Noah parked the car on the side of his aunt's house, Nicole, Trent, and Cody in tow, and groaned as he considered every single negative scenario of this annual family Christmas party and how to avoid it. His mother came from a large family as well, which meant small talk with way too many relatives to count. He got to skip the last few Christmas parties because of Total Drama, but now he had no excuse to not go.

This year's Christmas party was especially important for the twins, as they were introducing Cody and Trent to the family, but even more important to Noah because he was announcing he was gay by bringing Cody. They hoped everything would go well, but Noah felt a sense of panic as he parked the car. He was still feeling a bit frazzled from last week when his brother and his family had to see Noah making out on the couch with Cody, and he was afraid the rest of his family wouldn't be as cool as Joshua and Bethany were.

"Oh, stop with that pouting," Nicole said from the backseat. "They're your family. They haven't seen you in forever. You talked to Aunt Amelia, she's cool with Cody."

"If you think for a second this is about being worried what Aunt Amelia would think, you don't know what I'm going through at all." Noah told his sister.

"Don't you think we'd know by now if someone in our family is homophobic? It'll be fine, don't worry so much."

"Oh, I'm cured. Cancel my therapy next week." Noah said, giving a fake smile, then breaking the smile to go back to dreading the night.

"She's right. We're going to walk through that door, and everything's going to be fine. I'll be with you the whole time." Cody said in the front seat, patting his hand. Noah looked at Cody and turned to him, his seatbelt still on.

"You don't understand. This Christmas party is a huge thing. My mom's entire family will be here. Not only am I bringing you, I haven't gone to one since my parents died. It's... exhausting."

"This conversation is exhausting." Nicole said, Trent bumping her in the shoulder to be sensitive.

"No. I'm staying here. You can go in without me." He crossed his arms and turned the opposite direction, and from his front mirror he could see Nicole giving him a look, a look she always gave when she was about to push him into doing something he wouldn't do otherwise. She walked out of the car, opening his car door. He was leaning on the car window, so she caught his head before it could fall.

"Come on Noah, we drove like two hours and Bethany and Joshua and the kids are already here. You've missed the last three years, we can't keep giving you excuses."

Noah knew she was right. He sighed, taking off his seatbelt, and walked out of the car with her, Trent and Cody following them to the door after Nicole went back to her seat to grab a bottle of wine.

"We were supposed to bring stuff?" Noah exclaimed, standing next to her.

"It's called being a good houseguest." She muttered as she knocked on the door.

"It's called making me look bad." He said under his breath. She elbowed him in the arm, and then acted as if nothing happened when she realized their aunt was opening the door from the inside, the two of them smiling up at her, Trent and Cody wondering how they got in the middle of this.

"Is that Noah here with us? I haven't seen you in forever, look at you!" She exclaimed, playing dumb, and caressing his face as she embraced him into a hug.

"Yes, I called you letting you know I'd come, remember Aunt Amelia?" Noah said, putting his best smile on.

Their Aunt Amelia was one of six sisters that Noah's mother had, but never married and never had kids, by choice. She had a big house and in order to be able to afford to travel as much as she does, she rents the rooms out online. She was able to retire early when she sold her boutique. She was younger than his mother by two years and looked just like her, and though she was the exact opposite of his mother, it was one of the many reasons Noah didn't want to go to this party anymore.

She was wearing a white Santa hat and wore a Christmas sweater that read 'This Auntie is full of Christmas spirit', but the word spirit was crossed out and said 'booze' on the bottom. Becoming the 'fun aunt' was her personality trait. To fit her shirt, she was holding a glass of wine, her first of many for the night, Noah and Nicole knew.

"I just wanna let you know, before you go in here," She told him, leaning into the two boys, getting a good look at Cody, who was now standing in between Nicole and Noah. "I'm totally cool with the gay thing. You were always such an artist. You really painted from the heart." Noah knew she meant well, no matter how embarrassing this conversation was for him, so he just smiled through it.

"And who are these two handsome men, aren't you gonna introduce me to them, kids?" She grinned as Nicole stepped up.

"Aunt Amelia, this is Trent." Trent shook her hand.

"Pleasure to meet you."

"Oh yes, I remember you from the show! You had a beautiful voice." She said, leaning into him, now whispering. "You know, you're much better off without that goth girl. There was something off with her, you know. And I'm not just saying that because you're with my niece." She went back to full speaking volume.

"Hey, maybe you could play a song for us, you know what I'm saying?" She clicked her tongue and winked at him, bumping his arm.

Nicole mouthed 'no, trust me' and made a cutting motion at her neck while her attention was at Noah and Cody. She stopped dead in her tracks, smiling as if she didn't say or do anything as aunt Amelia turned back to look at the boys.

