The Most Extraordinary Life of Professor Snuggles
Title: The Most Extraordinary Life of Professor Snuggles
Fandom: Inception
Disclaimer: Nothing here belongs to me.
Rating: Like... PG.
Pairing: Arthur/Eames
Wordcount: 3013
Warnings: slash & swearing. Also a slightly voyeuristic teddy bear.
Notes: It seems my thing is taking ridiculous fluffly crack!fic and making it srs bsns, like my envelope!Jensen/stamp!Jared fic of absurdness. Which is why I just wrote 3k of slashfic from the POV of a slightly gay teddy bear named Professor Snuggles.
Summary: From the kink meme, the prompt was: Eames discovers Arthur's teddy bear/security blanket from when he was a child. Adorableness ensues. I just sort of took it and ran with it.
Professor Snuggles had seen a lot in his many years.
He still remembered being set out on a counter in a toy store, watching all the little girls and boys pass by, hoping with all his might that one of them would just reach out and pick him up, take him home, and love him.
He could recall with perfect clarity the anguish he felt when days on a shelf turned to weeks, turned to months.
It seemed no little boy or girl wanted a teddy bear wearing a tweed jacket and matching bow-tie with tiny little spectacles, however soft the bear might be.
So the owner of that toy store took him off the shelf that stood in the warm sunlight by the front of the shop and brought him to the back.
He sat there under a garish red SALE! sign with some other misfit toys for weeks, still hoping for someone to pick him, choose him. He tried to stay strong, but even his hope was starting to fade as the sign changed from 25% off to 50% off to 75% off.
Then one day a little boy walked into the store wearing ratty old trousers and a scuffed up jacket and looked around like he’d never even been in a toy store before.
He walked up to the counter and strained on his tippy toes to reach up and dump a pile of coins onto the surface.
“What can I buy for two dollars?” the boy asked, and Professor Snuggles can still hear that voice in his head - so sweet and innocent even as it quivered a bit with nervousness.
The owner came around the counter then and led the boy to the back of the shop, right to that red SALE! sign.
“You know what, lad? You see these toys here? You pick out any one you want, and he’s yours,” the nice owner smiled then and walked back to the counter to leave the little boy to his choice.
Professor Snuggles looked at the little boy and he just knew that they were supposed to be together.
He tried to look as inviting and huggable as possible, but as the little boy’s eyes trailed over the trains and other toys, the teddy bear’s heart began to sink.
But just then, the little boy locked eyes with Professor Snuggles. He tilted his head curiously to take in the tweed and the bow-tie and the spectacles, and just when Professor Snuggles thought it was over for him, surely, the little boy smiled and extended a hand to pick him up.
The little boy held him aloft and Professor Snuggles felt a feeling of elation unlike anything he had ever experienced. He, the misfit toy, had been made especially for this little boy. He knew that now.
This little boy, with his torn clothes and his carefully saved pennies - Professor Snuggles would be his friend. His only friend, perhaps.
A smudged finger traced down his soft ear and across his face to the little eyeglasses he wore, and only then did Professor Snuggles realize that the boy wore a pair almost identical to his own.
Then, a wide grin split the boy’s face and Professor Snuggles found himself pressed tight to the boy’s chest in the most pure and innocent hug he could have imagined. This was what he had been made for, and Professor Snuggles no longer lamented those long months spent gathering dust in the back corner of the store. He had simply been waiting for the right child to walk through the door and now he was finally here.
The little boy walked back to the counter and kept a fierce hold on Professor Snuggles as he looked up at the shop owner with large eyes.
“That’s the one?” the owner asked.
The little boy nodded his head once.
“Well, then, he’s yours. His name’s Professor Snuggles, you know. That’s why he’s wearing the wee spectacles and the tweed. I hope you two have a good time together.”
“Thank you, sir,” the boy said, and then turned to walk out the door.
Just as the little boy pushed open the door to the sounds of the small bells chiming overhead, the owner called out, “Ay! What’s your name, lad?”
The boy stopped, and Professor Snuggles waited to hear.
“Arthur,” he said. “My name is Arthur.”
+++
Professor Snuggles was there for Arthur when he had to crawl into bed at night still hungry because his mother wouldn’t, or couldn’t, make him dinner that night.
Professor Snuggles was there for Arthur when one of his mother’s boyfriends smacked him so hard he sobbed until he slept.
