Hey, at long last, the finale is here! Gonna keep this brief as to not hold you up too long.

For this final set of flashbacks, they are based on "Predict Ability", "Garage Banned" and "The Whole Picture". It's worth mentioning that the latter two were partly inspired by suggestions that I got some time ago by users BrentheLoudFan2020 and BarnMaker, respectively. They're not quite as they suggested, as I've modified the initial ideas quite a bit, but I believe they still turned out well.

Anyway, no more delays and let's get this thing finished with once and for all.

The Loud House is the exclusive property of Nickelodeon and Viacom. The usage of the setting, characters and such is based on nothing more than a pure affinity for everything and is not being used for monetary purposes.

In the immediate aftermath of his abrupt departure of the sibling meeting, Lincoln once again found himself inside the walls of his room. His zoning out on his sisters, the fourth such instance in the day after having similar cases were Lucy, Lynn and Luna had to snap him back to his senses, had likely caused a fair amount of concern among them, especially after his small outburst before he left. He assumed that any moment now they would revert to their instinctive desire to prod, meddle and press him on what's up.

But as the minutes turned into hours, Lincoln didn't get a knock on the door and nary a peep from any one of his sisters. Either they may have plans to talk to him later on about his spacing out issues or perhaps they did take his claim of it being nothing worth getting worried about to heart and chose not to follow up on it at all.

No matter the reason, he did feel relieved that none of them at least presently seemed to want to pester him about it and felt comfortable enough in leaving his room for that reason. But only halfway in walking down the hall later was he grabbed on by the wrist and suddenly dragged along.

"Whoa, what the-" He uttered.

In a flash, Lincoln found himself inside Lori and Leni's room, where he also soon realized that Leni was the one who unceremoniously brought him along with her.

"Leni, what…what's going on?" Lincoln asked as he regained his bearings.

"Oh, it's not much, Lincoln. I just wanted to quickly get your opinion on something." Leni answered.

Lincoln glanced over and did notice a collection of clothing spread across Leni's bed, but something greatly confused him about this. The clothes were a scattershot menagerie with no real consistency to the choices involved, and given how normally meticulous and precise his sister takes such selections, something felt very off to him.

"Uh, why are you asking me instead of Lori or any one of our sisters?" Lincoln pressed her.

"Well...I..." Leni tried saying, her eyes darting around.

Now Lincoln was thinking that something's up. The combination of the uncoordinated gaggle of clothes and Leni's nervous diction rose his suspicions greatly and he had a funny idea as to what the real intention of hers was.

"Leni, no." Lincoln said coolly.

"What?" Leni wondered innocently.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." Lincoln stated more sternly.

"What?" Leni reiterated.

Lincoln groaned and folded his arms, "I see what's going on here. You don't actually want my opinion on anything relating to clothes or fashion. This jumbled up mix of clothes with no sense of real organization that's unlike you is a dead giveaway. You're only using that as an excuse to isolated me long enough to ask about what happened earlier. Isn't that right?"

Leni tried to maintain a stature of incredulity to such an accusation and attempted to find another excuse, but such a false pretense likely wouldn't have gotten past Lincoln that easily in the first place. She sighed and ultimately capitulated.

"Okay, yes, but can you blame me? I'm getting a little worried about you, Lincoln. Don't I have a right to be that way?" Leni said.

"If it was something truly serious, then yes! But me spacing out during our meeting and some other points in the day really isn't that serious if you ask me!" Lincoln insisted on tersely, "So please, don't get so carried away about this! I'm fine, Leni, so can I just go now?"

He turned and attempted to leave, but not before Leni voiced one last concern.

"Lincoln, if something really is bothering you, please tell someone about it, okay?" She implored to him.

Lincoln sighed, looked back over to her and after a moment, he gave her a simple nod before being on his way.

In a couple of hours time afterwards, the Loud family all gathered at the dinner table. Like with the earlier sibling meeting, Lincoln was the last one to join in on the occasion, just in time for his father to bring in the main course.

"Okay, gang, here it is, fresh from the oven!" Lynn Sr. declared, "My world famous Lynn-sagna! I know, I know, it may be a predicable selection, but hey, it's always a crowd pleaser. Nothing wrong with too much of the same thing if it's hit, am I right, fam?"

Most everyone at the table approved, except for Lincoln, who stayed relatively quiet while maintaining a neutral facial expression. He sighed, which went unnoticed due to everyone chattering and each getting their serving, as he yet again got into this infuriating habit of thinking back to another event from the recent past. The word "predictable" coming from his father spurred this one…

Lincoln stepped out of Vanzilla as well as all his sisters as they returned home from school. He walked past them a bit faster and went straight up to his room before plopping his backpack to the side, kicking off his shoes and laid down in his bed sighing.

The past few days were strange for Lincoln to say the least. Fears of being seen as boring and predictable had spurred a surge in changing his daily habits, clothing choices, what he eats and even how he got to school. A pair of strange dreams, one that caused him to start these changes and another that saw him be labeled predictable no matter how outrageous and outlandish his antics were toonly increased those initial fears.

However, a talk with his sisters and friends as he was dropped off at school proved his fears were misplaced. They never saw him as boring or predictable and they admitted to each having their own frequent habits which they engaged in. This provided much relief for Lincoln, and Clyde on top of that, who was the only one that showed real concern and anxiety to his best friend's sudden changes.

