It began as it always began. It began with a mission. I had to fornicate greed in people by stealing their treasures. It was easy for me, as I had the ability to make them forget that they had it in the first place, but where would be the fun? Instead I spent a whole year learning how to pickpocket. I became good enough to take the wearer's jewellery as I passed by. It was always euphoric, when I managed that, but mostly the people needed their wealth so I sent the stolen thing right back, sparing a small miracle. But that was the start of a bad habit I couldn't shake off.
Sighting, I stepped outside the bookshop and took a deep breath, before I climbed into my Bentley. I noticed the stiffness to my jacket and miracled whatever I had stolen from the angel back to its place. I didn't want to steal from the angel, but it became a habit for me, as normal as breathing. I didn't even notice when I was doing it, just the sudden appearance in my Jacket. Perhaps it came down to not being able to have what I so desired. Sighting again I started the car and got on my way to my apartment.
I hung the keys on the wall, sneaked through the plant room until I reached my final destination. There I pulled a lever, revealing a hidden room inside my apartment. One of the things I never miracled back, but always found in my jacket, were feathers. I walked to the secret room and laid the feathers I found in my pockets carefully down, took off my jacket and stretched until my spine popped. Only after that did I pick the feathers up and took a careful step to the fluffy, shimmering structure in the middle of the room. Sinking to my knees a soft smile played on my lips. I weaved the few new feathers to all the others shaping the big nest, large enough to comfortably accommodate two human shaped beings with more than one pair of huge wings. There was a shadow between the white feathers where my own, used as the base of the nest, shone through. The nest was even used and it was blissful to sink into the soft dawns, to breathe the fine aroma of Aziraphale and myself, weaved together like our feathers in the nest. All the angel feathers were broken and damaged, but there were the angel's feathers. It was enough for me. It needed to be enough. The angel would never let me steal what I wanted to steal. What was ripped from me, never to get it back. Sighting, I curled up in the nest, embracing sleep to exhausted from the day.
The apokalypse came and went, life did go on. I swallowed heavy, as we got home. Home to Aziraphale, to the bookshop, that is. My barren, tidy apartment was not welcoming or comfortable enough. My fingers itched to brush through the wings of the angel, take lose feathers with them, but it would be a mistake. It would break the trust and that I wouldn't allow, couldn't allow myself. I felt sick to my core, as I thought about it. Shaking my head I stepped along and stressed out, bone tired, I couldn't control the sudden desire. I swallowed hard, looked at the angel before me and lowered my head. My lips brushed his briefly, then I turned around and fled, giving a short wave, before I disappeared behind a corner. I didn't even look back, too afraid of the look I could have earned with this theft. A kiss, I had stolen a kiss from my best friend.
The always present guilt mixed with the pure euphorie of every successful theft. This euphorie came about for two reasons. First I kissed the angel, even when it was very briefly. The thought alone left my outer flight feathers on all my wings quivering, even when they were in their one dimension. But then it was theft, a successful theft of the first kiss between us. A theft I couldn't give back, as I couldn't with the feathers in the soft nest that I made for myself. On my way home I stole more than normal, releasing stress and the minimal control I reigned over the habit. In the corporation of Aziraphale I couldn't let it run havoc, as it would be noticed if he had stolen goods in his jacket.
Aziraphale requested a drive to Tadfield. The Book Girl, the witch and her witchfinder had married not too long after all things happened. I just ran my hand over my face, sighting, before I agreed. The angel had been nervous, and stuttered. I gave a light smile to cheer him up as I opened the door for him. His relief was a blinding smile as he elegantly sat down in the passenger seat. My eyes catched on his cufflinks, new as I noticed with mild surprise. My hands tense on the steering wheel I took a deep breath and slowly threaded into the city traffic. I could sense the worried look of Aziraphale, burning on my skin, but I ignored it and heeded all traffic laws.
„Crowley, darling", the angel began. The Bentley jumped, the clutch released too fast. I paid it no mind, my thoughts running wild. The most wonderful creature in all creation, the thieve of my heart, called me ‚darling'.
„What is it, angel?", I asked with stressed calmness, even when my heart was fluttering like the wings of a hummingbird.
„We should talk about the kiss", he said carefully. Luckily we were alone on the country road, as I would have risked discorporation for both of us, the engine of my car dying mid drive. The panicked shout of the angel led me to take a deep breath and apologise with a low hiss. I started the engine again, drove to the hard shoulder. I won't drive, while we spoke about that.
„Sssssspeaking... about the kisssss... What'ssssss there to sssssay?", I asked, a little confused. More like stressed and panicking, but that's neither here nor there. 'A terrific demon, that's me!', a spiteful voice in my mind called.
