Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Restored Image: A tale retold

Chapter twenty-seven: Treasure Hunters

Lincoln Loud was walking through one of the residential areas in his hometown of Royal Woods, Michigan, on one well enough day. On this particular occasion, the white-haired boy was accompanied by his younger sisters Lola and Lana, the six-year-old twins of the Loud family. In addition to the Loud twins, the group also had Skippy, a boy in RWES first-grade year, same as the twins.

Skippy also just so happens to be the boy that Lana has a crush on; as far as Lincoln could tell, Skippy might very well feel the same about Lana. That being said, Lincoln would be sure to keep an eye out on Skippy, lest he do something to upset the grease monkey Loud sister. Lincoln had just recently reconciled with Lana, accepting her as his sister again. As such, he's not exactly quick to want to see Lana made upset for some reason or another.

"So, tell me," Lana began, her tone suggesting that she was not exactly eager to go to where the group was heading at the moment, "Why are we heading over to Winston's place again?" True to Lana's words, the group were currently making their way over to the residence of Winston, another six-year-old who was in RWES's first-grade year. Similar to how Lana has a crush on Skippy, Lola has a crush on Winston.

"Winston said that he found something really cool yesterday in his family's backyard while he was helping to dig some holes in the ground in preparation for constructing a patio of some kind," Skippy explained, "Winston is a close personal friend of mine, so it's natural that he'd want to invite me over so he can show me what he found." With a bit of an excited hum, the six-year-old boy continued, "I bet he found a dinosaur fossil or something similar! Maybe he found a chunk of amber that has an insect trapped inside!"

"Winston also invited me over to show me what he found because he's a proper gentleman who knows how to treat ladies such as myself," Lola remarked as she addressed her older twin sister, "You're coming along because mom thought that it would be nice since both Skippy and I are going, and Lincoln here was kind enough to see us all over." The white-haired eleven-year-old boy nodded in agreement, confirming Lola's words to Lana.

After the group turned around a corner, the house where Winston and his family lived came into view. After a brisk walk over, Lincoln and the first graders made it to their destination. "Allow me," Lola said as the group reached the front door. Reaching up, Lola rang the doorbell, and after the group waited for a few seconds, the door was answered by Winston. He wasn't wearing his usual jacket, but he was wearing the light blue vest, which was worn over a long-sleeved white shirt. Other than that, Winston's attire looked like it usually does.

"Ah, I was wondering when you all would come!" Winston greeted in a friendly tone, "Please, come in!" After Lincoln and the others made their way in, Winston remarked to Lincoln and Lana, "Truthfully, I was only expecting Lola and Skippy to come over but having you two as well is a welcomed surprise."

"Me and my sisters' mom wanted me to make sure my sisters got over here safely, and she also thought that it'd be nice if Lana came since both Lola and Skippy were coming," Lincoln said.

Nodding in an understanding manner, Winston replied, "That's very reasonable." Clapping his hands together, Winston continued, "Now then, since everyone's here, I suppose that now would be a good time to show you all what I had found yesterday during my family's preparations to construct that patio, hmm?" The six-year-olds and Lincoln all nodded in agreement as they all went to follow Winston to his room.

About a minute or so later, Lincoln, the twins and Skippy were sitting or standing around in Winston's bedroom as he searched one of his desk drawers for something. Their patience paid off, because Winston found what he was looking for. He then walked over to where everyone else was waiting, his hand clasped around something. "Well then, here it is," Winston said as he showed the guests what he had found; it was a bright red, sparkly rock that seemed like it was a gemstone. "This is what I found yesterday," Winston said as he showed off his discovery.

"Winston, it's so pretty!" Lola remarked, her eyes fixed on her crush's discovery.

"It looks like a hunk of cherry-flavored candy," Lana said, as if she were imagining that Winston's discovery was actually candy.

"I'm more of a strawberry candy kind of guy myself, but the color's roughly the same," Skippy commented, silently wishing that he had some candy. As the first-graders all stared at the sparkly rock, Lincoln's eyes widened as he looked at it himself, realizing what the rock might actually be. "…Hey Winston," Lincoln began, "Can I see that rock of yours really quick?"

"Sure thing," Winston replied as he walked over and handed his discovery over to Lincoln. The white-haired boy gave the rock a quick look over, tilting it slightly so he could examine it from every side. After a few seconds, Lincoln handed the rock back over to Winston. "So, what do you think?" Winston asked the older boy as he received his discovery back from him.

