Only one week later, I bring you the second chapter in my first fanfic. This one is three times as long as the first, so let me know if this is a good length for future chapters. Again, I don't own The Loud House, I just think it's really cool.
Lynn Sr stared in disbelief. The man before him was none other than his older brother, Avery. Quickly however, the look on the chef's face turned into a deep scowl. "W-Why are you here? Why now? You've got some nerve coming to my restaurant." The tan suited man gave his little brother a look of disappointment.
"You always had a special way of saying hello to people." he replied, pulling his menu from off to the side into his lap after opening it. "There's a lot of dishes in here named after you, but how do you explain the 'luanchovie pizza,' 'lucaesar salad,' and 'lanacotti?' Lynn Sr remained tight lipped, feeling he didn't owe his "brother" any explanation.
"Oh wait," Avery said suddenly. "There's something called 'Chicken Caccia-lori' served here". "The manager I just spoke to claimed to be your daughter, she answered to the name Lori a moment ago."
By this point the restaurant owner was visibly shaking from listening to the man in front of him speak about his daughters. If he didn't have an eatery to run, he would've reached over and pulled the bald man close to his face by his tie. Instead, he took several deep breaths before replying. "Good Sir, if you don't order something, you're going to have to leave this establishment. There are plenty of people waiting to eat who wish to NOT waste my time."
The dapper dressed man took one last look at his menu before closing it and calmly setting it down in front of him. "Lynn, it's been far too long since I've seen you; I only want to make things up to you however I can." The grimace on Lynn's face was so obvious it could have been seen from space.
"Order something or take your backstabbing self to the nearest bar where you belong, this is supposed to be a family restaurant," the chef practically spat through gritted teeth.
"Alright, alright," the intruder said raising his arms in defense before sighing. "I'll have a root beer to drink, and to eat I'd like an order of these 'Buffalola chicken wings' to start, followed by the 'Luna Cassarole' with a side of 'Lynnostrone soup'". The man then smiled, sadly. "You know, you're famous enough now that even Hazeltucky wants in on some of your cuisine," he added, pulling out his phone and showing the chef a news article praising Lynn's Table. "I even sent you an invite over the internet asking you to be at my wedding years back. I guess you still hate me."
With his arms crossed, Lynn pondered his next words. The look on his face told his older brother that just thinking was painful. Finally, he said "Alright so that's an order of 'Buffalola chicken wings,' the 'Luna Cassarole,' and a side of 'Lynnostrone soup?'"
"Plus a root beer," Avery clarified.
"Which I don't make homemade, I buy separately" the chef told the unwelcome but still hopefully paying customer. "Very well, your order will be out when I get to it, as you've noticed we're short-staffed around here, so don't be surprised if it takes an hour… or two."
"I'll be here," Avery said with a look of resolve. "You've probably got a lot of questions, and I'm ready to give up any and all answers." Giving a short grunt, the still frazzled chef turned his back on his once beloved sibling, and headed back into his domicile.
Lori was finished signing for the steaks and was about to finish placing the several dozen cuts of meat into the freezer, before she remembered what happened when she first started working at the restaurant, getting locked in the freezer, similar to her boyfriend Bobby on more than one occasion. Lori stamped on the ground lock, holding the door in place so that she could then carry the steaks into their temporary home. At that moment, her father burst into the kitchen with a look of nausea on his face, earning him a look of concern from his eldest child.
"Dad?" she called to him, even though he was only several feet away. "You alright? Who is that man?" Without warning, Lynn Sr shuffled towards the sink, turned on the water, and promptly emptied his stomach into the basin. Lori was horrified.
"DAD, Oh My God" she yelled, running up behind him. "Are you getting sick? I'm going to close the restaurant for the day." She turned to leave but was grabbed by her arm.
"No, don't, it's alright," he wheezed, still trying to catch his breath. He cupped his free hand, holding the water as if it held precious immunity. He brought the handful to his mouth, downed the entire bounty before swishing and spitting back into the sink. Finally he spoke.
"Sweetheart, I'm not sick, just a little startled," he confessed. "Why?" the young women replied. "Should I call the police? Did that man threaten you?" The fear on her face was enough to get the grown man to snap out of his daze.
