The next two days Lilo and I spent mostly practicing. She wanted our dance be perfect and even though she had told me she didn't care about winning anymore, I knew she did want to win. She was ambitious.

We fixed up our costumes as well. Nani helped us with that. Though she gave me a puzzled look when I handed her my dusty vampire Halloween costume from a few years back.

"Uh...? Is this going to be part of your dance?" she asked me.

I shook my head. "Naga. Something else."

"Oh," she responded. "What do you want me to do with it?"

"Patch up for Stitch," I told her while Lilo grinned beside me. "Pleechi-ba?"

"Yes, yes... okay," she responded, scruffing my head. Lilo started laughing when Nani left the kitchen with our costumes.

"I can't wait for the look on Mertle's face!"

I giggled. "Hope she pees herself!"

Lilo snorted. She stared at me and I wondered what she was looking at. I realised when she put her finger to my mouth and parted my lips slightly, running her finger over my canines.

"Leelo?"

"Hmm..." she responded, making me open my mouth. "I wonder if we can make your teeth look even more scary."

"Already sharp? Pointy?" I asked her.

"Yeah..." she responded. "Can you make them look longer?"

"Uh... can do this?"

I closed my mouth but let my top two canines show through my lips.

"Perfect!" she said. "You'll look like a real vampire if you do that!"

I grinned. Lilo turned around for a moment to get something and during that time I felt a sudden sharp pain across the side of my head. I groaned, clamping my paws to my head. Everything was spinning.

Lilo dropped what she'd picked up at seeing that and rushed to me, putting her hands on my face. "Stitch, are you okay? What's wrong?"

"I'm okay," I told her. "Just felt dizzy."

She looked worried, but I brushed her off. "I fine Lilo.

"O...kay," she responded hesitantly. "Are you sure?"

I gave her two thumbs up and pointed to my mask. She got the message and we went to practice some more.

Nani presented me the costume shortly after. It looked almost as good as new.

"I fixed this up and I stitched this area back together. It had frayed," she explained, holding it out to me. "But, there you go."

"Dougabba!" I smiled.

Lilo came forth to see."Let's test it out!"

Nani watched us momentarily before leaving. Lilo helped me pull on the costume. It consisted of suspenders and a white top with black stripes running down it. Afterwards she fastened the clasp of the cloak around my neck, setting the collar straight.

After fetching some face paint from our desk, she turned to me. "Okay Stitch. Eyes closed."

I did as she asked and she began rubbing the paint over my face. About twenty minutes later, she stood me up and told me to keep my eyes closed. I could tell she was bringing me over to the mirror.

"Ta-da!"

I had no idea what to say when I saw my face. I looked like a dead vampire ghost. Not only was Lilo good at drawing, she was good at make-up too. She'd even put some fake drops of blood under my chin. I grinned.

"Wait!" she cried out, running down the stairs and out of the dome. I was puzzled. She eventually came back up to me with some hair gel and a comb, putting the gel into the tuft of fur on top of my head and using the comb to slick it back. But then she changed her mind and slicked it forth instead so that my fur came down across my forehead. I turned and gave her a devilish grin, but she seemed to just stare at me for a few moments with an almost astounded look on her face.

When her expression didn't change, I shifted my foot uncomfortably. "Uh... Lilo?"

She looked away from me for a moment or so before looking back and grinning. "You look... great Stitch," she said quietly "Really great..."

I was confused by that response from her, but I didn't question it. She was looking at me weird. I just passed it off and started chasing her, raising the cloak above my head. When I knocked her onto my bed, I held it up and covered myself so that only my eyes showed.

"Time for Lilo to suffer the wrath of Count Stitchula!" I sneered, opening my mouth and going to playfully bite her on the neck but she stopped me.

"Gaba eiek?"

She stared at me again. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was going on with her and pulled back. Was she afraid I was going to hurt her again? I remembered the last time I'd done this she'd felt her neck and even though she knew I'd never hurt her, she had still been afraid of me slightly, even though she would never admit to it.

Jumba had literally designed me to be a monster, so I couldn't blame her reaction to that, but it still did bother me more than it should have.

This time she didn't seem afraid though. Something else was bothering her.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm sorry..." she was embarrassed. "You just look good Stitch."

I grinned. "Don't I always?"

