Chapter 14: Rise of the Resistance

Atop a sloping hill, a young girl sat beneath the glow of the moon up above. She watched as a colony of bats made their way across its beams and followed their shadow downwards as they painted the land beneath. With the tolls taken on her body from the previous day, she almost would have cared for a different view. Almost. Due to the absence of the tainted bodies of the deceased scowering the graveyard's visage however, it retained it's sense of welcome to her, for however much it might have been dented. One way or another, there would always be some relief to be had from the sight of grounds as hallowed as those.

Knowing full well that it wasn't the graveyard of Royal Woods, Lucy had given some thought to raising the dead to make her trip easier as she had on past excursions within its mental confines, but there were limits to what such experiences as the ones she and her brother had taken part in would allow. Feeling it best to leave the corpses where they lie, she instead opted to walk the trails towards the center of the graveyard with her own feet. Within the fantastic infinity of gravestones she felt nothing of the weight of her bruises from the realm of the conscious. She practically skipped through the trails of resting souls. Her smile ebbed from her face slightly as she looked around. While it was a truly beautiful sight she had expected a certain white-haired boy to be running by her side, whether it be due to his accompaniment in the past to their world's graveyard or their race through the other world's the day before.

With the futile hope that it might summon his competition, the bounce of her travel shifted into a more pressing run. As she came upon a sizeable tombstone, she slowed and looked behind her. Nothing. She felt almost silly in having believed she might have been able to elicit his attendance. Thankfully there was no one around to have seen her. Such foolishness was more reserved for her younger sisters...well, at least those that didn't have an IQ exceeding a computer's. Sighing to herself, Lucy kicked a rock along the path. And she stopped. She had just sighed. She hadn't said the word, she'd given a very literal sigh. Be it it was in the fantasy of her mindscape, but it was a sigh nonetheless. She scrunched her face slightly as she started her walk again. Perhaps she had been spending too much time interacting with others as of late. If there was one benefit to her isolation it was that her practices were undisturbed by those that didn't partake in them, body language included. Still...was it so bad to have slipped up that once? Her lips curled at the price. It seemed like a pretty fair trade for the companionship she'd been enjoying.

Enjoying...

Feeling that her progress was a bit slower than she liked and not feeling like running again, Lucy lifted her hand into the air and snapped her fingers. In an instant the bats that had flown above the graveyard rushed down and grabbed hold of her body and arms lifting her in a combined effort into the sky. From her vantage point she could make out every detail. Every hill. Every stone. And her destination. The same destination that it always was. She smiled as they went. She didn't even have to physically direct the bats for them to soar as a winged formation towards the coffin standing at the center of the graveyard. With eagerness and excitement she soared. She truly had started to become...happy.

Obviously she'd felt happiness various times throughout her life, but never as much as she had been for the past two weeks. Just journey after journey, trial after trial, and all through it in her endeavors to make her claim on the boy she sought another had accompanied her. He hadn't needed prodding, not by much, and she knew that if he'd fought against it she couldn't have truly done anything to counter it. But he had helped her. He'd helped her because he was him, and because he cared about her. He was one of the few people that would be as willing as he was to come to her aide, and she couldn't count the amount of respect and thankfulness that she had for him. Her lips quivered as they she neared the coffin. She could hardly contain herself as she spotted Edwin standing next to it, his eyes at his wrist as though he had a watch to look at.

The vampire only watched with half-interest as the child's gathering of winged animals descended as a robe around her propping her head out of its top, feet above even the adult level. A stupid grin on her face, Lucy dropped slowly to the ground as the bats dissipated and she approached the coffin. She hardly cared who was in it. While it was true that the boy that she was after was what she would hope for, Lincoln more than deserved his own space within the epicenter of her grave-grounds. Given the type of coffin it was, it was pretty evident as to who might dwell behind its now Mahogany casing. Its structure had shifted entirely from what it had once been a little over a week before and exuberantly she grasped at the door of it, delighted to welcome which body it may contain to her modest abode.

Edwin seemed astounded that she hadn't even waited him to provide his services to open it for her, if not a bit disheartened. But it was her dreamscape, and he could only do as he was allowed within it. The girl hardly even contemplated the ramifications of the change in coffins. Never had the two coffins on her previous journeys to the setting been so complete before, nor as pristine. Such craftsmanship could not be afforded to not be tested. As the lid swung off of its container Lucy's smile shrunk to a small "o" on her face before spreading to a grin again, albeit smaller than it had been. Before her, draped in the garments that he had been dressed in on her last visit to that mentally-constructed paradise, was Lincoln, his hands clasped at his midsection and his eyes closed with the stillness of decease.

Was this the finality of the coffin's look and contents? Was her care for him so intense that he had been imprinted as the bearer of such a space? Or had her view of him as her "partner" become so convincing that even her mind was having trouble viewing it otherwise? Either way it mattered not. She loved him. And he loved her. That was the truth, and that was what she was sure fueled his placement in that land. His presence only proved how far they'd come, and she was sure that with that love their relationship "act" would be a breeze to pull off. And once that had reached its zenith she would know love. True love. Her love. Hardly giving thought to her acts, she pressed herself up against Lincoln's still body and rested her nose against his cheek, her hand grasping at his shoulder.

"Sigh...Lincoln...oh Lincoln..." she hummed as her grin widened, "...my...Lincoln..."in the blissfulness of the fantasy she may as well play into how naturally her part of their "act" came to her, if for nothing else than at least to practice. She didn't even notice the shift in Edwin's face. What had been partial disinterest had morphed to an expression more of disheartening and concern which only amplified as he saw the body in the coffin stir. The motions were not lost on the girl that stood up against it. Unlike before she did not trip or jump at the sight of the dead eyes that fluttered open from the body. Her grin closed into a smile as they peered down at her.

"Welcome to the dreary confines of my cemetery my dear undead Prince of the Night..." she greeted pulling off of him to try and stand on her toes to his clouded eye-level. "Sigh...our dusk is almost at hand," she told him as she stroked his cheek, "and for our toilings, our reward shall be just. In these enchanted grave-lined passages however, you are free to do whatever you wish." Lucy's face was aglow from her wording. She was impressed by how naturally the sentences came and how easily she was tricking her mind into the sincereness her flirtations with the unresponsive form. She could feel that it could hardly tell that there was an "act" being spoken. "...to whatever..." she added quietly, "and whomever you wish..." For a time there was silence. All that was present was Lucy's affection-ridden face for the boy in the coffin. Her role as the "girlfriend" of the pair was infallible. She was sure of that. Had she seen the worried face of the vampire next to the coffin however she may have given more care towards her positioning. What she had thought had been tricks in her vision confirmed themselves as real fidgets of the boy's eyes and brows as its analysis of her face continued. She'd never stayed asleep long enough to see what might happen after the corpse had "awoken" before. But the peers across the girl's face and body seemed a non-issue as Lincoln's expression eventually settled into a smile of his own, though his more eyelid-heavy. And then he opened his mouth. Like a viper his fanged jaws shot forward and clamped down onto the girl's neck as his arms constricted around her body.

"Moan!" Lucy cried, her body shuddering. She could feel the blood seeping from her veins and coating the inside of the boy's hot mouth. "Moan!" As Lincoln's hands settled at the back of her head and waist she couldn't help but throw her arms around his torso. To have her journey into undeath be dealt to her by such an escort was almost more than her body could bear. "MOAN!"


"Look, it was between you and Dr. Crazy, and since she's on thin ice after last night and with all the weirdness going on over the last week, well...look you ready to take on whatever pops out of there or not?" Lynn asked. Smacking her wrench into her hand, Lana nodded at the older sister. Lynn readied her own hockey stick as they creaked open the door to her room and peered inside. Within they could see hardly anything with how dark it was. Given how early in the morning it had been when Lynn had awoken the younger Loud they knew going in that light likely would not be much in their favor. But still, they had their motive, and it was more time to strike than ever. Or call a doctor...but Lynn had made her decision. Who knew what the sounds from the coffin might herald with the mystical dealings that the young gothic mastermind dealt in?

"You're gonna burn in hell for disrupting my beauty sleep," Lola snapped as she walked towards the bathroom behind them. The two girls hardly paid her any mind as they slipped into the room. To Lynn's delight, the coffin looked to be exactly as she had left it, though the noises it emitted had remained the same. The sisters looked to each other, brows furrowed, and nodded. With one swift motion, Lynn smashed her foot into the side of her roommate's resting case. And they hopped back to take cover next to Lynn's bed. For about half a minute they watched, weapons readied, as the noises within the coffin warbled to a stop and the lid began to stir. The objects within the girl's hands shook with the tightening of the digits around them as the lid lifted into the air and fell to the side with a clack. Lynn and Lana's dilated pupils looked to each other while the hairs of their neck stood up. Were they ready? Could this actually be the confrontation they had so vehemently anticipated? And if so...who would walk away the victor?...and more importantly the...defeated?... As the shadowy figure within the coffin rose from its slumber, the ones that had disturbed its rest leaped forward with their weapons raised above their crazed heads.

"Sleep induced grumble. What's going on?" Lucy murmured as she rubbed an eye beneath her hair. Once she had looked to the ones that had moved the coffin all that she saw were the faces of two of her sisters grinning back at her.

"N-n-nothin'...w-we were just-...just," Lynn stammered nervously.

"We were seeing h-how you were doing," Lana finished. Had she been more awake Lucy might have questioned their hesitant nature, but under the cloak of emerging back into the world of the living she could only shake her head about as her senses climbed back to reality. Lynn nudged Lana's arm signalling for her to dispose of the weapons they'd hidden behind their backs when the girl they'd summoned had awoken. Once the objects had dropped to the ground they kicked them under Lynn's bed.

"W-...what are you...yawn...talking about?" Lucy mumbled. The other two sisters were rather surprised. They had not expected, with the noises that had been coming from the coffin, for her be so distanced from consciousness.

"Well, there were all these "moans" you were saying in there," Lynn told her. If Lucy had had any connection left with her dreamscape it was lost with that bit of information which caused her cheeks filled with color.

"I...was?..." she asked quietly trying to dip her face below the rim of her coffin to spare the duo a glimpse of the visage beneath her hair, "...s-sorry I...I dunno why I was um..."

"Y-yeah, we haha, we um..." Lana coughed, unaware of just how alike the two parties were in their nervousness.

"S-since ya don't know why you were all "moan moan moan" th-though, we should probably get some hel-HEY LISA! Lucy needs ya!" Lynn hollered out the door. The goth tugged at her bangs as she sunk lower into the coffin. Having the play-by-play of her actions spoken to her was bad enough, but now the mistaken fantasies would earn her a visit from the sibling most qualified in medical assistance. Her coffin let out a thunk as the side of her head hit it in embarrassment and annoyance. It slid upwards once she noticed a shadow hovering over her and saw the glasses-wearing sister of the family looking back.

"I was made to believe I was needed here," Lisa said. Lucy shook her head. Knowing she didn't have much of a viable excuse to get her to leave though, she sat up straighter. "What seems to be the issue?" the intellectually endowed child asked. Studiously she looked over her older sister's form. There didn't appear to be anything amiss compared to how she had looked before taking her slumber, but one could never be too sure. Intent on righting any errors caused by her...goofup from the day prior, Lisa plugged a stethescope into her ears. Lucy's body stiffened as she felt her nightshirt roll up her back exposing her pale skin to the house air.

"Breathe in please," Lisa requested. Lucy did as she was told, mainly due to the ice cold equipment that was placed against her back. "And out," Lisa ordered signalling Lucy's shakey exhale. "In," she said again. This time the inhalation came from a piece of paper that the older girl had spotted to her side. Her drawing. The one of she and...him. Though unsure of what the toddler may think of such a doodle, she found it best not to chance her analytical eyes catching sight of it. As she breathed in she pulled the paper to her front praying that the room's other dwellers weren't watching. "And exhale," Lisa said. With the noise of Lucy's breath covering up the sound, and having nowhere else to really hide it, she slipped the drawing into her pajama pants.

"Well, your respiratory systems seem normal," Lisa murmured, "How's your back feel?"

"Fine," Lucy said searching for a way to dispense with the audience. Thinking on her response for a moment, her head tilted. That...hadn't been the response she had thought she would give. "Wait...yeah...it's...fine..." she repeated more slowly. Curiously she rubbed her back. The part of her body that had suffered the most from the skirmish in the other world felt like nothing at all had even been done to it.

"Science wins again," Lisa smiled victoriously at the handiwork, "You're welcome."

"You-"

"Well okay, it may not have been THIS me that did it, but a Lisa patched you guys up. You didn't honestly think you'd be aching for that long after you'd been nursed by such capable hands did you?" the makeshift "doctor" boasted. Rubbing her back again, the side of Lucy's mouth curled upwards slightly.

"Sigh. Try and try as she might, the little Einstein can't escape the strife," Lucy mused. The reminder of it not having been the victory of that specific version of her did flatten Lisa's confident expression.

"Well you're welcome for the checkup," the smaller girl grumbled as she gave her back a slap, "You're fine by the way." Somewhat jaded to the criticisms after the subduing she'd received from her kin during the inter-universal ordeal, Lisa pulled herself back out of where she'd bent over into the coffin and skittered past the other two older sisters who had been making their way to the door themselves with the distraction they'd brought Lisa in for.

"Man, we almost died!" Lana whispered to Lynn. Viciously she nodded her head at the younger girl.

"Dude, I could've sworn she was going to jump out and just bite into-" Lynn started to say but stopped when the two entered the hallway. Having become curious towards the commotion in the room of his older and younger sisters, Lincoln had paused his trip to the bathroom to stop at Lynn and Lucy's doorway only to come face-to-face with the tomboyish blond and sports-obsessed brunette as they were exiting. For a moment they stared at each other but before Lincoln could say anything, Lana and Lynn slipped by a bit hurriedly, the older one wearing a rather intent glower as they passed. While the wordless exchange had been...odd, Lincoln shrugged it off and stepped into the rim of the doorway figuring that there couldn't be that many sisters left inside. True to his suspicions only one remained, and with the room vacant there was nothing to keep her gaze from him. In the dimness of the room he couldn't make out much in the coloring of the inhabitant but he just assumed she was as chalk-white as ever. Receiving no response, Lincoln leaned against the doorframe and folded his arms over his chest. Grinning at the coffin-bound girl, he waved from where his hand had been tucked beneath his forearm.

Gulping down her returning hue, Lucy put a hand on her own arm and wriggled her fingers at him sheepishly with the other hand. Lincoln looked towards the hall to hide his color, but his eyes slid back to the girl after a few seconds. After he was sure she'd seen his view of her, Lincoln nudged his head towards the exterior of the door a couple of times. Getting the idea, Lucy hopped out of her coffin and started to make her way to the exit but stopped as she felt a rather rough texture against her leg. Blushing, she turned around and reached into her pants to pull the piece of paper she'd stuffed into them out. She gave the drawing a quick hug before tossing it in the direction of her resting-space where it fluttered face-down into the coffin. She was thankful once she'd turned around to see that Lincoln had taken his leave during the stall sparing him the odd pause that she'd taken.

Due to her nature, her head was the first thing to emerge from her room. It didn't take long for her to spot her partner who had gotten in line with the rest of their sisters for the bathroom. Darting her head in the other direction, she made sure that no one else had been approaching before slipping out silently into the open. The only implication that there had been anyone in the direction of Lincoln's room was the door to the twins' chambers that was partly open. Unseen by those in line, she drifted up behind her brother and took to standing. To her surprise, he actually turned his head towards her after a moment and smirked.

"Ya know...I actually could feel ya standing there this time," Lincoln noted, "How long ya been there? Five seconds?" Lucy opened her mouth a tiny bit before turning her grin towards the ground. It was strange, but enjoyable, to have someone becoming more in-tune with a nature of her type. "You really do know how to creep," he complimented.

"You probably say that to all the goth girls," she smiled

"Only the cute ones my dear dreary orchid," Lincoln affirmed quietly. Her face burning, Lucy's widespread grin beamed at the ground. Lincoln shared the heat with his own proud expression towards the successful flirt. After his acceptance of his part in the alliance, the teasing came with surprising ease and excitement. As he'd hoped, the shorter girl in the line in front of them hadn't heard their quieting conversation over the view of herself in the pocket mirror she'd been inspecting her face with. The burn of Lincoln's face flashed again as he felt a slightly colder hand worm its way into his and lock its fingers around his, but, after glancing behind them to confirm of the continued vacantness of the of the hall in the direction of his room, he squeezed back causing Lucy to fall against him. He could feel her breathe as her nostrils inhaled against his shirt sending a ripple through his spine.

"...so...tomorrow's it huh?..." he asked. With the girl's hair partway obscuring his lower face he was treated to quite an air. Though remnants of their cleaning products remained from their wash once they'd returned the night before, the time spent in her coffin had allowed her smell to return to its more natural dry musk atop the pleasant backdrop. The currents of air shifted as the bristles of the girl's scalp rocked back and forth in the nod that she gave him. She stopped as she felt the hand in her's squeeze again and rub its digits affectionately against her's. Lincoln knew there was awkwardness, however slight, to the gesture, but the warmness of their simultaneous wooing provided a comfort that eliminated whatever traces there were of it. There may have been nervousness, but with what they'd been through and the understandings they'd reached it was a pleasantness they coveted. "Guess we're set for the "relationship" bit then huh?" Lincoln said. Lucy's arms trembled as his hand left her's and ran along the length of her back.

"Sigh, with the drapings of darkness you can cloak your brightness with these days, I may just have to follow that other me's lead in a conjoined burial," Lucy joked. Feeling both creepiness and gratification from the comment, Lincoln rubbed the back of his head with his free hand. Were they ready? While it was true that they hadn't had the most chances to practice on their setup throughout the week, the progression had been there in its own haphazard way. He had done quite a bit of practicing on his lonesome when he'd been in his room over the course of the nights and some of the books had truly begun to pull him in once he'd gotten past the base layer of their sappy, yet morbid, premises. It had likely been those tugs of the beneath-the-surface elements that had kept him interested in them in fact instead of driving him away with the occasional bought of descriptive violence. Of course it helped not having pictures of the described acts to look at, but with how invested he had gotten at times he doubted that would be much of a detriment to the tales. And with Lucy's guidance on Tuesday his footsteps had fallen into line with her's rather seamlessly. It was an impressive transformation he'd undergone...but was it enough? Even if he had the act down he had never been to such an event himself. What all were the customs? And he still needed his suit to-

"It's waiting for ya in the closet," Leni said causing the younger boy and girl to jump apart at the sudden appearance of her face bent down next to his.

"...w-what's in the c-closet?" Lincoln asked clutching his chest. Even Lucy ran her fingers through her hair from the surprise.

"The suit," Leni answered. Lincoln and Lucy gave each other an odd look before looking back to their older sister, "just be sure to tell the Martians not to get it too dirty. I totes did some work to get it looking as good as it does." Lucy and Lincoln shared their perplexed looks again as the older sister lifted back up into a standing position behind them. That had at least answered where to get the outfit from even if the information had seemingly been to respond to unspoken situation more than anything else. The sound of the older sister hadn't gone unnoticed by everyone else however. Lori, whom had emerged from their room looked towards the trio as she passed.

"Remember Luce, the VOM rerun from last week's on tonight," she reminded as she reached the steps. At the mention of their shared show the goth's head popped up. Though she was willing to sacrifice an episode for her agenda, it was still a point of interest to her. But there were more important matters at hand.

"Or instead of wasting your time with those dreary castles and vampires and crap, you could instead, and hear me out on this, watch my glorious three hour pageant practice later tonight," Lola proposed as she tilted her body towards them and placed a hand on her chest, "Alongside Lincoln of course."

