It was the following morning in Clyde's house, Lincoln and Clyde woke up at around the same time, and they were a bit embarrassed in fell asleep in each other's arms, but they pushed it aside and decided to take their turns to bath and getting dressed, they both had breakfast and Lincoln started packing his stuff to leave back to the Loud House.
"Are you sure you don't want to stay for the afternoon?" Clyde asked. "We could play a few games."
"Thanks but I'm good, I have things that need to do."Lincoln said.
"Alright, it was nice having you around, we should definitely do this more often!" Clyde said excitedly.
"I would like that." Lincoln said carrying his things and giving Clyde a hug.
After that conversation Clyde and Lincoln came down to have breakfast with Clyde's parents, Lincoln left for home immediately after that, Lincoln's walk home was very quiet, the streets were completely deserted and very rarely did he see a car pass by, Lincoln theorized most people were still in their beds since today was a day off.
When Lincoln arrived in front of his house he heard a some scratching coming from the other side of the front door when he was reaching for the doorknob.
When he opened the door he was greeted with Liberty jumping into his arms, he was caught of guard and so he feel on his butt.
"Haha, I missed you too Liberty." Lincoln said laughing while Liberty licked his face.
"Lincoln?" Lincoln heard a familiar voice say, he looked up to see his mother who gave him a hug."I am happy to have you back, did you have fun at Clyde's home?"
"I did, thanks for asking." Lincoln said standing up and placing Liberty back on the ground.
"We are having breakfast, want to come and join us?" Rita asked her son.
"Nah, I had breakfast with Clyde and his parents before leaving to come back home." Lincoln explained.
"I see." Rita nodded."But you should still come and tell your sisters you're back, I am sure they would be happy to see you."
"Alright mom, if you insist." Lincoln said a bit reluctant, he didn't know if he had it in him to talk to Lynn again after he snapped at her yesterday, but I figured he would have to do it sooner or later, so might as well get it out of the way now.
Lincoln followed his mother onto the kitchen and was greeted with the familiar image of his old sisters eating breakfast, suddenly his sisters noticed him.
"Lincoln!" They said out loud before jump out if their chairs and ran towards him, and started hugging him and smothering with kisses, his younger sisters must have heard the shout from their older sisters because they soon joined in on the hugs kisses and smothering.
Lincoln once again thought this wasn't normal, since his sisters were never this happy to see him, but he pushed those thoughts aside and enjoyed the attention and sensation of his sisters showering him with love.
But suddenly Lincoln noticed something, he noticed that the only sister who wasn't giving him hugs and kisses was Lynn, in fact, Lynn was nowhere to be seen, not in the grown up table and after Lincoln walked into the kitchen he noticed she wasn't on the kiddy table either, this was very odd to him so he asked:
"Where is Lynn?"
"Oh, she is in her room, she hasn't come down from it since you left for Clyde's house, she didn't come down for breakfast so we had one of your sister bring the food to her room." Lori explained.
"Oh…I'm sorry." Lincoln said.
"You don't have to apologize Lincoln, we should have been more thoughtful, we didn't know you were feeling insecure about being less talented they us, we are the ones who are sorry." Luna explained getting on her knees to meet Lincoln's eyes and placed her hands on his shoulders. "If something is bothering you, we want you to voice it, don't keep it to yourself, you probably wouldn't have snapped at Lynn if you didn't keep it all bottled up inside you."
"Yeah…I should probably should go and talk to her." Lincoln said as he started moving out of the kitchen to go and see Lynn in her room, but he was stopped with a hand on the shoulder from his father.
"I think you should give her some space son." Lynn Sr. told his son."We all tried to talk to Lynn, but she didn't say a word to any of us, I think the best thing we can do for her right now is leave her alone."
Lincoln wanted to argue, but he decided to comply, but suddenly he felt a presence next to him.
"Lincoln?" Lincoln heard Lucy say, he would have been surprised by Lucy's sudden appearance, but he sensed her presence beforehand he wasn't as surprised.
