As the days became a blur of endless working hours all leading to the final mission, each member of the team indulged in their own specific vice to ease the torment that this line of work caused. For Dom, he fed off the desire to see his children; to watch them grow up. His phonecalls just to hear their little voices complain about pre-school made his day just bearable. Ariadne had her love for architecture. So when the pressure and stress grated too much, she would read exerts from her college textbooks about her favourite architects to remind herself why she fell in love with the field. Eames had his love affair with gambling and drinking life away all for the thrill of indulgent escapism. Even Yusuf got away from it all by visiting his wife and children back in Mombassa, as he only left them to accompany this one inception mission. And Arthur…
Everyone had an escape route, something to ground them.
As Arthur had concluded multiple times before, relationships were just not possible in this line of work. Dom and Mal fell apart, piece by piece and Yusuf seems only able to maintain a healthy, stable relationship since he was joining the team for no more than two months, and then leaving without looking back. There were just too many dinner's that Arthur couldn't make it to, too many apologies given for not getting out of the 'office' until 2AM, too many sent gifts to make up for his absence, but more prominently, too many days and nights that he secretly thought that he enjoyed working more than spending that time with company. He was the researcher, the one to find out the most intricate details about a life. Given just one month, he could discover more about a person than their oldest friend. He was a professional, and admittedly the one of the best.
However when this came to girls, Arthur could imitate the façade of 'the perfect boyfriend' while he was with the women. With the superior blend of extreme intelligence, high class behaviour, impeccable fashion sense, and a genuine chivalrous nature….it could be said that he was the perfect catch. However none of these facets could alleviate the emptiness in the relationship. Arthur was in love with his job, and only his job.