80. Ch 80- Beaten Heart

The bell rang, signalling the end of the day at Royal Woods Middle School, and the students couldn't be held for too long before they were filing out of the school in droves. Lynn was no exception to this, cramming her things into her bag and slamming her locker shut with vigour. "Two more days, and we're done with this place!" she cheered. "Woo!"

"Lynn, it's only winter break," Margo reminded her. "We'll still have to come back in January."

"Come on, Margo, don't be a buzzkill. Besides, it's Christmas in a week, so the sooner we can ditch this place, the better!" Her friend gave a chuckle, just as she was able to see Vanzilla pass by the entrance. "Ooh, that's me. Gotta bounce. See you tomorrow, Margo!"

Her friend waved as she sprinted through the crowd, not caring about anyone calling her out on bumping into them. She practically burst through the crowd when she got outside, running over to the van and quickly getting into one of the middle seats. "Floor it!"

"Lynn, I've told you, I'm not going to lose my license before I go to college," Lori reminded her, the brunette rolling her eyes as the van slowly picked up speed and left the driveway.

"Lame."

"What's got you running like a bat out of hell, dudette?" Luna asked.

"She's probably just, like, excited to get home for something," Leni suggested, to which Lori rolled her eyes.

"We know that much, Leni," she bluntly pointed out to the other blonde, then looked in her mirror at the middle schooler. "You've been like this since Monday. What, did your team get to the finals or something?"

"Nah, nothing like that," Lynn clarified, putting her arms behind her head. "Just been in a good mood this week, and Wednesday's always end with Dr Snoozen's class."

The four older girls all gave a shudder, now understanding the reason for their sister's good mood. "Yeah, his classes were always such a snooze fest," Luna agreed. "If it weren't for Lise, I would've flunked his class easy."

"That would have been breaking snooze!" Everyone else groaned while Luan laughed at her joke, as was the norm. "Oh, don't be such a snoozer!"

"You sure we can't just drop her off first?" Lynn asked the driver, who shook her head.

"I'm not making two trips, Lynn. Besides, won't you and Lincoln be talking about your workout when he gets in?"

"Yeah, you're right. Maybe you should drop me off instead."

"Come on, Lynn! I'm sure we can work something out!" Luan laughed at her joke again, while Lynn gave a growling groan. "Oh, well. Maybe Lincoln will appreciate my comedy more."

"Maybe we can use it as motivation when he's on the treadmill," Lynn countered. "Something to run away from."

"See?! That's the spirit!"

Lynn wanted to tell the comedienne to stop, but she didn't focus on it too hard when she saw that they had arrived at the elementary school. She saw the rest of their sisters stood come towards the van and get in, but she couldn't see her brother. "Hey, Spooky, where's Lincoln at?"

"I haven't seen him since lunchtime," the goth replied. "He's probably talking with his friends still."

As if on cue, Lynn looked back towards the school and saw the white haired boy exit with Clyde, the two boys talking about something. However, because of this, he didn't see Markus come around and push the boy backwards, falling over another kid and landing on his back. Some of the kids laughed at the boy as he was helped up by Clyde, but Lynn was having none of it, her mouth seething at the sight of the bully. "Not on my watch!" The jock got out of the van, her sisters goading her on as she stomped over to the sixth graders. "Hey, jerkwad!"

Markus looked to the girl and grinned. "Well, look who it is, Lincoln!" he taunted, both to the girl and her brother. "Your sister's come to save you again! So, Lynn, you gonna be at football practice next year?"

"Like heck I'm gonna play on your team again," she spat, staring him down with a fiery anger that only grew the more that he didn't back off. "Now, you leave my brother alone, or I'm gonna make sure that football's gonna be the last thing you do."

"What, I'm not allowed to play a little prank? We're just having some fun!"

Lynn didn't like this answer, so she cracked her knuckles in her palm. "I asked once, so now I'm telling you. Leave. My brother. Alone."

"Lynn," Lincoln cut in, walking over and rubbing his lower back. "It's okay. He's not worth it, let's just go."

Though she wanted to tear Markus a new one, she knew that her brother didn't want a fight to break out, and it wouldn't look great on her part if she beat up a kid two years younger than her. Begrudgingly, she sighed heavily. "Fine. Let's go."

