Day 12
Lincoln came home to find a hopped up, powder blue Nova in the driveway. It had new york plates and a bumper sticker advertising their kid was an honor student at some school. He didn't bother to read past "My child is an honor stu..." He knew that Alex Dolton bought those bumper stickers and the only one he believed ever earned one had been Lisa.
He opened the door to see Lori sitting with Mika. They were talking quietly and didn't notice him.
His quick run around the block didn't take his hangover away.
Eddie had showed up around nine p.m. the night before. Black eye and bloodied nose. His so called step father had laid into him over some stupid shit.
The two scored some beer from one of Luna's bandmates big brother and camped out back of Mr. Grouse's yard, cooking smores, smoking weed and bullshitting.
Eddie left at six and Lincoln took his routine morning run a bit earlier than usual. He passed Lynn on the run, stopping long enough to share a few kisses by the side of a vancant house.
He went to grab some coffee and nearly pissed his pants as Yuki swept him up in a hug. "Lincoln! Good Morning!" She said cheerily, and loudly, right by his ear.
Here he was, a teen of five foot eleven, with the promise of at least two more inches, according to his father, and she held him like a toddler with one arm.
At this point he glanced down to see a bare expanse of naked flesh and a towel pooled at her feet. His sock covered feet had instictively locked together and he realized his growing erection was pressed against her belly. Her wet hair and slick back felt good in his hands.
He didn't hear a word of what she said after greeting him. She sat him down after a bit and continued talking as he took in her nude form. She obviously didn't care that he could see everything as she mixed a cup of coffee, which she handed to him.
Her nipples were pierced. Small little bars that had hearts on each end. She had a tattoo of a heart with pink fairy wings between her navel and pubic mound. She was tone, the muscle was not obviously seen but he had felt it while pressed against her. She rattled on for a few more minutes and he absently replied with "Uh yeah" She kissed his cheek then walked off.
He turned and bumped into Shinji, who was obviously checking her own sister out, and sloshed the coffee onto himself.
"You have no idea what you've just agreed to, do you." She said with a wry and knowing grin.
He watched as the woman poured an energy drink into a thermos with coffee and milk. "You look like you got shit on your mind. Shower up. We'll go for a drive and talk." She flicked his cowlick as she walked off.
An hour later Lincoln watched as Shinji verbally threatened the man that had invested in his dad's business. Apparently Lori had called Shinji for legal advice, only to be referred to Mika. That was the day before last.
"Look, Lady, I own the business. Lynn had not paid his last reimbursment for my investment." He puffed out his chest. "I own the property as well, and I am not letting that prime piece of realestate go for nothing!"
Shinji rolled her eyes and produced a paper. A copy of a check. He took it and crumpled it up.
Lincoln saw a flash of rage on the woman's face and her knuckles turned white but she remained in place. "How much to buy you out?" He heard her ask.
"Take that check, double it, then double it again." He looked up at her smugly.
She did the math and stare at the paper. "That's it!?"
She showed the man, Lincoln still couldn't remember his name, and he motioned to it. "Add a couple more zeros to the end."
She appeared to do so and handed him the paper. She turned to walk away and he slapped her ass. "Nice doing business with you sweet cheeks!"
Lincoln watched as she gave him a one-two then swept his legs out from under him.
She tore up the check and brought the man up to stare him in the face. "You're getting what Lynn still owed, no more no less, and I conviniently forget what you asked of the Loud girls, one of which was underage."
He nodded and she dropped him. She wrote the new check and placed it under the cellphone on the table.
"Bottom feeder!" She called as she walked away.
"Aren't you worried about that?" Lincoln asked as they reached the end of the block.
"You know what he asked your sisters to do when they were cleaning the restraunt up the other day?"
Lincoln shook his head no, but felt he wouldn't like the answer.
"Just let it go, Lincoln. Lori and Luan did, and I just solved the problem anyway."
"I didn't know he had been to the restraunt yesterday. I thought this was about him calling."
"Both. He had called earlier in the week, making talk like it was all good, then he decided to meet them and 'work something out' with Lori about the missing payment." She spit out the window. "Probably cashed that last payment into a private bank account."