But even with that earlier talk, Lincoln still felt some lingering doubts. Besides feeling like his efforts in shaking up his habits and appearance might've been a colossal waste of time, he thought this was another instance of him making a tremendously big deal out of nothing if no one close to him had really made big fusses about it consistently. Plus, if he never made similar inferences to anyone else, it did beg the question as to why he made a big deal in the first place and wondered if he was a hypocrite in that respect.

His ruminations would be interrupted when he heard knocking on his door.

"Lincoln, mind if I come in?" Lori could be heard saying.

"Sure..." Lincoln responded kind of flatly.

The door opened partway and Lori stepped in.

"Hey, I was wondering if I can talk to you...oh, and so do these two. I wanted to literally do this by myself at first, but they insisted on coming along, too."

Lori came inside all they way to show that Luna and Luan were also present.

"Oh, uh...what you guys want?" Lincoln asked.

"As Lori just said, we'd like to have a little chat with you, as long as that's okay with you." Luna said.

"I don't see why not." Lincoln said, sitting up from his bed and moving closer to the edge, "But what about exactly?"

"Well, it's about what you said about you being predictable earlier today." Luan replied.

Lincoln turned his head to the side, "Huh? I thought we already covered that nicely in that you don't see me as such."

"True, but I think we only scratched the surface on that topic since we couldn't talk about it further given that you and everyone else had to get on with school. But now we have literally all the time we can to delve a little more into this." Lori said.

"Plus, we have to admit the manner you rushed back inside the house before us did raise our concerns and wondered if your problems with predictability had anything to do with it." Luan added.

With that being said, Luna and Luan joined alongside Lincoln on the bed while Lori closed the door and then brought the chair over that resided in the room and sat down across from everyone else.

"So...what else was there you wanted talk to me about all this?" Lincoln wondered.

"I'd say the most obvious thing to ask first is where in the world did you get this idea that anyone saw you as predictable or boring, bro?" Luna asked back.

"Hmm..." Lincoln began as he gathered his thoughts, "Well, it started about a few days ago when some around me just casually brought up some of my habits. These included when Lisa noted that I generally use the bathroom at around the same time in the morning after I wake up to the point she sets her watch to it, or when Dad had already made me a breakfast burrito before I could put in a request for breakfast and when it was noted to me by Lucy and Lola that I'm often usually last to get inside Vanzilla before we head off for school and the fact I tend to wear the same orange polo shirts. Speaking of school, then Mrs. Johnson paired me up with Clyde for an assignment assuming I always want to him to be my partner for such and finally during gym class, Coach Pacowski presumed I wanted to go the nurse's office so I could get out of rope climbing."

He sighed a little and resumed.

"But truthfully, those instances alone aren't what encouraged me to implement all those changes of habits and such. It was actually a dream that I had that very same night where visages of Lisa, Dad, Coach and my friend Zach again reiterated my supposed predictability and that was the point where I needed to shake things up...or at least I thought I needed to. And speaking of dreams, I had a second one days later that you could borderline call a nightmare that sort of had the opposite problem where no matter what I did, I was still being seen as boring and predictable. So that's what lead me in finally to confessing to everyone about such this morning before school under the belief that's how I was viewed before getting assurances to the contrary."

Next, Lincoln laughed briefly despite himself, then shook his head and flopped back first onto his bed, sighing again and proceeding to wrap his explanation up.

"And you're right in that despite those assurances, I do still have a couple of issues here, namely how if nobody saw me as boring or predictable at all, it meant that I wasted all that time in changing everything up. Plus, I've never seen you three, anyone else in our family and none of my friends in such ways, so it also made me think I was kind of selfish for only thinking I was perceived as such."

For a moment, Lincoln laid there in silence, with the only thing that made him rise back up to a sitting position was when he felt a hand placed on his knee, one that belonged to his oldest sister.

"Well, first off let me repeat again that no one sees you as either predictable or boring, Lincoln." Lori reiterated to him, "Next, to that last point of yours, I don't think 'selfish' is the right word to describe how your were feeling. I'd say it's perfectly understandable to think you'd be seen by others as having the same few routines again and again, even if as you now know no one was literally looking down on you for that reason. But even if you were seen as such, which again isn't true, that should not mean you had to change much of who you are. Sure, it's nice to mix things up, but that should only happen on your terms and not based others telling you to or what you believe they might think of you."

"Lori's right, Lincoln, and honestly if you ask me, such habits define who you are as opposed to being a detriment. Take me for example. I can admit to recycling some of the same puns and pranks, but only because I'd say they're tried, true and dependable and I'm not going to let how others think of them make me change who am I for its own sake and as Lori just said, you shouldn't let others determine that for yourself." Luan said.

Luna nodded and laid a hand on Lincoln's back, "True, but on the flip side and if you ask me personally, it was actually kind of fun to see what you were gonna do next before we found out why you went to such lengths. I never said this at the time, but I must say you looked positively rockin' in those old threads of mine. While I'm mentioning it, since I don't have use for them anymore, you can hang on to those if you'd like, little bro."

"Oh…well, that's nice of you, Luna. Thanks." Lincoln said with a brief smile, only for a frown to quickly replace it, "Still, even if you or anybody else thinks my antics of these past few days might've been amusing, I don't think it changes the fact that it was a waste of both my and even you guys' time if the premise of predictability on my part wasn't true from the start. Plus, I probably caused too much unintended worry for everyone in the first place with all I did, so that doesn't really work in my favor, too."

"Well, not to sound like a broken record, but again, you're neither predictable nor boring, Lincoln. Also, I don't think we were worried as much as it was a case of wondering why you were changing yourself so suddenly. I'd compare it to when you similarly changed your appearance in order to try impressing that new girl...or Stella, I should say. We should literally know her name by now, right?" Lori stated, mildly laughing at the end.

