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“Crowley,” Aziraphale murmured softly, setting his book down as the demon stepped off the last step of the metal spiral staircase. Crowley had been napping upstairs when Aziraphale returned to the bookshop. Since their respective second retirements began, Crowley had officially declared the bookshop his home. While things were rather awkward at first, Aziraphale found having Crowley near was a comfort. They would never need to fear for the other again. “Crowley, dear, I was wondering if you had any plans this evening.”
“Mmm…” Crowley gazed curiously at Aziraphale, snatching up his sunglasses from the horse statue and shrugging as he dropped onto the settee. “Not really. Not much to do anymore, is there?”
“Quite right,” Aziraphale said nervously.
“And…?” Crowley grinned, broadening his leg spread and leaning forward. “You have something in mind?”
“A—actually...” Aziraphale smiled cheekily. “I was reading a quite interesting book on ophiology and it made me wonder about… certain aspects of snake biology.”
“Oh?” Crowley’s grin lengthened, his thin lips spread so thin the color nearly vanished. “And what… aspects were you curious about?”
“I was actually thinking I could perform an… experiment, of sorts.” Aziraphale smiled, rising from his chair and approaching Crowley slowly, watching the demon’s eyes travel his body.
“Mmm…” Crowley took Aziraphale’s hand, gently stroking the golden ring on his pinkie. “Just name a time and place. I’ll show you all about snake anatomy.”
“Tonight.” Aziraphale flushed at Crowley’s intimate touch. They had been quite taken with holding hands since the Second Coming had been subverted, but there was still something exhilarating every time it happened — especially when Crowley initiated. “On the roof of the bookshop.”
“A bit exhibitionist, isn’t it, angel?” Crowley had a low chuckle, sending Aziraphale’s heart ablaze. “Sounds like a date. I’ll get us some wine and meet you up there.”
Crowley laid a kiss on Aziraphale’s knuckles and slipped from the settee. He sauntered across the shop, taking care to add an extra swagger to his gait, and let himself out the front doors, the chime sending a gentle tingle echoing through the shop.
Crowley stepped onto the rooftop to find Aziraphale smiling from where he sat on a tartan blanket, picnic basket at his side. With a grin, the demon put on his most slithery saunter, wine bottle and two wine glasses dangling from one hand, and removed his sunglasses when he reached his angel’s side.
“So…” Crowley dropped onto the blanket, stretching out his full length and finagling the cork from the bottle with a resounding pop. “Snake anatomy — what’d you want to know first, angel?”
“Well,” Aziraphale gently picked up Crowley’s sunglasses from where he had rested them beside the picnic basket. He smiled sadly down at the bits of black metal and glass. “It’s about your eyes, actually.”
“My… eyes?” Crowley frowned, pausing his wine pour then continuing with a sigh, filling his glass to the top. “Course. What about ‘em? I didn’t pick the color, if that’s what you’re wondering.”
Aziraphale chuckled, setting the sunglasses on top of the picnic basket and taking the glass of wine Crowley held out to him.
“No, I imagine not. However, I was reading about the suspected color spectrum of a snake’s eyes and was wondering if yours are limited in what colors you can see.”
“Oh.” Crowley pursed his lips, leaning back as he gazed boredly up at the faintly blue-tinged night sky. “Yeah, I s’pose. I can’t say if it’s exactly like a snake’s, but it is limited. Mostly blues and greens. Bit of yellow, maybe. Hard to say. Been a long time since I’ve seen a full spectrum, but all I really need is blue anyway.”
“Why is—“ Aziraphale stopped short, Crowley eyes having moved from the sky to meet his blue eyes. As Aziraphale’s realization boomed across his face, so too did a red shade color his cheeks. Crowley’s satisfied grin spoke volumes. If Aziraphale’s favorite color was the yellow of Crowley’s eyes, was Crowley saying his favorite was the shifting crystal blue of Aziraphale’s?
“Problem, angel?” Crowley leaned towards Aziraphale, stroking his cheek with a bony knuckle and placing a delicate kiss on the tip of his crimson nose.
Through an immense act of will, Aziraphale kept his wits about him. He smiled sadly and motioned casually at the sky.
“I imagine this looks a lot different then. I remember your joy at seeing the universe spark by your own hand — the colors blossoming as a field of flowers hung in the ink of the cosmic web… That field would be barely noticeable now, it seems. Rather cruel… when one thinks on it…”
“Ngk,” Crowley croaked, recoiling slightly at the darkness crossing his beloved angel’s gentle features. “S’okay. Was a long time ago. I was literally a different being then. Don’t waste time thinking about it.”
