Well, here we are with the third entry here.
Right, this one features Leni and the flashbacks are based around "Driving Miss Hazy", "Along Came a Sister", and "What Wood Lincoln Do?".
This one didn't take long at all write because the first pair of flashbacks were actually parts of a one-shot I had long scrapped, but still at least preserved it, so I basically just copied and pasted them onto this. Convenience!
Okay, I shall allow you to read on.
The Loud House is the exclusive property of Nickelodeon and Viacom. The usage of the setting, characters and such is based on nothing more than a pure affinity for everything and is not being used for monetary purposes.
A simple afternoon was unfolding at the Loud house, but for its sole boy of the family residing within, it was the start of a busy outing for him.
Inside his room, Lincoln was in the middle of some last minute preparations for a day out with his second oldest sister, Leni. The exact details of what this day entailed were quite sparse, so he assumed that she was going to fill him in any moment now or perhaps it was going to be one of those "know on the go" kind of situations. Nevertheless, the lack of specifics did fill Lincoln with a sense of intrigue as to how this day was going to be spent.
After making sure all was proper apparel wise with him, plus taking a small amount of his own money just for the sake of it, Lincoln departed from his room and made a path down the stairs. He figured Leni was still getting herself ready, such as managing every fine detail of her own attire or carefully applying that last portion of makeup or perhaps in the middle of her whole "brushing her hair exactly fifty times" routine. Regardless, he knew if it was anything of the sort, it was going to take a little more time, so he thought about taking a seat in the living room to pass the time.
However, before making rear end to seat cushion contact, Lincoln heard the distinct sound of Vanzilla's car horn blaring from outside. There was no verbal response that went along with it, so at first he paid no mind. But a second round came on through and finally Lincoln went to check out what's up, but not before getting a quick check on Leni.
"Come on, Leni, let's get going!" Lincoln shouted up the stairwell.
He got no response and once again, the car horn of the family wagon blasted and now the lone Loud boy's nerves were getting roiled. He grumbled indistinctly as he opened the front door and was about to unload on the offender…
Until he saw who was occupying the driver seat.
"There you are, Lincoln! Are you finally ready?"
Much to his surprise, he saw Leni manning the wheel of Vanzilla and leaning her head out the window. At first, he was unsure of this sight, but it soon came back to him. Recently, Leni had finally at long last earned her driver's license and it was something Lincoln was still adjusting to, since he had been so used to Lori being the only sibling with such privileges. He just assumed like other instances that Lori or one of their parents were going to shuttle he and Leni around for whatever laid ahead of them for the day, so to instead see his airy fashionista sister prepared to do that instead kind of threw him for a loop.
"Lincoln, aren't you coming?" Leni reiterated to him.
Snapping himself out of his lulled state of mind, Lincoln jogged on over to the front passenger seat, got inside and strapped himself in.
"Sorry, Leni. Was I keeping you waiting?" He asked.
"Maybe, like, just a little bit?" Leni admitted reluctantly, "I didn't want to rush you, but still..."
"No, it's not your fault, Leni. I guess I didn't know that you were the one driving us for our day together is all." Lincoln assured her.
"Oh, well, yeah, I am. But that's not a problem, is it?" Leni asked.
"No, no, no, it isn't!" Lincoln said adamantly, "I'm still just getting used to you in this position is all. So with that out of the way, shall we get going?"
A smile forming on her face, Leni nodded and started the engine. She set the gear to reverse and looked back over, performing a faultless backing out of the drive before shifting to drive and whisking herself and Lincoln to their still secretive day out together, at least secretive from Lincoln's side of things.
For the next couple of minutes, Lincoln was impressed at how skillful Leni was behind the wheel. No accidents involving fire hydrants, paperboys or nuns, no stopping to hip check old ladies or no incidents of driving into swimming pools mistaking them for carpool lanes. Having since passing her driving test and acquiring her license, that obviously meant Leni's driving skills had to have improved substantially, but there still was that little inkling inside of Lincoln that thought there might be some sort of incident upon the horizon, but thus far those worries seem unwarranted.
"Nice driving so far, Leni." Lincoln complemented her, "You're really becoming a pro at this."
"Aw, why thank you, Lincoln!" Leni said in her typically bubbly fashion.
But then, just as if to prove there was some justification in his earlier worries, Lincoln witnessed Leni turned her sights to him and try to wrap her arm around instead of keeping herself fixated on what's ahead of her.
