9. Lincoln's Blue Period - Part II

Alright, one week later, we have Part II. This is one of the chapters I wanted to write the most since I first started to think about the fic. This is literally the first chapter I imagined in my mind, the starting point of the premise of the entire fic. I hope you like it.

As always, my eternal gratitude for: littlealexmartinez61910 (if Ronnie Anne was really Lincoln's official girlfriend, how come Luna, Luan, Lucy and Lynn tried to hook up Lincoln with a girl for the dance? I think it's not official, they're just friends who happen to like each other a LOT, but that's just my opinion), Thunderstrike16, venomsdragon14, Guest (how could you forget Lincoln's condition? Haha, that's like LITERALLY the fanfic!), Unkown Russian, Omega Ultra, LoudSin, Boris Yeltsin, BoukenDutch (you're right about the class, they'll all know the truth soon enough), ImpossibleJedi4, endeavor-NeverEnding, Jazz, Slop the 3rd, ExMarkSpot, Mew Shadowfang, Zach the Red Raider, Boshwa, ElectricLoud (why thank you, I'm really happy that you find both my english and my prose that good), Emperor of Performances (thank you! And yes, lately I've been rushing the translation at the end, I'll work on that), PioneerOfTheStarsMx, MikeTheHuman113 (My three favorites, in no particular order would be: For bros about to rock [LOVED the music references], Homespun [the most slice of life episode so far] and Study Muffin [I couldn't stop laughing]), TexasGunKing, bruzer, Samtastic 3.0, TheEquestrianidiot 2.0, MorenoX25, OMEGA09, Zhilo (muchas gracias!), celrock, Secret life of Writing, Insane Wise-man, The Wannabe WriterOriginal, Azura100, thehardboiledhit.

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Chapter 9:Lincoln's Blue PeriodPart II – Monuments

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Lincoln lacked Lisa's scientific knowledge. He didn't know the laws of thermodynamics, nor Newton's laws. But he loved reading comics, and more than once he'd read about a very specific law: Murphy's Law. This law stated that anything that could go wrong, would go wrong. He never really understood it, but when Cristina appeared in the mall, he finally comprehended the beauty of the universe conspiring against one.

For starters, the moment of the interruption couldn't have been less opportune. He had planned his date with Ronnie Anne so he could prepare her for the news. He took her to eat at the mall, where no one would bother them. They were just eating their burgers and fries, enjoying the relaxing sound of the fountain's water behind them. They were talking and laughing like they always did when they were together. You could tell from miles away that they both enjoyed each other's company. Lincoln was really happy with her, for Ronnie Anne would awake new emotions and sensations deep within him. That's why he kissed her. Looking at her in the eye, he couldn't resist himself, he had to do it. And then it all went to hell. He was finally ready to tell her the truth, he felt like he couldn't just keep hiding it from her. He needed to tell her. But just when he was about to reveal his fateful medical diagnostic, she interrupted him.

That was another point that the Universe took advantage of to apply Murphy's Law: the misunderstanding. Ronnie Anne believed that he was about to ask her to be his girlfriend. That idea hadn't even crossed his mind. Yeah, he liked her a lot… He probably already loved her. But he was an eleven years old boy, he wasn't ready for a formal relationship, to have a girlfriend. And then he kinda messed up, since his initial reaction was way unfortunate. What was he thinking when he told her that he didn't wanted to be her boyfriend? How could've he said something like that? He would've loved to be her boyfriend, but he wasn't ready yet. He saw the deception and sadness in Ronnie Anne's face, and he tried to explain it to her. But he was nervous, and he didn't do it in time.

All that succession of little disasters seemed to fulfill only one objective: prepare things so Cristina arriving there would trigger chaos. Because there surely were multiple explanations about why that girl, once Lincoln's crush, had shouted his name and had run right at him. But, following Murphy's Law, Ronnie Anne's mind, clearly influenced by the moment and the misunderstanding, decided to choose the worst possible explanation.

"Cristina?" Both Ronnie Anne and Lincoln said, seeing the girl standing right in front of them.

Cristina looked pretty bad. No in an aesthetic way; she was a beautiful girl. But she looked really sad, with her sparkling eyes about to shed some tears. Her eyes were dancing between Lincoln and Ronnie Anne. She had clearly seen Lincoln from the distance, but she didn't seem to realize Ronnie Anne was there until she was standing ten foots from her.

"Ronnie Anne?" She finally asked, with a shaky voice. "What are you doing here?"

Lincoln turned to his left so he could see Ronnie Annie.

She was looking at Cristina, clearly just as confused as he was. Slowly, she turned around to see Lincoln. He saw her eyes going from his khakis to his shoes, his shirt and his combed and shinning hair. Her eyes darted to Cristina, and then once again to Lincoln. He could almost hear the gears inside Ronnie Anne's brain working. And finally, he saw how the confusion in her eyes was replaced by another look, one he had only seen one time, when he'd insulted her in front of his friends at Jean Juan's. It was a look of deception and sadness, but mostly rage.

"Now I get it" she said, standing up. "It that it? That's why you can't be with me?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Her!" She yelled, pointing a finger in Cristina's direction, but with her eyes focused in Lincoln.

"Ronnie Anne, I don't know what..."

"Don't take me for a fool! I saw that video too, I know you like her!"

Lincoln felt his cheeks blushing. He didn't dare to see Cristina. He was still completely embarrassed about that video he'd published where he was kissing one of Lucy's statues with a picture of Cristina on top of it.

"B-But, Ronnie Anne..."

"That's why you brought me here?" She asked, with a single tear falling down her right cheek. "Just to tell me that you're with someone else?"

"Ronnie Anne! How could I be with someone else?! I just got back from the hospital!"

"Who was your doctor? Uh? Doctor Chase?"

By now, Lincoln was completely dumbfounded. What was going on? Ronnie Anne seemed to be accusing him of dating Cristina, and now she was asking him who his doctor was? Who the heck was Dr Chase?

