Entry tags:
The stupidly big Good Omens fic rec post
So, here is my massive Good Omens Fic Rec Post. (I will probably also do one with vids & meta & stuff, but for now I had to limit myself. And there is SO MUCH fic.) ETA: All posts collated in this Good Omens Masterpost.
And I shall start with Michael Sheen, talking about fanfic as midrash:
This may be the single most beautiful description of fic that I have ever read, and it's also incredible accurate.
And here is a post by![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kass delving into this idea - and explaining what midrash *is* in more detail: Modern midrash
On my list there are (so far!) 87 fics (I have read more, but there are limits - I have tried to pick out the best ones) and I shall be adding to this list, oh yes. I did consider adding ratings & word counts (and may still do so), but for now I don’t have the energy. This took an AGE. I am also hoping/presuming that if you find something you like, you'll check out what other things that author has written.
The 'Description' part is sort of my own notes? The key words or phrases or description that will remind me which one *this* fic is (because a lot of them explore the same areas): sometimes they're quotes from the fic, sometimes quotes from author's notes, sometimes my commentary (or Promethia's)... in short, they're very idiosyncratic, and I hope you find them helpful.
Anyway, outside the cut - because it's genius, because it fits with both book and show canon (all the fic in this post goes with show canon btw), and because it even works for people who have just read the first three pages or watched the first five minutes, and it's not even 500 words:
Title: ask, and ye shall receive
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19964368
Summary: Smite me, Crowley thinks one day, about three or four days into the Beginning of the World. He feels rather daring about it, especially when God doesn’t answer. Puts a bit of a swagger in his slither.
Description: If you read NOTHING ELSE, read this.
Category 1: Early/fluffy fic
This is the pure candy-floss stuff. It might just rot your teeth, and is basically like basking in Aziraphale’s smile. If you’re new to fic for the show, start here and just wallow. First touches, hesitant declarations of love, kisses that could melt stone. Check ratings when you click through, but I don’t think many are explicit. It’s all new and overwhelming and often very very innocent (in as much as six thousand year old creatures can be innocent).
The night after Armageddon-that-wasn’t (before The Trials)
Title: i've been with you such a long time (you're my sunshine)
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19091254
Summary: There’s still holy water on Crowley's floor. Somehow, that was what did it. (or, the night after the end of the world.)
Description: Very short, the most basic of FitBs.
Title: A Street in a Strange World
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19190599
Summary: “How did you ever know?” Aziraphale asked Crowley. “How did you know when I was in trouble and could use a spot of, hmm, otherworldly intervention?” OR ‘In the beginning, God gave the angel Aziraphale a flaming sword.’
Description: During the night in Crowley’s flat, Aziraphale dreams.
Title: Once Meek, and in a Perilous Path
URL: https://rainjoyswriting.livejournal.com/241719.html
Summary: An angel and a demon pass the night in a Travelodge, bringing all their respective exhaustion and extreme anxiety with them.
Description: Fics about that night are legion, but very few are set in a Travelodge, and even fewer go with the asexual reading.
Title: And The Violins Played On
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19185121/chapters/45604618
Summary: Mathew 5:28- But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on awoman demon to lust (and love) after her him hath committed adultery (and fucked up royally,) with her him already in his heart.
Description: The second reason that Aziraphale hated Matthew Chapter Five, Verse Twenty-Eight, was because he understood it just a little too well.
Title: Too Generous
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19060903
Summary: “You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged; but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever.”
Description: Or: what happened after the [ we all got hit by a ] bus scene (aka "you could stay at my place, if you like").... (Short and wonderfully sweet)
Title: The Inevitable
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19324483
Summary: That night at Crowley's flat.
Description: Crowley thought as much. He should be angry that imminent destruction what it takes for Aziraphale to finally, finally take him up on the six-thousand-year implicit standing offer of a bit of a cuddle. But he just doesn’t really have it in him.
Post-show:
Title: i'd like for you and i to go romancing
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19055863/chapters/45264904
Summary: In which people keep mistaking Crowley and Aziraphale for a couple, and Aziraphale starts to wonder if there might be something to it.
Description: This is somehow the baseline for all other [early] fic? It just ticks a lot of boxes and is truly adorable.
Title: Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19104949
Summary: "It's only a sin in excess, my dear," said Aziraphale. "Like gluttony."
Description: This is the fic that singlehandedly made me go from defaulting to asexual, to ‘Oh, well Aziraphale is a hedonist at heart, so…’ (And also establish that Aziraphale is probably a lot more adventurous, sexually. ) (Well, then there is the whole love/desire bit, but that comes later…) ANYWAY. Read it, it’s hilarious and very safe.
Title: what a way to make a living
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19705660
Summary: In which Aziraphale is an introvert and Crowley becomes an Uber driver.
Description: See summary. Brilliant execution of a great idea.
Title: a city wall and a trampoline
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19092469
Summary: In their cottage in the South Downs, when Crowley eventually succeeds in getting Aziraphale to use a laptop, it takes Aziraphale literal hours to get past the default Windows screensavers of picturesque locations because 'oh, look, isn't it lovely, Crowley!' (5 times Crowley knows he’s in love with Aziraphale + 1 time he knows the reverse.)
Description: Like walking on clouds made of candyfloss.
Title: Add Wings, Add Harp, Add Heart (all set)
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19111897
Summary: Crowley realizes he and Aziraphale act like a married couple. A minor crisis is had. Fluff ensues.
Description: Crowley glares at Aziraphale. “I hate you. You make my chest do weird squiggly things.” (Just… delightful!)
Title: Doing Good
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19182892
Summary: It was hard to adjust, after the Apocalypse, but Aziraphale and Crowley were going to try.
Description: Legit curtain fic. (Death by Chocolate as a fic and it's a great way to go.)
Title: you smiled (and it broke my heart)
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19083772
Summary: Aziraphale attempted a smile for him, but it was too sad to really be a smile. “I’m thinking of closing the bookshop,” he said.
Description: Accurate title is accurate.
Title: The Thing About Apple Cottage
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19384363
Summary: There's a cottage by the sea where the children like to go. Sometimes it's for ice cream, sometimes it's for a listening ear, sometimes when something goes disastrously wrong.
Description: South Downs story, but from the POV of children. Just lovely.
Title: Show/Tell
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19108483
Summary: It took Aziraphale approximately five thousand nine hundred and forty-five years—give or take a few months—to fall in love. It didn’t take Crowley nearly as long.
Description: “Have you ever… have you ever been in love?” Crowley stills with the glass half raised to his lips. “Why the hell,” Crowley begins, tone clipped, “are you asking me that?”
Title: A Home at the Beginning of the World
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19153375
Summary: "Oh," Aziraphale says. "I think Crowley might have moved in with me."
Description: It starts with the plant. More specifically, it starts on Wednesday, at forty minutes past ten in the morning, when Crowley comes swaggering into the bookshop holding a potted plant.
Title: such surpassing brightness
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17752469
Summary: The revelation that Aziraphale might have been in love with him for thousands of years is surprising. The fact that literal books have been written on the subject comes as even more of a shock.
Description: This is SUCH a well-written fic. The research ‘excerpts’ are beyond brilliant.
Title: (subject to change)
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19096135
Summary: It isn’t that anything bad is going to happen to him should he do it—quite the opposite, in fact. But something bad might happen to someone else, someone he rather cares for a great deal, and that’s the part that has him stuck.
Description: ‘robin said touch starved Crowley, I said Crowley not actually being a bad dude and failing to admit it + pining. this was the result!’ (From author’s notes.)
Title: get religion quick (cause you're looking divine)
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18091460
Summary: So it was fine. Even if Crowley couldn’t love him, he clearly liked him well enough, and that was almost the same thing.
Description: On angels being able to sense love.
Title: Sudden and Surprising Moments of Overwhelming Affection
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18688036
Summary: Aziraphale has not shut up in thirty-four minutes. Crowley’s been counting.
Description: During the angel’s monologue Crowley realises he’s in love. <3
Title: Something So Magic About You
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19104037
Summary: "To the world", he says. It's not what Crowley means, though. I love you, is what he means. I'm so glad the apocalypse didn't happen. I'm so happy you are not dead. I was so scared. Do you know how much you mean to me? I have always loved you.
Description: So [Aziraphale] repeats: "I was thinking... we could move in together?" And that's it. There's along pause. The earth may have halted on its turn around the sun. Time was certainly frozen. It had to be.
Title: Talking to the Plants
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19095055/chapters/45367003
Summary: Soft Crowley thinking about his Angel Aziraphale in the wake of the Apocalypse that wasn’t, while talking to his plants.
Description: “Angel, I gotta talk to you,” he said. Then his vision went black around the edges. As Crowley felt his legs give out and his body drop down to the floor, his last coherent thought was ‘For fuck’s sake, at least let me do this with style...’
Title: Jesus was a Crossmaker
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19097398
Summary: In which Crowley can't handle another 6000 years of pining and Aziraphale is very much himself.
Description: Crowley swallows the lump in his throat. No, it’s fire. Totally fire. He’s a demon. Demon’s don’t cry. Roar. (They’re such IDIOTS! <3)
Title: Marriage Bed
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19027594
Summary: Crowley takes Aziraphale out on what he really hopes might be a romantic date, but Aziraphale winds up delivering all the surprises.
Description: ‘They have a date to the opera’ (And my goodness, but if this isn’t the sweetest, most delightful thing. I think it might be the purest thing I have ever read.)
Category 2: General round-up
This is the biggest category by some distance. Not quite heavy/deep enough to sit with the later ones (although some were very much borderline, but the categories only exist in my head, so), not candy-flossy enough for the earlier one. I’ve tried to divide them up as best I can, but even so I threw a whole bunch into ‘uncategorised’ because there is… so much. And they’re so delightful.
Some are fluff, some are long and complex, some are simply hilarious - it’s a cross-section of excellence and greatness.
AU stories
Title: Something Wanting in My Nature
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19402360/chapters/46172800
Summary: "Okay which one of you is going to write the Ineffable Husbands college professor AU with the extremely sweet and over-sharing professor fawning over their spouse and the standoff-ish secretive professor who reveals absolutely nothing about their private life who turned out to be married?"
