SPOILERS! (kind of) The song lyrics close to the end of the story were the basis for it.

Before reading this story, I'm going to let you know. I hated "No Such Luck" But I saw something the other day that just made too good of a story to pass up. So this story is not going to be exactly like the episode, instead, it's going to be an AU of that episode. The difference being that their parents know that Lincoln is trying to get some alone time, so they all go do things without him, never kicking him out of the house. Because with eleven kids, you would be an idiot if you didn't know the law when it came to what you can and can't do to minors. But they never expected him to run away. There's a few references in here. Many of which are funny, but the main reference that this whole story is based off of is actually really sad. Enjoy this one shot.

Lincoln come home - One Shot

"But I'm your brother!"

"But you're bad luck!"

The sound of his sisters' voices together rang in his ears. Even Lisa was so blinded by her anger towards what Lincoln was doing that she agreed with the rest of them. None of them seemed to catch the look on his face. The look of sadness, yet without sobbing, was uncontested by anyone. Did they really not care about him? Did they really care more that he was bad luck?

"So... I'm bad luck then?" They all nodded their heads. Even Lily, in the pressure of the moment, nodded her head as well.

"No doubt about it," Lynn confidently stated.

"You really think it would be better if I didn't live here? Because my bad luck will get in the way?" Once again, they all agreed.

"Literally."

"Fine..."

Lincoln stomped upstairs to his room and slammed the door shut, making it echo throughout the house. He sat down at his desk and grabbed some paper to work on his next plan. A plan where he would be happy. Without his sisters. Besides, if they didn't want him anyway, then why did he need to stay here? The answer of course, was, he didn't. His plan would go into action later tonight, after everyone was asleep. Despite having lived in a house that was never quiet all his life, he knew how to be quiet. He could slip out at any given moment and no one would be the wiser.

"You don't think we were too hard on him, do you?" Lucy's voice startled Lynn as she dropped the ball she was throwing against the wall. Lucy always knew how to scare someone, even in what really was the most likely situation."

"Naw..." Lynn started, now recovered from Lucy's scare. "He's got thick skin. He can take it."

"I'm not so sure. The spirits have been telling me that nothing good can come of this."

"Well, the spirits are wrong. Besides, it's not our fault that Linc's bad luck. Don't you know what's been happening?"

"Bad luck is hardly a good reason to not let him do anything with us."

"Even if it means any of us could get hurt?"

Lucy shrugged and went back to her poems. Despite Lynn trying to convince Lucy that nothing would happen, she still had a feeling that there was something terrible on the horizon. Something that could escalate to where they wouldn't be able to stop it if it went too far. She started paying more attention to her poems to try to get it off of her mind. It didn't work. There was just something about this whole situation that seemed uneasy to her. But she didn't let it bother her for too long, and before she knew it, both her and Lynn were asleep.

Lincoln woke up to the sound of his alarm clock. It was still dark outside and everyone was asleep. After all, how could he run away if they were all awake and watching him.

"Oh Boy..." he said to himself with a devilish grin on his face, "3 am!"

He climbed down from his bed and grabbed the bag that he had stored underneath his bed. A bag full of clothes and other necessities. He wrote a note and left it on his desk before putting his plan into action. The moon shone through the window at the top of his room. That was his way out. He had successfully organised his room to where he would easily be able to escape, and without them suspecting anything. The trampoline that they kept outside of his bedroom window, was being put to use one more time. No blankets to make a rope, meant no evidence that he was gone. They would all just assume he was out somewhere, maybe at Clyde's house or with Ronnie Anne.

His plan was executed perfectly. He didn't make any noise, so none of the lights in the house turned on. No one noticed that he was gone. Not yet anyway. They would know in the morning, because he left a dummy in his place. That way they would see it and immediately know what happened. Lucky for him, the next day was Saturday, so no one at school would suspect anything. Not until Monday anyway. He looked at the house he had lived in all his life one more time. Staring at it didn't make him feel angry. He was angry at his sisters, no doubt, but this was his only home. He loved the house, and despite what he felt, he loved his sisters too and wanted what was best for them. What they told him the night before was terrible. He thought that his sisters, who had always been there for him, all of a sudden hated him, merely because he was bad luck. But it made him realize that maybe his sisters were better off without him. He hated thinking that and knew that he would definitely be better off staying there, even if they did treat him like a stranger. But if it was the truth, then who was he to try to make it different. So he felt like he had to leave, so that they could enjoy their lives.

