It's time to get some rumors stirred up.
Castiel waits in a little coffee shop in LA for his guest to arrive. Part of him wants to order his coffee while he waits, but that also feels fairly rude. This is what he gets for showing up a couple minutes early, apparently. He assumes his guest will arrive at about 9:00, the scheduled meeting time, but by 9:02, she's still not here.
He has opted not to use his phone while he waited, because if anyone were to grab a picture of it, he wouldn't look good. Obviously, there's nothing wrong with using a phone, but it's not the vibe he was going for. Unfortunately, he's starting to think he's going to be waiting for a long time, so he might as well make the most of it.
He barely has time to reach into his back pocket before the bell over the door rings, and Castiel immediately looks up, just as he's done every other time it's rung. Sure enough, Jo is walking through the door, her security guard not far behind. She scans the room, her gaze eventually landing on Castiel, and she smiles, heading to his table. Her security guard sits down at a table that's not too close, but not far enough away that he wouldn't be able to see if anything went wrong.
"Have you been waiting very long?" Jo asks as she sits down across from him.
"Just a minute or two," Castiel lies. It's been at least five minutes, though that's mostly his fault for being overly prompt. To him, this is like any other meeting his job has required of him. Jo probably sees it more as a friendly get together. Timing isn't quite as important.
"Wanna get some coffee?" Jo asks.
"Sure "
So they go up to the counter, order their drinks, and sit back down. Now for the awkward part. Socialization.
"So, what have you been up to lately?" Jo asks. "It's been a couple days."
Castiel shrugs. "I started a new book series."
"What one?" Jo asks.
"The Mortal Instruments?"
"I haven't heard of that one," Jo says. "What's it about?"
"Does the word 'shadowhunter' mean anything to you?" Castiel asks, because he's not going to explain this whole thing if she already knows it.
"Oh, yeah, the TV show," Jo says. "I almost got a small role on it 'til the execs decided they didn't have the budget."
"Oh." He probably shouldn't shit on the show then, no matter how much he wants to. "Well, The Mortal Instruments is the series it's based on."
"I didn't know it was based on a book," she says, which is honestly kind of sad. "Is it any good so far?"
"The first one is," Castiel says. "I'm not very far into the second one, though."
"Hmm," she hums. "Maybe I'll check it out. How many are there in the series?"
"Six," Castiel says, which surprises her so much that he has to add, "and there's another two or three trilogies about other shadowhunters, and a couple one-off books."
Jo gapes at him. "That is a lot of books."
Castiel shrugs. "Just means I won't have to look for something else to read for a couple months."
"Or, you know, ten years," she jokes. "I didn't take you for a bookworm."
Castiel cocks his head to the side and squints at her. "Why not?"
Jo shrugs. "I don't know. You don't find a whole lot of booky people in this industry."
"Are you one of these booky people?" Castiel asks, trying to keep his hopefulness out of his voice. He's obviously not looking for a romantic or sexual relationship with her — or with anyone, for that matter — but a two-person book club could be fun.
But she shakes her head, and his hopes are dashed. "Not to be a stereotypical white girl, but I spend most of my downtime on social media. Gotta connect with the fans, you know?"
"God, I could never," Castiel says. "Too much drama and negativity. I don't know how you do it."
"And I could never spend all day reading a book," she says. "One story for 10 hours straight? I'd never make it."
Castiel chuckles. "Well, to each their own, I guess."
There's a lull in the conversation, which they both simultaneously decide it's a good time to take a drink. Castiel has to admit, he's never been to this coffee shop before, but he's kind of enjoying it. They make good coffee.
"I feel like we didn't get the chance to talk too much on set," Jo says, which Castiel assumes is code for "I feel like you never talk to me, possibly because you hate me, but since we're in public and pretending to get together, you have to talk to me now." "It's kinda weird to say this to someone that I've known for a couple years, but tell me about yourself."
Castiel shrugs. "There's not much to tell."
"Sure there is," she says. "Like, tell me about your family."
Oh, shit.
Um...
"I'm sure Wikipedia has all that down," Castiel lies. He's done his best not to mention his family to anyone — minus Dean Winchester, which was a mistake, as Charlie, who's his best friend — so Wikipedia can't have anything on them.
"No, I mean, tell me about them," she says. "Not just, like, their names. Who are they? What funny stories do you have?"
Shit.
Again.
