Archive of Our Own

After Duncan admitted his fear of Celine Dion music store standees, Trent tells them about his phobia of mimes. He then rolls his eyes and says, “All right, Courtney, you're afraid of something. Spit it out.”
Courtney scoffs before saying, “No, nothing!”
“That's not what she said last night.” Duncan smirks.
“Duncan, did you ever consider the fact that maybe I was just humouring you?” She scowls. They began to bicker before Cody interrupted them, “So, what are you afraid of Noah?”
The dark haired teen panicked for a moment before shrugging, “I don't know.” And then returned to his book. The others exchanged frowns before Gwen spoke up, “What do you mean, ‘you don't know’?”
Noah rolled his eyes and shut his book with a scoff, “It means I don't feel comfortable sharing with you guys. You'd probably use it to your advantage and use it against me in a challenge.” He rose from his seat, “I think I'm going to go to bed now, good night everyone.”
“Oh come on! I said mine!” Heather barked.
“Come on, Noah! Please!” Owen whined.
Noah thought for a moment, (Chris, who was watching through the camera, muttered, “Come on! Come on!”)
“Maybe in the morning. I'm tired from this whole friendship circle binding time.” He said flatly before walking off.
“Noaaaaah!” Cody whined and leaned back. He expected to lean onto the tree but missed it and almost fell onto the sharp rock behind him. Luckily Noah raced over and grabbed his shirt, pulling him up.
“Oh god! Thanks! I almost got skewered by that rock!” Cody said, letting out a nervous chuckle. Noah rolled his eyes before walking back to the cabin.
“Well I guess we better head in too.” Trent said. The campers got up and headed to their cabins.

Noah woke up to Cody shaking him awake, “Let's go! Wakey wakey! It's time for breakfast!” The shorter boy chirped.
“Is their a challenge today?” He groaned.
“Uh...maybe?” Cody guessed. Noah rubbed his eyes before sitting up. Everyone had already left and gone off to breakfast.
“Everyone else already left? I slept through it?” He asked. Cody nodded, sliding his own shoes on.
“Why'd you stay?” Noah asked, rolling out of the bed. Cody’s face tinted red before he stuttered out, “I-well, someone had to wake you up. Owen offered to help, but I figured that would just be him stinking up the cabin. Noah nodded, grateful that he hadn't been woken up by Owen’s bowel movements.

