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Aziraphale was going up to heaven.
Gabriel had called him up. He didn’t really want to go but he did anyway. He had to. When he got there he walked for a little bit. He found Gabriel and the other archangels.
“Gabriel,” he nodded at his boss “Michael, Uriel”
“Principality” Gabriel had never really respected him, of course he wouldn’t ever use the angel's name. “How was your day?”
“Nice,” Aziraphale said “I had a nice breakfast and read a book”
“That’s great.”
“What was it that you needed Gabriel?” Aziraphale said, throwing a happy tone on as to not show he didn’t want to be there, he was about to go out to lunch with Crowley.
“I need you to keep watch of another demon,” Gabriel said.
“What?”
“Hell just put them out recently. We will send another angel to keep track of the snake.” Michael said
“As I have said before,” Aziraphale acknowledged, recalling the day when his bookshop was finally finished and Gabriel had come down to bring him back up, Crowley had saved him, Crowley was his best friend and he couldn’t just leave him. “That demon is really not easy to stop until you know him well.”
“Yes we recall Aziraphale,” said Michael “You need other experience with other demons though.”
“Well… uhm,” The cheerful principality was stumped, he couldn’t lose h- the demon “He changes up his….. style a lot”
“The new angel will get it pretty quickly,” Uriel said."We're sure of it.”
Aziraphale was now slightly panicking, “It took me over a thousand years to keep up with him.”
“Well this time you can help the new angel, principality” Gabriel said with a smirk.
“Wouldn’t a new angel be better with a newer demon?”
“Maybe but they need experience too, you know.”
What was he supposed to do, he couldn’t lose Crowley and his attempts weren’t doing anything.
“We’re sure that the new angel will be fine” Gabriel was really ticking him off now, Aziraphale -for all Gabe knew- had been picking at this demon for thousands of years before he finally got the hang of it. He was just going to send in a new inexperienced angel to take his place when they didn’t know how to get into Crowley’s hear- head. He was going to be replaced and just thrown in the trash like he was nothing, this new demon was probably perfect for the angel, and obviously Crowley was perfect for Aziraphale. He started sweating, but it wasn’t a stressed sweat. It was an angry sweat. “You kind of sound like you like this demon, is that it Azi?”
“No, sir” Gabriel was in no place to call him Azi that was reserved for his bo- best friend “I don’t like hi-”
“Aziraphale it really sounds like you do,” Gabriel raised an eyebrow just like Crowley would so often, this calmed the sweating angel a bit. “Like him”
“Gabriel please,” Aziraphale was playing the only card he had left, the ineffable laziness of his boss. “I am just trying to make your job easier I’m sure that if you switched my demon there would be so much more paperwork,” He paused for dramatic effect "Whereas if you gave the new angel the new demon it would be less paperwork for you, and easier for them.” He gave a calm smile.
“Michael, Uriel, will you step out please?”
“Yes Gabriel” They said in unison and walked away, chatting.
“Alright, Angel,” Gabriel plastered that smirk on again, yet it was more malicious than last time. This made Aziraphale distressed, Crowley called him that and angels don’t refer to each other as such.
He flinched.
“There it is,” Gabriel seemed to be getting taller by the second. “That little flinch that tells me you are scared of what I just said.”
“What do you mean Gabriel?” Aziraphale did a small miracle so that the sweat started drying. “I’m not scared.”
“Do. Not. Lie. To me, Aziraphale.” Gabriel suddenly frowned. “Now you will answer my questions and don’t lie believe me I can tell, it's a sort of three strikes, you’re out situation”
“Okay”
“Do you like the demon”
“No”
“Do not lie to me. Strike one” his voice had gotten awfully calm yet it had a small yet incredibly wicked undertone, his eyes had grown daggers, or was it skulls? “Do you like the demon”
“Yes”
“Do you love the demon?”
“I don’t kn-”
“DO NOT LIE TO ME PRINCIPALITY. Strike two”
“Yes.” Aziraphale was on the verge of tears, they were growing in his eyes. Gabriel’s smirk came back.
