They returned on time for supper, Eames was playing with the kids in the living, while Arthur was helping Ariadne and Cobb with the tree. They both noticed him very distracted and with a small smile on his lips. Ariadne looked at Cobb occasionally shrugging.
"I smell smoke?" Ariadne said a few minutes later.
"Ari! Something happened to you microwave" Sara yelled from the kitchen.
"Holly crap!" she yelled running to the kitchen.
Arthur and Cobb smiled.
"Arthur, you are being as much help as James and Pippa" said Cobb.
"What?"
He sighed.
"I'm sorry" He said "You got a pretty tree"
Cobb stared at him with his mouth slightly open.
"Did you just said something good about the tree? The Christmas tree?" Arthur rolled his eyes with a serious expression. "Did Eames showed your Christmas past, present and future?"
"Funny" he said sarcastically "Kind of" He though.
"You should hang out more with him" Cobb suggested.
"That tree needs some presents under it, doesn't it?"
Eames yelled entering the living with the kids. He had a bunch of boxes of different colors in his arms.
"I want to help! I want to help!" said the little girls pulling his arm.
"Let the men do it!" said James and Eames laughed nodding.
"Well, then daddy and Eames will help, and I will help uncle Arthur with the tree"
"And what will I do" James said crossing his arm upset.
"Nothing, is you nappy time"
The three men started laughing, Eames left the presents on the couch and started untangling Christmas lights with the help of James and Pippa left with Cobb to the kitchen to help Ariadne and the twins. Arthur started putting the presents under the tree.
"What is this?" the little boy asked putting something is Eames' face
"That's a mistletoe, champ" he answered "You hang it on the ceilings and when two people stand under it they are supposed to snog"
"Snog?" James smelled the ornament.
"Kiss" James opened his eyes in horror and threw the mistletoe away.
"That is so gross! Eeeeew!"
Pippa then entered the room.
"What is gross?"
"This thing makes people kiss!" James exclaimed.
"Like in the movies?" Eames nodded with a funny expression "That is so romantic!" she said putting her hands of her chest.
"No it isn't!" James said
"Yes it is!"
"No it isn't!"
Pippa laughed.
"I bet Mr. Eames have kissed a lot of girls, he is very handsome! He looks like a prince!"
Eames smiled to the little girl leaving a kiss in her cheek. James yelled.
"Gross! Gross!"
"You are going to kiss someone some day"
"I'm not!"
"Yes you are!"
Both kids started running to the kitchen screaming to each other.
"You shouldn't have told them that" Arthur laughed lightly putting the last present and sitting next to him. "Pippa is going to bother James until he kiss someone... or something?"
"Well, the secret is out" he grinned picking the mistletoe from the floor.
"Are you hanging that up?"
"Of course, Darling" he winked at him.
"Please tell me you are making the twins kiss each other" Yusuf just entered the room and sat between them.
"You are a married man now, mate" Eames smiled padding his shoulder.
"I never got a bachelor party my friend" Yusuf pouted.
They smiled at each other with complicity.
"Brother, you are in for the bachelor party of your life" Eames said.
The music was very loud, at least for him, because it didn't seem to be bothering anyone else. Ariadne told them she invited a couple friends for dinner but the place seemed more crowded than a couple of friends. Cobb agreed because she told him they were almost his age and they were serious people. Arthur was in the kitchen drinking alone. He had planned to lock himself in the room but Cobb asked him to check on Ariadne, like she wasn't old enough to take care of herself, the girl was twenty-seven after all. He stood in front of the sink and opened his third beer. He was kind of glad he already felt dizzy.
"Why are you here alone!?"
Yusuf voice made him jump. He shrugged.
"Are you drunk?" he asked
"Drunk as fuck, men!" He yelled. "Hey! we are doing some karaoke, want to come?" he giggled "Come"
"Hey mate!" Eames' entered the kitchen with a wide smile "I though you decided to go nap nap"
Yusuf shook his head and took Arthur's bottle and drank.
"I am ready to Partay" He screamed leaving the kitchen.
"He is definitely having fun" Eames laughed.
"He is partying with a bunch of horny teenagers, who wouldn't be?" Arthur said
"He is partying with a bunch of grown ups acting like horny teenagers" he corrected.
Eames winked and smiled at him starting to cut some lemons in half. Arthur took another beer and started drinking in silence. He noticed Eames arms were uncovered, once again he found himself trying to count how many tattoos did the british man had. He sighed.
"You are never going to get drunk with that beer, Darling" he said still cutting lemons. "It has like 1.5 percent of alcohol"
"What?" he blinked twice. "Oh" he shrugged. "I don't mind" He did.
"Ariadne bought tequila…" He started "Blimey!" he screamed dropping the knife.
"You okay?" he asked getting closer to him.
"I cut my finger" he said raising his hand.
Arthur took his hand and examined the cut.
"If it can be called a cut" He chuckled "it's barely a scratch, crybaby" he said going back to his beer.
"You think I'll live, Doc?" he joked taking his finger to his mouth.
Arthur nodded with a smile. He bit his lip as Eames' lips drew all his attention, he had never really looked at the british man's face carefully, he had dark blue green eyes that had a singular spark and a profiled nose but his lips were just gorgeous, full red kissable gorgeous porn lips. Eames was a very desirable man, that's why women acted the way they did, that flight attendant, Ariadne, the twins, for Christ's sake even Pippa noticed the man was handsome, how the hell didn't he noticed that before? He scowled and sighed with frustration.
