crack_van | A Better Place by Irisbleu (PG)

Fandom: GOOD OMENS
Pairing: Aziraphale/Crowley (implied)
Length: ~ 2600 words
Author on LJ:

irisbleufic
Author Website: Good Omens fic tag on journal
Why this must be read: In a fandom that focuses around things like averting the Apocalypse, and the dramatic confrontations between Heaven and Hell, it's nice to settle down with the occasional quiet fic. This understated piece traces the history of a cottage, shifting between an ordinary day in the lives of its most recent owners, and short sections detailing those that have come before. The story is tinged with a sense of wistfulness - of missed opportunities and lives not fully lived - yet it speaks to something each of us is seeking ... that place to call home.

The real estate agent had begun to despair of ever finding a buyer.

The cottage was moldy, dusty, and the paint was chipping. The name plaque was rusty, and it had one of the worst names she'd ever seen on one of her sale listings. Over the years, she had shown it to dozens of potential buyers, all of whom had shaken their heads because it was too small or too old, or had stubbornly, nervously insisted that something rattled and thumped in the bedroom.

She had hoped that J. Alice Prewett's second cousin would just move in and have done with it, but the cousin had been the one to object to the rattling and thumping.

She'd been about to give up and sell it to a contractor, who had wanted to demolish it, when a young man in sunglasses showed up one day and said he wanted a fixer-upper because he and his partner were in the business of fixing things up, and also cheap.

The real estate agent didn't know whether to have the Windy Knoll plaque taken down or not. She left it. And, much to her surprise, the young man bought the place.

She hoped his partner, whoever that was, wouldn't give him hell for it.

Read the story: A Better Place

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