Author Notes - I'm having a bit too much fun writing this story. I say that like I'm remotely surprised.

CHAPTER THREE - STEP ON A CRACK

Lincoln stared at that single fallen shingle, lying in the middle of the plaza. He found himself stepping towards it, walking down the steps, and approaching that random shingle. It didn't seem out of the ordinary at all, and if anything that concerned him even more. Since when was Ruidosa ever in the ordinary?

'You okay, Ruidosa?'

He picked up this one shingle and looked at it closer, making sure that he didn't cut himself on the sharp edges. It had a crumbled edge, as though it snapped clean off the roof.

'I don't know if a house can get sick, but… are you?'

He flinched, greeted by a sudden sound. It was a sound that reminded him of Lori cracking a rock right open with nothing more than a swift kick, or Lana gently laying on a crocodile egg that was already hatching. He glanced down at his feet, and saw a great big crack in the tiling, one thick and deep enough for him to fit his whole hand into.

'Woah!'

In his shock, Lincoln dropped the shingle and the floor cracked even more. The crevasse originated from somewhere out the door, and reached all the way across the plaza.

'Uh, Ruidosa… what's happening?!'

The front doors, which would normally give him a little wave, shook under their own weight. It made Lincoln cringe - it looked as though Ruidosa was, strangely enough, in pain. The doors only trembled more when the crack split and began travelling up the walls, moving so fast that no one had any hope to fix them.

'Ruidosa!'

The crack hit Lori's door first, and suddenly the lovely outline of the 19-year-old carrying a heavy dumbell over her head like it was nothing began to flicker like crazy. Lincoln's eyes went wide as the crack went straight through Leni's door next, and the carving of the girl dancing among the flowers flickered too, though not nearly as much as Lori's.

'The doors!' Lincoln couldn't manage to piece together any words that weren't simply stating the obvious.

He rushed up the steps as quickly as the aching Ruidosa could let him, as if he could keep up with and stop those nasty cracks spreading everywhere through the house. A yelp escaped his throat when he noticed cracks spreading through the other side as well, barely avoiding Lisa's new door and heading right for Lana and Lola's instead. Lana's carving on the door only flickered a little, but Lola's wouldn't stop.

'Okay, I know we still struggle to communicate sometimes,' Lincoln said, his voice slowly rising in volume. 'But can you tell me what's happening?!'

The panels at his feet twitched, as though trying to communicate but being in too much pain to do so. Lincoln couldn't help staring at the destruction happening before him. Why were cracks forming for the first time since Ruidosa appeared? Why were some doors' light flickering so much they might as well be off, while others were only flickering a little?

The cracks didn't stop, and Lincoln quickly realised where they were heading: the window where the candle would normally be! He glanced back at Lori's door; the light had faded away completely, and Lola's door was sure to be next.

Ruidosa used what seemed to be the last of its strength to move one of its support beams, pointing it at Lisa's door that was still glowing bright.

'Good idea! They'll know what to do!'

Wasting no time at all, he jumped over a crack in the floor and burst right into Lisa's new room. The celebrations were still going on, for no one else had noticed the problems at all. His parents and sisters were in the middle of it, dancing together and - in the case of the older sisters - indulging in wine they probably weren't supposed to drink yet. He could even see Leni dancing awkwardly with Bobby.

Thinking little about the consequences, Lincoln charged right through everyone as fast as he could.

'EVERYONE!' He yelled. 'RUIDOSA IS FALLING APART!'

His voice was swallowed by the cheering crowd, but one person managed to hear his voice perfectly.

'RUIDOSA'S FALLING APART?!' Luna cried, ceasing her piano playing immediately. 'Dude, are you sure?!'

That was enough to make everything and everyone fall silent. Lincoln was sweating quite profusely, both from nerves and exertion, and he knew he must've looked insane, standing there with wide eyes and a heavy breath. But still, everyone turned to him.

'The house… is WHAT?!' Lola screamed.

The rainbow above her head shifted into a rainy cloud immediately. Well, at least the miracle was still good.

'I just saw it!' Lincoln said, pointing to the door. 'Suddenly, a crack showed up and then there were cracks everywhere, the doors started flickering… Lori's door even went out!'

'WHAT?!' Lori shrieked as loudly as her lungs could manage, making Luna cringe, before she dropped the desk she was carrying onto the floor.

'Lincoln, that's… that's crazy.' Rita said. 'If Lori's door went out… if there were cracks in the house… we would know about it, surely!'

'Come on!' Lincoln said, running for the door. 'I don't know what you guys can do to stop it, but maybe you can!'