"Ronnie Anne, please, listen to me."

She took her skateboard and gave him one last glance.

"If it wasn't because I know you've already been in the hospital, I would send you there myself."

"Wait, stop!"

His pleadings were in vain. She quickly dashed from him, leaving him alone and confused.

"Dang it!"

He sat on the border of the fountain, his hands nervously rubbing his face. Lately, nothing was turning out okay for him. Not only he had found out that he was going to die, but also everything he did seemed to be a completely failure. His sisters were reacting worse than he'd imagined. Lori was having serious troubles controlling herself, Leni… Well, she was still Leni. Lynn was way more aggressive, Luan didn't speak to anyone, Luna was locking herself in the garage all day long playing her guitar, and Lisa decided that she would save him no matter what. He was constantly lying to his little sisters, which made him feel horrible. The news had devastated Clyde and his dads, and now he'd failed in telling the truth to Ronnie Anne, and she ran away from him, probably hating him.

Definitely, the worst week ever.

"I'm sorry" Cristina said, bringing him back to reality. "It wasn't my intention."

Lincoln looked up. Cristina. From all the people in the world, why did she had to appear? She was Lincoln's first crush, and a beautiful girl. But she never payed him any attention, and the few times he had gathered up the courage to talk with her, she always looked completely uninterested. After that embarrassing video was released, she even changed classes so she wouldn't have to see him all day. It had hurt him at first, but then his relationship with Ronnie Anne started to develop and get better, and Lincoln had practically forgotten about Cristina. And now she appeared out of nowhere to ruin his moment with Ronnie Anne. Was it too much to ask for a little bit of tranquility so a boy could tell the ones he loved that he was going to die?

He frowned and looked to his right.

"What are you doing here?" He snapped, with a little more roughness than he intended.

She slowly stepped closer, until she was standing in front of him. Lincoln still didn't look at her.

"I… came to see you."

That awoke his curiosity. He looked up, still mad.

"Me? But, how would you know I was here?"

"I called to your house" she answered, nervously playing with one of her curls. "Your mom told me you were in the mall, and since I live five blocks from here… I wanted to see you."

"Why? Why would you want to see me? We're not exactly friends. Actually, if my memory's not failing, you told Jordan to tell me that I should better stay away from..."

"Is it true?" She interrupted him.

She looked like she was about to cry, and she had both her hands occupied playing with her hair. Lincoln may have failed as the Girl Guru in school, but he was convinced that girls would only play that much with their hairs only if they were nervous. He didn't know what Cristina meant with that question, but a part of him immediately thought the worst.

"What?" He cautiously asked.

"Are you dying?"

Lincoln remembered his talk with Dr House. The doctor told him that apparently he was taking the news of his fateful destiny in a very mature way. He wasn't really sure about that anymore. Everytime someone touched the subject –which fortunately didn't happen too often– he couldn't avoid to think that Destiny was slapping him right in the face. It was horrible to be reminded that his days were numbered. It was even worse when the girl she used to be in love with was asking him about it, in the verge of tears, when no one outside his family was supposed to know about it.

A lot of stuff crossed his mind, but the only thing he knew was that there was no point in denying it.

"Who told you? Clyde?"

Cristina covered her mouth with both hands.

"So it's true!" She whispered, right before she started to cry.

He was really pissed off with Cristina. He was probably being unfair, since she hadn't really done anything bad, but the fact that she ruined his moment with Ronnie Anne made her a good candidate to aim his anger at. But no matter how mad he was with his life, seeing a girl crying softened him. The fact that she was crying for him made him feel even more sad.

He tried to ignore her. He looked elsewhere. She wasn't crying loudly or desperately like his sisters had done that morning in the hospital. It was more of a silent cry, with the only sound of her irregular breathing. She was standing up, with her hands covering her face and her shoulders shaking as she cried. If he looked away and hummed a little, he could probably ignore her. But not even the most insensitive soul in the world could be apathetic with a crying girl.

Sighing, Lincoln stood up and approached Cristina. He barely had to put a hand on her shoulder before she jumped right into him. He hugged her, careful to not hug her as tight as she was embracing him, since that could hurt her. Luckily, he was used to painful demonstrations of love from his sisters. He just held her there. He didn't dare to caress her back, like he would've certainly done with one of his sisters, or even with Ronnie Anne. He contained her, letting her cry her emotions out.

The funny thing about Murphy's Law is that it's taken to the extreme. It's not about that little accidents will happen, or that something will go wrong. No, it was actually that EVERYTHING that could go wrong, would go wrong. That's exactly why, as Lincoln hugged Cristina, a girl was watching him from the far away stairs. From that distance, she couldn't distinguish much, she could barely recognize the orange shirt and the white hair. She couldn't see Cristina crying, just the two of them embracing each other. Furious, defrauded and very, very sad, the girl took her skateboard and ran away as fast as possible from the mall.

"What?!" Said Clyde, using his feet as brakes to stop the swing. "Lincoln, I swear I didn't tell anyone, I would never do that! I promised you that I would keep it a secret!"

"I know" reassured him Lincoln, as he kept swinging higher and higher. "It turns out her uncle works at the hospital. Cristina Chase. I should've known."

"Oh… So he told her?"

Lincoln nodded, taking even more impulse.

"This morning he visited them at lunch in her house. Apparently, the doctor who took my case is some kind of celebrity in the hospital, and he just takes the most difficult cases. Everytime he takes one, everyone learns about it. And the news about a kid diagnosed with an incredibly weird terminal disease is the kind of stuff this guy thinks it's fun to talk about while having lunch. They started to talk about the poor kid's family, and then the doctor mentioned the fact that the kid had ten sisters."

Clyde sighed.

"It was easy for Cristina to make the connection. The fact that you were all bummed out in class today, that I didn't went to school the entire week… She called my house and my mom told her that I was in the mall. She lives nearby, so she went there."

"But… she… I thought she hated you since you showed everyone your video kissing a picture of her."

