Exception

By: Aviantei

19. Preparation Shouldn't Be This Difficult

Ari Bookman was seriously having mixed feelings at the moment. Her brother—stupid, idiotic, and lovable as he was—was doing the one thing she had hoped he would never do: meddle in her love life. It was part of the reason she had slipped away to France, to keep away from that phase where she would be growing up and Lavi would be in a panic because his baby sister wasn't quite so much of a 'baby' anymore. And while she had been able to avoid that particular crisis, it seemed that she had come back before Lavi would see her as an adult.

Well, that and France was awesome. Who would waste such an opportunity when they had such a natural gift for French (and just about every other language out there but that's not the point)?

Whoa, back up there. I suppose it's worth an explanation as to how Ari happens to know about this when the whole plan is a Lavi Class Super Duper Level Secret. That, my friends, is easy.

In the morning, Lavi had been sleeping like a log, the likes that could only be woken up by a large number of kicks to the person in question. Kanda would have been disappointed for missing such an occasion. Normally, Ari would have gotten right to work on such a task, but the last night's events had made her suspicious. So, with not much difficulty, she slipped the notebook out from under her snoring brother's head, wiped the drool off, and started skimming its contents.

Sure, it was technically snooping, but he deserved it after not going to bed last night. It was only fair.

Thus, Ari knew everything, as well as some things she really wished she didn't know. If Ivy was helping out, Ari felt safe in knowing that most of the plans would go into the trash, but that really wasn't the concern. The fact of the matter was that Lavi was trying to hook Allen up with two girls at once, and one of those girls just happened to be Lenalee.

Part of her wanted to be proud of her brother. It seemed as if he had at least grown up enough to understand that playing favorites over his sister wasn't fair, but Ari selfishly wished that Lavi would put things in her favor. Lenalee was already older, taller, and popular. Didn't the Chinese girl have enough advantages as it was?

Exasperated, Ari slammed her locker shut and headed down the hall to her next class. She had tried sitting down at lunch with everyone else but couldn't bring herself to relax. Even though she was sitting beside Allen, and Lenalee seemed to be acting the same as always, Ari just felt suspicious about every move they were taking. She had eventually had to fake feeling tired and went to the Nurse's office to lie down. She had taken a nap, but in the end had realized that she had left Allen alone with Lenalee for the entire lunch period.

Smooth.

Now she was going to have to figure out what to do to make things work out. If she could figure out what plan they were going for in the first place, she could prepare so that it would make the situation end in her favor. It shouldn't be hard, considering she had memorized all of Lavi's rough draft plans before waking him up by sticking his head under the shower. Even so…

What was she supposed to do if they did something that Lavi hadn't come up with? That seemed perfectly likely with Ivy's apparent practicality. If she knew the older Japanese girl better, Ari might just have a better shot at figuring things out. Considering she had just met Ivy a few weeks ago, the required level of understanding wasn't going to happen anytime soon. If anything, the scenarios just might give Lenalee the advantage.

Ugh, this was so unfair! Why couldn't Lavi just keep his nose out of it? Ari was going to teach her darling brother a lesson after this whole fiasco was over. No point in making a big deal over something before it even started. No, let him get complacent with the idea that he could get away with something like this first. He'd never see it coming, then.

Ari sat down in her seat, trying to figure out what she was going to do. While there seemed to be plenty of options for what to do, none of it seemed like it would be properly effective in the long run.

Ari sighed. "Oh, who am I kidding? There's only going to be one thing that'll actually work here…"

The bell rang as she prepared herself for what she needed to do.

There are times when a flashback may seem necessary, and this may be one of them. But because you're a busy reader and really don't need to know all the nitty gritty details that lead to this moment, we'll condense things for you and only make it so that you need to look at a few select text messages sent from Ivy to Allen, around the same span of time Lavi was getting soup poured over his notes (the intentionality of this action is still up to debate).

-Ivy: Hey, Allen, there's something important I need to talk to you about. Can you meet up with me after school tomorrow?
-Allen: Sure.

Short, sweet, to the point. In a few successive texts, the two teens agreed to meet up in Komui's classroom. While this may seem like an unlikely place for the discussion that was going to happen, it did have its benefits. As a precaution to protect his darling little sister from—ahem—"all those horny teenage bastards," Komui had long instituted a policy of driving Lenalee home after school as soon as possible, so he wouldn't even be there. In addition, no student at Black Order High in their right mind (as well as out of it) would go to the room without being forced to. It was perfect.

