Lincoln feared very little. He had been through a lot in his life, so he didn't usually succumb to such unnecessary things, especially after it all began. But there was one day in particular he feared. The same day everyone in the house feared. He didn't keep track of the dates as time went on, he didn't really see a point. It was easier to keep track of the days. For instance, Luna's last tour was a half year, 26 weeks, 182 days. As such he tended to forget what the months were, especially during the winter past Christmas, and, considering they lived in Detroit, winter lasted a long time. So it's no surprise, with the ground covered in snow, he had no reason why he had this overwhelming sense of dread. Until his daughter woke him at 4AM in the morning.

"Wha-" he yawned, "Liby? Wha-"

She shushed him, "She could be anywhere! Dad we gotta go!"

Liby was one his fourth oldest daughters, almost the spitting image of her mother at her age, and though their interests didn't match, owed mostly to her father, their sense of humor usually did. But now, on today of all days, all she felt was fear. Lincoln was still too groggy to fully grasp what was going on.

"What are you talking about?" He stretched, "What's Lucy up to now?"

"It's not Aunt Lucy, dad... it's mom."

Lincoln's eyes went wide as he made the sudden realization. He scrambled to his bedside for his phone, and in bold letters the phone read April 1st. He opened his phone to see a single, lone text.

'Let the games begin.'

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Luan was always one to hide her pain with laughter, or cooking, or both depending on the situation. Today was the ladder, and it didn't take long for Lincoln to notice something was wrong. Leni and him were watching the new season of Dream Boat on the couch. They recorded the episodes that he had missed when he was out with his other sisters or... busy with them. Leni was doing what she loved most, cuddling the future father of her children. But that incessant beeping that came blaring through the room, roughly around every 10 minutes, followed by the scent of meringue was interrupting it. It took around 4 times before Lincoln looked at Leni, who frowned but nodded knowingly. He smiled, kissed her on the cheek, earning a smile, and walked into the kitchen. He made his footsteps obvious, knowing what it would earn him, as a pie soared right into his face.

He wiped some off his cheek as Luan giggled and licked the cream, "mmm... Banana."

She smiled, warmly, but it was fake, "Thanks for the laugh, Linc, it was a real 'cream.'"

He grabbed a rag and wiped the cream from his face, "No, thank you for using one that already cooled," he leaned against the counter, "Alright, what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong Linc, I just... decided I needed to cook some pies!"

Lincoln nodded, "Is that why you forgot Mr. Coconuts?"

Luan turned her heads to see that his usual spot on the counter, watching her cook, was vacant, "Dang it," she muttered under her breath and turned away, "I-I'm serious Linc, I'm fine!"

"Luan... it'll make you feel better if you talk about it."

"T-there's nothing to talk about," she sniffled as she pulled a pan out of the oven.

"You saw Benny, didn't you."

She dropped the pan she was holding, causing the hot meringue to splatter back onto the oven, "Shoot!" She screamed.

"Luan!" Lincoln rushed around the counter, "Are you okay?!"

She turned to him, tears in her eyes, trying to force herself to smile, but she knew her motions were betraying her, "N-no... I'm not..."

Benny, her boyfriend for around a year and a half, broke up with her due to her April fools antics. She had locked herself in her room for roughly a week, and it took her fellow prank artist little sister, Lily, to pull her out of it. Even so, at the end of the day, she was still a girl, and he was still her first boyfriend. Seeing him at school turned her stomach. The butterfly's of anxiety would often make her feel like she could vomit. She thought, with Benny, she finally had someone who would overlook her appearance.

"What am I going to do Lincoln?"

"What?" He asked as he was inspecting her legs and arms for burns.

"I-I don't think... I don't think I'm going to ever find another boy... like Benny..."

When he was satisfied that his sister hadn't burned himself he grabbed two rags and they began cleaning off the oven, "What do you mean, 'another boy like Benny?' If you're looking for another guy who finds you funny just through a pie, you'll hit one."

Luan chuckled at that, then looked down at her feet, "N-not necessarily what I meant."

"Then what DO you mean?" she stared at herself in the mostly empty pie tin and frowned, "Oh... no no no, you aren't serious are you?"

