Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Restored Image: A tale retold

Chapter nineteen: …Wow, those guys were mean

Lori, Leni and Luna, the three oldest Loud sisters, decided that they needed to discuss something amongst themselves, without any of their younger sisters coming along for the ride. Thus, the three of them found themselves getting lunch with each other at the food court at Royal Woods Mall. Lori got some sort of salad, Luna got something from the burger place, and Leni got what appeared to be some manner of Japanese dish from the 'Japanese' restaurant in the food court.

"Bleh," the fashionable Loud sister remarked after trying a bite of her lunch, "This stuff is, like, totes bland compared to what Aggro's family serves at their restaurant."

Holding up a hand to cut Leni off from saying anything else, Lori remarked, "We can discuss matters like that later. For now, we literally have more important things to go over."

"Like how the three of us are still being left out in the dark by our little bro?" Luna asked as she turned her attention from her lunch to Lori. With a sigh, the musically inclined Loud sister said, "Although it's not like we don't have it coming, considering not only what happened to Link, but the fact that the three of us all had a role in it."

"You're right on both counts, Luna," Lori remarked, "Both on how the three of us have been disavowed by Lincoln, and that we have it coming." Giving both of her sisters that were with her a serious look, one that had just a mix of worry mixed in, the oldest Loud sister asked, "Do either of you know who Lincoln has forgiven yet?"

Counting off of her fingers, Luna said, "So far, our bro has accepted Lily, Luan, Lola and Lynn as his family again. The rest of us girls, as well as both of our 'rents, are still unpersons as far as Lincoln is concerned."

Sighing in a mildly resigned tone, Lori remarked, "Well, that's to be expected, I suppose. Out of the twelve of us who drove our own brother to run away from home because we were literally full of ourselves, Lincoln has only reconciled with four." Taking a sip of her drink, the oldest Loud sister continued, "And I'm not entirely sure if we can count Lily. Given that she's a baby, reconciling with her is something of an automatic response."

"So Lori," Leni began, "Why are the three of us, like, here again? I mean, don't get me wrong, because the mall is totes awesome to go to." With a hint of confusion entering her expression, Leni continued, "It's just that you only wanted me and Luna to come with you, and we're going over how Linky still hates the three of us for our part in what happened to him."

"That last part you said," Lori began to explain to Leni, "About how Lincoln is still upset with the three of us, is why I wanted to talk to just you and Luna." To both of her sisters, Lori said, "We need to figure out what we can do to convince Lincoln that we aren't unrepentant monsters, that we deserve a second chance from him."

Both Luna and Leni exchanged looks with each other; both of them understood what their older sister was getting at. Likewise, they both shared that desire that Lori had, that being to be accepted by their white-haired younger brother again. But the progress that the Loud family as a whole has been making has been slow at best; only four of the twelve immediate members of the family have been able to reconcile with Lincoln, and, just as Lori pointed out, one of them was something of an automatic deal.

Looking from one of her older sisters to the other, Luna said after a few moments of thinking about something, "Well girls, if it helps, I got an-" The musically inclined Loud sister was cut off midsentence when a bit of music that sounded like it was set as a ring tone went off; the music was clearly the kind of rock music that the musically inclined Loud sister loves jamming out to. "That's the song I set to play from my phone when Sam's calling me," Luna explained as she answered the call.

Lori and Leni both exchanged looks with each other as their younger sister talked on the phone with her girlfriend. After about a minute or so, Lori and Leni both jumped in their respective seats a bit when Luna exclaimed in her practiced British accent, "Are you bleed'in kidding me, mate?! Those blokes seriously did that?!" Calming down just a bit, Luna said in her regular tone, "I'm coming over right now, Sam. I'll be seeing you in a bit." Luna then promptly ended the call before turning her attention to Lori, giving her a serious look.

