Lullaby

C/By: Kenjaje

Edited/Revised by: raVen

Chapter 3: Mission

The window creaked shut, as Stitch's right foot slowly set down on the wood floor of Lilo's room. The smell of pancakes, was absent on this Monday morning, Stitch was not very happy about that. It meant he would have to get his own breakfast, and Nani was already mad about him eating the house dry.

He opened the bedroom door, and perked his ears up as his head stuck out. He peered down the hallway, and when he saw no one was around he bolted outside, tapping his nails against the carpet. He came up to the stairs, and slowly listened for anyone in the kitchen.

He didn't hear anyone down there, but he did hear Jumba's computer, clicking away as he did his research. Stitch remembered, he wanted to talk with Jumba the night before; he stopped in his tracks and turned around, walking to Jumba's room.

"Who is it?" Jumba asked to the knock on the door.

"Miga." Replied Stitch, awaiting recognition.

"Come in, it's unlocked." The door clicked as Stitch came in and shut it. "How are you feeling today? Any better?" Jumba asked as Stitch went to sit on the bed. "Any…worse?"

"Eh, worse." Stitch said, trying to give a vague answer. "Stitch bored, nothing happened since last experiment." Jumba turned in his chair, to look at Stitch kindly.

"I don't think bored would be the right word, my friend, and I know you know what I mean. I am telling you, talk to little girl, she will understand, trust me." Jumba said winking, for he had talked with Lilo before, and he knew that now she understood somewhat of Stitch's concern.

"Naga pud." Stitch said, laying back.

"What do you mean you can't? It is just as easy as walking down the street during the day. What are you so worried about that your not telling me?"

"Miga scared." He said, curling up into a small ball.

"Bah, come out of there and tell me, what are you so scared about?" Jumba walked over to the bed, and sat next to Stitch, who took the form of a quivering rollie-pollie

"Miga cribe weguro tiriscla lagam Lilo." He said fast and lowly.

"You know better then that," Jumba exclaimed hitting Stitch's curled up body, "don't be so scared of other's feelings toward certain issues, I am sure little girl will not get upset…" Stitch stopped shaking, and uncurled.

"Stitch needs to think…" He said, leaving Jumba's room. He walked across the hall, and once again listened for anyone to be in the kitchen. From where he was he could hear nothing, and again he darted toward the edge of the stairs.

Stitch took his time in stepping down; he liked the way the steps squeaked under his feet at different pitches. As he neared the middle of the stairs, the door slamming shut interrupted his happy squeaks.

He paused and cringed his body, and peered at the front door. His ears rung as he saw Lilo, looking straight at him with a happy grin. She said nothing, though, and for a moment Stitch was paused at the stairs, not being able to think right. He couldn't think why Lilo would scare him so much, she seemed happy, she seemed fine, not mad at all; but still, he was afraid to confront her for an unknown reason-or a reason he did not want to reveal to himself, a reason that he wanted to keep locked away in his own mind.

Stitch's leg twitched, and threw him off balance, he tripped over a few stairs, and tried to regain his composer by catching himself and running as fast as he could down the rest of the ramp, into the kitchen.

"Are you hungry Stitch?" Lilo asked, walking into the Kitchen. He had opened several pantries and cabinets, but despite the scenery he looked back in his usual grin.

"Naga nota…" he said, "I'm just looking to see if I want something." Lilo walked to the kitchen table, and picked up a plate to put it into the sink. She walked over to Stitch to give him a hug, which he took hesitantly. It reminded him, of how Angel had just embraced him not an hour ago, and he wished that Lilo had not hugged him, not yet. It seemed much longer then it actually was, to Stitch.

"I can make you something," said Lilo, walking over to the noodle cabinet, "you want some Ravioli?"

"Ecuchaba." Stitch said, grabbing another can of food, for him. She opened the cans, while he opened the microwave and got out two bowls and two spoons. Stitch liked it like this, they weren't talking about Angel, about Gantu, not any of that, it was just a friendly meeting of the two while making Ravioli, on a warm, humid day.

Stitch's ears relaxed a bit, and his stride was a bit more fluent, they passed each other a few times, Stitch getting glasses, milk, napkins, and placemats; Lilo getting a glass pot, mixing spoon, salt, pepper, and olives (They liked their Ravioli with olives occasionally).

