A/N: I am very apprehensive about this story up but eh, I suppose I've submitted worse. It's not really because of the story quality itself but more because I have somewhat of a…"policy" when it comes to my TLH fics. Despite the many tempting opportunities to do so, I don't want to create AU's or sequels to actual episodes. Not because I think they're inherently bad but I want to focus on creating my own original idea and I take pride in pursuing that "code".

This fic, however, will somewhat falter on that conviction. See, it's not an AU or sequel but it does make references to real episodes and those references will have recognizable significance, in my opinion. I don't think said significance will actually make this an AU or sequel but then again, I'm not the most reliable person of discernment that you can count on.

Anyways, on with the madness.

Once more, Lincoln looked over the living room couch from his seat, peering at his surroundings with the help of his trusty pair of binoculars. He didn't care what anyone thought of his actions; he would not be on the receiving end of a bothersome encounter with his family.

Scanning around the room with the vigilance of a watchful superhero, Lincoln missed the visible irritation on the other occupant of the couch as she scowled at Lincoln's antics.

"Lincoln, for the last time, I think we're safe."

Lincoln shook his head as his focus zoomed in on a vent cover in the corner of the living room.

Lucy was sure to be there!

"You can never be too careful with my family, Ronnie Anne. Trust me," Lincoln asserted confidently, returning to the task at hand despite Ronnie Anne's vexation increasing by the second.

Despite Ronnie Anne's insistence, Lincoln was determined not to have their quality time interloped by his meddling siblings or parents.

Again.

He knew that his sisters went all crazy whenever he and Ronnie Anne would hang out (no matter how platonic he swore that their outings were). They'd get all giddy and mushy and weird and just…just plain kooky. Sometimes, they'd do it in full view of Ronnie Anne, which would only elicit discomfort from her and coax her to maintain a hurtful yet understandable distance from him until they got the hint and backed off.

Regardless of his frustration with their behavior, Lincoln could see why they'd act that way. After all, they did have a hand in making their, as Lori would call it, "ship" set sail. It'd make sense that they'd have some pride in what they were able to accomplish for their brother. Thanks to them, he learned that his school's biggest bully had a thing for him and once he got to know her, felt the same way about her.

But still, did their bond need to warrant his sisters squealing and giggling like maniacs?

Apparently, it did since lately, even his parents would get into the act. It was enough to nearly drive Lincoln mad, knowing that no one in his family would just leave well enough alone and let them enjoy their time together in peace.

And once he caught Lynn peering at them from the dining room, he just knew that they wouldn't leave well enough alone. Hence, the binoculars and the undertaking he was currently dedicated to.

"You're going to miss the "ARGGH!" marathon if you keep looking out for them," Ronnie Anne complained, sinking deeper into the couch as she sulked with folded arms.

"Marco!" Lincoln shouted, making Ronnie Anne squeak at the sudden outburst.

Mumbling angrily, she looked up at her boyfriend with a demanding glare.

"What was that about?" she chided more than asked.

"I was trying to bait Leni out," Lincoln explained as he turned his direction towards the staircase. "She just learned how to play "Marco Polo" a few months ago so I was thinking that I could trick her into yelling back "Polo!". Either she's not hiding somewhere nearby for her to hear me or she's smart enough to know what I was…"

Lincoln stopped himself before his sentence could come out. He loved Leni but he couldn't give her that much credit.

"Yeah, she's probably just nowhere close."

Ronnie Anne rolled her eyes as she tugged firmly at the hem of his orange shirt.

"Great. Wonderful. Spectacular. Now, will you stop being paranoid and watch the show with me already? I didn't come all the way here just so you can look through your binoculars all night."

Sighing in defeat, Lincoln acquiesced, tossing his binoculars to the side and flopping on the couch besides Ronnie Anne.

"Sorry," he chuckled as he turned to the TV.

To his dismay, he discovered that he returned right in the middle of a commercial break. He did not care for the moisturizing effects of lotion right now! Or ever, for that matter!

"Eh, don't sweat it," Ronnie Anne said with her signature smirk. "I'm used to you acting like a dork."

With that, she scooted closer to him and rested her head against his shoulder.

Lincoln smiled. This was the life; him and Ronnie Anne hanging out. No meddling parents or sisters at all. Just him, her, and a really awesome TV show that promised at least three more hours of content. It had been about two hours since she arrived at his house and with it being close to nine o'clock, Lincoln knew that she'd have to go home pretty soon.

But now, with his attention back to what really mattered, he'd make sure that the last few minutes of their Friday evening wouldn't go to waste. Nothing would stand in his way! Not even…

Without warning, the sound of what Lincoln thought was dial-up rang out from the TV as the stream of commercials was interjected by a black screen with white, blocky letters spelling out a message, a message that filled both preteens with a sense of uncertainty and dread.

