Disclaimer: I do not own Good Omens or it's characters.
Chapter 4,
Logically Crowley knew the move to Tadfield is a wise decision, but he didn't know how to deal with those nosy children? Adam and his friends only spent an hour with him and he needed to leave. He was sure that Aziraphale mentioned Rome for some reason or another, not that it really mattered. Angel didn't know why it was hard for Crowley to talk about it. But Crowley couldn't bring himself to tell Aziraphale about it. Crowley couldn't bring himself to tell Aziraphale about it. Crowley simply said nothing about the girl, or what happened, and what he did. That last detail is what really made it impossible for Crowley to talk about Junia. The demon's eyes watered when her image flashed in his mind, and he swallowed his sob.
"I can't believe I'm still sensitive to that after all these years." Crowley whispered to God.
"Time heals all wounds, right? That's what they say. Feels like a lie though. Is this something angels gave humans to have them keep up hope? Or is this something demons gave the humans to torture the ones that couldn't move on?" Crowley asked God, not that he expected an answer.
Beelzebub loves to remind the demons that they were the fallen, and that God refused to listen to them, so there was no point in praying- ever. Crowley wasn't exactly sure about that. God is omnipotent, so she knows that when Crowley prays, he really needs someone to talk to. Someone who will listen and understand exactly how he feels.
"I can't believe those kids kept saying that we were 'obviously' in love. Aziraphale will never want to live here when those children keep making him uncomfortable." Crowley said and then he bit his lip.
"What am I to do if I can't convince him to come with me? Do I stay in the city and make sure that angel stays safe? Or do I move out here and simply hope that Aziraphale changes his mind?" Crowley asked.
"Do I even have the guts to leave him behind? The longer we know each other, the closer we've become. Not only emotionally, but in distance as well. What if..." Crowley hesitated and he slowed to a stop.
"What if I move away and I end up losing him. All because I wanted him to uproot his life and follow me." Crowley said and he sighed.
"Maybe I'm wrong about this whole thing. I mean, Tadfield Air Bass is so close, and... maybe moving here would be more dangerous for angel." Crowley rubbed his eyes then kept walking.
"I don't know what Heaven and Hell have planned for starting Armageddon. They could either try to make Adam start it, or they could want nothing to do with him because he didn't do it the first time." Crowley said and he turned to Anathema's garden.
"Oh, back already?" Anathema said cheerfully.
"Are you actually surprised, book girl?" Crowley asked and the witch shrugged.
"I considered it, but I wasn't sure. Adam is a curious kid and you could love it or hate it." Anathema said and Crowley shrugged.
"Point taken." Crowley said.
"Is Aziraphale still with them?" Anathema asked and Crowley nodded.
"Yep. They might make him nervous with the things they say, but Aziraphale is kid-crazy." Crowley said.
"Not surprising. Kids tend to be more innocent, so I can see why an angel would be more kid-crazy." Anathema said and Crowley shrugged.
"Yeah, well... I bet he'll scare them off as soon as he tries to do a magic trick." Crowley said and Anathema laughed.
"Maybe. But he does love it." Anathema said.
"Oh, I know that. But it's so demeaning. He's up there having fun and practically playing cards at you and tossing coins all over the place." Crowley said.
"How did he get into magic tricks anyways" Anathema asked and Crowley hesitated.
"You know, I never asked. I just know that one day he asked me if I wanted to see a magic trick, and I stupidly agreed." Crowley said.
"How was the trick?" Anathema asked.
"Well... I won't tell you what happened, I respect angel too much for that. But if you look at my right ear, I have a scar on the lobe. Right there." Crowley pointed it out and Anathema's jaw dropped.
"Dang, what a trick." Anathema commented.
"Yeah, well, what were you telling me earlier. Before Aziraphale interrupted you, you were talking about some store?" Crowley said. Anathema ran into the house for a moment and came back with a newspaper clipping.
