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

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Chapter six: Dates and games

One lovely enough day in Royal Woods, Lola Loud was entertaining a guest at the Loud family's residence. This was not too out of the ordinary, as Lola, who views herself as something of a 'proper lady', likes hosting guests for social visits as she and they enjoy refreshments. What made this particular visit out of the ordinary was that Lola's guest was a boy. In fact, this particular boy is Winston, the boy that the pageant winning Loud sister has a crush on.

After Lola finished recounting an event of some sort to Winston, the blonde-haired boy replied in a good-humored tone, "That's nothing. Why, you should have seen the mess my mother got herself into at the Royal Woods Mall last week."

"Did it happen on Thursday, by any chance?" Lola asked, "Because if it did, then the story that my older sister Leni told me and the rest of my siblings when she got home from the mall that day suddenly makes way more sense."

As the two six-year-olds shared a laugh, Lola's older brother Lincoln came walking by. Although Lola wholeheartedly views Lincoln as her sibling, the feeling wasn't mutual; Lincoln was still feeling strong resentment towards most of his family due to the whole bad luck business that went down a while ago. Granted, Lincoln did have a role in it to some extent, but he only did so because otherwise he wouldn't get any time to himself. It was his family, Lola being among them, who took things way too far.

"Having fun, Lola?" Lincoln asked as he walked over to the fridge to grab a can of cola.

"Oh, Lincoln!" Lola said in a mildly surprised tone, not knowing that Lincoln was even in the room until he had spoken up. "Umm, yeah," Lola continued nervously, "Winston and I were just talking about funny stories related to the Royal Woods Mall."

"Hey, wait a minute," Winston said as he got a look at Lincoln, "Aren't you that white-haired fellow who helped my older sister Samantha out of that jam from a while ago?"

"I help get a lot of girls older than me out of jams all the time," Lincoln replied in a deadpan tone, "So I'm afraid that you're going to have to be a little bit more specific."

"I'm surprised that you don't remember Samantha," Winston began in a mildly curious tone, "After all, she and-" The blonde-haired six-year-old boy was cut off when the front door was opened with such force that it made a sort of banging sound that got the attention of everyone that was currently at the Loud family residence. The banging sound was quickly followed up by the sound of one of the Loud girls crying.

"What's going on?" Lincoln said as he went out to the front area of the house to see what was going on, with Lola and Winston following behind the white-haired boy. Although Lincoln was still upset with most of the Loud girls, that doesn't necessarily mean he wants to hear any of them cry. But anywho, when Lincoln, Lola and Winston arrived in the front area of the house, where the rest of the Loud kids have gathered, they saw that Lynn, wearing a baseball helmet and baseball glove, along with the baseball bat lying on the floor on Lynn's right, had just gotten back from a baseball game. They also saw that it was Lynn who was crying.

"…Lynn's crying after coming back home from a game?" Lincoln muttered to himself in a concerned tone, "What happened?"

Lola must have heard what her older brother said because she made a scoffing sound before saying, "Her team must have lost the game, and you weren't there for her to blame the loss on." With a gentle shake of her head, Lola continued as she crossed her arms over her chest, "She's just being a sore loser."

As the others continued to bare witness to Lynn's breakdown, Rita came walking into the house. "Kids, Lynn's baseball game ended on a really bad note for her, so I think you all should give her some space for the time being," Rita remarked in a concerned tone.

"What, did her team lose or something?" Lori asked in a tone that lacked sympathy; due to recently finding out the extent of what Lynn had done in contributing to Lincoln running away, the oldest Loud sibling was finding great difficulty in finding any sympathy for her sporty younger sister. With a mildly disapproving headshake, Lori continued, "Just because Lynn and her team lost a Hey wait a minute…" Deviating midsentence as she suddenly remembered something about the game that Lynn and her team had played today, Lori began to ask, "Wasn't that the game where Lynn's team played against the team that Francisco belongs t-"

Lori never got to finish that sentence because as soon as she said the name of Lynn's crush, Lynn herself shoulder-rammed Lori in the stomach, sending Lori flying into the sofa where she landed in a sitting position. The sporty Loud then practically leaped over to where her older sister sat, where she grabbed Lori's tank top collar with both hands to yank Lori closer to her face. When Lori's face was within an inch of her own, Lynn said in a tone that sent shivers down Lori's spine, "NEVER…SAY…THAT…NAME…AGAIN." Shoving Lori back into the sofa, Lynn leapt off and ran upstairs crying.

