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Colt had spent twenty-six years being genetically identical to Ryland Grace which has never been a problem before.
Unfortunately, Colt had recently made the catastrophic mistake of bringing his twin brother onto a movie set.
He hadn’t noticed at first. When Ryland arrived he greeted his brother with a big grin and hugged him, too distracted by the overwhelming feeling of joy in seeing his younger twin brother after months of busy shooting. He saw Jody look around the crowd, that was the crew, in the corner of his eye but didn’t make anything of it.
“How are the kids?” Colt asked, wrapping an arm around Ryland’s shoulder and guided him to Jody who hugged him with a welcoming smile.
“Good! They’ve been asking about you two recently,” Ryland replied, the last bit muffled as he squeezed Jody in warmth.
Dan was the next to greet him, asking him questions about teaching and teasing him to try a stunt (Ryland could probably do one if he investigated all the physics to it first), then Gail and so on. Colt didn’t quite notice the mischievous look that Tom had on his face just yet.
Ryland had stayed alongside Jody with the cameras for most of the day and, by lunch, Colt began to notice a pattern.
A horrifying, deeply offensive pattern.
“Hey, Seavers,” one of the lighting guys asked casually while pretending not to stare at Ryland, who was currently crouched beside a broken fan and explaining torque to a fascinated sound technician, “your brother seeing anyone?”
Colt blinked slowly. “Why?”
The guy shrugged. “No reason.”
“Interesting,” Colt said flatly and looked at him over his shades. “Because usually people ask that for a reason.”
The lighting guy wisely retreated.
Colt turned to his girlfriend in disbelief and Jody couldn’t offer much but a shrug and turned to Dan who just gave her a matching shrug.
It got worse from there.
Throughout the afternoon people kept gravitating toward Ryland like he was giving out free money. Makeup assistants kept finding reasons to walk over. One of the stunt coordinators laughed so hard at a joke Ryland made that Colt genuinely thought the man might need medical attention.
Ryland was blissfully unaware at first. After a cameraman messed up a shot for the fifth time because she was staring at him, he caught on…mostly. He tried to ignore it as much as he could and go on with the day.
“Colt,” Ryland called happily from beside the monitors, “did you know the force required for someone to realistically survive that car flip is—”
“Not now,” Colt muttered darkly, watching a production assistant nearly trip over a cable while staring at Ryland.
Ryland blinked. “Okay?”
Tom Ryder noticed immediately which was the true beginning of the disaster.
Tom had always spent a good chunk of filming trying to get Colt mad. He enjoyed annoying him. It was easy. Colt reacted like an angry cat that somebody kept spraying with water and Colt knew that himself. He couldn’t help himself and fell for it every time.
Tom wandered over during a break, sunglasses tucked into the collar of his shirt, wearing the exact smile that meant he was about to become unbearable.
“Ryland, right?” Tom asked smoothly.
Ryland looked up from the camera rig he was examining. “Yeah.”
Tom leaned casually against the equipment and fixed his hair, “Tom Ryder.”
“I know who you are.”
Colt, from twenty feet away, immediately sat up straighter. Tom Ryder already annoyed Colt greatly just by working with him, he did not need him to be his brother-in-law too.
Tom grinned. “Good. I’d be concerned if you didn’t.”
Ryland considered this. “Statistically that would make sense, yes.”
Tom paused and tilted his head in wonder while Jody covered her mouth to hide a laugh.
Ryland smiled politely, entirely genuine. “You’re very famous.”
“See?” Tom said, glancing at Colt with satisfaction. “Your brother likes me.”
Colt swallowed a lump of saliva in his throat and clenched his fist, giving Tom the stink eye and snapped, “He acknowledged your existence.”
Why the fuck was he doing this to him?
Tom ignored him completely and turned to face Ryland again, his smug smile swapping to a softer one. “You know, you’re different from what Colt described.”
Ryland tilted his head and nudged his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “He described me?”
“Oh constantly,” Tom replied. “Real brother complex situation.”
