Rita Loud and her husband Lynn Loud were on Vanzilla driving their kids to school, the kids were just making general small talk before getting dropped on their respective schools, the only one not talking seemed to be Lynn Jr. who was instead just sitting at the corner looking miserable, hoping she was invisible and no one would speak to her.
"Have a nice day!" Rita said to her children as they went to school while waving back at her and her husband.
After all the kids were dropped off Rita continued to drive, this time to drop her husband on his job, after the children left the car all the casual small talk went with them, and all that was left was an awkward silence between the Loud parents, as they were making their way to their jobs they too were being haunted by memories of the 3 months where their only son went missing.
Lynn Loud Senior loved all his children equally, but Lincoln held a special place in his heart, when Rita Loud was pregnant with Lynn Jr., Lynn Sr. felt a little depressed, he loved all his daughter and would love any other daughters he would have as well, but he desperately wanted a son, because there are many things you can experience with a son you can't with a daughter, and after having 4 daughter and one more on the way Lynn Sr was starting to lose hope on having a son.
Which was why he was so relieved and happy when Lincoln Loud was born after Lynn Jr, he could finally done all the father and son activities a father could desire.
And then he proceeded to almost never do anything with his son, he realized he had a passion for cooking and he wished to own his own restaurant, and this so he spent most of his time sharpening his skills as a cook and forgot to spend some quality father and son time with Lincoln.
When his son ran away from home and vanished out of Royal Woods, Lynn Sr. felt like a failure, both as a father and a man, he felt stupid for believing such a stupid thing like bad luck, when Albert, or as his children called him Pop-Pop heard of why Lincoln went missing, he punched Lynn square in the face, Lynn wasn't mad about that, after finding out his son ran away because of his bad parenting, he felt he deserved that punch and much more, it took a while to earn the approval of Rita's father, and in one fell swoop it was all shattered.
Things were not much better with the mother of the house, Rita Loud really loved her son, she always felt she had a close bond with her son, she always tried being supportive and helping, and her love for her son was obvious by her writing a novel about based on his daily life, so when her son went missing after he ran away from home she was completely broken, she couldn't stop crying, even as she and her family spent days and night searching the streets of Royal Woods for their son, when her father heard of it all after punching Lynn Sr. he walked over to Rita with a look of anger like he was about to slap her, he didn't, but he looked her dead in the eyes and told her that if her mother was still alive she would have disowned Rita for what she did to Lincoln.
It would have shattered Rita's heart to hear these words come from her father, but her heart was already completely broken after her son left her because of her terrible parenting.
"Are you thinking back to those 3 mounts?" Lynn Sr. asked his wife, snapping her back to her senses.
"Y-Yeah, I am glad we have Lincoln back, but I just can't help but feel like I don't deserve this, we treated our son like dirt…" Rita explained to her husband.
"I know, I feel the same way." He told her, they drove silently without much conversation, until Lynn Sr. got an idea.
"Hey honey, you know how our daughters have been spending time with Lincoln and apparently it's been working wonders." Lynn Sr. explained to his wife. "Perhaps we should get a our turn to spend time with Lincoln, it could do us some good and help us get over this grief and guilt."
"I suppose." Rita said after thinking about it for a moment. "But what would with do with Lincoln?"
"There's a lot we could do." Lynn said."We could take him and his sisters to the beach, we've also never took him fishing, that could be a good time to do it."
"I agree." Rita said smiling. "Let's go home and brainstorm some ideas and get things ready."
"Let's!" Lynn said, before trying away back to the Loud House.
Sometime later the parents came to pick up their kids from school, the ride back home was much like the ride to school, and the kids were making small talk while once again Lynn Jr. seemed content with making little to no interaction with her siblings.
Once the kids got home they were about to return to their respective rooms to resume with their usually hobbies and pass times, but before they could they were called by Lynn Sr.
"Kids, before you go to your rooms we would like to have a chat with all of you." Lynn Sr. said getting the attention of everyone in the room.
The kids all looked at each other with curiosity clear on their faces, they all took a seat in the living room's couch ready to listen to whatever their parents wanted to say.
"You see, we decided we it's been some time since we've done some family activities, now that Lincoln is back I think it would be a good time for all of us to do something fun together." Rita Loud said, standing in front of the couch while all her kids listened to her speaking, except for Lynn who seemed like she was not paying attention, but Rita didn't give it much thought as she figured she was still taking in all of the verbal bashing Lincoln gave her when they last talked.