They had worked so fast and diligently, that after Lilo had punched in the time, they had nothing to do but to sit and talk. Stitch, trying to be a gentleman, pulled out Lilo's chair for her to sit. She thanked him in a proper way-jokingly of course-and sat primly in the chair. Stitch, pulling his own chair out, sat down and tried to act the same, but it was hard for him to keep a straight face. They both started wincing, and eventually broke into hysteria at the whole matter.

"Hey," Lilo said, catching Stitch's attention, "where were you this morning, I spent all this time looking for you." He lowered his head, thinking of what to say. He didn't want to tell her about Angel, and now he was back in a panic.

"Out back, exploring." He said, trying to be as truthful as possible without telling her about Angel. Lilo smiled somewhat naïvely and looked quickly at the time on the microwave, it read 3:44 until it would be done. She looked back, casually, not trying to look menacing, she wanted a truthful answer from Stitch after she asked this question:

"Did you meet Angel?" Stitch shifted, quickly, he felt more caught then surprised. He was hoping he could weasel his way out of telling Lilo what had just occurred that morning.

"Iba ju chabba?" He asked, with more nervousness in his voice then he wanted. He looked at her straight in the eyes; hers were calm and somewhat bright.

"I saw her, running away, at least I think it was her." She knew it was Angel, and she wanted Stitch to tell her what had happened; she wasn't mad at Stitch, she would never get mad at him, but she was mad at Angel, and wanted to know what she was up to.

"Abad? Egoolada?" Stitch said, trying to sound innocent to the matter.

"She was running away from the woods, in the back yard. Where you said you were." Lilo said, trying to sound like she was just piecing some of the puzzle together right then, so as not to sound too prepared. Stitch's ears picked up, but he stopped them midway, and they began to twitch.

"Stitch did not see her…" He said, shrugging and looking away at the microwave clock, only 33 seconds left. He stalled looking at the clock, pretending not to be able to see numbers clearly.

"Then," Lilo began, now revealing what she knew all along, "what are those strands of pink fur on your shoulder from?" sheer panic swept through Stitch's body, quickly he checked his shoulder, trying to make it seem like he wasn't look, and like he didn't even hear her in the first place; sure enough there was a very visible strand of pink fur, caught on his shoulder.

His heart pounded more heavily, his chest heaved in and out rapidly as he tried to hide his panic. He could feel his arms sweating of nervousness, and the overall feeling of being caught in the act was hard to take at a time like this. The microwave beeped, and Stitch tried, casually, to go get the Ravioli.

"No," Lilo said, very sweetly, and yet very seriously, "let it cool. Sit down." Slowly, he got back in the chair, he could feel the blood pumping through his neck, and his throat was knotting up with fear; Lilo was most likely going to explode with rage in front of him, or so he thought. "Stitch, why have you been hiding and avoiding me late-"

A loud crash sounded upstairs that made the two-and Stitch even more-jump in shock; another loud noise followed by an opening slam, Jumba screamed from up in his room, and it was stopped abruptly. Finally another glass breaking noise, and then silence.

Stitch was breathing hard, problems had just gotten worse. They both ran upstairs to see what had happened, Lilo's bedroom window was now shattered again, and the door was ripped off of it's hinges; in Jumba's room, the door handle had broken through the wall, and the window was all but gone.

"Miga soka…" Stitch said to Lilo, hoping that this would be a good time to apologize as to what she was going to say before.

"It's ok, I'm not mad at you, c'mon, let's go." She said, "Let's get Slushy and go to Gantu's ship." She grabbed his hand, softly, and carried him. They hopped into the car, and Stitch drove as fast as he could down to get Slushy. Lilo sneezed in the car, and began to get a very bad headache…

"We have Jumba, sir."

"Excellent, did you put him with my experiment, like I asked?"

"Yes, but, 625 is a little mad about what we're going to do to Angel."

"He'd better not tell her, it would ruin the trap, if she knew what was going to happen to her, she'd escape from us, and this whole plan would be ruined."

"What do we do then?"

"Don't worry, should we have to, we'll just let him take care of all three experiments…"

"Naga!"

"What? Where did she come from?"

"I don't know!"

"Grab her before she gets away! We need her!"