Picking up the Pieces - Chapter 4
facing the music
plane-theory
7
Luna Loud somewhat disliked her moniker as "the chill sibling."
Sure she loved her siblings, but with there being so many of them, problems and issues were bound to crop up. Most of the younger siblings tended to go to Lori to solve their serious problems, and Lincoln to solve their less serious ones.
The cases that required a bit of nuance, however, the ones that needed more care than Lori's harsh pragmatism, but would not be solved by Lincoln's innocent creativity, fell to her, "the chill one."
Luna remembered advising most of her younger siblings on their more emotional problems, their insecurities, relationship troubles, and secrets being confided in her, rather than the others.
If Luna was like an advisor, listening to her sibling's as they poured their emotions onto her, and providing either comfort or some gentle advice, Lori was like a lawyer, pragmatic and logical in solving issues. More often than not, her solutions worked, but some of the younger siblings were scared of Lori holding their fears and insecurities over their heads.
If Luna was the nice advisor, and Lori was the harsh lawyer, Lincoln was the naive angel on your shoulder. His plans and solutions were always somewhat convoluted, and needlessly complicated, but you always knew that he gave his all to helping, even if his plans could be a little misguided at times.
Luna thought about her other eldest sister, Leni. Everyone trusted her, and looked to her for help at times, but Leni was… not the greatest at keeping secrets. Luna frowned when she remembered the conversation that she and Lori had a few weeks prior.
"So, you will probably be the one in charge when Mom and Dad are out." Lori had said, matter of factly.
"Bogus dude," Luna remembered saying. "What about Leni?"
Lori's gaze softened somewhat at the mention of Leni. Luna rolled her eyes, knowing that her eldest sister had favorites, Leni, Lincoln, and Lily being those favorites, even if Lori would deny that.
"It's Leni," Lori said, as if that explained everything. "She's too nice to keep the ship afloat, so I'm asking you to help her out."
Luna sighed, that did make sense. She remembered when Lincoln had been left in charge of the house once, his niceness had led to absolute chaos in the house. "So you want me to be the bad cop?" Luna asked.
Lori had given her a sad smile. "Well, I don't think you need to be a bad cop, per se," she paused. "Since everyone has somewhat matured, you probably don't need to be the authoritarian figure I was, just be yourself." Lori finished.
Luna rolled her eyes again, but ultimately agreed with Lori's assessment.
Nowadays, Luna was no stranger to helping out a panicked younger sibling, but she was still surprised when Lisa, of all people, hurried down the stairs looking distressed.
Luna herself was somewhat anxious, though she didn't show it, lounging on the couch watching TV with the twins. After Lincoln had dashed out of the house, Lynn Jr had immediately taken pursuit, disappearing out the door in a flash. Luan had been next, following at a much more leisurely pace, with an angry look on her face. Her father had returned to the kitchen, trusting that LJ and Luan would find Lincoln. Her mother took a distraught Leni back to the parent's room, and Lisa had returned back upstairs, saying something about an experiment.
The twins were seriously somewhat out of it, the two weren't even arguing about what to watch, both of them content to leave the TV on the first channel that it opened to.
Some sort of vampire show… Luna observed. Suddenly, she shot up to her feet, smacking her forehead with her hand, which startled the twins on the sofa next to her. "Lucy!" she exclaimed. "Where'd the little dudette disappear to?"
After hearing Luna's exclamation, the twins both relaxed. "Why are you so concerned about her?" Lola said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "She probably holed herself up into her room or the attic."
"Yeah," Lana added, her voice more sympathetic, "She hasn't been down here with us since we realized Lori was missing." At Luna's confused face, Lana added, "I saw her disappear at the top of the stairs while Luan was having her little fit earlier."
Luna sat back down on the couch, pinching the bridge of her nose.
She was not ready to become the de-facto sibling in charge.
After a deep sigh and a moment of deliberation, Luna got up off the couch, drawing the attention of the twins once more. "Uh- where are you going?" Lola asked, in her usual tone.
"I'm going to go check on Lucy," Luna said, uncharacteristically serious.
