She had many hours on the plane to stew in her annoyance. Mostly that meant downing cocktails and shots until the stewardess cut her off.
When she finally landed, she was inebriated and on the path for vengeance.
After taking a taxi to the destination of the warehouse they would be working in, she took one more sip from a flask in her pocket that she had conveniently filled at the airport bar when she arrived.
Pushing through the doors of the warehouse, a short women with dark hair, whom Raylie didn't recognize, and a well dressed man with slicked back hair both turned to look at her. Her eyes flicked to the other woman only briefly before setting her sights on the man.
"Arthur! My god it's been so long." She called out dramatically as she began to approach him, receiving a faint smile from him in return.
"Yeah, it's definitely been--" He was suddenly pulled in a tight, hugging embrace, his body stiffening as his words were cut off by Raylie giving him a deep kiss on the lips.
She pulled away after a moment, grinning at the look of pure horror on his face. She barely noticed the other woman's taken aback, then annoyed stare. He was so fun to screw with.
Raylie and Arthur had never had an intimate relationship, nowhere even close. That is one of the reasons the man was so horrified by the action. The other being the awkwardness of Ariadne witnessing it all. It took him a moment to recover from his shock before he realized the obvious from the smell coming off her breath, "You're drunk...lovely." He responded in a judgemental tone.
Raylie made a shooting gun gesture with her fingers, pointing at him as she squinted one eye shut as if aiming "Bingooo."
A new voice then spoke from the doorway, "Good to see nothings changed, can't keep her hands, or her lips to herself. Looks like Arthur is the not-so-lucky bloke today." Raylie spun on her heels to look at Eames who was leaning casually on the doorframe with a look of disdain.
"YOU!" She roared, her carefree attitude suddenly gone. "I'm going to kill you, you motherfucker!" She began to stomp in his direction, only to have Arthur's arm shoot out to stop her. "Hey, we're not doing this here." Arthur chided as Eames straightened up, clearly intrigued.
"Let her go, Arthur. I'd love to lay her out flat. She's quite used to it." Eames' tone was falsely sweet with just a slight detection of malice. Arthur sighed as Raylie pushed his arm away and marched forward. Eames hunched slightly like a large cat watching its prey.
"You think you're so damn cute!" She exclaimed, getting closer to him and then swinging her fist up towards his jaw. In her intoxicated state, he was much faster. Grabbing her wrist, he kicked her legs out from underneath her and they both went to the ground.
Easily pinning her with one of his legs on top hers, and one arm across her chest, he grinned in glee at her expression.
"Hey, come on, let her up." Ariadne reasoned, her only perception of the situation being that a grown man was holding down a woman, even if that woman had just kissed Arthur.
"Relax, I'm not hurting her. See darling, this is what you would call a feral animal. You just have to restrain them until they tire themselves out." Eames teased, chuckling at the struggling woman underneath him.
Raylie tried to push herself up from the floor unsuccessfully and then instead proceeded to bite down on Eames' arm that was pinning her. "Oi!" He exclaimed, looking at her and then Ariadne again, "See? Little rabid animal."
"Get off!" Raylie said through gritted teeth. "Only in your dreams, love." Eames retorted with his signature smirk and quick wink. In the past he might have done just that. They'd spar playfully and he'd be lying if he said it hadn't gotten his bollocks tingling back then. But now was different. He felt nothing but spite and hate, and the only joy he felt from her was when he was in control. He knew she felt the same, the problem with that was, only one of them could be on top.
"Now, what could be contributing to all this fuss?" He continued, his voice purposely louder just as Cobb walked into the situation, making sure Cobb witnessed him continuing. Eames used his free hand to feel around inside her jacket pocket and pulled out the half empty flask. "Mmmhmm" He taunted, flicking the cap open to smell the contents "Whew.. This stuff will make you go blind you know."
"Let her up." Cobb said in a tired voice, rubbing his forehead as he walked into the room, sounding much like an exhausted parent dealing with arguing children.
Eames obliged, closing and dropping the flask before standing up and stepping back.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?" Cobb asked, looking at Raylie as she stood up, stuffing the flask back into her inner jacket pocket and glaring at Eames.
Without a word she followed Cobb out of the room, shutting the door behind her so those nosy bastards couldn't listen.
"Is this going to be a problem?" Cobb asked as Raylie sighed dramatically, rolling her eyes, "You think the problem is me, but it's not. Eames, he--"
"Look, I don't care what happened. But you're late, you're drunk, and you're already picking fights. All I want to know is if you can do your job. There's no room for anything but professionalism." Cobb scolded. "So again, is this going to be a problem?" He asked again, more forcefully.
"No. It's not going to be a problem." Raylie relented through gritted teeth.
He glanced at her disheveled appearance before turning to leave, "Get your shit together, we've got work to do."
.-..-..-..-..-
Back inside the room, Eames lounged, tipping back on a chair while busying himself by reading through one of the files. A light smirk of satisfaction sat on his lips, feeling a bit cheeky with everything that had happened. He was getting all the upper hands today. His only annoyance was that she had actually made it out of Mombasa. He had been sure that it would have taken her longer. 'Clever little cunt.'
Arthur also tried to busy himself with paperwork, but Ariadne was persistent. "What was that all about? Do you two have a history or something?" Ariadne tried to ask Arthur in a hushed tone, but a sudden crack of laughter erupted from Eames.
"God no." Arthur answered immediately. "No... just..no." He continued, ignoring Eames' outburst. "She can just, uh, be a little eccentric at times." He said, not really sure how to put it, but wanting to take any false accusations away from him that Ariadne may be pondering, he continued, "But if you want to know who she has history with, ask him." Arthur nodded briefly over to Eames who glanced up over the file, now with a blank expression.
"I figured there must be something with you two." Ariadne said, looking to Eames, "What is she to you anyways?" She asked lightly, generally curious now.
"The bloody she-devil of course."
.-..-..-..-..-
Thanks for reading! Next chapter out shortly. Let me know any thoughts, ideas, criticisms!