"Yes Lucy?" He asked, Lucy was a bit surprised Lincoln didn't yell in surprise, she was so used to not be noticed by her siblings the fact Lincoln now wasn't actually shocked her a bit, but she didn't show it.
"Umm…I decided to sleep on your room last night since Lynn's crying was preventing me from getting any sleep, I am sorry for not asking for permission, but if it makes you feel any better I didn't touch any of your stuff." Lucy explained, looking down to the floor.
"Oh, its fine Luce, I appreciate that you didn't touch any of my belongings, even if you didn't you know I couldn't be mad at you for long." Lincoln reassured his younger sister.
"Then I'm glad…thank you…" Lucy said, with a very small smile you could barely notice.
After breakfast was done the loud siblings returned to their usual hobbies, expect Lynn who was still mopping and refusing to talk to anyone.
Lori was texting on her phone, when she suddenly realized it was almost out of energy, she got her charger and plugged the phone to it, she decided to go check on her siblings to see how they were doing while she waited for her phone to finish charging.
Everything seemed normal. expect that Lana and Lola seemed really bored, this then made Lori realized they didn't get a change to spend some time with Lincoln to reconnect with him.
She decided that needed to change, and she knew exactly how, she made her way to Lincoln's room to talk to him, but she then noticed Lincoln was on the computer talking with someone, she recognized by the voice, he was having one of his scheduled talks with Ronnie Anne, she decided to wait until he was finished, but she was too curious to not listen in on their conversation.
"I told Lucy not to worry about it, and then I returned to my room and now I am talking to you" Lincoln said.
"I see, if you want my opinion I don't think you should forgive Lynn, you were angry and you SHOULD be angry, just let her wallow in self pity, trust me she deserves that and much more." Lori heard Ronnie Anne said.
"You know I can't stay mad at her forever, we live under the same roof, I am going to have to forgive her eventually, honestly I don't know what came out of me, I never snapped at anyone like that, my sister seem to think it's puberty, but I am not so sure about that." Lincoln explained, Lori was honestly impressed by how forgiving and patient Lincoln was, she was also reminded how they pushed his patient to its limit causing him to abandon them all.
"Well, do as you must, but if she doesn't apologize back or try to pin the entire blame on you, I am going over there to kick her butt!" Ronnie Anne claimed.
"Hehe, anyways, It was fun talking to you, I am going to read some of my comics now, talk to you soon." He said but before he could close his laptop Ronnie Anne called him.
"Hey Lame-o, one more thing…" Ronnie Anne started, getting Lincoln's attention."I like what you did with your hair, you look less like a dork now!"
Lincoln rolled his eyes and stuck out his tongue, Ronnie Anne did the same before Lincoln closed his laptop and moved it aside before grabbing a comic book and starting to read it.
Lori decided this was the perfect time to come in and talk to her brother.
"Lincoln?" Lori called.
"Oh, hey Lori, can I help you with anything?" He asked looking up from his comic.
"As a matter of fact you can…" Lori started. "I happened to pass by Lana and Lola's room, and they seemed really bored, I was hoping you could take them to the park so they can have fun, if you are too busy that's fine, I can go with them."
"Umm…sure, I am not doing anything super important right now." Lincoln told Lori while putting down his comic book.
"Thank you." Lori said before reaching into her pocket and pull out some cash. "Here, this should be enough for you three to get some ice cream."
"Thanks Lori!" Lincoln said before getting up to go and get Lana and Lola, Lori just smiled before returning to her room to see if her phone had finished charging.
Meanwhile Lana was just laying on her bed looking at the ceiling, trying to figure out something she could do, but couldn't think of anything, and Lola who was in the same room, was sitting in front of her mirror, she felt she needed a change of style, but she didn't know where to start, so she just started at her reflection not doing anything.
Suddenly they heard a knock at the door, they looked at the door over to it and saw Lincoln leaning on the door frame.
"Lincoln?" Lana said getting up from her bed."Do you need something?"
"Yes, I was wondering if you two would like to go to the park with me." Lincoln explained."We can even take Liberty to walk with us and buy some ice cream, what do you say?"
