Hallo Hallo,

This is just a little drabble-y thing i wrote after seeing Inception - Arthur and Ariadne were too suggestive together for the wheels to not stop turning.

I have a feeling there might be a lot of fic out there like this - I havent gone through them yet, so forgive me if I'm being repetitive.

ANYWAYS, enjoy. Reviewing is kind. C:

The wet cobblestones squeaked under Ariadne's feet, still wet from the rain that had fallen earlier in the day. She was thankful that she had worn her chucks today, in favour of the short heels she'd glanced at in the morning; The metro she usually took was down when she was on her way to class, affording her an innitial reason to be thankful of her choice. That long walk to the college would have been murder in anything other than sneakers.

It was nearly 5 o clock in the evening now, and the sun was beginning to set in the cloudy March sky. Ariadne looked up from the stones under her feet as she turned the last corner onto Rue Veron, knowing her building would be in view. The heavy red sun was just beginning to sneak behind it, and the light blinded her as it carved around the brick corner. She cast her eyes back down to the cobblestone road on which she walked.

Nearing the facade of her building, as the sun finally dissapeared around the corner, she almost dropped her keys as she raised her eyes from the ground.

He was leaning against the wall next to the door, his left hand in his pocket, his right rolling something in his fingers. She guessed it was his loaded die. He looked much the same as he had a few months ago, his hair slicked, his stance that strange combination of casual and guarded. Ariadne's breath was caught in her throat, and she realised she had stopped mid-stride at the sight of him. His eyes lifted to hers, foggy to begin with, and then clearing noticeably as he recognized her and pushed himself from the wall, standing up straight. She saw his breath fog as he seemed to expel and then take a deep breath.

Remembering herself, Ariadne forced her feet to move again, and she took the ten or so steps that separated them, trying not to break what she thought was a pretty good poker face. He was wearing a suit, noticibly only two peices where he usually wore three. The suit itself was a dark grey. He wore plain white shirt underneath, and a thin black tie fell from his neck. It was plainer than what she often remembered in, lacking the subtle, classy patterns and vintage sense.

'What are you doing here?' She asked quietly, stopping in front of him and looking into his eyes.

His self-assured smile was slight, but reached his eyes, which crinkled in a friendly way. 'What a greeting.' He evaded her question, adding, 'You look tired.'

Ariadne blinked and shook her head slightly. 'I've been in class all day, I'm allowed to be tired.' It wasn't a lie - she had been in class all day - but school certainly wasnt the cause of her exhaustion. 'Anyways, you're one to talk.'

He smiled again, a slighter smile than before, and nodded slightly.

There was a moment then, standing in the cool evening air, of silence between the two of them. A couple loudly exited the door in front of them, waking Ariadne from the moment. She felt her cheeks grow warm, and pretended to dig in her pocket for her keys. She hoped he hadnt already seen them in her other hand.

As her fingers closed around the bishop in her coat pocket, Ariadne released a breath she didn't know she was holding, and gained some bravery. 'Will you come inside?' She asked.

Arthur nodded, eyes tight, still rolling the die between his thumb and forefinger.

Ariadne turned to unlock the door and led the way up the five floors to her small flat, number 23. Unlocking her own door, she employed the hard tug back and up that was needed to wrench the old door open. She didnt look back at Arthur as she walked in, leaving the door open for him to close.

Arthur accepted her offer of coffee and sat quietly at her tiny kitchen table as she poured boiling water into the french press. Setting two small mugs and the press on the table, Ariadne sat down accross from him and poured coffee into the mugs, pushing one across the table to Arthur. Glancing at his hands, she saw the purplish tinge under his fingernails. How long had he been waiting outside for her?

They sat quietly, letting the heat seep from the earthenware mugs to their fingers, gingerly taking sips of the hot liquid.

Even though her mind was bursting with questions, Ariadne didn't know where she should start. She pulled the bishop from her pocket, placing it on the table and nudging it, satisfied when it tipped onto its side with a thud. Her mind reeled - Why was he here? Was this about Cobb, or some issue with our payments? Had another job come up?
Or, could he have come just to see her?

She stopped herself fast; there was no need to get ridiculous. Just ask.

