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Aziraphale allowed himself a little sigh of pleasure as he shed his chilton and then his sandals. It was rather self indulgent, miracling the Forum Baths empty for himself, but oh, it was only for an hour, and he always made sure to leave a faint cloud of blessings behind.
He did enjoy visiting when the baths were busy, mingling with the locals and listening to their stories. Humans loved talking about each other, which made Azirphale’s assignments easier. All he had to do was listen and ask the right questions, and he could quickly learn who to bless, and who to thwart.
But there was nothing quite like an hour’s quiet in the elegant rooms with their stucco statues, delightfully warm water, and peaceful courtyard. Stowing his clothes in the wooden wardrobe provided for the purpose, Aziraphale decided to skip the chill of the frigidarium and head straight for the gentle tepid warmth of the tepidarium. He’d had a particularly frustrating visit from Gabriel, who couldn’t seem to understand that if Aziraphale was supposed to blend in, he needed to actually spend time with people and talk with them. The Archangel couldn’t seem to grasp that the days of descending from the sky blowing a trumpet were over. Now he was in the mood for warmth and comfort.
He felt the unmistakable tingle of an otherworldly presence the moment he stepped into the tepidarium.
“Crowley? Ah, I didn’t realise you’d be here … my apologies ….”
“Ssssatan’s sake, get in the bath, angel.”
Aziraphale paused at the edge of the empty bath, looking around in confusion.
“Crowley?”
“Down here.”
Aziraphale looked down to find a glossy black snake coiled on the tiles at the edge of the bath.
“Hello, dear boy!” he exclaimed, forgetting the previous tension between them in his excitement at seeing the demon again. But his enthusiasm waned when he was greeted with a flat-sounding, “hello.”
Aziraphale slipped into the bath, casting around for something, anything, he could say to break the tense silence.
“How have you been?”
“Fine.”
Aziraphale bristled a little at the tone. But he’d known Crowley since Eden, and he knew when a rock pile of irritation was hiding a tiny gem of vulnerability.
“Look,” Aziraphale began, ignoring Crowley’s disgruntled hiss, which seemed to say leave it, angel. “It’s not that I didn’t want to kiss you, after the oysters. I wanted to kiss you very much. But I … I could feel Heaven watching, Crowley, it wasn’t safe.”
“Yeah, alright. Just … thought I’d overstepped, messed things up. Don’t want that.”
Aziraphale felt his heart twitch a little at the confession. Crowley wanted to protect their friendship as much as he did. The thought made his chest warm like a garden in the morning sun.
“You haven’t messed anything up. I regretted it terribly, you know, not being able to kiss you.”
Crowley moved closer then, long body rippling through the water, until his magnificent arrow-shaped head was nearly on Aziraphale’s shoulder. Aziraphale ran his fingers carefully down the line of Crowley’s jaw.
“Careful, angel. Dangerous, touching me.”
There was a weight under the words that made Aziraphale’s heart sink with them. But … could it be?
“Crowley … I don’t feel Heaven watching at all. Usually, when there’s a demonic presence near me, they turn up like the proverbial bad penny.”
“Huh … makes sense, actually. My snake form hides my demonic signature. Easier to blend in with the earth, s’why I use it.”
“How can you possibly hide from Heaven’s all-seeing eyes?”
Crowley reared up out of the water then, tilting his head to one side, golden eyes gleaming with amusement even in his serpent form.
“How’d you think I got into Eden and tempted Eve, angel?”
Aziraphale felt a smile spreading on his face. “Surely, if Heaven cannot see you, then I can kiss you as much as I please.”
“As a snake?”
“Well … yes. It’s still you, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, sure, but I’m not gonna be great at kissing back, am I?”
Aziraphale closed his eyes for a second. He usually loved their bickering. But time was short and his yearning for Crowley had been eons long.
“Please. Crowley. Let me hold you.”
Crowley studied him for a moment more, then twined himself around Aziraphale’s upper body, glossy black scales gliding across his skin. When he tucked his head in beside Aziraphale’s ear and flicked his tongue against the lobe, Aziraphale shivered.
“I have always been perfectly open to exploring the pleasures of the world,” he told Crowley, cupping his jaw. “But I have never been as captivated by anything, as I am of you.”
