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

Restored Image

Chapter twenty-one: Failed Audition

It was a lovely enough morning in Royal Woods, Michigan. Most of the younger Loud children had already gone off to do their own thing; Lisa was giving a lecture at a nearby college, Lola and Lana were playing at the park with Lynn supervising them, Lucy went with Lincoln to the Spokes residence so she can hang out with Rocky while Lincoln and Rusty discussed important things related to the video games they play, and Luan was performing at a birthday party. This left Lily, the baby of the Loud family, and the three oldest Loud girls, Luna, Leni and Lori, still at the Loud family residence.

Luna went into the room shared by Lisa and Lily in order to check on the baby Loud sibling. As the rocker had expected, she found Lily laying in her crib. Lily was lying on her back, her arms and legs wiggling around, and as soon as she saw her musically inclined older sister, Lily started to make whining noises, as if something was bothering her, making her upset.

Luna had a pretty good idea what was making Lily upset; even though she was only just a baby, Lily was rather perceptive. Lily knew that her older brother was gone for an extensive period of time, and that it was because of something bad the rest of the family did. Lily could also tell, even after he had come back, that Lincoln was still upset, undoubtedly because of the bad thing that the family had done that made him go away for a while. Luna was likewise feeling upset; shortly after he came back, Lincoln slowly started to reconcile with the family. At some point, Lincoln accepted the Loud family matriarch Rita as his mother again, and although it was off at a slow start, Lincoln eventually reached the point where he acknowledged eight of the ten Loud girls as his sisters again.

The two Loud girls that Lincoln has yet to accept as his sisters again are Lily and Luna.

After another whine from Lily, Luna gave a small, sympathetic smile that seemed sad and resigned. Reaching down into the crib, Luna scooped Lily up and cradled the baby Loud sibling in her arms. "…Yeah, I understand perfectly well how you must be feeling, little dudette," Luna said in a sympathetic tone to her baby sister, "Our bro Lincoln is still steamed at the two of us for what happened back before he-"

"Lincoln forgave Lily a while ago," Lori's voice called out from behind Luna, making the musically inclined Loud sister turn to see the oldest of their number standing in the doorway.

"W…What?" Luna said in a shocked tone, sounding as if a huge metaphorical bomb had just been dropped on her.

With a sigh, Lori said, "Yeah, he did so shortly after dinner the night that he accepted Lucy as his sister again. From what Lisa told me, Lincoln said that he can't honestly hold anything against Lily due to the fact that she's just a baby and thus doesn't know any better. Likewise, Lincoln had also let Charles, Cliff, Walt and Geo off the hook because on the basis that they are all animals who acted out of instinct, not humans acting out of superstition."

"…Oh…" Luna remarked in a downcast tone. Looking down to the floor, Luna felt ashamed of herself, and for good reason. Sure, she had just as much to do with decrying Lincoln as bad luck as the rest of the family, but Luna would argue that out of everyone in the family, she felt the worst about driving Lincoln to the point of running away. After all, Luna felt that she was one of the girls who was closest to their white-haired brother; for crying out loud, she made his first concert experience one of the best nights of his life! So naturally, when the sole Loud boy began the process of forgiving the family, Luna assumed that she would be among the first that Lincoln would acknowledge as family again.

But Luna wasn't among the first. In fact, she was among the dead last.

Luna did not know what to make of this.

After another whine from Lily, Luna's attention was snapped back to reality. "So, wait," Luna began, "If Lily wasn't whining because Lincoln hadn't forgiven her, then why is she whining?"

As Luna and Lori both thought about why their baby sister was whining, Lori suddenly caught a whiff of the rather nasty smell of a number two. "…Lily is whining because she literally needs her diaper changed," Lori pointed out, "Luna, you're already holding Lily and you're closest to the changing station. Would you mind?"

"Yeah, sure," Luna replied, her tone indicating that she really didn't care that the job had been more or less shoved onto her. Luna's tone also carried a hint of resigned sadness. A sadness that wasn't banished from Luna's mind even by the smell of what Lily had done in her diaper. Luna's mind was far too weighed down by the weight of what she was thinking about; at one point, Luna would make the argument that out of all of her and all of the other Loud girls, that she was the one that had the highest standing with their only brother.

…But as things stood now, out of all of the Loud girls, Luna had no doubt that her standing with Lincoln was by far the lowest.


