undergrounds | [Meatball Parade on loop for 10 hours]

Arthur sighs and glances in Eames' direction, then back at the door of the building they're watching. It's been a pretty standard day - some useful addresses and notes for further investigation if need be, but nothing particularly interesting or out of the ordinary.

"Probably won't get much more from her tonight," he tells Eames, though he shows no signs of wanting to leave otherwise.

"In hindsight, the fourteenth was probably a bad day to choose."

Even if they were up to any shady dealings, people often enough take breaks for dates and such. Either way, Eames stretches out in the seat and lets out a long, heavy breath. "She's from Manchester, right? Maybe I'll head up that way."

"That's probably the next best place to look," Arthur says, shifting in his seat a little and looking down at his notebook.

"I forgot most people actually take this holiday seriously."

"You don't?" Eames asks, a little teasing. Arthur's never seemed the type for calendar-mandated holidays, but still. "I half wondered if you don't just love your work."

Arthur knows why people keep making jokes like that but he doesn't like it. He rolls his eyes, leaning on the car door with his elbow and propping up his head with his hand.

"It's just an excuse to have an expensive date. Doesn't seem worth it."

"Maybe if you're the one paying," Eames glances at Arthur and then back out the window, still hoping this excursion might yield something useful. And anyway, who doesn't love getting a fancy and expensive meal on someone else's dime? It's great.

"The point is to be romantic, not opportunistic," Arthur responds dryly, shooting Eames a sidelong glance. "But even that's a sham because everyone drives up the prices on everything even remotely considered romantic."

Eames huffs a small laugh, still looking out the window, "maybe I find it romantic when people spend lots of money on me."

Arthur allows a moment of silence to fall between them, trying to decide how to respond. He finally settles on, "I didn't think you care much about romance."

That gets a thoughtful noise and Eames is otherwise quiet while he tries to decide how to reply.

"I don't go looking for it, true," he answers eventually, almost dismissive, "but it has its place."

"So you haven't just had a revolving door of partners your whole life?" Arthur asks, like he's trying to make a joke. It's not a very nice joke, probably.

Wow, that. Eames stops for a moment, unsure of whether Arthur means that as an insult or a genuine inquiry. He turns his head to look at Arthur to try and judge by the look on his face before he decides he doesn't actually care.

"If you're asking if I've ever settled into a relationship, the answer is yes. More than once, in fact." It's not exactly a secret, so he doesn't feel any particular way about telling Arthur, turning back to the window with a shrug, "that doesn't always stop the revolving door, you understand."

Arthur feels a little bashful at Eames' answer, still having a hard time picturing Eames in a committed relationship. He has a hard time picturing someone who can match Eames for any length of time, and if he's honest this isn't the first time he's thought about it. Something about Eames makes him curious about the rest of Eames' life, but he doesn't want to ask too much in case Eames starts to get ideas about his intentions. Arthur has no intentions.

"I didn't mean to..." he says, gesturing vaguely as he trails off.

Eames waves a hand dismissively; mortals get curious, he understands that. And part of why he keeps working with Arthur is the man's inquisitive nature, plus he's far from the first person to ask these questions. He's really not about to read anything into it.

"It's fine," he says, "I'm not exactly the picture of commitment, I get it."

Arthur sighs and rubs his temple impatiently. Maybe this day has tired him out a little bit.

"I don't even know what commitment is supposed to look like," he says, almost like he's annoyed.

"In my opinion? It's vastly overrated."

There you go, hot life facts from Eames. Commitment is dumb, just fuck everyone.

"People make a pretty big deal about it," Arthur says. It's one of those things that he's vaguely interested in but can't imagine doing with anyone who isn't perfect. The long-term kind at least - he's had a couple short-term commitments that weren't too bad, but he can only imagine how sour they would have gone if it had been dragged out much longer.

"People--" he starts, with the kind of emphasis that clearly means 'humans', "make a big deal out of a lot of things."

Arthur cracks a smile and lets out a soft laugh, because he knows it's true.

"So, what," he says, "you don't plan on doing that ever again?"

"Well, I never exactly planned on it before." Eames says with a soft smirk, a little more honest than he typically is.

Arthur nods thoughtfully, still looking at the door. The witch hasn't made them so it's not like she'll be using any tricks to leave, and if they don't see her walking out the headlights will certainly catch their attention, so he's not too worried.

"How long did you stay with them, usually?" he asks, a little softer than before.

Oh. Considering what Arthur's asked so far, he should've seen this question coming, but he didn't and he bows his head for a long moment. Looking at his hands as he thinks about the answer to that question, and it's the closest he's gotten to uncomfortable so far.

He clears his throat, shaking his head and trying to play it off as just... It's a lot of memories to go through.

"Depends on the person," Eames says, a brief frown on his face as he looks back up and out the window, "they typically fizzle out after ten, fifteen years."

Arthur can sense that he may have struck a chord here, though he's not sure what or how strong it was. He's not going to pursue the meatier content here anyway; that's not the type of discussion they need to be having if they're going to be stuck together for another couple hours.

"It must be weird, being with a human. Fifteen years is a long time for us."

Sure, Arthur. Let's change tack from 'this is uncomfortably personal' to 'there's a really difficult topic just a hair away from this.' That sounds great.

Eames hesitates for a while on the question, sighing through his nose before he finally settles on, "I try not to think about it," as an answer. Adding a touch of wryness as he looks back to Arthur and raises an eyebrow, "you wouldn't want someone thinking about how short your life is the whole time you're together, would you?"

Arthur frowns in thought and then looks outside as he considers the question. It takes him a moment to come up with something to say in response.

"I don't know," he says, "I guess I was thinking you'd have to keep it in mind to stop from getting complacent, but humans get complacent with each other more often than not. If you understand the value of the time you then you'll take advantage of it regardless of who's going to live for however long."

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