User blog:MrTyeDye/Fanfiction: Shrinkin' Lincoln (Part 7)

Aaaand here's Part 7.

Lincoln woke up to the sensation of flat, unyielding hardwood beneath his back. Looking down, he could see that he was laid out on the chemistry table, and he had been changed back into his daytime clothes. Looming over him was the gigantic form of Lisa, who was carefully slipping his shoes back on.

"Ah, good," she said. "You're awake."

After Lisa finished reapplying his footwear, Lincoln sat up and started rubbing his eyes.

"Mmm... what happened?" he said with a yawn. "Where's Lily?"

"She's currently in the kitchen, being fed," said Lisa. "I had to take you away from her before mother came in to carry her downstairs. I hid you back under the washcloth when she came in."

She bent over him and gingerly buttoned up his jeans and straightened out his shirt. "Also, I took the liberty of changing you back into your old clothes while you were asleep. I assumed that you would want me to return both you and your clothes to normal size."

"You assumed correctly," said Lincoln. "So thanks for tha-"

Lincoln blushed as soon as he realized the implications of what she just said.

"Wait, you changed me?" he asked. "As in, you took off my pajamas, and then dressed me?"

"Oh, come off it, Lincoln," said Lisa. "It's not as though I'm unaccustomed to seeing you in your underwear."

Lincoln's blush faded a bit. "Okay, that's fair," he muttered, recalling the number of times he'd read comic books half-naked in plain sight of her. Still, it was a little embarrassing to have his four-year-old sister dress him.

"The good news is that my size alteration apparatus has completed its cooldown period," said Lisa. "We are now fully prepared to return you to normal."

With that, she picked him up off the table, hopped off her stepstool and carried him over to the right side of the room. Having been liberated from Lisa's shadow, Lincoln was provided with an unobstructed view of her bedroom, and he noticed three beaming faces lined up in front of her closed door: one goth, one handywoman and one princess.

"We just wanted to thank you one more time," said Lola. "We had a really great time yesterday."

Lincoln just smiled and gave them a wave as Lisa passed them by. Once she got to the other side of the room, Lincoln noticed that the intended target of the shrink ray - the head of cabbage - was still in the exact same place it was in yesterday morning, atop the stool propped against the wall. Lisa nonchalantly swatted the cabbage off and placed Lincoln on the stool in its place.

"I should warn you three that the machine takes a while to boot up," said Lisa as she crossed back over to the left side of the room. "Be prepared to do a bit of waiting."

She used the stepstool to climb back onto the chemistry table, where the machine was positioned right near the edge, poised to fire. After punching in a few commands and nudging the nozzle into the right position, she hammered the switch on top, sat back, and waited.

Lincoln, knowing that it'd be a while before the machine got going, decided to pass the time with some small talk.

"So, Lucy, when are you going to hear the results of that contest?"

"In a week," said Lucy. "Also, you should know that if I win, I'm taking you."

Lincoln blinked at her. "Come again?"

"First prize winners get two tickets to Creepy Castle," said Lucy. "One for me, and one for you."

Lincoln gasped with joy, flattered that he of all people was her first choice. "Lucy, I... I don't know what to say. Thank you."

Truth be told, while he wasn't as big of a horror fan as Lucy was, he did have a soft spot for the supernatural, as evidenced by his love of ARGGH!. An excursion to Michigan's creepiest haunted house actually sounded pretty exciting.

Before long, the machine began to sputter and choke, expelling a thin wisp of smoke from its metallic shell. As the whirring of the machine gradually swelled in volume, Lana sniffled and flicked a tear away from her eye.

"I'm gonna miss you, Tiny Linc," she said, her voice crackling.

Lincoln looked over and gave her a befuddled look. "Lana, it... it's still me."

He decided not to press the issue any further, since he figured it wasn't worth it to try to dissect the logic behind Lana's sentimentality. Instead, he just turned back to face the contraption, which was now rumbling about and producing a cacophonous ruckus that filled the room.

At long last, the roaring, rattling machine spat out a jet of glowing plasma - this one blue - and scored a direct hit on Lincoln's body. He was enveloped in an opaque blue cocoon, and he could feel his skin expanding and loosening itself, presumably to make room for his lengthening bones and swelling muscles. Oddly enough, the process of having his skin stretched out like taffy wasn't all that discomforting; if anything, he felt numb during the transformation.

But whatever numbness he was feeling came to a swift end when his knees collided with the floor beneath him, shooting a dull pain into his kneecaps. Lincoln grunted with pain, took a moment to let himself recover from the impact, and then used his hands to push himself into a standing position.

Once he got to his feet and rubbed his eyes open, he was greeted with the relieving sight of a normal-sized baby crib, a ceiling that hung only a few feet above his head, and four little girls beaming up at him.

"It worked!" the girls cheered in unison.

Before he could react, the now normal-sized Lana, Lucy, Lola and Lisa surrounded him and locked him into a tight group hug.

"H-hey! Give me a little space!" protested Lincoln, failing to hide his enchantment. The girls ignored his request and continued to embrace him, leaving him no choice but to give in and return the hug.

"Good to have you back, Big Linc," said Lana.

"It sure is," said Lola.

"I concur," said Lisa. "And from now on, I'll exercise a bit more caution when performing my experiments."

Lincoln responded with a faint giggle, as he doubted that Lisa was going to keep that promise for long. For now, though, he'd just humor her.

"Glad to hear it," he said. "But now I've got a bit of homework to do, so could you guys let me out?"

The girls nodded and, showing a bit of reluctance, withdrew their arms and backed away from their big brother.

Lincoln could feel the corners of his mouth rising automatically as he took one more glance at his younger sisters' faces. There were times in the Loud house that he felt neglected or underappreciated, but in that moment there was no way he could even imagine feeling that way. Not when he was face-to-face with four elated little girls, each of their expressions bursting at the seams with affection.

Lincoln took one last moment to smile back and give them a wave goodbye before starting out of the room. "It's been fun, girls," he said as he pushed open the door. "It really has."

As he walked out of the room and closed the door behind him, he started to mull over whether he should start with his math or English homework first, when his thought process was interrupted with a raspy cry of, "There you are!"

He looked to his right to see Luna walking down the hall to greet him, her expression an odd cocktail of relief and mild bemusement.

"Where've you been, dude? I haven't heard a peep out of you since Friday!"

Moments later, she was joined in the hallway by Lynn, Luan, Leni and Lori, all of whom looked just as concerned.

"Yeah, Lincoln, it's not like you to skip a meal," said Lynn.

"I was starting to get a little worried about you," said Leni, knitting her brow.

"We should start calling you the Missing Linc!" said Luan, who followed up her statement with her trademark laugh.

"Very funny, Luan," Lori said with a roll of her eyes. "But seriously, Lincoln, what have you been doing since yesterday? And don't say that you spent all that time studying, or I'll literally know you're lying."

Lincoln just shrugged, turned his back on the five elder sisters and started walking back towards his room.

"Sorry, girls, but that's my little secret."

The End