On Our Own Here We Go

The Broken.

(The morning after Chapter One)

All was not well back in the Loud residence. None of the sisters could piece together that awful screaming that shook them from slumber. Even the youngest among them knew something terrible happened, if the yelling wasn't enough to running was enough to shake the house.

A feeling of shame was abundant at the table while Lori served her younger siblings, they all felt like cowards for not doing something to help out Lincoln and Luna. For all any of them knew they could be dead by now, and when they asked Lynn Sr he told them, "Don't worry about them, they aren't coming back. Don't any of you go looking for them either, they are dead to this family!" and nobody dared to press him any further since he was pissed and laid up in his room with a bad hangover.

"Lori...y-you don't think he hurt them, right?" Luan whispers to Lori as she pours milk into a bowl. "I could hear someone fall and..." Lori sighs, "I think they're fine. I heard running, and he literally couldn't run two feet judging by that hangover."

"Ew! Lori! Stinky cheese and cereal totes don't work together."

Lori slaps her hand to her forehead. "Of course the milk is literally disgusting! Everything in this house is breaking or ruined!"

"Shut the fuck up in there!"

Lori clenches her teeth, barley resisting the temptation to poke the hungover bear. "We're sorry." Lori turns to her sisters, "Pour that stuff out...I guess plain cereal will have to do." everyone sighs and does as asked. Luan relents, "N-No, I'll just go look in Lincoln's room...maybe he left a clue behind. I just can't sit here while my brother and sister are missing!" Lori frowns, they all were worried but eating was a necessary and skipping a meal was definitely not good since they hardly had enough to feed everyone. Skipping even one of the scarce meals nearly ensures that the person who doesn't eat will definitely not get enough nutrients to be healthy and avoid malnutrition.

"Luan, if you eat everyone will go help you look. Lincoln and Luna are smart enough to find somewhere safe, none of us ate well last night and if that's anything to judge by we won't eat much later on."

Luan sighs, "Fine." she grabs a new bowl from the cabinet and gets in the back of the line of siblings who were waiting for a new serving of cereal. Lori took care of getting Lily her baby food before sitting down at the table with the rest of her sisters. They ate in silence for a few minutes, nobody had anything to say because truthfully what was there to be said? The complete destruction of the families social ties due to Lynn Sr's intense paranoia over one of them snitching.

It wasn't like they had anything they could say when the bane of the families existence was strung out on the family couch in the other room. Lynn was the first one to speak up, "I'm going to my room. I-I need some alone time." she got up from the chair before Lori stopped her. "Come on Lynn, you of all people should know that you need to eat to keep your strength up."

"I can skip a meal. Just don't worry about me, Okay?" Lori frowns, "It's my job to worry about you, I'm your older sister and I know that you need food.

" Lynn stays calm but speaks with an ice cold tone. "If you know what's best then why didn't you do anything to stop what happened last night? Or why didn't you step in when he picked up a bottle of booze for the first time? You're just as clueless about what to do as Lily, at least she knows when to quit bothering me."

Everyone's jaw drops as they wait for Lori to explode and yell at Lynn, but it's a surprise when Lori begins to cry. "Don't you think I know that? Don't you think I think back hundreds of times and think that things could have been different? Maybe if I did stop Dad from picking up booze things could have gone different? I'm doing my best here to try and make it up to everyone by doing my best to hold things together!"

Lynn doesn't respond and stalks back up stairs to her room. Leni gets up to console the now crying Lori, "It's okay, Lori. Don't cry..." Lori looks to Leni, "No it's not, I'm failing to keep everything together, I always thought maybe I could make things normal again. Now Luna and Lincoln are god knows where and—"

"No Lori, you are not to blame!"

"But—"

"I may not be like the smartest, but I know this is not your fault, Lori. You've been the sister that we've all needed, and that's nothing to be ashamed of."

The other siblings in the room were seriously beginning to question if they were in some alternative universe; Lori crying? LENI giving QUALITY emotional advice? Lisa even muttered something about checking if she was exposed to the same device she used to grant Lincoln's wish of visiting a world in which he had brothers instead of sisters.

Lisa hops down onto the ground. "I would like to go to my la—room and catch a few Z's as the typical person would say. I wish you well on searching for evidence to the location of our wayward siblings, good bye."

Lisa leaves like Lynn and heads back upstairs to her room. Leaving before anyone can begin to formulate a response to her question, but they didn't hassle her because the last thing they wanted to do was to get him up and in their business. The only good thing about when their father getting this drunk was the major hangover that usually lead to a peaceful but quiet day so long as nobody did anything overly loud. The penalty for doing so would be a grounding for a week which would be pain free until the hangover wore off then whoever made said noise would be given the belt.

Eventually everyone else finished their food and went up stairs to Lincoln's room. The room was rather empty other than the bed and it's soul cover which was near the bottom of the small bed. Lincoln's pillow was on the floor next to the bed, it looked just like someone had just gotten out of bed rather hastily and never looked back.

