Innocence Rock Time
She woke up, disoriented for the umpteenth time. She didn't realize how accustomed she had become to living at Kanda's until now that, having changed home, she couldn't help but feel a bit out of place each time she got up in the morning. It didn't help the fact that living in Black Order's headquarters was practically the same as if staying in a hotel.
The rooms consisted of one comfortable bed, a desk, a closet, a night table and a complete bathroom. They had good furniture and were of first class, with service to the room, but there wasn't that domestic ambient which Izzie missed so badly.
In the next floor there was a cafeteria, where the guests, musicians and workers usually had breakfast and dinner.
Izzie sighed, approached the small closet and took a pair of jeans and a blue buttons shirt, together with a comfortable pair of sneakers. She made her typical morning routine: have a shower, get dressed, grab her schoolbag and meet Angel in the cafeteria.
She still couldn't make up her mind to the idea that they were attending school. It was an expensive private high school in an exclusive part of Denver. Their parents, Leverrier and James had sent the necessary documents via Internet and their bank accounts' numbers for the fees; and the two girls were successfully accepted together with the rest of the band.
The change of scenario, from the roads and the auditoriums to a common high school, was hilarious to Izzie, so the three first days she couldn't help but smile and almost giggle when hordes of female students attacked Innocence's males.
Everything was weirdly calm, so tranquil that it didn't feel natural. Izzie and Angel tried to keep aware of the events going on back in Atlanta, but no important news were released and none of them dared call for information.
"It's like the calm before the storm" Izzie commented while helping herself with some cereal in the cafeteria.
"Don't be so pessimistic, Izzie-chan" Angel smiled "It probably means that things are fixing up"
"You are always so cheerful and optimistic" Izzie sighed, as if wishing she could have the same mentality. "But may I have reasons to believe you don't want things to go back to normal?" it was more a statement than a question and Angel, though naïve as she was, easily caught the meaning of her friend's words because she hardly ever thought of anything else.
"I like him very much" she shyly confessed and fixated her eyes on the scrambled eggs so her friend wouldn't notice her embarrassment "and not only for his looks –even when I still think he is extremely hot- but also for his personality. He is somehow sweet and tender under all that mischievousness and also cares, he really cares about other people. And he is always so happy, the way he smiles…his cheerfulness is contagious. I …well, I can't say I love him because that's a really strong affirmation, but I can say I like him very very much, and not only Lavi Bookman: the singer, but also Lavi the person"
The girl finished abruptly, suddenly conscious that she had said more than intended, and slowly lifted her eyes just to appreciate Izzie smiling condescendingly at her, in that motherly way of hers.
"What?" Angel inquired, narrowing her eyes when her friend kept on smiling.
"Nothing. Is just that I've never seen you like that" Izzie shrugged "I hope things go well between you two"
"I wouldn't be so expectant. I mean, he…he likes to flirt, a lot. And maybe he just doesn't feel anything for me but mere regard" there was pain printed in Angel's voice, even when she tried to hide it behind a slight smirk.
It was hurtful to think that all those days spent with Lavi in his garden, writing songs and talking about their lives –basically Angel's- hadn't mean truly nothing to the singer, or at least not as much as they meant to her.
Angel wasn't hopeful in that aspect, already conscious of Lavi's character, even when she really, really wanted something else, something deeper and more meaningful, to happen. But, seriously, who was she that Lavi could possibly be interested in starting a relationship?
"Are you kiddin'?" was Izzie's response when she told her all that. "He is crazy about you, just look at him in the eyes…eye, whatever, the point is that he does feel something for you"
"How can you be so sure? You don't know him that well"
"Because those things are really notorious. I bet you that it's just a matter of time for him to realize how much he likes you back" Izzie grinned "And then, you'll be happily together"
"Yeah, as much as Kanda and you. I'm sure you two will get together sooner than us" Angel beamed when she noticed the color ascending to Izzie's cheeks, and finally got the chance, after days of not being able to talk in private about that subject, to ask the so forbidden question: "Do you like him?"