"And we have decided to talk you all to the beach!" Rita announced.
When Rita said that the room exploded with cheers, everyone seemed excited to go to the beach, Lucy didn't sound excited but she was never the type to show enthusiasm in her voice, and Lynn Jr. was once again just quietly listening with a look that made her seem like she was day dreaming some not-so happy dreams.
"It seems we don't have any people who are against the idea of going to the beach." Rita said looking around."Now, if you have anything you want to take with you then make a list, we won't have time to waste packing if we want to get good spots at the beach."
"Anyways, that's all we wanted to share, he may all now return to your rooms." Lynn Sr. said, and with that all the kids dispersed and went to their rooms.
The rest of the week went by very quickly, or at least it felt like that to the Loud siblings, they were all super excited for the trip to the beach, well, except for Lynn who didn't seem very fond of the idea.
Finally the day had arrived, the kids all went on board of Vanzilla, thankfully the beach wasn't super packed when they arrived and they were able to get some nice spaces to lay their towels.
Lori and Leni decided to get some tan, Lincoln offered to put sun blocker on their bodies, they told him he didn't have to, but Lincoln insisted on doing so, however this was once again another moment that reminded him of the odd behavior his sisters were showing, usually they either allowed him to put the sun blocker without telling he didn't have to or they would make him do it even if he didn't want to, but he was so excited to be at the beach again he didn't think about it too hard, and he was more than happy to aid his sisters.
Luna was just playing a song on her acoustic guitar she brought with her while Luan was making sand and beach puns with her trusty marionette Mr. Coconuts.
Lucy was sitting under the shade of the parasol the family brought with them, she seemed to be writing down something on a notebook, most likely a poem.
Lana was digging a pit closer to the ocean while Lola seemed to be trying to build a statue of herself which was surprisingly good, if there was a sand sculpture competition on the beach she would most likely win, and Lily was making a sand castle with a small plastic bucket they bought for her.
The only one not doing anything is was once again Lynn, she was sitting away from everyone looking off into the sea, Rita saw this and decided to talk to Lynn.
"Lynn." Rita said getting the attention of her daughter, Lynn Jr. didn't look back but Rita new she was listening."Don't you want to go play with your siblings, or perhaps go swim at the sea, I thought you liked to do that."
"I didn't even want to come here, coming to this beach only reminds me of my biggest mistake!" Lynn said, Rita new she was talking about the Bad Luck Incident, afterwards the went to the beach and forced Lincoln to come along only if he wore the mascot suit that he was wearing, because they thought it negated his none existent bad luck.
"Lynn, I thought you were finally starting to move on form that, did that little discussion you have with Lincoln affect you that much?" Rita told her daughter."Lincoln wasn't mad at you because of that, he was mad at you for considering quitting sports over losing a game, he doesn't want you to waste your talent, if anything this show how much Lincoln really cares about you…"
Lynn continued looking away from her mother, and she didn't seem to give any indication she was still listening, Rita just sighed and walked away.
"At least give what I told you some thought." Rita said looking over her shoulder to see her daughter before returning to the rest of her family.
The rest of the day at the beach was pretty uneventful, that's not to say they had a good time, they did but it was most common beach activities like having ice cream, playing with a beach ball, going swimming, ect.
The most fun activity however was after the sun finally vanished over the horizon they all took a seat around a bonfire and started to sing a song together while Luna played the song on her guitar, Lynn Jr. was lightly humming the song, so it seemed what her mother told her had some impact on her after all.
Afterwards they all started packing before returning home, Lincoln decided to go use the bathroom in a nearby Snack Bar and Rita was waiting for him outside, Lincoln walked out to find his mother looking out into the ocean, which now looked back because it was night time.
"Mom, are you ready to go?" Lincoln said approaching his mother who didn't really look back at him, she continued to stare into the ocean while speaking to her son.
"You know Lincoln, I don't say this very often, but I really should." Rita spoke, getting Lincoln's attention, she turned around, bent a knee and hugged her son before continuing to speak."I really love you, those 3 months you went missing, were really hard for me, probably the hardest thing I went through in my life, I want you to know I love you, because I clearly haven't been acting like I do."
Lincoln was taken aback by this sudden moment of affection from his mother, but after regaining his composure he spoke."Mom, it wasn't you fault, I got kidnapped, being nicer to me wouldn't have prevented me from getting kidnapped, so don't feel guilty about it, it wasn't your fault."
