Exception

By: Aviantei

48. Inspiration Before Crossing Paths

The meeting to pull together the initial fundraising efforts went off pretty well, what with Lenalee's charisma pulling in more people to assist. With their numbers, they had a solid team at their disposal, so it was a simple matter to set up shifts and build a table design to operate during lunch hours. And so sat the inevitable crew that was, all things considered, as pretty awkward, but could have been worse.

Somehow, Allen, Lenalee, and Ari had ended up on the same team for the day, and so they were sitting together while Allen tried not to break down from potential anxiety.

Of course, the group had been assembled out of consideration of the fact that they were still friends (and Ari and Lenalee making sure they could keep an eye out during the event just in case there was trouble), so it wasn't assembled with any ill will. Also, Allen was the only one overthinking things, but who could blame him? It was his first time since the dance having such a solo encounter with the girls, both of whom he'd shot down.

Maybe it would have been more awkward if I did pick someone, though? Ugh, I'm not ready for any of this stuff.

"Um, hey," he said, hoping to give himself room to breathe. "I didn't pick up enough food earlier, and I'm still pretty hungry. You mind if I take another run through the line?"

"Go ahead."

"Not a problem!"

Ari and Lenalee had no issues holding down the fort on their own, and if either of them noticed Allen beating a hasty retreat (which of course they did), neither of them ended up saying anything. Maybe food would help him calm down enough to stop worrying. Exchanging looks, Ari and Lenalee sighed.

"Maybe if we just say something he'll stop worrying," Lenalee said, offering the only suggestion she had in mind.

"I was kinda hoping this would just shock therapy him into chilling out," Ari said. It was clear, though, that plan hadn't worked out, causing them to sigh again.

"What, you two not getting any work done?" said Ivy as she approached. Even if she wasn't going to help out, that didn't mean she couldn't come by and see what was going on (and maybe gently pick on the others while she was at it). Kanda trailed behind her, though he raised an eyebrow at the display.

"How the fuck," he said, "did you guys even think that would be a good idea to use?" A very fair question to ask, given that the banner hanging off the table said SCIENCE CLUB EMERGENCY DESTRUCTION FUND in big artsy design, design courtesy of one of the Art Club members Lenalee had recruited. "Isn't that just saying that you are going to destroy something in the process?"

"Well what do you want us to do?" Ari asked, propping her hands on her hips. "Everyone knows that the Science Club is a mess, even without Komui running it. If we just say we're raising money for them, people are going to think that their cash is gonna help blow everything up instead."

"Reever said it was best if we were honest," Lenalee said with a sigh. "I couldn't even argue with him. Things get messy. Oh, but maybe if we paired things up with actual goodies, then it wouldn't matter what we were raising for; we could just bribe people."

Note to self, Ivy thought, Lena has been evil this whole time. Having known her for so long, this information came as no surprise to the others, but Ivy still had gaps in her knowledge. That Lenalee was exposing this side to her was just a sign of friendship, though, so win? "I mean, you could, but what would be good enough that people would be willing to still toss money in the Science Club's direction? Wouldn't it be better to also pick a charity to donate proceeds to or something for part of the funds?"

"Hm, maybe…" Lenalee tapped her finger to her chin, lost in thought. Ivy realized that she'd potentially left an opening to get recruited again, but neither Lenalee nor Ari pressed it. Kanda noticed Ivy tense and pressed a hand to her shoulder in reassurance. "We're having fundraising at the event, too, so maybe they'll have their guards up way less, so that could help in the eleventh hour."

"Assuming you all survive long enough to still fundraise," Kanda said, because that was a concern, now wasn't it? Let no one say that there was ever a dull day at Black Order High. "Try not to die; I don't wanna deal with the mess that would cause."

"Yes, yes, Kanda," Lenalee said with great sarcasm, "I love you, too, don't worry." Ivy snickered, though part of her brain couldn't help but latch onto the words. Jealousy was illogical, but brains did have the chance to be dumb. "If you're so worried about us, how about you stop by and make sure nothing blows up on the day?"

"Pass. I'm not getting anywhere near that shit, especially if your brother's getting involved." Which, Lenalee had to admit, was super fair, if not a little bit unfortunate. She had told Ivy she'd give her a break, though, so no need to push it. "Well, good luck convincing people to give you money. Come on, Ivy, you still haven't eaten. Let's get going."

"Yeah, yeah…"

With the couple retreating, Ari propped her elbows on the table. "They're adorable," she said.

"Please tell me I didn't just hear you call Kanda cute," Allen said as he approached. He was totting along a massive tray of food that he with long time practice was able to put down on the table without dropping anything. Mad skills. "If so, I never wanna hear a sentence like that ever again."

"Don't worry, Allen! You're always the cutest of all, so you can rest easy." That wasn't anything like what Allen was worrying about in the first place, but he chose not to argue, given that his time was much better spent on getting through the food he'd scored. Even Ari was eyeing a serving of cheese fries (so simple, and yet Jerry could make them taste like heaven!). "So, any chance I could steal some of your munchies?"