"Here, there was this adorable flower shop in town. The couple owned the shop and lived right upstairs, but they wanted to move when she got pregnant with twins. Maybe this could be a good place for you and Aziraphale to live." Anathema said and Crowley stared at the picture.
"Wait, me... and Aziraphale?" Crowley asked.
"Well, yeah. They had a two bedroom place; they just used the second bedroom for storage. I thought maybe the two of you could live together. I mean you guys lived together for 11 years so sharing an apartment shouldn't be that difficult. Besides being in one apartment would make it a little harder for others to find you." Anathema said.
"I don't know, we didn't really live together, just near each other. I stayed in the house and he slept in his room out near the garden shed. Besides I don't know if I could ever convince angel to leave that bookshop." Crowley said and Anathema thought about this a moment.
"Then don't." Anathema said and Crowley blinked.
"Excuse me?" Crowley asked.
"I'm serious. I never asked Newt to move here with me. But he did because he loves me." Anathema said.
"Lucky you." Crowley said sarcastically.
"I'm serious, though. You've probably been thinking about this longer then Aziraphale. Give him a chance to think about it. Move to this place, keep the bedroom available for him and I'm sure he'll move in when he's ready." Anathema said and Crowley bit his lip.
"Maybe... then what am I suppose to do with the store?" Crowley said and Anathema shrugged.
"I suppose you could always keep it." Anathema suggested and Crowley scoffed.
"Do I look like I run a flower shop?" Crowley asked and Anathema shrugged.
"People like flowers. And besides you can always hear all the good gossip in town at the flower shop." Anathema said and Crowley rose an eyebrow.
"Gossip?" Crowley asked and Anathema smiled.
"Yeah. I mean where do all the men go when they really screwed up? The flower shop to buy flowers for their girls." Anathema said and Crowley smiled.
"Those poor bastards." Crowley said, but he couldn't hide how much he enjoyed the thought.
"And what of those jerks who buy flowers for their mistresses? They don't wanna get caught. Heck, some of them buy flowers for their wives AND their mistresses." Anathema said.
"Heh, ok, ok, I see the appeal. And I suppose I could keep it open while I am there. I actually have a few plants at home." Crowley said and Anathema smiled.
"Living or dead?" Anathema asked.
"Oh, they're very much alive. Well, unless they grew a spot then it was garbage disposal time." Crowley said.
"Hmm." Anathema said and Crowley looked at her.
"What? You don't believe me?" Crowley asked.
"Does it matter?" Anathema asked.
"Um... no..." Crowley said softly.
"Listen, I'm not sure what you traditionally did as part of your day before all that Armageddon stuff went down, but if you did keep the flower shop, it would help keep you busy every day." Anathema said.
"I guess you have a point." Crowley said.
"It would be better then sitting around waiting for something bad to happen." Anathema said and Crowley looked at the picture again.
"I guess you know where this it?" Crowley asked and Anathema nodded.
"Yeah. I can show you where it is." Anathema said.
"What, right now?" Crowley asked.
"Why not, if the kids come by Newt will let them in." Anathema said.
"Well... maybe I should. I really don't want to spend a lot of time apartment hunting. And at least this would have a place for angel... just in case." Crowley said and Anathema nodded.
"Do you think it would be fun to live with Aziraphale?" Anathema asked and Crowley stood up and adjusted his glasses.
"I don't know how fun it will be. We are so different. And yeah we saw each other every day when we cafes for Warlock, which was nice. But most of the time we were still alone and, you know, separated, at night. I mean it's a whole other level." Crowley said and Anathema stood up. She quickly popped her head in the house and yelled something to Newt. She then, hooked her arm with Crowley's and escorted him away from the house.
"So you guys have never slept under the same roof before?" Anathema asked and Crowley hesitated.
"Well... not never. Some days it was just safer for us to stick together. The only time it was... where it wasn't necessary was when we didn't have Armageddon and I let Aziraphale come home with me because his bookshop burned down." Crowley said and Anathema nodded.
