shipping | psl

"Oh," he says, pensive, and then very excited about this turn of events. "Well, alright, I'm very happy that you heal quickly." He demonstrates this by placing his arms around Crowley until he's completely well-laden with the softest, fluffiest human there ever was. He's warm and he smells dry, like a pleasant wool and blond woods.

Soon, the whole cabin will be smelling of freshly-baked cake. Songbirds come by, more than the general gull, and Aziraphale extricates himself from Crowley to throw open a window and hear them.

"What do you do now?" he asks. "Now that you're not a priest, I mean?" He did wonder if Crowley had an occupation he had to get back to. Or perhaps he did not, and he could get something to do on land. Or, perhaps he could return to the sea while Aziraphale was away at work, and maybe sometimes he could even join Aziraphale at work. Well, alright, he was getting ahead of himself again.

Crowley clearly likes this, having Aziraphale's arms around him is very comfortable, with the added bonus of both making him steady on new and uncertain limbs and being close to Aziraphale. All good things, as far as he's concerned.

"These days? Whatever I like really. Bit of a disappointment I am, so I'm quite a rogue and outcast, unfit for polite society. Asking all the wrong kinds of questions, and squabbling with authority."

He grins in a way that he hopes is both roguish and charming, but comes off more lopsided and perhaps a bit nervous.

Aziraphale sees the nervousness in his smile and attempts to work a little magic of his own, trying to dispel it by simply placing his head against Crowley's chest and holding him closer.

"Well, we'll have plenty of that up here too, I'm afraid. But surely what's better than being troublesome is having a partner to be troublesome with you, no?" He's a bit of an outcast himself, if Crowley couldn't tell by the hermit lifestyle and the fact that he takes all his research out to sea where no other humans go, if not to just get elsewhere or try to reap the bounty of the ocean.

He'd rather protect it. Learn from it. Understand it. "What would you like to do?" he asks, wondering if Crowley'd ever been asked.

Crowley rubs a soothing trail up and down Aziraphale's back, simply basking in his warmth and how comforting it is to just hold him. Perhaps it's hasty but something had simply clicked when he'd met the human. Like a switch had gone off in his brain and he'd thought Ah. There you are. What I've been looking for. It happens sometimes with merfolk. Sometimes they just know when something feels right.

And Aziraphale feels very right. He rests his cheek on the top of his head, making a small sound of affirmation, because having Aziraphale at his side to make trouble just sounds marvelous.

When Aziraphale asks him what he'd like to do, it becomes apparent Crowley has never been asked this before. Aside from the puzzled sound he makes, he actually draws back, giving Aziraphale an inquisitive look.

"...How do you mean?"

He runs a hand through Crowley's hair and looks at him with inquisitive eyes. "Well, I do have to work sometimes, dear, and I wouldn't want you to be left all alone here. Perhaps we could take you out to sea during those times? I just wouldn't want you to be bored all day."

Crowley seems like the type to need things to do, after all. Aziraphale is also not a man who stays idle; he takes breaks for a few days but then comes back and makes sure everything around the house gets done and then picks up silly projects like learning new languages and translating texts.

Actually, he wonders if he could do so for the merfolk language. That would be something.

"Always wanted to go on one of those big ships," he hums, leaning into the touch. Oh, that is marvelous. If Aziraphale could just keep his fingers in Crowley's hair forever, that would be very, very nice indeed.

"Only ever see 'em from a distance, unless they've sunk. S'not really the same though, is it?"

Aziraphale had read Crowley right. Even without his duties, he was always up to something, even if it was making a nuisance of himself.

"Well, you could come with me to Denmark," he says. "I'll have a ship, and I'll be there for... I'm not sure yet, I don't really think I could stay too long, but we could find work there, perhaps, if you liked it. And dally a bit. I'll ask someone to check up on the cabin."

But then what would happen to Crowley's territory?

"It is pretty far." He pulls out the map again and abandons Crowley's hair for the moment. "Here," he says, pointing to where Copenhagen is, where he's going.

Crowley lights up at the prospect.

"Haven't been traveling in a long time. Would have to hide my horde, of course so no one steals it while I'm away, but I got some good spots."

He bounces unsteadily on the balls of his feet.

"D'you mean it though? I really could go with you?"

He thinks about it and then looks under his bed for a box, opening it up and taking out a handful of coins. "Oh," he says, as he tries to dig for some more coins. "I'm not sure I have enough for passage," he admits, sadly. He had free passage, since he was being sent for research. He'd looked before, and been glad - he could hardly afford to go by himself.

"I'm sorry, Crowley, I shouldn't have told you that you could before... before looking, first." He's definitely short a few coins, and even if he had it all, he'd be flat broke afterwards, and there'd be no money to buy food in Denmark...

Crowley studies the coins curiously.

"You need more of those? I've got loads. I collect the gold and silver ones off wrecks - the rest mostly rust away to nothing."

He looks very pleased with himself that one of his eccentricities could be useful.

"Here, help me get to the water and I'll go get the whole stash. We just melt these things down for jewelry anyway."

Aziraphale blinks at him. "Crowley, those are worth a lot on the surface." He looks at Crowley suddenly, surprised, wondering if this was some sort of a trick. He rifles through his stash and pulls out several coins. "Do you see these big gold ones? I could only make about fifty of these a year," he says. "This is the last one I have."

Is Crowley about to tell him that he's surface wealthy? That he could pay his own way onto the boat passage, that all his human coins were worthless junk to him?

