12/4/2017

rctperson85 signing on!

Hello everyone! This is my next story for the Loud House! For those of you that are reading this story, I encourage you to go read "Kidnapped!" another story written by myself. The reason I say that is because this story is based off of something that is revealed in that story. Unless you want that story to be ruined by this one, then I suggest you leave right now, because this Author's Note will absolutely spoil it. If you don't care though, then by all means, keep reading.

Spoilers for "Kidnapped!" in

3...

2...

1...

In the story mentioned above, Leni is adopted and this story plays heavily with that. So if you haven't read it, go read it. It explains in more detail what happened and why Leni is adopted.

Also, I took a bit of creative freedom here with Luna's middle name since they never mention it in the show. All that they have shown are the middle initials of Lori, Leni, Lynn, and Lily, and those are all L. With the exception of Lisa, her middle name being Marie, I would assume that the rest of the sisters have middle names beginning with L as well.

Anyway, I've been wanting to write this story for a while and now, I'm finally getting to it. I hope you enjoy it!

Not Our Real Sister?

Luna walked back into the house completely peeved at what had happened earlier that day. She couldn't believe that anyone had the nerve to talk to her like that, especially someone she considered so close to her. Then, considering all of that, what made it even worse was that Luna knew that she was going to have a bad day. How? Well, let's just say that it was that time of month for Luna and leave it at that.

Her grumpy attitude was contagious. If there had been anyone in the living room when she walked in the door, then her rage would have spread throughout the house like wildfire. Luckily for her, she didn't have to come into contact with anyone all the way to her room.

Stomping up the stairs, she mumbled about how this was one of the worst days of her life. She slammed the door going into her room and threw her backpack to the ground. As she jumped onto her bed, she put her headphones on, hoping to drown out her anger with the music. It would have worked any other day, but that day for some reason, not even music could soothe her nerves. Still, she listened, hoping that maybe her rage would dissipate.

Luan walked into their room and set her backpack down next to the bed. "Hey Luna!"

No response. Luan looked more closely at her and noticed the dark expression on her face. What had made her so upset? It didn't take Luan long at all to figure out that she was probably in a little pain. But even when that happened, she still wasn't this upset. Something had to have happened at school that made her feel like this. Maybe a joke would help her feel better.

"Hey Luna! Did you hear about the kid who sat on another kid's trumpet?" Nothing. "His instrument is flat now!"

Luna turned her entire body over to where she was laying on her side, facing the wall, clearly not in the mood for any jokes at the moment. Not even a musical joke made her laugh.

"Hmm, tough crowd." Luan followed up with the second part to that joke. "The kid took his trumpet to the band director and the band director fixed it. Then, the same kid sat on it again and yelped in pain. Now it was too sharp! Get it?"

"Yeah, I get it," Luna responded unenthusiastically. "Now can you shut up?"

"Ouch," Luan croaked. "What's gotten into you?"

"I don't wanna talk about it..."

Luan shrugged and then grabbed her backpack and headed downstairs. She figured it would be better to do her homework down there. It was louder, yes, but Luna had a deathly toxic aura around her that Luan just wasn't able to tolerate right then. She left the room, right after leaving a water bucket on top of the door. Hopefully, Luna wasn't going to be the first person to open the door, otherwise Luan would be in for quite the yelling at.

"What are you doing down here?" Lori asked.

"Luna's mad for some reason. I think part of it may just be that she's ovary-acting..." Lori immediately cringed hearing that. "But I don't know what else could be bothering her."

"I'm gonna go check on her. Maybe I can help..."

"Be careful of the magazines!" Luan quipped as Lori stood up.

"What?" Lori replied, dumbfounded.

"I think Luna's got too many issues right now! AHAHAHAHAHA!"

Lori rolled her eyes and began walking towards the stairs, hoping to get Luna to feel better. As she walked up the stairs, she could hear the chaos gradually get louder. She stood in front of the door to the room, which was cracked open just a smidgen. Lori opened the door and was immediately soaked by a bucket of water falling on her head. "Luan!"

Downstairs, she could make out the unmistakable sound of Luan's laugh. Lori sighed and went to dry herself off before returning to Luna's room. Slowly she opened the door, revealing quite an angry Luna sitting on her bed with her arms folded across her chest. She wasn't on her phone or anything, she was just staring angrily at the end of the bed.

