#I firmly believe aziraphale will not learn the art of saying what you mean until well into season 3

[glassiskies]

in which aziraphale reverts to old habits, crowley is outraged, and they still do not talk about it

[helly-watermelonsmellinfellon]

Crowley doesn’t want to hurt Aziraphale’s feelings. He used to like needling the angel and getting a rise out of him but never with intent to actually hurt him.

Sometimes though... one has to employ Tough Love to get their point across. Because if Crowley were to let it go on than he’d be letting Aziraphale walk around offending people unawares, which wasn’t something the angel wanted to do ever. So Crowley would do it, even if it was a Good deed.

It was an age-old argument between them. For years Aziraphale maintained that reading the book yourself was the only true way to appreciate it. That books should not be changed from their original forms and should be accepted as they are. That these newfangled methods were ‘ruining’ the history of the book. For years Crowley had disagreed with this thought process even if he couldn’t explain himself properly.

But now.

Just now he’d realised what bothered him about that stance. It wasn’t Aziraphale’s lack of interest in joining the modern world, though that too was aggravating. It was the lack of consideration for others’ plights.

Like the angel was completely overlooking some important facts when he criticised digital and audiobooks and books changed from their original form. 

So here they were in the bookshop, rehashing an old argument because Aziraphale saw Crowley listening to Harry Potter on his mobile and demanded to know why he didn’t just buy a book.

“I did buy it. I bought the audiobook and downloaded it multiple times so I can have it in various places and on various devices if need be,” he’d answered simply, feeling the incoming argument rearing its old head.

The angel’s mouth twisted in displeasure and that slightly pompous attitude that he’d shed for the most part since Armageddon’t, shined through. He reminded Crowley too much of Gabriel in that moment and the demon despised it.

“Those just aren’t real books though! They’re a mockery of the art.”

And here was where Crowley decided that being nice about this topic was not the best way to go about it. This was where Tough Love came into play.

He waited several seconds, decidedly staring at his screen even though he coudn’t really see any words. “You know, it’s very ableist when you do that.”

Instantly the righteous fury that had been building up between them went cold and he peeked over the top of his mobile to see Aziraphale frowning in confusion and offense.

“You realise that there are people who cannot read? Either because of a level of blindness, or dyslexia, something else that makes it difficult for them to understand the written word, or just they’ve never learned how to because of how underprivileged they are in life?”

The angel blinked.

“Such people have to rely on Braille or audioooks or friends and family reading aloud to help them. Just because you’re some art purist doesn’t mean they don’t deserve to experience books in the only ways they can. These people are paying the same price as one would for a physical copy. They just want to get involved in something. Happiness shouldn’t be limited to the abled and privileged.”

Some sputtering followed those words as Aziraphale tried to find words to reply with, but Crowley was on a roll.

“And many people do not have the space available for physical books. Downloading an entire library onto a device that fits into your pocket and can be carried everywhere with you, saves time, energy, trees, and space. One would think you’d be happy about those facts but all you do it get on your high horse and pontificate about how these things ‘ruin everything’ for you.”

Dealing with it was just so aggravating! And he could finally explain why and it was a relief to do so! Crowley was only minutely offended but he knew that many humans wouldn’t have put up with it for as long as he had. Nor would have withheld from swearing when they finally exploded.

“You may not have realised it, Aziraphale, but my eyes are more snake-like than you’d think. The one thing I’ve never been able to control as firmly as I wanted is my vision. I have to put so much effort into the miracle the makes me capable of reading for a short period of time. And it’s exhausting. It gives me a splitting headache. I was thrilled when the original version of audiobooks became a thing because reading takes so much effort that it leaves me stressed and tired enough to sleep for weeks.”

He memorised things by pattern and colour. And he would avoid reading if he absolutely had to. This also meant he didn’t do a lot of writing. He somewhat could but didn’t like to.

It was just stressful overall.

The cushion beside him sank a bit as Aziraphale seated himself at Crowley’s side. He placed a hand on the demon’s arm, encouraging him to look over. His blue eyes were soft with concern.

“I never realised, my dear. I’ve simply been concerned by the growing lack of interest in reading this past century alone. It didn’t occur to me that many people simply didn’t have the same chances. The very series you were just listening to sparked an interest in reading again, but it just didn’t feel like enough. It felt like things were slowing down.

“I apologise for my callous words on the subject. I never meant to be inconsiderate toward you or anyone else.”

He practically poured wounded sincerity, and Crowley knew he wouldn’t hold it against the angel because Aziraphale had never been a malicious person at heart. Sure he’d done or said some things in his quest to be God’s Perfect Little Angel, but half of the time he hadn’t even believed the things he was saying. He was just scared of Falling.

He had his moments of being a complete arsehole too, but those were few and far between.

Crowley just wanted him to understand, and it seemed like he finally was. That was all he’d wanted.

With a sigh, the demon said, “You’re forgiven. And if you have any questions about modernisation and concerns about things, we can talk about it and remain open-minded to each other’s points, yeah? We’re both experts in different parts of humanity so listening to each other’s experiences is prudent.”

Aziraphale beamed and planted a kiss on his cheek. “Yes! It’s a very Kind thing for you to offer, dear.”

He grumbled about four-letter descriptors and went back to listening to Voldemort monologue himself hoarse for a whole bloody chapter!

With this success under his belt he couldn’t wait to get on the topic Wikipedia’s usefulness!

A/N: Saw a post today bitching about how audiobooks were for ‘lazy’ people and ‘weren’t real books’. and Aziraphale kind of feels like he’d be the sort to think that until put in his place. So here’s some angst.