I'll Remember You
A fresh island breeze. Clean golden sand. An ocean as blue as the heavenly sky and as clear for one to see life thriving below the surface of the water. Colorful fish darted through the reefs. But one little fish was interestingly carrying what seemed to be a peanut butter sandwich in it's mouth. The fish chomped happily on it. Not too far away in the water, someone was watching him eat. A little Hawaiian girl. Her home where she lived? The beautiful island of Kauai. Appropriately named the garden isle, for the island flourished with beautiful plant life of many different kinds. The little girl smiled for she had given the sandwich to the little fish. She looked up through her underwater mask. A long shadowy object, a surfboard, floated on the water's surface. The little girl saw something peeking from on top of the board. The girl smiled. Satisfied that her fishy friend was fed, she headed to the surface.
Breaking the surface with a big breath of air, the girl, Lilo Pelekai, swam to her surfboard, where her little blue alien dog and best friend waited for her. "Ok Stitch." She said. "Pudge got his sandwich. And he said that tomorrow there's going to be a thunderstorm." "Surf time now?" the alien dog Stitch asked. "You got it Stitch!" Lilo said. Stitch laughed happily, clapping his hands together. Lilo paddled out further into the ocean. They sat and waited for a wave to catch.
Stitch laughed. "Hmm." Lilo said looking at the ocean. "Kind of flat out there." Stitch growled. "Choota!" He said punching the water with his fist. Lilo continued looking for a wave. "There!" She said. Stitch's ears perked as he saw a large wave coming from out of nowhere. "Surf's up!" He exclaimed happily. "Let's take it Stitch!" Lilo said. "Help me paddle!" "Ih!" said Stitch. They began paddling. Normally Lilo's big sister Nani would never let her charge a wave like that by herself, or with Stitch because he can't float. But right now they didn't care.
They just wanted to have fun. Together. As best friends.
Stitch laughed happily as they got closer and closer to the big wave.
They both paddled to catch it, soon reaching the base as the water pulled the board and surfers onto the wave.
Stitch stood on his hands. Lilo laughed as she and Stitch were surfing. Stitch laughed too. Nothing better to do in this perfect day then hanging out and hanging loose with your best friend. Just then, the sky was growing darker.
"Huh?" Stitch said, hopping back on his feet. "Whoa…" Lilo said as she started to lose balance. Her feet wobbled on the surfboard.
"Lilo!" Stitch said. He wanted to run up to her but it was too late.
The wave proved to be too much resulting in a major wipeout. "Lilo!" Stitch cried before he and Lilo hit the water.
The water was now quite choppy, but Lilo managed to swim back to the surface grabbing hold on the surfboard.
She gave a big sigh of relief that she made it and started to paddle back to shore. Bu she seemed to be unaware that someone was missing. Calling for help. "Lilo!" Stitch cried as he splashed in the water, unable to swim. But Lilo kept paddling on. "Lilo!" Stitch called again. He tried his best to keep from sinking but was having little to no success.
"Lilo!" Stitch cried. Too late. He slipped beneath the water. He struggled still but kept sinking. He could see Lilo's surfboard sliding across the surface as it began to fade away into nothing. "Lilo…" He attempted saying, her name coming out in bubbles.
He kept sinking lower. There was nothing he could do. "Why…Lilo?" Stitch thought as he sunk deeper into darkness.
He could barely make out a faint voice calling his name. "Stitch…" it said. "Stitch wake up."
Stitch opened his eyes to find out he wasn't underwater. He was in a bedroom. But not Lilo's bedroom. A small homey bedroom in a house that was built away from a large city where he now lived.
"Stitch are you okay?" A young girl's voice said. Again not Lilo's. But his new companion and best friend Yuna.
Stitch groaned, rubbing his head. "Did you have a bad dream?" Yuna asked. "You kept talking in your sleep."
Stitch nodded. "Bad dream…" He said. "Lilo…" "I figured that." said Yuna. "Since you kept repeating her name." Stitch hung his head.
Soon the noise of footsteps came about. Yuna's bedroom door open to reveal none other than her cousin Zuruko standing in the doorway, a scolding expression on her face as she turned on the lights. Yuna and Stitch shielded their eyes from the blinding light. "Zuruko!" Yuna said in complaint. "What are you two doing up so late?" Zuruko scolded. "It's like two in the morning." "Stitch had a nightmare." Yuna said. Zuruko's expression didn't improve. She obviously didn't care. "I don't care if Stitch had a nightmare about the apocalypse. Back to bed!" She shouted.
"If I'm late for my class in the morning, you're both in deep trouble."
With that Zuruko shut off the lights and closed the door behind her with a slam.
Yuna blew a raspberry. "What a slave driving witch." She said. "Am I right Stitch?" No answer. "Stitch?" Yuna asked.
He was ruffling around the pillows. He reached his arm into a pillowcase and pulled something out.
"What's that you got there?" Yuna asked walking up to him. In Stitch's hand, was some sort of necklace. A tiki charm hung from the red band. "What's that?" Yuna asked. "Ku Tiki." said Stitch. "Ah." Yuna said. "Did Lilo give that to you?" Stitch froze.
A voice, Lilo's voice, echoed through his head. "Promise to never take it off?" it asked. Stitch nodded, then sighed.
Yuna was silent. "Promise…" Stitch said quietly. "Never take it off…"
Stitch suddenly tightened his fists, clutching the red band very hard. He growled. Yuna became worried. "Stitch?" She asked.
