Okay… so this is a random concept I decided to write. Lately I've been doing deep dives on cartoons I watched back in the day. One of those being the Total Drama series. Although, recently I rewatched The Ridonculous Race that came out in my sophomore year of college, at the time I kinda watched but didn't fully get into it when it premiered due to my medical science courses in college taking up my time. But after the dumpster fire that is Total Dramarama aired… I decided to go back and watch all the previous seasons now that I'm graduated from university and have time now, more specifically The Ridonculous Race. After really watching it and paying attention, I actually really enjoyed it! Specifically, I really got into a lot of the character interactions and got a lot of new personal favorites! Honestly, I really liked the sisters team in their own way. I actually could really see Kitty and Emma integrated into the original show format of just a straight up reality show and think they could easily interact with the original cast fairly well. Now I think you probably know where this is going… but when they paired Emma and Noah, it was one of the cutest and funniest things I have watched in a long time. XD Noah has always been one of my favorite characters from the show since he always had great one liners and his sarcastic and cynical attitude reminded me of Daria which I loved, particularly in TDWT. Now for all you Noco shippers, that's cool and enjoy your ship! But, I like relationships that have a build up to them and I really liked how they pulled it off in the show with the time and resources they had. It was both hilarious and kind of cool seeing Noah putting his usual front down and both of them having this quirky awkwardness about them whenever they interacted with each other. Noah would just become a fumbling mess at times (Almost like he was actually discovering he had other human emotions. Lol XD) with not keeping certain thoughts internalized and Emma being a bit of a mess herself by being a person who looks too far ahead with everything, especially her crushes, and freaks herself out over it. Her whole rant about how if she told Noah she liked him during the race in the early stages, that it would snowball into her and Kitty losing and not being able to pay for law school or keep her relationship going with Noah until it ended with her crying into a bowl of cereal… honestly, my thought process can be pretty similar and as ridiculous sometimes and I kinda relate to that. Haha. XD Anyway, I just really liked this pairing and think they really suit each other. I really wanted to write fanfiction for them since I haven't seen much for them in that particular regard as one of the few officially dating TD couples that are still together. And also, I'm a healthcare professional looking for creative writing outlets in my spare time to curb my stress at the moment. Particularly, I wanted to write an aftermath kind of situation for them. At the end of the season, Noah and Owen got asked to be on a new show once they got eliminated from the race and since nothing more about that show came out afterward, I have this head canon of Brody and Geoff keeping their promise to split the money and gave Kitty and Emma a cut of their winnings. So I saw Kitty just giving most of her share to Emma for law school and Emma probably went right into her first semester of law school after the show. So, in the long and short of it… here's some Nemma material for all you fellow Nemma shippers! Enjoy!

(Emma's POV)

I kept scanning over all the books on my desk before looking up at the planner sheet on the wall.

"Okay, that wraps up studying for criminal law… now for elements of law." I said to myself, trying to keep myself on task.

Not that I was complaining. I've wanted to be a lawyer and get into law school for as far back as I could remember. If you ask Kitty, I pretty much always put a plan in my mind for almost anything and everything that I hardly keep my head in the present.

Then again Kitty lives so much in the present that she hardly thinks about her future which would drive me crazy.

I glanced over at the picture of the two of us during the one of many selfies she dragged me into with her during the show. I smirked a little at it to myself. Hey, my sister may have her faults, but I did appreciate her giving me her cut of the money so I could put it toward school… and for giving me a push for other things during the race.

I activated my phone to check the time and also to check for something else. But upon seeing nothing, I just sighed and tried to clear my head.

Maybe I need to take a little break to collect my thoughts?

At this point Kitty would probably be trying to rip me away from my desk and force me to go out and have fun instead studying the entire weekend.

Sure I probably could take a break since I have no exams coming up until next week on Friday and am already working ahead.

But, I don't want to take any chances.

I worked WAY too hard to get here and if I slack at any point… I'm going to get off track, flunk out, have to move back in at home, end up living in the basement, and have to be dependent on my parents for most of my adult life like a totally pathetic loser.

And NO WAY is that going to happen!

After getting up from the desk in my room, I walked into the kitchen to look for something to drink in the fridge when I heard pounding on the front door of my apartment.

My head shot around the corner as I quirked up an eyebrow.

