On the opposite side of Royal Woods, another group of people was stirring from slumber under decidedly less pleasant circumstances. As a light drizzle continued to lull the rest of her erstwhile roommates, Leni stirred from a thankfully dreamless sleep to the sensation of another individual in bed with her. Eyes snapping open, she tensed in preparation to throw them out, but a murmur stayed her hand. Pulling the sheet up, she discovered Lola sleeping soundly next to her; a glance across the room confirmed that Lana had bunked with Luna for the night. "S'cold," Lola murmured, blindly grasping for the lost warmth of the covers.
A rapid-fire knocking at the door rang throughout the room, followed by Luan frantically shouting from the hallway, "Luna! LUNA!" That must have been what woke her, she noted with some irritation. The poor girl sounded terrified, and it brought a sick pleasure to Leni as she listened to the brat cry out in vain. Her pleasure turned into curiosity when the girl then hesitantly called out, "Luna, please...LENI! ANYONE!"
'Did she really just ask for me?' That curiosity got the better of Leni as she slipped out of bed, doing her best not to wake her bunkmate in the process. Sliding on her slippers, she tip-toed to the door, amazed that the pounding and yelling hadn't woken the rest of them up. 'Then again, Luna's probably used to to a lot of pounding.' Snickering to herself, she grasped the doorknob and slowly turned, opening the door to faintly make out Luan fidgeting in front of her in her nightgown. The smaller girl's eyes widened and her mouth fell open slightly, having not expected her abuser to actually be the one to answer. "Don't look so glad to see me," the blonde quipped. "Like, what's all the racket for?"
Luan nearly bolted then and there, but she wasn't here for her right now. Not that she'd be able to find her way in the darkness to begin with. Shaking her head and evening her breaths, she implored her sister, "come with me right now! There's something wrong with Lynn!" She didn't wait for whatever snide response she was sure Leni had waiting, instead shuffling down the darkened hallway toward her next-door neighbors. It occurred to Leni that the power was still out, so she'd have to settle for feeling her way after Luan.
Luckily most of them had desklamps that didn't rely on the electricity working, and a faint light spilled from her destination. The two of them entered Lynn and Lucy's room to see the latter hovering near the former, the older of the two breathing heavily as she tossed and turned in her bed. Lucy's head swung toward them and she zeroed in on Leni, lost in thought for but a moment before informing her, "please, you've got to do something for Lynn. She got sick last night and she's been like this ever since, she hasn't even slept."
Leni carefully closed in on the sickened girl, leaning over the bed to get a good look at her in the gloomy light. It couldn't be any later than six o'clock, if the past few days were any sort of indicator, meaning that her concoction had to have taken effect within the last several hours. "Lynn, can you hear me?" A moan issued forth from her victim, and brown eyes squinted at her from beneath a mop of matted hair. 'Heh, worked like a charm.' The athlete was the most likely to be able to put up a fight after Lori and Luna, so that was one more worry abated. Turning to Lucy, she brought her hand up to her chin and put on her best 'nervous' face as she asked, "has she said anything to you since she got this way?"
The goth shook her head and replied, "only a little bit, and most of it was about how sick she is. Then she started talking nonsense, things like sanding and giraffes..." Lucy shivered at the memory, having had to practically carry her sister back to bed after they'd made a failed run for the bathroom. Her two companions exchanged incredulous looks before Leni spun around to fetch Luna.
As the oldest present sibling backtracked toward her room, she worried about how Luna would react to her roommate's condition. Even taking their recent fighting into account, if she believed someone had hurt Luan, there wouldn't be much reasoning with her. 'I need to get her against Luan again, now that them being buddies isn't necessary.' She combed her memories for anything that would cause them to fight, but the only serious issue she could remember recently was the spider and drum. 'The DRUM.' Instead of returning to her own, she ducked into Luna and Luan's room. 'If I recall correctly,' she thought, crouching down in front of the busted bass drum, 'it's right...here!' She reached inside the torn cover and retrieved the wad of money she'd given to the rocker just last night.
