Chapter Text
Aziraphale was wandering around his bookshop, like he often did, putting things in order or getting books that his customers had ordered, making them ready for when they would be picked up. This day was a specially quiet day, so far, not many people were coming inside or even walking past the building. It was clean as well, not a speck of dust anywhere, so there wasn’t even anything for him to make spotless. Truely a boring day. The angel exhaled with disappointment but his expression soon turned sweet when he noticed a black clad figure in the corner of his eye.
"Crowley!"
It was indeed the demon known as Crowley, he was sitting on one of the armchairs in his usual outfit and the well known fiery hair which reminded Aziraphale of flames. Quite fitting a creature said to come from hell, considering the place being associated with excruciating fire.
“Angel! What's up?” The demon said, getting up from his seat and moving with swaying steps as he always did. He smiled brightly, wearing sunglasses despite being inside, but one would be lying if they said there wasn’t a hint of demonic charm behind those opaque lenses.
“Why, the sky of course,” Aziraphale chuckled. Quite the jokester, wasn’t he?
“Haa! So you’ve got jokes now,” The demon remarked amusingly.
Crowley had been coming over more frequently recently, not that Aziraphale minded, the demon’s company had a strange tranquillity effect on him and he enjoyed being with a friend. Though today he came during the shop's opening hours, they usually spent time when Aziraphale wasn’t busy working so it ended up being outside or when the bookshop was empty.
Crowley’s steps came closer, soon they stood next to each other. Aziraphale clenched the book in his hand; whenever the other was close, he felt his cheeks start to warm up. The demon leaned against the wall as he angled his face downward, his glasses slightly falling down, revealing his piercing eyes.
“Would you fancy a spot of lunch?” He queries.
“Well, the shop is still open,” Aziraphale responds, not rejecting or accepting the tempting offer. He wanted to go, he always had a delighted time when they ate together; food somehow got tastier. But he was feeling a tad bit nervous, his face already felt hot. He turned away to touch around some books, pretending to look busy.
Crowley glanced around. “The shop looks empty to me. C’mon, let me tempt you to some sandwiches from xxx,”
Aziraphale froze in place and looked back with big eyes, “Sandwiches from xxx? Oh, I mean, if you put it like that… I guess your temptation succeeded!” He turned bright and a bit giddy, cheeks completely flushed now.
Visually excited to finally try the food at xxx, Aziraphale asked Crowley to wait as he would put the book in his hand away. He went into the back, as he passed a small mirror standing among old papers on a table, he waved his hand past his face and, by a miracle, his hair changed to be even more neat. Fixing his bowtie and brushing his shoulders, Aziraphale hurried back out to his companion still standing in the same place. Crowley had crossed his arms and was tapping with his fingers, like one does when playing the piano.
“Crowley, dear, we can leave–”
A small chime from the front doors cut him off. When he turned around to greet the customer, he choked on his words because it was one of the regulars. He was contemplating whether or not he should ask the customer to leave since he already agreed to eat with Crowley. The angel stood in the room between Crowley and the man who just entered.
While thinking of what to do, the man by the door fixed his shoulder length black hair and greeted the owner. “Aziraphale! I hope it’s fine that I came unexpectedly, I did say I’d come tomorrow but I heard about a book and I couldn’t wait to ask if you have it.”
“Nithael, welcome. Yes, you did come at a rather bad time. I was just heading out.” Aziraphale said, twisting his fingers together.
Crowley stepped up behind Aziraphale, he grabbed his shoulder and asked, “Who is that?!”
He asked with such a surprisingly demanding tone that Aziraphale was a bit taken aback as he raised an eyebrow in the demon’s direction.
The stranger known as Nithael raised his voice to answer Crowley’s question. “I’m Nithael, a regular as of recently,” he was smiling yet an aloof aura surrounded his person.
"Nithael?” He said with surprise and with a subtle rude tone, “What kind of name is Nithael?”
Crowley didn’t like this newcomer, he was a regular, and to make matters worse, his name sounded like an angel name. How many times had his angel been with the man? He grew uncomfortable and his chest was getting tighter. The pressure only released when his angel pushed him and looked at him.
“Crowley!” Aziraphale was trying to stop Crowley from being impolite, even if it was in the demon’s nature, he couldn’t help but not want to see him fight with others.
“It’s just an old family name.” Nithael responded.
Crowley locked eyes with the man, there was a brief moment where he could’ve sworn this Nith guy glared at him, but the moment passed as soon as he laid eyes on Aziraphale and his expression changed. The man was watching the angel with irritatingly soft eyes, it ticked Crowley off.
Nithael continued speaking, “You said it was a bad time? Should I return later?”
“Ah, no it’s alright, you can come in, I’ll be with you in a moment.”
Nithael walked in. As he passed the two figures standing next to each other, he smirked at the tall red head. Crowley got pulled away by Aziraphale who was walking to the door. It smelled sweet from the angel; the smell of cakes was intoxicating. Crowley nearly stopped when he realised what he was thinking, what the angel smelled like, however cute he looked on top of that, wasn't the main issue; there was an odd stranger in the store right now, and it seemed like Crowley was the one being kicked out.
“I’m really sorry, Crowley. Would you mind having dinner tomorrow instead? My treat?”
“What? You’re ditching me for him?”
“I’m not di– abandoning you!” Aziraphale said flustered. “See it as a change of plans, that's all.”
