An Ineffable History

Chapter Five: A not-quite demonic Arrangement

Angers, France, 1020 CE

Crowley was doing his job for once in his demonic life, and lurking in an alley. It wasn't what he preferred to be doing by any means, but it was necessary sometimes. His work was supposed to have been simple: a suggestion in the ear of a baker and a hint of greed for a seamstress. There was no reason for it to have been so bloody difficult. Sure, the baker had been easy enough, all Crowley had to do was lightly suggest that there was something very valuable coming to town and that it could improve his life immensely and he had been on board. The seamstress, however, was another matter entirely. No matter what he did, Crowley could never quite seem to get under her skin the way he had with others. That is, until Crowley finally caught it. A slip of the hand easily hidden behind a skirt, and a sudden flush of her cheeks as she scurried away with her prize. Excitement! Of course! The woman must have been bored out of her mind, sewing and patching things up day in and day out with little recognition or pay for her work. She would resort to anything to feel just a rush of excitement. It had taken him five days to figure it out, but now he knew what he was supposed to do. He whispered in her ear, just a slight idea, but enough that she would want to do it. Another whisper and she had known who to look for.

Crowley slunk backwards into the alley, ready to disappear back to the tiny inn where he had been staying for the past few days, when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Blonde hair was nothing abnormal in France, but Crowley recognized this particularly otherworldly shade of blonde. Aziraphale. What the hell was he doing here? Despite his better instincts, Crowley began to follow the angel through the streets. He made sure to keep his distance, although he knew he most likely could have gone up to him, now that they were "friends." But when they had landed after escaping Pompeii, Aziraphale seemed to have remembered that they were supposed to be on opposite sides. Crowley had fallen asleep out of pure exhaustion underneath an olive tree, and when he had woken up, Aziraphale was gone. He had explained to Crowley, far later, that he was afraid that heaven would see them together and assume that Aziraphale had saved him, therefore putting them both in danger. It was a perfectly reasonable explanation, but the memory of waking up alone underneath that tree was still painful. Since then he had seen the angel in passing over the last few centuries, but never for more than a few hours at a time, and they had never talked about what had happened in Pompeii.

And now here he was, following Aziraphale through the city like some human stalker. Aziraphale didn't seem to be doing any particularly angelic work. In fact, it seemed like he was simply doing the opposite of what Crowley did on a regular basis. Small things that lead up to bigger things that the humans thought up themselves. Aziraphale walked down the street and a baby stopped crying, a merchant sneaked bread underneath his cart and handed it to a street urchin as Aziraphale passed them. Aziraphale looked behind him for just a second and suddenly made a sharp right, ducking out of Crowley's sight. Crowley hesitated, before following Aziraphale behind a building.

Someone grabbed Crowley's shoulder and spun him backwards, catching him off guard. His glasses flew off his face as his head slammed into the brick wall behind him. Aziraphale's forearm pressed against Crowley's neck with a strength he hadn't known the angel had, effectively pinning him against the wall.

"Who the heaven are- oh," Aziraphale said softly, as if he was just now realizing who he was looking at. "It's you." He lessened the pressure on Crowley's neck, but didn't move away.

"Well hello to you too Aziraphale." Crowley smirked, seeing an opportunity and deciding to take it. "Geez angel, if you'd wanted to shove me up against a wall all you had to do was ask. There was no need to lure me behind a building, although I suppose this works." Aziraphale's face turned bright pink and he backed away. Crowley didn't help the situation by winking at him.