Horns and Halos (An Ineffable Husbands mpreg fanfic) DEAD FIC

Chapter 17: Looks and Talent, She's Got'em All

It had been about 6 months since Rosalyn was born and she was thriving in what little studies Aziraphale could teach her. She was able to recognize words but saying them was a whole other topic. She had yet to say anything that was coherent until one day. She was sitting in her highchair eating bits of cereal as Aziraphale sat with her and Crowley made tea. "Here ya go Angel." Said Crowley as he handed Aziraphale his cup of tea and neither one of them thought that either one of them had been so influential to her but apparently they were both very wrong because just like a bolt of lightning she copied him.
"Angel." She said as she pointed at Aziraphale. The Angel's heart sank as the realization was a crushing one.
"No..." He said in a saddened tone. Crowley burst out laughing nearly spilling his tea. "It's not funny Crowley! She actually thinks that's my name because that's all you call me!" Said Aziraphale as he looked at Crowley who was trying so hard not to continue laughing.
"You gotta admit Angel it's a little funny." Said Crowley as he set down his tea.
"No it's not! How would you feel if she called you Demon!?" Aziraphale barked at him. As the two of them continued to argue Rosalyn sat and watched realizing that she had upset them so having no other way to express her apologetic sorrow she started to cry. Both her fathers ceased their arguing and turned back to her. "Oh please don't cry." Said Aziraphale as he lifted her out of the high chair and held her. She hugged onto him tight then uttered a statement that proved to them that perhaps she wasn't just repeating what she had heard.
"I'm sorry." She said softly as both Aziraphale and Crowley were in awe of her.
"What did you say?" Asked Crowley softly as Aziraphale held her at his hip so she could face them.
"I'm sorry." She said once more as she sniffed.
"Oh very good!" Said Aziraphale as he kissed her cheek. "I forgive you Rosalyn." Said Aziraphale he rubbed her back.

After that one instance she started talking more and more, she even started calling her fathers by more fatherly titles, she called Aziraphale Daddy of course but Crowley she called Papa which Aziraphale thought was adorable. Eventually by a month's time Rosalyn was completely fluent in her speech so Aziraphale started teaching her to read. This was the first time she had ever been down in the bookshop so Aziraphale was very excited to show his little girl the collection he had spent 6 thousand years compiling. "Now remember Rosalyn, books are very important to the development of one's mind, they can teach you anything you want to know so the books themselves must be treated respectfully." Said Aziraphale as he carried her downstairs. "Before you touch my books your hands must be clean and certain books I don't even touch with my bare hands, I only touch them with gloves. Also once you finish a book it must go back to the exact place you found it. Do you understand?" Asked Aziraphale as she nodded.
"Yes Daddy." She said softly as Aziraphale smiled.
"Wonderful." He said as they reached the bottom of the stairs. "Now I'm going to let you decide which book I will start teaching you to read." Said Aziraphale as he started walking through his shelves of books.
"Wait! What's that!" She said as she pointed at a blue leather bound book with silver etched lettering. The words read The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland.
"That's Alive in Wonderland, it's about a young girl who gets trapped in a fantastical world of oddity and has to find her way home." Aziraphale explained to her as she had this look of wonder in her beautiful white snake eyes. "Do you want to read it?" Asked Aziraphale as she nodded.
"Yes please." Said Rosalyn as she stared at the book on the shelf. Aziraphale plucked it off the shelf and took it back up to Rosalyn's bedroom. Aziraphale sat down in the wicker rocking chair and sat her in his lap then opened the book to the first page. Crowley walked into the room and saw them reading.
"Aziraphale, I'm gonna head across the street to get some coffee, do you want anything?" Asked Crowley as Aziraphale shook his head and waved his hand. "Don't have too much fun, you two." Said Crowley as he walked out.

Crowley went across the street and surprisingly found the coffee shop dead despite the rainy weather making it a perfect temperature for a nice hot cup of coffee. Crowley walked in and looked around seeing only two other people in the coffee shop besides Nina and Maggie standing at the counter chatting. He walked up to the counter and they turned to him. "Hello Mister Crowley." Said Maggie with a smile.
"You look like hell." Said Nina as Maggie looked at her.
"Nina!" Said Maggie as she thought it was rude to point out the obvious truth.
"No she's right." Said Crowley as he rubbed his eyes under his glasses.
"That baby keeping you up?" Asked Nina as Crowley nodded.
"I mean she stopped screaming so much at night since Aziraphale put his gramophone in her bedroom for her to listen to at night but she's started talking now and Aziraphale is at home teaching her to read." Said Crowley as Nina and Maggie were quite impressed.
"Wow! How old is she now?" Asked Nina as Crowley tapped his fingers against the counter sort of counting.
"Almost 8 months." Said Crowley as Maggie and Nina looked at each other.
"And she's already learning to read?" Asked Maggie as Crowley looked at them.
"Why, is that not normal?" Asked Crowley as Maggie smiled.
"We're just surprised with how smart she is." Said Maggie.
"Yeah, she seems bloody brilliant." Said Nina as she handed Crowley a large cup of coffee without him ever ordering one.
"Well she is related to Aziraphale, man spends all his time indulging himself in all things intellectual I'm actually surprised she didn't start reading sooner. 6 espresso, big cup right?" Asked Crowley as Nina nodded.
"So when are we going to get to meet her?" Asked Nina as Crowley chugged down his 6 shots of espresso. Crowley then set down the cup and looked at them.
"I don't know if she's ready for that." Said Crowley as Nina looked.
"You've kept her cooped up in that bookshop for as long as she can remember, it's not healthy for a child to be so sheltered." Said Nina as Crowley sighed.
"I'll talk to Aziraphale about it." Said Crowley as he huffed. "Well I better get back to it." Said Crowley as he placed what money he owed for the coffee on the table then left.

