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Ryland was sure he was dreaming. Perhaps he had been stung by a stray anemone on his way to school, and the toxins were causing him to hallucinate. Maybe his children had finally decided to level up their pranks and had slipped him something in his food.
Or, maybe the most likely reason, Colt’s innocent request to visit his work set had an unfortunate chain effect that was about to send Ryland to an early grave.
Because there was no other explanation in the ocean that explained why Tom Ryder was standing outside of his classroom’s gate.
Ryland felt himself blink, once, twice, and about a dozen more times, his mouth agape as he stared. He could hear the loud whispers of the guppies behind him, their tiny heads and curious eyes peeking from behind the driftwood door frame.
He could forgive and understand the youngest Merfolk at the door, the ones who had only recently be able to attend school. They were simply wondering about the strange new face that had showed up outside of their small, one-room school.
The bigger kids, however, had no excuse for the mischievous delight that was present on their faces. Abdi, one of the oldest teens, forgot to lower his voice and loudly pointed out the obvious.
“Since when was Mr. Grace friends with Tom Ryder?”
A smattering of bubbly giggles escaped their audience, mixed with childish squeaks and happy chirps of laughter. Ryland felt the corner of his mouth twitch traitorously as he tried his best to outwardly appear stern.
Tom Ryder’s face brightened at being recognized, and he raised a lazy hand to wave to the incredibly nosy guppies that were trying to sneak a peek at their teacher's new companion. A few of the squeaked and ducked down out of view, but the rest of the kids laughed and waved back excitedly.
Ryland vowed to get back at his students for their betrayal.
“Uh,” He cleared his throat and turned to face Tom Ryder—Tom, Ryland’s mind interjected, He asked you to call him Tom—trying not to fidget. “What are you… what are you doing here?”
Tom flashed a crooked grin and Ryland could see the ridges of his sharp canines, like little fangs poking out from the rest of his perfect, white teeth.
“What? I can’t come visit my favorite schoolteacher?”
“I’m the only schoolteacher you know.”
“That’s so not true.”
“Name one, just one, who isn’t me.”
“I… Uh, I…”
Ryland sighed and shook his head. “Listen, I really appreciate you taking the time out of your day to…”
And here he squinted up at Tom and frowned. “To do whatever it is you came here to do. But I’ve got a class to teach, and if you keep showing up here, I’m afraid my students aren’t going to be able to focus.”
“What? But, I did what you asked. And I even waited outside the gate this time!”
How was Ryland supposed to explain to an extremely famous, rich actor that his mere presence was enough of a distraction, without fueling his already obscene ego?
“Thank you for waiting outside the gate this time, Tom.” Despite his best efforts, his voice remained soft and welcoming, and maybe even a little bit fond.
Because after their first meeting, Ryland thought that was the end of it. There was absolutely no way that Tom was anywhere within his league, and it was highly unlikely that such a popular Mer was going to want to hang out around someone as boring as him. Ryland was just a simple, average guy who just so happened to have an incredibly talented stuntman as a twin brother.
But to his surprise—and also Jody’s because Ryland had accidentally blabbed about his not-so-secret-anymore celebrity crush—Tom ran into Ryland when they were both shopping.
And then when Ryland was swimming to meet up with his brother. And then when he was dismissing his class, and again, and again, and again.
Tom had relentlessly shown up to the school after that, citing that he needed Ryland’s specific brand of advice for some of the most niche problems he had never heard of.
“Wait, so you need someone to watch your… pet pebble?”
“No, no man, I need you to tell me what to feed it! I’ve got no clue, and the guy who was running the stall claimed that this little gal needs a specific type of sand to survive, and—”
“Mr. Ryder, that’s a rock. Like, that’s just a rock.”
“I told you, call me Tom, and no she’s not! She’s got a name and everything—”
“Mr. Ry—Tom, I’m pretty sure you got scammed. I’m like, 99.99% sure that the rock you’re holding is just a rock.”
“Aw, wait, really? But that stall-guy was so nice…”
“Also, rocks don’t eat sand in the first place, because they don’t even have mouths.”
“Whoa, you’re so smart.”
“I’m—that’s just, basic knowledge? What?”
“No, you’re like. Super smart, man, that’s so hot.”
