Archive of Our Own

"This is…a lot," Alejandro muttered, his eyes scanning over the contracts and documents covering the table that detailed their proposed roles for the season. Villains, redemption arcs, rivals-to-lovers—there was a lot of detail for something they were meant to improvise. "What happened to 'reality' television?"

Heather stifled a snort, twirling a pen between her fingers as she regarded her soon-to-be enemy in amusement. He was clearly smart, but he was also so new to this. She would have signed the contract ten minutes ago if Alejandro hadn't looked so bewildered at it all.

"The network values ratings over anything else," Chris explained from across the table. "What's a show called 'Total Drama' without the drama? You kids can be wild, but a little extra nudge here and there really turns this show into the international sensation it is. It just so happens that since this is the third season, we needed to bring out the big guns."

"This is nothing new, pretty boy," Heather added, catching Alejandro's attention. "And it's not like it's hard. Just a little extra work, a little secret keeping. If Chris is asking you, then he already knows you can pull it off."

"You've done this before?" Alejandro asked.

"Uh, duh. Why do you think my role this time is the redeemed villain?"

"At the end of the day, it's up to you," Chris shrugged. "But think about it. This is guaranteed pay which rises as the ratings do, and the better you pull it off, the further you get in the game, and the closer you get to the million. You two could be final two if you play your cards right. Sounds good, doesn't it?"

It took a second, but Heather could see the hesitation in Alejandro's eyes get taken over by determination. He glanced at her, and she suddenly got the feeling that this whole thing was going to be fun.

"I'll do it," Alejandro announced, still looking at her, "As long as you promise not to actually fall in love with me."

"Seeing as you're not a woman, that won't be a problem," Heather quipped, her growing smirk matching his. "So you better not actually fall for me."

"That won't be a problem either, seeing as I am already happily taken," Alejandro declared, and the two of them grinned at each other. Oh, this was going to be a delight.

(Briefly, Heather thought she saw Chris roll his eyes in her peripheral vision, but she couldn't care less what he was thinking at that moment.)

"Your partner will be okay with this?" Heather checked, gesturing to the document that outlined Alejandro's role as the charmer and serial flirt.

"They're not the type to get jealous if I'm flirting for money. Besides…" He eyed Chris with a calculating gaze. "Something tells me they've already been briefed."

Chris only shrugged, but Heather had been around the man enough to know that his lackadaisical demeanour and subtly-pleased expression meant Alejandro was right. Which…was weird, honestly. Since when did Chris go out of his way to contact any partners or relatives of the cast?

"I'll keep them updated, anyhow," Alejandro continued.

Heather laughed at that. "How? We won't have our phones. Are you gonna bug a crew member to message them for you?"

"I have my ways," Alejandro replied, looking far too pleased with himself.

"Ahem!" Chris cut in before Heather could press for more details. "Not to be that guy, but we don't have all day. Once you're ready, if you can just sign here—" He pushed forward the contracts, tapping on the dotted lines, "—And we'll be done for today."

"I'm signing, but only after I check the fine print thoroughly," Heather said, pulling her contract towards her. Alejandro copied her, sending an impressed look her way.

"How very diligent of you, Heather."

"What can I say? Courtney had to be useful for something."

When they finally got out of the meeting room ten minutes later, they found Noah waiting at the door with a bored expression on his face. If it weren't for the earpiece and staff lanyard he wore (plus a pair of sunglasses on his head she'd never seen before), it would look like he was waiting for his own contract signing. Instead, he gave them a nod as Chris dumped the stack of papers into his arms, not even blinking as the host sauntered off without another word. Noah gestured for Heather and Alejandro to follow him in the other direction.

"It's still wild to me that you of all people work for Chris," Heather commented. Noah had been the one to fetch them from reception when they first arrived and she hadn't been able to fathom his presence until Chris had laughed and explained. "How have you not keeled over and died yet?"

Alejandro snickered as Noah rolled his eyes. "Chris can't kill me, I'm too good at my job," he replied. "And I'm not so weak that paperwork and phone calls can take me down."

"Noah is the best worker here, I would say," Alejandro added, nudging the assistant playfully. Noah grumbled, adjusting his grip on the papers. "You should see him when deadlines are near. Ay, he's a much different person than who you saw on the island."

Instinctively, Heather wanted to doubt his words—but given how utterly used to the job Noah seemed to be, perhaps Alejandro had some credibility.

"I still can't believe you went looking for those episodes," Noah said.

"Forgive my curiosity when people keep mentioning it, querido," Alejandro replied with a smile. "And it wasn't hard, I just asked Chris."

"You suck."

"And you got me in the cast."

"You can't prove that."

"I will, one day."

"I wouldn't have expected you two to be friends," Heather commented, watching their banter with interest. The way they went back-and-forth screamed of familiarity with one another, not to mention whatever Alejandro had called Noah in Spanish.

At her words, the boys shared a look that she couldn't decipher.

"What do you know?" Noah drawled, stopping in front of a filing cabinet. Shifting his load into one arm, he opened the cabinet and started pulling out folders. "You don't talk to me and you just met Alejandro today. How could you possibly have guessed if we were friends or not?"

Alejandro chuckled as Noah's focus shifted onto the documents he was now filing away. "Of course I have to be friendly with him, I am certain Noah was the first person on the production team to watch my audition tape, so I owe him for getting me here. Although he refuses to admit it to me," he sniped at Noah's back.

"Sorry, confidentiality is important or whatever."

"Have you been here for a while?" Heather asked Alejandro. "I thought Chris only started re-contacting the Total Drama cast recently, but it sounds like you've been working with him and Noah for longer?"

"Sí, I was cast on Dirtbags first, several months ago," Alejandro admitted. "Chris invited me to join the World Tour cast later. Very kind of him, I must say."

"It's because Dirtbags is a failing project that won't go to air and he likes you," Noah butt in, shutting the filing cabinet and leaning against it. Alejandro gasped in faux-shock.

"¡Ay, dios mío! What happened to confidentiality?"

"What? Heather just signed an NDA, she's under contract now, too," Noah pointed out. "She already knows more than most of the cast ever will, and it's not like she wouldn’t have found out. Now come on, I'll walk you two out."

"I think I like this side of you, Noah," Heather mused as they set off again. "Are you gonna compete again? Or do you know too much? Or, shit, is Chris gonna drag you on the plane as a non-contestant to keep serving him? That would be an asshole move."

"Weren't we just talking about confidentiality?" Noah cut in, triggering more laughter from Alejandro. Heather huffed, quietly cataloguing Alejandro's clear fondness of the little brainiac. If she had to watch him present a facade the whole season to manipulate the other contestants, it would be nice to have an image of the real Alejandro to remember. Clever, playful, amused by Noah's particular brand of snark.

Huh. Maybe it did make sense for those two to be friends, after all.

Heather knew Alejandro had to be good for Chris to give him such a big role on his debut season, but this was ridiculous. He had half of the cast falling over their feet for him with nothing more than a smile and a few sweet words, and they hadn't even boarded the plane yet. It was sickening to watch, and it definitely would have pissed her off if she hadn't known it was planned by the producers.

At least it proved he would make a worthy rival.

During a lull where the crew was setting up to film the cast's introduction to the plane, Heather casually approached the one other person in the cast who knew that Alejandro was putting on an act. "Is this normal for him?"

"Who?" Noah asked from his place lounging on the ground with a book. Heather nodded over to where Alejandro was pleasantly chatting with an enamoured Bridgette, Leshawna and Lindsay by the bus. "Oh. Yeah, kinda. I mean, he's playing it up, but he gets that kind of reaction without trying anyway."

"What a smug prick," Heather muttered, causing Noah to snort.

"You haven't seen anything yet. He was a monster on Dirtbags—the guy knows he's hot and how to use it. It's interesting to watch, honestly."

"Is that why you cast him? You fell for his charms, too?"

"I didn't cast him," Noah denied a little too quickly. "He's just being delusional."

"Sure," Heather said, not really caring what the truth was there. "Sorry you got fired, by the way." Honestly, she couldn't quite believe it. Noah might be known for being lazy but it really felt like he was good at his job as Chris's assistant—Alejandro certainly seemed to think so. How could he have lasted a year only to get sacked over some coffee?

(And how was he allowed to compete when he already knew the details of the most highly secret contestant contracts? They hadn't been hidden when Chris handed them to him. Heather was fairly certain the page she signed had been on the top of the pile.)

"It's fine," Noah shrugged, uncaring, before pulling something out of his pocket. "Besides, I got these sweet sunglasses from the whole thing, so."

"No way Chris let you keep those," Heather scoffed as Noah hung the sunglasses from the collar of his vest. It could have looked cool, had his fashion sense not already been a disaster.

"Of course he didn't, I snuck them past him. And if I board the plane with them, he can't take them off me because continuity or whatever." Noah smiled, a self-satisfied little thing that radiated smugness as he leaned back into the rock he was resting against.

