Castiel lies on his hotel room bed, Misha by his side. He's been in Sioux Falls for a few hours, but he hasn't been home yet. His hotel bed just calls to him.

It's weird for him, not staying with his siblings, but he knows Samandriel. He's one of the most empathetic people he knows. Seeing a dog like Misha in real life could break his heart, and he's not doing that to his little brother.

He hasn't told any of his sibling about Misha but Lucifer, and then Michael when he explained why he wasn't going to stay with them. Michael seemed to think it's a perfectly fine reason, and promised not to tell anyone. It probably confused Samandriel, Anna, and Claire when they realized he was staying in a hotel when they're right there, but he doesn't care too much. It's for a good cause.

Castiel must have fallen asleep at some point, because he wakes up to his phone ringing on the bedside table. He reaches over his dog to grab his phone. Lucifer. He doesn't quite know why he hesitates before he answers.

"Hey," Castiel greets him. He doesn't bother with his usual "It's Castiel," because he's way too tired for that.

"Where are you?" Lucifer asks. "You were supposed to be here hours ago."

"Taking a nap," Castiel replies.

"But you were supposed to come see us!" Lucifer whines.

"But Misha!" He puts the phone on speaker and holds it near the dog's face. "Psst, Misha, do something," he stage whispers.  Misha doesn't. Castiel rolls his eyes. "That didn't work."

"Why am I not surprised?" Lucifer says sarcastically. "Well, come visit us. We're bored."

"Tomorrow," Castiel replies. "I'm tired." And he doesn't have the motivation to get up for anything.

Lucifer sighs. "Fine. Come by tomorrow. We'll still be here."

"'Kay, bye," Castiel says, then hangs up. He puts his phone away and rolls over do he's facing his dog, who licks his face once. Castiel snuggles closer to the dog and closes his eyes. He might as well get some sleep while he can, even if that means pushing off seeing his family for a little while.

~~

Castiel wakes up to see two texts from Lucifer, one from soon after their phone call and one from a few hours later.

Lucifer: Bring your song notebook so we can pick your songs

Lucifer: Tweeted you

Castiel hops over to Twitter and checks Lucifer's account.

"Hell yeah! Let's force my little bro into a video!"

It also has the poll results, where 26% said yes, 72% said hell yes, 9% wanted Castiel to take over, and 3% said no to having Castiel in a video. It's a bit of a confidence booster, actually.

Castiel quotes the tweet, saying, "What did you guys get me into?"

He doesn't realize it's so early until until he checks the responses and sees people tweeting about how he shouldn't be awake right now, or he woke them up with the post notification. Checking the time, he sees it's only 3:48 in the morning. This is going to be a long day.

~~

"— can't afford it?" Samandriel's voice flows through the house the moment Castiel steps inside later that day.

"Why is it the employer's fault?" Michael challenges. "Wouldn't the money be better spent on raising wages or hiring more people?"

"But..." Samandriel pauses. "Okay, so I see your point, but what are the odds that the businesses would raise the wages anyway? They'd probably just keep the profits to themselves, same as before."

"And the definitely a possibility, but unless you're a prostitute, your workplace and your sex life shouldn't interfere," Michael says.

"What did I just walk into?" Castiel asks, stepping into the kitchen with them.

"They're talking politics," Claire replies, sitting in the living room on her phone. "Ignore them. That's what I'm doing."

"What politics have to do with your sex life?" Castiel asks.

"We're talking about how stupid it is that liberals think your workplace should have free birth control," Michael tells him.

"The stupid part is all him," Samandriel adds. "I think it's a good idea."

"But it's not," Michael insists. "I don't understand why anyone would think it is. You're essentially just getting more than someone who works just as hard but isn't seeing anyone."

"Because they don't need it," Samandriel adds.

"Exactly, but they could probably use the money that the workplace spends on it. The net value of what someone who has sex a lot takes home compared to someone who doesn't at all is completely different, and it's ridiculous. They —"

"Y'all gotta shut up and give Cassie a hug," Lucifer interrupts, appearing behind him somehow.

This prompts hug time with all the siblings, and a high five from Claire.

"So, where's your notebook?" Lucifer asks him excitedly. "Let's pick songs.

Castiel rolls his eyes at his enthusiasm. "In my car. I didn't think you'd be that interested in it. Want me to go get it now?"

"Yes!"

Castiel jogs out to his car, grabs his notebook from the passenger side seat, and jogs back to the house. He hands Lucifer the notebook.

"Knock yourself out."

