"That's not-- Look, I didn't have your restrictions on me. Takes a lot less to be out and proud when you're not standing to lose that much over it. People thought I was rubbish anyway." If anything, it had helped him gain things. Friendships that would last, that were better than family - not saying much in his case, but still. Knowing what love could be like. Painful, sure, but also better than anything else. "I just want you to be happy, angel. That's all I want. Are-- Are you happy?"

He didn't right now register what Aziraphale had called him, not properly. Dear boy. My love. Somewhere inside him it plucked a chord and his heart was singing, but his mind didn't put together why just yet. "He doesn't deserve you. That damned church, they don't deserve you! They are trying to ruin you!"