As Lincoln Loud waited not so patiently on the living room couch for Bobby Santiago and his sister, Ronnie Anne, to show up at his house, he checked his watch for the time for the thirty-eighth time in half an hour.
'7:27? C'mon, Bobby, can't you get here any faster? The Youthful Deviant Shinobi Tortoises movie marathon is starting in just a little over a half hour!' Lincoln thought to himself exasperatedly. To Lincoln's surprise, it was Lori of all people who had suggested this little outing a few days ago. Despite knowing that watching movies, featuring sentient amphibian warriors, was far from Lori's thing, Lincoln shrugged off her enthusiasm as simply a normal reaction to spending time with Bobby.
As if his prayers were answered by his mental plea, the doorbell rang. Lincoln hurriedly leaped off the couch as he approached the door at breakneck speed. He flung it open and was ecstatic to see Bobby standing right outside. Being his usual chipper self, Bobby walked right in and ruffled Lincoln's hair, a gesture that Lincoln slightly winced at despite Bobby's gentle approach. Lincoln noticed that Bobby was carrying a large brown bag under his arms, which Lincoln decided contained snacks for all of them to enjoy.
"Lincoln! How's it hangin', bro?" Bobby asked, heading towards the couch. Lincoln followed closely behind, leaving the door open for Ronnie Anne since he noticed that she wasn't there with him and assumed that she'd be joining them shortly. Once they both sat down, after Bobby had set his bag in front of him, Lincoln decided that opening up to Bobby, about his less than stellar day, wouldn't be a bad way to bide time before the marathon began.
"Not bad though I haven't had the best day so far. Luan got to the last cherry ice pop before I could, Lucy's latest poem instilled a fear of balloons into me, Lily threw up all over my hair when I gave her a piggyback ride, and I slipped in the shampoo puddle that Leni forgot to clean up after I went into the bathroom. My head still hurts a little from the fall," Lincoln admitted as he ran over the tender spot on his cranium. This did nothing but make Bobby feel guilty for the hair tussle he initiated earlier.
"Sounds rough. Sorry about the bump on your noggin. Guess my little cowlick 'grooming' back there didn't do much to make it feel better."
Lincoln assuredly responded, "That's fine. It's nothing in comparison to the noggies Ronnie Anne usually give me."
They both shared a laugh at that but Lincoln didn't laugh for long since bringing up his girlfriend into the conversation only brought about how unusual her absence was. She still hadn't shown up yet. Where could she possibly be? Was she not showing up? Lincoln thought this behavior to be rather peculiar since Ronnie Anne was almost as excited about this as Lori was.
"Hey, speaking of which, where is Ronnie Anne? I thought she'd be here to watch the movie with us. Is she coming by later?" Lincoln inquired, hoping that Bobby would give him news that he could appreciate. The forlorn expression that Bobby now wore suggested that he'd be getting nothing of the sort.
"Sorry, dude," Bobby apologized with mournful articulation, "She's really not feeling well. She got a high fever a few hours ago so my folks are watching over her while I'm here."
Well that was just perfect. The one person he wanted to spend time the most with wasn't going to show up. He'd still have fun with the movies but definitely not as much without Ronnie Anne with him. Bobby saw the apparent sad look on Lincoln's face and tried to reassure him that he'd still enjoy himself.
"But hey, that doesn't mean all three of us still can't have a good time, right?" Bobby noticed Lincoln take on a tiny smile now and as happy to know that he was at least just a little bit encouraged. Suddenly, Bobby felt a pair of arms snake around his neck from behind the couch, making him jump a little in his seat. He looked down at the hands and noticed a familiar color of fingernail polish that made him grin slyly at the realization of who was behind him. The feeling of lips slightly brushing against the shell of his ear only made it bigger.
"Especially us," Lori lowly whispered, making sure that only Bobby could hear her. They both began giggling to themselves, leaving Lincoln completely out of the loop as to what it was they could possibly find so humorous.
"What's so funny?" Lincoln asked, curiosity stirring him on. Lori sighed irritably and rolled her eyes at his meddling.