A door shut harshly behind her and she nearly jumped completely off the floor.. Stopping dead in her tracks, Leni didn't look back, opting instead to allow Luan to make the first move. "What are you doing in here?" The younger girl demanded.
Leni was in her element now, though, and she used it to her full advantage. Placing herself in front of the window and the dim light flowing in, accentuated by the last flashes of lightning outside, she became the monster in the dark that she had been to Lori just yesterday. Luan's composure visibly crumbled, and she nearly tripped back up toward the door she'd just entered through. "Like, my bad, I forgot that Luna slept in my room last night. Because she couldn't stand the thought of sharing a room with you." Luan nearly bit back, but instead she bit her tongue, looking instead to the wall. "Plus, like I told you, all your shit is mine. This room is mine now."
Swallowing her pride and trying to stay focused on the task at hand, she kept her voice as even as she could. "You have to call someone right now," the young girl insisted, hands knotting in the material of her robe. She fumbled for the doorknob and opened it, and both of them were well aware that there was now a clear path to Leni's room for their sister to hear them.
"I don't have to do a damn thing," Leni replied, "people get sick in this house all the time and no one, like, does anything about it. I would know." She started on her way out the door again when a hand caught her nightgown. Wheeling on her sister, she smacked Luan's hand away, willing to go further if not for the darkness hampering her. "You're seriously pushing your luck, go back to bed."
"Leni, please!" Luan begged, bracing herself for whatever would come at her from the shadows. "This isn't about you or me! Lynn's really sick, she needs someone, something-"
"Wha's goin' on out 'ere?" They were both startled by a voice from behind them. Luna trudged up to them, finding them by sound alone as they argued. "Who's sick?" As if to answer her question, her own stomach gurgled in protest, and she placed a hand on the wall to support herself. "Ugh, liver's good for just about everything 'cept the stomach."
Before Luan could explain the situation, Leni replied, "it looks like the liver didn't agree with Lynn either, except she's, like, even less into it than you are." The two of them chuckled, to their sister's astonishment.
"It's not funny! She's really sick, you both need to do something about it!" Luan shouted. Leni grinned, unseen in the darkened hallway, and she shoulder-checked the comedienne on her way back toward the sickened sister's room. Luan considered just spilling to Luna what had happened between them last night, but with things as they were in the house she backed down. 'We need Lori here, and Lincoln...Linc...' Leni's hateful words filled her ears, about how horribly she'd treated their brother, and she covered them as she turned to follow her tormentor.
"What could possthibly be causthing thisth much excthitment thisth early in the morning?" Lisa demanded as she waddled from the opposite end of the hallway to meet the group. They could hear Lily crying from the other room as well, and Leni broke off to go and fetch her.
"Hey, this could work! Liz can figure out what's wrong with her!" Luna bent down to sling an arm around the genius's shoulders, a gesture said genius was less than appreciative of. "I bet she's just got a stomach bug or somethin', nothin' to worry about."
Shaking the punk's arm off, the four-year old cracked her fingers and led the procession into Lynn and Lucy's room. Immediately upon seeing the girl and the condition she was in, she announced, "she'sth not sthuffering from any bacterial, viral or fungal affliction, excluding her feet regarding the latter."
All of them cringed and gagged at the unneeded information, and Lucy asked, "how can you tell that just from looking?"
"No offensthe, Lucthy, but I doubt you'd want to hear the sthpecthificsth," Lisa dismissed with a veritable storm of spittle at the last word. "No, what'sth happening here is an affliction. Now, let'sth sthee..." She began to measure Lynn's pulse and inspect her eyes as Leni returned with Lily, the baby making as much of a fuss as possible without actually bawling.