"I..I…" Izzie stuttered and hastily got up "We…should go to school, Komui may be waiting for us downstairs"
"Oi, don't change me the subject" Angel exclaimed, using an expression that reminded them of Lavi. The girl left equally the table and followed her friend. "Do you like him?"
"I…does it matter?" Izzie averted her eyes, feigning great interest in the metallic doors of the elevator.
"Of course it matters! Tell me, tell me! Or I am going to assume that you two had already made out and…"
"No! We…no, of course not" she shook her head as they entered the lift "Okay, maybe I like him, but it is not like he is gonna ever like me back" she harshly retorted, gritting her teeth so the heart-ache that statement occasioned her wouldn't ooze through her voice.
"Come on, Izzie, you know he likes you. The way he resisted to you getting out of his house…"
"That doesn't mean anything. He told me that morning that…well, he was out of my reach. And he is right" Izzie nonchalantly took out her hand from her jean's pocket, where she had put it just before they touched the subject, and a sheet of paper flew right out of it.
"What's this?" Angel bent down and picked it.
"Amm, nothing. Give it back" Izzie tried to recover it, but Angel merely turned around and gave her friend her back while reading the words scribbled down.
"Woah, you wrote this? It sounds like you did it for Kanda-san!" the doors of the elevator opened and Angel ran out of it before Izzie could stop her and take back the paper.
"I…well…just give it back, Angel!"
"Nope. I think it is a great lyric for a song and…"
"That's what it is meant to be but…come on, Angel!" the so distressed girl ran after her friend across the main hall of the Black Order Music Corporation building and stopped yelling at her when they reached Komui's white car parked just outside the headquarters.
"Hey, why are you running after Angel?" Lenalee asked Izzie, curiosity shining in her big eyes at the strange scene of before.
"I…I wasn't. Just…it's late, let's go" Izzie climbed up the car before anyone could ask more questions. Lenalee darted Angel a questioning look but the girl just shrugged and stepped into the vehicle.
"Angel, give it back to me" Izzie was still following Angel around the hallways of the school, begging to the latest girl to return the dreadful piece of paper.
"Nope" Angel smiled and kept her pace through the corridor, directing them to a lockers' section they hadn't been in before.
"Angel, come on!" Izzie launched forward in an attempt to take the paper off her friend's hand, but Angel merely pressed it against her chest and hurried to the locker which she had aimed to reach. She only knew it because it was next to Lavi's and she had seen the two musicians there before.
Angel lifted the paper and let it slip through ones of the slots of the metallic door.
"What are you doing?" Izzie almost shrieked when she realized what her friend had done. She tried violently to open the locker's door and get her precious verses back, but it was firmly locked.
"What, what have you done? It was personal!"
"I just gave it to the person who it was written to" Angel stared back at her friend innocently, but with a mischievous glint in her eyes. She watched her friend's face getting even paler.
"Wha…what?" Izzie suddenly found it hard breathe, like the air had been taken out of her lungs.
"Just what you heard. Hey, look, here he com…"
Izzie didn't wait for one more syllable to come out from her friend's lips; she grabbed her shoulder and pulled the girl, obligating her to crouch down beside the last locker of the line, together with her. Some teens glared at them, recognizing the girls as the Innocence's permanent companions, but no one said anything.
"What have you done?" Izzie hissed in a low voice, cautiously trying to go unnoticedand hearing Kanda's steps approaching. They were so focused in his movements that even caught the squeakof the door when it was opened.
"What the…" he murmured and Izzie hastily pulled her friend back to their place when she tried to snoop. Angel giggled quietly, enjoying with her friend's distress.
"I have never seen you this mortified" she smiled.
"Shut up" Izzie murmured. She could feel her heart bumping loudly against her ribs and couldn't decide if it was bigger her embarrassment for having Kanda reading that paper or the anger against the person who was the reason he was actually reading it.