Lincoln stopped moving, and he started to lose the momentum and inertia of his swing. The pendular movement continued for a minute, until he finally stopped next to Clyde.

"She told me she likes me" he said, staring at the ground.

"What?! Cristina?! But… Like you as a friend, or as…?"

"Clyde" he interrupted him, looking at him dead serious. "She likes me."

Lincoln's eloquence was pretty clear. Clyde let out a surprised whistle.

"Wow. That's… How did you took it?"

Lincoln softly and sarcastically chuckled.

"How did I took it? I was astonished. I didn't know what to say. She told me that she had realize it only when our classmates started to spread the rumor that I was Ronnie Anne's boyfriend. She started to think and realized that she finds me really cute, and tender, and blablabla. I didn't know what to do, Clyde! I just told her that I like Ronnie Anne. She seemed to understand it, but she kept crying, and she told me how sorry she was about everything, for making me feel bad, for avoiding me, and all of that. I stayed there until she calmed down. She then told me how she found out about my disease, and then I went straight to your home to talk with you."

"I'm sorry, Lincoln, At least you were honest."

"Clyde, I feel like the universe is having fun making me miserable."

He stood up and started to walk. Clyde quickly followed him.

"It's like I don't have enough dealing with the fact that I'm dying" he loudly complained, walking straight to the big pond in the park. "No, no, it's clearly not enough. Not only I have to deal with that, also everything around me is starting to go to hell."

"Lincoln..."

"Don't you get it?" He said, stopping in the border of the pond, bending down to grab a rock. "My family's torn apart, and I don't know how I can fix that."

He threw the first stone to the water. If there was something where he could beat Lynn, besides math, it was definitely skipping rocks. She could throw them farther and harder, but she couldn't make them bounce over the water. She had always been jealous about how Lincoln could practically grab any rock in the world and make it bounce four or five times in the water...

Unlike that one, that sank in the first try.

"Half my sisters don't know how to stand this, and I'm hiding it from the other half" he said, throwing another rock.

That one also sank the moment it touched the water.

"Actually, Lisa already knows, and Lily's just a baby. So you're only hiding it from three of your sisters."

"That doesn't make me feel better" he bitterly said, throwing a third stone.

SPLASH. Sunken.

"I was barely starting to deal with all of this, and now the girl I love won't talk to me, and the one I used to like tells me that she likes me now. A love triangle just when all I want is a little peace. It's like everything around me is falling apart!"

He threw that last rock with so much violence that he didn't have to see it to know that it wasn't skipping on the water. He let himself fell to the ground and started to muss his own hair, ruining his mother's work on it. Clyde sat besides him and put an arm around his shoulders.

"Lincoln, don't fell like that" he said, trying to keep it together for his friend; he didn't want to cry in front of him, not again. "None of this is your fault. It's our fault, it' everyone else's fault. It's hard to take the news of your… that you… about your disease."

Lincoln felt Clyde taking away his glasses and using his sweater sleeve to wipe the tears from his eyes.

"You're the best guy I know. You're the mos t extraordinary person any of us has ever known. You're kind, you're funny, you worry for everyone. It's hard for us to accept that you… that you're… that..."

"I get it, Clyde. I understand you. But what about me?" He said, embracing his own knees against his chest. "I'm afraid. I'm sad, too. And everyday I feel a little worse."

Lincoln knew he was about to cry. Clyde hugged him, and he hugged him back.

"Lincoln… I don't know what to say. I don't why is this happening, or why it had to happen to you. But I'll be with you 'till the end of the road, buddy. Always with you."

Lincoln, shedding some tears, smiled.

"I know, Clyde. That's all I want."

Coming back home was starting to become Lincoln's own viacrucis.

He was walking by the sidewalk when he heard the music coming from the garage. The doors were completely closed, but the sound made it past them anyway. He decided to get closer, to try and see how was Luna doing. From the distance he could hear the sound of the highly distorted electric guitar, but as he was getting closer the sound suddenly changed to a cleaner one, a beautifully sad arpeggio. Lincoln tried to open the door, but it was locked from the inside. He desperately needed to see his older sister. He noticed that one of the trash cans was mostly empty, and he quickly put it under one of the garage's high windows. As he tried to get on top of it without falling, Luna started to sing, with the guitar arpeggio sounding in the background.

"Things are not what they used to be, missing one inside of me… Deathly loss, this can't be real, cannot stand this hell I feel."

He felt something weird in the way Luna was singing. She had an amazing voice to sing her favorite rock songs, with her own style sounding pretty close to the singer from The Interrupters, but she always liked to try to imitate the voices of the original singers of the songs she was playing. He could tell that she was trying to imitate the voice of a man, but there was something odd.

He finally climbed the trash can and managed to sneak a peak through the window. He saw Luna playing her electric guitar, which was connected to a pedal board next to her feet. She was playing with her eyes closed, completely focused and submerged in the song. And Lincoln soon found out why she was singing like that: she was clearly trying not to cry.

"Emptiness is filling me, to the point of agony. Growing darkness taking dawn, I was me, but now he's gone!"

As she finished singing that verse, Luna pressed one of the pedals, and the sound of her guitar was once again loud and distorted. She started to play more energetically, making the windows vibrate, and she was utterly rapt in the rhythm and the power chords. Lincoln slowly climbed down from the trash can and slowly walked away. Luna wouldn't even hear him if he knocked the door, and he didn't really know what to say to her anyway.

He knew her. She wasn't crying because she had the music to unburden. She always did that when she was feeling really sad or anything, she resorted to music and would hide her true emotions behind it. He was no psychologist, but he supposed that it helped Luna to play songs that talked about the things she had to deal with. It was a way to indirectly express herself. She didn't have to admit or even acknowledge her problem, she could just sing a song from some guy's perspective, and even though she could identify with it, she was ultimately avoiding the subject. It was an artistic distraction so she didn't have to deal with her feelings. Lincoln believed that, between the various ways of deal with the pain, that wasn't so bad. It helped to keep her distracted. But there are some things that one just can't ignore.