To my shock she nodded. She took what I said literally and I stared at her. "Oh."

Lilo punched my shoulder playfully but seemed to go back to her normal self after that. "I kinda feel like dressing up and scaring Mertle too," she said to me. "I really want to get her back good for lying about me to Moses."

"Lilo have costume?" I asked her, sitting beside her on my bed.

"I think I might still have that old werewolf costume from years back."

"Wanna see?"

She nodded happily. We jumped off the bed and started looking for it. After a while she called to me. "I found the ears!"

I turned to look. They looked like fake elf ears but were black with black fur glued around the top of each of them. She put them on my bed before going back and digging through our closet. I looked in the one across the other side of our dome, eventually pulling out an old bag in which was what appeared to be badly made old gloves covered in black fur grouped along with a long black fluffy tail on a belt. I giggled, having never seen this before.

"Isa costume?"

"That's it!" she said happily, putting it on the bed with the ears. "Nani made this for me the year before we adopted you from the pound. She asked me why I didn't want to be little red riding hood instead. I told her that was boring. Wolves are far scarier. And you should see this face mask I got too, I found it at a market stall one time when David took us to Honolulu one weekend. They had all cool tiki stuff! It's SUPER creepy Stitch! I think the stall owner was really a witch!"

My eyebrow raised. "Uh... okeytaka. Lilo wear just those?" I asked her and she shook her head. "No, there was an old patchwork shirt and some jeans to go with it... Hm..." she stood with her finger to her mouth in contemplation. "I'll check the downstairs closet for the mask. Maybe Jumba took it and tried experimenting on it or something."

I shrugged. "Maybe he tried it on."

She roared laughing at that and I smiled. She gave me a weird look.

"Well, wouldn't put past him. Jumba... Jumba likes monsters..." I said, trailing off and avoiding eye contact with her.

She noticed. "Stitch?"

I turned back to her and grinned. "Go find mask!"

"Right!"

She headed downstairs again. I sat and waited for her on my bed, thinking about her reaction before.

For the longest time I'd told myself that Lilo would find a human companion when she was a teenager. Those thoughts still surfaced in my mind and scared me because I didn't want her to leave me behind. She often told me I was cute, but everybody told me that. With her it seemed a little different sometimes. It was often masked though. I knew enough about humans and they could be an easy species to read, but on the contrary a very difficult species to understand. Lilo was the type of human that could mask her emotions well and I could never read her properly. But after I'd died she'd been very different towards me. Much closer. Much more friendlier, patient and understanding of me, even when I did things that irritated her as I was a bit of a clutz. That had made me happy and also Jumba too who, being my creator, knew me best and that others often failed to understand me on the level she did. She would kiss me on the nose when she accidentally hurt me and a few time's she'd even done it on my cheek. I thought it was nice. But I'd never thought anything of it. She was my best friend and my family and we were inseparable.

I did wonder sometimes how she felt about me, but I never let that thought surface because of simply one thing; she was a human and sometimes humans acted really weird, but I also knew they were a species that craved compassion and love from others. Lilo was no different. She had matured slightly, not just in age but in her mind too. But that expression she'd given me before made me wonder if she'd matured in other aspects too. Like her feelings for other humans.

The thing was, I wasn't a human. So why would she have given me that look? I assumed I just misread her. She probably thought the costume just looked great, as she had said.

She'd been so clingy to me. Sometimes I did struggle with my privacy when she was at my side every second of the day. I'd had to literally push her away once or twice. She respected me enough to know that I did like my privacy too. And being alone from time to time. But every other second besides that she was with me.

I didn't worry about it for the time being. But I knew it would be at the very back of my mind. If she gave me that look again then I would know something was going on, but for now I just passed it off as her being Lilo.

After all, Lilo did a lot of Lilo things.

Lilo decided to dress up as the werewolf and scare Mertle with me after the performance. She had decided it was going to be the best thing ever.

She'd come back up to the dome to me in the old clothes she'd mentioned and she put on the rest of the costume. I stared.

Lilo looked completely different once she put on the mask. I would have mistaken her for a boy as I knew boys were more fond of werewolves and dressing up as them than girls were. Girls liked cute costumes, like princesses. Mertle and her stupid posse dressed up as them each year.

