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They had just left London and were driving into the countryside on a dark night.
Aziraphale, both hands on the wheel, glanced at Crowley, who was fast asleep. Which was unexpected, considering how the conversation about Aziraphale driving the Bentley had started.
"There's no way you're driving MY car again. Not after what you put it through last time!"
Aziraphale stood in front of the demon with his hands on his hips, "It's not the same, you'll be in the car with me. Besides, you're exaggerating, you're the one who had a problem with the changes, the Bentley seemed pretty okay with it."
Crowley retorted, "Why do you want to drive it so badly?!"
Aziraphale snapped, "Because I want to surprise you!"
This had the merit of silencing the demon for ten seconds before he resumed, "But where are we going?"
Aziraphale rolled his eyes and replied exasperated, "I'm telling you, it's a surprise."
Crowley was silent for a few seconds before he sighed and said, "Okay, okay, but!"
He'd raised his hand when he saw Aziraphale getting excited, "No color changes, no driving under the speed limit, no classical music, and no weird changes like that ridiculous honking."
Azirphale nodded and asked bright-eyed, "And what about the travel sweets?"
Crowley sighed and replied, "I'll allow it. But that's it!"
Thinking back to that scene, Aziraphale chuckled silently as he popped one of the candies into his mouth.
Moments later, he parked on a small, rocky road and turned to Crowley.
He placed his hand lightly on Crowley's shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze, saying softly, "Crowley, dear, we've arrived.
Crowley slowly opened his eyes and stretched before looking around. He raised an eyebrow and asked, "Where are we, Angel, and more importantly, what is this surprise?"
Aziraphale smiled mischievously and replied, "Wait and see!" and seeing that Crowley was about to protest, he continued, "Yes, yes, I know how annoying it is, but let me preserve the mystery for a few more moments."
Crowley muttered, "Yeah, well, the last time you said that, it ended very badly."
Aziraphale tapped him on the arm and admonished, "That's not very nice."
Then he opened his car door and said, "Come on, let's get out."
By the time Crowley got out, the angel had opened the trunk of the car and pulled out a plaid.
Crowley, seeing him arrive with the plaid on his arm, chuckled before saying, "You know, it's a little dark for a picnic, Angel?"
Aziraphale nudged him with his shoulder before retorting, "Idiot!" then extending his hand to Crowley, he asked, "Do you trust me?"
Crowley took it and replied quietly, "Always."
He then allowed himself to be dragged along by the angel, who led him to the middle of a field and then spread the blanket out on the ground before exclaiming, clapping his hands, "This is perfect!"
Crowley, confused, not seeing what was so special about the place, asked, "Perfect for what?"
Aziraphale smiled softly and pointed a finger skyward, "Perfect for this."
Crowley looked up at the starry sky, still puzzled. Aziraphale took his hand and began to sit on the blanket, pulling him along, "Perfect for stargazing."
"Star- what?"
Aziraphale made him lie on his back and lay next to him in the same way, taking his hand and repeating, "For stargazing. It's not my field, but I'm sure that's the constellation Ursa Major over there. Well, to be honest, I think it's the only one with Ursa Minor that I know of." He pointed to a star to the right and said, "So I think the North Star is here."
Crowley grumbled, "Amateur..." he took Aziraphale's sky pointing finger and pointed it in the opposite direction and continued, "Polaris is there."
Then he let go of the angel's hand and swept his hand across the sky, stopping a little further south and explaining, "Angel, if you want to find constellations and stars other than the obvious ones, you must first find the Lyra. You see, this little constellation is made up of several remarkable stars, including Vega, which is exceptionally bright. During the summer months, Lyra is easily visible and can be used as a guide to find other constellations."
Aziraphale smiled, pleased to see that the demon had gotten into the game and was now passionately describing the starry sky above them.
Crowley pointed to one of the stars and continued, "As I was telling you, here's Vega, it's distinctive blue color and brightness make it stand out, and it was once considered the star of the north celestial pole, and its brightness was used as a standard to calibrate the brightness of other stars. Vega is part of the Summer Triangle, along with Altair and Deneb, each of which belongs to its own constellation. And so on you can see other constellations."
