All the couples waited in anticipation as Moses withheld the names for a few moments. Victoria had her fingers crossed, wishing more that Myrtle's name wasn't called than her own name being called. Looking out onto the waiting crowd, Moses took a deep breath before finally revealing the names.
"Teresa and Kanye."
Teresa's eyes went wide in surprise, she wasn't expecting it at all. She and Kanye made their way up to the stage where Moses presented them with handmade lei crowns. There was a light applause from the crowd as the two just blushed and held hands. Feeling a little more than embarrassed, Teresa and Kanye returned to the group in front of the stage, receiving a lot of congratulations from her friends.
Teresa looked around, unable to see her other friends with them. "Where are Elena and Yuki?" She asked no one in particular.
"I don't know." Lilo said as she too looked around.
"I haven't seen them since they went looking for Myrtle." Victoria added.
For Myrtle… Teresa felt worried, not knowing if it was a good or bad thing that they didn't see the two girls around.
"Alright everyone. It's time for second place." Moses continued announcing, as he shuffled to the next card. "The second place couple is… Victoria and Keoni!"
Victoria's arms dropped in surprise. She wasn't even planning on entering until Keoni suggested that they should. She stood, stunned. She felt Lilo's arms wrap around her in a hug, congratulating her. After a few moments she finally got control of herself, taking Keoni's hand as they left the crowd. On her way up the stairs to the stage, she realized what exactly this meant. Either Lilo or Myrtle are going to win. Her eye's darted around, looking for Myrtle in the audience. It didn't take long for the girls blazing orange hair to be spotted amongst the crowd.
It was difficult to see from the distance and the lack of light, but it looked like she was smirking greatly. Looking both confident and satisfied with herself. Perfect. This couldn't be going more beautifully. Myrtle grabbed her date's arm and pulled him to the front of the crowd.
"We're going to win this, I can feel it." She said, confidence oozing from her.
"I don't understand why this is so important." Ano stated, quickly shutting his mouth once he saw the look Myrtle shot at him.
"It's important, because I can't let Weirdlo win." She tugged on him harder, pushing people out of the way as they moved by. "What do you care? You already got your gift card to my daddy's store. All you needed to do was stand there and make me look better than Lilo."
Ano shrugged his shoulders as he was pulled away by her. Myrtle reached the front of the crowd just as Keoni and Victoria reached their friends. They too were wearing lei crowns, slightly more extravagant than Teresa and Kanye's.
"It really suits you." Lilo told her as she gave her another hug.
"Really?" Victoria picked at it, trying to get it into a comfortable place. "It doesn't look weird?"
"It looks great." Keoni said as he put his arm around her shoulder. "And yours smells really good too. Kind of like pomegranates."
Victoria went flush and her eyes went wide from embarrassment. "Really? That's funny." She said with a nervous laugh. Lilo covered her mouth slightly, suppressing a chuckle. The mood was short lived once Myrtle finally made her way to their group.
"I guess it's just down to you and me, Weirdlo." She announced, putting her hands on her hips. "Which means that it's really just down to me."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Lilo retorted, looking towards the stage.
"You really think you have a chance?" Stitch stepped forward, putting his arm around Lilo's waist. "I suppose with Styles I could have expected you to maybe get third. But clearly now I'm going to win." She flipped her hair around as she too faced the stage. Everyone just rolled their eyes, deciding it was best to just ignore her for now.
"Okay everyone." Moses said, as he tapped the microphone. "We have come down to the final two coupes. Would Lilo, Styles, Myrtle, and Ano please come to the stage?"
The four made their way up. Once up top, Myrtle stole a quick glance behind the stage walls, seeing Elena and Yuki on either side. They were both holding a plastic tub. The two hid until Lilo and Styles were no longer looking in their directions. They stood at the ready, completely devastated about what they were going to do. Yuki was about to back out when Myrtle's eyes caught hers. I guess I just need to get this over with. She sighed sadly, waiting for her cue.
The last two couples stood on the stage, everyone's eyes on them. Seeing that they were ready, Moses shuffled to the final card.
"Looks like everyone is ready. I will now announce the winner of best couple." Moses paused before finally revealing the winner. Lilo and Stitch looked at each other, lovingly. Stitch smiled a reassuring smile as he wrapped his arm around her, holding her close. "The winners are-"
Myrtle began stepping forward, already sure that she was going to win. "Lilo and Styles"
"Thank yo-"Myrtle began before completely freezing. "What?"
