Chapter Text
*I’m not a photographer, but I can picture me and you together.
‘I’m a busy demon, Robert. I can perfectly leave if the Wonder Boys want to come over to have a heart-to-heart with their daddy. Just say the word and I will be glad to finally have some time for state affairs’.
Bobby, who had just entered the house from the yard with a grumpy demon on his tail, threw an amused look over his shoulder, ‘They just get here tonight. You can stay if you stop being stupid’.
Crowley didn’t answer – he halted by the kitchen doors, hands in his pockets and a hovering glare.
‘Don’t set my things on fire’, Bobby warned, serving himself some water.
‘I need to vent out my frustrations’.
‘What you need is to tell me what’s the matter with you and the whining’, he gulped down half a glass in large chugs, ‘It’s been days’.
Crowley stared at the throat moving and wet lips in fascination.
‘Eyes over here, demon’.
Crowley blinked, getting out of the reverie, and frowned again, ‘It’s more practical to set something on fire’.
Bobby turned to the sink, ‘Talking like civilized folk may get me in the mood’.
If Crowley was a dog, his ears would have perked, ‘Now you have my attention’.
Bobby took advantage of being with his back to the demon and grinned.
They had been together for months, now, and sex was not the main feature of their relationship, anymore. Of course, it still was very present, frequent and enjoyable for both, but they had been spending so much time together just chatting and sharing things that sex had turned into one more element of their routine, not the focus it had been at the beginning.
What was good, once it could be used in negotiations like this.
‘I’m all ears’, the hunter said, turning with the now clean and dry glass in his hand, ‘What has got the King of Hell’s metaphorical guts in a knot?’
‘I have real guts, Robert. They are just not necessary’.
‘Stalling’.
The demon got serious and munched over what to say for some moments.
Bobby waited.
Hurrying that demon never took him anywhere.
‘I wonder what it means that your boys are thinking of retiring’.
‘Who said anything about retiring?’
‘Dean brought that girl to meet us… The one with a son who is probably his…’
‘Lisa and Ben’, Bobby nodded, ‘They seemed pretty good, together’.
‘I wonder if they will have a room for Castiel in their house in the suburbs’, Crowley made a vague gesture and went on, ‘The Sasquatch has been searching universities…’, the demon ignored Bobby’s surprised look at how much he really paid attention to the news about the Winchesters, ‘It’s a matter of time for them to settle’.
‘Settling is usually a good thing for humans, given our short life spams’, Bobby shrugged, ‘Most of us dream of having a home and a career that doesn’t involve blood and gore’.
‘Don’t get me wrong, darling. I cheer that their days of smelly motel rooms will be over…’
‘But?’
Crowley didn’t answer for a long time.
Bobby moved to put the glass in its place, then supported his back on the sink to face the other more comfortably, once this conversation was proving to be harder than expected.
‘I hope you don’t get offended, Robert, but I don’t believe in happy endings – operative words being ‘happy’ and ‘endings’’.
The hunter frowned in confusion, ‘You mean for the boys? You don’t believe they can get out of the life?’, at the demon’s hesitant nod, he added, ‘Well, they’re not. They still want to help Castiel and you, and they won’t be shy if any monsters cross their way’, Bobby leaned his head, ‘The difference is that they decided to do something else, too, besides, you know…’
‘Wrecking havoc and creating chaos amidst blood and gore?’
‘Yeah’.
‘I see’, Crowley said, his eyes darkening, ‘But I was not talking just about them…’, he pursed his lips, ‘In my experience, there is no peace at the end of the journey. There is no end, in fact, just a new start where something is going to inevitably surge from the shadows to grab your legs and make you fall’.
‘You may find it difficult to accept that having peace for at least a part of existence is worth trying because you’ve been in a long and until now endless loop of life and death’, Bobby pondered, approaching Crowley, ‘To humans it is hard to believe, too. Having the opportunity to have a peaceful life and finding someone to stay by your side for that is a lot of luck’.
The demon stared at the man in front of him.
He was pondering on the notions presented.
That was another thing that had turned common between them: the demon was always open to discuss things with Bobby and, if the arguments were qualified (what, knowing Bobby, they rarely weren’t), change his mind.
Bobby sustained the stare, and resumed, ‘Castiel is taming the angels. You have a strong hold on demons. Why can’t our poor souls have some years without fighting the end of the world? What if we just want to go back to hunting ghosts and werewolves?’
‘Those were simpler times’, Crowley nodded, then sighed, ‘I’m not really able to understand, but I can appreciate it’.
