Summary
Raphael loved and cherished every star that was placed under his protection, a new light and a new guardian of heaven- one star he loved more than others...and even after that star had forgotten him, yet he remembered, he never stopped loving it, until maybe it would one day love him back.

Word Count: 2339

Requested by: @TheDragonThatStayed
***

Crowley was lazily strewn across the couch, located in the bookshop, feet placed on Aziraphale's lap as the angel read quietly, silently allowing the demon to use his legs as a footrest.

Every now and then, Crowley would move to get comfortable, kicking the other in the shin, and earning a roll of his eyes or a sigh from Aziraphale as he did this.

Crowley got a kick out of this until he was doing the on purpose, bouncing his leg up and down and claiming it was asleep just to get Aziraphale's attention.

Finally, the angel had had enough of Crowley's games and pushed his legs off.

Crowley grinned as his legs off-balanced his position on the couch and he fell onto the ground.

Aziraphale looked slightly guilty and slightly amused as he marked his book and set it down on the coffee table beside the couch, "Are you alright, dear boy?" He grinned.

"Just peachy." Crowley growled as he leaned up on his elbows.

"You do realize I know that you can miracle away a sleeping foot?" Aziraphale cocked an amused eyebrow as he watched Crowley's face flush red.

The demon then sat up so he was now sitting in front of Aziraphale's legs, his own legs crossed in a way of sitting as he gazed up at the angel, above his shades, with a small smile.

"What?" Aziraphale commented on the smile.

Crowley seemed to catch himself too late in what he was doing and quickly looked away with a shrug.

"You have a familiar smile, dear." Aziraphale leaned forward to cup Crowley's face in his hands.

"I do...?" Crowley murmured, too intoxicated in the gentle touch of the other's hand on his face to actually think clearly.

"I believe I've seen it in a dream." Aziraphale hummed.

Crowley hoped Aziraphale couldn't feel the heat that gathered in his cheeks at that comment, "Um- alright?"

"Yes.." Aziraphale stroked a thumb over the cheek and Crowley closed his eyes from under the sunglasses, "Raphael..."

Crowley's eyes shot open and he held back a flinch at the name. His mind raced and a million different thoughts seem to crash together to form one word: Shit.
He opened his mouth to quickly defend himself, to claim that he wasn't such an angel, that that idea was truly absurd and-
He was interrupted before he could make any kind of argument or defense.

"Yes, he shares some of your finer qualities."

Crowley's panic turned to confusion. The angel seemed to be referring to Raphael as a different person- which, in the fact of personality and how Crowley had changed, that might be true, but it didn't change the fact that, way back, way, way back, he had once been that angel, Raphael. He tried to focus on the fact that Aziraphale had referred to his smile as one of his finer qualities.

"Where'd you meet this, uh, Raphael?" Crowley murmured.

"It's going to sound silly..." Aziraphale chuckled.
He took Crowley's lack of sarcastic comment as a prompt to continue.
"In my Dreams, actually..."

Crowley looked slightly relieved but slightly bitter.
Part of the curse of being fallen was to never forget...he could never forget the loss that had been his fall...what he had lost, who he had lost.
In turn, the angels couldn't remember what life with the previous angels had been like, let alone who they were-

But Aziraphale was no longer an angel- not in a traditional sense, not since their trials...so...maybe that meant he could remember...? Perhaps?

"What're these dreams like?" Crowley murmured.

"Familiar..." The angel frowned, "But new..."

"Hm." Crowley sniffed.

"But...while I can't see them clearly...I can feel them clearly..."

"Feel them? Feel them how?" Crowley furrowed his brow in confusion.

"I feel...love..."

Crowley's heart twisted uncomfortably.

"And...loss.." Aziraphale finished, before looking down at the demon at his feet, "Does that make sense?"

Crowley was quiet for a moment.

"Completely."

* * *

Humans believe that I made the stars in one day...
While this is, for the most part, true- I didn't do it alone. I needed help.
After all, someone had to care for these stars? And, who better to care for stars than a star himself?

