A.N- This story has been completed at 3am or so. I apologize for any errors that didn't jump and dance as I read this through. If there are glaring errors they will be taken care of. Please enjoy the story idea that occurred to me while I was stuck in school!
Disclaimer: I do not own Inception. At all. I also don't own the Beach Boys- but that's also pretty obvious, I just liked how the song title fit with the plot. There is swearing, there is Cobb bashing...well that's about it.
When I Grow Up (To Be A Man)
After the success of Inception, the team drifted apart…well some drifted and others ran while vowing to never again deal with Dominic Cobb. But, much like a successful band with a large fan base, they were drawn together to perform their greatest hits- smiling at the crowd while getting into the same old arguments that drove the band to split.
Despite Dominic Cobb's willingness to gamble with all of their lives during the Fischer job, everyone answered his call. Of course, it was with varying levels of caution. Ariadne found that there was some small redeemable value in Cobb since his catharsis and his rescue of Saito from Limbo, not to mention he was armed with the most adorable pictures of his children. Arthur agreed to be his Point Man again if he was given full disclosure- the old line of "I've got to get back to my kids" wasn't going to absolve him if the job went south. Yusuf and Eames could be summoned back with money- lots and lots of money.
Okay, well in Eames's case, it took money and the opportunity to work with Arthur again.
So after two years of working separately the team was called back together. Everything was going to be great!
And then something terrible happened after just one day.
Eames hated that he was the last to know. He understood that something had gone wrong when he lost contact with Arthur. Eames was one day late due to several flight changes. Each one caused him to weigh the positives and negatives of pulling a Saito and buying an airline. Each time he was able to pull out his phone, he would check for messages.
In the past if Eames were late Arthur would message him. Messages like, Get here or we cut you from the team or I won't believe that you have been 'Eames-napped' again.
As he had encountered his first delay, progressing from slightly late to hopefully not an hour late, Eames had been weighing his chances of winning back Arthur's favor with a pastry or fresh cup of coffee. Then he had received a short message from Arthur.
The Point Man texted, Starting without you. Venti coffee with 2 shots espresso and Cheese Danish, please.
Eames had texted back, Yes darling ;)
The text made Eames smile, but when he received nothing else while moving from point a to point b and somehow getting redirected to point g, he began to worry. But, it was fine! Only one day late, Eames made good on his promise to bring Arthur his coffee and pastry.
He had gotten a call as he was juggling the coffee and the brown pastry bag, looking at his phone briefly, and perking up immensely once he saw his Point Man's name.
"Are you sure that you aren't magic, darling?" Eames couldn't get the smile off of his face as he held the coffee and pastry in one hand while pressing the phone to his ear with the other. "It's like you have extra sensory perception that pings once coffee enters your five-mile radius! Not to worry, I'm bringing it over right now."
After a moment of silence, Eames noticed a certain tension. Don't ask him how he knew. For all anyone knew, Eames had his own brand of extra sensory perception that was devoted solely to Arthur. Eames was more certain than ever that the person on the other end of the line wasn't Arthur. His suspicions were confirmed when Cobb cleared his throat.
"Eames." the Extractor began, speaking as if he were testing the waters or taking his first step on a tightrope. Eames's eyes narrowed as Cobb let the silence run on. For the life of him, the Forger couldn't get the mental image of a tightrope walking Dominic bloody Cobb out of his head, enjoying how the man appeared to sway as he tried to navigate his course.
"Eames, I don't want you to get upset. I'm calling you from Arthur's phone for a reason."
Swaying.
Swaying.
"Right, you're calling me from Arthur's phone because I won't pick up when you call me. I'd like to know where Arthur is if you don't mind sharing that information."
"Well," Cobb said slowly, taking his next step and freezing. "There has been a slight problem."
Tilt…!
"I'm on my way, Cobb. Maybe you'll have an easier time telling me what happened if I'm right in front of you." Eames hung up on Cobb before the man could say anything else.
When Eames arrived at the warehouse, everything looked disturbingly normal. Ariadne was carefully working on a set of blueprints for the first dream level. Yusuf was tucked away in what once was an office- it was now the site of what he would lovingly call his porto-lab.
And before Eames could get a good look at where Arthur would be seated, Cobb blocked his view. The man forced his way in front of Eames, spreading his arms to try and hide more of what he didn't want Eames to see.
