79. Ch 79- Clearing The Air

Back at the Loud House, the sisters were all sat together in the living room, watching re-runs of an old sitcom about the family of an Italian American man living in Long Island. "I still don't get why Deena got together with Randy," Lola complained. "She can do way better than him."

"Aw, come on, Lola! Don't be so randy about it!" Luan joked, giving her typical laugh. "Get it?"

"Sadly," Lucy sighed as her sisters all groaned.

"Why are we even watching this?" Lynn asked.

"Because Dream Boat is on after this," Lori reminded.

"Yeah, but not on this channel. Why can't we watch something else?"

"Yeah, why can't we watch Reptilia instead?" Lana added, to which Luan smugly held up the TV remote, causing the grease monkey groan. "Dang it."

"Hey, it's not my fault you guys can't appreciate a classic sitcom!"

"Dude, they're all the same anyway. What makes this one so special?"

Luna's comment struck a nerve with the comedienne, who immediately gave her a stink eye. "This coming from the girl who listens to a thousand albums of loud yelling and guitar solos?"

This sparked a fire in the rocker's eye, the two roommates butting their heads together. "You wanna go, brah?"

"Call me a drummer, because I'm about to beat ya!"

Lori knew where this was likely to go, so she got up and forced the two apart, before sitting in between them. "We are literally not going to start fighting before Dream Boat, so both of you settle down now!" The two brunettes grumbled to themselves as they obliged, causing the oldest of the Loud girls to shake her head. "Would you rather we used the sibling fight protocol?"

"… no…"

Satisfied by their answers, Lori's eyes returned to the screen, though they were quickly diverted away again when she heard a car driving toward the house. She watched as Leni got to her feet and walked over to the window, smiling at what she saw. "Linky's back!"

Lisa rolled her eyes at the chipper comment from her second oldest sister. "This is hardly noteworthy, elder sibling. Our Male sibling makes his return from his session of physical activity at the same time every—"

"O M Gosh, they're hugging!"

This time, the girls were all intrigued by the comment of the fashionista, as they all got up and went over to the window. As the blonde had said, there was their brother and his friend, sharing an embrace together. The sweet sight caused all of the girls to coo, big smiles stretching across their faces. Even the stoic Lisa and Lucy couldn't help but be heartwarmed by the sight.

"Literally too cute," Lori sighed.

"He should ask her out!" Lola insisted. "It's obvious they like each other!"

"I believe his heart may be conflicted," Lucy mused. "The temptation of something greater comes with the risk of painful heartbreak, and with it the loss of what is already there. The step from what is familiar to what is new is a difficult one to take."

"Dudette's got a point," Luna agreed. "Sometimes you've got to put yourself out there, but you wanna be sure they feel the same way you do. Otherwise, you'll end up mending a broken heart."

While the others all agreed or disagreed, Lana watched as the car drove away, with Lincoln waving goodbye to his friend. "He's coming in!" she called out, catching their attention. They all saw the boy begin to walk towards the house, so they rushed back to their previous seated positions and resumed watching the TV. When the door eventually opened, they looked with smiling faces to their brother.

"Hey, Lincoln!"

Though he was surprised to hear all the girls speak at once, he gave them a smile back as he shut the door. "Hey, girls," he greeted back.

"How was practice, bro?" Lynn asked.

"It was good, thanks."

"And how's Jordan?" Luna asked, the hint of excitement in her voice not going unnoticed.

"Uh, she's fine? Why do you ask?"

"What, we can't ask how your friends are?"

"Yeah, it's not like anyone else will tell us," Lola added, only adding to Lincoln's suspicion.

"Right… well, like I said, she's fine."

"We asked how she is, Linc, not what you think of her."

Lynn's teasing joke got all of the girls giggling, while Lincoln sighed as the penny finally dropped. "How many times do I have to tell you that we're just friends?"

"Well, that hug looked more than friendly," Lori pointed out, causing a slight blush on his face.

"Seriously? You were watching us?" Rather than make any attempt at hiding it, his sisters all nodded, causing him to sigh heavily. "Why am I not surprised."

"Your words have no signs of objection to our insinuation," Lisa pointed out, though he blinked at the way she worded it. "In other words, you're not denying it."

"That's because there's no point! No matter how much I try and set the record straight, you just keep saying that I like her or whichever girl it is we end up talking about. It's better if I just let you think what you want and ignore it."

Though she rolled her eyes, Lori knew that this was going nowhere. "Alright, we'll stop teasing you," she said to the boy, though there was a part of her directing it to the others too. "Anyway, if you're gonna shower, you better be quick. Dream Boat is on soon, and it's the season finale next week."

"Oh, yeah! I almost forgot the season was almost over!" He began to run up the stairs, though not without calling back, "I'll be down soon!"

When they eventually heard a door shut upstairs, Lola turned to the oldest of the sisters. "Why'd you have to stop us?" she complained in a faux whiny voice. "We were just having a bit of fun!"

