Exception

By: Aviantei

39. ?perdument Amoreux

-or-

It Was, in Fact, a Kind of Long Story


When Ivy had asked Kanda to learn more about Ari, he hadn't been kidding that it was king of a long story—and it provided plenty of context as to the whole TRIangular/QUADrilateral mess that was playing out in real time at a certain Valentine's dance. But things hadn't always been that chaotic, and there was just once a young but very book smart girl who happened to come across a cute British student who entered Black Order High via recommendation.

And we could say that the rest was history, but honestly, where the hell was the fun in that?

So, for maximum milking of the previous dramatic cliffhanger and showing off some unabashed fluff, we now present a flashback a la two years ago.

Lights, camera, action, baby.


Allen Walker put up with a bunch of bullshit in his life. Some of that bullshit happened to be in the form of his less than fortunate upbringing, while an even more substantial amount just so happened to be the occupational (so to speak) hazard of spending several years of your life under the wing of Cross Marian. Elizabeth didn't make matters easier. And, of course, Cross sending him off with little more than an address, a key to the home in said address, supplies for Timcanpy, and the promise of a recommendation letter sent to a local high school—let's just call that the bloody icing on the cake, shall we?

It's worth it to not have to put up with Cross day in and day out; it's worth it not to have to put up with Cross day in and day out—

The mantra had gotten Allen far, but it was starting to lose its charm about halfway up the hill to the high school. When he'd looked up the walk online, the distance hadn't made it seem that bad, but mile counters didn't account for the annoying slope in the way. Luckily, he had moved a bit later in the school year, so leftover summer heat wasn't plaguing his ascent, but even Allen had his physical limits as he tried to suck in breath without sounding like he was dying.

As soon as I start classes, I'm so taking the bus.

One might not suspect it upon looking at him, though, but Allen could power through near anything on spite—and he had no qualms about using that ability to make it up the obnoxious hill to Black Order High and to its doors. It was still early morning, so most people were in classes, but the occasional student or even faculty member drifted past in the halls. Putting on a brilliant smile to give his best impression, Allen entered the office and introduced himself to the receptionist, who directed him to a nearby chair until the principal was ready to see him.

Allen barely had time to readjust the fastener on his glove and adjust his posture before the shape of a towering woman has above him. She wore a bluish white hijab that complimented her matching dress and her russet skin. Though her imposing aura struck a presence, the smile on her lips was kind. "Allen Walker," she said in a sonorous voice.

Allen got the impression that her words were more of a statement of fact than a question, but he nodded anyway and stood. "Thank you for agreeing to see me. I'm so sorry that my guardian decided to impose on you all like this."

Principal Hevlaska only shook her head. "It's no imposition to take on another student. For all his troublesome ways, Marian has done more than enough for us. I don't mind doing him the favor." Allen really couldn't imagine his guardian doing anything remotely helpful out of selflessness, but he kept the thought to himself. The corners Hevlaska's lips twitched upwards the slightest amount, but she didn't pursue the topic. "Of course, we're not here to talk about Marian, but rather you. Shall we head to my office for a chat?"

"Lead the way."

Hevlaska lead Allen through a door to the side of the main front office and past several other rooms, occupied with counselors and other staff members. Someone was brewing coffee, and a top forty radio station played quietly amongst the sounds of other conversations. Hevlaska's own office was one right turn and two doors down on the left, and Allen demurely took a seat to the side of the principal's own when offered it.

The office itself was overall tidy with a bright color scheme and a few minimal yet elegant decorations. Hevlaska let Allen have a moment to orient himself before she spoke. "Well, considering what Marian wrote in his recommendation, you've been traveling most of your life, is that right?" Allen tried not to grimace of his guardian's name and nodded. "Of course, you've been taking online courses while doing so. I looked over what you have, and you only need a few extra classes to line you up with our work here. We are rather flexible, after all."

If by flexible you mean that anyone with the right connections can get in, then I guess you're not wrong. Black Order High wasn't a place that necessarily had strict entrance requirements like a private school, but it had enough of a reputation that who you knew could go pretty far. Allen had to admit Cross was good for that at the very least. "Is there anything else I need to take care of to make sure the transfer goes well, then?"

Hevlaska smiled at the show of forwardness and reached for a folder on her desk. "Well, based on the rest of your coursework, we'd recommend just a few more credits before we would normally admit you in as a freshman. Of course, I recognize that you likely don't want to get shuffled into just one or two classes at our middle school branch to catch you up. Thankfully, we have a few special programs in place."

Hevlaska passed over the folder, and Allen quickly leafed through the pages. There were a few courses he knew he didn't have much experience in—and jumping into a classroom at this point in the year would be a pain. "I really appreciate that you're willing to do something like this for me," he said. This sort of treatment wasn't the norm, now was it? "Would the classes end up being like private lessons, then?" Allen hadn't had any one-on-one instruction with someone since Mana.

