Snow Way I Can Do This Without You

Chapter Two: Between Brother and Sister

Note: I had the devil's own time getting this uploaded. just kept wanting to re-re-re-repost chapter one no matter how often I posted the write (Hahaha Get it?) document.

Hello, once more my dear readers!

Welcome to Chapter Two, hope you are enjoying the story so far.

TL-Teller9999: More you say? Well, here you are!

DreadedCandiru2: Yeah I've headcanoned Lynn Sr. As having PTSD the DPRK stuff just popped into my head for this work.

Samtastic3.0: Well hopefully Lincoln can rely on his circle of friends and maybe a new BFF.

364wii: Lynn just works so well as an antagonist. Not shocking since you'd have to be blind to not see she's a bully. Then again the fandom does have an odd love for female bullies. Lynn, Ronnie Anne, Taylor. Hell, even Chandler has his defenders that attacked anyone writing him as a bully in fanfics.

Mysterious Mr. M: Well we shall see shant we? But yes they can be idiots, but don't worry in this universe they don't get to be Karma Houdinis.

Kitehaseo: Oh there will be some an interesting twist as you will see.

TwistedDarkness225: Thank you I'm trying something new here.

I had a couple of guest reviews I was going to reply to, they were negative but I want to address everyone. That is until a friend pointed out they were almost certainly written by the same person as they said almost word for word the same thing. So I removed both of them, probably from the same person that declared every explanation and plot twist they didn't like an 'excuse' to write the story in ways they didn't like. Gotta love backseat writers.

Now then something I forgot to mention in the first chapter and will be updating that for new readers. This story is an experiment in the Japanese Kishotenketsu style, consisting of a beginning, rising action, twist, and a synthesis/resolution.

*~*~*~Snow Way I Can Do This Without You~*~*~*

The rap music continued to vibrate through the house assaulting Lincoln's ears. 'The McBrides hate this stuff, Mr. Harold always called it an insult to decent music like Jazz or the Blues, huh funny the things you think about in a time like this.'

Lincoln let out a whimper as Lynn wedged him back further, "so, what makes you so special huh?" She eased up, "well? Why do you get to go off on and have fun while we work? ANSWER ME!" Lynn put the pressure back on, "you got any idea how much extra work we had to do? What makes HEY!"

The pressure was suddenly gone, "Lincoln," a gentle voice spoke, "Lincoln," a voice repeated.

"Who..?" Lincoln whispered before everything went black, when he next opened his eyes there was a figure over him, blonde hair, blue eyes, "mom?" Lincoln asked again.

"It's me silly, Lori," his eyes finally focused on the eldest sister, in a lot of ways she looked like a younger version of his mother.

"Same difference," Lincoln said a grin slowly spreading over his face, the familiar feeling of his sheets and blanket told him he'd been carried to his room and tucked in. Lynn must have knocked him out. He looked into Lori's eyes, "how long?"

"An hour, Lisa said it was exhaustion more than anything else, Lynn's hold took the last of the wind out of you. Didn't sleep well at that hotel?" Lori brushed some of his hair back.

"Not in the least," Lincoln shook his head then forced a smile, "but I'm good to help," Lincoln tried to sit up, Lori stopped him with a gentle touch.

"We're actually done with everything. You can take it easy," Lori said.

Lincoln nodded, 'rest then clean up after the party is done, Clyde might be willing to help... Oh, Clyde…' with an effort Lincoln forced tears back before looking up to Lori again, "what happened to Lynn?"

"Leni hauled her off by the scruff of her neck and marched her downstairs to the phone to speak to mom and dad, she's grounded for the rest of the month, and the next. Plus she has to do your clean-up work now," Lori said, sighing and looking him over, the boy felt a tear run down his cheek. Lori brushed it off, "does anything hurt, she looked like she was about to break your back."

"Now that you mention it," a feeling like a hot needle of pain shot through Lincoln's back, and for a few seconds firefly like sparks danced in front of his eyes. "Yes... Pain…" Lincoln whimpered, "Why Lori?" Lincoln asked, "why does she keep doing stuff like this…"

"No idea," Lori said, "but it's getting worse, I plan to speak to her after the party. You want anything to eat?" Lincoln nodded before getting a pat on the shoulder as Lori went downstairs.

Lincoln tried to relax, a dull ache spreading over his body. It wasn't unheard of for Lynn to use submission holds on himself or the younger siblings for her own amusement or the older ones for that matter. Still, that didn't do anything for the pain he felt as he slowly became aware of it. 'What's next?' he wondered, 'shoving me into lockers once we are in the same school? Stealing my lunch? Bet people will defend her doing it just because they like her or because she's my sister.'

There was a knock on his door, then Luan's voice, "can I come in?"

'Odd, my sisters usually just slam, or kick the door open,' Lincoln thought to himself, "yeah sure come on in!"