They had just sat down with their food when Chris came in and announced,
“Campers! Your next challenge is a little game I like to call, Phobia factor. Prepare to face your worst fears!” He said, raising his arms above his head for excitement.
“Worse than this?” Leshawna asked, holding up a fork, which a had grey looking sausage. Was meat supposed to be that color? Or that hairy? Noah snickered, behind his book. Gwen muttered something as Chris shot them a glare.
“Now for our first victim!” Chris smiled and pulled a card out of his pocket, “Heather! Meet us all in the theater!”
Heather continued to drink her coffee calmly, not caring about what the older man was saying.
“It's sumo time!” Chris smirked. Heather spit out her coffee as everyone let out a gasp. Chris continued to read the paper, “Gwen, you, me, the beach, a few tons of sand!” Gwen let out a gasp and nearly choked on her own saliva. Trent looked at her worriedly, resulting in a close up from the camera.
“Wait,” Lindsay began, “How do they know those were your worst fears?” Even for Lindsay, that was a stupid thing to ask.
“Ugh!” Gwen groaned, facepalming.
“Because we told them!” She went on. Lindsay and Beth shared a confused look. Trent went on to explain,
“At the campfire last night. He supplied. It cut to a flashback of them all around the campfire, Gwen saying how her worst fear would be being buried alive.
“Wait they were listening to us‽” Lindsay exclaimed, jumping from her seat.
“It's a reality show, Einstein.” Noah snickered, from behind his book. It earned him a few glares.
“That's like eavesdropping!” Lindsay cried, and Noah rolled his eyes at the girl before continuing to read his book. He stopped however when he glanced at Cody over the top of it. He looked so nervous and scared, it made Noah want to hold him until he was safe. He wasn't paying attention anymore to the host, or what the others were saying, he continued to stare at Cody, pretending to read. He was pulled from his thoughts as Tyler let out a scream. Noah looked to the boy’s hand and saw he was clutching...a chicken?
“That's pathetic dude, seriously.” Duncan grumbled.
“He's on our team, Duncan! Try to be encouraging!” Courtney hissed.
“Oh like how you were last night? Saying you didn't have any fears?” He mocked.
“I-well Noah said he didn't either!” She snapped. They turned to Noah.
“I didn't say I wasn't afraid of anything. I just didn't want to partake in the whole, ‘I'm gonna give away my weaknesses to all my competitors’ bonding circle.” He rolled his eyes, and turned back to his book. He heard the others mutter under their breath, and looked up to see Cody with a trembling lip. He felt a pang of guilt,
“I-I mean-” he tried to say but was cut off by Chris, as he made them all follow him outside. Noah made his way over to Cody, and pulled him back by his shirt. The others went ahead of them, Noah waited until they were behind everyone before speaking.
“I didn't mean to like, hurt your feelings.” He said as they walked next to each other, out of the building.
“I know, I mean i wasn't-you didn't-it was kinda stupid to say anything at all last night.” Cody stumbled over his words.
“I guess I could have at least said something though.” Noah frowned.
“You can tell me, if you want. Your worst fear. You don't have to-it was just a offer and-” Cody continued, letting out one his famous nervous laughs.
“Lighting.” Noah cut the younger boy off.
“What?”
“I’m afraid of lightning.” Noah explained.
“Why?” Cody asked, his eyes widened a bit before he went on, “You don't have to answer that! Why do I keep asking personal questions?” He yelled, muttering the last bit.
“Well, it’s not my absolute worst fear. But, I hate lightning and thunderstorms. I think it's cause when I was younger I watched a man struck by lightning while walking home from school. It freaked me out. I was a weird kid.” Noah explained.
Cody nodded, “That would mess a kid up.”
They finally reached the other campers, and circled around a baby pool full of...bugs‽ Every campers looked like they were gonna vomit, and Dj did just that. Gwen looked like she had been electrocuted. She was standing rigid and it wasn't even her challenge. Beth shrugged and hopped into the tub. When she popped back up, a worm was in her mouth. The team cheered, and Noah grabbed Cody’s shoulder as he put a hand over his mouth and gagged. Cody patted his hand sympathetically. Owen fell over once he looked at the bugs, he nearly fell on Heather’s toes making the girl growl. No, literally growl.

Chris laughed at everyone's disgust before he actually looked at Beth,
“Oh my god.” He moaned, he turned his back on them trying to compose himself.
“Okay! Lindsay! Katie! Time for you to go to the barbers.” He smirked evilly, and let the other campers trail behind him.

Noah wasn't paying attention to anything that had happened so far. He remembered Chef in a spider costume, Heather shaking in fear (Making a sarcastic comment, and getting a glare from her), and seeing a plane being flown crazy around the sky. For the rest of the day he had been either talking with Cody, or watching him. But now he was on full alert, after what Chris had just said.
“Come on, Cody! It's time for you to Jeremy Renner this show!”
Cody looked at Chris in panic, his breathing becoming incredibly fast.
“Calm down, Cody. It's okay, you just gotta go and try your best.” Bridgett said.
“He's on the other team!” Tyler yelled at her.
“He's about to have a panic attack! Shut up!” She hissed at the the boy in the track suit. Duncan even looked at Cody in worry, that made Noah step in.
“Cody.” He began, putting a hand on his arm, turning him to face him. Cody’s breath slowed a bit.
“Hey, it's okay if you don't do it. I probably wouldn't be able to face my fear.” He smiled. Cody finally stopped panicking, he looked up at Noah,
“Well duh. You'd probably run away screaming.” Cody giggled. Noah grinned before flipping the boy back around and shoving him forward, to follow Chris.
“That was actually...sweet, Noah.” Courtney sorta-kinda-complimented.
“He was about to pass out from hyperventilating, if he did that we'd be down a team member.” He shrugged it off.
“It's okay to have friend, Noah.” Lindsay grinned.
“I have friends.” Noah said defensively.
“Well of course you have some chess nerds you hang out with.” Duncan smirked.
“At least my friends don't live behind bars.” Noah muttered. Duncan sneered at the boy, and stepped forward, only being stopped when Courtney put a hand on his shoulder.
“I-I have to go.” Noah said suddenly in the moment of awkward silence that had surfaced, sprinting away from the other campers, and down the path that Chris had led Cody down minutes before.