"Shh, it's okay, you're okay," Leni murmured to her youngest sister, rocking her back and forth. She watched with trepidation as Lisa went about examining her most recent victim, hoping that it would take more than a few off-the-cuff observations to figure out just what had happened this time. Her focus was interrupted several times by the baby pulling her hair and bopping her in the face as she squirmed. She looked at her littlest sister in annoyance, only to find a smile in return as she began to calm down. "Oh, I can't be mad at you, you little cutie pie," she gushed, nuzzling Lily's nose with her own. 'You're the only one in this house who's completely innocent.' As much as she loved Lincoln, even he couldn't say that, but he'd gone further than anyone else to make amends for what he'd done.
Soon the room was crowded with seven individuals, and the sight of their normally energetic sister reduced to a shivering mess prompted Luna to full alertness. "Dude, this is more than just leftover-itis. Do you think maybe she got food poisoning or something?"
Swinging her head back and forth, Lynn herself slurred, "sshtop talkin' 'bout me like I'm ain't here. I'm fiiine, never better." They all stared at her in concern as Lucy stepped forward to place a calming hand on her forehead.
"She's got a temperature, and it looks like she's a little swollen," Lucy noted. "She wouldn't be bloating from decomposition yet, would she?" Her head flung around to address Lisa.
"What? No! She'sth not even dead yet!" They all gasped at the word 'yet,', and she slapped a hand against her forehead. "And she'sth not GOING to be dead yet, or EVER. At leastht not for another stheventy yearsth, sthtatisthtically sthpeaking." It didn't do much to calm them, but it would have to be enough for now.
"It could be allergies," Luan suggested, biting her lip in concentration and yelping in pain.
Every conscious member of the room turned to face her, and in the light Luna noticed her state for the first time. "Woah, Luan! What happened to your teeth?! And your arms and legs!" She was upon her roommate in an instant, looking her up and down.
Without even looking Luan could feel Leni's oppressive aura behind her, and she quickly sputtered, "I f-fell down the stairs last night, when the lights went out." Just as the one who'd inflicted the wounds on her had said, it wasn't a lie, and it came easily enough. 'What am I THINKING? Everyone is here, I need to say something NOW!' As Lucy began educating Luna on the high likelihood of what Luan had described happening to the rest of them, Luan spun to confront her oppressor.
Leni looked down at the younger teen, utter contempt radiating from her. She knew exactly what Luan was thinking, and she was appropriately equipped to deal with it. With everyone except Luan distracted, Leni looked directly at her and placed a hand just over Lily's head. Luan lurched back in abject horror as she made a twisting motion with the hand, directing a suggestive glance at the infant in her grasp. "From the bottom," she mouthed, "UP."
Luan's eyes screwed shut and she turned her back in the pair, fighting not to cry again or else risk giving everything away. With a satisfied smile, Leni returned to coddling the baby, giving her a kiss on the forehead. 'Of course I'd never do something like that, but she doesn't need to know.'
Shaking her head, Lisa informed them, "Lynn has no sthubstantial food allergiesth. I'll need to do some resthearch...in the meantime, I don't believe her condition isth anything we can't handle yet, but keep an eye on her." With that, she slid past the crowd to depart for her room once more. Leni followed after her in order to put Lily back to bed, and upon reaching the room a poor omen awaited her. As she entered the room, she could see the records and graphs spilled across her sister's table and the floor, also illuminated by a desk lamp.
"Like, what are you working so hard on, Lisa?" She asked, trying to sound casual; the toddler had been meeting with Lori, and it didn't bode well.
Sifting through a stack of papers, Lisa idly answered, "justht sthome resthearch and bills, sthame as alwaysth." As Leni set their younger sister into her crib, she added, "how have you been lately?"
Leni paused at the question. It was an obvious bait, but it'd be just as suspicious if she didn't answer. "Uh, kind of stressed, a little tired, but pretty good! Why do you ask?"
Lisa considered lying to her, but it wouldn't do much to further her purpose. Instead, she carefully answered, "sthomeone in this housthe asthked about you, but they didn't feel like that could asthk you directly." Their eyes met, and the prodigy implored, "pleasthe take care of yoursthelf. For their sthake."
Leni maintained a neutral expression as she made sure Lily was calm enough to lie down, before donning a winning smile as she faced Lisa. "I'll keep that in mind. Thanks, little sis. And, I'm sorry. About the other day, in the bathroom."
