@crowily : "i fucked up." U W U . from here .
𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 , 𝐚𝐭 𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐧’𝐬 𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐞 , 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧’𝐭 𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐲𝐞𝐭 and biting into an apple could cast you out of paradise , aziraphale had had that same thought : i fucked up . a lost flaming sword , the look of surprise in fire – yellow eyes , you what? would – be – crowley had asked , and aziraphale sputtered , i gave it away . he’d worried , time and time again , but his act of kindness , his mistake , had gone unnoticed . an angel can’t do the wrong thing , then , just as a demon can’t do the right one . it’s simple . ( things were never simple . they’d stopped being simple when he’d raised one white wing to shelter the enemy from the rain , to hide them from the heavens ) .
this millennia – old instinct itches , hiding just under the epidermis , where he can’t scratch it until it’s gone . what did you do? what was so bad that stained your wings and tore your halo? humans share the instinct of their ancestors to know , to taste , and aziraphale shares the instinct of his six thousand year old self to wonder , silently , how — why someone ( no , not someone : crowley , with soft fingers that pluck prophecy books from the rubble and with a kind heart that makes previously – paint bullets miss every time ) deserves to be a demon .
there , right where his useless heart resides , another itch lays exposed for everyone to see , the need to push the line of crowley’s jaw to the dip of his shoulder and say it doesn’t matter , it’s going to be okay , i promise . ( he scratches when soft fingers brush his in a destroyed church and he scratches when the people outside turn out to be alive , improper weapons turned obsolete . he presses nails against skin when crowley calls and says aziraphale , it’s me like one would do to a mosquito bite after trying to find it for a few hundred years ) . he doesn’t scratch , here . no , aziraphale hums thoughtfully and pats their forearm , plenty of fabric to cover the skin . he can’t deal with this , the thought of angels and demons and the space in between , crammed with wonder . they are not hereditary enemies when they share a meal , when they sit at the back of aziraphale’s bookshop like two parallel lines , always in the same plane but never intersecting . never touching .
❛ what did you do? it can’t be that bad , i — oh , you know what i mean . ❜ and that’s the thing . the problem , where everything started : aziraphale had put his wing up like one might saunter into consecrated ground , saying one thing and meaning anther , but always knowing what it means . here , with the beginning and the almost – end of times as only a memory , aziraphale says , ❛ whatever it is , we’ll fix it — we stopped armageddon , i’m sure we’ll manage . ❜ like one might say something different , and hopes they know what it means .