"I'm telling you what I heard just like you wanted. I don't see what the problem is," Leni sat in Lynn and Lucy's room, talking to Lynn herself. Lucy wasn't there, but in the basement, apparently needing to communicate with her dark overlord or other form of eldritch spirit. The family never could keep up with all of it, but they just let Lucy do as she pleased.
"But… again, what did you hear? I…I just can't believe it," Lynn was in her usual nightwear, which was just her jersey and underwear, though the long shirt covered it anyhow.
"Come on, Lynn, you've made me say it five times…" The second oldest Loud sibling whined, but knew she had to repeat what her tiny mind could remember. She had overheard the entire conversation Lincoln and Lisa had. However, trying to remember it all was the issue. It was jumbled up, and parts of it were gone from Leni's small mind.
"Please, Leni I don't want to go about this the wrong way…" Lynn begged. She had fallen in love for her brother two years ago. At first, she ignored the feelings, but they kept growing. She herself knew that it was crazy. Eventually, multiple family members learned, but kept it secret from their parents, leaving it to their sibling to handle this between themselves, if it made them happy then they were not going to oppose it.
"Lisa was telling Lincoln he should talk to you, and… Lincoln wants to be your guardian or something? I did hear him say to Lisa that he was worried about you because he loved you," Leni reiterated what she could remember. Once again she wasn't lying. However, how far out of context it was being taken was the issue.
"My guardian…?" Lynn felt a light feeling in her chest. The long haired blonde girl was glad to see her happy, but she was not the best at giving advice nor had a good memory at all. Leni only had one relationship in her life and that did not go well, since the boy she had been dating took advantage of her to make another woman jealous.
"I should go talk to him," Lynn got out of bed, but Leni stopped her.
"Lynn, I don't know what all is going on, but Lisa's upset right now about a friend dying… I think Lincoln's trying to comfort her right now. He'll talk to you soon enough about this," Leni claimed. She had heard about Vernan's passing, and Lisa's upset tone was enough of a sign that it was a sensitive enough situation.
"Alright… Guess I'm just anxious," Lynn exhaled, trying to calm down. She hated waiting for her brother to come talk to her first, but she hoped that maybe it would be the start of a change. Still, she would feel a million times better once he was aware of her feelings, even if he shot them down completely. Lynn was more glad the other sisters were leaving this to them.
"Try to get some rest. I'll see you in the morning," Leni bid her younger sister goodnight before heading for the door.
"Alright thanks for everything, Leni! I owe you," Lynn smiled.
"Don't worry about it. I did lose at rock paper scissors fair and square," Leni assured. Soon, everyone would be getting to bed. Tomorrow was Sunday, so it was the last day of the weekend to enjoy while it lasted, before they had to return to school.
The night in the Loud House was calm, but Lincoln and Lisa were still awake and working away, their parents letting them stay up late since they rarely saw the two of them getting along so well, it was nice to see them bonding in a sense.
"Wow… being an inventor hurts," Lincoln commented, looking down at his heavily bandaged hands. The two had moved their work into the garage when Lola and Lana were going to bed. They did not want to keep them awake over their personal work, Lincoln had burnt and cut his hand a lot on accident.
"Just another sign of progress," Lisa said, the two looking over what they had so far. The suit was nowhere near done, as they had spent most of the late evening finishing the gauntlet alone.
"I didn't know you were so good at designing styles," Lincoln commented, impressed. He picked up the now finished gauntlet. It was golden with a few white stripes running along around it, and it had an oval shape to it and appeared to be able to cover his entire forearm as well as the back of his hand.
"I have to make my inventions look presentable after all," Lisa reminded her brother. Lincoln felt the grooves and the small calm detail etched onto the golden gauntlet, noticing an opening in the back of it and something concealed in the front of it that he could not get out.
"This alloy is also extremely durable," Lisa claimed, pulling out a hammer and smacking the gauntlet. It shook in her brother's hand, but there was no damage, not even a scratch in the paint or a dent.
"What is this gauntlet? It's like a shield," Lincoln claimed. To witness the gauntlet's sheer sturdiness was nice to him. Their labor had paid off so far that it was worth all the hammer hits, the cuts and burns to his hands.
"It has multiple purposes, but this is more or less the lock to the Guardian Project… this being the key," Lisa hummed, presenting the tip curved star that now appeared to be radiating with an aura of golden essence. It was as if the gauntlet wanted him to use it with the star.
"Huh… what's this funny feeling about?" Lincoln questioned, holding his chest in confusion. Once again, it felt like feathers running gently along his nerves. It wasn't ticklish, but the feeling alone was enough to make him worry.
"Did you drink anything from my lab?" Lisa asked. As depressing as it was, somehow her siblings had on multiple occasions mistook her beakers contents for soda or juice. The child prodigy had no idea how, but if she could trick someone into testing something for her with no effort, she would take it.
"No, I was with you the whole time tonight," Lincoln kept looking over the gauntlet. He was about to slip his arm into it, but his second youngest sister halted him before he could.
"Lincoln, that's dangerous! There haven't been any tests done! And again, you aren't the most ideal to wear this," Lisa reminded him as she took it and rested it on the workbench. Lincoln looked disappointed at the reminder. He still did not believe Lori or Lynn would wear it, even when offered the chance.
