Title: Furious (1/1)
Fandom: Prison Break
Characters:Lincoln, Veronica, Michael
Genre: Het, pre-series, non-epilogue-compliant
Pairing:Lincoln/Veronica
Rating: PG-13, one moderately rude word. *g*
Length:669 words
Summary:Some people are just supposed to be together. No matter how many times they break up.
Author's Note:For
domfangirl. A long time ago, you requested a story with the prompt, "Lincoln and Veronica are breaking up again". Oh, and that I couldn't use those seven words. *g* I hope this works for you!
~*~
When Lincoln and Veronica break up for the first time, there are raised voices, tears and slamming doors. Michael, hidden in his bedroom with his head bent over his math homework, wants to put his fingers in his ears. But then he wouldn’t be able to hold his pen, and he plans to get a perfect score on this assignment.
Two hours later, he finds them on the couch, Vee’s legs entwined with Lincoln’s much longer ones, their feet propped up on the coffee table. Lincoln’s hand is playing with the strap of Vee’s sleeveless shirt, and Michael has the funny feeling they’re not really watching the lame afterschool special that’s blaring from the television in the corner.
He stands in the doorway and looks at them in faint disbelief. How can “I never want to see you again, you jerk!” turn into this so fast, he thinks, then they turn to look at him in perfect unison.
Lincoln scowls, his hand stilling on Vee’s shoulder. “What?”
Michael shrugs at his brother’s indignant query, turning on his heel to go back to his homework, knowing that he will never understand how this stuff works.
~*~
The second time happens at school beside Vee’s locker, a fast, bitter fight over some blonde girl with big boobs who had asked Lincoln to the dance.
Afterwards, Michael sits beside Vee in the lunchroom and awkwardly pats her shoulder as she calls his brother a whole heap of names, some he knows and some he’s never even heard. He wants to tell her that he agrees with at least some of those descriptive insults, but he knows she and Linc will be holding hands again by the time the final bell of the day rings.
He’s right.
~*~
Sometimes, Michael thinks he could set his watch by the regularity of their breakups and make-ups. Even he can see that they’re two halves of the same furious whole, his brother and the girl who’s been part of their lives for so long, and they are just as miserable apart as they are (sometimes) together.
Then the last great schism happens, and Michael knows he’d be safer using a sundial to tell the time from now on, because this is big and this is ugly and it’s no longer about just the two of them. Because there is a baby coming now and there is nothing that Lincoln can do make things right.
~*~
Years later, in another life, he watches Vee embrace his brother, her dark hair gleaming against the bright orange of his prison jumpsuit. He doesn’t hear the words she whispers in Lincoln’s ears, but his brother’s face tells him everything he needs to know. Just like that first time, there are tears and slamming doors, but this time Vee isn’t the only one crying.
~*~
Lincoln talks about her, once the pain dulls enough to let the words come, hesitantly at first, then it seems he can’t stop saying her name. Michael listens (even though he already knows it by heart) while his brother tells the story of the time he and Vee sneaked out of school to go to the movies, only to get busted by two teachers’ aides who’d done exactly the same thing. He laughs and grins in all the right places, and then they go onto the next story, and then next. Between them, they tell LJ and Sara everything they can remember about the girl who had been part of their lives for so very long, bringing her into the present until sometimes Michael almost forgets she’s no longer with them.
Almost.
~*~
The first time Lincoln and Vee break up, it takes precisely one hundred and twenty minutes for them to make up again. At first he thinks it’s ridiculous, because how could they forget all the terrible things they’d said to each other, but afterwards in his room, frowning over his history essay, Michael can’t help thinking that it's because maybe some people are just meant to be together, two halves of the same furious whole.
~*~