Lilo was a tomboy by far. I loved that about her though. I felt like I should be the werewolf and her the vampire, but alas, she wanted me to be a vampire so a vampire I was.

"Lilo akare asaid..." I said to her when she faced me. The eyes of her mask made me feel very uncomfortable. She wasn't lying when she said it was creepy. They were yellow but they were reflective with red slit eyes. It was a hideous mask and she would no doubt scare others. I'd helped her with some face paint too, so her entire face was black to match the mask.

After a few moments, I realised something.

For some reason I found myself unable to look at her directly. I felt weird looking at it. Like a small nudging at the back of my mind to go into defensive mode and attack. I had no idea why that feeling even came to me and I had to dig my claws into my wrist to force the feeling away. I wasn't going to hurt my best friend that way and I was scared that feeling was even coming to me. It was something from my true destructive programming. The one that had caused such a dark past for both me and my father but that part of my brain was long ago shut down with one of the strongest encryptions universally known. I couldn't understand how or why I was feeling it.

That really scared me. Not to mention that weird laugh too. I started to worry. What if my glitch was coming back and this was some new weird part of it?

I couldn't see Lilo under her mask but she noticed how I was acting. "Stitch, it's just a costume. You're acting scared of me!" she laughed.

I wish that was the case. I really did. I was actually scared of snapping from that feeling and hurting her. I couldn't move, but I didn't want her to figure something was up.

I gave her a soft smile. "Soka... really scary. Is unnerving..."

"That's even better! Mertle WILL wet herself!" she grinned.

She started laughing but I couldn't help but have a bad feeling about things. I brushed it off and tried to focus on the fact this would make her happy instead. She grinned at me, revealing fangs in her mouth. Thankfully that was enough to distract me from that nagging thought and I stared in disbelief. They looked so real.

"Lilo growsa neech toosa?"

She gave me a weird look but then smirked. "Oh Stitch. Of course not. I wish I could though! They're just stuck on with dental adhesive. See?"

She pushed at one of them and it came unstuck. She held the fake fang out to me on her finger. It was tiny. I poked it with a claw and she put it back over her tooth.

After that, she faced me an arched up her hands like claws and made a weird hissing noise at me before trying to growl.

I just snorted and waved it off. "Sheesh. Lilo call that a growl?"

She roared at me and started chasing me around the room like a werewolf. I laughed and ran from her, but kept tripping on my stupid cloak. She pinned me down.

"Wolf Girl finally had her revenge on Count Stitchula and the evil vampire stared up in fear, frozen as stiff as ice!" she recited to me.

"Oh no!" I cried out, putting a paw over my face. "What I do now?"

"He could only watch in sheer terror as Wolf Girl opened her mouth wide and started to go in for her prey! There is no escape this time, Stitchula!"

And she did just that, opening her mouth and going to bite my neck again. I felt the fake fangs against my skin. I knew they'd break before she had any chance of puncturing my skin, as would her teeth but she knew her limit.

Again she sat up and spat slightly. I stared.

"Fur?" I asked.

"No. Paint. Gross!"

I snorted as she rubbed at her mouth. "No revenge for Wolf Girl! Stitchula escaped! Never hold Stitchula japdelup! Chabata!"

"Oh no you don't evil Count Stitchula! Wolf Girl WILL have her revenge!"

She tackled me down again and we rolled about laughing. I ended up with my head across her stomach and she reached across and stroked my ears gently. It felt nice so I ended up purring but my ears flipped up when I noticed Nani standing at the top of the stairwell, peering over at us and smiling. Lilo didn't notice and kept scratching me.

I tried so hard not to purr. I really did. But Lilo got another one out of me and Nani laughed.

I growled and Lilo just kissed my nose before we both stood up, her helping me to my feet as I kept slipping on the cloak like an idiot.

"Well well. What's this?" Nani asked, seeing us both dressed up as she came up to us. She put her hand up."Wait, don't answer that. I'm getting the camera."

Lilo groaned but Nani had already gone. She just shook her head and smiled at me. Nani returned pretty quickly and raised the camera. Lilo looked reluctant, but I just put my arm around her in encouragement and smiled. She did the same, pushing her head against mine and Nani took a photo of us.

"Come downstairs. It's dinnertime," she told us.

"Can I take this off first?" Lilo asked her.

