"No, I don't think I did," Arthur says. He leans forward with his forearm on the table and holds up his hand as he tries to conceptualize this. He already looks like he's gonna be angry about whatever happens next and he is most definitely not doing his best not to be upset.
"You're gonna have to be a little more convincing than that."
"And how do you propose I do that?" Eames asks, and one could argue he has no right to be annoyed right now, but he is. Just barely resisting the urge to roll his eyes at Arthur's reticence to believe him too.
But he's not after a fight about this — not in public anyway — and he glances past Arthur to the door for a quick moment, as if contemplating an exit strategy.
"Do you want me to leave?" He offers, wondering if he should just leave Arthur to deal with this on his own.
"No," he says, like she's being ridiculous. She-- he-- fuck, whatever. He drags a hand down his face and sits back, finally looking up at her with his mouth set into a hard frown.
"I just don't know that you're not messing with me right now."
Eames sighs, patience quickly waning, and he looks at the door again. He's quickly realising he doesn't actually care much whether Arthur believes him or not, but one might as well try.
Now Arthur's annoyed, but justifiably so. He can see Kathryn's eyes darting to the door, and he takes a deep breath to try and calm himself because he doesn't really want her to leave. Even if she does turn out to be Eames he has so many questions.
"You can't come up with one thing that only you and I - Eames and I would have talked about?"
He realizes that Eames could have given her something to say, but something about her body language and impatience now makes him feel like she's telling the truth.
"Sure, and I could tell you how you like to get fucked while I'm at it, but that doesn't actually prove anything."
Eames sighs and frowns, nursing his drink while he thinks about how to move forward in this ridiculous situation. There's not really much he can do if Arthur's this settled on not believing him though, and Eames leans back with a sigh.
Arthur lets out a long sigh as he leans forward and puts his face in his hands, feeling a fun mixture of embarrassment and frustration about this whole thing. He does believe it, it's just that he didn't want it to be true, but it's too ridiculous not to be. It's too convenient.
Once he's regained some ability to do anything other than hide his face in shame, he looks up at Eames, bewildered and upset. His voice is still low enough that no one's going to hear him, but anyone watching them must be terribly confused and curious. "Why did you let me talk to you like that? Why did you agree to come here? What was the point? You weren't actually going to..."
He gestures between them, and now he's actually thinking about what that would have been like if Eames had just gone through with wherever this night was headed and never told him. Arthur has to concede that that would be much worse, but he's not going to give Eames credit for that while the rest of this is so fucked up.
Arthur narrows his eyes at him and tilts his head like he's barely containing some pretty impressive anger. He can't believe that Eames is so flippant about this like he doesn't get how fucked up it is. Maybe after a few centuries it doesn't seem fucked up. But it still is.
Eames shakes his head, feeling a little like he's trying to explain a complex subject to someone who fundamentally doesn't have the tools to understand.
"So you can't see the allure of speaking to someone in an entirely different context to what you're used to?" He asks, eyebrows raised expectantly. Why wouldn't he take an opportunity like that after it so helpfully presented itself?
Arthur has to take a deep breath and he shakes his head. That clearly was not a good enough answer, but he's still trying not to lose his mind completely. "Yes, I do," he says, hissing in frustration, "but I wouldn't actually do it because I don't take joy in fucking with people."
He shakes his head again and leans back, crossing his arms as he digresses, realizing who he's talking to. It's hard to remember and almost harder to stay mad when he's looking at Kathryn, but in his mind's eye he's picturing Eames' smug face, and that keeps the anger rolling along just fine. After a moment and with a much calmer voice (though still clearly unhappy), he says, "so why tell me at all?"
Wow, okay. No. If Eames looks offended, it's because he absolutely is, and he exhales heavily through his nose before he speaks. It's not untrue that he enjoys messing with people, but he's affronted by the idea that that's all there is to it. As if he leads such a dismal life that this is the only way to get his jollies.
"You might not approve, Arthur, but it's my job to know people. I didn't expect you to be there, but it's hardly as if I was about to ignore the opportunity."
