Title: Pet
Fandom: Inception
Pairing: Eames/Arthur
Categories: AU, Angst, Romance, First Time, Teacher/Student, High School
Length: Super Epic (100,250)
Warnings: Teacher/Student Relationship

Author on LJ: ladyvader
Author Website: AO3

Author's Summary:
Arthur is in his final year of high school and finds himself entirely too interested in the new English teacher. Entirely inspired by the Police lyrics ‘Sometimes it’s not so easy to be the teacher’s Pet’.

Review:
While Arthur in this fic is 18, Eames is still his teacher (as is fairly evident from the summary, heh) and so is in a position of power over Arthur. If that's not your thing then steer clear. If it helps any, most of the fic is this slow burn (by slow burn I mean scorching firestorm) sort of UST that makes you want to grab at your computer screen and shake it and demand that the two kiss or something. Or that might be just me.

In any case! Arthur is a senior in high school and Eames is subbing in for Mal, who is pregnant, for the year. He's also the person in charge of this special play the (fancy) school is putting on, part of this Oh-Look-What-We-Can-Do that somehow involves finagling people out of donations for the school. Arthur sort of hopelessly starts to crush on Eames, who is this brilliant teacher and actor who cajoles Arthur into trying new things (and not in that way), one of which is auditioning for the male lead of Hamlet.

It's better than it sounds. The beginning is a bit melodramatic, what with Arthur running in the pouring rain (that's his thing in this fic--running), but the author hits her stride quickly and you just sort of fall in love with all of the characters. Other characters have hints of having lives and dramas of their own, but this story is very firmly centered around Arthur, and so around Eames as well.

And, okay, I'm such a sucker for a person who loves someone else, but pretends he isn't in love for that person's own good. And you get that twice.

Admittedly I was also a bit leery at the start because Arthur has a serious case of hero worship for Eames that never really goes away, but it develops into something more than that. And Eames is honorable, as much as he can be, and did I mention the scorching UST yet? Because my heart was in my throat for the majority of the fic. The thing is, for a lot of the fic both Arthur and Eames act pretty proper around one another, but you can see little slips in each that sort of jerk at your heart, and they're both ridiculous and you know they'd be wonderful in their ridiculousness together.

Arthur isn't exactly like the person we see in Inception. For one, he's younger, less tried, but he has that same sort of steadiness about him that was so apparent in Inception. He's mature for his age, and knows what he wants to do in life. I can see Inception!Arthur in this younger Arthur, which helps makes the AU believable for me. As for Eames, he pings much in the same way for me. He's a little different, but in the way that his life has taken a different turn than Inception!Eames.

There's a lot of pining though. Massive amounts of pining and Arthur trying to be strong to not jeopardize Eames's position, and Eames being much the same way. It's lovely and you can barely stop reading (seriously, even my rereading made me lose sleep and I knew what was going to happen).

I feel like I'm all over the place with this rec. It really did make me sort of breathless though, and oh-so-eager to read all of it.

Pet