The rest of Lincoln's family, truly, had no idea what on earth was going on, or if Lincoln was even telling the truth, but they certainly weren't going to take the risk. So, the whole family and most of the guests ran after him. Lincoln almost reached the door when a red-and-white blur sped past him so quickly he fell to the floor. When he got back to his feet, Lynn was already looking over the balcony.

'Uh, Stinkcoln!' She yelled. 'There ain't any cracks here!'

Lincoln's jaw fell. 'W-What?'

He just barely made it out the door before his family, and he looked all around the plaza. Lynn was certainly not lying: all those horrible cracks that were there a mere minute ago were now gone, and the doors were glowing as bright as ever. Lincoln didn't even need to turn around to feel the disapproving looks his whole family was giving him. Lori and Lola rushed to their respective doors, and both breathed sighs of relief when they saw their doors still ever glowing.

'LINCOLN!' Lola screamed, the cloud above her head beginning to thunder.

'Lola, clear skies!' Rita demanded.

'I'm not going to give you any clear skies, because LINCOLN RUINED EVERYTHING!'

Out of desperation, Lincoln ran down the stairs to look for that fallen shingle. Yet, somehow, even the shingle itself had disappeared and was back in its place on the rooftop.

'I-It was right here!' He said, pointing at the floor. 'There was a massive crack here, and Lori's door went out, a-and…'

He turned around, and saw his entire family looking down upon him from the rooftop. Some looked annoyed that he interrupted their fun, others with a look of pity. Rita, however, looked down on him with an obvious look of disapproval. She said nothing, but her look said everything. Lincoln could hardly stand to even gaze in her direction, and so looked at the floor.

'There's no need to worry, everyone!' She said, cheerfully, to the crowd behind her. 'The magic is as strong as ever. Just ignore my son. I think he wanted a little bit of extra attention.'

'What?' Lincoln said. 'No, I swear, I-'

'Come on, everyone! The night is still strong. … And so are those drinks!'

And he watched everyone, including his mother and sisters, turning around and heading back inside Lisa's new room to celebrate. Lola took a moment to give him a nasty glare, while Leni frowned before turning around. Only his father remained, and he walked down the stairs to join up with his only son.

'Lincoln,' He said, with a gentle voice. 'You-'

'I know what I saw!' Lincoln said. 'Those cracks were there, I just know it. Do you really think I would interrupt Lisa's ceremony just so people could look at me? Something's going on, and I don't know what.'

The patriarch of the Loud family sighed, and brought himself and his son over to the stairs so they could sit on the bottom step. He wrapped his arm around Lincoln's shoulder, trying his hardest to calm him down. It wasn't entirely working, but it was doing something.

'You believe me…' Lincoln said, looking up at his father with sad eyes. 'Don't you?'

Lynn Sr scratched the back of his neck. 'That's a hard one, son. But I don't think you'd ever lie to me. If you say you saw cracks, then there were almost certainly cracks. Where are they now, though?'

'I… I don't know. Maybe Ruidosa was able to repair itself before we got back?'

The father smiled. 'Well, if Ruidosa can repair itself, then we have nothing to worry about!'

'But… what if the cracks become so bad that Ruidosa can't repair itself?'

Lynn Sr opened his mouth to answer the question, but ended up looking like a fool because he didn't know how to reply. He sat there, unable to sputter anything else other than confused syllables, until he finally admitted,

'I don't know, son. I really don't.'

Lincoln sighed. 'Look, it's fine. I'll get over it. Go back to the party. You don't get to see those happy faces when people eat your food if you're not there.'

'Those happy faces won't mean anything to me,' Lynn Sr said. 'If you're not smiling too.'

'Dad, you-'

'You might not have a gift, but you don't need one! I mean, all your sisters are always pigeonholed into the same role, but since you don't have a gift, you can be anything you want! I think that makes you the most special of all.'

Lincoln smiled, but only for a moment. Maybe it would've meant more, if the man who spoke those words hadn't healed someone's third degree burns with some bacon and eggs only a week ago.

'Dad,' He said, giving his dad a look. 'Just yesterday, you healed Lynn's broken leg with nothing but a pancake.'

'So?' Lynn Sr asked. 'Now all I can be is a cook!'

'Didn't you want to be a cook anyway?'

'I…' Lynn Sr went silent for a spell. 'Well, I… well, it is true that the gifts received have to do with your desires or talents. I wanted to be a cook, so I got something related to cooking!'

Lincoln cocked an eyebrow. 'So… if I don't get any gift, does that mean I'm nothing?'

He asked this rhetorical question not out of sadness or regret, but out of frustrations with his father. It didn't help his mood at all, however, when Lynn Sr had no response to that.

'Just enjoy yourself, Dad.' Lincoln said, standing up. 'I might just go to bed now. It's… it's been a long day, you know.'