They started to walk towards the van, but Lynn stopped when she heard Markus mock them, saying, "I told you, boys. There's ten sisters in that family, and Lincoln's one of them! Guess we know which one the boy is, huh?"

Lincoln instinctively looked to his sister, and he could see she had snapped— her fists were clenched, she had grit her teeth together, and her eyes were now incredibly wide, with the left one twitching in pure rage. He reached out and wrapped his arms around her to hold her back as she thrashed out to try and grab her antagoniser and beat the living daylights out of him. His training with said sister had made him stronger, but he was struggling to hold her back.

"SAY IT AGAIN!" she roared out, gaining the attention of everyone nearby. "I DARE YOU! SAY IT, AND WE'LL SEE WHO THE BOY IS WHEN I'M DONE WITH YOU!" Markus simply guffawed with his friends, turning around and walking away. "GET BACK HERE!"

"Lynn!" Lincoln shouted. "He's gone, it's over! Calm down!"

"No way, Linc! That jerk is dead when I get my hands on him!"

"It's okay! Just let him go!"

She forced his hands off of her and turned to face him. "Why are you letting him get away with pushing you around like that?"

"Because it's not worth getting into trouble over, and I'm not gonna let you get in trouble just because of my problem!" Although Lynn really wanted to go after Markus and make him pay for hurting her brother, she knew that Lincoln was too smart and too loyal to let her, so she huffed as she tried to find any excuse that would let her avenge him. Lincoln put a stop to this when he put his hand on her shoulder, and assured her, "it's okay. Let's just go home, work out for a while and put this behind us. Please."

Seeing the way his frow burrowed as he applied the puppy eyes to her, she knew it was a losing battle. "No fair, Lincoln! That's- that's our… oh, fine. I'll let him go." Lincoln smiled at her, making her pout at the thought that she had given in. "B-but he attacks you even one more time—"

"I know, and I probably won't be able to stop you."

She grinned at him. "Probably? Linc, you've come a long way, but you're not stronger than me yet!"

"Oh, yeah? Then how did I manage to hold you back just now?" This got the brunette to laugh, with Lincoln laughing alongside her. "Come on. Let's go home."

The situation over, they got in the van, where the other girls were quick to ask Lincoln if he was okay and offer to hunt the jerk down and kick his ass. As always, the boy insisted to the girls that they didn't get involved and simply let the matter drop, which they reluctantly agreed to do. With no other reason to stick around outside the school, they drove home, all eager to enjoy the rest of the day ahead. The ride was relatively short, filled with talk about their respective activities of the day, but overall pleasant.

The second that the van pulled to a stop in the driveway, the girls practically sprinted towards the house, all except for the grease monkey who went to play with the family dog. Lynn was the last of the girls— save for Lori, who needed to lock Vanzilla— to reach the front door, but before she went inside, she looked back and saw that Lincoln was rubbing his back again as he got out of the van. "You okay there, Linc?"

"Yeah," he assured her. "Just a little sore."

"You gonna be alright to work out, or do you need to rest instead? You don't want to do yourself more harm than good, you know?"

"I'll be okay, Lynn. I'm just gonna need a minute or two, so you head downstairs and I'll join you."

Though she wasn't fully convinced, she nodded. "Alright. I'll get warmed up while I'm waiting for you."

So, they both entered the house and went their separate ways— Lincoln upstairs to his room, and Lynn through the dining room and the kitchen to get into the basement. She descended the stone stairs, the familiar sight of her workout equipment being a welcome sight to her. She tried to decide what to warm up with, her eyes darting between the skipping rope and the treadmill, but one glance over to the punching bag hanging near the boiler put both ideas to rest. Though it wasn't what she typically used to warm up for a strenuous workout, she felt her body begin to go toward it. Her mind was making her imagine that the punching bag was changing shape, the traditional cylindrical shape developing arms, legs and a head. The 'head', in particular, was what stood out to her, as the face that appeared on it had a smug, instantly irritating grin, snarky eyes, and brown crew cut hair. What she was seeing was Markus, but her anger at the sight her mind had tricked her into seeing only got worse when 'he' began to speak.

