Standing Together

Chapter 85

Castiel stands on the stage, beaming out at the audience. They're so loud tonight. It's honestly amazing. He waits for them to settle down a little bit before he speaks.

"Yasss, queen!"

The audience cheers even louder as the music starts. He bites back a laugh. It's kind of adorable, how excited everyone always gets for this song. It's especially nice, knowing that it was supposed to be the cringiest song he's ever released. It's become such an icon for the lgbt+ community. People have grown to love it so much, to associate it with so many positive things.

But then the first explosion sounds, and suddenly, it stops being such a happy song.

Castiel bolts upright on the couch, a loud gasp escaping his lips. Almost instantly, Dean is in the room. He quickly sits down on the couch, tossing his crutches carelessly to the side. He wraps his arms around his fiancé, holding him close.

"Hey, Cas, it's okay," Dean coos. "It's just a dream."

Castiel buries his head in Dean's chest, fighting back tears. Dean rubs his back reassuringly.

"It's okay," Dean whispers. "You're okay."

No, I'm not.

He doesn't say it, but he knows it's true. He's not okay. If he was, he wouldn't still be having nightmares after nearly nine months.

What if he's never okay again? What if this just continues to haunt him for the rest of his life? He'll never have a moment of peace. He'll never be able to go to bed knowing he'll wake up to the sounds of birds chirping instead of bombs exploding. What if all of this never goes away?

"Cas, sweetie, what's wrong?" Dean asks softly. "What can I do?"

Castiel doesn't answer, just sobbing loudly, tears staining the other boy's tee shirt.

Dean sighs softly and continues rubbing his back slowly, almost like he's a little baby in need of protecting. Honestly, he kind of is.

There's a long pause in the conversation then. Dean must have decided better than to try to get him to talk if he doesn't want to. It's a good choice.

"Dean?" Castiel says softly after a long few minutes of silence.

"What is it?" Dean asks.

"Can we watch a movie?" Castiel asks.

"Of course we can," Dean says. "What movie do you want to watch tonight?"

"Aladdin?" Castiel asks timidly. He knows Dean is sick of it, but he's not. He still really likes it. It's comforting, the familiar repetition.

Dean hesitates, clearly not thrilled at the idea of watching it yet again, but then he sighs. "Okay, let's go watch Aladdin."

~~

"Hey, Cas, wake up," Dean says gently, shaking the boy awake.

"Hmm?" Castiel hums, slowly opening his eyes.

The first thing he notices is that they're just about at the end of Aladdin, and, assuming Dean didn't start it again after Castiel fell asleep, it would be the second round of it for the afternoon — or night, probably. He's likely only been sleeping for an hour, tops. Dean wouldn't usually wake him up that soon. He'd usually either stay with Castiel until he woke up or walk away quietly. This is weird.

"Jack's calling," Dean tells him.

"Oh?" Castiel says, not yet awake enough to process that. He closes his eyes again, already prepared to fall back asleep.

"Like, right now," Dean says. "It's on speaker."

"Oh," Castiel says. "Hi, Jack." He covers his mouth with his hand halfheartedly as he yawns, hopefully quiet enough that it can't be heard through the phone. He doesn't open his eyes throughout any of this. He's so tired that opening them is almost painful.

"Hi, Castiel," Jack says, clearly fighting back a laugh. "Are you watching the I Heart Radio Awards?"

"Oh, no, when's that?" Castiel asks.

"Right now," Jack says, and now he is laughing, though fairly quietly.

"Oh, then no," Castiel says. "We're watching Aladdin instead."

"Well, you're missing a good show," Jack says. "There were some great performances, and, you know, 'Remember' kinda just won 'Song of the Year.'"

It's impossible to miss the excitement in Jack's voice at that last part, but Castiel is too tired to think properly, so all he says is, "Right, you told me that was nominated, didn't you?"

Jack chuckles. "Yeah, well, I'm actually onstage right now, and you're on speaker and this is the acceptance speech."

"It's the what now?" Castiel says, because he's still far too tired to function.

"Acceptance speech!" Jack says. "Since you've never gotten to give one for this song."

"You took a seven-year old album reject and turned it into a hit," Castiel says. "There's absolutely no reason for me to give a speech when you did all the work. You go have your moment, and I'm gonna go to sleep, 'kay?"

He can faintly hear the cheering from the audience at that, and he lets out a small, content noise without thinking.

"Welp, that's that," Dean says. "I promise he's not drunk. He's just tired."

Jack laughs softly. "Okay, that's not how I expected this to go, but it was probably more entertaining than anything I could have thought of. Well, bye!"

When Castiel doesn't say anything, Dean says a quick, "Bye, Jack," and then the phone call ends.

"That was pretty selfless of you," Dean says.

"Hm?" Castiel hums.

"Telling everyone that it was all Jack's work," Dean says. "Not taking any credit, giving Jack the limelight. Pretty selfless."

"Not selfless," Castiel mumbles, sliding closer to his fiancé. "Snuggles."

"That wasn't selfless, that was snuggles?" Dean says, amused.

"Mm hmm," Castiel hums. "Now snuggles."

Dean chuckles and presses a kiss to the other boy's cheek. "Okay, snuggle time."