It was there all of her life. The disabilities and illnesses that came as a package deal with the title of a product of incest. What she had, was what the others surely didn't. Not Lyra, not Lemy, not Lizy, and especially not Leia. She wasn't sure about the other three, but it wasn't likely they too had some natural flaw. And to live knowing they were more of a regular functioning design would always get to her. It was bad enough she was constantly a nervous wreck, almost paranoid. She jumped at everything, and that wasn't an exaggeration. Fidgeted, quivered, and squeaked like a frantic mouse trying to make it out alive with its cheese. It was there all of her life, and would remain until death.

But when was death due for old Loan Loud?

That was an often simple question she had begun to ponder over excessively when Lacy and Lupa, who lived in the other Loud household with Liby and their mothers, had come over for a horror movie marathon. That one time was enough to further break the innards of Loan, when they didn't believe she could be further damaged mentally.

Luna, Lori, Lana and Lola lived under the same roof for too long.

The way it all began was when Lori herself became pregnant first with Lincoln's kid, the tampered result of the first ever long-running Lisa experiment.

The filling of his seed occurred right as Lori went away for college, and had been raising what she at first believed was Bobby's child, until Lisa exposed the truth to her uncaringly. Lisa was the one who supplied the house the currently lived in, using some usual braniac methods Lori couldn't comprehend.

Lisa went on to explain that Lori was not going to be the last subject. Of course, Lori wouldn't have that shit from Lisa. So, she planned without hesitation to tell the household of Loan's existence and what Lisa had done. But there was that Loan was something Lori had grown fond over in her infant state, and Lori had figured Loan wasn't defective then and there. But what did Lori know?

To the mother, Loan was completely normal, and had no physical disadvantage. Lori figured out there was no harm in the incestuous product, so she kept shut for the many years, while Lisa continued to repeat the same cycles for the other siblings.

The way it worked was that all the candidates would had to have reached seventeen in exact when they went underway of the birth process, so that there would be an age gap of the sin kids, like the siblings. It would mean that all of the kids would be born around the same month, give or take.

Of course, Leni was skipped over due to intelligence factors, and so Luna given a double offer, with Lemy being conceived awhile after baby Lupa was born.

The best part for Lisa was that she only used Lincoln's extracted DNA the first time, gathered during one summer night to help conceive Loan, and then used Loan's from thereafter to replicate his spliced share of DNA, as not to raise any suspicion from the brother, if she kept taking from him.

The issue was that not everyone would fit into one house, so Lisa divided it into two units. Lynn, Luan and Lucy had been given the second unit, living with Lacy, Liby and Lupa.

Their parents, Lily, Leni, nor Lincoln had found out about any of this. Not yet at least. He was gone, moved out with Ronnie Anne to some other part of the world, likely having planned to start off their own family.

But that was years ago, and no one within the two households had kept tabs on the biological father of the bunch of children.

Some of them did not accept this for one of Lisa's devious experiments, but Lori had talked them to play Lisa's game. To keep the others in line, Lisa did offer monetary compensation to them. Right off the bat, only half of the mothers accepted, while the rest were reluctant and disgusted that it wasn't even considered to decide if it was right or not.

But no one was able to do anything, in spite of fear and being shunned by their own parents, and the other three siblings.

Throughout the kids' lives, none of the mothers were too regretful of the kids themselves. Only Lola would, but not too often, berate her daughter for her constant getting into trouble and making some messes while merely playing with Lemy. Lola, in turn, would blame Luna for the boy's passed down genes.

And there was Lucy, who would try and pretend Lupa wasn't around, when she wasn't giving her shit. Neglect was the white-haired product's issue there, and Liby and Lacy would often try to pick her up, but had gotten there too late, as the goth's daughter had already been exposed to some sort of darkness.

Lupa and Loan had once gone out when Lupa pieced that Loan was quite a case, and invited her to some run down factory on the edge of Royal Woods, the same town where the original Louds had lived in.

Lupa brought some empty beer bottles, which Loan wasn't sure if the latter had chugged them down earlier or recently. She had hoped Lupa hadn't become a drinker. Lupa wasn't acting drunkenly or slurring her words that day. Then again, Lupa was fairly young to even become an alcoholic. She had a slingshot on her and began to fling rocks after lining up the bottles. Only some shattered on instant, and the rest were spared.

"They're not yours, are they?"

"No..." Lupa sighed out, still breaking away the glass bottles. "They're all my mother's. She does it often."

Loan stood behind Lupa, fear of glass flying into her. "H-have you ever done this before?" She bit away at her nails, shaking as if they were in a cold environment.

"Stop latching onto me! The bottles are far away, Loan!" Lupa was getting frustrated at the paranoid wreck. "You're ruining my sweater."

