Exception

By: Aviantei

85. Lattes and Landladies

There sure is more than one plotline to this fic, so let's go do a check-in with none other than Lavi Bookman and Tyki Mikk!

Now, Tyki was well-aware that Lavi, for all his free-for-all attitude might not suggest, was smart. The Bookman family was a well-known group of intellectuals, and, while Lavi and Ari were Black Order students, some of their family members had even attended Millennium Private in the past. If you needed information, there was no one who could find it like a Bookman. So, yes, he'd expected Lavi to produce some results in his research.

But for him to text me not even forty-eight hours later saying he dug up a lot was more than I expected!

While some people may have been under the mistaken impression that Lavi was a slacker, that was not the case. Yes, he didn't quite excel in a typical school environment, once you gave him free reign to look into whatever he pleased, he was pretty much unstoppable. Another way to get him going was to give Lavi the proper motivation so that he'd put in effort, even if the subject matter at hand wasn't his style.

And a hot guy that he was dating-not-dating asking him a favor? Lavi considered that to be motivation a-plenty.

Though it did help that the subject matter at hand was interesting once he got into it. He'd already been intrigued by the idea that he'd heard some random name that Tyki was interested in once upon a time, but then he'd gotten started—and that was where the real fun began.

"It was the weirdest thing, you know," Lavi said, already worked up into explanation mode before Tyki had even gotten the chance to settle into his favorite armchair at a hole in the wall coffee joint that Clark had introduced him to ages ago. Was a coffee shop a bit of a typical date spot and had been the "free" square on Lavi's bingo card? Yeah, but Tyki had been thrown off by being summoned on short notice, plus it was a special place to him, so he got points to that. Lavi was too deep into explanation mode to care about the little details anyways. "When I started doing some basic searches, like, nothing came up. And I mean nothing, not even like an address book page. And whenever shit's that clean, that's when you know something is up." Tyki, who was no stranger to the Dig Around for Info Game, nodded. "So, of course, it's not the weirdest thing ever, but it's notable. Besides, if basic stuff doesn't come through, there's always other ways."

Another nod from Tyki. For him and a good chunk of the Noah, other ways tended to involve some cash exchanging hands.

For someone like Lavi, the Bookman family's extensive information network would do just fine.

"Which is what I did next. But—and here's the kicker—there was barely anything there, either! Which is just super fucking weird. That gives us a couple of options. One, this whole 'Nea D. Campell' name is just an alias."

"But," Tyki said, more for the sake of contributing than arguing the point, "if that were the case, there would be some trace of it, considering from how long ago you noticed it." It wasn't an iron-clad rule or anything, but most people weren't as protective of their aliases as they were their real names. In fact, having too squeaky-clean of a name tended to be a detriment, depending on the circumstances.

Lavi pointed at Tyki. "You got it. Like the Old Panda taught me, the absence of something is just as often a sign of it being there than it not being there." Picking up some papers (a move that was more for show than necessity, considering that Lavi had already memorized the information on it), he proceeded to gesture this way and that, utilizing the manic energy that came after a night of no sleep and hyperfixation. "Of course, nothing can ever really disappear. Maybe once upon a time, but all the tech we have now holds onto stuff. It's almost holding onto too much, which means, in the future, the study of human knowledge will—" Tyki's expression had turned complicated, which helped Lavi remember that they were there for a purpose. Right. "Well, anyways, if you keep digging like I did, you can find something. I just had to go super far to find it, but I did! So here's everything I managed to learn about Nea D. Campbell! Er, can't guarantee the notes make any sense in this state, though."

Sure enough, whenever Tyki looked at the stacks of paper, they were filled with a shorthand that was both messy and—even when you squinted—was a bit too incomprehensible to pick up at a moment's notice. He could see some patterns, which meant it was decipherable with enough effort, but it also was kind of pointless to put in that effort whenever the author was right there. They made sense to Lavi, but expecting someone else to get what the hell he was talking about was a whole other ballgame, which was kind of the point of how the Old Panda had taught him to take notes, but that was neither here nor there.

