#(but soft)

2003 Raphael:

raphael in the 2003 series has always felt different to me. he’s angry and intense, but not shallow about it. his anger comes from loyalty, fear, and caring too much not from wanting to hurt anyone.he feels things deeply and doesn’t know how to soften them, so they come out sharp. but underneath all of that, he’s protective, honest, and incredibly devoted to his family.

“dw baby you don’t need to decide what to eat I got your favorite already”

“no you don’t need to look up directions just follow me”

“you don’t need to think that’s what you have me for”

he really gets the best of both worlds if he sees his partner correcting someone/solving something correctly or just overall being impressive and he’s like hell yeah that’s my baby

1,669 words | T+ | single chapter

pairings: viago/rook, lucanis/spite/rook/teia/viago, background lucanis/rook

Note: This has several direct references to my longer story, The Vyrantium Job, but the basic knowledge you need for this to make sense is that Lucanis, Spite, Rook, Viago and Teia have an ongoing polycule arrangement that is part pleasure, part political alliance. Rook is a Grey Warden who currently works as an independent contractor for the Crows so that she can be with Lucanis.

“What’s the matter?” he smirks. “Never seen money before?” “Not like this,” she admits, pulling on the strings of the pouch and peering into it. There is something like awe in her expression. Viago frowns, wondering for a moment if she’s regretting her distant involvement in an eventual assassination, if she’s troubled by the weight of coin that’s given for murder. Maybe Lucanis was right, and she’s too soft for this world of Crows. Still, he doesn’t press her. “Wardens don’t really get paid,” she says eventually. “This is mine. I earned this.” Oh, Viago thinks. This is an entirely different kind of innocence than he had anticipated. She is not troubled by the violence, but instead, somehow, by simple capitalism.

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Five times Viago fell for Rook.

Not included in this fic, but things that definitely happened: five times Viago subsequently had a panic attack about falling for Rook.

Chapter 1: the stars looks very different today

Rating: T

TW/CW: 80s era period-typical homophobia, dysfunctional family dynamics, minor angst

Summary: Whether fifteen or fifty, Crowley's fate has always been written in the stars. A prequel to But, soft!

Chapter Excerpt:

It wasn’t the same as climbing Annanhead Hill and feeling like the whole earth was laid out beneath him, wasn’t the same as descending into the Devil’s Beef Tub and being swallowed up by the black, the light of distant stars his only guide. But the projected star shows still gave him that sense of smallness, the contradictory feeling of being an insignificant part of a vast universe that had somehow still conspired to make sure he existed.

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