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*One and a half weeks before 'Show of Wills,' chapter Two of Ineffable Students*
Zira stared down at the history paper in his hands. The D+ written in red in the corner seemed to mock him, really the '+' almost made the D worse, like it was saying 'good job almost failing.' He hated this class, which was shocking because he loved school, but history just wasn't his foray. Sure he could quote Shakespeare to the letter and knew every book ever written by Mark Twain, but why did he really need to know who signed a famous peace treaty in 1797 in Pairs? Was that really going to help him in the future? He looked up when the other students around him started to pack up and realized he'd missed the bell. He packed slowly as kids streamed out around him. He had lunch next and knew Crowley would be waiting for him.
"Zira?" He looked up into the friendly face of his history teacher, she was a very sweet looking woman with a soft face and long brown hair she wore in a bun on her head most days. She had a smile on her face as she stood from her desk and moved around it. He stood up and threw his messenger bag over his shoulder. She leaned against the front of her desk, her long dark green skirt all but covered her feet.
"Yes Mrs. Device?" he asked though he knew what speech was coming, he'd never been very good at history so they'd had this talk a few times. He’d taken this class once already but he’d only gotten a D, and his student career adviser had suggested he take it again and try for a higher grade, it would look better on his transcripts.
"I hear you're friends with Anth-" she stopped and shook her head for a moment then started again "With Crowley?" Zira loved that she made an effort to call him by the name he preferred, not all the teachers here did.
"I am," he said nodding as he walked towards her.
"Perhaps you should see if he'd help you study, he's quite good at history, it would help you a lot to do well on this upcoming test." she told him with a tender look and he sighed.
"Okay, I'll ask him," Zira said nodding his head to placate her. He wasn't going to ask Crowley for another favor, he already picked him up and took him home, he wasn't going to ask him to give up his free time to study. Nevermind the fact that they'd hung out everyday after school at some diner or another before he took Zira home all week.
"Course I'll help you study," Zira startled a little at the voice and turned towards the door where Crowley was leaning against the frame. His hair was pulled back, though it was escaping a bit at the sides. He had a small smirk on his face and his backpack slung over one shoulder. He had on a black turtleneck sweater and his signature thin silver scarf with tight black pants and a black belt. Zira tilted his head when he realized the belt buckle was a snake head, he’d never seen that before. He heard Crowley chuckle and realized he was staring at his groin and his head shot up to find Crowley smirking at him, he could feel the heat filling his face. "Come on, lunch, we can work out a study schedule." Crowley said gesturing with his head out the door and Zira sighed, well there was nothing for it now.
"Thanks," Zira mumbled and Crowley smiled at Mrs. Device as Zira headed towards him. Crowley was in her advanced History class so really he'd be the perfect person to help him, but he still felt a bit bad about it.
"Zira anything over a B will help pull your grade up immensely," Mrs. Device said as he reached Crowley and he nodded his head as the blush deepened. He walked out after Crowley with his shoulders hunched a little and Crowley looked over at him.
"You okay angel?" he asked and Zira wouldn't look up from staring at the floor as he walked.
"You don't have to, you know, I'm sure you have stuff you'd rather be doing," Zira said instead of answering him and Crowley smirked.
"I don't mind Zira," he said, his voice serious, he so rarely used Zira's name that he stopped and looked at him. "Seriously, history is my favorite, I'd love to help you learn to love it too." he explained flashing him a huge smile that made Zira's stomach flip just a little and he nodded.
"Okay, thanks Crowley," he said nodding his head with a shy smile on his face. They walked in silence on their way to the lunch room and then Crowley chuckled.
“Go on, ask, I know you want to.” he said and Zira looked up at him and Crowley smirked. “The belt buckle.” He prompted and Zira’s face went scarlet… again. He was right though, he had been thinking about it. How did he know that? Was his face just that readable?
“Why a snake?” He finally asked looking back down at the floor. “I would have thought, given how you feel about your eyes…” he trailed off again before he finally looked up at Crowley. Zira personally thought Crowley’s eyes were amazing, they were so different and Zira wished he could see them more often.
