Pre-chapter author's note: Remember how, in my various other Loud House stories, that I said I had been working on a collection of one-shots? Well, here they are. Unlike how they are presented during the events of 'Restored Image', the plots are presented here in their 'original' form; here, they play out as if (spoiler alerts for the 'Broken Mirror' stories and 'Resoted Image') Lincoln never ran away at all. Here's hoping that this collection somehow manages to impress at least one person.

Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

A collection of Loud House one-shots

Gridiron honor (Plot: Lynn Loud Jr.'s baseball team plays a baseball game against the team of Francisco, her crush. However, it ends in a way that leaves the sporty Loud sibling heartbroken. Lynn thinks the world is over…until she meets a boy from Sweden, that is.)

One afternoon over at the Loud residence, Lola Loud was entertaining a guest. This was not too uncommon an occurrence; as a self-proclaimed 'proper lady', Lola frequently had friends over for 'social gatherings', where she and other girls her age had snacks and tea while they socialized as if they were 'proper ladies'. However, what made this instance particularly special was that the only guest that Lola had over was a boy.

To be specific, the boy was Winston, a boy that Lola has a crush on. With a mildly amused chuckle, Winston said as his and Lola's conversation went on, "That's nothing, Lola. Why, you should have seen the mess my mother got herself into at the Royal Woods Mall last week."

"Did it happen on Thursday, by any chance?" Lola asked, "Because if it did, then the story that my older sister Leni told me and the rest of my siblings when she got home from the mall that day suddenly makes way more sense."

As the two six-year-olds laughed over tea and cookies, Lola's older brother Lincoln walked by, a smile on his face because his little sister was getting along swimmingly with her crush. After walking up the stairs, Lincoln proceeded to make his way to his bedroom, which was actually a converted linin closet. Closing the door behind him, Lincoln turned to face the viewers.

"A while ago, there was this whole mess where my sisters and I thought that someone was sending one of us love letters," Lincoln began as he spoke to the viewers, "After we were able to narrow the choice down to just Luna, we made our way to where the latest love letter asked Luna to meet at. As it turned out, the whole love letter thing was something between our parents, as love letters are sort of their thing."

After taking off his shirt, pants, socks and shoes so he could read comics in his underpants, Lincoln continued as he picked up an issue of Ace Savvy, "However, the whole experience inspired my sisters and I to take a more active approach when it came to our crushes. I'm glad to say that some of those crushes actually managed to work out." Lincoln then proceeded to open his comic book to read, but after a few seconds, a resigned look appeared across the sole Loud boy's face.

Sighing in a resigned tone, Lincoln closed the comic, set it off to the side, and turned to face the viewers again. "Emphasis on some," Lincoln continued, "As far as I know, out of all of the crushes from the love letter fiasco a while ago, only three of them managed to work out and blossom into currently ongoing relationships."

Holding up fingers as he counted off, Lincoln said, "The first successful crush that I know of is Lori's crush on Bobby, the second one is Luna's crush on Sam, and the third one, as you had just seen, is Lola's crush on Winston." His tone taking on a sad hint, Lincoln continued, "Just as I know of three crushes from the love letter fiasco that succeeded, I also know of three crushes from the love letter fiasco that have failed. There is failed crush number one…"

(FLASHBACK)

Lincoln was carrying an armful of supplies for a project of some kind when he heard Lucy's signature sighing coming from her and Lynn's room. However, the goth Loud was sighing at a much greater frequency, which tipped Lincoln off that something was troubling his little sister. "Are you okay, Lucy?" Lincoln asked as he peeked his head into Lucy and Lynn's room.

"Sigh," Lucy said as she rolled over on her bed to face the wall, "I don't want to talk about it."

As Lincoln was talking to Lucy, their older sister Lori came by. "Lincoln, now is literally not the best time to bother Lucy," Lori said in as sympathetic of a tone as she could manage, "Lucy said when she came home earlier that she and Silas were over."

Closing the bedroom door to give his little sister some privacy, Lincoln said to Lori in a shocked tone, "That's terrible! What happened?"

