Exception
By: Aviantei
9. A Little Bit Closer
No sooner than Lenalee had said the words did Lavi have to resist the urge to grin. Seriously, it was the best thing he had heard all day. The entire plan was coming together perfectly. And everyone had doubted him…really, this was all too simple. Not bothering to give Lenalee a verbal response, Lavi shut his phone and shoved it to his pocket, turning back to his date.
"What was that about?" Ivy asked. Sure, Lavi was weird. Lavi would talk to books when he thought no one was looking. But Lavi tended to be at least slightly saner when it came to human interaction (with an extra large emphasis on sane), and hanging up only after answering his phone was definitely unusual.
"Oh, just a spam call," Lavi dismissed. He'd have to apologize to Lenalee for that remark later, but for now, anything for the success of the plan! Besides, it was Lavi's last role in this particular drama, so he needed to just go for it and get to the point. "Ivy, be perfectly honest with me about this: You want to be here with Yu-pon, don't you?"
"Eh?" Ivy blurted out the meaningless syllable before she could even catch herself. This wasn't good. Lavi was striking forward with no inhibitions, and he wasn't even going to give her the common courtesy of formulating a response. "U-um, well…" she stammered, feeling the temperature radiate right out of her face.
Of course, Lavi was an expert in translating stutter. Or, rather, he had planned the situation so that the answer would have to be "yes." Grinning, he pulled his phone back out, flipping it open. "Because if you do, I can arrange that," he declared.
Ivy's eyes widened. Lavi chose to take that as a flustered panic. Ivy knew for a fact, that she wasn't ready to talk to Kanda again, not after that fight. Sure, she still felt irritated, but mostly she felt guilty. "W-wait, Lavi!" she protested, considering tackling the redhead to stop him, even if it could cause social awkwardness. Ah, to hell with it! Ivy tried to find the best place to knock the Rabbit off balance—
Too late. Lavi pressed three for his speed dial with unnecessary flourish, setting it to speaker phone for added effect. Ivy's heart only sped up which each ring, hoping that maybe Kanda wouldn't even pick up. It was Lavi calling after all.
But part of her couldn't help but think if Kanda did pick up. Lavi would make a big show of everything, milking the fact that Ivy wanted Kanda to be around. Hell, there might even be a meet up on the redhead's mind. But Ivy knew that wouldn't happen, because Kanda probably didn't even want to talk to her.
And even if he did, I would have no clue how to apologize.
Within seconds, a nearby bush began to blare a hard rock guitars in response. Lavi grinned his biggest grin of the day. Oh, the moment when a plan came together…
Ivy jumped, recognizing the song. It was Kanda's "Stupid Rabbit" Ringtone ("At least if I pick an alright song, it might be less annoying. Maybe."). As if any more confirmation was needed, a loud curse came from the same bush, and Kanda stood up, brushing leaves off his jacket and looking livid. He declined the phone call, turning the device completely off and shoving it into his pocket while glaring straight down to Lavi's rabbit-shaped soul.
"I am going to absolutely kill you," he growled. First, a date with Ivy, and then this? The rabbit was just asking for it. Kanda almost considered riding the Ferris wheel with him so that he could toss Lavi off the top of it.
Of course, Kanda was also pissed at himself for being stupid enough to leave his phone on in the first place, at least without putting it on silent first. Not that much could really be done about it, now, though.
"Kanda-san?" Ivy questioned. Really, it was time to face the consequences.
Kanda sighed, redirecting his attention from Lavi. "Hey, Ivy."
"Kanda-san, what are you—? I mean…" The Japanese girl found herself unable to form a proper sentence. Her guilt was back in full force (it was Kanda's fault she was here in the first place), but it still took a backseat to her utter confusion. Nothing about this situation made sense!
They remained silent for a few moments. After collecting her thoughts, Minomasu Ivy was able to recognize a few facts, the main one being that she was at the fall festival. About to get on a Ferris wheel. With Kanda Yu.
And Lavi Bookman was nowhere in sight.
Ah, shit.
"Nicely performed, Lavi," Lenalee complimented the redhead as he joined the stakeout on top of the office building in record time. She spared a smile before turning her attention back through the binoculars as Ivy and Kanda loaded into their compartment of the Ferris wheel. Then again, the building was pretty close by, so binoculars might not have been entirely necessary at this point.
"Wasn't it?" Lavi excitedly replied. No, he wasn't bragging. He was accepting a compliment with grace while feeling rightly proud of himself. He pulled out a set of small binoculars from his jacket pocket, checking on Ivy and Kanda's position. "Brit, could I have the camera?"
