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Aziraphale was glowing.
Crowley was aware that this was a thing people said about human women who carried children sometimes, but Aziraphale was, in fact, literally glowing. His body could just about contain one cosmic entity woven of love and the power of creation, a second one seemed to be stretching it at the seams when he didn’t take extra care to keep it together. As he sat there in the twilight of Crowley’s living room, he filled it with a soft, warm gloom, like a big nightlight.
Crowley felt light-headed with relief, but as he leaned his shoulder against doorway, he crossed his legs at the ankles, endeavouring to look like he hadn’t been counting down the seconds to Aziraphale’s return.
“How did it go?”
Aziraphale looked up in surprise, torn out of his thoughts.
“I thought you were sleeping.”
“‘course I’m not sleeping!” Crowley snapped.
There were several things that a demon really couldn’t be heard saying hidden behind that outburst: how worried he’d been to let Aziraphale walk back into heaven, how much he’d hated that he couldn’t come with him, also maybe that he wanted to throw himself on the sofa and touch Aziraphale all over to make sure him and the baby were alright.
Aziraphale had known him for long enough to understand enough of it and while that was embarrassing, Crowley was also very grateful to whoever wanted to listen as Aziraphale got to his feet and fit himself against the lean lines of Crowley’s human form. His expanded belly was pressing against him as Aziraphale wrapped Crowley in his arms.
“You must have really put the fear of – well – God into them the last time you were there!” Aziraphale said, smiling. “They barely dared to touch me.”
Of course, it hadn’t gone unnoticed in heaven that another angelic energy they didn’t know had appeared on earth. Crowley was not happy for the fact, but then, if the baby in Aziraphale’s belly had been a demon, that wouldn’t have gotten him less dangerous kin, either.
“Do they know what’s going on?”
Because Aziraphale and Crowley had been pulling a blank ever since the day Crowley noticed the little flame inside Aziraphale’s being, like a candle caught in the stream of floodlights, which had been growing stronger and brighter ever since.
“No, not really.” Aziraphale hesitated. “Metatron speculated that perhaps it was an act of ineffable diplomacy. I tend to agree with him, actually.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Crowley muttered, hand dragging over Aziraphale’s back.
“Well, the other angels had already figured out who might be the father,” Aziraphale said, sheepishly, pulling at the collar of his shirt with one finger. “However, angels can’t get pregnant as far as anyone knows. In fact, you can’t really make new angels by a mere, er, human act of reproduction. There’s only one person who can make angels.” He pointed upwards.
“So that means... God wanted you to get pregnant with a baby angel?”
“After sharing the bed with a demon.”
“Don’t think we were in a bed for what caused this, actually.”
If it lined up with when he’d first noticed that flicker in Aziraphale, the baby angel had in fact been conceived on the backseat of the Bentley.
Aziraphale’s ears grew red as he threw Crowley a reproachful glance. “It’s a figure of speech,” he said primly. “Anyway – this is the first time she decided to make a new angel since after the creation of the earth, and she chose us for it. It can hardly get more symbolic than that. Even heaven can’t pretend it doesn’t mean anything.”
Smiling, Aziraphale leaned up to kiss Crowley, who hugged him close. A baby to underline that what they did wasn’t the outrageous crime heaven and hell pretended they had committed – that would have been true mercy. Crowley was too cynical to think that it would give the armies of up and down pause forever, of course, but with any luck, their superiors would remember this for a few centuries before trying to start a new war.
“I wonder how She decided it was going to be an angel and not a demon,” he said.
“I guess it would be rather unfair to make a baby a demon if they haven’t even had a chance to do anything that could cause their fall,” Aziraphale speculated.
“True. I always figured the whole Lucifer business was a test run of the free will idea.”
Aziraphale took Crowley’s hand and led him over to the sofa.
“You know,” he said, very carefully, “I thought it might also be redemption of sorts.”
“Redemption?” Crowley repeated. “What does that little angel need to be redeemed for?”
“No, not theirs. Yours. You are a demon, but you helped with the creation of an angel. I think it proves that demons aren’t as lost as everyone always pretended. Underneath it all, you still have the essence of an angel. You could be forgiven.”
Usually, Crowley would wipe such words away with a caustic comment. Aziraphale believed such things because he loved Crowley and it was hardwired into his nature to think the very best of people, but that didn’t make it not ridiculous to pretend there was any angelic goodness remaining inside of the original tempter, the snake in the garden of Eden.
However, this time, he had a point.
The idea was too strange to consider now, with everything else going on. He shelved it carefully in some back alley of his mind, to prod and poke at later.
“Well, anyway,” he muttered. “Guess that means we’ll be taking care of a baby now. Good thing it seems to come with a body, or heaven might get its hands on it first.”
Pure angelic light probably wouldn’t enjoy kicking Aziraphale’s ribs quite so much. Crowley reached out and placed his hand over Aziraphale’s stomach. As if aware of his attempt to make this whole matter more real to himself, the baby graced him with a little bump against his palm. Aziraphale smiled brightly as Crowley rubbed his hand over his belly.
“I’m quite looking forward to it, you know,” Aziraphale said, covering Crowley’s hand with his own. “I mean – I really did not expect this, and I don’t think anything like a baby angel ever existed, since the rest of us sprang into being fully formed. It will be, well, adventurous! But if I had to have a child with anyone, I would only ever have chosen you.”
Crowley kissed him quickly before his sweet words could stir up even more undemonic thoughts. He already agreed with everything Aziraphale had said, anyway.