AN: This is an idea I've actually thought up months ago (again). This story is going to be quite a challenge since I personally think Luan isn't a character easy to write, but I'm willing to take it on. Hopefully it'll be at least okay for you readers to enjoy. Updates will come slowly at least for the time being, but I'll try to make this work.
Revenge, Sweet Revenge
Chapter 1
The Mistake
Flip's Food & Fuel! If you were looking for the crudest mart in all of Royal Woods, you could not end up in a more despicable excuse for a store than this! Where quality is always high, or at least it was a month ago when the products were first placed on the shelves! Where customers are always welcome, as long as they have good money to wast—ahem, spend! Where everyone can work to gain a few more cents for him or herself, while spending entire afternoons cleaning the unholy bathrooms!
And of course, despite this rather horrific presentation, the owner himself couldn't care less about the debatable conditions of his shop. Flip was sitting on the chair behind the counter, feet placed over it as he went through the pages of the newspaper of the day, with very little will to start working hard… unless the endeavour could help him make a ton of money in a short amount of time. He was so immersed in the latest news regarding Royal Woods' happenings that he didn't even lower the paper to check the customer who opened the door and entered the mart.
"Suit yourself, whoever you are. I'm kind of busy here, so check here only if you have something to pay for," Flip grumbled mechanically. He expected the guy to either turn on its heels and go away or dive deeper into his shop, but unfortunately whoever it was it did not pay heed to Flip's words, as he heard its footsteps coming closer first and then its elbows impacting with the counter.
Flip sighed and placed the newspaper down, eyeing the girl who had interrupted his daily news-surfing tradition. He wasn't particularly impressed to find out that he knew who she was: he did see her around a couple of times, like most of her family. "So, what's the deal, funny girl? I hope this is not something that will end with a couple of bucks in my pockets. I'd rather have more than a couple, in fact."
"That's very likely, actually," the girl said, grinning widely. "Heck, you may even find those pockets full, Flip! Or should I say, over-flipped?"
Flip groaned as Luan Loud jerked her head up, exploding with laughter. "Get it?!"
"I don't think the answer to that question would be appropriate for your age, so just get it over with, Loud. What do you want?"
"Oh, I was just looking for a few materials," Luan explained. "My family hasn't really been… uh, appreciating my efforts to make things a bit livelier at home, so I've been preparing some special stuff to do elsewhere. I have big plans, Flip… and you are going to play a part in it by offering the silliest, most devilish contraption you can think of!"
Flip leaned over the counter, his interest suddenly perking up as an idea played in his mind. "It's pranks we're talking about, you say? Well, would you look at that, I might have something that could catch your attention, young lady."
A moment later, Flip and Luan were inside one of the aisles, looking at a shelf full of an unidentified type of canned food. "These babies right here are supposedly fallout-tier delicacies, but I once opened one up and had to spend the rest of the day spraying the shop with a deodorant."
Luan took one of the cans out of the shelf and examined the writings on the metal. "Coyote meat?"
"That's just the name of the product, it's actually just weirdly prepared beef… though I wonder how they got those realistic coyote photos. Anyway, that's not the point."
"Yeah… this is basically a year's worth of portable gas bombs ready to use!" Luan exclaimed. "Perfectly usable and with no side effects unlike my little sister's chemical gas…"
"Your sister what?"
"Oh, nothing! I'll take them, I'll take fifty of them!"
Flip shrugged Luan's weird reference off as he walked back to the counter, mentally counting what the jokester had to pay (and of course he was upping the price given how willing to take the merch the girl was). Soon, Flip found himself flapping through the sweet-feeling, green coloured paper of dollar bills.
"Pleasure to do business with you, Loud!" Flip said as Luan cheerfully waved at him with one hand, the other keeping a plastic bag full of cans with unfathomable organic matter inside. Once the Loud girl was out of the shop, Flip started to play with one of the cans he had retrieved from the shelf, passing it from one hand to the other.
"Well, Flip, you did it again. I can't believe I managed to snatch that price from her," he said, complimenting himself. "How much were these things anyway when I first had them arrive? Ten dollars for the whole package? Uh, I would've have thought my memory was better than this… but then again, it's been three years since then…"
He was so immersed in his monologue that one of his hands failed to grab the can. The metallic container fell on the counter, its lid immediately flipping open and releasing the contents. Flip's eyes widened, already dreading the afternoon he was going to spend cleaning the mess up, but he was confused to realize that nothing was coming out of the can… except for a tiny group of tiny arthropods.
"Huh?" Flip scratched his head as he picked up the can and checked the inside, only to see fully clean metal, from top to bottom. "Oh… guess that was what happened after that one mish-ap last year. I was wondering why the aisle wasn't that smelly…"
Then, Flip realized what he had just done concerning his latest customer, and his reaction was a chuckle.
