What else?" Lilo asked curiously, while stirring a puffy pink mixture of batter contained in a bowl, on the counter.
The question was directed towards the bewildered Pleakley, who was gliding his finger back and forth across the pages, reading from a fancy culinary of arts book.
His eye was focused heavily on every word that was on the page, causing him to read things slowly, aloof and with trembling fingers.
Though he had read this certain recipe with nine total combination of items a few times before, he felt as if he messed up, like the taste just wasn't right.
Years of failure in the kitchen has only instilled a more efficient method of handling any techniques. He was now a step above himself in the kitchen. Truly a cautious perfectionist.
"Uhh... eggs are next, without the Yolk though." He muttered, forming a half-smile, turning towards Lilo to watch her execute the order.
Lilo, who propped herself on the counter, patiently waiting for Pleakey, trailed her eyes over to him feeling a sense of relief. Something was happening now.
"On it." Stitch voice echoed from behind them, who had heard the order as well
He grabbed the already "on standby" carton of eggs that sat on the dinner table, then tossed the fragile container over to Lilo who caught them cupping her hands to her chest.
"Ah, thanks Stitch." Lilo casually turned around to him, then gestured a sly grin for his attention.
Now being fourteen years old, Lilo towered over Stitch by a foot, this caused her to slightly bend down to whisper a secret message to Stitch.
"Can you grab the bag of chocolate out of the refrigerator? We're going to tweak the recipe." Lilo asked, giving an impish grin.
Stitch returned a toothy smile happy to hear the word chocolate. "Stitch also would like to change something as well. Maybe make bigger cake with peanut butter?"
Lilo's eyes curved back from Stitch to the distant yellow alien, who was lost in the book.
"i'm for the idea, but hell stop us if he sees... We would need to do all of this while Pleakley is distracted. Likely, he would look up and notice."
Again, the two glance into Pleakley's direction to find that he had moved to studying a cup, dropping small dust of sugar into it.
"They never have any explanation on how many grains of sugar a cup had! Is it 12,894 grains or do I suppose to believe it's only around 10,000?! I'll just do 12,894, it seems like the best bet."
Lilo glanced back at Stitch with lowered eyes. "Umm. I don't think he will notice anything anytime soon."
" ...ih" Stitch agreed, looking a bit worried.
Stitch brought out six cake pans, instead of the required two, then closed the cabinet doors. He then laid them side by side next to each other.
Stitch glanced at Lilo, who stared in amazement to what they were about to make. A hand brushed over the upper cabinet door, opening it, and seizing a much bigger bowl. She gently placed it down then remembering the main ingredients of cake started throwing stuff into the bowl. Stitch stood behind her feeding her everything she needed.
"We need a little grease on the bottom of the pans, I think." She stated.
Stitch then tossed the bottle to Lilo, who caught it easily.
"Tt's... looking good for the most part." Lilo claimed, tapping a finger to the counter then shot her bright wide eyes to stitch.
Stitch nodded calculating the taste and texture of the cake from the amount of everything dropped into the bowl.
A sincere grin was given back to lilo; however, the grin melted into a bothered look. "stitch really missed hanging out with lilo. Thank for inviting me to the movies."
Those vulnerable words hinted a longing to be spoken to for a while. Maybe ever since Pleakley asked the two to bake with him yesterday, or maybe, likely, longer.
The look in his eyes made lilo pause in thought. Some form of attempt to respond to stitch's earnest feelings were made, like a small parting of her lips but a knot formed in Lilo's throat restricting a proper reply. It be backtracking if this bonding moment was spoiled by hesitation, so a thought, any coherent thought was thrown in to, at the very least, keep the mood.
"Mmh, yeah... of course I wanted you to come. We haven't hung out since-" lilo paused again, lamenting her direction with the conversation.
"yeah!" stitch interrupted her, saving lilo the embarrassment of thinking about what he knew she was avoiding. He instead skipped to the table for the cake pans.
Lilo coyly breathed a relieving sigh, then grabbed the mixing bowl. "lets finish this monster, er..."
