#triangle au

AU Spinoff: Dirty Shirley: Once upon a time, you asked Ryland Grace to help you not go off to college a virgin. The two of you spent the summer working up to it. You went to college a virgin anyway. A year and a half later, you run into each other in a frat basement at a school neither of you attends. He’s definitely not jealous. He’s definitely not about to make it your problem. (not canon to the main fic)

Works inspired by the fic:

What's the difference? by @write-yearn-love

Ryland looking at you and Tyler by @alleaaal

Hashtags (at the bottom of this post):

#egg art -> fanworks inspired by the fic

#egg memes -> memes ab the fic

#egg meta -> writing thoughts/BTS thoughts

#egg songs -> the playlist

#eggs: [chapter title] -> asks/posts pertaining to specific chapters

#eggs: hatched -> dad!Ryland imagines

#astrosperm au -> he ends up on the Hail Mary after all

#broken eggs au -> tragic ending imagines

#prom night au -> what if prom went differently?

#sperm donor au -> every post I've ever made related to this fic/AU

#triangle au -> what if Colt also had a crush on you as a kid?

Here's a snippet:

Falk's voice trailed off, before he circled back to the previous topic. "But that's not what I came for.. I had hoped you would give me the tour The Agency promised until I was told you just arrived back." My eyebrow arched. "I thought someone else was assigned for that?" A slight wave of his hand dismissed the mere notion. "Change of plans, I requested you." "You do realize she isn't at your beck and call, right?" While it was needless, Leon didn't let Falk steamroll over me, and any plans I might have. In truth, there were none. "No, just yours I'd presume?" "That's not-" A burst of laughter spilled from my lips, as Leon tripped right into Falk's trap, bait and catch. It broke the simmering tension between the two men, my laughter coming down as a blade and cleaving through it. Before I knew it, Falk was before me, right at the bedside where I sat. "If it's out of your way, I'm sorry for my assumption." There was a genuine lilt to his voice, one that made my heart melt. Falk's nature with me was usually playful, teasing, flirtatious. This was a rare moment where he dropped that, ready to apologize if the time called for it. "Not at all, I'd love too." I murmured, a soft smile on my lips. "How I do so love hearing that." He assured. With no distance between us, the smaller details came into focus. "Oh, look what they did to this pretty face." Falk cooed. Hand reaching up to cup my cheek, ever so gently grazing the scratch on my face. "Does this hurt?" "Not if I don't think about it." I was laying it on thick, unconsciously leaning into his touch.

The beginning of this fic heavily features Falk flirting because he's more forward about that, he knows what he wants and he wants YOU to know it (as we seen in B2, he isn't careless with these affections, he doesn't say it for the whole world to hear but in this case he isn't worried about Leon knowing LOL)

Leon's bleeds a little into the background, it's more familiar, comfortable, speaking in actions rather then words because he hasn't let himself explore the idea of anything happening (even though he does have the reputation of being a little flirt, I feel like it would be different if he already cared about you, already knows you and that makes it not casual)

This fic is an excuse to pair them together, to imagine what they would be like and how their dynamic would work, what kind of lovers would they be, etc

It's my first time in ages writing first person so expect mistakes! I try to edit best as I can but things do escape me

While I did call it a love triangle before, the definition doesn't necessarily suit it, it would be more "why choose" because it does end up with you choosing the both of them-

It may start out as a "will they, won't they" thing but it quickly devolves from that

I've never written something like this, so it's fairly new to me and why I was a little nervous to share lol

Ryland is more introverted than Colt, a little pricklier around the edges...but you'd never know it from the way he acts towards you. Ryland indulges you beyond belief. Sometimes he's stupid about it (e.g. he does your math homework for you one day—just steals the worksheet and fills it out and gives it to you—and you're like????? so you think I'm dumb??? you're not the only one who's good at math????), but for the most part it's just, like—letting you have the first go on the swing. Letting you have the last Popsicle (which he wouldn't even share with Colt, most of the time). Letting you play whatever music you want when you hang out (he complains about it to Colt, but then later Colt will find CDs/casettes of your favorite musicians in their room, taken out from the library).