Description: If that summary doesn’t make you run to read it, there is nothing I can do.
Title: Anthophilia
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1914000/chapters/4129578
Summary: Anthony J. Crowley's life seems like it's finally falling into place: his floral shop has begun to gain an undercurrent of appreciation in the design elite of London, and he might have even finally found a boyfriend who looks just right lounging on his Tenreiro sofa. Things seem almost perfect, until one day the empty shop across the street is leased to frumpy fellow Oxford alumni, who doesn't seem to remember Crowley nearly as well as he remembers him, which really shouldn't bother him as much as it does - it was ten years ago after all, and it wasn't even that good of a kiss.
Description: The full Richard Curtis rom-com AU. Crowley has a flash bastard of a boyfriend, and Anathema is his BFF.
Historical/Through the Ages
Title: A Regular Rip van Winkle
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19057597
Summary: After almost an entire century spent asleep, Crowley wakes in 1888 to find the world more changed than he thought possible. His first order of business is to find his angel.
Description: Many things happened in 1888. This is such a fun story.
Title: Night and Day
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19383541/chapters/46122289
Summary: Five times Aziraphale and Crowley encountered queer historical figures who know more about them than they do, and one time they actually have a clue.
Description: What is says on the tin! :)
Post-church
Title: All First Editions
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20072269
Summary: The only thing Aziraphale can say for certain is that the books should not have survived. He's going to need to sit down for a while and sort out all the rest. Unfortunately, he isn't very good at processing emotions, especially ones he's been in denial about for who knows how long. It's a messy process.
Description: ‘He had been so blind. Of course it was Crowley. It could only ever have been Crowley.’
Title: attachment
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19839502
Summary: Crowley crosses over to open the passenger door for Aziraphale, and Aziraphale’s attention is drawn to Crowley’s uneven gait, the light, too-quick steps and the rocking back and forth on his heels as he holds the door open and waits for Aziraphale to get in. “Oh, Crowley,” Aziraphale says, heart sinking, “your feet.”
[a direct follow-up to the 1941 Blitz scene]
Description: 'fill for a kink meme prompt requesting aziraphale taking care of Crowley’s burned feet after the blitz scene.'
Nanny Crowley
Damn straight these get their own category!
Title: older now, and the light is dim
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19975255
Summary: Aziraphale follows the sound, silently, to the door of the sitting room where he sees them. Ashtoreth - Crowley - holding a sleeping, months-old anti-christ in the most gentle of hands and pillowed against her perfectly pressed bloused. She sways slightly as she sings, her lips brushing the downy hairs at the child's temple, her eyes hooded low. Every now and then, the child fusses and squirms, and Crowley readjusts him slightly in her arms with practiced ease.
Description: Emotionally devastating
Title: Questions
URL: https://trellanyx.tumblr.com/post/186551822301/imagine-warlock-as-a-young-child-very-young-and
Summary: Little Warlock is always asking questions. Nanny is the only one who always answers
Description: ‘All I did was ask questions’ - Crowley, to God
Title: Family by Association
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19836223
Summary: Warlock Dowling is over-dramatic, insecure and inclined towards running away, which makes sense since he was primarily raised by a certain over-dramatic demon. After the apocalypse Warlock heads home to England to find his nanny.
Description: Very lovely indeed.
Title: A Nanny? In MY Summoning Circle?
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19802275/chapters/46884316
Summary: (it’s more likely than you think). Warlock "Lockie" Dowling summons a demon. Or, he buys a book off a suspiciously familiar bookseller and is convinced into demon summoning. It goes about as well as you'd expect.
Description: THIS ONE IS CANON I DON'T CARE, THIS IS WHAT WARLOCK GREW UP TO BE LIKE. IT IS GODDAMN GENIUS.
Post-show Getting Together
Title: Something We Were Withholding Made Us Weak
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19839451
Summary: "Yes, exactly. Retire." Aziraphale reaches for the last remaining tartlet brimming with summer berries. "Somewhere along the south coast, perhaps." OR: Crowley and Aziraphale learn to move in tandem.
Description: More slow-burn domesticity porn for all your slow-burn domesticity porn needs. (No actual porn until the very end.)
Title: all i need, darling, is a life in your shape
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19132273
Summary: After everything, Aziraphale and Crowley, by unspoken agreement, begin sharing their lives.
Description: It's achingly domestic. They buy milk. Anathema throws aChristmas Solstice party. There was only one bed. The best 'let me see your eyes' discussion I've read. And it's luxuriously long without being a novel.
Title: What Custom Strictly Divided
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20406244/chapters/48404104
Summary: Crowley and Aziraphale after the UnApocalypse, being happily drunk and considering ideas for what to do with themselves now that the world has astonishingly failed to end. The answer they come up with? Beethoven.
Description: My HEART. It’s just… delightful, and clever, and sweet. *waves hands helplessly*
Title: you're not a religious person (but)
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20342737
Summary: An account pertaining to the cultivation of figs, the ecstasy of St. Theresa of Avila, the ontological uncertainty of mammoths, the nature of temptation, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the ten years following the end of the world.
Description: "That is very blasphemous, dear. Don't stop." (This fic is like port. Delicious, sweet, rich, and you’ll just keep reading. Also hovering juuuuust on the edge of crack.)
Title: Alegría
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19820371
Summary: After the End That Wasn't, Heaven and Hell are leaving them alone. Entirely alone. (This is a story with nothing of miracles.)
Description: Long, but stunning.
Touch
Title: And So He Bringeth Them Unto the Haven
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19827043
Summary: Lord, Aziraphale thinks, does he know? Can he tell that the last wall Aziraphale had built up in his mind has come tumbling down? The clink of their champagne flutes at the Ritz might as well have been the trumpets of Jericho. Aziraphale says what he needs to say, and two touch starved immortals wonder if wrist kisses can cause discorporation.
Description: The title is from Psalm 107; the full line is "Then are they glad because they are at rest, and so He bringeth them unto the haven where they would be."
Title: Your Reward Ye Shall Have
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19281376
Summary: It is not the first time Aziraphale has considered giving in. But tonight, sitting snug in his armchair at the back of his bookshop, and staring over at the demon sound asleep on the sofa across from him, he hopes it will be the last. Some temptations are worth giving into, he thinks. And sometimes the things you think of as temptation turn out not to be temptation at all. Sometimes they are simply what is right.
Description: Mmmmmmmm. Touching.
Title: please, could you be tender?
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20129566
Summary: The first kiss is only the beginning of a relationship. Crowley and Aziraphale need to talk about things. That is not their strong suit.
Description: They are SUCH IDIOTS. This could almost go in any category, the ‘Touch’ designation is slightly tongue-in-cheek. You’ll see why.
Title: Broken Wings
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1421686
Summary: Part 1: One night, in the bookshop, they were particularly drunk for no particular reason. Crowley snapped their wine glasses full, yet again, and slurred, apropos of nothing: “I was ‘fraid of heights for a while. Not the heights exactly… th’wind.” (Or, a headcanon that turned into a wingfic.)
Part 2: “I just…” Aziraphale’s shoulders sank. “I’ve lost them. I’ve lost… and I can’t go back, not even one last time, can I.” He didn’t say it like a question, of course; he was clever, after all. He shook his head, ruefully, and looked at Crowley. “My last time up there, and it wasn’t even me, it was you.”
Description: ded
Title: hairpins
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19401361
Summary: Crowley's hair has never quite gotten the knack of being human.
Description: Just . . . weaponized fluff. (Part one of a series: and behold, it was so very good. All very delightful. Keeps digging further down, so what starts out as fluff becomes deeply layered.)
(Added 18.10.2019)
Sexy stories
Title: nothing but the wild rain
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19155880
Summary: "The internet, Aziraphale!" Crowley says. "This is what the internet is for. This is, quite literally, what the internet is for." OR: Aziraphale and Crowley find sex confusing.
Description: It makes a lot of sense that they don’t function like humans and this runs with it.
Title: for let thy efforts be
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20112109/chapters/47643658
Summary: The first time Crowley made the Effort, he was reclining on a very comfortable couch in the dimly-lit confines of a cozy little restaurant in Rome, with his head pillowed upon the breast of an Angel.
Description: Of oysters and efforts. Sexy rather than sex. More a meditation on Crowley's general sultry-ness.
Title: When in Rome
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19156171
Summary: “Well.” Crowley stood and stretched, looking rather more serpentine than usual. “See you at the orgy then. I’ll look for you by the buffet.”
Description: The hottest, sexiest little ficlet. Not a continuation of the fic above. (Which surprised me.)
Amusing & delightful stories
Title: N/A (Extremely silly Tumblr ficlet)
URL: https://ouidamforeman.tumblr.com/post/187181550110/ding
Summary: Archangels Gabriel and Michael sat glowering at the nearby hovering screen. It was emitting chimes practically nonstop.
Description: Crowley & Aziraphale troll heaven & hell
Title: And Your Enemies Closer
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19888840
Summary: Some Satanic monks summon Aziraphale for nefarious purposes. Unfortunately for them, Aziraphale has his own nefarious friend.
Description: SO MUCH FUN
Title: N/A (‘Has anyone written fic on their phone’)
URL: https://ouidamforeman.tumblr.com/post/186670696495/question-has-anyone-written-a-fic-on-their-phone
Summary: I know people who do [write fic on their phone], but I am not one of those people. I need to be able to see more than one paragraph at a time. Also, autocorrect is an evil invention and ducks have no place in a sex scene.
Description: BUT THEN SOMEONE WROTE IT.
Title: Long-Term
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19703515
Summary: Officiating weddings has got to be one of Dr. Blackwell’s favorite parts of ministry, and although she’s probably not supposed to have preferences, if she looks deep into her jaded lesbian heart with any degree of honesty, queer weddings are by far the best.
Description: Crowley & Aziraphale meet with the Unitarian minister who will be officiating their wedding. Told from her POV.
Title: Kissing, Accidentally.
