#commentary to follow because there was a lot happening in a few short updates lmao

[hannahssimblr]

Afterwards, my parents call. Obligatory. Happy Christmas, son, kind of thing. Tap. Camera. Their faces show up on the screen, heads uncomfortably close to one another, as though they are trying to create the illusion of happiness. For who? I think. I already know your marriage is fucked. 

“Is it late?” My mother is saying, and I tell her no. Just an hour difference. It’s past eleven.  

In the background, granny complains about a stain in the tablecloth. Ah, I think. That’s for who. Playacting happy families to please a woman who has never experienced pleasure in her life. 

It is one of those calls with a lot of pauses. Dead air, where nobody knows what to say. All waiting for the minutes to tick down, to reach an acceptable time to hang up. 

“You’ll get our gift when you get back to Berlin.” That’s dad, speaking in that way where he doesn’t open his mouth all the way, can’t be bothered moving his jaw. 

“Thanks. What is it?”

“The 4S,” he says, at the same moment mom says, “it’s a surprise.”

“Nice, thanks.”

“Your iPhone working out okay?”

“Yeah, could be better, though. Could be the 4S.” 

Nobody says anything. Sounds in the background. The television on. Running ads. 

“You were missed this year,” says mom. “When are you coming home?”

“March, I think.”

“Do you think you’ll bring Astrid?”

Glancing now at her, reading her book at the head of the bed. She looks up and pulls a face. 

“I’ll ask her.”

“I know Ivy wants to meet her.”

“Yeah, I know that. It just depends on our schedules and stuff.”

“Are you being respectful to her family?” That’s dad, out of the blue, like he’s been holding that one in.

“No,” I say.

“I know how you are with grown-ups. If I found out you’ve been rude or ungrateful towards them… It’s generous of them to take you for Christmas, and I hope you’ve been gracious.”

“Yeah, dad, I’ve been literally so nice. What did you think I was going to do to them? I’m an adult, like. You don’t need to talk to me like this anymore.” 

“Well, I know some things don’t change so easily. May I remind you of the calls we got about your behaviour from other parents and your teachers?”

I heave out a sigh. The insanity of his idea that Gitte might phone him in Ireland to complain about the behaviour of his twenty-year-old son. “He didn’t thank me for the Rødkål,” she’ll say somberly, and he’ll be humiliated, forced to apologise on my behalf, promising to discipline me appropriately at the end of term. 

“See? You act this way, sighing like a teenager, and then wonder why I worry about your behaviour. When you grow up and consider the impact this attitude has on the reputation of this family, then—”

“Ivy’s gone to bed, has she?” I continue conversationally and force him to stop talking through my favourite tactic, pretending he is not there. Mom nods. “She was up early opening her presents.”

“Mad that even when there’s no Santa anymore, she’s still doing that.”

“Yes.” Her mouth twitches like she thinks she’s smiling. “Not as early as a couple of years ago.”

“Yeah, the four o’clock wake up call was not ideal. Did she like the polaroid camera?”

“She loved it. Already ran out of film taking pictures of a cat in the garden.”

“Classic.”

Silence. “How are your finances?” 

Irritation blooms in my chest. The urge to hang up the phone. “Fine, I think. I don’t know.”

“You’re being careful with your money?”

“Yes.”  

“Ivy would have been happy with something worth ten or fifteen euros. She doesn’t need expensive things from you. Just a token would do. One of those Pillow Pets.”

“It’s fine. I’ve enough.”

“Okay, because you know when it’s gone, it’s gone, Jude. We’ve agreed–”

“Yes!” I cry. “Yes, I know. It’s fine. I have money.”

“Okay. I hope you didn’t spend more than you needed, is all I’m saying. It’s natural to want to impress people with gifts, you know, especially when you have a girlfriend, but if she really cares for you, then she won’t expect–”

“I have to go. She’s calling me.”

Astrid looks up, frowning. 

“Oh,” says mom.

“Yeah, sorry, she needs me to do something. I have to go. Thanks for the iPhone, or whatever. I’ll thank you again when I get back to Berlin. Tell Ivy I was asking after her. Bye.” End Call button. They’re swallowed by the home screen. 

I fall sideways onto the bed while Astrid’s mouth curls up. “Your phone conversations with your family are quite stressful.”

