Archive of Our Own ^beta

Crowley tried to keep the pain off of his face as he slowly walked next to Aziraphale. Heavy snow was pelting down on them and every violent shiver agitated the sharp pain in his side. The pain had been bad enough while riding his horse, but as soon as the storm had worsened, his horse had of course decided to toss him off, almost causing him to black out from the pain. Aziraphale had slid off of his own horse to check on him and that was when both horses had decided to bolt.

Crowley had cursed loudly, much to Aziraphale’s disapproval, and they both decided to set off on foot in search of some sort of shelter. The chances of finding any sort of shelter out here was almost non-existent, but Aziraphale had insisted it was better then just staying where they were and freezing to death.

Unfortunately, thanks to a recent visit to Hastur’s office where he had been held down and sliced up because of a minor error on a report, Crowley was too weak to perform any miracles. And Aziraphale was low enough on his miracle allotment that he couldn’t transport them over to a nearby town. So they were both stuck walking through a snowstorm, looking for shelter. 

The cold had at least numbed most of the pain from Crowley’s smaller injuries, but the biggest cut on his side still throbbed in pain. Thankfully the bleeding had slowed down and Crowley's black clothing hid the bloodstain quite well.

Crowley had hoped that after a little bit of time and rest, he could’ve put together enough strength to heal that injury, but of course he had to get stuck in a storm storm instead. The cold was sapping his energy and Crowley knew it was unlikely he would have enough energy to heal his side anytime soon. He was slightly worried about leaving the injury untreated, but it wasn’t like he had a choice. Aziraphale didn’t have enough miracles left to heal him either and telling him about the big slash in his side would just make him worry. They were probably going to both discorporate in the storm anyways, why did it matter?

“Crowley?” Aziraphale said. “How are you doing?”

Crowley looked up at Aziraphale. He was pale and shivering, but nowhere as badly as Crowley. It was kinda unfair how well Aziraphale could deal with the cold. Crowley being a snake meant, of course, he dealt with extreme weather poorly. “I’m fine, Angel,” Crowley said through chattering teeth. “You?”

Aziraphale raised an eyebrow at him. “I’m pretty cold,” he said. “Which means you must be freezing.” Aziraphale stopped and pulled off his thick cloak and wrapped it around Crowley.

“Are you crazy?” Crowley asked. “Why are you giving me your cloak, you’ll freeze!”

“I’ll be okay,” Aziraphale said. “I was wearing two cloaks and I can handle the cold better than you.”

Crowley grumbled but knew it was pointless to argue. “Y’know we’re not going to find anything out here,” he said. “We’ve been walking for ages.”

“Well what do you propose we do then?” Aziraphale asked.

Crowley grumbled again, but didn’t respond.

“I’m sure we’ll find some lovely shelter eventually- oh Crowley, look!”

Crowley squinted in the direction Aziraphale was pointing. “I don’t see anything,” he said.

“There’s a lovely cabin there. I’m sure the owners would be gracious enough to let us take shelter until the storm passes,” Aziraphale said, excitedly.

Crowley had thoughts about what Aziraphale would consider a “lovely” cabin and people being gracious but he kept them to himself. He quietly followed Aziraphale as he led them to the cabin, frowning when he finally managed to spot it himself. “It’s a stretch to call this a cabin,” Crowley said, staring at the tiny, sad structure.

“Crowley! Don’t be rude,” Aziraphale said. “I’m sure it's a lovely place to live in.” 

Crowley highly doubted that, but he was too cold and his side hurt too much for him to argue. He stood beside Aziraphale as Aziraphale knocked on the door. They both waited for a minute, before Aziraphale knocked again.

“Hello?” Aziraphale called out. “Me and my…companion just need some shelter from the storm. We would be most grateful if we could come in.”

There was no reply. 

“There’s probably no one inside,” Crowley said. “Who’d be living out here in the middle of nowhere?”

“We can’t just barge in,” Aziraphale protested. “Besides, I thought you didn’t like this place.”

“It’s better than freezing to death out here,” Crowley admitted. “If we’re gonna freeze, might as well do it inside.” He stepped forward and pushed at the door, unsurprised to see it swing open.

