fandomtownies | The Park, Monday

Despite the fact that the last thing Walter wants is to run into his new private tutor, he also wants to get away from his classmates and friends and what feels like every eye looking at the mark on his face and knowing just how it happened.

So, a nice walk in the park with Pup is in order. He's still curious to see if he can spot the duck with teeth, so he lets his yapping fuzzball lead him down to the pond.

Pup spots Aziraphale and seems completely perplexed as to how to react. Part of him wants to howl and leap on the thing that smells so... wrong, but the puppy part wants to run over and give him a good lick ~~and stick his tongue up his nose because that's his schtick~~.

Spotting the puppy and his person, whom he's obviously taking for a walk, Aziraphale smiles at them both. Tossing a bit of scone to one of the ducks gathered at his feet, he says, "Good day! I'd ask if you've come for a walk in the park, but that does seem rather obvious, doesn't it?"

Pup yaps happily and tugs on the leash, spinning around and yanking his head out of the collar. Free at last! his yaps say as he races to scatter the ducks with what should be ferocious growls if they weren't coming out of a little puppy body. And if those growls occasionally sound like they should be coming from something much larger... who's going to notice?

Walter follows after Pup and finally pulls the crazed hellpuppy's legs out from under him with a careful pull of wire.

"Sorry to interrupt your duck feeding. I'm sure they'll be back. Yes, I thought I'd get Pup out to terrorize something other than the chicken on my roommate's bed."

Kneeling to put Pup's collar back on, he looks up and smiles at the stranger. "I'm Walter, this is Pup."

Aziraphale chuckles at the dog's antics, although he raises a curious eyebrow at the wire. The ducks, on the other hand, don't seem to find Pup quite as amusing, and the scatter back toward the pond, quacking unhappily.

"Oh yes, they'll be back," he replies. "I'm very pleased to meet you Walter, and Pup. I'm Aziraphale. That's my bookshop over there." He waves a hand toward the the collection of buildings across the street from the park. Are you one of the new students, then?"

"Pleased to meet you Aziraphale." He glances in the direction his new acquaintance indicated and nods. "Yes, from London. I didn't think I'd like America, but Fandom is overall quite nice. Have you lived here long?"

Pup squirms and whines plaintively at Walter. The ducks were fun. Almost as fun as muppet chickens.

When his collar and leash are restored, he pulls Walter closer to Aziraphale and sniffs the new person's shoes. His tail wags slowly as his little puppy brain tries to decide if new person equals good new person to give him scratches, or bad new person who smells very, very wrong and shouldn't be allowed near his Walter.

"Really? I lived in London myself before I came here. Soho, in fact. Had a bookshop there as well. I've only been here for a few months, but I do promise that as strange as it is, it rather grows on you."

As the ducks have taken to the pond again, Aziraphale reaches down and offers Pup a scone instead, scratching his ears and smiling pleasantly at him.

Pup sniffs the scone and quite literally turns his nose up at it. However, offerings of food are traditional and Pup takes it as a good sign.

He then jumps up to put muddy paws on Aziraphale's trousers and lick his face~~, definitely going for the nose because people make such funny noises when he does that.~~

"What a coincidence." He considers mentioning another new Fandom resident from their shared island home, but really doesn't feel like talking about Alfred yet. "I doubt I've been there unless you had your shop in business in the 1940s and you don't look quite that old enough. Although I've learned that around here, that doesn't mean much."

Aziraphale tosses the scone to the ducks instead and chuckles again at the dog, apparently not minding the muddy paws, although he does manage to get a hand up between his face and Pup ~~as if anticipating the tongue-up-the-nose trick~~.

"Oh yes, it was most certainly there. Although, I do have to admit, I really didn't have very many customers. Not nearly as many as I do now. My own fault, of course. Would you like to sit?"

Walter's impressed. This guy must know dogs. Pup usually manages to do a full plumbing job on people the first time they meet him.

"Thanks." Before sitting down he looks at Aziraphale suspiciously. "You aren't a butler, are you?"

Aziraphale laughs. "No, my dear, I've never been a butler. Just run a bookshop. Are you looking for a butler?"

He pats Pup's head and encourages the dog to sit down as well.

