For the two-and-a-bit weeks following her sixteenth birthday – which may or may not have involved a wicked party the 'rents didn't know anything about – Luna had been in something of a slump. Nothing major, not like the time she'd had a total identity crisis when it looked like her chosen future in music wasn't going to go anywhere except living out of a van and scavenging washing machines off of the highway, but a slump nonetheless.

She sat near the back of Vanzilla, headphones in and listening to early-80s deathrock, channelling her inner Lucy as she worked her way through what felt like being left out. Leni was driving and had been doing surprisingly well since she'd gotten her license. Mr Grouse had only had to shout at the Louds to put his mailbox back together twice since Lori had gone off to college in the city, taking with her a gift from the Loud parents – a cute little hatchback, ideal for nipping about in the heavy traffic of the city.

For Luna, the free-spirited rocker, private transportation represented some final threshold of freedom. It was up there with getting your own place.
And she'd missed out, because sending Lori off to college and buying her a car had used up any money the younger siblings would have been able to use on large birthday gifts of their own.

Luna felt weird thinking this way, getting at herself for being selfish, but really the most any of her siblings had missed out on was a new VR headset to get in everyone's way playing with Clyde, or some pageant dress that looked identical to the closetful the queen owned already.
On the other hand, Luna was missing out on being free as a bird, now.

With one last exhale, she switched her playlist to something more upbeat, beginning to play air guitar to the opening chords of Iscariot Saint's title track off of their latest album. For a bunch of guys that had been around since the early 70s, somehow they still managed to make the greatest metal album of the year.
By the time Leni had pulled up on the drive of the Loud house, Luna was belting out the lyrics, fingers strumming the air with abandon – at least, until Lincoln gently lifted her headphones off and informed her they'd arrived. Her firepower fizzled out, although it had still mortified those more sensitive to her singing. The family piled out of the tired old van, continuing arguments and stand-up routines into the house, except for Luna – she'd spotted her father waving her over to the garage, and strolled over to him, hands in her pockets.

"Lunes! What's rockin'?" The old man may as well have asked 'what's up, fellow kids?' but she chuckled, knowing he meant well
"Ah, nothin' Pop-star" She rasped, harsher than usual. She should have had something to drink before she sang. "Why, anythin' up with you?"

A broad smile grew across his face, and he gestured towards the garage "I'm sorry we couldn't get you anything for your birthday, Lunes, but this should make up for it"

With trepidation the girl stepped towards the garage door. Was this it? Was she finally going to be able to head on the highway, looking for adventure?
In one of those suspicious acts of coincidence that seemed all too common around the Loud house, the rest of her siblings had overheard there was some kind of gift giving going on outside, and all gathered around hurriedly, climbing all over each other to get the first peak at whatever was in the garage.

Luna squeezed her eyes shut, before throwing the door up into the air. Nobody said anything until she'd opened her eyes again.

And her face fell.

There was a tense moment as Luna inspected what was sitting in amongst all the clutter of the garage. A rather garish little thing; largely white with a big red stripe accented by a smaller blue one. Across the gas tank SUZONUKI was emblazoned in bold, black letters, and again below the blue stripe. The thing was at an angle facing away from her, with REAL SPRINTER written across the sides of the rear mudguards, and SLINGSHOT in smaller letting below that. Whatever any of that meant. It was probably just there to give off more of an illusion of speed. As she circled it, she noticed it also said RGV250 on both sides, giving away its small capacity engine. Finally, she squatted in front of it, handlebars turned towards the side it rested on its stand, and stared into it's single, trapezoid headlight. The only sound that could be heard was the clicking of the engine as the metal shrank while it cooled after being ridden from the home of its previous owner.

It wasn't speaking to her like her guitar had.

The motorcycle showed obvious signs of age and use – the once-clear plastic covering the headlight was yellowing, and both sides were scratched. One of the levers by the handlebars, Luna assumed it was the brake, had been snapped in half, and there was a crack running from the top left to the centre of the windshield.

Lynn Sr. cleared his throat, the other siblings not sure what to make of Luna's darkened expression and silence "She needs a little love, but she runs a treat – why don't you give her a try?" He hoped to win his daughter over through the experience, as, clearly, she wasn't immediately an avid enthusiast.

Revealing the second part of the late birthday gift he handed her a full-face helmet, a carefully chosen shade of purple to match her clothing and general style. The key was inside.
Lana stepped forward when she saw Luna faltering, expressing her willingness to teach her sister how to ride, and Sr. pushed it out towards the street as Lana gave Luna a crash course in motorcycle operation, on-par with Mars Bar's explanation of drifting in The Motoring and The Mad, a movie Lincoln adored but the sisters cared little for. All she had to do, apparently, was make sure her stand was up, pull the clutch in, knock the little lever by her left foot down to put it in gear then ever-so-gently let the clutch lever out while feeding in the throttle. Confident she could at least do that, Luna threw her leg over the bike, and began to feel her heart fluttering now that she was onboard. Despite herself her mouth formed a grin to match the one her father had had, and she looked over at her siblings as she pushed the starter button. After an almost worryingly long time, the two-stroke engine burst into life, and suddenly Luna felt very excited indeed.

