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The year was 326 BC, and the mighty and unstoppable Greek army marched forward into unknown lands. Their leader, Alexander the Great, led the intrepid group further East than anyone in their history had before. But how was this great king and general able to accomplish such a monumental task of uniting the entire known world? He unknowingly had help, an angel and a demon on each shoulder if you will.
Aziraphale the angel joined his army all the way back in Greece, and quickly became a close advisor to the king. He always managed to point Alexander in the right direction, and quietly used his powers to make sure casualties and injuries were at a minimum. The demon Crawley, as he was known then, was much more subtle. He usually took the form of some type of bird or his original snake form and watched and manipulated events from afar. Which is why it took the two supernatural beings so long to realize that both were involved in these historic events.
It was the battle of Hydaspes. The Greeks fought against the defenders of the land led by King Porus along the river. It was a great and bloody battle, as most were. Aziraphale held his own as he defended himself and the men around him. He may prefer to use brain over brawn and generally he liked to avoid violence, but he was still plenty skilled with a sword. The angel silently apologized to those he had to hit, and was able to avoid fatal blows to everyone he encountered; instead of killing, he knocked his opponents unconscious and they always managed to wake just after the Greek troops had moved on.
It was after he defeated a large-built man that Azirphale noticed something in the distance. Or rather, someone. Red curls flowed out of the black Greek helmet and the figure in question wore all black Greek armor. It took the angel by surprise, he hadn’t expected to run into the demon here of all places. Aziraphale’s breath caught in his throat for a moment as he watched Crawley elegantly battle the enemies around him. Unlike the angel, however, he has no qualms about killing his opponents. That can be forgiven, Aziraphale thought to himself.
From behind him, an enemy soldier thought he had the Greek warrior dressed in all white armor caught off guard. But, Aziraphale quickly reacted and was able to disarm and kick down his opponent with little effort. In the process, however, he has lost track of the figure he was watching. The angel scanned the battlefield for the only fighter dressed in all black. After a few moments, he was able to find him.
And what he saw made his face a white as his armor.
Crawley was ambushed by a group of soldiers and he tried desperately to fend them all off. He was doing a great job of it too, beating down each opponent one by one, until an archer from a distance took aim at the figure in all black. He didn’t seem to notice, but Aziraphale did. And he knew he had to do something.
Before his brain could catch up to his own thoughts, the angel rushed across the field. He prayed, more to himself than to anyone who might or might not be listening, that he would get there in time. The archer drew back his arrow and took aim.
“Crawley!!” the angel’s voice rang out over the many cries and screams of the battlefield. The demon looked up to see a blur of white run just past him and he knew instantly who that voice that called his name belonged to.
The next several moments passed by as if time moved in slow motion. Crawley turned around just in time to see the angel hit by an arrow, an arrow that would have hit him if Aziraphale hadn’t jumped in the way. He gasped as his eyes widened.
“Aziraphale?” his voice came out much higher than he intended as he caught the angel’s falling form in his arms. “Aziraphale!” he all but shouted.
For some reason, the arrow knocked Aziraphale unconscious. An arrow that normally either of them could just pull out and heal themselves from. Crawley ignored everything happening around him as he focused on the blonde in his arms and cried out his name over and over again.
“AZIRAPHALE!”
Suddenly, nothing else mattered. Not his mission that brought him so far East. Not the lives of the humans around them. Not even his own life. Crawley’s only objective was the angel’s safely. He couldn’t explain why, but fear took hold of him as Aziraphale’s breaths became very shallow. Without a second thought, he took Aziraphale into his arms and rushed off the battlefield. The humans were on their own now.
Crawley took Aziraphale to a nearby cave and quickly lit a fire. Carefully, he lay the angel down and tore off his armor to reveal the wound on his chest.
“Come on,” the demon gasped desperately, “Heal,” he tried to use the power he had to make the wound close on its own. However, no matter how hard he tried, it would not heal. “What?” Crawley looked at his hands in disbelief before he tried again.