Lincoln looked down at his watch. It had taken him thirty minutes to finish everything up. So, taking one last look at home, the boy started walking off in the middle of the night. He didn't know where he would end up, nor where he would be, but anywhere would be better than here. He walked for hours, taking a short break every thirty minutes or so. After about two hours of walking, he came up to the Burpin' Burger, which was open 24/7.

He walked in to see a single cashier standing behind the counter who was wiping down the ice cream machine. During Lunch, this place would be packed. The line usually went out the door. It was a popular place to go, but now, it was completely empty. The place had a completely different feel to it when there wasn't anyone there. Lincoln paused for a moment before entering the store, which had a bell on it to let people know when they came in. The cashier turned around to see a familiar white haired boy who came in all the time. Never this early though.

"Lincoln! My man! What are you doing here this early?"

Lincoln didn't want his good friend to worry. So he told a lie, "My parents dropped me off here. They had an early morning doctors appointment and I was already awake. So I asked them to take me here."

"Cool beans dude. What can I get for you?"

He fell for it. Lincoln hated lying to him like that, but telling him the truth would only make things worse. "I just want an ice water for now."

"No problem." He turned around to get the water, and Lincoln walked up and sat on one of the stools that were in front of the counter. He took his backpack off and got his computer out. There wasn't anything for him to do but play games on it, but it made his lie look better. That and he didn't have any money with him. He felt stupid for forgetting money. He couldn't go back now and get some though, it was much too late for that. He did bring some snacks to get him through though. That being said, he wasn't going to last very long on M&M's and potato chips, but it was better than nothing.

"Here's your water buddy."

"Thanks Phil."

"Did you want something to eat?"

"Not right now. I forgot to ask my parents for money before they left."

"Hey little Loud, I'll take care of it for you today."

"Seriously?!"

"Yeah man! Don't sweat it."

"Thank you so much. You have no idea what this means to me," Lincoln suddenly realized that what he said, implied that at the very least, he wasn't doing too hot recently. Immediately he started thinking of a lie to try to tell him, going through his mind he thought of a couple things , such as, Lori broke up, or Lynn lost a big game. But Lincoln quickly realized that he didn't need to lie, he just didn't need to say the whole truth.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Here goes..." Lincoln thought, then started talking. "Well, you see, I went to one of Lynn's games for the first time, and when she lost, she blamed me, thinking I was bad luck. So now everyone else thinks I'm bad luck too. I'll admit, it was partially my fault, because I used it as an excuse to get some alone time, but then they stopped letting me go to movies and to the beach and to other places as well."

"What about your parents?"

"What about them?"

Phil realized he was trying to pry too much out of the kid and backed off, not asking him any more questions about it. "Ya know what, never mind. It's nothing that I need to know. What can I get for you to eat Lincoln?"

"Gimme a stack of pancakes, and an order of Bacon and Eggs!"

"You got it."

While Phil went back to put the order in, Lincoln typed away at his computer. If there were anyone else in the store at the moment, they would know that he wasn't actually doing anything productive. Playing video games is not something that people consider productive. Whatever the case, all Lincoln was trying to do was get his mind off of his family. They didn't care about him, so why should he care about them.

"Here's your breakfast."

Had that much time passed already? Looking at his watch, he realized it was now past 6 o' clock. The light of the sun was just barely starting to peak over the horizon. Lincoln knew he didn't have much time left before someone realized he was gone, so he gobbled up his food and thanked Phil for the free meal one more time before making his way out of the store. The time read 6:30 now. With breakfast taken care of, Lincoln was ready to begin his long, and possibly perilous journey. Lincoln told himself that he was ready for whatever lay ahead of him, but in the corner of his mind, he knew he wasn't ready for this.