She shifted forward closer to her brother and continued on.

"But like I said earlier and in that other instance I brought up just now, the point worth driving home to you is that you are both a great person and brother as you are, and the only times you should ever change is on your own accord, not for the sake or behest of somebody else."

As he heard the last of Lori's words, Lincoln smiled again. He felt a sensation of relief very much like the one he had from the first talk he had in the morning, and though he still carried some regrets, knowing he had those around him who were understanding of his situation while assuring him whatever misplaced concerns of his is something he'll admire.

"If that's the case, then thanks again for the reassurances, you guys." Lincoln said appreciatively, "Though there's one question I do have and I don't know why I didn't ask this in the beginning. How come only you three wanted to talk to me about this? Seems like it could've been a discussion worth having with all our sisters present."

"Maybe, but as Lori said when she wanted to do this herself, me and Luna insisted on coming along, too, probably because we dd not have much of our own say on the matter this morning, so we wanted to advantage of whatever opportunity that was presented to do so. That's one way to see it I guess." Luan explained.

"Ah, well, okay then. You're right, now that I think about it, neither you did say much of anything at that point and in that sense, I'm glad you did, so thanks." Lincoln said.

At the conclusion of this second talk about the subject of predictability, Lincoln again had the confidence to know that no one had expectations of him changing his routines up to such an extreme degree. Because of that, those three words spoken by Lori during that time he wanted to impress Stella for the first time rang truer that ever: "Just be you".

Dinner had come and gone, and thankfully this time around, Lincoln did not space out like before. He did manage to keep enough focus to eat and take in the occasional small talk. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary based on how he presented himself and in a strange sense, thinking back to the aftermath of the whole "predictability" installment of his life actually left a more positive impression on him than before. In a way, he was beginning to understand what was causing his space out episodes, but for now he wasn't going to think about it further due to a previously scheduled activity he was going to partake in.

Following some assisting with doing the dishes, Lincoln was leaving the kitchen and just as he began traveling up the stairs, he felt his shoulder being touched. Looking back over, he saw Luna behind him.

"Hey, bro, ready for a little acoustic jammin' and practice?" She asked.

"Yeah, sure I am, Luna." He responded, "I was on my way thinking you were already upstairs, but here you are instead. Just let me grab the guitar that you handed down to me and I'll be right over."

Luna grinned amusingly, "You know, dude, it is your guitar and has been for a while now. No need to word it like that."

"Yeah, maybe not, but I don't think there's anything wrong with referencing who was kind enough to hand it down to me in the first place." Lincoln opined, now giving his sister a return pat to her shoulder.

Sharing a grin of his own with Luna, Lincoln resumed going upstairs and into his room where he retrieved the guitar in question and the pick that went along with it. By the time he arrived at Luna and Luan's room, Luna had all her own acoustic setup prepped up while she took up seating in one of the beanbag chairs and joined alongside her.

"Oh, before we get going, I'll say right now that I won't bring up what happened earlier in the kitchen or at the meeting if you don't want me to, Linc." Luna said, "Don't want any messy vibes or unneeded drama bringing down what we do."

"Ah...okay, thanks, Luna." Lincoln said, albeit more surprised than relieved.

Nevertheless, without much further delay, the two began their little private acoustic session. It began with a simple tune up, but even that was providing some challenges for Lincoln. Even that had some awkwardness and things didn't necessarily get that much better as time rolled on. Though he didn't want to admit it out loud, his troubles from earlier in the day may have been throwing him off his game. Eventually, he groaned in frustration and put his guitar to the side.

"Ugh...you'd think after the handful of times I've tried my hand at this that I'd get the basics down at least." Lincoln grumbled, turning to look at his sister, "I'm sorry, Luna, but no matter what I do, I don't think I can get the hang of it."

Luna put her own guitar aside and reached over to place her arm around him, "Hey, no need to rough yourself up, bro. Like you've told me this afternoon and before, I don't expect you to take this up to reach my level or to anything like and frankly, I never thought you would even try to take it up in the first place. As I've said in the past, the only reason I ever gave you that guitar in the first place was as an apology for my own irresponsibility of handing down my old broken down axe."

Lincoln sighed, "Yeah, but still, I at the very least thought I should give it a try in return for those efforts of yours. On the other hand, it does also make it hypocritical of me in sense because I don't get use of any other of the hand-me-downs, so why would I put much disproportionate use into the guitar? It'd almost look like I'm playing a little bit of favoritism towards you, which I hate to ever give the impression of doing, because I don't favor any sister of mine over the others. Plus, there's..."

That thought would be interrupted when Luan suddenly opened the door and made her presence known.

"Uh, ever heard of knocking, brah?" Luna questioned.

"What? This is my room, too, you know. I assumed that I can come and go as I please even if somebody else other than you is in here." Luan replied curtly, though her cheery demeanor did return, "But anyway, you know what time it is?"

"Unfortunately..." Luna said with a roll of her eyes.

"Wait, what's going on?" Lincoln asked.

"Oh, well, Luna promised me she would listen in to some new material of mine that I've come up with. If you like, you can stick around as well, Lincoln." Luan suggested.

"Um...sure, I guess. Don't really have much else planned, so why not?" Lincoln said, before turning again to Luna, "I mean, if you're okay with it, cutting our session short and all."

"Ah, it's all good, dude." Luna said, then she leaned closer to him and continued speaking aside, "Thought I won't blame you in the slightest if you decide to split at any point. These little bits that Luan does can really be hit or miss."

