This fic will require a bit of context. After a while of finding it harder and harder to work on my original series of Loud House fics I eventually realized that I have run into a dead end, as those fics had been way too lengthy, hence harder and harder to focus on and find time to write for, and the set up within them was becoming restrictive.
So I eventually made a decision: soft reboot. Go back to basics, do something shorter, simpler, more straightforward, and more upbeat and lighthearted. And try not to deviate too much from the show.
You don't need to read any of my old fics to understand this story, most of it will be easy to follow, the plot is the above summary. The only bits of continuity you need to know is as followed: Lynn Sr. and Rita divorced, their marriage falling apart due to years of stress from dealing with their loud and chaotic kids, and custody battles split the siblings apart. Obviously, Lincoln and Lynn, knowing the bad future, will want to prevent that now, but the other sisters, having no clue what's at stake and oblivious to their parents suffering, will be a major hurdle in their plan.
Besides that, there are two OCs from the original: the snide, sarcastic and jaded Ryan Taylor and his former lackey, the dim and aggressive Lyle Owen, bullies who picked on Lincoln and got into conflict with Lynn. Lyle remained a bad guy, but Ryan had a change of heart and became friends with Lynn (and hoping for more), but Lincoln isn't so easy to forgive, hence why the two aren't on friendly terms.
Any other bits of continuity that might pop up will be explained in story.
Another normal day had passed at the Louds residence. Or at least what passed for "normal" for this particular family which usually lived up to their last name. The only time that silence would finally befall this chaotic household was at night, when the entire family, numbering twelve strong, was sound asleep.
This included Lincoln, the family`s sole son, who was slumbering peacefully in his bedroom, or rather a modified closet that served as his bedroom. Softly snoring and with his chest slowly rising up and down, the 10-year old boy with strange white hair, large buckteeth, and youthful freckles was entirely oblivious to the tiny figure that appeared seemingly out of nowhere within the dark room, right in front of him.
She pulled out a small device, and it shot out a small suction cup which was linked to it by a wire, and it connected to the boy's forehead. The soft impact only made him stir a bit. Luckily he was a heavy sleeper.
"Proceed memory download." The process was over in a few seconds. She couldn't know for sure how Lincoln would react waking up with this new data flowing trough his mind, but she was confident that he now possessed vivid memories of what was to come. She didn't have much time to spare.
She had considered doing this to herself, but she knew that for all her intellect her brother was the superior one at communicating and reasoning with people, not to mention being the most rational member of their family. But he couldn't do this alone.
Unfortunately, a smaller, now beeping device in her pocket signaled to its creator that she was running out of time. She could only warn one more. She had to hurry.
The rest of her plan would lie in their hands. Mostly their hands.
Morning had arrived.
Lynn slowly opened her eyes, yawned and stretched in her bed. The 12-year old, freckled brunette, oddly, still felt tired, even though she had slept like a baby, and for a few moments she also felt a splitting headache, but it faded away almost immediately.
Her vision was blurry, she spotted a black figure flapping across the ceiling. "What's this damn bat doing here?" she thought groggily.
As she rose into a sitting position and surveyed her surroundings, she suddenly saw Lucy putting on her black dress.
That jolted her awake. "Whut the?" she blurted and shook her head. "Lucy?!"
The goth faced her. "Good morning to you too." she addressed her monotonously, with a hint of sarcasm.
"Lucy, what the hell are you doing here?!" Lynn snapped incredulously, glaring at her. "Were you trying to do another one of your stupid jumpscares?"
Lucy was quiet for a bit. "No...I sleep here, same as you." she replied just as dryly.
"No, you don't, you little pest, now beat it! I`m not in the mood for your creepy, little games!" a cranky Lynn yelled and swiped at her.
Confused, but also frightened, the young goth stepped back and ran out into the hall. Fang flew after her.
"Lousy brat." Lynn muttered while rubbing her eyes. "Doesn't she ever get tired of that stunt?"
Suddenly though, she realized how something seemed off about her gothic sister. Her bags were covering her eyes. But didn't she get a new haircut?
Slightly baffled, Lynn was about to jump out of her bunk, only for her feet to touch the ground while she was still sitting. Confused, Lynn took a closer look at her room and was in for a surprise.
This wasn't the cramped bedroom she was sharing with Lincoln and Luan. She found herself in her old room, which was also half-way Lucy`s. Everything, every single detail of it looked just like how she remembered it.