"Oh, go ahead! I figured it'd be nice if we could share, so I had Jerry add extra!" Given that Jerry understood the appetites of everyone involved, that proportion of 'extra' didn't seem like much on top of Allen's usual, but it was still additional food, which kind of (but not really) made the mountain of food a little bit more understandable. "Man, Jerry's cooking is so good. It would be great if we could eat from him on the weekends, too…"

"That's it!" Lenalee stood up with enough force to almost topple the table, and her voice was loud enough to attract the other passerby students. Ari and Allen both gave her confused looks, but she continued on undeterred. "Look, like you said, everyone loves Jerry's food. So what if we asked if he'd be okay with offering a special meal as a fundraiser raffle prize. We'd score a ton of people with donations that way!" It was a pretty effective idea, all things considered, though it did hinge on one very big element: Jerry's willingness to help. "Hold down the fort here! I'll go see if Jerry wouldn't mind lending us a hand." And then Lenalee was off, her pigtails fluttering after her.

Ari popped a cheese fry in her mouth. "She never slows down, huh?"

"Well, if it weren't for her, who knows where we'd be," Allen said, at least making sure to swallow before he spoke. The more engrossed in his food he got, he'd likely forget, but it wasn't at that intense of a point yet. "If Jerry does end up agreeing to help, though, I'll have to donate a lot. Hm, how much do you think it should be per ticket? Five sounds like a good amount for students—ah, then how many chances could I score if…"

And as Allen started to mutter between shoveling food into his mouth, Ari felt she'd made the right call in deciding to help out.

"Have you been sleeping enough?"

The question came from Kanda, and Ivy blinked at him. Sure, she'd felt a little worn down, but she didn't think it was obvious enough to show up on her face. But I still don't need to hide it. Yu-kun won't judge you for it. Without many other options, Ivy leaned back in her chair. "Maybe? I've just been doing a lot with schoolwork." Though she'd already gotten her college acceptance, Black Order High did offer some double credit courses, and those were keeping her plenty busy. Abandoning the notes she was taking, Ivy flopped her head over onto Kanda's shoulder. "You're in a lot of the same classes as I am, though. You know how it is."

"Yeah, but at least I'm not running on fumes." Taking care not to disturb Ivy too much, Kanda flipped her textbook shut after marking the page. "I think being your boyfriend means I need to call you out whenever you're working too hard." Ivy pursed her lips together, unable to retort. "You're working ahead like usual, right? I'm sure you can take a day off." He could even say that with confidence, considering that he had the same workload and he recognized what Ivy was working on.

"I mean, I know that, but…" Slowing down was hard, for one—but that wasn't all of it. Though Ivy hadn't acknowledged it, slowing down didn't seem like an option at all. Kanda was about as sympathetic as he could be for the situation, but that still ended in him giving Ivy an unimpressed look. "…but you're not going to let me argue my way out of this one, are you?"

"Damn right I'm not. You keep that attitude up and I'll take points away from you instead of giving them."

Ivy gave Kanda a look of mock horror, though she didn't have the energy to maintain it for very long. "Well, if we're not working during our free period, what are we doing then, Yu-kun?"

In all honesty, Kanda hadn't thought he'd win the argument (he of all people was well aware of just how stubborn Ivy could be) so easily, thus he hadn't prepared an alternate plan of action. Ivy, recognizing that, giggled, but let Kanda have enough time to think of an option. Though most people would have thought that he looked the same as ever, it was more than obvious enough to Ivy that he was stumped—and that just served provide a rare moment of Kanda being adorable.

"…We'll go get something to eat." Ivy blinked, and Kanda took his own moment to enjoy how cute she was being. "I'd suggest you take a nap, but I know you'll say no, so we can at least go have some free time together. Or go shopping or some shit…just something to give you a break." And he also wanted some one-on-one time, but saying that was embarrassing, so Ivy would just have to read between the lines if she wanted to figure that much out.

"Kanda Yu, are you telling me to skip my afternoon classes?"

Kanda shrugged. "Not in so many words, but it wouldn't hurt, would it? At least in our next class, attendance is kinda optional if you keep up with your work." Which was very much something the both of them did. "And if you don't wanna do that, we have plenty of time left in our free period. If we just go out for a little bit of time, we'll be able to get back in time by next period." And didn't going out shopping while they were supposed to be in class sound kind of fun? Shit, I can't even blame the Rabbit for being a bad influence here.

Ivy debated for a moment. She'd done the whole skip class thing before, and it wasn't an experience she wanted to relive, but if it was for the sake of Kanda looking out for her…well, that was a different matter altogether. She flashed a small smile. "Alright, but if I get in trouble, I reserve the right to blame it on you."

"Ah, I see how it is. Glad to know that's how you see me." The drawl of sarcasm in his voice was obvious, and Kanda went to start packing up—but not before pausing with his mouth next to Ivy's ear. "Though if it was for you, I'd gladly be your scapegoat."

