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 twenty-six: Tomboyish troubles

Lana Loud was NOT having all that good of a time right now.

Don't get her wrong; Lana was currently working on making various fixes and repairs to Vanzilla, and working with mechanical stuff along those lines was something that the tomboyish Loud twin always enjoyed doing. It's just that Lana was currently so troubled by something, a something that weighed on her heart, that she was unable to find as much joy in working with mechanics as she normally would have.

The reason why Lana was unable to find as much joy out of one of her usual passions was because there was something she didn't have right now, something that obtaining would not only be of great joy to her, but it would allow her to find joy in other things, things that she normally enjoyed doing. But have that thing Lana did not, and thus she found herself viewing the fixing of Vanzilla as more of a chore than an entertaining game.

As far as she was concerned, however, Lana felt as if she had this lack of joy in her life coming.

After tightening a part in the motor, Lana leaned to her side to look at the driver side door. "Okay, Lori!" the tomboyish Loud twin called out, "Try giving it another go!"

Lori, from where she sat in the driver's seat, attempted to give it some gas. To a surprising lack of surprise on the parts of both Loud sisters involved, Vanzilla roared to life, as if it never had any trouble to speak of in the first place. The ancient family van hummed a bit until Lori turned the engine off, shutting Vanzilla down as a whole. After that, the oldest Loud sister climbed out of the driver's seat, closing the door behind her.

"I'd say that I was literally surprised," Lori began as she turned to face the direction that Lana was in, "But given how many times you've brought Vanzilla back to life before, I'm pretty sure that I've run out of different ways to express that notion at this point." Turning to give the ancient family van a look of consideration, Lori added, "What never fails to surprise me, though, is the fact that dad had literally insisted on keeping this fossil." Lana, despite the fact that a vehicle of Vanzilla's age meant that she would always have something related to mechanics to work with, nodded in agreement with her oldest sibling.

At some point or another, their dad really ought to replace Vanzilla altogether. Even a person of Lana's skills can only do so much until nothing more can be done, leaving the Louds with no other option than to do what should have been done…sometime before Lana was born, actually. By Lana's estimation on the matter (and given Lana's aforementioned expertise, one would be wise to listen to Lana in this regard), Vanzilla should have been replaced with a newer family vehicle right after her older sister Lucy was born, and Lana means right after. It would have done a lot to save the Louds money if Lynn Sr. didn't allow sentiment to cloud his judgment.

As Lana rubbed a washcloth over her hands, she perked up a bit when Lori said, "Hey Lana, you literally look upset. Are you okay?" Turning her head so she could up at look at her oldest sister, the tomboyish Loud twin saw that Lori was looking at her with an expression of concern. Now that she thought about it, Lana realized that she was letting what was on her mind at the moment have an effect on her mood. Lana sighed before she stopped rubbing the washcloth over her hands and turned to properly face Lori. Lana knew that there would be no beating around the bush on this one, so she figured that she might as well come out and say it.

"…No, Lori," Lana replied, her tone sounding a bit defeated and lame, a testament to how she was feeling at the moment, "No, I'm not okay."

Lori arched an eyebrow as she considered her grease monkey of a younger sister for a couple of seconds. Given the contemplative look on her face, Lori seemed to have an idea on why Lana was upset. It helped that the oldest Loud sister herself was similarly upset, and for pretty much an identical reason. Lori walked up to Lana, got down on one knee to be more level with her, and laid a hand on her right shoulder, a gesture of reassurance.

"…It's because Lincoln literally hasn't acknowledged you as his sister again yet, isn't it?" Lori spoke, stating more than asking. Leave it to Lori to hit the nail on the head when it comes to getting to the point of things.

Sighing once again, Lana said, "…Yeah, it is." Tossing the washcloth that she held onto the ground at her feet, Lana continued, "I mean, what can I do to prove to Lincoln that forgiving me is worth it? And how come he forgave Lola so far and not me? Isn't Lola usually meaner to the rest of us than any of us are to each other?"

Lori was starting to understand her tomboyish little sister more and more. It would make sense that Lana was letting some of her emotions get to her; as a six-year-old child, it was something that the little grease monkey could not help. Lana was upset that Lincoln was still giving her the cold shoulder, angry at herself because she realized that she had it coming, and even displaying jealousy towards Lola because the pageant winning princess was able to reconcile with the sole Loud boy before her.

