This is a crossover of Invader Zim and Lilo and Stitch. It takes place a few days after Policy of Truth by Maran Zelde. I love that story. Somehow Dib and Lilo just seem meant for each other. They both like monsters, they're both a little strange, and they both have alien adversaries they have to deal with.
Anyways, here's my second attempt at a fanfiction. I hope you like it everyone. :)
Chapter 1
Friends
Dib woke that morning feeling fantastic. It'd been a long time since he'd felt like that. His old home in Michigan never made him fell like a million bucks the first minute he opened his eyes but here in Hawaii it felt like that all the time. He opened the window to let in some clean air and savored in the fresh scent of a tropical forest. He was quickly starting to like this place a lot more than his old home.
Starting out the window his eye caught on a green beach house and looming over the tiny structure, like a great red mountain with wings, was an alien spaceship. Normally he would've gone crazy by the sight of it and it was only from mere habit that he reached for his camera. He caught himself quickly and drew back.
"Just relax," he said to himself, "it's completely normal for an alien spacecraft to be parked by my neighbor's house. As well as 626 illegal experiments designed to create countless forms of destruction on civilization to roam free here on the island." It wasn't as hard getting use to this place as he thought is would be. And the creatures here weren't all bad as he'd figured. In reality the good majority were perfectly harmless and very useful in some cases.
His thoughts were at once interrupted at the sight of a thirteen-year old girl emerging from the front door of the beach house. Dib grinned from ear to ear at the sight of Lilo. Normally he wouldn't even look twice at the girl with the abnormal blue creature traipsing behind her. But as it was he didn't even notice Stitch toady.
The little Hawaiian girl was dressed in a sleeveless white shirt with a grass skirt and crown. She seemed to have no need for shoes most of the time since he often caught her going barefoot through the whole town and today was no exception. He admired her for the autonomy but personally he wouldn't be able to share in her absence of footwear. Growing up in a city where it was normal to find whole streets littered with broken glass and nails had made him conscientious to wear his sneakers even in his own house.
He watched her for a moment before realizing suddenly that she was coming this way; AND HE WAS STILL IN HIS PAJAMAS!
Quicker than he'd moved him his life, he threw off his vampire donut jamies as if they were filled with hotdog monsters, and squeezed into a pair of jeans and sneakers. He grabbed his coat as he was running out and threw it over his shoulders. Despite the constant heat of the island, he still insisted on wearing it wherever he went out. There was just so much stuff he needed and the coat had plenty of pockets to let him store it all without having to loaf around a backpack.
His father was in the kitchen that morning, buttering himself some toast for breakfast. Without so much as stopping, Dib rushed through, saying over his shoulder, "I'll be out for the whole day, dad. Don't wait up for me. I'll see you later." And with that, he was out the door the next second.
He caught Lilo just as she was about to walk up the drive. She looked surprised for some reason to see him. Maybe it was his eagerness that caught her off guard. He'd once read somewhere in a magazine that guys ought to be more laid-back and cool when it came to impressing the ladies; they responded better to that for some reason.
His demeanor quickly deflated a bit, even though he was jumping up like a lost puppy on the inside.
"Oh hi, Lilo." He said as if them meeting on the cement of his driveway was completely coincidental. "How's it going? I was just going to go for a walk today. Funny seeing you here."
For some reason her face split into a comical smile. "I though you would still be in bed since it is Saturday today and it's barely past eight. Looks like I sort of caught you in the process of getting dressed."
"Huh." She pointed down to his shirt when he didn't understand at first. With horror, Dib realized he completely forgot about his nightshirt. The fanged flying snacks were totally visible to her as well as Stitch who giggled at the sight of them. Dib's face burned crimson.
"We can wait here if you want to change quickly." He didn't have to think twice before turning and trotting back in the house where his dad was munching happily on his meal.
"Ah, son, back so soon? I was going to inform you that you still had your pajama top on but you were already out the door before I could tell you."
"Oh thanks dad." He said glumly.
"Hey, Dib, cute jamies today." Gaz cooed sarcastically as he walked by her room.
Like she's one to talk with those teddy bear footies he still caught her wearing every now and then. Dib changed quickly and strode back out the house with his usual blue smiley face t-shirt.
"Much better." Lilo beamed as Stitch nodded behind her. "And you shouldn't be too embarrassed. I still wear my mummy éclair nightgown every so often.
Dib cheered a bit at the comment. "You like the Deliciously Sweet Monster Snacks?"
