Let's Party 'til the World Ends | HP/SPN | 4/10
Previous Part
2005
March
Crowley glanced around the room he had appeared in upon finding where Harry was hiding out. Hiding out was possibly not the right phrasing, given he doubted Harry really hid from anything, but it was the only way of putting it other than 'randomly traveling around and hoping to not get completely and hopelessly lost before someone could come along and save him'. This time it looked like Harry was back in Japan, somewhere that he liked to go apparently. Crowley had yet to build up the courage to ask him why. He didn't feel he was ready for the undoubtedly weird reason just yet.
Still he had a need to speak to Harry, and possibly Loki if anyone was able to pin him down for longer than a day, so he'd hunted the man down and found him.
In Japan, apparently.
At least the man no longer thought Hong Kong was in Japan. That was an embarrassingly confusing conversation for all involved.
Spotting Harry standing over a, quite probably recently, dead body, Derek standing next to him with a vaguely exasperated look on his face, Crowley snorted and made his way over. Harry, clearly sensing Crowley, looked up when he was half way there and smiled blankly.
Now, Crowley had pondered that once, and had even had a conversation about it with Loki. Harry could smile blankly. They had no idea how he did it, but he did. He smiled at you, but you knew behind the smile it was completely blank. Harry was feeling and thinking absolutely nothing. Or he was thinking about what he was going to have for breakfast three Fridays into the future. It was a skill that Crowley sometimes wished he had. But considered that if it meant he turned as batshit insane as Harry, then he was fairly happy just grimacing to get the idea across that he was vaguely pleased to see someone.
"Crowley! What can we do for you? Oh dear, you weren't related to him were you? It was entirely by accident. Derek mentioned something about my being able to just… kill with a touch and I had to try it out," Harry babbled to him, and Crowley took the time until Harry finally stopped to glance down at the dead body. Of a elderly Japanese man. Who looked nothing like Crowley beyond being male.
"I have no relation to him whatsoever. Kill whoever you like, doesn't bother me. Well, maybe not the people whose souls I own. Giving them back is always a tiresome fare, the paperwork gives you hand cramps."
"Right! So no visitations or anything. So you must be here to see me! Or Derek. Oh, did you want to see Derek?" Harry asked him, tilting his head to the side in a way that told Crowley Harry was actually trying to work out if Crowley would look good with Pink hair.
He didn't.
Blue suited him better, according to Loki.
"Actually, I'm here to speak to both of you. Do you have any way of getting Loki here?" Crowley asked as he followed Harry through the small house to the dining room and took a seat at the table.
"Derek can go fetch him! Loki doesn't like it when I go get him. No idea why," Harry mumbled. Crowley glanced at him and then looked over at Derek in question, who just shrugged and then disappeared, apparently deciding to go and fetch Loki without actually being asked to do so. "So, any decent deals made recently?"
"Slim pickings recently. Actually, that was one of the reasons I need to speak to you all about. It links to it at least," Crowley murmured into his cup of tea that Harry had conjured up for them - and that Crowley had heated given Harry tended to forget that he was the only person in existence that liked cold tea. Except the Americans.
"Hmm, let's hope Derek does dither when fetching Loki then, shall we? Because I'm dying of curiosity!" Harry stated in a deadpan tone, which belied nothing at all given the man possibly was curious, he just had no way of showing it.
"Really?"
"I actually have died of curiosity once… very peculiar feeling. Not all that painful. Well, it wasn't for me. I was curious about a guillotine, so, you know, I never really had much time to consider pain before I was having my head reattached and I was waking up again. Derek looked very put out by the whole thing. No idea why."
"You beheaded yourself?" Crowley suggested for a reason Derek could have possibly have been narked. He considered that if he found his boss beheaded by his own doing, then he would probably be a little put out about it.
"Aw! You guys missed me so much you had Death himself come bring me to you!!" Crowley actually managed to withhold his groan when he heard Loki's overly enthusiastic greeting, though it was a close thing when the irritating god draped himself over Crowley's shoulders.
"Why must you insist on doing that?" Crowley grumbled, wiping at his cheek when Loki pressed a sloppy wet kiss to his cheek.
