dizzy_land | It's just the power to charm

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It's just the power to charm

((Closed to Cayce, Azi, Crowley, and Ellie. Backdated to a day or two after the Bentley Babes caper.))

Cayce wasn't jealous. That much was easy enough to define; she cared for Crowley a lot, but not That Way. And notwithstanding her admission at the community Truth or Dare game, she definitely wasn't queer for Ellie either, although she certainly liked her well enough. Actually, she thought the two of them pairing up was kind of cute.

But for reasons she was still hard pressed to identify, she was a little perturbed when the two of them up and vanished from the lake party, and clearly Aziraphale was too. They'd exchanged a few half-heartedly snarky (and subtly worried) comments at the time before finally sort of shrugging it off, and Cayce had said something about coming by the tea shop later.

So now she was suiting action to the word. She sort of hoped that Crowley wouldn't be around. It'd spare everyone a touch of awkwardness.

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Aziraphale raised his eyebrows, regarding his counterpart bemusedly. Crowley had been in such high spirits since the party, and it was really quite a lovely change of pace, if a bit unsettling (especially now that he knew the likely cause.) He hoped he wasn't about to spoil it.

"Perish the thought." He shut his book and rose. "Although I don't think I'm quite so enamoured of my books yet as to fade in the sunlight as they do. Do you think you could spare me a moment before you return to whatever depravity has been keeping you so busy?" He'd used that line at least a thousand times, but had never meant it quite so literally before.

Not even Aziraphale could claim that tater tots were depraved... Crowley shrugged and indicated the front door. "Lay on, Macduff."

The latter part of that quote was better meant for Ellie.

Aziraphale went inside and held the door for Crowley (whose limp, he noted, actually seemed a bit less pronounced than he recalled. Interesting.)

"Cayce visited the shop today," he began as he shut it, trying to approach the subject from a favorable angle. "We were both a little concerned a few nights ago when you disappeared from the party. You and Ellie," he added unnecessarily, and sighed inwardly. He really was terrible at this sort of thing. "I, that is we, just wanted to know...to make sure that...everything is all right." Pathetic, but how exactly does one broach the subject? 'Oh, by the way, I think you're only shagging the succubus next door because the Queen of Tarts decided it would be fun to coerce you?'

Pushing the call button, Crowley watched as the door to the old-fashioned lift opened to admit them inside.

"You're worried because I got laid?" he asked bluntly. "Hate to break it to you, Aziraphale, but people do it all the time."

"No, it isn't that," Aziraphale muttered, flushing and not looking at him. "Or, well, I suppose it is, but it's the suddenness of it. You've never shown any interest in anyone for as long as I've known you, including Ellie up until that afternoon, and suddenly you were all but glued to her." As the lift arrived at the upper floor and the doors opened again, he added, "Also, I found traces of something on Cayce that rang of some sort of compulsion, and she said you all had run into Aphrodite on the way there. So forgive me, but yes, I am concerned..."

The demon had had a sharp retort all lined up when Aziraphale mentioned a compulsion...

"You think I was forced into this by a love goddess?" clarified Crowley. They had met Aphrodite on that drive. And he had been a lot more interested in Ellie after that. (And somewhat in Cayce but he was never going to mention that to anyone ever.)

"But I'm not in love with Ellie."

Aziraphale almost wilted with relief. "Good," he said, a bit more forcefully than he intended (and experiencing a moment of cognitive dissonance, as in general he was supposed to approve of love and frown on lust, not the other way around.) As with Cayce, though, it wasn't a matter of jealousy. He could just see so many ways such a situation could have gone horrifyingly wrong it hurt his head to contemplate it.

"Nevertheless, she is a goddess of love, beauty and sexual rapture," he reminded Crowley after a moment, "and known for her tempestuous ways. But there, I shan't belabor the point. I don't mean to pry. I just thought I'd be remiss not to mention it."

Catching the angel's expression out of the corner of his eye, Crowley set it aside to ponder later.

"Oh, right," he said. "Just wanted to casually pass along the message that my feelings might have been ever-so-slightly manipulated against my will and then wash your hands of the matter. Nice."

His tone was still light, but the demon was vaguely hurt and he wasn't even sure why. He'd had very little control over his life as it was, but Crowley had hoped that, if nothing else, his emotions were at least his own. On non-park-fucking-with-your-head days, anyway...

