Chapter summary: Lincoln tries to help Lio get over his crippling fear of social interaction so that he can attend an upcoming party.
Another long day at school was slowly ticking by. Ever since the transition to middle school, Lincoln, Lio, and Clyde found things to be a bit strange. For Lincoln and Clyde, the two were still closer than brothers (something Lio could tell you about firsthand) which made the transition a bit easier. It was a calm, quiet Wednesday when Nikki, a fellow sixth grader, approached Lincoln, Clyde, Stella, Liam, Rusty, and Zach during lunch while the group were eating.
"Hey, you're one of Lynn's younger brothers, right?" Nikki asked Lincoln.
"That's me," Lincoln answered.
"Great, so I'm throwing a party this weekend and you and your friends are all invited, think you can make it?" Nikki asked.
"You bet we can make it!" Lincoln answered, looking back at his friends.
"Cool, the party starts at 7, so don't be a stranger" Nikki said before asking "Oh, and by the way, do you think you can get your brother to come along? One of my friends kinda has a crush on him and I promised her I'd get him to come. So what do you say?"
"You mean Lio?" Lincoln asked, glancing over to the table on the far dark side of the cafeteria, where Lio sat by himself, as per usual. "I don't know. Lio isn't really the partying type. In fact, now that I think about it, he isn't much of a people person in general. I'll see what I can do."
"Well, some of my friends really want to get to know him," Nikki said before pulling out two amusement park tickets. "If you can get him to come to the party, I'll give you $50."
That caught Lincoln's attention. Ronnie Anne was visiting in two weeks and this would provide him with the ability to do something special for her. "In that case, I'll make sure he's there. I guarantee it" Lincoln said.
"Great, I'll see you guys this Saturday at 7" Nikki said before leaving.
After Nikki left, Stella asked "What is up with your brother, anyway? He never seems to hang out with anyone and he's always by himself."
"Lio's a bit afraid of social interactions," Lincoln explained. "It all stems from an incident during our first day in kindergarten. Some kids taunted us for our white hair and it basically put Lio off from contact with any other human being outside his family. It's to the point where whenever our family goes on vacation, Lio spends the entire trip hiding in the hotel room just so he doesn't have to talk to anyone. Heck, one time we went to the beach and Lio completely buried himself in the sand the entire time."
"It's true," Clyde said. "It took Lio years to get familiar enough with me to even talk to me. He doesn't do it to be rude and I don't think he hates people, he's just so afraid of talking to others he mentally shuts down at the thought. The only time I've ever seen him interact with someone on his own volition is when he confronted Ronnie Anne when he thought that she was bullying Lincoln. An encounter that didn't exactly end well for him."
"Do you think you can get him to attend the party?" Rusty asked Lincoln.
"If I can, it would no doubt be a miracle" Lincoln said. "Usually, whenever I want him to do something, all I have to do is ask and he'll say yes, but for situations like this… it's not so easy."
"Well, you heard what Nikki said, pull this off and you've got yourself 50 dollars" Clyde pointed out. He then looked over to where Lio was eating lunch, where the latter was absentmindedly working on his manga. "You've got your work cut out for you"
"Look, I'll talk to him and I know that I can get him to come around," Lincoln said. Later that day after school, the twins were at home, enjoying their down time along with the rest of their siblings. Lio was working on the latest chapter of Tokyo Planet Outlaw when Lincoln decided to bring up the topic.
"So Lio…"
"What's up, Lincoln, is everything alright?" Lio asked.
"Yeah, everything's fine," Lincoln said before cutting right to the chase. "There's this party this Saturday and I think it'd be cool if you came along."
Almost immediately, Lio's eyes became as wide as dinner plates and he looked around nervously as he started to sweat. The very idea of going to a party terrified him so he was looking for any excuse to say no. "Oh gee, Lincoln, I'd love to go but I have to uh…" Lio said, looking around for an excuse. "I have to help Lynn practice for her upcoming baseball game."
"Nah, no need" Lynn told him. "Our game was postponed for next week so I've got some down time."
"How convenient" Lio said, looking defeated, but still trying to think of a way out of this. "Well still, I have to help Leni practice for her next driver's test."
"Nah, don't worry about it. Lori says she's going to help me." Leni spoke up.
"Oh," Lio said, starting to sweat more and more with each passing second. He turned to Lisa and asked "Hey Lisa, what do you say we try again with the gravity gun? See if you worked out the previous kinks?"