For some reason being called "my dear" by this particular stranger doesn't faze him.

"No, definitely not. I think the island now has two and that's probably one too many."

He brushes rainwater off the seat and sits next to Aziraphale, letting Pup off the leash now that the ducks have retreated to the pond.

Pup stands at the edge of the pond ~~threatening the ducks with impalement~~ yapping at the ducks and occasionally dipping a paw in the water to pull it back and shake it off in disgust.

The ducks quack back at Pup from the safety of the middle of the pond. Making, in fact, quite a racket.

"I wasn't aware that there was a limit on the number of butlers a town could have, but I'll be sure to keep that in mind. What do you think of our town so far? Besides it's surfeit of butlers, of course."

Interestingly, it doesn't seem to actually be raining on the bench itself, nor the man sitting on it.

"Other than the surfeit of butlers, I like Fandom quite a lot. Of course, I did leave a war behind where I came from, but this place has been brilliant."

Walter does notice fairly quickly that there's an unusual dry zone in Aziraphale's immediate vicinity. Since he's already wet, the dry area's probably moot, but at least the seat of his trousers is dry. Always a plus.

"May I ask you what may be an odd question?"

"My dear, there are no odd questions in Fandom," Aziraphale answers cheerfully. "Ask away."

"Point," Walter concedes readily.

Strangely, he doesn't ask about the dry zone, but rather about something that's been bugging him since one of his first nights on the island.

"Is there a duck in this park with teeth? One that eats meat?"

"Ah. You must mean Snookums. He's Crowley's pet, and only comes out when Crowley's around. I very much doubt you'll see him. How did you hear about it?"

Aziraphale looks curiously at Walter, because he wasn't aware than anyone knew about Snookums other than Crowley and himself, and possible Wilson.

"I saw a man tossing bits of something wet and meaty to a duck that flashed teeth when it caught them. It's the sort of thing someone in my business might notice."

He shrugs, "I assume that the man was Crowley, since it wasn't you."

"Did he have dark hair and was he wearing sunglasses, despite it probably being the middle of the night? That would be Crowley. He runs the hotel, the Arms. I'd be careful around him if I were you, my dear. He's..."

He looks carefully at Walter before continuing. "He can be more dangerous than he appears. And he's not been in a very good mood lately."

Tilting his head at Walter's remark about himself, he adds, "What line of work is that, if I may ask?"

"Other than being one of Fandom's two butlers, I assume you mean. I hunt vampires."

Walter makes a note of Aziraphale's warning, but despite his ignominious loss to an old man the night before, he's unlikely to do more than remember "dangerous person" if he ever meets Crowley, and he likes dangerous people.

Aziraphale's done all he can to warn the young man anyway -- Free Will and all that. But he chuckles at the butler remark and doesn't seem at all fazed by the other.

"That sounds like a very interesting profession. Although I will warn you that our vampires here in Fandom, or at least the ones I've met myself, do seem to be a rather friendly lot. Things aren't always as they appear to be here. I do hope you'll keep that in mind."

After a pause, he adds, "Except for the zombies. I do believe they were exactly what they appeared to be."

"I've met Angel. And don't worry," taking Aziraphale as yet another concerned adult, "I know this isn't my hunting ground. I won't start any life or death trouble." As though he's going to explain the vampire waiting for him at home...? Oh no, he's definitely not.

He whistles for Pup and holds out the leash. "I have to get back to school before my afternoon classes start. It was a pleasure meeting you, Aziraphale. I'll drop in to see your shop sometime soon. Are Pups allowed?"

"I'm pleased to hear that, my dear. There's no need for ill feelings to be stirred up amongst the people here, any more than necessary."

Aziraphale nods and smiles at Pup. "I do hope you drop by sometime. And of course Pup is welcome as well, as long as he doesn't mind that there's a shop ferret running about."

"Stirring up trouble's one thing, but ill-feelings are no fun."

Pup runs over to make sure that Aziraphale has more mud on his trousers to deal with in whatever way he deals with such things.

"I'm sure Pup wouldn't mind your ferret, but for the sake of your ferret, I'll leave him with my roommate's chicken. They've made friends. I think.

"Thanks for the company. Enjoy the day."

