Authors Note: Sorry for how long this took to update, I was sick for a while there and am at the tail end of it all. Either way thanks again for all the support, I hope you guys like this chapter.
Lynn was currently snoring away peacefully in her bed. it was probably one of her best nights worth of slumber that she had been able to get recently, the farther along she got in her pregnancy in the second month, the harder it was to truly get comfortable in bed, some nights she would be woken by bouts of nausea, while others she would be awoken by hunger pangs or cravings, all the while needing to go to the bathroom more and more often did little to help at all.
Lynn heard her alarm beginning to ring out once again, she tiredly reached over and slapped a hand on it to shut it off, the auburn-haired girl wanted to sleep a little longer, though she knew that was going to not happen anyhow. When Lynn opened her eyes slightly, a blurry shadowy figure stood in front of her bedside, the pregnant girl propped herself up on one arm while using the other to rub the sleep out of her eyes.
"AH!" Lynn screamed as she threw herself back suddenly in the bed, hard enough to slam her back against the wall and cause a shockwave of pain throughout her spine, the 5th oldest Loud wincing in partial agony.
"Lynn?!" Lucy sat up from her bed in a shocked panic, the gothic Loud was awoken a lot throughout the nights by her roommate, though never by screaming. The raven-haired girl seeing the sporty Loud with her back against the wall in her bed, looking terrified.
"What happened?" Lucy worriedly inquired while getting out of bed, Lynn did not respond initially, just sat there with a hand on her own chest, panting for breath while trying to get her heart to settle down.
"I... I don't know." Lynn panted in reply, she was not certain what she had seen, the image had not been clear whatsoever, whatever had been standing there by her bedside was gone seemingly as soon as she had seen it. "It was some weird, shadow thing... I guess it was a nightmare." Lynn breathed as she began to calm down, nightmare or not, it scared her to no end nonetheless.
"Do you want me to get Lincoln?" Lucy offered to her roommate, Lincoln had moved back into the Loud house a month ago, needless to say that helped improve everyone's mood in the house, Luan was getting back to her old self, though according to the white-haired boy himself Leni was pretty hurt when he left, even if it was always intended to be a temporary thing, the pain lessened when Lincoln assured that he wanted to keep working at her store with her, Leni was more than happy to hear and accept that from him.
"For a nightmare? I'm not 5, Luce." Lynn sarcastically retorted, despite the fact she initially wanted to say yes, the brunette hopped out of bed now that she was wide awake. Lynn began by doing her normal morning stretches, her goth loving sibling being sat on the edge of the sporty Loud's bed.
"Did you two have a fight?" Lucy asked, Lynn casting a brief glance over her shoulder to the girl, while the auburn-haired Loud could not see Lucy's eyes, she could still tell they held concern.
"No, everything between us has been... great." Lynn found herself pausing towards the end of her sentence, almost like she could not believe how well things had been going with Lincoln herself, it took a lot of restraint on the 5th oldest Loud's part to not display affection in public, they had been on three more dates since their last one, each time they would go to Ohio and each date was subsequently better than the last, after the third time out together the two were more than happy to call one another boyfriend and girlfriend.
"I'm glad you two have found happiness with one another." Lucy stated, having been informed of her sibling's relationship three weeks ago. Lynn was against telling their little sister, the sports loving girl thought Lisa and Luna knowing was plenty, Lincoln had convinced his girlfriend however that they needed to tell everybody the truth, not in a group setting, but in a sibling-to-sibling fashion.
Lynn still was not a fan of the idea, thankfully after enough convincing the sporty Loud agreed to tell their sisters about everything, the pregnancy, their relationship, it was a lot, so they decided to break the news to one sibling at a time every couple of weeks, Lincoln thought this method would be the best as it would allow their siblings ample thinking time to absorb the news and think on it for however long they needed, Lucy had been the third told, after Lisa and Luna.
"What are you going to do about school?" Lucy asked, one look at Lynn and anyone could tell something was off, her stomach was becoming more noticeable with each passing week, there were also 'other' parts of her that were starting to develop as well, the tender soreness of her breasts was just another one of the many nuisances Lynn had to put up with, but at least those the sporty Loud could hide under her sports bra.
"What else can I do? Live with it, it's not like I'm the first pregnant teenager." Lynn shrugged while she finished getting changed, though as the sporty Loud turned around, she swore she saw that same vague shadowy figure appear out of the corner of her eye, she looked around in confusion, seeing no further signs of it.
"I meant with Lincoln. everybody knows how affectionate he can be." Lucy reminded Lynn, their brother was physical with all their family, the 5th oldest Loud most of all, a lot of the younger Loud's even tended to use Lincoln as a pillow if given the convenient chance of it. Lucy did not want to come off as rude, yet the goth loving Loud had to internally confess to herself, Lincoln probably warmed up very easily to Lynn simply because she reminded him a lot of his first girlfriend, Ronnie Anne.
