Aziraphale and Crowley sacrificed themselves for a godless universe?? What are we talking about?? Don't worry that was just a bad dream !! :)
I mean, Aziraphale and Crowley did put a stop to the second coming, of course!! Well, it wasn't them who truly stopped it, really...You see, Jesus found the lady! and what i mean by "the lady" it's Adam, and by "Adam," I also mean humanity itself.
Both Jesus and Adam are celestial beings and together they *could* bring forth the destruction of the universe (key word: could). But there's one mayor flaw in God's Plan, if it even was God's Plan to begin with.
Jesus and Adam although divine, they are human first.
Jesus, being one the son of God, basically rejected her as his mother, the same way Adam rejected Satan all those years ago. His rejection to the plan basically proved once and for all that in Heaven there is in fact, an institutional problem.
The Son of Satan and the Son of God's newfound friendship was the first step toward bringing Heaven and Hell together. With Adam's rebellious streak and Jesus unwavering kindness, they managed to see possibilities where everyone else only saw sides to choose from.
Because the truth is, the world was never built on pure Good or pure Evil. It was built on people and both Heaven and Hell would have to learn how to live with that.
Plus, angels and demons were thoroughly bored of being stuck in office chairs doing paperwork.
After millennia of filing reports, attending meetings, and arguing over regulations, the prospect of actually living sounded far more appealing. As it turns out, nothing encourages celestial reconciliation quite like a shared desire to escape bureaucracy.
Aziraphale and Crowley were the stepping stones that made all of this possible. They showed Heaven and Hell that there was another way to exist. But humans, in their usual wonderfully messy fashion, took that idea and ran with it. After all, while angels and demons were busy learning how to live, humanity has always been.
Now, Aziraphale and Crowley had locked themselves inside the bookshop, utterly exhausted after, once again, preventing Armageddon.
The bookshop was warm, the kettle was on, and neither of them had the energy to move much farther than the nearest armchair.
"It's kind of demented, don't you think?" Crowley said, sprawled across the couch like a man whose body had forgotten the concept of proper posture.
Aziraphale looked up from the book he had been pretending to read for the last ten minutes, "You'll have to be more specific, dear. We've had a rather eventful week."
"The whole thing." Crowley waved a lazy hand toward the ceiling, as if that somehow encompassed Heaven, Hell, Earth, and every catastrophe in between, "We stop Armageddon. Again. Heaven and Hell decide they ought to get along. The Son of God and the Son of Satan become friends. And somehow we're the normal ones in this situation."
The angel let out a small giggle.
"Well, I don't know if demented is the right word for it. I mean, for once, it seems we've finally got what we wanted."
Crowley sits up abruptly at those words, "We?"
Aziraphale's smile faltered. He cleared his throat and carefully closed his book, setting it on the coffee table beside him.
"Yes, well…" He adjusted his bowtie despite not needing to, "Crowley, I believe we ought to talk about… well, about…"
Crowley winced involuntarily.
"Yeah?" he said, trying for casual and missing by several miles. "Get on with it, angel."
Aziraphale looked down at his hands, "Well, about us."
Crowley shakes his head, putting his hands on his face, "I already accepted your apology earlier, we don't need to talk about that anymore."
The angel furrowed his brows.
"No, angel. No." Crowley let out a small laugh, though there was very little humor in it. "I know you. You're too good."
Aziraphale opened his mouth to protest.
"Oh, don't look at me like that. A little bit of a bastard here and there, certainly, but I know you." Crowley springs out of his chair, "And I know that Heaven and Hell suddenly being practically directionless scares you. You're going to want to go upstairs and make sure the angels who are angry we stopped the end of the world don't decide to start another one."
"You're going to leave again, I take it?" Crowley continued before he could stop himself. "I mean, at least now we're on much better terms, yeah? I think I can sort of handle the idea of not being around you, even if all I ever wanted is to be with—"
Crowley never finished the sentence.
Aziraphale surged forward and pressed his lips to Crowley's. The angel kept him close, hands settling firmly around his waist as though he had no intention of letting Crowley retreat into another misunderstanding.
The demon responded almost instinctively. His hands found Aziraphale's shoulders, as if he needed something solid to convince himself this was actually happening.
When they finally parted, neither of them moved very far.
"Angel," Crowley rasped, "You don't have to—"
"No!" Aziraphale pronounced the no with a capital N, "I've spent far too long allowing you to convince yourself that I would choose Heaven over you."
The angel places his hands on Crowley's face, thumbs brushing softly along his cheeks.
Crowley did. Which wasn't too much of a challange for him, there was nowhere else he wanted to look.
Aziraphale held his gaze, making absolutely certain that Crowley heard every word.
"It's always going to be you. It's always going to be us."
Crowley felt his breath catch.
"I didn't stop two Armageddons, challenge Heaven, argue with the Metatron, and upend the celestial order just to leave you sitting in this bookshop wondering whether I intended to walk away." Aziraphale continued, "I've spent six thousand years finding my way back to you, Crowley. I'm not about to start walking in the opposite direction now."
Crowley looked at him, agape. "Are you really okay with leaving the ones still nursing a grudge unattended? We both know celestial beings aren't exactly famous for letting things go—"
"Well, they can suck it!" Aziraphale huffed.
The demon let out a bewildered laugh.
"They can suck it!" Aziraphale repeated, with all the righteous indignation of an angel who had finally run out of patience.
Crowley stared at him for a moment, before burst out laughing.
Aziraphale smiles at the sight of it before he quickly glanced toward the bookshop window, where London carried on as it always had. People hurried down the pavement. A cyclist narrowly avoided colliding with a pedestrian. a young girl was walking a dog that seemed determined to investigate every lamppost in the city.
