Apologies for this update, but I have an important poll going on that will be up for 3 days (until the 3rd.) And when I say important I mean it will affect the next story I write heavily for the theme behind it. Please cast your vote, I normally don't plead for this but I really am stuck in a position of being unable to decide.

Authors Note: Right, so this is the one shot I do before my next story, sorry if it isn't much, or if it's completely bad, but I wanted to try something new. This is FallenPens dropping out.

"Here comes the early hours of the night, it's kind of nice to see the moon rising… really, in my house with ten sisters, this is probably the only time when things are quiet," Lincoln spoke to the open air, while buttoning his orange pajama top up, his white hair combed with the few quirks sticking up. Right on cue after that, there was a crashing noise. An audible sigh escaped his lips.

"Usually, when things are quiet in our home, it's a bad sign," he made his way out into the upstairs hallway, heading in the direction of the noise. He had to be careful since most of the lights were off. Everyone was supposed to be getting ready for bed.

"Lynn? Lisa? What happened?" Lincoln saw his fifth oldest sister at the bottom of the steps and second youngest on top of her, both a little battered and shaken from the fall. Laundry was scattered around all over the floor and stairs, some covering them, some near the front door.

"Ouuugh…" Lisa groaned out, her long green nightgown ruffled. Their brother went and got her glasses from nearby, helping to put them back her face.

"We were just trying to get the dirty clothes downstairs, so whoever had to wash them tomorrow wouldn't have to worry about it," Lynn explained, holding the back of her head sorely, her auburn hair not done up into its usual ponytail. She was in her favorite sports jersey that she treated as a nightgown.

"You should really turn on a light when you're carrying things down steps…especially when they're heavy," Lincoln sighed worriedly. They both seemed alright. The laundry in need of washing helped to soften their landings luckily. He began to gather up the clothes back into the basket.

"Ow! What the…?" Lincoln felt a sharp pinch in the palm of his right hand. He saw no blood, but it stung like a he had accidentally grabbed a hornet.

"You alright, Lincoln?" Lynn asked.

"I'm fine. I think the underwire poked me…" Lincoln picked up one of the dozen of bras by the strap with only his pointer and thumb. He threw the clothing article into the basket, and then went to gather up the rest of the clothes. Brushing the incident aside entirely. "I'll clean this up. You two go on to bed."

"That's not fair for you to clean up a mess we caused," Lynn retorted, but received no reply from him. The three all knew how hit and miss that claim was. In actuality he had been abandoned entirely to several messes before.

"I also need to find something important I dropped. It's my special new invention, it is almost complete," Lisa rummaged through her pockets, sounding a little annoyed.

"Well, watch where you step. It should turn up," Lincoln rubbed his genius sister's head reassuringly. The three went back to cleaning up afterwards. Everyone else were perhaps in bed already, if they had not woken up to the noise and come to see the mess. Everyone was almost immune to the noise when asleep. One of their older sisters even slept with headphones blaring music on her head.

After everything was cleaned up, Lincoln went to help Lynn carry the heavy basket.

"Hmm… Odd… it appears to have vanished," Lisa scratched her chin. There was no way her item could have been taken with the laundry either. Due to its appearance, it was an eyesore. The child prodigy went upstairs to fetch her magnifying glass.

"I need to locate it and store it away. I don't want any harm to befall Lily or one of our pets," she thought to herself. The invention she was missing could be considered dangerous to anything of relatively small size or of light weight. The mere thought of the risk was concerning her, but she tried to remain calm since it had not even been tested yet.

"Alright, Lisa, relax… If nothing turns up, use the vacuum cleaner and pretend to have gotten it on your chore wheel. The suction pressure alone should surely destroy it and remove any threat," she adjusted her glasses. Talking to herself sometimes helped her think. A lot of their family occasionally did such without a second thought, or would openly talk about their issues to the youngest of the family.

"There we go," Lincoln exhaled as they sat down the big laundry basket in the basement where the washing machine and dryer resided. The pain in his hand had gone before he knew it, he was glad to know it was not going to bother him anymore.

"Thanks for helping, Lincoln," Lynn stretched, cracking her back. It relieved her that she could always rely on him whenever she needed him. All of their family knew this equally.

"Don't mention it. You sure you're alright? That fall sounded pretty bad," Lincoln inquired. His sports addict sister tolerated far worse physical punishment in even football. Denying pain was an easy thing for her to do.

"Linc, I'm fine! You've been acting really weird lately," Lynn lightly laughed.

"What do you mean?" Lincoln asked, confused, while the two went back upstairs, leaving the clothes to be attended to by whichever of the many siblings got the chore from the chore wheel.

"Well, for the last week, every time you pass one of us you ask if we're alright or need something… You've been catering to us like a butler, and I don't mean like the ones at Lola's tea parties," Lynn elaborated for him. Their brother had been waiting on his sisters hand and foot more than usual this week. Half of the time he was essentially forced to do things against his will for them, but lately it was not even taking as much as a request to get him to offer his help.

"Because you've all been having problems this week. I know Lori and you had the worst of it," Lincoln replied. Their oldest sister Lori was the one feeling the worst this week, the disheartening mood had overtaken her, she was suffering from a slight round of depression due to her boyfriend Bobby having to be out of town for the next month on an important set of jobs. He promised he would have a long time off after it all was said and done, but that did little to make the oldest Loud sibling happy.

"I have not!" Lynn crossed her arms, feeling a little insulted that he would imply she was one of the more stressed of the ten girls in the house this week.

"Lynn. You've spent this last week murdering your punching bag, AFTER you spent two days crying over losing the big football game for our school. That's why I was worried," Lincoln reminded her. He had no clue what to think. All he could do was wrestle with his slightly older sister to try and help her forget things.

"That loss was my fault…" Lynn murmured, looking to the floor. She blamed the loss of the entire game on herself since she had tripped right before the finish line. One golden opportunity for her, missed entirely by a single mostly missed tackle that had knocked her off balance causing said fall.

"You'll dominate them next time, Lynn. I'll help you get stronger," Lincoln gave Lynn a much needed gentle hug with his promise. She in turn latched onto him with a bone-cracking embrace. Even if she tended to be a sore loser, the pain she felt over this was worse than that to him.

"Are you going to be okay?" Lincoln asked. No response. He guessed Lynn was trying her hardest not to break down again. The most important game of this season in football, all the hard work, for nothing. What else did he have to know to fathom why it bothered her so much? Nobody liked working so hard to simply fail, it stole the wind that fanned the flames of passion for what they loved, and once it was gone it was hard to reignite.

"As long as you're around… yeah," Lynn said, the embrace finally ending.

"Try and sleep in tomorrow, you'll feel better then," Lincoln joked lightly. His athletic sibling grew a smile on her face, despite the woe in her eyes. With the mess cleaned and talk done, Lynn headed off to get back to her and Lucy's room.

"Did somebody vacuum?" The preteen boy chirped upon coming back to the living room. He noticed that the floor looked cleaner. They had been in the basement a short time, but whoever did the vacuuming had the speed of an over-pressured maid for hire clearly.

"Guess that's another thing to mark off tomorrow's chore wheel…" Lincoln shrugged. Whenever one less chore was available, it would result in that person working with someone else to do another chore even faster. He brushed it aside before going off upstairs, wanting to go to bed. The clock was ticking and each minute that passed was another minute sooner he would have to wake up in the morning.

When Lincoln got back to his room, he closed the door, but left it opened enough so that the pet dog Charles could open it to leave if he wanted. The dog lay on his side in the bed, next to the precious hand-me-down, Bun-Bun.

"Goodnight, Charles. G'night, Bun-Bun," Lincoln rubbed the dog's side before he lay back himself, pulling the blankets up over himself and bringing the stuffed bunny toy close to himself for his own comfort, like every other night, he needed it to help sleep since he was little. He closed his eyes, wanting to drift off to sleep right away.

The alarm clock beside his bed flashed the time, 11:39pm. The night went normally, but after a minute, he opened his eyes.

"Please don't tell me I'm having another one of those nights…" Lincoln scratched his head, worried that it might have been another night where it felt like he had gotten no sleep at all and that his slumber had gone by in a flash. "Jeez, I need to relax…"

Having calmed down, he rolled over and saw the time on his alarm clock. It was usually easy for him to get to sleep, but it seemed not tonight. Lincoln closed his eyes, trying to relax his whole body in hopes that would help, but after a few minutes, when that did nothing, he tried lying on his back instead. All he was doing now was staring at the ceiling, hoping that the slow rotation of his ceiling fan would somehow hypnotize him into unconsciousness.

"…this pillow's too hard…" Lincoln murmured, sitting up for a second before flipping the pillow over. He fluffed it in an attempt to soften it. He plopped his head onto it afterwards. Yet, he was still restless, and that restlessness grew with every moment without much needed sleep. He simply wound up tossing and turning from this point on, so much that it annoyed the dog slightly.

Seconds turned to hours, and Lincoln, before he knew it, while he lay face first on his bed with his head buried under his pillow, his white hair partially messed up due to all the constant rolling around.

"Wha-?!" the sound of his alarm blaring woke him up. He looked at his window and felt the sun shining on him. The night had passed him by faster than he could realize.

"Alright, that's enough from you," Lincoln grabbed the alarm clock, yanking the plugin out of the electrical outlet before throwing the alarm clock, watching it go out the window, causing it to spin rapidly before closing shut again. He then noticed Charles looking to him, worried.

"Oh… Sorry, boy. I didn't get a single wink last night… …but, guess I should be glad it's a Saturday morning," he mused. He could catch up on his sleep, but he wondered if he could truly sleep at all.

"Maybe breakfast will help," Lincoln put bun-bun aside before he got out of bed, not bothering to change out of his pajamas. He headed downstairs, letting Charles do what he pleased.

When Lincoln did arrive to the kitchen, he knew he was up earlier than everyone else, even the Loud parents. He guessed he would grab some cereal for breakfast and get the coffee started for everyone else, since most of his older family members could not survive the mornings without it. He never really got to prepare it himself either, so he was curious how it would turn out.