Shrugging, Lori remarked, "I don't know. All I remember is that Lucy mentioned something about vampires versus mummies." As Lincoln gathered the supplies he was carrying, Lori said, "So what are you up to?"

"I'm making a model of the solar system for a school project," Lincoln explained, "In fact, my friend Rusty is coming over at some point to help me."

"He's not squeamish, is he?" Lori asked, "Because whenever Lucy gets as depressed as she is currently, she tries working on perfecting her recipe for fake blood."

"No clue," Lincoln replied, "No if you'll excuse me, I have a solar system to build."

(FLASHBACK OVER)

To the viewer, Lincoln said, "Then there is failed crush number two…"

(FLASHBACK)

Lincoln, Luna, Leni, Lucy and Lana sat on or around the sofa in the living room of the Loud residence, with baby Lily sitting on Luna's lap. Lincoln and Luna sat on either side of Leni, who was currently crying her eyes out. "We know that what happened was very bad, and we'll let you have all the time that you need," Lincoln said as he gently patted Leni's left shoulder, "But just so you know, we'll be here for you. Let us know if you need anything, alright?"

"Lincoln's right, dude," Luna added, "We got your back on this one, sis."

"Poo-poo," Lily babbled, looking up at her big sister while patting her leg.

Sniffling, the fashionable Loud sibling said, "Thanks, you guys. You all are, like, totes awesome for putting up with me while I'm, like, like this."

At that moment, Lori walked into the house, having just returned from somewhere. Spotting Leni, Lori said in a casual tone, "Oh, hey Leni. How was the party at Chaz's place?" Without warning, Leni's crying redoubled, prompting the siblings who were sitting with Leni to shoot death glares at their oldest sibling; Lana even made the 'zip it' motion over her lips.

Her eyes widening with shock when she realized what was going on, Lori said in a concerned tone, "Oh dear…"

(FLASHBACK OVER)

With another resigned sigh, Lincoln said, "Then there is failed crush number-"

Lincoln was cut off by a banging sound coming from the first floor of the Loud residence, followed by one of the sisters crying loudly. Curious and mildly worried, Lincoln got dressed quickly and left his room to see what was going on. From near the top of the stairs, Lincoln saw his older sister Lynn standing in the living room crying. As she was wearing a baseball helmet and baseball glove, not to mention there was a baseball bat lying on the floor on Lynn's right, Lincoln assumed that she had just gotten back from playing in a baseball game.

"Wow, Lynn's team must have lost really badly if Lynn's actually crying about it," Lincoln remarked to himself in a concerned tone. As Lincoln reached the ground floor, the other Loud siblings gathered around from where they were at in the house, having been summoned by the sound of crying. Since Lola entered the area alone, Winston must have left beforehand.

"Lynn, are you, like, okay?" Leni asked in a concerned tone, heartbreak clear in her voice as the fashionable Loud sibling hated to see any of her siblings like this.

Walking into the house was Rita, the matriarch of the Loud family, and she must have heard Leni's question because she said, "Kids, Lynn's baseball game ended on a really bad note for her, so I think you all should give her some space for the time being."

"Oh geez," Lori remarked as she regarded her crying younger sister. Looking from Lynn to Rita, Lori continued, "Hey wait, wasn't that the game where Lynn's team played against the team that Francisco belongs t-" The oldest Loud sibling was cut off when Lynn shoulder-rammed her in the stomach, sending Lori flying into the sofa where she landed in a sitting position.

Practically leaping over to her older sister, Lynn grabbed Lori's tank top collar with both hands to yank Lori closer to her face, then, with both a look and tone that frightened Lori, Lynn said, "NEVER…SAY…THAT…NAME…AGAIN." Shoving Lori back into the sofa, Lynn leapt off and ran upstairs crying.

After Lynn disappeared upstairs, Lincoln turned to face the viewers again. "Four," Lincoln said to the viewers with a knowing look, "Make that four crushes that I know of that failed."