After Lynn had disappeared upstairs, everyone else looked around with shocked and confused expressions. "Umm, I hate to be a bother, but would I be right in guessing that now would be a good time for me to take my leave?" Winston asked in a mildly worried tone that conveyed a degree of feeling uncomfortable with the atmosphere.

"I can ask my mom to call your mom to come pick you up," Lola replied, sounding a bit guilty.


Later, all of the Loud siblings, minus Lynn who was still upset, were having a sibling meeting in Lori and Leni's room. Sighing in a resigned tone, Lori said, "Alright, everyone, here's the deal. Lynn wasn't crying when she came back home because her team lost. In actuality, Lynn's team literally won their game today."

"Then why was Lynn crying, dude?" Luna asked, her tone clearly conveying that she was worried about Lynn.

With a resigned sigh as she gently rubbed her stomach, Lori said, "As we all know, Lynn's team played against the baseball team that Francisco belongs to today. From what mom told me after Lynn ran to her room crying earlier, Francisco's team was just found out to have committed multiple instances of cheating during the current season, and had in fact tried to cheat during today's game. When the cheating was discovered during today's game, Francisco's team was disqualified, giving Lynn's team the win."

"Wait, what?!" Luan nearly exclaimed.

"Furthermore, when Lynn had asked Francisco about it upon the rampant cheating his team was doing being revealed," Lisa went on, "Lynn learned that, while Francisco himself didn't commit any of the cheating, he knew about what was going on but decided not to say anything about it." With a sigh, Lisa said, "As far as Lynn is concerned, even if you aren't doing any of the cheating yourself, if you don't report any cheating you see in sports, you're just as guilty. That being said, upon finding out that Francisco played such a role, Lynn was heartbroken."

"Wait a minute, that's why Lynn was crying earlier?" Lincoln asked in a concerned tone, "Her crush broke her heart?" Despite the concern he was showing for Lynn, Lincoln is still upset with her for her role in driving him away; an argument could be made that out of all of his family members that he's still upset with, Lincoln's the most upset with Lynn. In fact, if Lynn was crying exclusively due to one of her sports teams simply losing a game, then Lincoln might have found some dark amusement out of it. But Lynn wasn't crying because her team lost. She was crying because a boy she had a crush on broke her heart.

Lincoln does not find hearing about one of the Loud girls getting their heart broken by a crush amusing. AT ALL. Not now, not ever.

"So, what can we do about it, you guys?" Lana asked, "I mean, from the sounds of things, Lynn isn't going to stop anytime soon."

"The best thing we can do is to give Lynn some space for the time being," Lori stated. With a mildly rattled expression, Lori added as she gently rubbed her stomach again, "A lot of space."

"I sleep in the same room as Lynn," Lucy pointed out.

"Oh shoot, I forgot about that," Lori remarked as she snapped her fingers.

"…Would it help if I mentioned that Clyde, Rusty, Liam, Zach and I have an overnight thing planned at Rusty's tonight?" Lincoln said as he raised a hand.

"What, are you going to offer to let Lucy use your room for the night?" Lori asked in a mildly surprised tone, getting the rest of the girls to all turn to face their white-haired brother.

"Actually, I was thinking about looking into bringing Lucy with me," Lincoln clarified, "I mean, she and Rusty's brother Rocky get along just fine, don't they?"

"Lincoln, that…" Lori began, but she stopped short to gather her thoughts for a second. Smiling gently, Lori continued, "That's literally really sweet of you, Lincoln."

"I'm going to have to call Rusty first to see if he's okay with it, though," Lincoln pointed out, "But yeah, I figured that getting Lucy as far away from her usual roommate right now might be in the best interest of her health."

Snickering a bit, Luan said, "Yeah, I think there are laws against intentionally exposing minors to excessive physical danger." Some of the other Loud girls started chuckling among themselves. As most of the other girls were laughing, Lucy turned to face where Lincoln sat. Although Lincoln didn't see it as he himself was also laughing at what Luan had said, the gothic Loud sibling cracked a small but sincere smile. It seems that her big brother really forgave her after all.