"Lincy? What are you doing up so early?" the voice of Leni caught his attention. She was in her long baby blue colored nightgown, whose length reached her knees.

"Oh, hey Leni… I should be asking you that," Lincoln responded, not wanting to worry his second oldest sister with his sleep troubles.

"I wanted to get ready, because there's a sale going on at my favorite mall and I want to get there before anyone else!" Leni eagerly stated, not able to resist a sale for the very materials she used to make clothes with. Her brother normally acted as a living mannequin to help her with measurements, mainly because his body frame somehow was perfectly matching to most of her needs.

"That sounds like too much of a pain to deal with this early in the morning," Lincoln commented. Every time he went shopping with his sisters, he practically did nothing more beyond pushing the cart or carried the bags full of items, but even his whole family knew when the sales were worth it or not.

"Do you want to come with me? I'd like, totes appreciate the help," Leni offered. Lincoln gave her a cup of coffee before going to the adults table of the two in the kitchen, taking his seat to begin eating his cereal.

"I think you're sitting at the wrong table, Lincy," the fashion lover pointed out. He was meant to sit at the kids' table of the kitchen that separated the older half from the younger half of the family. It was one of those futile attempts to try and reduce the chaos in the kitchen.

"Well, I'm not moving. I just need to finish eating. Then I'm going right back to bed," Lincoln replied. Normally he would apologize for not being up to helping one of his siblings, but he was far too cranky to care right now.

"Oh… I'm sorry… Thanks for making the coffee. It tastes really good," Leni left the kitchen. Even with her drastically low IQ, she could read the atmosphere and take a hint of when to get lost. Lincoln shoveled another spoonful of cereal into his mouth.

"Good morning, my genetic sharing older sibling," Lisa chimed up shortly after, having no problem with ignoring making any personal input on the matter. The child prodigy took one of the chairs, pushing it over to the counter top so she could get her own coffee.

"G'morning Lisa… You look as tired as me," Lincoln pointed out, noticing the bags her eyes housed.

"I was up a little past my slumber schedule to vacuum. Sorry if the noise bothered you," the child genius apologized, standing on her tiptoes to try and reach the cabinet where the mugs were, being unable to reach still despite the chair boosting her height.

"Here," Lincoln came over and got one mug down for her.

"Thank you," Lisa sheepishly said. She was slightly self conscious about her height. Their youngest sister Lily would outgrow her at this rate.

"Don't mention it… say, why were you vacuuming anyway? Are we just doing whatever chore we feel like instead of spinning the wheel today?" Lincoln pointed a thumb to the refrigerator where the spinning wheel with a dozen chores resided.

"No. Sadly, I couldn't recover the device I lost in last night's… ahem, 'incident'… so I was unfortunately forced to destroy my invention. It's quite a shame. I had not even been permitted a chance to test it," Lisa shook her head. She blamed herself for her carelessness. Her brother wondered how small this new invention was and how weak it could be if a vacuum was able to destroy it.

"Sorry, we didn't see anything in any of the clothes either," Lincoln apologized. He and Lynn had taken their time to be careful with things as well. He knew how dangerous some inventions could be since their genius sister often had to secretly test on family members, despite their parents' clear distaste in that.

"I appreciate the help nonetheless, but if I am permitted to be obvious, you appear far more exhausted than me. It seems you did not even a second of R.E.M sleep," Lisa saw bags under his eyes as well. It and the interaction with Leni earlier was a dead giveaway to how dead tired he was.

"That's because I didn't…" Lincoln rubbed his head, "I dunno what happened, I couldn't sleep at all, and before I knew it morning came and my alarm clock was going off."

"Well, I implore you to try and enjoy some slumber," the second youngest sister adjusted her glasses, "You can come to me if you still lack the ability to sleep."

"Thanks, Lisa…" Lincoln sighed. But he knew her well enough to be aware about how fascinated she was in his body. She would take any excuse no matter the size to examine him fully. "I'll be going now. Just spin the wheel an extra time for me and I'll handle that chore when I wake up."

"Certainly. Please get some proper rest," she implored him before taking another sip of her coffee. With his cereal consumed, he thanked her one last time before leaving to go back to his room.

"Another invention destroyed, and another problem with someone in our family that inevitably EVERYONE will be involved with… I'll begin making mental notes," Lisa thought to herself to plan on another unannounced observational family research study, before taking another long drink from the mug.

"My, this coffee is excellent."

Lincoln spent the next half hour in bed with his eyes closed. Sadly, no matter how dark he made the room or how much he tried to relax, his mind refused to get any rest.

"You're still not able to sleep?"

Lincoln jumped in surprise, falling off the front of his bed with a loud thud. He groaned as he peeked his head back up over the end of the bed and saw his gothic sister, Lucy, sitting on the bedside. Still in her black nightgown that had a white skull on it.

"Lucy, what are you doing in here?" Lincoln asked. He could not fathom why she was able to get in here without so much as a single sound. That was just something she did a lot of the time, ever since she was an infant. Be super quiet and scare people, her practical third hobby.

"I wanted to check on you since you haven't been able to sleep," Lucy replied in her usual unenthusiastic voice. Her only brother sighed while getting back into his bed. He was not going to hide his problem from her if she already knew about it.

"Well, thanks… but I don't know what's happened to me," Lincoln rested his head into one of his hands, "I just can't get to sleep. I've been up all night trying to…"

"Should I get mom?" the gothic Loud offered. She was quite fond of her brother and hated to see anything happen to him. She pondered if she needed to get either of their parents, but she was more debating on whether or not to listen to Lincoln when he inevitably refused.

"No, no… this isn't something worth getting mom or dad worried about… Wait, that gives me an idea," he snapped his fingers. His slightly younger sister was already worried, since if he was as exhausted as he looked, she doubted he would be able to think straight. "Can you find me dad's sleeping medicine from the bathroom, Lucy? It should be safe for me to take as long as I only have one."

"…let me think," his favorite little vampire thought on this. Their father had stopped using the sleeping aid, as he only really ever needed it for a few days. He left the bottle in the bathroom cabinet without any care afterwards.

"I'll do it."

"Thanks, Lucy. I hate to bother you for this, but you're a lot sneakier than I am, and—"

"But I want something in return."

"…should've seen that coming… Do you need me to make a voodoo doll again? The last one's STILL missing. Luan swears that she still feels random pinching on her arms," Lincoln asked. He made a mental note to try and search for that voodoo doll again, mainly for his own mind's comfort.

"No, I'm not messing with voodoo dolls anymore… I want to sleep with you."

Silence immediately took over the room.

"Really? That's all you want…? I mean. That's fine, but why?" Lincoln worriedly queried. The gothic sister always acted weird with him. He started to become doubtful over why she was taking various things of his for what she claimed were personal rituals. He realized it was suspicious only after a lock of his hair went missing one night, and he found it by coincidence in her drawer when putting away laundry.

"Because I like to sometimes feel another person's warmth…" Lucy responded in her own weird way. Lincoln wished she could word things in a less creepy manner, but he understood. Lynn probably refused to share her bed with her roommate, maybe not at all in fact.

"I mean I guess that's alright… Thanks Luce," Lincoln agreed after a moment of thought. Lucy grew a small smile on her face. She left on that note. "Ahh… my favorite little vampire… Always has been a big help, despite—"

"I got them."

"Wuh?!"

Not even a blink, and his younger sister had already gotten back in under a minute. All that did was scare him further from how eager she was for him to fulfill his side of this deal.

"Uh… thanks, Lucy… Sheesh, I didn't think you were faster than Lynn," Lincoln took the bottle of pills and began to read the instructions carefully. He wanted to sleep for only part of the day, not forever for life.

"I can only do that once a week," Lucy claimed. Her only brother knew how she felt with that. Putting everything into his legs for one giant burst of speed was a trick he had learned a while back, and he used it far more than he wanted to.

"You can join me for my nap, like I promised," Lincoln threw one of the pills into his mouth before putting the bottle away to make sure no one would find it and raise trouble over it.

"Thank you," Lucy smiled and hugged him. He just wanted to sleep, uncaring what he had to do to achieve it. He still was worried for the sub context behind this all, but he was not able to handle inquiring about it right now.

A short time later, everyone of the Loud sisters, not counting Lucy, was awake, all dressed in their common attires and standing before the chore wheel with various magnets surrounding it representing each of them.

"Luan, what are you doing?" Lori seemed to not be in a good mood this morning. Her boyfriend had gone and could not text her constantly like he usually could. He had rarely any free time to text her, aside from certain points in the day that she always looked forward to.

"I had a funny idea yesterday. So I went to the dollar store and bought me a bunch of these," Luan the comedian held a small bag in her hand, letting the others see for themselves.

"Baby bunny magnets…?" Luna took one of the cute, tiny magnets. They looked exactly like the one by the chore wheel that was supposed to represent their brother.

"Oh, please don't tell me this is another one of your 'pranks'," Lola groaned. She put heavy emphasis on the word pranks, as Luan never knew how harmful her pranks could be.

"I already know where this is going," Lisa sighed, trying to not pay attention.

"Come on, Luan… really?" Lana asked.

"They're so cute!" Leni happily took one, wishing they were hairclips so she could have an excuse to wear it.

"Goo-goo," Lily, the youngest Loud who was in Leni's arms, reached for the magnet with her small hands.

"Luan, what are you planning to do this time?" Lynn demanded, not in the mood to deal with shenanigans before the day had barely begun.

"What? I thought it'd be cute to see Lincoln's reaction if it looked like he had gotten all the chores," Luan explained, beginning to place the baby bunny magnets on each separate chore that the wheel withheld.

"Fine. But we're not going to let this joke go on longer than a minute," Lori reluctantly agreed. The rest of the sisters agreed with the oldest Loud on this.

Lincoln lay in bed, facing the wall once more. Lucy lay beside him with her arms wrapped around him. Even with that, he felt he was losing his mind to his inability to still sleep.