“Mostly because they don’t know how to be normal.” I wriggle my head toward her lap. “What are we reading?”

“My new book.”

“From Mia? You haven’t sacrificed it?”

“She has good taste, unfortunately.”

“Hm.”

Her hand comes to my scalp, stroking it with her nails. I love that. Let my eyes close as tingles cascade down the back of my skull. “That is the first time I’ve heard your father’s voice.”

“Oh, yeah, he and I don’t really talk except on special occasions.”

“He sounds highly strung.”

“Hmph,” I chuckle. “Understatement. He thinks his life is on the precipice of catastrophe at every moment. He has the central nervous system of a man being hunted by a charging bear.”

“He doesn’t think very much of your manners, does he?”

“Doesn’t think much of me in general.”

“That’s a shame,” combing my fringe back from my forehead, looking at me with a gentle expression. “I think there’s a lot to love.”

A fluttery feeling in my stomach, like how I felt before we were together, when I’d still only touched her in my imagination. I want to trust her. Betrayed her earlier, with Mia in the study. Should have been loyal, knew she’d tell me about her past when she was ready. Times like this when her face is soft and open, I feel I could tell her anything in the world, but it’s only fear, I don’t know, habit, even, that prevents me. Always coming close to saying something about myself, but never doing it. Since when am I like this? This is who I am to people in Berlin. Was in Dublin, too, I suppose, but it’s worse now. I don’t want it to be worse.

“He basically told me I was shit my entire life,” I say. Oh God, a confession. Lingering there. Astrid's face doesn't change. No shock or disgust.

“As a child, too?” She says.

“Yeah, he… well, he didn’t really raise me. That was Maureen, in America. She did all the actual work. He’d visit some weekends at college and hang around the house acting completely bored, like, obviously, just waiting to leave again. All the pictures of us together, he’s not even smiling or anything. Kind of trying to, maybe, but his face always looked so strained. I dunno. I think it was that he just didn’t want a kid yet. He would have, later, but I tried to ruin his plans, being born and all. He had this rigid life plan. He’d go to college, become a dentist, have a lot of money in the bank, then he’d meet a woman, get married, and have a baby. It all happened upside down for him, and it freaked him out on a cellular level. If you knew him it’d make sense. He gets agitated when things aren’t done the right way.”

“Too bad your mother seduced him, then.”

I smirk. “That’s probably what he’d say, yeah. It was all her fault, or whatever.”

“She was just too sexy to resist.”

“Ugh, please.”

“She is beautiful, your mother. You can tell she was even better when she was young. Not that she is old, I suppose. No wrinkles that I have ever seen.”

“She’s thirty-nine, and she gets injections in her face.”

“So what?”

“Well, whatever. She ruined his plans then. We did, the two of us. I had the power to ruin his life from within the womb, which is pretty cool, actually. He was so mad at me, it was like he refused to form a bond out of stubbornness alone. He knew how to do all these things, like fish and sail and shoot, but never taught me how. Maureen was always on at him to take me on trips.”

“And he didn’t?”

“No, he did, like, about twice, but I always ended up doing something that annoyed him. Like being frightened by dead animals, which was obviously unforgivable. He was going on then all the time about how soft I was.”

“Being soft is okay.”

I glance up at her. “I’m not that soft.”

“If you say so.”

“Well, anyway, basically he just doesn’t respect me, and I don’t respect him, and we kind of barely tolerate each other and always have, and were forced to exist under the same roof for like, eight years after we moved to Ireland. He thinks I’m fundamentally stupid, and lazy, and lacking foresight and follow through, no backbone, weak, stupid, rude, a pathetic excuse…” I break off, sudden horrible sensation, like I might actually cry. Sad. It’s only Christopher, but being in Astrid’s lap while she touches my hair like this has me in a vulnerable condition. A six-foot-three baby, upset because his dad didn't pay him attention. 

“You’re not those things,” she murmurs. “He’s wrong.”

What I want to hear. She doesn’t do that a lot, reassure me. She assumes I don’t need it, and sometimes, it’s what I prefer. Getting to feel a bit invincible. Could be the influence of her environment that has her like this, surrounded by the memories, old photos, Nicklas’ mother, earlier, saying hello to her in the long grass like a ghost from simpler times. Whatever it is, I like it. I like her here. Even the ugly things.

