Hey. Really sorry for the long wait. I was actually really close to abandoning this fic, but after reading a bunch of unfinished fics I changed my mind. It is pretty irritating to get invested in something that will never be finished, and I don't want to be one of those people. I wanna finish this and make more stories in the future. Anyways, onto the story.
"I just want my little sister back."
That was the last thing she said to me last night... or, super early this morning. My talk with Lynn lasted a lot longer than just a couple minutes and- admittedly, a lot more heated than I thought it would be. I figured she was hot headed, but wow... she got really annoyed at me. I don't blame her, I get why it upsets her so much. After all, she did a lot of stuff for me. That's what I figured, and just as I thought, she did take the blame for me releasing all those bats in Dad's restaurant. She said she remembers what happened differently from what I remembered. For one, there wasn't incessant banging or yelling of my name, which makes sense. I'm sure anyone would've tired easily from doing that for more than a minute, but what really got me is when she said I never spoke up... The person she was talking to, Lynn said her name was Lori, she was the one banging on my door. Lynn claims that I didn't even leave the closet until dinner time. I don't understand why my memory is so different from hers... was it guilt or something? That doesn't make sense right? Guilt can't affect people's memories...
Right?
"Lucy?"
Lucy is taken out of her thoughts by the sound of someone snapping their fingers and calling her name.
"Huh?"
"You okay, dudette? You looked like you were dancing with the Sandman again."
Luna spoke to Lucy with concern in her voice. The two of them were at the dinner table, eating breakfast together... well, not exactly. Lucy came down a little later than Luna did, and poured herself a bowl of cereal, something that bothered Luna greatly. To her, as Lucy got older she started to hate cereal more and more. The girl Luna knows would've served herself two pieces of burnt toast, or just any kind of food she can blacken... something that weirded her out at the time, but really misses right now. Lucy had never been a normal girl, but that's what made her so special to her family. Just how abnormal she was. The fact she's comfortably eating crappy sugary cereal without so much as a whine is an upsetting sight to say the least.
"Sorry, I was just- I didn't get enough sleep last night, that's all. Lynn uh... snores loudly?"
She lied while putting on a fake smile, just another thing that upsets Luna. She has no idea what Lynn's sleeping habits were like, Lynn didn't sleep at all after their talk. She's just going off the assumption that she was a loud snorer, it seems like it makes sense right?
"Yea. I suppose that sounds like her."
Lucy lets out a sigh of relief, but Luna could tell the little goth had something heavy on her shoulders. She decided not to persist because the last thing she would want to do is drive her away further from her after scaring the crap out of Lucy yesterday. Their breakfast, while filled with repetitive questioning about Lucy's mood, was mostly peaceful and Luna would hate to ruin that right now.
I don't know if talking with her about Lynn would be a good idea, but I really can't get it off my mind. Talking about this stuff would probably help... what am I thinking. Lynn was the last person I barely knew that I talked to about my thoughts and she flipped on me. I don't know Luna well enough to talk with her about that stuff, I'm not gonna make that mistake again.
"I know you forgot about me, but you can talk to me about whatever jamming around in your head... I don't mind tuning in."
"Thanks but, I'm not comfortable with that yet, I hope you understand."
"Don't worry sweet little missy, I get it."
Why does she speak like that? It feels like she keeps referencing music every time she speaks... She does fit the description for a rocker I suppose... Eyeing her up and down, she seems to have a weird affinity for the color purple. But maybe that's just how everyone in this family is. Lynn likes red, I like black (apparently), and Leni seems to like that gross seafoam green. Luna... that's her name if her telling me three times wasn't enough of an indicator. She has been fairly nice to me today, she acts like a cool auntie stereotype from one of those cheesy family sitcoms on tv but I can't help but feel like there's something off about her... her attitude almost comes off as forced, but not in a disingenuous way. She comes across as an exaggerated version of herself way.
Not that I would know what she was like before of course.
"What's that thing on your shirt?"
Luna smiles proudly then looks down, standing up in her seat. She grabs the brim of her shirt, trying to flatten it out so Lucy can get a better look at it.
"Oh, this? This is my band's logo."
A band huh? Well that would explain her flamboyant attire, but doesn't she wear normal clothing?
