Apologies for the long wait on this new chapter. Been a little preoccupied with people going on vacation where I work, resulting in longer hours for me. Also trying to get the usual head start on my annual tradition of coming up with a story for the holidays. But since there is still plenty of time for that, I can now present...
Beating the Blues Part 3)
Disclaimer: I don't own the Loud House and make no money from this story.
A satisfied sigh passed through Luna's lips as she set down the now empty container of Gwen and Terry's Marshmallow-Cookie Mosh-Pit. She savored the very last bite of the frozen treat as it melted on her tongue, coating it with it's sweet, delicious flavors. The melted ice cream oozed over the back of her tongue and into her throat. She swallowed it and then chewed up the chunks of cookie dough that were left before swallowing them as well. The tip of her tongue slipped out and ran over her lips, seeking any remaining traces that may be left over. Then she licked the spoon she had been using clean as well, setting into the container afterwards.
"Thanks again, Lori. That really hit the spot." She said, leaning back on the couch. "Think I might just take a little nap while we're waiting for everybody else to get home from school."
"Then go right ahead. Now seems like a great time for nap-time." Lori said as she picked up Lily. "And that means you too. Come on, let's take your blankie and set you down in your crib for a little bit, okay?"
Lori picked up Lily's blanket and brought the infant upstairs. Luna took the opportunity to fully stretch out on the couch, resting her head on the armrest. She closed her eyes and soon drifted off into a light sleep, a smile on her face.
A short while later, the sudden and loud sound of the front door flying open snapped Luna out of her catnap. The slamming noise caught her by such surprise that she nearly fell off of the couch, letting out a yelp just before she caught herself. She sat up and looked over at the entrance to find her sister Leni was the cause of the unwelcome disturbance to her slumber.
"Dude! What gives? You nearly made me jump out of my skin!"
Leni offered her younger sister a small smile as she blushed a little. "Sorry, Luna. I totes didn't mean to scare you. I'm just so excited! Did Lori tell you yet?"
Luna shrugged, "Not really. She mentioned that you guys had stuff planned for today. But she kept most of the details secret. All I know is that we're going to be heading out once everybody else gets home."
"WE'RE GOING TO THE MALL!" Leni shrieked ecstatically. "We are, like, going to have the best time together! We'll get smoothies and shop for shoes and dresses and tops and..."
Leni began to ramble on and on about the mall. Luna didn't interrupt, but did have to start tuning her out when she started to repeat some of the things they could go shopping for. Fortunately it didn't take very long for Leni to finally manage to come to a stop. She stepped over to the couch and looked at her younger sister with a wide smile and her eyes shining with excitement. Apparently Luna had missed Leni asking her something at some point.
"Uh, yeah. We're totally gonna have a good time today!" she said, smiling awkwardly.
"Totes!" Leni elatedly agreed. "I can't wait for everyone else to get home so we can get going! Um, by the way, you aren't planning on going out like that are you?"
Leni gestured to Luna's current attire. Luna, realizing that she was still only in her nightshirt, blushed a little. She smiled sheepishly while scratching the back of her head as she looked up at her sister.
"Yeah, I guess I was so busy lazing around today that I forgot to get dressed. Haven't showered yet either."
"Ew!" Leni said in mild disgust. "That's a no-no, Luna! Come on, let's get you upstairs so you can wash up!"
Before Luna could grasp what was happening, Leni had managed to pick her up bridal style and began to carry her to the stairs. Luna's blush grew and she squirmed in her older sister's arms, not the least bit amused by the unexpected as well as embarrassing treatment.
"Dude, I can walk there myself! You don't need to carry me!" She protested.
"Like, I know. But I wanted to help. That's what today is supposed to be all about, silly."
Luna sighed and crossed her arms, just letting Leni have her way. "Well you don't need to help this much. Just saying, sis."
Leni shrugged a little in response and proceeded the rest of the way to the bathroom. Luna was glad when they entered and Leni finally put her back down. Then Leni started to run the hot water, adjusting it until it was at the right temperature. But instead of taking her leave and letting Luna have some privacy, Leni surprised Luna a second time when she grabbed the brunette's shirt.
"Lift up your arms, please."
"Wait, wha...? DUDE!"
The sound of Luna's voice carried out the bathroom and down to the opposite end of the hall. Inside of Lily's room, Lori looked up from her place sitting on Lisa's bed. She looked over at Lily, who was still napping soundly despite the noise. Then the sound of a door being slammed caught Lori's attention and she got up to investigate. Peeking out into the hall, she found Leni standing outside of the bathroom, holding Luna's clothes in her hands.