Ivy turned red in an instant, and Kanda smirked as she held her hand to her ear. Nope, nope, that was way too hot. Unfair, Yu-kun, unfair! Trying to keep herself under control, Ivy focused on packing up her bag as best she could, though her best in this case ended up being a disorganized toss of everything inside, but that was Future Ivy's problem. Well, if they were going on some sort of mini date, she'd have to come up with some sort of way to fluster him back; it was only fair!

Once they'd pulled all their things together, the couple left the study room, holding hands along the way. Kanda may not have been one for PDA, but he could handle that much, especially since not a lot of people were out and about during the free periods. While chatting about what kind of excursion they wanted to go on, it was a quintessential couple moment.

"Didn't you want to go to that one new stationary store that popped up?"

"Yeah, but that's pretty far out, and then we might not make it back in time for our next class…"

"Hm, you caught me."

"I will take points away, Yu-kun, don't tempt me."

"Oh, that is Yu!"

Having been so caught up in their own world, neither Ivy nor Kanda had noticed that there was someone else in the hallway—and it wasn't even a student at that. Ivy assessed the newcomer, who was blonde with a white hat covering most of his hair. He'd also spoken with the faintest traces of an accent, though she couldn't quite place it. The rest of his ensemble was mostly white, though there were bits of black there for a decent contrast. She didn't think he was a Noah, but…well, let's just say that recent events made it a bit difficult to relax when encountering a new face that didn't look like they belonged at a high school whatsoever.

And then Kanda said, "Bak," which at least confirmed that he wasn't an immediate threat. Wanting to respect Kanda's boundaries about fluff in public, Ivy tried to disentangle her hand from his, but Kanda just grabbed onto her fingers tighter, so she stayed put. "What the fuck are you even doing here?"

"Sheesh," Bak said, "that foul mouth of yours hasn't changed at all." With a sigh, Bak scratched at the back of his head. "You know the annual Robot Fight Club? I brought the East Branch kiddos with me to help Komui and Reever's batch out, so I'm advising." Bak's almost translucent gray eyes flicked over to Ivy, though he chose to keep his mouth shut about the whole hand holding thing. If Kanda still had a dirty mouth, there was no doubt he could be just as aggressive as ever. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you and your friend, I was just excited to see you. I'm Chang Bak."

Ivy didn't miss the lack of context for how the two knew each other, but she could save that for later. "Minomasu Ivy," she said with a dip of her head. "It's nice to meet you."

Bak smiled. "Likewise. Oh, Yu, I know it's a ways away, but are you planning on stopping by soon? I know you keep in touch with them, but I'm sure Alma would like to see you in person." Without his meaning to, Kanda's hand tightened around Ivy's, and she squeezed back. Not noticing the interaction, Bak checked his watch and gasped. "Ah, damn, I gotta get going, if I don't hurry back I can just see there being a big mess. We'll be here through next week, so feel free to stop by and chat sometime, Yu."

"Yeah," Kanda said, "I'll think about it."

And with that Bak was gone, with Ivy trying to calculate where he fell on her mental scale. Kanda didn't seem to dislike him, but if he was going to just make Kanda uncomfortable with his presence…

"If you make a face like that, I'm not going to do a good job at helping you relax." Ivy frowned, more at herself than anything for slipping—and then also scolded herself for thinking she needed to hide her feelings in the first place. Kanda, noticing the furrow in her brow, mirrored her expression. "Are you worried about Bak?" Feeling a bit embarrassed in a very different way than earlier, Ivy nodded. "What for?"

"What he said. It seemed to bother you." The misunderstanding clear enough, Kanda still couldn't help but feel a bit pleased that Ivy was so willing to take his side. She tilted her head. "Was I wrong?"

"No, but…" Kanda ran a hand through his bangs and sighed. "It's a lot to talk about, and I wasn't expecting you to find out about this for a while, but might as well." Yeah, this was one of those awkward things that no one in their group knew. And while Kanda would have liked to be more selective in when he brought it up, at least he felt comfortable with Ivy being the first to know about it at all. "I met Bak when I was a kid, because, well…

"I was in the hospital for a while when I was a kid, and his parents were my doctors. Mine and Alma's."

[Author's Notes]

Not gonna lie, I def keep giving myself whiplash while I edit these chapters while still working on later arcs. It feels like these were written forever ago, and yet...

But, yeah, Allen is a good boy, and there's zero way I was gonna get through this fic without mentioning Alma. There's even less of a chance I would ever write Alma as cisgender, but that's a discussion for another chapter, so I'll let it be. It's def funny how many things I've added to this fic since the original conception thanks to additional manga material, and Alma is one of them. I've had fun writing, so I hope you also enjoy!

[Shibuya Operation - Story Storm] is almost through its 2022-2023 season! I'd like to once again encourage you to check out my project, should it strike your fancy. I have a pile of other past works written for this challenge, too, so search the tag on my profile if you're curious!

That said, I'll see you for the next chapter in March! Please look forward to it!

-Avi

[02.18.2022]