"R-Right." Rita said, finally releasing her son and standing back up, she suddenly hugged her own body and started shaking. "Wow, it's freezing out here, If I knew it was going to be this cold this late at night I would have brought the coat with me instead of leaving it on the van, don't you feel cold Lincoln."
"Oddly enough, no I don't…" Lincoln said, he wasn't shaking or anything, which Rita found odd, Rita was clad in a red two piece bikini and she was freezing out here in the beach at night, but Lincoln wasn't anymore dressed then she was, he was only wearing a pair of orange swim trunks, she would have remained thinking about this for a bit longer, but the cold was really getting to her, so instead of pressing forward with the subject she instead just grabbed her songs hand and fast walked her way out of the beach with her son and into Vanzilla where the rest of the family was waiting for the two of them.
The next day Lincoln was sitting on the couch in the living room of the Loud House playing videogames, nobody seemed to need him for anything at the moment, which he was fine with, despite how much he likes to help his family he also really liked to have some time for himself, but he has been playing videogames for a while and he was starting to get tired of it, not to mentioned no new Ace Savvy comics have been released yet, so he also had no new comics to read.
But just then, as if an answer to his boredom Lynn Sr. approached his son.
"Hello son, are you enjoying your video games?" Lynn asked his son.
"Honestly I am getting a bit bored, I've been playing for a while and I wish I had something else to do." Lincoln explained to his after pausing his game.
"Well, you are in luck, I haven't gone fishing in a while." Lynn explained."Do you want to come with me?"
"Sure, it would be something different to do." Lincoln said before getting up and turning off his console.
Afterwards Lincoln and his father went to a nearby lake with fishing rods, bait and everything else someone who would want to go fishing would need.
They were both sitting back to back in a small boat in the middle of the lake, it was very silent, the only sound was the wind blowing past the trees and the occasional chirping of birds and croaks of frogs.
Not much was happening either but Lincoln and Lynn expected that, patience is a very important thing when fishing, but that didn't make the silence any less awkward.
"You know…" Lincoln spoke, trying to break the awkward silence. "I can't remember the last time we did something together…just the two of us."
"Yeah… I realized that too and decided we needed to fix that." Lynn explained. "You know, I was really happy when you were born, when your mother was pregnant with Lynn I was starting to fear I was never going to have a son, meaning I would be able to do boys stuff with my son."
"But I rarely ever did any father and son bonding with you." Lynn said. "I don't say this often but… I really love you son, and I am sorry if I ever made you feel like I didn't."
Lynn removed one of his hands from his rod and gave a one armed huge to his son, but before Lincoln could return the hug he felt some tugging on his fishing rod.
"Oh! I caught a fish!" Lincoln told his father.
"Need my help to pull it up?!" He asked his son.
"Nah, I can pull it up on my own." Lincoln said reeling in the fish without much effort.
"Well, if you can do it on your own than it must not be that big of a fish-" Lynn started talking but stopped himself when he noticed the fish Lincoln reeled in was around the same size as Lincoln's body.
"Wow! It's huge!" Lincoln claimed looking at the fish around the same size as himself, before look at his father."Isn't it cool dad!?"
Lynn didn't immediately respond, he just looked at the fish with his lower jaw hitting the floor of the boat they were both on.
"Reeling in a fish THAT BIG would have been hard for an adult!" Lynn thought to himself."How is my 11 year old son strong enough to reel it in by himself without much effort!?"
After Lynn was done freaking out over the fish they brought it home, the family was shocked when they saw the size of it, and it was an even bigger shock when Lynn told them Lincoln reeled it in by himself.
They cooked the fish for dinner and it was a great feast for everyone, after they were finished eating they felt satisfied and started to get ready to go to bed, before Lincoln could go to his room to get on his pajamas he was pulled by his parents telling him to come to their room after he was finished getting dressed into his pajamas.
Lincoln did as they instructed, and when he got to their room he was greeted with them also dressed in their pajamas.
"Hey son, are you ready to sleep?" Rita said patting the empty space in the bed between herself and her husband.
This was something Lincoln was use to by this point, his sisters wanting to sleep and cuddle with him was nothing new, but when he got in bed with his parents and was sandwiched between them, he felt a warmth that was different from the warmth he felt when he cuddled with his sisters, maybe it was because they were both bigger than him, maybe it was because it was because he hasn't slept with either of his parents since he was six years old, but whatever the reason the warmth he got from cuddling with his parents felt really nostalgic to him, Lincoln different off into dream land, the warmth of his parents making falling a sleep easier than ever.