A short while later in Lori and Leni's room, the Loud siblings, minus Lynn who was still in her room crying, were having a sibling meeting. "As we all know since mom explained it to us after Lynn ran to her room to cry earlier," Lori remarked as she gently rubbed her stomach, "The baseball team that Francisco belongs to was just found out to have committed multiple instances of cheating during the current season, and had in fact tried to cheat during today's game against Lynn's team. When the cheating was discovered during today's game, Francisco's team was disqualified, giving Lynn's team the win."

"When Lynn had asked Francisco about it upon the rampant cheating his team was doing being revealed," Lisa went on, "Lynn learned that, while Francisco himself didn't commit any of the cheating, he knew about what was going on but decided not to say anything about it."

"That sounds evil!" Lola exclaimed in righteous anger, "Why, if I heard that any of the girls in the pageants I take part in were cheating, I'd report them straight away! There is no room in the pageant circuit for any of that kind of messy business!"

"So, what can we do about it, everyone?" Lana asked, "I mean, from the sounds of things, Lynn isn't going to stop anytime soon."

"The best thing we can do is to give Lynn some space for the time being," Lori stated. With a mildly rattled expression, Lori added as she gently rubbed her stomach again, "A lot of space."

"I sleep in the same room as Lynn," Lucy pointed out.

"Bunk with Lincoln for the night," Lori replied.

"That might not work, Lori," Lincoln began to explain, "You see, Clyde, Rusty, Liam, Zach and I have an overnight thing planned at Rusty's place tonight and-"

"At Rusty's?" Lori interrupted with obvious glee in her tone, "Even better! You can bring Lucy with you since she and Rocky managed to hit it off!"

Sighing in a tone that showed he knew that he didn't have a choice in the matter, Lincoln said, "I'll call the guys and let them know about the situation."

The following morning over at the Spokes residence, Lincoln and his friends were having breakfast in the kitchen; Lucy and Rocky were eating bowls of cereal out in the living room. "Man, I'm glad that you brought your little sister," Zach said with a chuckle as he pointed to Lincoln, "That fake blood of hers was perfect for pulling off that prank!"

"Are you kidding me, Zach?!" Rusty nearly exclaimed, "After what Lincoln's little sister did with Rocky last night, I'm going to have nightmares for weeks!"

"I still can't believe your dad was so willing to play the part of a murder victim for Rocky and Lucy's prank on you," Clyde remarked to Rusty.

"Nightmares for weeks," Rusty repeated before he finished off his bowl of cereal. "Meh, I'll get some more," Rusty remarked as he got up. Going over to the counter, Rusty poured some cereal into his bowl and left it there while he retrieved a carton of milk from the fridge. Heading back to where he left his bowl, Rusty opened the milk carton and proceeded to pour.

However, instead of milk pouring out, what appeared to be blood came out of the milk carton instead. Seeing the 'blood', Rusty gasped before he fainted and fell over onto the kitchen floor. As Lincoln and his other friends got up to go help Rusty, the four boys heard chuckling from the kitchen doorway. Turning their attention to see who was standing there, Lincoln and the others saw Lucy and Rocky standing there in the kitchen doorway.

"Always works," Rocky chuckled as he and Lucy shared a high-five.

"Note to self," Lincoln remarked to himself, "Get Lucy on my side for next April Fool's. She might be able to help fight back against Luan."

Later, as Lincoln and Lucy were walking home from Rusty's place, Lincoln said, "I hope that Lynn's gotten at least a little better."

Looking over at something that had suddenly caught her attention, Lucy pointed to what she was seeing and said, "Yeah, that's not happening anytime soon." Looking to where Lucy was pointing, Lincoln saw that Lynn was standing under a tree, with her baseball helmet sitting on the ground. The sporty Loud sibling was bashing it repeatedly with her baseball bat.

"Stupid baseball!" Lincoln and Lucy could hear Lynn saying angrily as she started causing damage to the baseball helmet, "Stupid cheating! Stupid Francisco!" With more speed and fury, Lynn exclaimed as she broke the baseball helmet to pieces, "STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!" As Lynn breathed hard in exhaustion, Lincoln and Lucy came over, concern for their older sister's emotional state overriding any other thoughts that they had.

