Muriel's also a big part of this story and this chapter and the next will be all about this lovely angel. I use they/them pronouns for all supernatural entities in Heaven/Hell. Crowley and Aziraphale have been on Earth so long they seem comfortable with he/him pronouns and Muriel is just learning all about human customs and will be using they/them and she/her pronouns in this story.

P.S.: Writing Muriel is so fun! I recommend it highly! :)

Chapter 2:

A few months later:

Muriel was quite happy with their new job. They spent hours every day just reading. Books are nice, they decided. Books were telling them stories about people without actually having to talk to people. Muriel remembered their one encounter with coffee shop owner Nina across the street.

She wasn't very nice. Had thrown them out. Then again, Muriel figured, it was probably them who said something wrong. People were complicated and easily offended. So, as long as they weren't feeling ready for more real conversations, Muriel stuck to the books to explain the world to them.

The young angel was still curious, though, about the real people. Especially about Nina and her partner – or maybe not yet partner – Maggie. After all, they were assigned to find out if the two humans were in love and no one had told them to stop observing. The appointed few days as Muriel was told by the demon had long since passed, but there still wasn't that much change.

Although they seemed friendlier towards each other, visiting each other in their shops and smiling a lot more when the other was around. Strangely enough, the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley had acted in the same way as long as Muriel was able to observe them. But that surely was just a coincidence.

So, now, whenever the angel wasn't reading, they were sitting by the window, observing and making notes of the people outside. They kept the shop closed so they wouldn't be disturbed. No one seemed to notice them and that suited Muriel just fine.

They challenged themselves with certain observational tasks, seeing if they could spot certain behaviourisms in those humans outside that they had previously read about in books. It was a fun pastime.

One day as they were sitting by the window with their little notepad, they could see Nina and Maggie coming out of their shops almost at the same time. Muriel smiled, clicking their pen. Maybe they could watch a new interesting human interaction.

Nina walked across the street, smiling and kissing Maggie's cheek by form of greeting. Other humans do that, too, noticed Muriel, but most of them didn't blush fervently like Maggie always did. They stood on the pavement and talked for a while, then, all of a sudden, they both simultaneously turned in Muriel's direction, looking directly at them through the window.

Muriel was so startled they dropped their notepad and pen. Carefully, they stepped backwards. Maybe the women haven't actually seen them. Muriel waited. Nina and Maggie walked past the window and Muriel breathed a sigh of relief.

But then there was a knock on the door.

Muriel waited for them to go away but the knocking sounded persistent. "Come on, open up. We know you're in there. We can see you spying." A voice that sounded distinctly like Nina's was calling out.

Muriel swallowed. "Uh… we're closed." they called back nervously.

"Yes, we can read. Open up anyway." Nina requested, sounding annoyed. There was a quieter voice that seemed to discuss with her, then Maggie spoke up.

"We're not mad at you for watching us, at least I'm not. You weren't doing anyone any harm." she said. "We just wanted to ask you about Mr. Fell."

Muriel furrowed their brows in confusion. Oh, right… Mr. Fell was Aziraphale's name on Earth. They should've thought about a name themselves. Inspector Constable was alright when they were wearing the police hat, but indoors they found it much more comfortable without it. Do people usually call themselves different names for different occasions?

Muriel shook their head distractedly and stepped closer to the door. If anyone asked they decided to just call themselves Muriel. Taking a breath of encouragement, they turned the key and opened the door.

Maggie was smiling brightly while Nina stood half a step behind her with crossed arms, scowling. As if she was making sure Muriel wasn't causing any trouble. As if she was protecting Maggie. Again, much like Azira- the traitor and the demon often presented themselves to humans. "Come in." Muriel said tentatively.

"Thank you." said Maggie and they stepped inside. Muriel closed the door behind them and watched as the women looked around in the bookshop. They remembered something Aziraphale had offered as they were entering the shop for the very first time and quickly asked, "Cup of tea?"

"Oh, that would be lovely." said Maggie.

