Nothing Less From You
Title: Nothing Less From You
Series: #8 of Haunted
(#1 - Lost In Your Embrace, #2 - Conquer And Devour, #3 - Cry Out For More, #4 - Not Meant For Me, #5 - Marked, #6 - Mistress, #7 - Shadow Of The Sun)
Author: Eustacia Vye
Author's e-mail: eustacia_vye28@hotmail.com
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Ariadne/Arthur/Eames
Disclaimer: Everyone here belongs to Christopher Nolan and not to me. His toys are fun to play with!
Spoilers/Warnings: Post-movie. For the inception_kink meme prompt in round 12: I just want a straight up porn fill about Ariadne and Eames giving Arthur a blowjob at the same time. Title and cut text from City and Colour's "Save Your Scissors."
Summary: The only holiday that Arthur and Ariadne had ever seriously celebrated as a couple is Thanksgiving with his mother in Washington, DC. Now Eames gets to join the tradition.
Ariadne kissed Eames slowly and methodically, smiling against the skin of his stomach. He had his collar and cuffs on, and Arthur's ties were used to attach his cuffs to the headboard. Arthur didn't complain, actually; he had double checked the knots to be sure that they would hold, and he happily kissed his way along the inside of Eames' thigh. The idea was that Eames couldn't come until Ariadne allowed it, and his erection couldn't flag or falter if their attention wandered elsewhere. They had been at it for more than an hour, and Arthur had at one point pushed his way into Ariadne because he couldn't take the tension anymore. Eames' eyes had tracked them hungrily, his breath coming in short pants. "Mistress," he whispered as Ariadne panted and spasmed, her breath gusting over his skin. She didn't acknowledge him until she began kissing his stomach again, a languorous smile on her face.
"You're being very good, Ben," she purred. He gave her a shaky smile, and she licked the moisture beaded at the tip of his erection. He sucked in a breath, and she smiled as she looked up at him through her eyelashes. Arthur moved to cup his balls in his hand, and Ariadne blew across the moist skin. Eames shivered, begging her with his eyes to let him come. "You've definitely done everything I asked today."
"I only wish to make you happy, Mistress," Eames replied, his voice not much more than a soft moan.
Ariadne licked the length of his cock as if it was a lollipop. "Good answer. Excellent answer. One that deserves my full attention."
She closed her mouth over him and sucked gently, making Eames gasp and arch slightly into her mouth. Arthur stroked his balls lightly, then ran a fingernail along his perineum. "Oh, God," Eames moaned. Ariadne continued to lick and suck him, and Arthur kept up his slow strokes as he watched Eames try to keep from writhing. "Mistress," he managed to gasp as his cock twitched slightly in her mouth.
Pulling away to kneel on her haunches, Ariadne smiled softly. "When I start sucking on you again, I want you to come. I want to taste you."
"Yes, Mistress," Eames gasped. "Thank you, Mistress."
Smiling happily, Ariadne leaned down and took Eames into her mouth again. She sucked on him, long and deep, tongue sliding along the veins. Eames shuddered as Arthur bent his head to mouth his balls gently, running his tongue along the thin patch of bare skin there. Between the two of them, Eames closed his eyes, canted his hips and cried out as he came, pulling at his tied wrists.
He slowly opened his eyes as they pulled back. Ariadne had that satisfied smile on her face, a slight curling of her lips that made him want to kiss her. Arthur beat him to it, visibly licking the taste of Eames out of her mouth. Arthur then leaned down, his body pressed up against Eames' bare chest. He tugged on the ties, releasing Eames' wrists, mouth hovering just over those panting lips. Arthur licked the outer edge of those lips, a smile on his face. "You so like to please Ariadne, don't you?"
"Yes, I do," he answered, an answering smile on his face. Eames let out a content sigh as Arthur slid his hand behind his neck to pull him in for a lusty kiss. Ariadne undid the wrist cuffs and left the collar on for last. When the two men broke for air, Ariadne gave Arthur a playful shove on the shoulder to remove the collar.
She put them all carefully down on the bedside table, and then curled up on the bed beside her lovers. "Mmm. Wonderful today, yes?"
"Absolutely, love," Eames replied, kissing her temple.
"We need to bring them when we go to DC," Ariadne said with a smile.
"And how are we going to explain those to my mother?" Arthur asked with an arched eyebrow on the other side of Eames. "It's not as if Eames is some goth or emo kid, you know."
"Hide them under his clothes, of course. Like we did with my bootlaces."
Eames gave a happy little hum at the thought of that exercise. "I vote we do that again."
Ariadne laughed and kissed his jaw. "You would."
Arthur pressed his lips to Eames' shoulder in a possessive kiss. "Well, we'll have to pack soon. I should remind my mother about the flight."
"What time is it there?"
"Way too late to call, even for her," he replied, suppressing a yawn. "I'll call tomorrow. She'd be at work by then."
"Sounds like a plan. Sleep now," Ariadne said, getting up just long enough to pull up the covers. "Packing and calling and whatever else in the morning."
"Yes, Mistress," both men chorused, teasing her. She laughed and tickled them both, then Eames pulled her down on top of him. She giggled, then snuggled between the both of them to sleep.
The following afternoon, Arthur dialed his mother's work number. It was a six hour difference in time, so she would be just getting settled into the day. Ariadne was sketching idly at the dinette table, and Eames was puttering around in the kitchen putting together a sundae that looked like it had at least a thousand calories in it. He wrinkled his nose at the sight of all the caramel syrup as the line connected. "Good morning," he said smoothly. "Can I speak with Alice Silverton, please?" He paused as the woman on the other end of the line spoke. "It's her son, Arthur." He laughed easily and sat down beside Ariadne, leaning his chin on her shoulder to look at the sketch she was doing. "Yeah, I know. I usually call her at home, but I got tied up last night."
"Actually, that was me, darling," Eames said, pitching his voice louder so that it carried over to where Arthur was sitting. He grinned unrepentantly when Arthur whipped his head around to glare at him. "You do like specificity, after all."
Ariadne giggled, which didn't help matters, but apparently Alice came on the line. "Hey, Mom," Arthur said, voice soft and happy. "I just wanted to remind you that we'd be arriving at Dulles on Tuesday afternoon." He grinned, looking much younger than his actual age. "I was just making sure! I didn't want the three of us to wind up having to take a taxi and find the door locked. Not that it would matter, but I don't know if you've changed the security code or not." Ariadne laughed out loud at that, head thrown back. "Yes, that's Ariadne. Want to talk to her?"
She took the phone and Arthur got up. He poked Eames' stomach as he took a bite of his sundae. "We need to work that off."
"That was the idea," he replied cheekily. He held out his spoon. "There's enough to share."
"Of course there is," Arthur replied, taking the spoon. He took a bite and smiled at Ariadne chattering away happily with his mother. "It'll be a nice break. After we get back I can start looking into jobs."
"Pietro is still missing," Eames told him. "I could probably see if Vincenzo's seen him. Or talk to Mustafa about working down there again. It'll be warm."
Arthur grinned. "Winters aren't that bad here," he began. His voice trailed off when Ariadne got up from the table.
"Love you, too, Mom. Here's Arthur again."
He took the phone and repeated their itinerary for his mother. Ariadne snagged the spoon from him and took a scoop of the ice cream, taking care to have some of the caramel syrup and whipped cream on the spoon. "You make the most decadent desserts, Ben," she said happily. "What's the occasion?"
Eames laughed and took the spoon back. "An excuse for very vigorous sex tonight?"
She laughed and stood on her tip toes to kiss his jaw. "Mmm. I like how you think. Not that we really need an excuse, right?"
Arthur hung up and placed his cell phone on the counter. "Mom says hi, by the way," he said, coming over to the kitchen counter beside the other two. He took the spoon from Eames again and took another bite of the sundae. "She has off Tuesday afternoon to pick us up at Dulles."
"She does know we're all lovers, right?" Eames asked, eyebrow lofted. "Or is she going to be gobsmacked like poor Rebecca was?"
"She knows we've all worked together. It wasn't something to explain over the phone," Arthur said, shrugging.
"Arthur..."
Ariadne shook her head. "It's his thing, Ben. We were together for nearly six months before I met his mother. Alice knew that he was dating someone, but no details." She poked his arm affectionately. "Someone likes secrets."
"It's not that! This is serious. It's not something you talk about over the phone. You get together, have dinner, get a chance to know each other."
With that explanation, Eames felt touched. He gave Arthur a soft smile and pulled him in for a kiss. "So do you need to warn me about anything before I meet your mother?"
Arthur shook his head and rubbed Eames' arm gently. "She's pretty laid back. I think I can count on one hand how many times she's been truly upset."
"So is being uptight something you inherited from your father?" Eames snarked.
Arthur shrugged. "I wouldn't know. He was a loser that left before I was born." He took another bite of the sundae. "The data I eventually got on him didn't say."
"I didn't know that. I'm sorry."
Snorting, Arthur handed the spoon back. "Don't be. It's not a big deal. Mom was eighteen when she had me. Like I said, he was a loser."
Eames blinked at the casual statement, but Ariadne wasn't surprised. Then again, the two of them had been together for a little over two years before he had been added to the mix. She probably knew all this already. "So was it tough to be without a father?" he asked, brows slightly knit. He tried to imagine a childlike Arthur but couldn't picture it. Somehow he kept coming up with a details-oriented man that liked to appear in control of the situation.
He shrugged again. "There were my grandparents and Aunt Lori when I was little. Then Mom and I moved out to the townhouse in DC. I think you'd like it, actually. It was built in 1902 and has all these cubbies and hiding spots. It was great for hide and seek," he said with a grin. "Mom hated that, mostly because she couldn't fit into all of them."
Eames and Ariadne laughed. "You know, I can't see you as a little boy," Eames admitted. "I keep seeing the suits and khakis."
Laughing, Ariadne took another spoonful of the ice cream. "I have a few albums Alice gave me..."
"God, no," Arthur laughed, shaking his head. "Don't you dare! It'll ruin the image he has of me..."
