Eleven years ago was the first day of the rest of their lives. As per tradition, they were currently dining at the Ritz to celebrate the night they had professed their undying love to each other. And the journey they had undertaken to just be here together.
Aziraphale smiled looking down at their entwined hands resting on the table, reminiscing on when he had given his ring to Crowley just a few years prior. It shone brightly in the ambiance of the Ritz, filling the angel with a sense of eternal love for the being beside him. It had been a wonderful decade together, he admitted glancing down at the ring on his own hand. A silver band engraved with a snake wrapped tightly around his finger. Things hadn't always been perfect, and he doubted they ever would be, but against all odds they had prevailed.
"Are you going to finish eating angel?" Crowley asked, squeezing Aziraphale's hand gently. "No rush, but I did have something planned after dinner if you ever decided to finish up," the demon grinned mischievously.
The angel shook himself out of his thoughts and smiled fondly at his husband of five years. "Oh don't tempt me dear." Aziraphale chuckled, "But of course I'm going to finish. This tiramisu is just to die for! You really should try it, love."
Crowley shook his head, golden eyes peeking at the angel for a moment over his sunglasses.. Reluctantly, Aziraphale released the demon's hand to tuck in for his dessert. As he bit in, the flavor exploded into his mouth for only a moment until the angel's thoughts drifted back to his husband - as they usually did.
Eleven years ago today, they had decided to try and develop this... relationship. Confessing their feelings was the easy part, moving past that had been all the more difficult - especially for the angel. During the first few years of their independence, it had been particularly trying and yet Crowley had always been so very patient with him. Aziraphale was still baffled by it to this day.
The issue had been giving the demon the love he deserved without regressing to his previous mindset and hurting Crowley even more. Of course the angel loved the demon back - he had told him so precisely ten years before this date - but it was so hard to show it back then. Back when he still had the influences of heaven ingrained into him making the process of giving Crowley the love he deserved nearly impossible.
In the first few years, there were times when Aziraphale purposely picked fights with Crowley, trying to get the demon angry at him. This was because Aziraphale felt a tremendous amount of guilt for his deadweight in the relationship, and had no other outlet. Crowley would try to explain to the angel that it was fine, that he didn't blame Aziraphale but heaven itself. For the demon recognized the traumas of heaven within his angel and understood it took time to heal. Aziraphale did not agree, believing there was no excuse for his behavior and that Crowley should be angry.
Thankfully, the two had worked out their differences and moved on with their immortal lives. They had gotten married, moved in together in a nice little cottage of the South Downs. Occasionally, they checked on their mortal friends from the apocalypse down in Tadfield. Things were perfect.
And perfect things never lasted, they soon found out.
Crowley stiffened next to the angel and Aziraphale immediately noticed. He paused in his chewing, raising an eyebrow to the demon.
"What are they doing here?" the demon hissed angrily, grabbing onto the angel's hand and pulling him up to stand. Aziraphale grunted in surprise, fork clattering down to the table.
"Who's here, love?" Aziraphale asked reluctantly following his husband's lead. The tiramisu had looked very appealing and he had only taken a single bite.
Crowley tugged Aziraphale off to the side, "Them." he pointed to the archangel and prince of hell a few feet away. The sight of his former boss made Aziraphale sick to his stomach. They had such a wonderful decade of peace and bliss only for it to be ruined by some violet eyes in a suit.
"Oh dear. Do you think they're here for us?" he asked, pulling Crowley behind him defensively. He had worked hard to be able to keep Crowley in his life, he wasn't about to let an archangel smite his love out of existence.
"No. I'm sure they heard the raving reviews of the Ritz and just had to try it." Crowley muttered sarcastically, weaving through the servers to get to the nearest exit. "Of course they're here for us, angel."
It took a moment for Gabriel and Beezelbub to spot them and when they did, they advanced aggressively. Pushing the humans roughly out of their way. Gabriel had a sick smile on his face while Beezlebub scowled menacingly. Aziraphale and Crowley ducked out of the way, making a beeline for the exit.
"Why now?" Aziraphale asked, following close behind Crowley as they retreated, "It's been years since the apocalypse-"
There was a thunderous snap, and the door in front of them slammed shut. They whirled around, seeing Gabriel smirking at the pair now cornered.
"Oh no I'm sure this is purely a social call. They probably made a peace treaty and wanted to ask us to be a part of their big happy family." Crowley growled, trying the door uselessly.
Aziraphale blinked in confusion, looking over at the red-headed demon behind him, "You think so?"
