Chapter Text
"Noah!" Chris cheered as his assistant walked into the room with a tray of coffees in hand. "Quick question for you."
"…Sure," Noah said, placing two cups down on the desk—one for Chris, one for Chef.
"Would you call yourself an easily jealous person?" Chris asked, planting his elbows on the desk so he could lean his head on his hands.
Confused, Noah blinked at him. "Uh…what?"
"C'mon, kid, this isn't hard! You're dating Alejandro, and that boy's got admirers to the moon and back. Does it bother you? Does it make your skin crawl?"
"No?" Noah answered honestly, squinting at the host. "Alejandro's more loyal than a puppy with attachment issues, I know he wouldn't betray me like that. What are you playing at, McLean?"
"Good, good," Chris hummed in satisfaction. "Follow-up question. I told you I'm gonna invite him to join the cast of World Tour, right?"
"Yeah?" Noah confirmed, frowning as he waited for his boss to get to the point.
"Well, we've been throwing around ideas for what his role will be, and we've landed on something we're pretty excited about." Chris grinned, pulling out a folder from a drawer and sliding it towards Noah. "Take a look at this for me."
Suspicious, Noah put down his tray and flipped through the folder, which he quickly realised was filled with the first draft of a contract. His eyebrows raised as he read the phrase 'orchestrate eliminations via flirting or other manipulation tactics'. "Huh. I see you watched his audition tape again. He stopped flirting on Dirtbags, even though I told him it was fine."
"So you're coolio with your boyfriend doing that in front of you?" Chris asked, tapping the paper for emphasis.
"Since I know he'll be getting paid for it, yeah. And never say 'coolio' again." After a second of thought, Noah eyed his boss in curiosity. "I'm surprised you're actually asking me."
"Aw, come on, you're my precious personal assistant! I don't wanna upset you. Your mental health is important to me," Chris claimed, ever melodramatic.
Noah rolled his eyes. "Yeah, okay."
"Hey, dude, I'm serious. Relationships can be fickle, and you guys are impressively stable. I don't wanna rock that boat, especially since you'll have to hide your relationship in the first place." Chris looked bitter at that, as he always did when talking about the network's homophobia. "If any part of you doesn't like this idea, I'll figure something else out, no sweat."
Stunned by the sincerity, Noah fell silent for a second. "Well, I'm fine with it, as long as Ale's fine with it too. I mean, I flagged him as a candidate for Dirtbags because he's good at this kind of thing, so may as well let him show off. If nothing else, it'll be funny."
"I still don't understand why you refuse to tell him he's right about you getting him cast," Chris commented as Noah went back to flipping through the contract.
"…Hey, hang on. What's this about rivals-to-lovers? Who's he doing that with?"
Chris hummed, a mischievous smirk growing on his face. "We're thinking Heather, if they both agree to it. A villain pairing, wouldn't that be interesting?"
Noah barked a laugh. "They're gonna rip each other apart. I can't wait to watch that go down."
"I take it you're fine with this arrangement too?" Chris asked, highly amused by his assistant's reaction.
"More than fine. You're gonna ask two of the strongest actors in the cast to pull off something insane. If this happens, this season will be one for the history books."
"And that's why I hired you, you've got the brain for this sort of thing." Chris grinned, delighted at how on-board Noah seemed to be. "Alright, that's all I needed from you. Go deliver the rest of those coffees. And tell your boyfriend to come find me when he gets to the studio, will you? I gotta break the news about Dirtbags."
"Aye-aye, captain," Noah drawled, picking up his tray of coffees and ducking out of the room. Chris watched him go, utterly pleased at how the conversation went.