We are getting close to the end! (everyone: Daaaaahwww) This chapter is more laid back, mostly filled with training Samantha and talking about the future. But! I have one last trick up my sleeve. Look foreward to it in one of the next chapters. *maniacal laugh*
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aziraphale was still reading in the now setting sun with a hot Choco by his side, as he heard the familiar roar of Crowley's Bentley come up the hill. He smiled to himself about it. He realised he was a tiny bit relieved that Crowley was safely back and chuckled to himself about it. It was silly that he'd have to think that, but somewhere it was quite logical. They had spent a rocky and hard time the past few years and hadn't been away from each other much. And even though they spend ages apart in the past, it felt different lately. A good different. Still he knew he could trust Crowley to come back to him. Perhaps not completely unharmed, but he would always return, no matter the cost. He closed his book and stood up, taking the last sip of his Choco. Then he picked up his books and brought them back inside. As he stored them away he heard the door to the house open and he looked up as Crowley enter the room.
"Hello Crowley. I hope you had a lovely day. I know I had a good day." he said cheerfully.
Crowley showed a tiny grin. "I had an amazing day. Guess what? We own a mansion now." he said and pulled out the papers to show him.
"What? Are you serious? So fast?" said Aziraphale startled and he took the papers. He looked through them and hummed. "Yes they seem to be real. As real as they can be when faked by your hands. The humans will certainly fall for it.", he said and looked up at Crowley now, curiously. "Was he dead when you got to the place? What happened?"
Crowley let out a soft chuckle. "Well what a good choice of words. He fell down the stairs, broke his neck. Heart attack they said. Anyhow. He is gone now, so the place is ours. I took the opportunity to house all my stuff in and made some changes at my will. Don't worry, I only did some stuff, you may change things around as well. I just made it a tiny bit homier already."
"Oh dear. I am so sorry to hear. All alone. Poor guy. At least he can be at peace now." sighed Aziraphale.
"I wouldn't be so sure of that." said Crowley with a tiny chuckle. "After all I damned his soul. I might not work for Hell anymore, but every soul damned by my hands still goes to Hell's account you know."
Aziraphale frowned now. "Oh the poor, poor soul."
"Don't mourn over him angel. All his possessions are ours now. Why don't you donate all of his money to charity? Then that'll be your good deed on my demonic act and everything will be in balance again." suggested Crowley.
Aziraphale thought about that for a bit, then nodded. "Yes, yes that sounds like a lovely thing to do. Thank you for the suggestion."
"Oh don't mention it.", answered Crowley and he shrugged, then he sauntered at the window and looked over on the sea and the setting sun. "S' already almost night again."
"Yes, soon it will be time for you to show Samantha you're fighting skills." said Aziraphale and he went to stand beside him to watch the sunset.
Crowley nodded. "I wonder how that is going to play out. She is, as you said yesterday, quite a fast learner so I suspect I can at least teach her some of the basic moves I know. Like blocking and using people's strength and body mass against them."
"If you two finish in time I could also spar with her again to see how much she has remembered from yesterday's lessons.", said Aziraphale.
"That sounds like a good plan. It is one thing that she picks up stuff pretty quickly, but I wonder if she is just as good at remembering the things we throw at her", agreed Crowley.
Aziraphale now nodded. "That was exactly what I was thinking. Now, shall we head down to get her from the cottage, or wait for her to show up here?"
Crowley shrugged. "I wouldn't mind either of the two. But I think she'd expect us to get her like we have been doing this past week."
"I did expect that from you yes, but mom's not home tonight so I didn't have to go to the trouble of cooking and pretending I still need to eat. So I figured I'd come to you." said Samantha suddenly as she was suddenly standing in the doorframe of the sliding door that offered entrance to the garden.
The two looked up, seeming a bit surprised to see her so soon. Then Aziraphale smiled warmly. "What a lovely surprise to see you so soon. How has your day been?"
Samantha shrugged. "Well you know, the usual. Nothing spectacular much. Though, I was messing around with my miracles a bit and there was this kid who was being really mean to his sister. So I made his ice-cream drop. That was about the highlight of my day. How was yours?"
"I am proud of you." grinned Crowley. "What a mastermind. So much evil in such a small gesture." he continued dryly. Then the two chuckled.
Aziraphale frowned however. "You two are awful."
"Hey, to be fair. That kid really had it coming." said Samantha defending.
"Oh let her be angel. My day was quite interesting though. Do you remember I talked about that old grumpy guy and his old mansion? Well, he passed away in an unlucky trip off the stairs and now the mansion is ours. I went to check on him and made quick work of getting the papers ready, so once we are back in London we can move in. I actually already moved my stuff over for good measures." said Crowley and showed a soft smile.
Samantha seemed surprised. "Well, that is fast. Was that tripping part you're doing tough? It sounds very coincidental that you just so happen to check up on him as he had tripped off the stairs."