"Luna, are you doing alright?"

She didn't say anything. She just continued staring at the bed frame in front of her as if it was the only thing in the world.

"Hey, Luna?" Lori snapped her fingers a couple times. "Wake up!"

Luna gave Lori a cold glare then turned herself to face the wall again, just like she did with Luan. Lori was beginning to get quite irritated at this point. She wanted desperately to figure out what was wrong with her little sister. "Luna, what's wrong? Just tell me?"

"You won't quit bugging me, that's what's wrong!" Luna sharply replied.

Lori had been trying better to control her temper after Lisa's dream experiment, but Luna was really pushing the limits, and she knew it too. It was almost like Luna wanted to get into a fight with her. Not with Lori specifically, with anyone. All she wanted was to release some built up rage inside her, and so far, Lori was providing the perfect outlet for doing just that.

"Luna, all I want to do is figure out what's wrong! If you just tell me that much, then I'll leave."

"Ha! That's rich!" Luna taunted, sitting up to face her older sister. "As soon as I tell you what's wrong, you're gonna insist on trying to help me. Because you're 'trying to be a better older sister' or whatever..."

If Lori was being honest with herself, Luna was right. She wasn't going to give up until her little sister was feeling better, but so far, there hadn't been much success, and the consistent lack of it was only getting Lori more and more fumed. Not to mention the fact that Luna's slightly rebellious nature was only making it even worse. Lori had gotten much better with controlling her temper, but she still had a long ways to go, and this argument was more than proving that.

"At least I'm trying to be a better older sister! I don't see you making any changes!"

It was at this point that Leni walked into the room wondering what was going on. Right as she did, Luna jumped down from where she was sitting on her bed and shoved Lori towards the door of the room, making her stumble backwards. Leni quickly bolted out of the way and Lori fell on the ground just outside of the bedroom. Leni watched in horror as Luna jumped at Lori. The latter just barely dodged out of the way making Luna take a tumble down the stairs. There was some groaning and finally a sharp yelp as Luna hit the bottom. Lori's pent up rage completely disappeared when she realized what had happened. Her face instantly turned to one of regret and she zoomed past Leni down the stairs, wanting to make sure Luna was okay. Leni followed suit, also worried that Luna might have been hurt.

The noise had attracted the attention of the rest of the family with the exception of Rita and Lynn Sr, who were both on their way home from work. Lori, wanting to forget about their mild squabble, rushed over to Luna's side, only wanting to make sure she was alright. Luna batted Lori's shoulder away and got herself up, "I don't need your help. I'm fine!" Then she started limping away.

"Luna, I'm sorry, I just wanna make sure you're okay!"

"Oh yeah, I bet that's what you were thinking when you threw me down the stairs!"

Everyone gasped at this and Lori immediately went on the defensive, "I didn't throw you, you tried to jump on me and I moved out of the way..."

Luna wasn't thinking about what she was saying anymore. It was just pure anger coming out of her mouth, "The HELL you did!"

Leni was getting tired of this and finally decided to speak up, "guys, can you just quit it? Sisters shouldn't be yelling at each other like this!"

"Leni, just shut up! You shouldn't even be talking about that, especially since you're not even our real sister!" Luna then glared coldly at Lori, who was slack-jawed at the moment, then stomped up the stairs in a fit of rage, still limping, not even realizing what had come out of her mouth.

Everyone that was in the room went eerily silent. The only sounds that could be heard were Luna's stomping and eventually her slamming the door to her room. Leni stared straight ahead into nothing, barely even breathing. Lori, Luan, Lynn, and Lincoln were almost in complete shock, each of them having a similar look painted on their faces and the younger kids snapped their heads in Luna's direction, a look of worry slowly crawling onto their faces. Did Luna really just say that? What was she thinking? Lori looked back over at Leni. She looked completely dazed, like she had just been in a freezer for an hour. At first Lori thought that another anxiety attack was setting in, but soon, she was able to see the beginning of tears forming in her eyes.

A dagger sank through her chest. Leni stood in place for a moment, not moving a muscle, as if there was nothing wrong. Leni's mind however, was racing with dozens of thoughts, zooming to and fro in her mind. All of them however were tied to one thing. She was only trying to help. Why then did Luna say that? She didn't really mean that, did she? Did Luna actually believe that Leni wasn't her real sister?

