Chapter Text
“I am not. Watching Scott Pilgrim again.”
“It’s a classic.”
“I know, I studied it in college; that doesn’t mean we have to watch it every time.”
“We don’t watch it every time!”
“Feels like it.”
“Fine. Interstellar. Or Gravity.”
“I’m not in the mood to cry tonight, Ryland.”
“Okay - The Martian, then.”
“You are such a geek.”
“And you’re not? At least I want to watch a movie without subtitles! Not every great film is made by the French, y’know.”
“I do know; I’ve made several.”
“Notably, none of them in French, because nobody wants to watch a film in French.”
“Can you two stop bickering and just pick something?” Colt groaned from his place on the couch. He loved it when he had his family all in one place at the same time, but sometimes they really acted too much like family. More than once he had wondered whether Jody was Ryland’s real sibling and she and Colt had been swapped at birth or something. “I really don’t care what we watch.”
“Well, we know that’s not true,” Jody said, turning on him. “If it has fewer than one stunt every ten minutes you start to get antsy.”
Ryland snorted, and Colt shot him a look. “I do not!”
“Yes, you do,” Ryland sniggered. “She’s right, you get all… fidgety when you don’t have something to explain to us.”
“You two aren’t any better!” Colt protested. “You have to explain why every science scene is right or wrong, and you always point out the camera work!”
“There’s camera work in every film,” Jody said primly. “I’m not picky.”
“So then why can’t we watch The Martian?”
“Because I want to watch something set on planet Earth!”
“Scott Pilgrim!”
“No!”
Colt sighed dramatically, running a hand over his face. “Why am I the only adult in this room?”
“You backflip off of roofs for a living; I’m a teacher,” Ryland laughed. “You want to talk about being the only adult in a room? I should give you both detention.”
“Like you’ve ever given a student detention. Didn’t you tell me your principal tried to have a talk with you about it?”
“I haven’t needed to,” Ryland told him decidedly. “But that’s not the point.”
“I’m going to put you both in timeout,” Colt said tiredly. “Until you can learn to agree.”
“I’d like to see you try,” Jody challenged. “Two against one. You stand no chance.”
That was certainly not true, and they all knew it. Stunt fighting translated surprisingly well to actual fighting, as Colt had been forced to discover a couple of years ago. But they also all knew Colt had no interest in actually taking them on. “Then I - I’ll put myself in timeout.” They both burst into laughter and Colt shook his head at them in mock exasperation. “Call me back when you’ve decided.”
He stood up and crossed over to the balcony, closing the sliding door behind him. It was quieter out here, but not silent - it never was in LA. The sirens were distant but still audible, the sound of car horns and revving engines reaching his ears from the city below, pulsing music from scores of clubs across the city thumping in his chest. But still, it was quieter.
He twisted around to look back at Ryland and Jody, who were still engaged in debate, voices muffled by the glass. Jody was probably about to pull out a notebook and write a pros and cons list in a minute. If she didn’t, Ryland would. Again, sometimes Colt really did doubt whether he was the one related to Ryland by blood.
He loved them both more than was possible to put into words.
Sometimes it hit him, like it was hitting him now. He had come so close to losing them, had lost them, for a while. And yet, here they were. He was beyond lucky to have them both in his life, beyond grateful for the second chances life had thrown his way.
Third and fourth chances, really.
It was strange to think, now, when life was so good, that there had been times he had doubted how much further he could make it. That there were times he had given up completely, surviving more out of spite than any real zest for life itself.
That, at eighteen, he had sometimes doubted he’d make it to twenty.