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Crowley woke slowly, easing one eye open to test the thin light before arcing into a languorous stretch. This era & location in humanity still meant a hard bed made of straw on a dirt floor, covered in furs, but he was nonetheless loathe to leave his warm little nest.
Sod this hemisphere, the demon thought, still sleep drunk enough to think it without any real malice.
Despite his hesitance to leave the warmth of his bed, Crowley sat up enough to peel back the leather blind sealing the window in his hut. He expected to see another bleak morning landscape of barren trees, dead grass, and grey skies.
That was not what he saw.
Crowley's corporeal heart skipped a beat before kicking in to high gear.
Oh, Satan, no, no, please, I knew it, I knew if--
"Aziraphale! Aziraphale wake up!" The demon was shaking the angel, slender hand on warm, bare shoulder, jostling the other entity urgently, still looking outside.
The angel let out a weak groan of protest and tried to pull the fur closer to his body to combat the cold the demon was letting into the bed.
"Aziraphale! Something is on fire!"
At once the angel was alert, popping up in bed and squeezing up against the demon, pressing their naked torsos together look out the window.
Sure enough, ash was floating down from the sky,
Aziraphale sucked in a breath and jumped out of bed, tightening his rough wool pants around his waist and jamming his feet into soft leather boots while Crowley frantically picked through the furs on the bed, separating what belonged to whom.
In moments they were both dressed and out the door, bundled in furs, eyes wide as they took in the scene before them.
The ash was everywhere. It must have been falling for hours. The accumulation on the ground was up past their ankles.
The angel and the demon spun around, trying to find the source of the detritus falling from the sky.
"What in heaven is this," the demon murmured.
Aziraphale was fighting down the panic in his gut. "I don't know."
It was silent. It was scentless. Although the ash was everywhere, there was no scent of fire. And it was still bloody cold out.
The angel turned to the demon, who was frozen in place in fear, his eyes flitting about trying to figure out where the fire was, if it was coming for them...
The angel cocked his head as he watched the demon. The demon noticed.
"What?"
Aziraphale reached out and dragged a finger over Crowley's cheekbone. It came away wet.
"Crowley... I... I don't think it's ash," the angel said, rubbing his fingers together. He held his palm open flat and let the large fluffy white masses fall onto him. As they landed, they crumpled and turned into drops of water.
"What is it, then?" The demon asked, transfixed.
"I don't know," the angel replied softly. He looked straight up at the sky, grimacing against the direct onslaught of cold falling particles, and noted the dark, heavy clouds. "I think it's... I think it might be akin to rain."
Crowley held out his own palm and watched the white things melt there, too. "Cold rain?" he asked. His voice was neutral. His internal relief that the world was not, in fact, burning to the ground because of him, was immeasurable.
The demon shook his hand violently to dispel the freezing water droplets and crammed his fist into his furs. "Great! Just when I thought this part of the world couldn't get any worse! Frozen rain!" He made a disgusted noise to emphasize his point and started stomping back to the hut. "I'm starting a fire! Immediately!" He snapped his fingers before he was even inside, and smoke began to curl from the hole cut into the roof. Before he could storm through the door, he turned and looked behind him.
"Coming, angel?"
Aziraphale was standing now with both hands outstretched, watching the flakes pile up on his clothes, but melt on his bare skin. He looked enraptured, and suddenly the not-ash wasn't the only thing melting because of the angel.
"Aziraphale," the demon said softly, fondly. The angel's attention drifted to the demon, and Aziraphale beamed.
"Coming, dear." He shook himself off, brushing a hand through his hair, and followed Crowley inside.