![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mekachu04Fandom: Good Omens (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Aziraphale & Crowley (Good Omens)
Characters: Aziraphale (Good Omens), Crowley (Good Omens), Original Angel Character(s), Canon characters mentioned in passing
Additional Tags: No beta we fall like Crowley, Missing Persons, Black Plague, Summoning Circles, Demon Summoning, Demon Traps, Imprisonment, Hell on Earth, Too much paperwork, Pre-Series, hurt!Aziraphale, Isolation, Trapped, Crowley Saves Aziraphale (Good Omens), Aziraphale Whump (Good Omens), Broken Bones, Wing Injury, Crowley Whump, true form injuries, Abandonment, Snake!Crowley - Freeform, Cuddling, Hurt/Comfort, sleeping pile, Darkness, Caves, possible cave related sensory deprivation, Huddling For Warmth, Hugging, Crying, Azirapahle's Halo comes out when he's feeling better
Title is from Queen's song "you're my best friend "
this is one of the short stories i wrote for nanowrimo this year; which i used the whumptober list as prompts (Muffled Scream & Trembling)
Crowley was desperately trying to flame the spark that made up Aziraphale, trying to breath life back into his friend, but the once vibrant sheen remained stubbornly dull. He could feel his own reserves depleting, and struggled not to let tired, frustrated tears fall.
"Come on Angel," he muttered, gathering his strength to pull Aziraphale up into his arms, standing clear of the rubble. He wasn't going to be able to stand much longer, and even if this place was cursed, something was bound to notice the recent outpouring of power, and Crowley wanted them far from this place when it happened. He had enough for a couple short jumps through space, miracling them across country lines before his corporation threatened to give out, the final jump pulling them deep with a damp cold cave somewhere along the shorelines of France.
He'd barely rematerialized them when his feet gave out, and he had to give up moving them any deeper, awkwardly slithering around his broken angel protectively. The cold would do neither of them any favors, but that was something for future Crowley to think about. He could hear water moving around in the darkness, absurdity loud against the rock walls to the point if he couldn't tell if it was crashing waves or if that was just his imagination straining for input in the pitch dark. They should be tucked away far enough back to keep any humans from accidentally finding them. Hopefully the water would help dissipate any lingering magic.
Crowley slept.
---
The passage of time was harder to figure out when he awoke, but it was at least to better results. Aziraphale had curled into him sometime while they slumbered, gleaming faintly in the piceous dim of the cave. While they'd rested, bones and muscle had finished knitting themselves back where they belonged, even if the angel was a little more on the slender side than Crowley would of liked. He looked exhausted too, something that Crowley had never seen on the angelic face, as he snuggled deeper into Crowley's coils when the snake demon made an aborted effort to stretch out.
"Angel?" he hissed into the dark, hopes falling when Aziraphale did not wake, just remained shivering where he was tucked against him.
Still, it was a sign that someone was home. Crowley stayed serpentine, tightening up more python-like until only the glint of Aziraphale's pale hair was still visible, painfully cautious of wings and arms as he trapped what heat the angel was giving off and letting him slumber on. He'd never known an angel - or demon - to need to sleep, but he could see Aziraphale's self burning much more confidently now, even if it was a small flicker of his usual Light.
He did not fall back asleep this time, just held tight and waited.
If he focuses, he could see the barest hint of the sun's passage bouncing off far away walls bending around in the distance, but it didn't seem to glow with any consistency, likely being filtered by clouds and ocean spray, so Crowley didn't bother trying to keep track.
---
"Azzzzziraphale?" he hisses, cold and tired, trying to tell if the angel's shifting was real or just more of his wishful thinking.
No, it was definitely real, he could feel the twitch of wings against him. He uncoiled quickly, less Aziraphale think he was trapped still as he came back to himself. The angel bemoaned to loss of heat, and Crowley chuckled as indignant weak hands tried to tug him back into place, "Wake up angel," he cooed, bemused for the first time in years.
"Crowley?" came a tired question, and Crowley had never been so happy to hear his name fall from any one's lips. He lifted the coils the angel had been cushioned on to help Aziraphale into a sitting position, and the two both groaned as stiff muscles protested the move. "Crowley, I don't... I can't... Where are we?"