Allen, however, was a bit skeptic. The Brit could appreciate the fact that Ivy wanted to talk in private because it was important, but still. There were other places in the school for that! What could be so important that it had to be discussed in Komui Lee's classroom? With what Lavi had brought up the other day about trying to get into a relationship with Lenalee, he didn't want to be anywhere near this place. Komui probably already knew what was going on and had set up traps to decapitate or seriously injure the Brit the second he was least expecting it.

Whoa there, Allen, take it easy, said Brit thought to himself, reminding himself to breathe normally. You're just still paranoid because Lavi got you all worked up yesterday. There's nothing even going on. Everything's fine. You have nothing to worry about.

However, the memory of a crazy automatic vacuum cleaner named Komlin 0.5 that had been set on him the first time he had visited Lenalee at her house and a strange foreboding feeling were telling him otherwise.

"Are you feeling okay, Allen-san?" a voice asked, causing Allen to jump. Ivy walked into the classroom and closed the door, locking it for good measure. For a second, Allen's stomach disappeared. What if Ivy was actually in league with Komui this whole time and was going to lead Allen to his death in the back closet of the science room? The white-haired boy took a step back, causing Ivy to raise an eyebrow. "I'll take that as a 'no'. Lavi didn't get you sick, did he?"

"Don't say things like that!" Allen whined, burying his face in his hands. Said hands had been washed nearly fifty times since Lavi had started sneezing in his general direction. If anybody else brought up being sick, he was going to the hospital, rational decision or not.

Ivy laughed, sitting on the desk at the front of the room. "Sorry, sorry, couldn't help myself," she said. "I'm sure you're a perfectly healthy boy for your age, despite Lavi's surprisingly shitty immune system. Even if you weren't, I would have to ask you to put your paranoia aside for a moment as you know we have something very important to discuss right now."

"Yeah, what was that about?" Allen asked. He sat down on one of the tables in the front row. From this perspective, it looked like Ivy was the teacher, and Allen was a student in for the weirdest lecture ever, which was saying something in a world where Komui is an educator. "You didn't say much in your text, so I couldn't really figure out what was going on. Is everything alright?"

Ivy pursed her lips, starting to twirl her hair around a finger. "Yes and no. In the traditional definition of something being wrong, everything's fine. But in our group with the standards it has, not really."

Allen knew exactly what the words between the lines were on that one. Because we're friends with Lavi. He groaned.

"Lavi, why?" he asked, except the question was directed at the ceiling. It had to be about Lenalee and Ari, it just had to be. Allen was suddenly glad that they had locked the door. Saying Lavi's name was just asking the redhead to show up and cause trouble. "Please tell me he isn't doing anything with my love life. Please, Ivy, I don't think I could take it."

Sensing Allen's desperation, Ivy bit her lip, still spinning her hair around her finger. She really wanted to tell him what he wanted to hear—not to worry because Lavi wasn't doing anything and she had something completely different to tell Allen, honest—but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Even though she could just lie to Lavi and say Allen had turned down the offer, there was no guarantee things wouldn't get worse from there on.

Who knew what Lavi would do once he found out the plan hadn't worked out. The chaos would be unpredictable, even for the people who were closet to him. Ivy shuddered at the thought, and even Allen seemed to catch the drift.

"Long story short," Ivy said, speaking quickly in an attempt to get the bombshell out of the way as soon as possible, "Lavi seems to think that you need help with picking whether or not you want to date Lenalee or his sister. All things considered, I thought it was unfair that he was going to repeat what he did with me and Kanda, so I told him I would help only if we answered to you."

Allen blinked, a rather confused expression on his face. "Answer to me?" he asked.

"Yes." Ivy sighed, pushing her bangs out if her face. "We'll only help you if you agree to let us, you will know all plans ahead of time, you will approve strategies that you're comfortable with, and we will go in the direction you want. Anything we say can be viewed as a suggestion, including this offer." She exhaled, catching her breath. She hated having to sound professional when talking to her friends. Something about it was just plain wrong.

