Archive of Our Own ^beta

“You’re sure you don’t mind?” Crowley asked, wincing even though his ankle technically wasn’t broken anymore. It hurt to walk on.

“Of course I don’t mind! You quite clearly need somewhere to stay, and, well.” Aziraphale gave a small shrug, which nearly knocked Crowley off balance. Right now, he had Crowley’s arm around his shoulders, and his own arm around Crowley’s waist for extra support. “We have the Arrangement now, and I do have a room at the inn already. It’s much better than you hobbling around town looking for somewhere to stay.”

“Thanks. Did all the hobbling I could while trying to find somewhere to stable my stupid horse. Which is more than it deserved, considering.” Crowley winced again, his leg trying to crumple under him. He wasn’t sure what his ankle was being so dramatic about, given that his bone weren’t snapped in half anymore. Maybe it didn’t like him walking on it. “Er. Does your room at the inn have two beds?”

“Um.” Brow creased, Aziraphale glanced at him, then helped him inside a tavern attached to the inn. Crowley took the opportunity to grab a jug of wine. “Well, no. I can’t say that it does, since I didn’t realize I was having company. Why?”

“Er.” This was really awkward, especially since Aziraphale was an angel, and Crowley had no idea if Heaven had adopted some sort of stance about the issue. “It’s not, I dunno. Inappropriate for you or something?”

“I don’t see why it would be inappropriate to share a bed.” Still carefully supporting Crowley, Aziraphale took a turn into the room. There was a fireplace already blazing, which was a relief. “Unless you mean because humans, um… fool around in beds.”

Aziraphale blushed, which honestly made him sort of cute. It was almost a shame that Crowley wasn’t into that sort of thing, because Aziraphale seemed like the sort of person it might be fun to fool around with, in theory. Especially if they could talk while doing it.

Crowley shook off the thought. “Er, yeah. I did mean that. I just don’t want you to worry about me trying to seduce you or something.”

“Well, it would be somewhat difficult for you to seduce me,” Aziraphale said, helping him sit down.

Almost dizzy with pain, Crowley let out a shaky breath. His ankle definitely had not appreciated being snapped in half. “Why’s that?”

“Well, because I’m not interested. I thought it might be fun once, so I, um…” Aziraphale blushed again and chuckled. “Well, I visited an orgy.”

Crowley paused in the middle of pouring a glass of wine and just stared at him. “You, at an orgy?”

“Mhm. It was so awkward, though. I didn’t enjoy it at all, even just watching. It looked awfully boring.” Carefully, Aziraphale fluffed up the pillows and helped Crowley sit back. “So, if you did try to seduce me, it wouldn’t go very well.”

“Huh,” Crowley said, eloquently.

Aziraphale slipped a pillow under Crowley’s ankle and gave his shin a gentle pat. “Were you planning to seduce me?”

“Wot? No!” Crowley’s cheeks heated up, and Aziraphale raised an eyebrow. “Look, I don’t see what all the fuss is about either. It looks incredibly bloody boring to me. Not to mention messy.”

“Quite.” Aziraphale poured himself a glass of wine too and sat in bed beside Crowley. “How do you feel about other sorts of affection? Like holding hands?”

“Er.” Crowley considered it. “I dunno, I don’t think I’ve ever held hand with anyone.”

“Well.” Almost shyly, Aziraphale took his hand. For a moment, he just held it, then asked, “Do you like it?”

“Gosh. Yeah, it’s terrific.” It was relaxing, especially because Aziraphale’s hand was warm. It didn’t make Crowley have any sudden explosions of desire like some people talked about, but it definitely felt good. “I gotta admit, I sometimes wonder if ‘fooling around’ is fun, but I think this is better than that could ever be.”

“And it’s much less messy,” Aziraphale said, smiling.

“Makes a pretty great distraction from my ankle feeling like it’s still being stepped on by a horse, too.”

“Oh, good.” Aziraphale leaned against his shoulder, stroking his thumb across Crowley’s skin. “If you get really desperate for distractions later, we could even try hugging! All as part of the Arrangement, of course.”

Crowley snorted. “Of course.”

They settled in to drink their wine, still holding hands. This was all a pretty great perk to the Arrangement, if one wanted to frame it like that.

Crowley, though, was pretty sure it was something else, something so much better. At this point, he and Aziraphale had the best possible thing in the world—a good, solid friendship.