"Water under the bridge." Lisa hadn't been expecting an apology, so it was fairly easy to receive. "What happened to that pill?"
A crack formed in her mask, and Leni lied, "I got rid of it." Lisa simply hummed in acknowledgement, and an awkward moment passed before the teen excused herself. With all of the most immediate distractions out of her way, Lisa shut the door behind her before settling in to pour over her work. Looking up Lynn's medical files was no trouble, and soon enough she'd have the answers they needed.
"Justht as I informed them, no food allergiesth." Lisa was prepared to simply leave it at that, but it seemed there was a little more to her beanbag-brained sister than she realized. While she indeed had no food allergies, she did have issues with a few medications. Pulling at that thread, Lisa investigated those medications and the normal recurring purchases made on account of the only athletic Loud.
As Lisa extrapolated the new data with what she'd discovered last night, her investigation quickly took a dark turn. After a night of thorough research and a few calls to Janice that required the promise of some rather generous and exotic gifts, she had uncovered a discrepancy in the bills that she usually payed, one she wouldn't have even thought to look for. Along with Lynn's supplements, regularly scheduled physicals and antifungals there was a charge simply referred to as 'stress medication', paid for on a bi-monthly basis. Well aware of Lynn's habits and personality, however, she knew that the teen would have no need for such a thing. "A euphemisthm, then. But for what?"
Delving into the family's medical record, she discovered that the bills dated back four years, and it hadn't always been just one medication, either. Her mind flashed to the incident the previous day with Lana, Leni and the pill. Branching out from the origin point of that medication being prescribed, she discovered that her siblings appeared to have been the unfortunate victims of a number of 'accidents' in the year prior. "Sthprains, a broken bone, lotsth of bruisthes and cutsth..." Even her normally apathetic heart sunk at the only obvious conclusion to be reached.
"They were being abusthed...but by whom?" Never once had her mother or father raised a hand to her, and she couldn't recall such a thing ever having occured to any of them in her lifetime. "My lifetime...the abusthe sthtopped at the sthame time as the 'sthtress medicthine' was presthcribed." Did that mean that Lynn had been harming their sisters? She would have only been nine years old, though, hardly a challenge for the eldest three girls. No, it didn't add up...
Setting her papers to one side, she adjourned to her closet to collect some of her sparse supply of medical tools. Fortunately, she'd only need to take a little blood this time...
"LENI! LUNA!" The two sisters, in their respective rooms, tore through the hallway at the sound of LUCY of all people shouting for them. Colliding with each other outside their doors, and then again trying to fit into the room of their ill sister, they finally squeezed in to find Lynn alternately jerking violently on the bed and then becoming eerily still. "I-it's like she's possessed!" If it were any other day or circumstance, Lucy would be over the moon with delight, but this was neither the day nor the time. "We have to do something!"
"Okay, okay, let me get in here," Luna requested, sliding onto the bed next to her younger sister and trying to get her to settle down. As Lynn convulsed in her grasp, a sickness began to well in Leni's stomach, and for the first time it didn't have anything to do with anger.
'Fuck, fuck, fuck...I wanted to teach her a lesson, but not this!' She pulled at her hair as she considered her options, but there really were none this time. Had she finally made a — quite literally — fatal error? 'I read those articles, I didn't think I gave her a dangerous amount!' Lana and Lola appeared on the sidelines as well, only just aware of what was going on with their partner in crime.
"What's all the yelling for? What happened to Lynn?" Lana tried to crawl onto the bed alongside Luna, though the older sister held her at bay.
Lola stood patiently by the bed, expressing her concern instead by kneading her hands together and testing the tense air in the room. "Is she sick? Because our tummies have been a little sore too." She rubbed at her own stomach, which bubbled in response. Lisa appeared soon after, dragging by a handle a small wagon filled with several imposing implements.