Raphael loved the stars...each and every one of them, he would care for and look after until they could care for themselves, glowing brightly until a part of them broke away, becoming the physical entity of a guardians of the stars, of the heavens, otherwise known as an angel.

Each star was unique to its kin...each a different brightness and composition...each a new angel.

And Raphael loved them all.
Each star he would go to, he would care for, and then send to Gabriel to learn, to grow-

Well, nearly every star...

One in particular, he held on to.

Gabriel was the same as Raphael in the sense that they were of equal rank, Archangels...but one couldn't have made more diverse angels in personality.

While Raphael was a free spirit who knew no bounds, Gabriel was stern and strict, and kept things in the ordinary- his own ordinary.
This was good when it came to discipling other angels, but would prove to be difficult when discipling stars.

Stars were unpredictable, their patterns of movement and how they burned...which made them perfect for Crowley's department.

Stars held no date of birth or creation, but took on their own form that defined themselves...and they were nothing more than that, themselves.
Guardians of the heavens.
The angel's themselves.

Raphael personally saw to them...but the one that caught his interest was one far off from the central hive that was heaven, at the time merely a collection of stardust and particles...this Star was brighter than the rest, which usually promised an archangel- but most stars destined to be archangels were ones that god herself oversaw...while this star, she had left to Raphael...for a reason he could not yet understand.

What it made up for in brightness, it lacked in size. It was a humbly small star, which only further peaked Raphael's interest.
While he may not get to every star in an earth day, he quite often visited this star on what might have been a day-to-day basis.

And he wasn't quite sure when it happened, but he was there for it, when he saw his star shine brighter, he knew it was time to greet the angel that would come from it.

Dropping whatever business he had been tending to not a moment ago, he flew as quickly as he could to the star he'd cared so tenderly for, reaching it moments before a sum of light broke off from the star and began to form a being.

Raphael watched in awe as a stout man formed in front of him, draped in white robes that matched his bright white hair...he'd never seen anything like him, he was-

"Beautiful..." Raphael whispered.

"P-Pardon?" The man looked up at Raphael who's eyes rounded with immediate adoration.

Raphael kneeled down in the space that seemed to solidify beneath their feet to hold the unsteady angel who was currently sitting on his knees on the solid platform of space, "What's your name?" Raphael questioned.

"My name...?" The man murmured.

This was always Raphael's favorite part, the deciding of a name.

"What is it?" The man looked to Raphael.

Raphael looked a bit startled, "What?"

"What's my name?" The man frowned in confusion.

Raphael hadn't expected this.
He named the stars themselves, not the angels that came from them.
He desperately wished he could shrug the question off, with a remark Gabriel often used, of That's not my department, you should check into that perhaps yourself.

But the eagerness and trust in this man's eyes kept Raphael from saying no...
He thought about the name of the star, the one he had cared for and loved for years, that now was partially made up into the man that stood before him...

"Aziraphale, your name's Aziraphale." Raphael blinked.

Aziraphale paused before smiling warmly, "I do think I'm quite fond of that...Aziraphale." He seemed to test the name out before looking back at Raphael, "What's yours?"

Raphael's eyebrows lifted in surprise. Nobody had ever asked him for his name. Simply claimed theirs, and went on their way to heaven...

Raphael was used to the lack of credit he got for the partial creation of the stars and angels themselves...but he was okay with that...knowing that he got to love these beings without judgement.

But...that didn't mean he still wouldn't adore recognition when it came his way- and this was the first time it had. From this angel that stood before him...

"Where do we go now?"

He thought about Gabriel and how different he was from Raphael himself, but how similar the angels were to Gabriel, after he educated them, and- he couldn't allow that to happen to this angel, to Aziraphale...not someone so unique...

"You'll stay with me." Raphael smiled.

Aziraphale smiled in return, "Alright."

For the first few years or so, Aziraphale followed Raphael around like an obedient puppy, helping him best he could.

"What are the differences between them?" Aziraphale asked as he flew after Raphael, the archangel used to this path while the other found himself lagging behind.

