In a cluttered and beat-up suburban house in a small Michigan city, there lived a white-haired young boy. He lay sprawled on the couch, lounging contentedly during a lazy evening off, when abruptly he sat up, brow quirked in sudden consternation as he peered around the empty living room before turning to the outer wall.
"When you live in a house with 10 sisters, you learn to accept that there's never enough space to completely avoid bumping shoulders with anyone. But some days the stars align and everyone curls up in a corner without crowding out anyone else, and as appreciable as that is, you should never let that put you off guard for too long, or else you'll be caught flat-footed and get swept up in what I think of as 'Roundup Hour'"
As if on-cue, a booming male voice rang out from the kitchen, "Alright kids, dinner is good for grabs!" The proclamation hung in the air for a long moment, then like an old locomotive getting its engine relit, the pockets of restful inhabitation within the house and yard slowly but with increasing animation turned over and chugged into motion.
The first to follow the call was a lilac-skinned snakegirl, her dark-scaled serpent tail gliding smoothly down the stairs even as she talked absorbedly on her cellphone.
"I'm so sorry to hear that Bobby," the Echidna gushed over the line, "But you made the right choice; family comes first and your sister needed your emotional support, if that jerk manager can't acknowledge that, then it's better not to lock in a job under him. Don't worry, you'll bounce back, you're an absolute wizard when it comes to job hunting ." The phone droned indistinctly as she listened, then her face suddenly screwed up and the snakes in her hair seethed "No, I cannot 'just put a good word in' for you with my own boss-"
"Oh Lori~, are we still on for a trip to the mall together later?" a perky Harpy with pale plumage chimed as she exited the kitchen, stepping over Lori's tail blithely as the eldest sister's argument turned heated, then frowning in confusion.
"Or...did we already go earlier? I forget, when were we supposed to-THERE'S A SPIDER ON THE WALL CLOCK!" She shrieked, flapping her wings in a panic and launching herself on top of a cupboard. She huddled there panting for a moment, before blinking and looking around in curiosity. "What am I doing up here again?" She wondered, before an old snowglobe caught her eye. "Ooh, sparkles." Placated, she picked up the snowglobe, giggling with delight as the flakes swirled with each shake.
A thunderous clapping of hooves sounded before a skinny Satyr cleared the stairs in a single leap and landed with a whoop. "Leni you loopy bird, get your tail feathers down from there!" She called boisterously in an affected British accent, "Come on you lot, that goes for all of you! It's time to get down and make some noise!" She exclaimed, dropping to her knees and strumming her guitar for punctuation.
A mousy-looking Mad Hatter in neat blouse and plaid skirt suddenly leaned over the goatgirl's shoulder out of nowhere. "Geez Luna, you're not usually this saucy unless you've dipped into Mom's." The Hatter girl snorted at her own weak pun. "Heheh, get it? Saucy? Hitting the sauce? Seinfeld? Eh? Eh?" She turned to address the rest of the room with an open-mouthed, expectant grin on her face, mushroom hat pulled off in a flourish, "I'm here all week every week people."
"Heads up Luan!"
The mushroom girl yelped and jerked back as a soccer ball streaked through the open window, sailing perfectly into her still doffed top hat and punching through the top. A gangly young Salamander then hoisted herself through the window, grinning cheekily as she swept her sweaty hair out of her eyes. "How many points should that be worth?" She quipped, pointing at the ripped-up mushroom as she went to pick up her ball. "I scare myself with how good I am sometimes. I'm like a sniper if they kicked bullets at people." She smugly declared as she bounced the ball on her knees, before whipping around and batting it with her tail.
The ball promptly bounced off the windowsill and took off like a pinball, ricocheting off the flooring, then the coffee table, then the TV stand, gunning straight for the athlete's gobsmacked face-
Before a dark shadow coiled on the ceiling lunged down and snatched it out of the air. A frozen heartbeat passed, before the figure hooked it's body backwards and upwards to face the rescued girl with an enunciated Sigh. "One of these days Lynn, you're going to level this house with us all still inside, and yours will be the only body I won't reanimate."
So saying, the Oomukade dropped heavily from the ceiling, clicking deliberately up to the window before tossing the ball back onto the yard.