She peeled her eyes from Arthur's hands, where she had been watching the flesh under his fingernails warm to a healthy pink, and looked him in the eye. He was staring at her, his eyes surprisingly soft. As their eyes met, he blinked, and his gaze became neutral again.

'How have you been?' He beat her to the first question. She was somewhat surprised by it's triviality.

She blinked, nodded slowly, and looked down at her hands. 'I've been fine. I've finally been able to catch up with my coursework... I've been fine.' She looked back up at him, adding awkwardly '...How about you?'

His eyes were still hard, and his answer was curt, using less words than Ariadne had, but conveying the same lie. 'I've been well.'

'Bullshit,' Ariadne muttered, not completely intending to actually say it out loud. His eyes softened considerably, granting her a stark view of the dark circles under his eyes. His shoulders also seemed to lose some of their formality, and he relaxed into his chair.

There didnt seem to be much either of them could say. They were both obviously exhausted, still recovering from the Fischer Job. She knew his life had changed since they lost Cobb, but she wasn't sure how much.

'Where have you been?' Ariadne asked, and then quickly back-tracked, removing the possesive feel of her question. 'I mean, where have you been living?'

Arthur fidgeted - something Ariadne had never seen the usually composed, measured man do - and finally answered her. 'I was stateside for a while. I helped Saito deliver Cobb's share...' he trailed off, looking into his mug of coffee. Of course. Cobb's share of the Fischer Job payment must have gone to Proffesor Miles - who had gone back to the states before Ariadne made it back into regular classes - and his wife and their grandchildren. Ariadne felt the echo of tears pricking her eyes, and looked up at Arthur, who's own eyes were still downcast towards his drink. She opened her mouth in an effort of reasurrance, though she didnt quite know what she would say, but Arthur beat her to it once again.

'I actually went home for a while. To my parent's house in Seattle.'

This stopped Ariadne short. She wasn't sure where Arthur was from, or if he had any family. She didnt even know his last name.

'My baby sister just turned 17. It was nice to see her, but my folks didn't know what to do with me, having been gone for so long.' Arthur spoke quietly with a subtle smile on his lips, but with confidence.

Ariadne hardly knew what to do. She never expected to hear this much about Arthurr, without either a few drinks or a lot of prying. She prodded him gently to continue, with a quiet 'Oh?'

He looked her in the eye again, that almost imperceptible smile on his lips. 'I haven't spent more than a few hours in my family's home since I was 19. I only stayed about a week anyway. Couldn't over-stay my welcome, right?' Arthur chuckled a half-hearted laugh, only hinted by the slight shake of his shoulders.

Ariadne ventured in with a firmer prompt, being careful to not pry. 'So...You were with -' She hesitating, choosing her words, 'With Proffesor Miles, and then with your family for a week. It's been four months, where else did you end up?'

Arthur was silent at first, and Ariadne was sure she had been too intrusive, but then he spoke once again.

'Hotels, all over North America. I flew in from Montreal today, I was there for a couple of weeks.'

'What?' Ariadne startled, 'You flew in today? Jesus, you must be exhausted! Are you hungry? Let me make you something more than just coffee - ' She started to rise from her chair before Arthur cut her off.

'Hey, hey, stop fussing, sit down, I just came by to say hello.'

Arthur's words stopped her, but she didn't sit down again. She blinked, and then picked up her bishop from the table and slid it back into the pocket of her jeans. 'You're leaving? When?'

'I don't know when I'll be leaving Paris, but I figure it would be a good idea tonight for the both of us to try and get some sleep-'

'Stick around a while longer.' It was Ariadne's turn to cut in. 'I'm guessing neither of us will be able to sleep, anyways. I make a mean grilled cheese sandwich - What do you say?'

Arthur's smile was a genuine one. It was small, and didnt quite reach his eyes, but it was real. 'That sounds just fine.'

The sandwiches were long gone. Ariadne's plate was streaked with ketchup, while Arthur had his plain - of course. The dishes lay forgotten in the sink, and Ariadne had just made the third batch of coffee they would make their way through. The two of them sat in her tiny living room, she on the old couch that spread along one wall, and him in the vintage chair in the corner. Ariadne's cat Rook lay curled and sleeping next to her.

'You like chess, then?'

Ariadne knew he'd noticed the correlation between her cat's name and her totem. She shrugged. 'My Dad and I used to play, it was never a serious hobby or anything.'