"You have a band? What, you guys make rock music or something?"
Luna lets out a squeal of excitement.
"Heck yea dude, had one for years. And yea we do, is it really that obvious? We rock and roll all night long! You even helped me write some songs!"
Luna was steadily getting more excited as the conversation took its shift into something she is more than happy to talk about. After all, this memory loss thing could have a silver lining! Maybe Luna could finally get Lucy into rock music instead of just death metal!
"Really? I thought I only did poetry."
"I thought so too, but you proved me wrong saying some stuff about how they're similar. You actually helped light my passion for music again when I was in my slump. Do you remember that?"
Luna looked at Lucy excitedly, if she remembered at least this one thing, maybe their relationship can be salvaged, and Luna would be the one to help Lucy reconnect with her family! Now that would definitely be the confidence boost she needs to come back to writing new songs.
I'm no musician, but I'm the one that helped her out of a creative block? These people are just confusing me at this point. The way they were talking about me, it was like I only wanted to be alone and kept my distance from everyone. How can I also be there to help out, and why would they cover for me so much? Was I really worth protecting from the wrath of our parents?
Lucy sat in thought for a couple moments, before shaking her head 'No'. This caused another frown to grow on Luna's face. The whole morning Lucy had denied having any memories of Luna, she doesn't seem to remember anything about her at all.
"Do you really not remember anything with me?"
Dang, she seems to be torn up about this. Something tells me the whole family is gonna be like her, asking me if I remember anything about them only to get let down when I deny. I don't even know these people all that well but they're really making me feel bad...
"Sorry Luna. I've been trying to read my poetry book but nothing in it makes sense to me."
"Maybe it only made sense to you before you lost your memory. It spoke to how you were, and now that you're different, it makes no sense. Right?"
Actually... that kind of makes sense.
"Y-yea... how did you figure it out?"
"Well, I got a similar vibe when I was checking out some old lyrics I wrote. Most of the stuff I understood, but those like deep emotional songs I made when I was having a bad time? Those were really hard to make sense of brah, it was like reading stuff from a different person. Maybe you can contact that girl you like hanging out with, she might be able to help."
"What girl?"
"Oh yea. That girl she has the like... weird shaped head and one of her eyes is covered by her hair. She got fingerless gloves and stuff? Ringing any bells?"
The goth dropped her spoon as soon as Luna mentioned something about that girl... something about it is so familiar, but at the same time she can't put her finger on exactly what it is that bothered her.
"You okay bro?"
"Don't make fun of her head shape... she's insecure about it."
Luna darted her eyes around Lucy's face, very confused as to what her little sister just said to her. Lucy raises her hand to her head and continues.
"Haiku used to get made fun of for the shape of her head when she was little, d-don't be rude to her."
Lucy soon starts resting her head in her hands, this sudden memory of Haiku stinging like hell. It's not an intense pain like yesterday, but it still hurt her all the same. Though its foggy, she can remember Haiku passionately venting to her about how much she used to be bullied in her old school over the shape of her head. To Lucy, she never found it to be all that abnormally shaped, to most people it looks normal, but Haiku says its only because she grew her hair out. She asked Lucy to feel through her hair for it, and when she did she felt bad. Haiku wasn't lying or exaggerating, she had a weirdly shaped head. It hurt Lucy to see her friend crying since they both prided themselves on showing little emotion in public as possible. They spent the rest of the day together, trying to make Haiku feel better. Luckily for them she felt better by the time Lucy had to get home.
That was the past however, and in the present Lucy is going through a splitting headache. Luna swiftly gets up and comes to her side, trying to comfort her.
"C-chill out Lucy, you're only hurting yourself by thinking so much!"
Lucy lets out a painful moan, indicating to Luna that her pain isn't going away just from her bad advice. She rushes over to the fridge, grabbing a plastic bag. She fills the bag with ice cubes and wraps it in a couple paper towels. Bolting back over to Lucy, she's disturbed to see Lucy with her head against the table, holding both sides of her head as if it were splitting down the middle and she were holding it together. She pulls up a chair next to her, sitting down and holding the makeshift icepack to her little sisters head. She's far from the most nurturing or effective sister when it comes to her siblings getting injured, but she didn't want to make Lucy wait while she ran off to get proper help. Not many were even in the house at this point, only a handful of the family were still around and Luna wasn't sure how effective any of them would be.