The following morning at Rusty's place, Lincoln and his friends were all having breakfast in the kitchen area, while Lucy and Rocky were having bowls of cereal in the living room. "Man, I'm glad that you brought your little sister," Zach said with a chuckle as he pointed to Lincoln, "That fake blood of hers was perfect for pulling off that prank!"

"Are you kidding me, Zach?!" Rusty nearly exclaimed, "After what Lincoln's little sister did with Rocky last night, I'm going to have nightmares for weeks!"

"I still can't believe that your dad was so willing to pretend to be a murder victim for Rocky and Lucy's prank on you," Clyde remarked to Rusty.

"Nightmares for weeks," Rusty repeated before he finished off his bowl of cereal. "Meh, I'll get some more," Rusty remarked as he got up. Going over to the counter, Rusty poured some cereal into his bowl and left it there while he retrieved a carton of milk from the fridge. Heading back to where he left his bowl, Rusty opened the milk carton and proceeded to pour.

However, instead of milk pouring out, what appeared to be blood came out of the milk carton instead. Seeing the 'blood', Rusty gasped before he fainted and fell over onto the kitchen floor. As Lincoln and his other friends got up to go help Rusty, the four boys heard chuckling from the kitchen doorway. Turning their attention to see who was standing behind them, Lincoln and the others saw Lucy and Rocky standing there in the kitchen doorway.

"Always works," Rocky chuckled as he and Lucy shared a high-five.

As Clyde, Liam and Zach began to realize what was really going on, Lincoln merely chuckled to himself while trying to figure how to get Lucy on his side for next April Fool's Day, figuring that she'd be an invaluable ally against Luan.


Later, as Lincoln and Lucy were walking back from the thing at Rusty and Rocky's place, Lincoln said, "Hey Luce, you know how I'm still upset with your sisters, right?"

"That much is obvious, seeing as how you're referring to them as just my sisters, not yours and mine," Lucy replied.

Nodding a few times in agreement, Lincoln said, "Yeah, that's true. But anyway, even though I'm still upset with them, there are some things that I don't like seeing them go through."

"…Like any of them getting their heart broken by a boy they had a crush on?" Lucy asked, realizing where the conversation was going.

Nodding once in the affirmative, Lincoln went on, "I was concerned when I heard that you ended things with Silas over an argument concerning vampires and mummies. Also, I didn't know you worked on perfecting your recipe for fake blood when you're upset like that."

"He didn't have vision like I do," Lucy replied, "Also, Rocky thinks my fake blood is pretty good." Sighing, Lucy continued, "You also remembered how Leni was acting after she got back from that party that Chaz had, right?"

"Yeah," Lincoln said as he shook his head in a manner to convey disappointment, "And here I thought that Leni's crush on Chaz would have been one of the ones to work out." With a resigned sounding sigh, Lincoln continued, "Unlike how-" The white-haired boy was cut off when he and Lucy heard something that caught their attention. Looking over, Lincoln and Lucy saw Lynn standing under a tree, with her baseball helmet sitting on the ground. Lynn was repeatedly bashing the helmet with a baseball bat.

"Stupid baseball!" Lincoln and Lucy could hear Lynn saying angrily as she started causing damage to the baseball helmet, "Stupid cheating! Stupid Francisco!" With more speed and fury, Lynn exclaimed as she broke the baseball helmet to pieces, "STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!" After she had smashed the baseball helmet into oblivion, the sporty Loud sibling breathed hard in exhaustion. As Lynn caught her breath, Lincoln and Lucy came walking over.

"Lynn, what's gotten into you?" Lincoln nearly exclaimed, getting Lynn's attention in the process, "Why would you smash your baseball helmet like that?!"

"L-Lincoln?" Lynn said in a surprised tone, surprised because she didn't think her younger brother would even want to talk to her, and for good reason. Her surprised expression morphing into one that was a mix of resignation and heartbreak, Lynn said, "I…I can't do it anymore. I just can't do baseball."

"You're giving up on one of your sports?" Lucy asked, more than a hint of surprise seeping into her otherwise emotionless monotone.

Nodding her head a few times in bitter confirmation, Lynn continued, "After what happened yesterday, after what…what he did…I just can't do baseball anymore."

"…" Giving his sporty ex-sister a serious look, Lincoln said, "Just so we're clear on the matter, I'm still upset with you for your role in what happened before I ran away."

Sniffling a bit in a knowing manner, Lynn replied guiltily, "I know."

