Chapter Text
Muriel loved her new station on Earth. The bookshop that Metraton left her in was a safe place and a lovely environment, where she liked working at. Even though she was still finding herself on the job she was given, Muriel adapted quickly especialy considering humans that lived in her neighborhood seemed eager to make her feel welcome.
In the last year she was here, she received numerous tasks from the new supreme Archangel who loved to pop up unexpected and have a cup of tea with her while they discussed her new assignment. She rather liked him because even if she failed sometimes he would be graceful and forgive her, even help her at times. She would go as far as to call him a friend of some sort. He seemed to like his newfoud position but from time to time she noticed some kind of sad and homesick expresion on his face and she would catch him starring into one particular spot on the wall or floor with that face.
"My archangel... Are you alright?" she asked as she found him gazing at the liquor cabinet as the water for the tea was boiling.
"What...?" he asked absentmindedly "Oh oh dear me" he blurted out as he noticed the water was spilling out of the teapot.
"Yes, yes quite alright... Just spaced out for a minute there." he removed the teapot and started pouring.
"If you don't mind me saying you seem to be doing that a lot lately" she delivered the statement as gently as she could.
"Yes.... I suppose I do" he swallowed hard and than smiled at her while walking past her bringing two cups of tea to the front of the bookshop.
"Something troubling you? Maybe I could help you, I got quite good at helping humans maybe I could do the same for you" she finished with a smile after they came out of the kichen.
"You are ever so kind but I am afraid I am no human therefor you could not help me like you help them" The Archangel made a small smile and closed his eyes. He sat down and slurped on his cup of tea. Muriel brought the cup to her face but found that was in no mood to drink
"Oh do not look so disappointed I will be alright Muriel." he offered her one of those reassuring smiles he gave her when she tried but failed to do something. His cup landed on the table and he claped his hands as if to get her attention.
"Now! Let us discus some things" she snapped out of her sad gaze and tried to focus.
"First, tell me dear how are we with the opposition?" he raised his brows in expectation. The relieved flooded her, this she knew and could answer.
"Yess its seems that he went on some assignment to another part of the world so its been really peaceful here" she finished with a giggle.
"Most excellent that gives us the advantage to spread more good!" She nodded in confirmation and finally holding a cup at an awkward angle sipped on it.
"Lovely yes, next, the last assignment considering you haven't contacted me I assume went well?"
She lit up even more and put down her cup in a hurry to go get the document that she left on the desk earlier and proudly show it to her Archangel.
"Yess I completed it accordingly, I followed your advice and I did it" If she smiled more that second she would have started glowing.
"Jolly good than" he clapped his hands again as he took the report
"One last question before I leave how are you faring Muriel?"
"Very well my Archangel, I had studied the human behavior for the last year and confidently I can say that I have successfully infiltrated among them." The Archangel smiled unconvincingly but said good job anyway.
"I have had help adjusting but I can say I am getting a hang of it"
"Yess well I try to be helpfully" he shaked his head and smiled at her as he sipped on his tea again.
"Oh no, I didn't mean you, well you do help me a lot more than others but I was talking about theeee...." she let her eyes scan the bookshop as if someone could be listening to their conversation " The special assignment person was very helpful as well" she winked at him as he gave her a sad smile.
"Ah, yess how is he bearing?" he asked quietly as if the question itself would break him and not the answer.
"Really well!.....or rather he is getting better and he is helping me from time to time, he is extremely kind but hates it when I tell him that" she told him as they walked to the portal.
"Yess he would be the one to deny it wouldn't he" Again her archangel found a bookshelf very interesting to stare at for a few seconds. And there was that darn sad expression again. She really hated to see it on him it was not a good look on him.
"Do you need me to tell you more about him sir?" she asked innocently "or maybe you would like to see him?" she smiled again as the archangel pulled himself from gazing and furrowed his brows, fear and sadness dancing in his eyes.
"Oh my, maybe he could help you better than I, he has known you longer, I could call him set up a meeting......" she didn't get to finish her sentence as her face fell when the archangel started shaking his head violently and waving his hands.
"No no dear no ... Ummm no need for that I am fine, simply a bit tired no need for meetings at all." he seemed lost for a second but than turned around and started walking towards the circle in the bookshop
"Yess my archangel as you say" she answered with a discouraged face.
"Now you keep doing a good job and reports and call me, yes I will give you more book recommendations as well"
"I loved the last one you gave me, thank you" she said in a small voice.
"Good fairwell my dearrrr" his voice started to lose its strength as he traveled upstairs.
This didn't bond well with her, there was clearly something bothering him and she as his most trusted agent and the only agent on earth couldn't just let it slide. She needed some answers, she wasn't going to let him down. After all he was the one who told her that fellow angels should help each other and that even when somebody refused to be helped should be helped regardless. She had a mission to complete but first she needed more information and knew just how and where to get them.
