(Norman x Emma) I think I know you (TPN)

28

"Welcome to mi casa, I think its called that."

Norman and Emma were greeted by the raven haired boy, who led them inside after him. Looking around, the place seemed to be cleaner than usual, certain clutter that was all around the place was gone.

Having noticed that Isabella wasn't in the living room like usual, Norman looked up to Ray, "Hey wait, wheres Mama?" He's grown accustomed to calling her mama as well, just like everybody else.

Ray only shrugged, "As if I know. She left earlier, probably had some errands to do." He continued to walk, but instead of leading them into his room like usual, he instead turned into his kitchen. He walked towards the end, where his phone was lying, and he looked at it for a second.

Setting his phone down, Ray looked up at the pair, "Okay. You guys are probably wondering why I called you both here..." He started, keeping his gaze on the two standing before him. He paused after this sentence, causing the two to be confused.

After a few seconds passed, Ray smiled, "So how are you guys doing?"

"Thats what you called us over for?" Emma asked, tilting her head, "A welfare check?"

Ray scoffed, "Is that an issue?"

"You could have done that over text!"

"Is it such a crime for a guy to want to see his two best friends?" He asked sarcastically, leaning against the countertop.

"For you, yeah." She retorted back.

Ray rolled his eyes, "Wow, I'm hurt. Here I am, just wanting to spend time with my two best friends, and one is complaining about that. Tragic." He set his eyes on Norman, "Do you at least care? She doesn't."

"Well, its not that I don't care, but I know you're lying." Norman started, shrugging his shoulders, "You would never call us over on such short notice just to hang out with us. You always have some ulterior motive, or else you would have asked to hang out with more of a advance in time."

The raven haired boy scoffed once more, "Curse you and that big brain of yours. Stop studying my patterns."

Norman only smirked, "Its not like I do it on purpose," He laughed, "Anyways, whats the ulterior motive?"

He threw his head back, "Fine, oh my gosh." He thought for a second more, "Look, I planned to do something in regards to Don and Gilda, but things aren't going how they were supposed to." He looked back at his phone once more.

"What do you mean, what was the plan, and how did it fail?" Norman asked curiously, looking at Emma in confusion.

Ray was about to respond, but his phone buzzed once more on the counter, cutting him off before he could even respond. He lifted his phone slightly, reading what was said, a second later he rolled his eyes, "Ugh really? Now?"

Both Norman and Emma were confused at whatever was going on, they only looked upon the boy.

"What happened?" Emma asked, curiously.

Ray took a deep breath and sighed, "I'll explain the whole thing later, I guess. Change of plans, you both need to hide."

"I'm sorry, what?" Norman asked, confused at the request, "Hide??"

"Precisely." He said, putting his phone down and starting towards the stairs, "You both can just hide in my room or something." Ray kept a fast pace as he walked up the stairs, the other two having no choice but to follow after him.

"Okay wait, why are we hiding?" Norman asked once more, confused by the bizarre situation before him.

"I'll just explain later, right now you two," Ray reached his room, and opened it up, "Have got to go!"

Without so much as another word, he pushed the both of them into the room, and shut the door.

"Don't come down here! No matter what you hear!" He yelled through the door, before he is heard running downstairs.

Now they were alone, in.. Ray's room? This definitely wasn't what was expected to happen. Norman looked around, before shifting his gaze to the redhead standing beside him, "Do you have any idea what any of that was about?"

She shrugged, "Nope! Not a clue.."

Taking note of her response, he crossed his arms over his chest, "Well whatever it is, he's lying to us."

Taken aback by the accusation, Emma looked at him, "Why do you think that?"

He tilted his head in thought, "Well, for starters, he never calls us over randomly on such short notice. Now, that could be just a fluke, he could have just randomly made that decision, so that by itself isn't a giveaway that anything is up." He walked towards the corner, "But, then he checked his phone, and conveniently enough, it was right as he was about to answer why we were called here. Of course, we heard the notification, so the timing of him checking his phone could also have been a fluke, and that is also something that isn't a giveaway by itself." He continued to walk slowly, the entire time Emma watched him, wondering what he was getting at.

"So?" Emma asked, "If those two aren't giveaways.. then what was?"

Norman looked back at her, "I was just getting there."

She nodded, still watching him intently.

He looked back up, "But did you see how he reacted to the text message?"

The redhead only raised her eyebrow, "No? I wasn't watching him that closely.."

Norman shrugged, "I wasn't either! I just happened to catch it."

"But, catch what?"

Keeping his gaze on the ceiling, he spoke again, "He checked his phone, and he read the message, you know, like anyone normally would. But after reading it, he reacted with an eye roll, and a scoff."

Not catching his drift, she questioned once again, "And? What if the message inconvenienced him?"

The white haired boy looked once more at Emma, "But his reaction was delayed. He read, paused for around a second, and only then did he finally react the way he did. You see the disconnect? He staged that reaction."

Not knowing how to react, she giggled, "You really caught all of that?"

He nodded, "Yep, he's pretty easy to read sometimes. Adding all of those flukes together, plus that, I know something is up... And you wanna hear the best part?"

Emma looked at him, very intrigued in what he had to say.

He smiled, "I know that you are in on it."

"What?!" She exclaimed, "Why would I be? I'm just as confused as you are!" She said, shifting your stance.

"Yeah, that part may be true, but I'm willing to bet you know at least half of the deal." Norman said, walking up to her, "When I was questioning Ray, you stood idly for the most part. Usually you are apart of the interrogation as well, right?"

"Well- yeah! But I, I saw that you were doing a good job at it, so I just-.." She tried to find a response, but with the boy looking directly at her, she couldn't find the words. Eventually, she gave up, "Oh! Fine! I know whats going on! Why are you so good at this?!"

Norman couldn't help but burst out laughing, "I'm not! I only guessed that you were apart of it, I had no idea that you were!"

"What??" She exclaimed once more, "Then why would you accuse me??"

"To find out, duh," He said, "I had no evidence except for your silence, so I decided to act like I 'knew' it was you, and based on your reaction, I'd find my answer."

She paused a moment, taking in his words, "But-.. thats so unfair! You know I can't lie to you!"

He smiled warmly, "And for that, I am ever so grateful."

Emma only crossed her arms and scoffed, "So rude!"

"Yeah, maybe," He started, looking down at her, "Okay, now spill. Whats happening?"