Idols and Anchors

PART 1

Lincoln pedaled lazily home from the park. It was still early on a summer's day, and Clyde was away with his parents on Fire Island for a week.

As he glided past shops and businesses on his way home, he leaned back on his bike seat and took both hands off the handle bars. The park was mostly empty, so Lincoln figured his sisters would certainly have something more interesting to get involved in than sitting in an empty park.

As he pedaled, he closed his eyes, drinking in the perfect temperature as the wind blew across his face.

He knew better than to lose himself for too long, or he'd—

Too late. Lincoln's bike hit a patch of sand, sending him tumbling to the sidewalk in a heap.

Thankfully, his helmet and other pads kept him from getting too banged up. As he checked himself, he took off his helmet and looked up. In front of him was a newspaper vending machine with a rather bold headline on the front page.

MIC SWAGGER FOUND DEAD IN LONDON FLAT

"Huh," Lincoln said as he continued to check himself over for scrapes. "Wait, WHAT?"

Lincoln dug some change out of his pocket and hurriedly fed the machine. Lincoln quickly grabbed a paper and scanned the main story.

"Rock icon Mic Swagger was found nude, hanging from a belt in his closet in a London hotel room. His death is believed to be a result of auto-erotic asphyxiation!" Lincoln read aloud.

He had no idea what those last two words meant, but he knew one thing for certain. Mic Swagger was dead, and his sister Luna would be devastated only two days before her first rock show! He stuffed the front page of the newspaper in his back pocket and hopped back on his bike, pedaling as fast as his legs would push him back home.

In no time, he skidded to a halt in front of Luna's usual hangout spot: the garage.

He flipped open the door and found himself tumbling backwards down the driveway as the sound from Luna's speakers rushed through the open door.

Luna noticed him and paused her jam session. "Hey little bro! Gotta be careful when I'm in rock mode, my show is in two days!"

Lincoln dusted himself off and stood up. She seemed to be taking it surprisingly well. "Luna, I'm really sorry."

She took off her axe and set it on the stand. "Sorry about what?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Lincoln paused. Was it possible she hadn't heard the news?

"Uh... sorry I interrupted your jam sesh!"

Luna smiled. "No worries bro, I was just about to head inside for a soda."

Lincoln had to think fast. If he could keep her in the garage, he could tell the rest of his sister's the news and they could think up a plan. "Wait!" he said as he stepped in front of her. "I don't want to throw off your groove, why don't I just bring you one? I was headed inside anyway," he said, his most convincing smile across his lips.

Luna's eyes narrowed as she searched her brother's expression for an ulterior motive. "Hm... I mean, if you say so." She shrugged, putting her guitar back across her shoulders.

Lincoln dashed inside the house to find his sisters in the living room doing one thing or another.

"Guys! We have a code twelve!"

His sisters froze in place, all eyes on their brother.

Lisa sighed, pushing her glasses up on her face. "It was inevitable, really. The amount of illicit substances ingested over the course of 65 years of globetrotting would eventually catch up with him, and today, it appears it has." The rest of the sisters gathered on the couch while Lincoln and Lisa stood before them. "Now, does Luna know?"

"Not as far as I can tell."

Lisa nodded. "Very well. These codes exist for a reason. Until we can verify that Luna won't suffer a complete, grief induced break from reality, we must make sure she doesn't find out until after her concert."

Lori stood up. "I'll hide her smartphone."

Leni followed. "I'll... Uh, help Lori hide Luna's smartphone!"

"I'll have some jokes ready so she'll be 'crying' with laughter!" Luan laughed.

"Dibs on keeping her distracted!" Lynn said, jumping off the couch and heading outside.

"Lana and I will find today's paper and burn it!" Lola said, disappearing before anyone older could stop them.

"Lincoln, I'll need you to head into Luna's room and ensure there is nothing in there she could hurt herself or any of us with."

Lincoln nodded, heading upstairs. He burst into Luna and Luan's room and looked around. Though he had been there before, this was the first time he truly took in the room itself. Luna's side was almost exclusively Mic Swagger posters, memorabilia, and other merchandise.

