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Colt immediately was able to tell when it happened. He knew his brother like the back of his hand. They had grown up together, they talked every day, and they shared everything with each other. So when one day Colt asked if anything interesting had happened at Ryland's work and he brushed off the question with flushed cheeks, Colt knew immediately.
His brother was terrible at keeping secrets, and he himself was terrible at minding his own business without interfering in his twin brother's life.
So what if he decided to show up at Ryland's work the next day? At least Colt could use the excuse that he was coincidentally free that day and decided to give Ryland a ride so he wouldn't have to bike home. It wasn't necessarily a lie, just a slight omission of the real reason.
Which, without a doubt, was to meddle in his brother's life.
Colt couldn't help it, he was a very curious guy when it came to his twin brother's life. If it weren't so dangerous, Colt would also have immense pleasure in snooping into their older brother's life, but he knew better than that after the first kidnapping and murder attempt. It wasn't an experience he planned to repeat.
Colt shook his head, he'd been distracted. What was he doing again? Oh, right! Snooping into Ryland's personal and professional life.
It was the time when the children were dismissed, a little before Ryland was due to leave, since he still needed to stay a bit longer after classes ended to tidy up some teacher's things.
Colt didn't really know what he did after the classes ended and never paid attention when he tried to explain, but that wasn't important at the moment.
The important thing is that he managed to get into the school without any problems. Most of the school staff already knew him and no one tried to stop him, so he calmly walked to Ryland's classroom. The door was ajar and Colt could hear Ryland's voice coming from inside. He seemed to be talking to someone.
Colt slowed his pace, trying to be discreet so as not to announce his presence. He peeked through the crack in the door and saw his brother sitting in his chair, next to him was a man with hair long enough to tie in a ponytail, who looked quite muscular, and… had quite a few scars on one side of his face. But the most striking feature was certainly the metal prosthesis where it should be his left arm.
The dark-haired man had one arm resting on Ryland's chair and leaned over to see something Ryland was pointing to on his desk. Meanwhile, Ryland chattered incessantly, gesturing wildly with a nervous smile on his face and flushed cheeks, his shoulders tense and his gaze rapidly shifting from the papers on the desk to the man leaning behind him.
Oh. His brother had a crush.
Colt frowned. Who was this guy?
Colt took a step back and knocked on the door, trying to look like he had just arrived.
"Ry? Surprise! I came to pick you up today." He said casually, feigning surprise when he saw someone else in the room with Ryland. "Oh, hi. I don't think I've ever seen you around here. Who are you?"
The dark-haired man looked him up and down, then at Ryland, then back at him. "Simon," he replied. "And I suppose you're Ryland's twin brother."
"He told about me?!"
"No, but I assumed you were twins, since, well, you look quite alike."
Colt walked up to the man and extended his right hand for a handshake. "Colt."
Simon squeezed his hand back, frowning when Colt's grip became a little too aggressive, and Colt could feel Ryland's scathing warning glare even without looking at him.
Ryland stood up from his chair and walked over to them. "What are you doing here?" he asked in a tone of voice that to any outsider was calm and gentle, but Colt knew him well enough to know that, if he could, he would be throwing a chair at Colt right now.
Colt reached into his pocket and pulled out his car keys. "I came to give you a ride home."
Ryland opened his mouth to speak, but Simon was quicker. "Oh, sure. I'm sorry, I didn't know you already had plans." He said, turning to Ryland with a gentle smile before heading for the door. "Let's leave it for another day then."
His brother looked devastated, forcing a smile and waving to Simon. "Sorry, yeah, another day." The door had barely closed behind Simon before Ryland buried his face in his hands in a clear sign of frustration and defeat. "I hate you."
Colt clicked his tongue. "Sorry, I didn't know he was asking you out on a date."
Ryland raised his head and glared at Colt with his best angry look, which would have been far more effective if his cheeks hadn't been as red as a tomato. "It wasn't a date! Simon is the new botany professor, he arrived yesterday, and he was just asking if I could show him around the school."
Colt raised an eyebrow. "You didn't tell me about him yesterday when I asked if you had any news."
"That's because I barely got to talk to him yesterday." Ryland ran a hand through his hair in frustration, looking anywhere but into Colt's eyes. "He was busy, we both were, so—"
"I'm going to stop you right there. It's painful to see you trying to lie."
Ryland sighed in defeat, his cheeks flushing from being so easily caught in the lie.
Colt approached, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Start talking."