"Aunt Amelia, this is Cody."

Aunt Amelia held out her hand to Cody to shake. "It's nice to meet you, Cody."

He leaned down, kissing her hand, not realizing she just wanted a handshake. She laughed it off as Noah stared at Cody in discontent.

"Come on in, don't be shy." The five of them walked into the house, Amelia walking to another group of people. Hannah walked up to the four of them, wearing her Christmas best - a red, sparking dress that went up to her knees with long sleeves.

"Mommy, they made it!" She said to Bethany. Both her and Joshua turned around to see him.

"Hey guys! How was the drive?" He asked. Something didn't feel right about Joshua. He wasn't sure what it was, but something was off.

"It was okay... lots of traffic." As they kept eye contact for longer and longer, eventually he looked over to Hannah, who was holding her breath as to not laugh, and eventually she let out a laugh, which made 'Joshua' laugh. What was going on began to make sense.

"Okay, you caught me. It's me, Nathan. I tried to trick you. Come here, you rascals!" Joshua's twin, Nathan, gave a big hug to Noah, then hugging Cody, Nicole, and Trent. Nathan was impersonating Joshua. Nathan looked over to Hannah.

"Ugh, I can't believe I almost fell for that." Noah said.

"We almost had him!" Nathan exclaimed.

"Sorry, uncle Nathan." Hannah apologized.

"Oh, that's all right." Nathan diverted his attention back to Noah and Cody. "You know, Nicole was the only one who directly told me about her new man. I can't believe I had to hear about my little brother dating someone new over the internet."

"You sound like aunt Amelia." Noah said.

"Well, aren't you two going to introduce me?" Nathan asked.

"This is Cody. Cody, this is my brother Nathan. He's Joshua's twin."

"And this is Trent." Cody and Trent began to shake Nathan's hand.

"I remember both of you on the show." Nathan said.

"You two look so alike!" Cody noted.

"You wanna know how you can tell us apart?" Nathan began to put on the glasses he kept in his pocket and put them on his face. "Just like everything in our life, Joshua had the better vision."

Joshua began to come out of the bathroom to see that he had been framed by his brother, again. He put his hand on Nathan's shoulder, and rolled his eyes while Nathan seemed quite amused.

"I'm sorry you were the victim of this old joke. He's been playing it for years, now I get my kids to bust him out of it." He remembered the first time Bethany came to meet his parents. Nathan was living at home at the time while figuring out what to do with his life, and Joshua noticed Bethany had been late. He called Bethany to ask if she had gotten lost, only to find out that his brother had greeted her as him and she had believed it.

"Anyway... how was the drive?" Joshua asked, knowing how late they were.

"It was all right. Lots of traffic." Noah lied, not changing his face to look like he felt sorry. There was no use, Joshua knew he wanted to avoid the party as much as he could. He began to change the subject to Nicole and turned to her and Trent.

"Nicole, Savannah has been dying to see you and Trent for over an hour now." Savannah is Nicole and Noah's younger cousin, who's just turned 13. Not only did she idolize Nicole growing up, but Trent was her favorite contestant. As he said quite frequently on the show, her parents didn't allow her and her siblings to watch the show, but when they went to bed she would watch the show in secret and got hooked.

"Come on, Trent." She took his hand and looked at Noah. "Good luck, guys." She started walking away to find her, Trent in tow, which left Noah and Cody alone with Joshua, Bethany and Hannah.

"So, lots of traffic, huh?" Joshua asked.

"Oh, yeah… there was an accident on the freeway."

"Really? I took the same freeway, it was clear as day." Noah chuckled.

"Must have happened after you got off."

"Whatever. Why don't you two go over to see the quints?" Joshua suggested, changing the subject and referring to their siblings.

"Uh, no, I'm not letting them anywhere near Cody." Noah said. Out of all his older siblings, Joshua and his twin Nathan were the only responsible ones.

"What's wrong with your siblings?" Cody asked.

"They're animals."

"You know, Noah, what was the point of bringing Cody if you don't even want to show him off?" Bethany asked. "I'm living proof that if I can get through the quints enough to marry your brother, so Cody can meet them without being scared off."

"I know you're just scared because this is your first party since Total Drama." Joshua told him.

"And my first time since coming here after mom and dad, not to mention the fact I'm dating a man." He looked over to Cody. "No offense."

"None taken. I told you though, I'll be with you the whole time. I promise." Cody squeezed his hand as Noah thought about what he said. After a pause, he loosened up.

"Okay, but I'm not doing this sober."

