Hello! This is going to be the first FanFiction I have ever done. Honestly, it isn't going to be much, since I have no experience with this whatsoever. However, I do have the experience and pleasure of reading a bunch of them throughout my years of living on this planet.

The reason why I chose to do The Loud House as my first FanFiction is because it was the only one I was actually able to come up with an idea for. It ain't going to be the best one you'll read because that honor belongs to Requiem for a Loud by UnderratedHero.

What I'm aiming for is a loving and heartwarming comfy story. Unfortunately, for some of you guys, this will be an incestuous story, with harem elements. It's not as if I want to see this in the actual show, but I decided to see if I can tackle this subject and create a surprisingly awesome romance story. If you want a good example of a well-written romantic incestuous story, check out The Worst Kept Secret in the Loud House by recoverydelta.

Without further ado, here is my first FanFiction: Loving Return

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Loud House. The Loud House is the property of Chris Savino and Nickelodeon**

Chapter 1: Prologue and Eight Years

**Prologue**

It was a pretty summer day. The sky was clear, the sun was shining brightly down on the many houses, and the neighborhood itself seemed at peace. However, the peaceful and serene atmosphere could not be found at one residence, known simply as the Loud House.

Inside the Loud House lived a scary amount of residents; thirteen to be exact. Two of them were the parents and heads of the household, Rita and Lynn Sr. The rest of the eleven were the many siblings, specifically one boy and ten girls.

The names of the girls from oldest to youngest are Lori, the bossy and oldest sister, Leni, the kind-hearted but ditzy sister, Luna, the rock-and-roll spirited sister, Luan, the funny and aggravating comedic sister, Lynn, the athletic superstar sister, Lucy, the gothic and expressionless sister, Lana, the tomboy and dirty sister, Lola, the devilish yet graceful sister, Lisa, the kid-genius sister, and Lily, the baby sister.

Finally we have the middle child, the brother to all of those girls, Lincoln; the brother who loves all of his sisters and would do anything for them. Sometimes he was selfish, but that was normal for any kid his age. Whenever he did make a mistake, he did his utmost best to fix it. However, at this moment, he was trying his best to resolve an argument that broke out amongst all of his sisters.

Although this argument between his sisters had nothing to do with him, he felt obligated to help resolve it, since both of his parents decided to hide out in their bedroom, along with Lily, to keep away from the rampaging storm that was the Loud sisters fighting.

"Guys! Come on, stop fighting!", Lincoln screamed as loud as he could over the various screams of his sisters. Of course, none of them were listening to him. Lincoln was exhausted. He had been at this all morning. He just wanted some peace and quiet to read his Ace Savvy comics in his underwear without hearing someone scream at someone else.

"Guys! Please, let's all just calm down and talk to each other without resorting to violence!" Finally, to Lincoln's surprise, he caught the attention of Lola. At first, he was ecstatic that he got her attention, but then saw Lola's incredibly intimidating glare.

"Stay... OUT OF THIS LINCOLN!" Lola ran towards Lincoln with the intent to kill, which of course, scared the pants off of Lincoln as he ran away from Lola.

"L-Lola! Calm down! I just want to help-"

"We don't need your help, Lincoln! You'll just ruin everything again! Just butt out!"

Lincoln ran around the room with Lola on his tail for a while, making Lola get even more aggravated.

"Lola! Stop chasing me! I'll leave, alright? I'll get out of here and leave you all to your sister protocol!"

"Too little, too late, Lincoln!" Lola reached her hand out for the nearest thing and threw it at Lincoln. Lola was expecting to hear only a thud and Lincoln's pained scream, which at this point would be music to her ears. However, she did not expect to hear the awful sound of something made of porcelain breaking against her brother's face as he fell to the ground, too shocked to scream.

The sound of something breaking immediately stopped the other sisters from fighting each other. Silence filled the Loud House for the first time that day.

As soon as it went silent, Rita, holding Lily, and Lynn Sr. ran out to see the source of the sound. Both were horrified to see Lincoln with pieces of cracked porcelain all over his body. He slowly sat up, groaning as he did.

Lynn Sr.'s face quickly turned red with rage as he looked at the girls.

"This is the last straw! Girls! All of you line up from oldest to youngest now! No questions!" All of them did what their father had said as fast as they could. Lynn Sr. started to pace in front of them, not even looking at them as he grumbled to himself.

"I can forgive the numerous amount of times you've broken stuff. I can forgive the fact that your fights go so out of hand that your mother and I have to hide in our bedrooms to keep ourselves safe from your fights. I CANNOT forgive that you would not even give your brother the chance to try and help you resolve your arguments. Not only that, but one of you had the nerve to throw a plate at him?"

The older girls tried to keep a calm face, though they felt destroyed, while most of the younger girls, plus Leni, started to feel like tearing up. They admitted that they never wanted to have Lincoln's help during one of their sister protocols, but they didn't realize that they had went too far when they decided that Lincoln was the cause of their problems.

"That's it. I will not allow such dangerous acts in this house again! And I'll put a stop to it here by...by...by sending whoever threw the plate at Lincoln to boot camp for a week!" The girls froze in terror. They've heard of boot camp before. They knew how it would demoralize them and strip them of their pride and dignity. They wouldn't be able to express themselves there. It terrified them to no end.

Lincoln, who had stayed quiet the whole time, saw the fear present on all of his sisters' faces. A part of him wanted to gloat and be happy that his sisters will finally be punished for always blaming him for every time they got into a fight. But that part of him was superseded by his concern for his sisters. He knew boot camp would destroy them. He didn't want any of them to go through that.

Lincoln looked at Lola, the sister that had thrown the plate at him. He couldn't muster up any anger towards her. Only concern. How would Lola be able to survive at boot camp without her beauty products and such? He couldn't imagine Lola at a place like that. Lincoln knew what he had to do. As he always did. He was a boy who planned everything out.

Lynn Sr. crossed his arms.

"Now, will someone tell me, WHO threw the plate at Lincoln?" Lola started tearing up. She knew she had to fess up soon. She knew none of her sisters would stand up for her since they were just fighting each other seconds ago. She knew Lincoln wouldn't stand up for her because she was the one who hurt him in the first place.

When Lola started to cry, Lynn Sr. focused all of his attention on her.

"Lola? Do you have something you want to say?"

Lola tried her best to speak through her tears.

"I-I...I-"

"It wasn't any of them. I broke the plate, Dad."

All of the sisters and Lynn Sr. looked over to Lincoln with a shocked look on their face. Lincoln stood up dusting off the porcelain still on him.

"What? Is this true, Lincoln?", Lynn Sr. asked, looking more confused than angry.

Lincoln nodded.

"It's true, Dad. They had nothing to do with it. I accidentally broke the plate when I brought it downstairs because I wanted to ask everyone here to check it out since it had this cool signature on it and-"

"WAIT, WHAT?!" Lynn Sr. ran over past Lincoln and picked up a few of the pieces of the broken plate.

He put the pieces together and saw that it indeed had a signature on it. Lynn Sr.'s face turned red with anger once again. This time, however, he directed his attention to Lincoln, who tried to stay calm, even with his father glaring at him.

"Lincoln… If you were the one who broke this plate, tell me... where did you get this plate?"

Lincoln was a little afraid of his father's tone, but once he thought of any of his sisters being possibly sent to boot camp, he strengthened his resolve and forgot his fears.

"I got it from the attic, Dad."

It wasn't a complete lie; Lincoln had found the plate in the attic. He wanted to ask his dad about it before the whole sister debacle started. He placed it on the couch near the sisters' fight, so it made sense that Lola seemingly threw a plate out of nowhere at him.

Lynn Sr. was quiet for a little before he stood up and shot a glare at Lincoln.

"Lincoln… this was my most prized possession…" Lincoln gulped. He saw this coming, and as much as he wanted to prevent anything bad happening to him, for his sisters, he would have to bear the brunt of the full force of his dad's anger.

