X Of Roles Reversed X

Meredith hummed to herself as she filled a little blue ceramic bowl with some cat food. She had been living on earth for six months and had developed a routine of sorts. In the morning she would water the lilies and ferns she had decorating the walls and in corner pots of her apartment. Then she would feed the cat, not her cat, but a cat that belonged to the old lady down the hall, Elaine. After that she would head down to the cafe where she and James would watch Aziraphale and Crowley.

She smiled as she heard a 'meow' from the balcony. "Coming Edgar!" she called out as she lifted the bowl. Her short heels clicked against the hardwood floor as she made her way to the balcony. Her eyes softened as she saw the fat grey tabby tapping his paws at the window.

She slid the glass door open and knelt down to greet her friend. "Hello Edgar." she rubbed his head and giggled as he preened at her and rubbed his head against her fingers. She placed the bowl down and watched as he went straight for the meal.

"Chubby cat." she murmured with a side grin. She pat him one more time before closing the door. She looked around her apartment and reflected. At her giant circular day bed that served as a her sofa and bed, that was littered with at least a dozen fluffy cushions, all in lovely shades of purples and greys. At her plants, she had bought them on a whim, thinking they smelt nice, and not she liked to look at them and lavish attention on them the way that any cat would on a plant. Her stone and wood kitchen, which was some cupboards, a bench and filled with just about every kitchen appliance one would ever want; was quite possibly her favourite part of her small apartment, she had been learning how to cook, especially since she enjoyed her food so much, she had thought, why not learn to cook it?

She glanced at the cat clock on her kitchen wall. She should probably leave soon to meet with James. She walked to the front door and pulled her black wool coat from the coat hanger and slipped it on, it would be chilly outside. She stepped from her apartment and closed the door behind her with a click.

"Meredith dear!" she heard an old woman's voice call out.

"Good morning Elaine." she greeted with a polite nod.

The older woman, Elaine, tugged on her bright floral dressing gown. "Have you seen my Eddie? he's run off again."

Meredith smiled. "He's having breakfast on my balcony."

The old woman breathed a sigh of relief and clutched at her chest with her long bony fingers. "Well at least he's safe- he was gone for two days this time, two days," she made a gesture with her hand. "I tell you that cat will be the death of me, completely vanishes for days on end, then comes back fatter than ever- just like my Niles-"

"I'm sorry Elaine," Meredith cut in before she could be pulled into one of Elaine's talks about her dead husband. "I'm meeting James, he should be outside waiting for me."

Elaine winked at her. "Quite a nice young man you have there, big feet too."

Meredith laughed before waving at the old woman while she walked away. "Have a good day Elaine!" she called out.

Meredith lived on the sixth floor of her apartment building, in apartment number three. A joke that she enjoyed, especially when James had come to her home for the first time and had blanched at her humour. She walked down the flights of stairs, partly because she needed the exercise- she had a diet to maintain, those doughnuts did not come without the need to exercise- and partly because she enjoyed the mild irritation it caused James from having to wait for her. When she finally walked out of the apartment building, she took great amusement in the way he was standing next to his car, arms crossed and a dour expression on his face.

"Morning!" she walked up to him.

He nodded in turn. "Shall we walk or drive?"

Meredith looked up a the sky, the sun still had yet to come out from behind the clouds. "Drive?" she tugged her jacket a little tighter around her.

He nodded and climbed into his car, she followed suit and flipped through the radio stations while he drove to their cafe, by the time she had settled on 'Take on Me' they had arrived at the cafe. She grumbled when he turned the car off and the climbed out of it. She supposed it was her own fault for living so close to the cafe. The pair walked in and climbed into their regular book, and while ignoring the grin from the waitress, they ordered their usual. A coffee with milk and a caramel shot for Meredith and a tall black for James.

"Have you done anymore drawings?" Meredith asked while waiting for her drink.