At first, Lori had been annoyed with the disturbance. But now she was more curious than anything. She went over to her sister, who met her partway as she approached.
"What was that all about?" Lori questioned the younger blonde.
"I was just helping Luna." Leni replied. "But I think maybe I went a little too far when I undressed her. She seemed kinda mad."
The corners of Lori's mouth tugged upwards as she imagined the scene her sister had just put into her head.
"You literally didn't! I wish I could have seen the look on her face!"
"It was kinda like the one she gave me when I was carrying her up the stairs just now."
Lori snorted out a short laugh. "Oh, wow. She must have loved that!" she said with a touch of sarcasm.
"She would've if it had been Sam who was carrying her." Leni said with a giggle.
Leni's eyes went wide as she suddenly realized what she had said. Her hands flew up to cover her mouth, Luna's clothes falling to the floor. She looked sheepishly over at Lori, who offered a stern glare in return.
"You're lucky that Luna didn't hear that. We're trying to get her mind off of that girl, which means no mentioning her name. Don't slip up like that again. Got it?"
Leni nodded and picked up Luna's clothes from the floor. Lori took them to bring downstairs to the basement so they could be placed with other articles of dirty clothing that were waiting to be washed. Meanwhile, Leni took Lori's place watching over Lily while she napped. Her eyes fell on the form of the sleeping baby and she smiled. She ended up watching her younger sister from the side of the crib, pure adoration in her eyes. It was such a precious sight, she could have stayed there for hours.
"AHH! DUDE!"
Lily sniffled, the sound of Luna shouting having roused her from her nap. She began to whimper and Leni picked her up before she started to cry. Gently rubbing Lily's back to soothe her, Leni stepped over to the door and peeked out into the hallway. For a moment, she saw nothing at all. But then the bathroom door opened, and Luna walked out, wrapped in a towel. And following her out of the bathroom was Lucy, with whom Luna seemed somewhat irked.
"I wasn't trying to sneak up on you, Luna. I don't try to sneak up on anyone. It just...sort of happens."
"Well next time, just knock, okay? Cuz I didn't even hear you open or close the bathroom door." Luna said.
"Oh, well that's because I didn't use the door. I came in through the air vent."
Luna looked over at the bathroom and saw that the cover to the air vent was in fact open, the grate dangling from the ceiling. And while that certainly explained how Lucy got into the bathroom without using the door, it did raise one other question for Luna.
"Why?" the rocker asked, mostly out of confusion.
"It's fun." Lucy stated simply in reply.
"Ooo-kay. Whatever works for you, dudette." Luna said with a shrug. "I'm gonna go and get dressed now."
"Actually, that's the reason I wanted to see you. I have some clothes in my room that I'd like you to try on."
"Uh, no offense Luce. But I don't really think that anything you'd wear is really my style. Besides, it's not like any of your clothes would fit me anyway."
"They aren't exactly my clothes." the gothic girl said, taking her older sister's hand and leading her to the room she shared with Lynn. "I had always hoped that one day my siblings would embrace the darkness like I have. So I got outfits for all of you just for such an occasion. Now seems as good a time as any for yours, after what you've been through."
Luna gave her sister an incredulous look. And while she was still not entirely sure about it, she opted to at least let her little sister show her the clothes she had in mind. She was only trying to do something to help her feel better, so the least Luna could do was humor her. And who knew? Maybe she'd like the threads the spooky girl had picked for her.
Just one minute later, Luna found herself staring in awe at a coffin full of neatly folded outfits. Each one was something akin to Lucy's own usual attire and labeled with the name of a different sibling. There was even a black onesie in Lily's size with the words 'little bloodsucker' in red lettering on the front. Lucy picked up the outfit with Luna's name on it and held it out to her.
"Here, these should fit you just right." she said.
Luna took the clothes, giving them a brief look over before returning her attention to Lucy. She almost asked just how the girl knew her measurements, but decided it might be better if she didn't know the answer to that. Although there was something else that was peaking her curiosity.
"So, you really have outfits for all of us. How long have you had them?"
"About a year or so." Lucy answered. "I got the idea when I saw Lincoln dressed in all black. It suited him. So I started to wonder how the rest of you would look. And now, at last, I get to see. Even if it's only one of you."
There was the smallest trace of emotion in the younger girl's voice. Luna was unable to place it at first, but she quickly recognized it as joy. Or rather, Lucy's equivalent of that emotion. Now Luna felt like she had to try on the clothes. She just hoped that if she didn't like them that it wouldn't bum Lucy out too much. The girl was gloomy as it was, she didn't want to contribute to that, even if only a little.