"I think that you found a ruby," Lincoln replied.

"A RUBY?!" all four of the first graders exclaimed in unison, all of them taken aback by surprise over what Lincoln had just said.

Nodding in the affirmative, Lincoln explained, "I'm pretty sure that it's a ruby, although just to be on the safe side, we should get Lisa to take a look at it. She's good at examining things, so we can count on her to give us a more accurate judgment."

"Oh, you mean your sister Lisa," Winston replied as he nodded in understanding. With a hint of confusion in his expression, Winston continued, "Umm, she's that tall, bossy one that Lola says passes gas all the time, right?"

Giggling cutely in a manner that clearly showed that she found what Winston said to be rather funny, Lola explained, "No, no, Winston, that's Lori. Lisa is my younger sister with the brown hair and the glasses."

"Wait a minute, I thought that was your sister Lynn," Skippy remarked, a look of confusion on his face.

"Lynn is one of our older sisters," Lana corrected, "She's the one who's into a lot of sports and tries to turn pretty much everything into a sport."

"I thought that was Leni," Winston said.

"No, Leni is me and Lana's older sister who's really into fashion," Lola clarified.

"I thought that was Luna," Skippy remarked.

"No, Luna is the one that wears purple and likes playing music all the time," Lola corrected, "But I believe that we're getting off subject here." Looking at Winston's possible ruby, Lola continued, "Imagine if this really did turn out to be a ruby. That would make it the find of the century." Looking to her crush, Lola said, "What do you think, Winston?"

Nodding a few times, Winston replied, "Well that would be rather marvelous, Lola. But we should do what your older brother suggested and get that science-y sister of yours to give this an examination."

"Yeah, that's a good point," Lola advised, "Well we should get Lisa to look at it with her science stuff first, just like Lincoln said. Lisa's smart, so we can trust her."

After everyone agreed that they would take that course of action, Skippy said, "Okay then. Just so that we're all clear on this, Lisa is one of your older sisters, right?"

Later over at the Loud family residence, Lincoln, Lola, Lana, Skippy and Winston were standing around in Lisa and Lily's room, watching as the brainy Loud sister examined the supposed ruby that Winston had found. "Mmm hmm," Lisa hummed to herself as she viewed the sparkly stone through one of those magnifying glasses used by people when examining precious stones and other such valuables. After a few more seconds of examination, Lisa handed the stone back to Winston before telling him, "Well I do believe that congratulations are in order, Winston. You are now the proud owner of a ruby."

"Wow, isn't this great, Winston?" Lola said excitedly, "You have a gemstone!"

"I still can't believe that I actually have something like this," Winston remarked in a tone that was a mix of surprised and mildly unsure, "I mean, what do I even do with something like this?"

"I would hold on to it if I were you," Lincoln advised, "I have no doubt that it's valuable, so you need to keep it someplace safe."

"Lincoln's got a really good point, Winston," Lana said. Turning to face Skippy, who was looking at the crib in the room, Lana said, "What do you think, Skippy?"

After a few seconds, Skippy turned around and said, "Oh, I'm sorry but I didn't quite catch that." Turning back around, Skippy continued, "Your baby sister Lucy here distracted me. I have to admit that she's rather adorable."

"Skippy, that's Lily," Lana clarified, a bit amused by her crush mixing some of her siblings up again, "Lucy is my older sister who wears a lot of black and writes a lot of poetry."

"Hang on a minute," Winston interrupted, his tone sounding a mix of curious and confused, "I thought that was Luan."

"No, Luan is our older sister who likes telling jokes and pulling pranks," Lola corrected.

"I thought that was Lola," Skippy remarked with a confused look on his face as he turned back around. Skippy's remarked prompted Lana to begin laughing hysterically.

"I'M LOLA!" the pink-dressed Loud sister exclaimed, clearly annoyed with the idiocy of her sister's crush.

"Lola, please calm down," Winston said gently in a tone that showed he was a bit on the concerned side, "There's nothing to be gained from losing your temper."

As the first graders were talking to each other, Lincoln turned his attention to face Lisa. "…I think that we ought look into preparing some flash cards so we can help teach Winston and Skippy which one of you girls is which," Lincoln said in a dry tone to his brainy younger sister.

"Such a set of flash cards can be useful to more than just those boys," Lisa remarked, her tone clearly indicating that she agreed with her older brother.