It was around six in the evening that calm day. The sun was setting, meaning it was time to return home. "L-l-look, the s-sun is...-"

"I know what it means, dipshit," came a trademark Lupa retort. "You can head back now, and leave me alone here. Just like- Her..." Lupa then began to throw the rocks manually and in anger. Loan understood the girl's pain, having been told of critical facts when Lemy would sometimes sneak out to join with Lacy, his favorite family member of the sin category.

For Loan, something was very similar; you see, Lori had been leaving Loan by herself when she turned the age of seven, as often as she could. Luna and company had taken up the job to raise the girl, while Lori put in more time for her work.

In a way, she might've already subconsciously figured out that they were all screwed up from lack of a father figure. And if she realized that, then maybe so did the others. In that case-

"Do you ever think about it? What it would be like if we had both parents?"

"What are you getting at?" Lupa bent down and began to skip rocks along the concrete floor. "Is this a hypothetical question?"

"Yeah. Like, would things be different? Would... I not be ignored?"

"I don't know what goes on with the both of you, but it can't be anymore bad than what I have to deal with constantly."

Loan wouldn't often see her mother that much, and the feeling of estrangement from both of her parents paid its harsh toll on her. Yes, that was it. The black hole was empty because it lacked parental love. Luna had been trying to fill that void, but had sensed herself that it wasn't the same as Lori's loving nature that Loan had grown to never displease. It was the similar case Lupa was exhibiting with Lucy.

"My mom doesn't talk to me anymore..." Loan wailed. She wanted to cry then and there, knees wobbling so hard, that she could have easily fallen and broke down like a little girl. It wasn't exactly a sight that Lupa would enjoy, unless it was some random person. Lupa dropped however many rocks she had to comfort the tall blonde.

"Stop your crying, we're all fucked up in our own way. We can't afford to be crying, Loan." Lupa wiped away her older cousin's tears with her own sweater. "I don't know what or why, but it matters how we'll get through it. And we will, Loan. We don't need a father, we've got our mothers, or each other. We're all dealing in the same situation, you know?"

Loan ceased her sobbing, relieving herself after Lupa's words. "Why am- Why am I different from the rest of you?"

"You're not..." Lupa knew what Loan meant, but didn't want to go there. "Not as much as you think. But, what do I know, right?"

"I mean, everything is just..." She didn't know how to explain it with words, but she knew what it was. And maybe she figured Lupa had noticed it too. "I'm not okay. I'm the weird one of the group."

"Doesn't mean you're bad, cousin. Come on, let's go. It really is getting dark."

Lupa was giving herself early lung cancer as they walked it back. Loan shivered as she kept strolling behind Lupa, wearing her usual baby blue and gray sweater, with some brown sweatpants. "That's b-bad for you," Loan stuttered casually. If she could help it, she totally would.

"Oh? What are you, my mother?" Lupa released the smoke from her mouth. "The one I don't feel like I have?"

Loan covered half her face with her sweater, afraid of taking in the secondhand smoke. She held her breath, turning a little blue. She began to instantly feel lightheaded as she did so.

"Ah..." Lupa noticed this and put out her cigarette and tossed it to some random lawn. "There, happy?"

Loan shook her head. "You're just a little girl, it's wrong. Aren't you worried?"

"Not necessarily. Natural selection, and all that," Lupa howled back. The rest of the walk became an awkwardly quiet one. "I've been handling just fine, without the help of Lace and Libster..." But Lupa's crossing of her arms suggested otherwise.

Loan had that sense that all was bothersome for the troubled white haired girl. Maybe she had gone and summoned Loan to escape her pain, just as Loan had with her own conflicts.

Once they reached Loan's place, Lupa stopped right at the front yard, as if some supernatural force was repelling her from going as far as to the porch. "It's been fun, Loaner." Lupa didn't wave goodbye or even remotely smile.

Loan wondered if she did something wrong as Lupa went off into the night. "Sorry..." She told to the nobodies around her. All there was was to head back in and possibly be scolded by Lyra for not advising anyone that she left, and where she left to.

Lyra, the daughter of Luna, was actually the Lori of the sin kids of this vicinity. She handled them all, when once proven to be a calm but serious member in the household, when Loan was having trouble in controlling the three younger pests who were fighting over the TV remote. Leia bit Loan, and that made the nervous wreck run off, crying out infection. Since then, Lyra was the head of the kids, whenever the adults were out for the day or something.

She happened to be present in the living room when Loan crept in, slowly turning the doorknob. It didn't make any suspicious sound that would alert anyone that someone was either sneaking out or returning from that. That was the good side of it. Today wasn't a good day for Loan.

