11 years. 11 years Lincoln Loud has put up with the crazy antics from his 10 sisters. From Lori's eldest sisters bossiness, Leni's dimness, Luna's blasting music, Luan's annoying puns and dangerous April Fools pranks, Lynn's sporty behavior, Lucy's gothic nature, Lana's messiness, Lola's brattiness, and Lisa's sciences. He was willing to give Lily a pass because she's a baby.
Lincoln dealt with everything the way he did because he always believed his sisters had to have some sort of line as to how far they would and wouldn't go.
But now, he wasn't so sure about it anymore.
His two oldest sisters Lori and Leni were in a big fight over a stupid dress which led to the enacting of the Sister Fight Protocol. Something Lincoln didn't even know existed as no one told him about it.
Lincoln's attempts to make peace only made things worse as all sisters were fighting, which forced Lincoln to leave the house for the night.
When he returned, he learned that everything was fixed, because he himself left the house and didn't interfere.
When Lincoln heard that from his sisters, it felt as if the final chain that held him back from completely exploding was snapped. He felt so angry, unwanted, unappreciated, and worst of all, unloved. But instead of lashing out, he took a different route.
"Alright, whatever." Lincoln said in an uncharacteristically uncaring tone, as he silently made his way up the stairs.
The sisters all looked at each other, for a brief second, they felt a bit of concern for how Lincoln just took that. But it quickly went away, and they were back to doing what they were doing before Lincoln came inside.
The day dragged on silently. While the rest of the sisters were getting along again, Lincoln sat in his room, wordlessly, feeling levels of hurt he had never felt before.
Dinner came and everyone ate together. Lincoln, however, chose not to sit with his sisters or parents. Instead, Lincoln entered and exited the kitchen and dining room with his dinner wordlessly, not even batting his family an eye. Luna was the only sister to notice this.
"Uh dudes? Did Lincoln just flat out ignore all of us?" Luna asked, with a hint of concern.
"Ah, who cares? He'll be fine." Lola said without a second thought.
"Yeah, he probably just had a bad day. Don't worry about him." Luan said as she ate her dinner.
Luna knew that they were probably right. Lincoln was probably just having a bad day. She decided that maybe he needed his space, so she would leave him alone for the time being.
Meanwhile, in Lincoln's room, Lincoln was silently eating his dinner, when he received a call from his best friend, Clyde McBride.
"Hello?" Lincoln said.
"Hey buddy. How'd it go with your sisters?" Clyde asked with a hint of hope in his voice.
"Don't ask me about my sisters, Clyde." Lincoln responded, bitterly.
"That bad, huh?" Clyde asked.
"You have no idea. I come home today and find out they fixed everything themselves. And while I'm happy they fixed it themselves, they told me, that me leaving the house helped that." Lincoln explained.
"Ouch. That's harsh. Are you gonna talk to them about it?" Clyde asked.
"No Clyde. I won't. I take all kinds of bullets for them, but this is the last straw. If they don't want me to help them, then why should I talk to them at all if they clearly don't need me?" Lincoln asked in a venomous tone.
"Well, that doesn't sound healthy to me, its your decision and I won't fight it. Just try and get over those feelings." Clyde said, trying to support his best friend during this time.
"Thanks Clyde. I have to go. I'll talk to you tomorrow." Lincoln said as he hung up the phone without even giving Clyde a chance to respond.
The rest of the night went by painfully slowly for Lincoln. In the back of his mind, he was waiting for one of his sisters to burst into his room and demand he do something for them or kick him out again. But eventually, the night ended, and Lincoln fell asleep.
The next day, Lincoln waited until all of his sisters were done using the bathroom before even coming out of his room. Then while everyone was eating breakfast, he went into the kitchen, grabbed a bagel, and left the house without even saying a word.
Once again, Luna noticed this. But this time, Leni and Lucy noted this as well. Concern was starting to come back, as this was the second time he said absolutely nothing to anyone.
"Dudes, our bro just ignored us again. Something is clearly bothering him." Luna pointed out.
"Yeah, he is clearly showing signs of darkness." Lucy added.
"Should we talk to him?" Leni asked, with sisterly concern.
"Guys relax, Lincoln's probably in a hurry. Don't worry about him." Lori said while texting her boyfriend.
"Yeah, just let Stinkoln do whatever he wants. If its not getting us in trouble, then who cares what he does?" Lynn said.
Once again, Luna decided to listen to what her sisters said. But Luna's concern grew into worry when Lincoln didn't come back home until it was later at night, close to 9:00. Some of the sisters noticed that Lincoln wasn't home all day.
When Lincoln came back home, the other sisters were eating at the table. Luna noticed him coming inside and tried to call out to him.
