“More books?" Was the first thing Azazel said when he arrived at the apartment, carrying various bags of groceries "I thought you were done with those" he put everything on the island table. It had been a lovely evening so far, there was even some soft jazz playing in the background and Raph had made sure the entire place was left pristine and clean, which Azazel knew meant he would be asking something of him soon.

"I know, I know, I did say that, But I might have something this time." 

The demon sighed as he sat on the more comfortable than usual couch "alright, what is it?"

"There was a lot of nonsense, things that should have never been left published in any cosmos, and a lot of misinformation" Raphael started reorganizing his notes "But every single one at least agreed on a number of things.”

"Which are…?", the demon raised a suspicious eyebrow.

"Keep an open mind."

"Strike one, not a good start, go on.”

Raphael looked at him for a second before reaching into a fruit basket on the counter and placing an apple in his husband’s hands, "have this while I explain." 

"Strike two, really not helping your case" Aze took a bite and gestured to Raphael to continue nevertheless. Between chewing the angel took a breath he didn’t need.

"I might need one of your raccoon friends.”

The crunching stopped, but Raphael interrupted him before he could even start to protest.

 “Listen, listen, listen please. I know my luck was terrible the first time, but reading would be the only way I'd have any luck with uh witch-finding" Raphael stayed silent for a moment and gagged "oh, I so hated saying that.”

He scrambled over to the table, his index finger out to hush the demon.

“You’ll ask me what would make it different this time? Well, well.” Raphael pulled his projector screen that he was using as a second pinboard. “Humans have more success in um..." he grunted.

"Finding witches." Aze ended his sentence begrudgingly. 

"Chauvinist assholes." Raphael muttered, before taking out a post from the projector. “Well they know, and in most writings they agree that witches have a deep connection with nature and, by default, with animals. And so-“

Azazel groaned to his feet. “You want to send a bunch of raccoons to who knows where to find witches? And then what, pray they’ll talk their way into an agreement with them?”

"Maybe not talk in a literal sense, but I suspect that the bond they hold helps creatures seek them out" The archangel started playing with his hair, nervous at his lover’s doubt in his reasoning. "We could use that to our advantage." 

The demon paced around as he finished eating the fruit in his hand, only chewing and shoe taps sounding for a good minute. He was skeptical and not entirely willing to give this idea a chance, but he won't walk out again. Not this time.

Raphael cleared his throat, squaring his shoulders ready to stand his ground. "Love, I don't like saying this, but..." He signed his findings "I'm not good when it comes to these subjects and it's making me have a hard time explaining things, but I finally have a lead that I want to follow through, all I really ask is that you give it a chance for me." 

The angel took a step closer and grabbed his hands tightly, "If it works there’s hope, if not worst case scenario we end up back to square one, but I promise you nothing bad will happen.”

The demon frowned, uncertainty consuming him, but despite his better judgment, he yielded "What did you have in mind?" 

Raphael smiled "There were some more shared characteristics" he kissed Aze's mole under his left eye "Like beauty marks and black stained fingers. However- Hold on.”

The archangel left to gather something from behind a few drawers and clutter “the most important detail.”He came back with two books full of notes, The Witch Hunting History and Botany Vol I. He took the first one, turning pages until reaching a bookmark pointing to a specific page "Various reports speak that after witch burnings, a peculiar smell would remain around the area where the killing took place for days on end" he read aloud.

"An intense scent, like jasmine tinged with vanilla" He looked at Azazel to make sure he was still with him before opening the botany book "With that, I was able to shorten the search, got some candidates in mind" he scrolled through the thick pages and notes, pulling up two pictures.

"Ipomoea alba and Lonicera!" 

The demon just blinked, his eyes scanning the different images and highlighted texts before him. This was a lot.

“Sorry, Lonicera and what?”

“Ipomoea alba.” Raphael opened up a drawer and pulled a few seed packets. “What I’m suggesting with this is that I should grow both, get the raccoons to learn the smell and track down a witch." He finished deadpanned and still holding open the book.

Azazel closed his eyes fully for a second to process, finally understanding "Yeah… Yeah okay, I think we can do that" he said, still dubious as he scratched his scruff.

The archangel did a little jump closing the book "Excellent! I'll start working on that then. Might only take a day with my occult charm" he added with a wiggly fingers gesture, which Aze was not willing to correct still feeling dumbfounded by the massive information dump.

Raphael seemed pleased, that’s all he could say for certain.

"Hehe- Oh, unrelated, but did you get the lemons? Might need them" Raphael asked, tapping the book with his nails, Aze going to the groceries unsure.

"Ah, Shit! I didn't." Azazel went to the door "I'll go back to the store uh, anything else?" 

"Hm, not really," he replied while organizing the cans.

“See, there’s also some connection with citrus fruits. They’re often used for cleansing and purification” he explained further, closing the kitchen cabinets “You know, I’m finding these books a lot more entertaining than the last batch, I might have specialized in the Inquisition if I was human.”

The joke went over the demon’s head. “Right, okay… What was it?”

“The books?”

“What you needed.”

“Lemons. Am I talking your ear off?”

“Bah, scatterbrained. Going now.”

Raphael smiled to himself while Azazel took off. He finally had something! Maybe this could finally get them one step closer to end that damn cu-

Azazel came back, poking his head through the door "What was I supposed to get?" 

"… Lemons."

"Right, noted, see ya soon." 

Raphael blinked in confusion as the door closed again.