A/N: What am I doing on here? Eh, I got a few ideas for some fanfiction so I'll post them here. This takes place a year after the events of Suite and Sour and L is for Love, and the parents have quietly divorced.
Inspired by an RP idea thought up by Norththegem on tumblr. Check us out at "oneforall-allforeleven" over on tumblr!
Rose Grove
After 12 years of living on this earth, Lincoln finally got an actual room all to himself. While he did used to live in a linen closet, this was the first room he had that really was his own room. He ecstatically started to plan out his decorations, wondering where each of his Ace Savvy and 18th Century Field Cannon posters should go. He began to unpack. Of his few personal belongings, the most he owned where his comic books, a few changes of the same orange polo and jeans combo, and his laptop. Unlike one of his sisters, he didn't have a problem leaving some of his stuff behind. Speaking of them, most of the house was out furniture shopping. Apart from the mattresses bought this morning, the house was completely unfurnished. All five of the Loud kids groaned and complained about this, but they couldn't really argue. Mom and Dad were separated, and half of them were going to move to California. Life was going to be better, right? Less distractions and the land of opportunity kept the paternal half of the Loud House excited for the future ahead of them.
Lincoln's face went cold. He loved his father, he really did. But there was one thing he really didn't understand. Why now? Everything just seemed… so sudden. There wasn't much fanfare, and that's what surprised him the most. He didn't want to bring it up to the old man, it just wasn't the right time. When was it really, though? Lincoln shook his head as he lay down on his new mattress, which lie shoved in the corner of the floor. He stared up at his new ceiling. It was a bland off-white, glow fortified by the fluorescent light bulb that dominated the scene. The only thing Lincoln knew for certain was that this wasn't the Loud House. Mom owned that place now. For Lincoln, it was history. Yes, he could see it every once in a while, but that didn't mean anything if he didn't see the rest of his family. He was used to the chaos, but now the new house was too quiet for its own good.
A knock snapped Lincoln out of his trance. "Come in," he said.
Luan stepped through the threshold. "Hi Lincoln." She said as she walked over to his bed, sitting down.
"This is real, right Luan?" Lincoln asked.
Luan sighed, "I had to close down Funny Business. Of course it's real Lincoln."
Lincoln obviously knew it was real life, but he hardly felt like a human anymore. He sat up to hug his comedian sister. "I know, but it's just..." Lincoln trailed off. He didn't like to admit whenever he'd feel emotional, but sometimes it would just begin to come out on its own.
Luan noticed his frown and perked up. "Why the long face, Link? You seem to have been broken up all day today!" She laughed at her own stupid joke, but immediately stopped when she noticed Lincoln glaring back with a nonverbal contempt. It was her turn to frown now. Not everyone was able to turn a less than ideal situation into a joke goldmine. Luan wasn't even dealing with the situation very well on her own part. The more she tried to joke about the divorce, the more she realized that maybe she wasn't that funny. While she had been able to let go of that mindset before, that was when the other half of her family was there. That was when she could bounce jokes off of Luna. Lynn wasn't quite as receptive to that idea as Luan had hoped, if her missing scrunchy thrown off the Nebraska freeway and bruised shoulder was anything to say.
All Lincoln wanted to do was yell at Luan for how tasteless her joke was and how much she wasn't funny right now. It wasn't immediately obvious, but he felt a strange feeling of emptiness filter into his skin. Lincoln wouldn't be able to jam out with Luna ever again, hunt ghosts with Lucy, or save animals with Lana for a long time. To him this was a family travesty, and here was Luan treating it like a sketch. Yet, Lincoln could only mope to himself. Was he the reason the divorce happened? Or was it Luan?
She hugged him back. "I'm sorry Lincoln. Seriously, I'm having a lot of trouble going through this as well. You could say I'm split by the situation—" Luan slapped her forehead, "God dammit, sorry."
Lincoln rolled his eyes "It's alright," his voice cracked.
The next few moments hung in the stale offwhite air. Luan didn't bother to put up her ponytail anymore, and Lincoln's usually well trimmed hair was starting to show its' length. They both knew what the divorce meant for them, but they couldn't help thinking it was their own fault, no matter how much their father insisted
Luan gave a pained sigh, "I'm a shitty comedian, aren't I?"
Lincoln felt his gut wrench as he heard this statement. Even if she was sometimes a bit too much for her peers, Luan was the funniest one of his sisters, and he loved whenever she told stories or when he saw her stand-up routines. He assisted in her clowning business, so if anyone knew how funny she was, it was him. Yet, of all of his sisters, Luan cursed less than normal. Yeah, Lynn and Luna would constantly curse whenever Mom and Dad weren't home, and Lori would throw in precision f-bombs whenever the phone connection died. Luan, normally jolly in tone, just called herself 'shitty.' Not bad, not subpar, 'shitty.'
He stood up. "You're not shitty," Lincoln started, "I know you're not shitty because I've been through your comedy sets and loved them!"
To his surprise, Luan actually began to get mad. "You tolerated them because you're family. You were my assistant." Luan snapped. "You don't actually think I'm funny."
Lincoln jumped. "No, Luan," he said, voice cracking, "I really do think you're funny!"