"Oh relax, he's not some wild animal." Lynn lightly laughed, unsure if this was a serious conversation or not, it was hard to tell with her roommate, Lucy watched as her older sister got her usual pair of pills out from their bottles, tossing them back and swallowing them in one go, then picking up the bottle of prenatal vitamins and taking those next.
"He's a teenager." Lucy simply replied, not seeing much of a difference between a teenager when compared to a wild animal, even if Lincoln was incredibly sweet and had been fighting his own hormonal changes off quite well, it did not change the fact that those desires existed. Lynn found herself pausing on that note, tossing one of the pill bottles back and forth between her hands as she tried to think.
"I'll figure out something." Lynn held her head with a sigh, she ended the conversation there, tossing the pill bottle back onto the nightstand before beginning to leave the room, wanting to go downstairs and get something to eat before her stomach could begin growling again.
Lynn was making her own breakfast currently, having gotten better in the kitchen with the help of her father and practice as well, although her attempts at making more complex dishes ended very poorly. The aspiring sports star had been doing it mostly for herself if anything, taking any distraction she could get her hands on at this point to take her mind off the infinite stresses of the world around her as of late.
"Hey Junior, you sleep alright?" Lynn Senior's voice caught her attention, she saw the father of 11 stepping over, wanting to get started on making breakfast for the rest of the family. The auburn-haired girl returned her focus back onto her own food.
"No worse than usual." Lynn Junior answered, waking up without puking her guts out was a good enough awakening in her book now, the 5th oldest Loud had been in an awkward position with her father, the chef had been trying to bond more with the sporty Loud, trying to let her know that she was not alone. Lynn Junior still remembered how her parents had reacted when hearing she was pregnant with twins, she would give anything to have a picture of their faces in that moment.
"Why don't I take over? You can just relax and talk." Lynn Senior offered, he was going to have to cook several meals worth of food anyhow, handling his sporty daughter's breakfast was no inconvenience to him.
"Uhm, sure, thanks Dad." Lynn Junior normally would insist she could handle it herself, she was still shaken up slightly from the disturbing wake up call, the sports loving girl went and took a seat at the nearby table.
"It's no problem, you got anything special planned for today?" The father of 11 tried to strike up casual conversation while beginning to retrieve several ingredients from the nearby fridge and pantry.
"Nothing really, just the same old same old." Lynn Junior sighed while resting her head in her hands with her elbows on the table, at this point the girl with the ponytail barely paid attention to the days anymore, unless she had plans with Lincoln she could not really call a day truly 'special' now. Lynn would go through school like normal, interact with her friends, spend some time after school let out with Lincoln or go and watch her friends games.
Lynn Junior was basically a sideline cheerleader for her teammates now, though the 5th oldest Loud preferred showing up to the practice matches, watching the official ones was always a constant painful reminder to Lynn that her teams were worse off without her.
It did not take long for the rest of the Loud family to wake up and gather in the kitchen, the table everyone shared felt a lot emptier since Luna had moved out, it was something their parents tried to distract their many children from, many of them saw through it quite easily however.
"Hey Lynn, you think of any baby names yet?" Luan suddenly brought up a seemingly random topic, upon hearing that Lynn found herself stopping mid-bite of her food, she cast a small glance to Lincoln, his reaction was no different from hers, neither of them had really been thinking about names for the twins, it was something that slipped their minds for the most part.
"Uhh, no, honestly with so much going on I haven't really put any thought into that." Lynn honestly claimed, the sporty Loud had been focused more on keeping her grades up since she could not participate in sports for the time being, spending more time idly studying when bored and not in the mood to do her basic workout routines.
"Were you waiting to discover their genders first?" Lisa quirked, understanding her older sibling's train of thought in that case, though the child genius knew that it was going to take another two months before they could discover the genders of the unborn twins during the gestation period.
"Nah, I kind of don't want to know until they're born. I want to be surprised, it feels weird knowing what's growing in me before it's born, you know?" Lynn tried to explain her logic, the sports loving girl knew she sounded silly right now, the puzzled expressions some of her sisters had said that plenty, Lincoln only had an understanding smile on his facial features, that assured the athletic girl a lot.
"It's perfectly normal, me and your father did the same thing with some of you." Rita hummed, Lynn Senior nodded insisting that was the case, albeit the parents of 11 just assumed that any child they have was going to be a girl after Luan's birth, Lincoln was a statistical miracle to them.
"Either way, you need to give them a name starting with L, it's like our family tradition." Lana insisted, Lynn Junior initially wanted to scoff at that, however found herself internally conceding to the mechanically inclined girl's point.