"I'm…assuming that you're going to want me to give you a ride to Sam's place?" Lori asked, knowing what her younger sister was going to say before said younger sister had even officially replied. After Luna said what the oldest Loud sister was expecting (albeit with a little bit more vulgarity than what was expected), Lori nodded in understanding before telling both Luna and Leni to gather their things, as they were going to be leaving the mall.

"Aww, we're leaving already?" Leni said in a tone of complain, "But I-" Leni was cut off when she heard a bit of a growl. Turning to face the direction said growl had come from, Leni came face-to-face with Luna, whose fuming, annoyed expression would be hearing no argument. Even someone who is slow on the uptake like Leni knew when to read the room. Not wanting to upset Luna any further if it could be helped, the fashionable Loud sister wisely decided to stop it with the complaining.

When Vanzilla pulled up in the driveway of the Sharp residence, the three oldest Loud sisters ran right up to the front door. It was Luna who pounded repeatedly on the front door, and she did not cease her pounding until the door opened from the inside. To the surprise of Lori, Leni and Luna, the door was answered by Amy Ace, the fifteen-year-old younger sister of Lori's friend Allison. Amy was carrying what appeared to be a red-colored semi-transparent first aid kit.

"About time you got here, Luna," Amy remarked, "You and your family ought to consider yourselves lucky, given that your younger brother does not need to go to the hospital."

"Wait, what?!" the three Loud sisters all exclaimed in unison, making Amy wince back slightly out of surprise and mild shock.

Collecting herself, Amy said, "…Yeah. Long story short, some guys from another high school that rivals Royal Woods High decided to come here to bother slash harass Sam, given that their band is rivals with the one that you and Sam belong to. Anyway, Sam's brother Simon and your brother Lincoln confronted them. Counting myself since I was here at the time and Sam since this is where her family lives, it was three of them versus four of us. We managed to drive them off, but Simon took a hit to his face that busted his nose badly enough that a trip to Royal Woods General was warranted."

"What about Linky?" Leni practically demanded.

"Linky?" Amy repeated in a confused tone to the fashionable Loud sister. After a moment, Amy said in a tone of realization, "Ah, that's the nickname that Aggro told me you gave to Lincoln." Jerking a thumb over her shoulder to point into the Sharp residence, Amy explained, "Sam is in the living room, keeping an eye on Lincoln. He took a right hook to his left eye, and there's some serious bruising. But other than that he's fine."

Without even being given time to mount any argument, Amy was practically shoved aside by the three oldest Loud sisters, who practically proceeded to storm the Sharp residence. Upon entering the living room area, Lori, Leni and Luna saw Sam sitting on the sofa with Lincoln; just as Amy had said, there was some serious bruising over his left eye. But the white-haired boy did not look to be too bothered by it. In fact, Lincoln sat on the sofa with a firm yet casual expression, his arms folded over his chest as he laid against the back of the sofa. The air that Lincoln was giving off was like that of a stoic warrior who was sitting without any worries as someone was tending to his wounds.

"Oh, there you are, Lunes," Sam said when the Loud sisters appeared in the living room. Looking over in the direction that his musically inclined ex-sister's girlfriend was looking, the white-haired boy saw said ex-sister, as well as the other two older ex-sisters.

"…This is nothing for you three to be worried about," Lincoln said in an emotionless monotone as he pointed to the bruising over the area of his left eye. The way that the Loud sisters' younger brother spoke to them reminded the three of them of how Lucy would normally speak. Hearing their younger brother say that his injury was nothing to be concerned about only made Lori, Leni and Luna more concerned.

"Are you kidding us?!" Lori practically demanded, "You literally got punched in the eye hard enough to have bruising!"

Looking away from his older ex-sisters and towards the TV that was in the living room, Lincoln said in the same emotionless monotone, "I've had harder experiences." Casting a brief glance back to his older ex-sisters without even turning his head, the white-haired boy added with a hint of knowingness in his tone, "I believe you may know what I'm talking about."

