Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

‘Why on earth did I let Anathema talk me into this?’ Aziraphale thinks to himself as he huffily looks out the window of the bumpily moving small blue car while his best friend Anathema and her boyfriend Newt flirt in the front seats. “Are we almost there yet?” Aziraphale says a fair bit more snippy than he intended.

Anathema glances back at him as best she can from the passenger seat and quirks an eyebrow at Aziraphale saying. “Since when are you so impatient Az?” At which Aziraphale simply huffs and looks back out the window. “No need to be so grumpy Aziraphale, I’m just teasing. But really we’re almost there it shouldn’t be more than another half an hour or so before we reach Jasmine Cottage.” Anathema says reassuringly.

At this Aziraphale looks up from the window and sighs. “I’m terribly sorry Dear Girl. I’m afraid I’m simply feeling a bit car sick.” He says though they both knew that wasn’t the main reason for Aziraphale’s bad mood. “I know, but we’re almost there, then you get the whole summer to destress from all that.” Anathema says with a small sympathetic smile before continuing. “But I promise you this vacation in the country side is exactly what we all need! Then once we’re back to London for school in the fall we’ll all be much more relaxed and ready for the next school year, we’ll be what do you say? Tickity-Boo!”

Aziraphale tries his best to smile but it ends up looking a lot more like a grimace. ‘I certainly hope you’re right Ana, maybe this is just what I need.’ Aziraphale thinks with a slight sigh before pulling out a book and trying to read despite the music and loud sounds of Newts old rust bucket of a car.

“Here we are!” Anathema says in a sing song voice as Newt pulls up in the driveway of a small stone cottage, and Aziraphale who had fallen asleep on his book jerks awake.

“O-oh are we here?” Aziraphale says tiredly as he yawns and rubs his eyes. “Yep this is the place. Jasmine Cottage. Let’s get unpacked.” Anathema says as she hops out of the car, grabs her stuff and starts off towards the house. Aziraphale and Newt following close behind her each with their own bags.

The cottage was rather small having two bedrooms, a bathroom, a living area, a kitchen and a small loft, but it was rather cozy and had an old book smell to it that Aziraphale loved.

“Right so Newt and I will share the master bedroom and you can have the smaller one.” Anathema says to Aziraphale as she gestures to the door of the smaller room on her way to the master one. “Right oh.” Aziraphale mutters as he heads towards door she had indicated which opened to reveal the room that would be his for the next almost three months.

The three of them spend the next half hour or so moving all their stuff into the Cottage. Till there was just one lode of things left to grab namely Aziraphale’s books when he hears someone clear their throat. Aziraphale turns around only to see four children standing there looking at him. “Oh, hello. Did you children need something?” Aziraphale says with a weak smile as his eyes flit between the four.

The boy in the middle who seems to be the ring leader takes a step forward and says. “Are you moving in here?” Aziraphale clears his throat and says. “I, ah, no not exactly. This cottage was left to a dear friend of mine by her great grandmother when she passed away and we’re staying here for the summer. But we’ll be going back to London in the autumn.” The boy narrows his eyes before shrugging and saying. “Alright!” As he takes a step forward extending his hand for Aziraphale to shake as he says. “I’m Adam by the way. Adam Young. And these are my friends. Wendsleydale, Pepper, and Brian.” His chest puffed out slightly as he gestures at the other two boys and one girl a bit behind him.

Aziraphale shakes his hand and says. “Yes well it is very nice meeting you Adam. I’m Aziraphale.” As he smiles weakly at the over confident child.

“Hey Az! What’s taking you so long? You haven’t been crushed by your books have you?” Anathema calls out as she leaves the house, and walks towards the back of the car.

“Ah no, I was just speaking with this young man and his friends here.” Aziraphale says gesturing towards Adam and his friends as Anathema reaches them. “Ah, hello children.” Anathema says with a smile.

“Is this your house?” Adam asks Anathema with a slight frown. Anathema raises an eyebrow somewhat shocked at how blunt the child was being but she nods and says. “Yeah, it was left to me by my great grandmother.” Adam tilts his head and says. “Agnes?” His eyes slightly narrowed. Anathema nods again and says. “Yes.”

The little girl Pepper then chimes in giving Anathema a suspicious look as she says. “She was a witch. Are you one too?” At that question all four of the children were looking at Anathema intently, keenly awaiting her reply. “I prefer the term occultist, but some people would consider me a witch yes. Though I’m not nearly as good at it as my great grandmother was.” Anathema says.

