Standing Together

Chapter 97

"I'll see what songs I have and get back to you in a few minutes, how 'bout that?" Castiel asks.

"Yes, you da best!" Lucifer cheers.

Castiel hangs up and grabs his iPod, scrolling through the old recordings from his old songs. He only plays the first minute or so before moving on. None of them really catch his interest. None of them until...

"I totally forgot about this one," Castiel remarks. "It's got a whole storyline and everything. Perfect for a music video, right?"

Dean shrugs. "Yeah, sure. I don't know how music works, but go for it, man."

"That's very reassuring," Castiel says sarcastically. "I'm gonna do it anyway."

"How are you gonna do the music video, though?" Dean asks. "I mean, the song's called 'See You Then.' I'm assuming it's about Twist and Shout."

Castiel nods slowly. "Yeah, what about it?"

"Are you going to tell the whole story?" Dean asks. "War, death, sex. I'm no expert on your cinematic experience, but it doesn't really sound like your type of video to me."

Castiel shrugs. "I don't know. It'll have a lot of shock value, and I think my fans will like having visuals for my book. I don't think anyone else is gonna wanna watch it, though. It'll just be kinda fun. We can throw a literal party for the party scene, get some footage from that early on, and then actually enjoy the party."

"And are you gonna be Jensen?" Dean asks.

"I'm definitely not gonna be Jensen," Castiel says. "He's absolutely nothing like me. I'm more of a nerd like Misha."

"So who's gonna be Jensen?" Dean asks. "You have some fancy schmancy way of finding costars, right?"

"Usually, yeah." And it's a pain in the ass to find a qualified, racially diverse group of gay men to play his love interest in each of his videos, but he manages.

"Can you pick one that's not attractive?" Dean asks. "I refuse to be jealous watching this video."

"He has to be hot, or my fans are gonna bully him," Castiel says.

"Ah, dammit."

Castiel chuckles. "So, I take it you're aware that if this is the song I make a music video for, there's going to be a sex scene."

"I kinda assumed, yeah," Dean says.

"And it wouldn't bother you?" Castiel asks. He knows people — actors especially — do things like this all the time, but he's still feel bad.

"Define 'bother,'" Dean says.

Castiel sighs. "So it would bother you?"

"No, seriously, define 'bother,'" Dean says. "Because yeah, it may be a little disappointing, watching some complete stranger pretend to have sex with my fiancé — or I'd hope it's pretend — especially because I haven't had sex with my fiancé, but it's not like I'm gonna hold a grudge or anything. It's a music video. That's what you do."

"So it really wouldn't bother you if I made a video of my having fake sex and posted it online?" Castiel asks.

"Okay, now it sounds like a sex tape, and I can safely say that would bother me," Dean says. "But a music video? Nah. You do you."

"Great," Castiel says with a grin. "Now that that's out of the way, would you like to be Jensen?"

Dean starts choking on air at that. "What?'

"Do you want to be Jensen?" Castiel asks again. "You don't have to be, obviously. I'm fine either way. I just figured I'd give you the chance. I don't think it's gonna be a hard music video to make, so I shouldn't need someone with actual experience doing it. It's entirely up to you."

Dean just stares at him for a moment in silence. Finally, he says haltingly, "You want me in your music video."

Castiel shrugs. "Yeah, I figured I'd at least give you the option. I know you don't generally like being involved in my stuff, other than, like, social media. It's hard enough to get you on stage in Massachusetts. But, I mean, if you want, you can do the music video with me. It could be fun."

Dean doesn't answer at first, which has Castiel a little worried. He would have thought this would be a simple yes-or-no question. Apparently, he was wrong.

Finally, Dean says, "I guess?"

"You don't sound very sure," Castiel remarks. "You don't have to do it just because I mentioned it."

"I know," Dean says. "I just, I feel like if I do it, it'll be kinda fun and kinda embarrassing, but if I don't do it, I won't be lowkey embarrassed to be in a music video, but I'll be jealous of the guy that did do it, so I think I want to do it."

"Not that I'm arguing, but you do remember that you were in the 'Yasss' music video, right?" Castiel asks.

"Yeah, and I got made fun of for ages," Dean says.

"Wait, really?" Castiel frowns. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean —"

"No, it's fine," Dean interrupts. "It was the friendly kind of made fun of, if that makes any sense. But it's not like I talk to a whole lot of people who aren't already used to you being in music videos now that I'm not playing football, so it'll be fine."

"And you're sure about that?" Castiel asks. "You do want to be in the video?"

Dean nods.

"Sex scene and all?"

"Cas, that's what I'm looking forward to the most," Dean says, seeming amused that he would even present it as a negative.

"But people might make fun of you for it," Castiel says. "I mean, if they did for 'Yasss' —"

"It's fine," Dean repeats firmly. "I want to do this. It's gonna be fun."

"Okay, then let's go tell Lucifer."