The others either nodded or gave a "yeah" in agreement with the jock, to which Lori gave a shake of her head. "Come on, you know we can't push it too far," she pointed out. "He's told us not to tease him too much, so let's not make him mad at us." The others grumbled their agreements with this, knowing that they didn't want that to be the case again. 'Besides,' Lori mentally added, 'we're gonna have to speak to him later. Better not to do it if we've upset him.'

Lincoln eventually returned to the couch in his pyjamas after taking a shower, taking a seat next to Lana and Lisa on the floor in front of the others. They watched Dream Boat, which led to the usual arguments between the girls about which of the boys that Kayla— the female 'contestant' of the season— should choose, as well as their complaints about how each of the boys acted. Lincoln, of course, knew that it was best if he didn't object to any of the girls' opinions, and chose to simply smile and watch. When the show reached its end, Kayla had chosen to send Buck home, much to the disappointment of Lana, who thought that the animal lover was the best suitor left on the show.

She didn't mull over the decision too much, as right after the credits rolled, the kids were called into the dining room for dinner. The typical Sunday meal of Salisbury steak had made its return, but now that it wasn't being served every week, it went down a lot better with the kids. The meal was relatively pleasant, with no arguments breaking out and with everyone sharing things about their day, such as Luna's band practice, Lincoln and Lynn's respective practice sessions and how Lana had managed to teach Charles to stop digging up flowers— a fact that the Loud mother was rather pleased to hear.

By the time the kids had all finished their food, Lynn Sr wiped his mouth with a napkin, which he then put down on his plate. "Well, I think that was a lovely dinner, fam," he told his family, with murmurs of agreement from the kids at the table.

"You're all free to leave the table," Rita added, "but remember that it's a school night. That means, make sure your homework is finished, and no staying up late."

"Hey, Leni?" Lola asked. "Could you go over my dress for my next pageant? I don't think it's quite good enough to beat Lindsey Sweetwater."

"Sure, Lola!" the chipper blonde agreed. "I'd be happy to!"

"That'll have to wait," Lori interrupted. "We need to have a sibling meeting." Naturally, this was met with looks of confusion and disappointed groans from her siblings, but she stood firm. "Now!"

So, the kids begrudgingly followed the high school senior up to her room. As he prepared to go up, Lincoln felt a hand on his shoulder, which he quickly acknowledged was his mother's. "What's up?"

"I never got the chance to tell you yesterday," she informed him with a warm smile, "but I'm very proud of you Lincoln. It can't have been easy making up with your sisters like that, but I'm glad that you and the girls handled it like you did."

The boy smiled back. "Thanks, Mom."

"Of course. Now, go on. Lori's waiting for you."

He nodded, then made his way upstairs. Heading into his oldest sisters' bedrooms, he saw the girls all sat on the two beds as they usually did, with Lori stood at her desk. When she saw the boy arrive, she told him, "took you long enough."

He rolled his eyes at her before explaining, "Mom wanted to tell me something real quick."

"Alright, well, take a seat and we can start." Lincoln obliged sitting next to Lucy on Lori's bed. Lori took her shoe and banged it against the desk, promptly ending any discussions that the rest of the sisters were having. "Okay! This sibling meeting is now in session! Before I begin what I have to say, is there anything that the rest of you would like to bring up?"

"Dude, come on, just spit it out! We've only got time to kill, so let's not waste it!"

The others agreed with the rocker's sentiment, irking the eldest until she silenced them with her shoe once more. "That's enough. If none of you have anything to bring up, then fine. I called you in here for two reasons. The first was to remind you that next Saturday is the only chance we'll have to go to the mall and do our Christmas shopping, so make sure to make a list of everything you need to get before then, and make sure you know how much it's going to cost in case you need to ask Mom and Dad for a loan or anything like that."

"And what, pray tell, was the second matter of discussion?" Lisa asked, further irritating the one running the meeting.

"Geez, don't be so impatient! I was getting there!" She scoffed to herself, before turning her attention to her brother. "Lincoln. We all know the truth now, and we are all thankful that you forgave us for… well, not being too friendly in our original reaction."

Lincoln gave a small smile as he cut in, saying, "Lori, it's fine. You've all apologised, and I've apologised to you too. That's behind us now, so we don't need to keep coming back to this."

His smile led to the seventeen year old to give one of her own. "You're too kind, Lincoln, and you're right. That was in the past, and we should be moving forward now. With that in mind, I wanted to make sure that there weren't any questions that the others had about it, and to make sure that we don't have the wrong idea. Is that okay with you?"

Though he was surprised by the request, he didn't have any kind of issue with it. "Y-Yeah, sure. Is there anything you particularly want to ask?"

"Well, there is one thing. When we talked yesterday, you said that you were worried about how we were going to react. Was it always the stuff we did that made you think that?"

Lincoln sighed. "Well… I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't worried because of that. However, it wasn't the first thing that crossed my mind when I got back. You see, when Mrs Rosato was dropping me off after the taster session, she mentioned something. I don't remember exactly what it was she said, but it was something about men she knew who would have laughed at the idea of a boy doing gymnastics."

"What?! That's ridiculous!" Luan burst out. "Have you ever seen a gymnast at the Olympics? Those guys are—" She cut herself off when she saw how the others were looking at her, making her blush timidly. "Uh, I mean, they look… impressive! Yeah, it's real impressive, the things they can do!"