James reached into his white coat and pulled out a small notepad. He placed it on the table and slid it towards her. Meredith flipped it open and was met with the sight of a grey pencil sketch of the tower of London, then on the next page the Bentley, then the bookshop, Crowley and Aziraphale, then herself. The picture made her pause, it was a sketch from a week ago, when she had been cooking french toast for their dinner.

"This is… really good," she fingered the sketch of herself, he had even put the details of her arm tattoo's in. "You create wonderful art, wish I could make something like this." she slid the book back to him.

His cheeks reddened and he slid his glasses up. "Thank you."

"Your order guys." The waitress slid to their table and passed their drinks to them. "Enjoy." with a wink she turned and swaggered away.

Meredith clicked her fingers causing the waitress to roll her ankle and fall sideways with a shriek. She chucked and looked back at James who was watching her with a disapproving frown. She raised a brow at him and something in his seemed to snap, a chuckle slipped from his lips. Her shoulders shook as she felt her laughter bubble from her stomach and up to the back of her throat, their gleaming eyes locked and they both threw their heads back in joined laughter. The glare that they received seemed to fuel them on more their laughter was pure and each sound that one made, seemed to send the other into more.

"That wasn't very nice." James admonished as his laughter died down.

"Oh come on." Meredith waved her hand dismissively. "She had it coming. Just a tumble, hardly a fall, barely hurt her at all.

James tilted his head thoughtfully. "Hardly a fall..." he said quietly before taking a sip of his drink.

Meredith rolled her eyes. "She'll be fine." she drank her drink and glanced out of the window to the bookshop. "Can we see our friends?"

James' dark eyes turned to the shop. "The Bentley's there, so Crowley's there, he's been there all night, I'd wager." another sip of his drink.

"I don't understand why he doesn't just move in with him." Meredith eyed the shop. "He spends most of his time there anyway."

"Does it hurt?" James said suddenly.

Meredith frowned and turned back to him briefly before looking back at the shop. Crowley and Aziraphale were walking out together. "They're leaving- going out for a walk it looks like," she downed the rest of her coffee in one swig and looked back at the angel across from her. "Shall we?"

His expression was pensive. "We shall." he nodded.

X

"Our stalkers are back." Crowley said while he stood at a window. He turned back to Aziraphale who was reading a book on his sofa. "Every day, for six months now." he leaned against the window and watched the two laughing together in their booth.

"They seem to have become friendly with each other." Aziraphale commented from beside him, having put the book down to join Crowley in his observations.

"Well they spend so much time together, figures that something would happen to them, it's like that thing… what's called-" Crowley looked around from side to side while he tried to think of the name.

Aziraphale watched him fondly while he struggled to remember the name. "Stockholm!" he said suddenly. "Stockholm syndrome! That's it!"

"I think that that's only for captors and captives, Dear." Aziraphale commented. "But I think you may be on the right track."

"Yeah..." Crowley went back to watching their stalkers.

Aziraphale watched him with a sad smile. It was really getting to Crowley, their lack of privacy, and he completely understood. These two, the angel and demon had been watching them for six months without any sign of stopping. Crowley was, contrary to what others may think, a very private person, he liked and valued his privacy as well as his space, and having that taken from him, must have been driving him crazy. Even though the two weren't actively invading their space, Crowley knew that they were their, which was playing on his mind more that he would ever admit; but Aziraphale had known Crowley a long time, had loved him for a long time, and he knew just how Crowley was feeling at this moment.

"Have you been to the new flower nursery?" Aziraphale asked suddenly.

Even though he was wearing his glasses, Aziraphale felt Crowley's eyes shift to him. "Flower nursery?"

Aziraphale smiled. He knew that that would help make him feel better. "Yes, a new shop has opened in the next street over, they have all sorts of wonderful plants," He reached out and touched Crowley's shoulder. "would you like to go have a look, see if we can find some nice new friends for your plants?"

Crowley's answering smile caused a wild blooming of love in his chest.

