16. A Musician's Shortcomings

A/N: Welp, we now know why Luan is very prank happy on a particular holiday. Someone like her really didn't need to go through what she suffered from during her early school days. But, at least she now knows that she can depend on her family in these uncertain times. If only she spoke to them sooner about her problems...

Now, let's take a look at Luna's perspective on the whole situation. Apologies in advance if the chapter seems overrated, because we all know that whole thing with Lincoln and Luna being close but not actually have much canon evidence. She's so likable there isn't much wrong with her outside of a few things. But, I did notice one key aspect Luna and Lincoln have in common after watching two episodes.

Disclaimer: I own NOTHING from the Loud House.

Luan had her arms crossed, a frown etched on her face, as she returned to the main lobby. At first, the comedian had been nervous about her session as each sister that went before her came back with a troubled look, as if they just bore witness to something terrible. But now she understood why...her sisters also had some hidden issues that they largely kept to themselves. Luan felt her stomach churn as the guilt she had reminded her of its presence. All of those pranks she pulled on April Fools Day...she couldn't bare to look her family in their faces after realizing everything she did. The others grew concerned for her, seeing as she was rather optimistic just an hour ago.

"You ok sis?" Luna asked.

"Not really...I'm just thinking things over...also, Ms. Lopez wants to see you." Luan cast a look at her roommate.

Luna gave a small frown. "Alright then...let's see what the doc's got in store for this baggage case..." The 15 year old got up from her seat and walked down the hall.

Rita took the vacant seat next to her daughter, seeing as she looked more troubled than Lori, Leni, and Lisa when they came out of their sessions. "Luan, I can tell when you have something deeply troubling you. If I had to guess, the doctor helped you realize something?"

Luan nodded.

"Was it particularly bad...?" Lucy asked.

"...I need to ask you guys this...and I want you to be honest with me...do you think I go crazy on April Fools Day?"

The girls and their mother looked at each other in confusion. While they certainly knew that the 14 year old joker did go a tad nuts on her favorite holiday, she didn't seem to find it troubling. Then again, the girls in particular pretended she didn't exist for a few weeks before they would get over the prankpocolypse, or at least until the side effects from the pranks were gone.

"Are you sure you want to know the answer to that Luan?" Lori asked in uncertainty.

"I'm serious Lori...if I've been going overboard on that holiday, just come out and say it...I just want to know..."

"Well...I was pretty upset at being stuck in Jell-O..." Lana stated.

"It took me forever to get chicken poop off my sporting goods..." Lynn added.

"...I literally get pissed at you for shaving my eyebrows..." Lori admitted.

"Your spider pranks are pretty mean...no offense..." Leni chimed in.

"The whole vacuum bag dust bomb made me want to choke you in your sleep." Lola added, making the others give a shocked glance at her. "What?! She said she wanted an honest opinion!"

Tears weld up in Luan's eyes as she listened to her family's opinions of her pranks. "I knew it...I'm a monster..."

"Luan, I think I can safely assume you're wrong to consider yourself an aberrant occurrence." Lisa corrected. "Especially after everything I did..."

"Girls, none of you are monsters. Sure, you may have your...quirks...but that doesn't mean you're a threat to anyone..."

Luan gripped her arms tensely. That was surely a lie... "Then explain to me why you guys always hide from me on April Fools then! Don't act like I don't know that every one of your plans to hide somewhere every time that holiday shows up! Lisa, you even built a bomb shelter specifically for that day! I've been pulling mean pranks on my family for the last few years just for a cheap laugh! I didn't even care if you guys were hurt! So how can you tell me that I'm not a monster?!" The family was stunned by her sudden outburst, but the pained look on Luan's face said it all.

Lori sat down on opposite side of the distressed girl as she started to cry in silence. "Luan, what did you talk about with the therapist?" Lori asked.

"...I-I'm sorry guys...I'm so...so sorry...I should've came to you about this long before now...b-but I couldn't...I was just too s-scared..." Luan sniffled to prevent snot from flowing out her nose.

"Sweetie, what were you supposed to talk to us about?" The matriarch asked.

"...I...I have a b-bullying problem..."

The second those words left Luan's lips, something struck a chord in Lynn. After a long time of going through self-hate in believing she was a bully to her brother, getting the bomb-shell that her older sister was getting bullied put her defensive instincts at an all-time high. She might have failed Lincoln, but there was no way in hell she was going to let another of her siblings suffer from assholes with ego problems.

