Dudes and dudettes, please forgive me for the delay... it seems that my brain is not the only thing that's delayed.

...

Yeah... sorry for the bad joke, it's just that I feel ashamed for being late


08-. Mending the Link

When Lincoln opened his eyes in the early hours of that Sunday dawning, the first thing he saw was a pale, withered face right in front of his own and two empty dead eyes staring back at him. The young white-haired man had to bite his tongue to stifle a scream that would surely have awakened everyone at home.

Blindly trying to get away from his sister's ghost, Lincoln propelled himself as far back as he could, however he miscalculated his leap and ended up falling into the empty space between the bed and the wall. He lay still as soon as he hit the floor, wishing he hadn't woken Lily; he wasn't sure what time it was but the sun wasn't up yet so it couldn't be past five in the morning.

Annoyed, he looked around for Leni with his eyes, not finding her in the spot on the bed where she had been moments ago. However, before he could get up and return to the bed, Lincoln noticed a tuft of golden hair peeking out from under the cot, doubtful that this was a good idea, the white-haired man crouched low to the floor so he could see. There was Leni, curled up in a strange fetal position.

The apparition smiled a smile that couldn't even compare to the one Lincoln used to see on that face every morning when things were still normal.

"What were you doing here, Leni?" Lincoln swallowed, the position of the blonde's neck was not exactly natural. "You know this is my room momentarily, right?"

"I was looking out for you two," she replied in turn, ignoring her brother's complaint, "that thing is near."

"That thing...?"

A strange rustling, as if the buzzing of a fly could form words, was heard from the ceiling of the room, interrupting the conversation between the brothers. Nervously, Lincoln stood up on the bed as quickly as possible and caught a glimpse of a dark figure moving inside the ventilation duct. Grabbing the edge of the vent grille and supporting his weight with both arms, Lincoln reached the ceiling and opened the grille with only his head sticking out; the vent was empty. Using his cell phone lamp, he checked the metal walls of the vent. He saw footprints «How come there are footprints on the walls and ceiling?» he thought. Just inches from his face, there was also a smear of what looked like mayonnaise and ketchup, Lincoln was about to get angry at Lucy for imagining the little girl stealing the food from the refrigerator to eat it hidden in the dark.

He brought one of his hands as close to the stain as he could without letting go of the edge, after only a moment's hesitation he touched it lightly with his fingertips. The white substance looked like phlegm and the red one was definitely not ketchup. He didn't like to imagine things, so in a single impulse he unhooked himself and closed the grate behind him, with his heart racing he sat down on his bed so he could think.

Lincoln was already about to get up from the mattress to go straight to the room the goth shared with the jock to confront Lucy directly when his phone vibrated from the bedside table, sending a shiver down his spine. Tired of the strange messages with which Lori had been constantly asking him about Ronalda's whereabouts he quickly checked it, determined to turn off the damn thing right after reading the message; "Flipp's Food and Fuel invites you to..."

"Damn Flipp!" Lincoln exclaimed angrily, thinking nothing of keeping silent. In the morning he would investigate how to block the annoying messages.

He knew that Lucy, the most peculiar sister of them all, wasn't really close to the fashionista, but calling her 'Thing' was already an exaggeration on Leni's part. Since the blonde was nowhere to be found to ask her about her hurtful comment about his sister and noticing that the clock on his cell phone read four hours past midnight, Lincoln lay back down on the bed and closed his eyes, it wasn't in his plans to get up early on a Sunday.

But no matter how hard he tried, sleep eluded him. After a few minutes tossing and turning in bed trying to fall asleep, the white-haired teenage heard a quiet cry, his eyelids came off like springs, he had to let a few seconds pass without moving to hear the cry again, it came from the bed next to his own. Without speaking, he approached his baby sister's bed.

"What's the matter, sunshine? Can't sleep?"

He didn't have his cell phone flashlight on, and because of the prevailing darkness in the room he couldn't really make out anything around him, but he clearly felt a little hand close around his arm silently asking him to come a little closer. And as soon as he got closer to Lily, his nose noticed a pungent sour smell. When he could finally get used to the lack of light again, Lincoln noticed his little sister hugging bun-bun with all her might. The most disturbing thing for him was to see the little girl crying.