He wondered if underwater, they traded seashells or something for currency, because those were something Aziraphale collected a lot of.

"Are they? Metal isn't worth much for us unless it's useful. Never lasts, and what doesn't rust to bits will weigh you down. It's shells, bones, pearls, or bartering underwater."

He grins, realizing that he could probably help Aziraphale out in a big way.

"Got about two chests of those big gold ones, and just under five bags of the little silver ones. Didn't know they were valuable - I just thought they were, I don't know, little good luck tokens. Like how young merfolk'll wear shark teeth to ward off predators. Pretty but kind of useless."

"Oh, I suppose metal isn't worth much to merfolk," he admits, thinking about it. "But it... is to us. Gold, especially. It's-- yes, it's worth quite a lot."

He did know that there were several people who were treasure hunters, humans who lost their lives just looking for this old buried treasure.

"And I've got plenty of shells, if you'd like to look through them, if there are any that might be of use. No bones."

Kind of morbid to have bones as a currency, but he knows that they used to as well, a long, long time ago.

"Really now?"

Well, that explains a lot. No wonder he finds so much on big ship wrecks.

"How do you carry it all about? Don't you have to walk all over? Oh - do you break up your hoard and store it in separate locations, so even if someone finds a bit of it, they can never steal it all...?"

He looks very eager and excited to know how humans store their treasures. Maybe he'd write up a treatise on human behaviour patterns. They really were quite interesting.

"Well, we've switched over to paper," he says. "The paper just says that you're owed a certain amount. But sometimes you can take it out and change it for coins."

"But the gold and silver, it's worth so much on the surface. A brick full of it would buy more than a house!" he explains. It would allow both of them to live comfortably for a long time, do whatever they wanted, basically.

Maybe Aziraphale would be able to do his own research privately. And maybe Crowley could get all the strawberries he ever wanted.

He looks at Crowley with big, wide eyes. He must've accidentally wished on a genie, to be given not only the gift of such a lovely, clever and interesting partner, but also one who happened to be incredibly wealthy. Was he perfect? He leans in close, as if trying to pick any out.

"I guess a house is expensive then?" asks Crowley who's only ever built his den in underwater caves.

Slowly, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other, he makes his wobbly way back to Aziraphale's side, sitting next to him.

"This stuff would help you right? With your research? Because I can bring it to you. And I know where to find the big bars of the stuff - they're pretty heavy, but there was a ship that sunk that had a whole box full of them."

He likes this - being useful. Being able to give Aziraphale things that will help him.

"Oh, yes," he says, looking a little bashful. This little hut took him several years to purchase, and it's certainly not a real house. Not the kind that he would've liked to buy someday for a spouse and children, back when he'd thought that he might do that someday.

"Can I come to help you bring them up?" he asks. "I'd like to help even a little bit." He isn't really helping, but to be fair, humans did bring that gold out to sea, and it doesn't really belong to anyone, so he can't feel guilty about taking it.

Crowley considers this, then nods, slowly.

"It's a ways out, deep under the ocean. We'll have to get you swimming, and one of these -"

He taps the magical pendant around his neck.

"-because a few drops of my blood isn't going to cut it for this kind of trip."

He smiles, bumping his head up against Aziraphale's shoulder.

"No rush though - we'll talk more about it when you're comfortable being in the water."

"Yes," he says. "No rush." No rush for any of it, even though he feels like his life had just begun and he was ready to finally dive in.

He places a hand on Crowley's cheek and turns his face to kiss his crown. "As long as we've got enough to take you to Denmark with me." He's only just met him, but he's not sure he could go a day without him.

Crowley covers the hand on his cheek with his own bumps his nose affectionately against Aziraphale's cheek.

"Still have plenty of daylight all to ourselves. Feel like having a swimming lesson?"

Aziraphale brushes their noses together, and gently slots their mouths together a second. "Yes," he says, breath hot against Crowley's lips. "I'd love to go for a swim."

He gives Crowley a squeeze and then gets up to stand behind a folding dressing screen in order to change into his bathing suit.

The most Crowley might get to see is a flash of shoulder as Aziraphale busies about trying to get himself changed.

Crowley tries to chase the brief kiss, but once he has the sense to do so his mouth finds only air. Aziraphale is gone behind a screen and there are only glimpses.

"What are you doing behind there? Can I help?"

"Oh, no no," he responds. "Don't worry, just putting on different clothes." He walks out eventually, dressed up in a stripey blue and cream bathing suit, looking quite like pajamas cut right above the knee and with a little sailor's collar.

"What do you think?" he says, moving the screen so that it accordions right up.

He poses for Crowley, one knee up, hip popped, hand up. He just picked a generic one, not knowing that this puffs out both his chest and his bum.

Crowley's eyes are the size of saucers and his breathing quickens. Blue, he thinks fervently, and white! Stripes!

So this is how humans flashed their colours - with their lovely fabrics.

Crowley swallows, getting unsteadily to his feet and circling around Aziraphale to drink in every inch of him. Not only was it so charmingly and seductively coloured, it emphasized just how lovely and soft the human look.

"S'ssuch a splendid display," he says throatily, "So bright and beautiful."

"A d-display?" he asks, looking at him confused.

Then it clicks. "Oh, a mating ritual?" He does think that being scantily-clad and showing athletic prowess were things that humans did do to show off how good they were as potential partners.

He reaches for Crowley, places a hand around his waist and comes close.

"This is just what we wear to swim."

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