The Prophecy: Tremors (Cat/Castiel/Marius)

The Conjuring had been a well done, if pretty typical horror movie. There had been a creepy doll that Cat knew his brother had loved, and plenty of popcorn to toss around. What they wanted now, however, was pizza. "Just give us one with everything," he said at the counter. "Wings, breadsticks, the whole deal." He brought out his coin pouch to pay, then led the two off to find a table.

He'd only picked them up from the Portkey stop today and they'd only gone in the house long enough to dump bags by the door. He didn't see his brother or step-cousin often enough to give them anything but first-class treatment. "So what's been going on?" he asked, sliding into a booth. "Mom said you and whatsername broke up, I thought you were all serious."

"As soon as I left she started messing around with douchy Blake Dielmann, who's a freaking douche quidditch player," Castiel said. He'd been teaching himself to say it so that he wouldn't have to screw up his courage every time. He thought it expressed his anger better than not swearing at all. "She's going to like, conform now and turn into a cheerleader or something. I'm better off without her." Some of that he'd gotten from Mari, but it made him feel better.

"Yeah, Castiel deserves better than her," Mari said, nodding. It was good to be out of Hogwarts for a little while, even if he'd like to spend some time with Seiji. Cat was cool and he hadn't gotten to see his friend's brother in way too long. He was pretty sure the guy had gotten even hotter than he used to be, something Mari hadn't been at all sure was possible.

"Sounds like she'll fit right in with the preps, posers, and jocks," Cat said, trying not to laugh at hearing his brother say douche. "Don't stick with liars or cheaters, they just keep lying and cheating." He paused as the waitress brought their drinks, then he watched her walk away.

"I bet she was a poser," Castiel said. "I mean, what kind of goth name is Cheyenne?" Not that people could help what their parents named them, but they could choose nicknames. Cheyenne had just been Cheyenne except in letters. "I shouldn't worry though, right Caspian? She like, didn't take it well." He glanced aside at Mari. He'd worried that sending back her ribbon was cruel, and then she'd sent back the corset.

"She's all the way across the ocean, it's not like she can just fly over on her broom or something," Mari said. He shifted in his seat, pulling a knee up to his chest and propping his heel on the edge of the seat, then reached over to play with his straw. "And Hogwarts is full of really hot girls you can get instead."

Cat glanced at Marius, but wondered what his brother was getting at. "Unless you've got some dirty secrets for her to tell that magazine you love." Cauldron, his brother told him. "Whatever. Don't do anything you don't ever want anyone to know about in the first place, and grow a thicker skin so you don't have to stop living. And listen to Mari, I've seen some of the girls in the Hogwarts articles."

"I don't have any dirty secrets," Castiel said, though he blushed a little and looked down at his drink. He and Mari weren't exactly a secret, but they didn't do anything around family because it was a reminder that legally they were family. It wasn't like they were actually related, though.

"And all the girls are either taken or they could kick my butt," he lamented.

Mari grinned at the dirty secrets thing, but quickly busied his mouth with his drink instead of words. "Not all of them," he said, though he typically paid little attention to girls and wasn't quite able to come up with any examples. "Besides, who knows, maybe some really cool girl will come in next year. You guys could write mopey poetry together," he teased, nudging Castiel.

"It's not mopey," Castiel argued lightly. "It's an artistic expression of like, emotion." He refused to look across the table at his brother. And a lot of it was mopey, but he wouldn't admit it. "I write happy stuff too." He didn't really, except for the racy stuff, but he kept most of that to himself.

"I've seen your writing, Castiel," Cat said. "Some of it makes your idol's work look cheery. Wasn't there a story about some massive party while people waited out the plague?" And another about a guy who got another guy drunk at Carnival and bricked him up in a wall to die. Well, that one was more obvious.

"It's The Mask of the Red Death, and everyone dies at the end," Castiel said. "And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all," he recited. "Besides, my writing is good. I used to sell poems to guys who wanted to impress their girlfriends. One of them was stupid and told though." That had been the end of that.

"Just so you know, I didn't say it wasn't good," Mari said. It was just dark and a little depressing. He loved Castiel, but he did write some weird stuff sometimes. "I bet you'd get a book deal and stuff if you wanted." He said it in a very matter-of-fact tone, though he definitely had no idea how that kind of thing ever happened.

"You'd have to let someone besides Mari read it, but if you wanted to go that way, I bet you could." Cat's brother was a bit of a stick in the mud, but he was smart and talented. "You've got time though, so don't worry about it." And here were a couple servers with a tray of pizza and a tray of sides. "Ah, this looks awesome, thanks," he said. He gave the waitress a smile she returned reflexively before leaving.

Castiel watched the waitress go before turning back to his brother and lowering his voice. "How do you do that?" he asked. "I mean, you just look at someone and they go stupid for you." Meanwhile he had to talk his way into people's graces and work to correct the apparent impression he gave off that he was a nerd or a wimp or something. He was goth, not a nerd!