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After Gabriel who now went by the name Jim moved in the bookshop, Crowley couldn't stand it to that point that he had decided to move out and take his plants with him. From that day on he'd been sleeping in his Bentley with his plants at the back. He fell out with Aziraphale quite seriously, fortunately, not to that point that they weren't talking. Crowley just tried to avoid the bookshop now that the archangel was there all the time.
Still, there were moment, like that day, when Crowley despite not wanting to, had to enter the bookshop to discuss their next steps with Aziraphale. Since Jim was inside the building looked like it was abandoned. Aziraphale kept the blinds half drawn so that nobody was able to spot Jim there. It was messier than before because the archangel was constantly wandering around it and touching every single thing he wasn't supposed to. Also, he wasn't shutting up. Like a big toddler he was constantly asking Aziraphale hundreds of questions per day and he was never satisfied with the answer.
That's why, it hit him when Crowley went through the bookshop door and was welcomed with a disturbing silence. That kind of silence that never brings anything positive. The darkest thoughts started appearing in Crowley's mind. What if Gabriel regained his memory and hurt Aziraphale? Maybe they had fallen out and Gabriel hurt the angel with his powers?
"Aziraphale?" the demon asked unsure. He had heard of Gabriel's powers and knew that in a battle between the two of them, Crowley would immediately lose. "Are you here?"
Crowley slowly went through the mess that was now a common thing in the bookshop and with each step his anxiety increased. The longer he didn't hear the angel the nastier thoughts he was getting. He'd already told Aziraphale not to help Gabriel because he would have caused only trouble. But, of course, the angel hadn't listened to him and decided to make the archangel stay at the bookshop. It was ridiculous to the demon. After the Non-Armaggedon they were free from Heaven and Hell so why getting involved again? To get in even bigger trouble!
"Ang-" Crowley wanted to say but was cut off by a sudden sob coming from behind a bookshelf. He immediately thought about Aziraphale so he rushed behind the bookshelf but what he saw caught him off guard. "Gab- I mean, Jim...?"
The archangel was slightly rocking back and forth, his arms wrapped around his knees and a few tears were falling down his cheeks. It was obvious that he'd been crying for quite some time now. Which meant that Aziraphale must have been gone for quite a while as well. The angel wouldn't just leave Jim to stay in such a state. For some reason he was very protective over him...
Fortunately, Crowley knew what was going on. Since some time Jim had started getting some odd visions, he was seeing things and during one of such episodes he was completely vulnerable and helpless almost like a child in a fog. Countless times the demon had to witness how Aziraphale was calming him down. Hugging him, cuddling, making hot chocolate. It was all unbelievable that Aziraphale was still able to help somebody who had wanted you dead. As much as he just wanted to leave Jim alone... he didn't really want him to suffer that much. Crowley himself had spent many times having nightmares about his Fall so he knew that it was nothing pleasant to experience.
"Tough time, ay?" he asked and helped Jim get up. It was funny how naive the archangel was right now. Crowley would ask him to do anything and he would do it without any hesitation. That made him an easy prey especially if somebody actually knew his true identity.
"I-I'm sorry, I'll b-be quiet..." Jim sobbed trying his best to immediately calm himself down. He knew that the man* didn't like him being loud so he knew that he wouldn't like him crying and disturbing him. Even after Aziraphale told him that Crowley was absolutely harmless Jim did hear some conversations between the two men and didn't like them. Most of the time Crowley was just insulting Jim begging Aziraphale to throw him out...
The demon having heard that felt actually quite bad. He still didn't forget about what Gabriel had done to his angel but what was really the point of pointing it out when Gabriel now didn't even know who he was...
"Nah... It's okay, Jim," Crowley reassured him and led to the sofa where he passed the archangel a blanket which was now "Jim's blanket". "I'll get you some hot chocolate, eh?" Jim nodded shyly, still a bit afraid of the ginger man. He could be really scary from time to time and they'd never really been alone together so it made the situation worse. However, it seemed that he wasn't as bad as Jim thought.
In a few minutes, Crowley came back to the archangel with a hot chocolate - he had to prepare it himself since Aziraphale said no miracles around Jim in order not to scare him but also not to draw Heaven's attention.