"I'd love it if you could decipher these for me some time," Tyki said, skimming over the papers anyways. He could remember a lot, but, in information games, it was always best to have copies for review so that things didn't get mixed up in your head. If the notes were this extensive in shorthand, Tyki felt confident that they'd be even more so once spelled out. "You went above and beyond for me, Red. Thanks."

Oh, there was that sweet compliment that Lavi had been craving! "Right? Now tell me, man. Am I awesome, or am I awesome?"

Seeing the outright request for praise, Tyki chuckled. "You are awesome of every variety. I mean it." Lavi grinned, feeling his heart pump extra fast in the process. Yeah, he could get used to having his ego stroked like this on a regular basis, yes he could. Knowing it wouldn't do him any good to keep staring them down, Tyki returned the papers in his hand to the spread on the coffee table between them. "Whenever you have time and get some sleep first, I'll take a copy of these, if you don't mind. But before then, do you have anything that stuck out? I know you did a thorough job of this, but there's a chance a couple extra leads will help me find stuff with my connections." Not to mention that Tyki was just plain curious about his mystery doppelganger out and about, or whatever the hell had had Elizabeth asking him about Nea D. Campbell in the first place.

"Hm, let's see what we've got here…" Lavi crossed his arms and donned a thinking pose with his hand to his chin, while Tyki at last sipped at his coffee and enjoyed the view. It wasn't all that long before Lavi's eye had brightened up as he stuck on something, though. "Well, there was no concrete evidence for this one, but I did find it interesting—

"There's a rumor that Nea D. Campbell is related to Millennium Private High School's Chairman."

Whatever the hell that meant for our lovely cast of characters was anyone's guess.

Getting taken out for food was supposed to help Ivy calm down, but not even her favorite okonomiyaki was able to calm her nerves about the whole thing, nor could the nice tea that she'd been treated to. Part of that was the lingering anxiety of the whole housing situation, but she'd just had to go and mention Kanda in the process, which just set her into even more of an overdrive mode than before. As all guardians were wont to do, Klaud Nine proceeded to ask Ivy plenty of questions about her boyfriend, though she never pried too deep, aside from letting Ivy know that if she wanted to go to prom, she could go ahead and get a nice outfit and Klaud Nine would cover it, which was sweet.

Less sweet were the other types of things Klaud Nine said she would cover, considering Ivy and Kanda weren't anywhere close to that yet, but it was better to let Ivy know she was supported so long as she kept safe than not. At least the fresh bomb of embarrassment had kept Ivy from dwelling too hard on the whole thirty other things she was worried about, but it was time to start dealing with some of those, starting with the most pressing matter: where the heck Ivy was going to live once apartment renovations started!

With said living situation in mind, one of the most obvious next steps was to swing by the apartment and get all the relevant details from Landlady, who'd been working hard behind the scenes to get an estimated schedule as soon as possible. It may not have been the best of situations, but she was doing everything she could be expected to, given the emergency short notice state of it all. She'd even picked out that Tuesday afternoon for Ivy and Klaud Nine to visit, which was why that particular plot beat was happening at this point in the timeline.

And so that was how we got to Ivy taking a deep breath before she knocked on the door to the apartment office and opened it. "Good afternoon. I have my guardian with me, like we talked about before."

"Oh, Ivy, perfect timing," Landlady said, rising to her feet as Ivy led Klaud Nine into the room. Being resilient, Landlady didn't quite totter as she went, but she was elderly enough that Ivy worried about her sometimes. "I was just talking with Mr. Russell about the repairs schedule for your apartments. Let me get some more tea for you all. Take a seat."

Ivy kind of wanted to say that there wasn't any need to, but she already knew from experience that there wasn't much point to that argument, so she went to sit down on one of the couches in the office for such discussions with clients, taking a seat beside Klaud Nine. Also present were a man with two-toned blonde and brown hair and glasses—Mr. Russell—and a boy around the age of eleven or twelve with a striped shirt and an aviator's hat—Mr. Russell's son, Jan. It had been Jan who was the one that had made the mess that Landlady had been referring to, and the kid looked uncomfortable, which no doubt meant he knew how much trouble he caused.

