While his siblings were discussing what to do to help him, Lio had been working intently on his birthday piece for Kat. He'd been so focused on his art that he hadn't even thought about his siblings. The thought of his diary hadn't crossed his mind in the slightest. He had more important issues at hand. He had to make absolutely sure that this art was 100% perfect. Not a single line out of place, not the smallest mistake in shading, not even an iota of anything that could be considered off-model. Kat was deserving of only the best and darnit, he was going to give her just that. Even though he still had 6 days until the big day arrived, he wasn't going to waste any time. He'd already redrawn the outline sketch of the piece 4 times. Lucy was right, he was a perfectionist as he wouldn't allow for even the tiniest flaw in his artwork, even if it was for the most part, unnoticeable. Lio was interrupted from his work when he heard a text message notification on his phone. Whipping it out, Lio saw that it was from none other than the girl he was slaving over.
While he had denied that he and Kat were dating, Lio would be lying if he said his heart didn't skip a beat every time he saw or heard from her. Luna was right when she guessed that Kat was special to him. Just being able to talk to her was enough to make him smile. He'd never admit it (at least not to his siblings aside from maybe Luan) but he'd grown to develop a small crush on her. Not that it mattered whether he admitted it or not as EVERYONE could see that fact. That wasn't all either as it was obvious to anyone who observed the two of them for more than two seconds that Kat reciprocated those feelings too. The siblings had even set up a betting pool on which one would ask the other out first.
In Lio's mind however, any feelings he had for Kat were pointless. Kat deserved so much better than someone like him. He was barely a good enough friend to her. How terrible would he be if the two were to start dating? He'd make for a horrible boyfriend. That was the one thing keeping him from pursuing his feelings as he was sure that Kat wasn't into him like that. She likely only saw him as a friend. It was these thoughts that further served to show just how mentally damaged he was. He truly was his own biggest enemy.
As he read the text Kat had sent him, Lio was surprised to see that she said she was coming over tomorrow. While he was certainly happy at the fact that this meant he'd see her again, he was curious as to why she was paying him a visit in the first place. There was a voice in the back of Lio's head telling him to just shut up and be grateful, but that didn't stop him from wondering. Little did the aspiring mangaka know that the reason for his friend's visit had something to do with the actions of the siblings he held so dear. He'd find out why soon enough.
"Alright, the text has been sent and Kat says she's in," Lincoln reported, looking up from his phone.
"So who all is coming again?" Lana asked.
"I asked Clyde to tag along," Lincoln said.
"I told Chris what was up and he agreed to lend a hand," Lynn said.
"Yeah, and Sam said she was coming over too," Luna said.
"And now with Kat, that makes 4 guests," Luan said.
"I really hope we can get through to him," Leni commented. "He normally seems so happy and carefree that you wouldn't expect this kind of thing from him."
"That's because he went to great lengths to keep us from finding out," Lincoln reminded her. "He's guarded this secret with his life because he didn't want any of us to worry about him."
"And I can see why," Luna said. "Some of the stuff he's saying I wouldn't even say to my worst enemy. Who wouldn't be worried after seeing that?"
"Are you sure that confronting Lio over his own private writings is the best approach?" Lisa asked. "Perhaps we'd be better suited to inform Mom Dad of his negative behavior and consulting a therapist. Or… failing that, employ an alternative approach that would be less likely to elicit a harsh response…"
"We are not rewiring our brother's brain!" Lori said. "There's no need to go to such extremes. Maybe if Lio hears that he isn't useless from people he cares about, it'll snap him out of this state that he's in."
"Do you think he might've… you know…" Lana asked before trailing off. Though she didn't say explicitly say it, the implication was clear, prompting Lincoln to vehemently reject it.
"No way! There's no way he would resort to that!" Lincoln insisted. "No matter how far he's sank, Lio would never go that far!"
"How can we be sure?" Lucy asked. "Who's to say there aren't any more secrets that he's keeping from us? Secrets that he hasn't even written in his diary?"
"Trust us, Lio would never do something of that nature," Luan said. "He's stronger than that, I know he is."
"But does Lio know that he's stronger than that?" Lola asked.
"Can we drop this?" Luna said. "This is making me really uncomfortable to think about. Can we just focus on tomorrow and making sure this goes off good?"
While the other Louds were discussing what would happen tomorrow, Lio was still working on Kat's birthday gift. The doubt had started to creep back into his mind that it wasn't good enough for her. The thought was making him lose his concentration, causing him to make a few mistakes in his art. Frustration started to build and Lio could hear that voice in his head just screaming "Useless, useless, useless" repeatedly. Lio took a look around and noticed that the house was oddly empty and rather quiet. Needing to vent some of his frustrations, Lio slowly creeped up the stairs and to his room. He thought it was strange all of his siblings had mysteriously vanished, but didn't think too hard about it, figuring that they were probably just busy.
