Down at the Junkyard

[[November 27th, more or less coinciding with Rip's attack on the heroes. Also, despite the name, it isn't going to be entirely set in the Junkyard itself, I just couldn't think of anything better. Closed to Stitch, Lilo and myself.]]


Home sweet home. Sort of.

Actually, it just felt weird to Angel, being back here. The streets she tread had once been her home, but now she felt like a stranger upon them. There were places that seemed to swim with memories in a bittersweet cocktail of both good and ill reccolections, but mostly... well, everything else seemed just the same as it always had. It was she who had changed since last setting foot in this town that she felt vastly out of place. She almost wished she hadn't come at all.

Still, the idea of setting up an outpost or a fallback base right here in Marcaline had been hers. She had mentioned it to Stitch, and the fluffy blue general had seemed excited to go for the idea - whether he had actually run it by any of the other generals or not, Angel didn't pretend to know -, and almost completing the Ohana, Lilo had tagged along too. So here the three of them were.

A soft sigh escaped the small dog's maw. She had separated from her companions for a few moments to detour via the Junkyard. Why, she wasn't sure; she held no fond memories of the place. Still, something had prompted her to pay it a visit, and now she stood at the end of the broken pipe that had formed the canione entry to the yard for as long as she had known it. The place looked, if it were possible, even more dilapidated than she had remembered it. If it had ever been a fit place for a dog to live, it certainly wasn't anymore. The old pound wagon that had once crowned the tallest mound of junk had long since been dislodged from its perch and now lay on its side, even more of a wreck than it had been in her day. Driven by nostalgia as much as anything else, Angel padded towards it. It had been her home during her days as a junkyard dog; the one perk of being Buster's girl, that she had got one of the most comfortable spots to sleep in.

She didn't miss this place at all. And yet, in some perverse way, she felt as though it still meant something to her. She let out a soft huff as she glanced around the place, wishing she knew why it still exhibited such a pull upon her.

"Oooooooooh."

Angel would notice and maybe feel the air of a solid dog-like blur buzz past her and into the junkyard. Yes this was supposed to be a mission to explore and station an outpost in this little town. But Stitch was far from the War's most mature general. Sure he was good at his job but when he saw the chance to play and there was no danger he'd take it. He slid into the junkyard and gave a cackle. So many pipes and things to break and smash.

Stitch wanted to go mostly to get Lilo out of Africa and possibly get the okay to stay there instead. Stitch had told the girls it was a-okay, that he was a general and had the right to approve things. They set off right away.

Without telling a soul.

Now in the little town Stitch picked up a bottle and looked through it right at Angel. "Aloha! Why Angel so sad?"

Whether or not Lilo knew of Stitch's intentions to potentially stay in this little town was a mystery. She'd jumped at the chance to go with Stitch and Angel, mostly because she wanted to finally do something that might be considered useful to the war in general. Being the best friend of a General did have its perks, Lilo would acknowledge that much, but she was no fool. Lilo knew that Stitch more likely than not wanted to protect her. She wasn't a baby, though! Lilo had helped Stitch round up cousins like nobody's business back home even if Stitch had done most of the work. She felt capable of helping.

For the moment, though, she just tried to keep a good eye on Stitch and followed his and Angel's lead. She lost sight of Angel for a time and so kept as close to Stitch as she could. This resulted in her following Stitch into the junkyard where she then spotted Angel. Brown eyes grew a touch wider as she looked around and approached Angel. Had this been where Angel came from before the war? It was rather junky, obviously, but... Maybe this was where Angel had called home before. Lilo could have asked, but she heard Stitch speaking with Angel already.

So, Lilo drew closer to the two and came up beside Stitch. Once she'd stopped moving, she got another look around the general area. Her eyes were finally drawn to the abandoned dog catcher's wagon and she tilted her head to the side in interest. What had that been?

She still couldn't form the question. So, for the moment, Lilo decided to let Angel answer Stitch.

"This is where I used to live."

Angel hadn't really been expecting Lilo and Stitch to follow her into the junkyard - she had suggested they look around outside while she took the slight detour - but couldn't claim to be surprised. Turning to look at the duo who formed the core of her new family, Angel gave her head a brief shake to dispel the memories, her ears flopping with the motion. "I don't miss it at all," she stated, glancing across the near landscape of discarded trash. "I don't know why I wanted to come back here. I guess I just can't leave the past alone."