After reading everything that the message had to say, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne looked at each other concernedly.

It was a national weather alert that affected the Royal Woods area, along with nearby counties and cities. From nine o'clock to three in the morning the next day, Royal Woods would be under the veil of a…

"Looks like we're dealing with a tornado warning," Lincoln said.

"Tornado warning?" questioned a cacophony of voices from behind the couch.

Lincoln's eyes widened and he could already feel his blood boiling. He spun his body around quickly to look behind the couch, knowing full well what had just happened.

Thanks to the tornado warning, his family, who had indeed been watching them from afar, all popped out of their respective hiding places to question if their ears hadn't deceived them. Once their eyes met with that of the white-haired boy's agitated ones, the guilty party all shrunk back and smiled sheepishly.

"Ah-ha!" Lincoln cried as he vaulted over the couch, pointing at them accusingly. "I knew you guys were back there!"

Once the realized that the jig was up, Lincoln's sisters and parents assembled together, looking at Lincoln meekly and guiltily.

"Oops," Lynn Sr. chuckled.

"Busted," Rita giggled.

"Caught red-handed," Lucy deadpanned.

The comment coaxed Leni to take a gentle hold of Lucy's pale hands and give them a once over.

"I don't know," Leni said skeptically as she dropped her hands, "they look more…toilet-colored to me."

"Toilet-colored?" Lucy asked.

Leni shrugged. "Well yeah. Toilets are white, aren't they?"

"Not after I'm done using it," Lynn joked under her breath.

While Lincoln continued to glower at his family, Ronnie Anne shut off the TV, listening in on the conversation that was going on.

"Well, anyways," Lynn Sr. said, doing his best to ignore his son glaring at him from across the living room, "it looks like we have about half an hour to get ourselves prepared for the incoming storm."

"Yep," Luan said, grinning from ear to ear, "We'll just have to deal with whatever comes our way, weather we like it or not! Hahahahahahaha! Get it?!"

Everyone, except for her father, groaned at the pun. Even Lily, who was usually one of Luan's more forgiving joke recipients, felt compelled to facepalm.

After lauding her daughter for her joke, Lynn Sr. said, "Alright, kids, let's get ourselves ready. You all know the drill."

"I'll get the flashlights," Lori said.

"I'll get the extra blankets," Lana said.

"I'll do absolutely nothing," Lola said.

Her declaration of laziness earned her scowls from all sides. Lola just shrugged them off with a condescending hand wave.

"What? Manual labor isn't my thing. I've established this before."

Before anyone else could say anything, Lisa cleared her throat loudly, causing everyone to look at her inquisitively.

"Your contingencies are inferior to the one I've painstakingly fabricated for such an occurrence. Behold!" Lisa exclaimed as he swiped out a small white remote from her back pocket and pressed the only blue button on it.

Suddenly, the ground began to shake vigorously and the windows, which were previously unobstructed, became blocked off by what appeared to be a thick wall of gray metal. The rumbling finally stopped and once it did, everyone looked at her expectantly. As they did, Lisa pressed the button again and the rumbling resumed until at last, the metal was no longer sheathing the windows.

"My Inconel-titanium alloy shielding, which just coated around our humble abode, can withstand wind speeds of up to eight hundred miles per hour, more than double that of the highest average wind speed of an F6 tornado. Our house, as well as our basic utilities, will remain mostly uncompromised as the vehement storm rages."

"Mostly uncompromised?" Rita asked.

"The only immediate downside to this precaution," Lisa continued, "is that our Wi-Fi will be obstructed, but that's a small price to pay for-"

"NEVER!" Lori shouted as she grabbed Lisa by her turtleneck and pulled her in close to her until they were nose-to-nose.

Lisa Loud was undeterred by many things that would render even the bravest of souls into fearful messes. Cold fusion? No issue. Radioactive elements? Easy-peasy.

Getting in the way of Lori's texting and phone calling with Bobby? That was one of the very few exceptions to her often-called callous indifference.

"It is never a price worth paying, you hear me?!" Lori shrieked.

Before she could do anything frantic, Luna pulled her back by her shoulders, rubbing them softly as she mirthfully laughed at her sister's high-strung panic.

"Lori, just chillax. We can play some board games or whatever to pass the time," Luna suggested.

"How about Slides & Elevators?" Luan proposed.

"We can't, remember?" Lola grumbled as she pointed at her twin. "Lana ate one of the elevator pieces."

Lana swatted the hand away and smirked.

"Pssh, that's no problem. We can always get it back."

