A Note: Hello everyone. So, this is the first fic I'm posting. I hope you enjoy it. I'm trying to get back into writing more. Please feel free to tell me what you think! Of course, as you have guessed I don't own the characters.


When Arthur first met her he had never seen a woman so beautiful in his entire life. Time stopped. His heart paused, forgetting to beat once, no, twice. It was like someone took the world out of focus except for her. A smile tugged her lips open in slow motion and she leaned in to kiss his cheek. The cool of her lips and the slight bit of warm breath he felt on his cheek sent a shiver through him. If he could have captured that moment to keep he would have been quite content. However, the instant their brief contact with one another parted the world snapped back into motion again.

It wasn't like Arthur to just lose focus like that so easily, he composed himself and remembered he should smile in return and took her hand to kiss the back of her palm with that suave air he could muster up. She laughed slightly and then he saw Dom's arm slide around her shoulder and she leaned back to kiss the Extractor in a much more familiar way.

"Arthur, this is Mal, my girlfriend."

His heart dropped, but his face showed no signs. Of course that would be the case. It was silly of him to even allow himself to have such a reaction. He simply nodded obediently and answered smoothly. "It is a pleasure to meet you Mal." She caught his eye and gave a small nod in return. He paused for a moment studying how she had looked at him. He could have sworn he saw something in that split second that suggested she had read him like the morning news and knew exactly how she had made his heart skip a beat.

He dismissed the notion of the idea. Pure optimism, if he had to say what had caused that thought process. He pushed away any thoughts of pursuing the woman. It simply wasn't meant to be, plus it would be horribly rude to even try anything considering Cobb was not only a coworker, but a dear friend. It just wasn't something you did.

A few weeks passed and Arthur had thought he had gotten over the jealousy of Dom's new girlfriend. After all he only saw her every few days and even if he did it was just for a few minutes before they went out to dinner or the movies and he was left alone to do research. However, one day Dom approached him with an idea: letting her work with them as a team.

"We could always use another person, if anything to stay awake and monitor us. Plus she's actually a pretty good Architect; we've built some amazing labyrinths." Dom really only talked about work or Mal now and it didn't bother Arthur, the man was in love. Who was he to say anything if there was the tiniest little sting of jealousy in his gut? They were happy and he could be an adult and bury his feelings like you're supposed to.

He finished writing something down on a form and turned to study Cobb. He was only bringing this up because he wanted to be around her more, Arthur knew that, but he also knew Cobb wouldn't compliment someone unless they actually had the talent to back it. He found himself nodding, even though he didn't particularly like the idea. It was for selfish reasons though. "Sure, I'm sure it would be a wonderful idea. I'll order enough Sominacin for three people to use with our training schedules." Cobb grinned at him while Arthur could only manage a rather forced tight lipped smile. The other didn't seem to notice, he was too preoccupied.

Months passed with Mal now on the team. Arthur was happy for them, even if it was forced sometimes. He had never seen Dom so happy in the entirety of their careers together. There was that and Mal seemed happy too. He liked that, it meant he got to see her smile, and it was still the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

However, he didn't have as much control on his feelings for her as he originally thought. It had been while Arthur was working on a way to tell them how long they had before kicks. He was tired of waking up too early or having far more time then he thought because they lost track of how long he was in a dream. He thought using music would give them a good idea of roughly how long they had till they woke. It should seep through into the dream, and you'd get a vague idea how long you'd have.

He had stayed up late one night going through his iTunes playlist on his laptop trying to find something he felt would work for him to experiment with. As much as he loved classical he wanted something with words. The instruments would just distort in the dream and could be mistaken for background noise so if there were words it would be easier to focus on.

It wasn't until he was already halfway through the song that he had realized it was about her. Well, he really doubted Billy Joel wrote "She's Always a Woman" about Mal. But for his understanding of the song, as his own emotions he had been struggling with, it was about her. Once the song finished he stared at the player for a few moments, face washed in the pale light of the computer. This was more than he ever intended it to be. His eyes shut and he leaned his forehead into his hand.

"Fuck."

The next day he pitched the idea to Cobb and Mal. They seemed rather receptive to the idea and said they'd try it. "What song is it if you don't mind my asking Arthur?" Mal caught his gaze. Arthur quickly turned his eyes away from her, he never did keep eye contact long, he couldn't manage to because every time he looked at her he thought he saw a small flicker, just this little speck of mischief that practically called his name. He knew he had to be insane to keep seeing that. As he always did he buried it away. "She's Always A Woman" by Billy Joel." He answered plainly and turned away from them to get his iPod set up.

So they tried it and it worked out wonderfully. They even started using it on a regular basis. It was not long after Arthur had started using the music that Mal had suggested the Totems, just as an anchor to reality. Because it was so swiftly after implementing the music he had always secretly credited himself for inspiring her. Mal had smirked at him right after she proposed her idea a few weeks later. Only explanation he had.

It was later that year when Mal approached him, perching herself in the doorway to his room and watched him work a few moments before speaking. "You picked that song for me didn't you Arthur?"

He almost dropped his pen, heart racing, his back rigid, he didn't dare turn around. "I don't know what you mean." He spoke with a paced meter so he didn't give away just how much he was panicking.

She moved across the room to where he was sitting and leaned to sit on the corner of his desk. "For the countdown to the kick. The song you picked, you picked it for me didn't you?" She sounded so casual about it. How could she sound so calm about it? She should be infuriated, he should be ashamed of himself, and yet there she sat asking him as if he was about to give her the time of day.

He'd never had to lie to Mal before. And now Arthur was now faced with the (probably more intelligent) option to do so. However, he couldn't bring himself to do it. Almost like an obedient dog who didn't want to disappoint his master he nodded slowly. "I did." There was no guilt in his voice, though he well knew there should have been.

She was smiling; a wry little smile that he had never seen before and it sent a small shiver through his body. God, if she wasn't with Cobb the things he could have done right then and there. But he kept that internal, nothing more than a quick dilation of his pupils for a split second was all that suggested anything was even wrong.

"It's sweet." She leaned to kiss his cheek as she was standing up. He almost swore it was on purpose that she caught the corner of his mouth. She was out the door by the time Arthur had turned to watch her leave.

That night he had his teeth clenched around a pillow to stifle the moans that were quickly working their way up his throat. Hair was out of place and sticking to his temples and forehead as his hand pumped over his aching erection. His chest fluttered as he was gasping trying to maintain any semblance of normal breathing. His eyes were pressed firmly shut and his mind's eye was creating an image of that smile he had seen earlier in the night: Mal looking up at him with that little smirk before her lips parted to slip around his cock.

His hand was hardly a proper substitute for what he should be feeling in order to match that image he had created. A short strangled whimper made it past his lips as his hips jerked forward into his fist. Arthur had quite the filthy mouth when he took care of himself. All sorts of colourful collections of filth spilled from his mouth in a tone hardly above a hoarse whisper. He would be quite the sight to behold, thin pale body writing against the sheets as his fingers worked over his own delicate flesh that was flushed a vibrant shade of pink.

Arthur's jaw fell slack as he arched rather gracefully up off the bed, hips stuttering into his hand as he came. He relaxed back on the bed, hand and stomach warm and sticky. His face still contorted to something that resembled extreme concentration he was just beginning to relax and his chest was heaving in attempt to catch his breath. He should be so ashamed of himself and yet, as he slowly walked to the bathroom to clean himself up, he simply couldn't be bothered with that emotion.