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“So I’ll see you tomorrow then?” Colt asked, busying himself with unpacking into his hotel room. It would be his home for the short duration of time during the current film he was stunt doubling Tom Ryder.
“Yeah, I mean… it's not like I have any excuses left.” Came the voice of his brother, Ryland, from his phone set on the nightstand to the right of the bed. “I just, you know… I’m not sure if…” He hesitated for just a second, “It makes me nervous.”
Colt heart warmed at Ryland’s concern before picking up his phone from the nightstand, taking it off speaker and putting it to his ear. “Seriously, man it’s gonna be fine. You’ve never come to visit set before and we happen to be filming in your area. We’re not doing anything huge tomorrow anyway. There’s nothing to be worried about,” He reassured. “Just hang back with Dan and Jody, they’ve been dying to meet you, and watch me get thrown through a couple windows. I pulled a lot of strings to make this happen, had to practically beg Gail.”
The guilt trip was probably gratuitous, but it couldn’t hurt. It had been difficult to get together with Ryland. Him working as a teacher and only having very specific dates and times off alongside Colt’s growing number of commitments now being signed as Tom’s primary stunt double. He understood his brother’s concerns for all that he didn’t feel the need to worry himself. Ryland was consistently anxious and supportive of his chosen career path.
“Ok, ok, yeah no. I’ll be there.”
Their conversation tapered there. It was already late and Colt had an early call time. They bid each other a good night with a promise that Ryland was going to bring Colt coffee in the morning (another thing to incentivise him, Ryland always did best when he had a task set before him). During that time Colt got himself ready for bed as much as he could without interrupting their call and was shortly after going to sleep.
It was around 8:30 the next day when Ryland finally showed up to set, with two small disposable cups from a nearby shop in hand.
Ryland was easily 5 to 10 minutes “early.” It was a common trait of his that Colt had accounted for. Ryland would sooner have a panic attack than be late.
“You're early, Ry” Colt smirked, while Ryland handed off one of the two cups to him. “Come on, let me show you around.”
He put an arm around Ryland and clapped his hand onto his shoulder to steer him around. The production had worked the schedule for shooting to give him at least a little time to familiarize Ryland with the area as well as introduce him to a few people, mainly Dan and Jody. He'd have to thank Gail profusely. Although his relationship with Jody was still a little fresh, he still wanted Ryland to like her. She was so cool. And nice. And pretty. He could go on forever.
“Oh, so this is the better twin, is it?” Jody teased, while extending a hand for Ryland to shake. It was awkwardly formal but not out of place for a first meeting.
“Well, I don't know about that–”
“He does know about that, he's just being modest,” Colt interrupted.
They bantered for a while longer, pulling Ryland out of his shell bit by bit. After a few quips Ryland was joining in wholeheartedly. Colt was just happy to see all his important people get along.
What Colt did not expect, foolishly, was that so many of the crew and even some of the cast would be so enamored with his brother. It was probably at least partially his own fault for bragging about just how smart Ryland was. Sue him. It was normal for him to do it when Ryland wasn’t present and now that he was here it was nearly impossible not to tell everyone how his brother was a “super genius.” He just wanted to build up Ryland's confidence a bit.
Colt’s day was not super packed and none of his stunts were crazy dangerous. The movie they were working on was some buddy-cop action flick. A lot of his shots today involved fight scenes, some including guns, two of which involved crashing through a window and a couple jumping over or around a car in some way. It was probably for the best, he didn’t want Ryland to freak out after all (even though he still caught him jumping at a few of the gun shots during a take and definitely wincing at one of the window crashes). It meant he could spend a reasonable amount of time with Ryland but that also meant that he heard a lot more of the gossip going around between takes.
An off-hand comment here. “Did you see how he jumped? So cute.”
A couple wardrobe assistants whispering. “He’s gotta be pretty built under that cardigan, don’t you think?”
Some background actors after shooting a take. “Do you think he’s single? He’s, like, kinda hot in a nerdy kinda way.”
And that would’ve been totally fine. Perfect even. Colt didn’t mind. Not one bit. Except…
Tom Fucking Ryder.
