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1. The Spotify Incident
The first time Ivo noticed something weird about his brother was probably when he was scrolling through his Spotify and noticed the - under normal circumstances worrying - amount of Columbian songs that now found themselves in the mix he had with Rui.
Not that Rui hadn’t listened to Columbian music at some point when you speak Spanish it’s kinda hard to avoid those, but over the last few weeks, it had grown exponentially. Right now it was maybe every second song on there, but if Ivo gave it enough time it’d probably turn into every last one of them.
Now there wasn’t anything wrong with Rui suddenly deciding that any music sung by a Columbian was totally his thing - he and Rui were obviously, despite what everyone thought, different people - but Ivo was allowed to be surprised, wasn’t he? (It started to piss him off a little though.)
Originally Ivo had decided that he would leave it be, it was bound to wear off at some point. However, it had been weeks now and it was one time too many that he caught Rui blasting this oddly specific genre so he decided he had let things develop naturally for long enough.
“You know what? I had quite enough of that,” Ivo angrily said to his twin brother while snatching the other’s phone. “You need to stop it.”
Rui looked at him dumbfounded, “Stop what?”
“This,” Ivo paused the music, tossing the other his phone back.
In a way that clearly showed frustration he put his arms behind his head, “I tried- I really tried. But I can’t take it anymore, this genre is pure pain. Please spare me.”
“Seriously, that’s it?” Rui burst out laughing, apparently, finding this oddly entertaining. “God Ivo! I thought I had seriously done something-”
“You tortured me!” Ivo interjected.
Rui couldn’t hold back, “Man if it’s just the music I can use headphones.”
Yeeting himself on the other’s bed Ivo continued, “That’s a start I guess. What is it with you and Columbian music anyway?”
“So dramatic,” Rui jokingly rolled his eyes. “I don’t really know. Guess I just like Columbian things?”
“Weird.”
2. The Facetime Incident
Hallelujah. Ivo was finally done with his training ride, it had been really hot outside today and he hadn’t had any luck convincing Rui to join him so it had been rather boring as well. When he had tried to talk his brother into accompanying him the other seemed weirdly insistent on staying home. In any case, it wasn’t of much use to dwell on it, so he decided to annoy Rui as punishment; that wasn’t dwelling, just justice.
Opening the door to their shared apartment he made sure to be extra quiet, however barely able to stop the keys from clancking together and making a loud sound. Ivo also almost stumbled over the pair of shoes he had carelessly thrown in the hallway earlier.
When he, as quietly as his cycling gear allowed him to be, made his way over to the living room he heard two familiar voices and some hushed laughter. Poking his head through the doorway to the living room he saw Rui half sitting, half laying on the couch holding his phone in his hand.
The second distorted voice filled the room a second time and Ivo immediately recognized it to be the voice of none other than Molano.
“Of course,” Ivo said out loud by accident causing his twin to snap his head back.
“Oh hey Ivo,” Rui said a smile already resting on his face beforehand.
Ivo crossed his arms in front of his chest, “Skipping training to hang out with your new favorite person, again?”
“At least have the decency to say hi,” his twin replied, signaling for the other to come closer.
He came closer as asked of him but only greeted with probably the least amount of effort, “Hey Sebas.”
“Cheerful as always I see,” Sebastián replied from behind the screen.
“He’s just grumpy because he was out training, you know how he gets,” Rui said speaking now to the man in his phone again.
Ivo felt offended, “I’ll show you grumpy-”
Molano also joined the conversation now, “Woah no need to get like this. I’ll have to go train myself now anyway-”
“Well, you better. Stop keeping your boyfriend from training, Rui,” Ivo sarcastically exclaimed setting a clear cut in the discussion.
No one else said something for a few seconds before Ivo looked at Rui, one of his brows furrowed. His brother’s face was now flushed and he looked embarrassed almost, “Yeah I hope you’re embarrassed! If you’ll keep skipping training I’ll leave you behind in the dust, man.”
There was now certain laughter filling the air again and Rui shot a knowing glare at Molano, followed by Molano pulling himself together again, “Okay I’ll have to go now. See you Rui! Bye Ivo.”
Rui waved goodbye at the figure on his screen before the call ended and he looked back at him, “I love you Ivo, you’re funny. But you’re right I should get training, although it’s so hot, I really don’t wanna.”
3. The Training Camp Incident
It was December which you could also call ‘spending the already not cold winter in Portugal in an even hotter climate’ month or alternatively what happens when you go to the UAE training camp.
Honestly, considering Ivo already didn’t feel very in the Christmas mood and was at this point more than used to a hotter climate it wasn’t that bad. Training camp was always terribly exhausting but he could deal with it.