"Hmm, I guess a few moments away from my reflection would be good for me." Lola said. "But why don't we take Charles with us?"
"Charles is sleeping, he doesn't seem like he is on the mood to do anything, Liberty however is full of energy, and I figured she could use to time away from the house."
Lana and Lola thought about it for a moment before they smile and looked at Lincoln.
"Sure, we will go!" Lana said.
"I would have preferred going to the mall, but I don't mind going to that park." Lola said.
"Great, I am going to go fetch Liberty and put her on a leash so we can take her on a walk, I'll be waiting downstairs for you, and we'll leave when you're ready." Lincoln explained before leaving the room.
After Lincoln left the room the smiles on Lana and Lola's faces vanished, and were replaced with frowns, they looked down to the floor and thought about their lives after Lincoln vanished for 3 months.
Lana was a very big fan of the outdoors, she liked to play out in the yard, going to the park and doing all sorts of outdoor activities, she was also a huge animal lover and loved to take animals to her house, despite the fact her house already had several animals, she liked to play in the mud rummage the garbage and eat weird stuff that people probably should eat, she was also a huge tomboy, she liked to fix stuff, built small machines and at one point she got a pig and made a mud pit just so she could get into a fight with it.
She really liked and looked up to Lincoln, she would often invite him to play with her in the mud when he wasn't busy, and he would happily do so, when he played with Lynn it always felt less like he wanted to have fun with his sister and more like he was doing it out of duty, since Lynn often needed someone to practice with before big games, but with Lana it always seemed like Lincoln was having fun.
But that all changed when Lincoln left, Lana's guilt over Lincoln abandoning them rivaled Luna, while Luna felt like a caretaker who failed to do her job, Lana felt like she let her hero down, she looked up to Lincoln, when he left Lana was devastated, she blamed herself of him leaving because she boarded up his room to keep his bad luck from spreading, how could she place the well being of her brother, her hero, below some stupid superstition?
Lana would usually spend her time crying in her room, she was once a big fan of the outdoors, but after Lincoln left, she never left the house she didn't feel the need to go play in the mud, in the yard, in the park or any other outdoors place she could think off.
The family often had to take many of the animals she collected out of the house, it seemed after Lincoln left Lana lost her love for taking care of animals, to keep the animals from starving because Lana would forget to feed them, they decided to give them away, this would usually make Lana mad and sad, but she no longer seemed to care.
Lola was very proud of herself, she was the pageant princess of the Loud House, she won many awards which made her feel extra proud, she also had an ego that was only matched by her success, so saw herself as a beautiful princess and deserved to be treated as such.
She would often blackmail her family members into doing stuff for her, especially Lincoln, Lincoln would often be blackmailed into being the butler for her tea parties and being her pageant coach, much to his dismay, while Lincoln wouldn't usually mind being her butler or her coach he didn't like how often she would resort to blackmail to get what she wanted.
But Lola was very confident in herself, and she was pretty confident that her ego would never get the better of her and she was confident nobody would get seriously hurt because of her actions.
But she was proven wrong…VERY wrong….
They day Lincoln vanished was the most terrible experience of Lola's life, when they were incapable of finding the missing Lincoln, it was like the weight of all of her choices and actions suddenly came crashing down on top of her, crashing with such weight and the impact so powerful it would leave a crater so deep you could see China.
Lola felt horrible about all the stuff she did to Lincoln, she didn't realized how much of both her life and her pageant career Lincoln was a part of, Lincoln played a huge part in many of Lola's victories, he would brush her hair, paint her nails and steam clean all her chiffon dresses, Lincoln was also the big brother who taught her how to read when she was too afraid to admit to her other family members that she couldn't read, he never made fun of her, he was patient with her, and went the extra mile to help her.
Lola lost all her desire to be a pageant princess, she never went to any pageants, she left all her dresses on her home just collecting dust and she didn't even bother putting on makeup before leaving to go anywhere.