"It is fast indeed. But you know I quite like a fast pace sometimes. The only thing I go slowly for is Aziraphale." he said teasingly and winked at Aziraphale, meanwhile cleverly avoiding Samantha's question.
Aziraphale let out a soft shy chuckle and he glanced away with a soft blush on his cheeks.
"Anyhow, tonight is my night to teach you some moves. So let's start. The faster we start, the faster we are done with this. I want to see what you are made of." continued Crowley and he got up, then he went at the door to the garden.
Samantha nodded. "I understand. Let's do this." she said and followed him outside. Aziraphale followed too, curious about Crowley's way of reaching and of how this spectacle would turn out. Now it was his turn to take place on the bench and he went to watch the two standing on the grass patch in the garden.
"All right." started Crowley. "First off is your balance. Of course this works quite like what Aziraphale told you yesterday. All of your fights will get just that little bit more easily with a stable pose. Even firing a gun will. So, stand like you think you will stand most stable and I will judge."
Samantha nodded and did as asked. Then Crowley walked around her and observed her, poking her and pushing her into the correct position. "You are close, but there is still a lot of improvement too. But you'll figure that out on the go. Now watch me closely."
Crowley went to explain different tactics to her. He told her about his own experiences and what situations he had been in and in what situation a certain move would be the defining action between life and death. He showed her a couple of moves, then asked her to copy them. He walked around her when she tried them and he corrected her, much like what Aziraphale had done. Then he asked her to come and try to hit her. She was hesitant at first, but tried again after an annoyed growl of Crowley. She attacked with what she was learned, but was quickly blocked and pushed back by Crowley. He told her what she did wrong and demanded her to try again. This was his way of teaching. Samantha would try to attack him and he would block her, hit back or throw her against the ground, telling her what she did wrong. Aziraphale was pretty nervous he would hurt her too bad, but it was fine. She did get hurt a few times, but didn't seem to mind. Eventually Crowley took a step back and nodded.
"Not bad, not bad at all. I might not mention it while I train you, but you are doing pretty okay for a start. Just know, everything I don't mention, you are doing right. Everything I say to you, you need to work on. All the other stuff is fine. Got it?" he explained and watched her seriously.
"Yes, I understand." confirmed Samantha.
"Good. Now I guess Aziraphale can take over. Let's see how much you remember from yesterday." said Crowley and he took a step away.
"How about we let her take a break first?" offered Aziraphale as he stood up. "I know we don't really get tired, but it might be nice for her if not all our interactions every night becomes just focussed on training. I'd like that too, anyhow."
Crowley shrugged. "That sounds fair. What do you suggest we do for a break then?"
"Oh I don't know. Perhaps just chatting a little bit?" answered Aziraphale.
"That sounds fine by me.", said Samantha while walking up to him. "Inside or outside?"
Crowley was already walking inside and Aziraphale watched him go. "I guess it will be inside, then." he said and followed Crowley inside. Samantha followed too. The three sat down on the couch in the living room and relaxed a bit.
"So.", started Samantha. "It seems like you will be living together permanently soon. How do you feel about that? It must be quite the change after living alone for so long."
Crowley nodded. "As far as I know neither of us have ever lived together with anyone else, so this will be new for sure. But we got to practice here, and lately I have been hanging around in Aziraphale's bookshop for quite a bit, so I don't think it'll be much of a problem."
"I agree on that." said Aziraphale. "It will be new for me to have to travel from and to my bookshop and not to live there permanently anymore, but I think I'll get used to that soon as well. I have had more human jobs that acquired me to be there in the day time, but in night times I located myself somewhere else. And as for living together with Crowley, I am actually quite interested to see how that will turn out. But from what I have heard the mansion is quite big, so we will be able to have our own space within the building. We don't have to be inside of each other's space all the time."
"The place is quite big indeed. So big in fact that I am sure we won't be able to find a use for all the chambers in the building." added Crowley.
"Oh! That means we could offer you one or more rooms to make your own permanently." beamed Aziraphale cheerfully and he wiggled a bit on his spot. Then he glanced at Crowley. "At least if my new housemate is okay with that."
Crowley grinned softly. "Don't worry about that angel. I was thinking about it myself as well. Samantha is one of the least annoying persons I have ever met, so I can endure having her around in my living space for a bit. It's no problem. And if she gets too much, I can always kick her out anyhow." he said casually.
Samantha laughed now. "I don't think there would be a need for that. I'll make sure to keep myself on a bit of a distance. I will still be a guest at your place anyhow. Or at least I feel like it would be that way."
"That is very kind of you dear. I am sure that barrier will fall away soon enough. As we spend more time together. After all we have eternity." said Aziraphale.
Samantha nodded, then hummed. "When will you be going back home actually? Now we are on this topic anyhow."
"I think it would be best for us to leave soon. So I guess we'll just fill in this week and then leave, since Aziraphale already payed for this week. But after that we really have to go. I don't like the townspeople getting nosy." explained Crowley.
