AN: The last chapter got more positive attention than I thought it would, so I decided to do another one. I'd like to do more, even if it's just as a side project, but whether or not that happens depends on how inspired I am to continue after this point. So we'll see how things go.

Also, thought it was amusing that the recent Super Switcheroo-niverse short confirmed that there's at least one universe out there with a giant Luan running around. That probably helped at least a little with getting me to sit down and write this.

The residents of Royal Woods were no strangers to the odd and unusual sights that tended to occur at the Loud House. Often in pairs of two, and generally occurring on a weekly basis, which would persist with surprising frequency until things would suddenly fall quiet. But the inactivity would typically only last for a few months before starting back up again. Sometimes it was a sentient trash monster. At other times, a tear in the space/time continuum. And on one occasion, passersby had been treated to the sight of the entire structure being encased in gelatin. It thus went without saying that the bar for strangeness was set rather high in that particular neighborhood.

On this particular sunny morning, the day's flavor of oddity manifested in the form of a young, pale-haired boy cleaning the gutters of the home in question. This would have fallen abysmally low on the scale of oddity that normally manifested in and around that sun-dappled domicile, were it not for the fact that the boy was a rather unusual specimen. One might presume that this was because of his prematurely whitened hair, or perhaps the rather pronounced bucked teeth that adorned his mouth, but by and large, the consensus, as of late, would squarely point their collective fingers at the fact that, in spite of his youth, not to mention the square-cube law, Lincoln Loud was quite handily accomplishing his task due to the fact that he stood roughly as tall as the house itself.

"And...done!" The boy announced with one final flourish of a rag the size of a tablecloth (which, in all likelihood, had originated as one). He took one step back and paused to admire his handiwork. Then, seemingly satisfied, he turned around...and abruptly halted, his eyes widening in surprise.

"Oh, hey there," Lincoln said to nobody in particular. "Sorry, I almost didn't see you. As you can see, things here have been...a little weirder than usual."

The boy leaned back against the side of the house, placed his rag on the roof (making a mental note to refrain from leaving it there. Again.), before returning his attention to his unseen audience.

"I've had, uh, a bit of a growth spurt, lately." He continued, gesturing up and down his body. "Completely baffled Lisa. Which wasn't the most comforting reaction. Best she could figure, whatever happened to me and Luna isn't contagious, exactly. Like, we're not spreading germs or anything, but it's pretty obvious that there's some connection there, especially with her secret project still locked up tight. But she needs more time to figure out what caused this, and how she might be able to fix it. So in the meantime, we're just kind of just trying to learn to live with it."

"It's definitely been an adjustment for all of us." Lincoln gestured at the outfit he was wearing. Far from his usual combination of an orange polo in jeans, the oversized Loud was instead clothed in a patchwork, tunic-like garment, which covered his upper body and hung down to just shy of his knees. "My wardrobe, for example, has become a lot more limited. Leni did what she could with stuff we had lying around the house, or could snatch up from the local thrift stores, but even she can only do so much when she's just throwing a bunch of random fabrics together. Honestly, Luna and I are lucky we even have this much. Without Leni, we'd probably be wearing fig leaves and stuff."

Lincoln frowned, as he gave the hem of his tunic an irritated tug. "I really do miss having pants though. It gets...drafty, in this thing. And I've got to be careful about where I'm standing and walking and whatnot. I've asked Leni multiple times if she could rig up something I could slip on underneath, even some shorts, but she always insists she can't for some reason. It's honestly kind of weird..."

"LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINCOOOOOOOLN!"

The Loud boy reeled back, momentarily stunned by the sonic blast that had pierced the air (along with both his eardrums, based on the stinging sensation he was experiencing). Lincoln grabbed onto the nearby rooftop and used it to steady himself, and gave his head a good shake in an attempt to clear his senses. It was at this point, that he noticed the three small figures darting around the corner of the Loud House, and running right towards him. Save for one, who nevertheless managed to avoid being left behind by her fellows by walking at an absurdly fast pace. Smiling in amusement, Lincoln knelt down, so as to make it easier to interact with his visitors.

