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Ryland was so nervous he was afraid he'd throw up. On an intellectual level he knew tonight wasn't anything to worry about. He and Tom had talked quite a bit about getting married and they were each just waiting on someone to propose. Ryland had finally decided he was ready to be the someone to pop the question. It was the perfect night for it. It was their fifth anniversary. They were going back to the same restaurant where they'd had their first date. This time Tom had rented the private dining room so they'd have it all to themselves. If Ryland didn't time this right, Tom might beat him to proposing.
Dinner went perfectly. The food was just right and they were having a wonderful time, reminiscing together over the five years they'd been together. It was rough going at first because Colt hadn't been a huge fan of his boss and his brother dating. Tom's PR team hadn't been all that enthusiastic about their relationship either. They thought the "sweet school teacher" was too "domestic" for the playboy actor's image. They didn't care and eventually others stopped caring too. Ryland didn't seek out the spotlight and Tom was content to keep his private life private and let the playboy image die out. He brushed it off as getting older and wiser if anyone asked.
Their meal was finished and the waiter said he was bringing out dessert in a few moments. Tom seemed anxious about it and Ryland suspected it to be part of Tom's proposal plan. Determined to beat him to the punch, Ryland decided to try and sneak the ring he'd gotten for Tom into his glass of champagne. He distracted him by showing him an embarrassing video he had of Colt failing a stunt the last time Ryland had visited them on set. Timing it carefully for a louder part of the video, he dropped the ring into Tom's glass and hoped he didn't hear it clink to the bottom. Now he just needed to wait for Tom to notice. Maybe he should propose a toast?
Ryland had just begun his toast. He was talking about how happy they'd been for the past five years and how he hoped that would hold true for their next fifty years together. He had raised his glass and Tom had begun to do the same with his own, his eyes drifting toward the bottom of the glass where the gold of the ring was catching the light of the candles around the room. Suddenly, there was a blur of motion and a stranger stood next to Tom, snatching his champagne glass out of his hand. He tossed the glass to the floor, alcohol spilling and engagement ring bouncing away to who knows where. Ryland looked on in horror and stared at the man who looked down at Tom and said, "He put something in your drink! He's trying to poison you, Tommy!" turning to Ryland he said, "That is a low blow, even for you, Six! You can't be trying to kill our baby brother!"
Tom snapped his eyes up at the man who had interrupted what was supposed to be a quiet, romantic moment for just the two of them and yelled at the intruder. "What the fuck, Liam! That wasn't poison, it was a fucking engagement ring you asshole!"
"Who is Six and why do you think they're trying to kill Tom?" Ryland asked, more confused than he'd been since Colt had informed him Tom Ryder was actually flirting with him.
"Oh, don't try and play coy with me. We've been following you for months now, don't think you can put on some glasses and fluff up your hair and we'll suddenly forget what you look like," the man said, in a British accent, staring daggers at Ryland. He had the distinct impression that if he wasn't careful, literal daggers might be involved soon. "Quit trying to be a sneaky bastard, you Diesel, you."
"Oh, come on, Liam, you're not still on that Thomas the Tank Engine bullshit, are you?" Tom said in a tone that made it sound like the kind of exasperation one only got with a sibling who had managed to step on your last nerve. Ryland recognized the tone as one he and Colt frequently used on each other. He wondered who this man was for Tom to sound so familiar with him. They didn't look anything alike, so he didn't think they were family, but there was more to family than blood, wasn't there?
"He's always on the Thomas the Tank Engine bullshit, love. You should just be glad he didn't pull out his sticker sheet." This was said by yet another man entering their supposedly private dining room. Ryland did a double take when he got a good look at the man. Surely Tom would have mentioned by now if he had a twin, right? A British twin by the sounds of it? Ryland was beginning to wonder if perhaps he had been poisoned and was hallucinating all of this nonsense. This second intruder pulled up a chair from a nearby table and sat next to Ryland. "Court, darling, what is with the nerd disguise? You trying to make me jealous by fooling around with my brother? I mean, it's working a little. Both the look and the wining and dining Tommy. Do I need to drag you back to my hotel room and fuck some manners into you?"
"What did you call me?" Ryland asked, now almost certain he had been drugged and was on a weird trip or something. There was certainly no sane explanation for this, right?
"And right on cue, the second twin pops up. What are you doing here, Luke? I was having a nice evening with my boyfriend, both of us clearly intending to end the night as fiances and you're waltzing in here talking nonsense. If you even think about propositioning Ryland again, I will end you, brother or no." Now Tom was getting in on the insanity. Sure this other guy looked like he could be Tom's brother no doubt, but who was the other twin he was talking about?