"Why isn't this working…?" Lincoln bitterly murmured, hugging Bun-bun close to himself. He had partially hoped that having somebody else to sleep with would help in some way. He was somewhat glad Lucy was at least enjoying herself.

"Still not able to slumber?" Lisa chimed up. Lincoln looked over to the door. His genius sister had entered quietly since he was supposedly trying to and failing to sleep in late.

"I feel like I could faint at any second, but I can't, even though for once I want to!" he held his head before carefully slipping out of his bed to let Lucy sleep on, or fake sleep on. He did not care to know which she was doing.

"I hate to say this, but the chore wheel's been sabotaged by Luan," Lisa stated. The two stepped out into the hall.

"I'm too tired for this… how'd she bust it this time?" Lincoln groaned. He knew his sibling often broke it in one way or another to mess with people. Some of their other family members did it to get themselves their favorite chore as well, but only were caught at rare times.

"I'll allow you to see for yourself," the child genius insisted, but before they went downstairs, her brother stopped her.

"Do me a favor, Lisa… Go get eleven of those cards from that weird blank card game. The cards you try to use when tutoring Leni, and make some special 'changes' to them." Lincoln requested. Lisa seemed to pick up on his idea and nodded with a small smirk on her face.

"Certainly. I believe it's time for a system change," she adjusted her glasses before leaving to gather them. Lincoln huffed and went to the bathroom to change. Since he could not get to sleep, he figured he should dress for the unwanted day.

As Lincoln entered the kitchen, he already sensed that he was being watched. He found their parents, Lynn Sr and Rita, preparing breakfast this morning.

"Good morning, honey," Rita greeted him. Her son went right up to the refrigerator.

"You alright there, son? You look like you haven't slept at all," Lynn Sr inquired upon seeing their little boy's face.

"You're not wrong. But I'm alright," Lincoln responded. The Loud family parents were worried. However, they then had their attention grabbed by the chore wheel. Each chore had a baby bunny magnet on them.

"What happened here, son? You keep spinning 'til you got'em all?" Mr Loud laughed as he patted his son's back. The surprise of the chore wheel had accidentally made them gloss over the sleepless comment. Their only son muttering it out made it hard for them to understand.

"If you just need extra allowance, you can just ask, you know?" Mrs Loud giggled. Their son was not amused by this at all. He felt like it was far too early to tolerate this, he was feeling like that a lot without the rest.

"Actually, I have something I wanted to talk to you two about… Since this wheel's old, it isn't too reliable anymore and…" Lincoln began talking to their parents silently so none of their many family members could hear him. His tiredness was making him feel more devious. In reality he was just not in the mood to deal with tricks. His sleeplessness wore his patience thin. Something he normally had a finite amount worth of.

"What's he saying?"

"I don't know…!"

"What are they talking about?"

"Something about the chore wheel?"

"Did he 'wheely' not like my joke that much…?"

"I'm amazed he likes any of your jokes…"

"Shh! Be quiet, I can't hear anything!"

"But dudes, why does our little bro look so bad? I'm worried about him…"

"Goo goo."

"Luna and Lily are so right, guys. Maybe we should stop eavesdropping and just come out?"

"I worked too hard to hide here. Besides, it has to be really bad if he's talking to mom and dad alone…"

After a few minutes, Lisa had come into the kitchen as well when the conversation between the four ended.

"Girls! Can you all come… here?" Lynn Sr was surprised to see all of the Loud girls already, even Lucy who had gotten dressed and woken up when realizing Lincoln was long gone from bed.

"Record time," Rita gave an impressed clap, wondering if it had something to do with the breakfast cooking.

"Is everything alright?" Luna asked mainly her parents while going to Lincoln.

"You only whistle when something important is going on! …I think," Leni added, not too sure about her statement once she said it.

"Am I in trouble over my prank?" Luan worriedly asked.

"Are they in trouble?" Lori was more worried for the second youngest sister and their only brother. Lily was in her arms, contently sucking on her thumb.

"Calm down, calm down," their father motioned, "Nobody is in trouble. This is great news."

"Indeed. We're finally fixing a problem we've had for quite some time," Lisa claimed. Their mother nodded, patting both her and Lincoln's heads. Rita then went and took the chore wheel down, leaving the many magnets on the fridge before taking it to the trash can.

"Why are you taking that down?" Lola worriedly asked, watching the chore wheel fall to the bottom of the kitchen's trash bin.

"What's wrong with the chore wheel?" Lana added. She thought it was working fine.

"I already know what's happening," Lucy had overheard Lincoln and Lisa speaking upstairs earlier.

"Lincoln pointed out there was a big problem with the chore wheel!" Rita began, "Apparently it would always slow down at the bottom, so someone could just turn it a certain way and it'd be easier to get the chore they want."

"Since the random chores being controlled is not fair to everyone, we're going to do something else for picking who gets what chore," Lynn Sr finished. The many siblings were still unsure about it until Lincoln held out a stack of cards.

"Pick one," Lincoln said. Nine of the ten sisters drew cards. Then their parents took the last two. They always got involved with the household caretaking.

"Mine has a broom on it…?" Luna chirped, not exactly understanding the crayon drawing on the card.

"Mine looks like gutters with leaves?" Leni tilted her head, looking over the card. Her sunglasses fell off the top of her head before flipping upside down and landing on Lily. The infant began laughing and clapping.

"I think mine is a garbage pile," Lori commented, putting the sunglasses back on Leni's head, though it disappointed Lily.

"My card has a fire alarm and a battery on it… Boy, I don't have any ideas 'sparking' in my head," Luan gained a few groans with the bad pun.

"Mine has a toilet on it," Lana shrugged.

"The card I got has our pets drawn on it," Lola claimed, finding it somewhat cute.

"I got a little brush with a bunch of feathers in it?" Lynn held the card upside down, still trying to make sense of it. So far none of them had any ideas.

"Mines the garage," Lynn Sr said.

"And mine is the kitchen," Rita hummed.

"My card is just us," Lisa stated. The card had a rather crude drawing of their entire family.

"So is mine," Lucy showed her card with a similar drawing.

"And my card is the washing machine," Lincoln spoke through his tired voice.

"So what's all this about?" Lori let Lily down on the floor to do as she pleased.

"Isn't it obvious? This is how we're going to be choosing who does what chore now!" Rita declared, seeming very happy at the new idea.

"It's easier to shuffle cards and pass them around too," Lynn Sr added. The many sisters looked between each other, finally realizing what their cards meant.

"Ohhhh! That's actually pretty wicked! So I got sweeping, huh? Alright," Luna chuckled. Normally that would include vacuuming, but luckily for her, someone already did that last night.

"Wait, that means I have to clean the animals and their cages…? I WANT THE WHEEL BACK!"

"Sweet! I get to handle the bathroom!"

"Dusting, huh? I can try and improve my jumping! It'll be good work for my legs."

"So I have to gather all the garbage…"

"I have to clean the gutters? But I don't do well with heights…"

"Oh… so I have to check the fire alarms and their batteries! That's a relief. I was worried my prank had 'sparked' up some trouble."

"I have to clean up the stuff in the garage," Lynn Sr explained his chore that was one of the worst ones to get honestly right now, due to the fact the garage was a complete mess after a small earthquake had happened a few days ago. It was blind luck one of their parents had gotten burdened with the task.

"I have to handle cleaning the kitchen," Rita stated.

"What do our cards mean?" Lucy mumbled. She hoped the card had nothing to do with filling in for Lincoln's occupation as peacemaker of the sisters.

"It means the two of you, Lucy and Lisa, get to help everyone and speed things along," Lincoln answered.

"Indeed. Luan's 'prank' gave Lincoln this brilliant idea," Lisa smirked. She couldn't tolerate to see people cheat with their chores.

"…Oops…" Luan sheepishly smirked, feeling some of their other sister's eyes on her. They were divided now, thanks to her prank on the wheel. Others were okay with this change since they disliked how often the wheel got manipulated, but the other half was now upset. No longer could they manipulate the wheel to their favor.

"But if it makes any of you feel better, I did volunteer to do the laundry this time," Lincoln stated. His many sisters were surprised since he always hated doing the nightmarish chore of laundry.

"You volunteered for that?!" Lynn was not able to believe it.

"Who are you, and what have you done with Lincoln?" Luan joked. However, before the rest could ramble, Lincoln walked past them. The bags under his eyes were prominent to them as he walked past.

"Wait, honey, what about breakfast?" Rita asked their only son.

"I'm not hungry," Lincoln sighed, going off to get started on doing the laundry, leaving his family in surprise. Lisa and Lucy looked each other with the same thought.

"Well then… Alright girls, so how about… girls?" Lynn Sr looked around. There was no sign of them.

"It's nice to see everyone eager to get to work! My babies really are becoming responsible adults," Rita seemed proud with the practical daydream. She already went through several existential crises during the last decade. She had accepted one day that their children would grow.

"Now if only I could get my hair to grow as fast as they ran…" Lynn Sr sighed, feeling his wife hugging him to comfort him.

"Lincoln didn't sleep at all last night?" Leni asked Lucy and Lisa, worried already.

"He hasn't been able to enter REM sleep for even a simple moment…" Lisa said as she played with Lily slightly to try and keep the baby Loud calm, "I am terribly troubled by this for several reasons."

"He took some of dad's sleeping medicine, even that did nothing… Me taking a nap with him didn't help, either," Lucy decided to not hold back with getting everything out in the open. It was more confusing to the family than anything else.

"Wait," Lori raised an eyebrow, "You were taking a nap with Lincoln? …why?"

"I don't judge you for sleeping with Leni when a bad thunderstorm comes around. I don't expect you to go judging me for wanting to feel someone else's warmth once in a while," Lucy retorted, keeping her straight face.

"…touché, Lucy…" Lori grew a sheepish expression. She developed terrible fear of storms after a thunderbolt struck outside their home around six months ago. Now whenever it rained, she refused to go anywhere until it lightened up.

