75. | i've got a thousand sweaters and shoes and paintings to hide
75.
i've got a thousand sweaters and shoes and paintings to hide
don't ask where i'm going
arthur/cobb(~1500 words)
written for this prompt at inception_kink. it asked for a white collar au with arthur playing neal and cobb as peter. i...may have been compelled to fill it due to my unnatural love of this show. just saying.
The first time Arthur sees him, he’s just managed to get away with a few hundred thousand dollars worth of rare bearers bonds and is escaping through the employee entrance of the bank they were stored in.
He’s got sort of dirty blonde hair and these serious, solemn blue eyes that cut across the room to him -- his pulse jumps, this is the closest the FBI has ever come to catching him -- and then Arthur’s gone, running out into the alleyway and into the decoy van, then runs out the other side of it and gets into the car waiting on the other side while the van peels away with their distraction driver.
“Got them?” Ariadne asks, grinning from behind the wheel, and Arthur opens the briefcase and flashes them at her. She swoons prettily and they make off into the night with the steal. Arthur’s adrenaline pumps faster at remembering the look in the FBI agents eyes.
.
His name is apparently Special Agent Dominic Cobb, Arthur learns. Eames has an inside guy on the FBI and he gets a copy of his file to Arthur, who peruses it. He’s in his thirties, married to a rather pretty woman, one child, a girl. He’s an agent of the White Collar Crime Division and has apparently been assigned to Arthur only a few months prior.
Arthur is impressed. The last agent assigned to him spent two years looking before he caught a glimpse of Arthur. U.S. Marshals are still searching along the Gulf Coast for him, which amuses Ariadne to no end.
Arthur keeps the file for Dominic Cobb on hands wherever he goes -- just in case.
.
A year later, Cobb catches him. He grins at Arthur and thanks him for the challenge.
.
In prison, Arthur sends him birthday cards and receives them in return. He always signs them with Cobb’s own name, a stunning forgery of his signature. Cobb sends him back cards with prison jokes on them.
It makes a difference, somehow, to hang them up in his cell and know that someone, at least, is thinking about him a little.
Everything goes smoothly until, only a few months before he’s going to get out, Ariadne comes and tells him that she can’t see him anymore.
Her demeanor is too calm and too serious for her, and she never once looks at the security cameras stationed around the room. Arthur asks her what’s happening, what’s going on, but she just smiles sadly at him and leaves.
.
It only takes him a month to figure out how to get out of prison. He breaks out with two months remaining on his sentence.
Dominic Cobb is assigned to catch him again.
.
The rest is history. Cobb catches him in a painfully embarrassing six hours, but Arthur’s not running this time. He’s sitting in Ariadne’s old flat, holding a wine bottle and trying to figure out what is happening.
“You’re going to get four more years for this,” Cobb tells him, looking a little frustrated. “Why would you--”
“You’ve got something on your shirt,” Arthur tells him. He solves the case Cobb’s been working on in a matter of seconds.
(An idea pops into Arthur’s head.)
.
Cobb’s wife has died while Arthur’s been in jail. A car accident, and Cobb doesn’t say anything beyond that. He’s got a baby boy now too, and his daughter is pretty as anything and stares at him from behind Cobb’s legs.
“Your tracking anklet has a two mile radius,” Cobb says. “You’ve been put up in a motel on FBI dime, so be grateful. It’s right down the street.”
Screw that, Arthur thinks. He calls up Eames and tells him he’s out of prison and under the watchful eye of Big Brother, and decides to stroll around and examine the attractions of his new prison cell.
He meets Saito in a thrift shop and because Saito’s immediately charmed by him and needs someone to watch his penthouse while he’s gone, has a new, luxurious home.
Cobb seethes a little, but is won over by the Italian roast.
.
“It’s got to be the president of the company. He stands to gain the most from the diamond theft,” Cobb mutters, and Arthur nods.
“He was pretty shifty,” Arthur agrees. Cobb eyes him thoughtfully.
“How do you feel about a secretarial position?” Cobb asks slyly, and Arthur frowns.
“Wrathful,” he responds. “Do you know how those people treat secretaries--”
“It wasn’t really a question,” Cobb interrupts. “Also, check your street contacts for news about fencing that diamond.” By street contact, they both know he means Eames. Arthur rolls his eyes.
“Yes sir,” he says, saluting mockingly. Cobb grins at him.
.
“Good job today, Arthur,” Cobb says, tipping a beer in his direction. On the couch in the livingroom, Philippa and James are watching some Disney movie, laughing brightly at the one-liners and funny expressions.
“Thank you,” Arthur says, tilting his own beer back at him. He’d prefer to be drinking something out of his own collection, but Cobb doesn’t tend to keep expensive wines in the house. He only rarely keeps beer, but it’s a special occasion. This case had involved a lot of undercover, and Arthur had been held at gunpoint again. Another day on the job, all in all.
Arthur watches Cobb take a drink, head tilting back and swallowing. His throat works and Arthur’s mouth goes dry.
He takes a drink.