"Lynn, are you okay?" Lincoln asked in a concerned tone, getting Lynn's attention. Having heard her brother speak in a concerned tone, Lynn turned to see Lincoln and Lucy both standing there, both wearing expressions of worry on their faces. Seeing two of her younger siblings looking so concerned, Lynn's eyes watered up as she threw her arms around her younger siblings, drawing them into a hug as she cried, no longer able to keep up the fury that had allowed her to destroy her baseball helmet.

"I can't believe this happened to me!" Lynn wailed as hot tears rolled down the sides of her face, "How could any sportsman condone rampant cheating in his team?! How could any sports team get away with any cheating like that?! How?!"

"There, there," Lincoln said as he gently patted Lynn's back, "I'm certain that there are plenty of boys out there who play baseball who agree with you wholeheartedly. You just need to get yourself back out there."

Sniffling a bit, Lynn got up out of the hug and looked Lincoln in the face. "Thanks for the encouragement, little bro," Lynn replied through her sniffling, "But I'm taking a break from baseball for the time being. I can't even pick up a bat without thinking about-"

Lynn was cut off when something hit her in the back. Turning around to see, Lynn saw a football laying on the ground behind her. Picking the football up, Lynn examined it for a bit before she heard someone call out, "Hey, can I get my football back?" Lynn and her younger siblings looked over to see a boy coming over to them.

Roughly the same height as Luan, this boy had long and somewhat wild-looking black hair. He wore a light brown long-sleeved shirt (its sleeve ends hung loosely around the wrists, rather than cling tightly to them) under a somewhat baggy t-shirt that resembled the Swedish flag, a loose-fitting pair of cargo pants held up with a belt, and brown boots. Around the boy's neck was a necklace that had three bear claws as charms. The boy was also noticeably, but not excessively, strong of body; that, plus his bear claw necklace and his long and wild black hair gave him the look of a wild warrior from a northern land of snow and cold.

"Hey, are you okay?" the boy asked as he pointed to Lynn, who was holding the football that he was seeking.

Lynn, having gotten a good look at this boy, stood there as if caught in a trance. Seeing that her older sister wasn't moving, Lucy waved a hand in front of Lynn's face. Turning to face the boy that came up to them, Lucy said, "You'll have to forgive my sister. You see, she's going through some rough times right now."

"I notice that she must have been crying," the boy remarked, "I assume that someone did something to upset her a lot?"

"A baseball team that her baseball team played against tried to cheat in an official game they played," Lincoln explained, "It hit my sister really hard, given how dedicated she it to sports."

"I see," the boy replied in an understanding tone, "I don't know a lot about baseball, but I would be of a similar disposition as your sister if something like that occurred on the gridiron."

"Totally!" Lynn suddenly exclaimed, sounding as if she had suddenly gotten over what had made her upset, "In fact, my football team is looking for a new strong safety, and you look like you'd be perfect for the position! What's your name?"

Caught off guard somewhat by Lynn's sudden recovery, the boy replied, "I am Ulfric Aesir. My parents and I just moved here from Sweden."

"Well that certainly explains why I haven't seen you around before," Lynn said with a hint of eagerness in her tone, "Do you go to Royal Woods Middle School?"

"I start tomorrow," Ulfric replied, "Why? Do you go there as well?"

"Totally," Lynn answered as her small smile started to ever-so-slightly grow, "Where should we meet up after classes tomorrow so I can take you over to the football field for practice?"

"How about the library?" Ulfric suggested, "I was told that the library has a book on Norse Mythology, which I'm rather interested in reading."

"Sounds perfect!" Lynn explained, "Anything else?"

Pointing to Lynn, Ulfric said, "I'd like my football back, please." Noticing that she was still holding Ulfric's football, Lynn blushed and chuckled in an embarrassed manner as she handed the football over to Ulfric. "Well then, I suppose I shall be seeing you later," Ulfric remarked, "As I gave you my name, can I get yours before I go?"

