"So how long has it been?"

The quiet air was shattered by the question. With a deep, heaving sigh, Luan set down her cup of coffee on the table. "It should be five years next month," she answered. Her voice carried a hanging spirit of sadness and regret, mixed with hints of acceptance. "Five years since they both disappeared."

"I… I still can't believe it," Sam said, glancing at the ground.

Luan, truthfully, couldn't really believe it either. The last time she had ever spoken to them was all those years ago, when she helped Lincoln and Luna meet each other at a motel. She expected them to talk, and maybe even have sex, but she never could've predicted that they would disappear into thin air.

There was a search, of course, but no trace of them was ever found. And then there was the questions of how Lynn Sr. and Rita had treated their two children, which led to some backlash from the community, but with time, the Loud family finally faded from the public eye. People had really short attention spans when it came to controversies, it seemed.

"I guess I still blame myself," Luan admitted with a shrug. "I mean, I was the one who set them up. And the whole thing before that..."

"Don't blame yourself too hard. We all did our part to chase them away. But you know what? I think me and you at least helped them while they were still here," Sam smiled kindly, patting the brunette's trembling hand.

"Yeah… I just hope wherever they are… they're at least happy."

"Maybe one day they'll get back in contact. I mean, we're not that hard to find. We were born in Royal Woods, we'll die in Royal Woods," Sam cheered with playful bravado, making Luan laugh.

"Dang it, I'm supposed to make you laugh. That's how our relationship works."

"Go ahead. Just make me smile, and I'll declare you the winner," Sam challenged, a Cheshire grin on her face.

"Okay… Um, what do you call a depressed cup of coffee?"

"What?"

"A depresso. Ha ha, geddit?"

Sam rolled her eyes, but the edges of her mouth twitched into a smile. "That joke was lame."

"Well, I'd try and brighten your mug with a few jokes, but I have to get going now. So if you need something for your mug, you can try mocha."

"Still not funny," Sam said as Luan stood up from her chair and approached her, planting a kiss on her cheek. "See you tonight?"

"Your place or mine?"

"Your place," Sam responded, a wicked and perverted light in her eyes. "I like the way your bed creaks when we get down to funny business."

"Just because you're my girlfriend doesn't mean you're going to get sex every night," Luan laughed. That was a lie, though. She was totally planning to make some really loud music with her.

The subject of her siblings' disappearance completely vanished from Luan's thoughts until she got home that evening. She greeted her father with a hug and patted Charles on his head. The poor dog was getting weaker and weaker with each passing day, and Luan worried she would have to take him to the vet sooner or later. She tried to push it out of her mind, and instead focused on the mail that had been dropped off today. "I hope there's something for me," she prayed, digging through until she found a large brown envelope, with her name written on it.

Luan rubbed her chin with curiosity, and took it up to her room. She sat down on her bed, her legs crossed in Indian-style. She tore open the package, and shook the items inside. Three things fell out; a small box, a thin slip of paper, and a photograph that fell face first on her mattress. Luan picked it up, and when she saw the three people in that photo, she gasped with shock.

It was a family of three; a young man, a young woman, and a smiling, cheering child. The woman was blonde and the man's hair was as dark as panther's fur, but there was no mistake… that was Lincoln and Luna, and their toddler daughter by their side.

Her hands shook as she reached for the paper. Her eyes skating along the words written down in gilded cursive, and she took several deep breaths to calm herself enough to actually read the first contact she'd had with her runaway siblings in years.

To: Luan. From: Lunes.

Guess I did it again, huh? I left you guys behind without a warning, and I didn't keep in contact. People really don't change. Sorry for that. But now that me and Linc and our little bundle of rock and roll are finally raking in some cash, I thought now's a good time to say everything I need. Thank you, Luan. If there's one regret I've had for these past five years, it's not saying goodbye to you in person. You've a wonderful sister, and a wonderful friend. I love you, Luan, and I hope you'll forgive me for everything I put you through.

And sadly, I can't let you know where we're at. We're living under new identities, which I got to choose, thankfully, so I named us all after Linkin Park band mates. We're Brad, Joe and Roberta now. Roberta's our daughter, by the way. Lincoln's always telling her stories about us growing up, and she really likes hearing stories about you heh. She doesn't know about… 'us' yet. We're hoping we never have to tell her, but if we do, I just hope she doesn't hate us too much.

To cap this all off… Luan, I know things have sucked between us in the past, but I forgive you for everything, and I hope you'll forgive me. Over the years, we've grown to miss Leni, Lynn, Sam and even old Grouse, but you're the one we've missed the most. When I was still living at home, I was working on a song to show you how much I care. I work better with lyrics than with sentences, so… I think it can tell you how much I love you better than I can.

When she finished reading Luna's letter, Luan picked up the small box, and realized it was a tape player. She gave a sad grin. "Oh Luna, you always loved your retro..."

When she finally found a player, she popped it in, plugged in her earphones, and closed her eyes as she began to listen to Luna sing directly into her ears.

She had never heard a more beautiful song in her life.

I almost don't want to write an afterword. I would much prefer to have the story end with Luan's pain being washed away as she listens to the lyrical enchantment that is Luna's last song. But I have things that need to be said. Of course, if you want, feel free to skip past this and go to the review box and shout at me for leaving such long author's notes (they honestly serve nothing except my own egotism).

This story started out as something… almost silly. A stray comment I made on how much I thought Luna, in her Lulu outfit, looked cute, which led to someone asking if I would write a Lulucoln (because that's what my friends think of me. I… guess I can't blame them). But the thought stayed in my head, and as I was working on an alternate ending for the episode itself, the two merged together.

Now cut to a surprising amount of words later, and I think I made something a bit more complex and interesting. Not something as complicated as a "character examination", but something that took a glance at several concepts that I wanted to look at; Loudcest, Samcoln, bisexuality, the media, resentment, hurt, Luna herself as a character… maybe I didn't dive deep enough, but I think I gave it a fair shot.

Now that the story is over, everything turns to you, dear reader… if you have any criticism, then I would love to hear it. Any response at all is more than welcome. And of course, thank you to everyone who has reviewed up to this point. You have no idea how much you guys helped me with... everything, I guess.

Now that all that's out of the way, perhaps you want more reading material. If you're waiting for something from me, I have a few one-shots I plan to upload by the end of the month, as well as get back to a story I've left hanging for a while. Sadly, none of them are Luna/Lulu stories, but if you need another one of those, I would suggest Once In a Blue Moon by the The Siege Perilous. He's a newcomer to the writing game, and he's written a fair number of good pieces, including the one I mentioned.

I'm sure he'd love me promoting him right now UwU

And with that, I bid you adieu. Have a good day, and I hope to see you again soon.