Exception

By: Aviantei

1. Hatred for Mondays

It was a Monday morning. Kanda Yu hated Monday mornings. He hated most days of the week, but there was something about a Monday that was particularly infuriating. He wished for nothing more than all Mondays to go to hell, burn, be reformed from the ashes, frozen, melted, and refurbished through an infinite amount of torture, and the mornings could go first.

As is required for most teenagers on a Monday morning, Kanda—just try calling him by his first name, I dare you—was heading to school. While he didn't particularly care for school, especially when it was a Monday, he at least accepted the fact that he needed to go through just one more year of the shit before he could move on to the rest of his life. As such, he was capable of summoning the energy required to get up at ungodly hours and arrive to school early, as opposed to the much more rational on time or late.

Knowing he would be herded there anyway by the teachers, Kanda made his way towards the cafeteria. While he would have much rather just gone to his locker and his first class before he was under the pressure of a bell timing his arrival and he could have a few moments of peace and quiet, there just so happened to be rules against that sort of thing. The lobby was a breeding ground for people just waiting to have their faces punched in, so the cafeteria it was.

"Good morning, Kanda-san," a voice called out, causing Kanda to turn his head. Leaning against the wall next to the cafeteria entrance was a girl with short brown hair and matching eyes, Minomasu Ivy. She waved once Kanda saw her, and the Japanese teen continued heading in her direction.

"Hey, Ivy," Kanda replied.

If anyone else had told Kanda "good morning" on a Monday—or quite possibly any other day of the week, though he would seriously have to question what someone would be doing in his house on a goddamn weekend and then it would be a lot worse—he would want to know one of two things. One: What was this theoretical person on? Or two: What the hell could possibly be so fucking good about it? As neither of these questions were asked and the pair had entered the cafeteria, we can come to some conclusions, one being that Kanda doesn't completely hate everything.

The cafeteria was a hubbub of sound, though nowhere as noisy as it would be later in the day or the lobby outside. That was one of the few reasons why Kanda could actually stand coming in here, even if it did have its downsides as well. He and Ivy went to head towards the line before they were intercepted.

Now for something Kanda does hate.

"Yu-pon!" a voice exclaimed, loud enough to rival the bleachers of the winning school at a football game, plus the cheerleaders. This time Kanda didn't even vocalize a response, though his thoughts were easily summed up as Stupid rabbit. Lavi Bookman was one of their classmates, rivaling Kanda in the height department, especially when you added in the advantage his hair have when it was held up by the bandanna tied around his forehead. Other notable accessories included an eye patch over his right eye and a scarf around his neck, even though it wasn't quite the time of the year for it to be necessary. "And the lovely Ivy-chan as well! How are you this fine morning?"

"Good morning, Lavi," Ivy greeted, not even hesitating. Somehow she was able to manage the task of being pleasant to the redhead without even having to think about it first. It was the same amount of politeness that she gave to other people, and it bothered Kanda more often than not. This interaction was enough for Kanda's thoughts to elevate a level.

Stupid, stupid rabbit. There, that emphasis sure was satisfying.

"You came here with Kanda, I see? If he ever gives you any trouble at all, let me know. Lavi-nii will—oof!" Lavi's words were cut off as Kanda's fist made a first class connection with his stomach. It was a beautifully executed shot, although Kanda couldn't full appreciate it as he was too busy being disturbed by the thought of Lavi being a big brother figure to someone almost the same age. He pulled his fist back, and, lacking support, Lavi sank to the floor, squeaking out, "Nice… shot…"

"Just shut up," Kanda growled. It was way too early in the morning for this bullshit. Not that it was ever the right time to deal with Lavi's bullshit, but there are some limits you just don't even try to cross.

"Was that really necessary, Kanda-san?" Ivy asked. Lavi was still on the floor, clutching his stomach and writhing. Ivy seemed legitimately concerned. Kanda was unaffected; he gained a sick sort of pleasure from the redhead's pain, and this exact scene had been a staple in their lives ever since Lavi had tried to give the class hamster a new home in Kanda's backpack in middle school.

"You're too nice to him, Ivy. He would have ranted for at least two more paragraphs if you hadn't told him to shut up," Kanda explained. If there was one thing he had to give Lavi, it was that the redhead never knew when to shut up. It was even more impressive that he managed to come up with something new every time he opened his mouth. Kanda had never heard the redhead say the same exact thing more than once, though that might have been because somewhere along the line tuning Lavi out was a habit.

