Chapter Text
It wasn’t any secret that Noah had been working for Chris since the first season of Total Drama.
Owen was bad at keeping them, anyway, same with Izzy, so it wasn’t a surprise when he got some texts from other contestants with their dubious beliefs and concerns. (Gwen had called him a masochist, and he’d laughed about it every day he worked with Chris because, god, was she right.)
His reason was always the same whenever anybody asked him why he would work for Chris: the money.
It was incredibly ludicrous, mostly because of the insane shit he was sent to do on a daily basis, but the benefits weren’t all that bad either. Plus, the money was enough to keep him afloat ten times over and support his family on top of that.
So, instead of attending university in person like he should have (and wanted to be), he managed his full-time assistant job with Chris and took online courses when he could. Although his work-life balance could use a tad adjusting, he didn’t mind it all much.
Besides, his sisters needed him to do this or they wouldn’t get to do half the shit they deserved to do. Not that they’d ever ask him to help, much less their mom ask him for anything.
Chris knew that, too, especially after the extensive research the production company does before they get cast. He’d caught wind of the situation his family was in, and he’d taken it upon himself to do something about it.
To Noah’s surprise, Chris was not as sociopathic off camera as he’d expected. After a couple of months working with the guy, Noah found himself comfortable at his side and following through with his crazy demands. And, when he found out about Noah’s situation, he’d started giving Noah more time to do his courses— his subtlety was lacking, however, as he’d yelled at Noah to do his school work when Noah was under the assumption he was off for lunch.
He’d give Noah extra snacks, give him way more vacation days than the other employees (which he complained about later, because he’d be pissed the fuck off if he was anybody else), and treated him with a softness that was obvious to everyone except the man himself. It went way beyond just pity points, and it was clear, even despite Chris blaming his nurturing attitude on Noah’s tragic past.
He was weird, Noah thought, but so was Noah, objectively speaking.
Chef, though, balanced the man out in a way that he’d never seen on Total Drama Island.
Noah watched Chef ease Chris’s underlying anxiety, listen to Chris’s spiels about the show, and take care of the man in a gentle way that nobody else had treated him with.
He wasn’t all that surprised when the wedding ring around Chris’s neck matched the one Chef kept tucked into his shirt.
He was surprised, however, when they both sat him down and asked him about Total Drama World Tour.
“No.”
Chris throws his hands up in the air and says, “I thought you’d at least think about it!”
They’re sitting across from each other at a restaurant that is way too upscale for Chris to be shouting and waving his hands in. Not that he’d care about that, anyway.
Chef’s sitting beside Chris with his arms crossed. Noah can’t really make out the emotion on his face as he looks pensively at him.
“I said no, Chris,” Noah affirms.
“Why? You did it before, you can do it again!”
His eyebrow twitches, and Noah can feel something sick pooling in the bottom of his stomach. “No, actually, I can’t. Scratch that, I won’t.”
“Is this about—” Chris starts.
“Yes, it is about my family,” Noah interrupts, he can feel the sickness in his stomach start to boil into rage. “You know I can’t just stop working; the income from this job is going to be much better than whatever consolation money I get from losing again.”
“And it isn’t about anything else?”
He can feel bile rise to his throat. “No, dad.”
It’s the biggest lie he’s ever told, and it’s blatantly obvious to all three of them at the table. He holds his hands together on top of the table just to try and keep them from shaking.
They all know who made it to the final casting calls. They all know who Noah would rather never see again if he had the choice.
Chris and Chef look at each other for a couple of seconds before Chef nods and Chris reaches into his bag for a stack of papers, dropping them down on the table in front of them with a thunk.
“We thought you’d say that,” he starts gently. “So, Chef and I found a couple loopholes that we could potentially… work with.”
Noah narrows his eyes. “What do you mean work with— Chris, just cut to the chase, you have at least three meetings after this, four depending on if Blainely is still demanding to see you about the Gemmy’s.”
“Okay, okay, Jesus,” he quickly starts flipping through the papers. “You know Blainely, she’s going to cancel at the last minute, again.”
Noah can feel the corner of his mouth twitch upward, but he instead just says, “I know that, but what if she doesn’t and then has an actual reason to hate you?”
Chris grumbles and passes over two pieces of paper from near the bottom of the pile. “She’s going to hate me no matter what, kid. She wants my fucking job.”
“Language,” Chef mutters.
Noah takes a glance at the papers, and his eyes skim over numbers that make his entire body freeze. All the bite sitting on the tip of his tongue dies with the weight of the paper in his hands.
This is… not what he expected, at all. Noah can feel his heart throb against his chest as he continues to read further and further, head spinning as he tries to confirm if what it says is true.
He bites the inside of his cheek, holding his breath until he gets to the end of both papers before letting himself breathe again. Slowly, he leans back the slightest bit and looks up from the papers to meet the eyes of both his boss’s.
Chris looks at him expectantly, and Chef raises an eyebrow.
The paper, which is actually just a new employment contract, states that Noah would be making his original assistant salary on top of the stipend received for each episode he appears in.
It’s even more ludicrous than his original salary is, and even Noah can admit he’d be an idiot not to take the offer. But—
“Why me? I know you can find some other innocent teenager to fill my shoes and the cast quota, so why me?”