"I'm going to have to say no to that," Lisa said. "Unless you want to be irreversibly turned inside out once again?" Lio weighed his options: go to party or be brutally mutilated? The latter option seemed more appealing to him as it'd give him a convenient excuse to no show the party. Lisa seemed to know what he was thinking however as she added "Keep in mind that that means your eyes will be turned inside out as well, meaning you can't read or write your manga."
"That puts that out of the question," Lio remarked. "Say Luan, don't you have a birthday party this weekend? If Lincoln's going to a party, that means you're going to need someone to act as your interim assistant, right?" Lio looked at Luan pleadingly, as if begging her to bail him out of this situation.
"Sorry Lio, but the party I'm clowning at is on Sunday," Luan told him. "I think you should go to the party with Lincoln, you might have fun. It might even help you get over your phobia"
With no other choice, Lio used his second to last resort, turning to Lincoln and saying "As tempting as going to a party sounds, I'm going to have to say no to the proposal."
"Huh, he actually has it in him," Lola said in response to hearing Lio say "no".
"Come on, Lio, just this once come out with me" Lincoln pleaded. "How long are you going to hide yourself away from the world?"
"Believe me, Lincoln, I actually would love to go to the party with you," Lio said with sincerity. "But, I just, I just can't… the thought of being somewhere with a crowd of other people… it terrifies me. Why do you think I stayed in my room that one time Lori threw her party? I can't handle being in the presence of others."
With a grin, Lincoln said "Maybe you just need someone to help you get over your fear"
"How is anyone going to do that?" Lio asked.
"Just leave it to me," Lincoln told him. "I'll teach you everything you need to know about talking to people without completely shutting down. Just follow my lead and you'll be a partying machine by Friday"
"I have a bad feeling about this" Lio said.
The next day after school, Lincoln had taken Lio out to the mall so that he could practice interacting with other people. The training hadn't even began and already Lio was a near nervous wreck, having broken out into a cold sweat at being surrounded by strangers. His knees were trembling and he couldn't help but to look around in every direction, as if fearing that someone was going to strike. Lincoln could sense his nervousness and gripped his shoulder to help calm him down.
"It's alright" Lincoln told him. "There's no reason to be afraid, nobody's out to get you"
"Wh-Why did we come here?" Lio asked nervously.
"We're here so that I can help you get over your fear" Lincoln told him. "I know that it can be intimidating for you to be around all of these people, but I feel the first step to help you learn to interact with others is to have you be in a crowd that was you can see there's nothing to fear."
"Lincoln, I am surrounded by people I don't know," Lio said. "I am absolutely mortified. My knees are weak and my arms are heavy, the only thing missing is mom's spaghetti on my shirt."
"J-Just try to stay calm," Lincoln tried easing his brother's fears. "Like I said, no one's out to get you, no one's going to make fun of you. Everything will be fine, I promise you."
Easing up a little bit, Lio looked around and when he saw people chatting with each other and having a generally good time, Lio relaxed slightly. "Y-Yeah, everything's fine. I can do this. I can do this."
"That's the spirit" Lincoln said. "You've got this. I know you can do this" Lincoln then thought to himself "If this goes smoothly, that $50 will be as good as mine."
Lio was honestly a bit intrigued as he watched people go about their day. It honestly amazed him how easily they could strike up a conversation. He was almost envious by how carefree they seemed so casual and carefree in their interactions. Still, Lio made sure to do his observation from afar. Just like the character he had based his hair on, the last thing he wanted to do was draw attention to himself.
"Okay, this actually isn't so bad" Lio said before turning to Lincoln and asking "So can we go home now?"
"Not yet" Lincoln told him. "I want you to try and say hello to someone"
"You want me to do what?!" Lio exclaimed, looking at Lincoln as if he were crazy.
"You're never going to get over your fear if you don't learn how to talk to people" Lincoln said. "You don't have to start a fullblown conversation, just walk up to someone and say "Hello, nice to meet you", okay? You can do this."
"Yeah, you're right, I can do this" Lio said to himself, trying to hype himself up. In the process, he accidentally bumped into a woman, who turned around and said "Oh, hello there. I'm sorry, I didn't see you there"
Lio opened his mouth to say "Hello, nice to meet you", but instead he froze in place, becoming near catatonic as his eyes became blank.
"I-Is he okay?" The woman asked Lincoln.
"He's fine, he's just extremely shy" Lincoln said before slapping Lio to break him out of his stupor. Lio twitched as if he were an android and the first thing he said after being slapped was "Hello human, it is a pleasant experience to meet you"
"I think I'm going to go" said the freaked out woman before walking off.