It was as though other bands didn't even exist. The full weight of Luna's devotion came down on him as he looked around for anything that might be potentially dangerous. Nothing jumped out at him immediately as he walked further through the room. In fact, more of Luan's stuff seemed more dangerous than Luna's rock equipment.

Lincoln snapped out of his daze as he left Luna's room.

He started down the stairs, hearing Luna's guitar riffs still blasting out of the garage.

"How long do you think you can keep this from her?"

Lincoln nearly ended up on the ceiling as his sister Lucy spoke from behind him.

"Geez, Lucy! Please stop doing that!"

"I can't help that you mortals are easily startled," Lucy replied. "You know she'll find out eventually."

"Yeah, but we just want to make sure she knows we're there for her. Besides, she never actually met the guy. I mean, aside from that time she chased him around on stage. At first she'll be sad, but she'll get over it, right?"

Lucy smiled. "You don't get it, Lincoln. Her relationship with Mic Swagger isn't normal. You need to think carefully about keeping something like this from her. Mark my words."

PART 2

"Look, it's just until her show is over,” Lincoln turned back to her, but Lucy had disappeared.

“Par for the course…” He mumbled to himself as he walked to the garage to find Lynn waiting outside with an ambush of soccer balls.

“I take it she’s still in the garage?”

Lynn nodded, balancing a ball on her foot. “Yeah, the second she leaves the garage, I got her covered.” she smiled.

Lincoln sighed in relief. At last, it looked like one of their code drills would actually work. He rounded the garage to find Lana making mud pies out of the days newspaper delivered to the house while Lola supervised.

Lincoln silently thanked heaven that they weren’t able to find any matches.

“Paper’s dead, Lincoln!” Lana smiled.

“Good job, girls!” He gave them a passing thumbs up before heading back into the house. In the living room, he found Lori and Leni informing Lisa that her smartphone had been hidden.

"And you're sure she won't find it?" Lisa asked again, checking boxes on her clipboard.

Lori grinned smugly. "Not a chance. She'd never check the pocket of Leni's pink sundress."

"Nope!" Leni agreed happily, genuinely glad to have contributed.

"The twins took care of the newspaper, and Lynn is waiting to distract Luna in case she tries to leave the garage," Lincoln said, taking a seat on the couch.

"Good, and I trust you verified the security of Luna's room?" Lisa asked as she continued down her 'code 12' checklist.

"Right... Uh, guys, can I talk to you about something?"

"Of course, Lincoln, open lines of communication are key to operation Carradine's success," Lisa explained calmly.

"Well, other than the fact that I still think the name is gross, do you guys think it's wrong of us to keep this from Luna?"

Lori raised an eyebrow. "Wrong? Do you remember Luan's reaction to finding out that Don Rickles died?"

Lincoln scratched his head. "Vaguely..."

"Then let me recap; she went on stage at her first open mic night and breathed heavily into the microphone for ten minutes. Then she walked off stage."

Lincoln cringed. He remembered now. Had it not been for an avant-garde art critic in the audience who lauded her performance as a bold and fresh new direction for teenage comedy, she would have been blacklisted from open mic nights across Michigan.

"So, do you want Luna to go up on stage in front of a bunch of crazed metal-heads and do something like that?" Lori asked, arms folded.

"No, I guess not, it's just that Lucy said—"

"Honestly, I try to stand clear of a lot of the goings on in this house, but my behavioral studies on all of you have accuracy prediction rates of 87.7 percent. I think I know better than Lucy." Lisa assured him. "All variables have been accounted for, and all sisters are in lockstep with the execution checklist of code 12. We'll be fine."

At that moment, Lori, Lincoln and Lisa noticed something. The constant guitar riffs from the garage had stopped. Before any could issue instructions, the side door to the garage opened.

"Lynn, enough! I haven't played soccer in years, knock it off!" Luna yelled, coming through the screen door. "Geez, what's gotten into that girl." she wondered, heading straight to the fridge.

"Scatter!" Lisa whispered as Lori and Leni took off towards their rooms, while Lisa followed suit. Lincoln was about to join them when he got up from the couch too fast and banged his shin on the coffee table.

