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As the flames sizzled across his arms, searing away cloth and then skin, Crawley realized he’d miscalculated.
He toppled backwards and crashed to the ground, screaming. The fire rushed across him, burning his robe, his skin, even jumping to his hair. He thrashed, frantic, tried to scramble out of his clothes.
“Nonono!” He beat his hands and arms against the sand, but it was too late for that to do any good. He was burning up, the fire devouring him, and he couldn’t make it stop. “Help! Help me!”
It hurt, it hurt, there was so much pain. Blazing agony across his chest now, his neck, the left side of his head. He thrashed and flailed, desperate, but the flames just kept spreading.
“Crawley? Oh, Lord!”
Crawley beat at his hair, at the inferno that sizzled through red ringlets. And then it was burning his ear, his cheek, his face, and all he could do was scream.
All at once, the flames vanished. But there was still so much pain, he must still be on fire somewhere, getting burned up, his new corporation destroyed. He writhed, trying to slap the flames away, but the searing pain worsened each time he moved.
“Crawley, Crawley!” Hands caught his right arm, the less burned one, and tried to stop his movements. “Don’t move! It’s okay now, it’s okay. Shhh, it’s okay.”
“N-no, it…” The world spiraled around him, like he was twirling around in circles. Like he’d done the first time he saw his stars in the night sky, the beautiful sea of lights. The fire at the heart of those stars had never hurt him. “The…the flames, they’re burning me up!”
“No, it’s okay now. I’ve put the flames out, shhh.” A hand on the right side of his head, easing him back to lie against sand. He whimpered and sobbed, tears spilling down his burned cheeks. “Oh, my dear fellow, how did you get yourself in such a terrible state?”
By being a complete fucking idiot. “I…”
“No, no. I’m sorry. Never mind that just yet.” A pale face topped with a crown of fluffy curls hovered above him, out of focus. “Oh, you poor dear, that must have been such an awful fright. You just lie still now, hmm? Let me tend to you.”
Aziraphale? Crawley sucked in a ragged, harsh breath. The taste of smoke and burning flesh filled his mouth, and he gagged. Oh, Satan, what had he done to himself?
“Oh, oh…” Aziraphale made little noises of dismay, looking Crawley over as he shuddered. “Oh, what dreadful burns! Just…just don’t move, hmm? I’m going to heal all of this.”
Crawley tried to move, to shift out of the position that was causing so much pain. But moving just made it hurt even more, and a scream ripped from his aching throat. “Hurts!”
“It wouldn’t hurt nearly as much if you would lie still, you idiot!” Aziraphale’s voice rang with a panicked anger that Crawley had never quite heard before. They hadn’t spoken often over the past few years, just a few conversations while watching the humans, but it was still a shock. “Oh, it’s so fortunate I was nearby. I’d just got back, you know. Was off looking for berries.”
Crawley did not give one single fuck about berries. He only cared about the blistering agony all over his arms, his chest, his face. “H-hurts,” he mumbled through burned lips.
“Hush, you silly old serpent!” Aziraphale’s hand settled on his brow, gentle despite the sharp words. “Here we go, that’s it, no more burns…”
Celestial power washed across him, and Crawley yelped. For a second, the holy energy hurt almost as bad as the burns, worse even. It swept down from his head, across his chest, his arms, and down his scorched left side.
And then he wasn’t in agony anymore. The sense of heat and burning remained, and it worsened as soon as he shifted. But he didn’t feel like he was dying now.
“There, how’s that?” Aziraphale’s face above him still looked worried, but calmer now. “Crawley? Can you hear me?”
Crawley blinked, dazed. What the Heaven had just happened? “Nh. Yeah. I, er…that’s loads better.”
Aziraphale let out a long, shaky sigh of relief and crumpled to sit beside him in the sand. The angel dropped his head in his hands for a moment, and a shudder rushed through him. “Oh, Crawley. That was such an awful sight. You were simply covered in flames! How did that even happen?”