Lola could barely look at herself in the mirror anymore, when she looked at her reflection, she no longer saw a beautiful pageant princess, all she saw was a horrible, ugly and disgusting looking monster.
One day, Lola walked into her room and looked at herself in the mirror she had in her room, she was really angry…angry at the monster she saw in the mirror…angry at herself…
It was almost as if her reflection was mocking her, never letting her forget what she had done, she could already her own reflection laughing at her, she tried to cover her ears in a failed attempt to muffle the voices inside her head, but it did nothing…it just kept laughing, laughing and laughing.
"Shut up…SHUT UP!" Lola roared, loud enough everyone on the Loud House heard, Lola looked towards a chair that was close to mirror, she picked it up and threw it at the mirror with all the force her little body could muster, the chair crashed into the mirror, sending glass shards flying all over the room.
The voices finally stopped, but Lola didn't feel any better, if anything she felt worst, as all this only made her realize how much of a wreck she really was, she fell to her knees, brought her hands up to her face and started to cry.
The other members of the Loud family walked into her room, only to see Lola on her knees, crying into her hands, shards of glass all over the room with a knocked over chair and a broken mirror…
If there was a silver lining to all the misery was that Lana and Lola were no longer constantly fighting, but that wasn't much of a silver lining, the other Louds would prefer the constant fighting and bickering over walking past the open door to their room to find them snuggling close to each other while crying their lungs out.
Lana and Lola looked at each other, they knew what each other were thinking, they put some forced smiles on their faces.
"Let's not think about all that, this is our chance to patch things up with Lincoln." Lana said.
"Yeah, you're right, let's do this." Lola said back.
After they were done getting ready they walk down the stairs and saw Lincoln waiting by the front door of the house with Liberty, who was using Charles's leash.
"Shall we?" Lincoln asked his two little sisters.
"We shall!" Both said at the same time with large smiles on their faces.
The four of them left and went on their walk, the walk to the park was not as calm and the walk Lincoln had from Clyde's house to his house, the siblings were having some casual conversation, house they reached the park they went on to play, Lola was sitting on a park bench taking in the beautiful sights of the park, she was inside her house all the time until the few moments the family needed to get out but she didn't really pay attention to her surroundings, she was too busy feeling guilty about what happened during those infamous 3 months.
Lana meanwhile was playing on the lake, she liked playing with all the animals in the park, she still had Hops, Izzy and the a few other, but a large part of them were taken away when Lincoln vanished, and her need and love to care for animals went away with him.
Lincoln and Liberty were playing with a ball, Lincoln would toss the ball away and Liberty would catch it, what Lincoln found impressive was that Liberty always caught the ball before it landed on the ground, no matter how far he tossed it, and he was really impressed.
After a while of playing Lincoln decided to take a rest under the shadows of a tree, Liberty decided to lay on top of his lap and the two of them rest a bit.
They were both sleeping for a while until Lincoln felt something pressing against both of his sides, he woke up to find Lola and Lana both sleeping next to him, each laying their heads on each of Lincoln's shoulders, Lincoln just smiled before going back to sleep.
After resting for a while longer it was time to leave, but before they left Lincoln remembered the money Lori gave to him and so he decided to find an ice cream salesman to buy the tree of them some ice creams.
"Hello, what will it be?" Asked the ice cream salesman.
"We would like 2 ice creams, one with blueberry and another with chocolate and one cold water bottle." Lincoln said.
"Right away." The salesman said, he gave Lola her blueberry ice cream, Lana got her chocolate ice cream and Lincoln got the water bottle.
They started getting ready to walk home and enjoy their ice creams when suddenly Liberty started tugging on her leash, Lana was trying to hold on to her with all the strength she had but it was not enough, and she ended up letting go of Liberty's leash.
"Liberty! Come back!" Lana screamed as Liberty ran into the woods.
"Wait here!" Lincoln ordered."I'll go get her!"
Lincoln dashed into the woods to get Liberty leaving his sister to wait for his return, he ended up going into a deep part of the woods in the park, and he suddenly saw Liberty who looked like it was staring at something on the ground.
