They’ve both been women before. It was a while ago for Crowley, even longer for Aziraphale.
Aziraphale mostly does it out of necessity. They’ll change their gender presentation every other century or so, when they really have to, but mostly they just present to humans as masculine, because it’s so much easier. They prefer to remain sexless, thank you very much. It’s nicer and cleaner and more convenient that way. Azira’s heard the humans call that sort of thing ‘agender’ before, and they like it very much.
But Crowley? Crowley adores gender. They find it charming. Quirky. They always want to try on something new. They get twitchy when they’re stuck presenting one way too long. It just doesn’t feel right. So they’re always switching. Man, woman, nonbinary, bigender, pangender… Crowley’s always somewhere in-between all of them, really. They adore every last one.
Right now, Crowley’s decided to be a woman for a little while. She hasn’t been one in ages. And Azira, bless their angelic soul, decides to be a little more feminine, too. Because the last time Azira presented femininely was sometime around the Old Testament, and they figure it’s time to switch things up a little.
Crowley likes being a woman. She really does. She loves dresses and long red hair and making her voice just a little bit higher. She adores makeup (not to say she doesn’t wear it when she presents masculinely - but there’s something different about wearing it as a lady, isn’t there?) and she tries a new shade of lipstick every day.
When Azira presents femininely, not much changes. They still wear a suit most of the time, and most of the time it’s not very different from when they wear a man’s suit. But they’ll do things like don kitten heels and maybe move their voice up a bit higher (though still keeping it rather neutral) and maybe, just maybe, on the rarest of occasions they’ll wear a skirt. But they never go all out, not the way Crowley does, with the pronouns and the anatomy and all that. That’s just a bit much, in Aziraphale’s opinion, although they love that Crowley gets so enthusiastic about it.
Like, there was one day when Azira was just quietly reshelving books in the shop (moving titles around so that frequent customers wouldn’t be able to actually purchase them, normal business practices) and Crowley came in dressed in a marvelous gown and was just so incredibly excited, because “Ohmygod angel did you know the humans have a word for this gender? They call it ‘demigirl’ and I think it’s marvelous and I’m trying it out and I do absolutely adore it!” and Azira had Crowley sit down and they got her a cup of warm coco and listened to Crowley go on and on as they reshelved books.
“And did you know they’ve got support centers for people like that in London, now?” Crowley said. “That’s where I learned the new word. These support centers are great. Got programs for humans who are… oh, wuzzer word… transgender, yes that’s it! And if you’re anywhere under the trans umbrella you can go and get support, and help if you’re in trouble? It’s absolutely marvelous ‘Zira we ought to go sometime, y’know, miracle the place up, give them some more money, they’re a charity ‘Zira you could do it and put it down on your report…”
And this sort of thing happens quite often, actually, and Aziraphale is always so happy to listen to Crowley go on an on forever about the things she’s learning. One day Crowley comes back with a few stickers and some flags for Aziraphale, saying “I picked these up for your shop, figured you could put them in the window,” and Aziraphale asks what they mean.
And Crowley explains how the sticker with the blue, pink, and white striped pattern means ‘transgender’ and how the one with the rainbow means ‘gay’ and how Azira might want to stick them on the door of the shop to let people know they’re welcome, and Aziraphale says something like “That sounds like a lovely idea, dear girl,” (because Crowley is indeed presenting as a woman at the time) and so they put the stickers on the shop window, and they hang some of the flags Crowley got them inside, and Azira thinks they look rather nice.
“Thank you, dear,” they say to Crowley, giving her a little kiss on the cheek. And Crowley’s blushing behind her sunglasses and she says a quick “No problem” and Aziraphale has to hold back a giggle because it’s just so amusing how flustered Crowley gets sometimes.
Then Crowley has to go off on business, and Aziraphale keeps up the shop like usual. But some things change.
Aziraphale starts noticing that younger customers are beginning to frequent the shop. Even if they don’t buy anything, even if they just sit on one of the sofas or soft plush armchairs with a book and or a laptop or their homework, and they just kind of hang out. Azira’s not used to getting people in the shop at all, really. Not people with short dyed hair and small rainbow pins and chipped black nail polish and handmade bracelets with similar patterns on them as the ones on the flags in her shop. Normally, the smell of mildew and the bad lighting and the cramped nature of the shop scare teenagers off. Now, there’s a few who may as well live there.
It becomes so commonplace that there’s almost always a group of four or five that hang out in the shop every evening, and Azira starts to extend shop hours a little later so that the kids can stay. The angel learns their faces and offers them coco and recommends books, and the teens are surprised, because the bookshop owner’s never talked to them before. But they accept the coco because it’s coco and they keep up conversation with Aziraphale about school, and Aziraphale grows to really enjoy their company.
One day Crowley comes in when Azira’s talking to the kids, and this time Crowley’s presenting masculinely, and he comes in and gives Aziraphale a little hug and a little kiss and the kids are shocked to see how casual the two of them are together.
“This is my partner, Crowley,” says Aziraphale, introducing Crowley to the small group of teenagers.
The kids are too stunned to say anything, because they’re not used to seeing older people in queer relationships. It’s not something in their media, in their lives, it’s not even something they see in their future - most of them are living in homophobic households and can barely imagine themselves living another year.
“I think I’ll be closing up shop a little early tonight,” says Azira.
Another time Azira’s taking inventory and the group of teenagers is in their shop again, eating some snacks Aziraphale put out for them (because Aziraphale thinks everyone needs snacks) and Crowley comes in again but this time she’s a woman, wearing a short black dress and killer heels and she says “Hello angel,” and then greets the kids as well, and now this group of queer teens is absolutely losing their shit over how excited they are because holy shit Crowley’s fluid and they’ve never met a grown-up genderfluid person before, and it’s crazy. And they ask Crowley how to bind and how to come out and how to deal with casual homophobia and Crowley’s spent enough time in the community to have pretty useful advice to give them.
It’s wonderful, really, how happy Crowley can make people just by being herself.
Aziraphale’s inspired to start a bookclub. Not anything big. Just a little one, a bookclub for the LGBT kids who frequent their shop.
They meet almost every day.
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