The Dance

Chapter 5: A Test of Love

While I was waiting for Angel to awaken, Lilo came downstairs, and started to make herself a simple breakfast.

"C'mon Stitch! Have some breakfast," she offered me.

"Naga, not now," I replied.

"Please? I'll let you have coffee!"

Coffee? She rarely lets me have coffee, much less…

"Coconut cake and coffee?" I asked, tempted a bit.

"Yep!"

Ooooh man… now I was sorely tempted. But I had spent a lot less time with Angel than I had hoped to yesterday, and the reason why was out in the kitchen, trying to bribe me with one of my favorite meals. I quickly weighed the benefits and drawbacks of both.

'If I wait, then I can make Angel happy with this gift, and get a good chance to spend more time with her. But then Lilo will get jealous again, and I probably won't get a chance to have a breakfast like this again in a long while…

'But if I do have breakfast with Lilo, then she's happy, and get my favorites for breakfast, and I've got plenty of energy for the rest of the day. But I might miss Angel awakening from her rest, and I want to surprise her right away, show her that I care for her. Plus, the cake and coffee might make be too hyper…'

I decided to take a middle path, and accepted Lilo's breakfast, and ate it sitting nearby Angel's basket, eating quickly to try and hopefully finish up before she woke up. It turns out I rushed for no reason, because Angel slept for another half hour yet.

When she finally began to stir, I stood in front of the basket, holding my gift to her behind my back. With a sleepy look in her eyes, and a smile on her face, she looked at me.

"Good morning, Angel! Ah kadu baba?" I greeted her, presenting her with a pot of flowers.

As she smiled wider at my gift, she began yawning, and turned it into a purr. Then she grabbed my head, and I wondered what exactly she was up to. She didn't keep me waiting too long, as she opened her mouth and began singing that song I had heard yesterday.

"Chumito igata nomutah, naga tonala ichume dedutah…"

The song brought a smile to my face yesterday, and a bigger one today, since I knew for a fact that she was the one who had sung it. Her singing voice was one of the most beautiful I had ever heard, and I let her know.

"Egalagoo… Ooooh, nice pipes!" I told her empathetically, as I offered her the flowers again.

'And I didn't mind you basically being all over me while you sang too…' I thought to myself.

For some odd reason, she seemed to be taken aback as I gave her the flowers. But she did accept them, smiling at me as she sniffed them. But the smile faded as she got out of her basket.

"Is something wrong, Angel?" I asked her, confused.

She didn't verbally respond, but instead, gave me a kiss. But it felt like she didn't really mean it, or that something was wrong, because she was so troubled. She tried to make it last, but I broke it off before too long. She pushed the flowers back into my hands, and ran to the living room door, opening it.

"Angel?" I inquired, genuinely confused and worried.

She looked back with the saddest look in her eyes. Had I hurt her somehow? Did she hate me for some reason? Or was something else going on? These questions, among others, were running through my mind, right as she ran out and slammed the door.

"Angel!" I cried out.

I cast all my questions and doubts aside for the time, along with the flowers, and bounded through the flap in the door. Right now, all I cared about was seeing what was wrong with her. As I ran after my beloved, I heard the door slam once again. Glancing back quickly, I saw Pleakley behind me a little ways, carrying that camera once again. But he wasn't a major concern right now.

Angel led me into town, near Slushy's shave ice stand, where I lost track of her. I decided to make her another gift. I grabbed a nearby watermelon, and pulled out my second pair of arms. I used them to carve into the watermelon. I carved a heart with an arrow going through it, and within it, I carved '626 624'.

Pleakley commented, "The spurned suitor, desperate for attention… Love it!"

Then I noticed someone hop out from inside the stand, and noticed Angel sitting on it.

"Slushy?" I wondered aloud.

Indeed it was, as he blew an arctic blast in my direction. I didn't have the time to move, as the entire area became like a winter scene. Pleakley and I were both frozen, and the watermelon froze and crumbled in my hands.

Pleakley shivered, "C…c, coffee break… take five!"

With one adjustment in my body, I was able to break out of the frigid hold. I also got Pleakley out, because I couldn't leave him there to freeze. I may have wanted him out of the way, and not bugging me, but not dead…

I saw Angel hop off of the stand, and run towards the beach. I wasn't going to lose track of her this time, watching carefully as I ran after her. She finally stopped, and laid down in a chair, putting on a pair of sunglasses someone had left behind.

I was thinking about what to make her, when I saw some kids making a sandcastle. I was suddenly inspired to build her something, although not a sandcastle. I started packing the sand up, and began to give it a form that I was sure it had never held before. After a little while, I was finished, and I stood back, admiring it.

The sand was in the form of my booji bu, only much larger than real.

I stood back, and cried out, "Tada!"

But as I turned around to see her reaction… she wasn't there!

"Angel?" I asked, looking to see where she had gone now.

I heard a loud noise, going 'Thud, thud!', and the ground started to shake. Before long, the shaking became too powerful, and my sculpture became unstable, and fell apart, right on top of me.

"Whoa!" I cried, getting buried under the sand. I poked my head out, and saw Angel standing next to... "Richter?"

He was the one who had caused the tremors, and Angel was smiling at him. My face fell, until Pleakley spoke up again.

"In a world full of pathos and pain, one little monster refused to give up on love!"

Again, she ran off when my attention was broken for a second, and again, I was right onto her trail again not too much longer. She was headed for Kixx's training area.