"Liberty, what are you doing?" Lincoln asked his dog as he got closer to her."We need to get back home."
Liberty suddenly turned around Lincoln and saw that Liberty was holding something in her mouth…
A piece of orange fabric…
Lincoln got it from Liberty and took a closer look at it, why would Liberty come here to get this?
Suddenly he remembered how his sisters told him he was found in a deep part of the woods in Royal Woods Park, and how he was completely naked.
"Could this piece of fabric be mine?" Lincoln asked himself, it seemed possible since he was on a deep part of the woods in Royal Woods Park like how his sisters told him, he then looked at Liberty who was just looking at him he then looked back to his hand tattoo and remembered that Liberty had the same symbol on her fur.
"Who are you really Liberty?" Lincoln asked. "Do you know something I don't?"
"AAAHHH!" Lincoln hear a scream, he recognized the voice, it was Lana, he didn't have to think about what he found on the woods and what connection it had to him and Liberty, he rushed on the direction he heard Lana's scream.
Lincoln arrived to see Lana and Lola being bullied, she they looked like they were on the verge of tears and Lincoln saw that two boys stole their ice creams, those two boys were none other than Bruno and Bruce, the two infamous bullies from his school.
Lincoln was very angry, bullying him is one thing, but NO ONE bullies his younger sisters.
He looked at his fist and saw the tattoo was glowing again, but he didn't care, all he wanted was to teach these guys a lesson for messing with his sisters.
"HEY!" Lincoln shouted causing Lana, Lola, Bruno and Bruce to look at him."Leave my sisters alone you jerks!"
"Oh, look it's brace face Loud!" Bruno said causing Bruce to laugh."Sorry, but these ice creams are ours now."
"Give them back before things get ugly!" Lincoln said, gridding his teeth.
"Before things get ugly?" Bruce asked laughing."What? are you going to fight us!?"
Before they could continue laughing, Lincoln squeezed his water bottle so hard, the cap launched out of the bottle like a bullet and it hit Bruce square in the eye.
"OW! MY EYE!" Bruce shouted before glaring at Lincoln, one of his eyes now bloodshot from the bottle cap hitting him.
"Hold my ice cream Bruno, I need to teach this pipsqueak a lesson!" Bruce said passing his ice cream over to Bruno and rushing at Lincoln, Lincoln was afraid, but suddenly he dodged Bruce's punch with ease, then another and another, it was like all of the sudden he could see Bruce's moves before they started, he was shocked by this, but he suddenly saw an opening for a counter attack, he then threw a punch that hit Bruce right in the chest, and they punch was apparently strong enough to cause Bruce to clutch his chest in pain while falling on the floor groaning in pain.
Lincoln was surprised by how strong the punch was, but this moment of surprise left Lincoln wide open, Bruno sneaked behind Lincoln and kicked him in the back, causing Lincoln to fall on the ground, before Lincoln had time to anything else, Bruno started to repeatedly kick and stomp on Lincoln while he was down on the ground, a few seconds later Bruce got back up and started joining Bruno on kicking and stomping Lincoln.
"Oh no! Lincoln is going to get seriously hurt if we don't do something!" Lola said with fear.
"Don't worry, I got this!" Lana said reaching inside her overalls and pulling out her faithful slimy partner Hopps."Go Hopps! Save Lincoln!"
After shouting that she tossed Hopps into the fight, Hopps landed on Bruce's face, causing him to stop kicking Lincoln and start freaking out over the frog on his face.
"HHHAAA!" Bruce shouted."GET THIS SMILY THING OFF MY FACE! GET IT OFF!"
"Hold on man! I got it!" Bruno tossed both ice creams into the air and threw a punch onto Hopps, but the moment he threw the punch, Hopps hopped of Bruce's face, causing Bruno in turn to punch Bruce in the face.
"OW! MY OTHER EYE!" Bruce yelled in pain while falling on the ground again.