"How?" Lola retorted with skepticism.

Lana grinned toothily. "Anyone got any prunes?"

Lincoln looked on as soon, his family got sucked into yet another light, verbal spat of intermingling conversations, which was often the result of an outlandish comment such as Lana's. As he did, he failed to notice Ronnie Anne watching the spectacle right beside him until she grabbed his hand.

He jumped up a bit in surprise and turned to his left to find Ronnie Anne smiling at him, this time, without any sass or spunk behind the grin. A biting remark from Lola caught his ears and he suddenly remembered what was going on just a few feet away from him.

"If you haven't already guessed, my family's kinda…eccentric," Lincoln said.

"I figured as much. I could tell before I knew them by knowing you," Ronnie Anne said as she lightly bopped him on the nose, causing the boy's face redden.

She broke away from his hand to reach into her pocket and pull out her phone, all while looking a bit miserable.

"Anyways, I guess I should get going before the weather gets really bad. I ought to call my parents and tell them I'll be leaving."

Before she could make a move, both her and Lincoln were surrounded by all sides by Lincoln's family. She looked around in confusion, not knowing what all of this meant.

"Oh, goodness no, Ronnie Anne! You can't go out there now!" Rita said with an edge of hysteria.

"She's right," Lynn Sr. said. "It's far too dangerous to be walking around out there by yourself or with anyone else for that matter. What if you get hurt?"

"But the weather is supposed to be over at three in the morning. What am I supposed to do?" Ronnie Anne asked.

Once her query was uttered, Lincoln noticed Lori's eyes twinkling excitedly which could only mean one of two things; either Bobby had just texted her and she reacted to the telltale indication of that from her phone vibrating in her pocket or she just came up with an idea. When she pulled her sisters in for a group huddle, Lincoln knew it was the latter. The soft, scattered giggling didn't make him feel at ease with the collusion one bit.

Finally, they broke apart and Lori stepped in front, stepping in front of her siblings to address Ronnie Anne directly.

"Say, Ronnie Anne, why don't you stay here for the night?" Lori asked.

Ronnie Anne quirked an eyebrow.

"You mean like a…sleepover?"

Lori nodded vigorously as she hopped up and down excitedly.

"That was literally what I had in mind!" she said.

"I…uh…"

Lincoln watched as she pondered the request. He hoped that Ronnie Anne would agree to it. He wanted to make up for the lost time that he had wasted.

After seconds of thought, Ronnie Anne said, "Sounds cool but I have to run the idea with my parents before I can commit."

As she turned around to head to the kitchen and make a phone call to her parents, Lincoln looked on happily at her retreating form, missing out on how his sisters were silently patting themselves on the back. With it being Friday night, he and Ronnie Anne could spend as much time as they wanted playing video games, reading comic books, or even…even…

Lincoln held his face with both hands and blushed at the thought of them kissing. Even when they were alone, they didn't do it often but still, Lincoln could do nothing but think about the soft feel of Ronnie Anne's soft lips as she pursed them, eagerly waiting for him to…

He shook his head. Now was not the time for thinking about that, especially with a new urgent thought crossing his mind.

He turned to his family and asked, "Wait a second, if Ronnie Anne's staying over, where's she gonna sleep?"

"Oh, don't worry about that, Lincoln," Lynn Sr. assured. "I'm sure one of your sisters can share their room wi-"

He was yanked into another Lori-initiated huddle and Lincoln's heart sank. This time, his parents were also in the mix.

And then that gosh darn giggling rang out! What were they plotting this time?!

The huddle split and Lynn Sr. faced Lincoln with a slightly nervous grin.

"On second thought, it looks like your sisters' rooms can't take any guests."

Lincoln peered from side to side, glancing with pinpoint scrutiny at his family's faces, which all wore the same tense smile as his dad's.

Yep, they were definitely up to something but from past experiences, Lincoln knew it was better to just play along and pretend that he was unaware of what was happening.

"Is that so?" Lincoln asked innocently.

He was answered silently with tandem nods.

"Okay then, so what's gonna happen? Is she supposed to sleep on the couch or something?" Lincoln questioned, feeling that he was getting into the root of their plot.

"I wouldn't mind the couch," a voice said from behind him.

Sure enough, it was Ronnie Anne, who had hands in her hoodie's front pocket and was rocking back and forth a bit on her heels.

Lincoln's face lit up in realization and he had to stop himself from cheering as the weight of her words came to him.

"Wait, you wouldn't mind the couch? Does that mean you're sleeping over?" he asked hopefully.

"Yep," Ronnie Anne smiled. "My folks gave me permission. Problem is, if I can't step outside to go home, I'm going to have to borrow someone's pajamas."