“My mum loves to tell this story;" he paused for what Zira assumed was dramatic effect and smirked. "When I was two years old I saw myself in the mirror without my glasses and started crying. The eyes you know? What two year old wouldn't they freak out?” He chuckled lightly and Zira just listened intently. He hardly ever brought up his eyes. “So she and Jason went to work, they found books on snakes, movies, stuffed animals, cause my eyes resemble snakes. It didn’t take very long to cultivate a love of snakes in a two year old. They were soft and the way they moved fascinated me. And after a while my eyes didn’t scare me anymore. My snake eyes.” He said with a softer chuckle this time.
“Your parents sound amazing,” Zira said and he nodded his head then took a deep breath.
“They really are,” Crowley said nodding his head. “That lasted till I was about 12 and started 7th grade. Kids are cruel.” he said and then he shrugged. “I kept them covered, mostly out of necessity, but at that age all it took was one look for someone to come up with ‘demon’ or to call me a snake. So they started to lose their appeal.”
“That's understandable,” Zira said nodding his head as they sat down at a table and Zira pulled his lunch out of his bag. “That doesn’t, however, explain why you’re wearing that,” he said, his eyes darting down for just a moment before a blush bloomed over his cheeks, he really needed to get that under control.
“Don’t know, I saw it just before I started here, maybe two weeks ago and decided I kinda liked it.” Crowley said with a shrug as he pulled out a bottle of water from his bag. “Can’t let stupid oafs decide what I like yeah?” He asked and Zira got the feeling if he could see his eyes he would have seen him wink.
“Right, yes, quite,” Zira said nodding his head as he unpacked his lunch. Crowley pulled an orange out of his bag and began to peel it while Zira set out his sandwich, small noodle salad of some kind and a sliced apple.
“So what are we studying?” Crowley asked before he popped the first orange slice into his mouth.
“The French revolution.” Zira muttered darkly as he pulled his sandwich out of its little bag. “As if I wanna read about a bunch of people cutting off other peoples heads, animals.” he grumbled and Crowley smirked and nodded his head.
“Animals don’t kill each other with clever machines though, only humans do that,” Crowley told him and Zira rolled his eyes.
“Besides, doesn’t ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ take place during the French Revolution?” Crowley asked and Zira’s eyes went wide as he stared at him, shocked.
“Thats Charles Dickens Crowley, thats different” He told him and Crowley chuckled. He could admit that there were very unpleasant aspects of history that he wasn’t a fan of too, but he had to help Zira succeed at this.
“Ah yes, the great Charles Dickens,” Crowley snarked with a smirk as he popped another slice into his mouth.
“How can you be a history buff and not enjoy at least a few of the classics?” Zira asked with a shake of his head. “Well, where should we start?” He asked as he picked up his sandwich.
“Well first we should figure out how much you already know, so we can go from there.” He said as he pulled a notebook from his bag and flipped it open. He found a blank page and then pulled out a pen and began to write. Zira watched as his pen flew across the page. He would have thought, knowing Crowley, that his handwriting would have been a scrawling mess, but really it was quite elegant. He wrote for about five minutes while Zira ate, he looked up from his food every few seconds to watch Crowley hunched over the notebook. He really was quite something to see, he never seemed to waver or pause as he wrote, the words just flowed out of him. He reached up and tucked a loose strand of hair out of his face then a few moments later he reached up and tucked it back again. Zira’s fingers had an odd itch to reach up and run through the bright red strands.
“Okay, here,” he finally said ripping the paper out of his notebook, Zira jerked from his thoughts as Crowley slid it across to him. Zira looked down at it and let out a small groan.
“Are you serious?” He asked as he read over the paper. He took a deep breath as he pulled the paper and pen closer to himself. Crowley just gave him a little half smile and wiggled his eyebrows. “Fine.” Zira huffed picking up the pen and looking down at the stupid ‘test’ Crowly had written up on the fly.
1. Louis XVI was married to-
*Josephine Beauhanais
*Madame Bovary
*Maria Teresa
*Marie Antoinette
2. What became known as the “national razor”
*Convention
*Guillotine
*The King
*Octiot
Zira sighed again as he made his way through the 20 question test. Oh he hated history, the mind numbing facts drove him crazy. Crowley winced after he answered another question and Zira looked up at him long enough to glare before he went back to the test. When he was finally done he pushed it back across to Crowley and he picked it up and took a deep breath.
