The Loud House: Future Love Run Amok!

by TotCall720

Three years into the future and things are going to be shaken up, big time. New forbidden relationships emerge as Lincoln struggles to find out what's going on with the nature of the older Loud sisters still at home, and with himself. The ball gets rolling with Luna, and spirals from here. Potential Harem in the future. Reviews, PM feedback and critique strongly desired. Thank you!

4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Backtrack, Retrack and Revamp

Saturday, October 26, 2019

8:01 AM

Earlier that morning.

Luan's eyes slowly opened up to the view of Luna's shoulders and pixie-cut hair, realizing she was curled up with her older sister near the entire night. Luna seemed to be sleeping hard and mellow like a cat, her breathing much more regulated and in control. Luan rubbed her eyes and put her fist between her thighs, pressing them together and cracking her hip bones.

"Thigh knew I could do it, get it?" She said to herself quietly with a mini-smile, letting the morning begin to wake her up. Luna still looked exhausted, even in her sleep though.

"Man…what a night. I'm still kinda sleepy, but the day's gonna be big and weird today. I probably should…I'll let her sleep in; she's really, really gonna need the extra Z's."

Luan was still positioned against the wall, and with Luna lying on her side, her face facing the opposite wall, Luan would have to contend with trying to maneuver over Luna without waking her.

"Aw man, this isn't going to be easy with that bumper of hers," Luan said, looking over the pronouncement that was Luna's butt. Her body still felt asleep, not ready for physical activity yet. Luan scooted over, bringing her derriere in alignment with Luna's and approximating the height difference.

"Yeah…still three and a half inches more plump than me, and that's just one side. Damn…how'd we get like this?" Luan asked herself, now feeling her own grand bosom set, the physical marker that uniquely defined her to her major protest. Her back seemed out of line; Luan did a quick back twirl, readjusting her spine in the process.

"These E-balloons are going to cause an accident in one of my routines or performances one of these days…I can feel it," she paused, wiggling her boobs back and forth, giggling to herself, "get it," in her typical verbal tick.

"Luna's lucky in that regards; her ass might be…way above average, but getting in that perfect pocket of big but just right for boobs? I'm just…comically big-breasted. It's like we were given respectively extra padding on our opposite sides of our bodies. She's the ass and I'm the boob in this joke called life, HA! Maybe when I get more money saved up, I can do breast reduction."

She felt them again, noting that as girthy, round and all-encompassing they were on her front chest, at least they were firm and strong, extenuated musculature in a way with an airbag-like factor to them. That was one sort of positive; one massive drawback was how sensitive her nipples seemed to get, especially when the occasional impact occurs with them, the most nerve-arousing one being Lincoln's last night. That busty smash activated Luan's nerves there a little too well.

"Well…maybe not. They're kinda cool to have, and they take the attention my braces use to get and people still assume I have….I kinda miss those too. They made the acts fun and me look somewhat awkwardly cute."

Luan tongued her teeth, still an automatic, vestigial behavior that carried over from her brace days. She was still getting use to the feeling of not having braces in her mouth anymore. Luna and Lori joked that just before her braces would be taken off, God would give Luan a big gift for all the teeth troubles she had. With the bombastic boom of her breasts, nearly everyone in the house were at a loss for words, Luna and Lori high-fiving a trifle concerned Luan, stating God gave her the ultimate puberty gift of all time. In some ways, they were a God-send. In other ways though, life got unnecessarily complicated and, at times, physically more demanding due to the added weight. Take the good with the bad as Luan put it.

"Still, these won't make getting over Luna easy," Luan thought, now dreading the possibility of smacking Luna in the face with them.

She threw her covers off her body, still keeping them partly on Luna's lower legs, then began to try and inch off, slowly and delicately getting the right placement for her hands and feet. She placed her right arm on the wooden post adjacent to Luna's head, her left arm still acting as a support column on the soft bed, causing Luna to tilt her head ever so slightly. Then she placed her left foot parallel to her left hand's placement by the foot of the bed. Getting her right foot ready, she placed it on the exterior side framing of the foot of the bunk bed; she was now in a fully hovering, straddling position just inches above Luna.

Suddenly her right foot's toes lost their grip, accidently slipping off the smooth wooden bunk frame recently buffed by Lana, followed instantly by her right arm's finger grip giving way from the same slippage factor her right foot's toes failed to feel for. Luan's whole right flank failed, her arms not quick enough to stop or alleviate her body and boobs smashing into Luna.

Luan internally freaked out from the epic Newtonian fail, hoping she didn't just wake Luna up, her breasts partly pushed into Luna's cheeks while Luan's form was pressed against Luna's frame, Luan's body arched because of Luna's prominent posterior, add to it Luna was about two inches taller that Luan.

Luna didn't wake up or budge at all; she still slept like snow white in a deathly deep sleep, still lightly breathing away, regardless of this epic fail by Luan.

"Wow…that was close…hey, turn the other cheek Luna, hahahah. Who'd a thought I could use you for Twister practice. Oh…even though you're warm and comfy, you're still giving me the cold shoulder, heehee!"

Luan smiled, grateful Luna was still locked in deep sleep, not at all seemingly disturbed from Luan's blunder. While froze in place, a thought trickled in her mind.

"You know, the way Lincoln blushed at you and me, when he collided with us in our best areas," Luan said quietly to a sleeping Luna in a one-sided conversation, "…maybe… he's into women with a little extra…rump…maybe boobs…maybe…like m-?"

Luan caught that thought before it could go diving right into the metaphorical basketball hoop.

"WHOAH! Steady girl. More for that silly, unnecessary whacky thinking," she quickly thought as she mentally purged and retracted, focusing now on the rather curious placement her body was in. Then, Luna mumbled something in her sleep.

"….Lin….Linco…Lincol"

Luan froze, face frazzled and nerves spiked full blast as her face got flushed red.

"Holy heck…does…is…she dreaming Lincoln's… on top of her right now?"

Extreme confusion and strange, deeply troubling feelings suddenly arose in Luan. Her body was unusually close and pressed against Luna's, Luna still being in whatever dream or fantasy stuck in her bed. A morbid, sensual thought crossed her head.

"I…I wonder if-"she said very quietly, before gently pushing very lightly against Luna's frame, mostly against Luna's rump. Luan quivered as Luna said Lincoln's full name very gently. Eyes wide now, she realized Luna might be in the throes of that kind of dream.

"That…that was probably just a fluke…she couldn't be-"Luan thought, moving her body down ever so slightly again but with more alignment with Luna's butt, placing a bit more of her weight on her; Luna responded with uttering Lincoln's name again with a subtle tone of sensuality. This shocked Luan's core, now sweating and nerve endings on edge.

"She really thinks its Lincoln right now, doesn't she?"

A maligned, wicked and powerful urge then got a hold of Luan, causing her to get hot and heavy. She continued pressing up and down against the still deep-in-sleep Luna, slowly grinding up and down with more pressure against Luna's ass as Luna kept saying Lincoln's name. Luan blushed more and more, sweating even heavier and heavier, her mind turned off as her biology was getting monstrously turned on.

"This…this is for Luna…this…I don't want Luna feeling bad or depressed….she needs some pleasure…with Lincoln…it won't really ever happen, and…this is the next best thing for her, I…," Luan pleaded in her head, trying to find some justification for what she seemed like she was snared into doing, "…so she can feel better. This…this is…what the hell am I-?"

Luan's imagination suddenly pictured herself from Luna's perspective, the gyrating, grinding motions playing a hellish mental trick against the usually quick and stable Luan. She saw her face in place of Luna's, and felt like she was staring up to face her little brother pushing hard onto her…or more accurately and pervy she thought…into her.

"Awwh…..holy…what I am-" Luan whimpered before her groin area responded with a preliminary surge of excitement, temporary reward for this most damning and forbidden of bodily motions. Her mind told her to stop, her morality told her to stop, her sisterly bond told her to stop…but this felt too intoxicatingly arousing.

Luan's pushing pace against Luna's ass frame steadied to a quick, grinding heavy thrust against Luna's right cheek, making it wobble and quiver like a mini earthquake. Luan's eyes locked onto Luna's face, which seemed to be getting somewhat blush herself. Now on red alert should Luna wake up, she had her body ready to blast off Luna's just in case. Luan's face slowly contorted with a terrified, spooked yet turned-on grin look.

"Oh….aaawhh…. this is… feels so wrong…bad….yet fells…so…good," Luan whimpered in a hushed cry, now not even trying to hold back from the pumped up, extreme force she was placing against Luna, every rhythmic thrust from Luan's groin area creating a responding gelatinous-like ripple in Luna's ass, the push still soft but the full body contact that more pleasurable. It was as though her mind was telling her she was feeling Lincoln doing this to her…and for some reason…feeling aroused by Luna's presence and involvement in the whole business.

"For your sake Luna, for you…..oaahhh! Right….right there Linc….you to Lun…right there Li..Lu…Linco-AAAAAAAAAAHHAHHHHAHAhaahha!" Luan squealed as her body threw itself off Luna and onto the floor hard, causing her to roll like a rag doll into her prop supplies and costumes from her old Funny Business routines from several years ago, her legs knocking into her turbo props container, back colliding with the rack of various costumes she's worn over the years. Dazed and confused for almost thirty seconds, she could only muster her trademark default response.

"Gee…if I was doing laundry, that'd be a tumble cycle, hahahah…seriously though…what the flying eff did I just do!?"

The clown shoes suddenly fell right on top of her head and face, the pungent odors from the openings still strong in them.

"YUCK! That's one feature presentation that stinks, get it? Get i-" She paused, looking back at Luna still sleeping, now with no blush on her face.

"And…I gotta figure out what the hell I just did. That was…so, so wrong…so wrong on so many levels, even by the current situation's standards. What…came over me?" she mouthed out quietly, shaking all the items off of her until her little red clown nose landed on her crotch. She picked it up, noticing that her crotch area of her yellow pajamas was viscously damp. It felt creamy in her pants, milky liquids from what Luan could surmise, emanated from her in much the same fashion like Luna had described happen to her.

"Whoa…I…I came…hard, really really hard, and never like that, like…Luna before. That was even harder than that internet stuff I found."

Luan tried getting up, her legs still feeling a tad shaky from whatever took hold her body there. Then she realized full stop what she did, trying to take in the full scale and immensity of what she just pulled…or pushed, onto her older sleeping sister.

"It had to have…been lust, and…I was trying to indirectly help Luna by…by helping her? Holy hell…I just dry-hump-grinded Luna…imagining it was him….an me…with her…and…-"

She froze like a deer, heart on standstill as she heard Luna stirring, putting her head up as though she heard all the commotion.

"Ehchkk….what time is it?" Luna asked in an extremely groggy and tired voice, her eyes still clamped shut as ever, incapable of reading the situation right now.

Luan looked over and awkwardly lied, "uhhhhmmm, 6:13 AM."

Luna opened and closed her mouth, smacking her lips, eyes barely opening momentarily before she flipped her body and faced the wall, turning her back to Luan and mumbling, "need more Z's bro."

Luna instantly lulled back into dense deep sleep.

"I…I got you covered Luna," Luan said quietly, before the full metaphysical weight of her actions finally dawned on her.

"I really…really got you covered…literally….oh man….this is bad," she quivered and shook, pulling and brushing the hair in her ponytail, screwing with her scrunchy like a small scared girl would do if nervous.

"I….was I really trying to help Luna…or myself? Me being Lincoln in her dream…my mind… replacing her position and Lincoln being the one pushing into m… I…I can't let anything….ANYTHING…like that ever happen again. For all intents and purposes, I just felt up Luna to the idea that…she was me…and I was…was Lin…NO!"

Luan internally panicked straight to chaotic mayhem in her head, her breathing getting more erratic, out of step and non-rhythmic. She felt as though she was about to have a heart attack. She ran over to her fake flowers, trying to squeeze them into her face. All were drained from last night. Then she ran back to her blunder location, mess spread all about, reaching her hand quickly in the turbo prop box she knocked over, pulling out a seltzer spray bottle from her clown acts. She opened her mouth and sprayed full blast into her mouth and onto her face, the semi-cool bubbling and carbonated water now slowly but assuredly cooling her anxiety attack.

Breathing moderately under control again, she bemoaned her situation.

"This is unequivocally ironic. Here I am concerned about Luna, and I'm the one who screws up this bad…now…I get it. This…I…I'm a monster too…only I effectively did something… monstrous," Luan said, guilt and self hatred rocketing into her body, causing her to throw out the clown shoes straight out the window haphazardly. She walked over and fell face-first into their shared bean bag chair, muffling her shouts.

"Crap! Crap crap crap crap CRAP! I had moment of weakness, yeah, but…really…I'm as messed up as Luna…maybe more, cause I actually acted on..."

She looked up to her sleeping sister in bed.

"Oh who am I kidding…I'm much worse than Luna. I just dry-humped her in her sleep…I'm a horrible sister…I…I failed you Luna….I let you down," Luan choked, now feeling like she denied her older sibling the trust and nurturing care she so desperately needed right now, violating her in the most vicious and primal of ways.

"Never again," Luan whimpered, getting up and stroking Luna's hair ever so slightly.

"I'll never let those temptations drive me again like that. I can't…I won't…I won't hurt you…I don't want to hurt you. I didn't mean it Luna, not when you're this vulnerable," she cried into her hands silently towards a still sleeping, unaware Luna.

"…I….I…. probably did…I broke our trust.., but not on purpose….but that doesn't excuse myself for that….vile thing. You're already too hurt right now Luna. And what I'm feeling right now…these thoughts…about Lincoln, I'm just gonna have to suck them up, for your sake…for Lincoln's sake-" she paused, before looking at a photo from a year ago when Lincoln once again helped her with her Funny Business, before she decided to close it down to focus on her comedy gigs. They threw pies in each other's face, big smiles plastered within the coconut and banana cream pie mixture coating their easily visible jolly expressions.

"For…for my sake," Luan said, feeling like there was a mix of truth and untruth colliding in a bubbling, baffling broth of her psyche now trying to relock those thoughts and memories she had accumulated now.

