The Blue Werewolf
Part II: The True Hearted
C/By: Kenjaje
Edited by: raVen
Chapter 3: Carlos Lo Bo
October 29: 3:09 PM: Kitchen
"—I wish I could afford a hotel here, but even the two-star ones're too high fer me," came a strange voice from the kitchen, catching the attention of Stitch and Lilo. "That's why I'm sa'thrilled I found this place." The voice was strong, deep and low, with a strange drawl to it, which Lilo immediately assumed to be Texan. However it wasn't a drawl that was very outspoken, it was more a subtle slur of a few of the vowels, the rest were accurately spoken, as if the voice was fluctuating from casual to formal.
"A tourist?" Lilo thought, running into the kitchen to see the possessor of the voice. "What's a tourist doing here—in our house?" When she made her arrival into the kitchen, she saw that her sister was sitting at the table and across from her a very strangely looking man facing her. The man turned toward Lilo as she entered.
His skin was the first thing she noticed; it was very tan, as if the man had never seen a spot of shade in his life, and against his hair—ash but mostly white in color—it made for an odd appearance to the eyes. And to speak of the eyes, his were bright amber. He was very tall, a little bit taller than Lilo's sister, and he seemed very proper too, and yet at the same time relaxed; he sat in such a way that his back was straight, but his shoulders seemed to slouch, and his head seemed to hang a bit. A very friendly smile crossed his square jaw as he spotted Lilo and, to what he presumed as, her dog.
"And just who's this lil'girl?" The man said, losing his straight posture by leaning forward. Lilo looked up slightly at his hair, which seemed to vibrate against his dark skin, instead of staring at the man's face. She didn't speak, for two reasons: she was advised not to talk to strangers—and this man seemed awfully strange—and she also did not like holding conversations with tourists. "Shy one ain'tcha?" The man commented with a laugh.
"Mr. Bo," Nani said, motioning to her younger sister, "this is my sister Lilo, and her friend, Stitch. Lilo, this is Mr.—"
"Please, just call me Bo; Carlos Lo Bo's the name, glad to meet'cha Lilo and Stitch!" He said with a smile, his teeth as odd to the eyes against his skin as his hair. He extended his hand, which Lilo noticed was in a fingerless glove. She turned to the side, her eyes still on him, and Nani let out a sigh.
"Shake his hand, Lilo." She said patiently. Lilo, after still a moment's pause, finally shook his hand.
"You're a tourist?" Lilo interrogated, still eyeing him from the side. Bo smiled again as he replied,
"Kinda, ya'see I came here cuz I wanted to surprise a friend'o mine fer the holiday," he paused to let out a hearty chuckle, "but that son-of-a-gun thought'a the same idea. Now we're stuck cuz my next flight's on the first, so I gotta stay here fer a while."
"And when you say 'stay here'—Nani, can I talk to you?" Lilo inquired, with an inkling of annoyance. Nani rolled her eyes and followed Lilo into the laundry room while Stitch remainen, sitting down doggishly, and feeling very awkward being alone with the strange man. "What are you trying to do? You can't let a tourist stay here! I can't hold a conversation with a tourist, you know that!"
"Lilo!" Nani said with a hiss. "That's enough out of you. Now I know you may not like it," she put a hand on Lilo's mouth very quickly to keep her from interrupting, and took it away to keep her from getting any saliva, "but we're in a very tight spot this year. You might not be able to understand it but we're going broke!" Nani eyed as if to say, "And experiment-catching is the majority of the problem", but she didn't want to hear the "One, True Place" and "O'hana" speech from her younger sister, again.
"But I don't see where a tourist comes into this…" Lilo commented, eyeing her sister.
"Well, Mr…Bo, is here to rent a room." Lilo's head tilted.
"Rent a room? You mean like an apartment?"
"Yeah, like an apartment. In exchange for getting a room to sleep in and food to eat, Mr. Bo is going to give us a rent, to help us pay for all the bills;" again she eyed Lilo as if to say, "That you've racked up while experiment-hunting". Lilo put a hand to her chin.
"…Well, I guess I can make this one exception." She said.
"Thank you, Lilo." Nani teased, rubbing her sister's head. Lilo giggled, and followed Nani out of the laundry room, back into the kitchen. Halfway down the hall, however, a realization dawned on her.
"Wait…whose room?"
"Yours, silly."
Stitch gazed out the window, looking both near and far, watching the raindrops beyond fall past and the ones much nearer splat against the pane and slide down slowly. Lilo lied on her bed, staring up at the ceiling, extremely bored.
"Stitch wonder if…" He muttered, his eyes wandering from cloud to cloud, as if looking for something unique among them.
