The Fool Devoted to Love

Author's Notes:

Lincoln started this story at around 17-18. He'll be 20 by the end of this chapter. It's moving very quickly across time because most of it is a repetitive monotony.

Disclaimer: The Loud House Copyright Nickelodeon (2017)

Chapter 4: Nothing Left but Love

The week leading up to prom was enlightening for Lincoln Loud.

He had nothing against that boy he chose. The guy was good friends with his girlfriend, had a stellar reputation, and him possibly being gay was really just another blessing that he found himself so thankful for he actually cried.

Jen, though, was upset with the choice.

There was another boy. A straight guy with a little-less stellar of a reputation. And she mourned to Lincoln how she wished he would have chosen him instead of the totally innocent cinnamon roll.

What's more, Lincoln got a random message one day that actually requested for him to come to the prom… with her parents' approval.

His heart had soared into the clouds, but he had a lot of planning to do.

He was going to meet them for the first time!

He was going to finally be able to stand beside his girlfriend, to talk to her, and to even hold her hand!

He'd done everything he could to make himself presentable.

One of his sisters even went with him for moral support (and to see her friend whom she was forbidden from seeing up till that point).

Overall, it was a bittersweet event.

He watched as another man had his arm curled around his angel's hip and leaned to kiss her hand in front of a camera.

But he tried his best not to hate the guy.

To this day, he knew that if he'd ever meet him again he'd shake his hand and thank him for being one of the best guys he'd ever known.

His girlfriend came to Lincoln and escorted him down to an open area where he met with that awkward boy and a random girl.

That girl was gushing… one of the few that still admired Lincoln for what he'd done and not what gossip said about him… and she wanted a picture to commemorate how two people really can fall into love… a true love that lasts through any circumstance and obstacle.

That's when he saw them; her parents had rounded the corner and froze stiff in their tracks.

He tried smiling encouragingly, but he couldn't help but notice how Jen grew stiff beside him. His arm wasn't even around her. Their hands weren't touching. He was all shades of proper and gentlemanly behavior, earnestly appealing to her parents' judgment.

The picture was taken and saved, and then Lincoln said his goodbyes and turned to leave with his sister at his side.

He turned to nod cordially to them, but paused when her father pushed forward and stopped him.

The man's face was red and shaking; his fists were trembling and half-raised; he approached Lincoln's sister, trapping the innocent girl between his fury and Lincoln's terrified body.

"I told you to fucking stay away."

Lincoln was paralyzed in body, but not in mind. He took in how the man was leaning toward his sister and he didn't like it.

"I know."

Their eyes were hardened and set, facing off in a public place among dozens of people.

Who was this man anyway? Almost no one knew of him… just that he was a junkie and his father was screwed in the head.

But, Lincoln held hope that the public would see the truth through their behavior; their only interaction of any kind.

What was supposed to be a meeting between father and hopeful-son-in-law turned into a threat, as the man kept glancing at his sister, and a promise for vengeance if Lincoln didn't back down.

He wouldn't let Lincoln go until he promised, from some mistaken view that Lincoln was a man of his word while he himself wasn't.

Taking a quivering breath, Lincoln responded, "I understand."

"No, you fucking better promise to stay away from her forever!"

"I… understand."

Lincoln was generally apathetic to most political things, but there was one sentiment that he'd taken deeply inside his heart, and whether he was a fool with more courage than warranted or an idiot spewing spineless honor, he refused to give the man the words he needed to hear… because he freaking doesn't negotiate with terrorists.

He turned away in the midst of the man's heated anger, and walked off with his sister near his protective arm.

He didn't remember getting home.

He only remembered falling into bed and staying there until the next day while his tears refused to give him sleep.

He had hoped that that public example would help, but it didn't.

The rumors grew worse as Lincoln was forced away from groups and friends that he'd formerly been fully welcomed in like a son.

Quickly, his presence at local churches became unwanted. Swiftly, his acquaintances dropped their interest in him.

Feeling isolated and betrayed, he threw himself into the last group that would accept him: his own community church where he was deeply invested, mentally, physically, and spiritually.

But even there the rumors were growing.

His own family made up a portion of the church leadership; his dearest friends were the ministers and laymen.

Lincoln Loud was twenty years old when the church called him to defend himself to his own friends and confidantes. He was ordered to become transparent before everyone as he simultaneously learnt that those he thought he could trust weren't any better than second-rate gossips.

His humanity was slowly stripped away by his own friends… his own family… until the only thing people valued about him anymore was his production within the religious community.

His values were questioned at every turn, his plans for his future torn apart with a fine-toothed comb by a dozen people whose business it wasn't.

Because a man refused to surrender his love for the woman of his dreams… he was ostracized by those he cherished and held dear to his heart.

Two years after they originally became boyfriend and girlfriend, Lincoln was finally granted permission by her parents to talk to her again.

And he'd been thinking about it for so long that he could remember wanting for nothing else.

He'd been dreaming and praying for that moment for so long that his mind was full of nothing but her.

He'd never betrayed her or lingered toward another woman, and he trusted in her promises that she'd been faithful just the same.

He gave her a proposition: something that would restore the honor he stole from her through his heinous actions and finally abate the disdain he was feeling from the community on a weekly basis.

He offered to elope with her and hide away; to build the life God had promised to them in some unknown place where life would be hard and unforgiving, but at least they'd have each other.

And she accepted.