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By the time the 20th century came around the pair were much more comfortable with spending time together either before or after they had work on Earth. In this instance Crowley was supposed to be sowing temptations among the passengers of the latest cruise liner the RMS Titanic. Aziraphale had agreed to meet her for the launch of the boat since the two could have a nice dinner and blend in with the passengers easily enough. Not that it really mattered since both knew that neither of their sides would be there. Crowley was starting to get anxious while waiting for Aziraphale on deck. It wouldn’t make much of a difference if the angel joined her before or after the boat set sail but the demon knew Aziraphale would be sad to miss the celebration of the launch.
“Sorry to keep you waiting my dear. My meeting with the other Archangels felt like it would never end.”
Crowley turned at the sound of the voice to find Aziraphale standing beside him leaning against the railing. The angel looked about the same as ever though he had traded his usual three piece suit for an era appropriate dress and matching headband. He also had Abel with him since he refused to leave the snake alone in Heaven, lest something happen. The snake was smaller, wrapped around the angel’s arm (he’d look like a bracelet to any humans who happened to notice) in what Crowley knew was a comforting way. Aziraphale must have been upset about the meeting running so long and his pet was trying to cheer him up in his own way. The demon gave the angel a full look from head to toe taking in the new look. Aziraphale for his part took on a nervous stance.
“Is it bad? I just thought I’d try something new.” The angel started wringing his hands together.
“No, it looks really good actually. Just surprised me is all.”
“Oh, thank you, my dear.” Aziraphale lit up at the compliment. Able moved from his spot on the angel’s arm to wrap loosely around his neck. When the snake raised his head up Aziraphale pressed a kiss onto it. “I also like your new outfit.”
Crowley nodded her thanks while trying to keep a cool head while Aziraphale began stroking Able’s head. To try to distract herself she moved on to asking about the angel’s meeting. However, as always Aziraphale deflected saying he didn’t want to bore Crowley with meaningless things.
By the time the ship had set off the pair had switched to the more safe conversation topic of what the humans’ had been up to since the last time they spoke.
Aziraphale was quite worried about the recent famine in Ireland while Crowley expressed concern about a large war brewing. Eventually it was time for dinner and the pair moved their conversation to the dining room.
“Honestly it’s not even hard to tempt people nowadays.” The demon complained, taking another sip from her wine glass. “Don’t need any talent for it at all.”
“Tell me about it,” the angel mirrored his companion, his sip lasted much longer. “I mean it is getting so hard to keep people on the right path.”
“It’s not even like Hell can take credit for it though. It’s all humans hurting other humans or doing things to try to get ahead of each other.”
“I miss the 1400’s,” The angel complained. He had started trying to feed small scraps to Able, though he had hardly touched the food himself. “Everything made sense back then. Humans had a healthy respect for angels and a fear of demons.”
“Satan, I hated the 1400’s.” Crowley lamented, she had been accused of being a witch far too many times for her liking. “Sure the temptations were more satisfying but at what cost? Didn’t even get credit for most of it. Everyone just blamed the devil and not demons.”
“Well it’s not really about the credit is it?”
“That’s the only thing it's about, angel. Demons get promoted off of temptations and it’s how I maintain my position. It was a pain keeping track of everything back then. Whole century backed up our processing department for fifty years.”
“Oh I can see why you hated it so much my dear. I simply meant to use it as an example.”
Crowley could tell that Aziraphale had moved to the sad drunk phase of his drunkenness. While they both had similar high tolerances the pair went through different phases once they were drunk. For Aziraphale it went something like; being more open/honest, sadness, and everything is funny. For Crowley it was; complaining, more angry complaining, and then sadness. Usually the two liked to stay on the first level of drunkenness but if one or both had had a hard time since they had last seen each other they would get more drunk to compensate. Based off of the small things that Crowley had been noticing all evening she could tell her angel was in one of those extra drunk kind of moods.
“People today don’t come to God to solve their problems unless they’re hopeless.” There were tears pricking at the angel’s eyes. Able slithered over and coiled around Aziraphale’s wrist but he didn’t seem to notice. “How can we provide adequate miracles if there is nothing we can do? We can only do so much but people think we can fix everything. It makes me feel terrible when I read over the prayer requests and I can only grant a small portion. People used to be so good about asking for help before it became too big of a problem.”
Crowley quickly realized that the rant was becoming something bigger. While they always had a constant small miracle keeping humans from noticing them she still didn’t want to watch her angel have a public breakdown. Aziraphale would apologize no matter what but it would be worse if they were surrounded by others. The demon made fast work of briefly pausing time, sobering up, and moving herself and her angel out to the empty deck.