“You aren't gonna stay?” Cody asked.
“Are you kidding? That's a live bomb, dude!” Chris said, while running down the hill. Cody sighed, and picked up the instructions.
“Cody!” Noah called out, he had been watching behind a tree, waiting for Chris to leave.
“Noah?” Cody jumped, nearly dropping the blueprint.
“Hey! Do you want me to like, help? Or something?” Noah asked.
“I wish you could. No-I wish neither of us had to do this. It's entirely crazy! But, I have to do this alone, otherwise we’ll get in trouble.” Cody chuckled.
“Oh, okay.” Noah sighed, turning away.
“Hold up! I didn't say you couldn't stay. You could just, maybe keep me company?” Cody blushed by the end.
“Uh, yeah! Okay, I'll sit right here. And don't let this thing kill us.” Noah agreed, thankful that Cody was so busy blushing and looking a his own shoes, he couldn't see that Noah had his own blush across his cheeks. Noah sat down in the grass, and picked up a leaf, twirling it in his fingers.
“Okay first step, open panel.” Cody began.

It had been an hour since Cody had set to work. Noah was impressed, by how he had managed to stop the bomb in under the first thirty minutes. They now sat under a tree, talking about nothing. And just staring at the clouds overhead.
“You think you're gonna go all the way and win?” Cody asked.
Noah sat up, leaning on his elbows,
“That was random. I thought we were talking about Voltron.” Noah laughed.
“Yeah, well, I just thought of it.” Cody chuckled.
“Mhmm, I guess. I want to go all the way to the end. I believe I can.” Noah shrugged.
“Uh huh.” Cody nodded.
“What about you?” Noah asked.
“What about me?”
“You think you can win?”
Cody thought for a second, biting his lip,
“Maybe. I guess it's been fun meeting new people though, and being on television? Super cool, man.”
“Heh, yeah.”
Cody suddenly sat up and turned to Noah,
“What am I too you then? Are we friends?”
Noah’s mouth opened, he tried to form the words that he was begging to say.
“Too me? Too me, I think you're perfect. To me you're my soulmate.” Noah said. No-wait, he only said that in his head.
“We’re totally friends, Cody.” Noah finally said. Cody smiled so wide, the grin took up his entire lower face.
“Hey! Guys! Chris needs everyone to come back to camp.” Trent yelled, interrupting them.
“Why? Isn't everyone done then?” Cody asked.
“I guess he's got something else up his sleeve.” Trent shrugged. The three began their way back to camp, Noah pouting in the back because Trent had interrupted them.