They exchanged gentle smiles, as it happened when they dropped the teasing and, after discussing some subject seriously, reached a reasonable agreement.
It was strangely intimate. They were not so easy to admit their difficulties and doubts to anyone else, but somehow they had developed an urge to do it between them.
Suddenly, Crowley squinted, ‘Why, Robert. If Dean wants a family and Sam, his studies, in order to achieve peace and happiness for a while, I wonder what your ideas on that are’.
‘I don’t want peace now. I’m doing my share to be forgiven from any sin I have ever committed, thanks to enduring the King of Hell in my life for so much time’.
Before Crowley could protest at those words, the hunter grabbed his hips, making their bodies collide, and started assaulting his neck.
‘Don’t test your luck, hunter. Our liaison is what keeps the universe balanced and is giving a chance of a normal life to those morons…’, Crowley tilted his head and started undoing his tie to give his lover better access.
‘You self-centered bastard…’, Bobby groaned between nips, ‘You really think the world is in debt with you?’
‘With us, pet’.
Crowley’s hands were getting bold.
Bobby groaned at a surprisingly strong hold on his buttocks and parted, ‘Let’s go up’.
‘So fond of my gift, aren’t you?’, the demon smirked, ‘I think the tube is great, too, but can we wait the needed time for it to fill-’
‘My bedroom’.
Crowley froze.
Bobby’s bedroom had been the only place of that house still off-limits.
The demon supposed it was Karen’s room, and they never discussed it.
‘Come on’, Bobby grabbed his hand and pulled him obediently to the stairs.
xxx
When they entered the room, Bobby locked the door behind them and let go of Crowley to go to a side desk.
‘What are you doing, love?’, the surprised demon’s voice sounded behind him.
‘I need a knife’.
‘We both know you’re not into knives during sex, Robert’.
‘I have a demon trap under the bed, idjit’.
‘Must be this one I’m currently in’.
Bobby turned to look and, yes, Crowley was already on the bed, what meant inside the demon’s trap.
Kneeling.
Naked.
‘Yeah, that one’, the hunter licked his lips, ‘Why do you…?’
‘I’ve been willing to offer myself to you like this for a long time’, Crowley started moving on the bed, ‘No better opportunity than when you decide to open the doors of your bedroom to me’.
The demon got on his fours, his ass proudly in the air.
Bobby’s heart was pounding.
He hadn’t expected it.
It was too good to be true.
Crowley had put himself inside a demon’s trap, no fight and no resistance.
Naked and basically powerless, in a room unfamiliar to him.
Breathing deeply to control his excitement, Bobby closed the drawer and approached, eyes on the demon while taking his clothes off.
Crowley’s eyes were on him, too, following every move with hungriness.
The hunter stopped by the side of the bed, ‘Come here. Let me repay a favor’.
He pulled the demon’s legs out of bed, until the feet were touching the ground and Crowley’s middle was pressed against the edge. Then, Bobby started a trail of lips and tongue from the nape to the curve of the ass, until he knelt between the thighs and proceed to lick and kiss everything on the rear area, like Crowley had done for him in their first date.
‘You don’t have to repay any-Oh, Robert. Do repay’.
Bobby chuckled and went on, resting his forearm on the small of the demon’s back, feeling the meatsuit relax completely under his touches.
Unfortunately, his restraint was not the same as the demon’s, who wriggled his hips teasingly until Bobby couldn’t wait anymore and had to get up, entering the body under him in one harsh trust, then supporting all his weight on him.
Bobby had never heard Crowley moan and beg like that.
He suspected no one ever had.
He caressed, he prodded, he said soothing sweet nothings in Crowley’s ear, taking advantage of a moment free of the doubts and suspicions that may still be lingering in the demon’s mind.
He tried to keep a slow pace, but the creature under him reacted so beautifully to the most demanding moves that Bobby felt comfortable to be rough and go deep and grind harshly.
And then he grabbed the other’s shoulder with a strong hand and pulled hair with the other, to tilt the head enough for a wet kiss.
They kept moving against each other in an uncontrolled and animalistic way, now just groans and moans being exchanged.
Crowley came first, and his desperate whine took Bobby over the edge.
They stayed there for a long time, enjoying the closeness, Crowley clenching around Bobby’s cock, and Bobby with his lips planted on Crowley’s back.
One of the demon’s arms moved until he reached the hunter’s hair with his hand to caress it, ‘That was wonderful, love’.
The level of softness in his voice was only for the being currently on top of him.
The King had given up hiding his fondness for some time, now.
