Work Text:
A simple fact Aziraphale had come to understand about humans was if there was a way to do something just a little faster, no matter how dangerous it might be to their person, they would do it.
While running was the obvious first step, Aziraphale would argue horseback riding was the real kicker.
One idiot took a single look at a large four-legged creature and decided this was the perfect animal to ride. Not only that, but this same idiot chose to sit on the exact spot he had just seen a lion grab onto only to be bucked off and trampled to death by the horse. And, instead of deciding it wasn’t worth it after the horse promptly through him to the ground. The idiot brushed himself off and decided to try again.
All of these were such catastrophically stupid decisions Aziraphale had spent a few centuries convinced Crowley had put them up to it.
The demon would later reveal he thought it was a rather stupid idea too. No use corrupting a soul when it would kill itself too early for any real damage to be done.
And so, on humans would go making carriages and cars and bicycles and anything else that would get them here to there just a fraction of a hair faster than somebody else.
It was therefore not surprising to Aziraphale when Isabelle came to him asking with big brown eyes if she could have a pair of roller-skates.
“Other kids at school have them,” she insisted. “I won’t leave them around the house, or track mud in, or anything!”
The angel was hesitant at first as the image of Isabelle barreling down the sidewalk with the same vigor as Crowley drove the Bentley down the street gave him little comfort. However, she was only seven. She had asked politely and it was something children did.
“I don’t see why not,” he conceded.
Isabelle’s eyes lit up just before she turned her head towards the kitchen.
“Dad! Papa said it was okay!”
“Fine Izz!” Crowley called back. “Angel, you say it was okay?!”
“Yes!” Aziraphale answered, not knowing whether to be amused or annoyed at the amount of shouting going around. But there was nothing for it.
That weekend the angel and demon strode through the local park each holding one of Isabelle’s hands as she rolled along on her brand new roller-skates.
They had been at it for some time. Isabelle had initially wanted to try and do it by herself, but, after a handful of failed attempts to even stand upright, it was agreed that maybe some help was necessary.
Aziraphale didn’t mind in the slightest as it officially put Isabelle’s chances of cracking her head open on the sidewalk down to a comforting zero.
Crowley took it all in stride, helping her up when she fell down and even suggesting she hold onto them while she got her bearings.
Isabelle had made some protest, insisting she could do it on her own, but soon realized that balancing your feet on four rolling wheels was exactly as difficult as it sounded. Even still, she tried to maintain some independence. While she held on to both their hands for the first fifteen minutes or so, she started practicing going back and forth between them, holding one of their hands and then the other, testing the balance of each leg. She had been at it for so long, Aziraphale assumed that was all she was going to accomplish for the day. Until of course, it wasn’t.
“I think I’m ready,” she said with the blind determination only a seven-year-old can have.
“All by yourself?” prompted Crowley.
“Yeah!”
Crowley smiled before looking at Aziraphale expectantly.
Aziraphale felt his lip press into a worried line. He suddenly began to picture all those people who first came up with the idea of riding horses. Isabelle’s image somehow got mixed in with the rest. The result was something the angel truly did not want to think about.
“Ready to let go, Angel?” Crowley asked.
The words snapped him back to the present and the park decidedly not filled with horses. He looked down to see Isabelle looking excitedly up at him.
“I can do it,” she promised.
Aziraphale took in a breath, held it for a moment and slowly let it out.
“Alright, on the count of three.”
Isabelle took both their hands, looking straight ahead with unbridled intensity.
“One…two…three!”
Isabelle pushed off their hands. The momentum got her a few feet away before she made her first attempts at pushing herself forward. Her legs immediately began to wobble, and she struck her arms out for balance. It didn’t do any good. Her feet were sliding in a variety of directions making her center of gravity as effective as bicycle peddles on a wheelchair.
Aziraphale acted on instinct. Making a vague gesture with his hand, suddenly Isabelle was standing up right. Her feet were the proper space apart, her knees were bent and she was traveling in a perfectly straight line.
Isabelle made no motion to move as she continued to roll along down the pavement. She leaned slightly to the left and straightened up. She leaned to the right and back up again. She stuck out her leg and pushed to turn herself around with the sharp precision of an Olympic ice skater before coming to a full stop. Her expression was anything but happy.
“I said I wanted to do it myself.” Her tone was bitter, but there was also an underlining sense of disappointment which made Aziraphale wince.
“Belle—”
“I know you helped. Why can’t I just do it myself?”
The angel stumbled looking to Crowley for support. There was none to be found. The demon simply looked at him with crossed arms and a raised eyebrow.
“Well?” asked Crowley.
Aziraphale opened his mouth and promptly closed it again, glancing back and forth between the two before settling on Isabelle.
“You can do it yourself, it’s just…”
“You don’t think I can.”
“No,” he said, firmly. “I simply don’t want to see you hurt.”
Isabelle frowned. She couldn’t think of anything to say for a moment. Her brows furrowed in concentration as she worked her way to a conclusion every human came to at some point in their lives.
“Well…how else am I supposed to learn?”
The angel blinked. His mouth did that opening and closing thing again, before a hesitant, “Well…” stumbled out. That’s about as far as he got before he once again turned to Crowley.
For his part, the demon’s look of disappointment was gone, replaced by quiet amusement.
“Don’t look at me, Angel. Humans suffering for knowledge has been a package deal for some time now.”
Aziraphale’s lips pressed into an annoyed line as he shot a glare in the demon’s general direction, but the point stood. He took a deep breath, summoning strength from whoever was listening and let it out.
“Would you like to try again dearest?”
Isabelle shot him a suspicious look. “For real this time?”
“Yes,” assured the angel. “For real this time.”
The little girl watched him a moment before slowly nodding her head. She straightened up and with her right leg, pushed herself forward back towards her fathers. She never got to the left one. Her knees shot out from under her and she tumbled right to the ground.
She laughed and soon the angel and demon joined in.
Isabelle spent the rest of the day rolling and falling until she was exhausted from both. Aziraphale knew she was going to have bruises in the morning, but the proud grin on her face as they wandered back home kept him from doing anything about it. They were her bruises after all. A testament to her mistakes as well as the lessons she learned. It was a very human way of thinking and one he wouldn’t take from her for the world.