Tuesday Specials

[pflag-mom-deb.livejournal.com]

The Chalkboard reads:

Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans and salad
Falafel pita with hummus and salad.
Baked fish with lemon, steamed broccoli, green beans and salad.


Bakery Special today:
Peanut Butter Brownies
White cake
Chocolate Meringue Pie
Gooseberry Pie

Comments

[flash-serpent.livejournal.com]

Skipping ahead of Aziraphale, she looks back from time to time. Reaching the door of a diner, she flings the door open and steps through, checking the interior like a pint sized security detail.

"Cooo."

//Come ON, Aziraphale.//

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

Aziraphale follows behind the adorable little girl-thing as though being led to his execution. Smiling weakly at Deb, he walks with Magdalene toward a booth and slides in.

"Are you certain this is what you want to do? I mean, er, I thought you wanted to watch me work. Not...you know, eat dinner."

He looks around the diner as if hoping someone, anyone, will come in and rescue him.

[flash-serpent.livejournal.com]

She slides in across from him, the table resting against her chest. "Cooocrooo, coo. Crrrrroooo."

//This IS watching you work, Aziraphale. Out with the humans, making their lives better. Gracious, I desperately want to smoke. Why do you suppose that is?//

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

"Er..."

The angel stares at her, wondering if maybe he's already been evaluated, and this is his punishment. "Perhaps because Crowley smokes?" he asks in a weak voice.

Summoning up a little courage, he smiles more congenially at Deb and looks over the menu. To Magdalene he says, "Er, what would you like?"

[flash-serpent.livejournal.com]

"Cooo..Cooorroooo"

//I don't know what any of this is. You pick.//

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

"The...meatloaf is very good. And, er...brownies?"

Children like brownies, he thinks. Not, of course, that she's actually a child, of course. But he thinks she'll like brownies anyway.

"And, er, I'll have the same, but with the pie instead. And tea."

[flash-serpent.livejournal.com]

She looks at him and smiles...a familiar soft smile. She shrugs and looks around the diner, bouncing a bit, and getting up on her knees to turn around and take in what's behind them.

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

Aziraphale felt heartbroken at that smile, and he turned away for a moment to look out into the diner. When Magdalene sits upon her knees and turns around, he looks back, taking a minute to study her while she's not studying him.

She's...not like any sort of angel he's ever seen, and he can't quite figure out what she might be, except that she seems to exhibit qualities of Crowley and, he supposes, of himself.

"What did you mean, earlier? About keeping Mr. Crane in place of Crowley?" Aziraphale surprises himself with the question, but he very much wants to understand.

[flash-serpent.livejournal.com]

"Crrrooooo, coooo. Crooo?"

//You must have balance while he's gone. Right?//

She starts looking through the table service, investigating salt and pepper and ketchup and sugar...and not intentionally making a mess at all.

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

Sighing a little, Aziraphale cleans up the mess that the girl-angel-thing makes, putting everything back where it belongs.

"Crowley will back soon, I expect. And it isn't as though we've never been, er, not in the same town. It isn't necessary to have someone around to balance me. Anyway, Mr. Crane is...a friend of Crowley's. We're only casual acquaintances. Not colleagues."

He's glad when the food comes, giving them both something to concentrate on.

[flash-serpent.livejournal.com]

She pokes the meatloaf with her finger, watching him to see what he does. Then she pokes the mashed potaotes. Repeatedly. Smiling as her finger sinks in each time.

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

"My dear," he says automatically, "That isn't polite. Althought I feel rather certain you know that."

Picking up his fork, Aziraphale begins to eat, steadily wading through the food even though he can't really taste it. He knows he deserves this...he's been breaking rules for far too long to be allowed to wonder why this is being done to him. But he wonders if it isn't perhaps a little unfair, considering how close on the heels of Crowley's recall it comes. And then, of course, he realizes that's probably exactly the point.

[flash-serpent.livejournal.com]

She watches him for a moment, seeing how he eats and in what order, then mimics him. She eats quickly, smiling and trying not to chew with her mouth open. She doesn't talk through the meal, but once it's gone, she pushes her plate away and looks him in the eye.

"Coooooo?"

//Why don't you like me?//

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

Looking up quickly, Aziraphale frowns a little. "I...I don't dislike you, my dear. I...don't even know you. Have I been making you feel as though I dislike you?"

This worries the angel, because he doesn't like the idea of people in general thinking he dislikes them, let alone the girl-angel-thing in particular.

"I do apologize."

[flash-serpent.livejournal.com]

She shrugs, "Cooooroooo croooo, cooo."

//It disturbs you...his qualities. It's all right. We knew it would.//

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

Aziraphale doesn't know how to respond. In a way, Crowley's qualities do disturb him, but mainly because they remind him of the demon, and right now it hurts to be reminded. He chastises himself for that, for not wanting to think of Crowley when he knows the demon is far worse off than he.

But it worries him as well that they expected him to be bothered, as if they did it on purpose, to test him somehow. And he wondered how that would be interpreted, and whether it would get back to Crowley's people, and whether they'd use it against either of them.

Pushing his plate away, he says carefully, "It is a bit disconcerting."

[flash-serpent.livejournal.com]

By the time he answers, she bent over loking under the table, peeking up at him from the edge, and looking underneath it again. She slips under the table entirely.

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

"My dear girl, what are you doing?" Aziraphale blurts out, before he can stop himself. He peers under the table himself, looking confused.

[flash-serpent.livejournal.com]

Under the table she smiles at him.

"Coorooo."

//It's fun.//

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

"It's inappropriate behavior for being in public," Aziraphale says quietly, hoping not to draw too much attention to her. "Please come back out from there. If you're bored...we can go walk in the park."

[flash-serpent.livejournal.com]

"Coo?"

//Why?//

She looks up from under the table, noticing several people in the diner smiling at the angel talking to the girl-thing.

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

Aziraphale sighs. "Because it isn't how one acts. One doesn't hide under the table, one sits in the seat as they're supposed to. You're..."

Embarrassing me.

He stops. Blinks. Looks down at the girl-angel-thing.

"Never mind."

[flash-serpent.livejournal.com]

Matter of factly, she coos and crawls back into her seat.

"Cooo. cooo coorooo."

//Angels are supposed to be good with children. You...aren't.//

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

"Not all angels," he points out defensively. "I expect Michael isn't very good with children. The smiting sort usually aren't."

Remembering back to his trip with Wilson, and the tiny baby he'd held in the nursery, he smiles a little, and his voice is a little softer. "And I'm not entirely terrible."

[flash-serpent.livejournal.com]

She snorts, another oddly familiar affectation, then sits up straight. "Cooo coocrooo?"

//Tell me about brownies?//