"D-Dad, I'm really sorry! I d-didn't-"

"Lincoln! How many times have I told you and your sisters to not touch anything in the attic without consulting Mom or I?!"

"B-But Dad, I thought it was cool so I wanted to ask y-"

"This was signed by the lead singer of The Barracudas! They were my favorite band as a kid and I was lucky enough to be able to meet them in person and get their signature on this plate!"

The sisters felt concern and fear for Lincoln. They had never seen their father this mad before, and they knew that it was not Lincoln's fault, but theirs. Although it was Lola who threw the plate and broke it against Lincoln's face, the sisters were all to blame for not being able to calm down. Lola was the one who felt the worse. She wanted to speak up, and argue with her dad that it was her that broke it, not Lincoln. But her words got stuck halfway through her throat. She couldn't say anything as tears fell down her face.

Lynn Sr. turned his back on Lincoln.

"I'm sorry, Lincoln… But I need to set an example for the girls. And if I need to punish you to do that, then so be it."

He turned back to face Lincoln.

"Lincoln, as punishment for taking my signed plate without my permission and breaking it, I don't have any choice... but to send you to boot camp."

The look on Lincoln's face devastated his sisters. It was a combination of sadness and surprise. Lincoln fought hard to make sure he wouldn't cry. He didn't want to cry in front of his sisters after he had sacrificed himself to keep them from going to boot camp. His voice, however, couldn't hide the pain he was currently feeling.

"B-but, Dad…"

Lincoln's voice was higher than usual, a huge indication that he was on the verge of tears. Lynn Sr. felt horrible, but as the patriarch of the family, he needed to set things straight. He was tired of the disrespect his children had shown him and his wife. He had to put his foot down.

"Lincoln, no buts. Go to your room and begin packing up what you need for boot camp. Lori, Leni, Luna, Luan, Lynn, Lucy, Lana, Lola, and Lisa, you are all grounded for a week. You cannot leave this house for anything other than school or whatever your mother and I need you to do. Understand?"

The sisters nodded sadly.

Lincoln ran up the stairs. He felt like he was going to cry, and he could not show his sisters that weak side of him. He wanted them to see him as their heroic brother, not a weakling who thought that he could make everything better. Unfortunately, his sisters noticed tears go down his cheeks right before he disappeared from their sight upstairs. Rita gave Lily to Lori and told her and the rest of the girls to go upstairs to their rooms. After they all left, Rita looked at Lynn Sr. with a concerned look.

"Lynn, dear… don't you think you've gone a little overboard?"

Lynn Sr. looked at his wife with an exhausted look.

"Don't worry, honey. I'm sure this experience will make sure the girls and Lincoln understand that they have to learn how to respect us and each other. They'll be able to live more comfortably, trust me... Now come on, I need help finding a boot camp for Lincoln to go to for a week."

Rita nodded and joined Lynn Sr. in searching through their newspapers and magazines for a boot camp. Soon, Lynn Sr. set his eyes on a small square of detail near the bottom of the right page.

"Boot Camp Project? Searching for applicants to stay here at the boot camp? Our goal is to make sure your kid becomes a respectable member of society? Free of charge?! Sounds perfect for Lincoln! Honey, I already found a perfect boot camp for Lincoln! I'll call them now and set a date to send Lincoln there!"

"That's great, dear!", Rita yelled at Lynn Sr. As Lynn Sr. dialed the number in the house phone, he failed to realize that at the bottom of the ad for the boot camp were small and almost non-legible words that would change his and his family's life forever.

...

Lincoln started to pack up his clothes and such into a small briefcase. His tears have long dried, and all he could think about now is how relieving it was that his sisters didn't have to go to boot camp. He sadly smiled as he looked around his small room. He would definitely miss sleeping in here. He would definitely miss seeing his sisters in the morning during the run to the bathroom and his parents at breakfast. But most of all, he would definitely miss being able to spend time with his sisters both individually and with all of them together.

Even though it was a horrible day, it wasn't as if his sisters had always treated him bad. He loved every single one of them. That's why he took the shot for Lola. He couldn't bear the fact that Lola would have to live in a boot camp, where they aim to break you down and make you a "respectable child". He didn't want Lola to be brainwashed into being something she isn't, even if she could be annoying sometimes.

*Knock, Knock*

Lincoln straightened up when he heard someone knock at his door. When he stood up to go open it, however, he hesitated. What if it was his dad, who'd come to yell at him again? What if his sisters wanted to yell at him for causing the mess in the first place by bringing the plate down? He started feeling a little scared, but decided to take a different action instead of just opening his door. "W-Who is it?", Lincoln asked, a small sliver of fear apparent in his voice.

"I-It's me, L-L-Lola… please open the door, L-L-Lincoln."

'Lola? What does she want from me?', Lincoln thought. As soon as he opened the door, Lola charged in and cried into his orange polo shirt.

"I'M SO SORRY, LINCOLN!" Lola started to wail, as if someone had broken her favorite tiara and burned everything else she loved.

"I WANTED TO TELL DAD YOU DIDN'T DO IT! I WANTED TO TELL HIM IT WAS ME! BUT I COULDN'T! I COULDN'T! NOW YOU'RE GOING TO BOOT CAMP BECAUSE OF ME! I'M SO SORRY, LINCOLN! PLEASE DON'T HATE ME! I WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO TAKE IT IF I KNEW YOU HATED ME!"

Although everything she said had been muffled by Lincoln's shirt, making it so that no one could understand her, he heard everything clearly. He bent down to Lola's height and hugged her tight, calming her down by rubbing her head and her back. All the fear and sadness he had just felt seconds before were replaced by the feelings of being an older brother for his younger sister.

"Shh, Shh. Lola. Lola, calm down. Listen to me, okay? Listen to me…"

Lincoln repeated those words to Lola in a calm manner, which eventually helped Lola calm down. She would never admit it, but when her brother's voice went calm like that, it made her feel so special. It made her problems seemingly go away.

Lola looked into Lincoln's eyes. Lincoln looked back and saw so much pain and grief. He brushed his hand against the top of her head.

"It is not your fault I'm going to boot camp. It's my fault. I should have never taken the plate from the attic. I don't blame you for any of this for one second. And I definitely can never, ever, hate my little princess."

Lola wanted to argue with him. She wanted to say that Lincoln was too kind for his own good. But the minute Lincoln called her his princess, the waterworks started again and Lola found herself buried in Lincoln's shirt.

"LINCOLN! P-P-PLEASE, TELL ME YOU'RE NOT LYING! TELL ME THAT YOU LOVE ME!"

Lincoln hugged Lola tightly, and smiled.

"I'm not lying to you, Lola. I absolutely love you. I love you so much."

Lola continued to cry and cry, and Lincoln continued to be the best big brother he could be for her.

All of the sudden, he felt something jump into his left arm, right next to Lola. Lincoln opened his eyes and looked to his left to see a crying Lana, tightly gripping onto Lincoln.

"L-L-LINCOLN!", Lana yelled as she wept into her older brother's left arm, "PLEASE DON'T LEAVE! TELL DAD THAT HE'S JUST BEING A BIG BULLY, AND THAT HE SHOULD LET YOU STAY!"

Lincoln hugged both Lana and Lola close to him. Lana continued.

"I DON'T CARE IF I'M GROUNDED FOR A WEEK. BUT HOW COULD I HAVE FUN INSIDE THE HOUSE WHEN YOU'RE NOT HERE TO HELP ME HAVE FUN!?"

Lincoln calmly whispered into his little sisters' ears.

"Shh… Shh… Listen you two… don't worry… Your big brother's here right now, right? I'm never going to make you feel as if I left you, okay?"

Lana and Lola whimpered as they started to slowly stop crying. Lincoln hugged them tightly and kissed the top of their heads.

"I would never want to leave you guys. You guys are my everything."

*Creak* As soon as Lincoln heard his door creak open, he looked up. What he saw was surprising, to say the least.

