One Fine Morning

A mini Good Omens AU fan-fiction

A small brown bird was twittering to itself as it hopped from one shrub to another. Presently it came to a bush covered in bright red berries. The bird inspected the berries until it found one it liked, then it grabbed the plumb fruit in its beak.

The bird flew to the top of the wall surrounding the Garden where it alighted to eat its prize.

It had started as a nice day. The morning had been fine and clear, but during the afternoon everything had changed. Even though the sun still shone, there was a heaviness in the air which hadn't been there before. A soft breeze was blowing and it smelled strangely of rain.

The Garden of Eden looked tranquil and still. Just outside the Garden wall sat an angel. She was watching the dark clouds above and twirling her long curly hair over her fingers. She was fretting.

"Oh dear, I hope I didn't do the wrong thing," she said to herself.

She tugged on her hair absentmindedly and didn't notice the entrance of a visitor. From a tree just over her head, a long snake slithered down to her level. It had been watching the angel for a while and finally decided to introduce itself. The snake edged up to the angel.

"Hello," it said.

The angel didn't hear.

"Oh dear," she muttered. She was biting her hair now.

The snake gently nudged the angel in the knee. "Excuse me," it said.

"Oh!" The angel looked down and saw what was speaking to her.

"S-s-sorry for startling you," the snake hissed.

The angel stared at the snake, as though wondering if she should be worried about it.

"You seemed lonely," the snake said, conversing pleasantly.

The angel continued to stare.

Then she replied, "Yes, I suppose it is a little lonely."

A few raindrops splashed on her robes. She put her wings up over her head. After a moments hesitation, she extended a wing out over the snake, who gratefully moved a little closer as the rain began to fall more steadily. The angel shivered, the snake noticed.

"You could go inside the Garden," the snake suggested.

"Oh no," the angel shook her head. "It's not allowed- not anymore. The Almighty has just banished Adam and Eve, though, you must know that. No one can go into the Garden again."

"Bit of an overreaction, I'd say," the snake said thoughtfully. "I mean, the first sin and all that. Well, second sin, actually. Lucifer did it first."

"Um…" The angel looked uncertain, as though she had also been wondering about this, but was afraid to say so. "You were cast out of Heaven," she said. "It is similar."

"S-s-sort of. No one had to sin. No one had to take the apple. They could have said no. It was their choice. So they had to leave. Why are you here -?"

"Aziraphale," the angel replied. "He put me in charge of guarding the gate."

"But since the humans are gone, you could leave," the snake suggested.

"No, I couldn't do that, um-"

"Crawly." The snake bobbed its head in greeting. "And why not?"

"Well, I can't guard the gate if I leave!"

She did have a point, the snake mused. She was also missing something. He looked at her more intently. Her blond hair fell in curls around her shoulders, her gleaming white wings shaded her from the dappled sunlight and the rain. The breeze rustled her long white, gold-trimmed robes. Her hands held nothing. Then the snake remembered.

"Say, didn't you have a flaming sword?"

"Um-" Aziraphale colored.

"You did, didn't you? It was long and flashing."

"Well-"

"I though it was very impressive. A real warrior's weapon. You are a warrior, aren't you?"

"Er-"

"So what happened to it?"

The angel looked throughly uncomfortable. "Well, that is…"

"You lost it," Crawly stated bluntly. This Aziraphale looked to him like the sort of angel who would lose anything, including her own head.

"Not exactly." Aziraphale was twisting her hair rather tightly between two fingers. "I didn't lose it, you see, I-I gave it to…"

"You did what now?"

"I gave the sword to them!" the angel cried.

The snake stared up at her with his bright golden eyes. Had she been less distracted, Aziraphale would have caught that he was grinning.

"I had to," Aziraphale moaned. "I couldn't let them go out into the world without protection of some sort. They lost their coverings of light, all they had were these leaves, and- and she was expecting already! Night will be coming along soon enough and who knows what the animals might do… so I gave them the flaming sword."

The angel smiled at Crawly, but her face was distorted by worry. It was a rather pretty face, Crawly reflected. The angel blushed and looked away.

"I hope I didn't do something wrong," she repeated. "It didn't seem wrong, I mean, I was helping…" She trailed off.