She shook her head of a thought laughing to herself while stitch could only see her back. The bowl was aligned with the pan then the contents was poured until it was full. Lilo did this five more times.
She focused on the cake with growing reignited interest. "this is going to be as big as a wedding cake!"
A wedding cake?
Lilo eyes trailed up to a realization. "I never ate a wedding cake before, nobody I know had ever gotten married since I was born."
Stitch considered that fact as well since he actually was here a shorter time than Lilo.
"Cake is simply cake." Stitch stated, shrugging his shoulders. He noticed Lilo's lingering curiosity to the topic, then suddenly gave the eventful theme more thought.
"Do Lilo want one?" Stitch asked nonchalantly, approaching the increasingly aloof girl from behind. "Stitch can make one for you."
Suddenly lilo started to lose her grip, one hand slipped and the bowl landed in the pan.
"Oops..." Lilo moaned, with a draggy tone, seeing that some of the batter fell on stitch's face. "i'm sorry Stitch..."
"It's ok." he assured reaching a finger to his face to scoop the goo off his nose. He licked the batter off his fingers, but then, slightly picked up on a strange mood about lilo.
"Stitch would try to make it right." He assured forming a half-smile, assuming his cooking was the problem.
"I know you would. I'm just joking. Even If it makes me sick, I'll still eat it." Lilo cried a laugh, maybe too forced to seem genuine to her dear friend who knows her well.
Stitch figured the odd behavior, again had something to do with their, not so casual, encounter that happened a few weeks ago.
"Stitch'll make it one day, but not now. Too much cake will make stitch go crazy and stay up all night." stitch attempted to land a clever quirky joke to lighten her discomfort; however, having entangled emotions and thoughts firing randomly in his own head, didn't mix well with wit and humor. What was said actually worked as an anti-joke, wiping what grin hung by a thread on lilo's face.
"No no no stitch that would be a little too..." a hand scraped over her head, then limply dropped to her side.
Lilo searched for a clearer way to explain herself, or maybe she didn't want to give a clear explanation to him.
Lilo winced at the idea of continuing the charade any longer, but what choice did they have? Can they finally make peace with this and pretend that day or her slip up never happened? no. they'll have to talk about it soon. Though lilo fears that stitch's answer will likely be 'no', but she also feared the unlikely answer 'yes'. that he'll actually return though forbidden feelings. What then?
Though she feared, the moment to talk about what happen was coming up soon.
"A little too, what?", stitch asked meekly, sensing 'something' on her mind other than an issue of him making her a wedding cake.
Lilo felt her face turn hot from how stitch acted, but lilo managed to seem neutral and calm. She speculated that Stitch must've known now why she was bothered at the moment.
It was nearly visible to Stitch, who had good sight, how fluster his friend was. Stitch ignored the expression and the responsibility to answer the questions floating in the air. Instead, to push that question lingering in her eyes away, he played dumb.
"Stitch will make giant oven for coffee cake if lilo don't want any. Maybe a fifty foot birthday cake for Stitch, covered in sugar!", Stitch gave a convincing fake laugh that even Lilo couldn't see through. "but stitch might eat it by himself if Lilo don't want Stitch's cake. Don't blame stitch for what happens after."
Lilo just stared blankly at Stitch, lost to her suspicions of him earlier. Her lips pinched together feeling dissatisfied to this outcome, but totter to let the topic go, at least for now.
"It's scary what you can do, stitch. Making a giant oven and eating a cake that big, you'll be on a sugar rush for months. Jumba might have to put you in a cage." Lilo teased, forming a weak smile.
A genuine frown was given to a possible true fact that would likely happen consuming that much cake. Instinctively, he shook his head at Lilo, drawing up his shoulders in defense.
"Not that i'd let him do that, of course. I'll just find a way to calm you down." lilo smile widened, " I know. I'll use a slingshot to force you to eat broccoli."
Stitch silently stuck his tongue out in disgust, but smiled while doing it. "stitch will control self. No thing bad will happen."
A warmth washed over Lilo's chest, she was mildly aware of her increasing heart rate, as an impulsive yearning twisted her guts to say ... something.