Leni's muscles began to weaken and tears began to form in her eyes. Just that thought alone was terrifying. Leni couldn't stop thinking about it. Luna had always been her sister, and she had always been Luna's. She thought that nothing could ever change that, but Luna's words seemed to indicate otherwise. What if Luna really did think that way? What if she had thought this way the whole time, never telling anyone what she truly thought? It was unbearable to think that someone she had known all of her life, never really considered her family.

The blonde lost it. Too many bad thoughts had crowded in her mind and she collapsed on the floor right there, falling to her side. She covered her face as tears streamed down her cheeks onto the ground. Lori rushed down to help her, and was able to get her back up to her knees, but no further than that. They tried to at least get her to the couch, but they couldn't get her to stand up.

As the parents approached the house, they were slightly surprised by the fact that they couldn't hear anything. Maybe they were all just in their rooms? Whatever the case, they weren't expecting what they saw next. Rita and Lynn Sr opened the door of the house, expecting a cacophony of voices, only to be quite alarmed at the sight of Leni kneeling on the ground in front of them. Immediately they rushed to her side and asked her what was wrong. When she couldn't say anything, they both immediately turned to Lori. How was she going to tell them what happened?

Luna stomped into her room and slammed the door closed behind her, mumbling to herself. "Stupid Lori, Stupid Leni. Why can't they just leave me alone? That was all I wanted!" She jumped up onto her own bunk and crossed her arms, daring anyone to come into the room. The first person who did would receive a pillow to the face. But to her dismay, no one came in. No one even climbed the stairs to go into their own rooms.

The bruises on her arms and legs from falling down the stairs were starting to hurt a little bit now. She rubbed them, hoping to gain some kind of satisfaction from it, but it did nothing. Her own anger was totally in control of her at the moment, making her ready to lash out at anyone. There was no doubt in her mind, if anyone came into her room, she would tell them off and then some. Thinking about this, she noticed the silence around her. It was so quiet, something that she wasn't used to. Now Luna was becoming curious, what was going on?

"LUNA LORELI LOUD!"

That answered her question pretty quick. Luna sighed and begrudgingly climbed out of her bed and strolled out of her room, slouching and with her hands in her pockets. She was expecting a lecture about how they shouldn't be fighting like that and how it's not okay to treat each other like this. Whatever. She didn't really care. It's not like this would be the first time for that anyway and if there was anything to what their last name implied, it certainly wouldn't be the last. What was he going to make different this time?

Maybe being significantly angrier than usual.

As Luna turned to walk down the stairs, she made direct eye contact with their dad. It was like staring into the eyes of a raging bull. He had his arms crossed and a glare on his face that she had never seen from him before. Her own face turned to one of shock and she gulped as she slowly descended the staircase. Her heart began beating rapidly the closer she got to the bottom. This was a new feeling for the situation. It was a mixture of fear and surprise. Not a well known feeling for Luna. Definitely an unexpected one; not one that she would expect to feel around the rest of her family.

Slowly but surely, she reached the bottom of the staircase. Lynn Sr stared her down with that same glare, then closed his eyes and moved himself out of the way to reveal Leni sobbing on the ground uncontrollably. "What the heck?" she thought. Why was Leni laying on the ground? It took Luna a minute, but it finally hit her.

"Oh God..." she began, trembling. Any kind of irrational anger she harbored towards her siblings vanished in an instant, and turned into painful sorrow. Her chest tightened up and her stomach was churning, making her feel queasy. "I did that..."

Luna wasn't asking for confirmation. She knew exactly what she did and the idiotic reason she did it. The anger that Lori had shown earlier that night now paled in comparison to Luna's. It was heartbreaking to know that she was even capable of something like that, to Leni and Lori, to Lincoln, Lynn, Luan, and the rest of her siblings, to her own parents, but mostly, to herself. Before that evening, Luna wouldn't have ever guessed that she had it in her to say something like that. But she did.

