if you don't mind we gotta run
if you don't mind we gotta run
eames/arthur
pg-13; 1,010w.
1. The first time they meet, it's at Prague. His name is Eames (no first name given; just Eames) and he smells like patchouli and smoke. Consonants and vowels spill out of his throat in a lazy drawl. British, Arthur guesses, and he's proven right when Eames starts calling him all sorts of ridiculous pet names that only the Brits can get away with.
Eames is loud, brash and manages to get under Arthur's skin in the span of five minutes. He's not the type Arthur gets along with, let alone have a civil conversation with, but he and Cobb had needed a forger and word on the street was that Eames is one of the best ("Darling, I am the best," Eames had corrected them).
It wasn't love at first sight. Eames perpetually has an infuriating smirk on his lips that leaves Arthur torn between wanting to punch and kiss it off of his face, and his dress sense is a fashion disaster waiting to happen. It wasn't love at first sight, and Arthur refuses to believe otherwise.
2. Their first extraction job together was a disaster. Half an hour down and their cover is already blown. The projections start swarming around them in all directions and Arthur knows, with a sinking feeling in his gut, that they're vastly outnumbered and that it would only be suicide to continue with the mission. Before he can panic, he feels a warm hand (Eames', he realises later) grabbing his and dragging him in the opposite direction of the onslaught of projections heading their way. They run so fast that Arthur feels a stitch forming in his left side.
They manage to find an abandoned warehouse and seek refuge there. Eames pulls out a gun from his holster and aims it at Arthur's chest. "Say a prayer before I shoot you, love."
"Fuck you," Arthur spits out.
Eames grins ruefully, then pulls the trigger. The bullet cuts a clean line right through Arthur's heart.
3. In his dreams, Arthur is always running. He usually forgets what or who he's running away from the next morning when he wakes up, but from vague recollections of hazy dreams, he can pinpoint a handful of reasons: sounds of gunshots, the derision of disappointed dreams and more often than not, Eames.
4. People usually express disbelief when they find out that Arthur smokes. Eames, well, he finds it hilarious and promptly invites himself to join Arthur on his smoke breaks. Arthur had protested at first but realises, like all things with Eames, that it's easier to just give into the other man.
Arthur wouldn't say that he's an addict but he does like smoking. The rush of nicotine through his veins helps him regain control when his teeth are on edge and his nerves are rubbed raw and he's on the brink of breaking. "What's your excuse?" he'd once asked Eames. "Nasty habit that I could never get rid of," Eames had replied.
Sometimes they make small talk as they smoke: comments about the weather or the progress of the extraction job at the time. Mostly they smoke in silence (Arthur with his Gauloises and Eames with his Marlboros), their exhalations of carbon monoxide diffusing into the empty spaces between air particles as they chain-smoke their way to Paris.
5. "What are you running from?" Eames asks.
"You," Arthur wants to say. "Projections," he says instead.
6. After the team manages to get out of Robert Fischer Jr’s subconscious alive, Arthur makes a beeline for the nearest bar in town where he proceeds to get drunk. Maybe it’s the alcohol (Arthur’s had one too many shots of vodka by then), or maybe it’s the need to assure himself that he’s not blurring the lines between reality and fantasy, but when Eames crowds into his personal space, Arthur makes the first move. He crashes their lips together and it’s only a matter of seconds before they’re furiously making out in a dark corner of the bar, and a matter of minutes before they’re stumbling into Arthur’s room at a hotel nearby, tearing their clothes off of each other.
Eames fucks Arthur hard into the bed that night and Arthur languishes in it, desperately clinging onto Eames’ body to feel gravity again. The sex is more of a reminder than anything else; Eames' tight grip on Arthur's hips anchoring him back to reality.
7. Two years later when the demand for extractions jobs dwindles down, Arthur takes off to Geneva where he rents a small but tasteful apartment and spends his days reading French literature and walking by the lake. The temporary life he's set up is one of solitude and silence so he's naturally surprised when he returns from an evening out to a broken-into apartment. He bursts into his apartment with his gun cocked and his index finger ready on the trigger only to find Eames lounging on an armchair in his living room, smoking.
"What are you doing here."
"Hello, darling."
"What are you doing here," Arthur repeats, too dumbstruck for niceties.
"Chasing after you," says Eames simply.
Arthur swallows. He realises that it's always going to be like this: him running and Eames chasing after him.
8. If there's one thing that Arthur's learned from his years spent in dream-sharing technology, it's that when you're down under, the edges begin to soften and a haziness of sorts shrouds the dream world like an out-of-focus photograph. It's a subtle shift but when you really look, you can spot it. Eames’ touches, however, are as sharp and searing as in reality, burning into Arthur’s skin through the thin layers of his clothes.
9. It's raining when Eames hears a knock on his door and opens it to a drenched Arthur standing on his doorstep. "I don't want to run anymore," Arthur announces. The 'from you' goes unsaid but is understood anyway.
"Then don't."
Arthur frowns, "It's not that easy."
"It never is," Eames agrees amiably.
