Normally, when Aurum got drunk, it was because something upsetting had happened. After all, he had gotten drunk after Poetking had left, he had gotten drunk when Draekon had disappeared, and he had gotten drunk after Leroy had died. All three occasions had left him upset and listless, seeming to wander endlessly through life, not sure of what he was supposed to do now. However, this time it wasn't like that. No, this time Aurum had just decided to have a few drinks to just unwind and celebrate. The new tavern was effectively done, and would be opened with the new Christmas event, and the lion had been working so hard as of late that he felt he could take a day off. Of course, he hadn't gone home to drink, however. This was due to the fact that he knew how much Roy hated alcohol and drunkenness, and he had no desire to upset the boy, particularly after he had already been having issues with nightmares lately. So, Aurum had decided to relax with a drink inside the now completed tavern, knocking back several drinks until his head began to get fuzzy and the world began to spin pleasantly. Rather than the usual sad lows that drunkenness had brought with it in the past, Aurum instead felt a pleasant numbness, along with a sense of warmth that settled in his stomach as he leaned against the bar. He had been planning to just stay inside the tavern for the night, figuring he could sleep off his drunkenness inside of the building and not have to bother Roy, but as his senses became more and more dulled, he found himself wanting to venture out, and interact with others. However, this was easier said than done, since as he backed away from the bar, the sudden loss of the wooden support made the world spin more wildly, and he went falling down onto his stomach. He blinked from where he laid against the cool wooden flooring, a sigh leaving the angel as he let his wings flop out on either side of him. Part of him wondered if he should just go to sleep then and there, but ultimately decided against it. He hadn't even had a chance to interact with anybody, after all!

As he slowly pushed himself into a sitting up position, the Captain felt his thoughts drifting between the various tanglers that he knew, wondering which ones he wanted to speak to. He rather enjoyed Leroy's company, and the other appreciated a nice drink once in a while, but he was probably rather busy with General duties at the moment. He considered Feza, since he was sure she would be delighted to see him in a more fun mood, but ultimately wrote it off, remembering how innocent the snow leopard would be. She probably didn't even know what a drink was, let alone why he was so pleased, and he might've just unnerved her. There was always Snarl, but he couldn't imagine she would do much more than make fun of him in this state, and he'd probably just end up laying on her in response. Moth was also out of the question, since he was quite sure she would just tell him to go to bed, worried what he might do in a drunken state. Crow had been getting drunk more and more often lately, but Crow seemed to be a rather sad drunk, and perhaps that wasn't going on anymore now that Leroy was back. Kaz probably appreciated a stiff drink, but probably wouldn't have anything fun to do afterwards. He'd try to just make them do pushups or some shit. And Selby was far too serious for Aurum's tastes in his current state. Abathur was also too serious, and would probably be too clinical about drinking. Aurum wasn't sure where Arrow was, and Piers was out of the question, since he was just a kid. After a while, Aurum just found himself sitting there, scowling in thought as he wrote off person after person. Until eventually, he came to the ultimately best option, at least in his opinion. His eyes practically lit up as he thought of the male, an absolutely dopey smile coming to his face. Crowley. Of course! How could he forget Crowley? The male was practically his best friend in the entire world, and positively the best demon that Aurum had ever met – not that he had particularly met many demons in his lifetime.

The goofy smile that came to Aurum's face as he thought of Crowley was accompanied by a warm feeling in his chest, and the softening of his one blue eye. In his drunken state, Aurum didn't even have the energy to deny how he felt about the feline slash snake. He had a crush on the other for some time now, and it had only gotten worse over time, the lion usually jumping to the demon's defense whenever the other needed help. He was always brushing up against the other and seeking physical contact, as well as offering him secret grins and private jokes. While the two of them weren't exactly inseparable, they worked incredibly well together, and Aurum found himself enjoying every moment that he spent around Crowley. He had already technically admitted his feelings to the other once before, when Crowley had been suffering due to the whole eye melting situation, but Crowley had been so caught up in the pain and panic of it all that Aurum was fairly sure he didn't remember, or at least was trying to shove that whole admission out of his mind. Despite how much Aurum sincerely cared about and adored Crowley, that was the one thing that drove the angel absolutely wild about his behavior. The other male always kept his feelings tucked in close to his chest, not allowing others in and shoving away emotions, both positive and negative, in order to ignore any possible problems that would arise. On a deeper level, Aurum could understand why Crowley did it, since he had done it before himself, but on the surface, Aurum found himself frustrated and annoyed by it, just wanting Crowley to be honest with him. In fact, in his current state, Aurum found his ears flattening to his head as he thought of the unpleasant habit Crowley had, swiping angrily at a bit of dust on the floor of the tavern. However, his frustration was shortlived, replaced instead by excitement to see the other. Sure, it was a very fast 180, but it wasn't as if Aurum was particularly in his right mind at the moment, even if he wasn't as sad as he usually was while drunk.