"We need to call the hospital, Len! Or Mom and Dad, or Lori, or ANYONE!" Luna cried, fretting and fussing over their bedridden sister as the younger Louds struggled to understand what was happening, minus Luan and Lisa. "W-what if she...she...d-"
Leni took her sister's shoulders in her hands and shook Luna like a ragdoll, briefly considering a slap for good measure. "Luna! Like, not in front of the kids!" The two of them glanced over at the gaggle of children, and she spoke further in a whisper, "she's not going to do...that. For all we know it could just be, like, an awful tummy ache! The way Lynn eats and plays, I'm sure this kind of thing really happens all the time!" Never would she have guessed earlier that she'd end up hoping the words she was speaking were true.
"No, it really doesn't." Lucy's voice startled them not because of any proximity she had to them, but quite the opposite; she'd been watching like a hawk from the other side of the room and still managed to hear them. "Even when she was binging on spicy meatball subs and protein mix, she was never completely incapacitated like she is now." She spoke in the same monotone as always, but subtle clues hinted at her worry for her roommate. Head drooped slightly further than usual, hands wringing, her legs restless whether seated or standing.
Lisa strongarmed her way through the crowd as effectively as any four-year old could and reached for Lynn's wrist, the teen's arm hanging limply over the side of the bed. To everyone's shock, Leni slapped it away, glaring down at the toddler with an otherworldly gleam in her eyes. "Like, this is no time for your games, Lisa. Not when she's hurting like this."
Snorting and narrowing her own eyes at the offense, Lisa countered, "thisth isth precthisely the time for my 'gamesth', you..." Lola and Lana each put a hand on one of her shoulders, the former out of warning and the latter out of concern. Shaking her head and rubbing her stricken hand, Lisa coolly finished, "I can deducthe what'sth wrong with her, and how to fix it. In the meantime, it would be bestht to at leastht contact Lori. I'll let you do the honorsth." It may have been her lisp at work, but she practically spat at Leni to cap off the statement. The two of them stared each other down for several seconds, only stopping to note with concern that their sickened sister was becoming more vocal in her misery.
Taking Lynn's wrist as she originally intended, Lisa requested, "Luna, fetch me the blood pressthure sthleeve from my wagon, pleasthe." After some trial and error, the teen managed to procure the correct tool and handed it to the now-resident physician. "Thank you." Wrapping the sleeve around her patient's arm, she pumped pressure into it, letting it sit a moment and measuring her pulse as she released the pressure in a very ad-hoc method. "Sthtethesthcope, pleasthe." Another game of chance before she was finally supplied with what she needed, and she climbed onto the bed with Luna's assistance, now effectively her nurse. After listening to the girl's heart and lungs, she further asked, "thermometer." Taking the athlete's temperature through the mouth, she jotted down some notes before dismounting the bed.
"Heart rate: 119 BPM. Blood pressthure: 90 sthysthtolic, 50 diasthtolic. Resthpirationsth: 10 per minute." They all stared at her, mystified by the terms and numbers she had recited, and she closed her eyes as she calmly informed them, "her vitalsth are sthtable, but she'sth definitely very ill." Waving them out of her way, she personally returned to the wagon and collected a pile of equipment from it. "I'm going to take a blood sthample."
"And do what with it," Lucy asked as she warily eyed the needle attached to the machine, "can you seriously do a blood test here in the house?" The rest of them seemed as skeptical as she was.
Hooking all the neccessary tools up, Lisa answered, "that'sth about the limit of my capabilitiesth at the moment, but yesth, I can."
Torn between preventing Lisa from discovering her treachery and finding out just how seriously ill she'd made Lynn, Leni cautioned, "is it really alright to be taking her blood right now? Like, doesn't she need that to breathe?"
Lisa didn't even deign to look at her as she muttered, "she needsth the oxygen in it, yesth."