"What in the world?" Lynn was beyond bewildered. How did she end up here? What was happening?
She stood up and looked around. Was she dreaming?
She heard noises coming from the hall. Lynn darted towards it, not even thinking about tying up her hair or changing out of her boxers and pale gray t-shirt.
Once there, she saw Leni brushing her hair and looking into the bathroom mirror, while Lori was just outside it, strolling around and chatting on her phone. Lynn couldn`t believe her eyes.
"Give it back! It's my turn!" a nasally voice shouted.
"Fat chance! I saw him first!" a more raspy voice retorted mockingly.
The twins, together again, rolled past her, wrestling over a teddy bear, screeching and tugging each others hair.
"Give me, Frog-Face!" Lola screamed viciously.
Lana blew a raspberry. "In your dreams, Wannabe Princess!"
"TAKE THAT BACK!"
The feuding pair rolled towards Lisa, who was wearing gloves and holding a laboratory jar filled with a bubbling, green chemical with large pliers. She nonchalantly stepped out of the way.
"Could you simpletons make an effort to be a bit more cautious. This compound is highly unstable." she lisped monotonously as she walked past the confused jock, paying her no mind.
"This can't for real?! I`m must be dreaming again?" Lynn tried pinching herself. It hurt. A lot.
Not a dream? "No, it has to be!" she reasoned to herself nervously. There had to be some logical explanation for this.
"Lori? Lori!" she rushed towards her eldest sister. She glanced down at her, clearly annoyed.
"Not now, Lynn!" she hissed quietly before resuming her conversation. "No, I miss you more Boo-Boo Bear!"
Lynn trembled with irritation. She remembered how little she missed Lori`s cell phone addiction, or her sickeningly affectionate interaction with Bobby.
"Lori, please! This is important!" she begged.
Tearing herself from her phone, Lori growled. "Is it life or death?" she asked curtly.
"What?" Lynn blurted. "No! It`s ju-"
"Then I don't care!" Lori brushed her off and walked away. "No, you hang up! No, you hang up!" she continued talking gushingly down the stairs.
Lynn looked on hopelessly. This was killing her. What was happening? Why was everyone acting like nothing happened?
"So, do you know what one light bulb says to the other? You're glowing!" she heard Luan laughing.
"You already told that one, bra." Luna replied while stringing her guitar. "About a dozen times."
"Oh, c`mon sis! Don't be so high strung! Hihihi...get it!" Luan joked, sitting on the same bed as Luna.
Uneasily, Lynn stepped into their room.
"Hey, Lynn. What`s up?" Luna greeted her. "You slept in today? That's not like you." she noted.
"Hey, Lynn!" Luan approached her. "Did you hear the one about the thief who stole a calendar?"
"Not now, Luan." Lynn groaned and pulled her closer. "Can you please tell me what's going on? Why are we all back here?" she asked her tensely.
Luan blinked in confusion, as did Luna. "Eh...come again?" the comedian asked.
The jock grew annoyed. "At the apartment!"
"What apartment?" a puzzled Luna asked.
"And when did Luna, Lori, Leni, and Lola come back?!"
"They left?" Luan tried to joke, though she was starting to get weirded out.
Lynn stared at her oddly.
"Eh, are you sure you slept well, dude?" Luna asked, growing a bit concerned.
"Why are you looking at me like I'm nuts?" Lynn raised her voice and threw her arms up in frustration. "Mom and dad divorced over three months ago!"
"And me, you..." she pointed at Luan "...Lincoln, Lucy, Lana and Lisa were all stuck living with dad in a shitty, cramped, rundown apartment after our house collapsed!"
Her sisters turned dead silent, only looking at each other.
The awkward silence continued.
Lynn was breathing heavily. They looked at her like she was crazy. Was she crazy? Lynn was starting to worry about that for a moment. Everyone else was acting like it was business as usual.
"Are you guys playing the same game as Linky?" a cheery voice broke the silence. Lynn turned around to see Leni.
"What did you say?" the jock blurted.
Luan inched closer to Luna and whispered: "And you guys call me coo coo."
The blond teen smiled with blissful ignorance. "Well, Linky came to the bathroom earlier acting all confused and hectic and talked randomly about stuff like how our house shouldn't be here, how I shouldn't be here and like how he doesn't know why he`s here. I like really don't get this game?" Leni explained.