"Look at me Lincoln! I'm nearly 17! I'm an underdeveloped, lanky, brace faced loser!"

Lincoln shook his head with a sigh, "What are you talking about? You're gorgeous."

"You have to say that," She rolled her eyes, "You're my brother..."

Lincoln had begun to get sloppy. He had fallen into his sisters ways over the past weeks to the point where his worry had begun slipping. His sisters constantly assured him they were protecting each other, so he could relax. Due to this, he occasionally forgot to think before he spoke around the older siblings, so he made a slight slip.

"Don't give me that."

Luan jerked back as Lincoln grabbed her scrunchy, causing her slightly curly brunette hair to cascade across her shoulders, covering the top of her white button up shirt, and her cheeks got flushed, "L-Lincoln, what are you-"

"Look at yourself," he demanded.

She looked at her round face, now flanked by her long hair and blushed before grabbing at her scrunchy, knocking him over in the process, "T-this is stupid! Letting my dumb hair down won't change the fact that it-"

"That it's not blonde or straight?"

Luan froze over top of her brother, hand inches away from her scrunchy, "W-what's that supposed to mean?"

"Stop comparing yourself to our sisters," He slid the scrunchy onto her arm and ran his hand through her hair, "The curly brunette hair suits you just as good as Lana's brunette short hair suits her, or Leni's long blonde straight hair suits her, or Lucy's long black straight hair suits her. So much so I think you should let it down way more," he gently pinched her pink cheek and wiped some of the cream from a pie off of it before licking it off her finger.

"W-what?"

He stood up and dusted himself off from the fall, "Besides, you have gorgeous legs. Thankfully you show those off all the time."

He smiled as he went back to cleaning. He was hoping that would make Luan feel better... but something felt off. Oh well, what did that matter? Luan was certainly beaming now after that compliment! Luan...

"Dang it!"

He slowly turned to his sister, realizing she was still laying on the ground, staring at him, her face completely flushed. She stood up wordlessly dusted herself off and began walking away.

"H-hey, Luan?"

She quickly turned the walk into a full bore sprint as she had a desperate need to escape the situation. Lincoln sat down and leaned his head against the cabinet before banging it against it gently one time.

"Good job Lincoln..." He groaned, "Now how do you fix this?"

Luan was tightly gripping her legs in her room, unsure of how to process what had just happened. Lincoln, her younger brother, had just pulled her hair down, touched her cheek, seductively ate cream off of her cheek, and complimented her legs in a very... inappropriate way. She looked at her legs for a second, running her fingers up her skin... should she start dressing more modestly? She already thought she was dressing modestly! Why was he looking at his sister like that?!

She hugged her knees and blushed again, using her knees to hide her expression, "And... why did it make me feel so much better?"

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Lincoln and Liby were quietly moving through the house, rapidly typing on his phone, "I don't understand, Lib. Why are you up at 4 AM anyway?"

"... Mom reset all of our clocks. I woke up panicking thinking it was 10... and Tuesday."

"It's Saturday, you were excited to watch the new episode of Cyber Eye last night..."

"It was early okay! You try kick starting your brain with 5 hours of sleep..."

He smiled at his daughter, "You gotta admit... that's a pretty good joke."

"Tell that to Lyra, little miss perfect had a breakdown thinking she was late to school!"

He froze when his phone rang, a photo of his older sister holding Liby as a baby popped up with her name, he answered it preparing for the worst, "Luan?"

"Good morning, dear sweet Lincoln. I see you're trying to escape. Put me on speaker."

"Luan, if you think that-"

"Now."

He gulped and hit the speaker button, "O-okay..."

"Liby? My dear sweet girl."

"M-mother? W-where are you?"

She laughed, "Why would I spoil the surprise dear girl? Though I do think it's cute, you trying to escape."

"M-Mom! I'm not going to let you hurt anyone this year!" She thought to her older sister, still tightly gripping Lemy and sobbing in her bed, "W-well anyone else..."

"Oh, isn't that adorable... too bad you're already too late."

A scream from the room next to them snapped Lincoln's head to the room, "Loan?!"

