Standing Together

Chapter 39

"Oh, right, I was gonna ask if I could do that," Jack tells him. "I guess there was another question left."

And that's strike 2.5. It looks like it's time for a little Castiel wisdom.

"Can I just tell you a little something about collabs?" Castiel asks.

"I would love for you to tell me a little something about collabs," Jack replies.

Castiel smiles to himself. Jack's too precious for this world.

"Collabs can be really good and really bad," Castiel tells him. "On one hand, it's going to get my fans to check out your song — which is going to be good for sales and streams; even better than just having my name in the writing credits — and some of them will probably decide they like you and you'll probably get some new fans.

"But on Twitter, collabs kinda start a riot, especially if it succeeds. All you'll see about it, at least on stan Twitter, is people trying to pin its success on just one of us, and you're not gonna find a whole lot of people looking at the song as a whole instead of two different people. And they just don't shut up — at least until you release another single, and if that doesn't do as good as our song, it'll go back to the whole 'pinning success on one person' thing. Are you willing to put up with all that? Because it's not going to be pretty."

There's a moment of silence as Jack mulls it over. Finally, he says, "I think it'll be worth it. If it doesn't bother you, I'd still like to record it together."

He's sure Jack will live to regret this, but he might as well learn how harsh stan twitter can be now instead of with a different collab. And maybe he'll get lucky and it will be a hit, just because it's the first thing Castiel will have done since the Louisiana bombing, and everybody will want to see what he's been up to these last couple months. He's sure they'll all be disappointed to learn how old the song is, but no one has to know about that until after it blows up.

"Then I'm good with it, too," Castiel says. "Is there any way I could wait a few weeks until I fly out there, though?"

"I guess?" Jack says uncertainly. "I mean, I was kinda thinking it could be the first song I released from the album, but I was gonna put out the first single soon — like, within the next two weeks."

"Start advertising the first single now," Castiel advises him. "Get the hype up. Make sure everyone knows about it. Your casual fans need more of a heads up, because they don't pay enough attention to see it within a week. But you don't want your first single to be ours. Your debut single is usually the biggest from each album. It's the one everyone's been waiting for. Your second single can get lost in the shuffle. That's the one you want me on. It'll get people excited again. Then you can put the album out. Obviously, you can throw out a promo single or two with just the audio for your fans here and there, but those aren't gonna get very big. They never do."

"You know a lot about this stuff, don't you?" Jack remarks.

"It's all I've done for the last seven years," Castiel says. "I've picked up a few things along the way."

"Well, I'm definitely gonna take your word for it," Jack says.

From there, they just set a date for Castiel to come out to L.A. They even decide to put together a music video, although Castiel makes it clear that this is Jack's project, so he doesn't want to take it over. He'll show up and do what he's told, and that's about all he'll offer.

When Castiel hears the front door open, he says, "Hey, I gotta go, but if you have any questions, text me, 'kay?"

"Sure. Thanks, Castiel," Jack replies, sounding sincerely grateful.

Castiel puts his phone down and goes off to look for his fiancé. Just like the previous day, Dean came home and went straight for the bed, flopping down carelessly on his stomach. Castiel stands in the doorway for a few silent moments, looking at the boy with an amused smile. Is this going to be a daily occurrence?

Castiel walks over to his fiancé, kneeling next to the bed so he's closer to Dean's level. Dean's face is buried in his pillow, and he seems to be oblivious to Castiel's presence.

"Dean, you okay?" Castiel asks, slightly entertained.

"Everything hurts and I want to die."

Castiel chuckles. "I take it a little exercise didn't help your soreness?"

Dean turns his head to look at his fiancé. "It was fine until I stopped moving. Now it's unfine."

Castiel raises an eyebrow. "Unfine?"

Dean just mumbles something unintelligible and buries his head into his pillow again.

Castiel crawls onto the bed, straddling Dean's back. He lightly presses his hands against Dean's shoulder blades, earning a pained groan. Castiel pauses, his hands resting on Dean's back gently.

"Want me to stop?" Castiel asks.

"No."

Castiel presses the palm of his hand into Dean's shoulder blades again, and he makes the same pained sound. Castiel shakes his head to himself. At least he knows he's doing it right. Massages always work better when they hurt.

... Is it bad that he's happy he's hurting his fiancé?