"And...where`s Linc now?" Lynn urged.
"I tried to talk to him, but he said he needed to be alone and returned to his room." Leni explained absentmindedly, only for Lynn to dart past her like the speed of light, leaving her sisters very confused.
Lincoln was slouching on his bed. Currently, a whirlwind of confusion was ravaging his mind.
One moment he was living in a dingy apartment, dirt poor, with only half of his family. And then, he wakes up in his real home, with everything back the way it was supposed to be. But how?
Lincoln had never felt such a bizarre mixture of fear and satisfaction. It's not like hadn't wished for this countless times before, but wishes like that didn't just get fulfilled overnight and rewrite reality like that, he wasn't this ignorant. This had to be a cruel dream, like he had several times before. A cruel, tempting dream showing him what he could no longer have. And yet this one felt so clear, so vivid, so...real.
He had lost track of time while contemplating before Lynn came in busting the door. "There you are!"
Lincoln was startled but then scowled. "Lynn, I`m not gonna be your sparring partner! I have enough on my plate as it-"
"Oh cut the crap, Lincoln!" Lynn interjected curtly. "I was looking for you cuz I heard that you were the only other person here who didn't get freaking amnesia!"
Lincoln blinked in surprise. "Wait? You mean you remember-"
Lynn shushed him and locked the door. "I do." she confirmed while lowering her voice. "Our house getting wrecked, the divorce, the crappy apartment, that horrible camping trip, everything. Do you?"
Lincoln just nodded. That confirmed it. At least Lynn remembered. This gave him a small surge of relief. He wasn't alone.
His sister sat next to him, smiling warmly. She too felt at ease knowing that her favorite sibling knew what she knew.
"I don't suppose that you know what happened?" he asked, almost sarcastically.
Lynn shook her head. "Nadda."
"Didn`t think so." Lincoln sighed. "This must be some crazy dream I`m having." he mused, almost letting out an involuntary snicker from the absurdity. Why get bent out of shape over a dream?
"If this is your dream how come I`m also aware how nonsensical this all is?" Lynn questioned.
"How am I supposed to know?" her brother retorted. "For all I know you're just another figment of my imagination."
Lynn grew irked and pinched him on the arm. Lincoln yelped in pain and rubbed it.
"What was that for?!"
"If this is just a dream how come that pinch hurt you?" Lynn pointed out.
Lincoln frowned. "It doesn't have to mean anything. You can imagine pain in a dream."
Lynn remained skeptical. If anyone was dreaming it had to be her, that much she knew. Her gaze drifted towards a calendar hanging above her brother`s bed. Something crossed her mind.
"Say, did you look under your shirt? Do you still have those scars-"
"Yes I did, actually." Lincoln replied. "And they are all gone." he confirmed.
"Really? Then...can I take a look at your calendar?" Lynn suddenly requested.
Lincoln didn't understand why asked for that but took it down anyway. The siblings looked at it and were both surprised.
Lynn knew that her brother liked to keep himself up to date with the...well...date. But the calendar showed June and the days were crossed off until June 16st , the start of the sibling's collective summer vacation.
"I don't believe it." Lynn mused.
Lincoln caught on. "Wait? Are you suggesting that things got back to normal because we went back in time?" he asked incredulously.
Before she could respond, Lynn was alerted by a soft thump on the door. Acting quickly, she rushed towards the door and unlocked it, only to get fleeting glimpses of her sisters running into their respective rooms.
"Those lousy...spying...eavesdroppers!" a frustrated Lynn grumbled.
"Were they seriously listening in on us?" Lincoln asked in disbelief, having completely forgotten that until rather recently his sisters didn't understand the meaning of "privacy".
"Of course they did." Lynn replied in annoyance. No doubt the blabber-mouthed Luan, Luna and Leni had told everyone about her and Lincoln "acting crazy".
Lynn groaned exasperatedly. "C`mon, bro. This isn't a safe place to talk."
"I`m telling you, Lynn, it`s just plain ridiculous!" Lincoln protested as he and Lynn strolled down the neighborhood, away from their house.
"I`ve seen this stuff in comics: mad scientists making time go backward, people getting frozen in ice, traveling through time and space, and dimensions. But this is reality!"