Lori, holding Lily, and Luna were looking down at Lincoln with sadness in their eyes, trying not to cry as to maintain their image as one of the older sisters.

Leni and Luan on the other hand were openly crying and soon charged into Lincoln's room and hugged him from the sides of his head.

Lynn couldn't keep a serious face when she saw Lincoln and started to cry, so she fell to her knees and hid her face from everyone there by looking into the floor, silently hoping that all of this was a dream, and that Lincoln wasn't going to go to boot camp because of them.

Black mascara was falling down where Lucy's eyes were as she cried in the corner of Lincoln's room.

Even Lily started crying as soon as she saw Lincoln. She felt as if something was wrong, but she couldn't understand what was the problem.

As soon as Lisa was able to run into Lincoln's room, she ran in between Lola and Lana to hug Lincoln's chest. She wasn't full on crying, but she was sniffling, which made it even harder to understand her since she also had a lisp.

"You hebetudinous yet courageous homo sapien! How could you just sacrifice yourself to imprisonment just like that for the sake of one of your sisters? I'd ask you to tell Dad the truth and get yourself out of this debacle you placed yourself in, b-b-but I know you won't. You want Lola, all of us to stay out of boot camp, don't you? And to keep us safe from that prison, you'd throw yourself in there as abdication, wouldn't you!?"

Lincoln rested his head on Lisa's as he had his arms full with Lola and Lana hanging onto them. It still was calming to Lisa nonetheless.

"Lisa, of course I would. You know that I love all of you so much, right? Even if you all ended up hating me one day, I'd always love you-"

Lisa suddenly looked up at Lincoln.

"How could you say that?! N-N-None of us could ever hate you! I...All of us love you so m-m-muc-" Lisa couldn't take it anymore and started to cry into Lincoln's chest.

Lori and Luna followed suit with Lisa, in that they started crying and ran to join the group hug surrounding Lincoln.

Lynn and Lucy also ran to the group hug too, and finally the entirety of the Loud siblings were connected. All of the sisters started to apologize to each other while also crying and apologizing to Lincoln. Lincoln forgave every single one of them. He started to join them in crying, letting his tears fall down his face.

As Lily cried, she pulled at Lincoln's hair, wanting his love and attention to go towards her.

"P-P-Poo poo!"

Hearing Lily was the last straw for Lincoln. He started to openly cry, which caused the rest of the Loud sisters to cry even harder, if that was even possible.

"D-D-Don't worry, guys! I-It'll be over with in a flash! I-It's just a week right?"

Lincoln pulled everyone off him to look at him in the eyes. He tried his best to smile the brightest smile he could give them while he cried. Every sister looked back at him and smiled as well, even as tears fell down their faces.

"It won't be long, guys. I'll be back before anyone of you knows it…"

**Prologue Ends**

**Eight Years Later**

It's been eight years since Lincoln was sent to boot camp. These days, the Loud House is never "loud" anymore. It seems all of the life and energy that exuded from that house was sucked dry. It wasn't as if the older sisters of that household moved out either. They were still there. All of them. Along with the parents.

A lot of things have changed in the eight years Lincoln was gone. For the first four years, the girls had glared at their dad whenever he tried to talk to them. They wanted nothing to do with him. Even though they knew Lincoln was alive somewhere, they felt as if he were dead. Gone from this world… their world. And it was all their dad's fault.

For the next four years, however, they were exhausted of being angry most of the time they were home. They felt that they would never forgive their dad, but they knew they couldn't keep up with being angry with him forever. They started to answer back to him, but in one-word answers only. They no longer looked at him with anger, but with sadness instead.

Lynn Sr. felt an immense guilt because of the past eight years. He knew it was his fault that Lincoln had been gone for eight years; he just didn't know why he was gone for so long. Now his own daughters hate him, and there was no way for him to get them to forgive him. He couldn't even go get Lincoln himself, because he had no idea where the boot camp was. For all he knew, Lincoln was-

Lynn Sr. cried to himself in his bedroom, as Rita comforted him. She missed her little boy so much, but she couldn't find it in her heart to hate her husband for it. She does blame him of course, but right now, she needed to be there for him. She needed to be the one who could forgive him right now.

Nonetheless, the biggest change to the household were the girls themselves. They all looked somewhat different than they did eight years ago. Lori and Leni looked about the same, if not more mature.

Luna and Luan grew a little taller, being the same height as Lori and Leni.

Lynn and Lucy both gotten taller, with Lynn being the same height as Lori and Leni whereas Lucy is a little bit shorter than Luan was eight years ago.

Lola and Lana both became a little shorter than Lucy was in the present time. They've grown a lot since their size eight years ago, with Lola looking more like the stereotypical beautiful teenage girl, while Lana looked like the dirtier version of her like always, with the difference being her hair only reached her shoulders whereas Lola let her hair grow long.

Lisa is as tall as the twins are now, and lost most of her baby fat, making her not only a smart girl, but an attractive smart girl.

Lily had changed the most. Whereas most of her sisters looked and acted the same, Lily changed completely compared to her baby self eight years ago. Her blonde hair had grown long and reached her back. She was highly energetic and was very cheerful, which was strange in the Loud House, since no one there was ever that happy anymore. She didn't walk around the house naked anymore as well. She found that her set of clothes she wore everyday like her older sisters to be a combination of a light blue t-shirt, denim jeans and an apron covered with paint.

...

Lori, now twenty-five years old,

is enrolled in the Royal Woods Community college. She's there because she hasn't decided on what major she wants to pursue, so she's just finishing up her GE's. She's also working as the manager of a cafe during the night shift. So her schedule is basically college in the morning, break-time in the afternoon, and then work until she got home at midnight.

Surprisingly enough, she was never tired of this schedule. In fact, she needed it. It helped her keep her mind off the one person in her life that meant more to her than anything, Lincoln. A year after Lincoln was sent to boot camp, Lori and Bobby broke up. It was on mutual terms however. Lori felt that Bobby wasn't that great of a boyfriend anymore. There wasn't that spark anymore. Plus, Lori felt she didn't love him that way anymore. It was as if she and Bobby were able to be together for so long because Lincoln was around, and that he was gone, she felt an emptiness that not even Bobby could fill. Bobby on the other hand, also felt that there wasn't that same fire that had filled both their hearts like before. He started falling in love with this other girl he met in college, and decided that he had to tell Lori that he wanted to call it quits.

Lori and Bobby still text each other, albeit not as much as they used to, checking on each other and chatting just like friends would. Every night before she went to bed, Lori would, literally, wish for Lincoln's safe return. She's done this for the last eight years, and she'll do it for the rest of her life if it'll get Lincoln home.

...

Leni, now twenty-four years old,

had it the worst of all the sisters. For the first year of Lincoln's absence from the Loud House, she had merely thought Lincoln was playing hide and seek. She couldn't comprehend the idea that Lincoln was actually gone. When the second year had gone and Leni had graduated, however, she realized Lincoln was truly gone, as he would have never missed her graduation.

Thus, after she graduated, Leni fell into a deep depression. All of her hopes and ambitions were replaced by the hopes that Lincoln will come home. For the six years after that, Leni only got worse and worse, losing her ability to socialize with anyone outside of the family, and ended up just staying home all day. If there was anything that was good about this situation to her, it was that she somehow kept her hourglass figure… She still desperately wanted Lincoln home though.

She missed his cute laugh and lovable personality. She missed how he would always listen to her as someone of equal standing, rather than as someone of lower intelligence. Lincoln had shown countless times that he had loved Leni to a fault.

One of the biggest times he had shown Leni he loved her was when he did everything he could to teach her how to drive. It was thanks to his training that she eventually did get her driver's license. But even with the driver's license finally in her possession, it meant nothing to her if she couldn't tell Lincoln about it.

She had nightmares and dreams about Lincoln. The nightmares consisted of Lincoln being taken away from her, and her never being able to hug her brother close to her anymore. The dreams consisted of her and Lincoln spending time with each other. Even though they had been nothing but figments of her imagination… if they allow her to see Lincoln, it was worth indulging in them.