Heather looked at him, begrudgingly impressed by his scheming but mostly underwhelmed. "Making an enemy out of Chris so early? Way to hinder your chance of getting the million."

"There is literally no way I'm winning this thing."

"The hell is this quitter talk? We both know you could outsmart all of us if you wanted to."

"Heather. Come on."

Shrugging, Heather relented. "One less obstacle for me, then."

"Happy to serve, honey," Noah drawled, picking up the sunglasses again and settling them over his eyes. "At least with these, I can nap whenever I want and no one can call me out on it."

"Until you start cuddling someone in your sleep," Heather quipped.

The scowl she got back was fierce. "You should go mingle before people start wondering what you could possibly be talking to me about," Noah deadpanned, and Heather smirked, taking the victory no matter how small it was. "Maybe go watch Alejandro in disgust, start things off early."

"I'll decide when to start that part of the game myself, thank you very much," Heather declared, strutting away as Noah waved her off with an eye roll. She made her way towards Alejandro and his audience, intending to steal Leshawna from him; because even if the cameras weren't rolling yet, if you had a secret to keep then you had to play your part every second, and she'd be damned if she didn't take the opportunity to chat with her friend before any real drama happened.

After the teams for the season were established, Chris called a fifteen minute break and waved the cast off towards a tent stacked with water bottles and snacks. Heather lagged behind, trying to separate herself from her ticking time bomb of a team, and stepped into the tent just in time to see Alejandro take a water bottle from Noah, pat his shoulder in thanks and slip back out. Quietly, she grabbed her own bottle before making sure no one was watching her and following after him.

Behind the tent, Alejandro looked up sharply as she approached. "Ah," he said, dropping his guard when he realised who was there. "Hola, Heather, how can I help you?"

"I was just curious what you were up to, leaving so quickly," Heather shrugged, taking a swig from her bottle and savouring the reprieve from the heat.

"I am not 'up to' anything," Alejandro replied, and it felt genuine enough. A glance around proved there were no cameras watching this interaction, so she was inclined to believe him. "Just wanted a break from the chaos, you could say. A moment of peace."

"Yeah, with a team like yours, I can't blame you," Heather snickered.

"Don't even talk about that!" Alejandro exploded. "Not even mentioning the members, the name is ridiculous enough! Yes, it gets us in Chris's good graces, but it is an embarrassment to even think about! How did I end up on a team like this…"

If it wasn't for the tense state of her own team, Heather would be on the ground with laughter at this guy's misery. "Aw, it's not all bad," she said teasingly. "At least you get to compete with your favourite person on the plane. How is that, by the way? You and Noah are pretending you don't know each other well, right?"

It was subtle, but she caught the way Alejandro's eyes lit up at the mention of his 'favourite person'. Cute—he really did like the little nerd, didn't he?

"Noah being on my team may well be the one thing that keeps me sane on this plane," Alejandro claimed dramatically. "And yes, we agreed to not act familiar, as the main reason I can be an effective villain is because nobody suspects the new guy. If anyone thought about it, they would realise we should know each other as we were both working with Chris these past months, but…forgive me, I don't think anyone will."

"You're not wrong," Heather agreed, before chugging the rest of her water and crushing the bottle just to hear the crunch. "Is it hard? You know, pretending you don't like him as much as you clearly do? I've never had to pretend I wasn't friends with someone on this show before."

An odd expression flashed on Alejandro's face which he masked quickly with a smile. "Sí, it is actually harder than I expected," he said as Heather filed away that little moment to examine later. "I hate to admit it, but for once Noah may be a better actor than me in this regard. I keep wanting to talk to him and have to remind myself that I shouldn't."

"Indifference is his natural state, I'm not surprised."

"Now, I wouldn't say that. When Noah actually cares he shows it, you know, he does not always act like what you saw on the island."

"I know, you've already told me," Heather cut in, half-unbelieving that this was the person playing the season's big bad. The persona he played on-camera faded from view the more he went on about his close friend. "And I'm starting to understand why you're finding it particularly hard to pretend you don't know him. Alright, I'm heading back in. Don't stay out here too long or your little posse of admirers is gonna start wondering if you've abandoned them."

"I would never," Alejandro said sweetly, slipping right back into the role of the charmer, and Heather scoffed as she walked away. God, he would be so easy to hate if his real self wasn't as much of a dork as the rest of the cast.

Courtney appraised her as she made her way back into the break tent. "And where have you been?"

"Talking to the crew about something, none of your business," Heather replied shortly, and when she glanced across the room she caught Noah giving her a knowing look.

There was a little game Heather liked to play that she privately called 'spot the contract'. In the first season, after she had agreed to up the drama by playing the villain for money, it had crossed her mind that other contestants might have also been offered contracts like hers. Especially when she'd seen how extreme some of the cast's personalities were; the idea that off-camera these people weren't as overwhelmingly idiotic as they seemed to be kept her sane as she dealt with them.

She never got confirmation for any of her guesses—confidentiality and all that—but she liked to think she had a good instinct for when things weren't authentic. Eva's level of aggression on the island was staggering compared to the few times Heather saw her off-camera. Izzy disguising herself as a realistic bear seemed impossible without outside help, and the bear that mauled Cody looked a little too similar to Izzy's costume (not to mention how he recovered suspiciously quickly). Courtney's constant threats to call her lawyers during Action felt just a bit too irrational for a girl who usually had her head screwed on right.

The one time Heather was proven right was when they had to air Owen's deal to play as a saboteur because the big guy couldn't keep a secret for the life of him. That reveal made Heather even more confident about her other suspicions; interestingly, there were fewer people who seemed genuinely surprised at Owen's admission than she expected.

All that is to say, World Tour was looking to be no different than the previous seasons. Obviously Heather knew Alejandro's deal, but Lindsay was way too in love with Tyler to genuinely forget his face, and DJ's animal curse was fishy at best and tacky at worst. Even Sierra, the other new face, probably had some sort of deal given how blatantly insane she was acting, but Heather wasn't familiar enough with the girl to know just how much of her obsessed fangirl personality was an exaggeration.

The most interesting person she noticed anything about, however, was Noah.

Clearly, the bookworm had been asked to do something. The difference with Noah, though, was that Heather had absolutely no idea what his contract might entail, because he wasn't acting any different than he usually would in front of everyone else. He just kept disappearing. The few times she left first class to poke around, he quite simply wasn't present with the rest of his team, which would be fine if it happened once but became suspicious the more it was established as a pattern. Whatever he was doing, it was happening out of sight and possibly off-camera, which didn't make any sense given the nature of everyone else's secret contracts.

His team didn't seem to question it.

"Aren't you down someone?" Heather had asked the rest of Team Chris once as she passed through economy class. "Where's the bookworm? Sneaking off?"

"Oh, Noah went to the confessional," Owen explained as Izzy hung off his neck. "He said he'll be back in a couple minutes."

The confessional? Heather had literally never seen Noah use the confessional the whole time he'd competed on Total Drama. Granted, that wasn't very long, but still.

"How nice of you to be concerned for our teammate, Heather," Alejandro teased, a perfectly fake smile plastered on his lips as his eyes blazed with amusement. Oh, how she wanted to wring his neck sometimes. "Such a commendable show of sportsmanship. No need to worry, Noah simply needs his alone time sometimes and we respect that, don't we, team?"

"Yeah!" Tyler cheered as Heather narrowed her eyes at the charmer. Alejandro knew exactly what Noah was getting up to, didn't he? He was looking at her like he knew she was catching on and he was daring her to call him out on it.

It would be so easy to demand answers. To pull Alejandro aside and ask him what he knows. But the point of her little game was that she never got confirmation unless it was handed to her, so Heather simply huffed and started walking away. "Whatever. He better be done once I get there."

"Please don't flush him down the toilet! We need him!" Izzy called after her, which Heather ignored as she made her way to the confessional like she'd originally set off to do.

She didn't run into Noah a single time. Not on the way there, and not on the way back. In fact, by the time Heather was walking back through economy, the bookworm had managed to return to his team and was seated contentedly between Owen and Alejandro, which meant he definitely hadn't been using the confessional since there was only one way to get there from economy.

(Unless he went to the cockpit. But would the laziest member of the cast go through the effort?)

She made a point of ignoring Team Chris as she passed them. Even so, one glance at the shades resting over Noah's eyes made her wonder if she was missing something more obvious than she thought.

The chatter in the cafeteria was light-hearted and jovial, probably owing to how much calmer and non-dangerous the ad filming challenge had been. Heather had left the comfort of first class because Sierra was getting a little too weird about winning a challenge with Cody, and it seemed like Team Victory was getting over whatever had happened with Harold as the air of unease that had hung around them since they headed to the elimination room had dissipated. In fact, this was probably the most cheerful conversation held between a large number of the cast since everyone had celebrated getting onto World Tour.

"I know it wasn't flashy enough to get you the win, but I really liked your ad," Bridgette told Team Chris, twisting around in her seat to talk to the table behind her.

