Chapter Text
Tadfield is a nice and quiet place; of course the ride in the Bentley gave Aziraphale one of those things humans call heart attacks, because Crowley was driving like a demon.
After Crowley parks close to the Antichrist’s house, they decide to take a walk around the place.
Aziraphale gets suddenly overwhelmed by a wave of love he feels all over the place; it’s warm and so nice it makes him stop for a moment.
“What is it? Are you alright?” Crowley stops as well, getting closer to him and taking his face in his hands like he has done before. Aziraphale hadn’t realized he had taken the demon’s arm.
“I’m fine, sorry… It’s just–It’s a nice place,” Aziraphale can’t mention what just happened because demons cannot feel love.
“It is,” Crowley agrees, still looking at Aziraphale with concern.
Supernatural beings have the ability to walk unnoticed by humans, which is really convenient when your purpose is to stalk a little boy.
His name is Adam and Aziraphale realizes really soon why he loves this place so much: he has loving parents and amazing friends who follow him everywhere.
It makes Aziraphale feel protective of him. Why he can’t decide what to do with his life? The fact that he’s the Antichrist doesn’t mean anything. He can feel good inside him. He’s kind and he’s happy.
Adam shouldn’t have to carry with such responsibility. The end the world… No, he can’t; Aziraphale knows the boy loves the world, his world at least, but that’s something.
That has to be enough.
Aziraphale doesn’t want humanity to end; Raphael wouldn’t want that either.
But what does Crowley want? He’s a demon, he probably wants the Armageddon to happen, right? But why did he–
“Why did you lie to the others?” Aziraphale asks again. “Why did you swap the children?”
Crowley smirks at him; in his eyes there’s a familiar glimmer that makes Aziraphale’s heart beat like crazy inside his chest.
The demon takes a step closer and takes both his hands in his.
“I want to stop the end of the world,” he mumbles. “Would you help me?”
“Yes!” Aziraphale can’t help but beam at him. He shouldn’t trust a demon, but Crowley has been helping him a lot and he definitely doesn’t want to try to stop everything by himself.
Raphael would be so proud.
“So… What is your pl–” Aziraphale goes completely quiet as soon as he feels lips against his; for a moment he forgets everything else and enjoys being kissed with such passion…
But then he remembers he’s not actually a Fallen and he also remembers… Raphael.
It’s like he’s betraying him…
Aziraphale pushes Crowley away, gently and almost regretting doing it when he sees the way the demon flinches like he has been burnt.
“I’m sorry… I should’ve asked first… I–”
“Don’t worry,” Aziraphale mumbles, looking away. “Just… I think we shouldn’t do that again.”
“We’re both demons, there’s nothing wrong, at least we can–”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Aziraphale insists and hates to see the tension on Crowley’s shoulders; he can’t see his eyes because of the shades, but he knows something’s wrong.
He’s frozen, at least until he finally gets to nod, almost painfully.
“Right… Let’s just forget about it. We need to focus on what we’re going to do about Adam anyway.” Crowley whispers before turning around; he keeps walking, Aziraphale decides to give him some space.
He feels so bad about what just happened; like the kind of thing a person feels when they make a mistake.
***
“He seems like a good kid already,” Aziraphale smiles fondly, watching as all the children are playing together. They have their own place in the middle of the woods to do it.
“Perhaps he needs a little bit of a bad influence then,” Crowley mumbles to himself, but Aziraphale hears anyway and narrows his eyes.
“Bad influence? We want him to stay as far away from bad influences!” He says and notices that even after that, Crowley doesn’t even try to look at him.
“Balance!” He says. “We need him to be a normal kid!”
“He seems pretty normal to me already,” Aziraphale mumbles and he means it. If Crowley hadn’t told him he was the Antichrist, he wouldn’t have guessed it was him.
Adam looks pretty normal to him; except maybe for the love energy that surrounds the place and it seems like it’s coming from him.
Crowley sighs and he just knows that the demon just rolled his eyes, even though he has his back turned.
“We should keep an eye on him at least,” he finally says.
“That’s an excellent idea, but Crowley–”
“We should live here for a while,” the demon cuts him off. “Meet the people around so the kids can trust us.”
“Do you think they will trust us?” Aziraphale looks around; they’re quiet people and he has the feeling they don’t like strangers so much. Of course, they could just make them trust them, but he wouldn’t like to use a miracle for that.
“Perhaps the people here wouldn’t trust a single man, especially because the objective is to be friends with Adam and the other kids,” Crowley explains and turns around with a smirk on his face. “But a lovely couple…”
“What couple?”
Crowley’s smirk only becomes wider.
***
Aziraphale is still thinking about what happened when he gets to the bookshop; they haven’t actually moved to Tadfield yet but it seems it’s going to be necessary in order to keep an eye on Adam.
Although he doesn’t know what to think about what Crowley proposed; living with him is going to be difficult enough without having to pretend to be a couple. So far the portion has worked perfectly, but he doesn’t want to risk Crowley finding out he’s not actually a fallen.
If he is completely honest with himself though, he’s not so worried about Crowley telling the others, but him getting upset because Aziraphale lied to him.
He has a serious problem; he shouldn’t worry about the demon’s feelings that much.
Because that’d mean he cares about him.
“Hello, Aziraphale!” He almost flinches when he recognizes the voice; he has felt his presence but was too distracted thinking about Crowley to react on time.
Speaking of Crowley, Aziraphale is glad the demon is in his flat, getting everything “ready” before they move to Tadfield. Otherwise he would’ve hissed at Gabriel.
It would have been a disaster.
“I see you’re doing well,” the Archangel mumbles, smirking for some reason; Aziraphale has never liked that expression on him.
“You’re not supposed to be here,” Aziraphale whispers, shutting the door with a snap of his fingers. “Someone can see you…”
“If by someone you mean the demon that’s always following you around,” Gabriel narrows his eyes, irritated. “I can always destroy him and get rid of the problem. It’s just a demon, one less in the world is defini–”
“They would wonder why you destroyed him and not me,” Aziraphale says, trying to sound as calm as possible, but the truth is that he’s afraid and also completely furious. He wants nothing more than to punch that Archangel in the face. “I cannot–We can’t risk me getting caught.”
“I guess you’re right,” Gabriel says reluctantly. “Have you gotten any information on the Antichrist yet?”
“Everything is going according to the plan,” Aziraphale nods and adds another lie: “He’s in America at the moment.”
“Perfect!” Gabriel grins, excitement glimmering in his eyes. “We’ll also win the war this time, Aziraphale.”
“Of course,” he smiles back. “I can’t wait.”
“Me either,” Gabriel agrees, before touching his shoulder. “I’ll be close if you need me.”
Raphael would have hated this as much as Aziraphale does. Now he’s not sure how he’s going to keep an eye on Adam without Gabriel noticing.