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heavenknowsffs · 3 years

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The Song Remains the Same | Destiel

Rating: T

Chapters: 5/?

Words (so far): 11,489

Summary:

Alternate Universe Dean and Sam Winchester where John died at the beginning of the story and the boys were adopted by a loving family. Sam goes off to law school and ends up meeting Eileen whereas Dean learns guitar and follows his passion for music into the road becoming a roadie for the band The Pretty Reckless where he meets Cas.

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Chap. 1: Waiting For A Friend

Dean wakes up, cranky as usual. He gets down from his bunker, puts on some black jeans and a black t-shirt. He starts walking down the bus, saying a small hello to everyone he passes, getting his shoes and a shirt on the way out. That's how tour life is: busy, from the moment you wake up until you go back to sleep.

As Dean steps out of the bus he sees some of his co-workers and friends chatting, smoking, or drinking coffee near the venue. Dean walks inside the building and finds Alejandra, the tour manager, setting up signs to where everything is. He mumbled a quick "Morning" as he thought "I need to get some coffee, fast". Fortunately for him, Alejandra had already set up the signs for the bar area and he quickly found some coffee to ease his morning moodiness. He knew this was the quiet part of the job, only having small moments of rest throughout the day. Dean walks around, familiarizing himself with tonight's venue, looking at the stage, crew members already up and ready, looks up where each area is, and starts to mentally note everything while finishing his coffee. This is the little routine he has, in a place where things change every second. After the coffee, already feeling a bit more awake and cheery, he decided to go outside and join the others before the craze of the load-in would start. Finding his way outside he saw Penny, the photographer, standing outside the bus, gear in hand, getting ready to out and capture the tour life. "Morning sunshine" - Dean said in a friendly way, they had been together on tour for quite some time and he liked that small woman. She was very similar to him in terms of personality so they got along well. She was wearing a crew jacket that seemed too big for her small figure. Her red hair shone with the sunlight hitting her back while she was putting batteries in the camera. She looked up, recognizing Dean's voice, stating playfully: "I see you've had your coffee." Dean gave her a you-got-me smile and, seeing her ready the gear, asked "Getting ready already? Isn't it early?" "Not really.. You took more time than you thought in your little morning tradition. The Load-In is about to start, I want to capture some backstage stuff." "Well, I better get going too then, happy captures!" "I'll visit you later. I want to photograph the band's gear." Already walking back inside Dean yelled, "I'll be waiting." Dean walks past the trucks and sees the local crew ready to start unloading them. He finds the guitar area and gets ready to set everything up in its place. Starting to see some crew members pushing huge black plywood hard cases with aluminum sides, he rushed over and asked what they were carrying. "Amps" "That way", he pointed. Right after, two men were pushing a set of boxes, similar to the last one but a slightly different shape and division. They affirmed "Guitars", and Dean immediately took over them, pushing the box back to his area. Some other gear came around and he helped the crew members assort each box to its designated areas as fast as possible. Dean was a guitar tech on tour, a part of the tour crew, he was responsible for everything to do with guitars and bass guitars since his co-worker had decided to step away from tour world. Fortunately for Dean, a substitute was set to come up on tour to help him with the bass part. He hadn't much information about whoever was coming but he just hoped they wouldn't be a pain since living with 20 different people on a very small space would become hell, and he liked the crewmates in his bus so far. He was thinking of this as he organized each instrument, pedalboard, amplifier, and other gear inside his station so he could start doing the harder work. He's reading the band's setlist, choosing the guitars (and basses) for each song, preparing to tune them and restring each of them when he hears a deep but calm voice say "Hello, Dean". Confused, he looks back and sees a handsome man, about the same height as him, with mesmerizing blue eyes and dark hair, looking at him expectedly like he was waiting for something. "Who are you?", Dean questions, still confused. "I'm Castiel" "Castiel? What kind of a name is that?" "My.. father.. was a very religious man." Dean gives him a puzzled look. "Castiel was the name of an angel." He brushes it off but finds himself thinking "Well he got that one right." and blushes a little, immediately turning to the guitars again so Castiel doesn't see it. "So what do you need?" he manages to say while starting to string a bright red