"Why? Impressed by our stellar acting?" Noah drawled sarcastically.

"We were awesome actors!" Tyler exclaimed, earning himself a side-eye from multiple people who knew better.

"You got Owen to look fifty times your size!" Bridgette explained. "It ended up looking so cool, I thought it was really creative."

"And you were using practical effects, right?" Leshawna added. "Most of our effects were done in post with the editors, but it looked like most of your work went into actually filming?"

"I think so," Owen said through a mouthful of slop. Heather cringed—damn was she glad that there was much more appealing food waiting for her back in first class. "I don't really know how it worked, it was mostly Noah and Al's doing. I just put on a costume and stomped around, haha!"

A grimace passed over Alejandro's face before he quickly smoothed over his expression. "It was my idea, but Noah did most of the work actually achieving the effect, so he should take more of the credit."

"Oh, really?" DJ piped up.

"Um. You're giving most of the credit to me?" Noah asked, and Heather rolled her eyes. Of course he is, have you heard the way he talks about you? Even with his voice coated in false gentlemanly politeness, it was clear Alejandro genuinely thought Noah deserved the praise.

Izzy jumped in, "Well you knew where the camera should go and where we should be in the room to look like we were in a city and that we had to film Owen from down low and us from up high and that we had to be careful to make sure anything past the edge of the tiny city was out of shot—"

"Okay, okay, it wasn't that much, it was simple perspective," Noah cut her off. "We had to do some of it in post, like if we wanted Owen on-screen at the same time as the rest of us, but yeah, it was mostly practical effects."

"You make it sound like you weren't clearly the one who knew best out of all of us," Tyler stated, nudging the bookworm and causing him to scoot away.

"Where did you learn about this kind of stuff?" Lindsay asked curiously.

In return, Noah sighed, before unhooking his sunglasses from his collar to fiddle with them. "As Chris's assistant, I spent a lot of time around production crews. Talk to enough directors and editors, and you start to pick up some tricks of the trade. Plus you learn a lot just from watching. Perspective tricks and transitions are easy enough to replicate if you have a general idea of how they're achieved."

He really is suited for the TV and film industry, what the fuck? Heather thought to herself as the cast started to hound Noah with more questions about his time as Chris's assistant, much to his disgruntlement. If he can pick up stuff like this so quickly just by observing, how the hell did Chris let go of him so easily? You'd think he'd want someone that skilled to stay under his thumb.

It was then that her eyes slid to Alejandro, who was being suspiciously quiet. He was leaning back in his seat, offering no input nor trying to save his teammate from the excited questioning. It took a second for Heather to figure out why Alejandro wasn't saying anything: he had met Noah when he was cast for Dirtbags and had known the other as Chris's assistant for months, which meant he already knew what Noah was like in that role. But the others didn't know this, because Alejandro and Noah were hiding the fact that they were friends, so Alejandro was probably holding back from speaking to make sure he didn't accidentally say anything incriminating. After all, he himself had admitted that keeping the secret was 'harder than he expected'.

There was also the way he watched Noah so proudly from across the table, like he couldn't be happier that other people were getting to see this side of the bookworm. Heather tilted her head at that. Alejandro had been the one to push the attention onto Noah, hadn't he? While taking credit for the idea, he had immediately told the group that Noah was responsible for the execution of it, subsequently leading to everyone glazing the nerd. God, Alejandro revered this guy so much it was almost sickening.

Heather rolled her eyes at the sight and tuned back into the conversation, formulating a few questions of her own about Noah's old job (because he looked he wanted to leave and the idea of keeping him in an annoying situation was hilarious).

As unfortunate as it was for Bridgette to be stuck to a pole, Heather couldn't help but find the situation funny given who had gotten her stuck there and how it must have happened. She knew Alejandro was meant to manipulate his competitors by charming them but to take such a big swing so early in the game? With a taken girl no less? She had to hand it to him, he had guts.

That evening, Heather managed to catch Alejandro as he exited the confessional, and she gestured for him to follow her instead of heading straight back to first class.

"How daring of you, Mr Flirt," she teased lowly as they walked. Nobody else was about, but better safe than sorry. "Almost kissing a taken girl on international television? You're really milking this contract for what it's worth."

"I have no intention of kissing anyone on this show for real," Alejandro protested, just as lowly. There was a hint of embarrassment in his voice, and Heather got the sense that it wasn't just from his method of eliminating Bridgette. "Not even you, despite our storyline. I made it very clear to Chris."

"Good to hear. I would've done it, but I wouldn't have enjoyed it."

Alejandro side-eyed her but ultimately ignored the comment. "Bridgette was flustering herself and I took the opportunity that was presented to me, that is all."

From the way he fiddled with his necklace, it was clear that actually wasn't all. So, having reached her destination, Heather threw open the door of the cargo hold and pulled Alejandro inside, shutting the door firmly behind them. Her plan had originally been to talk strategy, but this was much more interesting. "Something else happened. Spill."

Alejandro blinked at her, visibly fighting with himself in his head before sighing in defeat. "We…actually did kiss, once. Accidentally."

Heather's jaw dropped. "You did?!"

"Accidentally!" Alejandro repeated, the most worked up she had seen him yet. "I was helping her on the ice when we slipped and she happened to land on top of me. Neither of us were expecting it! I played it off but I never would have purposefully orchestrated something like that, especially since she has a boyfriend. Mierda, I felt so bad for crossing that line."

Damn, he really does feel bad, he's starting to panic. "Well. Personally I wouldn't call it crossing a line if it was a genuine accident, although I don't know how much Geoff will agree." At the mention of Bridgette's boyfriend, a thought suddenly struck Heather. "Wait, didn't you once say you also have a partner?"

Alejandro cringed, clearly feeling guilty. That's probably why this has worked him up so badly. "Sí."

"You're gonna tell them about this, right?"

"I already have," Alejandro claimed, stunning Heather. How the fuck…

"No way you have."

"I have."

"Wh- I literally haven't seen you leave first class until now! When the fuck would you have had time to contact your partner?! There aren't any phones in there!"

"If you have to know, I told them before we boarded the plane," Alejandro said, and Heather's mind spun. How could he possibly be able to contact his partner so quickly? Was it some kind of deal with Chris? Was he close to someone on the crew who had their number? Fuck, was he dating someone on the crew? As unbelievable as that sounded, it would make a lot of things make sense; but who on the crew was their age?

"You may be interested to know that their reaction was to laugh at me," Alejandro continued. "So they truly do not mind what happens as long as I tell them. Regardless, I do not feel good about it, and will not be repeating the incident."

Heather couldn't help but snicker at the image of Alejandro standing guiltily as his partner laughed at him. Whoever this person was must either be the least jealous person in the world or trust Alejandro to the moon and back. It was nice to know that he was in a healthy and secure relationship.

"Alright, alright, it was an accident, you feel bad, I get it," Heather said, rolling her eyes. "At the end of the day, you're playing the game like a villain would. Just be glad we don't have to watch the Aftermath where Bridgette will have to face Geoff." She cackled at the grimace that took over Alejandro's face.

It was only later that night, as Heather tried to fall asleep on the economy bench, that she realised Alejandro had once again managed to dodge the question of how he was able to talk to his partner.

Spotting Noah fast asleep in the baby carriage led to one of Heather's funniest revenge plans, and she would proudly admit that fact.

Look, at the end of the day, she did like Alejandro—they were in this together, after all. But he had ruined her advantage of Sierra being Chris's favourite and they were meant to be competing, were they not? Rivals-to-lovers, or whatever the contract said, and they were definitely meant to be in the rivals stage at this point in the season, so forgive her for delighting as much as she did in her revenge.

The fact that she was messing with Alejandro using his favourite person in the cast was simply the cherry on top.

"How you fell asleep mid-challenge I'll never know, but thank you for the gift, Noah," Heather whispered to the sleeping boy as she hurried over to a carriage with an actual baby she had seen. "Really, were you that comfortable being Alejandro's baby? I'm making fun of you for this later."

The look on Alejandro's face for the entire rest of the filming day was absolutely priceless.

Later, Heather was heading through economy to get to the confessional, when she was distracted from giving Alejandro a smug look by the sight of Noah out cold on the end of the bench.

"The bookworm's asleep again?" she said. "How the hell is he still tired? He slept through, like, half of the challenge."

"He's been more tired than usual, lately," Owen pouted. "He didn't even say anything when we got on the plane, just sat down and took a nap. I hope he's okay…"

"I believe Noah has been doing a lot of hard work recently," Alejandro claimed, discreetly shuffling towards Noah on the bench as if he wanted to physically defend him from Heather, even though Owen was sat between the two. The cold glint in his eye told her he still hadn't forgiven her for the stunt she'd pulled. "His body is making sure he is getting the rest he needs, so there is nothing wrong with letting him sleep."

"Yeah, little dude has been trying so hard in the challenges this time, it's awesome!" Tyler exclaimed. "So it's cool if he's sleepy."