The angel had changed from compressible words to outright sobbing by this point. Able had become much larger and wrapped around Aziraphale’s chest. Crowley felt a little stuck on what to do since she didn’t want to risk overwhelming her angel. She settled on holding Aziraphale’s hand and muttering reassurances while looking out at the ocean, giving her angel privacy while still being there physically. When that didn’t seem to work as well as the demon had hoped she switched to just telling a simple story.
“You know Hastur has been especially incompetent lately. I mean I sent the man to check in on Beelzebub and he somehow got himself discorporated. He kept deflecting by trying to tell me about something Beelzebub was doing when it happened but I didn’t let that excuse fly.” Crowley was actually a little suspicious of the situation but decided to focus on the funny parts of the story. The demon had begun rubbing circles into Aziraphale’s hand which had started gripping hers a little tighter. “I mean how incompetent of a Duke do you have to be to get killed on a mission that should take an hour tops. Honestly he was probably acting suspicious and got shot by a cop or something. And then the nerve to try and direct my anger onto poor Beelzebub, it’s downright despicable, I mean that in a bad way.”
That earned a small, weak laugh from Aziraphale. When Crowley turned back to look at her angel he was using his free hand to rub at his eyes. Able had moved to his favorite spot of being loosely looped around the angel’s shoulders. Crowley gently released her grip on Aziraphale’s hand but the angel quickly grabbed it back. The two just stared at each other for a moment before the angel looked away drawing his hands to his chest.
“I am terribly sorry for causing such a fuss my dear.”
“You don’t have to apologize for stuff like this angel.” Crowley had reassured the angel like this many times before but it wasn’t going to change Aziraphale’s base reaction.
“No, I do owe you an apology. I promised you last time something like this happened that I would tell you before it got bad.” Aziraphale kept his eyes on the water.
Able gave Crowley the most concerned look a snake could manage conveying that his worry for the angel was mutual.
“S’ different angel.” Crowley moved to place a light hand on the angel’s shoulder and tried to move into his eyeline but Aziraphale looked away. “When that happened you got overwhelmed from all the noise at a party. This happened because you don’t tell me when work has been stressful. I told you it’s not good to keep all your problems bottled up.”
The angel’s gaze slowly came to meet the demon’s.
“I suppose you are right my dear. It’s just that we get to see one another so rarely. I don’t want to steal all of that time by discussing every rude thing the other Archangels say.”
“You wouldn’t be ‘stealing’ anything angel. I tell you all of the bullshit that I put up with all the time.”
“It is different for me.” Aziraphale had begun to pet Able absent mindedly. “I feel like when I complain about Heaven I am belittling how horrible Hell is.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It’s only that I have no right to talk about how mean I think the other Archangels are when you might get stabbed by another Duke or even just an ambitious underling.”
“That was one time angel.”
“Regardless, my lot have never once tried to harm me. So it feels silly to tell you about any reprimand I receive because you have to go through so much worse when things are good.”
“Just because my lot are worse doesn’t mean your lot doesn't hurt you too. Even if it is just words they make you upset, angel.”
“But I’m sure the other Duke’s say much worse things about you.”
“Yeah and in Hell it’s a compliment. Besides, no one in Hell tells you they have a problem, they just jump straight to the stabbing part. Not to mention you get quite upset when the humans fall in line with what my lot wants.”
“Of course I get upset. She wouldn’t want them to sin.”
“And that’s another thing on your plate. No one has heard from God in so long.”
“She must just be busy. The important thing is that we enact Her will in Her absence.”
“Yeah but that’s what I mean. All the weight of decision making falls on you as Supreme Archangel and on top of that the other angels are hurting more than helping with that.”
“Well there the-”
“I swear if you say the Metatron I will push you overboard.”
Aziraphale snapped his mouth shut and fixed Crowley with a cross look.
“You would do no such thing. Besides the Meta-”
Crowley smoothly lifted Able from Aziraphale’s shoulders and, true to her word, shoved the angel off of the boat. After a few seconds Aziraphale reappeared next to Crowley now soaking wet and very pissed.
“I cannot believe you pushed me!”
“I told you I would. You know I don’t trust that pompous ass Metatron.”
The pair fixed each other with wicked glares that would have sent chills down the spines of any lesser beings but the Duke and Supreme Archangel held it for a good while. Eventually Azirapahle broke the trance to look down at his soaked clothes and the puddle that had formed beneath him. The pitiful look that had moved onto the angel’s face made Crowley sigh and snap her fingers. In an instant both the clothes and deck were dry, though the demon had left Aziraphale’s hair wet just to be petty.
“Listen my dear,” Aziraphale approached Crowley. “I think it’s best we forget that subject for now. Clearly we cannot have a mature conversation.”
The angel held his hand out and Able slithered out of the demon’s grip and back to his angel. Crowley thought about cursing the little traitor but he couldn’t find it in him. Aziraphale turned to walk away.
