Something I started last night and finished at 2:30 this morning. I'm so proud of it.

Tried my hand at writing LESS (because sometimes, less is more), and this is pretty short for me. Hopefully, it still pleases you.

Disclaimer: I own Inception...IN MY DREAMS! *ba dum tiss*

It had been six months since Ariadne had last seen him. 184 days previous, after passing through immigration at the airport, their eyes met. He gave her a smile and a curt nod...and then he was moving away, already lost among the sea of people.

"Arthur!" she ran through the crowd, forgetting about her luggage. "Arthur, wait!"

He turned at the sound of her voice, and she spotted him immediately. Tearing a sheet of paper out of her bag, she scrawled a number on it and pressed it into his hands.

"Here." she said breathlessly. He didn't have to look at it to know what it was.

"You know this is a bad idea, Ariadne." he said, looking at her. His eyes were firm, but kind.

"Yes." She returned his look, smiling shyly. "But it's a risk I'm willing to take." She immediately blushed, realizing she'd said too much. Arthur merely smirked and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"See you around, Ariadne." and with that, he was gone. Ariadne could see him slipping her number into his coat pocket. She grinned, her thoughts hopeful.

He never called.

She hadn't really been expecting him to, he was too professional to break the rules.

Nonetheless, she waited. When she had called him to make an arrangement to meet, she found that he didn't pick up his phone. She hoped it didn't have anything to do with her, perhaps he was just busy. He hardly ever took time off from working, after all.

She sat on a park bench now, a cup of coffee in her hand and a sketchpad in her lap, waiting to see if Arthur would make an appearance.

She had left him a message on his phone, explaining where she would be, and asking him if he would care to show up. She really wanted to see him.

Her call went unanswered - she wasn't even sure if he had gotten her message - but who knew? He might show. She admitted she'd be surprised if he did, but unexpected things sometimes came from Arthur - she smiled, remembering the kiss - so maybe, just maybe...he would show.

She waited, she searched, but to no avail.

She didn't know how long she sat there, her eyes continuously scanning the crowd around her for his familiar face. But, just like at the airport, he probably blended in so well, that she doubted she would've noticed him if he walked right by her.

Yet her heart jumped at every considerable feature she saw that could have belonged to him:

A tall, thin figure, a head of dark hair, a man wearing a long overcoat, and another in a three-piece suit...she even tried to gaze into the tinted window of a black Corvette that drove past her spot.

She sighed.

Her coffee was near empty and there was one blank page left in her sketchpad. She stared at it, and decided to try her hand at something different...

Closing her eyes, she imagined Arthur in all his beauty- wearing his impeccable suit, his hair perfectly slicked back, his beautiful, pale, pointed, yet unreadable face...her hand began to move across the paper, sketching what she saw in her mind's eye.

When she was finished, she looked down to admire it. She hadn't seen Arthur in months, but the resemblance was uncanny. She smiled, knowing this was probably the closest she'd ever get to the real Arthur again.

"Ariadne?"

She looked up.

There he stood. His suit was perfectly clean and unwrinkled, not a single hair on his head was out of place, and his hand hand was clenched in his pocket - probably maintaining a firm grasp on his totem. His mouth was curved slightly upward in a small, but undeniable smile.

She smiled back, her eyes sparkling.

"Hey."

Hehehe. What did you all think? ^_^ R&R PLEASE! It makes my day!

~ByTheBeautifulSea