~ I've Got My Burning Heart at Stake ~
Questions spilled forth from Crowley's lips in an anxious, desperate tide.
"Why should I bring him to you? I mean, what do you want with him? What would you even do with him if you got him?"
Once that tide dried up, Beelzebub remained silent for a few long uncomfortable moments while they considered how to reply. On one hand, they were a demon and therefore should not trust anyone - especially not a traitor. On the other hand, Crowley was the one demon in the world who would actually understand, and might be persuaded to help them if only he knew the truth.
"Because this is where he's supposed be," Beelzebub answered.
Crowley frowned, nonplussed.
The Prince of Hell drew in a shaky deep breath and clarified their previous statement, "He belongs with me."
Crowley made a series of indignant noises before managing to stammer out some actual words.
"You... he... you and Gabriel? Really?" Then he put his hands up in the 'surrender' position and said, "Not that I'm insulting your taste in angels, but..." He gesticulated wildly. "Gabriel? Really?"
"These past few years we've been meeting up secretly to talk...which, you know, eventually led to understandings and... other things. You know how that goes." They paused. "We even have a song."
"You have a song?" Crowley repeated, not knowing what else to say as he tried to process what Beelzebub was telling him.
"...we've even sung it to each other," they reluctantly admitted.
"Wait," Crowley said. "Wait. Does this mean that Gabriel was leaving Heaven to be with you?"
Beelzebub closed their eyes for a moment and sighed.
"Yes," they said, "just as I will be leaving Hell to be with him."
It was this knowledge that made up Crowley's mind about what he was going to do. In such a short time - only a single digit's worth of years, which was barely any time at all! - the two of them had fallen in love and were now willing to give up everything to be together. Crowley envied them their decisiveness on the matter. And he was going to help them.
"Crowley, where is Gabriel?" was the first thing Aziraphale asked him upon returning to the book shop and finding Crowley there and Gabriel... not.
"Couldn't tell ya," Crowley replied, not looking up from the book he had open in front of him which he was not actually reading.
"Why not?"
"Because I don't know where he is now."
Crowley finally looked up when he felt his angel's mood shift from worry to anger.
"Crowley," Aziraphale said slowly. "What have you done?"
"I took him down to Hell and turned him over to Beelzebub."
Azirapahle was incandescent with rage (literally) as he shouted, "Why would you DO that?!"
Crowley took off his sunglasses at this point, so that Aziraphale could look him in the eyes as he answered.
"Because they love him, and know how to restore his memory, and the two of them are running away together to be with each other."
This revelation shocked the anger right out of Aziraphale's system, although it took a bit longer for his mind to fully process the information.
Once he had, he asked a bit hesitantly, "Did they really? You're not... lying?"
"I'm not lying, angel," Crowley replied softly. "They really ran off together."
"...hard to imagine Gabriel being in love with anyone..." Aziraphale murmured more to himself than to his interlocutor.
"And I'm sure we'll see the fallout of one the highest-ranking angels and one of the highest-ranking demons both abandoning Heaven and Hell soon enough."
~end~