He held it and hooped on one leg, barely holding in a bevy of swear words that would have landed him a grounding for sure if his parents would have heard them.

Just as the pain began to dull, Luna walked into the living room with her soda. "Hey bro, I thought you were supposed to get me one of these?" she asked, a tinge of annoyance in her voice.

"Oh!" Lincoln said as though he'd just forgot. "Sorry about that, I got caught up with some stuff here in the living room." He smiled sheepishly, trying to sneak his way past Luna and make it to the stairwell. "Welp, I hear my comics calling my name, I better answer!" he said, sliding past her and bounding as best he could over the stairs.

As he went, the front page of the newspaper he'd forgotten was in his back pocket had managed to free itself, falling just as he made it up the fourth step, falling by Luna's feet.

"Huh..." she said, bending over to grab it. "Hey Linc, you dropped your..."

By the time Lincoln turned around, it was already too late.

"M-m-m-Mic Swagger is... dead?"

Part 3

Lincoln inhaled sharply, and Lisa slapped her palm over her face from the top of the stairs.

"Idiot!"

Lincoln froze on the stairs as Luna's eyes darted back and forth over the headline.

He spent what felt like hours just standing there in front of his sister before he gathered the courage to speak.

"Luna?" He said timidly "Are you okay?"

Lincoln braced for anything. He truly had no idea how his sister was going to react to this news.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Luna handed the paper back to Lincoln. "Yeah, I just need to go to my room."

Luna walked past Lincoln on the stairs, barely acknowledging him and his sister Lisa as she calmly walked into her room and closed the door.

Lisa looked back to Lincoln, her mouth agape, as if waiting for an explanation. He shrugged, racing up the stairs to join her.

"This is bad," Lisa said, pacing the hallway. "This is very bad."

Lincoln scratched his head. "Bad? How is it bad? She seemed like she took it pretty well."

"Don't you get it?" Lisa hissed. "What we saw a minute ago was just shock. It hasn't sunk in yet that her idol, the one person responsible for making her who she is, is dead! Are you sure you removed all hazardous objects from her room?"

A crash from Luna and Luan's room drew both their attentions. They headed towards the door as Luan burst out of it, her shirt in tatters and a few scratches on her face.

"Luan, what happened?" Lincoln asked urgently.

"I wouldn't go in there if I were you. Luna's off her ROCKER! Get it?" she smiled before falling to the floor, unconscious.

"See what I mean, Lincoln?"

He sighed. Lincoln had hoped for a quick resolution. Sure, he expected Luna to be sad. He was sure there were plenty of people out there that would be heartbroken by the news of Mic Swagger's passing. Especially the disturbing way he went. But maybe a day of moping around, tops!

This, however, was something else entirely.

"Lucy mentioned Luna's relationship with Mic wasn't normal. I guess she was right."

Lincoln picked up Luan underneath her arms. "Help me get her to my room until she wakes up."

Lisa raised an eyebrow behind her thick glasses. "I'm four years old. She easily weighs 130 pounds."

"Fine," Lincoln moaned, dragging his unconscious sister to his room. After putting her on his bed, Lisa called the remaining sisters into Lincoln's converted closet.

"I've gathered you all here to inform you that operation Carradine has hit a roadblock," Lisa said in front of a blank whiteboard she'd moved into Lincoln's room. Lynn raised her hand. "Yes, Lynn?"

"Motion to name the operation something way less gross."

Lisa straightened her glasses. "The operation name is relevant to the circumstances presented. Motion denied."

Lynn folded her arms and huffed.

"Now then, because SOMEONE had to go and allow Luna to discover the passing of her idol, the timeline must now be moved up."

Leni raised her hand.

Lisa sighed. "Yes, Leni?"

"If Luna's thing is a code twelve, how many codes do you have?"

Lisa smiled. "Each of you knows the codes for each of your siblings, but none of you know your own code, nor will you. Thus, the key to the code system's success. Now then, as Luna grieves, she may say and do things out of pain and anger, but these are not to be taken to heart. Follow me."

Lisa led them out of Lincoln's bedroom and down the hallway to Luna's room.