You and Ryland trade book recommendations (I firmly headcanon scrambled!Colt as having the ADHD/dyslexia combo — very smart, but just has trouble reading) (and maybe sometimes you read aloud to him, when you're kids, for school and for fun, and it makes him fall for you a little more each time). You and Ryland have inside jokes that neither Colt nor your brother Josh are in on. The first time Colt works up the courage to ask you for a slow dance, at your mom's wedding when you are twelve and the twins are thirteen, Ryland tries to cut in halfway through, and you let him.

The fact of you letting him stings more than it should. 

So, Colt is kind of expecting Ryland to ask you out at some point. Middle school passes — it doesn't happen. But it's still clear you two like each other. High school arrives, and he still figures you guys will get together eventually, so he dates other people, gets a girlfriend, takes her to prom—only to find out that not only did Ryland not ask you, he didn't go at all? What a waste.

He moves away to L.A. to try his luck in the film world. It goes decently. He's got a knack for it. He's working smaller gigs, working his way up. He couch surfs a lot of the time, and then comes back home in between. The summer after you graduate high school, he comes home for two weeks.

He can tell pretty much immediately that something is going on between you and Ryland.

Which, great. Great! You like Ryland. Ryland likes you. It's good, that you two are finally dating. It was inevitable. Colt's a good enough guy that he can be happy for you more than he is sad for himself. He brings it up to you in passing, when you two are on a rare solo outing (you guys hung out all the time as kids, yeah, but these days you're nearly always with Ryland, except for when Ryland is gone for the day at his internship). Says something about how happy he is for you. For both of you. You're good for Ryland; Colt can tell, and he tells you as much.

He isn't expecting for your face to fall.

You deny it, with some flimsy excuse or another. It's clearly a lie. Which begs the question—what the fuck is Ryland doing? Did he convince you to spend the summer hooking up behind everyone else's back? He's never thought of his brother as the kind of person who would do that, and certainly not the kind of person who would do that with/to you, but what other explanation could there be? Colt doesn't say it out loud, but in his heart he knows: if he had the chance to be with you, any chance at all, he wouldn't waste it the way Ryland clearly is. He would do a better job. He knows he would.

He goes back to L.A., and calls you a few times a year to catch up. You never ask about Ryland, never even mention him. Ryland mentions you, but only occasionally—whatever he's heard about you from Josh, basically. There's this one phone call, in your sophomore year of college, where you've just gotten back from a mock trial conference in San Diego. Ryland was just at UCSD, he remembers, on some kind of last-minute road trip. He tells you this; wouldn't it have been funny, if you two had run into each other? You laugh. Yeah, that would have been funny. But UCSD is a big school. It makes sense you didn't see each other.

What's really funny is the fact that, later, when he makes the same joke to Ryland, Ryland says you did run into each other. At a party. Just for a few minutes.

Hm.

Anyways: time passes. You get a boyfriend, midway through your sophomore year. When Colt comes home for a bit over the summer, though, he runs into you at a party thrown by someone in your hometown, and you are distraught. He finds you out on the porch, and the two of you sit with your head on his shoulder, and you tell him about how your boyfriend suggested you go on a break, for the summer (he's doing a study abroad program, and didn't want to make you suffer through long distance) (which seems incredibly stupid to Colt, given how clearly you are suffering anyway). That guy is an idiot, he tells you.

He also offers to take you home. Or else you could just ditch the party and, like, get ice cream or something? Like old times? He just (he adds, with some reluctance) would need to get Ryland, because they came together and Colt is the designated driver for the night. You let out a dry chuckle, your face mostly in shadow, and a wipe away a tear or two, and tell him you wouldn't worry too much about Ryland—the last you saw him, he was in a corner making out with some girl he had a crush on in high school.

(To which Colt would call bullshit, because Ryland only ever had a crush on one person in high school—but when he looks back into the house through the porch doors, he sees oh, yep, he's making out with someone for sure)

You ask him, with a shaky voice, if he really thinks your ex is an idiot?

