You Are So Loved! | Good Omens - Ineffable Husbands Fic

and

Aziraphale is very confused by all of this, but waits until they're back in the car to say anything. "You know, Crowley," he begins "Well, I don't know much about plants, and I've never had a green thumb, but don't you think all they really need to grow well is some love and kindess?"

Crowley grips the steering wheel tightly. Not out of anger, mostly just out of anxiety. He's never said aloud why he does this with his plants, and he most certainly doesn't want to make his angel think any different of him, or that he's actually mean. In fact, he didn't want to be as mean as he was just a few moments ago with Aziraphale there, but he knew it was necessary to keep up the act in front of his projects. "The way they grow is not a problem," is all he can say at first, but Aziraphale waits patiently with welcoming and waiting ears, flipping through all of Crowley's C.D.s and failing to find anything he knows or would like. So the demon continues. "You see, uh, I've never been like the other demons."

This makes the angel stop his searching, and after a beat of silence, turn his head to the driver. "I know, Crowley," he whispers to him with a smile.

Crowley only sighs at first, but then says some more. "I didn't handle the, uh...The Fall...the way the others did. Of course no one was happy with what Hell had in store, but," he stops and clears his throat, feeling so lucky for the sunglasses on his head, hoping it was masking the extent of his emotions. "I was angry. Angry that I couldn't so much as ask questions. That I wasn't...allowed to understand... without so much as being cast out."

Aziraphale's eyelids fell slightly as he averted his eyes downward, and the Bentley got quiet for a moment while Crowley's best and only friend shifted in his seat, looking maybe a little uncomfortable (or maybe just thinking too hard.)

But it was too late to stop with the explaination now, and what a terrible place to end it. So Crowley started again, but made sure to wrap it up quickly. "Well, anyways. I, uh. Was at the bar one day, being the drunk idiot in the corner wallowing about how I wasn't doing anything with my life. And this drunk lady--the sweetest thing, she was--told me that I should pick up a hobby. So I did. And my perfectionism started to show in anger. And my plants became scared of me because I...put fear into them. With visual threats and such, but uh..."

Aziraphale's eyebrows furrowed on his head at the thought of any kind of threat leaving Crowley's mouth to something so harmless, but only because he didn't expect such behavior from him.

"Oh, no!" Crowley exclaimed once noticing (and slightly misinterpreting) the angel's expression. "No, no, I never actually hurt them! I would just--leave! If a plant was browning or had a spot I'd scream and then take it and plant it somewhere. I mean, not that the plants know that."

The angel, again, let's a sweet smile spread onto his face at this, but doesn't say anything about how sweet Crowley truly is. He knows his friend knows the kindness of his own heart, even if he doesn't want other people to know it yet.

Crowley shows satisfaction with this expression from his passenger when he again opens his mouth to admit "I guess I put the fear of me into them the same way God put the fear of Herself into you angels. You disobey, and you fall. You grow wrong, and you get casted out."

Aziraphale doesn't know what to think, but he starts to stack the discs neatly to put back in the glove box, and he ends up telling his friend "I'm sorry falling was so hard for you."

Crowley waves his hand at that and says "Oh, nevermind that. This is just about some ferns and flowers I keep in flat, don't give me that look," and he turns to Aziraphale with a playful smile on his face.

"Okay, I'll drop it," his other-half responds. "But for the record, it's not really God that you need to worry about, these days. It's the angels."

"Yeah? Well...demons are getting worse lately, too."