Aziraphale’s breaths were getting more shallow by the minute and it because harder and harder to breathe. His skin flushed as his body temperature rose. “Cr… Crawley…” he panted out between heavy breaths.
“Shhh,” he looked up from the open wound to meet the angel’s eyes, “I’m here. I’ve got you,” he tried and failed to hide the panic in his voice, “Just stay with me, ok angel?”
The blonde opened his mouth to answer, but a fresh sting of pain shot through his entire body. His body thrashed back against the ground as he exclaimed in pain. Blood poured out of the open wound and a layer of sweat coated his skin.
“No no no no no,” Crawley’s hands shook with fear. He never had a miracle not work before, and he couldn’t bear it if he lost Aziraphale. He took a deep breath to steady himself because he ripped his cloak off to put pressure on the wound. “If a miracle won’t work,” he told himself while he got to work to stop the bleeding, “It’ll just have to be the human way.”
Full blown snake eyes bore down at the body before him as the demon concentrated everything he had to clean up Azirapahle’s wound. Next to him, he made a bucket of clean water appear while in his hands he manifested a needle and a cloth. His breath was shakey with nerves as he cleaned up the blood all over the angel’s porcelain skin. It was in that moment that he was grateful that he had spent so much time around humans as he dug deep into his mind to think of anything that would help.
Luckily, what Crawley did seemed to help. The mix of herbs he summoned stopped the bleeding and started to bring Aziraphale’s fever down. Satisfied with how the wound looked, he got to work to sew up the open gash to make sure it wouldn’t continue to bleed.
“Azirapahle?” he asked in a soft voice.
The angel hadn’t opened his eyes in some time. His breaths were ragged from the pain of the ordeal. For a moment, his eyes fluttered open, but he didn’t seem to look directly at the figure before him. Again, he opened his mouth as if to say something, but before any sound left his lips, his head dropped back and he passed out.
The hours passed agonizingly slow for the redhead as he never left Aziraphale’s side. He kept an eye on the opening of the cave they resided in; he watched as the sun rose and set as the angel continued to sleep the infection away. The demon did not sleep a wink, not that he needed it in the first place. His first and only priority was to keep an eye on the blond that risked his life for his own.
As the light of the moon shone into the cave, Crawley studied the soft face that slept in front of him. His heart skipped a beat as so many thoughts ran through his head. But those thoughts were interrupted by the stirring of the angel.
After over a day of sleep, Aziraphale started to wake up for the first time. Crawley took the angel’s hand in his. It was still warm; the fever hadn’t quite broken yet. He may be better now than he was when they first came into the cave, but the demon knew they weren’t out of the woods yet.
“Hey,” his voice was soft as he greeted the angel.
“Crawley?” he asked weakly.
“Shhh, just rest angel,” his voice was soft as he brushed a lock of blonde hair aside.
“Where…?” he couldn’t even finish the thought as he tried to lift himself up.
“Hey, hey,” Crawley gently pushed him back to lay down, “You need to rest. I don’t know why a miracle isn’t healing this,” worry laced his voice, “Must he this land or something.”
Aziraphale groaned, “I’m fine Crawley, really,” he tried to sass back, but he found he didn’t have the energy and started to drift back off to sleep.
Crawley scoffed quietly, not at Aziraphale, but at the name, “I don’t think Crawley is really working for me,” he said more to himself than to the semi-conscious angel.
In that moment, a group of crows fluttered awake from the breeze and flew past them out of the cave.
“Crows,” Aziraphale whispered, “Crow…. Crowley,” he muttered, unaware of what he was saying.
“Crowley,” the demon pondered.
The angel slept for another day before he finally woke again. This time, he woke with more strength and his fever broke. As he slowly sat himself up, Azirapahle looked around the cave. He saw the embers of what was a fire next to him and near the entrance, he saw a figure outlined by the midday sun.