After a bit of effort, the Captain was able to haul himself up to his paws, stumbling only slightly as he threw open the front doors of the tavern, descending towards the rest of the main camp. He got quite a few odd looks thrown his way thanks to the way that he smelled of alcohol and was tripping over his paws every few steps, but he ignored tjem for the most part, just grinning as he looked around for his beloved little demon. It was a bit later in the day, since Aurum hadn't wanted to be the kind of sad bastard that was caught daydrinking, but it also wasn't so late that everyone was in bed or anything, so Aurum didn't feel too bad making a bit of noise as he searched around for Crowley, tail flicking absently as he sniffed around for the other male's scent. As he did so, he found himself daydreaming slightly about how nice Crowley smelled when Aurum was actually able to just lay and cuddle with him, opportunities that were rare but the Captain absolutely relished. The other always smelled faintly of brimstone, along with the slight smell of the dew of the swamp, and the faintest tang of metal thanks to Crowley's glasses. Another dopey smile graced Aurum's face as he thought of this, and he nearly walked headfirst into the side of the library. Stumbling backwards a bit, the winged lion mumbled out a rushed apology to the building as he went on by, following the scent trail he had identified to be the snake's... or serval's, whatever Crowley was at the moment. As it got stronger and he knew he was getting closer, his smile only grew, despite the small crowd of people he was attracting who had decided to follow him to see what he was doing in his fun little drunken stupor.

Soon Aurum came to the source of the scent, although Crowley wasn't quite in Aurum's sight yet. At this point, the lion lifted his head a little, puffing out his chest as he called out loudly, "Crowley! Crowley, where are you? I want to talk to you, please!" His voice had an unusual sort of singsong quality to it that wasn't often there, and Aurum found himself falling back into a sitting position after a moment to wait for the other male to come to him himself. This was mainly due to the fact that the Captain was fairly sure if he walked a few more steps, he was going to face plant straight into the ground, and he doubted that would be very romantic. However, as the subject of romance came up, Aurum felt q spoke of anxiety spread through him. Oh no, he hadn't even thought to bring a gift to Crowley to accompany his confession. What kind of future boyfriend would he be if he couldn't even treat his lover right? Frowning slightly, Aurum found himself frantically looking around for some sort of gift he could give, his wings flapping uselessly behind him. Unfortunately, all he could find around him was grass, and he doubted that Crowley would truly appreciate a bouquet of grass haphazardly ripped up from the ground. As he sat there, pouting slightly, Aurum could only hope that Crowley would appreciate his confession enough to consider it a gift in and of itself, and wouldn't consider Aurum to be some stingy date.

Of course, this was all done while Aurum was fairly stinking drunk, since if he had been sober, he would've absolutely been dying from embarrassment at the moment, whether it be from his plans to imminently confess, or the large crowd of other tanglers that had come to watch from the background. How he hadn't noticed them was anybody's guess, but perhaps his drunken mind had honestly and truly decided to tunnel vision exclusively in on Crowley, since the object of his affections had been something he had been shoving from his mind more and more often lately, and drunk Aurum was getting quite tired of sober Aurum's romantic suppression. Either way, there was a good chance that Aurum would want to throw himself off of the highest cliff in Tanglewood territory once all of this was over, and he would probably be going from absolutely delighted drunk to sad drunk in only a few days, depending on what Crowley's reaction was. Although one could only imagine it would be panicked or negative, given the demon's past track record.

( [member=7789]CROWLEY[/member] )

One of the numerous faces in the crowd growing behind him stuck out to him, and that face was Moth. His sister seemed worried about him, if the confusion and anxiety in her voice was anything to go by, and he, even in his current drunken state, immediately felt the need to comfort her. Turning towards the smaller female, he rumbled after a moment, his eyes lighting up at the mention of Crowley as his tail twitched from side to side, "Ah... I'm calling out for Crowley because I need to talk to him! I have something really important to tell him. But don't worry, it's nothing bad... and that smell? I don't know. It might be whiskey, though. Tends to be pungent." He shrugged his shoulders a bit, his wings bobbing a little with the movement. He thought little of his current drunken state, since it wasn't as if he was blackout drunk or anything. He was stumbling a bit, but he wasn't passing out, and he was fairly sure he'd be able to remember this later. Although whether that was a good or a bad thing would remain to be seen. The Captain opened his mouth again to provide Moth with further reassurances, wanting to wipe the concerned look from her face, but he was soon distracted by the sound of soft pawsteps, and the smell of Crowley growing near. His head whipped around to face the serval so fast he might've gotten whiplash, a happy chuff leaving him at the appearance of the other, dirt covered as it may have been.

