CHAPTER FORTY-NINE:
A NEW DAY
Dawn rose in torrents of gold and pink over the island of Kauai, glowing brightly with the promise of a perfect day. Pleakley opened his eye slowly to the splendor, reveling in its light before rolling over to face the sleeping form of his bride. This is it. Today is the day. OUR day. After all these years, it's finally here. Smiling, he lifted a hand to her face, brushing her hair back so that he could look upon his sleeping beauty. In the dim light of the morning sun, she glowed with a heavenly aura, like something out of a dream. How many nights have I spent imagining us together like this? Falling asleep in each other's arms, and waking up to the warmth of each other's presence? We've waited so long…
Pleakley sighed, wrapping his arms around Leera and pulling her close, thinking about the day that lay ahead. He knew that the time of waiting was over. Fear, pain, and uncertainty were things of the past. So much had happened over the past month: old wounds had been reopened, only to be healed… nightmares had become reality and dreams had come true… the dead had been resurrected and the immortal had finally been destroyed… and a second chance at love and life was theirs for the taking.
Drawn like a magnet, Pleakley brought his lips to hers and kissed her tenderly. Leera made a small noise of contentment and snuggled closer to him. Satisfied, Pleakley closed his eye, smiling. His eye snapped open again when he felt something soft and warm touch his lips. It was Leera, returning his kiss. He gasped and drew back, then chuckled.
"Heh. Good morning," he whispered.
"Mornin,'" she whispered back, cuddling close.
More than satisfied, Pleakley cuddled back, his free hand wandering up and down her side in a teasing caress. Leera shivered slightly, ticklish under his touch, before letting her own hands explore the familiar territory of her lover's person. Purrs and coos escalated to gasps and giggles as the two became lost in a haze of cuddling, kissing, and caressing.
"Would you mind keeping the girly giggles and the pheromone levels to a minimum?" came a disgruntled voice from somewhere nearby. "I'm still trying to sleep off those screwdrivers."
Startled, Pleakley rolled over to face his mother, who was laying on his other side. His eye then drifted past her to the seven other blanketed lumps scattered across the living room floor, all of which were beginning to stir. Oops. He'd forgotten they weren't exactly alone in the room.
"Sorry, Vay," Leera said, propping herself up on one elbow to look at her. "Didn't mean to disturb you there."
"I was talking about Wendy," Vay replied flatly, pulling a pillowcase over her head.
Pleakley blushed, then lay back down, staring up at the ceiling, where a splatter of purple poi from the night before was starting to congeal.
"Glad I didn't touch any of the hard liquor last night," he muttered, half to himself. "Wouldn't want to be wasted like Mom on my wedding day!" He said this second part louder and with more emphasis, baiting his mother for a reaction.
"I heard that!" Vay growled, her voice muffled by the pillowcase. "I may have had a few too many, but at least I didn't dance around in a hula skirt with someone else's underwear on my head!"
Pleakley blushed again, then smiled. "Yeah, that was some party last night…"
"SSHHHH!!!" He was shushed by a few other individuals they shared the room with. Sprawled out like a mountain in the center of the floor lay Jumba, clad only in boxer shorts. Draped over his bulbous belly was Stitch, still twitching from last night's fill of coconut coffee. Lilo lay propped against Jumba's massive side, still asleep. Cobra lay on the couch, dressed down from his usual attire in a loud Hawaiian shirt and shorts. In the corner, across the room from the three Plorginarians, lay the grand councilwoman, and beside her, Mackayl. Both were dressed in ill-fitting human apparel. David lay nearby, with one of ZaiLeia's long legs slung over his middle. A fine layer of confetti and grime covered every possible surface in the room.
The previous night's award/victory celebration/happy reunion/bachelor/bachelorette party had been one helluva scene: drunk aliens everywhere and no rules (a fact which had sat surprisingly well with a certain Man in Black, aka Cobra, who had arrived at the party with the intention of keeping it 'low-profile,' but instead had succumbed to the celebration, with a little help from Jack Daniels, of course).As the fun and the general blood/alcohol levels rose, barriers had gone down. 'One thing led to another,' as they say, and only Lilo's erratic snapshots would stand as testimony to those 'things.'