"Aw, I'm glad Nolan has been working hard for you, Geoff!" Lindsay cooed at Tyler from the opposite bench, immediately causing the boy to sulk.

"And wasn't he tired all the time on the island anyway?" Leshawna added. "Man, if I started putting effort into these insane challenges when I was already low on energy, I'd be passing out to. Kudos to the guy for actually trying this time in spite of that!"

"Well, a million dollars is a way better motivator than a hundred thousand, even to the laziest of people," Heather mused.

"I hope he's not pushing himself harder than he can handle," DJ said, looking at Noah with worry.

Owen nodded emphatically in agreement. "Yeah, that's why I'm glad he volunteered to ride the baby carriage! The rest of us have way more energy so it's good he took the chance to rest, you know?" He smiled fondly down at his best friend, who was slowly sliding down the wall. "Even if we lost the challenge because he fell asleep, I just want my little buddy to be okay."

Heather didn't need to look to know that Alejandro was glaring at her again.

"I wanna shake him," Izzy declared, apropos of nothing.

"Do not," Alejandro stressed, reaching up an arm to block her path when it looked like Izzy might actually make good on her word. "As his teammates, it is our responsibility to make sure Noah does not push himself beyond his limits, which means letting him sleep."

"Okay!"

"Gracias, chica." God, it almost seemed like this conversation was tiring Alejandro out to the same extent as Noah's apparent exhaustion.

Leshawna laughed at the display of Alejandro having to wrangle his team. "I'm glad Noah is actually pulling his weight this time. One less problem for you to worry about."

"…I agree." There was something odd about Alejandro's expression again, and this time Heather took the chance to study it. He seemed irritated, like something about this topic was bothering him, although he was masking it fairly well. But didn't Alejandro start this discussion by bringing up the hard work Noah had apparently been doing? What else could he have been referring to other than the challenges?

…Was it whatever Noah was up to when he disappeared from the group during downtime?

"Ooh, ooh! Maybe we can carry him on our backs during the next challenge so he can rest more!" Izzy suggested.

"As much as he might be tempted, give the guy some dignity," DJ laughed. "If he's actually trying this time then clearly he doesn't want to look as lazy as before."

Oh, Alejandro looked pissed that they kept talking about Noah 'actually trying' this time. Heather snickered quietly to herself as she finally made her way towards the exit of economy class, noting Alejandro's peculiar protectiveness of Noah in the back of her mind.

The following couple challenges brought a level of chaos to Heather's life that she never in a million years could have anticipated. Losing a tooth thanks to Leshawna beating her up in the Alps didn't feel real, not while it was happening and not for a while afterwards.

(Heather felt genuinely betrayed until her friend had given her the most apologetic look as they were separated, and it became clear that this was another one of those secret contract events, for some fucking reason. She could forgive Leshawna for it eventually, but the ache of missing a tooth still burned.)

Then the Amazon challenge completely flipped everything around by giving Heather a taste of what it was like to truly be worshipped, gold tooth and all. It was as if the world or karma or something pitied her for what happened and decided to make up for it, giving back what she lost both metaphorically and physically. Sure, they didn't win, and the rest of Team Amazon had a pretty bad time, but Heather had returned to the plane feeling a little more whole again.

The non-elimination ceremony was rough, but at least she was still in the game, and at least she wasn't reacting like Sierra.

Economy class post-Amazon was absolute chaos. Sierra's wailing was one thing, although Heather would have been stuck with that regardless of who joined them in economy. No, most of the antics were coming from Team Chris, who Heather was realising Team Amazon had never shared economy class with before; she was also starting to pray they would never have to again. From the few times she passed them briefly she had thought they seemed pretty chill, but being forced to share a room with them for a prolonged period of time was making it abundantly clear why Alejandro wasn't fond of most of his teammates.

"Izzy, no, down," Noah snapped, grabbing Izzy's ankle and preventing her from climbing into the overhead bins by yanking her down with a strength Heather didn't know he had. Izzy hit the floor with a thump that would be concerning if she were anyone else, then proceeded to jump to her feet with a crazed giggle and start climbing onto the bench again.

"But I wanna go on an adventure!" she announced. "I wanna crawl through the vents like the rats do so I can find out all the secrets of the plane! Don't you wanna know?"

"There aren't any vents in the overhead bins," Noah protested.

"You don't know that!"

"In most planes there aren't! And even if this plane is an outlier, I don't want you in the vents anyway, because you will somehow find a way to kill us all."

"You're no fun! Let me live my rat dreams!" Izzy cried.

"I support your rat dreams!" Owen said, before squealing in pain as Izzy stepped directly on his crotch in an attempt to use him as a stepladder. All of the boys (and a few of the girls) cringed in sympathy except for Alejandro, who had his eyes closed in an attempt to ignore his team.

Noah sighed. "Izzy, for fuck's sake—"

"I can go with her!" Tyler interrupted him, leaping to his feet. "That way she can live out her rat dreams while I can make sure she doesn't somehow cause the plane to crash! C'mon, Iz!"

"Don't encourage her!"

"You're not going to try and help at all, Alejandro?" Heather asked, knowing he wasn't asleep due to the fact that his reactions to everything were playing clearly on his face. The charmer opened one eye to survey the scene, watching as Tyler tried to pull himself up into the overhead bins only for turbulence to send him flying to the floor, with Izzy landing directly on top of him. Owen floundered, reaching out to help them up and almost toppling onto the pair himself when the plane gave another lurch.

Somehow, Sierra kept crying over it all. Heather contemplated copying Cody and hiding away somewhere else.

Alejandro stared at his team for another moment before shutting his eye again and shrugging. "Not a challenge, not my problem."

"Okay, enough," Noah huffed, exasperated. "Tyler, sit down. Izzy, stay. And Owen, I love you buddy, but you've gotta stop encouraging your girl when she gets like this." The team listened, nodding like guilty children even as Izzy fidgeted on the floor, waiting for a gap where she could escape.

Across the room, Courtney laughed. "You're treating them like dogs."

"You have to when you're wrangling rowdy teenagers who can all overpower you," Noah quipped, causing Gwen to giggle as well despite her drowsiness after the artificial adrenaline rush.

"Hey!" Tyler protested, only to cower when Noah turned to look at him.

Alejandro opened his eyes again and made eye contact with Heather, an amused smile on his face. "See? Noah has it handled, therefore, not my problem."

"I can hear you, you know," Noah grumbled, slumping further down the bench. "And it wouldn't hurt to have some help from the team leader."

"Oh, but you were doing so well, cerebrito," Alejandro all but purred, cranking up his charming act to eleven to flirt with his teammate for the sole purpose of poking at his buttons. He looked a little like a lounging cat—and given that Noah was corralling the rest of the team like dogs, the comparison felt quite apt. "I saw no need to step in. In fact, if I decided to join in the shenanigans, I am sure you could have put me in my place too."

"Don't even say that, you're meant to be the sensible one," Noah snapped. Heather noted with interest that the tips of his ears had gone a little red from the borderline flirting and Alejandro's pleased smile. Not so immune to his charm, are you? "And don't call me that if you're also planning on making my life difficult."

"What does it mean?" Heather wondered, trying to recall what exactly Alejandro said. Belatedly remembering the cameras, she sculpted her expression into something more annoyed than curious. Hopefully the audience would read it as jealousy over Alejandro's nickname for his teammate.

"Cerebrito means brainiac," Courtney answered, and Alejandro's gaze flicked over to her in surprise. Heather's did too, and in the back of her mind she wondered if this nickname was the same one she'd heard Alejandro call Noah back in Chris's office—she couldn't quite remember. Unperturbed by the eyes on her, Courtney continued, "So it's pretty obvious he sees Noah as the brains of Team Chris, other than himself, of course."

"Well duh, what other role would I play on a team full of physical powerhouses?" Noah said, rolling his eyes. "Have you seen me?"

"You could be the dog whisperer," Gwen joked.

"Oh, you totally could!" Owen agreed, completely genuine.

Noah snorted. "One day I'll find a way to make my dog knowledge useful in a challenge and then you won't be laughing anymore."

"I'm sure you will, cerebrito, I'm sure you will," Alejandro said fondly, and even though she had no way to verify it, Heather was getting increasingly more confident that Alejandro was not calling Noah the same thing that he used to.

"…Hey guys?" Tyler piped up. "Izzy's gone."

"Oh, for crying out loud—"

For all that Lindsay talked about fashion, she had sure sent an abomination walking down the runway.

Poor Tyler was struggling as he presented Lindsay's latest attempt at a fashion design, clearly trying to pull it off for the sake of his girlfriend while visibly aware of how ridiculous he looked. Heather pressed her lips together in an attempt to spare him a little dignity, knowing full well that DJ was probably not getting eliminated tonight even if he did his best to throw the challenge.

