From the words and sentences from Flagg's Weekend At Leia's, commissioned by none other than me (also commissioned a Lucenda fic), comes a different story founded on the concept.

A Pale Within Dark Shadows, featuring Leia, Lupa and a third Sin Kid. Let us begin.

Friday Night

Leia peeked her head through the white curtains of the creaking house, hearing the medium roar of the running engine fade, and the headlights of the gray 2023 Subaru Outback disappear among the narrow, long trees. The white and red flashes were gone in seconds, but in rather long seconds when Leia truly focused on them, and she knew she did for a fact. She was alone- despite the company of Lupa Loud- for mother dearest had put her away for the long weekend, just three nights, Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, and the two days on the weekend, to be with Winston McCauley, a handsome man of money, a name to make the suburban residents gawk at the presence of him, and of an assortment of chiseled features. That man was the he who was courting, seeing her mother for about a month.

A month... The same amount of time where and when mother and daughter had broken away from daddy dearest and the House of Incest. That thought again, nothing more than a recollection, a reminder to Leia that things could never, would never stay the same forever. No more daddy of white hair. No more waking up to Lacy's hyperactive wake-up morning routines. No lizards in her bed. No smelly boys with scruffy hair. Nothing of the sort. Then again-

Her eyes half-closed in utter hopelessness after awhile, and still she continued to stare into the avid darkness. And in that darkness, she only saw- felt- that it was just like her future; unclear, unknown and mysterious. Anything could have been, but in her mind, and all that she wished for, was to not lose her mother, as it stood. All the things she missed out with her father had hurt her enough, all the while Lola had spent most of her days working a clothes department from mornings to night, cook and feed the eleven-year-old, and not much when it used to be different. No... No, all of this right now was the difference. Strange. Erratic.

"Eheh..." Lupa brought herself to snicker, leaning back in perfect conformity on the red leather couch that made that unbearable sound Leia really disliked. "You miss your mommy, you little shit?"

Leia had known Lupa to be quite the pottymouth; a girl cold to the brim, lacking outside empathy, maybe a soul even. She was a five-foot-seven lump of vulgar and odd pale skin, almost chalk white at most. The older girl had short hair of the albino type, right after her father, and was the only one of Leia's half-siblings to possess Lincoln's hair color. Of all babysitters she could have gotten, it just had to be the one least qualified for the job. Leia never turned back to see her but had rolled her eyes, annoyed, saying, "I didn't say anything," to deny that fact that she felt should not have been painfully obvious. "Shut up."

Lupa snickered hideously and leaned her head back upon the couch, letting out a comfortable moan. "She'll be back Monday morning, kiddo, stop staring outside the window."

Leia had wished not to hear Lupa, but the girl had some reason, and Leia inevitably took her gaze away from the window, letting the curtains meet once again to block out the view to the cold outside. She sighed and sat back on the small blue sofa she had gotten on, still silent and now faced Lupa with a blank face.

"Geez," Lupa had heard Leia move about briefly. She opened her cold blue eyes and tilted her head back above her neck. "You're not gonna just sit there, are you?"

Leia spoke up, but a faint whisper had only eluded right through her soft lips. "Mm."

"Whatever, aunt said I can help to whatever's in the fridge," Lupa reminded her sibling. "You guys better have those bomb Hot Pockets. Mama loves 'em."

"We have pizza rolls in the freezer, knock yourself out."

"Ugh, seriously?" Lupa showed disgust and let out an impatient groan. "That's the stuff of babies, Leia."

"Well, I like them!" Leia protested, defending her favorite pizza snack. "And I don't need to be grown-up to be grown out of it! Just cause you found something you think is better-"

"Oh, honey, I know these Pockets are better!" Lupa boasted. "Bigger and more filling! They're the real thing in comparison to those like square things, ew!"

"I feel bad for you then," Leia crossed her arms, pouted her lips and then stuck her tongue out at Lupa.

"Whatever, brat..." Lupa turned her attention away from the blonde and wandered into the kitchen as if she hadn't just been shouting back and forth with her. "God, I am craving something yummy... What else do you have?"

"Didn't mom say you could help yourself to whatever's in the fridge?" Leia waved off. "Honestly, this was a mistake, I don't need a babysitter-"

"Oh, really?" Lupa opened the fridge and found a plastic container of chicken katsu strips and took them out, licking her lips with delighted content. Her stomach had growled, rumbling through the rest of her body. "Do you mean you don't need one or is it me you don't want as one? Because...-" She closed the fridge and proceeded towards the microwave, plucking the container open. "-I don't want to be here either, but when aunt Lola was looking for a babysitter, my mom basically forced me because she thinks it's for my own good!"

Leia drew close to the kitchen, peeking her head and putting her hand right at the rear of the entryway. "As much as I'd like to laugh at your expense, I hate this just as much! It could've been Lyra, maybe Loan. Or not any babysitter at the very least! Here's an idea, why don't you just leave and come back Sunday night?"

"No can do," Lupa answered, setting her night dinner into the microwave. "I have to keep checking in with my mom at certain intervals. I'm... I'm fucking trapped here for the entire weekend with you."