"Hey bro. Wanna join us for dinner? Pops made us homemade pizza tonight! It's delicious!" Luna said with excitement in her voice.
Lincoln, with a blank expression (or rather expressionless) look on his face, looked at Luna, and went upstairs without even saying a word or giving some kind of body gesture to answer her.
"Dude! Come back! It's pizza!" Luna called out to Lincoln, but he was already in the bathroom at this point.
"See dudes? Our bro is ignoring us!" Luna said, with a crack in her voice.
"Yeah he seems really upset. He looked like me just now." Lucy lamented, but she silently felt a bit happy to see someone in her trying to act like her.
"Luna's right. He hasn't been here all day." Luan noted. "And I had a funny pun for him to hear!"
"Yeah…Linky looked pretty mad." Leni also added.
"Guys come on; Lincoln probably had a busy day. He's just tired. I'm sure he's not mad at us." Lori said, fully confident in her guess.
"Yeah. Stinkoln's not mad at us!" Lynn said.
"He better not be mad at me! I need him to do pageant things for me tomorrow!" Lola said, as she checked her mirror.
This time, instead of ignoring it, Luna actually got angry at her sisters for their lack of care or concern for their only brother.
"What is wrong with you boneheads? He's clearly mad at us! Why else do you think he hasn't said a word to us since yesterday, or why he hasn't been home at all today?" Luna yelled in anger.
"Jeez Luna, chill will you? I'm sure he's fine." Lori said.
"Don't tell me to chill, Lori." Luna hissed bitterly at Lori.
Without even waiting for a response, Luna put on her headphones and blocked out anything her sisters were saying and ate her food as fast as she could. Then she left to go talk to Lincoln. The rest of the sisters felt shocked and confused at Lunas reaction.
Luna waited in her room for Lincoln to finish his shower, but she forgot what she was doing and started playing music. A little while later, Luan walked in to their room.
"Hey Luna." Luan said, uneasily.
"Oh. Hey Luan." Luna said.
"Listen, I believe you when you say that something is bothering Lincoln." Luan said, reassuringly.
"Good. At least you, Leni, and Luce can see that." Luna said.
"Did you find out what's bothering him so much?" Luan asked, concerned.
Luna then facepalmed. She forgot to do what she came upstairs to do in the first place. Now Luna felt dumb.
"Oh right, I forgot to do that. Let me go take care of that right now." Luna said in a hurried tone as she rushed out of the room and walked towards Lincoln's room.
Luan peeked her head out the door, while Lucy, Lisa, and Lana were walking upstairs. They saw Luna walking towards Lincoln's door, and then knock on it. Luna anxiously waited for Lincoln to open the door, and after a few seconds, he did.
"Uh…hey dude. Listen, some of us have noticed that something is bugging you? Is everything okay with u bro?" Luna asked, with sisterly concern.
Lincoln gave Luna an expressionless stare. He knew that eventually Luna would ask him if something was wrong. And he had the perfect response to it. Instead of saying anything, he took a few steps out of his room, pushed Luna into his room, then closed the door on her, and walked wordlessly down the stairs.
Lucy, Lisa, and Lana offered no resistance to Lincoln as he walked down the stairs without even saying a word. They looked at Lincoln, and then back at his room door with real concern now, as Luna emerged from Lincoln's room with the most confused look ever.
"Uh…what was that all about?" Luan asked in complete confusion.
"I have no idea. He just pushed me into his room without a word. Something is really wrong with him. He clearly doesn't wanna talk to me." Luna explained, as feelings of sadness and despair were creeping through her.
Lisa had observed Lincoln's reaction. Now she was convinced that there was something bothering Lincoln. She just wasn't sure what.
Over the next several days, this behavior continued. Lincoln would always make sure to be around his sisters as little as possible. He would be last for the bathroom, grab some breakfast and leave the house for the whole day in order to not be home. When he did come home, late at night, he didn't utter a single word to his sisters.
Whenever one of them would barge into his room to either get him to do something for them, or look at something they did, he wouldn't say anything, and instead just push the sister into his room and leave without a second thought.
One night, Lynn decided she had enough of Lincoln's "attitude" and decided to "teach him a lesson" in order to get him to admit his problem and get over it.
Lincoln was heading to his bedroom when Lynn intercepted him midway through his walk and began to speak.
"Alright Stinkoln. I don't know what your problem is and quite frankly, I don't care. Just stop making it everyone else's problem." Lynn ordered.
Lincoln, still with his blank expression, said absolutely nothing and walked past Lynn. But this time, Lynn grabbed him, she was NOT letting this one go.
"Oh no you don't! You are not going anywhere til you man up and tell us what your stupid problem is." Lynn angrily said, as she was stretching Lincoln's shirt.
