Exception

By: Aviantei

7. Friday Morning: The Beginning

Ivy woke up to the sound of her phone ringing, not feeling a single ounce better than she had lying down the night before. Even though common sense could say that it was logical to just apologize to Kanda, she hadn't convinced herself to do it, and the fact that he had avoided her the rest of the day hadn't helped matters one bit.

But the fact was that her phone was still ringing, and it didn't seem like it wanted to stop. She could always let it go to voicemail, but answering would stop it faster. Ivy groaned and reached out to her bed stand, bringing the phone under the covers to answer. "Hello?"

"Good morning, Ivy!" the voice on the other end sang. There was only one person in Ivy's immediate contacts that could have that much energy so early in the morning. While Allen and Lenalee were personable, they still were a bit sluggish, and Kanda was a whole other matter entirely. The only thing brighter than Lavi's hair was the sunshine he seemed able to spew out without any trouble.

"Ah, Lavi!" Ivy sat up in bed, trying to figure out what time it actually was. Somehow, she had managed to forget that she had a date in the first place, which was the reason for this whole fiasco. Still, she tried to shake any traces of sleepiness away, following up with "How are you?"

"I'm great," Lavi declared, shooting off the next few sentences in a rapid fire. "What about you? I didn't wake you up, did I? You didn't stay up late, did you? Oh, I know, you were bursting with excitement and couldn't fall asleep! Well, don't you fret. I can pick you up and we can grab some breakfast together!"

Part of Ivy swore that Lavi just got a kick out of trying to catch his friends off guard. She stifled a yawn. If there was one certainty, it was never show weakness to Lavi. He was just way too good at figuring people out. Well, if he wasn't distracted by whatever desert the cafeteria was serving for the day.

Trying to retort to all of Lavi's points would take more brainpower than Ivy possessed at the moment—she had literally just started functioning. Asking for more than simple conversation was a bit much, let alone keeping up with a boy whose mouth ran as fast as his rabbity nickname. She would have to settle.

"As long as you're paying for the food and coffee, I'm game," she said.

Lavi let out an exaggerated gasp. "Miss Minomasu, I would never be as crass as to invite a girl out and not offer to front the bill!" he said. Ivy was so worn down she almost laughed at his antics. After all, miracles can happen, even if they are sometimes caused by people losing control of their guard. "If you'll be so kind as to let me know the directions to your place, I'll be happy to pick you up and we can get the day started."

Ivy rallied of the instructions, all the while trying not to sound rushed to hang up so she could shower. Even if hunger was iffy as a weakness, being unprepared certainly counted in its place.

Kanda woke up to find himself sprawled out on his desk, homework assignments from the previous night beneath him. Nothing had really gotten done immediately after the argument, and the same could be said of his attempts to just drown himself in the stuff when he got home. Come to think of it, had he even eaten dinner last night?

"Who the fuck cares?" Kanda grumbled. He didn't feel hungry. In the end, homework was something that had to get done and there was no sense of procrastinating on it. He looked over the work again, trying to figure out a good place to start, but had no such luck. The more he tried, the more he realized how dissatisfied he was over his fight with Ivy.

Kanda reached for his cellphone, powered it back on, and went to his speed dial. For a second, his finger hovered over the one, but he pressed four instead.

Lavi double-checked himself in the mirror. Casual but fashion attentive enough clothes to get Lenalee's seal of approval? Check. Hair looking windswept yet combed at the same time? Check. Shiny new eyepatch? Check. Teeth brushed? Hey, don't look so surprised, hygiene is some serious stuff, got it?

"Yup, you're looking good," he said, pointing a finger at the mirror. His reflection grinned. "Thanks, me."

Yup, he was serious. Even if this whole date had been a ploy to get Kanda's attention, that didn't mean Lavi wasn't going to take it seriously. Besides, Ivy thought this was serious (enough), so he couldn't just disrespect that. Lavi would treat Ivy as well as he could, until she decided to go home or Kanda got fed up enough to actually do something about it.

Just as Lavi was running his usual leave the house checklist (phone, wallet, keys, good looks), his phone blared the opening riff to "Can't Touch This" loud enough to echo off the walls.

Even better, the caller ID read Yu-pon.

"Hello!" Lavi chirped in answer. He was grinning wide enough to make his cheek press awkwardly against the phone. Man, why couldn't good moods be more contagious? Everyone deserved to feel as good as Lavi did when his plans started to come together, to say nothing of when they properly succeeded.

"Stupid Rabbit, tell me when your date is and how long," Kanda replied, his voice curt. These were the sort of situations that had caused Kanda to keep Lavi's number in the first place—in the event of absolute stupidity or trouble.

Of course, Lavi knew what he was after. That didn't mean he had to make this easy. Besides, if he really cares about Ivy, he'll be willing to put up with my "bullshit" at least for a little bit, right?

"Yu-pon!" Lavi exclaimed, putting far more enthusiasm than needed into his voice. And that was measured by Lavi standards. Forget it if you were a normal person. Become instantly anything from irritated to enraged if you're Kanda Yu. "You hardly ever call me. Like, ever! This is such a surprise, how are you?"

"Just fucking answer me." Ah, the absolute venom of a certain pissed off Japanese teen…

"Well, someone's grumpy!" Almost all the time Lavi's enthusiasm was natural, and he really did face the world with absolute joy. But that didn't stop him from understanding just the sort of effect he had on others, especially his best friend. So, Lavi laughed a bit, laying it on as thick as possible. "Well, since you asked, I was just getting ready to leave. Ivy-chan and I are gonna grab breakfast, and then we'll just stay out til we get bored or tired."

"You're driving." Kanda sounded utterly dumbfounded. Lavi felt offended. Just because there was that one time when he had just gotten his license… It was an honest mistake anyone could make! No, don't get distracted, Lavi chided himself. He's saying that 'cause he's worried about Ivy, not 'cause he thinks you suck.

Feeling better already, Lavi did his best to push his smile through the phone. "Yessiree! I dunno, I was thinking of maybe letting her come over and hang out afterwards." Ah, the phone sounded it like it was crackling from Kanda's end. That probably wasn't good. Still, persevere… "Then again, my place is kind of a mess, so maybe it would be better to go to her place. Or do you think that's moving too fast?"

"You better not fucking crash," Kanda growled, and like that, the line was dead.

I hope he hung up and didn't break his phone…It's been a few years since he did that.

Ah, the blissful nostalgia of memories…

But that didn't change the fact that Lavi had successfully cranked up Kanda's irritation to record levels. Closing his own phone a bit more gently than normal (it was serving him well and deserved to be appreciated!), Lavi smiled, heading towards the front door.

"Really, Yu-pon," he said to himself, "you're just a bit too easy to mess with."

This chapter didn't get as many adjustments to it. There were some dialogue tweaks, tho. Mostly just the usual expansion that I put into the details.

And with that, my updates are finally up to date! We can get back to the usual schedule of weekly updates...of course, that just means I need to get some of these upcoming chapters written soon!

Oh, and if you want early releases of fanfiction updates, check out my . Right now the time frame is ahead by a day, but I might change that sometime in the future...

The rewrite of chapter eight is slated for next week!

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