Arthur realises that that's something he could get used to.
eames/arthur
pg-13; 1,010w.
1. The first time they meet, it's at Prague. His name is Eames (no first name given; just Eames) and he smells like patchouli and smoke. Consonants and vowels spill out of his throat in a lazy drawl. British, Arthur guesses, and he's proven right when Eames starts calling him all sorts of ridiculous pet names that only the Brits can get away with.
Eames is loud, brash and manages to get under Arthur's skin in the span of five minutes. He's not the type Arthur gets along with, let alone have a civil conversation with, but he and Cobb had needed a forger and word on the street was that Eames is one of the best ("Darling, I am the best," Eames had corrected them).
It wasn't love at first sight. Eames perpetually has an infuriating smirk on his lips that leaves Arthur torn between wanting to punch and kiss it off of his face, and his dress sense is a fashion disaster waiting to happen. It wasn't love at first sight, and Arthur refuses to believe otherwise.
2. Their first extraction job together was a disaster. Half an hour down and their cover is already blown. The projections start swarming around them in all directions and Arthur knows, with a sinking feeling in his gut, that they're vastly outnumbered and that it would only be suicide to continue with the mission. Before he can panic, he feels a warm hand (Eames', he realises later) grabbing his and dragging him in the opposite direction of the onslaught of projections heading their way. They run so fast that Arthur feels a stitch forming in his left side.
They manage to find an abandoned warehouse and seek refuge there. Eames pulls out a gun from his holster and aims it at Arthur's chest. "Say a prayer before I shoot you, love."
"Fuck you," Arthur spits out.
Eames grins ruefully, then pulls the trigger. The bullet cuts a clean line right through Arthur's heart.
3. In his dreams, Arthur is always running. He usually forgets what or who he's running away from the next morning when he wakes up, but from vague recollections of hazy dreams, he can pinpoint a handful of reasons: sounds of gunshots, the derision of disappointed dreams and more often than not, Eames.
4. People usually express disbelief when they find out that Arthur smokes. Eames, well, he finds it hilarious and promptly invites himself to join Arthur on his smoke breaks. Arthur had protested at first but realises, like all things with Eames, that it's easier to just give into the other man.
Arthur wouldn't say that he's an addict but he does like smoking. The rush of nicotine through his veins helps him regain control when his teeth are on edge and his nerves are rubbed raw and he's on the brink of breaking. "What's your excuse?" he'd once asked Eames. "Nasty habit that I could never get rid of," Eames had replied.
Sometimes they make small talk as they smoke: comments about the weather or the progress of the extraction job at the time. Mostly they smoke in silence (Arthur with his Gauloises and Eames with his Marlboros), their exhalations of carbon monoxide diffusing into the empty spaces between air particles as they chain-smoke their way to Paris.
5. "What are you running from?" Eames asks.
"You," Arthur wants to say. "Projections," he says instead.
6. After the team manages to get out of Robert Fischer Jr’s subconscious alive, Arthur makes a beeline for the nearest bar in town where he proceeds to get drunk. Maybe it’s the alcohol (Arthur’s had one too many shots of vodka by then), or maybe it’s the need to assure himself that he’s not blurring the lines between reality and fantasy, but when Eames crowds into his personal space, Arthur makes the first move. He crashes their lips together and it’s only a matter of seconds before they’re furiously making out in a dark corner of the bar, and a matter of minutes before they’re stumbling into Arthur’s room at a hotel nearby, tearing their clothes off of each other.
Eames fucks Arthur hard into the bed that night and Arthur languishes in it, desperately clinging onto Eames’ body to feel gravity again. The sex is more of a reminder than anything else; Eames' tight grip on Arthur's hips anchoring him back to reality.
7. Two years later when the demand for extractions jobs dwindles down, Arthur takes off to Geneva where he rents a small but tasteful apartment and spends his days reading French literature and walking by the lake. The temporary life he's set up is one of solitude and silence so he's naturally surprised when he returns from an evening out to a broken-into apartment. He bursts into his apartment with his gun cocked and his index finger ready on the trigger only to find Eames lounging on an armchair in his living room, smoking.
"What are you doing here."
"Hello, darling."
"What are you doing here," Arthur repeats, too dumbstruck for niceties.
"Chasing after you," says Eames simply.
Arthur swallows. He realises that it's always going to be like this: him running and Eames chasing after him.
8. If there's one thing that Arthur's learned from his years spent in dream-sharing technology, it's that when you're down under, the edges begin to soften and a haziness of sorts shrouds the dream world like an out-of-focus photograph. It's a subtle shift but when you really look, you can spot it. Eames’ touches, however, are as sharp and searing as in reality, burning into Arthur’s skin through the thin layers of his clothes.
9. It's raining when Eames hears a knock on his door and opens it to a drenched Arthur standing on his doorstep. "I don't want to run anymore," Arthur announces. The 'from you' goes unsaid but is understood anyway.
"Then don't."
Arthur frowns, "It's not that easy."
"It never is," Eames agrees amiably.
Arthur realises that that's something he could get used to.