"Even so," Lincoln continued as he gestured to what Lynn was doing, "I'm not upset with you enough to want to see you like this." Giving a gentle headshake, Lincoln continued, "I'll never be that upset with you, or any of the girls for that matter."

"I-is that why you didn't t-tell Bobby the whole story?" Lynn asked, her crying making her stammer a bit, "You d-didn't want Lori to act like how I'm a-acting right now?" What Lynn said make Lincoln take pause; when he first made the decision to withhold certain sensitive information from the Santiagos, Lincoln did so because he just simply didn't care enough to want to see Lori suffer, even though there was a time while he lived as a runaway that he would have thrown Lori to the wolves like that without any regret.

But now…now that he was living with his ex-family again, now that they were all trying to show them how sorry they were for driving him away, now that he had begun the process of trying to forgive them and even having already forgiven Lucy, Lincoln had to wonder what-

"GAHHHH!" Lynn cried out, more out of surprise than anything else, drawing Lincoln out of his thoughts as he and Lucy looked over to the sporty Loud sibling, who turned around. "Huh?" Lynn said as she found a football laying on the ground. Picking the football up, Lynn said, "So this is what hit me in the back." Rolling the football around in her hands, Lynn said, "Huh. I wonder where this-"

"Hey, can I get my football back?" Lynn and her younger siblings heard someone call out, prompting them to look over and see a boy come running over to them. Roughly the same height as Luan, this boy had long and somewhat wild-looking black hair. He wore a light brown long-sleeved shirt (its sleeve ends hung loosely around the wrists, rather than cling tightly to them) under a somewhat baggy t-shirt that resembled the Swedish flag, a loose-fitting pair of cargo pants held up with a belt, and brown boots. Around the boy's neck was a necklace that had three bear claws as charms. The boy was also noticeably, but not excessively, strong of body; that, plus his bear claw necklace and his long and wild black hair gave him the look of a wild warrior from a northern land of snow and cold.

"Hey, are you okay?" the boy asked as he pointed to Lynn, who was holding the football that he was seeking.

Lynn, having gotten a good look at this boy, stood there as if caught in a trance. Seeing that her older sister wasn't moving, Lucy waved a hand in front of Lynn's face. Turning to face the boy that came up to them, Lucy said, "You'll have to forgive my sister. You see, she's going through some rough times right now."

"I notice that she must have been crying," the boy remarked, "I assume that someone did something to upset her a lot?" Lincoln and Lucy then proceeded to explain to the boy what had happened, being careful not to mention Francisco by name, lest they make Lynn even more upset. "I see," the boy replied in an understanding tone, "I don't know a lot about baseball, but I would be of a similar disposition as your sister if something like that occurred on the gridiron."

"Totally!" Lynn suddenly exclaimed, sounding as if she had suddenly gotten over what had made her upset, "In fact, my football team is looking for a new strong safety, and you look like you'd be perfect for the position! What's your name?"

Caught off guard somewhat by Lynn's sudden recovery, the boy replied, "I am Ulfric Aesir. My parents and I just moved here from Sweden."

"Well that certainly explains why I haven't seen you around before," Lynn said with a hint of eagerness in her tone, "Do you go to Royal Woods Middle School?"

"I start tomorrow," Ulfric replied, "Why? Do you go there as well?"

"Totally," Lynn answered as her small smile started to ever-so-slightly grow, "Where should we meet up after classes tomorrow so I can take you over to the football field for practice?"

"How about the library?" Ulfric suggested, "I was told that the library has a book on Norse Mythology, which I'm rather interested in reading."

"Sounds perfect!" Lynn explained, "Anything else?"

Pointing to Lynn, Ulfric said, "I'd like my football back, please." Noticing that she was still holding Ulfric's football, Lynn blushed and chuckled in an embarrassed manner as she handed the football over to Ulfric. "Well then, I suppose I shall be seeing you later," Ulfric remarked, "As I gave you my name, can I get yours before I go?"

"Lynn Loud," replied the sporty Loud sibling.

With something of a small smile, Ulfric replied, "Well then, Lynn Loud, I look forward to throwing the pigskin around with you." Turning around, Ulfric said as he walked off while he raised a hand, "Take care."

After Ulfric was gone, Lincoln said, "Wow, Lynn, looks like finding a potential new member for the football team you belong to helped to get you out of your depression." After a few seconds of not getting a response from Lynn, Lincoln leaned forward slightly and turned his head so that he could see his sister's face.