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19338565
Summary: Crowley doesn’t mean to kiss him, really. It just sort of...happens. An...automatic response, if you will. An unintended automatic response. Unexpected, even. It’s not planned, that’s what he’s trying to say.
Description: Or the one where Crowley gives in and kisses Aziraphale while he has him pinned against a wall. (Perfect. And the footnotes are amazing.)
Title: Snakey Snacks
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19468561
Summary: Something has invaded the shop. Crowley has some suggestions for what is to be done with it.
Description: A truly lovely little slice of life.
Title: Getting a Wiggle On
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20467451/chapters/48565136
Summary: Crowley's prank to leave Aziraphale with fake eggs to babysit does not go remotely as planned.
Description: Just as delightful as the Tumblr post that it was inspired by. (Although there’s no knitting.)
Title: It's More Likely Than You Think
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20368234l
Summary: Don't believe everything you read on the Internet—unless, of course, you're an angel with reality-warping powers.
(Which is to say, it turns out there really are hot single MILFs in Aziraphale's area. And they do want to meet.)
Description: This made me laugh louder and more continuously than anything else I have read in a long, long time. Blessings upon this fic.
Title: In Holy Matrimony
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19409794/chapters/46190842
Summary: From the private journal of Alisha Jones, wedding planner, concerning the nuptials of Anthony J Crowley and Aziraphale and the planning process thereof, containing an account of chosen decor, guest list construction, and the holy war against the Antichrist that nearly ruined six months of professional organization and a very nice dinner.
Description: Crowley and Aziraphale get married. As told by their confused but heroic wedding planner.
Title: Five Times Crowley Fails To Demonically Seduce Anyone, And One Time He Doesn't Need To
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19810123
Summary: 'I need you to tell me how to find a human willing to have sex with me, and then how to persuade them to actually do it in the least unpleasant way possible for everyone involved. If I don’t manage at least one seduction, I’m going to get recalled back Down There.’ Aziraphale stared at Crowley for a moment. ‘I think…’ he said delicately, ‘that we should have that drink.’
Description: Beautiful, beautiful crack.
Title: it's a new craze
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20062966
Summary: Crowley and Aziraphale are very possibly the people least qualified, on the entire planet, to start up an advice podcast.
Description: Even more delightful than you might expect. Just… *hands*
Uncategorised
*NEW
Title: Observer Effect
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1474022
Summary: Heaven dispatches a Grigori to monitor any "suspicious activity" between Aziraphale and a certain agent of Hell. (Series)
Description: So, this is inspired by this wonderful tweet by stereoroo: "there is a real unsung hero in good omens and it’s the angel who took paparazzi photos of aziraphale and crowley for 6000 years and didn’t say anything about it until they absolutely had to"
(not new new, but added 08.08.2023. BEWARE: S2 compliant, includes SPOILERS)
Title: dawn on the gates of eden
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20234239
Summary: It’s the first day, but it’s an old story.
Description: Sweet little ficlet. I've rarely seen this parallel drawn out so well.
Title: Put Love On
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19474480/chapters/46356145
Summary: Ficlet collection from tumblr.
Description: An eclectic collection, but I guarantee you’ll find one (or more) that works for you. (Thirteen ficlets so far.)
Title: Palm to Palm
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19713913
Summary: "So you're the demon!'' Aziraphale went on. "Possess me!"
Description: Telepathy! (The body swap, but different to any other I’ve read.)
Title: Four Letter Words
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19080880
Summary: There are some things a demon just doesn't like to admit.
Description: Tiny, but insightful Crowley portrait.
Title: N/A (Tumblr vignettes about living for thousands of years)
URL: https://buckysbears.tumblr.com/post/186271548139/sometimes-aziraphale-feels-old-or-he-feels-weary
Summary: Sometimes Aziraphale feels old.
Description: Vignettes about remembering. Beautiful and heartbreaking and funny and achingly perfect.
Title: Little Birds
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20880980 (https://owlboy.dreamwidth.org/2309499.html)
Summary: Crowley is nice and Aziraphale wants to smooch him cuz he's nice. Also, I've been reading too much poetry.
Description: 'Crowley brings home things in his pockets. Little feathery creatures, birds blown out of their nests. He keeps them under a lamplight in the sunroom, in a shoebox, safe and warm.' A whole world in a grain of sand.
(Added 06.10.19)
Title: Birds of a Feather
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19705429
Summary: Aziraphale nests. Crowley relearns some crucial facts about angelic courtship rituals.
Description: Nesting fic!
And Now For Something Completely Different!
Title: Excerpts from A.Z. Fell and Co.’s Yelp Page
URL: Part 1:https://itsclydebitches.tumblr.com/post/186055292445/hey-all-remember-when-i-said-id-never-do-another
Part 2: https://itsclydebitches.tumblr.com/post/186103954410/discredit-pt-2-more-recommended-reviews-for-az
Summary: ... What it says?
Description: HOW COULD I FORGET THESE? Genius and hilarious.
(Added 06.10.19)
Title: You've Got Kudos
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20767514
Summary: Aziraphale and Crowley both write fanfiction. As it happens, they both write Good Omens fanfiction.
Of course, neither of them would ever admit this to the other.
(A love story told primarily in AO3 comments)
Description: ‘So the premise of this fic is like Tinkerbell--you have to believe in it really really hard or it falls apart. There are a bunch of paradoxes in here and we're going to ignore all of them in favor of metaliterary nonsense.’ <- From author’s notes. This is genius and hilarious and stupidly brilliant and I read it four times in a day.
Title: TwoFish
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/321342
Summary: A love story about angels and demons. Also, fish
Description: NO WORDS! (Upside: This is unlike anything else. Downside: Most other fic will feel rather pedestrian.)
Category 3: Fic that uses sex for character development or examination
Fandom often uses sex as a way to explore characters, to delve into issues that are otherwise difficult to access. These are excellent examples of the genre.
Title: Four-Letter Words
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19343734
Summary: Prompt: "humiliation kink by way of compliment, Aziraphale gets Crowley hot and bothered by accusing him of goodness." It’s a chilly day in November of 1987, and Aziraphale badly wants a drink. Alternate title: "Aziraphale and Crowley are sad it's the 1980's so they have weird sex."
Description: Words cannot describe how much I love this. It’s insanely good.
Title: Released
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19846918
Summary: After they get together Aziraphale has some lingering Ideas about his brief stint in the Bastille; Crowley is happy to help him explore them. Hijinks, as they say, ensue.
Description: Kinky bastards role-playing the Bastille.
Title: Downfall
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19442812
Summary: When they get together post-Apocalypse, Aziraphale shares his fantasies with Crowley and he's happy to indulge them." Established relationship, feat. consent, negotiation, safewords, and cuddling after.
Description: ‘The stupidly good rape fantasy fic’
Title: A Sense Of Desire
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20722355
Summary: Crowley is a demon, and that means he has certain...powers. Powers about which Aziraphale is curious. This may or may not be a good idea.
Description: ‘This is the kind of fandom where you can go 'oh, won't somebody write the D/s-flavored telepathy fic I never knew I needed before this and now desperately want to read?' and then somebody just writes it. Like that's a thing that happens. *boggles*’ - Promethia (Or: “Hush,” Crowley murmured, and hooked a mental finger into the bright shine of Aziraphale’s desire, winding it towards him.)
Title: Possession
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20559470
Summary: “So my idea, and please don’t dismiss it offhand - ” Aziraphale settles back against the pillows, “I think you should possess me.” “That’s a terrible idea,” Crowley says flatly.
Description: Longing: check. Telepathy: check. Metaphysical kinkiness used for exploring relationship boundaries: check.
Title: Temptation Waits
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20348647
Summary: Back in the tumultuous days of the English Civil Wars, against a backdrop of witchcrazed imaginations and strange Cromwellian tabloids, Aziraphale made a proposal to Crowley. He wanted Crowley to teach him the art of Temptation. In the present, Aziraphale makes another proposal, one that reminds Crowley of the Incident in 1649 and confirms once and for all that Anthony J. Crowley is a truly rubbish sex demon.
Description: [incoherent] “Just…stare into him. See what he wants. Take it into yourself and then add whatever you see fit. Weave it into a thread with your own hunger and then just…breathe it back into him.” (Crowley tries to teach Aziraphale about desire and I SWEAR to you that you will not see some of the places it ends up. Also really very terribly awfully hot.)
Note: This is Part 4 of a series: It's Not The End Of The World, Dear, the whole thing is highly recommended. Summary: "Crowley, this is a disaster. This is everything I ever wanted. We’re in love. And there’s a picnic. And we don’t seem to be able to get…amorous without causing earthquakes.”
Category 4: Fics that are just insanely good
These are all complex, clever, insightful, wonderful. Some include sex, but it’s not the focal point. Fics like these are the reason I am still obsessed and will probably continue to be for a long time, because there is so much there to dig into. What tipped these from ‘General round-up’ and into this category is my personal response - the fact that they made me think and ponder and delve further into the characters and the meanings etc etc. YMMV
The night after Armageddon-that-wasn’t (before The Trials)
Title: The Relief of Hopelessness
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19373452
Summary: Crowley and Aziraphale hold hands on the bus to London. Crowley falls asleep. Aziraphale has a nervous breakdown.
Description: Includes quotes from C.S.Lewis and is the only fic I’ve read where Aziraphale is genuinely terrified at what might happen to them. (I.e. Theologically astute and emotionally devastating.)
Touch
So, a note on touch. I love the fact that touch is such a thing. That the entire fandom has a meltdown because it’s confirmed that they hold hands on the bus. (The characters probably had a meltdown as well.) Because this is where the Queer Fairytale is especially strong:
Title: it's the light (it's the obstacle that casts it)
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18320123
Summary: Crowley's gleefully trying to wrap his head around the fact that Aziraphale is speaking Polari. Because of course he is. OR: The Patron Saint of London's LGBT Community is real, and he lives in Soho.
