Expect the Unexpected

Chapter Six

Transitions

Duncan never did expect to make so many friends on that island years ago. Yet somehow over the years he and several of his cast mates have bonded on levels that most ordinary people wouldn't understand. Being thrusted into the limelight of the international world could really bond some people together. So, there he was sitting on a coffee shop couch across from Gwen, waiting for the rest of their once famous gang to arrive for their weekly breakfast and coffee meet up.

He leaned back against the worn out cushions, sipping on his nitro cold brew coffee. He used to get straight up piping hot, black coffee but Heather had ordered this for him earlier in the week and he surprisingly liked it.

"Why are you smiling like that?" Gwen piped up, alerting Duncan.

The punk man raised his eyebrow at her question. "I'm not smiling like anything?"

"Dude," Gwen gave him a pointed stare, "come on. Is Heather poisoning your food or something? You look totally wacked out."

There was no point in trying to hide anything from Gwen. Duncan and she had been friends since they were sixteen years old and pitted against one another for a few measly thousand dollars. Sure, they also dated for about a year in between that time, but who was going to linger on that? Duncan and Gwen tried dating. To the common eye, they would be a perfect match; an everyday punk boy meets goth girl story. However, the reality was much different than that.

You see, the two of them had just gotten out of some pretty bad relationships- more Duncan than Gwen really. Gwen had been dating Trent, who although she loved, she wasn't quite ready to handle a boyfriend with OCD. They had a pretty clean breakup, and every now and then the two could even be seen blushing around one another this many years later. Then Duncan..

Well, he was in a relationship from hell.

Don't get him wrong, he loved Courtney- he really did. However, she, like Trent, didn't seem to be the same person off the show as she was when they first met on it. When they met she was just bossy and a bit of a control freak, but in the end she became someone entirely different. He couldn't remember the amount of times she had hit him, pretty hard too, for doing something stupid or not being who she wanted him to be. He would try and try to make things works, but stupid arguments and mean jabs just always kept coming back. He didn't even realize that he fell out of love at first. He needed a little bit of push in that direction.

So, he and Gwen sought one another… while he was in a relationship.

It was messy, ruined a lot of friendships, and gathered everyone involved in some hate from the fans. Especially after things didn't work out between him and Gwen as well. Duncan was still a bit too immature for the relationship Gwen wanted when they tried. It also did not help that it seemed the two of them only mixed up genuine friendship with romance.

Now, Duncan was only going to worry about himself. Before Heather moved in, he was very much on the casual hook up scene. But living with a female roommate didn't make it any easier to bring girls home, especially since she was the main one he was out partying with these days. If Heather did not have practice the next morning, he was able to count on her to go to the clubs with him. Yet sadly, whenever a guy and girl walked into a club together everyone would just assume they were an item. It was dampening his style with the ladies, but he wasn't quite desperate enough to be upset by it yet.

"Nah." he finally answered Gwen, "She hasn't messed with my food since the first week we lived together." He gave a little chuckle while bringing the drink to his lips again, finding his own joke funny.

Gwen gave him a very pointed look in return. "So, how has living with that pain in the ass for three months been?" Gwen and Heather never did get along, and as far as Duncan could see it- they never will.

He gave a small shrug of his broad shoulders. "It's actually been pretty good. She introduced me to this cool show called Dance Dads. It's about all of these Dads in the competitive dancing world and they-." He stopped his sentence short as Gwen was giving him a peculiar look, "what?"

"Since when in the hell did you watch reality tv?" She leaned towards him and placed the back of her hand against his forehead. "Are you sure you aren't coming down with something?"

Duncan gently swatted her hand away from his forehead. He sent a small scowl her way before letting out a scoff. "I've always liked reality tv. I just didn't talk about it much." It wasn't a total lie. Duncan did like the genre, but not the more mind numbing shows that Heather preferred to watch; not until recently that is.

"Sure." Gwen rolled her eyes as she held back a smile. She clearly didn't believe him, but she decided to not mess with him too much. Gwen knew more than anyone that if Duncan was poked too hard, he would just close himself off. "Seriously though," she spoke again, leaning back on the recliner that she designated as her spot, "I can't believe you're actually living with her. When Cody suggested it, I thought you would have gotten rid of her within the first month."

