It was the following morning in the Loud House, Luan woke up Luna and Lincoln so that they could get ready to got to school, once again the sisters decided to let Lincoln be the one to go to the bathroom first, when it was breakfast time the kids were just enjoying their food when suddenly Lincoln chewed on something hard and he howled in pain.
"What's wrong honey!?" His mother asked with worry clear in her voice.
"I chewed on something and I think I bit on my gums!" Lincoln said with a hand pressing against his cheek trying to ease the pain.
"Let me check." Rita told her son, Lincoln opened his mouth and Rita was shocked to see how crooked and broken his teeth were, it was almost like he never went to the destist since he was born.
'Did this happen to his mouth when Lynn and Luna found him injured in the park?' Rita thought to herself. 'But the doctors told us that Lincoln had a head injury and nothing else.'
'Maybe he didn't have a way to keep his teeth cleaned in the 3 mouths his been missing?' Rita tried her best to make sense of all this. 'That seems to be the most likely, but that doesn't explain how his teeth got THIS crooked'
"Is everything alright Rita?" Lynn Sr. asked his wife.
"His teeth are a mess, I don't know how his teeth got this bad." She said."We are going to need to clean does teeth, bond the broken teeth and get you in some braces to get the crooked teeth back their place."
"We might as well also bond that chipped tooth of yours, I've been meaning to fix it at some point, and I think now its better that any other time." She continued.
"But weren't we going to take Liberty to the vet today?" Lana asked before Lola elbowed her in the belly.
"That can wait Lana, I think the well being of our brother is more important!" Lola explained.
After school was over for the day, Rita and Lynn Sr. dropped by to pick up Lincoln and his younger sisters and then they all went to the dentist office, as Lincoln was trying his best to stay calm waiting for his turn, Luan decided to grab Lincoln's hand and grip it tightly as a way to help him calm down, as someone who wears braces she can imagine what Lincoln's going through.
Lincoln remember hearing stories from his friends when he was 6 years old, stories about how dentists were sadists who got paid for hurting little kids, it wasn't the first time Lincoln went to the dentist, so Lincoln knew now that that wasn't true, but from what Lincoln heard his case was now really serious, not only did his teeth needed to be cleaned he they also needed to be bonded and the gaps in his teeth also needed to be closed by wearing braces for a few years, he didn't look forward to the experience and to the aftermath of having to wear braces, odd are the people at his school would make fun of his for them.
"Ok Lincoln, it's your turn." Rita said calling Lincoln to come to the dentist room.
"Lincoln, do you want me to go with you?" Luan asked her little brother, Lincoln looked back at her looking a bit angry.
"I'm not a baby Luan, I don't need you there." He told her.
"Are you sure Lincoln?" Luan asked putting a hand on his shoulder, Lincoln looked into her eyes and saw she was dead serious, he can't remember the last time Luan looked this serious, the only time that comes to mind is the time Luan tried to give up on telling jokes and pulling pranks because we were getting annoyed by them. "When I got my braces I needed Luna to hold my hand through the whole thing, I'm not gonna judge you if you want me to be there with you, we all need help from time to time."
Lincoln wasn't that afraid of going to the dentist, probably because his mother was the dentist, but he wasn't 100% sure he wanted to go in there alone, so he decided to let her go with him.
Lincoln took a seat on the dentist chair and Luan who was sitting next to him handed him her hand, and Lincoln took it, which made him feel much breaver, Rita took a picture of the inside of Lincoln's mouth, and Lincoln could see there was some weird yellow stuff where his teeth meet his gums.
"See that Lincoln, that's called Calculus, not to be confused with the Math Calculus." Rita explained. "It's a hardened dental plaque that builds on your teeth when you don't wash them regularly, teeth Calculus often causes bad breath and it can damage and infect your gums."
"So how do we get rid of all that Calculus?" Lincoln asked feeling a bit nervous.
"Usually brushing your teeth will do the trick, but it will take a long time to get rid of all that Calculus, and the sooner we can fix your broken and crooked teeth the better." Rita explained. "So instead we are going to do this the faster way, we are going to use a drill to brake all of that dental plaque."
When Lincoln heard his mom was going to use a drill in his mouth he became even more nervous.
"Don't worry Lincoln, it won't hurt as much as you think, and besides after all that dental plaque is removed it should be smooth sailing after that." Luan said feeling her little brother becoming more anxious.
Rita placed a small tube on his mouth, the tube was spreading something cold all over Lincoln's mouth, Luan explained that it was to dry up his mouth, so that saliva won't get in the way while she works, another was a slightly bigger tube, Luan explained this one was a vacuum, while Rita drills into his teeth the vacuum will suck up all the broken bit and pieces of Calculus so that Licoln doesn't swallow them up and chock on them.