Luna dropped to her knees, taking in the sight before her. Leni was still sobbing on her knees, facing away from her. Lori had her arm wrapped around Leni, even though she knew that Luna was there. Luan and Lynn refused to even look at her, Lola and Lana had been speechless this whole time, Lucy and Lisa both tried not to show anything, but despite their best attempts, each grew slight expressions of worry. However, Lincoln's face was the most upsetting to Luna. Whether he thought the same or not, Luna always had the notion that she was the one closest to Lincoln, which is why his expression scared her so much.

It wasn't one of shock, or anger, or even surprise. His face showed someone who was confused and sorrowful. His eyebrows were tilted as if he were sad about something, but the rest of his face clearly showed confusion. He didn't say anything, but it didn't take someone with Lisa's IQ to figure out what he would be saying even if he did want to talk at that moment.

Why?

Luna looked back over at Leni. She was asking herself that question at the moment. It was something that, before just a few minutes ago, was unthinkable. She didn't actually feel that way about Leni. Leni was the sweetest, kindest, most charming girl out there, not to mention the prettiest out of all of them. So why did those words even come out of her mouth?

Luna couldn't bear to look at her older sister anymore and she let her head wilt, staring at the ground. There was absolutely no excuse for why she did it; no rhyme or reason for saying something like that. But she still said it anyway, and she couldn't take it back. She didn't care about anything else right then. There was nothing that she wanted to do more than take her own words back, but the damage had already been done. It was too late now.

"Tell me exactly what you told Leni."

Their father's voice was low and hushed, but not so much so that Luna couldn't tell what he said. His tone was commanding, despite it being a bit quiet, and even scary, especially to the already shaken up Luna. He wasn't asking because he didn't know what she said. He was testing her, to see if she would even dare say it again. Luna made up her mind right there. She wasn't going to say it again, no matter how many times he asked.

"I'm not gonna say it."

Lynn Sr leaned slightly closer and with a slightly louder voice, slowly repeated his words, "Tell me exactly what you told Leni."

Luna shook her head, tears now beginning to stream down her face. She couldn't say anything anymore, she felt like she didn't deserve to. Not after saying such atrocities, not only to Leni, but where everyone else could hear it as well.

"You've already said it once," he condescended. "so why not?"

A silent gasp went through the room when he said that. Even his own wife was surprised to hear him say that. There were times when he could be pretty harsh, but this seemed low even for him. He knew it too. He didn't even want to say it, it even pained him to say it, but he felt like he had to.

He knew that what he said worked. Luna couldn't handle it anymore. Never in her life had the pressure of a situation gotten to her this badly. But never in her life had this much pressure ever been put on her. So she ran back upstairs and again, slammed the door to her room and jumped on her bed, except this time, she wasn't muttering, she was crying.

If there was one thing that made the matter worse, it was the fact that Luna was now a complete hypocrite. The whole reason she came home upset was because someone did something to her that not only ruined her day, but her whole relationship with that person. And now, here she was, doing the same thing to Leni. Why did she do it? Not just that, but how did she get so angry to the point where she felt like she had to do that? Ultimately, it was no one else's fault but her own. No one can make anyone else angry. People only get angry because they allow it to happen. Luna allowed herself to get so angry that she lashed out at someone who didn't deserve it, who would never deserve it as long as she's alive.

"Why didn't you stop her?" Rita asked.

"Yeah dad!" Lynn exclaimed. "You should have given her what for!"

"Don't think that she has escaped punishment just because I let her go," he stated with command. "I will punish her as I see fit when the time is right." He then turned over to Lori and Leni, "besides, if I heard this story right, she's not the only one in trouble."

Leni was still in need of comforting and Lori was going to be there as long as she needed to, but she still heard what her dad said and sulked slightly at the sound of that. Lori knew that this wasn't entirely Luna's fault. What Luna said was not something to be taken lightly. She said something that no one in the family hoped they would ever have to hear, and that in itself was terrible. But Lori was the one who pushed her to that point. She not only encouraged Luna to get angry, but allowed herself to become upset as well. It was starting to become much easier for Lori to keep herself in check, but tonight was a prime example of allowing her anger to get out of control.

"Leni takes our top priority right now. We can worry about dealing out punishments later."

"I agree."

