Yo guys geo here and welcome to No such Luck No such Love: Paradise lost a reboot/Retelling of the story made by SpartanXHunterX that he has allowed me to adopt now don't be alarmed but this first chapter is meant to be a composite of chapters 1 and 2 but it gets different near the end and as for chapter 3? well things will definitely start to get different come chapter 3 and don't worry the Core premise of the story will remain the same just with a few added elements here and there.
Lincoln Loud, the sole son and middle child of the Loud family, a boy that many would describe as 'unique' and for a magnitude of reasons. The most common, and obvious, thing being his ashen white hair which adorned a turkey tail on the left side of his head, another being his chipped buck teeth, even being the sole boy in a family with ten girls all of various ages and personalities. There were even the more... Negative aspects some looked at, like the boys affinity towards comic books, video games and some... Less than manly traits that the boy held he was unique but sometimes he wondered if the world just hated him for that.
But, if there was one thing everyone could unanimously agree on, it was that Lincoln Loud had very thick skin and it took a lot to rile the boy out of his happy-go-lucky mood. This fact was proven time and time again during the school year, such as when Ronnie Anne, the schools most feared bully, started picking on the ashen haired child and he only got slightly annoyed before finally confronting her. There was even the time that Lincoln had purposely posted an extremely embarrassing video of himself with the intent of turning himself into a laughing stock, even then Lincoln just shrugged and laughed along with everyone as they continued to tease and mock him. It got boring, fast. There was even the girl guru incident that had nearly destroyed his social standing, yet the boy had found a way to preserve through it all and come out no worse for wear for more or less.
Now, however, the middle child of the Loud family found himself nearing his breaking point. His teeth ground together as his eyes scanned left and right across his room, his back leaned against the door and knees pulled close to his chest the Ace Savvy fan looked around his, now barren, room. Gone was the bed, desk, wardrobe, chair and shelves, in its place was the hollow emptiness that now occupied most of the once full space. To his left, sitting where his desk used to be, were a dozen plastic boxes, all filled to the brim with his clothes, toys, comics, electronics and other such items that had been in his room. What had once been an organized mess was now just organized and packed. What had caused his room to be emptied? The answer is quite simple, 11 days ago Lincoln had found himself without a single moment to himself having spent the six days prior to then attending his sisters multiple activities, to put frankly, it had left him exhausted and in dire need of rest and recuperation, while avoiding his sisters that morning (in the hopes of not attending their activities) he'd forgotten about Lynn Loud Jr. His youngest older sibling. She, like her sisters, wanted Lincoln to come support her in her latest softball game that very day, he had politely declined stating he needed to rest from being worn out. Sadly she didn't take it very well, so one threat with a baseball bat later and Lincoln found himself stuck in the bleachers watching his sister go through her Cossack dance before coming up to swing. Sadly Lynn's team had lost that game after their opponents managed to not only catch up but earn more points than Lynn's team did.
When the game was finished, Lincoln had gone to apologise to Lynn on her loss and maybe impart some confidence back into her for her to try harder next game. He never got the chance to do so as Lynn had declared him 'Bad Luck' as she hadn't lost a single game that season until then and had banned him from all future games and practices. At first he didn't let it get to him but the very next day, when Leni was asking Lincoln to accompany her to a fashion show, Lynn accused him of being bad luck again and in a moment of ingenious/ stupidity, he agreed with Lynn then went about spreading the lie to the rest of his sisters so he could have some time to himself for once. It worked, at first, at the cost of Lori's sand wedge golf club. The next two days Lincoln experienced what relaxing truly was, then he began to feel lonely without anyone to talk to or play with. Soon he'd been banned from eating in the same room as the rest of his family, then forced to stay home during a family outing, then his room was boarded up and he was forced to sleep in the garden for a night. At that point he'd had enough of his lie and even saw how far out of control it had gotten, the next morning he'd admitted that the whole 'Bad Luck' fiasco was a lie so he could just have some time to himself.
And even then they refused to listen to him, even Mr. Grouse, their grumpy next door neighbor sided with his family, they even locked all the Windows and doors to the house as if he was some dangerous stranger. He spent the rest of that day in the garden, tossing one of Lynn's softballs against the fence for hours on end. At some point he'd realised exactly what he had been holding and tossed it into Mr. Grouse's garden, not damaging anything, thankfully. He'd fallen asleep just outside the back door that night with nothing but the PJ's on his back. He'd woken halfway through the night soaking wet and freezing cold as rain poured its way to the ground from the sky above, he'd been fortunate enough that Charles hasn't been inside his dog house and had managed to take cover within for the rest of the night but it did little to dry him off or warm him up.