Lori knew better, "This definitely wasn't what happened. I heard enough to know that this is a set up, I'm totally surprised he was able to do that with how drunk he was," she looks to Lana who had silently been following her lead. "Can you please check under the bed? Maybe they left something there that we could use...who knows maybe one of your animals escaped under there."

At the mention at her animals Lana brightened up. "I'll get under there and check. Doesn't sound like it though." Lana got close to the ground and slips beneath the small bed, it was a tight fit but she eventually squeezes completely in. Lana immediately realized she was laying on a rectangular shape and then she put a name to it. "Guys I think I'm laying on top of a note pad."

Lana struggles momentarily to get out from underneath, "Can you guys lift it a little? I'm stuck!" everyone but Lori came over and carefully lift the bed up high enough that Lana can slip out and grab the note pad.

"Can you bring it here, Lana?" Lori exclaims as she passes Lily to Luan. The tomboy walks over with the notepad in hand. Lori immediately studies the contents of the front page and notices that they are song lyrics for a song called, "The Castle Crumbles." in an album called, "Tales From The Broken." all of which was in Luna's hand writing.

"This is one of Luna's songs. A brand new one."

Luan gasps, "So that's what she's been doing at night!" Lori raises an eyebrow. "You've known she's been writing this?"

"Not really...but I've heard her moving around at night sometimes so this must be what's she's been doing. He wouldn't let her write any other time than when he's out, doing you know what." Lori nods, she was glad her sister still had her creative flare, which for most of the other Louds at the moment was lacking.

Luna had been drifting away from everyone in the family that wasn't Lincoln, they had begun to wonder if there was something more than it seems and if Lori had to guess Luna was merely using extra time to think in private when she went to her room before anyone else for the night.

They all knew well enough that Luna made an effort to spend as much time as possible with Lincoln when he wasn't grounded for something someone else usually did. Lori thought that maybe Luna felt indebted to Lincoln for suffering for them. This notepad and the fact the two made such a hasty escape put them both in this room last night. Lori had a feeling nothing important would be in here and she was somewhat right, the main reason they were doing this was to help Luan think that they were just gonna forget Luna and Lincoln and move on.

"Alright guys, there's nothing in here that we can use. I don't want to make a mess and go through his drawers. They left in a hurry and Luna wouldn't just leave her songs here if she had a choice or a plan to do anything. I'll call the music store Luna works at on Monday to see if she shows up for work. Keep your eyes peeled for Lincoln at school and if the school doesn't call it means he showed up." (AN: They ran away on a Friday night, this is Saturday morning and they went to Sam's house after missing Monday which gave no leads.)

All the siblings in the room agree. Lori nods, "I'll go tell Lynn and Lisa and under no conditions does ANY of you speak a word of this to him," she gazes upon her siblings and smiles. "Go outside and have fun, but don't make too much noise alright? This only happens once in a blue moon."

"Thanks, Lori." All of them say in a whisper yell as everyone but Luan engages in a group hug. They all break apart and go downstairs. Lori prepares to leave the room but turns back just as she leaves, "I'll find out what happened here."

Lori walks out of the room into the hall leaving the empty room of her brother in silence once more.

Little did she know that a hundred feet below here a mad scientist was also on the case of solving the families issues in a more of a permanent solution fashion. "Lisa you idiot! How could you ever be as foolish in believing a paradox such as time travel could be possible," she sits down in a huge spinning chair. "You should have recognized the symptoms of alcoholism and depression early, and treated it, but now a time machine? My intellect has failed me once more in efforts to preserve of my family unit."

"I could compensate and bring our siblings home...but is that really the best thing I can do for them? If I know anything about Lincoln and Luna Loud it is that Lori was not wrong in the assumption that they were crafty enough to survive. Lincoln definitely is capable of planning out something as trivial as finding shelter, but do I really want to allow things to play out in the cruel hands of chance? It only takes one lucky shot in an area so close to the criminal cesspool that is Detroit...but it only takes one extra hard hit from a drunk man to kill."

Lisa rubs her temples, "If only I was more like Lincoln then maybe everything would be fine. He had been the adhesive that allowed the family to function for so long. He is in touch with his emotions which is completely the opposite of me, I've been so sick as to make the people around me into mere test dummies for so long. It's pathetic that it took becoming a punching bag to finally realize what I was doing had been nothing but cruel experimentation. If I have to work my self into the grave to build something to allow me a chance to reverse my mother's infidelity and everything that happened after I will."

The sound of her AI broke Lisa out of her train of thought. "Lori Loud is currently on a trajectory towards your room. Immediate action required to avoid discovery of absence, should I activate Protocol 17?" The AI smoothly asks. "Yes, inflate the blow up dummy and set the microphone to slightly muffled."

