this was inspired by a song by Voltaire... I'll reveal that later.

Crowley sat there, bound, trussed up like a prize pig. His arms bound behind him by holy ropes, with clothes wrecked. Not that he cared about them. His snake eyes full of the rage he felt deep in his heart. Around him were small pits of fire, hell fire that he spent around this top floor. He had lost his fight. Though he tried hard to eliminate as many angels as possible, he managed to only hurt them. He's to be executed now, not that it mattered. Without Aziraphale, NOTHING mattered to him. He just wished he'd had managed to out one of these smug bastards for what they did. For years, eons he suspected, they'd degraded Aziraphale and tried to bully him. And somehow, they succeeded. Try as he might, in the end he lost.

He hoped that whatever happened to Aziraphale after his extinction, the angel would be happy. The angel deserved happiness. And in spite of everything, even himself, his happiness was the most important. He just wished the past few months had gone differently than they did. Perhaps been more honest with them both. Its too late now, isn't it? How in anything and everything did it all go so wrong? He looked into the blue eyes of the person in front of him, the one person he would do anything for, as he stood before him, heavenly sword ready to strike him down and thought, not even that far back... but just close to six months ago...

...

Things couldn't have been better. They averted the end of the world and managed to get both of their respective head offices to get off their backs. It was nearly perfect. Crowley and Aziraphale had just finished their usual date night of sorts at their usual place, the Ritz. It was Aziraphale's favorite restaurant in all of London, and though the demon rarely ate, he enjoyed watching the angel enjoy himself. They made this a usual thing, though the wait staff never really remembered them.

"This certainly is quite nice, Crowley. Enjoying this peaceful time." Aziraphale said after wiping his mouth with the cloth napkin, having just enjoyed some nice tiramisu.

"Indeed it is, angel. It is getting late though, isn't it?" He looked at his very expensive watch, and noted it was getting close to the restaurant's closing.

"Oh dear, it is, isn't it?"

They both got up and headed out towards the Bentley, Crowley opening the door for the angel. In all honesty, in six thousand years he had never felt happier. He had finally stopped pretending that a demon shouldn't be in love, and had been planning something for some time for the angel. He almost broke down and dropped the surprise that evening, it had been three months now since the not-apocalypse. But tomorrow night was a special date. He wouldn't ruin this in the slightest.

"Do you want to come in for a drink, my dear?" Aziraphale stood by the entrance of his shop.

Crowley thought a moment, he knew he would crack if they got drunk. "Nah, thanks. I haven't yelled at my plants all day. And if I don't, they'll slack off."

The angel shook his head with a smile, knowing that there was a reasoning for what Crowley did, so he let him be. "See you tomorrow night?"

"You can count on it. Good night, angel." Crowley got in his car and drove off, hand patting his jacket pocket, making sure the item he had in it was still safe.

He worked hard to figure the maths for the date. Thanks to good old Julius Caesar changing how humanity recorded time, he had completely lost track. But thanks to looking at star charts and going to said stars in Alpha Centuri, he was most certain that the date was correct. It would be perfect making everything the same. The date to fall on the day they had first met outside of Eden. Crowley couldn't help but smile. He couldn't wait till the angel saw it. He knew he wouldn't even be able to sleep, not that he even needed it. As he walked around the flat, spritzing the plants with the water mister, eyeing them but not with as close precision as he normally would. He just felt so nervous he couldn't even bring himself to outright destroy the plant that had a bad leaf, instead just ripping the bad leaf off. Tomorrow evening couldn't come sooner.

The next night, Crowley had everything prepared. He had never felt so on edge, full of anticipation, since the apocalypse that never was. He parked in front of Aziraphale's bookshop, ready to take the angel somewhere special. A picnic under the stars. He walked up to the door only to find it was locked. Strange. In the entire time the shop has been open, the front door had never been locked. Shrugging, the demon waved the door open and went inside.

"Aziraphale?" He called out, looking around and seeing nothing out of the ordinary. But he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

"I do apologize, but the shop is most definitely closed. I could have sworn I locked that door." The angelic man muttered the last part under his breath.

"Are you ready to go, angel?" The demon shoved his hands in his pockets, finding it hard to keep a smile off his face at the sight of the other man.

"Go?" Aziraphale looked confused. "Go where? I'm sorry, do I know you?"

The words gave Crowley pause. What game was the angel getting at? "On our date? I thought we would change it up and go on a picnic. You'd said once that it would be a nice thing to do." (Sure it was 50 ought years since Aziraphale mentioned it, but picnics were something special.)

"I honestly don't know what you are talking about, sir. You must have the wrong store. If you will?" The angel gestured towards the door which blew open of its own accord.

Crowley frowned, looking at the other man. As far as he could tell, it WAS Aziraphale, he could feel the unmistakable heavenly aura radiating from him, bright as the sun. But maybe something was wrong. "Yeah. Right. Sorry."

He bowed out of the store, and barely flinched when the door slammed shut behind him. He heard the locks turn and turned to look at the door. Something was VERY wrong and he was going to have a hell, or maybe heavenly time depending which side of the coin you use, to figure out what.

He had no idea just how right he was.

Crowley gave the angel a week's time. Sure they had gone years, centuries even, during their disagreements in the past. But that was before they had decided that they no longer were part of opposite sides, but rather on a third side. He found it almost hard to stay away from the angel no matter what. Even during their row back in 1865, the demon still kept a watchful eye over the angel, especially with humanity's silly wars. No matter how angry the angel made him, he refused to allow him to get himself discorporated because of an argument.

