25. Chapter 25 - Episode Lucy

AN: Aaaaand we're back. Sort of. Read the chapter, you'll see what I mean.

Sorry this took so long. Aside from the usual perils of adult life, it was just a real struggle to get this chapter out for some reason. I took a break and ended up writing some more Gigant at my friends request, and that story friggin possessed me, I ended up writing something like 14k words over the course of four days, the thing practically wrote itself. But I just couldn't get this chapter to work.

I think this is probably the best I'm going to get it, so here you go. Next chapter will be a proper beginning for Book II. New chapters will come out when they come out. As much as I'd like to do weekly chapters like I did with Book I, I've got a lot of stuff going on right now, so I cant promise any kind of schedule like that. Also, I'll be putting out chapters of Gigant instead when the mood takes me. It was a nice change of pace to work on that story, and I think being able to switch my focus when I need a bit of a break will ultimately be better for my writing in the long run.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings, hope you guys enjoy this chapter.

Lucy Loud stood in front of her brother's door, fidgeting nervously. Gathering her resolve, she reached out, intending to announce her presence by rapping her tiny fist against the wooden surface...but couldn't quite bring herself to do so. She sighed as her arm went limp, her fleeting moment of courage having passed, and shuffled backwards, retreating a safe distance down the hallway. This was a cycle that had repeated itself countless times over the last hour or so.

Trying to distract herself from her latest failure, Lucy began to absentmindedly flip through the pages of the object that had been so fervently clutched in her other hand throughout her latest bout with her own self-doubts. A gift, of sorts, from her good friend Haiku. Her fellow goth had approached Lucy as the latest meeting of the Mortician's Club had come to a close, and pressed it into the quietest Loud's hands with a knowing smile on her face.

Aces Wild: Love in Spades, it read. A comic book, the cover depicting what was very clearly a stylized version of herself and her older brother, standing amidst a snowy rooftop, huddled quite companionably under the Eight of Spades' trademarked cloak. Spade's head resting comfortably against Aces' shoulders as he held her close. In the corner sat a humble and innocuous logo. Clincoln McCloud Publishing

Lucy, stammering and uncharacteristically red in the face at the sight of the image, had turned to her friend, intending to demand an explanation for the impromptu gift. However an empty club room was all that awaited her. And so Lucy had trudged home. Confused, embarrassed, and certain she could hear her friend's quiet, mocking laughter on the wind.

The obvious course at that point had seemed to be to simply ask Lincoln for an explanation, so she did. Or, tried, anyway. Upon approaching Lincoln's door, it had dawned upon her that her goal here was to ask her brother why he drew a decidedly romantic image that depicted the two of them as a couple. This realization had cause Lucy to let out a silent shriek of distress and beat a hasty retreat, lest Lincoln inadvertently force the issue by coming out of his room.

This lead to her current situation, wherein Lucy would attempt to confront her brother, chicken out in a spectacular fashion, and retreat to lick her metaphorical wounds. Each time, she'd flip through a little more of the comic, and each time she'd find herself more and more flustered by what she found.

It was...a comic book. It wasn't especially well written, to her discerning eye, though far more competently executed than she'd have expected from Lincoln. The situations were trite and cliche, the literary equivalent of comfort food, not unlike the romance novels that she often indulged in herself (though, thankfully, not like those romance novels, the kind she kept safely tucked away under her bed.) And yet, there was something about the imagery that really hit home for Lucy. Her and Lincoln. Together. Not as siblings, but as a man and a woman. It stirred...feelings within her, feelings which desperately needed to be addressed. To be clarified, quantified. And...reciprocated?

"LINCOLN!", came a chorus of distressingly familiar voices, rapidly growing in proximity. The explosion of sound forcibly ripped Lucy from her ponderings, and running on pure instinct, she disappeared into the shadows, unwilling to be caught holding the object that had confounded her so, but equally unwilling to get rid of it.

It wasn't long before her older sisters stampeded past her hiding spot, seemingly unaware of her presence. Good. While Lucy often expressed frustration at her family's frequent inability to perceive her, on this particular occasion she was more than happy to escape their notice.

She winced as Lincoln's door opened with a loud crash, followed by her sisters quickly filing inside. This left Lucy at a crossroads. On the one hand, with the majority of her family now occupied by this latest chicanery, she was now free to slink back to her room. And yet, the fact that her sisters had all been carrying objects suspiciously similar in size and shape to the one currently clutched against her chest, intrigued her. It was very likely that there was an opportunity here, if she was willing to capitalize on it.