Adam stares at her for a moment before saying. “Hmm…” He then perks up and says. “Alight! If you need a tour of the town we’ll be happy to give you one! I know all the good spots.” Anathema smiles and says. “Thank you, we might just have to take you up on that.” Adam nods and with that the four children hop on their bikes and bike off. “Goodbye.” Aziraphale calls after them but they don’t answer.

“What peculiar children.” He mutters. “Pft! All children are weird.” Anathema snorts as she picks up the last box of Aziraphale’s books. “My siblings weren’t.” He mutters. At which Anathema rolls her eyes and says. “Yeah that’s because they’re all boring bigots. Anyway come on Aziraphale let’s head in.” And with that she herds Aziraphale back into the house.

Chapter Text

“I don’t see why we need to actually clime the mountain for camping Anathema. Why can’t we just you know, camp at the base of it like normal people!?” Aziraphale says out of breath as he Anathema and Newt clime up a rather steep slope.

“Oh come on Aziraphale it’s fun! And we’re not ‘normal people’ surely you know that by now. Besides when she was alive Agnes would always talk about how amazing the view from this mountain was, but I never got the chance to climb it with her, and I had to leave right after her funeral, so we’re doing this in her honor.” Anathema says as she glances back at the exhausted blonde who huffs and says. “Yes well, I don’t see why we couldn’t have just come up here for this supposedly amazing view looked at it for a bit and then headed back down and set up our camp down there.” Continuing to Grumble under his breath as they continues trudging upward.

“Because, Aziraphale. We have to catch the sunset and preferably the sunrise as well and I figured you would be even less thrilled to go trudging up or down a mountain in the dark.” Anathema says with a snort as she rolls her eyes. Aziraphale huffs and opens his mouth to snip back but Newt cut him off before he had the chance saying. “Ok you two! I think that’s enough arguing, let’s just focus on getting to this lookout, please.” Aziraphale sighs and Anathema who was right next to Newt smiles and says. “You’re right sweetie.” Leaning over and kissing him which makes Aziraphale roll his eyes.

After another fifteen minutes or so of walking the three of them reach the lookout area where they plan to set up camp. And as soon as they reached the semi flat ground Aziraphale pretty much collapsed to the ground with a groan.

“Come on Aziraphale it wasn’t that difficult.” Anathema says looking down at Aziraphale with an amused look on her face despite being somewhat out of breath herself. Aziraphale simply glares up at her and mutters. “Says you.” She snorts and offers him a hand saying. “Come on. Up you get, let’s get everything all set up.” Azirphale groans but excepts her hand and allows himself to be hauled to his feet, even though setting up a campsite was the last thing he wanted to do after spending the past two hours climbing a mountain.

Thankfully with the three of them set up does go by much quicker than Aziraphale had expected and within half an hour their camp was all set up and they had a small fire going so that they could cook up some food and make some s’mores.

When as the sun starts to set they sit at the edge of the lookout and watch as the sky is painted with hues of orange, pink and gold. “See Aziraphale it’s this worth the two hour hike?” Anathema says with a raised eyebrow as she cuddles into Newts Side. “I have to admit, your aunt Agnes was right about the view.” Aziraphale says with a small smile which turns somewhat sad as he glances at them. While he’s very happy that his friends are happy and in love he can’t help but to feel a little jealous of their happiness, his own loneliness bubbling to the surface. As he isn’t in contact with his family due to their homophobia and is still too nervous and scared to try dating. After a moment she shakes his head and pushes those feelings down looking back out over the edge of the mountain.

The three of them sit and watch the sun set until it’s down and the stars start to come out. “Right well, I think I’m going to turn in. Maybe read a few chapters of my book.” Aziraphale says to Anathema and Newt as he stands up and dusts off his pants.

“Alright! Sleep well Az.” Anathema says with a smile. “Yeah, sleep well Aziraphale.” Newt says. Aziraphale nods and says. “Yes, you too.” Before turning and heading off to his tent, leaving Newt and Anathema to watch the stars.

