It was the morning after the night Lori spent with Lincoln, she was still in Lincoln's bed, when the morning sun came out she woke up to find Lincoln cuddling up to her torso, with his head still under her chin and she could feel his warm breathing in her neck, she managed to untangle herself from Lincoln and tried to leave to go and take her morning shower before anyone else wakes up, she turned over but before she could sit up and get out of the bed she felt Lincoln's arms and legs wrap around her torso from behind, causing Lori to chuckle to herself when she heard Lincoln whine from the lack of warmth.
"Lincoln, I need to go and take a shower." She said, trying to convice Lincoln to let her go.
"Nooo!" He whined."Stay and let's cuddle a little longer!"
"Ok, how about this..." Lori started thinking of a way to convice Lincoln to let her go, Lincoln was smaller and weaker than her, she could problably push him of if she wanted, but she promised to be a better sister to him."...If you let me go right now, I'll let you be the first one to take a shower!"
And just like that Lincoln jumped over Lori and once he landed on the ground he made a sprint out of his bed room across the hallway and to the bathroom.
"Thanks Lori!" He spoke while running towards the bathroom, leaving Lori to giggle at Lincoln's reaction.
She sat up from the bed, planted her feet on the ground and stretched herself letting out a yawn, that's when she realized she actually slept well last night, Bobby was right, spend a day with Lincoln really helped and now that she had a full night of sleep she felt better than ever.
After that Lori stood from Lincoln's bed and walked down the hallway, she could heard the shower head from the bathroom working, she decided to walk into her room and wake Leni up.
When she walked into her and Leni's room she heard Leni whine and moan in discomfort, Lori knew what this was about, Leni was having another nightmare, ever since Lincoln went missing Leni has been having nightmares, not that Lori could get a good night of sleep but while laying in bed at night, she would often stay awake listening to Leni whine in her sleep.
Lori decided to wake her up, she shook her shoulder, after Leni opened her eyes she gripped Lori by the colar of her tank top.
"WHERE'S LINCOLN!?" Leni yelled.
"Shhh! He is here, he is taking a shower!" Lori told her placing a hand in her mouth to prevent her yell from waking they're other sisters or worst yet, Lincoln hearing it from the bathroom.
"So what's was it this time?" Lori said refering to the nightmare Leni was having before taking a seat on Leni's bed.
"I-I dreamed t-that Lincoln f-found out about what h-happened, he got angry at us and ran away again!" Leni explained in between sobs and Lori brought her into a hug, letting Leni cry on her shoulder.
"Don't worry Leni, it was just a dream, Lincoln isn't going to leave us again, I promise you." Lori assured her younger by a year sister.
"I just wish I could stop worrying about it so much, but those "Night-thingies" just keep coming back every night!" Leni said.
"Tell you what?" Lori suddenly got an idea."I just spent a day with Lincoln and after letting everything out, I started feeling better, not to mention I actually slept well last night!"
"Hum...your skin does look better than usual..." Leni said squinting to get a better look of her older by a year sister.
"So why don't you spend a day with him, I'm sure you'll feel alot better after spending some time with him." Lori suggested.
"Can you drive us to the mall!" Leni asked."I haven't went there since Lincoln left!"
"Nope, It's meant to be YOUR day with Lincoln, I can't go with you, I would get in the way." Lori told her."Now why don't you go and get prepared."
"Okay!" She said breaming with excitment, a welcomed sight to Lori's eyes after 3 months of melancholy coming from her, Leni went to her closet to pick out the clothes she was going to wear, some of them covered in dust from the lack of usage.
Lori left the room with a smile and stood in front of the door to the bathroom to wait for her turn, her smile suddenly turning into a frown when she started thinking back to Leni during the 3 mouths Lincoln was missing.
Lori would often enter her room to find Leni crying in her bed, wearing the same clothes she was always wearing, she could remember hearing her speak very often, most she heard from Leni was crying.
Leni really cared for Lincoln, she loved how he was patient with her, which was something her other sisters didn't have, he was the light that guided her throught complex problem, with him gone the world felt dark and depressing, with no light to guide her.
"LORI!" Lori was suddenly taken out of her thoughts when she heard Lincoln scream her name, she looked in front of her to find Lincoln wearing nothing but a his undies and a towel around his neck.