That wasn't it, of course, not at all. Aziraphale stopped and impulsively reached out to touch his friend's shoulder. "Crowley..." Distressed, he ran a hand through his hair, searching for words. "Of course I'm not washing my hands of anything. It's just never easy to know where the boundaries lie with you, or when I'm overstepping them. Even after all this time."

He drew a deep breath, uncomfortable as always with expressing these things out loud. "You've seemed so happy the past few days, and you have no idea how glad I have been to see it. Truly. You obviously like Ellie, and she seems to genuinely like you." That much about the succubus, at least, he unreservedly approved of. "I could be wrong; it certainly wouldn't be the first time. If you feel that's the case, or that all Aphrodite did was give you a push in Ellie's direction, then...well, that was still a rotten way to go about it, obviously, and no doubt for all the wrong reasons. But for Someone's sake, don't let my prattling spoil a good thing for you."

He made a palms-up gesture. "Just, try to understand my position. Please. That woman has been known to foul peoples' lives up horribly on a whim, and I can't see inside your head." Not without violating the Arrangement, Crowley's privacy, his own conscience and the rules of civilized behavior in general, at least. "If I stayed silent and it turned out she'd tampered with more than your hormones..."

He shoved his hands in his pockets, eyes on the floor. Crowley unhappy with him, that he could live with. Crowley ensnared in some sadistic game, his heart made into a plaything to be carelessly bruised or even broken (again)...no. Not in any circumstance, but especially not if he could have prevented it. "I'd never forgive myself," he concluded simply.

Trying to imagine what he would have felt or said or done had it been Aziraphale who'd suddenly run off to have sex with a woman (cue shudder) after an eternity of chastity, Crowley's shoulders slumped and he nodded in understanding. Anger was so much easier than compassion; he wouldn't want to be an angel again for the world.

"Yeah. All right. So Aphrodite made me do something that I wouldn't have ever done otherwise. And I don't regret it - it worked out - but I'm sure as hell not going to let her get away with fucking around with us..."

The demon's eyes widened behind dark glasses. Us. There had been three of them in the car when they ran into the goddess. And Aziraphale had said... "Holy shit. Did you say she got Cayce, too?" If anything had happened to Cayce, he was going to rip that Greek bitch apart.

"Yes," the angel said, somewhat reluctantly, knowing how touchy Crowley could be where Cayce was concerned, "but there wasn't much there, and she said nothing to me to suggest that anything untoward had happened with her. I'd say she was either caught unintentionally or," he paused a moment, thinking, "or possibly the geas was intended to affect two of you, without specifying which two? It's a bit late in the game to say for sure, I'm afraid, but at any rate she seems to have escaped without incident."

"I could have... with CAYCE?!" Crowley blanched, horrified. It wasn't that she wasn't attractive or he didn't like her. It was precisely because she was and he did. A lot. Just not that way. She was human and had a boyfriend and it would have been messy and awkward and wrong. (Crowley could be remarkably old-fashioned sometimes for a modern demon-of-the-world.)

"Fucking hell. That blonde bint is going down."

Aziraphale sighed, knowing nothing he could say was likely to change Crowley's mind. He wasn't even sure he would if he could. Really, as much as he tried to downplay it for the sake of keeping the peace, that kind of behavior just was Not On, sex goddess or no. Free will (even, or perhaps especially, the limited forms thereof that were granted to beings such as themselves) was a precious thing, and not to be frivolously violated.

"Well, first things first," he said resignedly, thankful at least that Crowley wasn't the type to go charging off on a headlong quest for immediate vengeance. "Cayce was going to speak to Ellie, and I expect she'll be none too happy either." Probably less so, given that Aphrodite would represent competition in a more than theological sense for her. Or so he assumed. "She'll probably be wanting to talk to you, if she doesn't decide to take matters into her own hands first." Oh dear, now why hadn't that possibility occurred to him earlier...

"Shit," said Crowley feelingly. He would have to talk to Ellie and Cayce about this, wouldn't he? And it would be all awkward... But they might enjoy planning their revenge.

The demon already had a few thoughts in that direction.

"I'll talk to her."

Aziraphale nodded, and smiled slightly, his worry giving way partly to what might or might not have been amusement. "At any rate, I've been meaning to say, however it came about..." His smile widened, and he clapped Crowley's shoulder as he walked past him toward his room, "Good show."

The demon's lip twitched. "Perv," he murmured and headed back for the door.

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It's just the power to charm

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