Lynn Sr stood up after him and shrugged. 'Well, if that's what you want Kiddo, then I can't stop you. But if you wanna join the party, feel free to!'

The young boy managed to smile, however weakly. 'Thanks for the offer, Dad. Really.'

Lincoln did not go back to the party. Part of it was because he couldn't stand to think about all the looks he'd inevitably get from the guests and his family. The other part was that he simply didn't have it in him. He lay on his bed in the nursery (better than a closet, at least), staring up at the ceiling and totally unable to get to sleep. How late was it? Late enough for everyone to be in bed, with only Lana's wolf friend providing any ambience. Well, and all of her frogs too, but they were a lot more relaxing than a wolf's howl.

'I knew I saw those cracks…' He murmured to himself. 'I just know it.'

A sound caught his attention. The floorboards of his room were bouncing up and down, just like they did that morning but with a lot less energy. Somehow, Lincoln managed to understand it.

'Wait,' He said, sitting up. 'You know you were cracking?'

A floorboard lifted itself up and moved up and down in a rhythmic fashion, before it returned to the flooring.

'Yes!' Lincoln declared, only to be met with annoyed clattering from the floor. 'Oh, that's obviously a bad thing. Like, a really bad thing. But it's good that I'm not crazy!' He tapped his chin. 'I gotta go check on something.'

Walking as quietly as he could, he left the nursery and approached the edge of the balcony. Rita had placed the candle back in its rightful place, and he could see it from his position with ease. It glowed and emitted little flames like it always did, with no sign of going out or melting.

'What's going on…?' He asked himself.

Then, he gasped; he could see his mother, still awake, approaching the candle, and he ducked into hiding before she could see him. Even though there was no way anyone could hear him, since even Luna would have turned her gift down so she could fall asleep, he kept as quiet as he could. He couldn't see his mom, and didn't dare come out of hiding, but he could certainly hear her in the quiet stillness of night.

'Leia…' She spoke, sounding as though she was close to tears. 'What is happening? You told me there were cracks, and after what Lincoln told me… I don't want to believe him, but I don't think there's any denying it now.'

'Leia…?' Lincoln repeated, having never heard that name being spoken by his mother before. 'Who on earth…?'

'I just don't understand… why is this happening, Leia? I-I can't lose this miracle. A-And, I… I cannot lose you.'

Lincoln gasped, but then covered his mouth. He could hear his mother's footsteps returning to her room, leaving the glowing candle by the window, so he emerged from his hiding spot once again. He didn't know what to think. On one hand, it was great to know that Rita really did believe him when he said he saw cracks. On the other… nothing else was happy news, because not only were the walls crumbling for real, with not even Ruidosa itself quite knowing the reason why…

Who, or what, was 'Leia'? It could've easily been simply Rita's nickname for the house, giving it a name that fit in with the family a bit more, but she had never used such a name for Ruidosa before. Or had she? That was something to ask Luna about the next day, if he felt comfortable with bringing that up. If Rita had only ever used such a name to herself, when she was certain no one was listening, it might not be so nice for her if someone else knew.

Still without knowing, he returned to his room in silence and lay down on his bed. Those cracks were certainly a bad sign, and Rita sounded so concerned about losing the miracle.

'I have to save the miracle!' He declared to no one, clenching his fists while still on the bed, before he turned to the window. 'How do you save a miracle?'

Ruidosa responded by flapping its window shades and lifting up a couple of tiles to resemble a pair of shrugging arms. The poor house had to spend a lot of time perfecting a move like that, and it took a lot of human study. Anything to make communication with Lincoln easier.

'I guess I can't blame you for not knowing either.' The boy said. 'You don't even know why you're cracking to pieces in the first place. Who could possibly-?'

He gasped. Of course… Luna! Though she typically used that gift of sensitive hearing to find inspiration for her songs, she would always pick up a little bit of gossip inadvertently. Which Lola would often try to press out of her. If something fishy was going on, that girl would be the first to know.

Sleep came a lot easier for him, for now he was sure he had found a way - or at least a lead - to fixing up those nasty cracks before everything went to heck. He couldn't help thinking about those flickering doors. Was it random whose doors went out first, or was there a reason why Lori's went out first followed soon by Lola's?

He'd only get his answers if he went to sleep.

The very first thing Lincoln did when he woke up - after getting ready, obviously - was go searching for Luna. The rocker girl could normally be found in a room, which resembled an epic rock-and-roll concert without the massive crowd, writing a song with the inspiration she got from somewhere in the town. Yet, she wasn't there.

'Oh, duh.' He said, facepalming. 'It's nearly breakfast time!'

