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"Didn't you have a sword with you just now?"
Aziraphale closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. 10... 9... 8....
"Could've sworn you did. Don't see it anymore."
He clenched his teeth. 5... 4... 3...
"Lost it already, have you?"
Yielding to some sort of breaking point, Aziraphale huffed and whirled around to shoot the speaker a frightening scowl - or as frightening a scowl as one could make when dressed in a cheap linen sheet and a gold foil halo over his head.
The person swung back to avoid his wings, far too large for a party of this crowd. "Woah there, angel."
Aziraphale took one look at the man who'd approached him, and the string of words he had prepared died in his throat.
"I..." He blinked rapidly, assessing the situation before him. "Well this is a bit awkward."
"Is it?"
Under the dim multicolored lights of the room, he can make out quite a bit of the angular features on the man's face. He was dressed in long black robes and black wings to compete with Aziraphale's pristine white ones. He had long locks of flaming red hair, falling over his face in beautiful ringlets, and his high cheekbones peeked out from a black mask which obscured the entire lower half of his face.
But Aziraphale would know those cheekbones anywhere. All at once, he felt his face heat up.
"Crowley?"
"The one and only."
It was a struggle to make out what Crowley was saying, what with the loud music blaring from the tinny speakers and only having to rely on his hearing. But Crowley spoke in an unnaturally loud and clear tone, his voice rising above the chaos and through the muffling effects of the fabric over his mouth and nose, for Aziraphale's benefit.
"Are you supposed to be a demon?"
"Look carefully. M'not just any demon."
Aziraphale furrowed his brows, trying to make out Crowley's expression under the horrid lighting. "Are there any special demons I should know about?"
Crowley seemed to heave a sigh of frustration, but he couldn't be sure since Aziraphale couldn't see his mouth. He stepped closer to Aziraphale, bending low and leaning in.
A jolt of panic went up in Aziraphale's brain. What on earth was his colleague was doing? Good lord, he was certain they had never been this close before. He bit his lip in anticipation, heat flaring up from his stomach as the scent of Crowley's perfume hit his nose.
Crowley stopped short just a few inches away from his face, tilting his head in such a peculiar, nearly beast-like fashion. He found himself entrapped by a pair of golden snakelike eyes.
"A snake... demon?" He squeaked. From this view, he noticed that the black mask had a print of two rows of predatory teeth, sprinkled with sharp fangs which stretched all the way to the sides of his cheeks.
Crowley rolled his golden slitted eyes. "Not just a snake. The serpent of Eden. The original tempter, you know?"
"Ah." Aziraphale smiled and pieced together the different elements of his costume. It was all so cleverly done, he had to admit. "And the, um, hair?"
Crowley leaned back and ran a hand through his red locks. "A wig," he said. "But I did sport something similar when I was in uni. Don't think I could put in the effort of maintaining this monster now, I'm afraid."
Aziraphale thought it looked rather fetching on him. He looked away before he could make Crowley uncomfortable with his staring, and went back to scouring this particular nook and cranny of the room with his eyes.
It might not perhaps be necessary now to mention that Aziraphale had always, um, harboured a bit of a crush on the lanky redhead from I.T., but there was the fact laid out anyway. For your benefit.
"What about you, then? What kind of angel are you supposed to be?"
"Just the regular kind, I suppose."
"Really? Didn't even bother to come up with a dramatic backstory for it?"
"I don't know, Crowley." He couldn't resist snapping, the frustration of the night's recent events bubbling up inside him and seeping out in hot bursts. He gave Crowley an apologetic look, sighing. "I was only told to dress up as an angel for my role in the scavenger hunt and that is it."
"Scavenger hunt, huh?" continued Crowley, inspecting the same general space that Aziraphale had been glaring at. "That have something to do with the sword?"
"You aren't supposed to know about this." Aziraphale's shoulders hunched defeatedly. "But yes, it does."
"And you lost it."
"Yes, I did."
"Oh, well done. " He could practically hear the amused smirk on Crowley's face.
"Just shut up and help me look for it!"
Crowley laughed some more, throwing back his head. It took all of Aziraphale's willpower not to stare at the exposed column of his neck.
"Can't say no to an angel of the Lord now, can I?"
"This really isn't the time for jokes."
Crowley gave him a lighthearted grin. "Fine. Can't promise I'd be much help though." He waved a hand in front of his own face, going cross-eyed at a set of long fingers. "It's these contacts I'm wearing. Depth perception's fucked up right now."
"How lucky that I should have a half blind serpent assisting me on this quest," said Aziraphale grimly.
Slowly, they coursed through the room, whacking a few shoulders and heads with their wings in the process, but it was a lot more bearable now that Aziraphale didn't have to do it alone. Still, there was no sign of the sword anywhere.
