I saw Inception a couple of weeks ago, and have since been obsessed with reading Fanfictions about it. I've written a couple before this, but I didn't like them nearly enough to bother to continuing them...but I figured I might as well post this one, because I've been working on it so long. Originally, it was supposed to be a one-shot: I had some inspiration from another story where someone mentioned Arthur bought Ariadne flowers, and I though that was a cute concept...except I had to throw in a twist of some sort.
Anyway, if you like the story, review it and tell me, and I'll add more chapters (which I've actually already written...although they don't tie in all that well '^ ^).
Finally: I love the Arthur/Ariadne pairing; so much, in fact, that I've considered buying the entire production from Mr. Nolan. Unfortunately, I haven't yet, so I'm required by law to say I don't own Inception. Yet. (;
postscript: I was editing this at 11 pm on a Friday night, which is my way of say I was very tired while doing so. If you notice any mistakes, please tell me and I'll be sure to go back and fix them. Thank you!
When Ariadne stepped into the warehouse house, it took her moment to find her desk, buried under the bunches of flowers. Arthur was bent over his desk, taking down notes on something on his laptop, Yusuf was typing something on HIS laptop, his safety goggles still covering his eyes-clearly he'd only just finished up with an experiment-and Eames was tossing a baseball around, leaning back in his chair with his feet up on his desk, a file folder with the mark's information on it laying in his lap.
No one looked up when she stopped in surprise, staring at her desk in horror.
"Oh. My. God." They all looked up to gauge her reaction, and Arthur gave her a faint smile. Thankfully, she didn't notice it.
"Who did this? My... I left all my sketches out-" She rushed over to her desk and began to move the flowers, brushing fallen leaves and petals away from her workplace. None of the sketches were ruined, but now her entire workspace was a mess of petals and leaves and random flowers. Another moment, and she was sneezing uncontrollably, her eyes watering and her nose already starting to go red. "I'm allergic to pollen. Was this supposed to be a joke? Eames, was this you?" Every statement she made was accented by a sneeze, and she only sounded more furious each time.
Finally, she was forced to stumble away, completely. Arthur stood up to help her, looking completely out of sorts. Ariadne wasn't used to seeing the point man looking so...stunned.
Eames beat Arthur to her, and pulled her farther away from the followers before giving her an apologetic look. "Oh, Darling, I didn't know." He miraculously pulled a tissue out-almost from thin air, and she snatched it from him with a glare. "I wanted to give you something for Graduation."
She gave him a scathing look. "Eames. I said no presents."
He shrugged. "Couldn't resist."
Arthur interrupted them, gently taking Ariadne's arm. "Do you need to get to the hospital or anything?"
"No, no." She murmured quickly. "I have some antihistamines back at my apartment."She sighed and rubbed the nose with the tissue again. After a moment, she gave Eames another look and said gently "Look. If you really want to give me a graduation present, you could clear off my desk." In all honesty, she welcomed the idea that he'd cared enough to get her a present, and she was upset she wouldn't get to enjoy it. "I'm...I'm sorry, I should have thanked you. This was really nice, but..." she gave him a weak smile, and he returned it with a grin.
"Understandable, love. No more flowers for you." they shared another quick smile, and then Ariadne hurried out of the building, her nose still sniffling.
The moment she was out of range, Eames turned to Arthur and snarled "Way to go, Darling." before going to clean up the flowers. Arthur followed him, looking sheepish. They quickly swept the desk clear of debris, while Eames complained. "You're lucky I took that fall for you. You should have known she was allergic to flowers before you went out and bought six dozen." Arthur didn't reply, just waited for Eames to finish. "You're the bloody point man. How could you miss that little fact, hm...? Didn't you go through her medical records?"
Arthur shrugged. "It fell between the cracks." But he still felt horrible. She'd looked so upset.
"How does an allergy fall between the cracks? Maybe a stubbing of one's toe back in the fifth grade, but an allergy?" He threw his hands up in disgust. "It's a good thing she wasn't bloody well allergic to-"
"Eames." Arthur said. "Shut up."
"Maybe I'm not bloody well done-"
"You didn't have to say this was your fault." Arthur reminded him. "Don't start in on me for something that was your choice. "
Eames considered this for a moment, then shrugged agreeably, his dramatic display of anger fading.
They finished cleaning her workspace in silence, scooping petals into the trashcan. Eames wouldn't let them toss out the flowers Arthur had bought for her, so he moved them all over to Cobb's desk, as though planning some pointless practical joke. "Should I write 'From your secret admirer' on a card?"
