~Season 7~
This was a mistake. That was Richelle's first thought when she opened the hotel door, Noah following closely behind her. Everything about this was a mistake. Richelle wracked her brain trying to come up with what was going through her mind when she agreed to share a room with Noah during this convention.
When she had been announced as the Face of Absolute Dance, Noah had reached out about a convention that he was teaching at, wanting her to assist him. A few ex-A-Troupers were meant to be there, it would be fun. After clearing it with Emily—not Nick, she didn't trust him yet—she had accepted. Noah was the one to suggest sharing a room and she had assumed he'd be smart enough to book one with two beds.
Apparently not.
Noah didn't even seem to bat an eye as he threw his bag down on the floor. He then threw himself on the bed reaching across the bedside table to grab the remote.
"What do you think you're doing?" Richelle asked.
"Uh. I was going to watch tv. What are you doing?"
"That's my side of the bed." Richelle said.
"Oh I didn't realize we were calling dibs." Noah said with a smirk on his face.
"I always sleep on the right side." Richelle said waiting for him to move. "Does it seriously not bother you that there's only one bed, I could go stay with Giselle?" She asked, leaning into the handle of her suitcase. He seemed way too cool with this. Especially for someone who she had been friends with for such a long time.
Noah looked puzzled for a moment. "No. It doesn't bother me." He moved across the bed to the left side, which made Richelle smile. "We're both adults, I think we can handle sharing a bed. We're not J-Troupers anymore." He said with a knowing smirk.
"Those are bold words coming from someone who's nickname is still mini-Eldon according to James."
"HA HA." He shouted back at her. "You're so funny." He said in the most mocking tone he could muster. "But if it bothers you that much, I can sleep in the desk chair or the bathtub. I could even sleep on the floor."
"No it's fine. Don't worry about. We'll make it work." Noah nodded, flipping through the tv channels until he found one that was playing his favourite movie, Avatar. He almost screamed when he found it. Richelle just pulled out her book and began reading. Her mind wasn't exactly focused however as out of the corner of her eye she could see Noah mouthing along to every word. It was the cutest thing ever.
"I'm going to take a shower real quick." Noah said when the movie finished. The credits were still rolling and it only slightly annoyed her that he didn't turn the TV off. Richelle only nodded in response, trying to finish the chapter.
She heard the water turn on from the other room and then her mind was a goner. Any chance she had of concentrating was quickly thrown out the window. She did not like Noah. No way. But for some reason she couldn't stop thinking about him standing there under the water. She imagined the way he would mess up his perfect hair as he washed out the shampoo. There was an aching in her chest. She recognized the feeling but refused to acknowledge it. She wanted nothing more than to march into that bathroom and get in the shower with him. Richelle threw the book across the room letting it hit the tv before falling to the floor.
She buried her head into the hotel's pillow and screamed into it until there was no more oxygen in her lungs. These thoughts had to stop. She did not like Noah Erlick. Maybe it had just been too long. Richelle got out of the bed and went to retrieve her book. She tried to concentrate on the words on the page, but no matter how many times she read them she couldn't understand them.
The bathroom door opened and Richelle shut her eyes tight forcing her lungs to take a deep breathe. When she opened them he was walking through the room with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. "What the hell?" She yelled at him, throwing her hands around.
"Sorry I forgot my clothes." Noah said, confusion washing over his face as he started digging through his bag. Richelle watched him as he pulled what he needed before standing back up. The romantic part of her brain wished that he would just drop the towel by accident.
Noah came out of the bathroom a couple of minutes later wearing a pair of dark blue swimming trunks, his hair still wet. "I'm going to go down to the pool with some of the others. You wanna come?"
"Sure." She said throwing her book down on the nightstand. "Give me a second." She got out of the bed digging through her bag until she found the white ribbed bikini she had packed. After changing she left the bathroom and couldn't help but notice the way Noah's eyes darkened for a second as his adam's apple bobbed. "Ready?" She asked and Noah nodded.
Noah walked towards the elevator banks."Uh can we take the stairs?" Richelle asked feeling the panic rise in her stomach.
"Why?" Noah asked. "Oh yeah. Claustrophobic, totally forgot." He said.
"It's fine. The stairs are actually faster."
"You want to bet?"
"Sure. First one in the pool wins."