Leia leaned against the doorway and flicked with her fingers, admiring her polished pink nails, humored away by Lupa's whining and suffering. "Well, I suppose it can't be all that bad..."

"I can feel you smirking..." Lupa seethed. "Wipe that smug look off your face, you little gremlin."

Leia's smile only widened. "I'm not doing anything-"

Lupa turned fast to see Leia having a joyous moment- and her cold glare shone devilishly bright to wash it away, reducing it to a neutral form. "I'm in charge, you do as I say, that means you'll go to bed..." Lupa trailed off to look at her phone, which told her it was only eight and a quarter in. "Fifteen minutes."

"F-fifteen?!" Leia squealed out. "It's only eight o'clock! I get to bed at least around nine-"

"Yeah, with mommy!" Lupa's turn to smile had come, and with that, she let Leia know who had the dominance around. "Do I look like your fucking mommy?"

Leia grew angry, but to fight Lupa had been a death wish on its own, a move not so smart. Lupa was some type of sadist, a maniac with quite the open mouth that needed dire cleaning due to all the profanity that she spewed carelessly. Hell, maybe if she cursed more, she'd be falsely diagnosed- Falsely? No, she would definitely have Tourette's Syndrome. "That- that's not fair-"

"Yeah?" Lupa brushed at her hair the way snobbish teen girls would. "Hmph, who said life was fair? I'm sorry, but your mom might just be doing a shitty job in raising a piece of shit like you."

"P-piece of-?" Leia's lips shook and quivered, heart sinking down from its normal place. These were mere words that had no ground to make Leia budge emotionally, but tonight had felt rather different. For starters, it was just the two of them, and this wasn't Lupa's typical barrage of insults for the common jokes and giggles she'd unload on her cousins like Lemy and Lyle. This felt more of a pent-up rage, and that's why it was weird for Leia. Not once could she ever say she had a real issue with Lupa. Sure, the albino girl had quite a tongue and was, to a degree, a bad girl, a rowdy punk who disliked most if not all people for reasons Leia could never understand. "I- I'm not even-"

"You're not what?" Lupa ignored the beeping the microwave blared, letting her know the food had finished heating. "You gonna stand and cry like a bitch until you fall and piss yourself? Huh?"

Leia had grown on the verge of tears, struggling to break away from Lupa's contact. "Whuh-whuh-why are you so mean?! I didn't d-do anything!"

"Is it not clicking?" Lupa advanced towards Leia. "I've made it perfectly clear, Leia. I hate you, that's what you've done! You've made me utterly, in a sickening manner, hate you."

"Wha-?" Leia was still confused. "What have I done?! I didn't do anything!" By then, her eyes had laced themselves in red and the tears streamed down her petite little face. "I didn't do-"

One second later, the sound of a heavy slap echoed through the house. Leia's head was facing straight left but looked downwards, a simple hand hovering over the impacted area to caress and rub on it. Lupa kept her arm raised up and placed in between their faces, sternly and most assuredly angrily glaring down at Leia. The kitchen and living room had their atmospheres so quiet that it was as if they were afraid to make noise, to let alone stir even the tiniest of sound. Lupa felt the sting in her hand shortly after, but didn't fret in comparison to the blonde, the one who began to bawl for just about every reason she could gradually think of.

How dare mother run off with some man whom had worked his way into her heart and took her away from her motherly obligations of that wonderful love, attention and raising just for the growing daughter. They'd marry, of course, and Leia would have a replacement father, swell! But no, she didn't ask for it. Not for her dear old mother to break away from the family they had, for her to be separated from her father. It played in her mind and the scenarios, the logic state of the thoughts kept on making sense.

"I didn't do anything... Why-?" Her voice never remained steady as she spoke; her feelings were true and they could only be true in this cold, lonely night. "Why? Why did she...?"

Lupa began stuffing down her chicken strips down the gutter, munching and swallowing without any sense of decency. "Why did who what now?" she asked with her mouth full, so messily spewing bits of chicken out. Pity there was no barbecue sauce around, meaning Aunt Lola was as she had been described to Lupa; a high-end woman with a dieting lifestyle who went easy on the foods. That meant more like a vegetarian than a meat-eater. Barf! Lupa could never sit on the idea of living on tofu, those nutcases, but had accepted this part of the family tree as potentially doomed. Hell, maybe Leia could still be turned- salvaged to like meat- assuming Lola never passed those tastes down. "Want some uh this?"

"I'm not hungry!" Leia shrieked.

"What is this anyway?" Lupa had tried strips from the fast food chains around and some less savory store brand ones, but these pieces of chicken katsu were definitely something else, majestically yummy, a delicacy that made her taste buds yearn for more as they danced crazily, quite content and amazed by the godly flavors that unloaded onto the red carpet that was her tongue. Yes! More! Lupa chewed and swallowed the fragments of heaven, no longer in terrible regret of being present. "Christ, this crap ain't bad!"

"It's Hawaiian, I think," Leia responded, already weakening mentally. "She left it for me but-"

"Wait, this was yours?" Lupa slowed her munching. "No one told me!"

"Don't worry, I'm not a fan anyway," Leia assured.

