Exception[

By: Aviantei

71. Fraternizing with the Enemy

While Road and Lenalee had been in each other's vicinity during Robot Fight Club, their paths hadn't crossed directly since the Valentine's Dance/Incident, so it was a bit of a tense moment. Lenalee and Ari had been all prepared to go to all-out war to protect Allen from trouble, but it hadn't been necessary. Now, with Lenalee's head filled with ten thousand other thoughts, she didn't even have the capacity to get ready for a snarky face off or anything, let alone determine if Road was a threat in that regard.

"If you rat on me for ditching class, I'll rat on you," Lenalee said, blurting out the first thing that came to mind. If she was about to have her brief escape cut short, she was at least going to ensure a mutual discussion. Was threatening Road Kamelot the best move she could've made in that situation? Probs not, but it was too late to make it back now.

Road didn't look the slightest bit bothered by the threat, though, instead propping a hand on her hip. "Why would I bother trying to do that in the first place? I have better things to do than waste my time trying to get you in trouble." And she also kind of suspected that doing such a thing would loose her brownie points with Allen, which wasn't something she was willing to do, but Lenalee so didn't need to have that info as extra leverage. "Though out of your group, you're the last one I would've expected to see playing hooky. That Minomasu girl is way more likely. Whatever, though; I'm impressed you managed to skip school what with that brother of yours being a teacher and all."

Lenalee didn't even feel the slightest bit surprised that Road knew about her family situation; if Lenalee had used her contacts to look into Road, then she had no doubt that Road had done the same in return. "That's because I'm running away from home." The words had popped out before Lenalee could consider them, but now that she'd said it, it felt good. "Nī-san's an overbearing idiot, so I'm not putting up with him anymore." Road pulled a face, and Lenalee bristled. "What's that look for?"

"Don't get all worked up. Ugh, why'd you have to be relatable?" Without even asking for permission, Road flopped down into the empty chair next to Lenalee's in a swirl of frills and lace. "Sheril is kind of the same, except I know how to manipulate him in my favor. Before he graduated, though, he was always up in my face, which could get on my nerves, and even now he has Tyki checking in on me, so I kinda get it." Road refused to make eye contact throughout her spiel, and Lenalee blinked, not having expected that they had something in common. "So! In the interest of helping a kindred soul, I'll hang out with you today. If you wanna get back at him by getting in trouble or whatever, I can help you out with that. Besides, I just kinda skipped school today because I was bored, so I'm sure this'll be entertaining enough for the day. Be grateful, Lee Lenalee."

Well, Lenalee's day was already going way different than she'd expected. While part of her danger sense was telling her to be wary, the other part of her brain was thinking about how perfect hanging out with a Noah would be to upset Komui even more.

I don't think anyone's surprised which of these options won.

"Alright," Lenalee said, fully understanding that Road wouldn't appreciate any sappy comments whatsoever, "I agree to those terms, Road Kamelot."

She even offered a handshake to make the thing official, and Road accepted the gesture. It was the first time in ages that a Black Order High and a MPHS student had been on such friendly terms, and it was a little bit awkward, tbh. That said, neither Lenalee nor Road was willing to show that, so they completed the moment with straight faces before returning to their previous seats, Road in particular lounging at a haphazard angle. "Cool," she said, almost drawling the world, "now tell me what kind of plans you had for the day so I know what I'm going into."

"…Well, I was thinking of going shopping for a bit?" The unimpressed look on Road's face was more than enough to indicate that as the wrong answer. Even Lenalee couldn't hide her blush at that. "Give me a break!" she whisper-shouted. "I've never done anything like this before!"

"I can't believe I lost out to a goody two shoes like you." Well, it wasn't as if Lenalee had won that particular showdown, either, so Road would take solace in that. "I mean, if you wanna waste skipping school on hanging out at the mall, I won't stop you, considering I wouldn't mind getting some shopping in myself. But don't you wanna do anything more exciting? I see you already got your dramatic haircut, so that's out, but you can do so much better, Lee."

Lenalee hmphed and crossed her arms. "Alright, Kamelot, if you think you can do so much better, why don't you tell me what I should be doing?"

"Oh, girl, I thought you'd never ask."

Some might consider it a miracle that Komui didn't raze the school to the ground in his panic, but his ensuing depression didn't help matters, either. Hevlaska gave him leave for the day, seeing as no teaching was going to get done whatsoever, and the rumor mill was in full force. Lee Lenalee, owner of multiple perfect attendance awards and a clean record, skipping out on school? Everyone should've guessed that she'd eventually snap with a brother like that, but it was surprising it'd happened so out of nowhere, wherever could she be now?