Since he was already by the garage, he decided to go inside the house by the kitchen door. It didn't make any sense to go all the way to the front again. But when he opened the fence and stepped into the backyard, he saw that someone was already there. He saw Lynn standing in front of a wood plank with the base buried in the ground. She was wearing her usual outfit, but she seemed to be practicing karate. She was punching the board again and again. Lincoln had heard her talking with their dad before, asking him to help her build her own makiwara, a karate striking post. Seemingly, his father had finally agreed, or Lynn just decided to do it herself.

Carefully, he approached her. He could hear her releasing air with each punch, and he could also hear the sound of her knuckles impacting against the wood, almost like a constant hammering. She was always punching with her right hand, and when Lincoln got close enough, he noticed that the knuckles on her left hand were bleeding. He stopped dead on his track when he saw that. He knew Lynn liked to take the things to the extreme, but punching a wood post until her hands were covered in blood? That was no training. That was rage.

"Ugh!" She complained with each punch. Her knees were trembling a little, and Lincoln thought that she seemed to be in pain. But instead of punching lighter, she was increasing the intensity of her attacks. Each punch made a louder thud, and the wood plank was vibrating more and more.

Finally, after a punch that could very well break through a door, Lynn let out a yelp of pain and fell right on her knees, quickly grabbing her wrist.

"Lynn!" Lincoln screamed, quickly going with his sister.

Lynn was grabbing her wrist, flinching. Lincoln wasn't an orthopedist, but it seemed like his sister had twisted her wrist, or maybe even sprained it when she punched the makiwara with that much strength. He kneel besides her, very worried.

"Are you okay?"

Lynn looked up and saw her brother. Her eyes were full of pain, but it wasn't because of the possible lesion in her wrist. She stood up and tried to walk away fro him, but he was faster and grabbed her by the elbow.

"Lynn, you should put some ice on it or something" he said.

"Let me go" she pleaded, trying to not make visual contact with him.

"Lynn, please, don't do this. Can we just talk?"

"Stay away from me!" She yelled, abruptly breaking away from him. Once he wasn't grabbing her anymore, she ran inside the house.

If she would've been mad at him, he could've handled that scream better. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary for one of his sisters to be mad at him for something he'd done. But there was no trace of anger in Lynn's voice; it was all sadness, pain, melancholy. Guilt. And that was something that hurt him more than any amount of anger. An insult, he could take it. A slap, he would get over it. But his sister feeling any kind of guilt for his incoming death? That he couldn't handle. He needed to have a talk with her, just to clear things out.

He entered the kitchen, and before heading to his room, he decided to drink a glass of orange juice. He took the juice jar, went to the countertop, grabbed the first glass he found and started pouring the juice inside.

"Poo poo!"

He looked at his right. In the dining room, Lily was sitting in her special chair next to the table. Luan was also there, helping feeding her. She was moving the spoon in the air like an airplane, but she was silent. She was facing away from Lincoln, so he didn't see her face, but judging by how slowly her movements were and the way her shoulders were practically hanging, he couldn't really picture her with a happy face.

Luan was probably the one who enjoyed being with Lily the most. She was the only one who managed to kinda interpret the youngest Loud's gibberish, and since pretty much anything made Lily laugh, Luan enjoyed making funny faces or strange noises to keep her entertained. She loved her little sister, and she spent a lot of time playing with her. But in that occasion, she seemed to be feeding her almost because she had to. She had zero enthusiasm, and perhaps just to keep her mime routine going, she was in silence. The make up itself seemed to amuse the baby, but Lincoln felt a new slap to his soul seeing Luan like that.

He wanted to go and talk with her, see what kind of reaction he could get from her. But just by seeing her he could imagine the kind of response she would give him. In the best case, she would stick to her mime routine and silently tell him to go away. In the worst case, she would completely ignore him. He decided to leave her alone, for now. He didn't want to bother her. He would have a talk with her in another occasion.

He bitterly realized that he needed to have a talk with each of his sisters.

He couldn't finish his juice. He left the glass in the countertop, knowing that Lana would probably drink it later, and then he quietly went to his room. He slowly walked into the dining room, trying to pass behind Luan without her noticing him. Lily did saw him, and his baby sister started to move his arms to call him. He put a funny face and she laughed. Before Luan could turn around, Lincoln was already climbing the stairs.

Once inside his room, he took off his shoes and put on some much more comfortable sneakers. He turned on his laptop and opened his web browser. He needed a distraction, something funny, entertaining, whatever that could keep him from thinking about how everything was starting to fall apart around him. But he couldn't find anything.

Inevitably, he thought about his death once more. In the aftermath that his death would have in his family. Would all his sisters become a shadow of what they used to be? How long would they be mourning for him? Could they ever move on? Well, of course they would. They all would still be alive, they'd need to move on eventually.

And then, one of Lincoln's deepest and most recent fears reappeared: what would happen after they could finally overcome his death? He wanted the best for his sisters, and seeing them in such grief was intolerable, but even so, the idea of them going on with their lives without him scared him. It terrified him. He remembered one of his talks with Adrien, about the wonderful things about the pyramids. He was no pharaoh, he didn't have any monuments to immortalize himself in. What would his legacy be?

"Linky? Are you there?"

From outside his room, Leni was calling him. Lincoln stood up and opened the door. His sister was standing in the hall, with her phone in her hand, smiling like always.

"Hi, Leni", he said, trying to look happy too. Leni's happiness was still a mystery for him. The simplest explanation would be that she didn't understand that he was going to die. It wouldn't be that surprising, considering how… absentminded she could be sometimes. But she had cried along with the rest of his older sisters that morning in the hospital. And the night before, he'd seen her face in the grown up table, and there was no doubt that she was pretty much devastated like the rest of them. He didn't know what was going on inside Leni's head, but he certainly wouldn't be complaining about one of his sisters being happy.