Professor Snuggles was there for Arthur when he came home from school crying because another boy made fun of his less-than-brand-new clothes and supplies.
Professor Snuggles was there for Arthur when he turned nine and nobody remembered his birthday.
Professor Snuggles was there for Arthur when he hit puberty and started wondering why everyone liked girls so much when all he wanted to do was get closer to Ryan Adams, the most popular kid in school.
Professor Snuggles was there for Arthur when he came home bloody and beaten because the other boys at school suspected what he was still trying to understand.
Professor Snuggles was even there for Arthur when he packed all his worldly belongings into one box and used everything he saved to get on a bus headed for New York City.
+++
At college, Professor Snuggles spent most of his time in that same box.
He didn’t mind, though. He knew that when Arthur needed someone, Professor Snuggles would be the one who he came to.
And so he was there, once again, for Arthur - when Arthur squeezed him tight with the exhilarating prospect of a first date, when Arthur had sex for the first time, when Arthur had his heart broken for the first time.
Professor Snuggles was there for all of the milestones in Arthur’s life.
+++
Arthur traveled everywhere after college, and everywhere that Arthur went, Professor Snuggles was sure to follow.
He experienced Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, Moscow, Nice, Madrid, Rome, all from the inside of Arthur’s duffel bag.
Arthur didn’t sleep with Professor Snuggles held tight to his chest like he did when he was young, but sometimes in the dead of the night he would wake and hug Professor Snuggles closely just for a moment.
And Arthur never forgot him, not once.
+++
Once, in a city in Germany that Professor Snuggles couldn’t figure out how to pronounce, Arthur brought someone back to his hotel room.
The man was loud and British and wore a fabulous tweed jacket that was even better than Professor Snuggles’ own.
Professor Snuggles liked him immediately.
He liked even better the way he was making Arthur smile and laugh.
Arthur didn’t smile that much, as hard as Professor Snuggles tried to make him. And he almost never laughed.
But here this man was, managing to get Arthur to do both with apparent ease.
Then the man started to kiss Arthur on the mouth and Professor Snuggles didn’t know what to do with himself.
Here he was, poking just slightly out of the duffel bag on the couch, unable to move or even close his eyes, forced to watch as this man and Arthur did things that frankly, defied description.
Professor Snuggles suddenly wished he had a string of pearls to clutch.
Even with all the awkwardness he brought, Professor Snuggles hoped the man would stick around.
Arthur seemed to like him.
+++
Professor Snuggles didn’t see the British man again for a long time.
And he was pretty sure that Arthur didn’t see him either, because he went right back to quiet and controlled and sometimes even fell asleep with Professor Snuggles on the pillow next to him because he stayed up so late talking about the man, who Professor Snuggles learned was named Mr. Eames, and everything he was feeling about him.
Arthur hadn’t talked to Professor Snuggles this much since he was a small boy, and while Professor Snuggles was glad to be there for him, he couldn’t help but think there was someone else Arthur should have been talking to.
Besides, Professor Snuggles was starting to get old.
His tweed jacket was worn down so much there were patches of just smooth cloth left. His bow-tie was hanging on by threads. And his eyesight was so bad the little eyeglasses barely helped at all anymore.
Professor Snuggles knew he had lived a long life far better than any other teddy out there, because his Arthur was special.
But he also knew that Arthur was lonely, and that he needed someone other than an aging teddy bear to be with him.
Professor Snuggles could only hope that Arthur would find Mr. Eames again somehow.
+++
Professor Snuggles was looking out at the streets of Paris from a duffel sitting by the window when Arthur charged into the hotel room in a whirlwind one night.
He paced back and forth for what felt like hours before he finally came to the duffel bag and pulled Professor Snuggles out.
Arthur flung himself down onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling with Professor Snuggles by his side.
He talked for hours that night.
He talked about how Mr. Eames was working on this job with him, about how much Mr. Eames flirted with him (and with everyone), about how much he missed Mr. Eames and missed being with Mr. Eames, and how scared he was to say anything to the man at all.
Professor Snuggles heard the anguish in Arthur’s voice and knew he had to do something about it.
And so when Arthur fell asleep with Professor Snuggles still by his side and dangerously close to the edge of the bed, it had to be fate that made Arthur shift in the night and send Professor Snuggles tumbling off the edge of the bed and into Arthur’s work bag that sat below.