Kathryn's voice doesn't quite carry the same bite that Eames' own does, but he's not thinking about that so much right now. He reclines against the back of his chair with a frustrated sigh and shakes his head. Half contemplating just leaving, but he might as well address the actual question he was asked, which he does with a dismissive gesture and a significantly less impassioned edge to his voice. "I told you because you're smart enough to figure it out on your own, and I'd rather do this now than three months down the road when you have all the necessary information."
Arthur works his jaw for a moment before he responds. This could turn into an even bigger fight than it already is and he doesn't want to do that in public, so he's trying to collect himself and make sure what he says doesn't set Eames off.
"Okay, first of all," he starts, holding out his hand like he's trying to brace Eames for what he's about to say, "I don't think it's really fair for you to be upset with me right now. Second..." he swallows because his pride is about to take a significant blow, "I am glad you told me rather than stringing me along."
God, that was difficult. Now that that trial is over, he sighs and looks away from Eames. "Although I am now questioning the strength of the enchantment on this watch you gave me." He gestures with the arm he's wearing the watch on. "I really thought I was getting lucky tonight."
Eames really had some choice words about whether or not he gets to be angry, (the answer is that he does when somebody makes him sound like a sociopath who gets off on embarrassing people, if anyone's curious,) but then Arthur makes the joke about the watch and it completely stops him dead in his tracks. He pauses, and then laughs a little incredulously because it's the only way for him to process the change in tone.
"Well, the opportunity was there," Eames says with a shrug, "you're the one who took it off the table."
Arthur rolls his eyes and gives Eames the longest-suffering look he can manage. "At what point between you flirting with me, agreeing to come here, and then telling me who you actually are was I the one who took sex off the table?"
Yet another sigh. Arthur's slumped kind of like being mad made him tired. "Did you really think I'd just be immediately back on board once you told me?" he asks. He holds up his hand after a beat to indicate that he has a follow-up question: "Also, are you saying it's still on the table for you?"
Eames just gives Arthur a Look as if to say 'have you met me?' It's not like he's going to have any stronger feelings about not getting any than mild disappointment, but it's also still almost always on the table for him.
Arthur sighs and looks down at his drink. On one hand, Kathryn is beautiful and he already knows Eames is good in the sack, plus Arthur's interested to see just how Eames handles having what he assumes is at least mostly a different setup. On the other hand, this is fucking weird. But it's not like he's never done anything weird, just never this particular weird thing. Probably. Guess he doesn't know that for sure.
God, that's a rabbit hole he really doesn't want to go down. Instead of thinking about that any more he takes a long swig of his drink and then puts the beer down on the table in front of him. "Well," he says, "let's get out of here, at least."
Eames raises an eyebrow at that, but he doesn't object, he just finishes his wine before putting the glass down and gives Arthur a curious look. Obviously on board, but there are still some questions worth asking.
"You want to get out of here with Kathryn, or...?"
It probably says a lot about him that 'do you want me to get back into character?' doesn't strike him as the least bit strange to ask.
It takes Arthur a second to figure out what Eames means, as his first thought is that Eames is going to shift back to himself if Arthur says no. But once he thinks about it for a moment he shrugs. Forgive him if he's not 100% committed to the role playing thing just yet.
"I'm leaving here with you," he says, "but you can act like whoever you want."
"Fair enough," it's not like this is his thing, but if Arthur's thinking about it, he doesn't want the cognitive dissonance to be too much for him to get into it. Nobody's gonna enjoy that.
They can cross that bridge when they come to it. For now, Eames stands and smooths down his shirt with a sigh, "well then. Shall we?"
He takes another long drink, as much as he can get to make this beer somewhat worth the money. Once he finishes that, he puts the beer back down on the table and stands up as well. He gives Eames a bit of a wry smile and gestures to the door.
After him indeed, and the corner of Eames' mouth twitches in a small smile of his own before he heads out ahead of Arthur. He lets out a bit of a pleased sigh at the cool breeze outside and sticks his hands in his pockets while he waits for Arthur to join him.
Arthur comes out after Eames and straightens up before he turns down the street toward his apartment. They're fairly close by, because he had been considering the possibility of Kathryn coming back with him. He doesn't try to make conversation, although he does want to ask how the election day went for him, because that would probably be too weird. He doesn't want to talk politics with Eames when he looks like this. At this point he feels like there's only one reason Eames hasn't shifted back, even though he doesn't want to presume, and he'd really like to just get home and get to that.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
falsify) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
undergrounds2016-04-24 09:46 pm
no subject
"You're gonna have to be a little more convincing than that."
no subject
But he's not after a fight about this — not in public anyway — and he glances past Arthur to the door for a quick moment, as if contemplating an exit strategy.