He started to bring it up again but she stopped him. "Let it go, Man." She pulled over at a restraunt supply store. "So, the place is closed for a bit. How about that talk?"
"What do we need to talk about?"
"Anything you like." She took a swig from her thermos and offered him a drink. He declined.
They sat quietly. The breeze through the windows, a piece of paper fluttering in it. The occasional sound caused by shifting in their seats. The slosh of the coffee drink as she took the occasional swig. Her pencil scratching at the paper as she did a crossword puzzle.
"Lana asked me for a personal massager, like the one that looks like an egg." He slipped as the silence wore on him. "She caught Leni and I..."
He waited for her to say something, anything.
Shinji turned and leaned over the seat. He took in the cutoff shirt hanging loosely off her chest, he could see her nipples, sort of. Her abs were a much more defined and her bottom had a nice shape. She shuffled through an assortment of stuff bagged in the back.
After a little bit something bounced off his head and landed in his lap. Then another. Then another. Then a fourth. She slipped back into the driver seat and resumed her crossword puzzle. "Six letter word for long yellow berry." She read off the clue.
At this point he was lost as he looked between four of the items much like Lana had requested.
He looked over with a blush to see her staring at him as if it were normal. "I get lonely on the road." He saw a flash of sadness a she spoke.
"Why four?"
She shrugged. "Why not?"
"What else you got?"
"Edible massage oil. Lube. You want the real stash, talk to Yuki and Mika."
"Mika?" He looked at her sceptically.
She gave a nod and smiled.
"I'll need two of those, so, whatever you need for your little sister."
He pocketed the blue one for Lana and stuck a pink one in his pocket too, figuring Lana might like to surprise her twin.
"Hey, you got any of that grass I smelled on you?" She asked and penciled in an answer. "It was banana. You know those penis shaped berries share like fifty percent of our DNA!" He stare at her in disbelief of her random conversation. "Avacados." She said and penciled in another answer. "They are also berries, prehistoric ones, and the name is... is it Aztec or Incan?" She tapped her pencil on her chin. "Anyway, Avacado means Testicle."
Lincoln decided to check his pocket. "Not on me." He told her.
She pulled a joint from her pocket. "Try this." She fished a lighter from the center divider and tossed it to him as well. "You look like you're going to get a cavity search or vomit. Relax, Lincoln!"
"Easy for you to say. You didn't just admit to fooling around with your sisters."
"Mika taste like cinnamon, spicy too, all those damn Red Hots and Atomic Fire Balls. Yuki taste like chocolate. You think your sisters are chocoholics, Yuki picked all the chips out of my mint chocolate chip ice cream last month. Then she smeared half the pint on her body and asked me to warm her up." She was watching as she kicked off her shoes so she didn't jam the brake pedal or gas pedal.
"Funny. Make fun of poor, fucked up Lincoln." He took a hit and sat there.
"I'm not." She turned to rest her feet in his lap. He had gotten so used to reflexivly massaging Lori's feet that he started massaging hers. "I joined the Army because fighting the feelings I had for my sisters was tearing me apart. Ten years, not talking with Mika. Eight not talking to Yuki."
"That's a long time!" She nodded in agreement to his words. "You just cut them out of your life?"
She shook her head no. "They thought I was abandoning them. I just needed a little time, you know." She focused on his hands to ignore the guilt she still carried. "That's nice!" She complimented his skill.
"After what had happened with our mom and dad, I really focused on the identical aspect for a short time. The scar on my nose, the scar on Mika's." She started to tear up. "I realized that I was actually capable of hurting them, and vowed to protect them from me as well. Growing up made that hard, you know, feelings."
She dabbed her tears. "I had few friends, Mika had less, Yuki had a lot of aquaintences, but few real friends. Our social life was limited. Most of the friends we had were our friends. Emma, Shannon, Heidi, Marry and Lenore. Lenore really was just Mika and Yuki's friend, I still don't know why she hated me, but Yuki and Mika both eventually dropped her, why, I don't know." Shinji had been rolling a joint, how he had missed that until she slipped it between her lips had surprised him.