"Are you busy right now?" She excitedly asked.

"No, not really. I'm actually pretty bored" he admitted, somewhat shyly.

"Great! Come with me."

Without even asking him for permission, she grabbed him by the hand and started to walk to her room.

"Leni? Where are we going?" He asked, trying to keep up with his sister.

"To my room, duh" he playfully said, like it was obvious.

"What about Lori?"

"She's in a date with Bobby. When she's really sad, it always helps her to be with him."

As always, Leni's brutal honesty hit Lincoln like a punch in the face. Any other of his sisters would've told him that Lori was hanging out with her friends, or that she was just with Bobby. There was no need to remind him that she was also devastated by his fate.

They entered her room, and she made him sit in her bed right next to her.

"So, you need help with something or what?"

"Yes!" She happily answered.

He waited for her to be a little more specific about what she needed help with, but Leni seemed to believe that Lincoln already knew that.

"Okay. So, how can I help you?"

"Well, you see, I was checking my Instagram and I, like, have tons of pictures with Lori and the rest of our sisters, but I barely have any with you. And I thought that, like, you're part of the family too, right?"

"Thank you, I'm glad you've noticed it."

"You're welcome! So, what do you say? Do you want to take some selfies with me?"

Lincoln moved uncomfortably in his place. He had enough self esteem as to not feel bad about his looks, but he wasn't really fond of taking pictures.

"Um, Leni, I'm sorry, but I'm always bad in pictures, you know?"

"That's not true!" She said, smiling. "All my friends thinks that you're like totes cute."

He felt the heat in his cheeks when he heard those words.

"Seriously, Leni, don't you want me to help you with your fashion designs or something?"

"Come on, let me just take some selfies!"

Without being able to even protest, she grabbed him by the armpits, like he was a little kid, and put him over her lap.

"Selfie!" She said, putting on her picture face and raising up her phone.

"Leni, let me go!" He complained, trying to stand up, but she was holding him really tight, like a teddy bear, and it was impossible for him to break away.

"Okey, now another one!" She said, this time putting his head against Lincoln's with their cheeks pressed together. "Just like with the family pictures when we were kids!"

"Stop it!"

Although he complained, Lincoln was actually smiling. It was true: when he was a kid, they always had to press against each others for the family pictures on the couch. They were just too many for such a small sofa, and he always ended up in the middle, being squeezed by his older sisters. Most of the times, it ended up being Leni the one sitting besides him. Fortunately, his parents eventually bought a bigger sofa.

This time he heard the sound of the camera taking the picture, and he started to laugh just imagining it.

"That's better! Now let's take one to make my friends all jealous" she said, turning her head, closing her eyes and pressing her lips against Lincoln's right cheek. She stayed like that for a couple of seconds, while her phone took the picture.

Being playing like that barely five minutes after nearly having an emotional breakdown felt too bizarre for Lincoln. He couldn't help but laugh a little more, as he realized just how much he loved Leni. She could pretty often get on everyone's nerves with her carefree behavior, but there was no one in the world as innocent and kind as her. She fought with the rest of the family, like everyone, but she would never do something that could hurt or upset any of her siblings intentionally. For her, it was all love and tenderness. And Lincoln was desperately needing both.

"Leni?" He softly called her, when she finally took the picture.

"Alright, alright, no more pictures" she said, a little disappointed.

Her disappointment was soon replaced by surprise and then happiness when Lincoln turned around on her lap and embraced her, resting his head on her chest.

"I love you" he said, hugging her with a smile on his face.

She smiled too and rested her head on top of his. She also embraced him with an arm, while her other hand was preparing her phone and took one last picture.

"I love you too, Linky."

They stayed like that. He could feel Leni's calm breathing, her heart beating soft, and he could also feel her fingers gently caressing his hair. He felt like he was five years old again, when his older sisters were all much more tender with him, and it was an everyday thing for one of them to go with him and have a nap while hugging him. He felt secure, calm, but mostly, he felt loved.

It felt so nice, being there with her, that in just a few minutes he fell asleep.

"Lincoln! Lincoln! Lola, go get Lincoln!"

His mother's voice, coming from downstairs, woke him up. He opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was the smiling, sleepy face of his sister Leni. She was lying on her bed, and he was on top of her. He remembered the photo session and smiled. Very carefully so he didn't wake her, he got out of the bed and stood up. He stretched his arms, trying to remove the numbness he felt in them, and then he noticed that Leni's phone was on the nightstand next to her bed, with her Instagram opened in one picture. He would've looked elsewhere, like he always did to avoid seeing or reading embarrassing stuff, but it was a collage of the pictures she'd taken before falling asleep, and he wanted to see them.

In a column, one over the other, there were the first three pictures. The first one showed a somewhat annoyed Lincoln, trying to escape from Leni's embrace, while she just smiled at the camera. The second one was a close-up of their faces pressing together, she looking at the camera again and him giving her a playful look. The third one showed Leni kissing him in the cheek, while he was laughing. And then, next to the three pictures column, there was a bigger one. He was sitting on Leni's lap, facing her, and the two of them were trapped in a warm embrace. They were both smiling, and it was so natural that it almost seemed like someone else had found them and took the picture without them noticing.

The picture description was: "With the best and cutest little brother in the world ! #Love #Siblings #Brother #Sister #Family #Hug #Hapiness", followed by a few heart shaped emojis. It currently had over two hundred likes and thirty seven comments. To read them would be invading his sister's privacy, so he left the phone right where it was and walked out of the room just as Lola was heading there.

"What where you doing in Lori's room?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I was taking a nap with Leni" Lincoln admitted. There was no point in telling her yer another lie.

"Okay… weirdo" she said. "Mom wants you to go downstairs, there's a lady in the door that wants to see you."

"A lady?"

