Something Special

Chapter 1: Finders, Keepers

Everyone is born with a mark on their skin, a symbol of something significant to their soulmate. It could be anything from a word to a number to a shape. The difficulty is determining what the mark means, and Arthur thinks that's the stupidest part of this whole "soulmate" thing. How many people actually find their soulmates when all they have to go on is something as insignificant as what amounts to a birthmark?

Arthur's is really ridiculous. It's...well, it's so ridiculous Arthur knows that even if he manages to figure out who his soulmate is – and why on earth this thing is so special to him – he'll be so horrendously ridiculous that Arthur wouldn't be able to like him if he tried.

But that's fine. Arthur's spent the last twenty-three years of his life in solitude. He could really care less if he spends the next thirty or forty or fifty in the same way.

So Arthur forgets about the sign etched on his skin and focuses on his work. He focuses on researching his marks, guarding the rest of the extraction team, and controlling everything he possibly can – and in a dream, that list is very long. If stupid Fate thinks it can decide whom he'll love, then Arthur will control everything else in his life: his clothes, his hair, his persona, and his friends – or, friend, really. Cobb is actually more of an acquaintance, if anything, but that doesn't matter. Nothing matters except control.

Which is why Eames infuriates him. Eames, who seems to put no thought whatsoever into his outfits but still somehow manages to look good. Eames, who knows enough to be the best Forger in the business, who knows enough to research people, to understand people, and to imitate them flawlessly, who knows exactly how humanity works, and is able to hide it all behind the veneer of a comedian and unlucky gambler. Eames, who is everything Arthur isn't and who is everything Arthur secretly wishes he could be.

Arthur can't control Eames. He can't control anything that the obnoxious Forger does, so he ignores him instead. Arthur's good at compartmentalizing like that. Any time he's on a job with Eames – which is more often than not, since Arthur is always sought after for the more complicated jobs, and Forgers are almost always a necessity for those types – Arthur combats Eames' easy complacency with an iron-studded grip on his self-control.

Arthur's never seen Eames' soulmate sign, and it's not for lack of looking. Whatever it is, he feels sorry for the poor sod who's destined to be stuck with him forever.

"Arthur, darling, did you know you're making faces at your paperwork right now?"

Arthur sighs and rubs the engraving on his favorite pen from Milan. Maybe he'll just kill Eames now and save himself – and Eames' soulmate – from any future pain.

~+~+~

The first time he meets Eames, Arthur has just turned eighteen and is still trying to make a name for himself. Cobb was the only one willing to trust an untrained dreamer – Arthur has made sure that no one can possibly unearth his stint in the military's Project Somnacin, since the M.P.s are, as far as he knows, still looking for him since he went A.W.O.L. in an escape involving a munitions hold, explosives, and, according to some rumors, a helicopter – so Arthur spent his first two years in dream-share working with Dom Cobb and his lovely wife, Mal.

That first job with Eames is Arthur's twelfth, and it's the first time Arthur's ever heard the word Forger. Eames is twenty, full of piss and vinegar, ready to take on the whole world with a sparkling smile and glint in his eye. Arthur hates him immediately.

Arthur's already established his position as Point Man in the Cobb team, so he gets straight to work researching their mark. Eames, it seems, only sits around and thinks of ways to annoy Arthur. Arthur steadfastly ignores him and all his actions – even that disgusting paper ball covered in gum and paperclips that Eames lobs at his head.