Donna woke to soft snoring in her ear. She shielded her eyes from the early morning light and cuddled closer to the warm body behind her, instinctively knowing that it must be Crowley who had his arm laid around her middle.
So last night hasn't been a dream, she thougt with a smug smile on her lips. But had her being alone in her bed been the real dream then? She was confused. And the blooming headache, that softly pounded in the back of her brain, didn't make thinking any easier for her.
Deciding that she couldn't sleep with the first symptoms of a hangover anyway, she sat up and leaned her back against the headboard.
"Crowley, wake up", she croaked, her voice still rough from sleep. He grumbled sleepily, turned around and pulled the blanket over his head.
"Oh, come on", she sighed, as she tried to pull the blankets away from him. "I know that demons don't need any sleep."
"They don't need to eat, either, yet you never see me turning down a Big Mac", he argued. Giving up his half-hearted fight for the blanket, he turned back around, threw his arm over Donna's hip and buried his face in her side. His warm breath poured over her skin as he continued to speak. "It's a sin, it's kind of in our job description. And sloth is actually my second favourite, right after lust."
She squirmed a little, as the demon pressed open mouthed kisses to her side.
"Wait, wait a second", she huffed breathlessly, as the tickling touch of his lips rose goosebumps on her skin. This was too fast. It was always too fast with Crowley, two days ago she was hating his guts, yesterday she missed him like a phantom limp and today they were back at screwing each others brains out. Wasn't this why she wanted her space in the first place? To have some time to think, before she went in again with her head over heels? With one confident shove she pushed him away and fixed him with a stern look. "I think we need to talk, don't you?"
"Oookay." He sat up next to her against the headboard and returned her serious look with a more mocking one of his own. "Okay, what do you wanna talk about?"
She shrugged her shoulders in a defensive manner and rolled her eyes at him reproachfully for not starting a topic on his own. Scaning her brain for a way to express her concerns, she blurted out the first thought in the forefront of her mind. "Have you been gone away last night?"
Crowley averted his eyes to the ceiling and pursed his lips, pretending to think about the question, before slowly answering."Well, I hoped you wouldn't notice."
The frown on her face deepened as she just starred at him for a moment, before she raised her fist and punched his upper arm.
"Ouch", he whined, more for her pleasure than from any actual pain. "What was that for?!"
"For just leaving after sex? For not leaving a note? For not thinking about how it would make me feel waking up alone?" Her voice rose with every point she made. "Just choose one! You know what?", she interrupted Crowley and held a hand infront of his face as he began to form words in his defence. "This is what we need to talk about! We have to talk about some rules. Rule number one: You don't just flap away into the sunset like some lone ranger. I want to know where you go and when you'll be back, and not have to sit around and wait for you as if I'm just another girl in another port."
"Aw, but you're the only girl in this sailor's heart, darling."
"Number two!", she continued unimpressed and counting her claims on her fingers. "You don't kidnap my acquaintances, not even the ones I hate."
"I would lie if I'd say that I didn't see that one coming", he sighed.
"Could you at least pretend to take this serious?", she snapped. "Otherwise you can go puff and get lost and I won't have to waste my breath anymore."
The demon crossed his arms and sank deeper into the cushions. "I'm not going anywhere", he said with a stern look.
Donna scrutinized him for a moment, checking if he finally understood the seriousness of the situation, and then went on. "And you don't torture any people anymore."
She watched with rising fume as his serious mask slowly slipped off again and turned into a bad caricature of somebody caught red-handed.
"That's going to be a bit of a problem", he rushed in a high voice. "They kind of expect some torturing from the king of hell."
"The what?!" Flailing to keep the blanket around her naked body, Donna got out of the bed and glared at him in a red rage. "Bad enough that you're a crossroad demon, now all out of a sudden you're king of hell?!"
"Stop acting like it's a surprise to you. You knew from the beginning what I am and I had told you that I was working on a promotion."
"I didn't think you'd really do it!"
"Thanks, doll. You're a real encouragement", he snarled at her.