"You're too soft on those plants." Crowley grumbled while trying to stop his smile as they linked arms and left the shop.

"Oh shush." Aziraphale smiled as the door closed behind them with a click. "They need a little kindness Dear."

"Give them an inch, they'll take a mile, Angel."

"Oh Crowley." Aziraphale chuckled. They had barely taken twenty steps down the street when he glanced back and noticed that their 'stalkers' were following after them. Aziraphale was half tempted to perform a little miracle to get them away.

"Aziraphale." Crowley said quietly drawing the Angel's attention. "We are going to slip into that crowd," he glanced over his glasses and Aziraphale moved his eyes, but not his head to see the crowd of what appeared to be loud Australian tourists. Crowley's head then moved closer and his breath touched the angel's neck. "Then I'll perform a little miracle of my own."

Aziraphale thought about it for barely a moment before he nodded in agreement. What happened next, happened so suddenly, that even with his angelic sense of time, even he had trouble keeping track of it all. Crowley and he crossed the street and fell into step with some lovely Australians who were cheering something about European beer. While at the same time their stalkers were drenched, quite literally with an almost flood of water, when a car sped past and hit a puddle (small river?) from a shop that was cleaning their windows. Aziraphale was then dragged into the pub with with Australians and found himself learning about, bears and dropping? While Crowley watched their confused, and wet stalkers.

"Yes!" Crowley grinned.

" 'Yes' Dear?"

"They're going."

Aziraphale looked out of the window and noticed that, yes, the angel and Demon were in fact, leaving. Well. That had certainly worked. He turned to the grinning demon beside him and returned the grin.

"Where to now?"

"First, the flower shop, then, St. James' park? Then the Ritz?"

"That sounds lovely dear."

X

As their luck would have it, when they reached St. James's park, their stalking counterparts were there. Sitting at a park bench, their clothes dry, and they were peacefully feeding the ducks together. While unlucky for them, luck seemed to do them one favour, their stalkers had yet to notice them.

"We could go Dear, we could go do something else." Aziraphale suggested, his hand coming to rest on the others back, his thumb rubbing reassuring lines on Crowley's back.

Crowley made a noise before dragging Aziraphale to a nearby tree where he sat on the grass and stared at the two who were not even ten feet away from them. Aziraphale sat on the grass beside him and sent him a confused look. What were they doing here? They could quite literally turn and see them, not to mention, they were magical beings, it wouldn't take too much effort to sense them. Crowley put a finger to his lips and gestured that they listened to them. Aziraphale tried to not think about the irony of it all.

"I can't believe that I lost them…" James leaned forward and glared at his hands clenched between his knees. "So stupid… so stupid!"

"Hey.." Meredith patted him on the shoulder awkwardly. "It's okay, just a small fuck up, you're an angel, you'll probably get a reprimand or something, right?" she didn't want to think about what her side would do if they found our about this.

Crowley raised a brow at her actions, Aziraphale smiled.

James shook his head before looking up at the cloudy sky. "You're probably right. Probably a lecture from Gabriel." he frowned and threw some bread to the ducks.

Meredith smile and patted his knee before throwing some of her own bread to the ducks. "Is Gabriel as much of an arse as I've heard he is?"

Aziraphale found himself smiling, his smile growing as Crowley laid beside him, his head coming to rest in his lap. He looked down at the demon who was watching the couple intently and ran a hand through his hair, he loved how Crowley leaned into the touch. He went back to watching the two.

"The Archangel Gabriel… he's… something..."

Meredith let out a laugh. "Just say he's an arse, 'something' is just a nice way of saying something rude."

James chuckled. "Alright, he's an arse." at Meredith's shocked expression he laughed. "You told me to say it!" he said between his laughs.

"Well yeah," she replied baffled. "but, if I said that 'bout my boss, he'd eat my tongue, and that's just the beginning."