"So what's the what?" Loki asked, giving Harry the same treatment and then dropping to sit in the only chair available to him, given Derek had already taken the one to Crowley's right.
"No idea. Crowley came to me; apparently he has something he needed to tell us both. Hence why Derek was sent to collect you and bring you here," Harry explained with a small shrug. Loki glanced at him and then both he and Harry turned to look at Crowley, Derek already having been watching him calmly.
"Well, since we're all here and all, I suppose there ain't nothing keeping me from sharing," Crowley said, leaning back in his seat and trying to work out how to word it. When he really couldn't think of a way, he just mentally shrugged and decided to say it as it was. "Things are fucked in America and there are some disturbing whispers from down below."
"Down below?" Harry asked, looked from Derek to Loki and then back to Crowley, who just raised an eyebrow. Really, he was a demon, where did Harry think he was referring to when he said 'down below'?
"Hell."
"Oh! There. Right. Yeah, don't really care much for that religion. All boring really. There are no exciting gods to hang around with and let's be frank, the worshippers need to crack a smile or two. Plus, they really don't like wizards. What's that about? I mean, sure, some wizards are a little hard to like, you know, strange looking, weird penchant for torturing people and cackling whilst they did it. That kind of thing. But really, burning them at the stake? Now that's just taking things a little too far, don't you think? So! What's going on in the oogedy boogedy parts of Christianity?" Harry asked, and Crowley took a few minutes to actually work out what the bloody hell Harry had said. Given the silence from the other two, they were also having the same problem as him. Sadly, even after having managed to work out what was said, Crowley's mind seemingly got stuck on one thing.
"Oogedy boogedy parts?"
"Yes, well, those. So? Hell? What's going on? Wait, is it Hell that is all burn forever, arg and all that jazz?"
"Sounds about right, yeah. Well, that's not actually all of Hell, but some souls burn," Crowley admitted with a shrug. He couldn't help but think the demons that made their victims burn were highly unimaginative. "That's not my point though. There have been whisperings about plans being set into motion and so on."
"Plans? Sounds mysterious," Loki said, grinning widely. Crowley just rolled his eyes, but didn't comment on the fact that Loki had tensed a little before his trickster persona came back in to play. Crowley just decided to store that to the back of his mind until the right moment came along to question the god about it.
"Quite. Thing is, whatever they have planned, they ain't sharin'. And with demons? That's not a good thing. Most demons I know gossip like bloody washer women. So whatever is going on, it's going to be big. And probably not be good news for anyone involved."
"Do you have any idea of what it could be? At all?"
"It involves Azazel and Lilith. I can't dig too deep on the Lilith side, given she basically owns me. And Azazel is a twat, quite honestly. Thinks he's so great because he's a damned Grigori. Seems to forget that some of us have been demons longer than he has," Crowley grumbled, even saying the damned Grigori's name left a sour taste in his mouth.
"Ah, so you don't actually know anything that might be happening?" Loki asked, his serious side having taken over once he realised just how bad things could get. Something Crowley was highly grateful for, given they only had Derek and Harry to also help. Derek was fine, but Harry…
"What's a Grigori? Is it a name? Like Gregory? Ah, I knew someone whose mother was dyslexic and spelt her name wrong. Very amusing. Is it like that?" Harry asked and Crowley didn't even have the energy to restrain his sigh.
"Sure, that's what happened," Crowley grumbled, ignoring the snickering coming from Loki. "So given Azazel hates the sight of me, and Lilith holds my entire existence in her hands, I can't do anything at all. I did manage to find out one thing though."
"Oh?" Crowley looked to the side when Derek spoke for the first time since bringing Loki.
"It has something to do with something that happened a couple of decades ago. Something about special children. I'm not too sure to be honest. I tend to stay away from America. Which is what I'm suggesting we all do, to be quite honest. Shit is about to hit the fan. We've got more chance of getting out of things intact if we stay out of America."
"But that would also leave us completely unaware of what was going on," Harry pointed out, and that was when Crowley remembered Harry vaguely telling him once that he had been heavily involved and practically led a war when he had been alive.
"Harry has a point," Derek stated calmly. Crowley had to agree and when he met Loki's stare over the table, he knew the trickster did as well.