"I wanted more compromises! Anything that made you less of a monster."
Suddenly, Crowley had jumped out of bed, not caring about his nudity, and stood right infront of her, his face leaning close to hers.
"I have made these compromises!", he yelled in frustration. His whole posture had lost it's calm shell and his burning anger came to the surface, pumping the blood throug his veins and lighting up small fires in his eyes.
Donna stepped backwards, as if she had been slapped, and wrapped the blanket like an armour closer around her body. He sighed loudly as he watched a flicker of fear crossing her face, before it was replaced by her anger. She was taking a deep breath to yell back at him, but he used the pause to get his point across before she could tell him to get lost.
"Listen", he said in a low voice, forcing the demonic red to leave his eyes as he pushed his anger aside. "I am a demon and there is nothing we can do to change that. I'm making the best I can out of this situation and I know you don't approve of the... more drastic measures my kind likes to take, but don't tell me I'm not trying, because I already made a lot of compromises."
"Oh, yeah? What kind of?", she sneered still not appeased by his calm argumenting.
"It's probably better if I just show you", he told her, as he took a step back and snapped his fingers. Within a blink, he was dressed in is dark suit again. With another snap of his fingers, Donna felt the barrier of clothes between her skin and the blanket she was still holding around her body. She let it drop to the ground and viewed her outfit astonished, before she wrinkled her nose in displeasure. "The same clothes as yesterday?!"
Crowley rolled his eyes subtly. "Where we're going, no ones gonna care if you smell a little." Before the woman could protest again, he had grabbed her wrist and pulled her with him.
This flight was worse than every other one before. It was not as disorienting as the long trip to Alaska, her body seemed to be pulled constantly into the same direction, but the pressure that engulfed Donna from every side didn't stop growing to the point where she couldn't breath anymore, because her chest felt to heavy to rise.
The moment the smoke around her cleared away and the pressure eased off, she sucked the air into her lungs and started to cough at the sharp smell of sulfur.
"Where the bloody hell did you take me?", she demanded to know between gulps of air. Crowley just shot her a smirking glance.
"Correct."
"My patience is wearing this thin", she hold her thumb and pointer to his face, keeping the smallest distance between them. "Stop it with the jokes."
He pushed her fingers out of his face with one hand and waved with a flourish gesture at the room with the other one.
"This is hell."
"No, it's not", she snorted, pointing at the silent people standing in line. "This looks like the tax office in Chiswick."
She took a look around in the long hall. The end and the beginning of the line was to far for her to see and she wondered what all these people were waiting for. They're faces were as blank as the grey walls to their sides and filled the place with the feelings of depression and anxiety. Donna was only a minute there and she aready wanted to leave this grueling place.
"I am trying to reorganize. As king of hell I was so free to make some changes. This is the new Limbo, if you wanna call it that. The first circle of hell." The demon slowly walked along the waiting queue, as he began to explain. Donna followed him bewildered, her anger pushed aside by her curiosity, and looked at the damned men and women intrigued. "These souls are here for minor sins, petty crimes. I felt like you woudn't like it if I'd let them rot in the pit with the rest."
"So instead you're torturing their minds. I don't know if that isn't even worse." She wraped her arms around herself to surpress a shiver. "What happens when they reach the end of the line?"
"Nothing, they just go back to the start." His tone carried a subliminal pride, that not even his straight face could hide. Donna couldn't help but notice his light steps and his haughty demeanour.
"But this isn't all of them, right? You said this is the first circle. Do you still torture the other ones the traditional way?"
He stopped and turned her attention to a young woman standing in line. Her blonde hair hang in greasy strands around her grim face and her back was arched as if a heavy weight was settled upon her shoulders.
"This one got pragnent by her rapist. No one believed her because her skirts had always been to short and she had put this upon herself. Suicides end in hell, but because of her otherwise clean record, we put her here. Now tell me", he turned back to Donna with his deep, calming voice. "Should her baby-daddy stand in the same line as she does?"