"I am afraid I have to agree with Crowley. They are getting a bit too curious for my comfort." said Aziraphale with a sigh.
Samantha shrugged. "That is okay with me. I'll just continue practicing popping back and forth to places. I can already miracle myself from my house to this place. It's how I got here so soon actually. I bet if I'll continue practicing I'll be able to pop the distance between London and Charmouth soon. Perhaps a month or two. We just have to figure out what to do in between. Will you pop over here once a week to practice, or will I just practice on my own until I can make it to you and keep contact by phone?"
"I suggest we do a bit of both." offered Aziraphale. "Just when we have the time we'll pop over for a night and check up on how you have been progressing. And otherwise we'll let you practice on your own for a bit, checking up on you regularly to see if you haven't... well had another awful experience like the one from a few days ago."
"Yup. That sounds fair to me.", agreed Crowley.
Samantha smiled. "All right. Then that is settled too."
The couple nodded in silence and the three relaxed for a bit, then Aziraphale got up. "Okay. I suggest we'll go on with your training. Let us see how much you actually remember from yesterday, shall we?"
Samantha got up as well. "Yes, let's do that. I have been thinking about the moves in my head while I was working at the café. I hope they will go just as smoothly as I got them in my head."
"Well, once you get your miracling going well enough, you can even use it to steer your movements and get ahead of an enemy by smoothening out a move you wouldn't be able to do as well normally.", explained Crowley.
"That sounds really cool." answered Samantha amazed.
"It can be yes, but let us first focus on your normal skills before you start that. Especially because you are still just figuring out your powers." said Aziraphale and he went to take the lead while walking outside. Samantha and Crowley followed. This time Crowley took place on the bench to watch the two train.
Samantha miracled up the epee in her hands swiftly this time on her first try and swished it around. Aziraphale nodded approved and miracled up his own well decorated epee in his hand. Then he went to position. "All right. Go ahead and show me what you remember."
The two started the mild sparring game. Aziraphale was, despite his chubby and quirky appearance, quite agile and he swiftly moved from Samantha's attacks, one hand on his back. He watched her attempts closely and used mild movements to get her off balance, reminding her to watch her footwork. She did remember the moves, largely. On places where she struggled Aziraphale swiftly came to her aid, remembering her what he had told her. She was quick to remember her moves after that and Aziraphale seemed quite pleased with it. He even showed her a few new moves and watched her try them out.
At the end of it all the two sparred again. Though it wasn't to be called a real sparring game, for Samantha's movements were still somewhat hesitant and slow and Aziraphale was obviously waiting on her to move, smoothly and slowly blocking her attacks. When they were done they let their swords disappear and Aziraphale walked at Samantha.
"It is lovely to see you making such quick progress. You are indeed a fast learner in many ways. Still you have a long way to go. Your fighting is slow and somewhat hesitant. It gives me time to spot what you can approve so I don't mind, but when you need to go into a real battle, you need to be a lot faster than this to stand a chance." he explained her kindly.
Samantha nodded. "I already expected that. I am having a lot of fun training with you two though. You two have a very different yet similar way of teaching. It gives a certain type of dynamic and I love it. I hope I will feel this way about training with you two for a long time, because I am sure we will be doing this for a very long time to come."
"You got it. If you want to be able to compete with celestial beings you'll have to get a heck of a lot better than this. Even I had a struggle keeping up with some of the angels attacking me at Stonehenge." said Crowley.
Samantha sighed. "I know I'll have to. And I will be training as much as I can to try and get to that level. I got the same powers now so I should be able to get there eventually. At least I believe I will."
"I hope you will dear. But if I see your progress I must say I am quite positive you will get there. As long as you will keep this up, that is.", said Aziraphale.
"Thanks Aziraphale." said Samantha and she glanced up at the horizon, where again the sun was rising again. "Seems like that is my que. I should go back and get ready for work." she said and paused to think. Then she sighed. "It is going good so far, but I am afraid one of these days my mom will find my room empty in the middle of the night and I'll have to explain myself. That is going to be a very hard one."
"Don't worry about that. If that happens just tell us and I'll deceive her mind. She won't remember you weren't there." answered Crowley. "You know what, I'll try to teach you how to preform deceiving miracles this week if we have the time. But we'll need to have a test subject."
Samantha hummed thoughtful, then smiled. "How about we pop or fly over to Portland one of these nights and try it out on a simple tramp or drunk person? Preferably a drunk person. It'll be the easiest way."
"Well that is a plan I like." said Crowley with a tiny sly smirk on his face.
"Nice. Then that's a deal." said Samantha cheerfully, then she stretched. "Anyhow, I'll go back home. See you guys tonight." she waved and the other two waved back. Then made a gesture with her hand and had popped off, back to her chamber where she ended up clumsily on her bed after stumbling, still not being completely accurate with where she would appear.