Laughter erupted at the side of the runway and Heather turned to see Noah and Alejandro losing it at the sight of their teammate, much to the boy's chagrin. Alejandro in particular seemed to have completely let himself go, throwing away his perfect facade momentarily to lean into Noah's side as he cackled at Tyler's misfortune. In that moment, she didn't see a charming villain and a snarky know-it-all, but instead two teenage boys who had nothing to worry about but the laughter they shared.

Heather turned her focus back to Tyler so she could pay proper attention to the show, but the sound of their joint laughter continued in the background and she couldn't help the small smile that twitched onto her lips.

Later, on the way back to the plane, Heather caught sight of the boyish grin that Alejandro had as he listened to Noah remark about the day's events, and a sudden realisation struck her. This was the dynamic she'd seen back in Chris's office, the day she first met Alejandro and watched him interact with Noah. This was what it looked like when the two of them let themselves be the friends they were, rather than pretending to be strangers. This was what it looked like when Alejandro and Noah weren't acting, and nobody around them seemed surprised at how close they were.

Somehow, in a process Heather hadn't taken notice of, the pair of them had pulled off a strangers-to-friends arc so natural that nobody questioned it, even though they seemed like such an unlikely duo at first glance. This was the most real she'd seen Alejandro act in front of the rest of the cast (and the least annoyed she'd seen Noah, too), and Heather marvelled a little at the sight.

Noah quipped something snappy and Alejandro shoved him playfully, causing him to stumble on his feet. Owen giggled at their antics as Izzy ran forward and started tugging Noah along with her, while Tyler pouted at whatever the bookworm had said, still upset about Lindsay's elimination. Alejandro simply smiled as Noah got pulled away from him, his eyes never leaving his favourite person even as he patted Tyler's shoulder comfortingly.

If there was one thing Team Chris was, it was a true, working team, despite how dysfunctional they should have been. Alejandro letting himself show his true bond with even just one of the other members helped to make that team feel a hundred times more united than they were before. The competitive spirit in Heather wanted to seethe at the sight, but a bigger part of her was simply happy her secret partner-in-crime had a chance to relax the act a bit, getting to be something closer to himself even if no one else on the cast realised it.

Heather was starting to suspect that the way Alejandro felt about Noah ran deeper than she originally thought.

Newfoundland was…interesting. Being separated from her team for most of the day meant that when Heather wasn't desperately trying to get DJ to ally with her, she had little else to do but watch Team Chris. She had been particularly paying attention to Alejandro, wondering what he was planning and why he wasn't directly fighting her for DJ's attention, which meant she made note of a lot of his behaviour.

'My little porpoises' is what he had sweetly called his team as they reached the boat, and Heather had glanced his way in time to see Alejandro reach a hand out to pull Noah from the water, his cheeky smile tinged with a hint of fondness he apparently wasn't bothering to hide (fondness that she knew didn't extend to the rest of the team). In the fishing hut, Alejandro had somehow managed to squirrel his way between Owen and Noah, ensuring that the best friends definitely wouldn't be paired for the upcoming challenge even when he would have still been Noah's partner if he'd sat on the bookworm's other side (this example was more indicative of his distaste of Owen than anything else).

And then there was the present. Alejandro had just returned from washing the taste of Owen's socks out of his mouth—some of Heather's funniest work, she had to admit—and immediately planted himself by Noah's side, grumbling in Spanish under his breath. His shoulder pressed into Noah's and neither of them seemed to think anything of it.

"Hey, look on the bright side—" Noah started.

"How could there possibly be a bright side?" Alejandro snapped.

"—You're not the only one who knows what Owen's socks taste like, so I can at least offer you a little solidarity," Noah claimed, and Alejandro's face screwed up with confusion and disgust.

"Mi amigo, why on earth do you know what that tastes like?"

"Owen's my best friend and he's dating Izzy, who I'm also friends with," Noah shrugged. "Things get weird sometimes. Especially if Eva's not around to help balance things out."

"Weird enough to eat socks?"

"Ew, I didn't say I ate them, don't be disgusting. I said I know what they taste like. Big difference."

Alejandro choked out an incredulous scoff. "Not big enough! Both are disgusting, how could you imply otherwise?"

"Mm, I don't think you're getting it."

"I don't think I need to!"

"Now that's bad debate etiquette. Aren't you the son of a diplomat?"

"What does that have to do with anything?!"

"It means you should know that your arguments will be stronger if you have a good understanding of the opposition's point of view."

"You-! You are insane," Alejandro spluttered, laughter coating his words at his friend's weirdness.

"And you're laughing," Noah pointed out, a smug smirk playing on his lips, "So I'm doing something right."

Heather couldn't help but snicker at the flabbergasted look on Alejandro's face, ducking her head so she didn't catch the pair's attention. When she looked back up, Noah had returned to eating his clam chowder with a satisfied grin as Alejandro stared at him.

The next thing that happened made her jaw drop.

Alejandro basically melted, his eyes shining with tenderness and a touch of awe. It was an expression Heather had never seen on him before, and she was shocked that the boy was letting it show without a care for the rest of the contestants around them. Nobody else noticed—too distracted with their clam chowder or talking about whatever the fuck had thrown the rest of Team Amazon off-course—but still, he was playing a dangerous game she never would have expected him to play.

"You are something else, cerebrito," he said softly, adoringly, and while Noah merely rolled his eyes, Heather's mind started spinning. Because that was the voice of someone who was lovestruck. Someone who was so far gone for another person that they physically couldn't hide it anymore, nor did they want to.

Holy shit. Alejandro likes Noah?

The sudden revelation painted a lot of previous interactions in a new light, with Heather remembering every time Alejandro spoke about Noah as if he deserved to sit on top of the world, whether the bookworm was around to hear it or not. She had assumed the charmer simply liked to hype up his friends, but now…well, now it was glaringly obvious that his fondness was far from platonic.

When did this start? Did Alejandro fall for Noah at some point in-between the challenges, or had this been a thing since before the plane even took off the ground? Hadn't they known each other for months? Fuck, Alejandro had spoken highly of Noah since the day Heather first met him, so this had very likely been a thing for a while now.

Heather looked at the pair, cataloguing the way they were still pressed shoulder-to-shoulder with Alejandro sinking further into the contact, and she wondered how Noah could possibly see the look on Alejandro's face and act like everything was normal.

"Heather," Cody said as he sidled up to her, finally pulling her attention away. "Um. Any chance you know anything about hallucinations? We're trying to solve an argument. Or, well, Sierra's being insistent and Gwen's being weird and Courtney's too confused to argue properly, so, yeah. Could you come help?"

Heather stared at Cody, her previous train of thought slipping from her mind thanks to her sheer confusion. "…What the hell happened on that boat?"

As horrible as it was for the plane to literally crash, Heather took to the unplanned break in Jamaica like a duck to water. There were worse places they could have been stuck in, and being able to sit and chill in her swimsuit with nothing expected of her was a welcome reprieve from the chaos that usually made up Total Drama. The rest of the cast clearly agreed, given how they were all taking the chance to lounge about, same as her. It was kind of nice to see everyone relaxing for once as they waited for the fuel funds to be raised.

Well, almost everyone.

Noah was pacing back-and-forth by the lake, muttering agitatedly to himself. Heather had taken one look at him (sunglasses for once being worn properly, rather than hanging from his collar or sitting on his head—this was admittedly the most appropriate location for them) and proceeded to move her tanning spot to the other side of a bush, lest Noah notice her and for some reason make her the target of his ire.

Heather had no idea what Noah could be so worried about. There wasn't anything the contestants could do about the situation—the crew had explicitly told them that they would take care of it. So either Noah had some sort of personal drama going on or he was really weirdly stressed for the crew.

Light footsteps approached and a soothing voice called out, "Querido, you have to calm down." Heather's attention was caught; that wasn't the nickname Alejandro had been calling Noah on the plane. But it also sounded familiar.

"How am I meant to be calm right now?!" Noah snapped, his voice noticeably hushed like he didn't want anybody overhearing. Unfortunately for him, he must not have spotted Heather when he first arrived at this spot, so neither of the boys were aware they had an eavesdropper. "This shouldn't have happened! Everything was going fine at every location, so why—"

"Hey," Alejandro interrupted, and the sound of Noah's pacing halted, "Stop for a second. Breathe."

There was a pause and Heather mulled over Noah's words, curious. There was something there, something he was close to mentioning that she didn't know about. What did he mean that everything had been going fine at every location?

"…It's bad enough that the plane ran out of fuel," Noah eventually continued, more steady than before, "But Owen and Izzy got hurt because of it. And yeah, they've both mostly physically recovered, but Owen's gonna be even more terrified of the plane now and Izzy had to be removed from the competition."

"I thought that was planned?" Alejandro said.

"Yeah, but it wasn't meant to happen because of a genuine injury! They could have died when the plane landed on them, Ale, fuck, they should have. We got so lucky and I just- I…" Noah's voice trailed off into a sob, which quickly became muffled when Alejandro presumably pulled Noah into a hug. Guiltily, Heather knew she was intruding on something private, but she had no way of sneaking away without them noticing her.

