Luna Loud was new to this whole 'best friend' thing.

It wasn't like she'd never had friends. Sure she had never been insanely popular or anything, but she was in her fair share of social circles. She got along well with Sam and her pals, and she knew a lot of her sister's friends pretty well too.

But Ben Brittle was probably the first person she would consider to be her best friend. She hadn't at first, but after thinking about it for a while, she saw pretty much all the signs there. They hung out all the time, goofed off, shared secrets. Pretty much all the things her brother did with his best friend Clyde.

So yeah, she supposed they were best friends. And she didn't really mind that. She might not have known him for that long, but Ben was cool. A little quirky, but a genuinely honest guy who seemed like he'd have her back when it counted. And she'd have his back too, just like they said. That's what friends did right?

So why wasn't he talking to her?

It had been a few days since the party had happened, and things didn't exactly seem like they were going well for Ben. Everyone was talking about his near fight with Eddy, who had bragged about how Ben was scared of him. When she had asked Bruno and Bruce about it, they said they would let him handle it.

"If he needs us to step in he'll say something…"

She wasn't sure how she felt about that. If it had been her sisters they wouldn't have hesitated to find whoever was bullying one of their own and shut them down. But she knew the Brittle brothers had their own way of doing things. Ben had ignored the teasing, saying he'd get bored and leave him be eventually.

Ben had also been pretty distant lately. He had barely spoken to her all week, he could hardly even look her in the eyes. When he did it was never for more than a few seconds. Whenever she asked him what was wrong he'd just blow it off and say it was nothing.

During practice he was off. His actual playing was just as good as ever, and most people would never be able to tell. Not even Oliver seemed to notice. But she just felt like something was… off. They didn't have the same chemistry they usually did. He sort of zoned out like he always did before, but now it was like he was playing by himself. Not with her.

It was both worrying and frustrating. How could she help him if he didn't tell her what was wrong. How could she get him to open up? She'd never really had to think about stuff like that with anyone outside of her family, and she already knew how each and every one of her siblings worked, so it was never that hard.

But she couldn't just do nothing.

She sat back and looked from her table up at the stage. Their band would only play at the café every couple of days, while the rest were spent practicing. They needed to write some new songs of their own, and learn some others that Ben said would probably be requested. When they weren't, Ben was up there on his own. Just like now.

The café had an open mike when Ben and Beck finished their shows, but they could also put in request from the both of them. Ben had just finished with a request someone had made and was making his way back behind the counter. He looked just as polite as he always did when he was serving customers, but Luna knew it was forced.

She frowned before getting up and heading towards the back. "Hey Luna, where you going?" Sam asked.

Luna flinched. She had almost forgotten she'd come here with Sam and the others. "Uh, I gotta check up on something with Ben. Band stuff, you know?" she asked offering the blonde a smile.

Sam nodded. "Cool, I'll keep Nate from eating your stuff," she said elbowing her other friend who nudged her right back with a laugh.

Luna continued to the back, and the moment she opened the door she saw Ben picking up a plate of cupcakes. "Ben…" she called.

The boy looked over his shoulder and paled slightly when he saw her. There! There it was again! Why did he seem so worried about her being here? Why did he seem to be trying to avoid her? "Oh, hey." He lifted up the plate and showed it to her. "If you're waiting for your order it's right here. I'll just bring it-"

"I'm not here to talk about my order dude. I just… I want to talk to you. You got a minute?"

He stood there for a silently for a second. "Luna, I'm kind of working here. I don't really have time to sit back and chat, you know?"

Luna sighed. She knew it was probably a little much to ask him to stop in the middle of work just to speak with her, but she tended to just go on impulse sometimes. "Sure he can talk! He's going on break right about now anyway!" Luna looked back up and saw Berta standing behind Ben. She took the tray from his hands. "You go on now, talk with your bandmate."

Ben looked at her panicked. "Auntie I-"

Berta suddenly glared at him. "Ben, look at her. She's worried. This is obviously important. Now hurry up, it's rude to keep a lady waiting."

"But what if someone-"

Berta suddenly reached up and pinched his cheek. She was smiling, but Luna could tell it was more of a warning than a friendly gesture. "Nephew, do you remember a couple days ago when you came up and you shoved your brother aside, and then you snapped at me?" she asked.

Luna winced. She had heard that he snapped at his aunt when he got home, and she hadn't taken too kindly to it. "…yeah…" Ben said nervously.

