Fic: Cables (G)
title: Cables
author: ilovetakahana
pairing: Arthur/Eames, implied Cobb/Saito
warnings: It has come to my attention that there are at least three A/E fics out there in which one of them, usually Eames, mentions knitting - like it's a dig against Arthur and his OCD or something. This is my attempt to - I don't know, rectify this situation? I know just enough about knitting to actually determine the names of some patterns and to describe the need for yarn; I crochet myself, so I know how addictive yarncraft can be.
disclaimer: I don't own the original story or the characters. Not making any profit, just playing in the sandbox.
summary: Arthur does in fact knit.
It had been Saito who discovered what Arthur was up to in the wee hours of the morning.
He'd been taking a break; the team had been cooped up in the warehouse for another project. It was a very simple job on paper - but Arthur, true to form, had decided that thoroughness was still the best, and only, option. The more so now that Dom needed to return to his children, to his family.
It was 2:31 in the morning and the warehouse had long since fallen silent. Arthur looked up from his dossiers to find that he was mostly alone; there were shadows moving under the door to Dom's office, nothing out of the usual since he was probably still pacing or practicing.
There was no one else and so there was no one to see when he reached into his duffel and pulled out a largish cloth bag - the type that closed with a drawstring, the cloth a pattern of blue and gray checks.
A pair of dark blue knitting needles were sticking up through the opening of the bag.
Arthur spread his jacket out on his papers with the lining up, and then the contents: a large ball of supersoft merino yarn; a small bag containing scissors, some crochet hooks, stitch markers, and a cable needle; a scrap of creased paper.
He cracked his knuckles, limbered up his hands, then took up his work. On the needles was a handsome scarf in cream flecked with copper and bronze highlights. The pattern was very simple - two six-stitch cables, one twisted left and the other twisted right, on a background of stockinette stitch. He'd been working on it for about a week now, and knew he would finish very soon.
Soon he was lost in counting stitches, needles and yarn moving rapidly as the scarf grew under his hands; he never heard the key turn in the lock.
"That's a lovely pattern."
Arthur looked up, shocked, to see Saito standing just a few feet away, a tiny pair of wire-framed glasses perched on his nose as he peered curiously at Arthur's kit.
"And this is good yarn; but you would do better working with qiviut or, hmm, some proper fisherman's yarn. I can send you some, if you like. You might want to make socks."
Arthur watched him turn and start walking away, and he thought he could start breathing again, his hands moving slowly to pick the cable pattern back up.
Just when he reached the door to Dom's office, though, Saito turned back to him, smiled - nothing mocking or arrogant, just a smile - and said quietly, "Carry on. I won't tell."
Arthur kept staring long after the door had closed on the two men.
He looked at his watch - there was time to finish before the sun came up and the others came back.
***
Eames came in late, carrying the standard "penalty" - coffee made to everyone's liking. [It was a useful rule that Ariadne had first enforced upon herself; everyone else had taken it up.] He parked himself in one of the deck chairs around the PASIV and plugged in for a practice run at forging their mark's husband.
Arthur waited for him to go under before gently looping the finished scarf around Eames's neck.
Saito slipped him a note in the shape of a paper crane: It looks good on him.
Arthur smiled, turned the sheet over, scribbled on the back, returned the note: I take commissions.
author: ilovetakahana
pairing: Arthur/Eames, implied Cobb/Saito
warnings: It has come to my attention that there are at least three A/E fics out there in which one of them, usually Eames, mentions knitting - like it's a dig against Arthur and his OCD or something. This is my attempt to - I don't know, rectify this situation? I know just enough about knitting to actually determine the names of some patterns and to describe the need for yarn; I crochet myself, so I know how addictive yarncraft can be.
disclaimer: I don't own the original story or the characters. Not making any profit, just playing in the sandbox.
summary: Arthur does in fact knit.
It had been Saito who discovered what Arthur was up to in the wee hours of the morning.
He'd been taking a break; the team had been cooped up in the warehouse for another project. It was a very simple job on paper - but Arthur, true to form, had decided that thoroughness was still the best, and only, option. The more so now that Dom needed to return to his children, to his family.
It was 2:31 in the morning and the warehouse had long since fallen silent. Arthur looked up from his dossiers to find that he was mostly alone; there were shadows moving under the door to Dom's office, nothing out of the usual since he was probably still pacing or practicing.
There was no one else and so there was no one to see when he reached into his duffel and pulled out a largish cloth bag - the type that closed with a drawstring, the cloth a pattern of blue and gray checks.
A pair of dark blue knitting needles were sticking up through the opening of the bag.
Arthur spread his jacket out on his papers with the lining up, and then the contents: a large ball of supersoft merino yarn; a small bag containing scissors, some crochet hooks, stitch markers, and a cable needle; a scrap of creased paper.
He cracked his knuckles, limbered up his hands, then took up his work. On the needles was a handsome scarf in cream flecked with copper and bronze highlights. The pattern was very simple - two six-stitch cables, one twisted left and the other twisted right, on a background of stockinette stitch. He'd been working on it for about a week now, and knew he would finish very soon.
Soon he was lost in counting stitches, needles and yarn moving rapidly as the scarf grew under his hands; he never heard the key turn in the lock.
"That's a lovely pattern."
Arthur looked up, shocked, to see Saito standing just a few feet away, a tiny pair of wire-framed glasses perched on his nose as he peered curiously at Arthur's kit.
"And this is good yarn; but you would do better working with qiviut or, hmm, some proper fisherman's yarn. I can send you some, if you like. You might want to make socks."
Arthur watched him turn and start walking away, and he thought he could start breathing again, his hands moving slowly to pick the cable pattern back up.
Just when he reached the door to Dom's office, though, Saito turned back to him, smiled - nothing mocking or arrogant, just a smile - and said quietly, "Carry on. I won't tell."
Arthur kept staring long after the door had closed on the two men.
He looked at his watch - there was time to finish before the sun came up and the others came back.
***
Eames came in late, carrying the standard "penalty" - coffee made to everyone's liking. [It was a useful rule that Ariadne had first enforced upon herself; everyone else had taken it up.] He parked himself in one of the deck chairs around the PASIV and plugged in for a practice run at forging their mark's husband.
Arthur waited for him to go under before gently looping the finished scarf around Eames's neck.
Saito slipped him a note in the shape of a paper crane: It looks good on him.
Arthur smiled, turned the sheet over, scribbled on the back, returned the note: I take commissions.