He'd woken up as wet and cold as when he fell asleep, he set about trying to push through his second day in the garden, even going as far as to try to figure out a plan to prove he wasn't bad luck, that was all for naught, as at midday his parents had let him back into the house, he was skeptical at first but didn't want to lose the chance to get back into the house. When he was back inside and the back door was closed his parents had told him to get some clothes and shower, to his surprise they acted as if they'd never kicked him out of the house in the first place. When he first entered his room for the first time in a few days he found it... Barren and devoid of his furniture. Much like it was right now.
After his shower he'd spent the rest of the day in his room, if you could even call it that, just thinking. His sisters had left him alone too, not one of them had come to see him or check on him or even apologise for how they treated him. Dinner came around quickly that day and he was allowed to sit with the family again, as if nothing had ever happened, they talked, chatted and laughed with each other over their dad's famous Lynnsagna. Lincoln wasn't stupid, far from it, he may have even been the second smartest Loud in the house ( Lisa would always be the smartest), there was tension that night, Lynn jr, Lola, Lori and Luan didn't laugh as much, didn't speak as much, they didn't even look in his direction unless he was in the general direction they were trying to face. He'd excused himself early that evening, before dessert could be handed out saying he wasn't very hungry. No-one stopped him.
Since then he'd been in his room, he had to sleep on the carpet floor in his room covered by his own clothes, suffice to say it was the worst sleep he ever had inside the house. And now, he'd spent the first half of today in his room thinking. The past week and a half kept playing through his head, he kept seeing all the things he did wrong and kept seeing things that he should have done in place of what he did, like call Lynn's bluff with her baseball bat, shutdown Lynn's second bad luck accusation, not spread a lie about being bad luck and definitely not purposely/accidentally break Lori's sand wedge golf club.
Those thoughts had tampered off as quickly as they came when he began to think as to how the whole situation had started. It hasn't started with him spreading the lie, although it was a primary contribution to the whole affair, it had started with Lynn when she threatened him with her baseball bat so he'd go to her game and then when she flunked it, she threw him under the bus instead of acting mature and simply accepting defeat and taking the loss as a reason to practice harder. From there his mind wandered to all the other times he'd been metaphorically thrown under the bus and used as the scape goat. It was surprisingly very easy to come up with examples.
The first time had been when he'd uploaded an embarrassing video of himself to rectify the mistake of uploading an embarrassing video of all his sisters for a video contest, without their consent mind you. Of course later that year Luan had uploaded an embarrassing video of him without his consent and even refused to take it down until a week after April fools day, the hypocrite.
The next time had been when Lincoln got himself the noise cancelling ear buds so he could block out all the noise his sisters had made so he could read his comics and play his games in peace. It resulted in all the girls (sans Lisa and Lily) to team up against him to teach him a lesson about ignoring them. During that day he had made the entire house spotless under the pretense It was what Lola wanted him to do, and ignoring Lisa's deafening explosion, his sisters had taken all the credit towards getting the house spotless, minus a few things to not completely bury Lincoln six feet under, he'd still been in trouble that day too for 'imposing all the work into his sister's'.
That's not to mention the time Lincoln wanted to go shopping for his mother so he could get a brand of cereal he wanted, his sisters had tagged along too and then completely destroyed the store, sure he contributed slightly but his mess was nothing compared to what his sisters had done, yet at the end of the day he and only he had been grounded for the family being banned from the store, his sisters didn't even get a warning about their behaviour.
There were other incidents too like when Lucy clogged the toilet with her princess pony book, the time when all ten sisters wanted him to cover for them on the same day and the last time the Sister fight protocol had been used. Just thinking about it made Lincoln shudder. But all those events had something in common, his sisters had thrown him under the bus instead of dealing with things properly, it wasn't easy to see of course but it was there.
The facts were all there, every time something bad happened Lincoln was thrown under the bus to take the weight so the girls wouldn't have to, the girls were rarely if ever punished for their actions yet he was punished the second he put one toe out of line.
Lincoln's thoughts paused as he felt pain spread through his jaw, he hadn't realized that he'd been clenching his jaw so much that it was actually hurting him. Opening and closing his jaw he worked the tension and pain away, his eyes darted to the plastic boxes that contained his things and a spike of doubt erupted in his mind, were all his possessions there? or had one of his siblings made off with some of his stuff, he knew he had money hidden within his stuff so if they found it, they'd likely pocket it for themselves. Pulling himself up from his sitting position at the door, his legs threatening to give way from lack of use, he moved over to the boxes. Taking the topmost box he moved it to the floor to rifle through it without having to stand, the first box contained much of his Ace-Savvy paraphernalia, from action figures to posters and even his homemade Ace-Savvy costume. However, it did not contain the item that held his hidden cash.
For the next half an hour he rifled through each box to see if something was in fact missing. Nothing was. He even found his hidden stash of cash right where he left it, mixed in with his comic books that were all within their original plastic covers, all placed in a single box, in the correct order. Doing a quick recount he saw he had a little over $20, that seemed right.
