The Genesis of the Problem: Inception, Arthur/Eames, PG
Title: The Genesis is the of the Problem
Author: nevcolleil
Fandom: Inception
Pairing(s): Arthur/Eames
Rating:PG-13
Disclaimer: Standard disclaimer for this and all my fan works: these characters are not mine. This was written for fun and not profit.
Summary: For this prompt at inception_kink: Dom is actually Arthur's father. The team finds out when Eames starts to seriously pursue Arthur and speaks out about Dom's over-protectiveness.
There's no mistaking the source of the problem - he's known Dom for longer than he's known Arthur. They worked a couple of jobs together; everything went well. Dom's a little dry for his usual taste in pals, but exactly what Eames likes in the way of a boss man. Professional. Dependable. Not entirely without a sense of humor. And most importantly - cool enough to let Eames do what Eames gets paid to do without a lot of fuss. Somehow, they manage to work well together and play well together, on those occasions Dom actually takes Eames up on his invitations to go out and do something for fun.
As long as Arthur isn't around. Or - if Arthur is around - as long as Eames acts as though he isn't.
Eames has questioned their relationship from the beginning - quietly, to himself. By the time he'd met Dom, they were already legends in the business: Dominic Cobb, the best extractor in the world, and his fearsome young point man, known only as Arthur. They were the only big names in the illegal extraction market that always went together. They had a 98.5 percent success rate and their work was prolific.
The first time Eames worked with Dom, the point man's name was Andre. The next time, it was Sebastian.
Just when Eames had worked up the nerve to ask what gives... Dom pulled him aside after a job and told him he was looking for an on-call forger. No more case-by-case, call-me-if-you're-available's - a steady guy. If Dom called - and he'd call often, he said - he'd need a quick answer, and the answer needed to be yes. He'd pay extra, he said, and the figure he quoted made Eames nearly swallow his cigarette.
Dom likes working with people he can trust. He said as much. And then he introduced Eames to Arthur.
Eames kinda chuckles now, when he thinks back to that first meeting.
His first thought, upon seeing Arthur the first time - filling out a suit so fine it was a thing of beauty, particularly with Arthur's fit body inside of it; dark eyes and chiseled jaw and precise lips forming precise words ("It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Eames.") - was: 'Hot bloody damn.'
Eames's second thought was, 'Dom, you lucky bastard.'
Because there was really no other conclusion to be drawn at the time. Dom is jealously possessive of the boy. Why else would he have hidden him away from Eames until Eames had apparently "proved himself"? They are obviously close - seeming to anticipate one another's moves and know one another's minds without asking. Dom reacted, then as now, with an almost frightening intensity to any threat to Arthur's person, and shortly into knowing him, Eames saw Arthur throw himself into the clutches of an angry mob (of projections) for Dom. Good buddies do some of those things, but on the level that Dom and Arthur had taken it to? Eames decided: they had to be fucking.
Eames chuckles now because that memory is inextricably tied to the one of telling Dom his suspicions.
Dom was sipping coffee at the time. Eames couldn't have planned a more opportune moment.
"So. It's unlike your boytoy to be this late for a meeting. What? 'd you keep him up too late last night, stress-testing the ol' box springs?"
Eames almost thought he'd have to call an ambulance. By the time Arthur arrived at the warehouse, Eames was pounding on Dom's back; Dom was all but limp on his feet, leaning heavily on Eames as he continued to hack up his left lung. Dom's shirt had been irrevocably ruined, forever melded with the coffee Dom had spilt and spit-up all over himself.
Arthur heard Eames's side of the story - quickly (Eames rushed in the telling, wide-eyed, facing Arthur's wrathful expression and fearing he might be smited for trying to kill the bloke's sugar daddy before he'd had the chance to properly explain himself) - blushed and paled simultaneously, which made for quite the sight, and calmly said, "We aren't lovers." To which he added, "Never say something like that again."
Eames promised not to. When Arthur is wrathful, one's only wise decision is to placate him.
But Eames had been skeptical. If shagging like rabbits didn't explain Dom and Arthur's odd dynamic... What did?
