Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations all characters find themselves in. Everything else belongs to someone else and that's the way it's gotta be.

Looking Good

It was nearly dinner time and Eames was somewhat anxiously awaiting the arrival of Arthur and the kids. Normally their tutoring sessions were in the early afternoon, but today Arthur had arranged to take Phil and James into the city to see a theater production of Peter Pan. So rather then put the meeting off until the next day Eames's mum had suggested they simply come by the house for dinner after the show and have the usual lessons afterwards. Arthur had agreed to the idea and so now they were simply waiting for the three to arrive.

When the knock on the door came Eames's mum went to welcome them in, Eames hearing her exclaim at how handsome the 'men' looked and how stunning Philipa was from the hallway before he got his own look, falling head over heels in lust with the look Arthur was currently sporting on sight.

Dressed in a three piece black suit, as well as sporting a fedora and fancy dress shoes, Arthur looked like he'd just walked off the set of a Prohibition era gangster movie, his slick back hair and the knowing little grin he aimed in Eames's direction completing the look and insuring that Eames would be dreaming them into an X rated, gangster themed porno in his dreams that night.

It was going to be sooooooo good.

Thankfully Phillipa and his mum were busy discussing how Arthur and James were wearing Hugo Boss and she was wearing a French designer he'd never heard of, so Eames was hopeful that the topic of clothes would distract both girls long enough that they didn't notice the fact that he was seriously eye fucking his 'tutor', who was well aware of what he was doing and didn't mind at all judging from the look Arthur was aiming in his direction.

And then Arthur was striding over to him with a sexy swagger that went straight to Eames's groin even before the other teenager braced his hands on either side of his wheelchair and then leaned in close so that they were nearly nose to nose.

"Good evening, Mr. Eames."

When he said Arthur's name in return it came out a croak, but then Arthur was pressing their lips together in a quick but definite kiss, and that held all his attention until their lips parted again and Arthur had straightened up and was smiling at him knowingly once more.

The sexiness of the moment was somewhat hindered by Phillipa's giggling and James's groaning over the whole 'yucky kissing thing', but Eames had never had a problem focusing all his attention solely on Arthur either.

"Well you three must be hungry, let's head into the dining room, shall we?" Amusement in her voice Eames's mum was kind enough not to comment on what they'd just done, though there was a look in her eyes that said she'd have a thing or two to say about it once their guests were gone for the evening.

"Yay!" Jumping up and down in delight as the kiss was forgotten in favor of dinner, Phillipa held up the bag she'd been carrying and announced that it contained the strawberry shortcake they'd promised to bring for dessert from a famous bakery in the city. They'd have to stand in line forever to get it.

"Wow, that certainly is a long time. No wonder you're famished." Grinning, Eames's mother gave Phillipa a wink. "You kids head in and I'll put that in the fridge until it's time for dessert."

After handing the bag over Phillipa grabbed her little brother's hand and started leading him towards the dining room while Eames's mum headed for the kitchen, leaving the two teenagers to bring up the rear so to speak.

Mentally praying for more of his blood to head up instead of down, Eames carefully turned his wheelchair around and started after the kids at a very slow roll as he asked Arthur how the play had been in a hopefully pretty causal tone of voice.

"It would have been better if certain members of the cast hadn't tried to unsuccessfully imitate British accents, but other than that it was a fairly well done production. James and Phillipa enjoyed it, anyway. How about you? How did you spend your day?"

He'd spent a great deal of his time waiting impatiently for Arthur to arrive, but since that was too embarrassing to say Eames settled for the other truth, grimacing as he admitted that he'd spent a large portion of his day in the kitchen with Mimi, helping her with her canning.

"Canning?"

"Yeah. Beets, beans, and pickles. Or they will be."

Arthur blinked at him in surprise. "People fully immersed in first world technology still do that?"

Laughing at the way the other teenager had phrased his question Eames grinned as he confirmed the fact that yes, people other than the Amish and hippies still canned food in the United States. It was getting rarer, yes, but there was still enough of the older generations around that the skills were still being passed down so to speak.

"Huh." A considering look came over Arthur's face. "That could be educational for the children. Particularly the cucumbers and how they've changed into pickles."

Not even surprised that Arthur would see it that way, Eames just smiled and continued to lead the way into the dining room and up to the spot cleared for him. Right beside Arthur's seat.

