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Dean couldn’t help bouncing his leg as he tried to pay attention to the math lesson. Mr. Kercher hadn’t put up the homework assignment yet so Dean couldn’t work on it while Mr. Kercher was giving the lesson. But it was just too easy. With his head in his hand, pencil scribbling little doodles of cute caricatures of some of the monsters dad told him about, Dean was doing his best to keep from falling asleep in class.
Someone knocked on the door, pulling him from his daydream and making Mr. Kercher scowl.
“Come in!” he shouted, crossing his arms. But then he relaxed as the door opened. “Ah, Jaskier! What a surprise!”
Dean really... wasn’t too sure why all the teachers loved his mom so much. Something about helping to clean up after some function that had left the gymnasium a complete and utter mess? Or that he brought all the teachers cookies and not just Dean’s teachers? Either way, the teachers loved him and allowed him to pretty much do whatever he wanted, apparently, since he had come straight to Dean’s classroom instead of the secretary asking Dean to go to the office.
But whatever.
“Mom!”
With a grin that threatened to break his face in half, Dean shot up and raced for the door. He ignored the whispers, instead scooping up mom in a great big hug that lifted his feet off the floor. Mom protested, of course, (but he was laughing, so ha!) and he grumbled away about how Dean was the same height as him at only sixteen. There was snow melting in his hair.
“Hi, b—Dean,” mom said, grinning once Dean put him down.
Dean had only had his voice back for a few weeks after mom and dad had revealed that he was the key to starting the apocalypse, and any time Dean said anything mom was all smiles. Dean hated that he couldn’t speak because he hated upsetting his mother, but Amy, his therapist, had said they just needed to let him adjust at his own rate. Really, he was thankful that they hadn’t made him speak again until he was ready, but he hated that it still took so long.
“Hi, mama.” What could he say? He loved his mama.
Mom lifted up the binder in his hands to present to Dean. “Here you go, baby. I hope it’s the right one.”
Dean took it, opening it to the front. Yup. It was his science presentation he had completely forgotten to put back in his backpack after going over it one last time the night before. His presentation was today and there was no way in hell he was taking a zero or getting points docked for it being late. He had called mom in a panic when he realized just after first period to see if he could bring it to the school. Thank fuck he could. “Yeah, it’s the right one. Thanks so much. You’re a lifesaver.”
“Anything for you, baby.” Mom raised his hand, as if to brush hair away from his face, but paused, looking into the room. Nervously, he retracted his hand and gave Dean a wobbly little smile. “Be good, okay? Remember to pick up your brother, please.”
“Yes, mama.” Dean wrapped his arms around him, just barely keeping hold of the binder as he squeezed his mom tight. “Love you. Thanks again.”
“Love you too, Dean.” Curiously, mom didn’t kiss his cheek like he normally did when they parted. As he pulled away, he was looking nervously into the classroom again.
Dean looked back to see his classmates staring at him in various degrees of confusion. “What?” he asked them with a glare, putting one hand on his hip like mom liked to do. “Never seen a boy love his mama?”
“Uh...” said Brady, apparently the only one brave enough to speak up. “That’s a dude.”
Dean looked back and mom who just shrugged. “Yeah? Obviously?”
“Are you, like, stupid?”
“Are you, like, close-minded?” Dean shot right back. “He raised me. Therefore, he’s my mama. God have mercy on your soul you try to call him anything else.” Mom squeezed his arm and he turned just enough to see him smiling proudly at him.
“So you’re a mama’s boy?” Brady snickered.
Frowning, Dean turned back. “Well, yeah, I thought that was obvious.”
Several of the kids snickered, but Dean didn’t quite understand why. Why was it so wrong to love your mama and show appreciation?
Brady oh so thankfully said, “Dude, seriously?”
“What, it’s supposed to be shameful that I love my mom? That I show appreciation for the person who raised me?” How far was he willing to go, especially to get that smug smirk off the other kids’ faces? Dean turned to mom who was biting his bottom lip and looking away.
No. He wouldn’t stand for his mom being embarrassed or sad or anything. It was mom, after all, who told him to stick up for himself and not be ashamed of any part of him. And it was mom who told him to never be ashamed of expressing affection, that they weren’t Neanderthals, contrary to dad’s looks and personality (to which dad gave mom an unimpressed look but yet didn’t deny). Plus, mom always said, embarrassing other people by making them look stupid was always the best kind of thrill.
“Look,” said Dean, turning back to the room. “I’m gonna be real frank with you all. I watched my birth mom die when I was four.” Bingo. Several kids were already squirming in their seats, looking uncomfortable. People always got that way when he mentioned his dead mom, funnily enough. “She was murdered right in front of me.” Ah ha. Dean understood what his mom was talking about. The power rush at seeing everyone so obviously uncomfortable was exhilarating. Brady was even sliding down in his seat, as if wishing the floor would swallow him. “So Jaskier, my mom,” he added, pointing to him, “offered to help my dad raise me and my brother. And I went mute from the trauma, right? And the only thing that got me out of it was by calling Jaskier my mom and then it just sorta stuck and we never bothered to call him anything else.”
Now all the students—and even Mr. Kercher—could hardly meet his gaze. Oh yeah. “So, yeah. I missed out on my birth mom raising me. I was four—I couldn’t show her my appreciation back then. So now I don’t miss a single moment to let my mom know I love him and appreciate him because I know it can be taken away from me at any moment.” He tilted his chin up, proudly adding, “So, yeah, I am a mama’s boy and damn proud of it. And you can go f—screw yourself if you think you can shame me into not showing affection to my mom.” Oops. Hopefully his almost slip up wouldn't be noticed by Mr. Kercher.
Beautiful, blessed silence. With a grin, Dean turned back to mom and pressed a kiss to his cheek. He was grinning, tears shinning in his eyes as he tugged Dean back into a hug.
“Proud of you, baby,” he said as he pulled away. He pecked a kiss to his cheek and gave him a mock stern glare. “Sorry about earlier... I didn't want to embarrass you in front of them, but, well. Seems I didn't need to worry. Now be good. Kick your science presentation in the ass. I love you, and please remember to pick up your brother.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Dean said with a fond roll of his eyes. “See you later.”
Dean took his seat again, ignoring the stares. Most of the students, funnily enough, looked away when he looked in their direction. He smirked, not even bothering to hide it as he put his presentation binder under his seat. Mr. Kercher, too, was still staring between the doorway and back to him.
“Well?” Dean finally asked when the silence was just getting ridiculous. “Are you gonna continue the lesson, or can I go?”
“Oh, uh—Y-Yes, of course.” Mr. Kercher stumbled out of his shock, tripping as he made his way back to the board to see where they had stopped. “Now where were we...”
Dean turned back to his doodles, only looking up briefly to see Brady staring back at him. There was a curious little flush on his cheeks when he realized he had been caught and he turned around quickly, pretending to be absorbed in the lesson.
Huh. Interesting...