After she left, Lio turned to Lincoln and said "See? I told you I'm not cut out for this talking to people thing. This is hopeless."
"Lio, you've only tried speaking to one person, don't expect it to be an immediate success" Lincoln told him. "You just need a little more practice."
The next several hours consisted of Lincoln trying to get Lio to talk to several mall patrons, but every time someone even got close to Lio, he'd completely tense up and freeze dead in his tracks. His eyes would go blank as if he were in a trance and he couldn't bring himself to speak. Internally, Lio was on the verge of a fullblown panic attack the second someone even looked in his direction. Finally, Lio had a full fledged freak out as he yelled "NIGERUNDAYO!" and ran out of the mall as fast as he could. Lincoln followed after him and the twins returned home, no progress having been made with making Lio comfortable being out in public.
"How'd it go?" asked Luna.
"Terribly" Lio answered. "I think I had 3 panic attacks just trying to say "hi" to people. If I go to that party, there's no way I'll be able to come out of there without freaking out"
"If I could make a suggestion, why don't you just go to the party and find a nice quiet corner to sit in by yourself" Lucy suggested.
"That's a great idea," Lincoln said. "That way you don't have to worry about breaking down trying to talk to others".
"I guess that could work" Lio said. "But what if I do if someone tries to talk to me?"
"If someone says hello, just silently nod at them and go back to what you were doing" Lori advised him. "Alternatively, Just play the role of awkward nerd and literally, nobody will want anything to do with you"
"O-Okay" Lio said. "Thanks for the advice, Lori"
"That money is as good as mine" Lincoln thought to himself. "Although, I'll be honest, I do feel a bit bad for using Lio like this. I'll make sure I make it up to him."
The next two days went by in a blur for Lio and when the day of the party arrived he was still petrified. He just couldn't shake the terrible feeling in his gut as every terrible scenario that could happen raced through his mind. He knew that he was likely just being paranoid, but that didn't stop him from worrying.
"Alright, Lio, are you ready to go?" Lincoln asked him.
"Ohhhh… the things I do for love" Lio muttered.
"I'll take that as a yes" Lincoln said. Noticing his brother's look of utter fear, Lincoln placed his hand on Lio's shoulder and said "Don't worry. Everything will be fine. Come on, let's go."
The pair arrived at Nikki's house where the party was already bumping. There was music playing, kids dancing, and a table of sugary snacks available. Lio made a mental note to himself to steer clear of chocolate as whenever he ate chocolate, he turned into a sugar rushed crazy ball of chaos. Lio quickly slinked over to the quietest corner he could find while Lincoln met up with his friends.
"I can't believe it, you actually got him to show up" Clyde said, amazed. "How did you do that?"
"I told him it'd help him get over his fear of people" Lincoln explained. "He may not become the life of the party, but at least he'll be comfortable around others."
"Don't look now, but it looks like your brother's getting some attention" Stella pointed out as a girl and two boys crowded around Lio.
"So you're that quiet kid from school who doesn't talk to anyone, what's the deal with that?" One of the boys asked. "Are you some type of mute or something?"
"Um… well you see…" Lio tried to say.
"Back off, can't you see you're making him nervous?" The girl reprimanded the boy before saying to Lio "It's okay if you're not the talking type. We just hope you have a good time."
"Yeah," The other boy said. "We just came to say hi and that it is nice to meet you"
Freaking out and not knowing what to say, Lio blurted out "Happy, joypy, nice to meetcha-py" garnering laughs from the kids.
"You're pretty cool" The girl said. "Anyway, we won't bother you anymore. Hope you enjoy the party"
After they left, Lio breathed a sigh of relief and patted himself on the back for not having a complete meltdown.
"I have to admit, he handled that better than I expected," Lincoln said before Nikki approached him.
"Wow, you actually got your brother to come along" Nikki said, impressed.
"I promised you that I would" Lincoln replied.
"Well, a deal's a deal" Nikki said, handing Lincoln a $50 bill. "Here's the money I promised you. You two have fun"
Lio spotted this out if the corner of his eye and walked over to Lincoln, asking "What was that about?"
"What was what about?" Lincoln played dumb, but Lio was having none of it.
"I just saw Nikki give you money and heard her say "A deal's a deal", what's that about?" Lio asked. "Did Nikki pay you to get me to come to the party?"
"No, no, it's nothing like that," Lincoln tried to lie, but Lio gave him a stern look that made it clear he didn't believe him. Lincoln turned to his friends and said "Guys, back me up here"
"Sorry Linc, but this seems like a family issue" Stella said as she, Clyde, Liam, Zach and Rusty backed off.