"Cobb, I don't want to dance with you. Or hug you. Get out of my way and let me see Arthur! He is over there, right?" Eames leaned a bit to try to see over the Extractor's shoulder but was blocked once more when the man moved.
"What's the rush, Eames? Why wouldn't you want a hug? Hugs are great- they relieve tension and foster all of those warm team building feelings. That's it!" Cobb flung his arms wide and called around the room. "Bring it in for a group hug!"
There was no reply to this. No one wanted a hug- or if they did, they just didn't want to hug Cobb. Eames shoved the man away with one hand against his chest and once the way was clear he walked the rest of the way to Arthur's desk.
How did he know that it was Arthur's desk? It had all of the little Arthurian touches- the file folders, the portable printer, the cup of pencils, and the laptop. The laptop was up and running, the screen open and turned to face the chair that Arthur would sit in as he chewed his at his lower lip in thought. The number of times that Eames caught the Point Man doing that, he wouldn't be able to help thinking that it was something he wouldn't mind doing if the odds were against him not being punched in the face.
Placing the cup of coffee and the pastry bag on one corner of the desk, Eames was aware that Cobb was lurking behind him. He ignored this when he heard the clicking of keys, a smile coming to his face.
"I know I've left you waiting awhile but please don't be too mad at me, darling!"
The typing stopped abruptly, and Eames noticed something else odd. He was standing in front of Arthur's desk and couldn't see the top of Arthur's head peeking over the screen…did something happen to his ergonomic swivel chair? Did he have to improvise with another form of seat- like that one time with the huge bean bag chair? His train of thought was slightly off as Cobb was trying to say something to him. The persistent Extractor was leaning over Eames's shoulder and whispering, "I just need you to know that this isn't my fault!"
And then, a small hand grasped the top of the laptop screen and closed it, revealing that the person sitting in front of it was a child.
…A child with big brown eyes and dark brunette hair that curled ever so gently against the nape of his neck and sides of his head. The child's ears were large, but endearingly so. And if he wasn't frowning so powerfully and instead smiled, that kid would have dimples to die for!
Before Eames had a chance to speak, this much smaller version of Arthur glared at him.
"Mr. Eames," said young Arthur with careful enunciation, "I reserve the right to be as mad as I want! If this doesn't get fixed, heads are going to fucking roll!"
And there it was- that hint of petulant wining along with the well deserved indignation combined. While young Arthur intended it to be threatening, it was just too precious!
Eames was already smiling at the glaring boy and looked over his shoulder at Cobb. The man was forcing a brittle smile on his face, raising both hands to defend himself if need be. Eames cut him off before he could speak.
"I know, you've already said that this isn't your fault."
Cobb dropped his raised hands and breathed a sigh of relief.
"That doesn't mean I don't blame you for it anyway!"
"Yusuf!" Eames called, pushing the door of Yusuf's porto-lab open and letting himself in. He looked around and found that the Chemist wasn't hiding.
He wasn't even trying to hide his involvement in what had occurred to Arthur.
On a large white board was a series of notes; a chemical recipe for his latest mix of Somnacin that had a starred footnote at the bottom that read, "Dreamshare's answer to reversing the physical effects of aging!"
As he was grinning like a loon Yusuf seemed to be drawing something. Looking over his shoulder, Eames noticed that an arrow was drawn going from a large stick-figure labeled A.A to a smaller stick-figure labeled Y.A that equaled nothing but a series of dollar signs and smiley faces. It didn't take much for Eames to deduce that A.A referenced an Adult Arthur and that the Y.A was for the Young Arthur. The idea that this experience was going to lead to happiness and wealth could explain itself, but Eames already knew that line about assumptions.
"Yusuf?" Eames asked, keeping his tone mild though he really did want to panic, "May I have a word about what you've done to Arthur?"
"See! If you admit that he did that to Arthur, you can't keep blaming me for it!" Cobb was quick to say in a loud voice from the safety of the open door. Eames shot him a look that encouraged the Extractor to leave quickly. When they were alone Yusuf turned to face Eames, still wearing that wide smile.
"I'm going to be rich! I'm going to become so ridiculously rich!" The Chemist sighed to himself. "I'll have to do more testing, create control groups, but I'm sure that by the time I iron out all the kinks, the plastic surgery junkies will come running to me in order to become years younger without having to go under a knife!"
"You tested this on Arthur…it was just supposed to be a fairly normal batch of Somnacin not a drug to make people young-" thinking of how small Arthur was he added, "so very very young."