Once he was in his tent he settles in to read a few chapters of one of the books he brought with him on their camping trip. The three of them had been staying in Jasmine Cottage for a bit over a week at this point. And most of the residents of Tadfield were rather friendly and excepting of them though there were some who seemed wary of them especially of Anathema. But most of them were perfectly polite. Plus there was the added fact that Adam and his little gang of hooligans had seemingly taken a liking to them. ‘Maybe this summer won’t be as terrible as I had previously thought.’ Aziraphale thinks to himself a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth as he puts his book away and proceeds to get ready for bed, exiting his tent to brush his teeth and go to the bathroom. Before hoping back in and putting on his pajamas. He then crawls into his sleeping bag and after a few minutes he manages to drift off to sleep.

Aziraphale manages to get a few good hours of sleep before he is rudely awakened by a loud crash and something large landing on half of his tent. Luckily the half he wasn’t currently sleeping in. He squeaks and quickly backs up, blinking tiredly at the large tree that had just fallen into his tent as he’s pelted by water.

He stares at it for a moment before shaking off his tiredness grabbing his bag and quickly scrambling to get out of the tent suddenly being pumped full of adrenaline. “A-Ana!?” He says as he squints out in the openness of the lookout they were camping on. The rain was quite intense pelting him from what felt like every direction which made it even more difficult for his sleep addled brain to remember which direction Anathema and Newt had put their tent up in. And the downpour made it pretty much impossible to see or hear anything other than the rain and wind. So Aziraphale picks a direction and hoping it’s correct starts to stumble towards where he hopes Anathema and Newts tent is.

Why Anathema had thought it would be a good idea to go camping half way up a mountain Aziraphale had no idea but he knew that he would be having some very firm words with her about it when he finds her.

As Aziraphale stumbles forward he realizes that he’s going the wrong direction and was in fact stumbling towards a sharp drop off the edge of a cliff and not the hopefully dry safety of Anathema and Newt’s tent. Aziraphale squeaks and manages to push himself up against what he hopes is a sturdy wall before he could fall to his death.

“Anathema! Newt!” Azirpahale calls out though he knows it’s most definitely useless as the wind howls around him whipping at his clothes as he’s pelted by rain from every angle. He then decides that the lookout they have set up camp on isn’t that big and if he just keeps trying he’s bound to find Ana and Newts tent eventually. So he takes a few steps away from the cliff side only to slip and fall sliding toward the sharp drop, off the mountain side.

Aziraphale screams and grabs at whatever he can to stop himself from falling the rest of the way down to the ground which happens to be a tree root sticking out of the side of the cliff. “Anathema! Newt! Somebody help me! Please!” Aziraphale screams as he tries to pull himself back up onto more flat ground. But his screaming is no match for the loud wind and rain and his yanking on the root as he tries to pull himself up starts to pull it loose.