"Isn't it hard enough to think of baby names without that too?" Lola rolled her eyes, Lucy keeping quiet on the topic, the goth loving Loud was still worried about Lynn Junior after this morning.
"Why don't we see what we can think up today? It'll be one less headache for Lynn." Luan suggested they all try to come up with some names, Lynn appreciated the comedic Loud avoiding making a pun.
"I don't see any harm in that effort." Lisa agreed with the comedian, the glasses wearing girl had a hunch that the names their family suggested might be discarded if they are too far out there, the child prodigy having been documenting the effects of Lynn's pregnancy on the whole family like it was a research project, Lisa found it all incredibly fascinating,
Lynn did not get a chance to say much, everyone was starting to talk amongst one another to the point that she found herself drowning their voices out, she looked to Lincoln as if anticipating him to share his own thoughts on the topic, however he seemed to be enjoying this, it was as if the white-haired teenager had begun to appreciate the chaos that was his family a lot more since he returned home.
With breakfast done Lynn was getting ready to head to school with Lincoln, grabbing her coat from the nearby rack, she felt a tug on her shirt that caught her attention, looking down she saw Lily standing there, it was clear from her mannerisms she wanted to say something but had not really been given any chance to talk during breakfast.
"Is something wrong, Lily?" Lynn asked their youngest sister while putting on her coat, the youngest Loud was hiding an easy to see sadness, something Lincoln took note of right away.
"Are you going to leave now that you're a mommy?" Lily blurted out her question, hearing that made Lynn pause for a moment while trying to decipher what the shy Loud meant with her query. Lincoln understood immediately what Lily was asking, the littlest Loud was taking Luna's departure terribly, despite her efforts to remain strong, the bucktoothed boy returning home had helped a lot, though it was readily apparent to Lily that her family was steadily leaving more overtime, and she hated it.
"No way Lily, don't worry, Lynn's not going anywhere for a long time." Lincoln interjected between his girlfriend and their younger sister, the white-haired boy going down on one knee in front of Lily. "I'm proud of you though, for getting past that shyness and not being afraid to ask." The middle Loud sibling warmly smiled, distracting his youngest sister by praising her for overcoming her shy nature.
Lynn finally understood what it was that Lily had been saying now, she felt bad for how long it took for it to register in her head, yet here Lincoln was, not missing a single beat in trying to remedy the situation that had presented itself on the sporty Loud's behalf. Lynn swore she saw something out of the corner of her eye yet again when looking back at the kitchen doorway, the pregnant Loud was relieved when realizing it was a few of their sisters watching and listening to them.
"We have to get going, why don't you help the others try to think of baby names?" Lincoln suggested to Lily, the youngest Loud sister nodded, giving a quick hug to her only brother before letting go of him, watching as he left out the front door with Lynn.
The two were walking to school today, though during their travels the white-haired teenager took notice of his girlfriend's dejected mood, she had tried to ignore it initially, though the thoughts currently swirling within the sporty Loud's head made it hard not to feel demoralized.
"Are you alright, Lynn?" Lincoln worriedly asked the woman carrying his children, their lives had been nothing short of complicated these last few months, but they had it secure, the biggest obstacle that the two always faced was that desire to display affection when out in public in their hometown, he hoped Lynn was not feeling depressed due to the stress of everything combined.
"No, not really... I just keep thinking about earlier." Lynn rubbed her head, not even attempting to disguise her emotions currently, there was no point in hiding them, Lincoln was able to see through nearly any façade his sibling had.
"About what Lily said? Don't let it bother you, she's just worried." Lincoln insisted there was nothing for his girlfriend to worry about, it was just an understandable worry of a child that was normally used to a full house, one that was shrinking in numbers seemingly each year.
"I know, but it's not just that." Lynn sighed, she did not want to say more initially, though feeling Lincoln take her hand into his own made her look at him, he had that same face, that bright expression that she swore he rarely lost this last month, a toothy optimistic smile that assured her that whatever it was that was bothering her, she was not alone to deal with it.
"How do you do it? I didn't even understand what Lily was saying at first." Lynn began trying to explain what was going on in her head at that moment. "You understood everything, instantly! Like you had been through it a hundred times before, I froze, I was awkward and nervous." She began to express her thoughts, Lincoln patiently listening to her partial rambling.
"It's like the older half of our family except for me has an instruction manual about parenting built into their genes, you were so natural, I was terrified of saying the wrong thing, maybe I just didn't get a copy, maybe I..." Lynn was interrupted from her rambling when Lincoln suddenly pulled her into a hug, it was clear that she was terrified of being a bad parent, seeing how Lincoln doted perfectly over their younger sisters was a reminder that the brunette was facing a monumental challenge, even for someone that normally tackled tasks bravely, she was scared and unable to hide it, it made Lynn recall just how much trouble she had when it came to delicate or emotional situations, the bucktoothed boy understood her fears.