Even during this brief distraction, Lincoln hadn't forgotten where his thoughts had taken him and the conclusion he had come to. Every time he hung around one of his sisters and something went wrong he was blamed and accused, each time his sister messed up he got in trouble with his parents for it, not them. So the best way to fix this problem? Refusing to hang around with his sisters, now that sounded silly considering Lincoln had felt lonely when he had been on his own before but that was before they kicked him out the house, left him to sleep in the rain and then accepted him back inside like nothing had happened. So the best way to stop it from happening again? To stay away from his sisters.
Just the thought of them was enough to boil his blood, after having a long hard think about them he realised how poorly they treated him. He wasn't sure what was going to happen if he had to get face to face with one of them anytime soon.
Speak of the devil and she shall appear. The door to his 'room' opened, Lincoln could hear the broken latch scrape against the damaged door frame, damage that had been done over the years as his sisters barged their way into his room, most notably Lori, Luan, Lynn, Lola and Luna. The doors hinges squeaked from the movement, a noise that flew in one ear and out the other given how many times he heard it. Small footsteps followed soon after, it didn't take long for Lincoln to guess it was one of his younger sisters. It wasn't Lucy as that girl could come and go without making a single sound nor was it Lily as she would have been babbling her head off immediately after seeing him. No, it was either one of the twins or Lisa.
"Lincoln?" Lana's young yet slightly gruff voice echoed throughout his room, reminding him how empty it was, he needed to fix that. Giving a hum of acknowledgment he turned his head slightly to the right, giving the impression he was listening, he was of course but he didn't trust his voice to hold neutrality right now.
"Mom wants to know if you want to come to the beach tomorrow, she needs to pack the right amount of food for everyone." Lana's voice was filled with caution, as if being in the very room with Lincoln was the worst thing that could happen to a person yet even Lincoln picked up the hint of hesitation and... Hope?
Lincoln's mind wandered to last night's dinner talk, he was sure at one point the topic of going to the beach had come up but he hasn't paid much attention to it as he figured he wouldn't be permitted to join them on a family outing. The idea of going to the beach appealed to him a few days ago when he first heard it but now? Going to the same place his sisters were going to for a whole day? For what? So he could be blamed when someone's sand castle fell down because they didn't do it right.
"I'm not hungry." And like that Lincoln set to work at putting all of his things back into the boxes, not giving Lana a sparing glance as he did so.
" Oh, ok. " For a split second Lincoln faltered in his actions making his fingers bump into the rim of one of the plastic boxes, he could hear the disappointment in Lana's voice clear as day but chose to ignore it. For the next minute Lincoln continued to return his possessions back to the boxes, even reorganizing them so he could find stuff easier, It wasn't until he heard Lana walk away and shut his door that he let out a sigh of relief, despite the situation he was still tense around his sisters, his thoughts still reeling around how they treated him.
Ten seconds hadn't even passed before Lincoln's door flew open again, Lana's head popped around the door, Lincoln's back was still facing her so she couldn't make out what facial expression he was making, if any at all. "Mom said there's food in the fridge for you and your dessert from last night, ok?"
For a few seconds Lincoln paused what he was doing, several Ace-Savvy comics held in his hands, silence enveloped the two for a few moments before Lincoln gave an annoyed grunt before returning back to tidying his 'room'. This time Lana didn't stick around for long, after about fifteen seconds she slowly walked her way out of his room, shutting the door behind her without another word.
For another five minutes Lincoln continued to pack up his belongings, leaving out a select few items for use. If their mother was packing for the trip now, then they would be going tomorrow, most likely early in the morning. It was close to the end of the summer holiday after all, so chances were that families would try to squeeze in as much time at the beach as possible before having to return to school soon. And if his family chose to leave early so they could enjoy as much sun as possible, who was he to argue, it would only give him more time to himself.
Within the silent solitude of his room, the cogs in Lincoln's head turned faster then they ever had before.
The man with a plan had come up with a very good plan indeed.
Hard slapping noises echoed throughout the basement, loud grunts, shallow breathing and the rattling of a chain could be heard following throughout the entire room. The noises emanated from one of the poorly lite corners of the houses under level.
Lynn Marie Loud Jr. The fifth oldest of the Loud girls stood facing the corner, wearing her workout uniform which consisted of her red shorts and a white tank top, red boxing gloves adorned her hands as she stood in a boxers pose. Before her the worn down punching bag hung miserably off one of the wooden support beams above. Sweat trickled down her forehead and back as she huffed and puffed, just yesterday the punching bag had been in her own room and much like today Lynn had decided to focus her sole attention on the sand filled bag as she did the day before. Of course her roommate and essential opposite Lucy had complained about it to both her and their parents resulting in the bag having to be moved out of her room.
"Stupid Fucking Jinx."