With no other choice, Lincoln admitted "Okay, it's true. Nikki did pay me to get you here, but just try to hear me out"
"Why?" Lio asked. "Why did Nikki want me here? I've never spoken a word to her"
"Well… it turns out that one of her friends has a crush on you" Lincoln explained.
"So you brought me here to hook me up with an unknown girl?" Lio questioned, getting angry. "How could you do this? I thought this was about helping me get over my fears."
"It was, I mean it is" Lincoln insisted. "Listen, just try to hear me out"
"I think I've heard enough," Lio said. "I'm outta here!"
"Lio, wait!" Lincoln said, grabbing Lio by his shoulder. "I know what I did was kinda scummy, but I promise I'll make it up to you. Just try to stick around a little longer. See if you can maybe enjoy yourself."
Lio was prepared to tell his twin off, when Lincoln pulled teary puppy dog eyes. Lio had no defense against that and thus he said "Alright fine, I'll stay, but you owe me big time." Lio then stormed off, returning to the dark corner of the room. A few minutes passed before Lio was suddenly approached by a tall pale skinned girl with waist long black hair.
"So… I take it you're not enjoying the party?" The girl asked him.
"N-no" Lio stammered, nervous beyond belief. "I-I'm only here because my brother dragged me along."
"You're Lincoln's brother, right?" The girl asked. Lio nodded and the girl said "I'm guessing you'd rather be at home, living a quiet life, am I right Killer?"
"Was that a?" Lio asked, unsure if the girl had just intentionally made a JoJo reference.
"You bet it was" The girl said. "My name is Kat, by the way. What's yours?"
"Lio" Lio answered, feeling a bit more at ease. "Lio Loud"
"Lio, huh? Is that your real name or are you Yoshikage Kira in disguise?" Kat joked. "Judging by your hair, I'm guessing it's the latter"
"Careful, you don't wanna trigger Bites the Dust, do you?" Lio joked back. "I won't let anything disturb my ambitions. I wish to live a quiet life, but when you live with 11 siblings, things tend to get a little Loud"
"It's nice to meet another JoJo fan," Kat said. "And judging by your jacket, I take it you're a fan of Fullmetal Alchemist as well?"
"Oh, I'm a total Fullmetal fan," Lio said. "I've actually been doing art commissions to save up for the FMAB blu ray set"
"Oh, you do commissions?" Kat asked. "Didn't know you were an artist."
"To be fair, no one except my family knows anything about me" Lio said. "But when you aspire to be a mangaka, you've gotta start somewhere"
"Say, what do you say we go out on the dance floor and do the "torture dance"?" Kat asked.
"I-I dunno," Lio said. "I don't do well when all eyes are on me. I hate being the center of attention."
"C'mon, I promise I'll be right beside you, it'll be alright" Kat tried to assure him, grabbing him by his hand. Lio was uneasy at the thought, but felt this new foreign feeling of "companionship" felt good. Thus, he went along with Kat and joined her on the dance floor. When the music was right, the two pulled off a picture perfect rendition of Golden Wind's iconic torture dance. From a distance, Lincoln and Clyde were watching in awe.
"Well, would you look at that, looks like Lio's actually enjoying himself" Clyde commented. "I'm not going to lie, I totally didn't see that coming."
"Neither did I," Lincoln said. "but I'm happy for him. It looks like he's actually making a friend."
Suddenly, Lincoln and Clyde felt someone grab them from behind and spin them around. The two found themselves staring face to face with two big burly boys that they instantly recognized from the previous Halloween. They were the two kids who had almost ruined Halloween for the kids of Royal Woods and who the Loud family had scared the pants off of. Hank and Hawk were their names.
"Well, well, well, look what we have here," Hawk snarled as he and Hank grabbed Lincoln and Clyde by their collars. "Looks like we found the two geeks who scared us last year."
"Thanks to you and your family of freaks, we had nightmares for weeks" Hank said.
"Hey, I don't remember inviting you two blockheads to the party," Nikki confronted the bullies. "What're you doing here?"
"We heard there was going to be candy here so we figured we'd crash the party" Hank said. "What're you gonna do about it?"
"Yeah, what're you gonna do, call the cops?" Hawk taunted. "Now beat it, this is between us and them"
"Hey, leave them alone!" Lio spoke up from the dance floor, coming to his brother's defense.
"Lio, what're you doing?" Kat asked.
"Confronting these two jerks," Lio told her. "Lincoln may have dragged me here against my wishes, but he's still my brother and nobody messes with my family!"