Recognizing the look of being love-struck on Lynn's face, Lincoln turned to face Lucy and said, "We should tell the others about this when we get back."

"Yeah, they'll be wanting to know about this," Lucy remarked in a tone of agreement.


Later the following evening at the Loud residence, Lincoln was helping Leni, Luna, Lucy and Lana with setting up the table for dinner. As the five of them got the table ready, they brought up how Lynn had seemingly found a new crush. "He sounds like a solid dude from what you and Lucy have told the rest of us," Luna said to Lincoln as they straightened out the chairs at the table, some of which were seated at somewhat crooked angles.

"Yeah, and from what you said about him not liking cheating in football, I'm certain that he won't go and-" Lana said, but she was cut off midsentence by some knocking that came from the front door.

"I'll get that," Lincoln replied as he left the dining room to go answer the door. When he did, the sole Loud boy was surprised to see Ulfric.

"I apologize if I came at an inconvenient time," Ulfric greeted with a look of mild concern on his face, "But something came up that I wish to ask Lynn about. Is she available right now?" Before Lincoln could answer, Lynn happened to have walked by at the moment. Noticing that Ulfric was at the door, she immediately came over.

"Ulfric! Hey!" Lynn greeted in a friendly tone, "Come on in!"

"Lynn, we're about to have dinner," Lucy said as she, Luna, Lana and Leni came out of the dining room, "He can't stay for long."

"I just had something that I wished to ask Lynn about," Ulfric replied, "I'll keep my business here brief."

"You…you wanted to ask me about something?" Lynn said, a faint but steadily growing blush appearing across her face.

Nodding once in the affirmative, Ulfric began, "Remember how the football we were using earlier during practice wasn't inflated properly?"

Her expression dropping somewhat, Lynn replied, "Oh yeah. The football incident from earlier." Straightening up somewhat, Lynn asked, "What about it?"

"Let's say, in a hypothetical situation, that the football was like that intentionally," Ulfric said, "For the supposed purpose of making it easier to grip. Is this a good thing, yes or no?"

"What?!" Lynn exclaimed in shock, "Of course that's not a good thing! That's a form of cheating!"

"…As I suspected," Ulfric remarked as he looked to the floor, holding his left hand over his chin as he put his right hand on his waist. Looking back up to Lynn, the Swedish boy continued, "Since that's the case, then I'm afraid that some of the members of the football team we belong to are trying to use the apparent method of cheating that I had just described."

"I…I can't believe this," Lynn said as she held a hand to her forehead, "Members of one of the sports teams I belong to are trying to cheat. This can't be real."

"Little dude, what happened exactly?" Luna asked Ulfric. Ulfric then proceeded to explain what had happened; apparently during football practice earlier this day, Ulfric noticed that the football that they were using wasn't properly inflated, so he brought this to the coach's attention. Later, when Ulfric was alone in the boys' locker room, two other boys on the team confronted him about pointing out the football's problem. Apparently, some of the boys on the team were using the improperly inflated football gambit in an attempt to rack up some wins.

Ulfric said that the two boys attempted to 'haze' him as a sort-of welcome to the team (Ulfric confessed he had no idea what 'haze' in that regard meant) via shoving him from behind in the back, but their hazing failed when Ulfric turned to face them; both boys in question were a good few inches shorter than Ulfric, and neither of them were anywhere near as well-conditioned as him (they were thin whereas Ulfric had muscle). Ulfric also mentioned that he was under the implication that the two boys were threatening him into keeping quiet about their gambit with the improperly inflated football.

"As the coach had left prior to the conflict," Ulfric said as he finished his tale, "I decided that informing Lynn in the hopes that we can bring this to the coach's attention tomorrow together was the best course of action."

Sniffling a little bit, Lynn said, "Ulfric."

"Hmm?" Ulfric replied in a tone of mildly piqued interest as he turned to face the sporty Loud sibling. Although she looked like she was going to start crying at any moment, Lynn was smiling, as if someone had just done her a great kindness.

"Thanks," was all that Lynn said.

"…I am confused," Ulfric admitted in a mildly lost tone, "Why are you thanking me?"

"Baseball is kind of spoiled for me at the moment because someone ruined it for me," Lynn explained as she was putting in a bit of effort not to cry, "If it hadn't been for what you did just now, the same would have happened to football. I'm not even sure if I would have been able to stick with sports as a whole if football was ruined for me like baseball was."

