A Loud To Stay
is a The Loud House One Shot fanfic by Undying Spirit, though the original story idea came from AnonSama.
Lincoln discovers that he's adopted, and has to deal with the fallout, as well as the question where he came from and what drove his biological mother to abandon him.
This story contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents:
- The father of Lincoln's biological mother Lyla and her twin brother Logan was this, due to a combination of being The Alcoholic and their mother dying in childbirth. He actually killed Logan in a fit of rage when the boy was just twelve.
- Played with with Lyla herself; at first it seems she was this to Lincoln due to her abandoning him immediately after he was born, and the Louds finding out she has a (minor) criminal record, but when they finally meet and hear her side of the story, it turns out she acted out of desperation and not knowing what to do or who to turn to, and regretted losing Lincoln.
- Adoption Angst: Lincoln finds out he is adopted, and doesn’t take the news well. Especially after Leni accidentally reveals this fact to the rest of the family. Lincoln even briefly attempts to run away out of fear that his sisters don’t want him anymore now that they know he is an intruder, but fortunately doesn’t get far before the Louds bring him back home and finally tell the whole story. While things seem to go better afterwards, Lincoln still can’t find peace until he knows where he came from and why he was abandoned by his real parents, which his sisters help him with.
- Alternate Universe Fic: The story is set in an AU where Lincoln is not the biological son of Rita and Lynn Sr.
- Big Sister Instinct: When the Louds learn the whereabouts of Lincoln's biological mom Lyla, Lori becomes even more anxious to see her than Lincoln is because of what Lyla did to Lincoln as a baby. When they finally meet, Lori can't contain herself and punches the woman out cold, leading to her getting hospitalized.
- Child by Rape: Lincoln turns out to be the result of this. He is disturbed about how he is conceived when Lyla revealed this to him.
- Doorstop Baby: Lincoln was found as a baby in a cardboard box under a highway overpass. Hence why his exact date of birth is unknown.
- The Dreaded: Aunt Shirley is this to the Loud kids. The story opens with her visiting, and the kids first seriously consider trying to hide in their rooms before their parents order them to come downstairs.
- Embarrassing Browser History: Discussed; when Lisa admits to checking and categorizing the browser histories of all her siblings, Luan protests that she can’t do that because “there are so many disgraceful things [She’s] looked up”.
- Exact Eavesdropping: While Lincoln retreats into the bathroom and tells himself it’s no big deal he is adopted, he fails to notice that Leni is hiding the shower (she thought they were still playing the “hide and seek” game from last night, which was actually an excuse from Lori to get her out of the room) and overhears him talking.
- Fee Fi Faux Pas: After Leni overhears that Lincoln is adopted but doesn’t know what this is, Lincoln quickly lies that it’s the scientific term for having a chipped tooth. Leni buys the explanation hook, line and sinker, but unfortunately her misunderstanding of the word leads to her blurting out Lincoln is adopted in front of the whole family later.
- Happily Adopted: Although no-one in the Loud family besides Rita, Lynn Sr. and Lori knew it up until the events of this story, Lincoln is ultimately this; none of the Loud sisters think any different of him after learning the truth, and go out of their way to ensure him that he is a Loud.
- Innocently Insensitive: The morning after Lincoln found out about his adoption but his sisters are still oblivious, Lucy asks Lincoln to listen to her latest poem titled "Outsider". Naturally, the poem doesn't do Lincolns new fears of how his sisters might react if they knew the truth any good, but Lucy has no idea.
- Law of Inverse Fertility: Played with: Rita and Lynn Sr. had no trouble conceiving their daughters, but apparently somewhere between Lynn Jr. and Lucy’s birth, they temporarily hit trouble conceiving another child. Hence why they choose to adopt.
- Not Helping Your Case: When Leni accidently drops the bombshell that Lincoln is adopted, the sisters begin to remark how this explains why Lincoln seemed so different from them. Sadly, this only further increases Lincoln’s fear that they no longer want him now. Lori even namedrops the trope following Lucy’s remark how “this explains a lot”. The final nail comes when Lola wonders if this means Lincoln is not part of the family.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- When Lincoln goes to Lori to ask her about him being adopted or not ,she is in the middle of a phone call with Bobby. At first she reacts in her usual, annoyed way for being disturbed, but the moment she hears Lincoln’s question her whole attitude changes and she quickly ends the phone call to talk to him. To the reader, this is already a telltale sign that the answer is going to be “yes”.
- While it happens off screen, Lynn Sr. mentions Lucy actually cried when Lincoln ran off following the reveal of him being adopted; something she hadn’t done since she was 1 year old. It hammers home the point how much Lincoln means to her as a brother, adopted or blood related.
- When Lincoln makes his sisters one of his breakfast buffets but they fail to come downstairs to eat it, despite all of them loving his cooking, he knows something is up. And sure enough, when he goes upstairs to investigate, he learns his sisters found out about him trying to locate his biological parents, and are discussing what they should do.
- The Runaway:
- After the secret of Lincoln being adopted is revealed to the whole family, Lincoln storms out of the front door in tears. He doesn’t get too far fortunately since he quickly tires out from both exhaustion and grief.
- Lyla ran away from her home after Logan's death. She lived on the streets for a while afterwards, falling in with a bad crowd and getting raped, hence her pregancy. Eventually, social services took her in and helped her get her life back on track.
- Saying Too Much: When browsing through the family photo album and remarking on how many kids Rita and Lynn have, Aunt Shirley claims how they brought home Lincoln without any warning. This strikes Lincoln as odd since Shirley should have known Rita was pregnant with him. When he questions her about this she hastily corrects herself and claims she knew, but the damage is already done as it sets Lincoln on the path that leads to him discovering he is adopted.
- Secret-Keeper; Lori was the only one of the sisters who knew Lincoln was adopted. And after Lincoln confides in her that he discovered the truth, they try to keep it a secret from the rest of the family.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Aunt Shirley only appears at the very beginning of the fic, but it is her slip-up that sets in motion the chain of events leading to Lincoln finding out he is adopted, and eventually him finding his biological mother.
- Spotting the Thread: After aunt Shirley’s remark about Rita and Lynn bringing Lincoln home without warning, Lincoln begins to see more and more signs that he is not like the other Louds. Especially when he takes a critical look at the family portrait, and for the first time notices how different he looks compared to the rest of the family. Then he finds his birth certificate, which lists his date and time of birth as “unknown”.
- Teen Pregnancy: Lincoln turns out to be the result of one; his mother was barely 13 when she got pregnant with him, and the pregnancy was the result of rape.
- Unrelated in the Adaptation: Lincoln is not related to the Loud Family in this fic, unlike the show the fic is based on.
