Exception

By: Aviantei

70. So Close and Yet So Far

"I'm not going to apologize for staying out without permission," Lenalee said, a pretty aggressive starting line for her standards. It was uncharted territory for both of siblings, for the most part because they'd never had a more serious argument before, with many of their kerfuffles being about small things like not cleaning up a mess in the shared areas of the house or even Lenalee chiding Komui for his overreactions. It was playful bickering at its worst, and yet, for the present, things had escalated.

"Considering that you made sure to let Reever know where you were—" and, by extension, also let Komui know "—I'm not going to scold you for that. Though I do wish that you would've called me yourself." How does one even do stern parent mode? Komui was clueless, and the thought of lecturing the preciousness that was Lenalee seemed almost sacrilegious if he had to put a word to it. But it was supposed to be about compromise, he reminded himself, so they had to start by understanding each other. "…Why didn't you want to come home?"

Part of Lenalee had still been raring up for a fight, so the genuine curiosity in her brother's voice caught her off guard. Komui waited for her to collect her thoughts. "Because I knew you'd still be worked up about my class partner." Right, that had been why Komui had flown off the handle on Friday. He'd almost forgotten in the panic of Lenalee mentioning that she hated him. "It's dumb, Nī-san! You freak out all the time whenever I get even near a boy. Sometimes I wonder how I even managed to make friends in the first place with you hovering around me all the time. And I know we had it rough after Mom and Dad died, but I'm growing up. Sure, I'm still a teenager, and I'll need your help a little while longer, but don't you trust me at all to take care of myself at school at least? I mean, come on, you work there! If anything happens—like, anything serious, I'd be able to let you know."

Sure, the end result of that would be whoever managed to hurt Lenalee encountering a painful demise, but that would be after Lenalee kicked their teeth in, so it would almost be a mercy kill at that point.

"Not to mention," Lenalee continued, kind of on a roll since she'd started venting some issues that had kinda been building up for the past couple of years, "it's a little bit embarrassing that you make a big deal out of things in public. Like, before you even said anything, the guy I got paired up apologized to me since he knew you were gonna make a scene. For once, if you have something to say, I wish you'd just talk to me about it instead of popping off at school. Sure, if you need to complain to Reever, then that's cool—" he seemed like an obvious exception to make "—but would it kill you to maybe not have a panic attack anytime someone even breathes in my vicinity?"

Having ranted for long enough that she was starting to get out of breath, Lenalee reigned herself in and picked up her coffee to take several long drinks. She had always been a sweet tooth kinda gal when it came to her caffeine consumption, so Komui had gone all out with the cream and raspberry syrup. It tasted like home, like comfortable Saturday mornings as the two of them shared breakfast and chatted, a nice little corner of paradise.

Komui had been listening, and his intellect meant that he was processing every last word with clarity. He usually did; the issue was with his emotional side kicking up into high gear before his rational mind could do a thing. Even now, he was on the verge of explaining just why Lenalee shouldn't trust anyone, let alone history project rando number one, but that had been what got them into this mess in the first place, so it was time to change tactics—and thank the heavens above for Reever talking sense into him the past few days, because Komui never would've come to this conclusion on his own!

"I—I can't help it," and whoa that was a scary look on Lenalee's face, time to change approaches! "I mean, I know it's a lot. You've told me, and Reever's said it, too." Not to mention the handful of times Hevlaska had scolded him, Stop screaming death threats at students, Komui, I mean it. The admission was enough for Lenalee to grant temporary mercy, to Komui pushed on before he lost that pardon. "I think what happens is that I get scared. I end up thinking up the worst case scenario where something happens to you that I can't undo. And no matter how unlikely it is that that'll happen, I still want to protect you from that. You're…We're the only family each other has left, Lenalee, and I couldn't stand it if…"

He didn't have to finish the sentence for Lenalee to understand. She worried, too, about the possibility that something could happen to Komui, and then she'd be all by herself all over again. Heck, when she'd been younger, there'd been a period of time where she hadn't been able to handle getting dropped off at school because she was worried that she'd be waiting for Komui to come pick her up and he just wouldn't come.

"I…I know what you mean," she said, keeping her voice soft. "I feel worried about you like that, too. But you don't see me throwing giant public fits whenever you go make your own life choices, do you?" She'd almost said talk to someone new, but that was an awful example considering that Komui had his neat little social circle and almost never went outside of it. The alternative would have to do.

