Simon Stunt Coordinator AU Pt. 4
Guys, I don’t think you get it, I’m like funny funny.
── ⋅ ⋅ ── ⋅ ⋅ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──
Grace didn’t fully intend on coming back a few weeks later. Had imagined he wouldn't see these people again for another few months, or that the project would finish by the time he made another stop by. But Colt was using his new found access to his brother to his advantage.
“Doordash for Colt Seavers,” Grace mocked, straddling his bike while holding the Jersey Mike’s bag in one hand, his brother hopping over giddily.
“Thank you thank you thank you-” Colt said in a high singing voice, taking the bag and looking inside. “Where’s my root beer?”
“I drank it,” Grace said smugly, his twin looking at him with calm betrayal, softly shaking his head.
“You utter bitch.”
“You can’t trust me. I could be anybody. I could be Daniel Day Lewis.”
“You think you know a guy,” Colt mutters. “Nine months in the womb together, thirty five years of living, and you waited till now to show me your true colors. I can’t believe my brother is Daniel Day Lewis.”
“I didn’t want to hurt you,” Grace said, laying a hand on his brother’s chest, who batted it away dramatically. “I just needed to keep you safe.”
“You did hurt me, in here,” Colt beat his fingers into his chest. “Where it matters the most.”
“Forgive me-”
“I need time. I can’t look at you.” The tanner said, turning away with a flourish and walking back. “Colt wait!” The teacher calls with an outstretched hand, his brother turning dramatically to lean against the door, half hiding behind it with a fake hopeful gaze. “Those sandwiches were like thirty five bucks- I live on a teachers salary, I can’t afford that!”
The smile that morphs onto Colt’s face is so familiar it almost makes him nostalgic as the man fishes out his wallet, slapping some money into Grace’s hand. “This is only thirty-”
“You drank my root beer. I’m not gonna pay you for drinking my root beer.”
Grace rolled his eyes with a smile, fishing into his coat pocket, having expected it to rain with how dark the clouds are and how dewy it felt, and pulled out the can, shoving it into his other brother’s chest.
“You little klepto-”
“Stop being dramatic, it’s a can of soda-”
Grace attempted to bat away when Colt wrapped his arm around his neck, pulling his neck in tight like he used to so he couldn’t get away and kissed his cheek.
“Ew! Stop, what is wrong with you,” Grace complained with a laugh, struggling out of the hold awkwardly, still balancing his bike, till Colt relented. The younger wiped his cheek on his jacket. “I don’t want your gross middle child cooties- It’s contagious.”
Colt shakes his head, patting Grace’s helmet harshly. “Be careful, it’s gonna storm.”
“Yeah yeah- did you even look at the rain coat?”
“I did. It’s very loud like the rest of you.”
“You think you'd be more appreciative to the guy who rode four miles to bring you some sandwiches on his day off.”
“Yeah, but then you skinned my brother and started wearing his skin, Daniel. I don’t know if we can come back from that.” Colt started laughing before he even finished, Ryland’s own face splitting a grin that it hadn’t formed in a long time.
No one talks about how at ease being around your siblings can be. How it can heal your soul. Make you feel real again. Understood.
He had missed Colt. He still misses Court. “It’s your day off?” Colt questioned. “Do you have plans? Why don’t you hang around here? They're just reshooting lines and extra stuff. Main cast things. Everyone else is just messing around.”
“Oh, uh- No. I should probably get home, grade some papers and stuff,” He said, looking down and playing with his kickstand, listening to it grind and creak.
Colt blew a raspberry. “Give them all Cs and be done with it. Who’s gonna notice, they;re middle schoolers.”
Grace smiles, shaking his head a little. “Simon’s got a muscle shirt on today. Arms out, ribs out, tits out, the whole nine yards-”
“I enjoy the fact that after looking at him for more than two seconds has made you believe I’m obsessed with him,” Grace joked, crossing his arms over his handle bars.