“Have you kissed the demon?”
“No sir”
“Good,” Gabriel brought out something from behind his back, a… thermos “Do you have any idea what this is?”
Aziraphale hesitated “Answer me principality. Do. You. Know. What. This. Is?”
“Yes….. it’s holy water” A single tear fell off his delicate eyelashes and tracked down his cheek falling from his chin down to his clothes.
“Stop crying Principality. Correct, of course you know what holy water does to demons. Right?”
“Yes” The tears threatened to spill, but he wouldn’t let them.
“So you probably have an idea of what I want you to do?”
“Yes”
“Tell me what I want you to do”
He couldn’t do this, he couldn’t explain how Gabriel wanted him to kill his best friend. It wasn't right he couldn’t. He was in love with the fire he was supposed to extinguish.
“You want me to,” a sob caught in his throat “kill him”
“Oh be specific, dummy”
“You want me to give him this in some way and destroy him. His body and soul,” the tears were too much his vision was blurred but if they fell he would be hurt or killed. “You want me to execute him, to mu-murder him.”
They could get out of this he could go somewhere with Crowley and-
“I know what you’re thinking right now,” Gabriel started frowning again but the corners of his mouth were twitching as if they wanted to smile, “You think you can take your precious demon to I don’t know Alpha Centauri and you two can run off together and you’d be safe because we wouldn’t be watching when you killed him we would just take your word for it.”
Oh no Aziraphale thought as Michael and Uriel came back pulling a chair with a kicking screaming man, a man who was so incredibly important.
‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿
Crowley was bored, when he gets bored he starts thinking, most of the time thinking about Aziraphale.
There wasn’t a prettier face, a more beautiful physique, a more exuberant personality, more luscious hair, a more graceful way of speaking.
He couldn’t imagine life without hi- the angel.
But the angel wasn’t here right now, he had to go up to heaven to make sure that Gabriel didn’t expect anything of them.
He walked around the bookshop looking for books that might be interesting, possibly. The book he picked out was A Court of Thorns and Roses he looked at it skimmed through the first page,
“Eh boring”
He brought out another book Fahrenheit 451. He looked at the introduction by a bloke named Neil Gaiman for a moment.
“Booring,” he found the first page of the story. “It was a joy to burn,” he said aloud. The first words the book had. “Now this is interesting” and he began reading.
He read for about an hour, “Who’s this little dummy Clarrisse?” He wasn't a fast reader. There was a ringing of a bell at the door, “Sorry, we’re closed.”
“Are you the owner of the shop?” a slightly familiar voice said to him, where had he heard it before.
“No, he’s getting groceries,” Crowley wanted them to get out so he could continue the only interesting book in this shop. “Or something.”
“Oh well sorry to bother you,” Where did he recognize that voice? “Could we look around for a moment?”
“I just said we’re closed of course you can’t… look” he remembered the voice and slammed the book down next to him “No, it's a trap you’re going to ambush him. No”
“Yes,” Uriel said standing next to Michael. “And you need to be there.”
The last thing Crowley saw was a wooden baseball bat coming towards his head at what looked like terminal velocity.
When he woke up everything was overly bright, and he was being dragged along there was a rag in his mouth to keep him from talking. It was easy to spit out, the wily demon started kicking and screaming trying to stop them from taking him where they were supposed to be taking him.
“Shut up demon.” said Michael
“ANGEL GET OUT OF HERE,” Crowley screamed “IT’S AN AMBUSH.”
Suddenly the two angels who were dragging him along stopped. He was turned around and faced toward a man, the one man who was always there, the one who wasn’t really a man, who mattered so much to him.
“Crowley,” Aziraphale said “My dear I am so sorry.”
°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。
“Crowley,” The angel was so angry, there was no way of getting out of this, he would die and Aziraphale could do nothing to help, he would be lonely forever and he would never find any other love, he couldn’t do anything, he was helpless. “My dear I am so sorry.”