‘Yeah’, Bobby agreed, sighing, ‘It was’.
The faintest of sounds was heard in the distance.
Crowley was surprised at the sudden movement of Bobby getting off him. Without the weight pressing him down, he raised from the edge of the bed and turned to sit on it, wondering what had happened.
Bobby was standing by the window, lifting the curtains. He listened for a moment to the now persistent noise outside.
It was the familiar roar of the Impala, getting closer and closer.
The hunter let go of the curtains, went to the table he had previously tried to reach when they entered the room and opened the drawer to pick something.
It was an angel’s blade.
The moment Bobby closed the drawer the sound of the Impala – motor and now, tires against terrain, was heard on the yard.
Crowley tensed, ‘Didn’t you say they were not arriving until the night?’
Bobby didn’t raise his eyes from the blade in his hand, ‘Sometimes people change their minds’.
‘Yes’, Crowley gulped down, the grip of fear getting him, ‘They do’.
“So, this is how it ends”, the demon thought, “With a trap”.
Crowley should start planning an escape by now, but he couldn’t move or think straight.
He had just been proven right in the worst way possible.
There was no peace and no happiness, for him. His existence was fated to be a succession of disappointment, hurt and loneliness.
That is why he had never let his guards down. That’s why he always kept in mind that no one would ever care for him – because sooner or later he would be betrayed and abandoned.
It had been like that since he was a small malnourished boy whose mother left when she decided he was not worth even three pigs.
And that was why this hurt like nothing hurt before. This time he had really believed that someone cared for him. He had changed his original plans because he believed Robert’s feelings were real.
It was all a lie.
Well, maybe not a complete lie. Maybe Robert had enjoyed this thing between them, being him the generous and nice human he was. But he was a hunter, and his better instincts would win, sooner or later.
Crowley recognized his stupidity. Someone so special would never consider him anything but a monster.
Believing that was a mistake.
A fatal mistake.
Even if for some improbable strike of luck the demon managed to escape that situation, he had no idea of what to do of the shattered pieces of his heart hurting him from inside out.
No power over any realm could fix that loss.
Crowley gathered the sheets around his shoulders, closing them on his front like a cloak.
He stayed in silence, hands joined on his lap over the bundle of cloth, realizing how ridiculous he must seem covering himself now that he had already shown everything.
He didn’t have a soul. He shouldn’t feel like something deep inside had been crushed, but that was exactly how he felt –wounded and never able to heal again.
Bobby closed the drawer and approached with the knife, still looking at it, a frown on his forehead.
Crowley realized something.
Whatever Robert had decided to do – kill him right now, keep him prisoner for research or whatever –, he would agree with.
That man was wise. If he thought Crowley should die, the demon would accept it; if he intended to extract information or body samples, the demon wouldn’t raise a finger to stop him.
The only thing Crowley wanted to ask was that it happened between them. He didn’t mind falling in disgrace if it was by Bobby Singer’s hands. However, he didn’t want the Winchesters to be part of it.
He tried to clear the lump in his throat and, even if he didn’t manage completely and felt like he would cry at any moment, Crowley made an effort to speak, ‘Robert…’
Bobby huffed, annoyed, ‘What do you want to do?’
Crowley blinked in confusion, ‘Pardon?’
‘Those idjits have no sense of time or space…’, the hunter scoffed unhappily and knelt beside the bed, close enough to the demon’s legs to be kicked if that was the case, to lift the rug and start carving the trap, ‘You can go to Hell – no pun intended. You said you have things to do. I understand. I can call you when they’re gone’.
Crowley gulped down to find his voice, then gulped again, because the meatsuit seemed in short circuit.
‘No need for a silent treatment’, Bobby said, eyes focusing in his work, ‘I didn’t know they were so close’.
Still, there was no answer.
Satisfied with his work, Bobby straightened his back and saw Crowley.
The demon was staring at him with big shocked eyes.
‘What?’, he asked, kind of frightened by the sight.
‘You will let me go?’
‘Well, I want you to stay, but- Wait’, Bobby stared in disbelief, ‘You thought I was keeping you in the trap?’
‘You weren’t?’
‘No!’
Bobby had been already very emphatic in his answer, but then he threw the blade away and got up, joints cracking and, still, indignant, ‘Why would I leave you stuck here?!’
Crowley didn’t answer.
He seemed scared to death, and that was a lot to say about how he was feeling right then.
‘You paranoid bastard…’, Bobby softened, visibly disconcerted by the frightened puppy look, ‘You thought I had brought you up here to fuck you in my bed and do what? Give you to the boys? Attack you with a blade? What kind of psycho you think you’re dealing with?’