“Well,” Crowley said shoving the piece of paper back into his bag without doing any correcting, that couldn’t be good. “We have a bit of studying to do then.” He didn’t look too terribly upset about it though. “Meet me at the school library after class?” He asked and Zira just sighed and nodded his head.
~*~One~*~
Zira opened his front door and threw his keys into the little bowl on the table by the door and sighed. They had been in the library for the last three hours studying. Crowley had a way of painting history that intrigued him yet he still couldn’t seem to get the names right. And for the life of him, he couldn’t remember the dates of important events during the revolution.
“Where have you been?” Gabe asked as he walked farther into the house. He walked passed the empty kitchen and sighed, that meant his dad was still at work, otherwise he’d be in there working on dinner. Zira took a deep breath and headed towards the stairs.
“I was studying for a test,” he told him. He didn’t mention Crowley, there was no reason to start something when he was so tired.
“You missed the Heavenly Haven meeting tonight,” Gabe told him and Zira nodded his head and put his hand on the rail on the wall.
“Sorry, but if I don't pass this test I'll be in trouble,” Zira told him and Gabe smiled, but Zira could see it was tight and unfriendly. Gabe used to have such an open face, such a welcoming smile, what had happened to that?
“You’ll be at next weeks though?” Gabe asked in a way that made it sound like an order and Zira sighed.
“I’ll try,” he said before he turned and made his way up the stairs. He didn’t add ‘If Crowley doesn’t want to hang out’ but that’s what he was thinking. At the meeting he went to last week his brother had made it a point to bring up Leviticus 18:22, and he was not shy with the word 'abomination'. Their group was split about 20/80 on how that should be interpreted, some felt, like Zira, it was a misunderstood passage and didn't mean what people thought it did these days. Zira had a feeling it might be more than that, if people had the guts to speak up against his brother. Crowley hadn’t said a bad thing about religion or his beliefs since that one comment in the theater the day they met. Zira just felt wrong sitting amongst a group of people who mostly thought Crowley, and anyone like him, was going to hell.
He closed the door and threw his messenger bag onto his bed before he flopped back next to it and sighed. He pulled out his history book and opened it to the pages he and Crowley had been studying. He fell asleep still in his clothing with the book open on his chest.
~*~Two~*~
“The Reign of Terror,” Zira answered after Crowley asked him another question from his text book, which was sitting open in front of Crowley.
“That’s right,” He said with a small smile as he nodded his head and wrote something down. At least Zira thought that's what he was doing. He couldn’t see the page Crowley was writing on so he assumed it was some kind of record of how he was doing. He shifted in his seat just a little and looked up at Zira.
“In July 1789, Parisians organized their own government and called it what?” Crowley asked and Zira’s eyes went wide and he bit his lip. Crowley ducked back down to look at the sketch he’d been working on. He had his sketchbook open and resting on his bent knees so Zira couldn't see it. This particular sketch was of Zira, his head on his hand, his elbow resting on the table, a slightly frustrated look on his face. Crowley moved to a different part of the page and sketched out that slightly triumphant look as Zira bit his lip.
“Oh!” He cried his eyes lighting up as he smiled brightly. “Oh I know that one! It’s Commune!” He said and Crowley smiled brightly and nodded his head as he finished off the sketch.
“Great!” He said with a huge smile. “Okay, I have two more, then we can go get dinner. What do you think angel?” Crowley asked and Zira took a deep breath and his smile only widened.
“Yes, please,” he said, his voice slightly whiny and Crowley chuckled.
“You get these two right and I’ll even get dessert,” Crowley said and Zira smirked at him and nodded his head.
“Okay, fire,” he told him and Crowley looked back down at the book scanning the pages for a good question.
“Okay, what was the ‘tithe’?” Crowley said with a smirk at Zira and he rolled his eyes good naturally before he answered.
“The church taxes,” Zira said and Crowley nodded his head still smirking, his hand still moving across the page.
“What became known as the ‘national razor’?” Crowley asked and Zira shook his head with a sarcastic laugh.
“The guillotine,” Zira said and Crowley nodded his head as he snapped his notebook closed. “So, how am I doing?” he asked reaching for the notebook Crowley had been writing away in. He wanted to see any notes Crowly might have for him.
