“Mmm…” He shivers warmly as they shift together, as Crowley’s half-hard cock pushes into the curve of his hip. Every once in a while, in his own dreams, Aziraphale has conjured a scenario very like this one; only in his dreams has he ever allowed himself to say yes as much as he is now. And since this is a dream, even if it’s not actually his own, he lets himself respond the way he only ever has deep in his own heart.
“Why not a world tour? Glyndebourne. Picnics on the banks of the Rhône. Masked balls in Venice at the height of Carnival. Stargazing in the mountains in Chile. Long walks under the sakura trees on Mount Yoshino. Watch the swallows come back to Capistrano.”
He turns his head, kisses the long fingers that brush against his face, and adoration sparks from him with every touch.
“Sneak into the Bastille at night.” Aziraphale’s voice drops to a near-rumble. “Show you how I wanted to thank you for that rescue. Make love under the open sky, anywhere in the world you like. Night or day.”
The itinerary alone is enough to make him dizzy, just the idea of going all those places and sharing all those experiences with each other. Combining it with soft lips against his fingers is almost enough to make Crowley melt.
And that was before the last bit. The idea of redoing something from their history, remaking it to fulfill a fantasy...that's thrilling.
The idea of loving each other under the open sky, with the stars spread out above them, that's something more than thrilling.
Crowley groans, arousal firing through his veins like lightning. He leans up to kiss Aziraphale, darting his tongue in at once to taste him, hungry. His body rolls against the angel's, his cock suddenly raging hard against the crease where Aziraphale's thigh meets his pelvis. "That," he says breathlessly after a few minutes. "I want that, all of it." More furious kissing, his hands grasping at Aziraphale's skin, his shoulders, his back. His arse, and Crowley slides his body so their cocks are aligned. "I want you," he gasps into that hot mouth. He slides fingers down the crevase of Aziraphale's arse, fingers his rim lightly. "God, I want you, can I have you? Please let me have you, angel, my angel--"
The ferocity with which Crowley responds is almost startling. It comes with a wave of desperate love and devotion, something dark and hot, and Aziraphale feels caught up in him, a sunbeam being spread out into dazzling colors by the loving embrace of a prism. He tries to meet every kiss with equal fervor, hands running up and down Crowley’s sides, their mutual passion both fuel and fire to one another.
Again it takes Aziraphale’s imagination a second to catch up to Crowley’s intent, though this time it’s far clearer, since he does have some experience of his own fingers for comparison. He groans, shifts clumsily (though more gracefully than he might in the waking world) to straddle Crowley’s thighs, opening himself up a little further.
“Yes,” he breathes into the demon’s mouth, pleading and promising, half wild with love. Whether he’s actually speaking or whether his thoughts are loud enough to sing themselves into being while they kiss he’ll never know, and anyway this is a dream, so it might be both or neither or something in between. It doesn’t matter. “Yes, Crowley, take me, have me, stay with me, please, please.”
Yes. It's the sweetest word, in Aziraphale's mouth, and Crowley exults in it, slicking his finger with a thought and slowly pressing in. Aziraphale's channel welcomes the intrusion, hot and tight around his finger, and he knows it will feel even better for them both in a few minutes when there's more of him there.
But then--
Stay with me.
Crowley would give the soul he no longer has to hear that in the waking world. All of this, all the rest of what they've done and said here is all just showing how desperately much. The only thing he actually wants. It hurts, how much he wants it.
He all but sobs into Aziraphale's mouth, his tongue delving in with ferocity, mimicking what his fingers (two now, not slow and exploring but impatient, greedy) are doing below. He should drag this out longer, should take time to appreciate it, but he can't, not after those words. Not when he wants so desperately.
He rolls them over, still kissing Aziraphale as though their lives depend on it, as though this could dissolve at any moment. (It could, it will, he can't keep it, he's not going to think about that yet) His angel's thighs are still spread around his waist, cock hard and trapped against their bellies, it's so good, it's not enough.
Stay with me.
Always, his heart answers. Always, always, always, please, and then he has his cock in his slicked hand and is lined up, pressing in, he should be more careful, he should, but this is a dream (it'll vanish and he has to enjoy it while he can, don't think about that yet) so it'll work, he'll make it work. Aziraphale will be ready and willing and eager for him, and he is, he is, clutching at him and gasping encouragement and Crowley slides in with a slow ease that's almost torturous for how good it is.