„Crowley, we both know that there is much to talk about...", the angel began again, after he composed himself from the shock of my driving style.
„Aziraphale'', I interrupted. Something in my voice, the way I said his name, must have caught his senses, because he immediately stopped and looked at me, waiting. My courage left me, or it was never there to begin with, as my voice had trembled, only with the name.
„Darling." Before I could prevent it, a shiver went up and down along my spine. The blue eyes must have seen the shiver of my mortal corporation. They became soft as the sky on a pleasant summer day. „Let me finish, please. I did not want to complain about the kiss. In the last few weeks I have thought a lot and noticed that I was a right donkey. I would have very well deserved it, if you would not want to see me again. Please do not interrupt me now. And then you kissed me and I had these warm feelings in my stomach. Now I know that it was my hope, frolicing becouse not all was lost. I would still appreciat..."
My lips had found his. A content shiver, I didn't want to stifle it, ran through my body. The angel melted more with every second my lips were playing with his. A content sound escaped my throat, before I seperated.
„Aziraphale, you need to learn to get to the point. I love you, you hear me?", I spoke quietly, scared to awake from a nice dream.
„Oh, erh, right... I love you too, darling", the heavenly being answered. I blinkt, then I kissed him again.
We managed to get to the ceremony, even when we were slightly breathless and ruffled up. It didn't seem to bother him. Adam smirked knowingly to us, before he drew Anathema's attention to us. She got an even bigger knowing smirk, but she welcomed us nonetheless warmly. I saw Aziraphales hands wandering to the cufflinks, or more to the seam of his sleeves. His eyes widened, he turned to me. I frowned, but didn't have time, as the witch was with us.
„Darling, I believe, I have lost my cufflinks", whispered Aziraphale as we got to the buffet, way out of earshot. I sighed and looked long at him, then I snapped. I felt something vanish from my pocket and it popped in my palms.
„Here, I had them with me", I confessed quietly, handing the stolen items back. He looked consideringly at me, but didn't question it as long as we were at the wedding.
These incidents were piling up more and more. I have stolen more stuff from the angel than before the not happened apokalypse. More and more feathers found there way to me, joining the nest, without the angel even noticing. I happened to pick up a new habit related to my thieving. I stole small things for my angel, brought them to him and miracled something as a compensation to the original owners. Or I broke in and got the most ancient and expensive texts I could find. Sighting, I took the book, stolen not too long ago from a monastery, in my hand, before I entered the bookshop. He looked surprised, but smiled, as he saw me. His smile turned thin and cold, petrifying me, his eyes traveling to the book still in my hand.
„Darling'', he spoke carefully and softly. „I adore that you are making an effort, but you need to stop the stealing." I could only manage to save the treasure in my hand, before it would have crashed on the ground. It wouldn't have dared to get damaged, if it knew what was good for it.
„You knew?", I asked horsley. He nodded, taking a step to me, the book gone from my hand, laid down on a table on the side. „And you didn't say?"
„I did not want to make you feel bad for it. Most times you did not seem to even notice, when you are stealing.", he explained, carefully pulling me into a hug. A stolen moment of comfortable security only for us.
„Since when?" We both knew what we asked at the same time. For me the answer was easy, roughly three centuries after Eden. As Humans began to steal from one another to survive.
„I have known it since the wedding of Newt and Anathema. The cuff links. I had blessed them discreetly, so I would always know where they were. To prove my theory."
„That's why they were new,'' I muttered. Not because he bested me, but I haven't noticed. I got an agreeing hum from my love.
„The only thing I never found again were my feathers. What do you do with them?" A noise, half stifled, escaped my throat. A deep breath and a hard swallow, my hand going through my short hair. Taking another deep breath I looked at the angel.
„I can show you", I offered, holding one pristine white Feather in my hand. I could see the shine in his eyes, faszination about my dexteriouse fingers and a heavy desire. I felt the internal shiver, before I snapped and we were in my apartment, right in the middle of the secret room, still open from the morning. I heard the stifled gasp, as I kneeled down and positioned the feather in the nest.
„A nest. You made a nest", he spoke, awed, before he overwhelmed me with a stormy kiss. We landed in the soft nest, perfekt for the both of us. A quiet shriek escaped me, startled because the angel was so wild. I whimpered softly, his wings out in the open, mantling us, and my neck bared for his attention. I could feel my wings, itching to answer the display, all three pairs spilling out on the soft feathers beneath me. I never dreamt about stealing the heart of an angel, even when I gifted mine a long time ago.