Opening the door to his and Lincoln's room, Lio walked over to his bed and reached underneath to pull out that secret box of his. He just needed to get some things off his chest before he could return to work. Just needed to silence that voice in his head, even if it was only temporary. Lio had long since given up on silencing the voice permanently. It always came back whenever he did something stupid, which when it came to him, was rather frequent.
"If only I could make it up to zero" Lio whispered to himself as he opened up the shoebox, only to find it empty. Lio blinked twice, making sure he wasn't seeing anything before closing and reopening the box as if that would make his diary suddenly reappear. When it didn't, Lio let out a short, sudden, shrill shriek that got the others' attention. "Where is it!? Where in DIO's name is it!?"
Lio began looking around like a man possessed, wondering if he had perhaps just misplaced his journal after writing in it the other night. He practically dove underneath his bed, hoping to find the little pink book. He did his best to try and keep calm as the voice in his head berated him for being so careless. Lio hoped that his siblings hadn't somehow found it and read its contents. The reason he'd been keeping his emotional state a secret was so that he wouldn't burden them even more by causing them to worry about him. He didn't want them to jump to conclusions and keep a close eye on him out of fear of what he'd do if left alone. He'd been doing such a good job at keeping his problems out of their eye, putting on a happy face and smiling no matter what misfortune befell him. In hindsight, that probably made him come off as a stepford smiler and made the others suspicious. What did it say about Lio if he couldn't even conceal his own dark affairs effectively?
"You alright, bro?" Lio looked up to see Lincoln standing behind him, looking at him weirdly. "I heard you scream and thought-,"
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine," Lio lied with a nervous grin, a reversal of the situation from yesterday when Lincoln was the one telling fibs to his brother. "I-I-I… I just saw a spider is all."
"I thought you weren't scared of spiders," Lincoln pointed out. "I even remember you once licking a spider as "research" for your manga."
"I didn't say the spider scared me," Lio replied. "I just said that I saw one."
"And that's the reason you screamed?" Lincoln asked, prompting Lio to nervously nod his head. "Am I interrupting something, you look rather frantic as if you're looking for something."
"Yeah, I'm looking for that spider," Lio said after some quick thinking. "Don't want the little guy to get hurt, heheh" He looked at Lincoln to see if his twin bought it, breathing a slight sigh of relief when that appeared to be the case. "I mean, after all, you know how Leni feels about spiders."
"There was a spider!?" Leni asked, appearing behind Lincoln and frantically looking over her shoulder. "Where!? It isn't on me, is it!? Get it off, get it off, get it off!"
"Leni, there is no spider," Luan told her. "At least not one that I can see. Although then again, I could just be spinning a web of lies. HAHAHA, get it?"
"Oops, did I frighten you guys with me screaming?" Lio asked as he nonchalantly kicked them shoebox back under the bed while hoping they wouldn't notice. "Sorry about that, I just got surprised is all."
"Right…" Lincoln said before asking. "Are you sure you're alright? You look like you're hiding something."
"Pfft, please," Lio scoffed. "What could I possibly be hiding from you?"
"Your secret collection of boogers!" Lana chimed in.
"Ew, gross," Lio replied, looking disgusted. "No. Like no."
"A Magic Girl cosplay?" Luna asked.
"Oh please, I'd hardly hide that," Lio said. "Why would I be ashamed of a magic girl cosplay outfit considering I once dressed as Tequila Joseph."
"Wait a minute, weren't we just talking about how Lio was hiding his-," Leni said before Lori clamped a hand over her mouth and said "His birthday gift for Kat from all of us so that we wouldn't accidentally spoil the surprise. Yes, as a matter of fact we were talking about that."
Lio looked at them strange and asked "What are you up to?"
"Nothing," Lincoln said quickly. "What makes you think we're up to something?"
"No offense, but you guys are acting kinda strange," Lio answered.
"We're acting weird?" Lola replied, pointing at Lio and shouting "Lio, you're acting weird!"
There were a few seconds of awkward silence before Lio said "I think I'm just gonna go continue work on that picture I was drawing" and walking past his siblings. "I'll see you guys around."
"Wait!" Luan said, grabbing Lio by his arm. "Sorry if we startled you or unnerved you, but we just wanted to make sure you're okay." When Lio didn't respond, Luan continued. "I know that we can argue and fight sometimes, but you're still our brother and you're important to us."