The Chemist was already trying to wave away the worried look on Eames's face.
"Don't worry, my friend! I will make certain that Arthur it brought back to his normal age. And if I get to earn the nickname of Father Time in the process, everyone will be happy!"
Eames didn't agree with that idea. Yusuf's drawing of an Eames stick-figure with a big smile didn't change the Forger's opinion.
After Eames took a deep breath for calm he stepped out of Yusuf's office to let the Chemist dream of castles in the sky. What he encountered upon entering the main room was madness.
Little Arthur was enraged. It appeared that Ariadne had taken something away from him- Eames's eyes nearly bugged out when he realized that Arthur was threatening to climb their Architect like a tree to get his gun back.
Predictably, Cobb was of no help.
"Oh, thank god Eames!" Ariadne said as she spotted him. "Can you just grab him? This isn't safe for him to have right now!"
Eames couldn't help but agree after seeing the rage in their pint sized Point Man's eyes. While trying to allow Arthur as much dignity as possible, Eames tapped him on the shoulder to try and get his attention.
"Darling?" he asked, uncertain of how he should play this one. It would be a different thing if Arthur were of his normal size and age bracket- he'd make some sort of sarcastic comment and draw the Point Man into a glaring match while trading sniping comments that centered on their work. But, Arthur wasn't normal right now. If anything, he appeared to have experienced a bit of a mental regression along with the physical. When Arthur spun to look up at him, Eames cringed inside.
It looked like Arthur was about to cry.
"She took it? Why did she take it?!" the little Point Man said plaintively.
Looking for backup in the wrong place, Eames tried to catch Cobb's gaze but found the man looking anywhere else while he fiddled with something in his pocket.
"How am I supposed to protect myself?" Little Arthur was trying to rationalize, growing more and more frustrated with himself. "This can't be real! I'm having a nightmare and I want to wake up right now!"
The simplest solution would be for Arthur to check his totem- they could all turn their backs and Arthur could roll it across the floor and find comfort in the reoccurring number he had chosen to represent reality. He suggested it and Arthur immediately burst into tears- the angry hiccuping sort that drew the attention of every adult in the room; even Yusuf stuck his head out to see what the problem was.
Eames noticed that Arthur was wearing different clothing- not that it would have made sense for him to wear the over-sized suit neatly folded in Yusuf's office, but it was strange to see Arthur dressed as a child. In his head, Arthur would always wear a suit. But today he was wearing shorts and a large Transformer t-shirt…or was it Iron Man? Eames shook his head at his own ignorance concerning what cartoons children liked. Everything from the clothes to the shoes Arthur wore appeared to be second-hand.
Cobb cleared his throat and raised his hand, gesturing that Eames should come closer for privacy's sake.
"I had some old clothes that belonged to James," Cobb coughed and took something out of his pocket, "and I didn't want to freak Arthur out because I touched his totem."
The room went deathly silent. Ariadne had stashed the gun and tried to comfort the sobbing Arthur- both stopped what they were doing to stare at Cobb. Eames shook his head slowly and then ripped the totem out of Cobb's hand. He brought it to Arthur who refused to touch it. Eames didn't like how wide and frightened Arthur's eyes looked and tried his best to soothe him.
"I promise you that what is happening is real. You are not dreaming. But if it would make you feel better, I could help you make a new totem? Would you like that, pet?"
Arthur looked up at Ariadne briefly, avoided Cobb like the plague, and finally nodded at Eames.
The Forger reached down for Young Arthur's hand and took it in his own. He was a little surprised at how small it was. He felt like a giant.
"It's going to be okay, love. Trust me."
The new totem was another item used for gambling. With a few pointed questions and a little searching, Arthur and Eames found what they were looking for.
Arthur's new totem was a small, unmarked wooden dreidel. The store offered to burn the Hebrew letters into the dreidel using a solid point burner but were confused at the bizarre nature of Arthur's request. Once it was finished, Arthur's new totem would work as well as his die had- because the only way of making a loaded dreidel was to put the same letter on every side.
Eames had smiled when the man who was set to do the work asked if he was sure. He just nodded and turned away so Arthur's replacement totem wouldn't be compromised.
The shopping mall they had to go to in order to get the work done wasn't too far from the warehouse, but Eames felt that a little time away from Cobb and the rest of the reunited team couldn't hurt.
