Chapter Text
Arthur is toweling off when he hears a familiar descending three-note trill, the only ringtone he has set for an individual contact. Everyone else gets the default.
He strides out of the steam towards his cell on the nightstand. From the display, he missed two other calls from Cobb while he was in the shower.
Alarmed, Arthur answers with one hand, the other picking up off the floor the slacks he was wearing on the Weller job.
"Where are you?" Cobb asks.
"Situated." Which means he's in his room, per the plan.
"Good. Open up."
Simultaneously, there's a knock at the door and the beep of an ended call in his ear.
Arthur rips on his slacks, then grabs an open dress shirt from the top of his luggage. When he checks the peephole, it's just Cobb with no company in view. All the same, Arthur steps back, ducks in the closet, and removes his Glock from the hotel safe.
Cobb's eyes are on the gun the second Arthur opens the door.
"Stand down, it's a social call."
"God, you could've said as much on the line. I thought we'd been compromised."
"My bad," Cobb cringes.
After Arthur locks the gun back up, he sees Cobb ransacking his minibar, draining twenty-dollar thimbles of whiskey. With a Heineken in each fist, he drops onto the couch.
Arthur stands by the closet, fingers idly buttoning up his shirt.
"C'mere." Cobb beckons with a full hand. "Sit down."
Arthur crosses the room and sits next to him, accepting the offered can.
"How was the bottleneck?" Cobb asks.
Cloying.
"Fine. Plenty of distance."
Cobb cracks open his can and sips once, twice.
Casually, Cobb asks, "So, what have you found out about the coughing?"
Arthur runs a finger across the condensation on his unopened can.
"I haven't looked into it yet. I was focusing on the Weller job, like you said."
"I told everyone else to focus on the job. I told you to ask around about the coughing."
"Well, I don't have anything conclusive yet."
Cobb sips again. "What do you have, then?"
"Nothing much," Arthur still bothers to hedge, like that'll save him, like it isn't over.
"Arthur, please tell me the truth."
The buttons of Arthur's shirt are off by one. He can feel the asymmetry against his chest, over his racing heart, below the water from his hair dripping down his neck, above the chafing. He's going commando because he dressed in a hurry because he thought they had to run, when that's the one thing Cobb isn't letting him do.
It occurs to him now why Cobb didn't make the visit sound optional over the phone: so Arthur couldn't come up with an excuse to keep the door closed.
Caged, Arthur growls, "I said I don't have anything conclusive. I've got an inaccurate rumor, and I need to keep digging, because that isn't it."
"So you've heard."
"Who told you?" Arthur asks. There isn't panic in his voice, it's just an overabundance of curiosity. "How long have you heard?"
"I could ask you the same thing," Cobb responds evenly.
"It's just a rumor. It isn't confirmation of anything."
"It's a tell. If a dreamer overheats in reality, their sun gets stronger. A full bladder, a rainstorm."
Arthur rumbles, "This isn't as fundamental as a shift in gravity. It's subjective."
"It happens to people. And now it's happened to you. And you know why. So say it. I'm not leaving this room until I hear you admit what's going on."
Arthur laughs without humor. "Well, the couch isn't a pull-out, but there's extra bedding in the closet. Check-out's at 11, but you're free to ring down and see if you can get an extension for forever and a day."
Cobb sighs. "You can talk to me about these things. I'm not gonna be a dick about it. We're friends. It'll be okay. I'm not homophobic."
"I'm not a... I've never slept with anyone, man or woman."
"What about our double date? Mal's friend... what's-her-name. I thought you went home with her."
"Carol. I walked her to her doorstep and went back to the bar. I never liked her. I was just avoiding offending Mal's matchmaking sensibilities."
"Were you coughing up petals back then?"
There's panic in his voice when Arthur says, "No, never, I swear."
"But you are now, and you know what it means. We both do. So say it."
Arthur audibly exhales out his nose. "If you're so sure you know what it means, then why do you have to hear it from me?"
"Because we need to be honest with each other. We need to talk through what's going on with us. I don't want you doing with this what I tried to do with the shade for too long. It's too easy to ignore problems, to put up walls and run away. We have to put in the work."
Arthur opens his beer. It's going warm, but at least it tastes better than the cloying sweetness that was in his mouth all throughout his defense of the bottleneck.
Arthur thinks and swallows for a while. Cobb just sits beside him with his can resting against his knee.
Eventually, Arthur murmurs low, "I thought I lost you to Limbo. Ariadne said you'd be alright, but I didn't believe her. I thought you'd never make it back. But you did.
"Then you were gone again, back to the States. And maybe you'd call me if you got nostalgic over the holidays, but that'd be it. We'd never be around each other again, not like we used to be, living in each other's pockets. So for the second time, I told myself to get used to you not being around. And I could've handled that just fine.
"But then you called me. And it wasn't just to keep in touch, it was to get the team back together, because you were coming out of retirement. You finally went back home, but it didn't have everything you needed. You needed something more, and you called me for it.
"So sure, my foolish heart started beating faster. But my mind knew better. I knew you weren't coming back for me."
Cobb cuts in, "I was, in a way. I missed everyone, you most of all."
"No, you missed dreaming. Walking on water. Doing impossible things."
Cobb drapes an arm around Arthur's shoulders. "You can do better than me, easily. And you will. It might not seem like it now, but you're gonna do fine out there. Any man would be lucky to have you. Or woman, whatever you want. You're amazing. You really are."
Arthur mumbles, "I'm not looking for anyone. You or anyone else. I'm looking for work."
"So then let's work together, now that we aren't keeping secrets from each other. Alright?"
"Alright."
Cobb tips his can towards Arthur, and Arthur completes the toast with his own.