Arthur woke up late that morning, which was fortuitous for Professor Snuggles, as Arthur was so alarmed and in such a rush to get out the door that he didn’t even glance in his work bag when he grabbed it.
Professor Snuggles loved the sounds and smells of the street, even if he couldn’t see that much from the inside of the bag. He wasn’t a fan of being jostled around so much, but soon enough Arthur was walking off the street and into a warehouse.
Professor Snuggles could hear several voices from a nearby room and Arthur walked briskly towards them, the quickened pace of his walk the only thing giving away the anxiety that, after last night’s confession, Professor Snuggles knew he was feeling.
The room he walked into was bright and loud with several voices and some music that Professor Snuggles, from all his worldly travels, could identify as being from India, or somewhere thereabouts.
Arthur makes his excuses as he sets his bag down underneath a table, so distracted that he doesn’t see the bag fall over on its side and Professor Snuggles slide out onto the floor.
Professor Snuggles doesn’t hear Mr. Eames’ voice in all the hullabaloo that’s going on, but he does manage to catch the name and “out for coffee” or something like that.
Where Professor Snuggles has fallen is right in view of the entrance to the room. Fate is definitely helping Professor Snuggles along, that is for sure.
Soon the group move into an adjoining room and Professor Snuggles is trying so hard to hear what they’re saying that he misses the footsteps coming up from behind him until a large hand picks him up.
“What is it we have here?”
The deep British voice is unmistakable - it’s Mr. Eames.
Mr. Eames fingers the tweed of Professor Snuggles’ jacket with a chuckle and peers into Professor Snuggles’ eyes with a curious look.
“And who might you belong to, now?” he asks as he picks up the bag from the floor.
When Mr. Eames pulls out a paper from the bag and sees Arthur’s name on it, his mischievous grin falters.
He brushes his finger across Arthur’s name softly and then returns the bag to the floor.
Then he looks at the old teddy bear with such tenderness that Professor Snuggles knows that as much as Arthur cares for Mr. Eames, Mr. Eames cares for Arthur equally.
Then he holds Professor Snuggles behind his back as he walks over to the door of the other room and sticks his head around the corner.
“Oy, Arthur! A word, if you please, darling.”
Professor Snuggles can’t see Arthur’s face, but that fast walk he hears is a dead giveaway. Professor Snuggles can’t even imagine how nervous he must be - so eager to keep up the façade and yet more eager still to throw it all away.
Eames leads Arthur back to the empty room and turns to thrust Professor Snuggles out before Arthur can even say a word.
Professor Snuggles hears Arthur gasp and feels himself yanked out of Mr. Eames’ hands and clutched tightly to Arthur’s chest.
“How did you get him?” Arthur demands angrily.
“I found this little bear on the floor, love. He took a spill out of your bag, I suspect.”
“I-what? I didn’t bring him with me to work. How did you get in there?”
Arthur holds Professor Snuggles out and looks at him doubtfully, and Professor Snuggles feels like a devious criminal mastermind. Who knew an old teddy would be this skilled at espionage?
“Well, thank you for returning him to me, Mister Eames. I trust you won’t speak of this to the others, please?”
“Of course I won’t,” Mr. Eames says, his voice soft. Then he puts a hand on Arthur’s arm to stop him turning away and asks, “What’s his name? He looks like you’ve had him for a long time.”
“I got him when I was seven. And his name,” Arthur says stiffly, “Is Professor Snuggles.”
“Professor Snuggles?” Mr. Eames asks, his voice incredulous.
Professor Snuggles is slightly offended. What’s wrong with his name?
“Yes,” Arthur’s voice is little more than a hiss.
“Oh. Well, that’s… dear.”
“Indeed. Now, if you’ll excuse me, Mr. Eames.”
Arthur elbows his way around Mr. Eames and is reaching down for the bag that Professor Snuggles knows he’s going to have to spend the rest of the day in when a hand on Arthur’s shoulder pulls him back up.
“Wait, Arthur darling, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to poke fun at your teddy. He is dear, really. I can tell you really loved him.”
Mr. Eames’ voice is placating and his face sincere.
“I appreciate that, Mr. Eames. He was there when no one else was, as silly as that sounds. And I have no idea why the hell I just told you that.”
Mr. Eames grins, “I don’t mind. I’m glad you’re actually saying something about yourself. It feels like you know everything about me, Mister Point Man, and no matter how hard I try I can never get anything about you.”
