Exception

By: Aviantei

20. TRIangular: The Name's the Most Important Part

"Welcome, lady and gentle-Brit, to the first meeting of the New Not SSGTIK!" Lavi declared. They had returned to the garage where everything had started, and the original SSGTIK had been formed. Strange to think that it had only been three months ago that this whole mess had started…and look at them now, back at it again. Man, this whole situation was just bringing up memories! Lavi might actually cry.

Allen, on the other hand, was just about as impressed as he was the last time he had been here, and just as insistent to have nothing to do with Lavi's couch. He didn't care if the garage was a bit colder and might have tamed the damn thing. Nothing could convince him to ever go back there again.

It was pointless to try and go back inside, though. Apparently having two Bookman siblings in the house and a couple of holiday deliveries from their guardian later, and the house had become as messy as always. All of the hard work before Christmas had been wasted.

Allen could have also cried, albeit for different reasons than his redheaded friend.

"Um, the New Not SSGTI—What?" Ivy asked. Allen wasn't sure if he should have felt bad for her confusion, or wary because she had seemingly tamed the couch in the same way that Lenalee had.

"An excellent question, Ivy-chan!" Lavi declared, wielding what appeared to be the same stick from the snowball fight and pointing it in Ivy's direction. The Japanese girl blinked. "As you know, myself, Lenalee, and Brit here took it upon ourselves to help you and Yu-pon get together. However unnecessary that may have been, we dubbed ourselves 'The Secret Society for the Get Together of Ivy and Kanda'—or, the SSGTIK!"

"Uh huh," Ivy deadpanned, looking unimpressed. Allen took a few steps back, settling in a chair against the wall. If this came down to crossfire, there was no way Allen was going to get into the middle of it. He had too much to live for now.

Lavi nodded, crossing his arms and tapping his stick against his chair's side. "That being said, obviously we can't be the SSGTIK anymore since you two are together"

"Oh?" Ivy challenged. There was a dangerous tone in her voice. Allen pressed his back against the chair since he couldn't scoot back any further. "Is that the only reason, Lavi?"

"And of course I promised to never do something like that again, especially not without permission!" Lavi added on, laughing nervously. Allen couldn't help but wonder if something had happened. "So, since we don't have a name yet, I figured New Not SSGTIK would work for now." Lavi didn't want to admit it, but even a whole school day hadn't been enough to come up with the right name. He just hoped he wasn't losing it.

"Right then." Ivy leaned back into the couch, and Allen relaxed his posture with her. Even so, she didn't seem any less dangerous. "Putting that aside, the reason why we've gotten together today is that Allen has asked for our help in making progress with his issues. As agreed, we will only become involved when necessary, and will not interfere otherwise."

Each emphasized word was meant to be a blow to Lavi, and they each hit their mark. Lavi winced at each one, and would have physically recoiled if it weren't for the fact that Ivy was likely to get even more annoyed if he did. She meant business, and this wasn't a time to be playing around.

"As I think we're all aware of since we're far beyond the educational level necessary to read a calendar," Ivy continued, "next month is February. As such, Valentine's Day will be coming up. While it's definitely not required to figure things out before then, I think it's a good idea to try and get started on picking someone. Best case scenario, Allen can make a decision and start to take their relationship farther during the holiday."

Allen swallowed. It was true that Ivy was ambitious and committed, but that was a lot of pressure that she just unloaded on top of him. He had been trying to resolve these feelings for years, and Ivy was effectively now giving him less than a month.

"Hold on a minute," the British boy interrupted. At least with Ivy here, even if it was her plan, there was a chance his opinion would be properly heard. "Isn't that a bit too small of a time frame to work with? I really don't think I can choose by then…"

"Don't you worry your pretty little head off, Brit!" Lavi said, bouncing up from his seat. He closed the distance between himself and Allen's wall sanctuary in just a few paces. Defenses had been breached. "Leave the thinking to me and Ivy-chan! You just need to focus on keeping your feelings true and making the right decision."

"Even if he's rambling like an idiot, Lavi is partially right," Ivy said.