Luna was the first one to wake up that Saturday morning. She stretched her arms and crawled out of bed, blinded slightly by the light coming through the window. Only one thing was on her mind right now. Breakfast. She walked downstairs and poured a bowl of cereal. The rocker looked around and noticed that something was off about her normal Saturday morning routine. Lincoln wasn't there. He always woke up early on Saturday so that he could watch cartoons before the television was taken over by someone else. She brushed it off as him oversleeping and continued eating her cereal. Maybe it was better that he wasn't there anyway, that way his bad luck wouldn't ruin her breakfast. Was he really bad luck though? Or did they just want someone to blame all their misfortune on? The more Luna thought about this, the more uneasy she felt. Lincoln might have been thick-skinned, but even he had his limits. Even if he really was bad luck, they shouldn't have treated their brother like that. She finally couldn't take it anymore and walked back upstairs to Lincoln's room. A few of her other sisters were awake now and she greeted a couple of them as they made their way downstairs.

"Lincoln?" she said, opening the door to his room. No reply. She opened the door further and felt a mild draft. The window was open. Curious, she walked over to his desk, careful not to wake him up. She had no idea that he wasn't actually there. On it, she saw a note which was scribbled on a piece of printing paper. Her heart sank when she started reading.

Dear Family,

If you are reading this, it means that I am now long gone. If you really believe that I am bad luck then you are clearly better off without me. If this had gone on for any longer, you probably would have kicked me out of the house anyway. So I cut out the middle man, so to speak, and left. I do not plan on returning anytime soon. Don't come looking for me, you will not be able to find me. Maybe, sometime in the far future, we will meet again.

Your former brother,

Lincoln L.

"Oh no..." Luna dropped the paper and ran over to the bed to find just a bunch of sheets bundled up together to look like someone was there. She beat herself up for not immediately noticing it. The sight of it was all too familiar as she did it all the time so that no one would know when she went to a late night concert. But this was different. Luna only sneaked out, she never ran away. If Lincoln wasn't back by now, then she knew that he was serious. She looked up at his calendar to see a post-it note with the words "operation farewell" scribbled on it.

"Please... no..." Luna looked around more to see that some of his bookcases and other various furniture had been moved around. She followed the various flat surfaces ascending up to the window, noticing that they were positioned to where someone could easily climb out of the window. When she didn't see some kind of rope to let him down, she immediately climbed up there herself to see how he could have possibly got out. She looked down and saw the trampoline sitting twenty feet below her on the ground. Did he really jump out!? Luna was now worried sick at this point and frantically ran out of Lincoln's room, back to her own.

She started putting on her normal clothes, except this time, not worrying about makeup and her hair. If she couldn't find her brother, it wouldn't matter how she looked. They all messed up by calling him bad luck and she knew it.

"Whoa Luna. The early bird gets the worm alright, and this is one worm that doesn't have a chance."

"Not now Luan. We messed up... bad..."

"Wait... What do you mean?" Luna pulled her shoes on and stood up before replying.

"Lincoln's gone. He ran away..." and with that, Luna sprinted out the door.

"Ran away? Why would he..." It suddenly hit her like a bag of bricks falling from a skyscraper. Everything they said to him last night replayed in her mind. Every mean word they said to him. Every time they pushed him away. Every time they didn't believe him when he said he was doing it to get some alone time. How could they call themselves family after that? The only thing that was on her mind, was Lincoln. If no one else did, then Luna and Luan definitely knew that they messed up, bad.

The commotion woke everyone up that was still asleep. Lori, being one of them, was not particularly happy. She walked out of her room and shuffled to Luna and Luan's room, preparing her rant in her mind. It was Saturday, they shouldn't be this loud this early. It's not normal, especially for them.

"What are you doing? Quit being so loud!"

"Sorry Lori, but Luna just told me that Lincoln ran away and then she ran out the door!" Luan said, putting her shoes on.

"Wh... What?"

"I don't know much, but I know that I've never seen Luna that distressed before."

"Why would he do that though?"

"Seriously?" Luan chirped. Lori just stood in her spot, staring at her with a blank look on her face. She didn't have a clue. All she remembered was about what happened last night.

Last night, of course. Her face suddenly turned pale and her legs started wobbling. She could play dictator all night and be cool and collected the whole time while keeping the house from falling into complete chaos. But when something bad actually happened, she lost it.

"I thought so. I knew you were thick, but you're not that thick Lori. We thought that he was bad luck and now he thinks we hate him!"

"L... Luan..."