"Fine, I think we might be good so far to just stay away. Nothing is actually happening just yet. I'll keep watch on everything going on. Once things start to pick up, I'll get in touch with you all again." Crowley stood from the table and looked at the other three, getting a nod from the other three. Locking his gaze on Harry, he narrowed his eyes and made a small decision to find more out just so he could make sure they would all be safe.
"If any of us hear anything, we'll let you know as well. We really should get phones…" Loki muttered, leaning forward in his seat to rest his chin on his crossed arms.
"I have a phone," Crowley stated with a roll of his eyes. The look of surprise from the other three really didn't surprise him. "I'll give you my number, shall I?"
"That would be useful. Though er… I doubt mobile phones will work for me, and probably won't for Derek either," Harry admitted with a small sheepish grin. Crowley just shrugged, writing his number down three times on a piece of scrap paper he'd found in his pocket (he needed to have a word with his dry-cleaner) and handed one to each of them.
"Try, see if it works. Text me your number should it do so. I really need to get going. A deal is going to be up in about an hour or so, so I need to start the hunt. I'll contact you all should I hear anything," Crowley said, then turned on his heels and left the room, and county, without looking back. He had things to plan.
July
Crowley glanced down when his phone vibrated in his pocket. Harry had been right about himself not being able to have a phone, but both Derek and Loki had had no problems getting one. Which was both a blessing and a curse.
Loki needed to stop sending him random texts whenever he was bored.
And speaking of Loki, the text he had just received had been from the god and was asking him to meet. It actually looked serious given Loki hadn't used any random smiley faces or hearts. Or dancing rabbits.
He had no idea what Loki's fascination with rabbits was.
Checking the place they were meeting, Crowley looked over at the two demons tagging along behind him and then disappeared from the small manor house he was currently occupying in his home country. He arrived outside of a fancy looking Italian restaurant.
In Paris.
Only Loki would choose that location.
Walking inside, he squinted a little to allow his eyes to get used to the change in light and then walked to where he saw Loki sitting with Derek, ignoring the concierge when they tried to stop him.
"Where's Harry?" Crowley asked immediately upon sitting down, looking at the two suspiciously over the table.
"He's not here. We wished to speak about the current problem in America without him," Derek admitted with a small, barely noticeable shrug.
"Right, and why would that be? Not that I don't agree, mind. It's always easier to discuss anything to do with America without someone who thinks leaving a state to visit another is going abroad, being there," Crowley added, recalling one such conversation he had had with Harry the previous month.
"We decided we needed a plan of action to keep Harry out of America," Loki finally said, all three having fallen silent when the waiter came to take their orders.
"Does sound like a good idea. I'd love to know how you're going to accomplish it though."
"Well, so far he's never been there because he's never really needed to go. And when he has, to get autographs and such, he's only appeared in the room I was in. I doubt he even realises he was in America in the first place. So it might not be as hard as it sounds," Derek explained. Crowley looked at him and then narrowed his eyes as he thought about it.
"Why not just do that all the time then? Why do we need a plan to keep him out?" Crowley eventually asked them. He really wasn’t seeing the point in this meeting. Harry would never be able to get to America without one of them pointing the way anyway. There was no one on earth more directionally challenged than that man.
"Crowley does have a point," Loki pointed out, and Crowley smirked, glad that someone was seeing his side of things.
"You think it would work? He'd find a way for getting there, just to see what the problem was."
"He'd have to find a way there first. Without us taking him there, he has no chance. He'd end up in New Zealand."
"He thought New Zealand was in America," Derek muttered, and Crowley couldn't stop the snort of amusement at hearing that.
"See. My point exactly. I agree that we need to keep him out, but I don't think we have much to worry about should we not take him there. Making plans to keep him out, therefore, strikes me as being a little pointless," Crowley stated, taking a sip of his wine then looking at the two in front of him to see if they agreed with him.
"Fine, but should my master find a way to get into America without our help - which, given he's like a toddler in that he gets into everything, it is highly likely - then I am blaming you and will expect you to be the one to get him out again," Derek told Crowley. Crowley just nodded his head and decided it would be safer to go back to eating his food than protest at all.