"Lucy?"
The younger girl only sat in silence, quietly whining in pain over what's going on in her head right now. The second she started remembering something, it just slowly snowballed and she couldn't stop it. If Luna hadn't been around to help her out who knows, she might've passed out on the floor again. She didn't know it yet but that ghetto icepack she made is really helping Lucy right now. After a few minutes, Lucy released her tight grip on her heads, silently thankful for Luna's assistance.
That really hurt. What's going on with me? I don't understand why remembering things hurts so much, but they just... do. Both times I remember something that heavily involved me, it hurt. But why? The first one I can understand, it was that feeling of intense guilt and dread over the possibility of getting in trouble over a stupid mistake I made, but those memories of Haiku were positive ones. The only bad thing that happened, happened to her and had nothing to do with me. Hmm... Why can I remember her but I can't remember my own family? Maybe we had some kind of bond that I simply couldn't share with my family, if my past self is anything to go off of, there's no way she isn't some kind of emo or goth or something. Does that mean that bond Luna is talking about isn't as strong as she says it is?
"Lucy?"
Lucy looked up at Luna. She seemed tense, but eased up when she saw her sister wasn't in enough pain to need to hold her head together anymore.
"I-I feel better. Sorry about that."
"Don't apologize dude, that seemed pretty serious! Are you sure you're cool?"
"Y-Yea, I'm sure."
I'm not sure, I really am not. This stuff is really scary to take on all alone, but I said what I said. I don't want to talk to any of my sisters about it, they're way too sensitive over it clearly. Luna looks like she's on the verge of tears. I need to change topics, this stuff is weighing down on her hard and I don't want her to pester me any further. Hm... she has a tattoo. It seems to be a heart with her name and some other person's name on it, somebody named Sam maybe? I'll just ask her about her relationship with them, and then we'll be worry free again.
"U-uh, Luna?"
"Wassup little dude?"
"Whose Sam?
Luna freezes at the mention of that name. As if dealing with her currently mentally damaged sister wasn't enough, she now has to deal with her past relationship. She hasn't thought of Sam for a year now... but she realizes she should've gotten that tattoo removed years ago. She always excused it by saying she never had the time to go through with it, but it was nothing but a front. Even when she had the time she wouldn't make an appointment... she was too scared. Scared of removing it in the event that Sam would take her back, and scared of how much it would hurt. She isn't wealthy on knowledge of tattoo removal but she heard stories from her time on the road. Unfortunately for her, things between her and Sam didn't end up working out too well.
"She's uhm... She was- Uh..."
That face she's making... she looks completely stunned right now. Is she at a loss for words?
Luna stared at Lucy in complete silence, making the younger girl a bit uncomfortable from it all. Luna was too lost in her thoughts to realize how weird she was acting, she had a rush of memories coming back at once. It started all the way back from where they first met, and followed their subsequent dates. Everything was perfect and happy for Luna... but her thoughts grow more and more resentful towards Sam for the betrayal she experienced. Luna gave her all the love she could muster, but it wasn't enough for Sam.
I need to speak up, she's getting caught up in her emotions. Maybe I shouldn't have brought this up...
"Luna?"
All of the emotion drained out of Luna's face, as if she had just reached some revelation in her mind about what she truly feels about her ex girlfriend. Sam had ripped her heart out and stomped it into the dirt with no remorse. It pisses Luna off so much, but she can't help but feel like she was to blame for Sam's actions. 'No, I wasn't good enough for Sam. She needed more, more than what I was capable of giving her.'
"She's just some mistake from my past, a complete and total mistake..."
Uh oh... Maybe bringing this up was a bad idea.
Lucy was a little shaken up by Luna's sudden attitude adjustment, afraid she might do something rash. Not knowing what Luna was like past their breakfast together, she feared Luna might lash out at her.
"W-what happened between you two...?"
That was a stupid question, as if her demeanor wasn't evident enough of what happened between them. God, how can I be so bad at talking to my own sisters? I'm sorry Luna, I'll be better next time.