She left the kitchen, ducking under Arthur's arms as he reached for her. He laughed as she ran into the living room, digging into one of the cabinets beneath the TV. She came back with an old photo album, the kind with sticky pages beneath a cellophane cover. She stayed on the other side of the counter, out of Arthur's playful reach, and flipped the pages for Eames to look at. There were baby photos and some when Arthur was a bit older; those pages were a different color, making Eames think that Alice put pages from different albums into this one for Ariadne to keep. It was a casually loving kind of gesture, one that made him sling his arm around Arthur's shoulders and hold him close. He didn't have any photos from when he was young, and didn't have anything other than a broken pocket watch from his father. It was a little sad, especially in comparison to the care Alice had for her son.
"You were a cute kid," he said, kissing Arthur's cheek. "I should get her to tell me embarrassing childhood stories, right?"
"I'm regretting this trip already," Arthur intoned. It was belied by the grin on his face, however. Eames could tell that Arthur was actually looking forward to introducing him to his mother, and from the easy tone Ariadne had with her, he could tell that Alice was a lovely woman. It would be nice to have some happy family time for a change.
***
Alice Silverton was approaching fifty but didn't look her age at all. Eames would have guessed she was forty. Her hair was dark like Arthur's, with mahogany highlights. Her eyes were a bright blue, and she had some laugh lines around her eyes and mouth. She was two inches shorter than Arthur, which she made up for with heels beneath the jeans and wool coat. She swept him up in a tight bear hug and did the same with Ariadne. She even had a hug for Eames, though it wasn't nearly as effusive. "For once, the planes were on time!" she said with a grin. It looked exactly like Arthur's, complete with a dimple on the side. "This means we may actually miss rush hour traffic!"
She drove a fuel efficient Toyota, which meant there wasn't nearly enough room for their luggage in the back. "Bungee cords are in the spare tire well," she told Arthur, helping Ariadne and Eames pile some of the larger pieces of luggage on the roof rack. Or rather, she and Eames did that, and Ariadne helped hand them the luggage. She pulled an elastic off of her wrist and tied up her hair in a loose ponytail, then let the two men bungee the luggage in place. "Perfect. Now, are you hungry, or should we just head to the house?"
"I think we can head to the house," Arthur said, checking with Ariadne and Eames. They nodded, and he smiled at his mother. "I think we're still on Parisian time, anyway."
"This is why you're supposed to sleep on planes. I have melatonin at home if you need it to avoid the jet lag," Alice said, sliding into the driver's seat. "So," she said, pulling out of the parking lot. "Tell me all about how you've been doing since last year, everyone!"
Arthur was sitting in the passenger seat, with Ariadne and Eames in the back. He started launching into highly edited versions of some of the jobs he had been on; he didn't mention Eames getting hurt the prior spring or his own near brush with death in Alexandria over the summer. Ariadne jumped into the story in places, and Eames was content to let them talk. Their excited voices washed over him, and he found himself drowsing a bit during the drive. It was late in the evening in Paris, and it was comfortably warm in Alice's car.
"Wake up, sleepyhead," Ariadne said after a while, shaking Eames awake when they arrived. "We're here."
The townhouse was a lovely Victorian era house, complete with gingerbread trim done in white against the dark green siding. There were two large bay windows in the front of the house, as well as large hydrangea bushes that were more or less a collection of branches this late in the year. There was a single large maple tree in the front yard, which was perhaps twenty feet wide. It was only that large because the house was a corner property; it didn't look like there was much of a backyard, as most of it was the garage and a tool shed.
"I have both of the bedrooms on the third floor ready," Alice was saying, helping to drag the luggage into the main foyer of the townhouse.
"Actually, we'll only need the large one up there," Arthur said as Eames shut the front door behind himself. "The three of us share a bedroom."
Alice blinked. She looked between the three of them, then glared at Arthur. "Arthur Stanley Silverton! Why didn't you tell me before this?!"
"It's not something to tell you over the phone," he protested.
"And my hallway is any better?" she cried, pulling him into the house and starting to drag him toward the kitchen. "This is like when you brought Henry home your senior year in high school!" She gave him a little shake. "Did you think I was going to say something stupid after that stunt?!"
Ariadne grinned and looked at Eames' stunned expression. "You'll like Alice, I promise," she said, taking off her coat. She took his and hung them up on the coat rack near the door.
"She doesn't like that he likes men?" he asked, hearing Alice's raised voice from the kitchen.
"Oh, she's known for a while that he likes both. He had a girlfriend first. I forget her name, but the way Arthur describes her, she was dippy."
"Dippy?"
"Good body, but not much upstairs. Stereotypical cheerleader dating her science tutor. She broke things off after a few weeks to go out with one of the guys from the wrestling team." She grinned at Eames' startled expression. "I know, right? And Henry was his first boyfriend. He's the one that encouraged Arthur to join the army to get money for college." She led Eames into the living room. "Want to try to stay up? Did the nap help?"
"Yeah. That helped a little," Eames said, looking around the living room. "So is she really angry?"
Ariadne patted his thigh gently as she shook her head, a smile on her face. "That's what he gets for springing it on her like that." The voices in the kitchen were muffled by the doorway, but Alice didn't seem nearly as upset anymore. Ariadne pointed out a few of the pictures on the wall that she really liked, and one entire wall of the living room was nothing but built in bookshelves from floor to ceiling. Alice was an avid reader, with books shoved into every available space. Her paperbacks were even double stacked. Ariadne grinned as she followed Eames' line of sight. "Where do you think Arthur gets it from? She's a paralegal, so she does nothing but research all day, too."
Eames laughed at that, and looked up when Arthur and Alice returned to the living room. He had a sheepish expression on his face, but did seem unscathed. "I see you're still in one piece, then," he snarked.
Alice shook her head ruefully. "My son has some silly ideas sometimes. Anyway, did you want to go out or stay in? You look almost dead on your feet, dear," she said, reaching out pat Eames' arm gently.
"Depends on what's for dinner," he replied, giving Alice a smile.
"I was thinking sukiyaki?" She looked at their three faces, and grinned at the appreciative expressions. "Okay. Sukiyaki it is. I even bought some bean buns at the market, so I can start up the steamer." She turned to Arthur. "And you, no more surprises or I'm telling Lori you did this again."
Arthur winced a little. "But she's with Aunt Heather's side this year..."
"She'd come right back just to yell at you." Alice beamed at him and patted his arm in the same affectionate manner she had patted Eames'. "You're not too old for a scolding when you've been stupid, Arthur."
Eames couldn't help it. He started sniggering, which set off Ariadne, who was trying not to giggle. Arthur glowered at them both. "Oh, darling. Your expression is priceless."
Alice returned to the kitchen to start the steamer and rice cooker, and the three others helped to clear off the coffee table for the sukiyaki. The dining room table was buried under a number of file folders, law journals, bound books of case law and various magazines. There were loose pages with a loose, loopy scrawl on them as well as what looked like some groceries that should have been put in the pantry. It was an elegant table and chair set beneath a crystal chandelier, and one of the front bay windows opened into the dining area.
"You have a very lovely home," Eames said politely as Alice started preparing the ingredients for the sukiyaki. "Anything I can help with?"
"Thank you, but shoo," she said playfully, waving him out of the kitchen. "You're tired and a guest. Next year you'll be more like family, right? Right. Or maybe you are now, I don't know. Arthur didn't say how long you've all been together."
"Since spring, actually," Eames said helpfully, leaning against the kitchen counter. Ariadne had turned on the radio in the living room, and was having a giggly shoving match with Arthur as they cleared space for dinner. He smiled fondly at the sight of them.
"He has some very funny ideas about what's appropriate," she said, following his line of sight. She shook her head ruefully. "You think he'd realize by now that I don't like surprises like that. I never took all his other surprises that well."
"I don't know... It seems like you're taking this rather calmly," Eames commented.
"Well, I thought you were just a friend. I didn't know you were a boyfriend. That's a big difference."
"Still, him liking blokes... You're taking that awfully well, overall."
"Ha. After the first time he surprised me with it? That part's not a surprise at this point." She looked up in between slicing the pork very thin. "Considering Lori, it wasn't much of a shock."
"He doesn't talk about family much," Eames said apologetically. "Who's Lori?"
"My sister. She and her girlfriend have been together practically forever. You know how everyone says there's genetic influence for being gay? So, not a huge surprise."
Eames blinked at her matter of fact manner. "So who does Arthur take after, then?"
Alice laughed. "Not me, that's for sure. Well, maybe in some things. But mostly he's like Lori. She's fussy, and oh my God, if she and Heather were here this year, you probably wouldn't hear the end of it. She's such a neatnik, it drives me up the wall." She finished with the pork and started slicing the vegetables. "You know, you can help me after all," she said after a moment. She had kicked her heels off into a corner of kitchen to be comfortable. "The top cabinet over that counter," she said, nodding toward it with her head. "There's sauces and stuff in there. You're tall enough to grab them without the stepping stool."
He found the sauces in question, as well as some other things she had bought from an Oriental market. "So you like Japanese food, then?" he asked.
"Adore it. And Thai. Italian's good comfort food, but you can get that anywhere. Plus, I don't usually have the patience to put together a good lasagne and then eat it by myself for a week for lunch and dinner, you know? Maybe tomorrow? Then Thursday is the turkey and all the trimmings, of course. You're all staying through next week?"
Eames blinked again. "Yes, I believe so."
"Oh, good. Between the four of us, we can knock off a lasange, then. I can make that."
"You really don't have to, Mrs. Silverton..."
Alice snorted. "Please, none of that. Alice or Mom, whichever's comfy for you. It's Ms., anyway. I never did get married."
"Oh, I'm sorry..."
She snorted again. "Don't be. My parents were inherently thankful, since my taste in men is so atrocious."
Arthur and Ariadne came into the kitchen at that point, and Arthur rummaged around in the fridge for a drink. "Speaking of which, where's Richard? I would've thought you wanted to introduce him to me."
Alice turned when she was done with the vegetables. "Well, I suppose I have a surprise of my own for you, then. I wound up dumping him when his wife called me."
