Chapter Text
Fridays were fajita nights in the Winchester household. Dean was still at the garage and Cas was home preparing everything. Waiting for the bus to drop the kids off from school, Cas decided they could have snacks before dinner…usually a no-no if Dean was around. Dean had even sent Cas a text:
“Can’t wait to have some cake, babe. DON’T LET THE KIDS HAVE ANY BEFORE DINNER” complete with a kissy-face emoji. But Dean knew Cas would probably cave. Cas would make it up to him when the kids went to bed.
Usually, the pounding of feet running through the house alerted Cas that the kids were home from school. But today they both quietly slinked into the kitchen, throwing their backpacks on the floor, and slumping into kitchen chairs. For two kids who had fajita night and an entire weekend without school to look forward to, they seemed miserable.
Cas raised an eyebrow, “I don’t get a hello?”
Jack grumbled, “Hi Dad.” Claire was silent.
Claire was thirteen and in her last year before high school. She was smart and sarcastic with a dark sense of humor and for reasons that a doting father would never understand a complete outcast at school. This week her naturally blonde hair was dyed a dark purple and although it reached past her waist, she had one of the sides shaved. Dean had agreed to let her get her ears pierced and when she came back from the mall surprised him by getting three holes in each ear. She wore Dean’s flannel shirts and oversized leather jacket to school every day and the only thing she ever asked for on her birthday and Christmas was work boots.
Jack was turning eight next week. Except for his coloring, he was the exact opposite of his sister. His smile lit up the room and he loved everyone he met. There had been more than one parent-teacher conference that Dean and Cas attended where Jack’s inattention to his classmates’ personal space had been the main topic of discussion. If Jack was a mini version of Cas, and he was, Claire was all Dean.
Not a day went by that Cas didn’t thank God for his family. A close friend of Dean’s, Jody Mills, agreed to be a surrogate for both children and Cas knew it was a true blessing to have his family.
So, it hurt his heart to see both his children look so upset. He didn’t even bother to ask; he immediately brought out the cake he spent the morning baking. He cut two giant pieces and put them in front of each child.
“Eat. And tell me what’s wrong.”
Both kids didn’t move, they just stared at their plates, not saying a word.
Cas sighed, “Come on. When your father finds out I gave you both cake he’s going to give it to me, so make it worth the aggravation, okay?”
Claire rolled her eyes, “We just had a bad day, Dad. It’s nothing.”
“Why are you gay?” Jack blurted out. His eyes were wet and he was a cross between upset and angry.
Cas was stunned, “What?”
“Shut up, squirt!” Claire glared at Jack.
Jack picked up his backpack and pulled out a handful of papers. He took one out specifically and handed it to Cas. “See?”
Cas took the paper and looked at a stick-figure picture that Jack drew of his family. Claire had long eyelashes, Jack had a big smile and Dean had red and black checks drawn over his body (Cas chuckled at the depiction of Dean’s ever-present flannel) but it was Cas that was the most obvious. Jack had drawn angel wings on Cas in rainbow colors. Above his head, Jack wrote the word “ANGEL.” That was one of Dean’s favorite nicknames for Cas. Of course, the kids didn’t know that Cas actually was an angel and that the nickname was Dean’s way of reminding Cas of their past before they were married with children. Not knowing the truth didn’t keep Jack from telling everyone that his dad was an angel, though.
“And his wings are rainbow-colored!” was what Dean had told them since they were old enough to hear it.
For a moment, the picture warmed Cas’ heart. But then he saw the other writing. In red, next to Cas’ stick figure, someone had written “FAIRY.” Cas groaned.
“I drew that picture and Billy Krzywicki stole it off my desk and wrote FAIRY on it!” Jack’s bottom lip was quivering and he was really trying not to cry.
“Billy Krzywicki is an asshat!” Claire spat out.
“Hey, Claire! Language!” Cas instinctively responded. Although he had a few stronger words he’d like to call the little punk right now.
“He said you and Daddy are gay and called you fairies and another f word!” Jack thought about it, really trying to remember the word. “Fog…”
“Faggot, Jack. He called them faggots.”
“CLAIRE! We do NOT use that word!” Cas was trying to stay calm and failing.
“Well, WE might not use that word, Dad, but Billy freaking Krzywicki does. So don’t half the kids in our stupid school!” Claire wasn’t backing down.