Lucy crept towards the now opened portal to her brother's room, trying to stay out of sight of its current inhabitants.

"Lincoln, do you really not see the problem with what you've been drawing?"

Lucy found herself frowning at the phrasing of that statement. She wasn't quite ready to classify the situation as problematic, just yet, but she was curious as to her brother's thought process.

Things proceeded in a fashion that was rather typical for their family. Her sisters had found themselves in situations very similar to her own. And while they'd had the initiative to confront their brother about his confounding comicbookery, none of them were wiling to directly address the issue. And so they merely danced around the topic, in an admittedly amusing fashion.

Not long after, her siblings began to file out of the room, unsatisfied, but unwilling to push the issue. None of them spared her a glance as they passed her by. Business as usual.

"Hey Luce."

She froze at the sound of the familiar voice. She turned, slowly, almost mechanically, and found herself looking into the beaming face of her big brother. Dang it.

Lucy opened her mouth to supply her own greeting, but nothing was forthcoming. And so she stood there, mouth agape.

"What's up?" Lincoln asked, seemingly not noticing her strange behavior.

"Tell him he smells nice!" Her brain helpfully provided.

"Why would I just say that out of the blue?"

"Hmm, you're right. Ask him if you can smell him first!"

"N-nothing, big brother." She stammered, forcibly dispelling the strange, internal conversation. She wanted to flee, but there was something about having Lincoln here, standing before her, that made Lucy reluctant to leave.

"Alright." He paused, clearly now noticing her strange behavior. "You know you can always ask me for help, right?"

"Of course." She replied, pleased by his concern. Suddenly, inspiration struck.

"Actually..." Lucy ventured, "I was wondering if...I could get a hug?"

Lincoln blinked in surprise, and for a moment, Lucy worried that she had erred. Those thoughts were quickly dashed however, as she was quickly drawn into the warmth of her big brother's embrace. Lucy found herself returning the hug enthusiastically, and for a moment all seemed right with the world. She tried to express her thanks, but the words simply would not come out. It felt like acknowledging the act would hasten its demise. And here, in this place, at this time, Lucy found herself more content than ever before. And so the two remained like that for a time.

"Maybe cliche's aren't so bad." Lucy thought, as she nuzzled her face against her big brother's chest.

A disturbance from below pulled Lucy from her thoughts. She set her work aside for the moment, and peeked through a nearby vent, though she suspected she knew the cause. As expected, she was greeted with the sight of Lynn, frantically darting from one corner of their shared room to another. Lucy allowed herself a small smirk at her roommate's expense, and shook her head in amusement. Years of embarrassing incidents had caused Lynn to develop a fairly thorough anti-Lucy protocol, for those occasions when she needed to be alone. It was an admirable effort, to be sure, but she never accounted for verticality.

Lucy continued to watch as Lynn made her rounds. Then, apparently satisfied, Lynn climbed onto her bed, let out a sigh of resignation, withdrew a comic book from her pillowcase. Lucy nodded to herself, her suspicions having proven correct, then collected her possessions and relocated her work area to further down the air duct, so as to allow her older sister some privacy.

Deeming that she had gone far enough, Lucy got comfortable and flipped open her notebook once more. What greeted her were pages upon pages of observations she had recorded over the last few days regarding the residents of the Loud House, and other, specific adjacent individuals. She continued to scan her findings until she got to the section she had set aside for Lynn, and set about logging this latest episode.

The scientific method wasn't Lucy's usual method of problem solving, but her usual methods had failed to bear fruit. The poems she had written on the subject had only further confused the issue, her tarot deck was being unusually tight lipped about the future, and attempts to receive guidence from the local spirits had resulted in little more than amused smiles, and broad reassurances that everything would work out ("Oh, and could you pass on a message to my dear sweet Brandon? Oh...you're packing up then. Alright sweetie, maybe next time..."). So, she'd decided to take a leaf from Lisa's figurative playbook.

Lucy's data, painstakingly gathered through diligent observation and the occasional cloak and dagger shenanigan, had lead her to a single, undeniable conclusion. That Lincoln, wonderful as he was...was kind of an idiot.

Lynn and Leni were very obviously in love with their brother, though only the former was consciously aware of it, and Lori would soon be joining them if her recent, increasingly erratic behavior was any indication. Luna was in a similar situation to Lynn, but was in abject denial of her feelings...and then there was Sam.

