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Arthur’s heard Eames talk about the green light so much that he can almost see it himself. Sometimes Arthur hates the green light, hates how single-mindedly drawn to it Eames is, hates how Eames smiles emptily at him afterwards and uses his public, party voice laced in insincerity “see you later then darling.”
Arthur knows he doesn’t deserve this so he skips Eames’s next party and the one after that. Instead, he takes Ariadne out for nice dinners (her parents are so pleased that she’s not spending all of her time with her Japanese gentleman friend) or calls on the Cobbs when he feels like being around people. Eames will call and Arthur won’t answer. He replies to Yusuf’s latest letter and sighs when Yusuf easily sees through all of his embellishments. Stay away from him Arthur- I’ll even fix you back up with RF if that’ll distract you.
Eames will call and Arthur will finally answer because he’s afraid Eames will lose interest and find another confidant. “Arthur, where’ve you been?”
“Busy.”
“I’ve missed seeing you around. Can you drop by the next one?”
“I’ll see.” But he knows he’ll be there, that he’ll spend the next day mulling over which suit to wear, that when Eames kisses him after everyone else has gone home, he won’t be angry or bitter anymore.
The thing is most of the time Arthur finds himself understanding and forgiving and that scares him more than he’d like to admit. If Arthur thinks hard enough, he thinks he can see Eames’s green light too.