Oh, Professor Snuggles has never in his life wished for the power of speech more than this moment. The stories he could tell Mr. Eames… he would not even believe.
“I find it hard to converse with people I don’t know.”
“But that’s just it! You do know me, Arthur. I’ve told you everything I could think of, just hoping that once you’ll take pity on me and return the favor. Jesus, I do anything and everything that I can think of when you’re around just hoping that you’ll bloody notice me!”
Well, Professor Snuggles doesn’t really appreciate the language, but the sentiment he sympathizes with.
Poor Mr. Eames. It would seem he’s even more lovesick than dear Arthur.
“Eames, I… I don’t even know what to say,” Arthur’s voice is trembling now, but Professor Snuggles hopes that he’ll stay strong and find the courage to be as open with Mr. Eames as Eames himself is being.
“Say that I’ve been on your mind since the moment we’ve met. Say that every night when you go to bed it’s me you’re thinking of. Say that you find yourself looking for me around street corners and in coffee shops because you can’t get me out your mind. Say that you love me, because that’s all I want to say to you.”
Even Professor Snuggles with his heart made of stuffing can feel the sincerity in what Mr. Eames says.
The music from the other room reverberates in a low bass, but other than that the room is silent.
Then, suddenly, Professor Snuggles finds himself crushed between their chests as Arthur grabs Mr. Eames and kisses him wildly, passionately.
Professor Snuggles is so caught up in the romance of it all that he isn’t quite sure how they got from the warehouse back to Arthur’s hotel room, but once again he finds himself staring at the streets of Paris from a duffel bag.
There are many beautiful couples walking the streets, but none, Professor Snuggles thinks, as lovely as the couple behind him.
+++
Teddy bears are for children, Professor Snuggles knows.
A good teddy bear is a friend for children when they have no other, listens to children when no one else has the time, and gives hugs when no one else wants to.
A teddy bear helps kids through the loneliness of childhood and the awkwardness of adolescence until they are old enough to be on their own.
Professor Snuggles has been with Arthur a little longer than most teddy bears stay with their child, but Arthur always needed him because he simply had no one else.
Now Professor Snuggles looks at Arthur holding Eames close to him as they sleep and knows that he, too, will be able to rest easy.
Professor Snuggles and Mister Eames will love Arthur forever.
fin.
Fandom: Inception
Disclaimer: Nothing here belongs to me.
Rating: Like... PG.
Pairing: Arthur/Eames
Wordcount: 3013
Warnings: slash & swearing. Also a slightly voyeuristic teddy bear.
Notes: It seems my thing is taking ridiculous fluffly crack!fic and making it srs bsns, like my envelope!Jensen/stamp!Jared fic of absurdness. Which is why I just wrote 3k of slashfic from the POV of a slightly gay teddy bear named Professor Snuggles.
Summary: From the kink meme, the prompt was: Eames discovers Arthur's teddy bear/security blanket from when he was a child. Adorableness ensues. I just sort of took it and ran with it.
Professor Snuggles had seen a lot in his many years.
He still remembered being set out on a counter in a toy store, watching all the little girls and boys pass by, hoping with all his might that one of them would just reach out and pick him up, take him home, and love him.
He could recall with perfect clarity the anguish he felt when days on a shelf turned to weeks, turned to months.
It seemed no little boy or girl wanted a teddy bear wearing a tweed jacket and matching bow-tie with tiny little spectacles, however soft the bear might be.
So the owner of that toy store took him off the shelf that stood in the warm sunlight by the front of the shop and brought him to the back.
He sat there under a garish red SALE! sign with some other misfit toys for weeks, still hoping for someone to pick him, choose him. He tried to stay strong, but even his hope was starting to fade as the sign changed from 25% off to 50% off to 75% off.
Then one day a little boy walked into the store wearing ratty old trousers and a scuffed up jacket and looked around like he’d never even been in a toy store before.
He walked up to the counter and strained on his tippy toes to reach up and dump a pile of coins onto the surface.
“What can I buy for two dollars?” the boy asked, and Professor Snuggles can still hear that voice in his head - so sweet and innocent even as it quivered a bit with nervousness.
The owner came around the counter then and led the boy to the back of the shop, right to that red SALE! sign.
“You know what, lad? You see these toys here? You pick out any one you want, and he’s yours,” the nice owner smiled then and walked back to the counter to leave the little boy to his choice.
Professor Snuggles looked at the little boy and he just knew that they were supposed to be together.
