"The rock queen reigns supreme!"

Luna smiled and threw up her hands in rock signs as Kimi pouted and crossed her arms. This was the seventh round in a row she had won at Guitar Gladiators. Neither her sisters nor Kimi had been able to best her. The only one who had even been able to come close was Olley.

"Man! Somebody has to put an end to this streak! Ben, where are you?!" she shouted, turning towards the kitchen. He had gone inside before they started playing, saying he needed to get started on the dish he was making.

Luna smirked. "Don't go trying to call Ben to bail you guys out baby. No one is going to be able to dethrone the queen," she said confidently.

Luan looked towards the kitchen curiously. "He hasn't anybody. Do you think he needs any help in there?" She didn't want him struggling to feed all of them, or making a mess in the kitchen. That was like their dad's scared place.

"He's probably just in the zone. He gets super focused when he's doing stuff like this," Luna said casually. She knew if he was cooking something he probably didn't need any help. Even if he did, he would have asked by now.

Kimi and some of the others shared a look, and then Kimi leaned over towards Olley. "I think maybe you should go in the kitchen and check on him, Olley. Just in case. You know, help him out and stuff," Kimi said, nudging him.

The boy looked at her girlfriend curiously. "But I was supposed to play n-" She nudged him again, and then gave him a look. Olley was confused. Why was she giving him 'the girlfriend' look right now? He only got that when he messed up something she was trying to… oh! He suddenly grew a look of realization on his face. "Right, got it."

He got up and made his way to the kitchen, and Luna looked confused. The rest of the girls suddenly all turned towards her. "Uh… what's going on?" she asked. She suddenly felt a pair of arms wrap around her, and looked down to see Lola smiling. "Lola, that's like the sixth huge you gave me today," Luna pointed out, smiling.

Lola smiled. "Just want to make sure you keep on remembering how much we love you," she said. She and the others had all had a long talk about how she had been feeling. Some of her sisters had already suspected she might have a thing for girls, while others hadn't but just didn't care. They all emphasized that it didn't matter. She was their sister, no matter what. The sentiment meant a lot of her. "And to make you feel a little better about us grilling you."

"Wait, what?"

"Which one are you gonna pick?" Leni asked eagerly.

Luna looked at her confused. "...do you mean like which character on Guitar Gladiator?"

Lori scoffed and scoffed forward. "No! Don't play dumb. Ben and Sam both like you, so which one are you gonna pick?" she asked. "We're literally dying to know."

Luna stared at her for a few moments, and then her face lit up. "W-what?!" she said looking panicked as she nearly dropped her controller.

Kimi leaned towards her. "I say Ben! He's cool! And you have so much in common!"

"I think she should go with Sam…" Lana muttered.

Lola scoffed. "You don't want her to pick Sam. You just want her to not pick Ben," she said, causing Lana to glare at her. "But yeah, go with Sam. I like Ben and all, but his sense of fashion is sort of tragic. That shirt? Uh."

Lynn crossed her arms. "Ben spent all night looking for her. And he totally had your back when you crashed at his place. That's hustle and commitment. Go with him."

"But you liked Sam first right? And now you know how she feels," Luan said. "And she was out looking for her too by the way."

"Yeah but-"

"Guys!" Luna said, holding her hands up. "Ben is literally right in the other room," she said, nodding towards the kitchen. It wasn't like any of this was a secret. Not anymore. But… she hadn't been expecting to have this conversation so soon. And she didn't want to risk him overhearing it.

Kimi scoffed. "C'mon, you know how Ben gets when he's in cooking or rock mode. We could set off a bomb in here and he wouldn't notice. And Olley isn't really going in there to snap him out of it. We just knew you wouldn't talk with him here since he'd probably tell Ben about it," she explained.

Luna raised an eyebrow. "Are you gonna tell Ben about it?"

Kimi stared back at her quietly. "Depends on the answer…"

"Kimi!"

"What?! I'm joking! I won't say a word, I promise on the girl code," she said putting a hand over her heart. "Now spill it! Who are you doing to pick! Please say Ben!"

"She should pick Sam!"

Luna decided to stop them before they went bickering again. "Okay guys, stop! I… I don't know, okay. I haven't even been thinking about it," she said shaking her head. "There's already been a whole bunch of drama, and school is gonna be even worse. So right now I just wanna let things sort of settle down."

Her sisters all shared a glance, and seemed ready to let her slide with that answer, but then Kimi blew a raspberry. "Boo, that's a total cop out," she said.

Luna narrowed her eyes at her. "Seriously? Cut me some slack dude. It's not like I'm picking out clothes to wear. Ben and Sam are both my friends. And if I pick one, it's gonna suck for the other," she said crossing her arms.

"So you're just not gonna pick?" Lynn asked.