Luan finished putting her shoes on, then glared at Lori before storming out of the door. Naturally, Luan's outburst caught the attention of all the other siblings and they rushed to find Lori standing speechless in the doorway of Luna and Luan's room. Her silence was terrifying, more terrifying than when she was in control. Because it meant that something had happened that she wasn't prepared to handle, which wasn't very often. They remained silent and waited for Lori to turn around. The silence caught the attention of Rita and Lynn Sr. If all of them had continued with what they were doing, then they wouldn't have worried about it. But the silence, especially at this time of morning, scared them.

They put on their morning gowns and briskly marched upstairs, fearing something bad had happened. "What's going on guys?"

"I don't know! Lori won't tell us."

Rita walked over to her first daughter and put a her hands on each of Lori's shoulders. "What happened?"

Lori suddenly snapped and ran to Lincoln's room with everyone following behind her. She opened the door and saw that Lincoln had rearranged his room. He rearranged his room to where he could perfectly climb out of the window. As she stepped further into it, a piece of paper crumpled beneath her feet. She started breathing more heavily and her heart started beating faster. Slowly, she moved her foot, and bent down to pick up the note that Lincoln had left. She gulped, then uncrumpled it and started reading. Each word she read only made her feel worse than she already did and by the time she was finished, tears were streaming down her face. As she looked up from the paper, she handed it to her father, who read it out loud. After he was done, he told everyone to go downstairs and wait for them. When they were out of earshot, Lynn Sr started speaking to his wife.

"Are you alright?"

"No... My little boy just ran away from home... None of our other kids have ever done that."

"Listen, you stay here okay? I'll go out and help the girls look for Lincoln."

Rita, almost ignoring what her husband said, silently told herself, "We let this get too out of hand..."

"You're absolutely right," he told her as he pulled her into a hug. She didn't realize that he was listening "But we need to stay strong, okay? We're never going to find him if we're not."

"Okay..."

"Now, you stay here and try to stay calm. If we haven't come back with Lincoln in less than thirty minutes, I need you to call the police and tell them everything that happened. Okay?"

"Okay," and with that, Lynn Sr went downstairs and told the girls to get in Vanzilla. Lisa told him that Luna and Luan were already out looking for Lincoln so that he didn't wonder where they were. Once they were in the van, they went off, first searching in one direction, then in the next. When they couldn't find him, first of all, they all freaked out a little bit, because it meant that he got further than they thought. Then Lynn Sr called the house and told his wife to contact the police.

"Please come home Lincoln..."

Six o' clock in the evening had come and there was still no sign of Lincoln. The family were all sitting on their beds, in their rooms after having searched for him all day long. Some of them were crying, others were trying to get through the pain by doing other things. Luna was writing a song, Lana was feeding her pets, Lisa was working on some kind of experiment, and Lynn was slaughtering her punching bag. Everyone else was either crying or not doing anything. Out of all of them Lynn felt the most responsible, she was the one who insisted that he was bad luck and was desperately trying to make herself feel better about it, but to no avail.

"AAAUUUUGGGHHH!" She slumped on the ground and took her boxing gloves off to relieve her nearly broken wrists now. She let her superstitious beliefs get the better of her all the time. She never thought that something like this could happen though. Bad luck, what kind of idiot was she. Not only that, but she helped convince everyone else of it too. Lincoln wasn't bad luck just because she lost a game while he was there. Looking back on it, she realized that there weren't any other instances she could think of that would make Lincoln bad luck. It was just that one game that he went to; that was when she deemed him bad luck. It wasn't based on any other prior events. There wasn't even anything that happened after the game that would have made him bad luck; it was just that one game; and Lynn felt like an idiot for jumping to conclusions.

"when he comes back, he'll never forgive me..."

"I doubt he'll forgive any of us, if he comes back..." Once again, Lucy never failed to startle her sister, even when they were already in the same room. "I could tell something was wrong the whole time, but I didn't say anything. That makes me just as guilty."

"Yeah, but you weren't the one who called him bad luck to start with... It was just one game too... There wasn't anything else that made us think he was bad luck."

"What do you mean? I thought he was the one who tried to convince us he was bad luck."

"Yeah, but if I had just took the Loss and never called him bad luck when I lost that game a few weeks ago, none of this would be happening right now."