“I have to wonder about the process for making a demon. Why did color have to be taken from you?” Aziraphale laid his hand on Crowley’s, giving a gentle squeeze as Crowley sputtered strings of consonants.
“Punishment for being unforgivable, right?” Crowley collected himself and shrugged, fearing his attempts at being nonchalant were going to fail against Aziraphale. “I don’t know if it was God or Satan who decided it for me. I didn’t choose to be a snake, you know? Whoever it was just… decided this was my punishment. Poetic, in a way. Take the stars from the angel that hung them. Seems like a cruel thing, but I still can’t figure out which would do it between the two of them. Says a lot about how I view them, I suppose.”
“I should have asked you more about what life was like for you after the fall.” Aziraphale sighed, removing his hand from Crowley’s and taking a long draught of wine. Crowley acted in kind, clearing his throat when half the glass was gone.
“No point asking then. Different sides and all. I’ll tell you more now, if you want.” Crowley smiled nervously as Aziraphale nodded, waiting expectantly, his delicate blue eyes sparkling in the starlight. “Wasn’t til Eden when I found out. No sky in Hell, y’know? So when I realized, it didn’t matter who did it to me: God or Satan. Decided I was just going to do what I wanted. What else could they take from me? But time heals, so it doesn’t really bother me anymore.”
Aziraphale pondered Crowley’s words, taking slow sips of his wine. He sat down his glass when the contents were mere dregs in the bottom of the glass. He opened the picnic basket, removing a small, wrapped present — tartan paper topped with a yellow bow. He stretched the box out to Crowley with a sheepish grin.
“I suppose this wouldn’t have been an acceptable gift if you’d answered my query any other way.”
Crowley took the parcel, slowly tearing away the paper. A conversation about his eyesight and a gift weren’t how he was expecting to spend his evening. Personally, he had been planning to finally show the angel just how serpentine his body could be. Regardless, a gift and wine in Aziraphale’s company wasn’t a poor way to spend an evening. When the paper was fully torn away, Crowley revealed a box that appeared to house a peculiar pair of sunglasses. He raised a brow and looked up to see Aziraphale with the same excited smile he wore when the lights dropped and the curtain raised in the theater.
“Sunglasses?” Crowley lifted the glasses from the case, eyeing them suspiciously. They were large — more akin to what he wore in the 1990s and early 2000s than his current fashion. There was an odd tinge to the lenses too — one he couldn’t put a word to. “Not really my style, but thanks.”
“Put them on!” Aziraphale was nearly quaking in expectation.
Crowley sighed, slipping the sunglasses on and pushing them up the bridge of his nose with one long, slender finger.
“How do I look?” Crowley gave a crooked grin as Aziraphale chuckled. He was just about to ask if he could take them off to look at Aziraphale properly when a glimmer above the angel’s head caught his eye. As his gaze rose to take in the sight, his lips slowly parted. Above Aziraphale’s head the inky sky was set ablaze with an artist’s palette of colors — pink, purple, and red danced with blue and green in an interstellar ball of his own design. He was vaguely aware of Aziraphale shifting to sit beside him as the colors appeared to become more saturated by the second. “How… how…?”
“Rather clever little invention humans made to help other humans with color blindness,” Aziraphale said softly, wrapping an arm around Crowley’s slender waist. “I wasn’t entirely certain it would work on you, but I am pleased to see it has.”
“Oh, angel…” Crowley’s words were lost to gentle sighs and soft gasps as the colors of the aurora settled. He hadn’t seen the sky dance since before time itself was invented and he had downplayed just how much losing the colors of the universe had affected him. They gazed in silence: Crowley overwhelmed by the beauty of his design and Aziraphale basking in the radiant being who set the universe in motion. It was Aziraphale who finally broke the silence.
“So what other aspects of snake anatomy did you want to show me?” Aziraphale’s voice was gentle and innocent — his eyes the only sight that could tear Crowley’s gaze away from the wonder above him. He could see the rainbow dancing in the night sky reflected in his angel’s eyes and sighed softly.
“Mmm…” Crowley murmured, his eyes turning back to the dancing aurora. “Know what? That can wait. We have all the time in the universe.”
“Quite so,” Aziraphale replied, cuddling into Crowley’s side.
