Author's Note:

I had a horrible case of writing block these last couple of months. There were a lot of scenarios I was considering for this portion of the story that I ultimately changed. Hopefully, the end result works for you all. I sincerely apologize for the delay.

I hope everyone here, as well as their family and friends is safe during this pandemic! Well get through this!

Living a Loud Life: Chapter 19

Chapter 19: You Can Lead A Horse To Water But You Can't Make It Drink

"Hey, Lincoln! Cool party, man."

"Thanks for having us over, dude."

"Always knew, you were good people, Loud."

"Thanks, guys."

On the outside, Lincoln was the image of a cool and collected party host.

On the inside? He was freaking out.

The whole Clyde and siblings deal hit him unexpectedly, right when he thought his guard was up. It was like a spearhead finding the weak point in a suit of armor.

It's not like he hadn't at some point expected a confrontation. He had planned for it numerous times in his head, thinking of all possible angles and outcomes that could derive from it when approached in a multitude ways. But planning and actually following through are completely different things, and the moment he thought he had his feet planted, Lincoln stumbled.

And oh boy, oh man, was he regretting that.

Currently, he was outside, watching one of his co-editors, Garret, dry heave on the lawn after a bout of actual vomit had left his mouth.

"Lucky me for the distraction."

To be truthful, putting off all these talks was the worst thing, he could be doing now. But hey, he had put it off for months anyways. How bad could one more night be?

The answer to that, however, is something Lincoln would regrettably learn very soon.

"It's just weird, you know?"

Stella and Lola had migrated from the bathroom to the top of the staircase. Their bodies may have inconvenienced traffic between floors, but the duo was too engrossed in their conversation to care. It was weird, admittedly, the two of them having such a private chat together, considering neither had the need nor want to do so in all the years they knew each other. In many ways, the pair felt like strangers to each other. And yet here, through the sharing of Ace Savvy costumes and the coziness of the steps, the talk they had felt natural, as if they had done the very same thing for years.

"I mean, here's someone I thought I knew my whole life, my shining knight of a brother, paragon of truth. Yet here he is, having a whole nother life right behind our backs."

Stella chuckled to herself. "You're making it sound like we're married with kids, Lola."

Lola shrugged her shoulders. "Eh, I give it 2 years."

A blush coated Stella's cheeks. "U-um, I don't think-"

"But it's wrong, you know? I mean, don't get me wrong, I have nothing against you being with Lincoln or vice versa but… neither telling us about this relationship or how serious it was feels seriously screwy."

Lola rested her chin on her knees with a thousand-yard stare emanating from her eyes. Despite the lack of having any personal encounters with the girl beforehand, Stella felt a strange sense of sympathy for her.

"And it's not like Lincoln hasn't lied before. Heh, I probably exaggerated the whole paragon thing. He has lied. A lot. But, even then, he always came clean about it to us, our family I mean."

A faint smile ghosted the Loud's lips before thinning out into a line.

"The guilt would eat at him, you know? That, or he'd realize just how more damaging keeping the truth away from us was then telling it straight. Lincoln's always had the best conscience out of all of us."

"Lincoln's allllways been the DUMBEST in our family. You know THAT?"

For the past half hour, Lana had been drunkenly stumbling through a one-sided conversation with Lindsey on a couch. It was a rant, barely comprehensible by now due to how wasted Lana had gotten as well as the fact that Lindsey was slowly catching up to her in alcohol consumption. Lana was too distracted to really notice earlier, but Lindsey was wearing a vampire costume, specifically one from the show Lucy used to be a huge fan of. Lindsey had explained that it was based on the character Griselda only her own version was, "far more fashionable and decade fitting" than the show's. Lana assumed it was because it showed off her boobs.

Lindsey leaned her head back on the couch and groaned. "This is like, the fifth time you've TOLD me."

"Yeah, well, who's counting?"

Slamming her can on the armrest, Lindsey stared at Lana. "I am, dummy."

"Oh yeah? Who asked you?"

"YOU did."

"...Touché."

Lindsey could only facepalm herself from the sheer stupidity at display.

"But as I was saying-"

"Uggggh."

"I just don't get how everyone seems to look up to him ALL the time, you know? I mean sure, he can witty and come up with plans on the spot, but for every good one he has there's another one jut waiting to backfire. I couldn't count how many of Lincoln's convoluted ideas ended in disaster."

"I mean, isn't that normal? Doesn't everyone have their good days and bad days?"

"Yeah? I mean, I guess so…"

"Look Lana, take tit- I mean it, from his perspective."

"Whatever you say, boob." Lana snickered.

Ignoring the comedic comment worthy of Luan, Lindsey pushed on.

"Imagine for one second you're the only girl in a house with ten other brothers, brother who are constantly vying for the attention of their parents. Imagine how competitive it is and how at the end of it all, there's only one sibling not caught up in it all. There's only one person who can listen to and give unbiased advice and help to every child in the house. Now tell me, does THAT sound fair?!"

"Well if you word it like that, of course it's not gonna sound fair!"

"Whoa man, you suuure you've done this before?"

In the kitchen, Clyde was consuming brownie after brownie from the guy he met earlier. The effects, at the time, were minimal and due to his lack of knowledge on the subject of weed (or any recreational drugs for that matter), Clyde merely thought he hadn't had enough. Before the man could ask again, Clyde took another brownie and swallowed it whole.

"Dude, are you sure you're fine?"

