Everyone's Ohana

Part V

A Lilo & Stitch Fanfic

By Brenna "Snakelady" Dawkins

Rating: PG13

Disclaimer: Lilo and Stitch and all subsequent characters are owned and copyrighted by Disney Studios. I have made no money off of this or any of my other fanfics… pity!

Summary: Lilo and Gantu must work together to escape capture, if only they can cooperate long enough without getting on each others nerves.

"This human… David broke up with you?" Gantu asked, trying to see if he was following Nani's story right.

Nani was still sitting beside the giant alien after having imparted the reason behind her tears.

"I take it the feelings about the break up are not mutual." Gantu had gathered.

"No. No they're not. But there isn't anything I can do about it. When you become a professional surfer, you tour the circuit. Gone months at a time, especially during the summer. He thought it'd be better for the both of us if we were free to see other people."

"Sounds rather selfish to me." Gantu grunted.

But Nani couldn't help but defend David, "It's his chance to earn a living doing what he loves most. It wouldn't be fair for me to stand in his way."

"Making excuses for him?" He wondered.

Well, maybe she was, she thought for a moment. Her eyes had finally dried, but her nose still sniffled and her heart still felt broken.

"What is it you want from him?"

"Love. Security. Companionship." Nani answered readily. What she had when her parents were still alive. What she was always looking for after they had died. She thought she'd found it in David at last. But now he was leaving her as well. It seemed she had to struggle so hard to make sure no one left her that she really cared about. It wasn't fair. It shouldn't have to be this hard! "I lost that a long time ago and have been searching for it ever since."

"At least you had it at one time in your life, others aren't so lucky." Gantu said bitterly.

Nani turned her head to look at him. He was resting his chin on his huge hands. With no pupils in his eyes, she wasn't one hundred percent sure he was looking at her. She couldn't read his expression and didn't know what to say to that.

"We humans have a saying, 'Better to have loved and lost then to never have loved at all.' I don't know whether or not I believe it." Nani said absently.

Gantu snorted, "You humans always have such contradictory sayings." He thought he might've heard that saying before and it didn't make sense to him then either. Of course, he'd never been in love nor had been loved so he had nothing to base it on. "On my planet, we have a saying, 'Once a lover, twice the enemy.'"

"That's a happy thought." Grim, but sadly true, she thought to herself. Love, once lost becomes a very bitter thing. She didn't know if she was bitter, maybe that would come later. Right now she was still swimming through the mire of heartache. "I just don't know what to do."

"A lot of that is going around." Gantu sighed heavily thinking of his own whirlwind life changes. "Don't they also have a saying on your planet of how things always happen in threes?"

Nani nodded at that. "Yeah. And usually the third one is the biggie."

Great, Gantu thought sourly. All he needed was another life change to upset the cart. Was this the thing that would eventually end up going wrong in his life? He knew things had been going too smoothly… well, as smoothly as they could be under the circumstances. See what happened when he trusted?

Nani sighed, "Well, aren't we the happy pair?"

Gantu just grunted.

"I should go on inside. Um, thanks for the talk."

"Sure." Was all Gantu was prepared to say. He doubted he'd helped her out that much and figured she was just being polite about it. The bandaged alien watched her mount the meandering stairway on her way up to the old house. He lay there thinking deep into the night.

The next day, Jumba, Lilo, and Stitch were at Gantu's side.

"Time now to see how healed you are." Jumba said.

Gantu still ached, but it wasn't anywhere as excruciating as it had been the past few days. He could move his arms and neck without grimacing. Good news.

"Try to sit up." Jumba suggested.

Gantu looked dubious but was more then ready to try a different position. The vacation was nice, but he needed a serious break. So he gingerly propped his arms and slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position. The top of his headridge scraped the ceiling of the make-shift shelter. His back protested, but he endured it. What a relief! He sighed, glad of a new position.

"Better." He admitted.

Jumba nodded. "And soon enough, all better. You decided what do now?"

Gantu had not.