With her mess across the room now clean from a quick pick-up, she walked over in the center of the room, fists balled up, eyes locked, body fully erect and statue-like in its rigidness, looking as though she was internally interacting with the Star War Force, modifying and psyching her mental state into submission and recalibrating her mood and expression. She pretended she was prepping for a comedy stand-up routine, powering up and getting limber, ready to go for the rest of the day. Her toes curled deep into the carpet as her still somewhat pronounced buck teeth bit her lower lip, almost causing blood.

Then she uttered, "All the world's a stage…and I'm just a player…world's a stage…I'm an act…player…act…act-"

Then her eyes opened, her face switching from stressed nervousness to blissful, chipper and go-lucky mentality, as though a whole new Luan came through, rather her typical self but slightly amplified. Luan suddenly ran through a list of puns, old and new, listing several whacky and dirty stories and jokes, as though she was editing and prepping her repertoire for the day, keeping in mind for how many possible variations on her known puns she could apply.

"Blinders…stiff upper lip….chin up…and…..OKAY!…world, I'm ready," she paused, looking down towards her still dampened groin area of her PJ's, then feeling her sweat-drench head and warped ponytail.

"…right after I shower and change."

Luan's mental framework was focused on enjoying her day now, that nagging feeling for that ultimate violation of Luna's person now nagging her subconscious; Luan would let a manifestation of Groucho Marx and Woody Allen speak internally to this Luan. Right now she got ready for the fresh hell waiting outside the door.

Luan slipped off her clothing, then into her bathrobe and slippers, grabbed a yellow towel with a message saying, "Everybody does this color in the shower," getting ready for the onslaught of younger Loud siblings waiting to be encountered, loved, over ruled on a request, and most importantly, to co-assist Leni in controlling them if the time came…right after her shower. The barrage was gonna be tough. She could already hear some kind of mayhem coming through the outside world.

Right before Luan left, she took one last look at Luna. There was no stain from Luan's gush, Luan lucky enough to fly off her at the last second.

"It's an utter miracle I didn't wake you up like that Luna. I'm…I'm sorry."

8:18 AM

As Luan left her room and took in the audible environment, it became quite clear; the pace was not dropped from the usual debauchery and antics of her fellow siblings, nearly all out and about and wide awake. The TV downstairs was on a pretty high volume, presumably Lily watching a boat load of crazy zany teen cartoons. Down the stairs Luan heard the lispy sounds of Lisa walking, thinking out loud about the next set of variables to try in her algorithm replicating probabilistic geopolitical interactions between Russia and America. Lana was playing keep-away with several of Lola's dolls while Lola was holding Walt the canary ransom in exchange, both shouting and fighting over one another. Leni was hovering over them, talking loudly and trying to get both twins to try on her Frozen 2 costumes she designed in a dream last night, looking extremely good considering they were from scratch. Lola kept telling Leni she'd try them on when Lana gave back her dolls, Lana responding back with a demand of Walt and saying she'd throw away all of Charles's dog biscuits away before trying another dress again. Both wouldn't budge; stalemate, and without Lincoln around to typically break this fight up, this was going to be a long one.

"Where's Lincoln anyway?" Luan thought, him usually being the early bird of the siblings. Looking over to the twins, she made a sly comment.

"One flew the cuckoo's nest, while the other was left in stitches. And poor Leni; if she keeps this up and gets all angry from trying to put her wardrobe on them, she'll have to go to hanger management. Get it?"

When a smiling, distracted Luan popped open the bathroom door, Lynn came careening out a hundred miles an hour, smashing right into Luan's bulging chest, causing her to bounce back into the wall much like Lincoln did yesterday, only without Luna's bumper car to add extra force. Luan managed to hold her stance, quite accustomed to these last-second collisions with her chest, by now giving her split-second response time.

"OW… DANG IT! CRUDSTONES!"Lynn yelled, feeling the back of her head before Luan pulled Lynn up onto her feet. Lynn was at eye level with Luan's bust and slightly blushed, her wondering eyes getting a pretty good look at the curves now a bit more exposed than they were before in her bathrobe.

"Lynn, are you okay?"

"Holy criminy Luan…you sure you don't play football? You could bounce an entire armada of D-Lineman out of the way with those," Lynn said, still a slight blush on her freckled face, her tone in obvious compliment even in Lynn's rattled state. Her blush disappeared as she began smiling to Luan to let her know implicitly she was okay.

"How many times are you going to cause these impacts and make things awkward?" Luan internally asked her breasts before continuing with Lynn.

"Lynn, mom and dad told you about catapulting out of the bathroom like that," Luan reminded her.

"Well, it worked out this time, didn't it? When I crashed, the airbags were on standby mode, already deployed, so I wasn't utterly shocked" Lynn grinned wickedly, doing a similar motion Luna did yesterday around her own boobs, only a much bigger gulf of space around Lynn's chest, really showing the breast size discrepancy between the two. Luan lightly chuckled at the pun; Lynn was now beginning to develop herself, but in a more conservative manner, just between B and C breast size, just smaller than Leni's, but possibly in Leni's ballpark given a couple more years.

"Ha…utters…hahahaha….you did just purposely use a pun now, right?"

"I don't know Luan? Did I? I brought the cookies…guessing you brought the jugs of milk?"

Luan chuckle-choked from how risqué and warped Lynn's joke-comment was.

"Oh man…okay…that was a good one Lynn! But, seriously-"

"Nawh…sorry Luan, Luna's got you beat in that compartment," Lynn replied with another wicked grin, puffing out her lips momentarily and tracing an outline along her own minute, toned but plump posterior, representing the rather outrageous but actually accurate difference in size of Lynn and Luna's ass. Luan gave a crooked smile and put her hand on her face laughing.

"Ahh, I'm just messing with you Luan. Those puntastic jokes I hear from you after practice? I always look forward to them after a long day of scrimmage and games; at least what you do is fun, instead of that stupid slave camp called school," Lynn said in a much more reasonable and cheery tone. Luan smiled at how much Lynn was taking to jokes, puns and comedy, even if it was the more inappropriate styled blue comedy stuff.

"Yeah…just, next time don't boob yourself into a situation like that," Luan replied, both now laughing as they gave each other big hugs.

"Seriously though sis, sorry for smashing into you like that. Your boobs okay?"

"I'll be fine Lynn. They may be stupid big, but they're strong, and this ain't the first time this has happened. Oh…wait, hold on…I" Luan paused, her smile gone, now feeling around her stomach, slowly making her way up her chest, Lynn giving a slight concerned look now.

"Luan, are you sure you're o-"

"Hold on…something's up…I feel-"

"Luan!?" Lynn asked in a very nervous quiver, before Luan's hands got over both her breasts, somewhat grabbing them.

"HONK HONK! Okay…horns still work, I'm fine" she said in a goofy grin, Lynn now rolling on the ground, trying to hold back stuttering laughs.

"I…I CAN'T….I CAN'T….BREATHE!"

"Alright…enough boobing around Lynn," Luan said, picking up Lynn again. Lynn looked into Luan's face, noticing some circles around Luan's usually bright, sunny-side eyes, even with her cheery expression.

"Did you not get a lot of sleep last night Luan? You look a little tired still."

"I just need a nice hot shower. Last night was a bit stressful, what with Luna's condition. She is not easy to take care of," Luan nervously laughed. She thought for a moment. "With the little sleep I got, you could say I was bed-sides myself…get it?"

Lynn smiled at the quaint little pun. While Lynn stood, still in her socks, Luan slowly began noticing that Lynn was suddenly looking a little taller than normal.

"Whoa Lynn…did you have an overnight growth spurt?"

"I don't know…my back's a bit sore, but other than that, I feel fine."

Luan motioned Lynn to stand perfectly straight, taking a good look at Lynn, who was now just blankly staring towards Luan.

"….Yup. You grew a couple of inches Lynn. That's a heck of a growth spurt. You might be taller than Lincoln," she opinioned, now standing next to her, still having a few inches on Lynn herself.

"Lincoln's 5'6", and he had an inch over you for a while…looks like you're at least 5'6", or maybe 5'7" now…probably the latter."

"If it'll help me catch the pig skin, then I'll take it. I'll bet basket ball's gonna get more fun too. Best of all though I get to re-gloat again to Lincoln how I'm back to being taller again," Lynn said in a jockish tone.

"Hang on there sis. Lincoln's only fourteen. He's still got some growing potential, and if mom and dad are right, he'll be even taller than Leni."

"How tall is Leni? She's really tall, but how much?"

"Leni's 6'2". How'd you not know that Lynn? Usually you keep good stats on the family for sports analysis purposes."

"I dunno. Guess ever since last fall, what with football, wrestling, track and field, swimming, baseball…you get the point… I could take on any sport; regardless of size and strength categories…the stats don't mean much to me anymore…I mean…some do."

"Really? Which ones Lynn? Passes, tackles, that sort of thing, right? I don't really do the whole sports thing, but I like to tee-off a good joke whenever I can!"

Lynn blushed, pointing towards Luan's breasts as she looked the other direction. Luan detected a subtle sense of inferiority emanate from Lynn's aura now.

"What, these? Lynn, you're perfect. There's such a thing as puberty being overly kind; they're kind of a burden."

"But guys look at you all the time though, right Luan?"

"Well…yeah, but that's not what I want their attention on. I'm a comedian, and I'd like that to be what they see first; these fellas overly distract too many guys. Ever wonder why I wear those baggy yellow sweaters to my routines?"

"I thought it was because you were cold…and didn't want your nipples poking through."

"HA! Well, that was partly a reason, but I try and try to equalize my frame. I don't take it as a total let down that guys find my extra….extra stuff cool, but I don't want them laughing only because of these. My jokes should win them over, not my jugglers…get it?"

"Yeah," Lynn smiled weakly, still looking somewhat self-conscious.

"Guys should like you for who and what you are, not what extra packing you got. With you…I'd say your athleticism should be a turn on for a guy."

"I thought that for a while…but the guys on the team….ones I thought I like, they're going after Leni-types; airheads and popular girls. Then there's me…."

"So? What's wrong with you?"

"Well…it's like…I don't mean to be so rough-house like, and my tomboy personality kinda just is who I am…no guy seems to really accept that…no one accept-" Lynn paused, looking down towards her socked feet momentarily with a plain face.

"Lynn, what's up? You know, you can tell me anythi-"

The shouting match between Lola and Lana got even fiercer and larger, Leni still trying to talk over them in complete obliviousness as she waived her handmade dresses all around them. Their ruckus volume got louder and louder, causing even more acoustic madness. Lisa's modifications to Luna and Luan's room may have prevented Luna's overly amplified music to bleed out, but out of sheer scatter-brained lunacy on Lisa's part, the modifications didn't stop noise outside their room from getting in. And Luan was not about to let the other siblings disturb Luna's vastly needed sleep and rest. Luan's face quickly morphed into one of pure, terrifying rage, as though lightening struck her rage-bone and all her comic props at once.

"Uhhh, Luan," Lynn asked a bit scared, seeing the transformation take place.

"Just a sec Lynn," she replied as she turned to face the monster-truck sound levels that were the twins and Leni. She walked over menacingly, staring them all down. Shadowing them now, they looked over to Luan. They all gulped, their eyes turning puppy-eyed from fear.

With a giant scowl and twitch in her eye, Luan softly grabbed the items and animal from Lola and Lana, switching them to their rightful owners, then took the dresses from Leni and threw them on the twins.

"Do…you…three…know…that, Luna is still not feeling well right now?" Luan asked, as though her tone was twisted into pure impending fury.

"She's hardly gotten any sleep last night, puking her guts out half of last night! Now, Luna needs extra rest. And look; all of you got what you wanted now. I don't care who started this. I've finished this. The three of you, please, if you can't be thoughtful and respectful of Luna's condition, go continue what you're doing downstairs."

Lola, Lana and Leni still looked confused and terrified, this Luan never seen before by them. Lola began tepidly whispering, "We're….we're sor-"

"NOW! I…I mean…please guys…for Luna's sake?" Luan asked, all three of them running down stairs as fast as they could.

Luan shook for a second, letting the slow onset of quiet of the hallway calm her down.

"Woah…Luan…you okay?"

"I'm…I'm fine Lynn. I just don't want them waking up Luna. I think that was a bit harsh of me though," Luan said, now feeling a bit guilty from her excess rage mode.

"Are you kidding Luan? You scared the living heck out of them and me…that was so cool! Lola never gets spooked like that! You probably made them wet their pants…but yeah, you might wanna apologize to them. They probably didn't know about Luna, and that was kinda rough…still…Lori would be proud."

"Oh good God, now I really feel bad," Luan thought now, both somewhat smiling and distraught at the comparison.

"I…I'll tell them I'm sorry for jumping them like that, and get them something at the mall. It'd be the least I can do."

"How about you cut your favorite sports sibling in on some of that action?"

"Hahahahhhah….oh, you're serious; let me laugh even harder….HAHAHAHHHHAAHHA!"Luan laughed as hard as she could into her arm, muffling out the sounds but getting the point across to a flabbergasted, laughing Lynn.

"You jerk Luan!" she chuckled quietly.

"Alright…I"ll get you something too."

"Really Luan!?"

"Yeah…when pigs fly," Luan retorted with a slick grin.

"Got that covered," Lynn replied, throwing a mini football towards Luan's boobs, it landing in the crevice of her breasts within her bath robe.

"Uhhhh…whoops!" Lynn quietly said.

Luan stood there with a blank face, before doing a quiet announcer-like voice, "And…touchdown against team Twin Peaks."

Lynn rolled on the ground again, biting her fist as Luan chuckled hard into her robe, tears coming out from having too much fun on the topic.

"Alright…alright. Lynn, you earned five dollars credit."

"Sweet. Thanks Luan. Next time I'll spot you."

"Spot me? Don't you have a cussing debt with mom and dad still?"

"Paid it off last week. Got a sweet net eight bucks right now."

"Lynn…you really think you're going to last a week without cussing in front of mom and dad? You're so gonna end up giving all your money back eventually before we even get to the mall today. By the end of the day you're gonna be in more debt than the economy."

"WHAT? No way. I got it in dollar bills, so I get a bit of leeway. Besides, other miracles have happened to this family."

"Name me one Lynn."

"…Leni's in college."

"Dang it…okay…maybe you'll pull through. What are you planning on getting anyways?"

