Days Like This – An Inception Fanfiction Piece by PleaseDon'tGetMeRescued
There were those days, few and far between, when Cobb would come into the warehouse and find the team's usually happy Architect in an overly-chipper mood surrounded by a desk covered completely in baked goods. Today was one of those days. The young woman was humming under her breath and every once in a while she randomly started dancing, all the while her eyes never leaving her work.
The Extractor raised and an eyebrow in Arthur's direction, catching his eye, silently asking what everyone was thinking: what the hell? The previous day the Architect had been in a terrible to the point of having a break down because she couldn't figure out a maze for the second level of their new job. The Pointman just shrugged, his gaze traveling over to the petit brunette who was dancing again. He smirked and shook his head, silently chuckling, before going back to his research. Cobb smiled before making his way over to his desk without a word.
The warehouse was quiet, apart from Ari's humming, for some time. That is, until the doors burst open, slamming against the wall with a loud thud, and a certain Forger made his way in, about four hours late, as usual. He stopped short when he looked over at the Architect. A sly grim slowly crept onto his face. "My, oh my, what do we have here? Did Miss Ariadne make me some sweets?"
Just noticing his presence at the mention of her name, Ari looked up and smiled at his. "Nope." The grin instantly dropped off the Forger's face. "They're for everyone."
And it was back again. "What?" Yusuf's curly head popped up from where he had been kneeling in front of a graduated cylinder. "I want some! Why didn't you tell me I could have any?"
Ariadne laughed at the Chemist and Forger as the practically sprinted over to her desk. "You didn't ask!" Arthur and Cobb just watched with amused smirks.
When nearly half of the sweets had either been devoured or moved to other desks, both Eames and Yusuf were satisfied that they had enough. "Cobb, Arthur, you guys better get over here if you want any. These two are going to eat it all if you don't hurry."
"Mind if I take something home for James and Phillipa? I'm lousy at baking, that was always Mal's thing. They probably haven't had real home-made anything in a long time."
Ariadne smiled. "Sure, I was hoping you would ask. I would recommend the chocolate Oreo cake, Vanilla butter cream cupcakes, and oatmeal cookies."
Cobb laughed, "Well they'll be all nice and sugared up before bed time. This'll be fun. Thanks, Ari. You're the best." He collected his treats and made his way back over to his desk.
Ari looked back over at Arthur. He was staring intently at his computer screen, his sleeves rolled up to the elbow and tie loosened. "Arthur? Can you come here for a second, please?" Ari watched as the Pointman caught her gaze before getting up and making his way over to her. He stopped next to her and opened his mouth to speak. Before anything could come out though, Ari promptly shoved a chocolate covered strawberry in his mouth. Arthur's eyes widened and he choked a little before chewing and swallowing.
"Ari! What the hell?" He was trying to sound stern but only started laughing. She laughed too.
"Arthur, you need to take a break. You haven't looked up from your computer screen all morning." He opened his mouth to protest but thought better of it when she raised an eyebrow at him.
"Fine." With that he grabbed a chocolate chip muffing and sat down in her chair. Ari smiled at her small victory before going back to the sketch she could focus on much more intently today.
Everything was quiet once again as the team worked and Arthur munched on his muffin. A few minutes later Arthur got up from Ari's chair and kissed her cheek. "Thank you," he smiled and took another muffin before making his way back toward his desk. Without looking over his shoulder, Arthur knew Ari had that small smile on that she got whenever he kissed her. He smiled too.
Their smiles didn't go unnoticed by Eames. He sauntered his way over to the Architect's desk, smirking. "What do you want Eames?" she smiled at him.
"I saw that, love." His grin only got wider.
"I don't know what you're talking about." She smiled and went back to work as Eames reached for another cupcake. Ariadne raised her eyebrow at him and shook her head. Oh gosh.