Lavi finally gave in and doubled over, hand grabbing at his chest. "Ivy-chan, you wound me…" he couldn't help it. It was too good of an opportunity to miss. Allen could only stare in a mix of fascination and antipathy. You would think he would be used to things like this by now.

Apparently not.

Ivy ignored the redhead's outburst, smiling at Allen. "Like I said, that's just a best case scenario, and one that I don't really expect us to reach," she assured. "Things usually don't work out well when people are under pressure, so just focus on understanding your feelings. We're just here to be a helping hand when you need it. Whether or not this takes a month or a year, we'll be willing to do what we can."

The difference in ideologies was astounding. Allen tried to imagine what it would be like if the SSGTIK had been like this, then realized it was impossible. Lavi had just done whatever he wanted without regard for anything else. Ivy wasn't going to let that happen.

"Thank you," Allen said, feeling a tiny bit better. He had never been quite so glad to have Ivy on his side.

"It's no problem at all, Allen-san. Alright, so with that being settled, the first order of business is—"

"We need a name!" Lavi announced, bouncing right back up into a standing position. Allen winced and apologized to his eardrums, even if it wasn't really his fault. "Like I said earlier, 'New Not SSGTIK' says a lot, but it's a real mouthful. So we should make up a new one to give us something to identify with!"

Ivy didn't want to identify with this scheme any more than she wanted to tell Komui that she was potentially trying to set up his sister with Allen. She went to protest, but the Brit beat her to the punch.

"Why does it have to matter so much if we have a name or not?" he asked, almost glaring. Ivy couldn't really call it a glare since his eyes still seemed wide and innocent, even like that. He just wasn't cut out to be scary. "Why can't you just think of this as helping a friend and not some secret mission?"

"Because," Lavi said, dragging out the last syllable of the word far longer than even a valley girl would find necessary, "thinking of it like a secret mission makes it more exciting! It adds to the drama!"

"It's not supposed to be dramatic, Lavi!" Ivy snapped. She could normally handle Lavi's antics, but they had just talked about this a few days ago! Even her patience had limits. Kanda would be proud. "This is supposed to be a productive meeting, not a game."

"No, wait, it's fine," Allen said. Ivy almost did a double take in the Brit's direction. Hadn't he asked her to keep Lavi under control in the first place? Allen sighed. He didn't like this any better than Ivy did, but letting Lavi have his way was the only way this conversation was getting anywhere remotely useful. "If you want to give this…thing a name, Lavi, make it quick."

Lavi grinned and executed a fist pump. It wasn't like he wasn't taking this seriously. He totally was! But they were trying to support Allen and shoving him into a tense atmosphere wasn't going to make this any easier. "I'm on it, Brit!" he said, pacing between the chairs and the somewhat shaky (but fifty percent off!) coffee table he had recently added. Finally, it hit him. "Got it! TRIangular!"

"No offense, Lavi, but what the bloody hell is that supposed to mean?"

"And what's with the unnatural emphasis on the 'tri' part?" Ivy asked.

"Hold on, guys, hear me out," Lavi added. The duo looked collectively unimpressed, but stayed silent nonetheless. The redhead couldn't stop smiling. This was brilliant! Why hadn't he thought of it sooner? "I mean, we're trying to solve a love triangle, right? Plus, there's three of us, so we're a triad! How's that sound?"

"Huh, not bad," Ivy allowed. It was ridiculous, but at least it had some thought to it. "At the very least no one's going to know what the hell we're doing if they hear it."

"And what do you think, Brit?"

Allen nodded in his approval. If Lavi was satisfied, that meant the number of distractions had just gone down by one. That made this situation at least a little bit easier.

"Putting things like that aside, though," Ivy said, wanting nothing more than to pull the conversation back on track. She had given up her time doing homework with Kanda for this, and this TRIangular business didn't need to be any more tedious than it was slowly turning out to be. "As I was saying, the first real order of business should be understanding our necessary steps. If the theoretical goal is to make progress by Valentine's Day, we should look into what our options are in the month until then."