He ran into the kitchen, where he - unsurprisingly - found his dad already cooking up a delicious breakfast. His breakfasts were the best, since they quite literally fixed any ails you had (for the most part) on top of being delicious. The twins walked out of the room with a couple of pre-breakfast snacks in their hands, enjoying that little treat that their father would give them while he worked on the proper meal. Lisa was in there too, with her hands upon the cold parts of the stove. That's all that was necessary for the stove to start frying up some bacon.

And there was Luna, carefully placing a couple of pancakes onto her own plate!

'Luna!' Lincoln cried, rushing towards her. 'I am sooo glad to see you here!'

Luna hardly paid him any attention, focusing more on her pre-breakfast meal while her eyes darted towards him for just a moment.

'So, I know I kind of upset everything by interrupting the party to mention cracks that apparently weren't there,' He said, realising how crazy he must've sounded. 'But I just wanted to know if, maybe, just maybe, you heard anything suspicious. Cos, you know, you're really good at that.'

The rocker girl didn't even look his way, seemingly too occupied in selecting her snacks to pay her own brother any mind.

Lincoln cocked an eyebrow. 'Luna?'

Not even a 'later, brah'. The puzzle pieces connected, and Lincoln could only groan from both annoyance and a lot of impatience.

'Luan!' He yelled. 'Can you stop pretending to be other people so you can get seconds?'

In an instant, 'Luna' disappeared and in her place stood a rather annoyed Luan, who was forced to put her plate back down on the table. Her hair remained a dark shade of brown for a moment, before lightening up into Luan's usual colour.

'Yeah, should've known you wouldn't have fallen for that.' She remarked. 'You'd have to be a complete Luna-tic not to see right through it!' She giggled. 'Get it?'

Ruidosa didn't approve of her little joke any more than Lincoln did, and so carried her away on tiles moving much like a wave. She could hardly keep her balance and quickly fell over backwards onto her rear, unable to stop the house pushing her out of the room.

'Hey!' She cried.

As if that wasn't bad enough, Ruidosa gave her a little kick at the end so she flew out of the room and landed flat on her face. All she could do was make her way over to the dining room where everyone else waited. The real Luna stepped through the door after her, completely ignoring her too.

'What's up, brah?' Luna said, grabbing Luan's plate that she had left there.

'Did you hear anything strange last night?' Lincoln asked, leaning forward and sounding like a crazed conspiracy theorist.

Luna did not put his inquiry down, and simply sighed. She wasn't too surprised that he immediately jumped back onto this, and simply answered his question so she could get to the dining room already.

'Listen,' She said. 'The party was so loud that I had to tone my gift down a little so I wouldn't go deaf. But, I'll admit… I did hear something, so quietly under everything else, that didn't sound quite right for a party.'

Lincoln's face lit up. 'Like what?!'

Luna shrugged. 'Don't know, brah. Like I said, everything else was so loud that I couldn't really make it out. But it still sounded strange. It could've been those cracks you said you saw, but really I have no idea.'

Lincoln grumbled a little. Yes, it was also good to get more confirmation that the cracks were real, but it didn't really tell him anything he didn't already know.

'Anything else?' He asked, sure he wouldn't get much else.

'Nothing much. Everything just kinda resumed as normal after your little freakout. … Except for Lori's eye twitching.'

To tell the truth, Lincoln's attention to her answers had waded a bit, since he was sure he wouldn't get much more out of this meeting. But that final note brought him right back into the conversation. He had to do a double-take, and Luna did not look like she was joking.

'Her eye was twitching?' He repeated, trying to confirm that he really did hear that.

Luna nodded. 'All night long.'

'What?!'

'Well, I'm not sure if it was all night. But it was twitching for a good ten minutes before I decided I had heard enough and turned my gift off. I'm not quite sure what that was about.'

Lincoln had been stunned into silence. Lori's eye twitching… after a party? For at least ten minutes straight?! He could hardly imagine such behaviour from her, but Luna wouldn't lie over something like that. Seeing as he was saying nothing and instead staring off into space, Luna took her snack and left for the dining room where her sisters and mother awaited her.

But, in reality, Lincoln had to restrain himself from celebrating this new factoid while his dad and Lisa were also in the room. Yes, it wasn't good that Lori's eye was twitching so much. That was objectively bad. But it gave him another lead. Something must've gotten Lori all worked up, though he couldn't think of what.

Time to figure it out!

Author Notes - Contrary to popular opinion, Lori is actually one of my favourite Loud Sisters. Even as an only child, I relate to the constant stress and agony she probably has to go through on a daily basis. Whether or not that's a good thing is up to you. It helps that if I was an older sister, I'd probably act a lot like her. It's similar to why I also relate to Luisa.

You know, it's dawning on me that perhaps relating to characters who suffer great stress and anxiety ISN'T really a good thing. Well, at least I have people (fictional or otherwise) to vibe with, or my problems would be a lot worse.