Aziraphale knew coming to Earth when he was assigned was going to be different from Heaven in the sense that there was more free will to be had and also far more living things like plants and animals than the cold office like demeaner of Heaven.
It was a great opportunity to be able to experience new things and so he had. He particularly liked eating as there were so many different tastes and cultures to be had there always seemed to be something new to discover and try.
But he can honestly say he never expected a demon to be sitting across from him and discussing work-related matters with him let alone their bosses who seemed besides their goals not so different from one another.
Beelzebub was strict. She wanted things done in a precise and accurate way. Reports were meant to be done in a certain fashion and demons turned out to be very punctual when it came to this sort of thing. Gabriel was also like this. The only difference was Gabriel was all smiles, pet names and sunshine and Beelzebub was all doom, gloom and torture.
Hell sounded positively awful. Souls being tortured left and right. Horrideous games meant to humiliate and mock others. Discorporation happening on purpose just to get a jest out of someone else. Heaven may have been bland but at least there was control and order.
Both also had already been discorporated if not by other forces and other sides. Aziraphale's first discorporation came about when he touched a snake and soon found out sin had turned their nature cold and cunning and not at all friendly to hugs. Crawly had been discorporated when he fell asleep on a tree branch and broke his neck on the way down. Paperwork was always such a hastle. Both sides apparently favored 36 pages of paperwork to get a new corporation and be sent back down to Earth to continue on about whatever tasks they were told to do.
Because Hell was not aware of the Great Plan and only had bits and pieces of it they were left more on changing and rearranging exactly what they wanted the demons to do on Earth. They liked keeping Crawly up there as he was excellent at seeking out information about these sorts of things and could also train new recruits to Earth on the technology and cultures of the various nations on Earth. Besides most demons enjoyed staying in Hell where they could be as malicious as possible without any interference from the opposite side or the humans.
Aziraphale was kept on Earth for a similar reason. Because his side had the Great Plan all his tasks for formulated years in advance and he was to help carry them out. He was more supposed to stick to events and people involved within this Great Plan although occasionally was sent to other places to perform good deeds and miracles. It was often a lot of text and rules to remember but Aziraphale enjoyed that sort of thing and did enjoy reading which he had also taken a liking too as well. He just wished there was a way to get more reading material from human sources without it being an original copy. He figured he wasn't the only one on Earth who thought this and knew the humans would think up something to fix this inconvenience soon enough. All that was left was waiting and the angel was a patient soul and could do so. Angels also liked to stay up in Heaven where everything was order, purity, and holiness. Many found the humans dirty and couldn't understand why one would want to spend more than a few years here. He was an asset though and often was able to step in for jobs that required particularly close human interaction that the other angels would not want to do. He had been offered many times to have someone take his place but he always seemed to manage to have such a perfect record and memory like no other that ensured his spot on Earth so Heaven was more than happy to have him do the dirty work.
Aziraphale also learned that demons didn't trust each other. Ever. Apparently, in Crawly's court, there were two demons who always gave him particular trouble with this named Hastur and Ligur. Because of this Crawly had to report more often than Aziraphale had to as the archangels only wanted to have in face reports done in person when checkpoints in the Great Plan were supposed to meet. The only angels who personally visited him on Earth where Gabriel and Sandalphon and they tended to be a lot like Crawly and show up when least expected and about give him a heart attack and then leave in the middle of the conversation. He found them annoying but never a real threat to his body. That was saved for Uriel who was known for becoming agitated and violent when prompted and it honestly did not take her a lot to get to that point. Micheal was often skeptical of him but only seemed to but into his business during in face reports and if he got too campy with his descriptions of humans. She had come after him physically before but only when he slipped up. Uriel just seemed to hate him while Micheal it was more of disliking and Sandalphon and Gabriel just ran on schedule rather than have an opinion on Aziraphale. They even thought him noble for staying on Earth so long and giving such nice and accurate reports and being organized about everything. Although with Sandalphon he could never seem to tell if he was just agreeing with Gabriel or truly meant it. Gabriel may have not been his favorite being but at least he was honest, brave and very angelic someone whom Aziraphale took to modeling after. Plus it wasn't really his fault he came off as an insufferable condescending jerk most of the time as he was the highest and most well-respected archangel around.
During the evening the two decided to come to a peace treaty of sorts so that they would not lose sanity while up here and know when they met in person no tricks or traps would be set for them. They both had to admit it was nice to have a being whom they didn't have to reexplain past events to or say what a tribe or kingdom consisted of but could just discuss events and angel and demon politics.
Crawly was annoying and a nuisance at times but he could also be funny and smart at other times. He also had a thing for sleeping which Aziraphale found somewhat charming as he had crazy dreams that made Aziraphale feel anywhere from very touches of humor to concerned for his sanity. He also didn't seem to think everything the demons said was what he had to do. He took a liking to children and would go out of his way to make sure minimal harm was done to them. He also had somewhat good taste in music.
Aziraphale was fussy and an extreme perfectionist to the point where it got on Crawly's nerves but he also was a genuinely kind person who truly did want what was best for humanity. He liked to eat which Crawly found amusing to watch and listen to. He also really enjoyed reading and learning about things even though some of the information he was seeking did not seem like a very angelic though the process. His organizational skills came in handy when Crawly needed information and he never seemed to run out of things to talk about. He also enjoyed drinking it seemed.