“Crowley! We can’t just break in,” Aziraphale protested again. “And we’re not going to freeze.”

“We’re not breaking in, I’m breaking in,” Crowley said. “Now are you coming in or do you want to wait outside in the storm?”

Aziraphale sighed and stepped inside and Crowley followed him in, closing the door behind him. 

“Oh dear, this place looks quite abandoned,” Aziraphale said after looking around.

Crowley made a noise of agreement. There wasn’t much inside, just a small cot shoved in a corner with a single crumbled up blanket on top of it and a tiny fireplace. Aziraphale gestured at the fireplace and flames erupted. He dragged the cot close to the fireplace and sat down.

“Come join me, my dear,” Aziraphale said. “We’ll need to share the warmth.”

“Demons don’t share warmth,” Crowley grumbled, but he joined Aziraphale despite his protests.

“We ought to take off our damp clothes,” Aziraphale said, taking off his cloak and setting it close to the fire to dry.

Crowley copied the motion and only hesitated for a second before plastering himself to Aziraphale’s side. He was so so cold and somehow Aziraphale still felt wonderfully warm, despite the fact that he was shivering as well. Aziraphale made a noise of surprise before grabbing the single blanket and wrapping it around them both. It was barely big enough for the both of them, but it did the job.

“Oh dear, you are quite cold,” Aziraphale said, taking Crowley’s cold hands into his warm ones.

“Sorry,” Crowley chattered. “‘M cold-blooded.”

“You are not cold-blooded,” Aziraphale said. “But you do tend to get chilled easily.”

Crowley made a noise of agreement before closing his eyes. Hopefully he would warm up soon, he really needed to heal the cut on his side. At some point, the clotting must’ve gotten disturbed, Crowley could feel the blood running down his side again. His shivering increased, the blood running down his side was only making him more cold.

A part of Crowley realized he was probably in trouble with how cold he was and how much blood he had lost, but it was too late. His body had enough, it finally shut down and he lost consciousness. 

It took Aziraphale longer than it should have to realize something was wrong. Crowley had been acting strangely for a while, he had been strangely quiet and hadn't been engaging in conversation, but Aziraphale had just assumed it was because of the cold. Even when Crowley had closed his eyes and went limp against Aziraphale’s side, Aziraphale had just assumed Crowley had been tired and fallen asleep.

But then he had glanced down at Crowley’s limp form and realized something was wrong. Crowley was pale, far too pale. At first, Aziraphale thought it was because of the cold, but no, something else had to be wrong. Crowley was still shivering which was a good sign, the hypothermia wasn't too severe, so this couldn't be only due to the cold.

“Crowley?” Aziraphale said, shaking him slightly. “Can you wake up, my dear?”

Crowley didn’t react at all. 

Panicked, Aziraphale shook Crowley again. “Crowley! Wake up!”

Once again, Crowley didn’t respond.

“Oh dear, what’s wrong?” Aziraphale said to himself. He only had a few precious miracles left, but he didn’t hesitate to touch Crowley’s shoulder and perform a small one to check to see what was wrong.

Blood loss. That combined with hypothermia was why Crowley was now unconscious. Crowley had gotten hurt somehow and Aziraphale hadn’t noticed. Aziraphale didn’t have time to think back and try to figure out when the injury had occurred, he needed to act.

He unwrapped the blanket from around them, ignoring the biting, cold air and started pulling off Crowley's clothes. His hand brushed against Crowley’s side and he felt a wet spot there. There was a deep cut in Crowley’s side that was bleeding steadily. There were also other smaller cuts on Crowley’s torso, but none of them were bleeding as badly as the one on his side.

There was no way they could have happened while they had been together, Crowley must’ve gotten hurt before they met up and had hidden it from Aziraphale. Aziraphale didn’t have time to be upset about that, he needed to find a way to stop the bleeding. 

He reached over and grabbed one of the still slightly damp cloaks, the one he had been wearing under his thicker one, and tore it up into bandages. He used the first one to apply pressure to the wound until the bleeding stopped, then carefully bandaged up the wound. He also bandaged the other cuts on Crowley’s torso.