Lola rolled her eyes. "She's been up there for hours at this point, she's probably alright, but-"
Lola was cut off by the sound of distressed yells coming from upstairs. The trio turned towards the steps in anticipation.
"Was that Lisa?" Luna wondered aloud. Receiving a nod from both twins, Luna started towards the stairs.
Lisa appeared at the top of the stairs as Luna reached the first step. Luna looked up at her, startled by the uncharacteristic look of distress on the little geniuses' face.
"Everything alright Lisa?" Luna asked.
"No! I need your help up here now Luna!" Lisa shouted, hurrying down the steps, grasping her hand, and pulling her up the steps.
As Luna followed the diminutive girl up the steps, she saw two identical faces on the couch, the twins having a look that was equal parts confused and concerned.
Lisa led her to the bathroom, gesturing wildly. "What's wrong with the bathroom?" Luna asked, trying to keep her voice normal to calm the distressed girl.
"L-Lucy is in there a-and…" Lisa took a deep breath. "I-I saw she was going to cut herself on the camera that I installed, and the door is locked." Lisa finished, her voice steadying by the end of her statement.
Luna first pounded on the door, calling out Lucy's name. Receiving no response, Luna knelt at the door, taking a coin out of her pocket and fiddling with the lock on the door. She was internally glad that Leni had taught her how to do this. Hearing the door lock click, she stood up and turned to Lisa.
"Wait, did you say you had a camera in there?" Luna asked, eyes narrowing.
"Uhhhh…" Lisa trailed off, looking away from her.
"Come on, you know what Lori said about the cameras…"
"Yes, none in the bathroom, and none in any of our sibling's living quarters… it was for my fecal study!"
"Great, you do remember. So that means, you are taking that thing down. I don't care about your gross poop study thing." Luna swung the door open, eyes widening in surprise.
Lucy was sat on top of the toilet, paler than normal. Her usually thick and glossy black hair was disheveled and dull, exposing her eyes, which swirled with emotion. Luna looked downwards, seeing a shining blade on the floor, and red staining Lucy's pale arm.
Luna lurched forwards and grabbed Lucy's arm, asking if she was alright, when Lucy's eyes suddenly rolled up into her head, and Luna felt Lucy's arm go limp.
Luna caught the little goth, at a loss for words.
When Lucy came to, she was on a bed.
As her eyes adjusted, she realized she was in her room. She looked down, noting the bandage on her cut arm, and she saw Lisa, sitting on Lynn's bed, twiddling her thumbs. She also saw Luna, who was pacing in the space between the two beds in the room.
Ah, fuck.
Lucy groaned, her non-bandaged hand moving to cover her neck, even though she unconsciously knew that her two sisters had seen everything.
At the noise from the goth, both Lisa and Luna snapped to attention, rushing over to her side.
"Are you alright, elder sibling?" Lisa asked.
Luna opted to stay silent, her brows creased and a concerned look on her face.
Lucy tried to speak, but her dry throat choked on air, and she fell into a coughing fit.
"I'll get you a glass of water," Lisa said, scuttling out of the room.
Luna reached over and helped Lucy sit up. Luna's eyes scanned the girl up and down, frowning when she looked at her neck.
"What happened Lucy…" Luna said sadly, lightly grasping her arm and moving it away from her neck. Luna traced the marks on her neck, wincing.
Lucy swatted Luna's arm away. "Nothing…" Lucy said hoarsely.
"Lucy…" Luna tried again. "You know that I would have your back no matter what, right?"
Lucy stayed silent, her gaze boring into her elder sister.
"I mean, when did these bruises happen? I was with you this morning and didn't see them." Luna came to a horrible conclusion in her mind. "Was it Lincoln-"
"No." Lucy cut her off, visibly stiffening at the mention of their white-haired sibling.
Luna got off the bed and started to pace around the room. "If it wasn't him, then who? Everyone else in the house was downstairs the whole time."
"No, it wasn't him." Lucy's voice was quiet and shaky, her tone and expression making it obvious that the nine year old was lying.
