Chapter Text
Aziraphale found himself busying himself with unboxing a few shipments of books that had arrived, which he had neglected to do up until this point. He let out a small sigh and looked up at the clock, Crowley was supposed to come and help and it was nearly eleven now, almost noon; The only thing that came to mind was that his lovely demon must have fallen asleep and hadn't set his alarm properly. It had happened a few times before, but this time was rather important and, of course Crowley was late.
Crowley had offered to help him rearranging the shelves and unload the new boxes of books a few days ago since Aziraphale found that it was taking up a bit of space in the already cramped back room of the bookshop. Aziraphale wasn't so adamite with rearranging the shelves, he liked the confusing way he set up the shop so no one could find anything; he knew where they were and no one else did. All he needed help with was just moving the boxes and looking through the books he had ordered in order to be able to put them out when the time came; however, it seemed like he would be doing it all himself.
Aziraphale readjusted his glasses and pulled book after book out of the box until he heard the bell above the shop door chime; Aziraphale, waited for anything, but he didn't hear the usual greeting of Crowley, so he assumed it was a customer and continued unpacking.
A chill crept down his neck, causing him to stop what he was doing and turned around to face the entrance to the backroom and froze. Who stood in the doorway wasn't a customer wanting to buy a book, nor was it Crowley. Gabriel stood there with his violet eyes staring daggers through Aziraphale, causing a swell of panic to flow through Aziraphale, an uneasy smile made its way over Aziraphale's face.
"Hello Gabriel, I wasn't expecting you?"
Gabriel walked into the back room with his stare not breaking; his eyes narrowing for a moment. There was no fake smile or any sort of falsely chipper attitude he had before when he spoke to Aziraphale; however, the replacement to his usual façade was far worse.
"I thought Heaven would leave me alone?" Aziraphale pointed out. "So whatever your reason for being hear is I would like to-
"Oh shut up Aziraphale, you never seem to shut your mouth do you?"
Aziraphale stood ramrod with his face distorting into a look of hurt and discomfort by his words and mere presence; however, he knew he couldn't let Gabriel walk all over him like that, so he mustered up what small courage he had and prepared himself for what came next.
"I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
Gabriel raised an eyebrow.
"Oh being a tough guy now, huh?" Gabriel spoke with his voice dripping with venomous hate. " what are you going to do exactly if I don't go, are you going to ask your little demon Crawley to come to your aid? You were always weak and pathetic you know that?"
"Leave," Aziraphale's voice wavered a bit. "I'm not tolerating any of this!"
Gabriel finally broke a cold smile to Aziraphale, a smile that reminded him of nails on a chalk board by how unnerving it was.
"Ah, seems I've struck a nerve, I know how you feel about that demon Aziraphale; if information serves me right you love him, or apparently he loves you. I have no idea why he would like you even in that way, can demons even love Aziraphale?"
Aziraphale was quiet, he knew that answer, Crowley did love him and that demons could love and that Aziraphale loved him back. Both of them had confessed their feelings for one another after they got back from Tadfield before their trials took place; they both had settled in and bought a cottage in the Southern Downs, but it needed work done, so for the time being they were living separately and were buying time till they could officially move in together. It had been five months since the non-apocalypses and Crowley and Aziraphale had actually planned on getting married at some point since Crowley proposed to him.
Again, Aziraphale knew the answer and fiddled with the gold engagement ring as he tried to block out the awful things Gabriel had to say.
"You know Aziraphale, I'm surprised he hasn't left you," Gabriel spat. " With how much weight you gained down here since you started eating all this awful matter and soiled your corporation."
Another jab that Aziraphale swallowed down, it took months to get that out of his and there it went again.
A small, cruel sparkle began to twinkle in Gabriel's eyes as soon as he said that, seeing as how Aziraphale began to crumble in on himself slightly.
" I give it three to four months and he'll leave you..." Gabriel said and snapped his fingers, performing a small miracle that racked Aziraphale's body.
Aziraphale's eyes widened in horror; he couldn't just make it so Crowley wouldn't love him; he could feel tears stinging behind his eyes as he watched Gabriel leave.
"I'll say you better stop eating now, otherwise he will leave, okay sunshine."
Aziraphale felt the bottom of his stomach fall out as he registered what had just happened; once he heard the bell ring, he let out a small sob and fell back into his armchair knowing very well there is no way to undo this, especially one like this unless he wanted to have furthering consequences for tampering with it. All he knew was he had to not eat like he would or just cut it all together for three to four months, how hard could that be?