"Lily," said the young white-haired man as he knelt beside the bed, "What's wrong, baby? What's wrong?"

"Daddy... I woke up to go to the bathroom," the little girl began to babble as she tried to wipe away her tears with the back of her big brother's hand. "But then I heard noises in the ventilation and I got scared... and I... and I... I couldn't hold it back."

Lily cried again, this time without holding back. Lincoln didn't judge her, he had a little over ten years on her and yet he too nearly wet himself over the same noises in the ducts.

Besides, making her feel safe and secure was his job as a big brother. As it was, with one foot kneeling and the knee of the other propped up against the side of the bed, Lincoln pulled Lily out of the covers and hugged her by sitting her on his leg, not caring about getting stained from his younger sister's 'accident' as well. The girl didn't calm down immediately, but the cuddle was enough to make her look him straight in the eye, he smiled at her and wiped her tears with his pajama sleeve.

"Now we need to go to the bathroom, clean you up and change your clothes, okay?" Lincoln told her in a gentle voice. She nodded before wrapping her little arms around her big brother's neck to make it easier for him to carry her.

Holding the little girl with one of his hands, Lincoln took a yellow T-shirt and purple pants, both heirlooms from Luna and Luan, from the girl's dresser with the other, and carrying everything he went into the bathroom. He prepared the water for a quick shower, undressed Lily and made sure she washed and dried herself thoroughly, then dressed her once more in the new pajamas and out of common sense hid the stained pajamas in the bottom of the laundry basket, Lincoln assumed Lily would want no one to know what had happened.

When they emerged from the bathroom half an hour later, Lily was dying to thank her older brother as she told him that she loved him "very, very, very, very, very much." Hearing her repeat that one word to him was enough to melt the albino's heart.

"Daddy," said the little girl, stopping by her older brother's bed.

Lincoln stared at him with a smile.

"Don't tell me... you want to sleep together, don't you?" Normally that would be a request that he would not give in to under any circumstances... normally... "Very well, you can sleep with me... but only for today, understood?"

The girl's little blue eyes lit up so brightly that even through all the darkness he was able to make out the love in them.

"YES!" exclaimed the little girl excitedly, "Sleepover!"

They both lay down on Lincoln's bed. The white-haired boy placed one of his arms under his head as a pillow, since Lily had taken over the big pillow... as well as most of the blankets, but the thought that he wasn't going to sleep very well and that he was going to be cold didn't stop Lincoln from smiling and hugging a little harder the little blonde. Lily loved being next to her brother, and Lincoln, for his part, adored the baby.

"Linky?" asked the girl quietly in the dark.

"Yes?" replied Lincoln without opening his eyes.

"Do you love me?"

Lincoln couldn't help but smile a little wider. That was the easiest and hardest question to answer. He snuggled his sister into the space that formed between his arm and armpit as he delicately played with her golden hair.

"I love you, Lily," he kissed her forehead, "sweet dreams, sunshine."

A soft, even breathing began to escape Lily's mouth after a few seconds, Lincoln kissed her forehead again and fell asleep. Soon, both snores were synchronized and united in an embrace of the most tender love, they dreamed happily for the rest of the night.

Moments later, when Lincoln and Lily were already asleep, the scare Lucy had given her siblings completely forgotten, through the ventilation duct came Lisa with her portable 'detection and retention of hazardous organic material' equipment.

-o-

Sunday was a fairly quiet day, not counting Luna and Luan's insistent questions about the origin of the money with which he had bought the pizzas for dinner and the gifts that still rested in the linen closet. After a night of little rest, Lincoln wasn't in his best state to be able to resist his sisters' intentions to find out and control every aspect of his life so he decided to leave the house for a while, maybe he would go to the arcade or visit Flipp's; he had run out of cigarettes and the old man was the only one who would sell that kind of product to a minor.