It wasn't a pleasant experience, every time she used the drill on his teeth it would hurt,she would occasionally hit his gums with the drill and it would hurt just as bad, he had to take breaks from time to time so that he could drink some water and then spit out that water, when he spat the water it was completely red, but it didn't hurt as much as he expected after a while she managed to get all of the Calculus out of his teeth.
Luan and Rita weren't lying when they said getting rid of the Calculus was the worst part, the rest was indeed smooth sailing from that point, she managed to bond the teeth and after that was done she started gluing some small pieces of metal on his teeth and after they were all in place she used a small metal wire that connected all the pieces together, he guessed the wire was used to push and pull his teeth into place, he would also guess it would start to hurt after a while, Rita even asked him what color did he want his rubber bands on his braces to have, and naturally he picked orange.
After it was all done Lincoln walked out of the dentist's office and Lincoln showed his braces to his sisters, and much to his surprised they just gave him compliments and reassurance from them, he was expecting his sisters to tease him or make fun of him, especially his younger sisters.
After that was done they went home, the next day Lincoln went to school, needless to say he was very nervous about showing his friends his braces, after he entered school he was approached by his best friend Clyde.
"Hey Lincoln, sorry I didn't comment on this before today, but I really like your new look, the white strip across your chest it's a nice touch, what's the occasion?" Clyde asked his friend.
"Oh, well Leni wanted to take me out to the mall and decided to buy me some new clothes." Lincoln said, being very careful to cover his teeth with his lips to not show his braces to his friend.
"How nice of her!" Clyde said, before giving Lincoln a confused look."By the way, why are you talking like that, is there something wrong with your mouth?"
"Ok I'll show you, do you promise you won't make a big deal out of it?" Lincoln asked his best friend and he nodded in agreement.
Lincoln smile to his friend revealing his braces to him, he was surprised but decided not to make a big deal out of it like he promised.
"Wow, everything is new about you huh?" Clyde said half joking."New haircut, new clothes and now you also have braces?"
After Clyde said that him and Lincoln shared a good chuckled, but for it was cut short when they heard a new voice.
"Hey! Look at that, the Loud has braces!" They looked behind to see to guys, they were Bruce and Bruno, they are bullies who are infamous around the school for making fun of anyone for being different, after the Bruce spoke those words loud enough to make everyone in the halls turn their way, Bruno pointed and laughed, suddenly most of the other people around them started laughing.
Lincoln closed his mouth hard, which hurt a bit, but suddenly he felt Clyde place a hand on his shoulder...
"Let's go." He told him and Lincoln nodded in understanding, after that they made their way past the laughing crowd.
After school was done Lincoln walked back home on his own, once he open the front door he Luna and Luan who were sitting on the couch, the former playing on her guitar and the latter watching funny videos on the TV.
"Hey Lincoln!" Luan greeted her younger brother. "How was your day?"
Lincoln didn't answer, in fact he didn't say anything after entering home, he didn't even look at his sister when she addressed him, he just continued walking forward, making his way up the staircase, Luna and Luan were very confused by this, they stood up and walk to the foot of the stairs looking up to their younger brother walking up the stairs.
"Is everything ok bro?" Luna asked her brother.
Once again, Lincoln didn't say anything and didn't even look back to see his sisters, he just continued walking up the stairs and then disappear around the corner, but the sisters heard a door open and then slam very hard.
"What was that all about?" Luna asked turning towards Luan who just shrugged.
"I think I know why his is acting this way..." Both sisters where jump scared by a voice behind them, they made a sharp turn to see their young Goth sister Lucy.
"We really need to put a bell on you little sis." Luna snipped.
Lucy chose to ignore the comment of her older sister and speak about her only brother's strange behavior."Lincoln got teased at school for having braces, I remember being with the rest of the Morticians Club during lunch time and seeing a bunch of kids walking past Lincoln and his friends and calling him Brace Face Loud."
Luan could help but flinch when she heard Lincoln was called "Brace Face Loud", she remembered when she was a kid she too was called "Brace Face Loud" when she first got her braces, so she had a good idea of how Lincoln was feeling.
"I'll go talk to him." Luan said walking up the stairs, Luna and Lucy decided to end the conversation there.
Luan walked up the stairs and up to Lincoln's room, she was about to knock on the door but she heard two voices from the other side of the door, she decided to lean her ear against the door to hear them better.
"And what happened after that?" Luan heard a voice say, she recognized it was Ronnie Anne's voice, Lincoln was most likely talking to her from the computer.
"I just walked home and here we are." Lincoln finished explaining what Luan theorized were the events of today at Lincoln's school.
