A/N This is gonna be a bit better if you've seen Kings of Conversation, just FYI.

The first people to show up are the extended Novak family. Not the entire family, of course — that's way too many people to count. It's just Amara, Balthazar, Hael, Ambriel, and Hannah, which isn't too bad. Once the rest of the guests arrive, it might be a bit crowded, but Castiel still doesn't know how many people are going to come anyway, so he can't be sure.

"Hey," Balthazar greets Castiel with a grin. "I'm hearing rumors about a new song. Do we have an album to look forward to soon?"

"Details tonight at midnight," Castiel replies with a secretive smile.

"What, I don't get the family bonus of hearing it sooner?" Balthazar asks, acting overly offended.

"None of us do," Claire tells him. "Welcome to our life."

Balthazar looks over at her, a flirtatious smile on his lips as he asks, "And who might you be?"

"Don't bother," Lucifer says before she answers. "She's an independent woman who don't need no man."

Claire nods. "Yeah, what he said."

Balthazar raises an eyebrow. "Okay, then."

Gabriel jumps in and makes introductions. As he does that — mostly for Claire's sake, probably — Castiel looks around at what everyone else is up to. It's no surprise that Michael is the one talking to Amara, because he seems to be the only one to enjoy adult conversations. Hael is talking to Anna, which isn't surprising, either, because they're the same age and have almost all the same interests. Ambriel is hanging back slightly, wanting to be part of their group but not sure how, and Hannah just stands in the doorway awkwardly.

It's fairly quiet for a few minutes. The Novaks showed up a bit early, so no one else comes for almost ten minutes. The next person to come shows up at exactly 1:00, right when the party is supposed to start. It's no surprise when he heads straight for Michael — he probably doesn't really know anyone else here. After all, he is Michael's only friend outside the family.

"Isn't that the bartender from that bar nearby?" Dean asks Castiel quietly.

Castiel nods. "Yeah, Jay. He's one of Michael's friends." One of is a bit of a stretch, though, for someone with one friend.

Amara eyes him for a moment before asking, "Have we met before?"

"I doubt it," Jay replies.

Dean glances at his boyfriend and whispers, "This could get real interesting."

"Or real boring," Castiel whispers back.

Michael introduces them with a brief, "Amara, this is my friend, Jay, and Jay, this is my aunt Amara."

"Jay?" Amara repeats. "Not Jay Lund."

Jay chuckles slightly. "Oh, I was so hoping you didn't recognize me."

Michael looks between them, confused. "You two know each other?" he asks cautiously.

"We went to school together," Jay tells him.

"He hated your dad," Amara adds.

"It was more a...  friendly rivalry," Jay corrects her.

"Not the way I heard it," Amara replies in a slightly accusing tone.

"Wait, back up," Michael interrupts. He looks over at Jay, surprised. "You knew my dad?"

He nods. "Yep."

"And you never thought to mention that?"

Jay just shrugs. "Well, your dad and I didn't exactly have the best history, so it seemed like a good idea not to mention it."

"Okay, now I want details," Gabriel announces. "Spill."

"Well, I don't remember the details," Jay begins, "but it was something about our bands."

"Dad was in a band?" Samandriel repeats.

"He never told you about that?" Jay says in surprise. "Yeah, they played a lot of parties and school functions. 'Louden Swain,' they called themselves. Their songs were —" He stops himself with a glance at Amara, finally settling on the word, "interesting." When Amara doesn't say anything about that, he continues, "I don't remember exactly how it happened, but I was joking around with the rest of the band when your dad wasn't around and we were doing  some improv and someone joked about replacing Chuck with me and changing the name to Jayden Swain. Your dad was not happy when he heard that, and things just kinda went downhill from there."

"That is the worst backstory of a rivalry I have ever heard," Claire says.

"Well, I'm sorry it doesn't meet your standards," Jay says sarcastically. "It's not like we had social media for his girlfriend to like my pictures or anything."

"No rivalries actually start like that," she tells him.

"Oh, trust me, they do," Castiel replies, thinking of the overdramatic celebrity world.

"I still can't get over the fact that Dad was in a band," Samandriel says.

"I can't believe he never told you," Jay replies. "It was, like, his pride and joy."

"We didn't even know he played guitar 'til a few years ago," Lucifer says. "Castiel played it all the time and he never mentioned it. He seemed to want to keep his past to himself."

"Can't say I blame him," Jay replies.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Michael asks, slightly defensive.

Jay glances at Amara before saying, "Nothing that I want to say now."

Balthazar scoffs. "You're scared of my mom?"

"You're not?"

That definitely seems like an out of character thing to say about Amara, but despite constant pestering, he doesn't give any more details about their pasts. Castiel makes a mental note to tell Michael to ask when they're alone, because this sounds like it could get really interesting.