No right
Title: No Right
Author: shesneezed
Fandom: Inception
Pairing: Arthur/Eames (unrequited)
Rating: T (13+)
Words: 962
Summary: Arthur had no right to feel betrayed, but it still hurt to have been wrong about someone loving you.
Warnings: Swearing
Disclaimer: I'll let you know when I come up with something witty, but in the meantime, I do not own Inception.
Author's Note: Because I had a terrible day, and I'm a terrible person, so I decided to inflict terrible emotional pain on Arthur. Also, unbeta-ed.
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The thing is, Arthur shouldn't have been surprised. It wasn't as if Eames and he were dating or anything. Sure, there was the relentless flirting, the prolonged gazes and the occasional casual, but tender touches (and once, even a kiss on the forehead when Arthur had his guts hanging out in a dream) - but they never ever said that they were dating or in a relationship or whatever. Never ever did they put a name to the thing they had between them.
If the thing even existed.
( There was also the hope, the longing, the pleased, warm feeling that could be felt all the way down to his toes when Eames called him darlingpetlove or flashed him - and only him, but Arthur was obviously wrong about that as well - that slow, fond smile whenever they managed, once again, to beat the odds after too many close calls.)
Arthur berate himself now for letting his imagination get out of hand - for seeing things that were probably never there in the first place.
And Eames says he has no imagination. If only he knew.
Arthur had no right to be surprise or angry or hurt or whatever it is that he was feeling. No right to feel as if he had been stabbed in the back, been betrayed, had his heart ripped out of his chest and stomped on. None at all.
Arthur swallowed - his saliva going down his throat like broken glass. The feeling doesn't go away.
Eames turned to him, his voice warm and a pleased smile on his face - oblivious to the way Arthur was crumbling on the inside. “Arthur, meet Justin.”
They were halfway through a job - the four of them: Mal, Cobb, Eames and Arthur - when Cobb had fell sick with fever. Mal, being the overprotective and loving wife that she is, had forbid Cobb to continue with the job until he was better (which would take days, judging from the way Cobb was close to coughing his lungs out). She forced him to stay in bed by holding sex as leverage and stole his car keys before coming over to the warehouse to announce that they need a new extractor if they were to complete this job within schedule.
Arthur took the news in stride, figuring that hiring a new extractor was perhaps safer than going into a dream with a feverish Cobb (Cobb's projections were already vicious and sadistic enough on a normal basis). Then Eames had grinned and said he knew 'just the right guy for the job', so they had left him to deal with it. Arthur hadn't gave much thought into in, had not even bothered to try to figure out who Eames was going to call to join the team because Eames obviously trusted this guy and Arthur trusted Eames.
Until the next day, when Eames walked into the warehouse with his arms wrapped around a tall, handsome, blond stranger and introduced him (gushed, more like it) as Justin, a fresh-face extractor who was new to the dreamsharing business and still slightly wet behind the ears but Eames had seen him work and trust him, Justin was capable enough to pull the job - and oh, by the way, he's also his boyfriend.
Justin stretched out a hand, his blond hair falling into his eyes. Arthur had never hated a man so strongly at first sight before. “Ah, finally I get to meet the famous Arthur. Eames has told me so much about you.”
Arthur wanted to shove the outstretched hand away - wanted to snarl and spit and slap Eames across his face and wanted to rip this Justin out of Eames' arms and maybe put a bullet through both their heads. Wanted to scream - How could you. You make me sick, you piece of shit. You absolute fucker - wanted to fight and cry and hide.
But Arthur knows that he shouldn't - because he has no right. It would be childish, unreasonable to throw a tantrum just because he was wrong about someone loving him. Just because he was foolish enough to think that he and Eames had something special going on between them - something intimate.
So Arthur ignored the nauseating taste at the back of his throat and schooled his features into the blank, professional mask that he had perfected during his many years of training. He doesn't trust himself to speak without his facade falling to pieces, so he simply took the warm hand and shook it firmly, allowing his lips to form a small smile just sufficient enough to be polite. Arthur didn't know how his face didn't break under the weight of the smile and didn't want to know, didn't want to think and just wanted to go back to his hotel and drown himself in alcohol so that he couldn't hear himself think about how could he have been so stupid as to assume he was wanted and cherished and special to Eames, wanted to dull the stupid ache in his chest that has no right to be there in the first place.
Perhaps the flirting had been nothing but friendly banter. Perhaps the terms of endearment had been nothing but a way to annoy and ruffle the feathers of the somber pointman. Perhaps Arthur has always been a trusted colleague, maybe even a friend - but nothing more.
Eames reached out to brush the hair out of Justin's face, his expression soft and affectionate and one that Arthur has never seen before on the forger's face - one that has never been cast upon Arthur's direction. Arthur caught the sympathetic, sad look Mal shot his way. His smile never wavered.
It wasn't as if Arthur was in the position to care about who Eames was dating.
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P.S: This is my first time trying to post a fanfiction on livejournal and OMG this is so fucking hard (or maybe it's just me) so the formatting and all is kind of haywire. I apologise.