Title: It started with a garden
Author: gothikmaus
Fandom: Good Omens (TV)
Pairing: Aziraphale/Crowley
Rating: PG
Category: Humour, ficlet, illustrated fic
Summary: Crowley is not impressed with the wild plants infesting the back garden of their new cottage. The plants are not impressed with him either.
A/N: An illustrated ficlet inspired by the lovely DTIYS by MartinaH. over on Instagram. I drew the fanart first, then got some more inspiration and wrote this ficlet. Please check out Martina's original watercolour, it's beautiful!
Good Omens is © Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. I own nothing. No copyright infringement intended.
Crowley was glaring. He was standing in the middle of the garden, hands on his hips, and glaring.
"You are a disgrace."
He removed his sunglasses to increase the effect of his words, but the plants seemed unimpressed and just fluttered placidly in the light afternoon breeze. He narrowed his eyes. The wild vegetation that had taken over the cottage backyard wasn't as easily intimidated as his houseplants, apparently. It would be harder than he'd thought.
"Is everything all right, dear?" Aziraphale asked appearing at his side, a pot of basil in his hands. "You've been standing here for a while."
The angel was wearing a pair of light brown trousers and a cream-coloured shirt. The first few buttons were undone, and he had rolled the sleeves up to his elbows. By his standards, he was practically naked.
"This garden is appalling." The amount of disgust dripping from the demon's words would have his houseplants trembling with abject terror. "Sickening. Revolting. I'm tempted to just burn it all down with hellfire."
"Now, there's no need to be quite so dramatic. I'm sure you'll be able to turn this into a small Eden. So to speak."
At the moment, though, the potential Eden consisted of an abandoned squarish area scattered with an assortment of plants at various stages of growth: part of the garden was covered in fresh grass, a few daisies and dandelions standing out among the bright green blades; a few spots were overrun with tall weeds, the stems reaching up to their knees; other patches were completely bare.
Aziraphale put the pot down on the ground and gently run a hand over the tiny ears at the end of the longest stems.
"Is this wheat? Barley?"
Crowley stared at him blankly.
"They're weeds, angel."
"Oh. They're cute, though."
"They are not cute. They're plants. Infesting plants that will be rooted out as soon as possible."
"Mmh. Pity."
Aziraphale picked one of the stems, briefly studied the tiny grains adorning the tip, and slipped it behind Crowley's ear.
"Yes. Definitely cute."
The demon sputtered something, looking halfway between outraged and embarrassed.
"What was that, dear?"
"Not. Cute."
"Whatever you say, old boy."
The angel was bloody twinkling. It was unacceptable.
"I'm a demon," Crowley growled, poking him in the middle of the chest with his index finger. "Demons aren't cute. We're evil. Nasty. Terrifying."
"Oh, yes, I'm really quite scared," Aziraphale replied, looking anything but, and took a step back. His foot landed on a rock and he lost his balance, falling backwards. Crowley reached out to grab him, but they both ended up tumbling to the ground.
"Bloody garden," Crowley grumbled, but made no move to get up.
Aziraphale simply smiled at him and placed a hand on his hip, sneaking it under his T-shirt and sliding it up his side. Crowley looked down at him.
"Are you having impure thoughts?"
"Impure thoughts? Heavens, no. I'm just enjoying our new garden."
Crowley could see right through his innocent expression.
"You know, all this talking about gardens reminded me of the first time we met. There's something I've wanted to do ever since that day."
Aziraphale's eyebrows twitched upwards.
"Well, go on then."
A grin dawned on the demon's face before he flicked out a long, forked tongue and licked the tip of the angel's nose.
"Crowley!" Aziraphale exclaimed, leaning back and bursting out laughing.
The demon pulled his tongue back into his mouth and smiled. He could get used to this kind of life.
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August 2020