"Groan..." the older brother and sister said at the same time. They realized only too late their response as the startled wannabe-model jumped back at the united dullness. Uneasily she looked between Lincoln and Lucy. Even the boy's expression had shown what she perceived to have been the lowered-eyelids of Lucy's if only for a moment. Just as frantically, Lincoln and Lucy eyed each other.

"Er-I-m-mean...Ughhhhhh... ...?" Lincoln suggested halfheartedly with an apologetic grin afterwards. Her lower eyelids lifted in unnerved stupor and Lola took a step backwards.

"...I'm...gonna go..." she mumbled as she heard the bathroom door open and darted for it. Lucy and Lincoln's throats hummed a tone of anxiousness as they looked to each other while Luan and Luna passed them in their walk to the steps from their departure from the bathroom.


"Come on dude! That was nearly the end of us back there!" Lynn whined, her arms still shaking, "What if she hadn't been making noise in her sleep? What if she had been...been...I don't know! What if she hadn't been sleeping? If she's become some vampire thug-lord then she might have decided to just rip us to shreds right then and there!"

"I thought you were the one that felt "safer" now around her since you're "family"," Lana spat from where she toiled at the table in her room. The tongs to her chemical baths clattered off of it as the older sister spun her around and grabbed her by the shoulders.

"That was before I tried to get her out of the coffin!" she hissed, "Yeah! She might not kill me, but she's still some secret demented vampire mob-boss! Do you know what kinds of "unfortunate accidents" normal ones hand out?!" Lana tried to turn her head away as the girl pressed her face up against her's. "Come on squirt! Who knows how much time we have left or how many people are getting transformed by them? We gotta do something! And we gotta do something NOW!"

"Yeah yeah I know just back off!" Lana growled pulling herself out of Lynn's grip. With a frustrated grunt she turned back to her table and got back to work. "It's just nice to have you actually back in the game now," she muttered. It was welcome to have someone to talk to about the matters, but Lynn's wavering commitment towards their mission over the past two days had tested the strength of that partnership. She was right about one thing though, they did need to make their move. And what better time to make the strike than before Lynn's loyalty could begin to drift again? But would they succeed? With as low of numbers as they had could they actually overpower the queen of the night if she had undergone a transformation? And what if her "bodyguard" was with her? At the least though, Lana had taken the dark one's interests into account.

"We probably aren't gonna make the attack today," she sighed as she turned back to Lynn and thrust something into her arms. Looking down the older sister could see that the object she was holding was some sort of squirt-gun.

"What's the-"

"You remember how Lisa made those Chicken Noodle Soup guns for when everyone was getting the flu?" Lana asked. Lynn scowled at the memory but nodded her head. "It works like that."

"...what do you mean? You're gonna shoot soup at them?" Lynn questioned. Lana slapped her forehead.

"Does it smell like soup?" she grumbled. Lynn gave the tip of the nozzle an interesting look, but instead of sniffing it as Lana had though she would, the girl instead pointed it at the wall and shot the liquid it contained onto it. With it released into the air, Lynn took a whiff of it.

"Garlic juice?" she asked. Though irritated by the mess Lynn had made, Lana grinned.

"Vampire's number-one vice," she nodded.

"Alright! Then let's get out there and bag us some-"

"Whoa whoa whoa there Ms. Aroma," the younger girl hooted as she pushed her away from the door, "Like I said, we aren't doing this now. That's just a Garlic-Gun. What if they decide to go all out? It'll hurt a bit...I think, but what if they're like super strong or have reinforcements hiding around?" Lynn's shoulders slumped. "No, we need to be ready. Maybe try to get some of the others in on it again and get more weapons made," Lana thought aloud.

"Oh yeah, cause they were just so eager to join in before," Lynn said rolling her eyes. Lana rolled her own at the lack of support.

"Look just...we got school to deal with right now. You just brainstorm and then we can take care of this later," she suggested. Reluctantly, Lynn gave in to the request as the younger girl's look-a-like trudged into the room.

"Yeah, now get your asses downstairs. We gotta get-" Lola interjected, having heard part of the conversation's ending, but stopped as she noticed something. Taking a few sniffs, her olfactory senses directed her bouncing head towards the wall that the door was attached to where she spotted some sort of goop dripping down it. Assuming it was the source of the smell she walked over to it and took another sniff before clutching her nostrils.

"Seriously?!" she growled glaring at the gun-wielding teenager.


The scene was a few degrees less chaotic than expected as Lynn headed down the steps. Even Leni had made it to the bottom before her and the twins, and she'd been the last one in line for the bathroom. Had Lynn's panic really taken up that much of her time? Almost instinctively she bit a piece of toast as it flew by.

"Oh, I got a donut one," Leni remarked as the holey piece of cooked bread landed in her lap. Most of the rest of the family had been gathered around the table where Lynn slid in next to Lori who was texting, who she could only assume was, Bobby. The twins remained unusually quiet while they took their seats next to the older pair of brunettes who seemed to be caught up in some quiet conversation. Well...at least quiet for someone of Luan's caliber. What surprised Lynn was the noiselessness of the pair of younger siblings. On a normal day they'd likely be caught up in fighting over some scrap of food or their different interests, but as they sat they just occasionally looked away from each other when an eye would fall on one from the other. It was rather odd. Lynn would have expected more complaints or at least some quip from the pageant-queen about their "stupid mission", but aside from the brief glowers she gave there wasn't much. The linings of annoyance were there towards herself and Lana, but the facade held little weight. Beneath the mask there wasn't much substance to her ire for some reason.

Aside from the views of each other, the main focus seemed to be directed towards the stove. With how preoccupied the "chef" and his "assistant" were there was little worry of them catching their stares, but each of the kids made sure to look away when one might think that another had caught them. From what they could see of the pair's backs, Lincoln had been stirring up some, rather tasty smelling, eggs in the skillet while Lucy watched with a pitiable amount of space between them. What could they be discussing? What could they have been plotting as the room wafted with the scents of their distractive toiling? It had to be something dastardly given how Lucy would grin at him at times. Lynn felt a pit in her stomach as the girl leaned against him. Their alliance truly was something to fear. With Lincoln's common sense and Lucy's inventive macabre, there was no telling what types of horrors they would beckon unto their community. If they were to be believed, their counterparts from that other world had completely eviscerated the town with an "accident". What then did that say of their own brother and sister? Lucy may have considered her family, but that did little to quell the reignited concern that the girl's roommate felt with what room she slept in.

"Look, I'm just saying that something is going on with them," Lola could hear Luan say out of the corner of her ear, "I don't wanna make a "tomb" out of a "gravestone", but I'd be "dying" if I said I wasn't curious about the "skeletons in their closets"."

"They're having fun together. Just let it be brah," Luna hummed as she tuned her guitar, "let it be." The only ones that didn't seem to have some amount of focus on the "cooks" were the older blonds and the scientist that had just made her way to the table, who seemed to be cursing herself about not having found a certain universe in her searching.

"It had zombies tearing it apart, it shouldn't be that hard to pick out," Lisa grumbled.

"Alright guys, soup's on," Lincoln's voice hollered directing most eyes to the approaching collection of plates. The ones balancing on his head almost tipped over, but Lucy managed to prop them up with her own head-plates that she had been carrying alongside them.

"Soup? I thought we were having eggs," Leni commented. Hardly anyone was full enough to give the misunderstood phrase much dismissal. Even those that eyed the servers could feel their mouths watering as their plates were set down in front of them.

"Thank god. I'm like literally starving," Lori sighed as she grabbed a hard-boiled egg from her's. Like her, the rest began to tear into their variations of the meal. Well...everyone except for two of them. As the family feasted, Lucy nibbled at what appeared to be a burrito.

"What's that about?" Lynn asked through her bites, "I hardly ever see you munching on a burrito. Why not your crappy black eggs today?" Lucy's cheek glowed as her chewing slowed and she swallowed.

"Sigh...you would not know in your redundant taste, but others of us sometimes seek a different plate," Lucy replied before taking a more confident bite of her meal, though her chews remained as unfamiliar to it as they had been previously. Had Lynn been looking at the brother sitting next to the goth she might have noticed his own smiling blush at the younger sister's determination towards her rare food choice. Lynn was about to come back with a quip of her own when their mom popped her head into the room.

"Kids! We gotta get going! Take your food with you!" Rita told them.

"Yeah, we both gotta be at work today and we have deadlines too!" Lynn Sr. added. With groans from some of the children, some scarfed down their eggs while others got bags from the drawer to carry their's in. They could hear the van humming in the driveway as they approached the front door where their parents waited. Lucy and Lincoln however never made it to the outside.

"If I may..." Lisa coughed coming to a stop halfway through the living room. Their parent's eyes pressed the children onwards but the offspring eagerly halted their tracks to stall for a bit longer. "I believe Lucy and Lincoln might benefit from a day off after their ordeals yesterday. Their wounds...MIGHT not be "fully" healed yet." The attention shifted to the goth and orange-shirted boy that clung to their burritos. Lola lifted a brow as she saw the young scientist wink at them signalling their feigned nursing of their recovered wounds. Lucy's look of surprise had been even greater than Lincoln's after her inspection earlier, but it didn't take her long to fall into the act with him.

"Y-yeah...ya know now that she mentions it I think I do feel the torn ligaments and stuff still healing..." Lincoln murmured as he rubbed his shoulder. He wasn't sure quite why Lisa was offering them such a break from school, but he'd be a fool to not take it. Those that didn't hold their suspicions towards them simply looked on in envy.

"Oh gosh...I don't know...now we gotta make the calls to school-"

"Let me handle that," Lisa said to her mom.

"And there's the matter of who would be looking after them-"

"I've looked after Lola, Lana, Lisa, and Lucy before," Lincoln reminded with a forced grin. Lola's eyes narrowed at the excuses.

"And Lily," Lisa added.

"And Lily," Lincoln nodded. The mother and father looked at each other uneasily, but they didn't have many options.

"Ding dang darnit, we don't have time for this," Lynn Sr. grumbled.

"Alright fine, but I want you to call one of us if ANYTHING happens," Rita sighed, "The numbers are on the fridge."

"Of course!" Lincoln replied, his grin growing wider and more confident now joined by one from Lucy. Her's drifted down to the smallest member that could walk as the collective began to file out the front door who gave her another wink, an action that did not go unnoticed by Lola. Her twin however was preoccupied with more worried expressions that she was exchanging with Lynn. They already had to prepare for whatever their attack against the two might be later, but now their targets had the entire house to themselves? FOR A DAY? The type of progress they could make in their own agenda was unfathomable and only heightened the urgency of their operations which they wouldn't even be able to talk about until a number of hours had passed.

"Alright, everyone has their stuff right?" Lynn Sr.'s voice asked as the doors to the van began to open.

"I don't know about everyone else, but my bag is "Egg"cellent," Luan laughed as her bag crinkled in her hands.

"I like literally have everything," Lori told them as she got in.

"I don't know. My soup's in the bag but I thought it'd be leaking by now," Leni commented with concern. Whatever else the group went on about was lost to the pair that were still at the interior of the house's doorway as the doors to the vehicle shut. Its frame rattled slightly as it pulled out of the driveway and started off into the horizon with a portion of the faces inside watching their home in skepticism. Once they had departed though, the remaining residents of the house ceased the waving they'd taken to and turned to each other.

"Holy crap! I can't believe it!" Lincoln exclaimed, "We-Lisa-I...WOO!" Lucy's grin had enlarged so much that her eyes shut from the raising of her cheeks. "I mean I don't why she even did that for us but oh my god! No school!"

"Elated sigh. I think it had to do with me," Lucy told him, "She probably didn't like me pointing out that the healing we received really didn't come from the version of her in this world so I think she's trying to make up for it with this."

"Well consider her-...um...partway forgiven for yesterday then," Lincoln said catching himself before he gave the munchkin too much praise.

"Indeed," Lucy nodded. On her surface she was only slightly less calm than normal, but within her organs she could feel fireworks ricocheting off the interiors of their walls. The act had caught absolutely everyone by surprise, but for the two that it had been done for none could match them in excitement. It was just what they needed. Ignoring the relief that came with their absences from the education system, the only day they had left to truly prepare for the Ball was now a full one! An entire day to refine and practice. Lucy could not have asked for a better gift.

"So...shall we get started then?" she asked pressing her head up underneath Lincoln's chin and curling some strands of her hair in her fingers, "My decaying raven." To her surprise, she was flipped back around to face him as his hands gripped her arms and pulled her away.

"Yeah yeah, we'll get to that!" Lincoln promised, "But stop and think for a minute! We have an entire DAY off from SCHOOL...WITH NO ONE ELSE AROUND!" It took the shorter girl a few seconds to process the ramifications of the information, but when she had her grin returned tenfold. Basking in the freedom, Lincoln raised his burrito and clacked it together against her's. Their minds raced with possibilities.


Lola huffed to herself as she made her way through Royal Woods Elementary. Unlike a certain goth and brother, she had had to attend every day of their education that week. But she wasn't one to put on a sour face. She had to keep up appearances after all. Couldn't let the public know that such an insignificant issue might be bugging her. Beneath the surface though her blood simmered. Who were they to have gotten TWO days off? Yeah, the first one was an obvious out. They HAD to not be at school due to their accident. But the day afterwards? The family knew the injuries they'd apparently suffered, and she knew damn well when someone was faking, especially considering they had seemed just fine when they'd been behind her in the line for the bathroom. No, there was no viable reason she could see as to why Lisa had proposed their vacancy in Vanzilla other than maybe as a favor. But a favor for what? To be nice? Not likely. The short Loud was too hardwired to usually give that much of a care about emotional issues. Under the assumption that it hadn't been a rare showing of compassion, what would it have been then?

The longer that Lola thought on the matter the more she found herself hating her pondering. It was the exact thing she would've ridiculed other for throughout the week. But it did seem...odd. Those two had just happened to be the ones that were used in Lisa's experiment and now she was doing them a favor...a favor that would separate them from the rest of the family. Glancing at her equally quiet twin, Lola mentally kicked herself. She couldn't believe who she was beginning to sound like. So what if they'd been used in one of Lisa's experiments? That happened to everyone in the family at one point or another. And maybe Lisa was just being nice to the returning adventurers. But then again...they had both said "groan" at her suggestion in the hall that morning. They'd spoken the word. LINCOLN had spoken the word. Since when did he do that? That was Lucy's thing. Thinking on it further she couldn't even recall hearing him come up behind her before that. She'd just suddenly heard some quiet words from the two as they'd started conversing.

As she and Lana reached their classroom, Lola shook her head. For as much as she loved her doppelganger, she couldn't stand the thought of falling prey to the same paranoia that had so irrationally overtaken her. So what if Lincoln and Lucy hung out together now? So what if they...were beginning to speak...the same?...so what if...the smartest and potentially most dangerous person in the family seemed like she was...helping to keep them alone from...everyone else for a few hours?...the same people that her twin and her twin's accomplice had been worrying about...all...week?... It...was just a big misunderstanding. Just Lynn and Lana being morons and overreacting. Bolting a confident grin onto her face, Lola took her seat and looked obediently towards the board at the front of the room. That's all it was. Morons and overreacting.


A lamp on the living-room nightstand rattled as its perch was kicked. For the last fifteen minutes or so Charles had been doing his best to avoid the pursuers, but it seemed to be of no use. No matter where he'd run one would always be around the next corner, ready to strike. His eyes hopped as he noticed a familiar smell. The girl. It had to be her. Skidding to a stop, he jerked away from the kitchen just in time to avoid the next attack and made his way instead towards the couch. It was of little use though. With a series of "splats" he didn't need to turn his head to realize that the assault was right on his heels. Desperately he jumped onto the couch and used his momentum to bounce over the back of it from the cushion he landed on. Hoping that he'd lost the current predator, the dog pressed his back up alongside the fabric that he'd landed in back of and panted. He didn't know what it was that had provoked the residents of the house that had stayed behind, but there was no question about the urgency of the situation. That drilled home even further as he looked to the ground and scrambled back in horror. Laying at his feet and reaching out towards him was Cliff, a prisoner of the temporarily sticking substance that their hunters had been firing at them with from the guns they'd gotten from Lisa's room.

"Mreowww..." the cat moaned. To a normal ear it may have sounded like complaining, but to the dog he knew all to well what the warning meant. Fear in his eyes, Charles turned to see the boy standing over him, firearm trained on his face.

"Looks like I'm not gonna lose," Lincoln smirked as he fired. Letting out a bark of despair, Charles hopped out of the way and took off running allowing Lucy to make her own shots as he broke out into the open. In spite of the girl's efforts though he remained unscathed by the subduing substance. The shots from the siblings followed his trail as he tore up the stairs. He'd nearly made it to safety when finally he heard one last "splat". Looking to his leg, Charles saw exactly what he'd feared and tried desperately to get the solidifying goop off of the body part it had struck. But it refused to give. Hopelessly, the dog looked to the lower floor to see the boy that had slowed his advance and let out a cry as a flurry of the ammunition shot from his gun. With a couple of more hits, the dog's doom was sealed and he fell to the living room floor, defeated. Walt rolled his eyes at the dog's overdramatic moans from where he lay in his own captivity a few feet away.

"Guess it's a tie then," Lincoln grinned. He put up his fist which Lucy punched lightly as he approached.

"Indeed, there are no more souls left to take down," she agreed. Seconds passed as the pair looked satisfyingly over their bounty, but as they did their expressions, however slowly, began to change and were replaced instead with more suspicious frowns. The air tense, Lucy and Lincoln spun and aimed their guns at each other. "Sigh, tis a sorrowful conclusion that we have come to," she relented.

"Only as sorrowful as you make it," Lincoln murmured narrowing his eyes. The guns trembled in their hands. "I'd never want to hurt you...but you leave me little choice."

"The choice is yours, and mine dear brother. I loved you," Lucy told him, "But with so much at stake, I can't walk away empty-handed."

"Nor can I," Lincoln retorted. For a good pause they stood crouched in their positions with their guns trained at each other. Even the subdued pets watched in suspense at the unfolding betrayal. Grins sprouting to their faces, Lincoln and Lucy pulled the triggers.


The voice of the teacher at the head of the classroom droned on as Lynn Loud's pencil clicked over and over on her desk with each tilt of her fingers. Normally she'd probably have been beginning to doze off, but the thoughts clinging to her mind made it so that the usually sleep-inducing sermons were more of just an annoying backdrop with which to ponder in. Given her predicted disinterest, the teacher likely wouldn't be giving her much in the way of attention leaving only her contemplations for company. And contemplations were what she needed. Ever since Lucy's awakening she had been filled with a discomforting sense of wariness. While it was true that she had worried for her roommate in she and their brother's absence the day before, now that she was back the precaution towards her had skyrocketed. She couldn't believe she'd let up her guard so easily. Though she may not have had as much to fear as she would have thought after her and Lana's initial conclusions about the pair, that had been no reason to simply drop the case against them until danger actually struck. After all, that had been the little girl that had completely ruined an entire other world under different circumstances. The other sisters may have brushed aside her theatrics quite often, but there was no mistaking the danger that she could bring with what had been revealed about their universe-hopping adventure.