The following afternoon saw Lincoln in the Loud family's backyard, keeping an eye on Lana and Skippy, the latter of which came over because Lana wanted to show him how she improved Lola's princess car as she figured that if she taught Skippy how she did it, then he'd be able to do the same to variations of the princess car that were targeted at boys. The white-haired boy felt that it was rather cute how Lana wanted her crush to be able to accomplish the same mechanical feats that she has been known to-

"LANA! SKIPPY! WE NEED YOUR HELP" Lola's voice called out, clearly fuming. Lincoln turned around, and Lana and Skippy stopped what they were doing to look over, to see Lola enter the backyard with Winston following her. The impeccably attired six-year-old boy seemed very troubled by something and was clearly trying to put on a brave face.

"Lola, Winston, what's going on?" Lincoln asked as he, Lana and Skippy came over, "And why does Winston look so upset?"

"The ruby that I found wasn't where I left it," Winston explained, "I distinctly remember placing it in the drawer of my nightstand in my bedroom last night before I went to bed, but when I opened my nightstand drawer this morning, the ruby was gone. This is especially terrible since I finally figured out what I wanted to do with the ruby, but since it's gone, my plan is now shot."

"The ruby's gone?" Skippy said, clearly looking shocked. Shaking his head in a manner to try to get his mind focused, Skippy said to Winston, "Don't worry, man, I'll help you find it!"

"Alright!" Lana said as she pumped a fist into the air, "Looks like we're on the case!"

Over at Winston's family's place, Lincoln and the first-graders went to Winston's room to begin the search for the missing ruby. Upon Winston opening the door and letting everyone in, Lincoln and the others were amazed to once again see the surprisingly tidy room with dark bluish paint on the walls, as well as bookshelf with a good number of books on it.

There were even those two masks, one happy and one sad, that are often associated with theater, hanging on the wall off to the left hand side (if you were standing in the doorway of Winston's bedroom and was looking into said bedroom). "Hey Winston, I've been meaning to ask," Lana began in a mildly curious tone as she pointed to the twin masks, "What's up with those masks that you have there hanging on the wall?"

"Oh, Winston says that he wants to be a therapist when he grows up," Skippy explained to the tomboyish Loud twin.

"It's pronounced 'thespian', my good man," Winston corrected.

Turning around to face Winston, Skippy asked, "Is that a fancy word for therapist?"

"No, it's a fancy word for actor," Winston replied. Walking over to the nightstand that was next to his bed, Winston pulled it open, and when everyone else walked over, they saw that the drawer only contained a few pencils, a pen, and an eraser. "There's no way that the ruby could have gotten lost in a jumble in the drawer because there isn't enough stuff in there to create a jumble," Winston remarked.

"Well don't worry, Winston," Lola said, "That's why we're all here. We're going to help you find it!" As the others also tried to raise Winston's spirits, an adult woman who looked to be Winston's mom came walking over to the open doorway. Surprisingly enough, she had Ulfric Aesir, the crush of Lincoln's older sister Lynn, with her.

Looking into her son's room, Winston's mom said, "Winston, sweetie, I got my friends Hilda and Gilda to send their son over to help with setting up some of the posts of the patio I'm wanting to build in the back- Oh!" Winston's mom stopped midsentence when she saw that her son had some guests over already. "I don't suppose your friends here would be willing to help with the patio, would they?" Winston's mom asked.

"I actually invited Skippy, Lola and two of Lola's siblings over to help me find the ruby that I found when I was helping with digging holes in the yard in preparation of building the patio," Winston explained to his mother, "It's not where I left it last night."

"You lost a ruby that you found?" Ulfric asked, "You actually found a ruby? Well, where did you keep it?"

"In the drawer of my nightstand, but it wasn't there when I next checked it," Winston explained.

"Hmm," the foreign-born teen boy hummed as he walked over to her little brother's nightstand, opened it, and checked things out a bit. "…Huh, well I'll be," Ulfric said as he pulled the drawer out of the nightstand. Showing the end of the drawer to everyone, Ulfric pointed out that there was a hole in the back of the drawer, a hole that looked like it was made by a small rodent. "I'm thinking that there might be just cause to call an exterminator," Ulfric remarked to everyone else as he stuck his finger through the hole, "It looks like a mouse stole Winston's ruby."

"A mouse stole Winston's ruby?" Lola said in an incredulous tone, "What would a mouse even want with a ruby anyway?"

