Lucy's Secret
is a fanfic of The Loud House by an author who goes by Samtastic 3.0.
It focuses on Lucy, the gothic Loud sister, having been wetting the bed, but she's shy, so she keeps it a secret. However, as time goes on, her family starts to notice that she seems to have a troubling secret, so they try to find out what exactly the secret is.
This story provides examples of
- Affectionate Nickname: Rita calls Lucy "Sweetie" when she's worried about her.
- All Girls Like Ponies: The girls' bedwetting diapers have either ponies or flowers printed on them.
- Alliterative Family: This fanfic establishes that Hank and Hawk are brothers, and they have another brother named Huck.
- Anger Born of Worry: When Luan discovers that Lucy is at the store instead of Haiku's place like she claimed she was going, she gets angry at her out of fear that something bad might have happened and they didn't know where to look.
- Asleep in Class: Due to the bedwetting interfering with Lucy's sleep, she takes a nap during math class.
- Baffled by Own Biology: When Lucy starts wetting the bed, she initially worries that it's a bladder infection. It turns out to instead be a genetic birth defect.
- Bait-and-Switch: The opening shows Lucy as a young woman kissing a real-live Edwin... but then it turns out to be a dream.
- Big "NO!": Lucy in her dream whines, "Nooo" as she hears a flowing sound.
- Bittersweet Ending: Lucy learns that her bedwetting problem will probably go away on its own, and that it isn't serious, and she's no longer ashamed. However, she does learn that it will take years, possibly until college, to go away and that she'll have to wear diapers at night until it does. It's also revealed that Luan has the same problem, and that the twins, Lisa, and Lily all have a chance of developing it in a few years' time.
- Bizarre Dream Rationalization: Invoked when Lucy is changing her bedsheets in the night and deliberately acts bizarre (pretending to have three legs, talking about being on the moon, etc) so that Lynn, who woke up, will think it's a dream.
- Counting Sheep: Due to having gotten up at night to change her bedsheets, Lucy is tired in math class, and so decides to take a nap. She counts imaginary sheep with the times tables written on them.
- Crashing Dreams: In the beginning, Lucy dreams she hears a flowing sound. She wakes up to find that she's wet the bed.
- Death Glare:
- Principal Huggins gives Lucy a "stern look" for begging him not to tell her parents about her falling asleep in class.
- Huck glares daggers at Lucy because Lynn, who is Lucy's sister, made him unpopular, then later, Luan glares at him for bullying Lucy, then at Lucy for scaring her.
- Don't Go in the Woods: Lucy's dream at the beginning features Edwin the vampire living in a Transylvanian forest.
- Dreary Half-Lidded Eyes: When Lynn is tired due to being woken at night, her eyes are described as half-closed.
- Dream Deception: Played with when Lucy gets up to change her bedsheets in the night and Lynn wakes up. Lucy doesn't outright tell Lynn that she's dreaming, but deliberately tricks Lynn into thinking she's dreaming by talking nonsense about training to be "the King of Nebraska and Cheese Puffs".
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The story ends with a note that after all her struggles, Lucy is finally getting a good night's sleep.
- Embarrassing Damp Sheets: Lucy wets the bed and it gravely impacts her self esteem. It turns out to be a hereditary condition that Luan also has, and that Rita used to have.
- Exhaustion-Induced Idiocy: Due to being tired from the late hour, when Lucy wakes up having wet the bed, she forgets to put her pants and undies in the washing machine.
- Eye Twitch: Maggie's eye twitches in anger when she thinks Luan did the "hand in warm water" trick on Lucy.
- Faking Another Person's Illness:
- When Lucy is trying to make an excuse for why she's buying diapers (actually bedwetting pants), she pretends they're for Lily, then adds, "She's feeling really sick".
- When Lori catches Lucy at home when she pretended she was going to Haiku's house, she pretends that she had to come home because Haiku and her sister had food poisoning and it was making her nauseous.
- Flat Joy: In Lucy's dream, Edwin is described as stating in a "monotone" that he's "bursting with excitement and joy" (though he is sincere; he's just The Stoic like Lucy).
- Flowers of Femininity: Some of the girls' bedwetting pants for sale have flowers on them.
- The Food Poisoning Incident: Discussed when Lucy lies that Haiku and her sister threw up from bad cookies, to make an excuse for why she wasn't at their house.
- Goofy Print Underwear: Lucy wears Princess Pony undies, so she's embarrassed when Lori sees a discarded pair.
- Go-to-Sleep Ending: The story ends with Luan and Lucy climbing into bed together and falling asleep.
- Grossout Fakeout:
- Not only does Lucy pretend the bedwetting diapers she's buying for herself are actually for her baby sister Lily, she claims that the reason Lily needs more diapers is because she's "feeling really sick".
- When Lucy is making an excuse for why she's at home and not at Haiku's house, where she pretended she was going, she pretends that she and her sister got food poisoning and threw up, and that she had to go home as it was making her nauseous.
- Inevitably Broken Rule: At the sleepover, Lucy drinks six glasses of caffeinated soda and stays up 'til one in the morning, despite mentioning that Rita never lets any of the kids stay up late or consume a lot of caffiene.