"I have to say, Lunes," Sam began, a hint of mild amazement in her tone, as she got up and walked over to Luna and the other Loud sisters. Gesturing back to where she left Lincoln on the sofa, Sam continued, "That little brother of yours is one tough customer. He took a punch to the eye from a dude the same size as that Santiago dude that your older sister here is dating, and yet he has not yet once cried out of pain." Shaking her head gently out of a mild sense of disbelief, Sam said, "How did he get so tough?"

Luna, along with Lori and Leni, had uncomfortable looks on their faces. "It's…" Luna said while trying to be careful in her choice of words, "…Something of a family matter, Sam."

Sometime later that afternoon, the three oldest Loud sisters and Lincoln returned home. Lori obtained a general description of the three guys from the rival band from Sam, and then she gave said descriptions to her Boo-Boo Bear, Bobby Santiago. To Lori's surprise, when Bobby, who took his friend Aggro Ace along, tracked down the three guys, he (Bobby) called it in to the local police, who came by and arrested the three boys from the rival high school; Lori was hoping that her Boo-Boo Bear would grind those three boys into a viscous red paste for daring to bring harm to her little brother.

"…You do realize that Bobby isn't that violent a person, right?" Lynn said as she and the other Loud sisters all met with Lori, Leni and Luna in the bedroom that the first two shared for a standard sister meeting. With a shrug and casual look on her face, the athletic Loud sister said, "Sure, I would have no issue with going that far. But Bobby? No way he would break noses and punch out teeth."

"I have to agree with our sister here," Lisa stated as she turned her attention to Lori, "Only our sole male sibling unit is less capable of violence than Roberto."

The remainder of the sisters all nodded in agreement with what Lisa had said; sure, Lincoln has as of late shown a harsher side to people who have messed with the girls, but that was because those people had messed with the girls. If it wasn't for that, then Lincoln would left well enough alone. Given Lincoln's history, his sisters just couldn't see it in him to do anything to anyone along the likes of knocking out teeth or breaking noses, or giving severe bruises, unless he was provoked into doing so.

When Lana brought up how Lincoln was so nice a person that it would be impossible for him to even kill another human being, the sisters found the notion of their brother being a killer to be especially laughable. Only Lori, who not only knew about some of the dreams that Lincoln has been having as of late but knew that she was involved in one of them, did not laugh out loud.

Letting out a sigh, Lori said, "Well that was an interesting talk. But I think that the lot of us literally need to get going to bed." At that cue, the Loud sisters proceeded to make their way out of Lori and Leni's room; Lori, upon seeing that Leni get up as well with the look of leaving the room, was going to tell her that she slept in the room herself, but then she saw that she was going over to pick Lily up and carry her to the bedroom that Lily and Lisa shared.

…

That night, as the Loud family slept, Luna was tossing and turning on her bunk in her and Luan's room. The musically inclined Loud sister was kept up by thoughts of worry concerning her younger brother. Partly because he had received a notable injury earlier in the day, but also due to how he still resented her for the part that she had played during the incident that had driven him to run away from home.

As far as the musically inclined Loud sister was concerned, she had it coming. An argument could have been made that, out of all of the ten sisters, Luna was the one who was the closest to Lincoln. …Keep in mind that past-tense phrases such as 'could have been' and 'was', as opposed to present-tense variations such as 'could be' and 'is', are being used here.

Because of what had happened, because Luna had played a part in it all, she was nothing to Lincoln. Even Lynn, the one who started it all by threatening Lincoln into going to that fateful softball game, as well as one of the sisters who Lincoln had to throw under the bus when he was questioned by the Santiago siblings so as to make as little of a mess as possible, had been able to reconcile with the white-haired boy.

Bloody hell.

Luna knew the story; hoping to keep Lori's involvement in the incident from Bobby due to believing he might have broken up with her over it, Lincoln came up with the lie that only Luan, Lynn, Lola and Lisa were the guilty parties, and that everyone else had been tricked. Lincoln had explained that, when he was questioned by Bobby and Ronnie Anne over in Great Lakes City, the four aforementioned sisters were the one that came to mind for him.