Stifling a chuckle, Lincoln turned his attention to Luan as did Luna while their sister got onto the miniature stage located at the upper right corner of the room.

"Good evening, lady and germ, hope you are ready for a clean act that will wipe you off your seats with laughter!" Luan began with, "Get it? Anyway..."

As Lincoln sat back with Luna and watched Luan's performance, another thought came to mind. Specifically, it involved both of the sisters in question he was spending time with at the moment, though it wasn't exactly the finest hour of theirs. In hindsight, it wasn't that bad, but in that moment in time, it remains one of the most baffling of his life, especially knowing how generally kind to him Luna and Luan are. But at least they did sit down and try to work things out…

As dusk slowly transformed to night, Lori was just about finished with moving back into the house. Her choice of moving into the garage from the day before didn't not go as smoothly as she believed. Turns out that being around her siblings often, the very thing that initially caused her move in the first place, was something she missed terribly and after a botched plan to have Mr. Grouse crash into said garage went nowhere so she could have an indirect excuse to move back in, she finally confessed to missing everyone and was welcomed back barely even a full day into the whole experiment.

Besides herself, Lori also had the assistance of Lynn, Lincoln and Lana bringing her things back into her room at the moment.

"All right, thanks, you guys. I think I can handle everything from here." She said.

"Anytime, sis!" Lana said before leaving.

"Yeah, this made for something of a solid workout, too." Lynn added as she too exited, stretching out her arms.

While her two sisters were gone, Lincoln however stuck behind, insisting to Lori that he wanted to keep continue assisting in unpacking and putting everything back. But in that time, Lori couldn't help but notice something looked off with him to the point she wanted to ask him.

"Hey, is there something wrong, Lincoln?" She asked.

"Huh?" Lincoln muttered, looking up to her, "Oh, not really..."

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm fine, Lori! There's nothing wrong!"

Lori shook her head and sighed, "Lincoln, if there's anything I've known about you in all eleven years of your existence, it's whenever you insist there's nothing wrong, that's usually a telltale sign that there is literally in fact something wrong. So, please, don't give this 'I'm fine' charade and tell me if there something's up."

Lincoln let out a sigh of his own. He probably knew better than giving out even the slightest, most simple signs that something was bothering him and trying to walk it back. It wouldn't exactly fly past his oldest sister and then again, he secretly chose to stick around to help her out some more as an excuse to possibly tell Lori about a certain minor incident that occurred just before she moved back in. Ultimately, he relented.

"Okay, but honestly, it's nothing. Certainly not something that should bother me that much." He conceded.

"Well, no matter what it is, you can tell me." Lori said.

"Yeah, but..."

"No buts, Lincoln. Come on, let's put aside some of this work for a moment and talk about what's getting under your skin."

With that, Lori sat down on her bed and gestured to Lincoln that he come join her. He did after a moment of hesitation and he sighed again.

"Lori, I insist this isn't something that should get to me that much at all..." He said.

"It's all right." Lori assured, "Take your time if you need to before saying anything."

Lincoln would very much do just that and after a pair of false starts, he leaned over and whispered something to Lori. Her eyes widened upon him finishing his concern.

"Wait...they did what?!"

Meanwhile, Luna and Luan were relaxing in the living room, much like they were just under an hour ago, only for their tranquility to be rocked something fierce.

"Luna! Luan! Get up here right now!" Lori shouted.

"Yikes, what could that be about?" Luan wondered with a hint of fear.

"You got me, brah." Luna said just as confused, "I wouldn't know..."

"I MEAN IT! GET UP HERE BEFORE I LITERALLY DRAG THE BOTH OF YOU MYSELF!"

Following that even more enraged demand, the rocker and the jester didn't wait one second further and obeyed. They bounded up the stairs and arrived at the doorway of their oldest sister's bedroom.

"Uh...what's up, dude?" Luna nervously asked..

Lori didn't say much, other than ushering both her sisters inside where they also saw Lincoln present.

"Lincoln? Why are..." Luan tried getting out.

"Am I understanding this right, you guys?" Lori interrupted, coming off much more coolly than before, "Did you threaten Lincoln while I was away?"

Both Luna and Luan gasped, but for the briefest of moments they lost whatever fear they had and narrowed their gazes to Lincoln.

"Did you snitch on us, bro?" Luna wondered irritably.

"Yeah, you just had to be a pig and squeal, right?" Luan added, laughing for a moment, "Get it? But seriously, what gives?"

"Hey, would you lay off of him?" Lori demanded, "Lincoln did not snitch on you guys, and even if he did, that doesn't matter. I simply asked if something was bothering him and ultimately coaxed it out of him. Now again, did you threaten him all over something really stupid about Mr. Coconuts?"

Luan didn't take kindly to that, "Hey, it's not stupid at all! Mr. Coconuts is my soulmate, you know?"

Lori rolled her eyes and groaned, "Luan, you are talking about an inanimate wooden puppet here. Calling him your soulmate is literally quite creepy. Now for the third time, did you two threaten Lincoln or not?"

"Well, uh..." Luna uttered, struggling to find the right defense, "Why does it matter you to anyway, Lori? Like you are one to complain with your threats of turning dudes into human pretzels!"

"Okay, first of all, I never followed through with those because I know that's a physical impossibility, and before you even think about bringing up the whole 'worst sister ever' incident involving Lincoln, I did actually talk things over with him instead." Lori said, "And secondly, that sounded like an admission of guilt, so..."

"All right, fine, we admit it!" Luan cut off her sister huffily and likely cracking under pressure, "We did threaten Lincoln, but..."