She started up once more, throwing jabs, crosses, uppercuts and kicks towards the hanging bag, each time a part of her connected she was rewarded with a hard smacking noise. Several times she would grunt as she put all her effort into her swings and kicks adding to the noise that echoed around the room. If one were to watch they'd quickly assume that Lynn was pretending that the punching bag wore the face of her worst enemy, they wouldn't be wrong but they wouldn't be entirely right either.
As Lynn continued to abuse the helpless sack of sand she couldn't stop seeing the face of her only brother appear on its rugged worn surface. She could see his face smirk at her, taunt her, challenge her, undermine her. It irritated her to no end. No matter how hard she punched, kicked or shoved the bag his face remained, smug as ever. She figured her problems were over after they kicked Lincoln out, figured that without him there he couldn't affect them with his bad luck. How else could you explain her loss at her last softball game, her team had dominated the entire season, gone unmatched and untouchable.
Then Lincoln showed up at her latest game, she thought she and her team were doing well, figured they'd dominated the game and move on to the next one, but no, his bad luck came into play and they lost 3-4 in favour to the opposition. Just remembering that was enough to dampen her mood even further, a scowl etched onto her face and her hits became harder and faster, hoping, praying that somehow the hits she delivered to the punching bag would somehow transfer off to the ashen haired boy that she had the misfortune of calling a brother and her only one at that.
It had come to a great surprise to her when their parents stated they were letting Lincoln back inside the house, many of them had tried to protest against it but their parents had shut them down faster than she could throw a fast ball. They said that Lincoln had suffered enough for lying and that, hopefully, he learned his lesson. They said to give him plenty of space and some time to readjust to being back inside the house. She had no problem with that, she would much prefer to keep herself as far away from him as physically possible, without touching him of course.
Few of her sisters shared her sentiments, somewhere indifferent and the rest just accepted that it was happening, and she was certain she saw Lana perk up at the mention of Lincoln re-entering the house, hell the first thing she did was take down the wooden boards that blocked off Lincoln's room. She would have to keep an eye on Lana, if she started to hang around Lincoln then she'd have to avoid her too, she couldn't risk getting a single drop of bad luck on her, she doubted it washed off.
Her hands were feeling numb, her legs shook under her weight, how long had she been down here? Hours? Probably, she'd come down here shortly after finishing her chores, which she'd done right after breakfast. She took slight satisfaction in not seeing Lincoln that morning, hell she hasn't seen him all day. He knew his place, below them.
Deciding to take a break from her rigorous training, she backed up, letting the punching bag swing with its current momentum. She turned and headed for the stairs, as she climbed them she could hear the noise of the house get louder, well they weren't called the Loud House for nothing. When she reached the top she immediately turned towards the kitchen, just now realising how thirsty she was and how warm the basement was too. The standard room temperature air of the house felt like a chill breeze as she walked to her destination, she sidestepped Leni who was walking out of the kitchen holding what looked to be a banana smoothie, Lynn hoped that Leni made a few of those, she wouldn't have any issue with sharing them after all.
Looking around the kitchen, she didn't see any sign of there being extra smoothies, only the dirty blender in the sink and Lori, who was holding onto a glass of the same smoothie whilst simultaneously texting on her phone with a small radiant smile on her face. Lynn shrugged at the inconvenience at not getting a smoothie, it didn't matter, she didn't come up here for a smoothie anyway.
Pulling a glass out of the cupboard, she placed it on the side before running the tap, placing her hand under the water. She was disappointed to find it lukewarm and not cold like she wanted. Leaving the water to run, she began to filter through the cupboards for something to snack on, unfortunately it was close to the end of the week so the cupboards were mostly empty save for a few items that only a select few of them liked. Moving to the fridge, she had similar results as with the cupboards, with the exception of a piece of triple chocolate cake, a spare piece from last night no doubt.
"Score!" Pulling the platter out of the fridge she balanced it in one hand while doing a fist pump in the air with the other, it wasn't often that there was a spare slice of cake, not when every girl in the house was a massive chocoholic. There were often fights over who should have the last piece of a chocolate bar or the last spoonful of chocolate spread but now? Lynn had the claim to a whole slice of chocolate cake. Her feeling of victory was short lived as the platter was quickly taken off her hand before she could finish her victory pose. Her head snapped to the side quickly, a glare etched on her face as she looked at the perpetrator.
Lori stated back at her wearing a glare of equal strength, the platter held in her hands and an air to her that meant she meant business.
"Hey! What's the big idea? That's mine" Lynn reached forwards to swipe the cake off the platter but Lori moved it out of her reach by moving it above her own head.
"Yours?" Lori's voice was equal parts inquisitive and expecting, like she wanted an answer but she already knew it and expected you to say that answer. "Last I checked this is Lincoln's, from Last night, remember Lynn? "
Lynn frowned at the mention of her younger brother, something Lori picked up. Why should Lincoln, the bad luck charm of the family be allowed to have, what was considered, the greatest delicacy in the entire house? He shouldn't, that was the only right answer. "Well if he wanted it he shouldn't have left the table now should he? Now give me MY cake back."