Between her legs, what sounded like a swarm of angry wasps trapped inside a metal trash can began raging, vibrating and throbbing. She couldn't hold back an excited little giggle and pulled the throttle a few times like she saw in the movies. The bike roared, high-pitched and obnoxious, twin exhausts blowing out blue smoke, leading to the siblings shuffling back a little. Lisa coughed and hacked, having gotten a lungful. She revved louder when she saw Mr Grouse leaning out of his upstairs window, and felt her hair standing on end.

She had to go.

Looking down at the handlebars through her visor she remembered Lana's lesson, kicked the side stand up and pulled the unfortunately shortened lever in, disconnecting the engine from the drivetrain. Glancing over at the junior mechanic she received a nod and knocked the lever by the left foot peg down. There was a clunk as the bike shifted into first gear, jolting beneath her, but it didn't move. Yet.

Exhaling, she began relaxing the two fingers she'd used to pull the clutch lever and simultaneously began rolling her right hand backwards, feeling the bike vibrate more, getting noisier as the revs climbed.

Then the front wheel was reaching for the sky like a spooked horse, the engine was roaring way into the redline and Luna was unceremoniously dumped off the back, hitting the street hard as her gift hurled itself into Mr Grouse's mailbox, demolishing the duct-taped and zip-tied structure of wood and metal, before dumping itself on its side on the flowers he'd recently been planting on his lawn, stalling and leaking gasoline onto the dirt.

Once she'd recovered, pulling her helmet off angrily and tossing it into her father's hands, she scowled that she wouldn't have fallen off of a car. Then, embarrassed by her outburst but still angry, she took off running towards her room with Luan in pursuit.

Lana did her best to recover the bike, but was too short to pick it up, even if she had been strong enough. In the end it took everyone bar those that weren't present to wheel the muddied machine back to the garage, but only Lynn Sr. to appease Grouse with a few trays of Lynn-sagne.

Much later that evening, after much of the family had gone to bed, Luna laid across the floor of the room she shared with Luan and stared at the ceiling, strumming softly on her acoustic guitar. Dinner had been a little awkward as it had been made obvious that the rocker was none-too-pleased with her gift, and there was a lot of talk around the table reserved for the younger Louds, led mostly by Lana, about how cool motorcycles actually were, and how Luna was a total moron for just dumping it and running off when she'd barely even tried. This talk floated into the dining area for the older siblings, which was mostly silent. Luna stared into her soup to avoid looking at her parents, although Leni and Luan were able to brighten the mood a little.

Luna sat up, placed her guitar up on her bed, and crept out to the garage assumedly unnoticed, just to give her bike a second look. She wasn't sneaking like she would when she had something to hide, but she also wasn't stomping around like during the day, simply crossing the yard and entering the garage through the side door.

The fluorescent lights flickered on lazily, bathing the interior of the garage with yellow light. Off to the left, leaning against some overfilled cardboard boxes of junk and out of the spotlight was Luna's gift, the beaten and bruised Suzunoki. She sighed to herself, wondering if Lana's enthusiasm for the mechanical really had gotten to her so quickly, boosted by the goosebumps she'd gotten when sitting on it. Although her helmet was hanging off of the handlebars, key stashed inside it, she felt it would be better not to start it up right now to chase that feeling again. Instead, as she'd done earlier, she crouched in front of the bike and stared at the bike's headlight again like she was looking into a person's eyes. The plastic over the bulb had been removed, Luna noted, although there was still a fair bit of Mr Grouse's grass sticking out of some of the bolts attaching the front forks to the wheel and the vents cut in the fairing hiding the engine.

She reached out, patting the front of the bike between the headlight and windshield, and suddenly felt as though she was talking to the motorcycle in the same way she could her guitar. Not in a conversational way, but on a deeper level of understanding between the girl and the inanimate object.

She simply squatted there, staring at the bike – her bike – for several minutes, not even noticing the garage's side door opening then closing again.

"Oh, Luna, s'just you" a voice chuckled, although Luna only looked over lazily, barely registering she was being spoken to.
"Lana?"
"Heh, yeup. Here" She held out the plastic cover for the headlight "I cleaned it up a little for ya"

The older brunette took it, turning it over in her hands "Cheers, mate" She grinned, putting on her British accent for a few moments and ruffling Lana's hair, despite her hat still being in the way, before turning back to the bike and giving it a look with her sister.

"Hey," Luna began, rubbing her arm "I'm sorry I just dumped it and ran off, I know you like this stuff and that must have been…"
"No, don't worry about it" Lana grinned "Now we get to pretty it up together!"

There was a long pause, the girls able to smell the scent of spilt gasoline that had tinged the garage, before Luna finally responded.

"Together?" She blinked
Lana nodded "It's fine for maintenance on a car to be left to someone else, especially when it's shared like ours, but a motorcycle is a very personal experience" The younger girl's eagerness and attempt to be some sage-like character brought a smile to Luna's helpless face, and she nodded her agreement

"Sure thing dude, after school we can- "

The garage door opened again, Rita exclaiming something about having finally found Lana, the girl up past her bedtime. Luna found herself following the pair in, her mom advising her to come back inside for now, and she flicked the garage's lights off on the way out, giving her Suzunoki one last look before the fixtures got the message the switch was sending.