I saw Inception two days ago and thought that it was BRILLIANT! I love Arthur/Ariadne. This little piece has been floating about my mind since then and so I decided to type it up for all of the other A/A fans to read.
Dream:If she had died…he wasn't quite sure he could convince himself she had been a part of the dream.
There was a brief moment where he thought she was never going to wake up. He thought she had died and that Dom would be unable to rescue her from Limbo and she would languish there forever until eventually her body gave out.
He didn't want his only memories of her to be ones from the job. Of a kiss that was only (partially) to distract projections. Of watching her sleep as she created a dream world. Of calming her down after her first encounter with Mal. Of watching her eyes brighten as she created her own world from scratch. Of the one night that the three of them (him, Eames, and her) went out to a little bar. Of her twirling out of Eames' arms only to find herself in his.
As strange as it sounded coming from him, no-nonsense Arthur…he wanted a lifetime of memories with her. He wanted what Mal and Cobb had had before Limbo. He had somehow, in a short amount of time, found himself completely infatuated with her. He knew that he was inexplicably in love with her. And so for that brief moment he wondered what he would do if she were dead. But then her eyes opened and after a few puffs of air they swam, first for the surface…and then for a group of rocks not far from Eames and Fischer.
But the thought lingered in the back of his mind…what would he have done if she had died? He already knew the answer—however stupid it maybe. He would have tried to make her part of the dream. She was just another projection—one that he had gotten too close to. That's what he would have done if she had died. Yet, despite knowing this and knowing that for the moment it didn't matter he couldn't help thinking of one more thing—that if she had died…he wasn't quite sure he could convince himself that she had been a part of the dream.