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Driving into the parking lot of the complex he noticed something. One of the cars looked eerily
familiar. Colt wasn’t one to pay attention to people’s cars, I mean who does- but this one stuck in his mind for some reason. It was a fancy rich person car for sure, unnecessary accessories all over it.
Colt made his way up the apartment complex’s stairs. The wood creaked under his weight. He tried to be slightly quieter than usual, it was quite early in the day and he didn’t want to wake up any of Ry’s neighbours.
He carried with him some breakfast sandwiches, he hoped they were still hot as the drive over was longer than he expected.
Finally making his way to Ry’s apartment, he knocked. He wasn’t the most aware of Ryland’s sleeping schedule, being always in and out of town because of his job, but he assumed he would be an early riser due to being a teacher at least.
Silence hanged in the hallway for a few moments. He knocked again.
“Coming!” There he was.
A moment later Ry opened the door.
Ryland wasn’t the type to keep secrets, he couldn’t- usually. This was a special case.
It started about a 2 years ago, Colt was in town for a movie, and had invited Ry to come on set because the director wanted an actual scientist to check some of their ideas.
He agreed, it would nice to have a day out and see Colt, Jody, and Dan.
One thing he did not consider was Tom Ryder. Over the course of the day Tom made his way closer to him, and at the end of the day he slipped his number over to Ry.
At that point he told Colt, and he told him to delete the number, but he didn’t. He didn’t know why, but he wanted to at least give him one chance at being friendsish? He didn’t know okay?
Over the months their texts, calls, and meetups or “dates” grew in number. In fact they even decided to call it official which was a big step in itself for the both of them.
Now back to close to present day.
They were coming up on their 1 year anniversary, and Tom was actually going to be in town for it. Tom said he wanted to plan it fully, and to “Leave it all to him.” So Ryland did.
The date finally came and it was the best, Tom truly went all out. At some point they got drunk and ended up at Ryland’s place, both littered with the marks of the night before.
Ry heard a knock at the door. What time was it? His clock read 8:43 A.M. Who was knocking at his door this early? He shifted out of bed, looking for something to quickly throw on before answering the door. A second knock came through. he grabbed sweatpants and one of his science shirts, throwing them on just in time before he made it to the door. “Coming!”
He clicked it open slightly, peaking through.
“RyRy! Glad to see you! Sorry for popping in on you, I actually wanted to surprise you-“ He slammed the door shut. Was it a good idea? No. Was it the easiest? Maybe.
It completely slipped his mind that Colt would be in town too if Tom was going to be. To be fair Colt wasn’t always the best at reaching out, and he was proud of his brother for making an effort, but he did not want that effort to be the day that Tom Ryder was in his bedroom.
“Woah- Ry you okay?” Colt’s voice cracking with concern and worry. He could tell Colt this was a bad time, but he had never done something like this for him- and he didn’t want to push him away the moment he tried to do something nice. So how was Ryland going to handle this? With the upmost Grace. See what he did there?
Colt could hear shuffling behind the door, he held between knocking again and just coming inside- sure it would be rude but it’s his brother for Christs sake, what could he be hiding from him?
He decided to go for the first option. Saving the latter for later. He knocked, the shuffling stopping for a moment- then resuming. What was going on behind that door?
“Babe- Tom you’ve got to get up. Colts here and I’ve yet to tell him about us, and I don’t want this to be the first impression of our relationship. Of course I love you and want you guys to get along but this is not the best circumstances-“
“Calm down pretty boy..“ Tom shifted around in bed like a toddler refusing to get up. His tone still sleepy.
“I need you to hide in the closet.” Ryland pointed over to his ridiculously small wooden closet in the corner. “There’s no way you expect me to fit into thattt.”
Okay- Colt had been standing outside for nearly 10 minutes now, and he was left with only one option. Bust in the door. Was it a bit immature? Maybe. but he was left without many “mature” options at this point.
Putting all his force into his kick the door gave way easily, slamming back against the wall. Guess he gave up on being quiet..
He could still hear the faintest noise coming from Ry’s bedroom, but after a moment it evaporated. Ryland came out a moment later, dressed in one of his corny science shirts and sweatpants.
“Colt! So sorry for slamming the door on you like that- I had um.. some things to clean up before you came in.” Ryland was a bad liar. But why was he lying to him? What was he lying about? After settling the bag of now cold breakfast sandwiches on the counter,
Colt scanned his brother further and he noticed something, a mark was on his neck. It was a deep purple. A hickey. Ryland had someone over. He was embarrassed. It all clicked for Colt.
“Ohhhh I get it now.. you had someone over.” Colt smirked. “Whattt.. what- what would make you say that.” Colt almost rolled his eyes at how blatant Ry was being.
“You’ve got a hickey on your neck, your bed head is insane, you were acting really weird or still are acting weird.” Colt took out the sandwiches. Unwrapping one of them for himself.
A large thump. It came from Ryland’s bedroom. “Awhhh… Ryland where are you..” Tom’s voice broke through the silence.
Ryland Grace wanted to die in that very moment. He saw the motors turn and come to a conclusion in Colt’s mind. How he came to it so fast he didn’t know, but all that mattered was that Colt came storming towards the bedroom, slipping past Ry.
“Wait! Colt- it’s not what it seems!” The words fell on deaf ears. Ry followed him, seeing the same scene. Tom had fallen back asleep in the closet, then fallen out, and now was awake getting strangled out by Colt.
“YOU ABSOLUTE DICKHEAD!” Colts voice shock with pure shock and rage. “Colt! Stop you’re gonna hurt him- It’s my fault he’s even here!” That seemed to be the only thing to break through.
“What?” He finally stopped, Tom now backing away trying to catch his breath. “I didn’t delete his number when you told me to, I continued to talk to him, and I learned we got along great and we actually started dating.”
Colt felt almost confused for a second. How could they be compatible? Tom was an absolute asshole in every way, and Ryland was an amazing person in every way. It simply didn’t make sense in his mind. But he could move past that, it didn’t matter if he thought they were the most 2 incompatible people in the world- why didn’t Ryland tell him? Did he not trust him?
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Ryland noted that Tom had run off somewhere, that was fair- this wasn’t his battle. He looked back to Colt. “I thought you would hate me for going behind your back like that- I’m sorry.”
“Ryland Grace. you are the only family I have left. I’m not going to hate you over you dating my evil boss.” The situation felt so small now. He jumped into Colts arms.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have kept it from you.” Colt hugged him back. “I understand why you did, but there was no need. If he does well by you then I’ll just keep my thoughts to myself.” Ryland laughed.
Grace felt a guilt lift from his shoulders. The next few moments they let go and Colt showed him the breakfast sandwich’s he brought. Them being cold, Ryland microwaved them and they shared them over some lemonade.
After a few minutes the door to the apartment clicked open, and Tom peaked through.
“Sorry for fucking your brother.” He then slammed the door shut- presumably running away from a now angry Colt and flustered Ryland.