Thank you all for the support everyone, it means a lot. Now for some reviews.

-Mr. Haziq: The detached sleaves she wears in the show.

If you have more questions, feel free to ask.


"I have to tell you something, guys..." Lincoln said with worry and nervousness. "I'm not a Loud." He made a short pause before speaking again. "I don't this is working Clyde."

"That's because you are a Loud." Clyde said. "Sure, you aren't related, but you share a different bond, like me and my dads."

"I think we have a very different relationship to you and your dads." Lincoln said disappointedly. If, like Clyde, he was adopted by them, he would at least know that, at some point in time, they genuinely wanted him. That was better in a way, right? If someone adopts you, you know they want you. If you aren't, then you all just have to make it work. Though, you have to do the same with adoption, as you don't choose who adopts you. Or do you? He can, but his situation is far from normal.

"A bit more strained, sure, but it's the same one at the core." Clyde said optimistically. "You told Lucy, and she was fine with it. You can try like that again."

Lincoln took a deep breath. He looked at Lily, playing on the bed. "Lily, I have something to tell you." She stopped chewing on the toy and looked at him. "I was swapped at birth."

The baby gave him a confused look before putting the toy back into her mouth.

"How about you sleep on that for now." Clyde said. He was repeating the same two sentences for an hour. He gave it a slightly different spin each time, but it was clear he wasn't happy with either. "Did you decide something about the Whites?"

"I think I want to go." Lincoln said calmly. "They seem like nice people. It's a bummer I will have to move through."

"Don't worry, you won't be that far, and we can always talk on the phone. And besides, Ronnie lives in Great Lake City, so you will have someone to show you around."

"Yeah, it won't be that bad." Lincoln said. "Besides, I would get a fresh start, a clean slate, unsoiled by the many, many, ... many missteps I made here."

"Speaking of soiled, I think someone needs to be changed." he said picking up Lily.

"Poo-poo." she said.

"Yes Lily, poo-poo." Clyde said, less enthusiastically.

He couldn't have asked for a better friend than Clyde, he even gave him one of his bags. He'll miss hanging out with him when he moves. What will life in the city be like? He had been to big cities before but spending a few hours and living somewhere is not even remotely the same. Are there some city-specific customs? Like, you can only wear an orange shirt on Mondays and Fridays, and Sundays if it's October. That would be a stupid rule, though they might have something against littering on the streets.

However nice city life might be, it would still come after telling his sisters, and he had no idea how to do that. Not telling them was an option, but that ship sailed when he told Lucy. And even if he hadn't, it would be wrong. It wasn't just that he wasn't their, real, brother, but that they also had a sister. It would be wrong, to all of them, to keep that from them. He could also delegate that task to someone else or leave them a letter. That way, if they didn't want him, they could just never come to him. No, that was cowardly. Whichever way he sliced it, he would have to tell them, and in person. Clyde is right though; he should sleep on it. If nothing else, he might come up with a third sentence.


Winter ate her dinner in silence while her father packed his stuff from his office, and her mother browsed online catalogs for furniture. Luckily, Lincoln wasn't going to be staying in her room. She had nothing against it, he seemed like a fine enough kid, but she wasn't going to complain about it. However, someone she expected to put up a fight, her father, didn't do so. There could have been some background talks she wasn't privy to, but it didn't matter now. It was going to be strange to have him not be there for the entire day, but she was old enough, she will manage. And besides, she won't be alone, Lincoln will be there.

Should she call him brother when he comes? Sure, they will be siblings, but it might come off as forced to have someone you barely know enthusiastically call you brother. Brother, bro, dude, man, brah, Lincoln, Link, Linc, Lincy, Linster, Linny, they would settle on something. What would he call her? She could use that to judge what to call him. If he came in and called her sis, she would call him bro; if he said Winter, she would say Lincoln; if he came up with some completely new and radical name, she would be in a bit of a pickle.

"Hey, honey, could you come here for a second!" Sophia called her husband.

"Yes?" he said.

"First, what do you think about this?" she said, pointing at something on her laptop.

"Looks fine, though I would go with less orange." Walter said calmly.

"He said it was his favorite color." Sophia said worriedly.

"Trust me, in a year or so, he'll be in a phase where he won't want to have a neon-colored room." Walter said. "I would go with orange just not as the only color."

"I guess you'd know better about that than me." She said. She was never a twelve-year-old boy, so she would truly have no idea. "Second, what do you think of painting his room?"

"I'm guessing orange too." he said. "We can do it, but I would ask him first."

Paint his room? They never painted her room, she got the regular white, how is that fair? Relax Winter, she thought, they want to make sure he feels welcome. She can't imagine how he is feeling right now. To go through something like this and not have a family to support you along the way. Because of something her parents did...

"But again, I think he'll grow to hate it very soon if he isn't in those years already." Walter said.

"Da." Sophia said. "We should go to the furniture store tomorrow, it's difficult to pick just based on a picture."

"Yeah, it will be faster to get it that way too." Walter said. "Do you want to come with us, Winny?"