"Lilo promised to always love me." said Stitch. Yuna put a hand on his shoulder.
Stitch growled more. "Lilo broke promise!" He cried out. "Naga friend! Naga o'hana!"
Suddenly he threw the necklace against the wall in anger. Yuna was shocked. Plus worried they would get in trouble if they woke Zuruko again. "Shh!" She said. "You'll wake up Zuruko." Stitch's rage lessened. Yuna looked at him with sympathy. He was clearly hurting inside, as the tears beginning to stream from his eyes indicated.
But his attitude shocked her.
She saw the tiki necklace Stitch had thrown against the wall lying on the floor, fortunately unbroken.
Yuna walked over picked it up. "Gosh, what do I do?" She wondered. This was all new to her.
She then remembered something. Yuna walked over and picked up the tiki necklace then walked back over to Stitch.
"Not o'hana?" She asked. Stitch was silent, his heart still aching. Yuna sat next to her friend. "Hey. Remember back on the island when I got that postcard from my dad?" She asked. Stitch looked at her. "Ih." He said. "And how I got mad saying he wasn't o'hana because I thought he broke his promise?" Yuna asked. "Yeah." said Stitch.
Yuna place a hand in his shoulder. "I know you're hurting inside." said Yuna. "I know my dad didn't mean to break his promise. I'm sure Lilo didn't mean to hurt you either." Stitch looked at her. "For all we know, Lilo is probably missing you too." Yuna said with a cheerful expression. Stitch's ear perked at that. "But boyfriend…" He said, his ears folding back down. "And she's far away." "I don't think distance or boyfriends matter." said Yuna. "Even boyfriends should be o'hana too." "Ichariba Chodei?" Stitch asked. Yuna nodded.
"I miss all my friends back on the island. And I miss Gramma too." She said. "But we'll always be family. Forever."
"So Lilo…" Stitch began, perking up again. "Might still love Stitch?" "Yep." Yuna said. "If your girlfriend Angel can still love you even though she travels a lot and has lots of adoring fans, I'm sure Lilo can still love you like she did before." Stitch giggled. "Everybody loves Stitch!" He shouted. Yuna laughed along with him.
"GO TO BED!" exclaimed the sharp voice of Zuruko from her room. Yuna rolled her eyes.
"Well almost everyone." Stitch said. He stuck his tongue out.
Yuna giggled. "It is getting late." She said with a yawn. "And I got school tomorrow."
"Ih." said Stitch. Yuna sat the tiki necklace next to Stitch and hunkered back down under the covers.
Stitch looked at it for a bit. "Good night Stitch." Yuna said after closing her eyes. "Night." Stitch said.
Soon Yuna was fast asleep, but Stitch remained awake. He stared at his tiki necklace.
He then picked it up and held it in his hand. He smiled and he held it close to him. "Lilo…" He said. "O'hana…"
Stitch then looked out the window that sat before Yuna's desk. He looked at the dark evening sky.
Gazing up at the moon, Stitch began to wonder. "Lilo…still might love me?" He thought. "Or miss me?"
Stitch smiled at that thought.
But somewhere else, far away, someone wasn't smiling.
On the isle of Kauai, the sun had already risen.
Thanks to different time zones, it was the morning before Stitch had his nightmare back in Okinawa.
But there was no brightness for the young girl who was sitting in her room. She sat up on her bed, curled up into a ball and sighed.
In her hand she held a little book. On the cover was a piece of paper taped on with the word "Cousins" written in black.
She opened the book. Inside was pictures of strange creatures of many shapes and sizes. But the girl knew them all very well.
Her cousins. Her o'hana. The girl sighed again. Her name was Lilo Pelekai. Yes Lilo. The little Hawaiian girl who first befriended Stitch and turned him from bad to good. As well as finding all 625 of his genetic predecessors that were scattered all across the island in the form of pods. Lilo along with her best friend Stitch and alien guardians Jumba Jookiba who created Stitch and the other 625 experiments, (and Experiment 627) and Wendy Pleakley were successful.
Everyone now had a place to call home. But that was in the past. Lilo was growing up. Things have changed.
And things were not looking so good for Lilo now. Stitch was gone.
She had no idea where he was or where he went and why. Along with Jumba, Pleakley, and many other experiments.
Her eyes began to burn. Her throat was beginning to feel sore from anguish. Her body heaved.
Nothing could stop her now. Lilo began to cry.
She buried her face into her knees as warm tears streamed down her cheeks. Lilo's heart was aching.
She missed her best friend. Her first real friend. "Oh Stitch…" She cried. "Where are you?" First she loses her parents to a car accident and now her closest friends were nowhere to be found.
She buried her face in her hands. Oh how Lilo missed them all so much. How she hoped they were being cared for.
If only there was a way for her to see them again. Let them know how she really missed them.
She sighed. Then she heard someone calling. "Lilo!" a woman's voice said. "Time for breakfast!"
"Coming Nani!" Lilo called back as she stood up wiping her eyes. She tried to dry all the tears away.
She looked out the window to the bright morning sky. Only her missing family members on her mind.
It seems Yuna was right. Distance doesn't measure how far love can really go.
Never has, never will. Lilo and Stitch would always be friends forever.
The only concern would be if the two would ever see each other again.
Well, that's something many of us are rooting for.
(A/N: I once again thank knightcommander for helping me write this. This is just my opinion on what both Lilo and Stitch are going through during their separation. Based on the English dub of the anime series. Lilo and Stitch and the anime series belongs to Disney.)