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You hadn’t seen Abel all day. That wasn’t exactly an uncommon experience. Sometimes he got incredibly busy and forgot to tell you. If he couldn’t come to you, you’d just have to go to him. Where exactly he could be was the real mystery. He did so much around Heaven that it was hard to tell where to look first. At least you could cross off most of his usual spots. If he was going to the movies or somewhere similar he would’ve asked you to join him in a heartbeat.
You decided to try and ask St Peter. It wasn’t like the gate got a lot of visitors so he should’ve been available to talk. Hopefully. You hadn’t talked to him too much before this. Not because of him but you were just closer with Abel and Emily. But he and Abel were always incredibly close. If anyone knew where he probably was it was Peter.
“Nope. No idea.”
You sulked, “What do you mean you don’t know? Aren’t you guys supposed to be best friends?”
“Best friends doesn’t mean I know where he is all the time,” Peter folded his arms. You started to fly off but he stopped you, “Hold on. I might know. Have you been to the pastures before?”
You shook your head.
“It’s by the minigolf course. Most people go for the ponies but there’s sheep out there too. Actually, why do we have the course there? That’s really dangerous.”
That wasn’t a conversation you wanted to have right then. Though he did have a point. Before he could go on, you decided to head out. Peter waved a little before going back to his magazine. He was giggling at one of the pages as you got out of earshot. The minigolf course wasn't much farther. Just a bit beyond that were fields of luscious green grass. There wasn’t anyone as far as you could see.
Right before you turned back you started to see a small herd of sheep. Who else but your boyfriend was right there with them. You carefully landed behind him where he couldn’t see you. Abel’s soft giggles rang through the air. He was talking to an especially affectionate sheep. It kept letting out loud baas and pushing against Abel’s legs.
“I know you’re so needy today. Haven’t you gotten enough attention?” The sheep gave him an insistent baa.
“Well what about everyone else? I haven’t gotten to give Wooly pets yet.”
Baa.
“You’re right I do give Wooly a lot of attention. But that’s only because he’s so cute! Isn’t that right Wooly-” Abel jumped a little when he saw you standing there. “(Y/N)! I, uh, didn’t see you there. How long have you been there, exactly?”
You walked over and kissed his cheek, “Long enough. You’re adorable.”
“How am I adorable?”
“Just how you are with the sheep. I can’t believe I’ve never visited you out here before. I would’ve come a lot sooner if I knew I got to watch you doting on cute sheep.”
The sheep from before made its way over and gently headbutted your side. Now it had a new person it could force to give it attention. Of course you bent down to start giving it attention. It seemed to lighten up at that. The wool somehow felt softer than you’d originally expected. Wool was always soft but this sheep felt the way you’d expected clouds to feel as a little kid. The other sheep noticed the newcomer and started to head over.
“How have I not heard about you all sooner?” you started to pet a second sheep that was scratching at your leg.
Abel gave a soft smile, “Most people don’t really want to hear about my flock.”
You turned to him, “Well I wanna know. So tell me about these guys! They’re adorable.”
The excitement on Abel’s face was so much you swore he was actually shining. Maybe he was actually shining. He had to think for a moment about where to start. It was surprising that no one had asked him about shepherding before this considering how much he went on about how much he loved sheep.
“Well these are my rams. I only have seven right now. The ewes are with the unicorns at the stadium right now to help with stress. They’re so cuddly that the unicorns always manage to calm down after a small visit. But someone’s gotta watch these guys. Last time I left them alone for too long I found out that one of them got their wool all tangled with some branches. It took me hours to get him untangled,” Abel started.
“Hold on. Ewes?”
“Female sheep! My ewes are a bit nicer than the rams so that’s why I have them visit the unicorns instead.”
One of the sheep you were petting huffed as if taking offense. It seemed to brighten up when you scratched behind its ear.
“Their wool is starting to get a little thick… Oh that means I get to shear them soon! I’ve been wanting to make a new blanket for ages and keep forgetting. Wool is actually one of the best fabrics to make a blanket with! Um, at least for me…”
“Is that why you have so many wool throw blankets?”
“Maybe… But that’s only because they’re really comfy. All thanks to these guys.”
