Author's Notes: So much has happened since the last chapter was posted! Leigh and I have the ENTIRE rest of the story outline. 25 chapters, and the entire plot is finished, and we're gonna be dropping hints here and there that, well, probably none of you will pick up on until the twist is revealed because we're that good ;) Just kidding, haha, be sure to let us know what you think about where the story is going and the plot in general, we always love feedback! Also, because the Sabriel bit in this chapter reminded me of this song, this chapter is titled after Raise Your Glass by Pink. Enjoy, and don't forget to review! :3 AND SORRY THAT I DIDN'T PUT IN THE LINE BREAKS UNTIL RECENTLY! D:
Chapter Nine: Raise Your Glass
Michael Hendricks was pretty prone to dropping in on rehearsals of plays he'd funded, and Crowley was pretty prone to bringing his dog Cerberus to rehearsals of plays he directed.
This was the first time both had happened at once. Crowley and Cerberus had shown up first, of course, and then the cast, crew, and pit, and then Michael arrived, dressed in a suit that probably cost at least a thousand dollars. He took one look at the dog and kept his distance, and Dean sat in the wings and laughed, Cas's arms looped casually around his waist.
Cerberus was big - part Doberman, part Shepherd, part Saint Bernard - and, objectively, a pretty fucking ugly mutt. But Crowley lavished attention on him, and he never got into trouble, so everybody'd gotten used to having the dog in the audience. And Cerberus, like the fiend of Hades he was named after, growled low at Michael, as if something about the man that stood before him offended him deeply.
Meg sashayed - there was no other way to describe the movement - up to Crowley and Cerberus to talk to him. Cerberus' attention immediately went to her, and he stopped growling. Instead, he wagged his tail and butted at her legs affectionately as she threw a wicked smile Crowley's way.
Only two people in the show could reduce that dog to a giant puppy, aside from Crowley himself: Meg and Gabriel.
And neither of them ever let Crowley forget it.
Speaking of Gabriel, he was in the opposite wing, talking to Sam about something. Well, they were arguing, but it wasn't a loud, explosive fight - Sam was wearing bitchface number 21, "You are an incredibly frustrating idiot" and from the looks of it, was probably on his way to number 45a, "You are so fucking frustrating, I'm out of here."
Probably just show business.
Dean twisted around and kissed his boyfriend on the mouth. "We really are surrounded by grade-schoolers, aren't we?"
"Indeed."
"All right, here we go, gather up, it's hell week," Crowley called to the cast, pit, and crew, and they gathered in front of him accordingly. "Cast, there should be absolutely no screwups during the run-throughs, but you've been perfect so far so let's keep it that way. Pit, we're going to be working in music cues and underscoring for the next two days until everything is down so that we can do repeated run-throughs the rest of the week. As for crew, Dean, I'm sure you have everything handled." From Cas's peripheral vision, he could see Dean look up at Crowley after his comment and give him one of his most dazzling smiles. Apparently those worked on everyone, because Crowley simply blinked after a moment, losing his train of thought. "Right… well… I'll start organizing a few things with pit, the rest of you go warm up or something. And if you fuck up, Cerberus will have you for lunch." At the mention of his name, Cerberus perked up, looking around at the assembled group of people before growling softly and putting his head back down on his paws.
"That's if there's anything left of you after Meg's finished," Gabriel called out cheekily, earning him a glare from said stage manager.
"Keep that shit up and you'll be the first one dead," Meg replied, stone-cold and deadpan, bringing out chuckles from those company members who weren't absolutely terrified of her.
Cas sighed to himself. He leaned over into Dean as a few of the cast members went onstage to stretch, and Dean put his arm around him as they sat there lazily enjoying each other's company. Seeing Meg go about her business getting things organized with lighting and sound and hearing her demanding tone echo throughout the room made Cas think about her. Meg was definitely a character, but he had decided he more than liked her after what she had done the previous week.
Rehearsal had been pretty much finished when Cas had his panic attack, so Anna managed to leave before Meg could deal with her. The stage manager approached Dean as rehearsal started the next day to find out exactly what happened, and Dean gave her a short summary of the cause of Cas's panic attack in the first place, and Cas saw her turn towards Anna with a look in her eye that he would pay a large sum of money never to have directed at him.