"Nothing, Lincoln. Just make sure you don't do anything to ruin the atmosphere for Bobby Boo-Boo Bear and I," Lori demanded. She needed to lay down the law as quickly as she could to make sure that Lincoln wouldn't interfere in the little scheme she and Bobby had cooked up days ago for this little gathering. She glanced over down at the bag Bobby brought over and fought back the urge to shiver lustfully.
"Aww, don't be so hard on him, babe. Lincoln's not the type of guy to put the kibosh on our chemistry," Bobby valiantly stated as he vouched for Lincoln's disposition.
Lori, now walking to the other side of the couch to face them both, answered back without doing much to support Lincoln's temperament, "Trust me, Bobby, Lincoln's usually well behaved but sometimes, he can be a bit of a handful. You know how kids are; never truly appreciating the subtleties and intricacies of true love," she finished with a sigh as she walked over to Bobby and straddled his legs, gazing soulfully into his eyes, and pressing forward until their foreheads were touching.
"Like the love I have for you?" Bobby delightfully replied as he looked back at his girlfriend with reverence.
"The very same!" Lori squealed joyfully and closed the rest of the space between them with her lips pressing against his own with just enough restraint to keep it appropriate for the company they had with them. Being subjected to this sappy, lovey-dovey exhibition was a big reason why Lincoln yearned for Ronnie's company. They loved belittling Lori and Bobby's saccharine, over-the-top gestures of affection to each other and he was sure they would've had plenty of opportunities to do that during the movie marathon.
Lincoln groaned in disgust and looked past the smooching teenagers at the brown bag that Bobby had carried with him. If nothing else, the least Lincoln could do was help Bobby unpack all the delicious junk food that he brought over. He got up from his seat and ventured over to the bag. As he stretched out his hand to grab the handle, a painful sting, accentuated by a smacking sound, made him rear back and hold onto his slightly wounded appendage. He looked around until his eyes landed on a snarling Lori glaring at him, with Bobby looking on in slight concern.
"Keep away from that bag!" she shouted, hoisting it away from him before Lincoln could get a peek at the contents that were inside. Much to his surprise, he briefly saw Bobby breathe a sigh of relief.
"What? What's so wrong with the…" Lincoln began but was quickly cut off as Lori got up from Bobby to get right in Lincoln's face, pressing a finger firmly into his chest.
"That's for you to never know, got it?! Don't look into it, don't smell it, don't look at it from afar, don't even think about it! You do and I'm texting Ronnie Anne all of your baby photos!"
That got Lincoln's attention in a hurry. Physical harm from Lori was one thing. Knowing that Ronnie Anne would be in possession of pictures of him butt naked in the sink and wearing that dorky pumpkin Halloween costume was another thing entirely and enough to get him to hastily agree to her demands.
"Okay, okay! I won't look! I won't look!" Lincoln promised energetically. Almost instantly, Lori's mood brightened up as she grabbed Bobby by the arm with one hand and held onto the brown bag with the other.
"Good. C'mon, Bobby, I have some grapes in the fridge you can feed me while we watch the movie," Lori suggested as both lovers headed towards the kitchen. Bobby looked back at Lincoln and gave him a two finger salute before continuing on with his objective.
"Catch ya later, Lincolnator."
Lincoln waved back at him until he saw both of them disappear out of sight. Okay, that was weird. Way too weird. Lori never lashed out at him in front of Bobby, wanting Bobby not to think of her as a violent harpy that lost control at the drop of a hat. Whatever was in that bag must've been really top secret for him not to see. Bobby seemed to share that exact same sentiment if that sigh of relief was any indication. Lincoln walked over to shut the front door now that he knew Ronnie Anne wouldn't be joining them. As he did so, he found himself creating a new objective for himself: to look inside that bag and find out what Lori wanted to keep hidden from him, all while hoping that Lori wouldn't catch on to his intentions.
The last thing he needed was Ronnie Anne rubbing the memory of bath time in the sink in his face until he was old and gray.
A/N: Unlike S&T, I already know how many chapters I'm going to make here. I was really tempted to see this all the way through in one sitting but meh, I figured adding a few more multi-chapter stories to my collection wouldn't be such a bad thing. Besides, it's nearly two in the morning where I am and I need to go on the hunt for some Z's. They're a feisty bunch, I hear.