"Lori honey, that guy out there means nothing to me," he said as he placed both hands on the trembling shoulders of his daughter. "BUT," he spoke with alarm. "He is our most important customer at the moment, so much so that I need you to go to the front of house and tell Grant to send everybody waiting to eat, home." Lori's eyes grew with the sudden request, but they were about to get much bigger. "Then, let him know to meet in the kitchen after he's done so. Next," he paused, anger beginning to build up in him for the sacrifice he was about to make. "Tell Kataro to give anybody still eating, some to-go containers for their food, and anybody still waiting on their food should get a coupon, and some mints. Then, after the first group has paid, send everybody out the door before telling Kataro to get in here for a staff meeting."
With all the information Lynn just unloaded on his daughter, he was getting out of breath again. "Uh, dad_?"
"Lori, please," he begged. "It's really important that I talk to this man alone, he's very persistent, and is unfairly patient." The look in her father's eyes was enough to break her heart, but Lori obeyed and turned to leave.
"One more thing," he squeaked out. "I know it's below your pay grade, but could you take a glass of root beer to booth eleven? He's the only patron allowed to stay, don't talk to him, just give him the drink. I promise he won't hurt you, but don't pay him any more attention than that."
Lori rushed through the swinging door into the dining room, her mission clear. All the while, the chef returned to the sink to scrub his hands and forearms, furiously.
Meanwhile, at the Royal Woods Mall
Nobody knew how to explain it, but the Royal Woods Mall was still operating after many decades. Nowadays, anybody could just go online to have their retail needs met, and at a much better price most of the time. However, perhaps the town just had a thing for nostalgia that the internet could never take away. Plus, it wasn't as though it wasn't being put to good use, with senior citizens using the metropolis of shopping to get plenty of exercise they couldn't find at a regular gym.
It was also at this mall that Leni Loud, Lori's sister and roommate, was just wrapping up a shift at Reiningers Department Store. Now that school was done for a while, Leni would have no excuse to leave the place she considered her second home. However, laws have a way of hitting you where it hurts.
"O.. Em.. Gosh you guys," she said in her typical cheery manner to her co-workers Miguel and Fiona. "This is going to be the BEST summer ever, just the three of us working and never having to leave for school." By now, Miguel and Fiona were used to the overly dim, but kind hearted girl. Which is why bringing her back to reality was a heart breaking ritual that made them happy that at least she was a hard worker.
"Actually Leni, dear," Miguel spoke first. "You still have to go home, you can't work here forever, non-stop." The clouds in Leni's head began to darken. "What do you mean, I love this job," her eye's then widened in fear. "Wait, am I getting fired again, I swear I never stole anything, Ms. Carmichael can't make me leave, I'm assistant manager." Fiona was quick to grab Leni's shoulders and ease her fears.
"No silly girl," she said calmly. "What Miguel is saying is that they have rules for working longer than you want."
"Rules?" the bleach blonde replied with confusion. "Like what they have at Dairyland?" The two teens nodded with some hesitation, knowing a better metaphor existed but not being able to find it at the moment. "You can only work up to 30 hours in a week, just like during the school year," Fiona explained. "It doesn't change once you're out of school, and it doesn't have to, we just have to sit down and talk about the rest of our summer plans so that we can spend as much time working together as we can, 'boss,'" she said with a wink.
If there were tears in Leni's eyes, they most certainly weren't from sadness anymore. "Y..You really mean that?" she said with a smile, wiping her face. "Of course, we couldn't ask for a better boss to also be our friend," Miguel and Fiona both said. At that moment, their other boss Ms. Carmichael walked into earshot.
"You're lucky your shift is coming to an end, you three," she said, startling the trio as she walked towards them. "Be sure to put in your new shift requests by the weeks end, I would like to have a word with you all at the staff meeting next week." The last part was said with a hung head, not being missed by any of the teen's.
"Is something wrong, Ms. Carmichael?," Leni spoke up with her signature look of concern. "Nothing for the lot of you to worry about right now, just enjoy working." She said before pointing to the employee lounge. "But you can enjoy doing so tomorrow, your shifts are over." With that, the older red-headed woman walked away.