While Bruno was distracted about hitting his friend in the face , Liberty appeared out of nowhere and leaped towards Bruno and head butting him in the fest, she did this with enough force she cause Bruno to fall on the ground, next to Bruce.
They both opened their eyes to see the ice creams the stole from Lana and Lola falling on their faces.
Lincoln saw the whole thing, and he noticed that when Liberty leaped and head butted Bruno in the chest the tattoo on her fur was glowing a light blue.
Lincoln didn't spend much time think about this for long, he got up, grabbed his sisters by the arms and they began to run away while Bruno and Bruce were on the ground, Lincoln looked behind him and he saw that Liberty was following them as they ran.
Lincoln, his sisters and Liberty stopped running to catch their breaths when they were about 50 steps away from the Loud House.
"Are you two alright, they didn't hurt you did they?" Lincoln asked his sisters.
"Don't worry about us! You're not too hurt are you?" Lola asked with concern.
"No, I feel just fine, no bruises or bleeding, just a few scratches…" Lincoln said, he was surprised considering kicking and stomping on him would have left him very injured, but he didn't doddle on it too long when he heard his sisters sigh in relief.
"By the way…you girls didn't notice anything weird did you?" Lincoln asked them, referring to his and Liberty's glowing tattoos.
"What? How you kicked major butt?" Lana asked with a grin."Heck yeah we did! You were awesome out there Lincoln!"
This answer caused Lincoln to realized they didn't notice, they were probably to shocked about everything that happened to see his and Liberty's marks glowing.
"Anyways, we should get inside, I just realized it's getting dark." Lincoln said, Lola and Lana nodded and the four of them went inside.
When they entered they saw Lucy in the couch eating popcorn on her pajamas, Lucy noticed them entering and decided to greet them.
"Did you four have fun?" Lucy asked.
"We did, there were a few problems but we can tell you about it later." Lincoln said before asking. "Why are you sitting on the couch in your pajamas? It's not bed time yet."
"There's going to be a movie marathon on TV, I am getting ready to watch some movies." Lucy explained. "Do you guys want join me?"
"Sure!"The three of them said at the same time and Liberty barked.
Lincoln, Lola and Lana got in their pajamas and made some popcorn for them to enjoy while watching movies, they talked about what happened in the afternoon and about other things.
After a while Lola and Lana started getting tired, the eventually fell asleep, laying their heads on Lincoln's lap.
"I think we should call it a day and go to sleep." Lincoln said.
"Okay." Lucy said.
Lincoln picked up Lola bridal style and took her upstairs to her room, Lincoln looked behind him to see Lucy, who was dragging Lana up the stairs by her arm, and despite this Lana was still sleeping peacefully.
"What?" Lucy asked, noticing they way Lincoln was looking at her.
"Why are you dragging Lana like that?" Lincoln asked.
"I am only 2 years older than her, I am not that much bigger and heavier than Lana so picking her up would be too much for me." Lucy explained. "But that's not an issue, you know as well as I do Lana is a super heavy sleeper."
"Fair enough." Lincoln said, Lincoln started moving to Lana and Lola's room, but he stopped when he noticed Lucy taking Lana to his room. "Lucy, why are you taking them to my room?"
"Today you spend time with them, you should sleep with them too." Lucy explained, laying Lana down on Lincoln's bed.
"Oh, alright." Lincoln said before laying Lola next to her."I am guessing you are now going back to your room?"
"No, I am sleeping on the couch tonight." Lucy said, before Lincoln could ask why Lucy already started to answer."I won't be able to sleep with Lynn constantly whining in her sleep."
"Right, I need to apologize to her at some point." Lincoln said."Goodnight Lucy."
"Goodnight brother." She said back.
Lincoln then closed the door to his room and laid next to Lana and Lola, in the middle of the night he felt Lola get up to go to the other side of the bed and hug Lincoln from one side while Lana hugged his other side.
Lincoln felt that and smiled at the gesture, he looked at his tattooed hand for a moment, thinking about this afternoon's events, but he decided to stop thinking about it and just enjoy the warm cuddles.
He closed his eyes and joined his sisters in slumber land…