"Len, if anyone's got this it's Lisa," Luna assured, laying what was meant to be a comforting hand on her older sister's shoulder. "We can hit up Lori and go from there, alright?" Leni reluctantly nodded her head, and the musician smiled weakly now that they seemed to have a plan coming together. "Alright, cool. While we're at it," she addressed the rest of the sisters in turn, "I think we oughta give them some space, dig?" And so she ushered everyone sans the patient, her roommate and her caretaker from the room, seeing them to their own before leaning against the wall and placing a hand to her forehead. "Can we not catch a break, or what? It's one thing after another, this weekend..."
Leni stood patiently by her side. Now that she knew Lynn was at least stable, she found herself more concerned about how quickly Lisa would piece her involvement together than Lynn's actual condition. 'Gotta get her before Lori gets home, the little rat. She's seen too much already...' Putting on a brave face, she quipped, "like, it's not actually the weekend anymore though, right?" Luna slid her hand down her face to reveal The Look, and the blonde grimaced before amending, "sorry! You're right, but what can we do? I'm gonna call Lori, did you want to call an ambulance, or...?"
"No, no, not yet. Can you imagine how fast Mom and Dad would flip if they find out we put Lynn in the hospital?" Leni found herself agreeing with her sister, if not quite out of the same concern. "Let's let Liz do her thing. Alright, what's Lori's num- wait, we can't get a hold of her!"
"What do...oh, you're right, her phone!" Lori not having her phone was becoming a complication in a way Leni hadn't expected. Necessity is the mother of invention, however, and she spotted an opportunity to both pull the rug out from under her older sister and cement the foundation she'd regained with her little sister. "Do you think you can try to get a hold of her anyway? Like, maybe her phone was at Bobby's this whole time or something?"
Bringing a hand up to cup her chin, Luna mulled the possibility over. "Y'know, you might just be right! And you've got Bobby's number, yeah?" Leni nodded, and Luna formed that hand into a fist that came down to impact the palm of her other. "We'll hit'em at the same time! They can't ignore both of us!" Her enthusiasm began to return now that they were following through on an actual plan, and Leni was surprised to find herself happy for her.
'Don't get in too deep,' the blonde reminded herself, 'you can't trust any of these people. Lynn'll be lucky if you even do anything for her at all.' As Luna turned to descend the steps, Leni glared at her, but the venom she had felt as recently as Saturday had begun to ebb again. 'Hmph. Not even worth it...' As Luna retreated to the kitchen, Leni took her opportunity and dashed to Lisa and Lily's room, shutting the door behind her. Rushing to the diaper disposal bin, she thrust her arm into it, knowing that to stop for even a second would reduce her to a retching, puking mess. Holding her breath and biting her tongue to take her focus off the overwhelming stench, she fished around the bottom until she felt a rectangular object. Extracting her arm from the container, she was rewarded for her efforts with Lori's long-lost phone.
"Ugh, so nasty. Whose job is it to empty this thing?" Content with her prize, she doubled back toward the door when it began to open. Freezing up, she watched as Lisa dropped back down from the tips of her toes and adjusted her glasses before stopping in the threshold to stare at the intruder. Her eyes immediately focused on the phone, and Leni had to devote all of her attention to focusing on something other than punting the pint-sized scientist right then and there. "H-hey, Lisa. Sorry for barging in like this, and...for what just happened back there. But I needed to, like, check on Lily and-"
"You justht happened to find Lori'sth phone in our room while you were at it?" She fixed the blonde with a deadpan stare and reasoned, "well, that explainsth the interferencthe I wasth experienchting. You were going to check on Lily, correct?" Leni started at the question, primed to fight or flee at any second. "Don't sthtop on my account. Justht make sure you don't leave anything behind thisth time."
Leni snarled at the implicit warning — that Lisa knew exactly what she'd done, so far as the phone crisis went — and jerked back from the crib, leaving their sleeping younger sister for the moment. She swept out of the room, the door closing almost the instant she had cleared it, and she stalked down the hallway to her own. She hooked Lori's phone up to the charger on their dresser, and before long it sprung to life with over sixty messages and fifteen missed calls. "Like, which one of them is the girl?" Giving the messages a quick glance in case they contained any more incriminating material, she found that the most recent one was from Luna.
yo lori, u gotta get home now! lynn is super sic and we need ur help! are u there?