"No, it'd be a waste of time. He'd know you put them there."
"To true, to true." Eames looked wistful for a moment, then shrugged and grinned. "Well, it was a fun thought."
Arthur turned back to Ariadne's desk, and was stunned to notice, sticking out of loose pile of drawings, an envelope marked with his name. Without saying anything to Eames, he slipped it out from under the pile and opened it. It was only sealed in such a way that the flap was tucked into the rest of the envelope.
Inside was a dozen or so pieces of sketching paper, covered in notes, a few tiny sketches in the margins. He read over a few lines of notes quickly, and it dawned on him: she was designing him a dreamscape. At last, thats what he gathered from the hastily scribbled "Would he prefer ionic or roman columns?" and "To many trees? Is he a tree person?"
He shoved the papers back in the envelope and stared at it as though it were on fire. After a moment, he pushed it back beneath her sketches and turned to Eames. "If Ariadne gets back before I do-" He stopped himself and shook his head.
"Where're you going?"
"Out." Arthur grabbed his coat and slipped out of the warehouse.
She looked slightly more presentable returning to the warehouse than she had leaving it. They were all the exact same way she'd found them before. It was as though nothing had ever happened, although, now that she noticed it, Eames had lost interest in the baseball, and was instead reading a letter, the envelope tucked behind the papers, the file about the mark completely forgotten.
She went over to her desk, and breathed deeply; no lingering pollen disrupted her allergies. With a smile, she placed her messenger bag on the floor near her desk, pulled her latest model of the dream level she was working on down from a shelf and stared at it in concentration.
She only looked up when she sensed Arthur get up from his desk and head over towards her. She smiled brightly when he stopped at her desk, but dragged a stray design for a building over the model of the level. This was Yusuf's level, and though she knew Arthur wouldn't look at it, she had become accustomed to hiding her work from those for which it wasn't intended.
"Did you need something?" She asked brightly.
He sighed and placed a small box on her desk. "I know you said you didn't want any gifts, but I'd already gotten you something, and since Mr. Eames already opened the door, I figured I might as well give you my present."
From across the room, Eames snorted, obviously listening in on their conversation.
Ariadne picked up the box gingerly and sighed. "You really didn't have to." Inside, she was beyond thrilled, even though she hadn't exactly wanted anything from them.
"It was nothing." Again, Eames snorted after his comment, but didn't say anything. Arthur turned and headed back to his desk, listening as Ariadne unwrapped the beautiful silk scarf. He made it to his desk and sat down before she had completely unwrapped it, so he was already immersed in the information on his laptop when she cried out in surprise.
"Oh!" He glanced up and smiled; she'd taken the scarf from the box and was rubbing it gently on her cheek. "Arthur, this is beautiful." She untied the scarf she was wearing from around her neck and slipped the new one on. If she'd been looking carefully, she would have noticed it match her outfit perfectly; there was no way he'd gotten it in advance.
She jumped up and circled around her desk, hurried to his and wrapped him up in a hug. "Thank you!"
From across the room, Eames began to protest. "What, I don't get a hug?"
"Sorry." She smiled apologetically and slipped over to Eames's desk and wrapped herself up in his hug, as well. "The flowers were very thoughtful, even if they were …" she trailed off and Eames smirked.
"Nothing to sneeze at?" He offered, an eyebrow cocked, as though he knew he was going to pay for that comment. He did.
Across the room, Arthur didn't hear their banter. He was still locked in the ghost of Ariadne's embrace. After a few moments, Ariadne returned to her desk, and shifted a few papers, moving the designs off the model. There was silence for a few minutes, then Ariadne looked up, puzzled. "Has anyone seen my-?"
Eames glanced up at her, the envelope and papers still clutched his hands. "What?" He said, innocently. She noticed his amused smile first, then what he was holding.
"Eames..." she said, slowly. A warning. "Could I please get that back...? "
"I don't know..." he waved it around in the air for a moment. "I think it's going to cost you."
Arthur glanced up finally, noticed what it was that Eames was holding and ducked his head back down, looking like he'd never seen the envelope in his life. "Give it back to her, Eames." He said, emotionlessly. To Ariadne, it only seemed like he wanted Eames to return it so they'd stop talking and he could concentrate.
"Now, now, Arthur. If I were you-no, no, other way around. If you were me right now, I don't think you'd much want to give this back to her, either."