Jame's watched her with a frown while she fed the ducks. He appeared to be arguing with himself about something, it was an expression that Aziraphale knew well. "Can I ask you something, demon?"

Meredith raised a brow and turned to him with a tilted head. "Yes?"

"Does it hurt, falling?"

Aziraphale felt Crowley stiffen.

Meredith chuckled and looked back at the ducks and tossed some more bread to the ducks and smiled as the swans came to join. "I wouldn't know, I never fell."

Aziraphale tilted his head with a frown, a frown that increased as Crowley shot up, his body tense.

James, had also gone tense, his whole body seemed poised, for fight or flight was yet to be determined. "Y-You… y-you mean..."

Meredith nodded, her face showing no expression. "I was born a demon, I'm a child of Lilith."

James shot up from the chair, his eyes wide and his whole body trembling. He pointed to her with one hand while the other clenched so tight his knuckles went white. "Y-you…" he stepped back. "Away from me Demon!"

"James." she said, her voice was sad and it cut Aziraphale. "Please, talk to me James.."

"Don't!" he shouted, drawing the attention of some of the park's other visitors. "Begone from me Demon!" he fled, past Aziraphale and Crowley and out of the park, a demon watching his retreating back sadly.

Contrary to popular belief, there is something that Angel's hate more than Demon's who fell, and that is those who were born into their status.

X

"Hey Edgar..." Meredith lifted her head from the cushions to see the cat nudging against her. She smiled weakly and stroked his head. It had been three weeks since their fight and every time she had tried to talk to him, he had ignore her, at one point he had even threatened her with holy water. She was not sure why she even felt this way, she missed him, a fact that repulsed her but she couldn't stop herself.

The cat mewed again and nudged her. "You're hungry aren't you?" she scratched his head and pulled herself up to stand. She walked into the kitchen and prepared his food. "Here you go." she took the food outside and closed the door behind her once he was outside and eating. It was then that there was a knock on her door.

'James?' she was instantly rushing to the door and flung it only, only to feel her heart stop. "D-Duke Hastur."

"Expecting someone else Meredith?" He said with a cold smile.

"No Sir." she replied carefully. "Come in." she gestured for the Duke of Hell to come in, which he did, and he took his time surveying her flat.

"What have you found out about Crowley?" he asked coldly as she closed the door.

"He d-doesn't seem to get his powers from anything human..." she replied evenly, she had to make sure she didn't let anything show. Satan only knows what he thought about her flat. "I believe it has something to do with the angel, perhaps some sort of Angelic magic?"

Hastur paused and sniffed the air of her flat, her heart skipped a beat. "It smells… Holy in here." his black eyes pierced her.

James flashed in her mind. The times they had spent together in her flat, he had napped on her day bed for Satan's sake. "I..." she had to think quick. "I.. I had the, the window open, something flowed in through there, that's why I shut it, couldn't stand the smell."

Suddenly he grabbed her arm and she let out a pained cry. "You are taking too long." his voice was venom. Her body trembled as she felt a piercing pain take where he was holding, he then let got of her arm and grasped her chin causing her to scream, the raw kind of scream, the scream of real pain. "Don't waste our time, get results." he pushed her to the floor and just like that was gone.

She clutched at her arm and looked down, the skin had been burned, the kind of burn that begins to melt the skin and covers the area in welts, it was most of her left forearm. With a groan she pulled herself up and walked to the mirror, the same damage had been done to her chin and jawline. She felt wet tears roll down her cheeks. She touched the area and tried to heal it with magic, nothing happened. Her tears fell down her cheeks and she collapsed to the floor. It hurt. It hurt.

X

She sat at her old booth in the cafe and ordered her usual. She looked down at her arm, it had been a day and it still did not look any better, magic did nothing. Whatever Hastur had done, he had wanted it to last. She had tried to cover it up, but the pain worsened when she did that so she had left it uncovered, which was drawing more attention to herself than she would have wanted but what could she do?

