Chapter Text
Crowley closed his eyes and woke up a long time later. About 13.8 billion years later, but it felt like much less to the former demon.
His first thought was: "I shouldn't be here." The second: "Where is Aziraphale?"
And only then he asked himself where he was. Why he was at all was the next question. He should be destroyed from existence alongside Aziraphale and everyone and everything else, even god herself. But no, he was very alive and existent and most importantly, alone.
Even as he looked around the alleyway he found himself in, there was nobody else he could see. For a moment, Crowley thought he was still passed out and drunk and everything that happened was just some really weird dream.
There was no way, right?
Crowley looked around, but this wasn't the alley he was used to being asleep in. This one was cleaner (though not particularly clean) and more spacious. The buildings around him had a much more bland and basic architecture than the ones in london. There were some windows, but they were closed. Crowley was laying next to a dumpster. The only thing he had on him were his clothes, there was nothing else. He didn't even have his glasses.
After a few seconds of staring into the sky above him, he realised that if he was here, Aziraphale had to be closeby somewhere. And so, Crowley jumped up and started making his way out of the alleyway.
Once he found his way out, he was very quickly surronded by many, many people. He picked up english language, and after a quick look around, he suddenly knew exactly where he was.
New York City.
For whatever reason. It didn't matter much. Crowley had been here enough times to find his way to time square, which admittedly wasn't the best idea. Spotting one single person in a crowd of thousands of people while surronded by very distracting screens didn't actually work very well. Who would've thought, right?
Crowley just couldn't tell what was going on. Was he in his own universe, or in the new one god made? Why would he be in the new one? And why was he in New York, out of all places? And why wasn't Aziraphale with him? What if he wasn't in this universe at all? God wouldn't do that, right? Kill one of them and put the other in a new universe? Then again, Crowley wasn't so sure he could properly understand the kind of stuff God thought to be right. She still hadn't answered his one question, other than saying stuff had to end. No shit, god. That was no answer to why humanity was cursed with the everlasting process of getting worse and worse. Crowley suspected that god didn't have answer. Maybe god didn't think it through, simple as that.
Just as she obviously hadn't thought this through.
The former demon combed through the streets, scanning every person he passed. He knew that trying to find someone in New York was like trying to find a needle in a haystack, but what else was there to do? His miracles weren't working (since he quit hell) and he didn't think asking around would help much.
Meanwhile, Aziraphale was also up and looking for Crowley. He was asking himself the same questions as the other, just with much more doubt. God hadn't seemed too happy with him, which he didn't care about as much as he thought he would, but it'd still explain why Aziraphale was stranded in New York, possibly alone.
After a while of aimlessly wandering around and no luck of finding his friend, Aziraphale figured that Crowley (if he was here, anyway) was looking for him too. It'd make no sense for them both to run around New York and possibly miss each other, so instead of asking himself where to find Crowley, Aziraphale started asking himself where Crowley would look for him.
It wasn't long until he came up with an answer and decided to head to the nearest bookshop.
Aziraphale soon found a very beautiful building with display windows filled with books and plants. "Rizzoli" was the name of the bookshop, and upon entering, Aziraphale was fascinated with its beauty. It wasn't quite as cozy as his own bookshop, but it definetly wasn't uncomfortable. The shelves were made out of dark wood and into them, fancy symbols were carved. The rows of books were displayed along the walls. The floor was made out of black and white stripes, which irritated Aziraphale a little as he walked around the shop.
There were quite a few people in the shop, but none of them even slightly resembled Crowley. Aziraphale decided to find out wether or not he had gotten here before Crowley did himself and approached one of the staff workers.
"Hello, excuse me. Have you seen a red-haired fellow today? Black clothes, probably wearing sunglasses? It couldn't have been long ago."
The staff worker, a black-haired young man with green stripes dyed into it, glanced at Aziraphale through his glasses.
"Sorry, I can't help. Don't remember faces."
The man said, already getting back to sorting some books into a new shelf.
"That's quite alright, thanks." Aziraphale said, even though the conversation was apparently already over.
Well, nothing else to do than to wait around. Sooner or later, Crowley would find him in this bookshop. Of that he was almost sure.
After spending the day searching for Aziraphale, Crowley noticed his legs started hurting. And he was hungry and thirsty. Things he had never experienced. Human needs. Crowley could only hope that he hadn't been turned into a human, even though the circumstances heavily suggested so. That was something to worry about later, though. Now he had to focus on finding Aziraphale.
Instead of searching blindly, Crowley had started to go to places where he thought Aziraphale would head to. So first, he went through central park, obviously. Then any other park he could find. Bryant park, Battery park, High Line and finally some others that he didn't know the name of. Then he switched to bookshops. Soon, he forgot the names of every shop he entered. He took a look around, basically asked the salesperson if they had seen an angel, got an inconclusive answer and then left again. That was until he entered the bookshop "Rizzoli".
Immediately upon entering, Crowley saw Aziraphale. And immediately upon hearing someone enter, Aziraphale saw Crowley.