Why did this era of her life still exhibit such a pull over her? She was still seduced by Buster's charms, hate him though she did; the junkyard still held its own pull over her too... Angel could only wish she knew why. She supposed she must have become so resigned to this being all her life would ever consist of that it still felt as though it ought to be all she had. Of course, that wasn't true anymore; the junkyard wasn't the only place in the world that she had now. She couldn't aford to keep psychologically returning to it or she would loose what she had in the here and now. She had Patch; she had Lilo, Stitch and their ohana; as much of a mixed blessing as they were, she had her unborn pups too. In that moment, Angel silently promised the litter she carried within her that she would never let them feel the abandonment that had been so much a part of her own life.

Hopping down from her perch beside the pound wagon, Angel padded back to Lilo's side. The girl hadn't said anything since entering the junkyard, and Angel couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking. The small dog looked up at her human companion, her gaze querying what she was thinking about.

"Ooooh."

Stitch lowered the bottle as his ears dropped. His eyes widened as he realized the junk was where Angel used to make her home. Stitch tapped his nose with his claws curiously. If she couldn't leave the past alone, how was she supposed to move on? Stitch tumbled down on all fours from the pile of garbage before standing before Angel. His mouth broke into a childish smile before he gave a hug to the female canine.

"Ohana," he purred, "Meega destroy lots of planets. Hurt Lilo lots..." His ears drooped as he looked towards Lilo. "Meega even break apart whole house. But Ohana mean nobody get left behind or forgotten. Mean nobody let past effect future, ih?"

His grin turned a bit sinister as he touched Angel's paw. "Tag! You it!"

"You used to live here?" Lilo finally asked. A bit of a dumb question, since Angel had confirmed it, but she felt like it needed to be asked. It was a literal dump! But on the other hand... One couldn't judge the home one came from. After all, Angel was a nice dog. She wasn't anything like the junkyard she'd called home, so Lilo wouldn't dwell on it for too long.

"It's stinky," she said to start, "and definitely junky, but you're not like that. Where you come from doesn't matter," Lilo told her. Then Stitch started to speak, and she nodded in agreement with him. He'd been a trouble causer from the start. However, living with her and befriending her had helped him in the long run. Lilo was glad for that much, because he was her best friend. It didn't matter that he'd been a bad little boy in the beginning. What mattered was that he was a good alien now and her friend.

Then started the game of tag. Lilo had to laugh and started to make a bit of a gap between herself and Angel. Her shoes crunched against some snow on the ground, but she made no comment on it. The scouting mission could be put on hold for a bit. It was time for some fun!

Instinct almost prompted Angel to resist as Stitch unexpectedly hugged her; she managed to quash it quickly. Somehow, the embrace seemed to help, and the small canine gave a weak smile as he and Lilo each spoke. Nonetheless, however, something was still eating at Angel, something about how quickly she'd been drawn back to this place. As Lilo had so bluntly put it, it was stinky and junky; it was an awful part of her past that she had thought she'd put behind her. Yet here she was again.

She was aware enough that part of this abrupt low patch was simply the pregnancy mood swings that had been growing more and more frequent the past month, and not something she should really give mind to. That was, however, easier said than done.

"I know," she inclined her head in a nod at Stitch's point. But knowing that she ough to leave the past alone and actually doing so were two different matters entirely. In a perverse way, Angel had a feeling it was actually the intensity of her hatred for Buster and for this life that was what was drawing her back to it time after time. She needed to let it go, to move on... but that would include forgiving herself, too. And that, she couldn't; she still loathed who she had been back then.

She wished she hadn't had the thought to come back.

Though she heard Stitch's exclaimation, for a long time, Angel didn't react. She looked as though she was lost to the world, lost in her thoughts - she was aware of the blue alien's attempt to get her to play only in a detatched manner. Regardless, though, they were enough to lift her mood out of the dark pit it had slipped into, even if she didn't directly acknowledge them.

As negative as her views of it may have become, life in the Junkyard hadn't been all bad. She could remember good times; times spent with Sparky and Ruby and Mooch and the others, times when Buster hadn't been involved.

She somehow couldn't unearth any positive memories where Buster had featured prominently.

Now, a more sincere smile found its way onto her maw. She didn't miss the life she'd left behind to move in with Scamp's family, of course... but it hadn't been the nightmare that she'd gradually come to look back on it as. The other Junkyard dogs might not have been much of a family, but they had been a family nonetheless. They had made this miserable existance bearable.

Maybe Lilo and Stitch could see the change in her expression. Whether it would mean anything to them or not, Angel couldn't guess.


(ooc: Um, I think this post is a bit of a mess, sorry? I wasn't sure where I was even going with it until the end ^^; But hopefully it works, at any rate)