And in the next moment all Aziraphale can do is stare on in horror as the tree which he assumed the root he was holding onto starts to fall. And just like that he’s falling and all he can do is whimper a rather pathetic. “Oh…fuck.” Before he collides with the side of the mountain and everything goes black.

~~~~~

The next thing that Aziraphale processes is something warm and fluffy wrapped around him. Followed swiftly by the realization that he is quite sore, he had a massive throbbing headache, there was a stinging burning pain going up his left leg and his shoulders hurt quite a lot.

He groans and buries himself deeper into the rather comfortable bed that he was currently in, letting out a small grumbling sound that was more of a whine as he nestles his face further into the pillows. They smelled nothing like his pillow at home or even at Jasmine Cottage which as the name might suggest smelled rather like jasmine as well as moth balls.

No these pillows smelt like earth, citrus, smoke, leather and something somewhat both spicy and floral. A smell Aziraphale found himself rather enjoying as it was warm and made him feel safe. He sighs contently before his tired brain slowly starts to wake up and he remembers what happened last night. The storm, falling from the mountain and at those memories his eye shoot open and he sits bolt upright.

After a beat his eyes start to adjust to the dim light provided by a fire that was burning in a dip in a wall not far from him.

Aziraphale quickly realizes that he’s in a cave. A rather spacious, somewhat cozy dimly lit cave. And the ‘bed’ he was sitting in a was not so much a bed but rather a pile of blankets, pillows and furs. Furs? Who on earth sleeps with furs these days that’s a bit old fashion even for him.

He then also quickly comes to realize that he is in fact quite naked. Aziraphale’s face flushes at the thought of someone undressing him. He quickly clears his throat saying. “H-hello? Is…uh, is anyone there?” As he scoots back into the blanket pile and pulls the fluffy fur he had been holding onto up to his neck.

There was no response just silence. But the longer he sat there the more certain Aziraphale became that he was not alone. He was getting a very intense feeling that he was being watched.

“Excuse me, hello. I uh…I know you’re out there but would you please be so kind as to show yourself? I’m feeling rather nervous as well as confused. That fall should have killed me, and if not then at least have severely injure me and while I am rather sore and in pain I’d hardly say that this is the kind of damage someone would take from the fall I must have taken last night.”

Again silence. Aziraphale sighs before speaking again. “Please. Whoever you are, not responding is simply making me more anxious. Who are you? Where am I?“ There is silence for a moment longer before Aziraphale hears movement from the darkest corner of the cave. Then a moment later someone starts to approach from the shadows.

Aziraphale freezes clutching his blanket tighter around himself until the figure is in the light. He then stares wide eyed at the person. He was the most beautiful man Aziraphale had ever laid eyes on. He was slightly taller, thin and pale skinned with red hair that glinted in the firelight making it look like hot coals. And his eyes, they were like nothing Aziraphale had ever seen at least on a human. They were a bright yellow color that appeared almost gold and seemed to glow in the firelight and his pupils they were vertical slits not unlike a cat or a snake. His skin also seemed to be speckled with black spots that seemed slightly raised and may have been moles. And he was wearing a black robe or dress or perhaps it was just a long loose shirt.

Aziraphale just stares at the man for a moment completely awe struck. “Your awake.” The man says after a prolonged silence in which Aziraphale had been ogling him. The handsome stranger speaking snaps Aziraphale out of his haze and his face quickly heats up as his eyes snap up to meet the other mans. “I…yes, yes indeed I am.” Aziraphale stutters out with a slightly sheepish smile.

“Mm. Good, that was quite the tumble you took.” The red hair man says. Aziraphale opens his mouth to agree only to close it again and frown as he thinks over it. He had been incredibly high up and a fall from that hight should have killed him. That he already knew, but how did this man possibly know where Aziraphale had fallen from. “I ah yes, it quite was. I ah I do have a question about that though.” Aziraphale says as he starts to fiddle with his hands as he often does when he’s nervous.

The red haired man simply quirks an eyebrow as if to say. ‘Go on then.’ Aziraphale clears his throat. “Yes well, I…how am I not dead? A fall from that hight should have been fatal. I should be a splat on the ground, if not the side of the mountain.”

The man stares at him tense and unblinking. “If I weren’t there it would have been.” Aziraphale stares at him curious about what he meant by that and waiting for him to elaborate. After a moment the red head sighs. “There is some food for you there as well as some clothes. Eat up, get dressed and then the exit is right down that way.” As he gestures towards a small pile of food and some clothes near the bed and the towards a tunnel Before turning and starting to walk deeper into the cave.