Later that day, Luna was walking along on the sidewalk somewhere in the residential area of Royal Woods. The musically inclined Loud sibling never felt lower in all of her life. Luna once felt that her sibling bond with Lincoln was stronger than the sibling bond that she had with any of her sisters. Hell, Luna would never say this out loud (nor would she ever write it in her journal because a certain tiara-wearing six-year-old would undoubtedly read it), but out of all of her siblings, Lincoln was without a doubt her favorite.

…But as far as Luna knew, out of her and the other Loud girls, she's Lincoln's least favorite.

Just thinking that made Luna's heart ache.

Normally, after leaving the house to get some fresh air, Luna would head straight to Sam's place; Sam was one hell of a girlfriend, and would undoubtedly try to cheer Luna up. But unfortunately for the musically inclined Loud sibling, Sam was unavailable due to a family-related issue that came up (this likewise left Winston unavailable to Lola), leaving Luna with just walking around outside in the hopes that the time outside and the fresh air would help her clear her head; Lily was taking a nap at the time Luna left on her walk, which nixed her usual option of jamming out to try and clear her head.

As Luna was walking, she heard a familiar male voice call out, "Oi, Lori's younger sister! Over here!" Looking up, Luna saw that not only had she by chance wandered into the part of the neighborhood where the Ace family lived, but that she was walking past their house while Aggro was standing in the front yard. Judging by the fact that he was carrying a small plastic shopping bag, the male Ace twin had just returned from a trip to the store. Luna decided to walk over so she could talk to the Swedish/Japanese seventeen-year-old.

"Aggro, what's up?" Luna asked.

Holding up the shopping bag he was carrying, Aggro said, "Astrid's fallen under the weather I'm afraid. Granted, this time has nothing to do with her usual sickness, but I'm still going to make sure that Astrid gets the rest she needs. I just came back from picking up some medicine, a can of tomato soup, and a few other things."

"Wait a minute," Luna began to reply, a confused look on her face, "Tomato soup? Don't people usually eat chicken noodle soup when they're sick?"

"Astrid prefers tomato soup," Aggro explained.

"Oh," Luna said, understanding why Aggro would deviate from the standard path. As Luna's previous somber expression started to return, the male Ace twin noticed the change.

"…You are troubled," Aggro remarked, "Do you wish to talk about it?"

"It's…a bit of a story," Luna replied, her tone somber and unsure.

Gesturing to his family's house, Aggro said, "Well other than Astrid, who's sick in bed, or any of the pets, I'm the only one home right now. I've got some time on my hands, so I'm willing to hear what's on your mind, provided that you're willing to share."

Luna was surprised that Aggro, of all people, would be willing to give her some of his time; she figured that Aggro would be more inclined to talk to Lori since they both know each other thanks to Allison, and Luna was with the other Loud girls one-hundred percent when it came to Leni trying to pursue a romantic relationship with the male Ace twin. But Aggro wants to talk to Luna? Still, the musically inclined Loud sibling felt like she needed to get something off of her chest, and Aggro just said that he's willing to lend her an ear. Who was she to decline?

"…You sure I won't be a bother?" Luna asked.

"I'm friends with your sister Lori, and I'm tutoring your brother Lincoln in Kendo," Aggro replied with a gentle and understanding smile, "Trust me, Luna, you won't be a bother." Luna smiled in an appreciative manner, happy that someone she knew and could trust was willing to hear her out.


After Aggro got the soup made for his little sister, he directed Luna to sit at the table so they could talk. At that point, Luna began to explain how her day was going; she was careful to leave out any and all details that were not to be made public knowledge, but Luna still told Aggro how she is the only one out of her and her sisters that hasn't been forgiven by Lincoln yet.

"…I see," Aggro remarked as he leaned back in his chair slightly, "I knew that out of you ten girls, that only four of you actively contributed to the suffering that compelled Lincoln-kun to run away from home, while the rest of the family had been duped into believing that it was just some sort of innocent game. I also knew that your brother has been slowly acknowledging your family little by little, and that he's even forgiven those who were directly responsible for driving him to the point that he ran away."

"Yeah, he has," Luna said in a remorseful tone, "But that's just it! Lincoln's let all of my sisters off the hook, but I'm still being strung up here!" Slumping in her seat, Luna added in a dejected tone, "And here I thought that Lincoln and I were close."

