Chapter Text
“Turn it offffffff”
“No one told you to sleep over, dipshit” Colt mumbles, blindly reaching out and smacking the snooze button on his blaring motel room alarm clock
“Fuck youuuuuu” Ryland moans, dragging a pillow over his head as Colt reluctantly sits up with a yawn and stretch “It’s too earlyyyyy…”
“I told you I had an early wakeup today” Colt reminds, slipping out of bed and shuffling for his bathroom “How long you planning on staying over?” he asks, hissing a little at the bright lights over the sink and shower coming to life.
Silence answers.
“D’you fall back asleep already??” He baffles, poking his head out to stare at the blanketed lump curled up in his bed.
Ryland lets out a soft snore from under his pillow.
“Lucky bastard” Colt huffs, heading back into the bathroom to take his quick “wake the fuck up” shower and get ready for the day. Hopefully he wouldn’t have to do any last-minute fire stunts today and they’d let him stick to his usual getting hit by cars and being defenestrated, as his brother would say. Maybe a driving stunt if he was really lucky and the television gods were smiling down on him.
Colt finishes up his usual morning routine and heads back out into the room to pack his work bag, stuffing a spare outfit, his half-empty water bottle he needed to refill, a towel, a workout drink and an energy drink into the small duffel. He heads over to Ryland’s side of the bed, picking up the pillow over his face to see his twin fast asleep.
He looks somehow both exhausted and peaceful sprawled there, the leftover tear tracks of the night before still smudged on his cheeks.
Colt gently nudges Ryland’s shoulder to rouse him, getting a sleepy grumble and sigh in response.
“Hey, I'm heading out for the day” Colt informs, impulsively running a hand through his brother's messy hair with unusual gentleness to smooth it out “I should be back this afternoon if they don't keep us late. We can get dinner if you're still around and down”
“Mmkay…” Ryland mumbles into the sheets, humming a little and leaning into the fingers carding through his hair “Be safe…”
“Always am, Rylie” Colt teases, grinning as he gets flipped off blindly and flipping him off with both hands in retaliation “Enjoy being able to sleep in, asshole”
“Quit your job!”
“Later, Ry!” Colt laughs, grabbing his car keys off the dresser, crew jacket off the chair and heading out to his truck downstairs.
Thankfully, it only takes a couple broken speed limits to get to set on time, practically drifting into a parking spot before getting down and racing to the studio.
“How late am I?” Colt gasps, slipping in through the lot door
“Made it with a minute to spare, Coordinator isn’t in yet” One of the shop assistant guys, Dave? Dan??, snorts as he watches Colt rush to toss his bag with the rest of the stunt crew’s personal gear “You look like shit, man. You okay?”
“Late night. Brother crashed at my place” Colt off-handedly explains as he quickly slips on his original Miami Vice Stunt Team bomber jacket and scans the room for the matching group of newer red and black Miami Vice hoodies that should be getting their assignments soon “Danny? Was it??”
“Dan” The young man corrects with a small huff
“Dan the man” Colt jokes, flashing him a crooked grin and a pair of finger guns “You know where the coffee jug is?”
“Next to the prop table, with the rest of the snacks” Dan sighs, thumbing over to a different section of the filming hangar “Don’t touch my shit, stuntie” He hisses as Colt beams and slips around him “I’ve heard enough nightmare stories from the mechanics about you guys!”
“Stereotypes!” Colt dismisses, extending his arms a little as if to gesture ‘who, me?’ “Thanks!”
Colt snatches up a cup of shitty black coffee in an equally shitty paper cup and a couple packets of sugar before slipping into the small crowd of red and black shuffling past him, wiggling his way near the center and ruffling his hair to make it seem as if he’d been there all along.
“You look like shit” One of his fellow stunt actors quietly notes as they listen to the stunt rigging coordinator rambling on at the head of the pack
“So I’ve heard. Late night” Colt whispers back, pouring his sugar packets in and stuffing the empty papers in his pocket “My brother got broken up with so-” he makes a vague hand-gesture and the guy next to him nods sympathetically “Stayed up past my bedtime. Anyway, Mr. Malesci here yet?”
“You can just call him Artie, kid. It’s been like a year” One of the older stunt actors whispers over her shoulder with a wink and grin “And yeah, he’s coming over now”
Colt quickly quiets down and pays attention, much to the other actors amusement, as the stunt coordinator sure enough makes his way over with his clipboard.