“Crawley?” he called out to the figure.
In an instant, the demon was right at his side, “Angel! You’re awake,” his voice almost broke as worry lined his face.
Azirapahle smiled sweetly, “Thanks to you,” he took his hand and squeezed it in appreciation.
Crawley felt his face blush at the angel’s gaze. They sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments before the demon cleared his throat and looked down at their entwined hands. He held for a moment before he set Azirphale’s hand down. “I’m glad you’re ok,” he finally spoke, “You had me worried for awhile there.”
Aziraphale let out a deep breath as he watched the demon fidget in his spot. Unsure of what to say next, he asked, “What are you doing all the way out here anyway?”
“I could ask the same about you,” the demon retorted playfully.
“If you must know,” the blonde was just as playful, “I was helping Alexander since Greece. It’s a noble thing he’s doing, uniting the world as one. DIfferent people living under one ruler together. Doesn’t sound so bad.”
A slight chuckle escaped Crawley’s lips, “I was just helping Hell get more souls. People tend to have some nasty thoughts while in war. I’m just here taking advantage of it.”
“You’re joking.”
“Am I?” he replied with a devilish smile.
Aziraphale took a breath in as if he had more to say, but he chose to let it go. They sat in silence for a few minutes.
“Why did you do it?” the redhead broke the silence with a question that was on his mind.
“What?” Azirapahle was taken off guard by the question.
“Jump in front of me. Take that arrow. Why’d you do it?” he asked again.
The angel sighed as he looked down at the ground, “I don’t know. I just…” he paused for a moment, “Had to.”
Crawley let those words settle in his mind for a minute. “Thank you,” he said softly.
Aziraphale met the demon’s eyes, “What was that?” he asked playfully.
“Thank you,” he repeated more clearly with a smile on his face. He gently placed his hand on top of the angel’s.
Moments seemed to last for hours, but this time in a good way. The two gazed into each other’s eyes as if they were looking for answers to unasked questions. Before they realized it, they leaned closer to each other until their lips were only a hair apart. The demon hesitated for a moment, but Aziraphale took the opportunity to close the distance and closed their lips together.
It wasn’t a deep kiss, but it still felt so meaningful. So many years of emotions and unsaid words came to the surface with one simple kiss. Aziraphale brought his hand up to cup Crawley’s cheek. In response, Crawley wrapped his arms around Aziraphale’s waist to pull him even closer.
“Ow” the angel exclaimed. Crawley managed to irritate the still healing wound when he grabbed him.
“Ack! Sorry angel,” the demon apologized sincerely and checked on the wound to make sure he didn’t do any real damage.
“It’s fine Crawley, really,” he reassured the worried redhead.
Crawley set out a deep sigh, “So,” he started once he was satisfied that Aziraphale was really ok, “What now?”
The angel shrugged, “I don’t know. I’m still and angel, and you’re still a demon,” he thought out loud, “I guess it’s back to our jobs. Although who knows where the Greek army is now.”
“I think that may be a lost cause at this point, angel,” he said with a short laugh. To be honest, Crawley completely forgot about Alexander and the Greek army and the battle. “Besides, we need to make sure you’re ok before anything else.”
“I’m ok,” Azirapahle retorted, “You took good care of me, Crawley. I’ll be back to normal in a few hours thanks to you,” he gave the demon a sweet smile.
“You can’t mention this to anyone, you know that,” the demon suddenly got defensive as he remembered the rest of the world still existed.
“Of course my dear. A demon’s reputation is all important now,” he teased.
Crawley rolled his eyes as he tried to hide a smile, “Well, I guess we will run into each other next time then,” he said as he brushed his hand against the angel’s cheek before he stood to leave.
Aziraphale nodded, “Until next time then,” he repeated as he watched the demon leave the cave with a warm smile on his face and a flutter in his heart.