“I like talking to you like this,” I murmur. “It’s nice.”

“Mm, yes.”

“We should feel okay doing it more, I think. You can tell me things if you want to. I’ll never judge you.”

“I have nothing to tell you. Nothing is important.”

“Okay.” Sleepier. The world taking on a dreamy, surreal feeling. “If you want, you could come to Ireland with me in March. See where I grew up.”

“Oh, you make Ireland sound so boring.”

“You said the same of Denmark, and here we are. I think it’s grand.”

“That is only your perception.”

“You really wouldn’t come? It will be even more boring without you.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Ivy will be so sad.”

“Ivy will survive.” Her hand moves to my face, skimming her nail gently down the bridge of my nose. Mystical finger shapes cross my vision. “Tell me what you will do there.”

“Play by play?”

“Mm.”

“I’ll meet Jen,” I say. “And maybe we’ll go to the pub. My friend Shane might join. Lives in Dublin now. They meet up sometimes. His girlfriend, too. She’s nice.”

“Mm.”

“And, I dunno. I suppose I might take Ivy to the cinema. Get her out of the house. Get pizza. She likes taking the train into the city together, looking out over the bay and all. Maybe we’ll–” a yawn escapes me, “maybe we’ll go up the coast. Cliff walks. Dead cold in March, mind, but so nice. Seagulls are villainous, there. Ravenous for chips, they rip them out of your hand.”

“Yes, mm,” she’s not really listening, but I don’t mind. Talking just to talk. It’s about being together more than anything. The importance of just touching, laying against the other, fingers intertwining lazily as white tufts appear, drifting outside the window. 

“Snow,” I say, interrupting my own monologue. “It’s snowing.”

Hardly looking up. “It won’t stay.”

“I’ve never seen snow on Christmas before.” Magical. 

“It’s just a little. Not proper snow.”

“A white Christmas.”

“No, another grey one.”

Suddenly, it’s all wonderful. Her, and me, and here. Love as a concept. And the snow coming down in little flurries, the quiet space between one year and the next, where time is slow and nothing is urgent. Not knowing if you’re supposed to wish on the first snow, but wishing anyway, for more of this, her, us, for a peaceful year. 

“Will you kiss me?” I whisper, so quietly she doesn’t hear me. 

“What?”

“Kiss me.”

She does. 

Beginning // Prev // Next

[inceptionbigbang]

The complete list of fics available for the Inception Big Bang 2019 is here!

Works are numbered, without the authors names to preserve the mystery. Artists, when you're ready to make your decision send us an email or a tumblr message with your top 3 choices. Fics will be claimed depending on availability, on a first come first served basis. 

On this round we will only assign one artist per fic. Artists that wish to claim a second fic, or that wish to work on a fic that has already been claimed should check out the second round, on July 2nd. All fics will be open for all.

Without further delay, here they are:

1. Arthur and Eames meet as trust fund teens in a Manhattan private school. Eames is a new student who's just moved from overseas, and him and Arthur hit it off immediately. Friendship turns to a whirlwind summer romance, until Eames is forced to move back to London. They meet again many years later when Arthur has to kidnap Eames for a job.

Arthur/Eames

Teen and Up

No content warnings apply

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2. A songfic featuring Aubrey by Bread, studying Arthur and Eames and what their relationship might have been like before the Fischer job. The characters aren't going to resemble fanon (Arthur's closed-off persona and Eames's flirtiness). I'm going to try to expand more on what Nolan gave us during the movie (Arthur's straightforwardness and Eames's aloof/cold personality). Basically, Eames is distant and Arthur chases.

Arthur/Eames

Side: Dom/Mal

Teen and Up - Mature

Graphic Depictions of Violence*

* There might be a torture scene, but I'm still debating on whether or not I want that in the story.

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3. A fic about arthur and eames and their first meeting in the military to all their other meetings in the criminal underworld of dreamshare. not that long, i'm aiming for 2.5k or maybe 3k if i can. i wanted to focus on their totems and how eames could use forging as a totem (because if he can't forge then he must be awake, right?) but he has a totem just in case. and arthur has a totem (the die from the movie) that he uses a lot more except when he happens to be taken and tortured for some secret or another and the only thing that convinces his brain that he isn't dreaming is the way eames stands when arthur aims a gun at him? if that makes sense....

here's a little bit of what i have written so far:

he’s more surprised at the lack of surprise he feels when eames digs a poker chip out of his desk. its blood red with gold and white accents, worth five thousand dollars at the particular casino it came from, disregarding the fact that it was arthur’s shitty first and last attempt at a real world forge after he participated in a poker game eames held on base many years ago and realized half the chips in the set were fake, pocketing a one thousand dollar chip to use as a reference.