"I'm sorry about all this," Mr. Russell said. "Jan's shown a lot of interest in science and making his own experiments, so I showed him how to do some things. I didn't expect him to make something that would cause that much damage. If there's anything I can do to make it up to you…" Considering it sounded like everything had been an accident, his sincerity about the whole thing just made it all the harder to stay mad.

Well, Ivy was still a bit miffed, but holding it against the man wasn't about to let her stay in her apartment, nor fix anything else she was worried about, so that was a lost cause.

Man, maturity could be weird sometimes.

"Well, there's no undoing it," Klaud Nine said, taking on the diplomatic route while still sounding rather blunt. It wouldn't be accurate to say she had a temper, but Ivy was well aware that she was a woman that wouldn't take any shit. "In this situation, the best we can do is be glad no one was hurt, right?"

Mr. Russell chuckled. "Yes, I suppose that's true. Though if there's any sort of compensation I can give you…"

"That's something we can let insurance take care of. I'm much more interested in knowing the repairs schedule so that Ivy here can figure out how long she needs to go elsewhere. So long as we know that, we'll be able to manage." Klaud Nine looked to Ivy. "Right?"

"R-right!" Ugh, getting the baton passed to her in situations like this was kind of the worst. "I'm a senior, so moving was going to happen for me soon, anyways. This is just speeding up the process a little…" Oh, how her friends would be surprised to see her flounder and get all flustered just over talking to some strangers. Then again, she'd also turned into a blushing mess at breakfast just over a simple question, so maybe they wouldn't be surprised at all.

Sensing her nerves, Mr. Russell put on a reassuring smile. "Still, I know something like this isn't easy to put up with, especially at an already buy time in your life. You have our apologies. Isn't that right, Jan?"

"…I'm sorry," Jan said, looking guilty enough. Given that Ivy was friends with people like Ari and Lavi, who made liberal use of puppy dog eyes to their advantage, she was ninety-five percent certain the boy meant it, instead of it being an act. "Do you want one of the onion bombs I was making to make up for it? They're great if you need to get away from someone and slow them down!" Sure enough, he dug into his pockets and produced a mechanical onion, complete with a turnkey to wind up and offered it to Ivy as an apology.

"Jan! I told you not to carry those around anymore!" Mr. Russell swiped the toy(? Maybe that was too tame a word, considering it had caused serious damage to the apartment wall), stowing it away before it could cause any more onion-scented chaos. Jan, of course, pouted, but he seemed to realize arguing was just going to make things worse. "Sorry about that. He's clever, and I want to encourage that, but sometimes he takes it too far. I swear I already took all these away from him…"

Of all people to chuckle in the situation, Ivy hadn't been expecting Klaud Nine, but, sure enough, she had an almost fond smile dancing on her lips. "I know what you mean. The boy I've been taking care of is beyond energetic, which is nice and all—except for whenever it gets him in trouble." While Ivy hadn't met him yet, Klaud Nine had told her some about the boy in question—one Timothy Hearst—in passing while they were eating, and he did seem like a handful. It was very much for the best that Ivy wasn't going to be in the same house as him unless absolutely necessary.

"Sorry for the wait," Landlady said, approaching with a tea tray holding fresh cups for Ivy and Klaud Nine, and even a couple of crackers for Lau Shimin. The sifaka took to the treats with utter glee while Landlady settled into her own seat. "Now, I have some estimated dates for when the repairs can start happening, and I'd like to hear all your opinions." That was, of course, what everyone had gathered for, so no one interrupted, not even the still sulking Jan. "According to the contractor, we can start doing work in two weeks."

Two weeks.

A simple, concrete number, the sort of thing that Ivy had thought would make the situation easier to handle.

Instead, the amount of time was enough to make her anxious.

