Prison Break Fics
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Title: The Difference Between a Rule And a Law
Author: clex_monkie89
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Michael and Lincoln
Pairing: M/L.
Prompt: 88 - Control
Summary: They have an "agreement."
Originally posted: 01-22-2006


They have an "agreement." Technically they have several and technically they're more like rules. The rules cover everything from sleeping to eating, to drugs and money and everything in between.

Rule number one. Linc can smoke pot but he can't go somewhere else to do it or lock himself in the bathroom or anything like that.

Michael's read up on drugs and has struck a deal with Linc.

Rule number seven is no heroin ever. Because it eats holes in your brain and can actually kill you to quit. No Meth either because it damages like heroin and fucks up your outside too. Pot is allowed but cigarettes aren't (Because pot has enough tar in it to begin with).

Linc won't touch alcohol and that's all on his own but Michael sneaks some now and then (Vodka mostly and never beer). He mostly does it just to bring Linc back to Earth and piss him off.

Rule number thirteen is no X or speed or Vicoden or pretty much any other pill (They're too addictive and they're expensive to boot).

Rule twenty-two is cocaine is allowed but only the kind you smoke (Because Michael's read up and snorting it can cave your nose in) and even then only if it's done around Michael.

Rule twenty-nine is no smoke of any type is to be blown in Michael's face and anyone who does it gets bodily removed from the room by Lincoln.

Rule thirty-two is that the bathroom is only to be used for showers and waste expelling, no baths are allowed (And that's one of Michael's personal rules for himself) because too much can happen in that time.

Rule thirty-six is that nobody shoots up in the motel room and nobody leaves pipes of any kind laying around.

Rule forty-one is food must be consumed at least once every two days and sleep is forced at least once a week.

Life Checks (Where Michael calls Linc's pager and Linc calls back within fifteen minutes) are made at random intervals and if one is missed Michael calls the jail hotline. If Linc's name isn't there then Michael is to get on the El and go to Cook County Hospital and give a fake name (Jason Drake, 4-17-78) and a list of fake symptoms (Shooting stomach pains, nausea, vomiting, shortness of breath, headache, and dizziness). Michael and Lincoln have protocols they must follow.

Rule number forty-five is that anyone who wakes up Michael while he's asleep gets the crap knocked out of them by Linc. It's only happened twice and once he broke he guy's arm.

Rule fifty-two is Michael must, must, must be taken to the library at least once a week. He will be taken there when it opens at nine and he will leave only when it is closed at nine. If Michael misses his library day Linc is then confined to the room for a full twenty-four hours and is only allowed to leave it with Michael permission.

Michael hates that Lincoln does drugs but he makes Linc do them around him because he's afraid that one day Linc's going to OD somewhere else and Michael won't know. Michael can do a tracheotomy (in theory) and he has a homemade thing of Ipecac and charcoal just in case.

Rule sixty-three is that no one touches Michael's things. That rule has been broken a number of times and Michael's had his books and his notebooks and his drawings stolen so many times that he just doesn't draw anymore. It makes Linc feel like crap because he blames himself for his brother's misery. Michael just blames the people who took his stuff.

Rule sixty-nine exists just because.

Rule three hundred and seventeen is the only rule the brother's didn't make. Everyone around them has it and it's an unspoken rule that most of Lincoln's associates know. Do not ask. You do not ask what their last name is and you do not ask why they are where they are and above all you do not ask about Them. It's an open secret that there's something about the brothers that just isn't... "Normal." Everybody who associates with them has heard the story about that one guy Ocean and what Linc did to him. It was really just a poor choice of words on Ocean's part ("Your fuckin' brother gots you on a shorter leash than my woman dog, you need to cut that fucker loose. Ain't no shit like that worth it if you ain't gettin' somethin' back, know what 'm sayin'?") but it landed Lincoln in county for eight months and Michael was seen all around Humboldt Park and even occasionally up in The Loop with some nice new clothes on. That brings us to the next rule.

Rule seventy-two is Don't Tell. Michael and Linc give out no personal details beyond surface ones to anyone and they don't mention anything that happens or happened away from each other. Linc doesn't tell Michael what Ocean said to provoke him and Michael doesn't tell Linc how he keeps himself alive and out of The System every time Linc gets picked up. Linc always wants to ask but doesn't, because he's afraid of the answer and what it will mean for them.

Rule eighty-eight is Michael holds on to the money. If Linc holds on to it they both know they won't have it for long. So Michael holds on to all the money.

Rule ninety-one is the rent gets paid first. It does not matter if they have seventy dollars or seven hundred, it does not matter how long it's been since they ate or how badly they need warmer clothes, rent gets paid first.

Rule number ninety-three is rent is never paid more then two days ahead though because they never know when they'll have to pick up and leave. They once lost six hundred dollars in prepaid days at a Motel 6 because of a tip they got about the cops.

Rule ninety-nine is Michael eats first. Michael has his very own rule on hundred which says that no matter how hungry he is he never eats more then half of his food because Linc will only eat after Michael's full and even then only whatever Michael doesn't eat. So Michael always orders an obscene amount of food and never eats it all because it's the only way he can get Linc to eat.

Rule one hundred and two is one of Michael's personal rules. He always makes Lincoln go to sleep first because that way he can check him while he's asleep. Michael is very methodical in his search for track-marks and he does it the same way every time: eyes first, ears, jaw and neck next, armpits and elbows after that, hips and pelvis next followed by the backs of the knees. Finally he checks the webbing between the fingers and the webbing between the toes. He's never found any marks yet and he hopes he never will.