Crowley went back into the bookshop and checked on Aziraphale and Rosalyn who were still reading together so he didn't think it was right to interrupt especially with a question that might upset Aziraphale. Crowley went downstairs and found Muriel just dusting. "Oh when did you get here?" Asked Crowley as he walked down the stairs.
"I've been here since 9 am, I was just in the back office doing paperwork." Said Muriel as Crowley nodded. "You know I think you two forget that I'm here more than you realize that I am but to be fair I'm very quiet most of the time so I can see how easy it is to forget I'm here." Said Muriel as she stood on a stool dusting the tops of the shelves. "I know Aziraphale likes to keep it dusty here so people don't buy his books but all this dust cannot be good for the new baby." Said Muriel as she descended from the step stool.
"Have you seen her yet?" Asked Crowley as Muriel shook her head.
"No, not yet anyway. I know babies are very small and fragile so I understand why you keep her upstairs and out of sight." Said Muriel as Crowley looked at her.
"How do you know anything about babies?" Asked Crowley as he knew Muriel had only been on Earth a few years ago it was surprising she knew anything about babies.
"Oh the woman in the flat next to mine has one, he's adorable, his name is Jacob. On one of my days off they let me come to the part with them." Said Muriel as Crowley nodded.
"Well let me ask you something, how would it make you feel if Rosalyn, my daughter, wasn't... normal?" Asked Crowley as Muriel smiled.
"Well of course she's not like other babies, she's the child of an Angel and a Demon, why would she be anything like normal human babies?" Asked Muriel as Crowley sighed.
"Yeah I guess you're right." Said Crowley as he went back upstairs.

As Crowley came up the stairs he saw Aziraphale leaving Rosalyn's bedroom. "I thought you were reading to her?" Asked Crowley as Aziraphale sighed happily.
"Oh I was but she was so enthralled with the book that she fell asleep so I laid her down in bed." Said Aziraphale as he took off his reading glasses. "So how was getting coffee?" Asked Aziraphale as Crowley nodded.
"Good, good, I saw Maggie and Nina." Said Crowley as Aziraphale promptly started talking while Crowley obviously had more to say.
"That's wonderful, I've been meaning to take Rosalyn down to meet them." Said Aziraphale as Crowley followed Aziraphale into their bedroom.
"Oh so you want her to meet them?" Asked Crowley as Aziraphale turned.
"Of course I do Crowley, they're our friends." Said Aziraphale as he started to notice that Crowley was obviously hiding that he was upset with something. "Crowley do you not want her to meet them?" Asked Aziraphale as Crowley shook.
"No... I would love for her to meet them but I'm worried." Said Crowley as Aziraphale took his hand.
"About what?" Asked Aziraphale as Crowley looked down at their hands.
"Her eyes, they're different and humans don't like things that are different from them." Said Crowley as Aziraphale sighed.
"Everything will be fine, Crowley." Said Aziraphale as Crowley shook his head.
"No it won't, it wasn't for me." Said Crowley as Aziraphale looked at him.
"What do you mean?" Asked Aziraphale in a more worried tone now.
"Do you know why I started wearing these?" Asked Crowley as he took off his sunglasses. Aziraphale shook his head knowing that it was to hide his eyes but Aziraphale suspected there was a deeper meaning that he didn't know about. "Just after the flood people started to look at me differently, they started recognizing that I was a demon and casting me out of places. People would throw stones and one time someone tried to set me on fire trying to send me back to hell. When I discovered that humans had made tinted glass that you couldn't see through I miracled my first pair of glasses into existence then no one knew that I was a demon and I was treated like just another human." Said Crowley as Aziraphale felt terrible that he had no idea what Crowley had been through.
"Crowley, I'm so sorry." Said Aziraphale as Crowley rubbed his thumb on the back of Aziraphale's hand.
"You don't need to apologize Angel, you weren't the one doing all those nasty things." Said Crowley as Aziraphale looked at him softly. "Now I know that Rosalyn won't be met with stones and fire in a modern day but I've seen how cruel human children can be to other human children that just don't fit in with the rest of them. I don't want her to be hurt like that especially at so young." Said Crowley as Aziraphale looked at him.
"Then why not we get her a pair so she can go out in public just like you do." Said Aziraphale as Crowley smiled. So the next day Crowley just miracled a pair of little sunglasses for Rosalyn to wear them took her to meet Maggie and Nina.

"Oh my goodness she's adorable!" Said Maggie as she tried hard not to squeal.
"What's with the sunglasses?" Asked Nina as Aziraphale didn't know what to say but Crowley had a perfect answer to the question.
"She's sensitive to bright light, genetic condition." Said Crowley as Nina nodded and completely bought it.

After that they started bringing her to all their favorite places. Rosalyn didn't really understand what was so special about the glasses but Crowley explained to her that so long as she was wearing them she could go anywhere she wanted to and that made her understand just how important they were.