un_fallen | (no subject)

Crowley has been surprisingly charitable for most of the time spent in Raguel's new apartment - criticizing everything, of course, but only in the most general way. He pronounces it barely habitable, which Raguel takes to mean that he's done a decent job. And if the shower (and by necessity, the bathroom) has slightly larger dimensions when Crowley walks out of it than when he walked in, Raguel doesn't mention it.

It's late afternoon when they step out into the hallway and furtively climb the ladder to the roof. It's not much of a view, but the sunlight through dry air casts sharp shadows that make the grunge a little harder to see.

"You don't think anyone will notice us, with the sun still up?" Raguel asks, a little nervously.

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From:

un_fallen

"Oh," Raguel says, but the giggles don't seem to be subsiding.

Eventually, though, he gets himself under control enough to move warily in front of Crowley and offer him... some kind of cloth that might once have been a handkerchief. There's no telling where it came from. It's a little frayed around the edges, but it is, at least, clean.

From:

aj_crawley

After a few near-collisions, they manage the clumsy exchange of flask for (possibly) handkerchief; the upside to Crowley's temporary blindness is that he can't really make out what he's wiping his face with until it's done.

Oh well, at least it's clean.

From:

un_fallen

Well, it's certainly not pretty, but if Raguel had come out with monogrammed silk, he'd have been even more surprised than Crowley. As it is, it's practically a miracle (cough) he had anything on him at all.

He takes another few gulps from the flask while Crowley gets himself cleaned up.

"Actually, it doesn't even look like the level has gone down at all," he says, peering at it.

From:

aj_crawley

"Oh good," Crowley says dryly, squinting across at Raguel (damply). "I'm so relieved."

There's no real ire in his voice, though - even if Raguel probably shouldn't fall asleep around Crowley any time soon.

From:

un_fallen

"Having more liquor is going to be important very soon," he points out. "Like when it's colder."

He seems to take pity on Crowley, though. He screws the top back onto the flask and prepares to throw it to him.

From:

aj_crawley

"Ugh," says Crowley, succinctly expressing his opinion on that.

Giving his eyes a final wipe, he bunches up the handkerchief and sends it sailing back across to its owner.

"Anyway," he continues, sanctimonious and wholly hypocritical, "I hope we've learned our lesson about dangerous mid-air stunts?"

From:

un_fallen

"Lesson?" he says blankly, stuffing the piece of cloth back into a pocket. "So what would you call that dive you like to do, if an unarmed feint was a dangerous mid-air stunt?"

From:

aj_crawley

"I'd call it 'not assaulting someone with an open flask of eye-burning liquid in their hands'. And anyway," he adds smugly, "if you want to get technical about it, the dangerous bit of that one isn't exactly in what you'd call mid-air."

From:

un_fallen

"Oh right," he says, with a very slight roll of his eyes. "A long drop and a sudden stop, isn't that what they say? Only the stop's not quite as sudden. And it's less messy."

He brightens in spite of this rather morbid idea.

"And we got a flask out of it."

From:

aj_crawley

"I rest my case," Crowley replies. "My actions brought us alcohol, and yours only resulted in its loss. That seems like a pretty fair arbiter of was that a bat?"

From:

un_fallen

"It wasn't a loss if we still have the same-- oh," he says, staring off in the same direction.

"Prrrrobably? Too late for birds, anyway, and most of them don't come out this far." He grins.

"Unless it was a really, really big bug."

From:

aj_crawley

Crowley makes a face.

"Eurgh. I'll hope it was a bat, then, and just... be sure to keep my mouth shut. Something kind of unsettling about thinking you see something moving out of the corner of your eye when you're practically at cruising altitude."

From:

un_fallen

"I doubt it was a bug," he says, relenting a little. "Not enough food out here for them to get that big. But if you want to avoid the bats we could always go higher. Or lower. Really low."

He gets a rather predatory look at this idea. They aren't quite as high as they'd been at the beginning of Crowley's dive, so if he really listens he can hear the creatures' calls all around them.

From:

aj_crawley

He can't read Raguel's mind, but the facial expression is hard to miss, and Crowley narrows his eyes suspiciously.

"Why, what's really low?"

From:

un_fallen

"Oh, a few plants, I dunno. A bunch of nothing. But when you're skimming along a few feet above the ground you get a really good sense of how fast you're going."

Also there's a good chance you'll slam into something in the dark, but still. It's kind of a Thing. He wisely does not mention the potential of getting bugs stuck in the teeth.

From:

aj_crawley

" - Ah," Crowley says, lighting up. "Now that, that I can get behind."

There is a reason he gets the same kicks from flying as from driving.

From:

un_fallen

And there's a reason Raguel is always trying to goad Coyote into taking him for a desert drive on her motorcycle. Fortunately, he doesn't have to goad very hard.

"Want to give it a try?" he asks. "It's one of the perks about the middle of nowhere."

From:

aj_crawley

"You say that now," Crowley smirks. "Obviously you've never done ninety down the middle of Oxford Street at rush hour."

From:

un_fallen

Raguel blinks at him.

"...In a car? What do you do, shrink it to the size of a mouse?"

From:

aj_crawley

Crowley looks a little affronted at the notion that he would ever do such a thing to his Bentley at all, let alone in order to chicken out of reckless endangerment.

"Come on, you've seen my car. It's a pretty big fucking car. That's what makes it so fun."

From:

un_fallen

"Yeah, but that seems pretty - oh." It strikes him that possibly 'dangerous' was what Crowley had in mind with the entire venture.

"All those people, though. Don't you have to keep them from noticing?"

From:

aj_crawley

Crowley eyes Raguel askance, eyebrows raised.

"I dunno about you, but actually I prefer people to be able to see me coming. Maybe it's just a personal preference."

(And of course, it means Aziraphael can't fault him if pedestrians are still stupid enough to get in his way.)

From:

un_fallen

"Make them forget, then. I mean. Ninety? In rush hour? They must at least realize you're not human."

From:

aj_crawley

"Nah," he says, leaning easily into the breeze and starting a broad, spiraling descent - not the lunatic dive of earlier, but not what you'd call leisurely, either. "I mean, they might wonder, but as long as I deal with the traffic cameras - who's going to believe them? And anyway, most of the time, people don't even believe themselves - end up persuading themselves they didn't see anything."

From:

un_fallen

"Well, that's convenient, at least," he says, following the pattern Crowley's taking.

"And I guess you'd have to take care of the, you know, not killing anyone part. Probably hard to get hospital coverage on cars that don't exist."