"Listen Allen," she tried again, voice softer. "I'm really half-assed on this. I don't think it's an option you should have to go through with. As someone that's been on the receiving end of things before, I wouldn't blame you if you turned me down right now. But I really think this is the best way to control Lavi, so it's what I've decided to do. That and you helped me a lot, Allen-san. I want to do the same for you."

There was a lot to the speech—implications of controlling Lavi (insert obligatory laughter here) aside—and Allen paused to take it in. Ivy drummed her fingers across the desk while she waited, the light sound breaking the silence of the room. The Japanese girl kept her eyes on her British friend. He was seriously deep in thought, his eyebrows furrowed and forehead the tiniest bit wrinkled.

It was almost cute, if Allen was your type. Maybe she should take a picture of him and give it to whichever girl he didn't date as a consolation prize.

No, this isn't a competition, Ivy, get it together! Ivy shook her head to clear the thought out. This was a proposal! Not a marriage one, but still something pretty important. There was no time to let her competitive instincts get in the middle of a fight that wasn't even hers!

"Alright," Allen said, bringing Ivy back into the moment.

"Alright?" she questioned.

"Alright," he repeated. "I'm okay with you and Lavi helping me. Well, mostly you, but you know." Allen chuckled, and Ivy laughed softly along with him. "Just know that I intend to pull out of this the second anything starts to go bad, okay?"

Ivy nodded. "Okay, that's settled, then." She slipped off the desk and headed for the door. "I'll let you know when we start planning things. I'm sure that Lavi will want to have a huge party about it or something. Good luck, Allen-san."

With a flick of her wrist, the Japanese girl unlocked the door and opened it, heading down the hallway to go home. Lavi could wait until tomorrow for the good news. While things had gone well for what she had wanted to do, the fact was that they would actually have to go through with the plan now, whatever that was. Reasonably so, Ivy felt nervous.

"If anything starts to go bad, huh…?" she said to herself.

Wasn't that how things always were between them?

Reasonably, Allen felt a bit conflicted. There was this logic in the back of his brain—the one that let him pass school, not end up and jail, and, most importantly by a long run, survive Cross whenever he decided to actually show his drunken face at the house—that was telling him that he shouldn't have let Lavi anywhere near this. And if it was an instinct that let him survive for fifteen long years, maybe he should properly listen to it.

Sure, there were plenty of things he could say that could give the situation logic: like that maybe Ivy would be able to reign in La—oh, who was he kidding? Lavi was going to make this so much worse on so many levels. To top things off, Allen wasn't even sure if he felt close enough to either Lenalee or Ari to even think dating them counted as something he wanted.

Yes, Lenalee was pretty and smart. Who wouldn't have a crush on her? Not to mention she had been his first friend when he had transferred into the school even though she was an upperclassman, showed him around the school, gave him tips on how to deal with teachers, and introduced him to the current group of friends he was in now. That sort of thing had to count for something or other when you started liking someone.

On the other hand, Ari had about the same definition as Lenalee, minus a year in the age department. But that didn't really count for much considering that Ari was a walking encyclopedia of everything ever, just like her brother, and was always up to carrying a conversation if necessary. When Allen had felt awkward adjusting to actually having friends in his own age bracket after years of traveling, Ari was always willing to talk like it was no big deal to fill up the chance of any awkward silence whatsoever.

They were both good choices, and Allen didn't think he could choose. He was still trying to get over the fact that he had to choose. As far as the white-haired boy had been concerned, the two girls were his friends. How was he supposed to catch onto the fact that they both had crushes on him in a situation like that?

Maybe he was dense. Maybe he was hopeful that he could do nothing and nobody's feelings would get hurt and life would move on as normal. If had refused the offer, maybe Lavi would have kept his word and stepped back. Maybe Ivy would have Kanda beat the redhead into a pulp for not complying to the deal, or even just do it herself. Except Allen had the sinking feeling that leaving it alone would only come back to bite him like Cross's breath smelling like alcohol did to your nose when you walked in the room.

And he knew for a fact that telling both girls that he only wanted to be friends without even trying to understand his feelings was quite possibly the worst thing he could do.

Allen heaved a heavy sigh, slipping his backpack out of his locker. He would think about it way too much, so he should give his brain a break for now. He would walk home, do his homework, play with Timcampy, take a soak in the tub and—

Sprawled on the floor in front of him was the unconscious form of Lavi.