"Now, I've read many psychology books and thesis papers, and I will demonstrate this process to you. Keep in mind that I will not let her anger through my thick skin. Luna is in emotional pain right now, and the best aid for that is to have someone to talk to." Lisa put her hand on the doorknob. "Watch as I console the beast within, and come out unscathed. Remember, take nothing she says to heart."

Lisa entered the room and closed the door, leaving Lincoln and his sisters waiting patiently outside.

Not one minute later, the door flung open as Lisa bolted from the room, her head in her hands as she cried.

"Lisa, wait!" Lincoln said, but there was no stopping her. She darted past all of them, sobbing and slamming the door to her room.

Lincoln and his sisters stared back at the barely cracked door. Lincoln pulled it closed, almost expecting Luna to chop off his hand for touching the knob. The Luna he and his sisters knew would never make anyone, let alone Lisa cry! She didn't have a mean bone in her body!

'She must really be wrecked from all of this.' Lincoln thought.

"Maybe we should just give her some space for now," Lincoln suggested. His sister's agreed, and went back about their business.

He looked back at the closed door. Maybe she would come out of her funk on her own. Surely she would apologize to Lisa, right? I mean, what kind of sister makes a four year old cry like that? Even one as composed as Lisa?

Lincoln started down the stairs towards the kitchen for an icepack. He would eventually need his bed back from Luan.

Part 4

Lincoln grabbed the icepack from the freezer and headed back upstairs. Luan was still asleep on his bed when he wrapped the pack in a cloth and put it on her head. Her eyes fluttered open as the chill touched her forehead.

"Lincoln?"

"Feeling okay, Luan?" he asked standing next to her.

She held the pack to her head as she sat up on his bed. "What am I doing in here?"

"Well, Luna got some pretty bad news today, and you were kinda in your room when she got it, so..."

Luan thought back. "The last thing I remember was practicing my ventriloquist routine with Mr. Coconuts..."

"Right, well, Luna's not feeling too well right now."

Luan scratched her head. "Wait, didn't Lisa—"

"She tried," Lincoln sighed. "Right now, it might just be best to give her some space. I'm sure she'll snap out of it eventually. Do you remember what happened?"

"I remember Luna coming in, she seemed really upset about something..." Luan chewed on her bottom lip in thought "Oh, yeah, then she started tearing her Mic Swagger posters off the wall and breaking her memorabilia! I tried to run out but I tripped on one of her amp cords and hit my head. She was really of her ROCKER!" she paused. "Have I used that joke already?"

Lincoln put a hand on her arm and smiled. "Yeah, you did. Anyway, you can rest here if you want, I'll come get you when dinner's ready." Lincoln pulled out some comedy comic books and old issues of MAD magazine from underneath his bed. "You can read these if you want, I'm gonna head downstairs."

"Thanks, Lincoln!"

Lincoln started back downstairs and hopped from the bannister to the couch. His parents always yelled at him for doing it, but when they weren't around, he still got a kick out of making the leap.

He flopped on the couch next to Lori, busy as usual texting away. Lincoln grabbed the remote and turned on the TV.

"So what are we gonna do about Luna?" Lori asked, not looking up from her phone.

"What can we do?" Lincoln shrugged. "Lisa had this whole scheme figured out, and you saw what happened to her."

"You need to make this right, Lincoln."

Lincoln slowly turned his head toward her, eyes narrowed.

"Me? How is this my fault? I didn't string Mic Swagger up in a London closet!"

Lori's nose was still deep in her phone. "Regardless of how it happened, you brought the newspaper into the house, so you literally ruined Lisa's plan to keep it from her until after the concert."

Lincoln gritted his teeth. "Me?! I was the one who tried to warn you all about what Lucy said! Besides, she clearly doesn't want to talk to any of us! You saw what she did to Lisa!" Lincoln was sympathetic to Luna's cause at first, but after seeing Lisa run crying from her room, any sympathy he had evaporated. "Why should we put ourselves out there for her if she's just going to be a jerk?"

"Look Lincoln, I know it isn't directly your fault, but let's take a roll call for a second," Lori said, finally putting her phone down and looking him in the eye. "I'm going with Bobby's family to the lake, and I won't be back until the night of her concert. Leni, well... do you really think Leni is going to be able to empathize with the death of some old dude she's never heard of?"