With a wry look of mild amusement on his face, Ulfric replied, "Unlike those two boys who I mentioned, you aren't lacking in honor on the gridiron, or honor in general. That's something that I have to respect, Lynn. Well anyway, I'll be taking my leave now. See you tomorrow."

After Ulfric took his leave, Lynn closed the door behind him. "So, sis," Lana remarked with a sly look, "When are you gonna make your move?"

"I don't know!" Lynn exclaimed in embarrassment, which was further highlighted by the blushing on her face. As Lynn blushed, her siblings that were present began to laugh. Lincoln laughed because he thought that the joke Ulfric made about Lynn having honor was pretty funny. Lincoln was still very much upset with Lynn for her role in making him suffer prior to him running away, especially since if it wasn't for Lynn forcing him to go to that one game of hers, then the whole bad luck business wouldn't have happened in the first place.

…But if Bobby can be a good influence on Lori, then who's to say that this Ulfric fellow can't make what he said about Lynn being honorable come true? Shortly after his return to Royal Woods, Lincoln felt that if there was one person in his ex-family that he might not ever be able to forgive, it would have been Lynn.

…But with Ulfric's help, Lincoln may eventually be able to forgive his sporty ex-sister after all.


The following evening at the Loud residence, Lynn was sitting in the living room with Lincoln, Lori, Luan, Lola and Lisa; normally, the oldest half of the group would have occupied the sofa while the youngest half sat on the floor, but in this case, Lynn gave her seat up to Lincoln, who accepted it with a mildly surprised look on his face that had more than a dash of confusion.

"Hey Lynn, I heard that the football team can't play in the next three games that it was slated to play," Luan remarked, "Are you okay about that?"

"Well of course I'm upset about not being able to play," Lynn replied. After Lynn and Ulfric had brought the cheating on the football team to the coach's attention, the coach did a thorough investigation, discovered that half of the team was in on it while the other half had no idea what was going on, and kicked the cheating half off of the team entirely, even having the two boys that tried to threaten Ulfric suspended.

However, due to the severe cuts to the team, the RWMS football team had to surrender the next three games that they were slated to play, as they needed more time to get and train new players. However, everyone was in agreement that not being able to play with a clean team was better than playing with one that was dirty.

A few seconds after admitting to being upset about not being able to play, Lynn added, "But I would have been even more upset if I did play but I discovered that my team had been cheating."

"So, you're good?" Lori asked in a concerned tone.

With a bit of a chuckle, Lynn said, "Yeah, everyone. I'm goo-" Lynn was cut off when there was a knocking at the door.

"Allow me, my sibling units," Lisa said as she got up and went to answer the door. A few seconds after she did, Lisa called out, "Hey Lynn! Some boy who looks like a barbarian movie reject from the nineteen-eighties is asking for you!"

"Barbarian movie reject?" Ulfric's familiar voice replied, two parts offended and eight parts confused.

"Dang it, Lisa!" Lynn swore as she got up quickly and ran over to the door, seeing Ulfric standing there. "Ulfric, I am so sorry about my little sister here," Lynn said as she not-so-gently shoved Lisa out to the living room. Returning to the front door, Lynn said, "So anyway, what brings you by?"

"Some girl at our school talked to me earlier," Ulfric began, "She told me that since the football team is going to be forced to miss the next couple of games, you would most likely feel upset about it." Holding up a small shopping bag from a foreign food store, Ulfric continued, "As you are the first person who I met since moving here to the states that treated me with kindness, I felt as if I should try to help you feel better. The girl recommended that I get you some chocolate to snack on."

"Did he say chocolate?" Lori said as she quickly came running over with the other sisters who were watching TV with Lynn. Lincoln didn't even bother trying to argue what the girls were doing; they were all chocoholics, so the mere mention of that more desired confection will prompt the girls to all drop what they were doing and rush over. Even though he was still upset with most of the girls, Lincoln wasn't going to hold this against them.

"Umm, it's meant for Lynn," Ulfric replied in a mildly confused tone as he saw the eager looks on the faces of the other girls, "I'm sorry if-" Stopping short upon seeing Luan, Ulfric pointed to her and said, "Hey, you're the girl who gave me the idea about getting chocolate for Lynn to help her feel better."