A second voice resounded in the hallway, too cheerful to be confused.
"HEEY, YUU! What are you doin', huh? Let's see, oi, don't crumple it already!"
"Is just fangirl's shit" the bassist replied with his typical cold tone, and that exclamation filled Izzie's chest with an unknown feeling until then. It was pain, desolation, hopelessness, or…something more, she couldn't name it, but it was like someone had squeezed her lungs against her heart.
"Oi, let's see". Lavi grabbed the piece of paper and read it aloud for Izzie's greater mortification.
" I know you may be scared
And I know we are unprepared.
But I don't care
Tell me, tell me,
what makes you think that you are invincible?
I can see it in your eyes that you are so sure
Please don't tell me that I'm the only one that's vulnerable
Impossible"
I think I've seen this before. Isn't it Izzie-chan's handwriting?" the girls heard the redheaded declare.
There was an uncomfortable silence in which Izzie thought Angel could hear her heart bumping.
"Che, who cares?" Kanda finally spat, but his tone of voice was less vehement than before.
"Well, these are good lyrics and…"
"Angel, Angel, hey!" Izzie whispered and tried to stop her friend when she stood up and appeared in the middle of the hallway, but it was in vain.
"Hey, guys" Angel greeted and walked into them.
"Angel! Hey, come, isn't this Izzie-chan's handwriting? I am sure I saw it when she filled the inscription form"
Izzie again heard no voices, she supposed Angel feigned to be reading the note, or maybe it was just her blood thumping behind her ears the one that didn't let her hear. "Why the earth doesn't open and swallow me?" she murmured to herself.
"Yes, it is. Wow, I didn't know she was this good. So, how did you find it?" Angel commented, trying to sound spontaneous, but she had never been a really good actress and the emotion the situation caused in her made her façade less credible.
"OI! IT WAS IN YUU'S LOCKER, IT WAS IN YUU'S LOCKER!" Lavi exclaimed, raising his voice "Oh my my…I knew it! I knew there was something going on between you two! Hey, Yuu, where are you going? Don't you wanna talk about your pretty little lover?"
"Nay, just shut the fuck up" the sudden ring of the bell, indicating the beginning of classes, muffled his reply and the students started moving to their classrooms. After a farewell to Lavi, Angel appeared again beside Izzie's hidden form.
"Hey, stop being an embarrassed little goblin princess. He kept your song"
They used to spend some time after classes in the music classroom; it was some typical ritual they made since the first days of the band.
Lavi arrived a few minutes earlier, since he had finished his history's essay and handed it before anyone else.
He sat over the only desk and started playing the guitar absently, trying some new chords and fixing them so they could suit his latest song written. It was a surprise, and he still couldn't believe he had actually written something so cheesy, but the truth was that he had put his heart on it and every feeling he had inside.
The door of the classroom opened and he lifted his eye, expecting to meet Kanda or maybe Allen, but, instead of the band's members or any of their friends, in the doorway was standing Melanie Williams, one of the girls he dated last semester.
"Hey" she smiled at him, revealing a perfect white teeth.
"Hey, Mel" Lavi greeted absentmindedly and returned to his business, sure that the girl had gone there for some other instrument. But he was so wrong.
"Hey, have you already forgotten last semester?" she asked and sat beside Lavi in the small desk, tossing her long blonde hair behind her shoulder.
She was pretty, Lavi admitted it. Prettier than a lot of students he had met, and they both had spent really good times together during the last school period, but he had dropped her when it was discovered that she dated two other guys at the same time.
"I wish I had" the singer forced a smile "How are Brian and Dylan doing?" he said, referring to the girl's other boyfriends, making it evident that he hadn't forgotten the betrayal.
"Oh, don't even mention them. You are the one I really liked, you know?" Melanie trailed a finger along Lavi's forearm, purring near the singer's ear.
"No, Mel. Not anymore" he stated and jumped off the table with his guitar. Suddenly, Melanie's fast hand turned the singer's head in her direction and their mouths met in a hasty motion.
