"Nothing More Than Feelings: Part 2"
Author's Note: Kila belongs to HeMeleNoLiloLover, and I'm borrowing her with permission; you can find a description of Kila in her fanfics. I'm still a little fuzzy on her other characters, and anyway, Kila's my favorite. XD So I won't really be mentioning them. I don't own Lilo and Stitch, I only own Emma.
Lilo was seated on the top bunk of the bunk bed she shared with Stitch, her back to Pleakley and Emma, and she held Scrump on her lap. The homemade green doll was well loved, most of its stuffing forced into its head and legs from too many hugs, and Lilo was idly playing with the tuft of yellow yarn 'hair' that was on top of its head. Lilo wasn't crying; she was too angry. While some people just can't stop the tears from coming when they get angry, this wasn't the case with Lilo. The tears sometimes came later, when she had had some time to think about what had made her angry, and what was said, but not all the time. And she was determined that now wouldn't be one of those times where she succumbed to tears after the fact.
"He can't yell at me..." she said to herself, to Scrump, and to Stitch, who was sitting anxiously beside her. She was ignoring Pleakley and Emma. Pleakley was one of the dreaded adults, and Emma she hardly knew. Stitch was an adult, but with him it wasn't the same. Lilo set her doll aside, and hugged her knees. "He's not my dad...he can't tell me what to do..."
"Maybe...Jumba sorry?" Stitch suggested timidly.
Lilo didn't even look at him. "I don't care if he's sorry. He's not my dad."
"Lilo?" Pleakley tried again; so far, he hadn't been able to get her to respond. "Jumba was wrong to yell at you, but we all know he's a little crazy. I mean, come on...He'll eat anything that'll fit into that cave he calls a mouth, and his species doesn't even need to eat. They normally absorb nutrients through their skin, which is probably why they only have six teeth, did you know that? It's fascinating!" he grinned, but his grin faded when Lilo only sighed.
Emma took an involuntary step backwards when Pleakley turned to her. On the way up, she had reluctantly told him what her function was, and a somewhat abridged version of why Jumba wanted her out. She had a feeling she knew what was coming.
"Uh...Em? May I call you 'Em'?" asked Pleakley, putting his three-fingered hands together as if he was getting ready to pray.
'Yeah, I knew it. If he's sucking up to me, he must be desperate.' "I guess so..."
"Em, I need you to do me a really huge favor." Pleakley said in a loud whisper, "It's very important, but if you don't want to I understand, but I hope you will - "
"Go ahead and ask your question." Emma said evenly. She found that being able to sense what people wanted, then having them beat around the bush for an hour while they tried to find the right approach made her impatient. "I'll listen, but I can't promise to agree."
"Could you please try talking to Lilo? You might be able to get to the root of the problem and get her talking..." he said.
Emma sighed, and saw Lilo tense up. 'This is one stubborn child...' She could already see that it would probably do more harm than good if she did this, since Lilo obviously had some experience with other different experiments, and was wary about having them use their abilities on her. Emma couldn't really blame her. She sighed, and shook her head. "I can't..."
"Why not?" shrilled Pleakley, causing Emma to lay her ears back and wince.
"Because she doesn't want me to." said Emma.
"That's the point!" Pleakley waved his arms, and Emma cut him off before he could launch into the hysterical tirade she could sense building.
"It is the point, but not the way you think it is." she said as calmly as she could, "She knows what I can do, and she's steeled herself against it. She won't open up, no matter what I might find, and it would be an invasion of her privacy to do this."
"You can read minds, can't you? You can tell us how to proceed, at least!" the Plorginarian was becoming exasperated.
"I don't need to tell you how to proceed, because the problem is obvious. Jumba has tried to exert authority over her in a way that he shouldn't have, and he's hurt her feelings. This is really between her and Jumba, and it might be better if we simply left the room and let her and Stitch be alone for a while." she felt Lilo's eyes on her, but she ignored it. "Besides, I can't exactly read minds. At least, not deeply. If I try hard enough, I can access a thought someone is trying to hide, but...I hate it. I won't do it. It's more like...er...like I'm catching a ball someone's throwing at me, only it's a feeling, not a ball. I...can't really explain it any better than that."
"Then what good are you?" yelled Pleakley before he could stop himself. He looked appalled, but it was too late to take it back.
Emma didn't really look offended, and said quite truthfully (at least, from her point of view), "None at all. That's why I'm a failure."
"...Oh." Pleakley said lamely.
