fic: It's just you and me and the spaces in between (part i)
Title: It's just you and me and the spaces in between (part i)
Author: ohmydarlingdear
Team: angst!
Prompt: home
Word count: approx. 600 (this part)
Rating: PG (this part)
Warnings: none.
Summary: Five times Arthur disappears unexpectedly and one time he comes to find Eames.
A/N: idek what I'm writing anymore. this is probably less angst than I'd originally intended but ah well too late now. this will have a happy ending :)
I.
Eames meets Arthur for the first time when they’re both still young, twenty-four and twenty respectively. It’s a frosty February morning at eight-sixteen, and Eames meets Arthur at that coffee kiosk Eames has been relying on for his entire junior year of college because he has an early morning lecture and the only thing keeping him up is his daily double-shot espresso. It snowed the night before and it’s still chilly even though it’s stopped snowing by now, and Eames isn’t really looking where he’s going as he turns away from the kiosk, hot drink in hand. He’s more busy trying to huddle himself deeper into his coat, trying to keep warm in the nippy winter air, but his attention is quickly drawn elsewhere because in his haste to run off to the warmth the lecture hall provides, he accidentally runs into some guy who’s trying to get in line for coffee and ends up spilling coffee everywhere.
“Shit, sorry,” Eames says reflexively. He scrambles to grab some napkins from the kiosk to try to clean up the mess.
The guy laughs, soft and sure, and says, in a way that’s quiet and warm and politely detached all at once, “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”
And it’s that soft cadence in that guy’s voice, the soft rise and fall of confident words and easy laughter, that makes Eames pause and actually take a good look at this guy. He’s about Eames’ height and slender even with his thick winter coat. His cheeks and the tips of his ears are ever so slightly pink from the cold, and his warm brown eyes and dark hair highlight the delicate white of his skin. He looks young, younger than Eames - an undergraduate, Eames guesses - and something warm pools in Eames’ stomach, because he really is quite lovely.
“I really am sorry,” Eames says around an embarrassed laugh. Figures that the one day he meets someone mildly attractive he has to go and make a fool of himself. “I’m usually much more graceful than this. It’s just… I haven’t slept much, you see.”
And the guy just smiles and says, “Seriously, I’m fine. No harm done.”
“Can I buy you a coffee?” Eames asks, feeling a sudden burst of confidence and not quite knowing what’s causing it. “I feel terrible about this.”
The guy looks at Eames like he’s giving the matter serious thought when a girl’s voice calls out, interrupting him before he can even speak.
“Arthur,” a slender girl with bouncing curls and a lilting French accent approaches them, two cups of coffee in hand. “There you are. I bought you coffee today since you overslept. Now come on; we’re going to be late if we don’t hurry.”
The guy, Arthur, smiles apologetically at Eames. “I’m sorry,” he says, and it sounds like he means it even though he and Eames have only just met. “Maybe some other time?”
Eames has the sinking suspicion that ‘some other time’ probably won’t ever happen because campus is huge and all Eames has to go on in terms of finding this guy is a first name, but he smiles anyway and says, “Sure.”
Eames gets another quick smile before Arthur slips off with his friend, rounding the corner of a nearby building and slipping out of Eames’ line of sight. And it’s really stupid that Eames keeps on thinking about Arthur for the rest of the day, mind swimming with thoughts of slight smiles and soft phrases spoken with too much maturity for his age. It’s really stupid, but Eames can’t help it, because from that first moment at eight-sixteen that chilly February morning, Eames has been absolutely captivated, and he doesn’t know what to do.
It’s not until later that Eames realizes Arthur doesn’t even know his name.
Part 2
Author: ohmydarlingdear
Team: angst!
Prompt: home
Word count: approx. 600 (this part)
Rating: PG (this part)
Warnings: none.
Summary: Five times Arthur disappears unexpectedly and one time he comes to find Eames.
A/N: idek what I'm writing anymore. this is probably less angst than I'd originally intended but ah well too late now. this will have a happy ending :)
I.
Eames meets Arthur for the first time when they’re both still young, twenty-four and twenty respectively. It’s a frosty February morning at eight-sixteen, and Eames meets Arthur at that coffee kiosk Eames has been relying on for his entire junior year of college because he has an early morning lecture and the only thing keeping him up is his daily double-shot espresso. It snowed the night before and it’s still chilly even though it’s stopped snowing by now, and Eames isn’t really looking where he’s going as he turns away from the kiosk, hot drink in hand. He’s more busy trying to huddle himself deeper into his coat, trying to keep warm in the nippy winter air, but his attention is quickly drawn elsewhere because in his haste to run off to the warmth the lecture hall provides, he accidentally runs into some guy who’s trying to get in line for coffee and ends up spilling coffee everywhere.
“Shit, sorry,” Eames says reflexively. He scrambles to grab some napkins from the kiosk to try to clean up the mess.
The guy laughs, soft and sure, and says, in a way that’s quiet and warm and politely detached all at once, “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”
And it’s that soft cadence in that guy’s voice, the soft rise and fall of confident words and easy laughter, that makes Eames pause and actually take a good look at this guy. He’s about Eames’ height and slender even with his thick winter coat. His cheeks and the tips of his ears are ever so slightly pink from the cold, and his warm brown eyes and dark hair highlight the delicate white of his skin. He looks young, younger than Eames - an undergraduate, Eames guesses - and something warm pools in Eames’ stomach, because he really is quite lovely.
“I really am sorry,” Eames says around an embarrassed laugh. Figures that the one day he meets someone mildly attractive he has to go and make a fool of himself. “I’m usually much more graceful than this. It’s just… I haven’t slept much, you see.”
And the guy just smiles and says, “Seriously, I’m fine. No harm done.”
“Can I buy you a coffee?” Eames asks, feeling a sudden burst of confidence and not quite knowing what’s causing it. “I feel terrible about this.”
The guy looks at Eames like he’s giving the matter serious thought when a girl’s voice calls out, interrupting him before he can even speak.
“Arthur,” a slender girl with bouncing curls and a lilting French accent approaches them, two cups of coffee in hand. “There you are. I bought you coffee today since you overslept. Now come on; we’re going to be late if we don’t hurry.”
The guy, Arthur, smiles apologetically at Eames. “I’m sorry,” he says, and it sounds like he means it even though he and Eames have only just met. “Maybe some other time?”
Eames has the sinking suspicion that ‘some other time’ probably won’t ever happen because campus is huge and all Eames has to go on in terms of finding this guy is a first name, but he smiles anyway and says, “Sure.”
Eames gets another quick smile before Arthur slips off with his friend, rounding the corner of a nearby building and slipping out of Eames’ line of sight. And it’s really stupid that Eames keeps on thinking about Arthur for the rest of the day, mind swimming with thoughts of slight smiles and soft phrases spoken with too much maturity for his age. It’s really stupid, but Eames can’t help it, because from that first moment at eight-sixteen that chilly February morning, Eames has been absolutely captivated, and he doesn’t know what to do.
It’s not until later that Eames realizes Arthur doesn’t even know his name.
Part 2