Lilo's heart nearly stopped. She couldn't believe they actually won. She felt Stitch's hand squeeze her shoulder, and she looked into his shining blue eyes. "We won?"
"We won." He told her, seeing the excitement slowly come to her face. Their mouths grew into giant smiles, taking over their faces completely. With tears starting to fill her eyes, she grabbed onto Stitch. He picked her up and began spinning her. The crowd applauded, happy for the young couple. No one clapped louder than Victoria and Keoni though, who even threw in a whistle for them. Stitch let Lilo down, and pulled her into an extremely happy kiss.
Most of the young kids in the audience turned away, disgusted by the display of love. Myrtle also turned away from the two, anger boiling her blood. "Ugh." She crossed her arms. Completely and utterly defeated. A second later, an evil smile came across her face. Since she had lost, her plan was now set.
Lilo and Stitch started to step forward for Moses to present them with their prize. Lilo saw Myrtle's grin, but didn't think anything of it. To her, she had finally won. She had truly beat Myrtle. After all the years of torture, she could finally hold something definitive above Myrtle Edmonds. With another sad sigh of defeat, Yuki and Elena opened their tubs. Stepping to just the edge the back of the stage so that no one could see them, they each tossed what was in their tubs towards Lilo.
The couple stopped walking, they could suddenly smell something they didn't before. Lilo could feel the change in the air as something was coming towards them. Reacting more than thinking, they both dived to the side. Landing on the stage hard, Lilo looked back to where they were standing just a moment before. A giant gob of white glue flew by. Immediately after, a combination of leaves, dirt, and dead flowers flew through the air. With Lilo and Stitch out of the way, both projectiles flew right towards Myrtle.
With a look of sheer terror, she brought up her hands in a pathetic effort to block her fate. Everyone wince as she was pelted, and in looking back, saw her completely covered head to toe. All the dirt. Leaves, and grime was held in place by the glue, completely matting her hair and ruining her shiny dress. Everyone in the crowd couldn't help but laugh at how Myrtle looked now. Looking down at herself, Myrtle screamed loudly. She had never been humiliated so badly. No longer thinking, she started backing up, not watching where she was going. Yuki and Elena were blown away at what had happened, secretly satisfied that it did. Even Moses chuckled a little at how Myrtle now looked. Stitch rushed to Lilo's side, making sure she was okay. Telling him that she was, he then helped her up.
Lilo looked over at Myrtle, seeing that she was really close to the edge of the stage, near the large speaker. "Myrtle! Watch where you're going!"
"Don't look at me!" The mess of the girl shouted, covering her face from the crowd. She went to run from the stage, but caught her foot on one of the cables connected to the speaker. Like she did earlier in the week, she started to fall off the stage, this time bringing the cable and speaker down with her.
"Oh no." Lilo whispered. The sound equipment was much larger than the young girl, if someone didn't do something, Myrtle could be severely injured. "Stitch!"
With a nod, the two moved into actual action for the first time since the Leroy battle. Not caring who saw them, they ran at full speed, reaching the floor beneath Myrtle before she did. The young girl screamed as she landed on the floor with a loud thud, flinching as she waited for the impending heavy weight to fall on her. A crash of metal followed instantly after, everyone in the building stopped laughing as they realized something horrible had just happened before them.
Yuki and Elena looked at each other, also seeing what had just happened. They threw their respective tubs and ran out of the back of the building. They hoped that no one had seen that it was them that had thrown the stuff at Myrtle.
Myrtle slowly opened her eyes, realizing that she wasn't crushed. Looking above her, her eyes went wide seeing that Lilo and Styles were holding the speaker above them. "Wha…"
"You okay?" Lilo asked, showing real concern for the girl that had caused her more pain than anyone. Myrtle quickly got out from under the speaker, unsure of how long the two could hold it. They leaned it up against the side of the stage, dusting off their hands afterward. Moses and Victoria rushed over, checking to see that the three were okay.
"You saved me." Myrtle stated, more surprised than anything. "Why did you save me, when I?" She trailed off, shutting her mouth at the light snickering she heard from behind her.
"When you what?" Stitch asked, raising an eyebrow.
"We only did what we had to." Lilo stated, still wondering if Myrtle was actually okay.
Moses got down on his knee, putting his hand on her shoulder. "Myrtle, are you okay? Are you hurt? Do you need anything?"