The very next day while she was rearranging the books to the alphabetical order the bookshop door was slamed open by a lanky black figure making its way in. She got scared and dropped a few volumes not that anyone cared about them anymore.
"You know I have things to do kid, can't just run around every time you mess up something" her grumpy friend well not friend but an associate dropped himself on the sofa as soon as he located it.
"Oh yess I know and I so appreciate your time" she tried to settle him down, she still had a few year ahead of herself before she would realize that his threats and complaints were in vain.
"If you really appreciated my time you would give me a bottle of something to make up for it" he served her a sly smile to go with the sentence.
"Yess, yess just ummm I just thought you stopped drinking" she aimed for the liquor cabinet as she furrowed her brows in concern.
"Kid, I am a demon I don't stop drinking It's like my favorite hobby" he flashed a toothy grin as she gave him a bottle of something she couldn't quite read right, but he seemed happy with it.
"Right" she simply said as she watched him attack a bottle like a starving man. Hi finished the first chug with a pop.
"Soooo, why the sudden call what have you gotten yourself into now?"She felt his eyes aiming at her even though the sunglasses.
"Yess well I will explain in a minute but first I need to get something from my desk" she slowly started walking back as her grumpy frien... Associate rolled his eyes and mumbled something under his breath that she couldn't hear. She fished out a notebook with questions and sat on the opposite side of the demon.
"Right well I while doing my assignments have been a witness to a..... Situation .... And I well am working on fixing it but .... Well I am not quite sure how to approach it" she finished unsurely. She must be insane to be asking a demon this.
"Whatsss the ssssituation?"
''Well not quite sure on than ether but from what I have gathered it played out something like this."
She coughed because she felt like she was gonna say something important. The demon was unamused.
"Well two person... Humans who, who seemed to well love each other too much have stumbled upon a little problem. See when they were finally free of the influence of their..... Families, one of them got a sudden promotion and well wanted to take it while the other wanted to run away...... I mean stay where they are and just be ..... at peace." she finished and gave him a really tensed and nervous smile.The silence was really long she thought for a second that he saw through her plan.
"Right and what happened next?"
"Well they are at the same town but they won't talk to each other they don't even want to try to work it out they just had a big fight and .......theend" she grinned
"Sounds pretty resolved to me" he took a big gulp out of the bottle
"Yess but I want to help them because their love is strong but they just won't collaborate they both want to help each other but in a way that the other doesn't want!"
He eyed her form the sofa and than got out of the laying position to sit down.
"What is your game here kid?" he asked in a dangerous tone. She swallowed hard feeling very little and small in front of him.
"My..... Um... Game?"
"Yes your game plan what were you planning to do to get them together?" he asked like it was the most normal thing on the earth
"Oh well I want to get them to talk but whenever I suggest them that they refuse like it's a death sentence" she wailed and pouted at the demon closed his eyes and tried not to associate her behaviour with someone else's.
"Right" he took the last swing from the bottle.
"So here is what you can do. Just put them in a room together, lock them down be sure they can't get out and tell them that the only way to get out is to resolve this problem" she wrote everything down on the paper.
"Oh that's brilliant!" she squiked.
"Yess that's me mister brilliant." he got up and started to leave but than Muriel went behind him and pulled him by the hand. The sudden movement chough the demon off gard and he pulled away and beared his teeth at her. She took a few steps away from him.
"Sorry I didnt mean to upset you. Just ...."
"Jussssst whatttt?"
"Thought you might want to stay here tonight and observe the plan for tomorrow?" she offered him her best pleading smile which didn't really do much for her but she did it anyway.
"It's a minor miracle, shouldn't one of your higher ups be the one to see it" Mister grumpy was spitting words out like the, were venom.
"Yess but it was your idea it ....I would feel better if you were there" he rolled his head and eyes at the same time not that she could see his eyes but guessed it. He did have a habit of rolling them a lot.
"Fine yeah, I will crash here and tomorrow you do your little miracle and fix everything"
"Yess great perfect!" she almost jumped from happiness.
The next day while the demon was still dosing off on the sofa, she snuck to the back room and took a deep breath. She really couldn't believe that she was doing this. It was almost as there were no consequences for her action but she knew that her Archangel was a forgiving soul. So she clapped her hands together and called upon him.
The light ascended from the circle and suddenly he appeared with a smile equally brightening as the light around him.
"Muriel, what is the matter dear?"
"Um well I am preforming a minor miracle and would like for you to see me preform it" she said all happy.
"Um Muriel'' he said with a concern in his voice ''if I didn't believe you could perform a minor miracle I wouldn't have left you to be a representative on earth"
"Oh I know, I know but it would really mean a lot to me" she tried but the archangels face was beginning to look less friendly by the minute.
