Title: The Secret Life of Dreamers
Author: finnijer/ Voldemort's Spawn
Target/Approx. length: Mid-length fic (multi-chap, 5000-14000 words)
Prompt: Team reunites after several years and everyone brings their kids. Original LJ Inception Kink Prompt Here For cobb_ariadne Valentine's Day Challege
Rating: T
Summary: After four years, Ariadne gets back into contact with Arthur. She invites him and his family to come over and have dinner with hers. Life changes in four years and the shock is there for everyone.
A/N: Omg it is so WEIRD writing them all domestic like! I hope this is up to par. Eames and Arthur first, then Cobb and Ariadne.
WIP: 1/?

Arthur stared at the email on his laptop screen. There were a millions ways to respond to it yet none seemed appropriate. Ariadne sent him an email; a long and chatty email that tried to fill in the gap of the past four years. At the bottom was an invitation to come to her house and have dinner with her, her husband, and their kids. There was nothing abnormal in the request; at least it would not appear that way to a general person who did not know Ariadne.

What Arthur was having trouble comprehending was farther back up in the letter, Ariadne mentioned her husband by name. Her husband happened to be Dom; Dom Cobb to be exact. Dom Cobb who Arthur had worked with closely for many years up until the most successful job of their career that allowed Cobb to retire and be with his family. The Dom Cobb whose kids Arthur used to visit when Cobb was not allowed in the US and their grandmother, Cobb's former mother-in-law would not allow the kids out of the country. The same Dom Cobb who had been practically Arthur's brother.

Cobb married Ariadne three years ago and no one bothered to mention this to him. To say he was livid would be an understatement. Of course, Arthur was just as guilty. No one outside his immediate family knew he'd settled down and had two kids. That did not even being to cover who he happened to settle down with. If finding out Dom and Ariadne were together did this to him, he could only imagine what they would say when they found out who he was with and had been with for nearly the same amount of time.

"Daddy, daddy, daddy!" a voice called to his right.

He smiled and looked over to see his five-year-old daughter run up to him with a paper in her hand. The ponytail he'd put her long brown hair in was long gone. Her pink floral dress had paint stains of various colors and he knew the paper in her hand was more than likely a painting. Arthur tried to ignore his child's messy state as she climbed clumsily into his lap and waved the paper in his face. Chuckling he took the paper from her.

"Hey lil monkey, what's this," he asked pulling her to him.

As expected, it was a painting. It was a bunch of colors swirled around and blobs placed about but he knew after various other paintings that the swirls and blobs meant something.

"Th-that's you, daddy," she grinned and pointed to the taller blob of color that was blue.

"My favorite color," he smiled, "which one's you?"

"That one," she pointed to the small pink blob beside his blob. Then she pointed to the tiny orange one beside her. "That's Connor and that's papa!"

She pointed to the green blob which stood on the opposing side of Connor's blob, rounding up the set. She grinned at him, her blue eyes wide as she waited for his approval patiently. He kissed her forehead and placed the paper on the desk.

"It's beautiful, can I keep it?"

She nodded, "Uh huh. I made one for papa too. "

"Hmm, where is your papa Odette?"

His question was answered when the sound of smaller feet thundered down the hall. Stumbling around the corner with his black hair sticking up was Connor. The three-year-old ran madly and giggled all the way until he reached Arthur. Instead of trying to climb in his lap like his sister, Connor hid under the desk. Another, larger sound of footsteps that belonged to only one person shortly followed after.

"Connor, you know better than to run off without your shoes."

Eames frowned as he rounded the corner, a pink Disney backpack slung over on shoulder, an Iron Man one slung over the other, and a pair of shoes in his left hand.

"My bad!" Connor grinned.

Arthur's eyes felt like they could come out of their sockets. "You're what?" He said sternly, turning in the chair to look down at his son.

"My bad!" he sang, his little brown eyes glistening with mischief.

Arthur pursed his lips at Eames who was mouthing 'what' in an annoyed fashion. He sighed and sat Odette on the ground. He then bent forward to make eye contact with Connor who covered his mouth to hide a grin.

"'My Bad' is not a proper sentence, squirt," Arthur said, grabbing him up and smoothing out his hair which made him giggle.

"Papa says it," Connor replied once in his lap.

"And papa knows he shouldn't say it." Arthur glanced at Eames who was scowling.

With a huff, Eames started hanging the backpacks on the wall beside him and threw the shoes in the little blue cubby below. It was the kids' space. They wanted one just like their fathers' and he and Arthur couldn't tell them no. Since there was little space in the entry-way, they took apart the cabinets across from the computer table they weren't using and created a little storage place. The kids picked the colors and helped paint the wall. The evidence of their various colorful handprints atop the white wall was displayed to prove the point.

"Is it a bad word?" Odette said wide-eyed.