"No, don't try to make excuses! I should..." Lori began saying, but stopped herself short and took a deep breath, "You know, I think it's best that the three of you should try talking it over among yourselves. I really do need to get back to work in putting my things away."

Feeling like she said all she could, Lori motioned her siblings to leave her room and as they did, Luna and Luan brought an uneasy Lincoln with them to their room. He sat down on Luan's bed while they joined alongside between him.

For a little while, awkward silence held firm until finally they tried working things out.

"All right, bro..." Luna said following a sigh, "We probably shouldn't have done what we did and..."

"No, wait, I get it, Luna..." Lincoln spoke up, "It's okay and I should not make to big of a fuss over it and..."

Luan put a hand on her brother's shoulder, "No, it's not okay, Lincoln. There's no reason for us to have so casually threatened you. I never should have dragged you into a dispute that only concerned me and Luna, so in that sense this is pretty much my fault."

"Well...at least you weren't the one who attempted to clean his clock at first, so maybe I'm the one who's really to blame." Luna pointed out.

Luan shook her head, "No, I did the worst thing for all but suggesting through Mr. Coconuts that he should be hit with a baseball bat, so..."

"Guys, this isn't getting us anywhere!" Lincoln interjected.

Luna and Luan's attention was diverted back to Lincoln as he sighed.

"Look, I don't hold anything against you for what happened and I don't want either of you to one up the other as to who is more to blame." He continued, "Yet at the same time, I just don't get why that whole incident even happened in the first place."

"You got me on that front." Luna admitted, "But like Luan said, that shouldn't have happened at all and in any event, I'm sorry, Lincoln."

"Yeah, I'm sorry, too..." Luan added with a nod, then something occurred to her, "Though I have to say that maybe Lori not being around at that moment may have something to do with how things played out."

"You know, there could be something to that. I mean, there's some pretty dark implications behind that suggesting we could get away with doing gnarly things like threatening to deck you if she weren't around, bro." Luna said, "That, or I was too proud to admit that maybe one of my fog machines really did mess up Mr. Coconuts' face. Either way, nothing excused what we attempted to do and once again, we're really sorry."

To encapsulate everything, both Luna and Luan shifted closer to Lincoln and encircled him in a hug between them, which he returned on his end as he smiled.

"Thanks, you guys. Again, I don't hold anything against you two, but I appreciate the apologies anyway." Lincoln said.

Lincoln flashed a smile, both from the conclusion of that memory and as Luan had wrapped up her comedy set. He managed to multitask in reminiscence and paying attention to his sister as well, a marked improvement compared to how easily spaced out he got multiple times in the day. Like he thought to himself before, he figured out why he's been acting the way he had been and soon enough, he wanted to share with everyone that theory, though it would wait for just a brief moment.

"So, what did you guys think of that?" Luan asked.

"All right, I'll give this one to you, dude. It was decent enough." Luna said, turning to her brother, "How about you, Linc?"

"Oh, uh, I'd say it was fine." Lincoln said, admittedly a bit scattershot, "Actually, can you both hang on for a second?"

He stood up and stepped out of Luna and Luan's room, leaving those very sisters confused as to what he was planning.

Lincoln made it halfway down the stairs and saw the remainder of his sisters all conveniently sitting together in the living room.

"Hey, you guys, do you mind if I convene an impromptu sibling meeting? It's about what happened earlier in the day." He requested.

Typically, if a meeting of any sort was to be held with little advance notice, no one would have been really enthused and think it might not be truly worth it. But the second Lincoln mentioned what had happened before, it drew his sisters' immediate attention.

As everyone gathered inside Lori and Leni's room for the second time of the day, the sisters could hardly wait as to what their lone brother had to say. They tried their best since the afternoon in respecting his wishes by not bothering him about the earlier events, so the fact he was actually going to opine about it himself did cause a good deal of relief and anticipation.

"Okay, everyone, I believe I owe you all something of an apology. I'm sorry for the way the way I acted during the last meeting." Lincoln said, "Between that and how I've spaced out on some of you guys before that, I likely caused a little too much worry within and I shouldn't have done that."

Though he was directing that statement to everyone, Lincoln then turned his gaze over to his second oldest sister.

"And Leni, I feel like I owe you a special apology specifically. I was particularly harsh toward you during that moment when you attempted in talking to me earlier. Yes, I still think what's been going on with me at the time wasn't that big of a deal, but I didn't need to react in the way I did, so for that, I'm sorry."

Leni went up to Lincoln and knelt down to him, "Aw, it's okay. But honestly, Lincoln, something has be upsetting you, though. Even if you say it's not a big deal, I bet deep down it might be and we want to know what it is if you're comfortable telling us."

"Yeah, I'm still confused about what Luna said earlier about something to do with you thinking back to memories with us. What is that about, Lincoln?" Lynn inquired.

"Well, you're about to find out..." Lincoln responded.

He sighed, took a few seconds to gather his thoughts and then was ready to divulge into everything.

"All day long, I've been recalling certain recent events of ours, and with the one exception being that time I mistakenly thought I was seen as too predictable, every other one highlight some kind of divide, fight or argument between us. These have included when we got kicked out of the grocery store due to us fighting over my Zombie Bran, the time I "borrowed"...okay, stole Lynn's bike and caused confusion about me misunderstanding what hand-me-downs really are all about, that really unneeded instance of me badmouthing your anniversary gifts to Mom and Dad, the time I became a complete snob to you all after winning that ride in the limo, the whole fiasco regarding the Sadie Hawkins Dance, the disaster known as the "friend card" and the one I just thought about before this meeting, when Luna and Luan shockingly threatened me when I was dragged into a dispute of theirs just before Lori moved back in the house from the garage."