)

As was his habit Arthur allowed the others at the table to monopolize the dinner conversation once it started, the fact that he didn't need to participate providing him with a better opportunity to learn more about the individual members of Eames's family, as well as get a sense of the family in general. Families always interested him because he'd had such a limited understanding of the concept before taking over guardianship of his siblings. Since then he'd learned a great deal about what it meant to be a 'real' family, but he was aware that his was still unorthodox in comparison to many other family out there. Of course the increase in divorce, teen pregnancy, and the general decay of Western society in the last sixty odd years had damaged the idea of 'family' in many ways, so the fact that he couldn't give his siblings the ideal didn't differentiate them too much from their peers.

Instinct had him glancing out of the corner of his eye, Arthur smiling a little when he caught the other teenager once again watching him. Eames response to being caught was to flush and study the contents of his plate studiously, which he found oddly cute.

It also explained the phrase puppy love to him, which he'd never really gotten since why would anyone think it was remotely complimentary to compare their feelings for someone with what one could feel for a pet? Now that Eames wasn't trying to hide his feelings for him, and was in fact being very obvious in his interest, Arthur couldn't help but be reminded of Sorry and the way his brother's dog could look at him and make him put aside far more important tasks to pet the affection seeking canine and play endless games of fetch and tug of war. Eames made him want to stroke and play with him too, when he looked at him so adorably.

Shaking his head at the thought, it was so very unlike him after all, Arthur wasn't even aware of what he'd done until he was asked by Eames's grandmother as to why he'd shaken his head. Answering somewhat honestly, he said that he'd been thinking about Sorry.

"He's our dog." Phillipa added, in case Mimi didn't know that. It was, after all, an unusual name for a pet.

"I see. I would have taken you as more of a cat person, Arthur."

"I suppose when it comes to the personality traits often attributed to felines and canines I would have more in common with a cat. They would certainly require less care and attention than Sorry, but I'm not sorry with James's choice in pet."

"Sorry's the first pet we've ever had." Phillipa put in. "Though Arthur did have some animals at his school that he helped take care of while studying them and stuff."

When Mimi and Eames grimaced Arthur guessed that they were thinking of what often happened to the animals used in science classes, something his siblings didn't know about at the moment except when it came to those horribly manipulating service announcements PETA and groups of that ilk liked to put on the TV to make people want to give them money just so they'd stop. He always flipped the channel when those things came on as his siblings knew too much about pain and suffering as it was.

Plus they'd come close to getting him to send money too many times to count, and he did not take kindly to being manipulated by anyone. Even for a good cause.

"So caring for those animals didn't make you want a pet of your own when you were younger, Arthur? Or did your parents feel it was best not to have one given how much you all apparently traveled?"

Arthur shook his head in answer to Mimi's question. "Some of my roommates had pets, they were allowed at the Institute, but I can't say I ever had a particular desire to have one of my own. But the constant travel was the reason our parents gave James and Phillipa as to why they couldn't have one before now."

"What's the Institute?" This was Eames.

"It's a really special school where special kids go to school cause regular school would be too easy and boring for them. That's where Arthur lived till he graduated and went to live with Grandfather in England."

"You…we're in a boarding school?"

Arthur confirmed that yes, Eames was right in that regard.

"It's a really neat place." Phillipa told them, gesturing with the fork in her hand to further punctuate her love of her brother's former school. "It had a pool, and a big gym, and there were greenhouses and a conservatory, and Arthur's friend Naveen could lie on his chest and bring his feet all the way around to touch his head!"

Everyone had to chuckle at that last part, even James.

"Did you like Arthur's school too, James?"

In explanation when his brother just shrugged, Arthur explained to Eames's mother that he'd graduated from the Institute when he was fourteen. James had been too young to remember his brief visits.

"Arthur, Phillipa said you were living with your grandfather after you finished your schooling at the Institute…why didn't you live with your parents, if you don't mind me asking."

Ah, he'd wondered if anyone would catch on to that little tidbit of information. He wasn't surprised that it had been Eames's mother either. She was a sharp one. "After graduating from the Institute I moved in with my grandfather permanently so that I could continue my education at Oxford, my grandfather's alma mater. I was there for a little over a year and a half before I moved here with James and Phillipa."

"Cause grandfather didn't want us to live with him too."

"Our grandfather doesn't have much patience when it comes to children." Arthur added on to explain his sister's statement before the others could ask about it.

"James and I aren't special like Arthur, so he didn't want us around."

"You are special." Arthur immediately shot back, his tone slightly harsher than he'd meant it to be. Adjusting that problem Arthur gave both his siblings reassuring looks as he reminded them yet again that their grandfather was simply too narrow minded and short sighted to appreciate that they were special too. Just in a different way than him.

The looks they gave him made it clear they still weren't buying it.