"The mouse must have thought that it was a piece of food or something," Skippy remarked, "I mean, it did kind of look like a piece of fruit-flavored hard candy to me." Walking over to his friend's nightstand, Skippy looked into where the drawer was pulled out of. Pulling the nightstand itself away from the wall, Skippy revealed that not only was there a hole in the back of the nightstand, but that there was also a hole in the wall of Winston's bedroom, about at the level of the holes where the drawer of the nightstand and the nightstand itself would be.

"…Wow," Skippy remarked in a mildly surprised tone that had a hint of amusement with the situation, "You don't see something like that every day."

"Well this is just great," Winston said in an annoyed tone of complaint, "Now my family has to deal with a rodent problem."

"Relax, Winston," Lincoln said, "All Lola, Lana and I have to do is head back to our place, tell Lisa what's going on, and bring her back here with the appropriate tech needed to get the ruby back from the mice."

Ulfric wore a look on his face that showed he didn't quite understand what the white-haired boy was talking about. However, he did look like he felt that Lincoln knew what he was talking about, so he was going to put his faith in Lisa as well. Turning to Winston, the foreign-born teen boy said, "I believe that we ought to listen to what that Lisa girl says."

Nodding in agreement with Ulfric, Winston replied, "Exactly. Lola often speaks of her sister Lisa's intelligence, so if she can figure out a way to get my ruby back, then I'm all ears."

Later that day, after Lincoln and the twins came back to Winston's place, accompanied by Lynn since she heard that Ulfric was currently over at Winston's place, everyone was standing around while Lisa was working on a laptop that she had set up on Winston's bed. There was some sort of antenna plugged into one of the USB ports in Lisa's laptop. "Wow," Lisa remarked aloud as she looked at a live video feed that was playing on her laptop, "It's rather amazing what the mice have been able to do within the walls of your family's abode, Winston. It's pretty much a maze in there."

"What exactly are you working on here?" Skippy asked the brainy Loud sister.

"I put a mouse-sized mouse robot into the hole in Winston's wall," Lisa began to explain as she gestured to her computer's screen, "I'm controlling the robot via imputing commands with my laptop, and the video feed is coming from a miniature camera in the robot."

"So, this is like looking through the eyes of a mouse that's running along inside the walls?" Lana asked, then after Lisa nodded in the affirmative, Lana added, "Hey, that's actually pretty cool!"

Everyone crowded around a bit to look at the live video feed on Lisa's laptop. From the looks of it, it seemed like it was coming from a point of view where one was trying to make their way through a maze of wood, large metal nails, and pink fluffy wall insulation. "Hopefully we should be able to locate the ruby within short order," Lisa remarked, "After all, we're currently on a path that seems to have been made by the mice, so logically we AHA!" Lisa suddenly exclaimed as the live video feed showed that the ruby had been located. Upon seeing the ruby, everyone else began to cheer in victory.

"Yes, yes," Lisa said in a tone that suggested that she wanted the others to simmer down, "Now all I have to do is-" Lisa stopped short when the video feed shook a bit, as if the robot mouse whose eyes they were looking through was bumped into. Using the controls on her laptop, Lisa made the mouse turn around and see a real mouse of roughly equal size. From the looks of it, it seemed that the actual mouse wanted to fight the mouse-sized mouse robot.

"Oh dear, this doesn't look good," Lisa said, "At least I had the foresight to make my mouse robot capable of fighting back against real mice in case of any hostilities." Lisa then proceeded to input some commands, and from the video feed, everyone saw the paws of the robot mouse swipe at the real mouse. The real mouse attempted to bite at one of the robot mouse's ears, but another paw swipe made the real mouse back off. "Grrr," Lisa growled in a mildly annoyed tone, "Because of that other mouse, this is going to take quite a while."

Lynn, with a curious look of mild wondering on her face, went over to the wall in Winston's room that had the mouse hold in it. Using the outer side of her right fist, Lynn gave the wall a good few bumps every so often. During one part of the athletic Loud sister's methodical wall bumps, Lisa said, "Hey, watch it, Lynn! That bump actually shook the camera from my mouse robot! Although it also startled the actual mouse as well. Sadly not enough to make the actual mouse run away."

After Lynn got that bit of scolding from her brainy younger sister, she went over to Ulfric, got a pair of tough construction gloves from him, put them on, went back over to the wall she was giving bumps to with the side of her fist and, after she was scolded a bit again by Lisa for bumping the same spot as before, she pulled her fist back and punched the spot on the wall so hard that she broke part of the wall and exposed what was inside, startling everyone else in the room in the process.