"Hey girls," He greeted Lola and Lana as they came to a stop just in front of his knees (prompting him to give his hemline another yank for good measure). Lucy arrived just behind them only moments later, her casual nonchalance standing in strike contrast to just how fast she'd been moving only seconds before. He found himself wondering if she actively trained to make that look effortless, or if it was just part and parcel of the general spookiness she'd cultivated.

"Lincoln!" Lola shouted again, inexplicably managing to outdo her much larger brother in terms of sheer volume. "Hurry up and play with us! We've gotta leave for school in a bit!"

The elder loud rolled his eyes. "Lola, you know mom and dad don't like me giving you guys rides. They're worried you'll fall off."

"That happened ONE TIME!" The blonde shouted in exasperation.

"And you caught me, so I didn't even get hurt or anything." Lana chimed in.

"No way," Lincoln asserted, popping the 'p' for emphasis. He shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. "Come on guys, you're going to get me in trouble."

The twins shared a glance so minute, that at his size Lincoln was barely able to catch it himself. Then, as if by some unspoken signal, both twins squared their feet, clasped their hands against their chests...and turned on the puppy dog eyes.

"Pleeeeeeease, Linky?" They sounded in unison, both sets of eyes suddenly unnaturally large and shiny. Lucy's head tilted a few centimeters to the side, her facial expression remaining completely neutral, but nevertheless, Lincoln still experienced a strange stab of guilt just from looking at her.

"Fine! Fine!" He groaned, holding both arms in front of him to ward off the barrage of cuteness. "Just turn that off! It's making my teeth feel itchy just looking at you!"

"Yay!" The twins cheered, once more in unison, giving each other a celebratory high five. Lucy, again, appeared outwardly unmoved, but she demonstrated her delight by indulging in a small fist pump.

"But—!" Lincoln continued, holding up one finger. "After you come home from school. And...not if mom and dad are home. Seriously guys, they got super mad at me last time."

Lola arched her back, seemingly intent on voicing her disagreement—

"One side, chumps!"

—but fate seemingly had other ideas as Lynn made her appearance, effortlessly somersaulting over Lucy, and sticking a perfect landing. Lincoln felt obliged to hold up some signage with an arbitrarily large number on it, but seeing the obvious difficulty with that, settled for polite applause instead. Seemingly satisfied with her response, Lynn brushed both twins off to the side ("Hey!" Lola squawked indignantly), and took their place before Lincoln.

"Come on, Stinkoln!" She shouted, excitedly, rolling up her left sleeve and holding her arm up, flexing her fingers in anticipation. "It's go time!"

Lincoln peered down at the pint-sized athlete, squashing down the urge to chuckle at his sister's antics. "You sure Lynn? This is going to be...what, twelve for twelve?"

"Or something" She grumbled, before giving her bicep a slap. "Come on! I got a new training regimen, and the results have been pretty sick! I'm gonna destroy you this time!"

"...Alright," Lincoln agreed as a moment of consideration. "But standard rules apply. You get your one shot for the day and that's it."

"One's all I need," The sporty Loud boasted, pounding her fist into her open palm. "Let's go!"

Lincoln lowered himself onto his stomach, lying as flat as possible to as to level the playing field. Then he held up his hand, mimicking Lynn's stance...and extended a single finger, offering it to his older sister.

"Dude, what?!" The brunette scoffed. "A pinky? Why are you holding out on me? I want the whole thing!"

"We've been trying that, and it's not getting you anywhere," Lincoln replied, trying to appeal to Lynn's sensibilities. "You're always telling me that fitness is about setting goals, right? Focus on winning this way first, and then we'll bump it up."

Lynn's expression perfectly conveyed how unhappy she was with her own logic being used against her. Nevertheless, she acquiesced.

"Fine," She growled, stepping forward and wrapping as much of her hand as she could around Lincoln's pinky. Which wasn't much, given that the single-digit was about as large as she was.

"Someone count us off!" She called back to their younger siblings, before planting her feet, and squaring off against her brother, her fingers squeezing against his own in anticipation.