Yeah, he says. Of course. Biggest idiot in the world (second biggest, he thinks but doesn't say out loud), to waste a chance to be with you. A smart guy wouldn't do that. Colt wouldn't do that.

You turn to face him more fully. For just a second, your eyes flicker back towards the door, towards the party, where Ryland isn't visible but is presumably inside somewhere, still kissing that girl, and for a second Colt could almost believe that you're more upset about that than about your ex from school.

He doesn't really have time to dwell on it, though, because your lips are soft and a little salty with tears and also, crucially, pressed against his.

There are so many reasons why this is a bad idea. He can't seem to remember a single one of them as he kisses you back.

Getting home is kind of a blur. He leaves a note or something for Ryland, telling him to find another ride; and the two of you go to your house, because your mom and your brother are both out of town. You kiss him as though you've kissed him before: deep, hungry, slow. Like you trust him. Like you want him. Like you've been waiting for this as long as he has.

The two of you spend the whole night just making out, until you fall asleep.

He wakes up before you. He has breakfast (eggs, pancakes) waiting for you when you pad out to the kitchen in your pajamas (he's gotten pretty good at cooking, since moving out; it's a good way of thanking his couch-surfing hosts in lieu of rent) (the pancakes are just for you, really. he's started watching his diet more closely since stunt work started picking up, but he knows you have a sweet tooth, and he wants so badly to be able to give you what you want).

You seem...surprised, by this. Almost a little wary. But you sit and take a bite and tell him how good it all is. You also tell him he didn't have to do this. You also assure him that he doesn't have to worry about, like, trying to let you down gently, or anything. You didn't go into last night expecting it to be anything more than a one-and-done kind of thing.

He, of course, immediately blurts out that he likes you. A lot. He's liked you since you were kids. And he knows he's still figuring out the career stuff, and he knows he's out of town a lot, but he's not afraid of traveling, and he's not afraid of long distance, and would you maybe go on a date with him? A real date? Before he leaves town again?

His heart nearly beats out of his chest when you say yes.

You go on a date. And when he's back in L.A., he calls you more often, and you start to call him more often; and he flies to Berkeley to see you the next time he has a weekend free; and before you know it, you're in a relationship. A real, honest-to-God relationship.

He's good to you. He's so good to you; he loves you too much to be anything but (he says the L-word early on, without planning; he means it, he just didn't want to say it too soon) (you take a little longer, which makes sense—you're so recently out of a relationship, and he doesn't want to rush you! he wants you to mean it, when you say it. and when you do finally say it back, he believes you). Some parts are hard, like the distance. Like his mom's health. But you make it work. He is determined to make it work. He is not going to blow this chance, the way other guys have before him.

And you are so good to him, too. You cheer him on from afar, telling him about how you go to see all of the movies he's worked on, or else go to Blockbuster to rent them; how you pause the screen when you catch a glimpse of him, even if it's just in the background, and go up to the screen to press a little virtual kiss to his cheek while your friends groan. You fly out to see him when you can. You decide to go to law school at UCLA, rather than Stanford, to close the distance, and the two of you move into a little apartment that is overpriced and cramped, and you're dirt poor (he's working consistently, but hasn't quite gotten a Big Break yet; and you are going to be acquiring student loans for several years), and he has never been happier. Even when you're apart, busy with school and work and whatever else, your actions make it impossible to doubt the depth of your love for him.

You make it equally clear in person. You are kinkier in bed than he would have predicted. He does his best to try different things, the spanking or hair-pulling or whatever else you want, though he doesn't necessarily understand the appeal. Love has never been complicated, for Colt. Why would he ever want to hurt you? He loves you. He just wants to make you feel good. It's as simple as that. But you say that the pain is good, sometimes, so—he tries.

And so it goes. You date. You go to law school, and pass the bar. He starts working on bigger movies, finds a few stars that call him back anytime they need a stunt double, starts making proper money. You move into a bigger apartment. He rarely gets to spend time in the apartment, because being so successful and so in-demand means he is out of town a lot. But it's worth it, on those rare nights where he gets to come home and crawl into bed and find you waiting for him.