Pre-chapter author's note: So yeah, this is the follow-up story to my previous Loud House story 'Broken Mirror'. This is where Lincoln will learn to come to terms with what he did while he lived as a runaway, as well as reconcile with his family (to the person who commented on 'Broken Mirror' that thought that Lincoln automatically forgave Lori, I have to point out that Lincoln actually didn't forgive her; Lincoln still resents all of his sisters, both parents and even the pets. It's just that Lincoln just didn't care enough at the time to make Lori suffer; also I did hint that Lincoln felt just a little bit of hope that he could refer to his family as his family once again). So, without further ado, here's the first chapter of 'Restored Image'.

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

Restored Image

Chapter one: Unsettling Revelation

Vanzilla pulled into the driveway of the Loud family's residence in Royal Woods, Michigan, one late evening. After the practically ancient family van turned off, Lori Loud got out of the driver's seat. Hopping out of the passenger's seat was Lincoln Loud who, until just now, had been living as a runaway, having run away from home a few months beforehand after being mistreated by his family as a whole because he was decried as quote unquote 'bad luck'. "Well, here we are," Lori said to her little brother in as cheerful of a tone as she could manage. Gesturing to the Loud family residence, Lori said, "We're back home."

"Mmm," Lincoln hummed in response, his tone lacking any discernable emotion. After what occurred that prompted him to run away in the first place, Lincoln had to wonder…was he really home? Should he really be giving his ex-family a chance to try and make it up to him for the way that they treated him because they let their imaginations run wild with a claim that they took way too far? Granted, Lincoln did have a hand in spreading said rumor to some extent, but he only did so because he otherwise wouldn't get some time to himself, something that he was starting to suspect was against family rules.

A mildly resigned look of heartbreak on her face, Lori said, "I know what we did to you was literally stupid, Lincoln, and I know that no number of apologies, no matter how sincere, will make up for what we were doing."

"…" Lincoln was silent for a few seconds, but then turned his head to look up at the oldest of his ex-sisters. "…Why else do you think that I'm letting you and the others try and prove to me how sorry you all are?" Lincoln boy replied after a few seconds, "Actions speak louder than words."

…Actions speak louder than words indeed.

"Well," Lori said with a shrug, "There's no beating around the bush here." Gesturing to the house that Lincoln once referred to as his home, a place he hoped to refer to as home once again, Lori continued, "We ought to be heading on inside now. I told everyone over the phone that I found you in the city that Bobby's family was going to move to before Mrs. Santiago decided to change her mind." Somewhat nervously, Lori added, "We all missed you, Lincoln."

"Mmm," Lincoln remarked, his tone devoid of any emotion, as he followed Lori up the front steps and over to the front door. However, Lincoln didn't get two steps into his ex-home before he was tackle-hugged by two blonde-haired objects that Lincoln quickly identified as Lola and Lana, the twin six-year-olds.

"LINCOLN!" the twins exclaimed in unison, tears rolling down the sides of their faces as they hugged their older brother, "YOU'RE BACK!"

"Lola, Lana, get off," Lori said in a stern tone. After the twins, both still teary-eyed, released their hold on Lincoln, Lori continued, "I know the both of you missed him. All of us literally missed Lincoln while he was missing. But he's had a very-" Lori was cut off when another blonde-haired object, one that was bigger than either of the twins, tackle-hugged Lincoln.

"LINKY!" Leni exclaimed tearfully as she picked her little brother up in a hug and spun around in place, "I TOTES THOUGHT YOU WEREN'T COMING BACK!"

"…Leni, put Lincoln down," Lori said in a mildly unamused tone. As Leni complied with Lori's order, the rest of the Loud siblings, having been summoned by the commotion the twins and Leni were making, all came into the main entry area of the house, with Lily being carried by Luna.

"Holy crap, what you said over the phone was right, Lori!" Luna said in a surprised tone as her gaze slowly shifted to the sole Loud boy, "You did find Lincoln!"

"How did you get all the way to some city in the next state over?" Lucy asked her older brother.

"What did you do to keep yourself alive?" Lisa asked.

"Wincon!" Lily exclaimed happily as she waved a hand at the white-haired boy.

"Are you okay, Lincoln?" Luan asked, her expression and tone both clearly conveying how much concern she had for her only brother.

"Do you know how-" Lynn began, but she was cut off when, due to being overwhelmed with being asked so much all at once, Lincoln cut her off.