Having been reminded of that latter one, Luna and Luan frowned, looking around and shifting uncomfortably in their seats. Likewise, the rest of the sisters shared looks of concern and regret among themselves and to Lincoln for all those prior instances. Then, he resumed speaking.

"But here's the strange thing. What I was really remembering more so than those events in particular was instead what occurred in the aftermath, and compared to how rough those moments in our lives were, the aftermaths were so much better because of how we reconciled and worked things out. I guess what was bothering me and making me space out on you guys a few times was just knowing how many stupid scuffles and squabbles we get into, be it because of me, any of you or often both sides. But I shouldn't have let it get to me that badly in the first place, because like I said, we always find ways to make it up with each other and...well, that's one of the reasons why I love each and every one of you."

Without giving it another thought, Lincoln opened up his arms to signal an initiation for a group hug with his sisters, which they more than happily obliged with all smiles between them.

"Well, thanks for telling us everything, Lincoln." Lori said, "I can safely speak for everyone that we're relieved that it wasn't something a lot more serious than that."

Lincoln laughed a little, "Same here and again, I'm sorry for worrying you a little too much. Also, Leni told me this earlier and I'll say to you all now. If there truly is something really bothering me or there's some kind of problem in my life, I know that this present company will be the first I come to."

Touched by those words, the sisters held their only brother just that little bit more firmer and lovingly before they finally let go.

Roughly another hour later, most everybody was making preparations for or were about to head off for bed, and Lincoln was no different. His bathroom routines taken care of and his pajamas on, he headed into his room for the night, but something came to mind. He looked under his bed and reached for something. Smiling, he sat down on his bed with the item at hand, in this case being an old photo album of childhood memories. It had become one of his most treasures possessions, especially after the horror of having accidentally deleting most of his childhood photos, not to mention the heartfelt discussion he had with some of his sisters that lead to this amazing discovery…

The Loud house was unusually more quiet that it typically is one afternoon. That was due to Lincoln and his older sisters holding things down while their parents and younger sisters were away for a few hours.

Everyone was in their respective rooms doing whatever it is to keep themselves occupied, but Lincoln was feeling in the mood for a snack. He left his room, trekked down the stairs and arrived at the kitchen.

"Okay, now where are those cookies..."

He scanned around, but did not see the jar of which such dessert edibles right away, which meant one thing.

"Of course..."

Realizing they're up inside one of the cupboards, Lincoln got the step stool and climbed up onto the counter. He opened up the cupboard and saw the cookie jar inside, smiling as he was about to claim the spoils within.

"Whew...at least this time I didn't..."

Whatever he was about to say was cut off when Lincoln suddenly started teetering backwards until he lost his balance and slammed hard back first onto the kitchen floor. The impact and the pain-filled groan following that caused a commotion upstairs.

"Hey, what was that?"

"I don't know. Hey, Lincoln, did you hear..."

"Wait! It sounded like it came from the kitchen."

Next, a rumbling coming down the stairs ensued as Lori, Leni, Luna, Luan and Lynn came into the kitchen to see Lincoln laid out on the floor, a collective gasp shared between them.

"Lincoln!"

The grogginess caused by the fall made it sort of hard for Lincoln to hear or respond to the concerns coming from each of his older sisters. All he could sense next was the feeling of him lifted up and carried over to the living room before being placed on the couch.

"Hey, give him some space, guys."

After close to a minute, Lincoln finally regained enough of his sense and he sat on up and see all five of his older sisters standing in front of him looking at him concernedly.

"Are you okay, Lincoln?" Leni asked him, "Do you need anything?"

"No...I think I'm good." Lincoln responded, grunting and rubbing the back of his head.

"It looked like you took a serious tumble there, bro. What the heck happened?" Luna wondered.

Lincoln sighed lightly, "Well, if you absolutely need to know, I was attempting to get some cookies when I somehow lost my balance and then you found me all laid out. But hey, could've been worse, right? At least I didn't get my pants caught in the knob of the cupboard this time like in that memory Lori felt the need to bring up not too long ago."

He chuckled for a second, but none of his sisters shared a similar humorous bent, aside from the most obvious one who decided to give it her best shot.

"Well, if you did, it certainly would bring new meaning to you hanging out!" Luan said, laughing just briefly, "Get it? But seriously, that might've ended worse for you in a way, Lincoln. Had that happened, you could've fallen at an odd angle and landed on straight on your head, not to mention losing your pants or even your underwear depending on how you would be caught, adding some real embarrassment on top of a potentially serious injury."

"Yeah, and I doubt the world would be prepared to see your...ahem, goalpost and uprights, would that have happened." Lynn added, smirking amusingly.

"Uh, Lynn, that's probably something we literally didn't need to hear or be brought up." Lori told her younger sister, then looked back at their brother, "But since you did bring up that memory, there was something we did want to talk to you about, Lincoln, assuming you're okay enough to discuss it."

Lincoln grunted in pain again, but he nodded, "I think so. What is it about exactly?"

When they heard their little brother affirm he's ready, the sisters gathered along with him on the couch.

"Well, we've been kind of thinking back to when you said that your childhood pics got scrapped by accident and it got us to wondering why you never mentioned that to us in the first place right before we all went to the mall that day." Luna curiously inquired.

