Chapter Text
"C'mon, you're acting like you've never been someone's beard before." Crowley's grin was saucy as he tried to angle the camera to get both him and Aziraphale in frame, while Aziraphale tried his best not to overthink every single statement or movement Crowley was making. Both of them were failing rather impressively at it.
"I very much have, thank you. Although this is the first time I've done it for a man."
"Ohh?" Crowley was still half-distracted by trying to work out a good pose and whether it'd be better to abandon the bench for it. Aziraphale's stiff-backed posture certainly wasn't helping matters. He considered sassing back that the "man" bit was totally optional, but he suspected that making Aziraphale feel like he'd committed a faux pas would make him close off even more, and he counted himself lucky he had a better grip on his tongue than his typing. "I sense a story there."
"Not much of one, I'm afraid. I don't think her parents liked me very much, but it went well enough for its purpose."
"You did it in front of the parents? Then this should be easy-breezy. It's just for randos." Crowley swiped to a different camera setting to see if adding background blurring would help. It did. Kind of.
"Yes, well, none of that involved immortalizing it with a camera."
Crowley drew back suddenly. "Hey. I didn't— If you aren't comfortable— Look, I said from the start this was a batty idea and I stick by that so you can call it off anytime. Okay?"
Aziraphale's face flickered through five different emotions that Crowley wasn't enough of a visual artist to be able to name before settling into a reassuring smile. "Crowley" — and the name was said like a balm — "I told you that I slept on this decision. I assure you that I thought through the consequences." All of that was even technically true. He'd said he'd sleep on it, and he had thought through the consequences, even though the latter was before he'd initiated the call to Crowley and the former was hours after he'd already made his choice.
"Yeah, but if this is gonna cost you something—"
"I assure you that it's something I am glad to be able to do for a friend."
Crowley nodded slowly, trying to take Aziraphale at his word. "I, er... Well. Sorry for making your first photo with a guy be for a totally fake date?"
Aziraphale smiled a little more warmly and purposefully opened his posture, extending an arm in invitation for Crowley to lean in towards him. "I can't say I'll mind having a little memento of the time my dear friend and I visited the park."
"Ngk..." Crowley gave in and accepted his invitation, sidling closer to him and trying to paste his confident smile back on. It was surprisingly hard when he was blanketed by Aziraphale's understated generosity like this. "Yeah. Me neither, angel."
The camera flash flickered, and a few moments later, Aziraphale's phone was the first recipient of their new photo.