"Deal." Noah said as he hit the down button. Just as he did Richelle took off running down the stairwell taking the steps two at a time. When she reached the ground floor she sprinted as fast as she could down the hallway. She swiped her key card at the door for the pool and quickly ran across the floor disobeying the signage. The water was freezing but she didn't care. It didn't take long before Noah was frantically unlocking the door. Richelle submerged herself underwater so that he wouldn't see she was already here. She came up when she felt the waves from him jumping in hit her.
"Beat you!" She shouted.
"Damn it!" Noah exclaimed splashing water at her. She turned her back trying to conceal the laugh that escaped from the back of her throat and smile on her face. "You cheated somehow."
"Please explain to me how I cheated running down the stairs?" Richelle counted a smirk growing on her face.
"Could be a second elevator just down the hall. Maybe you didn't run down the stairs, maybe you jumped. Could've been a trap door somewhere and a whole secret network of tunnels leading straight to the pool. You tell me how you did it."
"Damn you got me. I used the hotels secret network of tunnels."
"I knew it!" Noah exclaimed. "We should've done that at TNS so I wasn't late all the time." Richelle honestly couldn't tell if he was joking or not.
"You're so dumb." Richelle said moving to splash more water in face. As she went to move her arm though Noah caught her wrist stopping her. Richelle nearly lost her balance but was stopped from slipping by Noah's arms. His hand held the small of her back to steady her.
"You okay?" He asked.
"Yeah." Richelle responded nearly out of breath for no apparent reason. She did not like Noah. Yet for some reason all she wanted to do was find out how soft his lips were. Her skin was burning where his hands still sat. When he looked down at her she saw everything she was thinking in his expression. Rational thinking quickly went out the window as Richelle stood on her tiptoes to close the distance between them.
Just as their lips were about to touch the pool doors opened and Giselle, James and Max walked in gossiping about someone from the LOD faculty. Richelle quickly put space between Noah and her as if to act like nothing happened.
Soon the rest of their friends were in the pool. Richelle tried to act like nothing had happened. Technically nothing did happen. But still she couldn't quite shake the look of compassion in Noah's eyes and the flutter of her heart behind her rib cage.
~~~
Later that night, Noah was sitting on the bed when Richelle came out of the bathroom, her hair still wet from the shower. Noah shut his eyes tight trying to not think about her in the shower. What was wrong with him?
"Shit!" Richelle said digging through her bag. "Do you happen to have an extra shirt that I can borrow, I forgot my pyjamas at home?"
"No sorry." Noah said.
"Can I have your pyjama top?" Richelle asked.
"What!?" Noah exclaimed. "Then I won't have anything to sleep in."
"But I don't want to sleep in just a bra." Richelle whined. Noah got up off the bed and dug around in his bag until he pulled out a black Rolling Stones shirt and tossed it towards her. "Thanks!" Richelle said smugly as she caught it, walking back into the bathroom to change.
When she reentered the room, Noah's mouth went completely dry. Seeing Richelle in nothing but short shorts and one of his shirts was something that he had fantasized about far too often. And now here she was, settling down into bed next to him.
"Are you ready for bed or what?" She asked.
Noah nodded, turning off the tv. He got up off the bed and pulled a pair of sweatpants out of his bag. When he walked out of the bathroom Richelle suddenly regretted taking his shirt. She couldn't stop her eyes from wandering down his chest following his extensive abs at his center down to his navel.
When he sits down on his side of the bed, the entire mattress sinks. Richelle grabs a few of the pillows that were not being used and stacks them between the two of them. "What are you doing?" He asks her.
"Getting some privacy. What are you doing?" Noah groaned in response but she could hear him flopping over in the bed. She couldn't concentrate on anything. The smell of Noah on his shirt was so intoxicating. She wanted to bottle it up and keep it forever. Richelle turns on her side away from the pillow wall closing her eyes tight praying to God for some kind of sleep tonight.
~~~
"Morning!" Richelle said walking out of his bedroom wearing one of his shirts that had been abandoned on the ground the night before. She smiled at her boyfriend who was frying eggs.
"Hey." Noah said looking up at her, smiling widely at the sight. "How did you sleep?" He asked.
"Good. Until this morning when I realized that you were gone." She sat down on top of the kitchen counter next to him. "You should've stayed."