“W-wait! Don’t go I-ah!” Aziraphale says as he scrambles to get up only for extreme pain to shoot through his left leg which sends him flopping back down into the blanket pile. The red haired man stops and turns back around a frown on his handsome face. “Are you hurt?” Aziraphale nods and says. “I ah yes I’m afraid my leg is…rather disagreeing with standing at the moment.” The redhead’s frown deepens as he says. “Err…right I’ll ah go get some stuff to change the bandage. I’ll be right back.” And with that he turns and walks deeper into the cave leaving Aziraphale alone. At which point he looks around the cave even more.

After a moment he grabs the clothes hoping that there are some underwear which luckily there are as while the handsome redheaded stranger had no doubt been the one to take off his clothes he would definitely prefer to at lease be wearing some underwear while talking with his attractive rescuer. After he had pulled on the underwear Aziraphale realized that while he wasn’t nearly in as bad shape as he should be from such a fall he had been beaten up rather badly. The worst of his injuries seemed to have been bandaged which makes him blush hotly at the thought of his rescuer cleaning his wounds.

With his underwear on Aziraphale reaches over and grabs the plate of food that had been sitting next to the clothing, and nestles back down into the bedding. The plate was stacked full of fruits and vegetables. Pretty much anything that could be grown in a garden in England at this time of year, and even a few things that don’t grow around here. Aziraphale takes a moment to just sit and stare at the wide variety of food until he’s broken from his thoughts by a voice. “You can eat that you know, it isn’t poisoned.”

At that Aziraphale’s head snaps up and he sees the handsome redhead walking towards him with a leather bag. “I ah yes I know. I didn’t think they were. I was just…oh never mind, thank you my dear.” Aziraphale says with a small smile before picking up a strawberry and eating it. As soon as he takes a bite his eyes go wide and he lets out a little content moan which stops the redhead in his tracks. Aziraphale eats another few strawberries before looking back at the man and saying. “My dear these are delicious! Wherever did you get them from, you must tell me so I can get some when I go back into town. They are the best strawberries I’ve ever had.” At his comment Aziraphale could have sworn he saw the man blush but he quickly pushes that thought out of his head as it is utterly ridiculous. ‘This man is simply being kind. There’s no way he would be interested in me.’ Aziraphale thinks to himself drooping slightly before continuing eating the fruits and veggies which are all just as good as the strawberries.

“Ngk…I’m er…glad you like them. And I uh…they’re from my garden, everything on that plate is.” The redhead says as he resumes walking towards Aziraphale which makes Aziraphale’s eyes go wide as he looks back up at the redhead and says. “Really!? You grew all this? My dear you truly have a gift, it’s delicious!” At this the redhead makes an incoherent sound and looks away from Aziraphale who just remembered he doesn’t even know his handsome rescuers name. “Oh goodness, dear me! I’m Azriaphale, Aziraphale Fell, what’s your name?” Aziraphale says his face flushing as he quickly extends a hand. The other man’s eyes dart between Aziraphale’s face and his outstretched hand for a moment. Before he slowly takes his hand and shakes it saying. “Crowley.”

At this Aziraphale smiles brightly. “Well Crowley thank you very much for the food. And the ah…well everything.” Crowley makes a non committal sound and says. “Yeah, yeah. Could you move the blankets I need to change the dressings on your wounds before they get infected.” Azirphale quickly moves the blanket saying. “Oh yes, of course my dear. I ah…do have a question though.” He adds the last part as Crowley was kneeling down to change the dressing on his left leg. Crowley glance up at him with his truly captivating eyes which up close look even more stunning. And from this up close Aziraphale can make out that the black flecks look almost like scales. Aziraphale blushes slightly and says. “I…how long have I been unconscious?”

At that Crowley sucks in a breath before saying. “Ah…er…Nuh…about two days.” At this Aziraphale’s eyes go wide and he says. “Two days!?” Crowley flinches slightly. “Yeah, er, I didn’t want to try and wake you…” At this Aziraphale’s eyes go wide as he realizes Crowley must think he’s mad at him. “Oh I’m not angry with you Dear Boy, I’m simply shocked is all, well shocked and incredibly grateful that you were willing to take in and take care of a unconscious stranger for two days, and I really can’t thank you enough.”

At that Crowley’s eyes go wide and Aziraphale swears he sees a bit of pink rise to his cheeks again before Crowley looks back down and focuses back on tending to Aziraphale wounds muttering a quick and quiet. “You’re welcome.”