Arthur dropped the carton of orange juice. "His what? But I did the background check! He wasn't married!"
She eyed the carton on the floor and he picked it up to replace in the fridge. "Turns out I never got his real last name, the asshole. His wife Rielle was a very nice lady. We actually met up for lunch to compare notes. She decided I wasn't a house wrecking whore and I decided she wasn't a delusional bitch. And she will most likely be getting the house and kids, so I guess it all ends well."
"When did this all happen?" he demanded.
"Two weeks ago," Alice replied, moving to slice up some raw beef. "Didn't seem appropriate to talk about over the phone," she said, sounding almost as if she was repeating Arthur's words back to him. By his embarrassed look, Eames supposed she was.
"I said I was sorry!" he said, throwing up his hands.
Alice laughed and continued her preparation. "Living room's ready?"
"Yes, Mom," Ariadne said with a grin, rubbing Arthur's back soothingly. "Are we going to clear out the dining room tomorrow?"
"Let me do that. I have a system, and I know where everything is. I'm working on a huge case right now, and I can't lose all the tags I put in the files."
"Oh, that is definitely something the two of you have in common," Eames said with a laugh, looking between the two Silvertons. Arthur gave him a mock glare and Alice just laughed again. Alice just seemed so very easy going, and Eames couldn't help but like her. Arthur had said his mother was a lovely woman, but as usual his description was understated. He probably had become as reserved as he was because of her excessive emotionality.
Dinner was a laid back affair, and the four of them talked about various relatives that Arthur had. He was an only child, as Lori and her partner decided not to have children or adopt. Heather had five siblings, so all of her nieces and nephews were considered Arthur's cousins as he was growing up. They lived in Virginia, and occasionally sent cards or made phone calls to keep in touch. Alice's parents had helped to raise Arthur while she went to college, and had helped her afford the townhouse's down payment for her loan. "Better than paying for a wedding and all that," Alice declared. "Fabulous neighborhood, with a farmer's market on Sundays in the spring and summer, not far from mass transit, and there's tons of kitschy shopping just a few blocks away. And the schools were great for Arthur." She pointed at him with her chopsticks. "You used to be so shy when we first moved here! Do you remember Brandon Gallagher down the street?" she asked. She barely waited for Arthur's nod before continuing. "Well, he's a fourth grade teacher now in Maryland. I saw his mother at the store just yesterday. Married with kids and everything."
"Mom..." Arthur began in an embarrassed tone.
"Don't tell me you don't want kids, Arthur," Alice said, shaking her head.
"Well, in our line of work..." he began.
"Pft. I know you don't tell me everything, but still. Do you honestly think you're going to do dream share forever? They're tightening regulations here in the US. It's only a matter of time before the EU jumps on that bandwagon. Regulations will clamp down even tighter, even for the illegal stuff."
Eames should have known better than to be surprised that Alice knew what they did for a living, but he was still surprised. Arthur gave a negligent shrug. "It's still years away from passing, Mom," Arthur declared.
"Yes, okay, fine, that's true. And I'll admit, now I know what my mother was talking about. I'd like some grandkids to spoil someday! You know, show off some pictures at my desk like everyone else does. Oh, I'll need Ben's picture, too, won't I?"
Eames blinked again, and was glad he wasn't drinking anything. He would have choked in his surprise. "Alice..."
"What? You're important to my son, you're important to me." She frowned at his empty bowl. "Eat, Ben. No need to be so polite." She grabbed a few of the cooked slices of beef with her chopsticks and dumped them into his bowl. "God knows we don't stand on formality in this house."
Ariadne giggled and elbowed Eames. "See? I told you that you didn't have to be worried."
Alice's expression softened slightly as Eames ducked his head a little. "Hey, if it comes down to formality, I haven't a leg to stand on. I'm the one that got knocked up at eighteen, after all," she said in a matter of fact tone of voice. "Still graduated high school and went to prom even eight months pregnant," she added with a firm nod. "Arthur's one of the best things that's ever happened to me," she said with a fond smile, reaching across the table to pat his arm affectionately. "Who cares about a few whispers, right? Right. Fuck 'em all. I'm the one that has to live with myself."
Eames couldn't help but grin at Alice. "Hear, hear," he said. He couldn't help but wish she had been his mother. "I think Arthur's one of the best things that's happened to me, too. Ariadne's the other one."
She had that same fond smile on her face as she looked at Eames. "Well, now I understand why he's been hiding you. I don't like it," she added, pointing at Arthur with her chopsticks with a mock severe tone, "but I understand it. I'm sure we'll talk more tomorrow when I get back from work."
"I thought you got the day off!" Ariadne protested.
"I told you, I'm in the middle of a big case!" Alice cried. She had that same indignant expression that Arthur had when he was told his research wasn't good enough.
Unable to stop himself, Eames laughed. "Oh my god, I just flashed to what you'll be like in another dozen years, Arthur." Ariadne began to laugh, but both Arthur and Alice shot Eames identical annoyed glances. It only made him laugh harder, and he threw an arm around Arthur's shoulders, pulling him in for a one-armed hug. "Oh, don't pull that face, darling. You know how you get on a job, too."
Arthur sighed and shook his head. "Why did we think it was a good idea to start this, again?" he asked Ariadne with a rueful tone.
"Because we love him," Ariadne said, grinning at both of them. She leaned over and kissed Eames' cheek.
"Oh, you three are adorable," Alice declared with a happy sigh. "It's like when Lori and Heather were first going out." She ate more of the sukiyaki and looked over them with a pleased expression.
Eames had an arm around each of his lovers and was smiling at Alice. It was such a perfect moment, one he knew he would always remember.
***
Alice was planning to stay up late to do more research on the dining room table. She did help bring the luggage up to the third floor. There were two bedrooms, one larger than the other, as well as a bathroom under the eaves, and oddly shaped closet spaces. The stairs were steep but not terribly creaky, and there were so many charming Victorian touches along the ceilings and doorways.
The three of them settled into the bedroom. It was a queen bed, with three heavy quilts over the flannel sheets. "It'll be a tight fit, loves, but I'm sure we'll make do," Eames declared, grinning at the other two. "No sprawling, though."
Arthur snorted as Ariadne shut the bedroom door after turning out the hall light. It was nearly two am Paris time, and they were all exhausted. "We're going to be so dead asleep I don't think we'll care."
"You know, Arthur told me that he had a fantasy of having sex with me in his old bedroom." She said, her voice dropping into a sultry tone. "That's downstairs, but I think this bedroom will still do nicely, don't you?"
Eames smiled at Arthur's gobsmacked expression. "Well, you did have the pleasure of shagging her in her old room, Arthur. Not very nice to leave me out of it..." He pushed Arthur backward onto the bed and plucked his pajama top out of his hands. "Think we should punish him for that, Mistress?"
"Mmmm," Ariadne purred, unbuttoning her blouse. "I like how you think, Ben."
"Hey!" Arthur cried when Ariadne wriggled out of the rest of her clothes. Apparently their talk on the plane about no sex in his mother's house didn't matter. "My mother's downstairs!"
"You'll just have to be quiet," Eames replied, wagging his eyebrows playfully. He pulled Arthur's pajama bottoms and underwear down at once, baring him to his gaze. "I think he looks rather tasty, Ariadne." He bent his head down and licked a stripe along Arthur's flaccid cock. "What do you think?"
"So we get to share?" she asked, grinning widely.
"That's the idea."
"Oh, yeah. I definitely like how you think," Ariadne purred.
"Do I get a vote?" Arthur piped up, breath turning shallow.
"Nope," Ariadne said cheerfully. "You get to keep quiet while we take care of you."
Whatever he would have said was swallowed by the gasp he made when Ariadne took him into her mouth for a few sucks. Eames leaned down to feather kisses along Arthur's stomach, then kissed Ariadne's forehead. He let his hand slide down her bare back. "Don't be greedy, love," he murmured. "Save some for me."
Ariadne giggled and lifted her head. "Same time?" Eames answered her sensual grin with one of his own, and they settled comfortably next to each other so that they could both lick along Arthur's length. Ariadne stroked his balls while Eames touched the inside of Arthur's thigh. They weren't terribly coordinated, which got Ariadne laughing when their tongues touched or their foreheads bumped into each other. Eventually, they wordlessly settled into a rhythm of motion. Ariadne licked up one side while Eames licked down the other. Arthur's breath came in soft pants, and he pulled at the top blanket with his fists. Ariadne added a little swirl across the head of his cock with the tip of her tongue on an upstroke, making Arthur moan. Not to be outdone, Eames decided to wrap his lips around the head and tug gently on it.
"Are we going for spit or swallow?" Ariadne asked Eames, giving the head an extra flourish with her tongue.
"Neater to swallow," he replied, then took Arthur into his mouth for a hard suck.
Arthur bucked his hips, letting out a strangled gasp. "Right here, guys," he panted. "I'm still here."
"And still coherent," Eames replied with a grin, scratching at the inside of Arthur's thigh gently. "So we obviously aren't doing the job right."
"Damn," Ariadne said, picking up on Eames' playful tone. "We'll have to work harder."
They resumed their routine, this time taking more time to tease the head and shaft. Arthur's breath was fractured, and he writhed beneath their hands. He made soft guttural moans he couldn't quite muffle by biting his lip, which made them smile against his skin. Eames sucked on him a few times on his turn, and Ariadne started doing the same. Arthur was close, beyond words and unable to signal them. He made a soft choking noise a few minutes later, and came in Eames' mouth.
Eames kicked off his clothes, eyes on Arthur's sprawled body. He pulled Ariadne next to him, not surprised to find her soft and wet against his erection. "We didn't bring anything, so we'll have to be careful." He slid his fingers into her, aware of Arthur's eyes on them. "Unless you have anything I don't know about?"
He shook his head lazily, movements more languid and boneless than usual. "I'll return the favor, though."