'I won chess competitions in highschool.' Arthur commented, a smile tugging at his lips. 'Dorky, right?'

Ariadne laughed, shaking her head. 'No, it actually kind of makes sense.' The strategy required to win chess matches suited his proffesion. The Point Man only required that skill on a different level.

Arthur's eyes had darkened once again. He clenched his jaw, and Ariadne watched that familiar muscle jump under the skin of his cheek.

'Will you keep doing it? Dream sharing I mean, will you keep taking jobs?'

He glanced at her, his expression still dark, before looking back down at the small coffee table again. 'I'm not sure yet. It seems wrong, without Cobb. The - the only way I think I still could would be by becoming an Extractor and making myself a team. I'm not sure I want to.'

Ariadne nodded, looking into her coffee and then taking a sip. When she looked up into his face again, his expression had changed completely. Rook's head perked up, and he stood from his resting spot next to her and hopped off the couch, snaking under it.

Arthur's brow was creased angrily, his eyes dark. 'I let him go. Down in the first level, I didn't get him out of that God damn van.'

Ariadne staggered, surprised at the change in mood, the heaviness of his confession. She had the overwhelming urge to touch him, to comfort him and tell him he was wrong in his guilt, but he knew it on his own. In his eyes she saw that he knew it wasn't his fault that Cobb forgot himself, that he became lost in that dream. And yet the guilt still weighed on him.

She leaned over, and reached her hand out to his, letting her fingers cover his. Arthur's eyes shot to hers, his expression losing the anger, changing swiftly to sad. His sad, dark eyes remained for a moment, searching her own, his face appearing younger and more vulnerable than Ariadne had ever seen it. And then he cleared his throat, and the stoic was back, a slight frown visible in his lips. Ariadne drew her hand back, wrapping it around her warm drink.

'I don't think I'll ever do it again,' Ariadne said after a moment, looking at her hands. 'Shared dreaming, I mean.'

Arthur seemed surprised at that. 'Really? I would have thought you'd want back in as soon as you could.'

Ariadne looked up at the man in front of her, smiling sadly. 'The freedom is great, the ability to create things, planets and cities and structures without barriers. I'll never forget the feeling.' Her expression grew sadder, and she looked back down to her hands. 'I saw things, though. Between Dom and Mal. I could see how easy it must have been for them to get lost, and for Dom to loose her. I saw too much. I don't think I...I don't think I could go back...'

She felt the couch shift and was surprised that Arthur had gotten up and come to sit next to her. His arm was suddenly on her back, sliding to rest on her shoulder. Their thighs touched as he moved.

'You didn't see too much. You saw what I wish Dom and Mal could have, what they would have been better off knowing about in advance.' Arthur said quietly, confidence in his low voice. 'You saw the danger of this job, and that's important, before you get too far in.'

Ariadne turned to look in his eyes, and saw the tightness there, the creases back in his forehead. 'How far are you?' She asked. 'Can...can you still dream?'

He didn't hesitate in replying, drawing his arm back from her shoulder, letting his hand rest on his thigh. 'I had my last natural dream 4 years ago, when I was 24.' He glanced into Ariadne's eyes, watching her calculate his age. 'I'd been working seriously with Dom for about a year. He had just made me his point man, but his Miles didn't approve, so I really let go of myself. My reservations about shared dreaming, I mean. I felt that I'd needed to prove to Miles that I wasn't too young for the job.'

Ariadne raised her eyebrows at him. 'Too young?'

'Until you came along, I was the youngest person to have been given a serious position in this business.' Arthur continued with a grin, 'I'm guessing Miles got over his ageism, suggesting a 23 year old to be our Architect.' He said the last words with a pointed eyebrow-raised in her direction.

She smiled, both at the memory of the proffessor she hadn't seen in months, and the memory of her first experiences in shared dreaming, the thrill of twisting the environment around her with sheer force of will. She left out the memory of Mal striding towards her with a knife. She looked up at Arthur, a faux-angry scowl creasing her face. 'You knew my age. Were you in my file?'

Arthur grinned, raising his hands in surrender. 'Guilty. Had to know who was taking my title, after all.'

