AN: Sort of accompanying Heart of a Woman, but all you really need to know is that Robert gave her a job with his new company in that story if you don't feel like reading it. That tidbit helps give this more sense.
Ariadne felt a hole in her heart as Arthur walked through the door of their apartment, completely wasted. He always did this when she came back from her trip to Australia; always angry, drunk, unstable. She wished he would just calmly talk to her about his issues instead of flying off the handle like he did. Arthur could be composed and collected when he wanted to be, but when it came to her and Fischer, he never wanted to be.
He could never accept that she was going to Australia to check on Robert Fischer, to make sure he wasn't consumed, completely changed, by the idea that had been forcefully placed into his head. Ariadne would never be able to live with herself if she hurt him in that way; if the inception drove him to drastic measures like with Mal and Cobb. She knew Arthur cared about her, but he never listened to her the way a good boyfriend should.
"You're back, I see." His voice was full of scorn and his words were slightly slurred, making her wince. She put her bag down on the floor by the door, choosing to ignore his words for now, waiting for him to calm down and sober up a little bit. He stood in the doorway of their bedroom, his waistcoat unbuttoned and looking a little disheveled. Ariadne was too tired to deal with him right now, taking the overnight flight from Australia had worn her out. She walked to the kitchen and got herself a cup of water, downing it quickly before searching through the refrigerator for something to eat. "Did you enjoy yourself with Fischer, Ariadne?"
She gave him a warning look that he didn't seem to comprehend and replied, "We had a nice lunch, Arthur, and that was it. I'm making sure we didn't do any lasting damage to his head, like with Mal. Would you want that on your conscience?" He didn't answer as she popped a bowl of spaghetti into the microwave, ignoring his expression for the time being. She wished he wouldn't do this. She moved from France to the States for him, transferred colleges for him, moved in with him. Why didn't he understand how much she cared?
"If that's all you're worried about," he said, leaning over her, pushing her back against the counter, his face very close to hers, "why do you have to keep going month after month after month, Ariadne?"
She shook her head. "It's been three months after we did the inception, Arthur. Three months. I've seen him four times since then. You need to relax, you're not thinking clearly." He pushed himself away from her, pacing circles in front of her, making her anxious. He was worse this time; he'd never been this angry about it.
He snapped, looking back at her, "You know, if you're tired of me Ariadne, you can just tell me. No need to fly all the way to Australia every month to have an affair with the rich guy."
Ariadne's expression changed drastically from concerned to offended. "You think I'm cheating on you?" she demanded, getting as much height as she could, which wasn't much. "I have never once cheated on your Arthur, never. How could you even think that?" Arthur didn't reply to this, leaning against the wall with his back to her. Ariadne had never seen him this bad, this angry or violent. Most days he'd just slur around and pass out on the couch, wake up the next morning and be back to his normal snarky self that she loved so much.
This was not him.
She shook her head and went back to her bag, looking for her tooth brush so she could just get ready to go to bed. She wanted all of this to go away and maybe in the morning he'd be back to normal. Arthur grabbed her wrist as she walked by, squeezing it tightly and she winced. "What are you doing?"
"Why do you stay there for a week at a time then?" he demanded, his grip tightening.
Ariadne ripped her arm from his grasp. "Because taking a ten hour flight twice in one day doesn't really appeal to me."
Arthur rolled his eyes and tossed her bag out the door. "Looks like you're going to have to deal with it aren't you? Go back to his, Ariadne, you obviously care about him more right?" He pulled her by her shirt and nearly dragged her outside of their apartment with her things. She was speechless, watching him slam the door behind her like she was nothing to him. Like she didn't matter, like he didn't care about her. She rested one hand against the door and knocked as hard as she could, but he didn't answer. Ariadne wanted to cry, she wanted to break down and sleep in the hall and never leave his side for a minute.
Who else did she have that wasn't a plane ride away? No one. Cobb and his kids weren't anywhere close to them, Eames either. Ariadne finally stopped knocking when her hand became sore, and took to resting her forehead against the wood instead, wondering what she did to deserve any of this. It was all the inception's fault; she got too much bad karma from it. If she believed in such a thing anyway.
A tear rolled down her cheek as she pulled out her cell phone, knowing that it would cost an arm and a leg to call internationally but not knowing what else to do. She picked the number from her phone book and held the cell up to her ear, wiping her eyes as she made her way down the hall. "Fischer, speaking," a familiar voice answered, and she nearly chuckled.
"Robert, you can just say hello when I'm calling," she said mirthlessly, switching the phone to her other ear as she made her way back out to her car.
"If you say so," he replied, and then questioned, "Did you need something?"