"Who are they Luan?..." She said in a low voice. When the comedian didn't reply, the athlete grew angry. "I said who are they?! Just point them out and I swear, I'll give them a thrashing so bad, it'll pale in comparison to what Ronnie Anne did to me..."

"I don't know ok?! It was back in elementary grade!..."

"You don't even have a face to reference?!" Lynn asked. Luan shook her head, causing the 13 year old to punch the wall as a means of letting off steam.

"Lynn Jr! Getting angry won't help! So calm down!" Rita ordered. Lynn looked at her mother defiantly for a few seconds before giving a small huff, sinking into her chair. The mother then turned her attention back to her crying daughter. "Luan, if you had a bullying problem then...why didn't you say anything?"

"L-Like I said...I was too a-afraid to talk about it..."

"I'm guessing it was literally a..." Lori wanted to swear, but with the little ones present, she changed her words. "Pain in the back?"

"...More than that to be honest..."

Luna strolled into Ms. Lopez office, who was expecting her. She didn't know what to think about her session before it started. Obviously, the question would be about this whole incident the family found themselves in, but the musician had some suspicions that there was more to it than accidentally putting her brother in the hospital and making him afraid of them. Luan was practically on the verge of tears when she came back, and she doubted it had to do with Lincoln's condition. Everyone already accepted the hard truth that they couldn't undo what had happened, though Lisa wished she could build a time machine to prevent this whole mess from starting. The tears of sadness were already shed, and crying about it wouldn't do any help at this point. Luna herself was well aware of this fact, as she silently cried herself to sleep the first few days after the fight, and the night it was discovered that Lincoln developed his phobia.

"Hey doc..." The 15 year old greeted, taking a look around the room. "Nice digs."

"Thank you, Luna is it?"

"The one and only." The musician said with a shred of confidence.

"Great, great. So how are you feeling today?"

"Well, to be honest, ain't really on my usual riff today...not that I have since the flow of our family broke like my axe does occasionally...also, was something the matter with Luan? She was all happy to be coming in, but looked like she broke her favorite dummy when she came back."

"Luan was just reflecting on the session we had. While I can't give you the schematics of what happened, she'll be sure to talk about it with you all."

"Riiiight." Luna sat in the chair. "So, how's this work out?"

"We're just here to talk dear. Anything we talk about can be kept private if you wish it to be. If not, you're free to use this information however you want. Sound good?"

"That's cool..." Luna shrugged.

"So, tell me a bit about yourself."

Luna gave a smirk. "Well, not to brag, but I'm what puts the loud in Loud of our family. I make the place rockin' day and night, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. If my sisters and bro need some music, I'm the one they turn to."

"And judging by your attire, I'd say you're interested in rock and roll?"

"Heavily mate."

"So when did you start getting into the music industry?"

"Now that's a long story." Luna stared at the ceiling. "Unlike most of my sisters, I didn't exactly have a 'special talent' when I was little, you know? I guess if you use my brother as a divider...I'm the middle child of my teenaged sisters. There were times I had felt like the only one who couldn't carry a beat, as both my 2 older and 2 younger sisters found something they were good at. Lynn found she really liked sports when she was only 6, Leni got into fashion around that age, Lori found she was a decent speller (would explain why she has that phone in her hands so much...), and even Luan started taking up comedy in elementary school. As for me...I didn't know what I was good at."

The musician gave a sigh. "None of the stuff my sisters did got me goin', but it didn't bother me much. Not until I was in 7th grade at least...by then I was getting worried I might not have any sort of skill like my sisters. But, over the past few years I found that I had really gotten into music, the classics to be exact; but even then, it just didn't feel like the real me...all of that changed when I heard about the Rocking Boulders doin' a concert in town one day. The night I heard Mick Swagger sing and call me on the stage, it was then that I knew, that I was meant to be rockin' the world anywhere I go. And that's why to this day, I always viewed Mick as my hero, cause he showed me that I had the skills all along, but just didn't realize it. Besides singing and playing the axe, I still practice using a lot of other instruments."

"What kind of instruments do you know how to use?"

The 15 year old started counting off her fingers. "Drums, the piano, the flute, tuba, trumpet, violin, the harp, I tried the banjo once, and of course, the guitar."

"Hmm, would you say that there isn't any instrument that you couldn't play?"

"Welp...maybe? I mean, when I usually get my hands on somethin' I haven't touched yet, I can figure it out within an hour or so. My sisters and bro do have some taste too, like Lincoln is pretty sick on the cello and Lucy can make a wicked tune on the organ. Lori isn't half bad on the trumpet either, even if she's a little off-key."