Leni's heart raced as she put the next piece of the puzzle into place. She relished every click of the buttons as she typed back,
Luna, how many times did I tell u guys not to call or text me?
Yeah I'm here, phone was at Bobby's all this time! How funny is that :D
Battery is running low though, this isn't helping
I'll be back this afternoon, it can wait, right?
She waited a moment for the response, and she wasn't disappointed.
dude, no it cant wait! this is sum major stuff were dealin with, its an emergency!
come home NOW!
'Now, the last nail.' Leni hammered it home, trying to pull off her best Lori,
I said I'll be back soon. I get literally one day to myself, and I'm going to take it.
Handle it. This is what you guys are in charge for. I've got some 'business' to finish ;)
Believing the exchange to be finished there, Leni set the phone back down, only for it to begin shrieking and vibrating as a call came through. Snatching it back up, she ran her fingers along its entire face and over every button. "Shut up, shut up, shut UP!" Finally she threw it onto the floor, its alerts finally ending with a small snapping noise. She
retrieved it just in time to hear footsteps coming up the stairs, and she tossed it under her bed just before Luna rounded the corner into her room.
Her face red, whole body tense, the punk quickly asked, "did you just get a call?"
Nodding her head, Leni shakily answered, "y-yeah, from Bobby. It disconnected right away, though..."
Slamming a fist against the wall, Luna grit her teeth and unleashed a feral howl. "Fuckin' Lori!" Leni recoiled from the outburst, though she wasn't displeased with it. "I got a hold of her, her stupid phone was at Bobby's from the beginning! And when she answered me, she completely blew me off so she could get her damn rocks off some more!" Her chest heaved as she related the story, and she slammed a boot into the floor, eager to vent her frustration. "How could she do that? I told her it was an emergency!"
Leni timidly moved closer to her, and when it seemed she wasn't going to be set upon, she slowly encircled her younger sister in a hug. "Like, she didn't say that was what she was doing, right? Please, tell me she didn't seriously say that..."
"She did, Len." The brunette's voice was heavy with a number of powerful emotions, and she crushed Leni in returning the embrace. "She probably shut down that call you just got, too. What the hell is her problem? First with Lola, and now this."
Leni patted her on the back while trying to escape the ironclad grip. "I-it's okay, Luna. We'll figure it out, alright?" Luna finally released her, wiping at her eyes to avoid showing just how overwhelmed she was becoming by everything. Leni rubbed a hand up and down the younger girl's arm, assuring her in comforting tones, "we'll get through this. You and me, right?"
Luna looked at her as if she were looking at her for the first time, and it slightly put Leni on edge. Finally, she put on a wavering smile and raised a fist between them. "Yeah...you and me." Leni formed a fist of her own and bumped her sister's. In so doing, however, she made another of her now-patented Critical Errors™. "Woah, what happened to your hand?" Leni glanced down at it, and cursed herself as she noticed the scab and cut flesh from her encounter with Luan.
"O-oh, you know me, clumsy old Leni. Can't even make some simple dessert without, like, messing something up. It's alright, though, nothing a little peroxide can't fix!" She hoped that would be enough. Fate, it seemed, had other plans. Luna gently took her by the wrist and examined the wound before giving her an odd look. "S-something wrong?"
"Peroxide, eh? You didn't actually clean this, did you?" Leni didn't dare speak, but she hesitantly shook her head. "I thought so. Can't put one over on your sis, Len, I've seen this happen too many times at concerts. C'mere." Without letting go, she led Leni to the bathroom and sat her down on the edge of the bathtub.
'Talk about déjà vu,' Leni thought as Luna worked at the medicine cabinet. Just days ago she'd been in Luna's position, and Lincoln in hers. Her spirit dampened considerably at the thought of what he'd be returning to. But it had to be done.
...
Didn't it?
