Thank you kindly to Kinger810, Elt-1080, JgdPanther and BenXGwen Lightning Warrior for the reviews. Also thank you to those that have favourited and followed. It motivates me to continue this little (lol or maybe not so little!) story and I'm glad you are enjoying it so far. ^^

A/n: I was informed that some scenes between Lilo and Stitch were hard to figure out in regards to being platonic or not. This is actually intentional on my part, and I will just say that while Lilo and Stitch are very very close in this story, I will not be confirming if they do have feelings for each other or not. You are welcome to take it for what you will though!

The rain picked up again later that afternoon, but the downpour only lasted for a short while. Once it had stopped, Nani approached us from the kitchen. Lilo and I were sitting on the couch together watching the television again. I had managed to calm her down after before as she had been a little upset.

I think things were getting to her and Mertle's actions certainly weren't helping.

"You two, are you able to help me out this afternoon?" Nani asked us.

Lilo looked up at her sister for a moment before looking back to the television. I perked up my ears.

"I need a few things from the store but I don't have time to go there. I'll give you some money."

"Okeytaka," I said, although Lilo didn't look in the mood. I pulled her arm gently.

"Fine," she eventually grumbled, pushing my paw away slightly.

"Thanks kiddo," Nani responded, going in to claim her purse. She returned a short while later and handed over the leafy greens. I knew it was called money, though I preferred Pleakley's term. I took the money from her and Lilo pushed herself up from the couch.

"Come on Stitch," she said softly, and I followed her to the door.

"Be careful, little girl. 626," I heard Jumba say, eyeing me as I grabbed the umbrella. I gave a nod and closed the door behind us. Lilo walked ahead of me down the staircase and I quickly followed her.

Thankfully the store was only just down the road. It wouldn't take us more than five minutes to get there. There were not many people out considering the weather. As it started to lightly rain again, I held the umbrella over Lilo's head.

She looked at the ground as we walked, her expression quite moody. I bent over her and peered up into her eyes.

She sighed. "I'm sorry Stitch," she told me. "A lot is on my mind right now."

"Stitch can tell," I responded. "Want to talk?"

She looked around. I tilted my head, waiting for a response. She grabbed my paw and pulled me over to a bench. We sat down.

She kicked her feet and stared down at the ground. She was quiet for a few moments before finally speaking to me.

"I just..." she sighed. "I'm afraid, Stitch. The way Mertle is talking about you now. All this stuff she is saying to you. You know. About you needing to be restrained, and that you tried to kill us? It really makes me angry. I'm afraid that I'll lose control and punch her when we perform. I don't want to ruin our dance and embarrass us because of her."

I put a paw to her back and rubbed gently. "Lilo, Mertle isa bully, ih? Lilo cannot let get to her. I know... is hard. Hard to ignore... but, Lilo has to. Naga leesa tel japdelup, okeytaka?"

She went quiet. I looked up at the sky and flinched when some water hit my nose.

"It's also what you said before. About not deserving me? Stitch, I want you to understand that had you not crashed here that night, I would have had nobody, and I mean that."

I looked at her thoughtfully. A few people passed by us and Lilo went quiet for a moment until they were out of earshot.

"I mean... back then Mertle didn't pick on me as much, but me and Nani were so alone. We fought a lot. It was really hard to cope most days. I miss mom and dad so much and I took it out on my sister sometimes even though I didn't mean to."

"Nani was stressed because she was being told that a social worker would be keeping an eye on us, but I just didn't care about anything and I was just making it so much harder for both of us," she sighed and looked away. "I didn't care about anything. I just wanted to listen to my Elvis records and be alone and maybe die while I was at it, because I knew at least then I wouldn't have to worry about how bad things were any more."

"Lilo..." I said to her softly. I was shocked to hear this.

"Stitch, you've done so much for me," she looked directly at me and took my paws into both of her hands. "So you do deserve me. Not the opposite way around! My life was nothing until you came into it!" she closed her eyes and sighed. "It was hard enough being bullied for being different and when mom and dad died it just got worse. I was considered weird because we weren't a normal family anymore."

