It ties us together, but I've never been more afraid

Chapter 2: In front of the Ark

Crawley was climbing up a hill that felt more like a mountain than anything else, and he was not happy about it. As a demon there were plenty of things that made him happy, misery included on that list, but not his own misery.

His knee was hurting, but over the past thousand of years it had become a slightly normal thing. He managed to fuck up a few hundred years back, Hell didn't love that and he got punished. Now his knee was fucked up, and not even discorperating this body would change that. He was stuck with a shitty knee for all of eternity.

If Crawley wasn't a demon he probably would feel bad for his soulmate. His soulmate didn't get hurt all too often, the most memorable time being when Crawley first came to the surface. He didn't know who his soulmate was, but by the time Crawley arrived they had already managed to do something to their hand.

But the amount of pain his soulmate feel on a regular basis, just because Crawley got his knee fucked up. Granted, feeling your soulmate's pain wasn't as bad as experiencing the pain yourself, it felt distant and dull, but it still wasn't comfortable. His soulmate was probably pissed off at Crawley for all the times he's been hurt.

He couldn't imagine what his soulmate felt whenever Hell decided to punish Crawley for what he had done. They did horrible things, Crawley was sadly now used to it, but he soulmate shouldn't be used to it. It wasn't their fault. Maybe Crawley did feel a bit bad about it.

Crawley continued to walk up the hill, each step bringing him closer and closer to the idea of turning around and going back home. He could crawl into his bed and sleep for a few months. Just anything to avoid the pain in his knee.

As he got to the top he spotted a familiar head with curly white hair. He smirked to himself and walked forward.

"Hello, Aziraphale." Crawley called and Aziraphale turned around and spotted Crawley there. His face shifted, not like he was happy to see Crawley but not like he was displeased to see him. Crawley couldn't tell what his facial expression meant.

"Crawly." Aziraphale greeted shortly as he looked back up to the ark. Crawley glanced up at the boat for a brief moment before looking back at Aziraphale. He remembered the last time they had met, when Aziraphale had just given away his sword to the humans.

"So giving the mortals a flaming sword" Crawley started, a smile already playing on his lips. "How did that work out for you?"

"The Almighty has never actually mentioned it again. Probably a good thing." Aziraphale said in an anxious tone. Crawley looked back up to the ark. What was happening here? He originally came up here because he could hear people yelling, rather angrily he might add, and decided there might be some trouble to make.

"What's all this about? Build a big boat and fill it with a traveling zoo?" Crawley asked, gesturing up slightly to the ark. Aziraphale would probably know what was going on right?

"From what I hear, God's a bit tetchy. Wiping out the human race. Big storm." Aziraphale explained, still trying not to let his anxiousness show in his tone of voice. Crawley could see right through it, but he didn't say anything to Aziraphale about it. If an angel wanted to pretend like he was scared shitless, well that wasn't Crawley's problem anymore. Angel's emotions stopped being his problem a long time ago.

"All of them?" Crawely questioned. His knee gave a sharp pain and threatened to buckle beneath himself. He tried not to wince as he shifted his weight from one foot to another, hoping to bring some relief before he toppled over where he was standing. That wouldn't be fun to explain to Aziraphale.

"Just the locals. I don't believe the Almighty's upset with the Chinese. Or the Native Americans. Or the Australians." Aziraphale explained, hoping that it helped make it seem less terrible. Crawley stared forward as he tried not to think about the pain.

"Yet." Crawley scoffed. Aziraphale glanced back at him quickly but when Crawley looked at him he looked away. Crawley felt a twinge of something in his stomach, but he couldn't figure out what. It wasn't regret or sadness, but something awful all the same. He was sure it had to do with the fact that Aziraphale once stared at Crawley like he was marvelous, back when he created the nebulas. But now Aziraphale wouldn't even meet his eye.

"And God's not actually going to wipe out all the locals. I mean, Noah up there, his family, his sons, their wives - they're all going to be fine." Aziraphale gestured towards the ark with his hand.

"But they're drowning everybody else?" Crawley asked, trying not to let concern fill his voice. He looked around at the crowd around them, and he saw children running by near the animals. Kids? He knew the Almighty played a certain game, but with children? "Not the kids? You can't kill kids."

"Mm-hm." Aziraphale mumbled and Crawley was fully taken aback. Killing kids?

"That's more the kind of thing you'd expect my lot to do." Crawley admitted honestly, still surprised. The Almighty claimed that she loved every creation, sent angels down to help spread peace, yet she was wiping them all out in a storm.

"Yes, but when it's done, the Almighty's going to put up a new thing called a "rain bow" as a promise not to drown everyone again." Aziraphale explained but Crawley scowled. A promise not to drown everyone again? Why not just not drown everyone? Saves the Almighty and everyone else a lot of work. Plus children haven't really had a chance to be bad yet.

"How kind." Crawley scoffed again. Aziraphale glanced back at him once more but this time Crawley looked straight back at him. He hated how Aziraphale met his gaze and didn't flinch away. Angels are supposed to be afraid of him, not giving him concerned glances every time he holds an angry tone.

"You can't judge the Almighty, Crawly. God's plans are," Aziraphale started, but Crawley really didn't want to hear it if he knew what Aziraphale was gonna say. He had heard it many times before.

"Are you going to say "ineffable"?" Crawley interrupted. Aziraphale looked embarrassed a bit.

"Possibly." Aziraphale admitted. They stared forward at the ark some more, watching all the animals climb aboard. A unicorn started to break away from the group.

"Oi! Shem! That unicorn's going to make a run for it!" Crawley called, but no one up near the ark seemed to care all too much. They made no move to stop it, and it wasn't like Crawley was going to go running after it. Fully because he can't do good deeds of course, not at all because his knee felt like it was going to snap in two if he even stood here any longer. "Oh, it's too late. It's too late! Well, you've still got one of them!" He called.

Suddenly from above there was a loud crack of thunder, for a moment Crawley thought it was his knee snapping before he realized he was being silly. Either way this storm was happening right now, great. There goes Crawley's plans of sleeping in his bed for the next few months. He would have to travel to another country for a bit, just until the flood went away.

Rain started pouring down and Crawley did his best not to groan about it. Not only was the rain inconvenient for the whole flooding and killing people thing, but the rain always made his knee hurt worse. It had something to do with the pressure in the air or something, nothing that he really cared about honestly. It just made it harder to exist.

Aziraphale didn't stick around too long after it began raining. Crawley decided to stay atop the hill a bit longer, truly just avoiding the inevitable of having to walk back down it. He watched for a moment as Aziraphale went down it. He was limping a bit, and for a moment Crawley wondered what the angel had done to hurt himself.

Aziraphale wasn't the trouble making type, so what could he have done?

Crawley watched until all of the animals were aboard the ark. The rain was coming down so quickly, the ground was already beginning to struggle to absorb all the water. There was already a solid inch of water that sloshed around Crawley's feet. He just sighed after a minute and began to make his way down the hill.

His new plan was to go home, grab anything he might need, and then he was going over to America to find a nice cave to sleep in until the flood is over and then return.

Word count: 1500