"No, you don't…" Even if Komui was scared of something happening to Lenalee, that didn't excuse the way he chose to react to it, especially if the something he was worrying about had a miniscule chance of happening in the first place.

"Don't you think, maybe, you'd feel a little bit better if I had more experience going out on my own and could prove I know how to handle things?" Between griping to the Bookman siblings and getting spoiled rotten by Ari's hot cocoa collection, Lenalee had been thinking about what sort of deal her brother was most likely to agree to, and this was the logic she'd been able to muster. "I'm not asking to be let loose like an adult without supervision, since I don't even feel ready for that yet." She still had a learner's permit for crying out loud! "But we're a team, aren't we? I just…wanna feel like you don't think I'm a little kid anymore."

"Lenalee…" In any other situation that Lenalee would make that expression, Komui would have flung into rampage mode, ready to tear apart whoever had been foolish enough to hurt his precious sister's feelings like that. The one problem with that solution was that he was the one who had hurt her, and the thought of that was enough to make even the precious nectar of coffee taste sour in his mouth. "I see where you're coming from, and I'm sorry. I mean, you're always going to be my little sister to me, but that doesn't mean you won't grow up."

Just looking at her sitting across from him was proof enough. Their living room was filled with family pictures, each one preserving a moment in the past of smiles and laughter. While her smile had stayed the same, the rest of Lenalee hadn't, and the her sitting across the couch from him was a confident young woman who didn't deserve to be coddled, unable to learn to stand on her own.

Lenalee, happy to be making progress for what felt like the first time, smiled. "Thank you. I know you're still going to worry, and that's okay, but I don't need you threatening people over every little thing." Komui's propensity for violence at the very possibility that something could happen to Lenalee was easily the most concerning thing about his current habits. It wouldn't be so bad if he only pulled out the drills and threatened people in situations where Lenalee was about to get hurt in a serious way, but, well… "Why don't we start small and you let me do my history project with the partner I got assigned to? Sure, you already flipped once, but no more of that! I have friends who are friends with him, and he's a sweet person." Even if he was just a rando extra that wasn't worth the effort to name by this point.

"I…I think I could manage that." It wasn't like Lenalee hadn't had boys for partners before, and she'd made it through okay. (Sidebar: Komui was well aware that Lenalee swung both ways, but it was the boys he trusted way less, the little slimeballs, hence his reluctance. It wasn't about her, it was about them.) Of course, that had been under strict supervision and all, but there hadn't been any incidents. "If I have Reever's company, I'm sure he'll keep me calm enough to get through a few more weeks. But if you end up working on the project while not at school, I wanna know where you are. I made an exception this weekend because you checked in with Reever, and I understand why you did it, but if you don't let me know where you are, I'll start to worry. I think that's a fair enough rule to ask as your guardian?"

Lenalee nodded, not having any issues with the arrangement. She may not have apologized for staying out without permission, nor did she have any intention of doing so, but the good natured part of her still felt bad about breaking a rule in the first place. "Okay, but you have to promise that you won't follow me around to watch." He used to do that all the time in elementary and middle school, and Lenalee wasn't convinced that he'd stopped after she'd made it to high school. No, it was way more probable that he'd just gotten better at stealth.

"O-okay, I promise." Shit, Komui was gonna need Reever to hang around more and keep him honest if he was going to pull that off. But if it meant that Lenalee was happy and didn't hate him anymore, then it would all be worth it! Starting to feel optimistic about the situation, Komui went to take another drink from his coffee, just to find the mug empty. Lucky for him that Komlin III was already on the scene providing a refill. Such a reliable little bot, Komui could always count on them—

And then:

The moment where an idea blossomed in Komui's mind.

"I've got it!" he said, his entire expression lighting up in pure excitement. It was a face that often signaled to anyone in the immediate vicinity that they should get the hell out while they still could. Lenalee, often having nothing to fear from her brother, tended not to feel such things, but the present moment was one where that same sort of dread struck her in full force. "Lenalee, why don't you let Komlin come with you?"

"I—"

"I know we count on Komlin for a lot around the house, but I think we can manage without that if it means keeping you safe. I mean, they have a bunch of home security features after all, so they could use those in an emergency if it comes down to it. Plus they're small and cute, so they'd be easy to take around, not to mention no one would suspect a thing so they'd always have the element of surprise—"

"Nī-san—"

"—and this way I would always know you're safe, no matter what! I wouldn't have to worry about you getting into trouble, so you could go and do whatever it is you like and have plenty of freedom. I'm impressed that I didn't think about this before; it's so perfect that I think I've outdone myself! I might have to give them some extra mobility mods to cover new terrain, but—um, Lenalee, what's that look for…?"