"France, I think. Not completely sure."
He could see Aziraphale straining to see in the dim lighting of the cave. His angelic sight was measurably better than humans, but there was no sun bouncing off the entrance to the elbow Crowley had hidden them away in. Crowley felt well enough to change back into something with a bit more limbs - and more importantly eyelids and filtered glasses - and patted Aziraphale on the knee once he was ready, "Alright angel, light us up."
Even knowing it was coming, Crowley still was almost blinded as the words fell from cold angelic lips, "Let there be light."
They both looked rather worse from wear, Crowley had yet to miracle his clothes back into rights from digging Aziraphale out of the rubble, and the angel's clothes were unsalvageable tatters by this point. The skin had taken on a sallow blue hue from the wet cold, and Aziraphale's hair looked like all the color had leached out, leaving wet clumps of blanch and dreary clinging to his head. Crowley couldn't help but frowning, reaching out to try and smooth it out to resemble hair again. He didn't dare to ponder what mess his own was in.
But, glory upon the highest, Aziraphale's stygian-blue eyes shone back alert and fond, even if they were still tainted with confusion, and it was the best thing Crowley thinks he's ever seen. His hands still rest on either side of that angelic face. He can feel tears welling, and he pointedly does not blink less he encouraged them to fall down upon his cheeks where Aziraphale could see them. "How do you feel?"
"Cold?" Aziraphale questions, and Crowley can see him taking stock of himself, "Hungry?"
Crowley can't help but bark out a laugh, pulling the angel close into one of their rare embraces. Confused arms circle around him in turn, but Aziraphale doesn't voice any other thoughts has Crowley starts to cry into his shoulder. He's happy, the tears at this point are mostly just fear and dread leaving his system now that they are no longer needed. Aziraphale lets him cling, offering no comment or judgment as Crowley lets himself fall apart for a moment.
Then, the moment is over. Crowley is adjusting his glasses, and the two stand up, Aziraphale pointedly studying the stone walls, even if he remains standing close enough for Crowley to feel the warmth radiating off him.
He shines the brightest Crowley has ever seen, almost burning away that lifeless form that Crowley had found not so very long ago out of his memory completely. They should talk about that at some point; humans having something like that could be very dangerous for both parties, and Crowley can't imagine losing his angel to it a second time.
Instead, Crowley looks over to where Aziraphale is looking. Under the glow of Aziraphale's celestial light, Crowley can see the images of hands painting against the stone. As he looks deeper into the darkness he can see horses and other animals running among the surface in both directions. Crowley follows the painted herds around the bend, wanting to see them under the sun, only to find that the entrance he's assumed lead to the sea instead sloped down into a calm still pool of seawater. He felt out, trying to figure out where he'd brought them, only to find the cave opening out into the sea some 175 meters away, well hidden under the Mediterranean surface, meaning whatever light had been tucked just out of his sight was most definitely not the sun.
Looking back to where Aziraphale was just out of sight, the light didn't look too far off from he was sure he'd seen before.
"They bring about such terrible things, "Aziraphale said, carefully not touching any of the fragile surfaces as he looked at the hands in awe, "And yet they reach such apex of creativity."
It would take humans several more centuries to find this place again, a feat worthy of the first humans to leave their story behind in the first place. Until then, Crowley and Aziraphale walked the dry parts of the cave in wonder, looking over a story nearly as old as them, drawn out by people neither had ever had the chance to meet.
The cave system Crowley sequestered them in is the Cosquer Cave in France. It would not be rediscovered by humans until 1985.
So, if there is a name for when sensory deprivation happens due to being trapped in a cave, i couldn't find the right name for it. Short of it is, between the absolute dark, the complete silence, and the wet chill, your brain starts making shit up, often both visual and audible hallucinations. how long it takes to start happening is debatable, but some people claim to begin to imagining things with in minutes. It happened to me once spelunking right after high school, in a controlled setting, and i will never go back underground again.
Crowley /may/ be suffering from sensory deprivation in parts of chapter . Or, he and Aziraphale might not have been alone in those caves. Perhaps its just ineffable. Your call.
