#Crowley's safer with the vampire than being visibly himself in a public space

[fenrislorsrai]

Don’t Follow the Lights

I frequently deal with the weekly prompts on one of the Discord servers by slotting it into a longer works where the theme loosely matches what I had already outlined. This is going in the next chapter of “Fang Fiction” which is a vampire AU. Discord people were just “holy shit Fenris, this is the most terrifying bit out of the whole AU”

---

---

He spun himself around on the swing ‘til the chain was tightened up and then picked up his feet to let it spin him around again. He was light headed and a bit giddy from the action when he realized he wasn’t alone.

Two sets of lights bobbed along the path towards him in a familiar up and down pattern. A checkered line floated behind them, reflecting in the light spill from the torches. He could only vaguely make out pale faces and hands that went with them, eyed dazzled from the light. 

Crowley stilled himself and sat unmoving on the swing. He was probably equally strange looking with a reflective running vest on that made it harder to see where the rest of him was. He hoped they could see his hands holding the chain for the swing. It was important they know where his hands were.

He ran his thumbs along a cold link but stayed still, with his eyes slightly averted. This was the part that always gave him the most trouble. He couldn’t see their faces at all and they’d just shone a torch in his eyes. Yet if he wasn’t looking at the right place, wherever that was, he was being suspicious. He looked at where he guessed their faces probably were. All those times he’d met up with Aziraphale in the dark meant he had a much better guess now of where that was.

He kept his body still and focused on using the same expression he used at work. It was pleasant and a little empty, ready to do whatever was asked.

“Good evening sir, do you know what time it is?” The voice was pleasant but a little too loud.

“No.”  He could tell from the sound of shifting feet that had been too direct. “No. I didn’t look at my phone recently.”

“Are you waiting for someone?” The second light swept off over the park before coming back to shining on Crowley.

“No. No one else is here.”

“Have you been drinking?”

“No.” Though now that he’d been asked, he realized he probably should have brought water with him, even if that’s not what they’d meant.

“Do you have somewhere you’re staying?”

“Yes. At a friends.” 

“And where would that be?”

Crowley had a moment there. He knew how to lie if he had a script. This was an important lie. But he didn’t actually need to lie and it threw him.

“Sir, where are you staying?”

“Jasmine cottage.” He regretted it immediately. Anathema would be in trouble for losing track of him. But she wasn’t supposed to keep track of him either. That hadn’t been anyone’s job for a long time. He wasn’t sure what would happen now.

“Bit of a ways off, where’s your car at?” The lights turned in that direction.

“In the driveway?” Crowley said. This was not how the conversation was supposed to go.

“You ran all that way?” The tone of the voice had changed and Crowley wasn’t sure what to do now.

“Not all of it. I walked some on the bits where there were leaves on the road. It’s not safe to run on wet leaves.” Crowley was pretty sure this was too much information but had no idea what they wanted now. If he said enough things, one of them might be the right thing.

“Are you going to be able to run that distance back?”

“Yes? I got here, I can get back. I know where it is.”

There was a long pause where he knew he’d missed something. They wanted something but he still didn’t know what. Nothing really bad had happened either, which was a relief. 

“Well.” Said one of the lights.

Crowley stayed still and blank.

There was a murmur from the other voice and he caught a word that made him tense up and take a deep breath.

“Do you need a ride home, sweetie?” The other voice had pitched up like it was talking to a child or somehow who was… like him.

“No. Can I go?”

There was a shuffling of feet and a murmur. 

“You can go.”

Crowley got up and skirted around them. For all they said he could go, they were still blocking the path. He started walking, the lights trailing after him. Once he was out of the park he set off at a jog. Don’t run. Then they chase you. Don’t run. He kept to a steady pace all the while wanting to go faster. He got away from the torches and made the brief look back to see how close they were. Far enough they couldn’t catch him now. 

He bolted.

#good omens #fan fic #crowley #obey our mysterious and unstated laws of interaction or suffer the consequences #Crowley's safer with the vampire than being visibly himself in a public space