It was nearing the end of his day at this point. He only had one more take left to do. Ryland had spent the first half of the day alternating between Dan and Jody mostly. They seemed to be hitting it off, which was awesome. Colt wanted his friends (friend and girlfriend? He wasn’t entirely sure. They hadn’t made it super official yet) to like Ryland. He knew it wouldn’t be an issue but it was still a whole thing til he saw them getting along today. Tom and Gail had asked for a couple reshoots, which added to his time, but it was fine. Too much face they said, he understood.
Except Tom kept sneaking glances at his brother.
He went up and started talking to Ryland between his own and during Colt’s shots.
And Colt couldn’t do anything about it except be mildly irritated.
He snuck a peek at where Ryland was, Tom was very clearly flirting. He was leaning very slightly into Ryland’s “space” and had a hand gently placed on his shoulder. It was possibly one of the worst things Tom had ever done in Colt’s humble opinion. Ryland, ever oblivious, didn't seem to really notice, talking animatedly about something that Colt was too far away to hear. Then there was the yell of “ACTION” and Colt had to focus and look away.
Of course this was one of his takes with gunfire, fake as it may be it could still be loud.
Of course Ryland got startled by something.
Of course Ryland was an absolute disaster and clumsily stumbled… directly into Tom Ryder, who now had an armful of Colt’s twin brother.
As soon as “CUT” was called Colt spotted the situation. His brother, glasses askew in the arms of who Colt might call the biggest asshole he’s ever known.
Colt stalked over. He was trying, with increasing difficulty, to not show his distaste. That was until Tom, in what Colt was sure was a very (deceptively) thoughtful display, righted Ryland back to a standing position. Tom followed this up by carefully adjusting Ryland’s glasses, but not without making brief eye-contact with Colt and smirking. He clearly knew just how much he was getting under Colt’s skin.
Ryland was stuttering through both apologies and expressions of gratitude, clearly anxious and frazzled. A faint blush had come to color his face while he very clearly averted his gaze to anywhere other than Tom’s (stupid, infuriating, obnoxious) face.
“Oh don’t you worry your pretty head about that,” Tom purred.
Ryland’s blush deepened and he went silent, while raising his hand to cover the bottom of his face.
Colt glared whole-heartedly, unable to stifle it any longer. He probably would’ve said something rather foolish and regrettable if it hadn’t been for Gail striding quickly over at that exact moment.
“Oh, Tom, come on we gotta get over to wardrobe for a fitting. They’ve also done some rewrites which you need to review. Let’s go,” Gail commanded, taking a sip from her Diet Coke and starting to walk back the opposite direction.
“Alright,” Tom began to turn around to follow before pausing to turn back, putting on one of his more charming (irritatingly fake, in Colt’s opinion) smiles. “See you again soon, Ryland.”
He followed this with a wink before turning to finally follow Gail. It took both brothers a few seconds to process that, Colt being the first to finally speak.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
It had been weeks since then, almost a month to be exact. Colt’s next big project was out of state, too far for Ryland to visit. Some part of him was relieved, he did not want to give Tom more opportunities to get under his skin. That's all his shameless flirting with Ryland was clearly. It couldn't possibly be anything more than that. At the same time it was always bittersweet to have to leave his brother so far away, considering they were already so far apart while still living in the same state. It was okay though, they called each other all the time.
They had gotten through the general small talk already before Ryland asked about his next project, “Where are you going next?”
“Austin, Texas. I guess we’re doing some sci-fi action thing. Titles still a bit up in the air, but I think they’re sticking with Hot Earth,” Colt answered. It took a few seconds for Colt to realize Ryland wasn’t responding immediately. “Hey, are you listening? What’s going on?”
“Oh um….” Ryland sounded apprehensive. Never a good sign.
“Come on, tell me. It can’t be that crazy.”
“Don’t freak out, ok?”
“Well now you are freaking me out. Just tell me already.” Colt teased. He was trying to keep it light, but now he was getting both curious and concerned. What could possibly have Ryland so worried and anxious? To be fair there was a lot, but it rarely had him worried about Colt’s reaction.
“Ok, ok um,” He was still hesitating, “Tom Ryder just texted me.”
A moment passed and then Colt did the exact thing Ryland asked him not to do. He freaked the hell out.