(no subject)

[dangeroushabits.livejournal.com]

Date: October 2, 2000
Setting: Transatlantic Flight en route to N.Y.
Status: Private - John, Crowley
Summary: The boys take a road trip.



"Would you fucking settle down already?" John said in an undertone as the lady in 4-B screeched about the cargo compartment that had just flown open for no apparent reason, dumping the garish contents of her overstuffed cosmetics case on her head and spilling foundation down the front of her red dress. "The damn plane's not gonna fall out of the air, and if it did, hello, you can work miracles. Remember?"

Crowley had been none too pleased at the prospect of getting on a plane in the first place, and he'd been taking his nervousness out on the other passengers almost from the moment they'd lifted off. The flight attendants were almost in tears, several people had demanded that their seats be changed or their tickets refunded, and at least one lady had had an unexpected religious conversion when a particularly bad patch of turbulence had convinced her the jet was going down, which had in no way improved Crowley's mood.

John reflected glumly as he watched several tubes of expensive lipstick roll past him down the aisle that it was probably best he had caved and let the demon gimmick them first-class seats. Crammed into coach, things would likely have been ten times worse.

He was looking forward to seeing Zatanna again and to introducing her to his best mate, but he was seriously considering booking passage on a boat for the return trip.

Comments

[no-npc-here.livejournal.com]

"Belial," Zatanna repeated, blinking owlishly. She'd heard the name before, from John and from several other sources, but certainly not in any context even remotely like this. In fact, though he'd never been very forthcoming with details, she was fairly certain John had named that particular Crown as a mortal enemy at one time.

She resolutely refused to dwell any more on the notion of the two of them...or of Belial and Crowley...or Gabriel...or any combination of the four...because there was only so much a girl could take, dammit, and John by himself was challenge enough. "This Manor place must really be something else."

[anthony-crowley.livejournal.com]

"It is just Belial," Crowley agreed. "A snog and a grope is pretty much just a polite greeting. Wouldn't go farther without the Snob's permission, though... I think."

The demon looked significantly at John. By way of explanation, he said, "Well, the negotiations for a particular item were fairly heated. And he wasn't with Gabriel yet..."

Crowley had almost had to sleep with Belial to get John's soul piece and they had exchanged sigils not long afterward. Even something as simple as signing a contract with the Crown could be an erotic experience. Although imagining John kissing him... Crowley shook his head.

"It really is. And that's without even mentioning Adam."

[no-npc-here.livejournal.com]

"Adam, he's the antichrist, right?" Zatanna nodded. The only other thing John had told her about Adam was that he was a "nice kid" and he protected everyone at the Manor. She suspected he'd only said that much to reassure her that he wasn't going to get killed hanging around with an unprecedented gathering of powerful supernatural entities, any one of whom could squash him like a bug if he annoyed them too much (and John being John, that was pretty much a given.) She wasn't sure whether it said more about John that he expected her to consider Satan's son a reliable protector, or about her that she did, just because John said so.

Crowley's reference to an item caught her attention, not only because of the emphasis he placed on the word but because of the way John tensed momentarily at the reference, his eyes flickering away from them both for just a second. She wondered if it could have anything to do with the panicked call she'd gotten from him months before, and the strange, urgent questions he'd asked. She also knew better than to ask about it when he was reacting in this way; getting information out of John that he didn't want to share was like pulling wisdom teeth. So she let it be, listening and piecing things together as he talked with his friend. Some other things she'd been wondering about for a while now were already beginning to come clear.

[dangeroushabits.livejournal.com]

John frowned slightly. "Yeah, s'pose I should have guessed. The big emo bastard never lets anybody get away without a proper seeing-to if he can avoid it." He checked a sigh, once again slightly discomfitted by the lengths Crowley seemed willing to go to for his sake. That he would reciprocate without hesitation didn't really enter into it, given the inequality of their respective ability to follow through on that sentiment.

Turning back to the television, he watched the now eerily-accurate parodies of the archangel and the Crown play out their pantomime. "The Manor's like no place I've ever seen. Sometimes it hardly makes any more sense than this," he gestured at the screen, words failing him. "I keep wondering if Adam's got it all planned out or if he's making the whole thing up as he goes along."