Chapter 472) Just Friends

Author's Note: This is one of probably several 'photo-less' chapters due to my lack of Wifi-access during my travels. I was going to wait, but my game progresses fast and I dislike the storyline trailing too much behind. Once I return home things will go back to the previous format. Enjoy!

Del Sol Valley 
Arcane Mansion

Looking up from his task, Noah's eyes found his own in the mirror, trying to find answers. 
Answers to an unasked question. Answers to tell him what to do about everything. About his life. His future. His career. 

And about her. 

About Holly Taylor. 

At first glance just a pretty girl like many others. Simple, fun, nearly always optimistic. 
Once you looked closer you saw how beautiful she really was and once you did, you couldn't unsee it. Noah definitely couldn't, no matter how he tried. 
Holly had become a big part of his life, if not the center which nearly every decision he made rotated around in one way or another, even though they were just friends. Good friends, confidants. Trust built up slowly over the past months since they first met at Nolan's party. Noah looked into his own eyes but saw her. Shaking his head he turned away. 

The more he tried to put her out of his mind, the more she dominated his thoughts. 
The memory of her eyes meeting his, the type of gaze that sent jolts of electricity through his body. 
The accidental touch that wasn't all that accidental. The looks, across the room, while everyone else vanished. Always finding a seat or a place to stand next to one another. Holding her hand to help her out of a car or over a 'hurdle', then just 'forgetting' to let go again. Her fingers playing with his in the darkness of a movie theater. His leg touching hers for no real reason except to touch each other. Moments like this had become more and more frequent. 

Noah was no fool, he knew very well what all that meant. A blind man with a cane could see it. And Noah was curious, eager to feel all those feelings of a fresh new love again. The anticipation before the next date, the giddiness of another 'first' together. The physical closeness between lovers, not just another affair or one-night-stand. 

But he wasn't ready. Not yet. 
And he wasn't sure she was ready for all that again. Especially not with someone like him. A vampire by birth, a celebrity by choice, or at least an aspiring one. All that spelled complications for any mortal, let alone someone like her. Holly was a simple girl from a simple background. Not the type for all the hoopla that came with the branch of Camerons Noah originated from. They were all born famous, born artists, even though a few occasionally chose another way. His parents and brother, for example. He had undone all that in a final Hail Mary attempt to get Emilee back. Now it was too late to backpedal. The genie wouldn't go back in the bottle anymore. He was a public figure now.

With a smile he remembered his intense feelings watching her after the first time he ported with her. For any mortal the first port with a vampire is a life-altering experience, some even get a little sick, dizziness, nausea. But not Holly. Fit as a fiddle, the moment he released her their eyes met and he thought they would kiss, but a noise distracted her and once she saw where he had taken her, she had turned into a little girl in a toy store. Her eyes grew big, she pointed here and there, twirling around running here, looking at that. Noah had never seen anyone react that way and found it very endearing. Watching her face once he gave her the full tour of his home, a large and usually crushingly empty mansion, Noah forgot about his plans to sell it and move in with his brother. The way all this excited her, the wonder in her face, made him want to keep it, if only to bring her here and watch her enjoy it. 
Her emotions were genuine, not just now. If Holly liked something, no matter how big or small, you knew. If she loved something, you knew. And you never had to guess whether or not she didn't like something. If her mouth didn't, her face would tell. Noah found all that so refreshing, in a world of celebrities where everything was smoke and mirrors, same was true for vampires. Smoke and mirrors, secrets and lies. Everpresent. 

He smiled to himself knowing he would see her again this weekend for another party. 
Finally. 
It had been an entire week and two days already since the last time he had seen her. His grandfather Blaine had put his foot down and forced Noah to finally work on his music with him again until they had at least two entire songs finished, recorded and edited to Blaine's liking. 

Over the past half year or so, Holly and Noah had spent a significant amount of their spare time together, often with Noah's brother Nolan and his girlfriend Alessa. He found out that Alessa and Holly had been best friends since junior high, the girls had subsequently been roommates in college, dating losers who would ultimately break their hearts. Alessa got cheated on, then dumped her man after a fiery break-up scene during which dishes flew in typical hot-blooded Tartosian girl style. Holly had quietly endured her ex Carl's cheating, believing his lies, until she had enough and ended it. Realizing this time he couldn't butter up Holly into forgiving him again, Carl tried to first guilt her into staying with him by threatening suicide, then he got violent, but Holly managed to flee from him, unfortunately in her terror and panic thinking Carl might rape her, ended up running into traffic, putting her into the hospital with luckily relatively minor injuries, while Holly's big brother Jesse found Carl and put him in the hospital too after a good beating for what he had done to Holly. Hearing that, Noah already liked Jesse without having met him. Holly always spoke very highly about her parents and brother. 