"I could have prevented this," Noah whispered.

"No, you couldn't have," Alejandro disagreed.

"I was meant to pay attention to the finances, if I hadn't been so distracted—"

"You are competing in a distracting game, querido, nobody can fault you for that."

"That's not an excuse for fucking up my job!" Noah exclaimed, and suddenly the pieces started falling into place. The disappearing, the tiredness, the fact that Noah seemed too competent for Chris to let him go so easily… "I promised Chris I could handle it. I-I should have been able to handle it."

"Noah," Alejandro said firmly. "Just because you thought you could handle it does not mean it is a crime when things go wrong. Nobody is blaming you but yourself. What's done is done."

"Owen and Izzy could have died—"

"But they didn't. So instead of thinking about the what-ifs, let us focus on the present and take this chance to relax like everybody else. You have no responsibilities right now?"

"…No."

"Then how about we walk around, spend some time just the two of us like we have not been able to. And later you can hang out with Owen and convince yourself that he is very much still alive, hm?"

"Okay," Noah agreed, and he sounded like he was on the verge of tears again.

"Come here, querido," Alejandro said, followed by silence. There was no sound loud enough to indicate what they were doing, but Heather had a pretty good guess, because suddenly, suddenly, all of the facts lined up properly in her mind.

She'd convinced herself in Newfoundland that Alejandro had a crush on Noah. But a very important fact she'd forgotten in the heat of the moment was that Alejandro, the day they first met, had told her he already had a partner. A partner he had an easy way to contact, a partner he was incredibly loyal to that trusted him back.

A partner he spoke highly of, was protective of, called cute nicknames in Spanish.

Noah was Alejandro's partner, and they were very likely kissing on the other side of this bush.

(Noah was probably also still working for Chris, but this seemed like the less important revelation of the two.)

"Thanks, Ale," Noah sighed, and Heather realised she had never heard Noah call him anything but Alejandro until this moment. He sounded soft in a way most people would never associate with him. "I'm…I'm calmer now."

"Good," Alejandro said, pleased and sweet and in love. It was exactly how he usually sounded when he talked to or about Noah, and Heather wondered how she had never noticed when he was so damn obvious about it. "Let us go enjoy this weather properly, then, shall we?"

Noah laughed, still a little upset but happier than before, and replied, "Alright, you dork, lead the way."

As soon as their footsteps could no longer be heard, Heather stood up from her hiding spot, mind whirring. She would have to keep this secret for the rest of the competition, pretend that she didn't understand the hidden levels behind their interactions. Pretend that the idea of the two of them making each other happy wasn't the sweetest thing in the world.

She would do it but damn was this not a secret she expected she'd ever have to keep.

"Huh," Heather said as she spotted Tyler waiting with another intern to be led back to the plane. He waved at her happily. "How'd you get got? Did you sacrifice yourself for Noah and Owen, or something?"

"They forgot me on the torture rack because I promised to stay real quiet," Tyler pouted. "I wanted to call out to them but I keep my promises! I heard them scream for me while I was on my way out, though, so at least they remembered me eventually."

Thinking back on her own experience on the torture rack, Heather whistled lowly. "Sucks that they forgot you, but kudos for managing to stay quiet. That shit fucking hurt."

"Right! It was so bad!"

Arriving back at the plane, the two of them were led to a room full of monitors. At one end of the room were Cody and Sierra, with the latter muttering something about a kiss (did that have something to do with how they got caught?) and the former trying resolutely to ignore her. At the other end, in front of the monitors, was Alejandro, who must have been caught before they even left the plane.

He looked murderous.

"Um, is it just me, or does Al look mad?" Tyler whispered to her.

She hummed, studying the charmer who was glaring at one of the monitors as if he could burn a hole through it. Displayed on the monitor was a feed of what seemed to be Owen getting attacked by corgis. "Looks like he's been watching us this whole time. Did something happen on your side that he might be mad about?"

Tilting his head, Tyler considered the question, before his eyes blew wide. "Um. You know what? I'm gonna go hang over there, you know, a safe distance away! Haha, um, later!"

The hell? What could have possibly happened over there? Did someone hurt Noah or something? As Tyler scurried away, Heather decided she would be best off getting an answer directly rather than trying to puzzle it out, and made her way over to the bundle of anger. "Hey, jerk. What's got your panties in a twist?"

Alejandro's gaze flicked to her briefly before settling back on the monitor in front of him, where Noah and Owen were making their way out of the building with the final clue. "A certain little smart mouth decided he would make his real feelings known now that I am not around to hear them."

"Noah badmouthed you?" Heather choked out in disbelief. Why would he do that? They loved each other, had been together this whole time, she was sure of it. Alejandro was completely gone for this boy, and Noah seemed pretty damn comfortable with him in return. Why would he suddenly insult him now?

…Was she wrong about them dating? Even then, hadn't they at least been good friends before this season started?

"Is it that hard to believe? Everybody's favourite brainiac has a habit of insulting people," Alejandro muttered, although his eyes met Heather's and he gave her a certain look. His mouth was still set in a scowl but his eyes seemed almost…reassuring? Like he knew what she was thinking and wanted to dispel her worries.

His gaze flicked pointedly around the room—to the other contestants, to the cameras, then back to her—and suddenly something clicked. Alejandro was acting, putting on a damn convincing show. And whatever Noah said hadn't been a genuine attempt to slander Alejandro, but rather some kind of bait to trigger (or justify) this angry reaction. Whatever interaction was going to happen when Noah got back to the plane, the two of them had planned it.

Which meant if Team Chris lost, Noah was getting eliminated.

What a twist.

"You know, I've never seen you act any less than perfectly cordial," Heather mused, projecting her voice just a little bit more so it would be clearer on the mics. "The hell did he say to rip your mask off so cleanly? Or are you just mad that your favourite person called you out?"

Alejandro must have realised that she'd caught on, because while he was careful not to drop the act, he relaxed just a little. "His words are none of your concern, given they are nothing but baseless slander. And, favourite person? No need to sound jealous, Heather, I can assure you that you are in fact my favourite person."

"Ugh. Ew. Don't lie to me."

She would pretend to swoon over this later in the confessional to give the editors something to work with, but not right now. Not when they both knew Alejandro was lying through his teeth while in the process of orchestrating his boyfriend's elimination.

Alejandro merely winked at her before turning back to watch the monitors with a scowl. Heather, on the other hand, decided she didn't really care what the remaining contestants were getting up to and left to go freshen up a little before they got back to the plane.

When the moment finally came, Heather found herself strangely excited to watch the drama go down, so much so that she barely blinked when both teams looked to have a human in their sacks.

"Sweet, everybody's okay!" Owen exclaimed as he saw the missing contestants. Beside him, Noah was looking in Alejandro's direction with a carefully blank expression.

"Yep, everyone's fine, you guys were so stupid to be worried," Heather said, playing it up as she took the chance to glance over at Alejandro. Said boy was glaring daggers at Noah, and despite knowing it was fake, part of Heather was a little scared for the bookworm.

"But it was reassuring to see some were concerned," Alejandro said pointedly, causing Tyler to silently edge away from him.

Dread started to creep into Noah's expression, his eyes widening in realisation. It was an act—an impressive one at that—and Heather knew Noah trusted Alejandro wholeheartedly, but she wouldn't blame him at all if he was experiencing any genuine fear.

"You were watching everything?" Noah asked, as if he didn't know. As if he hadn't banked on that being the case. "Wow, that's…awkward."

"Like an eel dipped in grease," Alejandro spat, and Heather only just managed to stop herself from reacting because holy shit, what? That was what Noah said? Fuck, the little smart mouth always had the funniest way with words.

Next to her, Cody failed to fully stifle his own laugh of surprise, earning himself a nudge from Sierra to hold it together. They were lucky the cameras weren't focused on them.

Noah laughed awkwardly as his words were thrown back at him. "Where I'm from, that's a compliment! Tough neighbourhood…" he fumbled, perfectly embodying the role of someone who ran his mouth and couldn't deal with the consequences. Heather wondered if he got in trouble like this a lot in real life or if he just understood the character archetype he was filling really well.

Maybe Alejandro was right when he called Noah a good actor, way back in the beginning. This performance was the most entertaining thing she'd seen happen on this plane in a while.

The rest of the twists flew by in a whirlwind that Heather was only just able to keep up with (Zeke, Duncan, the Amazons winning somehow) and it was only as she trailed after her team to first class that she realised there was now limited time left to confirm one of her biggest theories with the person it involved. So, when it was clear her team didn't want anything from her, she pivoted on her heel and made her way to economy instead.

Poking her head in, she immediately spotted her target next to his best friend. Interestingly, the rest of Team Chris were absent. "Noah. A word?"

"Sure," Noah shrugged, patting a worried Owen on the shoulder before following Heather out of the room and down to the cargo hold. Given the complete lack of resistance, he probably knew she had caught on.