Luna turned on her heel and looked at Lucy, the latter seemed like she was going to start crying. Luna walked back towards the bed and embraced her younger sister. Luna felt Lucy go limp in her grasp, taking deep, shuddering breaths as she wrapped her thin arms around the rocker.
The door opened, and Lucy's eyes shot open, her heart rate briefly spiking, but she relaxed as the person walking into the room was just Lisa, with the aforementioned glass of water. Placing the glass on the desk next to the bed, Lisa shot Lucy a look of concern and walked silently out of the room.
Hearing the door close behind the genius, Lucy melted into her sister's arms, and the pair embraced in silence.
After a while had passed, Luna gently tried to extract herself from the embrace, but stopped when Lucy whined, attempting to tighten her grip.
"Alright Spooky, I get the message," Luna said, chuckling and ruffling the girl's hair. With her head in Luna's chest, a smile appeared on Lucy's face.
The two sat for a few more minutes, before Lucy's grip finally slackened, and she let the older girl go. Luna got up, grabbing the glass of water on the desk and handing it to Lucy.
The goth accepted the glass, the water soothing her scratchy throat.
Luna's smile dropped slightly, and Lucy knew that she would have to answer some questions now, and she braced herself for the first question.
But the question never came.
Lucy was the first to break the silence. "Um-"
"Listen Lucy," Luna said in a comforting voice, "You don't have to tell me what happened if you really don't want to."
Lucy let out the breath that she hadn't realized she had been holding, the tension in her body seemed to disappear as Luna talked. Lucy knew she could trust Luna, and so she resolved herself to speak.
"I-I don't really know what happened, honestly," Lucy started, emboldened by Luna's words. "I noticed that Lincoln was acting weird this morning, so I confronted him and pulled him in here."
Luna stood at rapt attention, hanging onto each word that Lucy said.
Lucy continued. "He had some sort of panic attack, I guess, when I asked him what was wrong and-"
Lucy took a pause, taking deep breaths as she recollected the events that had transpired earlier. "And when I tried to calm him down, we ended up taking a nap, over there actually," she said, gesturing to the floor in the middle of the room.
Lucy subconsciously covered her neck. "Then when he woke up, I guess he had a n-nightmare or something, because he went crazy and-"
Luna suddenly moved forwards and embraced her again. Lucy could feel the tears, hot and scalding, rolling down her face.
The duo heard the door open and slam from downstairs. "Luan or LJ must be back," Luna said, and Lucy cringed at the mention of Lynn Jr. "Something wrong with Lynn?" Luna asked confusedly.
"N-no," Lucy replied, her voice muffled. "I just don't want h-her to see me c-crying."
Luna scooped her sister up into her arms, and quickly rushed to her own room, cradling her younger sister.
Placing her down on her bed, Luna spoke again. "I'm going to check on downstairs real quick dudette, just sit tight."
As she turned to leave, Lucy grabbed her arm. "Don't go," she said quietly, and Luna felt her heart swell as she gently shook off Lucy's arm and went to close the door.
"Alright Lucy, I'll stay as long as you want." Luna said, flopping onto the bed next to her.
Lynn Loud Jr was slightly irked. Her ego was slightly bruised, as Lincoln had escaped out of the house faster than she had ever seen him move, and he had given her the slip. To make things worse, Luan had been the one to text her, saying that she needed some help moving him to a nearby park bench.
How had Luan of all people caught up to the boy, when she couldn't?
Lynn had asked if she should bring Lincoln home, instead of to the park, but Luan had declined, a gleam in her eyes that made Lynn shudder.
"I just need to talk with Linc for a bit, capiche?" Luan had said with a dark grin, and Lynn had quickly left the two alone on the bench.
An angry Luan was a terror, almost as bad as an angry Lori, Lynn thought to herself as she walked into the house through the unlocked front door. She saw the twins on the sofa, and the other members of her family were nowhere to be seen.
"Where's Linc?" Lana asked in her scratchy voice.
"He's with Luan," Lynn answered, taking off her shoes.
