Ch. 1 Soreness and Ailments

Stitch woke up really early in the morning, earlier than usual. All he knew that he was in pain and aching everywhere on his fur covered body. It seems as if his entire body was one pressure point being pitched so hard and repeatedly. Everything about him felt sore and slightly heavy. Even stretching seems to be hard as he felt a fire tingling and rapidly traveling up his body. He decided to dismiss it and tries to go back to sleep after tossing and turning for a couple of minutes while trying to get comfortable; he couldn't even lay in bed because his body was even too sore for that.

Figuring he wouldn't get any sleep tonight, he just goes to the kitchen and makes a pot of coffee for himself. He takes the entire thing and goes to the living room; he turns on the television and watches anything that is on.

Hours later...

Lilo woke up and rubs her eyes. She focuses them on Stitch's bed, but sees he isn't there. "Huh?" she asks tiredly as she looks around the room "Stitch?" She decided that Stitch is probably in the kitchen already scarfing down whatever is there. So, she shrugs as she gets off her bed and goes downstairs. She sees Nani rummaging around the kitchen, "Great. How could we be out of coffee already? I just bought some yesterday."

"Morning Nani," Lilo yawns as she rubs her eyes, "You didn't happen to see Stitch, did you?" Nani yawns too as she shakes her head, "No...I haven't seen him at all? Wasn't he in his room?"

"No," Lilo groggily replies as she rubs her eyes. Nani retorts, "Don't worry, I'm sure Stitch is fine." She stops as she starts to get annoyed, "And looks like I've to buy new coffee. Great way to start the day...at least I know what happened to all of it."

Meanwhile...

Angel was walking around when sees find Stitch, which was strange for two reasons. First, he was in the sand and second he was sleeping in the sand with what seems to be coffee stains on his fur.

"What?" she asks as she rubs her eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things.

After doing so, she looks back and sure enough she sees Stitch there.

She cautiously walks over to him and speaks gingerly, "Stitch...Stitch...Come on, time to wake up."

He turns to the other side and Angel walks around, "Stitch...Come on. Wake up...You can't sleep on the sand. It's going to be in your fur and then you'll have to take a shower."

He didn't even flinch at the word 'shower', he didn't do anything actually; which made Angel really nervous. She picks up Stitch and carries him back to the house.

House...

Lilo and Nani were fully awake, along with Jumba and Pleakley. They were all in the kitchen, but didn't do much. All were quiet, but they were thinking the same thought. Where was Stitch? It wasn't like him to go and not tell them about his whereabouts or even leave a message about where he was going. The room was basically a pressure cooker, ready to burst with all the build up tension.

Nani stands up and all eyes were set on her, "That's it. I can't handle this, I'm going to look for him."

Lilo hops off her seat, "I'm going with you."

Nani states seriously, "We'll take the car and look on the beach, Pleakley check around the house and Jumba, your lab. He has to be around here somewhere."

They were about to leave the house when they heard hard and loud knocking on the door.

"Hello!? Is anybody home!? Hello?! Anybody!?" Lilo rushes over to the door and opens it. She finds Angel there with Stitch in her arms, "I found Stitch on the sand. He was like this when I found him."

Jumba takes Stitch out of her arms and takes him upstairs to his room. Angel runs in and Lilo closes the door as everyone follows Jumba upstairs. They go into Jumba and Pleakley's room and see that Jumba sets Stitch down on the table. He opens his drawer and takes out a scanner, he aims it at Stitch. He presses the button as a blue light came out and went over Stitch's body, followed by a yellow and finally a red.

Jumba reads the results and sighs quietly, "Good. Jumba thinking Stitch had another glitch."

He turns to the rest of the family, "It's okay. Stitch just really tired."

He scoops Stitch back in his arms and places him on the bed. He quickly leaves and exits the room along with Angel, Pleakley and Nani as Lilo looks over to Stitch. She softly closes the door and prays that Stitch is okay.

Three hours later...

