Cody looked over to Noah in the green room of the Celebrity Manhunt set. He looked nervous and was clenching his wrists back and forth, something he did to stimulate himself to calm his nerves. Cody didn't enjoy seeing Noah in this state, and after watching him clench his hands for far too long, he finally took Noah's hands in his to try and comfort him.

"Are you okay?" Cody asked. He gave himself a mental slap in his mind, feeling stupid for asking. Of course Noah wasn't okay.

"Um…" Noah didn't know how to respond. He sighed as he looked over to Cody. "I don't want you to think I was planning on hiding you away forever. It's just…" He took a deep breath. "I have a plan to tell everyone about me. About my life before Total Drama. I think it's time. And it's just a little scary especially to have to throw this in when I'm not ready. I wanted us to have our privacy for a bit." Noah threw his head into his lap, not letting go of Cody's hand as he felt like he made no sense.

An intern knocked on the door of the green room, then popped her head through the door. Noah picked his head up and him and Cody looked over to see her. She was wearing an audio headset and had a clipboard in her hand.

"We're ready for you." She walked away and Noah put his head back on his lap.

"I can't do this." Noah muffled. Cody took his shoulders and lifted him up to a sitting position.

"Like I said, I'll be with you the whole time. I promise." Cody smiled at him as he gave Noah a kiss on the cheek, then stood up, pulling Noah up with the hand that was still holding Noah's.

They walked out of the green room, Cody faster than Noah, and Noah began to mentally prepare himself before going out there in front of reporters. Noah took a breath in, as his therapist recommended he did more often, then breathed out, and braced himself as the two of them pulled the curtain open and walked to the podium. They were blinded by the camera lights, and they looked over to what felt like hundreds of reporters ready to ask them questions.

"Why don't we start with the elephant in the room?" One female reporter asked. "Are you two dating?" Noah looked over at Cody, holding his hand underneath the podium. He wanted to speak, but the words couldn't come out of his mouth, so Cody took over.

"Yes. We are dating." Cody said into the microphone. There was an uproar of reporters raising their hands to speak to them, and Cody picked on a second female reporter.

"Then Cody, were you cheating on Sierra?" She asked.

"Sierra and I were broken up when I got with Noah. We have been broken up for a few months but never made an official statement."

"When did this all happen?" A male reporter interjected.

"I went to a tour stop with my sister and met up with him at a diner. That's when I realized I've always had a crush on Cody and wanted to do something about it. We've been together for a few weeks. It's still new."

"Noah, did Cody make you gay?" One asked.

"Well, we could say the same thing about Noah! Did Noah make Cody gay?" Another asked.

"What about Emma?" A third asked.

"Can I get some silence while I speak?" Noah exclaimed. The room began to settle down, knowing this would be important information to have for their precious tabloids and blogs.

"Everything you know about me from the show is a lie. I am a completely different person than I've shown you." He looked down, breathing in and out before looking back up at everyone.

"I did this show because my parents had died and I wanted some money for my sister and I. We're twins and the youngest of seven other siblings. I was in a bad space when I went onto Total Drama Island. I put on an act, but three seasons later, that act became who I was. I couldn't shake it off." He looked over to Cody.

"Even after Ridonculous Race when I knew Total Drama was over, I couldn't get back to the old me. My sister helped me through it. I went back to therapy, I got back into my true passion, which is art, and most of all, I accepted my true feelings for Cody. We've been together for a few weeks now. After Ridonculous Race I told myself I would just disappear from the spotlight, which clearly did not work for me. I'll always be under the public eye, I just hope now that I've accepted this, I can appear for who I truly am."

With tears in his eyes, the reporters began to applaud for the two boys, and Noah smiled over to Cody, relieved this was going so well.

"How did your parents die?" The reporters went right back to business, trying to get everything they can for a killer story.

"There was a biking accident and I was there with them." He said. "It was really hard for me. I was very close with them."

"Are you and Emma friends? That was a nasty break-up and you didn't help her at all." Noah thought about the reporter's question, not wanting to break the contract and mention how Ridonculous Race really was.

"I apologized to Emma privately. I wasn't on social media so I had no idea how hard everyone would take it. I didn't know people were being rude to her. Our breakup wasn't anyone's fault, we just couldn't make it work."