"That sucks, I wish I was there beat those guys up!" Ronnie Anne claimed.
"Yeah, like you would do that..." Lincoln snipped.
"What was that?" Ronnie Anne asked.
"I'm just saying..." Lincoln paused before continuing."You value your reputation a lot, if people knew you were showing empathy to a guy like me they would think you were going soft, and that's not something you want, you would probably just laugh along with them."
"Lincoln..." Ronnie Anne spoke, anger clear in her voice."That was a long time ago, I'm a changed girl, I don't care about my reputation anymore, don't you remember how I had to lie to my new friends by telling them I came from a tough place in Royal Woods."
Lincoln remembered that day very well, he was glad Ronnie Anne was making new friends, but he didn't like how she felt she had to lie about herself to keep does friends.
"I learned a lot since that day, and I know I would sacrifice any reputation I had to help a friend." She continued.
"I'm glad to hear that Ronnie Anne." Lincoln said with a smile."You're a cool friend."
"And you're lame, but a good friend." She said with some good natured mocking.
After heard that conversation Luan decided to walk away from Lincoln's door.
"I'll talk to him later..." She said to herself.
After a few hours everyone was in the couch watching TV expect for Lincoln, Luan went looking for him and found him in the bathroom when she heard groaning coming from inside.
"Are you ok Lincoln?" Luan asked, Lincoln turned around, he seemed to be trying to clean the food chunks stuck between his teeth and his braces, his eyes were bloodshot and his cheek stained with tear stains.
Luan felt sorry for her little brother, the teasing he went through in school must have really affected him, she herself was teased when she first got her braces, so she knew what her brother was going through.
"No Luan, I am not okay." He said. "I really hate these braces, it hurts a lot and it's annoying having to clean my teeth like this!"
This surprised Luan, Lincoln wasn't crying because he was being teased and bullied, he was crying because of the pain of his braces.
"You are not sad because of the teasing you got at school?" Luan asked.
"Nah, I get that all the time, I'm use to it, remember the whole Girl Guru thing?" He asked him sister. "That's only one of many things that get me teased at school, I'm numb to it at this point."
Luan was a little jealous of Lincoln's strength, she wished she could brush of mean teasing like that, even though Lincoln said with came from habit.
"Lincoln, could you follow me to my room?" Luan asked, Lincoln nodded and did as she said.
On their way to Luan's bedroom they both noticed they were wearing different clothes, instead of his usual clothes or full body pajama Lincoln was wearing a white tank top and orange sleeping shorts, which Luan assumed was a new pajama Leni bought for him with his new clothes.
Luan on the other hand was wearing long white socks with pink bunny slippers which matched her pink sleeping shorts, she was wearing a white t-shirt with three large yellow stripes but what really caught Lincoln by surprise was that Luan wasn't wearing her hair in a ponytail, her hair was free and it was a lot longer that it looked, it could cover her entire torso.
"You know, you look pretty cute with your hair like that." Lincoln commented.
Luan was surprised and a little embarrassed by the compliment.
"T-Thank you!" Luan said, looking away with a smile and a light blush on her cheeks.
"Have you considered keeping it that way?" Lincoln asked.
"I have, but the ponytail makes me look silly which is what I am going for." She explained, and Lincoln nodded in understanding.
When they both reached Luna and Luan's room, Luan patted the top of her bed, telling Lincoln to take a seat, and he did as she ask, for a while no one said a word, before Luan decided to break the silence.
"How are your teeth?" She asked, just trying to get some conversation started.
"They still hurt a lot!" Lincoln exclaimed. "I know you said they would stop hurting after half a week, but I still wish I could do something to ease the pain."
Suddenly an idea popped into Luan's head, a light bulb lighting up above her head.
"I think I know just the thing to do to help you feel better." She said turning towards Lincoln with a mischievous grin, a grin that made Lincoln feel very scared.
Before Lincoln could ask Luan was she was going to do she pounced on him and pinned him down to her bed, she grabbed him wrist to pin his arms above his head and pressed her knees against his legs to keep them from moving.
"I have some new material now that I got my humor back!" She said looking down on her little brother. "And you are going to listen to it!"
"No please!" Lincoln pleaded in horror. "Let me go I wanna go to my room to get some sleep!"
"I went to a gig last night and the band's guitarist passed out on stage." Luan started telling a joke. "He must have rocked himself to sleep."
That pun felt like a punch to the cheek to Lincoln, it was painful, but it wasn't over, Luan had more jokes and Lincoln was going to listen to them.
"Last night I had a dream that I'd written The Lord of the Rings." Luan claimed. " then I told Luna in morning she said that she knew because I was Tolkien in my sleep!"