Lavi tried to break it off and push the girl, but his hands were busy holding the guitar. Melanie misinterpreted the fact that he wasn't giving real opposition and cupped his face with her hands, deepening the kiss.
The male stepped back, trying to release himself from the girl's embrace, but she moved together with him carefully keeping their mouths together.
She only stopped when they heard the door open again and the couple turned to face the intruder.
"Melanie, n…" Lavi's phrase died in his lips and his eye widened in horror, feeling the blood disappearing from his face.
Angel gawked at the previous sight, but the girl's expression converted from one of surprise to one of pure pain and betrayal. She murmured something back and closed the door behind her.
"Oh, shit" Lavi left the guitar over the table and ran across the hallway.
"Lavi? Wait!" Melanie replied, but he didn't really hear her and chased Angel along the corridor, screaming her name, even though, the girl merely ignored him and accelerated her pace.
"Angel, wait!" he yelled, running behind her. He finally reached her with his long strides and grabbed her arm.
"I am sorry for interrupting! Just let go!" she said in an anguished tone and tried to release her arm, but Lavi just tightened his grip.
"Angel, just…please, hear. She kissed me! I had nothing to do…"
"Oh, come on, that's the oldest excuse ever. Let me go!"
"Hear me, please. I am telling you the truth!"
"You don't owe me an explanation, it was pretty clear"
"Angel, it wasn't…she just came and…"
"I know, I am sorry for interrupting, that's all. It isn't like you are truly attached to someone or…"
"Yeah, I am actually attached to someone" he finally said and the solemnity in his affirmation made Angel finally able to meet his eyes –eye, whatever-.
"Really?" she narrowed her eyes and prayed that the tears weren't still visible "Who?"
"Come, I'll show you. Just stop crying, for heaven's sake" he walked back to the music classroom and the girl, after some hesitation, reluctantly followed him.
Fortunately, Melanie had already gone and the room was left just for them.
Lavi reached the guitar and sat down on the desk, accommodating the instrument across his body. He swallowed loudly, trying to get the lump he was feeling down, and couldn't explain the reason why his hands were shaking. He had never felt so insecure in his life, not even when he sang in their first concert. A thousand of questions crowded in his mind, but he tried to block them and focus in the strings of his guitar. He had to keep his nerves under control if he wanted to do what he intended and keep himself mentally sane, because it felt like he was going crazy.
The first two chords were played with such hesitation that they sounded terrible, so he needed to do another pair of tries until he finally got it right. It was a sweet melody and when the time of the vocal part came, he found again the security music helped him have and the words he had previously written came swiftly to his mouth and lingered in the air.
"This is what I look like today
And I'm trying not to pull ou my hair
I'm trying hard to grow it,
but I'm far to shy to show it back there
That is probably why I like wearing hats
There's no denying, I'm deferring the facts
Avoiding confrontation
Lacks tact in a situation
Behind every line is a lesson yet to learn.
But if you ask me,
the feeling that I'm feeling is overwhelming
and oh it goes to show
there's so much to know
I wrote this for my prettiest friend,
But while trying not to prove that I care
I was trying not to make all my moves in one motion
And scare her away
Well, she can't see she's making me crazy now
I don't believe she know she's amazing how
She has me holding my breathe
So I'll never guess that I'm a none such unsuitable
Suitable for her
And if you ask me
The feeling that I'm feeling is complimentary
And all it goes to show
The moral of the story
Is boy loves girl
And so on
But the way it unfolds is yet to be told
There was an instrumental part that Lavi played confidently, but trying to keep his eyes in the instrument so he wouldn't meet Angel's amused expression. He felt as if his heart was about to jump out of his mouth and hesitated a second before starting to sing the last part of the song.