Given how Lisa has been known to cause havoc with her experimenting, how Lola has terrorized the other Loud siblings with her despotic nature, how Luan has practically tortured the whole family every April first, and especially all of the roughhousing Lynn had thrown in Lincoln's direction over the years, it made sense that those four came to mind for Lincoln to throw under the bus in his bid to try and preserve Lori's relationship with Bobby. Luna questioned why her little brother would go that far, given that Lori's arguably one of the harshest sisters towards the white-haired boy.

Maybe he liked Bobby as an older brother figure that much, and that if Bobby broke up with Lori then Lincoln would be out a positive male role model? Not to mention that if Bobby and Lori did break up, then things would be rather awkward between Lincoln and Ronnie Anne. Luna, as well as the other Loud sisters, knew that their brother was rather sweet on the Hispanic tomboy, and she (Ronnie Anne) was sweet on him in return.

Yeah, Luna determined, that had to be the reason why Lincoln didn't want the relationship between Lori and Bobby to go down. After she had reached that agreement with herself, Luna leaned over the side of her bunk to look down at Luan, who slept on the bunk below her. Like Lynn, Luan was also one of the girls that was thrown under the bus. And yet Luan, just like Lynn, had been able to reconcile with Lincoln.

Was the musically inclined Loud sister missing something here? Did the white-haired boy seriously forget every last thing that Luan had done to him? Every prank, every last humiliation? Luna couldn't believe that Lincoln had forgiven the clown before herself! …But it was then that Luna remembered that the way she had treated her little brother over the years did not have an entirely spotless record. There was the time where Luna's fog equipment (for special effects during her concerts) had damaged Luan's dummy Mr. Coconuts, and when Lincoln told Luna to cover the costs of repairs for Luan, Luna threatened him by shaking a fist in his face.

There was also the time when she had strong-armed him into going to that dance with Tabby, the time that she had nearly ruined his first concert experience, the way she treated him when he admitted to being guilty of having clogged the toilet with the Princess Pony book (now that she thought about it, Luna couldn't realistically see Lincoln actually owning any of that garbage), the way she had brutally thrown him out of her and Luan's room during the mad search for money, and the way she had fought him for the right to sit in the sweet spot. The more that Luna thought about it, the more she realized that she had done a lot to break Lincoln's trust, his faith, in her.

Bloody hell.

Laying back down on her bunk, Luna hoped that by this point in the night, she would be able to clock out by sheer virtue of being too tired to remain awake. That hope of Luna's was answered, as she soon found herself beginning to fall asleep. Even so, due to how she was feeling troubled, the last thought that Luna had while she was still conscious was how she had been, without even realizing it, a complete and total bastard to her younger slash only brother.

The following day, Luna was on her way over to Sam's place again. Normally, Luna, Sam and the rest of their band would use this day in the week to jam out. But the other three members of the band were all out, each of them needing to take care of various obligations. As such, it would just be the two girls, discussing whether or not to try and induct a sixth member into their band, a topic that Sam had brought up, saying that she had seen someone with great potential. Luna had no idea who her girlfriend had in mind, but if this person was as good as Sam said, then who was Luna to complain?

When Luna, who was carrying her electric guitar in its case, turned the corner and came onto the same street where the Sharp residence was located, she saw to her surprise and alarm that Sam and Lincoln (what was Lincoln doing here?!) were fighting two high school guys in the Sharp residence's front yard; judging by the guys' appearances, they looked like they associated with the three guys who were here yesterday, if the descriptions Sam provided to Lori were accurate.

Without even thinking, Luna immediately ran up to the scene, not even taking note of how Lincoln was surprisingly able to hold his own, skillfully dodging punch after punch. When she had gotten close enough, Luna lifted her guitar case up high enough and, with the end that held the head of the guitar aimed at the high schooler Lincoln was fighting, swung her guitar case at the high schooler's head, hitting him with enough force to send him tumbling into his fellow that was fighting Sam, thus giving Sam time to recover.