After Crowley had finished freshly dressing his many wounds and Aziraphale had finished eating the food Crowley had brought for him he started to feel rather drowsy again despite having just been unconscious for two days. He yawns and Crowley glances at him saying. “You should sleep.” Aziraphale frowns. “I was just unconscious for two days I hardly think- sleep would help.” But as he yawns half way through his sentence Crowley raises an eyebrow and says. “Sleep. Then in the morning we can figure out how to get you back to your village.” Aziraphale hesitates but he really was rather tired so after a moment he nods and says. “Very well, and Crowley thank you very much for all of this, I’m truly grateful.” Crowley grumbles and says. “Don’t mention it. Now sleep.” And with that he turns and walk away back towards the darker part of the cave.

Aziraphale watches him go but before Crowley was even out of sight Aziraphale was out like a light.

Chapter Text

“Anathema…Anathema wake up.” Newt says his voice gaining panic. “Mmm five more minutes.” Anathema grumbles rolling over and shuffling down in her sleeping bag. The tent is then ripped open and Newt bursts in saying. “Anathema! Wake up I can’t find Aziraphale!” At that Anathema’s eyes shoot open and she sits up getting caught up in her sleeping bag. “What? What do you mean?” As she blinks tired and worriedly at Newt who was looking really panicked and anxious.

“I-his…his tent…” Newt whimpers out anxious worry in his eyes. Anathema frowns and rubs her eyes before standing up and stumbling out of the tent. As soon as she leaves the tent she realizes that it must have rained last night as it was quite wet and rather muddy. “What…what happened?” She says turning to Newt. “I…it must have stormed last night.” He says before nodding towards Aziraphale’s tent. Anathema frowns but looks over at it only for a flood of dread, fear, and guilt to wash over her. “Oh. Oh no.” She says before running towards the tent which was half crushed by a large tree.

She gasps and rips it opens and looks in but there was luckily no sign of Aziraphale, no blood or anything luckily. She then turns to Newt a panicked look on her face. “Where…where is he?” Newt shrugs and says. “I-I don’t know. I woke you as soon as I saw the tree.” Anathema glances around and says. “Right well…we-we have to find him. This was my idea to camp up here. If something happened to him I…I don’t know what…I don’t think I could ever forgive myself.” Worry growing on her face.

“Hey, I’m…I’m sure he’s fine he’s tough not to mention stubborn if he’s out there he won’t give up. We’ll find him Anathema.” Newt says as he puts his hand on his girlfriend’s shoulder. She glances at him before puffing up and saying. “Yeah, yeah your right. We’ll find him.” Newt nods and says. “Exactly, now let’s see what we can do.” Anathema nods and the two of them start walking around the lookout searching for any signs of Aziraphale.

“Anathema! I think I found something!” Newt calls out after a bit. Anathema perks up and rushes over to Newt where he was standing by the drop off part of the lookout. “What? What did you find?!” She says panicked but exited hoping it was proof that Aziraphale was ok. Newt gulps before picking up Aziraphale’s bag which had been caught on a tree branch that was dangling over the edge of the drop off area of the mountain.

Anathema freezes. “N-no…he, he didn’t. He can’t have…” Anathema stutters up her eyes starting to brim full of tears fogging up her glasses. “Ana I…maybe he’s fine?” Newt says taking his girlfriends hands. “How could he be ok Newt!? Look at that drop, even the strongest most physically resilient man in the world would die from a fall like that and I lobe him but Aziraphale is far from either of those things.” Anathema snaps before she breaks down crying and hugs Newt saying. “This is all my fault Newt, he didn’t even want to camp up here. But I made him. I made him camp up here and now he’s gone! It’s all my fault.”

Newt hugs her back rubbing her back and trying to comfort her as he says. “You didn’t know that there would be a storm, it was supposed to be clear.” Anathema sniffles. “That doesn’t change the fact that it happened.”

There was beat of silence for what felt like forever. Until Anathema sniffles and pulls away saying. “Let’s go-let’s go find the body.” Newts eyes go wide and he says. “Anathema…” Anathema huffs and says. “No Newt, we are going to find his body, we’re not leaving him out here to be eaten by wild animals it’s already my fault he’s…my fault he’s dead. We are not leaving him here to be eaten and ripped apart! I am not doing that, he deserves…he deserved better. He deserved to live a long happy life but now he can’t because of me. We are not leaving him here.”

Newt is silent for a moment before saying. “Ok…ok Ana your right, but let’s at least contact people who’s job it is to find and recover dead bodies first, we don’t know this area, and we’d be doing Aziraphale little good if we got lost trying to find him.” Anathema frowns chewing on her lip before saying. “But we’d need to go all the way back to Tadfield for that!”

Newt sighs. “Anathema the is no way we are finding his body alone.” Anathema huffs and crosses her arms before slumping and sighing saying. “You’re right…ok. Let’s go then. We need to be quick about it though. I don’t know how long it would be before Animals start trying to get at him…” Newt nods. “Yeah, let’s…let’s go.”

