Exception

By: Aviantei

89. Saturday + Sunday

Tiedoll had described Kanda as upset, but the boy himself would consider that to be an understatement. If he were to choose an appropriate word, he would go for livid—or, more likely, pissed off would come out, even if it wasn't anywhere close to describing the mess of emotion going on in him. The common thread between the two was just plain-old anger, though, which was close enough for our purposes.

Anger at Alma for keeping secrets.

Anger at the universe in general for making someone who had so much enthusiasm for life get worse instead of better.

And, more than anything, anger at himself for blowing up at the very first person he'd ever let himself think of as a friend.

Now, Kanda was no stranger to such strong emotions, and any form of anger was one he had plenty of experience with. The issue of the moment was that it had been such a long-ass time since he'd felt as angry as he did in the present, so he wasn't quite sure how to handle it. Once upon a time, he would've just gone and lashed out at anyone who crossed his path (Lavi had borne the brunt of that many times, as had his foster siblings when they still lived in Tiedoll's house), but Kanda was becoming aware that wasn't the way to process his feelings at all. He just…didn't know how else to process his feelings, so he was kind of at a loss.

Thus: locking himself up in his room, refusing to talk to anyone in any capacity lest he blow his fuse at them it was! Was it the best strategy? No, probs not, but you can't expect perfect emotional maturity out of a teenager in such a busy and hectic situation, now could you? Besides, Tiedoll had gotten the hint last night whenever Kanda didn't answer him at all, so Kanda was just trying to meditate and stabilize before going back to school on Monday to mixed results.

The knock on his door that came on Saturday afternoon did not help matters.

From his seat on his meditation cushion, Kanda glared at the door, refusing to say anything and hoping the intensity of his stare would be enough to scare off whoever was trying to disturb him whenever he was not in the mood whatsoever. He knew he'd need food at some point, but he'd snuck out into the kitchen in the middle of the night whenever he was sure Tiedoll was asleep, so he could manage a bit longer. All he needed to do was focus on his breathing—

A second knock, the tiniest bit more forceful than the first.

"Yū-kun, it's Ivy."

Oh.

Well.

Fuck.

"If you don't want me to be here, I'll leave you be," Ivy continued, having made her way to Kanda's door without needing to be shown. While there was the surreal little feeling of standing in a place that she'd gotten used to as a guest knowing that she was going to be staying there soon, that sensation was kind of taking a backseat to checking on her boyfriend and making sure he was okay. "But I'm going to be here a while today because Klaud Nine and I are checking in on stuff that I need to move, and I would like to see you if I could."

For a moment, Kanda wanted to ask if Tiedoll had put her up to it, but that didn't seem very helpful to ask. Besides, even if Tiedoll wasn't nosey (which the man was; there was no denying it), Ivy would've wanted to check in on Kanda, anyways. It still took a moment of struggle—the last person he wanted to lash out at in all his upset was Ivy—but he also felt that she needed to know what had happened with Alma. Besides, she was going to move in, like, tomorrow, so there was no point in trying to hide from her of all people.

"You can come in," Kanda said, and was about all he trusted himself to say right away. Ivy, glad to hear a response, did her best not to rush as she opened the door. Kanda had adjusted himself so that he was still on his meditation cushion, just facing away from the doorway, and Ivy couldn't help but feel a surge of fondness amongst all her other worry. She took her time closing the door so it wouldn't bang in the process, and then she walked over to Kanda. Rather than pushing it and staring him down face to face, she sat down so that the two of them were back to back. Kanda tensed at first, but then his shoulders eased up as the he let his weight be supported by Ivy and she let her weight be supported by him.

"Hey," Ivy said, her voice a whisper.

"Hey," Kanda said, just as soft. Silence followed for a moment after, and the comfortable ease of the whole situation was enough for Kanda to start to feel the slightest bit better, though it was just a chip in the massive iceberg of emotion he was dealing with.