"Lunes!" Sam exclaimed in surprise when she saw who it was that assaulted the one high schooler, "Boy, am I glad that you came here!"

"About time I got here too, given what was going on," the musically inclined Loud sister replied. Turning to Lincoln, Luna asked, "What are you doing here, Lincoln?"

Looking up at Luna, Lincoln explained, "I came here because I wanted to ask how Simon was doing. He did have to go to the hospital yesterday for an injury."

"Heh," Luna remarked, "You're too good a kid to people sometimes, Lincoln." Looking over to where the two high schoolers had fallen over each other, Luna, Lincoln and Sam saw that they had picked themselves up and were proceeding to try and flee. Luna began to give chase, but she stopped short when the end of a beautifully detailed staff slammed onto the head of the first high schooler, while a fist collided into the face of the other.

"Have at thee, foul brutes!" the familiar voice of Allison Ace bellowed. Looking over to where the two high schoolers were stopped, Luna, Lincoln and Sam saw Allison, who was holding up a fist that was slightly bloodied, and Amy standing over the two high schoolers. "My sister and I did see how you two tried to attack those we have named as friends," the female Ace twin said, "And we shall not be standing for your offence!"

"Amy! Allison!" Sam said as she, Luna and Lincoln ran over to the Ace sisters, who were proceeding to subdue the high schoolers, "Thanks for catching these guys!"

Looking up at Sam for a bit, Amy replied before returning her attention to the high schooler she was trying to subdue, "It's no big deal, Sam." After she had finished, Amy stood back up and regarded both Sam and Luna. "Now Sam," the fifteen-year-old Ace girl began, "What's all this about you wanting me to join your band?"

"Wait a minute," Luna interrupted. Turning to face her girlfriend, Luna said, "The person that you want to try to get to join our band is Amy?"

"When I had Amy try playing a few notes on my guitar at school back on Friday," Sam began to explain, "She was a bit of a natural. I was not expecting her to do so well." Pointing to Amy while still facing Luna, Sam said, "We need to have her practice properly, but I have confidence that Amy will prove herself to be a valuable asset to the band."

Luna, as well as Amy and even Allison (who finished subduing the high schooler she was handling) and Lincoln, could not help but find amusement in Sam wanting to try and recruit Amy into the band. After the high schoolers had been turned over to the local police, the teenage girls and Lincoln made their way back to the Sharp residence, where Sam tried to sell the idea to Amy that her joining the band would be a good idea.

After fun times at the Sharp residence, Luna and Lincoln proceeded to make their way back home. During said walk, Luna began to explain to Lincoln how she felt like a dunderhead over her part in driving him to run away, as well as all of the crap that she had done to him over the years. "…At least you're acknowledging the mistakes that you've made," Lincoln remarked after Luna had finished recounting everything she had done, and how she felt low about all of it. Giving a single nod, the white-haired boy said, "People have said that acknowledging that you have messed up is the first step to correcting your mistakes."

"Yeah," the musically inclined Loud sister replied, sounding a bit somber, "I was more of a right proper dolt to you over the years than I first thought."

"…I wouldn't go that far," Lincoln began, a wry look of mild amusement on his face, "After all, would a 'right proper dolt' use her guitar case as a bludgeoning weapon to strike someone in the side of their head in order to get said person off of me? Thanks for that save, by the way."

Chuckling a bit because Lincoln reminded her of how she totally took that bastard down, Luna replied, "No, I guess that a right proper dolt wouldn't put themselves at risk to save someone that she cared about." Stopping mid-walk, thus getting Lincoln to stop as well to look up at her, Luna said, "And you're welcome." When the walking resumed, Luna said, "By the way, would either you or Sam know why those blokes were trying to bother us?"