Rule one hundred and seven is no watches in bed. Every once in a while Linc will forget to take off his watch and Michael will wake up with a new bald-spot and a headache. Rule one hundred and seven bee is Michael must remove all pens and pencil from the bed before sleep. This was added on after Linc jumped on the bed one night and got a freshly sharpened pencil stuck in his stomach.

Rules one hundred and twenty-one through one hundred and forty-four are codes of conduct for Michael. They state how he is to act, what he can and cannot say and do, and exactly what names he is not allowed to call Lisa, Veronica, Stacy, Blonde Kim, Fat Kim, Detroit, Annabella, Shaniqua, Katarina, LaToya, Latricia, Nicole or Mary-Sue.

Michael has broken every rule from one hundred and twenty-one to one hundred and forty-four.

Rule one hundred and fifty is no biting.

Rule one hundred and fifty-one is no marks.

Rule one hundred and fifty-two is Michael must stop that right now.

Rule one hundred and fifty-three is Lincoln may not sleep within arms reach of a telephone. Michael has a small one-inch scar on the back of his head from Lincoln slamming the phone into his head at three in the morning after a bad call.

Rule one hundred and fifty-four is Lincoln has to kiss it and make it better. Rule one hundred and fifty-four bee is tail bone's don't count.

Rule one hundred and sixty-one is Michael is not allowed to use Lincoln to "scare the preps."

Rule one hundred and sixty-nine designates when and where Michael may "lay his claim." Claims are Michael's way of feeling safe when the world gets to be too much for him. Michael isn't allowed to claim in front of other people because it can get the both of them in trouble and brings too much attention to them.

They don't own very much clothing between them so everything is shared. Michael refuses to wear new clothing, he'll only wear something if Lincoln's worn it first and he has an obsession with the way Linc smells. Michael wears the same cheap, spray-on deodorant and uses the same soap and shampoo as him, but it's Linc's sweat that does it. Michael knows it's disgusting to like someone's sweat and he knows that it's not the smell of it. He doesn't think it smells particularly good but he's read up enough to know that it's the memories the smell of his sweat evokes that he likes so much.

Michael's claims tend to vary depending on how overwhelmed he is feeling. They can be anything from needing simply to hold his brother's hand (finger's interlaced, two squeezes) needing as much full-body contact as he can get. Michael doesn't usually get that far along except for some nights when Lincoln's been gone all day. Those are the nights he curls a little closer and squeezes a little harder and usually ends up crying on his big brother's chest while Lincoln holds him and whispers.

Rule one hundred and seventy-three states that Michael is never to touch a single drug ever including any sort of medicine or vitamin given to him by anyone, no matter how nice they seem or how much of a good idea he thinks it is. This rule came about after they entered The System and is the result of an incredibly stupid, insanely ridiculous Plan Michael came up with. Lincoln will never forget how his baby brother looked with a tube down his throat and needles stuck into the back of his hands.

Rule two hundred states that neither Michael nor Lincoln is ever to handle a gun. Period. End of sentence. Michael made Lincoln swear to this a little more then four hours after he was let out of The Room. The Room was room number 236 at The Rose Inn, a run-down motel in Humboldt Park, and it was the place Michael was locked in with an angry Aryan named Zeth and a strung-out Latino of unknown origin named Giovanni. Michael was sitting on the bed thinking that he knew better to open the door and that Linc was going to be mad when he found out Michael broke Rule Fourteen when it happened. There was a small click and a loud pop and suddenly Michael's face was wet and Giovanni wasn't complaining about his next fix any more.

Rule two hundred and one states that Michael will never break another rule again.

Rule two hundred and two states that Lincoln will never deal with the Aryan Brotherhood again.

Rule two hundred and three states that Lincoln will never, ever, ever tease Michael about wetting the bed and that he will never complain about waking up covered in urine.

Once, at All My Children Michael wet the bed. Another girl there, Tasha, made fun of him and called him a little baby. Before Michael could stop him Lincoln had his hand around her throat and her head against the wall. Tasha got a Type-Three and got all her TV time taken away for the night, Lincoln got a Type-Two and had all privileges taken away for two weeks, and was banned from being in the same room with Tasha without Staff.

Rule two hundred and twenty-seven states that the brother's will not lie to each other without good cause. Rules two hundred and twenty-seven bee through rules two hundred and twenty-seven zee ef details exactly what good cause is and how long one is allowed to lie to another and rules two hundred and twenty-seven kay and two hundred and twenty-seven el state that no matter what neither one of them will ever swear to a lie to the other one and that no matter what if they tell the truth everything shall be forgiven. Much like confession without all the work.

Michael went to confession once, when he was around sixteen or so. Michael refused to repent for a so-called "sin" and decided he didn't think he was going to hell after all. Ever since then Michael's had his own relationship with God and it makes him feel a lot better about his life than sitting in a church being told he was going to hell ever did. He still ticks the box for Christianity and he still has his rosary and he even goes to church every once in a while. He considers himself Catholic but whenever someone asks what church he goes to he almost always gives the same answer. Saint Sibylline of Pavia.

Veronica was one of the only people to ever ask who she was. Michael's exact words were as follows: "She lived in a small cell for most of her life and is the patron saint of loss of parents and bastard children. She fits." Veronica had long since stopped trying to talk sense into Michael and just nodded her head and walked away.

Rule number two hundred and sixty-four says that closed doors stay closed and what ever has passed is past.

Rule number two hundred and seventy-one is Never abandon your brother. No matter what.

Rule number two hundred and ninety-nine is blood is thicker then water.

Rule three hundred states that there is only one law that matters.

Law number one says you do not abandon your brother.

Ever.

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