Again, something I wrote before watching the Lilo episode of the Anime. It explains a bit of the whole idea behind the fanfic. Actually, it was inspired by the day I found a white hair on my grandpa's old jacket. He wore it a lot when visiting us. It was different from having anything he wore or that he simply owned -it was something that was truly his. And since all that is left is just ashes, I found it to be very significant.

Sue me, an author isn't supposed to spill their feelings or experiences on a fanfic. But I did. Ehh, WTH.

Lilo & Stitch (c) Disney

Blue Hair

If it had been a little, black hair she found hanging there, she'd have completely dismissed it.

But it was blue.

She looked at it in disbelief for a few seconds. It was so tiny, so thin… it was almost impossible to believe that she was holding it at all. She didn't even feel it between her fingers. However, it was there. That or her eyes were playing tricks on her again.

Was it possible? After two years of his absence, and feeling like all the times spent together had been a dream —a beautiful dream-, he reappeared again like this.

She dropped on the floor, her old red muumuu forgotten by her side. All her focus was now on that little but very significant hair. As the morning sun that barely begins to heat the land, that little proof was beginning to bring back all of the memories on the girl's mind. It was like a sting that reminded her that he had actually existed, and along with that truth the pain came again.

How in the world she miraculously found it after so long was out of her reach completely. The fact that she had all of her old child clothes kept on a box since then, maybe that helped. She couldn't find any other logical explanation. Maybe that hair had gotten there during a hug, or a game —she couldn't exactly recall which one.

Then the sting stung harder and more insistently.

Tears came to her eyes, and for the first time in a long while, she let them run down freely. She whined. She sobbed. She even let the hiccups out. It felt so right to let out some of that horrible pain without anyone watching.

And during all the time she cried, she never loosened her hold on that little blue hair. All the clothes she had kept away, the toys, the pictures and even his tiki necklace, they were all things that she held dear to her. But she had all of those things kept away, fearing that if she ever looked, let alone touch them, they would bring again all the pain again. And now a single, little hair was able to do all that. How wonderful.

It had been different with her parents. She was just a little girl when they passed away. She didn't even really know what death was at all. It hurt, but it wasn't the same kind of hurt. Back then, it was a sense of loneliness that kept chasing her, a sense of no one understanding who she was or what she needed. And soon the hurt wasn't about her dead parents, but it was about being an outcast.

Now she could actually feel the hurt of losing someone. Someone dear and who had taken away all of her loneliness, someone who had actually understood and kept by her side when she most needed it. And now he was gone too.

And now she was alone again.

Of course her sister counted. She couldn't really say she was alone at all. But Nani was always working, and with her now imminent marriage with David, she felt even more left out. They would always be Ohana, but now it would be slightly more about the two of them, and later on, about the babies they'd have. The family would grow for sure, but it wouldn't be the same without the one who came in first and became her soul mate.

Yes, she had a very loving boyfriend too, but curiously, that wasn't even close to the bond she had with Stitch. Dean had always been very polite and respectful and nice with her, but it just wasn't the same. And for some strange reason, whenever she tried to talk about her lost friend with him, he'd immediately change the subject, arguing that she needed to forget and move on. But she needed to talk and let it out, not just forget.

And since no one would listen, she would then let it out alone.

Pleakley had gotten lost too, on some expedition to other planet. He was pretty much dead to her. Then two weeks later, Jumba went after a crazed Stitch, to try and convince him of coming back to Earth and stop wrecking havoc on innocent planets. The two of them had fallen into a black hole, according to the Intergalactic Federation reports. It was pretty much the same as Pleakley.

Many people dear to her was gone in almost no time at all. First Pleakley, then Jumba… and then Stitch. The loss of the two largest alien members of her family had been already a lot to bear with, but Stitch's loss was the worst.

And it had been all her fault. If only she hadn't pushed him away so rudely, he wouldn't have left like that. He would have stayed home and he'd be alive by now, and she wouldn't be crying over him.

And there would be plenty of little blue hairs all around the house, and not just on an old muumuu she found there.

"Lilo? Is everything okay?" Nani's voice drifted from downstairs to echo on the old attic.

She wiped away the tears hastily, fearing her older sister would come up and see them. "Uhh, y-yeah. I'm just having trouble finding an old book."

Had she even heard her little sister cry at all? Or was she just worried that she had been upstairs for a long while?

"Okay. Hurry up, dinner's almost ready." She heard the dismissive response.

"'Kay."

If it had been a little, black hair she found hanging there, she'd have completely dismissed it and kept on looking for her book.

But it was blue. And it still hurt her.