'Tommy, this man is not who you think he is," the first man, Liam, said as he also pulled up a chair. He kept Ryland clearly in his line of sight and even pulled a handgun out and sat it on the table in front of him in a clear threat. Ryland's throat felt dry at the sight of the weapon and he fought back the memory of the night he'd lost both his father and his older brother. "The man sitting across from you, next to our dear brother Lucas, is none other than the feared Sierra Six, an assassin almost as good as your brothers, also known as Courtland Gentry."
Ryland burst out laughing. It was either that or pass out and he couldn't do that and leave Tom alone with these lunatics. Court was his brother and he was long dead. He wasn't an assassin! He died in prison after killing their father to protect Ryland. His laughter kept going nearing hysteria to the point where he thought he might pass out after all.
Everyone at the table stared at him in various degrees of discomfort, disbelief, and bewilderment. Tom seemed to understand at least what had set him off. He knew about Court and the family drama surrounding the violent end to a violent chapter of his childhood. He started to reach out toward Ryland, to grab his hand, but the other two men at the table tensed at the movement and glared at him until he stayed still.
"Liam, Luke, you are way off base here. This is Ryland Grace. He's not in your line of work, he's a school teacher. Middle school science. He has a doctorate in molecular biology. He's not a threat and you are going to stop threatening him. Leave us to enjoy the rest of our dinner in peace and I will talk to you both tomorrow." Tom practically spit out that last part, obviously angry at having their evening disturbed in such a way.
"Tommy, I don't care what you think you know about this man, but we've been chasing him around the world for the past several months. He's a brilliant liar and I'm sure he's been charming to you, but you are dead wrong if you think he's anything but a threat to your life. I'm sorry you got dragged into this. You know how hard we try to keep you out of our work," the second intruder, Luke, seemed truly apologetic.
"I am Ryland Grace, he's right! I have ID and everything!" Ryland started to reach for his wallet and stopped when Liam picked up his gun from the table and Luke suddenly had a knife in his hand out of nowhere. "Ooookay, does anyone object to Tom getting my wallet out of my pocket?"
No one objected and Tom retrieved Ryland's wallet for him. Ryland then pulled out his driver's license (expired, oops, when you bike everywhere you forget about that apparently), his school ID, his insurance card, his debit and credit cards, basically anything with his name on it. The men at the table were still eyeing him suspiciously, but it did seem an improbable amount of documentation to forge. Eventually, Luke reached over and squeezed Ryland's arm. "What was that for?" Ryland asked, indignant over being touched by a stranger, even if he did wear his boyfriend's face.
"I was just checking something," looking over to Liam, he said "It's not Six. He ain't nearly jacked enough."
Liam rolled his eyes, "And you would know, wouldn't you?" Luke actually blushed at that comment.
"Wait, if you could have just confirmed he wasn't this Six guy by touching his arm, why didn't you start with that?" Tom asked, his voice somewhere between amused and annoyed.
Liam shook his head, "You're lucky he didn't check lower, if you know what I mean."
Luke looked from Tom to Ryland, "You want us to grope your… wait, what is he? Your boyfriend?" He furrowed his brow and looked mildly disgusted at the suggestion.
Liam looked at Luke with a look that said plain as day, "Goddamned hypocrite."
Finally unable to stand it anymore, Ryland yelled, "Why were you calling me by my dead brother's name?!"
The two men stare at each other for a second, and then look back at Ryland and say in unison, "Fuck." Luke reached his hand back to Ryland's arm, perhaps in a reassuring gesture, but before he could make contact, he jerked and then slumped over onto the table. Liam stood up, scanning the room, gun in hand. Ryland rushed over to the fallen man and found a small dart stuck in his neck just above the collar of his dress shirt. He checked his pulse and found it steady and noted that his breathing appeared normal as well.
"I think he's just asleep, guys." Ryland said, holding up the dart so the others could see.
"Let me see that," Liam snatched the dart out of Ryland's hand. "Yeah, he's fine. He'll be out for a few minutes, but he'll be fine."
"Okay, but who shot him? It's not like he sprouted a tranq dart on his own," Tom said.
As they were contemplating this, yet another man joined their previously private party. Ryland caught one look at him and his jaw dropped. He stumbled backward into his chair, eyes locked on the newcomer. "C-Court?" he stammered out in disbelief. The man nodded solemnly.
"Hey, Ryland. I'm sorry, I didn't want to come back into your life like this," he said apologetically. He was walking toward them, slowly with his eyes on Liam. As he neared a table a little ways away from theirs, he bent down to pick something up. He offered it to Ryland. It was the engagement ring he had dropped in Tom's drink. Ryland grabbed it and held on to it tightly.
"I really need people to start explaining things to me or I'm going to lose my mind here," Ryland said.
"Right, so, I have a twin brother, too…" Tom started. He explained that he and Luke were twins and that they had ended up in foster care after some shit went down with their parents. He didn't want to elaborate and Ryland couldn't blame him. He knew that events that lead to that sort of situation were never fun ones. Apparently Tom had gotten adopted fairly soon after they were placed in care, but Luke hadn't. He'd ended up bouncing from place to place and often ending up in the same homes as Liam. They had bonded, especially since Luke missed Tom so much and eventually the two boys began to consider themselves brothers and were often called "the twins" by their foster parents.