"I got you covered," Lynn said.

"And I think I have an extra toothbrush you can use, too," Leni offered confidently…until her smile melted into a befuddled frown as she scratched her head pensively. "Or was that a mascara brush?"

Before the conversation could scatter into a different direction, Lynn Sr. too the reins once more.

"But hold up, Lincoln. You got it all wrong. See, we weren't thinking about the couch."

"Our living room couch renders slumber to be a tumultuous endeavor," Lisa said. "According to my completely meticulous and not sporadic and artificial studies, the couch furnishes no support for prolonged compression of the lumbar and cervical regions, thus eliciting unpleasant stiffness and soreness upon awakening."

"Which means there's only one place where Ronnie Anne can sleep," Rita chimed in.

This was it. The moment of truth.

"And that is?" Lincoln said.

"Your room!" his family exclaimed all at once.

At once, Lincoln froze stiff, his face etched in absolute horror and indignation. As if his terrified and telling reaction was present for all to see, Rita turned to Ronnie Anne and asked, "Ronnie Anne, is that fine with you?"

Ronnie Anne gave Lincoln a concerned look. He certainly didn't look fine but she didn't mind the idea at all.

"I…I guess so," she said with a shrug. "I'm fine with it as long as Lincoln is."

"Why, of course he is," Leni said. "Just look at that happy face."

Ronnie Anne gave the unmoving face another glimpse and despite the catatonic, stiff expression, she just decided to go along with it. After all, if Lincoln wasn't thrilled about it, as much as the refusal would make her uneasy and self-conscious, who was she to force the burden of her stay on him?

Not wanting to give it a second thought, Ronnie Anne decided that if she was going to stay over for the night, she might as well get herself ready for bed.

"Well, if I'm gonna be staying here, I should hit the shower before I do anything else. You mind if I do that right now?" Ronnie Anne asked.

"Not at all," Lynn Sr. said as he motioned towards the stairs. "Go on ahead. Lynn can give you her pajamas for you to wear after you're done."

With that, Ronnie Anne did just that, leaving her boyfriend behind in his shocked stasis. Meanwhile, Lynn Sr. gave his wife a lecherous grin.

"Come on, honey, I think we both need to go see if the basement is floodproof. You never know with those heavy rainfalls."

Rita looked at him quizzically.

"But doesn't Lisa already have us cove…"

She smiled the same intentions back at him once she picked up on her husband's hidden message of promiscuity.

"You know what, Lynn, you're right. I think we should go check," Rita said as she took Lynn Sr. by the hand and raced off to the basement, giggling all the way.

Lori, Luna, Luan, and Lynn, knowing exactly what their parents were about to do, retched in disgust. That was not something they needed to focus on right now.

While they did their best not to let their imaginations run wild, Leni walked up to her rigid brother, completely unaware of his internal distress.

"Don't worry, Lincoln," Leni said. "You can thank us later."

Her declaration got Lincoln to finally snap out of it. Once he did, he stomped on the ground loud enough for her other sisters to take notice of him, though is attention was mostly focused on Leni.

"Thank you?! Have you guys lost your minds?! What is wrong with you?! Why would you do this to me?!"

He just had to know what his sisters and parents were thinking. Did they not realize what they had done?! He couldn't let Ronnie Anne sleep in his room! In his bed! It was just…it was…i-it just couldn't happen!

As the spokesperson for her siblings, Lori asserted her role by speaking for them, though Lincoln could tell she was about to fabricate a lie that would cover their butts.

"Look, Lincoln, it's like this-"

"We wanted new pictures of you two for our "Ronnie Anne & Lincoln" scrapbook and you two sharing a room would be the cutest set of photos yet!" Leni wailed as she dropped to her knees.

The growling of her sisters prompted her to shrink back defensively.

"I'm sorry, okay?! I cave under pressure!"

Lincoln's interest was piqued now. A scrapbook and one that was apparently dedicated to him and Ronnie Anne? What on Earth could that mean?

"Scrapbook? What scrapbook?" he asked testily to Leni, knowing that she would be honest with him outright.

Before her other sisters could lunge at her and silence her, Leni blurted out, "The one under the computer desk right behind you!"

Immediately, Lincoln spun around and made a break for it towards the computer next to the staircase. He shuffled under the folders and binders until his eyes spotted a green book with notebook paper that had "RS + LL" scribbled on it with orange crayon. Without looking up to see his sister's panicked faces, he flipped through the first page and gasped.

"What…what is this?"

He flipped through to the next page. And another. And another. And another. With each page flip, Lincoln felt his skin turn clammier by the second.