"Sure. We use to love watching their commercials before they got canceled. Which reminds me…" She reached into the shoulder back she had with her and withdrew a DVD case that she handed to Dib. "Here's that movie we were talking about yesterday. Revenge of the Alien's Revenge."
"Oh cool I've really been dying to see this."
"Yeah, saw it in theater." Stitch announced wanting to be part of the conversation as well.
"Was it good?"
"David got scared."
"Yeah well I hope you like it." She turned to leave. "See you later."
"Where are you going?" Dib asked just a little hurt that she was leaving so soon.
"Hula practice. We've got a performance next Saturday. Would you like to come?"
"To practice?"
"To the performance. But you can come to practice if you want." She added sensing his disappointment at being left out.
"Thanks, I'd love to come."
Hula practice turned out not to be as exciting as Dib expected. He ended up sitting boredly on the halua floor with Stitch who was busy picking his nose with his tongue. It was a nice enough room for how small it was, which was about the size of one of the high school classes in Detroit. The floor was hard wood, which had a good mahogany smell to it. Off to one of the far corners were toys like dollhouses and stuffed animals crammed together for the younger hula groups. Off to a different corner were tables and chairs stacked together with one another used only for performances like the one next Saturday. Dib wondered irrelevantly which chair he would end up sitting on—probably that broken one on the bottom right there.
His eyes trailed up to the stage as the girls began dancing again. He watched Lilo as she twirled with the other girls. Somehow she seemed like the only full native Hawaiian among them and she was easy to distinguish among the separate skin and hair colors the other girls had. Gosh her face was pretty when she was dancing. She always looked pretty actually, but right there in particular, swaying back and forth as gracefully as a wave with her grass skirt swishing with her movements. The director only stopped them twice during the session; once when a girl tripped over her skirt and another time when Mertyl's cell phone rang and she had to run off stage and answer it then turn it off so it couldn't interrupt again. It was an okay practice but to Dib, it could have ended a lot sooner. He made a mental note not to attend another one again.
Lilo met both her friends out side of the studio once she'd finished dressing. It was a blue sundress with an orchid pattern today, similar to the red one Dib had seen her in the day before. For only ten o-clock it was pretty warm out. Lilo was the first to say something about it.
"It's pretty hot. Why don't we get some ice cream at the parlor?"
"That sounds really good," groaned Dib who was already sweating in his black coat.
They walked in the ice cream shop and were immediately embraced by the comfort of cool air. Dib's eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw two insanely weird creatures. One sat on the cash register swinging its legs back and forth like some excited little kid. And every now and then a customer would come up and ask something like, "two strawberry dips—half cal." To this the employee behind the counter would make only one of the orders and hold it up the creature. This was the really freaky part; a strange horn would unroll from the top of his head and hang over the customer's order beaming out a bright ray of light. The next minute another ice cream would matierialize out of the original.
The other little monster seemed to be made entirely of ice and was probably the whole reason why the shop was keeping so cool.
"Aloha, guys. How's it going?" Lilo chanted happily to the first monster. It grabbed both its feet and bounced happily on its tail, grinning from ear to ear in response. The other one just waved a satisfying breath of cool air to her.
"Hey Stitch! Hi Lilo! What'll it be today?" the manager said.
"We've got a friend today." She pushed Dib forward to become closer to the cash register alien. "He wanted to see Slushy and Dupe. We're going to show him some other friends of ours today."
"Aloha! So you're new here I bet?"
"Yeah. We just move in on Tuesday."
"Well any friend of Lilo and Stitch's is a friend of mine. I owe them a lot with the great help they've brought me. Thanks to them I don't have to spend so much keeping my ice cream from melting in the heat."
That caught Dib a little off guard. Lilo and Stitch were the ones who'd helped this guy simply by introducing him to the experiments. Did they do that for everyone in this town or was it just with a few people?
"So what'll it be? No charge since you've got a friend today."
"Stitch want coconut chocolate."
"Pistachio if they've got it."
"Bunny tracks sound good for me today, Slushy."
"Coming right up." The manager chirped happily.
They all enjoyed their ice cream in the parlor while Dib took the moment to take his notebook out and begin jotting whatever he could about the two experiments. Lilo chatted to him as he did so, listing off all the things they could do that day.
"Have you ever been surfing before, Dib?"
"Oh no. I don't think I could anyways. I'm afraid of getting chomped by sharks if I go in the ocean."
"Alright we can do something else. I can show you more experiments if you'd like."
"Yes. That'd be great."
