Oh my god I have so many emotions rn.
Aziraphale has always wanted to do Good in the world. One of the through lines for this season was how powerless he felt during his time on Earth - with Job, with Elspeth and Morag, to a lesser extent with Nina and Maggie. He and Crowley witness so much suffering over the millennia, and he just wants - he needs - to help.
But he also needs to believe that Heaven wants to help. Because if Heaven aren't the good guys, what does that say about him?
And then the Apocalypse starts, and Aziraphale realises he loves the Earth and the life he made there, and Heaven doesn't actually care, so he fights. But he and Crowley also fight, because they don't understand how the other is feeling.
Crowley is scared, desperate to keep him and Aziraphale safe, so his plan is to get them both as far away from Earth as possible. But that hurts Aziraphale because from his view point, Crowley just wants to give up. After everything they've witnessed together!
Aziraphale is scared, and desperately clings to the idea that Heaven still wants to help, so his plan is to get both of them under Heavenly protection - which is why he keeps bringing up the whole "you were an angel once" notion. Not because he particularly wants Crowley to be an angel, but because it would be a way they could be safe and together and it wouldn't be against the rules. But that hurts Crowley because being an angel or a demon just isn't the point to him, and he thought that, after everything, Aziraphale might have realised that.
The Apocalypse doesn't happen, and they can breathe, but they also still don't talk about their feelings so they still fundamentally misunderstand each other.
When the Metatron offers Aziraphale a promotion, he initially balks. He even states outright that he doesn't want to return to Heaven. But then the Metatron goes for Aziraphale's weakness - Crowley. There is an offer on the table that will allow he and Crowley to be together, to be safe, and to do it by the rules.
And this is why Aziraphale is excited. He has an opportunity to help, to actually do something about all the suffering he's witnessed (or at least the Metatron has convinced him that's the case), and he can do it with Crowley.
And here is where their misunderstanding culminates.
Aziraphale thinks he's found a perfect way for them to be a force for good - after everything he and Crowley have seen, of course he'd want to be at his side helping. More importantly, if Crowley is an angel again then there's nothing to be scared of at all, they can be safe and together.
Because another through line in this season is how terrified all the angels are of not being Good. We see it when Aziraphale and Crowley first meet as angels, where he gets increasingly more nervous the more Crowley questions things. We see it after the Job incident, where Aziraphale breaks down when he thinks he's been condemned to Hell. We see it when Muriel freaks out after realizing they've been helping Crowley, when Uriel asks the Metatron if they've done something wrong. They're terrified, and even after making his own way, Aziraphale can't shake that old habit.
He doesn't even feel safe in the bookshop. When Maggie and Nina ask him why there are so many fire extinguishers in the shop, Aziraphale alludes to the fire, and seems to almost dissociate for a second before pushing through it. And of course, Hell came for them anyway.
To Aziraphale, returning to Heaven makes sense as the safest option.
Of course, that hurts Crowley, because he can't understand why he's bending over backwards to placate a family that treated him terribly. Crowley clearly holds a lot of resentment for the way Aziraphale was treated by Heaven. More than that, though, Crowley thought that perhaps Aziraphale had realised being an angel or a demon didn't matter, but it would seem that Aziraphale needs him to be an angel to consider keeping him around.
That's not what Aziraphale meant, and he can't understand why Crowley isn't grabbing the chance to make a difference, and - more importantly - the chance for them to be safe.
So now Crowley has to make his confession - his attempt at putting his heart on his sleeve. Except that now, to Aziraphale, it just sounds like a ploy to get him to leave Earth, just like when he wanted them to run off to Alpha Centauri. It sounds like he just wants them to give up again. And that hurts.
And then Crowley kisses him! And for Crowley, it's a combination of "I truly am putting everything on the line here" and "this is my last chance" and for one second Aziraphale melts into it, before fear sets in, and some anger, because to him it feels like Crowley did it just to get him to abandon Heaven.
They both just are fundamentally at different places and completely misunderstand what the other is feeling. And it's fucking HEARTBREAKING.
They need to communicate and they need to finally understand what is in the other's heart. They love each other, and they need each other, and holy fuck I need season 3 like yesterday. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
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Home Coming
Part 1
Thinking of Steve Harrington, post season one beat-down and Demogorgon encounter, returning to his house to see the rare sight of his mothers car parked in the driveway.
