Disclaimer: As always we'll own nothing but the original characters, and the situations all characters find themselves in.

Playing Games

Arthur had been surprised when Eames asked him if he liked watching football, he would have thought watching that sort of thing would only depress the other teen given his current physical limitations. But trusting Eames to know himself and his emotional limits, Arthur had told him that he enjoyed watching it more than most sports, and he'd be happy to go and see a game with Eames if he wanted to. So that was how they ended up getting ice cream from a place near the park before heading into said park, pulling into the lot closest to the football pitches.

He would have liked to have found a spot where they could watch the game from the car, but the game was well underway and all the good parking spaces had been taken long ago. As it was they couldn't even see the pitch from where they were, Arthur noted, glancing in Eames's direction to see the man focused on licking his ice cream, which was three scoops and threatening to fall off the cone at any moment. The girl who'd made it had definitely been more interested in checking Eames out than doing her job.

Remembering his annoyance at the time, Arthur recalled wryly how he'd shaken his head when Ariadne had confessed to him that she'd once call in to a restaurant to complain when one of the waitresses wrote her number on the check for Ariadne's then boyfriend. His friend had pretended to be an outraged wife, and even two years later Ariadne hadn't sounded remotely repentant that she'd gotten the waitress in trouble. At the time Arthur had thought her reaction rather immature and childish, but now it sounded like a very clever punishment for some bitch trying to take a man who was already taken.

"What's with the face?"

"Just remembering something Ariadne told me."

"Ah. I love her dearly, but she is an odd duck at times." Eames grinned in fond amusement. "What did she tell you?"

Smiling a little in deprecation, Arthur told him what he'd been thinking, his ears burning a little red when Eames beamed at him in such obvious pleasure. Apparently Eames really liked the idea that he'd been a little green eyed over him.

"I didn't even notice she was flirting with me, Darling. Hardly." Eames tacked on, smart enough to know that he could only protest so much. The way the girl had given Eames as good a view of her breasts as possible had been pretty obvious.

"Right." Smirking at the thought Arthur cocked his head in the direction of the game. "You know people are going to be more interested in watching and talking to you than they'll be in the game, right? It will be worse than whatever happened at Delia's when Ari and I were getting the food. Not that I can't be rude enough to keep them away if need be, but I'd rather they didn't all report to your mother that I have no manners."

"I'd defend your honor, Darling."

"I can defend it myself, thanks."

"True. And if need be I'll tell them to sod off politely. Most of them will wait until the match is over before converging on us though. Parents tend to get very…involved with matches and their children. They're rather scary in their intensity sometimes, actually. You'd think it was life or death the way some of them carry on."

"So it will be two shows in one?"

"Quite possibly." Eames grinned. "Shall we go then?"

It took some juggling thanks to the ice cream, but in short order Eames was in his chair with their treats in his hands while Arthur pushed the chair across the parking lot and up beside the nearest set of short bleachers since there was room for him there too. Numerous eyes shifted from the pitch and onto them as Arthur put on the brakes once Eames was in position, which he ignored as he walked around the chair to take a seat on the lowest level so that he and Eames were almost side by side.

Taking his ice cream when Eames offered it, the simple heavenly hash two scoop melting more than a little now too, Arthur smiled at his boyfriend and then deliberately got creative with his tongue just to be a little mean before gesturing to the field, asking Eames if he knew the players since he'd known there would be a game playing to begin with.

It took a moment, Eames obviously hadn't expected him to tease him sexually so publically, but he recovered relatively quickly, Eames shooting back a response meant for his ears only. "You're going to pay for that one, FYI."

Arthur just smiled back as he asked if that was a promise.

Eames mimed crossing his heart, the gleam in his eyes saying it all. But he didn't try anything, apparently opting to bid his time instead as he answered Arthur's question, which was that he knew the majority of the tweens currently on the field. He'd helped coach them a little a couple years back when their main coach had broken a leg and asked him to help him out with them since his skills were well known and the kids were liable to listen to him for that reason. Running herd on kids that age was hard enough without a broken leg, so the man had needed all the help he could get and it had actually been a lot of fun. Exhausting, but fun.

"Makes sense. You're good with kids."

"Thanks."

It was while they were smiling at each other that the first two mothers came down from their spots on the bleachers to say hi to Eames, exclaiming over how excited their boys would be to see him and how great it was to see him out and about. From there it segued into how his physical therapy was going, and finally an apology for basically ignoring the fact that Arthur was obviously with Eames but they hadn't so much as asked for an introduction.