“All you gotta do is dive from that board up there, and then land in the jelly.” Chris smiled.
“That's cruel.” Bridget shook her head in disgust at the host. McLain shrugged, and waved his head to the ladder for Courtney to start climbing.
“Come on Courtney, you got this!” Duncan yelled, as she was climbing up.
“I got this, I got this, I got this.” She whisperd to herself, although she did it loudly enough for the other campers to hear. She finally reached the top of the board, and looked down. She nearly fell off just from looking at it.
“You can do this!” Duncan shouted. Noah began to fade away, not paying attention anymore, he stared at Cody’s hair, looking at the tiny locks swept behind his ears.
“Cute.” He whispered quietly. Gwen raised an eyebrow, her being the only one to hear him. His cheeks reddened,
“Uh, cue the stuff!” He said louder. The others looked at him confused.
“What?” He snapped. They turned around, except Gwen who had a knowing smirk on her face.
“Ahh!” Courtney suddenly screamed as she cannonballed into the goo.
“Woohoo! Go Courtney!” Duncan shouted. The others grinned at him, making him blush.
“Great job, Courtney!” Geoff shouted.
“Looks like both teams are tied!” Chris laughed.
“Why is this so funny? That means we both win. No one gets eliminated.” Heather sneered.
“That is where you are wrong. We have one more scare for today. If they complete this, then they get a point and their team wins. If they fail to do this, then their team will have someone eliminated, got that?” He said. Noah felt like a rock had just plummeted into his stomach. Oh no no, no!
“But everyone's already-oh.” Cody began, before glancing at Noah.
“Yeah, oh.” Chris laughed. The others looked at Noah, and he could tell just from the looks he was unnaturally pale.
“So come on, Noah. It's time for you to go and face your fear.” Chris giggled.
“I didn't say my fear though.” Noah muttered.
“Remember when we were talking, though?” Cody winced. Noah suddenly felt relieved,
“Oh that! Thank god that's what he's ta-I mean, uh.” Noah stuttered.
“Wait, you're not afraid of lighting?” Cody asked, a hurt expression on his face.
“Ummm..” Noah mumbled.
“Don't worry! We know that wasn't your worst fear! We know everything. So Noah, we’re gonna give you the option to tell a specific person here that you have feelings for them. Otherwise, you're team loses.” Chris giggled evilly.

Noah couldn't feel anything, he didn't really understand what Chris had just said.
“W-what?” He stuttered. Chris repeated what he had said earlier.
“I-I don't understand.” Noah said.
“Don't play dumb, Noah.” Chris peered at him.
“But I-I honestly have no idea what you're talking about.” Noah said weakly.
Chris looked at him disappointed,
“So you're gonna not say anything? Do you forfeit?” Chris asked.
Noah looked over at the other campers, all of which stood awkwardly by the tub of goo, Courtney now had towel wrapped her hair, she looked at him with pity. He looked at Cody, he was staring at his shoes. He looked up suddenly, their eyes met.
“I-I,” Noah began, “I forfeit.” He looked at the ground, and shoved his fists into his pockets. Chris made a tsking sound,
“I declare the killed bass the winners!” Chris announced.
“Uh. Woo.” Tyler celebrated. No one really said anything. Noah sighed, walking back to his cabin.

He began to pack his suitcase, stuffing his clothes and books in, he knew he was going home. No doubt about it.
“Noah? What are you-why are you packing?” Cody asked as he walked inside.
“Getting rest to go home.” Noah muttered in response.
“You are not going home!” Cody told him.
“I was the only person to not finish their challenge! Of course I'm going home!” Noah shouted, throwing a copy of Grendel’s guide to love and war into the suitcase.
“Noah. Don't give up so soon.” Cody said, setting a hand on Noah’s wrist. Noah flinched for a second, but quickly relaxed at the touch.
“I think know who you had a crush on.” Cody randomly said.
“Who?” Noah winced.
“Gwen.” Noah froze, blood boiling. “I saw you too talking earlier, and she smiled at something you said.” Cody smiled.
“I no, that's not-” His tongue caught on his own lips.
“It's time for the campfire!” Trent suddenly stuck his head in the door before beginning his walk down to the campfire. Cody didn't let go of Noah, and dragged him along after him.

Noah knew it was over, he was gonna go home, at least he could watch Cody freely at home, on tv. He had even voted for himself.
“Well it looks like we are down to only two marshmallows.” Chris began.
He suddenly let out a laugh,
“It seems that everyone voted for the same person, except for two people. Noah, did you vote for yourself?” He laughed.
“Yep.” Noah answered dryly. He could feel Cody's eyes on his back.
“Just give me my marshmallow!” Heather snapped.
“Oh but Heather, this one is going to Noah.” The host giggled tossing it to Noah, it landed in the stunned boy’s lap.
“W-what?” Heather and Noah stuttered.
Noah turned to look at Cody, the boy winked back at him. Noah felt his heart flutter.
“This is obviously a mistake! Re-count!” Heather demanded. Chris rolled his eyes,
“Here.” He said before pressing a remote, a screen popped out. Trent could see be seen on the screen in the confessional, Chris pressed the play button;

“I guess I vote for Heather. Not only is she kind of a bitch to everyone, but she's always picking on Gwen. Not that Gwen can't take it, or anything! She's really tough! And uh Gwen's also voting for Heather, so…” he finished lamely, a slight blush on his face.

