User blog comment:Gumball2/"I Want A Brother"/@comment-32202721-20170723031437

You know, I knew there was something vaguely upsetting about the scene in Room With a Feud, where Lincoln goes from room to room seeing the newly swapped roommates getting along famously. It's part of the reason I wrote On Our Backs; the episode, while enjoyable, left me with an itch that needed scratching. And for the longest time, I couldn't figure out what it was.

Then I read this...

Once again, he was doing all of the heavy lifting while everyone else got to bond in ways he never thought imaginable.

''How was it that Leni and Lynn could have clicked so well when they seemed to have nothing in common? Luan (queen of comedy) and Lucy (lurker of darkness) smiling and chatting it up was unthinkable until he saw both of them in a friendly poker match. It was like they were mocking him, as if they were putting on a show of solidarity just to piece him out. Sure they came to their senses, but it was just baffling.''

''Sure Lincoln thanked them for agreeing to get along better, but all that did was bring things back to normal. He was still only one set up against ten. Was that it? Did Luan and Lucy have that bond just from their shared sisterhood? ''

...and the light was shed.

That trek down the hallway must have made him feel really left out. The arrangement left everybody in the house happy except for him, and it wouldn't have been outlandish for him to conclude that it was because he was the only boy: that his ten sisters shared a gender-based bond that he could never hope to replicate.

As for the fic overall... poignant, moving, and it ends on an adorably reassuring note. Who could ask for more?