There were pictures of him and Ronnie Anne from several of their hangout sessions (they refused to call them "dates") over the past several months! One page had faraway shots of them sipping from the same strawberry milkshake in an ice cream parlor. Another had them pushing each other on the swing set at school. Yet another had them skipping rocks on the lake next to the dog park.

"You guys…"

Shutting the book harshly and dropping it on the floor, Lincoln glowered at his sisters heatedly.

"You've been spying on us?! Taking pictures of us together?!"

This time, every single one of them broke under his angry stare.

"Okay, fine! We've been spying on you!" Lynn confessed.

"But come on, Lincoln, can you blame us?!" Lori pleaded fervently. "You two are literally the cutest thing on the planet when you're together!"

"Poo poo?" Lily babbled forcibly as she tugged at Lori's shorts, then pointed insistently to herself.

Lori rolled her eyes playfully and chuckled.

"Okay, okay, second cutest," she corrected as she lightly poked Lily in her belly.

"And I'm guessing that Mom and Dad are in on this, too?" Lincoln said.

The nods he got made him groan and facepalm.

"Unbelievable," he muttered.

He loved his family to death but sometimes, with moments like these, he couldn't believe that they felt the same about him. How could they do this to him? Setting up Ronnie Anne to sleep with him in his room like that was okay? There were certain lines with Ronnie Anne that you weren't supposed to cross and getting all mushy and gooey with her was one of those lines.

He could still feel the bruise on his shoulder from when she had reflexively punched him for trying to kiss her on the cheek when they were watching a movie together at the theater.

But this? This was way different. Although he didn't hear Ronnie Anne outright reject the notion, that didn't mean that things would go the way that his family (or he) wanted. No way would Ronnie Anne, of all people, want to share his room or most notoriously, his bed. He knew about the romantic implications from all the daytime soap operas that he watched when he thought that no one was looking. And chances were, Ronnie Anne had a good idea about those implications, too.

Maybe she'd make him sleep in the floor. Maybe she'd just outright take his room for herself and force him to sleep in the bathtub. He could never quite tell what angle Ronnie Anne would approach things but he was certain that he knew what she would do here and none of his conjured scenarios spelled out good times for him.

And he'd rather face self-imposed isolation than have it cast upon him from the girl he lov...liked a lot.

"Y'know what? I'm not gonna take the bait. I'm sleeping on the couch," Lincoln said and turned on his heel to head to his room.

"And hurt Ronnie Anne's feelings?" he heard Lori ask him, forcing him to stop in his tracks.

Without turning to his sisters, who he felt were just trying to get him to concede to their plot, asked, "Why would her feelings get hurt from that?"

"You got a lot to learn about a young maiden's heart, bro," Luna said. "Trust us, you don't want to do that to her. She'll think that you're just avoiding her because you don't like her and we all know that'snot true."

Despite the teasing tone in her last few words, Lincoln was compelled to hear Luna out on her sentiments, which he felt actually came from a place of sincerity…

But regardless, he just couldn't abide by them. Yes, while the last thing he wanted to do was hurt Ronnie Anne's feelings, he refused to be hurt by her in a way that her fists or lighthearted insults could never do. He never embraced true rejection from her before and having it done to him with the sanctity of his own room at play?

Nuh-uh. Not a chance.

"Fine. I guess I'll do it," Lincoln lied, knowing that his sisters wouldn't stop hounding him until he acquiesced.

He heard them giggling to one another and his mind instantly flashed back to the scrapbook.

He turned around and jabbed a finger at them.

"But no pictures!"

They all let out an "Aw, come on!" simultaneously but Lincoln would have none of their whining.

"No. Pictures."

"Will video footage suffice?" Luan asked timidly.

She got her answer when Lincoln gave her one last glare before heading up stairs to his room to get changed into his pajamas.

With nothing else left to do, the sisters were ready to disperse but not before Luan got them all to groan and facepalm as she exclaimed, "Hey, it was worth a shot. A camera shot, that is!"

Two hours later…

This wasn't fair!

That was the sentiment that Lincoln harbored once the clock struck eleven and Ronnie Anne had stated that after hours of fun and games with him and his sisters, that she was ready for bed and waltzed off to his room. Ever since he had been set up with Ronnie Anne as a bunkmate, he hadn't been able to fully focus on him and Ronnie Anne together. Sure, he had a blast playing video, card, and board games with her (even if he lost every single one of them) but because of him dwelling on the awkward confrontation that he felt that he had to get passed Ronnie Anne once bedtime approached, he didn't immerse in the frivolity to the fullest.

And now that he was standing outside of his bedroom, he knew what he had to do.

At first, he thought about waiting for Ronnie Anne to doze off and go to sleep so that she wouldn't ask questions about where he'd really be sleeping but knowing her, she'd probably want to know where he was before she snoozed the night away.