Lavi, for all his good intentions, needed to learn how to stop going at full force at times. While he normally would have been an indestructible force of energy at any other time, there were certain things that needed to be accounted for, including but not limited to the fact that he had stayed up pulling an almost perfect all-nighter working on said notebook of plans while sick, which had led to him pulling through the school day on significantly less effort than usual, and in the end he simply ran out of energy and collapsed while trying to get into his car and drive home.

Okay, it was really a blessing that he had passed out before he got to his car, what with the risk for crashing and all, but it was still kind of embarrassing to have to admit that he had fallen asleep while walking down the hall. The redhead was certain that had never happened to him before.

When he woke up, he had no idea where he was, let alone important facts like what time it was and how long he'd been out. His vision was blurry and everything was white, which opened up the realm of speculation for plenty of things, like maybe he had been abducted by aliens. Someone like Kanda would scoff at the suggestion, but Lavi knew better. Sure, everything science related and the government made it very clear that they didn't exist. Lavi would have fallen for it if the Old Panda hadn't left one of his files for work lying around the house. That on top of the fact that the idea of humans being the only sentient beings in existence in an ever-expanding universe was just ridiculous was decisive evidence enough.

They may not be coming, but they were out there.

The more logical conclusion was that he was in the nurse's office, which was significantly less cool as well as possibly more dangerous. Lavi had been doing his best to avoid the place ever since he had been forced to go there in middle school for a bloody nose and some bruises Kanda had given him. The fact that the same nurse had followed them up to high school only made his distaste grow. He'd rather be stuck with Komui treating his injuries instead.

No, no. That was going way too far. A clear sign that he wasn't even thinking straight. He needed to get a grip on himself and get out of here before things got worse than being stuck in here. The last thing he needed was the school nurse giving him a checkup and kicking him out of the school for a few days because he was 'unsanitary.' He didn't care if she had a degree, he had the same level of knowledge as she did, possibly more, and he could go to school with a common cold without causing an epidemic. Normally he would have taken the opportunity to sit around at home, but there was work that needed to be done before then, which he should probably be getting out of here to get back to work on.

Or maybe not.

Maybe he would stay here and let the pretty new nurse's aide take care of him. Even with Lavi's impaired vision at the moment, he could tell that she was gorgeous. She was staring at him, checking over his condition, eyes filled with concern. He vaguely wondered how old she was and decided it didn't matter. He was eighteen, so everyone was fair game for now as long as they weren't too far out of his age bracket.

"So, you come here often?" he lamely supplied. Man, he was out of it. Time to brush up on those pick-up lines. He was graduating at the end of this year and he would need to be ready to astound the college women with his knowledge, looks, and wit. It would probably help out Allen, too, if he agreed—no, when he agreed to the situation. Lavi just hoped that Ivy was ready to talk to him soon with the weekend fast approaching.

"No, Lavi, I don't. Can you stop spouting nonsense for a second so we can talk about this whole plan of yours?"

Lavi yelped as he sat up, sending the pang of an impending headache throughout his skull. Man, he would definitely need the meds for that soon enough and he wondered if he could sneak them out of the nurse's office without causing some sort of drug scandal. More importantly, he focused on rubbing his eye out, blinking a few times to ensure that he cleared his vision. Sure enough, Allen was sitting in front of him.

"Ah, I see you saw through me right away!" Lavi exclaimed. "I figured as much, but a prank like that isn't enough to fool you, Allen! So next time, you should prepare yourself for something the likes of you won't even be able to handle! That is, if you can even see it coming…" The redhead waggled his fingers mysteriously as the British boy directed a deadpan stare at him. Lavi laughed, hoping his nervousness didn't show through.

It wasn't that out there to think that Allen was a girl, was it? The younger boy wasn't exactly a throne of masculinity, with his round face and wide eyes. Looking at him from the back you might even mistake him for a girl, and there was no mistake anyone that looked at him from a distance would probably think the same thing, especially if they couldn't see straight. Lavi's error was totally valid.

Allen shook his head, not even giving a response to the previous comment. "Okay, Ivy and I just talked about this, so I figured I should let you know that I accepted your offer."