Thus, the only part of the day Leni looked forward to was bedtime. But in the back of her mind, she knew that the other part of the day she would look forward to the most would be the part where Lincoln came home.

...

Luna, now twenty-three years old,

is also attending the Royal Woods community college, so that gave her and Lori the chance to hang out whenever the two had ample time. Luna took some GE's, but what most of her classes consisted of had something to do with music. She wanted to broaden her musical horizon by learning all the types of music she could.

It also helped that she had a job at the local bar that allowed her to get used to playing different types of music. She was a performer there and every night at seven, she had to perform a specific genre for that night. For example, Monday's were classical nights, Tuesday's were metal night, and so on. She was happy to work there since it just so happened to be a gay bar, and all the patrons there were down-to-earth, as they let their insecurities and concerns leave them the moment they walked through the door. Luna knew most of their names, and they all loved it whenever she performed.

Luna, however, refuses to play any form of rock for Friday's rock night, so she gets to go home Friday's. She refuses to play rock of any sort because… it reminds her too much of Lincoln. Luna, like Leni, Lucy, and Lana, felt that they were closest to Lincoln. It was because of him they were able to truly be themselves and be happy about who they were.

Whenever Luna had insecurities about who she was and why she was doing music in the first place, Lincoln would always be there to support her. He always made her feel like the stars, and he truly believed she could be one of them.

However, after he was sent to boot camp and seemingly disappeared for eight years, Luna tried desperately to get him off her mind. She tried dating other guys at her college to try and replace Lincoln with them. But they all expected her to be an easy girl; they wanted to take advantage of her as soon as she let her guard down, so of course, she broke it off with all of them.

Luna never realized how special her little brother was. He was a rare sort of man in Royal Woods: he was a gentleman. He always had thought of other people, while almost completely ignoring himself. He would boost other people by allowing them to use him as a stepping stone. Luna loved that about Lincoln. She wanted to repay him for everything he had done for her as soon as she got money to get him something… But now he's gone… and she has no idea when he'll return.

...

Luan, now twenty-two years old,

was living her dream life, in that she had gotten a well-paying job at a local fancypants club that required her to do skits and tell jokes to the audience. And although the audience there were the rich and wealthy, they were actually down-to-earth people, and they loved it whenever Luan got the chance to perform. For some reason, that specific group of people who meet at the club absolutely find her jokes hilarious.

Luan felt happy that someone else other than her favorite little brother found her jokes funny. But the audience, as much as she loved them, could never take Lincoln's spot in her heart. It was pretty "heart" for her to keep her thoughts from straying over to Lincoln. She also only worked in the evenings like her older sisters, although she gets to go home a little earlier than Lori and Luna.

As soon as she gets home, she rushes to her room and opens her closet. Inside was a well-decorated shrine dedicated to her little brother, Lincoln. After Lincoln was sent to boot camp, she found herself falling into a depression of sorts. Not as bad as Leni's was, poor soul, but it had prevented her from coming up with puns, skits, and so on for any of her gigs.

It was by the third year that she had realized anything that had been touched by Lincoln made her feel ecstatic again. She started to secretly sneak into Lincoln's now unoccupied room to take small things, such as the socks he left behind. Soon, she started going for the bigger things he left behind, like his underwear and Bun-Bun.

She couldn't hide it from Luna anymore since her collection of Lincoln's items had grown too large. So she decided to use her part of the closet to make a shrine dedicated to Lincoln. Fortunately for her, it was covered by the various instruments of Luna, so Luna never even noticed the shrine in their closest.

Luan would walk to her handmade shrine and continued to work on her mannequin of Lincoln. The mannequin of Lincoln was strikingly similar to Lincoln; it had his orange polo, his blue denim jeans, his red shoes, and his trademark white hair, which was made of a material that made it so that it looked like real hair. For the last four years she had been working on her Lincoln mannequin.

She missed him so much, but the reason she was working on his eleven-year old self was because she couldn't imagine how he would look now… For the eighth year, she would slowly add more and more detail to hide face, starting with his eyebrows and down. Her shrine and mannequin of Lincoln were the only things keeping her sane now… oh how she missed her sweet , little supportive brother. How he used to laugh at all her jokes and help her with her gigs… she'd do anything to bring him back home…

...

Lynn, now twenty-one years old,

is the head teacher of all of the Royal Woods Elementary School sports. It fitted her perfectly as she loved playing sports so much, and she wanted the children of the next generation to also love playing sports. She is in charge of making sure all the teams, along with the coaches, of every sport follow regulations, but mostly she likes to make sure they have fun with the sport.

She is the youngest teacher the school has had to date, and the reason they hired her was because they knew that her athletic background was more than enough to prove her dedication to sports. Plus, they hoped that she would help them win more games, which she has done very well, since every game played so far has been won by their respective sports team. Everyone in the school respects her greatly.

Of all the sisters, everyone thought she was handling the loss of Lincoln the best. She was constantly encouraging her sisters to be happy and move on, because that's the way Lincoln would have wanted it. Although it had not worked out for Leni and Luan, it did motivate Lori and Luna to be less mopey.

Lynn was so nonchalant about the whole situation that Leni accused her of not caring about Lincoln's well-being. Lynn didn't take it to heart because she knew that Leni was distraught about Lincoln's disappearance. She apologized to Leni and said that she did love and miss Lincoln, she was just taking it in her own way, to which Leni apologized too for jumping to conclusions.

What the sisters didn't know was that every night, Lynn would sneak out of her and Lucy's room and go inside Lincoln's room. Once she's in, she would lock the door behind her and jump in Lincoln's bed. Then she would cuddle with the sheets of his bed and cry softly into it. She was grateful that his room had been soundproofed eight years ago. She was sure it benefitted Lincoln a lot, since his sisters were pretty loud. It was funny… Lincoln was never that loud of a kid, when compared to Lynn or any of the other girls.

She sniffed Lincoln's sheets by accident as she tried to stop crying. It still smelled like Lincoln… she would never want this pleasure to be taken away by anyone other than Lincoln… She wanted Lincoln's bed all to herself… she wanted Lincoln all to herself… But most of all… she wanted her brother to come back to the Loud House.

...

Lucy, now sixteen years old,

is as gloomy as she's always been, if not, even more gloomy with the sudden disappearance of her beloved brother. Ever since Lincoln was sent to boot camp, Lucy has stopped speaking to anyone. She wouldn't even talk to Lynn, and they sleep in the same room. It's become a common occurrence for Lucy to go directly to her and Lynn's room after she gets home from school. She completely ignores anyone who tries to talk to her, especially when it comes to her father.

Out of all the sisters, the one who is the most angry and disappointed of their dad was Lucy. Although she never really showed her emotions, even moreso with Lincoln being taken out of her life, the rest of the family can tell that whenever she is near her dad, a tension fills the air that could be cut by a butter knife. And who could blame her? Lincoln was the closest person to Lucy. He understood that Lucy had a taste that was considered very different in society, and Lincoln loved her all the same for it.

He understood her where most would mock and berate her for being who she was. He loved her… She loved him back… and now he was gone. All because of her dad… All because of her dad… All because of her dad… Lucy shook her head to keep focus. She was doing alright in school. However, she wished that people would stop coming up to her just to make fun of her. So far, no one has crossed that line into bullying though. It was all just mindless and cruel insults being thrown her way, and her expertly dodging them. The only words that she wanted to hear now had to be related to Lincoln coming home.

She missed her brother so dearly. Her bust of Edwin had quickly been replaced by a bust of Lincoln after six years had passed since his being sent to boot camp. She had made the bust while in her ceramics class in high school. It bears a striking resemblance to Lincoln. So much that if any of her other sisters had seen it, they would have thought it was the actual thing.

