With teeth (chapter 6)

Original author:Voniviar

Author's notes: I claim no ownership of any used characters or of the original content produced by the rightful owners. I didn't go on vacation today because of why not. At least that's what life said. Oh well. It just means you guys get another chapter.

Chapter 6: Novocaine
------The Loud residence was a place of some noise and annoyance, but was made up like a web of a close, loving family. Well, it sure used to be, Luan pondered in nostalgia. As an opposite counterpart to Lucy, the comedienne never though Lynn, her sister just under her in age, to be one to droop in a slow continuous sadness. As to why the sport was in the dumps was beyond her. Maybe seeing Lincoln so hurt and... shut up about things, got to her. Knowing her sister to be able to dish it out and also take it, she wondered if this was her weakness. Being a Loud herself Luan knew exactly how protective and caring everyone in her family were to one in the family that were suffering.

She just wondered if that was Lynn's weakness especially, seeing her family, hurt. Well, if the girl was so choked up about her brother then tough luck to her. Only half of her family was home right now, and even those members were disjointed and alone. It's like if even one Loud child were to disappear then all the others would feel incomplete, even if the ten remaining were all together.

Looking at her family now, Luan saw how alone everyone was. When Lori first got her phone she didn't use it that often, just for things like music and games. But when she had a storm of "friends" she was on it 24/7. And meeting Bobby hadn't helped her with that obsessiveness. But, as her family evolved, Luan could see everyone drifting apart, like a scared pile of daddy-long-legs. People find people. And if they already have people in their lives then they have to replace people. That's what Lori did with Bobby. And that's what Luna was doing with Sam. Luan thought she might come to hate change.

Coming out of her thoughts, Luan found herself in the dining room, eating a slice of last night's pizza. Apparently she was so caught up she had eaten the entire slice without knowing it and could only tell it was pizza by the grease on her plate. Putting the ceramic in the dish-washer she began thinking about what she could do today. There was her Funny Business... but, she didn't know. She kind of felt dry of comedy at the moment from the scare she got this morning. Maybe she could do something with one of her sisters.

When she reached the top of the stairs, she found that Lynn's stuff had been cleared away and the hallway was now completely barren, except for their dog, Charles, who was keeping around Lincoln's door with a sad look. There were three options. Leni, Lisa, Lynn or... Luna. Scratching off Leni as last time she helped anyone with sowing or stitching she always ended up poking herself with needles, multiple times in the sessions, which is why she never did any fake needle tricks. She could go to Lisa, but she would probably just sit in a chair under an overly humungous science doohickey.

Then there was Luna or Lynn. And that was actually easy to decide between. Luan wouldn't say it about her roommate out loud, but sometimes she thought Luna was the biggest slut in town. A lot of things were funny. Barging in on someone doing someone else was not funny, it was depressingly awkward.

Knocking first, as was the rule, the comedienne heard Lynn call for who it was wanting to come in. After Luan said it was her there was silence on the other end. That silence ended when the red and black room opened its creaking door to let another happy soul in and let them leave either thoroughly disgusted or thoroughly spooked. But this time it would do neither as one of its occupants was away physically and the other emotionally.

"What is it?" Lynn said, her tone rotten and spoiled like prison food. Thinking back to the early morning it was Luan who first called her out on hurting Lincoln. To which she admits she did. Just on the inside. There was the beginnings of a glare in Lynn's eyes, which made her sister act sheepishly, like a lost child.

"I guess I've come to give Novocaine for your toothache." Luan tried to joke. But Lynn wasn't having any of it. One because she didn't understand, and two because this was not someone she wanted to talk to. But, she supposed since Luan was older than her, she should give her at least an inch, if only that.

"What's "Novocaine"?" Lynn asked sourly.

"It's another term for laughing gas, the stuff the dentists use when they pull out a tooth." Luan explained, becoming less sheepish with her act, hoping her sister might lighten up. Lynn, after thinking on the joke, wasn't impressed, however.

"That one was a stretch." She said.

"Well I was just trying to get the ball rolling." The comic said, hoping that that one actually got to the sports fan. But Lynn just looked down, starting to scowl.

"If you're just here to make lame puns then go away." She said before trying to close her door. Trying being the key word. Luan put her foot in the crack, stoping it. However she forgot that it was Lynn who was closing the door on her foot. And when Lynn closes a door she closes it, foot or no foot. She tried not to wince, but failed, it really felt like someone popped her foot, but in the wrong way.

"Ow!" Luan called out in pain as she slipped her foot out of the wedge of the door. Honestly it wasn't that bad. She might've gotten a small bruise at most but it was okay. It wasn't as bad as someone else's wound...

"Ugh, see all I do is hurt you guys!" Lynn grunted then self deprecated. Luan, being somewhat surprised at her sister's outburst, saw her chance and pushed into the room. Lynn continued talking herself down, now flailing her arms up. "It's my fault Lincoln's gonna talk like that for the rest of his life and I even laughed at him for it. Why do I have to be such a-"

"Hey, hey! Calm down." Luan tried to speak and hold onto her sister before she threw something in fury. However, Lynn shoved her off and onto her bed. That took it for Luan. "Hey! I'm trying to help here. Get your hatatas out of a twist and just give me something having to dodge skin every other word you speak." Lynn looked at her for moment, as if she would punch her clean through the wall, but slumped before anything like that happened. Luan, already sitting down, patted a space for Lynn to sit next to here. Lynn begrudgingly obliged.