Plus, it probably would have been his fault.
Next
2005
March
Crowley glanced around the room he had appeared in upon finding where Harry was hiding out. Hiding out was possibly not the right phrasing, given he doubted Harry really hid from anything, but it was the only way of putting it other than 'randomly traveling around and hoping to not get completely and hopelessly lost before someone could come along and save him'. This time it looked like Harry was back in Japan, somewhere that he liked to go apparently. Crowley had yet to build up the courage to ask him why. He didn't feel he was ready for the undoubtedly weird reason just yet.
Still he had a need to speak to Harry, and possibly Loki if anyone was able to pin him down for longer than a day, so he'd hunted the man down and found him.
In Japan, apparently.
At least the man no longer thought Hong Kong was in Japan. That was an embarrassingly confusing conversation for all involved.
Spotting Harry standing over a, quite probably recently, dead body, Derek standing next to him with a vaguely exasperated look on his face, Crowley snorted and made his way over. Harry, clearly sensing Crowley, looked up when he was half way there and smiled blankly.
Now, Crowley had pondered that once, and had even had a conversation about it with Loki. Harry could smile blankly. They had no idea how he did it, but he did. He smiled at you, but you knew behind the smile it was completely blank. Harry was feeling and thinking absolutely nothing. Or he was thinking about what he was going to have for breakfast three Fridays into the future. It was a skill that Crowley sometimes wished he had. But considered that if it meant he turned as batshit insane as Harry, then he was fairly happy just grimacing to get the idea across that he was vaguely pleased to see someone.
"Crowley! What can we do for you? Oh dear, you weren't related to him were you? It was entirely by accident. Derek mentioned something about my being able to just… kill with a touch and I had to try it out," Harry babbled to him, and Crowley took the time until Harry finally stopped to glance down at the dead body. Of a elderly Japanese man. Who looked nothing like Crowley beyond being male.
"I have no relation to him whatsoever. Kill whoever you like, doesn't bother me. Well, maybe not the people whose souls I own. Giving them back is always a tiresome fare, the paperwork gives you hand cramps."
"Right! So no visitations or anything. So you must be here to see me! Or Derek. Oh, did you want to see Derek?" Harry asked him, tilting his head to the side in a way that told Crowley Harry was actually trying to work out if Crowley would look good with Pink hair.
He didn't.
Blue suited him better, according to Loki.
"Actually, I'm here to speak to both of you. Do you have any way of getting Loki here?" Crowley asked as he followed Harry through the small house to the dining room and took a seat at the table.
"Derek can go fetch him! Loki doesn't like it when I go get him. No idea why," Harry mumbled. Crowley glanced at him and then looked over at Derek in question, who just shrugged and then disappeared, apparently deciding to go and fetch Loki without actually being asked to do so. "So, any decent deals made recently?"
"Slim pickings recently. Actually, that was one of the reasons I need to speak to you all about. It links to it at least," Crowley murmured into his cup of tea that Harry had conjured up for them - and that Crowley had heated given Harry tended to forget that he was the only person in existence that liked cold tea. Except the Americans.
"Hmm, let's hope Derek does dither when fetching Loki then, shall we? Because I'm dying of curiosity!" Harry stated in a deadpan tone, which belied nothing at all given the man possibly was curious, he just had no way of showing it.
"Really?"
"I actually have died of curiosity once… very peculiar feeling. Not all that painful. Well, it wasn't for me. I was curious about a guillotine, so, you know, I never really had much time to consider pain before I was having my head reattached and I was waking up again. Derek looked very put out by the whole thing. No idea why."
"You beheaded yourself?" Crowley suggested for a reason Derek could have possibly have been narked. He considered that if he found his boss beheaded by his own doing, then he would probably be a little put out about it.
"Aw! You guys missed me so much you had Death himself come bring me to you!!" Crowley actually managed to withhold his groan when he heard Loki's overly enthusiastic greeting, though it was a close thing when the irritating god draped himself over Crowley's shoulders.
"Why must you insist on doing that?" Crowley grumbled, wiping at his cheek when Loki pressed a sloppy wet kiss to his cheek.
