Work Text:
"Hey Angel- you got anything from… 1526?"
Crowley dropped onto the sofa, stretching across it as he usually did.
"I have some Coda Rosa"
Aziraphale didn't seem disturbed by the sudden appearance of someone who, by all counts, should not be there.
"Yeah that should do us for tonight"
The demon grinned as he watched Aziraphale intently from behind his midnight black glasses.
The angel wrote something on a sticky note, tucking it neatly into a book and promptly replacing the book onto an ever growing pile near his desk.
"What're you doing there?" Crowley nodded to the colourful papers sticking out of the leather-bound stack.
"Annotating." Now it was Aziraphale's turn to smile. "Recently, someone whom I came into contact with a few years ago departed on an expedition-" With the last word he flourished his hands for emphasis. "-and they've returned with newly recovered books! They're fascinating… Personal logs keeping track of an archeological trip, deep into southern mountain ranges."
Crowley nodded, he didn't have quite the interest for these things that his Angel seemed to possess… but how he loved listening to him bubble when talking about it and glow with excitement.
"Right! Well I'm sure you'll have plenty to tell me about these personal diaries you are so graciously reading." He smirked, getting to his feet as he watched Aziraphale struggle to come up with words for a moment.
"Well I hardly think they would mind-! After all, it was a scientific endeavor! Granted, they sadly didn't make it back but I'm confident these people of science would relish in the fact that their research made it back into the world, even if it was without them."
Crowley shrugged. "I hardly think I was disagreeing."
He waited for Aziraphale to lead the way out of the room and trailed behind him into the cellar.
Down below the bookshop, they had quite the cozy set-up. A loveseat, a pile of blankets in the corner and a machine for making cocoa. All in view of the racks of wine tucked into a back corner.
"Now then." Aziraphale went to retrieve a few bottles of wine he had kept from the 15th century, and set them onto the low coffee table underneath the string lights he had insisted on hanging on the walls.
Crowley miracled two wine glasses into existence and handed one to Aziraphale, who now sat comfortably on the cushion next to him.
The demon set his glasses down on the table, filled both of their cups in turn and then sat back.
"Now, why don't you tell me about the clever thing you've done with the books then Angel?"
Aziraphale nodded enthusiastically. He sipped his wine and smiled at the demon next to him, whether he was smiling about the books or about him, Crowley couldn't quite tell.
--------
Crowley and Aziraphale had been drinking for the past few hours, having migrated upstairs as they did so. It was now well past dark according to the position of the moon, that and the fact that the clock in the main sitting area read: 12:13 am
Crowley finally caught up with himself, as he realized he was gazing up at the sky; trying to make out anything that could be considered a star.
Aziraphale walked up behind him.
"Dear, what're you doing?" He stared up at the sky, confused.
"Eh.. N'thing much… just try'na see if the stars've come back yet"
Even more puzzled now, Aziraphale looked at Crowley, regarding his yellow eyes which were fixed on the dark blanket of silence that covered London.
"The stars… can't you see them?"
Crowley paused a moment before shaking his head. "Nah- havnt seen 'em since I fell.."
Aziraphale studied him carefully before saying anything.
"Ah- well I am… terribly sorry that happened…"
Crowley just shook his head, significantly harder than was probably necessary.
"Naaah it's fine really- I mean, I've managed this long without 'em"
Aziraphale only nodded, fidgeting awkwardly with the empty glass in his hand before miracling it away.
"Crowley… could I ask you something?"
Crowley looked over at Aziraphale, and tilted his head. "Yeah shoot"
"And erm- please don't feel the need to answer if you don't want to…"
Aziraphale squirmed where he was standing, then managed to steal himself.
"Why don't… Why don't demons cry? I mean- I always assumed it was just because of the whole being evil and bad thing but- you're not following Hell's orders anymore so, is there anything actually stopping you?"
Crowley stopped, fully turning to face the angel. He looked as if someone had just asked him why gravity was created.
(Which was a fair question, but one that someone wouldn't typically expect Crowley to know the answer to.)
"I ah- Angel, are you sure you want the answer to that?"
"I mean, only of course if you're comfortable! I didn't want to-"
Crowley grabbed his hand gently, "No I didn't mean for my sake, I meant for yours. Do you really want to know?"
Aziraphale took a breath. "Yes I- I rather think I would."
Crowley only nodded.
"When a demon falls, one of the things that happens is that we become… intolerant… to holy water.
I'm not sure if this was intentional but angels who haven't fallen cry holy water.
Say someone were to- saunter vaguely downwards; well, I'm pretty sure that tear ducts are the only part of us that can still handle the stuff.
That is to say, it's not enough to destroy someone but it will definitely leave evidence if someone did happen to end up that upset."
Aziraphale felt his stomach twisting in a knot.
"You mean like, scars?"
Crowley nodded, and offered a small smile; while the angel looked completely taken aback, and almost… angry .
Crowley hadn't seen him genuinely angry in a very very long time, miffed sure. He got miffed all the time but never angry. And this time, his anger seemed pointed directly at God herself.
"Angel, it's really not that big of a deal. Every single demon has been stuck with this for millenia its fine."
Aziraphale took a breath but didn't seem to calm much at all.
"It's- it's not fair Crowley! You didn't do anything!"
The demon only nodded, "I know. Don't worry I'm still plenty upset with Her, we all are. You don't need to get in a fuss over it."