He hears it, clear and certain, feels the thought coil around him like the long body of a snake. It’s that thought and the hunger behind it, the longing, that moves Aziraphale’s dream-body where Crowley wants him to go.
Always.
How is all of this for him? Aziraphale has always been soft, weak, anxious. Unremarkable. How can Crowley want him so much? How can it possibly be real, that the depth of what Crowley’s been hiding from him matches what Aziraphale has had to keep concealed for years? And it’s not real, not in the physical sense, but the emotion is so raw and strong it can’t come from his own imagination.
Always.
He’s on his back, spread open, hot slick pressure stealing his breath; he’s had this dream, he knows the motions. But every movement is also Crowley saying please, please I want, and as Aziraphale tightens his thighs around Crowley’s sides and rocks into his thrusts he responds. I want that too, I want you too, I want all the things you want.
Blindly he feathers kisses across Crowley’s face, and some of them are less kisses than they are flashes of memory. Tiny fragments, accumulated over thousands of years, of warmth and companionship and intimacy. A long slow fall in images of his fiend: a laugh, a moment of stillness, a rare kind gesture, a bright ray of enthusiasm.
Stay with me, he repeats, nearly begging, his hands scrabbling at the small of Crowley’s back to push him deeper.
It's never been like this, in all the times he's given in and let this happen it's never happened like this (it's never happened at all, don't think about that). Crowley's used to the ocean-ache in his chest, the yearning large enough to drown in. There've been times when he's felt masochistic enough to wallow in it, made a metaphor dreamscape and dived in, his imagination is too good not to have explored his own empty spaces with it.
That still wasn't like this. He moves in his angel and that ocean-tide of need moves with him, almost tangible. There's so much of it. That's one reason he's so cautious about this with Aziraphale when they're awake, why should they both drown, could even an angel face something like this?
But now every time he thrusts home, every time Aziraphale kisses his face, there's a spark. A memory of them laughing outside Athens, the taste of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, a brief handclasp, Aziraphale rolling his eyes, Crowley complaining, tickets. The sun on Aziraphale's hair as he looks over his shoulders. Mesopotamia, Paris, Edinburgh. More times and places and words and images than even he can process. A lifetime shared. You were never alone, they say. I was with you all the way, we walked this path together.
The ocean roars. Crowley's eyes are screwed shut now, his thrusts hard and rough, stay with me always (but he won't), and it feels so good, Aziraphale's warmth and affection (he won't call it love, he can't) all around him, welcoming, wanting Crowley. All of it asking for more, more, more and he gives all he has (pours water out on the dry sand), and it's so good, it's bliss, ecstacy, and that moment of release will be so perfect and so painful (because it isn't real)--
"Aziraphale," Crowley gasps, sweat dripping off his brow. "I love you."
Aziraphale hears his own name—for the first time, he realizes; Crowley’s been calling him angel through this whole encounter—and then those precious, precious words, words that have been secretly engraved on his own heart for literal ages. It’s an ecstasy that matches the pleasure already burning through his nerves, too much to bear, and at last it shatters open.
It’s an order of magnitude stronger than before, shaking them both fiercely, a lifetime of love bursting into furious bloom. They cling to one another, trembling in startled exhilaration, as overwhelmed as mortals.
As the last of the sharp sweet pulses rocks them, Aziraphale breathes a long sigh of satisfaction and relief.
“I love you, Crowley.”
His whole being seems to ring with the words, certain and nebula-bright, the deepest truth he knows. It brings with it a last wave of memory: Aziraphale may have once admired an angel who watched the birth of the stars with innocent joy, but his heart belongs to the demon he met on a wall, the one who’s slouched and complained and teased and always, always been there for him. His arms and legs wrap tight around Crowley, his dream-body following the lapping tide of devotion that flows from his heart.
It's a bit like a supernova. The physical (imagined physical) release is overpowered by the sheer emotional explosion, shared pleasure and want and need and devotion. Crowley half expects to be blasted apart by it and is almost sorry he isn't.
They lie together shaking, entwined and clutching at each other, as their bodies (imagined bodies) gradually calm and the rest of it fades to something less overwhelming.
Aziraphale says those words, and they sound so sweet and certain. So sure. Everything he wants to hear.