"…" Giving the musically inclined Loud sister a serious look, Aggro said, "…Lincoln-kun told Bobby and I about a nightmare that he had where he killed you." Upon hearing the male Ace twin say this, Luna sat back up instantly, her attention caught by Aggro.

"…Yeah," Luna replied in a resigned tone, "I know about that nightmare. Hell, I was the first one that Lincoln talked to about that dream. I remember waking up in the middle of the night by the sound of my little brother's frightened screaming. I was the first out of me and my sisters to reach Lincoln's room, and when I found him, he was sitting up in his bed, his face in his hands, and he was crying. I immediately sat down next to him and drew him into a hug to reassure him that everything was going to be alright. After he calmed down enough, Lincoln told me about his nightmare, and how he…" Pausing to take a steadying breath, Luna then continued, "…How he killed me in that nightmare. After a few minutes, I was able to get Lincoln to settle back down, so I left him to go back to bed. When I left Lincoln's room, I was greeted by all of my sisters. I told them that our brother had a bad dream where he killed someone. Since this happened shortly after Lincoln came back home, I didn't tell any of the girls who Lincoln killed in his nightmare. I didn't want any of my sisters thinking that Lincoln was so upset with us that he might try to kill one of us at some point."

Aggro sighed as he considered everything that Luna had just told him. "Rest assured that your brother does not wish to kill you or any of your sisters," the male Ace twin said, "Lincoln-kun confided in Bobby and I that he was afraid that because of the nightmare that he had, that he might have been turning into a monster."

"M-my little brother thought that he was turning into a monster?!" Luna nearly exclaimed, shocked by what she had just heard.

"Bobby and I assured your brother that he was by no means a monster," Aggro stated, "The nightmare had left him feeling spooked and disturbed, and he vehemently stated that what he did in his nightmare was something that he would never want to do in real life, either to you or any of your sisters." His expression acquiring a hint of sympathy, Aggro continued, "Your bother does not wish to hurt you."

"…Yeah," Luna replied, "But after finding out that I'm the only one out of me and my sisters that Lincoln hasn't let off the hook, I…I can't help but feel hurt, you know?"

"I can understand what you're getting at, Luna," remarked the Swedish/Japanese seventeen-year-old. His expression taking on a more serious hint, Aggro continued, "But answer me this. Do you believe that your brother will refrain from hurting you in return if you hurt him?" Luna's eyes widened out of a mix of shock and surprise when Aggro asked her that question.

"What do you mean?" Luna asked.

"No one's patience is unlimited," Aggro replied, "Even those who one would expect to always keep a cool demeanor will eventually explode if given sufficient prodding. I had been informed by Lori about what happened the night that Lincoln-kun returned home, that your older sister Leni struck your younger sister Lynn in the eye upon finding out the truth of the quote unquote 'game' that she had played. Lori said that before that night, she never would have expected Leni to ever physically strike someone. From what Lori told me about Leni and from what I've come to know about Leni due to how often she comes by to watch me tutor Lincoln-kun, I myself would never expect Leni to ever physically strike someone."

"Yeah, I'm in the same boat as you and Lori on that one," Luna remarked, "I was not counting on Leni punching Lynn in the eye, let me tell you."

"And yet Leni is very similar to your brother in this regard," Aggro said, "Just as Leni has limits to what she's willing to put up with, so does your brother." With a sigh, Aggro said, "From what I figure, out of you and all of your sisters, Lincoln-kun was hurt the most by your actions, even though you are not one of the four sisters who contributed directly to the suffering that made him run away."

"I…" Luna began, shocked by Aggro's assessment, "…I was the one who…who hurt Lincoln the most…?"

"If you really were as close of a sibling to your younger brother as you claim," Aggro began to explain, "Then he would have expected you to try and stand up for him, after your parents, along with Lori and Leni, were all duped by the four sisters that were directly responsible for his suffering." Giving Luna a wry look that conveyed disappointment, Aggro added, "And yet you followed along with what everyone else was doing. If Lincoln-kun really did feel closer to you than to any of your sisters, then you betraying that trust hurt him more than anything else that any of your sisters had done. It's little wonder that your little brother hasn't forgiven you, even though he forgave all four of the sisters that were directly responsible for his suffering." He had been leaning forward somewhat at this point, so Aggro leaned back in his seat as he crossed his arms over his chest while giving Luna a disappointed scowl.