Nope. All he felt that he could do was establish what his endgame in all of this was; sleep on the couch to make her comfortable. At least that way, he could earn brownie points for looking out for her without her ever having to air out the grievance of sharing a bed together.

Taking a deep, calming breath, Lincoln swung his door opened and found Ronnie Anne already beneath his covers. Despite everything, Lincoln was happy that Ronnie Anne wasn't in full view. Something about seeing her in one of Lynn's white tanktops and pair of red shorts made him feel lightheaded and he nearly swallowed his tongue in fright when Ronnie Anne nearly caught him gawking at her from afar.

"Oh, hey, Lincoln," Ronnie Anne said with a wave as she shuffled even closer into his bed, clearly reveling in the warmth.

"Hey," Lincoln said dishearteningly, ready to just get everything over with.

Before he could, Ronnie Anne commented on the visible anguish on his face.

"Aw, what's the matter? Mad that I totally crushed you in Old Maid?"

Without thinking, Lincoln lied, finding comfort in fib in comparison to his mission.

"A little."

From the playfully smug look on her face, Lincoln knew she wasn't done teasing him.

"You'd think that out of the two of us, you'd be the best at card games, what with your love for Ace Savvy and all."

This time, he couldn't conjure up as much as a bantering retort. Now, he just felt sick. He nearly felt his eyes stinging with tears at what he was about to do.

But even so, at least he could take solace in the fact that yet again, he did the right thing for the both of them by not triggering her hostile instincts.

Again, before he could speak, Ronnie Anne acted out of both concern and confusion for his troubled state.

"Something wrong, Lincoln?"

The query stunned Lincoln further. Oh, why did he have to be confronted with the gentle side of her now? It was only a painful reminder of what he wanted to see from her if sidled alongside her under his comforter…

But he knew that that would be impossible.

"Oh, whoops. Sorry."

Her sudden meek retort, which came out of nowhere in Lincoln's mind, caused him to take pause from his melancholy and look up at her. Now, instead of taking up the entire bed by splaying out in the middle, Ronnie Anne had scooted over just a few inches closer to the wall, leaving enough space for…for…

No. It couldn't be. Could it?

"I made room for you, too. I mean, it is your bed, after all," Ronnie Anne said, patting the pillow next to her without a care in the world.

Suddenly, a rush of guilt, shame, and general sickness flooded Lincoln's senses as it twisted and churned at his insides savagely.

He had done it again.

"Lincoln?"

Again. After everything that had happened between them, he let his imagination run wild and get the better of him.

"Lincoln, why aren't you saying anything?"

When would he learn? When would he stop acting like a such a liar and quit pretending that he was different from all the other students? The ones who just saw her as a monster? He was no different from them.

No. He was worse. Unlike them, he had gotten to know her and once again, his knowledge, his experiences...they meant nothing in face of his prejudiced assertions.

"Okay, seriously, Lincoln, drop the sad clown routine and tell me what's wrong."

Her biting remark finally submerged Lincoln back into the present as he bowed his head in shame.

"You can have the bed," he replied, his head drooped.

When he didn't see, nor hear, Ronnie Anne react to that, he turned around, ready to leave her.

"I'll just…" Lincoln's statement was broken with a mournful sigh, "I'll take the couch in the living room."

He was only allowed one step forward before Ronnie Anne's voice stopped him.

"Was it something I said?"

"Kinda," he said in half-truth.

It was something she said that made him feel this way but the onus was not on her to make himself feel better for his assumptions of her character. That burden lied with him and he'd carry it alone.

"The vagueness isn't helping, you know," Ronnie Anne chided.

Even without looking at her, Lincoln knew that Ronnie Anne was giving him a look that said, "I'm staying on you like white on rice until you tell me what's bugging you. Now, spill your guts."

But beyond her assertive stance, Lincoln knew that Ronnie Anne deserved to know that truth and just how horrible he truly was. Despite her brusqueness, he knew that Ronnie Anne truly cared for him and that revelation just made him squirm.

He wasn't worthy of that care at all.

Without looking at her, Lincoln shuffled over to his bed and sat on the edge. He felt his bed shake and squeak as Ronnie Anne sat right beside him

"I keep making the same mistake with you over and over again and before I came up here, I did it again."

"What mistake?"

He swallowed roughly as he wrung his hands together in his lap.

"No matter what, I just keep on assuming the worst from you. It doesn't matter how many times I keep doing it or how much I learn about you; every time I think you might do something really bad, you wind up not being bad at all."

When he didn't hear Ronnie Anne cut in, he continued.

