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CHANGE

Royal Woods' park could easily be considered a nice place far from the noise of downtown, were young kids could spend some time hanging out without the dangers of the curbs and the need to be watched 24/7 by their guardians. Every day the park hosted dozens of kids, of which the number could get even bigger on weekends.

This Friday afternoon, though, the park was very different from its usual loud appearance, and only a few visitors were trespassing the paths inside the green areas. One of said visitors was no other than Lori Loud, of course walking with her phone on one hand, not really paying attention to where she was going.

After all, for what she was doing, she didn't really need her eyes as long as she had working ears.

"C'mon, Lola! Just one time, gimme a chance! If you listened to me and changed your clothes-…!"

"Nuh-ah! Stop repeating the same thing over and over, Lana, you won't convince me! You know very well I cannot be seen with random, pleb-looking attires! I am a master beauty pageant queen and clothed as such I will go where I want!"

Lori rolled her eyes and chatted a poker-face smiley to her boyfriend Bobby, preparing herself to answer the obvious question coming after it. To be honest, he already knew about what Lori was currently busy with: the twins had both asked to go to the park and she had volunteered to accompany them herself. Of course, there was a prize coming from the task, like full control of Vanzilla the next day, but this was something between her and her parents, which Lola and Lana did not need to know.

It wasn't that big of a deal, anyway. She just had to make sure they didn't try to kill each other in case an argument blew up: Lola and Lana could be very faithful to their surname when they wanted to.

"Why in the world did you want to come to the park in the first place, then? It's a mud paradise here – it's been raining all yesterday! You either come to experience it or stay away from it!"

Lola scoffed. "Humph! I have my own means of training for my parades, and that also includes how a girl is always able to avoid getting her precious clothes stained in a difficult environment." She grabbed hold of her pink dress to highlight what she meant. "And that's what I'm going to do today, even in this inferno of dirt!"

Lana tilted her head, failing to follow her sister's logic. Eventually she sighed: "Bah. Suit yourself, queeny. I'm going to get reacquainted with that puddle over there," she said before zooming away. Lori only had the chance to shout a "Watch where you're stepping into!" before the tomboy dived into the earth and began swimming around the mud, emitting cheers here and there.

Lola snorted, unimpressed, and shifted her attention to Lori. "She really is beyond hope. Will he ever learn?"

Lori raised her eyes for a second to take a peek at Lana, currently targeting a poor tree with mud balls. "I don't know whether that will happen, but it's sure not happening right now."

Lola groaned. "Let's just ignore her. There should be an equilibrium course somewhere – there!" she said before going off as well. Lori checked the twins and was satisfied to see that she could keep an eye on both without having to move from one sister to the other continuously. She settled on sitting on a nearby bench and let the two younger girls do whatever they liked. She once or twice checked her phone but no so much as she was doing before: Lincoln could say she was addicted to it all he wanted, but she was not stupid.

To be honest, he didn't really mind spending the afternoon that way. Away from the Loud house, she could have some peace that was rare for any of the Loud siblings to experience, and that was even truer in the muddy park that day. The smell of wet grass wasn't that bad, either, and Lori even found herself almost closing her eyes once. It was indeed relaxing… sans the joyful cries of Lana as she jumped from one puddle to the other and the angry shouts of Lola as she protected her dress at all costs from the 'filthy' terrain. Or maybe the presence of those two were helping in the atmosphere… she was used to the noise, anyway.

After a while, boredom began to navigate through Lori's mind, and she stood up. Lana was still having the best time of her life, but Lola was marching towards Lori with worrying intentions given the frown on her face. Lori kept her own expression neutral, if not condescending.

"What, got a mud stain on a glove?" she said, her eyes still looking at her smartphone's screen.

Lola wasn't amused. "No, of course not, I'm better than that. I've exercised everything I could think of…"

"And…?" Lori looked up and stared at Lola, waiting for her to continue.

"…and I really don't know what to do now," Lola finished, watching the ground. She seemed more embarrassed than she would have wanted, a scene that made Lori smile. Maybe she could fight her own boredom by helping Lola with hers.

"Let's get your far-from-clean sister and see what we can do about it," Lori stated. Lola didn't seem to like the idea, but she knew better than to disobey her older sister... or, perhaps, she was willing to spend some time with her twin. What she was really thinking remained a mystery to the seventeen-year-old Loud sibling.

