NEON HEARTS

“So, what am I looking at exactly?” Squee asked, voice quiet and tired from the other end of the call. He probably shouldn’t have called at three in the morning.

 

“The most annoying pile of wires I have ever had the misfortune of sticking my hands into.” He huffed, blowing smoke at the same time. He’d sent a few of the clearer pictures he’d taken of the ship to Squee. He took a sip of his soda before going on. “apparently most Irkens are like, child sized? So it was a lot easier to get into the thing before I hit my growth spurt.”

 

“I’m sorry, Irken? When did this lore drop?” Pepito’s voice came over the call, rough and uneven. He really shouldn’t have called so early.

 

“Yesterday. Zim came over to drop off my homework and said something about being an ‘Irken Invader’ before he flipped his shit and left.” He shrugged, even though they couldn’t see him. “Kinda surprised he’s never said it before.”

 

“Hey, maybe you just don’t remember?” Squee pointed out.

 

“Nah, I’ve got a pretty good memory of all the shit he’s said.” He tapped some ash onto the park bench. “I was sort of obsessed with him, remember?”

 

“I mean, yeah, but you’ve also had more than your share of head trauma.”

 

“Point taken.”

 

He thought about that for a bit in between bites of his wildly mediocre burger. God bless 24 hour fast food, because he didn’t think he could handle being at home. God, he missed living with Squee.

 

“Dib, do you have a place to be tonight?” Squee asked, his voice all concern. “You’ve been out for a while.”

 

“Why bother going home?” He said, instead of answering, “I don’t have school tomorrow.”

 

“To sleep in a bed, maybe?”

 

“Sleep is overrated.”

 

“No, you have a sleep disorder.” Pepito grumbled.

 

“potato, potahto, man.”

 

“Dib, listen to me.” He heard the rustling of sheets as Squee sat up. “As much as I love talking to you in the middle of the night and enabling your borderline insomnia, I’m kinda worried about you. You’re in a new, stressful situation full of the same stressors that drove you batshit when you were younger and it doesn’t seem like your handling it well. I need you, need you, Dib, to find somewhere to sleep tonight. It doesn’t have to be at your dad’s place, but you can’t just hang around the park all night. A library, a convenience store bathroom, whatever. We can deal with the rest of your trashass life in the actual morning.”

 

“Wow, you drive a hard bargain, Squee.” Dib rolled his eyes, but agreed anyway. Totally not because he was fucking exhausted already. “I think I might know a place, anyways.”

 

“Not worrying at all, thanks,” Squee said in that voice Dib just knew meant he was rolling his eyes. “Just be safe, and call me when it’s a normal time to be awake.”

 

“yeah, yeah, I got it.” Dib mumbled. “good night, Squee. I miss you.”

 

“I miss you too, man. Sleep well.”

 

Squee hung up, Dib finished his burger and he stood up to leave.

 

The city was dead around him as he walked a familiar path, giant neon signs shining around him to advertise empty stores. The only eyes he caught before he crossed back into the suburbs was the empty stares of fast food employees zoning out behind counters. He flicked the butt of his menthol on the ground, stamping it out next to a sewer drain.

 

He knows this area, knows if he takes a right, it’s a straight shot back home, to his bed and his things and his dad. He knows this, so he turns the other way. He walks quietly, not even playing music, down the street and through twists of deadend neighborhoods and culdesacs until he finds the only other house in the city that meant anything to him. The garden gnomes are just as deadeyed and creepy as he remembers.

 

Dib doesn’t know why he bothers knocking on the door, but he does and the little robot dog answers, its hood down to show it’s real face.

 

“Hellooooooo.” It says looking up at him. “You got taller.”

 

“Yeah, I know. Is Zim here?”

 

“He’s asleepin! But Skoodge is awake! We’re watching anime!” The little thing squeals.

 

“Okay, so get… Skoodge.” Dib can’t imagine who Skoodge is, though he thinks he remembers Zim saying his name a couple days ago. Probably another Irken if he’s staying with Zim. The little robot salutes him, the runs off back inside. It takes a few moments, and Dib can hear him scream something once he’s further inside, but eventually another figure comes to the door.

 

“Uh, hello?”

 

The guys is short and pudgy, with surprisingly normal, if pale, skin, shaggy blond hair and blue eyes. There are vocaloid buttons stuck to his sweater. Dib could almost mistake him for a human.

 

“You’re another invader right?” He asks bluntly, wanting to get this out of the way as soon as he can.

 

“What? I- well, technically, but we’re not doing much… invading.” Skoodge winced, looking back inside the house for a moment. “and you… you must be the Dib child. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

 

“All good things, I’m sure,” He rolled his eyes. “Listen, can you let me in? I need somewhere to crash for the night.”

 

“I mean. Sure, I guess? When you say crash, do you mean-?”

 

“Sleep? I can just take the couch as long as it’s not to dirty.”

 

Skoodge winced again, this time more embarrassed than anything. “We have a guest room you can use. I don’t think anything should put it’s head down on our couch.”

 

“Whatever, sure.”

 

Skoodge opened the door, letting him in. The place looks exactly like he remembers it, from the few times he’d been inside at least, and it’s strangely comforting. While Dib is looking around, he spots the couch in all its green, sticky, stained glory and is glad he agreed to sleep in the guest room.

 

“Is Zim really asleep?” He asked, not quite believing there was a time Zim wasn’t actively manically scheming in his lair.

 

“Oh, yeah. Nowadays, he either doesn’t sleep at all or sleeps whole days. It’s really weird for an Irken, we usually run on pretty tight schedule.” Skoodge said easily, like he wasn’t randomly dropping lore Dib would have killed for a few years ago.

 

“yeah, alright. So, uh, why are you awake?”

 

“I usually sleep during the day, when Zim is out.” He shrugs. “No use being up during the day if I don’t leave the house.”

 

Dib nodded along, running his eyes along the walls they passed. Lots of… interesting décor. They stopped in front of what Dib could only assumed was the guest room.

 

“Well, uh, good night.” Skoodge said, opening the door and scampering back into the living room.

 

“Yeah. Good night.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

Dib wakes up cold. Not painfully so, just a little uncomfortable, waking him up quicker than he’s comfortable with. His eyes sting from staying up so late and being woken so, apparently, early. He sat up on the surprisingly soft bed, the surprisingly thin blanket falling around his waist. He’d pulled his hoodie off before sleeping, so it was just him and a mesh shirt against the air.

 

He stood up, pulled his hoodie off the ground and bundled it in his arms, shivering all the way. The ground was cold too. Were Irkens just built for this kind of temperature, or was there something seriously wrong with these people?

 

Walking out of the guest room, the first thing he hears is silence, and then tragically offkey whistling coming from the kitchen. Dib walked towards the front of the house, suddenly wary. He did just spend the night at a previous enemies house. He has years worth of instincts telling him that he just made a mistake, no matter how little he wants to care now.

 

So Dib walked quietly, carefully, slowly, up to the door way of the kitchen. He leaned in silently, looking around himself with every movement, and spied inside the room, just to figure out what it was he was hearing. And inside the room, standing up on top of a stepladder in front of the oven… was Zim’s weird dog.

 

God, why did he even bother.