Crowley buries his face in the angel's neck and trembles as a few tears fall. This is why he doesn't do this, why he shouldn't do it. Because after the moment, after the ecstacy, he's so fucking alone. He's holding a dream of Aziraphale in his arms, yes. But it's only a dream. He might as well be hugging a picture, or a mirror.
He can still feel that pulse of adoration, quiet and steady, trying to keep him in the illusion. It's an impressive new level of self-deception, even by his standards.
He tries. He lies there, clinging to Aziraphale as hard as he can, trying to make himself pretend this is real. Breathing him in, feeling the heated places where their skin touches. Just a little longer.
It takes several moments before Aziraphale registers the heat of tears against his skin, the sudden curl of hurt that creeps into their bliss. He’s no stranger to the loneliness that can eat away at him when he wakes from a beautiful dream to find himself alone, but this… it approaches hopelessness, a dark as profound as the void between stars.
(No wonder humans fight and die for love; no wonder they come up with endless combinations of words in every language to describe its intricacies. No wonder they believe this is what makes up the truest substance of the Almighty. Even the thought of its absence is powerful enough to bring an immortal being close to despair.)
Aziraphale tries to fold around him, a hand sliding into his hair. Deep in his soul he’s comforted by knowing Crowley loves him back, that he hasn’t been imagining things all these years, and he does his best to pour that comfort out into the wounded heart pressed against his own.
I’m here. I’ve been here the whole time. I’ve missed you when we’ve been apart, and rejoiced when we’ve had the opportunity to be together, and I can say yes now, I’m finally ready and I’m sorry I made you wait but you made this so, so wonderful and I’m so glad I came to you.
Crowley isn't unmoved by the warm blanket of comfort that covers him. It's soothing, and he lets himself be soothed, if only a little. It's not as though he's lost Aziraphale, after all. Things are hardly hopeless. The current plague will pass eventually and they'll still be here on Earth, able to meet and talk and drink and all the other things they do. It might be like this someday and it might not, but even just Aziraphale's friendship is worth more than anything else in the world. In the waking world that's enough. He can be content with that, even happy, keeping the rest of his desires tucked away out of sight.
But this, what he's doing now...
He sighs a little, kisses Aziraphale's neck, tastes the salt of his own tears there. Traces the line of the jaw, leans up enough to take a full kiss. He makes it last, a lazy luxurious thing, getting as much of the taste of that mouth as he can. Another memory to add to the collection, even if it's only a memory of a dream.
For a while (not long enough, not nearly long enough) they simply drift together. But then Crowley starts to pull back, and Aziraphale reaches after him, running on some instinct he didn’t know existed until now.
“What’s the matter?”
In his own dreams he always lingers, basking greedily in what he can’t have in real life (or thought he couldn’t have, anyway) for as long as possible. The sudden withdrawal of this warmth stings a little, far too much like moments he’s realized he was waking up and wanted to cling to the dream a few seconds longer.
Crowley lets himself be pulled back down for a minute, holds on hard. Places a kiss on Aziraphale's cheek. "It's time for me to go, angel," he murmurs, nuzzling at the skin there. Another kiss. "Come on, let me up."
“Oh, but…” He can’t hold back a smile, and with it a warm caress of pure, helpless affection. “Here I was going to ask if I could kiss you awake.” His fingertips find the coils of the tiny snake again, caress the length of it tenderly.
It sends a shiver all through Crowley, every inch of his body and right through to his deepest self. He groans, distracted by the intensity of it. "That's...fuck, that's new..." It's not erotic, not exactly, though it definitely could be. It steals his breath for a minute. "Angel." He bends his head again, resting his forehead against Aziraphale's cheek. "Oh, angel. You're too good at this."
He tries again to pull away, manages to get loose from one of Aziraphale's arms at least, attempts to roll over out of the bed.
“I’m being serious, Crowley.” There’s still a sunny smile in his voice; he catches at the demon, trying to make it more difficult for him to disentangle himself, and somehow manages to roll so Crowley is half underneath him on the big, plush mattress.
“If you’re going to wake up, at least let’s do it properly.”
Crowley is clearly caught by surprise, both by being pinned and by Aziraphale's happy determination. This isn't how things usually go.
"Wasn't going to--nothing to wake up for yet," he manages, flustered. What the heaven is going on here? He hasn't heard his alarm, or the phone ring. There's nothing waiting for him in the real world but more being locked in his flat watching shit telly. Or drinking, which is a little tempting, but not a good idea. "Just--" A sudden pulse of loneliness brings a sudden lump in this throat, and he swallows over it. "Something else. Should do something else for a while, 'til it stops."