"Three two one go." Lucy dutifully recited. Albeit, far quicker than she should have. Still, both siblings were prepared, and upon hearing the word "go", the battle immediately commenced.

Well..."battle" was perhaps, too generous of a word. As soon as the countdown terminated, Lynn unleashed a mighty roar and pushed, with every ounce of might she could muster. So herculean were her efforts, that even the earth beneath her had no choice but to give way, her sneakers slowly sinking, first through the dew-touched layer of grass, and then into the dirt below.

For Lincoln's part, he mostly...sat there, trying to look engaged. While it was honestly incredible just how far Lynn had come in the couple of weeks that they'd been doing this, with Lincoln actually needing to exert a bit of force to maintain their deadlock, the competition was inherently, and unfairly, biased in his favor. It was, for all intents and purposes, like wrestling with a small, adorable animal, such as a gerbil. An extremely determined, astoundingly strong gerbil, but a gerbil nevertheless. Even so, Lincoln put on the show. He grunted, and strained, attempting to look invested as Lynn pushed herself to her limits. But, as mighty as his sporty sister was, her stamina was not endless. Once he felt her strength begin to flag, Lincoln knew it was time to end things, given that he knew Lynn was too proud to simply quit on her own. No, the most graceful way to allow his sister to maintain her dignity was to exert just enough force to topple her over. She'd grouse over her umpteenth loss, but she'd be able to walk away knowing she gave it her all.

At least, that was the plan.

"WAAAAAAAAAAH!" Lynn cried out as she soared through the air. Lincoln immediately move to get up, hoping to grab her, or at least cushion her fall, but partway through the motion he froze. A certain, familiar sensation, immediately advised him that it would be a terrible, terrible idea, to get up at this particular point in time, whilst he was still surrounded by his younger, very impressional sisters. Leaving Lincoln in a quandary over just what he should do. However, much to his relief, the situation mostly resolved itself, as instead of colliding with the wall of the house, Lynn began to arc downward just in time to alter her trajectory so that she avoided the wall entirely—

FWISHHH

—instead landing in the bushes just before the wall. More heavily than Lincoln would have preferred, but even so, he'd seen Lynn shrug off bigger impacts. Just in case though...

"Uh, Lynn?" He called out, still unwilling to rise to his feet unless the situation absolutely called for it. "You okay over there?"

Several tense heartbeats passed before a familiar hand stuck itself up through the greenery, and jiggled back and forth.

"S'okay," Came Lynn's shakey reply, as her fingers curled into a thumbs up. Lincoln finally let go of the breath he'd been holding, and sunk back down onto his stomach, relief coursing through every fiber of his being.

FWEET!

Until seconds later when a short, but harsh whistle collectively rattled the assembled siblings, Lincoln included. Clutching his now rapidly beating heart, Lincoln looked in the direction of the sound just in time to see Lori join the gathering. From the frown on her face, she did not appear to be amused.

"School! Car! NOW!" She shouted, casting her patented Big Sister Glare around the area. Despite the fact that Lori had been away at college for most of the year, old habits died hard. The younger girls all immediately fell into line, and dashed off, though not before tossing a farewell over their shoulds as they did so—

"See ya Linc!"

"Bye Linky!"

"Farewell big brother."

—Leaving him and Lori to themselves.

WHUMP

Correction, him, and Lori, and Lynn, who had finally managed to drag herself out of the bushes.

"Need any help there, Lynn?" Lincoln asked.

"Nah," The brunette grunted, as she managed to rise to her feet, albeit a little unsteadily. "I've got it."

"Cool," Lincoln replied, politely waiting to make sure she could stand under her own power. Once he was certain she could, he extended his arm, and offered his fist to her. "So, are we good?"

"Yeah," Lynn nodded, gently bumping her tiny fist against his own. "We're good. Just gotta try hard next time, I guess..."

"Ahem,"

Lynn flinched, as Lori loudly cleared her throat, the unspoken threat very apparent.

"But now, I've gotta go to school," Lynn said quickly, giving a quick nod to her sister and brother. "Later bro!"