"Okay sis." Luna said. "Let me go and try these new threads on. Come over to my room in a couple minutes and we'll see how they look on me."
A small nod was all that Luna got in response from the quiet goth. She left her sisters' room and returned to her own to get dressed. As she shut her door behind her, she took a closer look at the clothes. The outfit was made up of a pair of leggings with white and violet horizontal stripes, a black skirt that was made to look tattered near the bottom, and the top was a solid black tank top with which had frayed arm holes and an image of a skull on its front side that had what looked like vampire fangs in place of the regular canines. There was also pair of lacy, finger-less, fishnet gloves, which went up to the elbows of her arms.
"Hmm, not bad. These are pretty comfy." Luna said to herself once she had donned the outfit. "Gotta hand it to the spooky dudette. She's got some decent taste."
"Thanks."
Luna jumped, a yelp of surprise escaping her for the second time that hour. Once again, she found Lucy standing right behind her. Her younger sister gave, as far as Luna could tell, an apologetic look.
"Sorry, again."
"It's okay little sis." Luna said, smiling. "To be fair, I should've seen that coming. But like I was saying, these are some sweet duds you picked out for me. I take back what I said about them not being my style. It's actually pretty close to something I might've picked out for myself."
"To be honest, I did try to keep in mind your personalities when I got these. And you were one of the easier ones. Lynn was the toughest. Even Leni could pull off the goth look better, and she's a ray of sunshine."
Luna giggled and pulled her younger sister in for a hug. "You're too much sometimes, you know that, kid? Anyway, do you mind if I make an addition to the new look you picked for me? I got something in the closet that would look pretty sick."
Lucy nodded and Luna stepped over to her closet. She rummaged around for a couple moments before pulling out a large, black, leather belt with square, stainless steel studs set into it in a set of four rows. It was too large in size to fit it's proper purpose, but that's why Luna had gotten it in the first place. Once it was on, it hung loosely around her hips at an angle, but not so much as to make it fall down around her feet.
"So, what do you think?" Luna asked her sister while she struck a pose.
"Wicked." Lucy said, giving Luna a thumbs up. "Now all we need is to do something about your complexion. It's far too sunny. A little make up will do until you can become naturally pale, like me."
"Uh, let's just stick with the outfit for now." Luna said with a nervous smile. "Wouldn't want to rush into anything, y'know?"
"Suit yourself." Lucy said with a shrug. "As long as you're being true to yourself, it doesn't matter to me. But if you even want some help looking for more clothing like that, just let me know."
"You got it, sis. Since we're heading to the mall, maybe we can look around a bit today? You up for that?"
Lucy nodded, the corners of her mouth turning up the tiniest bit. The two left the room and went downstairs, finding their three blonde sisters in the living room. They joined them on the couch and began to wait for the rest of their siblings to come home from school. Soon enough, Luan entered the door along with Lincoln, Lisa and the twins trailing in behind her. Luna found herself being swarmed by her younger siblings, who offered her hugs and asked her questions almost all at once. If not for Lori's intervention, Luna may have been overwhelmed.
The shrill noise of a whistle sounded in the ears of the ten younger Loud children. A Pavlovian response triggered in each of them and they all lined up in a row from oldest to youngest. Lori smirked at the reaction of her siblings, like a well-oiled machine. She stood before them and twirled the car keys in her hand.
"Okay, now that we're all home, it's time to go over our plan for the rest of the afternoon." she stated clearly to them all. "Since all of the younger kids need to be home before sunset, they get to be first to spend time with Luna and then I'll bring them home. After that, we older girls will get to stay out until midnight, courtesy of Mom and Dad."
"Really?" Luna asked, her eyes lighting up. "Sweet!"
"That it is, little sister. All just for you too." Lori continued. "So, I think it's only fair that we let Luna decide what order we do things in once we get to the mall. Each of you will say your idea one at a time, starting with Lynn."
Lynn stepped forward and was about to speak, but then something clicked in her mind. A sour expression came to her face and she glared up at Lori.
"Hey, does that mean I'm with the little kids? Why can't I stay out late like the rest of you? I'm thirteen!"
"One, you're not able to stay up that late. You'll literally be asleep before ten-thirty. Two, you have practice for two of your sports teams tomorrow and you know you'll need a full night's sleep. And three, Mom and Dad said so."