Better able to move, Eames shifted position so that Arthur didn't have to move as much to take him into his mouth. Eames pumped his fingers hard and fast inside of Ariadne, his thumb at her clit. She came three times before he did, and they settled into bed beside Arthur. Their limbs were all tangled together, their bodies pressed tight. There were muted good nights, and then they all fell asleep.
***
Eames had never participated in an American Thanksgiving before. He'd seen it in movies heard people he'd worked with talk about it, but he'd never actually helped with one. Wednesday night Alice started baking the lasagne for that night's dinner, as well as prepping pumpkin pies and mixing things together that would eventually become the stuffing and sides. She had a battered Betty Crocker cookbook that she proudly declared had been her mother's, and cheerfully had Arthur and Ariadne help make the pie filling. "We should just buy the pies, Mom. The bakery gets a smoother consistency," Arthur protested.
"So that means you should do a better job blending," she had returned, grinning at his long suffering sigh. Alice directed most of the work as she began clearing off the dining room table, humming along with the radio. Eames wound up helping her, since Arthur and Ariadne didn't need his help following the recipe book. He put the books and journals in the places she indicated, making the piles neat on the coffee table.
"Now, Arthur told me yesterday that this was something that everybody talked about before it really happened," she began without preamble, reaching for some Pledge to wipe down the table once it was cleared. "He seems happy enough about it, and Ariadne's a sweetheart. How about you?"
"I meant it yesterday," he said in a serious tone of voice. "They're the best things that have ever happened to me."
"Well, illegal dream share isn't exactly wine and roses."
"You seem to take that awfully well."
Alice laughed and stood up straight. "You know some awful sticks in the mud, don't you?" she said, grinning at him. "You did say Arthur doesn't talk about family much. He's kind of close mouthed that way. So he didn't say much about me at all, did he?"
"He said you were lovely," Eames told her, shrugging. "I didn't exactly press, either."
"Aw," she smiled fondly toward the kitchen, where Arthur and Ariadne were consulting her cookbook. "He's a darling boy sometimes, isn't he? And other times, you just want to wring his neck," she added with a laugh. "Then again, I was just a kid when I had him. I didn't know any better, really." She shook her head, a musing smile on her face. "Anyway, I'm a paralegal. I know people on both sides of the law, okay? Mostly on the legit side, but I do have a handful of people I know that are not quite on the up and up. Some of it was Arthur's doing, but I've introduced my share of people to him, too."
Eames blinked at her in surprise. "I hadn't realized..."
"Yes, well, we don't want me to lose my job, right? Right. So we don't advertise. But sometimes I'm a nicely discreet avenue for Arthur to get in touch with some people. So I'm aware of what the risks are, and I'm aware of what he probably doesn't like to tell me."
Scratching the back of his head, Eames tried to think of something to say that wouldn't be insulting or demeaning. "No one intends for the worst case scenario to happen, Alice. He's skilled enough to take care of himself, at least."
"Oh, I know that. He'd told me that a thousand times before Ariadne came along and another thousand after. I'm sure there'll be another thousand times after this, too." She let out a breath and looked at the kitchen. "It's hard to think of him getting shot at or dealing with some of the bastards I have to deal with at work, that's all. It's one thing for me to deal with it in the office, because there's a limit to it. It's understood you don't fuck with your lawyer or their staff, since that will just mean nobody would ever defend you again. It's understood. What you're all doing is outside of even those norms, though. What's to stop someone from ignoring that boundary?"
"Because other people wind up dead if they try," Eames replied honestly. "Because he has a reputation in those circles. I suppose I do, too. Ariadne's new, so her only reputation is that she's damned brilliant at what she does."
Alice smiled. "Yeah, Arthur learned pretty quick that empty heads are no fun to play with." She took in Eames' bemused expression. "What?"
"You're not what I expected, Alice."
"I get that a lot. I don't feel forty-eight, you know. I'd say maybe twenty-five. Maybe. I could be pushing it on the maturity thing." They both laughed together at that remark. "Why? What's your mother like?"
Eames' expression darkened before he could help it, and he turned away when he saw the rising alarm in Alice's eyes. "Not nearly as kind or understanding as you are."
"Because of being with Arthur?"
It was almost amusing to see Alice get all defensive on his behalf. Eames smiled in spite of himself. "No. The nicest way to put it, I suppose, is that she's a selfish and inconsiderate bitch that sees children as property that should be quiet in the corner if she can't trot them out to show off."
"Huh. Ariadne said something similar of hers."
Eames thought about that for a while. "I've had the misfortune of meeting Georgia. The execution is different, but yes, I suppose my Mum is cut from the same cloth."
Alice impulsively patted Eames' arm gently. "Well, I don't pretend to think I'm a normal mother, but you're welcome here for holidays."
He pulled her in for a hug, which startled them both. "Thank you, Alice. You know, you're a better Mum than mine ever was."
"Yeah, I did good with Arthur, huh?" she said with a proud smile, looking back toward the kitchen. Arthur was hip checking Ariadne playfully, and she was threatening to toss pumpkin pie filling at his head. "You didn't turn out so bad yourself, Ben."
Eames was stunned, and it must have shown on his face. Alice clucked her tongue. "God, your mother was a selfish cow. Can I send her some nasty e-mails on your behalf, then?"
"You hardly know me."
"I know Arthur and I know Ariadne," Alice said. "They couldn't love someone awful. And despite the fact that all three of you are criminals keeps me up at night sometimes, I know Arthur's grown up enough to make his own mistakes. What I do know of you tells me that you're not one of them."
"Thank you."
She gave him a sweet smile, one that he used to wish his mother would make at him. "Now, enough of the mushy stuff, yes? I know men hate that shit, so I think I've used up your quota for the rest of the year." Eames laughed and played along.
The fine china would be rinsed off in the morning as Alice did the rest of the dinner. She was positively gleeful, glad to have guests in the house again to cook for. "This is the one Mom thing I actually do right," she explained as she dished out the lasagne for dinner. She sat at the head of the dining room table, Arthur on her left, Ariadne on her right and Eames across from her. It wasn't a very large dining room table, but anything larger would have been ridiculous for just her and Arthur. "I can't be bothered to vacuum regularly, but I'm a fabulous cook."
"Don't forget baker," Arthur added helpfully.
"Flattery will get you everywhere," Alice told him with a grin. She gave him a little extra lasagne, and the dinner conversation wound up being descriptions of Arthur from junior high school and high school, and how Alice had been duped into thinking her little science geek son would stay out of trouble after learning from her poor example. "And imagine that, he gives me the lessons on how to use mace properly if I get mugged on the Metro!"
"I don't like knowing you're unprotected, Mom." Arthur shrugged and didn't look sorry at all.
Alice brushed it off with the same careless gestures as she had brushed off everything else. She talked about some of the cases she had done research for, the notes and the contacts she had kept. One of the partners in the firm she worked in was involved in politics, so she had a few more contacts than the average paralegal. It rather explained a lot about Arthur's ability to get in and out of networks he really had no business knowing how to access.
Staying up again to do more research, she let the trio climb the stairs to bed after giving them all a kiss on the cheek and the forehead. There wasn't anything more than heavy petting amongst their tangled limbs before they fell asleep.
The kitchen was bustling the next morning, and Alice was clearly in her element amidst the chaos and clutter. She knew where everything was, even if it seemed initially it was an undecipherable mess. She gave orders that the other three followed, and she was practically waltzing around the room. By noon, the entire house was full of the smells of baking things, and Eames was fascinated by the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. When Alice heard he had never actually seen one before, she plopped him down in front of the TV as soon as he was done helping to put together the stuffing. Eventually, Arthur sprawled on the couch next to him, and Ariadne leaned across both of their laps with her feet on the armrest.
They looked up when a flash went off, and Alice was in the corner of the room with a camera. "Wanna pose for this one?" she asked, grinning at them. They obligingly smiled for her, and she snapped a few shots. "I'll e-mail you these and send over some prints."
"I have photo paper in the apartment, Mom," Arthur said, rolling his eyes.
"And I have a Shutterfly account," Alice countered with a grin.
Dinner was at three, and they were all seated around the dining room table with the Silverton fine china spread out across the table and the sterling silverware. Alice had explained that it had been her grandmother's, and would go to Arthur eventually. "Assuming you ever settle down," she said, unable to help herself from making the dig. Eames found himself snickering and Ariadne pointedly looked elsewhere when Arthur looked to her for support. "Who wants to say grace?"
"Is that a Jewish thing?" Eames asked, confused.
"Hell if I know," Alice said cheerfully. "We haven't really practiced much after Arthur had his bar mitzvah, and I was always a horrible Jew before that. Can you imagine me being kosher? Oh, hell no. But it's been a tradition for us to have someone say grace before we have the big family dinners. We picked it up from somewhere."
"Grandpa said it was from his sister-in-law," Arthur said helpfully.
"Oh. She was Lutheran, I think. So maybe it's a Lutheran thing. Whatever." She made a hand wave gesture. "Not important. So? Who wants to say it?"
"How about we take turns?" Eames offered. "Something we're each grateful for?" The others around the table nodded approvingly. "I'll go first," he offered, and no one disagreed. "I'm thankful that Arthur and Ariadne saw something worth starting. I'm thankful the past doesn't hurt as much as it used to. And I'm thankful that I'm part of this family."
Ariadne blinked back tears that threatened to form. "I'm thankful for all of my friends and family, even my mother. I'm thankful for all of our good health, and that we're able to be together."
Arthur nodded at her and then took a breath. "I'm thankful that I've been worthy of the trust placed in me, and that I'm still here. I'm thankful every day that I've got everything I could ever want."
Alice had a loopy grin on her face that reminded Eames of Arthur's happy grin. "God, it's so great to have people in the house again. I love being busy and having everyone over. I'm so thankful you're safe, Arthur," she said, reaching out to grasp his hand. "And I'm thankful that you're happy, that you're with people you love and that you did learn from my mistakes, even if I still wish you'd get a desk job somewhere so I'd know you're not getting shot at."
Everyone laughed, and Alice grinned happily everyone in the room. "Thank God we've all got each other. Let's dig in!"
All in all, it was the best Thanksgiving Eames had ever had.
