After their victory Crowley had thought that they would party for days on end, but Aziraphale didn't trust the new freedom quite yet. The demon had spent the last days doing several clandestine meetings in new places with him to discuss how none of them had seen any activities of heaven or hell lately and what that could mean. Finally he had gotten twenty hours of sleep before his phone rang again.
"Crowley," he croaked.
"Crowley," Aziraphale said, "it is me, Aziraphale."
"Ngk know," Crowley answered.
"Are you alright? Has hell done anything to you? I haven't heard from you since yesterday." Aziraphale obviously hasn't calmed down yet.
"ve jus' been asleep," Crowley said yawning.
"Oh," Aziraphale replied, "I'm sorry I've woken you up."
"Ngk, is okay," Crowley said, "m coming over to your place in one or two hours." And then he hung up.
Anathema had rented a small flat in London. She didn't want to return to the states yet. Her mum had thought it was because of Newt and had been understanding, but while Anathema did enjoy seeing him, he wasn't the only reason. She needed some time to think and some place away from where the apocalypse happened and some time away from her family as well. She had been so determined to fulfill her destiny that she had never spend much time thinking what she wanted to do after that.
Newt was no help. Well, not entirely true. He was so different from her family. She sometimes wondered if he had any life goals at all. He didn't understand her impatience, but he was a good listener and didn't push her.
After coming to terms with his effect on computers he had started to work in a home for the elderly. While he wasn't any good with washing people the staff quickly discovered his knack to deal with dementia patients. He read the newspaper to them, took them on walks, helped them to find misplaced things, made sure they didn't pee anywhere they weren't supposed to.
At this very moment Anathema was sitting at the desk in her small flat using the WiFi she had just installed to search the internet for study options in Europe. Maybe just for a couple of semesters. She wasn't sure yet what and where, maybe archaeology. She needed to collect some options and narrow them down and she needed time to clear her head. The phone rang. The caller wasn't in her contacts, but the 666 at the end of the number caught her eye.
"Device," she responded.
"Anathema?" a boy's voice asked.
"Yes, is that you, Adam?"
"Yes!" he said. There were voices from other kids in the background.
"We're in the main train station in London and would like to visit you." There was a pause.
Another kid said something in the background, probably Pepper.
"You promised that we could," Adam added and she pictured the puppy-eyed expression on his face.
"Alright," Anathema said. "But my flat is a bit small, we better visit an ice cream parlor."
She heard cheering in the background.
"Okay," Anathema went on, "tell me exactly where you are and then stay there till I fetch you."
On the way to the main train station she called their parents to make sure they weren't organizing a search party for the wayward rascals.
The weather was cold and there was a thin spray of rain in the air, but the kids didn't seem to mind. They found a nice corner ice cream parlor near the main train station. The kids were amazed at the amount of flavors in London. Anathema had limited them to three coups each and they had all ordered different ones so they could try each other's.
Despite chocolate chip, mint, lemon, strawberry, pistachio, blueberry, melon, vegan yogurt, cherry, smurf and hazelnut ice cream they were still interested in what Anathema was doing in London and Adam wanted to know what archaeology was. After a dozen of questions Anathema reminded him that his ice cream was melting and there was silence for five minutes.
When he had finished his ice cream Adam wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his pullover and asked her if she knew how Crowley and Aziraphale were doing and where they lived. He was so sincere that Anathema felt sorry she didn't know.
"Maybe Newt knows," she said and glanced at her phone. "We should leave in a few minutes, I promised to meet him after his shift. If Aziraphale's bookshop isn't far we could pay a short visit before you lot have to get on the bus back to Tadfield."
So it came to pass that after meeting up with Newt they dropped by Madam Tracy's and Shadwell's place to ask where the bookshop was. Madam Tracy and Shadwell were busy packing their stuff to move to the bungalow Madam Tracy had bought, but she thought that saying goodbye to Aziraphale was a splendid idea and she nudged Shadwell to bring some sort of present to apologize for causing the accident with the candle. After some rummaging they found a bottle of rum.
When four human adults and four children barged into Aziraphale's bookshop the angel and the demon had just been sitting in the back room. They had been discussing how none of them had seen any activities of heaven or hell lately and what that could mean. And they had been looking forward to going to the Ritz after said discussion.
Crowley put on his sunglasses. He was perched on the armrest of the armchair which made him look like a skinny gargoyle. Aziraphale hurried over to his new guests.
"Oh," the angel said with raised eyebrows, "what a surprise! So nice to see you all alive and well after all that has happened."
"Sorry to just show up without calling, dear" Madam Tracy responded, "we were just in the neighborhood, the children have to get back to Tadfield in an hour and we all just wanted to check up on how you're doing."
"That's most kind," Aziraphale said. He was surprised the humans would care. "An hour is enough to drink some hot cocoa." He smiled. "I'm afraid it will get a bit crammed in here, but if some of you don't mind to sit on stools, we can manage."
Newt and Anathema ventured between the shelves to fetch some stools. The children squeezed themselves all into the sofa. Madam Tracy was helping Aziraphale with the cocoa. Shadwell suggested to put some rum into it, except for the bairns. Aziraphale had never tried cocoa with rum and wondered if these unexpected guests might be a well needed distraction after all.
"Crowley," he called, "I know you don't care much for cocoa, but maybe you like it better with rum?"