Lincoln just watched as the scene played out in front of him. He wasn't about to get himself in trouble for anything. He wanted to help Leni, but he also wanted to help Luna. His torn mind forced him to just stay in place, making sure that nothing took an even worse turn than it already did. Most of the time, his help was more than welcomed. Whenever his sisters had a problem, if they didn't come to him, he went to them. But there were also times when he tried to help when he shouldn't have. Specifically when Leni and Lori were quarreling about that dress and he tried to get them to make up with each other, even though they had already made up. If their parents hadn't stepped in sooner, he might have ended up having to forfeit his room to one of them, just so that they could let off some steam. He figured out when he needed to speak up, and when he needed to stay quiet.

This was a moment where he needed to stay quiet.

Leni didn't know what to do. Her poor mind had already been through too much recently. First the dream, and then being kidnapped. Compared to those two things, this shouldn't have bothered her too much. But it did. The dream wasn't real, it was never real. Being kidnapped was awful, but she wasn't hurt by anyone that she knew. Luna was her sister, and to hear her oppose that, even if she didn't mean it or wasn't thinking straight at the time, was one of the most heartbreaking things to happen to her. That was the reason that Leni was so distraught. It's because she was actually hurt by it.

She didn't seem to be letting up. The sound may have softened a little bit, but tears were still streaming down her face. Lori hadn't yet moved from her spot next to Leni. The rest of the kids had gone back to what they were doing earlier, albeit, knowing what had happened created some tension in the room. They were all still wondering what made Luna lash out like that. Sure she might've had a bad day, and Lori certainly didn't do anything to help, but as they all knew, a response like that was totally unnecessary.

It took a few more minutes, but Leni finally got herself up. Lori released her and let her go where she wanted. Her first instinct was to go to the kitchen and make a smoothie. Why? Had she already forgotten what happened? Lori just watched as Leni made her banana/strawberry smoothie and gulped it down like nothing had happened.

"Umm, Leni?"

"Thanks Lori."

She knew. "Oh... you're welcome."

Leni sat down at the table and started twiddling her fingers together. Lori watched, curious as to what was going on. Why was she just sitting there, seemingly doing nothing? Surely she was thinking about something. But what?

"Leni, are you okay?"

"No..."

"Oh..." At least she was being honest.

"Can I just like, be alone for a minute. It's not you, I just wanna... you know..."

Lori nodded her head and left the room. When she came back to the living room she told everyone else that Leni wanted to be left alone, and then she walked upstairs. Lori knew what needed to be done next. It wasn't going to be easy, but was it ever?

Each step she took made the stairs squeak and squeal like they always do. It was natural to be a little intimidated by a task this great, but Lori had done things like this dozens of times before. So why was she nervous now? It was nothing new, but for some reason, her jitteriness made the task that much more daunting.

She reached the top of the stairs and turned to the left. Down the hallway a few feet, there were two rooms across from each other. The one on the left was her own and Leni's, the other was the room that Luna was hiding in. The room that she and Luan occupied. Lori approached the door to that room. Her breathing was quick and shallow, as if she were having a panic attack. Her arms were so shaky that she almost couldn't reach up to knock on the door, but she did.

Immediately, she wished that she hadn't, but there was no turning back now. Lori had to go through with her plan, no matter what would happen. It was at that moment that she was most regretting letting her anger take control of her, thinking that this whole event would make Luna shut herself off from the rest of them. If it Lori had never tried to insist on finding out what was wrong with Luna in the first place, then this would have never happened, but it did, and it was too late now.

No one answered and Lori sighed, lowering her shoulders. She didn't blame Luna for not wanting to answer, but at the same time she was kind of hoping that Luna would want to make things right, not just with Leni, but with her too. Right as she was about to walk away, the door opened and Luna was standing there, surprised to see her oldest sister.

"Umm, hey Luna."

"Hey... Lori..."

"You mind if I come inside for a moment?"

Luna stared on with a nearly expressionless gaze, "sure..."

Luna shuffled back to her bed and collapsed on the top bunk. Lori walked in and closed the door behind her. Not a second passed before Lori got right into it. She sighed, "Luna, listen..."

"If you're here to tell me that what I said to Leni was terrible, then yeah, you're right. I know what I said," Luna choked up a little bit. "And I can't take it back now."