"Not for me, thanks." replied Nina.

Muriel smiled brightly. Then their face fell as they realized they had actually no clue how to make a cup of tea. "Um, uh… I… I just remembered… I forgot to… um, buy some tea in a… a tea shop." It sounded more like a question than a statement, but the human women seemed to believe them.

"That's fine, too." assured Maggie. "So, ah… you kept everything in order I see." She gestured at the bookshelves. "I assume then that Mr. Fell's bookshop is under new management?"

"Yes." Muriel said excitedly, glad that someone did ask. "I'm the new owner. Muriel."

"Nice to meet you, Muriel." said Nina with a smile that seemed too sweet somehow.

"Are you and Mr. Fell related by any chance?" Maggie asked curiously before Nina could talk on. "You seem very much alike. Just as sweet as him." she beamed.

Muriel paused, wondering what would be the right thing to say. "Um, yes… we come from the same… family." they said cautiously.

"Oh, so you're a cousin then? A niece maybe? Or an adoptive daughter?" Maggie chatted on.

Muriel frowned. They had read about all these words before and they had one thing in common. "Excuse me," they asked innocently. "Do you think that I'm a woman?"

Maggie's face fell and she stuttered and blushed again, which confused Muriel even more. "Great. Nice going, angel." muttered Nina and rolled her eyes.

"Um, well," stammered Maggie, answering Muriel. "Y-Yes, I thought so. Unless you'd prefer something else, of course. We'd be fine with that, wouldn't we, Nina?"

"Just tell us what you'd like to be called. We're fine either way." Nina confirmed.

Muriel thought about this for a moment. Then they smiled brightly. "No, it's fine. I think I like being a woman for a while." she said.

Nina nodded. "Okay, so now that that's sorted... we wanted to know what happened to the couple who used to live here?"

Muriel tilted her head and frowned. "Couple?"

"Yah, you know, Mr. Fell and that other bloke. With the dark glasses."

"Oh, you mean, um, Mr. Crowley. They're not a couple." Muriel giggled. "They're just…" She searched for a word that wouldn't sound scandalous considering the two entities technically standing on opposing sides but found none that fit. "I actually don't really know what they are."

"Seriously? Is everyone blind around here?" Nina remarked, looking at Maggie who only shrugged with a grin. "We had a talk with Mr. Crowley just before you moved in and closed the bookshop. He couldn't see it, either, but I think we opened his eyes to the truth."

"He intended on telling Mr. Fell about his feelings." added Maggie. "It was really sweet."

"When we didn't see them again we thought they had just run off together to live in a cottage down south or something. They seem like a couple who would do that." considered Nina. "But…" she then added with a worried frown.

"We haven't seen them for weeks now." continued Maggie, equally worried. "Mr. Fell was always so meticulous about his shop and I haven't seen him return even once to collect some of his belongings, so… we just wanted to ask you if they were okay?"

Muriel stared at the women with round eyes. That was a lot of information to process and she wasn't even sure that she understood all of it. Nina and Maggie seemed worried about Mr. Fell, maybe even Crowley, too. Muriel hadn't seen the demon since she had taken over the shop, but at least she figured she could give the women some information about Aziraphale.

"Oh, um, Mr. Fell has taken up a promotion elsewhere. Somewhere the de- I-I mean, Mr. Crowley can't follow him. I don't know what he's up to now, haven't seen him in a while." She smiled, pleased that she was able to give a plausible explanation for the angel's absence. But when she looked at Nina and Maggie, Muriel was confused.

"Oh…" said Nina. Her face, as well as Maggie's, frowning in disappointment. "W-We didn't know…"

"Of course not. That's why you were asking me and I could help you." Muriel stated cheerfully. But the women didn't seem to take note of her anymore.

"That poor man." muttered Maggie quietly.

"Well, not everything always works out in the end, does it?" Nina shrugged.

"But, Nina, Mr. Crowley was head over heels in love with Mr. Fell. That must've broken his heart."