Crawly felt he should say something. If he hadn't felt that it would be most extremely unhelpful, he would have mentioned how it shouldn't be possible for her to do wrong, but as he had been an angel once himself, it clearly was possible. What he said out loud was equally as bad.

"What did He say about the sword? About your giving it away?"

The angel practically burst into tears. "I haven't told Him! I've been hiding here ever since!"

Crawly didn't know what to do. He had no idea how to comfort a crying angel. He vaguely remembered being an angel, nothing about crying, however, and he couldn't do a whole lot in his present shape. Crawly changed into human form; his long tail turning into long limbs of bone and flesh and a thin body. The hair on his head was also long and dropped past his jawline in waves of a red fox-pelt hue. The extra bones from his snake skeleton formed two a pair of dark wings which unfolded from his being.

"I'm sure it'll be alright," he said, giving Aziraphale a gentle pat on the shoulder with his hand. "Things will look brighter tomorrow."

The angel stopped sniffling into her robes and looked up at him.

"Are you sure-?"

She was momentarily startled at seeing beside her not a snake but a man, or rather a man-shaped creature. She stared up at the deep ginger hair and golden eyes. A small tattoo shaped like a snake was on his right cheek, just below his ear. Then the creature smiled at her, a smile of sharp teeth. It was still Crawly.

"Tomorrow will be better," he said. He plucked a small yellow flower from the grass at his feet and held it out to her.

"Really?" Aziraphale wiped her eyes on a corner of her hem and took the flower timidly.

"Yes," Crawly said. He was lying, but the angel didn't catch the tone.

"Oh, thank you. I was so worried. A cherub shouldn't be worried, you know."

Crawly draped an arm over his knee, his black robes falling carelessly around him. He looked out over the newly wet earth. The angel had good cause to be worried, he thought. The world wasn't as it should have been. Hazy, distant memories were stirring in his mind, but were just out of reach. It wasn't of the distant past, just the past before evil. Just that very day. At least, Crawly thought so. He couldn't be sure. But he was sure of one thing. He liked this Aziraphale. She'd stopped crying now and that made him feel good. Useful. He liked the feeling.

"Why are you called Crawly?" the angel asked.

"Because I'm a snake," Crawly replied.

"It doesn't sound very nice," Aziraphale speculated.

"I'm not supposed to be nice."

"But, you are and you need a nicer name," the angel insisted.

"Well, what do you suggest then, Aziraphale?"

The angel thought for a moment. "How about Crowley?"

"Hmm. Crowley." Crawly mulled over the name. He liked it. It sounded good. "Crowley it is."

The angel smiled faintly. She and the newly-named Crowley sat in silence watching the rain splash on the flower petals and the grass at their feet. Then Crowley spoke.

"I wonder what's so bad about knowing the difference between good and evil," he said.

The angel frowned. "I don't think that was God's point," she said slowly, as though feeling unsure herself.

Crowley merely raised an eyebrow. "Don't see why anyone would want to be like God, either for that matter. Must be a heck of a job. Then to create all this and have it go up in smoke in the first fortnight."

The angel blinked, not understanding a word.

"Would be funny, though," Crowley went on, "If I did the good deed and you did the bad one."

"Oh!" Aziraphale stared at him in horror. "What do you mean?"

"Just that," Crowley said, unfurling one of his black wings to shield Aziraphale from the steadily increasing rain.

"Thank you, Crowley," Aziraphale said, blushing.

The demon smiled back. "Not at all, angel."

In the tree above the wall, the little brown bird began to softly sing.

It was named a nightingale.

One fine morning, girl, I'll wake up Wipe the sleep from my eyes Go outside and feel the sunshine Then I know I'll realize That as long as you love me, girl, we'll fly… Yeah, we'll fly, yeah, we'll fly, Yeah, we'll fly to the east, we'll fly to the west There'll be no place we can't call our own Yeah, we'll fly to the north, we'll fly to the south Every planet will become our home… Yeah, we'll fly, yeah, we'll fly….

Notes:

Title and song lyrics come from One Fine Morning by Lighthouse.

watch?v=pvVN_KRriTM

( This song should be listened to loud! :)