AN: Needed a little time off from writing to recover from that last Arc of Archetypal. Trying to get back into the swing of things, I have at least two more updates planned for this story, and then I'll probably try to tackle some of the other ones I've been neglecting. We'll see.

Also, really happy to see the response this story has been getting, even while I had it on the back burner. Hadn't expected people to enjoy this idea so much, but I'm having fun writing it, so that's perfectly fine by me.

Lynn groaned as consciousness returned to her. She kept her eyes firmly shut, refusing to acknowledge the waking world, because doing so would require her to acknowledge what she had already been able to ascertain from context clues.

Lincoln was gone. And as was so often the case, Lynn began her day alone. The one bright spot on this particular morning, which kept her from devolving completely into frustrated melancholy, was that his scent still lingered in the bed they'd shared, a reminder of that special, all too fleeting moment of closeness between the pair. And so Lynn allowed herself to linger for a time, immersing herself in what remained of Lincoln's presence, and reflecting upon how wonderful it had felt to have him in her arms again.

Eventually, however, Lynn was forced to rouse herself. As pleasant as it had been to indulge herself, it just wasn't in her nature to lay about. Other people were free to waste their days lounging around, but Lynn Loud was a proactive go-getter. That's why she was the best. That's why she was number one (despite easily verifiable evidence suggesting that she was not literally number one in a variety of categories). And so, with one last wistful sniff, Lynn leapt to her feet, stood tall, and prepared to face the day.

Ten minutes later, Lynn found herself slumped across Lincoln's couch. She sighed, frustrated, and glared down at her phone for the umpteenth time. Unfortunately, her ire held no sway over the text displayed on the screen.

A text from Lincoln informed her that her little brother had classes that day, and would be out until late afternoon. This was...disappointing, to say the least. Growing up in a home shared with twelve other people had left Lynn with little desire to live with other people. Once her career as a superhero had progressed to the point where she could afford her own place, she took it. And when the opportunity presented itself, she'd ditched that modest living space and upgraded to a more spacious one. This pattern had repeated several times, until she'd squired an estate so large that she frequently got lost in her own home. Not much of a problem for her, given that her powers made walls more like polite suggestions than actual obstacles. Still, the point was that she valued her space, and from what she'd gleaned from those family members she still kept in contact with, it sounded like her sisters had developed similar mindsets when they'd struck out on their own. And yet, here she was, only a few days into her new living arrangement, and she'd grown so accustomed to the presence of another person that the now empty apartment, small as it was, seemed vastly more empty without her roommate around. The fact that it was Lincoln she was missing only exacerbated the problem. She'd known that Lincoln had a life before she'd invited herself back into it, and she'd also known that there were parts of that life which Lincoln couldn't change, even for her sake, and school was among them. And for the most part she was fine with that. She was happy her little bro had found himself a career path to pursue. And after certain...inquiries she'd made through channels that weren't publicly available, per se, she'd been delighted to find out that Lincoln seemed to be excelling in school. And also that he tended to spend his free time between classes alone, or with his gang of decidedly male friends. These were good things. She wanted her little brother to be living a happy and fulfilling life.

...But she also wanted him to be here. With her. Nestled comfortably at her side, their arms wrapped tightly around one another. Maybe he becomes emboldened enough to reach up and undo her ponytail. She regards him with amusement, but also with curiosity, and no small amount of hope. But before she can voice the question burning upon her lips, Lincoln pushes her down on the couch, straddles her much larger form, and—

Bzzt

Lynn let out a wistful sigh as allowed her daydream to drift away, and turned her attention back to her phone. As enjoyable as that might have been, she couldn't afford to ruin another pair of shorts quite so soon. As she dismissed the message from Lincoln and brought up another, much more recently updated message chain, she resolved to bulk order some more clothes. It seemed like she was going to be needing them, among other things...

The latest message brought a scowl back to her face. She'd expected this, but it didn't make her situation any less frustrating.

