A/N: Hello again! I recently had a dream (corny, I know) where Arthur and Ariadne were college students at NYU, and lo and behold, this fic came into existence. I do NOT own anything from Inception (if I did, I'd be rich), but I hope you enjoy :)
"Please come with us?" Sandra begged Arthur.
"I can't, I have an exam tomorrow," Arthur explained coolly.
"If you come, you can watch Maddy and I make out."
"I have no interest in watching you suck your girlfriend's face off."
"That usually works on most guys…"
"Can I go study now?" Arthur asked, glaring at his friend.
"Fine… Have fun being a nerd," Sandra sighed in defeat, stepping away from the door.
Arthur arrived at the library to find it, unsurprisingly, full. The library was buzzing with students frantically trying to cram the information they clearly had not learned in class before the exam. He scoffed as he made his way to the back of the library where there were still a few seats open. Arthur took a seat beside a petite brunette who seemed too engrossed in her studies to even acknowledge Arthur's presence.
He nearly laughed when he saw what she was studying. Architecture. Of course, he knew he shouldn't have been making fun of her; he always found the architecture of New York to be quite interesting.
Hours later, the noise in the library began to die down as students began leaving, deciding they had given up and that they were going to "wing" the exam. A few hours passed and Arthur and the girl next to him were the only ones left. Unfortunately, the libraries at NYU were not running 24 hours and the librarian had soon found them and reminded them the library was closing.
Arthur packed his things but noticed the brunette girl had not moved. He walked over to tap her on the shoulder when her head suddenly fell from its resting place in her hands and plopped onto her textbook. He shook her to wake her up, but all she did was let out a gentle snore. Arthur groaned, realizing the librarian had conveniently disappeared and that he would have to somehow get her back to her dorm.
Surprisingly, he had no qualms about rifling through her things (after all, he was just trying to find her card). He did, however, feel a bit awkward staring at her card though. He learned that her name was Ariadne Phillips and that her childish face suited her small frame. Drawing his eyes away from her ID, Arthur consumed himself with the hardest part of the process- actually moving her.
He decided to pick up her bag first and took the liberty of checking out the books she had in front of her in case she was actually going to study later on. Arthur sighed, pondering how he was going to pick her up. She certainly looked light enough to carry simply by looping one arm under her legs and the other around her ribs, but Arthur decided it was too awkward. But she didn't seem light enough for him to drape her entire body over his shoulder and carry her that way, so Arthur decided to go with awkward over impossible.
-
Arthur had definitely been wrong about Ariadne's weight. True, she was light, but her weight combined with the weight of his books as well as her books was almost unbearable. Then there was the matter of the fact that Arthur had no clue which dorm she lived in. He was almost contemplating walking around door to door when her eyes fluttered open.
"Whadefug…?" Ariadne slurred. Arthur stared at her, speechless.
"Who're you?" she muttered, stirring in his arms.
"I-I'm Arthur. Where do you live?" Arthur asked, realizing that she was far too tired to even realize that he was carrying her and that he had just asked an incredibly awkward question.
"Rubin… Room 215…" she grumbled, completely out of it.
The walk to the dorm seemed to take an eternity. But at least it was the same dorm he lived in so he wouldn't have to walk any further. When he arrived at her room, he kicked at the door in frustration.
"ARIADNE YOU BETTER NOT BE DRUNK," a girl shouted on the other side of the door. The door flew open to reveal Ariadne's roommate who smirked at the scene in front of her.
"Tsk. Did she fall asleep in the library again?" the girl asked clicking her tongue.
"Uhh… Yeah…" he said quickly, handing the girl to her roommate.
"You'd think the girl would be smart enough to learn. I mean, really, Ariadne. You skipped your senior year of high school to be here. Surely you're smart enough to know not to fucking fall asleep in the library," the girl scolded.
"You carried her all the way from the library?" Arthur nodded.
"Aw, how chivalrous of you. Can I get a name?"
"Uhm…"
"So we can tell her who got her back home."
"Arthur Harris…"
"Well thank you for taking care of our Ariadne, Arthur Harris. I'm Mal Edwards. Give Ariadne a call anytime," she remarked with a wink before she promptly slammed the door shut.
As he dragged his feet back to his room, all he could think about was how strange this night had been.
-
When she woke up, Ariadne had no recollection of how she got from the library to her bed.
She rifled through her bag to find the books she was reading yesterday. Had she checked them out yesterday?
"Oh goody you're awake," Mal noticed.
"How'd I get home yesterday…?" Ariadne groaned.
"As I recall, you were having so much sex with this guy named Arthur that you passed out and he had to carry you back to our room," Mal joked.
"Bullshit I was at the library," Ariadne glared, throwing a pillow at Mal.
"Making love in the library? How shameful, Ariadne!" Another pillow in Mal's face.
"Ok, ok fine. You fell asleep at the library and some guy carried you home," Mal explained.
"Wait, so nothing actually happened?" their other roommate, Elena, interjected.
"All I remember is falling asleep in the library," Ariadne mused.
"What if he raped you!" Elena gasped. Ariadne glared.
"You're a pretty deep sleeper Ariadne. It could have happened," Mal joked.
"I did not get raped! Nor did I get any last night. I was at the library reading!" Ariadne screeched in frustration.
"Whatever you say… But today, it could be Arthur. Tomorrow his name might be Alex and soon enough they'll just be numbers. You little, slut, you," Mal teased.
"And this is coming from the girl whose life revolves around one night stands," Ariadne said as she rolled her eyes at the thought of her being a slut.
"Hey, I've been with Cobb for over a month now. It's quite promising," Mal said as a matter of fact-ly.
"What happened to that other guy? Eames? He was funny," Elena asked.
"Well if you like him so much, you can have him," Mal scoffed.
"And why do you refer to them by their last names?" Ariadne wondered.
"There're too many Johns and Jakes and Andrews. I can't keep track of them all!" Mal whined.
Ariadne opened her mouth to scold Mal for being so promiscuous when there was a knock on the door. Without even thinking, Ariadne hopped off her bed and made her way to the door. When she opened it, an unfamiliar face greeted her.
"Uhm… Hi," the tall, lanky boy greeted. His face seemed somewhat familiar, but she couldn't quick place her finger on him.
"Hi… Um. I'm sorry. I don't know who you are," Ariadne sighed in embarrassment as her face flushed red.
"Oh, it's ok. I'm Arthur. I got you back to your room last night. I just wanted to make sure you were alright; your head hit your book pretty hard last night," Arthur explained. Ariadne completely zoned out, staring at the way his chocolate brown eyes were soft and at the same time, fierce and the way his brown hair was smoothed back with not a single lock out of place.
"Oh! Yeah, I'm fine. I'm totally fine," she insisted after she realized she was ogling him.
"Ok… Well I'll see you around then," he said awkwardly as Ariadne waved and closed the door.
"Dude, you're totally in love with him," Elena giggled.
"Plus, he's totally cute. If you're into tall, awkward skinny boys, which I'm guessing you are," Mal mused.
"Shut up!" Ariadne screeched picking up the pillows from the floor and throwing them at her roommates.
She hated to admit it, but they were right.