Clyde gave a pat to the man's shoulder. "Totally. This is nothing, Commissioner."

"Commissioner? What are you-"

"Shh! No time, Commissioner! My instincts tell me Ace is in danger! I've got to go after him!"

Fishing some cash out of his pocket, Clyde handed a wad of bills to the man. Before he could refuse, Clyde readjusted his costume's eyepatch, and sped out into the hallway.

And with that, the caped hero was gone.

"…I'm gonna need another one of these."

It was past midnight now, and the majority of partygoers were well deep into their drink reserves for the evening. The music had slowed down from a high energy rhythmic vibe to a slower, more melodic chill ambience. The outside air had become more frigid and a breeze caused the grasses to calmly dance on the ground. Lincoln was tapping the neck of beer bottle with his finger while internally debating what to do.

"Alright, you've done enough moping. Clyde deserves that talk and you're gonna give it to him. Time for action."

"Lincoln Looooud!"

"Or not." He glumly thought to himself.

Drunkenly stumbling out the house came Lindsey Sweetwater, plastered and angry beyond reason.

"You…youuuuuuuu bastard."

"Uh, what?"

"You, and your goodie two shoes brotherly love, and your plans, and your monologues to non-existent people!"

"I had to l hear about all of that and how much of a pain it all was to experience it first-hand. And you know what? With how torturous it was hearing it all, I'm beginning to agree. You're nothing but a no-good poser! You can claim to be all nice and sweet and stuff, but behind all that helpful nature is a selfish prick who feels better about himself when he fixes the problems of others. Well screw you and your messiah complex!"

"Uh…who are you?"

"I'M….so drunk right now."

"And I'm Lana. Hi Lincoln, I'm about throw up."

Right on cue, the inebriated Loud puked all over the grass, with a few chunks hitting Lindsey's kicks in the process.

"Aw not again!"

"Oh boy. What did I do to deserve this?"

"Ace!"

Through the backdoor came Clyde, madly dashing as if there was an emergency. He stopped, just before crashing into Lincoln, and leaned over to catch his breath, his sweaty palms resting on his knees.

"I found you just in time. You guard the civilians; I'll take care of these villains!"

"I'm sorry, what?"

Clyde spun around to face Lana and Lindsey, fists up like an old timey boxer. "It's just us, you evildoers. Just us…here for justice!"

Lana massaged her temple while outwardly groaning. "Argh, not puns, too! I thought I escaped that!"

Lincoln threw his hands up in the air. "Is anyone else totally lost here or is it just me?"

Woozily balancing herself, Lana pointed straight at the aforementioned host of the party. "Look here, Lincoln! We're gonna MAKE you admit everything."

Lindsey chimed in, albeit much more tiredly. "Yeah, you better, urgh, come clean while you still can. Oh boy…"

"Hey, are you okay? You don't look so good. Maybe you should lie d-"

"Shut up! The only way you're getting us to leave is in body bags."

"Ah, crud."

And with that, Lindsey passed out onto the ground.

"Hey!"

"Oh shit."

Lincoln kneeled down on the ground, trying to assess her condition. Lana, meanwhile, tried to contain herself from hurling again as Clyde began freaking out.

"Man down, man down! Ace, we need to call in an airlift stat."

"Not now, Clyde. Just lemme-"

It was at this precise second that Stella and Lola entered the fold.

"Lincoln! I have some word for you, mister- Lindsey?"

"What the hell did you guys do?!" Stella exclaimed.

"We may, or may not have had a couple of beers too many."

Lola narrowed his eyes at her twin sibling. "Define a couple, Lana."

"Eh, I lost count."

"Guys? I think something's wrong with her."

"…Come on, Clyde. I know she's not the best, but now is hardly the time to be pointing that out."

"No, I'm being serious she-"

"Holy shit." Lincoln's sudden sober voice cut through the pandemonium. "She's seizing!"

"Lincoln, shut the music off and get people inside. Lana especially needs to go in and drink lots of water. We don't need her dehydrating on top of this."

Acting quickly, Stella took the choker off Lindsey's neck and used the cape from her own High Card costume as a pillow for Lindsey's head. Lincoln, without hesitation, holding onto Lana's hand and corralled her and the rest of the guests inside.

"Lola, call 911." Stella commanded.

"Y-yeah. On it."

Lincoln came out from the apartment towards the outside speaker system. Shifting his attention to Lola, the two siblings held an unspoken conversation for the briefest of seconds. To an outsider of the family, one would just think they were looking to family for support. Yet a thousand words passed between in that moment. Words that would need to be voiced later but for now, were enough to give both of them strength and focus in the interim.

Lola gave one last glance at Lindsey before pulling out her phone and heading into the apartment to call.

"Clyde, back up." Stella spoke.

"Uh, I can help."

Lincoln grabbed Clyde by the bicep and looked dead in his eyes. "No offense Clyde, but you can't. Not the way that you are right now."

Those words were a bucket of cold water to Clyde in that moment. All the haziness, and drug induced fervor he had up into that point was washed away with a sharp, stabbing truth. Sure, on the surface level, Lincoln may have been talking about his physical state. But looking into his pupils and expression, Clyde saw what Lincoln really meant beneath those words.

That hurt him.

By the time the EMS had arrived and loaded up Lindsey, the party had unofficially ended. Lincoln took Lola along with him to the hospital while Stella watched over Lana inside the apartment. Clyde, however, remained rooted to that spot out in the back.

Things changed after that.