Before he could stop himself, Lio looked Luan in the eye and asked "Why?"
He quickly tried to backpedal after that Freudian slip and asked "Why would you think that I didn't know that already? How could I not be important to you? I'm awesome!"
To say that he wasn't the best at feigning confidence would be a huge understatement as none of the other siblings bought his response (not that they would have after seeing the contents of his journal). Sensing this, Lio quickly ran back downstairs to continue his drawing, saying "Sorry, but I've gotta get back to work, can we continue this later?"
"This intervention can't happen soon enough," Lynn said, watching Lio descend the stairs.
The next day was a bright and beautiful Saturday. The absence of school meant that the Loud children could sleep in, which is something that most of them took full advantage of. While his siblings enjoyed their additional slumber, Lio hadn't gotten much sleep. The situation regarding his missing diary had him worried sick and he was convinced that his siblings knew more than what they were letting on. He had disabled his alarm so as not to awaken Lincoln and even went so far as to stay in bed longer than usual. On this morning, he got out of bed at his brother's normal time of 7AM. He was careful not to make any noise as he made his way to the bathroom to take a shower and get dressed.
"Alright, Lio, calm down," Lio said to himself as he washed his hair. "There's no guarantee that your brother or sisters found your diary. Maybe you just put it away somewhere different after writing in it the other night. I mean you were rather sleepy. We just have to calm down and look for it without anyone noticing."
It didn't take long before Lio heard a knock at the door. "Lio! Hurry up in there! I've really gotta go" He heard Lana say. "You've been in there for 10 minutes and I'm not paper trained!"
"Sorry!" Lio called out, finishing up his shower and throwing on his clothes as quickly as he could. "It's all yours." He said as he opened the door.
Lana didn't you waste any time and shoved Lio aside before rushing into the bathroom. After stepping out, Lio ran into his sister Lisa.
"Felicitations, Lio!" She greeted him. "You're a little late this morning, don't you think?"
"Well, you know, don't want to wake up Lincoln," Lio said, joking "You know how much he needs his beauty sleep."
"I thought that was Lola's thing," Lisa replied with the two sharing a laugh. "Say, do you think you can do me a favor?"
"Anything for you," Lio answered. "What do you need?"
"Nothing major, just a set of batteries for a remote to my new invention," Lisa said.
"What type of new invention?" Lio asked.
"Um… um…" Lisa struggled to come up with an answer. "It's a surprise… that I'll unveil to you and the family when it's finished."
"O…kay?" Lio replied.
"So can I count on you to pick them up for me?" Lisa asked.
"Sure thing," Lio said, running into his room to retrieve his red hood. "I'll be back before you know it!"
"Thanks Lio," Lisa thanked him. "I knew that I could count on you."
Hearing that compliment made Lio smile slightly as he head out the door.
"Is he gone?" Lori asked after Lio had left.
"Affirmative" Lisa said. "We should have approximately an hour before he returns."
"Alright, then let's get things ready," Lincoln said.
Lisa's estimate was correct as 55 minutes later, Lio was returning to the Loud House with the batteries as requested.
"Whoa, I can't believe it," Lio said to himself. "I actually did something right without messing up? Is it a sign of the apocalypse?" He was surprised when he opened the door to find that the living room was oddly vacant. "Huh, where is everybody? Normally this place would be in chaos right now."
"Lio, could you come and give me a hand with something?" He heard Lori yell from upstairs.
"Coming Lori!" Lio said, putting down the batteries and sprinting upstairs to Lori's room. "Yo, what's going on?"
Something he was not expecting to see were all his siblings gathered around accompanied by Sam, Chris and Clyde. The moment he saw all of them, he immediately got a bad feeling in his gut.
"We need to talk?" Lori said.
"Talk about what?" Lio asked before he spotted his own diary lying off to the side. "Oh crapbaskets…" Lio tried thinking of a way out of this predicament before caving and saying "I'll do whatever you want me to do, just…"
"If we were here to blackmail you, we would've done so already," Lola said.
"Then what is the meaning of this?" Lio asked.
"The things you've been writing here, man, they're just not…" Lincoln said before Lio interrupted him.
"Hold up, you've already read through my diary?" He asked. "What the heck, man!?"
"Well you certainly weren't going to tell us what was wrong," Lynn pointed out. "Do you really think we wouldn't notice when one of our own is acting strange?"
"What I write in my diary is my concern and mine alone," Lio started to say.
"Not when those things are nothing but lies," Leni said.
"Really?" Lio replied, crossing his arms indignantly. "And what exactly did I write in there that wasn't truthful?"