"My fault entirely." Eames assured them, though he hadn't had a chance in hell of steering the conversation the way they'd kept lobbing questions at him. "This is my boyfriend, Arthur. Arthur, this is Mrs. Thomas and Ms. Platt."

Arthur watched with interest as the eyes of the two women nearly bugged out of their heads as he said hello. They had obviously not seen that coming, and in all honesty he hadn't expected Eames to introduce him that way so smoothly. He'd have to reward the other man for that well later.

"Oh, I didn't know that you were-dating anyone." Mrs. Thomas caught herself just in time, her cheeks flushing red at her near slip up. "It's nice to meet you, Arthur."

"The pleasure's mine." He assured them, and it was since they were amusing him.

"How long have you two been dating?" Ms. Platt wanted to know, the gleam in her eyes saying that she smelled juicy gossip and wanted all the details so that she could be the first to pass them on to everyone in town.

"Not long. It took me a while to convince him to give me a shot." Eames winked in Arthur's direction, amusing him that much more.

Shaking his head Arthur neatly sidestepped or answered the questions both women aimed at them, glad when the kinder Mrs. Thomas finally dragged her friend away to return to their seats. He wasn't remotely surprised though, to look over his shoulder moments later to see both women deep in conversation with some of the other moms, the darting glances in their direction making it clear who they were talking about.

And so it was for the next twenty minutes or so, their game watching opportunities coming in spurts in between not terribly subtle attempts to get as much information about his and Eames's relationship once their 'visitors' learned that there was more interesting gossip to be gathered aside from an update on Eames's injuries. For the most part Arthur did his best to direct their questions and such towards him, so that Eames could enjoy the game. He enjoyed watching the football nut get sucked into the match, complete with Eames calling the ref a few highly uncomplimentary names which led to him being warned that he'd be asked to leave if he didn't watch it.

Then it was time for a midgame break, and all the kids swarmed Eames and Arthur didn't have to talk at all as he listened to Eames compliment each kid in turn, his boyfriend finding something worth mentioning that had each of the boys puffing out their chests and beam with pride. And it was probably helping Eames's ego too, the way the boys so obviously worshipped Eames, wheelchair bound or not.

It would do Eames good to be here after all.

)

If Eames was being completely honest with himself, his suggestion that they come by to catch part of the match had been a test for himself. A way to make him face not only the bombardment of nosey questions he didn't have to face when he stayed at home, because he needed to start building a tougher skin there, but also to face the pain of watching the game he loved being played and being unable to join in. He'd told himself that at least in this case he'd be on the sidelines even if he had been up to playing…plus with Arthur around Eames had known that even if it was all too much to handle, odds were he'd do his sodding best to appear cool with everything just because he didn't want to look bad in front of his boyfriend.

It wasn't too bad though, Arthur's presence helping in more ways than one. Having him around did make him want to put up a solid front, but his boyfriend was also running interference too, shifting attention onto himself whenever he could so that that Eames could just enjoy being out on a beautiful day with a fine game of football to watch.

The fact that Arthur was throwing his father to the female wolves every chance he got had Eames smiling too. There were a lot of divorced mothers in the crowd who were probably going to be dropping in at the Cobb house in the coming week, hoping to reacquaint themselves with their former high school heartthrob.

"Have I mentioned how lovely you are when you're conspiring?"

Looking incredibly sexy, Arthur raised one eyebrow as he stated that he didn't know what Eames was talking about.

Mindful of the eyes that were on them more than they were on the pitch, Eames mentally said to hell with them and reaching over grabbed Arthur's hand to bring it up to his lips so that he could kiss the back of it. "Sure you don't, Darling."

"Not being terribly subtly about our relationship, are you?"

"Did you want me to be?" Eames blurted out, suddenly very worried that he'd completely misunderstood Arthur's statement that he wouldn't date someone who was in the closet. After all, you could be out and very discreet about-

Okay, not mad, Eames thought as Arthur moved in to steal a quick but firm kiss. Yay.

"You two make a lovely couple."

Recognizing the voice Eames was smiling when he turned his head, his thanks dying in his throat as he saw that Himiko wasn't alone, Matt was beside the girl, and his friend was looking like he'd just been smacked upside the head. Really hard.

He'd dropped by Matt's house since Arthur had told him that Himiko had told him to do so, and he'd texted his friend a few times too, but things were still awkward between them and Eames hated that. He got that Matt blamed himself for how bad he'd gotten messed up in the car wreck, and that him just telling Matt he didn't blame him wasn't going to magically fix things. Unfortunately neither of them knew how to fix things, staring at each other's awkwardly like idiots, while Himiko looked completely composed as she smiled at Eames before walking around him to take a seat beside Arthur, greeting her friend warmly before asking what the score was, they'd only just arrived.