"No," Nani flat out said and headed back downstairs. I knew she was smirking. Lilo just sighed.

"Lilo look scary!" I said to her. "Scare pants off Pleakley!"

She looked at me strangely. "But he doesn't wear any pants."

"Oh yeah."

We both laughed pretty hard at that. Nani called up to us and we started to head down. I could hear Nani trying to quietly tell the others about our costumes, but she was laughing too much and gave it away. Of course as soon as she did that I heard a loud crash and bang from the kitchen and knew that could only mean one thing. I groaned into Lilo's shoulder in embarrassment as I heard the corridor shake from loud footsteps.

Jumba never missed an opportunity to see me dressed up. Before I could even register that thought, the dome door opened up and he stood there looking at me, before laughing.

"Ho-oh boy 626. Why must you keep doing this to me."

He took my paw and brought me forward into the light of the corridor to laugh at me some more.

"Papa..." I groaned. He just snorted.

"As I said before, is always treat seeing you in silly clothes. And your face? What have you done?"

I pointed to Lilo and my father looked at her. "You did this to him?"

"Yep," she said proudly. Like me, I could tell Jumba seemed put off by her mask a little but he hid it. Though he did study me for a few moments.

"Uh... you are being some type of earth creature?"

"A werewolf to be exact," she announced proudly. "Do I look scary?"

"Yes, you most certainly do. Will be scaring pants off Pleakley for sure."

"But... he..." she started but gave up. I grinned.

"Those teeth? Are you being growing them?"

"No no. You're both silly," she said to us. "They're fake. I can take them off."

"Mask is indeed quite terrifying," Jumba said to her. "Something about it is unusual. I hope..." he looked at me again. I stared back at him, when I remembered that thought.

I eyed my father directly. "Fhcchnez ssij he'esjza e'nisl eizk naasatal."

Lilo looked at me at that with wide eyes. She had no idea what I'd said as I'd spoken to Jumba in Kweltikwan, but I didn't want her to understand this. It was about the thought.

Jumba looked startled to hear that and knew something was up instantly. He looked worried.

"Kaisa?" he asked me.

"Ih, meega chijiba."

"Alright 626. Will look into after dinner. I promise."

He left quickly to go back up to his bedroom and Lilo looked at me. "Stitch... w-what was that? That wasn't Tantalog... was it?"

I shook my head and she took off the mask. She looked concerned. I held her hands in my paws.

"Lilo. I am worried about something. Is between meega and Jumba, though. Private. Okeytaka?"

She gave a small nod. "Is this in regards to before, when you were scared of my costume?"

I nodded. "Ih... but is not that Stitch scared. Naga..." I sighed. "Something... else worrying Stitch. Isa important I get Jumba help. You understand?"

"Okay Stitch. But PLEASE promise me... if something is up, something that's really bad or wrong... you will tell me."

I put my paw across my heart. "Lilo. Of course."

She gave a nod. She put back on her mask and pulled me in to the kitchen with her where Pleakley screamed and tried to run away from us but ended up bashing into the fridge instead.

After dinner, Jumba took me upstairs to his bedroom and shut the door. It was just us two in there.

I took off my cloak and bent down to the doorway, putting my ear down to make sure nobody else was there or coming. Especially Lilo. She liked to eavesdrop on us sometimes.

Jumba picked me up and put me into his scanner. I felt a bit sick as it spun around, having just ate. I tried not to throw up.

The scan took a few minutes. When it was done, he set me in his lap as he typed on his computer.

"Now we shall see..."

I rested back against him and he stroked my head with one hand as he typed with the other. The computer beeped and displayed the results.

"Well, fail-safe is operational, and encryption is secure. Programming still isolated. Is impossible for those thoughts to be coming into active areas. This combined with laugh, I truly cannot explain 626. Nothing to indicate corruption, or circuits failing. This is quite worrying. Though I have created another encryption since you told me about laugh."

"You did?"

He nodded. "Stitch... we really do not want a repeat of the past. You could potentially destroy island. Destroy family. Little girl... Me..."

I looked away from him, quivering.

"I should never have done what I did... but all I can do now is make up for that, as you know. I am truly trying my best 626. For me. For you. Everything I do now is for you and only that."

I nodded. "I know... I know you try."

He smiled at me, but held up a wire. "Right. Ready?"