Luna abruptly stood out of her chair, causing it to fall onto its back and scare Lucy at the same time. Luna looks both pissed and distraught at the same time. She says nothing as she grabs her dishes and walks into the kitchen, dumping it in the sink. Not even bothering to clean up after herself, or respond to Lucy's question. She storms out the kitchen and heads through the living room, straight up the stairs into her room. She reaches the top step just as soon as Luan steps out of their former room. Luna shoves past her, slamming the door right behind her. The loud and unexpected bang making Luan jump a little bit. The last time Luan saw someone so angry with tears in her eyes was Lynn... and that was just yesterday! Lucy has really been leaving a big impact here since she came back... at least, she assumed it was Lucy. That girl has had everyone up in high emotions for months now, and her return is just amplifying them! She needs to investigate.
Luan walks into the living room and looks around for any signs of life. Turning to the right, she catches Lincoln playing video games, but no signs that Luna was sitting with him. Plus, she knows Luna wouldn't have gotten mad at Lincoln. At this point, Lincoln had learned what made his sisters upset and did everything in his power to avoid it. Luan put on a smile, but it soon turned into a frown. She briefly thought of all the times he sacrificed his own happiness for the sake of making others around him happier. She didn't want to dwell too deeply on it, but she always found herself asking the same question constantly.
'Why does he always put us before him?'
Shaking her head to get back to her mini-quest, she turns to her left. She spotted Luna's jacket draped over one of the chairs at the dining table.
'Bingo' She thought to herself.
She walks in and takes note of her surroundings. The only people present are Lucy... and a knocked over chair. Guess Luan's suspicious were right, it was Lucy again. It's not her fault but damn... she was really setting people off a lot recently.
"Hey Lucy?"
"Yea...?"
Looking at Lucy, Luan is quite surprised to see she has a frown plastered on her face. Normally this would've meant nothing, just Lucy being Lucy... but Lucy isn't Lucy anymore. She's had a neutral face ever since she's come home, at least from what Luan could see. At first Luan was happy to see Lucy returning back to her old self, but she had to wake herself up from that dream, and put together what really happened here. Not that it was the hardest task in the world, but she needed to stay focused and figure out what it was that upset Luna. Not that it wasn't hard to figure out why Lucy was sad.
Oh crap, its another sister. I hope she didn't encounter Luna.
"Did something happen with Luna?"
Dang it. Might as well be honest, I doubt Luna would keep it a secret if she got that upset.
"I uh... tried to talk about her tattoo...?"
Luan thinks for a moment... her tattoo? Luna does have a tattoo, Luan can definitely remember the grand punishment she received for getting it, but what was on it? It was some kind of shape... a heart, and on it were words. If it were a heart then she must've gotten it during her relationship with-
Oh.
"Dang... She's still not over her huh..."
"Over who? Sam?"
"Yea... they had a really messy breakup after Luna nearly poured her heart out to her."
"Oh... that's terrible. What happened?"
"U-uh... well, its not exactly appropriate to say around you, but she was "doing it" with one of Luna's closest friends... so it really hurt her. It was bad. She even had the audacity to claim it was Luna's fault for "not treating her right". It took a lot of willpower to not beat the crap out of her every time I saw her. S-sorry, I shouldn't swear around you, it's not a normal thing for anyone in the house so please don't pick it up as a habit."
Man... Why can't I just say the right thing for once? In the span of just 24 hours, I managed to upset my whole family and piss off two of my sisters. All this stuff has been going terribly for me, I probably would've made Leni angry at me if I said I didn't like the modifications she made to my outfit. Well... maybe not angry, she seems too much of a sweetheart for that, but I would've upset her none-the-less. But Luna... while she was upset at the news of my amnesia, her reaction was more on the tamer side. Dammit... I'm ruining the relationships I had with my sisters before I could remember what they even were.
"How long ago was it? It must've been recent if she's still torn up over it."
"I don't remember exactly when it was, but I know we were still in high school at the time. She might've been a senior. The point is, its been a long time and she said she got over it after the first year had passed. I knew it wasn't true though, often times I would wake up in the middle of the night to her texting me about how much she missed Sam, or how much she hated her, or even how much she hated herself for being a bad girlfriend. It was just... one big mess, and I thought she had gotten over it recently. I figured you being on her mind was a bigger priority than crying over someone that didn't deserve her, but... I guess I was wrong."
