The sun was always a bit too bright in the mornings. It crept across the hardwood floors, covering the room in its warm shine and landing squarely on the face of a sleeping brunette. She squirmed a bit, squeezing her eyelids tighter as if the action would make it dark again. But alas you can't fight the elements.
Lynn's eyes slowly opened into the new day, wincing slightly at the sudden brightness of the room. She tried to shift to the side and nestle back into her bed for at least a few more minutes before she would have to get up for school.
A moan rolled from her lips as she felt a new sensation. A strange but familiar feeling that shocked her awake. Blinking a few times to shake her drowsiness she instead moved to sit up and investigate the weird feeling.
Peering down below her, her eyes slowly gained focus before growing wide with pure terror.
Right under her was her brother, still, sound asleep but completely naked from what her eyes could see. Slowly, with drastically building anticipation, her eyes traced down his torso, over his chest and abdomen and sparing a glance below her exposed breasts, she stared mouth agape at his crotch disappeared between her legs.
She let out only a whimper. The barest beginnings of a scream, her eyes shrinking to pinpricks. Her brain ran at a thousand miles per hour and came to a complete halt all at once as all functioning went toward trying to understand what was clear as day in front of her.
Eventually gaining some sort of cognitive function, the brunette's first instinct was to jump off as far and as high as she could as if she had just been sitting on molten rock. The rough sensation of his morning wood sliding out was not lost to her as she fell to the ground, dazed and confused, sliding further away from the bed until she felt the chill of the bedroom wall against her bare skin. Like an injured puppy, she shivered in the corner, scared, confused, trying with all she could to remember what had transpired the previous night.
She could feel herself losing it as nothing came to her, taking her hands and gripping at full fists of her hair in a frenzy, racking her brain to remember what had led up to this… this… taboo!
Stiffness in her legs drew her attention to her bare thighs where she spotted flakes of some dried-out substance. Perturbed, she inspected lower and was repulsed by the signs of dried up liquids that originated from within her.
That was the last straw.
With an urgency to it, she bounded up as she felt the contents of last night's dinner begin to surface in her mouth. Without a second thought to her current state of nude, the brunette dashed out of the room, still having the sense to slam the door behind her as she practically sprinted across the halls and dove into the bathroom. A little wheezing later and she hunched over the toilet bowl, dumping the contents within her into the toilet bowl.
Later, she would look back and be relieved that the hallway was empty that day.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Elsewhere, another sleeping Loud awoke to the harsh rays of the sun. She groaned a little and turned in her sleep, trying to position herself better, instinctively reaching out to grip at the arm of her beloved. When her fists only grasped at the air, she slowly opened her eyes to glance around and was met with a pale face and shaded eyes staring back at her.
With a yelp, she hopped back, smacking her head on the wall behind her. An even louder yelp escaped her at that and she hunched over in the bed clutching at her scalp.
"Good morning young one. I believe your night was pleasant?" Lucy asked seemingly unfazed by Lily's distress. She stood to move and continue packing her things for school.
With a less than amused groan, Lily simply fell back onto the bed, a hand still massaging her head. "Why were you so close to my bed." She lightly whined, an accusatory glare directed at her older sister.
Lucy didn't answer at first, she simply continued to stuff books in her bag. Her back turned to the younger girl, she couldn't help the small beginnings of pink that tinted her cheeks. "I was… curious. You seem to smile a lot in your sleep." And your hands seem to go to some very strange places. She couldn't say that though.
Lily blinked in surprise. Giving a simply perplexed hum of acknowledgment.
Come to think of it, she did have a rather interesting dream of a certain white-haired boy last night. She couldn't help the aroused grin that split through her face and licked her lips as the memories of the dream came back to her.
She let out a small giggle. "I wonder why."
Lucy simply shrugged, having a very vague idea of what was going through the young girl's mind. Playing dumb seemed to be the best option for now though as she felt her face heat up even more.
Lily smiled involuntarily, her mood severely lifted from just thoughts of Lincoln. The blond stared at her sister's back as she packed her belongings for school. Her mind drifting all over the place, but the concept remained the same. She wanted to see Lincoln as soon as possible.
