you're a sky full of stars | closed

[lunchbreaks]

characters: Aziraphale and Crowley
location: At the park
date/time: 9/18 for lunch
content: A long overdue picnic, with a surprise meteor shower
warnings: Y'all it's gonna be cute. Hiss hiss fall in love.

Aziraphale had spent the last two days off and on making a spread for the picnic that he'd promised he'd take Crowley on before their little boat hijacking plot, so the fact that there were falling stars everywhere was just a nice little bonus. "Ah," he had said, as they headed out, straw basket full of goodies with a gingham blanket covering it tucked under one arm. "I wonder what that's all about."

Now, on the dark green lawn of the park, somewhere by the pagoda with the ice cream cart in plain view, Aziraphale throws the blanket open and places a rock on one corner and a bottle of wine on the other to weigh it down. He pulls out a few wrapped cheeses, some crackers, dried apricots, walnuts he'd cracked himself that morning, extremely terribly made pork pies, and eton mess that had, at one point, aspirations as a pavlova.

And, of course, some awful red table wine that would taste better once poured, as long as Aziraphale got to touch it first. "It is beautiful," he remarks, looking up at the sky. "Were you in the Americas for the Leonid storm in 1833? I was. It's a bit like that."

Comments

[lunchbreaks]

His lips melt into a smile. "Ah, only if you want. They would be nice, I'll put them in the kitchen window." And he had gone too fast, at the time, because Aziraphale had just handed him what he'd thought was a suicide pill, and he needed to go home and reflect over whether or not he was going to lose Crowley now or-- when, a hundred years? A thousand?

Their days had felt numbered, borrowed then, and Aziraphale couldn't deal with it, couldn't deal with his own feelings, and certainly could not deal with Crowley.

He no longer had to worry about such a thing, though, but it hardly seemed fitting to revisit any sort of conversation when they had so much to do, like bring all these people home.

[sauntered_downward]

Crowley watches Aziraphale's smile for a moment. Times like these, times where it's just them, they've always felt like they could be forever. It didn't matter if they were stolen moments in the middle of their jobs, or hidden away in the bookshop. They were theirs and no one could take that away from them.

Until one day, they did.

Crowley looks away from the angel, back down to his wine glass.

"You haven't told anyone about us here, have you?" he asks.

[lunchbreaks]

"Oh! Um," he starts, looking down. "Well, nobody about us, really. And certainly nobody about you." He is feeling a little guilty though, the same kind as when he'd given away his flaming sword.

But he'd only told people he trusted to be good and upstanding. And, so far, they had been... kind. Understanding.

[sauntered_downward]

Crowley's eyes narrow behind his sunglasses.

"Angel," he says, warningly. "You haven't told anyone anything, have you?"

[lunchbreaks]

It's not that Aziraphale is intimidated by Crowley. He never has been.

But he is. Well. Guilty.

"I told... I told a few people I was an angel. Crowley, I couldn't lie to them anymore. It was only three!"

[sauntered_downward]

"Three?" Crowley rolls his eyes. "Angel, you told three people? That's half the town!"

Oh, he knew he should've kept better track of the angel when they were apart.

[lunchbreaks]

"It is not! And it was very important. I don't like to lie anyway, you know that. And everyone here is so nice!"

He frets about nervously, ice cream forgotten, wine forgotten.

[sauntered_downward]

"You don't have to lie," Crowley says. "Just let them believe that you're a human. Ignore the questions about who you are. I don't even have human eyes and almost everyone in the town believes I'm human."

Everyone except one.

It would be important to note that Crowley is not lying, he is simply omitting that from this conversation.

[lunchbreaks]

Aziraphale, as usual, too caught up in himself, doesn't even think to question this omission. "Well, I tried! And then one of them thought I was a priest. And I couldn't very well lie to him about being a priest, especially since he was asking me to take confession. Me! Take confession, as if I have any right to forgive on behalf of The Almighty."

He looks pretty torn up about this, to be honest. But he wouldn't take it back.

[sauntered_downward]

"Just tell him you're not a priest and move on with your life," Crowley says. "I have plenty of people think I'm a rock star, but I don't pretend I'm Keith Moon, do I? I just tell them I'm not and let them figure it out on their own."