It wouldn't be accurate to say that Lori was not at least a little jealous of the girls who Lincoln had already reconciled with. The oldest Loud sister was very much jealous of Lily, Luan, Lola, Lynn (surprising given that she was the main cause of Lincoln running away in the first place), Luna and Leni. And it was because she understood how Lana was feeling that Lori figured that she ought to help Lana get onto a path that would lead to Lana being once again acknowledged by their estranged brother.

"…Hey, Lana," Lori began, the mild hint of knowing amusement in her tone piquing Lana's interest and making her look up at the oldest Loud sister, "Give me a bit, and I can come up with something that I bet will work."

Lana, upon realizing that Lori more or less said that she was going to help her reconcile with their white-haired brother, immediately jumped up and threw her arms around Lori, wrapping her up in a hug that was only mildly suffocating. Still, Lori understood, both through the act of the hug and by Lana's mile a minute blabbering, that the tomboyish Loud twin was very much happy that she had a shot of very soon reconciling with Lincoln, to be acknowledged as his little sister once again.

Lincoln was currently hanging out over at the Santiago residence, where he was talking to Ronnie Anne about his recent encounter with Ross. "…And that's when your older brother came by and chased Ross off," the white-haired boy said as he finished recounting his story to the Hispanic tomboy, who had tried to snort back her laughter. …Emphasis on 'tried'; Ronnie Anne failed, thus she burst out laughing.

"Your baby sister threw her diaper at Ross and it smacked him with its stained side?" Ronnie Anne nearly exclaimed, "Holy crud, that's hilarious! I bet that Ross can still detect phantom odors coming from his shirt where it was hit with baby piss!"

Lincoln figured that Ronnie Anne would get a kick out of the fact that Ross was hit with a diaper that was soaked with baby pee. Still, Lincoln understood why; Ross is one of the two main boys who have been known to bother Astrid, Ronnie Anne's bestie. Hearing that the conceited blonde boy was struck with a baby's pee-stained diaper, and that said pee was apparently still fresh, had done much to make the Hispanic tomboy double over in laughter.

To the white-haired boy's credit, he could see and understand why Ronnie Anne would find such amusement in hearing of such a crude happening being done to Ross. He could even appreciate the humor value that Ronnie Anne found; even though he normally wouldn't encourage his little sister Lilly to do such a thing, Lincoln could understand why the baby Loud girl did what she did, especially considering that she was right there when Ross was trying to harass him.

Yeah. There was no way that Lily would allow Ross to get away with harassing her older brother. Not while she was there, watching everything unfold, and could do something to get the conceited blonde boy's attention off of Lincoln. But this is getting off subject.

"Anyway, Lincoln," Ronnie Anne began, once she had managed to stifle her laughter enough, "I'm sorry to have to cut things short here, but I got to go check in with Astrid about something. I'll catch you later, though." Lincoln nodded once in understanding, getting the cue that it was time for him to take his leave from the Santiago residence. After gathering up his backpack that he brought with him, the white-haired boy took his leave.

"Yeah, I'll catch you later too, Ronnie Anne," Lincoln replied as he stepped out the door, having been shown the way out. Ronnie Anne gave him a wave good-bye before she closed the door behind him, so she could go get ready for her little excursion over to the Ace residence. Feeling a bit better after having hung out with a friend, Lincoln proceeded to make his way back to the Loud residence, a slight spring in his step.

Lincoln made his way home, unaware of what would await him upon his return.

"Are you sure this will work, you two?"

"Trust me, Lana, this will literally go a long way, if not outright get him to accept you again."

"Lori's got a point. I mean, who doesn't like a bunch of goodies like cake and whatnot?"

Lana, with a slightly skeptical expression on her face as she fiddled with the dress gloves she wore (borrowed from Lola), stood with Lori and Lola in their family's dining room. Sitting on the table was a notable spread of baked goods, such as a cake, some brownies, a tray of marshmallow rice cereal squares, some cookies, and other such baked goods that many would enjoy. There was even some hot chocolate to drink, in a nice large mug at one of the places at the table; there was also some more hot chocolate waiting in a pot on the stove in the kitchen.