"…wow, it's late," Lincoln noticed on a clock on the wall that it was 2:18am. The two had been working hour after hour, so much so that this had been their first real break. The child prodigy took the gauntlet from him and put it on the workbench next to her laptop.
"You should go to sleep, Lincoln. You aren't as used to the nocturnal nightlife as I am," Lisa said. Lincoln raised an eyebrow before he was handed the curved tipped star.
"What are you giving me this for? You should go to bed, too. I don't think working this late will get much done for you…" Lincoln replied. He was confused, she would not trust him with the gauntlet of the Guardian Project, yet his sister was giving him the supposed key for it.
"Having nine others running around unpredictably can disrupt any possible chance of nap time. But it's naturally safer if we keep one of each part within each other's close proximity. I'll go to bed soon," Lisa explained while promising to get some rest soon herself. The two would most likely be sleeping in late tomorrow due to the late night antics.
"Well… alright, Lisa. Goodnight, I'll see you tomorrow," Lincoln bid her goodnight, thinking they might be able to finish the Guardian Project sometime tomorrow. He put the curved star away in his pocket before he left the garage to make his way through the dark house to get to his room.
"Alright… No holding back, Lisa. You can't be afraid of catastrophic failure…" Lisa gulped, ready to work. She opened the laptop and connected a few wires to several pieces of the Guardian Project. This was going to be a long night for her.
"Something isn't right…" Lincoln exhaled while putting on his pajamas, having just finished buttoning his orange shirt. He looked at Charles, the dog, who lay on his back on the bed as if he had fallen asleep when begging for belly rubs.
"Guess I've become a paranoid wreck," Lincoln laughed at himself. He believed that maybe the monster had struck a lot more of a deeper terror into his head than he realized. Fear could do a lot to a person's mind, it can even spawn nightmares.
"You sure don't look like one, bro," he heard. Luna, his aspiring rock-loving sister, was behind him. He saw her in her usual pixie haircut and long purple shirt with its front skull symbol.
"Oh, hey Luna. What are you doing up this late?" Lincoln greeted her.
"Could be askin' you the same thing, bro. I was going to get Lily a bottle when I saw you walkin' up… having some personal issues?" Luna shared her bedroom with Luan and Lily, but since she often woke up first to the youngest one's cries, their parents had decided to let Lily's crib be in their room, Luna was pretty great with Lily really.
"No worse than usual," Lincoln shrugged. They both seemed to be equally tired. He usually got along really well with Luna. Right now, he could tell she was worried for him.
"Main reason I ask is because someone creeping around in the dark coming from the garage, would make that someone look like they don't want anyone to hear anything bad," Luna said teasingly. Lincoln realized what she was getting at, but shook his head. Privacy was barely a thing in the Loud House. Everyone would know if he did that.
"So what's something someone wouldn't want others upstairs to hear in the middle of the night?" She then rhetorically asked. Her bucktoothed brother scratched his cheek.
"A car horn?" Lincoln guessed, not realizing the way she had tried setting up into her own theory. He loved Luna to bits, but she was one of the more coddling with him, or as he referred, a member of the priority one meddlers who would be involved way before the rest.
"I'm asking if you're alright, Lincoln… you look like you've been crying," Luna said. Lincoln looked at his mirror momentarily. For some reason, his eyes had turned red from irritation. He imagined the constant gaze of barely blinking when working on the Guardian Project did that, or having bright tools shined in his eyes for too long.
"I haven't been crying. I was downstairs helping Lisa with the Guardian Project," Lincoln claimed, but he knew him and Lisa probably had the most unusual sibling friendship in the Loud House, but in a day's time that had improved a lot.
"Guardian Project? …Sounds like a cool game bro, but seriously, if there's a problem going on, you can tell me," Luna brushed it off as two of her younger siblings playing a video game together, but she did not really buy it since she saw him coming from the garage.
"I was attacked today by some weird monster if that counts as a problem?" Lincoln did not hesitate to confess, since he presumed Lisa was going to inform everyone of the Guardian Project once it was done anyway, therefore he would be telling them all about his encounter.
"A monster…?" The rock loving sibling obviously did not believe him, that and her little brother didn't have any injuries on him to show he was attacked. The worst she saw was a tiny scratch on his forehead that looked like it had came from his own fingernails when scratching an itch, his hands were bandaged but anything could have done that.
"Bro, get some sleep. We can talk about your problem with mom or someone else tomorrow if you want?" Luna offered. Lincoln wrapped his arms around her stomach, giving her a thankful hug.
"Thanks, Luna. Don't worry though. I'd let you know right away if something was going on," Lincoln claimed. That was mostly true, though he had told no one of Ronnie Anne and his break up recently. It was still somewhat having its toll on him despite it being weeks ago.
"Alright bro… You have a goodnight. Don't forget Bun-bun," Luna told him while giving his precious stuffed toy to him.
"Goodnight, Luna. Thanks a lot," Lincoln held onto the toy as he watched her head off to get Lily's bottle, upon hearing the youngest sibling crying.
"She didn't believe me, Charles… guess I don't blame her though. I still barely believe it," Lincoln spoke to the dog while rubbing his stomach. He climbed into his bed and got under his blankets with Bun-bun.
"Goodnight, Charles," the white haired boy rested his head on his pillow, cuddling Bun-bun close to him to help keep him comforted in his slumber.
"I hope tomorrow is at least calm…"