I know, I really should be updating my other stories - but I've had this in my folders for a while and I thought it was decent enough to post up for now! Been really busy (just started university a couple of weeks ago and I want to pull my hair out already) and I just really needed something short and sweet and cute to write out. (Promise I'll update my other stories once I figure out how they'll work out.)
Hope you like it!
Hiro meets her one day when he sails into the café after a long day of lessons and spots the funny blue not-a-dog sitting at a table – properly sitting up! – and eating a doughnut.
He has to stop, stare, do a double take.
"You must be Hiro," a voice says, and that's when he notices the little girl in the red dress sitting next to the not-a-dog, with what looks like homework spread across the table. "Nani talks about you a lot. She's my sister," the girl adds, unnecessarily, because Hiro can already see the resemblance between the extremely attractive twenty-year-old also known as Tadashi's especial friend and the little girl in front of him; "I'm Lilo. This is Stitch."
The blue not-a-dog looks up, bares its teeth in a frightening smile, and nods, before turning its attention back to the doughnut.
"Um, hi," Hiro says, and looks curiously at Stitch. "What kind of dog is he?"
"He's Stitch," little girl Lilo says, if that explains everything, and she looks at him with those wide brown eyes that seem a little unnerving. "He's one of a kind." She pushes a stack of messy papers that Hiro guesses must be math homework over to said dog, who glances at the papers briefly, flicks through them, nods approvingly and says something that is most definitely not a bark, and then promptly takes a big bite out of the doughnut.
"I can tell," Hiro mutters, staring at the not-a-dog.
Hiro isn't very sure how Tadashi and Nani met – Tadashi only gets this goofy grin whenever Hiro or Aunt Cass asks, and Nani just flushes furiously, so he's not really sure if their first meeting was super embarrassing beyond belief or they just like to keep the memory to themselves, because 'Dashi can be horribly sappy and romantic that way. Nani becomes a regular around the café while she and Tadashi dance around each other, and it's two weeks after Hiro first meets Nani that he meets Lilo, and then the little annoying eight-year-old and her creepy weird dog becomes a regular fixture around the café too.
Lilo always takes the table at the back of the café with her weird dog Stitch, and Hiro swears, that dog is creepy beyond belief. It doesn't even act like a dog, not at all. In fact, he's pretty sure that Stitch isn't a dog at all - more like the experiment of some kind of mad scientist. But he keeps his mouth shut, after Lilo lets it slip that she once tried voodoo magic, and after he notices that Stitch seems to actually understand what people are saying and responds appropriately. Those claws are sharp.
One day Aunt Cass makes him bring a plate of food over to Lilo, and Hiro does so grudgingly, balancing two plates ("Because Stitch needs food as well! And Lilo told me he doesn't mind chicken wings", though Hiro thinks chicken wings aren't very healthy for a dog) before setting them down, and sliding onto the seat at the next table over.
Lilo blinks in surprise, bent over her science homework. "Thanks. That's nice of you."
Hiro only shrugs, glances briefly at her ridiculously-easy papers. "How come you're in here every day?"
"Ms Cass lets me stay here while Nani's at school or studying," says Lilo. "She doesn't let me pay for the meals, though. So Nani gives me money to put into the tips jar."
Hiro stares at her. So that's why there've been so much more tips than usual lately.
Lilo turns back to her homework, brows furrowed in concentration. Hiro notices some other things – Stitch sitting with a book propped up in front of him (seriously? That dog is strange), a camera sticking out of her backpack, and Lilo's extremely messy and cancelled worksheets. He decides to be chivalrous, and asks, "Do you need help? I'm free for a while."
Lilo looks up from her work, tilts her head. "You really want to help me?"
Hiro shrugs: "I have to go over to my friend Fred's house later, but I can help you till then." Not like he's got much else to do right now – he's completed most of his assignments, and it's been a long week at school; the kind of stuff Lilo's learning is a relief after days at SFIT.
"Okay," Lilo says, and Hiro pulls the chair over, sits on it backwards, rests his arms and head across the back of the chair as he glances at the homework.
