Passion

C/By: Kenjaje

Edited/Revised by: raVen

Chapter 3: For A Stay

Dew was flung from the leaves of a twanging tree branch as it was let go by a quick hand. The body to which it was attached was furred; colored white and gray, as if someone had literally taken a piece of the overcastted sky and breathed life into it. The visible aura of fog surrounding the creature gave it a seemingly ghost-like appearance, but the creature itself wasn't too particularly aware of that.

Steadily Zeus floated an inch or two off the ground, as if on the dense fog that it kept around its body. The lake underneath Zeus' feet took on the effects of a murky swamp as the experiment made its way to the black ship in the riverbank. A knock, then two, then three, humbly bellowed through the metal hull as the experiment knocked for attention, the sunlight that it feared now peeking over the horizon and creating light blue bands against the dark blue sky.

"Who is it? And at this hour?" Came an unhappy voice from inside the ship as Gantu pushed the door open. "Oh, it's you." He said with realization.

"Gantu, is it?" Zeus asked.

"Yes, what do you want?"

"May I stay here for a few hours? The sun is coming up on the horizon, and I'm afraid I need to recuperate for a short time to get my powers back. I merely need a place to stay that can block the UV rays efficiently, and your ship is the perfect vessel." The experiment said while bowing.

"Alright." Gantu grunted. "You can come in, but don't touch anything." He continued, opening the hatch wider to allow access for the experiment. But Zeus seemed to merely disappear before his eyes, and reappear next to him a moment later. "How did you-" Gantu began to ask, pointing outside and then at where Zeus stood presently. "Never mind." He sighed. "I'm going back to bed."

Lilo's mind clicked on slowly, she lay unable to move under the warm covers. Her face felt a bit cold, and her breath was chilly, causing her to involuntarily use her arms to lift the sheets over her mouth. She could tell it was daytime outside, or at least what looked like daylight hit the lids of her eyes. Darkly shaded and tinted red, she couldn't really tell, and didn't have enough will power to move the lids out of the way to see.

For a long time she didn't want to leave the cozy covers. Zeus must have done something to the air to make it colder, she figured, which was all right with her—she was looking for an excuse not to get out of bed yet. Aside from a heavy sleep still looming over her, she would have had no other reason to have to move except sheer laziness (which was also a good enough excuse, in her opinion).

But she couldn't help thinking something was out of place. Something was—or wasn't—as it should be, and she couldn't place her finger on it. Something had changed since she went to sleep, but what was it? She tried to think, but the black cloud banished the thoughts and memory away.

A few minutes of resting passed, and suddenly, she felt a burst of energy inside of her that needed to be released, so she decided to satisfy it by turning over to the other side of the bed, planning to slam her hand down on the mattress. But then, something clicked, and she remembered that someone was sleeping there, but she couldn't stop now, all she could do was hazily wait for her to make contact with whoever was there.

As she stopped rolling to the other side, she realized that whatever was there wasn't present. Taking a full seventeen heartbeat's before she realized this fact, she opened her eyes for the first time in what seemed like hours since she had first woken up, and found herself looking at the wall that was next to her bed. Her arm was blurrily in her view, her fingers tingling with the chilled air as she receded the appendage back under the sanctity of the warm blankets. Again she pulled them up past her shoulders, and over her mouth, and swallowed a dry puddle of saliva in her mouth, which stung the back of her pallet as it made its way past.

"Slow morning." She thought, staring up, out the window, past the lip of the covers in her view. "Pretty gloomy outside…don't hear any thunder or rain…did it stop?" She asked herself, lowering the sheets to get a better view. "It did." She observed, as the clear view came; clouds still littered the sky, but the sun was just barely visible as it left the small band of sky on the horizon.

She stood, the cold hitting her legs, arms, head, and feet like wildfire, and put her hands on the windowpane, as she pressed her face against chilly glass to see outside. Puddles of water, drowned paths, mud, sticks, stones, moss, trees; all were scattered on the ground as though they fell from the sky. But the water wasn't moving; where it had gathered on the indented ground and took the form of a stream the night before, it was now still.

"I gotta find the heater." Lilo stammered in a whisper, the chilly air finally taking its toll on her. She was too awake to lie back in bed now, and she wasn't about to freeze waiting for Stitch and Angel to wake up. She turned around on the bed, intending to slide off, but the two sleeping on the floor stopped her motion. Stitch and Angel lay asleep in each other's arms, peaceful smiles crossed their faces as though they were in heaven. "Aww." Lilo whispered to herself, as she took in the cute scene. She slowly and silently moved to the end of the bed and lightly placed her feet—first one, then the other—on the carpeted floor, her ankles popped as she moved to her heels.

She did the same on the risen floor, stepping down the little lip with one foot, carefully, then the other foot the same way, her ankles popping again as she stood normally. With a careful pace, and only a little noise as her heels hit the ground, she made her way to the platform that would take her down to the second floor. But, before she was halfway there, she heard Angel sleepily calling her name.