As soon as the door was closed, she spun on him. "You were never actually fired, were you?"

He blinked. "Huh. That's not what I thought this was about."

"I'm right, aren't I? You've been working for Chris this whole time."

They stared at each other for a long moment before Noah relented with a chuckle. "You got me. I was wondering if anyone was observant enough to put it together."

"You have no idea how much I've been observing."

"You mean your little contract spotting game? I do have an idea, actually, I know exactly what everyone signed."

Heather clicked her tongue, caught but not really that bothered about it. Seems like they were both observant. "Touché. So when you told me there was no way you were winning…?"

"I meant exactly what I said back then, what do you mean?" Noah claimed with a smirk. "But yeah, contractually I'm not allowed to, since I know too much. The producers demanded I compete for ratings reasons but I couldn't interfere with any plans and I had to get eliminated, even if it meant orchestrating my own downfall. I was sort of hoping to make the merge, but what can you do?"

"Can I ask, why now? I know you planned this with Alejandro." Heather pressed, curious. "Is it something to do with the fuel problem in Jamaica?"

Noah sighed, reaching up to fiddle with his sunglasses absentmindedly. Some of the worry she'd heard in Jamaica leaked into his expression. "Yeah. That kind of financial stuff isn't solely my responsibility but I'm still meant to be one of the people keeping an eye on it, which is hard when I'm distracted by the game. I always had to make sure no one saw me working with the crew, too. Alejandro helped me get away without getting questioned but there's only so many times you can disappear before it starts getting suspicious, you know? I assume that's how you figured me out."

"It is, among other things."

"So after the plane crashed and Izzy and Owen got injured…I figured it was time to put all my focus back on my job. Make sure something like this doesn't happen again if I can help it."

Heather whistled lowly, impressed. "So how much of what happened today was planned? It feels like it all lined up perfectly for you."

"Would you believe me if I said not as much as you think?" Noah replied. "The plan was literally just for me to badmouth Alejandro behind his back and for it to get back to him somehow. Seemed the most believable reason for him to target me given how friendly we've been acting. We were gonna find a way to get separated and either he would eavesdrop on me or maybe Tyler or Owen would blab to him. Worst comes to worst, he'd find the footage later on. I didn't tell him about the monitors when we were planning because, you know, confidentiality, and neither of us were expecting him to get captured before we even left the plane."

"So the two of you were given the most ideal circumstances by chance," Heather mused, to which Noah shrugged.

"Maybe. But I also told Chris I was planning on getting myself eliminated as soon as possible when we left Jamaica, so he might've been pulling some strings of his own. I mean, technically speaking Team Chris should have won today."

That was true. Heather hadn't lingered on it because she'd been happy about getting to go to first class, but it did seem pretty cruel to give Team Amazon the win when it was blatantly obvious who on Team Chris was on the chopping block. Chris bending the rules to help Noah out made a lot of sense (although she wouldn't put it past the man to pull a stunt like that without any incentive other than drama).

"I still can't believe Courtney and Gwen caught Duncan," Heather muttered, thinking back on the single factor that let Team Amazon win.

"Yeah, have fun with that," Noah said. "Things are about to get real interesting on your team, so enjoy the show."

"What?"

"Anything else you wanna ask me before I kick the bucket?" Noah asked, completely brushing past whatever he had just implied.

"Don't talk like you're dying," Heather scoffed, deciding not to push. It sounded like she would find out soon anyway. "You're getting off this death trap, you're more likely to survive than the rest of us."

"Hey, at least forty percent of your safety on this plane has been guaranteed by me, you know. I know my shit when it comes to planes."

"Whatever. As soon as you're gone, I'm grilling Alejandro on the partner he told me he has. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

She looked at him challengingly, and Noah gave her a knowing smile. "I'm sure you have the right answer when it comes to that as well. Now if we're done here, I'm gonna go comfort Owen and pretend to beg Alejandro for mercy. Later, honey."

Heather could admit she would miss him when he was gone, just a little bit. Alejandro clearly shared the sentiment when she caught him leaving the confessional after the elimination ceremony. His expression (smug, satisfied, fake) gave nothing away but when she gestured for him to follow, he trailed after her like a puppy separated from its owner and looking for any sense of comfort it could get.

Once again in the cargo hold, standing in the exact same spot she had been an hour ago, Heather regarded the other half of this dynamic duo. "So. How did it feel to throw your boyfriend out of a plane?"

"I—" Alejandro began before immediately faltering as the words registered. Stunned, he stared at Heather in bewilderment, and she let a pleased smirk grow on her face.

"I'm right, aren't I?" she asked for the second time that day.

"…How did you…?"

"What, like it was hard? I've been calling him your favourite person this whole time and you never truly denied it. You talk about him like you worship the ground he walks on and you look at him like he hung the stars—the fact that nobody else suspects you could at least have a crush on him is a miracle. Plus you told me that you're dating someone, so either that someone is Noah or you've spent this season emotionally cheating on your partner."

"I would never!" Alejandro protested, aghast.

"Exactly. You were so worried about the accidental kiss with Bridgette, I figured you were too loyal for that," Heather stated. "Also, you never once told me how you could contact your partner so quickly. When the pieces started falling into place I realised it was because he was literally on the plane with us."

She decided not to mention that she had only figured the two of them out by accidentally eavesdropping on them. It sounded more impressive that way.

"Ah, well then, I must applaud your perceptiveness, chica," Alejandro said as he finally regained his composure, although an air of surprise still lingered over him. "Truly, I thought we had hidden everything flawlessly."

"Oh, you did, I just had more insider knowledge than everyone else," Heather shrugged. Alejandro…hadn't exactly hidden everything as well as Noah had, but she wasn't going to point that out. "And stop with the flattery. How about you take the chance to whine about how Noah is gone like I know you want to?"

Alejandro sighed as his shoulders dropped, and a pout started forming on his lips in a way that Heather had never seen from him before. "We planned all of this and I was still devastated watching Noah jump from the plane. Heather, it has been less than an hour and my heart already yearns for him to be back! I was hoping he could secretly stay, but- wait." He paused, giving Heather a searching look. "Did Noah tell you—?"

"That you planned his elimination so he could focus on doing his work as Chris's assistant?" Heather finished. "Yeah. I actually figured out on my own that he hadn't really been fired and he filled in the rest for me."

"Very impressive, once again. You are almost as perceptive as Noah is."

"Almost? If you weren't saying that because you're in love with him, I'd slap you. Go back to what you were saying about hoping Noah could stay."

Alejandro chuckled, starting to brighten again from the banter. "I asked Chris if it would be possible for Noah to stay on the plane, hidden in the staff's quarters," he revealed, "But apparently it was too risky and he had to be present for the Aftermath anyway, so remote work it is."

"Even if he could have stayed on the plane, do you seriously think he would have wanted to spend any longer than he had to on this death trap, just so he could stay with you?" Heather asked.

"Oh, you have no idea!" Alejandro exclaimed. Passion filled his voice in a way Heather had only heard when he was talking about Noah, and she marvelled at how unrestrained it was now that the secret was out. "Noah loves planes, no matter how shitty they are! He was a lot more excited for this than he showed, whenever he snuck off to do work he would also take the chance to explore the plane and learn everything he could about it. I was…admittedly confused by his enthusiasm for even this plane, but seriously, he would have happily stayed if he could have."

"Wow, he just keeps getting weirder to me," Heather said, and Alejandro huffed at her.

"You decided to reveal you know the truth about us, so you can listen to me talk about my boyfriend the way I truly want to without complaining."

"Uh, I will absolutely complain and make fun of you if you're being lame about it, even if I'm giving you space to talk. That's like, the whole deal with being friends with me."

Alejandro smiled, the expression so imperfect and genuine that it actually floored Heather for a second, since she had gotten used to the practised, charming smile he plastered on his face in front of everyone else. "I am glad to hear you consider us friends, mi amiga," he stated, regarding Heather warmly. "Given that my beloved partner and closest bond just jumped off the plane, it is nice to know that I am not entirely alone in this scheme."

For a moment, Heather stared at him, taking in the image of a boy who felt so much less untouchable than his villain persona suggested. A boy who was in love, a boy who cared so deeply, and a boy who was grateful to still have a friend by his side. "Well, yeah, duh, we're friends. We know too much to not be," she said, and hopefully Alejandro understood she meant it even if she was being somewhat cavalier. "That being said, we're still rivals, and I will be absolutely kicking your butt in these challenges now that you're the only brains left on your team."

"And perhaps I will respond by leading the audience to believe that is more endearing to me than irritating," Alejandro shot back, the cunning glint in his eye matching her own. "After all, the only secret deals I have to worry about now are my own, hm?"

Heather grinned sharply. It felt as if the events in London marked a kind of turning point in the season, and she was more than ready to ride the waves as everything ramped up. With nothing to distract them anymore, she and Alejandro were going to blaze through this competition together and end the whole thing with a bang.