"And remember how I didn't shove my foot up your behind for it?" she asked again.

"…yeah…"

"Good. Not repay the favor and go talk to your friend before I change my mind about that," she said patting him on the head. She turned and began walking out. "He's yours for as long as you need him sweetie. It's almost time to close up anyhow," she said to Luna as she left.

Luna nodded. "Thanks Ms. B." She turned back to Ben who looked like a deer in headlights. "So… maybe we should go outside?"

Ben gulped. "Uh… sure." The two made their way outside the back of the café. Luna closed the door behind them and sighed as Ben leaned against the wall. "So… what did you want to talk about?" he asked shrugging his shoulders.

Luna frowned. "Dude, are you serious?" she asked. "You've been acting weird since the party. I don't just mean what happened with Eddy either. You've just been… off."

Ben sighed. "Luna, I told you nothing was wrong. It's not-"

"Stop lying!" Luna suddenly snapped, surprising him. "It's bad enough that you don't want to talk to me about it! But don't lie to me! I'm not stupid! I can tell when something is bothering someone! I talked to your brothers too! They said you haven't told them what's up either! I'm not the only one worried Ben!"

Ben winced at the harsh tone, and Luna had to calm herself. She didn't know why she was so angry at him. She just… was. "I… I'm sorry," Ben said.

"I mean, was it something they did? Is Eddy still bugging you? Was it me? Did I do something wrong? Is it because I dragged you to the party? Ditched you there? Tried to make you stay? If I did something wrong I'm sorry, but please don't just shut me out because of it!"

"No!" Ben said quickly. "It wasn't you, I swear. This is… this is all on me okay? It's just some personal crap I'm dealing with."

Luna grabbed his shoulders. "Then tell me about it!" she pleaded. "You can talk to me dude. We're friends. If something is up I want to try and help. Or at least just be there for you."

Ben looked at her hesitantly, then looked down at the ground. "I can't. It's not… you don't get it okay? This is guy stuff."

"Guy stuff?!" she asked in disbelief. She shook her head. "Dude, you are so full of it!" She turned and began walking off. "When you feel like not being a total goober, call." She stormed off.

"How long has she been out there?" Luan asked.

"Like an hour… never seen her this steamed before," Lynn answered.

The Loud sisters all watched from the window as Luna swung away at the punching bag in the backyard. It really was strange. Lynn had come out to get some kickboxing practice in, and found her rocker sister using it instead. When she asked when she'd be done, all she got was an angry growl in response.

Lynn wisely decided to back off and go get the rest of her sisters. They had hoped to ask her what was wrong when she came back inside but… well, it didn't seem like she was coming in anytime soon. "Uh… maybe we should go talk to her?" Leni asked.

"AAAAHHHH!"

They heard Luna yell and once again wail on the bag, sending it flying upwards. "You can go out there if you want. I want to keep the rest of my teeth," Lana said.

"In my professional opinion, I suggest we leave our music loving sibling alone until she calms down enough to listen to reason," Lisa offered.

"That's just your way of saying you don't feel like dealing with it," Lola said shaking her head.

Lori narrowed her eyes. "I recognize this kind of rage. You guys stay back. I'll handle this," she said as she made her way out of the door. She walked down the stairs and approached her younger sister. "Luna, are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" Luna answered as she continued punching.

Lori narrowed her eyes. "Really? Because you seem really, really angry," she said crossing her arms. "Does this have something to do with Ben?" she asked.

Despite what her sisters thought, Lori did pay attention to more than her phone. She knew what her younger siblings were up to and what was going on in their lives. She could see something was going on between Ben and Luna, and whatever it was had started going downhill after the party.

Her hunch appeared to be right, since Luna punched the bag considerably harder after she mentioned his name. Lori grabbed the other side of the bag and let her swing away. "He's so stupid! All that talk about us being friends and how we could tell each other anything, and he won't tell me what's bugging him! He's such an idiot! Why won't he just let me know what's wrong?! Why won't he let me help him?! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!"

Lori hummed and just nodded along. "Boys are kind of stupid. They work in really weird ways."

"And even if he didn't want to talk to me about it, he can't seriously think I'm just not going to notice! Like I'm an idiot! Like I'm just going to sit back and say nothing! Screw him!"

Lori just kept nodding along. "Yeah, that was pretty dumb of him."