A microphone is brought to Lisa by a robotic butler. The computer monitor in front of Lisa played the footage from the micro-camera she had placed on the wall in her room. It displayed the bunk bed and the other pieces of furniture and pretty much everything in the room. The blow up dummy is also clearly visible from underneath the covers with only Lisa's hair being visible.

The door to the room swings open revealing Lori who quietly speaks. "Lisa? Lisa are you awake?"

Lisa fakes a groan. "I am indeed conscious. I do believe I have contracted a case of food poisoning. I will be fine so long as I maintain elevated levels of hydration."

Lori looks on concerned. "Are you sure you'll be okay? We didn't find anything in Lincoln's room, and I was hoping maybe you had something that can help us find them."

Lisa smoothly lies. "In case you haven't noticed, father has stripped me of all my equipment. It would be child's play to find them if I had my equipment, but alas that is not the case."

"Oh, okay. Just let me know if you need anything to drink, and don't lie to me."

"What?" Lisa almost fell out of her chair at this accusation, how would Lori see through her disguise so easily, unless—"

"Don't lie to me and tell me you aren't thirsty or you don't want anything to drink. It's my job to take care of this and you aren't gonna lie to me, okay?"

Internally the tornado of thoughts spinning within her mind dissipated, so she didn't have a clue. "Yes, I am aware that I have to take care of myself properly and I will be honest with you."

"Alright, I'm gonna talk to Lynn then I'll come back with something for you to drink."

The door to the room quietly shut behind Lori as she left what she thought was her ailing sister to lie down and rest off food poisoning.

Lynn tosses a small orange ball up in the air before catching it as it came back down. "What's wrong with me? I know Lori's been doing everything she can to help out, but I yelled at her for doing the same thing we all did."

Lynn knew she was more angry at herself for hiding in her room when Lincoln and Luna were chased out of the house. Lincoln would never leave his family unless he had to, he had proven time and time again that he'd go through physical pain for any one of them. Obviously something bad happened last night, Lynn didn't know what that could have been but it is easy enough to assume the general situation.

The door opened to her room, but Lynn didn't even move her focus from the ball.

"Lynn—"

"I'm sorry."

Lori did not expect that one bit, she expected Lynn to shun her completely or even worse that she'd continue the argument they had during breakfast.

"I...I was wrong, Lori. I've never been good at admitting my mistakes, but in this case I was obviously out of line. I can't blame you for something that everyone didn't do," she finally looks to Lori and the older sister saw the tears in her eyes. "I came at you hoping you'd yell at me, that it'd be like what things used to be for a moment. Even if it meant that we'd be screaming our heads off...I know everything I did was wrong and I hope you can forgive me."

"It's okay, Lynn. This has been hard on all of us, even I lose control of my emotions like you saw earlier. Maybe it'd be better if you had a conversation with us instead of yelling at us, but I forgive you Lynn. I don't have room in my head to hold a grudge over a stupid argument, none of us do. Just try not to do it again, okay?"

Lynn nods to Lori. The older sibling holds the door open, "Go have fun out side, everyone but Lisa is out there already. I'm gonna be out in a minute after I get Lisa a drink and make sure she's actually okay."

Lynn gets out of bed and walks out the door. "Thank you, Lori."

"No problem, twerp. Now go do something sporty or whatever outside. Just don't do anything too too loud. I don't think I need to explain why."

Lynn looks back to Lori. "Okay, I will, but you better not tell anyone I cried, got it?"

"Your secret is safe with me."

This will go in as a Chapter three but in reality this is more of a Chapter 1.5 since it's relatively short in the word count. I just wanted to paint the picture of the home life immediately after the events of Chapter One and inclusion of events before. Some of those events might (hopefully) be fleshed out more in a prequel.

Yes, the family was broken apart by infidelity. Lincoln and the younger siblings (Excluding Lisa, because she's waaaaay smarter.) think of it as abandonment and haven't exactly been told the true story because after all how do think you explain it to kids the reason their parents are splitting up?

I hinted at this in Chapter One in an insult during Lynn Sr's attack it sort of hinted to this if you'd read it literally. The custody and alimony situation also points to that since I wrote it that only Lynn Sr was receiving money.

There was also a tongue and cheek Easter Egg in a major influence and potential major plot point in this chapter. If you have a theory than leave a review telling me what you think. Speculation is the best part of any ongoing story.

The time machine endeavors will be a fruitless one. Just saying that now because this is a coming to age story, not a grow up and fix it fic. Sometimes you have to deal with the life given, and the whole quest Lisa is having with it is mostly an effect of the abuse on her. She may seem normal but she is equally as hurt as anyone else.

The hint for the Easter Egg is that the plot point is also a major one in a song I like. The lyrics that act as this stories image will give you a place to look if you find the band. Maybe listen to a couple of songs if you are into the punk genre.

Anyways I'll be back with an actual continuation of the story soon.

Peace.

Key

Italics: Inner Monologue/ Title of the Chapter

Bold: Intense Emotion/ Story title

Regular: Spoken word/ Quotations