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Tweak says, "Caps Off For Charity!"

Aziraphale (softangel) wrote in snapthread,
@ 2019-08-30 19:51:00

Entry tags:

anthony j crowley, aziraphale

WHO: Aziraphale, Crowley, and the flamingos
WHAT: Saving an endangered species
WHERE: Around town
WHEN: Today

This town was interesting to say the least, far too small for his tastes, even as a being who spent rather a lot of his time in his book shop and no where else back home, it was too small for Aziraphale. The doors were proving to be a valuable asset to the town but at the same time they were not the answer he had hoped they might be when he and Crowley had first investigated them.

They were necessary of course, he saw that as groups brought back goods, he had even begun gathering things when he'd gone through, rebuilding his book collection with new and interesting finds all the while hoping he'd come upon the answer that would send both him and Crowley back where they belonged. But that had not seemed to be the case just yet, so he was making the most of what they had here.

And what they had here were flamingos. He'd always liked them, charming birds really. They weren't ducks but considering their options well they were a decent fill in. Only apparently they were in danger of being eaten. He'd heeded the warning that there was some beast in town that might single them out and he'd made sure to make the birds able to avoid that particular fate. He hadn't thought he'd need to worry about the citizens, who would eat a flamingo. And then of course, he'd been wrong about that.

"I wonder if I might trouble you for a bit of your time." There was only one person in town that he'd have trusted for something like this. "Have you heard? They're eating the flamingos."

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_crowley_
2019-09-19 02:40 am UTC (link)

As much as the town was small and cramped and a bit boring for the likes of them, it did have some upsides. Like not needing to worry about being watched or bothered by their superiors. Being able to exist without concern or worry was nice and frankly rather new. Sure, some people seemed to up and disappear sometimes, but frankly the two of them had participated in the Original Sin, had witnessed the birth and death of Christ. A few people wandering off never to be found again wasn't all that interesting to Crowley.

And anyway, they were allowed to have moments like this: picnics in a sprawling, endless land that may or may not have been Africa and would eventually be home to a flock of flamingos.

There was very little not to like.

"We're not alone," Crowley said, twisting the cork out of their bottle of wine with little effort even while he paid the majority of his attention to Aziraphale. Maybe he was leaning in closer than he might normally. But what was personal space between the two of them anymore, really? "We have each other."

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softangel
2019-09-19 04:24 am UTC (link)

Aziraphale tutted, but he had a smile on his face as Crowley reminded him they weren't quite as alone as what his words might have suggested. "Yes, that's what I meant, dear." He said waving off what ever else his words had actually meant because of course he had Crowley, that went without saying as far as he was concerned.

"It's been rather a long time since we've been able to say that." Had they ever really? In the Garden might have been the nearest they had to something like that, the two of them together for the very first time watching the humans taking their first tentative steps out into the world. With no others around vying for their attentions or jobs to be done. It had all been taken care of by that point. So there had been just the two of them standing watch together.

It was different now though and as he planted a hand on the blanket to lean against he didn't think twice about how little space remained between them, or how fast or slowly they were moving, they simply were. And he found the entire experience rather welcome.

"You know," He said after a moment, "There is no one else I would rather be alone with." He said it slowly, perhaps a little haltingly, and maybe at this point it was moot, maybe it didn't need to be said, but it felt important to him that it be said, and not simply something they knew without saying. Crowley was his in all the ways that he was Crowley's.

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_crowley_
2019-09-22 04:12 pm UTC (link)

It had been a long time. The Garden had been close, but it hadn't mattered particularly because they'd just met, really. It'd been a good and fun conversation, sure, but neither of them at the time had longed for something more private.

No, that had come later.

Even with privacy -- because it had been rare, really, for anyone to pay any attention to Crowley unless he was openly asking for it -- there'd always been the threat of someone taking notice when they least expected it.

So this was. Yes. This was better. Best, maybe. They could just be together.