“Alright, what are we up to today?” Artie sighs, looking over his clipboard "Couple fight scenes- we're mainly gonna be extras today guys. There's a window shot up for grabs if anyone wants it-” a hand shoots up from the crowd and Artie points to the actor with his pen “Sold to Harper.” He announces and a small ‘yes!’ hisses out from the team, making the group chuckle “Fight, fight- Nick who do we have behind the wheel today?” He asks the Rigging Coordinator, tapping his pen on the clipboard impatiently “Where’s Byrd?”
“Out with a stomach bug!” Someone pipes up with a raise of their hand
“Shit.” Artie swears as Nick nods in confirmation “Dixon?”
“He's not scheduled for today” Nick reminds, showing him his own clipboard
“Fuck me- Jacobs??”
“She's scheduled for later in the day, evening shoot”
“Son of a bitch!” Artie huffs, flipping through his papers “Okay, who do we have that's not busy and is relatively the same height and build…?” He squints at his sheet “Fuck it- GRACE!”
“Present!” Colt yawns, holding up two fingers to distinguish himself from the crowd
“Get down to the driving lot, you're filling in for Byrd today so you, Kramer and Castillo can head on over to Flaherty” Artie orders, tucking his pen behind his ear as Colt silently fist pumps in excitement “Utility, you know who you are so follow Brett-” Nick holds up his clipboard and breaks away from the team with a few of the crowd following behind “Everyone else follow me! Stunt crew!”
“STUNT CREW!” The group cheers, breaking out into chatter and conversations as everyone scatters to their different areas
“Lucky break, Grace” Castillo snickers as the three drivers head off in a different direction than the others “You sure you got it?”
“Hell yeah I got it” Colt snorts, taking a swig of his coffee
“You even drive?” Kramer teases, laughing a little at the insulted look Colt shoots her “Shit man, you even legal?”
“I'm twenty, fuck you!” Colt shrieks, making the two older stunt drivers laugh “I've been on this show for over a year already!”
“Just fuckin’ with ya, punk” Castillo hums, pausing by the snack table to snag his own cup of coffee before backing out of the exit door “A little stuntie banter!”
“Y'all aren't even that much older than me” Colt huffs, rolling his eyes and sipping his own coffee as Castillo just flashes him a fiendish grin
“Billy!” Kramer shouts as they walk out into the alley, waving a hand to catch the man's attention “Byrd’s out for the day, Grace here is filling in!” She informs nodding towards Colt who waves a little while jogging to catch up
“Fuck's sake” The man groans, quickly eyeing Colt up and down “You got your license, right?”
“For land and sea” Colt grins “Just need my air one and I'll be set”
“Wonderful. You've done cannons before?” Bill asks and Colt hesitates
“Yes.” He replies, taking a nervous sip of his coffee
“What’s the max you've gotten?” The camera assistant behind Bill pipes up, poking out from behind him
“Two and a half?” Colt tells them, glaring at the other two drivers who stifle snorts beside him “I'm usually the one getting hit by the car, not rolling it” He mumbles, taking another sip of his coffee
“It's a short shot” The camera assistant shrugs, looking down at her clipboard and flipping through a page “As long as he can manage one and a half we can make it work” She tells a skeptical Bill “Three would be nice though, more footage to work with”
“He's got his license” Kramer reminds “He'll be fine, what's a couple rolls in a South Beach alley?”
“It's that or wait until evening to shoot” Castillo agrees, downing the rest of his coffee in one go
“Fine.” Bill sighs, running a hand through his hair “We'll try our best. Kramer, go with him to get suited up, I wanna get him out there while the sun is still low. Get yourself ready while you're at it” He tells her “Castillo, go get one of the roll cage cars from shop and do a safety check on it”
“Got it, boss” Kramer drawls, she and Colt giving Bill a thumbs up as they head off as Castillo also gives a thumbs up and goes in a different direction “Back in a bit!” She reassures, slinging an arm around Colt's shoulders and making him stumble “You're doing cannons?! You lucky bastard! All I get are chases!”
“Anything other than a fire stunt” Colt groans, tossing his now empty paper cup into the nearest trash can “Hey, you think we can swing by the food table on our way back? I skipped breakfast this morning”
“Costumes’ is gonna have our ass but sure” Kramer agrees “Food before a cannon though? You sure you won't puke?”
“Iron stomach baby” Colt preens “I'll be fine”
“If you throw up I will hold this over your head for the rest of your career, Grace.”
“Bet.”