"Why aren't you upset?" Matt finally asked, his voice full of shock and his full attention on his neighbor since getting upset over the fact that Himiko had been dumped for Eames was way easier than dealing with his own problems. "Your boyfriend's gay and kissing Eames in front of everyone!"

"My boyfriend?" Himiko repeated, confusion furling her brows before she turned to look questioningly at Arthur. "Why does everyone think we are dating? I asked Matt to bring me with him to pick up Lucas because a girl I did a project with called me just to tell me that my boyfriend is cheating on me. She is not even my friend, but she thought I should know." Himiko leaned back in her seat to give Matt a dark look. "If he was my boyfriend I would not let Eames steal him so easily."

"Unfortunately he's worth losing your father's sushi for." Eames informed Himiko, grinning at her rakishly.

Arthur rolled his eyes at Eames. "Glad to know that I'm more appealing to you than sushi."

"Way more. I'd rather nibble on you any day."

Staring at them Matt didn't say anything, though he kept opening and closing his mouth like he wanted to comment but couldn't come up with a single, utterable word.

"I don't understand why you are so surprise, Eames is one of your closest friends. How could you be around him so much and not realize that he is gay? I could tell right away, even before Arthur came and Eames started looking at him like he was whatever big award one gets for winning the FIFA thing."

While Eames and Arthur laughed, Matt gave Himiko an insulted look.

"Well excuse me for not having your gaydar. It's not like I read those perverted gay comics you read!"

Himiko gasped in outrage, her hands going to her hips. "They are not comics, they are yaoi graphic novels! And stop teasing me about them or I will start telling Eames all sorts of things about you that you wouldn't want him to know. Like what you were watching yesterday on your television."

Naturally both Eames and Arthur wanted to know what Matt had been watching, especially since the teenager was blushing.

"You're evil, you know that?" Matt gave Himiko a dark look, though the other two males noted that Matt wasn't really upset, and was in fact looking at the girl rather fondly.

Giving Arthur a questioning look Eames raised an eyebrow at the knowing smile he got in response. Huh, interesting. Not to mention something to tease Matt about later, when Himiko wasn't around to be teased by association.

But since Himiko was his sushi supplier, and Arthur wouldn't appreciate him teasing her, Eames restrained himself and told Matt that there was another ten minutes or so before the game was over, so he might as well take a seat. They were winning by one but the other team was being pretty dogged thus far. They might end up going into a shoot out yet.

Pointedly Himiko shifted over on the bench, Arthur following suit so that there was room for Matt right beside Eames if he was willing to take it.

And though he hesitated for a moment Matt did walk around to take the seat, Eames giving him a friendly arm punch before telling him that he needed to work with Lucas on his bicycle kicks. They needed some serious work.

Agreeing with that one hundred percent, Matt went into a rant about his brother and what a little shit he'd been recently, not to mention lazy when it came to practicing. Little brat thought he'd just improve through sheer will, the idiot.

Leaving the two to their discussion Arthur and Himiko smiled at each other and then turned their attention to the game, since technically that was what they were all supposed to be watching at the moment rather than the boys awkwardly working through emotional stuff.

)

In the end their team managed to hold onto their one goal advantage, everyone in the bleachers giving the boys a standing ovation for their hard won victory before stepping down to collect their teenagers and head out for whatever plans they had for the rest of the day. Arthur and Eames ended up being two of the last to go, since they were again bombarded with questions and greetings from those who hadn't had a chance to talk to them earlier. Plus the coach wanted to catch up with Eames too, and that took some time as well. But finally they were free to leave, Arthur walking back towards the car with Eames maneuvering his chair across the gravel.

"So Matt and Himiko, hmmm?"

"Possibly. If the idiot ever makes a move."

Feeling that he should defend his friend Eames pointed out that it really wasn't Matt or Yusuf's fault that they both thought the girls they were interested in were dating Arthur. What guy wouldn't feel terribly inadequate when compared to someone like Arthur after all?

The fact that Arthur's ear had gone red when he glanced in the other teen's direction had Eames grinning like a complete idiot, especially since it was so obvious he'd embarrassed Arthur with his praise.

"You're going to pay for that when we get to our next stop."

Intrigued, Arthur hadn't mentioned any other plans for them, Eames inquired as to just where they were going now.

"You'll see."

Very intrigued now, especially since Arthur was trying to distract him with a very sexy and predatory smile in his direction, which worked very well, Eames tried to get a hint about what Arthur was up to without any luck at all.

"You'll see." Was all Arthur was willing to say on the matter.