Title: Leaving This Old Fairground Behind by linckia_blue
Fandom: Inception
Pairing: gen, Arthur/Eames
Categories: AU, drama, established relationship, family, epistolary (just the epilogue)
Length: Long (17,500 words)
Warnings: past (canon) character death, bad/negligent parenting

Author on LJ: linckia_blue (formerly enjambament) / linckia_blue
Author Website: Masterlist of Fic

Summary:
Circus Au. Yusuf is the magician, Ariadne is the equestrian vaulter, Arthur is the fire-dancer, Eames is the trapeze artist, Dom is the ringmaster, Robert is the horse-whisperer son of rival circus Fischer and Friends owner. Espionage and popcorn ensue.

Review:
Despite the apparently crack-y concept of the characters all being circus performers, this is a deeper story about finding family. Ariadne leaves home, and finds a place with the Dream Circus. There's also a bit of intrigue, with a rival circus company trying to squeeze them out of business, but the main thrust is Ariadne making a place for herself in the circus. Arthur and Eames also sorting out their partnership; they've long been partners both personally and professionally, but are having a bit of unexpressed conflict at the beginning of the story. The Dream Circus itself is in dire financial straits, but the self-made family pulls together and makes things work.

I loved the relationships in the story, which form a complex tapestry of interconnections, and the talents each person has. The descriptions of Arthur and Eames' act and some of the other visual details are particularly vivid, and I really enjoy the characterizations, especially Robert's.

A wonderful AU story from start to finish, capped off with an epistolary section consisting of a newspaper article about the circus, with interviews and some information on the Dream Circus' successes after the end of the story-proper.

There are no shortcuts to teaching the lesson of found family, but it will happen for Robert just like it happened for her. They’ll teach him that from the outside, the life of true circus folk looks like a story of what gets left behind, but from the inside it’s about being one piece of a whole that will always carry him through even as he carries it – it’s about being the wind.

Leaving This Old Fairground Behind (DW) part 1 part 2; (LJ) part 1 part 2
Originally posted at inception_kink here