"Guess we know who the boy is, huh?" she heard 'him' say, causing her eye to twitch again. 'He' started laughing at her, a low growl growing louder as the girl squeezed her eyes shut and balled up her fists. The laughter grew louder in her head, no matter how much she shook her head or tried to tell her that it wasn't real, and just when it got too loud to handle, she snapped.

"SHUT UP!" she screamed before unleashing the first of hundreds of punches directly at 'his' face. The first impact was resounding, but not enough to snap her out of her angered state. Punch after punch was thrown at the red leather bag, furious shouts and yells being thrown out as well. Her face was almost stuck in its angry expression, the laughter still echoing in the back of her mind. She was doing anything to silence this, but the only way she could think to do that was to punch and punch away. She punched for a solid minute, her pace refusing to slow down. If it were up to her, she could have beaten away at the hanging bag for an hour, but someone else had other plans.

She had thrown over a hundred punches, but a right hook was stopped in midair when she felt a pair of arms wrap around her. Her eyes lost their rage and instead went wide from shock. She looked down at the arms wrapped around her abs, noticing the hands shaking slightly and turning her head just enough to see the end of an orange sleeve.

"It's okay, Lynn," she heard her brother whisper, worriedly yet soothingly. "It's okay." She looked back to the punching bag, her mind no longer convincing her that it was anything other than a punching bag. This was the moment that she had realised what she had been doing, and her face blanched slightly, her legs losing strength. Lincoln felt his sister's weight begin to drop, so he gently did his best to lower her into a sitting position on the floor. "Take it easy, Lynn, you're okay."

"What happened?!" they heard Lori call out, Lincoln turning to see that she had made her way down the basement stairs, most likely concerned by the yelling of their sister.

"Could you get her some water, Lori?" he asked. "She's a bit pale."

"Uh… y-yeah, sure. But, what—"

"Lori!"

"Right, on it!"

So, she went back up towards the kitchen, leaving the boy and girl alone. When the door opened, they could both hear the worried conversations of their parents and some of their sisters. Lincoln didn't pay it any mind, as he sat next to his sister and rubbed her back while she stared down at her feet. "It's okay," he assured her comfortingly, but she shook her head.

"No, it's not."

He was surprised by this— not just the words themselves, but the sullen, quiet tone she gave. It was so unheard of from the brunette, to have such a defeatist attitude, and although she was no stranger to self critique, that was typically to push her to do better at sport. Not… whatever this was. However, the boy was given no time to ask his sister about it before Lori returned, bottle of water in hand.

"Here you go, Lynn," she told her younger sister, kneeling down and handing her the bottle, which she somewhat slowly accepted. She unscrewed the top and began to sip at the water, some of the colour returning to her face. "You okay now?" Lynn merely shrugged, so Lori looked to the boy. "What happened?"

"I think I know," he said, though the hint of uncertainty in his voice was noticeable. "Could you possibly give us a minute?"

"Are you sure?" Seeing him nod, she sighed, knowing that her brother had a plan. "Alright. I'll keep the others out while you talk, just shout up if you need me."

He nodded in gratitude, before the blonde left the basement, leaving them alone once more. "So, I think I know the answer to this, but... do you want to talk about it?" Again, Lynn shook her head. "Well… do you mind if I talk?"

"Knock yourself out," she said in a resigned tone.

"Was it… to do with Markus?"

Just the mention of his name caused her hand muscles to clench, spilling some of the water from the bottle that she resealed with the lid. "That obvious, huh?"

He heard her tone change, becoming a mix of anger and hurt. "I… heard you saying his name."

"I did? Honestly, I didn't even realise."

The boy frowned at hearing this. "Lynn… you know that—"

"That could have been him." She finally looked to her brother, with her seeing his confused expression and him looking back at her disgusted one. "That would have been that jerk if you hadn't stopped me. I wouldn't have known when to stop, and all it would achieve is me getting me, you or both of us in trouble… and you would be mad at me for it."

"Lynn, I wouldn't be mad at you for standing up for me."

She shrugged his hand off her back and argued, "yeah, you would. And you would have every right you be." She began to stand up, holding her hand out to stop Lincoln when he tried to help her. "You said so yourself, bro, it's not worth getting into trouble for, but I'm not as strong as you."