I was quiet, taking into account what she had said. "But Lilo, you do deserve me too."

She closed her eyes. "I hate feeling this way Stitch. I feel so angry and sad... and I just... I don't know why!"

There were so many things I wanted to say to her at that point. So many things I wanted to make her understand. But my lack of English made that too hard for me. I could only hope she knew enough Tantalog to understand me.

"Stitch cata kweesta yalbay. Lilo nel daga injiki tay Stitch kali ashol injibay. Yuuga chunga bey showta Stitch sa'hya robaapaskit ehs naga kweesta naga cha nala. Lilo et Stitch naga o-itumi tay Lilo naga veesa Stitch kaphong. Yuuga iki boh Stitch halaquas uchet, pitcha daklet. Stitch naga calchaida dougabba. Lilo make'a meega Stitch tay Stitch lottaka poju yuuga."

Lilo stared at me for the longest time after that. I could almost see the gears grinding in her head. It took her at least five minutes before she tried to translate what I'd said to her. I wondered how she would go. It was the best I could explain to her.

"You... were created to destroy but... because I... um.. something... you didn't accomplish that?"

I nodded. "Injiki."

"Interrupted?"

I shook my head. "Jiki."

"Um..." she thought long and hard. "Intervened?"

"Ih ih!"

"I was the first one to show you... um..." she paused. "Not to be evil?"

"Sa'hya robaapaskit."

"Uh... Take in?"

"Naga. Ro-baa-pas-kit."

"Oh. Learn?"

"Ih."

"I was the first one to show you how to learn not to be evil and not to destroy."

I nodded at her.

"I didn't want to get away from you because I... didn't view you as a monster?"

I gestured for her to keep going. "I... stayed with you and supported you when everybody else was... um... gone?"

I shook my head. "Pitcha."

She thought for a moment, before finally she perked up. "Done!"

"Ih!"

"I stayed with you, supported you when everybody else was done... and..." I saw her begin to tear up again, and quickly picked up her tear with a claw.

"Naga cry. No more crying Lilo."

She didn't answer me. "...You can't thank me enough and you are who you are because of me..."

"Yes."

"Oh Stitch..." she said gently, and hugged me tightly. "I am who I am because of you as well."

"Don't want it any other way," I told her.

"Neither do I," she responded over my shoulder.

Eventually we pulled apart, and I smiled at her. She smiled back at me. I pulled her down from the bench and pointed in the direction of the shops. She nodded, and we started to head there.

Lilo had her arm around me this time as opposed to holding my paw.

It was fairly quiet in the store. A few people stared at us as we went in, though they mostly stared at me. Most places kicked me out because they thought I was a dog, but Lilo had reasoned long and hard with the owner, Mr Kuakini, to allow me in there. She wouldn't take no for an answer.

The human had eventually agreed, and I was allowed inside there with her.

As we walked up the aisle, Lilo handed me a list. I squinted at some of the words on there and she explained what they were to me.

"Think you can find those?"

"Okeytaka."

I'd found most of these items in the past, so I remembered what they were. I saluted to her and walked off to find some of them. Most of them were for dinner, but there were a few other things on there as well. As I rounded the corner to head up to find some vegetables, I paused upon seeing Aleka standing beside an older woman and a younger male child. I guessed it was her mother and brother. When she saw me after turning around, I sneered at her.

She looked a little scared and backed off a bit. Stupid brat.

Eyeing me closely, she watched as I walked past her to get the vegetables Nani required. I ignored her. Her mother stared at me as well, but was too busy being distracted by her younger sibling. The child and I stared at each other again. I hated her so much. I hated how she treated Lilo and got away with it so much. Granted, Mertle was the leader but the other three, including her, were just as nasty.

I was so tempted to throw the vegetables in her face but I knew that would get me kicked out. How I wished I could give her a mouthful. It was so tempting, but I couldn't do that to Lilo. I couldn't risk my identity in that way. So I just clenched my fists, feeling my claws dig into my skin.