Ryland seemed to want nothing more than to dig a hole in the ground and bury himself. "I thought he was handsome and I spent the whole day staring at him cause I was too shy to approach him and say hi."
"I knew it."
"Oh shut up." Ryland snorted, nudging Colt's shoulder without much force.
Colt grinned and messed up his brother's already messy hair even more, who told him to stop and soon joined in the silly fight, messing up his hair back until they were both laughing, amused by the situation. "Okay, okay, are we going home or not?"
Ryland sighed, knowing the teasing would only continue in the car. "Okay, let me just sort out these papers first."
Colt helped Ryland tidy up the room and put his bicycle in the car as they left the school building. Once they were seated in the driver's and passenger's seats, Colt was kind enough to wait for Ryland to fasten his seatbelt before asking again, "So, Simon, huh?"
"You're the worst brother in the world."
Colt completely ignored his brother's statement. "Come on, what do you know about him besides his first name and that he's your type?"
Ryland buried his face in his hands and muttered a few complaints before finally resigning himself to his fate. "He's the new botany professor."
"Didn't knew you had botany classes."
"Now we have." Ryland continued. "He's really good with plants, and with children. My students said he's quite calm, gentle, and patient in his classes. I mean, he only had two classes so far, but from the little I've been able to talk to him, I think that's true."
"So you liked his personality?"
"I do."
"It's quite a contrast to his appearance, isn't it?"
"Colt."
"Just saying. He's quite muscular. It seems a bit unusual for someone who works with plants. It's hard to imagine that someone who teaches botany would have gotten those scars in his line of work."
"Stop it, you're doing it again!" Ryland accused Colt angrily.
"Doing what?"
"Don't play dumb! You know exactly what you're doing right now. Suspecting anyone who gets close to me and making insinuations. It's frustrating, you know? I'm no longer a cowardly child who needs you to protect me. I'm an adult with a doctorate trying to get closer to a coworker, and you should already know that you shouldn't judge people based on their appearance."
Colt flinched at his brother's scolding, his eyes fixed on the road, not wanting to look at his twin brother now. He felt a pang of anger and irritation bubbling inside him, but he took a deep breath and tried to stifle it before it could take over his actions.
He only wanted to protect his brother, but Ryland was right, he was being far too suspicious of Simon for no real reason other than his appearance.
Colt swallowed his pride and forced the words out of his mouth. "Sorry. You're right." He finally mustered the courage to look at Ryland, who had a much softer expression now.
"It's fine, I'm glad you apologized. Even a little surprised, actually."
"The therapy is working."
Ryland smiled radiantly at Colt's words. "That's incredible to hear. I really should thank Jody for that." He said, giving Colt a teasing nudge on the shoulder.
Colt looked away back at the road, a little embarrassed. A comfortable silence stretched for a few seconds before Ryland sighed and broke the silence.
"It was an eel attack."
Colt raised an eyebrow. "An eel ripped his arm off?! I didn't even know that was possible. I mean, I've worked with eels before, they don't usually attack humans."
"It felt threatened." Ryland scratched the back of his neck, one of his many nervous tics. "He didn't give me many details, but he said he was fishing and came across this eel, it felt threatened and attacked him. It didn't tear off his arm, but it did enough damage to require amputation."
"Oh." Colt bit the inside of his cheek. "So he wasn't a dangerous criminal or anything."
"No."
"Okay, okay. Wow. Now I feel a little bad for judging him."
Ryland chuckled softly. "It's okay. To be honest, it wasn't such an unfounded concern. I'm sorry too, I know you only meant well."
Colt smiled back at Ryland, it was good to be able to resolve their conflicts, something he hadn't thought he'd be able to do until a few years ago. He cleared his throat, trying to change the subject. "So, Simon, huh?"
Ryland seemed a little embarrassed. "Yeah."
"He asked you to take a 'walk around the school' today, right?"
"He's new to the school, it was really just a tour."
"And why did he ask you for a tour instead of anyone else?"
"Well, it's...it's just that...hmm." Ryland stammered, his face growing progressively redder.
Colt couldn't help but laugh at Ryland's red face, receiving a weak punch to the arm for it.
His brother sighed heavily and put his hands to his face. "I'm going to stop talking."
"Just in time," Colt said when he finally spotted the characteristic bend in the road that indicated they were arriving home. Rounding the bend, the brothers were met with the unusual sight of a car already in the garage.