Allen tried to think. Necessary steps? He hadn't even begun to seriously think about doing anything about his feelings beforehand, and now he was being dragged into coming up with a step by step battle plan? Having Ivy here was clearly positive, but it looked like it had its downsides as well.

"Well the obvious thing is for Brit to take the girls on a date!" Lavi suggested, and Allen visibly blanched. "Oh, relax, I mean separate dates, not a group date. That's no way to sort out your feelings at all, and I think Ari might strangle Lenalady if that did happen…"

"I think you're underestimating Lenalee's brutality as well, Lavi." Ivy couldn't help but feel bored by the exchange. While Lavi's deduction was correct, the extra tagline wasn't necessary. Besides, even if Ivy didn't know much about Ari, she knew you didn't want to be on the receiving end of one of Lenalee's kicks. "But I do agree with the proposal that Allen-san should start out with taking Ari and Lenalee both on separate dates."

Lavi seriously nodded so much it was a wonder his brain didn't get knocked around all over the place. Then again, that would have explained a lot if it were true.

"Right! Now the main focus is to figure out how to ask them out and where to take them. If you don't have a backup plan, most girls get fussy and bored when you run out of things to do."

"I'll ignore your generalization of women for now in favor of saying that a plan is a good idea," Ivy said, clenched teeth slightly gritting her words.

"Um…" Allen said.

Lavi patted him on the shoulder; the poor boy was obviously confused! "No worries, Brit, we got this," he assured. "Movies are out."

"Ugh, definitely. Sure, usually they're nice, but not on their own. And especially since Allen-san is supposed to be interacting with them, he'll need to be able to see as much of their personalities as he can."

"Wait…" Allen tried again.

"So, what? Dinner? Stuff like the park is out since it's still too cold… Maybe shopping? It's a bit cliché, but it's cliché for a reason."

"Well, I'm sure Lenalee-san might enjoy that," Ivy said. "You're going to need to provide most of the base knowledge concerning Ari, though. I don't know her well enough to guess what she would like to do. I should be able to talk to Lenalee-san if I have to, though…"

"Hold on!" Allen shouted, his calm breaking. Honestly, the point of having Ivy around was so that Lavi didn't steamroll him. The Brit really should have known better than to think this thing would be easy. "Just wait a minute, you two. Shouldn't I get a say in this, Ivy?"

The girl blinked at the emphasis on her name. At least she had the decency to look embarrassed, unlike Lavi. "Heh, you're right, Allen-san. Really, we were just brainstorming, so I'm sure whatever input you wanted to add can be taken into account here."

"Alright, fire away, Brit!" Lavi cheered. He even put his hands together in the shape of a gun. "Bang~!"

"Good," Allen said, smiling a little. At least they could be reined in simply enough. "Now, as I was trying to say—"

"No, no, no, Brit, you gotta give it impact!" Lavi grinned and aimed his 'gun' at Ivy. "Bang~!" The girl twitched, but didn't provide a verbal protest. Lavi would probably suffer some form of bodily injury later.

Allen sighed. Whatever it takes to make him shut up for ten seconds, he thought, putting his hands into the proper position. "The truth is we can worry about this stuff later, because I already agreed to go on a date with Ari." The two others in the room stared, and Allen lazily aimed at them, 'firing' with a deadpan "Bang."

For a moment, neither of them said anything. Maybe silence was the sound someone's brain made when it exploded. Then, in perfect unison, Ivy and Lavi let out a harmonized "Ehhhhhh?!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what do you mean you got a date already?" Ivy protested. "That's important, Allen-san. That's super important! Why didn't you say anything?"

Allen couldn't even justify that with a proper response, rolling his eyes. Ivy would probably realize her blunder in time anyway, so there was no point in mentioning just how much she and Lavi could talk when they didn't regulate themselves.

"More importantly, why didn't you tell me you asked Ari out?" the redhead interjected. "That's like my baby sister, man! You can't just go and not tell me when you wanna go out with her. I need to know these things, I could have helped you out, Brit!"

"That's because I didn't ask, she did," Allen responded.

And now to sit back and wait for that piece of information to sink in, too.

