Believe
Chapter 8: Sibling Rivalry
A/N: Sorry again for the delay in bringing a new chapter… lacked inspiration and all that… but now I'm in a writing mood again.
It had been about a month since Gantu had left Earth. Stitch, Lilo, and Jumba had been working together and researching other planets to see where some of the experiments would be best suited. Some were like Mr. Stenchy, and just wouldn't work out on Earth no matter where they were taken.
Miracle was fine with this, even though she didn't get to spend as much time with Stitch as she had hoped to because of this. She usually spent the day flying around the island, occasionally talking with 625 when he wasn't busy.
625 decided to put his sandwich making skills to good use, and would make different sandwiches each day, then offer them to other experiments who wanted them, or would sell them to people walking by.
Miracle was relaxing in the house when there was a knock at the door. She opened it to find Charlie waiting at the door.
"Hey Charlie!" she greeted him, smiling. "We haven't seen you in a long while. Wanna come in?"
Charlie smiled a bit, and nodded, coming inside. Miracle sat in a chair, but he remained standing.
"So where've you been? What's up?" she asked him.
"Well," Charlie started, "I've been fairly busy, working on my place. I was gonna see if Stitch wanted to check it out, it's really nice now…"
"Sorry Charlie, Stitch is busy right now, trying to find a few other experiments their one true place."
"Oh," Charlie said, a little disappointed. "I see…"
Miracle frowned at his reaction, and thought for a few moments.
"Maybe I could come check it out instead?" Miracle asked him.
Charlie perked up, surprised.
"Well… I guess you could if you really want to…" he said, trying not to blush and failing.
Miracle smiled at him, not noticing his blush at all.
"Okay! Let's go then!"
Charlie nodded, and opened the door, going out and waiting for her.
As Miracle walked out the door, Pleakley, disappointed at the lack of footage he was getting for his film, came into the living room, hoping to try and convince Miracle to go be cuddly with Stitch.
"Well, so much for that…" he said, watching Miracle leave with Charlie.
He decided to go out into the kitchen and do some cooking…
Charlie led Miracle along to his house.
"So what's your place like?" she asked him.
Charlie replied, "The house is split into 3 levels. The first level is the main area. It's got the living room, bathrooms, kitchen, etc. It's built around the base of a giant tree that I hollowed out. I made a large spiral staircase that leads up the tree. Up there is the upper level, and leads into my bedroom."
"Mmm… sounds cool so far," Miracle remarked.
He continued, "There are two rope bridges from my bedroom which lead into neighboring trees, which also have a bedroom in them. Each one of those has another rope bridge which leads to another bedroom in a tree."
"Wow, that's pretty smart."
"Finally, there is the lower level. Down there, there's a lab. Among other things, the central computer is in the lab."
"You've got a computer that runs the house then?"
"Yeah, I do. She's called Amy."
"I see. A computer with a personality, that's new…"
Charlie shrugged, but smiled as they arrived at the house.
"Well, here we are."
Charlie went up to the door, and it opened automatically. He motioned for her to enter.
"Thanks Charlie," Miracle said, purring softly as she went inside.
After Charlie stepped in, the door shut behind them, and a voice greeted them, "Hello Charlie!"
Miracle jumped a bit, even after being forewarned by Charlie about Amy.
"Hey Amy," Charlie greeted the voice.
"Brought a friend over, I see," Amy said.
"Yeah. Miracle, I already told you about Amy. Amy, this is Miracle. She's my brother's girlfriend…" he said, a heavy tone in his voice as he finished.
"Nice to meet you Miracle!" Amy said.
"Likewise, Amy," Miracle replied.
Charlie sat down on the couch, smiling a bit. Miracle sat down next to him.
Back at Lilo & Stitch's place…
"Alright Miracle, I'm done!" Stitch said, coming out to the living room, only to find her gone. "Hmmm? Miracle?"
Stitch went searching around the house, but had no luck finding Miracle.
"Maybe she's outside…" he murmured, in the kitchen with Pleakley.
"Who, Miracle?" Pleakley asked him. "She went with Charlie earlier."
That caught Stitch's attention.
"What? Where'd they go?"
"I'm not a mind reader, I didn't talk to them, so I don't know."
Stitch growled, then went out the front door, sniffing for his brother's scent.
'You'd best hope Pleakley was mistaken, brother…' Stitch thought, finding Charlie's scent and following it.
Back at Charlie's place…
Miracle and Charlie were eating lunch on the couch and talking with Amy, who had prepared food beforehand.
"Mmmm… this is pretty good Amy," Miracle complimented.
"Thank you Miracle. Charlie's actually the better cook though," Amy replied, with a bit of a giggle.
Charlie blushed a bit, saying, "Well, I am pretty good at cooking…"
Suddenly the front door opened up, and Stitch came in.
"Oh hey Stitch!" Miracle called. "Stitch?"
Miracle was disturbed by Stitch's look of anger.
"So Pleakley was right, you did go with him…"
"Charlie wanted you to come here and see his place, since he worked on it…"
"Sure…" Stitch said, not in a good mood, seeing his girlfriend sitting on a couch with his brother, especially since they seemed so cozy… "I'm sure that's all that my brother with an injured tail wants…"
Charlie blushed, setting his food down, and starting, "Bro, it's…"
"When we were younger, we went out on some rocks. He got so excited, he caused some rocks to come loose. His tail stuck to one of them, and he and the rock went tumbling down. His tail still hurts him to this day," Stitch announced, chuckling.
Miracle seemed worried.
"Really?"
Charlie was still blushing, and about to answer, when Stitch cut in again.
"Oh yeah, he's got a little beat up teddy bear. He believes that it talks to him, because he talks to it, and he sleeps with it too."
Miracle wasn't concerned about that, but noticed his blushing now.
"Stitch… stop…"
"He's also a failed experiment. Everyone hates him before they meet him because of the failure. He was supposed to be able to get girls to like him even before they had talked to him. They were supposed to fall for him just like that, and then he was supposed to get them pregnant so that Jumba would know which girls would make excellent mates for me."
That stunned Miracle silent, and Charlie stood up, embarrassed and angry.
"What else… Oh yeah, he's had a crush on you since you were Angel, even though he knew you were with me."
Miracle looked at Charlie.
"Charlie…" she started.
"Get out!" Charlie yelled at Stitch, enraged and flustered.
Instead, Stitch, also angry, walked up to Charlie, and punched him straight in the nose. Everyone could clearly hear the sickening crunch of Charlie's nose breaking.
"OW! What the hell!" Charlie stammered, holding his nose, tearing up and trying to swing at Stitch.
Stitch easily dodged his attacks, laughing.
"ENOUGH!" Miracle cried, angry.
Both Charlie and Stitch stopped.
Miracle wasn't happy, going over to them.
"Stitch! That was absolutely uncalled for!" she yelled at him. "Charlie… I'm sorry for all of that…"
"Please…" Charlie said. "Just… go, both of you," he told them, with a wounded pride, and a broken nose and heart.
"But…" Miracle started.
"Leave me alone… neither one of you want to be with a freak like me…"
Stitch chuckled as he walked out the door. Miracle frowned, but slowly left as well. Charlie collapsed onto the couch, crying himself to sleep.