Finally, after visiting the arcade and Flipp's twice each, Lincoln ended up returning home at eight o'clock in the evening, just in time to prepare a light supper for his sisters and say good night to Lily.

Perhaps if the white-haired man had decided to stay at home as he always did, he would have discovered Lisa trying to get a blood sample from Lucy or Lucy herself stealing some of the reptiles and mice from Lana's terrariums.

-o-

The long-awaited Monday arrived, this day would be the day when Lincoln Loud would regain the affection of his best friend... or die trying... or something like that. Of course, in addition to having to fulfill all his daily obligations in every class, the white-haired boy still had to fulfill his traditional big brother obligations to the family.

After leaving school, Lincoln had to pick up Lisa and the twins from the second grade science fair, but it was not in his plans to do so; he had put off the apology he owed to Clyde long enough, so in secret from Lynn and the home artists he arranged with the twins and Lisa a plan to be able to be absent from that engagement, he was very sure that in the end the three of them would ask for a big compensation for covering it up with their big sisters, however that was the least of his worries. Mustering the courage to talk to Clyde was the hard part.

Dealing with her sisters left her one less problem, but he still had four classes to attend before he could talk to Clyde during their brief time together in study hall.

With much effort and willpower, willpower above all, Lincoln waited for that free hour. After searching the halls for ten minutes without finding him, Lincoln decided to risk looking in the courtyard and it was then that he spotted the familiar afro and thick glasses through one of the many windows that overlooked his assigned study hall.

As he made his way to the common room he began to go over the words he had prepared all Sunday, suddenly his speech seemed bland, unconvincing. He wasn't sure what he would say to the afroamerican, but it was now clear that the worst option was to recite one of his familiar pre-rehearsed monologues.

Feeling his stomach twist and sweat trickle freely down his back, Lincoln tried to use the methods his sisters had taught him to master the panic as he approached the room where his friend was waiting, but the jitters won out in the end. So with his heart pounding, he pushed open the double doors with a push that proved to be too strong. The sound of the doors crashing against the wall was immense. Ashamed of himself, he covered his face with one hand from the gaze of the dozens of students who turned to look at him.

There stood Clyde, in one of the far corners of the back of the room, Lincoln was quietly grateful that the four eyed boy was accompanied by Haiku, since they had started middle school the two had become very close friends, surely it would be easier to talk to his friend if the goth remained in the middle of the two.

With a firm step, Lincoln approached the table the couple was occupying, it was the equivalent of 'the sticky table' they had in the elementary school lunchroom.

Haiku saw him approaching and after hesitating for a few seconds nudged Clyde who, after quickly turning around, turned his gaze forward and only tensed his shoulders a little. When Lincoln reached the table, Haiku allowed herself to flash a small smile as a greeting for her old Sadie Hwakins date, instead Clyde stood still with his back to the white-haired boy.

"Good morning, Lincoln... what brings your tormented soul to this place?"

Although Lincoln could not see Clyde's face it seemed to him that the bespectacled boy tensed his body even more as he twisted one of the pages of his notebook with one hand.

"Clyde, I've come to apologize," Whatever plan Lincoln had prepared on his short walk to the table had suddenly lost all value, "I know I haven't been a good person to you lately... but I want to tell you that I can change... I really can... for us I will change," Haiku's eyes, previously completely expressionless, widened like saucers and a deep blush began to adorn her pale cheeks, "No, wait... I think I said it wrong." As expected, Lincoln's brain failed to realize the misunderstanding quickly. "What I mean is, now I know what my priorities are and I want my brother back, my only best friend…" some laughter and whistles, probably from Papa Wheelie and his friends, were heard in the background forcing Lincoln to look away from Clyde for a moment, "you know, it's nice to have someone to count on…"

Lincoln was so nervous that he didn't notice a small crowd starting to form around him; classes at Royal Woods Regional High School could get pretty quiet so anything that broke the usual routine quickly attracted attention.

