Work Text:
In the beginning, Arthur was alone.
He had dominion over the plants and animals, and he named them. He enjoyed this at first, but it did become rather boring. He was also a bit lonely.
One night, he went to sleep like any other night, but had a strange dream he couldn’t quite remember when he woke up.
Additionally, when he woke up, someone else was there, stretched out next to him. The other person was about Arthur’s height, but with a good bit more muscle weight. His lips were sumptuous and distracting.
“I say, we’re naked,” the other person remarked.
“I’m unashamed,” Arthur shot back.
“I didn’t say you should be ashamed,” the other person said, openly staring. “Quite the contrary. Anyway, I seem to have been made from you, perhaps your rib, perhaps your side in general. Interpretations differ. Oh, my name’s Eames, by the way.”
“My name’s Arthur,” Arthur said, a bit wary.
“Arthur. Lovely to meet you. How’ve you been spending your time here?”
“I’ve been naming all the animals and plants,” Arthur said proudly.
“That sounds dreadfully boring,” Eames said, frowning in sympathy, shaking his head.
Arthur stiffened. “It’s not! It needs to be done. I like it.”
“We need to find more interesting things for you to do, then. Say, what’s that large tree over there?” Eames pointed. His eyes glinted with interest and curiosity.
Arthur said with great foreboding, “Oh no. Don’t get any ideas. That’s the Tree of Knowledge and we are expressly forbidden to eat from it.”
“Why not? That doesn’t make any sense. Isn’t it good to know things?”
Arthur sighed. “Look, I’m just telling you what I was told.”
“By whom?”
“The Creator.”
Eames looked skeptical but didn’t say anything further, and Arthur hoped the matter was over.
He spent a while showing Eames the animals and plants in the garden, with the exception of the Tree of Knowledge. Eames was very impressed, but he did have some creative suggestions for better names. Arthur grudgingly took them into consideration.
They enjoyed spending time together, although each day was quite similar to the one before it, and things were getting rather boring. Arthur was running out of plants and animals to show Eames. The subject of the Tree of Knowledge hadn’t come up again, however.
Some days later, Arthur woke to find Eames gone. He went to find him, and saw him near the Tree of Knowledge. Arthur groaned quietly to himself as he made his way over.
“Arthur!” Eames called cheerfully. “Good news, I’ve eaten from the Tree of Knowledge.” He held up a fruit with a large bite taken out of it.
Arthur groaned and put his hands over his face. “Great, now you’ve ruined everything.”
Eames scoffed. “Have not. Try it, it’s brilliant.” He held the fruit out to Arthur.
“No. Put that down! We have a set of fucking rules, okay?! Asshole!” Thus was foul language first used.
“Rules are made to be broken. Don’t you want to know both good and evil, darling? Don’t you want to be wise? Live a little,” Eames beguiled, with such charm in his eyes, and he licked juices from his very nice and tempting lips, and from his fingertips, and really, why not?
“Fine,” Arthur muttered.
Eames tossed the fruit to him, and he caught it at the last minute.
Reluctant, but still drawn to the fruit, his mouth watering, Arthur took a bite. The sour-sweetness flooded his mouth with juices. He chewed and swallowed, closing his eyes for a moment. It was more delicious than anything he’d eaten before.
When he looked at Eames again, it was as though he was seeing him for the first time, only with a flood of accompanying feelings, more than he could even think of listing or naming. Eames looked back at him and Arthur knew he felt the same.
They looked at each other’s bare bodies as if they’d never seen them before, and Arthur felt himself blushing for the first time, and a strange stirring within. For the first time, he started to feel desire, yearning, an ache he somehow knew would never really leave him, and yet he didn’t think he’d mind.
Arthur plucked fig leaves from a nearby branch and covered himself before Eames could see what his presence was doing to him, and Eames did likewise, but he smirked as he did. He was blushing too, and it was charming. But Arthur felt rueful.
“We’re going to be in trouble now, because of you,” Arthur sighed in rebuke, and as Eames opened his mouth to retort, the Creator appeared.
“What have you done?” the Creator asked. “I told you not to eat that fruit, didn’t I? All the fruit here and that’s the tree you go for. I swear.”
“It was his fault,” Arthur said, pointing to Eames.
“Oh, I like that,” Eames scoffed.
“Well, it was! I told you not to.” Arthur folded his arms.
“He’s right, I did it,” Eames told the Creator. “I wanted to be wise. I wanted to know more.” Arthur was impressed by Eames’ honesty and lack of fear.
The Creator sighed and muttered something about how the whole experiment would have to be scrapped and started over again. More loudly, the Creator said the two of them would also be cast out of the Garden, now that they were sinners and no longer innocent, whatever that meant.
They were soon outside the walls of the only home they had ever known. Arthur fretted, and Eames came over to him, cupped his chin, and looked into his eyes. He pressed his lips to Arthur’s, and that was the first kiss. They were quiet for a moment, in its newness. Then--
“Sin with me, love,” Eames whispered.
Arthur touched Eames’ skin, the first body he’d ever touched, and knew him, and Eames knew him in turn, all of him. Eames brought him such pleasure, beyond what he could have even dreamed of in the Garden, and he wanted to bring Eames those pleasures as well. And he did.
They knew ecstasy now.
But as time went on, they also knew sorrow, and pain, and anger, and loss. They had occasional dark days that they would never have even known about in the eternal tranquility of the Garden.
But here, they were together, inseparable; and knowledge linked them to each other, made them whole.
“Before you,” Arthur told Eames one day, “when I was alone, I spent my days naming the plants and the animals. My life had order to it, it had structure. I never got in trouble. Nothing happened, and everything was peaceful and boring.”
Eames smiled at him, with infinite fondness and love in his eyes, and stroked his hair.
Arthur continued, voice low, a murmur just for Eames to hear. “But I would give it all up forever again to be with you.”