Thankfully Mimi came to the rescue so to speak by asking if they'd all lived with their grandfather after their mother's death. Not the most cheerful of topics either, but an easy question to answer.

"Nope. We lived with Grandmere at first, but we didn't like that and so I called Arthur and he borrowed one of Hikaru's jets and came to get us. Grandfather was super mad, Arthur missed two exams at school, but Arthur yelled right back and he can yell really loud when he wants to. That's why we came here, cause grandfather didn't want us and Papa's always working and we were in the way." Phillipa's face lit up. "But we love living here, specially with Arthur. Right, James?"

"Uh huh."

"Arthur's the bestest big brother in the whole wide world."

"And I'd rather have you two than a Nobel Peace Prize." Arthur told them in return, knowing that they'd understand the significance of that. Or Phillipa would, anyway.

Phillipa beamed and then told the others that Arthur and his friends had almost won one of those things before because of a school project they'd done, but the judges had failed to realize the scoop of the boys' brilliance and given the prize to someone else. Or at least that's what Arthur said. He got a really dark look on his face when he talked about it, the little girl making a face to try and replicate the look her brother wore at such times.

Still smarting over that loss, he did not take that sort of thing well, Arthur couldn't help but make a quick scowl that actually did look a fair amount like the face his sister had just made before he adopted a more acceptable expression seeing as Eames and his family were looking at him like he'd grown an extra head.

In the silence James's voice seemed particularly loud, though he spoke in his usual soft voice. "Peas, please."

)

Hours later Eames sat on his bed, still reeling from everything he'd learned about Arthur earlier at dinner. He was possibly dating someone who was so smart he'd almost won a Nobel Peace Prize. He'd looked it up online and everything, and though he hadn't really been able to make heads or tails of whatever it was their project had been it had gained a fair amount of press for Arthur and his classmates. Arthur had only been twelve at the time for fuck sakes! The mind boggled. His in particular, Eames admitted with a grimace. It sure as hell begged the question of why someone as brilliant as Arthur would want to date him in the first place, but then again the other teenager had been hired to tutor him so it wasn't like Arthur hadn't had a good handle on his mental acuity beforehand. Still…it was a little depressing and troubling to know how huge the intelligence gap actually was.

On the A side though, it was obvious Arthur loved his siblings and they weren't super geniuses either. How close they were was even more surprising now that he knew Arthur had been in a boarding school for at least some of his childhood. Given the age gap between the teenager and his younger siblings it stood to reason that they hadn't really grown up together, yet it was obvious both kids thought the world revolved around Arthur. They adored him and Arthur had blown off exams at Oxford for Christ sakes because they'd called him to come get them, just because they didn't want to stay with their grandmother any longer.

That Arthur was the sort of guy that would do that…well just when he thought the other teenager couldn't be any more attractive to him. Wow.

Unfortunately his thoughts drifted from there to the fact that Arthur's former boyfriend, Mr Rich and Famous Saito, was, according to the articles he'd read, pretty damn smart on top of being able to loan his teenage boyfriend a jet so that he could fly across the ocean at a moment's notice. But yeah, thinking about Saito on top of Arthur being an out of his league genius was only going to mess with his brain that much more.

Positive things. He definitely needed to focus on the good aspects of tonight.

With that thought in mind, especially since he did have some really good stuff to think about thanks to his pretty brilliant night, Eames opted to focus on the fact that after they'd had their tutoring session they'd all headed downstairs to watch Phillipa's copy of 'Ponyo', which she'd promised to loan him after they'd gone to the movies together before. The kids had headed down first and Arthur had made them both get off the couch so that he could stretch out on it. Ever observant, Arthur had noticed that his back had started to bother him even though he'd done his best to hide it from them all. That Arthur had been paying enough attention to him to notice…well he'd grinned like an idiot even as he'd pointed out that they were technically guests and the kids were welcome to the couch if they wanted it. Not that Arthur had gone along with that argument, no siree. Said arguing with Arthur hadn't done him any good, especially since he hadn't wanted to argue once he realized Arthur intended to let him put his head on his lap. He was pretty sure that had been a bribe to get him to stop arguing, and a fucking fantastic one at that.

In the end Phillipa had curled up in his old bean bag chair, and James had sat on the floor beside Arthur's legs which had probably been a good thing since it meant that the two kids had pretty much killed any chance there would have been of him and Arthur doing anything over G rated. As it was Arthur had simply stroked his hair absently as the movie played, the touch soothing instead of sexual. He'd loved it.

Arthur could pet and stroke him any time.

And on that note he had a sexy, X-rated dream involving Arthur and that erotic as hell suit and fedora to get to.

Yay.