I hated this process. I sighed. "Ih, I am ready."

Jumba sat me upright on his desk and opened up my mouth. He stretched it until it opened 180° and I groaned in discomfort. My mouth was physically capable of doing such a feat, but I really really hated it.

He attached the wire through the designated ports leading up into my skull and I felt my system boot up. Even though I was alive, Jumba had designed me to quite literally be an organic computer. I was not a cyborg, but I had hardware and circuits inside of me, a little similar to that of wetware. It was why I had the mind of supercomputer and how I could use my eyes like binoculars.

Jumba monitored me closely as he installed the second layer of encryption. He'd once shown me a picture of how I looked when he did this. My eyes went all green with red Tantalog binary running across them. It looked really creepy and the first time I saw it I had to ask him if it was actually me.

That's why I hated it. I felt like a robot and not a living being. Jumba knew this and always tried to make it as easy and quick for me as possible. He'd kept this from the family as he knew it would scare them badly to see me this way. Even though Lilo was a fan of strange and unusual things, I also knew this would freak her out if even I thought it was creepy. I couldn't move even just slightly when I was programmed, because I could wipe out my memory with one tiny nudge in the wrong direction. My circuits were sensitive and if that happened, I'd likely never get it back. So I had to remain as still as possible. It was very awkward and uncomfortable.

Like our dark past, it was another thing that we kept between us.

Finally he stopped the programming and removed the wiring, helping me close my mouth. I rubbed at my jaw.

"Sorry 626," Jumba said to me, rubbing my head. "Cannot avoid this."

There was a beep from inside my skull. I squeezed my eyes shut as a white flash crossed my eyes.

"There, is all done. Data indicating encryption in place and beep of hard-drive confirmed it. Absolute strongest possible in entire universe, even more so than current encryption. Nothing could EVER get through it."

That reassured me and I rested my head against his leg. He started laughing.

"Gaba?" I asked, not moving my head.

"Little costume. Very cute."

I smiled. It reminded me of the first time he'd seen me in the spacesuit he'd had made for me when I was first going through my training and missions. He'd given me this particular smile. He was doing it now too.

"Your birthday is not far off, 626," Jumba said all of a sudden. "Less than a month away."

I grinned. "Stitch three!"

He poked my nose. "Yes. My little creation is growing fast."

"Surprise party for Stitch?"

I'd never had a birthday party before. Ever since seeing Lilo have them, I'd always hoped I would get one. Nani only recently found out about me being two, and being aliens we'd never heard of birthday parties. That was an earth thing. I was busy being a complete murderous monster. Jumba had spent four years creating me and had been with his ex-wife for eleven and a half years when I was born. By the time I'd met Lilo, I was eight months old. I'd been raised and trained by Jumba for two months, and then spent the next four carrying out his missions everyday up until my programming had been switched on by him shortly after and taken hold of me during those dark events when he'd learned the real intentions of his ex-wife and his job. We'd been arrested twice. The first time I'd hidden from the police and helped Jumba escape from Gantu, while the second time I had escaped confinement and crashed on earth. We'd been separated and I'd realised that Jumba had turned on me for some reason, shooting at me when he found me so I'd started using Lilo as a shield against him.

I had no idea Lilo would end up being the one to change me.

Jumba's hair had started falling out shortly after I was born. I only very vaguely remembered him with it back then. I did have a photographic memory but some memories, especially those related to what happened, were a blur. I remembered every moment of my missions. I had spent a week on each planet collecting DNA, killing aliens and police that tried to stop me. Random innocent aliens that had families. We were quite elusive, up until the events with Chopsuey. The missions became harder and Jumba was caught. After escaping that we made it back, but then Jumba just snapped at his ex-wife. Big things had gone down.

It had been a very dark time. I knew Jumba was an ex-assassin and lacked remorse, especially after what he put me through and made me do for him. Being on earth had changed him in more than a few ways.

I could see those changes in his demeanour. The way his eyes lit up when he looked at me and the softer tones of his voice when he spoke to me. How gentle he was with Lilo. He really did care about me now.

"Of course. Will be special one, being first."

I grinned. I was excited.

He smiled back at me but his face fell. "I hope you are not hearing strange laugh again. Little girl's mask also worried me. You had thought tempted to attack her, yes?"