"Blue doggy!" the younger sibling suddenly cried and lunged at me and I jerked back. I didn't want him touching me.

He looked surprised and then tried to reach out to pet me again. I would have allowed it had it been any other child, but at that point I didn't care considering he was HER brother. So I jerked back and growled. He looked upset and soon began to cry, running back to the mother. Aleka just glared at me and I gave her the most foulest look I could pull off.

The family eventually walked away, but Aleka just stared back at me as they did so. I just grinned at her and waved when the others had gone around the corner and she looked so startled to see that that it made her pause for a moment or so in surprise before realising they had gone and running to catch up with them.

I knew it was a stupid idea, but I couldn't help myself. Nobody would believe her that a 'dog' had waved to her anyway. I was quite confident about that.

I picked up the vegetables, bagging them and then I headed off to find the rest of the items. However as I approached Lilo, I saw that Aleka and her family had entered the aisle where she was. I walked up in time to hear Lilo greet Aleka with a friendly 'Hello!' but Aleka ignored her completely. Lilo looked very sad.

Of all the nerve. I put the vegetables aside at that point and stormed over to them, leering right into the girls face. She looked terrified.

"Stitch..." Lilo said softly, looking around at the other customers and I knew she was hoping I wasn't going to make a scene. I wasn't. I just wanted the girl to know my patience was growing thin. She got the message thankfully. She said nothing to Lilo, but she did back off and kept eye contact with me.

"Your dog is so strange," she said as she left. I snarled at her and she ran back to her family once again.

Lilo just sighed. "Let's go home Stitch."

Once again, Lilo's mood was killed thanks to Mertle's stupid friend. I could tell.

I remained where I was causing Lilo to look back at me curiously. I was shaking with anger.

"Lilo, you need to let Stitch deal with. Meega fed up. No right."

"I know Stitch, but as I said you can't risk them finding out you're an alien," she told me quietly. "I'd rather put up with them than risk anything happening to you."

"Lilo pleechi-ba!" I gripped her hand. "This cannot go on!"

She looked at me sadly. "Stitch... I want to do something too. But I will NOT risk your identity. Okay?"

I growled, but sighed in defeat. "Feecha."

She said nothing to that, instead just led me to the front of the store so that we could pay for the groceries and leave. I barely even noticed the customers staring at me. I was too distracted by my thoughts. Enough so that I accidently dropped all the vegetables from the bag onto the floor.

"Stitch!" Lilo cried in frustration at me. Whoops.

I hastily bent down and tried to pick them up, Lilo trying to help. People were just full on staring at us now but Lilo ignored them too.

Eventually we got everything back up on the counter and Mr Kuakini rang up the sale. Lilo handed over the money and we left. I held the umbrella over her and carried the bags in my extra arms, seeing as nobody was headed in the same direction as us. I couldn't tell if she was angry with me or not.

She did stare down at me as I did this though. I lowered my ears under her gaze.

"I sorry," I squeaked. I hadn't meant to drop the groceries.

"It's okay," she said. She sounded annoyed, but I could see a smile. "Just make sure to wash them when we get home."

I gave a nod. We had made it only halfway up the road when there was a bang on thunder and the rain started to pelt down once again.

"Aka choota!" I cried out, pulling Lilo close to me under the umbrella. She groaned.

"Stupid weird weather!"

While she was close to me, I felt her touch the bandage over the back of my head. "At least this is dry."

"Doongalahab."

"It's waterproof?" she repeated.

"Ih."

She looked interested for a moment, but then cowered beside me when there was a bang of thunder. I quickly set her onto my back, manoeuvring the bags and umbrella, and raced home.

What I did not predict was that the dirt of the road had loosened up due to the previous flooding and heavy rain. The ground gave out beneath me and I cried out in horror, only just barely managing to throw Lilo off me so she didn't fall down too.

I'll never forget her scream as I fell down into the earth for as long as I live.