“Angel what is this?” Crowley asked “What is happening? Why do you have a… thermos” Crowley could feel his imminent destruction when he was near that stuff what was hi- the angel doing?
“My dear, I didn’t want any of this, believe me.” Two more tears broke away from his eyes “I don’t want to kill you.”
“Stop crying principality.”
“How can I trust you, Aziraphale?” Crowley’s eyes were shining from his tears. “How do I know that you haven’t been conspiring with them from the start?”
“Please Crowley, I don't want this to be this way.”
“Just do it Aziraphale”
“Okay,” Aziraphale walked over to Crowley, he winked, he had an idea. “I will miss you Crowley dear.” He took off the cap of the thermos, did a very small miracle which left Crowley looking a little smug as if he knew something, annnnndd…. spilled the holy water all over Michael and Uriel. `\_^________^_/`
“Principality, what the Heaven are you doing?” Gabriel said
“Saving my demon” Aziraphale said, declaring the demon as his. Crowley heard a rip, spreading his wings out looking every bit like the soldier heaven made him to be. A fiery sword came down from the Heaven Heavens? They were already in Heaven so…? Double Heaven? Anyways a flaming sword like the ones from the Great War, came down into Aziraphale’s hands. He was absolutely beautiful. Crowley was in awe of hi- the angel. No Aziraphale called him, his demon Azi was his angel. Aziraphale had miracled off the ropes that were binding him to the chair, he got up and tackled Uriel, he’d never really liked Uriel. Nor did he like Michael but they were preoccupied with Aziraphale.
Aziraphale was so incredibly angry he couldn’t take it anymore Michael and Uriel had flaming swords now and their wings were out too. The angel took a look at Crowley, his charred wings were out now he had a sort of lever or crank maybe? Aziraphale was sure he’d seen it before. Anyways the demon was doing his very best to fight Uriel and he was winning.
Gabriel sat in the chair that Crowley had been restrained in, smiling complacently. Whilst Aziraphale ducked and swerved and slashed and blocked and slashed again, ducked and twirled, and swerved and slashed again, Crowley was blocking and ducking, then hitting Uriel with the crank.
Aziraphale focused and twisted his sword around Michael’s throwing it to the side, Crowley slid on the ground and picked it up now fighting like a true warrior. Tackled Michael, pinning them. Crowley did the same with Uriel, he had disarmed them. Now the star crossed lovers were at the necks of the angels they hated so much.
“Michael,” Gabriel snarled through clenched teeth “Uriel, you may go now." he made a wave of his hand and the two archangels who seemed relieved were gone. “Well, well, well”
“Oh shut up Gabriella,” Crowley said grinning “a ragtag angel and demon fought and won against your two most powerful angels, in about two minutes.”
“I’m better at fighting than them, Ralph,” the supreme archangel said.
Crowley recoiled slightly. “Do not call me that.”
“Oh would you prefer Raphael or archangel Raphael?” Gabriel asked “or Crawley, or blech Crowley, the snake, the one who ruined everything. The one who gave Eve and Adam the forbidden fruit, the one who made the human race unable to stay in Eden. If I am recalling correctly you two met in Eden, on the wall. Is that where you fell in love?”
“I-” Aziraphale started
“No lying Principality”
“Now you’ve ticked me off” Crowley hissed “First you make my best friend come up here we were about to go out to lunch, then you kidnap me, then you disrespect him constantly, never saying his name, laughing at him, then you make us fight him, but he still respects you. Then you disrespect me and the person I’ve made myself by calling me something from over six-thousand years ago. You think you’re such a great guy, doing God’s will and everything but you have no idea how much of a jerk you are.”
Gabriel sprang at him.
His wings outstretched his face snarling. He was not a beautiful type of ethereal, he was a hideous type of force. But he was angry and it was so incredibly hard to fight that.