Lucy can feel a knot forming in her stomach. The last thing she wanted to do was upset more sisters but she seemed to have a knack for getting on peoples bad sides. Leni is the only person in the house now that she would consider her friend, the rest of the siblings are nothing more than strangers to her and all she did was piss them off. Maybe it was her luck, maybe it was how she was approaching it, or maybe she just completely forgot how to talk with people too. She got along with Rita just fine, she can definitely feel that maternal warmth coming from her whenever the two of them spoke. Even Lynn, with how emotional he got around her, Lucy had no qualms with him either. She found him endearing and can definitely see him as the father of all the girls in this household. But her sisters... that's who she's been having trouble with. Maybe a talk with her one brother is what she needs to get back into the groove of interacting with them. Right now however, she wants to focus on Luna.
"Is there anything we can do to help her right now? She just finished helping me feel better and I want to return the favor.
Luan shook her head.
"Not gonna work. When Luna gets this upset its best to just wait for her to cool down first. The last time I tried talking with her when she was in her high emotions, it was a lot like how Lynn was acting yesterday."
These people are way too emotional.
"Does anyone in this house not freak out whenever something bad happens?"
"Not... exactly. We get our emotions from dad, even you used to freak out a lot over little things. In your own little... emotionless way."
"What a mess we are then. I may not be able to remember much but this doesn't feel normal to me in the slightest."
"I heard that Lucy... while we're not a normal family in the slightest, I think that's what makes us all the more closer. We always have each others backs and always try to make everyone feel better. Especially me!"
Luan poses to emphasize that last part, really trying to sell to Lucy her purpose in the household. It does little to impress the girl, she barely changes her facial expression at all from the little show Luan's putting on. Luan turns her smile upside down and goes back to a neutral pose.
"You seem like the type to try hard to make people smile."
Luan wasn't sure if that was an insult or a compliment, but responds to it anyways.
"Well, I am a comedian after all. Making people smile and be happy is my job! Which actually reminds me of why I wanted to see you today."
"What, you gonna try to get me to laugh my memory back? I don't think that's gonna work."
Ugh, I'm being too aggressive. I need to relax, she's only trying to help. These girls got me in high emotions right now, and I shouldn't try to tarnish the relationship before I can resurrect it. I hope she understands.
"Sorry sis, I didn't mean to-"
"N-no, no, its okay, really. I understand that you've been on edge recently, but that's why I'm here. I wanted to invite you to come with me to the fair today! You've never really liked it in the past, but I figured you would be interested it in trying it out?"
Huh. That's new, instead of her trying to revert me back to who I was... she wants me to try things that I didn't want to in the past. Maybe this is what I need. Besides just cause I wanna remind myself of who I used to be doesn't mean I can't have some fun. Maybe spending time with her will remind me of some stuff... I just hope its not as agonizing as it was to remember Haiku.
"That... sounds good to me then. C-can you remind me of your name please?"
"Oh yea, my name is Luan! Nice to meet you!"
Luan stretches her hand out to Lucy for a handshake, which Lucy finds a bit odd. She appreciates that Luan is not trying to overstep any boundaries and treating Lucy more as an acquaintance than her best friend. It makes her smile. That is, until she reaches her hand out and shakes it, only to get a violent shock flowing through her body. It was really scary, but Luan seems to think it was hilarious. Lucy didn't.
"Hahaha! Never gets old! I'm sorry for that Luce, I couldn't resist. I'll make it to you at the fair, promise."
At least she could tell it upset me. Groan.
"Let's just get going please..."
"I know it was shocking to experience, but don't be a sour puss! We're gonna have fun at the fair, it'll be electrifying! Come on, I'll drive us there."
Alright now this should be a fun time, I don't know what's in store for us there but I think it shouldn't be too bad of a time. Luan seems to have a sense of humor about everything. She seems like a nice girl.
Lucy and Luan walk out the door in the kitchen and walk over to the driveway. There's only a couple cars there, but Lucy can assume the yellow one belongs to Luan. They sure do like keeping stuff color coded. The two of them hop into the car and drive off to their destination.