"I don't mind," Leni giggled, "It's nice to know there's something other than pillows to hug when you need comfort! It reminds me of when we were younger. We used to sleepover and do everything together…"

"That's not helping me feel any less embarrassed, Leni!" Lori squeaked.

"Is it really that big of a deal? Lincoln being sleepless, I mean? I'm sure he'll be counting sheep before he goes to sleep tonight," Luan tried her hand at wordplay, and received no laughter as result.

"Well it's making him too cranky! He got rid of the chore wheel because of a joke. A JOKE! Now how am I going to get the easy clean jobs?" Lola's whining was ignored since all she wanted was attention.

"It is really weird if medicine didn't even help him sleep…" Lana nodded in worried agreement. She had been through her fair share of sleepless nights, just like everyone in this family, but it never got to the point where they were this cranky.

"Me and Lisa owe him for helping us last night, so either way we're going to try and help him out," Lynn declared.

"The little dude volunteered to take the worst chore of them all… He really must be losing his mind," Luna claimed. Everyone could agree with the sentiment.

"Me and Lisa's jobs are to help everyone. So I guess we can both go help him first," Lucy expressed her liking of this new system. It helped everything get along faster and let everyone handle chores in groups once theirs were handled instead, so nobody could immediately go lazy.

"Why don't we go through today like normal, alright? If he can't get to sleep tonight, THEN we'll help him," Luna offered, aware that they did not want to get involved with every little problem that bothered their brother, despite them doing the opposite normally.

"Frankly he does need our help, because if memory serves me correctly, he has a very important test on Monday. He spent the last week studying for it. And being tired exhausts your mind into being unable to act to its fullest capabilities," Lisa explained. Lincoln resisted much involvement with any of them in the last week to study for one of the more important tests of the year. If he failed it, he could still get by the grade fine, but he would have to triple his work and probably consume a summer to do so.

"Okay then, screw what I said. WHEN we all finish our chores, we'll go straight to helping Lincoln, okay?" Luna corrected herself, with a new worrying train of thought at the forefront of her mind. Imagining Lincoln becoming an emotionless boy unable to have fun because he had to study all the time worried her, and upon hearing this, it made everyone else grow fearful of their brother's mental health. Even Lily was becoming upset at the tone the atmosphere had.

"Alright."

"Sounds good."

"I guess…"

"I'll try to not let it bother me."

"Affirmative."

"Okay, but if Lincy asks for help, I'm not going to wait to give it to him."

"I'm with Leni on that."

"Man, it doesn't seem like anyone here can catch a 'wink' lately, eh?"

"Just get started on your chore, Luan!"

"Boo-boo."

With all said and done, the many sisters all scattered to handle their various chores. All of them simultaneously resisted the worry taking their minds with their brother. If anything, it at least incentivized them to hurry with their procedures.

Lincoln waited by the washing machine and dryer in the basement. both of them were active and running.

"Are you sure you don't want our help?" Lucy asked him. He just was laying on the two machines as if hoping the vibrations would somehow help ease him to sleep. All it felt like to him instead was a weird carnival ride.

"I don't think there's much you two can do to help me with the laundry… I mean, I need help folding them, but all I'll be doing for the next two hours is just jamming the washer full until they finish and then throw those into the dryer and then throw those into the empty basket. It'll just be like this for a while."

"Well, if you insist… I estimate it will take forty minutes for these bundles of fabric to be done washing and drying," Lisa sighed. It was her and Lucy's job to help everyone, yet they couldn't help the first person they went to. Boredom made laundry the worst chore.

"We would be remiss if we did not inform you that everyone now knows of your sleep troubles," Lisa adjusted her glasses.

"Everyone but mom and dad, that is," Lucy added. The two were more than glad to let him know what to expect later. There was a heavy silence, but he nodded and climbed off the machines.

"I appreciate it… I was planning on talking to you all about it later. I just didn't want to make everyone worry about me," Lincoln confessed. He had planned on going to his sisters after his chore was done. If anyone could help him, it was definitely one of his sisters.

"You do realize when someone tries to go out of their way to make sure others don't worry, they make them worry more. Am I correct?" Lisa rhetorically responded, her usually straight face remaining. She was caught off guard when Lincoln picked her up and hugged her without any real warning.

"I know, and it's why I'm glad someone as smart as you is around," Lincoln chuckled. Lisa was feeling embarrassed. She never liked being held like this, despite her young age.

"Why don't you go talk to everyone? They'd be happier to hear you asking for our help for once," Lucy suggested, since Lincoln normally avoided accepting any real tangible aid due to the girls being committed to forcing and meddling their way into his personal life.

"We can monitor the laundry," the child prodigy assured.

"That's probably a good idea. Thanks," Lincoln smiled.

"Yes, well… Can I please be let back down to a lower altitude now?"

"Nah. I like holding you like this. It reminds me of when you were first born."

"Please, Lincoln. this is embarrassing…"

"You've really not grown much since then."

"I'm aware of my height deficiency! That's why I was hoping to find some pattern behind growth spurts while examining you!"

"Aww, you're flustered!"

"I am not!"

Lucy found the twos interaction quite cute to her. She let them do as they pleased, despite Lisa pleading to her for help. Lincoln would go try and talk to everyone in a minute, even if they were doing their chores. He could help in some way.

"I think I'm alright. I should be asking if you are," Luan stood on a booster stepladder, replacing the batteries in one of the smoke detectors after having found out that they had been removed. Lincoln had come running when he saw the stepladder wobble a little. The false panic took half of his little amount of energy away.

"I… No, I haven't been able to sleep since last night," Lincoln stated, pretending that he was going to everyone one by one, requesting advice or help as an excuse to check up on them.

"I could tell… You really are fighting between being yourself and being cranky," the comedian stated, aware that it was more or less his brain fighting against itself while trying to shut itself off. She put the smoke detector back up and hopped down, as if to just scare her brother.

"Sorry for my prank… I guess nobody likes to imagine being stuck with every chore at home," Luan apologized. She guessed that even if the chore wheel was gone, they at least the cute magnets to keep.

"You act like I don't get stuck with everything half the time…" Lincoln replied. He was then hugged by his sister.

"I'm so sorry for annoying you… I know you fake laugh at most of my jokes to make me feel happy," Luan confessed. Her only brother did this to appreciate her attempts to make sure he was as happy as possible since birth. "But don't worry! Tonight, we'll make sure you get to sleep."

Lincoln could not get a word of reply out before Luan hopped off and slid down the railing to get downstairs. She wanted to be fast enough to finish the chores to begin looking for ways to help heal his insomnia.

"I'm a little scared by her enthusiasm…" Lincoln thought, but brushed his fear aside. He appreciated any form of help. The preteen took the stepladder to put it up back in the hall closet.

"Come on… I thought the point of a broom was to be able to reach things far away!" Luna grumbled to herself in irritation. Lincoln peeked his head into her and Luan's room and saw her trying to get something out from under the bed with the broom.

"Did you drop something behind the bed?" Lincoln asked, surprising his older sister and making her jump slightly. Her head thudded against the bed.

"Ooougghh…" the rock star shook her head once out from under the bed.

"Jeez, Lincoln… Are you and Lucy changing places today?" Luna asked. Her beloved brother was not trying to scare anybody. Now he had to ask himself if Lucy did it intentionally or not.

"Not that I remember…" Lincoln helped her up off the floor, "What is it you're trying to reach?"

"There's some giant dust balls under the back of my bed and I don't really want to go moving it aside," Luna explained. The beds had clumps of dust bunnies to deal with. Nobody had thought about cleaning under them for the past year.

"Why don't you just get the vacuum and the long neck nozzle?" Lincoln suggested. The suction power on high would easily be able to handle dealing with any hiding dust far better than the broom could.

"That's a good idea, Lincoln! Thanks dude," Luna handed him the broom and was about to go grab the vacuum cleaner, but her little brother stopped her.

"Uhh, Luna," Lincoln hesitated a little, feigning obliviousness to what his sisters knew was wrong with him, "I'm having a problem that I need help with."

"Is something wrong, little bro?" Luna asked, feigning obliviousness on her half.

"I haven't been able to sleep since yesterday. I feel like I'm about to pass out at any second, but I can't no matter what I do…" Lincoln explained. Barely halfway through the sentence had made her show immense worry across her face. For some reason hearing it straight from his exhausted voice made it a lot worse sounding.

"Were you the one that shook the whole house last night?" Luna inquired, hoping that he had not attempted something stupidly irreversible to obtain sleep.

"No, that was Lynn and Lisa trying to carry the laundry downstairs for whoever got the chore… Lisa said she lost and had to destroy her invention with the vacuum? I don't exactly know about it either," Lincoln answered, still recalling the dozens of scattered undergarments that had coated the staircase. It was an image he did not want in his tired head now.

"Talk about bad luck there… But don't'chu worry, little bro! I'll figure someway out to help you sleep tonight, I promise," Luna swore to him, and immediately went to get the vacuum to help speed her chores along.

"Why does everyone run off before I can say thanks?" Lincoln spoke to the open air. He tossed aside the broom he had been left with, before he went off to find the next sister to talk to, and possibly offer his help if they needed it.

Lincoln stepped through the open door to Lucy and Lynn's room. He saw Lynn on her knees in front of a box that seemingly came from the closet, her dusting tools laying beside her. He watched as she held an old football helmet, her jersey from when she was a lot younger rested beside her. "Lynn? What are you doing?"

"Huh?" Lynn turned to him, surprised, "Oh hey, Lincoln. Sorry I didn't notice you. I fell off my bed when I was trying to dust the ceiling fan and bumped into the closet. This box full of my starting football gear fell out…"

"Are you hurt?" Lincoln was worried. Even if he wished to fall face first on the floor and stay still until his brain shut off, he still put his sisters in top priority, especially if they were hurt. A possible concussion was nothing new to Lynn, but that did not make him any less worried.