guitar, trying to sound casual. "They told me you were in charge of the basses." "You replacing Nick?", Dean suddenly turns back to Castiel, sounding too eager. When Castiel stares clueless, Dean quickly explains, "Nick was the bass tech, he used to help me manage this station, I've been waiting for months for someone." "Well I don't know if I'm staying yet but I hope so", he sounds excited to be there and Dean reminisces about himself some years back, when he had that same passion and drive to get into touring. Not that he wants to leave, but it's nice to see someone excited to not have much of a personal life. "Alright let's get you started then! First of all, you gotta lose the trenchcoat, man" Castiel seems a bit hurt from the comment and Dean quickly defends himself, "Not that it looks bad on you... It's just... we gotta be invisible, we can't go around wearing flashing outfits on the job" "Oh.. I know. It's just.. I didn't have a dark coat and it was a bit chilly out." he promptly removes the trenchcoat, setting it aside, and Dean notices how well defined he is behind the plain black shirt he's wearing underneath. "He just got in and you're already drooling over the man get a grip on yourself Dean.", he thought. Castiel starts helping Dean out, he has visibly had some experience before even though Dean has to help him in a few things and correct him in others, which is normal because every band is different. "You have some experience, huh?" "Yeah, I've been working locally. This is my first big gig though.", Castiel answers happily. "Why did your friend Nick leave?" Dean thinks of Nick, a funny guy who loved the job, not so much it seemed... "He went off to live with his partner." "Partner?" Oh oh... "I can't believe the guy's homophobic... just now I started to like him.", Dean thought. Out loud, though, he said "Yeah their partner is non-binary. You got a problem with that?" Castiel noticed he must have done something wrong and said, "No. I am utterly indifferent to sexual orientation. I'm sorry if I said something wrong." Dean was still taken aback but, upon seeing Castiel's face, he knew the guy wasn't bad after all. "Yeah don't worry about it. Anyway... Nick decided to step out to build a family or something. A bunch of bullshit if you ask me. I loved the guy, we were pretty good friends, but leaving this? All of this? For a normal life? It doesn't make any sense to me. Yeah this life is hard and we travel a lot but I mean.. I always manage to spend time with Sammy and my parents every time we go through town. Hell, I even get holidays and stuff. And we talk on the phone almost every day so it's not that bad you know?" Dean beamed when he said the words "This. All of this" and his eyes showed how much he loved his family, even though one might think differently the way he talked about being on tour. Castiel thought he was a beautiful man right when he saw him but after this hearty confession, he started to believe Dean was a very good person, which made him even more attractive. The guitars were strung, the amps were ready and the pedals were plugged in so they had a small pause before Soundcheck. Castiel was about to go get some coffee and ask Dean if he wanted something from the cafeteria when Dean got a facetime call. "You mind if I answer this?" Castiel assented with his head. "Hey! How's my girl?" Dean answered happily. Castiel saw a redheaded woman on the phone and felt bad for glancing over. He saw that she was very beautiful. "I just got some very exciting news!" Dean looked at the woman intently, waiting for her to reveal the news. "I'm gonna be doing merch for The Pretty Reckless" "Awesome! So where you joining us?", Dean seemed very happy with the news, he started walking away towards the stage to check if something was happening while still talking to the woman excitedly but always paying attention to everything surrounding him, something he had picked up from touring so many years. Castiel felt a little disappointed, he thought Dean was handsome and that his gaydar had picked something up but turns out it was wrong. "Better that way... Never good to mix dating with work anyway right?" he was thinking to himself, polishing some basses and Dean suddenly came back. "Hey! That was Charlie, she's joining us in Seattle." Before Castiel had the chance to ask who Charlie was Dean started picking stuff up while saying "Let's go, time for Soundcheck." As they reach the stage, instruments in hand, they notice the sound techs on stage talking to walkie-talkies, presumably to those in Control Room. Dean says hello to everyone as he hands the guitars to be plugged in and watched Cas copy his movements proficiently. They both get backstage and see the band get up, the lead singer and guitarist greet Dean as they get to their positions. The band plays a few songs, stopping sometimes for adjustments and start playing around with each other and the crew members. Castiel thinks to himself this is exactly where he wants to be and hopes he gets to stay long-term. Dean comes back from the stage and they wait until soundcheck is over to go get something to eat. In the bar area, they