coltland gentry au where rocky tired of seeing grace sad over his brother gets together with the science and team and builds grace something like space whatsapp because maybe if grace gets too sad over missing his brother he'll want to leave erid, leave rocky, but grace is ecstatic and immediately contacts earth and maybe he's not the same person anymore, maybe he's not as kind and he's angrier, and maybe he doesn't have any of his memories anymore and all he has is this rancid fear and burning anger and the itch of the grass on his cheek and the sharp press of his glasses pads on his nose and his voice, hoarse and begging, you're mudering me! please! you're mudering me!and colt. always colt. so he contacts earth and goes through all the first contact protocols and when they demand to know if he succeeded or not before they bring him colt, he threatens to go get the beetles and never let them know how to save themselves. and maybe he's bluffing but maybe he's not, grace doesnt fucking know and he doesn't care. all he cares about is colt. this the least they could do after mudering him. what does he even have left in that godforsaken planet anyway? and nobody wants to call the savior of the earth's bluff so they go get colt seavers.
colt comes in pissed as hell and with another man. a man he calls cory, a man the armed personnel tense up around. and colt's pissed. isn't it enough that they took his twin, his ry from him? why do they have to drag him back to the graveyard? cory is steady and solid behind him and colt thinks that he could live in ry's graveyard as long as his big brother stays with him. they take him to the mission control room and for a second nothing happens before the big screen flickers on and- oh. it's ryland. it's his twin. and colt is sobbing as ry laughs and cries and shouts colt! colt! colt! and cory doesn't look too good either, staggering back to slide down the computers, eyes blown wide, hungrily taking in every single pixel of his baby brother. and colt is babbling i love yous and court is too, except six hasn't been human in a long time so his mouth moves open and shut and nothing comes out just a silent iloveyouiloveyouiloveyou, and his fists clench and unclench, and his heart beats like a hummingbird's wings. and there he is, corycourtsix thinks, my perfect baby brother. ry looks like a vision come to life. like his delusions in that awful awful year after ry left. like six bleeding out in budapest and dreaming of ry snuggled up under his chin, safe and warm and happy, and then waking up in a secure hospital and colt looking haggard and tired begging cory to live, i cant lose you both, cory. stay. please big brother, stay. and so cory did and met jody and met the kids and found claire and he's not really six anymore except when in the hazy in between sleep and waking up and when he thinks about everyone who let ry on that ship and when he cant find colt after a nightmare. and colt's pressed up against the screen like if he puts up enough pressure, he'll be able to feel ry again. any minute now his baby brother will look over at him and he'll let out a shocked cory? and then his lower lip will tremble like it used to when his experiments would blow up on him and he'd run to court begging him to fix it becuase court could fix anything in the mind of his baby brothers and court would, of course he would. except ry's eyes catch his and instead of the shaky cory? he was expecting, ry turns back to colt and goes colt, who is that?
colt laughs because in what world would they not know cory? and how could ry not know their cory? even when cory got taken and they moved to foster home after foster home and even when the state told them that cory was dead and even when they sat at the freshly buried empty casket until midnight, they knew cory. even when ry had that 105 fever in college and he was delirious and drooling from the heat cooking his brain and colt had to sit with ry in his lap because the er was overcrowed, the too hot body pressed up against him, even then, ry mumbled in his ear about how much he wanted cory. and even when colt had his first ever serious head injury from a stunt and ry dropped everything to take care of him, even when he lost a week of his life, colt knew cory. cory is everything to them he thinks. cory is sneaking them out to the beach 15 minutes away and reading books to them and treasure hunts on the high school campus. and he's the warm body wrapped around them in bed when they had a nightmare and he's the gentle hand when daddy's been too rough with them and he's stay away from them dad! and how long have they been underwater? and i'll kill you, you sonuvabitch and the gunshot and the blood seeping into his shirt and the sirens getting closer and closer. and lord knows that colt would go back to change to it all. to tell cory that it's okay, tell him to never pick up the gun, to never call the police. that they'll be, they'll learn how to read daddy's moods and that they can learn to take a hit from daddy and to just wait a few more years, and they'll run away with him and then they can be together, all 3 of them. and then cory can see ry and him graduate from high school and college and see the first apartment they ever rented in burbank and a million other domestic moments that he just got back after budapest. who is that? colt scoffs, what a stupid question. but ry, deadly serious, just goes, colt. tell me. who is that?
and court who just had the world fall out from under his feet. is this some sort of pennance? he thinks. if so he'll do it. he'll take every ounce of hurt and ry wants to throw his away for the rest of his life, as long as ry says his name again. he wants to hear it, he wants to hear cory again. say my name, cory thinks, say my name and i'll say yours and we'll both be real again. court thinks he could move mountains if ry says name. pushing himself up to his feet, court digs his nails into the palm of his hand. i havent been real since you left. since i was too late again. since dad held you both underwater and i didnt find you until you had a bathtub's worth of water in your lungs. since mama died. say my name and i'll move oceans for you, ill cross spacetime for you. and colt mad and worried, snaps out what the hell ry? i know you haven't seen him in a long time but don't fucking act like you dont know our big brother. and court catches the exact pixelated second his kid's face crumples up. and colt looks properly worried and he's pressing up against the screen again like he can fix it because colt's never been able to watch ry cry and not try to fix it. and ry is letting out these awful sobs, hiccuping and gasping. and he's keening like someone tore something out of him and cory has barely gotten half a step forward in some attempt at making his baby not sound like that anymore and colt is swaying towards him in distress and for half a second cory cant help but think of the last time he had them both in his arms safe and warm in that courthouse as they begged him not to go and he promised them they'd be okay and he'd get out as soon as he could and he'd come find them and they'd be a family again and that he loves them and he's pressing kisses to their hair before the officers tear him away and he's begging and they're screaming and nobody fucking cares. and then ry, agonized and wretched, sobs out, i have another brother?
six turns around and leaves.
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pixelskylines
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