“I don’t even… thank you? I guess?”
Ryland was surprised to find that the cocky, confident guy that Colt had always extensively warned him about, was actually an incredible sweet, gullible dork.
However, no matter so sweet he was, Ryland just couldn’t have someone as busy as Tom stopping by every single day. Sure, his students were sometimes distracted by the actor, but in reality, Ryland was more worried that Tom was going to stir the pot by being here.
Could Tom get in trouble for spending all his free time goofing off with someone as random as Ryland? He didn’t really want to find out.
“I didn’t come here without a reason, man.”
Ryland blinked, and lifted a hand to fiddle with his glasses. Gosh, they were always getting smudged with something!
When he refocused on Tom, he felt himself stop fidgeting—instead, he stilled and only slowly hovered in the water as Tom brought out something from behind his back.
“I wanted to… I don’t know, I wanted to give you something.”
Their audience of guppies gasped and Abdi even let out a shrill shriek of delight as Tom brought out a live coral bouquet. Ryland’s mouth fell open as he was presented with his gift, his hands tentatively reaching out and grasping it gently.
It was incredibly beautiful, intricate and delicate, with various colorful pieces of live coral arranged on the light gray framing holding the entire piece together.
And it was truly a piece of art, as it wasn’t presented in a traditional bouquet style. Instead, there seemed to be enough space in between each of the main coral pieces to see multiple sides, various textures and colors. Ryland could identify some of the most common types of reef life that were arranged, such as the bright yellow polyps of sun-coral.
In fact, it was so neatly arranged that it almost resembled a—
“It’s, uh, it’s supposed to be a model.”
Ryland’s head snapped up to stare as Tom began to explain, his voice dropping down to something softer, something intimate.
“I asked Jody about what you’d wanna get, and, in exchange for a favor, she told me that you always wanted a live diagram to show off to your little students.” He chuckled. “She was the one who told me to swap the shells for rocks, so the coral would have something to cling onto.”
Jody, Ryland thought, I don’t know whether to thank you or curse your meddling.
Tom reached out and brushed a hand against the soft tendrils of coral that were swaying in the current, careful of his claws.
“Most of these suckers are, what’s that sun-eating word?”
Ryland felt dazed as he croaked out a reply. “Photosynthesis.”
“Yes! That’s what it’s called. Photo-sign-thus-sis.” He completely butchered the pronunciation, shooting a toothy grin towards Ryland. “They can suck up all that sunlight and eat it, or whatever.”
Was it getting warm in here? Because, suddenly, Ryland felt like his face was burning.
Tom pointed again, this time to the sun-coral. “These guys will only feed at night, so make sure that they can get some fresh water! The rest of ‘em should just be getting their brekkie from the photo-sign-thus-sis.”
His smile was cocky again, all crooked angles and stupid, stupid swagger. Ryland could feel his heartbeat pounding in his chest, his orange tail twitching and shifting as he stared at Tom’s gift. The freaking diagram he gave Ryland so that he could teach his curious guppies about it.
“You like it?”
Did he like it? Was water clear? Did the sun set every day and rise in the morning?
“I love it.”
Ryland’s voice was soft, even softer than Tom’s. It was barely a murmur, and it slipped from his parted lips with an ease that should’ve been concerning.
Tom’s answering grin was bright enough to feed the coral living in Ryland’s arms.
God, he was completely, utterly, whipped.
"He got me a bouquet, Rocky.”
“Grace has said this. Again. And again. Many, many, many times.”
“He made it into a reusable, educational diagram for my students, Rocky!”
“Grace has told Rocky that five times. This is the sixth. Rocky do not care for Grace mate. Grace mate is dumb, loud, and reckless.”
“I—He is not my mate, oh my god!”
Ryland buried his face into his hands and let out a long groan. Rocky clicked his pincers in sympathy, his many legs skittering up and down his work bench.
Rocky’s main crab body was a dull reddish-brown, but his hermit shell was similar to Adrian’s blue-gray lobster plating, so it was most likely that he chose his shell-house on purpose because he liked matching with his mate.
Rocky was sweet like that.
“Do not understand. Grace mate gave Grace courting gift of intent, question?”
