Crowley is a demon, a spectral being that needs no food or sleep.
But similarly, like his best friend, who loves mortal food, Crowley loves to sleep, he slept all throughout the 14th century once. He did not like that decade, hence the extra-long nap.
This wasn't all that different. The Fallen are the elite among Demons, they Fell with Crowley. Like him, they each had a painful bath in boiling sulfur. Even though falling means something different now, your wings being burnt to a crisp, being stripped of your Grace, practically becoming human. Needing food, sleep, oxygen, can die a mortal death.
Crowley isn't so sure which one he would've preferred, it took forever for his wings to heal, although they are now almost always impossible to take care of now, feathers always rumpled, looking greasy, even though Azirphale assures him they are anything but, and they were a weird mix of muddy gray-black.
At least he didn't lose them in the Fall.
But the Fall took a toll on many of his brothers and sisters. Many killed each other in a blind rage, a lesser few destroyed themselves in shame, leaving the number of the Fallen diminishing rapidly. Not many were left.
Now he's the only one.
That alone made him tired enough to take a small nap. Which may or may not have lasted a day or two.
But his time of resting was interrupted in the early morning the next day, the sun was nowhere near to coming up yet.
"Hello...?", he groans, groggy, voice raspy from sleep.
"We need to talk.", Dean's voice came in through the phone.
The Hunter sounded unusually rattled. This woke Crowley up instantly, already sitting up in bed, throwing off the covers.
"Where?"
"425 Watermain.", his answered where clipped, but his voice shook, despite the human's best efforts.
"What's it about?"
"... Sam and my mom."
Dean hung up, and Crowley was filled with dread and worry.
...
Crowley stood in the living room with his arms crossed, sunglasses hiding his eyes as he stared at Azazel talk to the poor girl, Liddy, he believed she introduced herself as.
Of all jobs he had to be assigned, it had to be with this guy, who is as crazy as he is smart. Making it ten times more difficult for Crowley to shift the situation where there is less bloodshed than there has to be spilt.
Azirphale has always told him he wasn't a very good Demon.
But that didn't mean he couldn't disobey orders, that would mean torture at his end, or worse, Death.
"I'm sorry Liddy.", Azazel says, taking off the stethoscope he used for the 'checkup', "It's a Metazoans."
"Where?", Liddy asks.
If it weren't for his glasses the two would be able to see Crowley close his eyes in dread. He hates making deals with mortals like this.
"His liver his lungs.", Azazel answered, "It's time we talked about arrangements."
"No, you have to do something, Doctor Brown.", the girl says desperately.
'Don't worry.', Crowley thinks to himself as he watches the psycho work, 'He'll do something alright.'
"There is one thing. A cure actually.", he tells her urgently, taking her hand in his, "But I'll need your help."
"What do I have to do?", Liddy asks.
"Nothing. Just in ten years I'm going to come to you and ask you for something.", Azazel said in a calming way, as if this type of payment was normal.
"What?", the girls said, obviously confused.
"Nothing you'll miss."
She stares at him, and Azazel let's his eyes turn a pale yellow.
Her eyes widen, and if she was given another moment, she looked like she was about to scream.
But the front door was kicked open, and in stepped an old man with a rifle. He cocked it and shot Azazel in the chest; the girl screamed. Crowley, hid in the shadows of the hallway behind him, remaining out of sight from the Hunter.
He cocked his gun again, Azazel opened his yellow eyes and with a flick of his hand, the gun was wrenched from the mortal's grip. Then, with another flick, he was pinned to the opposite wall, just nearby where Crowley stood.
"Oh God.", mumbled the girl.
"Hold that thought.", Azazel told her with a smirk.
He got up, dusting himself up, glancing to Crowley, who stood right next to the Hunter without him even noticing.
"Thanks for the help.", he says sarcastically.
The Hunter turned to Crowley with wide eyes, obviously wondering how long he had been standing there.
"Unlike you, I don't possess others, I like to keep my body in as much tip top shape as possible.", Crowley replies languidly, "Also, you're a bastard, yah deserved it."
Azazel just chuckled, with that wide annoying creepy ass grin of his as he approaches the pinned hunter.
"You son of a bitch.", the Hunter growled.
Crowley's eyes flickered to behind Azazel, but made no move to his aid. Azazel didn't need it. He whirled and caught a blonde girl, who looked to be around Liddy's age, and caught her by the throat just as she was about to stab him with a knife.
"Hello there."
She sliced Azazel's arm, forcing him to let go of her.
"Where the hell have, they been hiding you?", Azazel asked.
Instead of answering the girl went for another swipe of her knife. He dodged one swing, then another, then caught her arm on the third, easily disarming her.
The man struggled, but remained firmly pinned to the wall.
She punched him, causing Azazel to stumble back, before slowly turning to the girl.
"I like you, got a love spot."
She went for a kick, he caught her leg, pulled her in before thrusting her up and against a wall, shattering a picture frame in the process.
Suddenly another hunter, armed with the famous colt, stepped in, and Azazel was quick to use the girl as a shield, his eyes glowing yellow once again.
"Let her go!", he demanded.