The two, hand in hand, walked over to the alcohol, while Noah looked at the packaging for the bottle with the strongest alcohol content. He picked out an expensive-looking bottle of white wine and started pouring.

"Do you want any?" He asked Cody.

"I'm good." Cody said. "I'm not much of a drinker. I'll take some of this chocolate, though." He walked to the other side of the table, picking up a plate of chocolate strawberries.

"More for me." He put the bottle back in the ice bucket and turned around to see one of his sisters, Valerie, who screamed when she saw him.

She always dressed to win the family's 'most festive' contest, and though most of the family didn't participate much anymore other than the kids, each year always brought crazier outfits. She was wearing a black long-sleeve shirt under a costume of a Christmas tree with present box slippers.

"Noah! Boy, am I glad to see you here this year! It's been forever!" She took him and hugged him, the fake tree nearly getting into his mouth as she grasped him. She let go and looked at Cody, hugging him.

"And you are?" He asked, gasping for air under her strong grip. She let go of him and held her hand out.

"I'm Valerie, Noah's cool older sister. It's always an honor to meet a fellow keyboardist. I did not expect to see you here tonight, didn't know you and Cody were close." Cody smiled at her with stars in his eyes as he shook her hand.

"You play the keyboard, too?" Cody said, excited.

"Hell yeah! I'm in a band with one of our brothers." She said, pulling a CD in a case out of her costume. "Here, take my mixtape."

"You keep your mixtape with you in your tree?" She shrugged.

"You never know when you're gonna need it."

"Respect." She leaned into them.

"Hey, have you heard our yearly Christmas prank this year?" Noah slapped his hand on his forehead, rolling his eyes as she said that.

"You still do those?" Valerie looked over to Noah.

"Every year, my brother! We replaced Aunt Amelia's favorite wine with colored water to see if she'll get a placebo effect and act drunk." Cody started laughing with her.

"Don't encourage her." Noah said to Cody. As he said that, the rest of the quints came up.

The rest of the quints were boys and looked exactly alike, with brown hair and light blue eyes. They were wearing Christmas sweaters with each of their names on it, trying to give the Weasley family vibes.

"Lighten up. At least the fire department isn't being called this year." Gerard said. He was the mastermind of the annual Christmas prank.

"That was a good prank, though. I think even the fire department tried not to laugh when we told them." Blair said.

"I was 8 years old and you nearly killed Aunt Amelia's dog." Noah argued, crossing his arms.

"She ended up being fine." Gavin added. "She died six months later from old age so who cares anyway?"

"It's not like we did any major damage, anyway." Bryson added. Noah tried to stray them away from this topic.

"This is my boyfriend… Cody."

"Nice to meet you." Cody said, smiling. The five of them shook his hand.

"Boyfriend?" Valerie asked.

"Look, if you're just going to be rude, I'm-" Valerie interrupted Noah.

"No, Noah, it's cool. I wish I knew before making the 'I never knew you were close' comment. I feel pretty stupid right about now." She said, laughing.

"I'm happy you found who you are, and I'm sure the rest of us can say the same." said, the other quints nodding as he took a sip from the drink in his hand.

"You know, the best part of coming to Aunt Amelia's Christmas party is the free drinks, am I right?"

"We gotta go make the rounds, but we'll see you guys around." Gerard waved, then the five of them walked away together.

"Well, that was about five of a million people you're bound to meet tonight." Noah said. Cody hugged him, leaving Noah confused. "Why are you hugging me?"

"My family was never really around. I've always dreamed of going to one of these parties with a family so big and so supportive. So I guess, thanks for taking me." Noah smiled, hugging him back, kissing his cheek as the two of them started heading towards more family members.


It was now 11pm at the family Christmas party with no signs of stopping. In fact, they weren't even halfway done. The Christmas party was known for lasting hours and hours, or until the neighbors called to get cars off their lawn. While Cody left to go to the bathroom, his brother Gerard tapped Noah on the shoulder with a sense of urgency.

Everyone had taken the news of Noah and his new relationship, and his not-so-new sexuality, very well, or so he thought. He had no idea that his whole night was about to get ruined.

"Hey, Noah, there's something you need to hear." He said nervously. Noah turned around after pouring himself another vodka and cranberry, feeling nervous but not being able to feel it under all the alcohol he'd consumed. Noah had an incredible tolerance for someone of his size.

"What's up?" He asked, trying to stay cool. He followed Gerard as he walked over to their cousin Joan, and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hey Joan." She turned around. She was in her late 30s and had brown hair down to her shoulders. She wasn't wearing any Christmas attire like the rest of the family, instead she wore black skinny jeans with a red long-sleeve turtleneck. "You wanna tell Noah what I heard you say?"