I nodded slowly, feeling sick. "As soon as saw eyes..."

"Hm. Perhaps scary mask could be being trigger point. Like items in room. Do not be looking directly at it if she wears it."

"Ih, Stitch did so once had thought."

"Was thought from normal destructive programming, or from... that programming?"

I looked at him directly. "Pattern of thought from that programming. Stitch very scared."

He held me close. "Encryption should not let get through again. You should not be having those thoughts at all. Is impossible!"

"Ih..." I agreed with him. "Naga nota. Cannot explain."

He sighed and ran his hands through his new hair. "I will continue working, 626. I will never stop. Even if I die trying."

"No say that..." I gripped at his shirt. "No like..."

He sighed. "Sorry, 626."

I felt him pull up the shirt of my costume so that he could scratch my back. It relaxed me.

"You are dancing soon, correct? Two days from now?"

"Ih!" I said excitedly.

"Jumba looking very forward to seeing you dance, 626."

I smiled. "Hope you like dance."

"Of course I will. Just seeing you up performing will make me feel like proud father."

I giggled. He continued.

"So then. What is purpose of silly costume?"

"Lilo want to scare Mertle," I explained. "Revenge. She lie."

"Ahh..." he responded. We both looked up as there was a knock on the door.

"Is okay, is Pleakley," I said to my father, seeing the look on his face. He closed the open program on his computer and gently pushed me down from his lap. "Go now, 626. But please tell me if anything else is happening."

I nodded. "Dougabba."

"You are most welcome, little one."

He smiled at me as I opened the door. Pleakley stared at me and I could see Lilo looking up from the bottom of the stairs. I went down to her as Pleakley went into his bedroom to Jumba.

"Is everything okay, Stitch?" she asked me gripping my arm as I approached her. She still had her costume on and I giggled slightly at seeing it.

"Yeah. I'm okay Lilo."

Nani came into us in the corridor. "Okay bath-time you two. Fun's over."

"Okay," Lilo responded, not breaking eye contact with me. "Come on Stitch."

I followed her into the bathroom. Nani turned on the water and filled it up for us before Lilo started squeezing what appeared to be half a bottle of bubble-bath into the water and Nani had to snatch it away from her.

"You can have twenty minutes tonight. But just for tonight."

Lilo grinned. "Sweet!"

She took off her costume, before helping me and we both climbed in. She began scrubbing my face and I closed my eyes.

"Stitch?"

"Ih?"

"What language was that you were speaking before?"

I cracked open an eye and looked at her. "Jumba planet language. Kweltikwan."

She looked intrigued. "It sounded so strange. Almost like you were hissing some words."

I just stared at her. "Gaba?"

"Like... ffchzz."

"Fhcchnez?" I repeated.

"Yeah! What does that mean?"

"Means like, 'bad thing' or 'unexplained' thing," I told her.

"Fwaachizz," she responded and I just stared at her. She addressed me at that. "That's how it sounds to me. You pronounce it weird."

"Uh, okeytaka. Is pronounced more like 'shnaaschex'"

"Sh...naa chez?"

"Kinda."

"It sounds like such a cool language. I guess you're fluent?"

"Ih. Kweltikwan and Tantalog are native. Rest are just random."

She was very interested. "So... what is bath in Kweltikwan?"

"Is no word for bath. But in regards to cleaning, word for that is 'chh'snlxiz'."

"Uh... okay. You really do hiss when you talk in that language."

"Soka..."

"What about... hm... window?"

"Phnt."

"Door?"

"Xlizex."

She grinned. "It sounds so cool! I learned Tantalog pretty quick, could I learn that too?"

"Is harder than Tantalog," I told her. "Stitch don't talk it very much. But if you want to learn it, Stitch can help."

"Okay," she continued scrubbing my face. "What were you asking him about that was bad?"

"Private." I responded.

"Oh... well, okay then," she responded. I could tell she was disheartened, but she respected my privacy. "There, your face is blue again."

I grinned. I helped her scrub the black from her face. "Why Lilo like werewolves?" I asked her.

"Because they are cool and scary. If you're bitten by one, you turn into one."

I laughed. "Yeah right."

"It's true! Everybody knows that's what happens. I think they are real."

"Lilo. Not real. Is impossible."

"Well, I used to think aliens were not real," she responded. "Then I met you."