"Good thing I got rid of most of them! Now, about that newspaper…"
Leni Loud was in a good mood. Granted, she was usually so most of the time, but for her that afternoon was fairly different than usual. After school, Leni usually found her home chaotic, full or ongoing arguments between her siblings, who were either shouting at each other or… at each other, but louder.
What she found upon putting her foot back into her house that day was, well, chaos, but not one caused by conflict. She had immediately realized that her sisters and brother were somehow spending a day without fighting each other non-stop, and Leni wanted to make sure that such an occurrence remained untouched for as long as possible.
Thus, Lynn and Lincoln were quite surprised to see their older sister suddenly put a tray with two glasses of water and a bowl carrying a few biscuits on the coffee table in front of them. The two had been watching TV in one of the rare cases were a television program interested more than one Loud sibling, the Love Boat excluded. The sport-enthusiast wanted to examine the soccer match and see if there were a few tricks she could learn from the players on the field, while Lincoln had mentioned something about some kind of new kid at school and wanting to follow the advices of him or her.
"What's the catch, Leni?" Lynn tilted her head, diverting her attention away from the broadcast for a moment. "You need some actual muscles with something? You just have to ask if you want us to lend a hand."
"Oh, no, I just wanted to make sure you two feel alright. Usually, when you and Lincoln spend time with each other, you are going after each other."
"Correction, I am the one going after him. I always start that, in fact…" Lynn threw a knowing glance at Lincoln, who gulped, but the girl simply chuckled and gave him a nudge. "Don't worry, Linc, you're free… for today."
Lincoln grunted, then he looked at Leni. "You do have a point, though, Leni. I've not seen Lori scold anyone since I came home. I think that's a record."
Leni smiled. "Hopefully, we can keep this up for as long as—"
"Come right here, you little rascal!"
"Then move and catch me, little miss perfectionist!"
Lincoln, Lynn and Leni sighed. Of course, it had to be the twins… but Leni wasn't going to call it quits so easily. "I'm still going to do my part in this. I feel like today is going to be great!"
"Oh, as long as you're offering us this, I'm not complaining," Lynn said, snatching a biscuit and putting it in her mouth. Lincoln limited himself to a simple nod, and Leni let them immerse themselves into the soccer match, directing her attention to the upper floor.
The twins were fighting, but maybe there was a way she could distract them from their omnipresent rivalry… someone who was great and getting the attention and raising the mood. As she walked upstairs, she saw Lana running through the hallway and back into her room, Lola driving her pink toy car behind her while agitating a princess staff like a morning star. 'Give me a sec, girls, and I'll get whatever made you fight out of your mind in no time… with Luan's help, hopefully.'
As she turned left, she noticed that there was no sound coming from Luan's room. Considering that the jokester liked to practice her new skits as much as her roommate liked to strum a few notes every now and then, that was an oddity she couldn't help but notice. 'Maybe they're taking a nap? Nah, that would be weird, only Lily can nap in this house, and just because Lisa created those special earmuffs. What did she call them? Sound-boof?'
She shrugged and decided that in the event that one of the two teenagers was really sleeping, she would just take a peek to check on them.
Before she could place her hand on the doorknob, though, the door was abruptly opened by Luna, who scrambled out of the room and slammed the door shut.
Leni was considerably confused. "Luna? What's wrong?"
"Sis!" Luna looked considerably flustered. "What, uh… nothing, I'm alright. Just… Luan. She's not… happy right now, and it's better if I leave… we leave her alone."
Leni was saddened by the news. "Oh, I was going to ask her to help me with Lana and Lola. Are you sure? Maybe I can—"
"No!" Luna grabbed her shoulders and shook her sister. "Whatever you think you can do, that's bogus! Luan has to be left to herself, Leni, or she may end up doing something bad!"
Leni thought about the current date. "Luna, don't you think you're being a little unfair? I'm not sure exactly what day of the week it is, I keep forgetting, but I'm pretty sure that we're far from April Fools."
"Well, she's in April-Fools-esque mode right now, and you and I both better leave her alone, trust me!"
Leni placed her hands on her hips, offended. "Whatever is wrong with her, I'm going to find out and help her out. And you should do the same, Luna!"
"Leni, you don't understand. She's looking for… ugh. Listen, I told you the truth, it's your choice, but remember my words: if you enter that room now, then there won't be any going back."
That said, Luna quickly walked away, while Leni glared at her. Just what was the deal with Luan that made her roommate act so strangely? She almost looked scared! And as long as spiders weren't involved and it wasn't the first of April, there was nothing to be scared of about Luan in her opinion.