"No… I'm just not alright, Lincoln…" the sports lover picked up an old copy of a photo from the box that showed her and their older family members all holding her up after she had won her first football game, with their proud parents in the background holding a toddler Lincoln and newborn Lucy.

"That loss really is still bugging you…?" Lincoln chirped. It seemed that finding that old helmet and jersey was a massive coincidence after her recent loss, it terribly depressed her as well. He could see her nearby punching bag was basically torn in half now from overuse, another mess that she would clean up later.

"Yeah…" Lynn nodded. Despite his reassurances and comforting words along with the rest of their families, her heart still felt heavily wounded from that loss. She felt like she had let down everyone who had shown up to the game, even the towel boy.

"I keep daydreaming about it… My other football teammates are all able to move on from things so easy, I don't know how they do it," the sports lover put the old jersey back in the box. Lincoln did not know what to say that could make her feel better without repeating himself, but he already felt sick of seeing her moping over her loss after almost a week had already passed. "I think I might just not touch football for this season… or two. Maybe I'll stick to baseball soccer and hockey."

"What? All this over one loss? Lynn, you can't be serious!" her little brother watched as she put the helmet in the box, kicking it back into the closet letting it slide in there. Lynn did not reply while bringing her knees close to her chest. Lincoln could only stare until his tired brain snapped. He forced her to her feet, grabbing her hand.

"Lincoln, wa-wait! Where are we going?!" Lynn was dragged along. She knew he would not be happy with her choice, but she saw a surprising look of anger on his face. A couple of their other siblings peeked from where they were to see what was happening.

"You're hurting my wrist, Lincoln!" Lynn demanded him to lighten up as they arrived to the trophy cabinet in the living room.

"Let me spell it out for you. You can't give up over one loss!" Lincoln snapped. He let go and pointed at her part of the trophy case. There were two parts of the shelf that were dedicated to all of Lynn's sports trophies. Some were even for karate and kickboxing, since she had a black belt in them both. "Look at all the rewards you got over the years! You didn't earn any of these by quitting, did you?!"

"Lincoln, I don't care that it's a loss!" Lynn exclaimed, feeling upset to be in this semi-argument. She knew neither of them wanted to be here. "I'm upset because I lost the biggest game of the season, and let down everyone on my team and our school!"

"So you want to just quit football because of one mistake? I think that's nothing compared to the tens of games you've won! You worked to the bone for these trophies! You fractured ribs, broke your limbs, and probably took hundreds of concussions to earn them! But quitting over one loss is just babyish!" Lincoln then motioned her to his own trophy cabinet, "I tried my hardest and never earned a single trophy! Heck, I might never get one until the day I die! But you don't see me wanting to quit the things I love to do because of it!"

"You have a trophy, Lincoln," Lynn blurted out rather quietly and mumbled. Her tiny flame to fight back dwindled to nothing but embers really fast.

"Not just a trophy. A pity trophy," Lincoln pulled out that lone trophy for her to see. He had gotten it from his sisters for being a great brother in their eyes, "Remember it was given to me to stop me from going into some depression? It was because you all knew I'd never get one! This was all I've earned. I liked it at first. I appreciated it a lot. But nowadays, I feel like this is worse than getting nothing but thin air as a reward! I'm the definition of a failure, Lynn, but I'm still no quitter!"

Lincoln then snapped the trophy in half before throwing it aside, watching the two parts clatter and roll along the floor in separate directions. With no hesitation, and no care.

"The point is; you get nothing when you give up! Having a self-pity party to yourself won't get you anywhere! Do you really want to quit something you're clearly good at doing?! Go ahead then. Take every last trophy of yours out of that cabinet and BREAK them. Just know that a quitter doesn't get rewards by quitting! And they sure don't deserve any either!" Lincoln's words seemed to get through to Lynn. As harsh as it was, he had torn himself down in perspective to prove his points.

"You… You're right… I'm just a sore loser…" Lynn bit her lip, looking ashamed. Lincoln put a hand on her shoulder.

"I promise. In your next big game, you'll tear them apart. Especially with how fast you're growing," Lincoln let out a huff. He had given up every drop of energy to handle saving Lynn from her own self despair. "I'll go finish your chore for you."

Lincoln headed off. Lynn stood there with nothing but immense shame in her heart. She wanted to cry after he had shared his inner thoughts with her, but all she could do was stare at the trophy cabinet and the gleaming rewards within.

"…he really hides a lot from us… Doesn't he?" Leni came out of hiding when their only brother went upstairs. She went over and picked up the bottom half of the family made trophy.

"I didn't know Lincoln could explode like that…" Lori picked up the top half of the broken trophy. The sisters all were coming out from hiding, all equally upset at what they overheard.

"Maybe he's just speaking out of tiredness…?" Luan fearfully suggested, but the atmosphere of the room told her otherwise.

"Luan, just… don't. Lying to ourselves isn't going to do us any good," Luna wiped a tear from her eye. Hearing every negative thing Lincoln said about himself hurt her worse than the time they had locked him out of the house on a rainy night. She still questioned if he had ever forgiven them for that.

"Going even one night without sleep can cause someone to become emotionally detached, irrational and more than willing to risk everything without a care… He's more than caring right now, but less hesitant to express his thoughts, his mental filter has decayed heavily." Lisa stated, finding it impressive how he was fighting off his tiredness so much, or rather the side effects of it.

"Waaaahhh!" Lily cried. Rita and Lynn Sr entered the living room, the Loud mother carrying the baby in her arms.

"What's going on, girls?" their father asked. They had overheard the commotion, but they did not know whether to intervene or not since it seemed like a problem the siblings needed to handle themselves.

"It's nothing," Lucy claimed, rubbing her head, not even able to hide her upset look spreading across her face.

"He just needs some help tonight from us, that's all," Lola defensively spoke.

"He'll be better by tomorrow. He's probably just worried over his test coming up," Lana added to her twin in the combined cover up attempt. The Loud parents still looked unsure. They were just trying to console Lily.

"Maybe we should talk to him?" Rita offered.

"No way!" Lori responded with hostility, "The last thing we need is you two making Lincoln apologize for nothing when all he was trying to do was help! You'll just go threatening to punish him and all you'll do is make things worse!"

"What? Lori, honey, what are you on about?" Lynn Sr worriedly questioned.

"It's something we should handle, but Lori is right…" Leni nodded in agreement with their oldest sister. The Loud sisters were all taking responsibility to help Lincoln with his insomnia, especially after his rant at Lynn, or with Lynn.

"…Alright girls, but please come to us if things get bad like that again," Rita requested. She gained no response. When their parents left to try and get Lily comforted, the sisters looked to each other. They knew to do they had to do their best for Lincoln tonight. Or things would only get worse.

"Uh… Guys, I appreciate the help, but don't you think it's a little early?" Lincoln chirped, laying on his bed with a pile of pillows under his head, with two extra blankets covering him on top of his usual one.

Night had come to town or at least as far as most of the Loud girls cared. The street lights activating was good enough for them all to treat it like it was as late as midnight. The sisters really were on top of trying to help him sleep. Already they had turned off nearly all the lights in the house, aside from the few night lights in the halls for safety.

"You need all the sleep you can get, Lincoln. Even I haven't been up for a whole day before," Lori responded. They were all crowded in his increasingly becoming cramped room.

"It's 7:30…" their only brother muttered, reading out his somehow returned alarm clock by his bed. It was beaten up rather badly but still functioned, the family dog Charles had brought it back in like it was a newspaper.

"You can't complain about wanting to sleep all day and then get upset with an early bed time!" Lola scolded him. She and Lana had finished buttoning up his pajama top for him.

"I understand that part, but why did you make me shower with Leni?" Lincoln requested. It was not the first time he had to share a bath or shower with a sibling, but unlike before, he doubted it was to save water.

"Sorry, little bro. I was worried you might black out and drown," Luna sheepishly confessed, being very paranoid yet hopeful he could fall asleep at any moment without any notice.

"At least now your dander problems dealt with!" Leni hummed. Everyone volunteered her for the minor life guard role, as she was innocent enough to focus on such situations without getting distracted.

"I guess…" Lincoln swore his hair still hurt from the intense scrubbing, but he knew they were doing all they could to try and make him comfortable.

"Aw, don't be too upset, Lincy!" Leni reassured, "We used to share the bath with you all the time when you were little! It's nothing to be ashamed about! That and it was nice to have someone help with my hair."

"Lucky…" Lucy bitterly mumbled quiet enough to be heard by no one. Her jealousy swelled in her heart once again.

"No need to get all hot and 'wet' under the collar," Luan gained many groans.

"Alright, this is getting too cramped!" Lynn declared and in one swift motion, most of them were back out in the hallway like they had exploded from the room, a few of them having fallen on the floor.

"Ow, Lynn!"

"Jeez! I didn't think you were practicing holding off an entire football team!"

"You broke one of my nails!"

"Leni, that's an oval shaped breath mint. Someone must've dropped it on the floor…"

"Oh… At least my breath will be fresh!"

"What was that for, Lynn?" Lori asked, holding her head sorely.

"I'm worried it'll be hard for him to sleep with so many people around him," Lynn panted. It took a lot of effort to clear the room out in one motion. "Especially when we're all watching him…"

"Lynn is completely correct on this matter… But don't worry. We can use the security camera stationed in his room to monitor things from afar," Lisa stated. Everyone was aware of her special hidden cameras in each room of the house. The child genius always claimed they were to catch any intruders and were not aimed directly at the rooms themselves, but they knew those cameras were also abused for her own research.

"Uh… is everything okay?" Lincoln called out worriedly. He would already be up right now if it was not for the dozen pillows and multiple blankets he was buried under.

"We're fine Lincoln! You don't need to get up! Just keep relaxing!" Lana called back. None of them wanted him moving a muscle right now. They thought it would help him sleep if he stayed relaxed a while.

"I guess we can go one at a time… let me try first!" Lola offered. Nobody was against it since they all had different ideas on what to do. They knew with multiple plans in their minds, they might clash too intensely if they were done at the same time.