"All that Luan, Lynn, Lola and Lisa did was bully Lincoln-kun," Aggro said to Luna, "But with how you betrayed his trust in you, Luna, you broke his heart."

Even though Aggro didn't reach across and physically smacked Luna in the face as hard as he could, the musically inclined Loud sister felt as if the male Ace twin had just done so with the last few words he had just spoken. Is…is that why Lincoln hasn't forgiven her yet? She broke his heart with how she was quick to side with the family back when they thought he was bad luck? If that was true, then Luna would be beyond guilty, even more so than she already was.

"What…" Luna began, finding herself barely able to find the words as tears started to well up upon the revelation of just how badly she hurt her little brother, "…What should I do, Aggro? How…how do I make things right?"

With a resigned sigh, Aggro replied, "Luna, if I knew the answer to that question, then I would have given it to you in a heartbeat. But I have no clue what to tell you. This is something that only you can figure out." Giving Luna a sympathetic look, Aggro added, "But I hope that you figure out what that something is. Both for Lincoln-kun's sake and for yours. The suffering that the both of you are going through is not something that I would ever wish upon anyone."

Managing as much of a smile as she could, Luna replied, "Thanks, dude."

"Well Allison did say that you and your family were friends with us and our family," Aggro said, "It is only natural for one to lend aid to one's friends when they are in need of it. I hope that our talk did something to help you, Luna." Luna considered Aggro's words just now, considered everything that she and him had talked about. She knew that the male Ace twin had made a few good points, and she intended to act accordingly.

"…Yeah, Aggro," Luna replied, sounding like she had an idea on what to do, "It gave me a lot to think about." After thanking Aggro for his time, Luna respectfully took her leave. The musically inclined Loud sister then made her way home, planning out what she was going to do the entire walk back.


Later, back at the Loud family residence, Lori and Leni were heading over to their family's garage, where one can usually expect to find Luna. "What do you think Luna is doing in the garage, Lori?" Leni asked, "She, like, doesn't have any friends over to play music with."

"I literally have no idea what to tell you," Lori replied as the two oldest Loud girls entered the garage through a door on the side. Upon entering the garage, Lori and Leni found Luna doing a mike check while she was holding her standard purple electric guitar. Additionally, they also saw that Sam had come over and was also holding a guitar herself, and even Luna's roadie Chunk was here, sitting at a drum set as he made sure it was working properly. "…Uhh, Luna?" Lori called out, getting Luna, Sam and Chunk to all stop what they were doing and look over to see her standing there with Leni. Putting her hands on her hips, Lori asked, "What are you doing? I hope you aren't planning to play any of your music, because Lily is still taking a nap."

"Lori, relax," Sam remarked, "Luna said that we aren't going to play any music until after the little dude gets back from hanging out with his friends."

"Wait a minute," Leni began, "You mean Linky?"

"Who's Linky?" Sam replied, a confused look on her face.

"That's the nickname that Leni gave to Lincoln," Luna explained to her girlfriend. Facing her older sisters, Luna said, "Yes, we're going to wait for Lincoln to get back. After all, he's the one that we're going to be throwing this little concert for!"

"Seriously?" Lori said, crossing her arms over her chest as she gave her musically inclined younger sister a mildly confused look, "You're going to be playing music for Lincoln?"

"Well why not?" Luna replied, "I mean, we all screwed up big time, and we've all did our part to try and make things right." Gesturing to what she and her band were doing, Luna added, "All of this is my part."

"…Well if there's one thing that I can't deny, is that you and Lincoln do have similar tastes in music," Lori remarked as she gave a mildly amused smirk, "What with him liking SMOOCH." Lowering her arms, Lori continued as she gestured to where Luna and her band were setting up, "Yeah, I literally can't see how this would go wrong. I bet that Lincoln will love this."

"You know it!" Luna replied, pointing to Lori in a commending manner, "Anywho, the dudes here and I have to get back to getting ready for the performance." Turning to regard Leni specifically, Luna said, "And this is supposed to be a surprise for Lincoln. Meaning that he isn't supposed to know about it until he enters the garage when he gets back home. Meaning don't say anything about this to Lincoln."