"I assumed that you were a bully who liked picking on me when you just wanted my attention. I assumed you wouldn't get hurt when I tried denying our relationship in front of my friends because I thought you could take it. I didn't think you'd have feelings just because you were tough. And then, there was the Sadie Hawkins thing. I assumed you wanted to take me and I tried avoiding you the whole night. I assumed you weren't responsible enough to take care of our egg and because I didn't give you a chance, I nearly gave the both of us a failing grade."

His hand wringing ceased as he balled them in fists and lets his head rest on them.

"And then, when it was arranged for you to sleep in my room for the night, I assumed you'd throw your weight around and kick me out of my own bed. I thought you wouldn't want to sleep in the same bed with me. Heck, I even thought that you wouldn't want me in my own room with you there."

He nearly bit his bottom lip and he grit his teeth together.

"Again and again and again. I just can't stop. Look, I get why everyone else thinks that you're nothing more than a bully. But me? What excuse do I have? I know you better than all of them yet I'm still stupid enough to think that you'd mistreat me so…so easily and purposefully."

Lincoln looked up at Ronnie Anne this time, feeling it necessary to look in her eyes as he told him the next part. He nearly faltered when his eyes met a reflection of pity and sadness behind her irises.

Lincoln felt his own eyes water. She was giving him way more than he deserved.

"That's why I'm taking the couch," he said. "I don't deserve the bed after thinking about you like that. In fact, I don't deserve to hang out with you anymore. You don't need a friend that's just going to assume the worst from you all the time. You've put up with it long enough."

He got up, ready to leave Ronnie Anne for good and have her move on with her life without his doubts weighing her down…

"Don't go."

Until her insistent voice, a tone mixed with begging and sadness, stopped him.

The softness of her plea…it kept him rooted to the ground. But all the same Lincoln knew this wouldn't do. Even if she didn't know better for herself, Ronnie Anne truly did deserve better than him and he wouldn't let her emotions get in the way of that.

"But, Ronnie Anne, I-"

Before he could say anything else, he felt a pair of familiar arms wrap around his midsection. He looked down and sure enough, Ronnie Anne was the one hugging him, grabbing him tightly with enough vigor to ensure that despite any efforts on his end, he wouldn't be going anywhere.

"Please," she whispered faintly.

Lincoln sighed, relenting in the embrace as he sat himself down on the bed again. If Ronnie Anne truly wanted to lay claim on the situation with her own words, it was fair for her to do so.

But still, what could she say that would make him not out to be such a jerk?

Again, without looking at Ronnie Anne, Lincoln just stared at the floor and his legs as they lightly swung back and forth.

"Look, Lincoln, I'm not gonna lie, all those things you just said? About assuming the worst from me? Yeah, I guess you could say that you should've known better but honestly, I can't say that I didn't do this to myself."

Lincoln perked up, gazing at Ronnie Anne with absolute befuddlement. If there was anything that he thought she would say to him, it certainly wasn't that.

His expression only got Ronnie Anne to scoot even closer to him and cup his chin, turning his head towards her so that he couldn't look at anywhere but her.

"I mean, look, I can totally see why you thought that I hated you. I did harass you for nearly half the school year, after all. And that can leave a pretty big impression on someone."

"But my sisters said that-"

The hand on his chin swiftly moved to cover his mouth. Despite the harsh gesture, her soft gaze told Lincoln that she wasn't angry with him.

"I know what your sisters said but that doesn't mean I can't be accountable for what I've done afterwards. Even now, long after I've stopped all the pranking and bullying, I still hit you from time to time whenever I get mad at you. I still insult you now and again, either because I think it's funny or I think that you know that I'm just messing with you."

Once she got that tidbit out, her hand smoothed over to cup the side of his face and Lincoln shivered in her grasp, doing his best to pay attention intently.

"I can't exactly blame you for thinking that way about me sometimes. Why else do you think I forgave after all those times you messed up with me? I knew, deep down, that I had a hand in how you thought and acted. I can't play the victim just because you hurt my feelings for being paranoid and nervous about me."

Lincoln took everything in and by the end of her speech, he couldn't say that he…disagreed with her. At least, not completely. Yes, it was true that she had tormented him for a long time before he had the guts to confront her about it in front of his house. And even now, as her harsh treatment of him was dialed back to light insults and the occasional provoked punch, it still harkened back to those dark days where he'd have to look over his shoulder all the time, looking out for any signs of her.

But still, that didn't excuse what he had done to her repeatedly. Again, he should've known better than to surmise calamity at every turn. She hadn't made it easy for him but then again, his bouts of selfishness didn't make hanging out with him a breeze either and yet, Ronnie Anne never presumed constant negativity from him all the time.