“our totems match,” eames murmurs, flipping the chip over his knuckles with a concentration a bit too intense for something he could do in his sleep (ha).

“match how?” he asks, sipping a glass of orange juice, freshly squeezed because eames wanted to use the electric juicer. he's tempted to pull out his die from his pocket and roll to see it land on five, even though he knows this isn’t a dream.

“i have something that you made, and you have something i made. also, there’s some significance with the number five.”

Arthur/Eames

Side: Dom/Mal

Mature

Graphic Depictions of Violence*

*I put the Graphic Depictions of Violence just to be safe but i think it's less than what's shown in the film? because it's supposed to be like an after-torture scene where arthur is like "ouch i'm super hurt and drugged and don't know if i'm dreaming" but again i don't think it's any more graphic than the film at least. might keep that tag just to be safe though idk

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4. When dreamshare is first developed, no one has totems. They've always gone into dreams for short amounts of time and always with another person, so there's no chance of someone forgetting their reality. Mal's friend Pip has consistently been pushing the boundaries of dreaming, and one day she decides to go a later deeper without Mal. When Mal wakes up, she realizes that Pip is still asleep and she has to go down after her where she basically incepts Pip with the idea of totems.

Gen

General audiences

No content warnings apply

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5. There was a small lake behind Arthur's house. The following night, he sat at its edge and stared at the moon's reflection in the water.

See something you like?

Arthur turned. A man was sitting next to him.

"Hello," Arthur said. "Thank you for helping me get home last night."

The moon smiled. "How did you know it was me?"

Arthur rolled his eyes. He picked up a pebble and tossed it into the water, watching the waves ripple the reflection. "How can you be here and there at the same time?"

The moon leaned back on his elbows and stared up at the sky. "Same way I can be in the lake and the sky at the same time."

Arthur frowned. "That's not the same thing. The lake's just reflecting the light from the moon. From you."

The moon turned to smile brightly at him. "Well aren't you a smart one, hm?" He leaned in and whispered, "I'm a reflection, too. We all are, at the end of the day."

Arthur thought about that. It didn't make sense, but that didn't mean it was wrong. He looked up at the moon in the sky, then at the moon sitting next to him.

"My name's Arthur," he offered. "What's your name?"

The moon looked at him strangely. "Eames. You can call me Eames."

"I'm going to be an astronaut, Eames," Arthur said. "Then I can come and visit you in the sky."

Eames smiled again. Arthur wouldn't have thought the moon liked to smile. "I would like that very much," Eames said. "Very much, indeed."

Arthur/Eames

General – Teen and Up

No content Warnings Apply

This fic is a canon AU and will ultimately include the events in Inception.

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6. Eames on vacation after inception and stumbling upon Arthur; floppy haired, tanned and just completely the opposite of how Eames has ever seen him before.

Hawaii looked good on him, no better than good...

Arthur/Eames

Teen and Up – Mature

No content warnings apply

.

7. It’s a follow up story to Cat Person.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/11040948

First story summary:

Arthur misses his cat and would very much like to get another. He gets Eames instead.

Arthur/Eames

Teen and Up

No content warnings apply

Set in the Star Trek Universe

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8. This is an academia AU! Arthur is a struggling young professor trying to find his niche, Eames is the mysterious colleague he keeps (inadvisedly!) hooking up with at conferences.

Arthur/Eames

Mature

No content warnings apply

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9. When Eames first moved to America, he was at a loss for things to cook. He wasn’t used to the supermarkets and ingredients he needed were expensive. So he Googled food bloggers and found Arthur’s blog. The weekly updates keep Eames going in his boring office job. It takes him a few months before he gets the courage to comment but it’s all downhill from there. Eames is lost with Arthur’s sardonic commentary and when Arthur’s next recipe is one Eames requested, he knows he’s in bad.

Arthur/Eames

Teen and Up – Mature

No content warnings apply

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10. Arthur is a flight attendant. Eames is a passenger.