"I'm fine." She said, looking away from everyone. Moses took his hand off of her, strands of glue coming with it.
"Eww." Victoria said, scrunching her nose in disgust as a few pebbles fell from Myrtle's shoulder. Victoria shook her head, remembering why she rushed over in the first place. "Lilo, Sti-Styles, are you two okay? That was amazing."
"Yeah." The two said at the same time.
"We're fine." Lilo added in.
Once Moses was sure that the three of them were okay, he looked at the speaker then back to Lilo. "Lilo. How did you two lift this? Its way too heavy for kids your size."
"It's because they're freaks!" Myrtle shouted, suddenly. She saw an opportunity to expose Lilo's weirdness to everyone for good and she took it. "I've been saying it for years. This proves it."
"Myrtle." Moses shot a glare at her, shutting her up.
"It was probably adrenaline." Victoria said quickly. "I read once somewhere that when someone you care about is in trouble, people do amazing feats."
"They're still freaks!" Myrtle said again, wiping some sagging glue away from her mouth.
Moses addressed Myrtle once again. "Myrtle. I think there is something you should say to Lilo and Styles."
"Humph." She huffed as she turned away, seeing the snickers of the crowd once she was facing them. "I have nothing to say to these too." They completely ruined my night.
"Myrtle." He said sternly. "They helped you, now what do you say?"
Myrtle stayed quiet for a few moments. Why do I have to thank them? They didn't do anything for me. She thought about what could have happened to her if they hadn't done anything, though. Ugh. Fine. "Thanks." She said in spite of herself before running out of the building to go home.
Once everything had calmed down, Lilo, Stitch, and Moses returned to the stage. Moses presented them each with an extravagant handmade headdress, as well they were given a gift card redeemable for a free meal for two at any restaurant in the town.
Once Lilo and Stitch left the stage, Moses had one more announcement to make. "Thank you everyone who came out this evening. We had a few snags, but it was a really great evening. Congratulations to our winners, as well. I hope we will be able to have you all here again next year."
With that final announcement, everyone started to clear the building. Lilo and her friends had one last drink together before they finally made their way outside to say their good-byes.
"Would it be okay with you," Kanye began nervously, rubbing the back of his head, "if I walked you home?"
Teresa blushed, hearing the childish snickers from Lilo and Victoria. "S-sure." She felt her face continue to grow warmer as he took her hand. "See you later, Lilo. Bye, everyone."
"Aloha." They all said together as they waved them off.
"Well. I think it's time I headed home too." Victoria said, giving Lilo a hug good-bye.
"I'll walk you home." Keoni stated right after. "See ya, Lilo. Nice meeting you, Styles."
"You too." Stitch said with a smile. "Have a good night."
Once their friends were out of sight, Lilo and Stitch looked at each other lovingly.
"I suppose meega should take youga home too." Stitch said with laugh.
"Why thank you, kind gentleman." Lilo replied. "Are you going to be able to come home tonight?"
"Ih. Morpholomew will change meega back at his house."
The two walked home together. Enjoying the end of their night. With everything that had happened, being outside in the cool night breeze felt good on their skin. Neither one spoke, in fear of ruining the beautiful atmosphere. Lilo enjoyed the sound of night on the island. It was very distinctively different from the sounds she heard in the day. She had never been able to appreciate the beauty and change her home made when the sun set. The insects and nocturnal birds sang their songs that filled the air, she felt like she could hear the entire island still filled with life. Every so often she would hear the sound of a car pass by on the close highway, then an animal make a sound in response.
Lilo suddenly felt an urge to run, run as fast as she could. She wanted to feel the wind through her hair. Feeling a sudden disappointment in her inability to run fast in her dress, she stared at the ground, sadly.
"Youga okay?" Stitch asked, noticing the sad look on his girlfriend's face.
"Yeah." Lilo said with a sigh. "I just wish we could run." A smile came to her face as she imagined that feeling of flight she experience before. She skipped forward with a twirl. "I love feeling like I'm flying through the air. It's so magical."
Stitch smiled, loving that she enjoys her new abilities. It's something he always wanted to share with her, and now he could. "How about this?"
"Huh?" Before Lilo knew it, Stitch was at her side, he brought the bottom of her dress up, tying it around her waist. He turned her dress into a makeshift pair of shorts, giving her at least a little more mobility.
"Does that work?" He asked, looking up into her now beaming face.
