Well... This is awkward.

It had been an incredible and quiet afternoon. Things had been pretty easy going for Lilo and Stitch. So much so that they decided to just go for a walk around town. No errands. No one to meet up with. Nothing planned. Just walk, talk, and have a little fun. The best part of all? Getting to actually hold hands and talk openly. It seemed like forever, almost an eternity, but the time had finally arrived.

Stitch would think back to those tough days. Pretending to always be a dog. Not getting to truly be himself. Now he didn't even feel like he needed to hide his more alien features. The extra arms, spines, and antenna. He could actually be one hundred percent authentic. And the more often he was like this, the less and less stares he would get. And the less gawking over the young girl walking with him hand in hand. Lilo had always said that they would one day get to be like this. Like an actual normal couple. And on the days when she was feeling down, and like the world was against her, he would tell her this day would come. But now it was finally here. And honestly? There was absolutely no going back.

Sometimes Lilo would start walking a bit faster, pulling Stitch along until they were in a run. Or something would catch his eye and suddenly Lilo would be dragged into a shop or side road. It didn't matter though. It was the point. Just enjoying life and seeing where it would take them. Just the feeling of being connected was all that mattered. All that ever would.

But the fun and laughter died the moment they walked into Victoria and Keoni. Also hand in hand. Also apparently on an afternoon date.

The two couples just stared at each other for a moment. The town around felt very empty all of a sudden. Leaving just the four of them in the world. Along with an awkward silence.

"Um... hi?" Stitch said, breaking the silence, with an uncomfortable wave.

It looked like Victoria was about to wave back but put her hand back down. She adverted her eyes, trying to look at anything but Lilo. And Stitch felt his girlfriend try to move but kept her held in place.

An extra long pause later, Keoni looked towards Stitch and said, "hey, wanna see a new trick I learned?"

Stitch saw he had his skateboard in his other hand and quickly nodded his head.

"Ih."

The two quickly walked off, leaving both Lilo and Victoria. Alone. In silence. Trying not to look at the other.

Eventually they tried to say something.

"Hey," they said at the same time.

A pause.

Again at the same time, "I just wanted to say..."

Another pause. And finally laughter.

"How about we find somewhere to sit down?" Lilo asked.

"That sounds nice," said Victoria.

Thankfully, finding seating wasn't as awkward as randomly meeting on the street. And hopefully even less than the conversation was going to be. It was hard to even begin. This was the longest they've ever gone without speaking. Possibly even their first real fight. How do you start to begin to apologize to your best friend in the world over this?

"I'm sorry," they both said together.

Lilo quickly grabbed Victoria's hand. Giving it a tight squeeze as she finally began.

"I'm so sorry, Victoria," she said with near tears in her eyes. "I know you were just trying to protect me. And I took it too far. I shouldn't have said those things."

"No you were right-" Victoria placed her hand on top of Lilo's "-that I should have told you. I know how important the aliens being on Earth means to you. And I kept it hidden in some silly hopes that you wouldn't find out." She took a deep breath. "I feel like I, no. I know I betrayed your trust and I'm really sorry. Um..." She stopped for a moment, trying to think of what to say. Pulling her hand away, she began fiddling with her fingers. "The others? They're sorry too." This was even harder than she imagined. "Yuki has said that she was worried if you found out you'd try to do something? And Elena added you might go into space again. Get hurt again. Teresa and Mertle didn't want to go through that again." She looked down for a moment before bringing her eyes back up to Lilo. "We'd have your back through anything. Take on any army for you. But we don't want to see you hurt or upset. You've been through so much and we can see that. But it's no excuse to hide things from you. Oh..."

She could see that Lilo was fully crying now. Making her stop and really wonder if she should have said those things.

"I would have..." Lilo began as the tears continued to run down her face. "I would have probably tried to do something about it if I knew. I'm always running head first into danger. Trying to solve things. And I never think about what that does to the people around me." She rubbed the tears off her face. "I always just want to solve the problem in front of me. Thinking I can fix everything just because more often than not things turn out fine in the end. But I don't want you to have to fight again."

"Getting kidnapped wasn't your fault."