"I wonder what you'd use all that energy to do? You're not that destructive in that state anymore. I've noticed that you sometimes used the energy to build things, or maybe Play. oh. You know, sometimes I like seeing you like that, though you do break things." lilo attention dotted to Stitch who showed to be blank in the mind at the seemingly loaded opinions she blurted, but he didn't really know what to make of her words.
"Stitch sometimes, don't break things, but it's best for Stitch not to eat that much cake. One whole cake should be limit."
Lilo Questioned herself in why she wording her views of stitch's hyperactive nature like that. Something from two weeks ago rekindled to mind, displaying a very vivid moment that almost made Lilo relive the day again, then she knew that those words were simply to relive that day.
Despite not feeling such a way a second ago, a chill of embarrassment numbed her urges to [flirt] with Stitch another time. Lilo clamped the side of her dress, then made her way to the table, pretending to grab something, in a cold sweat. "i'm sure Nami and David will give us a cake soon, heh heh heh."
"Maybe..." Stitch added, gently spectating the cautious behavior of his friend. He guessed that she might have said something she thought was over the line. Nothing seemed odd in her charitable comment other than Lilo thinking that there was a humorous side to him going insane. " but can David afford ring for wedding?"
Lilo was pleased that the blue supercomputer was willing to let it go, but his comment about David stirred a welcomed new psychological obstacle. "yeah, David thinks he doesn't make enough money to marry Nani. Well, that's what he told Pleakley. "
The girl and the blue experiment, gave attention to the tall thin alien at the counter.
"964, 965, 966, 967." Pleakley diligently dropped dust after dust of sugar particle into a spoon at a very fast and impressive pace, using both tongues to chirp each number.
"Um, anyway. I think he's being too hard on himself. He's a good guy for my sister. Sure, he can only afford an apartment and a car, but he got a good healthy work/ life balance." lilo praised, thinking about David's prospects.
"Ih." Stitch agreed, but he, to some degree worried and wondered about the same issues that David has, in some similar regards.
The only lovable fur-ball, clicked his tongue to the manic secrets he hid from everyone, including lilo. The feeling of not being good enough. "maybe David wants to reach it, because Nani wants to reach it. David feels like he maybe holds Nani back?"
Lilo's lips went flat, as a response to being enlighten to David's possible aim. " so, he measuring himself to Nani's interest to grow? I guess I get why he feels unworthy. Ever since Nani been going to college, David has been trying harder himself."
"Yea." Stitch thoughtfully agreed, folding his arms across his chest feeling, for some reason, uneased and slightly uncomfortable. "David been trying, he opened up a surfboard rental shop, but he's competing with other bigger board shops and hasn't had too many customers. "
" But he haven't had much success lately, though he has been trying." Lilo admitted, turning her eyes away, " while Nani got hired as a apprentice at a law firm."
"Nani might want to date someone else eventually... " Stitch exhaled, cupping his hands together.
The near visible fear in Stitch's eyes almost prompt her to ask him what was wrong, but maybe of course, he was just simply worried about David, maybe. Stitch of course, was worried for nothing.
"Oh no, Nani is in love with David. There's no way she'd ever consider letting him go. Nani mentioned that he might be feeling like that because her career is taking up a lot of her time. She often wonders if she should just switch to a freer major so that she wouldn't have to be away from David or us for too long.
Stitch cocked a brow to this news that he never knew about Nani. "but Nani has been going to school to be a lawyer for 4 years."
Lilo sighed, then found a finger to her chin to slowly massage it in small circles. " well, she admitted that she only started law school because of me, when I was going through my bullied period. She felt responsible for the other children not liking me, because everyone knew, at the time, she struggled for work."
"Oh yeah..." Stitch deciphered, with a dumbfounded expression. It's not as though stitch wasn't aware of this being Nani's main reason for school, but over the years, he thought that there was more of a personal reason as well.
That odd shameful look seemed to have melted from Stitch, leaving him somewhat glowing. Lilo felt herself relax as well seeing that he was at ease. "so no. David has nothing to worry about."