However, maybe all that unwanted attention from his classmates had a good justification beyond simple boredom; during the whole time Lincoln was talking, Clyde had not turned to look at him even once, in fact, the black boy was blatantly ignoring him. Haiku's eyes began to jump between the two young men, the memory of their last fight was fresh in every student's mind.

"Oh please!" Exploded Lincoln, finally giving in to his nerves and the pressure the group of gawkers were putting on him, "Now you have the moral authority to judge me? WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT DESPERATION!? DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO SEE YOUR MOTHER COME HOME FROM A HORRIBLE JOB AT ONE O'CLOCK IN THE NIGHT AND BE SO TIRED THAT SHE FALLS ASLEEP ON A FUCKIN COUCH? CAN YOU EVEN IMAGINE HOW I FEEL WHEN I SEE MY SISTERS JUST A FEW YEARS OLDER WORKING!?" Lincoln's voice was starting to shake, his fists and eyelids were clenched, "THE MOST INNOCENT PERSON I'VE EVER KNOWN IS IN COMA...! I don't think you know about that...everything I did...!"

"You did it all for you," Clyde replied as he stood up and faced Lincoln, "you did it to prove yourself and you're right, you're not a good person Lincoln Loud... you're not my friend."

All the students that made up the newly assembled mob were anxiously awaiting a new fight between those two; Haiku nervously stood in the middle of Lincoln and Clyde ready to intervene in case both nerds resorted to fisticuffs again, however Lincoln stayed put in his place and let McBride walk away.

Hesitant about what to do, Haiku apologized to the white-haired and ran to catch up with the McBride boy. The crowd of violence-thirsty students began to disperse amid shouts and whistles, eventually Lincoln stood in the same spot until the allotted study hall time was up.

Crestfallen and not paying much attention to any of them, Lincoln attended the last three classes of the day. Suddenly it didn't seem such a bad idea to go pick up his younger sisters from their silly science fair, at least then he could distract his mind from the horrible and painfully accurate words spoken to him by who had been his closest friend.

He was preparing his coat to leave the school, immersed in his own reflections when he felt himself being pushed violently to one side.

"Get out of the way, Snow White!" One of Chandler's 'friends' walked past him, nudging him with his shoulder. The teasing had intensified as soon as Lincoln left elementary school, at first they made fun of him for the peculiar color of his hair, then, in the second half of his last year in middle and first in high school for the scars that covered his face and part of his body, although seen on the bright side those last comments were never made to his face, apparently the marks on his skin also gave him a certain menacing, or disgusting, air. Lincoln didn't bother to complain about the shove, he wasn't in the mood.

When he finally exited the building, the white-haired man was greeted by an icy breeze that almost blew his cap off, in front of him was the school community in all its splendor, it was at those times of the day that Lincoln felt even more alone: the performing arts club were preparing the upcoming play, the soccer team was heading to the park for extra practice while Chandler and his two friends were heading with a smile on each face to the back of the school through a narrow hallway that formed between the main high school building and a wall of the small student auditorium that the school shared with the middle school. Lincoln followed them from a distance, for it was never good news to see that group happy.

The trio pulled up to the side of the main building, in the designated bike parking area, right next to a yellow tandem bike... as usual bad news.

"What do you mean, you lost my camera?! Chandler's voice rang clear through the echo of the narrow hallway, "DAMN NIGGER, YOU'LL PAY FOR IT!"

Lincoln felt his blood boil with adrenaline, he never liked abusive people and even less when the abuser harassed one of his friends; he approached taking big strides without trying to stay hidden.

As Lincoln got close enough, he saw that Clyde was being held from behind by Hawk, one of Chandler's escorts, while Hank and Chandler himself took turns punching him. Just as Hank became aware of Lincoln's presence, the redhead in the green sweater had just connected a good hook to the afroamerican's cheek.

To prevent any teacher or whoever was accompanying the albino from seeing the scene, the trio released Clyde, who fell to the ground like a rag. Realizing that Lincoln was alone, Chandler spoke up.

"Larry... What are you doing here...?" The trio was trying to keep a half beaten Clyde hidden behind them, so they stood close together, almost shoulder to shoulder. "Don't you have any junk to sell... or inept people to swindle?"