"Interesting." Miranda noted, jotting something down. "Each of these girls are very gifted for their age. However, their conflicting personalities are quite obvious." She said in her mind before turning her attention back to the musician.

"Ok, so I understand that you have a passion for the arts, particularly the rock genre. Has this at times come into conflict with your siblings?"

Luna felt a little bummed out when asked that, as one particular situation came to mind. "There was this time that our family had signed up for the talent show at the fair. Many ideas were thrown around but we couldn't agree on anythin'. So I said 'Let's start a family band!', and of course they weren't keen on the idea since they didn't know how to play certain instruments. So, I just told them that it didn't matter as long as they had fun doin' it. We were havin' a good time until my roadie Chunk called me and said that Mick Swagger was gonna be scoutin' for talent at the fair. I really, really, REALLY wanted to make a good impression but knew my family wasn't that talented...long story short, I ended up forgetting about that one rule I said to them and made a huge jerk of myself..."

"And how did that turn out?"

"Well, after meeting someone who ended up being Mick in disguise, I apologized for putting out bad vibes and we all took the stage and rocked it! Best Family Fun Fair I could remember."

"Sounds good." Miranda smiled. "Now, my next question is going to stem from some of the things I've learned from your other siblings: has your musical talent annoyed your siblings at any point?"

Luna smiled sheepishly. "Sometimes...I get a bit too into my jam sessions to notice what I'm doin'. I get so pumped up from the riff of my axe that a few times I broke the neck of it, and I almost stage-dived Lily once..." The guilt was evident in the last part of that sentence.

"Wait, you almost landed on the baby?" Miranda asked, quite shocked at her words.

"Yeeeah...thankfully she was moved out of the way and I landed on my drum set. Aside from that, they only seem to get annoyed when I turn it up to 11 and talk in a British accent."

"So the accent you're speaking now, isn't your real voice?"

Luna nodded. "Oi. I idolized Mick a lot that I started talking more like a good ol' Brit soon enough. I practically forgot what my real voice sounded like...until recently that is..."

"I see..." Miranda replied. "I was going to ask this a little later, but since we're on this subject...did you have a part to play in how things occurred last weekend?"

"More than I would've liked..." The rocker spoke, this time with her native, American accent. "Me and Luan were put in charge of making sure Lori and Leni didn't run into each other while they were still beefing...so we ended up forcing Lincoln out of his room to hide one of them as to avoid them jabbin' at each other. Then at night, Lincoln was upset at his bed sheets being used as a divider in Lori and Leni's room, and since my two elder sisters refused to bunk with each other, Lincoln had me and Leni switch places. During the night, Lori ranted at me about how she got the dress first. Usually, I'm not the one who cares about this small talk, because seriously? It's just a dress bro. But the more she raved, the more I started to believe her...Leni must've been telling Luan the same thing, cause the next morning I was fighting with my roommate over who had the dress first..."

"Whose you're roommate exactly?"

"Luan."

"Ah ok. What happened next?"

"While me and LuLu were gettin' heated up, Lincoln stepped in to try to calm us down. But we were so angry...had the twins not separated us, we would've pummeled him on the spot..." A saddened look took form on Luna's face. "Too bad no one could protect him from being thrashed later on..."

"...I've asked this quite a few times with your other sisters in terms of the relationship you girls have with each other. However, I think I already have a clear picture given what I've heard so far. So in this instance, I'll narrow it down: what kind of relationship do you have with Lincoln? Do you feel he's very close to you?"

"Is Lincoln close to me?...he sure is...but after everything that's happened, I doubt it now...normally the two of us get along just fine: I'd ask him to help me with a few things and he'd ask me for stuff, we'd both listen to various bands, hell...I even went with him to his first SMOOCH concert. The other girls didn't like me doing that since I, on accident, ruined their experiences...but wanted to prove them wrong and show them that I can make someone's first concert one to remember. It also helped that it was a rock band and not some boring opera or boy band." Luna said the last part in disgust. "Lincoln actually got in trouble shortly after he told me to leave because this mall cop tricked him into illegally buying tickets just so he could put him in a cell. Kinda wish I could've smashed my axe on that guy's head...luckily, I picked up the phone before anyone else did and got him out of there, even though I was caught pretending to be mom...I still owe Bobby for backin' us up then, but I sure proved my sisters wrong about me always ruining concert outings."

