They'd got into the wine again. Oh, how Aziraphale loved these lazy afternoons in his shop. Especially now, content to witness the world through the bookshop's windows, see all the bodies walking through, umbrellas and mobile phones, damp shopping bags. Hear the whistle of the wind and the insistent tap tap tap of the raindrops on the pavement. The earth was safe. Its bumbling inhabitants were safe, generations of hairless apes, lovely, lovely humans were safe for a long time. They'd done it.

He looked across, to where a tall, pale man with russet hair and dark sunglasses lounged in an armchair. They'd done the impossible and he felt delirious, reckless with excitement at their success.

Aziraphale smiled giddily, rocking his glass, to watch the contents swirling inside. Perhaps it was the wine that emboldened him, but he felt it harmless enough to spill a secret to his oldest, dearest friend. "You know, I always wondered what that forked tongue of yours felt like,"

Crowley laughed. "Seriously? Why?"

Aziraphale batted away the scoff like it was tangible, with an airy flick of his fingers. "I don't rightly know. I suppose I would see it in your mouth when you're in snake form and I wanted to..touch it."

The demon raised an eyebrow, propping himself up on his elbows. "Any particular part of you that you'd want to touch it with?"

"With my hand! With my finger. Really, Crowley."

"Course, course. That's what I meant. You...you can. If you want."

"I - really? You won't think I'm strange?"

"I already think you're strange. Give it a go." Crowley slipped off his sunglasses, and crawled over to where Aziraphale sat. To Aziraphale's surprise, Crowley planted himself square on the angel's lap, slinging one long leg on either side of Aziraphale's hips. Crowley's body ran cooler than Aziraphale's, some little quirk of his serpentine biology but even so, his thighs felt very hot where they sandwiched Aziraphale's hips. There wasn't really the room for both of them on this chair.

"You're not at all shy, are you?" Aziraphale said. The luminous eyes with the razor-thin pupils watched him silently. Aziraphale swallowed.

Crowley leant down, his tie hanging down between them, lazily swinging like a pendulum. Something in his face seemed to shift, and although he mostly looked like himself ( a handsome face with fearsome eyes), patches of dark scales broke out across his face. He must have been making an effort not to change completely. He licked his lips and the tongue that did the licking was long and thin, forked at the end. "Get on with it, angel."

Aziraphale swallowed, eyes flicking left and right to match the darting movements of the tongue. "Why did you have to be a snake? Of all the creatures. Why couldn't you be something unintimidating, like a - a vole or…"

Crowley rolled his eyes and plucked Aziraphale's hand off the arm of the chair. "You're lucky I'm not shy about these things." and ran his tongue along Aziraphale's hand.

A feather-light touch, barely there and yet leaving a thin trail of saliva behind. Aziraphale looked down at his hand and then up into Crowley's eyes. "Yes, that's - that's a very long tongue you have."

"All the better to kiss you with." Crowley said, leaning in, his lips falling into a pout.

Fortunately, some rare strain of self-preservation rushed through Aziraphale's veins, prompting him to throw out his arm just before their lips could meet, and caught hold of Crowley's face, his fingers lightly digging into Crowley's cheeks. "Kiss you? Crowley, no. What's got into you?"

"Nothing yet, but we can change that-" He tried to lean closer, even with the angel's fingers forming a cage around his face.

"No! I don't - we're not supposed to do...that."

"Why? Why ever not? How many times do I have to tell you, we're not bound to Hell and Heaven anymore. Those bastards don't exist to us anymore. There's just you and me, getting smashed and having a good time."

"We're not, as you put it, smashed. A little merry, perhaps, but-"

"We were merry two bottles ago. Look, Aziraphale," Crowley brought up his hands to curl over the angel's hands. "They don't care what we do. They're not looking. If you want to spend your existence worrying about what they think of you, then it will be just that, an existence. Not a life. Not a human life."

He knew Crowley was right. And he'd be lying if he'd never thought of doing such a thing. But...

"Kissing always seemed so…" Aziraphale smiled and gave a little self-conscious shrug. "I wouldn't even know how to do it."

Crowley's eyes widened and Aziraphale felt himself getting dragged into the depths of them, the air choked out of his lungs. Breathing seemed to be a luxury right now. "I'll teach you, angel."

All he had to do was tilt his head up, draw his lips into a pout so that they met Crowley's.

A second later, he found himself doing exactly that.

Crowley's lips were warm and dry, hard when they pressed against his and soft when they opened, that clever, forked tongue unravelling to wrap around Aziraphale's. Heavens, the demon was so graceful in everything that he did. His tongue dancing, his fingers curling in Aziraphale's hair.

Crowley kissed him deeply, his tongue roaming, licking up the textured roof. Aziraphale let himself be swept up in sensations, the feeling on an experienced tongue dominating his mouth, strong fingers tangling themselves in his hair. He could touch Crowley back. He could be brave and reach for his chest or his legs, perhaps something else if he felt very brave. But that's not what this was about. This was about kissing, his first kiss and he was fine with just taking all Crowley had to give him. And he was certain Crowley was more than fine with that arrangement too.

Eventually, Crowley pulled off. Aziraphale supposed he had to stop eventually, not that either of them particularly needed to take an inhale of breath.

Crowley smiled down at him, and up close, it was even lovelier than all the little smiles he'd sent Aziraphale's way over the centuries.

"So, angel? Was that okay for you? Do you...think you like kissing?"

"My dear, I think I like kissing very much. But I've only had one kiss, perhaps I should have more so I can make an informed decis-"

Crowley growled and reached for him again.