"The stuff you said about being useless for starters," Luan said. "There was also the things you said about being a burden, a waste of space, belonging in the trash, being "negative"," She took a deep breath before saying "And especially the stuff you said about your life being expendable."
"Seriously, what would make you think like that?" Lori asked.
"I dunno," Lio said sarcastically. "Maybe the fact that I'm a worthless, obnoxious twit who's always messing up!"
"So you make mistakes?" Chris chimed in. "It's no big deal, it happens to everyone. That doesn't make you worthless, it makes you human."
"Not when those mistakes include mishaps such as almost burning down the kitchen trying to bake cookies for mom," Lio retorted. "Or knocking out power to the whole house while changing a lightbulb." Lio looked away and said "Let's face it, I'm not even human, I'm just a mistake."
Lio felt someone place a hand and say "I wouldn't say that," Turning around, Lio was stunned to see that it was Kat, who was giving him a warm smile.
"I wasn't expecting you to swing by until later," He said.
"Who do you think called me to come over in the first place?" Kat retorted with a smirk, pointing at Lincoln.
"What? But why?" Lio asked.
"Because, we can't stand to see you like this," Lana said. "Which is why we set up this intervention so that we can help you see that you're not useless."
"That you're not inferior to anybody," Lucy chimed in.
"And most importantly that you're just as much of a Loud as the rest of us," Lincoln said.
"For real, bruh, I don't know where you got this useless idea from," Luna said. "You've helped all of us at least once. Like that one time Sam and I had that concert and I lost my guitar pic…"
"Come on, come on, come on, it's gotta be here somewhere!" Luna said as she tore her and Luan's room apart. Hearing the commotion had gotten Lio's attention, who took a peek into the room to see what was going on. In the process, he ended up getting hit in the face by a book tossed aside by an absentminded Luna. "Where the bloody heck is it!?"
"Is everything okay?" Lio asked, clutching his head as he stepped inside.
"No!" Luna replied, not even looking in Lio's direction as she searched under her bed. "You've gotta be kidding me! Of all the bloody nights that this could happen, why tonight?"
"Whoa, calm down," Lio said, hoping to console her. "What's going on?"
"It's Sam and my's first real gig as a duo and I can't find my guitar pic," Luna explained. "I've looked everywhere, but I can't seem to find it. It's almost as if it's vanished off the face of the Earth."
"No offense, but what's the big deal?" Lio asked. "You've got like hundreds of guitar pics, what does it matter if you lost one?"
"This wasn't just any old guitar pic!" Luna said, turning to face Lio. Judging by the look on her face, it seemed like she wanted to cry. "We're talking about my lucky guitar pic! The first one I ever had, the one I used when I won my first talent show, the one that I got autographed by Mick Swagger!"
"Ohhhhh," Lio said. "That guitar pic. I can see why you're so panicky"
"Since this is our first real gig since we officially got together, I thought it'd only be right if I used that pic," Luna said. "I've always used it for significant events in my life and now I can't find it!"
"Well what time is your concert?" Lio asked.
"In two hours!" Luna answered. "But we've gotta be at the venue 30 minutes before showtime!"
"What if I helped you find it?" Lio offered.
"You'd really do that?" Luna asked.
"Sure," Lio shrugged. "It's not like I have anything better to do anyway."
"Thanks, bro!" Luna said as she went back to trashing her room in her efforts to find her pic.
"Don't mention it," Lio said before asking "Where's the last place you saw your pic?"
"Last night I left it on my nightstand," Luna said. "Last time I saw it, it was still there. When I went to go look for it, it was gone." Luna growled and said "I swear if this is another prank by Luan, I am going to…"
"Calm down," Lio said. "I'm sure it has to be around here somewhere. If not in this room then somewhere in this house"
"Dude, I have an hour at most before I have to leave," Luna reminded him. "I don't have time to search the whole house for one small pic."
"Then let me do that," Lio said, with Luna asking "Huh?" And Lio responding "Like I said, I don't really have anything better to do. I was honestly just going to sit around and watch Lincoln play Sonic, but this seems more important."
"Are you sure you wanna do that?" Luna asked. "That could take you a while."
"For you, it's worth it," Lio said. "Know it might sound strange, but I'll check in the attic first and work my way down until I've reached the basement. I'll search every room in the house until I find it."
"What about Lori and Leni's? You know how Lori can be about people entering her room" Luna reminded him, prompting Lio to reply with a nervous "You know what, good point. Anyway, you keep looking here, I'll be right back."