"Now, what makes you think what happened to Lincoln was your fault?" Luan asked.

"Are you kidding? You're the one who accused me of leaving out my stuff by the stairs." Lynn said in disbelief that her sister could forget.

"Yeah, but who said it's completely your fault?" Lynn had to think on that. Was Luan trying to imply something else was at work?

"What do you mean? Lincoln stepped on my stuff. I'm the one to blame for how he is and will be for the rest of his life." She said before curling into a ball of guilt.

"First of all, who said he's gonna be like that for the rest of his life?"

"Didn't you hear Lisa? She said-" But before Lynn could press an argument on herself being the guilty party, Luan interrupted her.

"Didn't you hear Lisa? She said that that only had a chance of happening. And even then it's Lisa who said that, the little scientist who's fixing people's lifelong problems every day as a hobby." Luan said, putting an arm around her younger sister. She hoped this massive load of fat facts would end her sister's suffering. Lynn seemed to be helped, if only halfway, as she uncurled herself, but still kept a pouting frown.

"But... Lincoln probably hates me now..."

"You really think that? From Lincoln out of everyone in this house?" Luan said with a mock scoff. "Maybe living with Ms. Eerie-descent has messed with your thinking." Lynn actually gave a chuckle at that one. The sports fan smiled. The comedienne smiled. And the two simply wished they could always smile.

"I still left out my stuff. He still fell down the stairs and... lost his teeth... because of me." Lynn said returning with a frown and this time putting her head down. Luan couldn't deny that she was guilty of that. But from what Lisa said, that wasn't completely in disrepair.

"Wait, weren't you there with Lincoln when he lost his first two teeth, his baby one's?" Luan asked suddenly. She remembers that on that day she was in detention for pulling one of her earlier pranks, which were less planned out and less attentive to the safety of others at the time.

"I think so, yeah... Why do you ask?" Lynn answered, not so consumed in her self-blaming and more befuddled by the question.

"Well you were doing something that knocked his teeth out, yeah?" Lynn nodded. "Well he got a new pair and forgave you then, so why do you think he won't this time?" Luan said, trying to spread the hope she found and clung onto. Her sister was inaudible if she was making any noise. The more Lynn thought on it, the more she saw how unreasonable she was being with herself. Should she feel guilt. Yes. But she should also try to be forgiven and reclaim her bond with her brother. Lynn, hugging her sister, finally accepted some optimism with her vocals.

"If I know Lincoln then he will." Her voice came out gleefully. Luan could only smile, but still had to say the truth of the matter that was on Lynn.

"Glad my treatment worked. But it's no cure." Lynn looked at her funny. "I mean if you want him to forgive you, then you'll have to apologize and mean it." Lynn nodded at that, and thought of something that just clicked in her brain.

"You know, life's funny." Luan could agree to that. "But not ha-ha funny." Luan could no longer agree to that. "It's peculiar I guess." Her comic of a sister shrugged at her words, not really caring for that as a life philosophy. "Hey... Thanks for the pep-talk." Lynn said before Luan left the room. Just then Luan saw Luna and Sam rushing from Lincoln's room and heading downstairs.

"Can'ttalkgottago!" Luna said quickly before Luan could interject. And just like that the lovers were out the front door. Getting an idea from her teenage mind she turned back to Lynn who'd just finished asking her who just left the house.

"Luna and Sam did." Luan said with a devilish grin.

"So..." Lynn said slowly, slightly creeped out by her sister's smile.

"So? What do teens always do when the authority's away?" Lynn understanding what could go down jumped off her bed.

"Hold on!" She said, going to her closet and going through it. When she came out she was holding some type of RPG-looking device. Knowing what it was immediately Luan only had one word to say.

"AWESOME!"

"Um... Have we checked the park?" Luna asked, a large, faded map in her face.

"Ahh, no, I don't think so." Sam said, behind the wheel and peering behind every alleyway for her lover's brother. Those driving by might think the couple was looking for one of their own, based in the concern on their faces, and the small amount of guilt on Luna's. "Wait, the park... the... Aw shit!" Sam stuttered out, before cursing violently.

"What, what's got you in a thicket all of the sudden?" Luna asked her, frazzled beyond compare so that her tone and vocabulary were all over the place. Setting the car to stop on the side of the street, Sam ran her hand through her hair as she groaned like the undead.

"I forgot I had to practice matching up a bass-loop with one of Chunk's drum pieces." She said with a face full of self-pity and cutesy regret.

"Really, Sam? How're we supposed to release our album if you can't stay on top of your shit?" Sam flinched at Luna's threatening tone that was dipping into her British accent. Luna however got wide-eyes. "Oh, oh no. You are not leaving me with this."

