InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Moose."

Eames (dream_bigger) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2011-05-07 23:42:00

Entry tags:

ariadne, eames

Who: Ariadne, Eames, Escher
What: Torturing Eames with loud noises and bright lights (i.e. going for a walk with a puppy and Ariadne while being hungover)
When: Too many questions. uuuh, Daytime.
Where: Outside. The park, probably.

It was a lovely spring day. The sun was out, there were only a few clouds in the sky, the park was full of dogs and children playing and shouting at each other, and Eames kind of wanted to kill everything in sight.

He'd woken up on the couch in his and Finn's flat, the Aidan sleeping across his neck, and discovered that yes, fourteen hours of drinking was still horrific on the other side of it. Good to know. He'd crawled into the shower and washed the absolute worst of it off himself, and then he'd somehow thought that it would be an excellent idea to go and visit Arthur. Ariadne would be at work and Arthur was probably still asleep, so all Eames had to do was let himself in, make his way to Arthur's bed, and then collapse there for a few more hours. Then Ariadne would get home, he'd talk her into making tea and he could have a second start to the day. Easy.

Or not. He'd forgotten about Escher, who was awake and hyper and very excited to see his other New Person. And Ariadne was there. Why was she there? He wanted sleeping and quiet, and yet he was being bundled out the door and the words "long walk in the park" were uttered. He detoured back into his own place and dug out his hat (the one Ariadne seemed to dislike for some weird reason) and pulled it on. It would help keep his brain from escaping.

Soon enough, they were walking to the park, Ariadne holding Escher's lead in one hand while the other was wrapped round Eames' waist, and Eames had his arm round Ariadne's shoulders. He also had sunglasses on, and was contemplating learning sleepwalking. Then they found themselves actually in the park and oh dear God, there were park benches. He was going to sit on one and never move from it again. Well, until he needed more tea, of course. Or died, whichever came first.

(Post a new comment)

labyrinthine
2011-05-08 12:21 am UTC (link)

Ariadne was not an inherently cruel woman. She could tell that Eames was blatantly and extremely hung over. And she didn't specifically want to make Eames feel horrible. But Escher desperately needed a walk, and Eames had been there right as she was about to leave, and the puppy and the forger were mad about each other. So of course she'd gotten Eames to join them.

However, she could feel him drooping more and more as they got closer to the park. And Escher was also beginning to lag - his bursts of energy were not as sustained as an older dog's might have been. So she steered both of them over to a bench and maneuvered Eames till they were both sitting down, and Escher flopped over her feet.

"Poor boys," she remarked, bending forward to lay a hand on the puppy's heaving side. "I clearly overestimated both of you today."

(Reply to this) (Thread)

dream_bigger
2011-05-08 02:48 pm UTC (link)

"Always underestimate, then you can be pleasantly surprised all the time," Eames murmured, then hunched down on the bench. The sun was trying to attack him, again, so he made sure his sunglasses were firmly in place, and then pulled his hat down over his eyes for good measure.

If he slumped down enough, he could rest his head on the back of the bench. That would be good. "Ariadne, love, can there be tea soon?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

labyrinthine
2011-05-08 03:22 pm UTC (link)

"You sound like Arthur. Except slightly more optimistic." She held back a giggle at the sight of his hat stretched over the sunglasses and sat up to put a hand on his shoulder. "And yes, there can. But you'll have to move. Or watch Escher while I go get some." The pretzel cart had delicious pretzels but wasn't really equipped for anything other than bottled drinks, and Ariadne didn't want to bring the tiny puppy into a coffee shop while she waited in line.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

dream_bigger
2011-05-08 05:32 pm UTC (link)

He almost laughed at her reaction to his unintentional Arthur impression, but the thought of it made his eyeballs hurt, so he settled for a small smile. Of course, then she was asking him to do things when he was clearly incapable. "My God, woman, why are you asking the impossible of me?" Eames groaned, then leaned in against her. "I'm going to die, I don't want to die, I'm too young. I was only eight years old a matter of days ago, after all."

He put his arm round her waist and held on tight. "Give me five... no, ten. Ten or fifteen minutes of sitting, and if I'm okay at the end of twenty minutes doing nothing, I'll walk with you to get tea." A good deal, he thought.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

labyrinthine
2011-05-08 06:25 pm UTC (link)

Ariadne leaned down and kissed the top of his head, even though the beanie hat was a usual part of Eames' running uniform and therefore completely disgusting. The things she did for love. "Yeah, but you're not eight anymore. Which is a good thing, because that would be creepy." She petted his arm and shook her head. "And you're not going to die, you big baby." Was she this bad when she was hungover? She couldn't be.

"Five to twenty minutes of sitting. I think we can do that." Ariadne wished she'd brought along a sketchpad, though. As it was, after about five minutes she was contemplating using her jeans or Eames' arm to draw the trees with their tangled branches. Escher yawned and rolled onto her foot and Ariadne resisted the urge to squirm. Patience was not her strong suit.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

dream_bigger
2011-05-09 06:48 am UTC (link)

Unlucky, Ariadne. Eames was more than fine with sitting in one place for a long while, and he was more than able to tell when someone was wanting to move. After seven minutes or so, he allowed himself to yawn quietly, then muttered something incredibly sleepy-sounding and shifted about to make himself even comfier. He'd been in the army. He knew when to stockpile rest, and this was one of those times.

After twenty minutes or thereabouts, he sat up slowly and uncovered his still-tender eyes, then looked round at Ariadne. He gave her a sleepy smile, then took off his hat and ran his fingers through his hair. "Tea?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

labyrinthine
2011-05-09 11:10 am UTC (link)

Ariadne had indeed resorted to using her jeans as a canvas, carefully extracting a pen from her pocket and drawing on her thigh. Arthur probably knew how to get ink out of everything, though, and they could try a few tricks once she'd copied the sketch onto paper. And she'd wanted to capture the idea she'd had for a tree maze - it would be more porous than one of buildings or hedges or stone, but hopefully more confusing as well.

As Eames sat up Ariadne gave in to the temptation to stretch and shift, drawing one leg up beside her. She smiled at her rumpled companion and leaned over to kiss his temple. "Tea. And I want a Danish. Or something like that. Hey, Escher!" Apparently the puppy had had enough of waiting, because he started bouncing around their feet like some sort of wind-up toy.

(Reply to this) (Parent)