A Blip in Our Lives ~ Crowley x Aziraphale

Record Scratch

Aziraphale let out an annoyed groan, setting yet another book aside to dry, a stray tear having escaped his eye. Why was he crying? The book he was reading had a character that reminded him of Crowley.

Aziraphale sighed and stood from his desk. He hadn't gone outside in a long while, long enough that he even started to pale slightly. Maybe he'd do good with a quick stroll through the park.

No... That would have too many reminders of Crowley. Well, there were also the restaurants down the road, he could grab a bite really quick.

Also no... He'd gone to almost all of them with Crowley in the past. Nina's coffee shop was a definite no but maybe Maggie's record shop? He'd never gone there with the serpent he'd cared - and cares - for so dearly so it should be fine... Right?

Aziraphale sighed and shook his head, trying to pull himself together. He'd been hiding for too long, he needed to return to some kind of normalcy if he'd survive this. So he went upstairs and cleaned himself up a bit, making sure his suit was clean and neat before heading outside and walking down the street in the cool air.

It didn't take long to reach Maggie's shop, it was just around the block, but it got him outside for a small amount of time so that was nice at least. He tentatively walked into the shop and Maggie lit up at seeing him.

"Aziraphale! It's nice to see you getting out of your bookshop!" She spoke happily and quickly made her way over to him and wrapped him in a tight hug. Aziraphale let out a soft chuckle and nodded.

"Ah yes well I figured I needed to stop sulking around my bookshop and try to return to some kind of normalcy again. After all, crying isn't going to undo my decision." Aziraphale stepped out of the hug and Maggie nodded.

"But... Talking to him could...?" She offered and Aziraphale quickly shook his head, Michaels warnings from just the other day ringing in his ears.

"No, no, I... I can't... Like I told you before I... It'll endanger them... I can't do that to them. There's only so much I can protect them from and this... This isn't one of those things where I can.." He danced around the issue and Maggie sighed, putting her hands on her hips.

"What could be so dangerous that you two couldn't face it together? You two willingly fought Satan and helped prevent Armageddon. What could possibly be worse than that?" She asked, exasperated. Before Aziraphale could respond though, a familiar voice rang out from behind the pair.

"Yesss angel, what could possssibly be ssso dangerousss that would make you leave me?" Crowley hissed, entering the record shop. He was originally heading to Anathema's house to apologize for hitting her the day before but paused upon seeing Aziraphale talking to Maggie.

Aziraphale froze, his blood running cold. Michael wasn't forgiving in the slightest, she easily could argue this was him breaking his side of the deal, even if he never intended to be around Crowley.

Without thinking, Aziraphale moved to lead the record shop, casting his eyes down to avoid looking at Crowley, trying to better his chances at being able to save them if Michael decided to tell Gabriel that he'd broken his side of the deal.

"What? Don't have the heart to look at me angel?" They retorted, grabbing Aziraphale's arm, preventing him from leaving, "Think you're too good to look at demon ssscum? You're no better than the archangelsss."

Aziraphale felt like he'd been stabbed in the heart. He wanted to apologize a thousand times over, explain himself and beg for forgiveness. But that would mean certain death for Crowley so he bit his tongue.

"Let go." He tried to pull away from Crowley, his voice breaking slightly. Crowley froze. Aziraphale hadn't looked up at them and didn't even have the decency to actually talk to them. They threw his arm down and grimaced, "Think you're too good for me angel?"

"Other way around Crow.." Aziraphale muttered softly before leaving, leaving Crowley in shock.

"Wait, get back here angel!" They shouted, trying to grab him again but Aziraphale was already out of sight.

Crowley stared out the window, a whirlwind of emotions starting to boil up in them.

"ANGEL!" They shouted but Aziraphale didn't come back. Crowley was getting real tired of getting no answers or half answers at best. They turned to Maggie, their eyes completely yellow.

"What do you know?" They hissed, desperately wanting answers. They were tired of being left in the dark. Maggie sighed and shook her head.

"Not much in full honesty. Whenever I ask he dances around the question, just claiming it's for your safety. If I push any further than that he just breaks down."

Crowley scowled. This wasn't good. As much as they wanted to be angry at Aziraphale, they were more concerned than anything. It wasn't like Aziraphale to dance around an issue. Be oblivious to one, that was more than normal for Aziraphale, but to purposely ignore and avoid an issue, especially when it was causing concern or worry to those he cared about? That was concerning.

Crowley's depression from the past few months at this point suddenly dissipated. It wasn't their fault, nor was it Aziraphale's. Not entirely anyway. Their blood started to boil as they realized someone had been pulling strings in the background and they started to smoke.

Like genuinely smoke.

Maggie panicked and quickly pushed them out of her shop, not wanting to trigger a fire alarm or anything and Crowley hurried into their Bentley. They still had to apologize to Anathema and now they had to figure out who was pulling strings.