They rushed in to see Loan rapidly clicking every where on the screen, "N-No! Please god! N-not this way!"

Lincoln stood behind his daughter, seeing first the blank screen with a single file, simply reading April Fools. He turned to the second screen to see 10s of open files, each with more files numbered 1 through 20 in every single one.

"Loan... are you okay sweetheart."

She didn't respond to him, only babbling to herself as she clicked through every individual file, "I-it's all gone... I-it was here now it's gone"

"Loan! Breathe! Just restore the PC to a previous state!"

She turned slowly to her father, tears streaming down her cheeks, "S-she deleted all of them... every single one..."

Lincoln stared in disbelief and Liby growled, "You're a monster!"

Luan laughed hysterically, "This is only level 1 my dear girl!"

"We're getting out, now!" Liby grabbed her father's hand and dragged him in a full sprint towards the front door.

"W-wait Liby!" he tried to talk to her as they sped down the spiraling stairs, seeing as her aunts and siblings frantically attempted to barricade themselves in their rooms.

Leni's children were dragging her still sleeping body into their room as Lyle actively made calculations on a fortress. Lynn and Lacy were dragging sports equipment and trophies into their rooms to ram in front of their doors. Luna was desperately trying to calm Lyra who was near strangling Lemy in her anxiety while Sam and Lina utilized old instruments to create a spike wall. Stella was bubblewrapping darna while wearing a football helmet. Lucy, Ronnie, and Lupa were nowhere to be seen. Reina and Bobby were hiding under their bed, pillows blocking the exits. Leia was retreating with Lizy and Lana to the basement, readying themselves to hide in the boiler room bedroom. There it was, the front door to the apartment complex.

"We're almost their dad!" She excitedly bellowed as she threw the door open... and ran face first into plastic wrap, tightly sealing them in.

Laughter echoed through the phone, "Sweet, naive girl, you thought you could escape the house that easily?"

"What?!" She pushed on the 7 to 8 layers of plastic wrap, desperately begging for escape.

"She seals all the doors... every April fools..." Her father informed her, earning a stare of disbelief.

"N-no... it can't be!" She ran to the nearest window, only to find it was glued shut, "N-no! Why didn't you just come after me first like always?!"

Lincoln stared at the phone, "Why didn't you go after her first? Rip the band aide off for our poor daughter, for God's sake Luan-"

"No," she growled, "She's not getting off so easy this year, I've got something special planned for her..."

Liby dropped to her knees, "W-we're doomed."

Lincoln looked at the phone, frowned, rapidly began typing, then picked his daughter up before sprinting up the stairs, "Come on!"

"W-what are we doing?!"

"Going back to my room! There's only one way in, we can protect ourselves from there!"

As they reached the middle of the stairs, Lincoln elbowed the door that had a tendency to stick, opening it. Lucy and Lupa, tangled in a mesh net upside down, stared at him.

"L-Lucy, Lupa?!" Lincoln gasped as Liby gripped him tightly.

"Don't worry about us, my love. It's a trap." she calmly stated.

Another net shot out from behind them, which Lincoln dodged quickly thanks to Lucy's warning before running away up the stairs.

"S-shouldn't we go back and help them?!"

"The net was a decoy," Lincoln explained, "The real trap was wrapped up with them."

"W-what?!"

Luan sighed, "Dang it... You're always out to spoil my fun, aren't you Linc?"

"M-mom! How could you-"

"Trap the spider and bee in a web?" Lincoln could almost feel the grin through the phone, "It really, 'bugged,' me how both of them kept using that closet. So I thought I'd give them a taste of their own poison... or maybe venom would be more appropriate?"

Lincoln slammed his door as they arrived and locked it, "Okay sweetheart, help me sweep the place for traps."

Luan gasped over the phone, "Lincoln, don't you trust your sweet older sister?"

He utilized a shoe to snap a mousetrap in the drawer, "No," She blew a raspberry in response.

Liby quickly began utilizing the other shoe to open different doors and boxes.

Luan sighed, "While I'd love to watch you spoil sports ruin my fun, I have other date to attend to, ciao!"

The phone hung up, "D-dad!"

