Chapter thirty-five. I bought a box of those kurrig things. I thought they were packets of hot chocolate mix. And they are, they're just for the machine. Turns out that if you just rip the tops off, they work just as well. It is just hot chocolate mix, with a stupid extra step added.

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The little bell, above the door, tinkled when Lincoln swung it open, and they stepped onto the sidewalk outside. Maybe it was just the sun shining, merrily, down on them, but Lori felt good.

"Thanks for doing this with me." The paper bag of assorted pencils, and… Other art stuff, crinkled as he held it closer to his chest. "I was running low, and looking for a time to come myself. Plus, I know you're not really interested in this stuff."

"You like it." Which was more than enough on its own. "And I was bored anyway."

"Really?" He glanced at her just before she lost sight of him, when they split to either side of the van. Unlocking the door, she reached across to manually unlock his side, before buckling herself in. "You're usually so busy." He finished once the van wasn't between them.

"Having a lot to do isn't the same thing as being entertained." She tsked, shifting the van into reverse, and peering through the rear view mirror as she pulled out of their parking space. "And work isn't what I'd call fun."

"What about your friends?" The question brought her up short, and she reflexively pumped the breaks, just as she was about to pull out of the parking lot. She was silent for a second as she thought about it, pulling out onto the road, and slipping between cars on the way to their next destination.

Why didn't she hang out with her friends more often… Okay, so she fell out of touch with most of them when she began focusing on college, but she didn't stop being friends with them. She still had their numbers, and she was still friends with them on social media… Come to think of it, that might be another reason for her recent restlessness. It had been a while since she had actually spent any time around them, so it would make sense that she'd miss them.

"I… Haven't really seen them recently…"

"Really?" A audible tone of concern entered her voice, and she rushed to reassure him.

"Well, you know, I've literally just been extremely busy for a while." She slowed to a stop at a red light, and glanced to the side to see that Lincoln's worry wasn't completely gone. "Hey." She turned to face him fully. "I'm fine. I'm a lawyer. I've just had a really heavy work load recently."

"Okay." He turned to look out his window, reluctantly accepting her answer.

"Hey." She grabbed his attention again, until a car behind them honked, and she looked up to see that the light was green. Pressing the pedal down, she turned back to the road. "I don't know what you're worried about, but it's fine."

"It's not any one thing. It's a lot of little things, that I haven't been able to put together yet."

"Well let's not worry about it then." Checking the rear view mirror, she slapped the turn signal and drifted into the next lane over.

"Okay." He said again, though Lori could tell he was letting go a little bit. That was fine. She'd just have to distract him more.

"You have any big projects coming up then?" Not her best attempt at a distraction, but it would do.

"What?" He sounded honestly surprised.

"With your new art stuff?" Glancing away from the road for a second, she nodded at the paper bag he'd set on the floor between his legs.

"Oh, no." Reaching down for it, he pulled it up again and began absently looking through it. "I was just running low, and I needed a refill."

"So no big projects then." She hummed. "How about an interesting one?"

"Uh?" Turning to look at her, he made a questioning sound. Like he had questions, but literally didn't know what to ask.

"Well," She clarified; secretly pleased that she'd succeeded in drawing his attention further away from whatever was bothering him. "Just because a project isn't literally the most important thing you have going on, doesn't mean it's not interesting."

"Huh… Well, I have been working on an event proposal."

"Oh?" She didn't know what that meant. "Tell me about it."

Luckily he must have figured that out, "The Full House Gang is the name of the team, but the separate characters each have their own comic line. They cross over a lot, and a lot of emphasis is placed on their interactions with each other, but they don't usually all gather to deal with a single threat together." As she heard the enthusiasm in his voice, she wished she didn't have to pay attention to the road. A glance at his glowing face made her wish even harder. "So I'm writing up a proposal for a big crossover event, where the entire team has to gather together to deal with someone incredibly powerful."

"What kind of stuff do they usually deal with?" Flickering her eyes to the rear view mirror, she flipped her turn signal, and drifted into the turn lane.

"Usually they deal with criminal organizations, and the occasional crazy. Because none of the Full House Gang have any actual superpowers of their own. They all just have specialized equipment and training." He paused for a moment, as they pulled into a parking space and got out of the car. "So they have to be creative about defeating more powerful opponents. It means that it's usually best to give them problems that are…" He trailed off, struggling to find the right words. "Within their weight class? I guess?" He finished, chuckling softly as they walked towards the grocery store. "I've been spending too much time around Lynn." He shook his head.

"It's fine, I get it." Sometimes she used the word "Totes" to describe things. If you spent enough time around people, their vocabulary often got mixed in with yours.