"It has to do with a mix of you girls belonging to the school that those guys' school rivals," Lincoln began to explain, "Those guys belong to a band that rivals the band you and your friends belong to, and the fact that they wanted to rough you and Sam up because the two of you are dating and they're small-minded idiots who have not progressed with the rest of the world."

"Oh," Luna replied, taken a bit by surprise to hear that one of the reasons why she and Sam had those guys' ire was because they found the idea of two girls dating to be gross, "Wow." Lincoln could feel the tone of Luna's words, how they reflected shock and some sadness over the fact she and Sam, even with all the strides social progress had made, still had some hurdles to face.

Looking up at Luna, Lincoln said, "If it helps, I think that you and Sam go together as well as Lori and Bobby. Just…do me a favor and try not to refer to Sam as your 'Boo-Boo Bear'." Luna was touched by her younger brother's words of support for her relationship; Luna also couldn't help but laugh at the joke Lincoln had cracked.

With a laugh, Luna said, "Relax, Lincoln, you have my word that I won't call Sam 'Boo-Boo Bear', or any similar pet names Lori would use for Bobby. I…can't guarantee that Sam won't use such names when referring to me, though."

"Understandable," Lincoln replied with a nod. The two of them remained silent for a few moments before Lincoln said, "…Hey, Luna. If you can do me a solid, we'd be good."

To say that Luna was surprised would be an understatement; her little brother, who she was fearing would never see her as part of his family ever again, was offering to reconcile with her. So naturally, Luna had to ask an important question.

"What's the favor?"

…

Over at the Loud family residence, Luan was laying on her bed, reading one of her humor books. As she read, she heard a knock on the doorframe of her and Luna's bedroom. Looking up from her humor book, Luan saw that it was Luna who was knocking. "Hey Luna," Luan greeted in a casual tone, "Why knock? This is your room too."

"You said that you keep a record of all of the expenses that you ever had to cover for your comedy business, right?" Luna began.

After putting a bookmark into her book to keep her place, Luan replied as she got up and walked over to Luna, "Yeah, I do. Why?"

"Does that include the time you had to pay to fix your dummy, even though it was my fog equipment that damaged it?" the musically inclined Loud sister asked.

"Yeah, I wrote that down," Luan said as she walked over to a bookshelf, pulled out a small record book she kept there, and flipped through it for a bit. "…Aha, here we go," Luan said as she found the appropriate entry into her record book, "I had to pay thirty-seven dollars and fifty cents to get Mr. Coconuts fixed when your gear damaged him during the time Lori temporarily moved into the garage." Closing her record book and putting it back, Luan looked at her older sister and said, "Why bring that up-"

Luan stopped short when Luna fished out her wallet and removed two twenty dollar bills. "Would this cover what I owe you?" Luna asked, drawing a look of mild surprise mixed with piqued curiosity out of the comedic Loud sister.

"…I'll get you your change later," Luan remarked, deciding not to bother questioning why Luna was suddenly wanting to cover her past digressions so out of the blue as she accepted the money from Luna, "It's part of business dignity for me."

"Sounds fair," Luna replied with a nod. As the two sisters and roommates talked with one another, neither of them were aware that they were being watched by their brother Lincoln. The white-haired boy smiled to himself; it was a small smile, but one that was sincere in appreciation over how his sisters were making up with each other over a past issue between the two of them.

END, RESTORED IMAGE: A TALE RETOLD CHAPTER NINETEEN

Author's note:

I noticed that I had, unintentionally, been having the sisters (aside from Lily) who Lincoln threw under the bus when he was questioned by Bobby and Ronnie Anne being the first ones who Lincoln reconciled with one after another. I wanted to break that trend, so I picked Luna to be the fifth sister that Lincoln reconciled with. I had trouble coming up with a big enough thing for Luna to do in order to deserve it, so I had her do a few smaller things, one of which was actually for Luan's benefit and not Lincoln's. Hopefully I was able to do a well enough job having Luna clean up her act. But as an old saying goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Anyway, I hope you all are ready, because the next chapter will be another Chandler adventure.