"Eega." Stitch said. "Numbala Gantu."

"6-2-6 wonder what of cousin's sent to stupid gerbil-head." Jumba translated.

Gantu shook his head, "More then likely run through a battery of tests. There is no rescuing them if that's what you mean."

Stitch's ears fell and Lilo patted the blue furred creature on his shoulder. "Sorry Stitch, but we still can at least help those that are still here on Earth."

"Ih." Stitch grunted disheartened at the lost experiments.

Gantu was frowning at the thought of having to aide the trog. The very idea went against everything he thought he stood for. But lately, he was having a crisis of conscious. Everything he'd ever believed in seemed to be on the brink of being pitched out on it's end. He felt like he had no control over his future and that was a frightening thought for someone who once had everything planned down to the nanosecond.

He felt utterly lost.

"It's okay, Gantu. When Nani looses a job, it always takes her a while to find something else." Lilo told the giant alien. "And lots of different jobs make for a well rounded person!"

Gantu scowled unhappily. It was time for the bandage change, but at least things would go easier now that he could sit up. He used the time to think. He was thinking an awful lot lately, but never seemed to reach a kind of conclusion he could live with. He felt like whatever he wanted was forever just beyond his grasp.

"I was only really good at one thing, and that was being a Captain." Gantu growled.

Lilo had to admit he stunk at capturing experiments. Of course, she didn't really know just how good a Captain he had been. He'd been fired, after all.

"Afraid you'd have to go into the Navy to be a Captain here on Earth." Lilo replied.

Gantu hung his head. There was nothing for him there.

Jumba went back inside and Lilo got out the cards for their daily card game. Stitch joined in. Gantu couldn't enjoy the game like usual, so lost in thought he was.

"Gantu, you even trying here?" Lilo complained, as it seemed the giant shark-like alien wasn't calling out anything specific.

He sighed, "Sorry."

"You alright?"

"No."

"What's the matter?"

"Just, not up to playing games right now." He folded the cards up in his hand.

"Wanna talk about it?"

"No."

"You sure?" Lilo asked, giving him one last chance.

"I'm sure."

"It's not good keeping it all bottled up like that." Lilo stood and gathered up the cards. "Come on, Stitch."

He watched as Lilo and the blue trog went back into the house. The small Earth girl was doing her best, he supposed. He just had no idea what he should be doing there. He watched the amazing sunset, unmoved by its beauty, so absorbed was he in his thoughts.

The funny wheeled Earth vehicle pulled into it's parking space and Nani got out. She strolled over to where Gantu was.

"You're looking better." She took note of his more vertical position.

"In a manner of speaking." Gantu was still feeling out of his element. He hated that, he hated it a lot. He'd braced himself as he sat there, both palms flat on the ground on either side of him to steady himself.

"Well…" Nani hesitated, "You talked with me about my problems. Let me return the favor."

Gantu stared down at her uncertainly.

"Part of being family is learning to trust." Nani said gently.

"I can't trust anyone."

Nani shook her head and moved up closer. "You can trust us."

He wanted to. He was tired of everything. Tired of being nothing but miserable. Maybe he had been going about everything wrong. Distrusting everything had gotten him nothing. He was literally at the bottom and things couldn't get much worse. He felt a cool hand on top of his own huge one and looked down.

How could such a simple gesture contain so much comfort? Her hand rested there for a moment as she smiled up at him. She stayed a moment longer then went into the house, leaving Gantu feeling very confused.

In the morning, Gantu got up and decided to try to change his bedding of palm fronds. He was a bit wobbly on the feet, but it felt good to be able to do something constructive. There was a tightness in his back as his muscles bunched under the newly forming skin, but the pain was less. He was able to bend over and swept the old bedding out into the palm forest and began to snap off new ones from nearby tops of trees.

He was sweating by the time he finished and his back was aching again. He was out of shape. Gantu hadn't realized just how long he'd been out of commission. With a sigh, he slumped back down onto his new bedding, worn out. He was going to have to take things slow or else he'd be right back, flat out of the running again.