"Oh, that's my older sister Luan," Lynn said as she gestured to the comedic Loud sibling.

Regarding Lynn's sisters and Lincoln, Ulfric turned to face Lynn. "You certainly belong to a rather large clan, Lynn," remarked the Swedish boy. Hearing Ulfric say this, Lynn could not help but chuckle.

"This is only half of my siblings," Lynn pointed out.

His eyes widening somewhat out of shock due to Lynn's statement, Ulfric merely said in a shocked tone, "…Impressive." This made Lynn laugh even louder and harder.

As the other Loud siblings who were present were watching this, Luan turned to face Lincoln, Lori, Lola and Lisa. Discreetly pointing to Ulfric, Luan said, "That boy's a keeper."


A few days later on Friday, Lincoln was lying in bed, having gotten rather sick. As the white-haired boy was trying to recover from his sickness, he heard a knocking at his bedroom door. Lincoln weakly called out for whoever it was to enter, and as such Lori came walking in, carrying some medicine and a glass of water for Lincoln. "Hey Lori," Lincoln greeted weakly, his ill voice making his speech sound a little slurred. Slowly trying to get out of bed, Lincoln asked, "Do you need me for something?" Lincoln would have continued trying to get up, but Lori, setting the glass of water and medicine on Lincoln's dresser, walked over to Lincoln and gently pushed down on his right shoulder, forcing him back down.

"What I need you to do is to lay back down and stay there," Lori replied in as gentle of a tone as she had ever used. …Well, Lori sounded similar to this back when she held Lincoln in her arms after he was found passed out on the sidewalk outside of the apartment building slash bodega store where the Santiagos' relatives lived. When Lincoln was back to laying down in bed, Lori said, "Anyway, mom and dad are going to be heading out soon for a date night, so I'm going to be left in charge."

"I'll be down stairs standing at attention with your sisters, then," Lincoln replied as he tried once again to get up out of bed, only for Lori to gently force him back down.

"Yeah, I'm literally going to be excusing you from doing that," the oldest Loud sibling replied in a sympathetic tone, "Lin-"

"Wow, I never would have expected you to go easy on any of us when your parents are out and you're left in charge," Lincoln replied in a bitter tone, interrupting Lori in the process. Despite everything that Lincoln had done to keep Lori's relationship with Bobby stable, despite the kindness that Lori was showing him right now, Lincoln was still upset with the oldest of his ex-siblings. It would take a lot more than simple kindness from Lori before the white-haired boy could forgive her. Realizing what Lincoln was getting at, Lori could not blame him.

Sighing, Lori said, "I know what I usually do is literally bogus, Lincoln. And that's part of why I'm here. I want to try and change things up a bit while I'm in charge. The time back when you and all of the girls took control from me when mom and dad left me in charge got me thinking that there's got to be a better way I can keep everyone from literally going bonkers while still maintaining control."

"And you're telling me this because…" Lincoln replied, expecting to be filled in.

"Because I was hoping you'd have an idea for how I could do that," Lori explained, "You're usually good with coming up with ideas, so I was hoping you'd help me out on this." Lincoln was actually surprised with what Lori was saying; she wanted his help on something? Wow, you don't see that every day. Even so, Lincoln figured that it'd be worth a shot, so he gave some serious consideration to what Lori had asked, trying to think of something that would help the oldest of his ex-sisters keep his other ex-sisters and Lucy occupied. After about half a minute, Lincoln came up with an idea that he thought might work.

"How about a game night?" Lincoln suggested.

"Game night?" Lori repeated in a confused tone.

"Game night," Lincoln repeated, "You and the others can all gather in the living room and play some game together until mom and dad get back."

"But all of the board games we have aren't made with close to eleven people in mind, Lincoln," Lori pointed out, "Also, you know how Lynn gets when it comes to playing." Lincoln had to give Lori credit on that last bit; Lynn was rather notorious for wanting to win all the time. Lynn's football team having to surrender a few games as they tried to build their numbers back up certainly wasn't helping with that at the moment.

"How about truth or dare?" Lincoln suggested, "All you need is an empty glass bottle to spin on the floor. Also, it's not a winning or losing kind of game."

"Hey, that isn't a bad idea at all," Lori replied. Ruffling the top of Lincoln's head lightly, Lori said in a gentle tone, "Thanks, Lincoln." Lori had Lincoln take the medicine she had brought him before she left his room to go find a glass bottle to use for the game.