"Don't like it?" Lupa only found herself puzzled. "Then why did she put it out for you to take?"

And Leia's silence was not an admissible answer Lupa accepted, only helped to add to the confusion.

"You don't know?" Lupa swallowed again, clearing the inside of her mouth. How obnoxious could the albino be? "Hey..." And then, Lupa wrapped up her eating and returned what was left in the container she held back in the fridge. "You know what?"

Leia's lifeless eyes kept up on her cousin. "Yeah?"

"You're right, you didn't do anything," Lupa decided, having re-evaluated Leia. "You're a brat and all and I still wanna be far away from this place but..." She tisked and sighed and shook her head for the first time, acknowledging her own severity. "I'm sorry, I stepped too much out of line."

"Y-you really did," Leia quickly agreed, nodding away.

"So uh..." Lupa nodded back awkwardly, shrugging her shoulders. "If you're not hungry, then you've eaten before I came?"

"Yuh-huh," Leia went. "Am I still going to bed early?"

Lupa spread her lips apart, a firm and quick answer already on her mind, but they quickly closed again and there she was, going soft on Leia for some reason that was, for certain, slightly out of character for herself. But now, Lupa wasn't so agitated and enraged, but rather calm, tranquil and best of all, a soul considerate of Leia's wellbeing and health. "No, you can stay up with me, but not too late, okay?"

This radiating change in Lupa was exactly what Leia needed to not break from the pressure of the main crisis the blonde was subjected to; one such crisis that she didn't even understand completely, nor how to describe it- yet the right words had gone spoken and understood to Lupa-

Wait.

Lupa was older, then perhaps... Was the albino relative wise? Leia didn't consider it before but now it might've been possible that, once upon a time, Lupa was right in Leia's shoes, playing the same role, suffering and wandering about like a helpless fawn that wandered a dark, wide forest lonesome. Yes of course! Had to be! Lupa was a child once, had to learn to face the world solo at certain times of her life when her own mother had to walk and close the door that separated them. However different those scenarios played out, it didn't differ in general, for it had happened just the same, and maybe-

No, most definitely, Lupa was here to present answers. As cold as she could ever be, Lupa would naturally tell it like it was to draw out as much pain from Leia as possible just for the sake of satisfying entertainment to fill her own amusement.

Just maybe Lupa was arranged here strategically so that Leia could take tips to become independent and realize a mother's love wasn't the only thing there was in life. But for the growing girl to heed words forged by the lips of ice and a heart of drying cement, it would prove disastrous, and the night of young had a long way to go.

"Do you mean that?" Leia formed puppy eyes widely, her personal cheat code to utilize at the times when either things weren't going her way, or to put on the pure innocent facade- no way did she believe Lupa could be bought into letting her off the hook with those adorable pair of eyes, the bitch. "You're the best cousin ever!"

"Don't push it," Lupa groaned, proceeding to give herself a tour around the house. For her, this had been the first time to ever step foot in Aunt Lola's place; it was not the nice little house on a suburban neighborhood like she'd imagine, given that Lola gave off a suburban mother vibe to her. Instead, this was a quiet house at the end of the street, backyard facing a small forest with layers of snow covering the ground. In fact, it was nothing at all like Lupa had in mind. "So you lived in this house all your life?"

"Eh?" Leia slapped her arms to her hips. "You've never once visited us, not even when I was a baby?"

"Pffft," Lupa went as she examined the shelves of fresh china and collectible trinkets from the hobby Lola seemed to have. "Only other time we've met up was at Aunt Luna's place, and you did nothing but cry, cause you know, baby and all."

"I see the others more frequently," Leia shared.

"I bet you do," was Lupa's dry reply. "Not my cup of tea, although I do talk with them sometimes online. Usually I ignore them, but Lacy's pretty funny, injuring herself in sports." She laughed, picturing that time Lacy had been on a wheelchair for three months after breaking her right leg playing basketball. "I like Lacy."

"You like Lacy's pain," Leia corrected. "That's mean."

"Whatever, at least I talk to her, unlike you. But I know you only engage with our cousins in person, which is only on holidays and some other special occasion. What's your excuse?"

"I don't see the point in social media, I talk to my friends in school as it is."

"Sure, but wouldn't you want to keep up with those far from you? And what if your friends want to hang out with you?"

"Then they'd tell me at school," Leia answered slowly, feeling Lupa's questions were unbearably stupid. "Nchh, it's not hard to figure it out."

Lupa snorted, amused. "You didn't answer my question, so I'll ask again. Why don't you wants to associate with our cousins? And don't say you're not interested in messaging any of them. It takes no effort to do that, and last I checked, you're online. So..." Lupa took to the burgundy couch and laid over it completely, her head resting on the arm rest. "C'mon, humor me, I just wanna know why."

"Why?" Leia raised the defenses. This was, after all, the witch of ice she conversed with. "Feels like you're gonna just make fun of me."

"Oh?" Lupa rubbed her chin maniacally. "So there is a reason you're estranged from the group. I knew there was something up, but the others just thought you were shy, maybe even second-guessed spending your time online. You know, I was once hesitant of joining social media, too. I didn't know what to expect, considering at school they showed us how unsafe the internet was, and not to mention a talk my mom had with me the day she gifted me my first phone. I was younger than you, even, but I kinda freaked about the shit I'd be getting into."

