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Dinner was lovely.
Asa had never felt like this before and at the same time, something in him said that he had.
Anthony was interesting and kind. His amazement for the stars infected Asa so much that he couldn’t wait to get home to finally read his book.
For now, they were still seated though, having ordered another drink.
Anthony who didn’t enjoy food as much as Asa did, talked mostly through dinner, about his studies mainly, before he had now asked Asa about the book shop. It was Asa’s turn to talk about his love for books, how much he wished he could read every book in the world, how much he especially loved Jane Austen. Anthony watched him with a smile as he talked and they drank the wine he picked. Asa also knew about wine and therefore knew that Anthony had picked excellently.
As they emptied their glasses for a second time, Asa did want to ask if they wanted to have another drink, maybe somewhere else, when Anthony glanced at his watch and immediately stopped.
“Oh, sorry,” he said. “I still have work.”
Asa sobered up for a moment. Work? So late? But then he realised that Anthony, working in astrophysics, really could still have work to do today.
He also was mollified when Anthony muttered: “Didn’t think I’d loose track of time.” He did loose track of time, because he enjoyed their dinner as much as Asa did.
“We can continue another time,” he gently said and Anthony shot him a fleeting smile before he hailed down the waitress.
As she brought the bill and Anthony got money out of his pocket, presumably to pay for his part of the meal, Asa hurried to say: “Oh, not, let me. I’ll invite you.” He tried to take the bill from Anthony but he held it further away. Asa watched as he gave it back to the waitress with the whole amount plus tip.
“You made sure we properly met,” Anthony said as he did so. “Let me treat you.”
Asa blushed. “Uhm. Thank you.”
“No worries,” Anthony said before getting up from the table. Asa got up as well: “Can I walk with you for a bit?”
Anthony agreed and that’s how they walked together to the university Anthony worked at. They exchanged phone numbers as they stood in front of the entrance and it was time for their good byes.
Asa always believed in true love and connection and destiny. While he hadn’t experienced true love yet, he had witnessed it, he had fought for other people to find it or be able to live it. He did have connections, immediately at times.
Today, he believed he had found his true love. Their meeting must have been destiny.
And as both Anthony and he himself lingered a bit too long with saying good bye, he thought about his daring approach earlier today, actually asking for Anthony’s number. He had never asked for anybody’s phone number. He thought about Anthony treating him for the simple fact that he had been that daring.
It took all the courage he still had left for today for him to lean forward and try a careful kiss, nothing big, a quick peck to make sure that they were on the same page where this could be going.
Before their lips met and his eyes fell close, he realised Anthony was leaning in too.
As soon as their lips met, time stood still and endless memories flooded them, centuries upon centuries, about angels and demons and God and humans from another universe. Then this universe, different lives, also through centuries, meeting again and again, falling in love, often slower, sometimes quicker, their memories coming back at the first daring declaration, sharing their lives, growing old amazingly human before the cycle repeated at some point, decades or centuries later.
Despite their many former lives, their last memory as supernatural beings was the strongest. Them holding hands as the last of their universe around them disappeared and they with it.
“Crowley,” Aziraphale whispered as they broke apart and looked at each other as if they couldn’t believe they found each other again, as if they had spent this life to this day missing the other one though they had no memories of them.
“Angel,” Crowley said back and their lips met again, this time much more intense.
They had lived as so many versions of themselves, had reinvented themselves in thousands of ways before they had found each other each time. They knew that much, even if their memories of their former lives in this universe weren’t strong.
They also knew that they always ended in a nice house with a good library and an even nicer garden. (Well, at least since those things existed.) They always enjoyed the stars together.
That’s what they did this evening and as Aziraphale made a wish on a shooting star – damn Crowley, always needing to be accurate about what they actually saw in the sky –, it was the same one it had always been: That Crowley and he would find their way back to each other in the future as they always had, here in this universe the same as before.
They joked about the Nightingale, their bird, before Aziraphale asked: “You ever wonder if there’s anything more than this?”
He had faint memories of talking about this with Crowley before but they hadn’t in this life. About the fact that God clearly didn’t do exactly as Crowley asked because all their lives, all their destined meetings must come from divine intervention. God was still there playing her games, surely. Aziraphale wanted to believe there were no angels and demons anymore – all signs pointed to it. But who knew what was still out there.
Aziraphale wondered but how amazingly human was that?
“I don’t need anything more than this,” Crowley said. “I… I have the universe out there, and I have you.”
His beloved stars and him, Aziraphale. He didn’t wonder. He didn’t have questions anymore.
Aziraphale let his hand fall from the cup he was holding to the armrest with a smile. Crowley took his hand into his own without looking at it.
The soft sentiment from the former demon: “I have everything I’ve ever wanted.”
When Aziraphale leant over to kiss him, Crowley met him halfway.