Crowley met him halfway, slashing his sword into Gabriel’s wing. Gabriel clawed feathers off of Crowley’s wings. There were feathers everywhere it was a ball of snarling, hissing, clawing, slashing, biting, kicking, ethereal, occult beings. Aziraphale jumped in and stabbed, slashed and stabbed, ducked and whirled, flipped and dipped.
STOP.
They stopped, this voice had such force that no other being in the universe could possibly match, yet it seemed to be all of the voices in one.
“What was th-”
It was me Gabriel, God.
“My lord this angel is a traito-”
I was not finished speaking Archangel. Why are you fighting?
“My lord this angel is a tr-”
I was not asking you. Aziraphale, Crowley. Why are you fighting Gabriel?
“Urm, Gabriel called him up here,” Crowley said
“Yes and then he brought Crowley up here and told me to…” Aziraphale muttered ”K-Kill him”
And why didn’t you?
“I-I-I lo-love him.”
“What?” Crowley looked at him wide eyed blushing “You you do?”
“Y-yes”
“I have been waiting six-thousand years for you to say that,” Crowley sounded like he was truly yearning for this for all this time “I uhm, I love you too.”
See this is what I wanted to happen.
“What?” all three of the beings said in unison.
I want to show that we don’t need the difference between angels and demons anymore. A figure glimmered into existence and slowly descended downwards towards the angels and demon. A constantly changing figure of everyone, Aziraphale saw himself, and Job, Crowley. It was beautiful and mesmerizing. It was God.
“Hello,” God said, their voices now merged into one, seemingly female. Their form stopped changing and it was also a seemingly female shape. They put their hand out, “Aziraphale, Crowley, Gabriel.” each being shook their hand. God looked at their children smiling. “I am proud of you two” they said nodding at Aziraphale and Crowley, “As for you”
“My lord” Gabriel butted in.
“I wasn’t finished speaking Gabe, I am angry with you, and good old Metatron over there.” they nodded to a floating head who looked down and seemed scared. “Neither of you have been following my orders,” They looked genuinely angry and you do not want to get the almighty angry. “By even taking Aziraphale up here right now is drawing off of the great plan, my great plan is for toying with, but not too much I just want to see how everyone goes through everything. Their daily lives, their loves, everything.”
They nodded to Crowley and Aziraphale who flinched. “With these two I saw that they loved each other almost immediately,” the lovefools blushed “I let it play out it has taken so long, they have worked together so well, also Gabriel you’re stupid, you didn’t realize that Aziraphale was lying to you for thousands of years.” The angel and demon were staring at each other now blushing, and smiling dumbly.
“You were what” Gabriel exclaimed only getting a shrug from Aziraphale
“I did what I had to do.” The principality stated still looking at the one person he loved most in the whole universe.
“You two are the start of something great,” God said, waving them away. “Now go live your lives in peace. I have to have a conversation with these two,” they nodded at Gabriel and The Metatron.
“Thank you, Almighty” Aziraphale spouted out finally breaking the what seemed to be staring contest with Crowley (which the demon would have won), and shook the deity’s hand again, God pulled him into a hug, and they motioned for Crowley to join in too. The skinny demon obliged; scared of what might happen if he didn’t.
Then, hand in hand the demon and angel walked off into the not-horizon of heaven, but they weren’t finished yet.
When they got back to the bookshop Crowley went over to the coffee shop across the street, ordered a cup of coffee for himself and some tea for Aziraphale. When he got back Aziraphale was reading the book Crowley had left out. Reading it.
“Would you like me to read this to you, dear?” Aziraphale said “This one is very interesting.”
“Yes please,” Crowley said. “But first, chamomile tea for you, and espresso for me” he set them on the table when he looked up. Aziraphale was standing there and as soon as Crowley was all the way up again. Aziraphale pulled him into a kiss. His soft lips against Crowley’s.
The kiss lasted so long neither of them kept the time anyways, but it felt as if six-thousand years of slow burn had finally ended; they finally had what they had the entire time.
Each other.