"That, and their bodies are toned," Lynn agreed, causing the looks to turn to her. "What? I had to research when I was helping Linc train. Got to know where to focus your efforts."

"She's got a point," Lincoln acknowledged. "And, yeah. Had Mrs Rosato not told me that, then… I don't know, maybe I wouldn't have considered keeping it a secret, but that doesn't matter. Everything that happened happened as it has, and while I'm not proud of what I did, I'm glad that we can all be on the same page now."

The girls all seemed to appreciate this, as there was a bit of hollering from Lynn while the rest of his sisters gave their brother a round of applause. "Well, we're all glad about that too," Lori eventually said, once the applause died down. "Now, that was the only thing I wanted to ask, but is there anything the rest of you want to ask him?"

"Ooh! Ooh!" Lana announced, holding her hand up. "Me first!"

"Go ahead, Lana."

"What does Jordan think of your gymnastics?"

The girls all seemed excited about what the answer to this would be, though Lincoln had to roll his eyes, having had a slight feeling that his friend might be brought into the conversation at some point. "I can't speak for her, but she's told me I'm doing okay."

"Well, what do you think of her ability?" Lola then asked with a grin that made him sigh.

"I think she's great, okay? Now, does-" He caught sight of Lucy raising her hand. "Does your question have anything to do with Jordan?"

"… no…"

In spite of her monotone voice, Lincoln knew that she didn't mean it. "Go on, ask it."

"If she stopped doing gymnastics, do you think you would?"

He blinked with widening eyes. "Wow! I didn't see that coming! Honestly, I've never thought about that… well, if she did decide to stop, I don't think I would stop, but it wouldn't be as enjoyable. She's been helping me ever since I started, and we've become better friends because of it, but I don't think she would want me to stop because of her. I know if it was the other way around, and I stopped, I wouldn't want her to quit because I did." He heard a collective "aww" from his sisters in response, and while he knew that he wasn't doing himself any favours in the 'she's just a friend' department, he knew that what he said was the truth. "Does anyone have any questions that don't involve Jordan?"

"Actually, I've got one," Luan asserted. "I only got to see you practice on two apparatus on Tuesday, but I know there's more than that. Which is your favourite to use? Which one 'sepparatus' itself from the rest?"

Though Lincoln groaned at the pun, as did the others, he did smile at the question. "Well, I guess that would have to be the vault. The pommel horse and the rings are okay but I find them too technical, and the floor exercise is a little bit basic compared to the others. I do enjoy the bars, but there's something about the vault that's more… exhilarating. In a weird way, even though it only lasts for a second or so, it feels like I'm just floating in the air after I make that jump. That, and we get to use the foam pit to practice in, so that's fun."

The girls gave a small amount of chuckling at the last point. "Okay, are there any other questions?" Lori waited for anyone to speak or raise their hand, though neither came. "Well, if you think of anything else, I'm sure that Lincoln wouldn't mind answering. Otherwise, if there's nothing else that needs to be discussed, this sibling meeting is dismissed." She banged her shoe on the desk to make it official, and the others began to stand up and leave. She caught sight of Lynn and reached out to put a hand on her shoulder. "Hold on, Lynn," she requested, then looked to her roommate. "Leni!"

"Hmm? Oh, right! My room too, doi!"

Lori shook her head with a humoured smile. "Actually, could you give me and Lynn a few minutes alone?"

"Sure, no problem! I need to work on Lola's dress anyway, so just let me grab my needles."

The older blonde nodded, allowing the younger blonde to grab a sewing kit out of her bedside drawer before she left the room. When the door finally shut, Lynn turned to her sister. "What's up? I need to try and get on with my homework."

"It won't take long, so just sit down." Curious, she obliged, sitting down on the bed with Lori sitting next to her. "I wanted to tell you something, because there's something I've been thinking about since yesterday."

"Okay? Did I do something?"

Lori shook her head. "Lynn, you're not in trouble. What I wanted to tell you is… well, I'm proud of you."

Lynn tilted her head, her eyes squinting in confusion. "For what?"

"These last few weeks, you've really stepped up. You were the first of us Lincoln turned to when it came to gymnastics. You've been coaching him, sure, that's not surprising. However, you've also been supporting him this whole time. You helped him to figure out how to start telling the rest of us, and as a whole, you've looked out for him."

It was a rare sight to see, but the middle schooler looked almost bashful, rubbing the back of her head. "I wouldn't say I've done all that much."

Lori's smile grew, reaching around to pull Lynn close. "I bet Lincoln would. You've really stepped up your game, Lynn. One day, you're gonna be the oldest sister here, and you'll be the one that has to look after everyone when Mom and Dad can't… but now, I have more confidence than ever that you can do that when the time comes."

The brunette couldn't help the smile that graced her lips, and even if she wasn't considered to be the most affectionate of her siblings, she didn't hesitate to hug her big sister. "Thanks, Lori."

Lori smiled, returning the hug and replying, "no problem, Lynn."