"You were scared of what you'd come across?"

"Sure..." Lupa nodded reluctantly, her sinister demeanor changing- fading into her inside. "Look, I have no intent to make you a laughing stock for everyone to ridicule you, but I'm not above having my own chuckle."

"I knew it!" Leia readied her hands to begin attacking Lupa, hoisting them up in front of her chest. "You sicko!"

"Calm down," Lupa eased, lifting a hand to diffuse her. "You wouldn't have trusted me, so I gave you something from me, Leia. Did I not?"

"Y-yeah, you have-" Leia kept still, trying to decide what Lupa's game was. "Now you want me to share, to tell you what I feel, and how or why I feel that way, but I won't."

"No?"

"You can't make me, so I'd stop asking if I were you."

"And you aren't me, so bite me," Lupa barked, yawning. "I believe you said it's not hard to figure out, so I wonder if you also mean that about this as well. Actually..." Turned out, Lupa had a good head on her shoulders, for she had gotten a logically sound theory why Leia avoided social media, as opposed to Aunt Lola being a TikTok/Instagram active poster. Cringe. The line between mother and daughter, of turns, shapes and random squiggles; there was more difference between them under the surface that proudly defeated the similarities they lived, fit into to wear. Lupa had only seen a junior version of Leia even as little as she'd known her, but perhaps she was wrong to apply the labels automatically. "That's it, isn't it?"

"What's it?"

Lupa sat upright and formed a wide, arrogant smile; she felt like Sherlock Holmes solving and foiling Professor Moriarty's next sinister scheme. Raising her hand, the mighty Lupa snapped her fingers and revealed the answer that echoed in her mind. "You're afraid of us."

"Afraid-? How did-?" Leia stuttered gibberish, letting out moans after while rapidly shaking to deny the idea to Lupa, not thinking that she was saying yes more than the no she hoped Lupa would accept flatly. She didn't.

"Of course you are!" Lupa ventured further, "I get it, the rest of us are in our teen years, minds already developed past the childhood phase. You see us as adults, or such, right?" Lupa adjusted herself to get more comfortable on the couch, turning to the side. "That's a stereotype straight from an MTV show, or CW maybe, but Lemy and Lacy do stunts like they're trying to recreate Jackass, do you really think we're the serious, dramatic type of teenager? Please!" Lupa broke into laughter, composed of the mocking variety, and the great amusement she found in it. How silly, how dramatic could Leia have been? In that, there might not have been a limit, or maybe there was, not yet reached by Lupa. "Oh my G-Hahahaha!"

"Not funny!" Leia squealed with her high pitch. "You really are mean!"

Lupa kept up, now cackling away. "SHE THINKS WE ALL ACT LIKE ADULTS!" she howled aloud, continuing the hysterical laughter. "WOMAN, PLEASE!" And clapped wildly.

Leia had crossed her arms and was about to turn away when a pair of round orange lights came into focus, first shining on the windows, and then the room as the source grew nearer. Headlights. "Hey, who is that?"

Lupa flipped over on her stomach and looked outside. "Is that your mom?" Lupa asked, still letting out the last of her laughs. She coughed to clear herself, tapping lightly upon her A-size chest. "Adults."

"Can you not?!"

Lupa bounced to her feet, approaching the window. She stuck her face against the glass and made a terrifying face. "Maybe if I creep them the fuck out, they'll scram like their name was-"

The vehicle had pulled to a stop on the covered driveway, headlights turning off for Lupa to finally recognize the vehicle as a Grand Cherokee of a dark purple color. "You've gotta be fucking shitting me..."

"What, you know who that is? And could you stop that pottymouth language?" Leia hissed.

"Quick, turn off the lights!" Lupa quickly rushed to all the light switches she could get to, flicking each and every single one off. "Don't let Lyra know we're awake!"

"LYRA?!" Leia joined the party and scampered off to aid Lupa.

Outside, Lyra wasn't oblivious to their bullshit, had already seen the lights begin to go off, which only meant just as she was told; Lupa was the babysitter here, and when Lupa was put in charge of something, it had a tendency to go anywhere and everywhere but right. To summarize, Aunt Lola had been persuaded to let Lupa have this for social skills, but her first choice had always been Lyra, hence Aunt Lola had told her mother to have Lyra check in on them as a gentle precaution, and if things looked good enough by Lyra's judgment, it would all be in Lupa's hands. Clearly, it wasn't looking good.

Lyra pulled the keys out after killing the engine, sighing again for the inevitable trouble she just knew Lupa would bring. Maybe pepper spray would keep Lupa at bay, if perhaps the deviant had lesser brain cells not to call the bluff Lyra would pull on her. "Hello? Leia?" She gently knocked on the glass panel of the birch door, then tapped with her nails. "No use hiding from me, I know you're in there and that you're awake!"

"Goody-Two-Shoes fucknut Lyra Laude!"