They both knew that Court's job didn't exactly allow him to have a fixed car, so they had long since stopped finding it strange that he had a different car every week. What was strange, however, was that the car was parked in the garage even before the sun set.
"Hmm, I didn't think he'd be home already."
"Well, I had already texted him saying I would stay late at school, and since I doubt you did the same when you decided to leave work early, maybe he thought the house would be empty and wanted to check that no one had broken in."
"That's a plausible reason." Colt agreed, he unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the door to get out. He walked around the car to help Ryland get his bicycle out and put it in the small space designated for it. Colt had already teased him enough about that bicycle, there was no point in saying anything more when Ryland was too stubborn for anyone to convince him to let Court help buy him a better mean of transportation.
They both walked to the front door of the house, entered the code to deactivate the alarms, and then opened the door with the key.
"Court! We're home!!!" Colt announced as they entered. Almost immediately after Colt's words, they both heard a loud sound of something falling. They looked at each other for a second before running towards the noise to check if their brother was alright.
It probably wasn't the smartest idea, considering Court's job, but it was more of an instinct than a conscious decision. They crossed two entire rooms before finally reaching the room where the noise came from. Court was there, behind a counter with his face resting in his hands.
"Oh, hi. You guys arrived early." Court seemed to be trying to act casual, as if nothing had happened. Which wouldn't be believable even if it weren't for everything else. For starters, Court's lips were swollen and bleeding, he was panting, and his shirt was torn. The room itself didn't seem destroyed, but the overturned armchair on the other side of the room was probably the reason for the loud noise the twins heard.
Court shifted the weight of his feet as Ryland and Colt continued to stare at him from the doorway without answering.
"Hmm, Ryland, weren't you going to stay late at school today?"
Ryland blinked a few times before finally giving an answer. "Colt left work early today, he gave me a ride home and kind of messed up my plans."
"I see."
An awkward silence hung between them for a few seconds before Colt spoke. "Do we want to know what happened?"
Court shook his head negatively, and the brothers accepted the answer easily. That was, until another loud noise came from the next room, followed by a muttered curse. Their older brother simply closed his eyes, lowered his head, and took a deep breath. He seemed more resigned than worried, so the twins didn't immediately panic, even though there was clearly another man in the house.
They heard footsteps and Colt froze in place as the man stormed out of the other room cursing.
"You know what? Fuck off. No, I'm not going to hide in a closet like some cheap whore you're keeping secret from your wife. Cut that crap. 'Oh, hide, my brothers are here.' Yeah, so what? Can't they know you have a life? Look at this, boys, your brother has SEX! What a fucking crime!" He yelled with a thick British accent, punching the wall as if to emphasize his anger.
Colt's mouth dropped open in shock. "Ryder?!" He whispered softly. The man seemed not to hear him, still glaring angrily at Court.
Colt blinked a few times, staring intently at the man's face. The more he looked, the less he resembled that man. He had no beard, just a mustache that seemed quite full, his hair was curlier and browner, and besides, Ryder didn't have any tattoos on his arms the last time he checked.
Court sighed, he looked annoyed. "Tangerine, get out of here."
"Get out of here?" the man, Tangerine, apparently, asked indignantly. "GET OUT OF HERE?!" He grabbed the nearest object, a decorative seashell, and threw it at Court, who narrowly dodged it. "Make me! I'll only leave this house if you drag my dead body out of here, mate."
"Tangerine!" He growled angrily before stopping and taking a deep breath. "Please," he pleaded more calmly. "Not in front of my brothers."
Tangerine finally looked in Colt and Ryland's direction, then nodded. "Alright, we'll fight later." He walked over to them and extended his hand. "Tangerine, it's a pleasure."
Colt turned to look at Ryland, who seemed just as shocked as he was. They ignored the outstretched hand and slowly turned to look at Court, who looked quite embarrassed.
"That wasn't the best way to introduce you to him, but hmmm, this is Tangerine. He and I are... a thing."
"Oh, so I'm a thing?!"
"Not now." Court sighed. "He's kinda of my boyfriend."
"Kinda of?"
"He is my boyfriend."
Tangerine didn't protest this time.
Colt and Ryland were too stunned to speak during the entire discussion, but as soon as Court announced that he and the man were together, questions poured from their mouths like an avalanche. They both tripped over each other to speak, and even knowing that they probably weren't being understood, they couldn't stop asking their questions.
Tangerine raised an eyebrow at Court, who sighed heavily. "Okay, let's sit down, please. We need to talk."