They walked down town with Lilo and occasionally Stitch pointing out all the colorful creatures and waving to them or stopping every now and then to chat with one or a few. Dib could hardly keep track of the dozens he'd saw that day. His head seemed to be constantly spinning around these days with the total weirdness of this place. For a human girl, Lilo was probably cooler around these multicolored monsters than she was with regular people. Which must've been a perk that came with growing up with these things and he suspected that if he'd also done the same, he would've been a lot more composed with it all.
Sometime that day they ended up on the beach just trying to catch their breath under a looming palm tree. They sat in silence together watching the hypnotic waves crash against the sand one after another. They talked every now and then about the experiments, about monster movies, and about their hobbies. And then suddenly their conversation turned to hula. Dib didn't know how it happened, but one minute he was telling Lilo it seemed kind of loose to him. And the next thing he realized she was standing up bringing him with her.
"That's just because you don't know how to do it. Here I'll show you. Okay hands on your hips now follow my lead." From out of nowhere Stitch pulled out a ukulele and began strumming a little tune from which Lilo danced to enthusiastically. And just like that Dib was learning how to hula. At first it felt awkward with Stitch sitting there watching both of them as an audience and strumming gleefully on his instrument, but gradually the boy began to loosen up.
"There see you've got it." Lilo chirped after a while.
A smile spread across his face when he realized just how much fun it really was. Slowly his eyes trailed up to look at her face and how whimsical she seemed to sway back and forth in rhythm with the music.
After fifteen minutes of this they both sat down on the ground to catch their breath. "That was fun! You should sign up for lessons. They've got a boys group on Thursdays."
"That's okay. It's fun and all but I'm not sure I really want to join a team."
Lilo sighed but didn't look overly disappointed. "I thought so. Most guys these days think it's more of a girl thing anyways."
"That's sort of my feelings about it—but it's cool when you do it."
"Thanks. I've been taking classes since—Oh hi, Keoni!" Lilo's vision stared far through Dib and her mood brightened by a hundred times (if it was possible for the naturally cheery girl). Dib turned to stare at the newcomer feeling a tad bit annoyed at the interruption. His memory clicked as he recognized the older boy they'd seen at the airport a few days ago. Lilo had said that his father was a werewolf now that he remembered.
If that were true (and considering all he'd seen in the past week, he had no reason to disbelieve Lilo) then that made this boy a possible threat. One he would have to watch extra carefully. Lilo didn't seem to think that at all. In fact she seemed about as okay with him being related to a werewolf as well as about a whole island full of monster alien experiments.
Keoni walked right up to them, smiling coolly like some bravado swimsuit model on a Rolling Star's magazine. Dib couldn't look past the evident good looks the older boy seemed to emanate by the tons. He hardly knew this boy yet and he was hoping dearly that he would end up disliking him.
Lilo ran up to him very nearly swooning. It was understandable that she liked this boy. It wasn't so clear if he shared the same feelings for her.
Dib found a much different reaction in Stitch. He didn't react as warmly to the Keoni's appearance as the girl did and even mimed a barfing gesture as the boy approached.
Seeing the reaction that Keoni had on Lilo and then Stitch, Dib decided suddenly that his feelings resembled something more like Stitch's. In fact he was quite certain that he did not like Keoni at all.
Lilo spoke to the elder boy for a moment before his eye caught on Dib and she was dragging him over to introduce them properly. When they reached the two under the palm, Keoni's face remained friendly as he pinned Dib with his uncomfortably hansom eyes. In the meantime, however, his arm swung up to rest on Lilo's shoulders in a clear gesture to Dib that he was staking his claim and the younger boy was to cross nowhere near the line he'd made.
Talk about possessive! Dib wanted to say aloud but decided against it with Lilo standing right there.
Now there was no denying it. He despised Keoni!
"So you're new here huh?"
Why doesn't he just state the obvious for all he's good for? Dib thought heatedly.
"Yeah we just got here on Tuesday. I saw you at the airport on Wednesday actually. Lilo and Stitch showed me around."
"Oh, guess I didn't see you."
"Don't see how you could've missed me since Lilo already introduced us there." All bronze and beauty but no brains apparently. Typical!
"Gee. Sorry about that, cuz. I guess I wasn't paying much attention. It's pretty easy to get distracted with Lilo around wouldn't you say?"
Dib glared. He knew there was a double meaning to that statement and as soon as he figured it out he'd snap back with a witty remark of his own.
In the meantime he settled with the remark of, "I wouldn't know. It's pretty hard to distract me from the cause at hand. Though I completely sympathize with you're A.D.D, man."
Keoni's smile seemed to vanish like a cheap magic trick. Stitch snickered behind Dib and Lilo looked as if she'd just caught the other teen spitting on a puppy. Her expression wavered slightly when Keoni's hand seemed to tighten around her shoulder as he regained himself with a remark of his own.