"Okay, if you're not gonna let me in..." Lyra bent down and lifted the mat under her feet, seeing a lone bronze key hidden at the corner. She was relieved it hadn't been moved, had Leia's memory to thank for that. To think they'd have gotten the better of her when she so stupidly- necessarily- drove with her lights on, never bothering to borrow Lemy's night vision goggles that came with one of those shooter games. Oh yes, those expensive special editions existed and she found it rather stupid the video game companies allowed such technology to be given like that. "I'm coming iiiiiiiiin!"

"What does she-?" Lupa made a weird squeaking noise and leaned her head back to the entrance. "Leia, you idiot, you have a spare key?!"

Leia, hiding under her own desk, stayed in place, gripping the chair closer to keep her hidden in the dark. "Ah, I'm sorry!"

In came a silhouette, snow still falling behind her, moving quietly in. The key came out of the port, making a pair of clinks. The shadow hummed a low lullaby, moving to close the door, where the moon's faint light had then been blocked out, submerging them all further into the darkness. The tall shadow lifted her head up to sniff the air. Hot pockets. "Lupa, you brat! Honestly, it seems you're unfit for this responsibility if you're gonna act like a child-"

"No one invited the Virgin Mary of our family tree!" Lupa spat back, leading Lyra to follow her voice. "Make like Jesus Christ on the cross and fly away!"

"I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that, although that is a truly disgusting thing to hear you say!" Lyra turned the flashlight feature from her phone on, raising it to maximum brightness. She wandered towards the kitchen where Lupa popped her head off for a nice scare, which didn't work. "Nice try, turn on the lights! And where's little Leia?"

Lupa only made a sour face and stared down at Lyra. Seconds passed and Lupa cracked, turning the lights back on again without even a peep.

"Tell me she's upstairs in her room sleeping," Lyra practically begged. "Make this easier for the three of us."

"You really want to, don't ya, Bible girl?"

"Don't you?"

"Yeah," Lupa exited the kitchen, motioning to the front door. "Hey, look! There's the exit."

"Ugh!" Lyra turned the flashlight feature off and tucked her phone right back inside her jeans. "Why are you like this? I've never done anything to you, at all, but I will if you continue this act or phase or whatever."

"I just don't like you," Lupa grinned, sticking her tongue out. "Leia, come on out, we failed."

Leia pushed the chair, causing the legs to scrape dreadfully against the wood. She crawled out and went over to Lyra, who only grew more annoyed that Leia had been partaking in Lupa's childish antics. "Hi, Lyra."

"Of course you'd put her up to this."

"Whatever," Lupa scoffed. "Fuck brings you here anyway? Oh, don't tell me you're some contingency in case I-" And she snapped her fingers. "Aunt Lola was too good to me, I should have known she'd go behind mother's back. I guess...-"

"I don't know what you're thinking in that skull of yours, but Aunt Lola just wants Leia here to be in good hands. I'm aware of what your mom wanted you to learn here by taking care of Leia, but Aunt Lola-"

"The babysitter's babysitter," Lupa deduced.

Lyra shook her head. "No, I was just here to check if you were doing a good job. You know, cause of my experience with Lemy. You ought to know I'm the only cousin with years of babysitting knowledge. Took care of Lemy for years, I'm basically his surrogate mother the second I'm in charge."

"Okay, well..." Lupa raised her hands, showing off the quiet house. "Nothing's on fire, I'm decent. I've fed-"

"I didn't eat," Leia corrected.

"Tried to feed her," Lupa stated proudly. "I guess that means she's fine."

"How are you feeling, Leia?" Lyra asked the girl directly. "And do you think Lupa is doing a good job? Listen-"

"Unbelievable," Lupa muttered angrily, going back to the kitchen for a cold drink.

"I'm here to check in on both of you, and I'm glad to see nothing's really going south. Does Lupa know what to do here, Leia? Do you trust her to-?"

"Mom gave her a firm list," Leia cut in. "Lupa knows, but her trash mouth-"

"I'm just being myself!"

"Keep it kid-friendly, please," Lyra pleaded to Lupa. "There's no reason for her to hear all of that cursing from that dump you call a mouth."

"Like you'd be any better, Bible bitch," the albino fired back. "You and the preaching lies about your phony-baloney God."

"These so-called lies are-"

"Nothing but pure sugarcoated pussy talk to relieve someone how horrible reality is! These followers of God are just a pitiful group of losers who lost a sort of confidence in themselves needed to overcome some obstacle in life that they turn to this false being and mindlessly, hopelessly, and sheepishly pray to so that their problems can be solved! Let me tell you the fuck what, Lyra."

Lyra had been rendered shut- stunned immensely by words Lupa would call a simple dark truth. And she was met with a pale finger stuck right in her face by, not a devilish girl, but by a living person believed to have been turned away by God.

"Only you can fix your own problems, don't you dare depend on anyone to help you, or you'll be accustomed to never know how to help yourself."

Poor Leia had no idea what transpired, but the words that she did understand, she had listened well and took them to heart. Lupa sparked reason, one needed to depend on himself or herself in terms of hardships, whatever hardships that may come. And right now, Leia had found herself back on that white spotlight where she was but alone, to move around without dearest mommy, a big stepping stone in life so that she could be prepared to lead and live a life where mommy would stop being a part of, playing a role in. Of course, there was no doubt that particular process wasn't happening now-

But it was happening in Leia's mind.