“Good,” Crowley told him deftly pulling the notebook back before Zira could reach it and sticking it in his backpack, hoping his fear of Zira seeing it didn’t show in his face.
“No notes on how to improve?” He asked with a raised eyebrow before he looked down at the notebook, now stuffed into Crowley’s bag. “Isn’t that what you’ve been writing this whole time?”
“Something like that,” Crowley muttered, nodding his head, and Zira noticed he was blushing just a tad. “I’m gonna...er...type them up for you.” he said as he stuffed his bottle of water in his bag.
“Okay,” Zira said drawing the word out just a little with a chuckle as he packed up his bag. “Where should we get dinner?”
“How do you feel about that little french bistro?” Crowley asked and Zira groaned again with a shake of his head and a laugh. “Kidding, kidding, how about Indian?”
“Perfect,” Zira said nodding his head with a huge smile.
~*~Three~*~
“Are you serious right now?” Zira asked as Crowley pulled out his history notes and riffled through them while Zira ate.
“Course I am angel,” Crowley said looking up from the notes. “You still need work on the names and the ranks of people.” He reminded him and Zira sighed and dipped his naan in some hummus.
“Yes I remember thank you,” Zira said and Crowley chuckled lightly at the indignant tone in his voice. He tore the naan bread apart and took a bit. He looked thoughtful as he chewed. “Fine, but no studying during dessert.” Zira countered and Crowley smiled and nodded his head.
“Deal,” he said as he held out his hand. Zira chuckled lightly and reached out and shook on it. Crowley looked over his notes as Zira went back to his food.
“At least eat something while we’re here Crowley,” Zira said pushing the appetizer towards him. “I swear you never eat.”
“I’m just not a huge fan of food, never have been. It drives my mum crazy,” Crowley said reaching for the naan bread anyway. Because, really, he’d eat anything if Zira asked him to because it always made him smile.
“I love food, always have,” Zira told him with a shrug as he reached for his glass of water. “Thought Gabe thinks I ‘indulge’ too much. Says I’m too soft.”
“Your brother is an idiot,” Crowley said looking up from his notes for a moment and flashing him a smile. Crowley was glad for his sunglasses as he looked over Zira with his eyes “Besides, there's nothing wrong with being soft, better than all these hard edges and sharp corners,” He said waving his hand down his face and chest. “I think you look great, just as you are,” he said before he dipped back down behind his papers to hide the blush he knew was taking over his face. Zira opened his mouth to say something about his ‘hard edges’ comment but Crowley spoke first. “Ah! Got one.” He said still not looking up from his notes, ‘which was good’ Zira thought cause he was certain he was blushing a bit at Crowley’s compliment. “Who led the Girondins movement from 1791 to 1793?” He asked and Zira closed his eyes as he thought back over everything they’d been studying. Names were the worst; why did he have so much trouble remembering names?
“Jacques Robespierre?” Zira finally said after a long silent minute and Crowley chuckled lightly and shook his head.
“You’re mixing up Jacques Pierre Brissot and Maximilien Robespierre,” He said and Zira shook his head and sighed. They both looked up when their waiter brought over their main course. Crowley cleared some of his papers away and made room for his plate but he didn’t put them away.
“Jacques Pierre Brissot was the leader of the Girondins till 1793, Maximilien Robespierre was the leading member of the Committee of Public Safety which didn’t start until after the end of the Girondins in 1793.” Crowley said and Zira nodded his head as he wrote it all down in his notebook to study later.
“Which came to be known as what angel?” Crowley asked before he took a bite of his chicken curry.
“Oh that was... “ He trailed off as he took a bite of his vindalloo, stabbing up a piece of potato as he thought about it. “Oh! It became the ‘de facto executive government in france during the reign of terror’.” Zira said with an excited smile and Crowley smirked and nodded his head.
“Good job angel,” He praised as he pushed his food around a little then took a bite of his rice. “Your test is Friday, right?” He asked and Zira nodded his head.
“Yes,” Zira said nodding his head and Crowley sat back in his chair and nodded.
“Two more days, I think we can have you ready by then,” Crowley sounded so sure of himself that Zira smiled and hoped he was right. “Who wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Woman?” He asked and Zira groaned before he took a bite of his dinner to give himself a moment to think.