"So your dad is Doctor Membrane right?"
Dib tensed. "Yeah. So what?"
"I was just wondering how you can even walk strait with such exposure to a loon like him. Didn't he have to relocate when some of his workers started getting webbed feet of their own. Or haven't you been able to get many glances at his feet lately?"
Now this had just gotten personal!
"I don't know. I don't dig around in top-secret dirt all that much. But your dad would know I bet. Not about anything remotely top-secret but I'm sure for a monster mutt he loves to dig a few good holes now and then."
Keoni's hand released Lilo and the two boys leaned in closer to one another eying each other with a challenge as if to say, "I dare you to hit me first." The move was a lot more impressive on Keoni's part since he was nearly a whole head taller than Dib who looked like a pale little four-eyed shrimp compared to the beefy, lean, and tan teenager.
Both Stitch and Lilo smelt the danger arising from the conflict of the two boys and dove in between to separate them before things could get violent. It wouldn't be much of a fight anyways. Next to Keoni's guns of steel, Dib was little more than a pitiful nerd.
"Hey guys lets just calm down." Lilo said placing a restraining hand on each of their shoulders. "I didn't introduce you guys to fight. Now shake hands and be nice."
They both looked first at Lilo then back at one another. Keoni was the first to give in. Smiling that stupidly cool grin, he held out his hand for a shake. "Sorry cousin. Guess I got a little outta line. Still no harm done."
Dib didn't want to touch that stupid dirty hand, but the probing look Lilo threw at him made him reach down and shake grudgingly. "Yeah no harm done I guess."
"Great we're all friends again." Lilo chirped clapping her hand once and looking first from the angry glower on Dib to the cool smirk on Keoni.
"Ih, all friends." Stitch said coming to Lilo's rescue. When no one answered him he chanced the subject. "Time for lunch."
"Oh yeah I almost forgot. Nani has to work so Pleakley wanted us to invite you and your sister, Dib. You can come too Keoni."
"Thanks Lilo." He said taking her hand and squeezing it gently. "But I think your boyfriend would blow a fuse if I did."
"He's not—"
"I'm not her boyfriend. And I have no say in who Lilo invites to lunch with her."
"Then I'd love to come." Dib's fists clenched at those words. "But I just remembered that my dad is having some friends over for dinner. They have some things in common you know."
Which one'll be the main course? Dib wanted to say. In reality though, his words were, "Well how nice. Have fun in the moonlight. It should be a full moon tonight so they should have a ball."
"We often do." Keoni said turning from the trio. "See ya, Lilo."
"Bye Keoni!"
"And Keoni." Some how Dib couldn't resist having the last word.
"Yeah, cousin?"
"Just thought I should let you know that I'm not your cousin."
Keoni didn't retort to that, only shrugged and continued to smirk.
The moment he was out of earshot, Lilo rounded on Dib. "What is wrong with you? Why did you have to go off and start picking a fight?"
"Look I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. But I won't put up with his behavior."
"Behavior? You were the one who started it!"
"I wasn't, Lilo." Dib said matter-of-factly. "He started the moment he staked his claim on you like you were his property."
"He didn't say anything of the kind."
"I've read Werewolf Talk 101, Lilo. The simple fact that he put his arm around you and made eye contact specifically to me was body language for me to back off of his territory."
"That's not—"
"Is true, Lilo." Stitch announced. "Keoni body language say all."
Lilo was silent for a moment unsure what she ought to feel besides totally creeped. "So he was—"
"Telling me to back off? Yeah that's what he was doing. Looks like he shares similar feelings for you. Congratulations."
"What's that suppose to mean?"
"You like him of course. It's totally obvious."
"Well it can't be that obvious because my feelings may have changed for him in the last five seconds."
Stitch looked curiously at her. "Lilo."
"If what you both just told me is true then I may have just reconsidered him as a friend."
Dib looked at her a bit more relaxed now with her new statement. "Lilo I—"
She turned from him, walking down the beach. "Let's go see what for lunch."
Oooo. Keoni has a dark side. I loved the whole conflict between the two boys like they were fighting over Lilo. So angst.
I really don't know what city Dib and his ohana are from, so I just followed Maran's example and made them all from Detroit. I plan to bring Zim along with GIR in next chapter.
I've been working on this story for a long time and have finally posted it now. I hate reading good stories that leave you hanging right in the middle of things. Coarse I'll need feedback from everyone to decide whether this story is any good. So please review and tell me what you think.