Underneath her, Rook had peeked his grey head out from between her feet, venturing out from under the couch, and Arthur leaned forward, extending a slender finger toward the cat, who froze nervously and sniffed it. 'While I'm in favour of your career choice,' Arthur said, scratching Rook under the chin once his finger was accepted, 'It would have been nice to have an Architect in case I do get back in the business.' Bringing his hand back up to his leg, she saw Arthur glance quickly at his watch.

'It's already 11:30,' he said curtly, rising to his feet and seemingly forgetting he wasnt wearing a vest under his suit jacket, and straightened his tie instead. 'It's been rude of me to intrude for so long, I'm sure you have to keep up with your studies.'

Ariadne shrugged, standing up next to him. 'It's Thursday. I don't have class again until Monday.'

He grinned, another authentic one, maybe the widest she'd seen tonight. 'That's good news for me. Maybe I will see you tomorrow?'

Ariadne smiled up at him, bringing one hand up to scratch the back of her neck, nodding. Arthur glanced down at Rook, looking almost as though he wanted to say goodbye to him as well, and then stepped toward's Ariadne's front door. She followed him, undoing the 4 deadbolts on her door and nudging it in and then up, swinging it open after the ritual.

Arthur stepped over the threshold from her apartment into the building's hallway, and she leaned out the door towards him.

'Where are you staying?' She asked, expecting a 5-star hotel near the centre of the city.

'Hotel Prima Lepic.' He answered, in a fairly good French accent. Just a couple blocks away. Right. One corner of his mouth was tugged up into a half smile.

Ariadne smiled at him, shaking her head. 'A three star hotel? Really now?' She laughed shortly. 'Eames would never let you live it down.'

Arthur shrugged, his casual-yet-closed demeaner fully in place. 'I'd rather experience Paris with it's people,' he said, which would have been convincing if you hadn't known the extravagant conditions under which Arthur and Cobb usually lived when they were on the job.

Ariadne didn't know what to say then. She almost wanted to invite Arthur back in, pour him another cup of coffee and keep him out of the cold, March air. Instead, she resolved to invite him back 'I haven't heard all good things about the Prima Lepic. Don't be shy about swinging by if things get too rough - just buzz number 23.'

Arthur smiled a half smile, nodded, and said, 'Thank you for the coffee and sandwiches. It was nice to - '

He cut himself off, his half smile turning into a reserved full one, and he took a half step closer to Ariadne, his eyes glinting. He put his left hand into his pocket, and she knew without looking that he was fingering his die. He looked almost sheepishly at the floor, and muttered to himself 'I wonder if...'

Ariadne leaned against her doorway. Arthur seemed temporarily lost in his own musing. He suddenly looked up, back into her eyes, his eyes dark yet active, and smoothly closed the metre or so that separated them. Ariadne quickly straightened her stance, pushing herself from her lean on the doorframe.

Arthur was almost flush against her, their bodies separated by a handful of centimetres. She looked up into his dancing eyes.

'Quick,' he said, 'give me a kiss.'

Ariadne's mind raced back into the second level of the Fischer Job, remembering being surrounded by suspicious projections, sitting with Arthur in his own dream, in the hotel lobby she had designed herself.

But in front of her, Arthur was leaning down towards her face, his expression free of the guilt, sadness and anger that had littered it throughout the course of the evening, and then his lips were on hers.

The kiss was much like the one in the lobby. Chaste, sweet, just a bit longer than the first had been. It took her longer to recover from - as he pulled his lips from hers, she blinked a few times, looking up into his grinning face and unguarded eyes.

Arthur straightened then, tugging on the wings of his suit jacket. He said a quiet 'Goodnight, Ariadne,' and then took a step away from the door, spinning and making his way down the stairs. She was still blinking when he had dissapeared to the floors below her. She stood there for a moment, listening to his footsteps growing more and more faint on the stairs, before taking a breath and stepping back into her apartment. She felt her pulse pumping behind her ears as her fingers moved to lock her door and walked back into the living room. The dishes lay forgotten in the sink, and Ariadne flopped like a rag doll onto her couch, hands over her face, as Rook leapt onto her stomach and curled into a ball.

AWRIGHT, theres your first chapter. No clue how long this'll go - as long as im inspired by these two, i suppose.

I wonder how many of the other Arthur/Ariadne fics use the 'Quick, give me a kiss' line. Ima go and guess all of them, ahahha.

please reviewed if you feel so inclined!