~*~Four~*~
Zira sat down at his desk in history on Friday and took a deep breath. He could do this, he and Crowley had been in the library yesterday till their librarian kicked them out at 8:15, 45 minutes after she was supposed to have closed. Crowley had drilled the information into his head over and over till Zira could answer just about any question he asked.
Mrs. Device smiled at him when she set his test down in front of him and Zira bit his bottom lip and hoped he would do well. After she explained the rules, no cheating, sit at your desk and read when your done, nothing but your pencil on your desk, she told them to flip over the test and get to it. Zira flipped it over and after writing his name he read over the questions and he smiled.
1. “The Committee of Public Safety guillotined thousands of people between September 1793 and July 1794, this time period came to be known as what?”
Zira read the question and smiled as he wrote down his answer. He was surprised how much easier the answers came to him now. All he had to do was picture Crowley asking the question, and imagine his small smile when he’d get it right and he’d remember the answer. It went like that for most of the test. He still had to stop and think for a moment on the names, but they came to him if he just pictured Crowley telling him the answers they’d gone over before.
It was a 30 question test with a small essay at the end, 'what major event started the French Revolution in the first place?' But they had gone over a few different essay ideas since Crowley said Mrs. Device always had them on her tests. He finished with about five minutes left till the end of class.
“You have five minutes left,” Mrs. Device said from her desk. “Time to be finishing up your essay.” She looked over and met Zira’s eyes and he smiled widely at her and she smiled back before going back to her computer. Zira just sat there going over his test until the bell rang and Mrs. Device stood and smiled.
“Alright everyone, tests on my desk, I’ll have your grades on Monday,” She said as everyone stood and grabbed their stuff and headed up and dropped off their tests before heading towards the door. Zira hung back just a little and walked up to her desk as the last student left.
“I think that went splendidly,” he said with a huge smile. She looked at her door and smiled brightly.
“You have lunch next correct?” She asked and Zira nodded and she picked up his test and flipped it over. She pulled a pen out of her desk and Zira’s eyes went wide. Oh, she was going to grade it, now?! He nervously shifted from foot to foot as she underlined something then checked something else on the paper, then something else a few questions down. She flipped the page over and did the same on the back, making only one mark on the whole page before flipping it over again to do the second page. Her eyes went wide as she read over his essay answer and she smiled and then flipped it back to the front and wrote something in the top left hand corner and handed it back.
“A B+!” Zira said with a huge smile on his face.
“If I didn’t know you’d been studying with Crowley all week, I might think you’d cheated,” She joked and he laughed lightly as she leaned back in her chair and nodded. “Of course, now that I know you can do this well, I’ll not be accepting subpar work from you Zira.”
“Of course Mrs. Device,” Zira agreed nodding his head. She reached out and he handed her back the test.
“I’ll give this back on Monday,” She told him with a smirk and Zira nodded. “Have a great weekend.”
“Thanks Mrs. Device, you too!” He said happily as he walked towards the door. He let the door close behind him and saw Crowley walking towards him. He hurried up, so he was practically running, he had to screech to a halt when he made it to Crowley.
“How did it-
“I got a B+!” He yelled before he lunged forward and wrapped his arms around Crowley’s neck in a tight hug. Crowley raised his arms and hugged him back, glaring at the few people who gave them an odd look as they passed. “Oh Crowley I couldn’t have done it without you!” He cried happily as he pulled away, though his hands stayed on his shoulders. “Thank you!”
“I’m so glad it went well angel,” Crowley told him excitedly. He had to force himself not to think about the fact that Zira was still holding his shoulders in a tight grip. “I think this calls for a celebration.” Crowley said and Zira nodded his head. “I think we need that chocolate brownie from SilverSurf after school.” Crowley said and Zira lit up and he laughed and pulled his hands away to straighten his bag on his shoulder. He didn’t really want to let go, but he didn’t want to make Crowley uncomfortable.
“I think that sounds amazing,” Zira agreed as they turned towards the lunch room. “My treat, as a thank you.” Crowley looked ready to argue but Zira just raised an eyebrow and he stopped and nodded his head.
“Any time angel,” he said with a small smile. “Any time.”