"I get that your uh... dreams are quite scary, sorry about that." To be honest, Crowley wasn't good at comforting people with words. He'd rather do something for them instead of talking. He was bad at talking. When it came to comforting Aziraphale he was always hugging him and letting the angel find some peace in his arms but with Gabriel...? It would be really weird to-
"What are you doing...?" the demon asked when he felt some pressure put on his shoulder. It turned out that Gabriel decided to lean against him while happily sipping on his chocolate completely not bothered.
Unfortunately, Crowley didn't get any answer so he accepted his faith. If Hell saw him now... However, it made the demon quite... happy... that Gabriel trusted him that much to act so vulnerable. Not that Crowley started to feel sorry for him, not at all, but at least he knew that the archangel wouldn't magically run away or something like this which would make the situation much, much worse for all of them.
So that's how the demon had spent around an hour sitting on the sofa without moving letting Jim literally fall asleep on his arm! That must have looked quite hilarious but also made Crowley himself quite calm. At least he was able to admire the silence coming from the bookshop that was cut off by Jim's snoring from time to time.
Suddenly, Crowley heard the familiar bell ringing but before he had managed to get up Aziraphale stood in front of him and grinned widely as he saw the two of them on the sofa.
"Don't-"
"I'm glad you two get along," the angel said with his adorable voice. God, why did he have to be so adorable... "I knew you did like him."
Crowley got up quickly making Gabriel fall fully on the sofa but he fortunately didn't wake up. Apparently, hot chocolate made him really sleepy.
"I do not like him," he hissed and started walking to the door.
Aziraphale only sighed and followed him. "Oh, dear, stop being so mean, it's nothing bad that you like Gab-"
"Demons don't have feelings, angel."
That caught the angel off guard. He suddenly straightened and gave the demon a serious and a little upset look. However, instead of saying anything, Aziraphale just went deeper into the bookshop and seemed to decide to mind his own business completely ignoring the fact that Crowley was still there with him, blindly staring at him.
"Angel?" the demon asked shyly, not knowing whether he actually did something wrong. Aziraphale had never been really taking things that Crowley had said seriously. "Are you okay?"
"I think you should leave." Well... that wasn't being okay at all.
"Angel, what happened? Did I say something wrong?" Crowley approached Aziraphale slowly remembering not to disturb his personal space.
The blond turned around. "Well, you said demons had no feelings and funnily enough you've been saying something else for the past few days. Seems like you've already forgotten. That's quite hurtful, Crowley. I really thought you meant that."
Suddenly, the demon felt like the biggest arsehole. However, he hadn't expected that Aziraphale would actually turn it to look that way.
"Oh, angel, you know I didn't mean it like this," he tried to defend himself but the angel didn't want to listen to him. Instead, he just started cleaning the bookshop.
There was a lot to clean up though. All the books that Jim wanted to help with were now in completely different places, they weren't in order, some books even seemed to have some damage. Dust was everywhere since the angel hadn't really had time to even take care of such simple thing. Who would have thought that taking care of an archangel would be so difficult?
"Crowley, I would appreciate it you moved, I want to clean this desk," Aziraphale said as he saw the demon moving right in front of him and looking at him with his puppy eyes. "That doesn't work on me, foul fiend." But the demon didn't stop. He only pouted more and make himself look even more poor then before. "Stop..." The angel was slowly breaking and Crowley knew it so he pulled off his best trick and made his eyes fully yellow which always softened Aziraphale. "Oi! You'll be the discorporation of me some day, you silly wiley serpent!" The demon grinned proudly.
"I knew you wouldn't be able to resist me, angel." Aziraphale only shook his head but with a slight smile on his face.
"You have to admit, however, that you do like Gabriel a little bit." The angel wasn't going to let it go.
Crowley groaned. "Okay, maybe a tiny little bit but if you tell him that I will make sure your books will always be placed in disorder."
"Of course, dear," Aziraphale replied and gave the demon a kiss on his cheek. "Now, let's put them in order until Gabriel is still sleeping. He won't let us work once he's up."