Remaining an aire of skepticism, I walked toward the door of what this possibly could be? I looked through the peephole to see my neighbor Rachel, looking completely freaked out, just in time for her to yell, "Emma! Emma! Open up!"

I sighed in annoyance and finally opened the door before almost getting punched in the face by her excessively aggressive and annoying pounding on my door with her fist.

"Rachel, WHAT? And if your response is anything except the building being on fire or someone trying to kill you, then leave me alone. I don't want to go out, I don't want to go to your game nights, and I don't want to have the landlord charge me if you did any damage to my door. I told you a thousand times, I'm focused on studying." I spouted, fed up.

Okay, I know, I'm a bit antisocial to begin with kind of, but… I'm just more of an introvert.

I like people to just leave me alone to my own devices most of the time for my own focus and all Rachel has done from day 1 of me moving in 2 months ago is trying to get me to hang out with her since I'm the only girl other than her on our floor.

And she asks me to hang out with her at least twice a day even though I have said 'no thanks' every time.

Look, I was nice in the beginning, but after she woke me up at 11:30 PM on a Thursday to ask if I wanted to come over and play charades with her friends when I had to wake up and be at my class by 7:30 am for a quiz… I drew the line.

I was about to shut the door when she grabbed it and wedged her foot in the way as she said, almost frantic, "Emma, wait! Listen!"

I was so freaked out, I let go of the door and stumbled back as Rachel pushed the door so far in that it collided hard into the wall and left a dent.

It was quiet as I saw her eyes go wide and her hands go over her mouth at what just happened, meanwhile I was on the verge of having an absolute conniption.

"My bad, Emma! I… I'll tell the landlord and pay for that to be fixed." I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose between my right forefinger and thumb, trying to channel my stress.

Trying.

"Rachel… Just tell me what's going on before you break anything else in my apartment." I said, knowing I sounded as vexed and annoyed as I felt.

I think Rachel finally got the hint as she stepped more into the doorway toward the hall as she said, "Sorry Emma it's just… I don't want to freak you out or anything, but… I think you have a stalker."

My head immediately tilted to the side as I quirked up an eyebrow before questioning, still annoyed but now more confused than anything, "What?"

"Like I said, I don't want to freak you out or anything. But there's this guy hanging out by the building entrance who asked me if I knew you and if you lived here after saying he was all over the campus trying to look for you. Then I asked why he didn't just call you, but he said his phone died and he forgot his charger, which sounded totally sketchy." She explained, looking weirded out.

I had no idea what was going on until all of a sudden my thought process came to halt.

Wait…

My eyes went wide as my thoughts converged elsewhere as I asked, "Wait, did this guy have brown hair, brown eyes, and was several inches taller than me? Had kind of a slightly deeper voice with a dry tone to it that sounded a little condescending?"

She gave me a look as she just nodded and went, "Um… yeah. Why?"

I wasn't even paying attention as I looked outside my window and looked down toward the street at the entrance of the building from where I lived on the 4th floor.

My facial expression dropped for a second until I felt like screaming and smiling like a total idiot at who I saw.

Noah was standing on the sidewalk, looking around and wait… does he have flowers? I felt like my idiotic smile doubled until I paused for a second.

What's he doing here? You know what? Who cares?!

"Yup! I know him! Thanks Rachel!" I said, pushing her out of my apartment and slamming my door and locking it behind me. I could hear Rachel still trying to talk to me as I ran immediately into my room and grabbed my phone and immediately called Kitty.

Sure I could've just gone down to see him, but… ugh, I'm already feeling like a mess and I need some reassurance.

"Come on, come on…" I said through my teeth in an impatient mantra until I heard, "Hey Em, what's going on?"

I didn't even waste time as I just blurted out of nervousness, "Noah's here."

"Wait, what? He's in your apartment?... Oooohhhh, nice." She responded, teasing me a little bit and then laughing to herself, causing my face to feel like it was on fire.

I pushed it down and responded, feeling embarrassed and annoyed, "No, he's outside my building. I had no idea he was coming over until my neighbor told me he was here. He has flowers and I'm having a panic attack. Help me, Kit!"

"Oh he got you flowers? That's so cute!" "HELP ME!" I almost demanded as I cut her off, not wasting any time and still feeling like my nerves were practically consuming me at this point.

"Okay, okay!" Kitty responded defensively.

