Chapter Text
"Hello?"
"Dr. Ryland Grace?"
"That'd be me. Who's calling?"
"…Okay this might sound weird."
Ryland is about twenty seconds away from calling this whole thing off. There are plenty of reasons for him to go somewhere and do something else with his time. Homework to grade, lessons to plan, emails to answer, and they had state testing coming up in a few weeks. He's a busy guy, and maybe he's a little afraid of what he's going to find inside. He could just send a text, make up an excuse, and try and forget they had spoken in the first place.
But if he leaves, then he'll never know. He'll keep on living with this question that might never get an answer. Not to mention, Linda will never let him live it down. Is he really doing this?
The door swings open as someone else walks out. Yeah, he's doing this. Before he can change his mind again, Ryland walks into the bar.
It's less crowded than he expected, but it'll probably get worse as the night goes on. Right now it works in his favor. There's one guy sitting at the bar, his drink mostly untouched, wearing a jacket that says Miami Vice on the back. He turns around and…
Wow. That is… uncanny. Ryland knew they would look similar, they are brothers after all, but this isn't just similar. It's like looking in a freaking mirror. He's got the same facial structure, the same eyes, and if he had to guess they have the same look of surprise on their faces right now.
The other guy - his brother - gets his composure back first, standing up with a smile Ryland can't help but copy. He holds out a hand to shake, and his brother takes it.
"Ryland Grace." He's not sure why he's introducing himself, they already did this on the phone.
"Colt Seavers," Colt replies, still smiling. "We have a lot to talk about."
They talk for hours, trying to fill in the missing pieces of their lives. Colt had more answers about the beginning than Ryland did.
"I did a bunch of research back in high school," he says. "Mostly to avoid working on homework, but I've always been curious. Didn't really find much back then, but I picked it up again this year. That's how I found you." He sips his drink while Ryland looks over everything he's printed out.
Two babies born on the same day, and some paperwork explaining how they got into the foster system together. There didn't seem to be a lot to go off of, and keeping them together was apparently not a priority. There's no explanation why in anything Colt was able to find. One kid was eventually adopted by the Seavers family, the other just aged out after a few different placements.
"Took a bit more work," Colt continues, "and I wasn't really sure until I saw your picture, but I found your contact info on the school's website."
Ryland leans back in his chair. "We're really twins." It doesn't feel real still, but there's no way Colt has the wrong person.
"Yeah," Colt says. "Feels wrong that we didn't know."
His brother is sitting right next to him, but this is the first time they've been in the same room since they were born. His head is a storm, the thrill of meeting Colt warring with the grief of a life they never lived together. All the time he knows they will share after this compared to all the time they lost. Wrong doesn't feel like a big enough word for it, but Ryland nods anyway.
"So," he says, "tell me about yourself." Colt grins, and the storm settles as he talks about growing up with the Seavers family and how incredible they were. He talks about all the jobs he worked after high school, spends about an hour and a half just explaining everything about working on the Miami Vice Stunt Team. Every step of it sounds like something that Ryland would rather die than attempt. From there, he explains how he went from that to working as Tom Ryder's primary stunt double. Ryland isn't sure who that is, he doesn't go to the movies all that often these days, but Colt promises to fix that issue.
Then it's his turn. Ryland skips straight over the various families he stayed with, talking instead about school, keeping to himself and his studies, and securing a full ride to college. He talks about his research until he realizes Colt has the same look in his eyes that his students get when they're not really paying attention in class. He laughs, avoids mentioning getting kicked out of academia, and starts talking about his kids. That goes a lot better than trying to explain molecular biology to a guy who jumps off of buildings for fun. Better than telling his brother that he was too stubborn to keep his old job. Then he mentions Linda, and Colt has about a million questions about her, demanding to know when he gets to meet her.
The time blurs as they swap stories, drinks forgotten, until Ryland is walking back to his bike and the sun is completely gone from the sky. He's dreading waking up in time for work tomorrow, but not nearly as much as he wishes he could stay an extra minute. Or ten. Or an hour. He has a brother. A twin brother. Someone who is exactly like him and exactly his opposite. Leaving the bar sends his head spinning again. He has a life. He can't stay here forever. He can't leave.
His phone buzzes in his pocket. He opens it without thinking.
Colt Seavers: same time tomorrow?
Ryland looks back at the bar. Colt is standing on the other side of a window, face up against the glass, phone in hand, staring at him as if he couldn't walk outside and ask the question in person. Ryland laughs and texts back.
Ryland: you got it
Colt: hey
Ryland: yeah?
Colt: whats the big deal with this paper
Ryland: one sec i'm checking something
Ryland: dude
Colt: what?
Ryland: that's my paper
Colt: yeah
Colt: why do you think im asking you?
Ryland: oh my god
Ryland: why are tou reading that?
Colt: idk
Colt: its the first thing that comes up when i google you
Ryland: why are you googling me???