Confused, he went downstairs. In the entry, his mother was talking with a woman. Lincoln had never seen her before, although her face looked somewhat familiar. She was well into her thirties. Her brown hair fell almost to her shoulders, and was partially hidden under a black beret. She was wearing a long black dress that almost reached the floor, showing her fancy black shoes. Her hands were holding a little square wooden box, no bigger than a notepad. The two women were whispering, probably so no one could hear them.

"Mom?" Lincoln called her when he reached the bottom of the stairs. "You wanted to see me?"

His mother turned around and Lincoln was scared when he noticed that she seemed to be really sad. She walked until she stood in front of him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Lincoln, honey, this lady came here to give you something, okay? Go with her to the sidewalk and hear what she has to say. I don't want your sisters to interrupt you."

Rita seemed to be begging her son to go outside to talk with a stranger, which was against everything she and her husband had tried to teach him in the last eleven years. Not quite understanding what was going on, he nodded. He was confused, but he was sure that his mother would never ask him to do something that could hurt him. Apparently this lady had something to give him. Would it be like a gift?

The lady started to walk to a car that was parked next to the sidewalk. With one last look at his mother, Lincoln followed the woman. When they got by the car, she opened the passenger's door and grabbed a letter envelope from the glove compartment. She then turned around to see Lincoln, and that's when he noticed how red her eyes were, like she had been crying for days now.

"Lincoln, it is a pleasure to meet you" she said, trying to smile.

She had a very strong accent, but Lincoln couldn't recognize it. It sounded European.

"The pleasure's all mine, miss…"

"Marlène. You can call me Marlène."

The lady kept staring at him for a few seconds, but Lincoln had the strange sensation that she was picturing someone else.

"So, Marlène, you wanted to see me?"

"Yes. I have… I have something for you."

She stretched her hand, offering him the envelope she'd just taken from the car. Lincoln carefully took it. He tried to feel what was inside of it with his fingers, but he could only feel some paper. It wasn't sealed and it didn't have any stamp on it. It only said "To Lincoln Loud", hand-written and with a sloppy calligraphy.

"What's this?" He asked, still not understanding what was going on.

"That is a letter my son wrote to you" Marlène said, in a low voice.

"Your son?"

"Adrien."

That word hit him like a wrecking ball. Adrien, the kid he'd met in the hospital just two days ago. The guy who told him that he was one week past the deadline the doctors had given him. Lincoln hadn't seen him in the hospital on Tuesday, and now his mother was showing up at his own house to give him a letter, all dressed in black. He didn't need to be a genius to understand what had happened.

He put a hand on his chest and he rested his back against the car to help him stand. He hoped that Marlène didn't mind that he was using her car for balance, but she clearly didn't care at all. She respectful and silently waited until Lincoln could process the news. It took him more minutes than he would've wanted, but he finally found the strength to speak.

"I'm sorry for your loss", he said.

And as soon as he said it, he felt like an idiot.

That was a sentence that meant absolutely nothing. What relief could it give to a woman who had lost her son? Those words sounded extremely empty, meaningless. He wondered how many times had that lady heard those words so far. But then he remembered what Adrien told him, about not knowing anyone in the city, and that he had no friends due to their constant travels across the world. He wondered now if maybe he'd been the first one to offer his condolences to Marlène.

"Thank you, Lincoln. For everything."

"Everything? What do you mean?"

"Adrien told me about you" she explained, as she silently started to cry again. "He… He didn't have many friends. And that is mostly my fault. I followed my dream of traveling around the world, believing it would be a great experience for him. But a child doesn't need to travel. A child doesn't need to know four languages. A child needs friends. And without realizing it, I deprived my little Adrien from having them. He was so happy to have met you… He wrote you that letter. And he left you this, too."

Marlène dropped her gaze to the box she was holding against her chest. It seemed to hurt her to give that box away, but she finally offered it to Lincoln. He noticed how attached she seemed to be to it, and he hesitated to grab it. But she nodded, and Lincoln took the little wooden box.

"Lincoln Loud… Thank you very much."

He answered something, but he was so confused and full of emotions that he didn't know what he said. The next moments were utterly confusing. By the time he could understand what was going on, Marlène had already bid him goodbye, and her car was driving away to never return. Lincoln looked at the letter and the box he had in both hands. He turned around and looked at this house. His mother was standing in the door, and his sisters were peeking through the windows. They were all watching him.

He went inside and no one asked him anything. His sisters seemed to be desperate for questioning him, but their mother was looking at them sternly, warning them to leave Lincoln alone. He was very glad that his mother could keep his sisters from assaulting him with questions. He went right to his room, and he locked himself in there. He turned on the desk lamp he had and he put the letter and the box under the light, contemplating them. Thinking about what could it be inside them. He heard some of his sisters going back to their respective bedrooms to do their things. The world was still turning, but he was still just staring at the objects Adrien had sent to him.

Finally, his curiosity won. With shaky hands he took the letter envelope and opened it. Inside there was a sheet of paper folded in the middle. He unfolded it and he found a small hand written letter, with the same calligraphy that was on the envelope.

Lincoln:

By the time you're reading this, I'll be dead. It sucks, but it's the truth. I asked my doctorto tell me where you live, so I could send you this. Apparently, that's something thehospital wouldn't normally tell you, but I managed to convince them. I hope your familydon't sue them; I'd feel guilty.

You may be wondering why I've decided to wrote you a letter. I hope you don't think it'sweird. It's just that you're the only guy around my age I've talked with in a long time. Andit may sound silly, but you're the closest I've ever got to a friend. And you're also goingthrough the same thing I am, so I wanted to share some of my thoughts with you.

After our chat I started to think a lot about our deaths. The aftermath of our deaths.We talked about Egypt, remember? We talked about pyramids, and I told you I thinkthey're cool because they're like thousands of years old and they're still out there.Monuments to the pharaohs, that's what they left so we could remember them.And since I'm about to die, I got to thinking about what am I leaving here, so I canbe remembered too. Or at least, to leave my mark.