The Forger got them ice cream and claimed a shady bench.
"So," the Forger began, watching how Arthur's legs kicked at the air while he was seated on the tall bench with Eames- seriously, he was finding so many small reasons to confuse the hell out of himself while interacting with this version of Arthur. "How are you doing?"
The pint-sized Point Man hummed to himself and licked his vanilla ice cream cone. He kept licking off the rainbow sprinkles he had asked for so politely that the young woman working the kiosk couldn't help but coo at him and give Eames a very interested once over.
"Better. I'm sorry for all that," he sighed. "It's like when I became this young again I turned into a powder-keg waiting to go off. Yusuf is keeping track of all the odd symptoms I keep having…"
This caught Eames's interest. "Really? Like what?"
"Mostly unexplained crying fits, angry tantrums, and intermittent short-term memory loss."
"That sounds a lot like being a child to me," Eames mused, speaking more to his single scoop of mint chocolate chip. "Judging from your height, you look to be a little over five maybe six years old."
Arthur didn't respond immediately and Eames looked over to see that he was spinning his new totem on the flat seat of the bench. It twirled and twirled before finally stopping, falling on one of its four sides. Eames turned away before he looked too closely at the letter. He didn't want to invade Arthur's privacy.
"Anything good?" Eames asked instead.
"Nothing," Arthur answered. Eames guessed that it must be okay because Arthur didn't sound too broken up about it. The Forger looked back at Arthur after he had stashed his totem away in his pocket.
Over the course of an hour, they ate their ice cream and talked about work, the events that lead to the predicament of Mini-Arthur, and the way they could work around it.
"It was my own fault for coming late," Eames said, feeling guilty that he hadn't been there on the day this stupid accident occurred.
Arthur shrugged. "You would have bought the airline if you were Saito."
"But, did the reaction to the Somnacin occur immediately when Yusuf put you under?"
Arthur frowned to himself and thought hard. "I went to bed the other night and I was still a young man, and when I woke up today I was over twenty years younger. The short-term memory thing kicks in and I get all confused. When I 'woke up' this morning was sure that I was just have a natural but ridiculous dream about a Somnacin accident."
"It looked like you knew it was real when I walked in!" Eames said, thinking of Arthur's statement of "heads will roll."
Young Arthur looked up at Eames who was still a little too tall while seated. He tapped the side of his head and gave the Forger a flat look. "Intermittent short-term memory loss, Eames."
Eames found a garbage can near to their bench and threw away the remains of his ice cream cone. It landed inside the bin with a satisfying thunk noise. "Done with yours, darling?"
Arthur nodded and handed the sticky remains of his cone to Eames who disposed of it for him.
"It will be fine, Arthur. I promise! Things are looking up- Yusuf will come up with something soon. If he wants to become rich off of this little accident, he's going to have to make sure he can reverse the process."
It turned out that after Arthur had settled down for a nap (protesting the whole time that, in his own words, "he was just going to close his eyes for a moment and then get started on the research, damn it") things progressed without Yusuf's involvement.
There was a sound of ripping cloth that made the team turn their heads to the occupied couch in the corner. And when they looked over, they couldn't stop staring at what was happening.
The whole process reminded Eames of when a tree is videotaped from a sapling to full maturity- that if one were to fast-forward the tape they would get to see the tree grow like magic.
The young Point Man's clothes ripped like tissue paper as his body began to grow from that of a young child to something a little more mature. He could be compared to Bruce Banner turning into the Hulk- just not green! Once the change was complete, Arthur opened his eyes and looked from their shocked faces to the state of his body. His eyes widened and as he tried to speak his voice broke. Arthur blushed and tried to find something to cover himself with.
It was Eames who gave him Ariadne's afghan while politely keeping his eyes averted. As soon as Arthur got the blanket wrapped around his waist, he took out his totem and spun it on the warehouse floor. He also glared at it with all the angst built up within his fourteen year old body, watching as it spun and spun.
Eames looked back down at the crouching Arthur after he heard the driedal fall and asked him the same questions as he had while at the mall.
"Anything good?"
"Nothing," Arthur replied again, his voice cracking again, making him frown harder.
"I know that puberty is hard," Arthur's wide brown eyes darted up to Eames again. If it was possible, Arthur blushed even more. Eames raised an eyebrow at that reaction.
