During the last days in the Loud house, everything went normal for everyone. Except for a more-moody-than-usual 8 years old girl and her caring big brother.
You see, when you live with ten sisters you learn to know when a girl is happy, sad, upset, mad, depressed. Well if for others it was difficult to see it in one of the most emotionless girl in the family, Lincoln could see that Lucy was upset about the refusal. Call that Big-Bro instinct. And with that comes another thing: The Big-Bro mod.
And in Big-Bro mod no sisters had the right to be down. The Big-Bro mod included the oldest as well but he prefers to keep calling it like that because it sounds good.
Lucy Loud has always been a kid with a stoic look that could hide any feelings. It wasn't her fault, she's born like this. So, except of showing her emotions, she writes them in the form of poems.
But lately she didn't feel the need to write down her thoughts because she showed them clearly. Well, for those who noticed.
The next day after she received her invitation she went to school with a sad(dest) complexion. In the car no one had noticed. During all the ride, she contented herself to look at the snowy sidewalk, hoping to at least see a black cat to know if her fate would change.
No luck this time. She could just observe a brown dog bringing the newspaper to his master. And that was all she could have seen during the ride.
During the lunchbreak, she heard some members of her poetry group saying that they would go alone, others accompanied. This didn't help her at all. When she asked her friend Haiku if she would go, she just responded "that mortals only try to find distraction so they can forget how meaningless is their lives in this world." But added that she was still mortal so she would go.
Obviously, this didn't help her at all. And as if it wasn't her day, she had sport class after lunch. But because of the snow they had to stay in the gymnasium. You see, if Lucy had something in common with her brother it was that both didn't do that much exercises. That was why she didn't really liked this class.
After all the children changed themselves in the locker room, their P.E teacher, Ms. Riot, began with warm up by making the class run three rows around the terrain.
At the whistle blow, Lucy began to skitter like everyone but was in the lasts. At the second row, she tripped and fell on her right knee. When she got up she felt a stinging pain where she felt, she set her eyes on her knee and see that her skin became purple. After Ms. Riot saw her bruised knee, she allowed Lucy to rest until the end of the class.
When the bell ringed to announce the end of school, Ms. Riot came to see the state of Lucy. She walked to the seat where she was supposed to be but instead found it empty.
Lucy had already exited the school and was now waiting on the parking for Lori to pick her up. She looked one more time at the injured knee covered by her long socks. "If I do it well enough, they won't notice…" She thought while trying to move her leg. She winced when she bended her knee "As if they could notice." She sadly added to her thoughts
"Hey Luce!" She heard behind her, it made her do a small jump, suddenly extending her leg. She winced again but more silently. When she turned she saw it was Lincoln who had just finished as well.
"How was your day?" He politely asked to his little sister.
"Depressive."
Lincoln though a moment to understand the sense of the word she just used "In a good or bad way?" He asked perplexed.
"Both."
After that they stayed like this for a moment. None of them spoke for at least one minute, but it was one minute of pure awkwardness with Lucy trying to discreetly lift her sock higher so Lincoln wouldn't notice and Lincoln was looking at the road, expecting to see Lori arriving at any moment.
Lincoln tried to break the silence. "When I'll be home I'll make some chocolate. Want some?"
"No thanks." She plainly said, avoiding any sorts of conversation and prevent him to notice.
Lola and Lana finally arrived, saluted their siblings and waited with them. After 30 seconds Lori showed up and picked up everyone.
Once at home everyone directly went to do their homework. However, like he said earlier Lincoln went to the kitchen in order to make his hot chocolate. When he put it in the microwave to finish it, he leaded to upstairs to drop his bag in his room. On his road he saw Lucy walking slower than usual, it was almost like she...limped?
Once he let his bag, he moved closer to the room of Lynn/Lucy. The door was slightly open so he caught a slight glance of what was happening in the room. Honestly, he didn't like doing that: Invading the privacy of his sisters, but he knew something was wrong (Big-Bro mod activated, remember?).
Lucy was taking off her shoes and drop them near her bed. Then she slowly took off her right sock and stopped just under the knee, where the bruise was. She looked at it one more time, and found it ugly one more time. She lightly brushed her index on it, but she barely touched it that a stinging pain made his apparition, making her wince once again.
"Lucy?!"
"Gasp! Lincoln! What are you doing here?" She panickly asked.