The doctor took note of this. "Anything else you want to add?"

"Loads..." Luna flopped back in the chair. "When Lincoln was born, I was pretty excited at the fact we got a brother. I love my sisters, but it was so cool that we got a boy in the family now. Aside from mom, I was the second sister to hold him. Believe it or not, Lynn was the first, and she loved it. Sometimes I almost felt like a mom when I had to sing him to sleep if he was being fussy, but I always played with him when the others were busy, occasionally feed him, and me and Leni would argue over who gets to hold him when we go somewhere. He's drifted close to me since those days, even if we aren't as close as we used to be...I do the same thing with Lily even, though I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to be anywhere near me after what happened..."

"Aside from recent events, has your relationship with your brother had pitfalls? Like, has he done anything to make you upset or vice versa?"

Luna regretfully nodded. "...There have been times where I've been actin' jerkish to him...there was this one instance where he mapped out a seat in the van called 'the sweet spot' and like my sisters, I got jealous and wanted to have it for myself. No offense to Vanzilla, but you get tired of restin' your bums on soggy, sticky seats next to broken windows all the time. Another time was when we all went shopping and he made a deal with mom to get the groceries in order to get some Zombie Bran...all of us wanted treats too and...I took his cereal from him and the whole gang started fighting on who should get a treat, which got us banned from the store; we made it up to Lincoln since it was our fault he didn't get his prize, but that was still a low note...on the other side, bro can be selfish or clumsy at times. He has a bad habit of clogging the only toilet in the house with stuff that shouldn't go in that tube, like a sweater. Last time he clogged it with a Princess Pony book, though to be honest, I'm not even sure if that was Lincoln's. He's more into Ace Savvy and boy stuff, not girly girl things. I'm getting this vibe that it was Lola's even though she said she doesn't read that junk. That or...Lucy maybe? I don't know..."

Luna then described the two times she ended up blasting Lincoln into the wall with her extremely loud speakers. The first time was an accident which left a crack in the wall, but the musician expressed sincere regret over the second time it happened. It happened during the time all of the kids were following clues left around the house that pointed towards a hidden cash prize, and Luna distinctly remembered Lincoln peering into their room, only for her to blast him point blank right into the opposing wall in the hallway. The 15 year old drew a few tears at this due to the fact she might have seriously injured her brother and she wouldn't have cared at the time, so long as she find the money. Thankfully, he only suffered some temporary hearing loss. Miranda was starting to notice a pattern at this point. Whenever Luna acted like a jerk, her sisters seemed to be acting the same way, almost as if they had some kind of mob mentality. She wrote this down in her notes to bring it up later.

"But I could say the one time I was super mad at Lincoln was when he filmed an embarrassing moment of me and my sisters for a video contest. People kept laughing at the fact I wore polka-dot underwear for a couple days, until Lincoln corrected his mistake by uploading a ton of embarrassing moments of himself. But when I look back on it...I realized I couldn't be too mad at him for what he did..."

"How so?"

"After looking at the trophy case in our house...I realized the reason why Lincoln wanted to win that video contest so badly...he felt like he was living in everyone's shadow, much like how I felt before I discovered music. What I'm saying is, he felt just like I did when I was around his age...he just wanted to stand out apart from us, and he must've felt like he couldn't accomplish anything from seeing all the trophies we had. I know he did try out for a few things, but he just couldn't seem to win the crowd...I know that feeling of having a trophy you can fawn over, as I have a few myself, but I finally got why he published our embarrassing moments. He was very desperate to win something, anything, to show that he could be a winner like us. And it didn't help his younger sisters even had a few wins on their end...I was too angry with him to realize it before he publicly embarrassed himself, but after seeing the little trophy we gave him compared to the others...I don't think giving him a trophy labeled 'Most Improved Brother' eases the ice...sure, it'll be something we'll remember as a family, but it won't mean anything to the real world..."

"Interesting comparison...have you tried to help your brother in any way?"

"...The best I did was try to help him through music, as it always helps me out when I'm thinking of something. But Lincoln just isn't into music like I am...I'm not sure what he likes besides comics, but I do want to help him find his calling so he doesn't feel like he's draggin' the band down...though given he's...a-afraid of me...I don't know how I can help him now...he probably feels like everything is his fault even..."

"Well then, I think it's wonderful that you're helping your brother in trying to realize what he's good at. Your father had similar thoughts and has wished that Lincoln was more like you and your sisters. But like I told him, Lincoln will find his calling in due time, all he needs is acceptance and patience."