Lucy stared at her sister for a moment, pondering what she just revealed, then looked back to her book of poems. Lucy was good at hiding her emotions, in fact, she didn't know it, but she was one of the best in the world. But however much she tried to hide them, they were still there and could still present themselves. A single tear fell down Lucy's cheek as she thought about Lincoln and what he could possibly be doing. He left because he thought that they would be better off without him. Dang it. Even when he was as mad as he could be at them, he still can't help but do what he thought was best for his sisters. In this case, it was running away. Lucy shut her book and plopped her head down on her pillow.

Lynn was still sitting on the floor, panting from having beaten her punching bag to a pulp. If that didn't take her mind off of him, then nothing would. She just gave up trying and meandered over to her bed where she leaned back and started throwing a tennis ball against the plaster, just like she was doing the previous night before he ran away. He was their only brother. And they thought he was bad luck. How did they even profit from leaving him at home, other than saving seven to ten bucks every time they went out somewhere. ten dollars a week wasn't worth losing their only brother. Maybe the police would be able to find him.

What would happen if the police did find him? What if he tried to run away again? What if he tried something worse? Something that none of them would want to happen to him. Lynn didn't even want to think about that possibility. The only thing she needed to think about, was how to apologize for making him feel like that. Apologize for making him feel like he wasn't loved, not just that, but for making him feel like they hated him, which was far from the truth. Farther from the truth than Lincoln was from home.

Lincoln had been wandering the streets of Royal Woods since three in the morning. He was tired and hungry. He didn't really plan this out as well as he thought he did, but it was too late to go back now. He couldn't return home. As far as he knew, they weren't even looking for him. He tried to make himself believe it, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it, no matter how much he wanted to. Maybe he was too tired. Getting some sleep would be a good idea. So he looked for the nearest house without any lights on, and sneaked into their backyard. He climbed the first tree he saw and when he came to a branch he liked, made himself comfortable, then made an attempt to get some sleep.

Nothing. Sleep couldn't come no matter what he did. Of course he wasn't in an ideal location to sleep, but given the fact that he was tired enough to out-snore an elephant, he couldn't find himself falling asleep. He looked around for anything that would help him go to sleep and found a pillow, just sitting there in the tree.

"Odd..." he thought to himself. "Who hides a pillow in a tree?"

He put it under his head and started to nod off to the sound of someone working on a song. It didn't sound familiar to him, but whoever was playing it, obviously knew what they were doing. Every so often, the person would stop and restart a section they were working on, then move onto the next section. It was the same way that Luna wrote a song.

Dang it, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't not think of his sisters. They all just meant too much to him. What if they really did miss him? What if they were looking for him right now. He looked over to the side of the house to try and get that thought out of his mind, but something caught his attention. He looked closer at the room the music was coming from and could see that not only the blinds were open, but the window was open too, and pacing around the room, was a familiar girl with a purple shirt and short black hair.

"Luna!?"

Sure enough, his eyes weren't deceiving him. The house that he was looking at was indeed the same one he ran away from this morning. How he got back, he had no idea, but he was indeed there. But instead of leaving, Lincoln thought of a way to confirm the fact that he wasn't wanted or needed there. He climbed down from the tree and slowly crept over to the side of the house. Looking back and forth, he started climbing the rain gutter to the roof that was just over the back porch. The window to Luna's room was right above it. He would spy on them for about thirty minutes and when he got all of the evidence he needed, he would leave. He got up to the roof and made sure he was out of sight. But what he heard and saw, was much different than what he was expecting. The song Luna was writing had just been finished. Lincoln listened intently as Luna's sultry voice carried off into the night.

Lincoln now I know, I was wrong.
I messed up, and now you're gone.
Brother I'm sorry I neglected you, oh
I never expected you to run away
and leave me feeling this empty.
Your voice right now would sound like music to me.
Please come home, cause we miss you Linky.

Lincoln can't you see, I was blind.
I'd do anything to change your mind.
More than just a bro, you were my best friend
I can't just forget that, don't you know we're family.
And forgive me for making you want to roam.
Now my heart is beating like the saddest metronome.
Someday I hope you'll listen to my latest three word song.

Lincoln come home...

"Please Lincoln... come back..." upon finishing the whole song for the first time, Luna put her guitar down and collapsed on her bed. It wasn't the best song she had ever written, nor did it take very long, a mere three hours compared to six or seven most of the time, but it had more meaning than any of her other songs did. She couldn't take it anymore. Luna curled up facing the and started crying on her bed. She was nearly convinced now that Lincoln wasn't coming back on his own.