Emma shifted awkwardly, the combined feelings of the other three making her extremely uncomfortable. She felt a brief stab of anger at Jumba for sticking her with such a crappy function; if enough people were experiencing different types of intense feelings near her, she felt that it was liable to drive her insane. Why had he made her so that she could not only sense what others are feeling, but so that she could experience those same feelings as well? She sighed, and decided to extract herself from this particular situation. "Do you mind if I look around? I promise I won't make a mess." she said.
Pleakley blinked his eye, and wondered if she had read his mind, but decided to just let it be. "Okay, but don't touch anything of Jumba's or we'll have a repeat of what happened earlier."
Emma's eyes twinkled with mild amusement. "Don't I know it!" And she turned and got on the platform that lowered her down to ground level. She stepped off, and nearly collided with Jumba. She looked up and froze, and in an instant her brain was hit with a barrage of images, voices, and emotions. In no real order, she 'saw' flashes of Jumba's argument with Nani, and she was actually dismayed when the last image was one of Jumba sitting in a chair with his head in his hands. At the same time, a wave of intense sorrow and loneliness washed over her, and it was all she could do to keep from bursting into tears herself. Then, just like that, it was over. She felt somewhat drained, and she wasn't sure if the embarrassment she felt was hers or Jumba's.
Jumba scratched the back of his head and stared at her worriedly as he waited to see what she would do.
Emma cleared her throat, and put on a calm expression. 'Ice-breaker time...' she thought. Out loud, she said, "Do I have something in my teeth?" She pulled back her lips and showed a rather impressive set of pearly whites, and Jumba seemed taken aback.
"Er...no. 432, I...er...um...Oh, Blitznak..." he mumbled; he had never found it easy to apologize, and he was still a little angry.
Nani gave him a discreet nudge, making him grunt, but Emma didn't want a forced apology. She would be able to tell better than anyone if it wasn't completely genuine.
"It doesn't matter. But I think Lilo is upset." she said, then tried to slink off without giving him a chance to speak. She was too late.
"We shall speak later, 432." he said. It was not a request. Emma glanced over her shoulder at him, and nodded reluctantly before heading into the kitchen.
Lilo looked over as the whirring sound of the platform reached her ears, and saw Jumba and Nani fairly tumble into the room. They had both boarded the platform at the same time, and they had been packed as close as sardines on the way up.
"Watch where you're putting your hands, mister!" Nani hissed, rubbing her backside.
Jumba blushed blue, and clasped his pudgy hands behind his back. "Apologies, but was accidental..."
"Better be..." she said.
Lilo turned away with a very dignified expression, and said, "Go away, Jumba."
Pleakley sighed, and approached them. "She won't talk to anyone but Stitch..." he lowered his voice, "You really did it, this time!"
Jumba resisted the urge to knock Pleakley aside, and said, "Please to be giving us few minutes."
"Grrr, Naga!" growled Stitch, extending his back spikes.
Nani said in a fake, sugary-sweet voice, "I know a certain blue genetic experiment who has a deep love for coconut cake..."
"Naga bootif...Gabba?" Stitch looked hopefully up at her.
"Of course, if he wants to have some for dessert, he'll come down with me and Pleakley. But I guess he doesn't..." she turned her back, smirking.
"Ih! Ih! Ih!" Stitch jumped up and down, and in a moment Lilo was left alone with Jumba.
"Traitor..." she grumbled to herself, turning her back on Jumba.
Jumba sighed, and almost cautiously he approached her. This wasn't going to be easy; he really had screwed up this time. "Little girl?" he said quietly.
"Humph!" she crossed her arms, and refused to look at him.
"Lilo..." he heaved himself up onto the top bunk, which creaked alarmingly under his weight as he sat down. Lilo tumbled backwards against his hip, then scrambled away from him with a frown.
"Come to yell at me some more?" she said in a low voice, still refusing to look at him.
"No...I came to apologize." he said, looking down at his folded hands.
"You're not my father...You can't tell me what to do." she told him, sounding a little shaky now. "You're not even my real uncle. You're just an alien...you can't yell at me."
Jumba felt every statement like a stab in the heart, but he couldn't disagree. He sighed, slicking back the three hairs on top of his head, and waited for her to get it out of her system.
She didn't have much more to say, however. "I thought we were friends..."
Jumba didn't look at her. "We are..."
"Then why were you so mean?" demanded Lilo, finally beginning to cry a little.
The heck with dignity! There was no one there to see and spoil his reputation, and Jumba picked her up and put her on his knee. Lilo seemed to have forgotten that she was supposed to be mad at him, and she buried her face in his expansive middle.
