Chapter Text
“You can’t sleep all day, Cody.” Noah reminded the boy wrapped in blankets as Noah slipped on his shoes.
“Huh?” Cody murmured as he emerged from his dreams.
“You should have woke up an hour ago, sleeping beauty. We have to head down to the Grapevine and catch breakfast. It’s 10:30.” Noah huffed as he paced in circles, already dressed and ready.
“I’ll take the ‘sleeping beauty’ part as a compliment.” Cody smirked as he tossed on jeans and a t-shirt. Noah stood there quite awkwardly, tapping his foot gently on the carpet. He couldn’t help but smile at Cody’s goofiness. The boy had his shirt on completely backwards and didn’t even notice.
“What?” Cody asked, noticing the way Noah was looking at him.
“Check a mirror.” Noah snickered.
“Oh crap.” Cody managed an embarrassed laugh and reversed his shirt. That kid is just, Noah began, thinking to himself, amazing. I have no idea how he lives like that. It had been years since the two of them met on those stupid reality shows Total Drama Island and Total Drama World Tour.
Noah stood behind Cody as they both looked in the mirror at each other. Noah had ditched the sweater vest years ago and starting liking flannel shirts more and more. Cody’s wardrobe stayed the same, plain shirts and jeans. Noah wrapped his arms around Cody tightly and a pink hue was embroidered across the boy’s cheeks.
“Hey- you’re the one who’s been bugging me to get going. And look at you!” Cody humphed, his face bright red.
“Oh come on,” Noah teased, “Like you don’t love it when I hold you.”
“That’s not the point. We gotta go. You said it yourself.”
“We’ll go.... just after I do one little thing.” Noah smiled and planted a kiss on Cody’s forehead.
Cody smiled back and said, “We good now?”
“If by good you mean amazing, yes.”
* * *
The streets of San Francisco were as empty as Cody’d ever seen them. They sky was a depressing grey, pounding down on the buildings of the city like a fist. There were no distinct clouds; however, when Cody concentrated hard enough, he could see faint outlines of them. It was a pretty ugly day, if you’d have asked him.
Soon, Noah and Cody arrived at their favorite cafe, the Grapevine. They entered and took their regular seat.
“Pretty stinky day, huh?” Cody observed.
“Yeah. I hope it doesn’t rain. I didn’t bring umbrellas. I was so distracted...” Noah trailed off and left Cody to finish his sentence mentally.
A waitress, built thin, with long, flaxen blonde hair approached the two. Her eyes bore into Cody’s, and instantly, he recognized her. But not quite... he couldn’t put a name to the face.
***
Oh my god. Is that really...? Noah glanced nervously across the table at Cody, who seemed to recognize their waitress as well.
Please, oh please, don’t recognize us. Please.
“Cody? Noah?” The waitress’s eyes widened and stared at the both of them.
Cody shuffled and fixed his gaze on Noah, to tell him, “Please say something.”
Noah gulped and shut his eyes for a second, then reopened them.