Author Notes - First things first, let's deal with Leni. Like I said, I know what I'm doing. I swear. What do you think this is? The episode 'Dont You Fore-get About Me'? ... The less we talk about the current state of the show, the better.

CHAPTER TEN - CONFESSIONS FROM INSIDE

The door to Leni's room slammed behind him. The vines had managed to drag Lincoln all the way in, and he could see Leni staring down upon him. He could feel the soft flowers underneath his body, and it didn't help calm him down at all.

Leni's room was often considered the most gorgeous of the rooms. It was like a massive catwalk, with its own station for Leni to make her flowery dresses. And, quite fitting for her gift, the room was absolutely covered in flowers of all kinds and colours, providing a room that not only looked gorgeous but smelled gorgeous too.

It seemed a little more red than usual.

Leni said nothing as she stared him down. Seeing the terrible situation he was in, Lincoln got to his feet as quickly as he could, trying not to think about the horrible fate that could befall him. Strangled by vines? Fed to the pitchers? Stabbed by a bush full of roses?

'L-Leni, I am sorry!' He pleaded. 'I-I never meant to ruin your proposal, I swear! I just-'

He cut himself off when Leni hugged him. Not strangled him. Not poisoned him. Not stabbed him. No, she hugged him, with the biggest embrace she could manage. Her arms grew little vines to hold him in even closer, and for a moment Lincoln was certain he had been thrown into a pitcher plant. It was hard to see through all the vines, but he would've sworn he saw her smiling.

'Uh… Leni…' He said, his voice as strained as his lungs. 'I don't think this is the right reaction for what I did.'

Leni giggled. 'Oh, don't be silly, Linky! I love what you did!'

She finally let him go, and now he could look at her with an unbelievable amount of confusion on his face. The way she kept smiling had him a little convinced that she must've been joking or something.

'Wait…' He said, putting his hands up. 'You're happy that I ruined your proposal? Or am I missing something here?'

'I don't think you're missing something.' Leni replied. 'But I know I'm happy!'

Lincoln was quiet for a few seconds, before he yelled, 'WHY?'

Leni frowned, and sat down. Since her room didn't have a lot of places to sit down in, she grew a little tree behind her shaped just like a chair, with moss and leaves functioning as little pillows to make it comfortable. She even made one for Lincoln, and used some vines to - gently - push him into place.

'Can I be honest?' She said. 'I, like… don't like Bobby like that.'

Lincoln's jaw dropped. 'WHAT?!'

She nodded. 'He's a nice boy, and he'll make someone happy! But… I don't know, but I just don't wanna marry him. You know?'

'That's totally cool,' Lincoln said normally, before he started yelling again. 'But then WHY did you go along with it?!'

Leni went silent once again. It gave Lincoln the time to reflect on the fact that he was seemingly playing family therapist once again, and the thought brought a shudder to him. After what happened with Lori and Luan, he dreaded what this discussion could do to Leni. Yet, when he turned around, he found the door covered with an inch-thick wall of ivy.

Welp, guess he might as well stay…

'Well, because…' Leni said, looking down at the floor. 'It seemed to make my family happy. And that's, like, all I want. That's why I got this totes lovely gift.'

To demonstrate her 'totes lovely' gift, she moved one of her hands just slightly, and a bunch of flowers grew at Lincoln's feet. Their petals were orange - his favourite colour - and they were arranged in a lovely bouquet.

'Flowers make anyone happy!' Leni declared, shaking her fists. 'And that's what I like doing. The world isn't so fun when everyone's sad.'

'I repeat my question.' Lincoln said. 'Why did you go along with this if you don't really wanna marry Bobby?'

'Because it would make my family happy. Didn't I, like, already say that?'

Lincoln took a deep breath. 'Leni, I don't think our family would be happy if you weren't.'

'I-I know, but everyone seems so excited for me to marry him that I… I couldn't let them down.' She smiled again. 'So I'm totes happy you ruined the proposal! If I'm lucky, Bobby won't ever want to propose to me again after I hit him in the eye!' She paused, and frowned again. 'I hope I didn't hurt him too much.'

Lincoln hung his head and let out all of his breath in relief. With all the other crud that was going on in his life right now, it was relieving to know that he hadn't managed to get Leni of all sisters to hate him like she had claimed. He looked into her eyes for a moment - it looked as though it had pained her to say such things about him. There wasn't a need to ask her why, though: he understood that she didn't want to upset her parents, after the dinner had already gone awry.

'I just… can't believe it.' He said. 'I never really thought about you, well, really struggling with something.'