Tom and Luke reconnected after they were both adults. Luke introduced him to Liam and told him that if he didn't accept him as a brother, then he'd have no brothers at all. Tom felt two brothers for the price of one was a pretty decent deal. He didn't mention them much to other people though, partly because it made his adoptive family mad (he'd mostly cut them off by now, they'd forced him to act from a young age and while he liked it now, being a child actor was something he had a lot of mixed feelings about) and partly because they were freelance assassins and he didn't want to expose them to more scrutiny by being associated with him.
"Right, so that explains you two," Ryland said, gesturing at Liam and the still sleeping Lucas. "What is going on with you?" he asked, pointing at Court.
"Well, I'm also an assassin, recruited by the CIA from prison and forced to fake my death and cut all ties with everyone I knew and loved. I've only just left the CIA recently but I haven't been in touch yet because I keep getting targeted by idiots like these two. It wasn't safe for me to drag you or Colt into my life, at least not yet," Court said.
"Alright, yeah, that makes some kind of sense I guess. I, uh, I'm going to need a minute. Just don't go anywhere, okay?" Ryland says, mostly to Court, but he supposes to Liam an Lucas as well.
As he always did in times of emotional upheaval, Ryland turned to his twin Colt. He fished his phone out of his pocket, checked to make sure the ring was still there where he'd put it a moment ago, and then started to text his brother about the evening's events.
Other Half
Colt, things are crazy here.
The proposal went off the rails, huh?
You could say that.
What happened?
Well, for starters, did you know that Tom has brothers who are absolutely insane?!
Yeah, he brags about them all the time. Says he's gonna get them to kill me one day. It's fine, I know karate.
They're assassins Colt.
Really? Wait. So kill me wasn't just an alternative for beating me up?
Apparently not. Anyway, the brothers showed up. They thought I dropped poison in Tom's drink instead of an engagement ring. Hijinks ensued. Then out of nowhere, Luke (Tom's actual real life identical twin btw) passes out because he got tranq'd! Like a dart in his neck and everything!
What the fuck, Ry?
Oh, and you aren't going to believe who shot him.
Who?
Court.
Court? as in our dead brother, Court?!
The very same.
Okay, so you're like high or something, right? Like this sounds like a hallucination or some shit.
No, I'm not even drunk. It's just, you should probably come see for yourself.
By the time Colt arrived at the restaurant, Luke was starting to come to. He smiled fuzzily up at Court and said, "Babe, you made it!"
Court laid an affectionate hand on Luke's shoulder and everyone else just kind of looked at them. "What? So I met a guy at work. We're still figuring out what we are."
Ryland stared at him. "I'm still trying to figure out why you shot your whatever he is to you with a tranquilizer dart. I am not interested in being part of whatever weird foreplay you two have going on here."
"It's not-" Court started and then looked down at the look Luke was giving him, "Okay, maybe it is…"
"Ew ew ew ew ew!" said everyone else at the table, surprisingly in unison.
Colt entered the room right as Tom, Ryland, and Liam were wishing they were anywhere else. "So, what did I miss?"
"You don't want to know," Ryland answered.
Tom looked around and asked, "Where the hell is that waiter? He was supposed to bring out our dessert ages ago!"
"Oh, yeah, I bribed him to give us some privacy for a while," Liam said.
Court looked up at that and said, "Me too, actually."
"Great, so what happened to the engagement ring I had them hide in the dessert, huh?" Tom asked.
"I don't know, but I have yours right here, Tom," Ryland said, fishing the ring he'd bought for Tom out of his pocket. "Will you marry me, Tom? It appears we both have completely crazy families, so we might as well combine them, right?"
Tom laughed and walked over to Ryland, pulling him out of his seat and into a hug. "Of course I'll marry you, my love. We might want to make sure we hire extra security for the wedding though. Gotta keep the guests from killing each other, apparently."
"Well, at least it should be easy for you each to pick your best man, right? It'll be twins all around!" Luke laughed.
"Uh, no, I'm not having you up there. I'm asking Liam to be my best man!" Tom retorted.
"Really? That's so sweet, brother!" Liam asked and then slapped Tom on the back.
"Yeah, I don't want to have people confused by two of me up at the altar. It'll be bad enough with Colt up there bringing down the aesthetic." Tom said, always able to find an insult for Colt in any situation.
"Goddamned twin, always stealing my shit. Even my other twin!" Luke grumbled.
Court put his arm around Luke and said, "It's okay, just means that you get to sit out in the audience with me." Luke brightened at that and everyone else rolled their eyes at them in unison.
Everyone except for Colt who said, "Could someone please tell me what the hell is going on here?"