**AN: The movie "Lilo and Stitch" does not belong to me! This is a fan fiction only! I saw an idea for this on Pintrest, but I think that renditions of this idea have already been done. If there's a huge problem with it, then please contact me.

Please leave a review if you like it, though! :)

Prue**

Chapter 4

Lilo stood near the Grand Councilwoman's spaceship, the same as she remembered it when she was little. They had agreed to meet on a remote beach on their island. The sea roiled over the sand, the gray morning light bleeding over the horizon in a lazy light blue and yellow hue. Lilo felt the sand come into her sandals. Maybe the last earth she would feel in a long time.

The Grand Councilwoman herself stood, looking regal at the end of the ramp, her hands folded into each other. Though not exactly beautiful, being alien, the effect of authority was not wasted on her at all. She cleared her throat, and Lilo stood erect, her eyes opening wide. She had forgotten throughout the years just how stiff the Grand Councilwoman was.

"You have grown up, Lilo," the Grand Councilwoman said, raising an eyebrow. "Very much so."

Lilo stared, unsure of what to say. "Thank you?" was the only thing she could think of.

"Have you made your decision?"

"I'm here, aren't I?" Lilo smiled nervously.

The Grand Councilwoman smiled, wryly, her blue skin gleaming in the early morning light. "We should leave soon. I will give you a few minutes to say goodbye."

She turned and walked into her spaceship.

Lilo turned to Nani, who had been very quiet for much of this conversation.

"Well," Nani said, wiping at her eyes. "This is it, baby."

Lilo felt tears come into her eyes, but she forced them back for as long as possible. "Yeah. Are you sure you're okay with this?"

"Of course I am."

The tears came out in torrents as Lilo hugged her sister. Nani patted Lilo's back and stroked her hair. "It's okay baby, I'm sure you'll do great." Nani kissed Lilo's forehead.

Lilo could barely speak, so she smiled instead, albeit feebly. She hugged her sister one last time before walking up to the spaceship. The Grand Councilwoman seemed to see her doing this because the hatch opened again for Lilo.

She forced herself not to look back. Stitch scuttled up the ramp on all fours and climbed up Lilo's legs and back before he sat on her shoulder.

"Geeze, you're so heavy, Stitch," Lilo said to him. She hunched over slightly to help with the weight. His small paws clung onto her shoulders, and she gripped onto them to support him.

The Grand Councilwoman nodded to her as she stepped in. Lilo couldn't help but turn back and get one glance back at Nani waving feverishly before the hatch closed.

Lilo looked back at the Grand Councilwoman. Stitch didn't stay on Lilo's shoulders for long, as he climbed back down to the floor, sniffing it. Lilo sniffed the air. It oddly smelled of strong peppermint.

The entire spaceship didn't seem quite as large as when Lilo first knew it. Of course, she had been smaller, then. A large domed ceiling mimicking the outside, upper part of the spaceship had a large set of nets set in it.

Lilo turned to the Grand Councilwoman in question. She answered her unspoken question. "It's just a precaution once we're in flight, mainly for emergency exits in case of attack. The ship may, at points, turn a '180,' as you humans put it, and unfortunately, sometimes people aren't strapped into their respective seats."

"Oh," Lilo said, staring up at the ceiling again.

"Of course, it still isn't much of a pleasant experience," the Grand Councilwoman commented, joining her gaze upward.

Lilo walked around the spaceship. Mainly a dull gray, bluish color, there wasn't much to look at. A command panel directly to her right admitted an entire 'side' of the ship, complete with the biggest window in her living memory. A large control board rested in front of one of these seats. The pilot's seat. Other chairs bolted to the floor were what, Lilo guessed, were the passenger's. Maybe also under emergency protocol, she thought, with a shudder. She wondered vaguely if the ship was attacked often.

She guessed the circumference, or perimeter of the entire ship was equivalent to her own home back on Earth. As if in response to this thought, she felt the thrusters underneath the craft fire up, and lift them up into the air. She felt her stomach drop, like she was in an elevator. But after several seconds, her body accustomed itself to the motion, as though she were in a plane.

"I do believe I have a surprise for you," the Grand Councilwoman said. "Well, two, actually." She looked as though she regretted this, but before Lilo could question what the 'surprises' were, her answer ran to her in the form of a very large alien accompanied by a smaller, more stick like alien with one large eye on his head.

"Jumba? Pleakley?" she asked, her eyes wide. The former, larger, four eyed alien enveloped her in a bone crushing hug.

"Jumba!" Pleakley's voice rang throughout the spaceship, the high pitch echoing across the walls to make it seem even higher than Lilo remembered. "You're going to hurt her, put her down!" Pleakley's angry one eye looked reproving.

"Oh—sorry…" Jumba set her down. "I just got excited. I haven't seen you for… well, a long time. You've gotten bigger."

"That's what everyone is saying," Lilo replied, raising an eyebrow. "Saying it like it's a bad thing."

Jumba seemed to note Stitch on the floor, sniffing at anything and everything, and looking suspiciously every so often in Jumba's direction.

"What are you looking at? I have no beef with you anymore, you fluffy!"

"Tabbagakka yeshimaky nambagook tifalgak!" Stitch spat.

"Hey, I've lost some weight!" Jumba scowled.

Stitch scuttled up onto Lilo's shoulders and laughed, pointing at Jumba, laughing. "Hehehehehe! Fatty!"

Lilo smiled at their childish spat, and more of an attempt to get them to stop, she started to walk around the spaceship.

"This place has barely changed," she mused.