Lily happily bounced off the bed, heading to the door with the simple excuse of "I'll be right back."
"So, I'm boring to you?" The sudden inquiry brought Lily to a pause, her hand to the doorknob. She slowly turned to glance at her sister, finding her with a relatively blank expression. Still, for some reason, she felt guilty.
"What, no! What would make you think that?" Lily asked, hoping to sound at least a bit reassuring.
Lucy zipped up her bag, clutching it tightly as if for support. Her problem was simple.
She didn't want Lily alone with Lincoln.
There was nothing she could do to prevent it, she knew that, but she could at least delay it. "You barely spend more than a minute with me before you go running off." A sigh pushes past her lips. "I really will never be noticed."
"It's not…" Lily sighed. The guilt now obnoxiously weighing on her chest. With a hesitant resolve, she turned to Lucy with a smile. "I'll stay with you, Lucy. If that's what you want."
"It's for the greater good."
"What?"
"Nothing."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
The cool water running over her skin was what Lynn needed to clear her head.
It didn't happen.
All an illusion.
Bad dream.
She could easily say she had repeated those phrases at least a thousand times in the past ten minutes alone.
She'd spent the most of her time in the shower trying to convince herself that somehow, she had just imagined all of this. None of it was real, all an illusion in her twisted mind. But the dull throbbing in her thighs was all she needed to confirm her fears.
She wasn't dreaming. It all happened. Somehow, someway, last night, she had sex with her brother.
The thought alone sent butterflies rioting violently in her stomach. She could feel more bile rushing to her throat and forced it down. Her sisters definitely wouldn't allow another ten-minute shower. Chances are Lori would barge in and fling her into the hallway, nude and all.
The mind-boggling thing wasn't that she had sex with him. If her very inner thoughts were allowed to speak, she was mildly excited about that fact. No, what puzzled her was she remembered none of it. Not a single thing.
Did she come onto him?
By some miracle had he come onto her?
Or a scary thought. Had she r-raped him?! Maybe in a slur of sleep, she had succumbed to her inner desires and…
She shook her head aimlessly, like a dog trying to push off moisture from its fur. She had been in here too long. Her mind was beginning to wonder into dangerous territory.
Wordlessly, Lynn stepped out of the shower, drying herself off. As she spread the towel over her head, she stared silently at her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes drifted to her crotch. No longer decorated with the dried up fluids like before. The thought of what it could be sent shivers through her spine, but she shook them off, directing her thoughts elsewhere. To her toothbrush perched in her cup on the sink. She grimaced, throwing it in the trash can beside the toilet.
She had overused it this morning.
After about a minute of waiting for her hair to dry she took off the towel, hanging it on the rack with the others, taking a moment to stare at the different colors of her sister's towels as she dressed up. A deflection of course. Anything to take her mind away from the forbidden territory.
But it was proving futile. With a bulldozer, it came crashing back into her mind every time, pushing everything out of its way and taking center stage, try as she might push the thought out the door.
With a sigh of resignation, she got dressed, and moved to open the door to the bathroom. A sudden terror of the thought of Lincoln being out there suddenly at the forefront of her mind. They would awkwardly stare at each other. Both afraid to speak, both hesitant to look at each other in the eye. Much to the confusion of their siblings.
Or…
Maybe Lincoln, unlike her, had a recollection of what had happened last night. Maybe he was even happy with the events. He would take her by the waist confidently and declare their relationship to their sisters. Then he would… he would…
Perverse thoughts filled her mind as she caught herself staring dreamily at the door instead of opening it. She felt utterly embarrassed. Looks like Lincoln officially has her wrapped around his finger tighter than before.
She pushed the door open and stared out into the hallway, a rather impatient looking Lori staring back at her, her foot tapping rhythmically against the floor.
"Move." Was the only warning she got before being hastily pushed out of the way as Lori grumpily stomped past her. Well someone's especially bitchy today. Wonder what's got her panties in a twist?
She glanced towards the rest of the line, sighing in relief that he wasn't among them. The line was unnecessarily shorter than usual. A bit of a miracle. The fewer people to see her disgruntled face, the better.
