Chapter 2 - Trouble Afoot
A/N: Nickelodeon and Chris Savino own The Loud House and related characters. No copyright infringement intended. This story is merely a work of fiction and written under the fair use policy.
A/N: This story is part of an ongoing continuity. If you have not read any of my work, please begin with "Luna's Passion." If you are not caught up, please read all previous stories in order.
As Lucy led Clyde home, the sun began its slow descent beyond the horizon. Clyde gazed intently at Lucy, whose hair was highlighted by the cloud-filtered rays of the evening sun.
"You know, Lucy," he told her, "your hair looks even more beautiful in this light."
The young goth beamed crimson red, both in pride and embarrassment. Being called beautiful wasn't something Lucy heard often.
"Thank you, Clyde," she answered. "You're sweet, but I am not that beautiful."
Clyde stopped in his tracks, took Lucy by the shoulder, and spun her around to face him, pulling her close in the process.
"Listen, Lucy; you're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen," he snapped. "You are intelligent, strong, and have a good heart. You take all criticism like a boss, and nothing ever seems to bother you. That makes you beautiful."
The raven-haired girl lowered her head. "I appreciate that, but 'seems' was the key word there. Clyde, some things do bother me. I merely choose not to show it."
Lucy's boyfriend pulled her into a loving embrace, and she rested her head upon his shoulders.
"Oh, Lucy," Clyde whispered. "You can talk to me about anything. You know that. I may not have all the answers, but at least I can lend an ear. I'd love to help if only you'd let me."
Lucy nodded and began to let tears silently fall onto his shoulder, dampening it.
"I know," she said. "But there are still a few things I can't talk about, even with you."
Clyde understood, for he also had many fears about life that he wasn't sure he discuss with anybody, not even Lucy or Dr. Lopez.
"It's alright," he replied. "Hey, how about we go in now? We've been standing outside the mortuary for about five minutes already."
His words seemed to cheer her up dramatically, and Clyde prided himself on being able to do so.
"That sounds lovely," she said, happily, as she wiped the remaining tears from her eyes. "Let's go."
She grabbed Clyde by the hand and led him inside, where there were several rows of caskets on display. Clyde diligently followed her around as she inspected the new models.
"Hm," she mused, "this one is alright, but the lining needs more padding. And this other one may look nice, but is from a cheaper wood than I would prefer."
Finally, Lucy came upon their flagship coffin.
"Ooh," she squealed. "Now this is it, baby. Nice strong wood, ornate gold inlay, and luxurious padding."
Clyde gulped a little as he knew what was coming next. "Um, Lucy..."
His girlfriend has already opened the lid and was beginning to climb in.
"Uh, do I have to?" Clyde pleaded.
"Yes. Now get your butt in here with me," Lucy shot.
With a grumble, he steeled himself and climbed in beside her. Lucy then closed the lid and snuggled up to the young man.
"Nice and cozy isn't it, Clyde?" she inquired.
The boy was far from comfortable. At least, in the mental aspect. Sure, the coffin was perfectly soft, but he was claustrophobic and more than a bit afraid of the dark.
"W... well," he stammered, "it's ok, as long as you're here with me."
Lucy puckered her lips and moved her face closer to Clyde's. She was about to land a kiss on his cheek when the lid opened, dousing her affections with blinding light.
"Lucy?" came a voice from beyond the light.
The goth squinted her eyes and focused. "Silas? I'm so sorry! Did you have this coffin reserved?"
"N... no," he said, more than a little shocked at finding Lucy with another boy. "I was just leaving," he said, quickly, before slamming the lid and running out of the mortuary.
"Lucy?" Clyde asked. "Is there something I should know?"
Running into Silas, here, was one of Lucy's fears, now that she had started dating Clyde.
"Sigh...," she sighed. "Well, I had a crush on Silas a while back, and he knew it. I think he liked me as well, but he never called me, so I forgot about him. I guess he didn't forget about me, though."
The young man nodded, even though the girl beside him was the only one to see it. "Oh, I see," he said. "Well, he must not have cared too much if he didn't tell you how he felt."
Lucy gently slapped Clyde's arm. "Don't say that!" she said. "He's just shy, like me. You don't know how hard it was for me to tell you I liked you."
"I guess you have a point there," came the reply, "after all, I too was shy about expressing myself to you."
Lucy snuggled even close for a few moments, then planted a soft kiss on Clyde's cheek before either spoke again. "I think maybe we should head to my house now. There's no telling how long we've been here. The others will worry if they see I'm not home. That is if they remember me at all."
Clyde agreed, as his fathers were the same way. He opened the lid and helped Lucy out before climbing out himself. They then headed for the exit and left the mortuary.
Mort, the owner, remained in the darker corner, cleaning some fixer-uppers.
"Kids," he said.