"That's probably true…"

"So, anyway!" Lavi exclaimed, popping up from the ground as if nothing had happened. He accomplished the action in one swift jump. His ability to absorb violence and recover was probably from whatever cartoon hell he had escaped from. "Come! Join us at our lovely breakfast table!" he declared, putting his arms around both Ivy and Kanda's shoulders, leading them towards a table.

"Get the hell off me!" Kanda shouted.

"Um, Lavi, shouldn't we get breakfast?" Ivy asked at the same time.

Both were valid concerns. Lavi decided to turn to Kanda first. "Tsk, tsk, Yu-pon. Such rudeness! I'm surprised Ivy-chan puts up with it!" he exclaimed. Ivy didn't seem to have a clue of what he was talking about.

"Why you…" Kanda had a million things to say to the damn rabbit right now, but said rabbit was already talking to Ivy. It was only a rational move, considering talking to Kanda would only result in more pain for Lavi. Kanda hate the fact that the redhead was actually smart when he applied himself.

"Sorry, I almost forgot. You guys should get some food. I'll see you two in a bit!" And in a flash Lavi was gone, his scarf trailing behind him. The last thing Kanda wanted to do was sit with the rabbit, but it was habit by now. Ivy was going to end up sitting at the same table anyway. Even so, Kanda exhaled in relief. At least Ivy could somehow control Lavi to make him standable to some microscopic degree.

"Well, at least he wakes you up," Ivy said, still smiling. That being said, one could compare Lavi to a life-sized alarm clock gone wrong. Somewhere it had malfunctioned, causing it to go off at every hour, minute, and second, never stopping. In effect, you could never sleep if you were close to it.

"Stupid rabbit," Kanda said. Nuff said.

"I think he's funny." Ivy headed towards the line, and Kanda followed. Thankfully the line was short during breakfast hours, eliminating any causalities that could occur from Kanda's strict no bullshit policy. Inversely, it meant that all his frustration at Lavi was still pent up.

"How the fuck is that funny?" Ivy grabbed a tray and picked up a bottle of milk before heading through the rest of the line. Kanda did the same. He missed his soba already. "He's annoying as hell."

"Oh, hush. You're just irritated 'cause it's a Monday." Ivy punched in her number at the register. Standing behind the counter, the best chef to ever work for any school, ever, Jerry, nodded in agreement. Kanda tossed food onto his plate without really paying attention, and punched in his number as well. Maybe Ivy was right, and he wasn't as pissed off at Lavi as he thought.

"Yuuuuuuuuuu-poooooooooooooooon!"

Scratch that, he was. How could he ever think otherwise? Yu Kanda being pissed off at Lavi Bookman was a constant in the universe, like gravity, the speed of light, and the fact that the Earth revolved around the sun, not the other fucking way around. There couldn't be any other alternative, not even if the universe exploded or imploded or whatever goddamn theory the scientists were arguing these days.

I swear, one day, I'll kill this stupid rabbit. They'll never be able to prove it in a court of law.

Lavi was being overzealous and waving the duo over to their usual table at such a rate that Kanda was convinced the rabbit's arm would fall off. Hopefully that would be the case. The loss of the limb had to have enough of an effect to diminish his ability to annoy others. Ivy and Kanda both sat down at the table. Besides Lavi, two others were already there: Allen Walker and Lenalee Lee.

Allen was a short for a boy, although that was nowhere near the most interesting thing about him. His hair was shoulder length and snow white in color, while a pale red scar ran over his left eye (his left, not yours). His left arm was also a dark red color, which he strategically covered up with long sleeves and gloves, even if it wasn't the season. No one really believed the story he told about them being there from birth, either because it was too perfect or teenagers are just nibshits and that's not exciting enough for them, but something about the way he told the story with his perfect British accent made you want to.

If Allen was small, Lenalee was tiny, both in terms of height and figure. Her dark hair was more often than not tied up in pigtails, like this very moment, but it wasn't a staple. Having the same hairstyle every day is bad for both your hair and fashion status, and a girl had to have her priorities straight after all. For anyone in the know—and why aren't you, honestly—her clothes were designer, gifts from her overly doting brother. Despite all this, she was still nice, able to master the art of being popular without being a total bitch about it.