They went to the puddle Lana was currently immersed in and Lori asked her to come with them. Lana wasn't willing to follow her sisters, too. If anything, she seemed more unwilling because of the fact she'd have had to abandon her beloved mud bath to join Lori and her opposite-behaving sister, but arguing with the older one was once again out of the question.

The three of them returned to the main, asphalted path and resumed their trek. The patience of the twins, though, wasn't exactly the best.

"What exactly do you have in mind, Lori?" Lana inquired.

"Yeah, what do you want us to do?" Lola added.

"I guess, something that you both can like?" Lori shrugged. She glanced around… and found a piece of playground equipment that might do the trick. "How about that?" she proposed, pointing a finger to the mentioned object.

Lola and Lana followed her lead… and looked in confusion at her. "That?" Lola asked, dumbfounded.

"I think there are more creative ways to spend time together than a generic seesaw, Lori," Lana said.

"Oh, come on, I know you'll like going for a ride for a few minutes. Besides, finding something you both can do is not that easy."

"Fair enough," Lana admitted. "C'mon, Lola, let's see if we can actually have some fun with that thing," she said before moving towards the seesaw. Lola, still a bit surprised by Lori's proposal, followed her mechanically, raising her skirt in order to protect it from the wet terrain. "I'm getting the cleaner side!" she quickly affirmed.

Lori looked at the twins as they took their positions on the seesaw, just about ten meters away, and they began swinging up and down. At first, the twins seemed bored beyond any limit and Lola even threw a couple of glares to Lori which were tell-tale on what she was going to do with her once they were finished. But it took them a minute to slowly start to get the hang of it. A push a little harder than the previous ones by Lana, an answer by Lola, and a minute later they were basically trying to propel the each other into outer space.

Lori smiled once she saw them enjoying their time together for once. That was another moment that was not that common to be seen. She even decided to take a photo at one point to send to her boyfriend… and save for future reference along with countless photos starring the rest of her family.

Losing such moments would have been a crime, after all.

Yet, the peace remained short-lived, as a noise came to Lori's ears, disturbing her thoughts. Puzzled, Lori turned around and narrowed her eyes, trying to locate what was emitting the noise and just what kind of sound it was.

It didn't take her long to realize it was spoken sentences she was hearing. Calls for help to be precise, and she could even see someone in the distance, away from the path and into the park green areas, shouting unclear words.

Lori gave a glance to the twins, still immersed in their personal challenge. "Stay where you are, you two!" she ordered, and both girls raised a hand to signal their acknowledgement. Thus, Lori began running to reach the human being, who seemed to be in quite a distress. Just the few seconds needed to understand what's wrong, then I'm back with the the twins.

Lori started to shout back to the person, who after realizing someone was coming immediately moved towards her. Thirty seconds later they were in front of each other, and Lori found herself in front of a casual-looking man in his thirties with nothing out of the ordinary.

That is, if we excluded the empty leash he was holding in one of his hands. But Lori didn't notice it at first.

"Mister, what's wrong?" the teen started, "I heard you screaming from afar. Did something happen?"

"Yes!" the man replied nervously. "Miss, did you perhaps see a dog running around in the park?"

Lori raised an eyebrow. "A dog? No, I think… I don't recall seeing any dog at all today here."

The man wasn't reassured by her words. "Damn it!" he cursed to himself. "Not good, not good…"

"Mister?" Lori was beginning to get worried herself. "Please, tell me what's going on, maybe I can help…"

"Listen, are you alone or is someone with you?" the man asked instead of answering.

Lori didn't expect that kind of question. "I… I'm with my two younger sisters, I left them for a moment to catch up with you."

Lori didn't like how the man's face paled once he heard her answer.

"Miss… we have to move," the man simply said before passing beside her and moving towards the direction she had come from. Lori found the cryptic behaviour of the guy quite annoying… she wasn't sure whether he was making fun of her or he really meant it. "Can you just tell me what the-"

"It's my dog, Miss," the man finally revealed, turning around but continuing to walk backwards. "Edgar just started acting wildly out of nowhere while we were playing in the park, as we usually do every Friday. I don't know what happened to him, after ten minutes he suddenly started to growl, bark and show his teeth to me. He even attempted to bite me when I tried to calm him down, then he zoomed away before I could understand what was going on. I lost him… I'm afraid he might do something bad, Miss."

Lori's reaction was of immediate concern for her two sisters. The situation as explained by the man could have multiple interpretations, and as much as not all of them could have dangerous implications, Lori had enough sisterly care to be worried by the remaining possibilities. Seconds later, they were both running, and Lori even overcame the man in the race for the seesaw she left Lana and Lola in.