So he kept a watchful eye on the shop, although that was also due to the fact that he was still terrified deep down that one of their enemies might try to burn it down again. He wouldn't say as much as he just sat by the shop, no. But whenever he was traveling around London, he would make it a point to drive by the shop.

After a while though, he figured there had been plenty of time to give the angel some time to himself in order to calm down. He walked up to the shop, this time during the time the shop was open. (Not that one could really nail down actual hours for the place!) He wasn't much of a book reader, but he could appreciate older things. He looked around the crowded shop, noting that there was a small handful of humans standing around, looking for the light in the shadowy shop.

"Yes, can I help you?" Crowley turned to the voice, seeing the most important person in the shop standing in the doorway to the back.

"Angel, look, I honestly have no idea what I've done, but you have to let me make it up to you." He walked over to the door with purpose.

"Oh, dear, its you isn't it? From the other night." Aziraphale fidgeted. "I told you before, I have no idea who you are. You must have me mistaken for someone else."

In frustration, Crowley snatched off his sunglasses. "I know who you are, Aziraphale. It's me Crowley, how could you not know who..."

The angel's eyes widen at the sight of Crowley's serpentine eyes, recognition clicking. "You should get out of here, foul demon!"

Aziraphale has called Crowley a foul demon in the past, its nothing new. But something was different this time. Before there never was any real bite in the words. Like they were more out of habit than anything. This time was different. The bite, the anger, all but made the demon step back.

"Angel?" His voice barely above a whisper.

"Be gone foul fiend." The angel said again, with more force.

Crowley put his glasses back on then held his hands up in acquiescence. "Okay. Yeah..."

He walked back to the Bentley, his mind reeling. What had gotten into the angel? It was as if six thousand years had just...vanished from the angel's mind. Something was going on, and he was going to find out. And neither heaven or hell will stand in his way.a

He decided to do some observation, watch over the shop to see if anything out of the ordinary would happen. Unfortunately his fancy classic car stuck out like a sore thumb, so he would have to watch some other way. Miraculously a shop across the street from Aziraphale's book shop had gone up for rent. Crowley opened it as a floral shop and moved all his plants there. He would stay here as long as he had to in order to find out what was going on with his dearest friend.

As the weeks passed there was one thing he noticed most, Aziraphale never went out for dinner. Even during times when they weren't as close, he knew the angel to love humanity's foods. Especially sushi. It was one of the numerous things he loved about the angel, how enthusiastically he would eat sweets. Yet now, he rarely ever left the shop. Only when he would go to St James park. The first time he went there, Crowley followed at a distance; the other man looking lonely, like he was waiting for someone but not knowing who. He wanted to try again.

"Mind if I sit here?" He walked up to the other man, who Crowley noted was wearing lighter colors instead of the earthy tones he had known the man to wear for centuries.

"You!" Aziraphale frowned at him. "What are you doing here?"

"I just happen to like this park. I used to come here with someone dear to me. There's something wrong with them, and I was just looking for some company." Crowley kept his hands out of his pockets to try to look as non-threatening as he could.

"Hmph another demon I'm sure. I'm certain there are other benches in the park you can sit at. A human to tempt into evil?"

Crowley shrugged, grateful the glasses hid the pain in his eyes. "Nah... I prefer inconveniences over outright evil. And besides, you looked lonely yourself. I figured... misery loves company."

The angel looked doubtful. "Well. Don't think you can try to tempt me to your side, demon."

"Crowley." He sat down, falling into his normal slouch, next to the angel.

"Aziraphale."

It was all Crowley could do not to throw his hand on the back of the bench and lean his slouch onto the other man, like they used to.

"Were you waiting for someone?" He asked.

"Actually I'm not entirely sure," Aziraphale answered. "I like this park, its quite peaceful and makes me happy for some reason. I felt almost like I should be meeting someone here, but can't quite remember why or who."

Crowley bit his cheek. Something certainly erased or locked away the angel's memories. And he had a feeling as to who. He frowned and glared at the sky, daring one of those prissy angels who tried to murder HIS angel just for loving humanity, to come down and stop him from re-befriending Aziraphale.

"How odd. So you're an angel, are you?" He asked.

"Yes. I don't think I've seen you around, Crowley. Or if I have, I never noticed you as a demon."

"Oh yeah, I've been around. A while to be perfectly honest. You're not like other angels I've met. You have a much different attitude than those with holier-than-thou personalities."

"Ah, well. I have seemed to become too human than the others have liked, what with stopping the apocalypse and all..."

Crowley let loose a grin. So he remembered that? How much of it? "That was you, was it? No one else?"

"I... " The angel frowned. "I think it was just me, and some humans and the anti-Christ child. I'm pretty sure there was no one else."

Crowley sat up and leaned closer to Aziraphale. "You sure? No demon working with you? Helping you?"

"I..." The angel hesitated, leaning away. " A demon helping humanity? Certainly not. I'm sorry, but I really must be going, I've dawdled a bit too much here. I have a meeting with Gabriel in a little while. Nice talking to you, Crowley."

Crowley watched as his friend walked away rubbing his forehead. He almost had something, he was certain of it. He reached into his jacket pocket feeling the small velvet box, it's weight seemingly to grow. He might just have to step up his efforts.

In the end this will have 3 chapters. please comment and subscribe!