Lynn could feel her upper lip tighten with apprehension. Why was she like this? This...this worry? She was the star player, the dependable go-getter that knocked it out of the park when all else failed. Why was there fear? So what if they were probably vampires laying in wait to infect the whole town with their blood-sucking tendencies and dominating hierarchy? She could take them. She could take them on her own!...couldn't she? Lynn's fist that rested against her cheek slid into her hair as she lowered her head. Couldn't she?...a week ago she'd have charged in guns blazing no problem, but now? Now she'd been...bested. She'd been...beaten. She swallowed a gulp of disgust at the notion. She'd been defeated at her own game...by...LUCY. Embarrassed in front of the ENTIRE NEIGHBORHOOD. And then, when she'd tried to get back at her and the one she'd been playing for, they kicked her ass. They LITERALLY destroyed her. She couldn't remember everything about that whole superhero transformation, but those feelings of loss and pain made sure that they wouldn't be forgotten.

Even if she had been granted some levity to the worries of whom she slept near, those two had proven their threat, especially when combined. And the tale that they'd divulged to the family after their return had reignited the danger all of them were likely in as long as those two operated. They needed to be stopped, and they needed to be stopped NOW. But how? Lana had been working on that Garlic-Gun, and that was probably a pretty effective ward for the demonic presences that they'd probably have to be dealing with, but would that be what they needed? If their transformations were complete weren't they supposed to be like superfast or something if they were vampires? Would they be on their own against them? Two on two? Had she eaten the eggs she'd taken with her yet?

Lynn pulled out the bag she'd put her breakfast in and opened it. To her fortune some was still left at the bottom which she hungrily scarfed down. Thinking always did seem to take a lot of energy. Wiping her mouth, she felt a surge of energy come back to her. Maybe they'd put up a fight and maybe they'd go down easy, but whatever the case may be she'd play her best. There was no way for her to try and recruit any help from the other siblings throughout the school-day given their placements above and below her school's teaching boundaries, but she was sure that if she needed to she'd be able to make the score. She'd played enough football and blocked enough goals to know how to dart after the enemy no matter how quick they were, and with members of her own family she had taken them all down often enough to ready herself for the conflict to come. As the food pumped her blood she could feel a cockiness overtaking her face. She would reclaim her place in the victory rackets in the most satisfying way possible. Saving their family, nay, Royal Woods from the vampiric scourge that her enemies presented. They would rue the day that they had dared to challenge her.

"Ms. Loud, you're awake!" the teacher noticed, "Would you care to solve for Y?"

"Dang it," Lynn grumbled.


A loud bang echoed through the corridors of Mr. Grouse's house as the front door was thrown inward. Out of the light blaring through the entrance, two figures leaped forward, one wielding a pair of cards in his hand and the other a shovel in her's. So as not to draw any unnecessary attention, the two crusaders split and pressed themselves up against the walls on either side of the living room. Their ears alert, they slid along them slowly. It had been a long winding trail, but through the chambers of their household and the traces in the world outside, the two vigilantes had tracked down the location of where they believed the stolen goods had been absconded to. For a normal pair the trail would have probably gone cold within their own home, but through the boy's years of experience with the sidekick he normally had, not mention the countless hours of reading comics, the deducing had been an expected accomplishment even if it had taken some effort.

Having reached the doorway to the next room, the siblings looked at each other again and, after taking another look around the living room for any clues as to where the owner might be, they nodded to each other and jumped through the doorway into the kitchen. Immediately they took a step back with Ace Savvy putting an arm in front of the younger heroine who pointed her shovel towards the culprit before them.

"Huh? What's this?" Mr. Grouse blurted at the intruders that had hopped into his kitchen.

"End of the line Grouse! We know it was you that took the lasagna that our dad made last night!" Lincoln accused.

"Wha-? Loud? Is that you?" Mr. Grouse grumbled, "don't you usually go around with that other boy when you're in that getup?"

"With the absence of one luminary, another must step in to fight fairly," The Eight of Spades retorted, her grip on her shovel tightening.

"How did you tikes even know it was me?" Mr. Grouse murmured. As his eyes narrowed his hand reached behind his back towards a button that had been placed under the rim of his counter.

"The reasonings were simple. Thanks to our trip into an alternate universe yesterday we had seen that the Mr. Grouse there had wanted lasagna and took our counterpart's dad's one when we were leaving," Ace explained, "As such you were probably craving it last night and, after he'd made it for our return, you made off with it after the lights went out in our house and everyone went to bed."

"Plus, who else would steal the lasagna?" Eight added. The two heroes stood ready to pounce with their weapons at the stunned elder. Realizing that there was no other way out, Mr. Grouse pressed the button he'd picked up from Lisa's room during his thievery and a series of clicks and whirs sounded. Lucy and Lincoln backed up as a skeletal frame of machinery grew out from behind the man and hooked itself in a harness around him. He grinned as six tendrils sprouted from the backpack that it formed with the two lower tendrils lifting him up into the air above them.

"Not bad Louds, but you ain't just gonna walk out of here with that delicious food unscathed!" Lucy and Lincoln jumped out of the way as one of the upper tendrils shot forward and smashed into the spot they had been standing at. Two more swiped from the sides at them. Lincoln rolled beneath the first flail and somersaulted over the next while Lucy fought off her's with swipes of her own.

"Slash!" she said as she cut into the snaking structure causing it to reel back. Seeing the counterattack, Lincoln gave a few of his own from some cards he threw. It didn't take long for the recoiling tentacles to recover and begin their assault once more, only now joined by the two others that were along the sides of the backpack. The boy and girl did their best to fight them off and avoid their strikes, but they knew it wouldn't be too much longer before their efforts gave in. They had to find some way to take the tentacles down, and fast. Looking towards the man, Lincoln ran his eyes along the length of the tentacles and and they widened.

"Jab!" Lucy said taking her latest stab at her attackers.

"Eight! We gotta shut the tentacles down at the source!" Lincoln declared. Lucy looked to him as her arms strained under the weight of the ones she was holding back and followed his eyes towards the suspended Mr. Grouse. Realizing what he meant, Lucy nodded and joined Lincoln in their dart beneath the older man once he had knocked the tendrils away from her with some cards. Mr. Grouse stumbled once he realized where the two youngsters had disappeared to, but he had no chance to turn or notice where their target was before Lincoln had cupped his hands around the bottom of Lucy's foot and sent her hurtling into the air.

"CUT!" Lucy said loudly as her words accompanied a slash from her shovel that tore through Mr. Grouse's backpack.


"Aw come on, don't "pencil" me out yet!" Luan laughed, much to her teacher's annoyance. Even if she'd failed the latest problem she'd been asked she hardly felt the detriment of its botching. With a quiver of laughter still on her smiling lips, Luan lounged back in her chair and put her hands behind her head. Most every student in the room may have viewed her with irritation, but she knew that if they'd been a few grades younger she'd have them laughing on the floor. That was what assured her satisfaction. Her handiwork may not have been appreciated by many of her peers, but there was a certain respect garnered to her from her usual target audience, and it was for them that she continued to craft and refine her work, even at the expense of her reputation. If you got the young ones you got the future, and in the long run those childhood memories would matter more than the frivolous trivialities of the boredom that adult life brought. Plus, it gave her an excuse to entertain herself.

As the teacher moved onto the next student, Luan's pleased grin began to flatten into a more relaxed smile. Thinking about most children certainly brought the teenager unbridled amounts of joy with how well her acts tended to please them. As the mental images drifted to two of the ones closer to her however, her smile started to fade. After the physical conflictions that she had put her brother through, it was only deserved for him to have some privacy for his own matters from her, but Lucy had not earned her favor nearly as much, and Lincoln clearly had some sort of...operation going on with her. It was absolutely none of her business, but who could respect her if she didn't have her curiosities about their dealings? She'd been more than happy to repay the boy that last Friday with helping him and the dreary sister escape from Lana, but just why they had been leaving the house had been a mystery. Sure it was probably for that Goth Mic Night thing Lucy liked to attend, but Lincoln seemed...eerily in tune with her, with or without being decked out in that "edgy" getup. And that was to say nothing of the girl's laugh. Lana hadn't been the only one disturbed by Lucy's outburst.

Shaking off the shudders, Luan looked down to her lap. Those two...there was something between them. That much was obvious to anyone that pondered on them. But what was it? Lincoln had always been closer to Lucy than the other siblings had and Luan herself knew the two better than most. It should have made her happy to see them having developed their relationship as far as they had given all that she knew about them. Why then was she...questioning their interactions? Was it for worry? Did she fear if they'd fall apart or what those bonds might mean? Was it jealousy? She was close with her own roommate, but Lincoln had none, and Lucy and him seemed to be stepping into each other's presence seemlessly in recent days. Or did she simply want to know for curiosity's sake? Did she just seek to collect more material to use as fuel for her jokes?

"Alright Ms. Loud, care to take a stab at another problem?" the teacher asked having noticed the girl's dipping interest. Instantly a smile leaped back to her face.

"Only if I get to keep the knife," she quipped. She grinned as she noticed snickers from some of the surrounding kids and the cough's that held back the teacher's own reluctant ones.


Lucy took a bite of lasagna as she checked over some things on her phone. While there hadn't been anything of immediate importance, it was always a benefit to check up on if any messages had been left for her or anything. Aside from the standard ones from Haiku however there hadn't been any. It hadn't taken too long to recite the brief summary her efforts would allow of the adventure the day before, and it's not like Haiku would have had time to chit-chat either way given how she had had to attend school that day. Taking another bite she flipped through some windows to one where she had a search up for the latest coffin models. The Banana Leaf ones had been appealing to her creative side as of late, but more traditional types always seemed to bubble back to the surface.

In the chair opposite of her, Lincoln flipped through selections on his own phone. At first he'd been wondering about the price of the latest Ace Savvy comics which had then led to his investigation of how much some of the older, and usually rarer, issues might cost. To his expected misfortune almost every one of them had been completely out of his price range by a few good hundred or even thousand dollars. But it was still nice to scope out the old covers. No matter the contents within them even the oldest and least refined of Bill Buck's work could be a wonder to the eyes. Being sure to save one of his favorite covers, he took a bite of his plate's lasagna and scrolled down to a selection of video games he had been eyeing earlier. Initially he'd wondered about maybe looking into purchasing another Fish Brawler, but after his very...vivid experience with an older title in the series from a certain robot a week back, he'd quickly let it slip from his view. That left it a toss up between the new Raging River Racers or Total Turbo XXIII. He stuck his tongue up over his upper lip as he scratched his head while Lucy scrolled through some poetry.


Lori Loud focused. Though there were many classes and many physical education activities she did not and never would care for, the choice for that day's P.E. was not one of them. Of her peers, her prowess in golf was unmatched, as was her interest. Even if many of the students meandered and paid the practice little mind, she enraptured herself with it. As her brows furrowed so too did her concentration. The wind, the building tension, the spasms of her body. All the factors had to be accounted for and analyzed before the proper play could be made. The surrounding audience may have been littered with ever fading enjoyment from the teenage onlookers, but Lori needed to take the play seriously. If she didn't how could she trust herself to retain her integrity for the actual important matches. She NEEDED to keep her prowess solid. Closing and opening her eyes slowly, Lori lifted the putter she held.

"JUST DO IT ALREADY!" someone blurted. She cringed as her downward swing wobbled. The clack sounded from the ball it hit, but it wasn't as firm in noise or impact as it should have been. Lori grumbled as she watched it fly off and bounce a few feet from where she'd intended for it to land. With the misplacement she might have to waste another turn getting it back into place instead of making her final swing on her next turn. Her composure bent, Lori huffed back to the crowd around her and handed the putter off to the next student and stood towards the back with her arms folded. As expected the next golfer just swung at their ball as quickly as possible before continuing the handoff. Lori rolled her eyes in disgust. Hardly any of them showed the favor she did towards the sport, and in turn she showed hardly any favor towards their swings. They were just haphazard swats to file through the line of teenagers with most dreading when she would take the sports equipment next. Those that did attempt genuine shots may have looked forward to seeing the attempt, but they were clearly in the minority.

If Lincoln had been there she might actually have someone that'd appreciate the effort. Maybe someone to even debate on strategies with. A smile crossed her lips as she thought about the younger brother. Now there was someone that showed promise. He may not have been the best at the sport, but damn if he didn't catch on quick to the concept. That was one of the things that she found to be the most endearing about him. His potential. The others may not have noticed it as much, but the boy of the family was always rather quick to jump into things, and with his ambition he usually proved himself to soar much higher than others thought he would, himself included usually. He may not have succeeded in a lot of the endeavors, but he was never one to count out when it came to exploring new territory. Whatever he would end up as in life she was sure he'd be successful at it. And whatever girl he might be trying to impress, she knew that they'd appreciate his showing-off, even if they wouldn't admit it.

The thoughts in her head kept Lori from looking up as she heard claps from her peers for the student that had just putted. She barely even paid attention as they began their walk towards the general direction where the balls had landed. There was no hiding the motive behind Lincoln's suspicious behavior, but just where that motive lay was the question. As far as she'd seen there truly had been no girl that Lincoln had been hanging around. At least no more than normal, and, for as far as she could tell, acting no differently than normal around. There was Stella, but he was just as casual around her as ever. Girl Jordan just shared in the usual socialness of the Elementary School. That left little room for other potential mates with how distanced Cristina tended to be after the whole "recording" fiasco he'd gone through with the rest of the family. Who then was left? And how would he be able to impress a girl by sneaking up on them?

Lori's eyes widened a bit as she ran the question through her head again. He was acting more like...Lucy than...anyone else... Some of the students braced themselves for the inevitable wait as Lori positioned herself at her ball, but the pause was not as much for focus as it had been before. On the contrary, her thinking was helping her to more naturally align the shot with how intricately it had started to put the thoughts together in her head. The way he had tried to sneak up on her...that had absolutely been more in line with the queen of dreariness. But...why would he want to "scare" a girl that he "liked"? Unless...it must have been that Haiku chick. Only someone of the goth community would be welcoming of that type of flirtation. Grinning, Lori swung the putter and the ball went soaring. Even those that were beginning to tune out watched in amazement at both the shortened amount of time to make the swing when compared to normal and how cleanly the shot had been made. With how it flew it looked as though she wouldn't have to make another shot. As it neared its destination however, her face began to droop. Though the pondering had helped her accuracy, her thoughts did not stop with the hit.

The more she dawdled on the odd behavior the more confusing the scare seemed. To someone that didn't know the boy they might have assumed he was just trying to be more like Lucy to help her out with something she'd roped him into, but she did know him. And she knew "flirting" when she saw it. The Haiku hypothesis made sense. The Lucy bit however...did not. She knew there'd been something going on between the two of them. She didn't know when it had started, but she was alert enough to see that the two had been hanging out together more than usual as of late. The two had even ventured into another universe together. Surely it should have seemed like sweet behavior with the girl that didn't get nearly enough attention from the others, but she had challeneged Lynn, LYNN, to a BASKETBALL match. Most didn't know what the whole reason behind the match had been, but from the looks she had seen between her and Lincoln and what little she'd managed to get out of Lynn afterwards it'd clearly been something that had had to do with him and the black-haired Loud. She'd fought for him when Lynn had insisted on using him for something. And then there was the matter of that last Friday. She knew what she and Leni had seen was Lincoln when Lucy had raced out the door with somebody, and the younger blond could not at all be blamed for mistaking him for a vampire with the brief glimpse they had gotten of how he'd looked that night.

Lori felt an uncomfortable shudder quiver across her spine as the ball bounced along the grass beyond and rolled into the hole she'd aimed for. The cheers of her astounded classmates did their best to perish a ridiculous thought that she'd somehow let into her head, but its uneasiness left an unpleasant taste in her mouth even as the pondering distilled.


Lincoln and Lucy panted with their hands on their knees. It had taken an enormous amount of effort, but it had all been worth it. From where they stood on the roof the cries of the demonically possessed machinery from Lisa's room were near nonexistent as they faded away in their deactivation on the floor below their's. Heaving their breaths, the two slumped onto the roof propping themselves up against each other. After the trials of endurance and ingenuity that the two had displayed in their race to stay ahead of the lethal robots they had more than earned their rest. The minutes dragged on as their breathing slowed back to a more normal pace. Looking down to the girl on his shoulder he smiled. Delighted with their success she did the same before turning her head towards the sky with him where they could see the spirit they'd freed from the basement drifting towards the clouds above. In relief they waved at the ghost they had helped as beams draped across their bodies from the noon sun.


A cash register sounded as the sale for the khakis and wool sweater that Leni had just dealt with rang up. As happily as she would to any customer she folded the items and bagged them before handing them off.

"And remember, orange peels before bed," she reminded the older woman she'd been serving who blushed and nodded. Eagerly Leni waved at her as she left. Sensing no oncoming customers, the airheaded girl stood still as a board with the blank smile plastered on her face. It was as though she were a statue waiting to come to life at the next moment that a customer might need her. Within her head however, thoughts buzzed around the incoherent vacancy that was her mind. Thoughts of if she'd plugged all the leaks in the room that she ironed her clothes in back at the house or if Miguel had gotten the right conditioner for the girl that he had serviced earlier. No answers came of course. It was near impossible for a single thought to remain marinating in her head long enough for resolutions to be reached.

One that stuck around longer than some however was that pertaining to the two younger siblings that had made their own purchase from the store two days before. That suit. It was still in her room. While she knew that Lucy and Lincoln had apparently been on vacation during yesterday's events, it had been worrying that they'd never picked up their item. She wasn't used to having to keep hold of such material after the skittishness that they'd selected it with. At least not that she could remember. For all she knew she could still have Lisa's science-presentation-outfit stored in the back of the closet, but if it'd been in there that long it likely wanted to stay. Who was she to deny it a home? For the latest siblings however it was still recent enough for her to recall the concern they'd displayed even if it was getting somewhat vague. It was drifting away, but it wasn't gone yet. It was likely her handiwork on the outfit that pinned the issue in her head. She had given that makeover as much work as she could muster and she would have just loved to see Lincoln all decorated in its splendor.

But when would that play they were going to be putting on take place? Where would it be? And when were the Martians going to get there? Surely Lincoln's red-haired friend from school would know. He might even have been the one to have contacted them. But the normal residents had been showing no signs of having heard of any flying saucers in the area. Leni would have preferred some time to prepare in case they wanted some clothes of their own to be made.

"Gosh, I don't know Tanya," Leni sighed at the nearby mannequin in the store window, "Do you think aliens would like scales or-"

"GAH! Leni! What the hell are you doing here?" Fiona cried realizing where the sudden voice had come from when she'd passed the registers. She clutched her chest to manage her heart-beat while she tried to shake her breathing back to normal.

"Oh hi Fiona," Leni waved, "I work here!" The excited girl's expression drooped at her dimness.

"No, I mean...wait how long have you been here?" the employee asked Leni, "Shouldn't you like be at school? How'd you even get here?" Leni blinked a few times. How had she gotten there? The story had had her just as ready for school as the other siblings had been, but unlike most of the others she had a job. It only made sense to set up at the register once she'd gotten out of the van. After being reminded of her educational endeavors however, Leni's shoulders slumped as she realized the error of where she'd ended up.

"Dang it," she grumbled.


The television blared loudly in the living room of The Loud House. Whether or not it'd disturbed Mr. Grouse enough for him to come over and start banging on the door, the inhabitants within had no idea. The pitch of the noise was too great for their ears to pick up much that wasn't around them within the room. Joining in on the festivities, the animals of the household engaging in the joyous atmosphere paid just as little mind to the contents pouring over their audible organs as the humans were. The simply danced and leaped across furniture in the delights of the moment. Geo energetically scurried his hamster-ball around the living room floor while Cliff and Charles tangoed. The goop that had captured them all had long since evaporated following the end of their predators' hunt leaving them free to go about their daily activities, activities that they willing gave up in favor of the party they had joined in on.

