Chapter Text
Aziraphale was waiting. This was not new. But he had gotten quite good at it as of late.
He had resisted at first, merely casually and completely coincidentally reading nearby when they let the next round of souls through the gates. Just happenstance. Simply taking advantage of the better lighting. You know how it is.
Michael caught him at least once passing by the gates. He thought she might have seen through him, but she merely raised a delicate eyebrow at him and went on her way. He couldn't be bothered to think on it much more than that. He had long ago accepted that they simply did not Understand.
They did not know Earth like he did. They did not know humans like he did.
Especially not humans like Crowley.
Aziraphale read, and waited. And waited.
He was not one to get impatient, he was perfectly content to sit with his thoughts until he grew moss, but he was starting to get antsy. Saint Peter had started dropping rather unsubtle hints, and Aziraphale was properly restless now. What started off as little glances stolen from over the cover of his novels and paperwork, turned into outright looking. Now he had abandoned all materials and just stared, scanning the crowds of souls as they entered for a familiar face, day after day. His fingers twisted into anxious knots behind his back.
He offered a little smile and nod here and there to the souls that passed. He tried not to let on how years of watching and hearing the tearful reunions happening around him affected him. On days like today, he barely had the heart to grin.
A glimpse of a mane of red red hair brought him to a dead stop. Of course there had been times before he could have sworn he had seen that hair, the glasses, heard the voice, only for it to turn out to be false hope. But no, this time was real. He knew it. Could feel it vibrating inside himself like a tuning fork.
He lost sight of the bright hair in the crowd, and immediately scrambled forward to find it again. He apologized distractedly as he waded through, gently pushing past. The vibrations inside him grew louder, intense.
He stood at the spot he had seen the hair, the oh so familiar hair.
There was nothing.
No one for him.
The crowds had passed. Aziraphale looked around, seeing all the happy embraces as souls reunited beyond the pearly gates. His face fell. He cursed the leaden feeling in his chest. He had no right to it, and no one to blame but himself.
“Silly me...” He brushed his hands off, and turned to go wait in his office again for tomorrow to do the whole thing over again.
“Aziraphale?”
The voice came from just ahead of him. Aziraphale stiffened. He slowly lifted his gaze.
“Oh.”
The light of Heaven was so bright and pure it made Crowley's wide brown eyes shine pure gold.
It happened quickly after that, Aziraphale wasn't sure who moved first. But he was certain that Crowley had his arms looped around him. And after his mind was able to catch up, he returned the favor, crushing Crowley against him.
“Oh.”
“Was startin' to wonder if I had just made you up...been so long...” Crowley's drawling voice was muffled against Aziraphale's round shoulder.
Aziraphale let out a shaky breath, barely a laugh. His hands ran up Crowley's knobbly back, fingers finding his hair. His hair. Aziraphale realized it was the first time in a while he had seen his natural hair, and it was much longer than Aziraphale remembered it in life. It fell past Crowley's shoulders in red lush waves.
When they finally pulled away, Aziraphale thought he noticed less wrinkles on Crowley too. Though still forever lanky and angular, Crowley seemed fuller, healthier, vibrant. Golden eyes shone like polished coins.
Aziraphale squeezed Crowley's forearms dearly, “Oh my, you look radiant.”
“You look,” Crowley's face crinkled, eyes scanning the angel up and down, “Well I can't say the same really. Jeez what did they do to you? You look even stuffier than I remember and I didn't think it was possible...” Crowley picked at Aziraphale's plain white bow-tie, the plain cream lapels of his coat.
Aziraphale shrugged sheepishly, “Stricter dress code up here, I'm afraid.”
“Oh, yeah, I guess so,” Crowley took in his own plain vanilla colored simple shirt and dove gray trousers. “You weren't exaggerating the corporate hellscape. It should be sacrilegious to deny you tartan.”
“Can I get you to say that at my next performance review meeting?”
“Oh, you really conned me into coming up here, you know that?” Crowley pinched the bridge of his nose, already feeling a ghost of a migraine coming on at the mention of ethereal performance reviews. Corporate Hellscape indeed.
Aziraphale tutted, “Don't get so negative so quickly, you are here forever now you know.”
“You sure you're not a demon?”
“Quite,” Aziraphale said brightly. He couldn't stop smiling. “And neither are you, I'm very proud to see.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Crowley brushed him off, folding his arms, “Wasn' that hard, you know. They let just about anybody in here these days.”
