It's Friday night, which means they're about halfway through their vacation. They've been to every park, but they've only been in Epcot for a few hours, and, as it's their first time here, they decide to head off and explore — "they" being just Dean and Castiel; the rest of the group decided to ride things. Castiel opted to walk around the pseudo countries instead, and Dean seemed more than willing to come with him.
They walk hand in hand, as they've been doing a lot these past couple days. Every time Castiel opened social media, usually just to kill time in long lines, he would see new pictures of the two of them, usually accompanied by either a congratulations to both of them or a "There's no way this is going to last" message that Castiel just ignored. Social media hasn't gotten to him at all these last couple days — not with Dean here.
Right now, they're just aimlessly meandering though the streets, not looking for anything in particular, until Castiel brings up something he's been curious about.
"Are you going to get an engagement ring?" he asks.
Dean shrugs. "I don't know. I wasn't planning on it. Should I?"
"I would say yes," Castiel tells him. "I know it's usually just the girl who gets one, but this isn't a boring, heterosexual wedding, and I think we should break stereotypes and get you a ring. And maybe it'll get people to stop cracking jokes about how I'm secretly a girl, because this isn't helping."
Dean chuckles. "I don't know who's making those jokes, but honestly, thank you to them. That's great."
Castiel scoffs. "Rude."
"Yes, I am pretty rude, thanks for noticing," Dean replies with a teasing smile.
"Wow, Dean, I can't believe — hold on a second."
Castiel stops abruptly, trying to listen to the music playing. All he knows is he's in the fake America within American Disney World — talk about American-ception — so hearing this American singer shouldn't be too surprising, except that it doesn't sound like the studio version Castiel knows by heart.
"What is it?" Dean asks, puzzled.
"C'mon." Castiel pulls him through the streets, following the sound of the music until he finds the source.
Thank god for being tall, because so many people are crowded around the small American pavilion, Castiel wouldn't have been able to see if he couldn't look over their heads. But, sure enough, his all-time favorite pop act is performing live onstage.
Castiel pulls out his phone and catches a quick video of the performance, which he posts on his Instagram story with the words, "I spy with my little eye @Jack8Kline."
"Who's he?" Dean asks, confused.
"Just another pop singer," Castiel replies. Of course, Jack is a bit more than that — he's one of the only pop singers Castiel would listen to in his free time, for example — but he's not different in a way that Dean would understand.
"Is he one of your friends?" Dean asks.
Castiel shrugs. "I guess it depends on your definition of friend. We've only met once, a few months ago back at the Grammys when we spent most of the night chatting, but we haven't spoken since then."
"Do you have his number?" Dean asks. "We could stick around until his thingy ends, and you could text him and ask if he wants to hang out."
"Nah." Castiel waves the suggestion off. "I'm sure he has better things to do. Maybe we'll bump into him later and I can introduce you then."
"Do you still want to hang around 'til this is over, then?" Dean asks.
"If you don't mind, then yeah." He's never seen Jack perform before, except little snippets that would show up on Instagram and Twitter, but those were few and far between.
It's not an exceptional performance by any means. The band seems to have fun and Jack jumps around the stage, hyping up the already excited crowd, but there's nothing fancy. Castiel's clearly a bit spoiled from watching artists go all out at awards shows. This small stage in the middle of Disney with only enough seats a couple hundred people is a big contrast to the hype from, say, the Grammys.
They let everyone else leave before they do, just so they can take their time getting out of there. Castiel keeps his head ducked, hoping no one recognizes him. Anyone who knows Jack enough to want to watch him perform has doubtlessly heard of Castiel, and he really doesn't want to meet any fans right now, because one fan will turn into a mob, and he'd be signing autographs and taking selfies until the park closes. He'd rather just stay here and talk to Dean for a while.
"So," Castiel says, "how was that? Do you think I could convert you to the Jack Kline fandom?"
"Never," Dean says without hesitation, but then adds, "but I will admit, he's not bad for a pop singer. And he looks young, too. How old is he, twenty?"
"Fifteen," Castiel replies. "Wait, sixteen now — or in a few days? His birthday is sometime this month."
Dean gapes at him. "You're telling me that he's literally, like, a sophomore in high school, and he's playing a concert at freaking Disney World?"
"I had my first number one at fifteen," Castiel reminds him. "He's not that young. It's definitely impressive, but it's not, like, completely unreasonable."
