so now that his shop’s burned down, aziraphale’s going to have to get a new phone, right? how’s that conversation with crowley going to go?
like just imagine, after notmageddon, aziraphale and crowley lounging around on a park bench—or, at least, crowley lounging, aziraphale sitting primly with his ice cream cone—
and then aziraphale saying, brightening up in that stupidly adorable way he has, “you know, maybe I’ll get a proper phone. mine is, well, out of commission, now, and I’ve always wanted to buy one of those sleek little black ones like what you’ve got.”
“you barely even know how to use a microwave,” crowley points out. “what’re you going to do with a cell phone?”
aziraphale huffs at him. “it’s not my fault I like going to actual restaurants to eat food. and, anyway, I imagine I’d know more about phones than you, seeing as half the time you answer me with the exact same phrase.”
“I do?”
“‘This is Anthony Crowley’,” aziraphale mimics, terribly. “‘You know what to do. Do it with style’.”
“well, that’s my answerphone,” crowley objects. “that’s pre-recorded! can’t have the telemarketers after me, can I; I’m beginning to regret that particular—”
“but it can’t be your answerphone, crowley, you always pick up!” aziraphale exclaims.
crowley opens his mouth to explain, for the forty-fifth time, how answerphones work—and then he realizes with a sickening, horribly affectionate burst of clarity that the angel is actually right. he’s never not picked up on aziraphale. not once. has he picked up the phone and promptly hung up before? well, yeah, maybe. but it’s been decades that aziraphale’s had a phone to call him with, and crowley cannot remember a single time when he didn’t at least pick up on his angel.
this, at the same time, is occurring to aziraphale himself. “my dear,” he begins, all mushy tone and softening eyes, “do you mean to say you’ve never…”
“weeeeeeell,” says crowley hastily, “I mean, I just, you know, thought it would be best for the Arrangement if I picked up every once in a while.”
“every once in a while,” says aziraphale, beaming, and—
and, here’s the other thing, crowley does not deserve to be looked at like that, not when the curling thick smoke of aziraphale’s bookshop still threatens to choke him sometimes when he closes his eyes for too long. not when he could’ve been there for aziraphale, for his best friend. not when he feels like the reason aziraphale has to get a new phone in the first place.
he swallows the guilt, and he says in an entirely different tone, “aziraphale—”
“my dear crowley,” his angel returns, and crowley could have mapped out a whole new roadway from the crinkles at the corners of his eyes. “there is nothing to forgive.”
and crowley marvels, as he has for six thousand years, at aziraphale’s ability to turn him inside out with a few well-spoken words. 4004 BC, when he held a lingering resentment for the angels that cast him away: ‘I gave it away,’ aziraphale said. 1967, when crowley had thought that maybe, finally—and then there was ‘you go too fast for me, crowley’.
2019: crowley knows in his slithering bones that demons cannot be forgiven. and here, now, is his angel, looking into him with those beautiful eyes and saying ‘there is nothing to forgive.’
aziraphale gets to his feet—offers him the crook of his elbow—invitation and affection and declaration all in one;
and, as crowley swings himself off the bench and his arm into his angel’s, he’s more than a little grateful for the sunglasses that hide the tears pricking at the back of his eyes.