Secrets and Camera Flashes

Chapter 81

Friday is the longest day ever. Not only does he have an early call time and a late wrap time with hours between the only two scenes he's shooting, but the anticipation of seeing Dean later that night makes the day feel like it's dragging on even longer.

He ends up spending most of the day sitting half-inside his trailer, his legs swinging over the edge. Sitting inside completely would just be so isolating, especially for as long as he's going to be here.

He gets to talk to both Charlie and Dean over the phone at various points throughout the day, but neither conversation lasts long. He may have nothing to do, but they're both still working. Charlie has her job at Roman Enterprises and Dean has an album coming out in a couple of weeks; they don't exactly have the time to talk to him all day.

He's in the midst of writing a poem when someone approaches him. He looks up to see Alex in front of him, and he closes his notebook on his lap before she can see anything he's written.

"What's up?" Castiel asks.

"Well, first of all, I'm wondering how you haven't frozen to death yet," she says. "I'm cold and I've only been outside for, like, five minutes."

Castiel chuckles. She says that practically every time she comes over here, and every time, he gives her the same type of answer: "If I have to wear the same trench coat in every scene, I might as well make the most of it off-camera, too."

"Fair point," she says. "Hey, so I've got a question, and I don't actually know who you'd need to talk to to get it done if you'd want to but I figure I'd float the idea out here just in case you're interested: we do conventions every few weeks. I think the first one is in a month or so — so probably right after Lucifer's first episode — and then the next one's in April and then they're pretty much once a month. I don't know if that's something you'd be interested in doing with us — and obviously if you can't or you don't want to, that's fine; I'm sure you're way busier than we are — but I figured I'd throw it out there."

Castiel takes a moment to let himself process that. "I'm really glad you said that, actually, because no one else has mentioned it to me so I hadn't realized until this very moment that I could probably go to a convention — like, as part of the convention." He pauses. "Would it bother anyone if I went? I don't want to intrude if…?"

She shakes her head. "I'd like to think Claire will warm up to you by then, but either way, we spend more time with the fans at conventions than we do with each other. Even if she doesn't get over it, you're not gonna be around to bother her and you're definitely not gonna bother the rest of us."

Castiel smiles. "Then I think I'll talk to my agent about it. I've always wanted to go to a convention." He's not at all sure what to expect — the extent of his knowledge on the subject comes from watching convention panel videos on YouTube — but it's always seemed interesting to him. It would be cool to meet the former cast members, too. He's always been a little wary of paid meet-and-greets because you never know who will show up, but he's willing to give it a shot.

"Cool!" Alex beams. "Patience and I are gonna go run some lines — script changes; you know how that is." She makes a face. "But I'll see you later!"

Castiel watches her go with a smile on his face. It's been over a week and she still doesn't seem to have wrapped her head around the fact that he's just an ordinary person; he can tell she still gets excited to talk to him and it's kind of adorable.

When she's out of sight, Castiel turns his attention back to his phone. It's time to talk to his agent.

~~

Castiel's scene that evening is fairly straightforward, but it's fun. Lucifer's scenes are basically split into two categories: what he's doing on earth (or in Hell) and what he does when he's in Kathryn's dreams. This one is the latter, and, as such, it means he has to deal with Claire, but he doesn't really mind. She may be fairly obnoxious off-camera, but when filming starts, she switches into professional mode and things go fairly smoothly.

The thing about these scenes is that Lucifer is both sarcastic and flirtatious, which means some moments are a lot of fun to film but some make him squirm on the inside. He doesn't mind flirting as long as he can keep his distance, but things get awkward when he has to get close to her, and she makes that known every time the director calls "Cut!" and he's standing too close.

But in the end, it's Castiel who peaces the fuck out as soon as he's given the chance, moving so quickly that Claire doesn't even get the chance to make her dramatic exit for the day. He assumes that's for the best; she doesn't have to annoy him and he doesn't have to annoy her. Apparently, she disagrees.

"Dude," Claire says, just loudly enough that he can hear it as he's walking away, "the hell's your problem?"

CastieI doesn't stop walking, but he glances over his shoulder at her to answer, "Nothing; I've just got somewhere to be."

Claire scoffs. "At freaking nine o'clock at night?"

"Shit, really?" CastieI pauses and pulls out his phone. He hadn't thought to check the time when he grabbed it after they wrapped but he really didn't think it was that late — and it appears he's right. It's barely past eight o'clock; she's just being dramatic."

Claire, who's all but caught up to him by now, snorts. "Yeah, I can tell you're really on a deadline."

CastieI fights the urge to roll his eyes. He's not getting involved in this fight with her. "Don't you have another scene tonight?"

Claire, meanwhile, has no qualms about rolling her eyes. "Subject change, 'cause that's not suspicious."

CastieI pinches the bridge of his nose. He thinks he liked it more when she was ignoring him. "I don't know what type of 'suspicious' stuff you think I do after work, but I really just want to go to bed." Granted, the bed he'd like to go to is a motel bed where he's going to meet Dean, but it still is a bed.

"Ah," Claire hums. "I take it your girlfriend's in town."

This time, CastieI can't help but roll his eyes. "No, she's flying up tomorrow morning. That's why we're not starting the show until tomorrow afternoon. I have a feeling you're not actually interested in that, though, unless it'll give you another reason not to like me, and I think you already have enough of those, so I'm not sure why you care."

Claire seems taken aback by that. "Geez, I was just asking."

"I'm sure you were," Castiel deadpans. "Look, if you want to have a genuine conversation, I will gladly put off my plans with my bed for a few minutes to talk. But you've made it very clear since my first day here that you don't like me — which is absolutely fine, by the way — so I have to think you're not looking for a genuine conversation with me, so I'm gonna go." He gives her a second to answer, and when she doesn't, he says, "That's what I thought. Good night, Claire. I'll see you tomorrow on Twitter."

With that out of the way, Castiel picks up the pace, and Claire stops following him. He's not sure whether he made things better or worse by finally talking about this to her, but he has a sneaking suspicion that it's the latter. She only seemed interested in where he was going because he didn't let her make a scene first, and he'd almost be surprised if his monologue doesn't get the same result. Hell, it might be worse; not only did he almost lecture her, but he probably embarrassed her in the process by calling her out, even if there was no one around to hear it.

But that's a problem for future Castiel. Present Castiel, on the other hand, has a man to fuck (or be fucked by; he's still not sure how this works), and he's not going to let some child ruin that for him.