Aziraphale's expression softened, "Either way, the ones who have stopped it from happening aren't really you and me anymore."
Crowley follows his gaze towards the window.
The angel nodded toward the street, "We're becoming a little faded into the background."
Outside, life continued in all its ordinary, miraculous chaos.
A teenager nearly walked into a lamppost because they were too busy laughing at something on their phone. A cab driver yelled at another cab driver. Someone dropped a shopping bag and immediately had three strangers helping them pick everything up.
"I believe they can stop them," Aziraphale said quietly.
The world carries on as always, with people being people.
Crowley looked back at Aziraphale.
The angel was still watching the street through the window, a small smile on his face. He looked hopeful, Crowley has always loved that about him.
"You're serious," Crowley said.
"You genuinely think they'll manage it."
Aziraphale finally turned toward him, "I do."
Crowley shook his head, a fond smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"You are brave, you know that, right? You always have been."
Aziraphale blinked, "Oh, I don't know about that."
"No, you are." Crowley stepped closer. "Everyone keeps mistaking you for soft."
The angel furrowed his brows, internally wondering there this was going.
Crowley continued, "People see the kindness and assume that's all there is. They don't see the angel who stood up to Heaven. The angel who lied to archangels. The angel who walked away from everything he'd ever known because it was the right thing to do."
"No. You spent centuries thinking I was the brave one because I was loud about it."
"We are talking about you for once, angel." His voice grew gentler, "It's easy to be mean, to yell, to push back. But too look at cruel situations in the eye and choose kindness anyway. Do you know how terrifying that is?"
Crowley chuckles softly, "You choose your own path the moment you gave the flaming sword to Adam and Eve. That bravery, that serene defiance, that immortal warmth of yours. Those are just some of the countless things that make me love you."
"Oh Crowley," Aziraphale whispers, surging Crowley forward into a hug.
The force of it nearly knocked the demon off balance. Not that he minded, of course.
Crowley let out an undignified noise as Aziraphale buried his face against his shoulder, "Careful, angel. You're supposed to be the graceful one."
Aziraphale laughed, though it sounded suspiciously emotional. The demon's heart clenched at the tone of his voice and wrapped his arms around him in return.
"We are still on for the astonishingly drunk breakfest at the Ritz, right?" Crowley asked, his voice slightly muffled by the angel currently refusing to let go of him.
Aziraphale sighed softly, sounding entirely too pleased with himself.
"I believe," Aziraphale continued, drawing himself up with all the gravity of someone making a formal celestial proclamation, "that we are going to the thing humans call a Date."
The demon barked out a laugh, "Angel, we've been having lunches, dinners, picnics, drives, museum visits, and bookshop evenings together for six thousand years."
"They looked suspiciously like dates."
Aziraphale considered this.
"Well, we'll have even more of them then!"
"Yes." The angel reached over and intertwined their fingers. "You and me."
Aziraphale, apparently deciding he hadn't finished, continued cheerfully, "We can go to museums!"
"We are in one right now." Crowley laughed softly, "so you have a list?"
Aziraphale nodded, "A rather extensive list."
Crowley smiled, "We can travel too, anywhere you want to go?"
Aziraphale sighed dreamily, "Oh yes! There's many places I would wish to go with you again! Paris. Venice. Kyoto. México. Everywhere we kept saying we'd visit properly one day."
The demon's expression softened, "Properly?"
"Just the two of us, without an apocalypse to deal with and without Heaven or Hell breathing down our necks."
"That would be a nice change."
"I can't believe you had a list. I'm surprised i've never found it."
"I'm very good at hiding things!" Aziraphale exclaimed, "plus, i've had six thousand years, my dear."
Crowley laughed, "Right."
"And besides," Aziraphale added, squeezing his hand, "I should like to spend eternity with you as well, if that's something you want too, of course..."
Crowley kissed him immediately. After six thousand years of waiting, he wasn't about to waste a second answering. It was the only response a sentence like that deserved.
When they separated, the angel was smiling so brightly that Crowley suspected he could illuminate the entire street outside.
"Oh, I particularly enjoy this new development!" Aziraphale giggled happily, "Kissing instead of arguing!"
Crowley snorted,"I can still argue if you'd like."
"I would prefer the kissing."
"Excellent choice, angel."
The words barely left his mouth before he leaned in again.
Aziraphale met him halfway, already laughing.
"You know," he said, "I feel we've wasted an extraordinary amount of time."
"Several centuries, at least."
"That's rather embarrassing when you say it out loud."
Crowley hummed, taking both of Aziraphales hands into his, "On the bright side, we've got plenty of time to make up for it."
And it's true. The future streched out before them, there wasn't any newfound battles between Heaven or Hell, no divine plan that was needed to be followed.
All there will be are breakfasts at the Ritz, walks through London, bookshops, museums, ridiculous arguments, quiet evenings, and all the little moments they'd once convinced themselves they didn't need.
Aziraphale squeezed his hand, Crowley squeezed back in response.
Then, because he simply could, the demon stole another quick kiss.
Aziraphale's delighted smile followed him immediately, "Oh, I truly do like this arrangement."
"Because if we're making up for six thousand years, angel, it's going to take a while."
Aziraphale's smile widened. "Well then," he gave Crowley's hand a gentle tug toward the door, "We'd better get started."
Outside, London continued to bustle and chatter and stumble its way through another ordinary evening.
Inside the bookshop, however, two ancient were hand in hand, quietly making plans for thousands of tomorrows.
And for once, neither of them was worried about the end of the world.
They were far too busy looking forward to the rest of it.