intimacy makes crowley highly uncomfortable, as does harmless body contact / touches / hugs. heâs not worried about getting hurt, nor does he fear intimacy, but it is very, very difficult for him to let it happen. he wants it, but part of him also believes that he shouldnât be intimate with anybody, because that would mean tearing down endless walls of sass & whatâs underneath is left vulnerable to the outside world. when heâs with someone, he does initiate a lot of touching once past a certain point, but itâs always with that little voice in his head preaching caution. thereâs also the fact he doesnât like speaking of the past, so itâs usually a problem when trying to get to share with other people. taking that step & speaking about his human life is hard, which also makes bonding difficult because his partners know heâs hiding things from them.Â
despite being a demon ( therefore driven to sin lol ) crowleyâs hardly interested in sex with random people. he will have sex when itâs thrusted upon him (iâm sorry), but he doesnât look for it. he doesnât search random partners for sex. heâs very un-demon-like when it comes to that & has most likely been the reason for a lot of chitchat in hell because of it. but then again we already know heâs different than most demons, right? crowleyâs libido rises exponentially with how strongly he feels for someone. it doesnât necessarily have to be love? like, friendship is enough to make him think about the possibility of having sex with someone. but yes, generally sex truly means something to him, probably also because of his past. when fergusâ wife died, he tried to fill the hole she left in his heart with sex - he closed his deal & just drowned in alcohol & ladies. it didnât help of course, but hookups without emotional connections tend to remind him, which then reminds him of gavin, of losing the love of his human life etc.Â
oof. this is a hard, complex one for crowley. we know (thx 8.23) that deep down, love is what he truly wants, but feels he doesnât deserve. it doesnât help that everybody he fckn meets lets him know heâs unworthy of everything that doesnât involve death & pain. all the changes crowleyâs gone through since he met the winchesters has been a quiet, subtly cry for love. be it platonic or romantic. of course heâs exceptionally good at hiding his true reasons for things he does, but if you just look at everything that happened between season 5 and 12, you canât deny heâs tried his damndest to become worthy of what he craves more than anything. love.
quick insert: this is truly one of the most hurtful things the spn writers have done to crowley fans tbh. they make him fight tooth and nail to become worthy in the winchestersâ eyes, worthy of friendship, love &Â affection.... then they let him die without giving it to him. he fought so fckn hard, he suffered so fckn much. what did he get? nothing with oreos on top. literally every other character even close to his level of appearance got love (not counting lucifer bc they messed him up anyway). dead or not. jody, bobby, rowena, gabriel, benny, cas... they all have it. then thereâs crowley who didnât even get one single friend.Â
ahem, anyway. love. geez. he wants to be loved so fckn bad, heâs willing to change into something heâs not while pretending he doesnât give a single shit. âI did it for me.â then thereâs different kinds of love.Â
thereâs the âiâm the secretâ love in which crowley knows heâs someone to be hidden from family & friends because heâs just a demon who canât feel, obviously. itâs the majority of his love life (dean, cas, bobby, sam lol) and itâs not healthy in the long run because it feeds the voice saying he doesnât deserve good things. usually it doesnât hold too long without crowley bursting.Â
then thereâs the âyouâre my king and iâd kiss ur feet if u asked me toâ kind of love. something not too rare given heâs the king of hell. itâs pretty one-sided despite him loving the power over someone - itâs often not real.Â
and then thereâs true, âi fckn love you crowleyâ love. give him that kind of love & youâve got the most loyal, loving partner ever. heâs a soft, he will still kill without hesitation, donât think he goes soft on everybody. just that special person. crowleyâs broken & he doesnât let people into the ruins of his heart, but when he does & they love him with no ulterior moves, itâs the best thing. like, they wonât know, but they repair whatâs broken. piece by piece. they donât even have to do anything, it just happens.Â