"Noah, does this mean you like girls and boys?" He thought about how he could word this without breaking his contract and being sued.

"I'm gay, definitely gay."

"Cody, how are you coming out?" Cody looked around, not expecting to be put on the spot. He figured this would be mostly Noah's thing, and that he wouldn't have to speak too much about his personal life.

"I'm bisexual." He said. The reporters went right back to talking to Noah.

"Noah, what are you going to do next? Will you be doing any more shows?"

"I don't have any plans to be on a show in the immediate future. I will be focusing on myself, my relationship and my family." He said.

Cody looked over to Noah as the other reporters shouted out different questions, and quickly took the reins as he saw Noah getting overwhelmed.

"That's all the time we have for questions. Thanks for coming out!" He waved as he took Noah away from the crowds, watching him calm down as they walked backstage.

"We do it all the time for Drama Brothers to get out of a press conference. They'll go on forever if you let them." Noah quickly took his arms and put them around Cody's neck, holding him in an embrace. He didn't want to let go.

"Thank you." He said as he let go. "Thank you for being there with me."

"It's like I told you, I'm here for you. Always." Noah looked around, then gave Cody a kiss as he ran his hands through his fingers.


Later that night, after Cody had gone home, Noah sat in bed and replayed the craziness of today in his head. The majority of newsletters and articles had come out right away, so him and Cody sat at home watching a few of them. He was happy to see that nobody had twisted anything, but he kept having an urge to look at what people were saying about him online. He remembered how that went after the Ridonculous Race finale party. Despite this, he felt at peace with his decision to come forward instead of denying the rumors, and he felt good about how he presented himself.

Noah thought more and more about wanting to look at comments from Total Drama fans, and he thought about how he's in a better place now than he was back then, and maybe could handle hearing any negative comments of his. He took his phone from the charger and opened up his Twitter app. He had hundreds of thousands of followers, and still the only person he had followed on Twitter was Cody. He decided to look through the app and saw that the word 'Noah' was trending on Twitter. The top tweets popped up, and he took a look at a few of them.

NocoFan

I CANT BREATH OMFG I CANT BELIEVE THAT CODY AND NOAH ARE ACTUALLY TOGETHER! CODY AND NOAH FANS REJOICE!

NoahStan40

I had no idea Noah had such a tough life. I'm so happy for Noah for overcoming it. 3

He looked at the tweet nervously. He didn't feel like this meant he was 'over' his parents' death just because he had a boyfriend and told the public about his parents, but he knew he couldn't control what other people were saying and he didn't want to get in the middle of things. He decided to make a tweet about the press conference.

Totaldrama_noah

Thank you everyone for the positive comments. Life is a little crazy right now but I hope I can be more active here.

His tweet gained hundreds of likes while he went to check his text messages, which were also filled with positive congratulatory texts from family members and Total Drama alumni, some of those who did not have their number saved in his phone. He looked through the highlights of it.

Owen

Noah, my little buddy! I'm so glad everyone knows about your parents, that was the hardest secret I've ever kept in my life! Also happy about you and Cody!

E-scope

NOAH! I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT BACK AT PLAYA DE LOSERS WHEN YOU DENIED EVER KISSING CODY!

Trent

Proud of you guys. Hope to see you soon, man.

He kept scrolling between his personal text messages and his Twitter feed to see more comments from those who were happy and excited for the two of them, as well as some not-so-happy comments when he suddenly heard a knock on the front door. He thought it was pretty late for Bethany and Joshua to have visitors, but thought nothing of it and went back to Twitter, pressing like on a few of the tweets to have as a positive affirmation to look back on in the future. He heard a knock on his bedroom door as he was doing this, and the scenarios of what was wrong began running through his head. Is someone hurt? Did someone die? Something had to be wrong.

"Come in." Joshua opened the door a crack.

"Come out to the living room real quick." He put his phone down and felt even more worried as he walked over to the living room. He gasped as he saw Cody in the living room hugging Bethany. Something didn't look right in his eyes.

"Cody? Is everything okay?" He asked, going over to him.

"My parents saw everything - the tabloids, the press conference. It was easy for them to not believe the tabloids, but… once they saw me confirming everything with you, they kicked me out." He said, almost emotionless despite the tears streaming down his face. Noah's heart began to flutter as he felt it beating outside of his chest.