"No," Eames cut in, "Daddy's just an old-fashioned silly." Arthur glared and Eames sighed. "But he is right; it's not the proper thing to say."

"Sorry daddy," Connor mumbled with a pout.

"It's alright," Arthur kissed his cheek. "Why don't you and your sister go watch cartoons while papa and I talk real quick and make you a snack?"

Odette and Connor yelled happily and ran into the living room. Arthur and Eames followed, Arthur turning on the DVD player. Once the two were happily settled on the couch, they walked into kitchen. Eames took the bag of apples out of the pantry and a knife from the drawer. Arthur took out a bag of homemade trail mix and sat it on the center island where Eames was slicing the apples on a cutting board.

"One of these days they're going to realize normal children don't watch Looney Tunes anymore," he smirked.

Arthur rolled his eyes and grabbed two small dishes from the cabinet over the sink. "It might not be the best but it's better than Dora…"

"At least Dora tries to teach them something."

"Swiper no Swiping is not something I want our kids to learn." Arthur rolled his eyes, putting a small amount of mix into the dishes. "If someone tries to kidnap them that'd be the first thing out of their mouth and a kidnapper is not going to stop because you say Swiper no Swiping. Talking to the television like the girl can hear you is not something they need to learn either… You wanted me to let the kids watch TV; I'm fulfilling your wish."

"What has got you in such a tizzy?" Eames frowned; Arthur was never this grouchy in the afternoon.

Arthur sighed and put away the mix. He then leaned back against the counter with his arms crossed. Eames waited; whatever it was, it was serious.

"Have you checked your email?" Arthur asked finally.

"Not since this morning, why?" he said. He took the cut apple pieces and started to chop them into small squares.

"Ariadne emailed me."

"Okay," Eames did not know why that would be a problem. "How is she? It's been what, four years?"

Arthur nodded and stared at the ground, "She invited me… and you probably, to have dinner with her and her family."

"That's sweet of her. I take it she has no idea about us?" He asked throwing the apple pieces in with the mix.

"No she doesn't but that's not the issue."

Arthur threw the cores away for Eames and placed the cutting board in the sink.

"Then what is it?"

That was the one thing that nettled him about Arthur. He took too long to express how he was feeling and why he was feeling that way. Sometimes, Eames wanted to shake him and say 'out with it already!' However, Eames learned patience. It was a hard lesson that took having two kids and getting tired of fighting with Arthur to take hold but it came in handy at moments such as these.

"She's married and has kids."

Eames blinked, "Why is that an issue?"

"She married Cobb," he muttered with furrowed brows.

Eames stared with his jaw slightly slack before grinning.

"That wanker!" he said loudly but dropped his voice least the kids in the other room could hear him. "I told you! I told you they were shagging! But no, you didn't believe me when I told you that's why they were under after everyone left.

"No," Arthur pointed a finger to make his argument. "I didn't believe you because you can't have sex in an unnatural dream. Cobb knew that, you know that, and I know that. That's one rule he'd never break."

"Technically you can," Eames grumbled. "You hurt like hell when you wake up… but it can be done." He smirked, "It's a real mind fuck." Then realization hit him and his face fell. "Wait… They got married and didn't invite us?"

"I know," Arthur replied seriously. "After all he and I had been through, after what all of us had been through you would think they would inform us that they got married."

"Well, we didn't exactly announce our little get together."

"Yeah well, they still could have told us," Arthur grumbled. "So you want to go?"

"Go where?" Eames asked and took some juice from the fridge.

"To have dinner with Ariadne and Cobb," Arthur placed two glasses on the counter for Eames to put juice in.

"Oh, well I suppose we could. It wouldn't hurt," Eames shrugged. "When would this little party take place?"

"I think next week, the fifteenth."

"What about the children?"

Arthur gave a half-smile. "My wife and kids are welcome."

"Oh so I'm the wife?" Eames asked playfully putting away the juice. "I swore we decided you would take that role."

Arthur rolled his eyes and stepped over to give Eames a kiss. "I guess we can discuss it later."

"The wife part or the dinner part?"

"Both," Arthur grinned and went through the archway and turned off the TV in the living room. "Come on you rascals, your snack's ready."

"Can we go outside after?" Connor asked.

"Will you push me on the swing?" Odette added.

"Of course," Eames told her as he helped Connor into the chair.

The kids had their snack and then spent the rest of the afternoon playing outside. After reading the email once the children were put to bed, Eames decided it would be a good idea. Now the only problem was figuring out how to explain the situation they were in to Cobb and Ariadne. Arthur volunteered to tell them. His solution was to respond to the email and casually slip in he would be bringing Eames and their kids. Eames didn't know that; he specifically asked Arthur to do in the best way possible. Of course, what Eames didn't know wouldn't hurt him and Cobb and Ariadne needed a taste of their own medicine.

Again, so weird with Eames and Arthur being all domesticated XD. More to come soon!