Luan entered and sat beside him, "how ya feeling?"

"Like I got twisted in ways nature never intended," Lincoln sighed, "funny thing is when I woke up it didn't hurt until I thought about it."

"That's normal," Luan replied, "happened when I twisted my ankle awhile back. Anytime I woke up I didn't feel anything for a few minutes, then ouch time. Soooo how was the trip?"

"Fine until the end, sorry I wasn't here to help," Lincoln replied.

"Nonsense, mom, and dad seemed ready to send you one way or another, everyone is wondering why," Luan said as Lori entered carrying a bowl of chicken noodle soup.

"Thanks," Lincoln sat up to eat.

"So what's this about the end of the trip?" Luan asked fixing Lincoln with her best concerned big sister look, "I wanna hear about the whole thing." Lori nodded her look mirroring Luan's.

With a sigh, Lincoln gave them the full story; the trip itself, how over protecting the McBrides could be, which got laughter from both girls. Then with a heavy sigh, Lincoln told them about the McBrides moving, running into the bigoted tow truck driver, meeting with Master San.

"So," Lori said taking Lincoln's empty dishes, "that's why mom and dad wanted you to go. I'll spread the word so the girls know to ease off. Some of them are still upset you got to go on the trip," with that Lori left.

"If they don't back off I might just target them alone come April 1st," Luan added with a wink.

"Thanks, sis," Lincoln looked at the foot of his bed his eyes becoming unfocused. "It's just, sixth grade and Jr. High are coming up fast, there's no way I can do this without you man…" Then he felt Luan sitting down beside him on the bed.

Luan could tell her brother's mind had left the building, for the time being, she decided to let him get his mental bearings, 'poor kid,' Luan thought, 'it's never easy losing a friend, then again I think he might be the very first of us to lose their first and best friend. Pretty sure all of us still have their first and bests around. Well except for Lily of course, but only because she hasn't made any yet.'

"It won't be easy," Luan said, she was never a big believer in lying to a person and telling them everything would be alright, she let him bury his head in her side, she wasn't a fan of that 'LOOK AT ME!' nonsense people went when trying to make a person feel better. Once she'd slapped a girl across the face for demanding a friend look her in the eye while crying over the loss of her mother. As that girl felt the impact spot she'd looked at Luan in shock, 'this is about her not you,' the comedienne had snarled. A growing feeling of wetness brought her back to reality, her brother crying into her shirt.

Taking a deep breath Luan repeated, "it's not gonna be easy, but hey Lynn will be there."

This got a chuckle from Lincoln that sounded almost cynical to Luan's ears, and Luan was an expert on the different types of laughs and smiles.

"Great," Lincoln said," bet you anything Lynn'll smack me around there too, and stuff me in a locker."

Luan laughed, "oh come on just because she's a jock and can be a little aggressive doesn't mean she's going to shove you into a locker. I mean the jock shoving the nerd, or geek, into a locker is about as stereotypical as you can get."

"She's threatened me in the past with a bat, remember?" Lincoln said.

Luan really didn't wanna go into THAT again, for her part she didn't think Lynn would do it, but unlike some of the other girls, she could understand how it made him feel. "Moving on," Luan said, "you'll have your other friends and I'm sure you'll make more. Mind you they won't replace Clyde, no one can, but you're a tough kid, and really we don't give you enough credit for it. Besides, I'll be there too I still got a year left." Luan had started school a year later than she was supposed to have due to a medical issue stretching back to when she was born.

"Thanks," Lincoln said leaning against her.

"Anytime, I'm sure you understand after our last chat, I'm here for you if ya need to talk." Early last fall the siblings had tried a room swap experiment. It hadn't gone well for Lincoln so the girls switched back, in the aftermath Lincoln was beating himself up thinking he messed things up for them. Once she knew what was going Luan had reached out to him.

"Now I'm sure you know we have sisters-only meetings," Luan said pausing for Lincoln to get a chance to speak, she'd learned a thing or to at her improv classes about helping people through these kinds of situations and how to spot them. With suicides being so common in that area it wasn't a shock classes on spotting personal problems and helping others with their issues would be a thing.

"Yeah, I know some of you think I'm a Space Case, but it doesn't take someone with Lisa's brains to figure it out. Like how you girls had a whole protocol I was expected to follow and no one told me a word about, or the handful of times there was a meeting and everyone acted like the stuff was already talked about and this was just going through the motions," Lincoln said.

Luan flinched internally at that, it was wrong when they did a meeting without Lucy over changing the color of the bathroom, and it was wrong for them to be using sister meetings to decide stuff that affected all of them without Lincoln being present, 'note to self, talk to Lori.'