When Yusuf came out of his lab and spotted the gangly limbed blushing Point Man, he couldn't stop himself from rushing to his side to examine him.
"My god, Arthur- you're growing up!" Yusuf wailed in despair. Like growing up was totally the worse thing ever! Yusuf ignored Ariadne and Eames's snickering to check Arthur's pulse, look at his eyes and see how they reacted to the light of his little penlight, and even made him open his mouth and stick out his tongue.
When the Chemist could find nothing through this basic exam and snapped his fingers and grabbed Arthur's wrist. Levering him up off the ground, forcing the pubescent Point Man to grab his totem and snatch a handful of the afghan that was hiding his shame, the Chemist began dragging him towards the office while yammering on about blood tests, urine samples, and what he had to eat, if anything at all.
"He had an ice cream cone!" Eames called out to their retreating backs, smiling as he remembered how Arthur was behaving around him.
The Chemist stopped and cursed, first saying in a scandalized tone "You gave him ice cream? Now he isn't going to eat his dinner!" and second, "Cobb go see if you can get me a sample; Eames did say that Arthur didn't finish it."
He was stomping his way out the door when Arthur called out to him, his voice breaking again. "Cobb, wait!"
Eames wasn't sure what the Extractor had been hoping for, but he couldn't quite hide his smile when Arthur asked Cobb to get him some new clothes. Specifically he demanded "nothing dorky."
Yusuf had flipped his white board over and was writing on the other side. He was listing the hours of Arthur's transformations, the progression of ages since the first metamorphosis at 8 am this morning to the most recent one in the afternoon. Both Ariadne and Eames were looking at the notations and shared a look. As one, they glanced at Arthur who was still wearing the afghan.
"I don't mean to try to butt in," Ariadne began slowly, "but I think that its curious that Arthur's age keeps changing after he goes to sleep…thoughts, anybody?"
Yusuf pursed his lips and tried to ignore her.
"I need to find out why this is happening…" he then began to make suggestions to himself in an undertone. "I could hook him up to monitors and track his brainwaves as he sleeps- better yet, use the PASIV and have someone go under with him!" and then "If I stop him from sleeping, maybe I can stabilize the compound and make this reaction last."
He turned to look at Arthur and smiled at him in an ingratiating way. "Say, do you want to try an experiment with coffee, Arthur?"
Arthur's eyes widened at the suggestion of another experiment. "I don't want to stay awake indefinitely- just get me back to my own age, Yusuf!"
The Chemist deflated as his ideas that might have involved caffeine pills or a theoretical coffee IV were shelved.
"Okay, the only things we have to go on are the two instances I went to sleep and woke up at a different age, right?"
The team nodded at Arthur's question.
"Then why don't you put me back to sleep with the PASIV and see what happens?"
Yusuf shook his head as Ariadne offered her hand to Arthur for a quick high-five.
Eames nodded in approval and helped Yusuf set up the PASIV with a non-experimental version of his Somnacin. Arthur had arranged himself on the lone lawn chair in Yusuf's lab and prepared to be stuck with the needle, but before Yusuf could do so, Cobb burst into the office looking from one person to the next.
Huffing and puffing as if he had run the whole way, Cobb came bearing a suit- a boring, machine-made, off the rack suit that almost had Arthur's eyes tearing up.
"You traitor," the Point Man said softly as he looked at the suit. "Why did you get me a crummy suit?"
Cobb looked away and coughed. "In case anyone has forgotten, this is technically the second day of the job…the one where we meet the client again and go over the details?"
No one spoke, the air turned icy, and yet Cobb began to sweat.
"We made the plan and we have to stick to it. I'm going to dinner with the client and I need my Point Man to be a big boy who doesn't cry!"
It was true that Arthur was tearing up a little but he took a deep breath and shook it off.
"Sure, Cobb. I can handle it. But what in the hell are they going to say when you show up with a fourteen year old boy as your Point Man, hmm?"
Eames shared a looked with Ariadne- both were pleased with Arthur's reply but wouldn't ruin the moment by offering high-fives or handshakes.
Cobb squinted at Arthur and went for a smug expression. He had clearly thought this out on the way to Crummy Suits R Us. "You are a wunderkind Point Man who bears a striking resemblance to our usual Point Man."
Arthur slipped off the lawn chair, secured his afghan, and stood toe to toe with the much taller Extractor.
"If I'm not me, what do you call me?"
