Chapter Text
In the beginning…
Year 7
Aziraphale was terrified. He stood in a flood of other 11-year-olds, looking around frantically, anxiety tingling in his fingers. His first 5 minutes at Celestial Prep and he was already lost. It was rotten luck. Panicking and desperate, Aziraphale walked into the first classroom he saw, and took a seat beside a boy with bright red hair and lovely brown eyes. His seatmate was currently absorbed in a copy of Modern Astronomy.
“Welcome Year Sevens”, their teacher declared smiling. Aziraphale sat at attention, ready and excited for the class ahead. Together with their seatmates, they were to create a presentation on a celestial body in the solar system. Aziraphale turned to his seatmate, only to realize that the assignment had already been started and was nearly finished.
“Oh.. ehm, hello. My name is Aziraphale.”.
His now partner grunted in response.
“Ehm. Can I help at all?”
“Well, um, alright, you hold this and I’ll copy it down.” He handed Aziraphale a very large, heavy book, while he began to copy the words down onto their presentation.
“Did you come up with this all by yourself?” Aziraphale asked impressed with the various diagrams and descriptions.
“I mean kind of? I got most of it out of the book.”
“Well, I think it looks very pretty and that you did an excellent job on it”
“Oh thank you.” The boy smiled and Aziraphale felt as though he’d unlocked the secret of the universe. His partner then began to animatedly describe all the stars and nebulas. Aziraphale was enchanted and about to ask for the name of his new friend, when their teacher came over.
“This is an excellent start you two… oh except, you were supposed to do something that we can see from Earth, or something close by, like Mercury or Saturn or something”. And after stating that they best start again, their teacher walked to another group.
Aziraphale looked over at his partner to ask what celestial body they should do instead, only to find that he looked as though he’d made the stars and nebulas on their poster personally. With a sigh, he pulled out a fresh poster and made to start again.
“But why did we have to?” his seatmate wondered aloud as they walked through the courtyard to lunch. “We were nearly done and what we had was much cooler than what’s going on around the Earth..” he punctuated this statement with a rather fantastic eyeroll.
“Well, she is the teacher.”. Aziraphale reasoned. “She just wants us to follow the lesson plan I think.”
“Yeah, well maybe I can give her a suggestion or a recommendation.”.
“To change the curriculum?”
“Or something. I mean how much trouble can I possibly get in for asking questions? This is a school after all.”
Aziraphale merely shrugged, he didn’t mind having to start again, it allowed him to feel more involved and have a sense of purpose in the project.
A light rain began to fall and his seatmate (I really should ask for his name Aziraphale thought), offered his umbrella to keep them dry.
It later turned out that Aziraphale wasn’t even in the Astronomy class to begin with, but instead had Modern Literature, so he didn’t return to that classroom after that day. And though he searched for his former classmate, Aziraphale didn’t see him for a long time after that.
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Year 9
“Welcome Year Nines, to Terra Academy! We hope everyone has a fantastic year.”.
Aziraphale checked the map one last time, took a deep breath, and entered his first class of the day: Botany. He entered the greenhouse and decided to take a seat next to a girl with long brown hair in an elegant plait.
“Hello, I’m Aziraphale.”. She nodded in reply, “Nice to meet you, I’m Eve.”
The two began to chat and quickly became fast friends. Aziraphale didn’t even notice a familiar red-headed figure slip to the back of the class and sit next to a boy named Adam.
Aziraphale found that he enjoyed the class immensely. Their first unit was focused on fruit trees, specifically Malus pumila or the Apple Tree.
The entire first semester pairs of students would observe the Apple Tree on campus that they were assigned, taking note of its leaves, flowers, and fruit yield. Then based on their findings they’d write a report analyzing the overall well-being of the tree.
Aziraphale tried to be the best partner for Eve that he could be. He took copious notes and was around the tree so often, that some students nicknamed him the “guardian” of the tree. Everything was going splendidly until the day they were supposed to turn in their reports.
Aziraphale had fallen asleep while reading The Importance of Being Earnest, he’d just discovered Oscar Wilde and was loving it, so he didn’t write his half of the analysis report. He didn’t realize that he’d forgotten to write the paper until he walked into class the day it was due.