"What?" Muriel blurted out in shock. "But this can't be right! He can't be in love, he's a demon!" Both women turned to her slowly and Muriel immediately realized her foolish mistake. "Um, ah, I mean… obviously, I didn't mean demon, I meant to say…"

"A demon? So that's what he is. Yes, of course!" exclaimed Maggie and elbowed Nina's side. "See, I told you it was all really true. And Mr. Fell is an actual angel, isn't he? We saw the halo."

"Um, I-I… n-no, of course he's not." Muriel stuttered helplessly, wringing her hands.

"Bollocks." said Nina. "Mr. Fell tried to make us forget or something, but that night was just too weird to ever forget it."

Muriel swallowed. She searched for something to say, anything to clean up the mess she had made, but she came up absolutely blank. Fearfully, she stuttered, "Oh, I'm going to get into so much trouble. Again."

"It's okay, we won't tell anyone." promised Maggie when she noticed that Muriel was close to tears. "You just tell Mr. Crowley that we're sorry the next time you see him. And we hope that it still works out for them. They belong together."

"B-But… but… they can't be..." Muriel mumbled nervously. "That it happened once was unusual enough, but twice… what does this even mean?"

"We don't know, sweetheart." said Maggie softly. "We're only human. But whatever Mr. Fell and Mr. Crowley are, they're deeply in love with each other. And I bet you they are hurting right now."

Muriel nervously paced the length of the bookshop as soon as the women had left.

Another demon and angel in love with each other? That was unheard of! Heaven wouldn't like that. And Hell, neither, she figured.

She ought to tell her superiors… shouldn't she? They would know what to do about this. They were older and more important than her. Surely, they would handle this in the right manner. She worked for Heaven after all.

But just when Muriel wanted to create a portal to pop up there, she paused. She had seen with how much disdain the angels had looked upon Gabriel before he vanished together with demon lord Beelzebub. Whatever Heaven would've done to him had he not escaped was certainly not very pretty. And they most likely would do the same to Aziraphale.

Muriel frowned worriedly. The Principality had always been so nice to her. Much nicer than all the other angels because he hadn't made her feel as insignificant as everyone else always did. Come to think of it, she probably hadn't ever had a conversation with her superiors that had lasted as long as the one she recently had with the demon Crowley up in Heaven.

He seemed rather… pleasant, too. For a demon.

Muriel stepped away from the portal with disgruntled noise of indecision. Then she checked her notes, dating back to her very first day on Earth. She had gone from observing Aziraphale and Crowley to observing Nina and Maggie and upon reflection she saw the many similarities there. But Nina and Maggie weren't really 'together' yet, like humans supposedly say. At least she hadn't seen them do anything that would suggest that they were according to the books she'd read on people in love.

They weren't kissing each other on the mouth and they weren't holding hands, either. Muriel had read that some people who loved each other and wanted to spend their lives together would marry and they would wear rings to show that they belong together. But Nina and Maggie weren't wearing rings.

Then again, they did seem to like each other very much, spending increasingly more time together since she first started observing them. Muriel thought about the Principality's assignment on Earth which lasted for over 6000 years. And the demon was there from the beginning as well. Surely, they had enough time to figure out if they were really in love or not.

Muriel shut her notes with a desperate sigh. "Oh, good heavens! Why is this so complicated?"

She slumped down on a chair with a pout, wondering what she should do. She didn't want to get Aziraphale in any trouble. Especially now that he had taken that promotion and was back in Heaven's good books. He deserved that, didn't he?

"Maybe I should ask Aziraphale about this." Muriel mumbled to herself. "He probably knows more about love than I do." Her eyes widened at once and she sat up straight in her chair. Of course, yes, that was exactly what she should do! If she were to ask Aziraphale directly if he was in love with the demon, he could take the necessary precautions so the other angels wouldn't smite him and if he wasn't, well then nobody needed to know anyway and nobody would get hurt.