“I do not have a brother complex.”
“You tackled a guy for insulting him once, no?”
“He called him annoying.”
Ryland looked between them like he was watching tennis. He’s heard Colt speak about Tom Ryder but he’s never seen their dynamic in person, he was confused.
Tom smiled again, turning back to Ryland. “You wanna get dinner after shooting wraps?”
Colt nearly choked on air and his entire body locked up, Gail and Dan had to start fanning him with loose scripts and folders.
Ryland blinked and stood up straighter. “Why?”
Tom didn’t falter and continued on with a confident grin, “To have dinner.”
“Just dinner?”
“To get to know each other.”
“We already know each other a little.”
Tom stared at him and Ryland stared back with a calculating look.
Finally Tom laughed softly. “You know what? I like you.”
“Thank you,” Ryland replied sincerely, his voice just a bit quieter while he was piecing everything together.
Colt looked like he was about to launch himself into traffic. Dan moved over to leave a hand on his shoulder and gave him an understanding, almost solemn nod. Unfortunately for him, Tom interpreted this as encouragement.
The next few days became unbearable.
Tom brought Ryland coffee every morning.
Ryland accepted it every time because, as he explained to Colt, “Free coffee is free coffee.” He even let it slip that he liked caramel just to get free caramel lattes.
Tom invited him to sit in his trailer.
Ryland accepted because the trailer had air conditioning and interesting film equipment that gave him the opportunity to ramble on about gyroscopes.
“He’s hitting on you!” Colt screamed, shaking his brother by the shoulders.
“I know.” Ryland replied without much else.
Tom flirted so aggressively that several crew members started placing bets on whether Ryland was purposefully ignoring his attempts or if he was just oblivious.
“You have really nice eyes,” Tom said one afternoon.
Ryland looked briefly surprised before deciding to take a different route: “Thanks? They’re genetically the same as Colt’s, though.”
Colt pointed violently, “EXACTLY!”
Tom ignored him and smiled dreamily, “Yours are kinder.”
“That’s insane,” Colt muttered and rubbed his temples, moving to stand next to Jody in frustration.
Ryland looked thoughtfully at Tom before deciding to address the elephant. “Are you trying to court me?”
The entire nearby crew went silent.
Tom blinked once before grinning. “Maybe I am.”
Ryland nodded slowly like he’d solved a difficult equation— or well, in this case, got the answer earlier on and was marked right. “Okay, yeah.”
Colt crossed his arms triumphantly and turned to Tom before turning back to Ryland.
“Okay,” Ryland said again, mostly to himself as he decided how to steer the conversation from there.
Tom waited. Colt waited. Jody, Dan and Gail noticed that they both looked constipated.
Tom stared, “Okay?”
“You are aesthetically attractive,” Ryland explained kindly. “But I don’t really… do that.”
“Do what?”
Ryland gestured vaguely at the air and shrugged, “Romance. Dating. Whatever this is.”
Tom looked genuinely surprised for the first time since Colt met him, “You’re rejecting me?”
Ryland looked horrified for a bit before he schooled his expression, “I’m not rejecting you as a person. I just don’t experience romantic attraction.”
Jody watched Tom’s expressions and she had to give it to him, he was a good actor and it seemed like he was taking it well?
“Oh,” Tom said weakly but shook it off.
“I still think you’re funny,” Ryland added, trying to help.
Tom put a hand over his heart dramatically. “That somehow hurts worse.”
Colt burst into laughter, holding onto Dan to keep himself from crying of pure joy and relief. Tom Ryder wasn’t going to be his brother-in-law!
Tom glared at him. “You’re enjoying this too much.”
“You tried to flirt with my twin brother for a week!”
“And?”
“And now you’ve been rejected,” Colt grinned.
Ryland landed an elbow to Colt’s side, the bit right between the ribs, the stuntman curled in on himself and Tom laughed despite himself.
And annoyingly enough, that was around the moment Colt realized Tom genuinely liked Ryland beyond just irritating him.
Which was a worse thought.