"Right..."

"Now, another thing I want to bring up is your interactions with your brother during certain times. When you talked about the times you've acted selfish towards him, you also said your sisters acted the same way. Whether this is based on coincidence due to having similar ideals, I'm not certain, but it doesn't seem like you act out on your own in these situations. The only time you have is when you admitted to being selfish when it came to the incident involving the family fair. It seems that you girls act as one without realizing it, though it appears it often devolves into infighting, particularly when your brother comes up with the idea in the first two examples you've given me."

Luna wasn't too sure how to make sense of this bit of information. "So, like...are you saying when us girls act selfish, we tend to think too much of ourselves and be inconsiderate of our brother?"

"It could also stem from jealousy of the fact none of you thought of it yourselves before it was too late, so you try to bend the rules to suit your needs, but this only exacerbates the problem into unnecessary conflict."

"...That...does make a lot of sense. Lincoln did say he spent 8 months scouting out for that seat in the van. We ended up tearing the car apart in the process...and he made a deal with mom to get the groceries. We promised to help him shop, but all we did was goof around..." Luna rubbed her head as she recalled the moment she used the store's PA system to play a guitar riff. "I'm thinking it probably leans more towards jealousy than anything else...I think I've been roped into the idea of wanting something for myself when I didn't plan in advance more than I would like to count...at least Lincoln always tends to plan ahead..."

It suddenly dawned on the musician as to why Lincoln always makes up these plans with incredibly long names. He seems to be well-aware of how his sisters will act when they're in a group, and if anything, the girls have proved time and time again as to why he would have to stay a few steps ahead of them, especially if it's something he didn't want them to ruin: they would either want the same thing or try to force their opinions on him. Perhaps Dr. Lopez's theory of this mob mentality isn't too far-fetched, and Luna didn't like it one bit. One such instance was the whole Sadie Hawkins Dance fiasco. Four of his sisters set up dates for him and hadn't bothered asking him whether or not he actually wanted to go to the dance. They ended up forcing him to go for the sake of their friends, who now want nothing to do with them after finding out how they landed their brother in the hospital. While Luna was happy that Lincoln actually managed to hook their friends up with his friends, she quickly became aware of how badly that night could've turned out if Tabby, Polly, Haiku, and Giggles thought Lincoln was cheating on each of them...

Shaking her head, Luna stood up. "Thanks for the time doc, but I think I'd like to leave now..."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah..."

"Well Luna, remember that the door is always open." Miranda said, a little unsure as to why Luna suddenly wanted to leave. However, the doctor didn't want to stop her as she felt she got enough information from the 15 year old. Plus, she needed to go out for lunch.

The musician walked calmly out the door, conflicting thoughts and feelings of uncertainty plaguing her mind. But Luna was certain about one thing: she needed to call a sibling meeting as soon as possible.

A/N: There's been some internal debate as to why Lincoln and Luna are very close. Most say they are due to how Luna treats Lincoln, despite there being a lot of canon evidence that Luna and Lincoln don't hang out much. One could say the only episode where the two really hang out is For Bro About To Rock. However, there was one thing I noticed when watching this episode, and later going back to watching Making the Case.

In the SMOOCH concert episode, we saw that Luna was a lost soul who had yet to find her passion in life. Out of the 5 older sisters, she's the middle child, and it's been hinted at the possibility that Lori, Leni, Luan, and Lynn found their calling before Luna did. While this wouldn't be much of an impact from Lori and Leni, the fact Luan and Lynn found their talents would have bothered Luna to the point she'd become concerned at finding out what she's good at. It wasn't until 7th grade that she realized her taste for music, which she embraced fully. Now with Lincoln, Making the Case made it evident that he feels overshadowed by his sisters due to the awards they've made. Both Luna and Lincoln are the middle children of their respective groups, and had trouble finding out what they're skilled at. So in essence, the reason Luna and Lincoln are close to one another, is because Lincoln reminded Luna of herself when she was around his age.

Another thing I've noticed is that while Luna and Leni seem to be the most caring out of all the girls, they only become jerks if it involves the rest of the girls. Luna's only had one jerk moment, which was in House Music, whilst Leni hardly has any unless the rest of the girls are fighting over something (not counting Brawl since that's why we're here right now). With this new information, Luna is gonna have to talk with her siblings about this sudden realization.

Not sure who I may do next, but there is a possibility I may do a take on Dance Dance Resolution from the subtle hint I dropped.