Aziraphale squeezed Crowley's hand and leaned forward to rest his head on his chest, listening to his breath and slow- did it just speed up? -heartbeat.
Crowley wrapped his arms, and then his wings around the angel, as they corperated into being.
"C'mon Angel, let's go upstairs. I know you don't sleep but I think you'd enjoy it."
Aziraphale let himself be led up to the flat on the second floor of the bookshop, as the two collapsed on top of the tartan bed sheets.
Crowley snapped, putting them into their respective pairs of pj's and covering them both with his sleek black feathers.
Aziraphale looked over at Crowley before closing his eyes. "I think you're right."
" 'bout what?" The demon murmured, already half asleep.
"Sleep, I think I'll enjoy it. Especially with you here."
Crowley made a small noise but didn't respond further, the slight rise and fall of his feathers enough to signal that he'd already fallen asleep.
-----
Aziraphale awoke, looking around the bedroom. Something was very wrong .
There were no people for starters. No humans, nor demons that he could sense. He miracled himself downstairs and rushed to stare out the glass of the bookshop.
Emptiness stared back. A white void of nothingness, not like the beginning.
That was full of potential, and the promise of new life. This was not like anything that should have been able to exist, it was silent and empty and cold.
Aziraphale couldn't feel his link to heaven, couldn't sense any other living being, and most importantly, he couldn't tell where Crowley was- if anywhere .
He slowly opened the doors, not fully willing to venture out away from the only familiar thing left.
He tried to focus on anything that might've been out there, any speck of something or someone to call out to.
Slowly, Aziraphale could feel the bookshop becoming less and less corporeal.
Panic ran through him like ice as he tried to miracle it back, to do something… anything .
As the shop vanished from underneath him, it seemed that wherever he was, didn't abide by any laws of gravity.
Slowly, very slowly, the sky darkened.
The earth's moon was faintly visible but where stars should have been there was nothing, not even the meek glow of one near death.
Aziraphale brought out his wings, desperately trying to find any way to stop whatever was going on. And that was when he noticed it.
At first, it was just a few, but slowly almost like a virus spreading and taking control, his pristine white feathers darkened to a soot black colour.
He was falling.
This couldn't be right, after all- had he really done anything??
…Well yes, he supposed that he had actually done a few things that heaven would probably not have appreciated.
He had been daft, he should have known heaven wouldn't just let him go.
He watched, horrified as the back colour began bleeding into the rest of his feathers, making them almost impossible to see against the darkened sky.
He could feel tears pricking at his eyes, but as they began to trickle down, instead of the cold damp sensation that typically accompanied this kind of thing, he felt a burning.
The water burned down his cheeks like acid, as he fervently tried to wipe it away, to stop it.
That only got it onto his hands, which led them to start burning as well.
Not quite open wounds but not quite healed into scars yet, the raw lines etched into his cheeks as each new tear fell.
The water on his hands only spread as he tried wiping it off, but the pain just brought more tears, tearing the valleys deeper into his skin and burning the flesh of his corporeal being.
He pulled his knees up to his chest, trying to hide behind the midnight wings, but those too seemed accusatory.
And then, the world started shaking.
Aziraphale could feel the trembling in every muscle, the very fabric of his reality tossing side to side. He could almost hear Crowley's voice yelling at him.
"Aziraphale!"
Was it anger?
"Angel!"
Was he in pain?
Whatever it was, it was most likely Aziraphale's fault-
"Angel wake up!"
Aziraphale's eyes shot open and he jolted upright, trembling. He reached up to feel the tears, but they hadn't done him any harm. There was no burning on his face or hands.
He couldn't say the same for Crowley however.
The demon was practically shaking, his hands covered in tiny burns where he had presumably tried to wipe away the angel's tears with no regard for himself.
"Crowley?" Aziraphale managed weakly.
"Angel are you alright?? You- you were yelling and I tried to help you but-"
He had wiped his damp hands on the bed sheets but the evidence of the burns was still very prevalent.
The demon wore a look on his face Aziraphale had never seen before, or at least never this intense; fear.
Or to be more precise, pure terror.
Aziraphale gripped Crowley's hands and leaned forward, pressing his full weight against his as they sat on the mattress.
"I'm sorry." Crowley whispered.
Aziraphale pulled his head back slightly to look up at his friend; the friend he had known for over six-thousand years. The one who had faced the wrath of God. The one who had been there for him no matter what.
"I- Crowley whatever are you apologizing for??"
The demon shook his head.
"It was my fault, the nightmare. I was the one who encouraged you to try sleeping... Hell, sleeping near a demon in the first place is probably what caused that kind of dream-"
Aziraphale almost laughed at this.
"Crowley in no possible universe would you have been responsible for that."
He passed his hands over Crowleys, in an attempt to heal the burn marks.
A fairly unsuccessful attempt, but an attempt nonetheless.
"Dear you were probably the only reason I was able to wake up from that."
Aziraphale took a breath.
"The dream… would you like to know what it was?"
Crowley just wrapped his arms tighter around him in response.
"Of course Angel."
Aziraphale nodded and maneuvered himself until his back was leaning into Crowley on the bed, enjoying the security of the arms locked around him.
"Well… I was in the bookshop, and I stepped outside but there was nothing there. Just an empty void, and then my wings changed colours and I couldn't see the stars and- Oh Crowley… I can't understand how you managed to handle it. Falling I mean."
The demon nodded silently, saying nothing.
The two of them remained there in silence together, b oth feeling the relief and warmth as they pressed against each other.