Stitch wakes up and stretches as he looks around the room. He notes that it wasn't his room at all. He could tell by how it looks, but the biggest clue that smacks him hard like a ton of bricks him was the smell. He had to cover his nose from the smell of the room. The room was definitely Jumba and Pleakley's room. He could smell the mixture of lab sweat, oils and chemicals along with the scents of air freshers, candles, perfumes... It made his stomach turn at how acute his sense of smell became. He looks down, bad mistake because he had to cover his mouth. He could smell how bad he really was... His body odor, the smell of coffee, everything on him was clear. It was as if the scent was amplified by a thousand-fold or more. He had never felt this nauseous ever before, but one thing is for sure. He needed to use the bathroom. He quickly opens the door and rushes down the hall, went straight to the toilet and vomits in it all the coffee and cake, or a part of it, in the thing. He heaves as he flushes the toilet and see the contents go down the drain.

"Yuck," he replies sickly as he covers his nose from the smell so he wouldn't barf again.

He stands up gradually and leaves the bathroom slowly, because he caught himself swaying a few times.

"Stitch?" he turns and sees Lilo there with concerned filled eyes, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah...just a little sick," Stitch said as he covers his nose.

"Really?" Lilo asks confused, "Jumba said that you were just tired, he didn't mention you were sick."

Stitch waves a paw dismissively, "Maybe because I didn't get a good rest last night and ate and drank a lot of sugary things."

Lilo looks at Stitch, "Are you sure? We can take you back to Jumba's lab and he can check you again."

Stitch shakes his head slowly, "Nah. I'm fine, really."

"See," he smiles wide and Lilo comments, "OK. If you feel good then we should probably get ready for the party."

"Party?" Stitch parrots confused.

"Yeah, the anniversary of all the experiments becoming a family. That's today," Lilo said as she tilts her head at Stitch, "You do remember right?"

"Right, right. The party. That's tonight right?" Stitch said, sounding a little unsure and Lilo nods.

Lilo speaks concernedly, "Stitch, if you really don't feel that well. We can cancel the party and move it to another date."

"No, you don't have to. I'm fine," Stitch smiles. "Really, I am."

Lilo sighs knowing how stubborn Stitch could be at times, "Fine..."

She adds, "Don't eat too much. We need to save the rest for friends and family."

Stitch remarks, "Don't worry...I won't be eating that much."

He laughs as Lilo walks off. 'With how my stomach is feeling now...I don't think I can eat as much as I regularly do.'

He goes to the kitchen and looks for the medicine cabinet. After a few searches, he finds the cabinet and takes out something to help with nausea. He reads the directions and does what it said. He swallows two small blue capsules and waits for his uneasily stomach to settle a little.

Nighttime...

Lilo, Nani, David and everyone else that wasn't cover in fur was wearing nice clothes. They decide to have it in the place where David does his fire twirling baton gig.

Nani was wearing a black dress while David has a simple black suit. Pleakley was wearing a chartreuse dress and Jumba was wearing a light blue suit. Lilo had a nice red dress and Stitch decided to wear a bow tie at least.

Lilo smiles, "The party is good."

Nani nods, "Agree."

And everyone said the same thing.

Nani adds, "We should enjoy it while we can because...normally we don't get good days like this."

Once again everyone agreed to that as they held their cups and drank their respected beverages.

Lilo looks around at all the cousins and is shocked, but happy to see everyone together.

She said with a big smile, "This is nice."

Pleakley comments happily, "Yeah, too bad we can't do this more often."

Lilo turns to them, "Why can't we? I mean, we stopped Hamsterwheel and saved all of the cousins. Gantu's good. What is stopping us to actually have more family parties?"

Nani retorts, "Because most of the cousins go a little crazy when they have too much fun and end up breaking things, remember?"

David states as he laughs, "Yeah, but those were fun times."

Jumba and Pleakley nod in agreement.

Jumba speaks, "Until Big Earth Girl screaming at Jumba because of mess and then we cleaning it up."

Nani crosses her arms, "I'm sorry, but who else can I go to? Who else knows them better than you?"

Jumba nods, "True, true."