“Jack, it doesn’t matter what Billy Krzywicki says, does it?” Cas focused on his son.
“Everyone started yelling ‘GAY GAY GAY’ at me when I was leaving school,” Jack’s fight to not cry was lost, and tears flowed down his face.
“Fuck,” Cas said under his breath, but loud enough for both kids to hear.
“Dad!!!!” Jack covered his own mouth.
Claire chuckled, “I knew you could swear.”
“Jack, Billy Krzywicki is a nobody. And those kids who yelled at you are nobodies too. You shouldn’t worry about them.”
“Dad, no offense but that’s really shitty advice.”
“Claire! Language!”
“What? You just said fuck!” Claire leaned onto the table. “I’m just saying, the kid got a lot of shit…stuff thrown at him today, and ignoring it ain’t gonna help.”
“Isn’t going to help, Claire. Do you have to talk like that?” Cas sighed.
Jack stabbed at the cake, playing with it instead of eating it. “It’s not fair,” he sniffled. “Why do you and Daddy have to be gay?”
Cas sighed, “I don’t know, baby. We just are.”
“Idiot, if they weren’t gay, you wouldn’t be here!”
“Claire! Don’t call your brother an idiot!”
Claire rolled her eyes.
“I don’t want you to be gay.” Jack was pouting.
“Too late now, squirt.”
“Claire, I’m begging you. You aren’t helping.” Cas sat next to Jack.
“Honey, I’m sorry kids in school are giving you a hard time. The thing is, Jack, Daddy and I love each other. Very, very much. And we worked really hard to be together. And even harder to bring you and Claire into our family.”
“With Auntie Jody.” Jack knew this story by heart.
“Yes, with Auntie Jody.” Cas smiled. “Jack, gay is just a label. Daddy and I are no different than any of your friends’ parents. We love each other and we love you and Claire. We just also both happen to be men. And there’s nothing wrong with that.”
“Except that it’s gross.” Claire rolled her eyes.
“Claire.” Cas was starting to get a headache.
“What? You are! Always kissing and hugging and playing with each other’s hair. Parents aren’t supposed to act like that.” Claire shuddered, “It’s GROSS!”
Cas smiled, “Well if that’s gross, then I’m happy to be gross!”
Everyone heard the front door open and Dean call out, “Hey, where is everyone?”
“Hey, squirt, Daddy’s home!”
Jack stayed silent, still playing with his cake.
Dean walked into the kitchen; his face streaked with grime from a long day’s work. He was still holding the old-fashioned lunch box that Cas packed for him every day. Cas stood up to greet him and Dean swept his husband into a passionate kiss.
Claire rolled her eyes and stood up, “See? Gross?”
Ignoring her, Dean kept kissing his husband. Finally, Jack had enough.
Pointing at his fathers, tears in his eyes, Jack cried out, “Faggots!”
The room was completely silent except for the clanging of Dean’s lunch box as it hit the floor.
“What the fuck did he just say?” Dean was enraged.
“Dean,” Cas tried to calm him down.
“Go to your room,” Dean bellowed at Jack, “NOW!”
Jack jumped off his chair and started sobbing, “I hate you! I hate being gay!” And he ran out of the room.
Claire looked at her fathers, “He thinks we’re all gay.” She shrugged, “I’ll go talk to him.” Leaving the room, she called out to Jack, “Hey squirt? Squirt!”
Dean was panting with anger. Cas led him to a chair and forced him to sit down. Rubbing his shoulders, Cas tried to calm down his husband, “Dean, it’s all right.”
“It’s not all right! ‘Faggots?’ Where’d he learn THAT word, Cas?”
Cas continued with the back massage, “Some kids at school were teasing him today about us. It’s nothing.”
“Nothing? Castiel, our son just called us faggots. That is not nothing.”
“Dean, he isn’t even eight years old. He doesn’t know any better.”
Dean scoffed, “Well my belt on his ass will TEACH him better!”
Cas stopped rubbing Dean’s back, “You are not going to spank our son. Especially not with your belt.”
“Then how’s he gonna learn, Cas?” Dean was still enraged. “My father whooped my ass every time I got out of line.”
“And that worked so well, didn’t it?” Cas wasn’t normally sarcastic with Dean but these were special circumstances.