"Dude, when I was fifteen, I spent my days playing football and fixing cars," Dean tells him. "This is insane. You two have to stop being such prodigies. It just makes everyone else feel bad about themselves."
"Oh, I am so sorry," Castiel says sarcastically. "Tell you what. If you can get me a time machine, I'll go back and fix that, okay?"
"Deal," Dean replies. "Hey, do you think they've got a TARDIS over in fake England?"
"That's the time travel machine from Doctor Who, right?" Castiel asks.
Dean sighs. "I can't believe you had to ask that."
"Castiel?"
He looks over to find none other than Jack Kline standing next to him, a smile growing on his face when he realizes it really is who he thought it was.
"Hey, Jack!" Castiel says with a grin. He's really not sure what level of friendship they're on, but because Jack came to find him, he's going to assume they're more than just acquaintances.
"I thought it was you I saw back here," Jack says. "I figured you would have left by the time I got out here, though."
He can't help but find that a bit strange. He really noticed Castiel in particular, all the way in the back? He must have a much better connection to the crowd than anyone Castiel knows if he was able to recognize anyone, especially not knowing they would be there. Castiel can barely recognize his own family when he's performing in Sioux Falls, despite knowing exactly where they are. Granted, if anyone was going to pay attention to the audience and all the people who cared enough about him to watch him perform, it would be Jack.
"Well, we aren't really in a hurry," Castiel says with a shrug.
Jack must notice the we, because he looks over at Castiel's boyfriend as if just noticing he's there. "And you're Dean, right?" Jack asks.
"That would be me," Dean replies. "Nice to meet you, Jack. I've heard very little about you."
"I would say same, but I've probably heard a bit more about you than you have about me," Jack says. "Oh, speaking of knowing things about people I've never met, I heard you two got engaged! Congratulations!"
"Thanks!" Castiel says with a grin.
Dean just gives him a halfassed smile. Castiel can't tell if it's because he doesn't like Jack — how could someone not like Jack? — or if he just doesn't know how to respond to that, especially knowing that he's never met this person before in his life.
"Not to disrespect you or Disney," Castiel says, "but aren't you a little bit too much of a big deal to be playing here?"
"What? No!" Jack says as if the idea is ridiculous. "I'm performing at Disney World! If anything, it seems way out of my league — almost as much as, like, the I Heart Radio awards and the AMAs."
Castiel chuckles. "You just don't realize how big of a celebrity you are. Give it a few months. You'll get what I'm saying."
"If you say so," Jack says, but he's clearly skeptical.
He's really that oblivious, isn't he? How's he going to take it when he realizes he's one of the biggest up and coming stars out there? Castiel wouldn't be surprised to see his next album debut at number one, and the kid has no idea. He's probably under the impression that he's just like any other teenager with a guitar.
Jack smiles and waves at some behind them, and after a few moments, a woman walks over to them, two large mickey-shaped pretzels in her hands. She has a sort of timeless face, and Castiel can't tell if she's eighteen or forty.
She greets Jack with a hug. "You did so good!"
"Thank you!" Jack gives her a kiss on the cheek, beaming.
"And that's for you," she adds, handing him one of the pretzels, keeping the other for herself.
"You're the best," Jack gushes. "Ooh, guys, this is my mom. Mom, that's Castiel Novak and his boyfr — fiancé, Dean Winchester."
"Oh, I didn't know you would be here!" she says, but she seems thrilled that they are. "I've heard so much about you — obviously; I'm sure everyone has. It's nice to finally meet you!"
"It's nice to meet you too, Mrs. Kline," Castiel says politely.
"Oh, please, call me Kelly."
"I have two more shows after this, but want to come backstage with me?" Jack asks, directing the question to the two boys because he's doubtlessly already spoken to his mother about it.
Just seeing how much she supports her son makes Castiel wish that he and his own father would have been more like this. If only Chuck were still here, and they could spend some quality time together, but they can't.
"I'm sure you've got a lot to do to get ready," Castiel says. "We wouldn't want to get in the way." He's really just giving this as an excuse for Jack to use if he would rather they leave, because he seems like too much of a polite person to tell them to go.
"No, we really don't have anything to set up," Jack tells him. "It's a very low-tech venue — at least compared to what you're used to, I'm sure. I still have at least half an hour to kill until I have to do anything."
"Then I guess we can hang around for a while," Castiel says. He glances over at his fiancé and adds, "unless you've got anymore secret, time-sensitive plans?"
"Nope, none today," Dean replies.