Description: Only a particular type of person talks like Aziraphale around here. Even Aziraphale knows all this. And he's never been ashamed of what people might think, knows precisely how it looks to everyone but bullishly refuses to back down. But people can be narrow-minded. People can make assumptions. And a suspicion is all they need these days. (Set in the 1950s)
Title: On The Matter Of Touch
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19347571
Summary: “On the matter of touch,” Crowley begins, waving his teaspoon in what he hopes passes for idle curiosity. “Thoughts?” — For two ineffable husbands, they don't really touch each other much. Here is a story on why that might be.
Description: "Touch is a form of communication, and sometimes—“ Crowley slowly puts hand on Aziraphale’s jaw, breath hitching as he feels the warm skin underneath his finger tips. All fight leaves him at once. He wets his lips and continues softly, too earnestly: "Sometimes I just want to speak to my best friend, alright?" (I cannot with how this show makes pining into an art form. Simple touch can be world changing.)
Title: The Movement of Molecules
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19777891
Summary: They never touched. Why didn’t they touch?” Aziraphale has spent a long time not touching Crowley.
Description: You like touch-starved angels & demons? This fic has it alll covered.
Domestic
Title: Any Way You Want It
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19181242/chapters/45594664
Summary: Saving the world is exhausting work. With Heaven and Hell off their backs, it seems as good a time as any for Crowley and Aziraphale to take a proper break. Neither one of them predicts the direction their holiday takes. Who'd have thought that sharing a cottage in Scotland would be quite so romantic?
Description: I canNOT with this story. Basically, if I were to write a slow-build, having-to-live-as-humans story, this would be it. This is my world (the mountains, the sea, the air - it’s my north, as close to my home as it’s possible to get in fic, I can close my eyes and I’m there, the writing is so accurate it’s ridiculous), and it’s exquisitely done. And the characterisations are to die for and it's painfully domestic and low-key. (The two of them in a cosy cottage in Skye playing Scrabble under blankets, because, apparently, that’s what they are now. <- YOU SEE???? This thing is goddamn kryptonite)
AU
Title: Slow Show
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20395261/chapters/48375457
Summary: In which temptations are accomplished, grand romantic gestures are made, and two ineffable co-stars only take four seasons of an award-winning television program to realize they’re on their own side (at last, at last.)
Description: I canNOT believe I hadn't added this one. The story is 124k and I have read it straight through 5 times (every time I glance at it I have to read the whole thing). This fic creates a whole universe of its own, the characters feel independent of the source material, even if they are obviously from Good Omens, and I love them so much. The story has inspired several fanworks within its 'verse, and rightly so. Did I mention the prose? It's exquisitely well-written. In short, I can only flail and implore you to read.
(added 13.02.2022)
Uncategorised: Through the ages
Title: Something to do with these sacred words
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19763116
Summary: Crowley confesses early, and Crowley confesses often. Aziraphale never knows quite what to say.
Description: Where they disagree about Robert Frost and Aziraphale talks to an empty house. (More than a little good. If you're willing to overlook a premise that I suspect is not factually canon but certainly poetically True.) To be read with: Birches.
Title: What's Done in the Dark
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19971247%22
Summary: The one where Crowley is drawn to Aziraphale's holy flame like a moth ready to catch fire.
Description: ‘This is a fic that's about heat and light and accepting who you have become, especially if you didn't mean to become that person. It's also about love, because it's hard to find true heat, light, and acceptance without it.’ (From the author’s notes)
Title: Akashic Records
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1446628
Summary: Crowley and Aziraphale meet through history. All history, not just the scenes on the show. (Very long!)
Description: Where to start? If you're tired of 'Through the Ages' stories, please know this one is different. Every era truly is a fic all on its own. And here's the key thing: the writer establishes the closeness of Az&C's relationship far, far, far earlier than anybody else I've ever seen and puts a lot more work into detailing exactly how much of a bind Aziraphale is in with heaven. It's not embroidering on the edges of what we see on the show, it creates a whole world of its own, that show! scenes occasionally dip into. And the chapter on the Flood is possibly the most devastating thing I have read in this fandom.
(added 10.10.2019)
Uncategorised: Post-show
Title: Salinity (And Other Measurements of Brackish Water)
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25188139
Summary: It's an odd thing, getting on after the End of the World. Crowley takes to sea-watching.
Description: This is the really famous one, that even Michael Sheen has read. The fame is justified.
Title: a very near understanding
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19438540/chapters/46263904
Summary: Aziraphale and Crowley experience unforeseen side effects from their swap. Transformative panic and fiction ensue.
Description: "There's simply been a reheating of the books, so to speak. A few halo points for me, a tiny speck of brimstone for you and it all works out in the end, you'll see." (Wonderful, but also mild crack.)
Title: the deft, sweet gesture of your hand
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19758742
Summary: Crowley arrives injured at Aziraphale's door. He takes care of him, reads him an awful lot of Mary Oliver, and knits elaborate metaphors for his insecurities (literally).
Description: ‘The knitting fic’. I literally wrote a 11k word follow-up, I don’t think I need to explain how amazing this is.
Title: Thou Knowest Us Happy
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/chapters/49010414?
Summary: Heaven goes to check on their errant angel. They do not like what they find. Also contains the complexities of an evolving relationship, nice helpings of poetry, and 14th century angst.
Description: Yes I am adding my own fic, but it fits, here. So shoot me.
Crowley angst
(The title is inadequate, but it’ll have to do.)
Title: These Things Were Here
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19412872
Summary: Crowley, following times of overwhelming distress, resorted to the snake form as a means of finding comfort and solitude.
Description: This one ~does things to me. (Of staying and trauma and loss and coping. Like the post-battle scene in What’s Done in the Dark, but with a snake and for centuries/millennia)
Title: An Old Rain From New Skies
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19333168
Summary: Another conversation in the rain, 6000 years later.
Description: Money quote: ‘Fuck, this is like the day Aziraphale finally got the metaphor of the plants all over again.’ (Crowley in the rain. My HEART.)
Title: Demonology and the Tri-Phasic Model of Trauma: An Integrative Approach
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20177950
Summary: As soon as Aubrey Thyme, psychotherapist, had opened her office door and seen her new client, Anthony J. Crowley, sitting in her waiting area, she was observing and assessing him. What Aubrey Thyme, a professional, thought, upon first seeing her new client was: you’re going to be a fun one, aren’t you?
Description: Crowley goes to therapy. It’s long, it’s indepth and it’s hard work. This fic is impossibly good and words cannot do it justice. I literally inhaled every update and am terribly sad that it's now finished. (Although it was a good ending.) In some respects 'nothing happens' and yet I was never ever bored: Beware that once you start you may not be able to put it down.
Title: to carthage then i came
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19181608/chapters/45595507
Summary: A liking for light, an attachment to it. What a wretched word. A love, then. Of the scared, misguided kind.
He’d know.
[Aziraphale and Crowley after the Apocalypse, on the brink of becoming something else than they have been, with all the doubts and apprehensions to still approach and work through.]
Description: I don't know how to describe it. It's soaked in Eliot. And it's about... Crowley's Existential Dread (that's literally one of the tags), and it's just unlike anything else I've read, even if it's firmly in the same sandbox.
Poetry and theology and wrestling with faith and meaning and... Somehow the opposite of all the other theological fic (all the other fic, full stop) - odd and heavy and dense. It's uncomfortable, but compelling. Like how Oswin's theme is basically Clara's but in a different and lower, more dissonant key. The only fic I have come across that makes everything (Heaven, Hell, Religion, our angel and our demon) hang together. (Not that I don’t love Heaven as a metaphor for bigotry, but this Aziraphale has the theological heft and understanding of a Principality.)
Pro-tip: Read the first paragraph of Book Three of St Augustine’s Confession before delving in, just so you’re not completely lost. A working knowledge of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land is also highly recommended.
In short: This fic does not fuck around. It is the least fluffy thing in existence, and will cut you up. (And how. It's absolutely exquisite.)
Category 5: My own fic
New category, as I, too, have written some Good Omens fic. ^_^ One is linked above (Thou Knowest Us Happy) as it was written in response to another fic, but these are all very original. Some are co-authored. *waves hands* ENJOY.
Crossovers with Doctor Who
Title: What If God Was One of Us?
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22114585
Summary: What if… the Thirteenth Doctor was the God of Good Omens? (waits) I mean. How could I not write it? Also there are not enough fics that take God’s POV and motivations into account. Especially when God is as daft as a brush.
Description: Started as cross-over crack, became deep-dive into faith, world-building, theology, character-development, Great Plan/Ineffable Plan etc. etc. Co-written withpromethia_tenk (63k, fun and complex.)
Title: Meet the Neighbours
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25383250
Summary: Missy and the Doctor move to the South Downs. Aziraphale and Crowley are their neighbours.
Description: Another fic that started as crack. This one, however, then developed into a collaborative effort withowlboy. WIP.
Inspired by the lockdown audio
Title: A Pilgrim’s Progressive Panic
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24337099
Summary: "AZIRAPHALE WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Put down The Pilgrim’s Progress and step away from the Bunyan!" (Or: Finding reasons why Aziraphale declined Crowley’s proposal through his reading materials.)
Description: For BuggreAlleThis who wrote the above quote, meaning that I then had to read Pilgrim’s Progress, and this was the result.
Title: The Drunken Ramblings of Elfland
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24007156
Summary: Aziraphale, having turned down Crowley’s offer of hunkering down together, carries on reading. He should maybe have chosen his reading material more carefully. Or at least gone easy on the cognac. A minor crisis ensues
Description: Is there such a thing as conceptual fic? If not, then there is now. What even is this?
Title: While You Were Sleeping
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25020625
Summary: Crowley wakes up. The months he missed weren't boring. Quite the opposite...
Description: So, fandom reminded me that Crowley set his alarm clock for July (people referred to this as 'Awake the Snake!'), so on the 1st of July I wrote fic! :)
And I shall start with Michael Sheen, talking about fanfic as midrash:
You’re so right. There’s a term for it that I think is part of the Jewish tradition - ‘midrash’. A wonderful writer named John Carroll talks about it a lot. He wrote ‘The Existential Jesus’ which had a huge influence on my bit of fanfic ‘The Passion of Port Talbot’ (2011)
— michael sheen (@michaelsheen) June 22, 2019
Endlessly multiplying branches of one ever-growing storytree where it becomes impossible to tell where one story ends and another begins when all overlap with each other and appear momentarily in each other’s stories like the tree is dreaming itself.