Nani came out carrying a tray with a huge bowl of cereal and some whole fruit. A single white lily was in a tiny vase in the center of that tray.

"Just on my way to work." Nani shrugged and placed the tray in front of Gantu on the ground. "I'll be back late." She waved to him then hurried off to work.

Gantu stared at the flower for a few minutes before taking up the bowl of cereal and slowly began to eat.

Lilo came running out just as he was finishing up.

"Late for school! Bye!" Was her brusque greeting as she whirled past on foot.

He half-heartedly waved after her. Was he really family now? He would have to trust for it to work. He would have to let down his precious walls that he'd built to guard against all. Those walls were pockmarked anyway, weakened with each new regret. That didn't mean that tearing it down would be easy though. It just meant it was that much more stubborn at staying in place.

He stared at the simple flower once more as it sat there on the tray with the empty bowl and broken up fruit rinds. That simple flower threatened to take root in his heart. He could hear the wall trembling against the effort to stay up. And he felt real terror in his heart for that.

Nani drove up the driveway after another long and difficult day at work. She was exhausted. It used to be the first thing she'd see was the house. Now it was the huge structure on stilts that housed the recuperating alien. She was getting used to the sight. Gantu was the first thing she saw when she got home, and the last thing she saw when she left for work. If he was going to really stay, she'd have to talk to Jumba and Pleakly about making a more permanent structure for him.

She got out of the buggy and strolled over to Gantu. She smiled when she saw he kept the small flower and vase at the base of one of the posts that held the ceiling of his shelter up.

"You look tired." Gantu observed.

She nodded, "Yeah. But it puts bread on the table."

"And plenty of baloney as well, I suspect." He eyed the bag of groceries she had still in the automobile.

"The best way to keep 6-2-5 out of your way is to make sure there's plenty of sandwich supplies on hand. Otherwise, he gets bored easily."

"I appreciate that." Gantu admitted. "I mean… everything." He finished lamely and knew he sounded stupid.

"What about you. Aren't you bored?"

"I'm used to it. Used to being alone."

"Doesn't have to be that way anymore. I mean, you have all of us now." Nani hastily added.

"Not used to people giving a blitznack about me. I don't know how to deal with all this… kindness."

Nani heard the sadness in those words and wondered what it must be like to be him. To be quiet literally an outcast. Forever living on the fringe of society, despised, feared. Afraid to trust.

Suddenly she found herself hugging his forearm. Even if he hadn't been wearing the arm bands, his arm was so thick around that she wouldn't have been able to clasp her hands behind either way. So she was mostly just leaning up against him, cheek pressed up against the cold metal bands.

Gantu froze, staring down at the unexpected display. It was safer to do nothing. So he just sat there afraid to feel anything, afraid if he spoke, it'd break the spell.

The front screen door banged open and Nani quickly pushed away from Gantu as if afraid of getting caught. Gantu had to admit he felt a certain amount of disappointment at the interruption.

"Phone for you, Nani!" Lilo called out to her from the porch. "It's David!"

Figures, Gantu thought. He watched Nani smile at him apologetically and run to the house to answer the phone. He hated that he should feel jealous. It was insane. It was just a hug. Of course, when pleasant physical contact was never considered to be a constant, just a hug WAS a big thing.

He hadn't exactly been truthful about the being bored part. He was insanely bored. But he was used to it… didn't mean he liked it though. He didn't know why he didn't tell her. That trust issue again, he supposed. Also, he was indebted to that family enough. It wasn't up to them to see he was kept entertained. But it sure would be nice.

Gantu sat there and all he could do was think. And lately, he couldn't even trust his own thoughts. They led him to frightening places. It made him think of irrational things like finally belonging, finally finding something… someone to care about. He didn't understand any of it. Nothing in his life lately had made much sense anyway. Why should it all start to make sense now?

He was tired of fighting against it. So why not just let it take him where it would?

To be continued...