"Fine." Lynn said, accepting Lori's reasons without question. "But next time, I'm getting to stay up with the rest of you! Anyway, I want to take Luna to my favorite skate shop to hook her up with some sweet new roller-blades. That way she and I can go out on nice days and roll around the neighborhood for a while."
Lori nodded and motioned for Lincoln to step forward next. The solitary male sibling did so, turning to look at Luna as he spoke.
"I think it would be a good idea to hit up Gus' Games and Grub after the mall. We can get pizza for dinner and play games for a little while. And I want to win Luna a prize."
Luna felt her heart swell a little at her brother's words. She stepped out of the line and gave him a hug, ruffling his hair affectionately. At this point the other Louds also broke free of the linear formation and proceeded to continue voicing their contributions to their sister.
"I want to take you to the pet store!" Lana exclaimed. "With all the cool animals they have there, you'll be too distracted to care about anything else!"
"Forget that!" Lola cut in. "What you need is a nice, relaxing trip to the 'Royal Beauty Nail Salon & Spa'. You'll feel like a brand new woman!"
Lana rolled her eyes at her twin's suggestion. Lola noticed this and threw a dirty look at the dirty girl. Luna could sense that a fight may end up starting soon and stepped in between them.
"They're both awesome ideas, little dudettes. You both rock!"
The tension between the two six year olds vanished instantly and they smiled up at their older sister. With the possibility of a fight between them gone for the time being, Luna turned her attention to Lisa next.
"Well Luce and I already talked about what we can do. So that just leaves you, Leese. What did your super-brain think up?"
"To be honest, my initial idea was something much more satisfactory than anything else that has been suggested so far. I wanted to clone Sam for you, so that you could..."
"Mom and Dad already made it perfectly clear!" Lori interrupted. "NO CLONING!"
"Dang it." Lisa muttered. "I'm never going to get to clone anyone. Regardless, I saw to it to find something else to help contribute to the cause. So I secured enough funds to pay for a trip to the movie theater, including the cost of beverages and popcorn. Being among the younger siblings, I will not be able to attend. But it's more important that you enjoy yourself, Luna."
A collective 'aw' sounded from the other ten when they heard Lisa's words. The little genius found herself receiving a hug from her elder sister. Normally she wasn't fond of spontaneous physical contact, but she was more than willing to make an exception in this case. She didn't even mind the fact that Luna had lifted her up off of the floor, which was something that she normally detested.
"I can't believe how much you guys are doing for me." Luna said as she set Lisa back down. "Could you make things any more awesome?"
Lori smirked. "Well, I think we can. Because in addition to Lisa's contribution, everything else we do for you today is paid for by myself, Leni and Luan."
Luna stared at her older sister in momentary disbelief before a wide grin broke out on her face. "Okay, it's official. You dudes are all the best! I can't believe that you're all going so far, just to make me feel better! But you don't have to be spending your money on stuff for me."
"You're worth every penny!" Luan said. "Besides, most of it is just what I took out of my funds for pranks and comedy props. No biggie. So what do you want to do first?"
"Hmmm, well..." Luna mused briefly. "Since we'll be saving the movie for last, and going for pizza and games just before that, how about we hit up the pet store first? Then we can check out some stores including the skate shop and anything Leni and Lucy have in mind. After that we can swing by the salon so Lola can set me up with whatever she has in mind. Everyone cool with that?"
Her siblings all nodded in unison, each of them with a determined look in their eyes. Luna felt a single tear slide down her face, unable to hold in the amount of joy that they were making her feel. After taking a little time to set aside their things from school and use the bathroom if necessary, the eleven of them left the house and got into Vanzilla. Luna was given both the sweet spot and control over the radio, Lincoln working the dials and buttons at her request from his place in the front seat.
"So, ready to move on to the best part of your day, Luna?" Lori asked as she turned the key in Vanzilla's ignition, the engine roaring to life.
"You bet, sis! I'm ready to rock this town!" Luna said, pumping her fist into the air.
"Then let's roll!" Lori said, putting Vanzilla into reverse and backing out of the driveway.
A collective cheer sounded from the Loud kids as they began their trip to the Royal Woods Mall. The volume on the radio was cranked up, rock music blasting from the van's one working speaker. Luna began to sing the lyrics and was soon joined by those among her siblings who also knew the song. The whole ride up they kept at it and once they finally arrived at their destination, they ended up staying in Vanzilla a short while longer to make it through just one more song. Luna was all smiles, having had a blast the entire time. Her day just kept getting better, and yet things had only just begun.
End of Part 3.