Duncan let out a simple shrug at the question. Although he truthfully liked living with Heather, he didn't exactly want to tell his friends about it yet. Each of his friends, especially Gwen and Leshawna, had a really complicated relationship with Heather. While Duncan was able to admire most of the tricks Heather was able to pull on them during their time on Total Drama from afar, Gwen took the most heat from those tricks and as Gwen's friends Leshawna usually retaliated against Heather for Gwen. There were some times where it seemed like the girls left the past in the past, but the three always found a way to bring it right back up. It was quite strange too considering Gwen and Leshawna are currently dating Cody and Harold who are still friends with Heather, but Duncan was sure the three girls all had a rule to not bring one another up to the two boys. Now though, it left Duncan in quite a predicament. He could admit that he too was now friends with Heather, but then he would hear long rants and scoldings from both Gwen and Leshawna. "She's not that bad." he stated, trying to keep it simple. "At least not as bad as I thought she would be."

Before Gwen could question him further, the chime that alerted everyone to someone walking in made her turn her head. Geoff, DJ, and Bridgette walked into the cafe with a laugh. "Hey guys." Bridgette greeted. She and Geoff walked over to their other two friends while DJ went in line to order their drinks. "What are we talking about today?" she asked, sitting on the arm of the couch while Geoff went to sit on the end cushion next to Duncan.

"Nothing much." Gwen answered her, "Just messing with Duncan about living with Heather again."

"Aw, yeah!" Geoff hit Duncan's arm gently, leaning forward to get all of the dirt on the subject "How's that going?"

"Seriously? Is everyone going to keep asking me about it every time we get together?" Duncan asked in frustration. He didn't mind talking about his living situation, but for the last three months it was all his friends wanted to ask about. It was getting way too repetitive for his liking.

"If it makes you feel better," DJ finally walked over with his mug, making everyone look at him and not the door as the chime went off once again, "I just want to know how her cat that you got back for her is doing."

"You got that girl's cat back for her?" a new voice piped up, making the group finally notice that Leshawna walked in. She had one of her eyebrows raised at him, staring daggers at him. It was clear from her crossed arms and tapping foot that she was not liking what she was hearing.

Duncan knew Leshawna held the most animosity towards Heather, but he didn't get why this would be a big deal. He just wanted her to stop complaining about missing her cat. "Yeah? So what?"

"Why are you being nice to her?" Leshawna looked him up and down while sitting on the arm of Gwen's chair.

"Because I live with her!" He emphasized, "I don't want to make my own life miserable by messing with her. Getting Bruiser back for her made her calm down a lot. Excuse me for wanting to get along with her."

DJ sat down next to Duncan giving him the side eye. The gentle giant could understand where he was coming from. Why would he make his life miserable by messing with Heather? He could see Duncan was starting to get frustrated, so he decided to get some of the heat off of his friend. "On another note," he said a bit louder than usual, "I met someone!"

"What!?" The rest of the group snapped their heads towards DJ. The gentle giant never brought up meeting people, which means it was quite the shock to hear him say it out loud.

Duncan looked at DJ in appreciation. He knew exactly what the big guy was doing for him. Most people wouldn't suspect the punk and the big hearted softie to be as close as they were due to their differences, but this was one of those moments where Duncan could really appreciate just how much DJ cared for his friends.

The rest of the group's coffee date ended up mainly discussing DJ and his potential new love interest. As he walked back to his apartment, he couldn't help but notice that literally everyone was pairing up lately. Geoff and Bridgette had been together, on and off at that, since they all met on Total Drama. They had gotten engaged two years ago, but they didn't really seem interested in actually acting on the idea of marriage. Instead, they just used it as an excuse to host an array of wedding themed parties. The last Duncan checked, Geoff had a total of 2 bachelor parties and even wanted to host a third at some point. Leshawna also was taken by Harold. Duncan still couldn't see what Leshawna saw in the red headed nerd but apparently he treated Leshawna well enough and basically worshiped the ground she walked on. Hell, even Gwen was able to give another nerd, Cody, a shot in dating. Which meant Duncan was the only single one left.

If everyone was coupled up, who would he have?

"About time you got home." Heather's voice cut through his thoughts. Duncan snapped his head up. He was so lost in thought that he didn't even realize he was home. He saw Heather sitting at their small kitchen table, eating a small salad.

"What? Missed me already?" Duncan teased her. He placed his keys on their respective hook by the door before strolling towards Heather.

Heather dismissed him with an eye roll, "You wish." She stuck her fork into her salad bowl, making a face of discomfort before placing the food inside of her mouth.

Duncan sat across from her and watched her hesitantly. He then leaned forward with his elbows on the table, now cradling his head in the palms of his head.

Heather looked up and noticed him studying her. "What? You're creeping me out." she cringed away from him.

"Why in the world are you eating a salad?" he asked rather bluntly, "You don't eat salads."