"Ari did?" Ivy asked. Allen nodded, sending the girl back into contemplation. Lavi, on the other hand, wasn't anywhere near as quiet, flailing about the room, nearly knocking several things over. Allen scooted his chair away from the shelf filled with various snow globes.

Lavi let out an "Ehhhhh?!" even more exaggerated than the one before. He sniffed, tears forming in the corner of his eye. "No way! My litter sister's growing up enough to go on a date and confess her feelings to a boy?!" Most would assume the tears were faked, but Ivy and Allen knew better. Lavi was probably genuinely overwhelmed with emotion. "They grow up so fast!" the redhead wailed.

Ivy trained her gaze on Allen. No need to let the new water feature in the room distract her. "Well, that at least gets us off on a good foot," she said. "Did you make any plans already, or is there just the idea of a date in the air?"

Allen navigated around Lavi to stand by Ivy, a good few feet still between him and the couch. "We already made arrangements. Ari said she had it all planned out," the British boy reported. Ivy nodded. "We're going out tomorrow night. She said she saved enough allowance to be able to afford this restaurant called Millennial?"

"So soon?!" Lavi exclaimed, his one eye widening. Just how much money was Ari conning out of the Old Panda if she could afford a swanky ass place like that? "Okay, we gotta get ready to provide backup. Ivy and I can get a table on the other side and you can come to us for recon. Man, this would be easier if we had mikes and earpieces, don't you think?"

"Probably," Ivy allowed. "But I can't do that."

"You can't?" Allen asked, his heart sinking. He didn't exactly feel like that much recon was necessary, but if Lavi was going to be staking out the restaurant, Allen wanted Ivy there, too. "Is something wrong?"

"I already have arrangements." Lavi went to open his mouth, and Ivy silenced it with a glare. "We agreed that this whole affair wouldn't interfere with my personal life, correct, Lavi?"

The redhead bobbed his head in a nod. "Yup. But can't you just reschedule your plans? We did promise we would help out Allen."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because," Ivy gritted out. Her cheeks were beginning to tint pink and she didn't like it. "Yu-kun and I are going on a date, and he would never agree to cancel just because of what he's been seeing as 'another one of that fucking rabbit's bullshit schemes'."

Allen started playing with the fingers of his glove. This wasn't looking good. At this rate, Lavi would be the only one left, and the redhead would blow the whole thing. Even if Allen wasn't sure of his feelings, Ari had had the courage to ask him out. He needed to respect that.

So there was only one thing left to do.

"Ivy-san," Allen said, putting his hands together. Normally he didn't like doing things like this, but the situation was desperate enough. "Can we work out a compromise? You and Kanda can go on your…date and it can be at the same place as mine and Ari's. Lavi can handle most of it, but just in case you can serve as backup."

"Allen-san, I can't afford—" Ivy tried.

"Lavi and I will pay for it." The redhead in question turned to look at Allen in shock, who only tried to make it very clear terrible things would happen to Lavi if he argued in a split second. It apparently worked. "So, please, Ivy-san."

Final touch: puppy dog eyes. Kicked puppy dog eyes. In the rain. Ivy looked at his face for a second too long, turning away with a click of the tongue that sounded a bit too much like Kanda.

"Fuck."

Okay, I meant to post this a few weeks ago, but better late than never!

Now, on to business. I've decided that I've had enough sitting around on this story without making any real progress. While ideally, I'd like to say I'm going to finish it by the end of the year, I don't think that's going to happen. However, I completed the rewrites up until chapter nine, which is all I think needs to be redone for now. So, once a week (after I get the other few updates I'm delayed on up), I'll be posting the rewrites. Once I'm done with those, I'll be aiming to update a new chapter every week until the end of November, which should put us at chapter twenty-seven, and possibly close to the end of this arc. We'll see when we get there.

This little venture was inspired by the Sauce Project and the current run of [Equinoctial Stars over Seasons]. I just happen to like writing on Saturdays now, so yeah. Check out the E-Sauce forum if you have the time. It's relatively new, but we love conversation.

See you around for the updates!

Next time, Friday mornings seem to be incapable of being peaceful.

[POST] 091915