With that, Lio ascended into the attic to continue his search. Personally, he doubted that Luna's pic would be here of all places, but with this family, there was no telling. There was one occasion where Lio had found one of his Sailor Moon figurines in the kitchen oven. There was also the time that Lola lost her tiara and found it in Walt's birdhouse. It wouldn't surprise him if he found Luna's pic amongst the many photo albums, family heirlooms and old music records. Of course, if he wanted even the slightest chance at finding it, he'd have to move all this stuff out of the way first. Lio took a look at his watch to check the time before getting down to business. He was determined not to let Luna down on this. With the crack of his knuckles, Lio got to work, first beginning his search in a box containing some of Dad's old rock albums. He figured it'd make sense to start here given Luna's love of music and the fact that the missing item could fell inside one of the album covers.
Lio made sure not to get distracted by the number of gems stored in the box. There some real classics amongst Lynn Sr's records with albums such as Sheer Heart Attack, Off the Wall, Fragile, In the Court of the Crimson King, and 1999 to name a few. Maybe after all this was over, he could unearth their Dad's old record player and jam out. Admittedly, he wouldn't even be familiar with these albums if it weren't for the work of Hirohiko Araki and the musical penchant possessed by Luna. Following up on his theory that the pic could've fallen within the sleeves of the album's covers, Lio opened up each and every record he found, took out the album and looked inside before putting the albums back in their rightful places.
As he was doing this, Lio looked through the other boxes surrounding him, hoping that by some stroke of luck he would find what he was looking for. Alas, his efforts turned out to be fruitless with no sign of the pic anywhere. As he stacked the boxes up until they back in the position, Lio felt a sneeze coming on on account of all the dust in the attic. Despite his best efforts, Lio couldn't hold it in and let out a tremendous sneeze, causing one of the boxes (filled with some of Lynn Jr's old trophies) to topple into his head, leaving him with a slight knot on his head as well as a minor headache. Back in her room, Luna heard the crash and wondered what Lio was doing to make such a ruckus. Fortunately for Lio, none of Lynn's trophies were severely damaged and it didn't take him long to put the box back where he'd originally found it.
Taking another glimpse at his watch, Lio saw that only 15 minutes had passed, a surprisingly short amount of time given how long it felt like he'd been looking. Unfortunately, that also meant that Luna and Sam's gig was drawing closer and that he had less time to search through the other rooms of the house. Resolving not to fail Luna in her time of need, Lio came down from the attic and made a beeline for Lana and Lola's room. While he hated to jump to conclusions, Lio knew that Lola occasionally had a habit of "borrowing" things from her siblings without their knowledge. He was actually still a little torn up over the time she borrowed one of his kuriboh plushies for one of her tea parties and ended up spilling some tea on it (it took weeks to get the stain out). Lio took a peek inside the twins' room to make sure neither were present before stepping inside. He didn't know how he wanted to go about this. He couldn't just tear the room apart as he'd done in the basement or as Luna had done to her room. He'd have to go about this gracefully and with much consideration for his younger siblings.
For that reason, Lio made sure not to misplace a single object as he looked through the room, going to great lengths to ensure the room would be the same as it was when he entered it. He didn't care check the girls' closet, feeling that it'd be a serious invasion of privacy. At least, more of an invasion of privacy then it already was at least. Thanks to his more cautious approach, it took Lio even longer to search through this room, taking a full 20 minutes for him to fully inspect. At the end of it all, there was still no trace of Luna's lucky guitar pic. Lio made a mental note in his head to apologize to Lola at the first opportunity for thinking she had something to do with its disappearance.
Now all that was left was to check out Lisa and Lily's room, Lynn and Lucy's room as well as he and Lincoln's room. If Lio thought he'd have to be careful searching the twins' room, he was going to have to be extra careful treading into Lisa's room. It was a well known fact that Lisa took her experiments very seriously and didn't take well to them being tampered with. That wasn't even mentioning the various contraptions she had strewn about the room. Lio doubted that Lisa had anything to do with Luna's missing good luck charm, but there was always a chance that Lily had mistaken it for a toy and took it for herself.
Opening the door to Lisa and Lily's room, Lio was greeted by an energetic "Poo poo!"
"Hey Lily," Lio greeted her, taking a second to walk over to her crib and lift her into the air before placing her back down. "I'm sorry, but I don't have much time to play with you, I'm looking for something very important."
Lily replied with a string of gibberish while looking quizzically at Lily. The only thing during said gibberish that Lio was able to make out was the word "Huh?". Nevertheless, Lio somehow knew exactly what she was saying.
"Luna's lucky guitar pic," He answered.