Everything that happened in the hour after Heather threw her effigy into the volcano was blurry in her memory. As soon as she'd realised she'd won, she'd entered a bit of a state of shock. Zeke knocking the briefcase from her hands into the lava had caused dread to flush her system, but then Chris had pat her shoulder and quietly reassured her she'd get a cheque in the hotel, which helped but wasn't quite able to settle her nerves. Then the host had explained something to the cast about how the volcano wasn't going to explode but they were supposed to pretend it was, and suddenly actors were coming out of nowhere to shout at them and everyone was bolting down the volcano.

On the way down the group ran into Alejandro, who had clearly not heard any of the explanation, and the boy had been knocked over and trampled a little in his surprise. Heather spotted Noah spin on his heel to yank him back up and figured he probably didn't need any more help than that. They weren't really being chased by lava, after all.

Everyone reached the beach safely, Geoff announced a beach party, Heather was given a cheque and a crew member accompanied her to help her cash it in, and she didn't feel like a real person until later that evening when she was standing on the beach with her hair down and Leshawna was taking off with a wave to join a game of beach volleyball. It was the sight of the cast happily spread across the beach, smiling and having fun together, that brought her back to herself as it finally sunk in that it was over.

She did it. She was officially a millionaire.

She had also stolen that million from someone she had come to consider a close friend, but glancing across the shoreline made her think he wasn't too bothered. Off to the side, Alejandro was chatting to Noah by the water with a smile on his face—his real smile, not his practised one.

She made her way over without a second thought. "Hey, lovebirds, how does it feel to be back together?"

"Heather!" Alejandro exclaimed, and Noah gave her a nod of acknowledgement. "Where have you been? I haven't been able to applaud you for the amazing finale we created together."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "For someone who just lost a million bucks, you're surprisingly chipper."

"Oh, it definitely hurts and I have no idea how to face my family after this, but I know better than to expect to win as the villain," he shrugged. Heather blinked at the sudden lore drop he just breezed past. "Obviously I had no intention of making it easy for you and I was not expecting the…pain, but I understand what makes a good story. Do you seriously think I am stupid enough to monologue when the win is right in front of me?"

"You might be," Noah quipped.

"Mi amor!"

Noah turned to Heather. "You put on a good show, unlike this guy, who was supremely embarrassing." Without remorse, he poked his boyfriend and ignored the offended gasp that followed. "Congrats on the win, you really earned it."

"Thanks, it hasn't sunk in yet," Heather admitted. "So let's stop talking about me for now. Does anyone else know about the two of you yet, now the cameras are off?"

"A lot of the cast are not quite willing to talk to me right now," Alejandro admitted sheepishly.

"Which is funny, because it means people are looking at me weirdly for hanging around you so much," Noah snickered. "I told Owen, Izzy and Eva after the big guy got eliminated. They were…not casual about it. Not in a bad way, just…loud."

"I'd bet," Heather said.

"I am sure most of the cast would react the same way," Alejandro stated. "Hm. Maybe I should kiss you in front of everyone, cause some proper chaos?"

"Let's not cause this party to implode," Noah deadpanned.

"How did this even happen, anyway?" Heather questioned. "I know you've been on set together for months, but when did you actually become a thing? No offence, Noah, but you don't seem like the type to get into a relationship so easily."

"I'm taking full offence to that, actually."

"We started dating, ah…two months after we first met?" Alejandro revealed. "But I liked him for longer. My eye could not help but be drawn to the cute boy fetching coffee who kept looking my way and could hold his own against a cast of dirtbags."

"I kept looking at you because Chris considered you his star talent and you're good at what you do," Noah defended himself.

"Mhm. The fact that you kissed me first says otherwise, querido."

"So did you actually have a hand in Alejandro getting cast?" Heather asked Noah. It hadn't come up since they first boarded the plane for obvious reasons, but the topic was part of Heather's first impression of the two of them as a pair, so it had stayed in the back of her mind.

"He did."

"I didn't."

"You did!" Alejandro said. "I do not understand why you insist on lying about this!"

"I'm not lying, I had nothing to do with it," Noah claimed, glaring off to the side. "Just because I know what the audition process was doesn't mean I had any hand in it. I went through it too, remember? It's not like it changed."

"What's this about the audition process?" another voice butt in, and all three of them startled as none other than Chris McLean sauntered up to them. The host looked happy and relaxed and, dare she say, relieved now that the most ambitious season yet had successfully concluded. "Aw, reminiscing on the early days, are you?"

"Chris," Heather said sweetly, realising a perfect opportunity had arrived. Given the sudden tenseness of Noah's shoulders, she had a feeling she knew which way this was about to go. "Settle a debate for us, will you? Did Noah have any say in the casting for Total Drama Dirtbags?"

"Chris…" Noah warned.

At the question, Chris's eyes gained a mischievous glint. "Oh, that's what you're talking about? Well, I can happily tell you—"

"Chris!"

"—That Noah and Chef sifted through all of the audition tapes with the casting director and helped choose who got through to the next round," Chris finished, unashamed. Heather cackled at the absolute delight that took over Alejandro's face, as well as the flushed anger on Noah's. "Kid had a good eye for it too. The concept may have caused the show to fail but the cast was simply incredible."

"The cast was full of assholes," Noah grumbled.

"Which is e-xac-tly what we asked for! And hey, if nothing else, you got us Mr Perfect Villain over here—" Chris pat Alejandro's shoulder firmly, the boy himself grinning wider with every word, "—Which I know for a fact has made you at least fifty percent happier than you were before."

"Aww, you love me!" Alejandro cooed, pinching Noah's cheek playfully only to get bat away for his trouble.

"Oh, here's something else you might like to know," Chris continued gleefully. He may not be as cruel as he displayed himself on screen, but he sure was sadistic enough to embarrass the fuck out of his personal assistant. "Noah's had a thing for you since the day you first walked in for the in-person interviews."

"McLean, I'm going to kill you."

"This boy was so obvious about his newfound crush, let me tell you!"

"I can push you into the ocean right now—"

"Have you ever seen someone trip over their own shoelaces and the air? I don't know how he managed it but it was funny as hell."

"Mi amorrrr!" Alejandro sung, slinging an arm over his boyfriend's shoulder and nuzzling his cheek with a lovesick grin.

"I'm quitting my job," Noah declared, this time not fending Alejandro off. He was flushed quite darkly, the most flustered Heather had ever seen him.

"No, you're not," Chris stated easily. "If you really wanted to quit, you would have done it by now. The competition was the perfect excuse."

Noah paused at that, looking at Chris sceptically. "Were you expecting me to quit?"

Chris shrugged. "Not expecting, but I wouldn't have been surprised. I would've let you, too." He gave Noah a certain look then, turning a little more serious. In response, Noah straightened up, still settled under Alejandro's arm. "I had a feeling that working and competing at the same time would be too much for you to handle, but you know what you did when you finally reached that point? You quit the competition, not the job. That says a lot."

"…You know I had to leave the competition at some point."

"I know. But you still left when you did because you wanted to focus on your work. You told me yourself, remember?"

Noah seemed to be having some sort of revelation at this, and Heather smirked at the look on his face. "You're breaking your assistant, Chris."

"He's strong enough to handle it. You kids enjoy the rest of the night, yeah? You earned it." With that, Chris clapped Heather on the shoulder and wandered off towards where Chef was setting up a campfire.

"So," Heather began, "Looks like you'll be sticking around Chris for a while?"

"…That was the plan, yeah," Noah admitted, still reeling. "Not forever, but…it's really not a bad job."

"Speaking of 'not forever', I overheard Owen say something about trying out for other reality shows?" Alejandro spoke up. He still hadn't moved his arm, and his thumb had started brushing over Noah's shoulder subconsciously.

"Yeah, we were thinking about it," Noah said. "I mean, this is probably our last season on Total Drama, Owen enjoys being on camera, and I've saved up a lot from this gig. It could be fun. I could make a better name for myself."

"This is our last season?" Heather repeated. "That has to be confidential information."

"I said probably, but who knows, we'll see what Chris says. And you guys have proven you can keep some pretty big secrets."

"It is a shame we will not be on another season together, cariño," Alejandro said. "I had fun being on a team with you."

"Oh, please," Noah scoffed. "You hated not being able to kiss me whenever you wanted."

"Sí…I guess we will just have to make up for it now, no?" Alejandro teased, leaning closer.

Noah rolled his eyes but still turned to face him. "If anyone starts screaming, this is your fault." Then he leaned in and pecked Alejandro on the lips, a sweet thing that the other tried to deepen, but Noah pulled away before he could. Regardless, Alejandro beamed as if he'd won something better than a million dollars.

Nobody screamed—Heather was fairly certain they were too far from the group for anyone to notice—but the looks on the couple's faces were enough for her to scoff at them good-naturedly. "And that's my cue to leave. Later, losers, have fun being in love or whatever."

"Thank you for being an amazing rival, Heather!" Alejandro called after her, and she smiled at the sentiment. What a fucking season.