There’s a slight change in the quality of Crowley’s voice, something far too sad for the intimacy they’re still sharing, and Aziraphale noses at his cheek to try and chase it off.
(Something feels strange, a little more vivid than perhaps it ought to, in the way his breath stirs against Crowley’s face. As if their bodies have actually gotten closer in the waking world, which is entirely possible. Aziraphale is much more aware of it now.)
“And what if I follow you and keep asking?” It’s an entirely earnest question. Not a shred of accusation colors it, only warmth and determination. “How many times will I have to ask before you realize it’s me?”
He punctuates the last word with a bright bloom of affection that registers like a warm exhale against the snake tattoo.
"What are you talking about?" Crowley says with growing frustration and confusion. He works harder to get free now, pushing on Aziraphale's shoulders so he can eel out from underneath. It's tricky, especially as he's distracted by that so-intimate caress on his deepest self again (since when does his tattoo do that? Could it always?) "And how are you doing that? You didn't--I never--"
He more or less falls off the bed, rolls to his hands and knees and then to a sitting position, settles himself against a wall that obligingly moves closer. He's starting to look vaguely haunted. "What the fuck is going on?"
It sounds like it's said more to himself than anyone else.
Despite Aziraphale’s best efforts, the demon wriggles out from underneath him, squirming away like a wet bar of soap. (Or possibly a wet snake. He’s never handled a wet snake, though, so he wouldn’t know.) Aziraphale props himself up on one arm, then pushes himself all the way to a sitting position, too concerned about Crowley’s reaction to be self-conscious about the fact that he’s still nude.
All this, all the intimacy and truth they’ve just shared, and Crowley still thinks he’s just a stray figment that’s… what? Malfunctioning? A splinter of his mind driving him into Shakespearean madness? Immediately Aziraphale feels a stab of guilt; he hadn’t meant to frighten Crowley, not in the least. Though it’s not without frustration that he can’t seem to figure out how to get the truth to register.
“Look,” he tries, scooting closer to the edge of the mattress. “I’ve been trying to tell you. Please don’t panic.”
Crowley's been operating under a certain set of assumptions, quite reasonable ones. He's dreaming, he knows he is, it's safe to assume he's alone in his own head because why wouldn't he be? What would anyone else even be doing in here, how would they get in without an invitation? Besides, Aziraphale's back at the Bookshop baking cake and enjoying having no customers. Everything Crowley finds in his head is his own creation and his own problem.
But.
There've been all those niggling little details he's been noticing. Any of them on their own might've been forgotten, and then again he might've followed up on any of them if he hadn't been so distracted by the image of everything he wants.
Suddenly those details are forming a clear picture. It doesn't make much sense, and at the same time it makes quite a lot of sense.
Crowley stares. Then he stares harder, looks deeper.
Now, at last and despite the intense emotions of only minutes before, Aziraphale’s confidence flickers. Has he buggered all of this up without meaning to? He’d only wanted to ask a question, and now they’re… well, they’re here, and suddenly he’s not at all sure he’s done the right thing.
“I think you must have slept through your alarm,” he says, and his voice sounds distinctly smaller. “It’s New Year’s Eve, and I… changed my mind. About strictly following the human social distancing rules. And I didn’t want to just shake you or something, and…”
He's sitting bareass naked on the floor, looking up at a frankly over the top bed which contains an also bareass naked angel who is apparently actually an angel and not just a figment of one.
An angel with whom he's just done...quite a number of quite explicit things.
Inside Crowley's own dreams.
Shock doesn't begin to cover it.
He has a large number of questions, mostly beginning with "how" and "why" and "how" again and a generous side helping of "when." The first one that comes out is, unfortunately. "...what the fuck?!?"
Oh, that’s not good at all. Aziraphale’s uneasy thoughts manifest as fidgeting; he twists his pinky ring fretfully.
“I did try to tell you! More than once.”
(Minutes ago he felt like the most beautiful being in creation, caught up in the greatest and deepest love he’s ever felt, and all at once he’s starting to shrink back down to his pitiful unremarkable self again. Why did he do this? Why did he think this was a good idea?)