- Kids Shouldn't Watch Horror Films: Discussed — Maggie is leery about playing Night of the Living Dead (1968) at the sleepover, because some of the girls there are quite young (the youngest, Lucy, is only eight). However, due to most of the partygoers being goths, the only one who gets scared is Luan, a teen.
- The Klutz: Lynn, apparently, becomes very clumsy whenever she's injured, meaning that she can't have pranked Lucy with a bowl of water, since Lynn currently has a broken ankle and thus would have stumbled around and woken Lucy up.
- Lame Pun Reaction:
- When Luan asks what's "goth" Lucy down, the rest of her family groans.
- When Luan says she's "mort-itchin" for a good time with the goths, they all either groan or give her a blank stare.
- Literal Ass-Kicking: Luan kicks Huck on the butt for bullying Lucy.
- Mistaken for Thief: Discussed when Lucy, trying to buy bedwetting pants, thinks that if anyone saw her acting so secretive in the store, they'll think she's getting ready to shoplift.
- Not So Stoic: Lucy's shame over her bedwetting and keeping it a secret causes her to actually cry a few times, and moan once, despite her usual stoicism.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Lucy decides to use the bathroom last, since she's wearing a diaper due to her bedwetting and is worried her siblings will her it crinkling. This shocks Lynn, since usually Lucy is one of the first ones to use the bathroom before bed. Later, Lynn is confused that Lucy is taking a nap, since it's unusual for most of the family members to be taking naps, especially on Saturdays.
- Original Character: This story has a bully named Huck, the younger brother of Hawk and Hank.
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Outdated by Canon: The story states that none of Lucy's friends are in her class. It was written before the show revealed that her friend group actually is all in her class. - Pink Girl, Blue Boy: When Lucy is buying bedwetting pants, the boys' diapers are blue while the girls' are pink.
- Playing Sick:
- Discussed — Lucy, having wet the bed in the night, is sleep deprived and thus considers playing sick so she can stay home from school. She decides not to, however, lest she spark paranoia, as often happens when a Loud actually gets sick.
- Discussed again when Lucy is about to go to a sleepover, and considers pretending she's sick to her stomach, but changes her mind.
- Pun:
- When using the Ouija board, Luan jokes that they won't summon a prankster ghost who gives "ou-edgies".
- Exploited, when Luan deliberately makes it seem as though she pranked Lucy with a bowl of water by saying, "Gee, Lucy, I gotta hand it to ya. Water you gonna do now, since we're all about to bowl over laughing?".
- Related in the Adaptation: This story establishes that Hawk and Hank are brothers.
- Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Notable aversion — Lucy is said to have been so tired that she actually sighed instead of just saying the word "sigh" like she usually does. Later, however, she does say it when having to buy the embarrassing printed bedwetting pants.
- Shared Family Quirks: The fanfic gives Hawk and Hank a brother, Huck, who is just as mean as them.
- She Is the King: Discussed — When Lucy is talking nonsense to convince Lynn that she's dreaming, she says that Lynn is training to be "King of Nebraska and Cheese Puffs".
- Shout-Out:
- At one point, the Louds watch The Incredibles.
- During the sleepover, the goths watch Night of the Living Dead (1968).
- Silly Spook: Discussed when, while using the Ouija board, Luan hopes they won't summon any prankster ghosts who like to give "ou-edgies".
- Single Tear: Lucy cries one tear during the beginning scene where she realises she's wet the bed for the tenth time.
- Sleep Deprivation: Due to wetting the bed, Lucy ends up losing sleep.
- Sugar Causes Hyperactivity: Lucy attributes her forgetting to put on her bedwetting pants at the sleepover to being "hopped up on sugar" (even though the soda she drank was stated to also contain caffeine, which really does make people hopped up).
- Tears of Joy: When Luan pretends she pranked Lucy with water to explain why she wet the bed, and then later when Lynn and Lincoln hug her when they find out she wets the bed, Lucy gets so happy she actually sobs.
- Too Unhappy to Be Hungry: Lucy is still too shy to tell her parents that she wets the bed, so she decides to just put on one of her baby sister Lily's diapers instead. However, this deeply troubles her, so she eats less at dinner and turns down some pie.
- Uncool Undies: Lucy blushes upon realising that Lori has seen her Princess Pony undies.
- Unexpected Kindness: When Lucy tells Lynn and Lincoln about her bedwetting problem, she half-expects them to laugh, but they hug her instead.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: In Lucy's dream, Edwin the vampire can turn from humanoid to bat at will.
- Warm Water Whiz:
- Subverted — when Lucy first starts wetting the bed, she thinks Luan or Lynn put her hand in a bowl of water, but when it still happens when both are away, she realises they didn't.
- Played with when Lucy wets the bed during the sleepover and Luan, to help Lucy save face, deliberately makes it seem like she pranked Lucy with a bowl of water by making puns on the words "hand", "water", and "bowl".
- You Need a Breath Mint: Lucy shudders when she smells Huck's bad breath, wondering if he hasn't brushed his teeth in days.