"Hey now, that's enough of that. You're not the only one that's scared, Lynn. I know you'll be a great mom." Lincoln stated while he pulled away from her, his confidence helped the aspiring sports star ease up, yet she still found it rather hard to believe.
"You're scared?" Lynn hung on his words, her own voice holding doubt, if her boyfriend was scared than he had a far greater poker face than anyone in their family was ever aware of, she swore she had not seen Lincoln so much as frown in the last month when she thought things over.
"I appreciate your confidence Lincoln, but I could barely even cut it in the babysitting group." Lynn remembered that all too well, the older Loud sisters used to babysit a lot in a joint effort with one another, sadly the babysitting group fell apart after Lori and Leni's departure. "How can you be so sure?" She had to ask, wondering just how Lincoln could have such strong faith in someone who, not even four months ago, was hearing voices and losing control of her body to multiple split personalities.
"I have a few reasons." Lincoln chuckled, motioning for her to keep walking so they would not be late for school. "I've seen how sweet you can be, I know you have a softer side that you've been trying to show more often." The white-haired boy started explaining his thoughts to Lynn, he wanted to share his own perception of her.
"I'm not the only one that dotes over our younger siblings now, plus everyone's noticed how you're trying to spend more time with our family." Lincoln had a small smirk, his girlfriend looking slightly embarrassed when hearing that.
The bucktoothed teenager had seen Lynn trying to regularly spend her free time with the other Loud sisters, the brunette's goal being improving her bond with them while she could, having not been aware of just how vague her connection with the rest of their family was, not until those split personalities began to metaphorically force them apart, the fact Lynn was unable to participate in most physical activities gave her a good enough excuse to focus on bonding with her family.
"If it weren't for you, Luna would have lost that competition. You stood up for Clyde... You've given up a lot for your teams too, I can't even begin to count how many times I've seen you carry someone off the field that got injured." Lincoln stated while recalling the last few years on top of a few recent events, Lynn treated each teammate in any of her sports kindly, she doted over them in a tougher fashion than Lincoln liked to admit, but it was usually for good reasons.
The middle Loud sibling did not even need to mention all the scrapes and bruises he had seen Lynn treated over the last year alone, the brunette was no doctor, but treating minor sports injuries was a straightforward process.
"And you think all of that is why I'll be a good mom?" Lynn had to question, she understood the point her brotherly boyfriend was trying to make, she merely wanted that extra clarity since she felt like she was missing a key detail still.
"You're strong, care for others, you're kind, sweet, gentle... I'd be worried if you weren't scared." Lincoln continued to praise her, seeing Lynn's face turning gradually redder with each bit of praise, the middle Loud sibling found it cute seeing her react like this, she was not sure why being praised by the person she loved was a lot different than being cheered for by an entire team.
"I'm just as scared as you are, I don't let it show because of two reasons." Lincoln found himself letting go of his sisterly girlfriend's hand as they neared their school, he pondered momentarily on if it was actually a good idea to share the whys on how he could remain calm, the teenage boy was worried about sounding too cheesy.
"The first is because I know if I show it, that'll make you worried, I want to be someone you know you can depend on." Lincoln declared, not seeing how showing fear whatsoever would help his pregnant girlfriend, he still had to do double takes sometimes just to remind himself this was all real, even if it all happened because of one terrible split personality. "The second is that I'm too busy being happy with you to be afraid." Lincoln gave a bucktoothed grin, Lynn felt her heart grow warm in joy when hearing that from him, it meant a lot to her.
"You're too cheesy for your own good, seriously." Lynn playfully punched Lincoln in his arm, though before they could say anything further, the two could hear the bell going off at that point, they had spent a lot more time talking than walking. "I'll see you at lunch, have a good day Linc." The brunette hurried off, leaving the white-haired boy standing there rubbing his arm.
"There's a lot worse things to be scared of than parenthood." Lincoln breathed a sigh of relief, beginning to head inside so he could get to his own classroom, there was a third reason that he withheld from Lynn as to why he was not letting his fear show. The biggest worry the middle Loud sibling held was not related to sharing the truth of him being the one who got Lynn pregnant, no, his greatest fear currently came from the dread he felt in knowing they had to tell their parents one day that they were in love.
Lincoln was terrified for when that day came, the only brother of 10 sisters knew it would not go well, he fully anticipated things blowing up with Lynn Senior and Rita when the truth came to light, all Lincoln could hope for in the event of that, was to make sure his sisters were aware and supportive of the situation well in advanced, hence why the Ace Savvy lover had come up with the idea to tell each sister individually about everything, out of a vague hope it would leave their bonds not as heavily damaged at the very least.
Lynn was currently sitting in history class, finding herself bored out of her mind, geography and history were the brunette's two worst classes, even after she had been trying to focus more on improving her grades due to being unable to play sports, she was close to just trying to hide behind an open book to see if she could take a quick nap.