Now that the group was properly assembled, Lavi knew this was his time. Taking care not to end up in anyone's breakfast, he leaned across the table. "Guess what?" he asked. His voice had shot up an octave, and despite the fact that he had only said two words, the entire sentence was brimming with excitement.

Kanda swallowed his mouthful of what was supposed to be eggs and miraculously succeeded and sighed. "What are you, some gossiping school girl?" he said. Lavi chose to ignore the insult, or maybe he just didn't hear it. Kanda was opting for the latter. Regardless, Lenalee didn't miss a beat, tossing a glare across the table. Kanda tried to look innocent while taking another bite of his breakfast. The last time he had ended up on the Chinese girl's bad side it had ended in a forceful clipboard to the head, an experience he wasn't dying to try out again.

"Well, there's a couple who's really into each other, but they won't admit it," Lavi said, treating the words like they were the cure to cancer. Allen instantly zoned out, but kept a polite face that made it look like he was paying attention.

Lenalee dabbed her mouth with a napkin before speaking. "Lavi, this is high school. There are millions of relationships like that," she pointed out. While she was trying to be the voice of reason, you could still tell she was interested. Keeping up with these things was, like, a duty or something.

"But I think we could actually do something for these two!" Lavi whined, moving so he was facing Lenalee head on. "Come on, Lenalady, you can't be so cruel as to sit there and do nothing about such a tragedy!" Kanda watched the groveling, disgusted. Leave it to the rabbit to try and start something like this. Didn't he realize that everyone else had better things to do with their time?

And that's when Lavi looked at Kanda out of the corner of his one eye and somehow managed to wink with it.

Suddenly everything clicked, which was enough for Kanda to be done. He pushed his plate away from him with enough force that it slid into Lavi's side, and almost knocked his chair over leaning back, a heavy sigh escaping from his lips.

Stupid, gossiping, nosy rabbit!

"Kanda-san, are you alright?" Ivy asked, concerned. She obviously had missed out or she wouldn't be so calm. Or maybe she would be; he could never tell with her. Saying he was alright was a lie she would see right through, so he settled for the next best thing.

"Not hungry…" he grumbled.

Allen's eyes lit up again, completely bypassing the redhead still leaning across the table in front of him, locking on Kanda's discarded breakfast. "Well, Kanda, if you're not going to eat that, can I have it?" he asked. "Don't want to let good food go to waste." The scary part was that you couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not. Kanda grunted, which Allen took as a yes. The plate was snatched up in a second, and the food gone just as quickly.

Kanda's morning hadn't gone well. He had to spend the rest of the day in hell with the stupid rabbit, so that didn't look good. Lavi's idiot plans had a way of dragging you into them even if you didn't want to and would go on for unplanned amounts of time, so they were in for a doozy there. And to top it all off, it was still Monday.

As many of you know, this was my first published fanfic, something I take pride in that it's been such a success for such an early piece of work. However, this story was first written five years ago, meaning that the writing quality is seriously lacking. In order to fix this, I made the decision while attempting on writing some new material (since this was inactive for some time) to go back and fix the earlier chapters. The same events occur, so there's no real need to reread these if you've read the originals, but I think they'll be a much better read for the people who still seem to read this story through and love it despite it's shaky introduction.

That being said, I am only human. I'm still working hard on other stories I've come to love, as well as trying to graduate college/apply for a master's/make some advancements in life in general. As such, not all the chapters will be fixed right away, and I'm forever apologizing for the fact that I don't have many other options than to just make people read what remains of what needs to be rewritten, especially since I'm trying to advance the plot at the same time. I hope you understand.

Other than that, though, I am curious onto feedback if people think the rewrites given to these chapters are good, are trying to hard, still live up to original, etc. Since I've gotten so much support on this story, I want to make all the people who have favorited, reviewed, followed, and read this story happy. After all, you're the ones that made me feel like the crazy journey I was writing was worth it.

Please look forward to the updates, whether they be for the advancement of the plot or just tying up the loose ends of old writing!

Update: These revisions of the first nine chapters are complete! New content will be dropping soon. There might be some later revisions, but nothing too drastic. As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the story, and thanks in advance for reading!

[EDIT] 101015 - 102015