"Oh yeah?" Luan jumped up and stomped her way to the door. "Tell that to Mom. I bet she was torn apart when she sent me— Oh god dammit!"
Lincoln winced as Luan slammed the door. He fell onto the bed and groaned. Why was Luan acting so moody recently? Lucy stayed with Mom, wasn't she supposed to be the moody one? Lincoln lingered on about how many Luan was going through one of her "moody phases," which only got him thinking about his own future. He hadn't quite hit that growth spurt yet, but he was anticipating it any second now. He already had the Talk with his Dad, but now his Dad was going to be working overtime much more often. It was necessary to pay the rent, yet Lincoln felt cheated out. All his sisters got to talk about the issue of growing up and they all had a way to vent their feelings. There was an untold rule in the house that one always talked to their next sibling up when it came to that stuff. Lincoln tried to air his grievances to Lynn, but it always ended the same way: "Get over it."
Rolling out of bed and leaving the boxes untouched on the floor, Lincoln walked out to the hall and climbed down the stairs. There wasn't any couches or seats since both of the Lynns and Lola were out shopping for furniture. Thankfully, their father had kept Vanzilla, or else he wouldn't have been able to go anywhere. While he would have been able to call a moving van to move his children's stuff across the country, he preferred to keep things small. In the end, everyone had to drop their stuff in Royal Woods and only bring one box. In the end, that was all that could fit into Vanzilla without completely weighing it down on its way to California. Lincoln could never forget how spacious the van he knew all his life could get when you removed Mom and six of his sisters.
The drive over was hellish in the summer heat of late August. While the midwest was considerably humid in the summer, the weather began to dry up the further from Michigan they got. They got back in touch with Lori and Bobby after a brief visit to Chicago, where she was attending school. Lincoln enjoyed seeing Ronnie for the last time there, but dinner and sleeping over at the Casagrandes was over in a flash, and before they knew it, the Louds were back on the road. Once in Iowa, the humidity spiked through the roof, and every pitstop covered half the family in mosquito bites. Virtually the only upside to that half of the drive was stopping in Denver for the night. The city was rather chill and exciting, with even Lola saying it was pretty, even if it did smell like skunks. Yet, they had to press through the Rockies to Salt Lake City, escape the arid salt flats toward Reno, and of course, beyond the Sierra Nevada into the Sacramento Valley. None of the Loud children had even heard of Sacramento before they found out they were going to move there. Naturally, after finding out it was the capital of California, they had high hopes for the city itself. Those expectations blew up in flames like the dead brush in the hellish California summer.
In the end, Dad found a place in Rose Grove that was cheap and had a decent neighborhood. The only problem was that he worked in the Bay Area and had to commute two hours each way by Amtrak train every day. Of course, the neighborhood was nothing like Franklin Street in Royal Woods. The blistering afternoon heat nearly gave the pasty skinned children a sunburn as they rushed into the shade of the McMansion's canopy. Soon enough, Lynn, Sr took a tour of the place, signed the paperwork, and was handed the keys.
From the outside, the house was pretty… big and bland. Every single house on the block looked exactly the same. Lola summarized it perfectly when she snarled about how it was probably the most boring place on the planet. Inside, the house was a eyesoring offwhite, just like the rest of the bedrooms. Lynn, Sr made sure to emphasize that the kids couldn't do anything reckless around here. They were renting, and he needed the deposit back incase anything bad happened.
All four bedrooms were upstairs, Lincoln and Lynn Sr were the only ones to live in their own rooms. Luan shared a room with Lynn and Lola shared her room with Lily. Lincoln assumed the same thing would happen when the other siblings would move in here: Leni with Luna and Lana with Lisa? Thinking of this reminded him of the crappy situation his parents made him go through. The empty, newly rented house didn't make him feel any happier. Before long, he found himself resenting everything. He couldn't help but think of why this had to happen. He didn't hear too many arguments between the parents. He knew he shouldn't be snooping around, so he didn't. The snoopiest of his snoopiest sisters should have some information on why they broke up, yet even Lola didn't have anything.
Recounting all the sisters who moved to California with him, Lincoln tried to reason why they would break apart. Their Mom had always had problems with Lynn's recklessness, and never so much as cracked a smile at Luan's pranks. Those two were hands down Dad's favorites, with Lincoln being in close third. But why Lola and Lily? Yeah, Lola might have been a spoiled brat, but Mom was always there to cheer her on during the pageant season and always assisted with her career as much as she could. Lily was a complete wildcard, but why did she go to Dad? Sure, she was now old enough to say basic phrases and chew her own food, yet Mom didn't want her. Counting off who was with who, he noticed a pattern: none of the roommates stayed with each other.
Lincoln looked beyond on both sides of his block. Everything was a beige or brown, except for the tiny, sparkling lawns that shouldn't have existed given how hot this place was. Lincoln wasn't too familiar with Californian Geography, so he just assumed it was all a desert outside. It had to be. Rose Grove was about the most average town he had seen since leaving Nebraska, and it didn't look like it was getting better any minute. At the very least, Vanzilla pulled into the driveway just in time to save him from the eyesore that was suburban California. Lincoln was about to wave hello, only to see his father more than a bit miffed, and his three other sisters looking defeated as they began to haul the new furniture to the car.
A/N: I'll be posting more probably. Check for updates!