— michael sheen (@michaelsheen) June 23, 2019
This may be the single most beautiful description of fic that I have ever read, and it's also incredible accurate.
And here is a post by
kass delving into this idea - and explaining what midrash *is* in more detail: Modern midrashOn my list there are (so far!) 87 fics (I have read more, but there are limits - I have tried to pick out the best ones) and I shall be adding to this list, oh yes. I did consider adding ratings & word counts (and may still do so), but for now I don’t have the energy. This took an AGE. I am also hoping/presuming that if you find something you like, you'll check out what other things that author has written.
The 'Description' part is sort of my own notes? The key words or phrases or description that will remind me which one *this* fic is (because a lot of them explore the same areas): sometimes they're quotes from the fic, sometimes quotes from author's notes, sometimes my commentary (or Promethia's)... in short, they're very idiosyncratic, and I hope you find them helpful.
Anyway, outside the cut - because it's genius, because it fits with both book and show canon (all the fic in this post goes with show canon btw), and because it even works for people who have just read the first three pages or watched the first five minutes, and it's not even 500 words:
Title: ask, and ye shall receive
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19964368
Summary: Smite me, Crowley thinks one day, about three or four days into the Beginning of the World. He feels rather daring about it, especially when God doesn’t answer. Puts a bit of a swagger in his slither.
Description: If you read NOTHING ELSE, read this.
This is the pure candy-floss stuff. It might just rot your teeth, and is basically like basking in Aziraphale’s smile. If you’re new to fic for the show, start here and just wallow. First touches, hesitant declarations of love, kisses that could melt stone. Check ratings when you click through, but I don’t think many are explicit. It’s all new and overwhelming and often very very innocent (in as much as six thousand year old creatures can be innocent).
The night after Armageddon-that-wasn’t (before The Trials)
Title: i've been with you such a long time (you're my sunshine)
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19091254
Summary: There’s still holy water on Crowley's floor. Somehow, that was what did it. (or, the night after the end of the world.)
Description: Very short, the most basic of FitBs.
Title: A Street in a Strange World
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19190599
Summary: “How did you ever know?” Aziraphale asked Crowley. “How did you know when I was in trouble and could use a spot of, hmm, otherworldly intervention?” OR ‘In the beginning, God gave the angel Aziraphale a flaming sword.’
Description: During the night in Crowley’s flat, Aziraphale dreams.
Title: Once Meek, and in a Perilous Path
URL: https://rainjoyswriting.livejournal.com/241719.html
Summary: An angel and a demon pass the night in a Travelodge, bringing all their respective exhaustion and extreme anxiety with them.
Description: Fics about that night are legion, but very few are set in a Travelodge, and even fewer go with the asexual reading.
Title: And The Violins Played On
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19185121/chapters/45604618
Summary: Mathew 5:28- But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a
Description: The second reason that Aziraphale hated Matthew Chapter Five, Verse Twenty-Eight, was because he understood it just a little too well.
Title: Too Generous
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19060903
Summary: “You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged; but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever.”
Description: Or: what happened after the [ we all got hit by a ] bus scene (aka "you could stay at my place, if you like").... (Short and wonderfully sweet)
Title: The Inevitable
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19324483
Summary: That night at Crowley's flat.
Description: Crowley thought as much. He should be angry that imminent destruction what it takes for Aziraphale to finally, finally take him up on the six-thousand-year implicit standing offer of a bit of a cuddle. But he just doesn’t really have it in him.
Post-show:
Title: i'd like for you and i to go romancing
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19055863/chapters/45264904
Summary: In which people keep mistaking Crowley and Aziraphale for a couple, and Aziraphale starts to wonder if there might be something to it.
Description: This is somehow the baseline for all other [early] fic? It just ticks a lot of boxes and is truly adorable.
Title: Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19104949
Summary: "It's only a sin in excess, my dear," said Aziraphale. "Like gluttony."
Description: This is the fic that singlehandedly made me go from defaulting to asexual, to ‘Oh, well Aziraphale is a hedonist at heart, so…’ (And also establish that Aziraphale is probably a lot more adventurous, sexually. ) (Well, then there is the whole love/desire bit, but that comes later…) ANYWAY. Read it, it’s hilarious and very safe.
Title: what a way to make a living
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19705660
Summary: In which Aziraphale is an introvert and Crowley becomes an Uber driver.
Description: See summary. Brilliant execution of a great idea.
Title: a city wall and a trampoline
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19092469
Summary: In their cottage in the South Downs, when Crowley eventually succeeds in getting Aziraphale to use a laptop, it takes Aziraphale literal hours to get past the default Windows screensavers of picturesque locations because 'oh, look, isn't it lovely, Crowley!' (5 times Crowley knows he’s in love with Aziraphale + 1 time he knows the reverse.)
Description: Like walking on clouds made of candyfloss.
Title: Add Wings, Add Harp, Add Heart (all set)
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19111897
Summary: Crowley realizes he and Aziraphale act like a married couple. A minor crisis is had. Fluff ensues.
Description: Crowley glares at Aziraphale. “I hate you. You make my chest do weird squiggly things.” (Just… delightful!)
Title: Doing Good
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19182892
Summary: It was hard to adjust, after the Apocalypse, but Aziraphale and Crowley were going to try.
Description: Legit curtain fic. (Death by Chocolate as a fic and it's a great way to go.)
Title: you smiled (and it broke my heart)
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19083772
Summary: Aziraphale attempted a smile for him, but it was too sad to really be a smile. “I’m thinking of closing the bookshop,” he said.
Description: Accurate title is accurate.
Title: The Thing About Apple Cottage
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19384363
Summary: There's a cottage by the sea where the children like to go. Sometimes it's for ice cream, sometimes it's for a listening ear, sometimes when something goes disastrously wrong.
Description: South Downs story, but from the POV of children. Just lovely.
Title: Show/Tell
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19108483
Summary: It took Aziraphale approximately five thousand nine hundred and forty-five years—give or take a few months—to fall in love. It didn’t take Crowley nearly as long.
Description: “Have you ever… have you ever been in love?” Crowley stills with the glass half raised to his lips. “Why the hell,” Crowley begins, tone clipped, “are you asking me that?”
Title: A Home at the Beginning of the World
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19153375
Summary: "Oh," Aziraphale says. "I think Crowley might have moved in with me."
Description: It starts with the plant. More specifically, it starts on Wednesday, at forty minutes past ten in the morning, when Crowley comes swaggering into the bookshop holding a potted plant.
Title: such surpassing brightness
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17752469
Summary: The revelation that Aziraphale might have been in love with him for thousands of years is surprising. The fact that literal books have been written on the subject comes as even more of a shock.
Description: This is SUCH a well-written fic. The research ‘excerpts’ are beyond brilliant.
Title: (subject to change)
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19096135
Summary: It isn’t that anything bad is going to happen to him should he do it—quite the opposite, in fact. But something bad might happen to someone else, someone he rather cares for a great deal, and that’s the part that has him stuck.
Description: ‘robin said touch starved Crowley, I said Crowley not actually being a bad dude and failing to admit it + pining. this was the result!’ (From author’s notes.)
Title: get religion quick (cause you're looking divine)
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18091460
Summary: So it was fine. Even if Crowley couldn’t love him, he clearly liked him well enough, and that was almost the same thing.
Description: On angels being able to sense love.
Title: Sudden and Surprising Moments of Overwhelming Affection
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18688036
Summary: Aziraphale has not shut up in thirty-four minutes. Crowley’s been counting.
Description: During the angel’s monologue Crowley realises he’s in love. <3
Title: Something So Magic About You
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19104037
Summary: "To the world", he says. It's not what Crowley means, though. I love you, is what he means. I'm so glad the apocalypse didn't happen. I'm so happy you are not dead. I was so scared. Do you know how much you mean to me? I have always loved you.
Description: So [Aziraphale] repeats: "I was thinking... we could move in together?" And that's it. There's along pause. The earth may have halted on its turn around the sun. Time was certainly frozen. It had to be.
Title: Talking to the Plants
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19095055/chapters/45367003
Summary: Soft Crowley thinking about his Angel Aziraphale in the wake of the Apocalypse that wasn’t, while talking to his plants.
Description: “Angel, I gotta talk to you,” he said. Then his vision went black around the edges. As Crowley felt his legs give out and his body drop down to the floor, his last coherent thought was ‘For fuck’s sake, at least let me do this with style...’
Title: Jesus was a Crossmaker
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19097398
Summary: In which Crowley can't handle another 6000 years of pining and Aziraphale is very much himself.
Description: Crowley swallows the lump in his throat. No, it’s fire. Totally fire. He’s a demon. Demon’s don’t cry. Roar. (They’re such IDIOTS! <3)
Title: Marriage Bed
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19027594
Summary: Crowley takes Aziraphale out on what he really hopes might be a romantic date, but Aziraphale winds up delivering all the surprises.
Description: ‘They have a date to the opera’ (And my goodness, but if this isn’t the sweetest, most delightful thing. I think it might be the purest thing I have ever read.)
This is the biggest category by some distance. Not quite heavy/deep enough to sit with the later ones (although some were very much borderline, but the categories only exist in my head, so), not candy-flossy enough for the earlier one. I’ve tried to divide them up as best I can, but even so I threw a whole bunch into ‘uncategorised’ because there is… so much. And they’re so delightful.
Some are fluff, some are long and complex, some are simply hilarious - it’s a cross-section of excellence and greatness.
AU stories
Title: Something Wanting in My Nature
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19402360/chapters/46172800
Summary: "Okay which one of you is going to write the Ineffable Husbands college professor AU with the extremely sweet and over-sharing professor fawning over their spouse and the standoff-ish secretive professor who reveals absolutely nothing about their private life who turned out to be married?"
Description: If that summary doesn’t make you run to read it, there is nothing I can do.
