The story was going to be probably five or six chapters but I got really inspired and I ended up writing more! please leave some reviews yeah? thanks so much for reading.
enjoy!
December 22.
Arthur woke up with his head pounding, the light coming from the window hurt his eyes, he looked in the direction of Eames' bed but he wasn't there, he stood up and saw he was in the same clothes from last night. I didn't remember to change my clothes last night. He stripped and put on a pair of pijamas. He sat at on the bed and saw a glass of water and a pill with a post-it with Ariadne's name. He drank it and lay on bed a few minutes. Everything was in silence until the door opened up.
"I told you he was here! I told you! I told you!"
"James, Pippa" he said sitting in the bed. both kids jumped on the bed.
"Daddy said you felt bad, you okay, Artie?" The girl brushed his hair.
He nodded and kissed the girl in the cheek, he kissed James' cheek and sat him on his lap, both kids started talking about the Christmas presents Saito sent for them, Arthur just nodded and smiled.
"And daddy got you a present" James whispered in his ear
"Daddy said it was a surprise!" Pippa yelled "I'm telling daddy you told uncle Artie"
"Okay, Okay" Arthur spoke "I'm not telling daddy you told me, I'll pretend I'm surpised, Yes?"
"You are the best!" James smiled
"But you shouldn't have told me" Arthur looked at Pippa with complicity
"Tickle fight!"
They started tickling the little boy and laughing, Arthur stopped when he saw Eames leaning in the door frame with two cups in his hands.
"I knew you were going to wake Arthur, you little rascals"
"It was Pippa"
"It was James"
They both said in unison pointing at each other. Eames laughed.
"James and Pippa better not be upstairs they are suppose to be eating lunch" Cobb's voice made both kids giggle and ran out of the room.
"I brought you coffee" Eames offered him one of the cups
"Thanks" Arthur took the cup "Is lunch time already?" he asked
"past lunch time" Eames corrected.
"shit, I overslept"
Arthur left the cup in the nightstand and stood up, Eames sighed and grabbed him by his shoulders sitting him in the bed.
"It's Christmas eve, Darling, you are suppose to relax, not to run around like the bloody White Rabbit"
Arthur laughed at the Alice in wonderland reference. He grab the cup of coffee and sipped again.
"I can't just sit around and do nothing, Mr. Eames" He said after a few minutes. Eames rolled his eyes.
"Take a shower and I'll meet you downstairs, yeah?"
"Why?"
"I want to show you something, Darling" he grinned and winked at him, Arthur rolled his eyes.
"If I'm the White Rabbit you, Mr., are definetly Cheshire the Cat" He said standing up.
"Is it because of my contagious smile or because of my joyful personality?" he asked watching Arthur walking towards the bathroom. he blinked when Arthur closed the door.
"It's because you are annoying" he yelled from inside the bathroom.
Eames smiled and shook his head, since he met Arthur he never saw him distracting himself, he was always too serious or too busy trying to make things perfect. Arthur went downstairs an hour later, he saw Ariadne and Eames sitting in the living talking.
"Is too quiet in here" he said
"Cobb took the kids out" Ariadne was the first one to speak "Eames had the amazing idea" She smiled at him and then looked at Arthur "To get a Christmas tree!" her eyes sparkled.
"You can't have Christmas without a Christmas tree, can't you?" Eames winked to Ariadne.
"That's… great?" Arthur wrinkled his nose.
Ariadne rolled her eyes.
"Oh, please, Mr. Eames, help the Grinch here to get his Christmas groove on!" she chanted dramatically
"ha fucking ha" Arthur murmured
"I'll see what I can do, Sweetheart" he said winking at Ariadne "Ready to go?"
"Yeah" Arthur shrugged
Once out they started walking without speaking to each other, Eames remained in silence, he kind of realized Arthur liked to walk in silence so he waited until he spoke.
"Would you mind if we go to a mall?" he asked "I didn't get James and Phillipa presents."
"As you wish, Darling"
"Maybe I'll get Ariadne something too" Arthur started talking more to himself than to Eames "And Cobb"
"And to my dear Mr. Eames, whom I find very nice and pleasant to be with" Eames added making a poor impression of Arthur's voice.
"I said not unpleasant, Mr. Eames" Arthur repeated slowly "and maybe I'll get you something"
"I knew you wanted to"
"I said maybe."
After a few hours Arthur finished, at least that's what Eames was praying for, the man feet hurt, he had forgotten why he hated shopping, specially Christmas shopping, but this was the reason why.
"Are you tired?" he asked sitting in a bench
"It was about bloody time you asked" Eames said sitting next to him.
"judging by the way you look I though you were in conditions" Arthur smiled.
"Oh, stop it, you are making me blush" the burnette rolled his eyes. "I couldn't help but notice you didn't buy anything to yourself"
Arthur smiled.
"You are suppose to give in Christmas"
"Are you asking me for a gift, Darling?"
"No I- I'm not, I was just saying" he answered quickly "It's not like I expect you to get me something"
"Well, too bad" Eames chuckled "I already got you something."
Arthur smiled.
"What is it?"
"A surprise" Eames winked at him.
"I bought you something too" Arthur said with a small smirk.
"What is it?"
"A surprise"
They both smiled to each other.
"Well, we already did what you wanted, so... We must do what I want now"
Arthur nodded and stood up, after they left the gifts in the house, they walked to the train station, Eames didn't say anything in the way there, thing that disturbed Arthur a bit. They hopped up the train and sat in a small cubicle.
"We are going to London" said Arthur. Eames nodded.
"I want to show you something" He said looking outside the window.