Not wanting to force Kanda to talk until he was ready, Ivy decided that a practical talk about moving would be a good choice to start with. "I just got here, so I haven't had a chance to look at the room just yet, but I did bring some of my things with me," she said, staring up at the ceiling and letting herself soak in the feeling of Kanda at her back. "There's still a lot more at my apartment, but it's kind of funny. Once I started putting stuff away in boxes, I realized that I didn't have a lot with me. Like, yeah, I have essentials, but there's not a lot of extras, aside from some CDs and stuff." That might've had something to do with her feeling like the apartment was temporary, so there wasn't much point, but the idea was kind of sad whenever she thought about it. She gave a self-deprecating laugh. "Kind of makes me wonder how I always managed to get my room so messy when I have so little."

"…That's because your room is tiny." It got the job done, yeah, but that didn't change the fact that the overall size was kinda constricting. "The one that Tiedoll picked out for you is bigger."

"Mm. That'll be nice. Not sure what I'll do with the space, but it'll be nice." All things considered, her time in the house would also be limited, but that was a future problem to think about once the move itself is over. Ivy adjusted, letting her head rest up against Kanda's, though she had to make a bit of adjustment for his usual ponytail. "It'll be nice being close to you, too."

"Yeah." It was subtle, but Ivy heard the faint shift in tone in Kanda's voice, and so she let him have the time to come up with the right words. "Yesterday," he said, struggling way more than he would like to admit to get it out and kind of feeling like a pansy because of it. "I…got into a fight with Alma."

"With Alma-san?" Having been out of touch with him for a few days, Ivy hadn't expected that to be the reason for Kanda locking himself in his room, but she could see how that sort of thing would be enough for him to want to shut himself up over. She also felt a bit of relief that it wasn't the idea of her moving in that had been enough to cause that. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Kanda grunted, because the answer was kind of no, he didn't, but that also wasn't going to solve anything, now was it? Too bad he had a particular distaste for people spinning their wheels whenever there were simple solutions (to match the level of his hatred for Mondays, even), otherwise he could've just continued to wallow in his own thoughts for a while. "They said…they've been keeping things from me. About their feelings." Ivy, who knew just what those feelings were, felt her head start to slip towards panic, but it was Be Supportive of Your Boyfriend Time at the moment, so she did her best to keep herself in check. "They've…I guess they've liked me for a long time, but never said anything. And I just got so frustrated that they felt they needed to hide it, and on top of that I guess their health is getting worse and they never told me and—I'm still pissed off, dammit!"

It was, all things considered, a rather natural reaction. After all, anger was a response to feeling like something important to us was threatened, which, in Kanda's case, was the feeling of trust between him and Alma. It didn't mean it had been right to start a shouting match, but there was something reasonable tucked under all the layers of hurt, which would've been a nice thing to articulate.

However, Kanda was a teen with rather stunted emotional growth, and Ivy was also a teen who had her own very selfish personal investment in the situation, so that was a long shot. With those factors in mind, it was kind of a miracle that Ivy even had the awareness to ask, "Their health is getting worse? Are they gonna be okay?"

"I dunno. We both got so worked up that I got kicked out, so I couldn't ask." Which, now that he was verbalizing it, kind of made him feel even worse, thanks. A few beats later, Kanda processed Ivy's reaction. "You're not bothered that they like me?"

"Of course I'm bothered! I just already knew about that!" Kanda made to turn and look at Ivy, but she grabbed both his hands behind her back and used a death grip to make it very clear she wasn't ready to face him yet, so he settled down. "They…told me on the day you took me to meet them. Not in any sort of guilt-trippy way!" she added, because she didn't want Kanda to feel even angrier about something Alma hadn't even done. "Just in a they care about you a lot and want you to be happy kind of way. Though they did say all sort of stuff about feeling like they didn't want you to feel tied down, which I thought was bullshit, by the way. So I told them…" Ivy took a deep breath, bracing herself for what would come after she admitted her own stupidity. "I told them I'd rather they confess to you and let you decide what you were going to do, Yū-kun."