"You told me, did you?" Crowley retorts. "You said 'Oh, by the way Crowley, sorry to pop into your dreams without warning but this is the real me and not one of the fakes you have running around to take advantage of,' did you?"
He'd like to stand up and walk around and pace but he's still bareass naked and far too worked up to do things like manifest clothes. Which would be easier in here than it would outside but he doesn't remember that either. And Aziraphale is looking unhappy and upset, and that's awful, especially after...but seriously what the fuck? "How are you even..." He waves a hand, indicating...everywhere, really, the entire dreamscape.
“I… I came by the flat. You were still asleep, and I wanted to ask if I could wake you up—” (He won’t add with a kiss now because it’s ridiculous, it was so foolish of him) “—and I thought I’d look in and say hello before I…”
Damn, he’s buggered this up, he’s possibly ruined the best thing that’s ever happened to him. But there is another thought surging in his heart, one that spills out far more easily in this dreamscape than it would in the real world where he’s as much substance as he is thought.
“I’m not sorry we did that, but I am sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”
no subject
Date: 2023-08-23 10:19 pm (UTC)“Why not a world tour? Glyndebourne. Picnics on the banks of the Rhône. Masked balls in Venice at the height of Carnival. Stargazing in the mountains in Chile. Long walks under the sakura trees on Mount Yoshino. Watch the swallows come back to Capistrano.”
He turns his head, kisses the long fingers that brush against his face, and adoration sparks from him with every touch.
“Sneak into the Bastille at night.” Aziraphale’s voice drops to a near-rumble. “Show you how I wanted to thank you for that rescue. Make love under the open sky, anywhere in the world you like. Night or day.”
ahhhh the Smitten icon
Date: 2023-08-23 11:59 pm (UTC)The itinerary alone is enough to make him dizzy, just the idea of going all those places and sharing all those experiences with each other. Combining it with soft lips against his fingers is almost enough to make Crowley melt.
And that was before the last bit. The idea of redoing something from their history, remaking it to fulfill a fantasy...that's thrilling.
The idea of loving each other under the open sky, with the stars spread out above them, that's something more than thrilling.
Crowley groans, arousal firing through his veins like lightning. He leans up to kiss Aziraphale, darting his tongue in at once to taste him, hungry. His body rolls against the angel's, his cock suddenly raging hard against the crease where Aziraphale's thigh meets his pelvis. "That," he says breathlessly after a few minutes. "I want that, all of it." More furious kissing, his hands grasping at Aziraphale's skin, his shoulders, his back. His arse, and Crowley slides his body so their cocks are aligned. "I want you," he gasps into that hot mouth. He slides fingers down the crevase of Aziraphale's arse, fingers his rim lightly. "God, I want you, can I have you? Please let me have you, angel, my angel--"
THE MOST HEART EYES. HE IS SO IN LOVE YOUR HONOR
Date: 2023-08-24 01:53 am (UTC)Again it takes Aziraphale’s imagination a second to catch up to Crowley’s intent, though this time it’s far clearer, since he does have some experience of his own fingers for comparison. He groans, shifts clumsily (though more gracefully than he might in the waking world) to straddle Crowley’s thighs, opening himself up a little further.
“Yes,” he breathes into the demon’s mouth, pleading and promising, half wild with love. Whether he’s actually speaking or whether his thoughts are loud enough to sing themselves into being while they kiss he’ll never know, and anyway this is a dream, so it might be both or neither or something in between. It doesn’t matter. “Yes, Crowley, take me, have me, stay with me, please, please.”
the canon one or this one? nm obviously both ;)
Date: 2023-08-25 12:26 pm (UTC)But then--
Stay with me.
Crowley would give the soul he no longer has to hear that in the waking world. All of this, all the rest of what they've done and said here is all just showing how desperately much. The only thing he actually wants. It hurts, how much he wants it.
He all but sobs into Aziraphale's mouth, his tongue delving in with ferocity, mimicking what his fingers (two now, not slow and exploring but impatient, greedy) are doing below. He should drag this out longer, should take time to appreciate it, but he can't, not after those words. Not when he wants so desperately.
He rolls them over, still kissing Aziraphale as though their lives depend on it, as though this could dissolve at any moment. (It could, it will, he can't keep it, he's not going to think about that yet) His angel's thighs are still spread around his waist, cock hard and trapped against their bellies, it's so good, it's not enough.
Stay with me.
