The next few days passed normally- Ariadne and Arthur took Zoe to work with them, Eames teased Arthur, and so on. But Eames couldn't help but notice something was wrong with Yusuf. Every time Yusuf saw Ariadne or Arthur, his eyes widened and he would blush, turning away. Eames was intent on finding out what was up.
"Hello, Yusuf, darling!" he chirped, peeking over the makeshift wall. Yusuf jumped, almost dropping the test tube that was in his hand.
"Bloody hell, Eames! If I'd dropped that, the whole warehouse would have exploded!" Yusuf shouted, shaking his fist at the Englishman who stood nonchalantly in his workspace.
"But I only wanted to know how my favorite chemist's work is coming along," Eames cooed.
"Bullshit. Now why are you here?" Yusuf asked, rolling his eyes.
"Right. What's up with Ariadne and Arthur?" Eames asked bluntly.
"Uh… I-I don't know what you're talking about," Yusuf said, turning back to his work.
"You can't lie to me, Yusuf. I'm a forger for fuck's sake- I can tell when you're lying. Besides, you're quite shoddy at it," Eames sighed, leaning against the wall.
"But if I told you, Arthur would kill me. Literally. He said he'd take me into multiple dreams within dreams and keep shooting me until we woke up where he'd shoot me in reality," Yusuf whined.
"What Arthur doesn't know can't hurt him, darling," Eames argued, patting Yusuf on the back.
"Ok fine…" Yusuf said, giving in. He wasn't very assertive anyways.
Eames passed by Arthur and Ariadne's work spaces and was forced to stifle a schoolgirl giggle. He thought about bursting into Arthur's office and revealing the dirty truth, but he had much better plans in mind.
When lunch time came around, everyone but Arthur and Ariadne cleared out as usual.
"Zoe, love. Why don't you come have lunch with good ol' Uncle Eames?" he purred, grabbing Zoe's hand.
They sat together in a small café across the street. Eames was barely able to contain himself. He wanted to be completely outrageous and jump on a table and reveal this secret to everyone in the café even though he was sure none of them even knew Arthur or Ariadne.
"Why're you being so nice to me today? Yesterday you were really bummed about having to take me out to lunch with you," Zoe asked, kicking her feet back and forth- her feet didn't even reach the floor when she sat down.
"Nonsense! I always enjoy taking Arthur's favorite sister out to lunch!" Eames chirped.
"I'm Arthur's only sister," Zoe said, rolling her eyes.
"Which is why it's all the more fun. Speaking of you being Arthur's only sister, what hasn't the stick in the mud told you?" Eames asked, smirking.
"Arthur never tells me anything. It's so infuriating!" Zoe groaned, her face scrunching up as she frowned.
"Oh goody…" Eames muttered, smiling mischievously.
"Why?" Zoe asked, her head tilting slightly to the right.
"How well can you keep a secret?" Eames asked, leaning forward on his elbows.
"What are you plotting, Eames?" Zoe asked with a devilish smile. Eames motioned for her to come closer and Zoe complied, leaning her ear close to Eames' mouth.
"Your brother kissed Ariadne!" he whispered giddily in her ear.
"Oh my god! No way!" she squealed, jumping in her seat.
"No! That's not even possible! Arthur doesn't kiss girls on a whim!" Zoe giggled, squirming around in her seat.
"Well we obviously didn't know him as well as we thought we did," Eames chuckled; relieved he finally got it out of his system.
"I feel like I need to shout it to the world!" Zoe admitted, still giggling.
"No no, not yet, love. I have a plan…" Eames said, smirking.
Ariadne bit her lip, trying to concentrate on her work, but she simply couldn't. She had been blushing since the day before when Arthur had kissed her and couldn't get it out of her system. Finally, taking a deep breath, Ariadne rose from her seat and headed towards Arthur.
"Why did you want to kiss me?" Ariadne demanded to know, grabbing the arms of Arthur's chair.
"Ariadn- why- what are you doing?" Arthur questioned.
"Why?" she pressed on. Arthur turned a bright shade of pink.
"Because… Well because you're just too damn beautiful and I think I might like you, ok?" Arthur admitted. It was Ariadne's turn to blush and be speechless.
"Oh…" she said quietly, releasing her hold on Arthur's chair and looking at the ground. They were speechless for a moment and then they both looked up at each other, just staring. Then, suddenly, they both moved towards each other in and within seconds, they were kissing again. Arthur grabbed Ariadne's waist, holding her small frame closer to his body and Ariadne draped her arms over Arthur's shoulders.
"Ariadne, this is-" Arthur began when they came up for air, but Ariadne cut him off.
"Oh just shut up, Arthur," Ariadne muttered, pressing her lips against his. They backed into the wall and were so engrossed in their relations that they didn't even realize that Eames and Zoe had entered the warehouse.
"OHMYGOD! EAMES YOU WERE RIGHT!" Zoe shouted when she spotted her brother and Ariadne lip locked and pressed up against the wall. Their lips quickly parted from each other, making an unholy smacking sound.
"Jesus Christ! How long has this been going on! And how could I have not known about this? I know everything!" Eames exclaimed.
"Wait a minute. You weren't even there the first ti- YUSUF!" Arthur groaned, smacking his palm to his forehead. At that exact moment, Yusuf just happened to walk through the door. All eyes were on him.
"Oh… shit. PLEASE DON'T KILL ME ARTHUR! IT'S NOT MY FAULT EAMES PRYED IT OUT OF ME!" Yusuf begged, trying to escape the glares he received from Ariadne and Arthur.
"Go back to your chemistry set, you idiot!" Arthur shouted.
"Well, fine! I will!" Yusuf yelled, offended.
"I'll deal with this later," Arthur muttered, storming out of the warehouse, leaving Eames and Zoe staring at Ariadne for an answer.
"Uh… He told me to do it," she said, assertively.
A/N: The plot thickens! Hope you enjoyed it! There's going to be a twist in the next few chapters or so in which the team finally finds a new extractor...