As the teacher was talking, Lynn swore she heard that whispering again, that all-too-familiar quiet voice that she had been aware of for several weeks now, the auburn-haired girl looking around, suspecting she was just hearing the low murmuring between equally bored classmates while the teacher was distracted, no one was speaking from what she could tell, aside from those three in the very back of the classroom passing notes between one another.
When Lynn redirected her focus to the front of the class, she nearly jumped out of her seat, that same vague figure was there, standing in front of the chalkboard, the sports loving girl felt her heart beginning to beat faster, that was when something else caught her attention from the corner of her vision, when Lynn looked to her left, a shorter apparition was standing there, that shadowy form that made it up was blurry yet had a clear red to it, Lynn's pupils had shrunk to the size of pins as her hand trembled on her desk.
"Miss Loud!" Mister Smith's voice made Lynn snap her gaze straight forward once more, she expected to be in trouble or to get scolded, instead he looked concerned, the classroom was empty, it was like everyone had vanished in the brief moment that the 5th oldest Loud had her back turned.
"I-I'm sorry Mister Smith, did class end?" Lynn sheepishly inquired, the whispering was gone and the two odd entities had disappeared once more, it was clear to the aspiring sports star that she had not been dreaming those up, worst of all there were now two of them.
"Ten minutes ago, what happened?" The history teacher concernedly questioned her, Mister Smith had been trying to get Lynn's attention for the last few minutes, at first, he assumed she just was writing down notes before he cleared the board, but she remained unmoving, it was like she had been stuck staring at nothing out the window.
"I... I guess I got lost in my own head." Lynn could only say in reply, the pregnant Loud beginning to gather her things.
"I can escort you to the nurse's office if you want." The history teacher offered to her. while Lynn had been doing better in his class lately, it still was only in the sense of barely passing the grade consistently, whereas before the brunette was hit and miss on her results in his class.
"No thanks, I'll be fine." Lynn insisted, standing up and tossing her backpack over her shoulder, beginning to make a swift exit out of the classroom so she could get to her next class, leaving her history teacher standing there in worry, it wasn't like he could forcibly drag her to the nurse, all he could do was hope that the Loud girl was okay.
Lynn had been able to get through her next class with little effort, it felt like each minute that passed made the pregnant girl increasingly more paranoid, the brunette had to force herself not to constantly glance around out of fear that those things were still around, staring her down, all she could do was keep an ear out for that whispering again, since the two odd events seemed to correlate to one another.
The reality was that Lynn was trying to just survive until lunch time, when that time came about, she planned on hunting down Lincoln and telling him what was going on, the pregnant teenager had tried contacting her psychologist, doctor Deacon before coming to her second class, but he did not answer.
Now Lynn found herself having gotten through her classes long enough to make it to lunch time, she only made a brief stop at her locker to stash her backpack away for the time being, afterwards making a beeline straight for the cafeteria.
When Lynn arrived at the cafeteria, she couldn't find Lincoln initially, it was hard to miss the only white-haired teenager in the whole school either, as much as the brunette wanted to go looking for her boyfriend, she knew that it would probably be for the best to try and calm her nerves currently, and eating sounded pretty good to the sporty Loud right about now, given that she had been starving for the last hour now it felt like.
Lynn noticed there was a disturbing lack of people she knew in the cafeteria, a few of her sports teammates were there, but Margo and Paula were absent, the 5th oldest Loud had to assume they were busy practicing, given a football game that was set for tonight. The aspiring sports star did not think she was going to show up for it, mostly due to the weird new events that had been going on recently, the auburn-haired Loud was lost mostly in her own head while sitting alone at a table and cleaning her tray of food.
Lynn kept occasionally casting glances up at the cafeteria doors, she would look at her cell phone after attempting to text Lincoln as well, there was no response from him, she felt herself becoming impatient, yet the brunette did not really know what to do, she was scared that the whispering meant the voices were coming back, the aspiring sports star had absolutely zero idea as to what the strange apparitions were.
"If I can't get ahold of Doctor Deacon, then I'll have to go to Lisa..." Lynn muttered to herself, the sporty Loud hated bothering Lisa with her problems, the child prodigy had been one of the siblings that she had been bonding with the most recently, Luan being second most in that regard.
While the sports lover was lost in her thoughts, Lynn was oblivious to the doors to the cafeteria opening, she heard someone approaching her, she initially ignored it and was focused on her phone.
"Everything okay, Lynn?" Lincoln's voice made her perk up immediately.
"There you are, Linc, I was about to-…" Lynn's voice trailed off mid-sentence as she looked up to Lincoln, he had a black eye and a good number of bruises on his face and arms, seeing that made the 5th oldest Loud instantly forget her own issues in that moment.
