Chapter Text
It starts off small, like such things do.
Dom and Arthur are running through the narrow streets, away from angry, nameless henchmen when Arthur grabs Dom’s wrist and pulls him into an alleyway.
They have a few scant seconds before the men catch up. Arthur pushes him roughly against the concrete building and kisses him. The henchmen give them a moment’s consideration before realizing what the two shadows are up to. There is the sound of footsteps and frustrated shouts before they are left alone.
After, Arthur simply quips, in that dry way of his, “Public displays of affection make people uncomfortable.”
Dom is suddenly reminded of Mal’s love for silly romantic comedies that used similar tactics and wonders if Arthur prefers them too or if it was simply an easy solution to their dilemma.
The next time it happens, they are talking to the owner of the warehouse they wish to rent out. This time Arthur simply slips an arm around Dom and says, “We would appreciate it if this transaction was kept under wraps. Not everyone is as understanding, you see.”
The owner keeps their names out of the papers. Dom’s only thought is that Mal would have gotten them a much lower rent.
The next time, Dom initiates it, intertwining his fingers with Arthurs as they follow the mark, whispering in each other’s ears their observations and arguing about their plans. Dom feels a pang of loss as he is reminded of lazy afternoons with Mal without the pretence of a relationship hanging between them.
It is easy, too easy to fall into the role of Arthur’s partner. It’s a comfortable con, a simple tweaking of facts that presents a thousand different opportunities. A simple touch here, a smile there and people paint their own assumptions onto them, usually coming up with a right answer.
The power of suggestion, Dom finds, is an incredible one.
Soon, it becomes a pattern, a repeated con that gives them surefire results. There is a careful balance that they maintain, somehow unconsciously.
They are never too unsubtle since their livelihood depends on the ability to remain unremarkable. They only ever use the pretence in non-hostile environments. They never use the con in front of clients, maintaining the utmost level of professionalism.
It becomes a way to make sure they always have the disguise of a couple at hand if they have to escape a sticky situation regarding the job.
What motivates the repeated use of the con is the fact that no one questions it. The years of friendship between them and their understanding of the other helps portray the image of two people comfortable enough with each other to not be explicitly obvious.
What helps is the fact that neither Dom nor Arthur take more than one job without the other, always choosing to work together. The dream share community runs on rumours. Rumours of jobs, of opportunities, threats, fuck-ups. And, Dom knows that there are rumours doing the rounds about Cobb-and-Arthur, an inseparable extraction duo.
The flames are fanned sometimes by tidbits their different teammates let slip about them once the job is done. Things like Arthur bringing Dom coffee or Dom preemptively replying to Arthur’s query only serve to cement the idea of their relationship.
One of their architects even goes so far as to call them a married couple, interrupting their disagreement that had been going on for an admittedly long time. Dom has a vivid image in his mind of Mal laughing boisterously at that and teasing him about the fact that he was a more believable husband to Arthur than to her.
It seems inconceivable to people that two men might live out of each other’s pockets and not be irrevocably in love. Dom doesn’t particularly mind. This whole charade would have gone up in flames if he had not been an active participant. It doesn’t matter to him what the rest of the world thinks as long as he and Arthur have a firm grip on the reality of the situation.
There is nothing between him and Arthur but the camaraderie of two people sharing an important secret; a muted grief of losing the most important person in their lives. Maybe that’s why it’s so easy to keep it up. They don’t have to be wary of the complications that come with pretending to be in love with someone. There are no sneaky glances, no what-ifs. There is just the simplicity of a lie; a paradoxical situation that Dom knows Arthur secretly enjoys.
And through it all, Dom misses Mal like an amputated limb, his mind coming up with her reactions to his and Arthur’s little charade.