Pup permits Walter to put the demeaning leash on him again and they wave - hand and tail - to their new acquaintance before leaving.

"The company has been a pleasure, my dear. You have a good day as well."

Aziraphale returns the wave as he watches the pair walk off across the park.

Ben had wandered around town half the morning and into the afternoon. He couldn't get himself to settle down, and neither he nor Michael had gotten much sleep. He didn't mind the rain so much, and he was already pretty damp when he arrived at the park.

Seeing Aziraphale, Ben considered avoiding the angel. He knew Michael had gone to Aziraphale for advice the day before, and he suspected he might get a guilt trip laid on him for worrying his husband. Finally he gave in and took a seat on the bench. "Nice day," he said, no sign of sarcasm in his tone.

"It is, isn't, my dear?" Aziraphale replies sincerely. "Although I'd say you seem a bit gloomy. Would you like to feed the ducks with me for a bit?"

He smiles, and holds out a scone.

A faint smile crept to Ben's lips. He nodded and took the scone. Ben stared at it for a moment as he tore off pieces and tossed them to the ducks. "Michael and I...are okay, I think. I know he came to see you yesterday, so I figured you might like to know that." He frowned. "I really screwed up, doing things the way I did. I didn't want to worry him, and instead I scared him half to death. Enough that he had to go to you in order to get the courage to talk to me." The rain he wiped from his face might have been mixed with a couple of tears.

"My dear, if there's one thing I've learned through the years, it's that we all occasionally think the way we're doing things is for the best when really it's the worst way to go about it. But if you've talked it over and things really are better, then I'd say it's water under the bridge. Did you tell him why you did what you did?"

He crumbles a scone for a little group of rather pushy ducks.

Ben nodded. "I did." He sighed. "I don't know that better is the word I'd use. Better than yesterday, I guess." Ben lowered his head and tossed more scone bits to the ducks. "I've left the decision up to him, though, which basically means I've put him between a rock and a hard place. He says yes, he gets taken away from here; he says no, he disappoints me." Ben shook his head. "I'm trying not to pressure him, but I really want to go. I suppose that's really why I didn't tell him until I nearly had it all arranged."

"I suspect he'd like to go, my dear. It did sound that way to me, at any rate. I think it's just that he's worried you don't want him to go, and that's why you waited so long to tell him. And...I think he may be just a little bit frightened. It would be quite a change. Although, after Fandom, how much of an adjustment could it really be?"

Aziraphale turns to smile at Ben. "Do you know when you'd likely be leaving?"

Ben shook his head and gave a dry chuckle. "I waited to tell him because I wanted to be sure he could come with me. He means more to me than anything...even more than this job. I hope I got that across to him, at least."

Ben sighed. "They moved up the date they wanted me. I'll be on my way at the end of the week. When Michael leaves will depend on when he makes his decision, and what that decision is. If he wants to stay, then I'll quit and come back."

"Good Heavens, so soon? I'll be sorry to see you go, Ben. But I do wish you well. And I suspect Michael will be joining you in short order."

Aziraphale smiles warmly at Ben and puts a hand on his arm. "Crowley and I have had our share of misunderstandings ourselves, so I do understand what you're going through, my dear. Believe me, it will all work out."

"I hope you're right." He smiled at Aziraphale. "You're one of the few who would miss me -- hardly anyone else even knows me. Michael, on the other hand, he'll be missed. I'll feel guilty for taking him away from this, if that's what he chooses."

"Regardless of what he may be leaving behind here, my dear, I know that Michael would much prefer to be with you. You have no idea how lonely I was here until Crowley finally showed up again."

He decides to leave out any mention of the fact that he and Crowley aren't getting along at the moment, because he's already determined that he's going to fix that problem eventually.

"That's why I want him to come with me. I don't want to be alone."

Having not been in the shop a lot recently, Ben had not noticed the absence of Mr. Crowley and hence did not remark on it.

"I should probably get going. I've got a lot to do by the end of the week." His head hurt just thinking about trying to pack everything.

"Of course, I expect you must." Aziraphale smiles again and gently squeezes Ben's arm.

"Tell Michael I said hello. And please do come by and see me before you go."

"I will -- on both counts." With a nod of thanks, Ben headed toward the Emporium.

The Park, Monday

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