She walked past them, but as she moved to the stairs, her eyes lingered upon Luan. Smiling disturbingly wide. It was a little unsettling. Even more unsettling still when she turned to Lynn and directed that same smile to her, somehow it grew larger. Her buck braced teeth wide and shining lightly directly at her.
"Morning Lynn." Even her voice sounded… off. Lynn was getting a really strange vibe from the resident jokester. And she didn't like it.
"How was your night?" She continued and Lynn felt her heart stop at the next words to leave her mouth.
"How was Lincoln's? Wasn't too big, was it? I'm sure you fit in nicely."
It sounded innocent enough. She could simply mean Lincoln's room, his bed, hell maybe she could even mean his clothes. It made more sense than the context she was thinking of.
No matter, either way. She froze in place, her mind taking its second major screeching halt for the day.
"Luan. If that was a joke, it's a crappy one. Like crappier than usual." She heard Lola chime in from further up the line.
Luan simply smiled. A crooked, sinister smile that held more meaning than any of the others could ever hope to discern. Her eyes shone with mirth as she chuckled lightly, glancing back at Lynn. "Don't worry. Lynn gets it. Don'tcha Lynn?"
Lynn didn't stick around long enough to answer. Without a moment's haste, she ducked past Luan, diving down the stairs and picking up her backpack, racing out of the house and down the street, as far away as she could to the general direction of her school, as if her life depended on it.
Maybe it did.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
"Lisa, hey. If you're awake then it's almost time to go bud. Better get your act together and get ready."
Luna braced herself against the door, her ears flush against the hardwood. She heard sounds. Mechanical buzzing, a strange but rhythmic tone. Lisa was awake alright. But there was no response. No signs of activity other than the whizzing sound.
She sighed and pushed away from the door, staring at it as if it held the answers to all her questions. Questions that were beginning to grow startlingly numerous.
Here in the Loud house, the Louds were precisely that. Loud. Secrets weren't an easy thing to keep and once they were out, they spread like wildfire. So it wasn't that hard to stay up to date in the personal lives of each of her siblings, even when in extreme cases two would not interact for hours or even days.
But recently there was a drastic shift. She suddenly realized she was in the dark on a lot of recent things in their home. Other than knowing of Lily's condition and that Lisa was working hard to fix it, she had sparsely little to no clue what else was going on. She was essentially a side character in the recent event of things.
Luna didn't mind that too much of course. There was nothing she could do to help Lisa in the lab and Lily seemed to be properly taken care of by the others without her input, but something still felt off. Like there was a "shift". Like everything she had known and understood about her family was slowly getting turned on its hinges to reveal a distorted and malformed reality. And she didn't know why.
It nagged at her, bugged her that whatever was going on was because of Lily. Previous interaction with her though proved Luna wrong. She couldn't find anything wrong with the girl. She was as sweet as when she was a baby and it was obvious to anyone, there was nothing malicious about the girl. There was still something, she just couldn't figure it out what.
The sound of a door creeping open behind her jarred her out of her thoughts as the objects of her troubles came sneaking out of her new room resembling someone that had just been through the apocalypse.
"Hey Lily, what's up?" Luna asked the younger Loud, curious, and slightly amused at the expression on her face.
Lily stared at her for a second, as if her mind was coming to terms with the fact that Luna existed. "Oh, morning Luna." She said eventually, leaning against the frame of the door she just exited from. "Lucy was just reading me from one of her novels… It's a lot more… dark than I expected. Luckily she got distracted when she started narrating about some vampire guy and I snuck out."
Luna chuckled at that, a little perplexed that Lucy wanted to share her novels. She never really liked sharing her tastes with anyone other than occasionally Lincoln. She chalked it up to her trying to bond with Lily though. "So where are you off to now then?"
She didn't answer. Instead staring somewhat longingly at Lincoln's closed door. Luna raised a brow. Now that she thought about it, Lily was especially attached to Lincoln, even from the very beginning, when she had just newly 'aged up'. That rang some curiosity in her head.
