Fame Crazy (Sequel to Strings Attached)

Chapter 28

The next day...

"I swear to god, Lucifer, if you embarrass me in front of Cain..." Anna says, her voice a warning.

"I won't," Lucifer assures her. "I just want to meet him."

"And hopefully he won't like him," Claire adds. She's yet to say much on the topic of this dinner together, but what she has said has been mostly indifferent until now.

"Why's she here?" Anna whines. "She's just gonna screw everything up!"

"Because I live here now," Claire reminds her, smirking.

"Claire, if you can't play nice, you'll have to go," Lucifer tells her, his voice apologetic but final.

"I wouldn't dream of messing this up," she replies. "Not when I can watch it screw itself over."

Anna glares at her, and she gives the girl a mocking smile in return. As they continue their staring contest, Castiel looks around at how Anna has prepared everything.

There are six placemats later out on the table, enough for everyone who is eating with them; Michael, Lucifer, Castiel, Claire, Anna, and Cain. Gabriel is out with Sam, and Samandriel left for reasons he didn't explain, but likely have to do with is distrust of either Cain himself or the relationship he has with Anna. No one even asks where Chuck is, because no one really cares.
Anna is wearing a dress, not looking too fancy but nice enough. It's tight enough to show her slim figure and has a fairly low cut at the top, but nothing too indecent. Her red hair is curled, not forced like it looks on some people but seeming almost natural.

Claire, rivaling Anna for looks, wears skinny jeans and a plain black crop top with a leather jacket on top, her hair in her typical cornrow French braid. On anyone else, it may have looked messy, but Claire seems well put together.

The rest of the family is dressed fairly casually; jeans and a t-shirt seems to be the common trend here. Anna was clearly judgmental about this, but she didn't tell them to change, likely for fear Lucifer would put something worse on.

As soon as the doorbell rings, Anna takes off. Not wanting to overwhelm Cain, Castiel and Michael stay in the kitchen, and Claire likely joins them because she doesn't really care about Cain.

The only two that go to the door are Anna and Lucifer, the latter standing back as Anna lets him in. From the kitchen, Castiel can barely see Cain give Anna a quick kiss on the forehead as a greeting. Anna leads him into the kitchen, and Lucifer follows, so the whole family can meet him.

"Guys, this is my boyfriend, Cain," Anna introduces him. "Cain, those are my brothers Michael, Lucifer, and Castiel, and that's Claire who's here because she's broke and her parents kicked her out."

Claire rolls her eyes. "Well, great. Thanks for such a nice introduction," she says sarcastically. "But Cain and I already know each other really well, don't we?" Her expression and tone make it clear there's a backstory there, and likely one that Cain would rather keep between the two of them.

"Yes," Cain says simply. "Claire, nice to see you again."

Anna looks between them, clearly confused, but with a glance at Lucifer, she decides against asking now.

"And it's nice to meet you," he adds, this directed towards the rest of the Novaks.

"You too," Castiel replies when it becomes clear no one else will. Michael is too socially awkward, and Lucifer doesn't seem to trust him enough.

"Anna told me you moved," Cain tells him, making polite conversation. "Are you back to stay?"

"No, just for the week. Just long enough for everyone to get sick of me," he jokes.

"I don't see that happening any time soon," Cain replies. "From what I've seen, I'd be surprised if they aren't begging you to stay."

Castiel looks over at Anna. "I like him. Can we keep him?"

Anna rolls her eyes, but there's a hint of a smile on her lips. Castiel is sure if Lucifer said that, she would have been tired of his childishness, but Castiel clearly hasn't worn out his welcome, and he can get away with it. Now he just has to make sure he does more talking than Lucifer, and it will all work out fine. Hopefully.

~~

The Novaks and Cain all sit around the kitchen table with spaghetti and sauce because spaghetti is the best and if you don't agree, you're wrong. Anna sits between Cain and Castiel, with Claire sitting on the other side of the table. Castiel can only assume it's because she hopes Claire will screw this up less from farther away.

After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Castiel says to Cain, "So, Anna said you do sports." Technically, it wasn't Anna, but he doesn't need to know the whole story. "What sports do you play?"

"Pretty much everything," Cain replies. "I'm on track for the twelve season athlete award. As long as I get a spot on a team this season, I've got it."

"Cool," Castiel replies. Having never done sports before, he had no idea there was an award for playing sports at the school all year for all four years. You learn something new everyday.

"I heard you were quite the athlete in high school," Cain adds, directing this towards Lucifer.

Lucifer shrugs. "I did a bit, yeah."
"Understatement of the year," Michael mutters.

He's right; Lucifer likely got the twelve season athlete award as well. High school Lucifer was a lot different than Bee Movie Lucifer; he was pretty much the Dean Winchester of the year before Dean rose to the top of the social ladder. Dean seems to be the standard for athletic ability and popularity, but it's true.

Lucifer was actually really cool in high school; something you'd never guess knowing what he's like now. The difference between Lucifer and Dean is that Dean was nice as a senior, and Lucifer was nice in general.

"He pretty much went from marathon runner to Bee Movie marathon in a year," Anna tells her boyfriend.

"I never ran a marathon," Lucifer tells her.

"Because you didn't have the patience," Michael adds. "I think she means that you had the athletic ability to run a marathon, whereas now you would rather watch the Bee Movie 26.2 times than run 26.2 miles."

"Oh," Lucifer replies. "Yeah, that's true."

"The Bee Movie?" Cain repeats. "The old meme? Did people actually watch that?"

"Don't say Bee Movie in front of him," Anna advises. "It will make you want to shoot yourself."

"Why?"

Everyone looks at Lucifer expectantly, waiting for him to begin educating Cain on the mystical Bee Movie, but he doesn't. After a few moments, it becomes clear he's not going to do it, much to Anna's relief. Castiel has to agree; that would be a weird way to introduce your boyfriend and older brother. Hopefully, the rest of dinner will go by just as smoothly, for Anna's sake.