The redhead evaded his gaze and eyed the unfortunate woman. "Why punish her at all?"
A small, satisfied smile softened his face, but this time his proud feelings seemed to be directed at her instead of himself. "You just keep asking the right questions, don't you?", he smirked and then changed into his business voice. "This is the least I can do. Hell has a certain reputation, this isn't a holiday resort after all, and if I fail to keep it up, how long do you think I'll stay on top of the food chain before the first demons start to loose their respect of me?"
She considered his answer, before she turned back to him. Her look was still challenging, but her unsure voice told him, that she began to understand where he was coming from.
"What do you do to the other ones?"
"You really wanna know?", he asked with a raised eyebrow.
Letting her arms fall to her sides and straightening her back, she gave him a forceful nod.
"I can't go into detail about all of them, but as soon as her offender ends up down here, he is going to be fed is own dick for breakfast for the rest of eternity." This time, Crowley clearly couldn't keep the self-satisfied smirk from his face. He waited for Donna to return it, but she kept a straight face and stayed unusually quiet, turning his smile in a concerned frown.
"Hey, you alright?"
"Yeah", she huffed with another thoughtful glance towards the mistreated girl. "I just want to leave. Please."
"Okay."
He laid his hand on her shoulder, but on a second thought he let it slide down her arm and took her hand. Seing it as a good sign that she didn't pull away, he intertwined his fingers with hers.
Just a few seconds later they stood in Donna's sunlit kitchen, the events seeming surreal to her. Still thinking to herself silently, she sat down at the table, while Crowley turned towards the counter and started making tea, one eye always on the woman.
While the water slowly heated up, he walked up next to her.
"You know I can't stand it when you're yelling at me, but I loath it when you don't talk at all."
Donna lifted her eyes from the table and studied him with an assessing gaze.
"I've been thinking."
With a deep sigh, he let himself drop down on a chair.
"That never worked in my favour."
"I've been thinking about compromises. In a way, you are just punishing the bad boys, right?"
"Well, yeah, if you wanna look at it that way-"
"So what if I agree on the compromise that I turn a blind eye on your... your job, as long as you never bring any work back home."
The anxious expression on Crowley's face immediately lifted and turned into the most honest smile she had ever seen on him.
"I could certainly drink that cup!"
Resting one hand around her neck, he leaned forward, but Donna pulled back before his lips could even graze hers. With her fingers on his mouth, she gave him a meaningful look.
"I'm serious. No demonic games or evil plots unless it has strictly to do with your position." It was still strange for her to think about Crowley's new position. King of hell, it would be ridiculous, if she didn't already knew so much about the supernatural world. And to imagine that she used to strive to end up with a lawyer! Even though her mother would probably see no difference between the two. "And the other stuff, too. No more sudden vanishing!"
Covering the fact, that he could barely keep from rolling his eyes, Crowley fiercely nodded his head in agreement.
"Do we have a deal?"
"Only if I get control over the remote now and then."
He watched with deep satisfaction as the corner of her lips twitched upwards, because that smile, how ever small it was, it was the first she had graced him with this morning. And to be the one who put it there? It felt fucking great to be able to do this again.
"Except when The Bachelor is on, I know how much you love that show."
"You'd wish, you arse! I only watch it 'cause otherwise you'd pester me until I switch the chanel", she countered with a laugh that made the proud feeling in Crowley's chest swell up even more.
Her hand on his shoulder pulled him back into her space and he closed his eyes in anticipation of finally reviving their relationship with a kiss. Savouring the moment, he delayed the intimate gesture by letting their nose softly graze first.
The blatant whistle of the kettle startled them both out of the action. Exhaling the breath he had been holding, Crowley let his forhead drop to Donna's shoulder. With a small chuckle, she combed her finger's through his hair, before she pushed him away once again.
"Now go and make me breakfast, my hangover is killing me."
To her surprise, he got up and followed her request without objecting, but not without stealing a quick kiss first.
Maybe this can work, she thought with glee. If we talk more things out, this could really work.