"Any way. Waking up holding them inappropriately after dreams so vivid, I didn't know if they had been dreams or not. Feeling bad because I knew I couldn't devote everything to Emma, my girlfriend at the time. Worried I might lose it and really hurt my sisters. The two people in the world I really lived for." She was breathing heavily as she still obviously struggled with memories she had dredged up. "When I felt at my most lost, I took an offer from one of the alphabet agencies doing their dirty work for a time."
She waved off his question while shaking her head no. "Not answering that!" She said seriously. "Too dangerous!" He believed her.
"Back to the story. I had only been state side for a year and a half. Was addicted to pain killers. Lived on the street for five months before I bumped into our cousin Sol. She moved me into her place and I worked as the building super, fixing tennants problems. She told Peng and he bugged me until I started working as a bouncer at the club." She sighed.
"They, my cousins, I had them all promise not to tell Yuki or Mika, where I was, what I was doing, that I was even alive. I kinda put a small rift between us for a while. I slipped up and took Sol, Harumi and Hikari to bed."
She finally lit up her smoke.
"After I woke up using Harumi as a body pillow the three of us had a talk. They understood, having lost their parents young as well. Of course, they didn't have the moral compass or social inclination the three of us had been brought up with. The Akiko Sisters literally have told the world to fuck off more times than I can count." Shinji blew a set of smoke rings. "Giving me the building I own, that was a very big one Sol gave the tax men. The advice they gave me, I should have taken it. Avoided more pain, more stress."
She sighed. "Sorry this is so long, if I focus on one thing too long, I might cry. I didn't have it easy like you. People just telling me how they feel. Can you work around my big toe on the left? I hurt it kicking ass." He did and she leaned her head against the window.
"I was dating Nel at the time. Dancer. beautiful! Tallented! Smart enough. She told me one day that her friend was coming from California to visit. That her friend looked so much like me. She showed me a photo and felt my stomach drop. It was Yuki... and I had a panic attack every day leading up to the visit. Managed to wrangle a job that took me out of the state for a few weeks."
She took a long drag off her joint. "I got back, with gifts for Nel, and opened the door to one pissed off girlfriend and two shocked, hurt and suddenly furious sisters. I blacked out, landed on one of the bags, luckily the one with clothes, and woke up an hour later."
She rubbed her cheek. "Mika slapped me. Stormed off and closed herself up in my room of all places. Yuki didn't talk to me, until the next day, and that was just to ask me questions like what I wanted for dinner or to drink." She hung her head a moment. "Not the ones I expected or wanted. For the most part, to Yuki, I wasn't there."
"Nel was pissed." She chuckled. "She was always cute when mad!" Then a sigh. "She found out that night that my name wasn't Suki Yohama. Learned that I had been lying about not having any family, I never introduced her to my cousins, she always went on and on about criminal types, a category in which my cousins fit. Found out I was an addict, I had an opinion back then that pills helped with emotional pain as well and started popping them like candy as soon as I woke up. Nel also found out that not all my jobs were technically legal." She shrugged. "The Man gave me a pass on some things, like how privateers got papers to rob ships back in the day." She explained.
He was caught up in the story and sat there watching her talk.
"Nel and I made a go at it for another few months, well, I did. She had met a teacher and started exploring that avenue while slowly moving out. I saw her out on a date and greeted her like an old friend, told her that I found some stuff she had left at my place, a way of telling her to stop dawdling with the move. I remember greeting her as she carried her last box out. Gina was helping her by opening the trunk of the car I had bought for Nel."
Shinji laughed. "Irony!"
"I expected my sisters to be gone, but they were moving in. Surprised the hell out of me. Mika wasn't talking, Yuki at least asked what I wanted for dinner still and managed small talk, like a waitress at a diner. I spent the night alone in bed, weeping silently. I had my sisters back but I was as far from them as when I had left."
"They just moved in? Like that?"
Shinji nodded. "Yuki got hired on to Visual Arts Magazine, and had been moving to New York anyway. It was better than her time in Italy. At least working with V.A.M. I didn't need to risk a court marshal when I snuck off to send a serious message to the dealers and so called friends that she could only buy grass. That the next person to sell her coke would be killed." She reached out and held his wrist. "Please don't bring that up, it wasn't my place to tell."
Lincoln nodded.