She cocked her head to the side, holding her wine glass. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You were talking shit about my brother." She tossed her hair to the side. Noah looked over to Gerard.

"Calm down." Noah told him. He truly didn't want to know what Joan might have said about him, but he knew he'd be hearing it anyway. She turned her body to Noah.

"You think I'm afraid of saying it in front of Noah. I'm not. Noah, I say this because I love you. What are you doing with a guy like Cody? Emma was so good for you, and she's a law student. How could you have thrown that all away? I worry about you."

Noah was beginning to get angry. He had never heard his cousin, or anyone in his family, say something so rude and disrespectful to him in his life.

"You worry about me?" Noah asked, repeating her.

"What's the best way I could put this? It just really seems like this Cody person has no future with his band, no way to provide for you two if that comes up in the future." Noah began to speak, making sure the section of the room he was in would be able to hear his message loud and clear.

"But what about me? What about me providing for myself?"

"If you haven't gone back to college after your meltdown now, you won't go back, ever. I know you're probably hoping for a reality TV show comeback, but let's face it, you weren't even that popular. The only reason you were asked back for the race show was because of the fat kid."

"Don't talk about Owen like that. He's my friend."

"Not the point. Do you really think you can keep doing this for the rest of your life? Soon Cody's band will break up, and you'll both be moving in with Joshua and Bethany. I mean you're 19 and you're still living with your brother and his family. I miss your parents, too, but just look at your sister. She's off on her own, in college. She moved on."

"Why the fuck does everyone keep comparing me to Nicole? Don't you dare compare me to my sister, and don't bring my parents into this, as if you ever cared about them as much as I did." He bellowed, putting her points together in his head. "I think I know why you're upset."

"Why?"

"If this were about wanting to see me in a better career, you wouldn't bring Cody into this, or Emma. My past and present relationships and what I do with my life for money are none of your business."

"What are you trying to say, Noah?" She said, knowing where he was headed.

"I think you don't approve of me being gay." He said this so loudly that the majority of the partygoers turned around to see what was happening. Joan looked at him, offended, not knowing what to say.

"I am not homophobic."

"Who said anything about being homophobic? All I said was I don't think you like me being gay."

As he was watching her trying to find the right words to say to recover from this, he drank the rest of his vodka cranberry.

"I just think your parents would have wanted you with someone like Emma is all." She bellowed.

"If my parents were here, they would have thrown you out like the trash you are." His family at the party gasped, and Joan held her hand to her heart.

"Where did this hate come from, Noah?" She asked.

"You're really saying this as you insult myself, my friend, my boyfriend, the so-called 'vision' you think my parents had for me. My parents would have loved Cody, and I don't plan on throwing him away like you did with your three ex-husbands." There were some audible gasps, and Joan looked at him in fear. At this point, everyone in the family was looking.

"What are you talking about? I was only married twice."

"Oh really? Is that what you're telling people these days? What about the guy you married in Vegas?" Noah smirked and crossed his arms, her current husband nearly choking on his wine.

"We had that annulled." She whispered to him. "How dare you bring that up." Aunt Amelia stepped in front of the two of them, taking Joan's glass.

"Joan, that's enough. We're family, we don't fight, and I won't tolerate this nonsense." She turned to Joan. "I'd like you to leave."

"What about him? He was the one cursing." Amelia turned closer to Joan.

"I will be damned if you speak negatively of my late sister. Noah did nothing wrong."

Joan looked over to her husband, who had been watching from the sidelines.

"Drew, let's go."

As she got her purse and stomped out, she opened the front door to find the quints outside with pails of water. Before she could walk out, they doused her with the water, her scream wailing loud enough for everyone in the neighborhood to hear her. It was three degrees outside, so the cold water did not feel great at all. She ran off to her car, pouting and shivering waiting for her car's heater to kick in, as Drew quietly walked behind her, clearly not on her side and embarrassed to be with her.

The five of them laughed and high-fived each other as Gerard pointed to the sky.

"That's for you, mom and dad!" Blair looked over to Gerard.

"Yeah, as if Joan ever gave a shit about our parents."

Amelia ran to the door and looked at them in horror, closing it as the quints walked in. She got herself together and looked at the family crowding around in shock, trying to ease any tension.

"Let's get back to the party now, shall we?" As she turned the music up louder, Amelia joined Noah in going to the drink table, fixing themselves another drink. She turned to him and gave him a hug.

"Noah, I'm so sorry, honey." He was still shaking from the adrenaline of calling Joan out like that and couldn't respond, so he just stood there as she hugged him. She let go of him and she paused as she took a sip of her drink.

