Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations all characters end up in.

A Picture's Worth

After doing his last walk through of the casino Eames said good night to the floor manager and head of security before heading for the elevator to have his little talk with Arthur. He still couldn't figure out what had changed the man's mind, just that he was glad something had. His lover had headed up to their living quarters a half an hour ago, apparently there was set up to be done before the man could tell him who was after him. What the man would need to set up was beyond him, but Eames figured it was just Arthur's need to prepare himself and his spiel in private.

Entering their quarters Eames walked in and headed for the living room, spotting Arthur there on the couch immediately. Coming around the forger stopped dead in his tracks when he saw that there were cords…CORDS…coming out of his huge, beloved flat screen television. Paling slightly Eames's eyes followed the cords from his baby to the laptop Arthur had set up on the coffee table. Lifting his head to meet his lover's slightly amused gaze Eames wasn't in the mood to be teased.

"What are you doing to my TV?"

It took a great deal of control not to laugh at the look on Eames's face. Schooling his features Arthur motioned for the forger to take a seat beside him. "Relax. I haven't done anything that can't be undone. I just needed the bigger screen."

A faint tic was making itself known under his right eye as Eames took the seat, prepared to make Arthur sleep on the damn couch if the man hurt his flat screen in any way.

Keeping a straight face would have been impossible if it weren't for what he was using the man's beloved television for. Leaning forward Arthur tapped a button, ending the screensaver so that his normal background came up. At the bottom were several tabs indicating the various sites he'd access to go along with his presentation.

Seeing where this was going Eames looked over at his lover with an indulgently amused expression. "Darling, I know you love charts and Powerpoint presentations, but I really just need a name and address."

Instead of dignifying that with an answer Arthur clicked on the first link, a photograph taken from a magazine. In the picture the elegantly dressed couple, who were in their early seventies, stared straight ahead, both looking well for their age and possessing an ingrained poise that spoke of old money and breeding. "These are my maternal grandparents. My grandfather, Edward Gordon the Second, is the man who hired Dutch and the others to apprehend me."

"Why?"

Arthur's gaze never left the screen as he explained. "The Gordons are old money; my grandfather nearly doubled what they had when he took over the reins from his father. He and my grandmother had two children together, Edward Gordon the Third and my mother, Elizabeth Gordon Levitt Hillard." Here Arthur brought up the next picture, of a man in his late fifties who looked sad and beaten, unhappiness engraved into his face. "My uncle was naturally in line to take over the business after my grandfather, but the old man put too much pressure on my uncle, asked too much of him. Uncle Edward crumbled under his father's thumb; he started drinking heavily in his late teens and still does. He's in and out of private clinics, but as long as the old man lives I don't see him kicking the habit anytime soon. Uncle Edward and his wife have three daughters, no sons."

The next picture featured another couple, Eames recognizing the woman as Arthur's mother. It was there in the shape of the mouth, the nose. She could also close her face down just like her son, hiding her thoughts and feelings from outside viewers. In the picture her face was a blank and almost lifeless. The man beside her looked like your average Wall Street shark, and Eames disliked the uptight looking ass on sight.

"This is my mother and her current husband, Marcus Hillard. My grandfather has little use for women expect as heir providers, bargaining chips, or status symbols. He ignored my mother for most of her life until he realized that Uncle Edward wasn't going to get any better or produce a son to step into the family shoes."

"She became important because she had you." Eames said softly, pieces falling into place. That was why Cobbs had been so sure no harm would come to Arthur. His lover would be no use to the old man if he were permanently incapacitated or killed. The man didn't want information from Arthur or revenge, he just wanted Arthur. Permanently.

Arthur nodded his head. "And my grandfather, when it comes to family, never learns from his mistakes. He tried to control my life the same way he had controlled my uncle's. He didn't succeed with me though because my father stood in his way. My mother is as much a doormat where my grandfather is concerned as her mother. But my father, who was in general as easy going as you are, was no one's doormat where my mother and I were concerned. I wasn't learning Cantonese at five unless I damn well wanted to learn it."

"He wanted you to learn to speak Chinese at five?"

"Foreign languages are easier to learn when you're younger, and he does a lot of business over there."

"Ah. Do you speak Cantonese?"

"No, though I do know a little Japanese. My father was in the computer business and he designed videogames as a hobby. He was very into Japanese culture and I watched a lot of anime as a kid."

Eames lips twitched in amusement at the idea of Arthur watching grown up cartoons. Then his expression firmed up as he looked over at the other man. "So what you're saying is that I really shouldn't worry because it's your family who's after you. Because that doesn't cut it for me if your grandfather is willing to hire Dutch, Arthur. That says he's seriously desperate to me. And he has to know how stubborn you are so how does he propose to get you back into the family fold for the sake of the Gordon family empire?"