The End
Series: #8 of Haunted
(#1 - Lost In Your Embrace, #2 - Conquer And Devour, #3 - Cry Out For More, #4 - Not Meant For Me, #5 - Marked, #6 - Mistress, #7 - Shadow Of The Sun)
Author: Eustacia Vye
Author's e-mail: eustacia_vye28@hotmail.com
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Ariadne/Arthur/Eames
Disclaimer: Everyone here belongs to Christopher Nolan and not to me. His toys are fun to play with!
Spoilers/Warnings: Post-movie. For the inception_kink meme prompt in round 12: I just want a straight up porn fill about Ariadne and Eames giving Arthur a blowjob at the same time. Title and cut text from City and Colour's "Save Your Scissors."
Summary: The only holiday that Arthur and Ariadne had ever seriously celebrated as a couple is Thanksgiving with his mother in Washington, DC. Now Eames gets to join the tradition.
Ariadne kissed Eames slowly and methodically, smiling against the skin of his stomach. He had his collar and cuffs on, and Arthur's ties were used to attach his cuffs to the headboard. Arthur didn't complain, actually; he had double checked the knots to be sure that they would hold, and he happily kissed his way along the inside of Eames' thigh. The idea was that Eames couldn't come until Ariadne allowed it, and his erection couldn't flag or falter if their attention wandered elsewhere. They had been at it for more than an hour, and Arthur had at one point pushed his way into Ariadne because he couldn't take the tension anymore. Eames' eyes had tracked them hungrily, his breath coming in short pants. "Mistress," he whispered as Ariadne panted and spasmed, her breath gusting over his skin. She didn't acknowledge him until she began kissing his stomach again, a languorous smile on her face.
"You're being very good, Ben," she purred. He gave her a shaky smile, and she licked the moisture beaded at the tip of his erection. He sucked in a breath, and she smiled as she looked up at him through her eyelashes. Arthur moved to cup his balls in his hand, and Ariadne blew across the moist skin. Eames shivered, begging her with his eyes to let him come. "You've definitely done everything I asked today."
"I only wish to make you happy, Mistress," Eames replied, his voice not much more than a soft moan.
Ariadne licked the length of his cock as if it was a lollipop. "Good answer. Excellent answer. One that deserves my full attention."
She closed her mouth over him and sucked gently, making Eames gasp and arch slightly into her mouth. Arthur stroked his balls lightly, then ran a fingernail along his perineum. "Oh, God," Eames moaned. Ariadne continued to lick and suck him, and Arthur kept up his slow strokes as he watched Eames try to keep from writhing. "Mistress," he managed to gasp as his cock twitched slightly in her mouth.
Pulling away to kneel on her haunches, Ariadne smiled softly. "When I start sucking on you again, I want you to come. I want to taste you."
"Yes, Mistress," Eames gasped. "Thank you, Mistress."
Smiling happily, Ariadne leaned down and took Eames into her mouth again. She sucked on him, long and deep, tongue sliding along the veins. Eames shuddered as Arthur bent his head to mouth his balls gently, running his tongue along the thin patch of bare skin there. Between the two of them, Eames closed his eyes, canted his hips and cried out as he came, pulling at his tied wrists.
He slowly opened his eyes as they pulled back. Ariadne had that satisfied smile on her face, a slight curling of her lips that made him want to kiss her. Arthur beat him to it, visibly licking the taste of Eames out of her mouth. Arthur then leaned down, his body pressed up against Eames' bare chest. He tugged on the ties, releasing Eames' wrists, mouth hovering just over those panting lips. Arthur licked the outer edge of those lips, a smile on his face. "You so like to please Ariadne, don't you?"
"Yes, I do," he answered, an answering smile on his face. Eames let out a content sigh as Arthur slid his hand behind his neck to pull him in for a lusty kiss. Ariadne undid the wrist cuffs and left the collar on for last. When the two men broke for air, Ariadne gave Arthur a playful shove on the shoulder to remove the collar.
She put them all carefully down on the bedside table, and then curled up on the bed beside her lovers. "Mmm. Wonderful today, yes?"
"Absolutely, love," Eames replied, kissing her temple.
"We need to bring them when we go to DC," Ariadne said with a smile.
"And how are we going to explain those to my mother?" Arthur asked with an arched eyebrow on the other side of Eames. "It's not as if Eames is some goth or emo kid, you know."
"Hide them under his clothes, of course. Like we did with my bootlaces."
Eames gave a happy little hum at the thought of that exercise. "I vote we do that again."
Ariadne laughed and kissed his jaw. "You would."
Arthur pressed his lips to Eames' shoulder in a possessive kiss. "Well, we'll have to pack soon. I should remind my mother about the flight."
"What time is it there?"
"Way too late to call, even for her," he replied, suppressing a yawn. "I'll call tomorrow. She'd be at work by then."
"Sounds like a plan. Sleep now," Ariadne said, getting up just long enough to pull up the covers. "Packing and calling and whatever else in the morning."
"Yes, Mistress," both men chorused, teasing her. She laughed and tickled them both, then Eames pulled her down on top of him. She giggled, then snuggled between the both of them to sleep.
The following afternoon, Arthur dialed his mother's work number. It was a six hour difference in time, so she would be just getting settled into the day. Ariadne was sketching idly at the dinette table, and Eames was puttering around in the kitchen putting together a sundae that looked like it had at least a thousand calories in it. He wrinkled his nose at the sight of all the caramel syrup as the line connected. "Good morning," he said smoothly. "Can I speak with Alice Silverton, please?" He paused as the woman on the other end of the line spoke. "It's her son, Arthur." He laughed easily and sat down beside Ariadne, leaning his chin on her shoulder to look at the sketch she was doing. "Yeah, I know. I usually call her at home, but I got tied up last night."
"Actually, that was me, darling," Eames said, pitching his voice louder so that it carried over to where Arthur was sitting. He grinned unrepentantly when Arthur whipped his head around to glare at him. "You do like specificity, after all."
Ariadne giggled, which didn't help matters, but apparently Alice came on the line. "Hey, Mom," Arthur said, voice soft and happy. "I just wanted to remind you that we'd be arriving at Dulles on Tuesday afternoon." He grinned, looking much younger than his actual age. "I was just making sure! I didn't want the three of us to wind up having to take a taxi and find the door locked. Not that it would matter, but I don't know if you've changed the security code or not." Ariadne laughed out loud at that, head thrown back. "Yes, that's Ariadne. Want to talk to her?"
She took the phone and Arthur got up. He poked Eames' stomach as he took a bite of his sundae. "We need to work that off."
"That was the idea," he replied cheekily. He held out his spoon. "There's enough to share."
"Of course there is," Arthur replied, taking the spoon. He took a bite and smiled at Ariadne chattering away happily with his mother. "It'll be a nice break. After we get back I can start looking into jobs."
"Pietro is still missing," Eames told him. "I could probably see if Vincenzo's seen him. Or talk to Mustafa about working down there again. It'll be warm."
Arthur grinned. "Winters aren't that bad here," he began. His voice trailed off when Ariadne got up from the table.
"Love you, too, Mom. Here's Arthur again."
He took the phone and repeated their itinerary for his mother. Ariadne snagged the spoon from him and took a scoop of the ice cream, taking care to have some of the caramel syrup and whipped cream on the spoon. "You make the most decadent desserts, Ben," she said happily. "What's the occasion?"
Eames laughed and took the spoon back. "An excuse for very vigorous sex tonight?"
She laughed and stood on her tip toes to kiss his jaw. "Mmm. I like how you think. Not that we really need an excuse, right?"
Arthur hung up and placed his cell phone on the counter. "Mom says hi, by the way," he said, coming over to the kitchen counter beside the other two. He took the spoon from Eames again and took another bite of the sundae. "She has off Tuesday afternoon to pick us up at Dulles."
"She does know we're all lovers, right?" Eames asked, eyebrow lofted. "Or is she going to be gobsmacked like poor Rebecca was?"
"She knows we've all worked together. It wasn't something to explain over the phone," Arthur said, shrugging.
"Arthur..."
Ariadne shook her head. "It's his thing, Ben. We were together for nearly six months before I met his mother. Alice knew that he was dating someone, but no details." She poked his arm affectionately. "Someone likes secrets."
"It's not that! This is serious. It's not something you talk about over the phone. You get together, have dinner, get a chance to know each other."
With that explanation, Eames felt touched. He gave Arthur a soft smile and pulled him in for a kiss. "So do you need to warn me about anything before I meet your mother?"
Arthur shook his head and rubbed Eames' arm gently. "She's pretty laid back. I think I can count on one hand how many times she's been truly upset."
"So is being uptight something you inherited from your father?" Eames snarked.
Arthur shrugged. "I wouldn't know. He was a loser that left before I was born." He took another bite of the sundae. "The data I eventually got on him didn't say."
"I didn't know that. I'm sorry."
Snorting, Arthur handed the spoon back. "Don't be. It's not a big deal. Mom was eighteen when she had me. Like I said, he was a loser."
Eames blinked at the casual statement, but Ariadne wasn't surprised. Then again, the two of them had been together for a little over two years before he had been added to the mix. She probably knew all this already. "So was it tough to be without a father?" he asked, brows slightly knit. He tried to imagine a childlike Arthur but couldn't picture it. Somehow he kept coming up with a details-oriented man that liked to appear in control of the situation.
He shrugged again. "There were my grandparents and Aunt Lori when I was little. Then Mom and I moved out to the townhouse in DC. I think you'd like it, actually. It was built in 1902 and has all these cubbies and hiding spots. It was great for hide and seek," he said with a grin. "Mom hated that, mostly because she couldn't fit into all of them."
Eames and Ariadne laughed. "You know, I can't see you as a little boy," Eames admitted. "I keep seeing the suits and khakis."
Laughing, Ariadne took another spoonful of the ice cream. "I have a few albums Alice gave me..."
"God, no," Arthur laughed, shaking his head. "Don't you dare! It'll ruin the image he has of me..."