"Why were you, like, facing me when you said all of that?" Leni asked, an innocently confused look on her face.

"Because you have a history when it comes to spoiling surprises," Lori answered in Luna's place, knowing full well what Luna was trying to get at. As the two oldest Loud girls left the garage, Lori said to Leni, "Seriously, Leni. Why did you send Lisa an invite to the surprise party that we were going to throw for her?"


A short while later, right as Luna was going over some lyrics she wrote for the song that she was going to perform for Lincoln, Lincoln himself came walking into garage, having returned from hanging out with his friends. The sole Loud boy was accompanied by Lori. "I was told that you wanted to see me when I got back from hanging out with my friends?" Lincoln said to Luna in a questioning tone.

"Dude! Glad you can make it," Luna remarked in a clearly delighted tone as she saw her little brother. Gesturing to what she, Sam and Chunk were doing, Luna said, "Since I know you're still a little upset about what the girls and I did a while ago, I figured that a little performance here would be just the thing to get you jamming out with all of us again."

"…You don't say," Lincoln replied, his voice cooling over a bit. Luna, who was too excited about the performance that she and her band were about to do, along with Sam and Chunk themselves, did not notice the change in Lincoln's tone. However, Lori did notice the change, and it had her a bit worried.

"Alright, dudes," Luna said as she turned to face her band. When Luna turned to face Sam and Chunk, Lincoln took a mini notepad and a pen out, flipped the pad open, and began to write down a little note. "Let's get this party started!" Luna exclaimed, "A one, a two, a one two-" Luna was cut off when Lincoln held something out to her. Looking to see what it was, Luna saw that is was a note. Luna also saw, to her mild worry, that Lincoln was wearing a scowl on his face. With a bit of trepidation, Luna took the note from Lincoln, and as soon as the note was out of his hand, the white-haired boy turned around and left the garage, closing the side door behind him somewhat forcefully, although it was not an outright door slam.

Everything was quiet for a bit after Lincoln more or less stormed out of the garage, and the quiet was not broken until Lori dared to speak up. "What…what does the note say?" Lori asked, sounding as if she were afraid to find out the answer. Luna held the note up so she could read it, but she also feared what her little brother had written. The musically inclined Loud sister was right to worry, because what she read was nothing short of devastating;

If you think that doing what you always do to make up for everything will get me to forgive you, then you have another thing coming. ~Lincoln

P.S.: How DARE you.

Shocked beyond belief, Luna's arm that was held up simply fell to her side, with the note slipping out of her grasp. It fell near Lori, who bent over to pick it up. After reading the brief statement, Lori's eyes widened. "…Oh dear," Lori remarked in a concerned tone. Walking over to Luna, Lori gently laid a hand on her younger sister's right shoulder as she said, "Luna? Are you going to be okay?"

"I…" Luna replied in a heartbroken tone, "…I don't know, dude. I…just don't know." Walking over to a guitar stand, Luna continued in the same heartbroken tone as she placed her guitar on the stand, "Sam, Chunk, I think we should pack it up here. This gig was a bust."

"Whoa, bummer, dude," Sam remarked as she went over to a guitar case that was on the floor so she could put her guitar away. As Sam and Chunk proceeded to go about putting the musical instruments away, Luna looked up at Lori. The musically inclined Loud sibling looked as if she were about to cry. Lori knew that Luna was not feeling okay, so she gently drew her younger sister into a hug, with Luna's face buried in Lori's right shoulder.

Luna proceeded to soak that area of Lori's tank top by crying.

END, RESTORED IMAGE CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Author's notes:

…Yeah, Luna is the only one of the Loud girls to have not been forgiven yet. Also, I've been wanting to toy with the idea where a sister tried to make amends with Lincoln, but he rejected their attempt. Don't worry, not all hope for Luna is lost, and in the next chapter, things will be picking up from where they left off here. As a side note, I'm going to wrap up this story in the next few chapters, partly because I'm wanting to make some final touches on that collection of one-shots (and my pet project) that I keep talking about before I get it up on this site, and partly because I have other things to work on.

Such as my stories 'Awkward Hero' and 'Broken Mirror: New War'.

By the way, thanks to Dread55 (I hope I got that right) for inspiring how I could have Luna go about trying to become Lincoln's sister again. I hope you don't mind that I borrowed some of your ideas.