"Are you alright, Darling?"
He nodded, drinking the rest of the beer.
"I'm taking these out" He said with the bowl full of half cut lemons and the salt. "Want to come."
"Sure" He shrugged. Eames smiled widely.
If he thought the music was loud in the kitchen, it was even worse in the living, he saw Yusuf sitting between two girls that were kissing each other, he scowled. Eames laughed at him leaving the lemons on the table.
"Come sit with me, Darling" Eames whispered in his ear.
"Eames brought the limones and the sal" Ariadne yelled.
"Shots! Shots!"
"Josh, Jack! Come here!" Ariadne called.
A blond and a brown haired man sat next to Arthur and a redhead woman sat on the brown haired guy, josh, lap, Ariadne and Sara sat in the floor in front of them. They all grabbed small glasses and filled them until the bottle was empty.
"Who is going to drink all that?" Arthur asked Eames "There are like 50 glasses"
"We are, Of course" He leaned back in the couch throwing an arm around the Arthur's shoulders.
"I want to say something!" Ariadne cleared her throat "My friend Arthur here… it's his birthday!" she giggled.
They started clapping. Arthur was about to say something but Eames hand on he's knee stopped him.
"He had never been drunk in his life"
People started booing now.
"Let's get him fucked up" Ariadne raised her glass and everyone started clapping and screaming.
"Wait, wait, wait" Josh calmed the crowd. "If we are going to drink tequila" he cleared his throat "we are doing it the right way!"
"Body Shots!" someone yelled.
The red haired girl, Charlotte, took her top off and lay on the table putting a lime on her mouth.
He didn't know how he got up there but the music was loud and he was singing.
"...It's much too late to find
You think you've changed your mind
You'd better change it back or we will both be sorry
Don't you want me baby? Don't you want me oh
Don't you want me baby? Don't you wan-"
The room started spinning and he felt the floor hitting his face. Ariadne took his face and started checking him. The room was silence.
"He's alright!"
The room exploded and he nodded, he ran to the table and took another shot. Sara was lying on the table in front of him without her shirt and she had salt on her neck, she stood up and kissed him on the lips, he returned the kiss and the entire room cheered, he pulled away and smiled. He leaned back on the couch while Ariadne took the next shot.
"You alright, Darling?" Eames asked sitting by his side, he had a cigarette on his lips, his gorgeous lips. "You drank eight shots and sang karaoke and it's just twelve o' clock, I must say I'm impressed"
"I've never been better" He answered taking the cigarette of Eames mouth "Please don't smoke" he said throwing it inside a half empty bottle of beer. "Every time you smoke you are taking six minutes away from your life, Eames, six" he said showing him five fingers.
"As you wish, Love" he said winking at him.
"You have winked at me so many times I'm starting to think you have a tic, Daniel"
Eames laughed.
"I won't do it again then"
"No" Arthur said quickly "I like when you do it, it's… so… you."
"Very well" Eames didn't argue with him.
"You think I'm drunk" He said
"You drank several shots of tequila, Darling, Of course you are" Eames gently tapped the tip of his nose and smiled. He heard Yusuf yelling 'get a room'.
"Of course I am" He stared at the ceiling like it was the most interesting thing in the world for a few minutes "Being drunk is awesome" he said to Eames.
"Want to go upstairs?"
"We are going too fast, don't you think, darling?" said Arthur mocking Eames.
"You could have alcohol poisoning and you are making stupid sex jokes?"
They both laughed.
He then felt the room started spinning faster. Eames noticed he wasn't feeling so well, he stood and offered him his hand. Arthur walked stumbling a bit and mumbling the song while he smiled. He didn't even know how he climbed the stairs. He blinked and he was laying in his bed.
"There you go" said Eames offering a glass of water. "Come, sit"
But he shook his head.
"I need to get Ariadne, Cobb is going to be so pissed-"
"Is fine, he's downstairs already" he helped him to sit down. "And yes, he pretty mad"
"What a party pooper" Arthur smiled
Eames smiled nodding and started unbuttoning Arthur's shirt but the point man stopped him.
"I can't, I'm too drunk and-"
"I wasn't" he said quietly "I'm just changing your clothes so you can sleep comfortable, Darling"
Arthur blushed. Of course Eames didn't want to fuck him, the man was as straight as an arrow. Eames nodded and continue to undress him, he put him a shirt and some silk pants he sure got from his drawers. He sighed and lay down covering himself with the blanket. Just when Eames was about to leave he heard Arthur's voice.
"I'm sorry" Eames smiled and walked towards him.
"It's alright, just get some rest, love" he said.
Arthur nodded and felt Eames leaving a small peck on his forehead. He stood up.
"I do like you, Mr. Eames" Arthur was almost mumbling. "A lot" he said with a silly smile on his face. "I like you a lot"
"I know" He turned the lights off and walked towards the door. He turned around and looked at him with a smirk. "And Arthur…" he glanced at him. "If I were to fuck you, darling, I wouldn't do it with you drunk"
His voice sounded like something between seduction and teasing.
"I'd be a shame for you to not remember the best shag of your life"
He winked and left the room leaving Arthur with a lot of questions in his already messed up head. Wait a second, did Eames just admitted to him he was gay too? And that wanted to have sex with him?. Before he could answer any of those questions he felt asleep, well, passed out.