Lincoln was still angry, but followed her logic. He shook his head.

"Right, so that literally leaves Luan, who might have had a chance if she didn't have a head injury, Lynn, who probably doesn't care one way or the other, Lucy, who would probably only make things worse, and then there's you." Lori sat back on the couch with her arms folded, a sly smile spreading across her face. "The thoughtful, well meaning, if a bit of a weirdo little brother who accidentally revealed the death of her idol, and who would do anything to pull her out of her slump."

His angry expression had morphed into one of confusion. "Uh... Thanks, I guess. But she's the one who's in the wrong! All we were trying to do was make her feel better, and look how she acted!"

Lori rubbed her eyes and sighed.

"Lincoln, I know you think she'll just get better and accept this, but I knew Luna back before she was... who she is now."

"What was she like?" It was hard to imagine Luna without her favorite tattered clothes and... unique ear piercings. He had vague memories of her before she committed to a life of Rock, but nothing more.

"Well, she was just kinda... there. She was like Lucy, except she didn't have a 'thing' like she does. She was just quiet, literally in the background. She hardly ever spoke up, and really did much of anything. It was like she was just floating through life with no sense of direction. Mom and Dad tried to get her into different things, but nothing stuck."

"Then she went to a Mic Swagger concert," Lincoln completed. "She told me that he was the one to show her how much fun Rock and Roll could be," he said, a bit of understanding beginning to come over him.

"Right, so imagine if that guy who writes those detective comics you love so much died. How would that make you feel?"

A pang of sadness bolted through his heart at the very idea. "Pretty sad."

"Right, and is the first thing you'd want someone barging into your room to try and talk to you about it?"

Lincoln put a finger to his chin. "I guess not..."

"Yeah, and would you maybe be a little angry at the first person you saw, even if you weren't literally angry at them?"

Lincoln slumped back into the couch, trying to process what his oldest sister had just told him.

"So, I don't want to just leave her up there, but I don't want her to bite my head off, either."

Lori rose from the couch. "I can't tell you how to fix this, but even though she'll tell you to take a hike, she needs someone to talk to. Trust me on this, Lincoln," She said, climbing the stairs. "I know how grief works."

Part 5

Lincoln was left by himself when the call for dinner came from his mom. The smell of chicken nuggets wafted through his house as he took his place at the kids table.

Lola and Lana began their pea flicking earlier than normal, while Lincoln only took a few bites of his food. He looked to the adult table and noticed two empty chairs. One was Lori's. The other, however...

That cost him the rest of his appetite.

"Leni, where's Luna?" Mrs Loud asked.

Lincoln's ears perked up as he leaned in closer to the doorway.

"Oh, uhm, some old guy she knew died. I think his name is Mic Jagger?"

"Mic Swagger, dear," Mr. Loud corrected. "Yeah, he died today, she must be taking it pretty hard."

"Oh, my poor little rockstar. I'll save her a plate in case she gets hungry."

Mrs Loud got up from the table and headed to the kitchen to prepare one. As she entered the kitchen, Lincoln caught her ear.

"Mom, is Luna going to be okay?"

Mrs. Loud smiled. "Don't worry about her, Lincoln. She's a teenage girl, she'll bounce back."

That didn't exactly ease the weight in his stomach.

"So do you believe me now?" Lucy said, startling him as he pounded on his chest to dislodge the chicken nugget from his throat.

"Oh come on. I sit her every night at dinner. There's no way that scared you," Lucy complained.

"Sorry," Lincoln wheezed, taking a sip of milk to clear his throat. "Anyway, yeah, I guess she is a little more upset than I would have thought."

"I just came from her room." Lucy smiled.

Lincoln's expression darkened. "Lucy, please tell me you didn't make it worse."

"Define worse."

"You know what I mean!"

"I didn't push her deeper into the abyss if that's what you're thinking." Lucy took a bite of her french fry. "I was taking notes. I've never seen a soul so tortured. And I've watched people sit through an entire hour of live action Nickelodeon shows."

Before he could continue his line of questioning, Lisa made her way to the kids table.