Lincoln remained idle and watched as one of his third youngest sisters entered into his room, pulling along one of the small chairs from the younger kids room. She put it by his bed before hopping up onto the seat.

"Alright, my prince! I'm going to do to you what you do for me whenever I can't get to sleep," Lola smiled as she presented one of her several fantasy storybooks to him. Lincoln normally read them to her for naptime or bedtime when she needed it. He often doubted she needed it anymore, but he assumed she just enjoyed hearing him read her to sleep.

"I don't know if that'll actually work…" he said, unsure. The spoiled girl put a hand on her chin, trying to think of an alternative while looking around his room. Her attention was grabbed by an ace savvy action figure on his shelf.

"Ah-hah!" Lola hopped off and went to rummage through his drawers without even requesting permission. After a moment, she retrieved one of his many ace savvy comics, resting the stack on his nightstand. "How about these then?"

"How about them?" Lincoln murmured, "I mean… maybe? But they're short."

His little sister looked at the stack of comics. "Didn't you have a lot more of these?"

Lincoln felt a nerve ache in his inactive mind. "I did… But then you all started accidentally tearing them up whenever I had my back turned."

"What? Oh, come on! It's been at least four months since Cliff tore up the last one! And it wasn't even on purpose! You must have at least bought a bunch more since then," Lola took off her long gloves, the rare occasion that she would do, just so they would not get in the way of trying to turn the pages.

"I actually would have... But I didn't want to waste money on things you guys would just break," Lincoln sighed. His third youngest sister grew saddened, doing her best to resist hugging him and begging for forgiveness despite his assurances that it was fine. She knew he could no longer interact with some of his beloved hobbies after the sheer toxicity of the family's mobbing, even if they were not directed at him, if he left an important item of his not monitored it would surely become destroyed within a short time.

"Sorry…" Lola murmured past her missing teeth, sitting down on the chair she had brought with her. "We'll just work with what we have!"

Lola began to open the first comic's pages. Lincoln knew everyone else was off watching him from the security camera that was hidden in one of his toys on his shelf. The many sisters had not exactly tried to be quiet about their plans when they were outside his room.

"There's no way we're that oblivious…"

"You'd be astounded by how destructive we can be without even trying,"

"Aww… Poor Lincy…"

"Where'd Lynn go?"

"No clue… Probably to the bathroom."

"So we just have to watch and hope for the best?"

"That's all we can do. Sorry little dude, it bugs me as much as it does you."

"Guess this is why we started early…"

After an hour of reading the same short series of comics, nothing happened even after the dozenth repeated reading of them.

"Still not sleepy?" Lola asked as Lincoln remained still in bed.

"I'm very sleepy, but I can't get to sleep, sorry," Lincoln apologized. He could tell reading the same thing a dozen times had bored Lola into nearly falling asleep herself.

"Well, my plan was a letdown…" she sighed, throwing the comic back on the stack with the others before getting up. "Can I lay down here for a minute?"

"Of course. Just take it easy," the preteen shrugged. Lola nodded, laying down at the end of his bed with her back facing toward him.

"Don't tell me…" Lori rubbed her head as she watched from the younger kids' room on Lisa's computer.

"It appears Lincoln's tired aura affects others… Sort of how when someone is depressed, it begins to siphon another's energy the more they interact with them," Lisa explained. That was why most people disliked others being depressed. Yet it was hard to tell who was truly depressed or not in this day and age. Just another worry going on the ever growing list they had for their only brother.

"This seems a little more intense than just becoming tired because someone else that's tired is near you," Luna claimed doubtfully. Lola was already sleeping rather comfortably with Bun-bun in her arms. Lincoln had given his beloved toy to her to borrow since he doubted he would get much use out of it at the moment.

"She sure is right about that," Leni agreed, but now they all were left with a lingering question over their heads now of how to help Lincoln get to sleep.

"I'll go next! Mine can't fail," Lana scurried off immediately after.

"Boy, it's creepy how eager she is to help," Luan laughed.

"Agreed," Lucy mused. The sisters continued to watch the computer. All they could do now was wait.

"Lana… I don't think people sleep like this," Lincoln stated. The family pet canary, Walt, sat on the headboard to his bed with a tiny cloth over his head to keep him asleep. Charles was beside him, Cliff the cat was curled up and lying on top of Lola, and Geo the hamster was in his ball beside Lincoln as well.

"What are you talking about? Everyone sleeps with their pets!" Lana responded with a raised eyebrow, since normally Charles always slumbered with the middle Loud.

"Yeah, but I've never in my entire life heard of somebody that sleeps with a hamster or a canary… And I know a lot of weirdos from school," Lincoln explained, "All the same, I feel like a giant animal sleeping bed for a pet rescue sanctuary."

"I guess you've got a point…" Lana muttered, "Do you feel more relaxed at least?

"I don't think it's possible to get any more relaxed if I tried. Luan even made me drink some vinegar to help loosen my body up," Lincoln responded, still not entirely sure about the vinegar that Luan suggested him to drink. He was relieved when it turned out to not be a prank.

"And you still can't sleep…" Lana took her hat off her head, scratching her blonde hair confusedly.

"Maybe you just need one more animal."

"What? Lana, we don't even have any other pets… Oh," Lincoln stopped himself when Lana crawled into his bed on all fours before curling up beside him. She had a weird habit of behaving like a dog very often. Nobody complained though since she usually looked very adorable when she did it.

"Goodnight, girl. Thanks for trying at least," Lincoln patted her back. He knew Lana was looking for an excuse to sleep. She was very tired after the night had dragged on. The red capped girl seemed content with her position in his bed.

"Alright, someone go put the hamster and bird back in their cages…" Lori face palmed. She did not exactly trust the two animals outside of their cages for a full night. Since when they were all together, the pets caused their share of subtle trouble that took too long to catch on to after it happened.

"I'll do it. My idea should work out well, too," Luan hopped out of her seat before going off. She did have to get her laptop anyway for this.

"Hey, where'd Lucy go?" Luna pointed out. There was no sign of her.

"She was literally RIGHT beside us! Are you sure she didn't take that weird teleporting gadget of yours Lisa?" Lori questioned. Half the time Lucy appeared and vanished out of or into thin air.

"I'll assure you that invention was melted down for safety concerns… I know the first test on that caterpillar turned it into a mutant butterfly that Lincoln had to stomp on," Lisa responded, not wanting to remember that time again. It was the only time she was going to mess with instant transportation like that for a long while. However when the child prodigy looked back at the computer, she felt her eyes glaze over as she held her head.

"Oh! There she is!" Leni chirped, gaining the rest of their attentions back on the computer where Lucy was on their brother's bed along with the twins.

"Oh, for the love of Loud…" Lori tried to ignore it, "Let's just hope Luan's idea works."

"Lucy… You never had any idea on how to help me did you?" Lincoln asked.

"Nope…" Lucy simply said, remaining still. He let out a sigh, unable to blame her. He chalked up the sleeping medicine as her idea before brushing it aside to let her sleep, or fake slumber.

After a few more minutes, the twelve-year-old noticed his comedian enter his room. She plopped into bed beside him.

"Hey there, Linc! Sorry if I woke you up," Luan grinned, her braces shining on her buckteeth.

"That's a mean joke, Luan…" Lincoln responded, but was more worried about her waking the others up. "Why'd you bring your computer for?

He watched as the comedian clicked on the video she had pulled up on the website to play it. The sound of gentle waves from the ocean emitted from the speakers.

"I thought we'd try playing sounds of nature to help you go to sleep… 'Naturally', it should work like a charm," Luan explained, rubbing his head slightly, letting the sounds of the ocean tides and the breezing winds continue playing.

The video kept changing to different sounds of nature, from the sound of the bugs in a forest, to birds chirping to the clear audible noise of waterfalls splashing down onto rocks.

"Luan, I don't think this is working," Lincoln commented when the video began playing nothing but the sound of wind going through pinwheels, even if it sounded nice he did find it too odd and random for himself.

"Luan?" The middle Loud saw her head tilted onto her own shoulder as she snored away. Somehow he was not surprised by this. He simply took one of the two extra blankets on top of himself and covered Luan and Lucy up with it. He then closed the laptop before putting it aside for Luan to find later.

"He's supposed to be resting. Not helping them rest…" Lori felt like bashing her head into the desk. They all felt frustrated. So far everyone's plans were working on themselves rather than their brother.

"Frankly, he isn't showing any symptoms of sickness either, so I'm not of much aid," Lisa stated.

"Can't you just whip up a sleep ray or something?" Luna pleaded.

"Yes, I can, but that is not so simple," Lisa claimed, "It would take a week to do, and that is if I give up my nights of rest to complete it as well… and even then, it would be futile. It would only provide minor relief for his brain, when it needs a proper rest."

"Why would it be fu-teal? Does it really matter as long as he can sleep?" Leni tried her best to understand what the genius was saying, but was having trouble keeping up as usual.

"Well, accordingly, the longest anyone has ever gone without a single day of sleep is eleven days… But the problem is, without any actual rest, your brain begins to shut down lobe by lobe. Slowly but surely it results in pure insanity. Your mind is meant to react to certain cues to know when to sleep as well, such as remaining idle for a long period of time and darkness," Lisa continued, but her rambling was ignored after insanity was brought up.

"Alright! ALRIGHT! We get it! Anything that isn't him falling asleep himself is worthless!" Lori snapped, not wanting to imagine it. Their brother already snapped just to try and stop Lynn from quitting football. They did not want to imagine what else he could do with a slow onset of insanity.

"Goo-goo?" Lily chirped, standing in her crib, looking annoyed to have been awoken by their conversation that reached her ears.

"Oh, we're sorry, Lily. We didn't mean to wake you up…" Luna apologized. Lori went over to their youngest sister, rubbing her head before picking her up out of her crib.

"She probably needed a change anyway… Why don't you two go ahead and try to help him," Lori insisted, grateful that Lily did not wake up crying this time.