"Yes well, even for the Grand Councilwoman, spaceships are expensive," Pleakley commented, his high pitched voice making that sentence even more unnecessary than Lilo at first thought. The Grand Councilwoman turned to stare at Pleakley, and he sputtered.

"W-well, that's understandable, considering how expensive they are, but obviously you'd be able to purchase another one, of course, I—"

"Understood, Pleakley," the Grand Councilwoman dismissed, but she gave him one last withering glare before she turned back to Lilo.

"Lilo, follow Jumba to your quarters."

Lilo frowned. "How long exactly will this take us to get the the community college?"

"Seven days," the Grand Councilwoman replied. "Considering space travel, that isn't far. It is just outside your solar system, so really, you are not so far from Nani as you think you are."

Lilo couldn't help but have her voice drop. "Oh."

"Oh?" the Grand Councilwoman said.

"Oh no, just… It's nothing," Lilo spluttered.

"Very well," the Grand Councilwoman relied. She gestured vaguely with her right hand, which Lilo also remembered, only had two fingers and one opposable thumb.

Jumba took the suitcase from Lilo's hands that contained both Lilo's and Stitch's things, and rolled it across the floor.

"Ingenious," he mused, staring at it.

Lilo patted his shoulder. "It's called a suitcase. Humans use it to travel around."

"And there are wheels underneath!" Jumba said, clearly fascinated. "You humans aren't as idiotic as you seem."

Lilo rolled her eyes, and followed Jumba down a long, gray hallway that could only be the chambers for aliens—and one human alike—to stay in. Three domed doors admitted rooms on each side of the hallway, six in total.

When she walked in, she couldn't help but gasp.

"Do you like it?" Pleakley asked from behind. Lilo hadn't realized he was following. "I tried to make it look as homely as possible. Like back at your house."

Lilo giggled as she walked into the room. All along the walls, she could see Pleakley's attempts to take pictures of people at the beach, like she did as a child. Behind her back, Pleakley exchanged a hopeful glance at Jumba, who nodded, smiling, all four of his eyes wrinkling in a knowing look.

Pleakley wasn't the best photographer, Lilo thought, but the poses that these people made were so genuinely surprised, that it made up for fuzzy resolutions, and either too close, or too far away shots.

The rest of the room mimicked somewhat her old bedroom. Not to a T, she knew, but Pleakley's efforts were not wasted.

She turned back to him and hugged him. She felt his body tense, as though unsure of what to do. Jumba leaned over and whispered,

"It's a sign of human affection. She's thanking you."

"Oh—oh, you're welcome," Pleakley said, patting her on the back, awkwardly. Lilo let go and looked up at his one eye, her own shining, as though she were going to cry.

"Thank you, Pleakley," she said to him. "It's very homely."

The next seven days passed in a blur to Lilo. Pleakley and Jumba were her main companions.

The Grand Councilwoman gave her several sets of clothes, all one pieced suits, some with shorter arm lengths than others. When Lilo questioned why, the Grand Councilwoman explained that it was the uniform for the G.A.C.C.. She held it up, dubiously, standing in front of the bed. She and Stitch stood in the room Pleakley made for her.

"A little skin tight to be a uniform, isn't it?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. The suit was a dark, navy blue. The waist was lined with red, as were the arms. A large metal "G" acted as a belt buckle to the suit, what Lilo assumed was meant to stand for "Galactic." Stitch had received suits in similar kind.

Stitch walked out of the bathroom attached to their room, his antennae bobbing up and down. He looked at her in question.

Lilo shrugged. "At least it matches you," she commented. He stared down at it, then back up at her. He tugged at his suit, then pointed at her, gibbering a request for her to do the same.

She grimaced. "Okay, I'll do it. Just for you, Stitch."

Despite the seeming elastic material, as Lilo slipped it on, it stretched over her body; it felt surprisingly breathable, she thought. Lilo looked at herself in the mirror, adjusting the large belt buckle and pulling down the sleeves. She blinked. Her reflection did as well. She almost felt surprised, and laughed aloud at herself. The Lilo in the mirror didn't resemble the real Lilo much.

She walked out of the bathroom, putting her hands on her hips. Stitch had his back to her. "Stitch," she called to him, and he turned.

Stitch turned and grinned at his companion, giving her a thumbs up and whistling teasingly. Lilo smiled as well.

"Well, don't we look like a pair of college students?" she wondered aloud. Stitch nodded vigorously.

"College students," he enunciated slowly. "Yep."

"Want to go show Pleakley and Jumba?" she asked, gesturing toward the door. When it closed, she realized that there was a photograph of a particularly large woman, whose posterior faced the camera. She giggled at it before exiting the chamber.

She looked out into the hallway, stepping out barefoot. The ground felt cold against the pads of her feet, but at least it was smooth and easy to walk on.

A large window stretched out on the opposite wall, giving her a view of the cosmos. She leaned against the rim of it, staring out at the stars. Stitch climbed up onto her back, and she curled her body more inward so he could more easily grip her shoulders.

"Thinking?" he asked her, pointing out with one clawed blue finger out the window. She patted his head, then touched the window.

"Yeah."

"Lilo miss Nani?"

"Yeah, Lilo miss Nani," she said, frowning.

"You have Stitch," he said. "Still family."

Lilo straightened up, and Stitch wrapped his pudgy arms around her neck. "You're right, Stitch. Nani would be happy for us. And she's going to college, too. This is good for her."

"Yeah. Family still good."

Lilo wiped at her eyes, which had sprung some tears. "Yeah. Family still good."