Work Text:
~1941, London~
“You said ‘trust me’” Crowley said smiling at Aziraphale
“And you did…” Aziraphale replied, they looked away from each other. Aziraphale took a sip of his wine. Crowley did the same. Crowley looked out the window and hummed under his breath. Aziraphale fished a book out from the nearest bookshelf and opened it.
They did this for about ten minutes then at the very same time, they glanced at each other and locked eyes.
It was a sort of unspoken agreement that they could stare at each other. Crowley and Aziraphale, that is. And they do, they stare at each other all the time. It’s their way of saying ‘I love you’ though they never actually said the words. They know when the other is staring but this was different.
That night was an important night. They had done things for each other that they had never taken the risk to do before. There would’ve been so much paperwork. Aziraphale could’ve lost his corporation… two times. He also kind of realised he was in love. He had always known but now it was fresh in his mind and sure. And those eyes. Those beautiful yellow eyes with slits for pupils. He could lose himself in them.
He wished that Crowley didn’t hate everything that Heaven was, he wished that Crowley could blink so that this staring contest could end. Though he also didn’t want those eyes to leave his own. He felt as if he could never look away.
Then after a long time, possibly hours, possibly seconds, probably just minutes Crowley murmured “...Hi” Aziraphale gulped at this and took a deep breath.
“...Hello” He whispered back, still staring into those eyes. He couldn’t look away, even the thought of doing so made his stomach churn. He took a sip of wine and gulped again covering it up with the swallow of wine. Crowley’s eyes unfocused slightly, Aziraphale took another deep breath and whispered, “this hasn’t happened before”
This got a chuckle out of the demon “I don’t think we have” Aziraphale could tell that Crowley was about to look away and by instinct his hands went up and cupped Crowley’s cheeks to keep him from breaking eye contact. He couldn’t lose those eyes. It meant too much right now. Crowley let out a little gasp when Aziraphale cupped his cheeks he was surprised that the Angel would do something just for eye contact. But who was he to complain? Their eyes hadn’t left each other yet and they weren’t going to for a while it was all they had right now.
They weren’t in any danger, they had all the time in the world. More time than any humans had, more time than any humans had ever had. All the time in the world. All of it.
About every minute or so they got ever so slightly closer, a centimetre, maybe an inch if they were feeling extra, this went on for about an hour. Until finally, there was no further to go, no more gap to fill. They paused for a moment, still staring into each other’s eyes. It was really a sort of staring contest, neither had blinked the entire time they sat like that, neither looked away. It was odd for Aziraphale not to blink, but there was no need to. When he was alone he didn’t do much blinking, but it’s odd how much you notice blinking when someone doesn’t do it. Somehow Crowley was never asked why he didn’t blink, it didn’t seem important to people.
There were passersby that would glance into the bookshop and wonder what they were doing but as soon as they realised it wasn’t meant for them, walked off. The two were still locked in each other’s gaze until they closed their eyes, carefully and at the same time they closed their eyes and pressed their lips together. There was nothing more to be done, it was suddenly done. No more staring contest.