She left the kitchen, ducking under Arthur's arms as he reached for her. He laughed as she ran into the living room, digging into one of the cabinets beneath the TV. She came back with an old photo album, the kind with sticky pages beneath a cellophane cover. She stayed on the other side of the counter, out of Arthur's playful reach, and flipped the pages for Eames to look at. There were baby photos and some when Arthur was a bit older; those pages were a different color, making Eames think that Alice put pages from different albums into this one for Ariadne to keep. It was a casually loving kind of gesture, one that made him sling his arm around Arthur's shoulders and hold him close. He didn't have any photos from when he was young, and didn't have anything other than a broken pocket watch from his father. It was a little sad, especially in comparison to the care Alice had for her son.
"You were a cute kid," he said, kissing Arthur's cheek. "I should get her to tell me embarrassing childhood stories, right?"
"I'm regretting this trip already," Arthur intoned. It was belied by the grin on his face, however. Eames could tell that Arthur was actually looking forward to introducing him to his mother, and from the easy tone Ariadne had with her, he could tell that Alice was a lovely woman. It would be nice to have some happy family time for a change.
***
Alice Silverton was approaching fifty but didn't look her age at all. Eames would have guessed she was forty. Her hair was dark like Arthur's, with mahogany highlights. Her eyes were a bright blue, and she had some laugh lines around her eyes and mouth. She was two inches shorter than Arthur, which she made up for with heels beneath the jeans and wool coat. She swept him up in a tight bear hug and did the same with Ariadne. She even had a hug for Eames, though it wasn't nearly as effusive. "For once, the planes were on time!" she said with a grin. It looked exactly like Arthur's, complete with a dimple on the side. "This means we may actually miss rush hour traffic!"
She drove a fuel efficient Toyota, which meant there wasn't nearly enough room for their luggage in the back. "Bungee cords are in the spare tire well," she told Arthur, helping Ariadne and Eames pile some of the larger pieces of luggage on the roof rack. Or rather, she and Eames did that, and Ariadne helped hand them the luggage. She pulled an elastic off of her wrist and tied up her hair in a loose ponytail, then let the two men bungee the luggage in place. "Perfect. Now, are you hungry, or should we just head to the house?"
"I think we can head to the house," Arthur said, checking with Ariadne and Eames. They nodded, and he smiled at his mother. "I think we're still on Parisian time, anyway."
"This is why you're supposed to sleep on planes. I have melatonin at home if you need it to avoid the jet lag," Alice said, sliding into the driver's seat. "So," she said, pulling out of the parking lot. "Tell me all about how you've been doing since last year, everyone!"
Arthur was sitting in the passenger seat, with Ariadne and Eames in the back. He started launching into highly edited versions of some of the jobs he had been on; he didn't mention Eames getting hurt the prior spring or his own near brush with death in Alexandria over the summer. Ariadne jumped into the story in places, and Eames was content to let them talk. Their excited voices washed over him, and he found himself drowsing a bit during the drive. It was late in the evening in Paris, and it was comfortably warm in Alice's car.
"Wake up, sleepyhead," Ariadne said after a while, shaking Eames awake when they arrived. "We're here."
The townhouse was a lovely Victorian era house, complete with gingerbread trim done in white against the dark green siding. There were two large bay windows in the front of the house, as well as large hydrangea bushes that were more or less a collection of branches this late in the year. There was a single large maple tree in the front yard, which was perhaps twenty feet wide. It was only that large because the house was a corner property; it didn't look like there was much of a backyard, as most of it was the garage and a tool shed.
"I have both of the bedrooms on the third floor ready," Alice was saying, helping to drag the luggage into the main foyer of the townhouse.
"Actually, we'll only need the large one up there," Arthur said as Eames shut the front door behind himself. "The three of us share a bedroom."
Alice blinked. She looked between the three of them, then glared at Arthur. "Arthur Stanley Silverton! Why didn't you tell me before this?!"
"It's not something to tell you over the phone," he protested.
"And my hallway is any better?" she cried, pulling him into the house and starting to drag him toward the kitchen. "This is like when you brought Henry home your senior year in high school!" She gave him a little shake. "Did you think I was going to say something stupid after that stunt?!"
Ariadne grinned and looked at Eames' stunned expression. "You'll like Alice, I promise," she said, taking off her coat. She took his and hung them up on the coat rack near the door.
"She doesn't like that he likes men?" he asked, hearing Alice's raised voice from the kitchen.
"Oh, she's known for a while that he likes both. He had a girlfriend first. I forget her name, but the way Arthur describes her, she was dippy."
"Dippy?"
"Good body, but not much upstairs. Stereotypical cheerleader dating her science tutor. She broke things off after a few weeks to go out with one of the guys from the wrestling team." She grinned at Eames' startled expression. "I know, right? And Henry was his first boyfriend. He's the one that encouraged Arthur to join the army to get money for college." She led Eames into the living room. "Want to try to stay up? Did the nap help?"
"Yeah. That helped a little," Eames said, looking around the living room. "So is she really angry?"
Ariadne patted his thigh gently as she shook her head, a smile on her face. "That's what he gets for springing it on her like that." The voices in the kitchen were muffled by the doorway, but Alice didn't seem nearly as upset anymore. Ariadne pointed out a few of the pictures on the wall that she really liked, and one entire wall of the living room was nothing but built in bookshelves from floor to ceiling. Alice was an avid reader, with books shoved into every available space. Her paperbacks were even double stacked. Ariadne grinned as she followed Eames' line of sight. "Where do you think Arthur gets it from? She's a paralegal, so she does nothing but research all day, too."
Eames laughed at that, and looked up when Arthur and Alice returned to the living room. He had a sheepish expression on his face, but did seem unscathed. "I see you're still in one piece, then," he snarked.
Alice shook her head ruefully. "My son has some silly ideas sometimes. Anyway, did you want to go out or stay in? You look almost dead on your feet, dear," she said, reaching out pat Eames' arm gently.
"Depends on what's for dinner," he replied, giving Alice a smile.
"I was thinking sukiyaki?" She looked at their three faces, and grinned at the appreciative expressions. "Okay. Sukiyaki it is. I even bought some bean buns at the market, so I can start up the steamer." She turned to Arthur. "And you, no more surprises or I'm telling Lori you did this again."
Arthur winced a little. "But she's with Aunt Heather's side this year..."
"She'd come right back just to yell at you." Alice beamed at him and patted his arm in the same affectionate manner she had patted Eames'. "You're not too old for a scolding when you've been stupid, Arthur."
Eames couldn't help it. He started sniggering, which set off Ariadne, who was trying not to giggle. Arthur glowered at them both. "Oh, darling. Your expression is priceless."
Alice returned to the kitchen to start the steamer and rice cooker, and the three others helped to clear off the coffee table for the sukiyaki. The dining room table was buried under a number of file folders, law journals, bound books of case law and various magazines. There were loose pages with a loose, loopy scrawl on them as well as what looked like some groceries that should have been put in the pantry. It was an elegant table and chair set beneath a crystal chandelier, and one of the front bay windows opened into the dining area.
"You have a very lovely home," Eames said politely as Alice started preparing the ingredients for the sukiyaki. "Anything I can help with?"
"Thank you, but shoo," she said playfully, waving him out of the kitchen. "You're tired and a guest. Next year you'll be more like family, right? Right. Or maybe you are now, I don't know. Arthur didn't say how long you've all been together."
"Since spring, actually," Eames said helpfully, leaning against the kitchen counter. Ariadne had turned on the radio in the living room, and was having a giggly shoving match with Arthur as they cleared space for dinner. He smiled fondly at the sight of them.
"He has some very funny ideas about what's appropriate," she said, following his line of sight. She shook her head ruefully. "You think he'd realize by now that I don't like surprises like that. I never took all his other surprises that well."
"I don't know... It seems like you're taking this rather calmly," Eames commented.
"Well, I thought you were just a friend. I didn't know you were a boyfriend. That's a big difference."
"Still, him liking blokes... You're taking that awfully well, overall."
"Ha. After the first time he surprised me with it? That part's not a surprise at this point." She looked up in between slicing the pork very thin. "Considering Lori, it wasn't much of a shock."
"He doesn't talk about family much," Eames said apologetically. "Who's Lori?"
"My sister. She and her girlfriend have been together practically forever. You know how everyone says there's genetic influence for being gay? So, not a huge surprise."
Eames blinked at her matter of fact manner. "So who does Arthur take after, then?"
Alice laughed. "Not me, that's for sure. Well, maybe in some things. But mostly he's like Lori. She's fussy, and oh my God, if she and Heather were here this year, you probably wouldn't hear the end of it. She's such a neatnik, it drives me up the wall." She finished with the pork and started slicing the vegetables. "You know, you can help me after all," she said after a moment. She had kicked her heels off into a corner of kitchen to be comfortable. "The top cabinet over that counter," she said, nodding toward it with her head. "There's sauces and stuff in there. You're tall enough to grab them without the stepping stool."
He found the sauces in question, as well as some other things she had bought from an Oriental market. "So you like Japanese food, then?" he asked.
"Adore it. And Thai. Italian's good comfort food, but you can get that anywhere. Plus, I don't usually have the patience to put together a good lasagne and then eat it by myself for a week for lunch and dinner, you know? Maybe tomorrow? Then Thursday is the turkey and all the trimmings, of course. You're all staying through next week?"
Eames blinked again. "Yes, I believe so."
"Oh, good. Between the four of us, we can knock off a lasange, then. I can make that."
"You really don't have to, Mrs. Silverton..."
Alice snorted. "Please, none of that. Alice or Mom, whichever's comfy for you. It's Ms., anyway. I never did get married."
"Oh, I'm sorry..."
She snorted again. "Don't be. My parents were inherently thankful, since my taste in men is so atrocious."
Arthur and Ariadne came into the kitchen at that point, and Arthur rummaged around in the fridge for a drink. "Speaking of which, where's Richard? I would've thought you wanted to introduce him to me."
Alice turned when she was done with the vegetables. "Well, I suppose I have a surprise of my own for you, then. I wound up dumping him when his wife called me."