Lori calculated she had left them alone for no more than five minutes. That was a very limited amount of time.

Not enough limited though, as the man and Lori reached the seesaw only to find it devoid of any riders.

And for the first time in months, Lori's concern morphed into dread.

"Catch me if you can!"

"Just let me get my hands on you, you coward!"

The twins were shouting and taunting each other, all right, but their grins showed that they weren't actually mad.

After a couple of minutes of riding, Lana had decided to up the challenge to her sister to the next level, and the seesaw game had been abandoned for a simple chase runabout on the parks paths, with the pageant queen pursing the mud lover.

Lola was trying her best to keep her precious pink dress clean of the muddy terrain that her sister was passing over. Every water puddle Lana skidded across was either avoided by the pageant master with a jump or a deviation, but despite her difficulties Lola didn't look like she was going to let any of that stop her. In fact, she didn't even seem to mind the few droplets of brownish-greenish water that inevitably stained her pink dress a little.

Their rare moment of happiness, though, was destined to come to an end soon.

After five minutes of fast pursuit, Lola finally made an error in choosing where to place her foot to make the next step. Lana could only hear a loud yelp followed by a 'SPROCH!', and she instantly cringed, stopping her run. She knew that it meant no good.

The girl turned around and was met by the spectacle of a downed Lola, basically fully immersed in a mud pile a little deeper than the most of the other ones in the park. Lola slowly recovered control of her limbs and started trying to free herself from the dirt and get up.

When she finally was standing, Lana couldn't help smirking. Lola had basically changed colour from her shoes to her tiara: everything was covered in slimy dirt and wet mud. Her gown was barely recognizable as pink coloured, and her hair had not been spared by the treatment as well.

"Well, that's something I don't see that often. What do you think, Lola? Think you dig it?" Lana asked, smiling. For a moment, she thought that maybe Lola could actually be converted to at least accept that her way of being was tolerable.

Unfortunately, Lola wasn't of the same idea.

"ARGH!" she suddenly screamed as she incessantly rubbed her arms and gown. "No, no, no!"

"Oh, quit it," Lana muttered, suddenly losing interest. "You got dozens of clothes like that one at home. One shower and you'll be as clean as-"

"YOU!"

The venom in Lola's voice was so powerful that Lana unconsciously made a step back.

"You… you are the responsible of all of this!"

"Wha-… what!?" Lana replied in disbelief. "What in the world are you talking about? You were the one running after me!"

"You challenged me! And you knew I wouldn't stand down from such a dare! You wanted this!"

Lana felt a little misconception growing behind her twin's words. "Lola, wait, I just wanted to have some fun, I didn't mean to-"

"You little, lousy filth-lover!" Lola interrupted her once again as she began walking towards her. "Save me your pathetic excuses! If only you were a little more controlled in your cravings for being gross… but no!"

The tomboy ceased to be preoccupied, and the emotion was replaced by anger. "Oh, so it's that again! And here I thought you would appreciate for once what I like to do!"

"What? How on Earth would I even consider rolling myself all over random puddles? Fixing random tubes all around the house while looking for the most disgusting things inside them? Literally taking the lid off trash cans and search the inside for food!?"

"It's not my fault if people leave good food in their garbage," Lana retorted. "Besides, if you actually looked beyond all of that, you'd see that there's more than getting soiled all over. Still way better than wasting time in tea parties, and you don't even do that to have fun! You just want to improve your so-called good manners for your stupid beauty parades! Give me a break, Lola!"

Lola was now enraged beyond any limit. She stopped moving right in front of her twin and glared at her with the most fierce-looking eyes she could muster, but Lana stood her ground. She had been sharing a room with her since birth, and compared to her other siblings she was more used to her threats. Her defiance, though, only resulted in making Lola madder.

"First, saying that I only care about my pageants and do not think at all about anything else might be one of the stupidest, most moronic things you've ever said!" she hissed, much to Lana's dismay. But she wasn't done, and she kept talking before her twin could reply.

"But you know what? I'm not surprised… not in the slightest. After all, why would you, a girl who loves mud to the point to prefer it to actual water, who loves animals to the point of filling her room with what's basically an entire zoo, who, all in all, loves to live in filth?!"

The implications of that statement suddenly made Lana lose track of the jab she wanted to say.