It needn't be said, but Crowley liked hearing it anyway, and he tilted his head to the side, leaned in ever closer like proximity might make it even more true (or maybe, because he simply liked being in Aziaraphale's space). "No one?" He repeated in question, even though he already knew that to be so. But he wasn't a complete jackass, even if he was a demon. "You know, I could say the exact same thing of you. No one else compares."

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softangel
2019-09-22 09:00 pm UTC (link)

It was new, to be able to speak frankly about these sorts of things, without feeling like every word out of his mouth might be overheard, without fear of falling. It might still be possible, Aziraphale was not fool enough to imagine that he was entirely free of their creator, and yet - something about this place. No that wasn't right, he'd felt it even before they'd ended up in this place both through the doors and back in the town. It was something about living through the supposed apocalypse.

Finding that a boy could stop both the armies of heaven and hell and save the world with just the power of his belief. Well his perspective might have shifted a bit after that. Leaving him faced down with the one being that he knew he couldn't live without.

And now here they were. "No one." He agreed, even if he knew Crowley knew it already. It was important sometimes, to say things out loud.

"This life," He said after a moment, "it has felt from the very beginning a little out of my control." For all that he was an angel, for all of his miracles, he felt caught up in the system, in some ineffable plan that he did not know how to remove himself from. "Too fast for my comfort in many cases, pulling me along to places I wasn't ready to go to." And yet he'd never had much of a choice about it, he simply did his best with what he'd been given. Which some might have seen as a great deal of freedom, but with the eye of heaven on his every move Aziraphale had felt stifled, but here he was now. In this place apart.

"Being here has changed everything." And changed nothing at the same time, it didn't change what he'd always felt, but it did allow him to admit it. To embrace it and sitting there now under the warm sun in this place with no one other than Crowley - well Aziraphale was entirely certain that he'd always felt like this.

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_crowley_
2019-09-22 10:37 pm UTC (link)

Too fast. Aziraphale was forever on about how he wanted to be on the slow course -- and Crowley had never quite understood it. You go too fast for me, he'd said once and Crowley hadn't known what to say then, either.

But maybe it was fine that they went at their own speeds, so long as they were doing it together. For all he went to fast, Aziraphale was still at his side.

Well. Things had slowed down, since then, hadn't they? Nothing moved fast in this sleepy little town. Or outside of it, apparently.

"It might have," he hedged, unsure if anything had changed, or if everything had. He knew what he knew, though. He knew what he wanted.

"Hey," he said, setting aside his wine and turning the whole of his attention to Aziraphale (as if it hadn't been there already). "Have you ever tried kissing?"

And that was probably the most awkward thing he'd ever asked, but there was no taking it back now.

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softangel
2019-09-22 11:48 pm UTC (link)

There was no might about it as far as Aziraphale was concerned, his life was chanced entirely being here - and not simply that they were here, but more than he was here with Crowley. That a life that had been spent at an arm's length for so long was now suddenly right here upon him. Whether it was Crowley's hand in his when they explored, or living together under the same roof. They were all things that he would never have been able to find it in himself to chance back at home.

What he hadn't expected though was Crowley's follow up question - perhaps follow up was not the right word, it felt related and yet also entirely out of the blue. A question from a conversation they were not having and yet having at the same time.

But at the idea of it his eyes went wide for a moment, kissing. It was not something he'd done, not really, not in the way he saw humans pressing themselves together, it was - well there was no one he'd ever wanted to kiss, truth be told. But that wasn't entirely true either. There'd been no one he thought he could get away with kissing, he remembered a moment, pressed nose to nose with Crowley and the thought of it had crept up into his mind even in the midst of the demon's warning.

And now here it was once more, that curl of thought, temptation. But why shouldn't they?

"No," He said finally. "I haven't - it's not - there isn't -" He started and stopped several times trying to find the right thing, just the way to say it. But as always Crowley made it impossible for him, he never felt like he knew what he wanted to say around him, or maybe it was that what he wanted to say he knew he shouldn't. But they were here now, in this down, through these doors, and there was nothing that he should or shouldn't say any longer, they simply were and so rather than try and find just the right words, he instead closed what little distance remained between them to press his mouth to Crowley's. Perhaps it was not a practiced thing, but it was one that had been imagined time and time again for longer than the angel would ever admit.