Lori decided to cut in. "Okay girls, let's give Luna a little breathing room. This is a big choice, and we shouldn't push it into it if she's not ready. Besides, it's not really up to us who she picks at the end of the day. She could pick Ben, or Sam, or neither," she said. Curiously as she was, she could tell Luna was getting a bit uncomfortable. And after she day she had before, she didn't want her feeling like they were cornering her.

Lola sighed. "Fine. But I still say you should go with Sam. A person's fashion sense tells you all you need to know about them," she said.

"Wouldn't tell someone how evil you are…" Lana muttered.

"Hey!"

Luna picked the controller back up and decided to focus back on the game. She was grateful Lori got the others off of her back for now, but she knew she wouldn't be able to dodge this forever. Ben had said he'd still be there for her no matter who he picked, and he felt like Sam would probably say the same thing. But she knew even if that was true they'd be disappointed. Hurt. And she didn't want to do that to them.

She was gonna have to figure something out…

Ben chopped away at the vegetables on the cutting board, the laser focus on the task at hand written all over his face. After he finished, he set the knife down and looked over the pot he'd set on the stove earlier. The water looked like it was boiling, and he moved to grab the pack of noodles.

"Oh crap!"

He jumped when he saw Olley, who had been standing in front of the noodles. Olley held his hands up. "Sorry dude, let me just…" he scooted out of the way and then passed him the noodle. "Didn't think you needed to get over here."

Ben let out a breath. "No, no. It's cool. I didn't even notice you had walked in here…" He had zoned out again. Which hadn't been a surprise. "Did you need something from the fridge?" he asked. He had probably been moving around and blocking him.

Olley shook his head. "Nah, just waiting in here until the girls finished talking."

Ben looked confused. "Talking? About what?"

"Probably you."

Ben nearly dropped the handful of noodles he had been about to snip. He quickly turned towards Olley. "Me?! Like what about me?!" Given everything that had gone on, he had a few ideas. But if Olley knew something…

The other boy held his hands up. "Hey, I have no idea man. Kimi gave me the look and I bolted. I didn't want to stick around for girl talk anyway. They might still be chatting, so if you wanted to try and take a listen…"

Ben thought for a moment, and then shook his head. "No, no way." Eavesdropping never turned out anything good. At best he was being a creep and invading her and her sisters privacy, and at worst he was gonna hear something he really didn't want to hear. "I'm just gonna keep making dinner. That's it. I don't know, and don't need to."

He said he was gonna back off for now. Give her some breathing room. So there was no point stressing himself out over…

"What do you think they're saying?" he asked.

Olley shrugged. "Not sure. I guess they're just talking about you and Sam. It could just be regular girl chat, or maybe they've had a deep emotional conversation… or maybe I'm dead wrong it's just like a downstairs girl problem thing and they didn't want me to hear. I stopped trying to figure out girls years ago."

Ben sighed. "Crap man, you're the only reference I have here." He didn't have any sisters, and he never had a girlfriend. He didn't even really have any close female friends from back home. The only thing he knew about girls was what his auntie had told them. And… he honestly had paid attention to most of it.

He made a mental note to apologize and ask her again later.

Olley looked at his friend concerned. "You look kind of worried man. Why? You and Luna are cool, right?" he asked.

Ben nodded. "Yeah we are, but… ugh, I want to make a good impression."

"You're her best friend. I'm pretty sure she had a good impression of you."

"You know what I mean. If she's talking and thinking about me and Sam like that, I want to seem more… I…" He looked down, biting his lip slightly. It was a little too embarrassing to say it out loud, but he wanted to win her over. He wanted to impress her. He wanted to do his best to make her pick him.

He let out a breath, and then began snipping the noodles again. "You know what Olley, it doesn't even matter what they're saying right now," he said, a determined look on his face. He had a dish to focus on right now.

After all, his auntie told him girls loved a guy who could cook.

"This is so good!"

"Delicious!"

"Literally the best!"

Luna hummed as she swallowed the forkful of noodles, beef, and vegetables Ben had made for everyone. She looked up towards him and smiled. "Dude, this is awesome! I thought you were just amazing at baking! I didn't know you could cook like this!"

Ben smiled proudly, a slight blush appearing on his cheeks. "I-it's nothing. Just a bit of sapasui. It's a samoan twist on chop suey. I usually make it with my aunt," he said.

"It's not nothing. This is literally the best version of chop suey I've ever had," Lori said while eating another forkful. She looked towards Luna, and gestured towards the food, and then Ben. 'Marry him' she mouthed, causing Luna to blush.

"I want seconds!" Lynn shouted, holding up a bowl.

Leni frowned. "Lynn, you're gonna eat everything before anyone else." The others didn't even finish their first plate yet.

"Well, I can always go and stop by the store so I can make more," Ben said. He knew with everyone here there was just barely doing to be enough to go around. Had he been thinking he would have brought more along with him.