As Luna finished gathering up everything she was after, Leni thought carefully about just what she wanted to accomplish after everything was said and done. Lori, Luna, and Luan deserved to be punished, along with their parents; this much was true. But what would she do afterward? 'If they gang up on me like before, they're just going to put me back on the medicine...no, there's got to be, like, some kind of endgame...' She became aware of an annoying clicking noise, and upon returning to reality she experienced another bout of recall as Luna snapped her fingers in front of her.
"There she is!" Luna chuckled, lowering her left hand and raising a cotton swab in the other. "Alright, gimme your hand." Leni complied, and her sister set about carefully tending to her hand. She winced as the solution and consequent rubbing reopened her wound. "S'alright, easy as 'making dessert', right?" The brunette grinned at the blonde, who looked abashedly to the side. Soon her knuckles were bandaged, and Luna covered her sister's injured hand in both of hers. She knelt down in front of the blonde, unusually silent all the while.
"Luna...?" It was an odd gesture, to be sure, made all the more odd when the younger girl lowered her head to rest it on their joined hands.
"Leni..." They remained that way for what seemed like an eternity; far too long for Leni's comfort. Color began to rise in her cheeks until finally she spoke again, "I know we just talked about this the other day, but...just now, doin' this, it's like a blast from the past. You used to fix us up all the time when we got too rough, remember?" She lifted her head to face Leni, who couldn't answer her directly or risk giving herself away. "I know things weren't always great, but I wish...I just wish it'd been different, y'know?" Luna lowered her head again, that heaviness returning to her voice as she made a stunning admission. "I wish I'd done something for you, like you used to do for us. I should have stood up for you, helped you get better, anything other than what happened..."
Words weren't enough to express the thoughts running through Leni's head. The anger she felt before was still there, but the remorse she'd felt on Lincoln's behalf bled into it as it began to dawn on her that Luna's remorse might actually be genuine. Undaunted, Luna continued, "with Lori it's just not the same. She doesn't listen, not like you do...like you did."
Leni felt that most dangerous of feelings ease her troubled heart again; affection. She remembered now, and it made it all the harder for her to continue on as she was. She missed it too, the way things were; the way they couldn't go back to. 'I could tell her, though.' She almost slapped herself for even allowing the thought to come to life, but there it was. Luna seemed to be firmly on her side, to the point of keeping their private conversations a secret from the others, including Luan.
'She'll ruin you, just like they did before. Like they all did.'
'They're all responsible. They all have to be made to take responsibility.'
"You let them do it last time, and you're going to let them do it again."
Her head jerking up, Luna asked, "what?" Leni was giving her that look again, or rather the wall behind her. Rather than break her out of it, though, she remained perfectly still.
Caught up in her thoughts, the blonde absentmindedly droned, "it can't go back...you can't go back..."
Swallowing hard, unsure of what she was seeing or listening to, Luna whispered, "can't go back to what?"
"To the way things were. You can't trust them, they're going to put you right back into those pills."
Luna's eyes widened, and she let go of Leni's hands, jumping back and backing away enough to put a room's worth of distance between them. Leni seemed to break out of her trance and looked questioningly at her. Her own face fell at the realization that she'd been speaking aloud. 'Well...that settles that...'
The two of them remained still as statues, eyes fixed on one another now that the jig was up. Neither of them dared speak a word, afraid that the other would take the opportunity to pounce. Finally, Luna began to move toward the door, each step measured, face never veering from the other girl. Leni didn't make an attempt to stop her. If it were anyone else...but not Luna. Apparently Lincoln and Lily weren't her only weaknesses.
The younger sister reached the door, and Leni finally broke eye contact with her, contemplating just how she was going to get out of this one. The door clicked shut, and she brought her hands up to her face. So focused was she on the building sense of fear, the voice in her head crying out to her to chase down Luna and do something, ANYTHING to save herself, that she didn't realize she wasn't alone until she felt a hand on her back.
Slowly, painfully, she withdrew her head to look to her left, looking into Luna's eyes, glassy with unshed tears. Gulping again, the younger Loud croaked, "alright...alright. Level with me, here."