"Just where in the hell were you?!" Lyra stood up, crossing her arms and tapping her left foot. "You know we have a curfew, Loan!"

"I know, I'm sorry, Lyra!" Loan's fingers twitched as her scolding continued.

"Okay, so you snuck out. That's one thing, but being late?! Really?! It's not safe for us to be roaming around, you know! What if our mothers were to have caught you? What if aunt Lori caught you?"

Loan struggled for a response, reeling in the pathetic cry of guilt. "Please- I'm sorry, Lyra."

It wasn't joy for the classical violin player to bring about punishing the fragile Loan. It was so she could understand that going around town could prove bad for everyone, due to Loan's complete resemblance to Lori. Sure, they'd probably wonder if Lori was around, when she had made it crystal clear she had deserted Royal Woods. Word would get out, and the matter of those who didn't need to unravel the whole thing would be given the harsh reality of what Lisa and the others have reluctantly agreed to.

All for innocent, young kids who should have never been.

Lyra took her by her hand, something she'd usually do with Leia or Lemy. "You're going to your room, Loan."

Loan wanted to cry, upset that she was also failing Lyra's expectations while receiving her scolding. "P-please don't tell them!"

"I'm supposed to be watching all of you! You had me worried here, so much!" Lyra continued taking her up to one of the four bedrooms the house had. Three of them took up the second floor, all scattered in an upside U-shape design after climbing the stairs. Loan and Lyra took the one on the left, Lemy and Leia took the one on the end of the short hall, and Lizy with her mother Lana claimed the one on the right, due to gassy problems the other mothers didn't want to deal with. They took the last bedroom, on the first floor.

Two of the bathrooms were in each floor, but one of those two was attached with Lemy and Leia's, which made it a challenge whenever the second generation diva was there. And with her, there were no exceptions. Luna and Lori would often complain to Lola to keep the little bitch in check.

Lyra kept tugging the oldest sin girl by her arms, and escorted her in. "You stay there, I've been waiting in the living room for over an hour."

The crossed Lyra shut the door in between them, leaving Loan for the fictional bed and closet monsters.

The other three kids were having a pillow fight when Lyra barged in.

"Ha, Loan's back!" Leia cheered. "It's before eight, I win!"

Lemy crossed his arms, scoffing. "You'll get yours, Star Wars."

Leia threw the pillow in her hands at him and the jumped and tackled. "Lemy, that's not funny! It's just-"

"A pure coincidence!" Lyra and Lemy finished in unison, already used to Leia say those exact words for everytime one of the kids would reference Star Wars or Leia Organa. Could she blame them? It was her who had the similar hairstyle as the other Leia. Lemy would enjoy poking fun at the little blonde whenever the chance was there, or whenever she was being an irritating little troll, which happened to be more than half of the time.

"Uh-huh, it sure is," Lemy sarcastically finished, before remembering Lyra was there for a reason. "Oh, right. We know the drill, Lyra. We're gonna avoid her as much as we can, and if we see her, we won't try to provoke her in every way she could be."

Lyra smiled causally, glad to see Lemy take initiative. Her eyes automatically fixed on Leia. "Aaaaaand?"

Leia placed a hand on her chest and lifted the other up high. "I won't tease or harass the teenage girl, because she's sensitive about herself." And Leia concluded her agreement with a mouth-zipping gesture. Her head was given a light patting by Lyra.

"And make sure Lizy isn't throwing around her toys, okay?"

Operation Fragile was one that had been running long enough for Lemy and Leia to become the props at executing the mission, which was to never say or do the wrong things around Loan. It meant not bringing up movies, not talking about news, local or worldwide, and nothing about sports. Lemy couldn't afford a sprained ankle with Loan being around, for she'd scream and twitch as if Lemy had received a fatal wound.

Not even Leia could be her shouty self at Lizy if any tea parties were crashed. Loan would peek over to tell her to lower her voice to not affect anyone's eardrums. Although maybe Loan had heightened senses, which Lemy once joked about. He wanted to test it, but the idiot ended up hurting her with a frying pan instead. Her unexpected present was a broken arm that toom days to mend. Loan was worried about anything potentially harmful of having a broken arm; Lyra was the one to knock her out whenever Loan had those overly done episodes.

Lemy nodded in agreement, going over to Lizy and picked her up. "Better if we go down now, right?"

"Yeah, watch a movie or something," Lyra suggested.

As the three kids proceeded to go down, Lizy tugged at Lyra's purple sweater and finally spoke. "What's wrong with Loan?" Her eyes glittered with a curious innocence, and Lyra wasn't sure if she could even try to answer the youngest girl's question.