Luna shook his head. "Don't sweat it dude. You came here to chill, not to play personal chef." He was technically a guest, so he shouldn't have been cooking for them at all.

Ben turned back towards her. "It's alright. I don't mind. I don't get to make many home dishes outside of the bakery. Especially not ones that aren't desserts," he said before handing another plate to Lynn. "If you want, I can come by and make you guys some other dishes. Just ask and I can whip something up whenever."

Luna smiled up at him, and Ben felt his cheeks head up. He really hoped she didn't notice. And that he didn't look like a total dope right now.

"Wow, didn't know we were having a party." Everyone turned towards the door as Lynn Sr. made his way inside. "Hey there kids. How's everyone?"

"Hey dad!"

"Totes amazing!"

"How was work?"

Lynn closed the door behind him and chuckled. "Glad to hear everyone is doing well. And work was fine. A bit busy, but nothing your old man couldn't handle," he said before looking down at the table. "Speaking of work, I see you all were doing a little home cooking of your own. What do we have here?"

Lana held her plate up. "It's samoan chop suey! It's so good dad, you should try some!" she said eagerly.

Ben looked nervous. "Uh, no, that's fine. You don't have to. I mean, it's not like it's anything special. Besides, you probably ate already."

Making something for his friends was one thing. But making something for a professional chef? That was a whole different thing entirely. When it came to baking he was a bit more confident, but he wasn't cocky enough to think that his food was up to his standards.

Lynn chuckled. "What? Of course I wanna try some. Everyone seems to be happy with it, I have to see what the hype is about," he said, taking the plate from Lana. "Besides, I make sapasui at the restaurant, and I wanna see if mine stacks up to the real thing." He took a forkful of it, and Ben winced.

The girls all looked eager, while Ben rubbed his arm. He had done his best mostly to impress Luna, but now he was more worried about what her dad would think. Lynn hummed, and then looked back towards him. "This… this is good. Very good. Ben, you really made this on your own? No help?" he asked.

Before he could answer, Kimi spoke up. "Sure did! He's like a cooking zombie in the kitchen. He totally goes all robot mode and just does everything on his own," she said.

Olley nodded. "Yeah, he totally forgot I was there…"

Ben blushed as the others laughed and giggled, and Lynn walked over towards him with a smile. "Ben, I have to say… I think this sapasui is better than mine."

The other looked at Lynn rather surprised, and Ben went wide eyed. "I… uh, thank you I guess. But you don't have to be that modest about it. I'm sure I have nothing on-"

"No, I'm not just being nice Ben. I really think this is better than my sapasui." It was different, but that didn't surprise him. Lots of dishes tended to stray just a bit from their traditional roots. But putting that aside… this was just plain good. "You said that cooking was just a hobby right?"

Ben nodded. "I mean, yeah. Sometimes when I have free time I just mess around in the kitchen. Auntie shows me some old recipes but…" He didn't think he was that good at it. Definitely not good enough for him to be so impressed.

"Well, you seem like you have a real talent for it. If you're ever interested in taking things a little further, feel free to come down to the restaurant. I'd be happy to give you a shot to make some more traditional dishes. And try a few others while you're at it."

Ben blinked. "You mean… like a job?"

Lynn chuckled. "If you're interested, sure." He knew he was already working at the cafe, so he didn't want to try and poach him from his family. But he did really feel like he had some potential in the kitchen. It'd be pretty sad to let it go to waste if he really was interested in cooking.

Luna whistled. "Wow, look at you dude. Going from our kitchen to professional restaurants. You work fast," she joked, playfully punching his arm.

Ben rubbed his arm. "Well… I got to say, I think I'm more of a rocker than a chef. But maybe if I get some free time I can stop by there. It'd be pretty cool to see what goes on in a real kitchen."

And if he just happened to get to spend a bit more time with Luna, that was a bonus.

A/N: Update came a bit quicker than usual huh? I was really excited after the last chapter and ended up cranking this one out early. I actually waited a day to upload it. So, the Loud sisters (and Kimi) grill Luna about what she's going to do. Did you really think they wouldn't? They're gonna be smothering her with love for a while, but that doesn't mean they're not gonna want all the details as well! And Ben is finding a more subtle way to try win over Luna's affections. The way to the heart is through the stomach, right? It's also setting up something I have planned for him later.

Reviewer Responses!

Guest: One vote for team Len! Lol.

UltraUniverse: Thank you! Yeah, I didn't want to go the route of Ben and Sam starting to be petty towards each other. And there's definitly going to be some more interactions with Ben and the Loud siblings in the future! And some more family drama going on with the Brittle brothers! Also glad you like the banter with Luan and Beck lol. There's gonna be a bit of side stuff between them throughout the story.