"Um...well, honestly, I don't have a clue." Lincoln replied, taking a second to mull that over further, "My mind may have been in a different place, and maybe thinking about it further, if you guys had choice between going shopping or helping me with the laborious and improbable task of recreating a bunch of those photos, you pretty much made it clear what was more important."

Whether Lincoln meant to say that to intentionally make his sisters feel guilty or if that's really how he saw things from his perspective, it did otherwise make them feel more sympathy for him than when they originally found him and Clyde in the backyard trying to recreate some of those pictures at the time.

"Maybe we were more interested in shopping at the time, but I think we could all agree that if you did say something sooner, we might've reconsidered and found some other way to help out." Lynn said.

Lori nodded, "Perhaps, but regardless, we didn't mean to make it sound like we didn't care about your predicament at that moment or afterwards. Losing all your photos from your childhood is a pretty scary feeling. But on a related note, there is something else we wanted to bring up with you, Lincoln. Or make that, something we want to show you. Wait here, I'll be right back."

She stood up and headed upstairs, while Lincoln looked on confused. He looked back to his other older sisters, each of which had grins on their faces. He would ask them what's going on, but he chose hold out for the moment.

Just a few seconds later, Lori returned while carrying something under her arm.

"What is that you have there, Lori?" Lincoln asked.

"Something that I guarantee you'll literally love." Lori answered with a confident smirk.

She sat back down with her present siblings, then she held out what she brought with her.

"It looks like a…photo album?" Lincoln said sounding unsure.

"That's because it is indeed one." Lori confirmed to him, "You see, Lincoln, yesterday after we thought about how sad it must've been losing all your photos and us feeling more guilty about it than before, we decided to do a search around the attic and after a while, we found this. We didn't show you this the other day because we wanted to wait until the right time came, and I supposed now is as good as any other."

Lori handed the photo album to Lincoln and encouraged him to open it up. He followed such a recommendation with some eagerness and looked within. Right away, he was very happy at what he was seeing.

"Wow, this has a bunch of photos from my earlier years!" Lincoln said very happily.

"Actually, it's an album of nothing but pics of when you were a much littler dude, Linc, plus with us, too." Luna told him.

"Really?" Lincoln said, getting a big smile on his face while he looked at the photos.

"Yeah! Oh, you were such a cutie when you were little!" Leni jubilantly said, leaning over and kissing him on the cheek, "And you still are and always will be."

A blush came across Lincoln's face as he chuckled in slight embarrassment. In any event, he resumed looking through the photos with his sisters. To his amazement, a couple of them included some of the very ones that were accidentally deleted, such as the one were Lori was feeding him ice cream for the first and him taking a bath with Lynn.

"Wow...just look at all these..." Lincoln said, shaking his head in astonishment as flipped through some of the pages.

At one point, there was one picture that caught his attention in particular.

"Hey, this one...it...it looks like you're teaching me to walk?"

"Yes, indeed." Lori answered, "If I remember correctly, Mom and Dad had been trying their hand at it for a while before and just after you turned one year old, but nothing seemed to work. So finally, we decided to step in and help out. As you can see, I was holding on to your hands to keep you steady while everyone else was on the couch cheering and encouraging you on. Then, I let go and all of a sudden, you toddled right on over to Mom and Dad like it was nothing!"

"Whoa, really?" Lincoln said, quite surprised to learn that part.

"Uh-huh, but what we probably didn't realize at the time was that we may have inadvertently created something of a real troublesome baby brother after that moment." Luan responded humorously.

Lincoln turned his head to the side, "Wait, what do you mean by that, Luan?"

Lori chuckled, "Well, she's not entirely wrong there, Lincoln. It's like once you could walk on your own without any assistance, nothing was off limits to you. I can recall one very...we'll say peculiar instance where you ran roughshod across the ground floor of the house. I think you about one and a half by that point."

"Oh, wasn't that the time when he raided the fridge and gotten a hold of some ice cream that fell onto the floor?" Luna asked, smiling and chortling on her end.

"I think you're right, Luna." Lori said, chuckling even more while she continued addressing Lincoln, "You were covered literally head to toe and you started tracking ice cream all around while all of us tried to get you, but somehow you were able to evade us until Mom and Dad finally came along. Needless to say, they weren't pleased with the situation and we spent the better part of that afternoon cleaning up after you."

The sisters all shared a series of laughs, while Lincoln joined in with more intermittent chuckles.

"Heh...that must have been something." He added.

"Yeah, and it didn't really get much better by the time you were two, bro." Luna said, tousling around his hair, "You really became a rambunctious little dude by then."

"A really, really cute one, though! But yeah, you did cause a little bit of trouble then, Linky." Leni admitted, but mostly with a lighthearted nature.

"Yep, you did more of the same...and sometimes you did so while you were naked, too. Guess once you knew how to take your own clothes off you saw it as some freeing sensation, and it took some time for you to understand the purpose of clothing again." Lori added, leading to another series of laughter from her sisters.

Lincoln smiled, shaking his head in disbelief, "Gee...was I really that much of a handful back then? If so, and I do mean this purely in all good fun, but I guess I'm sorry for that."

"Ah, we understand." Lynn said, jabbing his shoulder playfully, "You were getting used to everything, I suppose. But hey, it's not like you were that way all the time and once you were three years old, you became much better behaved and that's when you really started to become the great little bro we've come to love and admire since then."

The smile on Lincoln's face got a little bigger as he resumed perusing the pictures in the album. By the time he reached the end containing the most recent photos in the collection, he realized something. They were from a birthday party of his, but not just any ordinary one.

"Whoa, these are from my seventh birthday!" He exclaimed.

