And You Lied to the Angel

Tuesday, March 11, 2014.
4:47 p.m.

Arthur didn't know. Not consciously, that is. Deep in his mind he knew that things were going to Hell, but he wouldn't allow himself to bring it to the forefront of his thoughts.

He was used to Eames not being home when he got off work. (The older man had taken the night shift a few months before; it was better money.)

Arthur stepped into the quiet apartment, dropping his keys onto the dining table and taking a deep breath through his nostrils. He was the first to leave in the morning. He didn't know what it was that Eames did, but when he walked into the living room he could smell the cologne his boyfriend wore. The cologne he had bought for him the Christmas before.

When he asked Eames to move in with him (it seemed like so many months ago) he had been excited.

That might have been, Arthur thought, what started everything off. That was when they started to see and notice things about one another that they hadn't before. Arthur and Eames were always together. Always. And as romantic as that seems, it wasn't romantic at all. Not after the first few months. Their honeymoon period was over.

He didn't see what was happening. He knew that he and Eames were having some minor problems, but he didn't know what it was doing to the older man.

Arthur had no idea what was coming. And even if he did, there was no way he could stop it.