Besides, he was always secure in one thing, at least his roommate would be the normal amount of annoying. The roommate being his brother of course. So when this security fell away as Álvaro Hodeg came up to him and asked if they wanted to room together it came as quite a surprise.
“Thanks for the offer, but I’ll share with Rui like always,” Ivo replied to the Columbian.
Álvaro was apparently even more befuddled, “You sure, I’m confused- Rui said to me that he’d room together with Molano this time. So if you’re actually rooming together then why did he ask me to ask you to room together?”
“Okay you’re making this way too complicated- I’ll just go talk to Rui myself.”
With that Ivo walked off starting to look around for his brother, finally spotting him over at the reception talking to the receptionist, “Rui!”
His twin turned towards him, “Yeah?”
“So I just talked to Álvaro,” Ivo decided he would be completely direct. “You know if you don’t wanna room with me, you can just tell me that. No need to let someone else do that.”
“I thought I’d spare you the-” Rui tried explaining himself but got cut off again.
“Why don’t you wanna room with me? I don’t-”
Rui was the one interrupting this time, “If you’d let me finish my sentence I could actually explain it to you.” He paused for a moment, “Thank you. First of all, you’re being way too dramatic. But secondly, I thought you’d be pissed if Molano is around all the time, so I wanted to spare you and directly share with him.”
“So you’re basically ditching me so you can share a room with your boyfriend?” Ivo asked sarcastically.
“Yeah exactly,” Rui replied. “But I can share with you if it’s that big of a problem for you-”
“No, it’s fine,” Ivo sighed dramatically. “You’ve missed your window, man.”
4. The Andorra Incident
Ivo was in his bedroom, packing some of the stuff that needed to go with him to Porto again, his or more their flight would leave in a few hours so he decided to check in on his twin. When he entered the other’s room and it was empty he grew a bit worried until he found the other sitting on their balcony, “Why aren’t you packing?”
“Why would I need to pack exactly?” Rui looked at Ivo almost a bit amused.
“Because our flight leaves in a couple hours?”
His twin’s expression shifted a bit, “Oh I thought I told you. I’m not going.”
“You’re not going-” Ivo stumbled over his own words. “What do you mean you’re not going.”
Rui stated nonchalantly, “Uhm, it’s our anniversary?”
“You know we share a birthday right? And it’s not September.”
“Ivo, I’m not talking about a birthday, I’m talking about an anniversary. As in Sebas and I celebrating our half-a-year anniversary-”
Ivo looked a bit dumbfounded, “You’re dating Sebas?”
“Yeah,” Rui stopped trying to put his hand against Ivo’s forehead. “Are you getting sick?”
“I did not know that. Why didn’t tell me you were dating?”
“Uhm, because I thought you already knew that?” The other laughed awkwardly.
Ivo’s face dropped even further “Rui, how the fuck would I know if you don’t tell me?!”
“Man, you were the one constantly referencing Sebas and I dating. I was so sure you knew like you constantly called us boyfriends and I mean we weren’t being very secretive either,” Rui defended himself.
“I obviously said that very sarcastically every time I did that,” He fought back.
“Damn, I feel a little stupid right now,” Ivo should’ve seen that coming, he really should’ve. The Spotify, the Facetime calls, heck even the training camp stuff made a whole lot more sense now. There was actually a lot more stuff thinking about it, Rui being away from him a lot more, Rui choosing a seat next to Molano over him. Wow, the betrayal.
No but how had his brain taken this long to connect all of the dots?
“It might be worth mentioning that Sebas is coming over in a bit,” Rui threw into the storm of his brother’s thoughts before both of them got interrupted by the doorbell.
“Well okay maybe now already. I’ll get it,” Rui basically ran to get the door, Ivo tagging behind significantly slower.
When his brother opened the door it was of course Molano standing on the other side, he looked surprisingly nice, well at least in comparison to what they all usually wore. The man was wearing a polo and some plaids and was holding onto his brother with all he had.
Everything the other two did wasn’t different from usual if Ivo thought about it, he was just so much more aware of it, had Rui always behaved like a dog jumping up and down when his owner or boyfriend apparently, came back home?
Only when he saw his brother lean in to kiss the Columbian and whisper something into the other’s ear, Ivo wanted to slap himself if that’s how it was going to be right now Ivo didn’t want it.
“Seriously?” Sebastián suddenly exclaimed in shock. “He didn’t know?”
Rui purely laughed in response, “Nope he didn’t.”
“Man I thought he was maybe the first person to guess we were dating, oh do you remember that one call?”
“Oh my god, yes.”
Yup, Ivo wasn’t going to hear the end of this anytime soon.