Chris opens his mouth for a second before closing it, and finally says, “I need your answer first.”
There isn’t really any real reason why Noah takes a second to answer. The money is more than enough to keep adding to his sister's college funds, the house back home, everything, really.
But, for some reason, he can feel the sickness creep back into his stomach again, accompanied by a memory of a bright smile and green eyes.
“Fine! Yes, whatever, you know I’d take this offer anyway,” he throws his hands up in the air and crosses them tightly against his chest. “What do you need me to do?”
He knows he made the wrong decision when both Chris and Chef start smiling like they’ve won the lottery.
Then, he’s reminded of the second reason he used to keep working for Chris. The reason he stuck around in the first place. The reason that nobody knew about, the reason he didn’t tell anyone about ever.
The reason with green eyes, beautiful hair, and a mean streak only he could match.
Fuck, he thinks, this is going to suck.
-
The bus to the plane is small, as everything for the contestants usually is.
Courtney is in the front with Duncan, Gwen occupying the seat right behind them and trying not to engage in another of the couple’s petty squabbles. Cody, however, who ‘coincidentally’ couldn’t find another seat and was ‘forced’ to sit next to Gwen, is getting death glares from all three of them for whatever stupid comments he’s making, again.
On the other side of the front was Leshawna and Harold, with Bridgette and DJ sitting in front of them. From what Noah could see, they all seemed engrossed in some story Leshawna was telling, waving her arms up and down with exuberance.
Heather sits behind Leshawna and Harold, filing her nails into sharp points. She’s pretending not to listen, but Noah can see Heather stifle her laughter when Leshawna says something particularly funny.
Tyler and Lindsay can’t be spotted, he swears to god, there are definitely a bunch of kissing noises coming from the washroom in the back of the bus. The bus walls are thin.
The newbies were stuck in the back, one on each side of the aisle and instructed not to talk to any other cast members until the cameras were rolling. He snickers because everyone, including new cast members, has to be subjected to Lindsay and Tyler’s inability to keep their hands off each other at least once.
Noah shivers; he wishes he could forget the Outhouse Incident.
The first newbie, Sierra, was a Total Drama mega-fan whom he’d seen in the late stages of casting. Noah had the displeasure of being death-stared by the girl when he entered the room to observe the rest of the finalists, for god knows what reason. He’s just happy she didn’t get near him– last he heard, she’d broken some intern’s hand by shaking it so hard out of excitement.
Noah’s crammed in the back, right in front of the seats where both the newbies are, and sits between the window and Owen, who is too engaged in Izzy’s storytelling abilities to even notice how zoned out he is right now. Izzy sits in the seat in front of them, leaning over the back of her seat to wave her hands about her evading the RCMP once again.
Owen just keeps nodding and smiling along, adding his own commentary every so often. He looks nothing less than the excitable golden retriever he always is.
Noah turns his body to the side, leaning against the side of the bus and splaying his legs out on Owen’s lap. Without hesitation, Owen shifts himself so Noah’s legs will be supported by his thighs.
He leans up the slightest bit, just enough that his eyes are peering over the back of his seat, so he can catch a look at the other new contestant.
Noah sucks in a breath.
There, behind and across the seat from him, Noah spots Alejandro.
He’s… he doesn’t really look all that different from when he last saw him, actually, which might make it worse. If anything, he almost looks better, a bit more polished than his Dirtbags persona. He holds back a smile when he also notices Alejandro is wearing the slightest bit of mascara, his lashes only accentuating his features. The bull necklace hanging from his neck sparkles in the light, almost as if it were polished before he’d arrived. Not to mention, Noah is beginning to smell the excessive cologne he recognizes all too well.
However, despite all of this, Alejandro’s eyes give him away. His green-eyed ex is staring right back at him, and Noah can’t find it in himself to look away.
That’s when Noah notices how the light hits his face, and he spots the makeup covering what he can only assume are eye bags.
“Noah… psst…” Owen attempts a whisper, but Noah’s pretty sure Lindsay and Tyler could probably hear him.
Thank fucking god, Noah thinks, a reason to look away.
“What, big guy?” Noah asks, making sure he turns his full head to look at Owen.
When he looks back, Owen is giving him a concerned look, which is, quite frankly, upsetting to witness. Noah is not immune to a Sad Owen, and there’s a small part that’s frightened he’ll never be able to resist.
And, ever since Owen caught wind of what happened over the past year, he’s been acting like Noah got shot in front of him instead of just getting dumped.
Noah is thankful when Owen is able to surmise the ability to be quiet when he asks, “I just want to know… are you sure you’re going to be okay?”
The bus jerks to a stop, and the rest of the cast start getting rowdy around them. A couple of people start complaining, but everyone starts getting up to grab their bags.
He’s about to respond, but it’s at this point that Tyler and Lindsay have the courtesy to stumble out of the bathroom in the back. Noah looks over at the sound, only to look straight at Alejandro again in his corner.
This time? Alejandro is staring him down, and he looks even more distraught than Noah feels.
That almost makes him angrier. Instantly, his train of thought is derailed, and he’s only got one thing on his mind. Fuck you, Noah thinks, seriously.
“As long as he doesn’t win,” Noah says, looking straight into Alejandro’s eyes, “I’ll be just fine.”