But something sung to Crowley, he narrowed his eyes and realized this man was not from this time.
Angels.
"Where'd you get that gun?", Azazel demanded, looking mildly afraid.
The new Hunter just cocked it. This is where, Crowley believed, was his time to intervene.
He pushed himself forward, placing himself in the new hunter's view. He paused, shock washing across his features.
Crowley ignored him placing his hand on the lower Demon's shoulder, "I say it'd be a good time to retreat. You can't continue whatever plan you have if you're dead."
Azazel stared at him before grinning.
"Fine then."
The girl elbowed him, causing him to release her. Crowley stepped back and a big cloud of black smoke exited the man's mouth before the body fell over, dead.
The man from earlier fell to the ground, Azazel's powers no longer being used to keep him in place. The new Hunter just stared at Crowley in shock.
"Crowley, you're with him!?", he asks, more like demands.
Crowley tilted his head, unsure on how to go by this.
"I can tell what happened to you.", Crowley says as if he was in a casual conversation.
The Hunter looked shocked.
"You don't belong here.", Crowley tells him, "Judging by your tone, I've helped you often, if not, then enough for you to know me. Maybe I found a better way to wiggle around orders without having to worry about being doused in Holy Water, a guy could Dream. Now, what's your name?"
"... Dean.", the Hunter, Dean, answered cautiously.
Crowley doesn't blame him, who knows how different he is in the future compared to now.
"You're a Demon.", the older man hissed.
Crowley took off his glasses to reveal his snake eyes.
"Crowley, Serpent of Eden at your service. I've been assigned to help the psycho accomplish the first step of his plans, whatever those are, I just follow him around.", Crowley turned to Dean, "I tried to help steer him from causing as much bloodshed as he usually would have as possible. But I couldn't do much without getting into trouble from down there."
"Trouble?"
"I'm high up on the food chain boy. High enough where they keep a close eye on me, but not high enough where I can get away with anything.", Crowley tells him, placing his glasses back over his eyes, "My side isn't very forgiving kid. Whatever I did for you or to you, I'm not going to be much help here. You're on your own. The best I can do is support you in secret."
Dean's gun lowered as he stared at Crowley wide eyed.
"Hope you achieve what you came here to do. I'm rooting for yah, kid."
With that said, Crowley disappeared.
...
Crowley watched from the edge of the woods as the girl, the female Hunter that he saw fight with Azazel, who is now possessing her father, the first hunter that entered Liddy's house earlier.
He stared with dread pooling in the pit of his stomach as the girl made the deal with Azazel.
The girl, Mary, gave her permission just as Dean got there, the tires of his car squealing on the road.
"No!", he shouts.
But it was too late.
The two Hunters shared a look before Mary's lover woke with a start. While the two had their moment, Crowley walked towards Dean out of the safety of the shadows. He could sense that Dean was about to be pulled back any minute. Their time together is short.
Dean noticed him immediately.
"Why didn't you stop him?", Dean asks, his body hunched over in defeat.
Crowley would have expected the young Human to be screaming at him in anger.
"I'm sorry."
Because what else could he say?
"My hands were tied, there wasn't anything that I could do.", Crowley took off his glasses, and placed them in his jacket pocket, "I have people I want to protect, just like you. If I acted out, it wouldn't be long before my friend is found out as well, and is destroyed."
Dean nodded, head still lowered, before patting the Demon on the back good naturally.
"Guess you have it bad too, huh?"
Crowley shrugged, "Others have it worse. Past, present, or future. You just have to play through with the cards you've been dealt with. Piece of advice, just do the best you can in life."
Dean chuckled before turning to Crowley with a crooked smile.
"You sure you're not a Demon?"
Crowley let a small laugh escape him as well, "I assure you; I am very much a Demon. I'm just a Demon that has Fallen for Humanity."
Dean nodded, thinking over Crowley's words while the Demon put his sunglasses back on once again.
"How different am I in the future?", Crowley asked curiously, trying to keep the mood light between the two.
Time is quickly running out.
Dean seemed to think about it for a moment before smirking, "You had shorter hair."
Crowley smiled, but didn't turn when he felt the presence of the Angel, nor did he react when the Angel disappeared with Dean.
Instead, he watched as Mary turned to see Dean gone, but Crowley's still there. He miracled a bouquet with Purple Hyacinth, Lilac, Cyclamens, Gardenias, Dills, and Basil. All tied together with a black ribbon, and a dirty black-gray feather tied at the end.
He nodded his head in condolences, Mary sniffed as another tear rolled down her cheek, and did the same in thanks.
With that bittersweet end, transforming into a hopeful beginning for the two love birds. Crowley placed the bouquet on the ground in front of him and disappeared.
...
Crowley drove the Bently down the road that led to a local warehouse. He stretched out his senses and could sense the Demon at his destination. This only spurred him forward. There are many scenarios that this could lead to.
None of them were good.
Crowley hissed in irritation and frustration at all the going ons in the world, as well as the worlds above and below it.
"What kind of Angel crap did I jump in head first to?", Crowley snarled, foot pushing even harder on the gas, causing the Bently to speed faster down the empty road in the early morning.