(no subject)
For professor_mary who evilly bunnied me.
PG-13 again, it's all implied. She attacked me with images of voyeur!Aziraphale, and I couldn't quite resist.
All poetry and the title belong to Walt Whitman.
I watch you face to face
He isn't even aware of it, and that's perhaps the worst of it.
Unless prepared to make an effort... and yet perhaps sometimes the effort is made for them. For him. Effort in the frown-lines between Crowley's eyebrows, in tanned fingers against off-white paper, in the way he absently chews a pencil as he reads.
It's safe to watch him, Aziraphale tells himself, when he's so absorbed. There's no harm in it. Aesthetics alone, pleasure in God's creation... and if that isn't blasphemy, if that isn't offensive in the eyes of God it would most certainly be offensive in the eyes of Crowley.
He's glad of the fan behind the counter, glad of the open door and the summer heat because it gives him an excuse for his dry mouth and flushed cheeks and it... and Crowley's collar, unbuttoned, and the line of his throat...
This has to be some form of test.
And, determined to pass, determined in some way to prove himself he looks down at the book he's attempting to repair only now his fingers are shaking and his gaze is drawn irresistably up as Crowley hisses softly in satisfaction and underlines a line or two. By the time the demon raises his head Aziraphale is busily at work again because he's had practise at this.
So intent is he on proving he isn't watching that he entirely misses Crowley's silent exit, is startled out of his careful inattention by the familiar sound of the Bentley's engine.
And it's more important than it should be to find out what it was that spoke to him, so he flicks through Leaves of Grass, so determined not to think of tanned fingers against off-white paper that he almost misses the faint pencil marks.
Consider, you who peruse me, whether I may not in unknown ways be
looking upon you
"...Oh. Hell."
ETA: There's a quick variation, from Crowley's POV, in the comments. Because of madame_Enjolras who is clearly evil.
PG-13 again, it's all implied. She attacked me with images of voyeur!Aziraphale, and I couldn't quite resist.
All poetry and the title belong to Walt Whitman.
I watch you face to face
He isn't even aware of it, and that's perhaps the worst of it.
Unless prepared to make an effort... and yet perhaps sometimes the effort is made for them. For him. Effort in the frown-lines between Crowley's eyebrows, in tanned fingers against off-white paper, in the way he absently chews a pencil as he reads.
It's safe to watch him, Aziraphale tells himself, when he's so absorbed. There's no harm in it. Aesthetics alone, pleasure in God's creation... and if that isn't blasphemy, if that isn't offensive in the eyes of God it would most certainly be offensive in the eyes of Crowley.
He's glad of the fan behind the counter, glad of the open door and the summer heat because it gives him an excuse for his dry mouth and flushed cheeks and it... and Crowley's collar, unbuttoned, and the line of his throat...
This has to be some form of test.
And, determined to pass, determined in some way to prove himself he looks down at the book he's attempting to repair only now his fingers are shaking and his gaze is drawn irresistably up as Crowley hisses softly in satisfaction and underlines a line or two. By the time the demon raises his head Aziraphale is busily at work again because he's had practise at this.
So intent is he on proving he isn't watching that he entirely misses Crowley's silent exit, is startled out of his careful inattention by the familiar sound of the Bentley's engine.
And it's more important than it should be to find out what it was that spoke to him, so he flicks through Leaves of Grass, so determined not to think of tanned fingers against off-white paper that he almost misses the faint pencil marks.
Consider, you who peruse me, whether I may not in unknown ways be
looking upon you
"...Oh. Hell."
ETA: There's a quick variation, from Crowley's POV, in the comments. Because of madame_Enjolras who is clearly evil.