"I can assure you Joan will not be allowed at any family function again, I don't care how much I love my sister, her daughter is not welcome and she won't be either if she has the same views as Joan. But anyway, I must know about this divorce." Typical Aunt Amelia asking for the juicy family details, Noah thought as the high wore off. "How did I not know about this, I know everything. Tell me about it." She leaned at the table. She wasn't mad at Noah because she knew he was right.

"That's a great story, it was five Christmas parties ago, she was-" Nicole walked up to him, furious, holding onto his shirt collar.

"Why did you do that?" She asked. Aunt Amelia could sense the tension, and promptly left.

"Ow." Nicole let go of him, and he rubbed his neck. "What? She deserved it."

"You could have handled that privately, and she certainly didn't need to have her dirty business aired out like that."

"Maybe she should watch how she drinks when she's around a fourteen year old she thinks would never tell a soul." Nicole took his drink away. "Hey! I just made that."

"No. You don't need it." She said. "You've had enough. Three years of missing the family holiday party and this is how you act. She was unjustified to bring up your living situation and compare you to me, but it was wrong to accuse her of being homophobic."

"There's a difference between what I said and what she accused me of saying. Ugh." He groaned into his hand. "You don't get it, do you?"

"Get what?" She asked cautiously. Noah took a breath before going into his point, lowering his voice to not make another scene.

"You didn't have to worry about what everyone would think of you walking in."

"Yes I did. Trent wasn't the most loved person on the show. He was branded as the crazy person."

He let himself calm down and took a breath before he got even angrier at her.

"I'm not talking personality-wise. This was my first time coming into the family holiday party since mom and dad, and I brought in a boy. Not that I bring in a date, but that my date is a boy. I've never been public about liking boys. Never. Not to anyone but you, mom and dad. Joshua just learned about it recently." Nicole starts to relax her face, understanding his point, feeling bad about how she acted, and continues listening to him.

"So don't tell me I need to calm down." He said. "I'm always going to be on guard when it comes to my sexuality and image, especially now around my own family. For the first time in a long time I actually care what others think and I want people to know that."

As Nicole was about to say something back, Cody walked over to Noah, both of them unaware if he had heard anything.

"Hey." He said. "What was going on? Everything okay?"

"Nothing. It's not a big deal." Noah said, not wanting him to know.

"I heard a little bit of it as I got out of the bathroom." Cody said. "Why did your aunt kick out your cousin?" Nicole sighed.

"I'm going to check on Trent." She said, walking away from the conversation.

"Look, she just… she said some stuff about us, that's all."

"I thought everyone really liked me." Cody said. He sounded disappointed.

"They did."

It crushed Noah thinking about how to say this gently. He wanted to lie and say it was nothing, but he also knows that Cody would want to know.

"My brother, he overheard my cousin talking to her mom and saying she thinks I made the wrong choice being with you, being with… being with someone who won't be able to provide for me with a career like music. As if I need anyone to help me provide for myself. But, I called her out for it and my aunt kicked her out."

"Well, did you?" Cody asked with sincerity. Noah took his hands.

"Did I what?"

"Did you make a mistake with me?"

"No, no, of course not…" Noah looked down, cupping his face into his hands, holding back tears. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have taken you to such a big event to meet the rest of the family, I should have started small, if you don't want to be with me, that's-" Cody took his hand, calming him down.

"It doesn't seem like there are any 'small' parts of your family." Cody laughed at his own joke, which made Noah look up at him and crack a smile as well. "It's not your fault. You had no idea. And of course I still want to be with you. We're two boys dating, of course we're going to get some flack."

"Thanks for understanding." Noah smiled, looking around at the still-lively party. "I don't know about you, but I think it's time we call it a night." Being in a big house, Aunt Amelia couldn't bear the thought of Joshua and Bethany and everyone coming all this way just to stay at a hotel, as they were the only ones who had moved farther away from their family.

Cody put his hand on the back of Noah's shoulder as they walked up the stairs, Noah hardly being able to keep up even with the handrails.

"You really drank a lot tonight."

"I had to get through this night somehow." He said, laughing and kissing his head.

A/N: Thanks so much for those of you who keep up with this story, even if I may not update as frequently as I'd like to. I've actually been writing this chapter since the beginning of writing this with Emma, as I knew this would quickly become one of the most important chapters of the story. This is the first story I've written where I've gotten ahead of where I'm at in the writing process and I think it's really fun going to this chapter to edit it and see what our original intents were and updating things as I progress further into the story!

Again, thanks so much for reading! Please give a review if you liked it & feel free to follow this story if you like it!

~Sami