"You and he still fighting?" she looked up to see the waitress gesture to James who had the audacity to still come to the cafe and sit in that spot.

"It doesn't matter anymore." Meredith answered quietly.

"If you won't treat your heart, treat that wounds cause they need a doctor." was all the waitress said before leaving.

Meredith lifted the drink to her lips before frowning. Something was wrong with her drink, something was missing. She looked up at James and blanched when her mind suggested that it was him that was missing. Why would she miss him? Why would she want anything to do with him after what he had said to her? Why would she- she blinked when she found herself standing at his booth looking at him while he scowled back.

"What." he hissed.

"Look, I'm sorry about how I was born." she inwardly shook her head, why was she apologising for that?! She shouldn't have to apologise for her own birth. When he said nothing she clenched her fists before whimpering at the pain in her arm.

"W-Wha?" before she could hear what he had to say, she had stormed off.

X

She found herself sitting on a park bench at St. James' Park feeding the ducks. She felt the chair dip on either side of her, but she did not look to them, instead she continued to stare forward at the ducks.

"What happened to your arm?" a gentle voice asked.

She frowned, the voice was familiar, but she really did not want to come out of her little mental duck-filled world. "It got burned. My face too."

"You should have them seen too." the gentle voice suggested.

"Nothing can be done for them." she replied casually, no sense in lying, what good or bad would come from it.

"I heard water's good for burns, cools the skin or something." the person on her other side said.

She shook her head. "There is nothing that I can do for them, I'll probably have them the rest of my life." which, given how Hastur was, was probably not that much longer.

"We've seen you here before, with your friend," the gentle voice was clearly very interested in having a conversation with her. She wondered if she could tell them to fuck off, or if that was just too much effort at that moment. "Are you meeting him here?"

She let out a bitter laugh. "No, he doesn't want to see me again, he made that pretty clear."

"You two have a fight?" the other, rougher, voice asked.

"Something like that." she closed her eyes. "We were on thin ice anyway, but I said something and now he hates me more." why was she sharing this with them? Two humans that meant nothing to her? Though, was there any harm in it? "We were… similar, similar goal… and I think I was a little lonely, he was a constant, you know?"

"Sometimes friends have… little spats, like that, I think it'll get better." The gentle voice again.

She wanted to laugh, so she did. "Thanks, but I don't think it'll work like that for me."

"Well we'll leave you to it." the gruffer voice patted her on the back before she felt the weight being lifted from the chair, she heard the footsteps of the two leaving and opened her eyes to look at them, but when she turned her head she was met with the sight a figure in white sitting beside her.

"James?" she said with wide eyes.

He looked at her, his dark eyes sad. "What happened to you?" he asked quietly.

She winced as she felt him take her hand. "This is what happens when you take too long for Hell's liking."

He frowned and lifted her arm so that he could inspect it. He touched it with his fingertips and she felt the magic flow from them, she instantly prepared to cry out in pain and was shocked when there was none. She looked down at her arm and it was better, there was scaring from Hastur's burn, but it didn't hurt anymore, there was no pain! She looked at him with questioning eyes. He said nothing and instead reached up and touched her chin. His thumb gently stroked her jawline and, like before, the pain was gone.

"I… why James?" her body trembled.

"I'm sorry Meredith." he said quietly as he pulled back. He then held a brown bag out to her.

She took the paper bag and opened it, inside was some bread. She looked back at him and saw his weak smile, an apology. She grinned and pulled out a piece of bread which she proceeded to throw at his face.

"Hey!" he lunged forward to try and take the bag, she leaped back and threw another piece at him with a laugh.

X

"I'm glad they're friends again." Aziraphale said with a smile while they watched the two chase each other and shriek with laughter.

"Perhaps they can spend more time together, and less time stalking us now."

"Crowley, you like watching them, I know, and I know it because you're nice."

"Oh shut up Aziraphale."