.
About a year in, the plane he’s going to get on with Ariadne explodes.
(The worst part is: he wasn’t going to get on it. He’d already chosen to stay with Cobb in his mind. The guilt is almost more painful than the thought that she’s gone forever.)
.
Yusuf gives him these looks sometimes. “Bad idea,” he warns him, glancing at Cobb. Arthur pretends not to know what he’s talking about. Yusuf works directly under Cobb, and Arthur knows his first alliance is to him.
“What’s that?” he asks innocently. Yusuf shakes his head, his mouth an almost sympathetic curve.
“It’s only going to complicate things,” he says. Arthur is already well aware of that.
Eames, instead, is blatantly outraged. “A suit, Arthur? Really? I thought you had better taste than that.”
Arthur practices his painting forgery, glancing at the Matisse he’s copying and doesn’t reply. Eames groans. “Must you make everything so difficult?”
Arthur grins wryly at him. “You know me.”
.
Of course, Arthur loves the children. And when Eames is forced to come babysit for them while Cobb and Arthur are on a case, they get along perfectly. It’s almost too easy, the way Arthur slides into this role that fits perfectly into Dom Cobb’s life. It’s easy to forget Ariadne and just live without running, to be happy and content with everything.
He takes the children to a nearby museum. While they’re chattering about the different paintings and sculptures (they automatically know he’s the best when it comes to art, so they ask him countless questions) he gets a phone call. It’s Eames.
“I know who called Ariadne on the plane before it blew up.”
.
In retrospect, conning the FBI, lying to Cobb, flying to try to threaten the man who killed Ariadne -- it’s all a little insane. He gets that. But he can’t help it; Ariadne was the one person who stuck with him throughout everything, and when he finds out that she was the one who decided the plane should explode, that it was her idea to fake their deaths and live the rest of their lives in hiding, he shuts down.
Cobb waits for them to take Fischer out of the meeting room and then looks at Arthur; his eyes are hard and soft all at once. Arthur can’t look him in the eye, and instead focuses on his hands.
“You can’t do things like that, Arthur,” Cobb says, walking around to stand in front of him. “You can’t steal from the U.S. Marshal and take off your anklet and run away.” He reaches out and grabs Arthur’s chin, tilting his head back and forcing him to look up.
“I own you,” Cobb says, voice low and dangerous. “That means you do what I tell you to do. And I say you are never allowed to leave again.”
Arthur can’t breathe, can’t speak. Cobb’s voice holds no room for arguments, and Arthur’s not sure he has one anyway.
He nods, and Cobb smiles.
i've got a thousand sweaters and shoes and paintings to hide
don't ask where i'm going
arthur/cobb(~1500 words)
written for this prompt at inception_kink. it asked for a white collar au with arthur playing neal and cobb as peter. i...may have been compelled to fill it due to my unnatural love of this show. just saying.
The first time Arthur sees him, he’s just managed to get away with a few hundred thousand dollars worth of rare bearers bonds and is escaping through the employee entrance of the bank they were stored in.
He’s got sort of dirty blonde hair and these serious, solemn blue eyes that cut across the room to him -- his pulse jumps, this is the closest the FBI has ever come to catching him -- and then Arthur’s gone, running out into the alleyway and into the decoy van, then runs out the other side of it and gets into the car waiting on the other side while the van peels away with their distraction driver.
“Got them?” Ariadne asks, grinning from behind the wheel, and Arthur opens the briefcase and flashes them at her. She swoons prettily and they make off into the night with the steal. Arthur’s adrenaline pumps faster at remembering the look in the FBI agents eyes.
.
His name is apparently Special Agent Dominic Cobb, Arthur learns. Eames has an inside guy on the FBI and he gets a copy of his file to Arthur, who peruses it. He’s in his thirties, married to a rather pretty woman, one child, a girl. He’s an agent of the White Collar Crime Division and has apparently been assigned to Arthur only a few months prior.
Arthur is impressed. The last agent assigned to him spent two years looking before he caught a glimpse of Arthur. U.S. Marshals are still searching along the Gulf Coast for him, which amuses Ariadne to no end.
Arthur keeps the file for Dominic Cobb on hands wherever he goes -- just in case.
.
A year later, Cobb catches him. He grins at Arthur and thanks him for the challenge.
.
In prison, Arthur sends him birthday cards and receives them in return. He always signs them with Cobb’s own name, a stunning forgery of his signature. Cobb sends him back cards with prison jokes on them.
It makes a difference, somehow, to hang them up in his cell and know that someone, at least, is thinking about him a little.
Everything goes smoothly until, only a few months before he’s going to get out, Ariadne comes and tells him that she can’t see him anymore.
Her demeanor is too calm and too serious for her, and she never once looks at the security cameras stationed around the room. Arthur asks her what’s happening, what’s going on, but she just smiles sadly at him and leaves.
.
It only takes him a month to figure out how to get out of prison. He breaks out with two months remaining on his sentence.
Dominic Cobb is assigned to catch him again.
.
