It's just you and me and the spaces in between (part iv)
Title: It's just you and me and the spaces in between (part iv)
Author: ohmydarlingdear
Team: angst!
Prompt: home
Word count: approx. 800 (this part)
Rating: PG (this part)
Warnings: none.
Summary: Five times Arthur disappears unexpectedly and one time he comes to find Eames.
A/N: I keep telling myself to start writing real angst, real good hurty angst, but it's just not happening. blame it on the happy, sunny weather, I suppose. angsting is hard when it's this pretty out.
Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3
IV.
The next year sees Eames running all over the world, one city to the next, fleeing authorities and making connections with the underground world of thieves that’s sprung up since the disintegration of the official dream sharing program. Captivated by dream technology since that first evening when Arthur had showed him what it really meant to dream, Eames has fallen easily into the role of forger, a position he practically invented overnight after discovering that it’s possible to manipulate one’s physical appearance as well as the dream architecture. And while many people have given it a go, it’s Eames’ advanced degree in psychology and deep understanding of and interest in the subject matter that makes him the best. It probably doesn’t hurt that he’d had a thing for acting as a kid.
Eames runs into Arthur a lot these days, because Arthur’s the best at what he does (of course Arthur’s the best, he’s always the best), and Mal and Dom too. Eames finds himself tracking where each of them goes without even thinking about it, because they’ll inevitably cross paths again sooner or later and, well, in this business it’s always useful to know things. Every few months, Eames catches wind of a complicated job that sounds too interesting to pass up, and he shows up and isn’t surprised anymore when the other people in the warehouse are Arthur and Mal and Dom. It’s become known that if you need a job done right, this is the team that you call.
Eames is secretly delighted that he gets to work with Arthur so much, gets to slowly, slowly learn all of Arthur’s ins and outs, observe and commit to memory his mannerisms and quirks, his likes and dislikes, just like Eames would on a job, observing someone he intends to forge, as if by learning more about this fascinating man, Eames will work his way closer to Arthur. Sometimes he wonders what the hell he’s even doing, chasing Arthur around the globe in hopes that maybe, maybe someday Arthur will notice him. It all feels a little too high school for Eames, because Eames is an adult and adults don’t do shit like this, but he can’t help it, because, well, it’s Arthur.
“I’m back,” Eames sings as he walks into the warehouse one night when he’s on a job in Helsinki, working with, predictably, Mal and Dom and Arthur.
It’s his turn to get dinner for everyone, so he’d gone out and gotten Chinese for everyone a while ago, and as he sets down the bags of take-away down on a worktable, he notices that someone’s missing.
“Where’s Arthur?” Eames asks, a sinking feeling settling into his gut. He wonders how exactly Arthur always manages to slip away like this. It’s like Arthur knows exactly when Eames will be looking for him and chooses those precise moments to vanish into smoke.
“Hm?” Mal looks up from her blueprints. “Oh, he left to do some recon.”
“Will he be back soon?” Eames asks, trying not to sound too interested as he digs through the bags to find his food.
“Probably not,” Mal murmurs, going back to her sketching.
Eames tries not to let himself seem too disappointed when he nods and grabs the box of lo mein, Arthur’s favorite, and chews moodily. Later that night, when he returns to the hotel, he debates about whether to knock on Arthur’s door to see if he’s in yet, but then decides against it, thinking that probably, Arthur doesn’t want to see him anyways, because for all that they work together, for all the many years they’ve known each other, Eames isn’t sure if he has any right to call Arthur a friend. Eames has hardly, if ever, seen Arthur outside of the work setting, and it’s always unclear what Arthur actually thinks about him, Arthur who treats him with polite, courteous professionalism, Arthur who smiles closed-mouthed smiles and works meticulously, Arthur who criticizes Eames’ every move, just to check him, just to be sure. When they talk, it’s always work, work and nothing else, and Eames is almost afraid to press further, not wanting to push Arthur away entirely, because the small slivers of moments when he teases Arthur and Arthur smirks back are like stolen treasures, precious things Eames hoards jealously and doesn’t want to give up, not yet.
Eames turns away from Arthur’s hotel door and trudges on down the hall to his own room, trying to fight down the stab of dejection that’s welling up in his stomach. This is so silly, the way he pines and pines like this. It’s silly and immature and just not what people his age do. But this is Arthur and somehow that makes everything different; Eames just can’t seem to let him go, no matter how hard he tries, no matter how much he tells himself he has to.