She was now much more composed than he had seen her earlier that day.

Lisa pulled out her chair and sat down.

"Lincoln," she nodded before eating.

"Uh, Lisa? Are you okay?" Lincoln asked.

"Of course," she answered plainly.

Lincoln looked to Lucy. She shrugged.

"So, when you went into Luna's room earlier today—

"Do not speak of that," Lisa growled. "It was a momentary lapse in judgment on my part. I let her get to me. I simply solved some fluid dynamics problems and got ahold of myself."

Lisa's expression brightened up instantly as she dipped her chicken nugget in ketchup. "Nothing more."

"Huh. Well, do you think Luna's going to be better in time for her show?"

Lisa burst into laughter. "Oh no, that girl's a ball of yarn that would take weeks to unravel."

Lincoln's heart sank. He couldn't let her sister miss her chance at her big break! Hundreds of performers applied for a spot on stage, and the winners were chosen by lottery. Luna might not get another shot at her dream! Lincoln wasn't about to let a sibling's dream die on his watch.

"Well, if I were to want to try and make her feel better, what would I say?"

Lisa stopped eating and put down her nugget. She slowly looked up at Lincoln, her cheerful expression morphed into one of deadly seriousness.

"Lincoln, if you go into that room ill-prepared, she will send the fortress of your ignorance crashing down around you. She will shake the very foundations of your core and leave the person you thought you were in tatters."

"Woah." Lincoln mumbled, staring wide-eyed at his normally calm and calculating sister.

"Metal." Lucy smiled.

Lincoln shook his head. "I don't care. I can't let her just sulk in her room like this."

"Fine." Lisa replied nonchalantly. "Your funeral."

"Nice one, Lisa!" Luan called from the dining room.

Once dinner was over, Lincoln headed upstairs and stood outside Luna's bedroom door.

"Lincoln," Lucy said having followed him up the stairs.

"Come to watch me run away crying? Well it's not gonna happen," he said, determination etched across his face.

"No. I'm actually here to tell you I think what you're doing is really sweet."

Lincoln raised his eyebrow as he turned to Lucy. "What? I thought you'd want another sister who wallows in despair and stuff?"

"That's my thing Lincoln. Besides, I think we can all agree that we don't need two people in this house brooding and obsessing over death."

She had a point there.

"Well then, wish me luck."

Lucy leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, turning both their cheeks red.

"Good luck, Lincoln," she said, turning to leave.

"You'll need it," she called over her shoulder.

Part 6

Suddenly, Lincoln noticed his hands beginning to sweat. His heart pounded in his ears as he remembered what had happened to Lisa. He tried to push the memory out of his head, but it persisted. What would Luna say about him? Would she emotionally destroy him like she did Lisa? What kind of monster just keeps dirt on people until they're upset enough to throw it back in their face?

Disturbing thoughts seemed to crowd his mind as his hand froze, hovering over the knob. How could he be this scared of his own sister?

'...would you maybe be a little angry at the first person you saw, even if you weren't literally angry at them?'

Lori's words echoed in his mind, silencing his fears. His heart swelled with courage.

His sister was in there, miserable and hurting. She wouldn't admit it, but she wanted someone to talk to. She wouldn't reach out to anyone, so it was up to Lincoln to reach out to her.

The cool brass of the knob sent a chill down his spine, as though he expected it to electrify him on contact. He turned the knob slowly, unsure whether it would be better to sneak into the room or announce himself before entering. As his mind debated, his arms acted of their own accord. Before he knew it, the door was open, and he was staring into the darkness. The room was cut in half by the window, a silver beam of moonlight dividing the beds from the guitar, amps and props for Luan's routines.

Shredded posters and ripped Mic Swagger t-shirts littered the floor as Lincoln still continued towards the bed. His brain screamed at his legs to stop moving forward until he had come up with something meaningful to say, yet they trudged on until he found himself at the side of Luan's bed, which Luna had apparently commandeered for sulking purposes.

His throat felt dry, his lips chapped as he swallowed hard, though he had little to no saliva to help. He briefly identified with the hero from King of the Rings when he willingly took on the great dragon Smog in the gnome fortress.