Ryland shot up from his slumped position so fast that a cloud of bubbles briefly obscured his vision. He waved them away as he pointed at Rocky accusingly. "No! No, it wasn’t, it absolutely wasn’t a courting gift. I haven’t gotten a courting invitation for years!”
Rocky let out a series of chords that sounded distinctly mocking. “Grace is dumb. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Rocky see how Merfolk want Grace, try to court Grace, and Grace never notices. Grace is ♫♫♪♬.”
“Didn’t catch that last one, buddy.”
“♫♫♪♬ means cannot see what is right in front of you. Cannot see the obvious.”
“Wha—I am not oblivious! I…”
Ryland flashed back to all the different times that Merfolk of all different types came up to him with stars in their eyes and holding small trinkets. He never knew any of them by name, so he didn’t bother with going along with their invitations, because why would he want to see the migration of glow-jellies with a stranger? Or go hunting with somebody he didn’t even know?
“Oh my god, Rocky. Were all those people trying to court me?”
Rocky clicked both of his pincers together and spun around in a circle, letting out tonal sounds of laughter.
“Rock, stop laughing! I’m serious, there’s no way I’m that oblivious, what the heck.”
He buried his face into his hands again and groaned as Rocky continued to chirp out loud giggles. A stupid crab was laughing at him, what even was his life anymore.
Colt’s face was impassive as he stared at the diagram sitting on Ryland’s desk. Ryland tried not to notice his brother’s accusing stare as he focused on his grading.
“What’s that?”
“Oh, y’know just,” Ryland hesitated, his etching pen pausing over Emmy’s clay tablet. He had his students write their answers into the softness of the clay, and then smooth everything out again after they reviewed their work. “A diagram that someone gifted me.”
Colt’s eyebrows lifted up as his tail lashed. “Since when did you know people outside from me and Jody?”
“Hey! I’m not that lonely, okay? I have Rocky, Adrian…” And that was the rest of the list.
Okay, well, maybe Colt was right, but he didn’t have to be so bunt about it.
Ryland sighed and continued grading. “Listen, it’s not important, okay? Just a simple diagram.”
“Why does it have a note on it that says For Ryland, the cutest schoolteacher?”
“Huh?”
“And is that a winking smiley face?”
“What?!!”
Ryland reached over to snatch the note out of Colt’s claws, but before he could even graze the small engraving, Colt had swam out of his reach.
“Ah-ah, hang on, lil’ bro! Don’t tell me you’ve got a somebody courting you?”
“There isn’t—get back here—there isn’t anyone courting me!”
Colt frowned at this and let himself be dragged towards the desk again, handing over the note. “What are you talking about? I thought this was why you were so…”
And here he gestured to the entirety of Ryland’s face, flapping his hand up and down.
“…So blushy, y’know?”
“I hate you.”
“Seriously though, stop doing it, it’s weird seeing my face mooning after some Mer.”
“Does Jody know you’re here? Don’t you have better things to do than just torment me?”
Colt flashed a crooked grin from behind his scruffy beard, the one that Jody secretly told Ryland that she found it hot, but didn’t wanna admit it to Colt’s face.
“Sorry bro, our rehearsal got cancelled. You’re stuck with me for the day!”
Oh, that made more sense. Ryland almost thought that Colt was blowing off his stunts to come hang out with him.
Wait, weren’t Colt and Jody working on the same set as Tom? Didn’t that mean—
“Hello, anybody home? Where’s my favorite teacher-nerd?”
Several things happened at once.
First, Ryland froze with his mouth open to tell his brother that they could go home, and that he could finish his grading at home.
Second, Tom Ryder burst through the classroom door with a box in each arm, a wide grin on his face, and those absolutely douchey sunglasses affixed on his face.
And finally, Colt Seavers, Ryland’s beloved twin brother and permanent pain in his behind, locked eyes with Tom and swore.
“What are you—”
“Tom, what the heck?”
“—doing here, you fucking asshole!”
“Oh shit, Ryland, your bro’s here!”
Yeah, Ryland thought wildly, That was kind of the problem!
See, Tom and Colt had reached a temporary standstill with each other after Colt had that awful accident. Colt had reached out to him and offered his condolences, and they were even mostly sincere! And after Colt and Jody got back together, Tom was among some of the first to congratulate them.