Lola turned around and walked as she continued her rant. "Why are you always like this, Lana? Why won't you change for a split-second? Why won't you just stop being so gross and act as a normal human being, even if only for a freaking minute?!"

Lola whirled and looked at her twin, the fire in her eyes, ready to get even more infuriated after her obvious reply.

But there was no answer. Lana had turned her cap to the other side and her face was right now hidden by the visor, covering her current expression.

"What? Don't you have anything to say?!" Lola demanded. She began getting worried when, once again, Lana did not open her mouth to speak.

"Lana? What's going on?" Lola walked back to her, her mind trying to find a reason for the sudden change of behaviour of her twin. She was basically tiptoeing when she reached her, but Lana was still looking at the ground. Timidly, Lola raised an arm and approached her, apparently wary of even touching her.

"Get your hands off me!" Lana cried, smacking her hand away. "Leave me alone! Go away!"

"Hey! What's wrong with you!?" Lola reacted without thinking.

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me?! You just said it!" Lana was shouting, and only now Lola realized that something was wrong with her. Indeed, seeing Lana, who was known to handle wild animals without fear, shedding tears out of clear sorrow was quite a stunning sight.

"You said it, you-… you said… you said I ain't normal!" Lana spoke trying to fight back the emotion, but her words were still broken by her sobs.

Lola quickly put two and two together and it dawned on her how her insults had hurt her twin a little more than he'd have thought. "Uhh… now, Lana, that wasn't what I really meant, I just-…"

"Stop lying!" Lana shouted once again, to the point that her voice echoed around the park. Apparently, though, there was no one in the immediate surroundings: in their previous chase game, the twins had put a lot of space between them and the nearest path. They could probably be heard, but it'd take anyone way more than a few seconds to join them and put an end to their argument.

There was a living being nearby, though, that heard the noises of the commotion and immediately began racing for Lola and Lana's current location. Too bad it wasn't Lori… nor was it any other man or woman.

"I don't want to talk… talk with you! For good!" Lana continued to shout and cry at the same time. "Get the heck out of my sight!"

Lola tried to reason with her: "Lana, please, don't! I'm… I'm sorry! I wasn't in control!"

"GET LOST!"

"Lana, please-…" Lola stopped her speech. Lana had expected her to continue with her attempts at explaining herself, so she raised her head and cleared her eyes off of the tears to look at her.

Lola's skin had basically changed colour.

"Lana…" she called her, bringing her stained hands to her mouth.

"I told you to go away!" Lana reminded her, her tone raising in pitch again. "What do you want? Leave. Me. Alone!"

She heard an annoyed growl coming from behind her.

Lana froze in her position as her years of experience kicked in. She slowly turned around her head to check what had emitted the sound, and what she saw wasn't something she liked.

Five meters away from her, a hound stood with its eyes wide open, looking at her. As much as Lana was a better expert about pets and animals in general, even Lola understood that something was very, very wrong. The dog's face was completely wet with drool, and more of the white foamy substance was still coming of its mouth, flowing down on the ground. Its lips were retracted, showing its full set of teeth to the tomboy, and a continuous growl came out of its mouth. The appearance was completed by the eyes of the animal, reddened to the extreme by blood and tension.

"Lana, we… we need to get out of here," Lola said in fear. Lana raised a hand to hush her… she knew that animals didn't just act like that because. There was a problem deeper than simple anger or fright in the hound, but whatever that was, it put both girls in danger. The dog's canines looked especially threateningly... to close to her for comfort.

It barked once and tensed its limbs in what was a fight position: it was ready to leap and go for the attack at any moment. Lana bit her lip and tried to think of a way to get an outcome that didn't result in her and Lola becoming play bones for the canid.

Yet, thinking reminded her of what had just happened between her and Lola. Lana clenched her fists as she felt the tears return to her eyes, but she recalled them back and shooed the anguish away. She knew what she had to do now.

"I will… I will show you!"

"What?" Lola spluttered in confusion, as she instantly realized that her sister was going to do something reckless. "What the heck, Lana!? You cannot wrestle that thing, we must get outta-..."

"I'll show you!" Lana directed an accusing finger to her sister, giving the back to the crazed dog. "You think that I'm just an idiot who loves getting all dirty and filthy and doing gross things, thus far from normal? Then, I'll show you what your abnormal sister can do! I'll show you all!"

"Oh, no, no! Lana, don't, stop this madness! We have to call for help! Lana!" Lola tried pitifully to bring her sister to her senses, but Lana was already deaf to her pleas.