A realization struck Lilo as she noticed the sun peeking through the kitchen blinds. There was another important matter.
Lilo reached out her wrist that handled her watch.
"We may need to hurry and make the cake. Mertle's gonna meet us at the movies in forty minutes." Lilo reminded stitch, glancing slightly at Pleakey. He still wasn't paying attention, so the lie wasn't needed.
Stitch widen his eyes as though being reminded of that hurt him a bit. Lilo noticed this frowning up at him.
"You know why I invited her with us, right?" Lilo asked with a pitiful look. "Trust me, she needs someone right now."
Recalling Lilo's reason, stitch softened his heart and sighed a breath.
"Ih"
Of course, four years ago, when they were younger, Mertle and Lilo had a more complicated relationship that put Mertle in a position to look down on Lilo. The weird, unknown, enigma that she was.
For her, disliking lilo and persuading others to do the same wasn't just a casual thing she did. She went out of her way to stop the disease from growing.
Even the first time they met, things didn't go right. Nothing lilo did impressed her any. In fact, it was sealing a darker realization into Lilo's mind that maybe her quarks weren't well enjoyed among many. Maybe people grew tired of her very presence quickly by the end of the day; soon, no one from dance would muster a word towards her in class. Lilo was eventually given a nickname.
Those words eventually dug into her nerves, causing her to question her very own existence. She tried being a lil different, and it worked for awhile. The nick name disappeared with the acknowledgment of the group, then she messed up the chance again. She tried again and again, but it was becoming clear that it was fake. These attempts to be a functional human was impossible for her. There was no more chances.
What a pathetic life she had. Why can't she make friends?
Why do people not like the things she does?
Lilo was convinced that who she was, wasn't worth getting to know. Burned out to try anymore, from the nicknames, she'd hurry straight home until she would learn how to expell her own nature.
Day by day, if she worked at it, maybe she can get them to be interested to hear her out.
Her mom told her bugs aren't so bad if you're around them long enough, but clearly, it wasn't a conversation starter for them.
What was a starting point?
She didn't know how to have a conversation with them. Honestly, they were a bit weird to her as well, but she didn't hate them at all for that. A little mad, but no. she didn't hate them.
An unexpected day came. When lilo was at hula and Nani had plans with David at the beach, and their parents were asleep in bed, a fire started in their house.
The story the firemen had came to was that a plastic bowl was maybe left too close to the stove. The wooden counter top had melted burnt plastic residue. the pots also had some as well, making them suspect the bowl was ignited by the pot.
It was a little fire. The damage was contained mainly around the kitchen, scorching up leaving marks on the walls, but there was a dangerous buildup of smoke that moved up to the second floor where their parents were. The parents slept through the toxic fumes, neither of them stirred to wake up at any time, dying in their sleep.
When both of the sisters lost their parents, the first thing to do was rebuild the kitchen, but Nani didn't have a job to do that. Raising a child? Even if Lilo was her sister, the relationship they had always had been very much imperfect.
Honestly, Nani was terrified to take the place of her mother, who was the most patient with anyone, at the time, quite the opposite of her.
Since their parents death, everyday was a torturing joke, focusing her to take an adult role so quickly. Stumbling through jobs she never would normally bother to do. Cheering up her sister while trying not to lose her mind from the sudden pressure
Nani noticed Lilo's moping nature, then decided that she could be happy if she had at least some level of company, thus stitch was adopted from that local animal shelter, after suffering from being hit by a car
He was manipulating them for protection of his creator, jumba. Stitch quickly deduced that his creator was hunting him to possibly terminate him so that he could either reduce hes sentence or steal his lab back.
Running away from the galactic patrol force, wouldn't be easy, so operating under brand name 'dog' was his best efforts in protecting himself. A 'home' would provide food and cover. The major problem wasn't the galactic force or his creator, it was the fact that he was on a small little island.
The new family was having issues dealing with one another and far from the same page. Lilo was trying to teach Stitch her culture, Stitch wanted to follow his core reason for life, which seemed to cause trouble for the long black haired, red dress girl and her older sister. Slowly Stitch worsened their already wracked life.
