Fame Crazy (Sequel to Strings Attached)

Chapter 19

It's around eight thirty when Gabriel finally gets home. Castiel debates going out to greet him, but decides against it. It's not like he'll never see his brother again; they're literally sleeping in the same room for the next week. Instead, Castiel focuses on the song he's attempting to write, but he's feeling rather uninspired at the moment. He strums the guitar aimlessly as he thinks, hoping the lyrics will come to him. They don't.

Gabriel flings the bedroom door open carelessly, then seems to remember that this isn't just his room. He apologizes halfheartedly before walking up to the younger boy, tilting his head awkwardly to see what Castiel is working on. Immediately, he shuts his song notebook so his elder brother can't see what he has written.

"How's the writing going?" Gabriel asks.

"Fine," Castiel lies.

He's pretty sure this is what writer's block feels like. It's a new experience for him, and one that's been stretching on for probably about a month, though he doesn't know the exact date it started. As someone whose career depends on him writing music, this probably isn't a good thing.

"Do you number your song notebooks?" Gabriel asks, eyeing the big 12 written on the front of his five subject notebook.

Castiel nods, sticking his notebook under the bed. "Yeah. I like to keep them organized, so I can look at the progression of my writing." Castiel stands up to lean his guitar against the wall.

"Stop being such an overachiever," Gabriel complains. "And I can't believe you're on your twelfth notebook. It took you, like, four years to fill up your first one. Now it only takes, like, six months."

"Not quite," Castiel replies. "I think my second on took me a year, and my eleventh took me just under three months. There's a bit of a range here. But now that my life is literally just about music, I write a lot more than I did as a sixth grader who did it on the side."

"Ah, true," he agrees. "Welp, I'm tired. Jet lag sucks ass, man."

"It's literally, like, three hours," Castiel reminds him. "It's not a big deal. Plus, isn't it earlier in California?"
Gabriel thinks about this for a moment. "Yeah, probably. But I'm tired anyway, so... goodnight."

~~

"Castiel. Hey, Castiel. Wake up."

Castiel sits up with a start when he feels a hand on his arm, nearly whacking the top bunk with his head. He's panting softly from some nightmare that disappeared with his wake up call.

"What time is it?" Castiel asks groggily.

"Like, three," Gabriel whispers.

"In the morning?"

"No, in the afternoon," Gabriel says sarcastically. "Yes, in the morning."

Castiel frowns. So, that's probably, like, two hours of sleep. That's not too bad, seeing as he can go back to sleep now.

"Are you okay?" Gabriel asks softly. "Sounded like you were having a nightmare."

"I'm fine," Castiel assures him. "Thanks. Sorry to wake you up."

"It's fine," Gabriel replies. "I'm going back to bed. 'Night."

"'Night," Castiel whispers back before lying down again. Now for the fun part. Falling back asleep again.

~~ (A/N Thanks to Winchester_At_Heart for inspiring this next part. If you haven't checked out the second additional chapter she wrote of this book on her own profile, you should do that.)