"What happened to you?!" Lynn gasped. it looked a lot worse than it truly was, that did not make her any happier about it, the bucktoothed boy looked nervous when seeing a bunch of nearby eyes looking at him and beginning to talk, Lincoln was the type to cleverly get out of a situation or run before taking a hit.
"Forget about me, your text sounded urgent, what's going on?" Lincoln insisted, sounding more worried about his girlfriend than for himself, as always putting his siblings before himself. The middle Loud sibling could tell he had said the wrong thing when seeing her expression, the 5th oldest Loud had been trying to drill it into his head that he needed to put himself first more often, Lynn looked angry now, whereas a minute ago she had been showing signs of fear, the sporty Loud stepped up to him and grabbed his arm before dragging him out of the cafeteria.
Once they were back in the hall and a good distance away from the lunchroom, Lynn let go of her brotherly boyfriend, crossing her arms and gave him a quick once over. She reached her hand up and held his face, Lincoln winced slightly as her touch made his bruised cheek sting, yet he remained still when feeling her thumb gently caressing his cheek.
"What happened?" Lynn asked in a tone that sounded demanding, yet still held concern beneath it, Lincoln was hesitant to look her in the eyes at first, though when he finally did that fear evaporated in an instant when seeing the pure sympathy and worry her eyes held, it was apparent to the teenage boy that he was not going to discover what was troubling her if he did not speak the truth of what happened to himself first.
"I got into a fight with Clyde." Lincoln put it bluntly, Lynn blinked when hearing it, Clyde was not the type to attack anybody, neither he nor Lincoln were that way, the brunette knew the glasses wearing boy was by no means a coward, but they were supposed to be best friends, what could possibly have driven the two into exchanging blows? The aspiring sports star was hearing that whispering again, she ignored it for now, believing this was far more important, Lynn sighed while retracting her hand from her boyfriend's face.
"What? Why? You and Clyde are two of the sweetest people I know." Lynn requested further detail on what transpired, the two were practically brothers, she knew they had nearly fallen out with one another at a few separate points, though those encounters had not been of the physical variety. Lynn had not really interacted with Clyde that much lately, there was no specific reason, the last true interaction she had with the McBride boy had been when he had seen the cut marks on her limbs months back during a bus ride to school.
"What were you even fighting about?" Lynn pressed further while crossing her arms, waiting for her boyfriend to continue. Lincoln held his head sorely, he doubted she was going to be happy no matter how he worded this, the middle Loud sibling could only mentally prepare for the inevitable in that aspect.
"Clyde wanted to ask you out again, he was asking me for ideas on how to do it, he's been worried about you." Lincoln stated, he had been minding his own business like usual for the school day, only for Clyde to stop the white-haired boy and request to talk to him privately before they go to lunch.
"Please tell me you didn't start the fight..." Lynn requested, as flattered as she was at the concept of her boyfriend fighting for her, she did not want Lincoln fighting every person that was interested in asking her out, even if the sports loving girl could not think of many others in their school that had romantic feelings towards her.
"I didn't, but I had to tell him something." The boy with many sisters responded defensively, looking ashamed about the fact he had to throw any fists at all, he had dealt with the worst kinds of bullies, yet even they were typically unable to force the bucktoothed teenager into physical confrontation.
"I told Clyde you were doing better, that everything was fine." Lincoln began recounting the events of what had happened between him and his best friend. "He was happy to hear that, but he still wanted to ask you out, I tried to talk him out of it because I didn't want him embarrassing himself or making you angry." He continued. he knew that Clyde asking Lynn out would most likely come off badly no matter what he did, Lincoln knew that better than anyone, while Lynn was not suffering from mood swings yet, he was not going to take any chances on it.
"I could've turned him down myself, Linc." Lynn insisted, understanding his logic, he wanted to protect his best friend, while at the same time her boyfriend had been unintentionally marking his territory, even if he had been unaware of it, she could have handled it herself without risking the two's friendship in the process.
"I told him you were already seeing someone." Lincoln blurted out the part that he remembered made things go downhill, he had tried being persuasive and it got nowhere, the next thing the Loud boy knew was that those words had left his mouth without any prior thinking behind it.
"He asked me who it was, then called me a liar when I wouldn't tell him, the next thing I know we're shouting, and I just shoved him... Then he hit me." Lincoln guiltily said as he finished there, the 5th oldest Loud's eyes were wide now, she grabbed her boyfriend by the lapels.
"Why would you say that?!" Lynn demanded in rage, while the incestuous couple had no intention of keeping the relationship a total secret, this was not how she wanted Clyde to find out the news. The pregnant girl had even wanted to discuss with Lincoln about potentially telling Margo and Paula the truth tonight, simply due to the fact they were becoming increasingly worried about Lynn since it seemed like she had quit playing sports for zero reason now, even if their fears about her possibly committing suicide had been brushed away, questions were beginning to emerge in their place.