“I'm baaaaaack” Colt announces as he unlocks and opens his motel door “You still here, Rylie?”
“Hey, Colt” Ryland greets from his spot on the bed, glasses perched on the tip of his nose as he types away on his laptop, not even looking up at his brother “How was work?”
“Great! I got to do cannon rolls today!” He chirps, closing and locking the door behind him before kicking off his boots and slinging his duffle over by the dresser, taking care not to accidentally spill the energy drink in his hand “Granted, I threw up in the bathroom afterwards, but no one saw me so it doesn't count!” He chuckles, slipping off his jacket and hanging it on the back of the room's armchair “You? How was your day?”
“Fine” Ryland shrugs, adjusting his glasses before they could fall off “Worked on my essay mostly. Went down to the library for a bit-”
“How'd you get back in the room??”
“Picked it.” The young man casually informs “You should really think about getting a personal lock on that thing if this is where you're living long term. Anyone with a credit card could open this shit”
“I regret letting you learn lockpicking if this is what you use it for” Colt grimaces as he heads for the bathroom, knocking back the rest of his energy drink
“Well one of us had to considering someone kept getting us arrested back in high-school” Ryland huffs, looking up from his screen to glare at Colt
“We wouldn't have gotten arrested if you would’ve ran faster!” Colt protests
“HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO RUN IN THE FUCKING EVERGLADES, JACKASS-?!”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah I'll look into getting a second lock, jesus” Colt grumbles as Ryland goes off on his tangent about past teenage escapades “Anyway, hold off on that thought, I need a shower!” He shouts, shutting the bathroom door and locking it
“Gross!” Ryland snorts, pulling out his phone “You wanna eat here or go out?!”
“I'm fine with take-out!”
“Kay!” He yells back “You want Chinese, Cuban or pizza?!”
“ORANGE CHICKENNNNN!!”
“Chinese then” Ryland snorts, typing in the number to the nearest spot “Should've guessed-”
“GET ME A SIDE OF STIR-FRY VEGGIES!!”
“...I'm starting to understand why Cain did what he did.”
The food has arrived by the time Colt is out of the shower and changed into his sleepwear, the two brothers divvying up their food between themselves while sitting cross-legged on the bed.
“I swear, there's always the weirdest shit on” Colt snorts, balancing his carton of orange chicken and rice in the crook of his knee as he flips through the TV channels “You down for an infomercial spree?”
“Absolutely not.” Ryland huffs, stuffing another forkfull of his lo mein into his mouth “If I have to suffer through another Flex Tape commercial, I'm gonna kill us both.”
“Ooh! Indiana Jones!!” Colt excitedly gasps, tossing aside the remote to keep eating “I think this is The Temple of Doom”
“Is that the new one?”
“Second.” Colt corrects with a slight air of disdain, glaring at him while spearing a piece of chicken with his fork “The one that came out like two years ago is Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and that one is number four I think-”
“You're such a fuckin’ nerd.” Ryland snickers, stifling a smile as Colt whips around with an insulted squawk.
Ryland merely laughs as Colt tries punching his shoulder, scooting out of range with his box of noodles and parrying Colt's fork jabs with his chopsticks. The two eventually settle down to watch the movie, occasionally swapping bites of food from each other's cartons.
“Hey, uh, Colt?” Ryland starts, tapping his chopsticks against a paper flap nervously while Colt yammers on about some movie fun fact “I uh, I was doing some… research. At the library today-”
“For school?” Colt guesses, shoveling more rice and chicken into his mouth as he keeps his eyes trained on the movie
“...for personal research.”
“Oh, and I’m the nerd” He scoffs with a shake of his head “You know, you are the only person I know who actually enjoys doing homework-”
“I’m Asexual.” Ryland blurts, flinching a little as Colt pauses to stare at him and begins to look more and more nervous as the seconds pass. “I think.”
That was… huh. Hmm. Colt should probably say something-
“...I thought you were Bi??” Is what tumbles out instead.
Nice, Colt. Real nice.
“I-” Ryland blinks a little in surprise before hesitantly smiling, a small laugh slipping out of him as he hurriedly wipes at his eyes with the back of a hand “Yeah, I uh, I thought I was too… until now, I guess.” He shrugs, fiddling with his chopsticks
Colt is suddenly reminded of the first time Ryland had “come out” to him when they were sixteen, way in the early dredges of the morning when their grandparents were still asleep and the two were finishing up their breakfast before the bus arrived.