After that, Colt’s complaints about Tom’s behavior slowly stopped. Ryland stopped hearing about the age-old drama that they two of them had let simmer for years, and had assumed they had learned a way to be adults and work together as professionals.
And then Ryland had visited Colt’s work.
Apparently, seeing how Tom interacted with Ryland was enough to reignite the rivalry, and Ryland now privy to a completely different side of his brother.
He was the victim of many, many different stay-away-from-that-asshole-Tom-Ryder speeches, and it would be almost amusing if Colt wasn’t so damn protective over Ryland. He was a fully grown Mer, thank you very much, and he didn’t need his brother trying to police who he was friends with.
Besides, Tom wasn’t that bad! Sure, he was a little, uh, slow sometimes, but Tom was earnest. Even sweet. There was never any hint of that terrible personality that Ryland was warned about.
Needless to say, Ryland didn’t bring up the fact that he was hanging out with Tom to Colt. Like, at all.
“What am I doing here?” Tom looked offended, shifting one of the boxes he was holding into his other arm, so he could point an accusing claw at Colt. “Man, I come here every week! You’re the one who’s intruding in my Grace-time.”
Ryland felt mortified as he interjected. “Don’t call it that, oh my god—”
“What?” Colt looked around frantically, gesturing with his claws the entire time. “What are you talking about? Since when did you get so close with my fucking brother?”
Tom had the audacity to actually stop and ponder the question, bringing his free hand up to his chin to stroke it thoughtfully.
“Like, prolly since I first saw him. Which, by the way—super fucking rude of you to hide the fact that your brother is such a hot babe!”
Ryland felt his face burn red and his covered his cheeks with his hands, knocking off his glasses and not even caring to retrieve them from where they were floating in the water. He groaned in despair.
“Tom, not the time, please.”
“Since you first—there’s no way you guys have been talking for that long, because Ryland would’ve told me!”
Silence.
Ryland could hear the blooding rushing in his ear-fins and even the small exhales of his gills as they all paused. He began to mumble from behind his hands that he had covering his face.
“Colt…”
Colt’s eyes bugged out from his skull as he head swiveled from between the two of them. His jaw slowly dropped as he realized what was happening.
“Wow.”
Ryland winced at the cold tone that Colt had taken on. He had never heard his brother sound like that; except for that terrifying period of time when Colt was trying to shut everyone in his life out after his accident.
“Just—wow, I see how it is.”
Colt left the room in a swirl of bubbles, leaving behind Tom, looking absolutely bewildered by the entire situation. Ryland stood up from his desk and lurched forward, following after his brother with a shout.
“Wait! Colt, hang on!”
His heart was trying to pound out of chest with how anxious he was as he desperately swam after his brother. Ryland caught up to him just outside the school gate, grabbing onto Colt’s arm to tug him backwards.
“Please just, listen for a moment, Colt. I’m so sorry.”
“I swear, I wanted to tell you, right from the start in fact, but I just kept putting it off because it didn’t seem that serious and I,” Ryland rambled. “I wanted to give Tom a chance, even after hearing everything you’ve told me about him.”
Ryland sucked in a sharp breath. He felt himself begin to panic the longer that his brother didn’t react to his words. But the fact that Colt didn’t shake off his grip gave him a small burst of hope in his veins.
Colt was silent for a second before he lifted his head and met Ryland’s gaze. His eyes were tired, sad, but no longer angry.
“I thought that you would’ve trusted me more.”
“If you told me in the first place, I would’ve been willing to listen to you.” Colt’s eyebrows furrowed as he swam closer to Ryland, and poked a claw into his chest. “I’m not that crazy, Ryland. You’re a grown-ass adult.”
Ryland met Colt’s gaze and, mortifyingly, his eyes started to get a little wet with emotion. “I trust you! God, of course I trust you, Colt. I just didn’t want to tell you because—because I was selfish.”
His face started heating up as he continued, conscious of the way that Colt started to stare incredulously at him. He really was about to admit this, huh?
“I was selfish because… ugh, it’s because I didn’t want anybody to know that I was so desperate to hang out with Tom. He’s literally the first person in years who has actually wanted to try and get close to me.”
