Title: Surprise!

Pairing: Eames and Arthur

Fandom: Inception

Rating: M

The Fischer job has long since passed. Cobb was finally reunited with his children in Pennsylvania, Saito went on with his business in success since the inception plan worked on Fischer, Ariadne went back to Paris to finish school and visits Cobb occasionally on her trips to the states while Arthur made a home in Baltimore. Cobb had no clue where Eames had gone but knew they would see each other again one day. Of course, even with the abundant communication he maintains with Arthur, his best friend failed to mention that Eames was still very much in contact with himself. He also failed to mention that they lived together in a nice home and continued to work extraction jobs together.

But Cobb would find out soon enough.

"Daddy, please don't go! Can't Arthur come visit you instead?" Philipa tugged at Cobb's suit sleeve with an adorable frown. Cobb laughed and kneeled down to kiss her on her head.

"No, sweetie, he's a very busy man. I haven't seen my friend in a long time and I want to surprise him. I promise I'll be back by Thursday, okay?" His daughter glanced down, she obviously was not okay with this but she knew he was going to go whether she wanted him to or not. James swung his arms around his father's neck, prompting Philipa to do so as well. "I love you guys and I promise I'll come back on Thursday. Cross my heart." He used to not be able to say that without imagining Mal with the knife in her hand, begging him to stay in limbo with her, but as time passed, he was finally able to put that nightmare behind him and live a happy life with no more distractions with his children.

Cobb was excited to see his best friend again, it'd been over a year now and they had much catching up to do in person. As they talked on the phone or by letter, neither one liked email all that much, it felt like Arthur had been holding back, hiding something almost. He had no clue what it could be but he hoped he would be able to crack Arthur open on his visit.

None of them ever saw it coming.

He held the envelope up to eye level as he stood at the front lawn of a simple but inviting light blue house with white trim and a beige door and charcoal colored roof. There was a little stepping stone path up to the steps of the front door and a small garden that lined the front of the house.

Cobb was stricken with uncertainty. Was this right? This is where Arthur lived? Alone? A garden, really? Since when does Arthur like flowers?

After staring at the house with a mildly dumbfounded look on his face for several moments, he finally sighed and pulled his bag over his shoulder, making his way up to the door. With little hesitation, he knocked on the door four times and waited. After a few moments, he knocked another four times, slightly harder than the first four. Again, there was no answer. He looked over to the car and motor cycle in the drive way. The motor cycle didn't strike him as odd because for years Arthur had gone on about owning one some day.

So his car and motor cycle were both in the drive way, that means he must be home, so maybe he's sleeping? It was an hour before noon, he could be taking a nap or might have slept in. Just out of curiosity, Cobb reached for the handle and turned it slowly. The door opened. He knew he'd risk getting a face full of bullets but Cobb would never pass up the chance to scare the living shit out of his old friend like he used to. This would definitely be amazing.

The door shut quietly behind him. The inside of the house was nice, was his first thought, but something clicked right after that thought faded out of his mind. This was not a home fit for an individual person, someone was living with him. There were two recliner chairs and a love couch, the kitchen table held two chairs, two cups of orange juice and two plates of eggs (one scrambled and one sunny side up) and bacon sat cold and half eaten, pictures of family member's he's fairly certain are not Arthur's and a pair of shoes much larger than Arthur's sat sloppily in the hallway.

When all of this was processing in his head, he finally realized that music was playing in a room towards the back of the house. Cautiously, Cobb set his bags down by one of the recliners and inched his way down to the other side of the house to see a closed door, which he assumed was the bed room.

"Arthur?" The music was loud and clear through the door, the lyrics caused Cobb to pause in even deeper confusion.

'You've got pressure dripping off your shoulders, let me be the one to relieve it, let's get unprofessional, don't you know it's gonna feel much better with- Ah! Just a little bit a' Oh! Just a little bit a' Nn! Just a little bit a' Ooh! Is what you need-'

This. Was. Not. Right.

Arthur doesn't listen to this type of music! Arthur lives alone! Arthur hates flowers! But this is the address he's been writing to this whole time and the pictures out on the desk had him in them, so That's it.

Cobb opened the door and everything-just-froze. His best friend, who was never one for being romantically involved with anyone ever, was naked and straddling Eames, who was also naked, rocking up and down on the larger man's you know with his hands back on Eames' knees for support and crying out and moaning like Cobb never thought was possible. Arthur seemed really into it, bouncing up and down as fast as he could while Eames supported him by holding his waist and thrusting up into the bounces. Both of them were way to into the love making to ever notice their old friend staring in awe at them in their doorway.

Without a word, Cobb closed the door, grabbed his bags, rode back to the airport, flew home back to his children and called Arthur. It was then that Cobb finally was informed of Arthur and Eames' relationship.

Another perfect example of Eames proving to be a huge ass hat, the whole time Arthur was arguing with Cobb over the phone and they realized that Cobb had, in fact, walked in on them having sex, the British man continued to laugh relentlessly and seemed to have literally started crying of laughter, nearly suffocating.

Their friendship was admittedly on rocky roads right now, but Arthur knew Cobb would understand eventually.