Reality

Disclaimer: I do not own Inception. If I did there would be more Arthur/Ariadne and we would know if Cobbs was still dreaming or not at the end. However the song in this fic is mine. It's called "Reality". Please don't steal it.

Ariadne POV:

Leave it up to Eames to choose a bar to celebrate. And for it to be one of those bars with karaoke in it. Ariadne looked around. They had done it. They had successfully done inception on Fischer and as Saito had promised Cobbs could go home and see his kids. And that's just what he did. Now as she looked around she realized that it was a good thing he left. Eames and Yusuf were roaring drunk, stumbling around the room and drunkenly singing karaoke. The sound made her ears want to bleed. Saito had left to go back to his business.

And Ariadne? She was a bit tipsy, and she knew that. But she needed to reloax somehow. After the whole Mal and Limbo experience, she welcomed anything that could take her mind off of it. And that's just what the alcohol did. She scanned the room. Arthur. One look at him and her mind was once again bombarded with questions. How did he manage to stay so calm and collected in this crowd? He was just sitting at the bar next to her sipping his drink probably not even close to being tipsy. He looked like he was in deep thought, completely unaware of her gaze. She looked at his clothes. Were tuxes the only thing he owned? He really needed to learn how to have fun. He was always so….so serious. The only time he ever did something that wasn't serious was…

That kiss. What was it he had said? "Worth a shot?" Ariadne knew that he knew that the kiss wasn't going to work. So why did he do it then? Great, like she really needed more unanswered questions.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Eames came up stumbling up to her and Arthur. "You kids! Come on have some fun! Go sing a song," he said, mostly to Arthur. Arthur, it seemed, did not like being called a kid. He turned away from Eames and ignored him, returning to his thoughts. Even if he was only a few years older than Ariadne, she guessed the idea of still being a "kid" hurt his pride.

"So what about you darlin'?" Eames asked her. Ariadne snapped out of her thought and looked at him. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Arthur watching them. "How about you, go up there and sing us all a song." Eames continued.

"No, I couldn't," Ariade began, but Eames wouldn't take no for an answer. He grabbed her arm and dragged her to the stage with Ariadne fighting to get away but he was to strong. He pushed her onto the stage and the spotlight shone down at her making her freeze. The eyes of the people in the bar were on her, waiting for her to sing. Sighing, she realized that she had no choice. She began going through the list of songs for the singers. None seemed good enough though. The at the bottom of the list, one name stood out to her. "Reality". She remembered this song. She used to play it after her training for Inception. It just seemed to fit with what she was going through. She selected the song and the music began. Nervously, she began to sing:

The morning rush makes me feel empty inside

Just goin' on, doin' the same thing every time

And part of me just wants it to be over

But then I see you here and I realize

We can sail the world for as long as we want

We can reach till we touch the stars

We can make them see, we can make them realize

That we are then just people without a care

So tell me is this a dream

Cause I want it to be reality

I don't to wake up tomorrow morning

To find that you weren't here

Cause it was all just in my head

So please just make this real so I can find

You and I

She kept singing, getting more confident as she went. People were cheering her on and she felt great. All eyes were on her and she didn't want to stop. But soon the final note came and the song was over. The bar went wild and she blushed. She wasn't that great of a singer, in fact she couldn't sing well at all! Must be the song, she thought.

Before she left the stage, she looked at Arthur. He was looking right at her, looking like he was in thought again. Butterflies formed in her stomach and she quickly looked away. If only he could realize what that one kiss had made her feel like. Happy and carefree. Like there wasn't anything else that mattered. All that from one tiny smooch. Why did it make her feel this way? She headed outside needing fresh air and a place to think. She walked to the nearby park and sat down on a bench, lost in thought. Soon someone sat next to her.

"That was a good song," Arthur said. Ariadne looked at him. He was looking at the stars.

"Yea," she said. "It's one of my favorites."

"Really fits in with what we're doing for a living," he said turning his gaze to her.

"Sure odes," she said chuckling a bit. They sat there for a bit longer. Finally she had to ask him the one question that had been bothering her. "What was with that kiss on the second level?"

"It was to make the projections stop looking at us." He replied, looking away.

"Don't lie. We both know that you knew that it wasn't going to work. So again, why?"

Arthur didn't reply, he just kept looking away. After a few minutes Ariadne sighed. "Fine. Forget I asked." And with that she got up to leave, but Arthur grabbed her hand, making her stop. Did he know how crazy it made her when he touched her?

"I'll tell you," he said. She sat back down and looked at him, patiently waiting. "There's no easy way for me to say this without sounding like a complete fool," he said. "But I kissed you because I wanted to know what it would be like. You have this certain way of... I don't know making me feel different, like nothing else really matters to me but you." He paused at looked at her. Ariadne was still taking it all in. "So please can we just forget this ever happened and move on?" And with that he got up.

This time it was Ariadne who stopped him. She stood up next to him. "What if I don't want to forget?" She asked, bringing her face closer to his. Their lips met. This wasn't like the kiss in the dream though, it was deeper and filled with love and want. Their kiss wan interrupted though by the sound of cheers and catcalls. They broke apart to see Eames and Yusuf, enjoying their little show.

"About time!" Yusuf said, raising his beer into the air. Eames nodded in agreement.

"Come on you kids," Eames called out. "Back to the bar!" With that Eames and Yusuf turned around and stumbled back to the bar, holding on to each other for support. Ariadne laughed at them before starting to follow them, but Arthur held her back. He kissed her again. We they split apart, they were both grinning from ear to ear.

"Come on, we can't keep the waiting," he said. And with that they walked back, holding on to each other. And maybe, just maybe, Ariadne could find a way to hear him sing karaoke tonight.

Ta-da! Feel free to R&R (please do!) and be on the look out. When I get the camera to work, I will post a link to lead you to the song so you know what it sounds like. Till then, use our imaginations!

R&R!