"ANNA." Meg's loud voice projected over the voices of the cast members who had gathered and were chatting, and most of them immediately froze at Meg's tone. Anna looked up and blanched, before Meg simply uttered, "Outside."
Anna reluctantly got up and followed Meg out to the hallway, and from their position, Dean and Cas could hear every word that was exchanged.
"Were you out of your fucking mind?" Meg yelled. "Screwing with the head of our lead who, I might add, plays a much more important character than you, has been here since day one working his ass off ten times harder than you, just because he's been a little off his game due to bad memories that you helped stir up?"
"I… I didn't know…" came Anna's feeble argument.
"Don't give me that bullshit. Whether or not you knew, it was not your place in the first place. You are a god damn cast member. You don't have any authority in this building and in this production, whether you'd like to think so or not. So if you keep this kind of shit up, I'll show you who the real disappointment is when you're brought out of here in a fucking wheelchair, so help me God. Now get the hell back on stage and don't say another word while I'm within earshot, got it?"
Castiel winced while Dean tried to stop himself from laughing his ass off. It was a bit harsher than Anna deserved, she was simply misguidedly trying to help in her attempts to correct Cas's performance, but he did agree that she couldn't get away with thinking she had authority that she didn't possess, especially considering the way in which she did so. When Meg returned from the hallway to give Cas a smile, Dean couldn't hold it in any longer and busted out laughing.
"You're alright, Masters," Dean told her after his fit of laughter subsided, and Meg gave a tiny smile before hardening her face again.
"That was for your boyfriend; the only reason I don't hate you is because you don't suck at your job," she stated, before turning to walk in the direction of the sound crew. Cas couldn't help but chuckle at that.
It was a grueling rehearsal; working things out with the pit orchestra always took a lot of trial and error to see what worked the best, and it made the progression of the show sluggish and with many starts and stops. By the time the break actually came around, both Castiel and Dean were slightly agitated, and they sought each other's company to relax a little bit. They walked hand in hand to one of the back hallways, originally intending to sneak off for a little bit of kissing, but their spot was taken by Sam and Gabriel having an intense conversation. Cas looked at Dean, who shrugged, and when Sam and Gabriel didn't notice them, they both moved into a spot in the hallway that was optimal for eavesdropping, an open doorway of a room just down the hall from them.
"Come on, Gabe, will you just stop it already?" Sam requested irritatedly.
"You know the conditions, I'm not backing down on any of them," Gabriel replied matter-of-factly.
Dean could tell just from the tone of the conversation that Sam was probably throwing out bitchface number thirty-three, 'Give me what I want or I'll smack you.'
Sam huffed. "Gabe, you've made it more than clear that you want me. Why won't you just come get it?"
Gabriel chuckled. "See, if I made it that easy, you wouldn't stick around for more. Yeah, you're right, I do want you, but we're not having sex until you date me. For a month."
"A month? Since when did it become a month?"
"Since I figured you would probably say you'd be my boyfriend just to get some action before you took off," Gabriel answered.
Dean looked at Cas and raised his eyebrows. Cas simply shrugged in response, looking thoughtful. This was definitely a change. He could tell that Gabriel was withholding sex from Sam for some reason, but he had no idea that Gabe actually wanted to date his brother. And he wanted to date him for a month before they got into bed together. Dean's respect for Gabriel went up a few notches. The guy was alright.
"This just isn't worth it," Sam told him angrily. "First of all, why the hell would I want to date you in the first place? You're obnoxious, crude, you make innuendos every half a second and then never follow up on them, almost everyone important hates you because you're difficult to work with, and you know what? I give up. So I'll take door number two, and not involve myself with you at all. Because if it's this difficult just to - mmph!"
Dean and Cas both stopped, gaping at each other, before whipping their heads around the edge of the alcove to see Gabriel kissing Sam passionately. They looked back at each other again, before quickly pulling themselves back into the doorway when Gabriel pulled away.