"I don't often admit to this...but I was wrong..." said Jumba, holding her gently. He marveled at how tiny she was, compared to children of the same age from his species. She was little more than newborn-size to him. How could he have treated her like that? "Jumba is not being anyone's father. I don't always know how to interact with children. I made big mistake, and am very sorry. You...forgive Not-Real-Uncle Jumba for being big stupidhead?" he asked, hoping to make her smile by using a childish Earth insult on himself.
Lilo gave a muffled 'uh-huh', and nodded without lifting her head.
"Telling you what, Jumba will make it up to you, eh? How about if I put Earth music player in hovercraft?" he suggested, forcing himself to sound upbeat. In truth, he felt lower than a slug's belly for making her cry. 'When did I get so soft?' he thought ruefully.
"Maybe..." Lilo said as she considered it. She looked up, and saw that Jumba looked very sad indeed; now she felt guilty for the things she had said, and she mumbled, "I'm sorry for calling you a big dummy..."
"Heh!" Jumba smiled. "I've been called worse, believe me! Let's go downstairs, eh?"
"Sure." she smiled back.
Meanwhile, Emma was skittering cautiously through the house on all fours, taking in the strange new sights and smells and wondering what she should examine first. She was cautious because she could smell that several other experiments also lived here, but she couldn't identify any of them aside from Stitch. She wasn't designed for fighting, and if any of them turned out to be hostile she would need plenty of time to escape. Right now, they didn't seem to be anywhere in the house.
Emma peeked into the kitchen, and sniffed the air. "Oooooh..." she cooed, intrigued. She smelled food, and she remembered that she was hungry. She would have to ask for something to eat as soon as she saw Nani. It probably wouldn't have mattered if she helped herself to something, but she didn't want to chance it.
She crawled under the table and looked up, and she put a paw to her mouth and gasped when she saw that someone had scratched 'Meega Nala Kweesta' into the underside of the table. Horror gave way to amusement, and she pressed both paws tightly over her mouth to silence a mischievous chuckle. A sound like radio static escaped her as she snickered. "Someone around here has a dirty, dirty mind!" she said to herself, vaulting up onto one of the chairs, and peeking over the edge of the table. She traced the grain of the wood on the tabletop with one of her long, lizard-like claws, then got up on the table to get a better look at her surroundings. She spied a fruit bowl in the middle, and swallowed as her mouth began to water. She didn't know what those round red and orange things were, nor the funny green fruit that was sort of shaped like Pleakley's head, but they certainly looked good to her. She looked resolutely away, and gave a mighty leap that spanned the distance between the table and the refrigerator. She caught the edge of it with a grunt, then scrabbled up to the top of it.
There was no food up there, but she still saw something that held her interest. A large spider was weaving a web between the top of the fridge and the wall, and Emma settled down on her belly to watch. She sensed no chaotic emotions from this strange creature, only a businesslike resolution to complete its task. It was a nice change, and she rested her chin in her paws and watched in rapt silence as the creature went about its business. So intent was she on the spider that she didn't notice that someone else had entered the kitchen.
Kila yanked open the refrigerator door to look for something to eat, and Emma took fright and leapt down from the fridge with a thump, facing away from Kila. As soon as she hit the floor she did an about-face, raising her crest and back fin and hissing ferociously. Her eyes were narrowed to slits, and her ears were flat on her skull as if to protect them from injury. This was all out of reflex, and she did it without even thinking about it.
"Yiy!" Kila jumped back, dropping a container of leftover macaroni and cheese which, thankfully, only wobbled on the floor and didn't open.
Emma's heart was beating so fast that she could almost hear it, but she quickly realized that she wasn't under attack and became horribly embarrassed. Even as Kila's look of shock morphed into a death glare, Emma adopted a less threatening posture, and looked down. "I am so sorry about that. You startled me..."
"'Ey! I startled you? It's my house!" Kila shouted, embarrassed at being caught off guard, and angry that this stranger had made her drop her food. "What were you doingk on top of the fridge anyvay? You think you are a house cat?"
Emma slowly picked up the plastic container of food and held it out, sort of as a peace offering. "I'm sorry. I was just...curious, that's all. I've never seen a...did you call it a 'fridge'?"
Kila snatched the container, and said, "How stupid you must be, not to know what a 'fridge' is? Sheesh..."
"Well, I haven't exactly been here very long." Emma said mildly, standing up on two legs and folding her arms in a gesture of insecurity. This one could be trouble if she got on her bad side...
"Jumba made a new one, huh?" Kila didn't look amused. "When Nani hears about dis, he's dead meat..."
