Arthur, for all he was trying to seem perfectly calm, was jittery. Eames could tell because instead of leaning back in the first-class seat and letting the feeling of accomplishment at having done the impossible wash over him, he was leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, his eyes flicking over to teammates every few seconds and then looking at the carpet between his feet while he tried to suppress a smile.
Eames on the other hand was just about ready to fall back asleep. He couldn’t since his body had just slept for hours, but his mind was exhausted and he wanted to fall into a blank dreamless sleep for the next year or so.
He couldn’t shake the shadow of exhaustion as he filed through customs and pretended not to watch Cobb walk out a free man. There was a slight warm glow in his chest at remembering that his goddaughter would now have her father back, even if her father was an arse. He grabbed Arthur’s luggage off the carousel and strolled out to get a taxi to the storage locker where he’d stashed his car the last time he’d been in LA.
Eames had been daydreaming about this for a long time, his first vacation with his husband in nearly three years. Eames was to retrieve the car and then meet Arthur at the grocery store where he would have picked out an ungodly amount of snack foods for the drive north.
And right on time, two hours after the flight landed he rolled up in front of Ralph’s, rolled down the window, and said with as lecherous a smile as he could manage “Can I give you a ride?”
Arthur rolled his eyes but he was smiling wide and a little giddy. He hadn’t come down from the high of success yet, then. “Out. You’re riding shotgun,” he said, opening the back door and tossing in the bag of groceries.
“I am?” Eames asked, laughing as he got out of the car.
“Yes,” Arthur said once they had settled again. Eames stretched his legs out in front of him and reached back for the bag to see what goodies Arthur had snagged. “You’re exhausted and I don’t really want to be driven into the Pacific Ocean.”
“Are we taking Highway One? Last I checked the Five is nowhere near the ocean,” Eames said with a grin feeling himself start to unwind already. God, he’d missed Arthur. Even while they were in Paris together Arthur hadn’t really been present. He’d been too busy dealing with Cobb, training Ariadne, and trying to do his actual job which was no easy feat on a billionaire. A lot could be buried under a pile of money as big as Fischer’s.
“We can if you want. Ocean won’t be on your side and it’ll add a few hours to the trip but there’s plenty of snacks and we are on no one’s schedule but our own,” Arthur said as he pulled out onto the street.
“As romantic as watching the sunset over the ocean on the hood of the car sounds, the sooner I get you into a bed the happier a man I will be,” Eames said, leaning over and kissing Arthur’s cheek.
Arthur laughed loudly. “Fine, straight up the five with as much speeding as we can get away with it is. Now hand me a Twizzler.”
They’d been at the cabin for two weeks and all Eames had done was alternate between lazing in the river, and lazing on the warm rocks next to the river. Arthur had been cooking and baking up a storm the way he always did when he got off of a long job so there was plenty of good food to gorge himself on. They’d stocked up on any type of drinks either of them could possibly want during their drive into town so every hankering Eames had was fulfilled from fine wine to Four Loko. In short, it was heaven and Eames planned to never leave.
Life on the wrong side of the law wasn’t easy, though he assumed no life was easy so usually he didn’t let it bother him too much. But the past few years, as he’d watched the man he loved tear across the world trying to hold a man’s mind together while hunting for a way home for the maniac it’d started to wear on him. The constant looking over his shoulder, holding his breath when Arthur was even a minute late for a scheduled video call, and only being able to help his husband with forged papers mailed through three different companies before it’ll get to him.
Eames was tired of it, down to his bones in a way he thought he never would be.
The alarm went off on Arthur’s watch and he got off of the rock next to Eames, kissing him slowly. “The dough needs me.”
“I don’t think it does,” Eames said, pulling Arthur back into another long, lingering kiss.
“Do you want cinnamon rolls or not?” Arthur asked though he was only putting up a token fight to get up.
“Considering we still have chocolate cake I think I will survive without it.”
“And you’ll survive two minutes without me,” Arthur said, finally slipping out of Eames’s grasp.
“There’s no way to know that for certain, darling,” Eames called after him as he went up to the cabin.
It was a beautiful day, the clouds white and fluffy between the evergreen trees around him, the sun beating down on him. There was a light breeze rustling through the trees and birds chirping loudly overhead. With no one to bother them with a twenty-minute drive to the nearest neighbor, an hour to the nearest town.
Arthur reappeared, sitting on the towel next to Eames and holding out a cup of ice tea. “There’s a reason you’re my favorite husband, darling,” Eames said, sitting up and taking the tea. It was sweet and lemony and just the way he liked it.
“I better be your only husband, asshole,” Arthur said, running his shoulder into Eames’s.
Eames wrapped an arm around Arthur's shoulders and pulled him close, kissing him again. “Oh, I don’t know how I feel about this newfound possessive streak.”
“I’m not the one who shot a man because he hit on you,” Arthur shot back, stealing the ice tea and taking a sip.
“I shot him because he double-crossed us,” Eames reminded Arthur.
“It didn’t help his case that he hit on me, though did it?” Arthur asked, his eyes shining bright with laughter.
Eames hummed. “It may have been why I shot the second knee.”
Arthur laughed, leaning into Eames further, resting his head against his shoulder. They were quiet for a long time, just sitting in the sun, cuddled up, listening to the river run and birds chirp. Heaven.
“I wish we could stay here forever,” Arthur whispered after what felt like hours. It couldn’t have been since there was another timer for the cinnamon rolls but when Eames looked at Arthur he looked like he was just as lost in time as Eames was.
“Why can’t we?” Eames asked, kissing Arthur again just because he could.
Arthur laughed. “Yeah, sure. You stay in one place for more than a few weeks? There’s a reason we’re more accustomed to hotel rooms than our own.”
Something deep in Eames ached because that had been true, but it wasn’t true anymore. Or at least not right now. Maybe when he was less exhausted with the business he’d want to take off again, go gallivanting with Arthur to steal people’s most precious items. But right that moment if Arthur asked him to stay forever he would. “All you have to do to keep me in one place is be there,” Eames whispered, trying to get their soft moment back again.
Arthur smiled at him softly. “Well then for now we’ll stay.”
“And when we leave we’ll leave together?” Eames asked.
“Together.”