It's just the power to charm

[caycep]

((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

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[soho_angel]

Aziraphale, meanwhile, had heard the Bentley pull out, and was waiting in a garden chair with a book out in front of Club 33 so he could intercept Crowley when he returned. He wasn't actually reading, however, but was trying to decide where this situation fit in the continuum of bizarre and difficult incidents that punctuated his long life. Somewhere well below the Apocalypse, the Deluge or the Crusades, he reckoned, but definitely a notch or two above Warlock's birthday party. How it stood in relation to being clawed up, knocked out and left to bleed to death at Sodom remained to be seen...

[anthony_crowley]

With a great deal of noise, smoke, and flash, the demon eventually careened back into his usual parking spot in front of the club. He cheerfully jumped out of the car without bothering with the door and greeted his colleague.

"Careful, angel. Some sun might actually get on you if you're outside..."

[soho_angel]

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.

[anthony_crowley]

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.

[soho_angel]

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?'

[anthony_crowley]

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."

[soho_angel]

"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..."

[anthony_crowley]

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."

[soho_angel]

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."

[anthony_crowley]

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...

[soho_angel]

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

[anthony_crowley]

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.

[soho_angel]

"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."

[anthony_crowley]

"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."

[soho_angel]

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...

[anthony_crowley]

"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."