Every time Lucy had the chance to be alone, she would silently cry and hug the bust of Lincoln. It was even harder to be alone now that she could not fit in the vents anymore. When the seventh year had past, and Lincoln still hadn't returned home, Lucy started to kiss the bust of Lincoln. She kissed it every where she could: on the cheeks, on the forehead, and even on the lips. It made her feel so much more relaxed than she had ever felt in the last eight years. It felt almost the same as… when Lincoln was around…

She sighed. She joined the occult club on the eight year anniversary of Lincoln's departure. She had hoped that there, she could learn how to summon spirits, demons, anything that could aid her in bringing back her brother. She could use them to bring back her brother, from whatever hell-hole he had sacrificed himself to, for the sake of his sisters. Unfortunately, nothing she learned in that club had worked. Nothing was summoned, and Lincoln was still gone.

...

The twins themselves were getting along just as fine as everyone else was, in that it was hard to move on, but they had to.

Lola, now fourteen years old,

is still competing in any beauty pageants announced in the Royal Woods area. She's won every single one. Just goes to show just how beautiful she's become. She's even won the Miss Royal Woods pageant. Lola especially liked that one, not just because it was recorded and she was given a tape of it, but because of what she had said when asked what she wanted the most after she had won. Lola would watch the recording at least once a day, but she only watched the last part. The part where she won the pageant and was given the trophy.

She watched that last part not to fuel her ego, but to rewatch what she had said. "What I want most in the world… is for my older brother Lincoln to come back home… Lincoln, if you're watching this… Please… come home soon… We miss you… I-I miss you."

Every time she watched that scene, she cried. She didn't cry that day on stage, but her family, who were in the crowd, immediately started crying. Heck, the entire audience started to cry. Lola felt embarrassed at the time, but now she was proud of what she said.

She hoped that what she had said would reach Lincoln, wherever he was.

Lana, also fourteen years old,

on the other hand had become a very skilled handyman, or in this case, a handy woman. She used to her skills to constantly help around the house: fixing the door knobs, making sure Vanzilla can still run after all these years, and the sort.

Her love of animals and getting her hands dirty only increased after all these years. Even if she got more and more dirty and wild the last eight years, she and Lola were still as close as ever, if not even closer. Even if they were worlds apart, which they had noticed more than ever now that they were in high school together, they didn't care, because they loved each other. Lincoln would have been proud.

The loss of Lincoln in their lives greatly affected them. Occasionally, Lana and Lola would catch each other crying and comfort the other. They still have not gotten over Lincoln's disappearance, and they probably never will.

Before Lana goes to bed, she would always hug Lincoln's old orange polo tightly. She's done this for the last eight years; at first it helped her calm down when she couldn't sleep at night during the first few years of Lincoln's disappearance. Afterwards, it just reminded her of Lincoln and helped her sleep without nightmares keeping her awake.

She felt lucky to have Lincoln's orange polo because she noticed that on the third year after Lincoln was sent to boot camp, stuff from his room started disappearing. She assumed some rats in the vents have been taking them. Either that or someone other than her has been taking stuff out of Lincoln's room…

...

Lisa, now twelve years old,

is regarded as the one of the smartest people in the world. Not only did she solve World Hunger by making it so that potatoes grew at a faster rate, but she also helped out in the case of curing various diseases that you previously couldn't cure before. Many people have started to call her this generation's Albert Einstein. Many highly recognized scientists have invited her to work at higher institutions of health and human services, an honor many would never dream of refusing. And yet she refused.

She had already been given a lot of money by the government and by the jobs she had worked on to continue to further advance her studies and "continue to make the world a better place to live in", in the words of those who rewarded her with money and awards. In all honesty, she didn't care about any of that. She didn't care about the world. All the things she did were mere child's play to her. What she was aiming for was a device that would pinpoint her older brother's location.

Like Lynn, Lisa had kept her emotions to herself. And like Lucy, she kept to herself most of the time. In the times where she was alone, she would work on the device to find Lincoln without rest. She never got tired of it because she wanted Lincoln home so badly. As she gotten older, her lisp went away and she could finally speak without feeling insecure about it. No one in her family really cared though, which was something she was grateful for.

Lincoln was the most understanding of her family members, and she loved that about him. After Lincoln was sent to boot camp, Lisa realized that she never really shown that much love to Lincoln, at least not as much as her sisters did. After the fourth year had passed, Lisa felt an incredible guilt. What if Lincoln didn't remember her fondly? What if Lincoln believed she had hated him? These questions became the catalyst for Lisa to begin Project Lincoln's Retrieval. She wanted him back home to create memories with him. She wanted to do things with him that both he and her could enjoy.

Now, eight years had passed, and she was nowhere near the completion of her device. She's been so busy with her other dedications that when she was finally done with them, she realized that she left her device untouched for so long. Even with all the money and praise she got, what was the point if she can't tell her older brother so he could be proud of her? What was the point of being a "kid genius" when the one person that mattered to you and cared for you was ripped from your life?

She has no one to blame other than herself for the incompletion of her device to find Lincoln … what if Lincoln had encountered something that could have possibly ki-... Lisa sighed. She had to think positive like Lynn. She had to believe that Lincoln was still alive, just stuck in that prison they call a reforment center.

When no one was looking, and when Lily was out of the room, Lisa would cry on her device, apologizing over and over to Lincoln… hoping that he were still alive so that the completion of her device wouldn't be for naught. Even with all the congratulations she received from her peers and family, the one person she wanted to be proud of her the most was Lincoln. She wanted to feel his hand pat her head for a job well-done again… She wanted her older brother back.

...

Lily, now nine years old,

can barely remember her older brother, something that she regrets everyday for the last eight years. She knew as a baby, from the stories her older sisters would recall, that Lincoln was basically just like a second father figure to her. He took care of Lily when no one else wanted to. She wishes Lincoln were still around.

If he really is as kind as everyone says he is, then would he be proud of the fact that she was an expert at drawing? Her drawings looked really nice. They were akin to the art in very famous animations, such as the top grossing anime film, "Ghosted A Far". It was so well done that she got a trophy in an art contest for being the best artist of Royal Woods Elementary.

Lily herself thought they were average, but everyone around her said that they were amazing, which made her feel nice. She wanted to show Lincoln her drawings. She wanted to draw with him. But the one thing she wanted most from Lincoln was the experience of having an older brother.

Being surrounded by girls your whole life, of course you would be curious about having a brother. And once she had be capable of thinking in her own, she was told that she had an older brother? Of course she wanted to know more about her older brother!

Lily also wasn't stupid; she saw how his lack of being there affected everyone.

She saw how Lori would wish that Lincoln would return home every night before she went to sleep.

She saw how sad Leni was and how the absence of Lincoln had taken all of her energy away from her.

She saw how Luna would go out of her way to avoid anything to do with rock music to try and keep Lincoln out of her thoughts.

She saw how Luan, Lucy, and Lisa would immediately go to their respective rooms and not leave until they felt like it. She saw how Lynn would sneak into Lincoln's room late at night and hug his sheets and cry into them.

She saw how Lana and Lola would cry and hug each other whenever they were in their room talking about Lincoln.

She saw her dad cry into her mom's shoulder while apologizing at the same time.

She saw… how broken her family actually was. It was as if Lincoln was the glue that kept the family together and in order. And since he was gone, his family fell apart, like a house of cards collapsing on itself. Lily wants Lincoln to come home, not only to make her family happy, but also because she wants to throw a party for him when he returns.

Everyone's been so sad… They all need to let loose and have fun! They'll definitely agree to it since Lincoln's gonna be there to party too!

Right now, it was in the middle of the day on Friday. Leni was sleeping in her bed as usual while Luan was at home resting after one of her gigs by working on her mannequin of Lincoln. She was almost done with the eyes when she heard the front door open and the sounds of footsteps enter the house.

She quickly hid her Lincoln shrine and went downstairs to greet the sisters who came home. With Lori and Luna out of the house and Leni out of commission, Luan had to play the role of the older sister. All of her sisters, besides Lily, had noticed the lack of puns from Luan after Lincoln was sent to boot camp, and it was very unsettling for them to see Luan not crack a joke anymore. It was unnatural.