"So what do you want to get?" Lincoln turned to look at her.

"Well," She shifted gears immediately. "Something desserty…" She actually didn't know. Because literally the only other experience she had, with cooking, was when she made those cookies with Lincoln. She didn't know what would take the most work, or what would be easiest, or what would teach her the most. She figured, though, that if she kept making desserts, then even if they didn't come out the best, she'd still be able to have fun eating it.

"Do we have an ice cream maker?"

"Oh?" She tilted her head thoughtfully. "I don't know…"

Ever try mixing lavender syrup in with vanilla soy milk? I like it a lot.

"Hah!" Luna's eyes flicked, from the pages of her book, to Luan. Her pony tailed sister clutching the desk in front of her, as her eyes watered with mirth.

"Whatcha watching sis?" She asked, even as her eyes found the page again; Scanning the words into her memory.

"Just… Hah… Give me a… Give me a second." Luan heaved as she tried to settle herself down. "Oh man…" She clutched her chest, taking long, slow, breaths. "Horrible Histories." She finally answered.

"Yeah?" Setting the book down on her chest, she turned her attention for fully to her sister. "What episode?"

"The Measly Middle Ages. Or one of the sketches anyway. It's hard to find full episodes online, unless you live in the UK." Swiveling to face her, Luan shrugged one shoulder carelessly.

"Huh." Pausing, she thought about that for half a second. Though there wasn't a lot to consider. "What sketch than?"

"The one about Joan of Arc." A snicker escaped the comedian. "It's hilarious to think about."

Horrible Histories was one of those shows that was easy to watch. Luna remembered when Luan first showed her the series. History, comedy, music, and British stuff? It's like it was custom tailored to fit their tastes. Of course, she had more fun with the musical sketches, but that wasn't weird.

"Cool." She nodded, turning back to her book.

Luan's chair squeaked as she turned back around, but Luna ignored it. Her attention focused on the lives of some of her all time idols. She honestly wasn't sure if The Beatles were actually her favorite band or not. In the top ten? Definitely. But they weren't the only legends, and there were some bloody insane musicians out there. Mick Swagger came to mind immediately, but there was also TOTO… Not that too many people knew about them…

With a bubbling roll, her stomach suddenly growled. Sighing, she bookmarked her page, and rolled out of bed. The carpet tickled the bottom of her feet.

Strolling from the room, and out into the hall, she made her way towards the stairs. Coming to the top, just as she heard the sound of a jiggling knob from the front door.

"Hey Lynn." She waved to her sporty sister, standing in the doorway, when she was halfway down the stairs.

"Hey." Lynn waved back, panting a bit. She had a slight sheen of sweat on her face, and she plopped herself down on the couch.

Rounding the corner to the dining room, she found Lola sitting at the table. The pageant princess was idly flipping through a magazine, as she crunched on a plate of cookies. The smell made Luna's mouth water, and her stomach grumbled again.

"Where'd you get those cookies?" They weren't store bought. Luna could tell that much from where she was standing. Store bought cookies were all extremely uniform, and perfectly cooked.

"Huh?" Blinking, Lola looked up at her, then down at the plate. "Oh… Lincoln and Lori made them yesterday… I think…"

"Oh yeah?" Continuing past her younger sister, she stepped into the kitchen. "They any good?" She called back.

"Eh…" Luna could hear the crunch as Lola took another bite. "They're not the best cookies I've ever had, but they're not bad."

Finding a container of them on the counter, Luna took a bite out of one herself. It had a nice flavor, though it tasted like something was missing. It wasn't a deal breaker. The cookies were actually better than she'd have thought, considering who made them. She hadn't even known that Lori could cook… Though Maybe Lincoln had a larger hand in this than their oldest sister. Grabbing a few for herself, she made her way back to the dining room.

"Where is he anyway?" It had been a while since they last hung out.

"What? Who?"

"Lincoln."

"He's out with Clyde… Probably. I don't know, I have better things to pay attention to."

"Fair enough."

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Chapter notes:

I'm not going to make excuses for how long this chapter took, but I'm also not going to apologize. This was from a combination of writers block, procrastination, and dealing with some stuff in real life. It is what it is.

I'm now in a weird limbo, where things have changed enough that I can't rely on a theoretically unaltered timeline, but the individual timelines don't have a ton of forward momentum on their own yet… If you know what I mean…

A guest asked when the Loudcest would start. What you have to understand is that this is a slow burn romance, spit between eleven different timelines. Meaning that however long it would take me to get to the romance in a normal story, it's most likely going to take ten times longer here. So it'll probably take a few more cycles before anyone is even aware of the nature of their feelings… Except Lucy, and Lisa.