I don't believe in destiny and that stuff, but if I did, then I'd be sure that destinywanted us to meet at the hospital. Because now that I know you, I feel like I've gota chance to leave a mark here: I can help an eleven years old boy to leave a muchbigger mark than I could ever accomplish alone. Maybe that could be my monument,to help you build yours. Our pyramid.

You've got two weeks left (maybe more, maybe less). Time is a valuable thing.I always think about the chorus in Full Circle. You're american and you like rock,so don't tell me you don't know it, because I listened to it in freaking Morocco.Anyway, don't let time slip away.

I spend my last months mourning about my death, crying along with my mother.And wherever it is that I'm heading to, I know I'll be regretting about it for eternity.Don't let the same thing happen to you and your parents and sisters, Lincoln, or Iswear that when we meet again I'll kick your ass.

This may not be the Temple of Karnak, or Ramses Tomb, but this is my legacy, thisphrase is all I can leave you in the hopes that they may inspire you to accomplishsomething bigger: Don't let time pass you by, Lincoln. Live your final days, and makeeverything easier for your sisters. Let them remember you for what you've done, and ifyou haven't done much yet… Well, you still have two weeks to build your pyramid.I hope this helps you to understand the phrase in the picture. And if you haven't seenthe picture yet, then I'm sorry, you were supposed to open the box first. Who opens aboring envelope first instead of the mysterious secret box?

Until we meet again;Adrien L. Deschamps

He put the paper on the desk again. He was sure that he hadn't fully understood everything his friend had tried to say to him. He would read it again soon, to see if he could understand the deep meaning in the words there written, but before that, he decided to open the box he was supposed to open first.

Indeed, inside the box there was a picture. It seemed to be like a polaroid, but it was rectangular rather than squared. The picture showed a kid, about nine or ten years old, standing next to what was distinctly he entrance of an ancient Egyptian tomb. The boy had short brown hair, and had his fingers pointing at a sign next to the entrance. On the white frame of the picture, that reminded Lincoln of a polaroid, it was written: "Inscription in the tomb: Your deeds are your monuments."

Lincoln smiled. He started to understand what was Adrien meaning. He re-read the letter three more times, with the new perspective that that ancient inscription had given him in mind. He was definitely getting where his friend was going with that letter. He took the picture to take a better look at Adrien; it was strange to see him so happy and with hair. But when he raised the picture, he realized there was something else in the box.

Carefully, he took the old bronze wrist watch. The clock's needles were still, and the missing piece was taped in the back. Lincoln felt really bad for Adrien. He'd been working really hard to repair that watch, and in the end he didn't complete it. It was his most precious belonging, and he'd left it to Lincoln. He understood why it'd been so hard for Marlène to give it away. It was a memory of both her husband and her son. He felt bad for accepting it, but it was too late now. He stared at the motionless clock, and then he stood up.

He quickly went to Lisa and Lily's room.

"Lisa, got a moment?" He asked.

His younger sister was working in her super laptop, with some three dimensional models of what seemed to be cells and proteins.

"I'm busy, Lincoln. These enzymes won't create themselves" she said, not even looking at him.

"Could you help me?"

"What do you think I'm doing?"

"No, I mean with something else."

With a sigh, Lisa turned around and looked at her brother. She quickly noticed the wrist watch.

"I assume that's what the lady in black gave you" she said, completely sure that she was right.

"Yes. See, this was from… a friend. He was trying to fix it, but he couldn't do it. He almost got it, but he needed to find out where this little piece should be" he said, showing her the small gear that made the clock useless. "Do you think you could fix it?"

Lisa stepped closer and took the watch in her hands. She started to inspect it from the outside.

"Hmm. Interesting. A mechanical wrist watch, made entirely with pieces of pewter, bronze and a galvanized steel alloy. I believe this is the kind of watches that works with a very complex gear system."

"Yes, exactly!" Lincoln excitingly said.

"Very well. I shall see what I can do about it. I've never played with one of these before" she said with a smile, before looking up and giving him a very boring glance. "Is there anything more you need?"

"Not really."

"Then get out. I need as less distractions as possible."

Lincoln rolled his eyes and stepped away from his sister's room. He was about to head back to his own, but he heard some acoustic chords coming from Luna's bedroom, and he remembered a detail in Adrien's letter that he didn't understand. He went to see his older sister. The door was open, so he just stepped inside.

"Luna?" He called her.

His sister was lying on her bed, playing some random chords. As soon as she saw Lincoln, she left her guitar on the pillow and climbed down from her bunk bed.

"Linc! What's up, bro?" She asked, trying to sound cheerful, but her voice was tired from singing too much, and her shoulders were down. She was clearly having a hard time.

"I wanted to ask you something" he said, trying to remember the name of the song.

"Go ahead, I'm all ears."

"Do you know a song called… uh… Full Circle?"

Luna took a hand to her chin.

"Full Circle?" She frowned, thinking hard. "I know a couple of songs titled like that. There's one from that girl, the one from Alaska Nebraska, and you have other bands like Full Moon Fun, or even Aero is Myth. Why you asking, bro?"

"A friend recommended it to me" Lincoln admitted; Luna was his only hope to find out what had Adrien meant with that. "He told me it was a rock song, and he heard it in Morocco, so I guess it has to be kinda famous or something."

Luna snapped her fingers.

"Say no more, dude. He's probably referring to the one from Aero is Myth. The song itself isn't really one of their big hits, but the band is known across the world, and the disc that song is from is awesome. Here, let me play it for you, bro."

"I think just the chorus would be fine" he said, wanting to hear what Adrien meant.

Luna grabbed her guitar, tuned it up in eight point two seconds and she started playing a catchy melody as she sang.