"Y-Yes?" She asked regaining her focus.
"I just wanted to tell you I'm finished and you can go, but you were just staring into empty space, and I don't think the other sisters waiting for her turn to shower aren't going to like that." Lincoln explained, Lori looked behind herself to see some of her sisters were already awake and waiting.
"R-Right! Sorry!" She said rushing into the bathroom.
After some time passed Leni left her room and went into the living room to find Lincoln reading one of his comics in his undies.
"Hey Lincoln, do you wanna go to the mall with me?" Leni asked him. "I haven't gone in a while, much less with you."
"Hum...Sure, I'm gonna go get dressed." He told her, putting down his comic book and rushing to his room to get ready.
When Leni and Lincoln left Luna walked up to Lori.
"Do you think this is a good idea?" Luna asked her older sister with concern."Leni is not the sharpest tool in the shed, she might tell Lincoln the truth by accident."
"Don't worry she won't, I drilled into her head not to tell Lincoln the truth, not to mention she wouldn't dare to lose Lincoln a second time after the 3 months of torture." Lori explained."She won't tell him, even by accident."
Meanwhile Leni and Lincoln were walking to the mall, Leni was costantly looking at Lincoln from the corner of her eye, the walk was very quite so Leni decided to say something.
"Hey Lincoln, can I hold your hand?" Leni asked him.
"W-Wha-" Lincoln answered in suprise."Leni, I'm too old to hold your hand, I won't get lost, not to mention it's embarrassing, what if someone we know finds us?"
"Oh...okay..." Leni said with a sad look on her face.
When Lincoln saw the look on Leni's face when he denied her offer he started to feel really guilty, it was like someone shoved they're arm deep into his chest and started to squeeze his heart very hard, he thought about it for a second and decided to comply, he reached out and grabbed Leni's hand, when Leni felt the senssation of warmth in her hand she look down to see Lincoln smilling at her while holding her hand, causing her to smile.
When they reached the mall Leni dragged Lincoln into a clothing store, much to his confusion.
"Why are we here Leni?" He asked her.
"To try on some new clothes silly!" She answered him like he asked the world's easiest question.
"I know, but why could you just make some new clothes for me?" He asked her again.
"I needed an excuse to bring you to the mall." She answered him once again.
"Ok...but what's wrong with my current look?" He told her looking around himself."Nothing beats a pair of jeans and an orange polo shirt!"
"I know you like it but you in the 3 months you've been gone your hair grew out a bit, a new hair cut calls for a new look!" Leni explained.
"Okay, I guess I'll humor you for a bit." He said before Leni pulled him by the arm into the changing room.
Leni decided to pick a few clothes for Lincoln to try, the first set of clothes was a white t-shirt under an unbuttoned orange plad summer shirt with rolled up sleeves, he was also wearing a pair of blue jean shorts and his usual white sneakers.
"The summer shirt is nice and all but it's not summer, it's almost fall, and I don't really like the jean shorts, I'm not a big fan of exposing my legs unless I'm at home reading comics in my underwear." He told Leni.
The next set of clothes was a an orange t-shirt with white sleeveless hoodie with the hood itself being orange and a pair orange sweatbands and blue baggy pants.
"Why does this set of clothes seem familiar?" Lincoln said looking at the clothes he was wearing in the reflection of the mirror in front of him."Anyways, I usually like my clothes to be easy to take off, so that I can start reading my comics, adding a sleeveless hoddie just add an extra piece of clothing I need to take off, I guess this would work better in spring..."
"I understand, say no more, we still have so many clothes to try!" Leni said with excitement holding up a new set of clothes for Lincoln to try.
Lincoln had just tried about 20 diffrent sets of clothes, he was starting to get tired of changing so much, but after what seemed like forever he finally found a set of clothes he liked.
Lincoln was wearing a large T-shirt that was a bit big on him, but it was very comfy, the T-shirt was orange but it had a single white line across where his abdomen, he was also wearing blue jeans again, but these where a little more loose and made his legs look thicker unlike the jeans he usually wears which hugged his legs tightly and now instead of wearing his white sneakers with red stripes on the sides he was now wearing a pair of whit sneakers that were completely orange on the sides.
"I like this one, I can work with this!" He told Leni, giving her a thumbs up and making her smile.
