How to date an angel

The Day After

After they had their, as Aziraphale put it, scrumptious dinner, the angel longed for his bookshop. The cozy chaos was truly heavenly in his opinion, and nothing did calm him more than his randomly arranged collectors items and the slightly dusty smell which lingered throughout the whole house.

"So, where are you heading now, Angel?", Crowley asked.

Aziraphale slightly shook his head. "Well, back to my bookshop, of course!" He tried to give his words as much emphasis as possible, for he wasn't really in the mood to get drunk with the demon tonight.

"Mr. A.Z. Fell", Crowley reminded him without the slightest bit of amusement, "as you might remember, your precious bookshop burned down."

"Oh!" Aziraphale shrugged.

"Yes, yes, a real tragedy... But I could offer you a lift, if that sounds tempting to you."Crowley pointed at his Bentley, but Aziraphale hesitated. The only destination Crowley could offer him a lift to would be the apartment which he owned, and Aziraphale, who had never been there before, wasn't sure if he would burn his shoes walking on ground possessed by a demon. In fact, the pair of shoes he wore today were cared for for a few decades, and he only wore them on special occasions.

"I am not sure, Crowley.", he said.

"Ahhh, come on, Angel. You've never been there, it won't be so bad. What's the worst that can happen?"

"My shoes might catch fire..."

"Your... what!? Why would they even do that?"

"I don't know", admitted Aziraphale, still not convinced that his shoes still would be intact by the end of the night. "But they are decades old..."

Crowley answered: "Ngh."

Then he opened the car's door and swung onto his seat. "Get in, Angel."

Aziraphale sighed. "Should my shoes turn to ashes, it's your turn to wonder me a new pair."

"Come on in, Angel."

Aziraphale still feared greatly for his shoes, and was torn apart between the wish to protect them and the desire to get closer to Crowley. After a short argument, which happened between these two thoughts and was completely silent, even though he was sure that Crowley guessed what he was thinking, he decided that the company of the demon was worth losing his shoes. Carefully he stepped into the brightly lit flat, while trying to ignore Crowley, who rolled his eyes in an attempt to hide a smile. His foot touched the unholy ground and...

...Nothing happened. Nothing at all. Aziraphel, who held his breath fearfully, was reliefed.

"See, Angel? That wasn't so bad, was it?"

"No. No, it really wasn't. But you see why I was worried about my shoes, don't you?"

Crowley only gnarled instead of giving a real answer, and that made Aziraphale worry that he actually offended Crowley.

"But of course", he added, "how foolish of me to assume that I would be damaged. Or my shoes."He looked around. "What a nice apartment you have!"

In fact, the way the flat was furnished and decorated reminded Aziraphale a little bit of Heaven, so clean and minimalistic. Now assured that neither his shoes nor he himself would burn up, he wandered around the flat, while Crowley leaned against the door frame and watched him. Everything was so clean, the bed was made, the sound system was arranged flawlessly. Only Crowleys plants seemed to be in complete and utter panic upon his arrival, so Aziraphale desided to talk to them later. He turned to the demon in awe as he saw that he owned a sketch of the Mona Lisa. The demon just shrugged and said nothing. Aziraphale however was truly impressed.

Then his amazement got disrupted: "Now, Angel, can I tempt you to a late night snack?"

"You own food?"

The angel sure was surprised, because whenever he went to dinner with Crowley, he never ate but just stared at him while he enjoyed his meal. Aziraphale did not mind that. In fact, he quite enjoyed it, because he got to tell himself that Crowley glanced at him full of love and warmth, and not just because pure boredom (which, Aziraphale was sure of that, was the true reason).

"Well, Angel, you might be surprised, but yes, I do own food. I think you will like my fridge, it is rather full, that being the case because I don't eat as regularly as you do."

Crowley opened a door, Aziraphale assumed it lead to the kitchen, the turned back to him. "After you, my fiend."

The angel tried his best to look as angry as possible regarding this gibe as he walked past Crowley and into the kitchen. Without another word, he opened the fridge, and was even more surprised then before, because not only was it filled to the brim, it was also filled with only the finest food, everything a gourmet could wish for.

"Crowley... How... ?!??!?" Not sure how he just said ?!??!? out loud, he looked at Crowley quite yearningly.

 Crowley, again leaning against the door frame, said nothing. Aziraphale could not see his eyes, because he forgot to take his sunglasses off, but what he could see was that the demon had raised his eyebrows and looked proud. He looked at Crowley with a smile as bright as the sun and as loving as nothing else.

"Now I just have to choose my temptation...", he chuckled.

"And that is just the first temptation of the night."

Crowley whispered that almost too silent to hear, but Aziraphale did so anyway. Still, he wondered if he really just heard that. Nervously he crossed his hands in front of his body. Crowley wasn't flirting with him, nor did he just offer what he did, but the angel hoped he did. But it was Crowley who just said that, and Crowley never had any feelings or whatsoever for him, so Aziraphale was sure he just misunderstood the whisper.

Without turning around he said: "I am sorry, what?"

"Oh", Crowley responded hastily, "Nothing. I just mean, I've got really good music too. And the comfort of my couch will definitely be the greatest temptation of the night."

"Ah, I see."Aziraphale was not sure if he was relieved or slightly dissapointed, so he decided to stare into the fridge some more without really looking at the food.

"Now, pick a snack already, Angel, will you?"

Crowleys voice was a lot louder than before, but Aziraphale decided to not point that out.

"I've got some real Soul music to show you." He paused.

"And it's NOT Bebop!"