Ecstatically, Walt flew past the dancing cat and dog and landed on Geo's ball which he proceeded to walk backwards on to keep his balance on the moving object. Noticing the upcoming table however, the bird fluttered off of its mobile perch to avoid the collision and took back to the air of the room. Lincoln and Lucy barely noticed the blur of yellow as it flew between their rotating heads. Their hands held together and their bodies bent outwards as they spun in place, the boy and girl were hardly aware of any potential disruptions to their spinning. They just laughed joyously in the freedom of their break from school.

"Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha," Lucy said dryly through her delighted grin.


Most of the day had been rather quiet for Lola Loud. While normally she was at the center of the latest gossip, she, for some reason, just hadn't been able to bring herself to muster up the energy necessary to partake in the socialness of her age group that day. She almost couldn't believe her disinterest in the usual babbling of her classmates and their personal matters. It was as though her mind wouldn't let her pay attention to them. All that it had seemed interested in allowing her to focus on ever since she'd arrived at school were the two Louds that hadn't. And every time she did let herself drift into that territory she'd actively fought against it. It was silly. It was flat-out ridiculous to partake in the suspiciousness that two of her other sisters had plunged themselves into. But such resistance to the curious cravings was draining. That's why Lola had found it so welcoming when she had decided to stop by the cafeteria between classes. Her stomach growled as she grabbed a carton of milk and a bag of carrots from the counter

Lola was in the middle of chugging the creamy liquid when she heard an unexpected voice. To her luck the gaggle of friends that one of the people she was trying NOT to think about had gathered in the room for similar purposes.

"But don't worry, if that ever happens again, One-Eyed Jack will save the day," Clyde assured the kids he and Lincoln hung out with. Before Lola could make her escape, some of the older kids noticed her.

"Hey! It's one of them Louds!" Liam exclaimed snapping everyone's eyes to her.

"Oh my gosh! Lola!" Clyde practically yelped as he and the others bounded over to her, "Not to be rude but is Lincoln alright? He wasn't here yesterday and-"

"YEAH. He's fine! Great! He's just recovering at home is all," Lola answered quickly hoping to make her exit from the reminders of her brother.

"Sigh, Lucy's hasn't shown herself either," a drearier voice interjected causing the shorter kids to jump in fright. Towering over them was an taller girl holding an umbrella. "She's good at hiding, but I know if she's here or not," Persephone stated. Lola knew the older girl much less than any of Lincoln's friends, but the way she dressed and eeriness she carried did just as effective a job at bringing Lucy's reminder to the scene.

"What are they recovering from?" Rusty asked, "Did something happen to them?"

Lola tried to reach for the door to dispatch with the gathering, but under that many stares she knew it would do her reputation no good to leave the inquiries unaddressed.

"Fine," she grumbled, "yeah, they were gone yesterday cause Lisa got them lost in another universe. Now they're "recovering" from that trip at home. Bye."

"Lost in another universe?" Stella repeated in bewilderment. Lola glared as the taller girl put her hand against the door to keep it from moving.

"Lisa?" Persephone added.

"What other universe?" Clyde asked more directly, "W-what happened? Are they okay? What was it-"

"Ugh. You people don't stop do ya?" Lola grunted, "It was some zombie-infested version of Royal Woods. They helped get it back to normal before finding their way back to our universe."

"Zombies?" a few of the kids exclaimed.

"Sigh, so lucky..." Persephone practically sobbed. Lola rolled her eyes. She could absolutely see why Lucy hung out with her.

"Relax, from what I heard all of you were fine," Lola muttered. With an unusual amount of strength she grabbed the door handle and flung it open promptly smashing Stella into the wall behind it.

"H-hold on!" Clyde begged, "They're okay right?"

"Yeah, I said they're fine..." Lola grumbled through her teeth. She just wanted to be done with the conversation about the two.

"If they're fine then why are they at home?" Rusty questioned. Most of the others stared at her as Stella wobbled out from behind the loosening door and fell to the floor. Lola's teeth had begun to grit with the persisting interrogation. Why were they at home? They seemed just fine, and she could tell the injuries that they would have had had pretty much healed. So why then had Lisa, the one that had gotten those two lost, the two that Lana and Lynn had been suspicious of, suggested that they stay home for that day? Why the odd identical behavior between the two? Why? Why? Wh-?

"I DON'T KNOW!" Lola yelled and darted into the hallway. The perplexed faces of the older children were left behind as the young girl charged through the halls of Royal Woods Elementary. With most students beginning to return to their classrooms, not nearly as many kids were as worried about the rushing child as they would have been minutes before, but Lola still got a few stares. In the frenzy it took a bit longer than it should have for her to care, but eventually she ducked into a bathroom negating the issue. Turning on the sink's faucet she took off her gloves, cupped her hands under the liquid, and splashed it across her face. She didn't care that her eyeliner dripped into the drizzle that seeped down her skin. She just cared that her nerves were returning to normal under the soothing streams.

Lola was almost startled by the girl that looked back at her in the mirror. Her cheeks were stained with the blackness of her makeup and her eyes held an unexpected amount of lines under them. Raggedly, she sucked air in through her nose and closed her eyes. When she opened them the current exhaled back out of her nose and her eyelids lowered slightly.

"...I don't know..."


"Steady..." Lucy muttered. Lincoln's tongue clung tightly to his upper lip as he lowered the television remote that'd had a video game controller taped to it towards where the girl's foot stood. "STEADY..." she reiterated as she saw his hand begin to quiver. Sweat laced both of their heads in the building tension. Beneath her hair, Lucy's eyes tightened. She couldn't believe she'd been so careless. The day of jubilious independence had made her reckless and she, and possibly Lincoln, were about to pay for it. His paperweight was almost in place, but one slipup, one error, and they might both regret the rescue attempt. And his hand was beginning to shake again under the pressure. He jumped as he felt a hand on his head. Realizing who it was however, and the following swim of her fingers through his hair, Lincoln took in a breath to ease the quivering and lowered the remote the rest of the way to the odd floorboard they'd accidentally uncovered when Lucy had tripped over a part of the rug that'd been cut.

Lucy's body felt a ripple pass through it as the object set into place against her foot. For what felt like minutes Lincoln kneeled there pressing the remotes against the floorboard until eventually he looked up to the younger sister. With their lips pursed they nodded to each other and she stepped off the piece of the floor that she, and now the remotes, had sunk down. As she did the two heard a click causing their pupils to shrink. Lucy had no time to think as Lincoln pulled her down next to him and dove away from the activated trap. The boy wrapped his arms tightly around the back of her head burying her face into his chest at where they landed on the floor and rolled across at until they met with a wall. Lincoln counted the seconds that he figured should have passed before the inevitable reaction would be set off, but nothing happened. At least nothing that they could hear. Though hesitant, the boy uncoiled from the girl allowing them to look towards the floorboards that Lucy had been standing on to see that the floorboards had split open and flung apart with the remotes at its side.

From the hole that they'd revealed dangled a large artificially crafted version of Luan's face on a spring with the words "Got You!" hanging on a banner below its chin. The victims of the prank held a much less enthusiastic expression than the face bobbing up and down before them, but their puffed cheeks and furrowed brows carried some ease to the harmlessness that the trap had possessed. Lincoln put a hand to his forehead as he pressed himself into a sitting position against the wall behind them. He barely noticed the girl next to him snuggle up under his arm in her own recovery.

"Guess this is one type of prank we should be on alert for the closer we get to April Fool's Day," Lincoln sighed.

"Heavy sigh. I'll let Lynn know to keep an eye out for modified parts of the floor," Lucy assured him. Lincoln gave her a weak smile but it slumped into a more exasperated expression afterwards. "Concerned hum. What is the problem? We avoided the prank, and it turned out to be nothing too bad either way," Lucy asked, "Not that they won't get worse once she finds out this one's been uncovered..."

"Oh it's nothing it's...it's just...April Fool's..." Lincoln sighed closing his eyes at the memories. Lucy couldn't help but join in the post-traumatic recollections. "Every damn year..." he grumbled.

"Sigh...it is a curse that this family can't seem to reverse," Lucy admitted as she hung her head, "...still...your efforts are always appreciated..." Lincoln shot her a confused look. She smiled up at him as she elbowed his ribs. "You don't know? You're the one that always does the best at fighting her off." Lincoln blushed as he remembered the numerous holidays they'd survived.

"That motel was the only one where we really got back at her," Lincoln smirked trying to diminish the praise.

"And then there was the one where we sent all of her stuff off in that moving truck," Lucy reminded. She joined her brother in his snickers with her more "verbal" version of the act.

"Okay yeah, but that was a full-on group effort," Lincoln stated, "Ya don't mess with the entire family THAT personally."

"Fucker should've died with what she had my double do..." Lucy growled.

"Please. That isn't anywhere near as bad as "Old Man" Lincoln's "love" for Mrs. Johnson..." Lincoln scoffed, "Besides, I'm sure you're not gonna keep them hidden from "everyone" forever." Lucy curled away pulling her brother's arm back with her once she saw his thumb sift through the strands of hair in front of her eyes. The hairs of her neck stood up and whatever lifeless organ lay in her chest stopped pumping at the sight and touch. Heat swamped her upper face in the stillness that followed. She knew that Lincoln had to feel her breath on the hand that was loosely gripping the front of her hair. After a few seconds however he took the appendage back to his side and looked to her with a returning smirk. Shakily she grinned at him before allowing herself to fall back against his body in relief. She knew that he had more respect than to just unveil such tightly kept secrets. To her amazement however...she didn't feel the degree of intrusion that she felt she would have from such teasing. For a moment she had even thought about what it might be like to let the hand pull back the overhanging bangs. It had just been wonder of course. The windows to her soul obviously would remain unseen.

"Still..." she coughed trying to pass off the intrusion, "you...you kept us safe that time when you went out and set off all of the pranks in the house yourself...you let us hide out in your room." Lincoln scratched the back of his head. He'd honestly hoped that she wouldn't remember that instance. It was the example that he could refute the least of his interference in Luan's schemes. "Sigh...such selflessness...I've honestly not seen such bravery before..." Lucy continued sending a shiver up the boy's spine as she pressed her head up against his cheek, "I promise, your funeral would have been magnificent afterwards had you not survived. I've still got it written down in my room for if I ever forget it. It'll be ready whenever your physical form is..." Lincoln had to shift his head to the side to vent the heat that'd been building in his face from the praise and...affection. He wasn't used to so much commending, and certainly not from the quietest Loud, but it planted the stupidest smile on his lips that he'd probably ever had. For a bit Lucy lay against him preserving the air of pride. To her dismay however the ridiculous expression he had did start to droop eventually. Once he'd tilted his head downwards she looked up to see a surprising face of discontent.

"Lincoln?" she asked rubbing her hair against his face, "What's wrong?"

"Well...you know it wasn't you guys I set the traps off for..." he reminded. Lucy looked downwards herself once she realized who he was referring to. While it was true that he had kept them safe from the pranks...well until they decided to try and find Leni, the reason that he had left the sanctuary he'd set up that day was to make sure that no visitors would have to suffer the hell that awaited those that operated within the house. Namely a certain girl that had been called over to finish the injustice done to him by the family's maniac. Fortunately for him, that girl had been on his side, but the memory seemed to cause a degree of regret or sorrow judging by his face.

"Ya know...I was...probably stupid..." he sighed. Lucy watched the expression as it shifted its eyes to the side. "Sometimes I...I think about what would have happened if she hadn't...ya know...left..." Lincoln said, though Lucy was unsure of if it was him talking to her or if he was just speaking his thoughts, "Like...I mean...she was...annoying as hell. But...were we like together or not? She would do everything she could to pester me but I...ugh. I did...like her...right? I mean...I'd usually just think about that pie in Luan's face to laugh at it, but seeing her in that other world...she came back to Royal Woods for that and...hm..." With a grunt Lincoln laid his body further back against the wall leaving Lucy propped up a few centimeters from him. With no support left, she put her hands on the ground to keep her balance, but her view remained on him. Lincoln still looked off to the side in subconscious insistence on his isolated thoughts. Lucy was somewhat surprised at the words he'd been speaking. It wasn't normal for him to give insight into remorse that he might have, but given her own bleakness it felt welcome. Almost flattering. He probably wouldn't have spoken as freely about it around the other sisters of the household given the usual teasing all of them gave him.

Even though she herself would join in on the cheering for a newfound love interest, she understood sorrow. And she'd had a feeling, even if he'd never said anything, that Ronnie Anne's departure had bugged him on some level, even if they still talked over the computer. He'd possibly lost his love, which was only made worse by the fact that he wasn't even sure what the extent of their bond had been exactly. In recent days thoughts about the girl had brought some annoyance to Lucy, probably for causing potential distractions from their goals. But seeing Lincoln's confrontation with the memories of her simply brought sympathy. Lincoln noticed the connection with Lucy's head as it hit his neck, but paid it less mind than he had during her slew of compliments.

"Sigh...Lincoln..." she said rubbing her face into his collar, "I know it hurt. I do." The boy's eyes tensed at the bluntness of the statement. "I know what it's like to keep...feelings unspoken. Undivulged. But there is nothing either of you could have done about it. Fate had different plans," she told him as his lips tightened, "Perhaps someday she'll come back...perhaps not...but please, fret not. Life does not end with heartbreak. Maybe with a knife, but not from that. It stings. Perhaps forever...but it gets better...if you let it. And you have let it. I've seen you. You laugh. You smile. You were a bit down after she moved, but before long you were back to your old self. Whether or not you two will want to be together again, that's not something that you can change for the time being." Lincoln's sigh was shakey, but his discomfort had lifted a bit. Lucy's let out a soft noise from her throat as he wrapped his arms around her and buried his face into her hair. Warmly she hugged him back.

"If I may make a suggestion...I know it's not...her...but you...do have, at least, "one" girl that will always...care about you..." Lucy reminded. Tilting her head, she could see Lincoln's face out of the corner of her eye hoping that he wouldn't take the shift in tone as offensive. Judging by his features he'd softened up enough to allow a half-hearted smirk, though his brows still bent to the sides. "I-I...um...I know...it's not the same...but if it helps I promise I will...I will be as comforting a um...girlfriend...as possible..." Lucy murmured lowering her head back down so as to hide the blush on it. It only worsened as she felt him run his fingers through her hair. "And in turn...those feelings that you...miss. Let them flow again. It will...help with the um...act..." she requested. Lucy felt her own breath become ragged as she felt his lips press through the hair onto the top of her head. Letting loose the hesitation, Lucy let her body collapse in his embrace. She smiled as her cheek pressed against his lower throat.

"I guess we should get to work on the preparations then huh?" Lincoln mused realizing how late in the day it was beginning to get.

"Well...unless you do wanna die from the memories," Lucy murmured shakily, "I mean we do have knives in the kitchen, and like I said the funeral's ready when you are. It would be a tremendous service I assure you..." Lucy's blush could hide no longer once Lincoln pulled her away and gave her his skeptical look. Lucy let out a stale "eep" as he pulled her back and konked his forehead lightly against her's. She couldn't see his own face's flare from the breath they were breathing from each other. Slowly, Lucy's face began to inch towards his though neither child seemed to notice the decreasing distance between them.

"Alright alright Ms. Gloomy, let's get to work," Lincoln smirked pulling back. Lucy's figure fell forward slightly from the retreated presence but she caught herself before she bent too far. Shaking off the tingling on her lips, the girl nodded after a pause and cleared her throat.

"Y-yes...let's..." she agreed. Luan's face continued to bob up and down as they got up.


"Are you sure you don't need any help?" Lucy asked. She stepped to the side to avoid the latest garment that was thrown out of the closet that Lincoln had been rummaging through for the past fifteen minutes.

"N-nah, I'm fine!" his muffled voice replied. Rolling her eyes, Lucy shook her head. How exactly he hadn't been able to find one simple suit, a type of clothing that only a BOY would wear in a household full of girls, was beyond her. She stepped back to where she'd been standing before to avoid the bra that propelled from the opening in the wall of Lori and Leni's room only to be pelted upside the head by an airborne coat. Grumbling, Lucy tried to pry the knotted mess off of her downed cranium. "Whoa! Is this the same suit that we got in the mall?" Lincoln exclaimed. With a few more tugs, Lucy yanked the coat off of her skull with a "pop" and looked towards the closet. The relief of having apparently finally found the item negated her frustrations with her inanimate assailant. Pulling her frazzled hair back into place, she waltzed over the door of the closet and popped her head in. What lay before her was a disordered sea of clothing pulled from their hangers with a boy crouched over one towards the back. Her face pink, Lucy whipped herself back into the main part of the room and put her back to the wall. She'd thought he would have headed back to his room before he started changing clothes. Had they been in the mall, Lucy may have urged on the speed of his dressing, but given the sight she'd been given of him in the closet she felt he deserved his time.

"...so...you come here often?..." she murmured.

"You're free to take another peek if you're interested "dear"," Lincoln replied cooly, though it was clear there was some hesitation to the words. Lucy grinned at the casualness of the unexpected response. It was good to see he was keeping his nerve in the flirting, even after such a brazen intrusion. Biting her lip lightly, she put her hands together and started pittering her fingers across the sides of them. Even though it was just teasing, the lacings of the flustering wordplay were still there. And to come from such a...decent-looking figure was pretty...stirring. The teeth against her lip pressed ever so slightly harder with the image of Lincoln in the closet in her mind as she tried to make his lips line up with his words. "Oh right I mean, should you care for a view beneath the clothes, it is there for you...my wilted rose," Lincoln's voice called from the chamber behind her putting his wordplay more inline with his "act" and lowering his tone to an emotionless droll. Lucy's hands cupped her brightening cheeks.

"Sigh..." she said quietly, "Though he be half-dressed in closet, thy prince of night does speak so modest..."

"I try," Lincoln's disinterested tone replied amidst the shuffles of fabric that he, "Though the majesty of such dreadful sentences pales in comparison to the sheen of my beloved's undead shell, her skin as smooth and lifeless as the pale moonli-"

"W-will y-you just get out here?" Lucy grunted trying to stifle the stutters of her clenching vocals. It was bad enough to be hearing so much adoration from such a lustful emptiness, but with how she'd been thinking her mind had automatically started to show her a series of Lincolns in different scenarios as those lines spoke from their mouths, quite a number of those scenarios being rather...blush-inducing. But that was...good...he was playing his part...perfectly...better than expected in fact...all that truly remained was seeing that he'd picked up on the habits properly and see how he'd look in that...suit. Almost as if reacting to her thoughts, the, now-dressed, boy stepped into the open. Lucy could feel her jaw slack as she shifted her legs against each other. If what Lincoln was wearing had been the suit that they had purchased a couple of days before, then Leni had done a damn good job of hiding it. All that remained of its original form was the fabric along the collar.

While the design had been simple, the touchings to the fabric that Leni had added accentuated the torso area more and stitched it downwards into some near-invisible bat-winged designs along the waist-line of it. The shoulders likewise had been stitched to separate the areas better from the chest of the suit and the pants now glistened with the jet-black finish. Practically the entire outside of the Halloween costume had been completely redone to make the suit look and feel like an actual suit. As if to highlight his debut, Lincoln cocked his head to one side and flicked it in the other direction atop the blood red shirt that had been stitched into the opening Leni had added below the throat. With how wet the inside of her lower lip had been getting, Lucy closed her mouth and swallowed the unusual amount of saliva. Taking the lack of input as a signal for further demonstration, Lincoln rolled his eyes, but smirked figuring he knew the perfect way to win the younger girl's favor, or at least his best chance at doing so.