"Nah, don't bother." The demon seemed cranky and uninterested. He was still perched on the left armrest of the armchair.
After distributing all the rum spiked cocoa mugs to the adults and the regular cocoa mugs to the children Aziraphale nestled himself into the right side of the armchair Crowley was perched on, because everywhere else was full. The angel looked around and saw that everyone seemed happy with their respective mug of cocoa. Then he tried a sip of his rum spiked one and was not disappointed. The rum added depth to the sweetness of the cocoa. Unbelievable how much wonder there still is in this world.
"Oh Crowley," he said looking up to the demon on his armrest perch, "you have to try at least one sip." Aziraphale was reminded of how humans sometimes pleaded with their cats to come down from a tree or roof.
At first Crowley furrowed his brows, but then with a look of resignation he reached for the mug in Aziraphale's hand. Their fingers brushed against each other's as he took it. Crowley put the mug to his lips and took a tentative sip. Then he paused.
"Ngk, could be worse." He handed the mug back to Aziraphale.
The angel held his breath during the moment their hands touched again. Then he took a very small sip he didn't want to be too greedy and handed the mug back to Crowley. The demon smiled just at the right corner of his mouth and their hands touched again. Aziraphale felt a warmth rise in his cheeks. Must be the alcohol. Crowley took another small sip and then handed the mug down again. This went back and forth for a while. Aziraphale tried to follow the conversation with the humans, nodding and agreeing to what everybody was saying. At some point he was able to exchange the mug without looking at Crowley so he could give his full attention to his guests or at least he tried to.
Crowley on the other hand seemed to have no problem to take part in the conversation. He chatted with Newt about sabotaging digital equipment while taking tiny sips from Aziraphale's mug.
Madam Tracy and Anathema were exchanging their experiences on what their respective neighbors thought about occultism and burst out in laughter at regular intervals while the children were arguing with Shadwell about something that had escaped Aziraphale.
While everybody was chatting away at rapid speed, nobody seemed to notice how Crowley slithered down in a slow innocuous move until he had wiggled himself into the same chair Aziraphale was already sitting in. It might have seemed impossible for two adult-human-shaped beings to sit in that armchair without one sitting on the lap of the other, but it was no acrobatic challenge for a demon like Crowley. He had tilted his hip and then draped one leg over the other in one fluent motion. The only person who seemed to notice this slight shift from armrest perch to armchair was Aziraphale, who was just about to take another tiny sip and paused, his lips already on the mug. Crowley's warmth and the pleasant pressure of being squeezed between him and the armrest was quite distracting.
The demon however wasn't missing a beat in his conversation with Newt. Maybe he had only gotten down from his perch to get to eye level to the human he was talking to.
The children were laughing about something Shadwell was telling them. Shadwell shook his head and smiled. Newt touched Anathema's hand in a consoling way when she told Madam Tracy about how stressful the last few days with moving from the cottage to London and getting the paperwork done had been. Nobody was paying too much attention to an angel and a demon sitting squeezed into the same armchair and sharing a mug of cocoa. Nobody seemed to notice that they shared the cocoa in minuscule sips as if they didn't have the intention to drink any of it at all.
Soon everyone except for the pair of supernatural beings had finished their cocoa and it was time to get the children back to their parents. Aziraphale escorted his guests to the door and thanked everybody for their kindness to drop by.
"The bus stop should just be here around the corner," Newt said after they had bade their farewell to Madam Tracy and Shadwell at the crossroad.
"I hope we can do that again," Adam said as he plodded after Newt and Anathema.
"Not this week," Anathema said.
"We haven't tried out all the ice cream flavors yet." Brian still had a cocoa mustache.
"I think Aziraphale and Crowley need some time alone," Pepper said trying to sound much older than she was.
"That's alright," Wensleydale chimed in, "I wouldn't want to see them kiss in front of me, I hate it when my parents do that."
That comment was met with an agreeing "ewwww" from Brian and Adam.
When Aziraphale had closed the door and returned to the back room Crowley was still nestled into the left side of the armchair. He had removed his sunglasses and was looking at the angel with his amber eyes. The cocoa mug was cradled in both of his hands. He tilted his head and took a slow sip while gazing at Aziraphale. The angel hoped Crowley didn't notice the warm shiver that ran up his spine. He hesitated, but then decided to take a stand.
"Thou shall not consume it all, foul fiend," Aziraphale proclaimed and hurried back to his place in the armchair.
When he was settled and felt Crowley's warm side pressed against him he put his hands around Crowley's holding the mug together with him.
Crowley tried not to move an inch. If Aziraphale was comfortable in this position he wanted to keep it that way as long as possible. The demon didn't usually go for that kind of individual long term temptation. He didn't have the patience and restraint for it. But the angel was such a gorgeous infuriating bastard and smelled so good, his touch was so warm and his intelligent voice became so soft as they were alone and talked about how fortunate it was that earth hadn't perished. Aziraphale seemed to get into the mood in which he would call Crowley dirty things like being "nice". Maybe some time later the angel would let him rest his head on his shoulder. Crowley wondered what else his friend would let him do once heaven and hell truly left them alone.
The mug was still half full, but none of them was drinking while they spoke in soft voices to each other and the cocoa did grow cold.
A/N
I'm happy about any advice on grammar and/or writing. English isn't my first language and I know it's not perfect.