“Premarital eye contact is sinful, Daniel.” Which makes Grace burst out a sharp laugh. “C’mon. We’re all bored. Come in, it’ll be like bringing in someone’s dog for the day, everyone will want to play with you,” Colt whined, kicking the tire of the bike. “Oh man, those words out of context are crazy.”
Grace let out a deep sigh, resting his chin on his arms and looking at the chipping paint of the building. He could always grade tomorrow before school. “Only for a few hours-”
Colt pumped his fist.
“-And I mean it, Colt. A few hours. Five at max.”
“Five days max, heard.” “Five hours.”
He didn't expect anyone to remember him. But apparently the guilt they felt would be generational. Their grandchildren would go to Grace’s grave and apologize for their ancestors' actions, if how everyone greeted him and promised not to mix him and Colt up today had anything to say about it.
“Glad we didn't scare you off,” Tucker greeted with a clap of their hands on a firm shake. “I promise, all rigging and harnessing will be of your own accord. Safe, sane, consensual and all that-”
“And by that he means if you're not kicking and screaming he's gonna put you up somewhere today.” Colt informed his brother with heavy pats to his back.
“As fun as that sounds, I'd rather not have this be the outfit I die in.” Grace gestures down to the red since spun t-shirt he was wearing and stained sweatpants. He should've looked at himself before agreeing to Colt's demands. Now everyone would think he's a slob.
“Nah, it’s not that bad. I’ve seen worse,” Dan waved off as Colt pulled him along, dodging set pieces and kicking things out of the way that he seemed to know Grace would trip on if he was put anywhere close to them. He's lucky he decided on the converse today and not the horrible signature green crocs.
“Where are you, oh saint thick thighs,” Colt whispered, eyes narrowed as he looked around, exclaiming a laugh in succession. “I see him- Simon! We got you a treat!”
Man, he really wishes he didn’t come in here today. Grading papers would’ve been safer.
Grace noticed where Simon was standing across the set stage, talking to a blonde woman riding a dolly camera, both entrapped in conversation over the script until Colt shouted, both looking his way.
“Oh, prefect actually, I’m gonna drop off this sub real quick.” Colt said, not taking his eyes off the pair as Simon handed the packet back to the woman and rounded the camera dolly. “Just stick to Simon till I get back.”
“You’re abandoning me already,” Grace huffed with a shake of his head, his twin not dignifying his words with even a glance as he started heading towards the woman on the dolly. “It’s 8:30 am on a Tuesday, in a random studio, and you’ve abandoned me. Great.”
Dan gave him a friendly pat on his back. “Yeah, well, lucky for you, you’ve got the best babysitters in the business.”
“Baby sitting who? I didn’t sign up for baby sitting,”
Grace flinched, head whipping to his other side, unexpecting for Simon to suddenly be there. And just as promised, in a grey t-shirt from some stunt company with the sleeves cut off, along with some of the side seemed, so it did in fact, show off a good portion of his obliques. And yeah, if it shifted around a bit he had no doubt his nipples would be out, but currently the shirt tucked tight into one of the pelvic harnesses he seemed to always have on, so he wasn’t in deep waters just yet.
His hair was down today, but would probably go back up at some point with the many hairbands around his wrist, and his glasses were nowhere to be found. Too bad, he looked cute in them. But hey, Grace wouldn’t complain about seeing more of his face.
“Oh hey, thought Colt looked funny today,” He said when he saw Grace's face, a dazzling calm smile coming to his features that the teacher hadn’t been ready for. He didn't seem as in a hurry today, even if he did manage to sneak up on Grace. “You look comfortable.”
“Well, I had no intention of staying until I was guilt tripped,” Grace mentioned, gesturing to the direction Colt had run off. “And then promptly abandoned.”
Dan curled his arm around Grace's shoulder, looking over to Simon.
“Can we keep him, Si?”
Simon settled his hands on his hips, popping on leg out and clicking his tongue.
“I’m not gonna clean up after him. You’ve seen the messes his brother can make.” Simon said playfully, to which Dan shook Grace’s shoulder a bit.
“I’m sure it’s not genetic. I promise I’ll clean up after him.”