Lily responded with more random noises, prompting Lio to answer "You know, the one that she uses for significant events. The one she got autographed by Mick Swagger himself."
"Hmm…" Lily said before speaking in more gibberish.
"Well, I've already checked the attic and the twins' room so this was the next place to look" Lio replied, getting another word salad of gibberish. "Well I'm kind of in a rush to get it to Luna before she and Sam go onstage for this concert they're playing which I why I look so… frantic."
There was more of the same with Lily spouting more nonsensical words and Lio answering her questions. "I don't know what Luna's guitar pic would be doing here, I just thought it'd be safe to check here before moving on."
"Blah!" Lily said, sounding offended.
"I never said that you or Lisa took it!" Lio defended himself. "I'm just saying this wouldn't be the first time something lost ended up in a strange place. Like the time one of Lincoln's comic books ended up being found in the freezer."
"Wha?" Lily replied.
"It's a long story, I'll tell it to you later," Lio said before lampshading how somewhat inane the situation was. "Wow, I really can't believe I'm holding a conversation with a baby and actually understanding everything she's saying."
"I'll say," Lisa said, stealing Lucy's schtick by startling him as she appeared behind him. "I'm curious as to how you utilize your free time if you've learned how to fluently comprehend speech from someone who hasn't even reached full verbal capabilities yet. I'm also curious as to what you're doing in my room."
"Lily, you mind explaining this one for me?" Lio asked.
"Nuh-uh," Lily replied before playfully laughing.
"As I told Lily, I'm here looking for Luna's lucky guitar pic," Lio explained. "She needs it for her concert and the thing seemingly vanished out of nowhere."
"And what causes you to think that it resides here of all places?" Lisa asked.
"Just taking a look just in case," Lio said. "I mean, I don't expect it to be here, but I'll never know until I look."
"Really?" Lisa replied. "If that's the case, then I assume you've already checked the other rooms before venturing here, no?"
"Not quite," Lio said, rubbing the back of his neck. "After looking here, I've still gotta check out my room and Lynn/Lucy's room."
"Not taking the risk of angering Lori by intruding her room, are you?" Lisa asked.
"No," Lio said bluntly.
"Well, I can't say I blame you for deciding to make that decision," Lisa admitted. "However, if you're hoping to find that missing guitar pic here you're sadly mistaken. I can assure you that there is no trace of it anywhere within these four walls."
"Do you mind if I still look just to be safe?" Lio asked.
Lisa sighed, saying "If you insist. After all, it's your time that you're wasting."
"Time? Crapbaskets!" Lio said, looking down at his watch. "I've only got 25 minutes before Luna's set to head out! I've gotta pick up the pace!"
Lio quickly began looking around Lisa's room, checking every nook and cranny of the room.
"Just be careful not to disturb my work," Lisa warned him. "Some of my most recent experiments are extremely dangerous and could have adverse side effects if you were to be exposed to the chemicals used for them."
"Got it!" Lio said, giving a thumbs up with Lily giving him a smile as she watched him frantically search.
Ultimately, this search produced no results either, but fortunately only took up 5 minutes of Lio's time, leaving him with 20 minutes to spare. He could devote 5 minutes each to looking through both his room and Lynn/Lucy's before going downstairs to look, but he had to hurry. The first of these rooms he'd check would be Lynn and Lucy's. Honestly, he was hoping to get this room out of the way first since he knew Lynn might be a bit aggressive if she found out he was invading her space. Luckily for him, Lynn was nowhere to be seen as he entered the room. Lucy didn't appear to be present either from the looks of things. However, as Lio was well aware by now, looks could be deceiving.
"Can I help you with something?" Came a monotone voice from behind him that caused Lio to jump in fright.
"What the? How the?" Lio stammered before regaining his composure. "Where did you come from?"
"Considering the fact that you're in my room, I think I'm better suited asking you that same question," Lucy replied.
"Long story short, Luna lost her lucky guitar pic, has a concert with Sam that she has to be at in a few minutes and I'm trying to find it before she heads out," Lio said in one breath.
"Oh. Right," Lucy said. "I remember her mentioning this gig a couple of weeks ago. Apparently, her and Sam are opening for a huge Japanese rock band. She's been looking forward to this for weeks."
"Yeah, which is why I'm desperately trying to find it," Lio said. "I've looked almost everywhere but come up with nothing."
"And I'm guessing that's why you're here now," Lucy said.
"Yeah," Lio said. "I'm running out of places to look and I really need to make sure I haven't missed anything so do you mind if I look through here?"