Ariadne fumed, and Arthur shrugged, like he had no idea what it was that Eames was holding. When Eames stood up, Ariadne followed his lead and said "Eames." again, more warning in her voice.
"Arthur, darling, you really must see this." He strode across the way to Arthur's desk, and Ariadne slipped around hers and made for his as well, determined to cut Eames off. Eames tossed the envelope and papers down on Arthur's desk before she could stop him, then moved slightly so he was in the way, and she couldn't get across to pick them up.
Arthur picked them up carefully, flicked his eyes over them so fast he didn't have a time to read anything-he knew she was watching him, and he wanted to her feel satisfied with the fact that he hadn't read it.
As he handed it back, he noticed, once again, his name on the envelope, and pretended to be surprised. "It's addressed to me." He said in a careful monotone, pulling his hand away before she could snatch it up.
"It's um-plans. For your dream level." She said, quickly.
They both knew it wasn't. The plans were much too big for a small envelope such as this, and it was no longer even in the paper-stages of the design, anyway. She'd already built a model weeks before.
In fact, they all knew it wasn't, since they'd all seen it-although Arthur wasn't about to let Ariadne know that-but no one said anything to question this statement. Ariadne snatched the envelope back and Eames took her wrist up in his and daintily plucked it from her fingertips. "Ah, ah, ah." He waved it in her face, and jerked it away when she made a grab for it. "You don't get this back until either Arthur sees it or I get one of my own." He grinned cheekily at her and said "I could use a nice, custom-made dream world like this where I didn't have to worry about getting shot or beaten up or-"
Ariadne glared at him as he retreated back to his desk. Then she turned pleadingly to Arthur and gave him an incredulous look. "Help?"
"Ariadne, I'd love to but I've got a lot of work to-"
She planted her hands on his desk and stared him down, the picture of a woman on a mission. "If we don't get that back, you're going to listen to Eames read it aloud until he gets bored with it."
"What is it?" He gave her a sideways look and she blushed, immediately flustered. "It's-it's designs."
"With my name on it?"
"Yes." She said, shortly. She was about to say more when Eames interrupted with a peal of laughter.
"Yes, Ariadne, Darling, you should include lots of Libraries. No need to question yourself on that one." He flipped to another page and leaned back in his chair, looking entertained. He glanced up an added "If you're not busy, I'd like a dreamscape with lots of bars. And strip clubs. My subconscious will fill in the rest."
Ariadne went back to fuming, and Arthur decided to see if he could get her to open up a little more. "What's this about designing Eames's fantasy dreamscape?"
"You don't want to know." Ariadne groaned, before stomping over to Eames's desk. She picked up the file folder of the mark he had been studying, and when he dodged to keep the designs away from her, she smacked him over the head with the mark's information. "Give it back."
"Are you going to show it to Arthur?" He lowered his voice so it didn't carry. Ariadne shook her head.
"I can't." she hissed.
"Why not?"
"You know very well why not." She replied, holding out her hand. Eames gave her a long look before returning the designs. She dropped the mark's file back on his desk and turned to go back to her own. Eames stopped her by grabbing her wrist. She immediately resisted, thinking he was trying to grab the designs back. After a moment, she determined this wasn't the case, since he'd leaned in confidentially, about to tell her something he obviously didn't want Arthur to hear.
"Ariadne, darling. The flowers this morning? They weren't from me-only you were so flustered about them that I couldn't leave you to the impression that he'd forgotten your allergy. His bloody know-it-all persona would be in jeopardy." He smiled sarcastically and added "He was upset they didn't work out, and he went out and got you that scarf."
She didn't want to believe him at first, but she couldn't doubt his sincerity. Or the serious expression on his face. He let go of her wrist and she stepped away, giving the designs a long look. When she finally glanced up at him again, she smiled sadly and shook her head.
"I can't." He frowned, and she continued before he could interrupt. "I get that... he wanted to give me something for graduation, and it's perfectly sweet of him but this-" she raised the designs half-heartedly and said flatly "This is border line stalking."
"Well," Eames said cheerfully. "You didn't design them if you didn't want him to see them."
She opened her mouth but couldn't think of a reply.
Eames was right.
Goddammit.