Crawley lifted his hands, stared at them. The skin was still a little red, but no longer burned away. He felt at his face, his ear. His hair and robe were still screwed up, but all his flesh seemed to be okay now. “I, uh…was trying to build a fire.”
He glanced sideways at the angel. Aziraphale’s expression had gone oddly contorted, as if he was unsure how to respond. “Well done, then? You’ve certainly succeeded at that. I-I would advise you not use yourself as kindling, though.”
Bastard. Crawley hissed at him and rubbed his sore arm, then quickly stopped. The skin was still oversensitive, and the contact hurt. “I screwed up. Thought… I’m a demon. Immune to hellfire. I figured…”
He’d thought regular fire would be the same. That he could just reach into the blaze to rearrange the sticks, trying to make it more efficient. He’d been very wrong.
In his days as an angel, he’d created stars, helped build nebulae, even experimented with supernovae. As a demon… Okay, yeah, the Fall had burned, and so had the pool of boiling sulfur. But those had been special circumstances. Hellfire was fine, unless it was being used as a weapon by a Duke or something.
Still. Hellfire was fine. But lowly, normal, Earthly fire had defeated the Serpent of Eden. Humiliating. And worse than that, it had scared him so badly that tears still rolled down his cheeks.
“Didn’t know it could hurt me,” he finished gruffly.
“Oh,” Aziraphale said softly. “I see. I’m afraid I have gotten myself into a spot of trouble with Earthly things as well. I, um, like to eat.”
Trying to choke back sobs, Crawley glanced at the angel. Aziraphale was very intentionally not looking at him, gazing off toward the horizon instead. “What’s eating got to do with this?”
“Well, I’m afraid I’ve found quite a few things that looked tasty but were actually quite toxic. Spent several hours vomiting because I couldn’t figure out what had happened or precisely how to miracle the symptoms away.” Aziraphale picked at a loose thread on his sleeve with tiny, nervous motions. “And I’ve burned myself, just not as severely as you. So you see, it’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
“I’m a demon,” Crawley snarled, struggling to sit up. He gasped at the pain, ground his teeth. “Demons don’t get ashamed.”
Demons apparently were complete idiots who set themselves on fire, but Aziraphale was kind enough not to point that out again. Instead, the angel just gave a faint smile, reached out, and very gently patted Crawley’s shoulder. “Of course.”
Shuddering with lingering pain, Crawley snapped his fingers. His robe repaired itself and new ringlets spilled across his shoulder. He took a second to check himself over, sighed, and glanced at the angel again. “You, uh. Helped me.”
Another slight smile on Aziraphale’s face. “I suppose I did.”
Crawley couldn’t thank him. Demons didn’t say thank you, especially not to angels. But maybe he could show it instead.
He reached for the bag he’d taken to carrying around lately. Although he didn’t eat much himself, he liked collecting cool stuff. And sometimes he traded food to the humans. “Here, uh… I saw Adam eating these the other day, so m’ pretty sure they’re safe. You want ‘em?”
Crawley pulled out a handful of berries and held them out, stomach twisting at the vulnerability of even doing this. Of saying thank you even in actions. Of giving something to an angel.
But the sickening anxiety eased as Aziraphale took the berries and beamed at him. “Oh, Crawley! These are some of my favorites. Thank you so much.”
“Don’t thank me,” he snapped. “Demons don’t say thanks, and they don’t get thanks either.”
“Oh, I see.” Aziraphale’s brow crinkled, and he looked down at the berries. Then, slowly, he picked one up and held it out to Crawley. “Then will you let me share these with you?”
Sudden heat rushed through Crawley, so different from the heat of painful flames. This was a sudden sense of being understood, the shock of communicating so easily even without saying the words outright.
He managed a slight smile and accepted the berry, relaxing as Aziraphale smiled at him. The adrenaline hadn’t died down, and he was still humiliated by making such a massive mistake. But it looked like he’d made a friend, a real friend, and that made the future seem a little brighter.