Lincoln had no idea where he was going. "Hey, Haiku. I'm no idea where you live. Do you mind leading?"
The purple-clad goth giggled in a monotonous tone. "Of course. I wouldn't expect you to know anyway. But, I want to make a stop along the way, if that's alright."
"Sure," answered Lincoln. "As long as it isn't anything spooky."
With a raised eyebrow, Haiku responded, "You're attracted to goths, but don't want to experience anything spooky?"
Lincoln's face turned a bit red. "No, no. That's not what I meant. I don't have any of my ghost hunting equipment with me. That's all."
Haiku giggled again. "Don't worry; we won't be hunting any ghosts today."
Lincoln was relieved. While he was warming up to the idea, after living with Lucy, he wasn't ready for the real thing.
"No, we'll be visiting them instead," said the girl on the other end of his arm.
Lincoln gulped.
After a few minutes more of walking hand-in-hand, they arrived at the Royal Woods Auxiliary Cemetery. The lithe goth floated over to the gate and opened it with a long, spooky creek. Even at this hour, the graveyard seemed to emanate dark vibes. It wasn't as large, or as well kept as the main graveyard, and looked like an old horror movie set.
"This is my second home," announced Lincoln's partner. "It's where I spend most of my time while not at school or at home."
Despite his growing fears, he did find it soothing. It reminded him of Lucy's side of her and Lynn's room. After a few moments, he began to feel more at ease.
"It's lovely," Lincoln said as he surveyed the site. "I love the Greco-Roman architecture on the crypts here. I also noticed that some of the older headstones have Victorian Gothic carving on them. Very nice."
Haiku halted and turned to look at the young man accompanying her. "How observant," she said flatly. "I honestly did not expect you to know about or recognize such things."
"Why is that?" he asked a little defensively.
"Well, you never talk about the darker side of life, and the way you dress," she began, "it just doesn't make one think you'd be into it."
Lincoln chuckled, "Well, I did say I was into goth girls, didn't I? What kind of partner would I be if I didn't understand them?"
"You are amazing, Lincoln," she replied. "Now, come. I want to show you something."
Lincoln allowed himself to led down a few paths and into an ancient crypt near the back of the lot. Upon entering, it was clear that nobody had bothered to clean the place in years, perhaps decades. Still, Haiku pulled him along, until finally coming to a stop. They were facing a pair of coffins near the back of the room.
"These are the remains of my great grandmother and great grandfather," the girl said. "I come here often and talk to them."
Lincoln was stunned. "That's both happy and sad," he observed. "I'm happy you have somebody to talk to, but, sadly, they cannot respond."
"I know," Haiku said solemnly. "But I don't have anybody else to talk to."
Lincoln began this evening trying to make this girl happy, but as the day came to a close, he began to feel something else.
"Y... you have me," he said before pulling her into an awkward embrace, and kissing her on the mouth.
At first, the goth tried to push him away, Clyde's face drifting through her mind, but the vision soon faded from her memory at the warmth of Lincoln's kiss.
The pair kissed for what seemed like hours, though it was only a few moments, parting only when Haiku's knees became weak under her, and the two fell onto her grandfather's coffin.
"Oof," they both declared.
The white-haired youth looked down at Haiku's face and blushed blood-red. "I... I'm sorry," he said before correcting his posture. "I didn't mean to fall on you like that."
Haiku, who was also blushing, and unexpectedly smiling, immediately pulled him back down, kissing him with intense passion.
They were interrupted a few moments later when a small colony of bats altered them to the impending nightfall by taking wing out of the crypt, chattering incessantly.
"I suppose that our cue," said Lincoln as he broke from Haiku and helped her to a stand. "I need to get you home soon, so I can get back myself."
The raven-haired girl nodded and followed Lincoln out of the cemetery, hand-in-hand.
It was about nine o'clock when Lucy blessed Clyde with a farewell kiss. "Get home safely," she instructed. "And text me later!"
As Clyde turned and walked down the stoop, he heard the door open as Lucy entered, and a concerned voice from inside say, "Lucy! Where have you been!"
Clyde considered returning to explain for a moment before realizing that, in the Loud House, that might be a bad idea. He figured Lucy could handle herself. At least, he'd know when he texted her later.
Lincoln entered the house around nine-thirty to witness his mother and father, giving Lucy "the talk" on the living room couch. They stopped and looked at him with disapproving glares.
"And where were you, young man?" Rita exclaimed. "Your father and I have been worried. You two know you aren't allowed to stay out past dark if we don't know where you are, or how to find you! What if something had happened? Now, get your butt over here. We need to talk."
Lincoln turned beet red and grimaced, but did what his parents asked. For the next hour, he and Lucy had to endure several lectures about being safe and dating. Occasionally, they caught each other glancing the other's way, only to turn away blushing.