It was quiet and I was getting impatient as I said, "And…" "And... what? What do you want me to say?" "I want YOU to tell ME what to say! Look, I know I'm the most intelligent and athletic one out of the two of us, but I'll admit you're at least better than me when it comes to boys." I admitted.

I could practically hear the slight eye roll in her voice as she replied, "Um, thanks… I guess?"

I completely ignored the response as I kept getting overwhelmed and continuing, "Kitty, I need you to tell me what to say so I don't do anything stupid or weird in front of him."

"Why? You both technically say weird things around each other anyway. Remember the rickshaw thing during the race when the guys helped us? Emma's very pretty… that was out loud again, wasn't it?" She said, doing an exaggerated imitation of Noah's voice at the end.

She started laughing a little at it and I wasn't surprised since she still teases me over Noah by bringing that up.

I just smiled for a second thinking back to that before shaking my head back to reality and to get a grip as I responded, "Yes! I know! But, when Noah does something awkward like that, it's cute. When I do that… well, you know what I'm like. I end up sounding insane and lose my inner monologue when I talk to him. Like talking about our future, wanting to marry him, having children with him, and…"

"Okay, okay! I get it. Look, I don't know what else to tell you? Just try to stay in the moment. He probably randomly came over to see you to surprise you or something, so… just try to stay on topic with that. Just for once, Emma, I want you to shut off the weird future part of your head and just focus on him right now. Besides you've probably done nothing but lock yourself in your room and study when you aren't at class, right? Even though I think you should get out and let loose once in a while." She said, brutally honest, and as much as I wanted to comment on that… ugh, she wasn't wrong.

I stayed silent before countering, "That's not entirely true… I go out to the student union and library sometimes." She didn't even respond but I could feel the judgement coming through the receiver still as I continued, "And I go out to eat somewhere once a week."

I heard Kitty let out a strained groan before saying, "Em, just put down the books for once, chill out, and just go down to see him. Go on a date or show him around or something? Just see him… and then you have to tell me everything later!"

I looked back out the window and saw Noah leaning against the retaining wall outside my building, reading a book with the flowers set aside.

Ugh, he's so hot when he's reading.

"Emma?" I heard Kitty say, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Thanks sis, I'll call you later." I said before hanging up. I ran over to the mirror in my room to make sure I looked okay before I went outside.

Even though it was pointless in my opinion since I practically started running out of my apartment and down the stairs like a completely deranged mad woman.

Again… don't care!

I still can't believe he's here!

I haven't seen him in person since the finale of the race two months ago and then I pretty much had to get started with law school pretty much right after.

Then Noah and Owen said they were asked to be on another show that was supposed to start this month so we've pretty much just been calling and texting this whole time since that date never ended up happening… well, not really.

I pursed my lips a little at that thought.

Well, we went out and walked around after grabbing a drink, but it just seemed anticlimactic for what I was envisioning for our first date since there wasn't a lot of time.

I got to the ground floor and tried to catch my breath and collect myself, even though he was RIGHT THERE.

Okay Emma, you haven't seen him in two months. Just stay calm and say hi to him and don't do or say anything stupid or crazy to freak him out. You don't want another Jake situation.

Ugh, I really don't want another Jake situation.

I thought my thing with Jake was bad enough, but with Noah… we've hardly gone out or anything, but I've never felt this kind of a connection with a guy until I started to get to know him.

As much as I hate to admit it, Kitty's right.

I can be pretty sarcastic and snarky… okay, I'm a smartass. But so is Noah, him more than me actually. He's pretty much my mental match and not to mention the fact that I am so physically into him that it makes me feel pathetic and weak to completion sometimes even though I also seriously couldn't care less.

I let out a sigh, hoping that would help me get a grip, but… ugh, he looks so hot.

I smacked myself in the face before scolding myself to focus.

Once I felt like I finally got a hold of myself, I practically held my breath as I opened the door and walked outside. He was still reading and leaning against the retention wall, looking like he was deep in some kind of zone.

Okay, c'mon Emma, remain calm…

I walked over to him and said, trying to keep my cool, "Hey Noah."

He whipped his head behind at me with a smile spread across his face and almost yelled, "Emma!" He looked like he tried to calm down and clear his throat and collect himself as he regained his composure before attempting to smoothly recover, "I mean, uh… hey Emma."