Lincoln, who had not stopped approaching, ran the last stretch towards the group and taking a step only centimeters away, threw a strong punch at the redhead's face. Chandler effortlessly dodged the fist that was headed for his face, but because they were both so close and in such close quarters he was unable to do the same with the elbow that did manage to connect with his nose. The bully fell to the ground as his face filled with a dark red liquid gushing from his nose.

"Clyde, get up!" Lincoln shouted as he kicked the fallen bully in the face. The bespectacled teenager managed to roll away from the altercation as Lincoln ducked to dodge a hook from Hawk. "Run and call for help!" Lincoln would have yelled something else but a hard punch to the stomach from Hank knocked all the wind out of him, and he thought Lynn had a heavy hand "… Shit…"

McBride was no fighter, but seeing the situation they were in he quickly realized that Lincoln could not take on the three bullies by himself, so he decided to help in the best way he could: he held on to Hank's legs giving the freckled boy valuable seconds to half recover from the blow.

As he managed to partially catch his breath, Lincoln opened his eyes only to see Hawk charging back in a fury, Lincoln barely managed to kick him in the shin, almost instantly stopping the fatso who let out a shriek of pain. That kick was followed by a slightly harder kick to the crotch, knocking the big guy out momentarily.

Seeing that only one of the three troublemakers remained standing, Lincoln used all his weight to push Hank and make him fall, but the one with the punk hairdo grabbed him by the collar of his sweater and using the momentum received and a basic Judo grab he took the albino flying several meters. After stomping on Clyde's face to get him off his feet and without wasting time Hank threw himself on top of Lincoln. Almost instantly, the two teenagers writhed on the ground as they tried to kick and punch each other. From experience, Lincoln knew he had only moments before Chandler or Hawk recovered from the blows and joined the fray with murderous fury.

Lincoln in a desperate attempt, poked the bully in the eye and then grabbed him by his mohican lifting his face a little to deliver a killer blow. The bigger teenager managed to turn his head a little to cushion the punch with the soft part of his face, but was unable to do anything about the head-butt that followed and left him seeing stars.

"I can't wait to see your pimp's reaction when he doesn't find you any pot or money!" Taking advantage of the fact that he had the bully pinned between his feet, Lincoln gave him one last elbow in the nose and let him fall to the ground while he caught his breath and put something in his pants pockets.

"Lynn's self- defense lessons... surely work... Yay!

"Lincoln watch out!" Lincoln heard Clyde's shout, but couldn't react in time to avoid Chandler, who lunged at him and grabbed him from behind, lifting him in the air for an instant before slamming him to the concrete floor.

Lincoln's head bounced off the slab, and for a moment all was quiet. He saw every detail on the brick walls, saw Clyde screaming in slow motion...saw Jordan girl's green eyes staring at him in terror amidst a small mob of students from a far end of the hallway...and saw Chandler come running up, his green wool sweater was streaked with blood stains and a flash of pure hatred gleamed in his eyes.

The abuser knelt over the albino and hit him with the force of the insane, Lincoln managed to raise his arms to cover his face to block some of the blows the redhead began throwing at him, but he received more than he was able to deal with.

It looked like Chandler was going to crack Lincoln's head open with a clean fist when suddenly a shadow fell over the bully and the white-haired, Clyde had pulled the history book out of his backpack and hit the redhead with it. A little over five hundred pages was enough to take the fight out of the McCann boy.

Lincoln took advantage of his attacker's moment of weakness to push him with his remaining strength and shake him off.

When Lincoln finally got up, he gave Chandler one last kick in the face, as revenge for always forgetting his name and another in the crotch for the sheer pleasure of it.

What Lincoln had seen out of the corner of his eye during the fight was true: a group of curious and violence-hungry students from all grades had gathered at one end of the hallway just as the fight was winding down, all the vast majority of onlookers saw was three of the most feared bullies lying on the floor, two of them with blood covering their faces and another one crying with one hand on his noble part and the other on his right leg, not a few took out their cell phones to film the scene, and there, in the middle of the chaos stood Lincoln, beaten but victorious. Many wanted to approach him and congratulate him for winning the fight, but the stern voice of the Principal could already be heard in the distance.

