A/N: This is just a little story I thought up after reading It's (Not) Your Fault by JaviSuzumiya on deviantART. After reading it, I got this little idea. This story was just inspired from that story and slightly based on it. So a majority of the credit goes to JaviSuzumiya. Who I assume is the original Creator.
Disclaimer: I don't own The Loud House or It's (Not) Your Fault. I make no money or profit from this.
In a small apartment in Salt Lake City, Utah, a 22 year old woman was setting up dinner. She had messy and frazzled long blonde hair with a teal streak in the bangs. She wore a black T-shirt with a name tag that had "Suzie" on it and black pants. She looked exhausted and was placing some precooked meals onto two plates. The apartment was a bachelor apartment, small attached kitchen, and a small bathroom that had a small shower in it.
Once she finished, she noticed the golden wedding band on her left hand and smiled. It had only been a week since she received it, but she was still overjoyed. While she knew legally they couldn't be married, or else they'll be found, but she still loved the sentiment behind it.
She then heard the front door open and someone walked in. It was an 18 year old man with messy brown hair, buck teeth, and a scar on his cheek. He looked exhausted and was wearing a brown coat over a dirty white T-shirt and dirty jeans. "Hey Sam," he greeted in a tired tone, with a smile. "How was your day?"
"Hey Linc," Sam greeted back, going up to him to give him a kiss. "More of the same. A couple of my regulars gave me some generous tips today."
"That's great!" Lincoln said happily as he took off his coat and hair. It turned out he was wearing a wig, revealing his short white hair underneath. "Today the agency sent me to work at a construction site," he said with a sigh.
"Sounds rough," Sam said a little worried, sitting on their pull out couch with a plate of food.
"It was," Lincoln said, sitting beside her with the other plate of food. "But on a brighter side, the foreman liked my work ethic, he's considering hiring me full time!"
"That's great!" The blonde said before kissing his cheek.
Lincoln smiled, but it faded when he looked down at his food. "I'm sorry Sam," he said in a depressed voice. Sam stopped eating and looked at him confused. "You have to live this way because of me. We were disowned by our families and forced to leave Royal Woods together. We can't even use our real names anymore because my sisters spread false information all over social media. If I just stayed away from you and the rest of the Moon Goats, then-"
He was interrupted by his girlfriend flicking his forehead. "How many times do I have to tell you to stop blaming yourself," she told him sternly with a frown. "What happened to us was an accident. An accident and no one wanted to hear our side of the story. While I'll admit this isn't how I saw my life going, it's better than what was happening to us back in Royal Woods." She then smiled and gave him another peck on the lips. "Besides, I found the best partner I could ever have."
"Thanks Babe," Lincoln told her with a sincere smile on his face. Just as the two were about to continue eating, Lincoln suddenly felt a jolt of pain from the scar on his cheek. He immediately put a hand over it and let out a muffle cry of pain.
"Lincoln!" Sam said worryingly as she held onto his face.
"I haven't felt this pain in a long time," Lincoln said, still holding his cheek. "You remember what this means right?" He asked his girlfriend in a serious tone. Sam's eyes widened with fear knowing what this pain meant. "They're close, they found us!" He said with a scowl.
"How!?" Sam said with tears building in her eyes. "How do they keep finding us?! They found us in New York! They found us in Colorado! Hell they even found us in California! Now they found us here in Utah?!"
"Never doubt Lisa's connections," Lincoln said as the pain started to subside in his cheek. "That little brainiac always did have deep connections with certain people. I'm almost certain she's the reason why they keep finding us."
"Why can't they just leave us alone!" Sam shouted with angry tears coming from her eyes. "They already chased us out of Royal Woods, what more do they want! We were finally starting to build our lives here, and now we have to run away again!"
"I don't know, but they certainly are persistent," Lincoln said with a sigh. "We've been through this three times already, so we know what to do. Grab our bugout bags and I'll grab our disguises and pack up the food."
Sam silently nodded and went to go grab the bags. Lincoln meanwhile quickly grabbed the plates of food and found the containers they came in. He then put on his brown wig, while also putting on a fake goatee, and green colored contacts. Sam meanwhile put her hair up and then put on a straight black wig and green colored contacts. Both looked at each other and nodded before leaving the apartment. They left the building and made it into Sam's car.
"It sucks that I have to leave this car now," Sam said with a frown as she got into the driver's seat. "I was just starting to get attached to it too."
"Yeah, hopefully we'll be able to find another cheap one wherever we end up," Lincoln said as he got in the front passenger seat holding his cheek in pain.
"Are you sure that pain is from them?" Sam asked hopefully, looking over at him. "We didn't exactly have the best equipment to stitch it up after you cut out that tracking chip. Maybe it's just because of that."
"It's been right the last three times, I have no reason to doubt it this time," Lincoln said while still in discomfort from the pain. "Nothing would make me happier than for this just to be some sort of pain from that. However I think it's better to be safe than sorry. They already messed up our lives once already. So how should we leave this time?"
"We could just start driving somewhere," Sam started to reply as they drove through the city. "However, if we get pulled over by any state troopers, it will be a big problem. It would be easy for them to find out that the IDs we have are fake. It's late and I don't think there are any buses running now, so our best bet would be to catch a train."
"Sounds good, let's-" Lincoln suddenly stopped mid-sentence. His eyes wide as saucers as he looks straight ahead.