"No, but I have pulled you into more than that. Lots of times with the experiments, asking you to take care of them while I was away. Someone almost fell from a cliff while trying to rescue Monochrome that one time. It could have been any of my friends."

"You can't control everything. You just do your best."

"But I try to. I try to always save the day. And you were all right. I would have tried to do something about this if I had heard it before. If I actually thought about things through you wouldn't have felt like you had to hide it from me." She had to take a moment to calm herself down, or else it was going to get really hard to talk really fast. "I know how much the experiments and aliens mean to you too. You have Snooty. Mertle has Gigi and the pups. It's not just me. I was really upset to learn what was going on. To hear... that word and what it meant. It really made me angry. And after thinking about it, I realized that I can only imagine how angry it made you too. And then to hold on to that, try to protect me? It couldn't have been easy. So I'm sorry."

Rather than say anything, Victoria just hugged Lilo. Both crying, making a mess on each other. But finally friends again. And with the tension gone, things could go back to normal. If not even better than they were before.

From a ways off, Keoni and Stitch watched their girlfriend's. It seemed like things were finally better. A great relief for the two of them.

"Isa a good idea, Keoni," said Stitch.

"Thanks," he responded. "I just couldn't stand them not talking to each other any long."

"Meega neither."


Lea spun around in her desk chair lazily. Wondering just how life could have become so boring. Sam had lost all her drive after the last encounter with Lilo. And while she couldn't exactly blame her for not wanting to cause some sort of intergalactic problem and get put into space jail or whatever it is they'd do for messing with, in their mind, some random girl from Earth. She certainly didn't need to just stop caring all together. This was their last year in high school after all. They 'ruled the school' for so long and now that's just gone?

At the end of the day though she didn't care. Not really. It was fun. But fun usually has it's end at some point.

"Sucks it ended so soon," she said to herself.

She clicked on her computer and browsed the internet for a bit but nothing was really catching her eye. It wouldn't be so bad if her house didn't feel like a war zone waiting to happen. Her mom was getting more and more stressed over some sort of project that she wouldn't talk about. Causing even more fights than they had before. Well. Less fights and more Lea getting punished for talking back. Same as always.

"At least," she thought, "I'll be heading off to college soon and won't need to see her anymore."

Before that thought would make her a bit sad. But it hasn't done that in a long time. She wasn't sure at what point she stopped caring, but she did. Maybe that too had a part of her being bored so much now. Maybe she just stopped caring all together?

Grabbing her phone, she texted Sam. Even if there wasn't much to do in regards to terrorizing anyone anymore, maybe the could find something new to do. That might make the last few months of their high school days interesting. Before she could read Sam's response, though, she heard a call from downstairs.

"Leanne!" her mom shouted. "Come here!"

With a sigh, she threw her phone on her pillowy bed and slowly made her way down the stairs. What she saw was a more than usual sight. Her mom, clearly on the phone, with her little brother clearly pestering her for some attention. It was less than a second that she rolled her eyes.

"What?" she asked coldly, despite already knowing what was coming.

"Can you take your brother to the park or something?"

Same old, same old.

"I'm in the middle of important work and I don't have the time."

Not the first time she heard that.

"So I need you to look after him."

And honestly? Lea was more than sick of it.

"No," she said.

Even her brother stopped and stared at her. The tension that had been building up was very close to breaking.

"Excuse me?" Mrs. Byers asked with a stern look. "I said to take your brother to the park."

"And I said no." Lea stood her ground. "I'm busy. Have plans with friends."

"Well that's too bad, Leanne." Her name coming out like venom. "He's your brother so you have to look after him."

"He's your son-" even Lea couldn't believe she was going to say this "-so why don't you spend some time with him for once in your life?"

Lea's brother quickly made his way out of the room. This was not something he wanted any part of, that much was clear. And what ended up happening was a half hour long shouting match between the two of them. At some point Lea's father returned home, heard the commotion, and promptly decided to go for a walk instead. A lot of what was said between the two were things no family should ever say to each other. But it was clear that this was going to come out eventually.

Mrs. Byers slammed her hand on the table, cutting off her daughter from another insult.

