LiloStitch

LiloStitch is the friendship between Lilo Pelekai and Stitch/Experiment 626 from the Lilo & Stitch fandom.

Lilo & Stitch (2001)
After having a terrible day, Lilo sees 626's stolen ship crash into a nearby road. Thinking its a shooting star, she starts making a wish for a friend who won't run away from her. 626 meanwhile gets run over by several trucks and gets mistaken for a malformed dog, being transported to the local dog pound.

In order cheer her up, her older sister Nani takes her to the pound on the next day, telling Lilo to go and look for a puppy to take home with. As Lilo starts looking, all the dogs are hiding from 626, so she thinks that the pound has no dogs. Seeing a poster of a girl holding a puppy she adopted, 626 gets the idea to play nice in hopes that Lilo will adopt him. He reveals himself to her and greets her with an elongated "Hi" while giving her a large grin, he then tackles her into a hug. Lilo loves him instantly and carries him back to Nani and the dog pound lady, showing them the dog she wants to adopt. Despite the lady panicking and telling the sisters that this is the only dog she won't give up for adoption, Lilo insists on it, thinking he's the coolest dog she had ever seen. The lady eventually gives in, selling the dog for only 2 dollars and telling Lilo that she'll have to give him a name. Lilo calls him "Stitch", despite the lady telling her that that's not a real name. As Stitch sees his creator Jumba and Agent Pleakley spying on him, waiting for an opening to blast him and arrest him, Stitch calls Lilo to him to use her as a human shield. Pleakley manages to redirect Jumba's blast and keep the enraged Jumba out of sight, so Lilo never finds out.

As Lilo begins walking Stitch through town, they stumble across her bully Mertle Edmonds and her posse. Lilo thinks of Mertle as a friend and thus shows her the dog she just adopted, but Mertle and her friends mock him and think he's ugly. Stitch responds by pushing Mertle off her tricycle and stealing it, allowing Lilo to ride it with him. Lilo scolds him for stealing, but Stitch doesn't listen and try to find a large city to destroy, which Jumba notes is what he's made for. Lilo however notes (without having heard or even met Jumba at that point) that she's glad that she lives on a secluded island with no large cities on it, causing Stitch to panic for a bit.

Later that evening, the two of them eat at Nani's workplace, the Luau, in order for Nani to keep an eye on them while she's working. Nani scolds Lilo for allowing Stitch to sit at the table with her, but she responds that Stitch is civilized. Stitch proves this by eating the two coconut cream pies Lilo ordered, but then puking them out and putting them back when Lilo is upset about it. Stitch gets lured away from Lilo by Jumba using a piece of alien meat on a string, with Jumba and Pleakley disguising themselves as a tourist couple. Stitch in responds attacks Pleakley and chews on his head, leading to Nani's boss firing her when he finds out that Stitch is Nani's pet. Nani is not angry at Lilo, but she does urge her to teach Stitch some manners. She takes the two of them home and Lilo shows him her bedroom and the bed she built for him earlier. Stitch takes a great interest in a photo Lilo keeps under her pillow, but Lilo refuses to show it to him. Stitch then starts making a ruckus in Lilo's bedroom, but Lilo covers his neck in a white lei to calm him down. Once Stitch is calmed down, Lilo suggests that he should put his energy into creating something instead of destroying everything, which Stitch takes to heart and he uses items from Lilo's room to build a cityscape. Then he pretends to be a kaiju and destroys it, which disappoints Lilo. Outside the house, Jumba and Pleakley are lurking and Jumba mocks Lilo's naiveté in thinking she can change someone whose only purpose is to destroy. However, Stitch shows an interest in Lilo's picture book of The Ugly Duckling story, which Lilo explains to him is about a pitiful creature that is displaced and sad about feeling lost. But then it finds its real family and is happy again. Stitch relates to that story, which even Jumba notices, feeling pity for his creation.

The next day, the small family are visited by social worker Cobra Bubbles, who had been a pain in the neck for Nani since he believes that Nani is poor fit to raise Lilo. Stitch attacking Bubbles is the last thing they needed, but Bubbles is patient with him and merely tells them that at his next visit, Stitch better be a model citizen. This inspires Lilo to try and train Stitch to become a model citizen, taking her idol Elvis Presley as inspiration. So Nani takes Lilo on her many job interviews that day, but Stitch manages to keep ruining them when Lilo teaches him how to act like Elvis. However, despite Stitch's best efforts, he destroys the beach when people taking pictures of him irritates him. Nani's last job interview that day is ruined, with their friend David arriving to cheer them up by taking them surfing. As Jumba and Pleakley continue to spy on them, Jumba notes how weird it is that Stitch is willingly going near the water despite being unable to swim. While Stitch is having fun with the humans, Jumba and Pleakley take a more active approach and try to capture Stitch while he's surfing, but inadverdently take Lilo with them, nearly drowning her. David saves both of them, but Cobra Bubbles witnessed everything and it this was the last straw for him.