Over the years, Eames has gathered enough evidence to - believe it or not - support Arthur's denial. Dom never dates, for whatever reason, but Arthur's been out with a variety of men and women. Dom's never given the evil eye to any of them, not that many have come near enough for Eames to know. Upon closer observation, that strange little pull between Dom and Arthur doesn't strike Eames as innately sexual, whatever it actually is. And, once, Eames got a glimpse of the Cobb family home. He only saw what could be seen from the front doorway, but that was plenty - the front room in Dom's home is more like a long hallway, the walls peppered with framed photographs. Arthur is in several of them. And Dom's a ballsy one, Eames will be the first to say. But he can't quite wrap his head around the possibility that Dom was ballsy enough to have his young male lover photographed alongside his wife and children.
So it's certain. Dom doesn't have a problem with Eames. He doesn't have some claim on Arthur that would give him a problem with Eames being with Arthur.
But he has a problem with it, all the same.
Which would be fine and all... If Arthur seemed to have a problem with it too. Once he'd realized that Arthur was up for grabs, however, Eames set about on a slow and serious pursuit of the man. And Arthur has been plenty receptive. He's a consenting adult. If he wanted Eames to stop the flirting and the innuendo and all the other uses of the tools of Eames's trade, he'd tell Eames to fuck off himself.
In no uncertain terms. With a mild outburst of violence, perhaps, to push his point. Arthur's a big boy. He can more than take care of himself.
Evetually, Eames has had enough of Dom's broody protector routine.
He's just asked Arthur to join him at a pub. They'll be leaving the warehouse any moment and Dom is shuffling papers in the corner, being rather obviously superfluous, just waiting to hear Arthur's answer.
Perhaps Eames could have asked with a little less leer in his tone. Perhaps he could play down the bedroom eyes he's got aimed at Arthur or not lean in so close (but that's Ariadne over there, pretending she isn't snickering behind her hand, and it was a bit of a rough job for her; plus, Arthur is smiling at Eames's antics - which doesn't do much for his ego, but Eames will take any smile from Arthur as a win). Regardless, when Eames sees Dom frown out the corner of his eyes and Dom begins, "Arthur-", Eames loses it.
He throws up his hands with a huff and takes a step back from Arthur, who turns back him to him startled (having begun to angle himself towards Dom at the sound of Dom's voice, like the needle of a compass towards a magnet). He can't much bring himself to care that everyone is looking at him like he's gone barmy. They've all noticed what's been going on here, even if they've decided not to acknowlege it.
"For fuck's sake, Cobb, what is it this time?"
Arthur goes very still, his face goes blank, but Eames's eyes are on Dom, whose face flickers with surprise and then puzzlement before settling on something cautious and dark.
"What?" Dom asks. Ariadne's little head is bobbing around, looking from the one to the other of the three of them.
"Dom-" Arthur begins to quietly intervene. But Eames has waited a long time to have a say and he suddenly can't wait any longer.
"You've always got some reason I can't be trusted alone with Arthur and his precious virtue unless there's work involved, so what you got now?"
'Cautious and dark', so that you know, looks a lot like 'angry'. Only now Dom looks even angrier.
"Look, Eames-"
Eames is on a roll. "If Arthur didn't want to be alone with me, he'd have bloody well told me by now, so what is your probably, exactly? You're not his lover, you're not his keeper..." Eames snorts. "What're you... His daddy?"
Dom opens his mouth to respond - and his response looks to be a good one. He's got all the signs of an oncoming rant going on - the narrowed eyes, the tense jaw, the fiery gaze.
But then he stops. His face clears. He looks away. He rubs a hand over his face, sighs, and when he looks back up he looks- Almost... Sheepish?
Eames blinks. Arthur is watching Dom closely. Dom is watching back. They do that 'without words' thing of theirs again and then Arthur gives Dom an almost imperceptible nod.
Eames is confused as all hell. Now he's the one frowning and puzzled.
Dom says calmly, "Actually. Yes."
Ariadne gasps somewhere outside Eames's momentarily cloudy vision. But he has other things to worry about.
"Come again?" He says weakly, a bit helpless.
If Eames was wrong about the sexual pull thing - and Dom and Arthur are lovers and prefer some sort of kinky daddy/son roleplay scenario - he'd rather not know the details of it.