"No thanks." she said solemnly. "I'm feeling tired, I'll be going to bed now."

"Are you okay sweetie?" Sophia asked worriedly.

"Yeah, I'm just tired." she said, disposing of her dishes and leaving to her room.

Her parents are monsters, the biological ones. What if her sisters are the same? Ten little devils, capable of the most honest acts imaginable. They abandoned someone they thought was their brother, would they even want to meet her? Would they accept her as their sister? Would they try to take her from her family? Did she even want to meet them? If they really did what the papers said, then they weren't good people. Was she like that?

As Winter left the room, Walter and Sophia exchanged a worried look.

"Do you think we need to take her to a therapist?" Sophia asked quietly.

"No, she just needs some time to process it all." Walter said, not fully sure in himself.


Ever the man with the plan, Lincoln came up with a plan on how to handle his current situation.

Step 1: Call Dr. Lopez to tell her he wanted the Whites to adopt him.

Step 2: He would go around the town with his friends, visiting all the places that were important to him, as a way of saying goodbye to the town and them.

Step 3: He would tell his sisters about who he really is.

Step 4: He would move away.

Like most of his plans, however, this wasn't as airtight as he had hoped. Unlike with most of his plans, it was foiled by himself alone, or rather his guilt. He couldn't go around town, having a fun time, while he was actively hiding something so big from his sisters. So, the plan gained a quick adjustment, steps three and two would change places.

"Are you ready buddy?" Clyde asked.

The two stood in front of the Loud house. The yard was cleanest it must have been in seventeen years. Only toys were the things stuck on the roof or the tree, as no one was ever willing to pick them up. How did they even get that boomerang on the roof? This was due to the house having its occupancy halved, and that half missing was the half causing most of the mess in the yard. The silence of the house was creepy in a way. It wasn't this quiet since... before Lori was born probably.

"No. But I have to do it." Lincoln said nervously. "So, let's get this over with."

They approached the front door, knocking with great hesitation.

"Lincoln! How are you?" His grandfather said, happily hugging him.

"Hi, Pop-Pop." Lincoln said. "Who's home?"

"Everyone but Lily and Lisa, she left this morning." Albert said somberly. "Lucy just came over, and the twins have been here all morning."

"Okay..." Lincoln said. He will have to call Lisa later then.

"Oh, excuse me, where are my manners?" Albert said after letting them in. "Lincoln, Clyde, this is Myrtle."

"Hello boys." she said kindly.

So that was Myrtle. He never saw her in person. The only reason he even knew about her was that Dr. Lopez told him she adopted the twins.

"Lincy!" The twins said, running down the stairs and hugging him. Lola's appearance struck him as odd. She was wearing the same overalls as Lana, though visibly cleaner, and with a pink shirt. It was likely something Myrtle made her do, as those dresses were a nightmare to keep clean, even with Lola's habits.

"Hi." he said hugging them back.

The rest of the sisters gradually flooded from upstairs, each greeting him in a similar fashion. The only one absent was Lynn, though he remembered Lucy saying something about her being down. Another strange thing he noticed was Luna, she was wearing a tartan magenta sash and a purple kilt.

"I'm happy to see all of you too." Lincoln said, his spirits lifted by them. "Where's Lynn?"

"She's in her room." Lori said with worry. "If you want to see her, you'll have to go there, as she rarely leaves it."

"Okay, but there is something I have to tell you first." Lincoln said worriedly. It would be best to have her there too, but he had to get it off his chest as soon as possible.

"Wait, there's something we have to say before that." Lori said. "Lucy told us you've gotten adopted."

Lincoln's blood ran cold. Did she tell them everything? Looking at Lucy, her face readable for once, she gave him a look that told him otherwise.

"We know we weren't the best sisters, and we are all deeply sorry for that." Lori said. "But we want to give you something, to show you that we are truly sorry."

"Sit! Sit!" Lana said, excitement bursting from every opening her body had. She and Lola dragged him to the couch and he sat down.

As he did so, he noticed a laptop on the table. Wait, that wasn't just any laptop; that was his laptop. He brought it to Clyde's, right?

"Luna, Luan, go get the things." Lori said before her phone buzzed. "Just in time."

She walked up to the laptop and opened it, confirming it was his. It turned in less than a second, meaning it was already on, or just had the same background as his. She quickly navigated to the messaging up, and a video feed turned on.

"Hello brother." Lisa said through the computer. She was sitting in a rather baren room, though it was to be expected as she just moved in.

"Hi Lisa." he said. He wanted to ask about the laptop but didn't want to ruin the moment.

"Hello, we aren't late, are we?" Howard said, him and Harold coming in with Lily.

"What is going on?" Lincoln asked nervously. From what Lori had said, all these people were there for him. And while it was nice that they cared enough about him to come, the sudden attention was making him uncomfortable.

Luna and Luan returned, holding enough boxes to barely see in front of them. They put them on the ground before Lori spoke.