“I am house trained.” Grace chimed in, to which Simon only hums, looking him up and down in a way that made him really really wish he had thought about what he was putting on before he left today.
“Alright,” The shorter of the three sighed. “But if I have to take care of him, you’re losing privileges.”
“I promise,” Dan says with a raised hand. “Besdies, I don’t plan to let him out of our sight today. I’ve got tons of fun plans for us.”
“Yeah? Like what?” Grace asked.
He spent the day watching them test rigs and harnesses. Laughing as they did some fake falling and being shot at. He flinched particularly hard when Simon did a running yank back that looked like it broke his neck, but his limp form popped up and eager to go again.
“Do you guys ever get bored of not being the stuntmen?” Grace pressed once, watching Simon wind up a bungee cable around his arm as Dan hit him repeatedly on the back with a prop sword. “You guys used to do stunts, right?”
“Oh big time, I helped on the Miami Vice set,” Dan said. “I was actually the one to suggest the boat jump. It was the first one I ever rigged and controlled.”
“Oh! So you’re the guy I owe all those dead brother nightmares for.” Grace said, making Dan laugh. “Thank you for preparing me to handle my brother’s death, I guess.”
“How about we turn the attention off me and onto this guy here,” Dan suggested, shaking Simon's shoulders, who didn't seem deterred from winding the cable at all. He seemed lighter today. Probably because he didn't have so many people messing things up on a day where most of the work was just stunt and camera crew with a few rehashing of scenes with the main actors.
“I didn't do much. I did a bit of acting when I was younger, but then I went into stunt acting around fifteen,” Simon shrugged, not looking up. “The demand for child sized stuntmen was a gold mine like you wouldn’t believe.”
Dan clicked his tongue and scoffed, tossing the prop sword into the bin with the others. “C’mon, tell him the good stuff,”
Grace sat straighter where he was lounging on blue mats stacked one on top of the other. Maybe a little higher up than he should be sitting, knees level with Simon’s shoulders, but no one was telling him off, so he assumed it was fine.
He folded his hands over his knees, crossing one over the other.
“The good stuff you say?” He teased, a quirk of Simon’s mouth and soft shake of his head making his stomach roil and go heavy.
“He did a lot of parkour. Lots of car stunts too.” Dan started, kicking the back of Simon’s knee gently to prompt him into spilling his guts, to which the shorter man laughed with a shrug.
“It was mostly background stunt work. Helped in the movie District 13. Did some James Bond and fast and furious driving. Helped on Jackass and fear factor. Nothing too exciting-”
“He drove the 18 wheeler in the Dark knight, 2008-”
“You did what-!” Grace silenced himself as soon as he started yelling, looking around and waving a hand with a sheepish look at the few people looking their way, quickly remembering that people were, in fact, doing their jobs and needed silence for that. Before turning back to Simon and Dan, leaning down a little. “You did what?”
“The semi flip in The Dark Knight,” Dan repeated, Grace excitedly slapping his knees. “Are you kidding me? I loved that scene-”
“He was the stunt man for the Hong Kong dive in that too. And he did the initial choreography for the chase Catwoman did. Jolene Van Vugt watched his run through and they did it with her after for the actual movie- so badass-”
“You’re singing my praises a lot today,” Simon pointed out to Tucker with a suspicious look. “What do you want from me? Slash, what have you done that you don’t want me to be mad about?”
Dan held up his hands in mock surrender. “I’m just making sure my co-Coordinator gets the recognition he deserves. Especially when he won’t so much as utter his own praise and would rather keep quiet about it.”
Simon just shook his head again, but the warm smile settled on his face as he hung the cable up with the others was comfortable and easily lived in.
“I’d never shut up if I did have the stuff you guys did,” Grace said, bracing his elbows on his knees and chin on his palms, not giving into the ache in the low of his back at the position. “My class is really into all the parkour stuff right now. I have to keep telling them not to jump between the planters outside the school.” He mentioned, before the easy smile on his own face fell, eyes drifting up a moment in thought. “Actually- you know what- How child friendly is this set?”
