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English
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Part 191 of Demon and Angel Professors
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Aspec-friendly Good Omens, Sustenance for my maladaptive daydreaming, Disabled Omens
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Published:
2021-07-04
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666
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1/1
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Anyway, I'm Very Grateful

Summary:

Anathema and Newt brought the babies to the Christmas dinner, and almost everyone swarmed them, wanting to meet the little ones.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:

Anathema and Newt brought the babies to the Christmas dinner, and almost everyone swarmed them, wanting to meet the little ones. Crowley and Aziraphale looked at each other and then stayed quietly in the background, rather than stealing the spotlight with any antics. They still ended up sitting next to them to eat. It gave them a rather close up view of the number of times one or other had to leap up to tend to them.

When one of the babies grizzled quietly in her travel cot, not yet a full blown wail, but promising to be if she wasn't tended, a resigned look flickered across Anathema's face as she got up yet again. Newt was already deftly rocking the other with one hand and eating with the other.

Crowley glanced from his own empty plate to her barely touched one and said, quietly enough to be lost under the general buzz of conversation, "Give her to me. She's just tired and cranky, and you need to eat too."

"Are you sure?"

He shrugged, deliberately casual. "Might as well. I've finished. You've hardly started. I'm not going anywhere until the rest of you have finished too."

"Do they know about the pair of you yet?" Anathema asked, lifting Lizzie into her arms, and bringing her back to the table.

"Yes and no. They know we present as a couple but they persist in thinking we're just going along with their little joke." He turned towards her. "You can watch the jaws drop if you want."

Anathema gave him a tired little smile and passed Lizzie over. "Anyway, I'm very grateful." She dug into her meal before he had a chance to change his mind.

Crowley leaned back in his chair, the baby a warm weight nestled into his shoulder, and watched the ripples of open-mouthed shock and horror - vicious Dr Crowley had got hold of one of the babies, oh no! - spread across the room.

On Crowley's other side, Aziraphale dabbed an invisible crumb from his lips with a paper napkin, and smiled. "We really ought to let them know," he murmured, but there was no distress in his tone, only amusement. "Before they do something really foolish and hurt the little one while trying to rescue her."

"Fair point," Crowley muttered. "You want to do the honours?"

Aziraphale twinkled at him, and said, not loudly, but pitched to carry across the room, "You always were better with children than I was, Anthony dear."

"You know I prefer plants, angel," Crowley quipped back, also projecting, as the student jaws dropped further. "Can't talk to babies the way you can plants."

Every Botany student shuddered at the thought of Dr Crowley yelling at a baby to grow better.

Anathema gave him a sideways look and mumbled, "She can scream louder than you can, and if you wake her up by yelling at her when she's only just dropped off, she will." She ate another mouthful and added, now also pitched to carry, "It's a wonder you two ever managed to agree on anything long enough to get married."

The students gaped at Dr Device's daring. It was a wonder, Crowley thought, that they had managed to keep their chins out of their dinner. He dropped a quick glance at the now sleeping baby. She had her thumb in her mouth, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

The thing was, small children almost always seemed to see him as someone they could implicitly trust. It wasn't until they got old enough to start second guessing their gut instincts that they got scared of him.

He said aloud, "I won't yell then." His gaze flicked back to the students.

Aziraphale caught the look, eyed the hall openly, and added, with primness hiding his laughter, "Don't you know it's rude to eat with your mouth open?"

All over the hall, the students' mouths snapped shut amid a rash of blushing cheeks.

"Better," Aziraphale told them beaming. "Much better."

Notes:

You can find me on tumblr at https://ineffableghost.tumblr.com/

It's been exactly 2 years since the first part of the Demon and Angel Professors went up. Sometimes it feels like forever. I'd just like to say thank you to all of you wonderful people who have come along for the journey so far, no matter when you joined, and tune in next time for the start of their University's Bicentennial Celebrations.

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