"I am Arthur's father. I guess you've known us long enough to know the truth. I had him when I was very young. Perhaps that's why I see him more as an equal than most fathers see their sons, but-"
"You- Wait. You're Arthur's father?" Eames looks at Arthur and now Arthur is watching him carefully. "You're his son?" Eames goes on.
"Wow," says Ariadne.
Eames can't believe it. No, really - he can't believe it. "What? 'd you have him when you were nine?"
Dom huffs out a little laugh. He looks undecided as to whether he should be offended or grateful for the praise. "Eames. I'm almost forty."
"Yeah, and-"
"Arthur's only twenty."
Arthur frowns. He looks irritated now. He looks at- At his father (bloody fucking Christ!) and says, "Don't start that again. Twenty's old enough."
"For some things," Dom replies. And now that the truth's been force fed to him, Eames can't see why he didn't see it all along. Dom totally has the 'father knows best' routine down pat.
Dom looks pointedly at Eames and back at Arthur.
Eames is too preoccupied by his thoughts to feel wounded that Dom's just implied that Eames is one of those things that Arthur isn't old enough yet for.
All this time... Eames has been putting the moves on Dom's kid right in front of him. Dom's more-than-fifteen-years-younger-than-Eames kid. Eames feels simultaneously dirty and incredibly turned on. Then again, he often does.
Arthur looks at Eames. His chin is tilted up - that tiny, almost unnoticeable bit that says he's found a warpath and he's about to march out onto it. The looks always driven Eames wild. Oddly? It's even more effective now that Eames's realized it belongs to his best buddy's nineteen-year-old child.
"So, about that drink-" he says to Eames.
And Eames isn't going to back down now. Hell, no - it takes a little more to scare off the stern likes of Eames than some awkwardly familiar parentage. But his mind's still reeling a bit so he says, before thinking: "Your dad'll kill me."
Ariadne giggles. Arthur rolls his eyes and sighs. Before Eames can hurriedly explain himself (and repeat the invitation he made before they started this) Dom grins.
"Well. If I'd have known that it would work, I would've told you this a long time ago."
[End.]
Author: nevcolleil
Fandom: Inception
Pairing(s): Arthur/Eames
Rating:PG-13
Disclaimer: Standard disclaimer for this and all my fan works: these characters are not mine. This was written for fun and not profit.
Summary: For this prompt at inception_kink: Dom is actually Arthur's father. The team finds out when Eames starts to seriously pursue Arthur and speaks out about Dom's over-protectiveness.
There's no mistaking the source of the problem - he's known Dom for longer than he's known Arthur. They worked a couple of jobs together; everything went well. Dom's a little dry for his usual taste in pals, but exactly what Eames likes in the way of a boss man. Professional. Dependable. Not entirely without a sense of humor. And most importantly - cool enough to let Eames do what Eames gets paid to do without a lot of fuss. Somehow, they manage to work well together and play well together, on those occasions Dom actually takes Eames up on his invitations to go out and do something for fun.
As long as Arthur isn't around. Or - if Arthur is around - as long as Eames acts as though he isn't.
Eames has questioned their relationship from the beginning - quietly, to himself. By the time he'd met Dom, they were already legends in the business: Dominic Cobb, the best extractor in the world, and his fearsome young point man, known only as Arthur. They were the only big names in the illegal extraction market that always went together. They had a 98.5 percent success rate and their work was prolific.
The first time Eames worked with Dom, the point man's name was Andre. The next time, it was Sebastian.
Just when Eames had worked up the nerve to ask what gives... Dom pulled him aside after a job and told him he was looking for an on-call forger. No more case-by-case, call-me-if-you're-available's - a steady guy. If Dom called - and he'd call often, he said - he'd need a quick answer, and the answer needed to be yes. He'd pay extra, he said, and the figure he quoted made Eames nearly swallow his cigarette.
Dom likes working with people he can trust. He said as much. And then he introduced Eames to Arthur.
Eames kinda chuckles now, when he thinks back to that first meeting.