Leni gave him a look of confusion. 'Really? Why?'

'Well, because you seem so… perfect. Everyone thinks you're beautiful, you have a really nice heart, flowers bloom on your command, and you act like you're not even aware of how 'perfect' everyone thinks you are!'

This got another frown out of Leni, one a little bigger than her previous ones. The bouquet at Lincoln's feet wilted just a little.

'I am aware…' She said, her voice low. 'But I don't like it.'

'Really?' He asked. 'Why is that? And is there a single thing I know about you that's actually correct?'

'Because no one likes perfect people. Perfect people are annoying. Or they envy me. I hear a lot of people say they wanna be like me, but, like, they should just try to be themselves! I make those pretty flowers because it should make people happy, but it only makes them annoyed or jealous.' She emitted a slight whine. 'I was, like, given the gift to grow plants because plants make people happy! I don't like it.'

Lincoln really had to debate with himself over whether or not he wanted to step in and say something. He certainly didn't want Leni to be upset with herself, but he couldn't forget what his last few discussions had accomplished. Lori, Luan, the twins, even Lynn to some extent… it seemed as though anything he did only made the problem worse.

'Uh, if making people happy is what you want to do,' He said. 'Then I think your family would be a lot happier if you did whatever made you happy.'

Leni sighed. 'The only thing that would make me happy would be if, like, my family was happy too. But I know they're not happy. That's why I went along with everything, cos I thought that would fix things.'

It was Lincoln's turn to sigh. 'I know. I get it. Everything I've done was supposed to make everything better, and I've just made things worse.'

Leni smiled. 'Well, not everything. I'm happy! So, if you're feeling upset because you think you keep screwing up, remember that you helped me.'

Lincoln couldn't believe it, but Leni had succeeded at bringing a smile to his face. For what must've been the first time today, his meddling had seemingly helped someone instead. A bright light caught his attention, and he saw Leni's door begin to glow. He almost fell out of his chair from the shock.

He was doing something right!

Leni removed the vines from the door while staying in her seat. 'You can go now if you want. I just wanted to tell you that I don't really hate you.'

A question was brought to Lincoln's mind. 'Hey, Leni… has your gift been fading as of late?'

'Hm… I don't know. Let's check!'

Leni leapt out of her chair and raised her hands like a Broadway dancer. In the matter of mere seconds, a gigantic tree sprouted from the middle of her room. Its trunk was covered in all sorts of colourful flowers, with a river of sundew wrapped around it like tinsel on a christmas tree. Pitcher plants hung from the branches like bells, and thorns jutting out from the wood helped hold up some vines.

If that wasn't enough, some of the flowers changed colour much like Christmas lights. Because if you need to test your powers, why not go all out?

Leni gasped. 'I can make them change colour? I never knew that!'

'So, your powers are working.' Lincoln said. 'Which is more than I can say for Lori or Luan. But why…?'

'Look at that, Linky! I can make the flowers change colour after they've already been grown! Maybe this is what people mean when they say you 'learn something new every day'.'

Seeing as Leni seemed occupied in testing out her own powers (which she apparently needed to do at the age of eighteen), Lincoln figured it was about time to leave. It was tempting - oh so tempting - to go tell everyone else in the family that Leni was actually happy that her proposal had been ruined, but Leni herself did not seem ready to reveal that yet. So, he simply left the room without much of an idea about what to do next.

He got a good idea when he saw Luna standing right by the balcony, leaning over it just a little like she was staring at a glorious vista. She sighed, but didn't move. Staying quiet, he stood next to her and looked over the balcony too.

Lola and Lana's door was flickering once again.

'I heard you talking to Leni.' Luna said, making him flinch. 'Don't worry. I won't tell anyone. I'm just glad that someone else knows.'

'Oh…' Lincoln murmured. 'You must hear her whenever she vents in her room.'

'Oh yeah. She talks about a boy named Chaz a lot.' She grinned, if only for a moment. 'He says a lot of good things about her.'

Lincoln glanced over to Luna's door. The wood carving depicted the teenager with her hands up to her ears, appropriately enough. It glowed a little stronger than some of the other doors, but it still faded just a bit every few seconds.

'Since everyone else seems to be opening up to you,' Luna said. 'Maybe I can do the same. Do you wanna know what the worst part of my gift is?'

Lincoln thought about it for a moment. 'When something like a cannon goes off suddenly and you don't turn your gift off in time?'