"Oh, I'm not new." said Emma, "I was just reactivated today, that's all. Listen, I really am sorry for hissing at you...I'm just a little bit on edge, that's all. I'm not used to this place."
Kila looked at the container of macaroni, and sighed. As infuriating as it was to be caught by surprise, this experiment seemed honest enough. And she did look a little disoriented. "Meh...forget it. I guess it's not completely your fault. But you tell anyone about that, and you're dead."
"I won't." Emma agreed, smiling a little.
"Who are you, anyway?" asked Kila.
"Lilo calls me 'Emma', so I guess that's who I am now."
"What's your function?"
Emma shrugged, trying not to look uncomfortable. Jumba had known about her function all along, and when she had turned on him she saw what could happen. She wasn't used to the concept of having friends - she hardly knew the meaning of the word - but she didn't want people to hate her. "It...doesn't matter. I was a failure. I can't lift heavy things, can't spit acid, can't do much of anything...except for sunning myself, I like that." she smiled again. She was more like a reptile than a mammal, even though she had a very thin covering of downy fur, and the sun made her feel good. Of course, it wasn't the same sun that this planet revolved around, and she hadn't had much of an opportunity to sun herself before Jumba decided she was a lost cause and dehydrated her.
Kila narrowed her eyes. "You hiding sometink' from me?"
Emma shook her head. "My function is just so paltry that it doesn't even bear mentioning. I am...unremarkable." her stomach growled, and she blushed. "Ehehe...and hungry. Excuse me." she rubbed her tummy modestly.
Kila held her container of macaroni close, and shook her head. "Forget it, it's mine!"
"I don't want your food...um..." Emma didn't know her name.
"Kila." said Kila gruffly.
"Kila. Go ahead and eat, I won't try to take it." Emma made a shooing motion with her paws, and looked away sadly as her stomach growled louder, more insistently than before.
"Oh, for - " Kila huffed, and jerked a thumb at the fridge. "Just get sometink' and eat already!"
Emma brightened. "Thanks!"
Kila shook her head and went to heat up her macaroni, satisfied that Emma wasn't going to bother her. Emma found a big hoagie near the back, and held it up.
"Does this belong to anyone?" she asked.
Kila glanced over, then went back to her meal. "Go ahead and eat it; it's Jumba's."
Emma calmly put the hoagie back where she found it, and broke a piece off of a half of a watermelon. She got herself a plate, having watched Kila, and sat down across from her to enjoy her meal.
Kila paid her no mind until she heard crunching sounds. She looked over, and rolled her eyes. "You're not supposed to eat the rind, you moron..."
Emma blushed, swallowed, and put the rest of it down on the plate. "Actually, it's not that bad...Seems a shame to waste it."
"Then eat it, I don't care." Kila shrugged, and refused to speak after that. Emma considered for a minute or two, then picked up the rind and began to gnaw on it once more. Kila didn't react at all, seemingly having decided that Emma was no more or less annoying than anyone else in the house.
Emma was feeling rather pleased with herself, until she heard voices approaching the kitchen. Jumba and Lilo were talking...about her.
"Ohh, so that's why you didn't want her here..." Lilo was saying.
"Well, is most disconcerting to have someone be able to look into mind and tell you word for word about...oh, say, time when you dreamed you showed up at school in underpants!" replied Jumba, both of them chuckling as they entered the kitchen.
Emma was staring wide-eyed at her plate, then she hazarded a glance at Kila. The other experiment's expression had gone stony as she paused with a forkful of macaroni half-way to her open mouth. Emma sensed a keen feeling of betrayal radiating from her. Then, without looking at Emma, Kila slammed down her fork and left the kitchen almost at a run. 'So much for being friends...' Emma thought to herself, suddenly feeling rather sick to her stomach. Kila hadn't exactly been the friendliest person she'd met (not that she had met very many), but at least she socialized with her. Now, Emma knew, she could kiss that goodbye.
"Thanks a lot, Jumba..." she mumbled, not intending for him to hear it, but he did.
"Wha?" he looked puzzled.
"...Nothing." Emma sighed, and jumped down from her chair. "I'm going outside..."
Author's Note: There was some kind of bug on FFN that wouldn't allow reviews (I don't know if it was just a few people or everyone), but I got a few responses through email, all of them favorable. So I decided to continue, and wouldn't you know it, inspiration hit. There will be more to this, I'm just not sure how much. Be warned, future chapters will probably be a little on the 'angsty' side; Jumba really screwedup when he designed this one! Personal crises and tense moments are likely to pop up later on. Hope you're enjoying this so far!