Heather set her bowl down on the table to fold her arms over her chest. She leaned forward, now resting on the table like Duncan was. "I don't know if you may have inhaled too much of those chemicals you use to do that bad dye job," she spoke, lifting a finger to point at his hair, "but I really hate to be the one to let you know that some people prioritize health. I'm a ballerina- I have to watch my figure."

"Hey! I do not use cheap hair dye!" Duncan defended himself rather quickly. He would let Heather say a lot of things, but he drew the line at his green locks as they were his staple piece. "Now, back to the topic at hand, what in the world do you have to watch regarding your figure? You're built perfectly."

Heather gave him a smug look at his reply. She loved to push his buttons and this gave her the perfect opportunity. "Oh? You think I'm built nice?" she puffed her chest out.

Duncan dropped his arms as the shit-eating grin. He mocked her words by throwing them back at her, "You think I'm built nice? Don't play with me, you know what I meant."

Heather let out a laugh at his reaction, immediately going back to her more relaxed state. "Chill out." she stated, leaning back in her chair and picking up her salad once again. "Thank you for the concern, but the dance world, especially ballet, is super critical. I just noticed that I have been eating out a lot lately and wanted to just make some better choices. I've been on a diet for the past week. Have you not noticed the amount of take out has dwindled around here?"

Duncan examined her once again very carefully. He wasn't stupid; he knew how crazy harsh Heather's career could be. Duncan had watched plenty of forms of media, mainly the new show Dance Dads, that talked about how dancers would get some form of eating disorders. When he learned that, he made sure that he would watch Heather carefully. He didn't know for sure if she had a past with that disorder or not, but he did feel the need to make sure she wouldn't develop it now; mainly since she was in such a huge show. "Promise? This is just you being healthy?"

Heather met his gaze, seeing the pieces of what she could only assume to be concern splattered across his face. She responded by simply holding her pinky finger up, "Promise."

Duncan snickered as he saw her manicured pinky sit in front of him. "Seriously, a pinky promise?" he asked. Though he still lifted his own finger up and let the two wrap around one another.

"Hey!" Heather also let out the tiniest of laughs, "This used to be the biggest promise one could ever make."

"Yeah." Duncan argued, still smiling at her, "If we were on the playground."

Heather unlocked their fingers as she stood up, now going to wash out her empty bowl. "I'll have you know that my Baba still makes me pinky promise him to this day." she informed him with a huff.

"Ah." Duncan nodded his head in understanding, "So, I guess that means it does mean-." His sentence was caught off as he got distracted by the loud ringing of Heather's phone on the table next to him.

"Who is it?" Heather asked from the kitchen. She trusted Duncan enough with her phone, especially since he already did have access to it that one time.

The tattoo artist leaned over and was surprised to see the name that flashed across the screen. "Alejandro?" he read out loud with a questioning tone. He then picked it up to give it to Heather. Those two still talked?

"Oh, good." She sighed softly, "I was waiting for his call." She turned the sink off and dried her hands off quickly before grabbing the phone.

Duncan's eyes followed Heather as she answered the phone while walking into her room. Why would she not talk to Alejandro in front of him? Were they starting long distance?

He decided to not question it too much and just shrugged the odd occurance off. Instead, Duncan decided to go and play some of his games to pass the time. It's not like he would ever care about the status of Heather and Alejandro's relationship.

Later on Duncan was sitting in his gaming chair playing a fighting game with his friend Scott, yes the Scott that he befriended on All-Stars, when he heard the door of his gaming room open.

"Hey," Heather greeted, "the new Dance Dads is about to start. I think Mark and Christian are finally going to call Ryan out for having favoritism in this episode."

Duncan immediately turned his microphone on mute and turned to look at Heather. "It's about time." He shook his head, "Let me get off this game really quick and I'll be there."

"Okay." she nodded, "Just hurry up. I don't think I'll be able to wait for you."

Duncan let out a groan of frustration. He turned his mic back on, "Scott, I have to go. It's an emergency." he said, logging out of the game.

"Dude," the raspy voiced farmer spoke on the other side, "is everything alright?"

"Yeah, I just can't miss this Dance Dads episode." he spoke quickly. He didn't even hear how crazy that sounded coming from him.

"What-?" Scott started to say yet never was able to hear Duncan's explanation as the punk left the voice chat party.

He immediately stood up and rushed to the living room. He crashed down on the couch next to Heather and was eyeing the TV screen. "What did I miss?"

"Nothing yet." she shook her head, pointing to the screen, "We just finished the intro and they're all lining up for the pyramid."

Duncan felt a sudden weight on his lap, making him look down to see Bruiser getting comfortable on him. "Thank God." He sighed while petting the cat, "The pyramid order is my favorite part."