Crowley was disappointed, “Fine, but know I wouldn’t be like this to just anyone,” He’d come especially to fetch the angel so they could spend time together yet someone else was hogging his time.
“Of course, you're very kind,” Smiling incredibly gently, Aziraphale made Crowley feel weak at the knees while his glasses could only conceal so much of his increasing blush.
“I’m not kind.” He hissed, hiding his face behind a hand pretending to fix the glasses.
“My mistake,” Aziraphale giggled.
Crowley opened the door, since his face was red, he couldn’t turn back so he simply said: “I’ll pick you up tomorrow,” He was reluctant to leave his angel but the thought of a ‘date’ with Aziraphale the next morning was enough to trust that Nithael wouldn’t pose as a problem.
Tomorrow came soon enough. A tall, handsome man stood leaning on his black Bentley outside of a bookshop. He wore sunglasses over an icy expression, the people passing by couldn’t help but sneak a peek at both the vehicle and its owner. Who could such a man be waiting for?
Then his expression changed into a warmer one. When pedestrians followed where his eyes were looking, they saw another man, one with a complete opposite look. This one was wearing bright clothes, his hair the colour of clouds and his expression kind from the get go. He looked like the kind of person one just wants to ensnare for the sake of giving him a big hug. He was leaving the bookshop and walked up to the Bentely, the two characters stood talking to each other.
“Crowley!” A sweet voice called.
As excited as he was, Crowley continued to act ‘cool and collected’, he couldn’t show it, but within him it was like a firework show started whenever he saw Aziraphale.
“Angel! Not ditching me today I hope,” He playfully said. However much it seemed like he was joking, Crowley could not handle getting left behind today. If anyone showed up to take Aziraphale away from him, then there should be no surprise if all hell went loose on them. Today, the angel was to be with him.
“Crowley,” The angel pouted, “I already apologised for yesterday,”
“Yeah, yeah, get in the car.” Just as he’d uttered the sentence, a terribly irritating voice reached his eardrums. A nuisance arrived.
“Aziraphale, I thought that was you!” Nithael took a deep breath, he’d ran from across the street the second he spotted a familiar figure in the distance. Not in the mood for this, Crowley bitterly mumbled:
“He’s busy today, piss off human,”
With both his hearing only being at a human level and his attention being far from the guy next to him, Nithael didn’t actually hear Crowley’s comment and so ignored him. But there were two ‘out of this world’ beings among the three and the celestial one wasn't keen on such language.
“Crowley, it may be in your nature but…” Aziraphale was unsure of how to express it and simply ended the sentence with: “language!”
He earned a cackle from the demon. Noticing Nithael being confused he turned his attention to him, this act instead earned him a watchful eye from the demon. Crowley was intently watching the exchange between them, it made Aziraphale nervous but then again, who wouldn’t be, someone was practically staring holes in him, and he didn’t even know why Crowley was doing so!
“Why are you here, Nithael?” He asked.
“I was passing by the shop but it seems I came at a bad time once again,” Nithael laughed while touching Aziraphale’s shoulder, as if he was going to fall unless he held onto something.
Crowley removed the man’s hand, “You’re right. We were just leaving.” And he dragged Aziraphale closer to him without letting go of his wrist.
“Give me a second, would you?” Aziraphale asked Crowley, he didn’t mind the demon holding onto him, therefore he didn’t say anything about it. “My dear Nithael, is it something important?”
“Not important per se, but,”
“Great, if it’s not important then we’ll leave” Crowley cut in.
“but I finished reading Great Expectations. I was excited to share my thoughts with you, you’re the one that showed it to me after all.” Nithael finished, side-eyeing the demon.
Aziraphale was shocked. “Already? But I gave you the book only a few days ago!”
“I must’ve liked it so much I finished it right away; will you help me find another one?”
“Angel, get in the car.” Crowley was getting impatient.
“Oh dear, there’s a lot happening. Nithael, why don’t you come with us for dinner? I’ll give you a book recommendation and you won’t have to wait for me to come back.”
Crowley had gone to sit in the car and nearly hit his head as he whipped it back to loudly exclaim, “What?!”
Nithael took a moment, he looked as if he was thinking very hard whether or not to take up the offer. He glanced at Crowley in the car and scratched his neck. “If you don’t mind,”
Aziraphale kindly said, “Of course not,”
“I mind.” Crowley pitched in.
“He doesn’t mean it,” Aziraphale quickly assured.
The demon sat quiet, pursing his lips as they turned into a pout. He didn’t want the pest around but Aziraphale might cancel their plan again, he thought, and decided to just deal with it, for Aziraphale.
The angel gestured to Nithael to enter the car. Nithael instinctively reached for the front seat but was stopped by a furious glare and a dark voice.
“That’s Aziraphale’s seat.”
“Sorry. I didn’t peg you for someone that reserves seats for ‘angels’,” Nithael’s veins were pulsing, a certainly arrogant person was getting on his nerves.
Aziraphale densely believed the conversation to be a joke. “Oh dear, don’t fight over a seat, Crowley,” He chuckled.
“Me?!”
Ignoring Crowley pouting even harder now, he turned to Nithael, asking him:
“You wouldn’t mind sitting in the back, would you, Nithael?” His blue eyes were like a childs; no one would be able to say anything against him, except for a demon perhaps, not Crowley though, someone else, Hastur perhaps.
“Of course not,” Nithael responded with a smile, the curves of his mouth didn’t drop until Aziraphale wasn’t looking anymore, but he was fully aware of the demon who never stopped watching him.