He takes a long drink of wine. "They'll probably tell everyone else. Everyone in this town will know about you."

[lunchbreaks]

"They won't!" he argues, frowning. "First of all, they gave me their word! And secondly, you don't even know who they are. They're good people, Crowley. I wouldn't have told just anyone!"

He's not even going to ask who Keith Moon is or what a rock star is in the first place and why people think Crowley is one.

[sauntered_downward]

Crowley tilts his head to the side. "You can't trust them, angel. We're going to leave them all in a little over a week. We can't get attached to them."

He knows that isn't what Aziraphale wants to hear. He always wants to save everyone.

[lunchbreaks]

"I'm not getting attached. And if they go back and tell everyone, so what. I thought we didn't have sides anymore, Crowley. I'm no more Heavenly than you are Hellish, so what's the point? We're just like them, now."

[sauntered_downward]

"We're not like them, angel. And they'll know it, and they'll try to use us," he says. "Or hurt us. Humans don't think rationally about things they don't understand. Remember Agnus Nutter? All she did was tell the future, she didn't have great big wings and change little bits of reality with a snap of her fingers."

He takes in a breath. "And if they work out about you, they'll work it out about me. And demons have a far worse reputation than angels do."

[lunchbreaks]

He's about to get angry all over again but when Crowley says the last bit, he sucks in a breath and lets it all go.

"Crowley," he says, after a pause. "I wouldn't let that happen to you." He shakes his head. "I'd rather make them all forget us than turn against you."

[sauntered_downward]

Crowley turns to look at Aziraphale again. Oh, there it is. The stupid angel wanting to protect him as well.

"You won't have to do that," he says, gently. "We'll...we'll figure something out. Just don't go telling anyone else."

[lunchbreaks]

"Alright. I won't tell anyone else." He pours himself a glass, finally, and sips the wine.

"Have you told anyone?" he asks, now that he's back to thinking properly.

[sauntered_downward]

Crowley considers lying for a whole, long minute. After all, he had just gone off on Aziraphale for telling anyone.

He takes a long drink of wine.

"One person," he admits, slowly. "But only because she needed to be impressed."

[lunchbreaks]

Aziraphale's eyebrows have taken off like they're trying to go to outer space. "You. Told a human, because you wanted to impress her."

He clicks his tongue behind his teeth.

"She must be special," he comments, sounding almost but not quite vaguely annoyed.

[sauntered_downward]

Crowley considers this, oblivious to the annoyance in Aziraphale's voice. "Not especially," he says, casually. "But she is clever, and just a bit dangerous. It'd be good to have her on our side while we're here, at least."

Crowley rather liked Rosalind, actually. When she wasn't being especially difficult.

[lunchbreaks]

"Hmm, indeed," he responds, because he's sure that's why Crowley wanted to impress her. Make himself seem useful. Sure.

He tries not to think about it as he drinks his wine. But he also very pointedly avoids looking at Crowley at the moment.

[sauntered_downward]

"If anything happens and we can't leave on the ferry," Crowley adds, inadvertently digging himself in a deeper hole, "She's working on a pathway out. Take about three years, but it'll work, if she's right. Could give us another way out."

He takes a drink of his own wine and looks at Aziraphale curiously. Why is the angel avoiding looking at him?

[lunchbreaks]

"What use would that be, when Robin says we've got two?" he asks. "If something happens and we can't leave on the ferry, we might as well just let this one play out. How bad could the World Eaters be, anyway? Stay for two years, fight them, restore this world, then fix the portal."

He is about to give Crowley a look of distaste but aborts at the last moment, jerking away his gaze.

Yes, this is definitely on purpose.

[sauntered_downward]

"Do you really trust her?" Crowley asks. Where Aziraphale is pointedly not looking at Crowley, Crowley's gaze bores into the side of the angel's head. "She's just sitting up there, judging us, staring at us, waiting for us all to fail."

A pause.

"Sounds a bit like Other People we know."

[lunchbreaks]

"Oh, hah. I know you're not Her biggest fan, but I can't believe you're letting that color your judgment on somebody else. What has she done to earn your trust so easily, hm? What makes her more useful than any of the allies I've acquired, Crowley?"

He takes the bottle and pours himself the rest. He's too sober for this conversation.