Aziraphale touched Crowley’s face, alarmed to feel how cold his skin was. The blood loss wasn’t helping with the hypothermia. Aziraphale quickly redressed Crowley and gathered him close to his chest, practically having Crowley sitting on his lap. He grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around them again. He carefully rubbed Crowley’s arms, hopefully his body heat and the fire would be enough to warm Crowley up.

The first thing Crowley noticed was how cold he was. He was shivering uncontrollably and every movement sent a sharp pain through his side. He tried to curl up, but he couldn’t move. He was frozen from the cold.

He could vaguely hear a voice saying something to him, maybe even calling out his name. Crowley tried to reply, but he was still frozen, he couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, couldn’t think past anything besides how cold he was and how much his side hurt.

Crowley knew he was panicking, but he couldn’t help himself. He needed to move, needed to get away from the cold and get away from the voice that was yelling now.

And then a wonderfully warm hand slid into his hand, a familiar hand. Crowley hadn’t held Aziraphale’s hand often, but he could still instantly tell this was Aziraphale. He relaxed, if Aziraphale was with him, everything would be fine. Aziraphale would take care of him and warm him up. He stopped fighting and let himself drift off again.

Aziraphale watched over Crowley’s sleeping form with concern. Crowley had awoken a while back and panicked. He had been completely unaware of his surroundings and hadn’t responded to Aziraphale at all. It had taken Aziraphale a while but he had finally managed to make Crowley settle down by holding his hand.

After that Crowley had slept peacefully. Aziraphale had tried to let go of his hand after a bit, but Crowley had made a noise of protest. Aziraphale had smiled at that, it was quite sweet of Crowley to want to hold his hand, no matter how much he would protest being called “sweet”.

Aziraphale smiled again before noticing Crowley stirring. “Crowley?” Aziraphale said.

“Hnmmm Angel?” Crowley mumbled, eyes slightly cracked open. “What’s going on?”

Crowley opened his eyes fully and seemed to notice his position. He let go of Aziraphale’s hand and practically jumped away from him. The sudden movement must’ve agitated his side as he clutched it and groaned.

“Please be careful, my dear,” Aziraphale said, watching Crowley with concern. “I don’t want you to start bleeding again.”

“Where are we?” Crowley said, glancing around.

“You don’t remember?” Aziraphale asked, his concern growing.

Crowley frowned, clearly thinking. “We lost our horses,” he said. “It kinda gets all fuzzy after that.”

Aziraphale hummed. “We walked for quite some time before finding this place to take shelter,” he explained. “You lost consciousness pretty soon after we got here. Why didn’t you tell me you were hurt?”

Crowley shrugged. “Not like you had enough miracles to take care of it.”

“Still. I could've helped you bandage it. And how did you even get hurt?” Aziraphale asked, trying not to sound accusing.

Crowley tensed slightly. “Hastur was in a bad mood,” he said.

“Oh dear, I’m so sorry,” Aziraphale said. Hell hadn’t even crossed his mind, but it was so obvious that it was the likely explanation.

Crowley waved him off. It was clear he didn’t want to talk about it.

“Are you still cold, my dear?” Aziraphale asked, changing the topic.

“Only a bit,” Crowley said, looking grateful for the subject change. “How much longer are we going to be stuck here?”

Aziraphale glanced out of the window.  The snow had slowed down, but they would clearly still need to wait. “I’m not sure,” he said. “The storm looks like it has slowed down a bit. But don’t worry, I’m sure we can find plenty of things to do in this lovely cabin!”

Crowley groaned, but he had an amused smile on his face. “I guess it’s not too bad, with you here,” he said.

Aziraphale beamed at him. “Now come here, my dear. We need to make sure you stay warm, it’s still quite cold.”

Crowley grumbled something about demons not huddling for warmth, but plastered himself against Aziraphale’s side anyways. Aziraphale adjusted the blanket so that it would be wrapping around both of them again, then took a risk and slid his hand into Crowley’s.

Crowley didn’t say anything, but Aziraphale could see the smile on his face. Aziraphale settled in and resolved to watch over Crowley as they waited the storm out together.