Okay idk if I’ll get around to it, but post s2 fic idea that I’ve been thinking about and I need to see if this makes sense and get it out there if I don’t fully get around to writing it:
Crowley had always known his way around the idea of time; he had a large hand in creating the concept of it after all. That was a bit of an understatement; he was the *main* angel in charge of it. He knew how to navigate it all like the back of his hand. He couldn’t rewind or fast forward, that was impossible; and he *could* pause it but that would only hold him longer in this moment, this miserable, miserable future now that Aziraphale had left.
Though, there remained a strange solace in the past, and with no reason going forwards, there’s only one thing left to do. Crowley couldn’t go back to the past, but had kept a tight composite of it all (or at least the important times) in the back of his head. It was an important part of the whole ‘being able to control time by knowing it inside and out’ thing, and while Crowley had no current use in controlling time itself, he could still remember most of it relatively easily. Though memories weren’t enough, and while awake they only served as hurtful reminders of the present.
Dreams were a different story, though; right now, to Crowley, a way of reliving the past without the painful reminder of the present. And with no reason left for the future, Crowley retreats to the world of dreams, a comforting infinite blur of the past, with no intent to ever wake back up.
Meanwhile in Heaven, Aziraphale had realized he made a mistake almost the second he’d walked through the door. Heaven had made an offer he literally couldn’t refuse without getting the both of them killed, and Crowley hadn’t taken the opportunity as well as he’d hoped. As much duty as he bore, and as much as he wanted to do the whole ‘advert the apocalypse and save the world,’ he just… couldn’t think about anything with the way he’d left things with Crowley, without any way to clarify or talk afterwards.
It had taken a lot of pestering (and more than a few threats of being smited) for Aziraphale to be essentially kicked out; not exactly fallen (again, an institutional issue is not what heaven wanted to be known for) but no longer associated. Finally, Aziraphale had thought as he raced through SoHo back to the bookshop, they could truly be in their own side as Crowley had always wanted. He could apologize, they’d thwart the Second Coming, and just finally be them.
All of that relied on Crowley being awake, which was mistaken as a given. When they meet again exactly one year after Aziraphale left, it’s not at all how he expected it to go. Crowley won’t wake you and the bookshop is a wreck. Just as Crowley had a hand in the creation of time, Aziraphale knew the subconscious like the back of his hand; it had originally just been a way for angels to peak into mortal’s true selves as judge where their soul should go. It was usually a quick and shallow process, not much to see in under 100 years with human knowledge, but Aziraphale finds himself on equal ground as he travels (see: stumbles and plummets) through the depths of Crowley’s dreams in one more attempt to get Crowley to wake up, and more importantly to set things right.
In the real world, between trying to unravel over 6000 years of mistakes and things left unsaid, Aziraphale finds that the wreck left behind in the bookshop holds more information about what transpired after he left than at first glance, and is forced to confront that he had a much greater impact on Crowley than Aziraphale wanted to think.
The timer begins to tick as Crowley’s essence drains the longer he remains fully in his own mind, at threat of fading completely if not interrupted soon. Aziraphale can’t exactly put a finger on how long he has, but no amount of time feels enough to unravel the ineffable hurt between them.
Though he’ll still just have to try.
Does this make any sense??? PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE gimme feedback or ask questions, and should I write this fully??