Lavi happened to be wondering much of the same thing, seeing as it was already Thursday, and there was no sign of Lenalee whatsoever. While he could understand that she'd turned off her phone to keep Komui from bombarding her, she could've at least sent something to let her friends know she was safe! Besides, after encouraging her to not put up with her brother's nonsense anymore, Lavi couldn't help but feel a little responsible for what was going on.

"Sounds like a lot is happening, Red," Tyki said from the other end of the phone. Lavi envied his calm demeanor in all of this, but he supposed Tyki didn't have a horse in the race at all. "Though I'll be honest, I didn't think the princess had that in her."

"I mean, she's always had a tough attitude," Lavi said, leaning back in his bed and staring at the ceiling. "She just usually doesn't have a reason to show just how tough she is." Once you knew not to mess with Lenalee, the matter tended to be settled, and she was well-liked enough that there tended not to be a reason to mess with her at all. Still, Lavi couldn't help but sigh. "Sorry, I know we don't always have time to call like this, and here I am taking it up with this drama…"

Tyki, who had chosen to perch himself outside the dorms in his favorite out of the way spot to smoke, took a fresh drag from his cigarette. "Don't apologize, Red. You're worried about your friend. I would be, too, if something happened to one of mine." Momo and Clark were more than capable of taking care of themselves, but Eeez was still young, and they'd pretty much have a riot on their hands if the kid went missing. When it came to his family and the Noah, sure, they gave each other shit all the time, but they were also on each other's side, no matter what—though Tyki wasn't sure he could imagine any of them getting in trouble, the dangerous fucks. Of course, he'd never admit that he cared out loud, either. "If you want, though, I can keep an eye out or ask around? I know plenty of people who could help find her if you think she's in danger."

Lavi wasn't sure if he found it terrifying or hot the way Tyki had a big enough network on hand to find a possibly missing person. A little bit of both, if he were being full honest. "I dunno, maybe? I am worried, but I also wanna respect her space if she needs it. I kinda feel like I'd be no different than Komui if I started hunting her down, you know?"

Right, the whole normal boundaries thing. Tyki had been hanging out with the Noah for far too long if he'd forgotten to consider even that. Whoops. "Fair enough. Just know that if you need my help, you always have it." And then, because Tyki was and would always be a flirt, he added, "And I don't just mean with your missing friend, you know."

Funny, Lavi thought, already feeling like his face was on fire, but I'd thought that talking over the phone would make it easier to handle when he gets like that, but it turns out hearing him right in my ear like that makes it a lot worse! "I'll be sure to keep that in mind," he said, somehow managing to keep his voice even, though he couldn't hide the audible swallow he had at the end. He pushed on, despite Tyki's chuckle, though. "Maybe what I need help with is going on a date. I haven't heard a certain someone compliment me on my stylin' new haircut after all."

"That's because you refuse to send me a picture, but alright, I'll bite." It wasn't as if it were a great concession to Tyki to go and visit Lavi, and there wasn't any harm in letting Lavi's little gambit play out, either. "I believe I should have some time this next week, so long as you're up to it. I could even be convinced to open up a hole in my very busy schedule, need be."

"Just for lil' ol' me? I'm honored." Well, the good thing about being on the phone was that Tyki couldn't see the giant grin stretching across Lavi's face, though his voice probs gave it away. Whatever, though, no shame in being excited to go on a date. "Though, um, if something does come up with the Lenalady…"

"I won't be offended if you reschedule, no. I just may ask for a favor to make it up to me instead." Tyki left the implications of favor ambiguous, so as to let Lavi's active imagination go wild. It was a pretty excellent use of all that brainpower, if Tyki did say so himself. "I'd be careful about that, Red. I happen to come at a pretty steep price, after all."

"Don't you worry; I'm sure the price will be more than worth it."

"Oho, sounding pretty confident there. I'm imp—hold that thought." Lavi, who was good at holding thoughts in the sense that he had a pretty baller memory, but bad at holding thoughts in the sense that he was impatient a fuck, did an admirable job at keeping quiet as Tyki pulled himself up from his perch to get a better look at the situation. While his preferred smoking spot was out of the way of everyone else coming into the dorms, he still had a pretty good view of who was going in and out—and who just happened to be going in at the moment was unbelievable enough that Tyki very much did need to check twice before they disappeared inside. "Well, Red, you don't need to worry about that friend of yours, anymore, because I know where she is."

It took a few seconds for the meaning of those words to register, and Lavi shot up in his bed, feeling on high alert. "What?! What's she doing at MPHS of all places?" What sort of ridiculous series of events had happened for that to be the outcome.

Tyki, while not less concerned, was able to keep his calm much better than Lavi, though that was to be expected by now. "Couldn't say. Though she was with Road, so I assume that has something to do with it."

That news, shocking a grand total of zero individuals, did nothing whatsoever to make Lavi feel better.