Title: Anthophilia
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1914000/chapters/4129578
Summary: Anthony J. Crowley's life seems like it's finally falling into place: his floral shop has begun to gain an undercurrent of appreciation in the design elite of London, and he might have even finally found a boyfriend who looks just right lounging on his Tenreiro sofa. Things seem almost perfect, until one day the empty shop across the street is leased to frumpy fellow Oxford alumni, who doesn't seem to remember Crowley nearly as well as he remembers him, which really shouldn't bother him as much as it does - it was ten years ago after all, and it wasn't even that good of a kiss.
Description: The full Richard Curtis rom-com AU. Crowley has a flash bastard of a boyfriend, and Anathema is his BFF.
Historical/Through the Ages
Title: A Regular Rip van Winkle
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19057597
Summary: After almost an entire century spent asleep, Crowley wakes in 1888 to find the world more changed than he thought possible. His first order of business is to find his angel.
Description: Many things happened in 1888. This is such a fun story.
Title: Night and Day
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19383541/chapters/46122289
Summary: Five times Aziraphale and Crowley encountered queer historical figures who know more about them than they do, and one time they actually have a clue.
Description: What is says on the tin! :)
Post-church
Title: All First Editions
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20072269
Summary: The only thing Aziraphale can say for certain is that the books should not have survived. He's going to need to sit down for a while and sort out all the rest. Unfortunately, he isn't very good at processing emotions, especially ones he's been in denial about for who knows how long. It's a messy process.
Description: ‘He had been so blind. Of course it was Crowley. It could only ever have been Crowley.’
Title: attachment
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19839502
Summary: Crowley crosses over to open the passenger door for Aziraphale, and Aziraphale’s attention is drawn to Crowley’s uneven gait, the light, too-quick steps and the rocking back and forth on his heels as he holds the door open and waits for Aziraphale to get in. “Oh, Crowley,” Aziraphale says, heart sinking, “your feet.”
[a direct follow-up to the 1941 Blitz scene]
Description: 'fill for a kink meme prompt requesting aziraphale taking care of Crowley’s burned feet after the blitz scene.'
Nanny Crowley
Damn straight these get their own category!
Title: older now, and the light is dim
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19975255
Summary: Aziraphale follows the sound, silently, to the door of the sitting room where he sees them. Ashtoreth - Crowley - holding a sleeping, months-old anti-christ in the most gentle of hands and pillowed against her perfectly pressed bloused. She sways slightly as she sings, her lips brushing the downy hairs at the child's temple, her eyes hooded low. Every now and then, the child fusses and squirms, and Crowley readjusts him slightly in her arms with practiced ease.
Description: Emotionally devastating
Title: Questions
URL: https://trellanyx.tumblr.com/post/186551822301/imagine-warlock-as-a-young-child-very-young-and
Summary: Little Warlock is always asking questions. Nanny is the only one who always answers
Description: ‘All I did was ask questions’ - Crowley, to God
Title: Family by Association
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19836223
Summary: Warlock Dowling is over-dramatic, insecure and inclined towards running away, which makes sense since he was primarily raised by a certain over-dramatic demon. After the apocalypse Warlock heads home to England to find his nanny.
Description: Very lovely indeed.
Title: A Nanny? In MY Summoning Circle?
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19802275/chapters/46884316
Summary: (it’s more likely than you think). Warlock "Lockie" Dowling summons a demon. Or, he buys a book off a suspiciously familiar bookseller and is convinced into demon summoning. It goes about as well as you'd expect.
Description: THIS ONE IS CANON I DON'T CARE, THIS IS WHAT WARLOCK GREW UP TO BE LIKE. IT IS GODDAMN GENIUS.
Post-show Getting Together
Title: Something We Were Withholding Made Us Weak
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19839451
Summary: "Yes, exactly. Retire." Aziraphale reaches for the last remaining tartlet brimming with summer berries. "Somewhere along the south coast, perhaps." OR: Crowley and Aziraphale learn to move in tandem.
Description: More slow-burn domesticity porn for all your slow-burn domesticity porn needs. (No actual porn until the very end.)
Title: all i need, darling, is a life in your shape
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19132273
Summary: After everything, Aziraphale and Crowley, by unspoken agreement, begin sharing their lives.
Description: It's achingly domestic. They buy milk. Anathema throws a
Title: What Custom Strictly Divided
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20406244/chapters/48404104
Summary: Crowley and Aziraphale after the UnApocalypse, being happily drunk and considering ideas for what to do with themselves now that the world has astonishingly failed to end. The answer they come up with? Beethoven.
Description: My HEART. It’s just… delightful, and clever, and sweet. *waves hands helplessly*
Title: you're not a religious person (but)
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20342737
Summary: An account pertaining to the cultivation of figs, the ecstasy of St. Theresa of Avila, the ontological uncertainty of mammoths, the nature of temptation, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the ten years following the end of the world.
Description: "That is very blasphemous, dear. Don't stop." (This fic is like port. Delicious, sweet, rich, and you’ll just keep reading. Also hovering juuuuust on the edge of crack.)
Title: Alegría
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19820371
Summary: After the End That Wasn't, Heaven and Hell are leaving them alone. Entirely alone. (This is a story with nothing of miracles.)
Description: Long, but stunning.
Touch
Title: And So He Bringeth Them Unto the Haven
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19827043
Summary: Lord, Aziraphale thinks, does he know? Can he tell that the last wall Aziraphale had built up in his mind has come tumbling down? The clink of their champagne flutes at the Ritz might as well have been the trumpets of Jericho. Aziraphale says what he needs to say, and two touch starved immortals wonder if wrist kisses can cause discorporation.
Description: The title is from Psalm 107; the full line is "Then are they glad because they are at rest, and so He bringeth them unto the haven where they would be."
Title: Your Reward Ye Shall Have
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19281376
Summary: It is not the first time Aziraphale has considered giving in. But tonight, sitting snug in his armchair at the back of his bookshop, and staring over at the demon sound asleep on the sofa across from him, he hopes it will be the last. Some temptations are worth giving into, he thinks. And sometimes the things you think of as temptation turn out not to be temptation at all. Sometimes they are simply what is right.
Description: Mmmmmmmm. Touching.
Title: please, could you be tender?
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20129566
Summary: The first kiss is only the beginning of a relationship. Crowley and Aziraphale need to talk about things. That is not their strong suit.
Description: They are SUCH IDIOTS. This could almost go in any category, the ‘Touch’ designation is slightly tongue-in-cheek. You’ll see why.
Title: Broken Wings
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1421686
Summary: Part 1: One night, in the bookshop, they were particularly drunk for no particular reason. Crowley snapped their wine glasses full, yet again, and slurred, apropos of nothing: “I was ‘fraid of heights for a while. Not the heights exactly… th’wind.” (Or, a headcanon that turned into a wingfic.)
Part 2: “I just…” Aziraphale’s shoulders sank. “I’ve lost them. I’ve lost… and I can’t go back, not even one last time, can I.” He didn’t say it like a question, of course; he was clever, after all. He shook his head, ruefully, and looked at Crowley. “My last time up there, and it wasn’t even me, it was you.”
Description: ded
Title: hairpins
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19401361
Summary: Crowley's hair has never quite gotten the knack of being human.
Description: Just . . . weaponized fluff. (Part one of a series: and behold, it was so very good. All very delightful. Keeps digging further down, so what starts out as fluff becomes deeply layered.)
(Added 18.10.2019)
Sexy stories
Title: nothing but the wild rain
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19155880
Summary: "The internet, Aziraphale!" Crowley says. "This is what the internet is for. This is, quite literally, what the internet is for." OR: Aziraphale and Crowley find sex confusing.
Description: It makes a lot of sense that they don’t function like humans and this runs with it.
Title: for let thy efforts be
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20112109/chapters/47643658
Summary: The first time Crowley made the Effort, he was reclining on a very comfortable couch in the dimly-lit confines of a cozy little restaurant in Rome, with his head pillowed upon the breast of an Angel.
Description: Of oysters and efforts. Sexy rather than sex. More a meditation on Crowley's general sultry-ness.
Title: When in Rome
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19156171
Summary: “Well.” Crowley stood and stretched, looking rather more serpentine than usual. “See you at the orgy then. I’ll look for you by the buffet.”
Description: The hottest, sexiest little ficlet. Not a continuation of the fic above. (Which surprised me.)
Amusing & delightful stories
Title: N/A (Extremely silly Tumblr ficlet)
URL: https://ouidamforeman.tumblr.com/post/187181550110/ding
Summary: Archangels Gabriel and Michael sat glowering at the nearby hovering screen. It was emitting chimes practically nonstop.
Description: Crowley & Aziraphale troll heaven & hell
Title: And Your Enemies Closer
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19888840
Summary: Some Satanic monks summon Aziraphale for nefarious purposes. Unfortunately for them, Aziraphale has his own nefarious friend.
Description: SO MUCH FUN
Title: N/A (‘Has anyone written fic on their phone’)
URL: https://ouidamforeman.tumblr.com/post/186670696495/question-has-anyone-written-a-fic-on-their-phone
Summary: I know people who do [write fic on their phone], but I am not one of those people. I need to be able to see more than one paragraph at a time. Also, autocorrect is an evil invention and ducks have no place in a sex scene.
Description: BUT THEN SOMEONE WROTE IT.
Title: Long-Term
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19703515
Summary: Officiating weddings has got to be one of Dr. Blackwell’s favorite parts of ministry, and although she’s probably not supposed to have preferences, if she looks deep into her jaded lesbian heart with any degree of honesty, queer weddings are by far the best.
Description: Crowley & Aziraphale meet with the Unitarian minister who will be officiating their wedding. Told from her POV.
Title: Kissing, Accidentally.
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19338565
Summary: Crowley doesn’t mean to kiss him, really. It just sort of...happens. An...automatic response, if you will. An unintended automatic response. Unexpected, even. It’s not planned, that’s what he’s trying to say.
Description: Or the one where Crowley gives in and kisses Aziraphale while he has him pinned against a wall. (Perfect. And the footnotes are amazing.)