Lynn didn't want to argue. It did sound utterly ludicrous. But she couldn't shake this feeling that this wasn't a dream.
"Look, I know it sounds dumb, I`m not fighting you on that, kay?" she admitted irritably. "It`s...just...I have this feeling that this isn't a dream."
Lincoln rolled his eyes. Why should he even try to convince her otherwise? It was a dream. It didn't matter. He would just win the argument by virtue of waking up.
Yet, despite all of that he still couldn't deny one thing.
"Believe me, Lynn. I kinda wish this was real." he admitted sullenly. "But it can't be."
"Hey Lynn!"
The siblings halted and saw someone running towards them.
"Margo?" Lynn uttered in surprise as her friend and teammate stopped in front of them, panting slightly.
"I`ve been looking for you at your house, why did you wander off?" the girl spoke before noticing her friend`s brother.
"Oh, hey Lincoln, how are you?" she greeted him.
"Hey Margo, I`m fine." he replied in a friendly manner.
"Marg, what have you come for?" Lynn asked, trying to smile.
Her friend looked at her strangely. "Don't you remember? We have a soccer game in less than an hour? Remember those jerks who made fun of us at school? They said girls were no good at soccer? And you were the one who challenged them for a match?"
Those memories suddenly flooded back to Lynn, how she and her female teammates wiped the floor with those pompous assholes, at the start of the summer.
"Oh? I did, didn't I?" she recollected.
"Well, I see you girls are busy for today, so I won't distract you. Good luck." Lincoln patted his sister on his back while sounding rather apathetic.
"Wait, Lincoln!" Lynn called after him as he was leaving, but Margo grabbed her by the arm.
"C`mon, Lynn! Whatever you guys were talking about, it can wait!" Margo exclaimed while leading her away, feeling stoked for the game. "This is about defending our dignity as women!"
Lynn sighed. Her mind was on a lot of things, but it wasn't on soccer right now. But she couldn't walk away on her team. It was an obligation, even if this was a dream.
He just wanted this to end. To wake up and just face the bitter reality, and try to enjoy and appreciate what he still had left. He just wanted to crawl back into his room and quietly wait this stupid dream out.
Lincoln arrived at the front door when he saw his mother's car parking. The boy felt stunned as his mother came out, carrying several bags of groceries and looking pretty tired and disheveled. He couldn't recall the last time she looked this terrible.
"Oh, hello sweetheart." Rita tried to look chipper and smiled, despite obviously being exhausted. "Where were you off to?"
Lincoln approached his mother, rather shyly. It's been months since he had last seen her in person.
" I`ve just been playing with Lynn, and I just escorted her to a soccer match."
"Ah, well I`m happy to see you two spending more time together." Yet, she acted like it was any other day, like they were never separated.
Lincoln didn't know what came over him, but without a second thought he came in and hugged his mother.
"Wow. Easy there. I didn't think I`d be missed that much going off to the supermarket?" a surprised Rita joked.
Lincoln let go of her and shifted sheepishly. "Sorry, mom...it`s just...I`ve realized that I haven't seen you that much as of late." That was an understatement.
"It`s okay, Lincoln. I don't mind being hugged." his mother replied sincerely.
She then sighed. "And I suppose you're right. I have been very busy these last few years taking care of all of you." she said regrettably, obviously getting the vibe that her only son felt ignored.
"Do you need help with those bags?" Lincoln asked intuitively.
Rita blinked. "No Lincoln, it's quite alright. I can carry them mysel-"
"No, no! It's no problem, mom! Let me do it!" Lincoln pretty much yanked all the heavy bags from his mother`s hands and with all his strength carried them indoors.
Rita was left stunned but slowly smiled with appreciation, almost shedding a tear.
Lincoln went on to help her store the food in the fridge. Dream or no dream, he wasn't about to squander the chance to help his mother, in any capacity.
Little did he know that he had been given the chance to help her, as well as his father to much greater extent.
If anybody reads this do know that I appreciate constructive criticism more than anything. I like to hear other peoples opinions about my work and how well this holds up.
And just a heads up, this story will be centered on Lincoln and Lynn. The other sisters will appear to varying degrees. Note that this story is still an alternate universe, so not everything will line up with the show`s lore 100 %, like how there is no Lilly present (mainly because I find her to be a pointless character). But for the most part, things still are the same as in the show.