"Do you want me to leave?" He offers, wondering if he should just leave Arthur to deal with this on his own.
no subject
"I just don't know that you're not messing with me right now."
no subject
Eames sighs, patience quickly waning, and he looks at the door again. He's quickly realising he doesn't actually care much whether Arthur believes him or not, but one might as well try.
"What's it going to take?"
no subject
"You can't come up with one thing that only you and I - Eames and I would have talked about?"
He realizes that Eames could have given her something to say, but something about her body language and impatience now makes him feel like she's telling the truth.
no subject
Eames sighs and frowns, nursing his drink while he thinks about how to move forward in this ridiculous situation. There's not really much he can do if Arthur's this settled on not believing him though, and Eames leans back with a sigh.
no subject
Once he's regained some ability to do anything other than hide his face in shame, he looks up at Eames, bewildered and upset. His voice is still low enough that no one's going to hear him, but anyone watching them must be terribly confused and curious. "Why did you let me talk to you like that? Why did you agree to come here? What was the point? You weren't actually going to..."
He gestures between them, and now he's actually thinking about what that would have been like if Eames had just gone through with wherever this night was headed and never told him. Arthur has to concede that that would be much worse, but he's not going to give Eames credit for that while the rest of this is so fucked up.
no subject
Still would, honestly, but he's not so blind as to be totally unaware of why Arthur mught prefer not to hear that right now.
no subject
"What was the plan?"
This better be good.
no subject
"So you can't see the allure of speaking to someone in an entirely different context to what you're used to?" He asks, eyebrows raised expectantly. Why wouldn't he take an opportunity like that after it so helpfully presented itself?
no subject
He shakes his head again and leans back, crossing his arms as he digresses, realizing who he's talking to. It's hard to remember and almost harder to stay mad when he's looking at Kathryn, but in his mind's eye he's picturing Eames' smug face, and that keeps the anger rolling along just fine. After a moment and with a much calmer voice (though still clearly unhappy), he says, "so why tell me at all?"
no subject
"You might not approve, Arthur, but it's my job to know people. I didn't expect you to be there, but it's hardly as if I was about to ignore the opportunity."
Kathryn's voice doesn't quite carry the same bite that Eames' own does, but he's not thinking about that so much right now. He reclines against the back of his chair with a frustrated sigh and shakes his head. Half contemplating just leaving, but he might as well address the actual question he was asked, which he does with a dismissive gesture and a significantly less impassioned edge to his voice. "I told you because you're smart enough to figure it out on your own, and I'd rather do this now than three months down the road when you have all the necessary information."
no subject
"Okay, first of all," he starts, holding out his hand like he's trying to brace Eames for what he's about to say, "I don't think it's really fair for you to be upset with me right now. Second..." he swallows because his pride is about to take a significant blow, "I am glad you told me rather than stringing me along."
God, that was difficult. Now that that trial is over, he sighs and looks away from Eames. "Although I am now questioning the strength of the enchantment on this watch you gave me." He gestures with the arm he's wearing the watch on. "I really thought I was getting lucky tonight."
no subject
"Well, the opportunity was there," Eames says with a shrug, "you're the one who took it off the table."
no subject
no subject
Not that he doesn't understand why Arthur got upset, but the point stands that it was him who called it off.
no subject
no subject
no subject
God, that's a rabbit hole he really doesn't want to go down. Instead of thinking about that any more he takes a long swig of his drink and then puts the beer down on the table in front of him. "Well," he says, "let's get out of here, at least."
no subject
"You want to get out of here with Kathryn, or...?"
It probably says a lot about him that 'do you want me to get back into character?' doesn't strike him as the least bit strange to ask.
no subject
"I'm leaving here with you," he says, "but you can act like whoever you want."
no subject
They can cross that bridge when they come to it. For now, Eames stands and smooths down his shirt with a sigh, "well then. Shall we?"
no subject
"After you."
no subject
no subject
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)