Said Brit nodded and reached into his nearby camera bag. Allen had a passing interest in photography, which had led to Cross buying him ridiculously expensive camera (Allen didn't want to think of the debt) as pretty much a bribe to get Allen to shut the hell up in his presence. The boy was more than willing to never speak a word to Cross again. Passing the requested item to Lavi, Allen had to do his best not to drop the camera from his shivering. "Can we go home soon?" he asked.
"Soon, Brit, soon," Lavi assured fixing his camera on Ivy and Kanda below. The Ferris wheel was still loading, so they would be still for a bit longer, making the shot easier. Of course, the camera was pretty legit, too, so there probably wouldn't be any issues getting a quality image. "Hey, check it out! Looks like things are getting interesting for our favorite couple."
The amount of enthusiasm in his voice was almost enough to choke on.
The couple in question was currently in the middle of an extremely awkward silence. Ivy hadn't even gotten the slightest chance to get over her previous worries, and she had yet to say a proper thing. Kanda, while having intended to eventually interrupt the date anyway, realized that he hadn't really figured out the parts after that,
The fact that they were alone inside a Ferris wheel compartment didn't really help matters, either.
Kanda had directed his gaze out the window. The farther up they went, the more people he could see crowded in the festival and he couldn't really believe it. Of course, he couldn't believe that he had come to this goddamn thing. All because Lavi was a moron. This couldn't be right.
Finally, Ivy figured that she should say something. "Kanda-san," she quietly asked, "why did you follow us?"
Kanda made himself look at her. She wasn't really looking properly at him, but something in her voice had almost shook. Time to be honest and come clean about everything—serious matters and rabbit shit. Well, here goes nothing.
"Ivy—" he started, then realized he had stumbled. Ah, dammit. Ivy raised her head, expression blank. Kanda almost got the impression of an interrogation. "I was worried, okay? I didn't want him doing anything to you." Especially just to get to me.
Ivy felt her shoulders slump the instant she heard the words. "Oh, why didn't you just tell me that yesterday?" She sounded exasperated, and Kanda didn't blame her. "Why haven't we just asked each other out and gotten it over with?"
It was the question Ivy had been wondering for herself for a few months. Kanda paused before opening his mouth.
He guessed the rate she cut him off at only proved he didn't have the right to answer.
"Who cares what Lavi thinks?" she challenged. "If that's your only problem, then you can just get over it! I'm tired of this!" Ivy's voice rose in volume. Kanda wondered how long she had been holding in the frustration. And when it came down to it, did he really care more about the Rabbit's opinion then he did about her? "I swear, Kanda, sometimes you can be such a—"
And Kanda decided to cut her off his way.
Suddenly, getting into arguments didn't matter so much anymore.
Flash!
"Woot! Perfect shot!" Lavi cheered, throwing his hands into the air. Even in his sluggish state, Allen was able to panic at his camera getting pushed that high up in Lavi's grip, which only made the drop to the ground below seem that much more likely. "Good jog, gang!" Satisfied by his celebration, Lavi dropped his hands (and the camera) safely to his lap, and Allen was able to breathe as easy as one could with the beginnings of a stuffy nose.
"Can we go home now?" Allen asked. He needed a nap. One that lasted the weekend preferably. And some medicine. And tea. And preferably a bath with a guaranteed antibacterial scrub that would purge any trace of germs from his body.
"We can do whatever we want now, Brit." Lavi had already gotten permission to borrow the camera, so there was no point in keeping the Brit around any longer. Grumbling out a nearly indistinct "Good," Allen sulked away. Lavi would be sure to properly thank his friend when Monday rolled around. Focusing for now on the camera's screen, Lavi took a moment to admire his handiwork, Lenalee leaning over his shoulder.
"It is a good shot," she complimented, and Lavi beamed even brighter. At this rate, his sunshine output would give away their location. "So what's the next step, Colonel?"
"Oh, I've got ideas, Commodore. I've got ideas."
And it was moments like this that reassured Lavi that everything was absolutely worth it.
A normally peaceful Saturday morning was experiencing interruptions from the Stupid Rabbit Ring Tone (patent pending). Kanda really, really didn't want to pick it up, but experience proved that if he didn't, Lavi would keep calling.
And calling.
And calling.
Of course, blocking the number didn't work, either. Lavi was a persistent one, and Kanda got the feeling that the Rabbit would be utterly content with changing his number until Kanda gave in. This hadn't actually happened, but Kanda was so convinced it would that he hadn't even bothered to try it.
Reluctantly, Kanda picked up the phone.