Lori's glare switched to that of a disappointed frown, everyone's moods had shifted ever since Lincoln came back inside, some good and some bad. But Lynn's disregard for their brother was literally taking the cake. "No." Her voice filled with finality she brushed past Lynn to place the cake back into the fridge . "And if you even so much as think about touching it again I'll make sure you don't go to your next softball game, understand? " Lori growled as Lynn frowned further, it wasn't often that Lori threatened her sisters with something big but when she did, oh your ass was grass if you didn't listen. Begrudgingly Lynn stomped past Lori, filled her glass from the still running water before angrily making her way back to the basement to work off her now elevated stress and anger.
Lori watched her go, in parts anger and frustration at Lynn's attitude. 'What am i gonna do with her?' Lori thought as while it wasn't unusual for Lynn to be a bit cranky, she was taking it up a level more than she usually did. Lori sighed as she turned and leaned her back against the fridge, the whole bad luck fiasco had run a bad turn recently. Sure, Lori herself wasn't happy with Lincoln at the moment, especially considering he broke her sand wedge golf club, but even she wasn't being as harsh as Lynn was. Their parents had told them to give Lincoln space so he could settle in again. A small part of her had wanted to argue that he shouldn't have had to settle in again but it was overridden by her anger for the destruction of her sand wedge. The results were mixed; Lynn, Lola, Luan and Luna were apprehensive towards Lincoln's presence; Leni, Lana and Lily were happy that Lincoln came back inside whilst She, Lisa and Lucy were neutral with their parents' decision.
Giving a Sigh while shaking her head she banished her thoughts away, she would just have to see how this all played out.
*the next day*
If there was one thing Lincoln could say about his predicament it would be... Annoying.
Currently the ashen haired child was laid down on the couch in the living room wearing his orange PJ's, an issue of Ace-Savvy held in his hands. From his position he could hear the rest of his family move and scatter their way through the house as they rushed to get ready for their trip to the beach, a trip that Lincoln would not be participating in, by choice of course.
Normally, in such a large family it can be very hard to get ready in peace, especially when the whole family was rushing to get ready and they only had one bathroom. For Lincoln, it was far easier. All he had to do this morning was move himself from his (empty) room down to the living room, carrying his comic under his arm. Once he'd laid down on the sofa, he didn't move both out of comfort and want.
"LORI!, WHERE'S THE WATERPROOF STUFF FOR MAKE-UP!?" He flinched slightly at the volume of Lola's voice. That girl could screech louder than a banshee when she wanted to.
"IT'S IN THE BATHROOM, LENI'S USING IT, YOU BETTER BE READY QUICKLY OTHERWISE I'LL DRAG YOU OUT OF THE HOUSE MAKE UP OR NO!." Lori herself was as equally loud but that may have been from wanting to be heard over the rest of the ruckus.
"YO, LUAN, HAVE YOU SEEN THE SUNCREAM!?"
"LISA'S GOT IT."
"IF YOU MUST KNOW I AM ANALYSING THE STRUCTURE OF THE SUNBLOCK TO KNOW IF IT WILL BE EFFECTIVE AT PREVENTING SQUAMOUS CELL CARCINOMAS AND MELANOMA."
"DO WHAT?"
"I'M... NEVERMIND, JUST COME COLLECT IT."
Lincoln was half sure that Lisa may have muttered an intelligence based insult after that, as she normally did, no doubt it got drowned out by the noise that was being made by everyone else. He could hear taps in the bathroom run, the pounding of feet throughout the hallway, the shouting voices added to make the Loud family truly live up to their family name.
He was used to this sort of noise though, so he buried his head in the colourful pages of Ace-Savvy as his home descended into madness. With each turn of the page he found himself forgetting more and more about his surroundings, he ignored when Lori came downstairs talking loudly on her phone. He pretended he didn't see Luan when she walked out of the kitchen with a snack in hand, a frown formed in his face when Lynn entered his peripheral vision holding a beach ball in her hands. He'd gotten two-thirds of the way through his comic before he felt some weight settle on the couch just in front of him. Glancing up, he saw his mother placing Lily down on the far end of the sofa just next to his feet, his lips threatening to curve up into a small smile, instead they twitched before setting into a thin line.
"Lincoln, sweety, I need you to watch Lily while I help your sisters." His mother spoke in the same sweet voice that she used when she let him back into the house two days ago. Before he could even blink his mother turned and power walked off to the stairs, Lincoln's eyes squinted at his mother's retreating form, Typical. When he wanted something he had to ask and offer something to the person for them to even consider it but When they wanted something from him? They expected his help, so they never asked.