“Angel, wait.” Aziraphale turned back, but not fully. “Listen I’m s- I want to apolog- Oh you know what I’m trying to say!”
“Do I, my dear?” The angel was looking at Able, still in his hand, but he didn’t start leaving, showing that he was willing to hear the demon out.
“Oh you bastard you know I can’t actually say it.”
“Then say it indirectly, my dear. I thought you were clever with words.”
“Fine, fine. I was a bit of an ass and I shouldn’t have been. I hope you don’t take it to heart.”
By demon standards the apology was painfully remorseful. To the angel it was directed at it was sufficient.
“You know I will always forgive you dear.”
“Thanks, angel. Now shall we get back to our meal.”
“I should really be getting back to work.”
“Come on Heaven’s not going to notice if you take a little extra time off. I’m on Earth for an extra long assignment and you want to leave me here bored?”
“It’s not about what I want, Crowley. I have a duty to perform.”
“Okay I get that. But you and I both know that the next few decades are going to be terrible. Who knows when we’ll have a chance to get together like then again. It just seems a shame to waste such an opportunity.”
Aziraphale thought about the demon’s statement for a good while. Finally he looked from the sky down to the snake coiled around his arm and lastly back at Crowley. The demon could see the resolve leave the angel's eyes, being replaced by the sweet gleam they got when he saw the demon.
“I suppose you are right.”
With that the pair walked back to the dining room and set about enjoying their time together. There was an unspoken rule in place to not discuss work matters for the rest of the meet up. Crowley would have liked to talk about Aziraphale’s issue of suppressing all of his emotions but put it aside for risk of scaring him off again. That was how four days passed with the pair simply enjoying the luxuries of the boat. Crowley would toss out the odd temptation here and there, she had an appearance to keep up, but nothing major.
It was late in the evening on the fourth day and the pair were quite drunk and standing on the bow of the ship. They had agreed that this would be the last day for Aziraphale since Crowley could tolerate the last three days of the trip without him. To celebrate the end of an all together good meeting they had slipped away from the few remaining awake humans and had a private moment to drink.
“It’s quite silly, I mean,” Aziraphale ranted, “how can they not figure out the ten commandments? If God was so good as to bless us with a list of rules I would follow them devoutly. Especially if they were as easy as that.”
“Humans are weird. They like to make their own rules to follow.”
“But they break those too. Not to mention most of them are in the commandments.”
“They’re pretty good about the idol shit though. Haven’t seen a false idol in a while, eh?”
“That’s debatable. They just make others into idols or build big things to worship, like this ship.”
“I guess it makes sense. I mean they call this ship unsinkable.”
“I think I’ve heard that before. How do you make a ship unsinkable?”
“Build it outta tough stuff I ‘spose. Maybe they just mean the crew’s really good at not crashing.”
“Could be I guess but there are already lots of unsinkable things on Earth. Why do we need more?”
“Yeah. Why don’t they build a boat outta something that doesn’t sink? Like an iceberg? You ever seen an iceberg, angel?”
Aziraphale paused in his petting of Able to fix Crowley with a confused stare.
“What’s an iceberg?”
“Oh they’re great.” The demon perked up from her slouch and began to gesture with her hands to attempt to explain. “Great big hunks of ice that just float in the water. Sometimes penguins live on them, if they’re big enough.”
“That sounds very quaint.” The angel smiled to himself, presumably imagining a penguin family. “They must be very big for something to live on them.”
“Not all of them. They come in different sizes.” A half formed idea popped into the demon’s inebriated head. “You want to see one? I can move one over so we can get a look.”
“Oh you don’t have to inconvenience yourself for my sake, my dear.”
“It’s not a big miracle. There’s a bunch over there. Just can’t see them ‘cause of the fog.”
“In that case, I would love to see one.”
The smile on her angel’s face pushed whatever lingering hesitation there was in the demon’s mind and with a quick snap there was an iceberg in front of the boat. Not right in front, she wasn’t trying to sink the thing. Though it was close enough to the side that they had a good look at it despite the fog.
“The really neat thing about them is how they’re bigger underneath the water.”
“That is fascinating dear.” Aziraphale was smiling as he marveled at the iceberg. “When did you become so knowledgeable about icebergs?”
Crowley was interrupted from answering by the loud sound of metal tearing. The pair looked at each other then over to the iceberg which was now bobbing slightly and moving slowly away from the side of the boat.
“I’m sure it will be fine. I mean it’s unsinkable, right?”
“Why did you move it so close to the boat!”
“I didn’t mean to! It looked fine when I put it there!”
Aziraphale sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“I suppose you are right. The ship will be fine as long as the humans are true to their word.”
“I mean if it did sink though, would serve them right. Just like the Tower of Babel.”
“Crowley!”