"Trust me, Sammy, it's worth it," Gabriel told him cheekily before retreating down the hallway. Cas and Dean pulled themselves further into the room as Gabe passed, and then stuck their heads out down the hall to see Sam standing frozen in the same position, blushing straight crimson and touching two fingers to his lips as if he was wondering what exactly had just happened to them. Dean couldn't help but chuckle quietly at his brother's flustered look, and Sam whipped his head up, seeing them in the brief instant before Cas yanked Dean back into the doorway.
"Dammit, DEAN!" Sam whined from down the hallway, and Dean and Cas left the room sheepishly, not able to control themselves from laughing.
"Jeez, Sammy, that belonged on a soap opera," Dean told him. The angriest look came across Sam's face, but it was impossible for Sam to actually look menacing while angry, so he just looked adorably annoyed. "Ooh, bitchface number seven, 'Leave right now before I hurt you,'" he teased.
As Sam started down the hallway angrily, Dean grabbed Cas's hand and pulled him, running in the direction of the stage. "Sorry, Sam, I couldn't stop him!" Cas called in a last-ditch effort as they entered the stage doors just as break ended.
The blonde man had a gorgeous hotel room, with a plush velvet chaise lounge by the window. This was where he sat, thinking. One long finger traced the rim of his wineglass as he reclined back lazily. Maybe he'd had a bit too much to drink - drinking made him thoughtful, and, after all, he was here not to think, but to act.
"Castiel," he muttered. "Castiel, what have you done..."
He'd seen Castiel and his new lover - that grease-stained, country-backwoods boy toy, Dean Winchester - almost everywhere together. If Castiel wasn't with that girl, Jo, he was with Dean.
And certainly, Dean was brawny and green-eyed and so very much the alpha male, so of course Castiel would want to sleep with him.
The blonde man let out a bitter laugh and reached for his phone. He put his wineglass too close to the edge of the table, though, and it spilled, the dark red seeping into the deep ivory color. He smiled down at it with what was more an ugly grimace, and dialed a number.
There were things he needed to procure, after all, before he could do what he wanted to do.
Left unattended, the dark red wine stain spread further into the carpet, soaking further and further into the fibers, ingraining itself in the color of blood.
"Wanna watch a movie at my place before you go home for the night?" Cas asked, leaning over the counter as he sipped his last coffee of the day.
"What, no boyfriend tonight?" Jo teased. "I thought you liked him better than me."
"Oh please," Cas replied, laughing. "I've known you longer. And besides, he's having a brother's night with Sam."
"Yeah, sure, I see how it is. Lemme just close up," she told him, laughing and taking off her green apron and hanging it on a rack beside the door to the back room. She locked the cash register, closed all of the doors, and Cas waited at the front entrance as she set the alarm. As they walked outside, Jo turned around to lock the main door, and then turned to smile at him. "I'm too lazy to pay attention to something new. Mean Girls?"
Cas grinned. "Mean Girls it is." They had seen that movie probably over a hundred times, and could basically say all of the lines along with the actors. Cas stopped for a second, slapping his palm to his face. "My God, Jo, I'm so gay!" The two of them cracked up before walking over the crosswalk headed towards Cas's apartment building.
They crossed the street, continuing onto the sidewalk on the opposite side. Cas glanced behind them and across the street, and caught a glimpse of a blonde man leaning against the corner of a building. He froze, stopping dead in his tracks, his heart beating faster in his chest, and from their distance, he couldn't quite tell, but it looked like the man was watching him. Could it be…? Cas stopped that train of thought in its tracks as a rather long city bus crossed in front of the man, and when it had passed, he was gone.
"Cas, you alright?" Jo asked, looking back at him worriedly.
"Yeah, I, uh… I just thought I saw something. It's fine." Cas used the most reassuring tone he could muster, but he could tell that his voice wavered, and he hoped Jo didn't catch on.
"Alright…" Jo responded awkwardly. "Let's go then!" The two continued on to Castiel's apartment, the sight of the blonde headed man that looked strangely like his worst nightmare haunting him until his head hit the pillow.
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