"Yes!" He jumps up and down a few times before running away.

Castiel raises an eyebrow and follows him curiously. He finds his brother in his room, pulling out an acoustic guitar. From the doorway, he can't tell what one it is. 

"Dad's or mine?" Castiel asks him.

"Yours," Lucifer replies. "I haven't touched Dad's since..." he trails off. "But I've been using yours a lot. Hope you don't mind. Ooh, hey, look what I found!" He reaches into his desk drawer and throws something at his brother, who attempts to catch it and misses.

"Guitar picks?" Castiel says incredulously. "You bought guitar picks with my face on them?"

"Yes I did!" Lucifer says proudly. "Casual product placement if I can find a way to use them in a video. I'm running out of ideas already though, so it's not going very well but whatever."

"Oh, hey, I was talking to Balthazar a few weeks ago and we think you should start a vlog channel."

Lucifer cocks his head in confusion. "But I don't do anything with my life."

"Your mere existence is entertaining enough," Castiel replies. "I would totally watch you guys just hanging out. It doesn't even have to be daily. You could do weekly vlogs like TomSka. Just something so us Literal Satan fans can get more Satan in our lives."

Lucifer grins. "Oh, I like the way you think. I should totally do that. Ya know what? I'm gonna start that right now." He pauses. "I'm gonna start that as soon as I'm done picking your songs. How many do I need? Three?"

"Three to twelve," he replies. "Three in each show and I've got four shows. I usually don't repeat, but I'd be willing to because this is so last minute."

"Awesome," Lucifer replies, then shops Castiel away. "You can come back when I've chosen them."

Castiel raises an eyebrow but lets him do it his way. It's not like he would listen to him anyway. He might as well make it easier on himself.

~~

"So I could, in theory, go to four concerts this weekend?" Claire surmises.

Castiel nods. "Yeah, but they're basically the same, so you'd probably get real bored, real quick."

"With you? I doubt it," she replies. "I've heard concerts are awesome, and yours better not be the exception."

"You've never been to a concert?" he says in disbelief.

"Not yet," she replies. "But that's all gonna change tomorrow night. I'm expecting top quality performance."

"I'll try not to let you down," he assures her. But he seems to let everyone down, so he can't make any promises.

~~

It's been two hours, and Michael and Samandriel are still talking politics. This time, it's the transgender military ban of 2017, which neither of them supported, but Michael is attempting to show him the positives. He did the same with Trump's wall, though that was a bit more of a reach. It's weird to hear him defending something he doesn't believe in. Also, remember that this is in 2022, because of the five years in which Castiel built his fame, but I'm writing this in the middle 2017 and I don't know how the world is going to go from here, so I don't know what stupid political things to discuss because they haven't happened.

"Castiel! I'm done!" Lucifer calls from his bedroom.

Castiel ducks out of the pre-presidential debate going on over here and joins Lucifer. There are a few post-it notes in the song notebook, likely marking which songs Lucifer chose. Lucifer gestures for him to sit on the bed next to him before he begins.

"'Kay, so I don't know pitches, but I like these lyrics and these chords, so these are the ones I chose." He goes through each one, starting from the front of the notebook and moving back. He says which show or shows they should be in, and Castiel doesn't protest.

He did this shockingly easily. Maybe he just wants as lucky as Castiel. Maybe his brain just isn't fried like Castiel's is. Who knows?

"And then this one should be the last one of the first show," Lucifer finishes, finally handing the notebook over.

Castiel hands it back immediately. "Pick a new one."

"But —"

"Pick a new one," Castiel repeats firmly.

"But it's really good!" Lucifer insists. "Please? Just one time. For me."

Castiel pushes the notebook into his brother harshly. "I said pick a new one."

Lucifer takes the notebook back, but instead of finding a new song for Castiel to play, he puts the guitar back in his lap and plays the chords Castiel has written down. He's gotten better since last time he heard him play. He doesn't sing it because Castiel doesn't write pitches, but he has the tempo just about right, which surprises him.

"Congrats. You can read chords," Castiel deadpans. "Pick something else."

Lucifer sighs and puts the guitar down again. "Look, Castiel, I get that you don't want to talk about Dean. That's totally fine. But this is a good song. You shouldn't just not play it because it's about him."

Castiel looks down at the song notebook for a few moments, then sighs. "Fine," he concedes. "I'll do it once, and that's it."

Lucifer beams and ruffles his brother's hair. "Good Cassie! 'Kay, now that that's done, let's talking about Misha!"

Castiel grins at that. He's always down to talk about Misha.