Thus, Leni quietly opened the door and walked into the bedroom. "Luan? Can I talk with you for a moment?" she asked. "I was kind of looking for your help, but Luna looked a bit funny. Is there anything wrong?"
Once Leni made two steps into the room, the door behind her closed by itself. Leni glanced behind herself, surprised by the event, before realizing that Luan was nowhere in sight… it was possible that her sister was sitting on a picturesque looking chair right in front of her. Luan's 'royal funny chair'.
Leni started to feel like maybe Luna wasn't completely wrong as the chair slowly whirled around and Luan revealed herself to Leni.
"Leni… how nice to see you visit me," Luan drawled. She was not wearing her jokester hat, which was good news, but her dark facial expression didn't leave much to interpretation. Leni mechanically made a step back.
"Uh, hi, Luan… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bother you… I just—uh. I'll ask you later!" Leni blabbered in an attempt to find a way out of the situation.
"Why would you? If you're here, it means you wanted to talk with me, didn't you?" Luan replied. "Come on, don't be shy, dear sister. What did you want to ask me?"
Leni considered her options and concluded that screaming and trying to ram her way out of the door to escape wasn't her best choice. "I was going to, well… I just wanted to ask you to help me, Luan. Today everyone I saw was in a good mood and since the twins have just resumed fighting like usual, I kinda sorta thought you could find a way to distract them from their fighting. I didn't mean to ask you though if I knew you weren't feeling like it… I guess I was wrong from the start."
Luan sighed. "I understand. I'm afraid, Leni, that you'd have a point in guessing that I'm not in a good mood now…"
Leni was startled by her sister as she suddenly stood up from her chair and shouted dramatically. "I have been beaten, Leni!"
Surprise and fear were soon replaced by puzzlement. "Uuh… what?"
"I have been fooled at my own game! In my search for the perfect materials needed for my new prank masterpiece, I visited a shop like others… and I bought what I thought was a perfect starting point, only to discover that it was all worthless, empty tin! And to make things worse, it was not my biggest rival or whatever… it was, of all people, Flip!"
Leni thought about it for a few seconds before slightly furrowing her brows. "That's no surprise. That guy does go a long way to do everything that makes him money. I never understood why he acted that way… I'm sorry that this happened to you, Luan."
Luan eyed Leni for a few seconds before passing a hand over her face. "No, Leni, you don't understand. Flip didn't just snatch a steal deal out of me. He pranked me!"
"Pranked?"
"Yes! He staged this, I know it!" Luan affirmed adamantly, "And he did this while I myself was preparing for my next big scheme!"
Leni tilted her head. "Are you sure that' really what happen—"
"I can't let this go, Leni," Luan pressed on, almost monologuing more than talking with her sister, as she turned away from her and walked to the window. "Flip has just declared war on the wrong person, and I'll make sure that he knows what kind of mistake he has just done, as soon as possible…"
Leni flinched as Luan's tone shifted back into dark territory. Realizing that there wasn't much she could do to gain Luan's help, her instincts made her momentarily put aside her plans with the twins. Carefully, she approached Luan, who was still looking out of the room while holding her hands behind her back.
"Luan… I don't think that's really the best way to handle your distress. I, uh… I just wanted to say, if you need anyone to talk with to take your mind off that guy, I'm always here," Leni said, already raising a hand to touch Luan's shoulder. "If there is any kind of help I can—"
Luan jerked around in a split-second. The movement was so sudden that Leni, taken aback, couldn't help jumping back. "EEEEP!"
Luan was unperturbed. She was staring at Leni with an uncannily serious expression… an expression that oh so slowly turned into a grin.
Unfortunately, it was a wicked one.
"Leni… Leni… Leni…" Luan said slowly. "Always the same. Thank you for your caring offer, but there's no need for any heart-to-heart talking… you just gave me a great idea that might just help me out with my problem here. In fact, why don't we get out and check out what the wins are up to before they destroy something of value from Lori? I'm sure you knew better than all of us what her immediate reaction might mean for all of us."
Leni's eyes widened. Luan was literally beaming now and had even willingly offered to join her in her quest, and she had no idea of what of what she said did the trick. Granted, the smile didn't promise anything good-meaning on the long term, but she was no more as sour as before!
"Really? You would?"
Luan passed an arm around Leni's head, still grinning. "Of course, Leni! You'll have my help…"
Her words toned down until they were more comparable to a whisper. "…and I'll have yours. Mwahahahahahaa!"
Luan suddenly stopped her evil laugh to look at Leni, and she took in the fact that that her sister's face had just bleached. The jokester simply eased her smile into a more neutral one, either not minding or not noticing the fact that she had almost made her sister flee the room in a panic.
"But first, let's deal with our little sisters, shall we?"