"N-nothing, Liz. There's nothing wrong with your cousin." Lyra gave her a patting over her red hat. "We're just going to talk. No noise or shenanigans, got it?"

Their room was isolated, save for Loan. She was physically comfortable under the covers of her bed when Lyra and the hybrid yellow-orange lights broke into her peaceful period. "Who's-?"

"It's just me, Loan. You gonna tell me why you ran off like that?"

Loan's eyes retracted from Lyra, and scrolled everywhere instead. "I felt... Couped up in here."

Lyra pushed the door shut behind her. "We have a backyard-"

"I know."

"I might've been to harsh on you, so, sorry about that. So, is the backyard too small for your taste?" Lyra took her place next to Loan, sitting on her bed. "Talk to me, you've never done this before. But I'm not surprised you did so with Lupa. Liby told me she too ran out. Stay away from Lupa, she's bad news for any one of us."

"Lyra? Am I... Different?" Even then, Loan still couldn't get herself to look to Lyra, read her expression, something that would hint at what emotion she'd feel with the answer.

"Well, we all have our preferences over things, and I guess that makes us different from one another," she began.

"No, I mean..."

Lyra knew what Loan was implying, but there was no need to make her feel more out of place, as much as she had already felt over the years. "No, you're unique. If I were to say you are different, I would never imply it as a bad thing. You're not alone, you know. You're not the only one."

Lyra grabbed one of Loan's arms and began to carress it with a finger.

"There is nothing wrong with you, nor any of us for that matter."

Loan gave a slow nod, sniffing lightly. "I just didn't want to trouble you with my condition. I left because I wanted to be alone, and not just in my room. I wanted it all the way."

"Do you even know the way?" Lyra stopped circling her finger over Loan's hand. "I would say it's something we all need to talk about, reach a compromise. You stress and worry over the little things, I get that. But you also now just started to overthink. You talk in your sleep, it's like I'm listening to audio books."

"W-what? I sleep talk?" Loan shivered, completely taken aback by this. "O-oh, I didn't know. I-I'm sorry..."

"No, Loan, you did nothing wrong. You don't have to apologize for anything. You just can't help yourself, alright?"

And Loan was already retreating back to one of her many familiar, common thoughts. Loan had been feeling more like a thorn in everyone's sides, slowly increasing through the later years. And those later years happened to be now. How much more would she able to take until something horrible happened?

Her hands had a mind of their own once more, twitching like she had hypothermia for the first time. "Ungh..."

Lyra locked on to both of Loan's hands, trying to stop the recoil of the trembling hands. "Loan, easy breaths. Easy breaths, Loan." She grew close to the older Loud teen, setting herself comfortably around her. "Why don't I help you fall asleep?"

"W-what about bed bugs?"

"They aren't real, Loan..."

"L-Lyra?"

"Yes?"

Loan hesitated to speak her mind. It wasn't just the hidden fear and pain that was countering her words, but something else she could not understand as simple as she did with other things. "I-"

She wondered if she was perhaps a failure in her mother's eyes. There had to be some validated reason why mommy dearest had distanced herself from the scared, lonely teenager. No. Even when she wanted a reason, she would still not want to hear it. She would not want to accept and take in the harsh reality of a depressing truth. But that was yet to comprehend, yet to really cry over. Denial.

"I miss her hugs... Those times when she used to tuck me in..." Loan cried softly, too broken to continue.

Lyra, afterwards, began to hum Loan's favorite lullaby, playing into less painful of old times. The song was that from a hand-me-down toy that an annoying fox would play on repeat. Lyra's voice was so melodic, soothing, something purely delivered from the heavens.

Loan's eyelids kissed again for another sleep cycle. Her mouth formed a smile that Lyra wasn't able to see as the latter had rolled herself facing away from Lyra.

"No matter what you believe your flaws to be," she whispered over Loan, "Those are the things we can help improve with you." She gently planted a kiss on Loan's cheek.

Soon, they drifted off to sleep. Lyra covered themselves under Loan's warm covers, spooning the mother-less girl, trying to fill the void Loan was also physically missing. They stayed in that position all night.

Lyra slept on Loan's entrapped dilemma. It was true that Loan needed something, but not even she knew how to explain, or even understood it fully. Not like Lyra, who knew all too well what Loan so desperately needed. It was time for a new course of action, and in this case, some assistance would be required from the other kids. Lyra began to plan it on that night.

AN: Loan and Lupa, going down two roads that are intersecting. I'm trying for a different direction than what i usually do. This won't be a long fic, per se, but then again, I've said that for previous ones. So, time will tell. I pushed up the date as I'd be very busy after the 12th, so early release FTW. As always, I hope you enjoy.