Please Be a Nightmare
I do not own Inception, but the idea of this story is mine.
It has been a year after the team pulled off inception and the team has a new job. Arthur and Ariadne have been dating for six months; they both are professional during the job so far. Then Ariadne asks for a day off, and Arthur decides to find out why. What he saw makes him wish it was just a nightmare. (A/A pairing, Arthur's POV)
It has been a year since the inception job and finally they got a job. It was a simple extraction on a company's CEO to find out what new technology they are trying to make. One day Ariadne comes in acting jumpy almost scared. She starts to stand up, but she sits right back down.
"I wonder what is wrong with Ariadne today she seemed fine this morning." Arthur thought while he watches Ariadne stand up again and go to Cobb's little room you could call an office.
A few minutes later she came out and was acting like her cheery almost normal self. Almost, she kept glancing at Arthur. When he finally caught her glancing at him he got up and walked toward her to find out what was wrong.
"Ariadne?" asked Arthur. She jumped up out of her seat taken obviously surprised by Arthur right next to her without her noticing.
"Oh, wow Arthur you really surprised me," replied a shocked architect, "so do you need something?"
"No, not really I was just wondering what made you all jumpy this morning." Arthur sadly replied realizing that he has interrupted her while she was building the mazes for the job.
"This morning was nothing I was just a little nervous about asking Cobb if I could take the day off tomorrow because I have something to do." Ariadne said slowly.
"Okay then I will let you work." Arthur said quickly trying to let her continue her work.
The rest of the day went by pretty fast; Arthur didn't realize what time it was until Ariadne said goodnight and he only heard himself say bye. He looked around and saw that everyone was gone. Arthur got up packed his laptop and locked up the warehouse. He walked to his apartment instead of driving his BMW. When he got to his apartment the moment his head hit the pillow he was out cold.
The next morning he was woken by his phone ringing. He decided to ignore it and get ready for work. It wasn't until he got to work at eight o'clock that he looked to see who called. It was Ariadne. Everything was normal besides the fact that Ariadne wasn't there. Eames was being himself and making fun of Arthur, while Yusuf was so into his work he didn't see Eames change his attention from Arthur to him. Eames got behind Yusuf and yelled, "Boo!"
"Ahh!" screamed Yusuf dropping the compound that he made. Once it hit the ground an explosion went off.
"EAMES!" yelled all the extractors. Eames decided after that stunt that it was lunch time. He sneaked out while the others were cleaning the mess he made.
When the group was done cleaning Arthur went out for lunch. It was just a cafe a few blocks from the warehouse. It was when he was eating that he saw Ariadne. She was with a man maybe a year or two older than her. He had brownish grey eyes, light brown hair, and a childish face. What really caught Arthur's eyes was the fact that Ariadne was holding on to this man's arm. Arthur was confused and mad. "Was Ariadne cheating on me," thought Arthur, "or was there a reasonable explanation why she was with this guy." Arthur didn't even hear his last thoughts because he was so full of rage. Then when the rage wore off he thought one thing, "Please, please be a nightmare."
He went straight to the warehouse and continued to work to take his mind off of Ariadne. At around five when he was about to go eat and then go home he got a call. It was his sister. All she said on the phone was if he could make it to her anniversary dinner party. He said yes of course since it was in Rome where they are working.
A few days before Arthur's sister's dinner party Ariadne was again going to Cobb asking for a day off. He didn't get to hear why she was asking for another day off, but Arthur heard Cobb say have fun. The day before the dinner party Arthur went in Cobb's office and asked if he could get tomorrow off for his sister's dinner party. Cobb said yes and Arthur barely heard him say under his breath, "Why are so many people having dinner parties tomorrow."
The day of the dinner party, Arthur came in and saw his sister, Sarah, running at him with her husband, Eric, in tow. He was talking with Eric, when Eric wanted Arthur to meet the best man at the wedding (Arthur couldn't make it to the wedding due to his job). Eric ran off and came back with the guy Arthur saw Ariadne with the other day.
"Arthur this is Alex," Eric said.
"Alex, so the little prick's was named Alex." Arthur thought.
Someone yelling, "Alex!" brought Arthur out of his thoughts. When he looked up it was Ariadne who yelled. He was frozen in shock.
When she saw Arthur she said, "Oh, hello Arthur didn't think I would meet you here."
"So you know each other?" asked Eric.
"Yeah." Arthur finally found his voice, "We are err... dating."
"Oh, well Alex, Ariadne's brother, at the last moment took your spot at the wedding for us," Eric continued, "Ariadne couldn't make it either she was supposed to be the maid of honor, but she had exams."
"Brother, that was her brother?" Arthur thought of how stupid his idea of her cheating on him seemed now.
"So why are you here, Arthur?" Ariadne asked.
"I am Sarah's brother." Arthur replied clearly happy.
"Well me and Alex are going to catch up with each other, so have fun at the party." Eric said over his shoulder as he and Alex walked away.
Arthur lightly grabbed Ariadne's wrist and pulled her down to sit next to him. He said softly, "Quick, give me a kiss."
Ariadne smiled and gladly leaned close to Arthur and pressed her lips to his. It slowly deepened and by the end of the kiss they were both gasping for breath. Arthur mental noted, "Thank god no one was near us to see that."
He turned to Ariadne and smiled. She smiled in return and leaned in again to kiss him but this time it was like the kiss they shared in the second layer of the inception dream on the bench. They ate dinner together in between Eric and Sarah to their right and to their left was Alex. Then they went to Ariadne's apartment and she fell asleep in his arms. He realized how happy she made him and decided to never let her go.
A year later Arthur looks back at that memory and decides something. He got up out of his desk chair quickly and went in Cobb's office and said quickly leaving early bye. He walks into a jewelry store and bought a ring with engravings of a die and a bishop next to each other. He went to their apartment (they bought an apartment together a month after the dinner party) and waited for her to come home.
When she came home he had flowers in his hand, gave them to her and got on his knee and said, "There is nothing quite like you; will you marry me?"
She didn't answer but jumped at Arthur and kissed him. Her actions answered the question for her. He slipped the ring on her finger and turned the ring until the die and bishop were facing up. Ariadne saw it and kissed him again deeper than last time. Once again they fell asleep in each other's arms, but this time there was a permanent smiled glued on their faces.
AN: Hey this is my very first fanfiction so please be a little nice with reviews. I might write more one-shots, but I don't think I will anytime soon due to school. I will still review the stories I read though. Please review and if there is any grammar problems please tell me and I will fix it.