Part 5
Author: ohmydarlingdear
Team: angst!
Prompt: home
Word count: approx. 800 (this part)
Rating: PG (this part)
Warnings: none.
Summary: Five times Arthur disappears unexpectedly and one time he comes to find Eames.
A/N: I keep telling myself to start writing real angst, real good hurty angst, but it's just not happening. blame it on the happy, sunny weather, I suppose. angsting is hard when it's this pretty out.
Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3
IV.
The next year sees Eames running all over the world, one city to the next, fleeing authorities and making connections with the underground world of thieves that’s sprung up since the disintegration of the official dream sharing program. Captivated by dream technology since that first evening when Arthur had showed him what it really meant to dream, Eames has fallen easily into the role of forger, a position he practically invented overnight after discovering that it’s possible to manipulate one’s physical appearance as well as the dream architecture. And while many people have given it a go, it’s Eames’ advanced degree in psychology and deep understanding of and interest in the subject matter that makes him the best. It probably doesn’t hurt that he’d had a thing for acting as a kid.
Eames runs into Arthur a lot these days, because Arthur’s the best at what he does (of course Arthur’s the best, he’s always the best), and Mal and Dom too. Eames finds himself tracking where each of them goes without even thinking about it, because they’ll inevitably cross paths again sooner or later and, well, in this business it’s always useful to know things. Every few months, Eames catches wind of a complicated job that sounds too interesting to pass up, and he shows up and isn’t surprised anymore when the other people in the warehouse are Arthur and Mal and Dom. It’s become known that if you need a job done right, this is the team that you call.
Eames is secretly delighted that he gets to work with Arthur so much, gets to slowly, slowly learn all of Arthur’s ins and outs, observe and commit to memory his mannerisms and quirks, his likes and dislikes, just like Eames would on a job, observing someone he intends to forge, as if by learning more about this fascinating man, Eames will work his way closer to Arthur. Sometimes he wonders what the hell he’s even doing, chasing Arthur around the globe in hopes that maybe, maybe someday Arthur will notice him. It all feels a little too high school for Eames, because Eames is an adult and adults don’t do shit like this, but he can’t help it, because, well, it’s Arthur.
“I’m back,” Eames sings as he walks into the warehouse one night when he’s on a job in Helsinki, working with, predictably, Mal and Dom and Arthur.
It’s his turn to get dinner for everyone, so he’d gone out and gotten Chinese for everyone a while ago, and as he sets down the bags of take-away down on a worktable, he notices that someone’s missing.
“Where’s Arthur?” Eames asks, a sinking feeling settling into his gut. He wonders how exactly Arthur always manages to slip away like this. It’s like Arthur knows exactly when Eames will be looking for him and chooses those precise moments to vanish into smoke.
“Hm?” Mal looks up from her blueprints. “Oh, he left to do some recon.”
“Will he be back soon?” Eames asks, trying not to sound too interested as he digs through the bags to find his food.
“Probably not,” Mal murmurs, going back to her sketching.
Eames tries not to let himself seem too disappointed when he nods and grabs the box of lo mein, Arthur’s favorite, and chews moodily. Later that night, when he returns to the hotel, he debates about whether to knock on Arthur’s door to see if he’s in yet, but then decides against it, thinking that probably, Arthur doesn’t want to see him anyways, because for all that they work together, for all the many years they’ve known each other, Eames isn’t sure if he has any right to call Arthur a friend. Eames has hardly, if ever, seen Arthur outside of the work setting, and it’s always unclear what Arthur actually thinks about him, Arthur who treats him with polite, courteous professionalism, Arthur who smiles closed-mouthed smiles and works meticulously, Arthur who criticizes Eames’ every move, just to check him, just to be sure. When they talk, it’s always work, work and nothing else, and Eames is almost afraid to press further, not wanting to push Arthur away entirely, because the small slivers of moments when he teases Arthur and Arthur smirks back are like stolen treasures, precious things Eames hoards jealously and doesn’t want to give up, not yet.
Eames turns away from Arthur’s hotel door and trudges on down the hall to his own room, trying to fight down the stab of dejection that’s welling up in his stomach. This is so silly, the way he pines and pines like this. It’s silly and immature and just not what people his age do. But this is Arthur and somehow that makes everything different; Eames just can’t seem to let him go, no matter how hard he tries, no matter how much he tells himself he has to.
Part 5