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(no subject)

Who: Crowley and OPEN
Where: Class 1-2, behind the building and anywhere else around the school
When: Throughtout the event
Rating: PG13
Summary: Crowley is a smarmy teenaged bad boy with a leather jacket and a cigarette
The Story:

Crowley isn't normally one for jumping into a school function, but speed dating isn't the same old bake sale and when Crowley sees a way to get something out of a situation, you can bet your ass he'll take it. In this case, there are so many opportunities for him to flirt his way into a lucky guy or girl's pants.

When he is in the classroom, he's vocal and helpful, pushing for them to all be able to take turns participating along with running it for obvious reasons and generally being helpful to a degree that is uncharacteristic to him.

At the times that he's not helping out with the speed dating, he can be found skipping class out behind the school building with a bulky leather jacket pulled over his uniform and a cigarette dangling from his lips. He leans against the wall with a relaxed posture and an easy smirk.

(for speed dating with Crowley, see his thread here.)

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Although Souji is helping with the preparations for their class's event, he's not nearly as enthusiastic about its execution as Crowley or some other members of the class. He can only imagine it ending in some degree of disaster.

He's not the type to skip class when classes are being held like normal, but today is Sunday and all anyone is doing is setting up for the culture festival or avoiding setting up for the culture festival. Under those circumstances, he doesn't have any qualms about ducking out of the classroom for a break during the day. That's how he finds Crowley behind the building--it would be stupid to loiter in front of the building when he's supposed to be inside helping.

Despite being in the same class, he's only vaguely acquainted with Crowley. That doesn't stop him from approaching him, though, waving cigarette smoke away from his face with one hand.

"Hey." He stops a little ways away, in case Crowley doesn't want company, and stands with one hand on his hip, his normal stance. "Excited?"

Crowley's a social creature by nature, even if he doesn't always care about what he's supposed to care about, so company is rarely unwanted.

With a grin, he takes the last pull from his cigarette and drops the butt, stamping it out with the toe of his boot.

"More excited than you, I think." He laughs. "You haven't seemed too into the idea. No interest in dating?"

It's a completely foreign concept to Crowley, who is more interested in having sex than anything related to his future.

"Dating and speed dating aren't the same." Not by a mile. They aren't even distant neighbors, really. "And it doesn't really have anything to do with our school's culture."

Then again, neither does Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet or fortune telling.

"I don't think any of this has to do with our school's culture." He shrugs. "I'm just hoping to get a little lucky."

Or a lot lucky. Maybe multiple luckies in a row. Or at the same time. Really, he's not too picky, in case he hasn't made that clear.

"What would you have preferred we did?"

Souji shakes his head and rubs the back of his neck with one hand. "I couldn't come up with anything better, honestly." That's part of why he went along with it.

"You really think speed dating will help you get lucky?"

"It can't hurt." Sound logic from a clearly sound teenager.

He shrugs it off and slouches back against the rough wall, pulling out his pack of cigarettes and lighter before gesturing to himself. "I mean... look at me."

Souji's looking at him and he looks ambivalent at best.

"Rrright." Maybe a rest area would have been better after all. "At least you've got no problems with self-esteem."

Of course he doesn't have self-esteem problems. Why would he? That's for ugly, stupid, boring people and Crowley's not that.

Lighting his cigarette, he holds out the pack in offer. "Want one?"

Souji holds up a hand to decline. "My uncle would kill me."

And his uncle would find out. His detective instinct would alert him, from across town, if Souji even considered smoking. Never mind that his uncle was rarely without a cigarette between his lips.

"Suit yourself." Crowley's not one to push, at least not for this. There are plenty of things Crowley does't drop and does push at, but cigarettes are hardly an important vice.

"So what does a fellow like you do for fun, anyway?"

"For fun?" Souji slides his hands into his pockets and leans against the wall as well.

"I read, go fishing, play with my cousin." He shrugs. "I'm not sure it's anything you'd consider fun."

"I like reading, actually, just not any of the crap they want us reading here."

Crowley knows how people regard him. He must be stupid because he doesn't do a lot of his work, right? The thing is that he can do it; he just doesn't want to.

"Can't say I'd want to go fishing, though. What are you reading?"

Though it doesn't show on his face, Souji's a bit excited to talk about books with someone. Not many of his friends are big on reading. Even if Crowley's preferences are completely different from his, he'll still hear something interesting.

"I just finished this series of books about a high school teacher who's a pushover and tends to get bullied by students and staff, but he's actually well liked by them." Souji shrugs. "The writing wasn't great, but it was interesting to see that kind of story from an adult's point of view instead of a kid's."

No one seems to realize that adults can be bullied, too. He's definitely seen it; his uncle's quite the bully when he wants to be, and his subordinate takes the brunt of it.

"Do you prefer non-fiction or fiction?"

"Fiction, I think. I like a good drama and non-fiction doesn't always build the same way."

Maybe non-fiction is a little too real for him. It's hard to root for the drama to get worse when you're stuck remembering that the people in the story really suffered through whatever happens. With fiction, Crowley is free to cheer on the dastardly villains and the comically larger-than-life antagonists without guilt or emotional attachment.

"I very much like stories of political intrigue and personal betrayal."

And he loves a good vampire romance novel, but his peers don't need to be made aware of that.

"I just finished one where half the royal court was having affairs and all of their lies slowly destroyed all of their lives and the lives of those around them. It was brilliant."

"It's probably hard to write something like that. You'd have to do a lot of planning and remember who did what or said what, and to whom."

Souji can imagine writing lists upon lists and making diagrams and charts and still messing it up. It boggles his mind that there are people who can write intricate, interwoven plots and do it well.

"You don't like happy endings?" It's as much of a statement as a question. Something about the way Crowley spoke makes him think that might be the case.

Crowley hums in thought. "No, I don't mind happy endings at all. It's more about the journey. If there's a good rise and fall of action and it all makes sense, I don't think the ending being happy or not really affects my enjoyment."

Though if he's honest, unhappy or bittersweet endings tend to speak to him more.

"What about you? Do you read fiction, too?"

Souji nods, considering. "Lately, not much, but I like fiction. I guess slice of life stuff is what I prefer, but it can drag on if it's not well done."

"Well, there's got to be some sort of conflict, right? Otherwise it's all meaningless and there's nothing to follow. No one wants a story about walking a dog on a beautiful day."

Or maybe they do, but Crowley certainly has no interest in it.

Souji nods his agreement. "There can be conflict in normal things, but how its written is what makes the difference. It can be just as interesting when the conflict is under the surface and not overt--that's how it usually is in regular life."

"Hmm interesting." And insightful, really. Crowley always likes it when his classmates surprise him with actual intelligence. It happens so rarely.

"I may need to get a list of recommendations from you some time, then."

"Sure. I'd take one from you, too."

"It's a deal." He grins. Souji's not so bad, is he? Crowley tends to judge quickly, but he's not above reassessing.

Souji smiles slightly and straightens.

"I'm heading back in. Try not to skip the whole day."

The guidance counselor gets after you for that.

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