"Uhhh…well…you know," Lynn said as she cryptically dropped her head down, as though she was pointing to something with her nose.

"I don't know…what Lynn?"

"Huhhh…okay. Well….I'm trying to find some sports bras. I've never needed them before. Now I kinda do…somewhat."

"Somewhat?"

"Well, not like you, Luna and Leni…just something, you know, manageable."

"Say, Lynn. This might be coming out from left field…you're accustomed to that of course…but do you know if Lincoln got up yet?"

"I think he's still sleeping. Went to check up on him earlier and he didn't answer. He usually doesn't sleep in this late, you know, what with all the plans, maneuvers and schemes he's got going on inside his white-haired colored noggin of his."

"Yeah…that is weird," Luan replied back in a curious tone.

"You think he's up to something?"

"Nah. Maybe just a sleep-in day for Lincoln," Luan thought, now trying to throw out a possible reason for Lincoln's lack of presence for Lynn to buy, the lack of Lincoln already troubling Luan. "He probably got whatever Luna had when he stuck with her, if it was more than a case of bad food."

"Well that really sucks!" Lynn blurted out, a little too enthusiastically, Luan seeing a minor blush on Lynn's cheeks. Lynn quickly made it look like she was itching her cheeks.

"I mean…he's supposed to go with the rest of us to the mall. I really wanted to try that new indoor mountain wall climb."

"The mall?" Luan thought, trying to recapture her memories from yesterday. "OH CRAP! The mall; how'd I forget that?" Luan exclaimed

"Uh, hello Luan? We're all leaving a nine. It's gonna be a bit of a free-for-all for a while today, and I don't think Lincoln's gonna want to miss out on that. You may have forgotten cause of the whole Luna puking her guts out thing distracted you."

"I…I still got time to take a shower," Luan said, glancing over to the wall clock. "Lynn, I gotta get ready. Since you're half-ready, could you let Lincoln know to get dressed?"

"He didn't answer though Luan. And he's not answering his door. Plus, with Leni probably freaked out scared of you down stairs, she's probably not gonna want to jimmy open a lock for you anytime soon. I'd say let Lucy take this one on."

"Lucy?" Luan asked stumped.

"Yeah…you know? She can still fit inside the house ventilation. A vent leads right to Lincoln's room."

"Okay, that sounds cool…where is Lucy anyways?"

"Right here," a quick, quiet voice announced out of nowhere to the side of both Lynn and Luan, causing Luan to jump up right into Lynn's arms in total shock, Lynn quite easily able to hold her.

"HOLY HECK LUCY! How is it that you can still appear like that out of nowhere?"

Lucy was quietly cuddled against the wall reading her standard book called Edger Allen Poetry again, a new volume version with extra gothic gloom she bought from a Library sale at her elementary school. She gave a nonchalant look over to them.

"I've been here the whole time...letting my imagination run wild. You just didn't see me. No one usually does." Luan noted that subtle extra stuff Lucy seemed to tack out of nowhere…it seemed a bit out of place, "letting my imagination run wild."

"Hey Lucy, can you do use a favor?" Lynn asked with obviously staged puppy-dog eyes. "I wanted to get some extra ball practice outside before we leave, and Luan still needs to get ready…can you go check up on Lincoln?"

Lucy looked back at her book, then at them again, then back to her book.

"Sigh…so what's in it for me?"

"Uh, well, what do you have in mind?" Luan asked, curious in seeing this semi-bargaining version of Lucy pop out.

"Five dollars, no questions asked. I'll have Lincoln down and ready by 8:50 AM. A bowl of lucky charms only takes six minutes to eat…one minute to brush his teeth, and he's ready with a three minute gap."

Luan pulled out her wallet and held the five dollars out, thinking for a moment.

"Okay Lucy, good Lincoln-like time management forecasting. Deal….but you won't get the money until I see him primed and ready to go in the van."

"…Sigh…Okay, deal," Lucy concluded, putting her hand out for a handshake, Luan instead walking over to Lucy and pulling her into a big hug, inadvertently suffocating Lucy momentarily with her breasts. Lucy tried to pull herself out, reeling in air.

"Ahh…my lungs…eck…life is harsh Luan…try to not spread the pale horse of suffocation and melancholy."

Luan and Lynn looked at Lucy slightly puzzled, unsure as to what to make of her comments.

"Did you just poke fun at her boobs?" Lynn asked Lucy.

"Nah, she didn't. There would have been a rolling wave of retaliatory motion," Luan replied, poking both of them and making them wave around, Lynn snickering, Lucy just staring blankly still at them, though now the tiniest of blushes popped on her face. Lucy headed towards her and Lynn's shared room.

"I sure hope I don't get those when I go through puberty," Lucy thought.

"So I'll see you downstairs in a little bit?" Lynn asked Luan, "cause we got Lucky Charms right now. Good stuff man."

"I'd say ten or fifteen minutes. Say…Lynn? How'd you know about a vent leading to Lincoln's room?"

Lynn turned away instantly, Luan seeing her sides turn red, before she nonchalantly stayed in forced silence, "….no reason. Probably Lucy… she'd always have me go on a journey through them and wait in the dark, just for me to hear her read her poems. Turned out most of the vents lead back to Linc's room. So, I'm a head outside and get a little practice. See you downstairs Luan."

Lynn waived Luan goodbye without looking at her and ran downstairs, Luan thinking it a bit curious her reaction, but decided to contemplate this later. She began reentering the bathroom, ready to close the bathroom door before Lucy suddenly ran up to Luan.

"Oh, yeah Lucy?"

"Is… Luna doing okay? She seemed very queasy and…unsettled last night."

"Yeah…I think she is…whatever she ate did a real number on her."

"Do you want me to check up on her?"

"NO!" Luan blurted out with too much feeling, Lucy's expression still not changing.

"Uhm…sorry Lucy...but, Luna just needs to sleep this off; she didn't get much sleep last night. She asked for no visitors, and I'd prefer to not risk waking her up."

"That seems to be going around a lot lately…not feeling well…nightmares," Lucy said quietly.

"What was that?"

"Nothing. So, you're telling mom and dad that Luna's going to stay home?" I'll tell them Lincoln might if he's not feeling well."

Luan thought about this carefully. She still didn't know Lincoln's state of mind, but if Lynn's earlier commentary was accurate, this didn't help Luan's thoughts on the matter. With Luna…Luan couldn't fully predict how the situation would turn out of if both of them were home together…alone, after Luna's admission last night and her potentially volatile state. Her mind might be in tailspin mode still. If Luan had a moment of weakness, she, the one suppose to be a third party in all of this…what could Luna be capable of?

"I'm sure Lincoln's just being a sleepy lump. Tell him I'll buy him something from the Japanese Pop-Culture Emporium inside the mall if he can get on his own two feet."

"Bribe him Luan?"

"I don't think he'd mind Lucy."

"You might be right…not with all those nightmares…probably good for him to get out of the house again…but with family."

"Again? Lucy, what do you mean? And what's with the talk about nightmares? If anyone gets them, it's the twins; they always run into his room to feel safe with Lincoln."

"Don't worry about it. So…I'll tell him."

"Cool. Thanks Lucy-goosey," Luan replied, giving a softer hug to the slightly hug-squeamish Lucy.

"Now to enjoy a nice, steaming hot shower…sure hope all the hot water hasn't been used up…that'd really steam me up, get it?"

Lucy returned to her room. She looked at the ground towards her black and white socks and quickly slipped them on.

"I'd rather not step in…that…again, barefoot," she said with shuddered dread, then shimmed up the ventilation, taking a purposefully longer time to get to Lincoln's vent opening.

"I would have checked on Lincoln anyway…just nice to get a little money out from doing this," Lucy thought, a small smile peppering her usually morose expression. As she crawled through the vents, she noted her well-placed glow-in-the-dark sticks every ten feet or so, still in their packaging, awaiting for the day one of the other younger siblings to venture with her into the vents to hang out; Lucy thought it'd most likely be Lana or Lily, since they seemed not too afraid of the dark, unlike Lola, and Lisa had no interest outside of the few times she went up there to collect dust bunnies and microbial samples to test how microbes and viral particles are carried by aerosol particles through the Loud house ventilation system.

"Nobody likes dark," Lucy thought to herself, passing up one of her gothic novels on Vampire and Werewolf lore. Another book came around the next bend, a book on Tim Burton movies and screenplays. Along the interior sides of the vents leading to Lincoln's room were pictures of various animals in gothic backgrounds Lucy drew, ranging from grey wolfs, black cats, black and white vampire bats, black stallions, black foxes and white crows. For such a young age, Lucy seemed to keep secret a prodigious skill in drawing and painting, in secret, gothic art of animals. Next to this was an unfinished architectural sketch of Lucy's stylized version of the Church of Our Lady before Tyn, an old medieval church located in Prague, Czech Republic. Lucy hoped one day to go to this church and be in its presence, but not for religious reasons; she absolutely adored the look.

"One day when all this coming chaos and turmoil just bubbling underfoot dissipates, I'd love to take the family there…the ones who'd like to go anyway," she said in her typical emotionless tone, facial expression back to blank. She was now at Lincoln's vent opening.

8:27 AM

Lucy crawled into the vent opening to Lincoln's room. It had been open and closed so many times that a slight jostle from a hand or foot would quite easily open it, a testimonial to Lincoln's once ability to navigate these dark, confined altitude corridors, now severely limited due to his ever-increasing size. Lucy only grew a couple inches, about marginally taller than Lincoln was when he was eleven, still within her comfortable size range of traversing the vents.

She popped open the vent, ever diligent of the still sleeping Lincoln. As her black and white sock-covered feet hit the puke-green colored carpet floor, she noticed Lincoln still hadn't moved in any massive particular fashion….not since she saw him leave for several hours and shimmy back into his room last night. He was still clothed in his cargo military pants, his black hoodie and inside his shirt…still somewhat stinking of dampness and sweat…stressed, nervous sweat. The whole room stunk of stressed sweat. She looked up to the small round window that Lincoln impressively could still fit through.

"I don't know where you went last night Lincoln," she said quietly, now looking over the small bed to her brother who was now much taller than her, "…but I hope you got better…what you were looking for."

She bent her body over to look inside the scrunched wet hoodie, seeing the freckle-cheeked, buck-tooth older brother sleeping in a stressed state, breathing hard and heavy.

"….sigh….apparently not. Those nightmares of yours did a real number on you. Especially after I heard…what you said…" Lucy paused, her body quivering in nervousness and shock still from last night. The events played in her head again, the memory all too vivid from less than six hours ago.

It was around 2:30 AM that night. Lucy got woken up from a very puzzling dream, one regarding her developing infatuation with Edwin. Her dreams threw him into her Princess Pony universe, making her question how divided and separate the genres she deeply loved but seemed at odds with, could work out in a possible poem she'd like to describe. Lucy also noted how there seemed to be a lot of hushed, muffled yelling from two individuals in the background noise of her dream that sounded an awful lot like Luna and Luan.

She jotted down several with slight writing motions, all the while Lynn sawing logs like a Pacific Northwest lumberjack on Douglas fir trees. Lucy got use to the snoring, actually welcoming it as a strange form of acoustic meditation, lulling her to eventual sleep, but no time for that now she urged herself. Only one person in the house at that time of night would ever give her the snowball's chance or opportunity to try out and give any meaningful critique and evaluation of her poems; Lincoln. Lucy also grabbed her cellphone, having a couple of poems on there she typed up on a pre-text message to herself from earlier she forgot to try out for Lincoln.

Even with no training skills, Lucy had ninja-like physical dexterity, her trademark abilities in silence and non-arousing presence being godsends in this kind of personal operation. She left her room, her barefoot toes barely making a ruffle in the red carpeting, her still diminutive weight not making a single wail in the wail-prone hallway, all the way to Lincoln's door. Playing with the knob ever so gently, she felt its locked character.

"Sigh….drats…foiled by door hardware, and Lana's dead asleep."

Lucy looked up to the surrounding walls, planning her next daring trick.

"Glad I can fit into you still house."

Back in her room, she climbed into the vent with cat-like grace, maneuvering in the house ventilation with skill and speed, not making the sounds even a mouse scurrying around would make.

Now at Lincoln's vent, she peered through the openings, but couldn't see him in the bed, it looking noticeably unoccupied.

She dropped down onto his puke-green carpet and looked inside the still dark room, noting the overall environment that hadn't really changed much in the last few years, other than the increase in size of Lincoln's clothing, the standard orange theme in all his polo shirts, with notable exceptions. In the corner she saw his jean pants from earlier he wore at the movies; they were soaked still, and even from this distance, she could detect a degree of glossiness non-typical of rain water. She decided not to mess with this peculiarity.

She walked over to the bed before she felt her middle right toes step into something…gooey.

"What the-?" she said in nonchalant surprise, looking to the underside of her foot.

"This isn't gum…what…what is it?"

Lucy looked all around the carpet, trying to detect any dark splotches in the exterior edges before inadvertently stepping into anything else she didn't know what was.

There were two more towards the carpet on the other side of the foot of Lincoln's bed. Staying fully clear away from this side, she rubbed her foot on the dry carpet patch next to Lincoln's headboard.

"Lincoln…Lincoln?" Lucy quietly spoke out, trying to inspect the ruffled bed. It looked unoccupied, but ruffled enough to where Lincoln might still be somewhere in the covers. Teenage boys were good at that she heard.

Lucy slowly pulled off the covers, now revealing that Lincoln was not anywhere in the bed. She looked around in Lincoln's room; his new shoes were gone, as were his soaked old ones he wore earlier. She decided to pull herself up and look out of his small window. Inching her face closer to the flip-open part, she saw in the distance a black hoodied-jacket with a small tuft of white hair walking fast in the dark drizzle surroundings.

"Lincoln!?" Lucy asked silently with surprise and concern. He left the house in the dead of night, wandering the streets to some unknown purpose, for some unknown duration. Lucy instantly became perturbed, wondering what would compel the typically good natured and goody-two shoes brother of the house to do something so groundable and possibly life-threatening.

"Well…at least he's wearing the black hoodie jacket I bought for him," she thought, smiling on the inside, though still concerned. She dropped back down, flopping onto his bed, staring at the ceiling, watching…wondering…waiting.