Lynn wasn't totally in the loop on how things were progressing with regards to her little "boondoggle" from the other day, but her understanding was that the situation had gotten somewhat "complicated". Her agency had assured her that thee would be no long term repercussions for actions she may or may not have taken regarding a type of structure that may or may not have ever existed to begin with, but for the sake of expediting the proceedings she'd been given encouraged to take a few days off from hero work, and strongly advised to refrain from being seen in public during that time. At the time, Lynn had agreed without a fight. After all, the time off had played nicely into her plans to reconnect with Lincoln. Unfortunately, she was now being told that they'd need a little more time to work things out, and that was making her aware of a very pressing problem with her new situation. She was bored.

Lynn wasn't the sedentary type. She loved her job, fighting bad guys and smashing stuff was the best, and she indulged herself as often as she could. And when she wasn't doing actual hero work, she was usually working on getting better at it. She worked out, she trained, she arranged sparring sessions with other heroes to keep her combat skills sharp. Lynn prided herself on staying active, on constantly improving herself.

Over the weekend, with Lincoln constantly around, Lynn hadn't minded being denied her usual recreational activities. But now that he was gone, however temporary his absence was, she was just beginning to realize how little she had to do by herself. She couldn't work out, because her powers required her to use specially made, and extremely expensive equipment to get any sort of challenge. She couldn't work, and she was being strongly encouraged to refrain from leaving the apartment. She couldn't even play that stupid, but strangely engrossing card game Lincoln kept getting them to play, because she needed him around to help her keep the rules straight!

Lynn could not remember any time in her life where she'd been more bored than she was at this particular moment. She'd kill for any sort of distraction. Literally anything to distract her from—

Ding Dong

Before the doorbell had even finished ringing, Lynn found herself suddenly standing before the door and reaching for the knob with an eagerness that surprised even her. Then again, the alternative was going back to stewing in her own cesspool of boredom, so decided to take her chances with the door. She gave the knob a twist, and very gently, pulled it open.

"Hey there Liiiiinc...ynn." Stella greeted her with a small wave.

"Hey, Stella." Lynn returned the greeting with a smile. "Err, I mean, Polymer, right?" The younger girl was in full costume, and it was an unwritten rule among heroes to address each other by their hero names while in uniform. Personally, Lynn didn't care much for the practice. There were heroes who preferred to operate under a code name so they could keep their personal and professional lives separate, but Lynn wasn't one of them, she just didn't see the point. It wasn't like she could blend into a crowd, people tended to notice a giant, amazon-woman in their midst. "La Furiosa" wasn't even her idea, it was something her marketing department had come up with so they could sell name brand merchandise of her. Nevertheless, the polite thing to do was to operate under the assumption that a fellow hero wanted to protect their identity, and Lynn tried to respect that.

"Stella's fine." The girl in question said quickly, though Lynn couldn't help but notice the way her eyes darted around as she did so. Lynn suspected Stella wasn't as blase about her secret identity as she was pretending to be.

"Fair enough." Lynn replied, choosing not to acknowledge the younger girl's obvious discomfort. "If you came for Lincoln, he's not here." The way her face immediately fell suggested Lynn had correctly guessed the purpose of this visit.

"W-why would you think I was here to see him?" She stammered, trying to regain her composure. "Maybe I dropped in to see you."

"Because I'm up here." Lynn said, raising her arm up to her eye level to illustrate the height difference between the two. "And Lincoln's waaaaaaay down here." She lowered her arm to be level with her torso.

"I don't...I don't follow."

Lynn smirked. "Because when people are expecting to see me, they're typically looking up here somewhere." She raised her arm a little ways upward and began moving it in a circular motion, encompassing her ample bust.

"I don't...I..."

Finally Lynn let out the laugh she'd been holding in. "Loosen up a little, kid, I was just joking." She'd meant to continue, but it was at this point she noticed that Stella was frozen in place, her head tilted upward and her cheeks tinged with crimson.

"Stella, I was joking. You can look away now."

"I can't." The shorter girl rasped, weakly trying to jerk her head away.