"I don't know! It just came out..." Lincoln exclaimed, not certain why he had said it himself, he was known in their family for being the man with a plan, speaking without thinking at all was a thing the white-haired boy rarely did, mostly because of his large family and how he interacted with them all.
"Does he know...?" Lynn fearfully requested he tell her if Clyde knew about the two of them, the middle Loud sibling took in a breath to build his confidence, he put his hands on Lynn's and got her to let go of his shirt.
"I think he does... I didn't tell him, but I could tell he knew." Lincoln tried to explain what he believed. he remembered watching Clyde leaving the empty classroom they had fought in, only for the glasses wearing boy to give one last glance to Lincoln before leaving, something in Clyde's eyes gave that answer to Lincoln, a very clear answer, one of sheer clarity and realization, the actions of the Loud boy had spoken plenty themselves.
Lynn pondered it for a while, what were their options be if Clyde knew? Would he even have the spine to do anything? The brunette had thought she had made it readily obvious that she had no interest in dating Clyde during their last heart to heart, she appreciated him as a friend, but her betraying him the very night he asked her out made her feel too guilty to even consider dating him, she was not proud of committing that act still. The auburn-haired Loud took notice of one of the all too familiar apparitions standing behind Lincoln, having appeared during the moment she had been looking away, she almost jumped out of her skin when seeing it.
"Lynn? What's wrong?" Lincoln chirped with a raised brow, wondering why his girlfriend looked so terrified suddenly, he knew she had seen far worse injuries in her many sports related activities, the bucktoothed boy wondered if she was just processing everything still.
"I'll tell you after school, it can wait. I'll handle Clyde, okay? You, go to the nurse's office and get patched up." Lynn ordered while stepping away from Lincoln, he wanted to argue, however knew out of the two of them that she was the one more suited to playing peacekeeper to defuse this situation, though he saw her stop and quickly turn on her heels, she gave him a quick kiss on the lips before running off, leaving a pleasantly surprised Lincoln behind.
Lynn had a rather hard time finding Clyde, he was not at his locker, nor had he been in the cafeteria, the brunette hoped he had not gone to the nurse's office, if that was the case another fight between the two boys might break out, that was the last thing the 5th oldest Loud wanted. Lynn ignored the sound of the bell ringing, geography class was next anyways and that subject she could not care at all about.
Eventually Lynn broadened her search to other parts of the school, sure enough she had been able to find Clyde, sat on the front steps at the entrance of the high school, the pregnant girl stepped closer, only to see he was fiddling with his glasses in his hand, one of the lenses was popped out and one of the arms of it were bent.
"Clyde?" Lynn hesitantly spoke his name, the McBride boy turning his head in her direction and squinting at her, she knew he was having trouble seeing her without his glasses, although identifying her by voice was easy enough. The brunette cringed internally when seeing his scuffed face, although his injuries seemed more focused on his upper body, rather than his head, it may have been a fight, but Lincoln had tried avoiding breaking his friend's glasses.
"Hey Lynn..." Clyde half-heartedly greeted her, he was anticipating this to be a glorified round 2, he wouldn't blame her for being there to put him in his place for hurting Lincoln after all. She could tell he was hurt, far more emotionally than physically, it made this awkward, it was rather strange to see him without his glasses on, the 5th oldest Loud recalled similar damages that had happened with Lisa's own spectacles in the past, that was when she remembered just how the child genius handled it when her own glasses broke.
"Lincoln really messed them up, huh?" Lynn commented in an effort towards striking up the conversation, Clyde saw his glasses and the separated lens get taken out of his hands, he wanted to protest but decided not to, they were already ruined at this point, he was just shocked to hear the aspiring sports star with a relatively calm tone of voice, given the black-haired boy had seen how vicious Lynn could be, especially when angered.
Clyde did not say anything, merely keeping quiet, he could hear her doing something, he did not even bother attempting to look. Lynn was able to get the frame of the glasses back into shape, being able to pop the lens into its proper spot, she then gently bent the arm of the glasses until it was straight enough. "Here." The brunette held his dinged up spectacles out for him.
"Wow, uh... Thank you." Clyde did not believe it, sure it was a rougher fit than before, but the glasses held onto his face alright, and he could see decently enough after he wiped off Lynn's fingerprints from the lens.
There was a painfully uncomfortable silence, Lynn did not want to force this conversation, she could tell he did not have much to say, his mannerisms and behavior, it made the sporty Loud believe her boyfriend of a brother was right in his assumption that Clyde knew the truth about them.
"You like me enough to fight for me, I'm flattered, you never even did that when you were obsessed with Lori." Lynn broke the ice by stating her appreciation for his feelings, hating to mention her oldest sister at all given it might come off like a low blow to go for, as if she was unintentionally calling him crazy for the Loud sisters.
