Standing Together

Chapter 127

A/N Lol whoops missed a chapter 

Castiel wakes up to the sound of Dean's laughter, which would be nice if it weren't so early in the morning. He tries to fall back asleep, but Dean cracks up again a minute later, and then again, and again.

Eventually, Castiel gives up on trying to sleep and drags himself out of bed, his goal just to tell his fiancé off, but when he walks into the kitchen and sees Dean with his head down on the table from laughing too hard, Castiel can't help but smile. He's too cute to get mad at.

Castiel leans against the door frame, watching him quietly. What he's listening to on his phone, Castiel can't guess, but it looks like it must be hilarious. Part of him wants to go straight to one of Dean's earbuds and listen for himself.

Dean doesn't look up for another few minutes, and when he does, he had to do a double take when he sees him standing there. "When did you get here?"

"A very long time ago," Castiel says.

"You should've said something." Dean takes his earbuds out and locks his phone. "I would've put my phone away some sooner."

"But you're so cute when you laugh."

"I am not cute," Dean says. "I am a fierce, fearless warrior who —"

"Aw, you're so cute!" Castiel coos, as if Dean were a dog.

"You're dead to me.".

Castiel chuckles. "So, can I ask what you're watching that had you laughing like that?"

"Well," Dean says, "I was going to watch Jack on the Ellen Show, right? And then I remembered that Jack was on SNL a few days ago, so I had to watch that, too. Then I got one of my favorite SNL skits in my suggested videos, and John Mulaney was in it. So I kept watching SNL John Mulaney skits, and then I started watching John Mulaney interviews, and now I'm listening to him talk about how he's a really shitty detective."

"I'm so incredibly confused," Castiel says.

"I know you are," Dean says. "But anyway, wanna watch Jack on the Ellen Show?"

"Maybe later," Castiel says.

"Ah, but see, it wasn't a choice," Dean says. "C'mere, you gotta see this."

"Later," Castiel says. "I wanna make some coffee, maybe take a shower."

"Just this one part," Dean insists. "Then you can do whatever you want."

"Why?" Castiel asks suspiciously. "What's he doing?"

"Just talking," Dean says. "Come on. It's only a few minutes long."

Castiel sighs. "Fine, why not?"

Castiel sits down at the table, looking over Dean's shoulder as he searches for a video. Castiel barely has time to read the title — Jack Kline on his new album, love, and relationships — before Dean has the video up and on full screen. He skips a few seconds in, interrupting them mid sentence.

"— album?"

Jack readjusts in his seat, a move Castiel recognizes as buying a few seconds as he thinks, before he says, "It's about a lot of things. My life has been changing so much so quickly lately, and you'll see that a lot. You know, the ups and downs of the last year or so." In a less informative, more lighthearted tone, he adds, "And, obviously, there are some love songs, because who doesn't love a good love song?"

"Well, that sounds great," Ellen says. "And those love songs, they're about...?"

"I honestly have no idea," Jack says. "Just kinda love in general."

"Right, right," Ellen says, exaggerating her skepticism. "And what's her name?"

"Her name's Imagination," Jack jokes, then adds in a more serious tone, "I honestly don't have a girlfriend — or a boyfriend, which is apparently the new theory going around. I'm a single Pringle."

"I find that hard to believe," Ellen says. "Look at you! You've got to have a special someone."

"I have my mom," Jack says. "That's about it. And I love her, but it's not exactly love song material."

"All right, I'll take you word for it," Ellen says. "So where do you get the inspiration for love songs, if there no one in your life?"

"Well, for the longest time, it was just an idea that I'd heard of and seen in movies or books, but never really in real life," Jack says. "I've never met my dad, so I couldn't look to my parents for it. I didn't have any siblings. My friends never dated anyone. I just kinda invented my own reality of love, and I ran with it, you know?"

"Mm," Ellen says, nodding politely.

"But lately, I've been meeting so many new people, and a lot of them are dating or married, and I was like wow, that's really, really cute."

"Like who, specifically?"

"Uh..." Jack shrugs. "Well, like Dean and Castiel. You can't look at the together and not see how just completely... infatuated with each other. And I don't mean, like, you see them holding hands or cuddling on the couch or something and you're like yeah, that's a relationship thing. They look at each other like they're looking at God Himself. It's just so pure, and that's the kind of love I'm trying to get at in those songs."

Dean pauses the video and leans back with a satisfied smile. "Isn't that adorable?"

"I love him so much."

"Bet you're glad you listened to me and watched the video, huh?"

Castiel rolls his eyes. "You're really taking this opportunity for an 'I told you so' moment?"

"I will take any moment for an 'I told you so,' Dean replies. "Wanna see what else he said about you?"

"Obviously."

"Alright, hang on." Dean exits YouTube and opens Twitter instead, scrolling through his likes until he finds the video.

"I know I've said it before, but working with Castiel was like a dream," Jack says. "And I know people are always like 'haha, yeah, bet it was!' or whatever but no, it's actually the greatest thing that's ever happened to me in my life, and 10-year-old me would die if I knew that it was going to happen one day."

"So you've been a fan of his for a long time?"

Jack nods. "I remember seeing him live for the first time when he opened for Taylor Swift's reputation tour, and he sang one of his songs just him and his guitar, and I can't remember which song it was, but I know I had heard it a billion times since my mom got his first album the day it came out. I think it was the fact that it was a stripped-back version with just his guitar, I don't know, but something about it really made me appreciate the lyrics a million times more. And I remember leaving that concert, after watching the Taylor Swift perform with giant 60-foot snakes, and my biggest takeaway was that I wanted to write songs like Castiel Novak. So the fact that I got to work on a song with him just blows my mind."

Dean stops the video and sets his phone down. "Look at him, being a cute little super fan."

Castiel can't stop beaming. "Oh my god, I had no idea Jack had actually been a fan before we met."

"Yeah, he said later that he was trying to play it cool every time he saw you," Dean says. "He's really just a fangirl in a celebrity costume."

"God, I love this kid," Castiel says.

"Just don't tell him I showed you that video," Dean says.

"Why?"

"Because he specifically says that he knows you don't go online and won't see it, and that if I do, I can't show you it and expose him as the giant fangirl he is," Dean says. "Which, of course, I immediately decided to ignore and show you it because I'm a shitty friend. You're welcome."