I had to hold back a laugh. He's such a dork… ugh, but he's so cute.

He kept looking at me and I couldn't stop myself from looking right back at him too and smiling. We kept doing that until he shook his head and said, reaching behind him, "Hey, uh, I got you something."

He grabbed the flowers I saw he had from the window. They looked like they were roses… or what used to be roses.

They all looked beyond mangled.

"Yeah… long story short, I was looking for you around your campus first, since that seemed like a great idea. And then let's just say that something with birds happened… I don't want to talk about it and I get it if you don't want them now. Today really hasn't been good for me. Well you know, until you got here!… I'll stop." He rambled, looking off in a different direction and rubbing the back of his neck, looking embarrassed.

I just looked at them for a second and grabbed them as I said, "Thanks Noah, this is… really, really sweet of you." I got closer and gave him a hug.

Honestly, that was an understatement.

Not that I should be that surprised he'd do this since he literally took the time to carve a heart out of ice for me during the competition, but… this is the sweetest thing any guy has ever done for me.

Not that I have had many relationships, mainly because Jake was pretty much my only relationship before Noah and even that only lasted for 4 months with him mostly avoiding me for the last month and a half of it before breaking up with me and putting me off from relationships for 3 years.

But, even that didn't compare to how I felt when I saw how broken I made Noah after I had to temporarily break up with him since he was a distraction for me during the race… even though I really didn't want to deep down and still feel horrible about it sometimes.

I felt him slowly hug me back as I heard him comment, "So, I'm going to take that as you don't care if the flowers look almost as bad as a bathroom Owen uses after a Canada Day barbeque?"

I let out a laugh as I responded, "I don't care."

I just kept thinking it was sweet of him to even do something like this for me.

And if I'm really being honest, he could have given me flowers that were dried out and dead for weeks and I still wouldn't have cared.

I think I was so wrapped up in my own thoughts until something hit me as I finally pulled back from the hug and asked, "Wait, so, what are you doing here? I thought you said that you and Owen got asked to compete on another show?"

Noah shrugged and said, a slight smirk on his face, "Ah, the beauty of delayed production. Everything has been delayed until next month, so I thought I'd drive here to see you and take you out. Considering… we didn't really have time to get a real date last time. Also my brother and his family are starting to drive me insane so I really needed to get out of my parent's house until they're done staying with us after another week before they go back to Vancouver. I can only get blindsided and have my hair pulled by my nephews so many times… and deal with Ben and his wife just laughing about it."

That I know wasn't an understatement.

I still remember being shocked when Noah told me he was the youngest of 9 siblings, and also eluding to how he was kind of a last minute addition since his next oldest sibling is 7 years older than him with his oldest brother Ben being almost 19 years older and how due to that he was an uncle by the time he was 9.

I still remember this time a couple weeks ago that we tried to video call each other and it wasn't 5 minutes before somehow his nephews that he was talking about found him in his room and practically started dragging him away to wrestle with them.

That was also how I ended up kind of sort of meeting his oldest brother, Ben.

And when Noah said he was different from everyone else in his family, he wasn't kidding, at least compared to Ben.

To me, Ben didn't really seem like the sharpest tool in the shed and he looked like he was definitely a former jock in his high school days… big time.

Sure, I was in athletics back in high school too, but they were more of an extracurricular route for me to put on college applications. I also didn't really know how to take it when his brother saw me and then started making jabs at Noah for how a nerd with a stick so far up his butt like him ended up getting a girl like me.

First off, I didn't know how to really take having his brother say that about me, and also I didn't entirely know what he meant by implying that he thinks Noah's a stiff or something?

Considering Noah's smart ass, moody exterior and personality is actually one of the things I like most about him, even if I denied it in the beginning like everything else.

But at that point, I saw what Noah meant.

Aside from looking like they could be brothers by certain facial features, he and Noah were mentally and physically 2 completely different people. But, Noah said that's how he is compared to all his brothers and sisters.

And I thought me and Kitty were like night and day as siblings.

I paused until a thought hit me.

"Wait… you drove all the way here?" I asked, completely surprised.

I'm living in Toronto while I'm going to law school here in the city and I know Noah said he was from suburban Winnipeg… that's a nearly 22 hour drive!