With that, Lynn jogged off, this time properly leaving Lincoln and Lori to themselves. As the sound of retreating footsteps faded, Lori's expression softened, her frown giving way to an amused smile.

"They got you again, huh?" She asked

"Most of them," Lincoln admitted. "Just waiting on..."

"LINKY!"

There was a rush of wind as a streak of seafoam green blasted past Lori, and launched itself at Lincoln. However, Lincoln was prepared for this, and deftly clasped his hands around the projectile mid-flight, and pulled it against his chest, giving it a gentle squeeze. Moments later, he loosened his grip, and placed a very satisfied-looking Leni Loud on the ground, next to their suddenly irate sister.

"Do you really need to do that every day?" Lori asked, exasperated.

"Yep," Leni nodded, completely undeterred. "I need my daily Linky hug."

"Well now that you've got it—"

"I know, I know," Leni waved off the oncoming lecture. "Car, skull, no."

"It's school, Leni," The elder blonde deadpanned.

"Oh, that makes way more sense." Leni opined as she turned and began to walk back the way she'd come. "Bye-bye Linky!"

The remaining pair watched her as she walked away, only resuming their conversation once she'd disappeared around the corner of the house.

"And that just leaves Luan..." Said Lincoln, worriedly casting his gaze around.

"Already took care of it," Lori chuckled, smugly crossing her arms over her chest. "I ran into her on my way over here. Confiscated the wagon of baked goods she was carrying and put her in Vanzilla myself. You should be good for the moment."

"Phew," Lincoln breathed a sigh of relief, sagging a little further to the ground. "Thanks, Lori."

He licked his lips, searching for the right words to properly articulate his thoughts.

"It's...it's really good to have you back. Just wish it wasn't because of..."

"Oh, hush," Lori waved dismissively before stepping forward and gently placed her hands upon one of his, giving him a comforting squeeze as she did so. "I'm happy to be home. And I'm on break right now anyway, so...even if it wasn't for all this—"

She gestured vaguely at his oversized form with one hand.

"I'd still be here. You're just...a little less of a twerp than you'd normally be, that's all.

Lincoln snorted in amusement, and smiled at Lori, grateful for that little bit of levity.

"So," He said, after a moment of companionable silence. "You're taking the...others, to school?"

"Yeah," Lori nodded in confirmation. "Mom took my car to work so I could drive the kids to school, and afterward I'll be heading to the restaurant to help out dad. So once Luna gets back, it'll just be the three of you for a while. Hope that's okay."

Just the three of them.

"So that means Lisa staying home? Again?"

Lori shrugged helplessly. "It was mom and dad's idea, but she agreed to it. It's not like she actually learns anything from her classes anyway. Figuring out how to fix you guys just seems like a better use of her time, right?"

"I..I guess," Lincoln scratched the back of his neck, nervously. "I just worry that it might be too much pressure for her. She might be a super genius, but she's still a kid, Lori."

"And so are you, and so is Luna." Replied his sister. "We're all trying to figure this out, little bro."

"That said," She continued, "You've got a point. I guess we've all been...leaning a little hard on Lisa lately, hoping that she'd be able to just science up a cure. And clearly that's not happening right now. I'll talk to her tonight, alright? Make sure she knows that we're all in her corner on this. She's just the only one of us equipped to actually solve this thing, that's all."

"Sounds good to me," Lincoln agreed. "Thanks, Lori."

"Peeshaw," Lori brushed away the compliment and gave him a reassuring pat on his hand. "Just doing my job. Oh, speaking of which, dad left a couple of Lynnsagnas in the freezer. Just let Lisa know when you guys get hungry, and she'll make them edible for you."

Lincoln clamped his mouth shut, already feeling his mouth begin to water at the thought of lunching on his dad's lasagna. The one advancement Lisa had managed to make, was inducing growth in certain types of non-living matter. According to her, the process was still highly experimental at the moment, and only worked on a few kinds of things. But she could make food big with a fairly high rate of success, and after a week of eating nothing but bulk-ordered burgers and pizza, getting some variety in their diets had made for a huge quality of life improvement for him and Luna. No pun intended.