After they paid for they're clothes Leni decided to go and get some Ice Cream, Lincoln told her he wanted to stop for a moment to go to the bathroom to pee, when Lincoln cameback from the bathroom he spotted 5 girls gathering around Leni, he got in close to hear what they where saying.
"Yeah, it's definitly her, the girl from the videos!" One of the girls told him." The girl from "Dumb Blonde Drives into a pool" just to name one of many videos!"
"Please...leave me alone..." Leni told them, with a look like she was about to cry.
"I always thought that dumb blondes were just a movie cliche, but now I see it's true!" One of the mean girls said laughing.
"If I were you I would never show my face in public again!" Another said. "You are a danger and a leech to society."
The girls started laughing harder, and Leni started shedding tears trying very hard not to cry, when Lincoln saw this, there was no word on the english dictionary that could discribe how angry he was at these girls, he felt his right hand suddenly felt a little warm, but he wasn't focused on that, he walked up behind one of the mean girls with any of them seeing him, he the gave one of the girls a strong kick to the crotch!
Said girl yelled in pain and clutched her groin between her hands as she fell to the group.
"Leave my sister alone!" Lincoln demanded.
Two of the girls decided to help the girl that was kicked up and the other two aproached Lincoln, even thought they were about Leni's age he stood his ground.
"So this girl is your sister?" One of the girls asked."How are you not embarrassed, if this girl was my sister I would disowned her immediately!"
"Shows how much you know about her!" Lincoln said firmly. "I don't care what you think about my sister, she never did anything to you so you have no excuse to bully her!"
"Tch! Whatever..." The other girl hissed and left, the other ones falling behind her, she turned one last time to tell him something."Be sure to keep that dumb blonde and leech to society you call a sister in a leash, wouldn't want her to do make another disaster!"
After they left Lincoln calmed down, he was suprised with himself about how he stood his ground and how he didn't back away in fear when does girls came close to him, he looked at his tattooed hand to see why it was heating up, but when he looked he didn't see anything out of the ordinary, he then focused on Leni to see her still crying, he walked up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to look up into his gentle eyes.
"Wanna go get some ice cream?" He asked her, Leni gave him a nod while still trying to keep herself from crying.
After they got some ice cream coans they took a see on a mall bench and started eating them.
"Lincoln, do you think I am a leech?" She asked him.
"No Leni! Of course no-" Lincoln started, but was interrupted by Leni speaking over him.
"Yes you do!" She half yelled. "I have trouble with things that are easy to most people, I need help just as often as Lily, and everyone laughs at me, that's why you didn't want to hold my hand, it's because you didn't want people to think we are related!"
Leni started crying and Lincoln pulled her into a hug, letting her cry until she felt better.
"Leni, you are not a leech." Lincoln told her. "You are good hearted and wonderful girl, you are always worried about others and you are way for talented then me, I don't know what I am good at, you do, you are good at making clothes, and do you remember how you gave clothes to people in need, people who have very little and you don't expect anything in return!"
Leni realized that Lincoln was right, she did help alot of people who needed clothing and she never asked for anything out of those people, she felt guilty about Lincoln saying she is always worried about others, but she wasn't worried when Lincoln was kicked out of the house, only when Lincoln left did she realize it, but Lincoln's little speech did help her feel better and she broke the hug to look at Lincoln with a smile.
"Thank you Linky." She said, problably the first time since he was gone that she called him by his nickname.
Suddenly Lincoln's right hand felt a bit cold, he looked down to his hand to see that his ice cream was melting, and so was Leni's when he looked at her ice cream.
"We better finish these ice creams and go back home." He told her.
After they finished eating the ice creams they walked back home holding hands with smiles on they're faces.
After they returned home and had dinner Lori finished getting ready to sleep, she opened the door to her and Leni's room to be greeted by the sight of Lincoln on his pajamas cuddling close to Leni who was sleeping soundly with a smile on her lips, looks like Lori's plan worked, Lori couldn't help but smile at the sight and tried to keep her self from screaming in glee at the cute image, she noticed they're blanket wasn't covering them up, Lori decided to fix that, she covered them up with the blanket and kissed them both on they're forheads.
Lori went into her bed and took one last look at Leni's bed to see them both sleeping and cuddling with smiles on they're faces, she then closed her sister to get herself some sleep.