Muriel smiled. She liked that plan. And it was certainly easier finding Aziraphale in Heaven than finding Crowley on Earth or in Hell and ask him about this. Also, Maggie and Nina seemed to think that he was hurting right now. Why, Muriel couldn't really grasp, yet, but she assumed it had something to do with Aziraphale being back in Heaven and out of reach for him.

He should've known that they couldn't be together forever on Earth. Aziraphale was an angel after all. Silly demon.

Muriel giggled to herself, then she prepared herself for the ascent to Heaven.

She stepped out of the portal and into brilliant whiteness. Muriel squinted. She never thought that she would get accustomed to the dull colours of Earth so much that she would be blinded upon returning to her home.

Heaven seemed to be as busy as usual, but spread so far and wide that no one would notice. Here and there a few angels grouped together, talking quietly. Some passed her by with files in their arms on their way to some place else.

No one took note of her.

Muriel was accustomed to that, too. Although, she had secretly hoped that she would finally be interesting enough now that she was stationed on Earth so the angels would come to her more often than only every hundred years. She breathed a sigh that was neither sad nor happy and strode forward to find someone who could point her in the direction of the angel Aziraphale.

She wondered if someone as low-ranking as her was allowed to talk to him now that he was the Supreme Archangel. Maybe Aziraphale had changed. She hoped not or she would have to talk to Crowley after all and, frankly, she was afraid that her superiors would punish her for talking to a demon without being specifically ordered to do so.

In the distance, Muriel saw the angel Saraqael zoom by and she hurried to catch up with them. "Um, excuse me?" she called.

Saraqael turned. "Muriel?" they asked in surprise. "What are you doing here? Who'd sent you up?"

"Actually… no one." Muriel confessed. "I'm here on my own will."

Saraqael gave her a look that made her feel like someone put ice cubes down her spine. "Leaving your position on Earth without permission?"

"Uh…" Muriel uttered nervously. She had not thought this through! "I-I'm very sorry. I've locked the bookshop before I left. Humans won't enter when they see a 'Closed' sign." Except when they insistently knock on the door, she thought. "And I-I promise to return very soon… I just need to ask Aziraphale an important question."

Saraqael's face didn't shift. "The Supreme Archangel is very busy, Muriel."

"I know. I won't steal much of his time, but it's really very important and it's also rather personal, so I can only speak to him." Muriel held her breath, startled by her own boldness. Normally she wouldn't be so forward towards a higher ranking angel. Muriel blamed it on the books about various human revolutions she'd read.

Saraqael slowly eyed her slightly trembling form from head to toe and back. Then they smiled rather strangely. "Whatever. You're going to have to find out sooner or later."

They motioned Muriel to follow them and she did, obediently. Together, they went along an endless white corridor, passing increasingly more and more angels. Muriel then heard the noises before she could see anything.

Hammers upon metal. The hissing of water rapidly getting hot. And some kind of constant, steady humming, like from a machine.

It must be the armoury, figured Muriel. She hadn't been back there since the rebellion of the now Fallen Ones. And even then no one had seemed to trust her with a sword. She was just new then.

As they were getting closer, Muriel could eventually see a large podium and something that glowed brightly in the middle. But only when they stood directly in front of it Muriel was able to see past the blinding light and she almost stumbled backwards in shock.

On that elevated podium, inside a glass cage with four silver tubes coming out of it, was Aziraphale.

The angel was unconscious and held upright by chains around his chest and arms. The tubes were connected to his body and led to two big white metal tanks to his left and right. Carefully connected to them and supervised by angels were two conveyor belts. The working angels who forged weapons all around them put their finished swords and spears onto one end of the belt and sent them through the tanks one by one. The weapons that came out in the end radiated a soft blue glow.

The colour of an angel's celestial energy.

"Wha-What is happening to him?" asked Muriel with a high-pitched, panicked quality to her voice.

"We are draining his miraculous power." said Saraqael flatly.

"But… but why?" stuttered Muriel. "Doesn't this hurt?"