“Well,” Gwen began, “Cody told me that he was voting off Heather. And I wasn't gonna got for Noah in the first place, he's a valuable person to have on the team. Not only is he actually intellectual, but he isn't totally irritating. Yes, irritating at times, but he isn't like all the other idiots. Except maybe Trent. I mean-”

“I'm voting for Heather!”
“Me too!”
“We're gonna go onto the finale together!”
Lindsay and Beth smiled into the camera.

“I can't vote off me bud, Noah… but he did lose the challenge..but Heather is really mean. Eh, bye Heather.” Owen muttered

It went on, The other campers went on to say Heather, because of what Cody had told them, until it reached Heather,

“Duh, I'm voting off that bookworm. He literally did nothing but make us loose.” She looked at her nails as she spoke.

It then cut to Noah,
“Whatever, I vote for myself. I deserve it.” He said with his chin in his hands, elbows resting on his knees.

Cody’s face suddenly appeared,
“I'm not gonna let Noah leave. He might have not been able to do today's challenge, but whatever. He's a valuable teammate, and frankly one of the only friends I have. I knew that getting Gwen and Trent to vote off Heather was gonna be easy though. Trent always votes off whoever Gwen does. And Gwen hates Heather, I mean I hate her too, but Gwen absolutely HATES her. So, Noah better go and unpack his bag. I'll do it myself if I have too.” Cody said with a confident smile.

“See? Everyone voted you off. Except Noah, kid’s got major self doubt.” Chris grinned.
Heather was basically dragged onto the boat of losers by Chef.

“Uh, thanks guys.” Noah thanked his teammates.
“We didn't do anything, thank him.” Gwen said, pointing to Cody. The others began to talk with each other, the other team coming over well.
“You're awesome.”
“And you're welcome.” Cody grinned.
“Look, I think I need to tell you, The Who I had a crush on was-” Noah began but was cut off by Cody.
“Me?”
Noah gasped and looked at Cody in confusion.
“It's me right? I've seen you staring at me when you think I'm not watching.” Cody smiled.
“I-well, you-yeah-” Noah stuttered, before Cody silenced him by pressing his lips up to his, cupping his face. Noah couldn't tell I he was dreaming, maybe he had fallen asleep when he was packing and this was his mind’s idea of a prank. His entire body felt like sunshine was leaking into it, time slowed, and he closed his eyes.
“Aww!” A voice interrupted them. The boys jumped apart, and eyes flying open.
“You guys are so cute!” Lindsay gushed.
“I told you.” Gwen told Lashana.
“Ha! You owe me five bucks! Cody kissed him first!” Duncan laughed at Geoff. Geoff grumbled as he pulled a fiver out of his pocket and handed it to the delinquent.
“You guys were betting on us?” Cody asked, still bright red.
“Well duh. You guys have been googoo eyeing each other since the first day we got here.” Dj grinned.
“Well I'm surprised by this.” Trent said, everyone looked at him where he looked like he was about to pass out.
“Me too.” Owen said.
“I'm so sorry. I've been cock blocking you guys all day, huh?” Trent chuckled.
“Yeah, asshole.” Noah said, with a grin.
Trent laughed, and put his hands on his knees as he continued to laugh,
“That's why you were glaring at me as we walked back to camp!” He continued to laugh.
“I was not glaring!...Okay, I might have been glaring.” Noah muttered. The others chuckled.
“Well um, I-I uh didn't really know I liked you until I saw you giving up, and I uh, I guess I really like you or something.” Cody blushed.
“I really like you too.” Noah smiled.