Lincoln still said nothing, but now Lynn was getting mad.
"You will stop being a baby and talk to me Stinkoln!" Lynn yelled as she punched Lincoln in the back and pinned him to the floor, trying to use her "bully Lincoln" tactics to get him to submit.
Lincoln said absolutely nothing and did absolutely nothing while Lynn pummeled him into the ground. Lynn's blows were starting to become much harder, and she got angrier and angrier with Lincoln.
"TALK TO ME STINKOLN!" Lynn screamed. But still, Lincoln said nothing.
The rest of the sisters were now seeing the commotion and had finally managed to pull Lynn off of Lincoln, who was resisting as much as she could. Thankfully, outside of a few bruises, Lincoln wasn't hurt too bad. What shocked everyone was when he got up, said nothing, and walked to his bedroom. Now the sisters could see that something was truly wrong with him.
"Sister meeting…Now!" Lori called.
The sisters wasted no time in rushing into Lori's room. Then the meeting began.
"Okay, something is seriously wrong with Lincoln." Lori started.
"Obviously we know that something is wrong with him right now. But we need to find out what it is." Luan said.
"From what we've seen, he doesn't talk to us, he leaves the house and stays away for as long as he can. And when he is here, he shoves us into his room and leaves without a word." Lana explains.
Then, as if a light bulb goes off in Lisa's mind, she suddenly figures it out.
"Siblings, I think I know what is bothering our male sibling unit. The actions that we have observed him showing are matching those of the Sister Fight Protocol." Lisa says.
It takes a minute for the rest of the sisters to realize it, but they know that Lisa is right. All of what Lincoln was doing was mirroring that of the Sister Fight Protocol.
"Oh my god dudes! Our bro is mad at us for the Sister Fight Protocol" Luna says.
"Why is he mad at us for all that he did when we should be mad at him for making things worse during that time?" Lola asks.
"Well, we did tell him that his leaving the house fixed everything and that we didn't need or want his help. That's basically a middle finger to Linc." Lori says.
"Wait. Did anyone even tell him we were having a Sister Fight Protocol? It seemed like he didn't know." Lucy asked.
The sisters think about it for a few minutes. And then the inevitable realization hits them hard in the face, like a brick. None of the sisters had even bothered to tell Lincoln about the Sister Fight Protocol, pushed him around while treating him like garbage, and expected him to just go with it.
"Wow. We're horrible sisters." Leni sadly states.
"We pushed him away from us, all over a stupid fight. That's too dark. Even for me." Lucy says, in a genuinely sad and somewhat broken voice.
Lola and Lana just silently hug each other, while trying to fight back tears. Lola may push Lincoln around a little bit, but she never wanted to be hated by her brother. Lana knows that while she sometimes makes Lincolns life a bit hard, she never wants to lose her brother.
Lucy and Lisa, who are usually stoic, and show no emotion or expression, felt their hearts breaking. Despite being introverted and independent, they both wanted nothing more than to hear the voice of their brother saying that he loved them.
The oldest sisters felt nothing but bone shattering, soul tainting, heartbreaking guilt. It was their job to protect their little brother from all harm, but they had failed so miserably at their one job, they couldn't help but silently cry to themselves.
Lynn, however, felt the most horrible at that moment. Not too long ago, she was beating the crap out of him, without even knowing that he had a lot of reasons to be upset with his sisters.
Unbeknownst to them, Lincoln was actually listening in to their meeting. Some part of him told him to listen in to the meeting. He felt his own guilt when he heard his sisters admit their guilt. Deciding that it was time to finally talk things out, he entered the room. The sisters all turned their heads to him.
"Guys look. I won't lie. What you all did to me was beyond wrong. You made me feel as if I wasn't important to the family, all over a stupid fight over a dress. It hurt me greatly. But I hope you know, I don't hate you. I'm just very upset with you all." Lincoln quietly explained.
"Listen Linc, we know we've said this before, but we're really sorry for how we treated you those 3 days. It was horrible on our part." Luan stated.
"Yeah bro. We all acted like boneheads and treated you like crap for something that wasn't your fault in the first place." Luna added.
"Our actions were just cold blooded and too dark. Even for my taste." Lucy said, sounding like she was going to cry.
Lincoln listened to all of the sisters pour out their apologies. He didn't interrupt any of them. When they were all finished saying their apologies, Lincoln spoke again.
"Listen, even if the process takes a while, I want to forgive you. So, if I forgive you, will you promise to never ever treat me that bad again?" Lincoln asked, seriously.
There wasn't even a second that passed before all the sisters said yes at the same time. Lincoln let go of his anger and found it in himself to forgive his sisters. It would take a while before they were all fully forgiven, but they were willing to do whatever it took to fully earn their brothers forgiveness.