Work Text:
Through the chaos, the whirling winds, the screams– a single cry was heard.
“Angel!”
It came roaring into his ears, clear as crystal, cutting through everything surrounding them.
Crowley…
The name echoed in Aziraphale’s mind, but couldn’t quite make it pass his lips.
There he was, right in front of him. And now that he had spotted him, he was all that Aziraphale could see.
︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵
After the dust settled– the meeting, the reunion of two aching souls.
“You.. you came back?” A moment of hesitation. “You came for me?”
With a huff, Crowley gave him an exasperated expression. “Like I always do. Don’t sound so surprised. And another thing, could you kindly explain to my best friend that the next time he wants to leave me behind and go off on his own plan to save everything all by himself to maybe consider… you know, not… doing that.” He trailed off as he looked at Aziraphale again.
“Crowley…” Aziraphale was giving him a look that meant he wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry.
“Now, don’t be looking at me like all that, I’m not–”
“I’m sorry.”
Crowley was cut off with a firm apology by the other man.
Aziraphale continued, “You once said to me that I shan't be able to do the wrong thing, because I’m an angel. However, I fear… I fear that I may have. I’ve wronged you, Crowley, but I–”
“Why did you do it? Was it really the only way you thought to save… all this?” Crowley cut him off this time and made a vague gesture to their surroundings.
“Not just all this !” He gestured wildly around as well, ignoring the fact that by this point, a small group of people had gathered around them. Aziraphale used both his hands to then motion at the two of them, finding that since their bodies had somehow come so close together in the last several minutes that he nearly smacked Crowley while he was making his point.
Thankfully, this accident was avoided as Crowley subconsciously grabbed the other man’s hands and brought them down, holding them close to his own chest. Said hands easily rested themselves against that broad chest without a second thought. As if they belonged there. And who could deny that they did. No one. Not at this point.
“ This. ” He emphasized the word by pressing his palm down, against where Crowley’s heart would have been. “I needed to protect this, as well. This was the only opportunity I had to actually protect everything. Even you. Especially you. I needed to be strong enough, I didn’t have enough power to do it otherwise. This was all for.. I-” He took a breath, allowing himself a moment because continuing, “I never stopped thinking of you.”
At some point, the two of them had moved even closer. “I don’t think I could ever stop.”
They allowed these words to sink in before one of them spoke again. This time it was Crowley.
“Then… you really are an absolute nutter if you think I would just let you go. Not again. Not after everything.”
“But, Crowley, we could not have just… If we…” It took a moment, but he finally settled on what he wanted to say. What he should have said back then. “Running away from everything. We couldn’t have. How could we have? Leaving everything behind… Not after spending how many thousands of years building this together. I… I couldn’t do it. It would be like leaving a part of us behind, Crowley.”
The demon had already figured out what all this had been about, but hearing the other man say it, finally– it did make him feel different about it. Words came to him suddenly. “This… This planet, these people– I guess we do owe them for, em, you know-”
“Bringing us together?” Aziraphale offered with a trace of a smile.
“Right.” Crowley hastily agreed, rather thankful.
A comfortable silence settled between them until, “Crowley.”
Ignoring the fluttering in his chest, Crowley looked at him again. Really looked.
Everything about the material form that Aziraphale took, the form that he had come to admire, it was all there. But, it was… more. Every little detail seems enhanced somehow and as confusing as that was, Crowley couldn’t care less as in that moment his gaze landed on his lips.
“Maybe we can, I mean, could we just sort of, start over…?”
Aziraphale blinked, clearly a bit confused. “Start over? You couldn’t mean.. all the way over or-?”
“No! Oh, for someone’s sake, angel. I’m not talking about all the way from the beginning.”
“Then, from where shall we start again?” Aziraphale couldn’t help his slightly teasing tone. He noticed how much the other man had been looking at him. Specifically, one certain place on him. Not waiting for a reply, he went on ahead and closed what was left of the short distance between them. Lips met with lips.
After they pulled away slightly, each catching what breath they had left, the angel huffed out, “Here?”
“What?”
“I was just asking… If that was a good place to start?”
Oh, it definitely was– seeing as they were now locked in a battle of mouths, forgoing air altogether for the next several moments. There was, however, one more thing that Crowley had to say, and was forced to pull back in order to say it.
“Wait, wait, angel. Hang on.”
Although Aziraphale did indeed try to give the other his full attention, he was admittedly somewhat distracted while doing so. There was a hazy look in his eyes, a flush drifted over his face. He waited for the demon to go on.