"It was a few months into our new relationship. The place was livlier. I felt better just being in the pad. More furniture. It was bad enough I missed Aunt Ida's last days, but, I had found out a few things that made my heart break. Mika had been... ... hurt, bad. I wasn't there, I could have been, the war was over. On top of that Mika had dealt with the pain and stress of Yuki getting clean. I should have been there for them. Mika slipped that in often for a while, so glad that's over. Finally forgiven I guess."
She pulled her feet back and huddled against the door. Arms wrapped around her knees and chin resting on her chest. "Yuki had been very demanding on knowing why I had left once she decided to really talk with me. She was always good at reading me, so, I never could lie to her. She didn't accept 'Duty', 'honor' and all that shit as the real reason. She stepped into the shower with me one day. She was pressing hard and I just tried to ignore her. I eventually broke. I pushed her up against the wall, kissing her hard enough to bruise our lips, and pressed my fingers deep enough into her to realize she was still a virgin. Her little yelp as I did this woke me up and I left for a week. Spent it at Waylen's Auto Shop, which I later bought, working on cars or at the bottom of a bottle." She rolled the window down. "I stumbled in that Sunday, they had a small get together going on, and Mika pulled me into a closet. She was asking about why Yuki had a bruise and where I had been and that she knew that something had happened and she was demanding answers."
Shinji shivered. It wasn't cold out, she didn't seem like the type to be bothered by the cold anyway.
"I don't remember anything after that until I closed the closet door when I left." Tears started to stream down her face. "I wish I did!" She sobbed. "Yuki found Mika, still sitting in the closet the next day. All a mess. Smeared lipstick. I had left again. This time for work, I wasn't trying to get away, after all, I really don't remember anything!" She was clearly frustrated.
"It was only a couple days and I only found out about our little sister finding Mika like that when I got back." She wiped her face.
"Mika started to talk to me more. We went to dinner so she didn't have to cook. I took them shopping, they held my hands, until I was holding most of the bags. Mika found a job working for a small firm that she eventually bought. Life was starting to change fast that year. And then I got a call. One I hadn't been expexting at all."
"Who was it?" Lincoln asked her.
"My daughter." His eyes bulged. "Her father and I were close while in the service. He had been the exception to my rule, that I only like girls. I gave birth over seas and she grew up in the care of a good friend of mine from junior high. Nine years, almost, I hadn't seen her since he was shipped home, the same day I first held her in my arms." Shinji looked ashamed.
"I had a new set of worries and fears to deal with. See, Huey had been disowned, and I said he could live with my sisters after the war. They did take him in, they thought I was dead and were honoring my promise. Huey became like a brother to them and he met and married Marry. Now I had to tell him he had a daughter. To tell my sisters that they had a niece. Tell Marry she was a step-mother. That was fun. Huey was cool but Mika fell back on not talking to me for a couple days."
She tightened her grip on herself. "I had terrible fears about being a mother! Mom was... unstable. Our grandmother on her side was a psychopathic loon! Dad's grandmother ate his uncle." She snorted. "Demons!" She had cracked her first smile since talking about her fighting with Yuki and Mika.
Lincoln saw her as a bit of a loon, claiming demons were real. He now got the feeling that her claim of being a witch wasn't just to humor Lucy and then he recalled the thing she did with the fire water and sand. 'Funny how I forgot that.'
"Anyway, I had challenged a guy I never got to fight in highschool. Django Martinique, a black frenchman raised in Philli until he was fourteen, and the fight promoters decided to do it televised. They had thought I was a guy, until the weigh in and check-up on my health. They almost didn't put it on, but Django knew me. He pushed to have the fight go on as planned and it did. It was a draw, even split each round, but we weren't in the big leagues, so, only hardcore fight fans saw it. Like my little girl. Nicolas soon reached out." She smiled. "Hey, that's a different story!" She turned in her seat and slipped her shoes back on. "What I'm saying is that you have it easy, your sisters told you how they feel. Mine, mine only did after I assaulted one of them, hopefully one of them..." She opened her door, the bad mood came back over her for a moment. "Store's open."
They got a few stepd from the car. "Oh, Lincoln, you brought up fooling around. Before that it was just getting them a gift." She smirked as he stumbled. "I hope my tale helped ease your worries. It could have been worse." She patted his back. "Just watch your words from now on. They make a difference."
