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Crowley was greeted by a peculiar sight, as he came to pick up Warlock from one of his walks around the grounds with Aziraphale: Warlock was running from tree to tree, bush to flower and Aziraphale seemed to be… taking notes?
As he got closer, he was able to make out their words.
“Almost two inches!” Warlock proclaimed, as he crouched in front of a caterpillar. “Have you got that?”
“Yes, all written down.”
“And this leaf is… 5 inches long!”
“Very good. Do you know what kind of tree it’s from?”
“Nanny!”
Aziraphale did a double take. “What? I – oh, there you are, dear.”
“What’s this, then? Are you making him do inventory?”
“I’m the ruler of the garden, so I’m ruling everything. Just like you said! And Brother Francis is helping me!” He proudly held up ruler and some measuring tape. “Because uhm…” he looked back and forth between the two. “Because everything matters no matter how small, if I wanna command it!” he gave a self-satisfied nod.
Aziraphale and Crowley gave each other a look.
“Yes, commanding, that’s the – hey, what are you doing?” Crowley began, when Warlock tried to put the measuring tape on his... shoulder?
“Ruling you!” he said and tried to put it on his nanny’s head. “Here, hold that there!”
Crowley put on an irritated face but obliged.
“Nanny Ashtoreth, practically perfect in every way,” read Warlock in wonder. “I hadn’t seen that on there before!”
“Oh look at that, me neither,” Aziraphale said and with a chuckle. “What a nice and accurate tape measure."
Warlock almost got the impression his nanny was blushing, when she scoffed "Nice."
"Oh, you know what I mean."
Meanwhile Warlock tried to find other phrases on the tape measure, but the rest was just numbers and now he couldn't even find the bit about his nanny anymore...
“Why don’t you go measure those hydrangeas? They’re coming along quite nicely and you can set a standard for next year. Better than measuring a slug,” Crowley said.
Aziraphale huffed. “Fiddlestick, Sister Slug is precious and wonderful, Warlock, isn’t she?”
“She's a slimy, rose-eating pest,” Crowley said.
“She’s 2 and a half inches long!” Warlock said definitively.
And neither of them could disagree with that.