Heather glanced over at the two in surprise. Bruiser never went to other people whenever she was available! She looked back at the TV, trying to focus on the show. However, when the first commercial happened she could hear Bruiser purr on Duncan's lap. "He really does like you, huh?"

Duncan looked down at Bruiser while he rubbed his hand along the old cat's back. "I guess so." He answered with a soft smile. "I'll admit, I never was much of a cat person, but this guy is pretty cool. Though his white fur sticking to all my black tee's is getting annoying."

"Maybe that should be your wake up call to get a better wardrobe," she teased him, "or to get a lint brush."

He turned his head towards her and gave her a pointed stare. "Should I remind you," he pursed his lips to hold back a smile, "I brought this cat here and I can take him away."

At the threat, Heather pretended to be shocked by having her jaw drop. She knew he was all talk. Duncan was just as obsessed with Bruiser as she was. She always found Duncan playing with the feline whether it was just petting him while he played, using the laser pointer, or even dangling his lanyard for Bruiser to try and grab. "Liar." She practically spat the word at him, reaching over and grabbing Bruiser from his lap, "You would never take this darling baby."

Duncan watched as Heather lifted the feline up and gave him a kiss on top of his forehead. "Yeah? If you keep talking about my bad clothing, you will just have to see how serious I am."

Heather rolled her eyes as she decided to ignore his threat. "Come off of it." She waved her hand at him dismissively, "You and I both know you like this guy, and what's even weirder is that he likes you back."

Duncan turned his body more towards her. He felt intrigued by her phrasing. He lifted his arm up to rest on the head of the couch, "How is that weird?"

"Well," Heather began, stroking Bruiser's fur as he settled in her lap, "Bruiser doesn't like most people. He actually hates a majority of people he meets; especially men."

Duncan was surprised by that statement. He knew when Bruiser first came around Heather was surprised that the cat didn't attack him in any way, but he didn't know why. He just assumed that the feline didn't like new people. "Really?" he asked while reaching forward to run at the top of the cat's head.

Heather nodded her head as she felt Bruiser begin to purr at all the attention he was receiving. "Yeah, he used to really hate Alejandro. Poor baby would hiss every time he walked into the room. I think he just doesn't like when people take my attention away from him. He's a big ham."

"I could see that." Duncan chuckled. He noticed several times that whenever he and Heather would be in too deep of a conversation, Bruiser would somehow weasel his way into making Heather hold him or pet him. She never did seem to mind though. Heather always told Duncan that she had Bruiser for so long and she was well aware that he was getting old. Therefore, she wanted to give him all the attention and love that she could while she still was able to.

"But you're different." Heather stated, looking back up at Duncan. Her gaze lingered on him for a moment too long. He felt as though she was studying him till her features softened. "He likes you."

"I'm glad." Duncan let a smile tug at the corners of his mouth. His eyes met Heather's eyes and he immediately knew that look on her face. He could see the wheels turning in her head as she went back to looking him up and down. "What? What are you planning?"

She grinned at him, making her voice hit an octave that was way too sweet sounding for Duncan to believe it was coming from her. "Bruiser and I always do this Christmas card thing together. We've been doing it since I was a pre-teen and it's always a fun memory to have with him," she began. "We were supposed to go take some photos this weekend out of the city. Would you like to join?"

Duncan leaned away from her at the question. He folded his arm across his chest in a defensive position. "Seriously? You want me to join you in Christmas photos with this cat?"

"Come on Duncan," Heather whined, "he doesn't like a lot of people and I can never add anyone else to it. I have to do them now so that they're ready to send out next month." She then put her hands over Bruiser's ears. "Plus," she whispered softly, "he is getting old, this may be his last time to ever do it."

Duncan's forehead wrinkled up in confusion. "You want me to join just because he likes me?"

"Well.." Heather paused before answering with a simple shrug, "yeah. Plus don't you think it'll be funny to mess with people with the cards."

The punk man scratched at his chin in interest. "I guess it would be funny to see Gwen's face if we sent her one." It was just a couple of photos. "Fine. I will do this one favor, and it's for Bruiser not you," he insisted.

Heather just scoffed at him again as she leaned against the arm of the couch. She turned her head back to the TV as the commercial finally ended. "Liar." she mumbled, hiding her smirk from him.

Duncan turned his head to the side to look at her. Maybe this time… he was lying.

A/N: This chapter was not super heavy in terms of plot, so I apologize for that. However, it is definitely meant to serve the purpose of showing how Duncan feels about the situation.

I hope you also all enjoyed seeing Duncan's group of friends. More cameos will happen as the story progresses.

The name of the chapter is very telling btw. This is a turning point in the story. So, buckle up.

Stay tuned for their Christmas card photoshoot.