He nodded and shrugged as he responded, "Yeah, why? Is that so shocking?"

I shook my head and responded, "No! Not really, but… that's a trip. You really spent almost an entire day driving here just to see me?"

He gave me this slight crooked smirk before responding, doing that eyebrow quirk thing that drives me crazy in the best way possible.

"Emma, you'd think after I saved you from falling off a building that me driving 22 hours in my car and sleeping at a creepy rest area in between for a couple hours to see you shouldn't be that crazy, right?" He said, actually maintaining his cool and making me feel just… touched.

I could feel my thoughts going on a tangent and I immediately put a stop to it, really trying to stick to what Kitty told me.

I have to stay in the present.

I didn't know what else to say so I said, "Thanks Noah."

I gave him another hug and decided to just go for it as I kissed him on the lips. It was only a peck, but… ugh, it was so hard for me not to want to do more.

At that moment, I think I caught Noah off guard for a second as his whole body froze for a second before he shook his head and cleared his throat before saying, "So, uh… do you want to go out for dinner or something? I know it's only 4:30, but… maybe we can eat and then hang out or see a movie or something?"

It did even take me a second as I said, "Give me 5 minutes. I just need to grab my bag."

I ran back inside immediately and even though there was a part of me that questioned my sanity for ditching studying ahead for my classes to go out with Noah… until I got hung up on going out with Noah and then really didn't care.

I guess one date night couldn't hurt, right?

6 hours later

I can't believe I was out with Noah for 6 hours.

I took him to this local Greek restaurant I like that I usually go to for breakfast sometimes and then… everything just kind of blurred together.

We ate and then saw a movie on the fly.

It ended up being a horror movie and even though I could tell neither of us thought it was that scary… doesn't mean I didn't pretend to be scared just to have an excuse to hold his hand or snuggle up to him without being too obvious. Then we just walked around and held hands practically the whole time for 2 more hours and the conversation was almost constant.

I asked him about the show he was going on, which I guess is another total drama season, and I told him about my classes.

It was just… nice.

I kept looking down at us holding hands as we got back to my apartment building. It was quiet as we got to the entrance and just… stopped.

We kept looking at each other for a second before both of us let out an awkward laugh. We just kept standing there until I decided to break the silence as I said, "Thanks for taking me out, Noah. This was fun."

I was trying so hard to stay calm even though I wanted to tell him this was the best date I've ever been on and just being around him and just… ugh, focus!

"Y-yeah, no problem. Aside from being attacked by geese and my nephew Jason taking my charger before I left, this was awesome." We both just smiled at each other for a second before I decided to just go for it.

I closed the distance a little bit between us and put my hands on his shoulders as I leaned in to kiss him without hesitation.

Sometimes I think about how we ended up having our first kiss on international TV and how I kind of wish we waited until we were off air, but… I don't regret it.

Even though I used kissing him as an incentive to find him in the mountain of rugs when he and Owen got eliminated, but… I just really, really wanted to kiss him at the same time and didn't even care.

Even now I still don't care since we're together and now we can just let things go and not feel pressured with letting things happen.

We held the kiss for a few seconds until I felt him lean into me and slowly put his hands on my sides and I was trying to keep myself from going absolutely insane.

After several more seconds we pulled away and kept looking at each other until Noah looked at the ground, having this off look to him that I haven't seen before until he said, "Uh… I guess, night Emma."

He let go and looked like he was about to walk back to his car when I bit my lip, feeling this impulse. An impulse that I haven't felt before as I stepped forward and started, "Noah?"

He stopped and turned back to face me.

I didn't give myself any time to hesitate as I just went for it and asked straight out, "Do you want to come up?"

Oooooh, looks like Emma is trying to take Kitty's advice about staying in the moment and making a move. ;) What will happen next? Wait until next time! Next chapter will be from Noah's perspective which I am really looking forward to. Haha. As a person who works in mostly POV style storytelling, I always try my best to put myself into each character's head and convey them as true as possible to their personality. So I hope I was able to do Emma's perspective justice. Sure Emma can be a bit bossy, overly driven, and a know it all, but Noah's a sarcastic and snarky know it all so… they're great together! You know in my opinion they are anyway. Haha. Anyway, thank you all for reading and constructive reviews are always very much appreciated. Hope you all are staying healthy and safe out there!

Stay classy!

Dexter1995