"Alright." Anathema said as she thought.
"You know, we really need a name for that day. The day Armageddon was suppose to happen, yet it didn't." Crowley thought out loud.
"I guess you could always call it 'Armageddon't' or 'Nadageddon'. Since nothing happened." Anathema said and Crowley moved his head from side to side.
"Eh... no... those are fine, but let's face it, there will be a war. This past Armageddon was simply the first attempt. If anything we should call it 'Attemptageddon'." Crowley said and Anathema smiled.
"Attempt... ageddon... Attemptageddon. I like it" Anathema said and Crowley smiled.
"Angel isn't the only one who is clever." Crowley said. They walked for a while longer and they finally got to the flower shop.
"This is it?" Crowley asked and Anathema nodded.
"I know the outside doesn't look like much." Anathema said and Crowley nodded.
"Yeah, flat building made out of red bricks, makes me feel like it's an old school wall." Crowley said and Anathema giggled.
"It does, you're right. But you could always paint over it." Anathema said and Crowley looked in the window at the interior of the store.
"Inside is pretty bland too." Crowley said.
"Well, they were a simple couple. But I'm sure you could fix it up the way you wanted." Anathema said and Crowley bit his lip.
"Does that sign say 'Blooming Bloomers'?" Crowley asked.
"Yeah, they thought it was a clever name. Their last name was Bloomer and they have Blooming flowers." Anathema said and Crowley grimaced.
"It sounds like a lingerie store for eighty-year-olds. Ugh, that's gotta change, right now." Crowley said and he rose his hand to snap, but then he froze. Instead he made a fist and groaned.
"Something wrong?" Anathema asked.
"I shouldn't do any miracles. Those can be tracked and I don't want anything to track us here." Crowley said.
"Ah, well... oh, I know what you might like. They did have this really nice greenhouse in the backyard. They had to leave the plants so they gave me a key so that I could water them." Anathema said and the two walked to the back yard.
"No wonder you know about this place." Crowley commented. Anathema opened the gate and then she unlocked the greenhouse door and turned on the light.
"Oh... wow." Crowley said when he stepped inside the greenhouse. There were marigolds, and bluebells, and lilies, forget-me-nots, baby's breath, not to mention roughly ten different types of roses. But what Crowley was not expecting was actually the fruit and vegetable bearing plants.
"They grew their own strawberries?" Crowley asked.
"And grapes, and cucumbers, and watermelons, and carrots, and bell peppers, and hot peppers." Anathema said and Crowley examined them.
"Not bad. They did alright for humans." Crowley said.
"Oh, and in this corner, they have seasonings. They have mint and thyme and basil and fennel and all sorts of stuff." Anathema said.
"And they only sold flowers? They never sold the rest?" Crowley asked.
"Just flowers. The rest was for them or their friends." Anathema said.
"Shame. They could have made some extra cash here before moving away." Crowley said.
"Yeah, well I think they wanted to be near their family more then making a few extra bucks." Anathema said and Crowley glanced around.
"Oh, a table." Crowley said, pointing out the table for two.
"Heh, yeah. Apparently they loved eating out here. They even have a doorbell system thing strung out back here so they know is someone walked into the store.
"Well, I guess you rarely have to worry about getting robbed when you run a flower shop." Crowley said as he sat down at the table.
"But the greenhouse is really nice. I thought maybe you'd like this so much that you wouldn't mind the work you'd have to do in the actual home." Anathema said and Crowley shrugged.
"Still... it is a bland building." Crowley said.
"With an impressive greenhouse." Anathema said.
"I suppose." Crowley said, not wanting to be too nice to the plants.
"If you're sold, then I could call up the owners and tell them that they got a buyer." Anathema said. Crowley looked around the greenhouse. It was very plush and colorful, everything the building besides it wasn't. But he could learn the faults of the town members, and he could just go upstairs to bed, and there was a place for Aziraphale.
"Well...?" Anathema asked and Crowley bit his lip.