"C'mon guys, lets hit the food court," Leni suggested. "I still have a few hours before dad and Lori come get me." The teens didn't get a chance to reply before being pulled by their arms towards the exit into the mall. "Leni, wait," they said as they were dragged across the floor by the deceptively strong girl. "We still need to clock out first." Luckily Leni stopped, blushing with embarrassment.
The three teens were munching on junk food, discussing their summer plans. "So my family is supposed to take a cruise across South America," Fiona stated with her typical dry excitement. "We'll be seeing every major port city; Buenos Aires, Lima, Santiago once we find a place to dock, Sao Paulo..." She would have kept naming them if they weren't interrupted by a stout boy in a striped shirt and cap. "Heeey guys, what's cool?" said the teen that the whole group knew by one name.
"Chaz!" They exclaimed before motioning for him to sit, next to Leni. "Just get off work?"
"Nope," he said, drink in hand. "I'm only on break, but I really needed to speak with Leni since I know she'll leave while I'm still working. It's very important." Miguel and Fiona were aware of Chaz and Leni's "relationship," and immediately got up. "We'll just go grab a couple smoothies, the line should be long enough," Fiona said, grabbing Miguels hand and rushing off with a smile.
Left alone, Leni looked at her 'boyfriend' and gave a small smile. "Hi Chaz, so what have you been up to?"
"Only working, and maybe coming up with a life goal." Chaz then looked away from his 'girlfriend,' earning him a glare from the lovely lady.
"Chaz, is everything alright? I haven't seen you much lately. I know we said that we shouldn't go too quickly with our relationship, but you haven't really met the rest of my family yet outside of Lori."
The fashion minded boy could only sigh. "You know, the last time I was at your house was when that big party was going on and there was like a hundred people, who was even the host?" Leni thought the memory was odd since parties at the Loud House were kept small and usually only within the immediate family, which was big enough to be a large party be some standards. Then it occurred to her…
"Oh, you mean that time when everybody was playing the 'friend card' to get privileges," she replied. Chaz gave a look of confusion, thinking this was another "Leni-ism," having accepted that Leni was different from other girls, but didn't really care since she was the first girl to show him any attention beyond being just friends. However, she wasn't the only one.
"Listen Leni," he began after looking back at her. "You are really great, and so talented as a seamstress." The teenage girl blushed at the compliment. "Oh thank you, Chaz. You're totes sweet."
"Chaz especially likes that cosplay you did for the "Eleven of Hearts" character your brother created, did you help with the initial design?"
"Nope, that was all Linky, he must have learned basic designing from me," she replied. Suddenly, her face turned downward at the thought of her only brother. It was so obvious even a boy like Chaz could see it.
"Hey, what's wrong? Is it about Lincoln?" He said, putting a hand on one of her shoulders.
"It's just, I haven't really seen him much since we returned from that convention a few months ago. At first I thought he was practicing his magic, so that's why I can't see him as often." Chaz ears perked up at the word convention.
"Yeah that's right, you and your sisters are going to be in that new Ace Savvy movie, you're so lucky." Leni didn't respond for a while before saying, "I don't think Linky sees it that way, I mean, he's going to be in the movie too, but not with us."
"What does that mean?" he asked
"Well, you see, I only went to the convention because of the contest, not because I'm a nerd like Lincoln." Chaz was a bit offended, since he was still a fan of Ace Savvy even as a teenager. Leni quickly realized her slip up. "I mean, there's nothing wrong with… What I'm trying to get at is that comics have always been Lincoln's thing, but he doesn't have any real talents like me or Lori or anybody else in our family. So when we got all of this attention even though we were new to the world of comics, I guess he got really jealous. Long story short, he did something very unheroic to try to get attention, and he almost got away with it."
"Almost?," Chaz replied.
"Yeah, the judges were going to give him the cameo and forget about us, even though we were the one's that saved him from his plan. But, in the end, he confessed that he was wrong, and let us have the honor," Leni finished.
"Wow! That must've been hard for him to do, your little bro sure has integrity when it really counts." At that point Leni began to cry, and Chaz immediately regretted what he said. "Hey, please don't cry, I was just stating a fact.