"Maybe…maybe what happened between him and Luna earlier did do something to him," she thought, now having a flashback within a flashback, her memory taking her back to heading to the women's bathroom midway her movie on account of a really good snuck-in cranberry drink filling up her bladder. As she quickly scurried to the restroom, noting how unusually cool-lit and dim the lights were, she heard commotion and talking coming from the corner. Just as she was about to walk into the stalls, she heard Luna say something.

"Female ejaculate."

Lucy didn't know what it was and couldn't rightly recall hearing the rest, but by how the rest of the conversation unfolded in terms of tone, especially in the surprising presence of Lincoln, the respondent, who for some reason was in the women's bathroom with Luna, both alone, both now coming out after some strange and…deeply troubling and confusing banter between them, Lucy was extremely puzzled and confused.

After taking care of her business and re-sneaking back into the Princess Pony movie, fixed into a non-noticeable corner of the theater room, she looked up the phrase female ejaculate on her cellphone…and was shell-shocked…for the rest of the time…unable to enjoy her movie Lincoln almost sacrificed his movie time for to get her snuck into.

It severely disturbed her that the processes that generate a female ejaculation as her internet search showed, were somehow the part of the incomplete banter she overheard between Luna and Lincoln, her closest siblings.

"Why did she mention that? Why did they seem so on edge? Did…did they-"

Lucy put that thought in the back of her mind. She'd try and deal with this goliath of a possible situation later, and re-double her efforts on enjoying her free movie; it only partly worked. The ride home didn't help any, her suspicions growing ever greater with the lack of communication and talk between the awkward and uncomfortable-looking Lincoln and Luna. When Luan asked Luna what she thought of the movie, Lucy caught Lincoln's throw-up motion, as though that was Luna's gateway key in diluting and misdirecting her and Lincoln's lack of presence for the roughly first half of their movies.

Lucy's concerns further escalated with Lincoln's blank yet subtly alert expression as they both carried the twins up to their rooms, him not making any sweet smiles to them as they went to sleep cuddled in their arms, then into their beds.

The preparatory "final straw" came after she had thanked him before he took his shower, just before Lucy unintelligibly blurted out her comment about how tough the Luna deal was, nonspecific and open-ended it was; Lucy mentally kicked herself for that extra comment. Lincoln seemed on-alert from that comment. And it didn't help with her adding on her extra comment about Lincoln's nightmares. She didn't know what they were, the few times he left his door unlocked, but she saw him in the throes of sleep, looking as though he was wrestling with a vampire or werewolf.

The final straw before the final straw popped up when Lucy inched her door open, just catching Luna saying, "I…I, I really am sorry about earlier." This caught Lucy's full attention, now getting extra key details that somewhat unclouded the murky thoughts on the whole situation. She assembled a preliminary sketch of what may have transpired; Lincoln accidently caught Luna in the middle of ejaculating, and by logical extension, in the middle of a female orgasm.

"Dang…sigh" Lucy thought as she closed her bedroom door, still shaken up but feeling a little at ease given Luna and Lincoln's playful banter about the whole thing. She hoped this wouldn't affect either of them for the long term though.

Back in the throes of her first flashback in Lincoln's room in the middle of the night, the lone solitary soul occupying the harry-potter like space still wondered what was going on. She rolled herself in Lincoln's bed. Turning to the carpet and dresser corner, she saw Lincoln's pillow on the ground. She tepidly got up and grabbed it, before noticing a huge stream of drool dribble off it, causing her to eck out for a moment, tossing it onto the far corner of the head of the bed.

She stared up at the ceiling, hoping Lincoln was safe in his breakout adventure, glad he didn't set the alarms on the house off, the driveway light not even on, an impressive sneak-out feat Lucy herself would not even try on a typical basis given the shaky, unsafe conditions the neighborhood was in due impart to the orange guy's policies she gave little heed to. As she rolled her legs on the covers, the bottom of her right foot rolled into something gooey, just like on the floor.

"Why? What is this stuff anyway? What's it doing all over Lincoln's room?"

Lucy pulled her cellphone from her nightgown pockets, searching in the search bar the question, "sticky stuff in brother's room."Lucy nearly gagged at the results, now mortified as to what was on her foot and semi-plastered on her toes.

"Oh god….sigh…this sucks really, really bad! Why is this all over your room Lincoln? Did you have an episode…a really weird nightmare that caused you this?"

Lucy pulled her legs to her chest and sat up, lying against the bed's wall. She curled her face into her knees, thinking as she stared blankly at nothing in particular.

"He's gotta be going through something dark….something really troubling right now. Lincoln would never sneak off like this, not in the middle of the night…unless it really messed him up."

Lucy suddenly started staring out the small round window.

"It looks beautiful out there," she mused in an attempted self-distraction, truly liking the moody dark weather encapsulating the landscape in soggy wet drizzle and downpours.

"Sigh…poor brother…what's going on with you Lincoln? What's happening to you?"

As she was feeling lulled back into sleep, she saw Lincoln's dresser missing his first and favorite Ace Savvy comic, gone from its all-important place holder stand that always looked at him cover first.

"Wonder what happened to that?" Lucy thought, before she closed her eyes, confident she was just resting them…she was mistaken.

Suddenly around 3:45 AM, Lucy was jolted wide awake, startled stiff in her curled upright position by the medium sounds and movement of the small window; it was Lincoln inching back through. Not wanting him to know she snuck in his room, knowing he was gone for almost an hour and a half, and found the wake of whatever was afflicting him all over his lower bed sheets and carpet, she hid herself in the tiny space between his bed and the wall, ripping up the sheets to hide under, contracting her body to fit, unnoticeable only if Lincoln didn't flip the lights on. Her wish was granted.

As Lincoln collected himself from the carpet Lucy heard him say something under severe emotional stress, rattling her very dark, Goth-loving soul.

"I tried denying it…I…my interest with Luna shot well beyond just her ejaculations…it's…also her now. Strange though how I feel like I can't bust hard unless Luna busts really hard first, like I can't really get aroused unless she's already done her thing…that's my tick I suppose…not only as a sexual lightening rod, but as one of the closest people I have in my life…her personality; her, just as she is…her."

Lucy gasped as quietly as she could when she heard this, her body shaking from such a statement that could ever come from Lincoln. Her breath quivered, her legs and feet cold in the pocket space, now getting warm and sweaty from overhearing Lincoln's unabashedly astounding words coming from his mouth.

Lucy heard the latch close on the window, followed by the smashing of his body rocketing the ruffled bed covers, him luckily trying not to snuggle under, Lucy almost getting thrown out of the small spot she hid herself in. She was inadvertently moved closer to Lincoln now, a small sheet being the only divider between his unaware, stressed and near-closed eyes and heavy breathing, and the petrified Lucy, mere inches away from what smelled like acidic breath; he puked at some point on his self journey.

"The bathroom deal is just icing on the cake. This has been a long time coming, but…I…I-"

"No…Lincoln, whatever you're about to say, think about it! Think! Lincoln! Lincoln!" Lucy pleaded in her head to Lincoln, hoping he wasn't about to whisper lowly what she thought he was about to whisper.

"I…I give in….I think…-"

"LINCOLN! I KNOW I SAY YOU HAVE TO BE HONEST, BUT THIS…DON'T! YOU MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO TAKE IT BAC-"

"-I think I'm in love with Luna."

"Oh no…." Lucy gasped out loud, Lincoln not hearing Lucy's unusually loud gasp.

"But…what about her? Back in the bathroom… did she really say my n-"

Lincoln was out before he could finish, but Lucy, in all her flabbergasted glory, had a pretty good idea on how he was going to finish this up.

"…name…did she really say your name?" Lucy finished for Lincoln, now adding on top of Lincoln's personal admission another layer in Luna's possible involvement…possibly feelings.

Never in her entire life had Lucy been this scared…this terrified. Nothing in her Goth literature prepared her for what seemed to be transpiring between her closest siblings, now out of the realm of fiction, thrown right into her face quite literally from an inattentive and bogged down Lincoln.

"I need to go," she lowly croaked, now feeling it safe enough for her to inch quietly over the larger sleeping figure that was Lincoln, still fully clothed, soaking wet from head to toe. As she headed for the locked door and unlocked it, she looked over at Lincoln, feeling despair for her brother and now possibly Luna.

"I'm…I'm sorry Lincoln…I can't help…not right now," she croaked in a controlled cry, now closing Lincoln's door and sporadically walking back to her room, pausing to glance at Luna and Luan's door.

"I can't help you either Luna…This is…too…much," Lucy whimpered, her mind shutting down from what was easily a series of back-to-back reveals she for one, had no business of knowing, and two, haunted her so.

"My dark soul, take this pain….please….I…I…feel too much! I feel too much," she quietly cried in her black sleeves as she curled back into her bed, curling up and crying, not just for herself, but now for Luna and Lincoln. She never cried…never like this; all her emotions were always under control.

In a rare display, she pulled her black draping hair, revealing blue teary eyes completely out of place on the dreary little Goth of the family. She wiped them as she slightly rocked back and forth, unsure of how to think about everything.

"Sigh…..sigh….sigh….sigh," she kept repeating to herself in choked, shaking bursts.

"If I had the ability to, I'd cut my foot off right now! I…I need to disappear in my dream landscape…I need to get out of here."

Within the hour Lucy managed to fall asleep, with the help of Lynn's lumberjack-grade snoring.

8:35 AM

In present time now, Lucy still stood and hovered over a fully clothed Lincoln, him still dead asleep in the early morning hours, bent on trying not to think fully about what she heard him and by his admission, implicitly Luna. Lucy shook it off, noticing he still wore those wet shoes and socks.

"He's gonna get trench foot with those on him."

Lucy proceeded to pull off Lincoln's shoes and socks, seeing how pruned he got, a tad off-putting for Lucy's usually non-squeamish stomach for morbid things, this being the rare exception.

"Gross…utter gross, but just in time…still gross."

Lucy began slightly pushing on Lincoln, him still as responsive as a rock.

"Lincoln….Lincoln…time to get up. We're all going to the mall in a little bit. Time to get ready."

No response from the sleeping Lincoln.

"Wow…he's still out cold. Maybe he needs a little something to spike him up," she thought, before seeing about five French vanilla creamers haphazardly strewn about on the ground in random fashion, probably dropped out when he climbed in bed last night.

"This might spike his interest," Lucy thought, totally unaware of Lincoln's penchant for vanilla flavored things right now.

Lucy opened several and threw them on his face, the creamy liquids streaming down his freckled face, most ending up around and in his mouth. His tongue popped out in response, tasting it like a komodo dragon wiping its tongue in the air.

Lincoln suddenly rocketed out of his bed screaming, pure shock and surprise on his face, then he saw Lucy, standing emotionless in trademark fashion next to him.

"Hi Lincoln. Good morning."

"LUCY! IT WAS JUST YOU! Oh thank God! I thought…never mind. Man, how long have I been out?" Lincoln asked wide-eyed, huge bags under his eyes while he was rubbing his sore head and warped body, still stiff from how he slept. Then he felt his entire body was still damp and soggy, stinking of stressed sweat and now, stressed BO. Looking down he noticed his shoes and socks were off.

"Did…did you take off my shoes and socks Lucy?"

"I didn't want you getting trench foot. And to your first question, you were sleeping for five hours, then…out, for about an hour and a half; after that, I think an extra four or five hours."

"Oh okay, thanks….wait….WHAT!? YOU KNEW!?"

"Lower your voice Lincoln, and yes, I know. I tried to see if you could critique some poems I wrote up, and when I got here, you weren't in your bedroom. Then I looked out your window and saw you walking down the street with a trash bag."

"Oh crud," Lincoln dreaded, "did, did yo-"

"I didn't tell anyone. I'm not a tattletale…but I am concerned for you…greatly concerned for you."

"Oh, gee, well thanks Lucy. I really appreciate it."

"I won't ask about why you left the house or where you went, but…Lincoln," Lucy said with the most minor of a tremble in her voice, "if you…ever need to talk about…things, I'm here."

"Thank you Lucy…but I don't think you'd be able to fully grasp my concerns right now. I'm a bit out of it."

"We're all a bit out of it in one way or another. Just please…do me a favor Lincoln," she asked, looking up to him in a concerned expression.

"What's that?"

"Please…take it a step at a time…and don't rush into absolutes."

"I…I don't quite follow Lucy."

"Go onwards slow and steady, okay?" she asked, before giving Lincoln a rare form of affection, a tight hug, but still soft and delicate coming from her. Lincoln gave her a hug too.

"Okay Lucy…you know, I'm here if you need to talk too. Always am, always will be."

"I know," she said quietly, looking away as a small tear went down her cheek. Brushing it away quickly, she retreaded back to the original plan…get Lincoln ready.

"By the way, we're all leaving for the mall by nine."

"Yeah…I don't know about that Lucy. I'm still really tired…after my outing, and I got less than a half-hour to get ready…plus I think all the hot water is used up."

"Luan's taking a quick shower, so there should be hot water still. Also, she said that if you'd go, she would buy you something from the mall's Japanese Pop-Culture Emporium."

Lincoln's sleepy, bagged-eye expression quickly shifted to a raised brow of curiosity, a low grin slowly creeping on.

"Really? I wanted to get the newly released Godzilla 1984 DVD…but I'm still-" he said, then yawning loudly. Lucy decided to up the stakes.

"It's okay if you don't wanna go…Luna's staying home too."

Lincoln's expression shot off shock like a shotgun to the face. Lucy grinned internally, thinking now she had him. It might be preferable to put some space between them.

"Well…I think I'll wake up when I take that shower," Lincoln tried bumbling out in awkward stutters, trying not to make it seem as though it was the Luna part that set him off.

"She's still not feeling well; Luan told me she's been…queasy all night."

"Oh…" Lincoln responded with a depressed tone.

"Well, okay. Thanks for waking me up Lucy. I really appreciate it. I'm gonna take a shower in a moment and be down in ten minutes, okay?"

"Okay Lincoln. See you downstairs."

Lucy headed out of Lincoln's room, unlocking the door.

"Hey! Lucy, did you sneak into my room last night? And this morning?"