Lynn peered down and smiled. "I guess it is a lot to take in." She really needed to get some clothes that weren't quite so revealing if she was going to stay here long term. But, truth be told she was kind of hoping to get this kind of reaction from Lincoln first. She knew for a fact her little bro wasn't as oblivious to her feminine charms as he pretended to be. As they'd lain there, huddled together in the dark, Lynn had felt things she'd never felt before, and not all of them had been emotional. She felt pretty confident that Lincoln just needed a helping hand to get him over his reluctance. Preferably one of her's...

"Magnificent..."

The muddled utterance from her guest drew Lynn's attention back to the matter at hand.

"Okay." Lynn chuckled as she clapped hands together, startling the other girl. As Stella stood there, dazed and confused, an idea began to form in Lynn's mind. She reached down grabbed the younger girl by her waist—

"Hey!"

—and slung her over her shoulders. Then Lynn turned around, carefully, so as to not injure her cargo in the relatively cramped entryway, and headed back into the apartment.

"L-lynn! What are you doing?"

"Calm down." Lynn gave Stella a reassuring pat. "Truth be told, I was bored out of my mind before you showed up. But now, I just thought of a way you could really help me out."

"Oh...o-okay..."

Lynn grunted fiercely as she thrust upward, eliciting a shriek from Stella.

"LYNN!" She squeaked, her voice booming in the small living space. "NOT SO HARD!"

Lynn ignored her pleas, and jerked upward again, prompting a distressed wail from her friend. It wasn't working. And it had seemed like such a good idea, in theory...

"Stella?" She asked, frustrated. "I need more from you."

"M-MORE WHAT?"

"Weight!" Lynn growled. "Either get bigger, or get heavier! Or both!"

The pair currently found themselves in the middle of Lincoln's living room. Lynn had positioned herself underneath the couch and Stella, upon orders from Lynn, had enlarged herself to several times her normal size, and was desperately trying to remain on top of the couch. In theory, Lynn had thought she could take advantage of the younger girl's mass-manipulation abilities to get something resembling a proper work out. But it wasn't working out so well in practice...

"I CAN'T, LYNN!" Stella protested.

"You can't, or you won't!"

"YES!"

"Cute." Lynn muttered changing her grip so she could get a better look at Stella's oversized face.

"IF I GET ANY BIGGER, I'm EITHER GOING TO BREAK LINCOLN'S APARTMENT, OR HIS COUCH." She explained. "OR...BOTH." She added, after a moment of reflection.

"What about sideways?" Lynn briefly took one of her hands off the couch so she could gesture demonstratively. Much to her annoyance, even burdened by the younger super heroine the piece of furniture was still disappointingly light.

"THERE ARE WALLS LYNN"

"There don't have to be..."

"LYNN!"

"Fine!" She snapped. Lynn climbed to her feet, still hefting the couch in one hand, and unceremoniously dropped it to the floor. The second she did so Stella snapped back to her normal size, and it occurred to Lynn that was probably the right move to make. What felt light to her might not necessarily feel the same way to Lincoln's aging apartment floor. She flinched as the now unburdened couch hit the ground, eliciting a distressingly loud creak from the flooring. Yeah...she might have just dodged a bullet there.

"Are...are we done then?" Stella asked, hesitant and hopeful.

Lynn sighed in exasperation. "Yes." She grumbled, flopping down on the couch next to Stella. She flinched as the floor let out another alarming creak. Stupid judgemental floor...

To her surprise, Stella reached over and gave Lynn a gentle, reassuring pat on her shoulder. The gesture was strangely comforting.

"It seemed like a good idea." Lynn said defensively.

"It did."

"I totally could have figured out how to make it work. Eventually."

"I'm sure you would have."

Lynn wanted to be annoyed at the other girl's refusal to call her out on what had clearly been an idiotic idea from the start. But she didn't. Stella merely sat there, smiling patiently. Not an ounce of judgement in her gaze. It felt...nice.

"Thanks, Stella."

"Anytime, Lynn."