She swallowed as she tossed the bag in the back and sat down in the driver's seat, her hand on the steering wheel. "Would it be okay if I came back? My living arrangements are not... stable right now, and I have no where else to go." There was silence on the other end, and Ariadne's stomach plummeted. She shouldn't have called, she should have known that their relationship wasn't anything more than two acquaintances. She'd just call up Dom, he'd take her no matter what, he'd listen to her problems with Arthur and he'd—
"Of course, Ariadne," he replied and her thoughts ran short, making it hard for her to form a coherent sentence. But he continued to talk to her like there wasn't a huge gap between sentences, as if he hadn't waited for her to reply. "That company card I gave you, use it to buy your plane ticket and I'll have someone meet you at the gate..." The rest of her night went like that conversation: she barely remembered any of it, it flowed smoothly but in a blur, like she was in a dream and couldn't remember how she got to many places. Her totem kept her sane though, as several missed calls stacked up in her phone from Arthur.
She slept through the plane ride, and made it back to Australia without a single qualm. Her heart was slightly broken because Arthur didn't chase after her, didn't care enough. But he was right; she did go back to Robert Fischer. It didn't surprise her in the least that she did. If she had to take a plane flight somewhere, it might as well be to someone who actually wanted to see her.
She walked through the terminal, through immigration, and kept a lookout for whoever he had sent to come get her. "Ariadne." His voice was like a whip as it cracked through her thoughts, disrupting her for a moment as she met his eyes. She walked up to him, wondering what to say, what to do, how to thank him. He took her bag and she watched him walk towards the exit, her eyes not straying from his face until they had entered the limousine that was waiting outside for them.
Robert let her in, and then climbed in after her, the silence almost overwhelming until he asked, "What happened?" She looked at her hands for a moment, piecing together everything she wanted to say to him and what to leave out.
"When I got home, Arthur was angry with me," Ariadne said, carefully avoiding the alcohol tidbit so Arthur didn't look any worse. "He thought that I was ah, cheating on him with you every time I came here. He didn't understand that I work for you now, or didn't believe it. Or whatever it was that went through his head. So he made me leave our apartment, and here we are." She glanced back from her reflection in the window to Robert Fischer, who looked sympathetic for her plight.
"Do you want me to talk to him?" he offered, looking as if he had no idea how to help her.
Ariadne shook her head. "No, thank you. He'll just get more angry."
Robert nodded slowly, looking at a loss for words. After a moment, he said stiffly, "There were no hotel rooms open that were reasonably nearby, so I hope you don't mind staying at my estate for the time being until one does." She just nodded as they pulled up to his estate, the building leaving her momentarily breathless. As an architect, she knew that it was a beautiful place, visually and practically. But as a human, a woman, she felt a bit of a catch in her breath, knowing that she was entering the home of one of the most sought after bachelors in Australia.
It was a bit intimidating, overall, but Ariadne didn't voice her issues with him as he led her to a room that he said was on the same floor as his so she could go to him if she needed anything. "Robert," she said as he made to leave her new bedroom, placing a hand on his wrist. "Thank you." She reached up on her toes and kissed his cheek, incredibly grateful to him. He gripped her hand, his eyes piercing hers like daggers, the blue sending her heart into a frenzy. He leaned down, gently grazing his lips against hers, testing the reaction.
She watched him as he pulled away, knowing this was right. This had to be right. She felt more that moment than her entire relationship with Arthur. She reached up and pulled him to her, her hands tangling in his hair as she put their faces together again, her mouth hard against his. But he didn't seem to mind, his hands on her hips, pulling them against his. Their passion brought them to the bed in her room, him on top of her, their bodies as close as possible with clothes in between.
This wasn't cheating right? Ariadne's thoughts wandered to Arthur for a moment as Robert's mouth trailed down her throat. They weren't together, he told her to leave. He pulled one of her legs around his waist, and she stifled a groan as he sucked on her neck, her mind on nothing else but Robert Fischer. She needed this; she needed him, more than anything. It was unbearable having to leave Australia sometimes, seeing that look on his face that she always knew was there but tried to ignore for the sake of her love for Arthur.
She felt her clothes being pulled from her, mingling on the floor with Robert's, and stopped analyzing everything, stopped thinking altogether, just let the feeling of Robert with her take over her entire consciousness. This was what she truly needed. Someone who, at a moment's notice, would take care of her, would help her, would listen and be there for her when she needed them. Robert was that person. Ariadne knew it, just by the way he looked at her, the way she felt about him after she saved him from himself. He was a part of her that she had been missing for so long, that she tried to find in Arthur but that had never truly been recovered.
This was the escape she needed into something more than reliving the past and not being able to let go. This was a future worth waiting for.
AN: I can't stay away from this pair :)