She shook her head. 'Well, yeah, that stinks. But what really stinks is that… there are so many things that I hear but can't tell anyone. I'm loaded with secrets, and sometimes they keep me up at night, but I can't…' She sighed. 'Just the other day, I found out that someone - not mentioning names here - cheated on her husband. He doesn't know it yet, but I don't know what's gonna happen to me or them if I say anything, so… you're the first one I've ever told. I still remember, a year ago, a kid's cat died. I tried to shut out her crying, but…'

The boy cringed. 'Man… I couldn't imagine having to deal with something like that. Sorry I can't say much else, but it's hard for me to picture going through it.'

The flickering on Luna's door came to a stop, even if briefly. While Lincoln couldn't be sure yet, he had a feeling that it was somewhat comforting for the teenager to finally come out with this.

'But there's one secret of mine that I can't keep in any longer.' She said. 'If I go one more day without telling someone, I might explode! I've been trying to keep it for seven years, but… I think now's a good time to tell someone.'

'Luna,' Lincoln said. 'I'll take any secret you have. I don't care how horrible it is. You're freaking out over it, and you need to let it out.'

Lincoln did not expect what Luna did next. Instead of simply telling him the secret - perhaps in fear that he'd scream it out for everyone to hear - she picked him up and rushed him into a dark corner of the house before he could even understand what was going on. By the time he realised that he had been picked up -

'WAIT! Luna, what are you-?!'

-Luna pushed a big painting aside to reveal a little tunnel of sorts through the wall. In all his time of living in Ruidosa, he could not remember such a tunnel like this anywhere in its structure. Before he knew it, she had thrown him into this tunnel as softly as one could possibly throw someone. Small holes let light from the other rooms seep in, and Lincoln found himself in a small hallway of wood and plaster between rooms.

'Uh, what am I-?' He tried to ask.

'Keep going, bro.' Luna said. 'You have to keep going. I'd tell ya more, but I don't want you screaming about it.'

'But-'

Luna closed the 'painting' like it was a window, by no means locking him inside but leaving him by himself in this strange room between rooms. He got to his feet, and looked around - in contrast to how pretty the rest of Ruidosa looked, the insides were nothing more than regular house innards, aside from maybe being a little wider.

'Why did you…?'

His voice trailed off. As he was quickly realising, he was not the only person in this little hallway at that very moment. Someone stood right at the end, standing almost perfectly still. At first, Lincoln struggled to identify them, thanks to a thick dark-grey cloak that they wore over their body. But, as he looked closer, he could recognise the long black bangs and pale skin from not just his memories, but a certain door.

'Lucy?!' He exclaimed.

He blinked, and that was all it took for Lucy - if it was Lucy - to disappear from his sights. It had been one of the many stories he had heard about her: disappearing in the blink of an eye, and popping up right behind you when you least expected it. He spun around immediately, expecting to see the cloaked figure standing right there, only to see nothing but the back of a painting.

'Lucy?'

Seeing as there was nowhere else to go - and he certainly wasn't going to turn around and leave now - he gulped down his nerves and walked through the thin hallway as quietly as he could. Perhaps being quiet was pointless, seeing as no one could hear him except for the person who threw him into this hallway in the first place, but instinct had kicked in.

'Hello, Lucy? Look, I know you're frightening, and apparently you killed someone's goldfish, but maybe we could… talk?'

The hallway had come to a corner, and Lincoln saw nothing down it except for a slightly wider hallway. There appeared to be a door at the very end of it, and he couldn't begin to guess why there'd be a door in a place like this.

'Okay, is there a point to all-?'

He turned around, just to get a better look at the place…

'AAHHH!'

And fell to the floor in fright. He was suddenly face-to-face with the pale-skinned girl, who was (probably?) staring into his soul through those thick bangs of hers. She was barely taller than her - proving that Luan's 'seven foot frame' comment was totally inaccurate - and yet managed to tower over him with a menacing energy that reminded Lincoln of Disney villains.

'What are you doing here?' She asked, her voice clear of any emotion aside from that slight emphasis.

A small bat appeared from behind her, crawling onto her shoulder and perching himself there. Lincoln gasped: Luan's claim of 'bats along her back' certainly seemed accurate. A bat with very sharp teeth too. He put his arms up over his face and braced for impact.

She sees your dreams and feasts on your screams…

'L-Listen!' He stammered. 'I-I just-'

'GET AWAY FROM MY BROTHER!'

By the time Lincoln was finished blinking, Lucy had been pinned to the floor. Her skinny (but certainly not 'seven foot') frame got scarily close to snapping underneath the weight of the girl who had her against the ground in a rugby tackle.

'Lynn?!' Lincoln cried.

'No one hurts my little brother but me!' Lynn yelled. 'You…!'

