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[un_fallen]

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.

Comments

[aj_crawley]

"Still works," he agrees, lifting up the tiny flame between them to eye level.

"Remember, remember," the grin's in his voice, if not visible past the flame, "last November. Not the one just past, I mean - the one before that."

[un_fallen]

"I remember it," he says, more confused than ever. "Don't forget much."

Nothing at all, unless somebody's making a real effort.

[aj_crawley]

"When I was..." he clarifies as an afterthought. Sort of. For a given definition of 'clarify', anyway. "When we all came through that door in the wall. And you and Aziraphael..."

[un_fallen]

"Oh," he says. "Yeah, uh. I know what you mean."

Raguel doesn't blush. Not so you can see it by lighter, anyway.

[aj_crawley]

"There," he says, "the walls - well, never mind the walls. But when you got away from them, it was... big."

Crowley reaches over a little, bringing the flame closer to Raguel's face - close enough for the angel to feel what little warmth there is from it, but mostly, mainly, close enough that its glow fills his field of vision.

His voice sounds detached, distracted; sounding out the words carefully so as to be sure of their meaning.

"Dark, so you couldn't see anything, and big enough that I couldn't see anything. For... forever, you know? And cold."



With a click, Crowley flips the top down on the last, lonely flicker of light, and life, and warmth.

Like this, he doesn't need to say.

Big, and dark, and cold.

[un_fallen]

Raguel shivers a little against his will. With the brightness of the flame suddenly extinguished, he can't see a damn thing, and the strange quality Crowley's voice has taken on isn't exactly reassuring.

"Given the condition you all were in when you came back, uh. I only saw the others for a second, but it looked like there was more wrong than just the cold. They were. Shaken up."

It's the kindest way he knows to phrase it.

[aj_crawley]

For a moment, silence - and in the pitch, pitch black, that's the most disconcerting thing of all.

Then:

"Yeah," Crowley says. "The last thing I remember, things. Things started - moving."

Suddenly - heart-attack suddenly - warm fingers close around Raguel's wrist, and an unseen hand drops the lighter into his.



"Anyway, that's why I was - you know. Before. Why I couldn't find the flask."

[un_fallen]

It takes him a second.

"Moving?" he repeats, and jumps when Crowley grabs his wrist. His fingers clench tightly around the lighter.

"Oh. But you're okay now," he says, as though to reassure himself. "Would, um. Would it have helped if I'd brightened up the fire a little?"

[aj_crawley]

"No," he says. "I mean - yes. Yes, moving, no, it wouldn't have helped, I don't think."

He doesn't particularly sound as though he minds. In fact, he sounds - well, not cheerful. But okay. Normal.

And little by little, as night vision returns: he looks okay, too. He's also watching Raguel carefully.

[un_fallen]

"Would anything help?" he asks after a moment. "If it happens again, I mean. I guess there's not much I could do from this side of that door if you were inside."

He turns the lighter over and over in his hands, but doesn't seem anxious to put it back in his pocket.

[aj_crawley]

That, more than anything, seems to throw Crowley; for a long few seconds, he simply looks blankly at Raguel, hand scratching uncertainly at the thick wool of his coat, right above the centre of his chest.

One false start, and then finally, "I don't really intend on it happening again."

[un_fallen]

"No," he agrees, "but I don't guess you intended for it to happen the first time. I just - if there's anything - "

He trails off. The lighter keeps moving through his hands, which makes a low, raspy sound in the silence.

"I don't like not knowing what to do."

[aj_crawley]

"You and me both."

"I'll tell you what you can do, though," he adds after a moment. "If you see any doors in the walls that aren't normally there, stick a 'do not enter' sign in front of them. A big one. Maybe after throwing in a grenade."

[un_fallen]

"I mean what happened tonight," he says, and grins suddenly.

"A sign I can do. I think carrying grenades would be a professional hazard, though."

[aj_crawley]

"As opposed to being any other kind of hazard? You're probably right, though. You go to light up a cigarette without paying attention, we eventually find your hat in a palm tree."

There's probably not much to be done. Nothing that Raguel hasn't already.

[un_fallen]

"I'll be sure to keep any lighters in a pocket without a grenade pin," he promises.

"The hat's okay, though, right?"

[aj_crawley]

"To be honest," Crowley says, "I think that hat would probably survive the Apocalypse, and I say that having been there."

[un_fallen]

"Oh yeah," he says, grinning. "That's a relief, then. You can't get 'em like that anymore. Dust brushes right off."

[aj_crawley]

"Yeah. Off."

Crowley's more of the opinion that the dust is ground right in, but he doesn't want to tip the balance back the other way: if Crowley's hit his mark, Raguel's probably feeling too sympathetic to blab to Aziraphael about the Cactus Incident.

Or, for that matter, about anything else that's happened tonight.

(His expression might do a good enough job of saying it for him, though.)

[un_fallen]

"Mm," he says, raising an eyebrow. He is probably opposed to blackmail on the level of principle. Probably.

It's not as though he can argue with Crowley's skepticism, though.

[aj_crawley]

"Well," he says, crumbling a little, "you can't see the dust."

And all that that implies.

[un_fallen]

Raguel's attempt at a doubtful face dissolves into laughter.

"That's all that matters. Better, actually, for the day-to-day. I just can't attend anything formal without brushing it off."

[aj_crawley]

A large number of responses jump immediately to the forefront of Crowley's mind, most of them beginning with 'You'd wear that to - ?' but the most pressing is clearly, "You attend formal occasions?"

[un_fallen]

He looks suddenly uncomfortable.

"Well, no. Once in a while, I mean. I've seen a couple of weddings in the bar and I tried not to turn up in a dirty coat. Stood in the back," he adds, a little defensively.

"The others were a long time ago."

[aj_crawley]

Crowley eyes him askance, curiosity now most certainly piqued.

"The weddings, I'll give you, but you can't just be cryptic like that and expect a demon not to get nosy."