Leni wiped her face, but couldn't stop fresh tears from flowing down her red cheeks. "So anyway, the judges pretty much gave him the role of cleaning up after Mr. Kitty, I guess as punishment, I'm not even sure he's going to be in the movie, they're probably going to have them stay on set and just pay them to clean the litter box off camera. Lincoln can be selfish at times, but he doesn't deserve to have this happen to him. He probably feels like we took his dream from him without even trying."
Chaz may have been young, but he knew when he had to comfort somebody. He stood up from his chair, and embracing the sobbing mess that was his 'girlfriend.' "It's OK Leni, your brother is so much more optimistic than that, I'm sure he'll bounce back. So, how HAS he been, I didn't let you finish telling me how he's been doing." When Leni felt like she could talk, she took a drink of water and explained.
"OK, so recently Lincoln hasn't been saying much, and that's only when I actually see him. I asked him about where he's been and he just told me he's staying after school or hanging out with his best friend Clyde."
"You don't think he still resents you, do ya?" he asked, taking a sip of his drink.
"Well, we've been giving him his space since he doesn't want to help us like he used to," she explained. "Mom and Dad told us that Lincoln would get over it eventually, but it's been three months and it's already summer vacation, and he's still been at Clyde's since school ended. I really miss him, and want to let him know how much I love him." Chaz smiled. "You're a great sister, Leni. Maybe a talk from you is just what the doctor ordered."
"Wait, Lincoln's seeing a doctor, I can't believe it's gotten that bad," she panicked. Chaz did a rare facepalm, not at Leni, but for his forgetting not to use phrases in front of her that could be taken the wrong way. "No, Leni, I mean, talking to Lincoln is the best idea we've got at this point," he clarified.
"Do you want to come over and help me? I bet speaking with another Ace Savvy fan could lift his spirits," Leni offered. Chaz sighed before looking Leni right in the eyes. "No can do Len, this is something that must be done between the two of you, and hopefully the rest of your sisters can get through to him."
"Oh, OK, so when do you want to get together next?" she said with disappointment in her voice. Chaz looked at his phone, noting that his break was close to being over, he stood up. "I don't work tomorrow, but I'll meet you here during your break, I still need to talk to you about something very important, but we just lost track of time and there's not enough left right now for us to talk everything out." He kissed Leni on the cheek and hustled back to his job at another clothing store. Leni just sat there, more dumbfounded than usual, as Miguel and Fiona returned to the table. The look on their friends' face was concerning.
"Leni, is everything alright? You didn't break up did you?" Fiona asked. "No, but he never told me what was so important that you guys needed to step away for a bit. He's going to tell me tomorrow, and now I won't be able to stop thinking about it until then." Miguel and Fiona looked at each other.
"C'mon girl, lets see a movie together, you don't have to pay for anything this time," Miguel offered. Leni didn't perk up, but instead stood up with a sigh. Her friends escorted her out of the food court and towards the cinema close to, but off-site of the mall.
Back at Lynn's Table
Lori, Kotaro, and Grant were gathered in the kitchen. A small pot of Lynnostrone soup sat on the stove, and a pan of Luna Casserole was cooking in the oven. Lynn Sr then stepped through the doors in a huff, approaching his staff. "OK gang, he's gotten his chicken wings. Once he finishes the last one, we'll bring out the soup and casserole and be free of him in no time."
"Dad, seriously," Lori chided. "I haven't seen you act like this since the grand opening, are you going to explain what's going on?"
"Yeah, why did everybody need to go home so suddenly,?" Grant added.
The moment had come, Lynn couldn't hide the truth from his family and friends much longer.
"OK, you're right," the chef said resigned. "I'll just skip the dramatic opening and get right to it." After taking the biggest deep breath he'd likely taken up to that point today, he dropped the bombshell.
"That's my brother out there, but I really wish it wasn't." For the next few minutes, there was nothing but silence, and dropped jaws.
So we've reached the end of this chapter. I almost cut it off at around 1,000 words like last time, but the stuff with Leni I felt was just too important to not hold onto for now. So what do you guys think, longer chapters, shorter chapters? Also, leave critiques, I'm tough. No clue when the next chapter will come, but let's just say I have this whole story figured out.