Arthur dropped the carton of orange juice. "His what? But I did the background check! He wasn't married!"
She eyed the carton on the floor and he picked it up to replace in the fridge. "Turns out I never got his real last name, the asshole. His wife Rielle was a very nice lady. We actually met up for lunch to compare notes. She decided I wasn't a house wrecking whore and I decided she wasn't a delusional bitch. And she will most likely be getting the house and kids, so I guess it all ends well."
"When did this all happen?" he demanded.
"Two weeks ago," Alice replied, moving to slice up some raw beef. "Didn't seem appropriate to talk about over the phone," she said, sounding almost as if she was repeating Arthur's words back to him. By his embarrassed look, Eames supposed she was.
"I said I was sorry!" he said, throwing up his hands.
Alice laughed and continued her preparation. "Living room's ready?"
"Yes, Mom," Ariadne said with a grin, rubbing Arthur's back soothingly. "Are we going to clear out the dining room tomorrow?"
"Let me do that. I have a system, and I know where everything is. I'm working on a huge case right now, and I can't lose all the tags I put in the files."
"Oh, that is definitely something the two of you have in common," Eames said with a laugh, looking between the two Silvertons. Arthur gave him a mock glare and Alice just laughed again. Alice just seemed so very easy going, and Eames couldn't help but like her. Arthur had said his mother was a lovely woman, but as usual his description was understated. He probably had become as reserved as he was because of her excessive emotionality.
Dinner was a laid back affair, and the four of them talked about various relatives that Arthur had. He was an only child, as Lori and her partner decided not to have children or adopt. Heather had five siblings, so all of her nieces and nephews were considered Arthur's cousins as he was growing up. They lived in Virginia, and occasionally sent cards or made phone calls to keep in touch. Alice's parents had helped to raise Arthur while she went to college, and had helped her afford the townhouse's down payment for her loan. "Better than paying for a wedding and all that," Alice declared. "Fabulous neighborhood, with a farmer's market on Sundays in the spring and summer, not far from mass transit, and there's tons of kitschy shopping just a few blocks away. And the schools were great for Arthur." She pointed at him with her chopsticks. "You used to be so shy when we first moved here! Do you remember Brandon Gallagher down the street?" she asked. She barely waited for Arthur's nod before continuing. "Well, he's a fourth grade teacher now in Maryland. I saw his mother at the store just yesterday. Married with kids and everything."
"Mom..." Arthur began in an embarrassed tone.
"Don't tell me you don't want kids, Arthur," Alice said, shaking her head.
"Well, in our line of work..." he began.
"Pft. I know you don't tell me everything, but still. Do you honestly think you're going to do dream share forever? They're tightening regulations here in the US. It's only a matter of time before the EU jumps on that bandwagon. Regulations will clamp down even tighter, even for the illegal stuff."
Eames should have known better than to be surprised that Alice knew what they did for a living, but he was still surprised. Arthur gave a negligent shrug. "It's still years away from passing, Mom," Arthur declared.
"Yes, okay, fine, that's true. And I'll admit, now I know what my mother was talking about. I'd like some grandkids to spoil someday! You know, show off some pictures at my desk like everyone else does. Oh, I'll need Ben's picture, too, won't I?"
Eames blinked again, and was glad he wasn't drinking anything. He would have choked in his surprise. "Alice..."
"What? You're important to my son, you're important to me." She frowned at his empty bowl. "Eat, Ben. No need to be so polite." She grabbed a few of the cooked slices of beef with her chopsticks and dumped them into his bowl. "God knows we don't stand on formality in this house."
Ariadne giggled and elbowed Eames. "See? I told you that you didn't have to be worried."
Alice's expression softened slightly as Eames ducked his head a little. "Hey, if it comes down to formality, I haven't a leg to stand on. I'm the one that got knocked up at eighteen, after all," she said in a matter of fact tone of voice. "Still graduated high school and went to prom even eight months pregnant," she added with a firm nod. "Arthur's one of the best things that's ever happened to me," she said with a fond smile, reaching across the table to pat his arm affectionately. "Who cares about a few whispers, right? Right. Fuck 'em all. I'm the one that has to live with myself."
Eames couldn't help but grin at Alice. "Hear, hear," he said. He couldn't help but wish she had been his mother. "I think Arthur's one of the best things that's happened to me, too. Ariadne's the other one."
She had that same fond smile on her face as she looked at Eames. "Well, now I understand why he's been hiding you. I don't like it," she added, pointing at Arthur with her chopsticks with a mock severe tone, "but I understand it. I'm sure we'll talk more tomorrow when I get back from work."
"I thought you got the day off!" Ariadne protested.
"I told you, I'm in the middle of a big case!" Alice cried. She had that same indignant expression that Arthur had when he was told his research wasn't good enough.
Unable to stop himself, Eames laughed. "Oh my god, I just flashed to what you'll be like in another dozen years, Arthur." Ariadne began to laugh, but both Arthur and Alice shot Eames identical annoyed glances. It only made him laugh harder, and he threw an arm around Arthur's shoulders, pulling him in for a one-armed hug. "Oh, don't pull that face, darling. You know how you get on a job, too."
Arthur sighed and shook his head. "Why did we think it was a good idea to start this, again?" he asked Ariadne with a rueful tone.
"Because we love him," Ariadne said, grinning at both of them. She leaned over and kissed Eames' cheek.
"Oh, you three are adorable," Alice declared with a happy sigh. "It's like when Lori and Heather were first going out." She ate more of the sukiyaki and looked over them with a pleased expression.
Eames had an arm around each of his lovers and was smiling at Alice. It was such a perfect moment, one he knew he would always remember.
***
Alice was planning to stay up late to do more research on the dining room table. She did help bring the luggage up to the third floor. There were two bedrooms, one larger than the other, as well as a bathroom under the eaves, and oddly shaped closet spaces. The stairs were steep but not terribly creaky, and there were so many charming Victorian touches along the ceilings and doorways.
The three of them settled into the bedroom. It was a queen bed, with three heavy quilts over the flannel sheets. "It'll be a tight fit, loves, but I'm sure we'll make do," Eames declared, grinning at the other two. "No sprawling, though."
Arthur snorted as Ariadne shut the bedroom door after turning out the hall light. It was nearly two am Paris time, and they were all exhausted. "We're going to be so dead asleep I don't think we'll care."
"You know, Arthur told me that he had a fantasy of having sex with me in his old bedroom." She said, her voice dropping into a sultry tone. "That's downstairs, but I think this bedroom will still do nicely, don't you?"
Eames smiled at Arthur's gobsmacked expression. "Well, you did have the pleasure of shagging her in her old room, Arthur. Not very nice to leave me out of it..." He pushed Arthur backward onto the bed and plucked his pajama top out of his hands. "Think we should punish him for that, Mistress?"
"Mmmm," Ariadne purred, unbuttoning her blouse. "I like how you think, Ben."
"Hey!" Arthur cried when Ariadne wriggled out of the rest of her clothes. Apparently their talk on the plane about no sex in his mother's house didn't matter. "My mother's downstairs!"
"You'll just have to be quiet," Eames replied, wagging his eyebrows playfully. He pulled Arthur's pajama bottoms and underwear down at once, baring him to his gaze. "I think he looks rather tasty, Ariadne." He bent his head down and licked a stripe along Arthur's flaccid cock. "What do you think?"
"So we get to share?" she asked, grinning widely.
"That's the idea."
"Oh, yeah. I definitely like how you think," Ariadne purred.
"Do I get a vote?" Arthur piped up, breath turning shallow.
"Nope," Ariadne said cheerfully. "You get to keep quiet while we take care of you."
Whatever he would have said was swallowed by the gasp he made when Ariadne took him into her mouth for a few sucks. Eames leaned down to feather kisses along Arthur's stomach, then kissed Ariadne's forehead. He let his hand slide down her bare back. "Don't be greedy, love," he murmured. "Save some for me."
Ariadne giggled and lifted her head. "Same time?" Eames answered her sensual grin with one of his own, and they settled comfortably next to each other so that they could both lick along Arthur's length. Ariadne stroked his balls while Eames touched the inside of Arthur's thigh. They weren't terribly coordinated, which got Ariadne laughing when their tongues touched or their foreheads bumped into each other. Eventually, they wordlessly settled into a rhythm of motion. Ariadne licked up one side while Eames licked down the other. Arthur's breath came in soft pants, and he pulled at the top blanket with his fists. Ariadne added a little swirl across the head of his cock with the tip of her tongue on an upstroke, making Arthur moan. Not to be outdone, Eames decided to wrap his lips around the head and tug gently on it.
"Are we going for spit or swallow?" Ariadne asked Eames, giving the head an extra flourish with her tongue.
"Neater to swallow," he replied, then took Arthur into his mouth for a hard suck.
Arthur bucked his hips, letting out a strangled gasp. "Right here, guys," he panted. "I'm still here."
"And still coherent," Eames replied with a grin, scratching at the inside of Arthur's thigh gently. "So we obviously aren't doing the job right."
"Damn," Ariadne said, picking up on Eames' playful tone. "We'll have to work harder."
They resumed their routine, this time taking more time to tease the head and shaft. Arthur's breath was fractured, and he writhed beneath their hands. He made soft guttural moans he couldn't quite muffle by biting his lip, which made them smile against his skin. Eames sucked on him a few times on his turn, and Ariadne started doing the same. Arthur was close, beyond words and unable to signal them. He made a soft choking noise a few minutes later, and came in Eames' mouth.
Eames kicked off his clothes, eyes on Arthur's sprawled body. He pulled Ariadne next to him, not surprised to find her soft and wet against his erection. "We didn't bring anything, so we'll have to be careful." He slid his fingers into her, aware of Arthur's eyes on them. "Unless you have anything I don't know about?"
He shook his head lazily, movements more languid and boneless than usual. "I'll return the favor, though."
Better able to move, Eames shifted position so that Arthur didn't have to move as much to take him into his mouth. Eames pumped his fingers hard and fast inside of Ariadne, his thumb at her clit. She came three times before he did, and they settled into bed beside Arthur. Their limbs were all tangled together, their bodies pressed tight. There were muted good nights, and then they all fell asleep.