The next few minutes were just Luna venting about how stupid Ben was, and Lori just nodding and agreeing with her. After a while Luna finally seemed to tire out. She lowered her fist and began trying to catch her breath. "You feel better?" Lori asked.

"No…" Luna said bitterly. "Just a little less angry than before."

Lori walked over to the stairs and patted the spot beside her. Luna sighed, taking her gloves off and taking a seat beside her elder sister. "Luna, let me let you in on a secret. Men are stubborn, stupid, and simple creatures. They feel like they have to do everything themselves or else their not manly. Even Bobby gets macho and dumb like that sometimes."

Luna looked down at her feet. "Yeah, I know. I remember when Lincoln did that camping trip just cause he felt like we were making him girly."

"Exactly," Lori said. "So don't worry. Whatever he's got going on is just a phase. It'll pass."

"I just… it hurts, you know. He's my best friend and he's shutting me out. I thought we could trust each other. We already shared some deep stuff, I don't see what he's got going on that could be worse," she explained.

Lori put an arm around her shoulder. "Look, I clearly don't know Ben as well as you do. But he seems like a good guy. He's not trying to hurt you. You just have to give him a little time. It'll sink in his head eventually, and he'll talk. Until then just be there."

Luna once again sighed. "Guess that's all I can do."

Lori smiled. "And remember, Ben isn't the only one there for you. You got us too."

Luna smiled back at her. "Thanks…"

The two sisters hugged one another. Luna continued smiling, feeling just a little better about all this. Lorion the other hand grew a frown on her face. She was going to have a little chat with a certain Brittle brother…

Ben wasn't sure he could feel any more like a jackass than he already did. He sat on his bed, strumming his guitar, trying and failing to clear his head. Brutus sat at the foot of his bed just lying there. The dog could tell he was feeling down and had tried to cheer him up, but after realizing Ben was in no mood to play, he just decided to rest at his feet.

There was a long list of things that were going horribly for him right now. The top of the list being how upset Luna was with him right now. When she had snapped at him earlier he'd felt like someone had punched him right in the heart. But he couldn't blame her. From her point of view he was blowing her off. Ignoring her.

He knew he shouldn't have been so nervous around her. He should have just acted like he normally did, but… he couldn't. Every time he saw her a torrent of thoughts flowed through his head. All of them about how much he liked her.

Now that he was aware and accepted that fact, he noticed every little quirk of hers he enjoyed seeing from her. The way she would snap him out of his thoughts when he zoned out. The way she laughed. The way she moved when they were playing on stage.

Then it all came crashing down when he remembered that he didn't stand a chance with her. No matter how much he wished it was different, she already had someone she liked. He just wished he could make himself… stop. It was like he was torturing himself. Pining after something he knew damn well he couldn't have.

And what made it worse was that he was hurting her while he was doing it. She already had enough stuff going on with her. She didn't need another love interest making things complicated, she just needed a friend. Why couldn't he just be that damn it. Why'd he have to ruin it and fall for her?

Then there was his family. His aunt hadn't said anything, but he knew she was angry about him snapping at her. As loving as she was to them, the woman could hold a grudge.

Beck had seemed pretty irritated with him. At first he thought it was because he had shoved him on his way back from the party, but that didn't seem to be the case. Apparently Luan had been upset her sister was feeling down, and Beck didn't like that. He hadn't said anything, but Ben was pretty sure a reckoning with Beck was in his near future.

He had to lookout for Bruno too. His eldest brother wasn't particularly mad at him, but he knew something was up, and he was going to find out. He always did.

There was a knock on his door, and Brutus' head shot up. "It's open," Ben said.

Bruno made his way inside the room. Speak of the devil. "Yo, what's up little brother?"

Ben sighed. "I don't feel like talking Bruno…"

Bruno hummed. "Well… kind of sucks to be you then. Cause we're gonna talk," he said before pulling out the chair from Ben's desk. He took a seat and turned towards him. "So, do you want to pussy foot around this or get straight to the point?"

"I want you out of my room…"

"Straight to the point it is." Bruno leaned forward. "So, what's going on with you and Luna? I know the way you been acting lately can't just be because of that jackass Eddy."

Ben groaned. "Uh, would you please just leave? I don't want to talk about this."

Bruno chuckled. "See, that's the problem. You never want to talk about anything," he said pointing at him. "You didn't want to talk about how moving made you feel, you didn't want to talk about Luna, you didn't want to talk about your eyes."

Ben looked up from his guitar and stared at Bruno. "What?"