As I arrived, I heard, "Heigh, heigh, heigh!" I saw a couple people go flying overhead, then one slide in the ground, stopping in front of me. I looked over, and sure enough, Kixx was the one who had sent them flying, and Angel was hanging on one of his arms.

"Kixx?! Grrr…" I growled.

This was starting to get old, and I was ready to start kicking some butt. I walked up behind Kixx, and tapped him on the shoulder.

When he turned around, I growled again, this time saying, "Grrr… Meega nala qweesta!"

At the same time, I pulled my second arms, back spikes, and antenna out. Then with a few quick punches, I sent him flying. Daring to take a quick glance at Angel, I noticed a big grin on her face. Kixx finally landed, right on top of Pleakley.

"Okay, this scene's playing a little heavy…" he weakly cried, before falling under again.

I dusted my hands off, and offered an arm to Angel, turning to look at her… and to see that she wasn't there! I pulled my ears and groaned in anger. Right before I left, I made a promise to myself to apologize to Kixx once everything was sorted out. Then I thought about where she could have gone next.

'She either went to see Cannonball, Yin and Yang, or Sparky,' I figured, deciding to check out Sparky's lighthouse.

When I arrived, both Angel and Sparky were waiting, and Sparky was bouncing off the walls.

"Angel! What's going on?" I inquired.

She didn't answer right away, instead nodding her head. Sparky flew at me, fully charged and ready to zap me, which he promptly did.

"Whoa!" I cried out, not enjoying this shock treatment.

He was finished shortly, and flew right out of the lighthouse. Angel looked at me, with a somewhat sympathetic look on her face.

"I'm sorry…" she apologized, somewhat to my surprise. "But I'm asking you. If you care for me, you'll go home, and forget about me."

"B, but, Angel…"

"Please," she choked, starting to tear up. She then ran out the door.

I know that she had asked me to leave her, but I couldn't do that now, not without finding out what was going on. I shook myself off, and ran after her. She headed back across the beach to Cannonball, as I had expected and feared.

Not too long after she arrived, he started laughing, and bouncing around.

'Not good, not good… Please don't hop in the water…' I feebly hoped.

My hope was in vain though, as he did, and a huge wave came crashing down on me… Man do I hate the water! Luckily for me, the wave lasted only a minute, although the sheer force of it had knocked me on my back. I rubbed and opened my eyes, looking around. They were both gone, and I knew that Angel was likely headed for Yin and Yang.

'It's getting dark fast. I better try and figure this out soon,' I noted, looking at the sinking sun.

As I ran for where I hoped Angel was, I ran into someone. I shook my head, and looked around, noticing that I had run into the sunburned tourist who always seemed to lose his ice cream. I heard a plop, and noticed that he had indeed lost his ice cream once again. As bad as I felt for the poor guy, I didn't have the time to apologize to him and offer to get him a new cone.

After a couple minutes, I arrived. By now, I wasn't surprised to see Angel already with Yin and Yang. I also wasn't surprised when the two of them greeted me with a combination of lava, then water. It was very hot, and to make things worse, the water solidified the magma, turning it into rock. Before too long, they had made a body cast out of stone, covering me from my chest to my feet. I was expecting them to cover my head, but they stopped, and left. I would have broken out, but Angel was still there.

"I must say, you are quite determined. But I told you before to go home and forget me."

"Naga. O'hana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind… Or forgotten."

Smiling slightly, she sauntered up to me.

"I remember you telling me that yesterday," she reminded me.

Then she gave me what she intended to be a quick kiss. But as her lips touched mine, I broke open my stone suit, and wrapped her up in a hug.

"Stitch…" she whispered, momentarily breaking off the kiss.

She came back, and kissed me more like she had yesterday, like she truly meant it. Then she timidly slid her tongue into my mouth, and that really surprised me. But I was enjoying it, and she obviously was as well. We broke off shortly after, and I was gasping for breath.

"Wow… Angel, that was amazing! Why did you do that?" I happily asked her, after getting my breath back.

I looked around, and saw her behind me, heading for a mountain. I brushed myself off, got up, and went after her again. I heard someone behind me, and, glancing back, noticed that it was Pleakley. I had kinda forgotten about him, but when I saw the camera, I remembered why I had left him back there…

When we arrived at the mountain, she dove into some bushes. As she started to climb up, Pleakley decided to put in his two cents worth, and had the audacity to insult me.

"Still our hero pursues her, though she treats him like a flop, a loser, a buffoon, a pathetic…"

I couldn't take it anymore. I wasn't going to take anymore insults from him.

'That's it!'

"RAWWWRRRR!" I growled at him, turning around.

"Okay! No need to get huffy!" he cried, protecting the camera.

'You would have gotten mad too if I had insulted your cooking!' I angrily thought.

He finally gave up, and headed for home. I put my hands together, and happily sighed. Just me and my Angel, alone under the moon and stars to kiss and cuddle… Or so I had hoped.

By now, she had climbed a ways up the mountain. I began my ascent, trying to catch up to her. But near the top, she ducked into some more bushes. As I went through them when I got that far, I had lost her.

"Angel! Angel?!" I cried out.

I sighed in disappointment, yet kept my ears open for any stray sound. I was rewarded with her beautiful song, which was coming from a cave below.

"Akootah chumito igata nomutah, naga tonala ichume dedutah…"

I hastily slid down the hill, anxious to find out everything…