"Look," said Crowley after about twenty minutes of fruitless searching. "I've no idea where that thing is, but if it was taken by the folks I think who took it, you may as well give up."
Aziraphale frowned at the demon. This turned out to be a terrible decision, as he found that Crowley was pushing the black fabric away from his wrist to check his obnoxiously clunky looking watch ( That's a tad anachronistic, don't you think? He'd wanted to say), and the words got lodged in his throat at the sight of Crowley's toned forearm. The room suddenly went ten degrees hotter.
It occurred to him now that this was probably the longest amount of time he'd spent with Crowley, despite having pined after him from afar for the better part of the past three years he'd been working here. They passed each other in the hallways, exchanged polite greetings while waiting in line for the lifts, and once had an amusing conversation about the validity of Queen as appropriate music for a co-worker's memorial service. Each encounter left him breathless, but they had never ventured into anything more than those chance encounters.
That was until today, on the night of their corporate halloween party, with Aziraphale asking for his help and Crowley actively following him around - in matching costumes, no less. Aziraphale would be so thrilled were he not filled with anxiety over his current predicament. Oh dear, he would never hear the end of it from Michael if he didn't find that dumb sword.
"You know who took the sword?"
"Eeeeeh, I mean." Crowley shrugged, standing in such a slithery manner which befitted his snakelike appearance. "Knowing them it was probably the Erics."
"Oh."
The Erics were a group of young I.T. interns who liked to cause a whole bunch of minor inconveniences around the building. They weren't always the same group of people, but such a company never ran out of Erics. They were always lurking about, ready to cause more mischief.
"I thought the Erics would rather enjoy the scavenger hunt," Aziraphale mused.
Crowley chuckled. "Are you kidding? You do know it's only your lot that's so strung up about the whole thing. We down at I.T. really could care less."
Aziraphale groaned. He was well aware how annoyingly competitive Gabriel and Sandalphon got at any chance they could get to prove superiority over the other departments.
"And you were, what? Supposed to be guarding this sword?" Continued Crowley. "Aziraphale, you really shouldn't give a shit about it either. Relax, will you? It's their game, not ours."
He reached out a hand to grab Aziraphale's elbow, his thumb making a sweeping path over Aziraphale's skin. It sent a jolt of electricity up his arm and left the angel feeling dizzy. He tried to give Crowley a smile, but it came out all shaky.
Crowley dropped his hand, and Aziraphale tried to tamp down his disappointment. He wished that the touch had lasted a little bit longer.
They turned into a little hallway, outside the periphery of the party's events, and Aziraphale ground his heels into the floor when he saw Michael approaching from the other end.
Aziraphale suppressed a yelp, and his panicked and muddled brain could think of nothing else to do but grab Crowley's arm and pull him into the supply closet they had been standing in front of.
"Nghh!" Crowley groaned as the door shut behind them, and they were plunged into complete darkness.
It took an entire three seconds for Aziraphale to realise what on earth he'd just done.
"Aziraphale, what the - "
Aziraphale shushed him, speaking in a loud whisper. "I'm so sorry! I saw Michael and all I knew is they wouldn't be happy to see us!"
"Why the fuck not?"
"Well, I did sort of... lose the sword."
"And I factor into this how?"
Aziraphale paused for a moment. "I can't be found consorting with the enemy.
Crowley was shifting around until his hand came upon the light switch, and a dim yellow light bathed them both. He slapped a hand to his forehead. "Screw all those bastards at R&D. I mean really, totally screw them - not you, of course , just everyone else."
Aziraphale felt a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
That was when he noticed how close they were. His knees were tucked in between Crowley's, and heat radiated from their bodies in waves.
All the alarms screeched in his head and he tried to take a step back, but his movement was halted by a painful tug on the garter strap by his armpit.
"Are you alright?" asked Crowley.
Aziraphale glanced behind him, and he really could not think how this night could get any more awkward. "My wing is stuck."
"Your wing is - "
"It got caught in the door, Crowley! And I can't open it now until I'm certain the coast is clear."
"And you didn't at all think they'd be curious about paper feathers sticking out of a supply room door hinge?"
Aziraphale rolled his eyes again. "I'm sorry. I'll just..."
They both attempted to shift around, but there really wasn't a lot of room in here. "Can't you just tug yourself free?"
Aziraphale shook his head. "I'm not sure. I don't want to risk damaging the thing."
Crowley heaved out a sigh and reached a hand over Aziraphale's shoulder. "Here, let me try - "
His dark brows were furrowed in concentration, and Aziraphale was mesmerised by their movement as Crowley leaned close - so close to him, and almost subconsciously, Aziraphale tipped up his chin to gaze at him.