"Leni! Keep you eyes on the road!" Lincoln shouted.
Quickly heeding his words, Leni yelped, looked back ahead and also instinctively hit the brakes. Luckily, they were on an empty stretch of road where no one or nothing would've suffered from a catastrophic crash caused by Leni.
"Leni...if there's one piece of advice to always hold on to when driving...it's to always keep your eyes on the road...no matter what." Lincoln advised her while taking a couple of breaths in between.
"I know, I know, I'm so sorry, Lincoln..." Leni said very regretfully, "I should've know better, especially since you were the one who did more than anybody to help me learn about driving."
Following that briefly tense moment, Leni resumed in driving as Lincoln tried calming himself so more. While the journey continued, he also took a moment to mull over his sister's words. While it is true that he probably did in fact do the lion's share of helping Leni gain the knowledge to finally pass her driving test, he did remember feeling like there was a period of time he doubted that he really did as much as he could, perhaps foolishly if anything else. Even more perplexingly, he even though he failed her in some ways. Luckily, he got some much needed reassurance to the contrary from the very sister he was helping…
A wide, beaming smile was on the face of Leni Loud. The 16-year-old resident fashionista of the Loud family had just came back home from another practice driving session along with her older sister, Lori. Leni was coming back home just by herself, as Lori would then drive on off to do an errand or two for herself.
It had been a fairly busy few days for Leni. A while earlier, she had all but given up hope on if she would ever get her driver's license. She had failed her driving test on fourteen different occasions, the most recent failure being the direct fault of Lori trying to sabotage Leni with misleading advice, but Lori had since attempted to rectify her deception with those aforementioned practice sessions.
However, if there was one person more responsible for Leni's newfound determination to pass her test, it was her little brother, Lincoln. She was so appreciative over how he was so bound and determined to help his big sister in a number of creative ways that she didn't know how she could possibly thank him once she did in fact get her license.
Right as she stepped back into the house through the front door, Leni would sure enough see Lincoln laying down on the living room couch with his attention firmly on a comic book he was reading.
"Hi, Lincoln!" Leni enthusiastically greeted her little brother with a wave.
"Hey Leni." Lincoln responded somewhat flatly, his eyes not diverting away from his comic.
"So, in case you were wondering, I just came back home from some more practice driving with Lori. I think soon enough I'll be able to totes pass my driving test finally!" Leni said with some zeal.
"Yeah, that's great, Leni. Just great." Lincoln said, again with little in the way of emotion.
Leni looked towards her younger brother in puzzlement. The lackadaisical manner in which he had been speaking was making her worry a little. Being the naturally caring girl of a sweet nature she was, she wanted to find out if something was bothering him.
"Lincoln, are you okay?" Leni asked as she joined him on the couch.
"I'm fine, Leni..." Lincoln answered in a more annoyed tone, pulling the comic closer to his face to avoid directly looking at her.
"You don't sound fine, though." Leni said while moving closer towards her brother, "Come on, Lincoln, is there something that's bothering you?"
Lincoln groaned softly, then sighed. Relenting to his sister's concerns for him, he put aside his comic and looked at her.
"It's...kind of dumb. You'll probably think so too if I tell you." He said timidly.
Leni shook her head and placed both her hands on his shoulders, "Nothing can be dumb to me if it's upsetting you. It's all right, you can tell me."
Lincoln sighed again, "Okay, well…I've kind of been feeling like I have failed you in a way in getting you ready for your last two driving tests."
"Failed me?" Leni questioned in mystification, "What do you mean?"
"Well, I mean...I want to say it's my fault for when you failed the test for the thirteenth time because I made you think it would be exactly like the video game I had you practice with." Lincoln responded, his tone getting more regretful, "And even though it was mainly Lori's fault regarding your most recent test failure, given that she tried to sabotage you and all, I feel like I had a hand in that too, somehow. But at the very least right now she's helping you practice. What have I been doing recently, other than just lazing around?"
Leni looked on at her brother sadly. Hearing him trying to take any sort of blame for her recent test failures was something that she really didn't like hearing, especially since she actually believed he had a real positive impact on her with regards to her attitude in relation to driving. Not wanting to see or have him wallow in self-pity, Leni brought Lincoln over to her with right arm and let him rest against her shoulder.