As they walked Lincoln grabbed her in a hug. No words, just trying to comfort her. She hugged him back. "You're a good guy, Linc!" She said after a bit and let him go. "So what did we need here again?"
Later that day Shinji unloaded the last bit of what they had purchased. His sisters and her sisters arranged everything as Lincoln and her did heavy lifting. Lynn and Leni helped Yuki with muscling the heavier items into place.
Shinji let him present the deed and all the proper papers to Lori. Even though it was their family business, Lori obviously needed it most. She inquired about the blood on the deed, so he mentioned Shinji getting her bottom slapped and the result. Lori laughed.
He chose to hitch a ride with Shinji back home. "So, you don't think it's weird about Lana?" He asked her halfway home.
"My friend Nadine started having sex at seven, her choice. She started charging the boys at her school at the age of nine. Was first arrested for it at twelve, she lied her way out of that one, but the word was out and her parents dropped her in a Catholic girls school. She got expelled for corrupting the other girls a few years later and moved into the apartments owned by Madam Le Chanze, where she worked to pay her way through medical school. Still turns tricks, it is a profitable form of entertainment for her."
"That makes me feel better." Lincoln said sarcastically.
"Sorry. Didn't mean it that way. I highly doubt Lana will hook, she has a loving home and is just healthy and curious about her body. Just saying that people develope differently and some blossom sooner."
"Doughnuts!" She suddenly yelled and turned the car into a parking lot.
After getting an order of six dozen she went across the lot to a convinience store and loaded up on Milk, chips, and soda. Liquor called Pucker, two flavors, were also purchased. Then she added two bottles of vodka and a gallon of orange juice to the mix.
He got an icy and managed to stop her on a trip back to the counter. After all they had talked about he couldn't say it at first, just motioned to the adult magazines. She nodded and went to pay for the stuff. She made a show of shooing him out to the car with the groceries then came out a few minutes later with a brown paper bag.
"Nice selection, I got one of each, you can throw out what you don't want." She said tossing them to him as she buckled up.
The family tore through the doughnuts.
Lincoln was slipped a few Screwdrivers and 7Up mixed witht the Watermelon Pucker that Shinji called a Pucker Up. There was usually a kiss from Mika or Yuki when he finished the drink and his older sisters picked up on it and started the act as well. So he had a few more of those.
It took a little over a half hour to sort the skin mags being so buzzed. He printed mailing lables to stick on certain ones and set them aside. Someone was in for an embarrassing surprise. Chicks With Dicks, the title and cover art made him cringe and he stuck one of the labels on it as soon as he picked it up.
Done with the shit he stashed a few he wanted for himself, set the prank materials in a trash bag and burried that in his closet. Lana's stuff, he carefully wrapped that back up in the bag with the other presents for her.
Day 13
Lincoln woke up to the bed shifting. It was Lily. She cuddled up to him and quickly fell asleep. The short time he had seen her face he knew the nightmares were back.
It was one forty-three in the morning. Unlike the nightmares where she went to their sisters, Lily still didn't talk about the ones that brought her to his room. actually, he wasn't sure she talked about them with their sisters either.
He spent a while pondering what frightened her so much then fell back asleep. He woke up next to several hushed voices and a clicking sound. His eyes cracked and slammed shut at a flash of light. "Good moring!" Came a soft greeting. It was Leni, he was pretty sure that he saw a glimpse of Lori and Yuki as well.
"What's up?" He asked trying to get loose from the bed without waking his youngest sister.
"Saw something so cute I just needed a picture!" Yuki's bubbly personality didn't sit well with him today for some reason, but he put on a smile and freed himself. He made sure Lily was covered and headed down the hall. The three women following him until they headed down the stairs.
He had just flushed when he heard a scream so frightened that his blood curdled. Lily was screaming at the top of her lungs and crying out for him.
He burst through his door, grabbed her up and began hugging the sobbing girl. She gripped him tightly, tightly enough it let him imagine how strong Leni was at her age. Lily kept repeating, obviously relieved, that he was alive.
All of his sisters and their guests were in the hall with worried expressions. He could only shrug. He was as clueless as they were.