There was nothing more embarrassing than admitting this in front of his twin brother. He kind of wanted to curl up into a ball and never look anyone in the eye ever again, but he powered on.
“It made me feel, I don’t know, special, I guess. And I didn’t know how to tell you that, because all you do is complain about how Tom tries to wind you up, or something. I just wanted to feel like I wasn’t some, some nerd.”
They were both silent again as Ryland finished, before Colt let out a weak chuckle.
“But you are a nerd.”
In an instant, the tension broke and two identical shaky smiles started to form on both their faces. It was just like them to make up as soon as they could, because neither of them had the heart to truly stay mad at the other for long.
The perks of growing up as twins meant that you truly understood the other in ways no one else could.
“I’m sorry, again, Colt.”
Colt physically waved away the apology with his hand before he pulled Ryland into a hug, crushing his twin’s body against his and squeezing the life outta him.
“Nah, I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have reacted like that, especially when you’re… what, friends with Ryder now?”
Ryland felt himself flush again and nodded into the crook of Colt’s shoulder. A low whistle escaped from between Colt’s lips, and he laughed again.
“Damn, it’s gonna take me a while to get used to that. But I’ll try, as long as you promise not to hide shit from me again.”
Ryland let out a chirp of agreement, lingering in their hug for a moment more before moving to extract himself. He looked back towards his room and saw how Tom was very obviously leaning out of the window, trying to see what they were doing.
He sent a small wave back over to him, and laughed when Tom perked up and enthusiastically waved back to him, his blue striped tail practically wagging back and forth with how excited he was.
Colt let out a small scoff from behind him, but when Ryland looked back at his brother, he was smiling softly. His heart wanted to burst through his chest with how happy he was to see that expression on Colt’s face.
As they started swimming back towards his classroom, Ryland felt lighter, like a weight had been lifted off his chest. He didn’t know why he had freaked out so much over the fact that Colt and Tom used to not get along, because it seemed like they were more emotionally mature than Ryland initially thought.
“Finally! Man, y’all took forever to finish up.” Despite his seemingly careless words, Tom’s eyes were gentle as he looked at Ryland. “I thought that I was gonna have to reschedule, because I’m kinda on a time limit.”
That caught Ryland’s attention, and he watched as Tom opened both of the boxes that he brought in and present them to him with a dramatic flourish.
Inside the first box were pieces of kelp-wrapped tuna, carefully crafted and almost artistically displayed. In the second box was yet more food, this time in the form of what appeared to be giant, de-boned, sea trout, that was almost obnoxiously big.
Ryland felt himself grow embarrassed, sheepishly bringing up a hand to fiddle with his pale yellow hip-fins. He tried to protest, but his concerns were admittedly a little weak.
“Tom, you really don’t have to keep bringing me all stuff…”
“Nah, I gotta insist! It’s proper manners and shit, so you can’t complain about it.”
“Still, if you keep bringing me stuff, I’m not gonna have anymore space on my desk for it.” At least this time, the gifts were edible, which meant that Ryland didn't have to mull over where to place it.
He reached out and grabbed the first box, flashing Tom a toothy smile in the process. “But, thank you. Really, thank you so much.”
"It’s no problem.” Tom’s smile was so warm that Ryland felt himself begin to get even more flustered. God, that face had to be lethal.
Throughout the entire exchange, Colt had been quietly observing them. It was only at this moment that he decided to pipe up and interrupt.
“Wait—Ryder, were you the one who gave Ryland that coral model?”
“Yeah?” Tom looked confused, turning to stare at Colt—who was now staring at the two of them with a look of slow, dawning horror.
“No…”
“No, what?” Ryland asked innocently, tilting his head towards his brother.
“There’s no way—Ryland, you have no idea that…”
“Dude, what the fuck are you talking about?” Tom laughed.
Colt started mumbling, bring a hand to his forehead and pressing it into his skin. He looked stressed, or slightly manic, sort of like someone just told him that the sun was actually purple instead of yellow.
“Holy shit, holy fucking shit.” His head snapped up and he stared directly into Ryland’s eyes.
“Ryland, why the fuck didn’t you tell me you were being courted by Tom fucking Ryder?”
…Nevermind. He took back everything he said about Colt being emotionally mature. Ryland was wrong, his brother was an idiot.