Two Steps Towards Make Believe / Sort of Revolution (PG-13)

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Fandom: INCEPTION
Title: Two Steps Towards Make Believe
Pairing: Arthur/Eames, Arthur/Sleep
Length: 3,525
Author on LJ: suchdisguise
Author Website: author's fic tag on their LJ

AND

Title: Sort of Revolution
Fandom: Inception
Pairing: Arthur/Eames
Length: 1,300
Author on LJ: pyrimidine
Author Website: author's fic tags on their LJ

Why these must be read: These are two very different, if equally fabulous writers, but in my head these fics are siblings. Read together, both fics read like a Before and After of the same trope, wherein Arthur/Sleep is a very delicate and charming thing.

Because Inception canon deals with dreaming, the fandom is mildly obsessed with the potential for insomnia, and how dreaming on the job affects natural sleep. Fandom often paints Arthur as uptight and sleep-deprived, running on coffee and spreadsheets. suchdisguise takes Arthur's probable insomnia and pairs it with the idea that Eames makes an irresistible body pillow. Sleep-deprived Arthur's attempts to stealth!sleep on top of Eames are charming and somehow believable, as is Eames' reaction when he figures out what Arthur is doing. Pyrimidine tackles the other side of the picture--how a fully-rested and sleep-infused Arthur behaves during all his morning-afters with Eames, who has to adjust to the new concept of Arthur bumping groggily around his flat in the mornings. Each of these fics is sublimely warm-fuzzy and happy by themselves. Together they are everything that I love about the trope of accidentally-domestic Arthur/Eames in this fandom. ♥

Eames dropped off to sleep first. His head was lolling back, his mouth slightly open. Arthur was watching the countryside pass by, counting telephone poles in his boredom.

Then he was being shaken gently on the shoulder. His face was pressed into Eames's shoulder and Eames's arm had somehow ended up draped around him, pulling him closer.

And he really didn't want to wake up.

He had never had that thought before in his life. I just want to keep sleeping. It was brand new territory.

- Two Steps Toward Make Believe

________

After the getting out of bed and the coffee and the teeth brushing and the shower, Arthur needs a pocket of time to pad barefoot around the flat while, as far as Eames can tell, thinking about absolutely nothing. Eames assumes this must be boring; he buys a houseplant so that Arthur has something to do while he gets his head on straight.

The next morning, he walks out to the balcony to see Arthur drowning the poor thing, a watering can drooping listlessly in his grip. His coffee cup is halfway to his mouth, forgotten in favor of staring off into space.

“Oh,” Arthur says, eyes clearing once he sees Eames. He jerks up the watering can so that the stream stops. “Shit.”

It’s seriously disconcerting, how much this doesn’t bother Eames at all.

- Sort of Revolution

Two Steps Towards Make Believe by Suchdisguise and Sort of Revolution by Pyrimidine