"Hey, Linc, wanna read some comics?"

It was 10:00am the next morning. Lincoln was sitting on his bed and thinking about last night when the door opened and Luan stepped in. "I got the new issue of Ace Savvy."

That was enough to get his mind off of Lynn. "You do? But it just came out yesterday."

"I know," Luan said, coming in and closing the door. "I went out and bought it this morning."

By this morning, she meant "5:00am" this morning. She biked all the way to the comic book store, getting there just as it opened.

"Alright," Lincoln said appreciatively. He pulled off his shirt and yanked down his pants. Luan blushed and looked down at the comic in her hand.

"Come on! Let's see that bad boy!"

Luan sat on the bed and laid on her back. "Come here."

Lincoln scooched next to her, and her heart started racing. She opened the comic and held it up. In the first panel, a man in tights battled a strange creature on a rooftop by moonlight.

"Who's that?" Luan asked.

"That's Dr. Freak. He's an alien."

"Oh. Cool."

After a few minutes, her arms started to hurt, so she rolled onto her stomach and bent her knees, kicking her feet back and forth. She sat the comic on the bed. Lincoln turned over and started reading. They were so close their bodies were touching. Luan was having trouble breathing.

"You like it?" she asked, looking at him.

"Yeah," he replied looking up, "thank you."

She felt a big, stupid grin spreading across her face. Lincoln smiled too. She giggled, and he chuckled.

"Luan Marie Loud!" a voice thundered up the stairs. "Get down here this instant!"

Uh-oh.

"I gotta go," she said, and got up. At the door, she looked back and smiled. "Enjoy your comic."

"I will," Lincoln said.

She bit her lower lip and went to see what was the matter.

Mom and dad were standing at the bottom of the stairs. Dad's arms were crossed and mom's hands were on her hips.

Her heart started pounding, and not in a good way.

"What's up?"

"Do you care to explain why this was sticking out of your bag?" mom asked, holding up a pack of Marlboro Menthols.

Luan paled. "T-Those aren't mine!"

"Your bag is the black one with the smiley face, right?" dad asked. "The one that was sitting by the back door?"

"Yes," Luan started, "but..."

"So they just crawled in there all by themselves?" mom asked.

"No, but..."

"Go to your room," dad said, pointing up the stairs, "you're grounded!"

Hanging her head, Luan turned and trudged up the stairs. At the top, she saw Lynn's door close, as if someone had been there watching...waiting for their plan to come to fruition.

"Lynn," Luan said, balling her fist.

In her room, Lynn laughed into her hand. You wanna play dirty? Let's play dirty. She went over to her bed and sat down. She grabbed her phone just as the text icon appeared on her screen. It was Luan.

"Tht was under handed."

Lynn typed a reply and sent it back. "Those things will give u cancer ya know."

"I thought we were goin to do this clean," came the response.

"Like yelling fire was clean."

"Like faking a fight with Lucy just so u could sleep in Lincolns room was clean. I heard u last night. U started that fight. On purpose. Now im grounded becuz of u."

Lynn started to type All's fair in love and war, but stopped. Okay, maybe it was kind of shitty of her to do what she did, and maybe Luan was justified in what she did. Suddenly, she felt like shit. But was it really that bad? They didn't exactly set out any ground rules last night. Just no more fistfights, and respect Lincoln's decision when he made one.

No, no, it was bad. She was just starting to type a reply when Luan texted her again. "O brother I have a visitor. GTG ;)"

Luan looked up from her phone. Lincoln was standing in the doorway.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," he replied and held up the comic. "We didn't finish."

"No we didn't," she grinned.

He came over and belly-flopped on the bed. She rolled onto her stomach, and together, they finished the comic. Neither one spoke; they both simply enjoyed each other's company. At one point, Luna came in and froze. Lincoln, sensing her, looked over his shoulder. "Hey, Luna," he said.

"H-Hey, bro," she said, "I was just grabbing my axe." She grabbed her guitar and forced a smile. "Heh. Got it."

Next door, Lynn pressed her ear against the wall. She could hear voices, but they were muffled.

"What are you doing?" Lucy asked, appearing from nowhere. Lynn jumped a foot.

"I thought I heard a mouse," she said, then made a show of walking around and pressing her ears to all the walls. "Nope. Guess I was mistaken."

"Riiight," Lucy said, turned around, and walked out.

Lynn sighed. She had to get him away from Luan. But how?

An idea struck her then.

Forty-five minutes later, she serendipitously caught Lincoln coming out of the bathroom. She was red-faced and panting. "Hey!" She bent over and tried to catch her breath.

"Are you alright?" he asked, rushing over.

"I'm...fine...look."

She held something up. "Wanna...watch...with me?"

Lincoln took it. "Starship Groupers the complete series! With deleted scenes and bonus footage! Yes I do!"

Lynn looked up. Luan's door was cracked. A pair of narrow eyes peered out. Lynn stuck her tongue out.

"Let's go," she said, grabbing Lincoln by the hand.

Downstairs, she popped one of the four discs into the DVD player and hit 'play.' She jumped on the couch next to Lincoln. "I know you like this..." she was about to say junk ... "so I said, 'I'll get my favorite brother a present.'"

"I'm your only brother."

"Oh? Did I say 'brother'? I meant 'sibling.'" She smiled and laid her head in Lincoln's lap. He tensed, then relaxed. When his hand rested on her head, she almost melted.

They watched two episodes (Lynn wasn't paying attention, she was too focused on Lincoln) before dad stormed into the room. Instinctively, Lynn shot up.

"Lynn Loud Jr.," dad said. "What is this?"

He held up a baseball.

"My lucky ball," she said, blinking. What was he doing with it? It was supposed to be in her room...

Luan.

"And what happened to the shed window?"

"Nothing! I mean, I didn't do anything wrong."

"Yeah, dad," Lincoln said, "she was here with me."

"Stay out of this, Lincoln. You broke yet another window with your careless ball tossing. You are grounded."

"Dad!"

"Now!"

Lynn jumped up and stormed to her room. She slammed the door and flopped onto her bed. She grabbed her phone from the nightstand to send Luan a text, but Luan had already sent her one.

"Paybacks a bitch."