She turned around and started to walk towards the hound, her face a mixture of determination and distress. Her expression was quite a sight and even the dog retreated a little, growling and barking and giving all signs that would have made your usual person turn on their heels and either run for it or slowly walk away.

Lana didn't stop… she only halted her walk when she was just a meter away from the animal. The dog showed its teeth set, but its growls and barks stopped.

I know… I know that's only fear what you feel.

"Here… here… I won't hurt you…" Lana said, offering her right hand to the dog. The animal observed it for a few seconds before moving in a little and beginning to sniff it inquisitively with its nose.

Lana smiled. She was sure she had just obtained the animal's trust. Her initial hunch had to be wrong, it was just scared and-

Her thoughts came to an abrupt, and painful, stop when she felt two lines of teeth dig into her forearm and cut deep to the point of scratching the bone underneath.

Lana ceased to have logical thoughts and started screaming her heart out. She began trying to pry the animal away from her, kicking and punching, but the dog didn't budge. It, instead, hardened its bite even more. Lana's heart-wrenching shrieks did nothing to scare him off.

"LEAVE MY SISTER ALONE!"came the thundering bellow of Lola Loud. Without any care for the state of her clothes or her own safety, Lola charged into the dog with a single kick on the side. The animal whined in pain and finally let Lana away, who immediately fell on the ground and frantically scrambled away, screaming all the way, while Lola literally jumped over the crazed animal and started punching it furiously. "TAKE THIS! AND THIS, YOU LOUSY-!"

The dog's bite had made a serious wound over Lana's skin, and the girl simply wasn't in the sound state of mind needed to give some type of treatment to it. Thus, all Lana could do was continue to cry, pitifully trying to soothe the pain on her forearm with her left hand, which only resulted in worsening the loss of blood that was flowing out of the cuts copiously. Ahead of her, Lola continued to wrestle with the animal, punching and kicking, but it had already recovered from the surprise attack.

Soon, the dog overpowered her, and it managed to land a bite on her shoulder. Her cry of pain was soon muffled when the mad dog rammed its head into her, knocking her down. Lola wasn't able to bite the bullet: she remained on the ground, crying and clutching her wounded shoulder, completely defenceless… but the dog didn't try to finish her off.

It, instead, turned its head towards its first 'enemy'. Lana had finally raised her gaze from her wound only to see the horrific view of the hound staring at her, its mouth letting foamy drool out, with Lola at its side weeping.

When Lola finally managed to recover control of herself, she saw the dog bolt for her sister. "No! NO! Come back here!" she called, "Come back here!"

The animal didn't halt, and it leaped over Lana.

"No! Help! HELP!" Lola screamed over and over, ignoring the sore tongue and the pulsing injury on her shoulder, all physical sensations nullified by her desperation.

Lana had managed to block the dog's head with her good hand, keeping the animal's jaws away from her face with it. The dog fidgeted around, trying to find its way to her head, but Lana's grip was iron-like, moulded by months of physical exercises and powered by adrenaline. Only her instincts of survival were keeping the six-year-old from letting go.

Soon, Lola's screams became more fierce and urgent and a couple of voices started to become hearable. Lana immediately recognized one of them as her older sister.

"Lori!" Lana shrieked, "Help! HELP ME!" The hound tried to win her block over and it bit the air a couple of centimetres away from her nose, the drool falling all over her. Then, the animal made another effort to break into her defence.

By doing so, it inadvertently stepped on Lana's wounded arm, who she had tried until that moment to keep away from the mad dog's sight and limbs.

"GAAAAAH!"Lana let a scream of agony exit her mouth, and she lost her grip.

Lori had been too slow. She could only continue running and desperately yell as she and Lola saw the dog finally shut its jaws on Lana's face. And for the little girl, everything went black in a matter of instants.

Uuuh… ugh…

Lana's venture in the dreamworld finally came to an end. The little girl gradually regained control of her senses, which wasn't completely a good thing from her point of view, since along with them she also became able again to feel pain.

The stinging sensation wasn't unbearable, but it was enough aching to fully wake her up. Lana opened her eyelids only to shut them back, blinded by artificial light.

What the… in her fuddled state of mind, Lana had no way to put order to her thoughts. Mustering all the scarce strength she could find in herself, she tried to focus her scattered memories and tried to make a mental recap of what had happened.

