"Stress," Crowley reasons, sliding out behind Raguel, and checking the coast, left-right.

"And I don't trust too easily," he adds, calmly. "I just knew you'd see reason."

(hush, hush, Bright One)
And now, Crowley is too close; and too close, with Raguel, means within range. Crowley is within range, and the pistol full of holy water lies discarded behind them, and the remnants of Raguel's fire are crackling off him in ways as invisible, and as thickly palpable, as the residual heat in the air around him, and it's almost, tantalisingly, a dare. But it's not. I trust who I trust.

(and soon you'll have wings)
"I know you have seen reason."

(hush now)
Crowley smiles, a little bit, and the sliver of what shines through looks hardly out of place on him at all.

(still now)
"Because you believe in redemption."


(we'll go home)

"I trust you can find your way out without getting shot?"