Lavi could have shouted for joy, jumping up and performing the infamous Lavi dance in that very moment. Instead the pounding in his head made him settle for a fist pump instead. He had known it, just known it. His Lavi senses had never sent him astray before, and now they had given him the exact outcome of the situation. All his hard work was not going to be in vain!

"Now, before you say anything else, I need to set some things straight," Allen continued. Lavi nodded, although less enthusiastically than usual. Not wanting to ruin the moment, the redhead kept his mouth firmly shut as had been requested. The British boy's gray eyes were hard. "I've seen just what you can do firsthand from how you handled Ivy and Kanda's relationship. While I appreciate your enthusiasm, that's not what I need. I want something more natural, something that comes out of two people realizing they like each other and are okay with it, not some crazy romantic comedy from hell scenario. I know you and Ivy talked about this, so I expect you to go through with it. I don't get much normal in my life, Lavi. I've never really gotten a chance for that. Normal is all I want."

Allen leaned back in his chair a little, posture relaxing. Lavi could see the faintest traces of blushing on his friend's cheeks, which only made him seem more feminine. Allen took a deep breath before opening his mouth again.

"Yeah, and, well, thank you. For caring enough to help me and stuff."

It was possibly the least graceful sentence Lavi had ever heard Allen say, and that only made it more adorable. Whichever one of the girls Allen ended up with—no, anybody that ever got the privilege of being able to date Allen Walker, regardless of if they were Ari or Lenalee or somebody none of them had even met yet, was officially going to be the luckiest sucker of all time for getting such an amazing guy as their boyfriend. It almost made Lavi regret that he was straight, except he remembered all the girls out there and felt better. Even if either of them were gay, Allen deserved better than Lavi anyway.

That still didn't dampen the redhead's excitement, though. He wanted to throw a party right fucking there in the nurse's office, except he wasn't in the mood to get Allen suspended and there was a serious lack of streamers in the immediate vicinity to set the mood. He supposed that rolls of gauze could be used as substitutes, but that seemed a bit morbid. Maybe Halloween next year. And besides, if Ari caught onto the fact that her brother was trying to celebrate in any extravagant way possible, she'd probably strap him down to the bed and use one of the Old Panda's acupuncture books to make her brother fall asleep properly.

"Don't worry, Brit, you won't regret this!" Lavi exclaimed. He almost hugged the other boy but resisted because he could still feel the mucus lodged in his skull, making his headache worse. "I solemnly swear that I will fulfill your wishes and give you the most normal romantic experience of your life!"

Allen's face had lost its embarrassment, but he still seemed a bit uncomfortable with the idea. If only Lavi had a sense of how everybody else in the world seemed to consider his presence in their lives, then maybe he would understand why. At least the younger boy was smiling, though, which meant that Lavi had said enough to be reassuring. That was really all he needed for his mission in life right now.

"Ah, here you are. I was wondering where you went," a voice commented. The door to the nurse's office opened, revealing Ari. With a pang of guilt, Lavi suddenly remembered that he was supposed to be driving his sister home and had passed out from exhaustion instead. It was a good thing that the younger Bookman had her permit, otherwise they'd both be stuck for a while. Despite this problem, Ari seemed happy, her eyes focused on the male in the room that wasn't her brother. "And you found Lavi, that's good. Do you think we could talk in private for a bit, Allen-san?"

Fun fact: I almost forgot to give this chapter a title.

If you reviewed/followed/favorited since chapter 18 came out, your thanks are more than likely in the revised version of chapter two. That being said, any feedback on the revisions as they come along would be greatly appreciated.

I had a bit of fun writing this chapter (There's not really a fourth wall, Lavi is Lavi). I hope you all enjoyed reading it as well.

Things have been busy lately, but I've been working hard, both for my last semester of school and on Camp NaNoWriMo. Let's just say, I've been keeping busy.

I've been thinking of making story status announcements with progress reports and estimated release dates on my profile/blog. What do you guys think?

The next update to this will probably be in about two months and will be the chapter 3 rewrite. I've been doing my best to balance out all my stories, so thank you for your patience.

However, in chapter twenty: Only Lavi could have his priorities this wrong, Ivy fights off a growing migraine, and even Allen has his secrets every now and then. Please look forward to it!

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