~~~~~

Meanwhile on the other side of the mountain in a cave Crowley was tending to the unconscious blonde man. The Angel he had rescued from falling to his death last night making sure he wasn’t dying. As while Crowley had managed to stop most of the damage that would have come from hitting the ground the blonde man still had several injuries from hitting into the side of the cliff and plants on his way down before Crowley got to him.

After he had finished changing the dressing on his more major wounds Crowley stands up and turns around stalking around his cave making sure the few plants he had within the cave were behaving and making sure the fire stayed lit. He then decides to go and get some stuff from his garden for when the blonde wakes up incase he’s hungry.

“I didn’t think that an Angel would actually fall from the sky! I just thought you were…being your weird old self.” Crowley grumbles aloud as he yanks some radishes out of the ground and picks some other vegetables and fruits. Once he had picked what he thought was a good amount for a human to eat he heads to the small spring sourced creek that ran by the edge of his garden to wash the vegetables off before heading back into his cave to dry and cut them.

Once he had them all dried and cut up he arranges them on a plate and put said plate next to the stack of clean, dry, not completely shredded clothes he had set out for the blonde for when he wakes up.

Crowley then retreats to the spot next to the tunnel that leads deeper into the cave system. He hesitates for a moment glancing back towards the unconscious blonde that was currently sleeping in the nest of pillows, blankets and furs that he himself usually sleeps in. He watches the sleeping man for couple minutes before sighing, walking back towards him and grabbing a single blanket and pillow from the large pile before turning and skulking back to the darkest corner of his cave where he puts his pillow and blanket down on the hard cave floor and lays down getting himself as situated and as comfortable as possible without his usual nest, prepared for watching over the blonde until he wakes up.

~~~~~

“Ok, here we are.” Newt says as he and Anathema pull up in front of the Tadfield police station. The two of them exit the car and enter the building where the receptionist Tracy greats them with a cheery smile. “Hello Loves what brings the two of you in here?” “Uh…we uh…we went camping up at Dragons Lament.” Newt says at which Tracy’s eyes go wide and she goes stiff a worried look appearing on her face.

“You went camping up at that accursed place!?” Sergeant Shadwell barks entering the room. “It’s not cursed! I would know if it were cursed, and even if I didn’t sense it being cursed my great grandmother would have warned me about it! Anyway we’re here because…because Aziraphale…” Anathema snaps before trailing off at the end her eyes tearing up again. “We think Aziraphale fell off the side of the mountain during the storm last night. That’s why we’re here. We want help in finding his body.” Newt says at which Tracy squeaks and says. “Oh, oh poor dear.”

Anathema droops and Shadwell mutters something about the Mountain being cursed. “So will you help us?” Newt says hopefully. Shadwell and Tracy exchange a look and Tracy says. “I’m terribly sorry love but…no one will go up to Dragons Lament. There was only ever one person who did, your great grandmother and well as you know she pasted three years ago.” At that Anathema snaps again slamming her hands down on the desk saying. “I’m well aware of my great grandmothers passing! And now my friend is missing! What do you mean no one will go up to Dragons Lament!? It’s just a mountain there are hundreds of those, and isn’t it someone’s job to recover missing or even…even dead people from mountains!?”

Tracy sighs saying. “Yes well it is but…but well Dragons Lament is a special case, you see there where cases of…well of dragon sightings. Up until around the end of world war ll and well…no one really goes there because of it.” Newts eyes go wide and he says. “You don’t think that there’s an actual Dragon living up there do you!?” Anathema huffs and says. “Well if there ever was it’s probably dead right? I mean if it was last seen during world war ll why is everyone still so afraid of it?”

Madam Tracy clears her throat and glances nervously between Newt and Anathema before saying. “There have been no dragon sighting since world war ll because, whenever someone would go up to Dragons Lament they would either come back with no memory of their time there or…they just wouldn’t come back at all.” Shadwell then grumbles and says. “Aye, have you ever seen a dragon Lass?”

Anathema purses her lips and says. “No.” Shadwell grumbles out saying. “Well I have and if you’d seen a dragon you’d know why people are so afraid of them, wings the size of a house, teeth stronger reinforced iron, and a thirst for blood. You don’t want to see a dragon, man eaters is what they are. Monsters. Bad as witches if ya ask me. And if you know what’s good for ya you’ll stay far away from cursed place.” Tracy sighs at her husband’s shenanigans but says. “Mr Shadwell is right. You kids should stay far away from Dragons Lament even if there isn’t or never was a dragon there it’s dangerous as I’m afraid your friend Aziraphale has alright found out.”

Anathema pays them no mind and slams her fist down on the desk saying. “Maybe it is dangerous! But I am finding Aziraphale dead or alive with or without your help. Good day! Come on Newt let’s go.”

And with that she grabs Newt by the arm and drags him out of the police station and over to his car which she quickly hops into the passenger side of. Newt gets into the drivers side exhaling shakily before saying. “We’re really doing this aren’t we?” Anathema looks at him with a determined look on her face and says. “Yes we are, now let’s go back to Jasmine Cottage for the night, we leave first thing in the morning for Dragons Lament. I am finding Aziraphale if it’s the last thing I do.”