"QUIET!" Lincoln yelled, getting everyone to shut up instantly and look to him in concern. Sighing in a resigned tone, the white-haired boy continued, "Look. I know you all have a few things that you want to ask me. I can understand that. But I'm…" Lincoln stopped short and let out a sigh that showed how tired he was. "…I'm tired, okay? I'm just tired." With a hint of bitterness seeping into his tone, Lincoln continued, "So, unless it's a cardinal sin for me to have some time to myself, I'd like to get some rest. I'll tell you all more in the morning."

"I fail to see how you having some time to yourself can be considered to be a serious error of judgment, Lincoln," Lisa remarked, more than a hint of emotion seeping into her otherwise dry monotone. The little genius also wore a look of mild concern on her face, as she was shocked to hear that her older brother thought it was a bad thing if he wanted some alone time.

"Yeah, about that, Lisa," Lori replied, "You, me and the other girls have a few things to talk about while Lincoln is getting some sleep."

"Assuming that I can get some sleep," Lincoln replied in a dry, bitter tone, getting all of his ex-sisters to turn to regard him. Crossing his arms over his chest, Lincoln continued with a scowl on his face, "Because unless my memory is failing me, I seem to recall that my room was boarded up, preventing me from getting inside."

"I took all of that junk down off of your door, Lincoln," Lana stated.

"I went with mom when she went to go buy your furniture back after she sold it under the impression that it was tainted by bad luck," Lola added.

Hearing what his pageant-winning ex-little sister said made Lincoln's scowl worse. "…She sold my furniture under the impression that it was tainted by bad luck?" the white-haired boy asked, his tone indicating that his mood has dropped even more.

Sounding regretful for having unintentionally making her brother more upset, Lola timidly said, "We…we got it back."

"…Whatever," Lincoln replied as he went upstairs. As he ascended to the second floor, Lincoln said, "Hey Lori, I'm going to guess that you and your sisters have a lot to talk about while I'm sleeping. If you cover anything that you think needs to be kept from Ronnie Anne and the rest of her family, please stress that point to the others."

"Wait a minute, Linky," Leni said in a concerned, almost heartbroken tone, one that made the white-haired boy pause. "We aren't just Lori's sisters," Leni continued as tears started to well up in the corners of her eyes, "We're, like, totes your sisters as well."

Standing still where he was at on the stairs, Lincoln said before continuing, "…You have a lot to go over with your sisters, Lori." After making a turn when he reached the second floor, Lincoln was out of sight from Lori and the other Loud sisters. After a few seconds, Lori gave a resigned-sounding sigh.

"…Girls," Lori began, "Sibling meeting, me and Leni's room. Now."

Within a few minutes, the ten Loud sisters had all assembled in the bedroom shared by Lori and Leni. Seeing that all eyes were on her, Lori sighed and said, "As I'm sure all of you can literally guess, we're having this meeting because-"

"Lincoln's finally back home?" Luan asked, interrupting Lori in the process. Although it's normally not a good idea to interrupt Lori when a sibling meeting is going on, the oldest Loud sister decided to let it slide for now.

"…Yes," Lori replied with a nod, "Our brother is finally back home where he belongs." Sighing in a resigned tone, Lori continued, "Show of hands, who here thinks that Lincoln literally belongs here with this family?" At that prompting, every sister, including Lori herself, raised their hands. "Good," Lori replied as everyone began to lower their raised hands, "That's good. Now that we got that out of the way, we can go on to the main subject of this meeting; proving to Lincoln that he belongs with this family."

"Lincoln…" Lola began in a clearly upset and heartbroken tone, "…Lincoln doesn't think that he belongs with us…?"

"You heard what he said, sis," Lana remarked somberly to her younger twin sister, "He referred to all of us as just Lori's sisters, not his and Lori's sisters." Casting a downcast expression to the floor, Lana added, "And why should he think any different? I mean, it's not like any of us gave him any reason to think otherwise before he disappeared."

"Speaking of Lincoln's disappearance from Royal Woods and sub-sequent reappearance over in some city in the next state over," Lisa began, then continued when she turned to face Lori, "Judging from what our brother said before heading up to his room, you have some information that should be shared. Is this correct, Lori?"