"Lynn Loud," replied the sporty Loud sibling.

With something of a small smile, Ulfric replied, "Well then, Lynn Loud, I look forward to throwing the pigskin around with you." Turning around, Ulfric said as he walked off while he raised a hand, "Take care."

After Ulfric was gone, Lincoln said, "Wow, Lynn, looks like finding a potential new member for the football team you belong to helped to get you out of your depression." After a few seconds of not getting a response from Lynn, Lincoln leaned forward slightly and turned his head so that he could see his sister's face.

Recognizing the look of being love-struck on Lynn's face, Lincoln turned to face Lucy and said, "Should we tell the girls?"

"Lori would threaten to turn us into human pretzels if she found out we withheld this information from her," Lucy replied, "So yes, I say we tell the girls as soon as we get back."

The following day after classes at Royal Woods Middle School let out for the day, Lynn was leading Ulfric out to the school's football field. "Wait a minute, you're only thirteen?" Lynn remarked as the two walked and talked, "You look kind of big for thirteen."

"Those of the bloodline that I belong to have a tendency to grow strong," Ulfric explained.

"And I hope to see that strength put to the test today," Lynn said as the two thirteen-year-olds reached the football field. After a few seconds, Lynn spotted the football coach, a balding mid-fifties man with a mild but noticeable paunch, and led Ulfric over to him. "Coach, this is the boy I told you about earlier," Lynn said as she introduced Ulfric to the football coach.

"You're that boy whose family moved here from Sweden, aren't you?" the football coach asked as he pointed to Ulfric. When the boy nodded once in the affirmative, the football coach let out an impressed-sounding whistle before saying, "What do they feed you over there? You look like you can already play for a high school football team!"

After compliments were paid, Ulfric was given a uniform and made to go through a few plays with other members of the football team. As Lynn had predicted, Ulfric was phenomenal as a strong safety. The practice was going smoothly up until Ulfric got ahold of the football during one of the exercises. When he did, Ulfric noticed something that made him pause.

Seeing Ulfric just stand there as he gave the football a gentle squeeze, the coach called for a time out. "Ulfric, are you okay, young man?" the football coach asked as he quickly dashed over.

"Sorry, it's just that when I grabbed the football, I noticed that it doesn't seem to be inflated properly," Ulfric explained, "Whoever's supposed to maintain the equipment must have forgotten to inflate it." Upon the football coach's request, Ulfric handed the football over.

Giving the football a gentle couple of squeezes, the football coach remarked, "You're right! This football hasn't been properly inflated! This could lead to bad plays!" To the football team as a whole, the coach said, "You all wait here. I'm going to go get another football." The football coach then dashed off quickly, leaving a bunch of middle schoolers alone on the football field.

Unbeknownst to most of the rest of the football team, two of the boys were regarding Ulfric with particularly accusing glares.

…

After football practice was over for the day, the boys on the team went to the locker room to change (Lynn, being the sole girl on the team, pretty much had the girls' locker room to herself). After most of the boys had left to go home, Ulfric was still in the locker room, figuring that he'd wait in the locker room until one of his parents had called to let him know that they had arrived to pick him up (there was some very good air conditioning in the locker room).

As Ulfric waited, he felt someone shove against the upper left (from his point of view) area of his back somewhat roughly. The Swedish boy quickly turned around to confront whoever was trying to be rough with him, more or less shoving his face into the faces of two of the boys on the football team.

Since he was not only taller than either of these two boys by at least a few good inches, but more physically well-conditioned as well, Ulfric turning on them like that made the two boys back up somewhat out of mild alarm, especially due to the rather unhappy scowl that Ulfric wore. If the two boys were lesser males, they might have urinated themselves out of fright.

"Whoa, easy there, Conan," one of the two boys said in a casual mischievous tone, "We were just playing around with you is all."

"By shoving me?" Ulfric asked in a mildly accusing tone.

"It's a little something called 'hazing'," the other boy replied, "It's sort-of like an initiation ritual for new members of the team."