"Sigh," Lucy replied before telling Lio. "Just don't touch Edwin, okay?" She then added "By the way, you might wanna be quick about this. Lynn's set to be back any second now from practice."
"I'll be out of here before you know it," Lio promised as he went to work examining the room.
He made sure not to disturb Edwin or any of Lynn's sports memorabilia. The last thing on his mind was getting on Lynn's bad side. Working with the little time he had available, Lio did a simple quick sweep of the room, making sure not to dwell too long on any particular area. All the while Lucy silently watched to make sure he kept his promise of not bothering Edwin in any way. If he did, he'd have more to worry about than Lucy simply jump scaring him. At the end of it all, there was still no guitar pic in sight.
"Did you find it?" Lucy asked.
"No," Lio said. "Looks like this was another bust. Sorry for bothering you."
"You didn't," Lucy told him. "Good luck finding it."
"Thanks," Lio said, making a beeline for his and Lincoln's room next. It was the last place left to look before looking downstairs.
Since it was his own room he was looking through, Lio had no qualms about turning it upside down to look for Luna's pic. He made sure to be careful with Lincoln's stuff as he did so, but otherwise was thorough in his search. He looked underneath Lincoln's bed, his own bed, checked both of their bookshelves, searched the desk that they shared and even looked behind said desk in an effort to find the missing instrument. Now truthfully, this was the absolute last place he expected to find Luna's lucky charm, but it was only fair that he gave a full search through his own room as he'd done to the girls. Once again, he came up with nothing. Feeling dejected in having failed Luna so far, Lio made his way downstairs when he crossed paths with Luna herself with the latter carrying her guitar case.
"So dude, any luck?" Luna asked. "Did you find it?"
"Afraid not," Lio frowned before assuring Luna "But don't worry, I promise I'm going to find it for you."
"Don't bother," Luna told him, sounding extremely let down. "It's too late for that."
"What do you mean?" Lio asked. "You've still got 10 minutes left."
"That doesn't matter," Luna said. "I'm never going to find that pic in time." She sighed before continuing "And besides, Sam's mom is here to pick me up and take us to the venue. I can't keep them waiting."
"Wait, Luna…" Lio pleaded. "Just give me a few more minutes and I promise I'll-,"
"Don't worry about it, you did the best you could," Luna said. "Thanks for your help, little bro."
"Luna, I-," Lio tried to say as Luna walked out the door, closing the door behind her. Lio felt terrible about letting her down as he walked into the living room to find Lincoln playing video games.
"Hey man, what's up?" Lincoln asked. "I thought you were going to watch me LP Sonic Mania"
"Sorry, Lincoln," Lio apologized, sounding just as disappointed as Luna had. "I was trying to help Luna find her good luck charm, but as with everything, I failed."
"Dude, don't beat yourself up over it," Lincoln said as he paused the game to pat Lio on the back. "You did the best you could."
"And my best wasn't good enough," Lio sighed before half smiling and asking Lincoln "But hey, now that I'm here, how about I get you some snacks?"
Turning to walk into the kitchen, Lio tripped over something and hit his head hard against the floor.
"Oh my gosh, are you okay?" Lincoln asked, helping Lio to his feet.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Lio said, clutching his head. "What the heck tripped me up?" Looking down, Lio saw that it was Charles dog bowl, causing him to scratch his head. "Why is Charles' dog bowl here instead of in the kitchen?"
As he picked up the bowl, Lio could see a glimmer of light bounce off of something at the bottom of it. Taking a closer look, Lio found that it was none other than the missing pic he'd been searching for for almost an hour.
"Oh my Dio, are you kidding me!?" He yelled in frustration.
"What is it?" Lincoln asked.
"I found it!" Lio exclaimed. "I found Luna's guitar pic! Dang it, why couldn't I have found this thing literally 2 minutes ago!?"
"Lio, relax," Lincoln said. "Don't freak out. I'm sure if you hurry you can catch up to Luna before she leaves."
"Hopefully," Lio said before rushing towards the door. "Sorry to leave you hanging, Linc, but I've gotta get this to Luna!"
"Eh, it's fine," Lincoln assured him as he ran out the door.
Lio found himself arriving just a little bit too late with Sam's mom's car pulling off just as he made it outside.
"Crapbaskets!" He cursed, trying to chase after the car to no avail. Not willing to give up just yet, Lio grabbed Lincoln's skateboard and one of the twins' jump ropes before he took off towards the venue.
Lio knew a shortcut that would get him to the venue just after Luna and Sam got there if he played his cards right. That shortcut involved hopping the fence to one of the neighbors backyard and cutting through several other yards to get to the bus stop. Lio hopped the first three fences no problem, but upon trying to hop over a fourth ended up climbing atop a loose fence panel, causing it to give way and send him toppling into a rose bush.