The demon didn’t move.
‘We exchanged vows!’, Bobby scolded, ‘Do you take me for a man who says something at someone’s face and then bury blades in their back? What about my beautiful soul and all that jazz?!’
The King of Hell had his mouth hanging open, eyes fixed on the human as if it was difficult to follow what was being said to him.
‘Yeah, I know’, Bobby nodded in understanding, his whole demeanor calming down, ‘You never could trust anyone like this’.
At the noise of the doors of the Impala, Bobby turned and started getting his discarded clothes, ‘We’ll have to discuss this later’, he put his undershirt, ‘You started this. You wanted to give me good things’, he threw the shirt on, ‘Now use that cunning mind of yours to find a way to cope with the attachment’, he grabbed the jeans and raised his leg awkwardly to put it on without supporting himself on the bed, ‘You can’t think I’m hurting you every time I do something you can’t control. I’m not hurting you’, he raised the other leg, ‘And I’m not leaving you, you idjit’.
Still there was no answer.
Bobby, busy pulling his pants up, started grunting something under his breath about a demon who didn’t lend him a hand with the clothes just because he liked ogling him.
And then he heard the aforementioned demon’s voice, ‘I love you, Robert’.
The hunter stopped fussing (now with his belt) and turned to stare at the source of the sound.
Crowley had moved close to the door while Bobby ranted, and now was standing there, completely clothed.
And seemingly ready to disappear at any moment.
Bobby stared at the being in front of him, ‘Are you all right?’
Crowley gave a small pained smile, ‘Never been better’.
The hunter approached to put his hands on the demon’s shoulders, ‘Not that I didn’t like it, but… Why you decided this was the time to say the words?’
‘Because you chose to say them when we made our new deal, and I haven’t found in me the strength to say them back’, the King was looking into his human’s eyes tenderly, ‘It happened in Paris, under the moonlight, after a heart to heart and our first time going all the way – it was like a romantic comedy script, and still I couldn’t say it back’, he rested his hands on Bobby’s chest, close to that comforting spot where he could feel heart and soul throbbing, ‘You didn’t demand it, but I wanted to say the words, and I couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t come out’.
Bobby frowned slightly, focused.
The King shuffled his feet, uncharacteristically shy.
‘We just reached the point where we are because of your awesomeness, Robert…’, he looked away for a moment, gathering braveness, then back at Bobby’s face, ‘What a demon calls love may be twisted and uncomfortable for a human, and that’s all I have to offer’, he tilted his head, ‘I was afraid it would not be enough for a human with a soul like yours’.
Bobby was silent for some moments, his mouth open in something akin to shock.
Then, he let go of Crowley to put his hands on his hips, huffing at some inconvenient tears, ‘You decided to say those things to me when the boys are just some steps away?’, he gulped down the emotion, ‘I’d hate you if I didn’t love you so much!’
Crowley blinked in Bobby’s arms for a tight hug.
The human sniffed, ‘You’re such an idjit. There’s no such thing as what demons call love. Demons can’t even love. You can because you’re different. I’ll have whatever you call love as long as it doesn’t turn into some violent psychotic thing, and we both know it won’t happen’, he pressed the other against him, caressing his hair, ‘You keep saying I’m The Man and you forget you’re so damn special. You hear me?’
Crowley nodded against Bobby’s shoulder.
He would deny forever that he didn’t speak because he was controlling his sobbing.
The moment was broken when they heard Sam and Dean calling Bobby’s name from the front door.
‘Bollocks’, Crowley groaned, ‘Now we’re both emotional to face those morons’.
‘It serves you well’.
‘Be nice, Singer’, he parted enough to show off his healing powers by making his puffed teared eyes turn back to normal, ‘I can always go to Hell and deflect the situation’.
‘Don’t you dare’, Bobby breathed deeply to clear his nostrils, ‘No kisses for you for a week if you leave now’.
Crowley dried his partner’s cheeks with his thumbs while sporting a teasing smile, ‘You wouldn’t be able to resist my lips’.
‘I was not referring just to lips’.
‘Now you have a point’.
xxx
Crowley didn’t disappear on Bobby.
He not just stayed, but went down to greet and be a nice host to Sam and Dean.
And if he was not completely his usual self, it was because he had to keep a façade of serenity while his insides were screaming at the fact he and Bobby had just crossed a new frontier in their relationship.