That was the very same birthday where he struggled before in trying to remember anything from. He did get a small reminder of it from Lori about a magician's act from that day, but now having visual remembrances on top of that made for such a relief.

Soon after, Lincoln closed the album and hugged it close to his chest, something his sisters found so heartwarming. Yet the mood changed when they witnessed him closing his eyes, sniffling and letting a few tears escape downward.

"Aw, please don't cry, Lincoln." Luan said worriedly.

"Yeah, this shouldn't be a time for you to be blue, little bro." Luna added, rubbing his shoulder softly.

"I know, and I'm sorry..." Lincoln said quietly while quivering, "It's just that I'm so happy that the Lincoln Library as I called it wasn't totally wiped out and that there's something, anything at all, from my childhood that's been preserved."

He placed the album on his lap, opened his eyes and tried in wiping some of tears off his face.

"Hey, um...you guys won't mind if I held on to his for myself would you?" He asked them, "I know that photo albums are meant for everyone and anyone in the family, but..."

Lori placed a hand on Lincoln's head and grinned, "Well, it is largely made up of your pictures and after having lost all those ones on the computer, I don't think we have any objections to that. You deserve it."

Delighted to hear that answer, Lincoln put the album aside on the coffee table so he could hug Lori in thanks. She did the same for him and in turn, their sisters also joined in to form a tender group hug.

"Thank you for finding this for me, you guys. This means so much to me." Lincoln stated gratefully.

"Anytime, Linc." Lynn said.

"And you mean so much to us, too." Leni added warmly.

Sighing contently, Lincoln was all smiles. Looking over this photo album always made him feel good and more so today after causing unneeded distress from himself and his sisters. He put aside the album for a moment when he heard his bedroom door being lightly knocked on.

"Who is it?" Lincoln asked.

"It's just me, Lincoln. Can I come in for a quick moment?"

"Oh...I guess so, yeah."

The door opened and Lori showed herself inside, closing the door behind her.

"What's going on, Lori?" Lincoln asked.

"Well, I was stopping on by each room wishing everybody good night, something that I literally haven't done for a long time and saved coming to you for last." Lori explained as she took a seat next to her brother, "But in reality, I think I was only doing that just so I can have an excuse to have one last talk with you."

"About what?" Lincoln asked.

"Just simply wanted to see if you're still doing okay after today." Lori answered, "I know you're probably sick of hearing that, but hey, I'm big sister and oldest one at that, and checking up on you is one of my biggest responsibilities."

"Yeah, I'm doing good, Lori, thanks." Lincoln assured her.

Lori smiled while reaching over and wrapped her arm around him. As she did that, she also noticed what was next to him.

"Oh, were you looking at that photo album of yours just now?" She asked.

Lincoln nodded, "Yeah, just got done with it right as you were coming in. Always nice to get a look at it here and there."

"It must be nice to do that." Lori said simply in return.

"Yes, it is." Lincoln added, "Looking back over it and because of the events of today, I've learned that it's best to block out any bad memories and focus on the good ones, including the times whenever we make up after such bad ones."

Lori brought him a little closer to her, "Got to admire that way of thinking, Lincoln. Sure, there have been quite a few not so good times between us and our sisters, but the quantity and quality of the great ones far outweigh those and that's what is literally most important. In fact, I've got a sweet little memory I want to share with you right now."

Lincoln's instinct was that she was going to verbally share something with him, but instead she pulled him onto her lap and hugged him close to her. It took him by surprise, but in a good way and he nonetheless laughed.

"You know, there may be a time where I might be too old for something like this." Lincoln told his sister, "But I also don't want that time to be coming anytime soon, certainly not for another few years."

He hugged her back as smiled, all while she tightened her own grip and kissed him on the top of his head.

"Okay, I think it's about time I let you get some sleep." Lori said following some more time elapsing.

She let go of her brother and allowed him to get under the covers. Once he did, she stood up, came by his side and this time gave his cheek a brief little kiss.

"Good night, Lincoln." Lori whispered to him sweetly.

"Good night, Lori. Here's to making more memorable memories between us and everyone else." Lincoln said back with a sleepy grin.

Lori chuckled and patted his head before leaving his room and allowing him start getting to sleep. There were indeed lots more memories to be made between Lincoln and his sisters, including the older ones with whom he had plenty of to begin with and counting, and like he said to Lori just now, it's best to focus and remember on the good ones, because those are the ones which matter the most and help create and maintain all the close bonds he shares with them.

Well, we did it, everyone. Yes, we did it. While I may have put in all the work, you did your part in sticking with this story, too in the near two months it took to complete. So much for when I suggested in the author's notes of "Melodious Juncture" that this could've been done by early February. Then again, like I said in the previous chapter, it's better to take my time in making sure a good product is finished instead of holding firm to some vague time frame of completion. And generally speaking, this story became a bigger commitment than I anticipated, especially after including this three-part story arc, which made it all the more satisfying one it was finally done. A good feeling that certainly is.

A couple of other thoughts while I'm at it. You may have noticed that I didn't use any episodes from season 4 in this story and there are a couple of reasons for that. One, that season obviously is still going and two, I'm actually wanting to do another series like this for episodes from that season, but with a couple of differences. First, I don't know if I'll reuse the flashback format like I have used for this one and the other thing is that I probably won't strictly adhere to the "Lincoln and older sisters" formula that dominated this story. So there's that to look forward to a few months down the line once season 4 wraps up.

And with that, I want to thank every single person who's given this story even a passing glance and as always, I'll see you all again in the very near future.