Lilo & Stitch

First Date

When JJ turned around, two Pepsi cans in his hands, he thought his chest was going to combust at the sight. He'd gone to buy them drinks from the cooler and Y/n was sitting on the blanket with a big grin on her face, carefully pulling the tupperware out of the bag she brought and glancing at the huge projector screen. When she caught sight of him, she gave JJ a big smile and patted the spot next to her.

Almost eight years he'd known her, and likely at least two or three spent falling for her; it was the kind of love that sneaks up on you, that's so slow in its progression you don't realize how much you've grown to love the little moments and touches until you're too far gone. JJ literally woke up one morning and looked over at her in his bed in the Chateau, drool on her cheek and hair like Doc Brown's, and it hit him. Holy shit, I love her.

And it kept hitting him until he was too beaten to ignore it. It punched him in the gut every time he saw her surf. It clenched a fist around his chest when he saw her laughing and singing with Kiara. It washed over him like a tidal wave every time she laid a hand on his chest, immediately halting him from getting into a fight. It came to him with such clarity, that he suddenly just blurted out that he wanted to be with her one day after she washed up with a big wave. He wanted to take her out, treat her how she deserved. So now, technically a junior in high school, JJ was sitting beside his best friend on their first date.

"I'm so excited," she laughed, glancing at the screen to see if it had come on yet. She passed JJ a container of his favorite mac & cheese she made. "I love this movie."

He shook his head and chuckled at her, shoving a big bite into his mouth. "I can get down with Disney, but I don't think I've seen this one. What's all the hype?"

Y/n looked at him like he was crazy. He knew how much she liked it, she had picked to come to this community movie night as their first date after all. In all honesty, JJ was happy to come to watch it with her even if it was a kid's movie because he knew it'd make her happy. But more so, she was just so cute when she got excited like that, and he wanted to look at that face all night.

"Are you kidding me? Lilo & Stitch is iconic. It's one of my favorites."

When she pointed to her keys on the blanket and the little Stitch holding a pineapple dangling on them, JJ rolled his eyes and nodded. He looked around at the spread, noting how everything Y/n packed was foods he liked–her macaroni, her brownies, a few bags of the shitty chips he liked from the corner store, a carton of strawberries. It made his little goofy heart sing, and he slung an arm around her to land a barrage of kisses against her painfully smiling cheek.

"Jay! What're you–that tickles!"

Her laughter was like music, so much better even than the movie intro. Before it started, he pulled out his phone and took a picture, pressing his grinning lips to her cheek much more gently this time. She laughed at him, while his free hand held up her keychain around her shoulder to mark the occasion.

As much as JJ said he found it overrated and mostly spent his time staring at his girl leaning beside him on the blanket, he really did enjoy the movie. He realized how much he connected to it, and seeing how much Y/n loved it made him embrace that. The concept of an ohana, a family that you find and build yourself, where everyone cares for each other and sticks beside one another–that felt like such a truly, deeply Pogue sentiment that it just hit him right in his deeply buried feelings.

He'd deny it for years when she teased him, but he really did tear up at Stitch's little speech at the end that first night.

"So I'm gonna say you liked it more than you thought, huh?" Y/n teased when the movie finished, tucking their dishes back in her bag. JJ, as he always did, managed to put away enough food for a four-person family. Y/n never had leftovers when she cooked for him, and JJ always made sure she knew how much he loved her food. He'd practically let out a pornographic moan earlier upon the first bite of a brownie; they were his favorites.