The day was a particularly busy one and the entire team had been pacing inside the walls of the desolate warehouse everytime there was free time to think. The quest was becoming more difficult, more profound with each discovery they made about the mark and as the layers unfolded, so did their sanity.

Yusuf was idly watching his serums developing, not even bothering to take the proper precautions or encase the proper procedures. He failed to check temperatures or measure volume, wanting for the day to simply be over but also wanting to be out of the job he'd signed up for.

Cobb, according to Arthur, was having a difficult time discerning reality from fiction and often faded in and out of consciousness without ever really losing it. But today, Eames noticed, Cobb had been the only one amongst them that had an air of tranquility about him, an air of calm in all of the calamity.

It had been unnerving to say the least, for Eames, who was sneaking sips of the whiskey that he kept in his desk drawer, occasionally entertaining himself with Arthur's little black notebook (which had been filled with very detailed, very kinky sexual fantasies). Some of them were downright intriguing while others fell short of sexual appeal, those were the ones that Eames placed in the category of 'Solely Ariadne'.

Ariadne had been pulling her hair out practically. Eames had never seen the young woman so stressed and it worried him. Her first time going into dream sharing and she's handed the improbable task of inception, her designs being vital to the overall success of the job. She tried to focus on the layouts but everyone who was paying attention could tell that she was consumed by other thoughts.

Arthur was nervous standing in the far corner, squeezing the life out of what Eames deducted must have been his totem. His jaw was clenched tightly and his lips were pursed into a thin line. Cobb had told them that there was a change of plans and Ariadne would be going into the dream. The waves coming off of Arthur had told Eames that he could just about murder Cobb for that much time spent staring angry holes into the concrete flooring, Arthur leaned off the wall and walked straight into Ariadne's not-so-private office where he took a look around before taking hold of her hand.

She had stopped her sketching and she turned to him, offering a gentle yet very forced smile. There were no words exchanged from what Eames could tell but they were doing just fine communicating without them. Ariadne reached up to roll her fingers through Arthur's hair and he let her do it, lowering his head even, eyes cast down on the floor once again. This time his gaze wasn't so much one of anger as it was of defeat. He couldn't change her mind. She would be coming in with let her hand down and he lifted his head. She offered a smile, more sincere and genuine, before walking out of the office, out of the warehouse, and into the cold morning.

Eames watched as she went by, avoiding eyes and walking with a purpose before turning his head back to Arthur who lingered in the office for a few moments before gliding out casually. Eames rolled his eyes and scoffed. He hadn't understood how it was possible for Arthur to be such a hard ass and so stressed all the time if he was having sex more often than the average person. He was convinced that there was a chemical and/or biological imbalance in the point's brain.

Later when Eames was just about dying for a cigarette, he swiped his car keys from his desk and went outside. His car, he noticed, was covered with thin layers of ice from the weather so the fogging on the windows was to be expected. When he opened the door, the overwhelming and thick scent of sex hit his face.

What the…?

His eyes rose back to the car where, in the backseat, the Point Man had his bare back to Eames, protectively covering the Architect's nudity. Eames felt himself boiling with anger.

"In my car?" He inquired calmly despite the thickness in his throat and his blurry vision all indicating he was stark raving mad. "In my car?"

Ariadne bit her lips and went to run her hand through her hair which was all over the place. "It was unlocked and Arthur couldn't find his keys." Her breathless and embarrassed answer replaced his anger with a smug sense of superiority.

"Of course it was Arthur's idea," Eames said. "I should have known that the only one to show me such an inordinate disrespect would be-"

"Can we drop it?" Arthur hissed, interrupting Eames' speech about responsibility.

"Arthur I don't know if you understand how I feel about my car but I can tell you that when I purchased it, the thought of you and Ariadne using it for a shag wasn't quite the picture I had in mind."

"I'll buy you a new one," Arthur offered. "But please close the door, it's freezing."

"Is it? In that case," Eames leaned over and opened the other door and the temperature dropped completely. "I like a nice breeze."Arthur shivers. Ariadne blushes. Eames smirks.

"I'm the only one who knows what's going on between you two and I've known for a while. Now I'm willing to keep it for you but you'll have to stop having sex near me or in or on my things. Not on my desk, not in my car, not anywhere in vicinity to me. Or I'll become the dirty rat that you, Arthur, think me to be and I'll definitely take pleasure in telling Cobb. Oh how he'll explode," Eames said bemused. But he knew he would never rat them out and especially not to Cobb who was so obsessed with the job. He just needed some peace of mind.

"And I will take you up on that offer, I really didn't want to spend my Bora Bora finances on another car so it's perfect. I'll like a 1967 Chevy Impala. Red. With black stripes on the front if you can supply that. Of course, you'll have to have it imported and I know that's extra money but it seems like you're willing to pay it, yes?"

Arthur didn't look up, only nodded in response, every limb and bone quivering in the cold.

"Okay," Eames closed the door. "But do clean this one up, love. Do whatever you want with it but at least have the decency to clean it up."

He stepped away only to pop his head back into the car. "Ariadne, did you know that Arthur wants you to dress up in the infamous Princess Leia bikini and spank him while telling him he's been a bad boy?"

He shut the door.