"I'm your mother," she said between heavy breaths. "You're going to listen to me and listen well. We'll talk later about your punishment. But for now you are going to take your brother, and let me work so I can get those damn aliens off this island! And if you don't? You're welcome to leave and not come back."

There wasn't even a moment of hesitation.

"Alright," she said. "I'm gone then."

And with her mother left dumbfounded, Lea made her way up to her room. There wasn't much she wanted. She grabbed her phone, some clothes, and a few knick knacks she thought important and quickly made her way out of the house. Hopefully Sam would let her crash at her place for a few weeks. And in her anger, she thought about what her mom said she was doing.

Get those damn aliens off this island.

She didn't know how, but she knew for a fact that Lilo was tied to these aliens. That much was clear based on how much time she spent with them and from trying to black mail her with the one from the medical clinic. And as much as she disliked Lilo? She disliked her mother even more.


"Ugh, why are you in your hula outfit?" Caitlynn asked. She was just about ready to hang up the call before they even began.

"What?" Casey asked, confused. "You're the one who decided to call right after practice."

"Yeah but you're home now. Why didn't you change?"

"Does it matter?"

"I guess not."

The two just looked at each other through the screen for a bit. They hadn't had much time to talk since their last big call. But Cassy did know about everything that went down. And as awful as it was. It was still kind of funny. At the very least, all their friends knew about it by now. As well as anyone they decided to tell.

"You're still salty," Cassy said with a bit of a smirk.

"Am not."

"Okay," she laughed. "Why do you even care? You don't want to hang around with a bunch of xenofreaks anyway. They might rub off on you."

"Ew!" Caitlynn cringed at the thought. "Don't even joke about that. I had to shower like five times to not feel dirty after. You don't even know the half of it."

"At least your coming home soon."

"Yeah."

The two caught up a bit on what was going on. Caitlynn didn't have much to say, but was feeling a lot better getting to hear from her best friend. She missed home and really missed all the drama that was happening in her absence. Break ups, get togethers, school life, gossip. The general things. Everyone always says they need to get away from the day to day occurrences in life. A break. But for her? That's what charged her. Being on this island-get-away was actually doing the opposite. Especially without a proper space to hula.

"So I guess you're never going to find out what was going on with that weird girl you mentioned then."

Cassy said it so nonchalantly, and it hit Caitlynn hard that she forgot to spill the juiciest gossip she had ever heard.

"Actually," Caitlynn said with a smile. "Turns out she's the worst of them all."

"How?"

"She's actually 'dating' an alien."

There was a long pause.

Very long.

The longest.

"I'm sorry," Cassy said. "I think you cut out. Did you say she's dating an alien?"

"Yeah." Caitlynn nodded. "Apparently full on dating. The whole thing. Whatever you imagine a couple doing I bet. But with an alien... And I'm guessing by the look on your face it sounds as disgusting to you as it did to me."

Cassy didn't really know how to respond. So many different thoughts and feelings swirling inside of her. Not really having any source of reference on what the appropriate response here would be. Is there one even? There couldn't be. So she just settled on what made the most sense.

"It can't actually love her though right?"

"Of course not." It was laughable to even think so. "It's probably just waiting around to eat her or something. I told her that. Tried to be nice and warn her you know?" Cassy nodded. "But she didn't listen. Hopefully she figures it out before it's too late."

"Even if it doesn't there's no way it ends well," Cassy giggled. "She's gonna just turn the corner one day and find it making out with some other gross alien or something."

"For sure. Bound to happen really. Ugh." Caitlynn shivered. "I don't even really wanna imagine it. So gross."

"Well," Cassy said while grabbing her phone. "She'll learn her lesson. And absolutely everyone is finding out about this one." Her eyes lit up as she began texting everyone she could as fast as possible.

Caitlynn was going to add more but a bang on the bathroom door stopped her. Still finding it the best part of the place they were staying in for a video chat.

"Sweetie," her dad said. "Can you please get out. It's been over an hour."

"Fine!" she called back. "Gotta go. Say hi to everyone for me?"

"Will do!"

And with that, the call ended. And with it, a trail of texts calls and emails talking about the girl dating an alien soon began making its rounds through Caitlynn's home town. Possibly the biggest news to hit in a long, long time.