(Untitled)

[aj_crawley]

Crowley left his coat and scarf, but there's no snow outside. Even terraformed, Londinium is a central planet, close to the sun; its winters tend to be mild. So there's no snow outside. It's only dark, and cold, and Crowley's back, black-clad and ram-rod straight, is hard to spot at first, but for the noise of him crunching swiftly and stiffly over

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[gonna_live]

He'll hear footsteps on the gravel -- shuffling a little, maybe. Moving slowly, but doggedly.

"Crowley." Kaylee's voice is soft, and without any kind of reproach.

[aj_crawley]

" - Sorry," he says weakly, releasing her. "Sorry. I've just been, I've been, he was really alright?"

[gonna_live]

"Yeah, if you call creepy as all ruttin' hell all right," Kaylee retorts. With at least a small amount of indignation.

[aj_crawley]

A wry sort of amusement flickers across Crowley's face; it's gone quickly.

"You see what I mean," he says, quietly.

[gonna_live]

It's a visible process, Kaylee coming down from being miffed (and slightly smothered) -- until her glance drops and her arms fold tightly (it's cold, and getting colder), and she nods.

"Right after -- "

"I had reason to..."

"Not know," she finishes, awkward. "And I guess... nobody bothered tellin' me. No need to. And I -- I never looked to see who they pinned for it. If they pinned anybody."

[aj_crawley]

"And it was... is, complicated."

He notices her folding her arms against the chill, but - abstractly, nothing more. In a way that has nothing to do with the cold, and everything to do with not feeling it, Crowley is still numb. It makes this, again, now, easier.

"When you go from what he was to, to what I am, it makes you..."

His fingernails scrape gently, absently, at the stone step.

There isn't a word for it.

"Broken," he says eventually, anyway. "And you're not right, no pun intended, in the head. Lucifer manipulated him into doing what he did. He made him think Tam deserved it."

[gonna_live]

Kaylee's mouth tightens. Nobody deserves that.

(Somewhere, a half-remembered reference or lesson: the Father of Lies.)

"Does everybody get that? That it's -- that there's fault don't lie with Raguel?"

[aj_crawley]

"Yes," he says, but - though grim, there's a note of uncertainty in his voice. "I've tried to explain. I mean, I've - been there. Like that, I mean. Not - not well. I would know. And I know Raguel, and explained it to him, too, and he won't be doing it again. But - "

[gonna_live]

Something in her recoils at the thought that Crowley was like Raguel, once upon a time -- that he'd get as unsettling, that he'd sound like two other gentlemen of her unwilling acquaintance.

Wise up, she thinks tiredly. 'Verse goes on, and it's just as happy to go on without you and run you over in the process. Welcome back to the mess.

"But...?"

[aj_crawley]

"Galadan's been... looking for Raguel, since. In the way where they've apparently already fought at least once. And he's provoking him with - it's a long story. Something that was... important. From before. And Raguel's - the way he is, and if you provoke him like that - with that - of course he can't - "

"That's why I was," he waves a hand. "Kaylee, you're the first person to bring me news that he's still in one piece."

[gonna_live]

Kaylee's talked with Galadan all of once -- and he'd said that Gabriel hired him on for his experience in strategy and tactics.

Which could mean... anything, now that she thinks about it. And if Raguel was the one to --

And not like Galadan's all that mortal, either --

Kaylee rubs at her face. "Okay." Muffled. "All right." She lifts her head. "And Raguel won't tell you himself? I mean, not like I'm one to brag about how good I keep up with you, but -- "

[aj_crawley]

There's a strained pause. Then:

"No," Crowley admits, levelly. His words seem curiously... concise, perhaps, clipping the months since the assassination attempt down into a barely adequate summary.

"If Raguel doesn't want you to find him, you generally won't. And he knows I'd try to stop him. And Gabriel's only just now agreed to speak to Galadan about it, so the past few months've been - "

His blank, black gaze trains over the lit windows of the house.

"Long."

[gonna_live]

If Raguel doesn't want you to find him, you generally won't.

I'll be seeing you, Raguel said.

Kaylee feels a little sick.

"So basically," she says, and it's a little shaky, "we got two immortal-types runnin' around the 'verse and nobody knows where they are, could be anywhere, and they're gunnin' for each other -- and they're not so likely to pay attention to anybody while they're doin' it?"

[aj_crawley]

"Basically."

"I could - Raguel would listen to me, if Galadan weren't baiting him into the whole thing. But maybe now that Gabriel's grown a - "

His teeth click together, audibly, and he falls silent for a moment.

(It's easy to be angry about this all over again, when the alternative is dwelling on - on what's just happened.)

(But one is too close to the other, and Crowley can't.)

(Steel and stone.)

"Maybe now."

[gonna_live]

Gabriel.

It doesn't take a genius to put the pieces together. Nor does it take a genius to reach another conclusion.

After a moment, Kaylee says, soft, "I can't say I blame him for not wantin' to get involved in this, considerin' how much he didn't like bein' in the hospital. And gettin' sliced all to hell. And all of it. And if they're not payin' attention, seems like chances are pretty good somebody on the sidelines is gonna get hurt."

[aj_crawley]

"I thought so too, but he said it wasn't that. I just - "

He shakes his head sharply.

"It doesn't matter. He could, and I - asked him. And he wouldn't." (He flushes dully at the memory; even now, it makes him feel... foolish, for thinking - ) "But now he says he'll try. So it doesn't matter."