Eventually, their torment ended, much to their relief. Mr. and Mrs. Loud said goodnight and sent them upstairs to their respective rooms.
"Well, that was awkward," said Lincoln as he ascended the stairs.
"Yup," responded Lucy beside her brother. "So, you and Haiku, huh?"
"Um, yeah," replied the boy, "it looks that way."
Upon reaching the upstairs hallway, they both stood for a moment, staring at each other, lost in their thoughts and remembering the horrid talk they just had with their parents.
Lucy was wondering if people did the things her parents described earlier. It sounded gross. There was no way she was ever going to do that.
Lincoln already knew most of it, but even he was surprised at a few things. Unlike his sister's reaction, though, he wondered what it would be like to engage in such matters.
With one final glance at each other, they each blushed, then went silently to their rooms.
Later that evening, Lincoln sat on his bed, reading his Ace Savvy comics to distract himself from the day's events. It wasn't working, however. His mind kept floating back to the discussion he had with Haiku earlier. Something she said was nagging at him.
Sometime after Rita had called for lights out, Lincoln heard a noise coming from the air duct. He knew, of course, what it meant.
"Lucy, are you there?" he called from his place upon the bed.
"Yes," she replied. "I want to talk."
The boy put his comic away and walked over to the vent so that the others would not hear them after hours.
"About what, exactly," queried Lincoln.
"Well, I was curious how you and Haiku got together," she asked. "It seemed like she was set on Clyde today at lunch. Not to mention the fact that I'm mad at her right now for it."
Lucy's brother thought for a few moments before responding. "I'm not entirely sure. I went to catch up to you and Clyde after school, but she stopped me."
"I see," acknowledged his sister, "and..."
"And well... I guess, I just like goth girls," he admitted.
Although Lincoln could not see Lucy's expression, it became crimson and stressed at the same time.
"R... really?" she inquired.
"Yeah," confirmed Lincoln, "she seems to think I'm in love with you and suggested that we date since we couldn't be with the ones we wanted."
"I remember her saying something similar to me last weekend when we talk in the graveyard," offered Lucy.
Lincoln rolled her statement around in his head for a moment. "Wait, if dating Clyde was your second choice, who was your first?"
"I can't tell you that," said Lucy once again, "but I DO have to ask, is what Haiku suspect true?"
"Uh," he stammered, unsure of how to respond. It was true, but he couldn't tell Lucy that. It was just too weird. "I... of course I do. You're my sister."
Lucy sat quietly for a moment, uncertain of how to interpret his response. One the one hand, he may have been embarrassed to talk about it; on the other, he could be denying the truth.
"So, did you kiss her?" Lucy asked, dreading the answer.
"What? Oh, Haiku, yes," replied her brother.
"I think I should go now," stated Lucy, "I need some sleep."
"Right, same here," echoed Lincoln.
Lucy made it back to her room without waking Lynn. Quietly, she pulled her small coffin out from under the bed and placed it on top. After donning her night-wear, she climbed into her refuge and began sobbing into the maroon fabric of the interior.
She had told her sisters that she had been chanting a good-luck mantra for Luna the other day. That was the furthest thing from the truth. It was, in fact, a love poem she'd written for Lincoln. She had hoped that, somehow, he'd feel it in his soul and return her affections.
"Did it work?" she asked herself. "Could Lincoln be in love with me?"
She shuddered slightly, from both the exhilaration and fear at the prospect.
"What if he is? How would I know for sure, and would I have the strength to admit the same?" she mused silently.
Her breathing became labored, and her body began to tire. Soon, she was fast asleep, her tears pooling upon her cheeks.
"What was it Lucy had said?" Lincoln asked himself as he laid down to sleep. "She'd had a conversation with Haiku about accepting that she couldn't be with her true love? Yeah, that was it. Surely she doesn't mean Edwin. She smashed his bust. Who could it be then?"
As the white-haired boy lay there, staring at the blank ceiling, he recalled the emergency sister meeting that he attended this past weekend. Some of them were under the impression that Lucy was in love with him. He tried to picture them together, but something stopped his visions from concluding.
"Could she have lied?" he wondered. "Maybe. If she is in love with me, though, what does that mean for the future, and how would I know for sure?"
Grabbing Bun-bun, he curled up to his toy and rolled to face the wall. He felt so empty at that moment that he began sobbing into his pillow. Lincoln was in love with his sister, and he was alright with that, but now that there is the possibility that she loves him back, things just became infinitely more complex. It was easy to hide it before when it was just him. But now he wasn't sure.
On top of all this, both of them were already in a relationship. Lucy was with Clyde, his best friend, and he was with Haiku.
"How could things have gotten so messed up?" he cried. "I just don't understand how it all happened."
Soon, Lincoln's tears faded as he drifted off to a very troubled slumber.