Title: Snakey Snacks
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19468561
Summary: Something has invaded the shop. Crowley has some suggestions for what is to be done with it.
Description: A truly lovely little slice of life.
Title: Getting a Wiggle On
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20467451/chapters/48565136
Summary: Crowley's prank to leave Aziraphale with fake eggs to babysit does not go remotely as planned.
Description: Just as delightful as the Tumblr post that it was inspired by. (Although there’s no knitting.)
Title: It's More Likely Than You Think
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20368234l
Summary: Don't believe everything you read on the Internet—unless, of course, you're an angel with reality-warping powers.
(Which is to say, it turns out there really are hot single MILFs in Aziraphale's area. And they do want to meet.)
Description: This made me laugh louder and more continuously than anything else I have read in a long, long time. Blessings upon this fic.
Title: In Holy Matrimony
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19409794/chapters/46190842
Summary: From the private journal of Alisha Jones, wedding planner, concerning the nuptials of Anthony J Crowley and Aziraphale and the planning process thereof, containing an account of chosen decor, guest list construction, and the holy war against the Antichrist that nearly ruined six months of professional organization and a very nice dinner.
Description: Crowley and Aziraphale get married. As told by their confused but heroic wedding planner.
Title: Five Times Crowley Fails To Demonically Seduce Anyone, And One Time He Doesn't Need To
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19810123
Summary: 'I need you to tell me how to find a human willing to have sex with me, and then how to persuade them to actually do it in the least unpleasant way possible for everyone involved. If I don’t manage at least one seduction, I’m going to get recalled back Down There.’ Aziraphale stared at Crowley for a moment. ‘I think…’ he said delicately, ‘that we should have that drink.’
Description: Beautiful, beautiful crack.
Title: it's a new craze
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20062966
Summary: Crowley and Aziraphale are very possibly the people least qualified, on the entire planet, to start up an advice podcast.
Description: Even more delightful than you might expect. Just… *hands*
Uncategorised
*NEW
Title: Observer Effect
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1474022
Summary: Heaven dispatches a Grigori to monitor any "suspicious activity" between Aziraphale and a certain agent of Hell. (Series)
Description: So, this is inspired by this wonderful tweet by stereoroo: "there is a real unsung hero in good omens and it’s the angel who took paparazzi photos of aziraphale and crowley for 6000 years and didn’t say anything about it until they absolutely had to"
(not new new, but added 08.08.2023. BEWARE: S2 compliant, includes SPOILERS)
Title: dawn on the gates of eden
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20234239
Summary: It’s the first day, but it’s an old story.
Description: Sweet little ficlet. I've rarely seen this parallel drawn out so well.
Title: Put Love On
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19474480/chapters/46356145
Summary: Ficlet collection from tumblr.
Description: An eclectic collection, but I guarantee you’ll find one (or more) that works for you. (Thirteen ficlets so far.)
Title: Palm to Palm
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19713913
Summary: "So you're the demon!'' Aziraphale went on. "Possess me!"
Description: Telepathy! (The body swap, but different to any other I’ve read.)
Title: Four Letter Words
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19080880
Summary: There are some things a demon just doesn't like to admit.
Description: Tiny, but insightful Crowley portrait.
Title: N/A (Tumblr vignettes about living for thousands of years)
URL: https://buckysbears.tumblr.com/post/186271548139/sometimes-aziraphale-feels-old-or-he-feels-weary
Summary: Sometimes Aziraphale feels old.
Description: Vignettes about remembering. Beautiful and heartbreaking and funny and achingly perfect.
Title: Little Birds
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20880980 (https://owlboy.dreamwidth.org/2309499.html)
Summary: Crowley is nice and Aziraphale wants to smooch him cuz he's nice. Also, I've been reading too much poetry.
Description: 'Crowley brings home things in his pockets. Little feathery creatures, birds blown out of their nests. He keeps them under a lamplight in the sunroom, in a shoebox, safe and warm.' A whole world in a grain of sand.
(Added 06.10.19)
Title: Birds of a Feather
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19705429
Summary: Aziraphale nests. Crowley relearns some crucial facts about angelic courtship rituals.
Description: Nesting fic!
And Now For Something Completely Different!
Title: Excerpts from A.Z. Fell and Co.’s Yelp Page
URL: Part 1:https://itsclydebitches.tumblr.com/post/186055292445/hey-all-remember-when-i-said-id-never-do-another
Part 2: https://itsclydebitches.tumblr.com/post/186103954410/discredit-pt-2-more-recommended-reviews-for-az
Summary: ... What it says?
Description: HOW COULD I FORGET THESE? Genius and hilarious.
(Added 06.10.19)
Title: You've Got Kudos
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20767514
Summary: Aziraphale and Crowley both write fanfiction. As it happens, they both write Good Omens fanfiction.
Of course, neither of them would ever admit this to the other.
(A love story told primarily in AO3 comments)
Description: ‘So the premise of this fic is like Tinkerbell--you have to believe in it really really hard or it falls apart. There are a bunch of paradoxes in here and we're going to ignore all of them in favor of metaliterary nonsense.’ <- From author’s notes. This is genius and hilarious and stupidly brilliant and I read it four times in a day.
Title: TwoFish
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/321342
Summary: A love story about angels and demons. Also, fish
Description: NO WORDS! (Upside: This is unlike anything else. Downside: Most other fic will feel rather pedestrian.)
Fandom often uses sex as a way to explore characters, to delve into issues that are otherwise difficult to access. These are excellent examples of the genre.
Title: Four-Letter Words
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19343734
Summary: Prompt: "humiliation kink by way of compliment, Aziraphale gets Crowley hot and bothered by accusing him of goodness." It’s a chilly day in November of 1987, and Aziraphale badly wants a drink. Alternate title: "Aziraphale and Crowley are sad it's the 1980's so they have weird sex."
Description: Words cannot describe how much I love this. It’s insanely good.
Title: Released
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19846918
Summary: After they get together Aziraphale has some lingering Ideas about his brief stint in the Bastille; Crowley is happy to help him explore them. Hijinks, as they say, ensue.
Description: Kinky bastards role-playing the Bastille.
Title: Downfall
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19442812
Summary: When they get together post-Apocalypse, Aziraphale shares his fantasies with Crowley and he's happy to indulge them." Established relationship, feat. consent, negotiation, safewords, and cuddling after.
Description: ‘The stupidly good rape fantasy fic’
Title: A Sense Of Desire
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20722355
Summary: Crowley is a demon, and that means he has certain...powers. Powers about which Aziraphale is curious. This may or may not be a good idea.
Description: ‘This is the kind of fandom where you can go 'oh, won't somebody write the D/s-flavored telepathy fic I never knew I needed before this and now desperately want to read?' and then somebody just writes it. Like that's a thing that happens. *boggles*’ - Promethia (Or: “Hush,” Crowley murmured, and hooked a mental finger into the bright shine of Aziraphale’s desire, winding it towards him.)
Title: Possession
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20559470
Summary: “So my idea, and please don’t dismiss it offhand - ” Aziraphale settles back against the pillows, “I think you should possess me.” “That’s a terrible idea,” Crowley says flatly.
Description: Longing: check. Telepathy: check. Metaphysical kinkiness used for exploring relationship boundaries: check.
Title: Temptation Waits
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20348647
Summary: Back in the tumultuous days of the English Civil Wars, against a backdrop of witchcrazed imaginations and strange Cromwellian tabloids, Aziraphale made a proposal to Crowley. He wanted Crowley to teach him the art of Temptation. In the present, Aziraphale makes another proposal, one that reminds Crowley of the Incident in 1649 and confirms once and for all that Anthony J. Crowley is a truly rubbish sex demon.
Description: [incoherent] “Just…stare into him. See what he wants. Take it into yourself and then add whatever you see fit. Weave it into a thread with your own hunger and then just…breathe it back into him.” (Crowley tries to teach Aziraphale about desire and I SWEAR to you that you will not see some of the places it ends up. Also really very terribly awfully hot.)
Note: This is Part 4 of a series: It's Not The End Of The World, Dear, the whole thing is highly recommended. Summary: "Crowley, this is a disaster. This is everything I ever wanted. We’re in love. And there’s a picnic. And we don’t seem to be able to get…amorous without causing earthquakes.”
These are all complex, clever, insightful, wonderful. Some include sex, but it’s not the focal point. Fics like these are the reason I am still obsessed and will probably continue to be for a long time, because there is so much there to dig into. What tipped these from ‘General round-up’ and into this category is my personal response - the fact that they made me think and ponder and delve further into the characters and the meanings etc etc. YMMV
The night after Armageddon-that-wasn’t (before The Trials)
Title: The Relief of Hopelessness
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19373452
Summary: Crowley and Aziraphale hold hands on the bus to London. Crowley falls asleep. Aziraphale has a nervous breakdown.
Description: Includes quotes from C.S.Lewis and is the only fic I’ve read where Aziraphale is genuinely terrified at what might happen to them. (I.e. Theologically astute and emotionally devastating.)
Touch
So, a note on touch. I love the fact that touch is such a thing. That the entire fandom has a meltdown because it’s confirmed that they hold hands on the bus. (The characters probably had a meltdown as well.) Because this is where the Queer Fairytale is especially strong:
[Andy Hinds, 64] told BuzzFeed News what life was like for him in Derry in the 1960s.
"At the age of 14 I remember praying to God that I wouldn't be a queer, because I suspected I was. The word gay didn't exist in Derry. I thought what queers did was had quick fumbles up in the darkness of back lanes. I didn't even conceive that gay men could kiss each other."
He continued: "I remember the first time I laid down with a guy, I thought, 'This is extraordinary; I didn't know you could lie down and hold a man,' because I had never seen it or heard about it. I didn't know you could kiss. And then this guy took me out in a car and put the back seats down and got a sleeping bag out and we just laid down and held each other and I thought, 'This is incredible.' A whole new world opened up. I still remember his name: Roy King.”