Lucy frowned slightly as she flipped to the older girl's section. When she had undertaken this project, hadn't expected that she would need to expand the scope of her investigation beyond the initial comic book recipients. The "Full House Gang", she had dubbed them, adopting their alter-ego's moniker in a moment of whimsy. Lucy was aware that Lincoln had caught the attention of several of his peers. There was the Santiago girl, of course. There was also that tall Filipina girl who had recently joined his circle of friends, Lucy had observed her making eyes at her brother several times when she presumably thought nobody was looking. Lucy was also aware of another girl in his class who frequently pelted her brother with dodge balls, which admittedly was not a traditional romantic gesture. However, Ronnie Ann had made her bid for Lincoln's heart by shoving sandwiches down his pants, so Lucy wasn't willing to discount the possibility that a propensity towards assaulting her brother did not bespeak deeper feelings on the part of the assailant. That said, Lucy had felt fairly secure in dismissing those girls a potential threats. After all, Lincoln wasn't drawing comic books about their romantic misadventures.

And yet, after a period in which Luna had been left to struggle with her feelings all by herself, there emerged Sam as an entirely unexpected source of conflict. Lucy had found herself watching the older girl with interest. Despite being Luna's girlfriend, and clearly devoted to their relationship, there had been a strange shift in the blonde girl's behavior. Where as before, the musically inclined girls had been content to keep to themselves, which was at least partially motivated by Luna's desire to avoid having to confront her feelings for Lincoln, now they included Lincoln at nearly every opportunity, always at Sam's behest. It seemed innocent enough, but there was something about the older girl's demeanor, a certain sort of...palpable anticipation that reared its head when she managed to assemble the trio. She knew, or at least suspected, that Luna held very unsisterly feelings towards their brother. And rather than being repulsed by that revelation, she openly embraced that possibility.

It was...a strange development, to say the least. But there appeared to be no malice in the blonde's endeavors, so for the moment Lucy was content to merely continue her observations as she endeavored to figure out a solution to this very strange predicament. Lucy only wished that she could shake the feeling that Sam was watching her in turn.

Lucy waited outside her brother's room, fidgeting nervously. She knew for a fact that Lincoln was downstairs, enjoying one of his disgusting sandwiches, and that he would likely be occupied for some time, but the possibility that the could return before her business was concluded terrified her.

Thankfully, her fears were unfounded. Lincoln's door opened, and a small procession of frustrated and thoroughly embarrassed girls filed out. All except Sam, who in contrast, seemed elated. She alone gave Lucy a friendly nod as she passed, before grabbing a still shell-shocked Luna by the arm and dragging her down the stairs. Lucy made a mental note to follow the pair when she had a chance.

Once again alone in the hallway, Lucy slipped into Lincoln's room. She found herself alone with Leni, who was currently in the process of cleaning up her sewing supplies. She cleared her throat loudly, hoping to attract the blonde's attention. Leni didn't pause for an instant, clearly too absorbed by her work to have noticed.

"Leni." Lucy called out, deciding to try a more direct approach. Leni straightened up and performed a 180 degree turn, frowning in confusion as she took in the apparently empty room.

"Down here." Lucy clarified, seeing the obvious problem. The taller girl lowered her head the barest fraction of an inch, and her face regained it's traditionally happy smile.

"Wow Lucy!" She exclaimed. "You're totes good at hiding!"

"...Yes." Lucy agreed, deciding not to press the issue.

Lucy cleared her throat once more, suddenly nervous again. This phase of her plan was a fairly simple one, but she was quickly approaching the point of no return, and that terrified her.

"I saw that you were making costumes for the other girls." She began, trying to quell the quiver in her voice through sheer force of will. "And I was wondering if maybe you could..."

Lucy jumped in surprise as the door slammed behind her, only just noticing that Leni had vanished.

"Take off your clothes, Lucy."

Lucy took a deep breath to steady herself. Things hadn't gone quite according to plan. One sister had been swallowed rather dramatically by a hungry crowed, another was currently beating said crowd into submission with her bare hands, a third sister was engaged in an, admittedly impressive sword fight with her girlfriend only a few feet away, and Lucy herself was currently attempting to rescue her brother from said girlfriend's own elaborate gambit.

"Mghrpf."

Oh right, and she was suffocating him.

"Shh!" She admonished him, not wanting to inadvertently draw the attention of the nearby duelists.