"…Whatever," Ulfric said, his tone showing that his mood had dropped somewhat, "So is there anything else I can do for you?"

"Now that you mention it, yeah, there is," the first boy began, "You remember during practice earlier how you noticed that the first football we were using was not fully inflated?"

"Using equipment that isn't properly maintained can lead to imperfect playing," Ulfric remarked in a matter-of-fact manner, "I would not like our playing to be negatively impacted because someone didn't take care to make sure the equipment was being maintained properly."

"Well see new kid," the first boy said, "Here's the thing. The football was like that on purpose."

"Someone intentionally didn't do their job at making sure that the football was properly inflated?" Ulfric asked, his expression a mix of confusion and accusation (mostly confusion).

"What we did made the football easier to grip," the second boy explained as he gestured to himself and the first boy, "It lets us hold onto the football more easily. We don't want the opposing team to take the football from us, do we? That would give them a better chance to score against us."

"Just do us a favor, new kid," the first boy said in a knowing tone, "From now on, if you ever notice that the football isn't fully inflated, keep quiet about it. Alright?"

Giving the two boys a wry look, Ulfric replied, "…Very well."

"Well alright," the first boy said as he gave Ulfric a congratulatory pat on his right shoulder, "Glad to see that our team isn't getting another by-the-book type like Lynn Loud."

"What was the coach even thinking, allowing a girl on the team in the first place?" the second boy remarked to the first boy as the two of them took off, leaving Ulfric alone.

When he was completely alone in the locker room, Ulfric said to himself, "This troubles me. I should ask Lynn about this."

Later that evening over at the Loud residence, Lincoln was helping Leni, Luna, Lucy and Lana with setting up the table for dinner. As the five of them got the table ready, they brought up how Lynn had seemingly found a new crush. "He sounds like a solid dude from what you and Lucy have told the rest of us," Luna said to Lincoln as they straightened out the chairs at the table, some of which were seated at somewhat crooked angles.

"Yeah, and from what you said about him not liking cheating in football, I'm certain that he won't go and-" Lana said, but she was cut off midsentence by some knocking that came from the front door.

"I'll get that," Lincoln replied as he left the dining room to go answer the door. When he did, the sole Loud boy was surprised to see Ulfric.

"I apologize if I came at an inconvenient time," Ulfric greeted with a look of mild concern on his face, "But something came up that I wish to ask Lynn about. Is she available right now?" Before Lincoln could answer, Lynn happened to have walked by at the moment. Noticing that Ulfric was at the door, she immediately came over.

"Ulfric! Hey!" Lynn greeted in a friendly tone, "Come on in!"

"Lynn, we're about to have dinner," Lucy said as she, Luna, Lana and Leni came out of the dining room, "He can't stay for long."

"I just had something that I wished to ask Lynn about," Ulfric replied, "I'll keep my business here brief."

"You…you wanted to ask me about something?" Lynn said, a faint but steadily growing blush appearing across her face.

Nodding once in the affirmative, Ulfric began, "Remember how the football we were using earlier during practice wasn't inflated properly?"

Her expression dropping somewhat, Lynn replied, "Oh yeah. The football incident from earlier." Straightening up somewhat, Lynn asked, "What about it?"

"Let's say, in a hypothetical situation, that the football was like that intentionally," Ulfric said, "For the supposed purpose of making it easier to grip. Is this a good thing, yes or no?"

"What?!" Lynn exclaimed in shock, "Of course that's not a good thing! That's a form of cheating!"

"…As I suspected," Ulfric remarked as he looked to the floor, holding his left hand over his chin as he put his right hand on his waist. Looking back up to Lynn, the Swedish boy continued, "Since that's the case, then I'm afraid that some of the members of the football team we belong to are trying to use the apparent method of cheating that I had just described."

"I…I can't believe this," Lynn said as she held a hand to her forehead, "Members of one of the sports teams I belong to are trying to cheat. This can't be real."

