30Author's Notes:
It broke my heart writing this... but some friendships are strong enough to last a lifetime.
Disclaimer: The Loud House Copyright Nickelodeon (2018)
LILY AND HER BEST FRIEND
For as long as he could remember, he had been loved.
From the very second he was laid atop her newborn baby blanket, his fluffy heart was permanently sown to hers.
It had always been them. Lily and her best friend. From the moment he was bought from the hospital gift shop.
Wherever she went, he was not far behind her.
When she began to take her first steps, he was silently cheering her on.
But, one day she began to look at him differently.
One day, she didn't want her binkie. She wanted his hand.
He knew deep in his cotton-stuffed chest that, while she put his fuzzy paw in her mouth and slobbered on him, if he had a heart it would be racing.
Her wide, innocent eyes turned upward towards his sowed-on plastic ones, and a static charge passed between them.
From that day on, things were never the same between them.
Whereas before Lily dragged him around places… now, she hugged him to her heart.
Nowadays that's where he can be found at all times; with his head tucked under her chin, his fuzzy paws wrapped around her in a hug.
Of a night, he can be found lying down beside her. And when her lips quiver, her eyes squint, and her body shakes from a nightmare, he is squished against her chest to give comfort and warmth.
In time his body grew worn and an arm fell off after a hard day of play; and a young, teary-eyed Lily held him up to her big sister, Leni, to stitch him better.
When Leni handed him back to her younger sister, the words she spoke drove a nail between them.
"Be careful with him, Lily. He might not be around forever."
A six-year-old Lily held him up to her face, and tears were falling down her eyes. She looked at the little patches of fur that had matted over the years. She looked at the seam around the neck where he had been stitched back together long ago.
And she squeezed him to her chest, her small hand rubbing the back of his head.
"I promise to always keep you safe," she whispered to her best friend.
She took him into her room.
She pulled out one of her dresser drawers and made a little haven of safety for him.
She held him to her softly-beating chest; her tears flowing down onto his matted fur.
She laid a kiss on his plastic nose and placed him gently in the very back of her drawer.
"I love you."
His two button eyes stared back at her as she slowly closed the drawer, covering her best friend in darkness.
When Lily went to bed that night, she felt colder than she'd ever felt in her life.
She had a nightmare; where she was in a large room, screaming for her best friend to find her.
And suddenly a faint light appeared. She turned to it, and she smiled in delight.
But then, she began to smell smoke, and she stumbled in her steps.
She looked toward the light, questioningly… nervously… until she saw a little fire dancing across the floor.
She turned around and ran as fast as she could, yelling out for her best friend.
She had to find him! She had to get them both to safety!
She could feel the heat grow closer to her. She began to cough as the smoke grew thicker.
Her screams turned into scratchy cries for help.
Her cries turned into painful whimpers.
Soon, she felt herself get snatched into the air and cradled to something warm, and she latched herself onto it as tightly as she could with tears running down her face.
When she finally looked up, she saw her siblings and mother looking up at their house. She looked up into her father's face and her heart stopped when she saw an orange glow reflected in his eyes.
She turned in his arms and looked at their home… her own bedroom… as the fire slowly ate it away like a swarm of locusts.
She instinctually hugged her arms to herself, but her body froze stiff when she didn't feel that familiar fuzzy warmth against her heart.
Her teary eyes looked at her window… she could only see flames…
And she screamed for her best friend, but he could not hear her from the roar of the fire.
Her father held her tightly as her little body sobbed until each tear brought her pain, each breath brought her misery.
In the morning, she was sitting in the grass, her hands idly pulling up the green leaves and letting the wind take them away.
"Lily?"
She looked up and saw her brother approaching with his hand outstretched.
"This is all we could find."
One button eye, a little bit of charred dust coating it, was placed in her lap, and she snatched it up to her heart and cried.
Later that day, her sister, Leni, was folding ribbon into a bow. And Lily watched carefully as that button was sowed into the center.
As she stood before a mirror, she held a hand up to the bow clipped onto the side of her hair, and she spoke:
"I promise to always keep you safe."
When she was fifteen years old, she met a boy. And he, teasing her as a friend, poked her bow and asked why she always wore it.
She smacked his hand away and growled at him playfully.
"He's my best friend and I love him."
When she was twenty-three years old, she was standing in front of a woman. And her eyes were misty, her face grinning, her body tingling as her bride lifted the veil over Lily's head.
And as they were pronounced married, as they were granted permission to kiss each other and finish their ceremony, Lily's hand touched the button that had rested against her hair every single day since she was six years old.
Then, one morning, the sun gently gazed down upon a canopy.
And an aged hand reached out to touch a motionless arm.
And a tired, grouchy old man looked down with tears in his eyes as he committed that last image of his sister to his memory.
Lincoln looked upon his sister, Lily's peaceful face and, even though he felt pain at losing her, he smiled…
Because there in her hair was a single bow with a button in the very center.
And lying in this peaceful coffin were two friends that had stuck together from birth until death.
Lily and her best friend.