His eyes darted back over to Lily, his mood brightened almost immediately, it didn't help that Lily just looked absolutely adorable right now. Normally the tiny tot strolled around in her diaper, having a serious disliking towards clothes, now though Lily was wearing a white t-shirt with lavender shorts the same colour as her blanket, he could see her diaper stuffed within making her look a bit bigger than she was, her bear feet wiggled cutely in front of her. Her right thumb was stuck in her mouth and a slightly oversized straw hat sat on her head.
Lincoln couldn't bring himself to hate Lily, she was just far too adorable to hate that, and she wasn't at fault for what happened to him. Lily was only a one year old, she didn't understand the difference between right and wrong, she was copying everyone and learning from what she saw, imitating and changing into her own person. She had no say in anything official, other than a dirty diaper. "Wincon." she squeaked as his eyes darted up to Lily, her bright blue eyes stared back at him filled with innocence and wonder. It had come as a surprise to everyone when Lily first said his name at the dinner table over a month ago, the girls had tried to accuse Lincoln of trying to manipulate Lily into his mini-me again. To his surprise it had been Lisa who came to his rescue, she stated that due to Lincoln's name being the most commonly shouted, Lily had repeated exposure to his name so she picked up his name faster than anyone else's. Since then the girls had tried to get Lily to say their names but none had succeeded.
A small smile curved into Lincoln's face, tossing his comic into the table, completely forgetting it in favour of his youngest and cutest sister. She was also his only sister at the moment. Lincoln sat up, bringing his body closer to Lily, slowly he moved his hands closer to her stomach, as his fingers came within an inch he started wiggling them sporadically then quickly pressed them to her stomach. The effect was almost immediate, Lily began to squirm under his touches, giggling and laughing as Lincoln continued to assault her slightly pudgy tummy.
The exchange between the middle and youngest children did not go unnoticed, from the dining hall door frame Lori stood, arms crossed and a small smile on her face as she saw Lincoln look truly happy for the first time in days, her phone call with Bobby temporarily on hold so she could marvel at the loving display. It wasn't often that Lincoln could play with Lily, the littlest Loud would often just wander around in the pursuit of something interesting. Lori heard Lily's giggles turn to happy squeals when Lincoln lifted her shirt and began to blow raspberries on her stomach, Lily was a very ticklish baby indeed.
When Lincoln's face came up, Lori saw his face wore a satisfied smile and his cheeks were flushed in satisfaction from having made their baby sister happy. Lincoln's eyes darted to her and in an instant his goofy grin disappeared and the blush on his face faded, in its place was the most neutral look she was sure she had ever seen and on Lincoln no less. In less than a moment Lincoln had resumed his original sitting position, ace savvy comic in hand. Lori frowned at that, she knew it would take Lincoln a while to go back to the happy-go-lucky boy he had always been but to switch between two different moods that quickly? And just because he looked at her? That wasn't right.
She didn't dwell on it for long as Lucy began to descend the stairs in her black and white one-piece swimsuit, black and white leggings covered her from the waist down and her black umbrella was hoisted over her right shoulder. The older twin Lana three steps behind in her dark blue overall swimsuit, two pairs of buckets and spades, one in each hand and a half -pleased smile on her face.
Lori swore right then and there that if Lana tried to bring home another crab or fish from the beach she was going to literally scream. The last time she had tried the fish had fallen to the carpeted floor of vanzilla, it took weeks of cleaning to get rid of the salty water smell and even now if you put your nose to the vans floor you could still smell it. Her problem with Lincoln was forgotten ; she quickly returned to her phone to resume talking to her Bobby boo-boo bear.
Lincoln watched as she walked away from the corner of his eye, he should've known that someone would have seen that, however, it might just play into his whole plan later. His eyes poked over the top of his comic, eyeing Lily carefully, the little baby was happily babbling away and while Lincoln could normally follow what Lily was trying to say whenever she 'spoke', his thoughts were a little too crowded at the moment.
Within minutes their mother returned downstairs, Lisa and Lola in tow, with Lily's diaper bag over her shoulder she approached the couch and picked up, a now happy, Lily. Chuckling at her youngest daughters happy babbles she turned towards the source of the noise to address those responsible.
"Kids!We're leaving in three minutes, if you're not in the van you can stay home with your brother today, you too Leni let's go! " just like that the girls ceased what they were doing and made a mad dash for the family van, scrambling to get through the door.
Leni and Luna descended down the stairs, wearing shorts and t-shirts over their swimsuits. Lynn Sr. emerged from the kitchen, a large wicker basket between his scrawny arms, his knees shaking under the weight of it. Rita smiled at the sight of her husband before turning towards her only son, her face adopting a worried look.
"Are you going to be ok staying home sweetie? If you've changed your mind we'll wait outside for you." Rita silently hoped her son would reconsider, if he came to the beach then he and his sisters might just be able to put the past issues to rest.
