Work Text:
The corners of his mouth quivered and pulled up into an open-mouthed smirk. Chris had said something so bafflingly egotistical, so like himself that it sounded like a parody of the host. Between tacky gray walls without windows, beneath blinding white lights, within the ever-present sound that air conditioning units make in large, empty buildings; that was the first time Alejandro saw Noah smile.
—
“Cody’s got a tiny sausage!” Noah yelled, being carried bridal-style by Izzy. His taste in humor was often very crude, adolescent. It irritated Alejandro. It was just so… unbecoming of him, to laugh so easily at juvenile things. Noah was still smiling in Izzy’s arms, bobbing up and down. Izzy’s shoulders shook when she laughed.
The second half of the challenge was child’s play compared to sliding down a mountain. He just had to focus and be coordinated. It should have been child’s play.
He was, unfortunately, still thinking about Cody’s tiny sausage. It was a good double entendre, and Noah said it almost exactly when he arrived. Alejandro corrects himself before he missteps on his panel. They were on a reality show- they were often in juvenile situations. It could just be a lack of opportunity.
Heather was on the panel next to him. She was remarkably strong, and angry, but neither can get you very far in this type of challenge. He dodged another slap one of her slaps. She kept coming at him with her left hand, on the beat, and it became part of the dance for him. He tried to focus his hearing on the group below, because he could hear Owen giggling. Because he wanted to know what was so funny. And then the laughing got louder, because a swift kick in his side had sent him plummeting towards it, and he landed in cold, icy snow.
Team Amazon cheered as Chris declared them the winners- even Heather, for a moment, until she looked back at Alejandro. It was the same way she looked at him when she first decided he was suspicious.
“Dude, seriously? What happened?” Noah walked towards him. Walked was the correct word, because Noah was somehow light enough for his footfalls to barely sink an inch into the snow. He decided to answer him as honestly as he cared to.
“Heather lulled me into a false sense of security and took me by surprise. I’m so ashamed of myself.” He frowned as the words came out of his mouth. He meant to lay it on thick, make Heather seem more valuable to her team, but it came out downright hammy. Noah’s eyebrow flexed. That was fine. Alejandro could handle another person that didn’t believe him. He pushed himself up off the ground and trudged back to the group of contestants. Noah walked alongside him, and switched off his mic. Alejandro did the same.
“They were already going to lose,” Noah muttered, nodding at what remained of Team Victory. “Why are you defending her when it doesn’t matter?”
Shit. He didn’t expect such a direct question. “…It was a clever play. I suppose I didn’t want it to go unappreciated.” Shit. Where did that come from? He started to talk to do damage control, but then he saw Noah’s face.
He was smirking. “Cleverness. Awarded on Total Drama.” Noah glanced at him. He was being snarky, sure, but Alejandro had never seen him pretend to be amused by anything. And before he knew it they were back, and Noah walked off with his friends.
Alejandro felt a fluttering in his abdomen. It was unbecoming of him to so easily react to something so small.