"How's about you head down for some breakfast first. Lincoln's not up yet, so let's let him sleep up for a bit longer huh?" She could swear she saw a pair of eyes from the crack in the door behind Lily. And she was almost sure those eyes looked grateful.
Lily had a flash of disappointment on her face, maybe even annoyance, but it was gone as quickly as it appeared. "Sure Luna. What's for breakfast?"
Luna glanced back to the door and it was closed shut as if it had never been open. With a shake of her head, she draped her arm around Lily's shoulders, leading her down the stairs as she jokingly recited a list of today's breakfast menu.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Lisa let out a sigh of relief as her two sisters headed down the stairs together, leaning against the door frame.
She had been watching them, eavesdropping on their conversation and primed to intervene if it went in undesirable directions. She didn't know why Luna held Lily back from meeting their brother, but she didn't care. She was seconds away from jumping in and stopping them herself had Luna not done it for her. There was a knock at her door, and she glanced at the gap she had opened to watch them, spotting a pair of eyes staring back at her.
"You were watching them too?" Was all the intruder said, still staring at her through the gap in her door. Her voice was enough to identify her though.
"Lucy?"
The dark-haired girl stalked her way into the room and closed the door gently behind her, as if she were trapping them both within it. "You were watching them too?" She repeated looked to Lisa for an answer, her expression stoic and emotionless.
'Too?' So Lucy had been watching them and must have noticed her peeking from behind the door. She had her reasons, of course, stopping the inevitable but preventable of Lily getting to Lincoln too early in the morning. It was futile and pretty much meaningless, but she felt it necessary.
Lisa still could not understand Lori's decision to allow the younger girl to remain around Lincoln for such long periods of time. This could potentially backfire in all their faces with irreversible consequences.
Though... Lucy had no knowledge of that as far as she knew, unless Lori had finally started spreading the information. Lisa raised her eyebrow at her older sister, suspicion and curiosity surfacing within her.
"So? What of it?" Lisa finally replied as Lucy seemed to study her.
Lisa suddenly had the feeling she was being evaluated as if her mind and thoughts were being sucked out and picked apart. Lucy's face though remained calm and stoic.
Lucy suddenly turned to the rest of the room, analyzing it and Lisa felt a bit invaded. What was she searching for? Answers, hope. If so she came to the wrong person. "How's the cure coming along?" She asked suddenly, directing her gaze back to Lisa, with an unreadable expression.
"As planned," Lisa replied simply. "I'm trying my best to fix all the damage… I… have caused." She winced, the guilt still weighing heavily on her. With something akin to determination, she looked back to Lucy. "I don't care how long it takes, although it may take a while but I will fix Lily's condition."
Lucy's features visibly softened, her deep glare turning into a more desperate gaze. "Lisa," she said suddenly, her voice loosing its edge and sounding significantly softer. Her face changed from an emotionless shell to a rainbow of thoughts and feelings, as if the valve that kept her emotions shut, was just yanked out and thrown away. "Hurry. Before something bad happens."
Lisa could only nod in understanding, hoping the determination written clearly on her face was enough to convince Lucy that she was on top of the case.
They stood, staring at each other for a moment. Not more than a second in reality, but to them, it could rival an eternity, as they shared their feelings through eye contact alone. Their fears, insecurities, desperation, and hope. It would be quite a touching moment had it not been for the circumstances.
Lucy opened her mouth as if primed to say more, but instead quietly shook her head and turned, leaving the room and Lisa to her thoughts.
The brainiac herself let out a breath she had not even realized he had been holding.
Lucy clearly knew something. Something big. Something that should probably invigorate her to work on this faster. She stared at her lab desk. Littered with files and papers, beakers and flasks, stains of unknown origin that had long since dried out, and a vial of liquids she had been testing for so long, she could probably list out all the compounds within it by heart now.
A quick glance at her lab rats, halved in numbers and in various states of distress. Some had seen better days as being forced to take various chemicals and undergo numerous tests had taken its toll on them. She was almost there, she could feel it. The pieces were there, the puzzle was almost complete, A few more days were all she needed. Just a few more.