Her scowl dropped, and her grip on Lucy weakened. Now speechless, she backed off so the younger girl could get back to her feet. It didn't help that the bat wouldn't stop screeching.

'L-Lucy?' Lynn asked, blinking several times. 'Is that…?'

'What are you doing here, Lynn?!' Lincoln demanded. 'I'm here because Luna tossed me in here. Probably because of her. Why are you here?'

'Uh, because I saw Luna throwing you in here and heard you screaming. I didn't realise it was because…'

Her gaze fell back into Lucy. The gothic girl didn't seem to react at all, but Lincoln couldn't tell if she truly felt no emotions or simply didn't express them. Lynn stared at her for what must've been minutes on end with her mouth agape.

'Lucy, is that really you?' She asked. 'Or is this just another prank by Luan?'

'You weren't supposed to find out about this.' Lucy said, seemingly ignoring the question. 'Only Luna was meant to know.'

'Find out about what?' Lincoln asked. 'I have so many questions that I don't even know where to begin.'

'I'll take that as a 'YES, I AM LUCY'!' Lynn yelled. 'Now get over here!'

Lincoln - and Lucy - were half-expecting Lynn to deliver an uppercut into the goth sister's jaw, so both were surprised when Lynn instead brought Lucy into a tight hug. It was only for a moment, because Lynn didn't like to admit that she liked the mushy stuff, but it was perhaps the most loving hug she had ever given anyone. The bat flew away for a second before perching on Lucy's shoulder again.

After a few seconds of stunned silence, Lucy could only bring herself to say, 'Never do that again.'

'I won't.' Lynn said. 'As long as you tell me what the heck you're doing in Ruidosa's walls?!'

Lucy didn't appear to react to this question in any way, but Lincoln could've sworn the very corners of her mouth turned down just slightly.

'It's… a long story.' Was her only reply.

'That's it?!' Lynn cried. 'That's all you have to say? You've been gone all these years, and all you have to say is-!'

'Hang on!' Lincoln said, stepping between them and looking at Lynn. 'Only an hour ago, you were taking part in that song about how much we don't like Lucy! What's with the change?'

'I-'

Lucy sighed, but not like how most people would. She, quite literally, said the word 'sigh' in a slightly exasperated tone.

'I heard that song.' She said. 'I should hate it, but it's way too catchy…'

'No one here has answered any of my questions yet!' Lincoln yelled.

'If you want to talk about this, we should go somewhere else. I have… a room.'

'You mean the room that we're told not to go into?' Lynn remarked. 'That Stinkcoln over here went into anyway?'

'No. I mean something else. Come with me.'

Even now, Lincoln wasn't completely certain if he could trust her. It had been about seven years since he last saw her, and he was too young to remember her well. And, of course, there was that entire song demonising her in just about every way.

But this was a big enough adventure as it was, so…

'Okay.' He said. 'Just don't go telling me that all my comic books are going to be shredded or something.'

Lucy simply stared at him for a bit before she replied, 'We have a lot to talk about.'

'I'll say!' Lynn said.

'Then follow me.'

And so, Lucy brought them to that door at the end of this little hallway. As they travelled through the small tunnels, Lincoln couldn't help noticing the massive veins of plaster all over the wall. A bucket and a spackle knife rested at his feet.

'Have you been patching all these cracks?' He asked, the words just kinda spilling out of his mouth.

Lucy 'sighed' again. 'Yes. For about three years.'

'Three years?!' Lincoln cried. 'These cracks have been here for three years?! No wonder we didn't notice anything wrong… you've been trying to fix it all yourself!'

'That does not make this situation any less confusing.' Lynn said, picking up the knife.

'Just forget about it.' Lucy said. 'We have more important things to talk about.'

That was the last thing she said until she opened up the door at the end of the hallway, giving way to a small room.

Author Notes - One of my favourite parts of the movie is how they build Bruno up like a monster, and not only does he look like a kicked puppy but his first line in the movie is literally 'You're very sweaty'. The reason why I chose Lucy to 'play' him, despite their differing personalities, is because Lucy is kind of the Bruno of her own family. Not only is she really spooky and frightening, but it's practically a running gag that everyone forgets her.

I debated for a while which sister should accompany Lincoln to meet Lucy. At first, it was going to be Lisa, though I realised that she's already had enough screen time (though she will come back later). Then I thought about Luan, who would've disguised herself as someone else to come along. As you can tell, though, I eventually decided on Lynn, since she hasn't really been able to do much so far that isn't just rushing Lincoln back and forth during a musical number. ... Man, this story got weird.