Noah X Michael Novels & Stories

Finding the good stuff for these two is tricky because 'Supergirl' fanfic tends to focus on the bigger ships. A lot of the Noah/Michael stories are either super short one-shots or they're buried as a background pairing in a longer fic about Kara or Lena.

My favorite angle is when writers explore their dynamic post-breakup, especially if they lean into the 'what if they had to work together' scenario. There's a decent one called 'Residual' on AO3 where they're both pulled into a DEO investigation years later—it nails that awkward, charged energy of exes who never really got closure. The author gave Michael this weary, pragmatic edge that felt really true to his later appearances.

Honestly, most of the compelling material for them isn't in romance-centric plots. It's in the fics that treat their past relationship as character backstory that colors their present actions. I sort of prefer that, anyway; it feels less forced than trying to manufacture new meet-cutes for them.

Noah and Michael stories? I’ve always felt they work best when the writers lean into the shared history that’s implied but never fully shown on the show. That vague past friendship-turned-rivalry gives so much material for ‘what if’ moments. A lot of fics use flashbacks to show a softer dynamic when they were younger, which makes the present-day sniping and stubborn silences hit differently. It’s not just arguing; it’s arguing with the ghost of a better understanding between them.

What really sells the tension for me is the physicality. I’ve read a dozen versions of the ‘reaching for the same tool in the garage’ scene, and it never gets old because it’s so them. That accidental touch, the freeze, then one of them pulling back like they got burned. It’ when they’re forced to work together on a project, shoulders brushing, sharing a wary glance over a fixed engine, that the unsaid stuff gets loud. You can feel the characters mentally circling each other, trying to figure out if the other feels it too.

The best ones don’t even have them kiss by chapter ten. It’s all in the shared looks across a crowded room, the grudging respect that slips out during a crisis, and that one quiet line where Noah finally admits, ‘I never hated you, Michael.’ That’s the good stuff.

I can't even count how many times I've stumbled into that enemies-to-lovers setup with these two. It's practically the default. Writers latch onto their on-screen tension and spin it into these long, angsty slow burns where every shared glance in a crowded room is loaded. The 'we have to share a bed on a mission' scenario pops up a lot too, forcing that physical proximity. What I find more interesting, though, is when authors flip it and explore them as established partners dealing with the fallout of their actions, the weight of what they've done. It becomes less about the getting together and more about the staying together in a world that keeps trying to tear them apart.

There's also a surprising amount of AUs that transplant them into completely different settings—coffee shops, college dorms, even fantasy realms—which shows how versatile their dynamic is perceived to be. The core always seems to be this push-pull between Noah's more reserved, potentially self-destructive nature and Michael's fiercer, protective impulses. Even in a fluffy coffee shop AU, you'll still find that underlying current of one trying to save the other from themselves.