Exception

By: Aviantei

5. Plans in Action

Ivy had gotten to lunch early. It wasn't something she necessarily strived to do, but every now and then, Kanda would show up for lunch early as well, and it was nice to have some time alone with him. And even in the event of him not being there, it still gave the opportunity to have some peace and quiet to herself before the others showed up and made a ruckus. However…

"So, Ivy-chan, are you busy on Friday?"

…with Lavi somehow getting to the cafeteria before her, that was impossible. He was even missing a tray, so he hadn't gotten his lunch yet, abandoning the endeavor in favor of sitting across from Ivy. Something was up.

"Not yet. Why?" Ivy answered, keeping her irritation over losing valuable alone time to herself. It had become painfully obvious that Kanda could never keep his temper around Lavi. After a few months, she had finally decided if Kanda was always going to be on the verge of causing property damage when the redhead was around, she would play it cool to balance the Japanese boy out.

Lavi took the question at the end of her words and jumped for it. Things were working out, just as planned. "Well, you know about the festival this weekend, right?" he asked. There was no need to rush into it.

"Yeah." Of course I know. Everyone at the damn school knew, making big ordeals about dates and plans and the rides. There was enough commotion that Ivy hadn't even needed to ask any questions about it when it rolled around the year she had first arrived. Now get to the damn point. "What about it?"

"Okay, so hear me out. I managed to get some all-access passes for it." Proving his point, Lavi dug into his jeans' pocket, producing the items in question. He had this in the bag. Adding on to the drama, Lavi heaved a sigh. "I tried to get Yu-pon to some along, but he said he was busy."

"He is? With what?" Ivy rushed into the questions, her disappointment slipping through the barrier between her emotions and her voice. It may have been stretching it a bit, but she had hoped to maybe go with Kanda herself if it was at all possible.

Even so, the chance that Kanda had lied to avoid dealing with Lavi was entirely possible. Thus, her second question.

"Homework, what else?" Lavi responded. It was even completely valid. "I tried to get him to go for it, but he wouldn't budge. Something about wanting to get this essay assignment we got today 'the fuck out of the way.'" Ivy knew just what kind of person that Kanda was when it came to his homework, because she was the same way. Lavi noticed her frown and tried to supply a cheerful grin. "So, I was wondering if you wanted to go."

Ivy's frown deepened. Something definitely wasn't right. This was too clean, too structured for Lavi to be doing this naturally. Whatever the redhead was planning, the Japanese girl was certain she didn't want anything to do with it.

"Why not ask Allen or Lenalee to go with you?" she presented. Sure, she was considered a friend by Lavi—it didn't take much to reach that categorization—but he had known the other two longer. Far longer. Plus Lenalee was way more into excursions into the wild and Allen was too polite to decline unless something major came up. Securing a yes from either of the duo was far easier.

"The Brit's quick," Lavi said, not missing a beat. "He already got a date with Lenalee."

Ivy smiled before she could stop herself. Allen and Lenalee had been waffling around their crushes on each other since Ivy had transferred in, and it had probably started long before that. The Japanese girl had always wondered when the British boy would work up the courage to ignore the possible damages caused by Komui to ask Lenalee on a proper date. As long as the aforementioned older brother didn't find out, they'd be fine.

Wait a minute—

That was all it took for the last clue to fall into place. "Lavi Bookman, are you asking me out on a date?" It was such a split second realization that Ivy couldn't put any other emotion in her voice than curiosity.

Lavi presented a sheepish grin. Everything was going exactly as he thought it would, even if there were a few lies mixed in. Then again, if things went right, those wouldn't matter at all.

"Uh, well, I suppose," he said, with intentional nervousness. "I mean, if that's okay with you and you're not busy on Friday."

Proposal complete, Lavi waited. This was the linchpin, sink or swim. Of course, there were other options, but this was the best one. The redhead didn't want to think of how long the SSGTIK would have to wait for another opportunity if his fell through.

Resigned, Ivy sighed. If Kanda really was going to be busy, that gave her nothing else to do. And at this point, she didn't want to just sit around the apartment all on her own, either.

"Sure," she said, "why not?"

Inside, Lavi let the fireworks fly.

Alright, today I'm going to catch up with these rewrite releases that were supposed to be up a couple of weeks ago. That should clean things up for future posting endeavors.

Thanks to WordsLeftBehind and ft4life for your favorites and follows! I know I'm just working on rewrites now, but new chapters are soon to come!

The rewrites of chapters six and seven will be up later today (as long as nothing super crazy happens and kills my free time).

You can also now support me on if you're the giving sort. Link is on my profile.

[POST] 092615