Panic seized Lincoln, without asking permission or without saying a word he jumped on the yellow tandem bike just as Clyde reached out of the crowd and between the two of them they pedaled away at full speed.

Loud and McBride pedaled like madmen until they reached Moore Avenue, the midpoint between the two young men's homes, and only then Lincoln got off Clyde's bicycle.

"Wait until my parents find out that I got into a fight and give someone without a helmet a ride on the bike on the same day..."

"... Yes... it was a crazy day" for the first time both boys could see each other calmly, both were badly bruised; Lincoln's lip and nose had been bleeding most of the trip while Clyde had a black eye and broken glasses, "Clyde... can I ask you why Chandler wanted your head?"

"I just joined the baseball club, and since our locker room is very close to the track and field club... he ordered me to hide a camera in the girls' locker room..." blushing McBride confessed.

"...but you didn't do it," said Lincoln.

"No, I didn't," Clyde concluded.

They both shared a smile, for the first time in their lives, they had gone against their former tormentors and had surprisingly triumphed in the fight.

"I guess I'll see you later... buddy," Clyde said goodbye.

"Does that mean Clyncoln McLoud is back in the game?" asked Lincoln with a blood-toothed grin.

"... Don't push your luck so fast Loud, remember I knocked Chandler McCann out cold with one punch," joked the boy with the starry glasses.

They both shared one last laugh, just like in the old days.

-o-

When Lincoln arrived home he found an empty place, a note left on the refrigerator by Luna and Luan for Lynn indicated that the two older girls had taken Lily to the elementary school to pick up Lisa and the twins to take them to the movies, the note was addressed to Lynn since she was always late because of her club training.

Thanks to the note Lincoln deduced that only Lucy was at home. Without wasting any more time, the albino went to the basement, ready to confront his sister about her 'secret project' with Lisa and who knows, maybe he would even take her to the heart of the Rock of Eternity to facilitate Leni's recovery and start teaching her magic.

As soon as he opened the door to descend into the basement, Lincoln knew something was wrong; a rotten egg smell filled his nose forcing him to recoil as he coughed; someone had used too much magic and a very powerful one down there.

The basement' bulb wouldn't light, but that didn't matter to the albino, he went down the stairs two steps at a time, expecting to see his goth sister very hurt... or worse.

He jumped the last three steps and reached the bottom, in front of him was a circle of runes and arcane symbols, the portal the sisters had been working on all weekend. Surprisingly everything seemed to indicate that it had worked correctly, Lincoln advanced some steps in the darkness to check the state of the portal before he tripped over a soft object, as he bent down he realized that it was a small body, it was a unconscious Lisa.

The little know-it-all had her hair completely ruffled and her eyes closed, a freshly made scar lay on the lid of her false eye. Lincoln brought his index finger close to the little nose and calmed considerably as he felt his little sister's rhythmic breathing.

He would have called 911 right then and there, but he still needed to find Lucy, so he set his genius sister gently on the floor, took a deep breath and ran for the portal. Seconds later Lincoln was in the throne room of the Rock of Eternity. Nothing seemed to have changed, he was about to go back and search for his gothic sister in the maze of empty corridors when he heard a hollow laugh behind him.

Turning around he saw Lucy standing on the stone throne, in her hands she held the small torch of living fire that originally rested on a pedestal to one side of the throne.

Using both hands, the little black-haired girl lifted the torch over her head and doused the ashes over herself not caring about getting burned, then threw the candle as far away as she could before smiling as Lucy Loud had never smiled before. Lincoln wanted to speak to her but his little sister beat him to the word, keeping the smile taut on her face, a different voice uttered a single word:

"SHAZAM!"


If you enjoyed the fic, please send me an PM with any feedback you may have... pretty pretty please with a cherry on top

And remember, I am not a native english speaker so I am also open to opinions and criticisms 'bout my written english