Nodding somberly, Lori said, "Yeah. You all better get comfortable, because this is going to take a while." Over the next few minutes, Lori told her sisters everything, starting from when Lori drove Vanzilla over to the city that the Santiagos almost moved to, to Lori calling the family to let them know that by some extreme miracle Lincoln had shown up in said city, then the return drive to Royal Woods. The oldest Loud sibling sparred no detail, including how, when Bobby was questioning Lincoln, Lori was afraid that he would tell Bobby of her (Lori's) involvement in the whole 'bad luck' incident. "…We stopped off at a taco place because there was literally no way we would get back within a reasonable time for dinner," Lori said as she finished up her story, "But other than that, it was a straight drive from Bobby's relatives' place to back here."

"He's…" Luna began in a quiet tone of total disbelief, "…He's actually giving us a shot at trying to make it up to him…?"

"Even though he totally hates all of us?" Luan said with an upset look on her face, "Especially me, Lola, Lisa and Lynn?" The upset look on Luan's face was being matched by the looks on Lola's and Lisa's respective faces.

"Now hang on there, Luan," Lynn began in a confident tone, "Lincoln only mentioned the four of us because Lincoln didn't want Bobby to be upset with Lori, and that Bobby was expecting him to name some names, and that we were the only ones who came to mind for him at the time. Besides, Lori did say that Lincoln regretted having to throw all of us under the bus like that." Hearing their sporty sister point all of this out did restore some spirits to Luan, Lola and Lisa, if only just.

"Hang on a minute there, Lynn," Lori interrupted, "Lincoln said that he only regretted having to throw Luan, Lola and Lisa under the bus like that." Giving her sporty younger sister a suspicious look, Lori continued, "Lincoln didn't say anything about you."

"What are you talking about?" Lynn asked, taken aback a bit.

Without answering Lynn directly, Lori turned to face Lisa. "Hey Lisa," Lori began, "You have that video surveillance system of yours installed all over the house, right?"

"That is correct," Lisa replied.

"And it should go back to the morning that all of the bad luck nonsense started, right?" Lori said, continuing her line of questioning.

"I have video recordings of everything that happened going all the way back to when I first installed the surveillance system, which was shortly after I turned two," Lisa replied, "Why do you ask?"

"I don't suppose that you can pull up what happened on the date that I had just specified, could you?" Lori asked.

"It'll take a minute or so, but it shouldn't be a problem for me," Lisa answered.

…

Lynn Sr. and Rita Loud, the parents of the Loud siblings, were in the kitchen/dining room area, sitting across from each other at the table. They both had somber expressions on their faces; Lincoln, their only son out of eleven children, had run away some time ago, and had only just been found earlier this day…in a city that was a state away, no less. Luckily for the Louds, Lincoln had run away to the same city that the Santiagos were considering moving to until Maria changed her mind. Lori drove to that city in some half-baked bid to try and convince her boyfriend's family against the idea of moving, and by some miracle or chance, Lincoln was found lying passed-out on the sidewalk across from there the Santiago's relatives lived. If it hadn't been for all of that, there was a good chance that Lynn Sr. and Rita would never see their only son ever again.

But they did see him again; well, technically, they haven't seen him yet, as he was brought back while they were out, and he went straight to his room because of how incredibly tired he was, and he pretty much made it clear that he didn't want to be disturbed. But they would see him in the morning, which Lynn Sr. intended to make sure started off right with breakfast.

"Do…do you think he's upset with us?" Lynn Sr. asked, his expression mildly anxious.

"I wouldn't blame him if he was," Rita replied in a somber tone, "I mean, don't you remember how we treated him? We kicked him out of the house, Lynn. Not only is it morally wrong on so many levels to do that to a child, but I'm pretty sure that it's also ill-" The Loud matriarch was cut off when she and her husband heard one of their daughters cry out in pain, followed by some angry shouting. From the sounds if it, it sounded like it came from Lori and Leni's room.

"You stay here," Rita said to Lynn Sr. as she got up from the table, "I'll go see what the girls are up to." Rita walked out of the kitchen/dining area, up the stairs, and over to the room that was shared by her two oldest children. Upon opening the door, Rita said in a mildly firm tone, "Girls, if you all can't-" Rita stopped short upon noticing what exactly was going on; her daughter Lynn was covering her right eye with her hands on one side of the room, and on the other side of the room, Lori and Luna were trying to restrain a clearly angry Leni.

"Leni, I know what Lynn did was literally stupid, but you've got to calm down!" Lori exclaimed as she and Luna struggled to restrain the enraged sixteen-year-old.