Up until now, Lincoln had been deafened by the beating of his own heart. Now that he'd calmed down a bit, the ambient noise of the room came back to him. Music played softly in the background. It was some acoustic set by Mic himself that Lincoln had never bothered to learn, but it was certainly sappy. Lyrics like 'I'll always be there' and 'I could never leave you, baby' warbled softly from Luna's old record player. As his ears adjusted even more, he noticed an even softer, more delicate sound.

Sobbing.

He had to say something. How long had he been standing beside her? Had she truly not heard him come in? Or did she just not care?

"Luna?" he croaked through his arid throat.

"Get out of here, Lincoln..." she muttered weakly.

He had expected her to rise up from her bed, anger flashing in her eyes as she verbally assaulted him and then gave him a black eye before tossing him out of her room. However, it looked like Lucy was right.

That reply wasn't coming from an angry sister with a laser-focused rage. Those words came from pain.

He didn't budge, his courage beginning to return. "Luna..." he paused. He had to broach the subject carefully. "We all hate seeing you like this."

She sniffed up a tear, still facing the wall, covering herself with Luan's blankets. "Well, get used to it."

"Look, I'm sorry about what happened to Mic—"

"Don't you even say his name!" Luna roared.

Lincoln took a cautious step back.

"He..." Luna began, only to devolve into more sobbing.

Lincoln composed himself, still determined to see this through.

"We're all sorry about what happened. I'm sorry you had to find out the way you did, but, you can't just sit up here in Luan's bed and sulk."

Luna rolled over to face him and sat up. Her eyeliner running in streaks away from her swollen, red eyes as she snarled at him. This was it. This was the worst he was expecting, and it was about to get dropped on him like it had been dropped on poor Lisa!

Luna curled her hands into fists. "You don't get it! NONE OF YOU GET IT!" Luna shouted. "You think you can just come in here and tell me 'everything's going to be okay' like Lisa did? You think stupid words are gonna change anything?!"

Anger swelled in Lincoln's heart as Lisa was mentioned. "She came in here trying to help you because she cared about you, and all you did to thank her was make her cry!"

"I never asked for her help, or anyone else's!"

Lincoln's emotions began to spiral out of control. He found himself so caught up in the shouting match that his pre-planned mission of understanding and consolation had slowly been subverted into how loud he could shout how he and his sisters were in the right and how Luna was just being stupid.

"Well that's too bad, because we're your family, and we love you, and we're not just gonna stand by and let you cry your life away because some old british rockstar died that you met for a total of a minute and a half!"

Silence hung in the air. Even Lincoln was surprised he'd said what he did. He knew how important Mic was to Luna. Lucy had even warned him about it. Shock washed across his sister's face before morphing into grief once again. She buried her face in her pillow and began bawling.

If he hadn't before, Lincoln certainly felt guilty now. He could have kicked himself for letting his anger get the better of him.

"Luna, I'm sorry. I know he was really important to you, and—"

"He wasn't just some rockstar, Lincoln! He was my hero! My idol! He was who I wanted to be like, my whole rock career starts with him choosing me to go on tour with him! Now what? He's fucking dead!" She punched her pillow for good measure, a few stray feathers flying out of the corners.

Lincoln winced at her f-bomb, but stood firm in the hurricane.

"What am I going to do now, huh?" she asked. "Why even play guitar anymore, I can't tour with Mic!"

"I don't even know who I am anymore," she mumbled weakly

Lincoln knelt down beside her bed.

"Who you are?" he asked quietly. "You're Luna Loud. The loudest of the Louds! Who else can play six different stringed instruments?"

"Anyone who practices for long enough," she groaned.

Lincoln's expression flattened. "Duh, but who does it as well as you?"

Luna had no reply, but she turned her head towards him.

That was progress.

"Look, Mic might have introduced you to Rock and Roll, but that doesn't mean it's dead now that he is." Lincoln thought for a moment. "When you light a candle, once the candle is lit, do you still need the match?"

Luna raised an eyebrow. "No... so what?"

"Mic was just the match, Luna! You're the candle! Just because the match went out, doesn't mean the candle has to."