Lucy looked straight into his eyes with her usual blank expression.

"You locked your door last night, and I was pretty determined…and Lynn tried to wake you up a little earlier, but you weren't responding."

Lincoln looked around the room, before it hit him.

"The vents?"

"The vents."

"I figured…at least you can still get in them comfortably."

"I know…and it looks like Luan's done with her shower now."

"Thanks Lucy."

Lucy closed the door behind her, seeing Lincoln slowly getting his hoodie and shirt off his damp body.

"Wow…I can understand why Luna might have a thing for him…even if it is a little too close for comfort…or blood," she thought, his lean physical frame in her peripheral.

"Well…I may not be in love with you Lincoln, but I do love you. I'm always going to look after you, even if you're older….because-" she monologued in her head, giving a slight sniffle as she said, "… because you're my brother."

She quickly closed the door and walked over to a chipper Luan, losing all her emotions in the dark pit of her soul.

"Hey Lucy. Get him up?"

"Phase one done. He's game for the Emporium…but I should let you know he's…a bit…out of it."

Luan's chipper expression went blank momentarily, before she put on her chipper face again.

"I'm sure he'll feel better after a warm shower; there should be a good five minutes still left," she replied to Lucy, before Lincoln, just wearing his black shorts walked up to the girls with a tired but appreciative smile.

"Hi everybody. Save me some hot water Luan?"

Luan somewhat blushed at Lincoln's figure, trying to hide it under a cough. Lucy nodded to him, then retreated back to her room.

"Thank goodness Luan doesn't know what's going on," Lucy thought as she closed the door.

"Eh, yeah Lincoln. Still some hot water left."

"And the Emporium? Lucy told me about that…you're not planning on tricking me or anything, are you?"

"It's not April fool's Day; no pranks today, no pre-Halloween tricks Lincoln…I promise," Luan replied with a big grin, her face giving a slight tinge of hope Lincoln would go with them.

"Ye…yeah. I wanted to see their new Kaiju figures and movie imports anyways."

"Cool. I hear we still got Lucky Charms downstairs. Eat up after your shower."

"Kay. See you downstairs," Lincoln said, walking forwards to the bathroom, before he hesitated, seeing Luan head to her room.

"Hey Luan?"

"Yeah Lincoln?"

"Is…is Luna doing any better?"

Luan looked at her door momentarily and silently, before replying back.

"She's feeling better, but needs to sleep in today. Whatever she ate did a real number on her last night. Kinda why we both didn't get a lot of sleep, but I'm heck-bent on checking the new Spencer's gifts, just like your Emporium."

"Okay…if she does wake up, let her know I hope she feels better, okay?"

"Okay Lincoln. She just needs sleep really, then later on she should be good to go. Go get ready. Mom and dad are leaving at nine sharp, and you look a little pale; get some warm water before you…ah, ah…HAIKU! Get it?"Luan smiled from cheek to cheek, her slight sneezing motion causing her robe to come down a little bit, revealing a tinge of the huge landscape that was her upper breasts.

Lincoln blushed, but chuckled at that little nod to the Japanese Emporium, then went into the bathroom to get ready.

Luan shut the door and locked it behind her. Luna was still in the same sleeping position, hung over on exhaustion still.

"Lincoln's concerned for you…possibly a bit freaked out as well still," Luan said in her one-sided conversation with Luna as she dried up her hair.

"No…maybe not freaked out; not the right words…perturbed? No….a little out of it? That seems more appropriate, how Lucy described him. Thank goodness Lucy doesn't know any of this," Luan thought to herself as she dropped her robe off her body, it making a very minor thud against the floor. She slipped her slippers off and grabbed her clothing for the day, a variation of her typical outfit that was her personal trademark; she put them on their bean bag chair, still totally naked and exposed.

"When she gets up, she might wonder where we all went. Maybe she forgot about the mall thing after last night also. Goodness knows she's earned a day off from the family…and she might still be too spooked to be around Lincoln anyways, among other things," she thought, looking at the now smiling Luna, breathing much like she use to when she was relaxed and jived in her rock world.

"I mean…I'm really happy for you that he's concerned for you Luna…but…this, our current relationships…that's all we can ever have…hope to have," Luan thought in a put-on smile, deep down feeling utterly defeated. It was taking more effort to keep up this chipper attitude.

"Oh….right. The mall deal. How am I going to let her know things seem kinda okay and that me and the family went to the mall?"

Luan looked around her room. Looking to their shared cabinet, she found the little red clown nose that fell onto her crotch earlier. In the corner of the cabinet hanging off a hook was a small dunce hat.

Luan smiled brightly.

"Perfect! I'll leave a quick note inside the nose, put the dunce hat on, then she'll know I left a super important note for her. Glad I nose myself a solution, get it?"

She pulled a little 2x2 piece of paper and elegantly scribbled her message, not forgetting to add some nose-related puns into the mix. A minute later she folded it and put it into the clown nose, put it on their dresser, and attached the small dunce hat to the top, wrapping the loop around the top to alert Luna about the immediate need to read the message.

"There. She should be content to some degree, while I let her know of Lincoln's condition. I don't know how she's gonna react to that, but…I'm gonna be as honest but delicate with this whole thing as I possibly can. I'm just super glad no one else ever saw-"

Then it hit Luan like a freight train; she had dozens of cameras hidden, constantly recording at all times of day and night in various secret locations for her comedy and storytelling routines. She also had two positioned to zoom in on Luan's bunk, so as to record her sleepy jokes for future use.

"Shit...I recorded last night without even realizing it...and if it's been recording still, that means..."

Luan paused her thought, running over to her Laptop, the central control for all her updated recording tech around the house. Strumming through various recordings, passing up each sibling's rooms and fuzzy antics, she found her room's file, pressing on the current recording process. She paused the current recording, seeing her naked form bent over her laptop paused.

She quickly cut the file into hourly constituents, starting from 10:00 Pm and onwards, finding the bulk four hours of last night's events. There were still another six and a half hours of recorded material.

"...that means I recorded myself...doing that."

Luan felt a simultaneous sickness and arousal take over her, morbid shock of the forbidden thing she did earlier now well documented for any prying, curious snoopers.

"I gotta delete this stuff…ALL OF IT! And I need to shut down most of my footage operations...just for now, until we can get things under control."

One by one she shut off most of the sporadically placed cameras, halting their current recordings. When she got to the bathroom and Lincoln bedroom files, she decided to pass up on them. She couldn't put her finger on it, but she may want to keep watch of Lincoln for a time to make sure he'd be emotionally okay. The bathroom...that seemed relatively tamed to her, angled to a frame where one could not tell what one was doing in there, only heads and upper torso's visible.

When she began going through her room's files, including the separated hourly files, she compiled them into two specific sets. File one was labeled "Reveal" from last night; the second "Sin" from earlier that morning.

"Specific enough for me anyways...that was sinful, get it? No...no, that wasn't funny at all."

She placed the two files in a larger folder and moved them into the Trash file, right about to wipe them away...permanently.

But for some reason, as she kept scrolling over the permanent delete icon...she couldn't do it. A nagging, unsettling feeling told her she might...want to store these files.

"NO! You gotta delete these Luan! If anyone found out about this, Luna would hate me for the rest of our lives, and she'd be kicked out of the house...I'd be kicked out of the house...we'd both be out of the family's life...out of Lincoln's life. Luna would be ruined…I'd be ruined… I just can't risk..."

Then she saw her spare USB drives. Her mind told her to permanently delete these recordings...yet her feelings told her she should save them.

"Why? Why am I wanting to save this? This is horrible evil stuff. I just..."

Luan, without thinking yet with scrunched glossy eyes, grabbed her gold-colored USB drive, put it into her Laptop, waited for it to be detected, and slowly but surely put the major file containing the two subset files into a secret part of her document files on the USB.

"Oh god...I feel sick...I...feel...fucking gross!"

Luan gagged in her mouth, restricting her upchuck episode enough to focus back on what she needed to get done.

She modified her note just a bit to Luna to reassure her about the cameras, in case Luna would think about that…and fibbed about the additional details about deleting it all.

"Man...I'm a horrible sister...I...I hate myself."

Luan breathed heavily, her body shaking as she tried to push these dark, unsettling thoughts and what she thought was an even worse betrayal to Luna's sanctity from earlier; keeping the recordings. Though she quickly and without remorse deleted the original files off her laptop...she still kept them, hidden away…for possible twisted viewing pleasure.

"Happy thoughts Luan...happy thoughts," she croaked in a mini-cry, trying to laugh herself out of this pit she dug herself into.

Luan paused, hearing Luna give a platonic groan, nothing sensual but still striking a nerve in Luan's mind.

Luan's hand unintelligibly brushed against her inner thigh area, causing a momentary crippling of Luan's motor skills, the feeling from when she grinded Luna earlier slowly coming back.

Her hands started for her groin area, before her rationale found a gap in her lust, and her right hand autonomously slapped the daylights out of her.

"NO!" she yelled in her mind internally, "I PROMISED I WOULDN'T GO DOWN THAT RABBIT HOLE AGAIN!"

Luan rubbed her right cheek, feeling the burning, stinging pain of her quick motor reflexes take their toll. Looking into the mirror, her cheek looked like it got temporarily exposed to an extreme UV beam, before the intense reds quickly dissipated to a mild tan-red color hand mark on her face.

"This is gonna be fun to explain to the rest of the family…I ought to give myself a hand for that," she grinned sheepishly in the mirror, putting her hand out to her other self. "Get it?"

She kept looking into the mirror, dropping her head, until raising it up quickly, looking at herself again and saying, "Hand's up! Hahahaha!"

She smiled brightly again, feeling a little better and distracted from the pain and awkwardness of what she felt; why she loved Comedy.

"This situation's turning into a real slap-in-the-face…hahahaha."

Looking at herself in the mirror again, she gave another self-routine to herself.

"You know what? I'm glad I like my own jokes; I'm always" Luan paused, looking know at her huge breasts and shaking them back and forth before continuing, "…getting jiggly with them. HAHA!"

Looking down at them again, she thought, "You…you two aren't always so bad. I can poke fun at myself with you two. See? Poke poke," she said poking her boobs as they gave a subtle ticklish ripple, followed by her usual giggle.

"Hahaha….haha….at least I can get myself distracted easily. With you Luna? I only hope your music can numb the pain…make it go away."

Fully dried now, she got her clothes on, still slipping into her bright yellow socks.

"You and me Luna…we gotta numb the pain…numb it….cause I don't think it's gonna go away any time soon. I can numb mine easily. You…?"

Luan took several meditative deep breaths, prepping herself for the day's events.

"Alright…let's do this. For you Luna…for you….Lincoln," she said, slightly blushing now, before pausing again to get her blush under control.

"For…for you Luna…let's rock!"

And with that, she grabbed her small yellow checkered purse and locked their bedroom door.

8:45 AM

As Luan started for the stairs, she saw Lucy hanging out on the first step of the stairs, reading her Edger Allen Poetry book. She looked up to Luan, both hearing the bathroom door open.

"The five dollars is almost in my grasp…I can feel it."

"Uh, well Lucy, I specified that he had to be in the van by nine. A second later and the deal's off," Luan teased Lucy with a Bugs Bunny grin, eyes half-closed and overconfident.

"…I hate verbal details….sigh…"

"Don't worry Lucy…I'd give you the five dollars anyway for waking him up."

"Wow…thanks Luan. I can finally buy that new black journal from the mall."

"Always black with you. Don't you like another color?"

"White. Black and white are my favorite colors."

"Sure you couldn't go yellow for me? Get it?" Luan asked with a grin, Lucy still morose in expression.

"Well…I've seen dashes of pink flutter along the sides of your books. Could it be you like your white with a little red thrown in to get pink?"

"Not even in my deepest darkest nightmares Luan," Lucy replied in a lie, "I stick with black and whit-"

Lucy paused, turning the other direction.

"What is it Lucy?" Luan asked, before she saw Lincoln walk out of the bathroom, his hair still floppy wet, the towel wrapped around his lower waist, exposing his lean muscled abs and growing form. Only fourteen years old but his body responded extremely well to Lynn's grueling self defense training.

"Hi guys. I'll be down in about five minutes," Lincoln said with more pep to his tone, the hot shower seemingly doing him some good to wake up. The bags seemed much less noticeable under his eyes, his motions more normal and exact. As he left to his room, Luan could not help but subtly ogle Lincoln's physique, what she was able to see, blushing the entire time.

"Steady Luan….steady girl…" Luan said reassuringly in her head, trying to regain control and not let the thoughts and feelings take rein again.

"Maybe I can hold my end of the bargain after all," Lucy said, still reading her book, seeing the back of Luan's ponytailed-head but unable to see Luan's glowing blush. Luan spun in a spiral towards the stairs, heading down quickly to the kitchen, trying to cool her temperature.

"Calm down….steady…hold your horses Luan…it's just Lincoln in a towel after a shower. How many times have you seen him like that?" she asked herself internally, before the answer she thought, especially in the manner she answered, hit her.

She gulped hard.

"A…a lot."

As Luan got downstairs, she saw Leni, Lola and Lana all cuddled on the couch watching TV with Lily, Lisa sitting on the side and performing some menial calculations and double-checks on her algorithms for predicting the random choices and decisions of two sample authoritarians, one on the left politically, and one on the right. Lily was trying out several Wizard of Oz characters, getting unusually close to the Cowardly Lion's way of saying "nuarve" instead of nerve, but matching his bumbling cries; Leni, Lola, Lana and even Lisa smiled at this. Lisa pulled out a small IPod.

"Note: will need to analyze Lily's vocal cords to see how she can mimic voices well beyond the range of normal four year olds. Suspicion still remains that her vocal box has some strange mutation carried through to her cerebral cortex, permitting her to mimic voices uncommon to a child her age…still very curious," Lisa stated with her lispy monotone. Lily also tried Dorothy and The Wicked Witch of the West, her most spot-on, getting ooh sans aaahs from Lola and Lana. Leni tried to focus back on the little time they had on the movie.

"Hey…guys," Luan asked nervously to everyone, Leni, Lola and Lana turning to her, Leni and Lana giving somewhat nervous looks to Luan, Lola giving a reserved pouty face.