Aziraphale couldn't help but stare at Crowley's profile as he described each constellation, one after the other. He seemed to be animated by an inner light, and the angel thought he could see a shadow of the smile he'd seen on Crowley's face when they first met.
His throat tightened, and he looked up at the sky again as the demon, apparently unaware of Aziraphale's state of mond, continued, "Deneb is part of the constellation of Cygnus, and Altaïr is part of the constellation of the Eagle. And then there's..."
Crowley stopped in mid-sentence.
"Crowley?"
"There's the Centaur, with its star Alpha, where his former royal smugness and paramour live happily ever after."
Aziraphale couldn't help but laugh and nudged Crowley's shoulder, "Do you think he had a statue built in his image there too?"
Crowley chuckled and shook his head, "Never! Underneath that gentle exterior, Belzeebub has an iron fist. In fact, stop it, I don't even want to think about it."
They both chuckled, and after a few seconds, Aziraphale said quietly, "You know so much about the stars."
Surprised, he felt Crowley rest his head on his shoulder. Then the demon said softly, "You know, sometimes I wish I didn't know so much. Because even if I know all of this, it will never be the same as the memory of having been among them, of having almost touched them with my fingers, of having participated in the creation of so many, of having seen them born."
Aziraphale turned to the demon and, stroking his cheek with a finger, said in a contrite tone, "I'm sorry, my dear, I didn't mean for my surprise to upset you. I didn't realize that..."
Crowley interrupted, shaking his head, "No, it's a lovely surprise, and I'm not just sad when I think about it..." he winked and continued, "It was in the sky that I met you. Who can say they met their first love in a sky full of stars?"
Aziraphale scolded and tugged gently at his ear, "Flagorneur. You were so fascinated by your stars that you hardly looked at me. They were the ones who got all the compliments."
Crowley turned to the angel and smiled softly as he replied, "What an unforgivable mistake on my part to have ignored this kind angel who came to help me when I needed it. But you know, angel, there's a star I didn't tell you about tonight because you can't see it with the naked eye or through any kind of telescope. Only I know exactly where it is on any given day of the year, wherever I am. And do you know what this star is called?"
The angel shook his head, puzzled by the gleam he saw in the demon's eyes.
Crowley planted a light kiss on the angel's forehead before replying, "Aziraphale. That's its name."
Aziraphale launched himself and pressed his lips to Crowley's in a kiss that conveyed better than words the emotion and love he felt at that moment. When they parted a few moments later to catch their breath, Crowley rolled onto his back, pulling the angel to him and wrapping his arm around his shoulders, while Aziraphale rested his head on the demon's shoulder.
They remained in silence for a few moments, the angel tracing random curves on the demon's chest with his fingertips.
After a moment, he said softly, "You know, Crowley, even though astronomy is not my favorite field, I have books on the subject, some of which I have read, and there is something I have learned from them. There's something called binary star systems, which are more stable and brighter than normal systems, if I'm not mistaken."
Crowley nodded and said quietly, "Go on."
"Well, the two stars in these systems orbit around a common center of mass, which means they're tied together by gravity."
Aziraphale paused, waiting for the demon to confirm, which he did.
The angel straightened up a little and rested his chin on the demon's chest to look at him as he said in a voice slightly veiled with emotion, "It's like a dance that will last for millions of years and never end because these stars can't exist without each other. Like..."
He couldn't finish the sentence because of the emotion, and it was Crowley who did it for him, "Like us."
Aziraphale nodded, and Crowley, also overwhelmed with emotion, wrapped his arms around the angel, who buried his face in his neck.
Overwhelmed with emotion, they remained entwined for a long time under the stars. Along those stars were likely some of those who had witnessed them on the day they first met.
The day they had unknowingly bonded.
Bonded for eternity in this endless dance where neither could exist without the other.