Crowley's gaze wandered, taking in the crowds that had started to move on, the white halls leading them forward. And just behind them, the sterile while tiles ended into a sheer drop-off, spilling into a void of stars, cosmic blackness as far as creation.
His bright eyes reflected the small pinpricks of light as he looked down, “So this is it...this is Heaven?”
Aziraphale had been watching him warmly. At the question though, the angel shrank back, bowing his head.
“If there's anyone that you wish to find, I don't mind if you-”
“No.”
Aziraphale cocked his head, “There's no one you want to see?”
Crowley shook his head, “Don't think any of my usual company would be found around here. Besides I think one angel is more than enough of a handful for me.”
“Oh...oh!” Aziraphale pricked up, positively beaming, much to Crowley's chagrin.
“This will be wonderful. I can't wait to show you around! I can show you the library first. Or maybe my office. Oh, you will probably want to settle into your own quarters soon, of course. In which case maybe we should-”
“Angel.”
“Y-yes?”
“Tell me this,” Crowley said wryly, “I'm guessing that it all is quite lovely, impressive, and 68 degrees fahrenheit as promised. I also suspect that it looks the exact same as the very hall I am standing in right now. Same shade of eggshell white and all.”
“You wouldn't be wrong, no,” Aziraphale admitted.
Crowley tsked, shaking his head as he circled around Aziraphale. Aziraphale recognized the familiar dance of when a tricky thought was winding Crowley up. A good rant was sure to follow, or a stubborn ridiculous idea that only an equally ridiculous human could ever come up with.
Aziraphale found it exciting.
“See, that doesn't quite sit right with me.”
“Doesn't it?”
“No,” Crowley said smartly. “I just spent much too much time on Earth sitting around being bored. I didn't go through all that to spend eternity the same way. I want a proper reward for my troubles. Pain and Suffering compensation, you know?”
Aziraphale's fingers flittered and his chest felt tight with a bit of anxiety, “What are you saying, exactly?”
Crowley stopped and turned to look him in the eye, “Why don't we get away? Somewhere actually interesting. Just the two of us? Have a couple decades to catch up on, don't we?”
“Crowley!” Aziraphale gave him a scandalized look, clutching his chest while he tutted, “You are naughty. You've been here all of five minutes and you're already talking mischief. You know I'm still not supposed to go to Earth for several more years yet.”
“Now, I take offense to that,” Crowley said haughtily, golden eyes shimmering as he prowled around Aziraphale again, suddenly appearing over his other shoulder, “I never said we had to go to Earth per say. Just...maybe in the same general universe? Nothing against that is there?”
“Still, we would be breaking the spirit of the law, if not the specifics of said direct order...” Aziraphale pointed out.
Crowley rolled his shoulders dismissively, “Ehhh, I say anything worth doing wasn't not worth the trouble for doing it.”
“Crowley.” Aziraphale fixed him with a stern look, mouth in a hard line, “Now, I know I did not just hear a brand new angel suggest we flit about outside of Heaven despite direct orders to do no such thing. ”
Crowley faltered, brow crumpling, “Umm...”
“Because...” Aziraphale's blue eyes shone like fire now, his grin was almost manic, “If you went off, then I would certainly have to chase after you to catch you. And I'd have to leave Heaven though I'm not allowed to do that. But I would simply have to...if you ran off away from Heaven, that is.”
“Oh, how I missed you,” Crowley said breathlessly, awed.
“I missed you too, my dear. So much...” Aziraphale brushed a coppery curl from Crowley's face, so gentle. Crowley's hand came to rest atop of his, holding it there as he pressed against it. Aziraphale melted, “Where did you have in mind?”
Crowley hummed as he thought, sleepily forcing his eyes open, almost as if drunk, to look out into the blank void beyond the clean white floors, “Not too far. Andromeda, maybe? Or even Alpha Centuri? Must be lovely this time of year.”
“Would make for a nice picnic,” Aziraphale agreed.
Crowley's fingers tightened around Aziraphale's, “Can we, really?”
“You said it yourself, just might be worth the trouble.”
It was the first time Crowley felt he could truly breathe. His chest, his heart, filling so full it was dizzying. He could have sworn he could have drifted off right there, and become part of the sky, the clouds.
The only thing that weighed him down anymore was the warm hand holding on to his.
“Do you need to make arrangements with your other angels before you jet off?”
Aziraphale took hold around Crowley's middle with one strong arm, hands still intertwined, “No I think it will be more fun this way.”
With one massive feathery flap of his wings he catapulted them both into the expansive void of sky.
What exactly they got up to after that, it was ineffable.
THE END