Isn't that a bit short to pack up and go somewhere else?

Being a professional, Landlady had know that kind of question would be on everyone's minds, so she continued. "I know that's a lot to ask since you all have been living here for a while. If you need more time to get yourselves settled, I can give it to you, but I do ask that you try and sort it out within a month. I don't want to leave you all hanging longer than necessary, especially if you plan to move back in afterwards. In that case, you should be alright to leave furniture and other items behind, but you'll want to take out any essentials you need."

"And once repairs start, how long should it take to get everything back together?" Klaud Nine asked.

"A month or two, depending on how much damage they find. These sorts of things can vary, and the building is study but old. They might find other things to take care of while they're working on the walls, so the time could stretch out further." Landlady may have been a sweet old woman, but she was also a professional, and she believed in communication with her tenants, so she would be honest, through and through. "Like I said, anytime you're out of the apartment, I won't charge you the rent for, and you're welcome back as soon as you're able with a discount. You've all been wonderful while you're staying here, so I don't plan to chase you out."

Mr. Russell nodded. "We'd appreciate that. We can go stay with my parents as long as we need, but this place is the best for getting me to work and Jan to school, so we'll be back whenever the place is ready for us." All things considered, he was just grateful that Landlady didn't want to kick them out for Jan's experiments causing the damage in the first place, which plenty of others would do in a heartbeat. For the Russell family, things would work out, but for Ivy…

"One to two months, huh…?"

It was not the worst amount of time. As a kid, she'd been pushed around different locations more times than she could count, so the sense of having something stable had been foreign to her until she'd been taken in by Klaud Nine and had a place to call her own for over a year. Having that taken away sucked, but it was business as usual.

But in a couple of months, it would be summer.

In a couple of months, it would almost be time to leave for college, anyways.

"We're not certain if we'll be coming back," Klaud Nine said. "Ivy hasn't decided where she's going to college yet, so that will end up affecting where she's living. But if you don't mind keeping the place for her until she makes a decision, we would appreciate it."

Landlady nodded along with a smile. "Of course, I know how busy this season of life can be. So long as you let me know when you can, that will be enough for me to handle what I need to on my end. I am sorry for the inconvenience, though." Everyone was just working on handling the situation as best they could. "Do you know how much time you'll need to move out for the repairs?"

"I think we can make two weeks happen, but we won't need the full month to settle things."

"Sounds good to me. And you, Jake, dear?"

At having his name called, Mr. Russell sat up straighter. "The same for us. We'll let you know once we're done."

And with a bit of small talk over tea, some pleasantries exchanged, and one more round of promises to get the details ironed out, the conversation with Landlady ended and our guardian-kiddo combos went their separate ways, with the Russell family heading back upstairs so Jan could be wrangled into doing his homework. As for Klaud Nine and Ivy, they still had to handle the whole finding her a place to stay instead deal, but Klaud Nine hadn't come into the day empty-handed.

"Well, that went about as expected," Klaud Nine said, scratching Lau Shimin's head. "We have some extra things to figure out, but the timeline is reasonable. I know it's a lot for you, Ivy, but are you up to one more stop?"

Ivy, while tired, was just a bit glad that Klaud Nine was making important decisions so she didn't have to worry too much about them, so she nodded. "Where to?"

"To meet a friend of mine who can give you a place to stay."

[Author's Notes]

Hello, and welcome to the first update to this story of 2025! Every time that I process another year's passed without me wrapping up this fic, I can't quite grasp it, but we're trucking along, and I'm getting somewhere! This arc's starting to make some progress, too, so I hope you enjoy the ride.

Thanks to Everett Wayne Jankowski Jr for the favorite since last time. You're super duper cool!

A quick reminder that all my other active multi-chap fics got an update these past couple of weeks, so feel free to check and see if anything in my library catches your interest. We'll be keeping up with our usual Saturday updates in 2025, so I look forward to sharing another year of fanfic with you!

Next Time: "86. Stability, Instability." Please look forward to it!

-Avi

[4 January 2025]