"I can't believe Nani's letting some tourist live in my room." Stitch rolled his eyes again, for this was the fifth or sixth time Lilo spoke out about the subject. "It's not like I don't like the guy—though he does look a little weird—it's just that having a tourist in the house is aggravating enough, but sleeping in my old room, where I slept for nearly all my life?" Stitch sighed. "I know, this is boring," She looked out her window, "and we can't even go outside."
Lilo moved to where she was hanging over the side of the bed, staring upside-down at the room. She tried to let the new perspective entertain her, and stared at the checkerboard and pieces that they had exhausted the fun out of for the week in one sitting. A bit to the right of that, an orange fabric caught her attention.
"Hey!" She said, falling backward and turning around, fumbling to the object and picking it up in her hand. "Isn't this that thing you found at the wrecked market stand?" Stitch looked over toward her, his eyes zooming in on it.
"Eh." He replied. "Stitch found close to some wood with teeth-mark," he paused, and then added, "or claw-mark." Lilo held it in her hand, examining it.
"What made you grab it?" She questioned. Stitch looked back out the window.
"Saw it somewhere before," he told her, "can't remember, but Stitch saw something like it before leaving to stand." Lilo eyed the fabric; a rhombic patch, torn on one side, colored orange, except for the top corner, which was black with a curved edge and had, what Lilo noticed, a stunt but wide slit where the orange intruded on the black border.
"Wait a minute…" Lilo said, walking to her closet, arbitrarily pulling out one of her dresses. She flattened her palm behind the dress so that one of the leaves was straight. She placed the orange rhombus near the edge of the leaf—an almost perfect match. Then, a memory triggered into her mind. "I know where this is from!" She exclaimed with enthusiasm, as though she had just solved the world's greatest mystery. "That old man on the news this morning, this must be a piece of his shirt!"
"Oketaka." Stitch said, facing her with interest. "But, why Lilo so excited? Not very important…"
"Stitch, don't you remember? He said he saw an animal, a dog, but we know a dog didn't do that kind of damage, we both know it had to have been a werewolf." Stitch's ears twitched a bit.
"Talk?" He questioned, trying to read her intentions.
"Yeah, I think we need to ask that ol' guy some questions. He's got to remember something, and maybe that'll give us a clue to who bit you." Stitch's eyes squinted. "What?" She asked.
"What if…is someone Stitch and Lilo know? What if, is Myrtle; or Kioni; or big dummy-head?"
"Myrtle I can understand; lay off my Kioni; and if it were the big dummy, I'd stop experiment-catching right now." Lilo replied sarcastically. Stitch twiddled his thumbs idly. "…Don't you want to find out?" She asked, wondering if that was why he was so silent.
"Eh…and naga." He responded. "Stitch does want to know, would make Stitch feel better, maybe, but at same time, will not change nothing. Stitch still be werewolf, so what? Stitch not see point." Lilo sighed, slightly disappointed. The question of who bit him was edging her mind all the time; she wanted to know, and try to trace it back as far as she could. Maybe she would find the very first werewolf or something like that.
"I understand," she told him, "but we should at least find out if the old man is a werewolf or not—maybe if we tell him he is, he'll feel better. Or worse…" Her words began to trail. "But anyway, as soon as this storm lets up we should—" Lilo screamed, her bones shuddering as a massive, heart-stopping thunderclap shook the air with noise. The light of the room sparked, then went dead. The rain began to pick up even more, from a slight pitter-patter to a grand stamping.
"Wow…that was loud." Lilo said, still recovering from the crippling surprise. "Stitch?" She asked, slightly loud, with a hint of fear.
"Here, Lilo." He spoke, putting a hand on her shoulder. She shuddered at first when he did. "Is very dark." He told her, blinking his eyes. She stared into their green glow, which comforted her a bit.
"It's nice to have a friend with night-vision, makes things less scary." She said, rubbing his head. "You know," she spoke, as a staccato of loud and soft booms echoed every once in a while in the distance, "this is actually kinda fun—all dark and spooky. If we lived in an older house, I'd say this place was haunted." She sighed, almost wishing it were so. "Hmm…maybe we can have some fun. Why don't we go downstairs and have an adventure until the lights are fixed?" Stitch's eyes blinked happily.
"Oketaka!" He exclaimed, welcoming the idea to break his boredom.
"Shush!" She told him, a finger to her lips, "be quiet, we have to sneak around, otherwise the 'ghosts' will find us." Stitch nodded, blinking eyes back to normal. With a surge of adventure, the two stepped onto the elevator, and went down to the second floor.