Who They Really Are

twenty-seven

Kat woke the next morning to Noel's groaning, and she looked over to see him rubbing his head with both hands.

"What's wrong?" Kat says through yawns.

"I didn't mean to wake you up. My head is killing me," Noel mumbles through his hands.

"Drink too much yesterday?" Kat teases, moving his hands off his head to look him in the eye.

"Apparently," Noel says as Kat starts to rub his head for him. "Thank you."

"Why don't we go downstairs and get you some water and Advil?" Kat asks, moving closer to Noel to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. Noel puts his arm around her back and brings her to him, nuzzling his head in her shoulder.

"Let's stay here," he mumbles against her skin.
Kat continues to rub his head for a couple minutes, then slowly pushes him back.

"It's weird.. I don't even remember getting in bed last night. Maybe I had too much to drink too," Kat says as she tries to pull Noel out of bed behind her.

Noel smiles at her as she talks, remembering the way she'd looked last night as she fell asleep.

"What?" Kat asks, dropping Noel's arm.

"Nothing," Noel says as he sits up. "Let's go."

Noel grabs Kat's hand, and they walk downstairs together where everyone else is already sitting around the living room.

"There you guys are! We thought maybe you died or something," Matt calls from the couch.

"Thanks for the concern," Noel replies sarcastically as Kat says, "Why, what time is it?"

"4:05," Charlie says from beside Matt.

"In the afternoon?" Kat asks in shock.

"Well duh," Charlie replies with a laugh.

"Yeah, you guys must've been really tired," Liam says, giving Noel a pointed look.

"What?" Noel asks as he and Kat walk to the empty chair and sit down together.

"Oh nothing. Where did you guys disappear to last night? I didn't see you after like 1:00," Liam says.

"Oh. We were just in my room," Noel says, taking a long sip out of the water bottle he'd grabbed from the fridge.

"So that's why they're so tired!" Charlie yells, and the other guys bust up laughing as Kat's face instantly turns bright red.

"Shut up, Charlie," Noel says as the guys are still cracking up.

"Don't listen to them. He's just jealous," Noel whispers in Kat's ear when he sees the blush on her cheeks. Kat nods, and looks over to see Addi smacking the back of Liam's head.

"Ow," he says, turning to look at her.

"Stop being stupid," Addi tells him, and Kat gives her an appreciative smile.

•••••••

Since Kat had missed her morning workout, she decided to go that evening instead and Noel insisted that he go with her.

Kat got changed into her workout clothes and met Noel downstairs, and looked him up and down. He was wearing a t-shirt and gym shorts, and had his favorite baseball cap on. And he managed to look good, as always.

They took the train to the gym, Noel wearing his hat low over his eyes to avoid being noticed.

Kat went to the treadmills first, telling him she usually runs 3 miles first to warm up then moves onto arms. Noel gives up after just a few minutes of running and watches Kat instead.