"Welcome home, Lucy, Lana, Lola, Lisa, and Lily! How was school?" Lucy walked passed her without saying anything, as did Lisa. They weren't mad or annoyed by Luan; they just had things they wanted to do as soon as they got home.

Luan understood and didn't take it to heart. She runs up to her room as soon as she gets home as well after all. She looked back to Lola, Lana, and Lily.

"Well, how was school for you guys?" Lola was the first to speak.

"It was fine, Luan. Nothing really happened today."

"Same old same old", Lana added.

Lily took out a piece of paper. "My teacher asked the class to draw a picture of someone from their family!"

The girls looked intrigued at Lily's declaration.

"Who did you draw, Lily?", Luan asked.

Lily turned the paper around to show them. They reacted by showing a confused look on their faces. The person Lily drew was boyish and tall. They were wearing a suit and was in a pose that made them look like some bad-ass main character from a cartoon. The drawing itself was in black and white, in the style of manga, Lily's favorite type of art style. Lana grabbed Lily's paper.

"Is this supposed to be me, Lily? I know I'm a tomboy but sheesh! I at least think I look like a girl!"

Lily laughed.

"No, Lana! That's not you!"

"Is it.. Dad then?", Lola asked.

"Nope~", Lily said with a little smirk.

"Then, who is it?", Luan finally asked. Lily smiled.

"It's what I think Lincoln looks like now!" All of the sudden, the air around them got tense.

Unfortunately for them, the walls in the Loud House were still paper thin, allowing the sisters upstairs to come running down at the mention of Lincoln's name. Even Leni had woken up and rushed downstairs to see what Lily was talking about. Lucy was the first to speak.

"Can I see that, Lily?"

"Of course you can, Lucy!"

Lily handed the drawing over to Lucy, who looked at it emotionlessly.

"Hm… It's a nice drawing like usual, Lily, but I don't think Lincoln would be caught dead in a business suit."

Lily laughed, and as she was going to retort, Lisa threw in her two pieces.

"Actually, I think at the age he is now, which would be nineteen, he would wear one, and look dashing in it."

Leni grabbed the drawing out of Lucy's hands and looked at it confused.

"If Linky is in a pose like this, he should be wearing something much more flashy than a boring ol' business suit!"

Soon, all the sisters there started to throw in their ideas of what Lincoln could possibly look like after eight years.

Lily smiled. It's always nice to see the family together, especially since most of the sisters here tend to keep to themselves all the time.

The door opened and the sisters turned their heads to see Lori and Luna return from college, and Lynn return home from work. The three looked surprised to see everyone all downstairs together. It was a very rare sight nowadays.

"Whoa, everyone's here. What's going on?", Lori asked.

"Lily drew a picture of what Lincoln might look like today at school!", Luan replied back.

Lori, Luna, and Lynn's eyes opened wide. They immediately went to see what Lily's drawing depicted Lincoln as. As soon as they saw Lily's version of Lincoln, they also joined in the debate on what Lincoln looked like. Lori took the drawing away from the sisters wrestling over it.

"I don't think that twerp could ever look so suave.", Lori said, smirking at the drawing.

Everyone laughed. All of the sudden they stopped laughing. They haven't laughed like that for a long time, and now they were all laughing together for the first time in what seemed like ages. All because of Lily's drawing of… Lincoln.

Tears fell onto the drawing of Lincoln. Lori couldn't help but cry when she thought of how Lincoln was still keeping the family in check, even if he weren't here. As soon as Lori started to cry, the other sisters started crying as well. They all ran to give Lori a hug, resulting in a huge group hug, one that they haven't had ever since that day Lincoln was packing up for boot camp.

...

About one minute later, Lynn Sr. and Rita arrive home as well, parking their car in front of the garage. "We're home, dear. Would you like me to make some food?"

"No, it's okay honey. I'm full after lunch at the office today. Todd brought in a whole bunch of muffins for everyone, so I took some. Then when he asked me if if there was anything wrong with me today. I replied to him, "There's "muffin" wrong with me today, Todd!"

Rita couldn't help but laugh out loud. She knew that Lynn Sr. had his own way of coping with Lincoln being gone for so long. She loved the way he was able to stay positive. At least, most of the time.

Whenever she and him were alone, he would cry, and she would comfort him while crying as well. He was overcome with grief and guilt, and the girls… the girls just can't forgive him. The two parents enter the house to see their children crying and hugging each other right in front of the door, surprising them.

"What happened?!", Lynn Sr. asked out of fear for his children.

Rita ran up to them and noticed that there was a piece of paper on the ground. She picked it up and gasped.

"What's wrong, honey?" Lynn Sr. walked up to Rita to take a look at the paper.

His eyes opened wide in shock. The two looked at each other with gloom in their eyes and quickly hugged their kids, who did not resist, even if they were mad at their dad.

It was the first time in a long time there was a moment like this in the Loud House. Family coming together to help each other cope with the missing link that was Lincoln. It was enlightening, enriching, relax-

*RING! RING! RING*

The Loud family's hug was interrupted by the sounds of their house phone ringing. Lynn Sr. walked over to it, while he rubbed his eyes, getting rid of any tears that were still there.

"I *sniff* got it." *Click* He lifts home the phone to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Is this, Mr. or Mrs. Loud?", a mysterious voice asked on the other end.

"This is Mr. Loud speaking. Who's asking?"

"We're part of an organization that's funded by the government and we wanted to tell you and your family what you deserved to hear for a long time."

Lynn Sr. had a confused look on, wondering who was contacting him. "Uhhh, look, if you want to sell us something, we're not-"

"This is about The Boot Camp Project, Mr. Loud."

Lynn Sr. froze. Never has anyone ever said anything that had made him tense and stiffen up like this. Rita and the girls noticed this and looked concerned, wondering who was on the other line.

"W-what?", Lynn Sr. asked.

"This is about the Boot Camp Project, Mr. Loud", the mysterious voice repeats. "We want to deeply apologize to you and your family for any stressful moments and mishaps that occurred for the last eight years. We want to inform you that last week The Boot Camp Project has officially been discontinued and your son, Lincoln, is now being returned to your abode a week earlier than dictated on the agreement between you and the camp. Once again, we are deeply sorry for what The Boot Camp Project has done to your family. Thank you for your time, goodbye."

*Click-Beeeeeeeep*

Lynn Sr. dropped the phone, fell to his knees and stared off into space, scaring his family behind him. Rita ran to his side.

"What happened, Lynn?! Did you get fired from your job, or did something happen to Aunt Shirley, o-or what?" Lynn Sr. looked at Rita, then at his children, who were waiting intently for what occurred during the conversation between him and whoever was on the other line. Then he smiled. He started to tear up, but his face stayed a smile.

"R-Rita… Kids…" They came closer to him in concern.

"W-What, Lynn? Tell us." Lynn Sr. chuckled a little as he held his palm to his forehead.

"H-h-he's finally coming home…' Those three words struck hard with Rita and the girls, but they didn't want to get their hopes up. It could have been anyone…

"W-Who, dear?", Rita asked, with all the kids holding their breaths behind her, hoping, just like their mother, that their father would tell them that he was coming home. Lynn Sr. looked into everyone's eyes.

"H-He's coming home… O-Our L-L-Lincoln is finally coming home."

The room went silent quickly. No one could breathe. Everyone felt their heart stop when Lynn Sr. had said those beautiful words. Those words that they've been waiting to hear the last eight years. Lori walked towards her dad.

"D-Dad? A-A-Are you literally t-telling us… L-Lincoln's coming home?"

Lynn Sr. covered his face to hide his tears, and could only nod furiously. Rita fell to her knees and hugged her husband.

"T-Tell me you're not lying, Lynn! T-Tell me our little boy is actually coming home!"