Always, his heart answers. Always, always, always, please, and then he has his cock in his slicked hand and is lined up, pressing in, he should be more careful, he should, but this is a dream (it'll vanish and he has to enjoy it while he can, don't think about that yet) so it'll work, he'll make it work. Aziraphale will be ready and willing and eager for him, and he is, he is, clutching at him and gasping encouragement and Crowley slides in with a slow ease that's almost torturous for how good it is.
the answer is yes
Date: 2023-08-25 09:17 pm (UTC)He hears it, clear and certain, feels the thought coil around him like the long body of a snake. It’s that thought and the hunger behind it, the longing, that moves Aziraphale’s dream-body where Crowley wants him to go.
Always.
How is all of this for him? Aziraphale has always been soft, weak, anxious. Unremarkable. How can Crowley want him so much? How can it possibly be real, that the depth of what Crowley’s been hiding from him matches what Aziraphale has had to keep concealed for years? And it’s not real, not in the physical sense, but the emotion is so raw and strong it can’t come from his own imagination.
Always.
He’s on his back, spread open, hot slick pressure stealing his breath; he’s had this dream, he knows the motions. But every movement is also Crowley saying please, please I want, and as Aziraphale tightens his thighs around Crowley’s sides and rocks into his thrusts he responds. I want that too, I want you too, I want all the things you want.
Blindly he feathers kisses across Crowley’s face, and some of them are less kisses than they are flashes of memory. Tiny fragments, accumulated over thousands of years, of warmth and companionship and intimacy. A long slow fall in images of his fiend: a laugh, a moment of stillness, a rare kind gesture, a bright ray of enthusiasm.
Stay with me, he repeats, nearly begging, his hands scrabbling at the small of Crowley’s back to push him deeper.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-27 12:14 am (UTC)That still wasn't like this. He moves in his angel and that ocean-tide of need moves with him, almost tangible. There's so much of it. That's one reason he's so cautious about this with Aziraphale when they're awake, why should they both drown, could even an angel face something like this?
But now every time he thrusts home, every time Aziraphale kisses his face, there's a spark. A memory of them laughing outside Athens, the taste of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, a brief handclasp, Aziraphale rolling his eyes, Crowley complaining, tickets. The sun on Aziraphale's hair as he looks over his shoulders. Mesopotamia, Paris, Edinburgh. More times and places and words and images than even he can process. A lifetime shared. You were never alone, they say. I was with you all the way, we walked this path together.
The ocean roars. Crowley's eyes are screwed shut now, his thrusts hard and rough, stay with me always (but he won't), and it feels so good, Aziraphale's warmth and affection (he won't call it love, he can't) all around him, welcoming, wanting Crowley. All of it asking for more, more, more and he gives all he has (pours water out on the dry sand), and it's so good, it's bliss, ecstacy, and that moment of release will be so perfect and so painful (because it isn't real)--
"Aziraphale," Crowley gasps, sweat dripping off his brow. "I love you."
And the wave crashes over him.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-27 05:05 pm (UTC)It’s an order of magnitude stronger than before, shaking them both fiercely, a lifetime of love bursting into furious bloom. They cling to one another, trembling in startled exhilaration, as overwhelmed as mortals.
As the last of the sharp sweet pulses rocks them, Aziraphale breathes a long sigh of satisfaction and relief.
“I love you, Crowley.”
His whole being seems to ring with the words, certain and nebula-bright, the deepest truth he knows. It brings with it a last wave of memory: Aziraphale may have once admired an angel who watched the birth of the stars with innocent joy, but his heart belongs to the demon he met on a wall, the one who’s slouched and complained and teased and always, always been there for him. His arms and legs wrap tight around Crowley, his dream-body following the lapping tide of devotion that flows from his heart.
I'm a sucker for first times where Crowley is hurting afterwards so sue me. Up to you if A feels it
Date: 2023-08-27 06:27 pm (UTC)They lie together shaking, entwined and clutching at each other, as their bodies (imagined bodies) gradually calm and the rest of it fades to something less overwhelming.
Aziraphale says those words, and they sound so sweet and certain. So sure. Everything he wants to hear.
Crowley buries his face in the angel's neck and trembles as a few tears fall. This is why he doesn't do this, why he shouldn't do it. Because after the moment, after the ecstacy, he's so fucking alone. He's holding a dream of Aziraphale in his arms, yes. But it's only a dream. He might as well be hugging a picture, or a mirror.