"I have nothing but hatred for you because you cloak yourself in lies, you weak, insecure girl," Lupa degraded. "You and that stupid fucking purple leather jacket you're unfit to wear. Why, that should be mine, I'd look damn good in it, I'd say."

Lyra's soft spot, the very mines where, upon being excavated, could trigger her emotions. Lupa's insults were the nerve-hitters, so perfectly aimed to attack and breach where it would hurt her the most. This stone-cold witch had done dared to go here where it didn't seem possible, nor warranted for it to escalate here. Lupa, the very last person in this damned world to have told her off like that. Funny, in a sense, but serious and hard to take in, because in spite of all that Lupa had said, nothing was inaccurate. Lyra closed her eyes and attempted to deny what Lupa sung, lips already trembling, betraying her. "No... No, no, no, it's not true, it's not-"

"LOOK AT ME!" Lupa clamped down on Lyra's hands and prominently squeezed. "Tell me it isn't! Tell me you're strong and need no one else!"

"L-Lupa..." Leia knew when it was time to stop, so she tugged on Lupa's sweater. "That's enough."

"Oh, I'll be the one when it's fucking enough!" Lupa continued, moving her hands to Lyra's head this time. "I said, open your fucking eyes, worm."

"You're evil!" Lyra wailed, finally opening her eyes to share a pair of bloodshot eyes already on the verge of watering up. The very injury Lupa could lick her lips to in order to savor the satisfaction of the sight of this, calling it just desserts Lyra well deserved. "Y-you're nothing but pure evil!"

Lupa took her cold hands off Lyra's face, holding them up and put distance of one single foot between them. "Alright, I think I'm done, I got what I wanted."

"Lupa... You- That wasn't okay..." Leia judged with her innocent heart. "Lyra-"

Lupa raised her right hand back and proceeded to bitch slap Lyra as hard as she possibly could, the sound of her hand striking against the older teenager's cheek being absolute enough to actually echo all throughout the house, and post-slap had Lyra been left with a red hand mark as a painful but temporary memento of Lupa's dark nature, an ugly shape and look for her being. "Only a child sees the world in black and white, but it's gray. It's all gray, Lyra, and I'd hope you understand that today rather than tomorrow."

"Hey, that's enough!" Leia placed herself in between both teens, eager to defend Lyra and the fragile state she'd been put in. "I- I think you've said enough, no need to put your hands on her! Please!"

Lupa assessed her actions and stared at them, thinking carefully of her next step. And the next one was the better of two choices. "Fine, I don't need to hear lip from my mom or either of yours about what I'd have done if you hadn't gotten in the way."

Lyra rubbed her cheek, tending to her tears. If she hadn't been wishing she would've left by now, she surely was at this very second, humiliated and ridiculed by the ice queen in the presence of their younger cousin, a very bad example to have been set. "Why... Just why are you like this?" she had asked her cruel cousin of white hair again. "Why are you of hate and violence?"

"Why?" Lupa turned her back on them, wondering if she could simply leave and leg it back home through the snowy weather. She didn't need this grief, to be possibly stuck here with the fake Lyra. "Why are you of hope and forgiveness?"

"Leia..." Lyra shifted her eyes to the child. "Don't turn out like her, nothing good comes out of such behavior. Honestly..."

"Cry us a river, why don't you?" Lupa decided to take her chances. "You can take over for me, I didn't wanna be stuck with babysitting duties anyway?"

"N-no, you get back here!" Lyra bellowed through her tears. "Carefree Lupa, always the easy way with you. Go on, walk back home, see if I care!"

"Um, it- it's still snowing-" Leia pointed out. "That's not a good idea..."

"No, she can go as she pleases, she must think she's hot stuff and this is nothing but beneath her!" Lyra waved goodbye to Lupa. "Aunt Lucy made a clear mistake to burden you with taking care of family for the next few days, but I'll be sure to let her and everyone else know that you're too much of a... Ergh, bitch to be bothered with."

"Whatever you say," Lupa brushed off, opening the door to the outside. "Let's see if Lyle could give me a ride..."

"Wow, you expect them to help you, but you won't return the favor... I guess you really don't care about anyone but yourself."

Lupa had been halfway out, freezing in place upon Lyra's final remark. A remark to a fact that had not always been right, and Lyra herself should have given her words the proper thought before letting them fly out of her mouth all willy-nilly. Well, could you blame her? She was quite angry and hurt. "Oh, Lyra..."

Lupa reversed her steps exactly as Leia had seen it, making her gulp where she stood, right next to Lyra. "Don't fight-"

"That's such an invalid statement, or is it that you've forgotten?" Lupa now moved to circle around Lyra, like a predator herding its prey. "There's no way you could've forgotten... Have you?"