"Aw, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself, Lincoln." Leni told him comfortingly, "You haven't failed me at all. You've done more than anybody to help me get ready for those tests. Besides, it was my fault I failed it on my thirteenth try, not yours. I took everything from that game of yours way too seriously and thought the test would be just like it. But you know what? Even after failing, you didn't give up on me. You still believed in me, even getting the rest of our sisters to help out, too. And sure, Lori may be helping me practice, but you gave me something much more important."
"Really? What do you mean?" Lincoln wondered.
Leni cupped his face and made in look directly up at her, "You gave me my confidence, Lincoln, and that is so important. I could know every little things about cars, from the spinny thingy…or, uh, the steering wheel, to the blinky-blink...er, the turn signal, but none of that would have mattered if I wasn't confident in myself. But with your help, I did in fact gain the confidence to keep going and I'm sure I'll soon enough pass the test once and for all, I'll get my license and it'll all be due to your help."
Giving Lincoln a soft smile, Leni would then bring her little brother against her as she affectionately embraced him.
"I can't thank you enough, Lincoln. I so appreciate everything you've done for me." She said softly.
Perhaps as a result of her kindness and reassurances, Lincoln felt a lot better about himself and showed his own appreciation by hugging his big sister back.
"Thanks, Leni." Lincoln said with a grin, but then quickly got a little uneasy again, "Though there is one other little thing that's bothering me I must admit."
"Huh?" Leni said while pulling away to face him, "What is it?"
"This may be even dumber than me trying to take any blame for your test failures..." Lincoln admitted in concern, "But I have to say for the most part, the only reason at first I really wanted to help get your license was so someone other than Lori could give me rides to places the like the comic book store. I kind of feel guilty about that. I should have been doing it so you could become more independent and not for my own selfish desires."
"Hey now, don't think of it like that." Leni said before she gently caressed the side of her little brother's face, "I'd love to do that for you, just as much as I love you as well, Linky."
She lightly gave him a kiss on the cheek, the same one she just caressed, then pulled him into another hug, which again Lincoln returned in kind happily.
"Oh, well, thank you, Leni. I love you, too. And I know you will get your license sooner rather than later." He said proudly.
"Lincoln? Lincoln? Lincoln!"
"Huh, what?"
Lincoln looked around and realized he had been so lost in thought that he didn't notice until now that Leni had parked and shut off Vanzilla's engine, presumably having arrived at the first destination of their day.
"Was there something wrong, Lincoln?" Leni asked.
"What? Oh, no, I just kind of spaced out was all." Lincoln replied, taking a second to regain himself.
He looked around again and found out that they had arrived at the mall, a predicable but otherwise safe bet for an outing with Leni. After all, she and the mall go together like peanut butter and jelly, cereal and milk and any other kind of foodstuffs that gelled well in conjunction with one another.
With both of them stepping out of Vanzilla, Leni and Lincoln ventured onward to the former's physical representation of paradise.
In the hour that passed, a whirlwind of shops were visited, but the majority of time was spent perhaps unsurprisingly at Reininger's, the store where Leni worked at part time. They were having a 20% sale going on today, and when the fact that employees get an additional 50% discount, a total of 70% of savings was something Leni absolutely couldn't turn down.
For the most part, Lincoln had very little involvement in his sister's shopping, aside from the occasional opinion about a particular article of clothing she had difficulty selecting. Because of the lack of input on his end, Lincoln kind of felt himself spacing out again just like he did back in Vanzilla, something that didn't go unnoticed with Leni.
"Hey, Lincoln? You look like you're doing that spacey outie thingy again. Are you sure you're okay?" She asked very concernedly.
Lincoln sighed heavily, "Yes, yes, I'm fine. Maybe I just need to take a moment in shaking out the cobwebs."
"Cobwebs? As in spiders?!" Leni exclaimed, her eyes getting wide as she grew panic stricken and looked every which way, "Where, where?!"
"Leni, relax!" Lincoln tried in calming her down, "I meant I just need to take a few seconds in collecting myself and I'll be okay."
"Oh...well, okay then." Leni said, taking a deep breath, "Phew, sorry about that. I should totes know better than thinking there would be spiders, like, crawling around and stuff around here, unless we're at the pet shop."