He tried to look as inviting and huggable as possible, but as the little boy’s eyes trailed over the trains and other toys, the teddy bear’s heart began to sink.
But just then, the little boy locked eyes with Professor Snuggles. He tilted his head curiously to take in the tweed and the bow-tie and the spectacles, and just when Professor Snuggles thought it was over for him, surely, the little boy smiled and extended a hand to pick him up.
The little boy held him aloft and Professor Snuggles felt a feeling of elation unlike anything he had ever experienced. He, the misfit toy, had been made especially for this little boy. He knew that now.
This little boy, with his torn clothes and his carefully saved pennies - Professor Snuggles would be his friend. His only friend, perhaps.
A smudged finger traced down his soft ear and across his face to the little eyeglasses he wore, and only then did Professor Snuggles realize that the boy wore a pair almost identical to his own.
Then, a wide grin split the boy’s face and Professor Snuggles found himself pressed tight to the boy’s chest in the most pure and innocent hug he could have imagined. This was what he had been made for, and Professor Snuggles no longer lamented those long months spent gathering dust in the back corner of the store. He had simply been waiting for the right child to walk through the door and now he was finally here.
The little boy walked back to the counter and kept a fierce hold on Professor Snuggles as he looked up at the shop owner with large eyes.
“That’s the one?” the owner asked.
The little boy nodded his head once.
“Well, then, he’s yours. His name’s Professor Snuggles, you know. That’s why he’s wearing the wee spectacles and the tweed. I hope you two have a good time together.”
“Thank you, sir,” the boy said, and then turned to walk out the door.
Just as the little boy pushed open the door to the sounds of the small bells chiming overhead, the owner called out, “Ay! What’s your name, lad?”
The boy stopped, and Professor Snuggles waited to hear.
“Arthur,” he said. “My name is Arthur.”
+++
Professor Snuggles was there for Arthur when he had to crawl into bed at night still hungry because his mother wouldn’t, or couldn’t, make him dinner that night.
Professor Snuggles was there for Arthur when one of his mother’s boyfriends smacked him so hard he sobbed until he slept.
Professor Snuggles was there for Arthur when he came home from school crying because another boy made fun of his less-than-brand-new clothes and supplies.
Professor Snuggles was there for Arthur when he turned nine and nobody remembered his birthday.
Professor Snuggles was there for Arthur when he hit puberty and started wondering why everyone liked girls so much when all he wanted to do was get closer to Ryan Adams, the most popular kid in school.
Professor Snuggles was there for Arthur when he came home bloody and beaten because the other boys at school suspected what he was still trying to understand.
Professor Snuggles was even there for Arthur when he packed all his worldly belongings into one box and used everything he saved to get on a bus headed for New York City.
+++
At college, Professor Snuggles spent most of his time in that same box.
He didn’t mind, though. He knew that when Arthur needed someone, Professor Snuggles would be the one who he came to.
And so he was there, once again, for Arthur - when Arthur squeezed him tight with the exhilarating prospect of a first date, when Arthur had sex for the first time, when Arthur had his heart broken for the first time.
Professor Snuggles was there for all of the milestones in Arthur’s life.
+++
Arthur traveled everywhere after college, and everywhere that Arthur went, Professor Snuggles was sure to follow.
He experienced Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, Moscow, Nice, Madrid, Rome, all from the inside of Arthur’s duffel bag.
Arthur didn’t sleep with Professor Snuggles held tight to his chest like he did when he was young, but sometimes in the dead of the night he would wake and hug Professor Snuggles closely just for a moment.
And Arthur never forgot him, not once.
+++
Once, in a city in Germany that Professor Snuggles couldn’t figure out how to pronounce, Arthur brought someone back to his hotel room.
The man was loud and British and wore a fabulous tweed jacket that was even better than Professor Snuggles’ own.
Professor Snuggles liked him immediately.
He liked even better the way he was making Arthur smile and laugh.
Arthur didn’t smile that much, as hard as Professor Snuggles tried to make him. And he almost never laughed.
But here this man was, managing to get Arthur to do both with apparent ease.
Then the man started to kiss Arthur on the mouth and Professor Snuggles didn’t know what to do with himself.
Here he was, poking just slightly out of the duffel bag on the couch, unable to move or even close his eyes, forced to watch as this man and Arthur did things that frankly, defied description.
Professor Snuggles suddenly wished he had a string of pearls to clutch.