"I'll be fine." Flipping through his comic, Lincoln disregarded his mother's offer. 'Maybe we did go a tad too far' she thought as her mood dipped slightly but she couldn't say she was surprised by Lincoln's response, digging her free hand into her pocket and pulling out a few items.
"Well, ok, just stay safe ok." Rita placed several bills on the coffee table along with a spare key to the house. " If you decide to go out at all make sure to lock the door, if you get hungry order yourself a pizza or something. Your father and I have yet to do the shopping so there isn't much of anything in. " She quickly looked over to her husband, who had only just managed to get to the door with the wicker basket. "And if you do go out and think you won't be home before us, leave us a note just so we know where you went ok sweetie."
Lincoln only nodded in response, far too engrossed in his comic to answer properly. At least that's what Rita thought.
"Alright, just make sure you stay safe and have fun okay. " Walking over to her husband, Rita used her free arm to grab into one of the baskets handles, supporting its weight easily. Her husband held onto the other handle as the two of them made their way out the door, slamming it shut with their feet.
Lincoln sat there in silence, no longer paying attention to his comic, from his spot on the couch he could just barely see vanzilla out the window. He could hear the doors to the van open and close multiple times, Loud voices ringing out whenever a door was opened. Soon after he could hear the old vans engine roar to life, sputtering and coughing as it tried to remain active.
All the while Lincoln waited, hoping that the relic of a van wouldn't fail them now. He tensed up when he heard the wheels give a squeak before the overly large van started to drive away from the house, his housemates and sister in tow. Even after the van left his sight he waited, he waited till he couldn't hear the van any longer, he waited longer after that, someone was bound to have forgotten something and they'd have to come back for it.
His eyes darted around the room, looking at everything and nothing at all. His eyes scanned over the framed photos of the houses residents but he did not acknowledge them, his eyes darted to the trophy case but he didn't pay attention to it. Lincoln waited on baited breath, expecting vanzilla to return any second.
Seconds turned to minutes, he waited just a little longer, just in case. His eyes darted up to the clock, noting that fifteen minutes had passed since vanzilla had left. That was long enough he supposed, they wouldn't turn back for anything now, not with the amount of time they'd have to waste to get it.
Throwing his comic on the coffee table, he sighed as he stood up for the first time in an hour, stretching his legs to regain feeling in them he glanced around the room, making note of a few things before turning for the stairs. As he walked he remembered what his mot- Rita, what Rita had said to him and everyone else. How she expected him to look after Lily, he didn't mind but being asked if he could would have been nice, how she basically threatened everyone else to leave them home with him as if that was some form of punishment. Not to mention the sickeningly sweet voice she spoke to him in, he was beginning to understand why Lucy hated hearing it too.
It just sounded so fake. As he climbed the stairs he relished in the silence of his home, such silence was near impossible to get, what with twelve other people living in the house at all times. He paused halfway up the steps, looking to his right he saw the framed picture of himself to the left and ascending up the wall was the photos of Lynn, Luan, Luna, Leni and Lori. To the right of the photo and descending down the wall were the photos of Lucy, Lana, Lola, Lisa and Lily. Without a second thought he grabbed hold of his Photo before taking it off the nail and tucked it under his arm before continuing up the stairs.
Turning right at the top of the stairs he made his way to the converted linen closest that he had the displeasure of calling his room. Once inside he shut the door, purely on habit, he placed his Photo on top of the plastic boxes that held his things. He moved over to the pile of his clothes that he had to use as a bed last night, he'd tried to use the clothes as both a mattress and a cover but jeans didn't make the most comfortable thing to lay on.
Reaching under some of his orange polo shirts he pulled out an A4 sized notebook, his best friend Clyde had gotten it for him some time ago, saying it would be good for him to write down his thoughts so they weren't bottled up inside him. He would have listened to his friend's advice had he not caught three of his ex-sister's looking at it in his room. Obviously they thought that he was already writing stuff down and wanted a sneak peak, since then he hadn't touched it until yesterday giving a sigh Lincoln through the notebook in the trash and decided to try and wing it.
His plan was far simpler, he would do what he wanted, when he wanted, how he wanted. He wasn't going to go anywhere with his ex-sisters unless absolutely unavoidable, he wasn't going to go to their clubs, practices, groups or anything they did. His ex-parents included. He wasn't going to tell them anything, not how he felt, not what he wanted or why he was the way he was. He wanted them to figure it out on their own, if he went and told them he wasn't happy with what happened and he practically disowned them they'd go out of their way to do something for him, right then and there and EXPECT him to forgive them like that.
That was not what he wanted, they needed to earn it after realizing what they had done on their own. They would all have to go to the effort to actually try, a group effort meant nothing in his eyes. The only exception was Lily, the baby of the family did not deserve his ire. If things went the way he wanted, although he doubted they'd go perfectly, if they saw him treating Lily nicely then maybe they'd go to the effort to be in her place. Some of them would have to go a little extra than others. Looking back at his 'to-do' list his shoulders sagged slightly, why did he decide to put the large jobs first? 'Because you wouldn't get round to them otherwise.' His subconscious quickly reminded him. That was true Lincoln would rather sit and do nothing than something most of the time. But he couldn't afford to procrastinate today, not when he had so little time to do everything.