This one was even worse than the last, Lincoln know he wasn't going to survive this for much longer, he needed to find a way to break Luan's focus so that he could escape from her grasp.
Then he got an idea, it was a risky plan and it could even backfire on him but if it had a chance to help him escape Luan's horrible puns he needed to take it.
"Luan, have you been eating pizza lately?" Lincoln asked, before Luan could say anything in return Lincoln continued. "Because the puns coming out of your mouth are a little bit ...Cheesy."
Luan's eyes widened when and she gave her brother a ten mouths wide grin before hugging him a little tighter.
"Good one Lincoln!" She said, before making a pun of her own. "Hey Lincoln, have you ever thought of styling your hair? Or do you need to mulletover first?"
"No actually, I haven't. After all, the testimony at the barbershop is mostly hair-say."
They went on like this for a while, Lincoln completely forgot about the pain on his teeth, after quite some time Lincoln was starting to run out of breath from all the laughing, so he decided to call it quits.
"Ok Luan, you win!" Lincoln said trying to steady his breath."You are the pun queen of the Loud House."
"Exactly, and don't you forget it little brother!" Luan answered hugging him closer to her.
While they were both laying there in Luan's bed trying to catch their breath from all the puns and laughter that came before, when Luan looked down to her smiling brother she remember the 3 months of hell that came after he disappeared.
When Lincoln left the Loud House months ago, it made a huge impact on Luan, it was like all the color on Luan's world was gone when Lincoln left, she lost her drive to make people laugh, she closed the doors of funny business and denied any offers perform at any kids birthday parties if she was a danger to Lincoln enough to make him run away from home she was too dangerous to perform for any other kids, when she read Lincoln's letter, it was like the Buddha of comedy himself dropped from the sky to give her enlightenment, the most important thing about comedy and pulling pranks is to make sure both the performer and the audience are enjoying themselves, when Luan was first starting as a comedian she liked making people laugh, but as she got older she felt the need to constantly one up her previous pranks and that need to one up herself made it pretty clear that Luan was more focused on her own enjoyment over the enjoyment of others, especially in April fools, her own family would often run and hide in fear of her pranks and they clearly weren't enjoying the experience, and she remembered how she exposed Lana to something she was allergic to, shaved Lori's eyebrows and worst of all, the time she used Ronnie Anne prank Lincoln.
Luan really hated herself for only realizing this after Lincoln was gone, if she had realized it sooner she could have probably stopped Lincoln from leaving, she knew Lynn's Bad Luck thing and the Sister Fight Protocol had the most effect on Lincoln, but she couldn't help her pranks were the second worst contributor to Lincoln running away from home.
"Lincoln?" Luan said.
"Hm, what is it?" He asked.
"Be honest with me, do you hate my pranks?" Luan asked. "I often hurt people with my pranks and in some instants I even caused property damages, maybe it would be the best for everyone if I just stopped being a comedian."
For some reason Lincoln started feeling a little annoyed by that question, his hand also started to feel a little numb again.
"Luan, we've been over this, don't you remember how at one point you stopped doing anything comedy related, and we tried very hard to help you get back in a comedic mood, we don't want you to stop being a comedian we just needed a break from the constant pranks, you've brought smiles to many people and once I almost ruined Maggie's birthday party and you completely saved it, and that's only one person out of many, a lot of kids love you and look forward to have you perform on their next birthday party, you are a great comedian Luan, nothing can every change that.
Luan was very happy to hear Lincoln say that, so happy she started crying and started hugging him close to her body very hard.
"How about this, when next April Fools comes around, I will be the one pranking YOU!" Lincoln declared.
This caused Luan to laugh out loud.
"YOU!? PRANK ME!?" She said before laughing even harder."That's pretty funny, but if you are not joking than sure, I would be more than happy to play a prank battle with you, I accept your challenge!"
"Be careful who you challenge sister, I am not one to lose!" He said staring up at his older sister with a look of determination that Luan herself also had, and if one were to look closely they would see sparks of electricity coming out of their eyes.
Honestly Lincoln was surprised that he actually challenged Luan to a prank off next April Fools, if his other sisters were hearing this they would think he was suicidal, he didn't really know where this competitive nature came from, but he was pull out of his thoughts when he hard Luan yawn.
"But that can wait till April, right now I am tired and I need to get some sleep so I am rested enough to start performing at parties again." Luan said before walking up to turn off the lights and got in bed with her little brother and cuddle up to him.
'Wow, Luna wasn't joking, Lincoln really is much warmer and more comfortable than any pillow I laid my head on…' She thought to herself before drifting off into sleep with her little brother.