Soon, the previous events came back to her: the travel to the park with Lori, her time playing with Lola and their heated argument…

…and the attack.

She felt a whimper of fear coming up through her throat, but she didn't have the force to let it out. Lana felt extremely weak and tired... whether that was because of the aching injuries or something else, she had no clue.

Eventually, she finally forced herself to open her eyes and keep them still until her pupils adjusted to the illumination and she became able to focus on her surroundings.

The first image that presented itself to the little girl was the form of someone right in front of her. Lola was sitting on a stool to her left side, but otherwise she was leaning with her upper body over the bed Lana was lying on. A bed that the tomboy soon identified as something very different from her own bed back at home.

Across from her, Lori sat on a second stool, away from the twins: she had a few visible medications visible over her legs and arms. The seventeen-year old rested her face on her hands, covering it and whatever expression donned by her face.

Lana couldn't see much else beyond her two sisters: most of the scene was hidden by green curtains, and the girl was enough smart to imagine why. She was in a hospital... the lack of any of their parents or siblings told her that not much time had passed since the accident. They probably still were in an emergency room of sorts, in wait for further instructions after being given first aid.

Lola faced the way opposite of Lana, and therefore the tomboy wasn't able to see her sister's face. Even so, she didn't need that to notice that the right arm of her twin was completely covered by sanitary gauze, protecting the injury below and whatever had been added by the medics.

The sight brought Lana once again back to what had happened to her. Her focus shifted from Lola to her own right arm: the forearm was bandaged up likewise. She tried to move her fingers and was satisfied to see her fingertips move… the one of the right arm, at least. The other one didn't… something was blocking it.

"…Lana?"

Lola sat up on the stool, revealing that she had been holding Lana's good hand the entire time with hers. Her face literally brimmed with apprehension and worry, but once she caught sight of the fact that Lana's eyes were opened and that she was awake, her sadness ceased to exist, its place taken by pure happiness.

"LANA!" Lola cried before rushing to her sister, hugging her tightly. At first, Lana found her reaction a little odd, but as she thought about what had happened, she slowly found her own face getting a little wet. Seconds later, she hugged her sister back.

"Huh?" Lori immediately stood up, distracted from her thoughts by the sudden crying. She gave a stern look to her younger sister: "Lola, what are you doing?" she said as she walked to the mobile bed's side, "The doctors just said to leave your sister alo- wait a second… Lana!?"

Lori was at loss of words. If she had had the chance, she probably would have gone to hug the little plumber with enthusiasm as well, but she didn't want to disturb the twins as they looked like they had no care for anything in the world but each other.

Thus, she waited for Lana and Lola to vent out, pulling her stool to her and sitting down beside the gurney's right side. That didn't stop her, though, from grabbing a handkerchief from her pocket to clear her face from a couple of rebellious water droplets and, afterwards, grabbing hold of Lana's free hand.

Lori waited without a word for two minutes before sighing. "Lola… I think that's enough. She's okay…"

"Nah-ah! I'm not leaving her!" Lola fired back.

Lori's face hardened, but before she could reply, Lana beat her on time. "Lola…" her voice was frail and weak, "…listen to Lori. Besides… I think I'm a little out of air right… now…"

Lola literally threw herself away from her sister, terrified by her words. "What? No, no, I'm sorry!" she babbled, "Do you need help? I'll call for a nurse, or a doctor, whoever you want! Can you breathe? Can you-"

"Lola."

Lori's commanding tone finally silenced the little sister, and her rant came to an end. Lola slowly sat back on her bench as Lori continued to glare at her until she did so.

"Lori…" Lana's voice began, earning the immediate full attention of the two Loud sisters. "…what happened? …after I, uh… passed out?"

An obvious question, which Lori wasn't going to deny an answer. "Well… uhmm… what do you remember?"

"I just…" Lana closed her eyes and frowned. "I think I remember everything until I fainted… right when I heard your voice."

Lori rubbed the nape of her neck as she accurately chose the right words to fill her sister in. "Mmh… Well, I came along with the man who was the original owner of the dog, Lana. He had lost sight of it and had called for help… just not soon enough. We managed to get it away from you, but it continued to try to attack you and Lola, so we sort of had to… knock it out."

Lana lowered her gaze. "We called 911 for help and, thankfully, we managed to get you and your sister in the hospital in no time. The doctor's said we were very, very lucky, especially you Lana." Lori approached Lana's face with one hand and moved a sanitary gauze strand from her field of view. The cap was gone, and a considerable part of the little girl's face was covered by medications just like her forearm, but Lori didn't want to worry her little sister more than needed. That was for another moment.