Arthur/Eames

Teen and Up – Mature

No content warnings apply

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11. Haunted House AU. Arthur’s working at a popular horror maze escape place to make some extra money over the summer. It’s far from his dream job—making minimum wage crouching behind dark trap doors and chasing random couples and tourists—but at least he gets to vent his frustrations about his coworkers (who are, frankly, driving him insane day by day) by literally screaming at customers. Then there’s Eames, who finds haunted houses boring, overrated, and not the least bit frightening, but is willing to humor a friend (Ariadne?) by accompanying her. But an encounter (and some painfully obvious flirting) with the cute guy under the ghoul mask is enough to make him want to come back again, and again, and again—

FEATURING:

- Cobb as the owner/boss and the only guy who actually takes his job seriously. He probably squints a lot because sunlight genuinely hurts his eyes lmao - Mal as his wife, who used to be an actress but left to start a business with Dom. Super sweet and kind of protective of their employees. Plays the main ghost. She’s terrifying. - Yusuf doing their costumes and makeup!!!!

- Arthur getting the job in the first place because his screams are so full of rage (let! him! rest!)

- Eames blowing all his cash on haunted house admission fees so he can flirt with Arthur (who plays different roles on different days, maybe? but Eames can always recognize him, even under the masks/makeup)

- he’s not trying to be creepy, he just wants to ask if he can see him outside of work/get his number—but something always goes wrong before he can

- Arthur being frustrated because Eames is a) distracting, and b) not easily scared, which doesn’t look good for his job. And it annoys him because he has a track record of being able to freak out anyone. He takes it upon himself to make him scream at least once (I haven’t decided how he does, but he does, eventually. Eames probably jokes about screaming with something other than fear, but i am too babey to write any sexytimes)

- maybe??? mild h/c?? Dumbass Drunk College Students coming in all wanting to prove to their friends that they're the Alpha Male, picking a fight and being super violent/rowdy/destructive, + arthur getting hurt/generally kind of shaken up; that’s the first night he lets eames really talk to him outside of the job, maybe even lets him take him home (i dont know if im including this scene for sure but..perhaps)

- Ariadne getting them banned from the haunted house after reflexively slapping Arthur in the face with a rubber snake (Cobb takes the ‘no touching the actors’ rule seriously—especially after what happened^). Eames thinks he’s lost his chance for good, but Arthur finds him outside and finally makes the first move :)

Arthur/Eames

General – Teen and Up

No content warnings apply

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12. Arthur is in love with Eames, and he's pretty sure Eames is at least interested in him back. Only problem? Arthur is ace, and not at all sure how Eames is going to react to that. But Arthur's going to talk to him about it, because the alternative is to lose even his friendship with the forger, and that's just not on.

Only the team is also determined to set the two of them up. Will that end up being a wrecking ball to Arthur's fragile attempts at making things work with Eames?

STORY OUTLINE:

Arthur is ace, and no one knows. When Eames invites Arthur to join him for Christmas, Arthur panics and says no - and spends the whole of Christmas regretting it. The team comes back from Christmas break, and everything is awkward. Arthur knows he has to say something or ruin his relationship with Eames forever, and he's going to do that at the New Year's party where Eames will hopefully be in a good enough

But unbeknownst to him, he's not the only one who's realized something needs to happen. Cobb, Ariadne and Yusuf agree that an intervention is in order. And when better to set their two friends up than at New Years? Get them kissing and surely the tension between them will resolve itself.

What could possibly go wrong?

At the New Year's party, Ariadne suggests playing a game of spin the bottle. Arthur is less than enthused, but Cobb and Yusuf both back up the idea. They play a few rounds before it lands on Eames, whom Ariadne dares to make out with Arthur.

There's an awkward beat before Eames moves to do it. Arthur reacts by freezing and shying away physically. Eames takes this a rejection and leaves the room. Arthur sits there, frozen, and then leaves too.

He goes to the bathroom and breaks down, blaming himself for being so stupid and backwards. Eames hears him, and comes in and comforts him. Once Eames realizes what the problem is - that Arthur is ace - he promises Arthur that it doesn't matter to him, he just wants to be close to him. Cue happy end credits.

Arthur/Eames

General

No content warnings apply

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13. Arthur learned a long time ago that he was special, and no else could see the strings.