"Something of a sort like that. There's another young lady that I'm going to be speaking to today who's in a similar situation to you." Allen shuddered; if someone else had to put up with a situation like Cross (except for Elizabeth, because she was clearly mental) then he felt sorry for them. Hevlaska chuckled. "I was planning on you two taking classes together so you could hopefully make friends. I don't want either of you to feel isolated so quickly after just coming here. I do hope you don't mind, Allen."

"N-no, of course not, ma'am!"

"No need to be so formal, Allen." Not being formal essentially contrasted with Allen's entire being, so he would be politely ignoring that advice, but he nodded anyways. Hevlaska's calm tone tended to help with controlling the nerves, after all. "Well, then, since you don't have any complaints, you can follow the schedule in the back of the folder. Do you have any questions?" Allen shook his head, and Hevlaska rose. "If you don't mind then, you should spend some time setting up your student ID today and confirming your paperwork. I think there were some blank spaces that we still need filled in…"

Of course Cross half-assed the job. Figures.

Concealing his bitterness beneath a sparkling smile, Allen stood as well and offered his hand for a shake. "I'll be sure to take care of that today," ma'am, he mentally added. "Really, thank you for helping me out on such short notice. I really appreciate it."

"We're more than glad to help out," Hevlaska said, taking Allen's hand in a stronger grip than he'd prepared himself for. "You're always welcome here, Allen Walker. Please don't forget that." Considering that Allen had been traveling without a permanent home for most of his life, those words seemed too good to be true—but he wanted to believe in them, anyways. "Do you need me to guide you back to the front office?"

Allen adjusted his bag back onto his shoulders. "No, I think I know the way. I'm sure you have a lot of work you need to take care of, especially if there's someone else like me on your plate. Again, thank you so much."

One short exchange of farewells and a quick walk later, Allen was back in the front office. Nothing much had changed since he'd arrived, save for a redheaded girl waiting in a seat and the stack of forms Cross had chosen to neglect. Sighing, Allen took an offered pen and slumped into the empty chair beside the girl. "Excuse me," he said, his standard politeness overflowing to make up for the more informal speech that the principal had cornered him into.

"Oh! Don't worry about it! There's not a lot of space here, huh?" the girl said, scooting a bit to give Allen a little bit of breathing room. Her smile was incredibly chipper. "I'm Ari Bookman, and I'm gonna be transferring in soon. It's nice to meet you!" Her emerald eyes wandered down to the pile of papers stacked up on Allen's clipboard. "I'd ask if you were already a student here, but that stuff kinda makes it obvious."

Allen let out a tired laugh, easily falling into the lull of the conversation. "Yeah, I still have some extra stuff to take care of before I'm allowed into normal classes, but I'll be a student here, soon." More than glad for an opportunity to procrastinate on cleaning up Cross's mess, Allen offered his hand for another shake. "I'm Allen Walker. Nice to meet you, too."

Ari, not ever one for holding back at any age, gave Allen the strongest handshake she could muster, which wasn't anything to sneeze at (carrying giant piles of books did wonders for one's strength!). Allen didn't grimace, but he did resolve not to shake anyone else's hand for at least the next twenty-four hours, if not longer. Ari's grin didn't fade in the slightest. "I'm glad I ran into someone nice my first day here. Like my brother has this friend who's kind of a big jerk, so I was worried there'd be more people like him here. But you're super great!"

I don't know if I really count, since I just got here, but whatever. "Well, it's always nice to have friendly faces around. Are you a freshman, too, or…?" Considering that Ari had such a round face, Allen wouldn't have been surprised if she was younger than him, but she had to be in the high school office for a reason.

"Right on the money!" Ari winked and held up an index finger. "Or, well, I'll be a freshman once I take care of all my transfer stuff. The Old Panda crammed all sorts of knowledge into my head, so I could probably be in a higher grade if I wanted, but I didn't wanna share a class with Nii-chan. Plus it's a whole lot more fun to make friends, so—"

"Ms. Bookman?" the secretary called. "It looks like the principal's ready to speak with you. Would you mind heading back?"

"'Kaaaay." Ari hopped up, the soft waves of her hair fluttering through the air. "Looks like it's my time to shine. But! It was super nice to meet you, Allen. Let's chat some more when you're done fighting that stack of paperwork, yeah?" She tossed a wink over her shoulder before heading back into the office area, and Allen gave her a smile and wave before looking back to the clipboard in his lap, still blank and waiting.

Ah, bollocks.


With all such paperwork out of the way, Allen started up his extra lessons, along with Ari, who was mostly struggling her way through a few years' worth of neglected science lessons. For the most part, they were working on different subjects, but they helped each other out here and there, building up their friendship in the process. It didn't take too long for Lavi to catch wind of the new kid and town and quickly assimilate one Brit into their friend group.

And time passed.

Friendships grew.

As did other feelings.

"And then, when we were talking, Allen said—"

"Ari, calm down! You're getting so worked up that you're starting to distract everyone else. Also, it's your turn."