"When he tried to hire Dom it was Inception he had in mind. Before that he intended to pay a team to infiltrate my mind to find out my weak spot, what would drive me to come back into the family fold as you put it. Neither would work of course, but he knows he can't use family, loyalty or money with me. It's occurred to me that he might hope to uncover someone with me that he could use as a bargaining chip, but that hasn't worked for him before. If he found me he might go after you or Dom, but you can both handle yourselves and he should know me well enough to know that I would come at him with extreme prejudice were he to manage to catch either of you. And though I'd trade myself for one of you, he should know me well enough to know I'd make him sorry he did. A lot of the times I think he's doing all this to irritate me into doing what he wants just to stop his harassment."

Eames didn't beat around the bush. "Would he kill you for destroying all he's built by refusing to take over for him?"

Arthur forced himself not to react, having hoped the man wouldn't ask that question. But he had to be honest, he and his lover had a deal. They didn't lie to each other. "I don't know."

"Why don't you face him and have it out with him?" Arthur wasn't a beat around the bush type. There had to be a reason Arthur was allowing the man to influence his life to this degree. Though he'd kept his names, Eames thought, having noted that before. The names that mattered Arthur had refused to give up, even knowing they could lead trackers straight to him.

His lover's answer was blunt and sharp with hate. "Because I want him to keep trying to find me so that he doesn't sell off the company the way he should. I want him to die knowing his legacy will be destroyed because he disowned the one family member who could have saved it."

Eames reached out and cupped his lover's cheek. "Some Greek guy, whose name escapes me, once said that before seeking revenge you should dig two graves."

"That would be Confucius, who was Asian, and you're paraphrasing." Arthur returned, setting his hand overtop of Eames's as he looked the forger straight in the eyes. "And you should only dig those two graves if you devote yourself to getting your revenge. I'm not doing anything. My life now is about you and our business together. And that's the way I want it. Me reading the stock market and enjoying the stock failures just adds spice to my life."

Leaning forward Eames's pressed his lips against Arthur's, drawing back only a little so their breaths mingled. "And what we have is what you want."

"Absolutely." And now Arthur returned the gesture, pressing his lips against his lover's in a brief, soft kiss before pulling back. "And now I'll unhook my laptop from your flat screen. I just wanted to blow the images up enough so that if you were to see them you'd recognize them. And I wanted to freak you out a little about me using your baby." He added with a gleam in his eyes. "You love that flat screen as much as I love…organizing things." Arthur finished lamely, his mind reeling over what he'd almost said. Thank God he'd caught himself.

Blinking, Eames wanted to ask the other man what he'd meant to say instead, but he knew his lover well enough to know that Arthur would wiggle out of answering somehow. And he had a feeling there was a lot more to the story that his man wasn't telling, but he was willing to take what he could get for the moment. And Arthur was done discussing his family, Eames could see it in the other man's eyes. But there was one thing he was going to ask for before the laptop was unhooked from his baby.

"Got any pictures of your dad in there?"

Arthur blinked in surprise, and then his lips curved into a small smile. "Yeah."

)

While he watched Arthur clicked close all the other links and then his lover accessed his own personal files. Everything was neatly labeled to an anal degree, Eames noted in amusement, even as he quickly read the names on the files in the picture's section. There were file folders for Ariadne, Dom, Arthur's father, himself and- and his man clicked on his father's folder before he could read the rest. But he'd get to those later, Eames thought, even as he laughed out loud at what had come onto the screen. "Darling, I need to spend more time getting you naked. You have way too much time on your hands."

Arthur looked at the screen, seeing it through Eames's eyes. He had divided his photographs of his father into various categories as well, making it easy for him to locate any picture he might want to view. To him it was efficient and well organized, to Eames a navy sock and a black sock were basically the same thing.

Lips twitching Arthur accessed the file he'd labeled as 'Favorites' and put it into slideshow mode.

A smile still on his face Eames settled back to watch the show with his lover, his arm around Arthur's shoulder. He could definitely see that the two men were related, though the man he now knew as Arthur's father had an open, smiling face in all of the pictures. But then again, in all the pictures of a young Arthur, the boy was making the same sorts of faces as his father. Their bond was obvious in every photograph, and in the pictures featuring Arthur's mother she looked just as happy as the main men in her life. Nothing like the woman had in the earlier picture.

At his request Arthur accessed more pictures and they were mostly done going through the next set when Arthur's phone signaled a text message. Pulling it from his pocket Arthur studied the readout. "The cash register in the bar has gone down and they can't get it to come back. It shouldn't take me long to fix."