"YES! LINCOLN IS COMING HOME! OUR LITTLE MAN IS FINALLY COMING HOME AFTER ALL THESE YEARS, RITA!"

Once Rita heard that, she immediately started bawling into Lynn Sr.'s arm and Lynn Sr. cried back into her arm. Lori took a step back in surprise. Shock was on her face as her father's words finally resonated within her and her sisters. The sisters stood there, frozen in time, while their parents finally broke down after all these years of stress building up inside them. Finally, Lori said something that the girls haven't heard ever since Lincoln had left.

"Girls, emergency sister meeting in my room."

...

All the sisters gathered into Lori and Leni's room for the first meeting in eons.

"Wow, it's pretty small in here now…", Lynn commented.

"No, the room isn't any smaller than it used to be. You all just grew up.", Lori laughed.

"Actually, I think it's because my side of the room is messy. I haven't cleaned up in a while", Leni said feeling embarrassed.

Everyone laughed. They felt more comfortable laughing together this time because after eight years, it seemed that the awkward and tense air around them disappeared.

After they finished laughing, the room went dead silent. But it wasn't an uncomfortable silence. It was a heartwarming silence. The girls smiled to themselves for what seemed to be the first genuine smile in a long time. They couldn't believe that their brother, Lincoln, was finally coming home.

"I-I-Is this a d-dream?", Leni asked, a little scared of the answer she would receive, "This happened once in one of my dreams. Not exactly like this, but somewhat like this…"

Everyone looked at Leni curl up about to cry. If this really were just a dream, she would be devastated. Lori relaxes her by putting her hand on her shoulder.

"Leni, it's not a dream this time. We know it's real. We're all here together. Lincoln...Linky's finally coming home."

Leni couldn't cry. She felt as if she would on that spot. To hear that her loving, little brother was finally coming home… It was if she had woken from a coma she was stuck in for eight years.

Lori hugs Leni tightly as the other sisters watch, joyful to see Leni finally get out of her depressed state. Leni hugs Lori back and smiles.

"Wow… Linky's coming home… I don't know what to say…"

"Neither do we, Leni. Neither do we…", Lori softly says as she brushes through Leni's miskept hair, effectively straightening it out, making Leni look more like herself eight years ago, rather than the messy look she kept for so long.

After Leni had calmed down, her and Lori sat up straight and the silence returned again. This time it was awkward. What was there to say? Everyone was dumbfounded by the fact that seemingly out of nowhere, they were told Lincoln was coming back, after most of them had given up hope that Lincoln would ever return. Then, Lola broke the silence.

"I wonder… what if Lincoln isn't the same brother we love anymore?"

Suddenly, fear struck everyone's hearts. Everyone stopped breathing. Sweat starting to form on each one of their foreheads. They hadn't thought about it before, but Lola was right… What if Lincoln… was different?

"N-no! You're just being paranoid, Lola!", Lynn exclaims.

She jumps up and looks at everyone as if they were crazy.

"Come on you guys! Lincoln… Lincoln can't be any different! It was just eight years. I mean look at us! We've barely changed ourselves!"

"But we weren't the ones sent to boot camp!" Lola stood up and faced Lynn head on.

"You weren't sent to boot camp for eight years. I wasn't sent to boot camp for eight years. NONE OF US WERE SENT TO BOOT CAMP FOR EIGHT YEARS! LINCOLN WAS!"

Lynn stared at Lola dumbfounded.

"I-I know, Lola. B-B-But it's Lincoln. He couldn't have changed. If he's different… then what was the point of waiting for him to come back? If he isn't the same loving brother he was before… What is the point of waiting for a douchebag to come home!?"

Silence again. Many of the girls started to shift uncomfortably in their spots. They didn't want to think about the possibility of Lincoln being different. Yet it was a huge possibility. It was more likely than not that Lincoln was not the same loving brother like he was eight years ago. Without any form of contact from him, who knew what Lincoln was now?

"And he was sent there… because of me…", Lola said with her face frozen in a shocked expression. The guilt came running back up her spine. She felt her knees give out.

"Linky's different… because of me…" Lana immediately jumped up off her seat and hugged Lola.

"Lola! What did I tell you? No one blames you! Don't you remember what Lincoln said before he left? He said he loved you so much. He said he never blamed you for a second! He-"

"Called you his princess." Lola and Lana looked up to see Lynn in front of them, smiling an apologetic smile. "Lola, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have accused you of being paranoid. You're right… it's a justifiable fear… What if Lincoln was different, right?"

Lynn hugged Lola.

"But I truly believe, Lincoln's still the same Lincoln we know and love. Don't you want to believe that too?"

Lola didn't even have to think about it.

"Yes. Yes I do, Lynn… You're right as well. I can't always look to the negatives…"

Luan spoke out.

"Exactly, Lola! Right now, let's not think of the bad stuff. Think of the fact that Lincoln's coming home!"

Luna also threw in her thoughts.

"Yeah! Besides, if our bro really is different… that just means we have to get to know him again!"

Lisa smiled and joined the conversation.

"Luna is correct. We should not chalk up Lincoln's difference as a negative. After all, what if it were a positive difference?"

Lucy took out a black journal.

"Differences are beautiful. Being the same is boring. So it's okay for him to be different."

Leni perked up as well and said her two pieces.

"Lucy's right! We'll still love him even if he is different!"

Lily took out two paintbrushes.

"I'll introduce myself to Lincoln and get to know him. I want to know more about my older brother! More than the brother he was eight years ago!"

Lori couldn't help but laugh at this newfound energy her siblings had found right after Lola and Lynn's little spat. She clapped her hands, getting everyone's attention.

"Alright girls. Now that we all feel better, why don't we order pizza?" Everyone cheered.

...

Everyone now was downstairs, doing whatever they do, while they waited for the pizza to show up. Lola still had a question on her mind that she had forgotten to ask during the sister meeting.

"Hey, Lori?" Lori looked away from her phone to Lola.

"Yeah, Lola?"

"Did Dad mention when Lincoln was coming home?"

"No, he just told us that Lincoln was coming home. I think I heard the person on the other line say something about him being released a week earlier…"

"D-Does that mean, it's possible for Lincoln to come home today?"

Lori smiled, but switched to a serious look as she looked at Lola.

"I wouldn't count on it, kid. We already used up most of our good luck today. I mean, we were told in the first time in years about Lincoln's whereabouts. And we also know he's on his way home. I don't think we could get anymore luckier than that."

Lola nodded sadly. She agreed with Lori, but she couldn't help but feel anxious. When was Lincoln coming home?

*Beep! Beep!*

Lori looked at her watch.

"Dang, my shift starts in thirty minutes. Save some pizza for me, girls!"

"We will!", everyone answered at the same time. Lori left the house and minutes later, a car could be heard driving away. Luan looked at Luna.

"Isn't it nice to have a day-off today, Luna?"

"Yeah, it is, Luan. After what I learned today, I feel like I need a two month vacation!"

"I guess that performing music for a bar every day of the week could lead to a bunch of "trebles" for you!"

Everyone in that room laughed. Usually they would groan at Luan's puns, but hearing her make them again at home was very soothing for them. It felt natural.

*BANG! BANG! TUTUTUTUTUTU!*

Right now, at eleven at night, something was going on at the pizzeria known as Dingo's. Police cars surrounded the building, and guns were shot left and right. A man in a ski mask was pointing his rifle at two shivering people, one who was an old man of white heritage who looked like he had worked all his life and the other a beautiful teenager, also of white heritage, who had brown short hair and lovely brown eyes, on the ground.

"HEY, COPPERS! GET ANY CLOSER, AND THESE FUCKERS GET IT!"

The police stopped advancing and stayed in place. The man smiled and turned his attention to the two on the ground.

"If one of you fuckers try anything, I'll blow your heads off, got it?!"

They nodded frantically. The man grabbed the older one and ran out of the back of the pizzeria to the front.

"OPEN YOUR REGISTER! NOW!" The old man quickly went to the register and started to unlock it. While he was unlocking it, the man noticed something strange in the corner of the shop.

