NEON HEARTS

Chapter One

Dib packed his bags in silence.

Dib stood in front of his foster home in silence.

Dib got into Membrane’s car in silence.

Dib sat the whole car ride in silence.

If Gaz or Membrane said anything to him, it was drowned out by full volume Nine Inch Nails. He didn't even look at them. He stared out the car window, watching the grey sky slowly go red as they neared The City. He wanted to say he would miss Mr. Olivarez, he was nice and supportive and didn't force Dib to do what he didn't want to. He wanted to say he'd miss him, but everything these last few years felt tainted. He burrowed deeper in his seat, trying not to think about it.

The only time his headphones came off the whole three hour ride was when Gaz kicked his seat hard enough to knock them off.

“What the fuck are you wearing?” She asked, in a voice somehow harsher and more gravelly then it was the last time he saw her. He could hear her wearing down the D-pad of her Game Slave.

“What the fuck is it to you?” He shrugged, moving his headphones back over his ears.

“Language, Dib-” Membrane started, but Dib was already back to ignoring him, refusing to acknowledge the absolute bullshit about to come out of his dad's mouth..

He knew he was different than he used to be, how they remembered him, and it would make interacting with him harder. But that sounded like a them problem. That’s what three years with minimal contact did. He packed all his real special clothes in his bag, too, not like his little homecoming was much to celebrate, so they were stuck with his everyday wear. A cropped hoodie, a fishnet shirt and his favorite baggy bondage pants. If he wasn’t stuck folding his lanky ass into the car, they’d be hanging off his hips, long enough to touch the floor. He hadn't even washed off his eyeshadow from the day before.

The car stopped sooner than he thought it would.

He looked out the window, confused for a moment, before he realized they were in front of the lab. Dib actually didn’t expect the surge of anger at seeing the building. At least he wasn’t expected to go inside. While he (and Gaz, apparently) waited for Membrane to come back out, he tried to count in his head anything he was glad to come back to.

Tak’s ship would probably still be there, there’s no way anyone would have found it. His old electronics would be nice, if they hadn’t been wiped and thrown away as soon as he was off the property. Maybe... Maybe there was something, someone, to make him happy to be home.

There was a flash of green and pink out of the corner of his eye, so quick Dib barely registered it before it was gone. He swiveled his head to try and find it again, him again, but there was nothing. Nothing that mattered, at least. Instead he saw down the block, heading straight towards the car, two barely familiar figures. Zita and Jessica walked together, laughing at who knows what between themselves. They were taller, but so was he, to be fair, and were just escaping the baby fat and kid faces that made them recognizable to him.

As they passed the car, one of them must have looked through the windows because both of their eyes were on him in a second, whispering to each other and not so subtly pointing. He couldn’t stand them in Skool, and he wouldn’t be able to stand them now.

"Dib," he could hear Gaz through his music, "Don't look at them."

He looked up to the rear view mirror to see her for the first time in years. She was being swallowed by her own clothes, a massive jacket on top of a striped turtleneck that went down to her thighs, making her legs poking out look tiny. It was like she was trying to put a foot of space between her and the rest of the world by force.

"What do you care?" He grimaced, putting his headphones around his neck. Might as well socialize.

"Because I don't want to be stuck in here with you if they decide to make a scene."

"Yeah, whatever." He rolled his eyes. "Never seemed to give a shit before."

"Don't assume you know what I'm thinking, Dib." One of her eyes opened to stare at him, "Besides, that's before I had classes with them"

Dib shrugged, but he got it. He'd probably go batshit if he had to be in a room with them again.

"How long is he gonna be in there?" He asked before the silence could linger, itching for something to do with his hands.

"How should I know?"

Dib huffed, but took that to mean at least thirty minutes. He shuffled around his pants pockets until he found a spare dart, and lit it up, only rolling the window down enough to let the smoke drift. He tried to save his last pack when he heard he was moving back, but he was really stressed. He would have fumbled for a clove, but he was pretty sure Gaz would have killed him for the smell alone.

Gaz didn’t say anything about it, just sneered at him in the rear view for a second.


Completely unsurprisingly, it took significantly longer than thirty minutes for Membrane to get back. Try more like two hours. Dib was honestly considering getting out and walking home, but they were pretty firmly locked in. When Membrane came back, all cheery and talkative, Dib did what he did best. That is, ignore it all. If he said anything about the smoke smell, he didn’t catch it.

As soon as they got back to the house, he grabbed his bags and booked it to his old room. It took a while, but he locked up his door and windows and slowly looked through all of his things, his hiding places, his secret stashes, files and experiments. It was mostly what he expected, it looked like Gaz had come in to scope his batteries or old clothes, but that was it. He was almost insulted that no one cared enough to spy on him. Not even any signs of... well. Him.

Then again... he was half expecting them to just throw all of his shit away, not snoop through it. A part of him thinks he should be grateful he still has anything anymore, but it’s drowned out by the part of him that thinks thats stupid and no normal dad would throw away all of him son’s things while forcing him to live in another city for three FUCKING YEARS.

Okay. He’s getting mad. In his defense, though, this is all a pile of shit. Dib has thought about it a lot over the years, what he did to get put in some stranger’s house almost half a state away, but the closest he could find was that he pissed them off one to many times chasing after Zim. Maybe he ruined another family dinner or he broke something in Membrane’s lab, but next thing he knew he was being shipped off to a foster home, not even given the time to pack a bag or say goodbye (if he had anyone to say goodbye to.)

It’s like waking up in a new world. No one knows you, you can’t get your bearings, you’re in a stranger’s clothes, a stranger’s house, and nobody’s there to help you. He’s allowed to be a little bitter.

If it was any consolation prize, kids are just as cruel, no matter where you go.