Raphael slowed and looked over his shoulder at Aziraphale, pausing as they reached the closest star near them, "Other than the brightness- It's a feeling you get."

"A feeling?" Aziraphale frowned in confusion.

"It's not...an explainable one, just...light and...warmth and...and then the personality."

"A personality?" Aziraphale questioned again.

"What makes you you."

"...So, I have a personality and you have a personality?"

Raphael forgot that one of the things Gabriel educated the angels on was common sense. Therefore, Aziraphale's knowledge was limited...but regardless, he was still quite clever.

"Yes," The archangel answered.

"What's my personality like?" Aziraphale beamed.

Raphael paused. He looked over the angel as if he needed to think a moment. He smiled, "Perfect."

Aziraphale felt himself blush for the first time ever.

Raphael felt his hands shake at his response and he clenched them in fists to keep this from happening.

"It...does take one to know one." Aziraphale smiled shakily.

Raphael was reminded of what a heartbeat was, and just how fast it could go.

Raphael appreciated the company of the angel...more than appreciated it, he loved it. But, it was brought to his attention that the Angel seemed to grow more lonely overtime...
He knew he couldn't keep him to himself for eternity- no matter how much he desired that. Not everything could be as perfect as Aziraphale was- not everything.

"You know," Raphael began, one day, "You should meet some of the other angels.." It hurt him to say such a thing- for he knew the results, of what this conversation meant- that he'd have to let the angel go.

"Other angels...? You mean, I'd get to see them? In person?" Aziraphale's eyes shone with interest, desire, further twisting the knife in Raphael's heart.

In helping him care for the stars, Aziraphale had watched many others leave and join heaven, and his longing gazes hadn't gone unnoticed by Raphael.

Raphael forced a smile and nodded, "Gabriel will know what to do- just pretend you're a newly made angel and he'll do fine with ya'."

Aziraphale beamed. There was a long, thoughtful pause before he clasped one of Raphael's hands in his own and giving it a squeeze. Another pause as they made eye-contact and held it fondly, before Aziraphale looked down and responded a quiet, "Thank you."

Raphael's heart flipped in a giddy response, as well as a sorrowful one. He nodded, "Yeah." It was all he could say to keep himself from falling apart.

With that, Aziraphale turned towards the direction of heaven, wings summoned to beat hard towards his destination. He looked back at Raphael, casting him a final smile that had brought the archangel so much joy everyday, and would now bring him pain from memory, until he was only a dot in the endless space that was the universe.

Raphael felt his lips press together, his hands ball up in tight fists, and he all together grew stiff...all to hide growing emotions in the pit of his stomach and bottom of his heart. And, for the first time ever, he questioned the choices of God...
and why she wouldn't make every single angel like Aziraphale.

* * *

Crowley was now sitting beside the angel, who had fallen asleep.
Sleep had been something the other had picked up after the exhaustion that the eleven years before, as well as the apocalypse itself, had brought...
Crowley found himself awake for once. The angel beside him murmured his name over and over- but not Crowley, not Crawley,
Raphael...

It made Crowley want to leave or hide or- stay, really...just to hear that name once again by the angel's tongue...

He had fallen.
He had fallen before he got to see Aziraphale again, after he left.

He had always loved Aziraphale, but not in the way he did now...not in the way he had when they had met again on the wall.

All stars were created on the same day.

And Crowley had felt he'd known Aziraphale from the beginning of time- because he had-

But he had never truly known him until earth...
Until now...
With his head rested on the angel's leg, arm laid on Crowley's shoulder as he slept...
He knew Aziraphale...
And he loved him.

The angel woke with a start and a gasp and Crowley closed his eyes in attempts to look as if he was asleep.

"Raphael..." Aziraphale whispered the name.

In Crowley's attempts to look asleep, he didn't see the knowing look that the angel gave him,
That Aziraphale wasn't repeating the name- but addressing Crowley by it.

***
////My plan was to start this chapter and finish in the morning...that clearly failed—
Alright so my phone is at
1% so I better publish this quick!
If you enjoyed the chapter, please don't forget to vote, thank you!
-Jay😇😈