Lucy's mind ordered her to back up as the sharp-dressed preteen approached her, each soft "clack" of the black shoes he'd found in the closet pulsing through her form with each step. Her body tensed as his right hand wrapped around her's. For a moment her eyes slid up towards the top of her head. Lincoln fought back his grin as hard as he could as he knelt before her on one knee. Slower than he had on Sunday, he lifted her hand towards him and lowered his face. With unheard contact, his lips touched the delicate skin of the back of her palm. For an eternity of seconds the mouth seemed to remain at the skin. Just when it had left had been unclear with how slowed and steady the act was, but when it'd fully disconnected, the eyelids of the boy's downturned face slid open revealing his raised pupils that eyed the girl face in romantic inquiry. Feeling a flow of ripples from her stomach and chest, Lucy couldn't help but let out a gasp of a hum in her throat at the sight and feel.

"Better?..." Lincoln asked figuring he'd somehow botched his fullest effort towards the act with the quietness that the girl gave.

"...what?" Lucy mumbled through trembling lips, "OH! Y-yes it's um...b-better..." Lincoln's worrying face molded into one of surprised satisfaction. Lucy must have just been taking the time to try and figure out what he had been doing with how quick he was to jump into the dance-routine's introduction, but with her confirmation he lifted back to his feet, his hand still linked with her's. Lucy felt her entire body shudder as she was pulled into a twirl which landed her in her brother's opposing arm. Under the gaze of those lowered eyelids and that freckled face surrounded by red and black dressings, Lucy was next-to-paralyzed in her support.

"Shall we practice then my blood-sucking darling?" he offered with a dancing twirl of his own that carried her. Lucy could only force air through her nostrils with how quickly the liquid he'd mentioned had started racing through her.

"Y-you...w-we...I-I...mumble...mumble..." Lucy stuttered quietly lifting Lincoln's brow at the confused reply, "Y-yes...of course...you c-clearly n-need work on how the d-dances go at the Ball..." Having an actual sentence to make sense of, Lincoln rolled his eyes. Of course she'd still find a way to criticize, but it was clear that he'd made more of an impact than he had in previous attempts.

"Very well then my life-draining ghoul, let us proceed with the lessons," he suggested pulling her up against him by her waist. Lucy was grateful that her hair hid her raised pupils. The overwhelming flirtations allowed her sense of control to return to her slightly as Lincoln broke apart from her. An enormous grin propped onto her face as one of his hands pulled her's into a flowing twirl that followed his.


Throughout a classroom of Royal Woods Elementary, an English teacher's lessons about the correct pronunciation and grammar rules for moderately complex sentences echoed throughout it. They weren't loud echoes, but they were enough that the vibrations likely would have been felt by ants crawling across the window sill. The only thing that truly kept the noise from reverberating all that much was the amount of students in the room. Each of their bodies absorbed enough of the sound that it dulled to a more normal tone in spite of the moderately intense lecture. Of the attendees however, most had completely zoned out. Under normal circumstances at least one students in the darker back corner of the room would have been soaking in the information as variously as possible but with recent events normalcy had been harder to maintain.

As if to keep her body occupied, Haiku tapped the pencil in her hand against her desk lightly. At first it was just once, but then it came down again. And again. And again. Keeping in line with the teacher's voice, her writing utensil clicked in a steady pattern against the surface of her table. She almost hated herself for the motions, but how else could she preserve her collectedness? It had been two weeks. TWO WEEKS now that the other head of The Mortician's Club hadn't been present. It was not the hardest task in the world to handle such a apathetic crowd, but it would have been nice to have some sort of support. But what's more, she worried. The emotion wasn't something that she had experienced nearly as often ever since she became goth a year before, but it did occasionally take hold of her, and the absence of one of her closest associates had been a rather effective trigger for the nervousness.

She may not have seen Lucy in every lesson of the day, but she knew when she was missing. Thanks to Persephone, she had confirmation of Lucy and her brother's little misadventure from the day before being true and had been just as unshowingly jealous of the lucky girl's predicament. But to miss the day after? True, zombies likely would inflict some envious damage that may take some time for extended mending, but that wasn't the real reason. At least...that's what she felt. The taps of the pencil accelerated as her eyes drifted downwards. It hadn't been like Lucy to miss both The Morticians Club AND The Writing Club, and it had been two weeks of the absences. She knew that she'd seen Lucy during the transformation that the school had gone through on Monday. She may not have recollected everything about the meeting, but she did know that she'd sensed some form of...conflict in the girl. Haiku pushed some air through her nose anxiously. Even when she'd gotten to interact with her as of late, there'd been...distance to her. She had...she'd been fading. It was like there was some wall that she was putting up when she was talked to. There was something on her mind. Haiku just hoped that whatever it was that Lucy wouldn't drift away because of it. Isolation was already a prominent component of their group, and to break off from even them... Haiku prayed that the excuses for her absences were viable. She didn't want to lose her.


Fangs drifted in circles around the top of the room he resided within. For the past half hour, his mistress and her guest had taken up habitation within her chambers and been reading through some books. It'd been a somewhat startling sight to see the girl with such a toothy grin on her face when they had entered, though that likely had to do with the faint noises the bat had been picking up down the hall before they'd arrived. It hadn't taken long for her to settle on what activity they were to partake in once they'd entered. The boy had felt much less resistant towards the stack of books that she'd seemingly materialized from beneath the cover of her bed than he had earlier in the week with how much quicker he was to select a novel. Lucy picked one of the grimmest titles she could find, but Fangs knew better than to go by just the cover with the color of another item that he'd seen her slip into its pages. Though she read her own material, Lucy knew every book in the room and, as before, seemed to sigh with each slip of Lincoln's normal personality through the readings of his gothic tone.

At least...that's what it looked to be at first. Fangs had been around Lucy long enough to know when she was criticizing and when she wasn't, and her input...was...different than their reading session earlier in the week...

"The scythe came down time and time again to reap the flesh from the soul," Lincoln read, his voice as stale as granite. Fangs at first had had to flutter down to get a better look at the child to make sure that it was the same boy that would sometimes visit. "But still the bones remained, the bones which, no matter the tearing, clung with the life of its owner's essence. In time it would give rise to a new form, but not on that nigh-"

"Sigh..." Lucy's voice interrupted. In slight annoyance, Lincoln's eyes lifted towards his head, though he was thankful to have lasted longer than he had in their initial training sessions.

"But not on that night," Lincoln continued once the judgement had been passed, "Nay, on that moonlit eve, the arm of the rended victim reached back up as the scythe came down its final time, its bloodied hand grabbing the object by its handle. Though it strain-"

"Sigh..." Lucy's voice sounded again. Lincoln bit back his glower to focus on the improvements. He truly had come quite a ways if he was able to get more than a sentence out. Lucy's interjections still downturned the mood though.

"Though it strained beneath the weight of the weapon and the push of its user, the skeletal digits held it in place with undeterred resolve. The attacker's eyes widened as her ears started to notice the soft cracking noises coming from the base of the wooden handle and as it-"

"Sigh..." Lucy said again. Now Lincoln's eye twitched. He was giving it his all, dropping EVERY bit of excitement from his voice for the performance and still she apparently found something wrong. He was sure it wasn't wholey undeserved, but she could at least give him SOME credit. What mattered though was that his voice was acceptable enough for the Ball. And if he was able to keep conversations to more minimal sentences, that might be the key to success.

"And as it snapped entirely she let out a scream. Her body fell towards the remains of the man that she had-"

"Sigh..." Lucy commented. Sucking in a breath, Lincoln closed his eyes. It'd be a second before he opened them again, though their lids hardly raised. If there was one benefit to the alerts Lucy had been offering for the errors in his voice it was that his expression was becoming no problem at all. He didn't want to become aggravated with her studious nitpicking, but she was making it a bit hard to sit through the barrage of admonishments she dispensed over the sound of his voice. At the least he was gathering more material with which to discuss to potential attendees of the Ball with each book he'd been looking through throughout the week. Letting the breath out, Lincoln blinked again and put on a smile as he looked back down at the pages. As he got ready to speak, the mouth closed into a wide confused frown.

"Sigh..." Lucy said again. Both him and Fangs looked to the girl. He hadn't said anything and apparently she'd found a problem with his gothic emulation. Looking at Lucy however, it seemed as though her focus had shifted from his vocals entirely. While he couldn't see her eyes, Lucy appeared to be staring straight at Lincoln as her cheek rested against a hand she had propped up on her leg. Looking around the room in confused unease, Lincoln's eyes eventually settled on the bat who'd perched on the post of the bed above which shrugged at him after giving his own look to the girl. "Sigh..." Lucy said again sending a quiver through Lincoln's spine with the direct hair-contact she was making with his vision. It was rather unnerving to see such direct actions from the normally hidden girl, especially with how it was directed at his position. Lincoln waited for the next "sigh", but instead Lucy, having apparently realized his gaze with the lack of words going to her ears, blinked and cocked her head. "...what?" she asked, seemingly oblivious towards her input.

"...what?" Lincoln almost spat, "What do you mean what? What's with all the "sigh"ing? I thought I was messing up." Lucy blinked a couple of more times before she felt a simmer creep along her lower face and she snapped her towards the book in her lap.

"O-oh. N-no. Y-y-you're fine," she stammered as she flipped through the pages of her literature, "It's just I was r-reading this story here and it's r-really g-good. Ha ha. It's...y-yeah it's a g-good one alright. Ha. And th-this part where the vampire he um...um..well it's a good one." Lincoln and Fangs shared equal expressions of worry and startledness at the blithering response.

"...you were looking at me though," Lincoln pointed out. A forced smile on her face, Lucy looked back up and put her cheek back on her hand.

"I c-can look down when my face is pointed somewhere else Lincoln," she told him as she vainly tried to demonstrate the movement of her eyes towards the book in her lap. With the unease of Lucy's oddness lifting, Lincoln shifted his seating a bit. The suit wasn't the easiest thing to situate himself in, but Leni had striven towards making the interior much more comfortable to relax in.

"Oh...I thought I was uh...messing up," Lincoln told her.

"No, you're perfect," she told him. Lincoln looked at her in surprise.

"I am?" he asked. Catching herself, Lucy snapped her reddening face back down to her book and coughed.

"Well I mean...y-you...you're okay. You're passable. You don't need anymore training is all..." she murmured. Blushing himself, Lincoln rubbed his arm. He hadn't expected the degree of compliments she gave him. He was sure there'd be at least something to criticize given how she'd reacted to his readings earlier in the week, but they seemed to have evaporated with the improvements he'd made.

"Still...this is...fun...ya know?" he murmured back. Lucy lifted her head. Now she was the one surprised. It wasn't everyday that she heard that king of approval towards another Loud becoming involved in her activities.

"It...is?..." she asked. Lincoln nodded hesitantly. Lucy glowed a red smile back down to her book. "Well...if you're enjoying it...it...m-may be best to stay like you are for a while. For practice of course." His smile turning to a grin, Lincoln set his book down and crawled over to her causing the smaller girl to back up a few inches. Her skin crawled as one of his hands landed at her side and the other began to reach towards her. She almost looked away under the mounting pressure that the face grinning down at her gave. Instead she jumped as the hand touched her book and pulled it away.

"And what is this great story you have here then huh? Edwin's Rock and Rollover Paradise or something?" Lincoln joked as he fell back into a sitting position next to her.

"Lincoln no! I-" Lucy tried to yelp, but even as she spoke, his eyes widened at the interior of the novel that he looked at. Lucy's head sunk towards her chest as his fading grin popped back up and shot at her.

"The ponies wore happy smiles as they bounced through the candy-cane jungle. Their laughter bubbled the very air of joyousness itself," he repeated from what he had read when he'd looked at the vibrant pages of the book that she had hidden within the binding of one of her more graphic titles. Lucy's grimace widened with the narration. Even Fangs eyes blinked a couple of times at the reading. "Guess I really don't have much to worry about if THIS is the goth I have to get the approval of," Lincoln chuckled. Folding her arms, Lucy turned her disgruntled chagrin to the side. Rolling his eyes, Lincoln scooted himself up against her and put his free arm behind her back. Slowly she looked back up to his suggestive face and, blushing, she nuzzled up against him and relaxed into his support. Her uneasy face lifted into reluctant pleasantness as he continued reading.


Lola hopped aboard the van as it came to a stop at the sidewalk outside of the front of Royals Woods Elementary. She did her best to keep from the view of her companions as they boarded, but they had their own focuses to tend to. For Lisa she had been busying herself with a series of equations in her head that she hoped might give some credence towards finding the whereabouts of the universe that Lincoln and Lucy had teleported to in their ordeals the day before. For Lana, her own head was filled with thoughts of the pair, but for entirely different reasons. Catching eye of Lynn, she noticed just as concerned a stare from her. There was no need to discuss whatever lay on their minds. It was quite obvious between the two and their unspoken agreement between their stares assured each other that once they got home there would have no more distractions. No more relaxing. It had come time to attack, and they knew that the next day was going to be the one that they'd been working towards.

Had they been psychic they may have been surprised to find thoughts of their brother and gothic sister floating through the heads of even more passengers. For whatever mask of hilarity she might wear, Luan had been sorting through ideas about the two's agenda no matter how much she might try to respectfully distance herself from the curiosity. Luna simply strummed her guitar and occasionally adjusted the knobs at the top of its head. Lori ran her fingers along her own utensil, but the wringing of her golf club felt more like a coping mechanism for the uncommon drifts in logic towards the children that had gotten to stay home. There was no jealousy towards the spared school-day, but she couldn't help but ponder on just what the nature of the boy and girl was in their recent inseparability. Were they truly just spending more time together or was there something more to it? She would have been a fool to not notice the lack of talking in Vanzilla, and she was not the only one to do so.

"Say kids, that sure was some day today huh?" their father joked from the front of the vehicle, "I'd say it was a rather "Egg"cellent afternoon at the ol' restaurant!" Those that weren't as caught up in their thoughts spared a groan at the older male's pun save for the jokester that it was meant for.

"Good one dad! You sure know how to "dish" em out!" Luan laughed earning another round of utters from the occupants.

"Yeah, if you enjoy "half-baked" humor," Luna commented.

"HEY!" the comedians exclaimed at the expense of most of the other passengers' laughter. Luna grinned as she got back to tuning her instrument.

"Ah the Tears of a Clown..." Luna hummed in the scowls of the jokesters' faces. Even with the mother's laughter, Lana and Lynn found themselves dropping out of the jovial atmosphere first. Noticing their similar exits, they looked towards each other in their fading chuckles before looking away anxiously. Lori lasted the longest aside from Leni who simply kept laughing on loop.

"She said clown," Leni laughed a few more times as she wiped a confused tear from her eye. The joke had at least helped make her forget about the confused frustrations that the family had had when they'd found her wandering between the High School and the mall. With both of the humorous members of the family incapacitated in their annoyance at the jab at them, the vehicle soon fell to silence once more. The lack of noise though was rather alien to the setting prompting a bit more prodding from the front seat.

"So...how was everyone's day?..." Rita asked slowly, "Lori, you haven't even told us how the golfing went..."

"It was just a gym routine mom," the teenager murmured as she watched the cars passing by from the window she laid against.

"Hrm...yes, but it is your FAVORITE gym routine," the older woman reminded. Receiving a disinterested noise in response, Rita moved onto her next specimen with an upturned lip. "And Luna, what about the music-class today?"

"Rocked it hard jammin' momma," she replied playing a little tune for her. At least one person in the van seemed to be in the mood to socialize.

"Oi love, I should have you perform at the restaurant sometime," her father suggested apparently having forgiven her for her upstaging quip, though by the look of betrayal that Luan gave him, she certainly hadn't.

"That'll require the rearranging of some of the furniture for a proper stage. By the way, did you make sure Kotaro got his bonus for the extra hours he put in yesterday?" Lori reminded. Rita rolled her eyes. Sure, her DAD was the one she'd speak to...

"Oh ding dang darnit!" the man said smacking his forehead.

"Well either way, we'll be home in a minute," Rita said flatly in the rejection she'd been dealt, "Hopefully Lincoln and Lucy have been okay. I didn't get any calls from them."

"Me neither," her husband added, "But I'm sure they're fine. Lincoln's a good kid. He's handled more than just her before."

"Still wondering why they got to stay home here..." the younger Lynn murmured glaring at the youngest school-participating Loud.

"W-what?" Lisa stuttered pulling at her collar, "First you people nearly tear me limb from limb for getting them lost and now you rail on me for letting them have the day off? They n-needed time to r-recover from yesterday!..."

"Yeah...I'll bet..." Lola spat. Lana gave her a bewildered look. Was she...actually...criticizing something pertaining to Lucy and Lincoln.

"Well fine, ya know what? If any of you ever get tossed into another universe don't come crying to me when you gotta go back to school the next day!" Lisa grumbled folding her arms over her chest.

"Now now kids, settle down. We're almost there," Rita tried to comfort from where she drove. She had been a bit offput by the silence of the group, but with the alternative she'd been given she would have taken the serenity of the quieted van from earlier. Whether as an answer to her dilemma or the alignment of the stars she was granted her wish. In the uneasy silence of the van's contemplating passengers, only Leni and Luna held their smiles contently.


"Damn it," Lucy said emotionlessly as her character flickered off of the computer screen. The corners of Lincoln's mouth curled upwards. His eyes however remained half-shut in effortlessly forced unsurprisedness.

"It's only to be expected my love," he told her in his own monotone, "You don't game as normally as I do. Besides, your character just joined the void which all are doomed to meld with one day. Remember it as a representation of the futility of life." Lucy blushed as she set her controller down.

"Sigh, you're right," she nodded as she fell against him on his bed, "I just thought I'd last a bit longer..."

"I'm surprised you're doing this at all. You weren't even invited, yet you joined almost delighted," he confessed.

"Sigh, am I not allowed to spend some time partaking in my "boyfriend's" interests?..." she asked. Both were surprised by the lack of recoil from the word she'd used. In their immunity to the awkwardness they'd been building, the brother and sister smiled at each other. Setting down his own controller, Lincoln wrapped his arm around her waist and Lucy put hers to his chest. With a small smile she laid her head beneath his chin and rested there.

"In the graveyards do you walk...Among bones and blood you toil..." Lincoln said quietly rocking her back and forth.

"Through the headstones have you sought...But their tombs you've left unspoiled..." Lucy continued. The two squinted under the delight of the remembered rhyme.

"Your hands they dig and fill with dirt..." Lincoln proceeded as he ran his fingers through her hair, "Another corpse at rest..."

"Your heart it hangs and beats with mirth...But your mind doth attest..." Lucy's auto-piloted speech continued. Softly she rubbed her face into his throat as she went on. "Is this the scene you love so dear?..."

"The path ahead at end..." Lincoln said trying to make up for Lucy stealing his verse of the poetry.

"Do you...despair and...act in...fear?..." Lucy almost mumbled. To Lincoln it may have felt as though she was trying to remember the words he'd spoken the week before, but in reality her mind was sorting through them as it analyzed the sentence.

"Please," Lincoln began to finish as he pulled her away from him. Lucy's face reddened under his gaze causing her to wriggle a bit. "You...have a...um...-" Before Lincoln could finish, the girl put her hands to his chest and pushed him causing him to fall backwards onto his bed. As quickly and quietly as possible, Lucy jumped from her spot and darted to his door, which she put her ear to. The noises she heard caused her heart to sink slightly.

"Sigh, they're back," she grumbled. Lousily, Lincoln shook his head and looked at her in confusion as his eyes rolled back into place. "The others. They've returned home."

"Oh well um...yes," Lincoln coughed as he felt his blood lowering back down from where it'd raised to during the recital, "Oh! Wait! What should we do? This is the last day before the dance! They're probably not gonna ignore us with the whole outfit and emotionlessness and everything if I keep doing this."

