Author's Note: Arthur is a very hard character to write, but I can't get over how absolutely adorable JGL was and so, from time to time, I like to pay homage to one of my all-time favorite characters. Can't say you'll see too much Inception fic from me though. Enjoy.

Risk Taker

Arthur is by no means a risk taker. In fact, that may very well be the reason he's the point man and not Eames or Cobb. Discretion and specificity were the very antithesis of everything they are.

He hopes Ariadne doesn't realize this, doesn't catch on to the fact that he doesn't do spontaneous and his impromptu kiss was anything but.

He and Cobb have been doing this for quite some time - becoming other people living in a singularly lonely void of emotion and human contact.

Arthur doesn't...didn't mind it. It wasn't like he'd find someone he could share this with. Not like he could take a woman home and think about a future with her because globe hopping, mind hopping meant that by tomorrow, he'd be in another town. Some place she couldn't follow.

Now...now the stakes have changed. Because Ariadne is everything Arthur has ever wanted, could dare dream of, in every sense of the word. She's bright and passionate, she's smart, intelligent on so many different levels and he likes that he can talk to her, really and truly talk to her.

When he's with her, they discuss paradoxes and theorems, architecture and the importance of details. They postulate on the existence of the human soul. But more than anything, they voice their questions and concerns. Sharing a dream with someone is about as intimate as a person can get without actual physical contact and he feels it. Knows she feels it too. So when she asks him about death and the afterlife, when she asks him if he believes in karma or reincarnation, when he takes the time to answer her, he knows she's worth it.

Arthur would have done it anyway, would have kissed her at some point in time but this opportunity is one he can't pass up.

She's panicking, probably imagining being attacked again much like in Cobb's dream. Unlike Cobb, Arthur has an actual plan and knows how to stay calm in the face of danger. He tries to project that as best as he can with a small smile and a witty comment about a kiss.

He's just a tiny bit surprised that she doesn't hesitate, not even for a second and it's a relief.

When he pulls away, Ariadne is blushing, but still confused because he was a planner and hadn't his plan just failed? There are eyes all around them, hostile faces and menacing bodies closing in around them. But there's a twinkle in his eye and he tells her it was "worth a shot" and she can tell from the way he's smiling at her that there are two very different plans in place at this very moment. And when he tells her they should leave, she realizes that at least this one was successful.