge?"

"Well… I don't know, when you mention him on the rooftop it sounds like you guys are friends," Dib mumbles. He was suddenly losing confidence in his stance.

"Irkens have comrades. Allies." Zim clarifies. "…Acquaintances."

"Is that not just Irken for 'friend'?" Dib asks. He sounded genuinely confused and Zim almost felt pity for him. Zim shook his head, pinching his brow.

"No…"

"Well… first time for everything. Zim, I am your friend. And I like to think you're mine." Dib says. Zim peered at him from behind his hand. "Can we be? Friends?"

"…I… fine." Zim concedes. He wasn't prepared for the beaming smile to break out onto Dib's face. Dib threw his arms open for a hug and Zim shoved him away before he could wrap his arms around him. Dib hit the floor.

"Oof!"

"No."

"Okay, fair enough. Fair enough."

Dib brushed himself off. Zim watched him, his PAK picking up on whatever he was rambling about for Zim to review later. Zim looked him over as he dragged him down the hall. He could get used to the idea of a friend. If it was Dib.