"So what's the what?" Loki asked, giving Harry the same treatment and then dropping to sit in the only chair available to him, given Derek had already taken the one to Crowley's right.
"No idea. Crowley came to me; apparently he has something he needed to tell us both. Hence why Derek was sent to collect you and bring you here," Harry explained with a small shrug. Loki glanced at him and then both he and Harry turned to look at Crowley, Derek already having been watching him calmly.
"Well, since we're all here and all, I suppose there ain't nothing keeping me from sharing," Crowley said, leaning back in his seat and trying to work out how to word it. When he really couldn't think of a way, he just mentally shrugged and decided to say it as it was. "Things are fucked in America and there are some disturbing whispers from down below."
"Down below?" Harry asked, looked from Derek to Loki and then back to Crowley, who just raised an eyebrow. Really, he was a demon, where did Harry think he was referring to when he said 'down below'?
"Hell."
"Oh! There. Right. Yeah, don't really care much for that religion. All boring really. There are no exciting gods to hang around with and let's be frank, the worshippers need to crack a smile or two. Plus, they really don't like wizards. What's that about? I mean, sure, some wizards are a little hard to like, you know, strange looking, weird penchant for torturing people and cackling whilst they did it. That kind of thing. But really, burning them at the stake? Now that's just taking things a little too far, don't you think? So! What's going on in the oogedy boogedy parts of Christianity?" Harry asked, and Crowley took a few minutes to actually work out what the bloody hell Harry had said. Given the silence from the other two, they were also having the same problem as him. Sadly, even after having managed to work out what was said, Crowley's mind seemingly got stuck on one thing.
"Oogedy boogedy parts?"
"Yes, well, those. So? Hell? What's going on? Wait, is it Hell that is all burn forever, arg and all that jazz?"
"Sounds about right, yeah. Well, that's not actually all of Hell, but some souls burn," Crowley admitted with a shrug. He couldn't help but think the demons that made their victims burn were highly unimaginative. "That's not my point though. There have been whisperings about plans being set into motion and so on."
"Plans? Sounds mysterious," Loki said, grinning widely. Crowley just rolled his eyes, but didn't comment on the fact that Loki had tensed a little before his trickster persona came back in to play. Crowley just decided to store that to the back of his mind until the right moment came along to question the god about it.
"Quite. Thing is, whatever they have planned, they ain't sharin'. And with demons? That's not a good thing. Most demons I know gossip like bloody washer women. So whatever is going on, it's going to be big. And probably not be good news for anyone involved."
"Do you have any idea of what it could be? At all?"
"It involves Azazel and Lilith. I can't dig too deep on the Lilith side, given she basically owns me. And Azazel is a twat, quite honestly. Thinks he's so great because he's a damned Grigori. Seems to forget that some of us have been demons longer than he has," Crowley grumbled, even saying the damned Grigori's name left a sour taste in his mouth.
"Ah, so you don't actually know anything that might be happening?" Loki asked, his serious side having taken over once he realised just how bad things could get. Something Crowley was highly grateful for, given they only had Derek and Harry to also help. Derek was fine, but Harry…
"What's a Grigori? Is it a name? Like Gregory? Ah, I knew someone whose mother was dyslexic and spelt her name wrong. Very amusing. Is it like that?" Harry asked and Crowley didn't even have the energy to restrain his sigh.
"Sure, that's what happened," Crowley grumbled, ignoring the snickering coming from Loki. "So given Azazel hates the sight of me, and Lilith holds my entire existence in her hands, I can't do anything at all. I did manage to find out one thing though."
"Oh?" Crowley looked to the side when Derek spoke for the first time since bringing Loki.
"It has something to do with something that happened a couple of decades ago. Something about special children. I'm not too sure to be honest. I tend to stay away from America. Which is what I'm suggesting we all do, to be quite honest. Shit is about to hit the fan. We've got more chance of getting out of things intact if we stay out of America."
"But that would also leave us completely unaware of what was going on," Harry pointed out, and that was when Crowley remembered Harry vaguely telling him once that he had been heavily involved and practically led a war when he had been alive.
"Harry has a point," Derek stated calmly. Crowley had to agree and when he met Loki's stare over the table, he knew the trickster did as well.