"Luna if we want to release on schedule-"

"Piss off with that bullshit! Just because you can't keep up with your role doesn't mean you get to cheap out now! I'm sorry for what my brother did to you, but a lot of worse things could happen to him if he's out there, alone!" Luna began in a furious, fully British accent ended with tears at the sides if her eyes from everything that was going on. Sam felt damaged deeply by her lover's words. Though the bassist knew that Luna was right about some of those things. Twice now she'd slacked off her practice for when they would all play together and record it. But now she was potentially putting a kid's life on the line.

"If it means anything, this time I was slacking off to be with you." Sam choked out of herself, trying not to tear up herself.

"Just take me home and-"

"Luna-"

"Just take me home! Then get your ass-wipe bass crap in order at Chunk's!" Luna said with finality. Sam did as she asked. The drive back to 1216 Franklin Ave. was one made of faint wisps of hair fluttering in the movement of the car ride and discord between the hands of lovers that should be holding each other, not resigned to their owners' bodies.

"You an I are gonna talk when you get back." Luna said to Sam just before getting out of the car. Then she drove off and Luna walked up the steps to her home. She was fuming while walking on the lawn. When she opened the door she became immediately enraged. Inhaling as much air she could, Luna bellowed...

"Everyone in this house, downstairs, living room, now!" Within ten seconds Leni, Luan, Lynn, and Lisa rushed down the stairs. Lynn and Luan noticed that the room had a distinct lack of anyone wearing an orange polo.

"Firstly, what is this mess?" Luna asked, brows raised, lips at the ready to lash out. She had just returned from a row with her girlfriend which ended their search of her missing brother and found a room full of tennis-balls, fabric, foam from... something, batter splattered over the floor and walls, and utensils sticking out of the couch arm. She had more steam coming from her pores than a train engine. Lynn stepped up, kicking her foot against the carpet.

"I started shooting the tennis-balls with my launcher and then everyone sorta got caught up in it all." She said slowly, shyly, scared in a way, she said it in all the ways opposite of how she'd normally talk to a weak person in charge of something. But Luna's blood-red face freaked her out more than Lucy's scare tactics. Everyone in the room thought Luna's head would explode when she breathed in slowly, disappointment replacing every inch of oxygen.

"So, that's how it is?" She asked calmer than they thought she would. This earned her glances from the sheepish crowd of four. "While I'm out with Sam looking for Lincoln who is currently missing you lot might as well be having a paint-ball fight in this house, on top of what you've already done." Her sisters were painted with surprise to hear that Lincoln had gone out of the house. She silenced them before they could inquire as to their brother. "Ah, ah, ah. I have no idea where he is."

"But you know what's worse, on top of all this, my dudes?" Luna said, finally starting to go back to her mellow. Her sisters looked up at her. "I just came back from Sam's car, after chewing her out for leaving me behind to look for our brother. And the fact is, while you all have been doing," she waved her hand in air, putting their attention to the dirty room, "Lincoln's been missing. And we still haven't found him." The four sisters, lined up, looked more dismal than the blackest oil. Luna went to the foot of the stairs, cringing when she looked at its steps. She turned around to face her sisters once more.

"Please, get this cleaned up before our 'rents get home."

"What are you going to do?" Luan asked.

"I'm gonna keep looking for Lincoln." Luna said before heading up the stairs and into Lincoln's room. Along the way she couldn't help but think how much she flipped in those seconds, even though it had to be done. It reminded her of another time she acted on anger. Praying to herself, she looked all over his room, but did not find his phone. Sighing in relief she brought up his laptop. Luna knew how much Lincoln liked to prepare his plans. So assuming he was just as paranoid in his planning as with his technology surely he had a tracker on his computer for his phone. Finding an app on it for that sole purpose she searched for his phone's location, hoping it was on his person.

"Please, Lincoln, please..." The screen changed and it showed a map. On the map was a little dot. Moving. After pumping her arms into the air she looked at the distance between his location and the house's. Looking to the sky with anger, Luna saw how it'd take long to just walk and Lincoln would disappear from that location by the time she got to him. Looking at the general area around the dot on the map she saw a familiar real estate name. Getting the sticky-note back out of her pocket, Luna compared the two. Where the dot was directly headed was the same exact place listed on the paper.

Getting out her own phone, she thought to text Lincoln and berated herself for not thinking of that before, but decided against it since it might scare him enough to run from that location. Thinking swiftly she went to contact Sam.

"Please, please, pretty please, pick up... C'mon, don't do this to me Sam! Not now, not-" Her call was answered.

"Sam I figured out where Lincoln is."

"No I can't pick him up 'cause he's too far away."

"Bloody 'ell, mate, I just want you to go pick him up and bring him home."

"Really? Thank you, thank you... Okay, okay, he's around..." Little did Luna know, he was off to give Novocaine.

So Sam and Luna don't really have the best relationship, like most couples. But what's more important is why Lincoln is going to this place.

As a side note the way Lincoln lost his baby teeth in the last chapter was inspired by an event that happened to me in my own life, in case you were wondering.

Again, you might have to wait for more, you might not. Idk anymore, life is peculiar I guess.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned to see how the plot and characters evolve.------