Unsurprising to anyone with a rough semblance of rational thought, Lenalee did not appear to be very pleased by the current turn of events. Komui, too high on the moment of an idea, was too confused to think of why, though it would've been obvious to anyone else that was around.

(Having made it back to his own home, Reever Wenham got a nasty feeling crawling up his spine as he opened up a can of lemon soda.)

But, unfortunately for Komui, no one else was around to help him realize the error of his ways, and so he was left to fumble with the situation he'd gotten himself in. Lenalee was trembling, though she wasn't feeling sad, oh no. The emotion welling inside of her was nothing more than a refined rage, and she was starting to wonder just why in the world she'd thought this conversation would go any different than the ones before it.

"You don't…get it at all, do you?" she asked, and it was the dead calm in her tone that let Komui know that he'd fucked up bad. "I thought…that maybe we could get somewhere this time, but no, you're just not ever going to understand, huh? Just forget about it! I don't wanna talk about this anymore!"

"Lenalee!" Komui called, but she'd already sprinted away, and the sound of her bedroom door slamming could be heard the next second. It took Komui much longer to pull himself up to his feet and follow, and even that short exertion had him near out of breath. "Lenalee, I'm sorry, I got ahead of myself again! Talk to me about what's wrong, and we can keep working on this together. Please open the door."

But Lenalee did not open the door, nor did she say anything through it or come out for the rest of the night.

It was only once the morning came and Komui opened the door to see that Lenalee wasn't there that he recognized the full gravity of his mistake.

Lenalee didn't come to school on Monday, either.

While it's obvious to say that Lenalee's disappearance meant that Black Order High was very much on fire that day, we're going to shift our focus away from that for a bit to see what and how said cause of the disturbance was doing.

The answer to the second part of that equation: not well.

They always make this look so easy in movies, Lenalee thought, self-conscious of everyone and everything around her. It wasn't impossible for someone to think that she might be in college—and she was super grateful for her recent haircut decisions adding more maturity to her look—but there was every chance she could be called out for the truant high school kid she was. The idea of getting in trouble was both concerning and enticing at the same time.

If I did get caught, there's no way that would cause trouble for Nī-san, right? Wait, who cares; it's what he deserves! He should've realized something was wrong with how he's been acting ages ago! It's his own fault that I'm acting like this, so he can deal with it when it comes. I'm sure he's sweating bullets right now since I didn't show up for school, and good! Let him see that I could've been getting into so much more trouble this whole time!

From an outsider's perspective, it would've been easy to poke at all the holes in that argument, but let's spare Lenalee from having the narration do just that. As far as her frustration was concerned, Lenalee was in the right, and she wasn't accepting constructive criticism of her thesis at this time. Come to think of it, just skipping school wasn't enough, now was it? Not when all she'd been doing that morning was sitting around a coffee shop, trying not to look out of place. She had a backpack full of clothes to change into, plus she had some cash, so she could manage for a few days, especially if one of her friends offered a place to stay. Still, running away from home didn't feel like enough if she wasn't doing anything exciting in the process.

I guess if I had to, I could go hang around the mall for a while. I've been meaning to check out the new fashion lines and makeup, anyways. Though that just feels like playing hooky at this point… Well, no matter! Lenalee was certain that once she got into it, she'd find a decent way to get in even more trouble in no time. There wasn't any point in wasting her newfound freedom by overthinking things while drinking coffee. Now that Lenalee was realizing that she had the entire world before her, she giggled. This is pretty exciting!

Lenalee stood up to dispose of her trash, and so, as it often does, trouble managed to find her first.

"Well what do we have here? Seems someone managed to fall pretty far from the dollhouse. Didn't think you had the guts to skip school."

For a moment, Lenalee froze, worrying that she was about to run into someone who would take her back before she'd even gotten the chance to enjoy herself—and maybe that was still the case. But judging by the individual before her, whether such a thing would happen seemed to be a fifty-fifty chance.

One Road Kamelot, at your service, after all.

[Author's Notes]

I have been calling this arc the "Lenalee Rebellion" arc in my head for so long. Here's the reason why!

Some problems can be solved by talking things out. Some times, even when talking, people fail to listen. Communication is tricky (and doing things this way lets me write more shenanigans).

This section of the year is super stressful for me at work, so have some fun shenanigans.

Next Time: "71. Fraternizing with the Enemy."

-Avi

[11 May 2024]