Okay, I won't waste any time, this chapter is when we start to get into more 'slice of life' of Noah and Emma's relationship and their families. I'll elaborate more on it in the ending A/N, but for now let's get on with the chapter. To set the scene, Noah just got home late to his parents' house in suburban Winnipeg. But it appears a family member had waited up for that Noah is just 'dying' to talk to. Lol. XD Hope you enjoy!
({No POV})
After hours of trying to wait for the snow storm to subside and finally being able to get a flight back to Winnipeg, Noah caught a cab and finally returned to his family's home in the suburbs late into the night.
His usual neutral to bored expression still plastered to his face as he took a moment to look at the house before sighing and saying, almost like he was ironically trying to 'psych himself up' to face his parents, "Here we go again."
Well, in this particular moment, more specifically referring to inevitably facing his dad.
Ever since Noah made his 'sham audition tape' at his old high school in order to secure a spot on Total Drama when he was 16 for what Noah thought was going to be 'easy cash' in order to get his parents off his back about pursuing grad school education so he could spend more time on his competitive gaming and independent game development.
And his dad in particular didn't have a high opinion of his youngest child and son to begin with (who to him was already an embarrassment as the 'nerdy, runt of the litter' in the family) and then Noah going on reality TV and then not even succeeding only added to that.
Instead with Noah pretty much failing miserably most every time by mostly getting cut short every time early on in every reality TV competition he's competed on… or just being regulated to be sitting on the sidelines in the 'peanut gallery' like on season 2 of Total Drama.
And Noah knew it was wishful thinking this time to expect to avoid another 'passive aggressive' talk from his dad about 'wasting his time on those damn TV shows' instead of 'using his big head to do something useful like going to medical or law school', particularly since he saw his dad's company truck in the driveway to signify he was home.
In their town, Noah's family was actually pretty well respected with his dad owning a local contracting company that a lot of his older brothers worked for (Mathai & Sons Contracting) that mostly did home building and remodeling with his dad being a carpenter by trade.
Or at least were 'respectable' from Noah's dad's perspective until Noah's 'reality TV career' started has since made his dad nothing but the butt of jokes of his colleagues and competition in his line of work with his youngest son doing nothing but going on TV and 'embarrassing himself and the family'... or again, that was at least how Noah's dad saw it.
And right now, Noah couldn't wait to hear what his dad had to say to him this time.
Especially since he was so close to winning only to finally just throw his hands up and probably get blacklisted from being on TV again after he dropped the 'F-bomb' toward Chris to Chris's face on TV and then quit on the spot to break the terms of his contract.
So… yeah, Noah was just dying to hear what his dad had to say this time.
Especially since he knew he wasn't going to get a pass from his 'talk' with his dad like last time when he got back home from the race since all siblings came home just to 'tease him' about how they saw he acted around Emma on TV and his dad mostly just sat in his usual arm chair and watched the Danley Cup Hockey play offs on TV while drinking a beer and surprisingly ignored the whole thing.
Noah eventually let out a resolute sigh to himself as he said in his usual tone, "Well… let's get this over with."
He got out his keys and unlocked the door.
At first nothing happened until the 'clicking' of claws on the wood floor started sounding off until a golden retriever came into view, panting and tail wagging at almost full speed.
It was the Mathai's family dog of 7 years who always had a shockingly overt affection and preference for Noah in particular over every other member of the family, usually finding his favorite napping spot behind Noah's gaming chair in Noah's room… even if Noah wasn't even home.
Casper.
Even Noah couldn't help himself from smirking as Casper barked once before whining in excitement as he bounded toward Noah, almost knocking Noah over as he jumped up with his front paws resting on Noah's shoulders in a 'dog hug' as he started licking Noah's face with slobbery dog kisses.
And despite Noah usually finding it gross, even he couldn't deny how much he missed pretty much the only member of his family he genuinely liked.
Noah just smirked and chuckled a little before remarking in his usual tone, "Whoa there, sir drools a lot. I already took a shower today."