"Hurry back." The look he gave his point man said plainly Arthur was not to leave the building for any reason or else.

Arthur just smiled and nodded.

Eames waited until Arthur was in the elevator before he grabbed the laptop mouse to stop the present slide show and started backtracking. There had been a file folder entitled '1st Con' in Arthur's father's file folder that interested him. Clicking on it Eames's interest was further piqued when he clicked on the file and saw that there were two files in it, one entitled pictures, and the other a video link.

Clicking on the video one Eames sat back to watch.

Arthur's father appeared on the screen, dressed in clothes more suited to kid than a man over twenty. The oddly dressed man grinned into the camera and informed whoever was running the machine that this was the first convention he would be taking his son Arthur to. The camera lowered down and there was Arthur, or at least Eames assumed it was Arthur. A three year old Arthur dressed in a strange yellow costume that made the red cheeked boy vaguely resemble a rabbit.

In the video Arthur's father squatted down to put himself closer to his son's height. "Now as you can see my adorable son here is dressed as the much loved Pokemon who kicks all other Pokemon's rear ends. And being the brilliant boy I know and love, Arthur already has his lines learned, don't you, Arthur?"

Bouncing up and down Arthur nodded, his yellow ears tipped in black bouncing with him as he delivered his lines with glee. "Pika! Pika! Pikachu!"

Eames didn't even hear the rest of it, he was too busy laughing so hard he was afraid he'd bust a rib. Using the mouse the forger replayed the scene over and over again before it occurred to him that Arthur was not going to be willing to show him this again. So he accessed his email and quickly sent himself the file so that he could watch Arthur impersonate a Pokemon anytime he wanted to.

Lips still twitching Eames decided to check out who else Arthur had pictures of besides the ones he'd spotted earlier, in case Arthur got the jump on his. And as it turned out there were files labeled for Merry and Pippin, but that was it in the main picture folder. There were no folders for any other member of Arthur's family, or people he didn't know through Arthur.

Letting that turn around in his head Eames accessed his own file, not surprised to see that his photographs had been broken up into categories too. He was surprised to see that one of them was labeled as 'Before Eighteen', but figured he had his mother or grandmother to thank for that. And it made him happy to know Arthur would want them. The other files were divided into individual photos, family photos, couple photos, misc and…and one labeled 'Private'.

Raising an eyebrow Eames moved the mouse to access that last one, both eyebrows hitting his hairline when a box popped up demanding two passwords.

Okay, Eames silently drawled out as he stared at the box. Now what did he have here? Why would Arthur password some pictures?

Unless of course…well…well…well.

A wide, rakish grin splitting his face Eames suddenly had a very good idea what could be in that particular file. He was learning all sorts of interesting things about his lover tonight.

Opting to look at more pictures while he waited for Arthur to return Eames accessed the file folder labeled 'Couple' to pass the time with. The first picture caught his attention enough that he didn't bother using the slide show feature, clicking on it so that he could get a better look.

Eames had never seen the picture before; Dom had to have taken it. It was of him and Arthur in side by side lawn chairs, he recognized them from their third…no forth job together. They were out, the arms draped over their chests hooked up to the machine. But their other arms….were hanging over the side of the chairs, their fingers linked together between them. There was no way they would have done that before being hooked up, so sometime during whatever dream they'd been in they'd reached out for each other.

"My favorite picture of us. Dom took it and gave it to me afterwards." Arthur said as he came around the couch, taking his former seat beside the man.

"I'd like a copy of it."

"Sure." Arthur smiled at the picture, relaxing against his man's side. "Any others you want a copy of?"

"Probably. I've just started looking at these. I am interested in knowing about the pictures you have in my file that require a password. Why is that exactly?"

Arthur's lips twitched ever so slightly. It had occurred to him while he was downstairs that there were some pictures and files on his laptop that he'd prefer the other man didn't get a look at. But everything seriously private was passcoded and Eames was no hacker.

"You're welcome to try and get at what's in there."

Grinning Eames leaned in and placed kisses up the side of his man's neck. "Or you could just put in the passwords so that I can see for myself what sort of pictures you took of me while I was unaware."

Arthur grinned as he tipped his head to the side, his eyes closing in pleasure as Eames nibbled on his ear lobe. "I don't think so."

Eames moved his hand to massage and knead Arthur's thigh. "Something to keep you warm while I'm away?"

To the forger's delight Arthur shifted over and straddled him, the point man's hands reaching out to undo Eames's shirt buttons. "No, I don't use them to get warm." Pushing the shirt away from his lover's skin Arthur's fingers spread over the man's six pack. Leaning forward Arthur placed his lips against the man's ear. "I use them to get me more than just a little warm, Lover."