Although he probably shouldn't be finding any humor in this, Lincoln held back a chuckle. Sometimes there was a little bit of amusement in Leni's fear of spiders. After all, she is one who almost every single time fell for thinking Luan's rubber spider was real and such. But one experience where no humor at all occurred involving spiders was so traumatizing for Leni that it caused her to need being with Lincoln for a little while to ease things. But on the flip side, that same night when such horrors happened was also when Lincoln got a huge surprise from Leni, too…
One evening, Leni was frenetically scrubbing herself over the sink in the bathroom as she was preparing for bed. Today had been one of the most traumatic ones in her life. Earlier, Lincoln had brought home with him his class' pet tarantula so he could look after it over the weekend. He tried to make sure that Leni didn't know about it, given how much she hated spiders, but as to be expected, she did and almost killed it in fear. But she had a quick change of heart when she overheard Lincoln saying how his class was going to hate him over what had allegedly happened, and then when it was revealed that the tarantula was still alive, she actually was brave enough to save it from the exterminator that had been hired to kill it. Even more importantly, Leni stood up for Lincoln in his defense over what would happen to his social standing at school had the spider been killed.
But after all of that had occurred, while Lincoln was off returning the tarantula, who he originally thought was a male named Frank, but was in fact a female who he and his sisters renamed as Frances, something very terrifying happened. As Leni was in her room brushing her hair, a whole brood of baby spiders belonging to Frances had hatched in the ventilation shaft right above. Naturally, she was mortified beyond belief, so much so that even after all of the spiders were gotten rid of, her room being disinfected and getting herself a very, very long shower, she absolutely refused to stay in her room for the night. Luckily, primarily because he felt this was all his fault in the first place, Lincoln had offered to let Leni stay in his room until she felt comfortable going back.
Once she was finished up in the bathroom, Leni left and went down the hall over to Lincoln's room, bringing with her an extra pillow and curiously enough, her purse. She knocked on the door and he graciously let her inside.
"Thanks again for letting me stay the night with you, Lincoln. That is so sweet of you." Leni said as she came in.
"It's the least I can do, Leni, since today's ordeal was kind of my own doing." Lincoln said, followed by some nervous laughter, "By the way, while we're on the subject of thanks, I really appreciated how you stood up for me after saving Frank...err, Frances. That name change is going to take a while for me to remember."
Leni chuckled and patted her brother on the shoulder, "It's no problem. While my fear of spiders is pretty strong, my feelings to do right for you is much stronger."
Lincoln smiled as he gave his sister a hug, "Thank you, Leni. That makes me feel real good inside."
Leni embraced Lincoln in return briefly, then both of them climbed into bed, with Lincoln getting on first and Leni just after him as she placed down her pillow next to the one he rests on. It was kind of a relief for Lincoln that Leni was able to make herself comfortable, since at first he didn't know if she was going to even fit in, thinking she might be too big for his bed, especially in the context of sharing it with him. Luckily, things appeared to be working out, with Lincoln shuffling himself over close against the wall on his side of the bed so Leni could have just enough space for herself.
However, before they could get some shuteye, there was something Leni wanted her brother to see.
"Hey, let me show you something, Lincoln." She said to him, a grin beginning to form across her lips.
Curious to see what this could be, Lincoln looked on while Leni rummaged around her purse for a moment. Soon enough, she pulled something out of it and held it up to him. It was a small rectangular piece of plastic. Not even a second after seeing this, Lincoln eyes lit up and he smiled widely.
"You...you got your driver's license?!" He stated excitedly.
Leni nodded and let out a very happy squeal of delight. Overjoyed, Lincoln tightly hugged her while she did the same to him.
"Oh, I'm so happy for you, Leni! Way to go!" Lincoln expressed with pride, "When did you get it?"
"Just yesterday!" She replied ecstatically, "I wanted to wait a little bit so I can surprise you with it. You and Lori are right now the only ones who know. But don't worry, I'll tell everyone else tomorrow. Anyway, I have to thank you so much, Lincoln! You're the biggest reason I managed to finally succeed in this!"
All Lincoln could do was continued to smile as Leni pulled back and then gave him a very emphatic kiss on the cheek. After a prolonged period in their embrace, they parted ways before Leni put her brand new license back in her purse and put it down on the floor. After that, she and Lincoln laid back down to get some sleep. At first, they were on respective sides of the bed, but Leni couldn't help but bring her little brother over close to him in her arms.
"My sweet, little Linky..." She said before yawning.