Unable to keep the grin from his face as Crowley moved forward, Aurum kept his single blue eye focused on the other as the demon circled him, clearly checking for any signs of injury or making sure he didn't fall over. Aurum let this go on for several seconds, seeming to process Crowley's question for a long moment before he responded, smiling lazily, "Drinking... oh! I was drinking whiskey, to celebrate me getting the tavern done. I figured it wouldn't hurt to unwind a little... but that's not the point!" He nearly leaped to his paws as he exclaimed the last point, taking a couple more steps to clear the distance between him and Crowley. The lion practically towered over the sitting serval, and he found himself settling on the ground in front of the other so that they were about equal height. As he did so, he rumbled warmly, his tone practically dripping with sweetness and warmth even if it was slightly slurred, "I came here... I came here to tell you, that I've been thinking a lot about you lately!" As if to punctuate his point, the angel pressed his head forward slightly, his large skull resting against Crowley's fluffy chest. He briefly closed his eyes, seeming remarkably tired, before he continued speaking, evidently remembering what he was here to do, "And... and... right. Right! I've been thinking a lot about you lately, and I wanted to tell you... that I really, really like you. Like, I think I might even have feelings for you. Loving ones! And I needed to tell you, because... because... it's, you know, important." He struggled slightly to get his message across, his mind sluggish thanks to the fuzziness from the whiskey. He said all of this while staying pressed up against Crowley's chest, putting no real pressure on the other male. Even in his drunken state, Aurum was still exceedingly worried about hurting Crowley in some way.

To say that Aurum wasn't disappointed... well, to say such a thing would've simply been a straight up lie. Even through the drunken haze that had gripped the lion ever since he had left the warm and inviting indoors of the tavern, Aurum could still feel Crowley's words like a knife to the heart. And sure, they weren't particularly cruel words. In fact, they were rather kind for the situation that Aurum had put the demon in – if one didn't consider the implications behind them, at least – but still, it was enough to make an almost pained noise leave the Captain's throat. Aurum kept his head pressed against Crowley's chest for a long moment, just savoring the warmth and the intimacy that came with the actually fairly innocent motion. For once in his life, the lion found that he really didn't want to face the situation at hand, and would rather just take the Crowley route of shoving everything away into a little box. However, that probably wouldn't have worked, considering eventually Crowley would move back, and Aurum would be forced to accept what was happening. A sobering sigh left Aurum as he pulled his head back – although he was still fairly far from sober – and he looked up at Crowley with his one blue eye, the drunken glossiness of it poorly hiding the sadness that was tucked away. Still, Aurum forced himself to manage a somewhat warm grin, rumbling softly, "I'm not that drunk..." His tone was joking, even teasing, but the humor seemed as though it was melting away as the lion sat up, his towering height returning to the forefront as he sat back on his haunches. His head spun unpleasantly, and it wasn't sure whether it was the booze or the fact that he had been – at least temporarily – rejected, but it was certainly there, and he suddenly felt as though he wanted to turn and run to Moth, and have her let him nap in her pillow fort.

The very thought that Crowley could be unlovable would've been baffling to the angel had he known about it, because... well, he loved Crowley so deeply. He has a tendency to love everyone deeply as he came to know them, but the demon was a special case, since the other had become one of his best friends over a span of only a couple of months, and had dug his claws deep into the lion's heart, unintentionally. However, equally so, if Aurum had known what Crowley was thinking, what he was planning... how he thought he could just fake feelings to appease Aurum, despite not even knowing if he truly considered him first in his heart? Well, the male probably would've been crushed, as well as deeply angered. He would've preferred a straight up rejection, rather than having feelings faked, or to be treated as a consolation prize for Crowley. For too long in his life, Aurum had been treated as the lesser. Not a good angel, the lesser son, the lesser heir to the pride... he had been considered second place by so many, and.had proved them all wrong. And if he had known Crowley was considering him the same way, even if it was just because the other was struggling with his feelings? He would've been devastated. However, luckily for Crowley, Aurum couldn't read his thoughts, and was far too drunk to read the slivers of unintentional meaning behind his words. So, instead, Aurum just got up to his feet, faintly swaying as he spoke, "I guess that means... I should go get some rest then." He suddenly very much felt like just hiding himself away, his former cheer and delight over doing a good job on the tavern thoroughly soured. The Captain opened his muzzle for a moment, clearly having something to say, before he shut it again, just offering Crowley a tired smile before he turned to pad away, his paw steps heavy against the earth. He spared a glance to Moth as he headed past, his ultimate goal just to get back to his house and sleep, for as long as he possibly could.