Imagine after the Apocalypse-that-wasn’t. Maybe it’s that evening, after they get dinner at the Ritz. Maybe it’s a couple weeks later, when the dust has settled and Aziraphale and Crowley have found a new normal – one which is surprisingly similar to their old normal.
They’re in the bookshop, halfway through a bottle of expensive wine that neither Crowley nor Aziraphale is exactly certain how they had acquired. Crowley is restless as ever, wandering back and forth in the small back room of of the bookshop. They’ve found a comfortable lull in the conversation, and Crowley is occasionally pulling books from the shelves, skimming a page or two before shaking his head and shoving them back (not uncaringly) onto the shelves. One hand is occupied with a glass of red wine.
Out of nowhere, Aziraphale asks, voice quiet so as not to disturb the atmosphere, “What was he like?”
“Marlowe?” Crowley doesn’t bother to look up from the book in his hand, a tiny script with pages so thin it would give Aziraphale an aneurysm if any human were to lay hands on it. Even Crowley is on thin ice. “Bit of a tosser, really, but weren’t they all? Better than the Goethe, though, if you ask –”
“Not Christopher Marlowe,” says Aziraphale, bypassing an opportunity to discuss literature with Crowley that’s been waiting – possibly centuries for, who can keep track of time. “Your – friend.”
That gets Crowley’s attention. He looks up, snapping the book closed with one hand (Aziraphale bodily flinches at that), eyebrows raising over the dark void of his glasses. “Come again?”
“Your old friend,” Aziraphale repeats. His eyes flick to the glass of wine in his hand, his distorted reflection staring back up at him. “The one you lost the other day.”
Crowley stares. At least, Aziraphale assumes he does, behind the glasses. It’s not like Crowley blinks much, so technically he’s always staring.
“Will you tell me about him? Er – them?”
Crowley puts the book down on the shelf. Doesn’t bother to put it neatly back in its place. Normally, Aziraphale would admonish him for it, but the atmosphere is – not right. He certainly isn’t going to start a row with Crowley after bringing up his dead friend.
He watches as Crowley rounds back to the little sitting area, back to the couch. Crowley places the glass of wine on the table with a table, the click of glass against wood echoing through the bookshop, and then sinks down onto the couch. Sitting directly across from Aziraphale, he leans forward, elbows on his knees. With one thin hand, he pulls the glasses from his face, folding them up and slipping them to the side the way he only does at his drunkest. His most open.
“Angel,” he says, in the same soft tone that he had used on that park bench, when he had reminded Aziraphale about the bookshop. “Angel, I was talking about you.”