It was a body, hunched over the table. It didn't seem as if they ate any pizza. They did have a cup of coffee next to them though. The man grabbed the old man to keep himself safe from the police and ran to the body.

He started poking his rifle at the body. "Hey! Get up! Wake up!"

The body stirred and was revealed to be a young man, drooling out of the sides of his mouth. How he slept through the gunfire was astounding to the man with the ski mask.

"*Yawn* Is it morning already? I'm incredibly sorry, sir. I didn't want to sleep- Hey it's still nighttime. Awesome. I didn't sleep too long then."

"Hey, fuckface, do you not see the gun in front of your face?"

The young man turned to the man with the ski mask and indeed saw the gun.

"I do see it. What's the situation, Doc?"

"The situation is you either get up and follow my orders or I blow your brains out!"

The young man yawned.

"Alright, alright… Show me the way to go."

The man got irritated by the young man's nonchalant attitude.

"You know… you're starting to tick me off. I only need one hostage to keep me safe. Maybe I'll set an example to the police of how cruel I really am by killing you."

"Set an example, huh?", the young man laughed, "Boy, those words really hit me hard."

"Yeah? Well it ain't gonna be as hard as this bullet that's-"

All of the sudden the young man sent an uppercut up towards the rifle, knocking it immediately out of the man's hands. Before he got the chance to react, the young man threw the remains of his coffee in his face. Although it wasn't hot, the man was blinded for a moment. And that moment was all the young man needed to get off his seat and tackle the man to the front counter. The police watched in surprise as they saw someone fighting back the man.

The man in the ski mask glared at the young man and took out a switchblade from his back pocket.

"W-WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!?"

The young man smirked.

"Well I'm glad you asked! The name's-"

The man lunged at the young man, hoping to stab him directly in the gut. The young man moved to the side so effortlessly that it seemed as if he was just nonchalantly playing a game of tag with his siblings.

The young man grabbed the man's arm and twisted it so fast and hard that it broke instantly. The man screamed in pain and dropped the switchblade. He fell next to his rifle. He acted quickly and grabbed the rifle and took the shot at the young man.

*BANG*

Silence.

The man breathed heavily. He closed his eyes, thinking that it was over, and that he could go back to robbing the pizzeria. A stupid decision he made, honestly. He should have robbed the bank. Why did he choose a stupi-

"UUG!"

The man made a weird noise as his stomach felt as if it had imploded in on itself. He looked up and saw the young man smiling down at him, while having his fist in his stomach.

"That was for that cheap shot. Very, very disrespectful fighting, I must say."

The young man started to chuckle.

"I gave you such a good chance to shoot me anyways though… and you missed completely!"

The young man started to laugh like crazy as he moved his fist away from the man's stomach and placed it on his shoulder, as if they were old friends. The man just stared at the young man with fear apparent in his eyes. He saw that there was a hole in the wall behind the young man created by the bullet from the his rifle. He really had completely missed the young man.

The young man wiped away a tear.

"OHH Boy! That was a good laugh. Haven't had one like that in years!" He looked down at the man in the ski mask.

He stopped smiling and put on a serious face.

"You tried to kill me. I have somewhere to be, and I'm not going to let a scumbag like you keep me from reaching my destination."

The man looked at the young man more clearly. The fight was done in the dark, so it was hard for the man to see what the young man looked like.

He still couldn't make out the face of the young man, but he noticed… in the light of the moon… he had platinum blonde hair.

The young man formed his hand in the shape of a karate chop and chopped the side of the man's neck. As soon as it made contact, the man fell unconscious. The young man sighed, and turned around to check on the old man.

"Are you okay, sir?"

The young man offered a hand and the hostage took it with both his hands.

"THANK YOU SO MUCH! I REALLY CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH, KIND SIR!" The young man could clearly see the amount of relief the old man had.

"No worries, sir. Uhhhh, lucky for you I was here, I guess? Hahaha!"

The young man saw the other hostage come out from the back.

"W-what's going on, Dad?" The old man stood up.

"This young man saved us, Penellope! He risked life and limb to save our family business!"

Penellope started to tear up and ran to hug the young man. "THANK YOU SO MUCH!"

The old man also hugged the young man, making him feel uncomfortable but happy. Penellope sighed and let go of the young man, with her father following suit.

"We had an order for a bunch of pizzas too. Hours ago! I don't even know if they still want it, or if they had gotten them somewhere else." The father patted her shoulder.

"It's fine, Penellope! We'll get a customer that orders that many pizzas next time. We should just be happy we're alive right now!"

Penellope nods and agrees with her dad.

"Still, what a strange order. I mean, who calls themselves The Loud House?"

The young man stiffened. He looked at Penellope.

"I'm sorry, did you say, The Loud House?"

"Yeah. They ordered, like, fifteen boxes of large pepperoni pizzas! It was amazing! We never thought anyone would order that much. And right when we were done with making the thirteenth one, it was already closing time. But before we got to close, that guy broke in and threatened to kill us!"

The young man walked over to the man and picked him up. Before he headed out the door to turn the man over to the cops, the young man turned to Penellope and handed her two one-hundred dollar bills.

"Keep the change. I'm paying for The Loud House and I plan to deliver for them too, okay?"

Penellope looked shocked and could only nod.

"Also, could I have one of your uniforms? I have to play the part, right?", the young man asked as he walked out the pizzeria to deliver the man in the ski mask to the police, leaving Penellope and her father speechless.

They looked at each other and started laughing. They were sure as hell that they weren't going to deny him his request.

Midnight had struck. The Loud siblings were still waiting for the pizza to arrive, which was shocking to say the least. They should have given up hours ago, but they gave the pizza place the benefit of the doubt. Lori entered the house, and noticed that her siblings were still in the same positions they were hours ago.

"Umm... hey guys… Did the pizza arrive yet?"

"No! It hasn't!", Lynn shouted, "Did you actually order the pizza, Lori?"

"Of course I did, Lynn. But I did order a bunch of pizzas. Maybe that's why it's taking so long. I mean there are other customers after all."

"UGH!", Lynn fell back to the couch, making everyone laugh.

Lori squeezed between the various sisters on the couch and took a seat."Well it's probably for the best they're taking so long. I mean, I do have to pay for the pizzas after all, since i ordered them."

"Nonsense", Lisa stated, "We don't have to pay for anything if the pizza distributor presses our doorbell. The faulty wiring should be intense enough to scare him off."

The girls laughed and continued to amuse themselves as they waited for the pizza. A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door, making the girls groan.

"I stand corrected", Lisa stated.

Hearing the groan, Rita and Lynn Sr. came out of their rooms.

"*Yawn* Hey, why is everyone up so late?", Lynn Sr. asked.

"We're waiting for our pizzas, Dad!", Lily replied.

Rita smiled. It was nice to see their kids not ignore their father anymore. The announcement of Lincoln's return really cheered them up. Lynn Sr. laughed.

"Really? Well I'd make a joke about pizzas, but it'd be too cheesy!" Everyone groaned, which made Lynn Sr. laugh like crazy. It was heartwarming for the Loud siblings to see their dad like that.

*Knock Knock!*

Lori laughed. "Well, I guess I do have to pay for the pizza. The Loud siblings took out some money from their pockets.

"Nope. We're chipping in too, Lori", Luna said.

"Yeah! We're like, totes, going to help you pay for the pizza!", Leni added.

Even Rita and Lynn Sr. took out some money.

"Of course, we'll help too, Lori.", Rita sweetly said.

Lori smiled. "Alright then, gather at the door so I can collect the money. I'll just tell the delivery guy to wait a little."

Lori opened the door, wide enough for the whole family to look outside the front door.

Wow. Sorry for the long-ass chapter there, guys. I promise, the next chapters won't be too long. Hopefully. Anyhow, thanks for reading! I hope you guys liked it! Leave a review and follow and favorite if you'd like to!