"Mr. Darling," Cobb shot back, giving Eames a pointed look that said "hell yes, I went there."
"I knew I shouldn't have taken this job with you. I only wanted to have another chance to work with Eames, anyway!
Cobb and Eames both looked a little shocked, but Ariadne whispered a small triumphant "Called it!" to Yusuf as they exchanged some cash.
Frowning the most formidable frown he was capable of with his sullen fourteen year old visage, Arthur took the suit on its black hanger away from Cobb and walked out of the room.
Cobb and Arthur were back within the hour- far too early for a successful meeting, and if the look on Cobb's face was anything to go by, the Extractor was planning on making Arthur suffocate on his department store tie.
Never mind that the colors and pattern of said tie had made even Eames want to gag!
"What happened?" Eames said, closing a book he had brought with him in case things got slow.
Cobb looked ready to growl. He was already pacing back and forth in front of the smugly grinning Arthur. Eames raised an eyebrow as Arthur shrugged in response.
"We have lost the client because Arthur is just ridiculous!"
"Really?" the Point Man asked with widened eyes, smiling innocently. Eames couldn't help but smile back when he noticed the appearance of the dimples!
The Extractor was in full parental mode. He squinted at Arthur and got right up in his face. "Don't be a smart ass, Arthur! My god, you ruined the entire job with your comments and eyerolling! And what was with all the sighing?"
Cobb honestly seemed to be waiting for an answer, arms crossed over his chest, and leaning forwards.
To provoke him further, Arthur rolled his eyes and heaved a gusty uninterested sigh, saying, "Whatever."
Cobb's eyes nearly bugged out. Eames was there within a moment, shocked at his own speed, feeling proud to be standing in between the two dream workers- Arthur safely behind his back and Cobb squinting away at his front.
"Cobb, I'm telling you this right now." Eames smiled his best smile for the Extractor. "If you lay one hand on Arthur, I will rip you to pieces. I may have fallen for the "I'm doing this for my kids" garbage back with Inception, but you can't treat team members this way! The second Yusuf has fixed Arthur up, we are ditching you. No more reunion performances of the team that completed Inception!"
Both men were breathing heavily, eyes narrowed. This was war; this was decided on who flinched first- Eames or Cobb?
And when Eames did a nice little mock lunge forwards, the Extractor jumped a mile and almost fell on his ass.
The Forger then reached for Arthur's hand and waved at Yusuf and Ariadne.
"We're ditching to see if our hypothesis works, I'd suggest you two hit the road as well."
Eames was about to pull Arthur out the door when the Point Man paused. He held his totem in his hand and asked without having to say a word. It took a moment for Arthur to kneel on the ground in his not-even second-rate suit, to spin the dreidel and watch it fall.
The Forger looked at it for a moment. "Anything good?"
Arthur smiled up at him and proudly said, "Nothing."
They left the warehouse with their things, hand in hand.
As strange as it sounded, another test using Arthur's PASIV proved the theory. He awoke at his home in a change of his own clothing- nothing was ripped or happened to come from a store Arthur wouldn't set foot in. He was in his own bed, hooked up to his own PASIV that wasn't being used to test new versions of Somnacin.
The best part was the fact that Eames was the one he saw when he opened his eyes. The Forger, having patiently waited for the timer to run out, long after he had noticed the transformation take place and return Arthur to the age he could claim before he had decided to start without Eames just a day earlier.
He noticed how Arthur searched in his pocket for his new totem, but didn't try to get up and spin it. Instead he ran his fingers over the deep burns made in the wood, shaping the Hebrew letters of his choice. Eames was just itching to ask. He had made it a point not to release the original totem of the red die until he was certain Arthur wanted it.
It was a comfortable weight in his pocket next to his own poker chip and he was sure that he was going to miss it.
"You're awake, back to your old body, your old age, and no longer on the job with Dominic bloody Cobb. How do you feel?"
Arthur smiled at him and shook his head. "I can't believe it. It was too surreal."
"You'll bounce back. You always bounce back." But he noticed that the Point Man was still tracing the lines on his dreidel and couldn't help but ask.
"Every time you've spun that thing to see if you were really awake and not in someone's dream, all you would say is 'nothing'."
Arthur was still smiling at him and without fear or a second thought he pulled the dreidel out of his pocket and placed it in the Forger's hand. Eames, sat down on the corner of Arthur's bed and looked at it, tracing the lines like Arthur had, feeling the weight but noticing no difference.