He and Eve quickly began to panic. Their professor wasn’t there yet, but what could he do? The red-haired boy from the back of the class walks over to them. He’s wearing all black with sunglasses (though they’re indoors), cutting a sharp contrast to Aziraphale's light-colored clothing.
“Are you alright?” He asks Aziraphale. “No! I completely spaced writing my part of the analysis and now Eve and I are going to fail the class.”. The boy looks at Eve and says, “You should go sit with my buddy Adam, our Apple Trees are very close to each other, the data should be fairly similar and I'm willing to bet that the professor won’t notice. I’ll help him.” He points to Aziraphale.
Eve nods and heads to sit by Adam. The two begin to chat as the boy turns to Aziraphale and states, “Show me your data.”.
Aziraphale hands it to him and watches in amazement as the boy writes a full analysis that will work perfectly in about two minutes. He hands the paper to a shocked Aziraphale and says, “I just really like plants.”.
“Well, thank you. I mean it’s kind of cheating, but thank you. I’m Aziraphale.”
“Nice to meet you, I’m Anthony.”.
After class Eve runs up to Aziraphale asking him if he had a pen, so she could give Adam her number. Aziraphale only had the pen that was school-issued that he was told to “Never lose.”. But he could see how excited Eve was, so he relented and gave it to her. He’d probably be able to get it back at some point.
Later that day, he’s sitting on the wall overlooking the school garden when Anthony comes over and sits beside him.
“Want some apple? It’s from my tree.” Aziraphale offers (it was technically against the rules of the class but Aziraphale felt as though he’d deserved it with how much time he put in observing it).
They sit together on the wall. They make a funny pair, Aziraphale soft, clad in beige, blue, and white, while Anthony sits beside him, all limbs and wearing all black. Thanks to the two-year gap and the complications of memory as one grows up, neither can remember the other, they just feel a sort of vague familiarity.
Anthony removes his glasses to reveal delicate amber, almost yellow eyes (Aziraphale will later discover that Anthony suffered a tremendous fall down a flight of stairs, resulting in his eyes changing color and having to spend most of 7th and 8th year recovering at home from his injuries), and Aziraphale thinks they are beautiful, but can’t quite get himself to voice that thought aloud, his train of thought derailing when he hears Anthony say:
“Well, that went down like a lead balloon,”
“I’m sorry?”
“Oh, I said that went down like a lead balloon. Seemed like an overreaction if you ask me.”
When their professor returned, all four of them had been given a lecture about consistency and how it had been irresponsible to swap partners at the last minute.
“Ehh didn’t seem so bad to me.”
“Well, it was! It was borderline cheating writing the essay for me like you did.” Aziraphale insisted.
“I was only trying to help, you’re the one who accepted my help. you ended up boosting my grade anyway.”
“Glad I could help,” Aziraphale says sarcastically.
“Do you have a pen I could borrow?” Aziraphale asks digging through his school bag so he can write down a reminder.
“What happened to yours?” Anthony asks confused.
“I gave it away”
“You what?”
“Well Eve just seemed so excited about giving her number to Adam so I just was like, here you can have my pen, don’t worry I don’t need it back.”.
Aziraphale sighs. “I do hope I didn’t do the wrong thing, my parents are going to be upset when I ask for another one.”
Anthony’s expression softens, “Oh I don’t think you have to worry about that, you’re such an angel I don’t think you’re capable of doing the wrong thing.”.
“Oh thank you,” Aziraphale says relieved. “That had been causing me stress.”. He hands the pen back to Anthony after writing “Get a new pen!” on his palm.
Anthony takes the pen chuckling.
“That’d be funny though, if I, so-so grade shadow in class, did the good thing, and .you an absolute angel, teacher's pet, did the bad one”.
Aziraphale finds himself smiling and quickly puts a stop to it.
“No! That wouldn’t be funny at all!”.
Anthony merely shrugs, and they both look to the sky as it begins to lightly rain. Aziraphale hastily grabs his umbrella to shelter them both.
END OF CHAPTER ONE