Somebody I Used To Know.

11:45.

"Muriel, please put the books on the correct shelves, everything 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 be precise."

Aziraphale had been straightening his shop as much as he could. He did it to keep his mind off of... 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴. 

Muriel had been helping Aziraphale as much as they could. They had put all of Aziraphale's papers in a tidy stack, cleaned the windows, and had been going out to get food every night. They saw how much Aziraphale was hurting so they let him rest as much as they wanted to. Plus, Muriel loved to help around the bookshop. They had fallen in love with books and they had fallen in love with the bookshop, too. 

Aziraphale had even considered changing the name of the bookshop to something that had Muriel's name incorporated.

"Muriel, can you please fetch me a cup of coffee? Make sure Nina adds the whipped cream, please." 

Muriel nodded towards Aziraphale's direction and left the bookshop.

Aziraphale sat back in his chair and sighed. 

He had been thinking of Crowley all day and had almost called him. He decided to leave it, though. He didn't want to hurt himself any more than he already had.  Aziraphale knew that Crowley would never talk to him again, but he still hoped, with every bone in his body, that it would be the two of them in the end.

"Azira! I'm back! I got you your coffee and I got you some Eccles cakes." Muriel darted across the room to hand Aziraphale what they had gotten them from the shops. 

Aziraphale smiled at Muriel. "Thank you, my dear. I appreciate you."

Muriel smiled and skipped off to a different area of the bookshop.

Aziraphale really did appreciate Muriel. They helped around the shop on a daily basis and they could always tell when he didn't feel well. The both of them had spent a lot of time together in the past few years and they started becoming very good friends. They both had a lot in common, as well. They liked the same kind of books, had the same humor, and they both loved the bookshop. The bookshop was home to the both of them.

"How's your day going so far?" 

"It's goin' alright! Pretty boring so far."

Aziraphale smiled at Muriel. "I have an idea."

Aziraphale got up got up from his seat and opened a wooden bin sitting in a corner. He pulled out about 5 board games and a deck of cards. He had kept these games for a while in case he got bored or had nothing to do. As it turned out, he never got bored, nor had nothing to do, so this was the very first time he had brought out the games. 

He walked over to his desk and miracled it into a table, and laid the board games down on the table. He then opened the chess set and blew off the dust from each and every piece.  "Alrighty!!! So, I've been saving these for when I was bored with nothing to do but now seems like the appropriate time to put them to use." 

Muriel smiled and sat down across from Aziraphale. "You know that you're going to have to teach me how to play, right? I may be smarter than I was before I came to Earth, but chess is hard." 

Aziraphale looked at Muriel and laughed. "Of course."

Aziraphale explained the laws of chess to Muriel and then they both started playing. They played off and on for 3 hours, and took 3 trips to the coffee shop to get drinks.

"CHECKMATE."

Muriel beat Aziraphale. Every. Single. Time.

Aziraphale hadn't been this happy since him and Crowley weren't mad at each other. 

Years.

It had been 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 since Aziraphale had even thought about being this happy. He was laughing, smiling, and having a genuine good time. Even though Muriel was absolutely demolishing him, he was having fun. 

He chuckled to himself and looked at Muriel.

"Thank you, dear. You've made me happy today. I appreciate you very much."

Muriel gave a warm, soft smile to Aziraphale before standing up, walking over to him, and hugging him.

Aziraphale wasn't much of a hugger, but Muriel was an exception. He hugged them back and patted their back.

"I'm glad to know that I made you happy, Mr. Fell. You deserve happiness."

Aziraphale and Muriel played a few more rounds of chess before they finally got bored of it and moved onto checkers.

Being with Muriel and doing things with them kept Crowley off of Aziraphale's mind. It was almost like a coping mechanism. He had tried to forget about Crowley completely but at some point he came to the realization that he could never forget Crowley. Crowley was Crowley, and even if they weren't speaking, Aziraphale still loved him.

"Thanks for tonight Muriel, I'll be heading upstairs for some alone time now. Goodnight."

Aziraphale was more than halfway up the stairs when there was a knock at the door.

"Oh bugger."

Aziraphale went back down the stairs and made is way to the door with much haste. He looked at his watch and sighed. "It's 11:45PM, who could possibly have the audacity to show up at a bookshop at such an hour?"

He turned the doorknob and slowly opened the door.

"Look, we're closed and it's late, please go ho-"

Aziraphale paused to look at the person standing in the doorway, and once he 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 realized that the person standing in his door was actually, physically there, he covered his mouth with his hand.

"What are you doing here?"