How to date an angel

A Common Mistake

The bookshop was starting to look presentable again. For the past two weeks, the angel and the demon had done everything in their power to repair as much as possible without it looking suspicious to their superiors.The outside of the building was almost completely renewed, just a few black spots hinted at the fire. Aziraphale had managed to wonder little angel wings above the door, which he justified to the Metatron as necessary to repel demons. Meanwhile, Hell wanted to know why Crowley wondered stairs to the entrance of a certain shop in Soho out of pure and polished marvel. It happened so that Heaven would have fewer costumers. Hell accepted that, not knowing that this was actually Crowleys intention – knowing how much Aziraphale valued his privacy and loved having his books all to himself (reasonable), he thought he could do something about it.
Should the angel have noticed anything, he did not mention it to Crowley. The Angel did in fact notice, but he thought that Crowley had just forgotten how the staircase looked before the fire. Deep down, he hoped that he had done it on purpose, to make his shop as glamorous as he could wish – but no, rather not think about that...

A long day finally came to an end. Crowley flicked his fingers and a couple of books assorted themselves alphabetically (first letter of the last word on the last page in each book). Aziraphale however did not notice, because he was dusting his study. There had been a little bit of awkward silence again this morning when Crowley asked him why he presented an illustrated version of the bible on his desk, showing a snake in Garden Eden. Aziraphale chose not to explain in detail that he liked to remember meeting the demon for the first time, so he explained it with something about "first day on earth" and "no illustration of Angels". Crowley just nodded in response and gently brushed his thin fingers over the artwork. Aziraphale thought that he looked very touched, almost moved and very melancholic. He decided to not ask him about it, he probably was thinking about his fall or something like it. (Crowley did actually think about his fall, but not in a bad way, rather remembering how it brought Angel in his life.)

"Beautiful little plant you have there.", said Crowley.

The plant began to shake fearfully, just as Aziraphale did. He did not tell Crowley that he rescued one of his plants.

"It is new. I thought it looked... Nice.", Aziraphale said.

Crowley inspected it closer, ignoring the shaking leaves.

"It has a spot", he whispered in a threatening voice.

"I think it is doing very well, actually." Aziraphale paused before he added: "It is my favourite one, actually." If plants were able to blush, the plant would have turned bright red.

Suppressed snickering. "You only have one."

"Still!"

"Fine, Angel. How about some fresh air?", Crowley suggested.

Aziraphale could not say anything against that.

As they stepped outside, Aziraphale got more and more excited how is bookshop would look like now. Even though they just had wondered it back to nearly normal just this morning, he was curious to see it in evening light.
A few steps down the marble stairs, then they were in front of the building. The evening was nice, a little bit chilly, the right amount of chilliness to spend the evening in a good restaurant.
Crowley stopped walking first to turn around. He put his head as far back as possible (almost unhinging his neck) and squinted as he scanned the façade. Then he put his hand up and waved his finger through the air. Aziraphale thought for a moment that the demon was going to wonder something, but he didn't. He was waving his finger in amazement, stuttering senseless noises.

Finally, he got out a full sentence: "You know, Angel, we did a really good job. Probably because we are such a good team. This is just..."

"Wahoo?" It did took Aziraphale all his courage to say the word that he overheard Crowley say on the telephone once. He figured that the word meant something to him.

"Tickety Boo." Crowley winked.

A short smile was exchanged, anxious from both sides. Then, two people came around the corner and started walking towards them.

"Oh, how lovely to finally meet both of you together!", an elderly lady chattered as she folded her hands in amazement and hurried a little to get closer.

She shook Aziraphales hand (who was moderately delighted) and gave Crowley a knowing smirk (which made him more than moderatley confused). Her husband, who caught up to her by now, stood next to them in silence and looked at the bookshop.

His wife, however, did not stop talking: "Ah, I see, the builders have done their work very well. How did they do it so fast?"

"Well, you see, it's almost like a miracle, really." Aziraphale said.

Crowley turned around, raised an eyebrow and looked even more confused. Aziraphale straightened his posture and decided not to look at Crowley.

"If you'll excuse us, Ma'am. We have places to be." He nodded.

Then he took some steps away from the couple and did not notice at first that the lady caught Crowleys arm and leaned in to whisper to him. But what he did hear was what she was trying to whisper (keeping her voice down wasn't one of the things she mastered).

"Ah, darling, I always hoped to meet you personally one day. You are such a lovely young man."

Crowley made a face as if he was in pain and tried to free his arm. He failed.

"You see, and he is a very nice man too.", she continued.

Crowley looked at Aziraphale, who was trying his best not to look embarrassed, and nodded.

"And it's nothing to be ashamed of, really. We find it quite cute that he is your... How do you call it?" She paused and frowned as she tried to remember the word she was looking for. Then she had it: "Yes, your Sugar Daddy. And Angel is just the sweetest pet name!"

Aziraphale blushed slightly, but the colour of his face got worse when he saw that Crowley turned bright red on the spot and was practically burning up.To escape the situation, Aziraphale stepped in and placed a hand on Crowleys shoulder.

 "Very nice thoughts you are having!", he said. "If you'll excuse us now, dinner is calling."

"Neighbours", he sighed after they walked a few blocks.

Crowley was silent. Aziraphale pointed at a bakery, to which Crowley responded with more silence.

"Sugar Daddy?????", Crowley blurted out.

"Dear, I don't know where they got that from. They are quite the burden, if I am honest with you."

Crowley fell silent again. Aziraphale could not deal with this silence, not knowing what his demon was thinking was making him crazy.

"You didn't correct them.", he stated.

"Mhhhh, what?", Crowley said absent mindedly.

"I said, you did not correct her!"

"Oh well." The demon shrugged."STILL! How-"

Aziraphales hands brushed over his coat as he pursed his lips.

"Well, my Dear, you do call me Angel..."