'Just do one thing at a time and it'll be done before you know it.' Standing, he threw his notebook into the pile of boxes before turning around and scooping as many clothes as he could into his arms, then he deposited them into an empty corner to be folded later. Bit by bit he moved his clothes out from where his bed used to be, once the corner was free of clothes he left his room with a single destination in mind.
Out in the hallway, Lincoln came to a stop just underneath the hatch to the attic, if he was right then what he was looking for should be up there if not, then in the basement. Reaching up he grasped the pull string and gave it a hard tug, slowly the ceiling above him came down and even slower came the ladder
attached to it. Once the ladder hit the floor and Lincoln was sure it wouldn't retract on itself, he began to climb his way upwards.
Light from the hallway filtered through the opening, Lincoln stood still at the top, eyes searching for his quarry. If he remembered right then Pop-Pop had stayed a little over two months ago and with Lucy being the only person to regularly come into the attic then it shouldn't take long to find his charge. And he was right, just a few steps away from the opening and wedged between some boxes was the old inflatable mattress that they kept for Pop-Pop. The ashen haired child grasped the deflated and rolled up mattress, slowly dragged it to the opening in the floor before unceremoniously dropping it below.
It bounced off each step before collapsing at the bottom, unwinding slightly when it stopped. First item down, both figuratively and literally. Turning back to the contents of the attic he began to search through everything, he wasn't looking for anything specific this time, more on the lines of seeing if there was something he could use. For minutes he looked all around the attic, hoping to find something, anything that he could use to make his room more comfortable or easier to be in. Sadly there wasn't much up in the attic that would be viable for use and of the few items that could be used, he couldn't move them out the attic without risking breaking either it or himself.
Giving off a disappointed sigh he made his way down and out the attic. He was hoping to have found either a small desk or bedside table. Something to just put his things on so he could at least organise some of his things but alas it was for naught. He pushed the ladder back up into the attic, concealing his journey up there. Re-rolling the mattress, he grabbed it and began to drag it towards his room, as at least now he wouldn't have to sleep on the floor, the biggest issue would be blowing it up.
Twenty minutes later, countless breaths and nearly fainting twice Lincoln had managed to blow up the inflatable mattress. The mattress was now sat where his bed used to be, it only served to remind him how small his room really was. The single person sized mattress had both the top and bottom sides nearly touching both walls, the edge coming close to the door frame.
Running down to the living room, Lincoln opened the wardrobe, it was filled to the brim with cleaning solutions, blankets and pillows. He scooped up as many blankets as he could before running them up stairs to his room, dumping them on the floor before running back downstairs. This time he grabbed several of the spare pillows before stuffing everything else back into the wardrobe, taking his haul up stairs he felt himself relax against the pillows he was holding. 5 minutes later saw the inflatable mattress nearly covered in pillows and enough blankets to keep half the neighborhood warm. The hardest part was now over, Lincoln finally had a bed to sleep on, sort of. It was going to be a long day.
*One hour Later*
Lincoln's eyes snapped open as he heard Lily giving a sad whine, causing him to get up and go to her crib. "Lily what's wrong?" he asked as he picked her up and saw she was crying. "Wincon no leave!' she sobbed slightly as Lincoln sighed and brought her to his chest. "Leave? Why would I leave?" "Wincon bang bang!" she sobbed as she formed a gun with her hand understandably freaking him slightly. 'How does she know what a gun is?...questions for later' he Thought as he gently rocked her in his arms. "It's ok lily you probably had a nightmare where I ran away and possibly killed but don't worry that won't happen...I hope" he said as he wiped her tears and came up with an idea.
"Say lily why don't we go for a walk and clear our heads?" 'not sure why you'd wanna do that it's not gonna work' his subconscious rang but lincoln ignored it as Lily giggled and clapped her hands making him smile. Lincoln took her down stairs and placed her in her stroller before grabbing her baby bag and slung it over his shoulder. 'Hold on there remember what Rita? Leave a note so they'll know where you went' his subconscious reminded him as Lincoln frowned and rolled his eyes. "Let them worry, those two never get angry at Luna for sneaking out at night so why should I care if they do the same to me?' he muttered as he pocketed his keys and left the house with Lily in her stroller.
Well guys there you have it chapter 1 is complete I was planning on updating the Loud house Variety show but got stuck on a few ideas so anyway next I WILL be updating the Loud House Variety show with a parody of the Froggy apple Crumble Thumbkin and as for this story Next time Lynn causes trouble for her siblings at the beach and Lori begins to questions her Parents methods of discipline when it comes to their children till next time Love luck and lemons.