"You did that, huh?" Kanda asked, making Ivy nod. Out of all the kinds of responses she had predicted in her head while practicing with the others, a chuckle hadn't been one of them. "That's so like you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you want me to be happy, even if that happiness doesn't have you in the picture."

"Well, yeah, but I obviously want me to be in the picture." Ivy would make sacrifices if it meant Kanda would be happy, but that didn't change the fact that her preference was to share that happiness at his side, not just watch it from the sidelines. "I may love you a lot, Yū-kun, but I'm still selfish, I'll have you know."

"That's fine. I'm selfish and want you around, too." Well. It was a good thing they weren't facing each other, because Ivy's face had just turned an impressive shade of red, and she wasn't quite ready to go showing that off. "Maybe it would've been different if Alma had said something sooner, or maybe it'll be different if something happens between us. But I'm committed to you right now, and I'm not about to change that, okay, dumbass?"

With Kanda hitting the nail on the head, Ivy couldn't help but bristle. "Who's the dumbass here?" she asked without any sort of fire at all, and, after another minute, she just ended up a mess of embarrassment and happiness. "You mean it, Yū-kun? You don't like them enough to break up with me?"

"Like I said. I'm dating you. And I don't break my promises." While that could've been mistaken as Kanda saying he felt obligated to stay with Ivy, she knew damn well there was no way he would've stayed with her for so long if he didn't like it, so she wasn't worried about that. "I…need some time to think about how I feel about them. Because I never thought about it before. But we can talk about that after I have some time to get over how pissed off I am at them." Talking was proving to be helpful, yeah, but it couldn't make all the other messy feelings up and disappear—just nudge them along. Kanda bumped his head against Ivy's. "You're here to figure out what you're bringing with you, right? Lemme show you the room."

Ivy smiled, grateful for the small moment of fluff. "A thousand points if you do."

"Mn. I'd do it even without the points."

Another Sunday, another Noah gathering. Tyki had dragged himself to the table, feeling far more exhausted than he had any right to be. Road, who was out and about (and had also gotten special permission from the Chairman, because of course she had), had made a no-show, which was enough to cause Jasdevi to whisper-not-whisper to each other. Lulu Bell had also chosen to make an appearance, and she'd dropped Wiseley in the seat next to hers, where he was snoozing on the table.

"Good morning, everyone!" the Chairman called as he entered the room. No matter what, he always managed to be chipper, even in the earliest of hours, which tended to make his group of teenage breakfast companions view him as some sort of strange entity. And yet, despite the Noah often feeling exhausted due to whatever shenanigans they'd gotten up to the Saturday before, they all showed up without any outward complaint. "Our wonderful Road-chan has asked for special permission to be out today, but I'm glad to see all your wonderful faces!"

Yay, Tyki thought in the deepest of possible deadpans, not daring to voice the thought. Instead, he focused on pouring himself a fourth cup of coffee, leaving it black in an attempt to wake himself up as quick as possible. It wasn't quite working yet. Good thing the Chairman was more than capable of carrying an entire meeting's worth of conversation all on his own, let alone with a bunch of other chatterboxes in the room. As it went, the other Noah were all more than capable of returning the Chairman's greeting, saving Tyki the trouble of having the muster the energy to do so himself.

Lulu Bell was the one to clear her throat to take on the duty of conversation. "Chairman, if you don't mind my having a word," she said.

"Hm? Whatever might you be interested in, Lulu-pon?" Sure, it was possible for her to talk with him on the grounds of being a teacher pretty much whenever, but that plan didn't account for being able to drag Wiseley where she wanted, which was a key part of the occasion. Also, the Chairman had been rather busy as of late—as he was on occasion—so the breakfast was the best time to catch him. "You look so serious today."