She just wasn't sure she even had the luxury of time.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Lily munched solemnly on her cereal, her mind far in the clouds, away from the conversation Luna was trying to have with her. She nodded when appropriate, chuckled when necessary, and even tried to chip in thoughts of her own, but she was far away from the conversation.
Her thoughts were focused where they usually made a home at this point. On a certain white-haired boy.
Specifically on how she was being kept away from him.
Lily was no dummy. She knew when she was being distracted from what she wanted. It had happened multiple times when she was a baby. Memories she still had more clearly and vividly than anyone could ever dream to have of their infancy. Moments when she would crawl into a place where she was not supposed to be, or reach her small hands for things she was not supposed to have, her family would rush to her, distracting her with toys and words till she eventually lost interest. With the short attention span of a baby, that did not take long.
Although now, she was no baby, not anymore. She saw through their tricks. They were trying to keep her away from Lincoln. Why? She could only guess it was because of yesterday's events.
The kiss they were caught sharing in the park. Something she still found problems seeing the trouble with. She had kissed Lincoln, so what? It wasn't the end of the God damned world.
Her eyes shifted to Lori, a deep scowl forming on her lips. It's not like she was the only one who had shown love to her brother. The hypocrite herself had indulged in the very act she was punishing them for, not too long ago.
Maybe she was jealous, maybe she was trying to keep Lincoln all to herself. Lily almost bent her spoon at that thought.
That was not going to happen. Not on her watch.
She downed the rest of her bowl. Politely excusing herself from the table and standing to dump it in the sink. As if on cue, her sisters began to do the same.
They just had to leave the house. Leave them alone. Then she'd have all the time she needed to get Lincoln to focus on her, and only her. She'd make Lincoln hers today, no matter what, and he'd never look at any of the others again.
"Hey, has anyone seen Lynn?" Lori asked as she helped the twins put on their backpacks.
"She left early in the morning, after her shower. Didn't even eat." Leni said. Having been in the kitchen when she rushed past and out. "Poor thing, I hope she doesn't like, starve in school. I wonder why she was in such a rush."
Lori shrugged. It wasn't uncommon for Lynn to make weird decisions for the sake of exercise. She probably just wanted to get an early morning jog or something.
Clapping her hands loudly to get everyone's attention, Lori walked out the door. "Everyone in the Van or I'm leaving you behind."
Lily smiled and waved lightly as everyone filed out the door.
Weirdly though, as Lucy trudged out last she couldn't help but notice she moved out a little slower than the rest, waving back to her just a bit slower.
Weird.
No matter, at least…
She heard the sound of rushed footsteps behind her and turned around.
"Wait!" Lisa yelled as she hopped down the stairs, pushing past her and toward Vanzilla right as Lucy was about to close the car door.
Lily chuckled lightly. There was some unwashed soap in her ruffled hair.
Anyway.
She turned towards the stairs, a grin spreading on her face. There were more important things to put her attention on.
She stalked up the stairs, giggling all the way. Unnecessarily creeping through the halls as though anyone was there to hear her. Lily placed a hand on the door handle, and shoved it open wildly.
"Linky!" She paused, taking in the state of the room as her expression morphed from glee to mild shock. "Lincoln?"
Author's Note: Hello there. It's been a while hasn't it. I was forced due to personal conditions to put this little project of mine on a temporary hiatus. Almost turned into turned into a permanent one too. But everyday I would get notifications that someone somewhere had liked or followed or just enjoyed my work, and I couldn't help but marvel that even after months people are still viewing this walking pile of garbage. So thank you so much for viewing this and taking the time to leave any sort of review or follow or favorite. It was a real motivator.
On another note, how is everyone? 2020 is pretty crazy huh? Where I'm from thankfully isn't hit too hard but I know others have very negatively been affected by current problems. I just hope wherever you are, you're staying safe and taking care of yourselves.
I'll try and work out a manageable schedule, for this, maybe once a week if I can find the time. I'm also rewriting all previous chapters, fixing the MULTIPLE grammatical errors I seemed to be blind to, so that might take quite a bit. Either way, I'm alive and kicking and I ain't even close to done with this story.
Stay Safe!
Peace!