find Penny again, who Dean introduces to Castiel. "Hey, Penny! This is Cas, he's the new bass tech. Cas, this is Penny, the photographer." Castiel greets her in a friendly manner and notices Dean called him... Cas? He likes it, it's good to know he's making a good impression on his new co-worker. The afternoon passes quickly between lunch, photo ops with Penny in the guitar station, playing guitar before the show, helping around other crew members when they're not very busy on their end, even talking to the bands to see if they need anything extra for any song. Soon it's time to open doors and the merch stands fill with fans as they wait for the opening act. As the show starts, Dean signals Castiel to focus on his artists, looking for something that could go wrong and be ready to step in. They stand backstage the entire show warming up instruments, getting on stage changing them over, listening to the music, making sure everything goes as planned. Penny comes over sometimes for a couple of shots; the sound and light techs are around too; , the Production Manager observes the fire, smoke, and confetti; the lighting and sound director in front house make sure no one gets hurt and everything looks and sounds amazing. The show ends, the fans start to leave and Dean shoots a well-done look at Cas. The crew starts to pack things up as soon as the fans leave, reversing the Load-In process. Cas and Dean pack up everything in their respective boxes commenting on how good the show was and how well Cas fixed that bass problem without no one in the crowd noticing and how Dean thought he might actually stay permanently if he keeps doing well. After everyone helping load the trucks, there's time to chill a bit. Dean usually goes back to the bus and watches a movie in his bunker, since Penny usually edits the photos at that time and he doesn't have much company until later on the night. This time, since Cas is new he takes the chance to walk around and show him everything there is to see in the bus, explaining there's a bunk on top of his ("I don't like heights, that's why I chose the bottom one") where he can stay. Dean also gives him a tour of the bus, showing him the common area, introducing him to all the crew members on their bus. ("Penny doesn't stay in this bus?", Castiel asked curiously. "She likes to fly, I prefer to stay on the ground.") Later on, Cas gets a text from the Band Manager telling him to meet in the cafeteria. Dean decides to walk there with him, see if Penny is done editing, and wants to get a drink. The cafeteria is packed with everyone working the show, local and touring, hanging out having a few laughs. Dean finds Penny with Kevin, the videographer, and joins them while Cas goes off to find the Band Manager. The Band Manager is a simple, sociable man, who hired Cas through a friend. He was talking with Alejandra and Frank (Production Manager) at the left end of the cafeteria when he saw Castiel. "Hey! You got my message." Castiel was nervous walking up to Michael, he was highly talked of in the music business and this was a big job after all so being requested after the Load-Off was concerning to him. Michael cast him aside, a drink in his hand, the other on Cas' shoulder. "Listen, I liked your performance tonight! I noticed that bass problem and how promptly you solved it, I think this is great for Dean and takes a great load off him. He hasn't gone home for a while and family means a lot to him so I wanted to hire someone soon long-term to be able to help him on the road, do you think you can handle that?" Castiel couldn't believe what was being asked of him. Of course he could handle it, this was his dream for so long, ever since he got his first gig after his father left him. "I want nothing more." "Great! We'll keep you working with Dean for a couple more shows and then I'll send him home for a few days so you'll take over the whole station for two shows. Dean won't like it so let me be the one to tell him." Castiel complied, feeling festive, and went back to find Dean, still with Penny and Kevin (whom Dean had told him about). Recognizing the grin on his face, Penny greeted "Hi chuckles! What are we celebrating?" grabbing a whiskey bottle. "I'm staying on tour!"

Notes:

Okay so here is the first chapter! I made this one as a way to introduce the reader to Dean's (alternate) world and how he's living in this story, and I thought I'd make him meet Cas in this one so it wouldn't be too technical or boring for you guys. I hope the language used is accessible for everyone, if there's something you missed I'll be glad to explain what things are in the comments. I don't write much and I'm also not a native English speaker but I had this idea in my head and really wanted to try it out. If no one reads it at least it's taking my mind off things, but if you do read it I hope you enjoyed it <3

#i'm posting this just to let y'all know chap 5 is out #i'm not very consistent in posting but i will try i promised i just didn't think people would read it #i promise**#spn #supernatural #AU #spn AU #destiel #deancas #saileen

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