His first thought, upon seeing Arthur the first time - filling out a suit so fine it was a thing of beauty, particularly with Arthur's fit body inside of it; dark eyes and chiseled jaw and precise lips forming precise words ("It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Eames.") - was: 'Hot bloody damn.'
Eames's second thought was, 'Dom, you lucky bastard.'
Because there was really no other conclusion to be drawn at the time. Dom is jealously possessive of the boy. Why else would he have hidden him away from Eames until Eames had apparently "proved himself"? They are obviously close - seeming to anticipate one another's moves and know one another's minds without asking. Dom reacted, then as now, with an almost frightening intensity to any threat to Arthur's person, and shortly into knowing him, Eames saw Arthur throw himself into the clutches of an angry mob (of projections) for Dom. Good buddies do some of those things, but on the level that Dom and Arthur had taken it to? Eames decided: they had to be fucking.
Eames chuckles now because that memory is inextricably tied to the one of telling Dom his suspicions.
Dom was sipping coffee at the time. Eames couldn't have planned a more opportune moment.
"So. It's unlike your boytoy to be this late for a meeting. What? 'd you keep him up too late last night, stress-testing the ol' box springs?"
Eames almost thought he'd have to call an ambulance. By the time Arthur arrived at the warehouse, Eames was pounding on Dom's back; Dom was all but limp on his feet, leaning heavily on Eames as he continued to hack up his left lung. Dom's shirt had been irrevocably ruined, forever melded with the coffee Dom had spilt and spit-up all over himself.
Arthur heard Eames's side of the story - quickly (Eames rushed in the telling, wide-eyed, facing Arthur's wrathful expression and fearing he might be smited for trying to kill the bloke's sugar daddy before he'd had the chance to properly explain himself) - blushed and paled simultaneously, which made for quite the sight, and calmly said, "We aren't lovers." To which he added, "Never say something like that again."
Eames promised not to. When Arthur is wrathful, one's only wise decision is to placate him.
But Eames had been skeptical. If shagging like rabbits didn't explain Dom and Arthur's odd dynamic... What did?
Over the years, Eames has gathered enough evidence to - believe it or not - support Arthur's denial. Dom never dates, for whatever reason, but Arthur's been out with a variety of men and women. Dom's never given the evil eye to any of them, not that many have come near enough for Eames to know. Upon closer observation, that strange little pull between Dom and Arthur doesn't strike Eames as innately sexual, whatever it actually is. And, once, Eames got a glimpse of the Cobb family home. He only saw what could be seen from the front doorway, but that was plenty - the front room in Dom's home is more like a long hallway, the walls peppered with framed photographs. Arthur is in several of them. And Dom's a ballsy one, Eames will be the first to say. But he can't quite wrap his head around the possibility that Dom was ballsy enough to have his young male lover photographed alongside his wife and children.
So it's certain. Dom doesn't have a problem with Eames. He doesn't have some claim on Arthur that would give him a problem with Eames being with Arthur.
But he has a problem with it, all the same.
Which would be fine and all... If Arthur seemed to have a problem with it too. Once he'd realized that Arthur was up for grabs, however, Eames set about on a slow and serious pursuit of the man. And Arthur has been plenty receptive. He's a consenting adult. If he wanted Eames to stop the flirting and the innuendo and all the other uses of the tools of Eames's trade, he'd tell Eames to fuck off himself.
In no uncertain terms. With a mild outburst of violence, perhaps, to push his point. Arthur's a big boy. He can more than take care of himself.
Evetually, Eames has had enough of Dom's broody protector routine.
He's just asked Arthur to join him at a pub. They'll be leaving the warehouse any moment and Dom is shuffling papers in the corner, being rather obviously superfluous, just waiting to hear Arthur's answer.
Perhaps Eames could have asked with a little less leer in his tone. Perhaps he could play down the bedroom eyes he's got aimed at Arthur or not lean in so close (but that's Ariadne over there, pretending she isn't snickering behind her hand, and it was a bit of a rough job for her; plus, Arthur is smiling at Eames's antics - which doesn't do much for his ego, but Eames will take any smile from Arthur as a win). Regardless, when Eames sees Dom frown out the corner of his eyes and Dom begins, "Arthur-", Eames loses it.