As the four of them walk up on the stage to go backstage, people start cheering, doubtlessly recognizing at least one of them. Jack waves as they disappear into the wings and step into the not-so-glamorous backstage. Castiel's always liked that about stages. The venue always looks so cool from the audience's perspective, and then you go backstage and it looks like the architect just gave up.
Jack finishes up his pretzel just in time to toss the wrapper in the passing trash bin, then takes his mother's and does the same. What a polite boi. Castiel hopes stardom doesn't get to his head, because he'd hate for the world to lose such a pure cinnamon roll to his undeserved sense of entitlement.
"So," Castiel says, "how long have you been at Disney?"
"We just flew in yesterday," Kelly says. "I don't even think it's been twenty-four hours yet."
"But we're here until next Thursday," Jack tells him. "Well, Friday, but we're leaving early Friday morning."
"Hey, us, too," Castiel tells him. "We'll have to meet up again." He leaves the invitation as open-ended as possible, just in case Jack would like to just pretend they will but not see him again.
"That'll be great!" Jack says enthusiastically. "It'll be so much more fun than just the two of us!"
"I don't know about that," Dean says. "You might get stuck with fourteen of us. Depends on the day."
"Oh, who else is here with you?" Jack asks, sounding excited to meet them.
"That's a good question," Dean says. "A lot of people. I don't know. I don't have this type of memory."
"My siblings, your siblings, a couple of my cousins, Claire and Alex, Charlie and Gilda, and Bobby," Castiel lists off slowly. "Dear god, that's a lot of people. I never realized that."
"How do you keep them all straight?" Kelly asks, seeming amused by how long the list is.
"Well, most of them aren't straight, so I guess I don't," Castiel jokes, earning some laughs.
"How many siblings do you have, Dean?" Jack asks. "As many as Castiel?"
"Not even close," Dean replies. "Just two — but I'm hoping to keep them out of the spotlight, so if anyone else asks, it's none."
"Why?" Jack asks, as if the idea of wanting to keep their private life entirely private is the strangest thing he's ever heard.
"Because they want to live normal lives, without the constant badgering of the media," Dean replies with a shrug. "Who am I to tell them they can't?" Seeing that Jack still doesn't understand, he adds, "You probably wouldn't get it because there's no one who doesn't like you."
"Do people not like you?" Jack asks, confused.
"You've got no idea," Dean replies.
Jack doesn't seem to know what to say to that, so Castiel changes the subject.
"So, what have you been up to lately?" he asks.
Jack perks up at that. "A lot! I've started working on my next album and I've been to a couple more awards shows and I've done some smaller performances and I've visited some fans and these have been the busiest few months of my life and I love it!"
Castiel chuckles. "That sounds great."
"We tried to get to one of your shows, but the only time we were in the same place at the same time, it was completely sold out," Kelly adds.
"You should've let me know," Castiel says. "I'm sure I could've squeezed you in the pit, or I could've brought you on stage and we could've sung one of your songs — some shameless promo."
"That would've been awesome!" Jack says. "I don't think I have your phone number, though."
"You could've DMed me on Twitter," Castiel tells him. "Not the most efficient way to get ahold of me, but it works."
"I'll have to remember that," Jack says.
"Or I could just give you my number now," Castiel suggests. "That way, if you want to meet up later, we can do that."
Jack agrees without hesitation, and Kelly beams, doubtlessly proud of her son — he must be succeeding in the music world if he's exchanging phone numbers with one of the biggest pop artists of the 21st century.
"Are you planning on going on tour soon?" Castiel asks him — for purely selfish purposes, but he doesn't have to know that.
"Not with my next album, but maybe with my third," Jack says. "Not a stadium tour like yours, obviously, but maybe some smaller arenas."
If he's not touring for his next album, he'll probably be available to open for Castiel's next tour — at least for some shows. He'll have to keep that in mind when the next tour planning season comes around.
"If you play your cards right, you'll definitely be able to sell out a couple stadiums," Castiel tells him. At least Gillette Stadium over in Massachusetts — the first one to come to mind purely because it's where Dean plays football. It tends to be a big hit for all artists, himself included. Jack shouldn't be an exception.
"Really?" He seems both surprised and optimistic, as if he wasn't expecting it but he won't deny it, because maybe he will. "Well, I guess you're the expert. You'd know better than I would."
"I'm no expert; just experienced," Castiel replies. "And I have faith. By the time your third album rolls around, you're going to be one of the biggest pop artists in the country." And he can't wait for the day Jack realizes it.