Christmas sucked. It was one of the few constant truths in Crowley's life. The sun shone, his parents were the worst and Christmas fucking sucked.

The entire season had been unkind to Crowley. He had suffered through it twenty four times in his lifetime and it had never once been good. One of his earliest memories was his dad walking out on them on Boxing day. And it had all went downhill from there. Every holiday season after that had been tenuous and stressful, especially with his parents ensuing divorce.

Then he came out at seventeen and was promptly thrown out of the house. On Christmas too. In the seven years since, he had not bothered to celebrate it. The whole experience had left a bad taste in his mouth and he didn't see the point. It was a stupid holiday anyway.

He took a swig of his coffee, and sat at his desk. Turning on his computer, he vaguely noticed that it was December 13th and frowned. It was close enough to Christmas that the mildly irritating behaviour of his co-workers, such as humming Christmas songs when they should be working, would be amplified into invites to office Christmas parties, ugly Christmas jumpers and tinsel everywhere.

How irritating.

"Happy Holidays Anthony!" Lee said cheerfully, setting some papers on Crowley's desk. "Can you check these over for me? Miss Beatriz is on a warpath today and I don't want to submit anything with mistakes in it."

"Sure. Know why she's in a bad mood?" He took the first sheet of paper and started correcting Lee's admittingly interesting piece on the city's new youth program. Lee's writing was mostly good, but he wasn't the best at grammar.

"I don't know," Lee shrugged. "Just stay out of her way and you'll be fine." Crowley handed Lee his papers and got back to work. Not even three minutes later, he felt the domineering presence of his boss standing right behind him. He turned around and a tight smile spread across Beatriz's face.

"Anthony, can you step into my office for a minute?" she said, beckoning her to follow him. So much for staying out her way.

He followed her into her office and shut the door behind them. "I assume you're busy," she said. "So I'll be quick. I need someone to travel to the village of Tadfield to cover their Christmas celebrations. Damien was going to go but his baby was born premature so he's taking time off. You'll be there for twelve days. Can you do it?"

"With all due respect, I hardly think I'm the best person for this story. I'm not exactly a big fan of Christmas."

"Anthony, not to be rude, but I don't care. Someone has to take this assignment and you're my next best reporter after Damien."

Crowley sighed. "I don't have a choice here, do I?"

"You don't."

He frowned a little. "Okay. I'll do it."

It was last minute for sure, but at least the pay was good.

Crowley caught the train to Tadfield the next morning. Beatriz had arranged for someone named Aziraphale Eden to pick him up from the station. According to Beatriz, Aziraphale owned the only inn in town, as well as the local bookshop, and Crowley would be staying there until Boxing day.

Crowley fetched his bag from the overhead locker and got off the train. The station was small, which Crowley had expected. This was a small village after all, it wouldn't have made sense for the station to be as big as the ones in the city. It was very quiet there, with just a handful of people wandering around.

One of these was a man standing not so far away, who was holding a sign with Crowley's name on it. "Hey, you're Aziraphale, right?" Crowley said, approaching the man.

The man smiled and lowered his sign. "That's me. I'm guessing that you're Anthony then."

"Yep."

"The inn isn't very far from here. I hope you're okay with walking." Crowley shrugged. He had no problem with walking. If anything, he was looking forward to seeing what this village looked like.

The pair left the station and stepped into the town square. It was colder outside than Crowley had expected, and he could see his breath turning to mist in the cool air. There was a large Christmas tree set up right in front of them.

"I see the town's ready for Christmas," he remarked, shoving his hands into his coat pockets, as they kept walking

"Yes. Isn't it exciting!" Aziraphale beamed. "I adore Christmas. It's my favourite holiday."

"Why?" asked Crowley. "There's nothing great about it."

"Nothing great about Christmas?" exclaimed Aziraphale. "There's giving gifts, eating good food, snowball fights, carolling, being with your family and much more. The season's full of good. That's why I love it so much."

Crowley winced at the mention of family. His family had ruined almost every Christmas he had had as a child. "I've never been a fan," he admitted. "Had some bad experiences and they sort of… put a damper on the festivities for me."

Aziraphale gave him a determined look. "How long are you in Tadfield?" he asked.

"Twelve days. I'm leaving on Boxing day morning."

Aziraphale considered a moment. "Twelve days…" he said. "I reckon I can make you love Christmas in twelve days."