"Lio, you can't seriously be thinking about fighting them," Kat said. "They're at least twice your size. You'll get pulverized."
"I know, but I grew up with 10 sisters, I can take a little beating" Lio said before turning his attention to the bullies. "I won't ask again. Let them go. Now."
"Oh yeah, and what are you going to do if we don't, twerp?" Hawk taunted as Lio approached him and Hank. Hank let go of Clyde, who ran off, but Hawk maintained his grip on Lincoln. By now, a crowd had gathered and although Lio was currently freaking out, he stood his ground. He then did something that surprised everyone and shoved Hawk onto the ground. There were a few moments of silence, with the two bullies stunned that someone actually stood up to them, allowing Lincoln to get away. That shock didn't last long as Hank came to his buddy's aid and punched Lio in the face.
"Dumb move, dweeb" Hank said, picking Lio up off the ground by his collar and punching him in the face a second time and Hawk kicked him in the ribs. "Now we're going to pound on you instead."
"Leave him alone" Kat said, coming to Lio's defense as Hank raised his fist to punch Lio again.
"Yeah, right, as if we're scared of some gir" Hawk said before Kat knocked him out cold with a punch to the face. Hank then swung at Kat who ducked and delivered a picture perfect kick to his groin. Hank gasped and dropped to the ground.
"Don't make me get mean, grab your friend and get out" Kat warned Hank. Hank, not wanting to get kicked again, grabbed his friend and left the party, leaving the crowd to cheer. Kat then tended to Lio, who was sprawled out on the floor. He had a black eye and a busted lip, but other than that appeared to be fine. "Are you okay?"
"I'm alright" Lio told her. "Thanks for helping me out back there. You're pretty hardcore."
"Thanks," Kat said, helping Lio up off the floor. The two looked each other in the eye for a few seconds before they turned away, blushing.
"I now know for a fact that I don't like parties, but what do you say the two of us… um, what is it that friends do?" Lio asked.
"Hang out?" Kat answered.
"That's it," Lio said excitedly. "What do you say the two of us hang out some time?"
"That sounds like fun," Kat said. "I look forward to it"
The twins returned home later that night, where they were immediately greeted by their sisters. Upon seeing Lio's black eye, Lisa asked "So I take it the party didn't go so well?"
"On the contrary, actually" Lio said. "I actually somewhat got over my social anxiety and I managed to make a friend!"
"Wait, what?" Lola asked. "Did I hear you correctly or did you say that you made a friend?"
"Your ears aren't deceiving you," Lio said proudly. "I actually made a friend. Her name is Kat and we plan on hanging out more in the near future."
"If nothing went wrong at the party then why do you have a black eye?" Leni asked.
"Oh, nothing major" Lio said nonchalantly. "Just had a little run in with those two bullies from Halloween"
"They didn't hurt you, did they?" Lana asked.
"I'm fine" Lio insisted. "Heck, Lily packs more of a punch than those losers." Lio then pulled out his phone and saw that he had received a text from Kat. "Now, if you don't mind…" he said as he head upstairs to his room.
When he reached the top of the stairs, Luan smiled at him and said "Good job conquering your fear. I knew you could do it."
"Really? You did?" Lio asked.
"Yep" Luan said. "In fact, Lana, Lucy, and I even made a bet with the others that you would" Luan then head downstairs, saying "Speaking of which, time to pay up, girls!"
"Looks like you weren't the only one who made money off of me tonight" Lio said to Lincoln with a smile.
"Listen, I really wanna apologize for that," Lincoln said. "I'm sorry I mislead you and made you go through with something you didn't wanna do. I know how uncomfortable you are around people and it was wrong of me to exploit that for money. Also, I'm sorry about causing you to get a black eye."
"Sorry, are you kidding me?" Lio replied. "Lincoln, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't have met Kat. I wouldn't have made my first real friend. Strange as this may sound, this was the best thing that could've happened to me"
"Really?" Lincoln asked.
"Really," Lio said. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to get ready for next week. Kat and I are meeting up to hang out next Saturday"
"Well, Lincoln you did it again" Lincoln said to himself. "I amaze even myself sometimes."
"Oh, and by the way, since I'm the reason you got paid, I think I'm entitled to half of that money" Lio said, holding his hand out.
"Well, I almost got away with it" Lincoln said to the reader.
"Nah, I'm just kidding," Lio said, prompting he and Lincoln to share a laugh before Lio said "But seriously, never drag me along to something like that again."
And so, Lio has made his first friend. I'll be exploring Lio and Kat's newfound friendship in future chapters. Hope you enjoyed.