He was busy scrambling around for his loose papers he could’ve sworn he’d left on the counter the night before, his brother sitting in half-awake silence eating his cereal while Colt panics. He has half a mind to whack Ryland over the head and get him to help find his goddamn homework before the bus arrived, but Ryland beats him to breaking the early morning quiet with a simple-
“Colt. I’m bisexual.”
He says it so firmly, so sure of himself about it, barely even pausing in his meal, as if he were simply commenting on the color of the sky or the weather outside, that Colt doesn’t even register it at first.
“Okay?” He puzzles when it finally does, still peeking behind a cabinet to see if maybe his godforsaken worksheet had somehow slipped behind it out of sight-
“It means I like both girls and boys.” Ryland explains, looking over at Colt with an eerie blankness on his face, hands curled into fists in his lap
“Cool, congrats- hey, do you know when our geometry homework is due?” Colt asks, getting up from the floor and brushing his pants off, holding up his missing paper in triumph “It’s not due today, is it?”
“...I’ll let you copy mine on the bus” Ryland allows, a small, exasperated look on his face as he sighs and his shoulders slowly loosen, going back to finishing his cereal “Your bowl is getting soggy, by the way”
“So um-” Colt quickly lowers the volume on the television a little “What uh- what is that?” He gently urges, trying his best to look and sound casual. “A- asexual, or whatever?” He mumbles, shoving another bite of stir-fry in his mouth
God, how the fuck was he better at this shit at sixteen jesus fucking christ-
“Uh, it means-” Ryland starts, picking at a hoodie cuff nervously “Asexual is someone who feels little to no sexual attraction towards others.” He says with an almost clinical tone, straightening up a little as he pulls out a small notepad from his hoodie pocket and flips it open “This can range anywhere from occasionally partaking or even enjoying having sex, only wanting sex with people you’re formed a deep, emotional bond to or being completely sex repulsed in all forms. Intimate touch is also a weird one since, again, it ranges from being fine with some touch, a lot of touch or no touch at all.” He rattles off, running a hand through his hair “Also, this one took me a bit more digging, but I’m pretty sure I’m Aromantic, which means I feel little to no romantic attraction towards others. Much like Asexualness, this can range anywhere from being open to the idea of a relationship to completely being repulsed by the thought of being in a romantic relationship-”
“Whoa, whoa, okay, slow down!” Colt yelps, setting his food aside “What??”
“It makes sense.” Ryland murmurs, rubbing his notepad with a thumb and taking in a stuttered breath “There- There’s a name for it, Colton. Other people out there like- like this” he gestures to himself with a wet laugh “Like me” He sniffles and scrubs at his face with a sleeve “Turns out, not liking both genders is not the same as liking both genders. 0 doesn’t equal 2, or whatever”
“Oh. So that’s why you thought…?”
“Yeah” Ryland nods, fiddling with his fingers “Um. Any questions?”
“Okay, so… you don’t… what? Find people attractive, or something?” Colt wonders, head still spinning from his twin’s infodump “Or, you don’t date- I’m a bit confused” he admits
“Asexual and Aromantic are two different things” Ryland says with a shake of his head "According to the forums I found, you can be asexual and still want to be in a romantic relationship, just without the sex, and you can be aromantic but still be fine with or want to have sex, just without the romantic attachment.”
“Got it, not always mutually exclusive” Colt hums and his brother nods “But, you’re both?”
“Asexual was the easiest one to figure out” Ryland sighs, slumping a little and rubbing the back of his neck with a grimace “I never really got the whole… sex-appeal thing. It just felt gross and weird when I did do it and apparently it's not supposed to feel like that? I mean, even just the idea of it is-” He shudders and looks over at Colt expectantly “Is it supposed to feel like something you just… get through?”
“Nope. Sex is awesome” Colt grins, laughing a little at how his brother recoils a little in clear disgust “Wait, have you never- not even with Linda you didn’t want to… you know”
“No??” Ryland yelps, cheeks flushing “Wait- were you not joking every time you saw a hot actress on screen and said “would”?!” He screeches.
Colt frowns a little
“Ryland, I would never joke about Sigourney Weaver in Alien.” He replies quite seriously, snorting a little as the young man in front of him screams and pulls on his hood to hide his bright red face “Did you think all of us were joking this whole time??”
“YES.”
“We were not.”
“THAT’S DISGUSTING!!”
Colt cackles at Ryland’s despair and distress, poking him on the arm to snap him out of his ramblings.