He throws up his hands with a huff and takes a step back from Arthur, who turns back him to him startled (having begun to angle himself towards Dom at the sound of Dom's voice, like the needle of a compass towards a magnet). He can't much bring himself to care that everyone is looking at him like he's gone barmy. They've all noticed what's been going on here, even if they've decided not to acknowlege it.
"For fuck's sake, Cobb, what is it this time?"
Arthur goes very still, his face goes blank, but Eames's eyes are on Dom, whose face flickers with surprise and then puzzlement before settling on something cautious and dark.
"What?" Dom asks. Ariadne's little head is bobbing around, looking from the one to the other of the three of them.
"Dom-" Arthur begins to quietly intervene. But Eames has waited a long time to have a say and he suddenly can't wait any longer.
"You've always got some reason I can't be trusted alone with Arthur and his precious virtue unless there's work involved, so what you got now?"
'Cautious and dark', so that you know, looks a lot like 'angry'. Only now Dom looks even angrier.
"Look, Eames-"
Eames is on a roll. "If Arthur didn't want to be alone with me, he'd have bloody well told me by now, so what is your probably, exactly? You're not his lover, you're not his keeper..." Eames snorts. "What're you... His daddy?"
Dom opens his mouth to respond - and his response looks to be a good one. He's got all the signs of an oncoming rant going on - the narrowed eyes, the tense jaw, the fiery gaze.
But then he stops. His face clears. He looks away. He rubs a hand over his face, sighs, and when he looks back up he looks- Almost... Sheepish?
Eames blinks. Arthur is watching Dom closely. Dom is watching back. They do that 'without words' thing of theirs again and then Arthur gives Dom an almost imperceptible nod.
Eames is confused as all hell. Now he's the one frowning and puzzled.
Dom says calmly, "Actually. Yes."
Ariadne gasps somewhere outside Eames's momentarily cloudy vision. But he has other things to worry about.
"Come again?" He says weakly, a bit helpless.
If Eames was wrong about the sexual pull thing - and Dom and Arthur are lovers and prefer some sort of kinky daddy/son roleplay scenario - he'd rather not know the details of it.
"I am Arthur's father. I guess you've known us long enough to know the truth. I had him when I was very young. Perhaps that's why I see him more as an equal than most fathers see their sons, but-"
"You- Wait. You're Arthur's father?" Eames looks at Arthur and now Arthur is watching him carefully. "You're his son?" Eames goes on.
"Wow," says Ariadne.
Eames can't believe it. No, really - he can't believe it. "What? 'd you have him when you were nine?"
Dom huffs out a little laugh. He looks undecided as to whether he should be offended or grateful for the praise. "Eames. I'm almost forty."
"Yeah, and-"
"Arthur's only twenty."
Arthur frowns. He looks irritated now. He looks at- At his father (bloody fucking Christ!) and says, "Don't start that again. Twenty's old enough."
"For some things," Dom replies. And now that the truth's been force fed to him, Eames can't see why he didn't see it all along. Dom totally has the 'father knows best' routine down pat.
Dom looks pointedly at Eames and back at Arthur.
Eames is too preoccupied by his thoughts to feel wounded that Dom's just implied that Eames is one of those things that Arthur isn't old enough yet for.
All this time... Eames has been putting the moves on Dom's kid right in front of him. Dom's more-than-fifteen-years-younger-than-Eames kid. Eames feels simultaneously dirty and incredibly turned on. Then again, he often does.
Arthur looks at Eames. His chin is tilted up - that tiny, almost unnoticeable bit that says he's found a warpath and he's about to march out onto it. The looks always driven Eames wild. Oddly? It's even more effective now that Eames's realized it belongs to his best buddy's nineteen-year-old child.
"So, about that drink-" he says to Eames.
And Eames isn't going to back down now. Hell, no - it takes a little more to scare off the stern likes of Eames than some awkwardly familiar parentage. But his mind's still reeling a bit so he says, before thinking: "Your dad'll kill me."
Ariadne giggles. Arthur rolls his eyes and sighs. Before Eames can hurriedly explain himself (and repeat the invitation he made before they started this) Dom grins.
"Well. If I'd have known that it would work, I would've told you this a long time ago."
[End.]