“Flatterer.” Crowley hissed, moving so his body trailed across Aziraphale’s torso. When Aziraphale sighed softly and tipped his head back, Crowley took that as permission to explore further.
Aziraphale closed his eyes and listened to the soft sound of the water as Crowley slid in and out of it, coiling around his chest and stomach, squeezing gently against Aziraphale’s arms as Aziraphale ran his hands over Crowley’s long, sinuous body.
Crowley’s tongue was just as eager as the rest of him, trailing over Aziraphale’s chest and then tracing a long, slow pattern down over his stomach.
“Crowley …” Aziraphale put his hand on the demon’s head, tilting Crowley’s face up so he could look into those vivid, amber eyes. “My dear fellow, if you continue on like that I am quite afraid I might lose a few inhibitions.”
Crowley smiled. Aziraphale could sense it it, even if it was harder to see in this form. “Would you like to lose a few inhibitionssssss, angel?”
Aziraphale made a series of unintelligible noises, of the kind Crowley was normally prone to. But Crowley deserved the truth, didn’t he? He’d been so hurt and worried when he thought he’d misread what was between them.
“With you? Always.”
Crowley gave a pleased-sounding hiss and sank under the water, coiling around Aziraphale’s leg, and nuzzling into the crease of his hip. When Aziraphale groaned and arched his back in clear invitation, Crowley let his tongue flicker across the angel’s lower stomach, and slowly, so slowly, over every inch of his cock until it grew hard under his attention.
When Aziraphale moaned much louder, Crowley popped his head out of the water for a moment. “This all right, angel?”
“Yes … yes but please come up here, let me kiss you …”
Crowley did so, hissing softly as Aziraphale feathered kisses over his face. He shifted position, letting the heavy loops of his body pool across Aziraphale’s thighs, wrapping his tail around the angel’s shaft and rippling subtly against it.
“Crowley …” The name came out on a shuddering groan, causing the demon in question to hiss more loudly and graze his fangs against Aziraphale’s clavicle. “Yes, bite me … I’m yours …”
Crowley gave a long, hissing groan, fangs nipping more intentionally at Aziraphale’s collar, scales creating irresistible friction against his cock as the demon built up a rhythm that set Aziraphale trembling and writhing against him.
It was so good, so unspeakably good, and Aziraphale had wanted him for so long… Gasping Crowley’s name, he ran his fingers over every inch of his serpentine body that he could reach, shaking in the tight embrace of Crowley’s coils until he could bear no more, crying out for Crowley as he came, rubbing helplessly against his scales as he did so.
When the baths stopped spinning, Aziraphale reached down and carefully moved Crowley’s lower body so he could stroke his fingers suggestively over Crowley’s vent.
“Let me...” he murmured against the top of Crowley’s head.
When Crowley nodded once, sharply, Aziraphale gently coaxed the demon’s hemipenes to evert for him, rubbing his hand carefully over them. When his fingers brushed over each ridged head, Crowley shuddered from head to tail, rippling against Aziraphale and winding a coil around his wrist, as if both begging him to stop, and not stop.
“May I continue?” Aziraphale asked, finding his own breath quicken at the feel of Crowley hard and sensitive against his hand, rubbing mindlessly against him.
“Yes, angel … Aziraphale …”
Aziraphale hummed with pleasure and kissed Crowley’s dear face, fingers deftly stroking and working against Crowley’s twin cocks until the demon was thrashing in the water, face buried against Aziraphale’s neck. A few more strokes and he felt Crowley’s long spine stiffen as if in shock, hemipenes pulsing in Aziraphale’s hand.
“Ssssatan’s sake, angel, where’d you learn to do that?”
“I’ve practised in my mind many times.”
Crowley laughed so hard his body shook. “Filthy angel,” he said fondly. “What we gonna do now then? Changes things a bit, doesn’t it?”
Aziraphale smiled at his demon, the dearest person in the world to him.
“I imagine,” he said slowly. “That we’re going to take very thorough advantage of this loophole.”
Crowley really did grin that time, fangs flashing.
“Angel, you’ve got yourself an arrangement.”