Or, ‘everything is still the same, but Arthur can see Red Strings of Fate’ AU.

There are moments when Arthur thinks he needs to tell Eames about the strings. Owes him the truth, he thinks, Eames deserves to know. Other times – well.

Eames knows enough, and he has secrets of his own. Arthur is allowed this one.

Maybe someday it will come up on Sunday brunch, or something.

“Oh yeah, by the way, I can see red strings that I’m pretty sure are tied up to being literal soulmates and we have one. Get it? Tied up hehe. Anyway, no pressure or anything. Love the sex.”

Yeah, Arthur, that would go lovely.

Arthur/Eames

Teen and Up – Mature

No content warnings apply

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Ok folks, the next fics are or may eventually get explicit. Minors, we love you guys! Stay safe. Don’t claim them.

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14. Arthur has a goldfish which, long story short, he has convinced himself he only needs to keep alive to prove he is not a hot mess. Except now it’s not looking so good and has a weird sore on its side and he doesn’t know what to do but he can’t just let it DIE. So he takes it to the vet and is scoffed at and told it is a feeder goldfish, they cost less than a dollar, just get a new one.

Two vets later and he’s at the end of his rope when he meets Dr Eames, whose dog is introduced as his PA and goes on all his rounds with him. Dr Eames doesn’t even question it, just starts the exam and tells Arthur to pet the dog and start at the beginning while he works.

Arthur/Eames

Teen and Up – Mature - Explicit

No Content warnings apply*

* Discussions of parental death.

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15. Eames is working with Arthur the first time in a long while, only now it seems that he has a huge crush on Arthur. He doesn't know how else to get rid of the crush and he really can't concentrate on the job when he's thinking about Arthur all the time, so he asks Arthur to have sex with him, to get the crush out of his system. Arthur agrees surprisingly easily and sex is great, but afterwards Arthur doesn't seem happy and Eames' crush is worse than ever. The more Eames tries to get rid of his crush, the more it sticks, and the less Arthur is talking to him. After the job, Eames has some time to think and he realises that maybe neither of them really wanted for him to get over Arthur. He goes to see Arthur to talk to him about it, but they end up kissing and stuff as well.

Arthur/Eames

Mature – Explicit

No content warnings apply

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16. Summary: Eames hasn't seen Arthur in almost four years.

Pseudo- Winter Soldier AU.

--

There's no response from Arthur, no recognition in his eyes. No banter, no teasing – a coldness that would leave any lesser man with severe frostbite.

"... Arthur?" The words sound so raw, so gutted in Eames’ mouth. "Are you-" are you alive? Are you dead? Am I dreaming?

He reaches for his poker chip.

But before he can trace the ridges for the familiar grooves, a shot rings out loud like a crack of lightning.

And the last thing that Eames sees is Arthur and how he always remembers him: in his whip-black suit and a smoking gun in his hand.

Bang.

A single bullet tears through Eames' temples, and he is ripped open, pain lighting every nerve in his body like a pinball machine – and he prays to god that this is merely a dream so he can finally wake up.

Arthur/Eames

Mature – Explicit

No content warnings apply

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17. “Taxiing an injured delivery boy around the neighbourhood to help him complete his remaining orders had not been a contender on Eames’ list of potential scenarios for the night. Instead of the morose teenager bleeding onto the synthetic leather of the passenger seat, and the short stack of pizza boxes sliding to and fro across the backseat, the Brit had rather imagined his rental car would serve far more nefarious purposes tonight." -- Essentially, Pizza Delivery Porn Guy Crack A/E AU. Aim: comedic tone with bowchikkawowow.

*Arthur isn't the teenager. He is a customer who ordered pizza.

Arthur/Eames

Mature – Explicit

No content warnings apply*

*There is mention of a traffic accident - no detail, but it might not be someone's cup of tea. Also, not yet at the sexual scene so don't know whether I'll stop at M or go to E.

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18. In the court of the vampire supreme Saito, ambitious human noblemen Eames and Arthur battle for the coveted position of favorite bestower. Winner takes life everlasting.

