They've made a habit of this: the late night knock, the doorbell lean, the quickly picked lock. Turning up in one another's spaces unannounced, though not unwelcome. The promise of sanctuary has been there as long as they've known each other, which is longer than most people realize and much longer than they'll admit to.

In which Arthur and Eames have always relied on each other to keep one important secret.

Eames is very good at pretending.

Eames asks Arthur to leave retirement post-film to fight a human trafficking ring. In the aftermath of their op, they get engaged and go on the talk-show circuit as a cover (as Arthur says: "You know what'll happen if we popped up in the media married. This is a big story right now in the States, you know that. We'd be untouchable by a gang of Ukrainian sex traffickers with CNN is sitting on the lawn.") and actually fall in love in the process, meanwhile avoiding assassins.

Dreaming, driving, dying; this is a story about how things don't change.

"Are we still at the airport?"

Or the one that asks, do they really exist?

Arthur is a sub. He's in a shitty relationship or arrangement, scratching the itch without really getting what he needs/wants. Maybe the dom doesn't respect him, leaves or makes Arthur leave right after a scene, zero aftercare, clumsily trying to assert his dominance through brute force or violence alone--whatever it is, just generally showing a total lack of understanding of what a healthy, caring and mutually beneficial D/s relationship can and should be.

Arthur is unhappy with the situation, but he's resigned to it. Maybe he's never been in a healthy arrangement, maybe he's ashamed of his need to be dominated and thinks that this is his only option, or maybe he's just settling because he thinks this is the best he's going to get given the life he leads.

Eames figures out what's going on. It's frustrating--no, insulting--to think that someone like Arthur is signing himself over to this fucking amateur. He knows he can do better, and he sets out to prove that he can give Arthur what

Dreamshare goes legal, Arthur goes corporate, Eames goes and (against his better judgement) falls in love.

Arthur can’t seem to make his schedule match up with Eames’, but that’s cool. It’s not like he misses him or anything

Eames watches Arthur get off while they're on different jobs. A story of Skype flirting and self-abuse.

he next time Cobb needs some spare time he employs a babysitter to babysit the babysitter babysitting the babysitter.

Basically the one where there is a lot of babysitting.

Nobody ever goes sightseeing on a honeymoon. Or Arthur and Eames are on the run and pretending to be married. Includes explosions, BAMF-y-ness and snarky Arthur.

On the day after he achieves inception, Arthur wakes up in his bedroom with a pounding hangover and his ex-boyfriend snoring into his ear.