"What is this Lucy?" He asked as he approached her. He kneeled before her and took a look at the knee.
"How did you get that?" He asked, looking at her.
She avoided his gaze by looking at the floor. "I fell during the gym."
"Why didn't you tell me so?" He asked her while throwing his arms up.
"I didn't feel the need to." Lucy responded, still avoiding his gaze.
He sighed "Let's forget that. Stay here. I'll come back with something." After having said that Lincoln get out of the room, letting Lucy alone.
He came back with a towel wrapped around ice he found in the fridge. He kneeled in front on Lucy and carefully pulled of the rest of her sock, letting her leg at full display. He softly picked it up with his left hand.
"Tell me if I hurt you." He told her. Lincoln then slowly brought the towel to her injury.
"Aah~" Lucy moaned at the feel of the cold towel against her skin.
Lincoln blushed at the unexpected reaction and quickly retreated his hand "Sorry!" He softly bought it back, making sure to be gentler when the towel touched the skin. Lucy winced a bit but after that grew accustomed to the feel of cold.
After his blush faded away, Lincoln asked her while still looking at her leg "It's about the fact that you can't go to this play next week?"
Her silence answered for her.
He sighed one more time, and softly asked again "Why didn't you just tell me?"
"I didn't want to bother you." Lucy answered, without looking at him.
"Helping you is not a way to bother me." He lightly scolded her. He followed "I was worried that something was wrong and seeing the position I am right now, I thought good." Lincoln informed her.
This surprised Lucy, who slowly turn her gaze to him "You…Were worried?"
"Of course, I was! I saw how sad you looked this morning and when we came home."
"I-I thought no one would notice me, like usual."
Hearing this made Lincoln sad: He knew well how much Lucy needed attention like everyone, but in the end, she would receive less than the others. A situation he knew quite well "Well, I'm sorry we don't notice you as much as we're supposed to. But that's not a reason to close yourself like this."
He looked up to her and meet her gaze. To reassure her he smiled "Next time, tell me if you need anything. I'll be glad to help you." He then gently lifted her leg to place it on her bed, so now she was seat on her bed with both legs in. Lincoln stood up and walked out, to go in the kitchen.
"Lincoln." He stopped and turned his head to her "About the hot chocolate…Does your offer's still available?"
His smile grew into a softer one "Want some marshmallows in yours?"
"Yes please." She answered, smiling as well.
As each days passed, Lincoln would always try to give his free time in attempt to spend time with Lucy in hope to raise her spirit and get over the play tragedy.
When he got home early he would look for her and help Lucy in anything: Poetry, funeral, snowman burying, bats feeding and all other gloomy things that no one except gothic girls and kind-hearted boys would do.
The older sisters found him a bit clingy to her, even if they had understood his intentions, they couldn't help but think that he was exaggerating. The youngers however, began to feel jealousy over this, thinking that their sister was stealing their time with him. How many promises he made to Lana, Lola, Lisa and even Lily had him on debt now. He could manage to repay all of them when he'll finish, but for Lola he'll need courage and prayers…many prayers.
Lucy, as for her, didn't mind the additional attention from Lincoln. After the incident, she always tried to look for him when he needed him. Or at least when she just wanted to spend some time with him.
Each time they were together, she would forget about the play and just appreciate the moments with her big brother.
A week has passed.
It's Thursday night. And everyone went to sleep.
Lucy was in her night clothes and had just finished to read a serie of poems to inspire her. When she closed her book, she saw Lynn plopped in her bed and instantly began to snore.
"Maybe I should turn in as well." She said to herself.
Lucy opened her drawer and was about to put the book back in when something in caught her eye.
The black ticket of invitation for the play of tonight.
When she saw it, she stopped to move and stared at it.
"I'm over this now. I don't need to go see this, I'm sure it over-rated anyway." She firstly thought, denying all of her envies.
"But, it only happens once a year and who knows maybe it's as good as I heard about it." Her thoughts followed, reanimating her desire.
After a moment she looked at Lynn who was still snoring, then at her clock which showed 10 o'clock. It will begin in two hours.
"I can come back in time. They won't even know I was out." She picked the ticket and closed the drawer. After that she turned off, put her alarm to wake her in one hour, and went to sleep, excited with knots in her stomach for what she was about to do.