"Geez Eames, are you trying to gain twenty pounds?" Cobb called from across the warehouse with a snicker. Eames made an I don't know kind of motion with hands and Ari watched in horror as the cupcake flew out of his hand and landed on her nearly finished sketch with a plop. Her gasp could be heard around the warehouse. Arthur, Cobb, and Yusuf made their way over towards her desk. She stared down at her sketch that was now smeared with double chocolate chocolate-chip frosting. The look on her face was defeated before turning stormy. All four men watched timidly as the Architect's eyes narrowed dangerously and her mouth set in a terrible frown. "Shit, Eames. You've done it now," Yusuf whispered.
No one's eyes left Ariadne as she silently made her way around her desk and stood in front of the terrified Forger. The height difference was almost laughable. The fact that, even as he towered over her, Eames' face was a mixture of shame and fear was even more laughable.
"Ari, I-I'm so, so-" splat. He was cut off when the Architect promptly smashed the cupcake that had destroyed her sketch, against his face. As Eames gaped at her, Ari just smirked while Yusuf, Cobb, and Arthur just laughed hysterically.
"I was almost done with that sketch you j-." A glob of whipped cream landed on her face. "Eames!" she shrieked, licking her lips.
"You started it!" he responded childishly. And then his head whipped around as another cupcake hit the back of his head. "Why you!" Arthur just smirked and raised an eyebrow, licking frosting off his fingers.
Eames picked up a banana cream pie and Arthur's eyes widened slightly. "Don't even think about it." It was too late. The Pointman wiped pie out of his face and licked his lips. "You asked for it," he said calmly, picking up a strawberry cake.
And then there was chaos.
(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)
Arthur and Ari were still laughing when they stumbled into her apartment. They stayed laughing until they saw her kitchen. "Oh my gosh, I forgot I left it like that!"
Arthur stood in amazement, starring at the mess. Dirty bowls and mixing spoons littered every surface, even the floor. Half empty plastic bags of frosting were on the table and chairs. Crumb-covered cookie sheets were piled high and there was a thin film of flour and sugar covering the floors and cabinets. There were two broken wooden spatulas sticking out of a cake on the countertop and a few plates and bowls were broken in the corner.
"What happened?" he gasped out, eyes wide.
"Remember how I just couldn't get anything done yesterday?" He nodded. "I bake when I'm mad," she said sheepishly. He laughed at that.
"You missed a few." He smirked and reached towards a badly burned batch of cookies, crumbling one over her head. Ari gaped at him, blinking crumbs out of her eyes. She put a puppy dog pout on her face and Arthur laughed again. He smiled, a full on real smiled, and kissed her.
(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)
A week later all was forgiven between the Forger and the Architect. It took three days to get all of the food off of the walls and floor in the warehouse. Ariadne was able to finish and refinish her sketch and models of both levels without a problem.
The job was a week away and Arthur was working as hard as ever when Eames practically skipped passed. "Eames, what the hell are you doing?" he said raising an eyebrow.
"I'm going to piss off your girlfriend. I ran out of sweets last night." And then he was gone.
Arthur rolled his eyes and went back to work. When he heard Ari's shouts from across the warehouse he knew it was time to intervene before…
"Damn it, Eames! I'm not making you any freaking cupcakes!"
Oh gosh.
Hey guys! So I was baking chocolate chip muffins this morning when I thought of this. I wanted to get it up before I leave for Florida for vacation. I'm leaving for my friend's house in literally five minutes. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, huh? Right so, have no fear, I'm not giving up on any of my other stories. I've had a little bit of a hiccup with them and I just had to get this down. So don't worry. I'll get some chapters up for those eventually.
Alright so just be warned, this is completely un-beta'd…because I don't have one (hint hint). Actually, now that I think about it, none of my stories are beta'd. Sorry about that.
Ok, I have to leave now so I hope you enjoyed and please review!
Oh, and I don't own Inception. Or Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Both of these facts make my cry myself to sleep at night :'(
Love, always,
May 3