"Yeah, that wasn't right," Luan conceded before smiling down at him, "any way we have another protocol, one I think needs to be extended to cover brothers. When a sister, no A SIBLING gets dumped, or in this case loses a best friend one of us takes them out for ice cream, I think after Lily's party we should go have a brother-sister day, seems like we aren't doing enough of those anyway."

"That would be great," Lincoln looked up smiling, his eyes bloodshot, his cheeks wet with tears, "I was getting worried we seemed to be spending less and less time together."

"Yeah, we are a tight group, and we need to keep that, especially with Lori moving away this summer," Luan sighed, "well let's take a walk around and see how everyone's doing shall we?" The rap music grew louder, making Luan grind her teeth, "damn I wish Lisa would turn that shit down!"

Lincoln's eyes grew at that as Luan blushed, sure they cursed but rarely like that, Luan averted her eyes and as the blush grew deeper, "sorry, just it's getting to me."

"What's up with that music anyway, I feel like I should know why Lisa seems to be trying to make everyone in the house deaf," Lincoln said covering his ears.

"Trying to mask the noise of the party preparations from Lily," Luan said as she also covered her ears, "maybe next year we can send her to a friend's house, hoping she's made some by then."

"If not I can take her to Liam's farm," Lincoln said, "or no surprises just hey we're gonna do a party for you, besides she'll be three next year don't think she… Never mind she'd know, I expect that girl is gonna be discussing literature with me by summer."

Luan laughed, "sure she'll be writing a dissertation on the sociopolitical implications of Go Dog, Go!"

The pair shared a laugh as they stepped out into the hallway and Lincoln was instantly lifted up into a tight hug from Leni. The girl held him close swaying him back and for and nuzzling against him, obviously, someone told her about Clyde.

"Linky I'm sorry!" She squeezed him again, "don't worry we're here for you!" Leni gave him another squeeze and for a second Lincoln could swear he was looking down at his body before she released the grip and he had the sensation of falling back into himself.

"Thanks, Leni," Lincoln gasped, "love ya, sis."

"Love you too!" She gushed releasing him and kissing the top of his head as he waited for the house to stop spinning. 'Leni's hug must have made me the temporary center of the solar system, that's why everything is spinning around me…' Lincoln thought to himself as the world, and his common sense slowly righted themselves. He would have fallen on his face but thankfully Luan supported him giggling all the while at the sight.

Lincoln finally recovered, "thanks, it's painful but it's good knowing you girls are here."

"Always," a monotone came from behind him making him jump into Luan's arms, Luan in turn jumped into Leni's. After calming down Lincoln smiled at the goth girl before him, "thanks, Lucy!"

The goth smiled, "the twins also send their apologies, they knew not what was going on."

"Lana and Lola came and got me when Lynn was hurting you," Leni said, "I told Lynn if she does a submission hold on anyone else in this house I'll give her the torture rack, followed by the Walls of Jericho, and finish with a cobra clutch, an hour on each." Seeing the stunned looks on Lincoln and the girls' faces Leni added, "Chaz is into Professional Wrestling, I picked up a few things watching older matches with him, either way, Lynn's submission hold games are over."

"Good, I think we are all sick and tired of them," Lucy added, "by the way brother it would be nice of you to come to one of the Mortician Clubs gatherings," Lucy said, "Lana also wished to ask if you'd want to go to the park with her and Lola was hoping for some time too."

Lincoln knew they were all trying to cheer him up, and he was grateful, as he went to reply but then there was a roar from Lisa and Lily's room as the door was blown off its hinges and bits of Lisa's computer ripped through the wall over the stairs. Lincoln was thrown to the wall as he recovered he saw black smoke billowing out of the youngest girls' room. He hurried in and looked for his sisters, Lisa was laying on the ground eyes close not moving, and across from her was a large glass sphere that was shattered, inside strapped to a table with wires running to her body and a weird metal plate across her forehead was Lily, blood flowing from her nose, ears and from under the metal bar.

*~*~*~To Be Continued~*~*~*

Greetings my readers! This is another chapter in the books, now please allow me to explain a few things.

Lynn's submission hold "games" are a small trope I've seen here and there in a few Loud House fanfics that portray her as doing them for "fun" I wanted to show just what those off-camera events would look like as well as how I could see Leni putting an end to it. Like any bully Lynn strikes me as the type to cower down if someone stronger gets involved, reference how when Taylor and her gang show up on the bus Lynn suddenly takes to running all the way to school. Yes I know she says it's track but I hold she would know who takes the bus and when in her school and thus avoid bigger bullies. As I said I will use SOME elements from later seasons, expect to see Taylor and crew in a future story.

Now to Lisa and Lily, we will see what she was up to next chapter. In the series she has experimented on Lily and some of the others, I've often wondered what her end goal was and came up with an idea. That end goal will be explored more in the next chapter coming in two weeks.