Bruno frowned. "Oh, now I have your attention huh?" he asked growing serious. "Did you think we didn't know? Auntie might not have said anything but Bruno kept cameras everywhere, even back then. Just didn't say anything because we figured you would eventually. When you were ready. Boy were we wrong on that one."

Ben gripped his guitar tightly. "Do the twins know?"

"No. Neither does Beck. Just me and Bruce," Bruno answered.

Ben was silent for a moment, and then chuckled. "Hmm, should have known. Nothing goes on with any of us without you knowing right? You're our all-knowing big brother"

Bruno narrowed his eyes. "Yeah, I am your brother. I'm supposed to know stuff about you guys. Especially when it involves trying to burn your own eyes out."

Ben grit his teeth. "I was a kid… I didn't know better."

"Yeah, you were. A stupid little kid, just like the rest of us. But somehow, you managed to keep on doing the same stupid crap you did back then."

Ben glared at him. "Screw off."

"You never even tried to talk to us about it. You just shut it in just you're doing now. You know, I actually thought for a while that maybe Luna would be the one who could get you to stop clamming up every time something went wrong, but sure enough you shut her out too."

Ben set his guitar down and got up. "Screw this."

He headed for the door, but Bruno cut him off and shoved him right back onto his bed. "Sit down, I'm not done with you yet," he said sternly. "I keep on trying to be patient with you. I keep hoping that at some point you're gonna learn to talk to us, but it's not happening. So times up, we're hashing this out right now."

"Bruno, I'm not in the mood for this right now!"

"Too bad," he said standing in front of him. "Do you know Auntie is terrified right now? Last time you were this shut off you did something stupid. She thinks you're going to do it again."

Ben avoided looking at him. He knew he was right. As mad as she seemed, his aunt was probably worried sick right now. "I'll talk to her…"

"You'll just tell her everything is okay without explaining it. You'll do the same thing to Beck, and me, and probably Luna too. You don't seem to get that you saying its okay isn't enough. Especially when we can clearly see it's NOT okay."

Ben growled. "Look, I can't talk about it, okay!"

"It's not that you can't, it's that you won't!" Bruno countered. "I get it, it's probably some personal crap or girl troubles, or maybe something you promised Luna or… I don't know! But give us something to work with! We don't need every little detail, but we need something!"

Ben sat there silent for a moment, then pointed towards the door. "Get out…" Bruno looked like he was about to speak again, but Ben cut him off. "I don't want to hear whatever other bullshit you have to say. I just… I wanna be alone. Get out." He picked his guitar back up and began tuning it.

Bruno chuckled and shook his head. "Wow… you know, you kept worrying about your eyes, but that wasn't the problem. It was your personality. You're a good kid Ben, but you just… you really are turning out more like mom every day."

The string on Ben's guitar snapped, and his eyes widened. He quickly dropped his guitar and got up, standing face to face with Bruno. "The hell did you just say?" Ben asked glaring at him.

"You heard me," Bruno shot back.

The two of them stood off against one another, and Brutus whined and lowered his head. Ben balled his fist up and looked like he was going to swing at him for a second, but then just pointed towards the door. "Leave man…" Bruno stared at him for a few more seconds before turning around and walking out.

Once he left Ben walked over to his bed and flopped down on top of it. Well, things had officially gotten worse than they already were.

"…more like mom every day…"

Hegrit his teeth. "…god damn it…"

A/N: So, things are going from bad to worse for Ben. And Luna Hey guys, hope you enjoyed the chapter. Sorry it took so to put out. A combination of writer's block and being sick really put me out of commission for a while. But I'm feeling better now. I actually took a reviewers advice for this chapter and wrote from Luna's point of view, which helped out a lot.

Will start working on the next chapter, but I might upload an bousnus inbetween. Will also have a bit more of Oliver and Kimi in it. Thanks for reading guys, and don't forget to leave a review! Now time for some reviewer responses!

lttlgreg: Well, we're just going to have to wait and see! I can garuntee no matter how it plays out there's going to be drama though.

DannyPhantom619: Yeah, teenage years are definately a kick in the balls. Emotions, relationships, horrible things happening to your body. Ben's got a hell of a time ahead of him.

Witch-King Angmar: Yeah, Leni really is an innocent little soul. And Ben is really going through the ringer. Wonder just how bad things are going to get before he gets a break.

tylerchavis97: They definately both got it rough right now. We'll just have to keep reading to find out if they can pull it together.