The Bookman family garage, to put it in simple terms, had been feeling lonely.

It wasn't as if it had been abandoned. Lavi had put the effort into decorating it, and Ari had also added some updates of her own since returning home, i.e., having plenty of snacks on hand whenever the mood struck her. It was pretty common for at least one sibling to go out there and lounge every couple of days, on occasion the two of them hanging out together or using the space to play a boardgame. But that was a very different sort of situation from the days from both fall in winter, where Lavi's regular SSGTIK and TRIangular meetings had brought in groups of company that made the garage feeling as if it were truly living up to its purpose. And while Lavi had been good and not started any new secret organizations, the present moment was a different matter altogether…

There didn't have to be a secret team to have an emergency meeting, after all!

Lavi, of course, was meeting head. Ari had pulled together enough munchies and drinks for their assembled numbers, though the amount of sugar she had on display was enough to make Kanda want to choke. ("This is only about half of my collection, Kanda-san. The rest are for me." "How do you not have diabetes yet?" "Hm…magic?" "Forget I asked."). Kanda, Ivy, and Allen were serving the role of Emergency Council Meeting Attendees, which could mean anything at this point. The one missing person from the assembly was Lenalee, and her lack of presence was very much felt in that there was no one to moderate Lavi's unfiltered chaos.

Lenalee's lack of attendance was the whole point of the meeting, though, so that was to be expected.

"Friends," Lavi said at the front of the room, "I have news to announce." Out of all of them, Allen was just about the only one polite enough to look interested, as evidenced by the fact that he wasn't gorging himself on the snack pile at that exact moment. Ari, on the other hand, had no such compunctions, while Ivy had on a face of neutrality (which meant she was humoring Lavi) and Kanda had on a face of annoyance (which meant that he was annoyed). In other words, the usual audience. "I have a report on Lenalee's whereabouts."

That changed the mood in the room pretty quick, though some of the changes were subtle enough that it was difficult to tell. Lavi had a sharp eye and familiarity with Ivy and Kanda, though, so he was able to pick up on the surprise on their expressions, though it was little more than a few raised eyebrows. Allen, on the other hand, was nowhere near as reserved with his emotions, leaning forward in his seat to ask, "Really? Did she reach out to you?"

"Not…quite?" Shit, he'd hesitated a bit too long there. It was fine, though, all he had to do was get things back on topic! Gasp all you want, but Lavi wasn't always an agent of pure chaos. "Point being is that someone I know saw her, and he said she was at MPHS with some Noah."

"Whot?" Allen asked, his accent coming out in full force thanks to his bewilderment.

"I thought at MPHS didn't let anyone on campus except students, faculty, and approved guests," Ivy said, which was true enough. She'd learned a decent amount about the school once Road had presented herself as a potential threat. "The only way that she'd be able to get in…"

"…is if someone with a lot of influence brought her there," Kanda finished, already not liking the situation. He'd been a little bit worried for Lenalee, but for the most part he'd chosen letting her take care of herself, seeing as she was more than capable. This, though, was concerning enough that his usual perma-frown grew a bit deeper, which was how you knew things were serious. "Who would even want to do that?"

"Well…" Lavi said, hedging a bit before deciding to rip of the bandage to reveal the messy wound underneath, "…it sounds like she was with Road…"

"Whot?" Allen asked again. Though he'd been the one to offer the olive branch of being friends from then on out, even he had to admit that Road had plenty of issues to work out. And given the previous rivalry between the two young women, being just a bit paranoid with the arrangement was more than a bit justified. Of course, the fact that he had been the cause of the rivalry was enough to make Allen self-conscious, but he pressed forward regardless. "Isn't that dangerous? Should we…should we go and help her?"

"Hold on, Beansprout—" Allen was too busy trying to think of a rescue plan that he didn't even protest the nickname, giving Kanda free reign to continue "—first of all, how do you even expect to get into that place? Like Ivy said, they have pretty tight security." Ugh, Allen hated it when Kanda started talking sense. "Second of all, does Lenalee even need our help? Surely if she did, she wouldn't still be out of contact. Rabbit, did your contact say anything about how Lenalee was, or just that he saw her?"

"Um, it sounded like she was okay? But she was goin' into the dorms with Road, so anything could happen…"

"Lenalee's fine, guys," Ari said, at last pulling away from her pack of cookies to chime in. "I mean, she's been staying there for a couple of days, and nothing's happened yet." Which was a fine point to make, but it did beg one question:

"Lil' Sis, how the hell do you know that?"

[Author's Notes]

No thoughts, head empty. Enjoy the chapter.

Next Time: "72. Lenalee Protection Squad (Pending Title)." Please look forward to it!

-Avi

[25 May 2024]