"Alright, Lori," Luna nodded.

"Ohh, but I'm not good with this… Are you sure I have to do this instead of Lori or Lisa?" Leni nervously requested. She felt Luna's hand on her shoulder.

"Sorry, but you've got a gentler voice than them…Or at least naturally anyway…" Luna murmured. The two left to get prepared. When they left, Lynn came in after them.

"Lynn, there you are! We were thinking you had bailed on us," Lori huffed, glad to see her well.

"Sorry… I figured I'd be better not to be involved since Lincoln would be focused on me…" Lynn spoke. She had spent the last few hours downstairs staring at the trophy cabinet like Lily would whenever the sun beamed off of them to make them shimmer.

"Don't worry about it, but please tell me you have some kind of idea in mind," Lori begged. Lisa was more intent on watching the security camera.

"The only plan I had was maybe tiring his body out by wrestling him…" Lynn responded. Unfortunately they all knew that definitely wouldn't work. His body was already tired from dealing with them all, and all the chores he insisted helping with, throughout the whole day.

"Let's hope that a simple lullaby is all it takes to remedy this situation. I doubt the others are going to wake up now as well," Lisa scratched her head, wishing she could help in some way, but unfortunately any ideas she could fabricate would take far too long to be considered.

"I really don't know about this, guys…" Lincoln said to his two older sisters by his bedside, while Luna was tuning her acoustic guitar.

"Why's that Lincy?" Leni asked.

"I'm worried this'll wake everyone else up," Lincoln replied nervously, trying to not comment on the fact that sometimes Luna would lose control with the acoustic guitar and would occasionally play it like an electric guitar instead.

"Don't worry, dude. At worst, it'll help them stay asleep," Luna assured. It did nothing but add more worry to them.

"This is the cutest thing," Leni smiled, taking a few pictures with her cellphone of the majority of the siblings all sharing one bed together. She stopped resisting once she had entered the room to do this.

"Alright, are you ready, Leni?" Luna asked.

"Yeah! …I think," the second eldest scratched her head. Lincoln was still unsure about this.

"Just relax, bro. We used to sing these songs to you and everyone else when you all were little," Luna claimed. He knew it was true. She sometimes still sang to Lily, but usually the baby was very easy to get to sleep.

"Alright…" Lincoln gave up trying to resist it. If the others were awoken because of it, at least it would be their faults. Luna began to gently strum the guitar strings. Leni cleared her throat before she began her greatest effort to sing the song that she had heard Luna sing a hundred times before.

"Lullaby and goodnight…

Go to sleep, little Lincoln.

In the sky, the stars are bright,

And the moon says to sleep tight…

Rest your head, go to bed,

Please, set your sleep tonight,

Go to sleep, little Lincoln,

Before the sun is in sight."

After the lullaby, they could see their brother had his eyes closed.

"Did it work…?" Leni whispered.

"I think it did dude…!" Luna tried to contain her eagerness to initiate a celebratory victory dance.

"No, it didn't. Sorry… I was just trying to relax, like you said…" Lincoln looked miserable. His older sisters looked embarrassed to have jumped the gun.

"No no no no no, don't worry bro! We've had to do this a while to help the others get to sleep before," Luna picked her guitar back up. Leni was already looking worried about how far her throat was going to be stretched for this.

"You keep that head on your pillow and relax," Leni added. Lincoln had a feeling that he knew how the next hour would go.

"Has this literally been happening with each plan?" Lynn questioned as they watched the monitor. They were all tired at the moment and witnessing their sleeping aid plans fail didn't help with trying to stay awake.

"'Fraid so…" Lori exhaled. They watched as Lincoln helped Luna and Leni lay down. They both had tired themselves out when the singing did not work, and when Leni's voice gave way, Luna had begun just playing gentle music constantly without much as a break. Neither of the twos efforts worked. They were now another two sharing the increasingly shrinking bed space with the rest of their family.

"I'm amazed he's strong enough to pick them up in any regard," Lisa was writing it down in a notepad while making a mental list of tests to run him through later.

"Hey, Lori! I have an idea, but I need someone else's help with it," Lynn said. Lori put Lily back in her crib. The infant Loud gibbered randomly, coming off like she was not going to be back to sleep any time soon.

"Sure, Lynn. I'll do anything at this point," Lori nodded. The clock read 11:30pm. Therefore she wanted no more time wasted, mainly because she was feeling tired herself now.

"I'll try and coax Lily back to sleep," Lisa got up. She would be able to watch the faraway monitor. The child genius was not holding much hope for their last plan.

Lynn went right into Lincoln's room. "I guess this is a slumber party now?"

"They made themselves sleepy by trying to get me to go to sleep…" Lincoln was more amazed at how this went calmly wrong. Silence was normally a terribly bad sign in the Loud house, but this time it was only him in trouble.

"Well, my idea should work. I've tried it out before on one of my other friends when we were still red belts in karate," Lynn helped Lincoln out of bed. He was having trouble standing straight. Things felt dizzy for him. "I'm sorry for getting you so mad earlier… heck, I never seen anyone else that mad but Lori."

"So you changed your mind?" Lincoln raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah…" she rubbed her head, "Abandoning one of my teams just because I let them down once isn't the smartest move. Thanks for making me realize it."

"I'm just glad to see you back to your old self," Lincoln lightly chuckled. Lori found the moment sweet really.

"That and it's kind of dumb to pass up on free pizza after each game," Lynn sheepishly smiled. Lincoln was not going to judge her for whatever reason she desired to keep playing, as long as it kept her motivated to not give up over losing a game.

"Alright, Lori, so what I need you to do is…" Lynn heard a ringing noise that caught Lori's attention. She desperately grabbed at her pockets to retrieve her cellphone.

"Bobby Boo-boo bear! I was so worried when you didn't call this afternoon."

"Sorry baby. I got overworked and had to take it easy. I didn't think you'd like to hear me when I was tired," Bobby apologized. After nearly a year, he and Lori still probably had the perfect relationship. By most couples standards.

"Oh, Bobby. I love to hear you any… time…" Lori paused when she looked at the sleepless Lincoln, as he tried to get Lynn to explain to him what she was planning to do. The two younger siblings had their attention grabbed by the phone talk. "I'm sorry, I'd love to spend all night talking to you, but I have something really important to do."

"Huh…? it's a bad time…? Sorry, babe. I'll let you go then, but you call me if something's wrong and you need to talk," Bobby replied reassuringly, but to all of their surprise she hung up and tossed her phone aside.

"Lori, what are you doing? You've been waiting all day to hear from him," Lincoln was concerned about his oldest sister. After she learned Bobby was away, it had been depressing her how long that Santiago was away for, being out of town for any amount of time tore at her heart. But Lori seemed focused.

"Yeah, well… My family comes first, especially when YOU, Lincoln, have an important test coming up and can NOT be tired for it," Lori declared. Lincoln wished he wasn't reminded about that test. He already had been having stress attacks due to his terror of failing it the last week and a half.

"Alright, so… Lori, I need you to just make sure he doesn't fall," Lynn's words made Lincoln worry, but he knew he was wobbling slightly. Even if he stood still, his brain was so exhausted that it began to give up trying to keep his body in balance.

"Alright…?" Lori nodded, still amazed to see nearly all of their siblings sleeping in one bed. Their brother somehow managed to make them all comfortable.

"Lincoln, just keep relaxed. I'm going to make your body relieve itself of all tension," Lynn stepped behind him.

"I feel like you've done this before with me, but I can't remember how it went…" Lincoln muttered, trying to refresh his own memory but he remembered every word.

"Three times'll do it. Ready?" Lynn put her hands on his sides. Lori had a bad feeling about this.

"…Ready…" Lincoln slowly nodded.

"Good! Here we go!"

There were several loud snaps. Lincoln had his upper body suddenly twisted in one, sudden hard movement. He swore he felt every bone in his spine pop.

"Gack!"

"Oh, gosh…"

"Alright, just two more moves!" Lynn prepared herself.

"Wa-wait! Stop! I feel better already!"

Another hard twist in the opposite direction cracked more joints. Lori was amazed. Their family was not waking up from any of this. The eldest guessed that it showed how well their sleep aids worked on themselves.

"And the final one…!" Lynn put her arms under Lincolns before pulling up. After another set of cracks, she let go and stepped back.

"Lincoln? Are you okay…?" Lori chirped. Silence had fallen in the room, save their sisters' snoring. Lincoln collapsed face first onto the floor.

"Lori! You were supposed to make sure he DIDN'T fall!" Lynn groaned, disappointed by their oldest sisters failure to follow simple instructions.

"Sorry, sorry! I thought he was going to fall backwards!" Lori replied, looking embarrassed, but the two looked down to their brother as his leg twitched. "Are you sure this is to help someone sleep…?

"It's supposed to release every ounce of tension in your body in three quick moves… But it's more meant for people too stiff. I was thinking it'd help him relax more… Or straight up knock him out, either one would've worked," Lynn explained. It seemed normal to her in karate class, but now that she was performing the move herself on her own brother, she was beginning to have doubts herself. She crouched down, poking the back of his white haired head. "Are you asleep, Lincoln?"

"I feel like every bone in my body's been replaced all at once…!" Lincoln twitched, unable to tell if his joints felt refreshed or if his muscles were aching in agony at the sudden movements.

"That means it worked!" Lynn looked proud, but watched Lori pick up their brother and help him back into bed. The eldest was worried if he could feel nothing, but thankfully he seemed to be able to feel pressure.

"I'm so sorry Lincoln that we couldn't help you get to sleep…" Lori apologetically said.

"Is he in need of medical aid? After Lynn's 'technique', that is?" Lisa entered the room with Lily beside her, the infant guided along by the hand. They went over to his bedside.

"I-I think I can actually get to sleep now, guys…" Lincoln yawned while they helped him back into his place in bed. they were surprised to hear him say that.

"Really?" Lori chirped, surprised.