"Ouch, DIO darn it, son of a-," Lio swore as he crawled from out of the thorny, prickly plant, being covered in cuts and having a portion of his shirt ripped out. That wasn't the end of Lio's problems as he found himself staring face to face with an angry dog. "Ohhhhh… crapbaskets!" He muttered before scrambling for his life towards the other end of the yard as the dog nipped at his backside.
Lio managed to make it over the final fence and over to the other side, but not without sustaining a bite to his right leg, causing it to bleed and ripping up his jeans. Whether he was fueled by adrenaline or determination to help his sister, Lio didn't know, but he blocked out the pain and continued trekking towards the bus stop. The plan had been to take the bus to the venue the girls were playing at before they were set to go onstage, but that idea didn't exactly go as expected either with Lio arriving at the bus stop just as the bus was pulling off. Fortunately for Lio, that's where the skateboard and jump rope came in handy.
"You've got to be kidding me," Lio said as he used the skateboard to get close enough to the tailgate of the bus for him to lasso onto it and ride behind it.
Much to Lio's surprise, this last second improvisation went just as planned with Lio riding smoothly behind the bus on his skateboard. The only real challenge was keeping his balance so as not to fall off the board and face plant into the ground. After a few minutes of smooth sailing, the bus came to a stop just outside the venue. Unfortunately for Lio, he had failed to take into account one important detail and that was coming to a stop after the acceleration he'd built up.
"Didn't think this through…" Lio moaned, trying and failing to bring himself to a stop before he slammed face first into the back of the bus. "Ouch, I feel like I have taken way too many hits to the head today." He said as he picked himself up off the ground and got his bearings back.
With the pic safe in his pocket, Lio made his way into the venue and went backstage to find Luna and Sam. It didn't take long for him to find them.
"Luna! Luna!" He yelled out to get her attention.
"Lio?" Luna asked upon seeing him and his disheveled state. "What are you doing here?"
"And what on Earth happened to you?" Sam asked.
"I promised you that I was going to find your guitar pic and bring it to you," Lio said, smiling triumphantly as he presented the pic to Luna. "And I did just that."
"That's great and all, but what happened to you?" Luna asked. "You look like you've been through a tornado"
"I kinda had a few mishaps trying to get here before you went on," Lio said before explaining in full.
"You went through all that just to get Rockstar her lucky pic?" Sam asked, turning to Luna and saying "You've got a seriously awesome little brother, Rockstar!"
"Eh, it was no big deal," Lio said, trying to be humble.
"No big deal?" Luna retorted. "You risked your health just to help me out, that's a pretty big deal if you ask me."
"I know right!" Sam said in agreement. "My little brother would never do something like that for me!"
"Ms. Loud, Ms. Sharp," A stage assistant called out. "Sorry to spring this on you last minute, but one of our other opening acts couldn't make it. You're going on in five minutes and your set has been expanded to an hour."
"Are you serious?" Luna and Sam asked, brimming with excitement. When the stage assistant nodded, both girls let out an excited squeal.
"See luv, I told you this pic was lucky," Luna said to Sam.
"Alright, alright, I believe you now," Sam giggled.
"Well, looks like I'm not needed here anymore," Lio said. "I'll be in the crowd cheering you on. Knock em' dead you two!"
"Thanks for all your help, little bro," Luna said, taking a moment to give Lio a huge hug before doing last minute preparations and heading onstage.
When the show began, true to his word, Lio was in the audience, cheering on Luna and Sam with all his heart. He wouldn't dream of missing this for the world.
"Our act literally wouldn't have gone as well as it did if it weren't for you," Sam said to Lio. "Not to mention that we've taken far more bookings after the positive reception from that show."
"I guess you could say that," Lio said, looking down at his feet. "But what if it was just a stroke of luck? I had nothing to do with it!"
"Even if that wasn't the reason for our last second break, the show still wouldn't have gone the way it did if you hadn't brought me my lucky guitar pic," Luna said. "My mojo would've been all kinds of thrown off and I might not have played as well as I did…"
"You really think so?" Lio asked, looking up.
"Dude, I know so," Luna said in a matter of fact tone. "There's still just one thing about the story I don't understand."
"What's that?" Sam asked.
"How did my pic end up in the dog's food bowl in the first place?" Luna asked.
"Maybe it's best not to think about that!" Lana said quickly before moving to change the subject. "Hey, since we're sharing stories about the times Lio's helped us out, how about I tell mine…"