He can still feel that pulse of adoration, quiet and steady, trying to keep him in the illusion. It's an impressive new level of self-deception, even by his standards.
He tries. He lies there, clinging to Aziraphale as hard as he can, trying to make himself pretend this is real. Breathing him in, feeling the heated places where their skin touches. Just a little longer.
omg A is going to spoil him silly when they’re awake ;_;
Date: 2023-08-27 06:52 pm (UTC)(No wonder humans fight and die for love; no wonder they come up with endless combinations of words in every language to describe its intricacies. No wonder they believe this is what makes up the truest substance of the Almighty. Even the thought of its absence is powerful enough to bring an immortal being close to despair.)
Aziraphale tries to fold around him, a hand sliding into his hair. Deep in his soul he’s comforted by knowing Crowley loves him back, that he hasn’t been imagining things all these years, and he does his best to pour that comfort out into the wounded heart pressed against his own.
I’m here. I’ve been here the whole time. I’ve missed you when we’ve been apart, and rejoiced when we’ve had the opportunity to be together, and I can say yes now, I’m finally ready and I’m sorry I made you wait but you made this so, so wonderful and I’m so glad I came to you.
once he talks C down. Also I'm guessing A won't let him go but if he does C's getting out of bed.
Date: 2023-08-27 08:19 pm (UTC)But this, what he's doing now...
He sighs a little, kisses Aziraphale's neck, tastes the salt of his own tears there. Traces the line of the jaw, leans up enough to take a full kiss. He makes it last, a lazy luxurious thing, getting as much of the taste of that mouth as he can. Another memory to add to the collection, even if it's only a memory of a dream.
Then he starts pulling away.
He might actually be on top of C but there’s no way A’s letting him go
Date: 2023-08-27 08:53 pm (UTC)“What’s the matter?”
In his own dreams he always lingers, basking greedily in what he can’t have in real life (or thought he couldn’t have, anyway) for as long as possible. The sudden withdrawal of this warmth stings a little, far too much like moments he’s realized he was waking up and wanted to cling to the dream a few seconds longer.
“Crowley?”
Nope C rolled them over at one point he's on top just now.
Date: 2023-08-27 09:33 pm (UTC)So help me he’ll get tackled back into bed if A has to
Date: 2023-08-27 09:46 pm (UTC)....may have to make that happen
Date: 2023-08-27 09:59 pm (UTC)He tries again to pull away, manages to get loose from one of Aziraphale's arms at least, attempts to roll over out of the bed.
also I’m a dork and thought you meant when they wake up
Date: 2023-08-27 10:17 pm (UTC)“If you’re going to wake up, at least let’s do it properly.”
ohhhh I see! I figured they were side by side there
Date: 2023-08-27 10:46 pm (UTC)Crowley is clearly caught by surprise, both by being pinned and by Aziraphale's happy determination. This isn't how things usually go.
"Wasn't going to--nothing to wake up for yet," he manages, flustered. What the heaven is going on here? He hasn't heard his alarm, or the phone ring. There's nothing waiting for him in the real world but more being locked in his flat watching shit telly. Or drinking, which is a little tempting, but not a good idea. "Just--" A sudden pulse of loneliness brings a sudden lump in this throat, and he swallows over it. "Something else. Should do something else for a while, 'til it stops."
They’ve both probably still got some control but got very distracted
Date: 2023-08-28 01:17 am (UTC)(Something feels strange, a little more vivid than perhaps it ought to, in the way his breath stirs against Crowley’s face. As if their bodies have actually gotten closer in the waking world, which is entirely possible. Aziraphale is much more aware of it now.)
“And what if I follow you and keep asking?” It’s an entirely earnest question. Not a shred of accusation colors it, only warmth and determination. “How many times will I have to ask before you realize it’s me?”
He punctuates the last word with a bright bloom of affection that registers like a warm exhale against the snake tattoo.
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Date: 2023-08-28 01:33 am (UTC)He more or less falls off the bed, rolls to his hands and knees and then to a sitting position, settles himself against a wall that obligingly moves closer. He's starting to look vaguely haunted. "What the fuck is going on?"
It sounds like it's said more to himself than anyone else.