Holly knew most about Noah's past, including about Emilee, and most recently also the paternity drama. It had taken Noah a long time and lots of courage to tell her about it, fearing she would turn from him. She didn't. Instead she was very supportive. Ever since meeting Holly he clung on to the gleam of hope that the baby really wasn't his. Before Holly he hadn't been sure what he wanted. If the baby was his, he would forever be linked to Emilee, something he wanted then, but now didn't want anymore. 

The lines between Noah and Holly had been blurred so much, it was hard to really find the right term for their relationship. Technically friends because of Nolan and Alessa, but clearly, there was more. They even each had spent nights in each other's beds, though completely platonic. While staying over at his mansion, Noah noticed the fireworks over Del Sol Valley, which were best viewed from his bedroom, facing large windows overlooking downtown, so he went to get her, and eventually they decided it was more comfortable sitting on his bed, which turned into laying and talking, until Holly fell asleep. Feeling like a creep, Noah couldn't help watch her sleep next to him. She had pulled him into her bed when they had one of their late night confessional type talks, he was emotional and vulnerable talking about Emilee, so she took him to her room for privacy. They talked until the early morning hours when Holly finally passed out. 
During some high summer grill outs at Everett Heights there was some close dancing and hand holding once the alcohol started affecting them. Unknowingly, Holly had become his muse, getting closer with her had finally broken his many-months-long writer's block and though he never told anyone, including Holly, most recent pieces he had written were about her, in one way or another. 
Had it not been for the Emilee-fiasco, Noah would have ended this suspense months ago and just kissed Holly during one of those special moments to see what would happen. He was curious to find out how a relationship between them would go. IF she wanted that. Emilee had been a close and good friend for him too, until they became romantic. But Holly already knew that he wasn't a regular young man, while Emilee had claimed she had no clue until he told her and she turned from him. Either way, he would have had his answer then. Damn him and his idiotic final attempt at passion with a girl who so clearly didn't want him. His lapse of judgment resulting in sexy time with his ex so many months ago might now cost him something he really wanted badly, if the baby was his and if Holly couldn't live with that. 

And then as if on cue the letter came. 
A courier brought it. The moment Noah accepted it he already knew it was something big, instinctively, even before he looked at the sender. E. Auditore, followed by an address in Tartosa. Emilee or Ezio. Either way, this probably meant she had the baby. Shit was getting real for Noah. 

Noah ported to his brother's. 

To Noah's dismay, Nolan wasn't home, neither was Connor, so he went to his parents' home instead, but before he could turn towards their front door he looked at Alessa and Holly's home next door. It was a Tuesday morning, the girls would be at work, but something drew Noah closer. He went over and knocked anyway, and much to his surprise Holly answered. 

"You're home!" Noah exclaimed, his surprise genuine. 

"Sick. So keep your distance. I am a miserable, whiny, cranky, snotty mess." Holly told him in an unusually nasal voice while letting him in and closing the door behind them. 

With a smirk, Noah lunged forward, grabbed her and started blowing raspberries on every bare piece of skin he could find, causing her to giggle uncontrollably, while begging him to stop, snorting for laughter. When he did let up, she took his hand and pulled him to the couch with her, plopping down. 

"If you want coffee or anything else, have at it, you know where everything is at. I am out of service today. My head is about three sizes too big. Ugh." she told him, followed by a sneeze attack. 

"Wondering if you might be allergic to me." Noah shrugged, handing her one of the boxes of tissues from the coffee table filled with medicine bottles, water and an almost empty glass of orange juice. 

"No, I have been going like this all morning, since yesterday afternoon at the office, that's when this mess started. Last night was a nightmare, barely slept a wink. Can't breathe, coughing, sneezing, headache, throatache - everything aches - and my stomach is riding some on and off rollercoaster. Doctor said it's a mild flu or a rough cold. I am the only person who gets a cold right at the beginning of fall. People are still out in shorts and t-shirts for heaven's sake, but no, Holly Taylor needs her seasonal cold NOW. Ugh!" 

Noah got up and made them some coffee, any Cameron lineage member's default answer to ailments and adversity, poured just the right amount of milk in for Holly, smiling at the intimacy with which he knew their kitchen already, once he returned handing Holly her cup she greedily grabbed and drank it, he sat his own cup on the table, sighed while falling heavily into the couch cushions next to her. 