When the family return home that evening, Lilo finally works up the courage to tell Stitch the truth about the photo under her pillow, it shows her with Nani and their parents, shortly before they died in a car crash. Lilo asks Stitch about his own family, but the question only makes him sad. Lilo then kindly allows him to leave if he wishes to do so and Stitch doesn't hesitate, only asking if he can take the picture book with him. Outside the house, Stitch looks up into the rain and admits that he is indeed lost.

The next morning, Nani asks Lilo where Stitch is, but Lilo admits that she let him go, saying it is better this way. Nani is waiting for Cobra Bubbles to take Lilo away, but David knocks on her door instead, telling her about how he managed to get another job interview arranged for her. So Nani leaves Lilo alone for maybe ten minutes, but Stitch comes back at the worst possible moment since Jumba had cornered him, having no reason to forego violence in his pursuit of Stitch. Lilo tries to fight off Jumba, but he nonchalantly pushes her aside. So Lilo attempt to solve this by calling Cobra Bubbles and telling him that aliens are trying to capture her dog. During Stitch's fight with Jumba, his blaster gets clogged by Stitch and is going to explode, Pleakley rescues Lilo while her house is being completely destroyed. Though Lilo turns out fine, Cobra Bubbles arrives and has completely run out of patience with Nani, trying to take Lilo away right in front of her. Lilo however runs away and finds Stitch on a hill near the house, holding the photo of Lilo's family with the corners burned off. Lilo takes the photo, but yells at Stitch for having ruined everything, but she gets no time to dwell on her anger since Captain Gantu arrives to capture Stitch. Gantu has no reprecussions on harming humans, so he just captures Lilo along with Stitch, thinking that Stitch is going to eat her. Stitch however manages to escape, leaving Lilo behind in the process and goes to find help. He runs into Nani who had seen Lilo get abducted and promptly beats Stitch up with a broom in order to get him to tell her where Lilo is. Jumba and Pleakley however finally capture Stitch themselves, but Stitch urges them to help Nani rescue Lilo. Jumba reluctantly complies and takes all of them to his spaceship, giving chase. After many attempts to reach Lilo, Stitch finally breaks her glass capsule and urges her to take his hand. She fully trusts him, happy that he came back for her and they land safely on the roof of Jumba's ship, having destroyed Gantu's ship in the process. They then ask David to help them get everyone back to shore when they land in the ocean.

However, just as everyone reaches shore, the superior of Gantu, Jumba and Pleakley, the Grand Councilwoman arrives to arrest Stitch herself. Stitch is surprisingly compliant with being arrested, but asks the Councilwoman if he's allowed to say goodbye. Given permission, Stitch hugs Lilo and Nani, prompting the Councilwoman to ask who they are. Stitch replies that they're his family, "small and broken, but still good". Touched by this display, Cobra Bubbles reminds Lilo of the certificate she got when she adopted Stitch. Lilo shows it to the Councilwoman, who readily accepts the legality of Stitch's adoption, "punishing" Stitch by telling him to stay in the care of the Pelekai family. Since Jumba and Pleakley got exiled along with him, they assist the sisters, Stitch and the locales in rebuilding their home. They eventually move right in with them and Stitch finally gets to have a place to belong.

Fanon
Many have noticed just how brilliant the many similarities between the titular duo are, with Lilo being a destructive outcast, who befriends a destructive alien and they become better people by learning to care for each other. Fans generally hate how the franchise increasingly focuses on Stitch, believing Lilo to be just as important. Many have rendered the anime spin-offs that relocate Stitch and make him the best friend of a new girl to be non-canon, arguing that they ruin the integrity of the story by implying that Stitch abandoned Lilo. Even anime fans hated the throwaway lines that Lilo "outgrew" Stitch when she found a boyfriend and many ignore the storylines where they reunite, preferring to think of those shows as "What if Stitch landed somewhere else?" scenarios, rather than definitive sequels to the original series.

Due to them being the titular characters and all of the (original) entries in the franchise focusing on their interactions, it should be no surprise that "Lilo & Stitch" tends to be the most popular (platonic) ship in the Lilo & Stitch fandom.

And yes, people do ship Lilo with Stitch romantically, but those works tend to "age them up", ignoring the fact that Stitch unable to age.

Fandom

 * FAN FICTION