From the looks of things, it seemed as though an entire bakery's worth of baked goods had been prepared and set up on the dining table. This all was the tomboyish Loud twin's first gesture, the idea of which was given to her by Lori with some input from Lola, towards her white-haired older brother in an effort to try and reconcile with him. Lana could see how a gesture such as this would convince Lincoln that she was sorry for her part in what she and the rest of the Loud girls did to drive him into running away; after all, if someone had greatly upset Lana herself and they did this as a gesture to try and make things up to her, she would be convinced.

…But then again, everything on the table was something that any six-year-old girl would crave. Lincoln is an eleven-year-old boy and, although anyone would be amazed by a gesture such as the bakery spread, there was no guarantee that Lana's efforts here would be as effective at winning Lincoln back over as they would if Lana herself was upset and all of this was done in an effort to try and win her back over. The grease monkey Loud sister could only hope that her older brother had a big enough sweet tooth that this gesture would have at least some effect.

To really sell the point home, Lana had a very strong presence in the preparation of practically all of the goodies that were set up on the dining table; the only exceptions were the cake, which was made by Lori, and the hot chocolate, which was, surprisingly enough, made by Lori's rival-turned-friend Carol Pingrey, using an old family recipe that had been in the homecoming queen's family for at least three generations. Lori and both Loud twins had a sample of Carol's special hot chocolate, and all three of them were instantly won over by it. The girls, Lana especially so, could only hope that it would be just as effective when Lincoln tried it.

"Hey, I think I see Lincoln coming home!" Lola said with a hint of excitement in her tone, drawing both Lori and Lana over to look out one of the windows. Sure enough, the white-haired boy could be seen walking along the sidewalk outside of the Loud residence, making a slight turn so he could go right to the front door. Lori and Lana quickly rushed to hide somewhere nearby while Lana went to stand right by the base of the stairs, to make sure that she would be the first person that Lincoln saw when he stepped into the house.

Sure enough, when Lincoln walked through the front door, he was greeted by the sight of Lana standing there. "…Oh, hey Lana," Lincoln greeted in a neutral tone. Although the tone didn't exactly show that Lincoln was perfectly happy to see the tomboyish Loud twin, her presence did not exactly inspire feelings of disgust in him. Still, the neutral tone suggested that Lincoln was in a fairly good mood at the moment.

Lana, who was keeping herself very perceptive to her older brother's feelings in the hopes of finding the right time to try to set things right with him, was able to pick up on this. She found it to be the perfect opportunity to carry out her efforts. Hoping that she wasn't wrong about this, Lana walked right up to Lincoln. "Hey Lincoln," Lana began, "There's something that I want to show you out in the dining room. Can you follow me for a bit?"

Lana right away saw her older brother arch an eyebrow as he wore an expression of curious consideration. The grease monkey Loud sister, upon noticing this change in Lincoln's expression, was worried that her older brother was being suspicious. So it was to Lana's relief that Lincoln, after a few seconds of silence, agreed with a nod. With a bit of excitement in her heart, Lana led Lincoln into the dining room.

…

When he was led into the dining room by Lana, Lincoln saw what he suspected was what Lana was wanting to show him; a diverse spread of various confections that could be found at a local sweets bakery. Lincoln was a bit surprised to see such a spread on the table shared by his family members and ex-family members. A lot of said baked goods also clearly looked to be homemade and not purchased products.

"So this is Lana's attempt, huh?" the white-haired boy thought as he looked over everything that was on the table, "Well that would explain the gloves that she clearly had borrowed from Lola. I really hope that Lana didn't make all of this unsupervised." Turning to face his younger ex-sister, Lincoln asked, "You had the appropriate supervision when you went about making all of this, didn't you?"

Nodding in the affirmative, Lana replied, "Yeah, I had Lori watching me the whole time, and she even assisted in things that I couldn't exactly do myself." With a hint on insistence in her tone, Lana quickly added, "But I did the vast majority of the work in prepping all of this!"

