Something Special

Chapter 5: And You Will Be Happy, Too

And they live happily ever after.

Or at least, Arthur thinks they ought to. He and Eames have definitely earned it, as far as he's concerned. But because he and Eames are, well, he and Eames, he doubts it will ever be that simple.

~+~+~

They fly back to London after dropping by Arthur's apartment to cancel his lease and take the important things – mostly clothes, books, and paperwork from past projects – and Arthur is in a perpetual state of déjà vu except for the fact that he and Eames return the rental together and board the plane together and land in England together and are very, very much together.

~+~+~

They arrive at Eames' flat late in the evening and immediately flop onto Eames' bed. Arthur takes one precious moment to unlock his Eames box and revel in all its memories and sensations and happiness before he falls asleep with, he is certain, an absolutely ridiculous smile on his face.

But he's with Eames now, hopefully for a very long time, so Arthur thinks there are worse things that he could be doing.

~+~+~

Eames leaves to run some errands in the morning, leaving Arthur alone to unpack. He finishes in under an hour and stretches out on Eames' very comfy couch (Arthur's a little disappointed it's not an Eames couch, but life isn't perfect) with his favorite book and just relaxes.

Arthur can now understand the appeal.

~+~+~

"Darling," Eames calls however many minutes or hours later, "I'm home."

Arthur's engrossed in the chase scene he's reading, worried for the protagonist even though he's only read this at least fifty times in the last two years, so he doesn't even bother looking up. "In here."

Eames comes into the living room and freezes. "Darling."

Arthur reaches the end of the chapter, relieved that, once again, the hero has escaped from the villain, and glances up at Eames. "Is something wrong?" he asks. Arthur's never seen that expression on Eames' face before.

"Darling...are you wearing jeans?"

Arthur glances down at his legs stretched out across the length of the couch. "Yes." They're his favorite pair, the ones with the slightly frayed hems that tickle his feet. Arthur wiggles his toes and smiles.

Eames looks like he's about to have a heart attack. "Have you been incepted, darling?"

Arthur frowns as he realizes Eames might actually be serious. "No," he says. "Why?"

Eames gestures unhelpfully at Arthur.

"Eames?"

"You...jeans, darling."

Arthur blinks. "I think you skipped the most important parts of that sentence."

Eames shakes his head and comes over to the couch, picking up Arthur's legs so he can sit down. Arthur lets his feet flop into Eames' lap in retaliation.

"I didn't think you owned a pair of jeans," Eames confesses.

Arthur stares at him. "You didn't...Eames, who doesn't own jeans?"

Eames smiles self-consciously. "Yeah, I know."

Arthur tries to process. He fails. "Why would you ever think that?"