Casper just wagged and held his place and gave Noah one last lick before going back on all fours and ran a couple excited circles around Noah's legs before chasing his tail for a moment and then crouching until his butt was sticking up in the air with tail still at full speed wag in playful joy that his favorite human had returned home.
Noah's smirk actually morphed into a real smile as he picked up a nearby tennis ball and held it up as he started in a quiet yet surprisingly playful tone that he only seems to use with Casper, "Who wants the ball?"
Casper whined in excitement again as Noah threw it down the hall toward the kitchen as he called out in a similar quiet tone, "Go get it!"
Casper turned on a dime and started bounding down the hall to get the tennis ball and Noah smirked in amusement, well… until he heard heavy steps on wooden floors and creaking in certain spots as the person came toward Noah in the entry of the home.
At that moment a tall, burly, and intimidating looking man about the age of 60 with jet black hair and full beard going gray in certain spots wandered into the room in a flannel shirt and jeans.
His brown eyes that matched Noah's on the dot narrowed at his youngest child for a moment with his son returning the same gesture back at him like usual.
It was none other than the person of interest Noah was expecting.
Abraham "Abe" Mathai.
Abe crossed his arms and puffed out his chest slightly before letting out a long exhale through his nostrils as he tilted his head at Noah.
They kept standing in an awkwardly, tense, and silent standoff until Abe inquired very plainly in a deep tone of voice that matched his appearance, "Just getting back? Thought you would've been back sooner."
Noah just maintained his ground and shrugged before replying, "I took a detour to Toronto on my way back to see Emma and ended up getting stuck there because of a snow storm. After all, according to you, all I do is waste my time, right?"
Abe just kept looking at his son and Noah looked like he was just going to start walking off while he could until his dad started, sounding oddly curious, "She's studying to be a lawyer, right? How's that going for her?"
Noah stopped abruptly and gave his dad a confused look, wondering why his dad even seemed remotely curious about Emma and 'how she was doing' since his dad hardly cared about anything usually.
After quirking up an eyebrow and giving his dad a weirded out look, Noah responded in weirded out hesitation, "Uh… good, I think?"
After that, Abe crossed his arms and started, "Hmm…" Noah looked like he was going to walk off again, Abe cut in, "Well, next time you talk to her, invite her for Christmas. Your mom and I want to meet her."
Noah stopped abruptly and whipped his head back over as he inquired, thinking he didn't hear his dad right, "Um… you what now?"
His dad gave him a dead serious look before responding in a manner similar to his son, "What, Einstein? You got gum in your ears? Your mom and I want to meet your girlfriend if that's not too hard for you to understand in that gigantic brain of yours. So can you please pass that along to her if you don't mind without any more smartass comments?"
After standing in another awkward and tense standoff and Noah knowing he had no other choice since he was currently living with his parents rent free with nowhere else to go nearby, at least anywhere he wanted to be that wasn't with any of his siblings in the surrounding area and their families of very young and overly energetic children.
Eventually Noah let out an annoyed sigh and said, "Okay, whatever, fine. I'll call Emma tomorrow and mention it. That good enough for you?"
Eventually Abe reflexively ran a hand through his beard a bit on reflex, almost like he was trying to 'keep his cool' with his smartass son who always seemed to have to make a remark about everything as he replied, "Good, I'll tell your mom when she wakes up tomorrow morning."
Noah decided to take that and run with it to finally make his exit up stairs to his bedroom as heard his dad add in behind him, making him tense up for a second, "And while you're at it, why don't you ask your girlfriend about what's involved with grad school? She seems like a good egg who actually puts her brain to good use by doing something useful with it."
Noah didn't even skip a beat as he said in his usual sarcastically cynical and unsurprised tone to himself, "And... there it is."
And just when Noah thought this was his opportunity to break away and finally stop talking to his dad and go crash in his room, his dad said, "Hey, I saw what you did on TV…"
Noah internally cringed and felt like he was finally going to get to the of his dad commenting on his less than successful TV career over the past 5 years, particularly he's probably going to get blacklisted from any further opportunities at any future TV contracts.
Not that Noah really cared since he felt both burnt out and put out at this point, but still… he couldn't wait to hear what his dad had to say.