"Lincoln?! what's wrong?!" Sam said as she heard him suddenly stop talking. She looked over to him and saw his widened eyes and followed their direction. Her eyes did the same as she saw who was on the opposite side of the traffic lights. They saw a familiar beaten up van across from them, as well as two familiar people in the front seats. It was the Loud family's Vanzilla with Lori and Luna in the front seats.
"Just keep calm sweetheart," Sam said in a calm tone as she continued to look forward. "If they saw or recognized us, they would've gotten out of the vehicle already. Just keep looking forward and don't make eye contact with them."
Lincoln silently nodded as the light turned green. The two vehicles drove past one another, with neither occupants noticing the other. Sam and Lincoln didn't even look back to see if they noticed or turned around. However if they did, they would have seen a teenage goth in the back seat looking at their vehicle.
The two made it to the train station and went up to the counter. "When's the next train?" Sam asked the employee.
"Train to where?" The employee asked in an uninterested and tired tone.
"Anywhere! What is the next train that's leaving?" Lincoln replied with a somewhat urgent tone.
The employee gave them a strange look with a raised eyebrow, but then shrugged it off as he just didn't care. "The next train leaving here is in 20 minutes going northbound."
"We'll take two tickets!" The couple said in unison as they handed him the money. He gave them two tickets and told them where to go. They rushed off to go wait for the next train.
Meanwhile back with Vanzilla, the Loud children had just parked in front of the building where they're missing brother was supposed to be. "Are you sure this is the right place Lisa?" Lynn Jr. asked the genius skeptically.
"I assure you this information is correct," Lisa replied looking at a tablet. "My contacts have informed me that this is the address where Sam and Lincoln currently reside. Although they are currently going by the names of Susie and Leroy Smith. Susie had been working as a waitress at a diner not too far from here, while Leroy is working for a temp agency."
"I guess we should go see If your information is actually correct." Lucy said, getting out of the van.
"I agree, let's go," Lori said following the young goth's example. Soon Luna, Lynn, and Lisa got out and followed them. They walked through the building until they made it to the apartment where the two supposedly lived. Lori knocked on the door and they waited for a few seconds but eventually got nothing.
"Maybe they're not home," Luna suggested with uncertainty.
"No, according to my information, they should both be home from work by now," Lisa replied, still looking at her tablet.
"Let me try," Lynn said as she walked up to the door. She then started to pound on the door extremely hard, only to get the same result. "Lincoln! If you're in there, you better open up this door!" She shouted while looking furious at the door. Just as she looked like she was about to bust open the door, Lucy stepped in front of her.
"Hold on, let me try something," Lucy said as she got close to the lock. She then pulled out some bobby pins and started to pick the lock. After a few seconds they heard a click and the door was unlocked.
"How did you do that?!" Lori asked in surprise.
"I got Leni to teach me," she said with a faint smile, as she opened up the door. The five girls walked into the small apartment and started to look around. As they searched the place, they saw that there were still clothes and bills that indicated that Susie and Leroy Smith lived there.
"This makes no sense? They should be here," Lisa said, perplexed by their current situation.
"It's like they literally know when we are coming!" Lori said with a frown as she looked around.
"This is just like all the other times!" Lynn said, starting to become furious. "They couldn't have gotten far, we should look around the city for them!"
"Lynn, as much as I want to find our brother, we don't even know where to begin to look for them," Lucy said trying to calm her older sister.
"Spooky is right," Luna said with a sigh of defeat. "We don't even know when they left. For all we know they could have been gone for a month already."
"Not possible," Lisa rebuked. "My contacts informed me about them a week ago. So if they fled, it had to be within the last week."
"So then what do we do now?" Lynn asked all her sisters angrily.
"We go back to Vanzilla and then we go back to Royal Woods," Lori said with a saddened tone. "Lisa, tell your contacts to keep an eye out for them. We'll just have to tell the rest that they left before we got to them, again."
Lisa and Lucy nodded in agreement, while Lynn angrily grumbled. The three sisters then left the apartment to make their way back to Vanzilla. Lori was about to follow, when she saw Luna went and sat on the couch dejectedly. "Luna? Are you okay?" Lori asked her worryingly.
"No I'm not," Luna said as she put her head in her hands. "It's my fault that they both ran away in the first place."
Lori sat down beside her sister and started to rub her back in comfort. "No, it's not your fault," she said with a bit of firm tone in her voice. "It was Rusty's fault not yours! I know he is still saying someone sent him that picture, but I still refuse to believe that."
"But I'm still the one who got jealous and blamed both of them!" Luna rebuked looking up at her sister with tears. "I flipped out on both of them! All because I saw a picture that looked like they were kissing each other! When in reality it was just Sam tripping and falling on top of Lincoln!"
"You're not the only one at fault," Lori said as she pulled her sister into a hug. "Me and the rest of our sisters were no better. We completely ignored and insulted Lincoln and didn't listen to what he had to say, as well as spread false information on to the internet. It was our fault that Sam was getting harassed at school. So if anyone's at fault, it's all of us not just you."
"I just want to apologize to them," Luna said as she hugged her older sister. "Are we ever going to find them?"
"Honestly I don't know, but we have to hold on to hope that we will," Lori replied as she cried with her sister.
It then goes back to Sam and Lincoln now on the train. They were sitting beside each other, with empty food containers in their laps. Both were asleep, with their heads on each other's shoulders and a smile on their faces. As they slept they held onto each other's hands, ignoring the world around them.