Lilo and Stitch: Is This Love True

Chapter 13: Love and Forgiveness

"W-what are you talking about?" Lilo thought she misheard him, or that he was joking, she even laughed lightly, hoping he would suddenly say he was just kidding. After he said no more, she realized that he was being completely serious. "Of course I love you." She tried to reach out to him, but once again he pulled back. "I love you, Stitch. I've loved you for a very long time."

Stitch finally turned away, Lilo saw a glimmer from a stray tear that started to trail down his face. "Naga."

"But I do!" Lilo stood up quickly, getting as close to him as she could. "Stitch. I'm serious, I love you. Why would you say I don't? I don't like it..."

"Yuuga only think yuuga love meega...because Hunkahunka pecked you." The truth had finally come out of him, but he didn't feel any better. Even in the liberation, he could feel his heart tearing slowly.

"Hunkahunka?" Lilo whispered to herself.

"Ih. On yuuga's birthday."

She tried to think back to her birthday, but everything became fuzzy in her head. All she could remember was a slight pain on her neck and then confessing her love to Stitch. Lilo recalled another time that Stitch had mentioned Hunkahunka, but she completely dismissed it. Is it true? Am I just feeling that fakey love? She had never been pecked before, she didn't know what it was actually like.

Lilo searched her heart for the answer. All she could find was Stitch. His smile, his laughter, his touch, his smell, everything was him. She felt nothing but love for her life time friend. "No." She wouldn't believe what he was saying. She couldn't believe it. "I love you."

Stitch felt her quickly leave the treehouse. At first he thought she was just being stubborn, and that soon he would follow and try to convince her again. However, he started hearing something strange coming from below. A light splashing sound.

Looking over the edge of the treehouse, he could see Lilo standing in the water, splashing her face repeatedly. Lilo? He crawled down the side of the tree to get to her side as fast as he could. Completely disregarding his fear of water, he grabbed her arm and started pulling her back to solid ground "Lilo? Gaba yuuga doing? Yuuga might get sick!"

He became even more surprised when he suddenly felt her lips pressed against his. Stitch almost lost himself for a second, tasting the slightly salty water coming off of her lips. Pulling himself away, he gave her a quizzical look.

"See? I splashed water on my face but I still love you. Hunkahunka has nothing to do with it." She had hoped to see him smile. That this last declaration would convince him of what she had felt for him.

She was wrong.

Stitch told her that that's what he thought too. That when the spell wasn't broken after she had a shower, that she really did love him. However he started to become suspicious, so he told her that he looked into the files of Hunkahunka. That he found there were certain elements that were untested. Something was able to change his peck, his spell, making the regular cure ineffective. He told her he wasn't sure what it was, but that Jumba was working on it already.

The more he spoke, the wider Lilo's eyes became. She didn't want to believe it. She truly loved him with all her heart. She wanted nothing more than to be with him for the rest of her life. Nothing else mattered to her. But... is it real? Or is that the spell? She tried to remember before. Before her birthday. If Stitch was telling the truth, and that she was pecked that night, then she just needed to remember her feelings from before that moment. What were they? No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't remember how she felt about Stitch before. All that she could remember and feel came after that night.