Fame Crazy (Sequel to Strings Attached)

Chapter 21

"Castiel?"

Castiel looks up to see Claire standing in the doorway of his bedroom just moments after Michael leaves, already wearing her backpack and leather jacket. Her blonde hair is in a cornrow French braid type thing that he can only assume took forever to accomplish. Maybe that's why he hasn't heard from her all day.

"I didn't want to leave 'til I saw you," she tells him. "I don't think I got the chance to thank you. I really appreciate it."

He can see clearly by her obvious discomfort that she isn't used to thanking people, and he can't help feeling bad for her. She probably hasn't gotten a lot of help, with parents like hers. She likely hasn't had a reason to thank anyone.

"You don't have to leave yet," Castiel tells her.

"I think I've already overstayed my welcome," she replies.

"Not at all. Besides, yesterday was your birthday. You can't not celebrate your birthday. Especially your eighteenth."

"I don't need to celebrate my birthday," she protests.

"Need to? No. Should? Definitely," Castiel replies. "It's up to you, of course, but if you want to hang around, I could go get you a cake and we could celebrate together."

"You don't have to do that."

"No, but I want to," Castiel replies. "Mostly as an excuse for cake," he adds with a joking smile.

Claire seems to be about to disagree, then pauses as her gaze strays somewhere near him. She looks back at Castiel and nods. "Yeah, that'd be nice, actually."

So that's the story of how Castiel ended up driving home with a gift bag, ice cream, and a giant cake. He finally gets home about half an hour later dropping it all on the counter. Lucifer, who had been sitting at the kitchen table drinking a soda, whips his head around when he hears the box with the cake hit the counter.

"I sense cake," he announces. "Ooh, cake! I want cake!"

"I got it to share with Claire," Castiel tells him. "So no touching. She's still here, right?" He's not sure if she would have left while he was out.

"'S far as I know," he replies. "Not sure where, though."

"That's fine," Castiel tells him. "Thanks."

He walks over to his old bedroom where Claire had been staying  and knocks on the door, but he doesn't get a response. He cocks his head in confusion. If she's not there, where is she?

"Claire?" he calls out. "You still here?"
No answer.

Castiel sighs. Well, he tried. He goes to his room to drop his coat on the bed, only to hear Claire's voice behind the closed door. Castiel opens it to see Claire and Gabriel, the latter hanging off the top bunk while the former talking into a phone. No, not just any phone. His phone. Why is Claire using his phone?

"Your password is super obvious," Gabriel tells his brother by way of greeting.

"What — what's happening right now?" Castiel asks, confused.

"I heard you talking to Michael about the whole rape deal and I wanted to prove you didn't kidnap me and that I came here because I chose to," Claire replies.

"Which was great because I got to try to hack into your phone," Gabriel adds. "Took me eighteen guesses. Not bad, huh?"

"Okay, what up with stealing my phone?" Castiel asks. "Like, whose phone is it? Is it the family phone? Is it the city phone? No? Then why the hell do you guys keep taking it?"

"Because you won't give us your Facebook login, so if we want to live stream, we've gotta use your phone," Gabriel tells him.

"Of course I'm not telling you guys my login," Castiel replies. "Then Lucifer would live stream Bee Movie all day, every day."

"Yeah, true," Gabriel agrees. "But, I mean, I guessed your phone password pretty easy, so your Facebook shouldn't be too hard."

"You're never going to guess my Facebook login," Castiel tells him confidently.

"Challenge accepted."

"He's totally gonna guess your password," Claire agrees.

"No, because it's not as obvious as my phone password," Castiel tells her.

"Why, what's your phone? Your birthday?"

"Okay, you've got to give me a little more credit than that."

"Gabriel made it seem that obvious," Claire tells him.

"That's just because Gabriel knows me too well."

"It's true," he agrees.

"Oh, Claire, I got cake," Castiel tells her. "So, belated birthday party now, before Lucifer eats it all?"

Claire grins. "Yes!" She turns back to Castiel's phone. "See? Friends."

"Wait, were you streaming this whole time?" Castiel asks.

Claire nods. "Yeah. You're just realizing this now?"

"Honestly, I didn't even think about it," he admits.

"Woah, you hear that, guys?" Gabriel says to the camera. "You just caught a rare moment of the actual Castiel Novak on camera."

"Who is shockingly like the Castiel Novak everyone else knows," Castiel adds.

"Touché," Gabriel agrees. "Now, it's been nice talking to you, but, um, cake." Gabriel runs out of the room as quickly as his short legs will carry him, earning a laugh from both Castiel and Claire.

"I've got to agree with Gabriel," Claire decides. "I want food. Bye, live stream people." She ends the live stream, and Castiel joins her in the quest for cake.