Lincoln chuckled lightly as he gladly welcomed his big sister's warmth to the point he snuggled closer to her. As both of them drifted off to sleep, Lincoln was left with a feeling of such pride over having such a great sister. From how she stood by his side after saving Frances, to knowing he had done his part in helping her getting her driver's license, the were no shortage of ways of why he loved and cared for her so.
"Done!" Leni shouted, "You ready, Lincoln?"
"Oh, you mean we're done here? Uh, sure, right behind you!" Lincoln replied.
With that, Leni handed Lincoln one of the bags of stuff she bought for him to carry as both of them returned to the parking lot and Vanzilla. The bags were placed in the back and then they both headed back for the driver and front passenger seat.
"So, was that it, Leni? Just a simple trip to the mall?" Lincoln questioned.
Leni shook her head, "No, we've got a couple of other places to go to."
"Like?" Lincoln asked simply.
"Oh, you'll see!" Leni answered in a bubbly cryptic fashion.
She turned over the engine of Vanzilla and drove off, leaving Lincoln to wonder what could be in store next.
Coincidentally enough, "store" was apt in describing the next destination they arrived at, one that Lincoln was nothing short of befuddled over.
"Wait, what? Shoulda Coulda Wooda? Why on earth are we here, Leni?" Lincoln asked at a sheer loss.
"Oh, this is something that Lana requested be done." Leni began explaining after finishing parking, "She said something about needed some falsa wood and mahuganoy. Is that, like, wood you can hug?"
"Uh, I think you mean balsa wood and mahogany." Lincoln corrected his sister.
Still quite dumbstruck that this hardware store of all places was part of his day out with Leni, Lincoln still followed along with her inside. But as they entered, he had something of a far away look in his eyes as he was surround by the various tools, wood and other such related products. It was like he was experiencing his own 11-year-old variation of "I'm remembering the horrors of 'Nam" flashbacks. In this case, it was his misadventures and then some with woodworking. He was so out of it that he almost lost sight of Leni just as much as she absentmindedly left him several feet behind until she finally turned over to see him standing there so awkwardly.
"Lincoln!" She called out to him.
Finally, Lincoln snapped out of it and jogged up to his sister, who was looking very distressed.
"Lincoln, this is the third time something like this has happened." Leni said full of worry as she knelt down to his level, "Something must be going and you should really let me know!"
Lincoln sighed and shook his head. Before he could say anything, though, Leni took him by the hand and brought him along with her away and out of the store. Luckily, there was a nearby bench that she had her brother and herself sit down on so they could work things out.
"What happened back there, Linky?" Leni asked him in a caring, maternal voice, "What's going on with you today?"
"I'm sorry, Leni. I didn't mean for that to happen." Lincoln said, taking a deep breath to regain himself, "I guess coming here sort of threw me for a loop, mainly because it made me remember all the bad times I've had with woodworking. You should know since there was a time I told you about it and how you also tried to help me through things..."
"Okay, Lincoln, you can do this..."
Those words of self-motivation were spoken while the singular Loud boy was in the garage with various pieces of wood and a handful of tools on the workbench. He took a deep breath as he prepared himself for the task at hand: overcoming his anxieties when engaging in the trade of woodworking.
From "jelly legs" to blurry vision to ringing in his ears, there was something about woodworking that made Lincoln get so nervous. He only narrowly passed his most recent school assignment in that field when he barely managed to make a stool all by himself without any assistance or attempts to say, get his mom to do the work for him like he did previously. But passing with the minimal effort of making a ramshackle of a stool was only a small moral victory for Lincoln. Now, he wanted to prove to himself that he could truly build something more competently made.
Gathering some more willpower, Lincoln tried steeling his nerves as he approached the workbench. He technically had no idea what he was going to build, but as long as it had effort put into it, he didn't care about the exact specifics.
"All right now..." Lincoln said, reaching over to grab some wood, "Hello there, Mr. Wood. You're not so bad, aren't you? No, you're just itching to be made into something nice."
He may find talking to his supplies silly, but if it helps keep his cool for the duration, then so be it.
"Okay, let's talk to Mr. Hammer, here..." He said while taking said tool into his hand, "Yeah, so far so good..."
He may have spoken too soon as Lincoln started hearing that distinct ringing in his ears, and just like that, a cascading effect commenced where all his anxieties arrived at once. Blurriness in his vision and legs trembling coming on through, Lincoln placed everything back on the bench and took a few steps back.
"Maybe I can't do this…" He said dejectedly.
With a heavy sigh, Lincoln stood in place and lowered his head in defeat.