Even with all the awkwardness he brought, Professor Snuggles hoped the man would stick around.
Arthur seemed to like him.
+++
Professor Snuggles didn’t see the British man again for a long time.
And he was pretty sure that Arthur didn’t see him either, because he went right back to quiet and controlled and sometimes even fell asleep with Professor Snuggles on the pillow next to him because he stayed up so late talking about the man, who Professor Snuggles learned was named Mr. Eames, and everything he was feeling about him.
Arthur hadn’t talked to Professor Snuggles this much since he was a small boy, and while Professor Snuggles was glad to be there for him, he couldn’t help but think there was someone else Arthur should have been talking to.
Besides, Professor Snuggles was starting to get old.
His tweed jacket was worn down so much there were patches of just smooth cloth left. His bow-tie was hanging on by threads. And his eyesight was so bad the little eyeglasses barely helped at all anymore.
Professor Snuggles knew he had lived a long life far better than any other teddy out there, because his Arthur was special.
But he also knew that Arthur was lonely, and that he needed someone other than an aging teddy bear to be with him.
Professor Snuggles could only hope that Arthur would find Mr. Eames again somehow.
+++
Professor Snuggles was looking out at the streets of Paris from a duffel sitting by the window when Arthur charged into the hotel room in a whirlwind one night.
He paced back and forth for what felt like hours before he finally came to the duffel bag and pulled Professor Snuggles out.
Arthur flung himself down onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling with Professor Snuggles by his side.
He talked for hours that night.
He talked about how Mr. Eames was working on this job with him, about how much Mr. Eames flirted with him (and with everyone), about how much he missed Mr. Eames and missed being with Mr. Eames, and how scared he was to say anything to the man at all.
Professor Snuggles heard the anguish in Arthur’s voice and knew he had to do something about it.
And so when Arthur fell asleep with Professor Snuggles still by his side and dangerously close to the edge of the bed, it had to be fate that made Arthur shift in the night and send Professor Snuggles tumbling off the edge of the bed and into Arthur’s work bag that sat below.
Arthur woke up late that morning, which was fortuitous for Professor Snuggles, as Arthur was so alarmed and in such a rush to get out the door that he didn’t even glance in his work bag when he grabbed it.
Professor Snuggles loved the sounds and smells of the street, even if he couldn’t see that much from the inside of the bag. He wasn’t a fan of being jostled around so much, but soon enough Arthur was walking off the street and into a warehouse.
Professor Snuggles could hear several voices from a nearby room and Arthur walked briskly towards them, the quickened pace of his walk the only thing giving away the anxiety that, after last night’s confession, Professor Snuggles knew he was feeling.
The room he walked into was bright and loud with several voices and some music that Professor Snuggles, from all his worldly travels, could identify as being from India, or somewhere thereabouts.
Arthur makes his excuses as he sets his bag down underneath a table, so distracted that he doesn’t see the bag fall over on its side and Professor Snuggles slide out onto the floor.
Professor Snuggles doesn’t hear Mr. Eames’ voice in all the hullabaloo that’s going on, but he does manage to catch the name and “out for coffee” or something like that.
Where Professor Snuggles has fallen is right in view of the entrance to the room. Fate is definitely helping Professor Snuggles along, that is for sure.
Soon the group move into an adjoining room and Professor Snuggles is trying so hard to hear what they’re saying that he misses the footsteps coming up from behind him until a large hand picks him up.
“What is it we have here?”
The deep British voice is unmistakable - it’s Mr. Eames.
Mr. Eames fingers the tweed of Professor Snuggles’ jacket with a chuckle and peers into Professor Snuggles’ eyes with a curious look.
“And who might you belong to, now?” he asks as he picks up the bag from the floor.
When Mr. Eames pulls out a paper from the bag and sees Arthur’s name on it, his mischievous grin falters.
He brushes his finger across Arthur’s name softly and then returns the bag to the floor.
Then he looks at the old teddy bear with such tenderness that Professor Snuggles knows that as much as Arthur cares for Mr. Eames, Mr. Eames cares for Arthur equally.
Then he holds Professor Snuggles behind his back as he walks over to the door of the other room and sticks his head around the corner.
“Oy, Arthur! A word, if you please, darling.”
Professor Snuggles can’t see Arthur’s face, but that fast walk he hears is a dead giveaway. Professor Snuggles can’t even imagine how nervous he must be - so eager to keep up the façade and yet more eager still to throw it all away.