"Of course, but that's why he is unconscious, you see? We're not monsters."

Muriel noticed how thin and pale Aziraphale's skin looked. That was why the light was so bright. It simply shimmered through him. The sight was so horrible that it brought tears to Muriel's eyes. But she couldn't be caught crying. Not if the other angels weren't concerned. "But… why?" she whispered again. "What has he done?"

"Nothing." said Saraqael. "Not yet, at least." Muriel furrowed her brows and they explained. "We found out that this 25 Lazarii miracle that was performed near the bookshop when Gabriel disappeared was actually of both angelic and demonic nature. Beelzebub was still in Hell, but we know another oddly friendly partnership who confessed to have been working together before, don't we?"

"Aziraphale and Crowley." Muriel answered quietly.

"Exactly. So they had helped Gabriel, like they'd said, and performed this incredibly strong miracle together. The surprising part is that they didn't even want to attract attention." stressed Saraqael. "Imagine how powerful they could be together if they really tried!"

Muriel was still frowning. "But they didn't try."

"Maybe they haven't even realized their own potential yet. Anyway, keeping them together and risking them finding out was much too dangerous. They had been quiet so far but what if they ever decided to turn against Heaven and Hell in battle? So, The Metatron conducted a plan to separate them. Of course we intended to explain all this to Aziraphale once he was with us so he could share his power willingly among the highest angels, but… he suddenly started to have second thoughts. Wanted to return to Earth, so we had to use force."

Muriel blinked frightened. Her shock fortunately dried the tears that had gathered. "Why do we need his power?" she asked, fighting to banish all the emotions from her voice.

"Oh, you stupid angel." grumbled Saraqael. "Haven't you heard about the Second Coming? When we fight the last battle against Hell to secure celestial eternity we'll have an advantage on our side." They indicated the weapons with the bluish glow. "These surely will be powerful enough to kill a demon, not just discorporate them. Until now only holy water could do that."

"Oh." said Muriel and forced herself to nod bravely. "I see."

Saraqael continued. "We tried to locate the demon Crowley for testing purposes, but we couldn't find him on Earth and Hell doesn't seem to know where he is, either. But not to worry," they said with satisfaction. "As long as he and his side doesn't know about his superior power, we will still have our tactical advantage and the final war is as good as won."

Saraqael smiled at Muriel and she found herself hastily smiling back while on the inside, she felt very scared and confused. This was a perfectly reasonable plan for the good side. After all, Heaven ought to triumph over Hell in the end. So why did it feel so wrong to Muriel?

"Do you understand it now, little angel?" Saraqael asked sweetly.

Muriel's insides shuddered and twisted, but yet she smiled brighter. "Yes." she nodded and felt like crying again.

"Do you see why I can't let you talk to Aziraphale? Waking him would be dreadfully painful right now."

Muriel's eyes widened once more as she realized something else. "Um, just one more question… w-what happens to Aziraphale once you have drained all his power?"

"Well," considered Saraqael and turned back to look at the blindingly bright, unconscious angel. "Our life force is endless. But draining his miraculous power as quickly as this will sooner or later take its toll on our selfless friend. He will probably vanish at some point and it will be painless, God bless. But by then we'll have forged enough special weapons to fight victoriously." Muriel's lips had started to tremble and as they noticed, Saraqael raised their brows at her. "Don't you agree this would be the most honourable way to cease existing?"

Muriel clenched her hands. "Yes." she said breathlessly. "Yes, of course. But… it will also be sad, won't it? Aziraphale had always been such a nice angel."

"And as such he will be remembered. For all eternity." pledged Saraqael before flippantly adding, "Once Hell is overthrown."

Muriel swallowed and nodded again.

"Was there anything else you needed, Muriel?"

She took one last glance at the weakened angel, then turned back towards her superior. "N-No. Nothing else. I shall return to my post now. Check if any humans have broken into the shop."

Saraqael gave her a long, hard look that Muriel had trouble withstanding. But she did. "Right." they said finally. "Off you go."