"Awesome," He said, once he'd mastered himself once more. "Will do."

Lincoln had expected Lori to take her leave at that point, but instead, she stood there, looking up at him expectantly.

"Was there...something else?" He asked, after a few more moments of silence.

"What, Leni rates a hug, but I don't?" Lori chided him playfully, holding out her arms. "Don't leave me hanging here."

"Oh!" Chuckling in amusement, Lincoln scooped up his older sister and pulled her close. He held onto the hug just a little longer than was strictly necessary, but...Lori being back home had made such a huge difference for him. She'd been incredibly supportive throughout this whole thing, always willing to lend an ear to his problems or offer a few gentle words of comfort when he was feeling blue. It was the kind of thing that was difficult to articulate with words, but as Lincoln held her, he hoped that at least some of his feelings got through to her. How thankful he was for her, how grateful he was to have a sister like Lori in his life. Finally, he loosened his grip, and gently deposited Lori on the ground. As soon as released her, Lori's body began to slacken, and Lincoln leaned forward arms ready to swoop in and catch his sister if need be. But though she stumbled, just a bit, she did not fall.

"Everything okay, Lori?" He asked, worriedly.

"Yeah," She replied, airily, swaying slightly on her feet. "But I guess now I know why Leni likes those hugs so much."

His sisters now gone (save for the one cooped up in her lab), and his parents long departed for their respective places of work, Lincoln Loud now sat in the backyard, by himself. Looking down upon the rather large problem, he found himself faced with. While he could most certainly handle it himself, albeit with some...small amount of difficulty, given his current circumstances, he was reluctant to do so. Since his change, Lincoln had been forced to spend all of his time outdoors, doors themselves being a long-gone convenience that had no place in his current situation. Which had proven...problematic, for a number of reasons. While he had been forced to accept the fact that privacy was no longer a luxury that could be afforded to him, there were still certain...activities, that he was reluctant to perform out in public. Even when his hormones screamed at him to succumb to what Lisa had assured him, were perfectly normal urges. Particularly given the massive amount of chemical and hormonal changes that his body had been subjected to.

Fortunately, on this occasion, the decision was quickly taken out of his hands.

"Heeeeey, lil bro," A familiar, husky voice whispered into Lincoln's ear, as a pair of arms lovingly wrapped themselves around his midsection.

"L-Luna!" He stammered in response. He'd meant to say more, possibly including an excuse to dislodge himself from his big sister's grasp, but before he could manage it, the much stronger girl yanked him backward, and he soon found himself perched in the older girl's exceedingly comfortable lap. A tepid glance upward brought him face to face with the brunette, as she smiled down at him.

"Mmm," She purred, planting a kiss on his cheek, before nuzzling her face against his. "Sorry I was gone for so long. Me and Sam kind of lost track of the time, and then I had to give her a ride to school so she wouldn't be late. Took the back roads, so I wouldn't cause too much commotion. You know how it goes."

"T-that's alright,"

"She says 'Hi', by the way," Luna continued as she traced her fingers down Lincoln's midsection. "Wants to know when the three of us might be able to hang out."

"W-why's—"Lincoln's body seized up, his question abandoned, as Luna's dexterous, musician's fingers, drifted down past his waistline...and found purchase.

"Oh...different reasons," Luna murmured. Casually, as if her little brother wasn't spasming her arms. "Probably because I've been talking you up to her, and she seems really interested in finding out of any of it's true. But...we can talk about that later. You were wrestling with Lynn again, and I know exactly...what...you...need."

There was a still civilized portion of Lincoln's brain that urged him to protest. To shake off his sister's loving embrace, and hold fast to his scruples. Particularly those involving canoodling in the backyard. But one more strategically placed squeeze from Luna, and Lincoln found himself melting in her arms. Putty in her hands.

Still, as pleasure began to wrack his frame, and his brain activity gradually ceased, his body suddenly far more concerned with what was happening to his nerve endings, he tried to console himself with one last, comforting thought.

After all. If the previous times were any indication, they'd have plenty of time to clean up before their family got back.