"Holly, I am here for a reason. I didn't know where to go with this, just that I can't do it alone. Noah and Connor aren't home, my parents still don't even know about this ..." while talking Noah had pulled the large and thick envelope from his pocket, unfolded it before handing it to her. 

Surprised, Holly put down her coffee mug, took the mail piece from him. After glancing at the sender, Holly nodded. 

"Wanna do it together?" she asked softly. 

He shook his head. 

"You do it. I can't. Just can't." 

She nodded, pat his knee, then tore open the envelope, pulling out several pieces of paper, one handwritten the others printed with official looking letterheads, Noah tensely watched her reading over them with the speed of someone who was used to read volumes of important documents at work, quickly grasping the point. When she lowered the papers, her eyes met Noah's, who looked every bit as tense as he felt. 

"Get up." Holly demanded, while raising up herself. 

Noah obliged, Holly hugged him, tight and tighter, pressing them together as if trying to fuse them, when her lips found Noah's ear. 

"Congratulations Noah. You did NOT make Nolan an uncle yet. 40 weeks of terror for nothing. Three paternity tests from three different facilities all say her husband is 99.9% the father. Copies attached if you want to peruse yourself." 

With a sigh of relief, Noah pulled Holly tighter yet, crying into her shoulder. He didn't even worry whether that made him look weak or not, he didn't care. He knew she'd understand. 

When they separated, he smiled, relieved, feeling light, as if a ton of weight had been taken off him. 

He took her hand and kissed it. 
With a smirk she shoved him so that he fell backwards onto her couch, while she climbed atop him, tickling him, both of them giggling hard, snorting until he managed to wrap his arms wrapped around her forcing her to stop. 

Breathlessly, still straddling him, she smirked. 

"Oops, I might have just given you a cold. Sorry. Like I said, thinking is not my strong suit today with my flu or cold inflated bobblehead." Holly told him. 

"Well, good thing then that I am a vamp. We don't get colds, you lil bobblehead." he grinned, winking while releasing her from his grip. 

"Well, then .." she said trying to tickle him again, but didn't get that far when suddenly someone cleared their throat. 

Startled, both stared at a middle-aged woman, her hair the same shade of blonde as Holly's and very similar facial features, who was suddenly standing in the room, shaking her head. 

"Holly! Would you please explain to me why you sounded near death on the phone earlier, so I rush over here to take care of my child only to find you healthy enough to climb around on your best friend's boyfriend?! And would you PLEASE get off Nolan now?! What has gotten into you two?! Shame on both of you! That is really inappropriate!" 

"Mom! Where did you come from all of a sudden!? And this is not Nolan! What do you think of me!? He has a twin brother. This guy here!" Holly sounded horrified, pointing at Noah. 

Awkwardly, she now climbed off his lap, both rose up, Noah bravely holding out his hand to the older woman. 

"Mrs. Taylor, I am Noah Grainger, not Nolan. Nolan and I really are twins. Identical, obviously. We get mistaken for each other a lot." he smiled politely. 

Puzzled, Holly's mom took his hand and shook it, clearly wondering whether or not to believe him. 

"Roxanne Taylor, Holly's mom, obviously. Nice to meet you ... Noah." she said. 

"Mom, why are you here? How did you get in?" Holly wondered.

"With the spare key, obviously, I didn't want to knock in case you were asleep. I brought you homemade chicken noodle soup and wanted to take care of my little girl. I am confused. How come I don't know the first thing about this young man? I thought we are close. You'd think I'd hear about a new man in your life, especially after that whole Carl fiasco. Come here, Noah, make yourself useful and serve up the soup. Three bowls, I'd like you to join us, I even brought plenty for Alessa and Nolan to enjoy later." Mrs. Taylor handed the tupperware she had taken from a fabric bag she was carrying to Noah, who took it, smirked at a snickering and shrugging Holly, then went about the assigned task, while Holly's mom put her hand on her daughter's forehead. 

"Mom, I am fine, really. And Noah is just a friend, a good friend, not what you are probably thinking. I was going to tell you and dad - and Jesse - about him. Eventually. We were just .... playing. Not ... doing ... stuff." 

"Playing, huh? Oh Holly. You are a grown young woman, not my place to tell you what to do, if you want to play around on Nolan's twin, so be it. But if you really were fine, you should be at work. You do not look or sound fine to me, so you will let your Mama take care of you like I always have, grown woman or not. And how would you know what I am thinking anyway? I don't even know what I am thinking about all this, trying to work this out in my head still. So far, Noah seems like a polite and respectful young man who knows his way around a kitchen. That's more than I could ever say for your lazy ex. We'll see about the rest."