Lyra had a single red rose grasped in one hand that faced down, the other hand cupped right over. That day had been positively sunny, but a reading of the figurative room would show you a darker atmosphere, a morbid scenery full of both adult and minor dressed in the same black clothing for the funeral. The women and their daughters were mostly the ones carrying various types of flowers. The casket carried its corpse well, unyielding and sturdy, to keep it in its contents for all eternity, clean from the dirt and the insects and the worms. This was the very last time every living member of the Loud family tree would come to say farewell to one of their own, and for Lyra, a heavy-hearted moment, even when she had been told, when the moment of death's swing had already happened, leaving nothing more than an empty vessel that had been taken away by the paramedics on the scene.

Lupa had also been affected, put in a state of emotional devastation, crying away with her mother Lucy consoling her and wiping away at her tears. It had truly been a terrible day for just about everyone in attendance. Lupa's heartache, having gone noticed by Lyra.

"I know what she meant to you, but you know what I mean..." Lyra spun. "After her death, you just shut us out. Not caring to build any bridges between us..."

"Shut up," Lupa huffed.

"If you wanna be some overanalyzing know-it-all, I'll step it up, too! We both know-"

"Why won't you shut up?" Lupa demanded, booming louder this time.

"You're just a scared little girl behind a facade!"

"WHY WON'T YOU JUST LET ME BE?!" Lupa forced out, straining her voice, chest stinging from the power note she'd hit without intending to try and break herself. Next second, she burst out the door, fueled by nothing but a negative sentiment that couldn't be solely described simply as anger, but a dear bitter thing that had heated her up from top to bottom and warmed her up, boiled her blood and kept her from freezing up in hesitation. She met Lyra's car, coming up to the hood and raised her hands up and brought them down, attacking it in similar movements to that of a gorilla. Her strength was very little to even leave any dent, but her willpower pushed past a limitation, driving her to keep trying to break the hood in. Lyra and Leia had followed Lupa out, both having assumed Lupa would have flown into a rage and scamper off to spite them. And, of course Lyra had preferred that over Lupa unleashing her fury upon an inanimate property. "Stop that! Lupa!"

"FUCK YOU!"

"Lupa, you crazy witch! That's my car!"

"FUCK YOUR CAR!"

"I swear to God!"

"FUCK YOUR GOD, TOO!"

"Should I be worried?" Leia asked, not taking her eyes off Lupa. "Should I-?"

"No, there's nothing to be concerned for..." Lyra assured. "But you can go back in if you feel unsafe. Ugh, I can't believe-"

Lupa ceased after her sixty-something strike against the hood, retracted both hands and wiggled them. "I hate you so much for this, Lyra... This I swear-"

"Are you done taking it out on that?" Lyra moaned, giving a disapproving sigh. "Now you know how it feels, right? Come on, get back in, you're getting covered in snow!"

You motherfucking bitch, you... Lupa cursed mentally.

10:06 P.M.

Lupa sipped from the cup of hot cocoa again, savoring the sweet taste of it as it came into her mouth, only to go down her throat. "Mmmm..."

"Told you it was good," Lyra grinned. "The minute the smell of it goes up to Lemy's room, you know what he does?" Lyra adjusted herself on the floor again, right across from Lupa and Leia, both of them sitting right on Leia's bed. "He actually comes running down to be served the first cup!" she laughed adorably, "it's so cute, honestly. It's like it turns him into a kid again and I know he really loves it, no matter how many times he denies it when it gets brought up in discussion."

"I... I don't think I blame him," Lupa thought. "This is really good..."

"It is!" Leia agreed, having already chugged down her cup before Lupa. "Will there be more tomo-?" Leia didn't shut herself up in time, looking away while being embarrassed. "I mean-"

"Hm? You want me to take over?" Lyra understood and nodded, but wasn't sure about it. "Well, gee... The way things have gone-"

"Clearly, you're the one she wants," Lupa accepted, taking her final sip from the cup. "Mmm! Oh yeah... And, you can take her off my hands, right? The three of us know I sure as hell don't wanna be here, and I know I'm not a good-"

"Yeaaaaaah..." Lyra agreed, rolling her eyes. "I guess it's fine, I'll let my mom and Aunt Lola know. Lupa, your mom, your territory."

"You find her creepy, otherwise you'd tell her too, you scared fuck!" Lupa hollered jokingly.

"Hey, cut it down on the profanity, please!"

"Terrified turd?"

Lyra facepalmed. But Lupa was right; Aunt Lucy was not completely right in the head.

"What's a turd?" Leia then yawned, signaling her bedtime. "Ah, I'm tired. Tell me you're not gonna burn the house down while I sleep?"

"We won't," Lyra vowed, smiling widely to sew trust and confidence for Leia. "I'm sorry we screamed at each other tonight. Clearly, we have a lot to work on-"

"Yeah, like telling people you're gonna drop in before coming," Lupa sarcastically cackled.

"Zip it, we're well past that!"

Lupa left the room to refill for more hot cocoa. "See you down, Bible."

Leia turned in and dug herself under her covers, yawning again.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Lyra towered over her and set her hands to her hips. "Like brushing your teeth before bed?"

"I'll do that tomorrow morning!" Leia went, joining her hands together to appeal to Lyra. "Pretty please let me go to sleep?"