"Muriel I am extremely busy and really don't see how I could spend time on that" he finished a little bit more strict than usual.
"I .... I though you told me that every miracle counts" she put on her best puppy eyes as
he sight in frustration.
"Yess yessss, of course it does it's just that-'' he stopped and reconsidered ''Well I suppose that I should supervise I do know what happened to me when I was not supervised" he finished in a sad voice.
"Wonderful, I will get ready and after you make us tea you can come to the back and you will see .... the miracle."
"Right" he concluded as she left the room" I really shouldn't be the on making tea"
He shaked his head but the tea was what he actually really needed right now. There were so many things going through his head that he believed he was going insane.
Muriel slowly snuck past the demon that was slowly waking up and stretching his limbs as long as they would go. After that she went out of the bookshop and closed the door quietly. She raised her hands and preformed a not really conspicuous miracle but a very large one in which she made it impossible for anyone to leave the bookshop until she said otherwise. She wished for it and the bookshop listened because she was entrusted by the Archangel to do with it as she deemed right.
The wave of the miracle hit both Crowley and Aziraphale.
The angel put down the tea cups and looked around Muriel was nowhere to be found. He started going towards the back room where they usually discussed things and started to get a very familiar feeling. Immediately recognizing who was the one left in the bookshop with him he slowly approached the backroom as it was bubbie trapped and swallowed hard. He forgot everything around him as he saw out of the hidden corner of the bookshop wall a familiar lanky figure who was getting up and searching around with his eyes for an angel that wasn't him.
"Kid?!" his hand combed his hair as he looked around.
"Muriel I thought it was supposed to be minor miracle not a bloody wheal sized one." Crowley yelled out and patted down his jacked
Aziraphale smiled slightly, he god honest couldn't remember the last time he smiled like that all because he hadn't heard his friend's voice in so long. He slowly as to not spook the demon went out of the shadows he was hiding in and started walking to the sofa. The demons back was turned to him.
"Hell kid I can smell an angelic essence righ.-" he froze in the middle of that sentence as he realized that the smell was coming from behind him and it was not Muriel's.
He closed his eyes trying to calm himself down and turned around to see the angel who still held his bleeding heart just as the last time he saw him. He couldn't bother going deep into reading Aziraphale's expression but what he could see was a light happy smile and worried sad eyes full of yarning. It was one of those looks that Aziraphale used to give Crowley when a few centuries past since then last saw each other. It felt like thousand yeah have passed even if it was only one bloody year.
"C..." Azirapahle tried to open his mouth and at least say his friends name but seeing the boiling rage of an expression on the demons face he shut down immediately.
"WHAT THE FUCK?" Crowley simply said a little louder than he wanted to.
"I.. Well" Aziraphale tried but was stopped as Crowley shaked his head in frustration and walked past him saying
"Nope, not doing this"
"MURIELLLL!" He screamed her name so loudly that Azirapahle had to resist telling him to quiet down. He felt like it would not be appreciated at the moment and would probably get the demon to kill someone, most probably him.
"Fuck it" he than simply said and made a beeline for the bookshop door. He needed to get away from this angel as fast as possible before his head exploded out of rage.
"Crowley, WAIT!" Aziraphale suddenly found his voice and went after his friend.
Hearing the bloody voice only made Crolwey walk faster but as he laid a hand on the door handle he realized that he couldn't open it. He started pulling on it like a maniack until Aziraphale pulled his hand away and yelled out
"Crowley stop it"
This as expected was not welcomed and Crowley snached Aziraphale's hand so violently that the angel almost fell to the ground and had to steady himself on the wall so he wouldn't lose balance. Crowley's eyes looked like one of a wild animal Aziraphale saw as the glasses hit the floor. They were stuck staring at each other and for the first time in a while without knowing what the other is thinking.
A knock on the glass door interrupted the staring contest. Muriel waved with a sweet smile on her face which Crowley really didn't care for.
"MURIELLL WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" He blurted out as loud as he could and managed to make Aziraphale flinch a little bit.
She pointed with her index finger at the mail receiver and pushed a note through it. Aziraphale was the one who managed to get to it first and started reading as Crowley was side eyeing him.
"I locked down the bookshop and you cannot leave until you have settled your dispute" Aziraphale finished reading without looking at Crowley and just blankly staring at Muriel who was doing a circular motion with her fingers. Aziraphale turned the other side of the paper and read out "I did it just like you suggested Mister Crowley" he finished and looked judgingly at his friend? Was he his friend anymore he wasn't sure.
"What the....... Oh ....." the memories from yesterday came flooding back "oh you stupid girrrrllll I didin't mean USSS" He snarled at the door.