Tears started rolling down Lincoln's face as well. The song wasn't the best song in the world, but it was good enough for Lincoln. That song was all he needed. He didn't care anymore if the rest of the world hated him. Just knowing that one of his sisters still loved him was all it took to help make his decision. Lincoln crawled through the window and walked over to Luna's bed. He stood there for a minute, wondering what to do. Would she be mad that he left or would she be happy that he was back. He had to do something though. Something to tell her that he was here. So he sat down on the edge of the bed and put his hand on her shoulder. Luna didn't even look back to see who it was. She just assumed it was any of her sisters or her parents. She wasn't in the mood for this. She just wanted to be by herself for now. Or so she thought.

"Go away..."

Lincoln smiled to himself. Instead of going away, like she said, he lifted his hands and started stroking his sisters hair. She kind of liked it at first, but batted it away after a minute. Lincoln put his hand right back where it was. "I told you to go away..."

Lincoln shook his head and continued stroking Luna's short hair. "Nuh uh... Not this time."

"Lincoln?" Luna sat up in her bed and jerked her head around to see him, sitting there right in front of her. Seeing him, she reached around him without hesitation and held on to her only brother. Lincoln hugged her back and she started sobbing, remembering everything that they did to him in those few weeks. They were terrible to him, and he just took it. Now, all she did was sing a song, and he happened to be watching. Yet, for some reason, he instantly came back. He didn't see anyone else crying, or anyone else mourning. He only saw her.

"I'm so sorry Linc... I'll do anything to make it up to you..."

She pulled him closer, stroking his silky white hair. How it was still this soft after being gone all day, she had no idea, but that was the least of their worries right now. Lincoln was home and she wouldn't have it any other way. None of them would. Which is why when they heard, even the slightest thing that sounded like him, they rushed to the place where it came from. Even Luan didn't notice that Lincoln had come into their room until she heard Luna say his name. Then she looked over and saw the two of them hugging it out on Luna's bed. The sight of Lincoln brought tears to her eyes and she went over and joined in.

The rest of the sisters burst through the door of the room and broke out into tears, all of them apologizing profusely to their brother for their behavior. None of them ever wanted him to leave and it took him actually leaving to realize that. He wasn't just their brother, nor was he merely their only brother, he was their favorite brother, for all of them. They didn't realize what they had in him until it was too late. A normal kid doesn't run away for the reason Lincoln did. In this situation, a normal kid would run away because he thought his sisters hated him. Lincoln ran away, because he thought it was for the best. He believed that they hated him, but he could have lived with it. Lincoln ran away because he thought that they couldn't. Even when they were acting like he was the worst thing in the world, when he had no reason to do anything for them, he still put them before himself.

Lori broke away from the group in such a way that signaled the others to break away too. They all stayed around him though. "Lincoln, we never wanted you to leave. We weren't thinking at all when we said all those things last night. Needless to say, we're sorry, and we wanna make it up to you."

"You guys..."

"It's our fault that you ran away. If none of us even considered the fact that you might be bad luck, none of this would have happened."

"But I was the one who tried to convince you guys I was bad luck..."

"But I was the one who gave you the idea..." Lynn snapped. "You were never even bad luck in the first place. It was just that one game that you happened to go to when I wasn't at my best. I didn't mean to call you bad luck. I was just angry that I had lost and wanted something to blame it on... I'm sorry Lincoln..."

"We're all to blame. We all forgot the most important rule of being a family. Sticking together no matter what. Now tell us what you want us to do."

Lincoln became overwhelmed at this point and tears started rolling down his face. Leni was the first one to come back to her little brother. "Don't cry Linky..."

Leni pulled him into a hug and after a few seconds, the rest of his sisters joined them and broke out into tears themselves. Lincoln buried his face into the first shoulder he found, which did just so happen to be Leni's. She wrapped her arms around him, comforting him. If he had any doubts in his mind about their love to him before this, he didn't have any now. He had already more than proven to them that he would do anything for his sisters, and now, he believed they would do anything for him. They still felt the need to prove it to him anyway. They all felt the need to prove that Lincoln could trust them once again, and they were willing to do whatever it took to earn that trust. They would go so far as to go to the ends of the Earth, putting themselves in danger to do it.

