Disclaimer: I don't own The Loud House, the brand, as well as all of its characters and settings belong to Chris Savino and Nickelodeon, all rights reserved.

Chapter 5: Incident

Lincoln's P.O.V:

I suddenly become alert on my bed as I wake up to the cracking sound of my wooden door being opened slowly, but pretend to still be asleep as I suspect of either Lynn and Lucy trying to sneak in my room again due to a disagreement between them, the last thing I want right now is to deal with Lynn's bouncing ball on my face or Lucy re-reading her poems by noticing I am awake.

Finally, the intruder makes her presence now by whispering my name, allowing me to finally identify her as… Lola!?

- L-lincoln? – I hear my little sister say my name with unexpected retaliation on her part, usually she would just smash the door open and scream, waking me up, as well as the rest of the house and even Mr. Grouse.

- Lola? – I speak in a low tone as I slowly raise from my bed, averting the Lynn/Lucy crisis, but still suspicious as to what would Lola want from me in the middle of the night, could she want to put me in trouble for what happened earlier today? Is she trying to find a way to blackmail me further as revenge?

- C-can we talk for a moment? – She says in a very docile and collected way, which considering how… distant… she was from me all day, comes as a very unexpected revelation.

Now, I know what you may be thinking, I'm being unfair to her because she hasn't attempted to blackmail or threaten the family in quite a while, I know for a fact that she has been recently working on improving her social skills with everyone, but what can you expect me to think when stuff like what happened today is still a common occurrence? I just don't know why, but whenever I spend time with the others and she's present in the house…

Something. Always. Happens.

- I-I don't know Lols, it's like 12:00AM, can't we wait till tomorrow? – I respectfully try to avoid talking about that subject with her, or at least I assume she wants to bring that topic considering the recency or it, plus I'm legit tired for being awake at this hour.

- NO! … Please Linky, I need to talk to you now, you know it's something important! I wouldn't sacrifice my beauty sleep if it wasn't! - … She's got a point there.

- Ok fine, what's bothering you sis? – I finally give up and listen intently to whatever she's got to say.

Lola then proceeds to sit on my bed by my side, then takes a big breath and finally, turns her face to look at me in the eyes, which allows me to see… tears in her eyes?

- Lola!? Are you ok? What's wrong!? – I immediately jump from my sitting position to get a hold of her arms, fearing that something truly wrong happened to her – Come on Lols, you know you can count on me! You can tell me anything!? – My brotherly instincts kick in as I instantaneously lose all drowsiness that I originally had.

Lola then does something that leaves me in a state of shock as she lunges forward and hugs me with impressive strength for a 7 year old, but said shock also disappears as I hear her sobbing in my shoulder, which prompts me to hug her back, protecting her with my embrace.

- *sob* L-Linky, I'm sorry! – Lola then supports her arms to my shoulders and lifts her head to look at me directly in the eyes – I don't know what came over me back then, I know what I did was wrong! – The look of regret in her eyes tells me everything I need to know, she is doing a sincere apology, something that she had never done before for her previous "antics", although I assume she is also apologizing for them too, however, that does leave a slightly unnerving question behind, but I guess I'll just address it when she has calmed down.

- Don't worry Lols, I know you are being sincere about it, and I forgive you! – I fullheartedly mean it, plus it makes me realize just how much Lola has progressed as a person, a surprisingly quick change for what is essentially just a little child, from a spoiled, ruthless brat, to an emphatic, honest and collected girl, makes me wonder what her positive influence is, or rather, who? Perhaps that little girl Meli Ramos has done more than just follow her around?.

- Thanks Linky! I Love you! – Now that's what I like to see! My princess recovers her beautiful smile and seems ready for anything once again! … Which brings me to…

- But Lols, I still have a question… Why are you doing "that"? You know, like stealing from my room and framing me for it? – I finally drop the bomb, hopefully this will address this incident, as well as many, MANY, more.

Ok, maybe before I hear her answer, I should be clear to you guys what I mean by the many "incidents". As I stated before, Lola has become a very mature girl in the course of less than a year from where she originally was at and while many of the coercive, manipulative stuff that she used to pull on everyone last year has essentially been reduced to nothing, she's been developing a… weird… behavior, specifically around me, which many would define as "clingy". It can go from everyday common stuff such as choosing to play with me instead of Lana whenever we have free time, to sitting by my side in the table a great majority of times, but sometimes, she likes to go up a notch, like holding my hand whenever we get up the bus (Lucy, Lana and Lisa, for instance, don't do that!), and fighting Clyde for the spot by my side, or just weird stuff in general, that ranges from things like staying when I'm assigned to take care of Lily, so that we can take care of her together, to arguing with Lynn and Lucy all the time about taking her spot just because they were sitting close to me in the couch… to winking at me whenever she spots me in the crowd during pageants…

All of that however is something that I can just accept, as I personally just find it adorable that she wants to spend time with me, but it really becomes concerning and troublesome when she does "that", as I've come to call it, where she somehow reverts to her old ways and finds situations to frame me for things that, as I've come to realize as of recently, are actually all her own wrong doings, for which I've come to detect only 2 solid patterns:

She only does it when I spend my free time with my other sisters… or Ronnie Anne… Or Stella, the rare times they do come to visit. It all ends with me, "making up for it", by spending some time with her.

- Lincoln, I… - With an eerily serious face, Lola decides to sit once again on the corner of her bed and look away from my face, looking in deep thought about it, I patiently wait for her answer, although it is likely that she wasn't even aware of her behavior before I made her realize it.

After what felt like a few minutes with me not looking away from a second, Lola finally raises her head and looks at me with a determined and… flushed face?

- I wish I could be your favorite sister – she finally says with a stern look, I was about to answer with a giggle, reassuring her that all of them are my favorites and I cannot choose, but then she shook her head and said… - No. –

- I wish I could be the only girl you pay attention to -