Drowley AU based on my own post - Dean’s and Crowley’s daughter got into trouble at school. Enjoy!
“She gets that from you, you know.“
Dean Winchester, somewhat irritated, turned to his husband. “I’d like to know why. The last time I checked, we both raised her –“
“She’s your biological daughter” Crowley said smoothly, “So she gets it from you.”
“I never blamed any of Gavin’s faults on you” Dean argued.
And God knew their eldest had not exactly sailed the waters of puberty smoothly.
“That may be, but he also never got us invited to someone else’s home to “clear the air”” Crowley spat.
Dean shook his head. “I know you don’t like it, but if you only ever ate with people you like, you’d only ever eat at home.”
“I fail to see how that would be a problem.”
He sighed. “Crowley...”
“I simply see no merit in us “clearing” anything up. This was clearly a fight between Emma and that bully Walt, so –“
“Stop it” Dean interrupted him.
“Stop what?” he asked innocently.
“You’re proud of her for pummelling him to the ground, I can tell.”
Crowley raised an eyebrow. “Tell me you aren’t.”
“I’m not.”
“Not even a little bit? I can tell when you’re fibbing, you know.”
“I can tell when you’re fibbing” Dean mocked him, then sighed again before conceding, “Of course you’re right. Emma stood up for what she believed in, but that still doesn’t mean that she had a right to hit him. We have to deal with this.”
“I could show her how to handle her enemies without –“
“Oh no” Dean raised his hands to stop him, “You’re not showing her your techniques. Not yet, at least.”
“Why?”
“Because I want her to be able to handle them, not completely destroy her enemies and take their livelihoods.”
Crowley smirked.
“Sometimes I really wonder why I married you.”
His smile fell.
“I didn’t mean that, and you know it.”
And he hadn’t. Sam had asked him countless times if he really wanted to go through with it before the wedding (he and Crowley weren’t exactly the best of friends even now) and Dean had stood by his man each time. He wasn’t about to stop doing that.
Crowley still looked a little sad though, so he stepped up to him. “Hey, I’m sorry, alright?” he began, reaching and trailing his tie with his right hand. “Make it up to you tonight?”
Crowley smiled. “I am counting on that, darling.”
Say one thing about him: As nasty as he could be to others, he was always easy to placate when it came to his loved ones.
“He was insulting Dottie Keenan, and she was this close to crying!” their fourteen-year-old exclaimed. “And there’s nothing worse than openly crying in school!” She hesitated. “Except maybe dying.”
“I am glad” Crowley drawled, “That you have your priorities in order”.
“Just as you taught me, Father.”
“I don’t think anyone’s priorities are in the right place at this very moment” Dean said firmly, knowing well that his husband’s greatest weakness was the tendency to go soft when either he or the kids tried their puppy dog eyes on him, and Emma was definitely using them now.
Little cheater.
“Emma, you can’t just walk around and punch bullies in the face. That’s just not how you do it.”
Crowley threw him a glance and Dean glared back; the last thing he needed was to him indeed starting to explain to Emma how to best ruin Walt’s life and look innocent.
Thankfully, he stayed silent.
“Actually I think...” Dean trailed off. He knew he should probably punish Emma, but how could he do that when she had been sticking up for another girl? There were so many bad people in the world, someone had to take them on.
He sighed. “Don’t do it again. And if anyone asks – especially Uncle Sam – you were dealt with most severely, young lady, do you hear?”
She grinned and skipped off to call Gavin, who was doing his first semester at Stanford. They’d probably end up laughing together over their dumb parents.
Dean wouldn’t have had them any other way.
“Look at this tacky window frames.”
“Crowley, not everyone has the money for designer ones” Dean reminded him.
Money had indeed been an issue between them in the beginning, and had more than once almost separated them. Dean had taken a while to realize that Crowley throwing expensive gifts at him was not meant to be condescending, but indeed him spoiling those he cared about at every opportunity.
“I am not talking about them being cheap, I am talking about them being tasteless.”
“Any chance you won’t be acting like this in front of Walt’s parents?”
“If they start badmouthing our daughter, no.”
Dean’s heart beat faster even as he knew that he probably shouldn’t encourage that line of thinking, but he would always be touched at Crowley’s devotion to his family. He took his hand and squeezed it. “Let’s do this.”
To say this was awkward would have been an understatement.
Mr. and Mrs. Irving lacked all understanding that their son’s behaviour might have had something to do with Emma’s attack.
“Our daughter” Dean tried again, “Has told us that Walt was... annoying a young lady she’s friends with, and she wouldn’t lie to us –“
“Are you sure there?” Mrs. Irving interrupted him. “Why wouldn’t she lie, since she was the offending party?”
He resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
“I do hope you have taken proper measures to ensure something like this won’t happen again” the woman dared to announced, “We’ve been thinking about making a complaint because the school didn’t act either.”
That was because everyone at school knew Wart Irving to be an unlikeable bully, but Dean had to word his answer differently.