The rest is history. Cobb catches him in a painfully embarrassing six hours, but Arthur’s not running this time. He’s sitting in Ariadne’s old flat, holding a wine bottle and trying to figure out what is happening.
“You’re going to get four more years for this,” Cobb tells him, looking a little frustrated. “Why would you--”
“You’ve got something on your shirt,” Arthur tells him. He solves the case Cobb’s been working on in a matter of seconds.
(An idea pops into Arthur’s head.)
.
Cobb’s wife has died while Arthur’s been in jail. A car accident, and Cobb doesn’t say anything beyond that. He’s got a baby boy now too, and his daughter is pretty as anything and stares at him from behind Cobb’s legs.
“Your tracking anklet has a two mile radius,” Cobb says. “You’ve been put up in a motel on FBI dime, so be grateful. It’s right down the street.”
Screw that, Arthur thinks. He calls up Eames and tells him he’s out of prison and under the watchful eye of Big Brother, and decides to stroll around and examine the attractions of his new prison cell.
He meets Saito in a thrift shop and because Saito’s immediately charmed by him and needs someone to watch his penthouse while he’s gone, has a new, luxurious home.
Cobb seethes a little, but is won over by the Italian roast.
.
“It’s got to be the president of the company. He stands to gain the most from the diamond theft,” Cobb mutters, and Arthur nods.
“He was pretty shifty,” Arthur agrees. Cobb eyes him thoughtfully.
“How do you feel about a secretarial position?” Cobb asks slyly, and Arthur frowns.
“Wrathful,” he responds. “Do you know how those people treat secretaries--”
“It wasn’t really a question,” Cobb interrupts. “Also, check your street contacts for news about fencing that diamond.” By street contact, they both know he means Eames. Arthur rolls his eyes.
“Yes sir,” he says, saluting mockingly. Cobb grins at him.
.
“Good job today, Arthur,” Cobb says, tipping a beer in his direction. On the couch in the livingroom, Philippa and James are watching some Disney movie, laughing brightly at the one-liners and funny expressions.
“Thank you,” Arthur says, tilting his own beer back at him. He’d prefer to be drinking something out of his own collection, but Cobb doesn’t tend to keep expensive wines in the house. He only rarely keeps beer, but it’s a special occasion. This case had involved a lot of undercover, and Arthur had been held at gunpoint again. Another day on the job, all in all.
Arthur watches Cobb take a drink, head tilting back and swallowing. His throat works and Arthur’s mouth goes dry.
He takes a drink.
.
About a year in, the plane he’s going to get on with Ariadne explodes.
(The worst part is: he wasn’t going to get on it. He’d already chosen to stay with Cobb in his mind. The guilt is almost more painful than the thought that she’s gone forever.)
.
Yusuf gives him these looks sometimes. “Bad idea,” he warns him, glancing at Cobb. Arthur pretends not to know what he’s talking about. Yusuf works directly under Cobb, and Arthur knows his first alliance is to him.
“What’s that?” he asks innocently. Yusuf shakes his head, his mouth an almost sympathetic curve.
“It’s only going to complicate things,” he says. Arthur is already well aware of that.
Eames, instead, is blatantly outraged. “A suit, Arthur? Really? I thought you had better taste than that.”
Arthur practices his painting forgery, glancing at the Matisse he’s copying and doesn’t reply. Eames groans. “Must you make everything so difficult?”
Arthur grins wryly at him. “You know me.”
.
Of course, Arthur loves the children. And when Eames is forced to come babysit for them while Cobb and Arthur are on a case, they get along perfectly. It’s almost too easy, the way Arthur slides into this role that fits perfectly into Dom Cobb’s life. It’s easy to forget Ariadne and just live without running, to be happy and content with everything.
He takes the children to a nearby museum. While they’re chattering about the different paintings and sculptures (they automatically know he’s the best when it comes to art, so they ask him countless questions) he gets a phone call. It’s Eames.
“I know who called Ariadne on the plane before it blew up.”
.
In retrospect, conning the FBI, lying to Cobb, flying to try to threaten the man who killed Ariadne -- it’s all a little insane. He gets that. But he can’t help it; Ariadne was the one person who stuck with him throughout everything, and when he finds out that she was the one who decided the plane should explode, that it was her idea to fake their deaths and live the rest of their lives in hiding, he shuts down.
Cobb waits for them to take Fischer out of the meeting room and then looks at Arthur; his eyes are hard and soft all at once. Arthur can’t look him in the eye, and instead focuses on his hands.
“You can’t do things like that, Arthur,” Cobb says, walking around to stand in front of him. “You can’t steal from the U.S. Marshal and take off your anklet and run away.” He reaches out and grabs Arthur’s chin, tilting his head back and forcing him to look up.
“I own you,” Cobb says, voice low and dangerous. “That means you do what I tell you to do. And I say you are never allowed to leave again.”
Arthur can’t breathe, can’t speak. Cobb’s voice holds no room for arguments, and Arthur’s not sure he has one anyway.
He nods, and Cobb smiles.