"GRILS!" Rita shouted. With everyone's attention on her, Rita asked, "What's going on here?"

"At Lori's request, I pulled up the video recording my surveillance system got from the morning when the nonsense of Lincoln being quote unquote 'bad luck' started," Lisa began, "It was shortly before a softball game that Lynn's team ended up losing. According to Lynn, Lincoln had never been to any game that she ever played, and she wanted him to show up to the softball game in question. According to the footage that my surveillance system recorded, Lincoln tried to decline Lynn's request to come to her game, only for Lynn to coerce Lincoln into coming via threatening him with a baseball bat."

Rita was both shocked and appalled from what she was hearing; did Junior really threaten her little brother into attending one of her games against his will? The Loud matriarch wanted to be having words about this with her athletic daughter, but something of a more pressing nature had to be handled first. While pointing to Lynn, Rita said to Lisa, "And your sister is covering her eye because…"

"Upon seeing the recoding of Lynn threatening Lincoln with a baseball bat, Leni went berserk and punched Lynn in the eye," Lisa stated, "As you can tell by how Lori and Luna were struggling to keep Leni restrained until you shouting made all of us take pause." With a mildly surprised look on her face, Lisa added, "I never would have expected Leni, of all people, to ever physically strike someone, regardless of the reason."

Turning to where Lynn was standing while still covering her eye, Rita sighed. "Junior, lower your hands," Rita instructed, "I want to see the extent of what your older sister did." Complying with what her mother had asked, Lynn slowly lowered her hands, revealing the injury she had just received. Although there was very little swelling if any at all, there was a lot of the dark coloring that generally comes with bruises. Rita had no idea how this was even possible. None of the Loud sisters, once they saw Lynn's black eye, knew the answer to that either.

Letting out an impressed-sounding whistle, Luan said, "Wow, Lynn, that's quite the shiner you got there."

"I've seen some of the damage that Ronnie Anne gave to kids at school who got on her nerves, but I never saw her give anyone a black eye like that," Lana remarked. Turning to face Leni, Lana added, "Remind me never to get on your bad side, Leni."

"Dude, why did you have to go and flip out like that?" Luna asked her fashionable sister.

"It's Lynn's fault that Lincoln ran away in the first place!" Leni hissed angrily as she pointed an accusing finger at Lynn, "She forced him to go to one of her games even though he didn't want to, then when her team lost, she said it was his fault! That is without a doubt one of the worst things any of us could have ever done to Lincoln!" As tears welled up in the corners of her eyes, Leni continued, "Hell, I bet that if Lynn didn't force him to go to that game of hers, Lincoln would still know that we're his family instead of believing that we don't love him anymore!" After her explosion at Lynn, Leni began to cry softly to herself.

"…Girls," Rita said, "I think it's time for everyone to go to bed." Understanding what their mother was saying, the girls aside from Lori and Leni all proceeded to shuffle out of the room. As she and Lucy walked passed their mother, Lynn was stopped by the Loud matriarch. "Junior," Rita said in a mildly firm tone, "We'll be discussing this more in the morning."

"Yes mom," Lynn replied guiltily before she proceeded to follow Lucy back to the room that they shared. After the youngest girls had left, Rita turned to face her two oldest daughters. Seeing that Leni was still crying, Rita did what any mother would do; she walked over and gave Leni a gentle hug.

"Are you going to be okay sweetie?" Rita asked.

Sniffling a bit, Leni asked, "Am I, like, in trouble for punching Lynn in the eye?"

"I…don't know," Rita replied, "Given the circumstances, that will be something we'll have to discuss in the morning, after your younger sister's punishment is decided." Letting go of Leni, Rita looked her in the eye and said in a gentle, motherly tone, "In the meanwhile, why don't you and Lori get some sleep, huh?" Sniffling as she nodded, Leni went over to her bed while Lori went to her own. As she left the room, Rita said, "Good night, girls." Rita closed the door behind her, and after Lori and Leni turned off the lamps on their respective nightstands, the two oldest Loud siblings went to sleep.

END, RESTORED IMAGE CHAPTER ONE

Author's notes:

I was actually intending to put the designation of Lynn's punishment in this chapter, but it would have made this chapter go on longer than I would have wanted. I'll put that at the beginning of the next chapter; I was having some trouble trying to come up with enough material for the next chapter anyway, so I suppose this all works out for the best.