He put his hand on her shoulder comfortingly, "It's just you and me Lib," he assured her, "I'm not going to let her get one over on us," he stared at the phone, "Not without a fight."

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Luan had been silent after Luna returned to their room for a majority of the afternoon. Luna had been on the phone with Sam, talking loudly one minute about their band before whispering about something they had planned in a couple of days she couldn't make out. Eventually her sister hung up the phone and began noodling on her guitar, playing with finger placements and trying to feel out new tunes. The pressure eventually got to her, she had to talk about it.

"H-hey, Luna," she meekly stated.

"Yeah, what's up lil sis?" she asked as she continued playing.

"H-have you... Did..." She struggled with how to word the question.

"What's wrong, dude? Cat got your tongue?" Her older sister joked, making her chuckle a little, loosening her up enough to continue her chain of thought.

"Has Lincoln been acting weird lately?" Luna hit a sour note, causing Luan to jump, 'that was a weird reaction.'

"W-weird like H-how?"

Was her sister stuttering? She sat up from her bed and turned so she could look up at Luna's bunk who quickly turned away from her. Were her cheeks red? What was going on with her?

"W-well, has he said anything... off to you?"

"Like what?" she said quickly.

"W-well... I-I mean..." She debated with herself on telling her sister what her younger brother had said.

What would her reaction be? Would she be upset? Would she say Luan is overthinking it? Would Lincoln get in trouble? She swallowed herself and steeled her resolve before continuing.

"W-well, when I was in the kitchen baking, he came to check on me to see if I was alright," she glanced downward, "I-I guess it was obvious I wasn't feeling good. He said I was g-gorgeous and I though he was just being a dork..."

"O-okay?"

"H-he... took my hair down and started talking about... some nonsense... before reaffirming that he thought I was beautiful..." she blushed, "T-then... he said... my legs were gorgeous... and it was great that I showed them off."

She braced for impact when she saw the stunned look on her sister's face, "Dude..." she winced, "That's so not fair! He never compliments my legs!"

Luna's jealousy overcame her before reason, until her sister's stunned face brought her back to reality, "W-what?!"

Luna gasped, "I... uh... I mean," she yawned, "M-man I'm tired! G'night dude!"

She turned around and Luan tilted her head, "Luna, I know you aren't sleeping," no response past faux snoring, "Seriously? We're being this immature?" more snoring, "Fine! I'll just go talk to Leni!"

Luan quickly raced out of the bedroom, leaving Luna to her thoughts, "Oh crap... what did I do?!"

Luan gently knocked on Leni's door who let her in immediately. After explaining the situation to Leni, Luan got a similar response.

"Awe! That's so sweet! I wish he'd compliment my legs more often... He says I have a cute smile though!" She grinned, before staring at her legs, "But now that he mentions it..."

"I-I got to go!" she ran out of the room towards the only other sister she could turn to, "Lynn!"

Lynn about threw her weight at the door in surprise, "J-Jesus, Luan! Scaring people is Lucy's thing! Come on dude!"

"Lincoln said I was pretty!" She blurted causing Lynn's face to drop, "Then he said I had nice legs!"

Finally, the correct response was had, anger, "Oh no!"

Wait a minute... Lynn was now angry, "C-calm down, Lynn! No need to blow a gasket!"

"No no no! I'm not having this shit!" She growled as she began pushing Luan... away from Lincoln's room toward her own, "No! Not again! Not another!" She pushed Luan into her room, "You just go to bed and forget about MY Lincoln!"

"W-wait, what?!" Luan gasped as she grabbed the doorway, "Y-your Lincoln?!"

"Shut up! Get in your room!" her younger sister demanded pushing harder.

The absence of a fourth sister finally dawned on her, "Wait! W-where's Lucy?!"

"None of your business! Go! To! BED!" The girl finally managed to push her in and slammed the door. Luan had a look of bewilderment on her face as she glanced up to her older sister who was now in the fetal position. She furrowed her brow and growled then stood up next to Luna.

"Sister meeting, tomorrow after school!"

Luna turned to look at her with a nervous smile. Luan didn't know what the hell was going on in this house... but she was going to get to the bottom of it.