"Time, don't let it slip away. Raise your drinkin' glass, here is to yesterday. In time, we're all gonna trip away, don't piss haven off, we got hell to pay. Come full circle…"

At first, Luna started to sing with enthusiasm, but as she started to realize what she was singing, what the lyrics said, she glanced at Lincoln. By the end of the chorus, she could barely hold her guitar. She stood there, looking at her brother. Lincoln also realized how those lyrics could be applied to him, specially the first part, and in the context of what Adrien was trying to explain. It clearly wasn't the best musical reference, but Adrien was a french guy who'd lived in too many countries. It was probably hard for him to find a musical reference that Lincoln could understand.

"Lincoln?" Asked Luna, staring worriedly at him.

He tried to smile.

"Thanks, Luna. You're the best."

With no further words, he quickly went back to his room. He closed the door behind him and started to think about everything that was going on.

He was dying. That was a fact, and nothing could be done about it. What Adrien had tried to explain him was that he basically had two options: to lay on his bed and grief until falling asleep everyday, like he'd been doing since the doctors diagnosed him, or to accept what was going to happen, embrace the terrible truth and live his last days trying to make them worth it. Trying to leave a mark in this world.

He wondered how could he do that, how could he make those last few days worth living. Going to the amusement park? See as many movies as he could in the theater? Having ice cream after every meal? No. It wasn't about trivial stuff like that. In fact, it was actually not even about him. He remembered everything he'd seen since he arrived home a few hours ago. Luna, playing to hide her feelings. Lynn, punching a wood post to the point of hurting herself. Luan, who'd lost her cheerfulness and her enthusiasm. He thought about all his sisters, his parents, and how would they do when he finally died.

That was it.

It wasn't about him, it was about what he was leaving after him. If he died right then, he would be leaving his sisters helpless, sad, unable to face his death. But he might be able to do something about it. He had two weeks to do it. Two weeks to prepare his sisters so they wouldn't suffer that much. He couldn't avoid them mourning about his death for a while; he knew that. But he could help them. He could pass enough time with them, so they could have new memories with him, so they could all remember him with a smile. He even could, if he exerted himself hard enough, to leave a mark, to make sure that their memories of him would mean something more. His deeds could be his monuments.

He was starting to get excited with this new idea, with his new mission in life, when Lisa suddenly opened his bedroom's door.

"Your friend did a nice work, unfortunately" she said, while she carefully laid the wrist watch on Linconl's desk. "It only took me a mere look to figure out where the problem was. Next time, I would appreciate a challenge."

"Lisa, you're a genius!"

"I know, I know. Now, if you excuse me, I need to work on your cure."

The little girl disappeared as fast as she arrived. Lincoln stared at the clock. Fifty seconds… Fifty five… Fifty nine… The minute hand moved too. The clock was working. He grinned when he thought about the little missing piece Adrien couldn't place. Every piece in a machine has its function. Why would industries waste time and energy in useless parts? Every little part had a reason to be there. Lincoln was part of the Loud family. He wasn't there just because; he too had a reason to be.

He remembered his talk with Bobby, about God and why would this be happening to him. Bobby started saying that it was all part of a grander plan. That idea didn't convinced Lincoln, but then the young Santiago had reached another conclusion: "Maybe you're right, and there's no reason behind this. That doesn't mean you can't give it one yourself". Lincoln did like that idea. The die was cast –no pun intended. He hadn't chose this destiny for him, but it was now up to him to make something out of it. To make the best for his sisters; they would be his legacy.

Feeling a sudden inspiration, he took the watch and put it on his wrist. Now that all the pieces were in their right place, the time was running again. He took a sheet from one of his notebooks and started to write some sketches. As he started to write and draw, he spoke aloud, for himself, and he was surprise to hear so much confidence in his voice.

"Time to put Operation Making-Sure-That-My-Last-Few-Days-Help-My-Sisters-To-Have-Fond-Memories-Of-Me-And-Leave-A-Great-Legacy-And-Also-Think-Of-A-Shorter-Name-For-This-Operation… into action! Phew… That was a long one..."

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HOLY F-U-C-K.

It took me AN ENTIRE FUCKING DAY to translate this shit. Dudes, I'm overclocking.

You have no idea how many scenes I started to write and then I deleted, because I knew I was having a really long chapter, and I didn't wanted to spend too much time on things that didn't move the plot forward. And before any of you say anything, THAT SELFIE SCENE IS FUNDAMENTAL TO THE PLOT… Ok, no, but, did you pictured that scene? Leni playing with Lincoln and taking some selfies with him on her lap? How could I not include that? DON'T YOU HAVE A HEART?!

Ejem… In other news, sorry for basically throwing all the symbolism right into your face. The metaphors about the monuments, the watch, the pieces of the mechanism… In my original idea, those were a lot more subtle. But, idk, after chapter 4 (the one with Lucy that was all about the masquerades) I had some PM's with a couple of readers, and it turns out that I'm not really that good with the subtle metaphors and meanings, since they seemed to be unnoticed. So, since I'm not Jorge Luis Borges (shame on you if you don't know who he is) and I'm not as confident with myself as to simply ignore all those criticisms, I decided to make the allegories more evident, so there's no doubt about what I tried to tell you.

Oh, and for those of you who don't recognized the songs and are too lazy to google them: the first song Luna was playing in the garage was "Fade to Black", by Metallica. And I think it's pretty obvious, but the other one, "Full Circle", is by Aerosmith. The latter was mostly there because I love Aerosmith, but Fade to Black is completely in tune with the fic. I should make a YouTube reproduction list with all the songs that inspires me to write this, and all the songs that Luna plays (and we'll have a LOT of them).

Okay, now, some sad news: I have two really important college tests in the next 15 days, one important project to finish (with models and everything, so basically that itself is worth a sleepless week) and I have a study trip to another city, so I'm already pretty sure that I won't be able to update this month. There's a slight chance that I might update between November 20th and 30th, but it's not for sure.

But I also have GOOD news: After November, my summer break is officially starting. That means: beach, parties, my job, but most importantly: a LOT of time to write. So from December 1st on, I'll be updating every week. I might even update every 4 days or something like that. Hurray!

Alright, that's it. See you soon, guys. Also, Happy Halloween!