Dean and Duke
Dean blanched, his eyes wide as Esme’s ‘no’ slapped him in the face. She had never told him ‘no’, when he broke down and apologized. As she pulled away from him, Dean turned and watched her, holding his hands out in confusion. When she turned and spoke what she was actually feeling, Dean shook his head at her rhetorical questions, “I don’t know what you want from me.”
Dean winced at the irritation in her voice, and as she kept going, he shook his head, genuinely confused. There was never a day in his life that he had put any effort into even apologizing to people, unless he felt like he was the one who had made the situation…the worst. Now, he was apologizing for being horribly possessive, and what he thought was the answer to what she wanted was apparently the direct opposite? He didn’t know what to do with that information. It was contradictory to everything that his brain was telling him to do. When people are enjoying themselves or working through emotions…you leave them alone. No. Maybe that was just what he needed when he was upset.
“Esme…I don’t know what to do…” Dean tried to reason, but Esme stopped him in his tracks by telling him to fix things with Duke. He narrowed his eyes and crunched his nose in confusion, finding it ridiculous that anything was even wrong with Duke. Duke never got mad at anyone. There wasn’t any bad blood between them, that Dean could see. He turned his eyes toward Duke and noticed how he was standing, “What?”
Duke didn’t even make eye contact with Dean. He simply turned to look at Esme from under his hat. She was coming to bat for him, in a way. She was calling Dean on his bullshit behavior toward him, and he would have to thank her for that later, if the conversation with Dean didn’t devolve into a fist fight. He simply nodded and turned his eyes down to his feet again, “Yes Ma’am. We’ll figure it out.”
“Esme where are you going?” Dean called out to her, ignoring Duke for a moment, until he realized that Esme wasn’t going to answer him, and he dropped his shoulders dramatically, turning in a circle while wiping a hand down his face in frustration. Then, he turned to Duke with a glare.
“Don’t give me that look.” Duke scoffed, scooting his hat back on his head so he could look at Dean a bit better. Dean snarled at Duke, pointing a finger at him.
“It’s been a long week of cleaning up your messes.”
“My messes? I never asked you to come save me at any point this week and if you think this…” Duke waved his arms around, and then pointed toward Esme’s retreating form, “is my mess? Oh boy do I have bad news for you. This is all you. Why did you tell her about me runnin’ like its somethin’ that’s gonna affect her in some way?”
“Because it will! What happens when she gets attached to you, like the good little puppy you are, only for you to disappear? Hm? What was her name? Ariel?”
“Rachel, you idiot.” Duke scoffed, kicking some dirt in frustration as he listened to the same speech he had heard a million times.
“Fine. Rachel. What happened when she fell head over heels in love with you? You proposed to her. You might have even loved her. Then, summer time comes along, Duke falls into the self doubt hole, and runs away. She came around every single day for a month, man! We didn’t know where you were. We didn’t even know how to contact you, after you threw away your phones…and that girl was broken. Completely destroyed.” Dean lectured, and Duke sniffled in frustration, reaching up to wipe a bit of sweat from his nose. Duke turned his eyes up to meet Dean’s face, “The only person that will tolerate you, is me…”
Duke suddenly jolted forward, shoving Dean backward with both his hands and his teeth gritted. Dean was a bit surprised at his anger.
“While we’re talkin’ about our big ones. Why don’t we talk about yours, hm?” Duke growled at Dean through his teeth, but Dean shook his head. “No. You can’t talk about the people you mess up, because the only thing that matters is who LIKES you. You have to have constant admiration, like some kind of God.”
Dean held a hand out, placing it on Duke’s bare chest with a huff, “I’m not fighting with you and I’m not gonna talk about her.”
“Oh! We can bring up all Duke’s mistakes, but heaven forbid that Dean Winchester admits he’s ever been wrong. Like right now! All that girl in there wants is for you to snuggle up with her, to maybe take her out and buy her a beer, to show her that she’s not alone after a really…really bad night. Which by the way, I haven’t heard you ask her about. I did…” Duke ranted, shoving Dean hard again. “Maybe, you’re afraid to admit that what she needs, is me, right now. That’s why you can’t fix it. She needed someone who knows nothin’ about her to spill to…and not you.”
Dean suddenly swept Duke’s leg from under him, following his body to the ground as he attempted to wrap his arms around Duke’s neck to choke him out. Anything to stop the flow of guilt that Dean was already feeling. But Duke was a little bigger and stronger than Dean, quickly rolling over, and squeezing both his knees against Dean’s ribs as he sat on his back. Dean groaned, and Duke’s arm pressed into the back of his neck, Duke’s other hand wrenching Dean’s behind his back, pressuring his elbow painfully.
“Me and you? We’re good. But you ain’t got shit to say to me about how I treat people. You know that. I know more about you than anyone and you are the same with me. But I’ll be damned if you’re gonna bring it up like I’m some sort of poison…” Duke whispered angrily in Dean’s ear, applying pressure to Dean’s elbow until he heard his adopted brother cry out, “Fix…your…mistakes…yourself. Stop draggin’ me into it, or I might have to turn up that charm until Esme sees how much of a hypocrite you really can be…brother.”
With a huff, Duke shoved Dean’s head and arm away from him and stood up, swiping his cowboy hat off the ground and dusting it off before placing it back on his head. He stepped off and began to walk back toward the house, turning to call back to Dean, “Unload those and put them in the shed for me. I need a beer.”