"Hey…um…I'm really sorry about jumping you like that. I didn't mean it. You see," Luan began, trying to find the cross between truth and untruth, "Luna's condition kept me up for longer than I thought…I was a bit grumpy this morning. So…I'm sorry. I'll spot you five bucks each, pinkie-swear!"

Luan grinned sheepishly, waiting for a response. Lola finally spoke.

"Well…I guess we're sorry too. We could have been a bit quieter, even if some people lack stuffed-animal manners," she said as she eyed Lana, to which Lana replied, "It's not a big deal Luan. I understand…unlike a certain prima donna who isn't able to tell the difference between a fake canary and a real one," she said, eyeing Lola now, both giving each other the stink eye. Leni just got up and walked to Luan with a blank expression. Luan looked up to the blonde valley girl that was her sister, now really getting a feel for her skyscraper-like physical presence, even if it was extraordinarily beautiful.

"Leni…you okay? Do…do you forgive me?"

Leni then wrapped Luan in a cripplingly huge bear hug, both their breasts smashing together like huge pillowy battering rams, Luans being bigger but Leni's being much stronger and firmer, a testament to her absurd bear-like strength under the facade of her girly fashion physique. Luan struggled to breath.

"Le…ni….can't…br-"

"I'm like so super super sorry Luan. Really sorry…I forgot…I wasn't thinking…. I'm the one who has to look out for everyone…take charge! I'm not so good at it, especially with Luna not helping me. Is…is Luna okay Luan? Is she going to be okay?" Leni asked with concern in her pupils as she looked sadly and directly into Luan, still holding her in a tight embrace, Luan seeing a small tear going down Leni's face.

"Awhh…don't cry Leni," the twins said unanimously with a semi-cry and tremble in their own voices, both running over to both hug around Leni. Luan decided to give them all a hug.

"Girls, don't worry. Luna's one of the toughest girls I know. If anyone can beat this, she can! She just needs rest."

"Hey, what's going on down here," as voice called out. All turned around and saw it was Lincoln, fully clothed and dressed, stopped midway between the stairs and the kitchen.

"Oh Linky, come here!" Leni squealed happily, pulling a shocked and struggling Lincoln into the group hug, jammed between Leni and Luan's breasts, the full awkwardness and proximity knocking the hell out of him.

"WHAT'S ALL THIS FOR!?" he puffed out in squished, crushed form.

"I have no idea," Lisa replied uncaringly, still focused on her own task, right before the twins both pulled her in, Lisa trying to struggle out, to no avail against both twins.

"Well…this is uncomfortable," she said blankly, clearly annoyed, Lincoln mortified and gasping for air, Luan getting slightly red from realizing just how wedged Lincoln was into her bosom.

"You want in on this group hug Lily?" Lana called out, Lily shaking her head as she continued watching the flying monkeys take Todo away in the Wizard of Oz movie.

"Figures…one sibling watching flying primates…while I'm trapped between primates…can't get any worse."

"Hey kids! What's going on!?" Lynn Sr in a cooking apron asked. Rita followed next as she put her coat on.

"We're doing a group hug for Luna, wanna join in?" Leni asked.

"Of course we do kids," Rita said.

"I was wrong…it can," Lisa mumbled before both Rita and Lynn Sr walked over, engulfing the rest of the group, inadvertently tightening the pressure of both Leni and Luna's busts around Lincoln's face.

"I'm gonna be crushed…I'm gonna suffocate...I'm gonna die this way…this sucks!" Lincoln thought as he tried controlling his lungs to use all the little oxygen he could breathe in. With however many times this happened in their group hugs now, it never got any easier for Lincoln.

"Okay….I'm out," Lisa croaked out, squeezing with all her might out of the twin's grip, popping out like a tick. Lincoln waived his arm out pleadingly.

"Sorry Lincoln…I must get back to my calculations, and for the good of science and all humanity, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

"I'm…you're…brother," he squeaked out.

"You are also the few….sorry!" Lisa said as she ran back to the other side of the couch. She began to look at her notes.

"Sacrificing your brother for some facts and trivia…that's cold," Lucy suddenly said out of nowhere, terrifying the daylights right out of Lisa, causing her to rocket back into the group hug. Lucy made a small smile looking over to the trembling, hugging Lisa.

"You are a wicked deviant Homo sapien Lucy!"

"Wicked, yes. Deviant, yes. Homo sapien? That's up for grabs."

The hug suddenly died down, Lisa running back to her notes while Lincoln broke free, running as fast as he could to the kitchen, throwing his head outside the window to breathe in oxygen as deeply as possible.

"Breasts...HUUHUH…..are weapons…HUHUHUHUH…of mass….HHHUUUUHUHU….destruction….HHHHUUHHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Woah…what's up with you!" Lynn said from the backyard, a football in her hands in the throwing position.

"LENI AND LUAN….ME….SMASHED….PULVERIZED….BETWEEN A ROCK IN HARD PLACE!" Lincoln's head pulled back in, him taking a noticeable plop onto the kitchen floor just to catch his breath again.

Lynn took a moment to look at her breasts, being able to piece together what Lincoln was trying to say. Lynn blushed as she used the football to cover her own chest.

"I…I wish I could do what Leni and Luan could do," she thought, before opting to cancel the thought and run towards the backyard tree, trying to tackle it down.

Rita and Lynn Sr heard Lincoln fall to the ground.

"Wow…he got the wind knocked out of him. Thought Lynn toughened him up a bit," Lynn Sr asked openly.

"Wait a minute…you four were mentioning something about Luna. Is this group hug for Luna?" Rita asked openly to the remaining girls in the living room.

"Yeah…what's going on? What's up with Luna?" Lynn Sr asked.

"Luan didn't tell you?" Leni asked, Luan forgetting she was going to tell them about Luna staying home.

"Luan, what's going on with your sister? Is she okay?" Rita asked with controlled concern.

"She's still sleeping. She had a rough night last night and is getting some rest. I told her I'd let you guys know she's opting out of Mall Saturday today," Luan replied calmly to them.

"Oh gee, that's too bad. Maybe I should stay home with her," Rita said, Luan's mind instantly making the record scratch sound effect, her eyes bulged out wide.

"Now honey, remember what we talked about? Luna's an adult now. She can make these decisions on her own. If she's not feeling well, and is telling Luan to let us know she's sleeping in, we should honor that," Lynn Sr replied to Rita, the latter still concerned but a bit more relaxed and assured about their talk.

"I know honey. But I just hate to see one of my babies sick…even if she is an adult," Rita said.

"If it makes you feel any better mom, Luna told us all to have a rockin time at the mall without her," Luan thought, knowing Luna never said such a thing, but would obviously say something to that degree.

"Well…I think I should check up on her, just in case."

Luan dreaded the prospect of their mother possibly hearing Luna mumble something ultimately regrettable. Luan decided to escort their mother and run interference should anything go amiss.

"Alright honey; just don't smother her. She's got her space now," Lynn Sr reminded her as he called out, "ALRIGHT. FIVE MINUTES TO GO! I WANNA SEE EVERYONE READY IN THAT VAN! NO SLACKERS!"

"BEST SEAT!" said the faint yell of Lynn outside, already waiting in the van, apparently overhearing her dad call out.

"That a girl!"

Everyone else got their coats on as Lynn Sr comically forgot to take off his cooking apron, almost walking out the door with it on, before backtracking inside. He saw Lincoln scarf down two cups of Lucky Charms cereal in nearly one bite like Lana.

"Dang kiddo! You'd give Lana a run for her money!"

"No thank you," Lincoln replied, burping extremely loudly while Lynn Sr gave him a big thumbs up for it.

"Awesome one son, now go get your teeth brushed."

"Kay dad!"

Meanwhile Rita and Luan were at Luan and Luna's door, Luan taking a moment to purposely eat up a minute fidgeting the door.

"I…this…dang door. It's a bit of a tussle to deal with this dor-k…get it mom?"

"Ha ha," Rita said, more anxious and curious as to why the door wouldn't budge open. Luan decided to cut the act, hoping if Luna was in the throes of such a dream, she'd hear the door rattling open.

"There we go," Luan said as she ushered her mom in, letting her know to keep her voice down.

"Please be dreaming normally; please be dreaming normally!"Luan begged in her head as Rita headed towards Luna to feel her head. Luna looked perfectly still, right in the exact same position as Luan left her when she headed downstairs.

"Hmmm…no temperature…regular breathing…ooooh, she does look tired still. I think she does need some extra rest. How long was she sick for last night Luan?"

"Uhhh, till around two. I had her bunk with me so she wouldn't puke all over her comforters, plus I got my trash can. It'd be easier for her instead of falling out of her bunk."

"Oh sweetie, that's so nice. You snuggled together?"

Luan shrugged her shoulders and smiled lowly. Rita gave Luan a big hug.

"I wanna get a picture of that next time! Luna's so lucky to have such a caring little sister!"

Luan laughed nervously, thoughts of earlier's…moment of weakness fluttering her mind and making her feel extremely guilty, not worthy of her mother's praise. "I'm…vile…I'm no angel," Luan thought.

"So Luna's phone is on full blast?" Rita asked.

"Check!" Luan said, putting it on the coffee stand.

"And your father made plenty of food, so that shouldn't be a problem when she gets up…it's a real shame. I wanted to take you both shopping too."

"What for mom?"

"Well you both take a lot after me," Rita said, displaying her huge chest and round posterior, pointing to Luna's and Luan's chest.

"MOM!" Luan shrieked quietly.

"Oh relax will you. I gotta take care of my girls. You've grown up so fast. Soon…you're going to end up like Lori."

"Lori found her perfect guy mom. I doubt we will for a long time."

"You never know sweetie. He could live in this area for all we know."

"Or down the hall," Luan muttered silently.

"What was that dear?"

"Nothing! Just a mumble! We should head out now!"

Luan quickly ushered her mom out of their room, sweating gallons, then seeing Lincoln pop out of the bathroom with toothpaste foam still all over his mouth, brushing his teeth. The sight didn't bode well for the now on-edge Luan.

"Hurry now sweetie. Your Dad's going to be ready to leave in the next two minutes."

"Mmmhmhhhm," Lincoln muffled back, an obvious confirmation, Luan inadvertently giggling from the sight.

Luan and Rita departed downstairs, Luan still panting quietly and trying to regain her control. Both headed for the van and joined everyone else. Lynn Sr was in the house looking around, then saw what he was looking for.

"Come on Lily! We can watch that later," Lynn Sr said to the littlest Loud still watching the Wizard of Oz. As soon as Lynn Sr picked her up, she said, "HEY BUD, WHAT ARE YA TRYIN TA PULL, SEE? MMMYEAAA SCHEEEEE !? MMMYEAAA, MMMYEAAA!"

"Okay little cutie Edward G Robinson, but get your coat on! You can watch it later."

With Lynn Sr and Lily in the car, Lucy just getting in, a minute to go, Lincoln was just rinsing his teeth, trying to get the background odor of vomit acid still in the corners of his mouth. It worked after tedious struggle.

"Good! A minute to go!" he proudly proclaimed, walking out the bathroom before seeing Luna's door.

"It sucks you're staying home Luna…all because of me probably," Lincoln thought, his color back in his face but emotional guilt still inside him. The moment he was woken up by Lucy, last night's events still hadn't left him. They were a memory all too crystal clear.

Lincoln decided to do a quick checkup on Luna to make sure she was okay. Prying the locked door open with some of Leni's typical tricks, he managed to open it, seeing the still sleeping form that was Luna, curled up in Luan's bunk, soundly in deep rest.

"At least it seems you've gotten over last night…I think. I still wonder what you were saying before I barged in on you like that. It couldn't have been….-"

Lincoln checked his watch. Twelve seconds.

"Oh shit!"

Lincoln quietly locked and closed Luna's door, and shot out of the house, locking the front door and getting the same spot just behind his dad in the van.

"8:59:59 AM! Awesome!"Lincoln punched the air, seeing a surprisingly similar seating arrangement from yesterday, Leni next to him, Lily in her seat behind their mom, with Luan sitting the center middle next to Lola, with Lisa, Lana, Lucy and Lynn in the very back.

"Yeah…awesome," Lucy replied in concurrence to Luan's ear, Luan giving a combo smile-scowl and tossing Lucy a five-dollar bill.

"Thanks Lincoln; I was beginning to lose hope."

"Hope about what Lucy?"

"Nothing. Never mind."

9:00 AM officially now, and the family was off to the Royal Woods mall.

Thirty minutes of traffic later, they finally arrived, nearly all ecstatic, besides the typical reserved Lucy, uncaring Lisa, and the slightly aloof Luan and Lincoln.

As they piled out, the youngest four, Lily, Lisa, Lana and Lola went with Rita and Lynn Sr too look around their favorite stores, while Lucy, Lincoln, Lynn, Luan and Leni grouped together, all eventually planning to split to their own projects.

9:39 AM

"HEY LINCOLN! LET'S GO DO THAT INDOOR ROCK CLIMBY THINGY!" Lynn suddenly and unnecessarily shouted excitedly, grabbing Lincoln and pulling him to the other side of the mall.

"WAIT! MY EMPORIUM!" Lincoln wailed as Lynn now threw Lincoln over her shoulders and carried him through the hundreds of other people attending the mall, struggle and all.

"My…my emporium," Lincoln sighed quietly as they passed it up, Lincoln putting his arm out wantingly.

"Don't worry bro! You can go there later. Right now I wanna to show you how I can pound you down hard into that rock wall," Lynn said, not realizing the way she phrased that statement.

"Awh man Lynn…wait, what did you say?"

"I…I said I'm gonna show you why I'm a kick your butt at rock climbing, cause I'm awesome," Lynn modified subtly into something she'd usually say.

As they got out of sight, Luan somewhat chuckled, even though feeling a bit dejected.

"Well…some exercise with Lynn should keep his mind distracted…and I need to distract myself," Luan said, looking to her right, happening upon Spencer's Gifts.

"Well hello there! What a nice gift, get it?" Luan said with a big grin, giggling inside the store and now lost to her heart's content. Leni and Lucy seemed to be the last of the group.

"Hey Lucy? Wanna try on some clothes with me?"

"That depends…will I get to choose black and white for mine?"

