Happy Holidays, jai!
Dec. 11th, 2019 06:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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Rating: G
Pairing: Aziraphale/Crowley
Author’s note: Happy holidays! I hope you enjoy this soft winter fic. Sufganiyot is a type of deep-fried, jelly filled doughnut that’s traditionally eaten during Hanukkah.
Summary: Crowley helps Aziraphale get ready for a neighbor’s holiday party.
The first thing Crowley noticed upon entering Aziraphale’s bookshop through the back door was the smell of cooking. Whenever the holidays came around Aziraphale could be found bustling around the kitchenette in the bookshop’s back room or, whenever he stayed the night with Crowley, trying to figure out Crowley’s spacious, modern kitchen. Aziraphale still cooked during the rest of the year, but it was during the holidays that he’d go all out.
Crowley grinned as he followed the smell of cooking dough and the sound of crackling oil. Aziraphale had his back turned to him as Crowley entered the kitchen. He was humming to himself, swaying his hips to whatever song was stuck in his head, as he stood before a deep pot filled with oil. Delicately, reverently, Aziraphale picked up one of the many balls of dough that sat on the counter before lowering it into the oil with a spider.
Crowley decided to take advantage of the fact that Aziraphale had yet to notice him and slinked over to the draining rack where at least a dozen fluffy sufganiyot sat. Just as he was about to reach out to grab one whose dusting of powdered sugar looked particularly tempting. Aziraphale’s hand shot out to grab his wrist.
“Don’t you dare. I’m bringing those to Beth’s party tonight.” Aziraphale said, not looking up as he began to flip the sufganiyot still in the pot. He released Crowley’s wrist to begin removing the ones that had finished, placing them on the rack with their comrades.
Crowley leaned in to press a gentle kiss to Aziraphale’s cheek as he watched him begin the cooking process anew. “Could I have a few if I help you fill them? You know how good I am at filling things.” He said, waggling his eyebrows until Aziraphale flushed and rolled his eyes.
“You’re an absolute scoundrel, do you know that?” he said, clearly trying to hide a laugh. He waited for Crowley to wash his hands before he handed him a piping bag filled with deep red jam and turning his attention back to the fryer. “I bought strawberry jam. There’s raspberry in the fridge for if you run out.”
Crowley leaned in to steal a kiss from Aziraphale’s lips before taking the piping bag and picking up a sufganiyot to begin filling them. He licked his lips, tasting powdered sugar and sweet strawberry jam as he did. Crowley smirked at Aziraphale before saying “Angel? You haven’t been sampling, have you? I thought you said they were for the party.”
Aziraphale blushed once more before saying, “Oh, well I might have had a few at the beginning. I needed to make sure that the recipe was good enough to bring. This is the first time I’ve used this jam, you see.”
Crowley nodded before squeezing a dollop of the jam onto his index finger for a taste. The jam was fruity and sweet with the slight tartness of fresh strawberry. The taste was worth being shooed back over to the sink for a second wash. He couldn’t wait to see how it would taste with the fluffy doughnut and powdered sugar.
“Beth’s hosting this year?” Crowley said, pausing to adjust his grip on the pastry bag. His fingers were beginning to cramp from all the squeezing.
“Oh yes it’ll be her and Darya,” Aziraphale said with a wistful smile as he thought of the young couple. Beth worked in the small coffee shop that had opened on Aziraphale’s street about ten years ago. She was instantly drawn to Aziraphale in a way that Crowley had at first compared to a baby chick imprinting on its mother. Aziraphale had hushed him and told him not to tease.
Beth was young, just moved out of her parent’s place, and was incredibly nervous about this new chapter of her life. She’d confessed this to Aziraphale one day while he was ordering a peppermint cocoa with a pan de chocolat and after that she began to spend her lunch hour reading in Aziraphale’s back room. She was far from the first wayward soul he’d taken under his wing and as long as she wasn’t interested in taking any of his more precious books, she was welcome to stay.
Darya moved to Soho about three years after Beth. She ran a pottery shop where customers could paint and fire their own pottery. She was quiet and levelheaded, with warm brown eyes and graceful hands, according to Beth, who couldn’t stop talking about her the weekend after Darya had first dropped by the shop for some expresso to keep her going through the move. It only took a little miracle on Aziraphale’s part to arrange an excuse for the two of them to talk. A miracle and Aziraphale asking Beth if she could go to Darya’s shop and pick up the bowl he and Crowley had made on their anniversary.
Crowley spent most of the afternoon in Aziraphale’s kitchen helping him finish with his baking. The rhythm of filling sufganiyot after sufganiyot as Aziraphale placed them on the drying rack was so hypnotic that he barely noticed that the pastry bag, which had seemed almost empty when he’d begun, lasted until the very last one. Once they had finished, Crowley helped Aziraphale pack the pastries in a towel-lined Tupperware.
“You’re welcome to come, my dear.” Aziraphale said as he locked up the shop. “The whole block has been invited to Beth’s Hanukkah party and I’m sure everyone there will miss my handsome gentleman caller.”
Crowley shrugged, trying to hide the smile that spread across his face at the invitation. “Alright angel, but just because I want to have some of your sufganiyot and if I know anything about Beth’s parties, there won’t be any left.”
Aziraphale laughed at that and held out his free hand for Crowley to hold as they walked down the street together. “Oh don’t be so sure dear, this is the season for miracles.”
----
Aziraphale and Crowley returned to the bookshop late into the night. Snow had begun to fall while they were at the party and at this point the windowsills and planter boxes of the shop were piled high with a thick blanket of snow. Crowley snapped his fingers and miracled his coat and scarf, a present from Aziraphale last year, onto the coat rack while Aziraphale unwound his own scarf from around his neck.
Aziraphale leaned up to press a gentle kiss to Crowley’s frozen cheek before bustling over to the kitchen once more. Beth and Darya had given him a tin of the coffeeshop’s in-house cocoa blend and Crowley could tell that Aziraphale was excited to try a cup. Crowley took a short detour to Aziraphale’s liquor cabinet to see if he had any peppermint schnapps.
Aziraphale came out of the kitchen a few minutes later carrying two large mugs of cocoa. When Crowley took his he noticed that Aziraphale had left a bit of room in his mug for him to add his schnapps.
“Thanks angel. What would I do without you?” Crowley said as he pulled the thick fluffy quilt that Aziraphale kept over the back of the settee down. He placed his cocoa mug with its kitschy devil’s tail on the coffee table so he could wrap himself and Aziraphale up without spilling it.
“Thank you for coming dear. It really meant a lot to the both of them.” Aziraphale said once the two of them had settled under the blanket, Aziraphale’s head leaning against Crowley’s shoulder as he took idle sips.
“I told you, angel. I went for your sufganiyot,” Crowley said, trying to hide his smile in Aziraphale’s soft curls.
“Oh of course dear. I’m so sorry to have doubted you.” Aziraphale’s hand found Crowley’s under the blanket and he gave a gentle squeeze before nuzzling closer. Aziraphale rarely slept but after a few minutes Crowley could hear gentle even breath coming from Aziraphale. Carefully, doing his best not to wake him, Crowley took Aziraphale’s mug and placed it on the table along with his own. It would stay warm until he woke up if it knew what was good for it. In the meanwhile Crowley decided to join Aziraphale and pulled the blanket tighter around the two of them before drifting off to sleep as well.
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Date: 2019-12-11 11:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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