"Don't worry about that my love," Lucy said grabbing an orange shirt which she threw to him, "You just put that on over it and I'll slip out to somewhere more predictable. We might be able to get some more "training" in tonight if we're careful about it, but for right now let's act natural."

"R-right..." Lincoln nodded. He blushed as the younger Loud wrapped arms around his neck and body and nuzzled his cheek. Hearing the footsteps downstairs, Lucy reluctantly let go of him and slipped through the door to his room. As he began to pull the orange shirt apart his door opened back up allowing Lucy's face to pop back in.

"I'll see you in a bit," she said. Once she'd received a nod from Lincoln she popped back out. And then popped back in again. "It won't be long," she told him. Receiving another nod she slipped back out once more...and then tilted her head back in. "I love you," she told him. After a short pause she exited and almost immediately put her face back into the room. "In a fake-girlfriend kind of way. I-um...sigh. I'll be um...I'm just down the hall here..." After looking from one end of the room to the other, Lincoln's pupils drifted back to the pale face at his doorway and waved at her with a nod and a smile. Grinning in red, Lucy tilted her face downwards and slipped out into the hall a final time just as Lincoln began to hear the footsteps approaching the stairs on the floor below them. As he climbed through the shirt he'd been given the sounds overtook the upper floor. He knew what it sounded like to be at home when the others returned, but he was used to a more rambunctious arrival. The crowd sounded unusually calm compared to their usual state of calamity, especially for a day that was on the second half of the week. Shrugging to himself, Lincoln hopped off of his bed. Even if the noises were oddly muted that would hopefully just make his camoflauge easier. After checking to make sure the red and black of his throat's clothing was tucked beneath the shirt, Lincoln ran his fingers around the sleeves he'd pulled up to his shoulders under the orange shirt and stepped into the hallway.

Instantly he spotted the latest girl to ascend the steps. Lynn stared at him until he registered the presence in front of him and shot two finger-guns at her. To his surprise, the older sister scrunched up her nose at him and entered her room.

"Great, she's here too..." he heard her mutter under her breath as the door closed. Lincoln scratched the back of his head. After their warm welcome back to their world the night before, he was sure that all was forgiven of their victories against her, but the sting of failure must have still been lingering beneath the surface. Seeing the next sister that climbed towards him he put his hands on his hips and smiled at her.

"Hey there Lisa," he greeted, "Everything go okay at school?" The nerdy girl pressed her glasses up the bridge of her nose in what seemed to be disinterest towards his being.

"You guys better be grateful," she grumbled as she skittered past. That had not been expected either. Lincoln peered at her small form as she vanished into her abode to continue her search for the universe that her test subjects had visited. The curt acknowledgement was one of mystery to Lincoln, just as her previous flipped attitude towards those that had stayed home had been when she'd first suggested the day off for them. Next in line was the eldest sibling who forced a smile as she passed, though beneath the delighted mesh it was clear that something was amiss with how she looked at him in her forced recognition. Lincoln hung at the top of the steps until Lori had opened the bathroom door before descending the steps so as not to look weird in case she caught him staring at her closing of the door.

"Hey brah, have a good day?" Luna asked as she passed.

"You know it!" Lincoln grinned at her. At least SOMEBODY was acting normal.

"Did ya have to ask?" Luan perked up behind her as they continued up the steps, "There isn't a Loud who doesn't enjoy some peace and "quiet"!" Lincoln smiled, but more from Luna's unamused reaction. Oddly enough, Luan's bought of laughter left her rather quickly. Once she'd peeked back down at the boy and noticed that Lincoln had kept staring at them she plastered her face with a wide grin and bounded up the flight twice as fast. Lincoln smushed his facial features at their disappearing bodies as he reached the bottom step. Even the life of the party had had reservations of some sort. What had he and Lucy done to deserve such strange views?

"Sigh..." he said turning to the kitchen. He hadn't noticed the refrigerator door that'd been open until the cold air swept up his pant-legs. It shut slowly revealing the younger girl that'd been getting a juice box staring up at him, straw motionless from the inaction of her mouth. Lola just looked at him with as perplexed an expression as she had worn in the line to the bathroom that morning. "Oh! H-hey Loes!" Lincoln laughed nervously realizing the oddness that he must have displayed, "Y-you...ya have a good day at um...school?..." Silently she walked towards the doorway he was at. "Yeah I th-think me and Luce have healed up pretty good. Lisas can really work wonders on ya!" he told her trying to divulge his made-up day of recovery for him and Lucy to her, "I c-can't even feel the b-bite marks anymore!"

"Sure..." he thought he heard Lola's voice murmur as she started up the steps. Slumping his shoulders forward, Lincoln kicked at the ground and moved over to the fridge. Was that it then? Were the others just jealous that he and Lucy had gotten the day off? Out-of-character phrases aside, that was the impression he seemed to get from the girl at the fridge and Lynn.

"WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR ROOM!" Lori's voice screamed causing Lincoln's head to jolt up and swallow the bite he'd taken of a new breakfast burrito. At about the same time Lucy poked her head out from her doorway with Lynn but almost instantly slid it back in. Once she realized what the commotion had been about she knew the best course of action would be to play dead if the teenager came looking for her. She couldn't believe they'd forgotten to pick up the mess they'd made from the older girls' closet earlier. Lynn however was beside herself at the sight of her roommate returning nervously to the spot on her bed as she tried to ignore the inescapable holler that'd sounded from down the hall.

"Heh, guess it'll be easier to take her out than we thought..." Lynn mused from the doorway she was still clinging to as she watched the nerve-wracked youngster. While Lola had no interest in whatever drama Lori was spinning with how her thoughts had been weighing on her that day, Lynn's input that she'd overheard as she rounded the top of the steps and headed to her own room had burrowed into her ear to add to the collecting ideas in her head. Upon reaching her door, Lola closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Sternly she turned the knob and pushed it open revealing her twin on the other side who was hard at work on what looked to be a few different weapons. At first Lana rolled her eyes at her roommate expecting some form of insult to her tinkering, but the girl's slow approach and the memory of her jeer in the car loosened the animosity. Lola closed her eyes and took a breath again before relaxing her face. Solemnly, she looked to the side trying to avoid eye contact. She knew she couldn't just ignore the obvious interaction however. Bit by bit, her pupils drifted to her look-a-like and she sighed.

"...let's talk," she said.


"Like literally the worst!" Lori growled as she threw her bra back into the closet, "Those two get the entire day off and they go about ransacking the place!"

"Gosh Lori, I don't know. It just seemed like the closet," Leni said, "I mean the roof looked okay." Lori looked at the airhead in ambivalent analysis as she put a fresh coat of polish on her nails.

"Babe, it's Lincoln. I'm sure whatever he did he didn't mean it," Bobby commented from Lori's computer screen.

"Ugh, you're just saying that cause you're "bros"," Lori scoffed as she picked up one of her coats.

"Well...the little dude is pretty cool," he admitted.

"Honestly Bobby, just look at this!" Lori exclaimed pulling the computer screen towards the closet. Bobby put a finger to his chin as his eyes swirled around.

"Baby, that's nothing," he chuckled, "you should see Carl's messes."

"Ugh, and maybe you should show some consideration!" she grumbled. Having had enough of the commentary, Lori bent her finger towards the keyboard.

"Babe no wai-!" Bobby got out before the tap on the device shut his window down. Justifiably annoyed, the oldest sister of the household got to work scooping up the clothes and rearranging them back into their places in the closet.

"I should be making those two munchkins do this," she complained as she hung up one of her dresses, "Honestly Leni, I can't see how you, of ALL PEOPLE, can just sit there doing your nails with this kind of a mess made out of our CLOTHES."

"Oh it's not too bad," she smiled blowing on one of her sets of finger-tips, "Like, I can totally make a good skirt and top out of the selections they picked. Just need to get some scissors and a needle and thread later." Lori's eyes tightened at the uncaring casualness. Hanging up a few more items, Lori spotted an empty slot towards the back of the closet where a covered item had been hanging the day before. Out of all the items she'd been going through that one, at least the casing for it, had been nowhere to be found.

"Yeah, well maybe you'll think again after hearing that they made off with your little bagged-hanger," Lori told her sure that that would win the other blond over. Instead Leni appeared at the doorway with a satisfied glow on her face.

"Oh good! They found the suit!" she practically cheered. Lori cocked a brow at her. The...suit... The brow lowered back to its former position as she thought. Leni had indeed mentioned a suit when they'd been looking for Lincoln and Lucy the day before, but she just assumed that it had been her babbling nonsense. She had said it was ready in HER room though, and their closet had been ransacked with the only object missing being the hangar that had held a bag that had mysteriously appeared over the last couple of days.

"What...suit?..." Lori muttered. Leni put her hands over her mouth.

"Oh em gosh...I like...I mean...what's a suit?" the girl asked. Lori smacked her forehead. Feigning ignorance so hard that she was probably beginning to believe it, Leni shrugged her shoulders while Lori pushed her away from the closet and sat her on her bed. Folding her arms, the older girl glared down at her. "What?" Leni asked.

"What suit are you talking about?" Lori repeated.

"I was talking about a suit?" Leni asked. Lori's usually flattened irritation became more belligerent with how curious she now was towards the subject they were discussing.

"Lincoln and Lucy. You said you had a suit for them yesterday," Lori stated loudly.

"You heard that?" Leni gasped.

"You were with the entire family when you said it to Lisa's door," Lori sighed.

"Oh gosh..." Leni gulped, "You don't think the others heard did you?"

"WHAT IS THE SUIT FOR?" Lori growled. Leni clenched her teeth in fright. There seemed to be no way to hide the fact that she had had a suit for Lincoln any longer.

"It's for a play that he and Lucy are putting on about Martians!" Leni cried, "please don't tell the others! It's supposed to be a secret!" Lori's eyes traveled upward irately. Well, that had explained the alien-talk the day before, but it did little to shed light on the issue. And she was sure, given Lucy, that it likely wasn't aliens that were the reason as to why they had gotten the suit.

"Leni...okay, look, where did the suit come from?" Lori asked.

"From Reininger's," Leni told her. There was no point in resisting now that she was in on the secret.

"Okay, good. And...why didn't I ever see it?..." Lori pressed on.

"Oh, they like asked me to keep it a secret so I brought it home later after they'd already gotten home," Leni said. Lori's mouth shifted around her face. There it was again. Lincoln and Lucy. Doing...something. Something...unusual.

"Alright, now, WHY did they get it?" Lori asked.

"For the martian play," Leni stated happily. The bemused expression fled as her older sister grabbed her arms and shook her.

"LENI. I know this isn't your forte, but THINK. What all did they talk about when the transaction was being made?" Lori asked as clearly as possible.

"I have a fort?" Leni blinked.

"LENI!"

"Okay! Um-uh!...hold on..." she squeaked, "Well...they were trying to go to different registers...and um...gosh what happened?...let's see...okay, different registers cause each one had something wrong with it and when they ran out they asked where the other employees were but Fiona and Miguel were on break so it was just me and then Lincoln started banging his head on the conveyor belt and-"

"Wait...banging his head? Moving registers? Asking for other employees?" Lori repeated. Leni nodded her head. While the younger blond remained as delighted as ever, Lori's more calculating mind put a more...suspicious view on the matter. "...did they see you first or did you see them first?"

"Oh, I totes saw them first. They jumped apart when they heard me," Leni declared proud to have won a victory. The triumph escaped Lori however who was more focused on other matters of the story.

"...apart?" she asked, "What do you mean apart?"

"Oh, well like they were walking towards the registers with the bag and Lucy like had her head on Lincoln's shoulder and he had his hand on her waist. They were like totes adorable, but I think I startled them so they jumped a bit," Leni told her. Lori's eyes widened at the information. They narrowed as their pupils slid back to the girl she'd been questioning.

"Uhuh..." Lori murmured, "...okay...well...what did THEY SAY about the suit when they purchased it?..." Leni poked at her lip a couple of times in thought.

"Um...uh..." the airhead mumbled. Finding few answers, she scratched the back of her head. "OH!" she exclaimed, "They talked about the "Martians" Club practicing a reenact...reenactma...a play at school. That's what they needed it for!" She rubbed her arms together giddily. She wasn't used to remembering so much stuff at once. Lori on the other hand appeared much less enthused. She knew there was no "Martians" Club, and with the goth that was involved she could only guess what word the siblings had actually said to Leni's misunderstanding ears. Even so, that itself seemed like an excuse of sorts. Feeling she'd siphoned all the information she could from the dimmer girl, Lori put a hand to her forehead. It was a bit of a mess to process but it was nice having more detailed intel on ordeals involving the two. What she was able to gather though only helped to fuel the unnerving ambiance she'd been feeling about the two . Whatever they were up to...it felt...weird.

"Hey Uncle Eddie! Bro hug!" a familiar male voice sounded from Leni's phone.

"Like oh em gosh! VOM's gonna be on soon!" Leni squealed, "Wait...it's Thursday."

"Yeah, I had you set it for today since it shows the rerun Lucy missed last week tonight," Lori reminded, "Figured YOU would be the one to need the alert more, but yeah, I'd forgotten too with all this...mess here."

"Oh that's right! She missed it!" Leni remembered as she put her hands to her cheeks.

"Ya know we don't all have to be there. You've already seen it. You can skip it if ya want," Lori told her.

"Psha, yeah right. I wouldn't miss more Blake Bradley," Leni announced with a wave of her hand, "besides, it'll serve as a refresher for when we see tomorrow night's episode. I can use those sometimes."

"You have no idea..." Lori murmured as she rolled her eyes.

"No idea about what?" Leni asked.

"N-nothing," Lori grinned innocently, "I'm...I'm gonna go tell Lucy. You just get things ready downstairs."

"Alright!" Leni nodded. Thankful to have dodged her own questioning, Lori slipped out into the hall. But as her hand fell from the doorknob she looked down the hall with a warbled expression. Normally the hallway would be filled with life. Playfulness from the twins or an explosion here or there from Lisa's experiments. But that day? Nothing. Not a soul paraded through the warzone that should have been the household playground. Whether or not it were the case, Lori could feel the pulsations of the middle children's orchestrations snaking their way through the peculiar scene. Hopefully though she'd be able to get some answers during that night's VOM. Trying to put on a pleasant face, she started towards Lynn and Lucy's door.


"And she just," Lincoln said but stopped as he noticed his tone which he caught and lowered down to a more gravely lifeless feel, "And she slid away up the steps, like some silent ghost doing its best to ignore my essence..."

"Hrm...yes, that is...odd," Lucy agreed. The girl tilted her head to the hand she had resting at her chin to stroke her jaw. "Well...you did elicit a word to describe your act rather than actually doing it. That's more my thing," Lucy reminded but placed her other hand in his, "Not that I mind that...my ever paling ghoul..." Her words may have illustrated a lack of color, but Lincoln's face said otherwise from the compliment. "Sigh," she said, "Lola may have been a bit offput by the oddness of your manner down there, but I do appreciate it...since Lynn left a bit ago, perhaps we can spend some time reading in here or...hm...maybe we um...hm..." Now Lucy's face joined her brother's in hue. "...Lincoln...you um...know that I...love-er-...appreciate...all that you're um...doing for me right?..." she asked. The boy's face brightened ever more as the hand that had been rubbing her jaw clung to his arm and began drifting up it.

"Oh y-y-yeah...o-of course Luce..." he said quietly, unable to maintain his emotionlessness. As the hand got to his neck he put his own to her cheek and brushed the bottoms of her bangs delicately. He couldn't tell whether their bodies were moving or not with the view they had of each other, though he could feel her breath on his lower face growing hotter with each exhale. As the air became its warmest, Lucy curbed the direction of her face and brushed her head up alongside the side of his.

"It'll be fine. We can spare some creepiness for some of them," Lucy told him in the embrace he gave her, "It'll all be worth it...tomorrow night..."

"Yeah...tomorrow night..." Lincoln repeated. While the anticipation for their longed victory pumped their pride, a lingering sense of worry fell upon them. One more day. That's all they had left. And then it would be...over. Their journey, their scheming, their adventures. All of it...it'd be concluded. But...could either of them truly walk away from what they had shared? Just return to their prior misfit isolations? They didn't want that. And they knew that. But...it would be over. Right?

"Lincoln," Lucy said pulling back slightly and looking to him. As intently, he peered back down at her, his hands clutching her elbows. "Lincoln I-...I don't...um..." The shorter girl's fingers crawled across his arms while his slid up her's. The two stood in time in their linked affection. Their bodies flowed with contact, a sense that a couple of weeks back would have been rather alien to them, especially for Lucy. But with how far they'd come, their selves craved the companionship. The warmth would not last however as a loud bang at the door to the girl's room caused them to jump.

"W-wha-" Lincoln murmured.

"Hey Lucy!" Lori hollered from the other side. The two within the room winced at the intrusion. Lincoln may not have had the sleeves of his suit showing beneath those of his normal shirt, but it would still be a bit odd he'd think to find him standing with Lucy there. Seeming to have gotten the same impression, the girl herself had joined in looking around for a place to hide him before getting an idea and looking towards the underside of her bed. Realizing what she was thinking, Lincoln gave her an unsure look.

"Really? You think I'm gonna fit-"

"Yo! Luce! I'm coming in!" the older Loud outside the door called. Their frantic expressions enlarging, Lucy and Lincoln dove for the bed's bottom and pulled out the wooden box beneath it. As they opened it Lincoln looked the inside of the coffin over.

"Hm...you know maybe I should just get under the be-eh-AH!" Lincoln's voice cut off as Lucy shoved him in and shut the lid. To ensure his entrapment she hopped up and sat on top of it while grabbing a book from her bed to complete the illusion of relaxation. As she flipped to a page, her door opened revealing the taller sister on the other side.

"Oh sorry," Lori apologized realizing the disruption she must have caused, "Hey I was um...just coming to let you know that last week's VOM is gonna be on soon. You coming?" Legitimately startled by the information, Lucy dropped the book.

"Oh! U-uh...um...s-s-sure," she replied with a forced smile, "Er...actually...I might have um...something to d-do up here...I don't really know if...um..." Lori tilted her head at the stuttering goth. It was not at all like her to miss out on a new episode of her favorite vampires for a second week. Something definitely seemed odd. "...l-look. Tell ya what. You guys start without me and if I come down I'll join in..." Lucy mumbled as she poked her pointer-fingers together. Lori's eyes narrowed at the girl. With Lucy's face uncomfortably downturned, the teenager looked around the room for signs of anything amiss. Finding nothing, her pupils fell back to Lucy and she shook her head.

"Alright..." she sighed, "But don't expect us to keep quiet about spoilers if you don't see it..." Receiving only a nod from the younger girl, Lori's brows bent in forlorn. She closed her eyes as she pulled the door shut. Once Lucy was sure that the steps had faded into the distance, she wiped her forehead. Then she gripped the sides of the coffin. All of a sudden she had started to rock and jiggle about on top of the hard box. Remembering just who she had forced into her sleeping quarters, Lucy hopped off and opened the chamber. What she saw put a hand to her mouth. Smirking back at her with a leg propped up by his bent knee and a hand behind his head was Lincoln. Noticing her startled expression, he gave her a wink causing her to blush.

"Ya know, this is pretty spacious once you get used to it," he commented pushing the bust of Edwin away from him, "Though this dude really likes to get in your face."

"Y-yeah, he uh...does that..." Lucy murmured. Carefully she picked up the bust but her eyes remained on the suggestive male before her. "I-I...um...y-y-you heard what was...s-said...r-right?..." she coughed. Sliding his eyes towards the door Lincoln nodded.