"Okay," he says, picking up a pencil, "so this is what you have to do – "
"My sister likes your brother, you know."
It's the next day, and Hiro is slumped on the table next to Lilo and Stitch's, slurping at the chocolate milkshake he's made for himself. It's already evening, the sky turning dark through the large glass windows, and he turns his head and looks over at the annoying little girl.
"I figured," he says.
"You've got cream all over your face," Lilo scrunches up her nose. "Even Stitch isn't that messy."
"Thanks," he says, drily.
"Do you ever comb your hair? 'Cause you look like you don't."
"What? Of course I do!"
"Did bugs lay eggs in your hair, then? Or your ears? 'Cause you have a really big head. Like Scrump. She's my doll. I made her, two years ago."
He shoots her an irritable look: "This is my thanks for helping you out with your homework yesterday?"
"You were kind of stuck-up about it, you know," says Lilo. "But Nani says I shouldn't say things like that, 'cause you were nice enough to help me. But I think you should know."
"Okay. Great."
"Do you have a hover car?"
"No."
"What about a plasma gun?"
"No," says Hiro.
Lilo deflates in her seat. "Life must be really boring around here."
Stitch perks up in his seat.
"No," says Lilo automatically. "You promised you wouldn't block up sewers, reverse street signs, and steal everyone's left shoe."
Stitch makes a funny sound that sounds like a dejected sigh and slumps back down in his seat (definitely not a dog, Hiro thinks), and Hiro blinks: "What?"
"Stitch is supposed to be bad," Lilo explains. "That's how he was born. But he's reformed now. But being in a big city is tempting him. Jumba says it'll be good for him to resist temptation. We brought lots of Elvis music to calm Stitch down, just in case."
She points to a pair of headphones sticking out from her bag, next to a deformed-looking doll.
"Okay," says Hiro. "Officially getting kinda weirded out over here."
He sees her face fall, almost instantly; her head drops, her hair swings forward to cover her face, but not before he catches sight of the downcast expression, the wide brown eyes that are starting to glisten, and Hiro wants to kick himself almost immediately.
"You guys are weird," Hiro says. "Weird, but cool."
There is an awkward pause, and then Lilo peers up at him through her curtain of dark hair.
"Cool?" she questions.
"Weirdly cool," he assures her, and watches her face break into a massive smile.
It's about two hours later that Hiro's mobile rings as he watches Lilo painstakingly go through the equations on her math homework, and he doesn't bother glancing at the caller ID as he picks up: "Hello?"
"Hiro, man, where are you?" Fred says on the other end. "Dude, I'm not usually the responsible one, but you were supposed to be here half an hour ago for patrol!"
Hiro blinks, shoots a glance at the time and swears under his breath: "Sorry, man, I got a little caught up – I'm heading over now. Is Tadashi there already with Baymax?"
"Yeah, he just got here," Fred affirms: "Dude, it's cool if you're busy – "
"Nah, I'm coming, see you in a bit." Hiro hangs up, glances over at Lilo.
"I'll be okay," she says. "Nani should be here soon. Thanks for the help!"
She smiles at him suddenly, so brightly that Hiro lets out a chuckle, reaches over and musses her long black hair, much to her indignation: "You're welcome, squirt. If you need any more help next time, just ask, kay?"
"Squirt?" she calls out, indignantly, but Hiro's already sailed out the door of the Lucky Cat Café.
Instead of homework, Lilo is spreading photographs out across the table, with her dog sitting at the next table over. Hiro wanders over, stares curiously at the photos – they're all candid shots of people on the streets, at the park, at the various malls around San Fransokyo. Some of them are what he would decidedly call 'unglams', and they're nothing like the cheerful photos that Honey Lemon likes to take.
"What are these?" he wants to know.
"My collection," says Lilo. "It's not as good as the ones back home, but it'll be beautiful soon enough." She sounds determined, but deflates a bit as she says, "I don't get a chance to go take a lot of photos. Nani doesn't like letting me go around San Fransokyo alone. We've never stayed in a big city before and it's really weird."
"You've never stayed in a big city before?"
