emmajane14 | fic: we gotta keep on running till we see the sun (2/3)

Title: we gotta keep on running till we see the sun (2/3)

Rating: PG-13 (this chapter)

Fandom/Pairing: Inception & This Means War crossover, Tuck/Arthur

Summary: The first time Joe and Arthur meet is decidedly not a good day.

A/N: What was supposed to be two part long has now turned into what will be three parts long. *shakes head* I don’t know what’s wrong with me. It’s not like I have hours of free time in which to write…

The first time Joe and Arthur meet is decidedly not a good day. For anyone. Except maybe Joe.

Arthur has been in meetings all day with bosses and the boss’s bosses and so on and so forth. It’s getting a little ridiculous at this point. FDR and Eames have been grounded again after managing to get their hands on an actual cruise ship and then promptly sinking it. They’ve been in the office all week so Arthur has tried to come into the office as few times as possible. These meetings haven’t exactly helped his cause.

Arthur steps out of the elevator with every intention of getting dinner at the nearest place he can find and then getting drunk on his couch until he passes out.

Instead he gets tackled. By a small flying blonde object.

“What the hell?”

After a second he realizes that the flying object was a small child. A shy little boy at that. And then Eames comes running up and scoops the boy up.

“Joe, you really gotta be careful. If you keep running around like that you’re gonna take someone down.” The boy laughs a little at this and Eames puts him back down.

Joe. Joe is Eames’ kid.

Sure Arthur had known that Eames has a kid. He knows Eames’ personnel file by heart but it’s whole different thing to see it in person. To see Eames, with his muscles and his tattoos and that mouth. To see that Eames with his son. With this little blonde boy.

Does not compute.

Joe looks up at Arthur with a small smile, “Do you know karate too?”

Arthur is a little too confused to answer but luckily, Eames jumps in quickly and suggests that Joe help FDR turn his paperwork into paper airplanes. Joe goes eagerly.

Eames looks a little bashful and Arthur thinks it’s gorgeous.

“Sorry about Joe, mate. Katie had an emergency meeting at work so she couldn’t pick him up. I didn’t really have many options.”

Arthur waves his hand and mumbles nonsensically. There’s a slightly awkward silence for a few moments before Arthur remembers how to form coherent thoughts.

“How old is he?”

“He just turned seven.” Eames smiles, and it’s clear that he really loves his kid.

This is not helping Arthur distance himself. At all.

---

Arthur confuses the hell out of Tuck.

Arthur is gorgeous, and smart and every now and then, it seems like he can actually tolerate Tuck as a human being. It’s not that he’s not a nice bloke, it’s just that, well, ‘stand-offish’ doesn’t even begin to describe him.

But every now and then, he’ll do these things that just seem so different from everything else. He’ll make eye contact with Tuck, or he’ll drastically invade his personal space. Not that Tuck is complaining. Arthur can invade his personal space any day as far as Tuck is concerned. But then Arthur will go back to being all business.

It makes Tuck wonder if Arthur even understands the meaning of relaxing.

---

The first time Tuck sees Arthur outside of the office, it’s when FDR insists that they all go to dinner to celebrate a recent success. FDR claps a hand down on Arthur’s shoulder and he doesn’t have a chance of escape.

They go out with the team and there’s about twelve of them total. They squeeze into a booth and when Arthur ends up with his thigh flush against Tuck’s, Tuck really can’t complain.

All in all, the nights ends up a success. When all the men have had a couple beers and even more wings in them, everyone starts to loosen up a bit.

There’s obnoxious laughing and pissing contests over guns, and Tuck can’t believe that they’ve never done this before.

Apparently, Arthur can socialize better than anyone could’ve expected. For all of his mysteriousness and evasion, he’s actually pretty normal. As CIA point men go anyway. He tells everyone small stories about his past and when he says that he thinks Tuck’s accent is absolutely ridiculous, he receives lots of loud agreements.

Now Tuck understand why FDR says he falls in love with every beautiful person he meets. When he finds out that Arthur was in the Air Force, is originally from South Dakota and is older than he looks, things get a little more complicated. Arthur flirts a little with everyone at the table and it’s like he suddenly went from being a gorgeous two-dimensional painting to an actual person. It’s not good.

Tuck’s learning about Arthur. And it’s a problem. Now that Tuck knows things about Arthur, he wants to know more. He wants to know what Arthur would look like pressed up against his shower wall, or if he can make waffles the way Joe likes. He wants Arthur to know what Arthur would look like naked, first thing in the morning and he wants to know the inside of Arthur’s apartment like the back of his hand.

What the hell is wrong with me?

Instead, Tuck settles for calling Arthur ‘darling’ and watches as the younger man looks at him like he’s genuinely insane.

The group of men all leave around the same time, and Tuck ends up walking out with Arthur.

“What are doing tomorrow, Arthur darling?”

“Arthur darling? Really now? Just because you’re English doesn’t mean you can be absurd.”

Tuck smiles and asks again, “What are you doing tomorrow?”

“What the hell? What do you mean what am I doing tomorrow? It’s Tuesday, I’m going to work.” Arthur looks confused and Eames just wants to drool. Confused is a good look on Arthur. It’s also a rare look.

“What are you doing after work?”

“Working.” Tuck laughs and while he isn’t usually one to push, things are a little different with another guy. He just fixes Arthur with a look that says he doesn’t quite believe Arthur.

“Change of plans, darling.”