"I didn't want to fight Lincoln. I don't even know what happened." Clyde stated. his views on the scuffle aligned very much with Lincoln's, what had been a casual conversation had gone straight off the rails seemingly out of nowhere.
"... How are your arms?" He hesitantly asked, the auburn-haired girl looked down at them, the marks were there, Lisa insisted they would heal alright, assuring that the scarring would be minimal, that didn't make Lynn any less ashamed about the fact there would be noticeable cuts at all.
"Better." Lynn flatly answered, not even trying to hide her lack of desire to discuss her past injury anymore. "I'm sorry, I know it must seem like I've been avoiding you." Lynn tried to apologize, feeling like this was all her fault for not trying to maintain that friendship with the McBride boy.
"That part I'd be okay with, just..." Clyde held his head, she saw him stand up, only to turn to face her.
"Lincoln? Really? Why'd you even agree to go out with me, if you were dating your brother?!" He had to question, it was hard for him to believe, it was the most sensible explanation he had for Lincoln and Lynn's recent behavior, the two always vanished equally as often, they both were practically joined at the hip when there were free periods in school, any attempts Clyde made to spend time with his best friend were equally as destroyed, them dating was the only answer he had.
Lynn was caught off guard at his sudden outburst, she motioned for him to calm down. "We weren't anything back then! Do you really think I'd push him to ask Stella out if I was with him?" She argued, her honesty was showing clear in her voice, the sports star also was holding back her own fury, Clyde could tell how guilty the brunette felt about what had happened with Stella, Lynn didn't intend to break someone's heart like that.
"I get you're upset, really, we would never have gotten together if it wasn't for-..." Lynn paused, biting her lip and barely catching herself at announcing the split personality issue, a personal problem that she was beginning to fear was not done with her. "Look, a lot happened, none of this was planned, I'm sorry..." She added, there was another brief pause.
"I think the reason I agreed to go out with you was because you reminded me so much of Lincoln, you two are a lot alike." Lynn knew how rude it sounded, but she wanted to be completely honest with both Clyde and herself, the 5th oldest Loud knew she had feelings for her only brother for a lot longer than she let on, that split personality forming as subsequent result was plenty of proof to her.
"That doesn't make me feel better." Clyde shook his head, unsure if that was supposed to be a comforting statement coming from her. "Do you know how crazy this is? What would your family do if they found out?" He rhetorically questioned, not even bothering to hide his disgust, Lynn wound up grabbing her hand to prevent it from trembling, she hated how bad she had gotten under stress.
"If you really loved him, you would never have done this! This could ruin not just your life, but his... What kind of sister-" Clyde found himself stopping midsentence when he looked at Lynn's face, she was not looking directly at him anymore, Lynn, the toughest girl in school, despite her best efforts to hide it, looked like she was going to break down.
"It already has." Lynn managed to weakly choke the words out, Clyde did not know what to make of that, the two stood there in silence yet again, the black-haired boy was unsure what to think beyond what he had already said, in his eyes Lincoln stole the one girl he was forming a good bond with, that didn't mean the McBride boy wanted to verbally beat her into a corner like this.
"There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about it, how a few months ago it felt like I could drop dead any day at any moment, those times where I almost did it just to be free and make sure I didn't drag anyone else down with me." Lynn began when it became clear he was not going to continue, her words made Clyde stare in wide-eyed disbelief, never in his life did he think he would hear Lynn Loud of all people confessing to having suicidal thoughts, the glasses wearing boy found himself staring at the cuts on her arms.
"But now? I have others to live for, I don't have that luxury of selfishness anymore..." Lynn felt her eyes beginning to water. "I hate myself for being happy, and I'm scared of the future more than ever." The brunette continued, forcing herself to look him in the eyes. "If you won't keep quiet for me, do it for Lincoln, if you really are his best friend." The auburn-haired girl pleaded to Clyde, preying on his friendship with Lincoln to silence him.
Clyde did not reply, he stood there quietly absorbing the information, Lynn was not looking at him, she heard his footsteps though and the sound of the school door swinging open, when she looked back to where Clyde had been, the McBride boy had left without a word.
Lynn did not know what that meant, she hoped it was just his way of saying 'I never want to see you again.' However, the aspiring sports star knew he was far from the type to do or say anything like that, it felt like so much had changed in such a short time that it was hard for her to adjust or get a grip on it.
"Coward." Lynn heard an all too familiar voice, one that nearly made her heart stop when hearing it, she slowly turned around and saw that familiar red apparition again, only its form seemed consistent now, it was like a blurry image was standing in front of her, but seeing it was enough to terrify Lynn, because she could see that vague short silhouette of Lynn-Sanity trying to form within it. "Did you miss me?"