"Oh, you wish that would happen just to have an excuse to Frankenstein us all, isn't that right Lucy?" A chipper voice proclaimed. The front door opened and in stepped a diminutive figure, dressed in stained overalls. "Lynn's a good girl, and I put enough love in this house to let it stand up to a meteor strike." The Dwarf tapped a wrench proudly against the wall, grinning a gap-toothed grin.
"Oh, is that why you still haven't plugged the mouse holes like you promised you would last month?" A snide voice countered. The speaker flounced down the stairs, a pink dress-adorned body double to the little Dwarf that just entered the house, were it not for the upright horns over her forehead.
"Are the mice reinforcing the walls for you Lana?" The little Redcap taunted her Dwarf twin as she turned to inspect her reflection in her pocket mirror, fiddling with her floppy cap and the tiara pinned to the front of it.
Lana scowled fiercely, but before she could retort a mechanical whirring noise sounded from the corner coat closet, and from within stepped out a starfish-like mobile pedestal, upon which stood a tiny animal-eared girl with outsized glasses and a stern face. Seemingly with nothing more than a glance at their direction, the little Gremlin directed her walker to the twins.
"Forgive me for cutting you off when you're so clearly shpoiling for a fight Lola," the little genius spoke, deadpan through her lisp, "But I couldn't help but notice an anomaly while checking my mana monitor and deduched that you've once again neglected your daily shupplement. Please do so now before we have another neighborhood incident to clean up."
Lola's eyes flashed dangerously in her reflection as she tightened her grip on the short iron spear she carried like a scepter, before snatching the offered vial with a pasted-on grin.
"Oh course Lisa, my dear little sister. Thank you once again for always caring for my health enough to make sure I gulp down this tepid paste day in and day out."
Lisa stared impassively up at Lola, saying nothing as she grudgingly swigged down her medicine. "When your chemical imbalances are liable to send you on frenzied rampages, your health is a community-wide concern. I wish you'd be a little less blasé."
"Whatever," Lola growled, checking her hat absentmindedly for red stains. "So can we eat now?"
"Well, there's only nine of us down here," Leni observed, finally climbing down off the cupboard, "So we're still waiting on two more of us."
"Remember to count yourself Leni!" Lori called over her shoulder before submerging herself back into her phonecall.
"Oh. Make that one then."
"Lincoln's already down here, so that means Lily," Lana chimed looking around. "Where is that little tyke anyway?"
"Mother took her to the doctor's, to get her schuppressors refitted." Lisa helpfully supplied.
"Weren't they due back by now?"
"Maybe there was a complication that had to be taken to the morgue."
"Oi now love! I get that's your thing Lucy, but there's a limit to how dark your jokes should get."
"Aw, lighten up about throwing shade Luna! Dark humor is harmless."
"Guys!" Lynn called, leaning half out the window, "Mom and Lily just arrived."
So saying, the door opened again and in squeezed a voluptuous Echidna carrying a baby Imp with white demon-features.
"Oh hello girls, Lincoln. I hope little Lily and I are in time for dinner?"
"Yes Mom. Dad's still in the kitchen." Lincoln finally spoke up, getting off the couch.
"Well then, everyone file in."
Lincoln watched as his sisters queued up and followed their mother into the kitchen, before delivering his final say on the matter.
''I'm sure you can imagine the amount of friction that can be found in a group this big and mismatched, but I wouldn't trade any part of this for the world. We're all family, and family loves each other through any and every spat. There's never a dull moment in this Loud House, and at the end of the day, we all have good relationships with each other and-"
"Oh Lincoln~! Where's my favorite boy in the world to serve up some dessert~?"
Lincoln stilled, slack-jawed and blushing ferociously at the euphemistic summons, and the chorus of girl voices laughing in approval and launching their own bawdy invites.
"Um, s-see? A real close and, uh, ''loving'' sibling bond between me and them. Eheh, yeah." And on that note, Lincoln trotted for the kitchen, a little scared and a lot embarrassed to see what his sisters felt was "good to eat" tonight.
EDITED IN A/N:
I got a couple of reviews saying they had a hard time following which girl was which and what species they all were. My apologies for not conveying that clearly enough. Here's a quick list;
Lori Echidna (Lamia) as is Rita, Leni Harpy, Luna Satyr, Luan Mushroom Dryad, Lynn Fire Salamander, Lucy Giant Centipede-girl, Lana Dwarf, Lola Red Cap (Goblin), Lisa Gremlin, Lily Imp. Lincoln and Lynn Sr. stays human.