"Since we didn't know when you would be going away, we thought it would be best to do this as soon as possible." Lori said. "So, we called Clyde and asked him to tell us if you planned on coming over." Lori approached the pile of boxes and picked up one of the smaller ones. "So, since I'm the oldest, I'll begin." She came closer to him. "Lincoln, you are the best brother a sister could have wished for, and we were all blind for not seeing it. I know this isn't enough to make up for what we did, but I hope it's a start."

She handed him the box. Like the rest, it was in a uniquely colored wrapping paper, this one light blue, with a bow on top.

"Thank you." he said kindly, accepting the gift.

"Go on, open it." Lana said.

"Okay..." Lincoln said, unwrapping the box. It was a cellphone box. He recognized it as one of Lori's too many phones, thought which one was something he never bothered remembering.

"Since yours was broken, I thought you would need a new one." Lori said.

"Thank you." Lincoln said.

"Mah turn." Luna said, in a horribly butchered Scottish accent.

"Lisa, we have to get going." someone called through the computer.

"Sorry, Luna, but I will have to interject briefly." Lisa said. "Lincoln, I rarely showed personal affection or any emotion for that matter, but I want you to know that I always cared. I have upgraded your computer, which is why you will notice a significant performance improvement. It is on par with some of the most powerful desktop hardware available on the market, so you will have no problem playing any of your video games for the foreseeable future. In addition, I had made a group chat for all of us and sent you all of our email addresses. I hope you find happiness with your new family and wish you all the best in your future endeavors."

"Thank you, Lisa." he said kindly.

"Lisa!" the same person called again.

"Coming!" she said. "I regret that I have to do it so soon, but I have to sign off. I will see later, as they say." Lisa said, closing the chat.

"Kin ah gang noo, or does anybody else have tae go earlie?" Luna asked jokingly. "Na? Great." she said before dropping the accent. " Lincoln, Lori told you everything I already wanted, so I won't repeat the same talk. You are the best bro and I'll miss you to death." she said, handing him her present.

From the shape, he could tell it was a guitar, and he was right. Unwrapping the purple paper, he found a guitar, and not just any guitar. It was Luna's DeFacto acoustic guitar.

"Luna, I can't take this." He said.

"Bollocks." she said. "And besides, a've got me a fresh lassie." she said in a Scottish accent, pulling out bagpipes. Everyone, including Lincoln, hoped she would not play them. Luckily, their prayers were answered.

"Thank you." he said.

The rest gave their gifts in no particular order. Lucy gave him a journal with a beautiful poem on the first page. Leni gave him a bunch of shirts, all either black, white, or orange, with random shapes in the other colors. Luan gave him a pack of professional magician cards. Lily gave him a white t-shirt she hand-painted in various colors. Lola gave him a locket with their group picture, curiously missing Lynn and Rita. Albert gave him an old mechanical watch of his. And Lana told him hers awaited him in the garage.

"We have one last thing." Lori said, handing him the last gift.

It looked just like Lily's, so it was another shirt. Opening it up, his heart grew three sizes. It was a white t-shirt, appointed with handprints of every one of his sisters, in their signature color.

"Thank you, guys," he said, a small tear leaving his eye. His tone quickly changed when he remembered why he came through. He was worrying about nothing. They loved him enough to get them all of this, they wouldn't stop doing it over a small detail. Even if that small detail is that he isn't really their brother. "But I have something I have to tell you."

"What's wrong Lincoln?" Lori asked worriedly. Did he not like the gifts? Was it too much? They should have just gone with the shirt, the rest overwhelmed him.

"I am not your brother..." he said quietly.

"Lincoln, what are you talking about? You are, like, literally our brother." Lori said. Was this about being adopted? Like sure, technically speaking, they weren't his family anymore. But a legal technicality couldn't erase twelve years of life. Although they wished it could erase one particular part of those twelve years.

"I'm literally not, Lori. I'm not a Loud, I was swapped at birth." he said fearfully. "The family adopting me, they are my biological family."

"What?" Lori said, not knowing what else to do.

The whole room became awkward. The exceptions were the ones who already knew, though the atmosphere was spreading to them as well.

"B-but you are our brother, right?" Lana asked, confused by the situation. "You were until now."

"Yeah." the rest said.

"I don't know how you thought you weren't a Loud, Linc?" Luna said with no accent. "You're one of us, like it or not, and you aren't getting rid of us so easily."

"It doesn't matter that we aren't related." Lori said kindly, finally recomposing herself. "You grew up with us like we were, and we wouldn't trade you for anything."

"And besides, there are plenty of adoptive families." Luan said. "Some things are thicker than blood."

"You mean it?" he asked fearfully. So, it would end happily after all.

"Like, we totally do." Leni said.

"Now come here." Albert said happily.

He got up and was immediately crushed in a group hug. Even though he was getting no oxygen, he was getting enough love to compensate for it. And he didn't care if he died now, he didn't want to ever live less happy than now.

"We know we weren't the best in the past, but we will never abandon you again." Lori said confidently.

"Thank you, guys." he said, his eyes flooding with tears of joy.