"Oh, there you are, Lincoln! I've been looking for you!"
Hearing his name being addressed, he glanced over his shoulder to see Leni approaching him.
"What's going on, Leni?" Lincoln asked.
"Well, like I just said, I was looking all around for you, because I wanted your help with something." Leni replied perkily.
Lincoln sighed again, "Normally, I'd love to help, but right now I'm just not in the mood..."
Upon realizing her brother's gloomy posture and manner of speaking, Leni came closer to him and put both her hands on his shoulders.
"Lincoln, is there something wrong?" She wondered in a worried tone.
Lincoln chose not to say anything right away, but Leni did glance up to the workbench and saw all the scattered supplies and such before her.
"What were you doing?" She inquired.
Lincoln took another sigh and tried formulating a response, but once more he couldn't get anything out, which only increased his sister's concerns.
"Lincoln, please, say something. What's going on?" Leni pleaded with him.
"All right, all right, I'll tell you." Lincoln said in a mix of annoyance and uneasiness, "I'm trying my hand at woodworking again, and I say again because I've being doing some of that at school. The thing is, I have such a hard time whenever I take part in it and I'm trying it again on my own to overcome these issues that crop up, like blurriness in my vision, ringing in my ears and jelly legs."
"What? Jelly on your legs? How does that work out?" Leni questioned, the latter condition clearly befuddling her.
"No, I mean that my legs get shaky to the point that I might lose my balance." Lincoln clarified.
"Ohhh..." Leni uttered.
She took another look at the workbench, then she examined everything further when she came right up to it.
"You know, maybe I can help out." Leni offered, looking back over to her brother.
"Wait, you would?" Lincoln asked surprised.
"Of course, Lincoln!" Leni answered with zeal, "I'd totes would help!"
"But what would you know about this kind of stuff? I mean..." Lincoln was in the middle of saying, but then it hit him, "Oh, wait, that's right! You made that bed frame for Lori after you took her words too literally about how she wanted you to 'make your bed' during the time you were still getting your license."
Leni nodded, "Uh-huh, yeah! So can we work on this together?"
"Actually, let me offer a different suggestion if you're really wanting to help me, Leni." Lincoln began with, "Like I said, I want to prove I can do this myself, so how about you instead just stay by my side to give me moral support, okay?"
"Uh...okay, sure! As long as I can help out in any way, I'm happy with that." Leni said.
Giving his second oldest sister a thankful smile, Lincoln returned to the workbench, but once again, that same ringing in his ears came back in force.
"Oh, dang it, that ringing..." He said as he shut his eyes and held the side of his head.
In an instant, Leni stood behind Lincoln and put her arms around him.
"It's okay, Linky..." She whispered to his ear.
That soft, soothing voice of his sister seemed like it was doing the trick. The ringing faded out as Lincoln reopened his eyes and took a breath of air. A little blurry vision did also occur, but a few blinks took care of that in short order. Next, Lincoln reached over to take one plank of wood and set another one on top of that.
"What are you making, anyway?" Leni asked as she rested her chin on Lincoln's head.
"I'm not sure to tell the truth." He admitted, "Maybe I'm just going with the flow and seeing where that takes me."
For his next step, Lincoln opened up a box of nails and dumped out a tiny number of them. Then, he was about to grab the hammer again, but the jelly legs were returning with a vengeance, which in turn was causing his whole body to shake.
"Hey, relax..." Leni said in a very calm voice, tightening her hold of her little brother, "You can do this, Lincoln."
Taking another deep breath, Lincoln felt a small, but rising sense of determination flowing within him thanks to Leni's assurances. He took a nail and positioned it over to the two planks of wood, then he grabbed the hammer and hovered over the nail. He gently tapped the nail a couple of times until it began going into the wood. Slowly but surely, he increased the rate of tapping until he'd driven the nail all the way in.
"Hey, you did it, Lincoln!" Leni said happily.
Lincoln chuckled sightly, "Yeah, I guess so! But this just only the beginning."
Now with some confidence at hand, Lincoln took another nail and hammered it in with more proper effort, then started repeating the process with a third one and before he knew it, he had a whole row of nails bonding together the two planks firmly.
"Wow, look at that! Way to go, Linky!" Leni expressed exuberantly, giving him a quick, little squeeze.
"Thanks, Leni!" Lincoln responded.
He gently worked himself out of his sister's grasp and held up the two pieces of wood a bit.