"Little dude, what happened exactly?" Luna asked Ulfric. Keeping his story brief, Ulfric proceeded to explain what had happened in the locker room, from the attempted hazing to the two boys saying that the football being improperly inflated was intentional. Ulfric finished by saying that he was under the implication that he was being threatened by the two boys in question into keeping quiet (not that either of them were capable of carrying out anything against Ulfric, of course).

"As the coach had left prior to the conflict," Ulfric said as he finished his tale, "I decided that informing Lynn in the hopes that we can bring this to the coach's attention tomorrow together was the best course of action."

Sniffling a little bit, Lynn said, "Ulfric."

"Hmm?" Ulfric replied in a tone of mildly piqued interest as he turned to face the sporty Loud sibling. Although she looked like she was going to start crying at any moment, Lynn was smiling, as if someone had just done her a great kindness.

"Thanks," was all that Lynn said.

"…I am confused," Ulfric admitted in a mildly lost tone, "Why are you thanking me?"

"Baseball is kind of spoiled for me at the moment because someone ruined it for me," Lynn explained as she was putting in a bit of effort not to cry, "If it hadn't been for what you did just now, the same would have happened to football. I'm not even sure if I would have been able to stick with sports as a whole if football was ruined for me like baseball was."

With a wry look of mild amusement on his face, Ulfric replied, "Unlike those two boys who I mentioned, you aren't lacking in honor on the gridiron, or honor in general. That's something that I have to respect, Lynn. Well anyway, I'll be taking my leave now. See you tomorrow."

After Ulfric took his leave, Lynn gently closed the door behind him, then turned to face her siblings. "So, sis," Lana remarked with a sly look, "When are you gonna make your move?"

"I don't know!" Lynn exclaimed in embarrassment, which was further highlighted by the blushing on her face.

The following day at Royal Woods Middle School, Lynn and Ulfric found the coach and brought the apparent cheating to his attention. As such, during practice later that day, the coach did a thorough investigation. As it turned out, half of the boys were in on the cheating, while the other half of the boys had no idea that it was going on and expressed total disgust with the cheating half. The cheating half of the team was kicked off the football team entirely, with the two who had hazed/threatened Ulfric even being suspended from school (Ulfric had identified them).

Due to the football coach cutting the total number of kids on the football team by half, Royal Woods Middle School had to surrender the next three games they were slated to play against the football teams of other middle schools (they needed time to find more players). However, the principal of RWMS didn't mind at all; in fact, the principal agreed with the football coach about not being able to play with a clean team being better than playing with one that was dirty.

A sentiment that the remaining members of the RWMS football team all agreed with.

At the Loud residence that evening, Lynn was sitting in the living room with Lincoln, Lori, Luan, Lola and Lisa; the oldest half of that group sat on the sofa while the younger half sat on the floor. "Hey Lynn, I heard that the football team can't play in the next three games that it was slated to play," Luan remarked, "Are you okay about that?"

"Well of course I'm upset about not being able to play," Lynn replied. After a few seconds, Lynn added, "But I would have been even more upset if I did play but I discovered that my team had been cheating."

"So, you're good?" Lori asked in a concerned tone.

With a bit of a chuckle, Lynn said, "Yeah, everyone. I'm goo-" Lynn was cut off when there was a knocking at the door.

"Allow me, my sibling units," Lisa said as she got up and went to answer the door. A few seconds after she did, Lisa called out, "Hey Lynn! Some boy who looks like a barbarian movie reject from the nineteen-eighties is asking for you!"

"Barbarian movie reject?" Ulfric's familiar voice replied, two parts offended and eight parts confused.

"Dang it, Lisa!" Lynn swore as she got up quickly and ran over to the door, seeing Ulfric standing there. "Ulfric, I am so sorry about my little sister here," Lynn said as she not-so-gently shoved Lisa out to the living room. Returning to the front door, Lynn said, "So anyway, what brings you by?"

"Some girl at our school talked to me earlier," Ulfric began, "She told me that since the football team is going to be forced to miss the next couple of games, you would most likely feel upset about it." Holding up a small shopping bag from a foreign food store, Ulfric continued, "As you are the first person who I met since moving here to the states that treated me with kindness, I felt as if I should try to help you feel better. The girl recommended that I get you some chocolate to snack on."