Eames leads Arthur back to the empty room and turns to thrust Professor Snuggles out before Arthur can even say a word.
Professor Snuggles hears Arthur gasp and feels himself yanked out of Mr. Eames’ hands and clutched tightly to Arthur’s chest.
“How did you get him?” Arthur demands angrily.
“I found this little bear on the floor, love. He took a spill out of your bag, I suspect.”
“I-what? I didn’t bring him with me to work. How did you get in there?”
Arthur holds Professor Snuggles out and looks at him doubtfully, and Professor Snuggles feels like a devious criminal mastermind. Who knew an old teddy would be this skilled at espionage?
“Well, thank you for returning him to me, Mister Eames. I trust you won’t speak of this to the others, please?”
“Of course I won’t,” Mr. Eames says, his voice soft. Then he puts a hand on Arthur’s arm to stop him turning away and asks, “What’s his name? He looks like you’ve had him for a long time.”
“I got him when I was seven. And his name,” Arthur says stiffly, “Is Professor Snuggles.”
“Professor Snuggles?” Mr. Eames asks, his voice incredulous.
Professor Snuggles is slightly offended. What’s wrong with his name?
“Yes,” Arthur’s voice is little more than a hiss.
“Oh. Well, that’s… dear.”
“Indeed. Now, if you’ll excuse me, Mr. Eames.”
Arthur elbows his way around Mr. Eames and is reaching down for the bag that Professor Snuggles knows he’s going to have to spend the rest of the day in when a hand on Arthur’s shoulder pulls him back up.
“Wait, Arthur darling, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to poke fun at your teddy. He is dear, really. I can tell you really loved him.”
Mr. Eames’ voice is placating and his face sincere.
“I appreciate that, Mr. Eames. He was there when no one else was, as silly as that sounds. And I have no idea why the hell I just told you that.”
Mr. Eames grins, “I don’t mind. I’m glad you’re actually saying something about yourself. It feels like you know everything about me, Mister Point Man, and no matter how hard I try I can never get anything about you.”
Oh, Professor Snuggles has never in his life wished for the power of speech more than this moment. The stories he could tell Mr. Eames… he would not even believe.
“I find it hard to converse with people I don’t know.”
“But that’s just it! You do know me, Arthur. I’ve told you everything I could think of, just hoping that once you’ll take pity on me and return the favor. Jesus, I do anything and everything that I can think of when you’re around just hoping that you’ll bloody notice me!”
Well, Professor Snuggles doesn’t really appreciate the language, but the sentiment he sympathizes with.
Poor Mr. Eames. It would seem he’s even more lovesick than dear Arthur.
“Eames, I… I don’t even know what to say,” Arthur’s voice is trembling now, but Professor Snuggles hopes that he’ll stay strong and find the courage to be as open with Mr. Eames as Eames himself is being.
“Say that I’ve been on your mind since the moment we’ve met. Say that every night when you go to bed it’s me you’re thinking of. Say that you find yourself looking for me around street corners and in coffee shops because you can’t get me out your mind. Say that you love me, because that’s all I want to say to you.”
Even Professor Snuggles with his heart made of stuffing can feel the sincerity in what Mr. Eames says.
The music from the other room reverberates in a low bass, but other than that the room is silent.
Then, suddenly, Professor Snuggles finds himself crushed between their chests as Arthur grabs Mr. Eames and kisses him wildly, passionately.
Professor Snuggles is so caught up in the romance of it all that he isn’t quite sure how they got from the warehouse back to Arthur’s hotel room, but once again he finds himself staring at the streets of Paris from a duffel bag.
There are many beautiful couples walking the streets, but none, Professor Snuggles thinks, as lovely as the couple behind him.
+++
Teddy bears are for children, Professor Snuggles knows.
A good teddy bear is a friend for children when they have no other, listens to children when no one else has the time, and gives hugs when no one else wants to.
A teddy bear helps kids through the loneliness of childhood and the awkwardness of adolescence until they are old enough to be on their own.
Professor Snuggles has been with Arthur a little longer than most teddy bears stay with their child, but Arthur always needed him because he simply had no one else.
Now Professor Snuggles looks at Arthur holding Eames close to him as they sleep and knows that he, too, will be able to rest easy.
Professor Snuggles and Mister Eames will love Arthur forever.
fin.