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Aziraphale watched all and every single person that passed through the doors of his bookshop. Mostly so that he could dissuade them from buying his books but also to ensure that no harm came to any of them by the careless hands of humans (or otherwise). Not to mention that the number of people that actually entered his shop had decreased significantly since the advent of the 21st century.
So one day, on a rather pleasant Thursday afternoon, the angel looked up from one of his misprinted bibles that he had been inspecting when the door opened and a man with short silver hair in a brown suit walked in, and began to have a look around the shop.
At first glance, there was nothing remarkable about the man, nothing about him seemed out of place. Except for the emerald scarf he had wrapped around his neck in the hot July summer heat.
Only…it wasn’t actually a scarf, Aziraphale realised by the time the man had reached the bookcases. It was, what looked to be, a green tree snake. He had made an attempt to hide it, as it was underneath the man’s suit jacket.
The only reason he even noticed it for what it truly was, was because he had looked up just as it had been looking right at him. Head poking out ever so slightly from behind the jacket. It fixed him with a look that Aziraphale had seen countless times before on
The man had an odd device in his hands that reminded him of Crowley’s mobile phone, in a way.
Speaking of the demon, Aziraphale hadn’t seen him since he had come in that morning and had promptly transformed into his snake form. Where was he?
The man disappeared behind one of the other bookcases, checking something on the device periodically and talking quietly (to the snake, perhaps?) as he went.
As much as the Principality wanted to keep observing the man and his snake, there were still other humans that he had to keep an eye on. So he left him alone for the time being.
Sometime later, after he had successfully scared an older lady with greying black hair away from the first edition of Great Expectations, his ears caught the sound of hissing — two different beings hissing. Aziraphale crossed the bookshop from where he had been reading, rounded the bookcases to see Crowley, in his snake form in the middle of some kind hissing match with the green tree snake from earlier. The man in the brown suit was standing with his hands on his hips against the other bookcase. He watched his snake with a fond expression on his face. One that most likely had occupied Aziraphale’s own face before.
“I’m gonna assume that the black one is yours?” the man asked.
“In a way, yes,” Aziraphale said. “How long have they been at this for?” he added.
“For the last ten minutes or so — I think they’re arguing now. They got themselves tangled earlier,” the man commented. “I’m Agent Mobius, by the way,” he extended a hand out for him to shake, which he did.
“Azira Fell, owner of this bookshop,”
Agent Mobius was about to say something when something beeped and he retrieved the golden device that Aziraphale had seen him using earlier from a pocket within his jacket and snapped the lid open.
The two snakes seemed to have finished whatever argument they had been having as Crowley was now rising up, exchanging black and red scales for skin and bright red hair. Which really was rubbish timing, present company considered.
But Agent Mobius didn’t look surprised nor horrified to see a snake become a man, well man-shaped being; instead he had a twinkle in his eye that Aziraphale can’t begin to decipher the meaning of. So maybe Crowley didn’t have rubbish timing after all.
“Crowley,” the angel admonished, a note of disapproval in his voice as the demon came to stand somewhat beside him. He looked incredibly pleased with himself, for what Aziraphale didn’t know.
The device beeped again. Twice. The beeps sounded almost urgent.
“Loki, we gotta go—“ Agent Mobius called out. “—the TemPad’s got a hit,”
Why would he be telling a snake something like that to a snake? Whatever that was supposed to mean.
The remaining snake turned its head to look at Agent Mobius.
Outside the shop, something crashed to the ground, as if someone had dropped a whole box full of glassware at the coffee shop, not long afterwards something else…exploded? The pleasant afternoon was punctured by a scream. Loud, high-pitched, and feminine.
Aziraphale expected the snake to resume its former position masquerading as a scarf underneath Agent Mobius’ jacket, but that was not what happened.
When he looked back, the green tree snake was no longer a snake either. In its place stood an androgynous-looking person. They wore the same kind of brown suit as Agent Mobius, although sporting a different kind of tie.
Were they a demon? It was possible, with the snake form. But Crowley hadn’t mentioned Hell having any other field agents up on Earth nor did they have a particularly demonic aura about them. Actually, their aura felt off…not in the way that it should with the occult or the ethereal, nor in the odd kind that humans had for that matter. How interesting.
“Agent Loki Laufeyson,” they introduced themself. “Your partner made an interesting conversation partner,” they told him.
“He’s not my partner,” Aziraphale rebuked, instead of saying the handful of other things he wanted to say. Including but not limited to ‘what are you and Mobius agents of?’ and ‘what do you mean by that?’ and ‘what did Crowley tell you?’.
A car alarm went off somewhere further down Wickber Street.
“We really gotta get moving, Lokes,” Agent Mobius said. “Before the variant gets away again,” he added.
“Yes, right.”
Bidding both Crowley and Aziraphale goodbye, the two agents headed with haste for the door.
“Mr Fell?” Loki turned back to face the blond, a few paces from the door. “I assure you, I am not what you think I am,”
That only confused Aziraphale even more than he already was. What did they mean by ‘not what you think I am’? So they weren’t human or a demon, after all. But then what were they?
More importantly, who were they and Mobius been looking for? It was definitely a ‘who’ and not a ‘what’, Agent Mobius had said ‘the variant’ like it was some kind of title.