"Did he say chocolate?" Lori said as she quickly came running over with the other sisters who were watching TV with Lynn. Lincoln, with a bemused look on his face due to his sisters' antics, came walking over a few seconds later.

"Umm, it's meant for Lynn," Ulfric replied in a mildly confused tone as he saw the eager looks on the faces of the other girls, "I'm sorry if-" Stopping short upon seeing Luan, Ulfric pointed to her and said, "Hey, you're the girl who gave me the idea about getting chocolate for Lynn to help her feel better."

"Oh, that's my older sister Luan," Lynn said as she gestured to the comedic Loud sibling.

Regarding Lynn's sisters and Lincoln, Ulfric turned to face Lynn. "You certainly belong to a rather large clan, Lynn," remarked the Swedish boy. Hearing Ulfric say this, Lynn could not help but chuckle.

"This is only half of my siblings," Lynn pointed out.

His eyes widening somewhat out of shock due to Lynn's statement, Ulfric merely said in a shocked tone, "…Impressive." This made Lynn laugh even louder and harder.

As the other Loud siblings who were present were watching this, Luan turned to face Lincoln, Lori, Lola and Lisa. Discreetly pointing to Ulfric, Luan said, "That boy's a keeper."

After dinner, Lincoln was alone in his room, reading a comic book in his underpants. Setting it off to the side, Lincoln turned to face the viewers. "As I was saying earlier," Lincoln remarked, "Although some of the crushes from the whole love letter fiasco a while ago worked out, some of them also didn't work out."

Getting up off of his bed, Lincoln said to the viewers as he put on a pair of sleep pants, "I used to say that three of the crushes from the love letter fiasco a while ago didn't work out, but in light of recent events, now I have to say that four of those crushes didn't work out. There was failed crush number one, failed crush number two, and failed crush number three."

Going over to his dresser, Lincoln pulled a drawer open, then removed a small photo of a fair-skinned girl with long, orange-colored hair. Sighing in a resigned tone, Lincoln unceremoniously tore the small photo to pieces.

(FLASHBACK)

"Lincoln, bro, are you going to be okay?" Clyde asked as he and Lincoln walked through the halls of Royal Woods Elementary School, "I heard what happened about Paige."

"Yeah, Clyde," Lincoln said with a mildly somber expression, "I'll get over it eventually." Straightening himself up, Lincoln said, "I'll just have to put on a brave face. If my sisters see me come home looking all depressed, they'll be swarming all over me in their attempt to make me feel better."

When Lincoln and Clyde parted a few seconds later, with Clyde saying something about not minding if Lori tried to swarm him, Lincoln reached his locker. When Lincoln opened his locker, he felt someone pull his pants down, exposing his underpants. Turning to face the direction the bully must have taken off in, Lincoln exclaimed, "Really?!" Students who were in the area at the time proceeded to point and laugh at Lincoln; some of those students even decided to take pictures of the scene with cameras/cell phones.

(END FLASHBACK)

Sighing, Lincoln said to the viewers, "As for failed crush number four, it doesn't really matter." Throwing a shirt on over his head, Lincoln said, "I wonder if Ronnie Anne is available to have a quick video chat with me."

END

Author's Notes:

If any of you noticed the similarities between this one-shot and the plot of one of the earlier chapters of 'Restored Image', that's because the plot of this chapter was adapted to the 'Restored Image' setting; like I said at the beginning, this is the plot in its original form. This one-shot revolved around the sad but true fact that first crushes seldom ever work out, although to be fair I left some of the crushes from 'L is for Love' successful while leaving a few others ambiguous. Anywho, the next one-shot is actually going to be a whole episode flashback-type deal, hence why it wasn't adapted to the plot of 'Restored Image'.

I was also working with a theory that I saw a few times that 'L is for Love' takes place sometime prior to both 'Heavy Meddle' and 'Back in black'.