What Lilo had and built up to with her friends, and her small family with Nani was being Destroyed bit by bit by the horrifying demon that decoyed himself as a lovable pet.
Nani, who regretted allowing Lilo to talk her into keeping stitch, only grew more regretful as time passed.
Still, Lilo urged Stitch to stay with them, seeing the hope that he might calm to settle down to be with their family.
Etched into Stitch very being, he was born to be a true monster, harboring the simple concerns for survival and to carry a thirst for leveling buildings, corrupting peace.
When he found that he was in a place he could do little damage, his purpose was lost.
What would he do with himself now? Kick over a bike? Pop a kid's balloon?
While he had nothing to work towards, Lilo realized that he was lonely as well. She tried to help him find a new purpose, but his nature to destroy things was too much to handle.
Everything they tried blew up in their faces, but a bigger picture did, however, become known. Searching for a purpose with people that cared for him changed him a bit. All that purpose to hurt others slowly withered in his heart. Yeah, destruction was a part of him, but it didn't have to be his goal in life.
Building and helping others around him was something he realized could have done. However, what he did already was enough to turn things into a spiraling mess. The lesson learned in the aftermath of his action couldn't help anyone now.
Well, not until Ganto showed up, captured the two then quickly loaded them onto his ship to depart into space.
After narrowly escaping the ship before blast off, Jumba finds him then tied him up.
He couldn't justify his life and why he should go without receiving consequences for his action, but for Lilo and Nani to be punished as well, at least let them have a happy life. Though he was lost, that didn't make all the outcomes for him to see that fact, ok.
To his creator, he asked him for help and after a very small debate among them, Jumba agreed to help them.
Lilo had a realization. her life with or without Stitch was weird and had its low points.
She ran from her nature, but who would go to the shelter and pick the most unusual pet there. What she gained by having him greatly outweighed what she originally thought she would lose.
Now that she had gotten older, she realized she only lost who she wasn't.
Lilo had a certain level of respect for Mertle their younger days, but it faded shortly after finding all of the experiments and giving them a place, they belong.
Two months after, Mertle's mom withdraws her for hula practice. A week later, she had moved away. For the first week, her friends speculated the reason for her disappearance, but nothing was certain. The story changed constantly, but no one knew that Mertle's life had changed from silk to rags.
Lilo closed the oven that held the six pans of cake mix. Stitch jumped down from the counter, beside Lilo.
"I should be able to go get ready before the cake is done, but." Lilo started, looking back to Pleakley. " if I'm not, can you check... uh?"
"1, 456 1,457 1,458..."
"Umm, Pleakley. We're already baking the cake."
"Wait wait, don't speak. I'm counting and would hate to have to start over 1,462..."
He hasn't moved a much since Stitch and her continued without him. "on second thought, I'll just wait."
Stitch glanced towards Lilo in sympathy. "I can watch it while you get ready."
Lilo pivoted her body towards Stitch giving him a tilt of her head. "Are you sure? Do you have anything to do before we leave?"
" Naga" he responded with a crooked smile.
"Thanks!" She exclaimed, reaching a hand out to pat him on the head. "I'll try to be quick."
Lilo stared at Stitch for a moment, her arm stiffen and wouldn't retract back towards her body.
Could she fight the urge to be teasing, now that they were communicating again?
"Your head is soft, that shampoo is... working for you."
Stitch's body began to become rigid as well, while Lilo played with his scrape. Twirling the strands around her finger like rope, feeling the curls flatten and retract under her fingers.
It occurred to Lilo to looked down at Stitch, when she realized the seconds that had ticked by while she enjoyed herself.
The mask he worn has cracked from her [patting]. He now was acting like a placed and settled rock. Noticing that she was making the normally soft body blue monstrosity, meek and tight lipped, she snapped out of her trance.
"Oops, sorry stitch!" She yelled. Stepping away from him.
Quickly to play it off while seeming unbothered, Stitch simply shrugged.