Lincoln nodded once in understanding as he looked over everything that was set up on the dining room table. Of course there was no way that a six-year-old girl, acting on her own, could make all of the stuff that was sitting on the table. Lincoln felt that he would have been a bit upset in the worried sense if Lana really did make all of this on her own, given how reckless it would be for a child her age to do all of that work solo; but Lana said that she had Lori supervising her for the entire time, so that put the white-haired boy at ease.

"I see that you were trying to make a sweet gesture to me," Lincoln remarked to Lana while he was looking over everything, "And before you ask, no, I was not trying to make a Luan-style pun there just now."

"So Lincoln," Lana began, a hint of hopefulness in her tone. Gesturing to where everything was set up on the dining room table, the tomboyish Loud twin asked, "What do you think? You want to try some of what I had a majority hand in preparing?" Lincoln looked from the spread on the table to Lana, then back to the spread, then back to Lana, and he kept that cycle up for a few more switches up until he finally settled on Lana.

When she saw her estranged older brother look at her with a serious look of consideration, Lana feared that Lincoln was not going to accept all of her efforts here. She feared that this gesture might have actually offended him in some way or another. "He doesn't think that I'm trying to fatten him up like I'm a witch who wants to eat him, does he?" Lana worriedly thought as she was beginning to panic mildly under Lincoln's considering gaze.

However, all of Lana's worries flew out the window and was replaced with confusion when Lincoln pointed to her and said, "Wait here. I'll be back in a minute or so." Lincoln then turned around and left the dining room to head up the stairs. While the white-haired boy was gone, Lana saw Lori and Lola peek out from the kitchen to regard her with confused looks that had dashes of worried concern in them.

Lincoln technically did not reject Lana's gesture just yet, but he went straight up to the second floor without even bothering to give any of the baked goods Lana made a try. Maybe Lincoln had to use the bathroom first? As Lana, Lola and Lori all wondered what their brother was up to at the moment, they all heard Lincoln come back down the stairs, a sound that prompted Lori and Lola to duck back into the kitchen to hide. Within a few seconds, Lana saw her estranged older brother walk back into the dining room with her, carrying something that caught her attention.

A first aid kit.

Pointing to Lana's gloved hands, Lincoln said in a tone that would broker no argument, "The gloves, Lana. Take them off."

"The gloves?" Lana repeated in a confused tone, one that carried a hint of worried fear.

"Those are clearly one of the pairs of gloves that Lola usually wears," Lincoln stated dryly, "I can't see any reason why you would want to wear them on any normal occasion." Gesturing to the spread on the table that Lana had a strong presence in preparing, the white-haired boy went on, "But all of that gives me an idea on why you'd be wearing those gloves. Now hurry up and take them off. I want to see your hands."

Seeing that there was no way out of this for her, Lana gave in and slowly removed the pink dress gloves she had borrowed from Lola, wincing slightly in pain as she took them off. The pained wincing of Lana's did not escape Lincoln's notice, and he took it as a sign that what he suspected was more and more likely to be true. Sure enough, his suspicions were outright confirmed when he saw Lana's hands.

The tomboyish Loud twin sported spots on her hands where small heat blisters had formed. Lana also had a noticeable burn mark on the palm of her left hand, going from somewhere under her left index finger and going diagonally all the way down to the bottom of the hand. Seeing the damage on Lana's hands, Lincoln let out a resigned sigh; even with supervision from Lori, Lana had hurt herself in what was clearly her attempt to get back into his good graces again. Granted, small children hurting themselves trying to make something in the kitchen isn't exactly rare, but it still worried the white-haired boy to see Lana like this.

"…I can see why you'd wear a pair of Lola's dress gloves," Lincoln remarked to Lana, a hint of dryness in his tone that suggested that what he saw on Lana's hands had confirmed suspicions that he had. "Now hold your hands out," Lincoln continued in an instructive tone to Lana before he opened the first aid kit that he had collected from upstairs and immediately went to work on treating Lana's injuries.

Lana was surprised that Lincoln was prioritizing treating her injuries over enjoying the sweets of her labors (they were sweets, not fruits) that she made in her efforts to be his little sister again. "You said that Lori was supervising you, right?" Lincoln asked, "Then why didn't she treat your injuries herself?"