(x)
Title: it's the light (it's the obstacle that casts it)
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18320123
Summary: Crowley's gleefully trying to wrap his head around the fact that Aziraphale is speaking Polari. Because of course he is. OR: The Patron Saint of London's LGBT Community is real, and he lives in Soho.
Description: Only a particular type of person talks like Aziraphale around here. Even Aziraphale knows all this. And he's never been ashamed of what people might think, knows precisely how it looks to everyone but bullishly refuses to back down. But people can be narrow-minded. People can make assumptions. And a suspicion is all they need these days. (Set in the 1950s)
Title: On The Matter Of Touch
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19347571
Summary: “On the matter of touch,” Crowley begins, waving his teaspoon in what he hopes passes for idle curiosity. “Thoughts?” — For two ineffable husbands, they don't really touch each other much. Here is a story on why that might be.
Description: "Touch is a form of communication, and sometimes—“ Crowley slowly puts hand on Aziraphale’s jaw, breath hitching as he feels the warm skin underneath his finger tips. All fight leaves him at once. He wets his lips and continues softly, too earnestly: "Sometimes I just want to speak to my best friend, alright?" (I cannot with how this show makes pining into an art form. Simple touch can be world changing.)
Title: The Movement of Molecules
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19777891
Summary: They never touched. Why didn’t they touch?” Aziraphale has spent a long time not touching Crowley.
Description: You like touch-starved angels & demons? This fic has it alll covered.
Domestic
Title: Any Way You Want It
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19181242/chapters/45594664
Summary: Saving the world is exhausting work. With Heaven and Hell off their backs, it seems as good a time as any for Crowley and Aziraphale to take a proper break. Neither one of them predicts the direction their holiday takes. Who'd have thought that sharing a cottage in Scotland would be quite so romantic?
Description: I canNOT with this story. Basically, if I were to write a slow-build, having-to-live-as-humans story, this would be it. This is my world (the mountains, the sea, the air - it’s my north, as close to my home as it’s possible to get in fic, I can close my eyes and I’m there, the writing is so accurate it’s ridiculous), and it’s exquisitely done. And the characterisations are to die for and it's painfully domestic and low-key. (The two of them in a cosy cottage in Skye playing Scrabble under blankets, because, apparently, that’s what they are now. <- YOU SEE???? This thing is goddamn kryptonite)
AU
Title: Slow Show
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20395261/chapters/48375457
Summary: In which temptations are accomplished, grand romantic gestures are made, and two ineffable co-stars only take four seasons of an award-winning television program to realize they’re on their own side (at last, at last.)
Description: I canNOT believe I hadn't added this one. The story is 124k and I have read it straight through 5 times (every time I glance at it I have to read the whole thing). This fic creates a whole universe of its own, the characters feel independent of the source material, even if they are obviously from Good Omens, and I love them so much. The story has inspired several fanworks within its 'verse, and rightly so. Did I mention the prose? It's exquisitely well-written. In short, I can only flail and implore you to read.
(added 13.02.2022)
Uncategorised: Through the ages
Title: Something to do with these sacred words
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19763116
Summary: Crowley confesses early, and Crowley confesses often. Aziraphale never knows quite what to say.
Description: Where they disagree about Robert Frost and Aziraphale talks to an empty house. (More than a little good. If you're willing to overlook a premise that I suspect is not factually canon but certainly poetically True.) To be read with: Birches.
Title: What's Done in the Dark
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19971247%22
Summary: The one where Crowley is drawn to Aziraphale's holy flame like a moth ready to catch fire.
Description: ‘This is a fic that's about heat and light and accepting who you have become, especially if you didn't mean to become that person. It's also about love, because it's hard to find true heat, light, and acceptance without it.’ (From the author’s notes)
Title: Akashic Records
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1446628
Summary: Crowley and Aziraphale meet through history. All history, not just the scenes on the show. (Very long!)
Description: Where to start? If you're tired of 'Through the Ages' stories, please know this one is different. Every era truly is a fic all on its own. And here's the key thing: the writer establishes the closeness of Az&C's relationship far, far, far earlier than anybody else I've ever seen and puts a lot more work into detailing exactly how much of a bind Aziraphale is in with heaven. It's not embroidering on the edges of what we see on the show, it creates a whole world of its own, that show! scenes occasionally dip into. And the chapter on the Flood is possibly the most devastating thing I have read in this fandom.
(added 10.10.2019)
Uncategorised: Post-show
Title: Salinity (And Other Measurements of Brackish Water)
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25188139
Summary: It's an odd thing, getting on after the End of the World. Crowley takes to sea-watching.
Description: This is the really famous one, that even Michael Sheen has read. The fame is justified.
Title: a very near understanding
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19438540/chapters/46263904
Summary: Aziraphale and Crowley experience unforeseen side effects from their swap. Transformative panic and fiction ensue.
Description: "There's simply been a reheating of the books, so to speak. A few halo points for me, a tiny speck of brimstone for you and it all works out in the end, you'll see." (Wonderful, but also mild crack.)
Title: the deft, sweet gesture of your hand
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19758742
Summary: Crowley arrives injured at Aziraphale's door. He takes care of him, reads him an awful lot of Mary Oliver, and knits elaborate metaphors for his insecurities (literally).
Description: ‘The knitting fic’. I literally wrote a 11k word follow-up, I don’t think I need to explain how amazing this is.
Title: Thou Knowest Us Happy
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/chapters/49010414?
Summary: Heaven goes to check on their errant angel. They do not like what they find. Also contains the complexities of an evolving relationship, nice helpings of poetry, and 14th century angst.
Description: Yes I am adding my own fic, but it fits, here. So shoot me.
Crowley angst
(The title is inadequate, but it’ll have to do.)
Title: These Things Were Here
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19412872
Summary: Crowley, following times of overwhelming distress, resorted to the snake form as a means of finding comfort and solitude.
Description: This one ~does things to me. (Of staying and trauma and loss and coping. Like the post-battle scene in What’s Done in the Dark, but with a snake and for centuries/millennia)
Title: An Old Rain From New Skies
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19333168
Summary: Another conversation in the rain, 6000 years later.
Description: Money quote: ‘Fuck, this is like the day Aziraphale finally got the metaphor of the plants all over again.’ (Crowley in the rain. My HEART.)
Title: Demonology and the Tri-Phasic Model of Trauma: An Integrative Approach
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20177950
Summary: As soon as Aubrey Thyme, psychotherapist, had opened her office door and seen her new client, Anthony J. Crowley, sitting in her waiting area, she was observing and assessing him. What Aubrey Thyme, a professional, thought, upon first seeing her new client was: you’re going to be a fun one, aren’t you?
Description: Crowley goes to therapy. It’s long, it’s indepth and it’s hard work. This fic is impossibly good and words cannot do it justice. I literally inhaled every update and am terribly sad that it's now finished. (Although it was a good ending.) In some respects 'nothing happens' and yet I was never ever bored: Beware that once you start you may not be able to put it down.
Title: to carthage then i came
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19181608/chapters/45595507
Summary: A liking for light, an attachment to it. What a wretched word. A love, then. Of the scared, misguided kind.
He’d know.
[Aziraphale and Crowley after the Apocalypse, on the brink of becoming something else than they have been, with all the doubts and apprehensions to still approach and work through.]
Description: I don't know how to describe it. It's soaked in Eliot. And it's about... Crowley's Existential Dread (that's literally one of the tags), and it's just unlike anything else I've read, even if it's firmly in the same sandbox.
Poetry and theology and wrestling with faith and meaning and... Somehow the opposite of all the other theological fic (all the other fic, full stop) - odd and heavy and dense. It's uncomfortable, but compelling. Like how Oswin's theme is basically Clara's but in a different and lower, more dissonant key. The only fic I have come across that makes everything (Heaven, Hell, Religion, our angel and our demon) hang together. (Not that I don’t love Heaven as a metaphor for bigotry, but this Aziraphale has the theological heft and understanding of a Principality.)
Pro-tip: Read the first paragraph of Book Three of St Augustine’s Confession before delving in, just so you’re not completely lost. A working knowledge of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land is also highly recommended.
In short: This fic does not fuck around. It is the least fluffy thing in existence, and will cut you up. (And how. It's absolutely exquisite.)
New category, as I, too, have written some Good Omens fic. ^_^ One is linked above (Thou Knowest Us Happy) as it was written in response to another fic, but these are all very original. Some are co-authored. *waves hands* ENJOY.
Crossovers with Doctor Who
Title: What If God Was One of Us?
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22114585
Summary: What if… the Thirteenth Doctor was the God of Good Omens? (waits) I mean. How could I not write it? Also there are not enough fics that take God’s POV and motivations into account. Especially when God is as daft as a brush.
Description: Started as cross-over crack, became deep-dive into faith, world-building, theology, character-development, Great Plan/Ineffable Plan etc. etc. Co-written with
promethia_tenk (63k, fun and complex.)Title: Meet the Neighbours
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25383250
Summary: Missy and the Doctor move to the South Downs. Aziraphale and Crowley are their neighbours.
Description: Another fic that started as crack. This one, however, then developed into a collaborative effort with
owlboy. WIP.Inspired by the lockdown audio
Title: A Pilgrim’s Progressive Panic
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24337099
Summary: "AZIRAPHALE WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Put down The Pilgrim’s Progress and step away from the Bunyan!" (Or: Finding reasons why Aziraphale declined Crowley’s proposal through his reading materials.)
Description: For BuggreAlleThis who wrote the above quote, meaning that I then had to read Pilgrim’s Progress, and this was the result.
Title: The Drunken Ramblings of Elfland
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24007156
Summary: Aziraphale, having turned down Crowley’s offer of hunkering down together, carries on reading. He should maybe have chosen his reading material more carefully. Or at least gone easy on the cognac. A minor crisis ensues
Description: Is there such a thing as conceptual fic? If not, then there is now. What even is this?
Title: While You Were Sleeping
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25020625
Summary: Crowley wakes up. The months he missed weren't boring. Quite the opposite...
Description: So, fandom reminded me that Crowley set his alarm clock for July (people referred to this as 'Awake the Snake!'), so on the 1st of July I wrote fic! :)