“So you just, don’t, like? Sex??”
“Imagine doing it with a guy.” Ryland tells him, peeking out from under his hood and Colt wrinkles his nose
“Nope.” He shakes his head
“It’s not there, right?”
“I kissed a guy once. Not for me” Colt agrees
“Okay, now imagine that indifference with like, everyone” He explains, sitting back up and pulling off his hood as the gears in Colt’s brain start to turn “You can tell when a guy is good looking, but you don’t want to go that far with him, yeah? You’d feel uncomfortable if you forced yourself to?”
“Oh. Oh! Oh okay, that makes sense” Colt nods “And Aro- aro-mance is like- mmm, like me trying to get a crush on a guy, yeah? I just don’t feel that way towards guys”
“Exactly!” Ryland beams, looking relieved “I keep trying to force something that’s not there! I don’t feel that way towards people, just like a really really good friendship. I thought I was in love with Linda because I thought that was the next step in friendship, but she was still a friend, not a romantic interest. I don’t think I’ve ever had a crush, actually” he confesses “You’re supposed to have a crush based on feelings, not a list, right?”
“That’s usually how they go, yeah” Colt snorts, smile dropping “Wait, did you pick someone at random in school to have a crush on or something??”
“...yeah. Is that not how you’re supposed to…?”
“It very much is not” Colt confirms, running a hand over his face “Okay that- that actually explains a lot about you back then”
“Hey!” Ryland pouts, grumbling a little as Colt ruffles his hair
“Okay. So, to re-cap” Colt begins with a clap “Just so I get this straight- You don’t like sex-”
“Don’t feel the need for it” His twin shrugs “And also yeah I’m not a fan”
“You don’t want sex” He corrects himself “And you don’t want or feel the need for a romantic partner?”
“Not really” Ryland mumbles, fiddling with his fingers again “I would’ve been just as happy having Linda as a best friend over having her as a girlfriend. More happy, even. I think? I- urgh” he musses up his own hair frustratedly “It’s confusing. I don’t mind the idea?? Of a girlfriend or boyfriend?? It’s just- when I put myself in the moment or someone hits on me with the intention to court it's like my brain wants to kick into fight or flight mode-”
“Intention to court” Colt mimics, laughing as Ryland shoots a leg out to kick his thigh “Sorry, it just sounded funny-”
“Fuck you man, I’m pouring my heart out to you here and this is the response I get” Ryland whines
“I know, I know, sorry” Colt chuckles, tapping his fingers on his knees “...What was it called again? The thing- the thing you said you are instead of bi?”
“Asexual and aromantic” He repeats quietly, closing his notebook and shoving it in a pocket “Little to no sexual attraction, and little to no romantic attraction.”
“And you’re…” Colt hesitates a bit, fiddling with the hem of his shirt as he figures out the best way to phrase his next question “You’re okay with that? I-I mean, like, like happy. With life. In general. Without those two things.”
Ryland freezes, a wave of mixed emotions washing over his face as his eyes dart over Colt’s before finally settling into something tired and almost relieved, new tears dripping down his cheeks as he gives a single nod.
“I think I will be. One day. More than I would be with those two things in my life.” He chokes out, swallowing thickly as Colt reaches out and uses the collar of his hoodie to wipe his face
“Okay” Colt hums “Then that’s all that matters. As long as you’re happy, Rylie.” He reassures “You wanna finish the movie?”
“God, yes” Ryland half-laughs, half-sobs as he frantically nods, making Colt chuckle a bit while reaching for the remote to raise the volume once more before tossing it aside and scooping up his food again to finish off “Thanks for being so chill about this”
“Did you think I wouldn’t be??” Colt puzzles, a bit miffed by the expectation
“No- I don’t know” Ryland sighs, scooting over with his own food and leaning against his brother, resting his head on Colt’s shoulder “It’s not exactly your average “coming out” or anything- “Hey guess what I’m not attracted to anyone and get no bitches” like-” he huffs while Colt stifles a laugh “So I didn’t know what to expect from you”
“I mean, you’re still weird, just to be clear” Colt declares, feeling Ryland stiffen against him “But I’m your brother so you’re always gonna be weird to me, no matter what you do- or I guess don’t, in your case, feel towards other people… If anything, your coffee order is the weirdest thing about you-”
“BLACK COFFEE IS A PERFECTLY RESPECTABLE DRINK-”
“PUT SOMETHING ELSE IN IT YOU MASOCHISTIC FREAK-”