"It's not much, but it's start at least." He said, proud of his handiwork thus far, "Still have no clue as to what this will become, but hey, I'll take this first step."
He put them back down and turned around to face Leni.
"You know, I think I can handle things from here, Leni." Lincoln told her.
"You sure about that?" Leni wondered, a hint of lingering worry in her voice.
Lincoln reached out and patted his sister's shoulder, "I'm sure. It seems all I needed was that little extra bit of motivation and inspiration from you. So don't worry, I really do think I'm good from here. But thanks for the support, Leni, because it really did help out."
To show that little bit more gratitude to her, Lincoln put his arms around Leni's waist and hugged her for a moment, something that she was always willing to reciprocate.
"Aw, you're welcome, Lincoln!" Leni said brimming in happiness.
As soon as their embrace ended, Lincoln shifted focus back to his project, whatever it will turn out to be while Leni took her leave. However, there was one last bit of unfinished business.
"Actually, wait a moment, Leni. Didn't you say you need help with something?" Lincoln wondered.
"Oh, don't worry about it. I'll just ask one of our sisters instead." Leni replied just as she exited the garage.
As the side door closed, Lincoln looked back at the workbench and pondered what his next step should be. Though he was still unsure as to what the final product of this project will turn out to be, he did realize something else even more fulfilling. No blurry vision, no jelly legs and no ringing in his ears. Instead, he had complete confidence in his abilities now and all it took were some kind words and warmth from Leni to press onward.
"Actually, 'tried' wasn't the right word. You really did help out there in that case, Leni. Thank you." Lincoln told his sister gratefully.
"You're welcome, Lincoln." Leni said, placing an arm around him, "So if you're uncomfortable going back inside, you can wait in Vanzilla if you like."
Lincoln shook his head, "No, it's fine. I can deal with everything. I think talking and reminiscing helped out and I think it was more just the shock we even came here in the first place that got to me briefly. Besides, what would it say about me if a hardware store was something that I was fearful of stepping foot in again? So really, I'm fine. Let's get this done."
With his signature confidence returning, Lincoln got up from the bench and this time around, he was the one leading Leni back inside and got the shopping that Lana requested done in due time.
After putting everything inside Vanzilla, the two siblings drove off for the next, and what would end up being the last destination of the day.
"Hey, uh, Leni, I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining or anything, but is this next place we're going to another store?" He inquired somewhat unsure, "I mean, not that I would be too put off if it was, but I can't help but feel like I've been brought along like I'm your personal shopping assistant or something."
Lincoln waited for a response, but Leni remained quiet for the time being, only solely keeping her eyes on the road ahead of her.
"Leni?" Lincoln asked again.
"Shh, it's a surprise!" She said, giggling a little.
On the one hand, Lincoln did feel a tiny bit frustrated inside over the secrecy that Leni was engaging in right now. But then again, this whole trip was basically filled with concealment of its agenda, so in a sense he couldn't exactly complain too much.
Luckily, he didn't have to feel that frustrated because his eyes grew wide when he saw the establishment that they pulled up to.
"An ice cream parlor?" He said with a grin beginning to form.
"Yeah!" Leni responded happily, "I kinda knew going in to today that this wasn't something you really wanted to do, shopping and all, so I thought we'd end the day here so we can do something we both like and as my way of saying thanks for coming with me regardless."
She reached over and gave Lincoln a quick one-armed hug before she stepped out of the driver's seat. He did concede that this was in fact not exactly how he foresaw this day out with Leni would go, but he certainly did like how it ended.
After all, as he stepped out and joined his sister, who could ever complain about ice cream?
Well, that makes three! Before I leave you, there are couple of things I'll get out there.
One, the title of this chapter is referencing how both Leni and Lincoln helped each other with their respective issues in driving and woodworking. Just thought I mention that in case anyone was wondering since that title may not obviously convey the theme of this chapter as clearly like the other two did ("A Shared Affinity for Music" meaning how Luna and Lincoln have similar interests in music and "Late Night Memories" of course referencing that Luan and Lincoln were watching some home movie clips before going to bed).
Secondly, just in case anyone might point this out, the second flashback followed up the events of the first one, and I know that while "Along Came a Sister" aired first, "Driving Miss Hazy" was in production order before the former, so that's why I went with that order of the events for those flashbacks.
With all that out of the way, we'll see each other again for the next installment!