The rest of the night went as smoothly as it could for an eleven-year-old boy who was sick. At one point, when he left his room to go use the bathroom, Lincoln had to hold a hand against the wall to steady himself as he felt a wave of nausea go over him; not one second later, Lincoln threw up. Within short order, Lori came up the stairs to see what had happened.

"Yeesh!" Lori remarked, "Geez, Lincoln, maybe it was a good thing you missed dinner. This mess you made would have been bigger otherwise." Lori then went back downstairs, presumably to look in to gathering the gear needed to clean up Lincoln's puke. It made the white-haired boy feel a little guilty, but all thoughts of that fled Lincoln's mind when Luan appeared, wearing a medical mask and carrying some cleaning supplies.

"Luan?" Lincoln said in a mildly confused tone.

"We all heard you throw up while we were downstairs playing truth or dare," Luan explained, "It was Luna's turn, and the bottle landed on me. I picked dare, and Luna was going to dare me to do something, but that's when we heard you puke." Holding up the cleaning supplies, Luan continued, "Luna decided to dare me to clean up your puke." After Luan finished explaining herself, Lincoln had to snort back a laugh. "What's up?" Luan asked.

"Luna actually dared you to do that?" Lincoln asked, smiling a bit despite his sickness.

Happy that her little brother seemed to be feeling a bit better, along with also finding some humor in the situation as well, Luan replied, "Yeah, I guess it was a pretty good dare." Lincoln then went to the bathroom while Luan cleaned up the puke. When Lincoln came out, Luan was gone, her job finished. Lincoln went back to his room and slept for the rest of the night.


The following morning, Lincoln was in the kitchen, getting a bowl of cereal for breakfast. Although he was feeling somewhat better, Lincoln was still plenty sick; he was intending on heading straight back up to bed after he ate some breakfast. When Lincoln sat down at the table, Lori walked into the kitchen. "Hey, Lincoln," Lori greeted in a casual, friendly tone, "Are you feeling any better?"

"A little," Lincoln replied in a tired tone, "Although I'm planning on heading back to bed when I'm done eating."

"Fair enough," Lori said as she sat down at the table herself after getting a mug of coffee.

"So, how did the game night with the girls go last night?" Lincoln asked as Lori took a sip of her coffee.

"We actually had quite a lot of fun playing truth or dare," Lori remarked as she sat her mug down, "And we're considering doing it again the next time mom and dad have a date night and leave me in charge. Leni even says she's looking forward to you participating." Reaching forward to ruffle the top of Lincoln's head, Lori said, "Thanks again for suggesting a game night, Lincoln. You really do have something of a knack for plans and ideas."

With a tired smile, Lincoln replied, "You're welcome, Lori." After finishing his bowl of cereal, Lincoln put his dishes in the sink while saying, "So Lori, are there any good highlights from last night's game?"

With an amused smile, Lori began, "Well Lincoln, the first thing is that Leni and Lana both like peanut butter and sauerkraut sandwiches now…"

END, RESTORED IMAGE CHAPTER SIX

Author's notes:

Remember when I mentioned the collection of Loud house one-shots that I never got around to getting up? Well the first one-shot from that collection featured Lynn and covered the fact that first crushes seldom ever work out. As sad as it is, not every first relationship has a fairy tale ending, and I felt that it was necessary to remind people of this. However, I did make sure that Lynn had an ultimately happy ending. The first part of this chapter adapts the first one-shot from that collection to this story's setting.

As for the second part of this chapter, where Lincoln is sick and his sisters play truth or dare while their parents are out on a date night, it adapts the events of the third one-shot, which was just my attempt to write a funny but ultimately heartwarming little slice-of-life type blurb, to this story's setting. One-shots number two and four are whole episode flashback-type deals, so I'm not going to bother to try and adapt them to this story's setting.

Ultimately, adapting the first and third one-shots of that collection into this story is helping me with something that I've been wanting to stress here; even though he is still very much upset with most of them, Lincoln would NOT want to see any of the Loud girls suffer emotionally, nor would he want to leave any of them hanging if they're in a serious pinch. Anywho, the next chapter will adapt one-shots number five and six to this story's setting.

…I might have to get that collection of one-shots up at some point anyway, seeing as how it's related to a little pet project of mine.