With the pressure of the moment, the moment he himself insisted on, it was enough to cause him to hasten his words. “I tried to say this before but, well, you know. And certain things must be said properly. As they say, communication is, well, the ticket to success. Or somesuch. Erm.” He cleared his own throat, perhaps a few times than was absolutely necessary. “All that to say… I don’t know all the wheres, whens, the hows. All I am certain of is this– I want to be.. I want us to be, em, well, I want you to want what I want.”
Aziraphale couldn’t help but interrupt. “And.. What is it that you want, Crowley?” For some reason his question came out more soft and breathy than he anticipated.
“I think you can imagine what I want by now.”
“I want to hear it.” A beat passes and the angel clarifies. “You know, proper communication and all. You said that.”
“...Right, right.” Crowley knew he was being slightly wronged, but also knew it was his fault for this one. “I did say that. Well, alright, what I am saying is that you are quite a, em, you’re certainly a lovely angel and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t extremely fond of you, after all this time, you know. So.. So, what I want is to simply be…” The word was a difficult one to say out loud, although he had admittedly been thinking about it for some time now. He had made it this far, so of course he was just going to finish the job. And it wasn’t like Aziraphale was able to help supply him with the right words this time– the angel looked as clueless as he might have expected– as he himself must have looked before a couple of humans decided to sit him down and formally tell him that he was in fact fatally in love with his only friend.
“Yours. I want to be yours. And I would like it if you wanted that as well. You… are… so… incredibly important to me. Damn well the most precious thing if you’re asking me. I honestly haven’t the faintest idea how I got on without you before, and now that you’re here… and now that I know, what I know, I know I can’t just… be without you. I don’t even know when it all changed, or if it even did?” He took in a breath, feeling like a dam had burst inside of him and everything was flooding out all at once. “From beginning to end, for the rest of however long everything has… I don’t want to be apart from you.”
It was certainly a lot to take in, and Aziraphale did his best to listen and process all that he was told. However, with each word he found himself floating, as if on a cloud, his heart felt like it might burst. Was this really how it was, in all those human romance novels. In those films where there is a realization, confession, a declaration of… love?
That was it right? That was what Crowley was doing. Right now.
So, was he meant to profess his own love back to him? He wasn’t completely sure how to go about it properly. All he knew was that if he didn’t express himself right this instant, he felt he might actually combust.
“You… you love me.” All of a sudden his mouth felt dry and his palms started to itch. “Crowley, what you are saying to me, you know what it means.”
“I do. Of course I do.” The agitation Crowley was way overshadowed by the sudden bout of anxiety that he definitely, definitely kept well hidden from the other. “I mean what I say. I want to be yours. I want an ‘us’.”
“Always?” It was barely a whisper, but Crowley had exceptional hearing.
“Wasn’t it always meant to be always?”
At some point, their fingers had laced themself together. Slotting together perfectly.
“Angel, I want us to have eternity. And I’m going to walk through fire and holy water to do it.” A pause, then Crowley squeezed their hands. “If, that is… You will have me.”
“Have you? Crowley, for heaven’s sake.” There it was, the tears he was unable to hold back any longer. His own dike had burst now. “I will never use this human expression again, but, Crowley, no matter what is right or wrong I do believe I would always think the sun shines out of your backside.”
This catches Crowley off guard long enough that Aziraphale managed to pull him into an embrace that he didn’t realize he needed.
“It’s just…” His voice was muffled against the demon’s shoulder.
The angel’s wings twitched and fluttered, a subconscious tick that meant he was either excited, anxious, or both. But, Crowley would be damned if they didn’t talk this through. Well, damned again. Maybe… appointed angel and re-damned. Yes, that is what he means while using that particular human-expression. So, he waited for what was to come next.
“Forever… Forever is quite a long time.” Aziraphale felt like each syllable took several breaths of air out of his lungs.
‘It’s not nearly long enough, if you ask me.’ was Crowley’s first thought, but he didn’t dare to voice it. No, first-thoughts were almost always far too embarrassing and needed proper consideration before verbalizing. So, instead, Crowley went with his clearly superior second thought:
“I wouldn’t mind, you know…” He resisted the sudden urge to flee, and kept his eyes squarely on the other man’s. “Spending it by your side. All of it.”
Yes, certainly a more dignified answer. Absolutely.
Aziraphale pressed their foreheads together, eyelashes fluttered downward as a smile upturned his lips. “I certainly wouldn’t mind that. Not at all.”
︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵
Two unsuspecting nightingales no longer had to sing, for they found their lifelong mate was beside them all along.