You looked around at the nearly identical sheep, “Are you going to introduce me to ‘these guys’ at all?”
“Oh! Yep! Yeah. I should, uh, do that,” Abel walked over to the sheep by your feet. “These ones are Timothy and Ricardo. I’ve had them the longest and they’re best friends. Don’t believe Timothy. He acts like he hasn’t been given attention but I’m always with him.”
You giggled, “Uh huh. And Ricardo goes along with it?”
“Try encourages it. They’re both little troublemakers,” he was looking at the two sheep. They stared at him indignantly which only made him laugh. Timothy moved closer to nibble at your clothes. He didn’t let up until Abel gave him some grass to eat instead. Timothy thankfully didn’t rip your clothes but the way he was staring at you made you a bit nervous. Not that you were super worried with Abel here.
Abel went to bring over another sheep, “This is Walter. He’s a little more antisocial than the others so he’s feeling a little shy.” True to his word, Walter was trying to move away from you and the rest of the flock to keep grazing.
“Shaun is,” you felt a hoof against your calf, “the one behind you. He loves meeting new people. I think when Emily first visited he didn’t leave her until we had to go back.” Shaun shoved Ricardo out of the way so that he could be the one by your leg and get the attention.
Two sheep completely ignored you in favor of going up to Abel instead. They seemed a bit wary of you but not to the same extent Walter did. Abel sat down with them to let them get closer to him. The sheep on his right tried to climb into Abel’s lap while the other just kept tugging on his sleeve to get his attention. You wanted to help out but something told you Shaun wouldn’t appreciate that.
“These are, hold on Boris, uh Wooly and Boris. You’ll have to come back sometime because they do like people just uh, not… new ones?”
He gave a small chuckle. The sheep pulling his sleeve, Boris, finally got its way when Abel wrapped his arm around the sheep so that he could pull it in close. Wooly couldn’t quite fit in Abel’s lap and decided to just lay down next to him and keep its head on his lap. It took barely any time for Wooly to be sleeping soundly. A hard task considering how noisy the other sheep were being.
You counted how many Abel had introduced you to. Timothy, Ricardo, Walter, Shaun, Boris, Wooly…
“How many rams did you say you had again? I could’ve sworn you said you had seven but I only counted six.”
Abel practically jumped up from where he was sitting, much to Wooly’s disappointment. He frantically looked around for a little bit before holding up the tiniest sheep you’ve ever seen. It had little sparkles in its wool. If you weren’t in Heaven you would’ve wondered how the little guy looked so adorable. Abel flew over to you and held it out for you to hold. Up close it wasn’t as small but definitely younger than the other six.
“He’s so cute! I can’t believe you almost hid him from me. What’s his name?” you gushed as you looked at the little lamb.
“Um… My dad kinda named him… It’s actually Shitten.”
You had to stop yourself from dropping the lamb out of surprise, “Shitten? Woollock Holmes was right there!”
Abel sighed, “Yeah. Dad always said it was because of sheep and kitten but, well.”
“Why would you have him name one of the sheep in the first place? He wasn’t exactly subtle about things,” you giggled at the thought of Adam naming sheep after different things he thought were funny.
“I thought he’d come up with a nice name! He named the exorcists and all…”
“He named Vaggi after vaginas.”
Your boyfriend blushed, “I didn’t realize!”
The two of you laughed for a minute about how ridiculous some of the exorcists’ names were. Vaggi wasn’t an outlier when it came to Adam and his way of naming things. You were more surprised Abel or Lute had normal names. Honestly you were glad the poor thing didn’t understand names because it would have been pissed that its name was Shitten when the other sheep had names like Wooly and Shaun.
Abel took his spot next to you so that he could pet the lamb as well. It started squirming in your arms so you gently let it down so that it could go play with the older rams. The lamb jumped around to get their attention. Only Boris seemed to pay attention to it and played along. While you were watching them play, you felt Abel rest his head on top of yours.
“It was nice of you to visit. I haven’t had a visitor in awhile so I don’t get to talk about them often,” he murmured.
“Are you kidding? I can’t believe no one comes to see the cutest sheep in the world. I’ll just have to come back to see the girls!”