Colt is finally leaving set when he gets the call. Ryland always calls once he gets back to his apartment, so he already knows who it is. The phone barely rings once before he answers.
"Hey."
"Hi."
Colt stops walking. That's not how Ryland normally sounds. Most of the time he can hardly say anything in between his brother talking about his students. From the moment Colt picks up the phone, the words never stop. At least, they shouldn't. Ryland's voice was quiet, and almost hesitant. It's more of a shock than it should have been, and he takes too long responding.
"Colt?" There's a shake to his voice. Colt can just barely hear it.
"What happened?" he asks, throwing open the car door.
Ryland takes a deep breath. "Linda broke up with me."
Shit. "What happened?" Colt asks. He's already in the car, switching the call to speaker, and pulling up directions by the time his brother responds.
"She came and saw me when class ended." Ryland sighs again. "Said she'd been thinking about this for a while, and that she didn't think this was going to work. My head's too far in the clouds, and she needs someone who's more grounded I guess."
"I'm so sorry Ry." He could have had a better response to that, but in his defense he's having an embarrassing amount of trouble getting the keys into the ignition.
"I mean, she probably has a point," Ryland says. Colt can hear him moving around on the other end of the call. "I don't think I was doing the whole boyfriend thing right anyway."
"Still, that's got to hurt."
"I guess."
Colt stops and stares out the window at the parking lot. "What do you mean 'you guess?'"
It takes a while for Ryland to respond. When he finally does, he speaks slow and halting. "I am upset, but I don't think I'm sad about the right thing. I'm not sad about the breakup, but I know I should be and the fact that I'm not makes me sad. Which is weird, and I know it makes no sense. I just feel like I have to have done something really wrong if I feel pretty fine after this, especially when she doesn't." This is… not what Colt was expecting. He's been on both sides of a breakup before, and he knows how it feels. He would never have used the words "pretty fine" to describe any of it. What the hell is going on here?
"Did you like her?" he asks. He's trying really hard to make sense of this.
"She was nice." Colt can hear Ryland shrugging.
"Oh my god, Ry," he says. "You have to do better than that. Did you like her, like her?"
"You sound like one of my students," Ryland replies, voice flat. As if Colt doesn't already know this.
"Just answer the question."
"I don't know! We got along really well, she was nice, we shared a lot of interests." He trails off for a moment, then much quieter says, "It made sense."
Colt pinches the bridge of his nose. "So you were dating Linda because it 'made sense?'"
"Well when you put it like that it sounds worse."
"It's not great when you say it either." God he is out of his depth right now. "Look. Most people start dating someone because they like that someone more than they like anyone else."
"Colt," Ryland interrupts, "you do not have to talk to me like a kid. I know how this is supposed to work."
"Kind of feels like I do," he replies. "Especially if you are going around dating people because it 'makes sense.'" Colt takes a deep breath, doing his best to sort out his thoughts. He still hasn't turned the car on, his mission to comfort his heartbroken brother ended before it even began. Every turn this conversation has taken was not one he was ready for.
"Colt?" It's that same hesitant, worried voice Ryland answered the phone with.
"Yeah?"
A pause. The silence stretches on. Colt would have thought one of them had lost service if he couldn't hear his brother breathing on the other end. He's about to ask something, he's not sure what yet, when Ryland sighs and mutters, "This is so stupid."
"I promise you," Colt says, "I've heard dumber." Probaby said dumber too if he's being honest. "What is it?"
"I feel like there's something wrong with me," he admits. "Obviously I messed up. I get that. Linda and I were probably never going to work out, but it feels like more than that. I know that dating and maybe eventually getting married is the normal thing to do, but… I also know I shouldn't do this just because it's the 'normal' thing to do. But then what if I never get it? What if I spend the rest of my life alone, and never have that love story that's supposed to happen?"
Colt feels like he's been thrown off a building. There's no ground beneath him, nothing to break his fall. He knows how to handle a breakup, but this is nothing he's prepared for. His brother needs him, and he's coming up empty. He's flailing for something to say or do, but nothing he can think of feels like enough, and he's been quiet for too long and he can almost feel Ryland starting to freak out and he blurts out the first thing that comes to mind.
"If life can exist without water, you can exist without a love story."
It's quiet for a moment. Colt's words hang in the empty air. Ryland finally breaks the silence. "Oh my god that was awful."
Colt is back on the ground again, cringing in the driver's seat. "Yeah, can we never mention that again?"
"I still can't believe you googled me."
"How else was I supposed to find you?"
"You had already found me," Ryland says. There's not really a defense Colt can give here, but he doesn't need to. Ryland's voice isn't shaking anymore, and Colt can feel a weight lifting off his shoulders. They're okay, and they'll continue to be okay.
"They won't need me on set for a few days," Colt says. "Want me to come visit?"
Ryland thinks about it. Colt is already driving before he responds.
"Yeah."