"Fine, I think we might be good so far to just stay away. Nothing is actually happening just yet. I'll keep watch on everything going on. Once things start to pick up, I'll get in touch with you all again." Crowley stood from the table and looked at the other three, getting a nod from the other three. Locking his gaze on Harry, he narrowed his eyes and made a small decision to find more out just so he could make sure they would all be safe.
"If any of us hear anything, we'll let you know as well. We really should get phones…" Loki muttered, leaning forward in his seat to rest his chin on his crossed arms.
"I have a phone," Crowley stated with a roll of his eyes. The look of surprise from the other three really didn't surprise him. "I'll give you my number, shall I?"
"That would be useful. Though er… I doubt mobile phones will work for me, and probably won't for Derek either," Harry admitted with a small sheepish grin. Crowley just shrugged, writing his number down three times on a piece of scrap paper he'd found in his pocket (he needed to have a word with his dry-cleaner) and handed one to each of them.
"Try, see if it works. Text me your number should it do so. I really need to get going. A deal is going to be up in about an hour or so, so I need to start the hunt. I'll contact you all should I hear anything," Crowley said, then turned on his heels and left the room, and county, without looking back. He had things to plan.
July
Crowley glanced down when his phone vibrated in his pocket. Harry had been right about himself not being able to have a phone, but both Derek and Loki had had no problems getting one. Which was both a blessing and a curse.
Loki needed to stop sending him random texts whenever he was bored.
And speaking of Loki, the text he had just received had been from the god and was asking him to meet. It actually looked serious given Loki hadn't used any random smiley faces or hearts. Or dancing rabbits.
He had no idea what Loki's fascination with rabbits was.
Checking the place they were meeting, Crowley looked over at the two demons tagging along behind him and then disappeared from the small manor house he was currently occupying in his home country. He arrived outside of a fancy looking Italian restaurant.
In Paris.
Only Loki would choose that location.
Walking inside, he squinted a little to allow his eyes to get used to the change in light and then walked to where he saw Loki sitting with Derek, ignoring the concierge when they tried to stop him.
"Where's Harry?" Crowley asked immediately upon sitting down, looking at the two suspiciously over the table.
"He's not here. We wished to speak about the current problem in America without him," Derek admitted with a small, barely noticeable shrug.
"Right, and why would that be? Not that I don't agree, mind. It's always easier to discuss anything to do with America without someone who thinks leaving a state to visit another is going abroad, being there," Crowley added, recalling one such conversation he had had with Harry the previous month.
"We decided we needed a plan of action to keep Harry out of America," Loki finally said, all three having fallen silent when the waiter came to take their orders.
"Does sound like a good idea. I'd love to know how you're going to accomplish it though."
"Well, so far he's never been there because he's never really needed to go. And when he has, to get autographs and such, he's only appeared in the room I was in. I doubt he even realises he was in America in the first place. So it might not be as hard as it sounds," Derek explained. Crowley looked at him and then narrowed his eyes as he thought about it.
"Why not just do that all the time then? Why do we need a plan to keep him out?" Crowley eventually asked them. He really wasn’t seeing the point in this meeting. Harry would never be able to get to America without one of them pointing the way anyway. There was no one on earth more directionally challenged than that man.
"Crowley does have a point," Loki pointed out, and Crowley smirked, glad that someone was seeing his side of things.
"You think it would work? He'd find a way for getting there, just to see what the problem was."
"He'd have to find a way there first. Without us taking him there, he has no chance. He'd end up in New Zealand."
"He thought New Zealand was in America," Derek muttered, and Crowley couldn't stop the snort of amusement at hearing that.
"See. My point exactly. I agree that we need to keep him out, but I don't think we have much to worry about should we not take him there. Making plans to keep him out, therefore, strikes me as being a little pointless," Crowley stated, taking a sip of his wine then looking at the two in front of him to see if they agreed with him.
"Fine, but should my master find a way to get into America without our help - which, given he's like a toddler in that he gets into everything, it is highly likely - then I am blaming you and will expect you to be the one to get him out again," Derek told Crowley. Crowley just nodded his head and decided it would be safer to go back to eating his food than protest at all.
Plus, it probably would have been his fault.
Next