The boys were already used to Crowley being at Bobby’s when they visited, so they were not surprised at his presence. However, the new couple hadn’t had time to discuss if they would speak clearly about their relationship status to the Winchesters, and it made the demon a bit fidgety.
(Castiel already knew about them. The angel had no idea of what privacy was and had appeared in the yard at some very ill-timed moments.
They had wondered if the angel had mentioned it to the Winchesters, and decided he had not: no way he could have told Sam and Dean about the time he caught the King of Hell pressing the hunter against an old truck while kissing him as if their lives depended on it in any way that didn’t get the boys to run to the yard and demand explanations.)
The conversation rolled on smoothly. The humans drank some beer, the demon conjured his scotch and they heard the younger men’s news.
Dean was moving in with Lisa and Ben to a nice house, and intended to start working in construction.
Sam was researching ways to clear his name in Police records and enroll in an University as close as possible to Dean’s home, so they could keep in touch and, when the occasion arouse, hunt together.
When it seemed the Winchesters were satisfied that Bobby was well-informed enough about their lives, they announced their intention to take the road immediately, but Crowley stopped them to make them promise to visit their surrogate father as often as possible. He pointed out how much they owed the older hunter and made clear that, if it was for his own preferences, they could disappear forever, but that was not the case, once ‘Robert, for some undecipherable reason’, liked them.
They didn’t take to heart the half-joking subtle menace and promised to visit.
They even teased Crowley on being "protective" and not "demonic possessive" over Bobby.
(That made demon and hunter exchange stares over the possibility that Castiel had told them something.)
The group said their goodbyes in front of the house, with hugs among the humans and nice claps on the shoulder for the demon, who was surprised (but obviously pleased) to be included.
And then Bobby grabbed Crowley’s hand and kept it in his, chin raised in a mix of defiance and pride.
The King of Hell was comically wide-eyed at the gesture.
Dean raised his brows at the scene.
Sam smiled as if he had just seen the cutest thing ever.
Maybe Bobby and Crowley were not as subtle as they thought they were. Their relationship didn’t seem to be exactly a surprise for the boys.
(Or Castiel had definitively told them something.)
The Winchesters bid their farewells with no comments – but renewed grins – and went to their car.
When the Impala disappeared, Bobby and Crowley stayed side by side, looking at the now empty yard, hands still joined.
After some moments, the human stated calmly, ‘You’re gonna break it’.
‘Oh, sorry, love’, the demon realized he had been grabbing the hand in his with a bit more of force than necessary, ‘May I take us inside?’
Bobby turned to him, ‘Zapping us?’
Crowley nodded.
‘Why? It’s not like we’re that far from the house’, he smirked, ‘Or that we have something to hide’.
‘Bollocks’, Crowley gulped, ‘I need to get back into that trap as soon as possible’.
Bobby raised a brow, ‘You enjoy risky games more than you should for my piece of mind, demon’.
‘Damn it, Robert’, Crowley used his free hand to adjust his pants.
‘You have a boner, again?’, the human was amused, ‘What did I do, this time?’
‘You outed us to your boys in the cutest way possible. You just said my recklessness worries you and that you’re not ashamed to be seen with me…’, Crowley huffed, ‘So many things that I can’t quite explain right now’.
‘Told you I have a superpower related to you, Princess’.
Bobby spoke and grinned one of his rare self-satisfied grins.
‘Yes, my Prince, that you have’.
The demon, contrary to the roles they had just mentioned – and their statuses for the world outside –, lifted their joined hands to brush his lips on Bobby’s knuckles, as the perfect gentleman he could be.
‘Thank you for trusting me like that’, the hunter said, moved by the delicate gesture.
‘Thank you for teaching me it can go both ways’.
‘You’re welcome’, Bobby leered, ‘But watch out: I’m thinking of getting new traps around the house to keep you sharp’.
‘Oh, Robert’, the demon’s eyes shone, ‘I wouldn’t have it any other way’.
‘You’re just going to get trapped on purpose, aren’t you?’
‘There’s no limits to what I’d do to make you happy, darling’.
‘Balls’, Bobby bit his lower lip, what made Crowley’s mouth open in a sudden thrill of arousal, ‘Just take us inside’.
‘Really, Robert?’, the demon chuckled, raising his free hand to snap his fingers and blink them away, ‘You have a boner for my affections?’
Bobby didn’t answer.
He pulled Crowley for a kiss so deep they disappeared from the yard without any dramatic gestures.
That demon still had a lot to learn; luckily for him and for the Fate of all realms, he had found a human with all the best intentions to teach him right.
The End