Arthur/Saito

Side: Arthur/Eames

Arthur/Dom Cobb

Eames/Saito

Explicit

Graphic Depictions of Violence

Bloodplay, Extreme Sadomasochism. Possible Necrophilia

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19. Arthur is an undercover narcotics officer posing as a high school senior. Eames is his teacher, who is taken with Arthur and who feels terrible for lusting after a student. Arthur takes down the bad guys, saves Eames' life, then they smash (after Eames finds out he's a fully grown adult person).

Arthur/Eames

Explicit

No content warnings apply*

*Eames is (shamefully) interested in Arthur, who he thinks is 18 and also his student.

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20. Pre-movie: Dom and Mal are a dominant/dominant couple who want to find a sub they can play with together. Arthur is interested in trying to fill that role.

Arthur/Dom Cobb/Mal Cobb

Mature – Explicit

No content warnings apply*

*BDSM, bondage, dominance/submission, spanking/flogging, roleplay.

[elsaclack]

build a ladder to the stars and climb on every rung

the cece/schmidt pregnancy reveal on new girl still stands as one of my favorite pregnancy reveals of all time so naturally i’m borrowing it in order to jump onto the whole pregnancy reveal bandwagon rolling through ao3 right now lmao

either way this is @the-pontiac-bandit‘s fault

read it on ao3

In truth, when Jake made the decision to answer Charles’ incoming phone call an hour earlier, he hand’t really expected much. Maybe a live update of something cute Nikolaj was doing, maybe commentary on whatever inedible animal part he was forcing himself to eat at the time, maybe another Cats-related pun. He expected something ordinary.

(Ordinary by Charles standards, at least.)

Which is to say, he hadn’t expected his knees to go weak, or the blood to drain from his face, or an inescapable tidal wave of pure joy to flood each microscopic facet of his existence. He hadn’t expected the sky to open up, or the angels to sing, or for the whole entire world as he knows it to completely shift on its axis.

He hadn’t expected to find himself in the midst of his apartment-turned-veritable-flower shop because no single bouquet is adequate enough to express the sheer maelstrom of emotions quaking and seizing in his gut.

Amy’s on her way home now - that’s what her last text announced twenty minutes ago - and Jake’s breathless and antsy with the anticipation. The thick plastic wrapped around the two bouquets he’s holding feels stiff and crinkles loudly with each minute movement in the muscles of his hands, and his heart is beating so fast he’s starting to feel a bit faint, but he can’t quite hide the dumbfoundedness he knows is making his face go all dopey and soft. Even now, when it feels like he’s about to blast off through the ceiling right into the apartment above theirs.

How can he, knowing that nine months from this moment he’s going to be a papa?

He knows it’s exceedingly rare for anyone other than the mother to find out about the pregnancy first, but thanks to Gina’s nosiness and Genevieve’s general lack of comprehension when it comes to basic human boundaries, Amy’s weeks-old pregnancy is now common knowledge to everyone but Amy. It seems the entire precinct knows - both that Amy’s pregnant, and that she somehow doesn’t know about it yet.

She doesn’t know that she’s pregnant. That she’s going to have a baby. That right this second, her body is hard at work creating a whole new person. A person who he hopes will have her smarts, her determination and will to succeed, her soft and pretty hair and her megawatt smile -

There’s a key sliding into the lock on the front door.

Heart in his throat, fingers trembling where they curl around the flower stems, he bounces on the balls of his feet to burn through the sudden rush of adrenaline flooding his veins. It seems to take her an eternity to get the front door unlocked; he’s on the verge of screaming just to make room between his ribs for all the anticipation and excitement. He very nearly blurts it when he hears the door swing open, but he manages to keep his lips clamped shut before he ruins the surprise. “Hey, babe, I’m home,” she calls as she edges inside - her back to him. She hasn’t seen him or the flowers yet. She’s got a box in her hands and she’s hefting it toward a side table where their keybowl lives alongside a decorative candle, and she hasn’t seen him or the flowers yet. She gets the box hauled up to the table and makes a sound, like she’s winded, like she’s exerted a significant amount of effort in carrying that box all the way here from where she parked out on the street, and though there’s a warning light flashing like mad at the thought of his pregnant wife who is pregnant lifting heavy things, he can’t quite choke the words out. Because she still hasn’t seen him or the flowers yet and she still doesn’t know she’s pregnant.

She turns a split-second before he topples over the edge of losing his mind, and as a purely bewildered expression flickers to life in her eyes, he nearly buries his face in the flowers to muffle a high-pitched giggle.