" Lilo did nothing wrong, stitch doesn't mind you doing that."
Stitch stomach tightens after stating such a [too close] opinion he truly had, but to stay convincing, he kept his sincere appearance in front of her. Instinctively, his body did shift a few inches away, and Lilo saw this.
"Oh really... hehehe." Lilo giggled nervously, pausing to by time to think of something cute or contrasting, something a normal family member would say, after fondling someone's head for a uncomfortable amount of seconds.
Yet again, Lilo took too long to think of anything, remaining numb and quiet for too long. Something made her not change the subject despite the tension boiling over. She had the growing urge to bring up the issue floating between them. it was time.
"Stitch", the cautious girl breathed, at first, sinking her gaze down in defeat to something she dreaded bringing up, then dragging that gaze to confront her recently distant friend. "we need to talk about... what happened."
Stitch heart slammed into his throat, metaphorically, but when his hands reached up to touch his chest, it was still there, thumping.
Again, Lilo's eyes were ripped away from the dear-like eyes of Stitch. Of course, she knew that he knew that she liked him. Lilo had fumbled his name in the room, of course Stitch would make the connection. It's been something she had been speculating for the two weeks they haven't been talking.
that could be linked to the tension but to be sure, Lilo wanted to ask why was stitch avoiding her?
She looked for him, everywhere. He went through so many lengths to always leave the room when she came into it, or skip lunch and dinner knowing that she'd be around. Being shunned so coldly sent her mind into so many directions, so many conclusions that drove her to become a nervous wreck. the only conclusion she could come to was that Stitch might feel extremely bothered by her. when Stitch accepted to bake a cake with Pleakey or dinner later this evening knowing that Lilo would be here as well, Lilo had hoped Stitch would have forgiven her by now for desturbing him that day.
to Lilo's confusion, as soon as Stitch seen her, he Apologized first, over and over. After a awkward chat, it lead to the overjoyed girl inviting Stitch to the movies with Mertle.
"Did you hear what I said before you came in through the door?" Lilo mouthed, realizing she asked the question that plagued her mind only after it hit her ears.
Stitch knew exactly what she meant, and hinted that he knew by clasping his white teeth together. This telling sign needed to be covered back up, but before Stitch vocal a contradicting response, lilo next words suggested that his slip up was informing enough.
"Why did you leave after i told you to stay?" grasping for resolve to deal with any response Stitch made, Lilo words became somewhat mono and afraid, murmuring the landmine of questions that could very well decay away their friendship; the look in Stitch's eyes implied that even.
There was no attempt to either answer or mislead Lilo by Stitch, he simply locked up.
Clearly, doing this was only splinting or possibly dissolving away their relationship further. These last few days were the only times the two really spoke to each other while holding eye-contact. Any interaction within those weeks mimicked this frozen fear from Stitch or worse running in a panic away from her.
Was what she did really that awful? To destroy who they were to each other?
Lilo frowned, then felt a tear surfacing under her eyes.
They were talking decently a second ago. Was that not them mending back into being normal? No, she messed it up with her questions. She should have just ignored the impulse to speak about that day. Stitch must be unbelievably unnerved by her.
Does he think she's weird too now? It was disgusting. Lilo's heart withered to the thought, as though it was strand of blood.
A bare, hollow feeling left lilo's gaze glued to the floor for about a few seconds until she notice Stitch move.
His lips parted a few times, but his eyes were twisting in pain. Lilo figured, if he was going say [it's ok], then his body would be softer, but it wasn't. What he was about to say might break her, and Stitch knew it. That's why he was pale and reluctant to respond. Instead of Lilo waiting for him to get around to it, she again decided to run.
Lilo forced a fake smile, which showed to barely form. "never mind my questions Stitch... if it's too uncomfortable to answer. anyway... thanks again. For watching the oven, I mean." She said, then waved at him as though they weren't going to meet back up in twenty or so minutes, then left walking quickly down the hallway.
All of the built-up tension in Stitch's body loosened as he sighed a breath.
"Stitch is sorry Lilo..."