Author's note:

This chapter has only had minor changes to correspond with the new timeline. :)

Edit: The next one is going to b G.


Aziraphale had spent the past few days in his bookshop, only taking occasional breaks to go out for dinner. It was still the best way to distract himself. He was glad his superiors were still avoiding him, as it meant he didn't have to travel around the world, performing miracles. Instead, he spent his time reading everything he could find about sleep and dreams. His fascination had returned recently, when overhearing a couple at a bar, talking about their strangest dreams. The kind of research he conducted meant long lights huddled up in blankets in front of a cosy fire, and days hunched over his desk. Many a cup of hot chocolate grew cold in the process.

What he found fascinated Aziraphale. There was the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty, who spent a century asleep in her chamber, until a prince came to kiss her awake. He read about Psychoanalysis, and what part dreams played in it.
In fact, he vaguely remembered Dr. Freud talking about it in 1901. Since the conversation had taken place in a Viennese Café, however, Aziraphale remembered fairly little about it, except that the chocolate cake had been to die for.
There were also other methods of interpreting dreams- less scientific ones.

Even Agnes Nutter had apparently drawn some of her nice and accurate prophecies from dreams- and it was no singular occurrence! Several people had, even without his or Crowley's help, had dreams that would turn out to come true.

The more Aziraphale read about it all, the more desperate he grew to experience it for himself. For days he had been wrecking his brain to find a solution. How, in the name of all that was holy, could an angel get to sleep?

Suddenly, a smile lit up his features. What if THAT was the problem?

Almost exactly 1.2 Miles away, in Mayfair, Crowley was still talking to Paymon, formerly Paimon. He had taken him there to catch up on what had happened over the past couple thousand years.

"So, Paimon- sorry- Paymon-That's all the same, isn't it?" Crowley shrugged at his own statement. "Anyway- what have you been up to all these millennia?"
It was a legitimate question, as Paymon was the only demon ever who managed to disappear from Hell.

He chuckled. "Does it matter?"

"You managed to vanish into thin air for about five thousand years, so yes. It kind of matters." Crowley raised his eyebrows and looked at him over the rim of his shades. He was slouched in the chair behind his desk, with his feet on the table. Paymon was sat opposite him, in an equally relaxed positon.

"Well..." The other demon shot him a conspiratorial grin. "If you must know, I've been travelling the stars. Mostly Alpha Centauri."

Crowley's eyes widened. "No! I've been wanting to go there with-" he could stop himself before blurting out Aziraphale's name. "Doesn't matter. Tell me all about it!"

"I don't know, Crowley...What if they're listening...?" The demon materialised a pack of "Dromedary" brand cigarettes on the desk.

Languidly, he took one of them out of the package and placed it between his lips. It lit up the second it touched the demon's lips.

"What if I promise you they're not listening? I know they wouldn't dare. Not yet."

Paymon looked intrigued. "Now the question is- what did YOU do?"

"I may or may not have averted Armageddon."

The other demon gave a disbelieving laugh. "That was YOU?!"

"Well...not JUST me, obviously."

Paymon looked around the room. He'd always liked to put on a bit of a show.
"Now you mention it, everything looks a little more…habitable than I thought. Shame, really. I only came here to find a new place to stay. Gets boring in the stars after a while. Especially when you're all alone."

Crowley nodded slowly. He thought of Aziraphale, and what would have happened if he really had gone there all by himself. Despite having been deadly serious about running away with him, he now liked to tell himself it had all been a bluff, and nothing more.

"But if you spoiled their precious war…How are you still alive?" Paymon chipped in, breaking Crowley's chain of thoughts.

"You really have been up in the stars, haven't you? I thought everybody knew about this! The whole thing with the bathtub and the holy water?"

"Haven't got the faintest, I'm afraid."

Crowley looked at him, unsuccessfully trying to hide his disbelief.

"Alright. How about this- I'll tell you my story, and you tell me yours."

But before Paymon could reply, someone knocked on the door.