Even a soft metaphor for death brought more tears as Luna retreated back into the comfort of Luan's now eyeliner-stained pillow.

'Darn it,' he thought.

"Well, I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this," he said, standing up. "But you've left me with no choice."

Luna peeked towards him.

"Do you remember the song you used to sing to me when I was little? The one that always made me smile when I was upset?"

"...yeah," she sniffed.

"Remember that first summer I went to camp when I was eight, and I was so scared that I would miss you and everyone else that I almost backed out of going?"

She was following him, but unsure of where he was going with this. "Yeah, I do. Mom says you almost started crying before you left the driveway."

"Remember what you made me to keep me from feeling homesick?"

Lincoln noticed a spark of remembrance in her eyes.

"You made me a CD of you singing the song I liked so much, the only song that wasn't rock and roll I ever heard you sing, so that whenever I missed you, I could play it and hear your voice," Lincoln recalled walking to Luna's closet.

She followed him with her eyes, watching him search for a minute before he stopped. "Aha, here it is." She heard latches unlock.

Lincoln turned around with her acoustic guitar strapped to his shoulder. It looked huge on him, Luna wondering if his arms could even reach all the positions on the neck.

"You wouldn't dare..." Luna whispered.

"You played this song for me every time a friend moved away, or I scrapped my knee, or crashed on my bike. You would sing this song to cheer me up, and now, it looks like it's my turn."

Lincoln took a seat on her beanbag as she sat up in bed. He took the needle off of her record, closed his eyes, and strummed out the opening chords like he'd been playing guitar his entire life.

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy, when skies are grey.
You'll never know dear, how much I love you. Please don't take, my sunshine away.
The other night dear, as I lay sleeping, I dreamed I held you, in my arms.
But when I woke dear, I was mistaken, so I hung my head, and I cried.
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy, when skies are grey.
You'll never know dear, how much I love you. Please don't take, my sunshine away."

Lincoln opened his eyes again to find Luna still crying, but for a different reason.

"Lincoln... where did you, how did you learn to play like that?"

"The summer after I went to camp, you went to rock and roll camp, so as a surprise, I wanted to learn to play this song and show you! But, I kinda forgot about it," Lincoln tapped the guitar. "Glad I still remembered how to play it." He flicked his eyes up at his sister. "Well? Did it work?"

Lincoln leaned the guitar against the beanbag chair just in time as Luna sprang from the bed and lifted him off his feet into a hug.

Her tears stained his shoulder as he returned the hug as best he could.

"Yeah, it did."

Luna put him back on his feet and sat down on Luan's bed. "I'm sorry I've been such a downer,"

"Luna, it's okay to be sad when someone dies, just don't let their life ending keep you from living yours."

Luna smiled at him, wiping away her tears and smeared eyeliner. "When did the kid who reads comics in his underwear in the living room get so smart?"

Lincoln returned the gesture with a shrug. "Just getting older I guess."

"So, you think you're gonna be able to play your show?"

"Oh crap, I still have to come up with a set list!"

She was back.

'Mission accomplished' Lincoln thought.

"Glad to have you back, Luna."

"Good to be back, dude!"

Lincoln flipped on the lights so his sister could work. He turned to leave, when he remembered something.

"Hey, Luna? What did you say to Lisa?"

Luna paused her writing and put the eraser to her chin in thought. "Oh, yeah, I told her Santa wasn't real. I'll have to make that up to her somehow."

Lincoln suppressed a chuckle.

"Good luck with that."

Lincoln left the bedroom to find Lucy waiting for him in the hallway.

"I saw what you did in there, Lincoln."

"How in the heck did you— wait. The vents, right?"

She nodded.

"Well, everything's back to normal, so I'm gonna head on back to my room and read some comic books." Lincoln said, proud of his efforts as he walked with his chin held up high.

"Wait, Lincoln!" Lucy called after him. He stopped halfway to his room.

"I want to ask you something, but you have to promise to keep it a secret."

Intrigued, he turned around as Lucy drew closer to whisper in his ear.

"Would you sing that song again... for me?"

Lincoln blushed. "Sure, but remember," he whispered back, looking suspiciously around the hallway. "it's our secret."