“What’s, uh...” she trails, gaze darting over the forest of flowers covering nearly every square inch of elevated flat surfaces in their living room, before landing on his face, framed between the two unvased bouquets in danger of slipping from his numb fingers. The bewilderment is still very much present but it’s tinged now with amusement, and his heart is soaring because she’s his wife and he loves her more than anything and she knows he’s up to something but she has no idea, no idea that he’s about to change her entire life. “What’s happening?”

He knows his whole face is in danger of splitting clean in half from how broad and, frankly, painful his grin is, and when he tries to speak he has to really concentrate on forming words and not just throwing the flowers to the ground to sweep her up in a (gentle) bear hug right then and there. “I - I’m pregnant,” he hears himself say.

“What?” she laughs, bewilderment and amusement seeming to intensify, and she’s the most beautiful human being he’s ever seen in his life.

“I mean - you’re pregnant. We’re pregnant.”

Her face falls slack with shock - and something else he just doesn’t have the wherewithal to decipher in that moment - at once.

“Your doctor called you,” he explains as he lowers the flowers to the dining room table between them, watching emotions flash through her eyes faster than the speed of light, “and Gina picked up. And then she called again and Charles picked up, and Charles told me. There was a lot going on.” He steps closer, watching the way her eyes glass over and her entire torso begins to shake with the same tsunami of pure joy still thrumming in the space around his heart. “But - we’re having a baby, Ames.”

Her hands are shaking when they rise to cover the truly blinding grin that has begun to blossom across her face, and the tears are spilling freely down her cheeks, and she’s glowing. So he keeps his slow approach going steadily, and she turns with him as he moves around the table, neither of them able or willing to tear their respective gazes from the other’s face.

“I wanted to - to get you flowers,” he gestures to his left, her right, but her eyes don’t follow the move, “but I couldn’t just pick one. I mean - this is - and I’m so -”

She lowers her hands once he’s within arm’s reach, and he holds his breath. “We’re having a baby?” she breathes, like she can’t believe it, like he’s given her the whole world all at once in the palm of his hand.

(And in a way, he has, he supposes - at this point in development he’s pretty sure their child could easily fit in the palm of Amy’s hand.)

“We’re having a baby,” he confirms softly, and her tears are renewed. She reaches for his hands and he goes to her willingly, letting her pull him in until their foreheads are touching and their huffing breaths made uneven with joyful laughter mingle in the space between their chests. He pulls one hand from her grasp to anchor the back of her neck when he briefly tilts his head up to kiss her forehead, but otherwise remains still with her, content to live in this bubble for as long as the world around them will allow.

“I can’t believe it’s really happening,” she whispers, and oh, oh, his heart is flipping inside his chest. Just a few short years ago he lived every day of his life longing, aching for the woman who worked just a few feet away, and now she’s a sergeant and his wife and the future mother of his child -

“I know,” he all but chokes, the emotions rising to new and impossible heights inside his chest to constrict his throat.

She pulls away first and when his eyes flutter open, she’s looking up at him, ablaze with wonder, with jubilation, with unheeded and untethered love leveled directly at him. “We’re having a baby,” she murmurs, and he’s crying again, the way he did on the manic drive from the precinct to the florist upon hanging up with Charles. There are a thousand things he wants to do - not the least of which is to literally jump up and down and squeal - but right now, in this moment, it feels like the most natural thing in the world to lean forward and kiss her.

It’s delicate and chaste, but he feels it all the way down in his toes. Frenetic energy still prickles beneath his skin but he reaches up to cup her face gently, smoothly, thumbs brushing over the wetness on her cheeks before he slowly pulls away.

“I love you so much,” Amy whispers, her breath on his lips, and with his eyes still closed it’s so easy to travel back to their wedding a year earlier when this exact moment first happened beneath the arch. She’d whispered the same thing then, for only him to hear over the sounds of celebration from their audience; his heart did the same triple backflip then as it does here and now.

“I love you so much, too,” he murmurs back, before melting into her once again.

She pulls away abruptly just a short moment later, and a new kind of fire is burning in her eyes. “We have so much planning to do!”

(The Baby Binder winds up being even thicker and more intimidating than the Wedding Binder; years later, it winds up being their daughter’s favorite bedtime story on the shelf.)