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_crowley_
2019-09-23 09:35 pm UTC (link)

That was the response that Crowley had wanted -- or at least hoped for -- well before he'd ever gathered the wits and nerve to (poorly) as the question.

There were a lot of things going on at once, of course. The fact that they could get away with it now, that they wanted to, no matter how inexperienced one or the other or both of them were. And if Crowley asked, and Aziraphale answered -- well.

It wasn't going to fast, if someone else was setting the pace, was it?

Kissing was -- interesting. Exciting, A little tingly, even. Crowley made a little noise that conveyed all of that and more (or none of it, perhaps) and tilted his head slightly so that their faces were slotted together a little better. Aziraphale tasted of wine, cheese, Goodness at it's purest level. But there was something else there too, something that made him purely him.

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softangel
2019-09-24 06:33 am UTC (link)

It was a rush, part of him felt immediately overwhelmed by it, the press of Crowley's mouth against his own. Perhaps he moved slowly, it had taken him centuries to begin to even allow himself to think that he might just like the demon who ought to have been his nemesis while on earth. But from the beginning Crowley had never been that.

And now here they were pressed lip to lip and figuring out this very first. He'd thought it once before but this place was bringing all manner of new firsts for him. It was an unexpected delight to find himself in a position to experience newness. And Crowley was entirely new like this. The same as he'd always been of course, and yet he was warm and so very close and Aziraphale wanted so much more of this, the heat of his mouth and this kind of closeness.

He drew back finally if only so that he could take Crowley in that much more. The softness of his face, and the shape of his lips.

"Did you mean that?" He wondered after a moment. "You'd have gone with me to Alpha Centauri?"

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_crowley_
2019-09-26 01:45 am UTC (link)

Crowley had been trying to tell Aziraphale for years that they weren't enemies. There might have been sides, but theirs was simply theirs. Not heaven or hell, because they both wanted --

Well. They wanted what they wanted, not what other people wanted them to. It'd been the reason that Crowley had been so keen on befriending the angel since -- well. Near as long as he could remember, really. Since the idiot had just handed off his flaming sword to the first humans just because he figured they'd probably need it more than him.

Ridiculous. Crowley had been a fan.

Crowley sucked at his own lower lip, like he was trying to keep what he'd just gotten, even if Aziraphale had pulled away. But then he shook his head, slow and almost sadly amused. "I asked you to come with, didn't I? I wouldn't have gone without you."

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softangel
2019-09-26 05:21 am UTC (link)

"You'd have really done it." It was unbelievable really, for so long Aziraphale had existed as though his every movement had been watched, though that wasn't quite right - maybe it was just that most of his movements were watched and that if he ever allowed himself to truly examine what he felt for Crowley, what he truly wanted with him - then the full weight of heaven would come down upon him.

And despite those fears he'd held, Crowley had extended him that offer, they could have run from it all, left the world they'd watched for so long and simply had one another. And wasn't that incredible.

"You always were the only worthwhile person I've ever known." It was remarkable, how much he'd known and yet never allowed himself to truly embrace and now here they were like this and the sight of Crowley like that, he wanted more of him, more of this new found freedom.

And so he took it once more, took Crowley's mouth and kissed him again, he never wanted to deal with the fear or the worry of being watched again, not now that they had this. He simply wouldn't allow it.

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_crowley_
2019-09-27 08:59 pm UTC (link)

Of course he'd have really done it. For as much as he liked Earth and all the weird things in it -- art and books and cars and action movies -- he didn't need those things. Just Aziraphale. It'd always been so.

Well, okay, not always. But since the beginning of things, maybe. It'd been the Angel and the Angel alone.

He might have said so -- the words were on Crowley's tongue, but they were replaced by kisses and Aziraphale's tongue, and frankly that was better than talking.

It was better than a lot of things. And for once, they had nothing else but all the time in the universe to do this, exactly as they liked.

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