"I told her not to bother," Lana confessed, feeling a little guilty that her brother, who was still estranged from her at the moment, was fretting over her, "I was more focused on making sure everything was ready for you before you got back from wherever it was that you had gone off to." Turning her head to the side so that she was looking away from Lincoln, Lana said in a very guilty tone, "I'm sorry that I'm making you worry about me, Lincoln."

The white-haired boy let out a resigned sigh as he heard Lana's explanation; even when injured, Lana cared more about him taking her back as his sister than her own well-being. The white-haired boy supposed that it was the logic of a child as young and driven towards a single goal as Lana. He really wished that Lana wasn't so reckless in trying to get back into his good graces once again, even though he could understand why Lana would go to such lengths.

He could also appreciate that Lana cared that much about trying to make things right with him.

Once he had finished treating Lana's hands, Lincoln packed everything back up into the first aid kit, set it off to the side in the dining room, and then turned to look at Lana. "…I assume that here is more of whatever's in the mug sitting at my place at the table, right?" Lincoln asked.

Realizing what her estranged older brother was talking about, Lana said, "Oh, you mean the hot chocolate? Yeah, there's some out in the kitchen in the pot on the stove." As Lana gave her older brother a curious look, Lori and Lola, both of which were hiding out in the kitchen, moved to leave the kitchen, successfully doing so without catching Lincoln's attention. Looking up at her older brother, Lana asked, "Why do you ask, Lincoln?"

Once again, Lincoln pointed to Lana and said, "Wait here." Doing as she was told, Lana stood in that same spot as she watched Lincoln go out into the kitchen. After a minute or so, Lincoln came back out, carrying a full mug of the hot chocolate from the pot on the stove. Pointing to the right hand seat next to his seat at the table (if you were sitting in his seat at the table and faced forward), Lincoln said, "Go and sit there."

Curious about what her older brother was up to, Lana did as Lincoln told her. As Lana sat in the seat that was pointed out to her, Lincoln sat in his seat, but not before placing the mug of hot chocolate that he had acquired in front of Lana. As Lincoln sat in his seat, he said to Lana, "I'm going to have to ask you to promise me something, Lana."

"What is it?" Lana asked.

Gesturing to everything that was on the table, Lincoln said, "The next time you go about making something like this spread here, and you hurt yourself while making said spread, I don't care what you're ultimately aiming to do, I want you to treat any and all injuries you have before you do anymore work. Do I make myself clear?"

Lana nodded quietly in obedience, not wanting to risk upsetting her older brother more. With a smile that had a hint of relief in it, Lincoln said, "Good. Thanks, Lana." Gesturing to the mug of hot chocolate that he had procured for her, Lincoln said, "Well, what are you waiting for, Lana? Aren't you going to drink that? Also, you're not going to just sit there and watch me eat all of this, are you? You should have some as well."

"What do you mean, Lincoln?" the tomboyish Loud twin asked, looking at Lincoln with a look of surprise on her face.

Turning to regard his little sister with a look of mild self-amusement on his face, Lincoln said, "Well why wouldn't I want to share something like this with one of my sisters, especially if the sister in question is the one that-" Lincoln was cut off, as he was somewhat expecting, when Lana suddenly leaned forward quickly wrapped her arms around him (the stinging pain in her hands be damned), and squeezed him as much as she can in a hug, crying softly all the while. For his part, Lincoln merely smiled. It was a small one, but also one that was very warm.

END, RESTORED IMAGE: A TALE RETOLD CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Author's notes:

This chapter finally has Lincoln accept Lana as a sister again, despite having accepted Lola a long time ago. Lana was going into this with mixed feelings of worrying that she would fail and a little jealousy towards her younger twin sister that she had been able to reconcile with Lincoln first. What Lana did here to reconcile with Lincoln may not be entirely original, but there are a few twists here that I hope sells the point of how much Lana was trying to make things right with her older brother.

Anyway, with Lana having been accepted by Lincoln here, that covers seven out of the twelve members of the Louds that have to make things right with the white-haired boy; that means we're a little over halfway done by this point. And in only twenty-six chapters! We got a bit more down the line waiting for us, and I'll be damned if I don't try to make the ride along the way as interesting as possible for all of you guys out there. Anyway, the next chapter will be seeing the return of a somewhat familiar plot.