Lori watched as the girl began crying. She was more distraught about this than she let on while she was down there, and it was beginning to break Lori's heart. What was she going to tell her younger sister now? She couldn't just lie and tell her that what she said wasn't terrible, but at the same time she couldn't exactly say just that. So what now?

Lori thought for a moment and then sighed, "I'm not gonna lie. What you said to Leni was pretty harsh..."

"Bit of an understatement dude..."

"Whatever... But that's not why I'm up here."

Luna cocked her head sideways slightly and looked at Lori with a more confused expression on her face.

"I'm here to apologize..."

Luna's eyes went wide and the expression of confusion that was painted on her face glazed over. Lori? Apologizing? When did that ever happen? What was she even apologizing for? Luna knew, but she didn't want to admit it. What Lori did to her was nothing compared to what she did to Leni. To make it worse, Lori didn't even have bad intentions when she came to Luna. But Luna had nothing but anger and rage burning inside her when she spat at Leni.

"I'm sorry I made you angry. I should have just left you alone when you asked, it would have prevented all of this from happening. I insisted on trying to help you even though you didn't want it and by the time I realized what I was doing, it was too late..." Lori sighed. "The damage had already been done."

Luna sat there in silence for a moment. She would have spoken up, but her own guilt was just making her stay quiet as Lori talked. Everything she said was technically true, none of this would have happened if she had just left Luna alone. But the difference between what the two of them did was that Lori was trying to help. Luna had no intention to try and make things better, which is why she lashed out. Luna had absolutely no excuse for saying what she did. Something like that was almost as unforgivable as kicking one of their own out of the house.

Luna shifted in her bed, "I'm pretty sure that you don't owe me an apology, not after that."

"I literally do, and I'll tell you why." Lori started. She walked away from the entrance of the room and towards the bunk beds, resting her arms on the top where Luna was. She was interested in hearing what Lori had to say. "You don't think so because all you can think about is what you did to Leni. You've moved past what I did to you cause you can't stop thinking about what you said to Leni. Well, even after what you said, I couldn't stop thinking about what I said to you."

Luna sat up in her bed, shooting Lori a quizzical expression. "Wait... Really?"

"Yeah, heh." Lori chuckled. "That entire time that I was comforting Leni, I couldn't stop thinking about how I was the one who actually started this whole thing, and how sorry I felt for talking to you like that. As soon as you snapped at Leni, I almost started crying myself."

Luna looked down at her bed sheet. If this had happened even just a few days prior the dream, then Lori wouldn't have hesitated to put the blame on Luna. She would have barged up there and chewed Luna out for saying such terrible things. But just the fact that Lori wasn't even thinking about telling her off, was pretty good evidence to support the claim that Lori was trying to be a better sister.

Luna sighed, "I'm sorry too. I was just having a bad day and I did the exact thing that you're trying to fix about yourself."

Lori smiled and leaned in for a hug, "It's okay Luna. I don't want you to worry about me."

"Thanks..."

The two of them held the embrace for a while before breaking it. Tears were slowly falling from each of their eyes. When they finally did break it, Luna jumped down from the bed. She was about to reach under the bunk to play her guitar, but was interrupted by Lori.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm about to play a little bit sis, to help calm my nerves..."

Lori cleared her throat, "Isn't there something else you have to do? Maybe someone to apologize too?"

Luna sighed, she knew exactly what Lori was talking about. "Yeah... you're right. But are you sure right now would be the best time? I'm sure everyone's still mad at me!"

"You're going to have to face it eventually. Why not get it over with sooner?"

Lori made a good point. The sooner she got it over with, the sooner she could move on. As long as she kept stalling, the moment would only be more prolonged when it did finally come. Not to mention it would be immensely more difficult to say the longer she waited. But at the same time, Luna didn't think she was ready yet. She felt like just going down and apologizing wouldn't be enough. Luna had to do something more than that. But what?

Leni sat down at the kitchen table by herself, still trying to calm herself down a little bit. That smoothie had helped some, but she was still totally distraught. Luna's words kept replaying over and over in her mind, making her think even more about it. She had never said anything like that before, Luna was always one of the nicer sisters. Sure she had her selfish moments sometimes, they all did, but why did Luna say that? Was it possible that she always thought that? Was it possible that because she didn't want to seem like an outcast among her sisters, she just kept it to herself? Even going so far as to hang out with Leni just to further fool them? There's no way Luna could be that evil, could she?

