Titanic (Aziraphale X Crowley)

Chapter Three: The First Day At Sea

The Captian came on deck next to First Officer William Murdoch. This Maiden voyage for the Titanic would be the Captan's last trip before retiring and he was prepared to make the most of it. The Captain ordered Murdoch to take her out to sea and see what she could do. Murdoch left the Captain to give orders to the people below deck. They received their orders and made the engines go faster.

Meanwhile, in the boiler room, hundreds of men were shoveling coal to keep everything going and help to make the ship go faster. Up at the bow, Crowley and Ligur went to look over the front of the ship. They watched as the waves crashed against the bow and felt the wind through their hair. As Crowley and Ligur looked over the bow, dolphins started to swim ahead of the ship, occasionally jumping out of the water.

Ligur looked out the horizon and told Crowley that he could already see the Statue of Liberty. Very small, of course, as they weren't anywhere near America. So happy about all that was happening, Crowley stood tall and yelled out that he was the King of the World. But let's go to the First Class dining room where Aziraphale, the Metatron, Gabriel, and everyone else they had met were talking with Mr. Ismay, someone from the papers, and Mr. Andrews, the ship's designer.

"She's the largest moving object ever made by the hand of man in all history," Mr. Ismay told everyone at the table, "And our master shipbuilder, Mr. Andrews here designed her from the keel plates up."

"Well, I may have knocked her together but the idea was Mr. Ismay's," Mr. Andrews said, "He envisioned a steamer so grand in scale and so luxurious in its appointments that its supremacy would never be challenged. And here she is willed into solid reality."

"Hear, hear," Gabriel said

Aziraphale took out a cigarette and lit it to have a smoke.

"You know I don't like that, Aziraphale," the Metatron said to Aziraphale

Aziraphale just turned to his superior and blew smoke in his face. Gabriel took the cigarette and put it out

"He knows," Gabriel said

Gabriel proceeded to order for both Aziraphale and himself, not even asking if Aziraphale even liked it. Aziraphale just stayed quiet and gave a fake smile. Molly noticed Aziraphale's discomfort and tried to lighten the mood

"Are you going to cut her meat for his, too, there, Gabriel?" Molly joked, "Hey, uh, who thought of the name 'Titanic'? Was it you, Bruce? "

"Well, yes, actually," Mr. Ismay said, "I wanted to convey sheer size and the size means stability Luxury, and above all, strength."

"Do you know of Dr. Freud, Mr. Ismay?" Aziraphale asked him, "His ideas about the male preoccupation with size might be of particular interest to you."

While Mr. Ismay felt a little embarrassed and Metatron and Gabriel disapproved of Aziraphale's comment, Molly and Mr. Andrews could only chuckle.

"What's gotten into you?" Metatron asked the Angel, appalled by his behavior.

Aziraphale excused himself and left to go on deck.

"I do apologize," Metatron said to Mr. Ismay

"He's a pistol, Gabriel. Hope you can handle him," Molly said

"Well, I may have to start minding what he reads from now on, won't I, Mrs. Brown?" Gabriel said, also appalled by Aziraphale's behavior.

But let's go back on deck to meet with Crowley, Ligur, and a Duke of Hell they met. Crowley was drawing a father and his daughter who were looking over the railing. The father was explaining to his daughter how the propellers worked. Crowley wasn't a trained artist but he was exploring his craft during his travels. He had started to draw people and he had gotten quite good at it. But he still liked to practice.

"The ship is nice, huh?" Ligur said making conversation with the Duke they had met

"Yeah, it's an Irish ship," The Duke told him

"Is English, no?"

"No, it was built in Ireland. Solid as a rock. Big Irish hands."

The Duke noticed that the dogs from First Class were being taken for a walk.

"That's typical. First-class dogs come down here to take a shit," he said annoyed

"Uh, it lets us know where we rank in the scheme of things," Crowley told him

"Like we could forget? I'm Hastur, Duke of Hell," The Duke finally introduced himself

"Crowley."

"Hello," They shook hands

"Ligur," Ligur introduced himself

"Hi," Hastur shook his hand and looked back at Crowley, "Do you make any money with your drawings?"

Crowley got distracted, not being able to answer. He had looked up at the deck above them to see Aziraphale walking on deck. Hastur noticed that Crowley wasn't looking at him and looked in the direction Crowley was looking.

"Oh, forget it, boyo," Hastur told Crowley, "You'd as like have angels fly out your arse as get next to the likes of him."

Crowley didn't even hear Hastur's comment. He was distracted by Aziraphale, just staring at him as he looked out to sea. Aziraphale felt eyes on him and looked down to see Crowley watching him. He looked away for a moment before looking back at him. Ligur waved his hand in front of Crowley to try and get his attention but he didn't look away. Gabriel suddenly walked up to Aziraphale, getting his attention. He voiced her disapproval of what he had said inside before Aziraphale walked off.

Gabriel called out to him, saying he hoped he was proud of what he said. But he ignored him and went back inside. Later that day, everyone was sat down having dinner while Aziraphale contemplated his life up until this point. He had seen his whole life as if he had already lived it: An endless parade of parties and cotillions, yachts and polo matches always the same narrow people, the same mindless chatter. Aziraphale felt like he was standing at a great precipice with no one to pull him back, no one who cared or even noticed.