"No angel!" he groaned exasperated. His eyes widened as the archangel and prince of hell got closer, "Move!" He shoved Aziraphale to the side. They both scrambled away, trying to put as much distance between them and their old bosses as possible.
"You can't get away from us this time." Beelzebub's voice buzzed through the air. The humans around them started to make themselves scarce. "You will be coming back to your respective offices so the war may commence!"
Crowley grabbed a meat knife from a nearby table and threw himself in front of his husband, "Aziraphale, stay behind me."
"What, dearest no." Aziraphale said, eyeing Gabriel warily, "We will face this together, like we always do. I'm sure there's a perfectly-" A wave of hellfire flew at them. Crowley threw himself in front of the blaze and took the blow, getting flung into his angel's arms.
"Beezelbub." Gabriel reprimanded, glaring at his counterpart, "We're meant to be cursing them, not killing them."
The demon prince huffed, rolling their eyes, "They're both immune to hellfire, it wouldn't hurt them. Look, it got them to stop running."
Aziraphale felt fear creep into his bones, at the very least their ruse was still up about the switch. But for how much longer? If Beezelbub was so keen to be throwing hellfire around willy nilly, who knew what would happen. Crowley got to his feet and hissed at the intruders.
"What do you want?" Aziraphale called out, "We were assured we would be left alone."
The archangel laughed, "We had originally thought the same, until we realized what we were missing out on." He absentmindedly adjusted his cufflinks, "An angel immune to hellfire, unheard of! With you on our side, Aziraphale. We would be unstoppable to win the war against evil."
Beezelbub glared at the archangel, "The same for if we got our hands on the only demon to ever be immune to holy water. We would finally win against the enemy."
"We will never go with you." Aziraphale said darkly, standing besides his demon resolutely.
Gabriel waved off the comment, "Of course you won't now. That's why we need you to forget!" he said, much to cheerful for the sinister threat that it was.
"You'll never get away with this." Crowley hissed as the pair approached. "You can't take us."
Beezlebub buzzed happily, "Who said anything about taking you? You will crawl back down to Hell yourself. Of your own accord."
"And Aziraphale, you will return to heaven as the obedient angel you once were." Gabriel talked confidently.
"We just will take your memories of the past few centuries and poof!" the prince grinned, "we have our agents back and the war will commence."
Aziraphale stiffened besides Crowley, eyes widening in fear. He couldn't go back to the mindset he once had. It was torture trying to break out of that mindless obedience to heaven when all he wanted was to love the only being that had ever loved him back. He reached out, taking the demon's hand and squeezing tightly.
"So you see, I guess you don't really have a choice." Gabriel clapped his hands together in front of him, looking very pleased with himself, "We are assured this will remove all memories of the past few centuries and you will be believing that you still work for your respective sides. You won't even realize what you are doing!" He held out his hands as if offering great news, "No harm, no foul."
"There are termz between uz that we won't bother with telling you. You are about to forget all this anyway." Beezlebub grinned, pulling out what looked to be a stick, "But trust me, we aren't violating any of our past deals. We won't be harming or interfering in any way," They brandished the wand with a wink, "besides this."
"Aziraphale get behind me," Crowley muttered darkly, trying to tug the angel behind him.
"What? No." Aziraphale said, paling at the sight of the prince wielding such a weapon.
"Trust me angel. You want to get behind me for this."
"Do you have a plan?"
Crowley grit his teeth together, "No. Just get behind me. That thing only has one shot, and I'd rather it hit one of us than both."
"And you just decided it would be you?" Aziraphale grumbled, staying stubbornly by his husband's side.
"Aziraphale, everything will be fine. I promise. Just get. Behind. Me." Crowley pleaded, "Trust me."
Beezlebub pointed the sticky thing towards the pair and Aziraphale felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He glanced over at the demon beside him, seeing how stubborn he looked. Set jaw and eyes trained forward. The angel, on the other hand, was absolutely terrified. He didn't want to lose his memory of this, or of the past wonderful years since Armageddon. He didn't want to forget marrying Crowley, moving in together, and all the love they had shared. They had worked so hard for the life they now had. Of course he trusted Crowley, more than anything. But surely the demon wanted all these memories to, if not more. Asking him to take the full blow was too much.
"Angel please." Crowley said quietly, squeezing his hand tightly. "Trust me."
I do. Azirapahle thought, squeezing back. The end of the stick began to glow and Aziraphale knew that it was now or never. "I love you." He whispered, ducking behind the demon.
"I love you too." Crowley responded and the room went white.