"I think we've got the whole routine down Luce. You can head off if ya want," Lincoln shrugged. Biting the insides of her lips, Lucy glanced at the door and then back down to Lincoln. "Unless of course you wish to cozy up with your coffin-mate my dear corpse..." Lincoln suggested wiggling his eyebrows. Blood rose up through Lucy's face like mercury in a thermometer. She caught Edwin just as he started to slide out of her failing grip and turned her face away from the boy to alleviate her flooding cheeks. Truth be told...she honestly might not mind missing the episode that she had skipped the week before...but...that probably would only upset the impressions of the pair further after Lincoln's misspeaking when Lola had been around.

"Sigh...as much as I would love the embrace of your death-gripped body my moon beam, I should probably partake in the viewing of mortal entertainment," she said bringing Edwin's bust up to her face, "My only regret is that it will keep me from my beloved...Edwin you know what we're doing, just roll with it!" Lincoln couldn't help but smile at the offense the object apparently took from the affection she'd directed at him.

"You know...I could always join in," Lincoln told her. Now Edwin did drop. Scooting the floor-bound bust to the side of the coffin with her foot, Lucy looked to Lincoln who poked his head out of the opening of the coffin.

"You?" she asked. Nodding, Lincoln pulled one of the sleeves of his suit into view and wiggled his eyebrows once more.

"Besides, laying here's making me notice this irritating crinkle in a part of my pant-leg," he added. At first Lucy questioned the absurdness of such an inclusion, but with the remembrance of his outfit, she cupped her upper lip with her hand. It was true that he did indeed have the wrappings of a vampire...and it would give her a better understanding of how far he had come in his training to see how well he blended with the tonelessness of the subject matter. Weighing his unexpected appearance to the two older sisters with the benefits that his inclusion could provide left little room for argument. Her skin crawling with anticipation, Lucy nodded her head and put out her hand to help him up.


"And that's when she said "that's not my foot, that's my liver!" Mr. Coconuts declared sending Luan into fits of laughter.

"Oh Mr. C, you are a laugh riot. Why, you really know how to tickle the "organs"!" Luan replied joyously. Even if Mr. Coconuts rolled his eyes, the joke's success was assured. With such morbid material she knew they'd be a knockout for the Surgeon's Club at the High School. Chuckling a bit more at her internal wordplay, Luan rolled over and put her other hand under her pillow. Grinning, she pulled out a picture from under it and sighed. As ridiculous as they looked, Benny's swauve expression next to the "modeling" stance Luan gave with the arm she had on him in the picture made her giddy with delight. Her pimple's ever glowing presence had long since faded into the uncaring corners of her mind. All that was left whenever she looked at the line of photos was delight at the companionship she enjoyed. For her entire life she'd always gotten ridicule from some subject or another, but Benny? He truly understood her and the joy which she sought to bestow upon the audience.

Luan rolled over onto her back to stare up at the pictures as she pulled them up over her face. The tunes from Luna's guitar above slowly seeped the smile from her. It wasn't true that EVERYONE hadn't understood before him. Lincoln had absolutely made some massive steps in humor as his time as her assistant and, as much as she hated to admit it, even had the potential to overtake her...should he have wanted that life. While part of her was sad to not continue to guide such a promising student, she was also relieved that she wouldn't have to be worrying about being upstaged. Her brows bent inwards at the thought. She may not say it, but that was one thing she couldn't stand. And for however much a weakness it was, she could let it consume her to...questionable degrees under the right circumstances. She did regret her jealousy of Lucy's acceptance to the stage over her, but she couldn't help how she felt, especially with how long she had sought that position for herself. Thankfully her apprentice had been pretty easygoing about the whole thing. She let out a sigh and put the pictures down on her chest. That was one attribute that those two shared. Their care for others. Lucy may have been a bit harder at showing it, but if you were on her good side she valued you over an obituary. And Lincoln...well he was Lincoln. His sacrifice during the Assistant-Bot incident spoke loudly enough for him.

Remembering the television monitor that it had had for a head being thrown down in front of the siblings by the bloodied and battered boy, Luan's face softened. He had endured so much because of her and still took the blame. Any other sibling would have pointed their finger at the true culprit, if not thrown the TV straight at her. But not him. And both he and the black-haired girl had made sure to remind her of the incident when they required her assistance afterwards. Not that she could blame them. Lincoln had more than earned it and she knew that the others would kill to have a leash on her, but the jointed users of her debt had started to remind her of her messups a bit too freely for her liking in the past few days, and the urge to get ahold on just what the two were up to was...tantalizing her senses. It was likely just for curiosity's sake, but it would have been nice to also get a leg up over those two in the "blackmail" game. Catching a different series of strums from above, Luan eyed the bed above her's.

"Ah gee sport, you doin' alright?" Mr. Coconuts asked as he was propped up over the rim of Luna's bed. Cracking an eye open to look at the newcomer, the rockstar shrugged and nodded her head.

"Everything's all good mate," she replied cooly as she strummed another series of chords, "How bout yourself?"

"Well I'm just dandy!" he replied doing a little jig on her bedside, "but ol' puppetmaster down there's getting awfully ancy!"

"HEY!" Luan growled popping her head into view. Luna smirked at the shrugging doll as Luan blushed.

"What's up gal pal?" Luna hummed while her fingers plucked a few of the chords more methodically. Getting no response for a few seconds, Luna plucked the strings again, albeit more slowly. She wasn't used to quietness from the maniac.

"Oh it's nothin', I-"

"Don't sound like nothin'," Luna chuckled. It was a pleasantry to see something disturbing the chaos-bringer of the household. Luan's eyes drifted back and forth in thought until she sighed.

"It's just...Lincoln and Lucy-"

"Brah, you're still going on about em?" Luna almost laughed. Luan's blush highlighted the scowl she shot her roommate. "Now I don't know why I think this, but something tells me you owe at least ol' white-hair," Luna chuckled strumming a bit faster, "whatever they've got goin' that's their business. Just relax mate. It's Friday tomorrow. No need to stress." Nodding her head, Luna's tune picked up speed and the nods soon became bobs to her newfound beat. Conceding, but reluctant, Luan sighed again and lowered herself back down to her bed. Luan may have had her unappreciation towards the brashness of Luna's consoling, but it did help to strain her frustrations, for as little as it did. She was at least able to return to her previous resting position without that annoying heat in her stomach when she thought about the two younger siblings.

Whether she ignored it or not however, its linings still lingered in the recesses of her organs.


Blissfully, Leni sipped her cup of beet-smoothie during the commercial break preluding the upcoming show. She could hardly wait. Getting to see VOM was always a highlight of her week and now she was going to get to see it two nights in a row. Obviously she remembered the epic laser battle that Tristan had had with the cyborg from the parallel universe's future and the appearance of that superhero to fight it at the Earth's core, but she always did seem to forget at least one detail in the weekly breaks between episodes. It'd be nice to have a refresher. Lori however seemed much more on edge. Leni might have chalked the fidgets up to the boxy coffins that they sat in if Leni had not personally modified the cushioning within them for their comfort. Whatever was causing her wobbles towards the flight of stairs next to them must have been an issue of her own person. Looking to the stairs herself, Leni noticed something else. The coffin to her left was empty. That must have been it! Lucy hadn't come downstairs yet!

"Oh Lori, don't worry. Lucy will like totes show up. Just be patient," Leni told her. The suggestion only helped to egg on the older girl's anxiousness.

"Oh I wouldn't be so sure about that," Lori muttered, "I don't know if you've noticed but there's been something...weird with that girl and a certain...boy recently. And I'm willing to bet that-"

"What? You got to meet her boyfriend?" Leni gasped, genuinely offended, "And after I was the one that consoled her? For shame!" Lori blinked a few times and lifted her lips towards her nose.

"...boy...friend?..." Lori repeated slowly. Folding her arms over her chest Leni shook her head.

"Well, she didn't say the word, but it was totes obvs that she like had a crush on some guy. I just can't believe you got to meet him before me!" Leni sighed. As Lori's eyes moved back and forth in their sockets her jaw lowered a bit. After a few seconds, her mouth clamped back together and she began to get out of her coffin. "Lori? Where are you going?" Leni asked.

"To pay our little goth-girl a visit," she muttered, "She obviously isn't coming down, and if she's disappeared from her room I have a pretty good idea of who's-AHHH!" Lori leaped back from the sudden appearance of the girl they'd been talking about.

"Hi Lucy!" Leni greeted having noticed the moppet as well.

"L-L-Lucy!...hi!" Lori exclaimed as convincingly as possible.

"Greetings my dear sisters," she said with a bow, "Please forgive my tardiness. I was just getting our other member ready." Lori and Leni looked at each other.

"Other...member?..." they asked in unison. Lucy nodded and stepped to the side revealing the slightly taller figure that they had assumed to be a shadow standing behind her. The two older girls gasped at the sight. Standing before them was Lincoln, legs and body draped in black with a red-clothe showing from where they collar split apart. Adding to the standard attire he'd been granted, Lucy had also tied a cape around his throat and applied some fake vampire-teeth and eyeliner to his face. Sufficed with the attention, Lincoln grabbed the end of the cape with one of his hands and performed a bow of his own glistening the red-gemmed brooch on the cuff of his outfit.

"Oh...em...god..." Leni said grabbing her cheeks, "I knew that would look good on you!" Lori backed up a few steps to her coffin nonplussed. The arrival of the duo had seemed like a cosmic slap in the face. Sure she had been wary of their association, but she had not expected Lucy to show up, let alone bring a...friend. And now that they were there what was there to say? Badger them about what they'd been up to? Right as the show that she had originally went to get Lucy for was about to start? What sense did that make? And Lincoln?...since when did he watch VOM?

"Please, we do hope you don't mind the addition," Lucy told them as she held her arm out to Lincoln, "I assure you, he has gone through more than enough "rituals" for the pre-show phase."

"Indeed," he agreed just as emotionlessly. Lori's lips pursed and her eyes nearly popped out of her head at the tone the boy carried. What the hell was going on? How had he emptied the life of his speech so effortlessly? It was like he'd become a boy version of Lucy in speech from just that one word alone!

"Oh not at all," Leni replied, "But we like, only have three coffins."

"That's okay," Lucy said as she slid back over to her brother and wrapped her arms around his, "We're smaller. We can share mine." Both Lori and Lincoln looked at the youngest member in surprise, though the boy's view returned to the blonds with an agreeable smile quicker than Lori's could force itself back to a more normal state.

"You sure? It may be a bit crowded," Leni told them, "I could always sit on the floor if you want another." Lucy and Lincoln shot the idea back and forth in a glance towards each other before returning their faces to her.

"We're fine," they said stalely, though their faces held content smiles. Leni smiled back just as genuinely.

"You two are very creepy," she said cheerfully.

"Why thank you Leni," Lucy said.

"And you are very lovely this evening," Lincoln complimented earning blushing jubilation from the older girl's face. Lori watched in baffled disbelief as the two newcomers tried to get into the box at Leni's left. Proving rather difficult with the amount of times that Lincoln and Lucy's sides kept bumping into each other, the pair eventually settled on Lincoln sliding in first as Lucy hung at the side. Once he was settled the younger Loud crawled in. At first she tried to attempt to line herself up against him hoping to fill the impossible fit of the space that was left, but by the end of the arrangement she had simply settled for laying up against the brother's front as he wrapped his arms around her middle. Grinning at him, she nuzzled her head into his chin. Lori's face remained as unsettlingly focused on the two as ever even as the formalities of the television program started. That had most definitely been Lincoln that she and Leni had seen Lucy pull through the front door that last Friday, only now with the modified clothing, pale face-applications, and eyeliner he truly did look like a vampire. And his coffin-mate seemed to be loving every second of it judging by how she would sometimes wriggle in his grasp. Lori knew what uncomfortable readjustments looked like, and those weren't what Lucy was doing.

"You're watching Fright TV," the announcer of the channel said, "And now begins last week's episode of Vampires of Melonchalia..." As rare as it was, Leni was the only one to give cries of excitement over the programming. Lori attempted to pay attention to the intro, but the interest in the Louds at Leni's other side was just too great for the most part, and Lucy was hardly watching at all with how much she just seemed to enjoy burying herself in her "cushion". Lincoln gave a fraction more attention to the TV than her, but even he had to preoccupy himself with the movements that the girl on top of him was making. And his returning gestures rarely looked to be those of unpleasantness. Unable to confront their apparent disinterest without making a scene, Lori resigned herself to slouch back in frustration within her own coffin. Trying to take her mind off of the oddity at Leni's other side, she began playing scenes from the episode in her head before they'd appear onscreen to see how well her memory would line up. For about ten minutes she managed to play her game between Leni's, sometimes misplaced, boughts of laughter until eventually she noticed other noises. Voices from the two she'd been trying to ignore.

As her indignation grew she creaked her head over Leni's shoulder to peer at the boy and girl curled up at her other side. They were whispering to each other with wide smiles on their faces. Lori pressed her lips together tightly to quell the discomfort she was feeling. All day she had been trying to dismiss her thoughts on what might have been going on with the two, but they were putting up an enormous fight against her efforts. And she dared to say they were beginning to win. Hating herself for the sickness she was letting grow in her throat, Lori leaned closer to Leni to get a better listen in on what she believed she would dread eavesdropping in on. But she didn't. Instead of the presumed unsettlingness she'd anticipated she heard something much more...surprising. The scenes that were playing on the screen. The ones she'd been playing in her head. They'd been doing the same, only more verbally and with more...emotionless enjoyment towards each other given the shuffle of clothing she'd sometimes hear.

But how? How did they know the scenes? Lucy had missed out on the episode the previous week, and if Lincoln had EVER seen the show neither she nor Leni knew anything about his viewership. How then were they guessing the scenes? How were they happily reciting them to each other? Listening closer, Lori realized they weren't. At least...not exactly. Occasionally they'd mess up a sentence or two that the characters were going to say and catch the mistake, only their blame seemed to be on the television as opposed to their own error. Creaking her head back into place, Lori sat up and leaned forward to get a better look at the coffin on Leni's other side. The sight of the two in the coffin tickled her insides. Lucy was grinning wider than she'd almost ever seen her at her partner as her arms constricted around the arm he had slung over her shoulder. Swirling the taste in her mouth around, Lori lifted an eyebrow to them and cleared her throat.

"Ahem, what exactly are you guys doing?" Lori asked.

"Oh I'm watching-"

"Not you Leni," Lori sighed before snapping her eyes back to Lincoln and Lucy, "THEM. What are you whispering about? Neither of you saw the episode last week. How do you keep guessing what's going to happen?" Lori would have asked other questions, but she decided on the tamest one she could think of so as to remain inconspicuous in her investigation. Lincoln, realizing their positions, did his best to pull the arm draped over Lucy out of sight and the two blushed in the prideful smiles they shared.

"Sigh, not all of us rely on just the TV," Lucy replied, "perhaps if you guys read some of the books you too would be able to figure what the episodes might be about." Lori's eyes blinked into a spaced-off stare of disbelief.

"...read?" she asked, almost sounding offended by the reply, "...read? Are you telling me that Lincoln here...has read the series?...has read ANYTHING other than his comics?..."

"Well, not the entire thing," Lincoln confessed dully, "But a few of the books I have given some looks." Lori shuddered at the rhyming that Lucy seemed to adore. "And I have to say, the translation to the screen is a bit passe."

"There's pasta in there?" Leni asked tilting her head at the television in search of the perceived food. Lori's lower eyelid was twitching now. Somehow or another Lincoln, a member of the family that had NEVER joined them in their watches of the show before, seemed to have reached Lucy's level of investment in the dour customs and series than she or Leni had ever even come to close to achieving. He was even being CRITICAL about elements that were lost on the older sisters. And Lucy looked to be cherishing the understanding!

"Sigh, I told you it wouldn't be a direct comparison," she told her brother with a nuzzle, "But you have to admit, it does entertain a bit."

"Oh of that there is no doubt," Lincoln agreed just as emotionlessly, "That Griselda gives the visuals quite a turnabout." Lincoln let out a playful grunt as Lucy elbowed him cheekily. "Of the characters though I must ask about Edwin. I've thought about it before, but now that I'm actually watching an episode why doesn't your bust of him look like he does on the show?"

"Sigh, Lincoln, it's called artistic license," Lucy explained, "The books came first. They didn't have an actor to work off of."

"I guess that does make sense," Lincoln nodded. The questions answered, the youngest viewers gave Lori two big toothy grins before falling back into their rest. While Lucy put a hand to the chest that she lay her cheek against, Lori's gape at her and her "partner" hung accusingly in their direction. Read? Lincoln? Know scenes? WHAT? Effortlessly the bizarre nature of the pair had dispensed with each proposed curiosity until they were allowed their positions once more. It didn't take long for the arm to reemerge from around Lucy's shoulder, whether due to their assumed parting of Lori's watch or due to the simple nature of their bodies. Figuring she had blown her chance at a proper investigation, Lori sighed as she fell back in her coffin. Whatever was going on between the two was maddening to think about. While she had her suspicions, there was nothing to confirm any conclusion she might think of without the evidence to go on, and with how in sync Lincoln and Lucy were they didn't feel as though they were going to offer any help in dictating an outcome to her predicament. Whatever she might hope to ask them to lead into more personal questioning would likely be deflected with how oddly prepared Lincoln seemed to be for the show and the gothic nature surrounding it.

For minutes more Lori tried to collapse back into her previous guessing-game for the upcoming events on the TV screen, but it was to little avail. Now that she had an ear for the hushed voices on Leni's other side the tickles against her eardrum made it impossible to make the guesses on her own. And the emotionless joyfulness of their voices drove the insanity further. It was as though they were taunting her failed interrogation. Practically nothing had gone as she had planned. When she'd gone to try and catch Lucy in whatever activities she might have been distracting herself with she showed up with Lincoln. When she had pried at them about their...whispering they had revealed Lincoln's superior knowledge of she, Leni, and Lucy's show. And now she couldn't even try for more information without look like some nosy dolt in front of Leni. She just had to sit there and endure it.

Eventually, through the ignored cuddles and whispers, the show came to its end leaving the teenager in the middle of the group clapping gleefully. While Leni had no idea where the giant squid attacking South Africa that she remembered seeing during the last airing of the episode had disappeared to, it was still a tremendous performance, and Tristan had looked just as dreamy as ever. After this latest viewing she was more than ready for whatever the next night's episode would entail, and it seemed as though the two kids at her left were just as prepared if not moreso. She too had obviously heard their recitals of the scenes before they had played and Lincoln seemed surprisingly knowledgeable about the show. A book was usually a bit much for her to get through, but it felt as though it'd been a benefit for the young boy. Looking over the two, a more important aspect of the companionship came into play. They just looked so cute together. Lucy's face beamed with a rare smile as she lay against Lincoln's slowly rising and falling chest. Likewise, he had his own smirk half-buried in her hair while he held her around the waist. They seemed like they fit together like puzzle pieces in the box they'd taken up residence in. In retrospect Leni was happy that they'd decided on sharing that coffin. And watching the younger girl she could tell that whomever she was in love with she was already set when it came to how to "relax" with them.

Once the credits had scrolled by, Lincoln and Lucy realized the conclusion of the program and pushed against each other to try and slide to either side of the coffin. They blushed innocently having noticed the dimmer teenager watching them and grinned up her. Leni smiled back just as innocently.

"Well, hm, that was...that was a...good one..." Lucy murmured as she pulled herself out of her seat. Doing the same, Lincoln stretched his arms and back and rotated his shoulders to try and shake off any oddities of the uncommon viewing that Leni must have had of them.