Acknowledging Johnny's statement as objective fact, Ari sucked in a deep breath and returned to properly sitting in her seat. After a few seconds of looking back over the chess board, she made her move without much consideration. Johnny sighed, foreseeing his inevitable checkmate, but he considered his next move anyways. Sure, Ari was good, but every time the two faced off, Johnny at least picked up some cool tricks to use in other matches.

"Okay, okay, okay, I'm calm now," Ari said, not sounding very calm at all. She was even swinging her legs underneath the table. At least her volume had gone down. Johnny gave an apologetic look to Suman, the chess club president, but he just gave a smile in return. Since extracurricular activities were one of Ari's few times to interact with other students (and she was a wizard at chess), Suman tended to let a lot of her other behavior slide. "I just can't handle how amazing Allen is. I've never liked someone as much as I like books before."

Remembering the vast collection of tomes in his friend's home (and the time he'd almost gotten buried under a falling stack during a visit), Johnny nodded. "That's a pretty high compliment coming from you. Not that it's any of my business, but if you like him that much, why don't you try asking him out?"

"Ah, ah, ah," Ari said, picking up her next chess piece and shaking it like a scolding finger. "You can't fool me, mon ami. I know that under that innocent face, you like gossip just as much as the rest of us." Johnny whistled and glanced away; it wasn't his fault that most of the other members in the science club were like that, too. "But, well, I just don't know if I should do that…"

"You? Acting shy?" Johnny reached across to feel Ari's forehead. "You're all red but it doesn't feel like you have a fever."

Her face a tone of red that was just one shade orange off matching her hair exactly, Ari pouted. "I'm not sick." She pushed Johnny's hand away and stuck out her tongue. Johnny returned the expression. "I just wanna make sure I don't make things awkward. I know he likes me as a friend, but he's always super nice to everyone, so it's hard to tell if he has feelings for me, too!"

"Hm, yeah, that's an issue. But would you rather it be easier to tell if he was less polite to other people and only nice to the people he liked?"

"Of course not! That's part of Allen's charm!" Yeah, that's what I thought, Johnny thought. Ari, having realized all on her own that she was going overboard again, sucked in a breath and held it until she couldn't any longer, trying to get herself under control. After a solid half a minute, she exhaled. "And, well, besides the awkward part, there's something else…"

Johnny tilted his head. "Oh?"

"Well, there's actually this exchange program that's going to be starting next year." Not even bothering to make her next move, Ari put her pawn back in place and slumped back in her desk, staring up at the ceiling. "Sure, when Nii-chan and the Old Panda and I all traveled together, we passed through France, but we've never really ended up staying anywhere. I wanna try it so bad, and I know enough of the language to go no problem.

"But what if he does end up liking me back? I don't want to get together with him and then just…up and leave. The whole 'I'll wait for you forever' thing is romantic and all, but it's not fair to him to go so far away." She flopped onto a nearby desk, just barely avoiding knocking over her own chess board. There were just some things you didn't do for the sake of dramatic effect, though they were few and far between. "Johnnnyyyyy, love is haaaaard."

Taking equal care to not upset their game (seriously, he was going to lose soon, no doubt about it), Johnny patted Ari's back. "There, there. You're doing the smart thing by thinking it through, but you don't want to run around in your head too much. I do that way too much and it never helps."

"Hmmm…I guesssss…" With another languished sigh, Ari pulled herself upright and surveyed the board again to get her head back in the game. "Well, there's still time before I can apply to take the trip, so I can think it over a little more." She gasped as she put her next move into place. "Oh! But of course I'll miss you the most if I do go, Johnny. Best friend privilege absolutely always comes first!"

Johnny chuckled, feeling glad to hear it. Sure, he'd only known Ari for a comparatively short time, but she was still someone who's company he enjoyed. Plus, she was fun to play chess with. "Well, no matter where you end up going, know I'm still gonna be your best friend, even if you're on the other side of the world."

"Thanks, mon ami. You're the best!" Ari giggled and offered her fist, and Johnny knocked their knuckles together. "Oh, and it's also checkmate, by the way."

Maybe saying chess with Ari is "fun" might not be the right term…


[Author's Notes]

That's right, folks; you know what day it is. December 23, which means that Exception and my fanfiction career is now twelve years old. I know, holy shit, right? How is it that I still can't manage to put consistent updates on this thing...

That aside, thanks go out to knight leon for the favorite and follow since the last update. I do very much hope the wait was worth it, and I'll continue my best to actually move this story forward, one chapter at a time...

But, yes, the "It was, in fact, kind of a long story" section. This has been on my outline for ages, what with looking at the origins of Ari's crush on Allen. More of this in the next chapter, which is actually drafted! The question of when exactly it'll update is still up in the air, but we'll figure that out as 2021 hopefully sets us free from the mess of this past year.

May everyone have a safe and happy holiday season, and best wishes for the new year. See those who hang around for tomorrow's Aviantei update, and I'll also see you all in chapter 40! Please look forward to it!

-Avi

[12.23.2020]