"He patched you up pretty well… and he said that, once they got you a room, with a few days of rest there you'll be as good as new."

Lana nodded, her thoughts shifting to the state of her two sisters. "What… what about you two?"

"We're good, we're good," Lola replied. "It'll take more than a few bites to hold me off!"

Lana let out a little chuckle, amused by Lola's attempt at being bold. "We've already called Mom and Dad," Lori informed. "Mom should already be on her way over, while Dad told me he'd be picking up the others back at home before coming here. You just have to hold on a little longer and we'll be all here for you."

Lana's smile showed Lola and Lori that she was happy to hear the news. However, the seriousness returned to her face sooner than they would have liked.

"Lori… what about the dog? What happened to him after everything?"

Lori swallowed down the sudden need to cough. "Uuuhh… Ahem. They brought him away, Lana. He was… sick."

Lana looked at Lori with a gaze that the oldest Loud had seldom seen coming from her. "I'm not stupid, Lori… I know how it works. They… they put him down, didn't they?"

Despite her good will, Lori simply couldn't bring herself to confirm that last supposition. Her brows furrowed when she saw Lana's face contort into a frown. The tomboy fidgeted a little on the bed, raising the uninjured hand to tug at her free hair.

"This is all my fault…" she murmured. Her words weren't supposed to be heard, but unfortunately the emergency room wasn't that noisy.

Lori's reaction was of shock at first, and she would have proceeded to reprimand her if it wasn't for Lola. "WHAT?!" the pageant queen shouted, forgetting that they weren't completely alone and there probably were other people beyond the curtains.

"It's my fault! I should've never challenged you… I thought we could have some fun for once, but instead we ended up arguing like we always do," Lana explained. "And by doing so I brought us to the dog. If only I had not done it… none of us would've get injured, and the… the poor thing would be still alive!"

Lola was literally fuming. "What kind of logic is that?!" she roared. "I don't want to hear any of that nonsense from you! You had no control whatsoever on what happened, so quit being stupid!"

"But it was me! I was so blinded I didn't even see that something was wrong with him! I was supposed to be able to realize that, I'm basically the pet enthusiast of the family!"

"Not everyone is infallible, Lana," Lori said. "Not even in what you love to do."

Lana huffed. Lori's statement didn't calm her down that much, since there were new tears beginning to flow down her cheeks. "I still could… but didn't… Gah, Lola was right…"

"Right?" Lori's gaze fell on the other blond six-year-old. "Lola, you told me you argued with her, but not what you exactly said. Anything you want to share?"

Lola shrank back, suddenly longing to become invisible. "I… uh…" she stammered, "I sort of… told Lana off and-… but I was angry, okay?! I didn't mean to… uh…"

The way Lori looked at her was enough tell-tale on what the older sister's opinion was. Deciding to postpone the scolding, she turned towards Lana. "Listen, Lana, whatever Lola said, I doubt it'd justify you having any type of responsibility in all of this."

Lana acted like she was deaf to her words. "I thought I-I could show her that I wasn't just a gross little girl who liked to do gross things… but here I am, I just got both my sisters injured and a dog k-… killed, and I all I managed to show was that there's nothing special in what I do… guess I really ain't able to be normal, after all…"

Before Lana could go on in her self-loathing, Lola climbed over the bed once again, standing up right in front of her sister. "Listen here, now!" she bellowed, earning her teary twin's utmost attention, "I won't let this behaviour go unpunished! You're taking back everything you said right now, or so help me-!"

"That's not the way,Lola,"Lori interrupted her, and Lola soon realized that talking like that to her weeping twin might not have been the best decision. She, thus, brought a hand to her face and breathed multiple times, until her heart stopped beating at high speed. Once that was done, Lola kneeled and crawled until she was basically face to face with Lana.

"Lana…" Lola's voice lacked the imposing, angered tone of her previous words. "I… I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what I said earlier… I was just being stupid and lousy and didn't think about what I was saying. Nothing of what you heard is true… you may be a little too much, er… dirty-loving at times, but it's not true that you are just gross and nothing else."

"Then… what I am?" Lana inquired with uncertainty.

"You're our sister," Lori interjected as she moved a little closer to the two of them herself. "That's not going to change anytime soon, no matter how different we are. There's no baloney as normal and not normal, Lana. There are a lot of hues in how a person can be… heck, you literally live in a house with thirteen different people!"