"Yes that was...rather dreary," Lincoln nodded recounting more the story he'd read of what the episode was based on as opposed to the program that they'd mostly ignored in the warmth of their...repose.

"I liked the part where Tristan was like "Bro hug uncle Eddie!"," Leni said. Had her hair not been in the way one of the others might have seen Lucy roll her eyes. That character may have been the introduction of the show for the older sisters, but it was certainly not why she watched it. With her and Lincoln's...exchanges throughout the episode though she admittedly hadn't paid that much attention to the visuals that night. Her fingers twitched as she looked back at the coffin. Part of her wanted to climb back into it with her "pillow". Knowing that that would probably draw too much attention, she settled simply on sliding closer to the boy and grabbing his hand as the side of her body pressed against his to hide the link from view. Lori shot the two a glowering peer at the sudden bump that Lucy gave Lincoln, but, once his surprised expression faded, the two grinned sheepishly back at the oldest sibling.

"Well...we all like different things I suppose..." Lucy murmured to Leni as she squeezed Lincoln's hand. She turned her grin away slightly as she felt his fingers press back against the spaces between her's.

"Oh totes. Like Lori's more of a Latino gal some nights," Leni pointed out, "Though she always jumps for a Blake Bradley. And Lincoln likes red underpants more than white." All the attendees blushed at the examples that the girl blurted out.

"Y-yes w-well..." Lucy coughed trying her best to silence Leni, "Th-this has b-been fun and all but um...me and Lincoln-we-I...um...we've got some books to read..." Lori's narrowed eyes lifted slightly with the brow that ascended above one of them. "We do thank you for having us, and I look forward to our next session-"

"That's tomorrow," Lori reminded flatly. A light sweat speckled the forehead beneath Lucy's bangs.

"R-...right..." she murmured. Feeling a squeeze from Lincoln, confidence swelled through her a bit more steadily. "Regardless, we thank you for allowing our newcomer's involvement," Lucy told them as she put her head against Lincoln's, "I know how much these viewings mean to you guys and we hope it wasn't...too odd of an inclusion-" Lori's lips flattened at the notion "-but we...we should get going. I do hope your post-Vampires-of-Melonchalia discussions will be just as riveting without my involvement. For now though, we must bid you adieu." Feeling the dip of Lucy's hand from how she bowed, Lincoln did the same. He had barely straightened back up before he felt the tug of Lucy's hand drag him towards the steps where he proceeded to trip up them couple of times in his attempts to keep pace with her nervously swift retreat. Once the sound of doors closing upstairs had sounded, Leni turned to Lori just as happy as ever and prepared for the "discussions" that Lucy had mentioned. Lori however only had one thing to say.

"...the fuck was that?"


The sound of doors closing could be heard around the upstairs, but in a room next to Lincoln's it was lost within the noise of preparations being enacted. Sliding a block of wood along the length of the blade that Lynn had found, a sheathing sound was made in constant repetition. It may not have been a wooden stake, but it should have at least been able to incapacitate their targets for a while. It'd work even more effectively if the toilet water that Lana intended to lace it with actually worked as Holy Water as the younger girl seemed to believe it would. Of course she'd give it a few prayers just in case. They couldn't be too safe with what they were going up against. If they messed it up then it was over. All over. They'd only get one shot. If they botched that...who knows if family relationships would save them while at the mercy of such dangerous foes. Lynn lifted her head up as Lana rolled across the room and took aim with the gun she'd modified from Lisa's room. A bit sloppily, she blasted its ammunition at targets that she'd set up on the wall. Nearly none of them hit their bulls-eyes, but most had been close enough that hopefully it wouldn't have mattered. The garlic juice should have had the same general effect anywhere that it landed on the vampires. What mattered was that it hit them.

Lynn grinned to herself. The enthusiasm of the younger girl had to be admired. The only thing that ever seemed to make Lana so determined was working on the plumbing of the house. But now? She somersaulted and jumped through the room in her gymnastics to practice for their enemies. As Lana made a leap onto Lola's nearby kiddie table, Lynn tightened the ropes that fastened the long kitchen knife to her bat. Once she was sure it was securely fastened she took a few swings and made a couple of jabs in the air. It was only slightly heavier than the bat normally was and it struck with ease. Plus it made a cool "swishing" noise with the upgrade she'd given it. Although the precision of her weapon satisfied her, she could feel a gnawing at the back of her head. While she had been Lana's most trusted affiliate in their "quest", she didn't necessarily take pride in what was to come. Sure she could not stand what the two had done to her in the past week. NOBODY ruined Lynn's reputation. But this? Even if they had joined the undead, there was little happiness to be felt from such extreme measures. What choice did they have though?

Looking to Lola, the jock shook her head. While the more hands-on of the twins was jumping across, and falling off of, tike-sized chairs, the primadonna was powdering her face. Lynn honestly couldn't believe the disinterest that she carried herself with. Lola knew what they were up against. There was no denying that. But still she just stood there applying her makeup. She may have constructed some sort of "grenades" from her beauty products, but what was that even supposed to do? Make the vampires more sparkly?

"Hey Loes, you know if those things even work?" she asked insistent on getting some involvement from her, "I mean what's a bunch of glitter supposed to do?" Lynn backed up at the glare the younger girl gave her.

"First off, they're flash grenades," the beauty queen corrected as she grabbed one, "And secondly." Even though Lynn had known the contents she stumbled around as it was thrown in her direction. Lana stopped to watch the sudden appearance of the unexpected sphere that bounced towards the older girl. With a deafening tone, the room went noisily silent as the two covered their eyes. For a few seconds all they could see was white, but little by little their glitter-filled vision returned to them. Lana rubbed her eyes irritably in the recovering speckles while Lynn coughed a few out of her throat. "Yes, they work," Lola spat before taking off the sunglasses that had apparently warped onto her face during the flash and returning to her pocket mirror.

"What the hell?!" Lana cried falling off her current perch. She may have been able to see some, but her stability was still to question in her hindered state.

"Okay geez! Point taken!" Lynn hacked. The haughty young girl grinned at the sound of the damage she'd dealt. It took some seconds, but eventually her targets did brush themselves up enough to return to more sturdy positions.

"Alright..." Lana murmured as she brushed off more glitter from her sleeves, "So...guess tomorrow's it then huh?" Lynn looked to the ground but nodded. Lola shot her a glance from her mirror before looking back to it. "I just want you guys to know that if we don't make it out alive...YOU'RE THE BEST SISTERS ANYONE COULD ASK FOR!" Lana cried pulling them into a hug. Lola and Lynn choked under the pressure of the arms that squeezed their throats. As quickly as possible Lola wormed her way out of the embrace freeing Lynn in the process.

"Yeah, you too brat," Lynn wheezed as she nursed her throat, "So...after school then?" Lana nodded cocking her gun.

"Everyone needs to be rested and aware enough. First thing in the morning might not be the best," she surmised.

"Well, I do need my beauty sleep," Lola agreed.

"Alright cool. It's settled then, we end this tomorrow," Lynn announced. Sternly Lana nodded and put her fist towards the one Lynn extended. In expectancy, they looked to the room's other inhabitant. Lola did her best to ignore the gesture, but in the silence that followed she had to give in. With a scoff she snapped her pocket mirror shut and rolled her eyes as she put her fist into the center of the group also. It was useless to hide the small grin she had from the two.

"After school, Lincoln and Lucy-" Lana said.

"Are going down," Lola finished. Intent on their shared goal, the three sisters bumped their fists together. On the other side of the door, Lori pulled her ear away. She'd heard some sort of commotion after a vibrating "bang"ing noise had sounded a few moments before, but with what she'd listened in on her investment had only heightened. As she snuck away towards her room to get ready for bed she felt both at ease and worried in the knowledge that she hadn't been the only one seeking answers towards the odd pair that she'd watched The Vampires of Melonchalia with. Whatever the following day would bring, she at least had some time to prepare.


Lucy's body bumped forward from the knock at her door. Ever since her viewing of the rerun of The Vampires of Meloncholia episode she'd been huddled at her door with Edwin in her lap once she'd slipped into her night clothes. With how dark it'd been getting outside it shouldn't have been too much longer before the hours of sleep were to be upon the household. Being a creature of the night himself, and...a statue, Edwin felt little pressure from the curfews of the mortals in the dwelling which made the discussions with him go rather easy no matter the hour. To say the figure was enthralled by the "practices" his owner and her brother had been performing in front of him throughout the night would be silly, but he did support her. He couldn't say that he did, but it was obvious to anyone that knew the statue. And no one knew him better than her. Feeling another light knock, Lucy dropped the bust to the ground and slid it behind a dresser. Carefully she cracked the door open to see what might be lurking on the other side. One half of her felt it'd be the irritation that only her roommate could bring to dampen her uplifting evening. The other half bridled with excitement as to who else could be waiting for her. And that other half won out.

Before Lincoln's night-dressed body could finish waving, the door slipped open a tiny bit more and practically sucked him into the room before shutting. It took his mind a few seconds to catch up with the whirl of colors he was dragged into. An enormous grin on her lips, Lucy spun the older boy around happily in the arms that she used to constrict his body. Enjoying the rotations himself, Lincoln put his arms around her neck and contributed to the twirls. By the time they'd slowed he was chuckling a bit, but it wasn't enough that it kept him from relaxing into the more comforting hold of his sister. Playfully he nuzzled his lower face into her hair as she rubbed her cheek along his jaw. The friction came to a close as they tilted their heads back to get a better view of each other.

"I take it my performance was adequate-"

"Oh Lincoln," Lucy said cutting him off and she pressing her head against his jaw, "You were amazing!" Lincoln blushed a bit as she inched her upper body back from his and pressed herself up nearer to his eye-level by her toes. "You...ARE amazing..." Lincoln's mouth became a squiggle of a smile at how close the girl's face had gotten to his. From where he stood he could see just the smallest sliver a reflection from whatever viewing organs lay beyond the veil of Lucy's hair. His nose tickled with the strands that managed to dangle far enough out to brush past it.

"Well-I um...it was just...ya know..." he grinned sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head. It was rather hard to suppress the thankfulness of the younger girl's praise in the proximity that his face was to her's, but it was not an unwelcome feeling. "Er, I mean...twas nothing oh dread black rose of my nightmares..." he corrected as he attempted to drop his, admittedly cracking, voice down into a more gravely uncaring tone.

"SIGH..." Lucy said almost letting her voice slip into a physical sound. In relief and happiness she draped herself across the taller figure in what she presumed to be a dramatic gesture of intimacy, but rather looked more like a ragdoll had deflated against Lincoln's body. Whatever the appearance, the collapse had more than an appropriate effect on him. Blushing hotly, he looked down to the girl that loosely clung to him and wrapped his arms around her to keep her from falling even further down in the slow descent that she was unknowingly dripping into. Taking the support as an embrace, her grasp on him became firmer and she leaped up high enough that her cheek mashed up against his in her returning hug.

"I love you..." she whispered.

"In a fake girlfriend way?" Lincoln smiled.

"...in a fake girlfriend way," he felt her nod. A shiver ran along Lucy's spine as she felt his hand run up and down along her back. "Sigh..." she said pulling her face back away from him as she dropped to the ground, "Oh dear brother...you are...PERFECT. Tomorrow...sigh, NOTHING can go wrong tomorrow...I-...sigh, you have no idea how much I owe you for this!" Lincoln's eyes were almost ejected from his skull with how tightly Lucy hugged him, "Everything you've done, everything we've worked towards. Sigh! The dancing, the outfits, the speech, the-"

"Lucy," Lincoln said cutting her off. Her shoulders lifted as he cupped her chin with the fingers and thumb of one of his hands, "It's fine. You don't owe me anything." Blushing, she tried to look towards the ground but the suspension of his body part kept her head from moving too much. "We help each other out. That's "payment" enough," he chuckled. Lucy's head dropped once the hand had left her chin. She'd forgotten she'd been trying to lower it as he talked, but it was effective for helping to hide the pink of her face. "Well, got a big day ahead of us tomorrow," Lincoln huffed putting his hands on his hips, "Today's been great, but we should probably get some shut eye. Don't wanna go into the big event with no energy or nothing." Quickly Lucy nodded. In the back of her head though, something ached. She knew what it was. Lonesomeness. She'd felt it prominently enough throughout her life that it was practically a friend, but one that she'd, thankfully, been seeing less of in the last two weeks. With Lincoln's words however, she felt it flowing back. And after spending an entire day in the festivities of her...partner, she found it harder to welcome the emptiness than normal. As Lincoln's hand grabbed the doorknob of her room, he stopped.

"W-wait," Lucy called. Curious as to what could be left, Lincoln turned his head. Unsure of just what to say herself, Lucy turned her face. She hadn't intended to stop him. She had actively fought against her impulse to call for him once she realized what she was doing, but she had his attention now. Her body quivered with resistance, but there was little use for it with the eyes on her. As her instincts overrode her sense, Lucy took a deep breath and looked to her other side where her coffin lay. Nervously she looked back to Lincoln.

"Y-you know...you could still um...c-cozy up in...h-here..." she mumbled. Anxiously the arms she'd put behind her back fidgeted. For a moment she just stood there under the unbearable weight of Lincoln's stare. She must have sounded like an idiot. To propose such an idea out of nowhere painted her with embarrassment. "I-I...I mean...ya know I've slept in your bed before and...you don't normally sleep over here or anything..." she murmured attempting to justify her sudden suggestion, "I just thought...maybe it m-might h-help to maintain the...act's consistency going into tomorrow..." Lincoln's bewildered eyelids lowered back into a more studious manner as the pupils under them swam around as if searching for answers. Her limbs paralyzing with stupefying regret, Lucy clenched her hands together behind her back so hard that it felt like their fingers would sink through the opposing knuckles. Why had she suggested such a stupid idea? Did she want Lincoln to be uncomfortable? Did she want to ruin the exciting day they'd just had? Was there any way to pass the entire thing off as just some bad joke or-

"Actually...that...might not be a terrible idea..." Lincoln nodded slowly. Lucy's fingers eased their bone-shattering.

"...what?"

"I mean it does make some sense to keep the...affection maintained, and we really should have every preparation that we can..." Lincoln thought aloud as he stroked his chin. Lucy just stood frozen in her spot. She couldn't believe that he was actually taking the idea into consideration. But why shouldn't he? Like he said, it did make sense. It was just a continued part of their "act" to help them stay in character. And Lucy was more than willing to make the sacrifice of her sleeping-quarters to ensure their victory in the day ahead. "One thing though...what about Lynn?" Lincoln asked eyeing the other side of the room, "She's probably gonna find it a bit odd to find me and you um..."Lucy turned to it as well and shrugged.

"What about her?" Lucy asked, "Coffins have lids." Lincoln's brow lifted at the obvious answer. How hadn't he remembered that? "Besides, if it begins to open I'm pretty good at sensing light if it's bright enough. I'm sure I'll react quick enough to get...on top in that situation and...um...hide your body..." Lucy continued with a teasing grin.

"W-well it's...good t-to know you got th-this all w-worked out..." Lincoln half-coughed through his reddening face. Lucy grin widened despite her own oncoming blush. He looked so cute when he was embarrassed. Her teeth showed less as he continued to rub his arm and he tried to avoid looking at the girl, but the playfulness remained in spite of the nervousness. "Well...guess I um...better stuff my b-book bag under my sheets then..." Lincoln said excusing himself from the heat of the scene. He found it more difficult than previously to turn the knob of the door but he managed through the fidgets. "Y-ya know...in case someone wanders in and finds I'm not there when everyone's supposed to be in bed," he added before pulling his head out, "Um...be right back..."

"I'll be waiting," Lucy replied wiggling her fingers in his direction. With a surprisingly pleasant shiver, Lincoln smiled and exited. Knowing that her time was short, Lucy flipped the lid of the coffin all the way open and set forth making sure that everything was in place. Figuring that Lincoln would appreciate a more cushioned surface than the rigidness that Lucy was accustomed to when she chose to sleep in the box, she pulled a few sheets and blankets out of the closet and stuffed a pillow into it once she'd laid them down inside of it. She wasn't sure of just where Lynn had run off to, but she didn't care. She figured that the older girl would simply ignore the coffin that was obviously in use when she finally came back to the room, especially with how late the hour she'd have to be back would be at this point. The jock would likely just wander straight into bed and start snoring which would thankfully be deafened by the lid of the box she and Lincoln would be resting beneath. Lucy felt moths fluttering about her stomach at the thought. With a little twirl, she put her hands up next to her face and clamped them together. She didn't know why she was feeling so...ecstatic about the idea. Perhaps it was the thought of practicing for when she would share her coffin with some future undead consort, or maybe it was the assurance of the boy that they'd win over tomorrow. Whatever the case however, it had her insides flip-flopping.

On the floor below however, Lucy heard something that jaded the mood. In a rare sense of annoyance towards it, she looked to the bust of her beloved vampire that had somehow appeared next to the coffin and placed her hands on her hips.

"Sigh, Edwin, it's just one night," she grumbled, "you can have your spot back tomorrow."

"Who can?" Lincoln asked. Lucy spun around as the door shut behind him. Sprouting an innocent grin, she shoved the bust to the side of the room with her foot.

"Who can what?" she asked. Having seen what she'd just pushed out of the way, Lincoln shrugged. He'd rather not get into the middle of an argument between the goth and her token of affection. Rolling his eyes, he made his way over to the coffin that she stood in front of and looked down into it.

"Hm...looks cozier than earlier," he remarked. In her mind Lucy felt a parade march through her from the approval. Having been worn a bit ragged from all that they'd gone through that day, Lincoln was quite susceptible to the idea of getting some shut-eye and was made only keener towards the idea of rest as he thought about all that they'd have to partake in in the day ahead. After letting out a yawn, he stretched and took a step into the cushioned coffin. "Lemme see if I got this part right," he chuckled as he turned around to face Lucy. She felt the crawl in her innards again as she realized what he was doing. Playfully, he crossed his arms over his chest and fell backwards lifelessly. Even with the pillow to catch his fall, the "thump" of his head was something that he'd need to get used to if he ever played dead as dramatically as Lucy on a regular basis. The girl in question however landed right next to him in the same manner only a few seconds later without so much as a sound being made from her unseen entrance into the box. The resting-space was a bit of a claustrophobic fit, but it offered more area to move around in than the coffins that they'd used to view Vampires of Melonchalia. And the snugness wasn't exactly unwelcome with how their bodies laid against each other. In fact it felt...a bit comforting to have each other's figures to press against.

Not realizing the grin on her face, Lucy lifted back into a sitting position and reached for the lid to their "bed". With a swift "thwunk!" the piece of wood closed over the case.

-end of chapter-

Things have certainly come a long way. It may have been just a week and a half in the world of this story, but it has been months for me and it's always nice seeing the characters evolve. It's also a bit relieving that we're nearing the end, for my sake that is. I would LOVE to constantly make stories and everything and just keep going on adventure after adventure, but I do have quite a number of other projects and fan art and stuff that this has been keeping me from. I mean it's still probably gonna take a couple of months to get the final two chapters written, but we're getting to the endgame here.

Just one more day. That's all that remains. Will Lincoln and Lucy get the guy they've been after? Will they even make it to The Ball? What all will go down between the Loud siblings in the next chapter? Can Lincoln and Lucy's agenda remain hidden? The story's climax is just around the corner. Everything has all been leading up to the final weekday of this second week and it will be a night that Lincoln and Lucy will never forget. So stay tuned for the exciting conclusion of Forbidden Allure.