He only hesitates for a moment before he walks in, spotting his mother at the dining table.
She looked so out of place, unnatural, back ramrod straight and legs crossed at the knee in a chair she’d picked out herself but had never broken in.
She was pretending to read her crisp, - unopened-, copy of Jane Eyre, the spine creaking too loudly with every page turn.
Her expression was pinched in the way it got when she had something to say, some reprimand she was doing her best to puzzle through, words rearranging for maximum devastation upon delivery.
That was her specialty, after all. Words of harsh judgment disguised as concern.
She finally glanced up when he’d been staring for long enough, smoothing her immaculately styled hair down with freshly manicured nails as she fixed him with a look that made him wish he’d stayed at the hospital.
“Where’s dad?” he tried for casual, apparently missing by a mile.
“Steven,” she spoke cooly, rose painted lips downturned, blue eyes boring into him like tent spikes.
He straightened.
“Your father received a call from Officer Callahan. Would you care to explain?”
Steve tried to stay still; tried not to shift or shuffle nervously on his feet.
He knew his mother hated that.
“I…” he cleared his throat, still scratchy from screaming, though it’d been hours since the last time he had.
He squared his shoulders and took a deep breath.
This was his mother, after all, not an interdimensional monster.
“It was my fault.”
One perfectly plucked eyebrow rose, the small simple gesture communicating more than words ever could.
It was a clear and unarguable “go on”.
So he did.
He told almost the full story; spotting Nancy with Jonathan, Tommy’s little art piece on the cinema marquee, the fight.
He stopped at arriving to the Byers’ place to apologise, the words catching in his throat like Laffy Taffy in molars as she raised a hand, her lips pressed into a thin pale line.
The displeasure roiled off of her in waves.
“So,” she started, pulling the ribbon attached to the spine of the book in between the crisp, too-white pages to hold her place, though he was absolutely certain she wouldn’t be picking it up again.
She glanced up at him, large blue eyes scanning his face, flitting over the evidence of his fight.
He could fool himself into believing she was concerned, worried, even.
But then she’d spoken again, and all those thoughts were undoubtedly dashed.
“You‘ll take full responsibility for this?”
Steve’s brow furrowed in confusion, and he flinched as a newly formed scab pulled at the throbbing skin above his eye, threatening to bleed once more.
“I… what?”
His mother huffed, adjusting the collar of her soft pink blouse, smoothing out invisible wrinkles.
“The marquee, Steven. Dean Hughs said it was stained and that he expected money for a new one.”
Steve’s stomach dropped.
“Oh…” he let out weakly, ignoring the burn of his scraped up knuckles as he shoved his hands in his pockets, the ache in his head that’d been persistent since Jonathan had clocked him, the heat of tears prickling behind his eyes, threatening to spill.
“Since you admit to your part in it, we’ll be taking the money from your allowance. The Hagan’s are doing the same with Tommy.”
Steve found himself nodding, though it felt like his head was underwater.
“I expect you to apologise to your father when he gets home,” she continued with that same cold and impersonal tone he’d grown to expect.
To dread.
“You have no idea how embarrassing it was to be the last to find out about your little brush with vandalism. I mean, really Steven? We leave for a month, and you’re already falling into delinquency? Next we hear you’ve been hanging around the trailer park with the rest of the flea bitten trash, like the Curtis’s, or, Heaven forbid, that Munson boy-“
Steve tuned out his mother, his shoulders sagging, his heart sinking, his eyes stinging.
She hadn’t even asked him if he was ok.
She hadn’t said a word about the blood that stained his shirt, the bruises and cuts pounded into his flesh, the unsteadiness of his hands.
She didn’t seem to notice the nervous set of his shoulders, the bags under his eyes, the brand new terror etched into his very being.
She didn’t care.
And he should’ve known, really.
After a lifetime of criticism, of admonition instead of praise, of:
“Steven, stop ruining your brand new pants!”
Instead of
“Great job on that home run!”
Of
“You can do better.”
Instead of
“Thank you for trying.”
He wanted to run.
He had nowhere to go, so he stayed and waited out his mothers rant with his head bowed and his eyes damp.