"Well tell us!" Lana chirped as they slowly broke out of the hug. "What do you want us to do?"

Lincoln sighed and scratched the back of his head before finally talking to them, "You're not just gonna let me say that there's nothing I want from you, are you?"

"No way bro!" Lynn chimed in, chuckling a little. "Now tell us what it is."

"Okay, but you have to promise me something first."

"Whatever this stipulation is, I'm sure we would all be more than ecstatic to comply," Lisa stated as they all nodded their heads in agreement.

"Okay. Whatever it is that you guys are gonna do for me..." he paused for a moment, intentionally increasing the tension. "You have to let me join if I want."

They all looked confused, "what do you mean?"

Lincoln chuckled, "I'm not gonna make you do anything for me if that's what you're asking." They all just looked at him with more confusion. "You guys said you would do anything to make it up to me, right?" They nodded in agreement. "But if anything means that I can't join you, then it wouldn't be worth it. All I would be doing is making you guys my personal slaves, and as cool as it would be, that's not what I want."

"So... What do you want?"

"Anything." Lincoln stated. "As long as you guys are with me, I don't care what it is. I thought that getting some me time was all I really wanted, but after running away, and being by myself all day, with no one bothering me, I realized how terrible it really is. I don't like it at all. It's lonely being by yourself."

Now they understood. Lincoln wasn't asking for their service, nor was he asking for things. He didn't want any of that. After making them feel this way, he couldn't tell them that he wanted them to cater to his every whim. Not only would it be selfish, but he would be doing exactly what they did to him. He wasn't asking for anything physical. Time was what he was asking for. Their time. The time that they could be using to do a plethora of other things. After all the things that they did to him, all of the terrible instances of not letting him do anything due to his "bad luck," he just wanted to spend time with them. And they were more than happy to comply.

That night, all of them gathered up in the living room and binge watched his favorite movie series, "The King of the Rings." Eating popcorn, asking Lincoln dozens of questions, eating more popcorn, and just generally enjoying each other's company. After they all fell asleep on the couch and sleeping in until almost noon, Lori took them to the mall and they all roamed around it, doing their favorite things. Finally at the end of the day, they had breakfast for dinner and went to IHOF, the International House of Flapjacks. After they were all finished, they went home and got ready for the night. After all the next day was a school day.

As the day ended, Lincoln sat in his room, now relaxing from the exciting day he just had. Before he drifted off, he put his hand in his pocket and remembered what was there. He pulled it out and hopped off of his bed, walking over to his dresser. On top of it, were various different items and knick-knacks. He had most of his Ace Savvy comics stored up there and would pull one out whenever he felt like reading, but there was one thing that Lincoln thought was missing, and this item that was in his pocket was the thing that would pull the whole setup together. Being careful not to rip it or wrinkle it, he pulled out a picture that was taken at the mall of all eleven of them eating lunch. It wasn't the best picture, nor did it make them look like the prettiest bunch, but after today, it was Lincoln's favorite picture. Because it showed all of them actually being themselves and not worrying about anything else. It was the first time in a long time that they were together like this. Not fighting, but actually getting along and having fun for once. The best part was though, that it wasn't staged. It was real. A genuine photo like this didn't come along very often, especially for the Louds. That's why it was his favorite, and that's why it took the center of all of the things on his dresser. Every time Lincoln would see it, he would be reminded of what a family is supposed to look like, and he would never forget it.

That took way longer than I thought it would. As I was working on "Kidnapped" I decided to listen to the song, "Gary come home" from Spongebob and almost immediately, I applied it to "No such Luck," where Lincoln runs away instead of being kicked out. Originally I was just going to post a short paragraph explaining what happened, then leave the lyrics to the song, except Gary is replaced with Lincoln. But that turned into the Lyrics changing a bit more to what you see in this story and then adding Lincoln's reaction and when I realized it was going to take more than one night to finish, I said "screw it" and scrapped the whole thing, starting over with this. I didn't think it would take as long as it did though and I ended up working on it for probably close to a week. I hope you liked it, leave a review if you want! Hopefully I'll have the next chapter of kidnapped out later this week. Thanks again for the support.