"That would be because of this one." Lulu Bell inclined her head towards Wisely, who was still snoozing away, as always. "We didn't get much of a chance to discuss his behavior during the Robot Fight Club event." That might've been close to a month ago at the current moment, but no one would ever dare to suggest that Lulu Bell didn't know how to hold a grudge. Her still ongoing rivalry with Komui and Reever was rather self-evident in that case. "Far be it from me to tell you who's worthy of your praise, but I believe his overall behavior was ill-befitting of a Noah that represents the best of our academy."

"Oooh," Jasdevi said in unison, though they kept it under their breaths to keep out of Lulu's immediate line of fire. No amount of juicy gossip and drama was ever worth earning her wrath.

The Chairman, on the other hand, seemed to find the overall atmosphere amusing. He was boasting the same wide grin as ever, at any rate. "You think so?" he asked. "I believe he built a wonderful creation that served plenty well." Was there anything Wiseleybot's WISDOM could have done against Sir Komlin IV? No, but no one would have ever expected that out of a high school student up against, well, Komui. "I had a wonderful time watching the proceedings, at any rate." The Chairman was just a person who enjoyed having a good time, and, in that regard, the Robot Fight Club had scratched that itch very well.

"You were present?! Ahem, that is…" Lulu Bell regained her composure in record time, though that break was enough to bring the twins close to snickers. Even Tyki, as half-dazed as he was, couldn't help but smirk a bit. "Are you certain about that, Chairman? While even I can agree Wiseley's AI was incredible, that he chose to take a lazier approach during the event itself…"

That sort of behavior just didn't sit well with Lulu Bell, which surprised no one in the room. Jasdevi were waiting to see if the potential drama of the situation would bear any juicy fruit, whereas Skin was doing as he always did and just enjoying the meal provided, and Wiseley was still snoozing, despite being talked about. For his part, Tyki just hoped that Lulu's inevitable reaction didn't bleed out into the classroom.

I'd like to survive the next few months in peace, thank you very much.

A fleeting hope that all but disintegrated the moment that the Chairman chuckled. "You worry so much, Lulu-pon. Don't you think it instead gave the impression that we don't have to try hard to give an excellent show?" Lulu Bell's public reaction may have pulled a bit away from that idea, but the fact still remained that Wiseley was beyond capable of creating something impressive.

And that was the problem, wasn't it?

"Be that as it may," Lulu said, unable to outright disagree with the Chairman, "I feel as if that's a waste, at least of someone who's earned your favor, Chairman. If this is what he's capable of without putting much effort into it, then he could do much more with a bit of effort. If you could give him a bit of encouragement, sir, then perhaps…"

"Nah, you don't get Wiseley at all, Auntie Lulu," declared Road as she arrived. Tyki gave her a curious look, to which she answered nothing at all and instead popped a lollipop into her mouth, smirking his way before she dropped into her seat. Brat, Tyki thought, so not in the mood to pick that fight right then. "The more you try to get him to do something, the less Wiseley's gonna wanna do it. Just leave him be and he'll end up doing something amazing. He's just gotta get interested in it first."

Lulu looked understandably skeptical at that prospect, and another look at the sleeping Wiseley just added to that. "If he doesn't do something, Chairman, at least please consider his position. If you can promise me that much, I'll leave the matter be for now."

"Very well, Lulu-pon. After all, I don't think that will be any trouble at all." The Chairman's grin hadn't faded in the slightest, which either meant he believed in Wiseley, was in it for the bit, or even possibly both. "Now, Road-chan. Did you happen to find out anything interesting that kept you out so long?"

And Road smiled that smile that promised trouble for anyone within a fifty mile radius, if not further. "Oh, Chairman, did I."

[Author's Notes]

Happy March, everyone! It's a bit wild to think that spring's right around the corner, but my allergies sure aren't letting me forget. This is also the first year I've ever been hit so bad with them, but at least they calmed down today so I'm not suffering while prepping this chapter.

We only have one chapter left in the "moving in" arc, so that's exciting! Though I also can't stop sprinkling various threads out and about. Some things will resolved, some things will stay open, so I hope you keep enjoying!

Next Time: "90. Hey, We Made It." Please look forward to it!

-Avi

[1 March 2025]