"Only one way to find out." Lilo instantly took off, leaving Stitch kneeling on the side of the road. He chuckled before running after her, catching up to her in nearly an instant. The two flew through the streets and the forest, taking the long way around to their home. I'm never going to get tired of this. Lilo thought as she weaved through a few trees. The adventure was short lived as Lilo noticed it was getting close to her curfew. Knowing she could continue her fun any time now, they quickly ran home.
Meanwhile, Nani had been waiting in the living room the entire time. Her eyes would dart to the clock every so often, even though she knew Lilo still had time to get home. She took a sip from her cup of coffee, pulling back as she burnt her tongue. Her knee shook as she took another look at the clock, seeing that it hadn't moved.
"Five more minutes." She told herself, flicking on the television, hoping to take her mind off of everything. "She's fine, she'll be okay. Stitch is with her." Not that that has really kept her safe before. She thought about all the times they had been in danger. All the trips to space, all the attacks from Hamsterveil. She shook her head. "It's just a dance with a boy. A date. That's all. Nothing bad can happen."
Her attention was quickly drawn to the door as it creaked open.
"Lilo!" She shouted as she pulled her younger sister into a hug, knocking off Lilo's headdress in the process. She didn't notice Lilo's dressed tied around her legs.
"Nani." Lilo said with difficulty.
"Yes sweetie?"
"You're crushing me."
"Oh." She let go of Lilo, grinning nervously. "Sorry. I was just… never mind. So? Did you two have fun?"
"It was amazing. We won best couple!"
"Really? Congratulations. And you got home just in time, good job, Styles." She addressed the disguised Stitch.
"It was no problem." He said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well. I should probably be going."
"Do you need a ride home?" Nani offered, grabbing her car keys of the bookshelf by the door.
"No!" Both of them said at once. Nani raised an eyebrow, about to question the sudden outburst.
"I don't live too far away." Stitch quickly added, seeing Nani's suspicion grow. "I like walking, too."
Nani just shrugged. She put the keys back and then leaned against the wall, letting the two say their good byes.
Lilo quickly gave him a hug 'good-bye.' "Don't be long." She whispered in his ear.
"I won't." He whispered back, leaving the house immediately after.
Once the door was closed, Lilo started telling Nani about the evening. Once Lilo was done, Nani asked where Stitch was. She gave the excuse that Stitch was making sure Styles made it home okay. While they were talking, Stitch quickly ran to Morpholomew's home. Once he was changed he thanked his cousin once again, not mentioning that his date was Lilo. Before returning home, he first stopped by Jumba's spaceship. He dropped off his headdress for safe keeping. Giving it one last smile before hiding it away for good. He returned home, being asked by Nani if Styles made it home okay.
"Huh?" He was slightly confused, closing the door slowly. Seeing Lilo signal him to go along with it, he quickly understood what was happening. "Uh, Ih. He home safe."
"That's good. It's getting late now. I believe it's time that you two should be getting to bed." Nani said, pushing Lilo towards the hall. She watched as the two, ascended the lift. For a second she thought she saw them holding hands, but shook if off as being a little tired from worrying so much. She returned to the living room, feeling relieved that her sister was safe at home.
Lilo and Stitch laid in bed, slowly falling asleep. It had been a busy day for the two. Really, it had been quite the busy week. They talked about all the things that had happened to them, and how excited they were for the upcoming memories they would make. Before finally falling asleep, they shared one last sweet tender kiss for the evening. Lilo reveled in being able to feel the real Stitch again. She thought about his question from earlier. About him staying in human form.
"I never want you to change." She whispered between kisses.
"Meega never want youga to change either." He replied softly.
Once they finally parted, it didn't take long for sleep to take Stitch. The final run to the other side of town and back had taken a lot out of him. Lilo laid awake just a little longer. Looking at his chest slowly rise and fall as he breathed through parted lips. She couldn't get over just how cute he was, again wishing that she had realized her feelings sooner. I love you exactly how you are, Stitch. Now nothing will ever be able to change that. She gave his nose one last kiss, giggling at the smile that quickly grew on his face from her touch. This is really just the beginning of the rest of our life together. With that final thought, sleep finally took over her, bringing her sweet dreams of a perfect life of being with Stitch.
Between Us; Rings – Programming Arc End
Did you enjoy this arc? It's now available in book form! I even updated it a bit, made some corrections here and there. And print cost and creation costs are low! So check out my "store" link on my profile to see it and PM me if you're interested in a copy.