She turned around and headed back to her desk, layed the envelope on the very edge and tried to ignore it. She turned her attention to the model and forced herself to concentrate on the schematics of it. The envelope taunted her. How the hell was she supposed to present it to him? "Oh, Arthur, I wanted to thank you, so I designed a dream world..." "I thought you might like-" "I couldn't think of anything else to give you, and I know it's not permanent, but I figured it'd be a nice place to get away from Eames..."
Finally, she picked up the envelope and crossed the room to the lawn chairs and the PASIV. She called out "I'm going under for a few minutes," and Eames looked up. She gave him a knowing look and waved the envelope lazily, then shot a pointed glance at Arthur, who hadn't even seemed to notice her.
She layed the envelope down, pricked her wrist with the needle, and depressed the button at the center of the PASIV, then clutched the envelope to her chest and watched the world fade.
Eames waited until she was asleep, then tried to come up with something that he could do to help her. He'd known right away what it was that she wanted him to do. All it took was a sharp glance at the point man and a gesture with the designs.
The question was, How did he get the point man to follow her under? He glanced around the room and bit the inside of his cheek, thinking.
After a second, with no clear plan in mind, he stood up, made his way across the room to her and pulled a needle from the PASIV. He was about to prick it into his wrist, when Arthur looked up. Perfect timing. "What are you doing?"
"Going under." Eames said, as though he didn't need any other reason.
Arthur gave him a questioning look. What was so urgent, he wondered that Eames couldn't wait five minutes to tell Ariadne? "Why?"
"Well, she's set the PASIV for ten minutes, and I don't want to wait that long to ask her about something she wrote in that letter to you-" He caught himself, like he had said to much, and bit his cheek again, managing to keep his face composed. It was a weak excuse, but Arthur fell for it.
"It wasn't a let-" This time, it was Arthur who caught himself.
And not in time. Eames's eyebrows shot up, and he grinned. "So you did see it."
"And?" Arthur turned back to his laptop, not wanting to discuss this with Eames. Eames, however, seemed to have other plans.
"Well, you can't just pretend drawing out those designs for you wasn't completely adorable. And after your stupid mistake with those bloody flowers-"
Arthur tried to ignore him, but wasn't able to hold off for as long as he had hoped. "Mr. Eames, I understand that you find this whole enterprise extremely amusing, but if Ariadne didn't want to show me that dreamscape, then I suppose she has a right to not be forced to."
"Who said anything about seeing the dreamscape?" Eames tilted his head and his expression said Got ya.
"Mr. Eames-"
"Oh, just go check it out."
"What?" Arthur's forehead wrinkled in confusion, then he realized why she was under. Eames placed the needle back in the PASIV and raised an eyebrow. Arthur's jaw dropped. "You can't be ser-"
"Arthur. Just accept your gift like a good little point man, thank her profusely and kiss her. Mmkay?" Eames returned to his desk, looked at his watch and said "And you'd better get on it, considering by our time she's been alone there for about...half an hour." He smiled mirthlessly and said "you're very good at keeping a lady waiting."
Arthur sighed heavily, closed his laptop and went over to the PASIV. He didn't want to look at Eames, fearing his friend would flash him a thumbs up, and that was honestly, the last thing he wanted to see at the moment. All he needed was some obnoxious man's encouragement to go after a girl.
He slipped a needle into his wrist after claiming his own lawn chair, and closed his eyes.
He didn't think he'd ever been in such an intricate dreamscape. He could immediately pick out her influences, from quite a few major cities. All together, she'd created a stunning mix of modern and ancient, classic and new age. And it fit. That was the most unbelievable part of the whole thing.
Better than that: it fit him. If he'd had to pick a place to retire...well, if anything like this existed on Earth, he'd spend as long as it took to find it.
He was standing on the corner of an empty street, unsure of where to go from there. He wanted to find Ariadne, but he had no clue as to which way she might have gone. He cupped his hands over his mouth and called her name, then realized something that made the place even more curious: Sound didn't echo. He had no idea how she might have done it, but his voice didn't carry any farther than the end of the block.
He'd never find her at this rate.
Arthur sighed and glanced off down every street, before picking one at random, and heading down it. At the end of the block, he was still alone, and the place was still as silent as ever...although, a comfortable silence. A full sort of silence.
He continued to walk the way he was going, figuring she must have designed the place like a maze, and generally you found your way to somewhere in a maze, if you picked one direction and just walked. Of course, usually you found that somewhere faster if you had no destination in mind...