Well until Noah froze up and went wide eyed as he heard his dad continue, "Good for you, son. About time you told that insane pretty-boy prick to shove it up his ass."
Noah whipped his head to look over his shoulder only to see his dad with his back already turned to him and going back to watching TV in the living room before going to bed.
After being in what seemed like a state of weirded out shock for several more moments after getting something that remotely seemed like a 'compliment' about anything he's ever done.
But apparently, his dad did seem genuinely impressed and almost weirdly proud that his youngest son said 'fuck you' to Chris McLean's face on international TV.
And not knowing how to process that at the moment, Noah decided to take it and run with it as he just trudged the rest of the way up the stairs after feeling like he was playing a game of 'planes, trains, and automobiles' for the past couple days with traveling… he was exhausted and ready to crash in his room.
Later the following morning
After contemplating his sanity, wondering why he was doing this, and thinking about how this could possibly be the worst idea ever… he knew he was stuck if he wanted to continue living rent free in his parent's house.
He dialed Emma's contact without a second thought as he heard the dial tone going, almost hoping she was in class and had her phone silenced so he could just leave a message and deal with it later… until he heard the line pick up and have a look of instant regret as he heard, "Noah?"
Even though all he was call her, it was almost like he was trying to cover up how much of an absolute wreck he secretly felt like as he said, "Hey, sorry, if you got class or studying I'll call later."
"It's okay, I'm just walking back from my morning class, what's going on?" He grimaced slightly until he finally decided to just rip off the band aid and asked, "Hey, listen… are you free anytime around Christmas?"
He could hear Emma's understandable confusion at him asking this question completely out of nowhere as she responded, "Um… yeah, I think? I planned on just going home for the holiday break, why?"
Noah gripped a hand in his hair before running it fully down his face out of stress before finally getting out, "My parents want you to come over… to meet you."
Well, looks like Noah's got his hands tied in this situation and gave in to inviting Emma over at his parents' request over the holidays to officially meet her, although it seems Abe likes Emma already… probably in the hopes that she can somehow motivate his overly laidback, smartass son a bit. I mean, don't get me know, we all love Noah and think he's hysterically relatable on the show… but the guy is also a bit lazy and super unmotivated to do nearly ANYTHING at all if all the information we have from his bios has anything to say. Especially since in his TDWT questionnaire, Noah responded that if he only had one day left to live, he would basically spend it sleeping or just do nothing at all. Classic Noah! Lol. XD And from here, let's get to the real tea of this chapter… and that is the introduction of Noah's serious, hard working, and intimidating business owner and tradesman father, Abe Mathai. And as you guys saw, Abe is kind of a hard ass who is set in his ways and doesn't take any shit from anyone… and unfortunately for Abe neither does his youngest son. Lol. XD Even though Noah does have a lack of motivation that drives his dad crazy since he wishes Noah would do what in his mind is 'more with his life' than just stay home and focus on gaming all day or reading books all day as we know are Noah's favorite things. Again, while Abe doesn't get the gaming thing and doesn't understand his son for his 'nerdier interests', he just more wants Noah to do something more with his life since he knows Noah has the potential as this total genius to do something like become a doctor or lawyer or just keep pursuing higher education and it pisses him off that Noah just has ZERO interest in learning since to Noah it's just a waste of his time and he 'already knows it'. That and Noah's ability to back-sass him with his witty comebacks that we all know and love a lot of the time also piss Abe off in particular. Although it appears Abe was at least proud of Noah for finally moving on from not going anywhere on reality TV and telling off Chris to his face. But trust me, this was only a taster, and with Emma now being issued the invitation of coming to Noah's family's house in suburban Winnipeg for Christmas… the real craziness and family drama can finally ensue! This is where the true Nemma relationship progression finally begins as they both figure things out as a couple, meet each other's families, and a whole bunch of other things being thrown in along the way (Owen's now crush on Kitty for example). Hope you guys are ready for a dramatic and fun-filled ride! ;) Thanks for reading and constructive feedback is ALWAYS very much appreciated.
Stay classy and safe friends!
Dexter1995