Hi everyone! Just a heads up on the next few weeks. I may vanish for the next few weeks. I'm nearing the end of my current semester and I have two final papers to write that are unfortunately going to take priority over my writing fanfiction. But, I will be back sometime in December at the latest to get back to this fic and finally get on track to update it and continue the final stretch of the story. Your patience is appreciated. :) This chapter takes place the night of the Adult Prom that Noah and Emma are going to together. Enjoy!

(Noah's POV)

Okay, why is this the longest elevator ride in the history of time?

Seriously, we're only going up to the third floor where my place is and it feels like I'm in that painfully long elevator ride up to the top of the Needle in Toronto during the race. And that's even factoring in Owen 'Dutch Ovening' the entire elevator because of course he did and why would I expect any different?

I was so caught up in my head that I barely noticed my hand getting grabbed.

I looked over and saw Emma holding my hand and weaving her fingers between mine. Slowly, I glanced up to look at her and even though her face was a little red, she gave me a small smile as I was just 'taking her in'.

Just her, her smile, her in that dress… I couldn't even stop myself from reflexively swallowing hard that it felt like I was pretty much choking down a rock.

Okay, just relax Noah. Just…. Agh, crap… Seriously, what the hell is wrong with me?!

I've thought about doing this with Emma way too many times for way too long in my head that it's almost as pathetic as when 'my team' just pathetically handed over the million-dollar briefcase to the anti-me back on the Island.

Also, why should it be a big deal?

I mean, we've both seen each other naked many times at this point and since I moved into my condo we've been doing 'other stuff' just short of actually having sex.

So, now that we're actually doing this, I just… agh, dude.

Luckily, my 'inner-freak out' was interrupted as Emma squeezed my hand and gave me another smile.

Eventually, I finally forced a smirk despite feeling like I wanted to rip off my own face for some weird-ass reason right now. Then my stomach felt like it was going to fully fall out of my ass as the elevator opened at my floor.

Okay, guess this is happening now?

7 hours earlier

Again… who am I?

If sixteen-year-old me saw what I was doing… yeah, I could even hear my own verbal digs being rattled off at myself even now.

But, at the same time, why do I also not care and… why am I actually weirdly nervous about this to the point of absolute idiocy?

Even from the surface, I'm still looking at this 'adult prom' thing as something completely weird to the point of ridiculous.

Because… just look at it.

It's an event for anyone above the age of twenty to go to something as pretentious as a 'Prom', a thing meant for stupid teenagers to be more awkward than I was when I first met Emma and then embarrass themselves by jumping around like a bunch of buffoons on a dance floor.

And yet, here I am.

I'm 21, dressed in a tux, and holding a corsage in a box outside my 22-year-old girlfriend's apartment to take her to this weird Prom-thing that I paid for to take us to for no other reason than trying to be a good boyfriend because I knew my girlfriend would probably like this.

Again, there's a reason why I never attended any dances the entire time I was in school.

I don't dance (except for when my mom or one of my sisters forces me to at a wedding or when I had to on TV to avoid elimination), I loathed practically every human being I went to school with, and I also went to Catholic school from kindergarten all the way through high school so… yeah, hard pass.

Well, or I did think that… until now.

I mean, I remembered during the race when we were in New Zealand that Kitty said her and Emma had quote 'slammin' dance moves', but I was still determined to do anything to avoid dancing since I already made enough of a total idiot of myself by sucking it up during the air guitar contest earlier in the race and pretty much only won because Mickey had a nervous breakdown so I could have a shot at winning first.

So, when Kitty eventually gave in and let us bungee jump, I didn't really think too much about it.

Or I didn't until Emma and I started dating.

I remember after I walked off Total Drama and spent the night with Emma at her place after the whole Little Miss Stalkerlicious situation that I really found out that Emma really liked to dance.

Not that she told me or anything, but more what she showed me.

It wasn't even on purpose either.

I just woke up in Emma's room (after also passing out when I saw her take off her shirt in front of me the night before but I'm not talking about that) and I saw she wasn't there.

Honestly, I just guessed she probably got up to eat or go to the bathroom or something.

But when I got out of her bathroom, I started to hear music coming from her kitchen and then as I got closer saw exactly what was going on. She looked like she was making her mom's French toast again for breakfast, but she was dancing to whatever pop music she had playing on her phone while she was making it.

At first, I didn't really know what to think of it since I never saw her actually 'dance' before then.