Maybe Luna really did think that way. Maybe Luna didn't really consider Leni to be a part of the family. After all, she wasn't technically related to the rest of them. She didn't remember anything that happened before she was adopted. She didn't remember her real parents, or any other siblings that she might have had. All she had ever known was the family she had. There were no nightmares of car wrecks, no vague images of faces that seemed familiar to her, she didn't even know the names of her biological parents. It was just memories of the Louds. Memories of her parents and her brother and sisters. They were real, there was no doubt about it. Luna and Leni had exchanged dozens of fond memories with each other and shared emotions both happy and sad. Was Luna faking those emotions the whole time?

Leni was about to start crying again. She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes. The mere thought that Luna was faking everything she had done with her this whole time was beginning to tip the blonde to a second breaking point. Leni wasn't going to let that happen.

She got up and made herself another smoothie to help her calm down. She sat back down at the table and slowly sipped it. Would she dare tell anyone what she was thinking? Or would she keep it to herself? If she told someone about it, it would get out of control too quick and nearly everyone at Royal Woods High School would know about it before the end of the next week. But if she kept it to herself, then there wouldn't be any way for her to release any of these pent up emotions. She was going to need to cry again, but not by herself. It would only look like she was crying because she was lonely, that was of course, assuming anyone saw her.

"Hey Leni..."

It was too late now. She had to go through with it. Luna was quivering with nervousness. How would Leni respond to her being here? Would she retaliate violently? Or would she just try to ignore her? It didn't matter what Leni did, Luna thought she deserved whatever the worst was. She would consider herself lucky if she was given the silent treatment.

Leni turned around in her seat. She knew who the voice was, but she wasn't expecting it. She almost thought that it was in her head, but turning around provided confirmation. Luna was indeed in the room. "Luna? What are you doing here?"

"Take a guess..."

"umm..." Leni's mind drew a blank at trying to figure out what Luna was here for.

"Never mind. Don't guess..." Luna took another deep breath in and came into the room, sitting down next to Leni. The older girl shifted nervously as she swirled her unfinished smoothie. "Are you okay right now?"

"I guess..." Leni started. If it were anyone else, they would not hesitate to take the opportunity to tear into Luna at that moment. Asking her why she even considered saying such a terrible thing. Asking if she really thought that or not. But this was Leni. She would never do something like that. "Why?"

"Just curious..." Luna replied. An awkward silence filled the air for another minute as Leni took a few more sips of her smoothie. The silence finally got to Luna and she started speaking again.

"I didn't mean what I said to you earlier... about not really being our sister. You're more their sister than I am right now."

Leni looked down at the table as Luna kept talking, all the while silently taking in all the information that she was recieving. "I was being stupid and I was mad and I let it get the better of me..." Tears started falling down her cheeks. "I didn't really mean it... I'm sorry Leni."

Again, any other person would be skeptical of the words, maybe even the tears. She could have just been doing it for show, faking it all to gain trust again. But this was Leni, and she could tell that Luna's tears were genuine. All of that worrying was for nothing. Of course Luna didn't actually think that Leni wasn't their sister and it was silly of her to think otherwise.

Leni put her hand on Luna's shoulder and looked into her eyes, the latter looked back and the two of them embraced each other in a hug. It had been quite a while since Luna had hugged her immediate older sister. She had forgotten what it was like to be embraced by her, the warmth, the magic that it entailed. It was wonderful.

"I forgive you."

That was all that Luna needed to hear. Immediately an enormous weight was lifted off of her shoulders and she felt amazing. Sure, there was still the punishment to come by their parents, but how bad could that possibly be compared to the guilt she was feeling just a few minutes ago.

Sure, the rest of them were going to be upset with Luna for a few days, maybe even a few weeks, and Luna still had her punishment coming to her, but none of that mattered anymore. Leni had forgiven her, that was all that mattered right then.

Well it's about dang time I finished that. Sorry it took over a month and a half to get it out, but I finally did. I hope you enjoyed it, please leave a comment even if you don't have any critique for me. I ask that if you do have critique that you would not just tell me what I did wrong, but that you would tell me how I can improve in the future. Thanks again for reading.

Rctperson85 signing off!

1/20/2018