"Stitch is sleeping," Lilo whispered, turning around and putting a finger to her lips as Angel opened her eyes and sat up. "Sorry I woke you up." She said, coming back a few steps.

"I don't think you did." She said, lifting the covers and sliding out, stepping over the blue clump of fur as she made her way to Lilo. "Should we wake him?" She asked, pointing to Stitch, who began to snore.

"We wore his body out pretty badly last night," she said, "let's let him wake up on his own." Angel noted the 'we', and didn't understand what Lilo was talking about at first, but then she remembered that they switched bodies.

"Oketaka." Angel agreed, nodding her head.

"You want some breakfast?" Lilo asked rhetorically, taking Angel's hand.

"Suga." She replied, as she felt the floor move under her feet. "It's gotten cold, are you ok? You're shivering."

"I'm fine." Lilo stammered in a normal voice, now that she felt out of Stitch's relative hearing range.

"You don't sound like it, but ok." Angel replied, as the elevator stopped on the second floor. Lilo took off to the left, running to the thermostat on the wall. She turned it up a few degrees, and turned back as Angel stepped out.

"There, now it'll get warmer." She said, leading Angel down the hall.

"You know, speaking of wearing Stitch's body out…what exactly happened last night? How did you two get sucked into the flood?" Angel spoke, bringing up the question that had been in the back of her mind the night before.

"Long story," She said, "I'll tell you over breakfast. By the way, what do you want?" Lilo asked. "I have no idea what you eat, is there anything you'd like?"

"Anything," She said with great sternness, "as long as it's not a sandwich."

"What do you mean?" Lilo asked, a hint of humor in her voice.

"If I ever see 625 again…" Was all Angel needed to say, in order to send Lilo into hysterical laughter until they reached the kitchen. Angel smiled. Though, she didn't know why Lilo was laughing, she wasn't saying that to be comical, she was actually being quite serous.

"I forgot you stayed with Gantu and 625 for while." Lilo said, walking over to the cabinets.

"I wish I could forget that…" Angel whispered, her voice suddenly turning dry.

"Huh?" Lilo asked casually, as she turned around with two bowls in her hands.

"Nothing." Angel said, her tone returning to normal.

"Alright. Well, I hope you like cereal, because I can't really cook anything. I tried…but…" She thought back to the day she attempted to make scrambled eggs. "Well, let's just say that's something I won't be trying again for a very long time." She said, putting the bowls on the table and turning to the other cabinets where the cereal boxes were. "Take a seat." She told Angel, as she opened the cabinet. "You've got to be kidding me…" She said dully, as she peered at the contents.

"What's wrong?" Angel asked, leaving the chair and walking over to Lilo.

"All we have," she lifted out a plain tan box without a picture, "is Raison and Oat Delight."

"The name sounds droll and contradicting to me." Angel said, as she eyed the boring box.

"It is, and it tastes horrible too." Lilo sighed and put the box back in. "I wish we could cook some scrambled eggs…something warm would be perfect right now." Angel put a hand to her chin and scratched the tuft of fur under her jaw, thinking. Briskly she walked toward a bookstand she saw, and recognized a book on it as similar to one from on Gantu's ship. She took it from the stand, flipped a few pages, and read a recipe. All the while Lilo was eyeing her, wondering what she was doing, and stood up to look at what Angel was reading, but by the time she could see the picture on the page, Angel shut the book and looked toward her.

"Eh." She said, putting the book down on the counter, and running to the stove. She turned it on and while it heated went to the refrigerator and pulled out some butter. Then, she grabbed a spoon from the open drawer. She then put the butter into a little pot, that she had to hunt for through all the cabinets, and put the pot on the stove to let the butter melt.

Tapping the counter with her claws a few times, she surveyed the kitchen, and her eyes came upon Lilo, who was observing her silently. She gave a small smile and a nod, checked the pot's progress, and then went back to the refrigerator to get the carton of eggs.

"Stitch will eat too." She commented, to help figure out how many eggs to use. She took out six, cracked them, let the innards drip into the pot, and then placed the empty shells in the garbage, all with a systematic grace as though she'd done it a thousand times before. She took the spoon she'd used to cut the butter, and used it to fluff the eggs. After a little while, she went back to the fridge and got out a couple pieces of square-cheese, and ripped them up by use of her claws and added that to the pot as well. A few moments later she turned the stove off and looked toward Lilo, her face looked as if she was asking for approval.

"Wow…" Lilo simply stated, her shoulders slumped, and a look of moderated awe on her face. Angel grinned happily. "Where did you learn to cook?"

"I had to. I refused to eat sandwiches on Gantu's ship, and they refused to cook anything else." She replied, stretching her arms over her head. "Let's go wake him up then." She said, putting the pot on a different stove to let it cool. "I think food can compensate for the lack of sleep. We are talking about Stitch after all." Lilo laughed with agreement at Angel's comment as she followed her upstairs.