I know that I should be brave
Even pretty can be seen by the blind
I know that I cannot wait
Until the day we finally learn
How to find each other, redefining open minds
And if you ask me
the feeling that I'm feeling
is overjoyed
and it's golden, it goes to show then
the endin of the song should be left alone
and so on
cause' the way it unfolds is yet to be told
They both remained in silence after his fingers released the strings of the last notes. He could feel her eyes fixated on his face and could find no voice to say everything he wanted.
Finally, he lifted his eyes to meet hers. His expression was calm in comparison with the way he was truly feeling and his green iris brightened in a way Angel had never before contemplated.
They stared at each other without daring to burst with their flimsy exclamations the magic bubble that had been formed. Angel finally understood what some people meant when they said that a look was better than a thousand words.
"So…" she finally broke the silence with a shaky voice "Who is your prettiest friend?"
"Don't you guess?" Lavi answered with a hoarse voice and a smile played with the corner of his lips.
Angel denied with her head.
Lavi giggled and stared sweetly at the girl standing awkwardly.
"My prettiest friend is the one standing right in front of me"
Angel turned around and scanned the room quietly, just to realize that it was empty except for them both. She turned to face Lavi again with a bewildered expression which then turned into one of pure glee when she realized what he had meant. She laughed heartily and new tears of joy replaced the ones of before. The jumped forward and surrounded Lavi's neck with her arms, still giggling. The singer left his guitar aside and returned her the hug, inhaling the sweet scent of her hair.
"Can I kiss you?" he asked after a while, still rubbing circles between her shoulder blades. She separated from him to look at his face.
"Did you ever ask before?" Angel laughed. God, she was so happy!
"I…" he hesitated and a faint pink tone arose to his cheeks "It's different. It doesn't feel like a game anymore"
Angel was surprised by the seriousness of his expression, complemented with the way his voice sounded abnormally husky. She laughed again and found courage enough to brush his lips with hers for half a second.
They hugged again and stayed like that for what stretched to become an eternity. Time had stopped to be relevant to them and were contented with the warmth that each other's body.
"It is weird…that the others hadn't come yet" she commented after a while, letting him go.
"Yeah, they should be here by now. We go and find them?"
She nodded and reached for the door, but almost crashed with Lavi's back when he ran ahead and crouched down.
"I'll take you, prettiest friend" they laughed and Angel climbed to his back.
They searched in every possible classroom, but there was no sign of their friends. The building was practically empty and they only crossed with a few relegatedstudents.
As their last option, they headed for the parking lot, where Lavi's motorcycle and Kanda's car were, but the couple just froze in the big doorframe of the double-door entrance.
Two black cars were blocking the exits and one more was parked just in front of the stairs that leaded to the building.
Men equally dressed in black clothes were gathered around the car and were fighting with four teenagers.
"What the…?" Lavi half exclaimed and let Angel get off his back. Some of the men yelled an unintelligible instruction and pointed in their direction.
A pair of the mysterious attackers saw them and climbed up the stairs that separated the newcomers from the agitation below.
"ANGEL, RUN!" Angel heard Izzie yell and found her the moment a man grabbed the girl by the neck.
A/N: I am so sorry for the last chapter, I know it was way too BORING, but I hope you understand it was necessary.
Oi, Lavi and Angel are finally together! HURRAY! it was so nice to write that part, it just felt so good! I love that couple 3 by the way, the song Lavi sings to Angel is Prettiest Friend- Jason Mraz and it is one of my fav songs ever. I also have a crush with that guy.
So here comes a bit of action, I promise next chapter will definetely be full of action! I have evil plans for it (jiji) so...what about a review and see if I can update sooner? haha xD
The other song, the one Izzie writes to Kanda (FINALLY SHE ADMITS SHE LIKES HIM!) is Vulnerable-Secondhand Serenade and it was recommended by mdotaku, the full song will appear in further chapters. Thank you so much for your suggestion, it really helped me to get through my writer's block.
Kanda is falling for Izzie but he doesn't want to admit it (8)
So, what about a REVIEW? (I think I have already written that) but well, I already have an idea of next chapter, so just click that button and it will come out in some days! XD