When she had finally finished, she sat back in the chair and sighed as if her speech had taken it out of her; as if she were the one who was hurting.
She let her eyes sweep over him once more, her regal nose scrunching in distaste at his less than perfect appearance.
“Get cleaned up and throw away those ruined clothes. And if I see any stains in my couch or on my hardwood, you’ll be grounded for a week.”
With that, she waved her hand to dismiss him and turned back to her book, not opening it, just staring at its unblemished cover with a complete lack of interest.
A painfully familiar expression.
Steve did as he was told.
He grabbed the first aid kit, a bit understocked from the time he’d injured himself at basketball practice two months prior, and did what he could to treat his own wounds.
After, he sat alone in his bedroom, lights on, window open, spiked bat resting at his bedside within reach.
He pinched at the bridge of his nose; tried not to cry.
Harringtons didn’t cry.
He thought about the Byers; about Ms. Byers allowing the entire town to think she’d gone insane in her efforts to recover her son.
He thought about Jonathan, and how goddamn lucky he was to have a mom like that.
One who didn’t care about her reputation, her spotless image. One who loved wholeheartedly and unselfishly.
One who would see his pain and embrace him, wipe away his tears and ask if he was alright.
He thought of Nancy.
Maybe he could call her?
He glanced to the clock radio on his nightstand.
03:30 AM.
It was no good.
He didn’t fall asleep that night, every creak of a floorboard or shift in the air sending him into high alert.
He wrapped himself in his blanket, one hand out and resting on the handle of his bat, and thought:
“At least I’m not alone.”
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Do you think Aether is bitter? Do you think he sees Dew moping around, lost in the grief of losing not only someone he loves, but alos losing himself, unable to force himself to live the life Ifrit gave him, and resents him for it? Ifrit is gone, nothing more than ash and smoke, fuel burned up to keep Dew alight, and he won't even dignify that sacrifice by bothering to live?
Do you think he resents the whole business more and more each day, not only for taking Ifrit away from him, not only for changing Dew into something he barely even recognises as the ghoul he loves, but for proving to him that Dew always wanted Ifrit more? For mkaing him wonder if Dew would act like this if he'd been the one who'd flung himself away?
If Dewdrop was sitting there in Ifrit's arms with galaxies in his eyes and the pulse of the universe under his fingertips, would he even notice Aether was gone?
I think it's too easy to be bitter. Is that feeling somewhere deep down? Of course. Aether, Dew, and Mountain have been through a lot, and they're forced to grieve in many ways. But it's bitterness towards the Clergy, towards the ones that abandoned their pack first, then for the ones that were taken away. None of them had a choice--taking Ifrit out of the Project was something decided by outside forces. They wanted Dew up front, and that was what they were going to get (The only choice in this narrative is the one Ifrit is graced with: to be killed, banished, or give up his elemental being for another?).
I really think Aether is so painfully in love with Dew that he'll give his entire being until he himself almost shatters into a million pieces. He'll love Dew until the Earth dies out, if he has to. Even if Dew doesn't want him like he wanted Ifrit. Even if it means loving him quietly. That "old" Dew is buried deep somewhere, Aether can feel the shreds of that element still coursing through his veins. And he can feel Ifrit there too, fueling Dew's fire.
Everything you just said? That's what Dew thinks Aether thinks. Tries to hide from him, wallow in his own sorrows, because how could anyone else love him now? How is he supposed to take his mate's spot, how is he supposed to go on just like he's being forced to do? Maybe it'd be easier if Aether resented him. Hated him. So he tries to push him away prematurely, but Aether won't let him. Aether can't let him, because he can't lose yet another person.
Aether waits for Dew as long as Dew needs. He keeps him stable, retreats to Mountain for comfort when he needs it. He steps into the void when he needs to scream--until his throat is raw and he has nothing left. And then he pulls himself back together, because he has to. For Mountain. For Dew. For the rest of them.
If Dewdrop was sitting there in Ifrit's arms with galaxies in his eyes and the pulse of the universe under his fingertips, would he even notice Aether was gone?
And this? Dew would rather be the one to change. He'll play the martyr, so no one else has to. To him, that's easier. After everyone that's left him, that's easier.
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