"He gave you the slip, huh?" Lola had a shit-eating grin on her face, happy to rag on Lynn.
Lynn's expression darkened as she slammed the door behind her.
"Someone's testy," Lola tittered.
Lynn was about to retort when she heard her father's voice from the kitchen. "Junior! What did we talk about with the door!" Lynn Sr.'s voice echoed from the other room.
Lynn rolled her eyes and shouted back. "Sorry!" Lynn started towards the stairs, but stopped when she heard Lola's voice for the third time.
"I can't believe Lincoln and Luan of all people outran you-" Lola was cut off by Lana slapping a hand over her mouth.
"Give it a rest Lols," Lana said wearily, "Don't make her feel worse, she's about to explode."
Lola made a noise of surprise, and struggled against the little mechanic, but Lana was strong, and kept her hand over her mouth as she struggled.
Lynn's hand unclenched, and she shot a grateful nod towards Lana as she ascended the stairs, receiving a thumbs-up in response. As she retreated up the stairs, she could hear Lola's shouts of anger and indignation follow her up the stairs, and she smiled.
Some things never change, she thought to herself.
Reaching the top of the stairs, she started towards her room, half expecting to find a goth in the room, but she was surprised to find the room empty. Looking around the hallway, all of the other doors were shut as well. Shrugging, she entered her room, and flopped onto her bed to relax.
Lynn was about to doze off when she heard Lisa's voice in the hall, standing in front of the door and speaking.
"Luna I have cleaned up the bathroom, I have removed the razor as well as the camera, and I will now return to my quarters-"
Lynn cut the girl off by opening the door. "Camera? Razor?" Lynn asked, suspicious.
Lisa peered past the jock, and seeing that the room was otherwise unoccupied, attempted to scoot away, but Lynn grabbed the girl by the back of her sweater, and held her there.
"What do you mean?" Lynn asked a second time.
"It's not my place to say," Lisa said, struggling in Lynn's grip. "Now will you put me down? You're stretching my sweater."
Lynn put the girl down, and Lisa brushed off her sweater and fixed her glasses. She started walking away, when Lynn called out to her. "Hey, who were you referring to earlier? Luna and who else?"
Lisa scowled. "Well if you use the power of deduction, you saw the twins downstairs, Luan and Lincoln are out of the house, it's not me, and it's not Luna either. Take a guess, sister."
"...Leni?" Lynn asked after a pause.
Lisa smacked her forehead with her hand. "Why do you think I went to your shared room to report back to Luna?" Lisa didn't wait for a response, walking back to her room and shutting the door.
Lynn facepalmed as well as the closing door echoed in the corridor.
We always forget about Lucy.
Lucy and Luna were quietly lying on Luna's bed, but Lucy's mind was anything but peaceful. Her mind was going a mile a minute, she debated how much she wanted to share with Luna about Lincoln's condition.
She realized that she would probably need help to get to the cause of Lincoln's panic, but Lincoln would probably hate involving more of their siblings, thinking that he was dragging them down.
Then third was the issue of her feelings. That part was definitely staying a secret for now, as even Lucy didn't understand the extent of her feelings for her brother.
Lucy suddenly sighed as the thoughts swirling around became too much.
The sound made Luna stir, turning towards Lucy. "So when Linc gets back, what do you want to do, and what do you want me to do, little dudette?"
Lucy thought for a solid minute. "Nothing." She finally said. "He's not in his right mind, and he definitely feels bad at what he did."
Luna frowned, but nodded. "I still want to talk to him, maybe grill him a bit." Luna said, "Would you like to be there for that?"
Lucy shrugged, and Luna pulled out her phone to text the elder sister's group chat, to ask if Lincoln had been found.
After a brief moment of silence, Lucy was somewhat hopeful for the future.
The door suddenly jerked open, and Lucy found her hopes dashed as a concerned Lynn Jr stood in the doorway.
Lynn knew she wasn't the smartest one in the house, hell, she didn't even think she made the top half of the intelligence cut of the family.
She liked to think that she wasn't stupid though, so when Lisa had said something about Lucy and a razor, her brain automatically went into a panic mode.