"Good morning, Yu-pon!" Lavi sang on the other line, making Kanda wish they were actually around each other in person. That sort of thing made throttling so much easier. "Sorry about yesterday, Lenalee needed my help and I can't just leave a lovely lady hanging!" Never mind the fact that he had left Ivy behind to flail just to keep from drowning. Besides, Ivy was a trooper.
"Get to the point, Rabbit," Kanda growled. He still had all the weekend's homework to do, thanks to a certain someone.
Lavi let out his standard overdramatic sigh before continuing on in that way-too-fucking-peppy tone. "But, you won't believe what happened, Yu-pon. When I was with Lena, I got the best picture!"
Kanda had a bad feeling about this. Then again, he always had an awful feeling whenever Lavi opened his mouth, so maybe there was nothing to worry about. "What picture? What the hell are you even talking about?"
In answer, Kanda's phone vibrated, letting him now he had a picture message. Knowing he would probably regret this, Kanda let the data load through his Wi-Fi connection.
"So, whatcha think? Pretty sweet shot, huh?"
"Fucking Rabbit, I hope you're ready to die," he threatened, teeth clenched, immediately hanging up the phone and tossing it on his bed. He didn't look at the picture, but he could still see it. Sure, he was pissed at Lavi for taking it (because who wouldn't be), but… it had actually happened. The picture was proof enough. For both him and Lavi.
Lying down Kanda reached for his phone again. He pressed one, hoping the person on the other end would answer.
Ivy did answer, sounding half asleep. "Hello?"
"Ivy?" Kanda asked, trying not to be too loud.
"Kanda-san!" Her voice perked up instantly. Kanda actually smiled a bit. "Um, what's up?"
"You know the homework I was supposed to be doing yesterday?" Ivy gave a small hum of the affirmative. "Well, due to unforeseen events, I was unable to do so. And it's kind of a lot, so maybe some help…?"
It was probably a lame excuse to see her, but they had formed the habit of doing their homework together, anyways. Sure, Lavi would laugh, but to Kanda, it meant something.
"So you want my…help." It was more of a statement than a question, with the right bite of sarcasm to it. As far as Kanda could tell, she was feeling a lot better, and that was enough to let him relax more.
"I guess you could say that." The traded off what times would be good, and Ivy promised she'd be over soon, once she had woke up properly. Kanda said that it was fine, and was getting ready to hang up, but Ivy's voice stopped him.
"Hey," she said, sounding a bit awkward again, the same tone she had used the rest of the day after they had gotten out of the Ferris wheel. "Again, about Thursday…I'm sorry."
Kanda blinked. Really, he had forgotten about the whole thing already, or at least wasn't annoyed by it anymore. But Ivy still sounded hung up on it. He really didn't blame her, but that didn't mean she needed to sound so guilty!
"Forget about it," he said, "or else I'll just have to make you stop talking about it again." He wondered if she had blushed about that, mainly because it felt like his skin was heating up the slightest amount. "Now stop worrying about stupid things and get over here. This homework isn't going to do itself."
Ivy let out a small laugh, though Kanda couldn't quite place the tone. "Yeah, you're right. I'll see you soon!"
Having hung up, Kanda closed his eyes, letting himself relax into meditation for a bit. It would still be some time before Ivy got her shower and things together, plus the drive. He could afford to relax for a moment.
And Kanda exhaled, knowing that he was a little bit closer.
Hooray for expanded dialogue! Hooray for additional scenes! Hooray for being done with the rewrites!
Well, to be honest, I'm sure there are some chapters that could still be adjusted, but this reaches my goal from before. Besides, if I spend all that time on fixing things, I'll never move forward! So we'll lay the rewrites to rest for this year and get into continuing the TRIangular arc back from chapter twenty-one starting next week.
I'll probably mention this again, but just know that I've also been able to expand the amount of time I'll be releasing Exception chapters by three whole weeks! That means you'll be getting weekly releases all the way up to chapter thirty. The TRIangular arc has a lot of surprised (and by that, I mean for me, the author) but I've been working hard to make some progress. I'll be knocking out some chapters later today so I can keep the queue on time and hopefully not have to be rushed as things progress.
And because these early chapters have changed so much: Thank you to all the people who supported me during the original release of this story. Thanks to everyone for being patient with me as I rewrote them. Thanks to whoever has read this story at any point. And thanks to the Sauce Project Crew for inspiring me to take on this revival project anyways. (You should totally check them out, especially over at Equinoctial Stars over Seasons, which is happening right now!)
Next time I'll be writing an author's note for this story, it'll be for chapter twenty-one. I'll see you all then!
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