When she noticed his darkened, grim face brighten, Ronnie Anne smiled and did something that Lincoln would've never expected her to do.

She laid out across Lincoln's lap, looking up at him coquettishly and snickering at his agape mouth and widened eyes.

Just to make him squirm more, she reached up and ruffled her fingers delicately through his white locks, her fingertips pressing gently into his scalp.

"So, look, I think it's safe to say that we both agree with the fact that we don't exactly treat each other the way that we should. So how about we change that? I'll do my best to stop hitting you. Period. And I'll ease back on the teasing banter a bit."

Knowing that it was his turn to commit, Lincoln promised, with utmost sincerity, "And I'll quit assuming the worst from you. And you know what'll make it easier for me?"

He got an inquisitive hum as a reply.

"If we keep spending time together. The more I learn about you, the less I'll have to worry about. You're a really cool girl, Ronnie Anne, so that shouldn't be a challenge at all."

It was Ronnie Anne's turn to shrink back shyly from lavish, doting attention as she looked away from him.

"You're such a sap," she joshed without malice.

Lincoln chuckled. "I thought you were gonna ease back on the teasing."

"Hey, I can't help it when you spout all that mushy junk."

"I don't know, Ronnie Anne. I don't think you're one to talk with all that stuff you said a few seconds ago."

Suddenly, a devilish grin spread across her face and with aplomb, she grabbed one of Lincoln's pillows and whapped him across the head. Lincoln, after recovering from the "heavy" blow, giggled wildly crawled on his bed, curling up into a ball as Ronnie Anne whacked him repeatedly.

Historians would've called the next thirty seconds the most one-sided pillow fight in the (admittedly scarce) recorded history of pillow fights but Lincoln didn't care. He was in Ronnie Anne's good graces and from now on, things would be better between them.

In his book, that made him a winner.

By the time her bombardment of pillow bashing ended, Lincoln was sprawled on his bed on his back, his chest heaving from laughing so hard. On top of him, straddling his waist, was Ronnie Anne, who still had the pillow secured in her hands just in case another surge of adrenaline and mischief caused her to retaliate once more.

Lincoln, who now had the luxury of not having a pillow softly slapping him, felt his hearts skip several beats as he realized the situation he was immersed in. If Ronnie Anne was distracting with Lynn's clothes from afar, it paled in comparison to having her up close.

Even through the fabric of the blanket that was draped over him, he could feel the muscles of her smooth, bare thighs pressing into his sides and keeping him in place. He didn't dare look upwards, wanting to avoid the slightly exposed midriff that was only a few inches away from his face.

Suddenly, the thoughts of them kissing roared back to life in his head. He couldn't stop himself from the images from flooding into his brain; just the two of them, alone in his room, reaching to each other and-

"Oh, Lincoln?"

Lincoln gulped, knowing that acidic tone well enough from experience. His eyes ventured upwards and sure enough, Ronnie Anne was glowering at him with blazed over eyes. Apparently, she was able to peer into his mind and pick out his fantasies.

Instinctively, he shut his eyes. Despite everything that they had just promised to each other, it looked like they were both falling back on the old habits.

What a world.

Before he could sulk internally for much longer, however, he felt a light tapping on his shoulder. Opening his eyes, to see what had caused it, Lincoln gasped when without warning, Ronnie Anne moved in quickly and kissed him on the cheek and then leaned over to kiss the other one.

She reeled back and beamed when all he could do was blush and stutter.

"Two for flinching," she teased as she reached over and tugged at the lamp string in front of her, bathing the room in darkness. "How's that for a new Ronnie Anne?"

Not expecting an answer, Ronnie Anne let out a dainty, clearly rehearsed yawn as she crawled under the covers and draped herself over Lincoln like a blanket.

"Goodnight, Lincoln," Ronnie Anne whispered in his ear and she snuggled her face in the crook of his neck.

"G…g-goodnight, Ronnie Anne," Lincoln whispered back, thanking the lucky stars that everything had turned out alright after all.

Testing his luck further, he wrapped her arms around Ronnie Anne's waist, earning a sigh from his bold gesture.

Yep. The stars were certainly lucky on this stormy night.

A/N: In case you haven't noticed, there's been somewhat of a theme with the Ronnie Anne episodes, at least the ones that have aired thus far, and it's that with each episode, Lincoln learns a little something more about Ronnie Anne after assuming what she was or what she was going to do next. That was the main source of inspiration for this story.

Well, anyways, that's all for now. I'll be back to focusing on my more "important" stories like BFH and S&T next month. Until then, keep your chins up in this crazy world of ours and remember, when your spirits are down, Ronniecoln will be there to cheer you up!