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Date: 2023-08-28 04:48 pm (UTC)All this, all the intimacy and truth they’ve just shared, and Crowley still thinks he’s just a stray figment that’s… what? Malfunctioning? A splinter of his mind driving him into Shakespearean madness? Immediately Aziraphale feels a stab of guilt; he hadn’t meant to frighten Crowley, not in the least. Though it’s not without frustration that he can’t seem to figure out how to get the truth to register.
“Look,” he tries, scooting closer to the edge of the mattress. “I’ve been trying to tell you. Please don’t panic.”
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Date: 2023-08-28 06:26 pm (UTC)But.
There've been all those niggling little details he's been noticing. Any of them on their own might've been forgotten, and then again he might've followed up on any of them if he hadn't been so distracted by the image of everything he wants.
Suddenly those details are forming a clear picture. It doesn't make much sense, and at the same time it makes quite a lot of sense.
Crowley stares. Then he stares harder, looks deeper.
"...Aziraphale?" he asks, disbelieving.
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Date: 2023-08-28 06:55 pm (UTC)“I think you must have slept through your alarm,” he says, and his voice sounds distinctly smaller. “It’s New Year’s Eve, and I… changed my mind. About strictly following the human social distancing rules. And I didn’t want to just shake you or something, and…”
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Date: 2023-08-28 07:30 pm (UTC)He's sitting bareass naked on the floor, looking up at a frankly over the top bed which contains an also bareass naked angel who is apparently actually an angel and not just a figment of one.
An angel with whom he's just done...quite a number of quite explicit things.
Inside Crowley's own dreams.
Shock doesn't begin to cover it.
He has a large number of questions, mostly beginning with "how" and "why" and "how" again and a generous side helping of "when." The first one that comes out is, unfortunately. "...what the fuck?!?"
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Date: 2023-08-28 07:48 pm (UTC)“I did try to tell you! More than once.”
(Minutes ago he felt like the most beautiful being in creation, caught up in the greatest and deepest love he’s ever felt, and all at once he’s starting to shrink back down to his pitiful unremarkable self again. Why did he do this? Why did he think this was a good idea?)
(I'm sorry Aziraphale! ...on the other hand I do rather feel Crowley has a point!)
Date: 2023-08-28 07:58 pm (UTC)He'd like to stand up and walk around and pace but he's still bareass naked and far too worked up to do things like manifest clothes. Which would be easier in here than it would outside but he doesn't remember that either. And Aziraphale is looking unhappy and upset, and that's awful, especially after...but seriously what the fuck? "How are you even..." He waves a hand, indicating...everywhere, really, the entire dreamscape.
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Date: 2023-08-28 08:19 pm (UTC)Damn, he’s buggered this up, he’s possibly ruined the best thing that’s ever happened to him. But there is another thought surging in his heart, one that spills out far more easily in this dreamscape than it would in the real world where he’s as much substance as he is thought.
“I’m not sorry we did that, but I am sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”
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From:you have understood my angel mug headcanon perfectly
From:OF COURSE HE STOLE ONE
From:DAMN RIGHT HE DID
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From:we're in trouble because Crowley is even less able to ask now than he ever was!
From:lucky for him there’s another party who can ask permission XD
From:Or....!
From:OR!! lmk if I need to edit
From:NOPE perfect, high-five to us
From:THE HIGHEST OF FIVES :D
From:still not gonna be that high, I'm short. ;)
From:something something rocket chair
From:Re: something something rocket chair
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From:I'll regret phonetagging in the morning because there are always typos but OH WELL
From:<3 who cares about typos TAGS IS TAGS
From:But they're tags with TYPOS waaaaaahhh!!! And don't worry C will get used to all this. ;)
From:He will get excellent aftercare for sure!
From:good. give him all the love please, he needs it
From:need to find a way to actually communicate this headcanon to C.
From:I'd like to claim my use of that word was a deliberate callback buuuut...;)
From:It was gonna come up sometime! :D
From:very true (along with other things, hem hem)
From:ba dum, tish! AND HEY GUESS WHAT CROWLEY IT’S REAL THIS TIME
From:you have NO idea how many times I read that tag or how much I swooned
From:aw thanks. this took me a while, hope it’s okay?
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From:IT REALLY DID.
From:He really wants C to know he meant it! It was that or the bow ties!
From:bow ties would also have been welcomed, but this is better for this
From:put a pin in bow ties for later, though.
From:hell to the yes. Though maybe it should be Aziraphale tying up Crowley instead. (maybe = definitely)
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