Sure, I saw her and Kitty dance during the Tango portion of the challenge in Argentina, but I never saw her actually 'dance' before until then... and I just stood there and stared like a total weirdo.

Even though she immediately stopped, shut off her music, and looked embarrassed when she saw I was watching her and tried to almost 'cover it up' or something.

Which I thought was kinda weird initially, but then I figured that was maybe her equivalent of me feeling like I wanted to turn myself inside out from her watching me during the air guitar challenge.

But, then on Christmas, after we got back from the sled hill, Kitty said she wanted to 'show me something' that was 'tradition' for her and Emma during Christmas and Emma was immediately trying to shoot it down.

And all I kept doing was getting more weirded out and confused as they kept going back and forth over it until somehow Kitty edged out and took us down to the basement of their house and took out what looked like a home videotape from the late 90s or early 2000s.

Then I got even more confused as Emma looked like she was trying to hide herself from existence next to me as Kitty played the tape and I saw exactly why Emma was acting like not her when I saw what it was.

It was a tape that Kitty recorded with their parents' video camera from when Kitty was probably like 8 and Emma was 10.

Emma looked like she was reading on a couch and Kitty from behind the camera kept on bothering her to 'do their dance together' on camera.

Even though Emma in the video was mostly cross-examining Kitty for taking their parents' video camera more than questioning her about 'dancing'.

Honestly, I was mostly kind of interested in seeing Emma when she was a kid since other than family pictures and old school photos around the Park's house, this was the closest thing I saw to what Emma was like as a kid.

Especially since Kitty said during that whole thing that Emma was usually the kid during recess who was never playing with the other kids and was always reading a book under a tree.

And that only confirmed to me that if I met Emma earlier in life, maybe I might have done the whole having friends thing before I got on TV.

Eventually, in the video, Kitty looked like she kept incessantly saying 'please' enough times for Emma to roll her eyes and agree.

Then Emma looked like she actually wanted to die next to me at the same moment as both her and Kitty in the video started doing this whole choreographed dance to this one song I remembered all my sisters listening to constantly when they were in high school like 12-ish years ago.

Sure, I still couldn't stand that song since I'm not really a 'music guy' since to me the best kind of music is the 'kind that I can't hear' if I'm being honest.

But… she and Kitty honestly weren't bad.

Not that I had much to judge it on, but I didn't have the same feeling as I did watching my siblings or cousins dance at a wedding which would normally make me prefer sitting in a corner and gnashing my teeth than subject myself to secondhand embarrassment.

It wasn't until after the video was over that Kitty kept questioning Emma about 'why she was being weird about it' and that she 'loved to dance', that I started to get that Emma actually did like to dance.

And tonight… I was practically gonna get a front-row seat.

I bit my lip and tried to calm down as I waited for Emma after she texted me back to let me know she was on her way down.

And I was really trying to keep my cool when I saw her coming out from the stairwell and into the glass vestibule of her building, making my eyes go wide as I swallowed hard on reflex at what I was seeing.

She was in this long, dark orange-looking dress (probably her old prom dress that she said she was going to ask Kitty to bring down for her from her parents' house).

This was the first time I saw her dressed like 'this' and…

Whoa…

I shook my head to get a grip just as she looked at me and gave me a slight smile and wave as she came over to get the door for me to let me in.

Well… here goes nothing.

Alright, you all might be rightly angry with me for leaving you with two different cliffhangers, but don't fret! I have PLANS! Lol. XD But, for real, I really do have plans for some quality Nemma content coming up here for you all. I also hope you enjoyed my most recent headcanon I wanted to introduce when it comes to Emma (and even Kitty). With the number of times Emma and Kitty both mentioned that they liked dancing together and that Kitty said they had 'slammin' dance moves' in the show, I thought it would be fair to say that both Kitty and Emma danced together and loved dancing as both a personal hobby and as a sibling bonding activity for the two of them. Then I decided to add on that maybe Emma was just a bit more insecure about it since she just doesn't want to 'look stupid' around Noah, even though Noah doesn't mind seeing her dance if the 'kitchen incident' meant anything. ;) That and Noah even found the 'embarrassing home video' Kitty took of both of them doing a dance routine together as kids kind of amusing, even if Emma wanted to die of embarrassment as one does when a sibling pulls something like that. Lol. XD Anyway, I appreciate your patience in advance and hope you all enjoyed the chapter regardless. Constructive feedback is always appreciated and see you all soon! :)

Stay Classy!

Dexter1995