"What do you mean by that?" Aziraphale dared to ask him.
"Wasn't talking to you wassss I?" Crowley imitated his voice.
"Murielll! Let me out or swear to Satan I will....." he stopped midsentence and hit the glass with his fist in anger.
"Well that clearly helped" Aziraphale commented under his breath and Crowley was looking at him with so much venom it could've poisoned him.
The only thing Crowley managed to do beside hit and innocent door was to make Muriel jump up.
"Muriel, listen to me I am ordering you to open the bookshop and let us out, ....right now! I am your superior and you will listen!"
He finished in his holier than though voice while he heard Crowley snarl and felt him rolled his eyes. Muriel simply shaked her head.
"I will when you resolve your issues" and than she disappeared.
"Muriel you will get in trouble for this!" now Aziraohale started panicking.
"I ...." he turned to Crowley to ask him for further plan but didn't find the demon next to him so he turned around in search for him. The sight that greeted him had him gasp.
"CROWLEY DON'T YOU DARE!" He yelled out and received a
"HISSSSSSS" As a not appropriate answer.
"DO NOT THROW THAT CHAIR THROUGH MY WINDOW!!!"
Crowley only raised the said chair higher up and threw it at the window glass that successfully shattered. As Aziraphale stared in shock, Crowley smirked and aimed at the window but as he tried to get out a magical barrier stopped him and he bounced right back inside. He recovered quickly from it and as his hand bursted in flames he aimed for the door.
"Crowley.... Please stop.... Don't destroy my home"
It was a barely audiable plea but the demon hared him anyway. He didn't turn around but his hand did fall down his side no longer in flames. He couldn't look at Aziraphale so he slowly retreated to the back door magically hoping in vain that they weren't under the miracle. Aziraphale was left alone for few moments as he considered his options. He started fiddling with his cuffs as he saw the demon return pointedly trying not to look at him. The demon took out his phone and dialed Muriel's phone number.
"Listen to me you little minx you have an hour to get back here and undo this or else your 'superior archangel will be returning to heaven discoperated and I believe it won't go unnoticed and do not believe that I won't do it. I have anger to let out and a perfect TARGET!" he snarled in Aziraphale's direction and hung up the phone. Dropping his phone on the sofa he went to the liquor cabinet and fished out a whiskey that he liked the most, the one they used to have for special occasions and started downing it. Aziraphale simply sat himself down on the reading chair as Crowley took the sofa.
Nobody would really care but for two entities such as them self it almost looked like one of those drinking nights they both eagerly looked forward to.
"Listen, we might as well talk.... It seems to be the only solution to the lockdown problem." Aziraphale gently suggested, he got no answer of course.
"Listen about the well..... Everything I believe we don't need to be at odds I did try to reach you but...." he got interrupted as Crowley abruptly stood up and tried to go anywhere in the bookshop but where he was now.
"DAMN IT CROWLEY WHY DID YOU HAVE TO RUIN EVERYTHING?!"
This made demon stop in his tracks and turn around dangerously as if lost for words.
Aziraphale scanned him as he backed away at the bookshelf behind him as if afraid.
"MEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!" He yelled out he could almost hear his demonic voice.
"I RUINED EVERYTHINGGGG!!!" He was yelling so loudly that the barrier slightly shook.
"YOU TURNED YOUR BACK ON MEEE YOUU......YOUUU"
He could not find the right words so he swung the bottle of whiskey and threw it at Aziraphale. The angel ducked and the bottle shattered right behind him into million pieces. Ironically it looked a lot like what Crowley felt right now.
Aziaraphale was in shock he saw Crowley angry, not that he didn't see him angry before just not at him like this. He felt like the demon in front of him was not his best friend anymore and he would be right to asume. The Crowley he knew never raised so much as a finger to him but this demon was not Crowley anymore.
"Though you wanted to talk....... Speachless now are you?" he spat out with venom
Aziraphale looked scared and betrayed at best.
"Your former archangel would be just as speachless it means you are doing a good job. Well done!" he ironically clapped at him.
"I...... I am making a difference" he silently retaliated.
"Oh oh my bad you are really, so much difference I feel no different than before." he said with a bitter smile.
"Cro.... Crowley" he barely mouthed feeling the tears gathering around his eyes as the demon looked at him with hatethred so deep it painted Aziraphale to even consider it.
"Do.... Do you really hate ...me so?"
He finished sniffing and trying not to tear up. The pain suddenly crossed the demons face but he tried to contain it. Crowley feeling that he was failing at that he simply made a turn and went to the flat upstairs. He might as well get some sleep if nothing else it always help to keep him from falling into the deep pit called faceing his fucking problems. He left Aziraphale standing there no longer fighting tears that fell from his eyes.