"And that's why it doesn't make sense for you to blame yourself! It was my fault, if anything,because I was being a moron and said something I shouldn't-… I shouldn't have said!" Lola continued as she got more and more touched by her own speech.

Lori squeezed Lana's hand, which she had yet to let go. "I was my fault as well. I got distracted and, no matter why, I should've never left you alone. I… I've not been any better than you two." The handkerchief materialized in one of her hands and she used it to wipe her eyes for the second time.

"But… but…" Lana wasn't ready to let Lori and Lola take the blame. "I was the one who began running away and pulled you with me!" she said, looking at Lola.

"Well, I was the one who pursued you! So, what?" Lola retorted.

"And... and the dog…" the tomboy continued.

"There's something I didn't tell you yet, Lana," Lori said once she thought she could speak a full sentence. "One of the policemen who came to help us approached me right before getting on the ambulance. He was an expert in this kind of cases and he told me that he had never seen once in his career an animal act like this. It wasn't rabid, thankfully… but the officer had no doubt about the fact it was sick of some unfortunate rare disease…"

Lori paused. "Lana… the dog, he… uh… he was as unlucky as us. He was not in control of what was going on… just like we had no way to prevent any of this from happening."

Unable to bear the gaze of her two sisters, Lana looked down again, but Lola put a hand over her shoulder. Only when she raised her head, Lola finally talked.

"Please, Lana… remove whatever bad thought you have in that head of yours! I-I want my muddy, non-brooding sister back!"

Lana felt a sudden surge of water coming towards her eyes. "But Lola-… I can- I can change if…!"

"No! I-I like you the way you are!"

Unable to control themselves, Lola and Lana threw themselves at each other and hugged again. They cried, but not because they were happy to see that they were all right like they did minutes before. They cried because they knew they had made their own errors, but they wanted to show that despite that, they would've stayed together through it. No matter what.

At this point, Lori couldn't simply resist the sight, and Lana found herself hugged by two people at once. This time, though, she ignored the soreness of the injured arm. She wasn't letting it prevent her from relishing this moment.

Just as they were about to separate, they heard shouting coming from behind the curtains. "Where is she?! Where?!" they heard a woman yelling, "Where's my baby?!"

Lori stood away from Lana and motioned Lola to do the same and follow her. They went to the opening in front of the mobile bed and opened the curtains, revealing the full size of the emergency room. "Mom!" Lori called.

Upon hearing her daughter's voice, Rita made a race for her. Predicting her needs, Lori pointed at the hospital bed behind her and the blonde girl lying on it. "Lana!" Rita cried her name just before launching herself to the injured girl, embracing her as well.

Lori and Lola simply waited a few meters away, letting the two of them enjoy the moment.

"…mom's going to punish us, isn't she?" Lola mumbled.

"If she is, we probably deserve it…" Lori replied. She looked at the pageant queen for a moment, and found out she was looking at her too. Lola immediately whirled around, but she kept silent only for a few moments.

"I… am I bad, Lori?" she asked hesitantly. Lori could see her trembling, a remarkable sight given who was the one shuddering.

She let a couple of seconds pass before answering her question. "No, you aren't. You do have a bad temper, Lola… but you're not bad, and you showed it more than once… including today."

Lola looked at Lori with an unconvinced look, but to show her that she meant it Lori smiled, and opened her hand. Lola moved her fingers a little, debating whether to accept the offer or not, but in the end, she raised her own hand and grabbed hold of Lori's. She walked to her side and leaned on her older sister's hip.

Thus, they stood, looking at their weeping mother and mud enthusiast sister. Content of having each other and the rest of their family as a safe heaven of people that, in the end, they could always count on. No matter their differences. No matter their arguments.

No matter what.

END

AN: This one-shot had always been in my mind for the last few months, but I never brought myself to put it into words until now. I'll be brief and say that, despite doing some research regarding what was depicted here, the story deliberately doesn't give much information on the specifics of what happened. The accident wasn't the focus, but the reaction of the characters to said event was, and I didn't want to take the attention away from them and/or write something completely unrealistic.

The fanfic had multiple versions developed, but this was the one I chose because I think it suits the best with the main idea and it let me work with the relationships in the best way possible. I'll leave it to you to decide whether I managed to do so or not, but in any case, I hope you've enjoyed this little one-shot.
Side note: cover image was made by me.