"Ugh," Lyra caved in. "Too much baggage today to bother. Alright, you win, but just this once, okay?"

"L-Lyra?" Leia sweetly tugged on the teen's purple jacket to snag all her attention. "I... I miss you guys."

Lyra, in turn, only looked deep into Leia's blue eyes and saw a sparkle of sadness- No, that wasn't just sadness she saw, but a cold soul of loneliness within those beautiful marbles, loneliness of being here, separated from a big house with active family members running around on a daily basis, and although Lyra had known Aunt Lola and Leia broke away and moved elsewhere on their own, it had never seemed like the household had changed within the walls. Lyra had never thought it could have been bad for Leia, but now, looking down at her and beginning to understand that there was more that Leia had been experiencing living here in an isolated location.

She blinked only, and Leia said something else. "Huh?"

"Do any of you miss me?" Leia repeated, hoping to hear that her absence had made an impact, even if to at least Lizy.

And Lupa had never gone downstairs; instead, she stood right on the first top step, listening in to the two, wondering what answer Lyra was about to give. Either one, truth or lie, was an answer Lupa felt would stick to Leia for years to come. Hell, it could even get Leia to begin talking to her old cousins again. No more of that bullshit excuse she gave about them being older than her- that was a cover for the true reason she had kept to herself. And with Lyra being here and speaking all that she had said, Lupa had grasped a better understanding why Leia was really afraid.

It was because she feared she'd lose them again in time, for they had lost her when she had to go with her mom.

Lupa pulled the yellow kite after half an hour flying around. The kite, written with messages and signatures by her and the rest of the House of Incest kids, raised up to the heavens beyond the clouds so that Loan could see it when she looked down upon them. Lupa could only hope that was the case, but she had not known. In fact, she had questioned what she believed after learning that she had been wrong, and, in her mind rather careless, to think nothing unjustly cruel could befall them. No soul invincible, spared by the hands of what they called fate. Fate... But for what reason? What did Loan's death serve for? What good could this be justified to?

No such deity would allow this, if a sense of good truly existed. So maybe-

Gray.

"C-cause..." Leia added in before Lyra formed a definite answer. "I miss everyone," she confessed. "I wish we didn't-"

Lyra pressed a finger to Leia's lips. "I know... I understand what you mean, but we'll talk tomorrow. I need you to get enough sleep, can you do that for me?"

"Yes," Leia vowed, letting her body give in to relaxation. "Goodnight, Lyra."

Lupa heard the soft flip of the light switch move, not looking back until Lyra had closed the room and exited with low footsteps. "Ah, I thought you went down for more."

"You didn't answer her question, you know," Lupa brought up, ignoring Lyra's comment. "You could have."

"Could have, but..." Lyra pressed a hand to the side of her head. "I didn't want to give her a lie, it wouldn't be right of me to say they missed her when-"

Lupa closed her hand save for her thumb and directed her hand over her shoulder. "Not here..."

10:19 P.M.

"But to tell her that they didn't would hurt her, and that's not what I want to do," Lyra sighed, strained mentally by that lose-lose scenario. "She's gonna remember and she'll ask again. I don't know how I'm gonna change the topic, she'll want a direct answer. I'd ask you what you'd think to do in my situation, but I know you too well."

"Do you?" Lupa took that as a challenge and drank some more cocoa. It was her third round already. "By all means, do tell me."

"The truth is not gonna do anything but hurt her-"

"Well, then perhaps she needs to be hurt," Lupa reasoned. "She's gonna have to learn that not everything is gonna be as she secretly wishes."

"I agree... If Leia was our age, but this is too heavy for her to unload on, there's no way I'll explain something like that as if she were an adult."

"Whatever you say, princess." Then, Lupa started maniacally cackling. "Hey, I just remembered something. You wouldn't believe this, but before you came, Leia had been telling me about how she was, or claimed to be afraid of us because we were- well, most of us, anyway- older than her. She admitted she saw us as adults rather than teenagers-"

Lyra opened her mouth slightly. "Afraid of us?"

"That's what I said, it just seems funny to me! The girl afraid of us, and us arguing over whether she needs to hear adult-level things. I mean, this is novel stuff at most!"

"Hm, the sweetheart who said she misses us told you she was afraid-" Lyra let her hands fall on the table; it all clicked for her in a way it didn't to Lupa.

Leia's fear, interpreted by Lyra, was the changing, the growing of her cousins; at the moment Leia would come to see them, they would prove to be different than how she last remembered them. Different personalities, maybe. Different interests and priorities, and in no way could they ever be interested in reconnecting with a girl who had moved away from them. Lyra half-closed her eyes and let her head droop away. "That poor girl..."

Said poor girl had already been softly crying herself to sleep, but the night remained young yet. It still had quite a life to live before sunrise.

AN: As I've told Flagg after reading the commissioned piece, I called it a half-ass piece of work and "blamed" him for not making it good enough until it hit me as of late that I didn't drop enough money to make it long enough for proper development. Hence, I set out and started writing this since months ago, unable to remember when exactly I created it. Who knows what I'll so carelessly commission to him next?

And yes, there is a connection between this and an old fic I've written before titled Estrangement, to those who've caught it.