"Ye-yeah… I dunno, it feels like I should be able to," Lincoln claimed.

"You're a terrible liar…" Lori murmured, holding her head.

"Indeed," Lisa nodded.

"I have no clue what we can do that'll work…" Lynn claimed. She gave him a practical internal bone snapping massage to take any stiffness in his body away. She had no idea what there was left to do next.

"Aruu?" Lily chimed up by her beloved brother's bedside. Lincoln reached over, picking her up and bringing her over to sit on his stomach.

"Don't worry, Lily… Your big brother is just having some problems. Nothing I'm not used to," Lincoln brushed her few strands of hair as he rubbed her head. The infant Loud nuzzled into his chest as a way to give him a comforting hug.

"You are the sweetest…" he could not help but laugh slightly. He rubbed her back and let her do as she pleased.

"What else can we do?" Lori asked the second youngest and fifth oldest sisters.

"Mom and dad said we could come get them if we had to… and nothing we tried worked," Lynn responded. That answer seemed to annoy her oldest sister. The two normally did not get along at all, but this seemed like another rare occasion where their brother's situation helped them bond.

"Why bother?" Lori scoffed, "They'll just give him some warm milk, make him a doctor's appointment, and by the time he can get any real help, it'll be too late for his test… no, Lynn, mom and dad can't help."

"As pessimistic as that sounds, Lori is correct. Frankly, this has to be something else messing with his mind, but it has to be an external source… If I could figure out what, I'd be able to handle it in seconds," Lisa explained. It would be fascinating to her to see what kind of external source could hamper his brain in such a terrible yet minor way, but she dared tell no one her intention to test it.

As the three argued away, Lincoln remained idle with their baby sister, trying to just get her to sleep since it was far past her bedtime. As he stroked her cheek, Lily's eye caught a small glimmer in the palm of his hand that reflected the moonlight.

"Huh? What is it Lily?" Lincoln jokingly questioned.

"Ababa," Lily babbled, grabbing at his fingers until she gripped the silver needle from his palm and pulled it out. His eyes went wide for the half-second after a sharp pain. Afterwards, he fell back, his head landing on the pillow.

"Lincoln?" Lori motioned them to look to him. His eyes closed and he was snoring away. Lily laughed at his humorous display.

"Okay, Lincoln. We get it. You want us to not stay up so late worrying about you. But you can at least try to look less fake when you sleep," Lynn said, shaking his shoulder. Lisa quirked an eyebrow. She went beside him and opened one of his eyelids.

"…He's actually in REM sleep…" Lisa announced, letting their brother's head return to the pillow. Words could not express the overwhelming sense of relief that quickly washed over them.

"Did he… did he fall asleep to us arguing?" Lori wondered aloud.

"Looks like it…" Lynn awkwardly answered. Lisa noticed the needle Lily was holding, but nobody else saw it yet. She quickly stole the bright silver needle before replacing it with Lily's pacifier. The infant Loud looked disappointed to have her shiny item taken.

"Bababa!" Lily began giggling after she had taken her pacifier and stuck it into Lincoln's mouth. It was enough to stop his snoring that was as loud as his surname.

"Okay, that's just adorable," Lori pulled out her cellphone to take pictures of this

"Well… what now?" Lynn asked their oldest sister. Lisa however vanished behind their backs, like she was imitating Lucy.

"Well, we spent all night trying to help him go to sleep and everyone's having a giant slumber party… wanna join in?" Lori asked. Lily cooed, eagerly agreeing.

"That sounds pretty nice right now," Lynn nodded.

Lisa meanwhile went into the kitchen, firmly carrying the silver needle in her fingers to make sure to not lose it again.

"So that needle caused this… I feel terrible knowing an invention of mine caused another day full of grief," the child prodigy brought a chair over to the sink before climbing onto the seat as a booster to her height.

"You were designed to help people wake up in the morning. Not keep them awake endlessly. Despite the partial success, I'm going to classify you as a failure," Lisa dropped it into the sink drain before turning on the garbage disposal. In a moment, she heard it break to bits and go down the drain.

"The clock just struck 1am… tonight has been quite exhausting," she took her glasses off her face, rubbing her head. Her guilt made her feel a migraine.

"I'm going to enjoy tonight with my family," Lisa hopped off the chair after turning the garbage disposal off. She decided to go to join everyone else for this unintentional slumber party.

"Hopefully, Lincoln can enjoy nothing but sleep tomorrow… I need to think of a way to apologize for almost sabotaging his chances at the… test… Lisa Loud, you are a genius," Lisa hummed to herself, more than eager to start on the idea in the morning. She hoped he would sleep in then.

In the early morning, Rita left her and her husband's bedroom. She hoped that her family felt better after yesterday, mainly thinking they all had just needed a good nights rest last night.

"Hey, honey, where's everyone?" Lynn Sr asked from the staircase. When he was going to prepare breakfast, he did not see any of their children downstairs.

"They aren't in their rooms?" Rita asked worriedly. One mere glance showed no one in most of the rooms. However, she stopped when she checked Lincoln's room.

"…Oh my gosh… Honey, you have to see this," the mother of the family quietly called out. Her husband raised an eyebrow, coming over and peeking into Lincoln's room with her.

"Aww… Looks like they decided to have a slumber party," Lynn Sr saw the adorable sight of their children sharing the one bed with many blankets over them. Lily was asleep on Lincoln's chest with the blanket draped over them.

"I'm going to go get the camera," Rita hurried off. He agreed that this would be a good picture for the family album. Maybe even for one of the pictures on the walls.

"…Why does Lincoln have a pacifier?"

When the days went by, the siblings had moved on, happy that Lincoln was able to sleep again. At Monday, most of the family waited for his return from school.

"Where is he…?"

"Leni, it's barely three thirty."

"Do you think he missed the bus?"

"I hope he didn't stay up late studying…"

"Just stay 'awake', cross your fingers and he'll be fine!"

"Why don't we watch TV while we wait?"

"Why? There's nothing but reruns on."

"Goo-goo,"

"Shh! I think he's outside!"

The doorknob turned as the front door opened. Lincoln, when he took two steps into the house, was instantly mobbed by his sisters like a magnet.

"Calm down! Calm down!" Lincoln called out. Luan smiled, pulling out an air horn and pressing the top. The loud high pitched noise made everyone quiet down instantly.

"Thanks Luan," he exhaled, holding a piece of paper in his hands.

"Well… How did you do?" Leni broke the ice. They were afraid to ask how the test went, despite them forcing him to sleep a lot longer yesterday out of their own insistence. They had been worried he would not have the energy for the test.

"Come on little dude, tell us!" Luna insisted.

"Lincoln, you know no matter what, we'll help you if you need it," Lori claimed.

Lincoln proudly presented the paper with a hand on his hip. "I got 100%!"

"Whoo!"

"Yay, Lincy!"

"I knew you could do it!"

"Talk about a high 'chance' of success!"

"Just stop ruining the moment, Luan…"

"We need to celebrate!"

"Oh, how about pizza!"

"No way! I want cake!"

"Pizza's better for this!"

"No! Cake is!"

"Pizza!"

"Cake!"

"Pizza!"

"Cake!"

"We'll just get both," Lori sighed, forcing the two to quiet down, "but great job, Lincoln, and we're sorry about hogging your bed the other night."

"Don't be it was actually really nice… Guess it's good that I got a hand-me-down bed," Lincoln laughed his ego had inflated from acing the test, and nobody blamed him. They were going to let him enjoy the victory.

"Let's go call to tell mom and dad!" Lola insisted.

"Yeah! We need to get to cooking or ordering!" Lana added happily. The many sisters headed off, but Lisa stayed behind, grabbing her brother's hand.

"What's wrong Lisa?" Lincoln questioned.

"Lincoln, I'm…" Lisa stammered, "I need to apologize to you."

"For what? You guys helped me be able to sleep again," he confusedly patted her head.

"It was my fault you were stuck in a state of constant consciousness…" Lisa's usually blank face showed nothing but guilt, "The invention I had lost in the laundry incident the other day had gotten stuck in your palm which we mistook for an underwire. Lily took it out and you instantly fell asleep. I destroyed the invention. But to apologize and make things up to you, I helped you prepare for your test."

"How did you do that…?" Lincoln hesitantly asked, against his better judgement.

"I played you the audio version of the book you had been reading on a CD player for you to listen to while you slept. It is a relief to know it worked perfectly. I understand if you can't forgive me for this incident," Lisa's head hung low. Lincoln picked her up.

"Don't worry about it. Accidents happen!" he told her, "Well, not like this, but still. Don't beat yourself up over something so little."

"Are you two coming to help get things ready or not?" Lynn called from the kitchen.

"We're coming!" Lincoln chuckled, walking along with a relieved Lisa in his arms.

"You can put me down now, my genetic sharing relative…"

"It's fun to see you embarrassed though."

"No it isn't! This is asinine! I request you relinquish me to the ground!"

He paid no mind to her ranting. They entered the kitchen, none of them noticing the picture of them all in Lincoln's bed sleeping together on the wall. They noticed a giant mess already made in the kitchen over them trying to get things ready, not caring that their parents were still at work for another few hours.

"I know they're going to make pizza coated with chocolate," Lisa was put back down, her arms crossed. Lily was nearby playing with a whisk while one of the many bowls was on her head.

"I don't know if that'd be too good… Oh well. Gotta try something new to have fun," Lincoln patted Lisa's back before going off to help.

"Even if it was a gadget gone rogue that messed with my sleep schedule... I messed that schedule on my own anyway," Lincoln watched as his sisters debated what toppings to get on how many pizzas.

"Maybe we can have slumber parties weekly?"

Authors Note: Well, there it is. I hope you enjoyed my second one shot, and I am terribly sorry if it is bad. I wanted to try some new things, and I know trying too many at once tend to result in backfires. But yeah, I'm going to try and take things easy for a short time before I get the next story started, my next writing will be a story and not just a one shot by the way. This is Fallen Pens, dropping out.