If Lincoln had found it hard to believe that it was Lynn talking before, this really threw him off. "What are you talking about? Lynn, you're the strongest person I know!"

She scoffed. "I'm not talking physical strength, Stinkoln. I might be able to beat a guy in a fight, but I don't have control like you do. You know when to hold back and walk away, but I can't do that." Her eyes drifted towards the window with disappointment. 'Guess Lori was wrong about me,' she added in her head, the conversation with Lori three days prior almost taunting her for her mistakes, but she refused to tell her brother this and start that conversation. "So, yeah. You're stronger than me."

She didn't dare to look at her brother, afraid to know what he was going to say or do next. She hadn't expected to be having that conversation with the white haired child to begin with, but she knew there was no stopping until it all came out, and the thought that she couldn't even stop that just hammered the point she was making home for her. When her brother eventually did speak, it was preceded by a few soft chuckles, making her believe she wasn't being taken seriously. She was going to call him out on it, but his words cut her off.

"Lynn, who do you think I learnt control from to begin with?" he pointed out. "Lori's controlling, sure, but she doesn't show enough restraint most of the time. Leni goes crazy in sales, Luna rocks way too hard a lot of the time, and do I even need to bring up April Fool's Day?"

"Well, yeah, but they all have more control than me."

"I'd argue that you do."

"What are you talking about?" Rather than simply tell her, he walked over to the weight bench and laid down on it, grabbing the bar. "Linc, you haven't even stretched yet."

"Don't worry, the weight is light." He lifted the bar off the rest, lowering it to his chest and pressing it up before explaining between reps. "You taught me… to not rush… and to always… control my reps… to maintain… the same speed… when lowering… and raising… the bar." He completed a couple more reps before returning the bar to the rest and sitting up. "And it's not just when we're working out that you taught me this stuff. Whenever you play soccer, you control your power when you shoot. Whenever we wrestle, you control your attacks so as not to injure me."

"You say that as if I've never hurt you," she argued. "You say that… like I never threatened you." He knew what she was hesitantly referring to, and though he tried to hold back the memories, that fear he felt returned, making him tense up and shake slightly with tightly shut eyes. "See what I mean?! I did this to you! I'm not strong enough to stop myself from—"

"S-Stop! Pl-Please!" She gave a silent gasp as she looked to her brother, her heart breaking at seeing him try and prevent a panic attack, his hands gripping at his arms tightly. "Please s-s-stop." She immediately rushed forward to hug him, feeling his arms hesitantly wrap around her and his shaking faintly settle over time. "That's n-not who you are, Lynn. You a-are s-so much more than that. I don't know how long… th-this will last, b-but I'm not pushing you away again. Just please, st-stop saying that ab-b-bout yourself."

Though Lynn was doing her best to comfort her brother, she knew that her brother was still trying to help her. "I'll try, just... I'm here, Lincoln." She continued to hold and comfort him as he eventually settled down, his shaking stopping and his muscles relaxing. "I'm sorry, bro. It's my fault you're like this."

"No, it's not, Lynn. It was my stupid idea that made me like this... but, that's not what matters right now." He removed his arms from around her, Lynn taking the initiative to let go as well and look at her brother. "Lynn, you are stronger than you know. You don't give yourself enough credit for just how strong you are, and you are someone who gives yourself a lot of credit."

Even in spite of the sullen events that had transcended just then, she couldn't resist laughing at the joke, her smile bringing a smile to Lincoln's face. "Shut up, you dork," she laughingly told him, punching him lightly on the shoulder. "Thanks, Linc."

"I mean it, Lynn. It's true." They stayed silent for a few seconds, with Lincoln rubbing his teary eyes, neither of them quite sure what to say from there. "So, uh… do you still want to work out?"

"Um… yeah. I'm already warmed up, so you spend about… five minutes on the treadmill. I'll join you in a moment, I'm just gonna… make sure the others know I'm okay."

"Okay." He watched as she walked up the stairs, the girl looking back with a smile for a second near the top before heading into the kitchen. When she was gone, and he began to walk to the treadmill, he could only think one thing: no matter what may happen between them, they were fortunate to have each other in their lives.