Adopting a Pet

Aziraphale and Crowley were spending a quiet Sunday afternoon in Aziraphale's bookshop. Aziraphale looked up from his book and spoke. "We should get a dog. Might liven up the place."

Crowley immediately agreed. "I always wanted a dog. Man's best friend."

"Or an angel and a demon in this case," responded Aziraphale with a chuckle.

That was how the two of them ended up at the local animal shelter, hand in hand. The woman at the desk handed them a form to fill out, just so that the shelter could know a bit more about them.

The form was simple enough. Aziraphale forbade Crowley from putting 'agent of darkness and chaos' in the space for job title, which Crowley was not pleased with, as he insisted that it was an accurate description of his job as a demon.

Aziraphale quickly noted down small business owner for himself, still chucking a little.

Once that was done, the teen boy at the counter showed them around the kennels. Aziraphale was enamoured by every single dog he laid his eyes on, all of which adored him immediately. Crowley got quite the different response. Most of the dogs seemed wary of him, and a few even looked frightened – with their tails between their legs.

A tiny part of his brain told him that this was because dogs were a good judge of character. And he was bad.

While he was moping at the realisation that he might never find a dog – or any animal - who liked him, his eyes fell upon a pair of bright brown eyes staring at him intently through the kennel bars.

Those eyes belonged to a medium sized mutt with a gentle expression. He was a mix of several different breeds, but it was hard to tell which. There was probably some German Shepherd in him; he had the same build as a shepherd dog and the same seeming drive to please. His colouring was a little bit everything – mostly a soft brown with accents of black and tan.

"Hey boy," he said. "You got a name?"

The dog barked in response, and Crowley looked at the name tag hung on the cage. "Duke huh? Doesn't really fit you does it? You're too sweet for that name."

He pressed his hand against the bars, and Duke (still felt wrong) licked at his fingers. "Hey Angel, come over here!" he called.

"Found someone you like?" asked Aziraphale, making his way over.

"Yeah. His name is Duke," said Crowley.

"Doesn't really fit him, does it? Too sweet." Duke had immediately started the puppy dog eyes act and Aziraphale couldn't stop smiling.

"Exactly what I said."

That was how Crowley and Aziraphale ended up bringing home a dog from the shelter. Whilst they were settling Duke in and setting up his things, they discussed changing the dog's name.

"Duke really doesn't fit," said Aziraphale.

"Nope. We should think of another name," said Crowley "What about Freddie? Like Freddie Mercury."

Aziraphale blinked and cleared his throat. "Ah yes, Freddie Mercury. The… basketball player…" he said uncertainly.

Crowley sighed. "Queen."

"What does Queen Elizabeth have to do with this?" asked Aziraphale with a confused expression plastered across his face

"The band Angel, not the person. Freddie is the lead singer in the band Queen. We've been over this."

"It's not my fault. There are so many musicians now. How am I meant to keep up with them all?" whined Aziraphale. "I like Freddie though."

"Freddie it is."

It was then that the newly christened Freddie clambered onto Aziraphale's lap, turned around and promptly went to sleep. "It appears that he thinks he's a lap dog," chucked Aziraphale.

"You silly boy," said Crowley giving Freddie a gentle stroke between the ears. "Do you want some tea?"

"Absolutely. I would help but as you can see, I'm a little tied up right now." Crowley guffawed with laughter, going to put on the kettle.