Then he remembered what he had thought before concerning dreidels and gambling. That the only way to make a loaded dreidel was to mark each side with the same Hebrew letter.
"Which letter signifies reality to you, darling?"
He felt Arthur take his hand and sketch it out against his palm. "I loved to play dreidel when I was very young- it didn't change the fact that I was horrible at it. Each one of my spins would land on nun, and that stands for the Yiddish word nisht or nothing. Every time I spin this dreidel in reality I will always receive nothing."
Eames frowned at him and looked at the depressing little dreidel. "That's kind of sad, darling. Why would you use that as your sign for reality?"
Arthur pushed himself up into a sitting position, removing the needle and the lead from his arm. He began to sketch another letter against Eames's palm, smiling as he did so.
"In dreams, my dreidel will fall to its extreme opposite. What's the opposite of nothing, Eames?"
The Forger laughed at the silly question, but answered anyway. "Everything," he said, "Maybe all, as in all or nothing?"
"Very good, Eames. Gimel stands for gants or all. In dreams, my dreidel will spin and fall on gimel each and every time. A way for me to differentiate reality from dreams based on child hood games- I'd also had the man at the store burn the letters in the wood deep enough so I could trace them, and recognize which letter my dreidel was marked with."
Eames was now holding the most important thing to Arthur- the totem he had to create after a chemical mishap. Arthur's tether to reality that told him he gets "nothing" while awake but "all" while asleep…
Arthur smirked at the Forger's expression and took the dreidel out of his hand and placed it on the bedside table.
"Are you reading too much into this? I think I've said plenty of things today that you would like better- like how I only took Cobb's stupid job to see you again. That's a pretty big one!"
When the Forger didn't even crack a smile, Arthur pulled out the big guns.
"You know," he said almost nonchalantly. "I've always liked the innocent gambling found in playing dreidel. I might have had bad luck when I was a kid, but I'm certain that now my luck has changed!"
Eames smiled at this, almost like he knew what was coming. But that didn't stop his enjoyment of it.
"Might sound kind of sappy, but I'm sure I've landed on nothing but gimel since I met you."
"This is perfect," Eames said in wonder. "We have so much in common. We love to gamble, we're the best in dream work, and we greatly dislike Cobb!"
Arthur denied none of this but he did get a great idea.
"It's funny, but you'd actually fit in with my family- the first time I ever played poker my grandmother bluffed me and it is a tradition for my younger cousins, nieces, and nephews to beat me playing dreidel and take all of my gelt during Hanukkah."
The Point Man smirked at Eames and refused to give into the fluttering feelings of childish nervousness as he offered to take the Forger home for the holidays because for god's sake, he'd just spent the whole day growing up!
"That is if you'd like to come home during the holidays with me, suffer under the scrutiny, questions, and the embarrassing photos my mother is going to make you look at."
Eames nodded quickly and was already trying to give him a refresher on poker, what the best ways to cheat at playing dreidel might be, and how he was going to charm every single one of his relatives starting with his mother!
"Fair warning, Eames; Grandma will hand your ass to you if you challenge her, the kids are going to try and rely on your inexperience recognizing the letters in Hebrew so I'll teach you the differences, and the only advice I can give you concerning the relatives would be…,"Arthur paused for a minute and then shook his head, "What am I saying? They're going to love you! I'm sure that you already have your foot in the door with my overprotective Jewish mother."
"Oh, perfect!" Eames sighed before he grabbed Arthur by the shirt collar and kissed him senseless.
It should be mentioned that during Hanukkah, Eames managed to cheat while playing dreidel, making nearly all of Arthur's little cousins lose their gelt and then their allowances when they got cocky. He did get bluffed spectacularly by Arthur's grandmother when they played poker, proving that Arthur's dream share poker face was something he had practiced at her side. Nearly all of Arthur's relatives were charmed by the Forger and that included Arthur's mother.
She did bring out the photos.
Yes, they were embarrassing.
But, Arthur didn't care because he was getting gimel now on every spin with Eames at his side.
The End.
A.N- Over fifteen pages of child Arthur, ending with telling Dom to take a hike, and Eames getting to meet Arthur's family. I didn't get to play dreidel a lot when I was little, but kind of liked the idea of Arthur making a wooden dreidel his totem after the accident. I hope you enjoyed this story- go ahead and review and tell me what you think!
- slashmania