At the center of the city was a park, and he knew right away this was where she'd be. While it was a perfectly nice park, it seemed to be something she would prefer more than he would. She'd made her own little nook for herself in his world. He wouldn't realize this until after they'd woken up, however, so he only took a moment to admire the blooming cherry trees she'd added to it, before slipping into the park and searching for her.
She was on a bench with a sketchbook in hand, drawing the simple, circular mazes that had landed her the job in the first place. When he sat down next to her, she glanced up at him, layed the sketchbook on her lap and smiled.
"Eames understood what I was trying to say. I thought I'd be sitting here for hours-"
Arthur shook his head. "He pounced on me the second you went under."
"Yeah," She ducked her head. "Well, I guess he didn't tell you that I designed-"
"This dreamscape for me." Arthur nodded and glanced out at the city surrounding them. "Yeah, he told me."
She was watching him carefully, waiting for his opinion. When he didn't say anything else, she became to fill the silence, worried that he didn't like it. "I know it's kind of useless, since it won't last or anything, but I couldn't think of anything else, and you've been so helpful from the beginning, and then...I just wanted to give you something, to know how much I appreciated it all-"
"Ariadne." He interrupted her, fearing if he didn't that she would continue ceaselessly. "It's...stunning."
"Thank you," she lowered her head and wouldn't meet his gaze. Was she bothered by the praise?
"More than stunning." He added. "It's the most beautiful dreamscape I've ever seen...Thank you."
This time, she lifted her gaze to his and smiled. He returned it and they sat for another moment in silence, before he gestured at the sketchbook. "Mazes?"
"I was bored." She offered, before flipping through the pages, showing maze after maze after maze... she'd been at this for at least an hour. "I wanted to do something simple, since it won't last."
He nodded knowingly and she set the sketchbook back down.
"Eames told me about the flowers." She said, suddenly. He lowered his gaze and smiled, unsure of how else to react. She tilted her head till she was in his line of sight again and smiled teasingly. "Thank you, though. But next time, I recommend flowers in the dream world-I can keep the allergies at bay." She picked up a fallen petal from a cherry tree and flicked it into the open air, watching it spin its way towards the ground.
"Why did you build it?"
She looked flustered. "I told you. I wanted to thank you for-"
"Me and no one else?" He raised an eyebrow. She shrugged, picked up another cherry petal and began to tear it up.
"Cobb wouldn't have liked the idea, I don't know the first thing about what Yusuf would want in a dreamscape, and Eames-I don't even want to design the sort of things Eames would want in his personal dream world."
They both smirked and Ariadne let the pieces of this petal flutter to the ground as well.
"Well, thank you." He said, carefully. She caught his gaze and sighed.
"Okay, it was more than that." She spoke so quietly, with her head ducked to avoid looking at him. "You've been...I've spent the better part of the last few months with you always on my mind. It's...I mean, you're...I know the whole idea seems stalkerish, that I designed you a world-"
He smiled. "You're the architect." His heart was racing.
"I know, but...Arthur." Here, she gave him a pleading look. "I wanted to-to tell you how much you-how important you are to-to me." She glanced up at him, her face tinged pink. She began to rip up another petal out of nervousness.
She stopped when he took her hands in his, which was his intention. Finally, she met his gaze, her eyes wavering. "I guess I needed something spectacular to tell you..."
"And to think, all I got you to commemorate the occasion was a scarf and flowers."
"The occasion-?" She didn't get much farther than that, because he had leaned in, lifted her chin ever so slightly and pressed his lips to hers, reminiscent of the experience on the second level of Fischer's dream. Ariadne didn't want to compare the two-couldn't compare the two.
She tugged her hands out of his and reached up to slip her hand over his shoulder, running her fingers over the soft fibers of his suit. His hand rested softly on her cheek, cooling the flames she could feel still burning against them from her tragically failed confession of love. And his lips... words couldn't describe his lips.
When he finally pulled away from her, she remained still for another moment, savouring the kiss. She glanced up at his, smiling, and said "Jesus, Arthur. I might have to build you another city, just for that."
"Make that a third." And with a tilt of her chin, they were at it again.
Eames watched over the two dreamers, grinning shamelessly. "See, you two lovebirds?" He said sarcastically "If it weren't for me, you'd be stuck off in your own little worlds..." He stared to turn away, then noticed the small smile that had appeared on Ariadne' face.
"Good boy, Arthur." He smirked, then added "I just hope you thanked her first."
Mmm...Review? If so, Thank You!
...If not, well, thanks for reading it. (;