“I’m not gonna have an argument about my dad right now, Cas. This is about our son and the words he’s using to describe us.”
Cas sat next to Dean, “Why are you so mad, Dean?”
“Why AREN’T you mad, Cas?”
Cas shrugged, “I don’t know. I guess I’m just sadder than anything else. I’m sad for Jack, Dean. This can’t be easy for him. If this happened to Claire, even when she was seven, she’d just tell everyone to go fuck themselves and it would be over.”
Dean started laughing.
Cas was confused, “This is funny?”
“Any time you say the word fuck, Cas, yes it’s funny.” Dean leaned over and gave Cas a quick kiss. “So, what are we supposed to do now?”
“I don’t know, Dean. Talk to his teacher? Maybe he can get the kids to back off?”
Dean sighed and leaned his head on Cas’ shoulder, “Do you remember when Jody agreed to be our surrogate?”
“Of course I do, Dean,” Cas smiled, “It’s one of the top ten moments of my entire life.”
Dean smiled, “Yeah, me too, Cas.” He quickly kissed Cas’ nose. “Jody wasn’t going to do it because she didn’t want to have any more kids. She didn’t want to be a mom again. She only agreed when we told her she wouldn’t have to have any commitment. She was “Auntie Jody” and that was it. Cas, those two kids, they’re a gift from God…from Jody…and sometimes I wonder if we were just being selfish. Neither one of us stopped to think about how our weird little family would affect the kids. It isn’t fair, Cas. In fact, it sucks.”
“Not everyone is terrible, Dean. You work at a garage. It’s full of testosterone and fumes and no one there gives you a hard time about being married to a man.” Cas raised both his eyebrows, “We just have to teach Jack and Claire too that not everyone is going to accept us and that’s okay.”
“It isn’t okay, Cas. How is our son calling us faggots okay?”
Cas sighed, “I’ll talk to him. I’ll make him understand what a terrible word that is and that people who use it are awful and we want nothing to do with them. But, Dean, we can’t shield him from the world. We can’t protect him from everything.”
“He’s seven, Cas. For fuck’s sake at the very least I’d like to protect him from assholes.”
Nodding, Cas sighed again, “Me too.” Dean leaned over and again kissed his husband.
Claire walked into the kitchen, “Oh my GOD, get a room!”
“We don’t need a room, we have a house,” Dean retorted. “How’s Jack?”
“Pouty. Whiney. Completely annoying. Same as always.” Claire sat at the table with them, “But he’ll be okay. We talked about the eff word and he’s not gonna use it anymore.”
“Really?” Cas was impressed. “Thank you, Claire.”
Claire rolled her eyes, “Ugh, don’t thank me. I hate that word too. The little shit needs to know it’s not okay.” Claire stopped talking but had a look on her face that told her fathers she had more to say.
“What is it, Claire?” Castiel reached over to touch her hand and she predictably pulled away.
“It’s nothing,” Claire sighed, loudly. “Okay, it’s not nothing. But this faggot stuff? ‘Fairy’ being written on Jack’s paper? It isn’t just the kids, you know. Jack’s teacher? He’s a huge homophobe.”
“Claire, that’s an ugly thing to call someone,” Cas chastised her.
Focusing on Dean, Claire continued, “The other day, Jack’s teacher called a kid in MY class a pansy because he couldn’t do chin-ups on the monkey bars. And it wasn’t the first time he made fun of a boy in school. His favorite insult? Fairy.”
“Fairy?” Cas put his face in his hands.
“What is with all this fairy talk?” Dean was confused.
“One of Jack’s classmates wrote it next to a picture Jack drew of me,” Cas explained. “And I think Claire is telling us where the kid learned it.”
Claire nodded.
Dean shook his head, “So what you’re telling me is I’m gonna have to go to your school and kick Jack’s teacher’s ass?”
Claire’s eyes lit up, “That would be AWESOME!”
Cas shook his head, “It would not be awesome. Claire, go check on your brother while I talk to Daddy.”
Claire grumpily left the kitchen.
“Cas, I don’t wanna argue. I’m going up to that school on Monday.”
“I’m not arguing with you, Dean. I’m going with you. I just don’t think you should lead with kicking the guy’s ass.” Cas paused for a moment, his face was completely serious, “We need to save that as a last resort.”