Acting quickly, Lynn reached in with her gloved hand and grabbed the actual mouse that Lisa's robot mouse was fighting. As the live mouse squeaked in a panicked tone while in Lynn's gloved grip, she held the mouse out to everyone else. "Here you go," the athletic Loud sister said with a hint of self-amused pride in her tone, "Problem solved." Ulfric, a bit surprised by Lynn's actions just now, nonetheless went about getting a bucket that Lynn dropped the mouse into. With the mouse out of the way, Lisa went over to the hole in the wall that her older sister punched into it.

Reaching into the hole, Lisa retrieved both her robot mouse and Winston's ruby. "…I believe that you should be grateful that your family just so happens to have the supplies needed to fix the holes in your wall," Lisa said to Winston in a dry tone as she handed him his ruby, "Both the one made by the mouse and the one that my athletically inclined sister just punched into it."

Receiving his ruby from Lisa, Winston replied with equal dryness, "…Yes, and I suppose it also helps that there's enough of the same color of paint in the wall paint cans to match the rest of my room as well." Although he could not argue with the results, Winston did feel like he wanted to argue about the methods used to go about getting said results.

"So, Winston," Lincoln began as he got the impeccably dressed six-year-old boy to turn to face him, "Now that you got your ruby back, what are you going to do with it? You did say that you had a plan for it."

"Indeed, I do have a plan for the ruby, Lincoln," Winston replied to the white-haired boy. Turning around to face Lola, Winston handed her the ruby while saying, "Here you go, Lola. This is for you."

Gasping in surprise, Lola said, "You're giving it to me?" The pageant winning Loud sister then squealed excitedly as she jumped up and down repeatedly before throwing her arms around Winston's shoulders while thanking him repeatedly. The others in the room watched this display, their hearts touched by how sweet it was.

The older kids in the room were touched by the sweetness of Winston giving the gemstone he found to the girl that has a crush on him. Lincoln and Lynn were especially amused, as the girl in question was their little sister Lola. Turning to regard Winston, Lynn said, "Hey that was pretty big of you, little man."

"Well far be it from me to not be anything less than a gentleman," Winston replied.

With an amused smirk on her face, Lynn continued as she removed the gloves that she was wearing, "And hey, if you have any more problems with mice in the walls of your family's house here, just give me a holler and I'll be glad to swing by and take care of it for you."

"Umm, Lynn," Ulfric began, "With all due respect, I'm pretty sure that Winston's family would want to hire a professional exterminator."

The following day over at the Loud family's residence during breakfast, Lincoln was sitting at the table with a glass of juice while the twins, Lisa and Lynn were all eating some breakfast. "So Lola, Winston actually gave you the ruby he found," Lynn remarked, "That was actually rather thoughtful of him." This drew a nod of agreement from Lola, who had her mouth full with what she was eating.

"What do you intend to do with it, Lola?" Lisa asked.

"Keep it someplace safe," Lola replied after she swallowed what she was eating, "And I already have it hidden, so no one but me knows where it is. It's also in a keepsake box, so there's no chance that a mouse will be able to snatch the ruby while it's hidden."

"Well I'm glad to see that you're taking care of it," Lincoln said.

"Well of course I'm going to take care of it," Lola said in a matter-of-factly kind of tone, "It's the first thing that my crush ever gave me."

END, RESTORED IMAGE: A TALE RETOLD CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Author's notes:

This chapter was recycled from the original, but with a number of edits to it so that it better fit the new setting while also taking care to respect things that were revealed about the series proper. Either way, I feel that even though Lola and Lana often quarrel, I believe that Winston and Skippy, the respective crushes of Lola and Lana, would be thick as thieves. I have no idea why I believe this. But that's beside the point.

Anyway, some of you may have noticed all of the chapters that I got out on 5-15-20. The truth of the matter is that, honestly, I've lost interest in writing chapters for this story and continuing it, so I decided to get out all of the completed chapters that I had in my backlog before I ended things Here. I've very sorry to all of you who enjoyed this story, especially since I had to cancel it before Lincoln forgave everyone in his family, but I just don't feel it in me to try and keep it going, especially since I have other stories that do firmly hold my interest. Maybe, in a far off time, once those stories come to a close, I can get back to this story, un-cancel it, and bring it to a proper, complete form.

That would be nice, but it's a far time off if at all.