Crowley's mouth pressed against his own, the thick cotton fabric of his mask the only thing between their lips. Aziraphale jolted up, pressing his back against the door, and Crowley threw his head back but didn't exactly have much room to move away, what with his own black wings taking up their own space and all.
Instead he launched headfirst into a fit of rambling.
"Ah, shit! Didn't mean to do that - at least not that way and just. I mean. I wasn't taking advantage, or - it's just, bloody depth perception!"
"What," Aziraphale mumbled and trailed off, his pulse racing in his neck and his cheeks flooding with warmth. "What do you mean not that way?"
Crowley froze. "I - "
"Was there any other way that you... you were considering?"
Crowley's neck went about as red as his hair, his serpent eyes shifting wildly around the scant space in between them, anything to avoid looking at Aziraphale. "I may have... had a few ideas, yeah."
Aziraphale bit his lip to keep his grin from stretching too wide. "And was this a spur of the moment thing, or?"
Crowley rubbed the back of his neck, his robes rustling about as he moved languidly. "I may have been planning it... for a while."
Aziraphale blinked. And maybe there was still a whole party going on outside. Perhaps Michael was lingering by the door and listening in. The Erics could have taken the sword to Alpha Centauri, but absolutely nothing would have taken him away from this very moment.
He boldly reached out to grab a fabric of Crowley's robes by his waist, tugging lightly. "What do you mean by planning?"
"Come on. Angel, demon? Did you really think this was all a coincidence? I heard you were gonna be the scavenger hunt angel a couple weeks ago when Michael talked to you about it by the lifts."
"You were there?!"
And then it all clicked. Crowley's flush was rising by the minute, and Aziraphale gasped.
"You told the Erics to take my sword!"
"May have... done that, yeah."
"You foul fiend!"
"Hey!" Crowley held up his hands, as much as the small space would allow. "In my defense, I was only looking for a way to talk to you. Didn't think you'd just straight up pull me into a closet."
Now it was Aziraphale's turn to be embarrassed.
"Oh god. I am so sorry."
"No! No don't be!" Crowley hurried to reassure. "I mean, if it wasn't already clear... I'm very, um, amenable to this unexpected turn of events."
Aziraphale had to remind himself to breathe. Crowley liked him too? Enough to orchestrate all this silliness, even? How on earth was he to process all this?
"But I didn't mean to kiss you there, alright?" Crowley continued rambling. "I'm not that kinda guy. It's really, these contact lenses are really really shite - "
"Then will you kiss me now?"
" - and I wouldn't under normal circumstances just up and - "
"Crowley, I want you to kiss me."
" - and really I was gonna ask you to dinner first, still want to by the way - "
Aziraphale grabbed his jaw, pulling down on that horrid mask to reveal a pair of reddened thin lips. Crowley stilled under his touch, his breath hitching audibly.
"I swear to God, Crowley, I'm going to lose my mind if you don't shut up and kiss me right now ."
Crowley didn't need to be told a fourth time.
He leaned back in, his mouth crashing onto Aziraphale's own with unexpected urgency. It was like hot fires licking up from his limbs to his stomach. Like clouds filling up his brain and filtering through his lashes. Like gusts of cool wind rushing out into the sigh he released through his nose, fanning over Crowley's cheek.
His hands slid down to Crowley's neck while Crowley held onto his waist, pulling him closer. Aziraphale couldn't remember ever feeling this alive. And when Crowley's tongue pressed into the seam of his lips, he parted them immediately, moaning when it swiped gently against the roof of his mouth.
Crowley broke off the kiss, his eyes wide and looking reptilian in a near comical way, but Aziraphale found that even this Crowley had a strange sort of charm. He was so beautiful.
Aziraphale gave him a tentative smile. "Did you like that?"
Crowley nodded eagerly. "That was, yeah. That's. Pretty great." A part of him seemed to die inside and he buried his face into Aziraphale's shoulder. " Don't - I'm just gonna shut up now." He pressed a soft kiss to the side of Aziraphale's neck that sent shivers down his spine.
"I would very much love to go to dinner with you." Aziraphale was full-on smiling now. "If the offer's still on the table."
Crowley raised up his head, nodding again. "Yes. Very much on the table. Could do it right now, if you want."
"But there's still - "
"Screw the scavenger hunt, angel. I'm here to tempt you to leave R&D to function without you for once."
Normally, Aziraphale would have taken the logical route and countered this notion. He was a model employee, giving more hours than he really should into his work, and his superiors may well have taken advantage of it. But that was before a certain serpent of Eden slithered into the picture with a proposition for an alternative.
"Well then, you wily creature." He opened the door behind him and took Crowley's hand. "Temptation accomplished."
*