"I wanted to make you breakfast." Noah said smiling at her as he continued to scramble the eggs. "Trust me, it wasn't easy to walk away this morning."
"Well you shouldn't have." Richelle said, watching as he plated up their breakfast. He moved to stand in front of her swinging legs.
"Well I don't have to leave now."
"Good." Richelle breathed wrapping her legs around his waist, pulling him further in and pressing a kiss against his lips. It started out chaste, lips just brushing against each other nothing more nothing less. But then Richelle grabbed onto the collar of his shirt and pulled him even closer. His hand wandered into her hair as she parted her lips for him.
She untucked his shirt from his pants allowing her hands to wander up and down his chest as they had the night before. As he kissed down her jaw Richelle let out a whimper. "Your eggs are getting cold." He said just as he was about to reach that spot on her neck that he knew she loved.
~~~
Noah woke up with a start. Counting sheep was pointless, instead he decided to recite the entirety of Harry Potter to himself. The room was silent except for Richelle's light snores. He closed his eyes and tried desperately to ignore the overwhelming feeling for the girl laying next to him.
~~~
Richelle frantically grabbed at him in the middle of the night. The moonlight streaking through the blinds showed that her face was completely tear-stained. "What's wrong?" He asked sitting up in the bed.
She looked over at him as if she was questioning his existence for a second. "Sorry." She said looking down at the comforter. "It was just a bad dream. I didn't mean to wake you up."
"It's okay." Noah said as he laid back down. "Come here." He motioned her towards him. Richelle laid back down in the bed resting her head on Noah's chest. She wrapped her arm around his torso with such tight force as if she was scared to let go. "Do you want to talk about it?" He asked as he put his hands under her shirt rubbing her bare back in a soothing manner. He felt her relax further into him.
"It's stupid. You'll make fun of me." Richelle said, her grasp around his torso still suffocatingly tight, but Noah didn't mind. He ran one of his hands through her hair that was naturally curled from when she had showered earlier.
"I guarantee it wasn't stupid. Nothing that gets you this worked up is stupid Rich." He said. Noah could feel her tears seeping through his shirt.
"You had left again. And I...I missed you. So much." she sobbed her entire body shaking in his arms. He tightened his arms around her suddenly understanding why she was holding him so tight.
"Richie, I would never leave you." He said praying that she would stop crying. There was nothing in the world he hated more than when she was upset.
"But you have. You've done it before Noah. What would be different this time. I can't lose you again." Her body was still violently shaking against him. Her sobs creating echoes through his ribs.
"Richie we weren't dating when I left,
J-Troupe. I love you and I promise that I would never leave you."
"J-Troupe?" Richelle questioned. "I'm not talking about J-Troupe. I mean sure I missed you, but I had other friends. But I can't do it again Noah. I can't stand you being halfway across the continent all the time."
"Richelle." Noah said softly. "I don't know what you're talking about right now, but I promise it was all just a bad dream. I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere." Noah took one of her hands from his side and moved it up to his chest to rest right on top of his heart. Her sobs and calmed down quite a bit and her grip on his side and let up as she felt his heart beating.
"I love you so much." She whispered burying her face into his chest.
"I love you too." Noah said smiling at the way the moonlight hit her necklace sending a beam of light straight into the ceiling.
~~~
Richelle woke up in the middle of the night with her head on something that wasn't her pillow. It took her a moment to realize that her head was resting on Noah's shoulder. Squinting in the dark she could make out a couple of pillows laying on the ground. Her arm was wrapped around him and when she realized she quickly pulled away. It took a second to get herself out of his grip without waking him.
When she finally slipped out of his arms she heard him groan at the loss of contact. Richelle rolled over so that she wasn't facing him. Even with the lights completely off she could feel the red in her checks from her dream and the fact that she woke up cuddling him.
She tried to ignore the way she felt. Tried to ignore how happy she felt in that dream, how nice it felt to call him hers. She didn't want to think about the way it felt like his arms were made to hold her, or how his shoulder was somehow more comfortable than this hotel pillow. All she wanted to do was go back to Toronto where she was able to completely deny the fact that she, Richelle Nolet, liked Noah Erlick.
~~~
If it wasn't clear, the first italics is Noah's dream, the second is Richelle's lol
This is basically what would've happened when Richelle went to the convention in 7x04