Two hours. Two hours without saying anything and Arthur was about to explote, he wanted to ask Eames what was it about but the british man seemed lost in his thoughts.
"Now I know how you feel when I don't want you to speak" he mumbled.
Eames looked at him and chuckled.
"Sweet revenge, Darling"
The train finally stopped a few minutes later, Arthur and Eames walked together in more silence for a while. They took a cab but this time they small talked, how the weather was a bit cooler than in france and then about the presents Arthur bought to Cobb's kids. The cab stopped. they walked inside the building infront of them. Eames then tried to hold Arthur's hand but he pulled away. Again.
"I'm sorry"
They both said at the same time. Eames just nodded and walked infront of him. Eames was acting a bit weird, Arthur though, they entered to a house, no, an eldership. The place was warm, they had a big Christmas tree and some decorations.
"Good afternoon, sunshine" Eames said to a man inside.
"Daniel my friend" The man shook Eames' hand and then hugged him like they were brothers "And this is…"
"Arthur" he said introducing himself.
"I'm Peter" he said smiling "How does Mr. Eames manage to get something like this looking like that?" the man joked shaking Arthur's hand. Arthur chuckled.
"We are not-"
"We are work partners" Eames answered quickly.
"Right, right" he winked.
Peter looked at them for a few seconds nodding.
"Is she…" Eames started
"Oh! Right!"
Peter led Eames inside, Arthur walked behind them looking at the place, it was quite luxurious, high ceilings, antique furniture. Eames sat beside an old woman and started talking to her, holding her hand and ocacionally smiling. Arthur stood away yet close enough to hear what they were saying.
"I've missed you so much, it's been years" the woman said, her face turned sad "I'm sorry about the last time" she hold Eames hands in hers and kissed them.
"I came last week, don't you remember?" Eames asked "It's me"
"You…" The woman never stopped padding Eames hair "Oh, yes, I remember"
"Of course you do" he smiled sadly, Arthur felt a lump in his throat.
"William, darling, how is Daniel?" Arthur froze "How is our baby?"
"It's me mum" Eames rubbed his forehead looking kind of desperate and then kissed the woman's hand "Daniel"
The woman smiled and kissed his cheek. Arthur realized the woman though Eames was someone else.
"Yes, of course you are" she said kissing his cheek again. "You are all grown up, you are not a baby anymore"
"Yes, mum" he nodded.
They started talking about how beautiful the place was decorated, Arthur walked away slowly and decided to wait outside. He always though Eames didn't have anyone, that he was alone, but he was wrong, plus Eames was really good at covering his tracks, he didn't find anything about his family when Cobb asked him to investigate the froger. Arthur was so lost in his thought he didn't realized Eames was standing by his side.
"Ready to go?"
He nodded.
They walked side by side through the streets, Arthur sighed and looked at Eames with the corner of his eye. He tried to disctrack himself looking at the park infron of them. He sighed again.
"You do that a lot when you can't stand the silence"
"Do what?" Arthur asked.
"Sigh" Eames smiled.
"Sorry" he said scratching the back of his head "I actually don't, but I've found myself doing it quite often lately."
"I was about to say the same thing about my relationship with silence" Eames joked.
"That was you mom" it wasn't a question
"Rose" Eames answered.
"is William your father?" Arthur asked after a few seconds of silence.
Eames stopped walking, he nodded sitting down in a pavement stair and snorted. Arthur sat one echelon behind him.
"My father was from the army, he was american, he met my mum while passing here in London, she always says…. Used to say those were the best months of her life. Until he left"
"You never met you father?" Eames shook his head
"I've seen him in pictures and he use to send my mum letters, but she never answered him, so I never wanted to contact him thinking she would be upset" Eames shrugged "My mother suffered for him too much, I didn't think he deserved to ever know about us again."
"We are both kind of fucked in that department aren't we?"
Eames smiled and nodded. But his smile disappeared as he continued his story.
"When I was seventeen he appeared on our front door, my mother told him how much we hated him for leaving us, I told her I was old enough to decide that by myself and I left her there alone that day. I spent that day with my father thinking he wanted to bond with me again… but all he wanted to tell me was that he had another family and he wasn't going to be able to send us more money, like I fucking cared about his money"
Eames silenced for a few seconds, Arthur swallowed hard when he heard him sobbed, Eames was fighting too hard to hold his tears and he finally gave in. Arthur then did the only thing he though about. He rested his head in his back and hugged him from behind. He felt Eames hands upon his own after a few seconds.
"That night when I arrived home I found my mother lying in the kitchen floor, she had a stroke, she was so angry or maybe so sad about me leaving with him. I was so stupid."
Arthur shook his head.
"Since that day, I've always wondered what would have happen if I had stay with her, she has blackouts because of the stroke and always confuses me with my father. I've always wanted to tell her I'm sorry, but how can I apologize for something she barely remembers. I should have stay with her."
"I know" Arthur whispered "But you were just a kid, Eames, you can't blame that on you"
They stayed in that position for a while until Arthur felt Eames breathing normalized. He stood up and sat by Eames' side, the british man smiled at him lighly.
"Thank you" he said resting his head on his shoulder shyly. "For telling me your deepest secret"
"You're welcome" he said leaving a small kiss on Arthur's head
He then took Arthur's hand again, knowing he wouldn't pull away this time, an he was right.
"This is actually very romantic, Darling" Eames teased with a grin after a few minutes.
"Don't ruin it, Eames."
They both smiled without looking at each other. If this is doing nothing, Arthur though, I love it. Eames just smiled thinking he had to get Arthur a really good christmas present.