***
Eames had never participated in an American Thanksgiving before. He'd seen it in movies heard people he'd worked with talk about it, but he'd never actually helped with one. Wednesday night Alice started baking the lasagne for that night's dinner, as well as prepping pumpkin pies and mixing things together that would eventually become the stuffing and sides. She had a battered Betty Crocker cookbook that she proudly declared had been her mother's, and cheerfully had Arthur and Ariadne help make the pie filling. "We should just buy the pies, Mom. The bakery gets a smoother consistency," Arthur protested.
"So that means you should do a better job blending," she had returned, grinning at his long suffering sigh. Alice directed most of the work as she began clearing off the dining room table, humming along with the radio. Eames wound up helping her, since Arthur and Ariadne didn't need his help following the recipe book. He put the books and journals in the places she indicated, making the piles neat on the coffee table.
"Now, Arthur told me yesterday that this was something that everybody talked about before it really happened," she began without preamble, reaching for some Pledge to wipe down the table once it was cleared. "He seems happy enough about it, and Ariadne's a sweetheart. How about you?"
"I meant it yesterday," he said in a serious tone of voice. "They're the best things that have ever happened to me."
"Well, illegal dream share isn't exactly wine and roses."
"You seem to take that awfully well."
Alice laughed and stood up straight. "You know some awful sticks in the mud, don't you?" she said, grinning at him. "You did say Arthur doesn't talk about family much. He's kind of close mouthed that way. So he didn't say much about me at all, did he?"
"He said you were lovely," Eames told her, shrugging. "I didn't exactly press, either."
"Aw," she smiled fondly toward the kitchen, where Arthur and Ariadne were consulting her cookbook. "He's a darling boy sometimes, isn't he? And other times, you just want to wring his neck," she added with a laugh. "Then again, I was just a kid when I had him. I didn't know any better, really." She shook her head, a musing smile on her face. "Anyway, I'm a paralegal. I know people on both sides of the law, okay? Mostly on the legit side, but I do have a handful of people I know that are not quite on the up and up. Some of it was Arthur's doing, but I've introduced my share of people to him, too."
Eames blinked at her in surprise. "I hadn't realized..."
"Yes, well, we don't want me to lose my job, right? Right. So we don't advertise. But sometimes I'm a nicely discreet avenue for Arthur to get in touch with some people. So I'm aware of what the risks are, and I'm aware of what he probably doesn't like to tell me."
Scratching the back of his head, Eames tried to think of something to say that wouldn't be insulting or demeaning. "No one intends for the worst case scenario to happen, Alice. He's skilled enough to take care of himself, at least."
"Oh, I know that. He'd told me that a thousand times before Ariadne came along and another thousand after. I'm sure there'll be another thousand times after this, too." She let out a breath and looked at the kitchen. "It's hard to think of him getting shot at or dealing with some of the bastards I have to deal with at work, that's all. It's one thing for me to deal with it in the office, because there's a limit to it. It's understood you don't fuck with your lawyer or their staff, since that will just mean nobody would ever defend you again. It's understood. What you're all doing is outside of even those norms, though. What's to stop someone from ignoring that boundary?"
"Because other people wind up dead if they try," Eames replied honestly. "Because he has a reputation in those circles. I suppose I do, too. Ariadne's new, so her only reputation is that she's damned brilliant at what she does."
Alice smiled. "Yeah, Arthur learned pretty quick that empty heads are no fun to play with." She took in Eames' bemused expression. "What?"
"You're not what I expected, Alice."
"I get that a lot. I don't feel forty-eight, you know. I'd say maybe twenty-five. Maybe. I could be pushing it on the maturity thing." They both laughed together at that remark. "Why? What's your mother like?"
Eames' expression darkened before he could help it, and he turned away when he saw the rising alarm in Alice's eyes. "Not nearly as kind or understanding as you are."
"Because of being with Arthur?"
It was almost amusing to see Alice get all defensive on his behalf. Eames smiled in spite of himself. "No. The nicest way to put it, I suppose, is that she's a selfish and inconsiderate bitch that sees children as property that should be quiet in the corner if she can't trot them out to show off."
"Huh. Ariadne said something similar of hers."
Eames thought about that for a while. "I've had the misfortune of meeting Georgia. The execution is different, but yes, I suppose my Mum is cut from the same cloth."
Alice impulsively patted Eames' arm gently. "Well, I don't pretend to think I'm a normal mother, but you're welcome here for holidays."
He pulled her in for a hug, which startled them both. "Thank you, Alice. You know, you're a better Mum than mine ever was."
"Yeah, I did good with Arthur, huh?" she said with a proud smile, looking back toward the kitchen. Arthur was hip checking Ariadne playfully, and she was threatening to toss pumpkin pie filling at his head. "You didn't turn out so bad yourself, Ben."
Eames was stunned, and it must have shown on his face. Alice clucked her tongue. "God, your mother was a selfish cow. Can I send her some nasty e-mails on your behalf, then?"
"You hardly know me."
"I know Arthur and I know Ariadne," Alice said. "They couldn't love someone awful. And despite the fact that all three of you are criminals keeps me up at night sometimes, I know Arthur's grown up enough to make his own mistakes. What I do know of you tells me that you're not one of them."
"Thank you."
She gave him a sweet smile, one that he used to wish his mother would make at him. "Now, enough of the mushy stuff, yes? I know men hate that shit, so I think I've used up your quota for the rest of the year." Eames laughed and played along.
The fine china would be rinsed off in the morning as Alice did the rest of the dinner. She was positively gleeful, glad to have guests in the house again to cook for. "This is the one Mom thing I actually do right," she explained as she dished out the lasagne for dinner. She sat at the head of the dining room table, Arthur on her left, Ariadne on her right and Eames across from her. It wasn't a very large dining room table, but anything larger would have been ridiculous for just her and Arthur. "I can't be bothered to vacuum regularly, but I'm a fabulous cook."
"Don't forget baker," Arthur added helpfully.
"Flattery will get you everywhere," Alice told him with a grin. She gave him a little extra lasagne, and the dinner conversation wound up being descriptions of Arthur from junior high school and high school, and how Alice had been duped into thinking her little science geek son would stay out of trouble after learning from her poor example. "And imagine that, he gives me the lessons on how to use mace properly if I get mugged on the Metro!"
"I don't like knowing you're unprotected, Mom." Arthur shrugged and didn't look sorry at all.
Alice brushed it off with the same careless gestures as she had brushed off everything else. She talked about some of the cases she had done research for, the notes and the contacts she had kept. One of the partners in the firm she worked in was involved in politics, so she had a few more contacts than the average paralegal. It rather explained a lot about Arthur's ability to get in and out of networks he really had no business knowing how to access.
Staying up again to do more research, she let the trio climb the stairs to bed after giving them all a kiss on the cheek and the forehead. There wasn't anything more than heavy petting amongst their tangled limbs before they fell asleep.
The kitchen was bustling the next morning, and Alice was clearly in her element amidst the chaos and clutter. She knew where everything was, even if it seemed initially it was an undecipherable mess. She gave orders that the other three followed, and she was practically waltzing around the room. By noon, the entire house was full of the smells of baking things, and Eames was fascinated by the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. When Alice heard he had never actually seen one before, she plopped him down in front of the TV as soon as he was done helping to put together the stuffing. Eventually, Arthur sprawled on the couch next to him, and Ariadne leaned across both of their laps with her feet on the armrest.
They looked up when a flash went off, and Alice was in the corner of the room with a camera. "Wanna pose for this one?" she asked, grinning at them. They obligingly smiled for her, and she snapped a few shots. "I'll e-mail you these and send over some prints."
"I have photo paper in the apartment, Mom," Arthur said, rolling his eyes.
"And I have a Shutterfly account," Alice countered with a grin.
Dinner was at three, and they were all seated around the dining room table with the Silverton fine china spread out across the table and the sterling silverware. Alice had explained that it had been her grandmother's, and would go to Arthur eventually. "Assuming you ever settle down," she said, unable to help herself from making the dig. Eames found himself snickering and Ariadne pointedly looked elsewhere when Arthur looked to her for support. "Who wants to say grace?"
"Is that a Jewish thing?" Eames asked, confused.
"Hell if I know," Alice said cheerfully. "We haven't really practiced much after Arthur had his bar mitzvah, and I was always a horrible Jew before that. Can you imagine me being kosher? Oh, hell no. But it's been a tradition for us to have someone say grace before we have the big family dinners. We picked it up from somewhere."
"Grandpa said it was from his sister-in-law," Arthur said helpfully.
"Oh. She was Lutheran, I think. So maybe it's a Lutheran thing. Whatever." She made a hand wave gesture. "Not important. So? Who wants to say it?"
"How about we take turns?" Eames offered. "Something we're each grateful for?" The others around the table nodded approvingly. "I'll go first," he offered, and no one disagreed. "I'm thankful that Arthur and Ariadne saw something worth starting. I'm thankful the past doesn't hurt as much as it used to. And I'm thankful that I'm part of this family."
Ariadne blinked back tears that threatened to form. "I'm thankful for all of my friends and family, even my mother. I'm thankful for all of our good health, and that we're able to be together."
Arthur nodded at her and then took a breath. "I'm thankful that I've been worthy of the trust placed in me, and that I'm still here. I'm thankful every day that I've got everything I could ever want."
Alice had a loopy grin on her face that reminded Eames of Arthur's happy grin. "God, it's so great to have people in the house again. I love being busy and having everyone over. I'm so thankful you're safe, Arthur," she said, reaching out to grasp his hand. "And I'm thankful that you're happy, that you're with people you love and that you did learn from my mistakes, even if I still wish you'd get a desk job somewhere so I'd know you're not getting shot at."
Everyone laughed, and Alice grinned happily everyone in the room. "Thank God we've all got each other. Let's dig in!"
All in all, it was the best Thanksgiving Eames had ever had.
The End