The first place she checked was the attic. Pulling down the ladder, there was nothing up there but dust and darkness. Next she raced to the basement, passing by the twins and her father on the way. Lola and Lana had both tried to say something as she passed by, but she paid it no mind as she threw open the basement door.
The basement also yielded nothing, the hum of the washing machine being the only sound there.
"Junior?" her father asked, "What's got you so spooked?"
Lynn jogged back up the basement steps, sliding past her father and ran back up the steps to the upstairs. The third place she was going to check was Luna's room.
Lynn quietly approached the room, hearing quiet voices from the closed door. She heard Lucy's voice, quiet and sad, and she heard Luna mention Lincoln, her voice more stressed than normal, sounding like she was trying to keep her voice steady and calm.
Resolving herself, she grabbed the doorknob, and pushed the door open.
Lucy looked shocked, sitting up on the bed, and Luna's eyes widened.
Lynn's eyes immediately went to the bandages on her arm, and the bruises on her neck. She covered her mouth in horror as Lucy shrunk into herself.
Luna got up off the bed, and guided Lynn out of the room, closing the door behind her.
Regaining control, Lynn flailed around slightly, but Luna was strong when she wanted to be, and Lynn let herself be dragged out.
"Listen Lynn, Lincoln did something to Lucy this morning, but he's not in his right mind, and she wants us to go easy on him because of that. You got that?"
Lynn looked incensed. "You see her throat and her arm, and then you tell me to go EASY?" Her mind was still swirling from the information that she just received.
Luna frowned. "You know Linc, he wouldn't do something like this unless there was something seriously wrong with him."
Lynn sighed then punched the wall next to her. "Fuck…" she said quietly, her anger quietly dissipating.
"I already texted for Luan to bring Lincoln back, so we are going to have a little 'talk,' I guess."
Lynn checked her phone, and angrily shot off a message as well, noting that both of the messages had been read by Luan.
Luna read the message on her own phone, and looked at Lynn with a bit of disappointment in her eyes.
"What?" Lynn snorted. "If you're going to be the good cop, I'm going to be the bad cop."
Luna shook her head and began to walk back to her room, Lynn following close behind. "You stay out here," Luna said, her voice calm and even.
"What?!" Lynn exclaimed, "Spooky is crying in there! Let me in!"
Luna stayed firm. "She said she doesn't want to see you right now." Luna's voice softened. "I think she doesn't want you to see her cry. She looks up to you a lot, you know, probably even more than me or even Lori."
Lynn's face went from angry, to sad, to confused, to suddenly settling on anger. Scoffing, she turned on her heel and strode to her room. "Tell me when they're back, okay?" Lynn said, not waiting for a response from her elder sister.
Slamming the door, Lynn felt angry tears falling down her face at the injustice of it all. She was angry at Luna, for blocking her from seeing Lucy, at Lincoln, for what he allegedly did, at Lori, for skipping out early, at Luan, for finding Linc before she did, even at Lucy, for not wanting to see her.
But most of all, she was mad at herself. Mad that she was angry at the wrong people in this fucked-up situation, mad that Lucy apparently didn't trust her enough, and mad that she felt like Lucy was ultimately right to not trust her.
She released her anger on the pillow on her bed.
There was nothing to do but wait.
A/N:
And that's 3500 words.
My original plan was for this story to solely be written in Lucy's point of view, and for Repressed Memories to be only written in Lincoln's point of view, but I wrote a section from Luna's POV, and Lynn's POV, and I had a portion written from Luan's POV in Repressed Memories.
I think that the story will still revolve around Lincoln/Lucy respectively, but there will probably be snippets of other character POV's.
If you read the other A/N, i've had to make a couple of changes to the story outline, plus there have been another couple of factors that slowed the writing of this chapter, but hopefully the next one will be out sooner.
(ah who am I kidding TFT set 13 is coming out soon and I might just no-life that instead of writing)
I'm just going to publish this chapter, I might make some edits in a couple of days before I work on the next.
Reviews Welcome