"I don't know," Castiel says. "They're pretty mundane. Um..." He's gotta give her something so she doesn't keep pushing. What 'something' can he cough up? "Well, I have five brothers."
Jo gapes at him. "Five brothers?"
Castiel nods. "Yep."
"Any sisters?" Jo asks.
"All guys," he replies.
"How old are they?" she asks. "Where are you in the lineup?"
"Second youngest," he says. "My oldest brother is eight years older, youngest is three years younger."
"Damn," she breathes. "Your family is huge!"
Castiel nods awkwardly before turning the conversation around on her. "What about you? I know I met your dad and brother."
"Oh, no, Ash isn't my brother," Jo says. "I mean, he's pretty much family at this point, but he's not my brother."
"Ah." So Ash is her version of Charlie. That makes sense.
"I actually don't have any siblings," she says. "Just me and my mom — and, obviously, Ash, but he's only been around since I was 11."
"How'd you two meet?" Castiel asks, glad the conversation isn't about him anymore.
"He was pretending to be 16 and looking for a job," Jo says. "My mom owned a struggling and understaffed restaurant-slash-bar. He stayed 'til we had to shut the place down, long after everyone else left."
"Oh, man, that's awful," Castiel says. He's had a lot of problems in his life, but losing his family's main source of income was never one of them. He can't even imagine that.
"It worked out okay in the end," she says. "He basically hitched a ride with us a few towns over to LA, and I got the family back up and running, and a little extra money in the bank for a rainy day."
It doesn't take a genius to know that last part is a joke — she's got more money than most of the rest of California combined. Hell, her net worth is probably at least double his own. He just never would have guessed she was ever struggling with it, but that's definitely the vibe he's getting.
"So that's why you started acting, huh?"
She shrugs. "I'd always wanted to. I just didn't get the chance 'til we made our Hail Mary mercy jump to LA, and here we are."
"There's just... one thing about all this that I don't quite understand," Castiel says.
Jo cocks her head to the side, confused. "What is it?"
"What do you mean, Ash was pretending to be looking for a job?"
Jo laughs. "Oh, no, he was definitely looking for a job. He was pretending to be 16. He was actually 14 and hacked into some government server or something to fake his age." She shakes her head, smiling to herself at the memory. "I don't even know. He's a computer guy. Probably could be living under a completely fake identity and we'd never know it."
Castiel chuckles. So he's a hacker. He really is the new Charlie, huh?
"That is impressive," Castiel says. "How'd you manage to pull him across city lines? Isn't that kidnapping?"
"Honestly, I don't know," she admits. "He did something on a computer and said he was all set. I've learned not to question it."
"That's definitely impressive," Castiel says.
"How about you?" she asks. "Why'd you start acting?"
"Oh, I was always a theater nerd," he says, which is true. "Figured I'd try my luck on the big screen, and it worked out pretty well."
"What, no traumatic backstory on that one?" she asks teasingly.
"Fortunately not," he says. "I've lived a pretty privileged life."
Technically, he's not lying. He never thought the homophobia he experienced was traumatic, per se, and he certainly does have privilege as a typically straight-passing cis white male who, for most of his life, has been financially stable. You just gotta pretend the 18th year of his life didn't exist.
But that's a story for another time.
"Well, I'm glad," she says. "That's the best way to get into acting." She lowers her voice to add, "Fortunately, though, mine makes for a fantastic sob story. People eat it up."
"Now I have to ask," Castiel says. "Was it all true, or just part of the sob story?"
"Oh, no, it's all true," she says. "It's just part of my collection of sob stories. They all surface in interviews every now and then."
"That certainly is an interesting way to market yourself," Castiel says. It takes a lot of guts, too. He would sooner quit the business altogether than talk about his personal history to the cameras.
It's probably worth noting, though, that this is absolutely nothing new. This is what celebrities do: they try to humanize themselves in whatever way they can, in hopes that people will like them more if they're relatable. Tragic backstories do that very well.
Castiel, however, has another approach. He tries to stay above all the drama and the lies and pettiness that other celebrities might use to get their names in headlines. He's just a 'yes man.' He goes along with whatever's thrown his way and he doesn't complain — at least, not in public. People like him because he's always happy, positive, and typically unproblematic. And, of course, part of being happy, positive, and unproblematic is not telling people about a tragic past or "problematic" traits like sexuality.
And that's one thing he wouldn't complain about, even if he could.