It wasn't long before Nani shuffled in on her way to the kitchen to start the coffee. One glimpse into the living room was enough to make her want to crawl back into bed and pretend that this was all some kind of twisted dream. Already being accustomed to this sort of thing was the only reason she resisted.
"Who wants coffee?" she said loudly, startling the two or three still sleeping awake. "Besides Stitch," she added, as the little monster sprang to life. A chorus of slurred mumbles followed, speaking in unanimous favor for coffee. Clearly seeing that she wasn't the only one with a hangover, she sighed tiredly.
"Guess I'd better drag out the big pot," she muttered, heading into the kitchen. Pleakley got up to help her, but not before giving his sweetheart a kiss and asking her how she took her coffee.
Ten minutes later the house was alive with activity as seven aliens and four humans went about the task of cleaning up the debris of last night's bash, while also getting ready for Pleakley's and Leera's big day. There was a lot of fussing over the bride and groom-to-be as everyone kept pestering them with unsolicited advice and tips to marital bliss. The latter was especially amusing coming from those who had never even been married. Pleakley and Leera, however, both remained steadfast in their belief that they had already found that bliss in each other. Though Earth custom deemed it unlucky for the bride and groom to see each other before the wedding, Plorginarian tradition said nothing of the kind, though it did require some restraint when it came to a few stolen moments of intimacy in the closet, so of course everyone did their part to keep the two preoccupied with other things until it was time for the ceremony.
David inspected himself in the bathroom mirror, noting some dark, bruise-like marks on his neck. He went back into the kitchen, where Nani was fixing breakfast with Pleakley and Vay.
"Did I get lucky last night?" he asked Nani, a hopeful smile on his face.
"Not exactly," she replied, sounding irritable. "Those aren't hickies," she added as she turned away to wipe poi off the counter.
"Then what are they?" he asked, sounding fearful.
"Why don't you go ask your girlfriend over there?" Nani replied in a sarcastic tone, gesturing toward the living room where Cobra, Jumba, Leera, ZaiLeia and Mackayl were conversing.
"Girlfriend? But I don't -" he turned to look out into the living room, then felt the vague sting of an awkward, drink-impaired memory.
"Don't remember, huh? Well, that's convenient!" Nani said wryly, then turned her nose up and stalked off.
More than a little confused, David rubbed his neck, staring at the small crowd in the living room. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Pleakley glaring at him, but when he looked down at the little alien, he had already returned his attention to the stove.
"I didn't hit on your fiancée, did I?" David asked uncomfortably. Pleakley didn't respond. He just stared at the sizzling pan of bacon and eggs, though it looked like he was fighting the urge to explode.
Sensing hostility, David continued. "Look, you gotta understand. I was drunk last night, so I had no idea what I was -"
"Oh, don't worry, Dave. You didn't hit on her," Vay assured him, a wicked grin creeping up on her face. Seeing David's face relax, she snickered. "No, but you did get lucky last night!"
"Really?" he asked, trying to conceal his excitement. "With who?"
This time, Pleakley laughed out loud. Vay elbowed him sharply, then pointed over David's shoulder while trying to stifle her own laughter. David turned to find himself looking up at the grand councilwoman, who towered over him by a good two or three feet.
"Hello, David," she said in a far-too-pleasant tone and smiled at him. David just stared back, his eyes wide with horror. She looked down at the marks on his neck and frowned. "Looks like I left a deeper impression on you than I thought. Sorry about that."
"Y-you did this?" He squeaked, his hand flying up to his neck.
ZaiLeia shrugged. "Well, between the kissing, the biting, and the strangling…"
"…And let's not forget the whole 'hitting-on-everyone-who-hit-on-you' thing," added Mackayl, now entering the kitchen. He smiled smugly at her, and she responded by leaning into him and taking his hand in hers. "And I mean literally."
"I forgot to tell you; I'm a mean drunk." She winked at David before turning to Mackayl.
David left the house minutes later with a newly acquired facial tic and a sudden loss of appetite and did not return until it was time for the wedding.