Lilo shakes her head: "We stayed in Kauai," she explains. "We only moved here 'cause Nani got into this college, and I wanted to come with her, and Mr Bubbles wanted to get out of Kauai anyway, so he said he'd take care of us and stuff."
Hiro frowns; didn't her parents want her to stay with them in Kauai? He thinks of her words, of the previous times he's helped her with her work and they've fallen into easy conversation, and he remembers how she's never, not once, mentioned her parents, and something twists in his stomach as he glances over the photographs.
"If you'd like," he says, "I can bring you around San Fransokyo when I'm free. So you can take your photos. It'd be an interesting break from studying."
Later that night, he corners Tadashi and demands to know about Lilo's parents, and when he hears the story he decides to stick to his promise, and on Saturday he says to Nani that he'll take care of Lilo that day and brings her around San Fransokyo.
They become a thing, and Tadashi likes to say "Lilo and Hiro and hey, that rhymes!" so much that it gets really, really annoying. Stitch always patters around after them and occasionally poses for photos, and once in a while he helps Lilo and Hiro take a photo too, after much insistence and nagging on Stitch's part.
One day, Hiro meets Mr Bubbles, who stares down at Hiro over the rim of his dark glasses while Lilo is next to him scribbling out her science homework furiously, and Hiro swallows.
"Er, hi," he says, nervously. "You must be Mr Bubbles."
Mr Bubbles does not acknowledge this.
"So," he says. "You're the child genius. The prodigy."
"He helps me with homework," Lilo says.
Mr Bubbles gives Hiro a stare. He manages not to squeak.
It takes about ten seconds of intense staring before Cobra Bubbles gives a nod, and turns to Lilo and says, "Pleakley called."
Her head shoots up from where it's been bent down over physics formulae, and her eyes grow wide: "How are they!"
"Jumba only blew up the kitchen twice," says Mr Bubbles. "And the living room three times."
Lilo sighs. "I miss them already."
"David called too," says Mr Bubbles.
"He's Nani's ex-boyfriend," Lilo explains. "He was pretty sad when they broke up. I mean, they weren't working out so great, but he was still sad. Especially when we moved here."
"Bummer," says Hiro, straight-faced.
Lilo frowns. "David's nice."
"Never said he wasn't," says Hiro. "But if he and Nani hadn't broken up, I'd never have found the most annoying pain in the neck to spend my days with. And then life would be boring."
He hopes she reads the compliment in his words, because she's pretty smart for an eight-year-old, actually.
He watches a massive smile break out on her face, and he decides that yes, she does.
One day, Hiro brings her to the park while Stitch runs off for the day – something about Leroy visiting and spending some quality time with cousins? He doesn't quite get it, but Lilo and Nani act like it's perfectly normal, so he goes with it; honestly, he's getting used to just rolling with whatever strange things they say – and they lie on the grass and eat the sandwiches that Aunt Cass has packed for them.
"I like being here," Lilo says, after a while.
"Don't you miss Hawaii?"
"Yeah," she says. "But it's really nice here. People don't look at me all weird."
"People used to look at me weird," says Hiro.
"Yeah," she says. "But you're smart. I wanna be an intergalactic adventurer."
"You wanna travel through space?"
"Yeah," says Lilo, and she nods. "Mr Bubbles says he'll get me the right training and everything so I can qualify early, and Jumba says he'll build my first spaceship for me after the designs get approved by the Grand Councilwoman."
Hiro blinks. "Okay."
"Or maybe an intergalactic social worker," Lilo muses. "But Mr Bubbles said that we'd have to think about that idea, and I've still got years before I can go to college, anyway, even though David says I'm pretty good for my age, but I think that's cause I spend too much time with Jumba." She pauses, turns to him, and says, seriously, "I'll send you lots of photos from space."
Hiro considers telling her that being an intergalactic adventurer isn't actually a proper job. But her brown eyes are wide as she stares at the sky, and she actually looks at peace, an expression he rarely sees on her face, and she looks content and happy, and he can't bring himself to say it.
"I'll frame them up," he tells her, instead, and he watches her smile.
Let me know what you think - hope you liked reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!