"Uh…I don't see why not."

"Sure….why not. But let's take a quick look at that antique bookstore. I've been meaning to buy a certain black book."

"Ewwwck! Books. I don't know why you like those Lucy."

"Well…I know why you are the way you are Leni….cause you don't like them."

"You're darn right….wait….what? Did I miss something Lucy?"

"Absolutely nothing Leni."

"Oh, okay," Leni said happily and with a big goofy smile.

Both walked in the strange old antique store. Leni with a puzzled face walked around without any want to be in there, besides marveling at some of the woodsmanship of the book cases. Lucy darted for a stack of blank black books with old rustic black leathering. She reached for one of these four dollar books…before a derelict book sitting next to it caught her attention. She read if to herself.

"Flowers in the Attic…by V.C. Andrews….what's this?"

Lucy plopped open the book and read the synopsis. Her eyes went wide under her black concealing hair. She looked at the price tag…only twenty-five cents.

"Maybe…maybe this book can give me some bearing and understanding as to what's going on between Lincoln and Luna," Lucy thought, feeling slightly weird in buying the book herself.

"Leni?" Lucy called out, Leni walking back over with a paper of several sketches of the woodwork she was doodling out.

"Here…hold these for a second," Lucy said, handing Leni the black journal and the novel into Leni's left hand. She directed Leni to the old woman manning the cash register with a warm, sweet smile. Lucy had Leni place the books down. As the older lady scanned the books, she seemed to have a quick spike in her brow from reading the novel's title, looking a bit concerned in Leni's direction.

"What?" Leni asked innocently.

"Oh…nothing deary….a bit surprised, but nothing….total comes to $4.99 after tax."

"Here," Lucy said secretly, handing Leni the wrinkled five dollar bill, to which Leni handed it over to the now perturbed looking older woman.

"What is it? Do I have something on my face?"

"No…nothing like that sweetie. It's just…what would make you want to invest your time into something like this?"

"Well it's not every day I go into a bookstore and see a fashion or design idea now, is it?"Leni said explanatorily while waiving her doodles to the older woman, now looking perplexed, putting the two books into a small bag and giving Leni a penny back.

"Ohhh…well, whatever you saw dear. Have a wonderful day."

"You too mam," Leni replied back, her and Lucy walking out of the store now, Lucy grabbing the things and Leni thinking out loud about what happened.

"That was strange….I wonder why she thought it was weird I was doodling those woodwork designs from those book cases."

Lucy just pulled out the novel and began reading and half-heartedly said, "Beats me."

Both ended up together in a clothing store, Leni trying on an armada of styles while Lucy sat in the corner of the changing room, just across from Leni's booth.

"Say Lucy, can I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead."

"Well….I was thinking…and I know that can be dangerous or hazardous for my and other people's health, haha on me…but…how come guys in general can't be nice?"

"Go on," Lucy said inattentively.

"Why can't they…you know…like…be like Linky?"

"Yeah…that's something," Lucy replied again, still nose first into the pages as Leni tried on a new aqua colored bra.

"You know? Like, he's always been one of the nicest guys ever, like, totes ever. He doesn't belittle you…he doesn't make you feel dumb or feel like an object…like you're something to conquer. And he always goes out of his way. If it wasn't for him, I'd probably never get my license. He just…just treats you like you're a person…like you have feelings….I…I do have feelings. Does that make sense?"

"Uhh, yeah…so true and deep," Lucy said, ever-enraptured in the page's text.

"It was just a thought. Still, like, I'd love to meet a guy who was just like Lincoln. That'd be a dream come true."

"Yep…so true."

Lucy still read her book, totally and in out-of-character for her, blinded the whole world and Leni's honest thoughts.

"Yep, that's right Leni…..wait a minute…WHAT!?"

10:23 AM

Luan was still wafting in the antics that was Spencer's Gifts, drumming out a series of new acts with each possible prop while Leni and Lucy looked at various clothing styles and selections, the whole while Lucy kept her nose in the novel, already fifty pages in; while simultaneously trying to secretly re-engineer Leni's open thoughts, to difficult avail.

Lynn was still knocking the heck out of Lincoln, who seemed to be able to hold his own in now scaling up the walls, his new-found upper body strength from all that conditioning really coming in handy.

"This is actually kind of fun…you know, as opposed to being outside over a thousand foot drop," Lincoln said as he scaled up the side, just behind Lynn. They must have climbed up and down the sixty foot inclined wall at least twenty times. It felt good to Lincoln to let off some bent of physical stress by pushing his body more and more, focusing just on climbing, and climbing alone, forgetting his troubles, if only for a little while. For Lynn, it seemed the troubles just flirted back and forth with the back-and-forth widening and decreasing of Lincoln's proximity to her.

"Hey Lynn. I'm gonna drop down for a second!"

"What!? What for!? Finally wussing out!?"

"Not quite…this shirt isn't exactly comfortable to climb in," Lincoln said, letting himself dangle to the bottom. He slipped his gear off, then his orange polo shirt, revealing his abs and lean physique. Lynn's blush uncontrollably magnified, causing her to try and go faster up to the top and forget what she saw.

"Ah, a race? Bet I can beat you, even from down here!" Lincoln yelled out to Lynn, who was only fifteen feet up along the wall.

"In your dreams Lame-O!" Lynn replied without looking back, still monumentally blushing and trying to get her pace back, fumbling awkwardly with her hand and foot placement now, his climbing up now without his shirt on, only his other clothes and climbing gear really getting to Lynn.

Lynn was at the half-way point now, Lincoln closing in fast. Minutes later Lynn was a quarter of the way, her pace slowing as she made a greater number of small bumbling mistakes, Lincoln now moving at a speedy clock, now two-thirds up the wall.

"Come on stupid arms and feet! MOVE DANG IT!" she yelled inside her head, now taking some extreme risks in going up the wall, Lincoln now right behind her.

"Just a couple of more feet….and…oh…OH CRAP!" Lynn yelled as she lost her footing in one costly fail, her falling backwards slowly.

"LYNN!" Lincoln yelled out, instantly rocketing off the rock wall and grabbing hold of her, his embrace tight and protecting. Both fell to the ground fast, before the bungee cords holding both of them rebounded them upwards many feet above the solid mall ground. They bounced in each other's gear several times before they found themselves being set on the ground, Lincoln laying horizontally with Lynn awkwardly positioned in Lincoln's lap, her hands holding on for dear life on his trimmed, abed waistline. Both looked at eachother awkwardly, Lynn blushing even more now that she was wrapped around Lincoln's groin, him still dazed and confused.

"Wow…he jumped out for me like that…even when we were totally safe," she thought with a small grin, before realizing several people from the background were staring at them.

"I didn't know you cared," Lynn said with a wink.

Lynn shot off Lincoln and pulled him up, still dazed from what could have been the impact of their collision.

"Hey…Lincoln, you okay?"

"Uhhhhh…..yyyyeeee…..yeahhhh. Okkkkaaaayyyy!" Lincoln hazily mumbled out, Lynn catching him mid-fall as she giggled.

"OH LINCOLN!"A shrill roar echoed out in their far corner. It was Lola, looking as though she was on a mission. She ran over to Lynn and Lincoln, snapping her fingers and getting Lincoln's eyes to focus with 20-20 vision again.

"Oh dear brother? I'm in a bit of a pickle, and I need you to do something for me."

"Lola? Can't it wait? We were going to try the wall again?" Lincoln said, Lynn now trying to look in the opposite direction.

"Afraid not my white-haired older bro. I forgot I need to match the styles of clothing I have at home for my pageant dress to the ones I plan on having mom and dad buy. I took pictures with my phone, but….funny me, I forgot my cellphone at home. Could you be a dear, awesome, sweet and caring brother and run home and send me pictures of my pageant dress on my bed to Lana's cellphone?"

"What? Are you kidding?" Lincoln asked flabbergasted.

"Oh come on Lincoln! Remember, you still owe me a big favor. Remember the ice cream truck incident?"

"Ohhhh….dang it…how could I not forget about that one," Lincoln bemoaned, not letting the memories of that day haunt him again.

"Well…I covered for you…time to pay up. It's only a twenty minute walk home, so-"Lola paused, before doing her cutesy, puppy-dog smile to Lincoln that was obviously put on but sincere to some degree.

"PLEEEEEEEEAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEE!?"

"Oh…..dang it! Alright. Son of a gun! I'll do it Lola."

"Thank you ever so much dear big brother," Lola cooed, giving Lincoln a quick hug, before she backed off.

"Ewwww Lincoln! You're all sweaty and gross right now!"

"Little twerp," Lynn blared in her mind, then turning to Lincoln.

"Ah man Lincoln, you shouldn't have agreed to that," Lynn said as Lola skipped away back to Lily, Lisa, Lana, Rita and Lynn Sr. Lynn now gave her puppy dog eyes to Lincoln, even worse than Lola's.

"I'm sorry Lynn, but Lola did cover me for that day…and yeah, she's right; I owe her big time."

"Ah….that sucks," Lynn said, putting her arm on Lincoln's shoulder. Lincoln pulled her in a hug, Lynn's minor blush growing again.

"Sorry…tell everyone I had to run an errand for Lola and go home to take a few pictures, alright?"

"I could come with you if you want," Lynn replied back automatically.

"Nah, I don't wanna ruin your time at the mall today. Who knows…I might be able to come back with a bit of time to spare and get what I wanted at the Emporium."

"Well….if you say so bro. Hurry up, alright?"

"Okay Lynn. It was fun climbing with you…you know, until you screwed up," Lincoln said with a smirk as he pulled his orange polo and grey hoodie back on.

"Shut up! My hand was sweaty, otherwise I would have wiped the floor with you on that last one," Lynn retorted back competitively.

"Yeah…I totally got you nervous when I was closing the gap between us."

Lynn punched Lincoln in the shoulder hard, though it didn't hurt him as much as it use to ever since the conditioning from Lynn, one of the few drawbacks Lynn thought came about from training Lincoln.

"Bye Lynn!"

"See ya Lincoln. Hurry back will ya!?"

Lynn took both their gear equipment as Lincoln jumped out of the climbing area and headed for the other side of the Royal Woods Mall, towards the entrance.

"Shoot. I wanted to hang out with him more…and I didn't know his body got that fit from my regiments….cool. But geez….why the heck have I been getting flustered and red like that around him so recently. Maybe it's the pecks….I hope it's only the pecks."

Lynn handed the equipment to the clerk, then went to the food court, buying herself a red slushy drink and a hot pastrami sub sandwich.

Out of the corner of her eye Luan skipped merrily over to Lynn with a big grin on her face.

"Hey Lynn! You have a good time rock climbing with Lincoln? I bet it was a rockin-good time! Get it?"

"Yeah, it was really fun…how'd you score over at Spencer's Gifts?"

"It was like a self-opening piñata of gift after gift of ideas for new routines with their products and props. It was awesome."

Luan sat down, pulling a bag of her items she got from the store; phony lottery tickets, a prank pregnancy test, inflatable walkers, a shock-gag lighter, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton toilet paper, a potato chip snake-in-a-can, a worlds-smallest voice changer and modulator, and two prank pistols with the flags that shoots out saying bang on them.

"Cool Luan. Look, I'm a cowboy; BANG BANG!" Lynn playfully acted out while waiving the fake pistols around, mall security in the distance giving dissenting nods to put the fake guns away.

"Oh…yeah….I forgot about that. Other than that though, cool haul Luan."

"So, how many times did you beat Lincoln?" Luan asked as she messed with the phony lottery tickets, guessing how much someone might think they'd be winning.

"Every time, but that last time….I gotta admit, something must have caused him to get his butt in gear. If I didn't totally fail like I did, he might have beat me."

"Bet the score was still in your favor though."

"Oh hands down, no comparison. Sucks he had to take off though."

"Over to the Japanese Emporium place? He was pretty stoked that I gave him ten bucks to check that area out."

"Actually…Lola sent him on a mission to run back home and have him text over pictures of Lola's stupid pageant dress so she can have our folks buy the right deigns…a bunch of frilly goofy stuff if you ask me."

"Well that's nice of Lincoln to do….wait, what?" Luan asked, a tsunami of dread pulling the coastal waters of her mental security, swelling the background noise of her mind trying to restructure Lynn's words.

"Lincoln's running home right now to send pictures of Lola's pageant designs."

Luan stood with a vacant expression; her newly bought merchandise spread all over the table…the potato can shot out the snake all on its own, as though it timed the right moment to cue Luan's reaction.

"Lynn…how long ago did Lincoln leave?"

"Uhhh…I'd say a good ten…fifteen minutes maybe. Seems like he was bookin it too by his pace."

Luan's face freaked out like the time she couldn't tell jokes; she suddenly swooped all her merchandise into the bag and started running full speed towards the entrance of the mall.

"Luan!? LUAN!?"

"I JUST REMEMBERED I GOTTA TAKE CARE OF SOMETHING! TELL MOM AND DAD I'LL MEET THEM HOME LYNN!"

"BUT WHA-"

"LYNN!?"

"OKAY! I'LL SEE YOU AT HOME!"

As Luan circled the corner, nearly knocking out over a dozen people by her speed alone, Lynn pondered.

"What's up with Luan? It's like she heard some sort of bomb threat or terrorist attack. We haven't had one of those for a while…not like, since Dallas and Philadelphia. Oh well….more sub for me," Lynn grinned, opening her mouth and nearly putting half the foot long sub in her mouth, before she realized what she was doing and pulled it out.

"Damn….how'd I do that? I didn't even gag."

Two young teen guys were looking at her in awe of what Lynn just unconsciously did.

"What? What the hell are you two looking at?" She roared, raising her fists, scaring the two teen guys off.

Leni and Lucy were just coming out of the clothing store, Leni with a big haul, Lucy with a single black t shirt, both reading and silently reflecting on Leni's thoughts.

"Is it me, or is this situation just waiting and simmering quietly…about to get potentially more complicated at every turn….the novel seems to be alluding to something like this happ-"

A flash of white and yellow with a ponytail wisped right by them, spinning them in a crazy eight figure, nearly knocking them over.

"WHOAH! THAT WAS FUN!"Leni squealed.

"I couldn't see…but it looked like Luan's ponytail," Lucy said.