I went quiet at that.

"Lilo. Werewolves are not aliens, ih?"

She nodded. "Well, no. They are a legendary horror tale."

"Invented by humans, ih?"

"I guess so."

"Lilo, there are many planets out in jajie. Far from earth. Beyond what humans equipment capable of reaching. Many species of alien. Even Stitch don't know of or too scary. Our races are closest to earth. Is why I crashed on your planet."

She listened intently.

"Werewolves, mummies, wasp kings. Cool, but not possibly real."

"Party pooper," she responded, crossing her arms and looking away from me. My ears drooped.

I went to scrub her face again but she turned away and did it herself. I sighed.

"Soka Lilo. I not trying to be mean."

"I know. It's because you have a supercomputer mind. You know so much about things. I'm just a kid."

"Naga everything," I responded. "Stitch still learning about earth things. I am smart, but I can barely talk English. Being kid not bad thing. I kid too."

She picked up my arms and ran soap along them. "Yeah. Well, you have me to teach you words you don't know. And with you guys living here, I'm sure you see a lot of things when you're outside. Like our traditions and cultures. Plus hula dancing. You love that."

"Ih, is fun. Glad you show me."

She smiled. "Stitch... I like horror stuff so much because I find it cool and interesting. It's more fun than princesses and dolls. I'm old enough to know you're right and those things might not really be real, but it's fun to pretend they are. I'd love to be a werewolf."

"Okay Lilo," I smiled at her. "You are scary werewolf."

She grinned. She still had the fake fangs in.

"Isa yochoba fugu tay?" I asked her. They looked uncomfortable.

"A bit," she responded. "But I like wearing them. I don't know. They kinda make me feel like you."

"Meega?"

She pointed to my mouth. "You have scary teeth. They're really cool. You can just be a vampire or werewolf anytime you want. I have to dress up."

I laughed. "Lilo, I am an alien."

"Yeah, but you look like a dog. Werewolves are just big scary types of dogs."

"I don't think I look like dog." I responded.

"Here you do."

I sighed. Nani had said the same thing to me before.

"Ih, but does not mean I wouldn't have to dress up."

Lilo just smiled at me. "You'd look amazing as a werewolf. Especially how your eyes glow red. That makes you look really scary. You'd be a blue werewolf."

"Night vision," I told her. "Help me see things in infrared."

"I know. It's still cool. You're cool."

"Takka Lilo."

She hugged me. Nani called to us to get out of the bath as Lilo was scrubbing my back.

"Stitch?"

"Ih?"

"We are going to rock that dance competition!"

"Ih!" I responded as she high-fived me.

I helped her out of the bath and she put on her robe. She looked at me in the mirror as I wrapped my towel around me. Nani checked in on us.

"Amazing, you two didn't flood the bathroom for once," she commented as Lilo picked up the parts of her costume. Nani picked up mine. We headed out into the corridor after we were all dried off and Lilo had dried her hair.

"I'm going into work tomorrow morning. I had a call from Mr Wong. The floor has been replaced but he wants me to help him put everything back. So I'll be doing that."

"Is heavy stuff?" I asked her. I was aware of how heavy some of the things in there were. Like the shake machine.

"Yeah."

"Want help? Stitch can lift things."

"Mr Wong's going to be there. Otherwise I would love your help, Stitch."

I sighed. "Well, make him go away," I said, very irritably. That caused both sisters to stare at me.

"Stitch...?"

I paused angrily, but then my ears drooped. I realised how that must have sounded. "Soka."

They looked alarmed. I didn't mean to sound that way and I didn't know why that annoyed me so much. I continued.

"Just... I try to help, but can't."

"I know..." Nani stroked my head. "Maybe I can get some time there alone. I'll see."

Lilo stared between us. I turned to her.

"Looking like dog has downsides," I explained to her. "Cannot help when want to."

"You shouldn't let that stop you."

"Identity."

"I know. But... as scared as I was about people finding out about you, I don't think it's such a bad thing. Mr Kuakini knows you're different and Moses likes you."

I tilted my head as she said that to me. Maybe there was a chance I could help Nani out working for Kuakini after all.

"Let's go up and practice a bit before bed," Lilo said, taking my paw and we headed up to the dome.

I just hoped I didn't have any more strange things happen.