Discussion Post: Underrated Fics Week: In Progress and Absence, Again

[corinnethewise.livejournal.com]

This week we are reading:
Title: In Progress and Absence, Again
Author: sevenimpossiblethings
Rating: Teen and up (PG-13)
Author's Summary: In Progress - Arthur felt as if he’d been watching Eames out of the corner of his eye for years, just catching glimpses, and he was ready to turn his head and really see. To stare, full on. He hoped Eames would hold still so he could drink in the whole picture.
Absence, Again - Eames reads the emails.

These fics are the first two parts of "The First Minute is for Hello Kisses" by the wonderful sevenimpossiblethings. They are another product of the amazing group of fics written for Inception Bingo during inceptiversay this year! I love so many things about these fics, but I'll cover that in the comments and discussion topics I post below in the comments. As always, please feel free to add your own!

PS - part three is an Ari/Yusef story from the same universe, so feel free to check that out as well. Doing all three put us over the word limit, but I still encourage you to read it!

Comments

Colleagues to Fuck Buddies to Lovers

[corinnethewise.livejournal.com]

I love this trope for Arthur and Eames. Where they are definitely fuck buddies - and apparently everybody knows about their pre-job fucks, their post-job fucks, and their anytime they're in the same city fucks, and they don't really care that people know.

And then we get a perfect example of Arthur realizing that he misses Eames (and that list of all the things he misses, my heart!) and that he wants to be in a relationship with him!

I'll be honest here, I'm sick and my brain isn't working, so I'm kind of just listing things that I love about this fic, so just feel free to jump in here.

Re: Colleagues to Fuck Buddies to Lovers

[sdlibrarian.livejournal.com]

I love everything that you do!

I love Arthur's reaction when he realizes Eames has seen the emails. I would love to see the scene where Eames first discovers them from his POV.

It also reminds me a bit of "Give Me the Number (if you can find it)" where Eames discovers Arthur's unsent text messages when they accidently swap phones.

Re: Colleagues to Fuck Buddies to Lovers

[corinnethewise.livejournal.com]

Oooh, that would be fun to see Eames' reactions to seeing the emails, although I like to think that his responses are basically his in the moment reactions. :)

Re: Colleagues to Fuck Buddies to Lovers

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

True.

I have always wondered what Eames was thinking when he was waiting at LAX for Arthur. Like, did Eames know all along that he was in a real relationship with Arthur? Was he waiting patiently for Arthur to see it?

Re: Colleagues to Fuck Buddies to Lovers

[corinnethewise.livejournal.com]

Ahhhhh that is an excellent question!!! I don't think he KNEW he was in a relationship with Arthur, because he was clearly surprised by Arthur's behavior, and seemed to think that Arthur was ending it, before he realized Arthur was asking for more. I think he was definitely in favor of being in a relationship with Arthur though, but basically was making himself wait for Arthur to be willing to do that, while sort of quietly insinuating himself into every part of Arthur's life that he could manage.

Re: Colleagues to Fuck Buddies to Lovers

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

I LOVE THAT SWAPPED PHONE FIC SO MUCH.

Also, there's another fic where they communicate via unsent drafts of e-mails. Is it "Kitten"?

I actually thought the second fic might be from Eames's POV. I, too, would love to see that.

Re: Colleagues to Fuck Buddies to Lovers

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

The idea that these two idiots would start out having sex and take forever to realize that it's not just sex is just...my favorite thing. It just seems so likely that it's how they'd justify letting themselves have the thing they most want: "It's not weird or dangerous. It's just hormones. It's cool."

Also, I love the epistolary nature of Arthur's revelations.

Re: Colleagues to Fuck Buddies to Lovers

[corinnethewise.livejournal.com]

ME TOOOOOOO!!!!! Maybe because it just bears way too much resemblance to my own life, but I just really love that it's like "well, we both want to have sex, let's just have sex with each other" and then they have to be apart it's like "Oh, and it turns out I'm actually in love with you, oops" but it's fine and then they're together and happy and it's perfect.

Emails that were never meant to be sent

[corinnethewise.livejournal.com]

First, I'm SO sorry for basically abandoning this! These fics are lovely and don't deserve it, between Life stuff and the holiday weekend and being sick, this just fell through the cracks. However, we've still got a day before we move on to the next fic, so here goes!

How did you feel about Eames reading the emails that Arthur wrote while he was falling in love with Eames? Arthur seemed relatively unbothered by it. Do you think that is a result of the fact that they regularly spend time in the other's head? Or the mature adult thing that he posits? How would you feel if someone read a series of emails you never actually sent to them?

Personally, I think one of the things that makes it better for me is that Eames actually replies to Arthur's emails. He doesn't treat it like a weird secret he learns, he just responds as if they are totally normal emails, which I think is very sweet and charming.

Re: Emails that were never meant to be sent

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

I'm glad Eames responds to the e-mails, because I feel like that could be sketchy otherwise. But he responds slowly, giving Arthur plenty of time to stop him if he wanted to, and I think that makes it better.

Also, I like to think they know each other *really* well. It seems like Arthur might be more comfortable with Eames learning these things through the text intermediary, and Eames might know him well enough to know Arthur would prefer this but also would hate to admit this out loud.

What is Love?

[corinnethewise.livejournal.com]

(Baby don't hurt me)

One of my favorite things about these fics is their description of what love is. As Arthur realizes what he's missing about Eames, he realizes that he's in love with Eames. And when Eames answers Arthur's question of "what this is' he has a delightful rambling list of all the wonderful things about being in love with someone and being in a relationship with them.

What do you think of this conception of love? That rather than being something huge and instantly knowable (love at first sight) it's really just a collection of little wonderful things, a feeling that something is missing from your life?

Re: What is Love?

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

I *love* this. Because I think it *is* what love is. When you lose someone, it's always the little things that devastate you, not the big ones. And when you think of your favorite parts of a person, you think of little moments.