"Oh Lucy, don't be silly. Ponytails don't run that fast….unless they were on a pony…ooo, maybe it was a pony!"

"Or maybe…." Lucy trailed off as she and Leni went to go look for the others. Suddenly both looked at each other, seeing one another's cloths on the other.

"Wow…who knew I could make black work so well," Leni complimented herself.

"This is so not cool….slapstick….Sigh….the grossness…the horror….aqua green…..yuck," Lucy shuttered.

Luan finally got to the front entrance of the Royal Woods Mall, still running at extreme speed, her breasts rebounding in enormous smashing blasts against her body.

"SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! FUCK! OH SHIT FUCK SHIT FUCK! WHERE IS HE!?" Luan screamed out, several mothers covering their children's ears, them laughing at Luan's cursing.

"QUICK LUAN! WHAT'S THE QUICKEST WAY TO GET HOME IF I WAS LINCOLN!?"

Luan looked around, trying to create an instant map of Royal Wood, departure from Royal Woods Mall, destination…their home.

"AUUHHHH…..GOT IT! OH MAN, WHAT ARE THE FUCKING ODDS!? WHY NOW!?"

Luan bolted across several intersections frenetically, border-lining on j-walking and Olympic running through alleyways and back streets.

"THERE'S NO TELLING WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF LINCOLN AND LUNA SAW EACHOTHER ALONE RIGHT NOW…WHAT LUNA WOULD DO! IF LINCOLN HEARD HER IN HER SLEEP!"

Luan barely missed a crosswalk, before coming upon the bridge that passed the highway traffic jam. Up ahead an orange indicator with multiple construction guys blocking off the work zone.

"OH GOD FUCKING DAMN IT! COME ON!" Luan yelled out, now having to circle around the bridge and take a longer route home. She checked her cellphone time.

"11:41 AM. AT THIS RATE, IT'S GONNA TAKE ME…..THIRTY MINUTES TO GET HOME….MAYBE MORE WITH ALL THESE STUPID STREET CLOSURES…FUCK ME THIS SUCKS SO MUCH!"

Meanwhile Lincoln was just on the other side of town, only a couple of blocks, walking now instead of running. He may have been good at the mile that one time, but this was on a whole other level.

"Ah man…I really wanted to check out the emporium and see if the 1984 Godzilla was in there; it's almost impossible to get the American version on DVD!"

As he kept bemoaning the lost mall venture opportunity, he noticed something curios as he walked along towards his house.

"This…this is almost the same path I took home last night…..this is kinda…weird."

He passed up the park, eyeing the same secluded bushy area that he did certain things in last night. He shuddered and shivered, even if her was boiling hot from the walk home in the dark, gloomy day.

Fifteen minutes later he was outside the house, seeing it come to view the same manner that he came upon it last night, only not as emotionally drained and stressed. Those thoughts still stuck with him though. Above all, he was terrified that Luna might be up still.

"Man…I don't want to spook Luna and have her see me as the only one home…criminey this is getting awkward." As he walked up to the porch, about to ring the doorbell, cursing himself for forgetting to take his keys with him, he decided upon a different course of actions.

"Screw it…I'm scaling up the side again…at least I can get in undetected. Being around Luna with other people might be less weird, but both of us…I don't know if I can handle that myself yet…I don't know if I can trust myself."

Lincoln began climbing up the side roofing exterior along its angle, finding the task a bit easier, even after all the rock climbing he did with Lynn…at least he wasn't psychological screwed up right now….not to the same extent at least.

"So….operation, "sneak into my room…go in Lola and Lana's room, take pics of whatever Lola's got lying on her bed…send them to Lana's phone, then hang out in my room for the rest of the day,"….easy. I just need to stay as quiet as possible so Luna doesn't think anyone's home.

Lincoln crawled through his circular window, being as quiet as possible as he honed his hearing to the best of his ability, putting his ear on his door.

"No….no commotion….nothing. Luna must still be sleeping. Thank goodness."

Lincoln, still scared of what he was about to do on this mission, waited about twenty minutes fearfully in his room, boosting his confidence and doing clap pushups to warm himself up. Then, as careful as a zookeeper feeding lions, walked from his door tip toe to Lola and Lana's room, each step making a very faint wail in the hallway.

"Stupid floor…the one time I don't need any noise, and you give it to me!"

Lola and Lana's door was thankfully opened up, making it easier for him to sneak in. As he was about to close the door, he noticed the bathroom door was open. He remembered distinctly closing it. And it looked like someone just used the shower. There was also a pungent odor of vanilla wafting in the air, distracting and arousing Lincoln momentarily before he got his mind back to work.

"She probably just had a shower this morning and forgot to close the door. It happens…but that vanilla smell is still so….so very fresh. And it's not even just the vanilla shampoo in the shower Luna probably uses….it's smelled so…organic, like….uh crap. Don't think like that right now Lincoln. FOCUS!"

Lincoln closed the door and inspected the room. There on Lola's bed was her pageant dress. On her night table was her phone with a pouty selfie of Lola.

"Really?" he asked with a frown, before grabbing the cellphone and finding Lana's contact, called "Mud Head."

"They sure like to mess with each other, don't they," Lincoln opinioned warmly as he took over a dozen different angled pictures of the pageant dresses on Lola's bed, that way Lola wouldn't have his head in case he messed up anything.

Several minutes passed until he got a text back on Lola's cellphone.

"Thanxs oh deer oldr brthr! OOO!"

"Now we're even!" Lincoln texted back quickly with a slight annoyance in his frenetic typing speed. He quickly checked the time on the cell phone.

12:17 PM

He quickly opened up their door and slunk slowly as possible to his bedroom door, when suddenly his bladder hit him out of nowhere.

"Oh damn it! Not now! The bathroom's so close to her bedroom!"

He weighed his options. Lincoln's personal pee invention was on the fritz, so that was out of the question. He did have any 2-liter containers….and this bladder was not going to be so easily ignored.

"Oh shit…I don't have a choice," he said quietly as he moved one toe at a time to the bathroom, nearly getting there, before a thought hit him.

"Well, actually….Lisa's modifications should make it to where even is Luna is awake, she won't be able to hear me….ha, got that working for me at least."

His stride became a bit more confident as he closed the bathroom door normally, the powerful vanilla steamy aroma making his bladder draining oddly pleasing as he felt the odors interact with his neurons, uncontrollably eliciting a rather platonic but under the surface, a sensual interaction with Luna. He was daydreaming he was in a hot tub with purple-orange lighting around them at night; they were inching closer and closer, both getting more blushed, their eyes gradually closing as their faces approached one another tepidly but surely. Luna suddenly grabbed Lincoln's leg, feeling him all the way to his groin.

"OH FUCK! DAMN IT! That….that was close," Lincoln panted, trying to keep track of reality.

"No Loud….not now….not ever!" Lincoln thought harshly as he flushed the toilet and left the bathroom. Now by Luna's door, he wondered if she was okay.

"Wait….wait Lincoln. This is exactly how you got yourself in this mess; being overprotective, and now you come to find out about yourself one of the most messed up things about you! Just go to the room….go back to your room….go ba-"

Then a subtle sound hit him; melody. These ghoulishly faint whispers of melody he heard, he was familiar with….they seemed to come out of a small crack between the door and the floor, the one area Lisa seemed to have scattered brained on in the modifications.

"Like….like I said….just go back Lincoln. Go back Linc-"

Suddenly he could hear the instrumental beginning, a piano prelude. He could recognize the song, if only one could hear the lyrics. But the tone and melody, it was from a more upbeat version he heard Luna sing to him one. This one….it seemed more….darker…more melancholy….more traumatic….and much more disturbed. Slowly but surely, Lincoln started hearing it…the teary, tortured singing of Luna, just through the crack alone, slowly swelling from the beginning in the same key as this new, darker take on the song from what Lincoln could remember the artist being named; Disturbed.

"Hello darkness, my old friend,
I've come to talk with you again….

Lincoln in pure adrenaline-laden shock kept his ear in the periphery of the door crack as close as possible, almost physically and emotionally compelled to hear Luna really go on this song.

Lincoln suddenly found himself jimmying with her lock, getting it undone in seconds, before opening it slowly, just as the Sterrett really let loose with the song and Luna's voice. It nearly knocked him off his feet, rolling back his hoodie on his head, his cowlick back to full imperfect perfection. Quickly getting his stance and diving away, he saw Luna singing full blast to the next set of lyrics.

"And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more…"

She was faced away from Lincoln, her back to the door, eyes closed as she sang her heart out, her voice bending all the delicate strings in Lincoln's heart. He couldn't see Luna's face, but he could really feel her….her emotional investment into the song's lyrics.

At the close of the song, Lincoln quickly jarred the door to look closed, while he peaked inside. He still couldn't see her face, but the music she was choosing….something out of films he saw…emotional ones, with grand lush gloomy and sad string pieces to the flowing, dynamic undertones of tragedy and beauty…it was a sight to behold, a side of Luna he had no idea existed.

He marveled at this giant of musical talent that was his sister as his tears rolled down his blushed cheeks; just watching her alone singing, and then musically flowing and performing in such a grand, awe inspiring way to orchestrated pieces made Lincoln unintentionally feel like he was falling in love with her all over again.

But the music….it was all tragic….it felt like hope for the hopeless. This was the kind of music only people in severe emotional distress listened to or sung.

Then the music stopped. Lincoln eyed around through the small door opening.

"Everything has been so spectacular so far…but I…I feel like there's this one song out there, rock or orchestral, that fits perfectly with what I feel, how I feel…maybe…"

Lincoln's heart beat ran faster, now seeing Luna turn the corner for a second, and saw her face with her eyes open….they were red, teary and full of ungodly misery.

"I was right…she is…she's so sad right now….Luna…."

Luna suddenly spoke again out of nowhere.

"I think that one was called…First Godzilla? Shinzilla? Something Shin and Godzilla. Suppose to have been a creepier take on it. I just remember a lot of talking, but Lincoln loved it. There was however-"

Lincoln heard her pause as a memory automatically replayed that cool night Lincoln was watching that Godzilla movie, one he thought was extremely cool, even with all the talking.

"Shin Godzilla….me, Lynn and Lana were huddled on the couch at night to watch it after I got it from the Emporium…Luna came down and hung with us….she cuddled up with me. I remember because her hands and feet were freezing cold," Lincoln smiled in a choked chuckle. He overheard her again.

"The music in that scene; I remember it. How…beautiful…sad it was. I felt for it…how tragic it must have been. The music was operatic, the only time I've ever liked grand operatic tragedy like that. It was for…a fearful, tragic, lost… monster."

"The scene when he lights up purple and destroys the city…that was such a killer scene. Luna's got good taste."

"In a lot of ways…I'm like that Godzilla thing… a fearful…tragic…lost… monster, looking for hope."

Lincoln's heart shattered when he heard Luna say this. He grabbed his chest and shook, almost feeling like his heart literally broke.

The music from that scene began playing, going from woodwinds for a while, to the more operatic lyrics that seemed to espouse Godzilla's tragedy…and now Luna's. He turned and watched Luna mock-conduct, no more tears on her face, but her eyes were closed, her face with the look of morbid, eternal acceptance of sadness all over it as her body bended and flowed with the anguish and despair the song seemed to bleed so dismally and yet, paradoxically, beautifully.

"I….did I…make you feel like that Luna?" He croaked silently, before Lincoln shook as he saw her conduct the latter part of the piece, all the way to the final giant brass and string orchestrations, leading to the triplet descent, then the depressing drop off.

Suddenly the most grueling, heartbreaking fact of the day hit him.

"This music….you're listening to it…because of me. I….I did this to you Luna…..I…I hurt you Luna…it…was…all…me. You'd be your regular rocking self….if it wasn't for what I did…what I put you through."

As the song died down, Lincoln closed the door and moved to the right, his body feeling weak and unable to move. He pulled his legs in at a slight angle and put his head between his knees….and cried silently. Unable to move…unable to doing anything…he cried, curled up, feeling the full weight of devastating the person he was so unwilling to admit he fell in love with.

Within minutes, Lincoln heard Luna's door open.

"Huh…thought I locked it up. Ah well," came Luna's voice, sounding a bit more in key and typical, though Lincoln was drowning in his sorrows to notice.

"LINCOLN!? Oh gee dude, it's only you bro. You scared me a sec like Lucy…Hey…Lincoln…Lincoln bro, what's up?"

Lincoln was still in shell-shock mode, unable to feel his body or move his head up, his body still curled, his body now shaking. He felt locked out of being able to give any sort of response.

"Lincoln, what's up? Is everybody still out at the mall?"

Lincoln managed to shift his head enough inside his knees to mimic a nod of confirmation, still overall physically crippled by his emotions. He couldn't bear the thought of Luna seeing him like this.

Suddenly Lincoln felt Luna put her hand on his shoulder, seemingly denting the egg shell that was his current state of mind and physicality.

"Lincoln bro…come on…what's up?"

The nice tone in Luna's voice slowly wore at Lincoln's muddled and mixed, teary form, though he still couldn't budge.

"Lincoln, please! Bro!?"

Lincoln's emotional shell and motor skills still chained him down. Suddenly, a weak link in his emotional duress was found in his conscious. He mustered up the strength he could…to look at Luna…to look into Luna…just to see her, her as she was….her. His faced in complete tears, it looked as though he murdered reality and wept for it. Lincoln heard the mortified ripple in his sisters voice echo in pain to him.

"Bro…what's wrong?"

Lincoln, still shaking and tears streaming down his freckled face, gave a whimpered choked response.

"L…Luna….the music you were playing…listening to….I…I….I messed you up…I messed you up bad….I messed everything up between us Luna…I'm sorry. I'm so, so, so….sorry Luna!"

With that, Lincoln utterly and completely broke down into his clothed knees, a flabbergasted and shocked Luna seeing her little brother doing this; as it broke his heart to see his sister in such emotional turmoil, his state sent ungodly ripples into Luna's spine, lamenting now like a perpetual rainstorm for her secret love, Lincoln. She bent down, now herself crying, hugging onto him in a tight embrace as he shook. Lincoln felt her hug him in a tight embrace as they both cried.

"I got you bro. I'm here."