“The school investigated the incident, and it is procedure in such cases that when it is found –“
“Pardon, but why would you know anything about the procedures involved in such matters?” Mr. Irving asked and studied him with a contemptuous expression on his face.
Really? Not only did they have to raise their son like this, but now they had to be elitists too? Dean was working his usual t-shirt and jeans get-up he put on once he came home for the evening, since he’d decided he might as well get this over with in the clothes he felt most comfortable in.
Crowley, of course, always wore a suit. Dean had only got him to wear something casual on a few memorable occasions.
“I’m a teacher myself” he said.
He was used to people reacting with surprise; apparently no one expected someone looking like him to want to educate kids.
By now, he’d stopped feeling resentful about it.
His husband, he remembered a little too late, had not. Crowley not only seemed to think that Dean was more than entitled to be treated with respect by each and every member of the human race, but also to consider any criticism of his husband as a criticism of himself.
“How could they possibly think” he’d fumed one day after dressing down a rather impertinent waiter, “That I would take anything but the best?”
But then, he’d always been a romantic at heart, even though he pretended not to be. Dean was rather sure his wedding ring hadn’t left his finger since he put it there.
And so, the inevitable happened.
“I do find it fascinating that you cannot manage to explain to your son that harassing others is a bad thing, but you do find the time to judge my husband for not being dressed the way you think teachers should be.”
“It’s not about his profession, it’s about self respect.”
And that, thankfully, was when Mrs. Irving did the right thing for the first time that evening and hastily said, “Dinner was ready.”
Dean guessed she saw murder in Crowley’s eyes and takes his hand as they are being led to the table. He throws him a glance that could be considered apologetic – if Dean didn’t know him that well. It will have to be enough.
Dinner was cooked well enough, he supposed, although it had nothing against his burgers (if he said so himself). Mr. and Mrs. Irving followed the age-old rule that nothing bad should be discussed at table, and he was glad to make some stilted small talk about the school he himself worked at, Gavin’s progress, and Crowley’s business.
As to Crowley himself, the stoic silence he maintained was probably for the best. He could take just about any indignity when it was directed towards himself – otherwise he’d hardly have managed to build up his own firm from ground up – but when it came to his family...
Afterwards, they were led back to the living room while both Irvings disappeared to get them drinks.
For about a minute, they sat next to each other on the couch, completely silent; then Dean couldn’t help it anymore.
He began to chuckle.
Crowley grinned. “I will say this, they are more perceptive than some of my erstwhile business partners.”
“You were pretty obvious. Did you have to look at him like you wanted to stab him?”
“I did.”
“Crowley –“
“I will try not to glare at them. Happy?”
It was an almost heroic act, so Dean acquiesced.
When they finally came back with glasses of red wine for each of them – Dean sighed internally because if there was one other thing that could raise Crowley’s hackles, it was serving him bad wine – he decided to try and broach the subject again.
“Look, I am sorry Emma punched Walt” he began carefully. “And we have explained to her that she should refrain from such techniques in the future when she wants to help someone. But I still feel that Walt’s behaviour needs to be addressed as well.”
“I don’t –“ Mr. Irving began, but stopped suddenly. Dean had no idea why until Crowley took his hand and he glanced at his husband to see him smile at the others – in that threatening, I-am-going-to-kill-you-for-this-later way he had during company meetings.
Quite frankly, he was glad they weren’t sitting at the table anymore so no knives where in reach.
Mr. Irving swallowed and Dean told himself that he had no right to find Crowley’s behaviour sexy in front of the parents of the child their daughter had hit.
“I know you don’t think so, Mr. Irving, but it might be a good idea to think about it again before we sue you.”
“Sue us? Why?”
“For starters, for the emotional damage done to our daughter –“
“She punched our son!”
“Oh yes” Crowley said, leaning forward, still that unsettling smile on his lips. “She did. But guess what. That doesn’t mean a thing when I am after someone. And I should warn you that my brother-in-law is one of the best lawyers in the State. Not only would I win, but I’d take most of your savings and this house, while we’re at it.”
He stood up, pulling Dean up as well. “I think that cleared everything up, then. Enjoy your evening.”
“That was a bit harsh” He said once they were on the street.
Crowley sighed. “Dean –“
“They were not that impolite –“
“That’s not it. That’s not it at all.”
“UI don’t understand.”
“Did you notice something about the house?”
“Can you be more specific –“ Dean was about to complain when he went through the rooms he had seen in his mind and realized. “Where are the family pictures? They have a kid.”
“Exactly.”
“But that doesn’t have to mean –“
“Dean, I have pictures from their ultrasounds to Gavin’s high school graduation on my office desk. I know what neglect can do to a young mind.”
Dean winced in sympathy as he remembered what Crowley had told him about his own childhood. “but we still don’t know –“
“I recognize a house without love. I’ve been living in the opposite for too long now.”
“You sap” he muttered.
“Your sap. And we better keep an eye on the situation, in case the kid needs help.”
“Fine” Dean mumbled, dragging him into a kiss, “But if we eventually have to get him out of there, you’re the one explaining to Emma why we did it.”
