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Crowley pushed his lenses up with the edge of a wing, tsking as he observed the remains of Aziraphale's yurt. They'd probably be able to salvage a few of the angel's things, but most of it had been lost to the fire. Unfortunately, books and scrolls were just flammable like that. There would be no saving the shelter itself, though. He hoofed aside a wooden beam, but the scrolls beneath crumbled into a pile of useless ashes.
"I suppose I'll need to find a new place to live, won't I?"
Crowley pushed his shades back down over his eyes and turned to look at Aziraphale, who stood beside him in his human form, draped in white robes and wringing his hands together worryingly. His white wings were still visible, folded against his back. Crowley tried for casual and shrugged, looking back at the destroyed yurt, his tail curving along the ground in a protective arc around where Aziraphale stood. "You can stay at mine 'till you're back on your hooves."
"That's very kind of you," Aziraphale said, ignoring Crowley's responding sneer.
The pair of them fell into an awkward silence.
"I was thinking," Aziraphale began, at the same time that Crowley said, "you know," and they both stopped, looking at each other to continue.
"You first," Crowley said, at the same time that Aziraphale said, "go ahead."
They both paused again, and this time Crowley barreled on, getting annoyed. This was ridiculous. "Lissssten, you can stay at mine for as long as you need, but I'm not sticking around. It's not safe for either of us. We stopped their war and they'll be wanting to see us dead -- or worse." The forces of Hell weren't very creative with their methods of torture, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt. Crowley didn't want to find out if they'd thought up anything new, either. Aziraphale was watching him quietly with an unreadable expression on his face, so Crowley kept talking. "I'm going out East. Near Kawani Village, where some humans live. We were stationed there a few times. Thought, you know... quiet out there. Away from everything. Could be a decent place to retire, or whatever." Crowley sniffed and looked away from Aziraphale, pretending to observe the rubble again. He curled his tail around the handle of an old iron candle holder and picked it up to examine it. Probably just needed a little cleaning, really, and it'd be good as new. "You could, you know, come. If you wanted. Makes no difference to me."
Several emotions flitted through Aziraphale at once; a pleased warmth at the invite to stay with Crowley, a cold dread that Crowley was going to leave without him, that they weren't free from their respective sides yet -- and then it circled right back around again to joy. Aziraphale recognized the offer for what it was; Crowley hadn't given up on him yet. He was reaching out one more time, and Aziraphale suspected if he rejected him again, he wouldn't get another one. Aziraphale lifted his hand to cover his mouth for a brief moment, overwhelmed, then reached out to rest it upon the joint of Crowley's wings. "Of course I'd like to go with you. My dear, wherever else would I want to be? As you said, we're on our own side now."
Crowley's face felt warm. He'd often been envious of Aziraphale's ability to turn into a human, but right now he was just relieved; he was sure he'd never hear the end of it if Aziraphale knew he was capable of blushing. For someone's sake, he was a demon. Demon's don't blush! He scowled, dropping the candle holder, and shrugged away from Aziraphale's touch, but the angel was still smiling at him with that stupid look on his face like Crowley had done just something nice. "No need to get all soppy about it. I've asked you to go with me to places loads of times before, don't make it weird."
Aziraphale's smile only grew wider. It was true that he couldn't see Crowley's face going red, but there were other tells; specifically, the way the grass grew just a little taller at the demon's hooves, the way flowers suddenly bloomed, vibrant and beautiful. Crowley either didn't realize his powers seeped out of him a little when he got flustered, or he pretended not to notice; either way, Aziraphale wasn't going to mention it in case it made him stop. Aziraphale clapped his hands together in a decisive manner and looked out at the remains of his home. "Well, then! I suppose we'd better start cleaning this up, shall we?"
"What do you mean we? It's your bloody mess. It's not like I was the one that set it on fire!" Crowley sputtered, but he was already bracing himself for the eyes.
"Well, it's not as though I can ask the archangels to help me clean this up, can I?" Aziraphale huffed and gave Crowley the pleading look that always seemed to work. A moment passed, and then Crowley made a show of heaving sighs and muttering under his breath, but he was using the strength of his tail to move aside the larger pieces of wood and fabric into a pile, clearing the way so Aziraphale could pick through the smaller remains for anything salvageable. "You know, I'm quite fond of Kawani Village. It'll be wonderful to see it again. The humans were so friendly. Oh, but I'll have to brush up on my Kawani... it's been so long since I've spoken it, I'm afraid I've gone a little rusty. I do hope some of my scrolls from their village survived; that will make the transition much smoother. I met this lovely unicorn the last time I was stationed out there; a friendly chap, I don't know if I introduced you two, but if he's still in the area perhaps he'll be able to lend us shelter for a while..."
Crowley smiled to himself, content to let Aziraphale ramble on, interjecting now and then with his own commentary or rude quips that made Aziraphale give him an exasperated -- but fond -- glare. It took them a while to finally clean up the mess. The original assessment was true; there wasn't much left that survived the fire, but what Aziraphale still had could either be repaired or cleaned up enough to keep or trade. (Crowley suspected he wouldn't actually trade away anything. Aziraphale was a hoarder, but that was fine; Crowley had plenty of things he had absolutely no attachment to, if they really needed something.) When they finally had their things packed away and ready for their travels, Crowley looked at the sprung cart with a frown. "I know what you're thinking, and before you ssssay it," Crowley snarled, glaring at Aziraphale, "I am not pulling that thing."
Aziraphale smiled at him. Only one of them was capable of turning into a human to hitch the cart, and it wasn't Crowley.
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