"Oh my god… Cody, I'm so sorry."

"Don't be sorry. The truth had to come eventually. I just didn't expect them to have even seen it. They haven't even seen an episode of Total Drama!" He said, looking down as Noah took his hand. "I just don't know what to do now."

"Oh honey, you are always welcome here, and this time we mean it more than ever." Bethany said, rubbing his shoulder. "Stay with us."

"Really? Are you sure? I'll be in and out recording a lot for the next few months before our summer tour, I could just stay with-" Noah looked over at Joshua, who interrupted Cody.

"We'd love to have you." Joshua said, interrupting him.

"And besides, the kids adore you." Bethany added.

"How could I ever repay you?" Cody asked them.

"You don't owe us anything, Cody, really." Joshua said to him. "But… Spencer has been wanting to take piano lessons."

"Well, just call me Teacher Cody." He said, perking up a bit.

"We're gonna leave you two alone now, just let us know if you need anything." Bethany nodded to Cody as she and Joshua left to go back to their room, then Noah led him to his - now his and Cody's - room, closing the door behind them. Cody hugged Noah tightly as the door closed, not wanting to let go, and he began tearing up again.

"Cody, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have let you come with me."

"I know my parents have always been awful, but I never thought that they would get rid of their only son. I don't even know why I'm upset, it's not like they ever cared about me." Noah's heart broke when he heard him say that. His parents had always been supportive of him no matter what, and he only wished his parents were alive now to be the ones to allow Cody to stay in their home.

"Were you able to get any of your stuff?" He asked.

"They gave me five minutes to grab whatever I wanted to take with me that would fit in my car. I panicked and got the big stuff, like my keyboard and laptop and streaming stuff. It's all in the car right now."

"What about clothes?" Cody laughed.

"I hadn't done laundry this week, so all my clothes were dirty except for a few shirts I stuffed in a duffel. I went back in to put the dirty laundry in a separate bag to wash and they locked the door. Guess I'll have to go shopping."

Noah went into his drawers to look for some pajamas for him to wear tonight. He grabbed an old shirt and some flannel pajama pants and plopped them in Cody's lap as he sat down next to him, holding his hand.

"I feel responsible for this." He tells him.

"I've had a broken relationship with my parents for years. My mom's a psychologist who treated me more like a client than a son. And my dad, well… there's nothing wrong with him, but he did enable my mom to treat me like I'm her clinical study." Cody took a breath in and out through his nose as they laid down on the bed, their gaze interlocking into their eyes as Cody brushed Noah's bangs away from his face, smiling.

"I don't regret being there with you. This had to happen sooner or later. I stopped considering them family years ago. Family doesn't have to be related by blood. Family can be chosen, too." Noah smiled at the sentiment.

"Everything has been happening so fast. You met my family, we announced our relationship, and now we're basically living together. I don't want you to get tired of me. Are you sure you want this?" Noah asked.

"We've known each other for a few years now. We've traveled the world together. We've faced life and death on international television. Now we're just… re-learning things about each other. And kissing." Cody gave a smile, showing off his gap teeth.

"That's a good way to put it." Noah said to him.

"Totally." Cody let out a yawn as he held the clothes in his hand to get dressed and ready for bed. "I should probably get some sleep. We start recording for the new Drama Brothers album tomorrow. The studio is an hour away so I have to be up early."

"That sounds like fun. I'm stuck at work tomorrow."

"You should come sometime to check us out. I think having a familiar face with us will ease our mind."

"I'll think about it." He said with an open mind. Cody stood up and began walking out the door to change in the bathroom. Noah began to put his phone on the charger, already in his pajamas for the night, and laid his clothes out for work tomorrow - his usual white collared shirt, khaki pants, belt, and library name tag. Cody came back in, wearing the pajamas Noah picked out for him. The shirt was a Team Reality Stars shirt made by a fan from his time in Ridonculous Race.

"It looks better on you than it does on me." Noah told him as they went under the covers as he turned on the lights. Cody laid down as the big spoon as they got comfortable.

"I hope you know you're never getting this shirt back." Cody chuckled as he snuggled closer to Noah. As quick as a lightbulb flashing off, they drifted right to sleep.

A/N: Thank you SO much for reading this chapter! I have seen a few new faces in my followers list, so I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to read The New Noah! I hope you love it.

~Sami