"Stop being greedy Luna!"

*zap* *zap* *kapow*

"I'll still let you date him! I just need to properly vet you first! That's what good sisters do!"

"Graaaaaaaagh!"

...which clearly was not an immediate concern. With that, Lucy removed her hand from it's place on her brother's face, resisting the urge to caress it as their skin broke contact.

"I know you have questions..." She began, bracing herself for the inevitable moment where her brother's eyes would light up with recognition and all her plans would be for nought. However, no such moment came, and he merely sat there, waiting for her to finish. Clearly those hours spent practicing this speech in front of the mirror and the voice she would be using for it had not gone to waste.

"...But we don't have much time" She continued, seeing that he wasn't going to interrupt her. "Take this, and free yourself."

She took out a small spade she had prepared for just such an occasion, edge sharpened so it could be used as a cutting tool, and reached around her brother so she could press it into his hands.

"Cut yourself free, then get to safety." She instructed. "Nod if you understand."

Now, as she watched her bewildered brother acknowledge his understanding of the situation, Lucy found herself at a crossroads. At this point, her part was over. Having appeared and facilitated the rescue of her brother in a manner resembling the superhero stories he loved so much, she would mysteriously vanish. Later, she would privately reveal to him that she was the mysterious heroine to had rescued him, and he would express his eternal gratitude by asking her to be his girlfriend.

The problem, was that the act of giving Lincoln the keys to his freedom had placed their faces precariously close to one another. And now that she had achieved this position, Lucy found that she was reluctant to give it up. There was still time, even now. She could vanish in that really cool way she'd been practicing, with a dramatic pose and a flourish of her cloak. And yet...

"O-one more thing." She murmured, mentally screaming at herself as her instincts took over and her body made the decision for her. She wrapped her arms around her hapless brother's neck, and finally surrendering to her urges, pressed her lips against his.

Despite having literally zero frame of reference for such things, Lucy felt it was pretty good as far as first kisses went. It different from what her romance novels had promised. Their bodies did not heave, nor did Lincoln tear off her clothes as passion overtook him (though that could have been due to his bindings."

It was...comforting. Loving. The softness of her brother's lips against hers sparked sensations she had longed for, bespoke promises, too sacred to speak. It wasn't the kiss she dreamed of, but it was very much the kiss she had wanted. Perfect in every sense of the word that mattered. Just like her brother.

Lucy only broke the kiss when her tiny lungs began screaming for air. Even after the contact was broken, she attempted to persevere a little longer, refusing to let Lincoln see her gasping for air. Superheroes did not allow themselves to be inconvenienced by something as minor as near suffocation. Thankfully, it seemed she didn't need to worry, as Lincoln was very clearly dazed from the experience. Feeling rather proud of herself, Lucy took her leave, scrambling off the side of the stage and getting herself a fair distance away before looking back.

She frowned, puzzled. There was Lincoln, still bound to his chair. Why hadn't he gotten away? She'd given him the spade, it should have been a simple matter of cutting himself free...with his arms that were currently bound as securely as the rest of him.

"Dang it." She groaned, smacking herself in the face, too embarrassed at her faux pas to notice the stage collapsing into a giant pile of avarice and substandard construction materials.

Lucy sighed softly, sparing one last look at Lincoln's sleeping face though the vent conspicuously placed above his room, before she retreated back into the air duct.

Things had not gone as smoothly as planned, but progress had been made. She'd managed to rescue Lincoln, after a fashion, minimizing the damage unintentionally caused by Sam's far more reckless plan. She'd done so in a manner that would definitely stick with him, which could only benefit her going forward. And, there'd been that kiss...

Lucy blushed as the memories surged through her. Tonight she would rest, but tomorrow her work began anew. She'd developed a taste for the Loud boy, and she was determined to get more of it.

So preoccupied was Lucy, that she didn't notice the obstruction in the familiar path to her room until she found her face planted into it's extremely soft exterior.

Lucy let out a genuine gasp of surprise as the sensation dragged her from her thoughts, and backed away to assess the situation. To her surprise, she found herself looking into the eyes of another girl. Hair nearly as dark as her own framing an extremely dour looking face.

"What are you doing here?" Lucy asked, unfamiliar and thoroughly unhappy with the experience of finding an intruder in her secret haven. Despite her best efforts, her eyes, thankfully hidden by her bangs, flickered below the girl's neckline for the briefest of moments.

"And for that mater, how did you get here?"