So, I have had this story edited and laying around for a while now. I was going to wait until I finished Imaginary but I changed my mind. So, here is something different. I was thinking about making this longer and into an actual story with more detail and all that, but I am still unsure. So, if you all like it, I may consider doing that. So let me know!

Anyways, I do not own anything, these wonderful characters belong to Chris Nolan. I only own my mistakes.

some things are better left a mystery

Ariadne found herself in an old beaten down motel room that looked like it was stuck in some time warp from the 70's. The motel room itself actually looked more like a small house. A very small house. There was a big open room, that took up the majority of the house, with a small kitchen, a table and two chairs, a couch and a recliner. Off of the open room was a small bedroom with a Queen's size bed and a pull out mattress.

Ariadne had claimed the pull out mattress as hers. She had shared beds with all of the three men she was working with and she didn't want to experience that again. Eames snored, Arthur liked to cuddle (which was shocking), and Dom kicked. So Arthur and Eames agreed to share the bed and Cobb had taken the couch.

And yes, Cobb was working again. It took him a year to get back into working again and it was usually just very safe jobs. Ariadne assumed that the lure of dream work just couldn't go away with him. And she understood that. He had been doing it for so long, it is hard to just give it all up. So now he just did jobs that were close to home.

Which, why he agreed to do this job surprised Ariadne, but she guessed that it had something to do with his past. Dom didn't look very happy anytime their employer was around. Dom must have owed him or something. Ariadne didn't ask. She figured it was a touchy subject.

Their mark was a convicted serial killer by the name of Elijah Matthews, who was known to be very manipulative, hence him getting away with a lot of murders. The job was to try and find out where he hid the body of their employer's daughter, whom he had murdered a few years back.

Who knows what the mark's mind would be like? It could be anything. He was a serial killer, there was bound to be a lot of messed up things in his mind. Preparation for this job had been a huge pain in the ass. Ariadne knew that for a fact by seeing how stressed out Arthur was. There really was no way to fully prepare yourself for a job like this.

So, now, Ariadne sat at the kitchen table with her model while Dom and Arthur were leaning against the counter going over the overall plan on how they were going to get Elijah to reveal his secret. Eames was sitting in the chair opposite of her going over his files on the mark's brother, who he was going to forge in this job.

Ariadne let out a small sigh. Eames had asked for a shortcut for his level. He just asked her to add one in where she could, but it had to be there somewhere. The problem was that she couldn't find anywhere to put it. She would have just forgotten about it but the look Eames gave her when he asked made her not want to do that. She would fit it in somewhere, she just needed a little help.

"Dom, I have a question." She asked as she looked over at him. He turned and looked at her.

"Yes?"

"Can you help me out? I am having trouble with where the best place would be for this shortcut. There isn't really a good placement for it and I don't want to have to redo the whole maze."

"Shortcut?" Arthur asked, turning around and approaching the table. "What shortcut? There are no shortcuts in the maze."

"It is my shortcut." Eames piped in as he looked up from his folder. "My level, my mind, my rules." He said with a small smile. Arthur glared at him.

"Why do you, of all people, need a shortcut?"

"Because I do. I remember my shortcut helping us during the Fischer job."

"This isn't the Fischer job Eames. This is a one level extraction. Easy as pie." Ariadne would have laughed at Arthur's analogy use, but everyone else was being dead serious about this issue so she refrained.

"You may think this is an easy job, Arthur, but I don't trust this serial killer with my mind." Eames was almost shouting. His whole body seemed tense. He was trying not to explode. Ariadne was happy with his restraint. She did not want a full out shouting match to begin.

Dom was being unusually silent. Usually if these two started bickering he put an end to it right away. Ariadne had a feeling that this fight was a little bit more personal than it led on and she knew that she and Dom should just leave and let them deal with it on their own, but she was frozen in her spot. She couldn't move even if she tried to.

"If I would have known you were going to be a baby on this job, I wouldn't have offered this to you. I'm sure there are other forgers who would be more than willing to do this job." Eames' face fell. Arthur was being really mean right now. This was not like him. Sure he did some jabs at Eames, but not like this. This was blatant insulting. Ariadne knew that this shortcut was like a security blanket for Eames. She understood that. But Arthur didn't. Arthur took a step forward so that he was right in front of Eames. "Why did you even take this job if you had these worries?"

"You know exactly why I took this job Arthur!" Eames hissed out as he stood up shoved Arthur back hard enough that Arthur hit the table. Arthur didn't say or do anything. Ariadne was expecting Arthur to go AWOL and attack Eames. But that didn't happen. They just stood there glaring at each other.

All of this over a stupid shortcut through a maze.

"The shortcut stays out." Arthur said as he looked over at Ariadne. He then looked back at Eames. "You need to grow up Mr. Eames." Arthur turned and walked back to where Dom was. Eames just stood there for a few seconds just looking at Arthur. He looked angry and hurt. But he didn't say anything more.

Eames just turned and walked into the bedroom, slamming the door shut.

Ariadne looked over at Dom who just shrugged. Ariadne looked over at Arthur. Arthur was looking at the bedroom door with a conflicted look on his face. He ran a hand over his face and let out a long sigh.

"Put the damn shortcut in." Arthur then stalked over towards the bedroom door and knocked. "Eames?" Ariadne had never heard Arthur sound so heartbroken before.

"Piss off!" Eames shouted loud enough that Ariadne heard. Arthur sighed and turned and left the motel room all together without another word.

"What is up with them?" Ariadne asked after the door slammed shut.

"Trust me, you don't want to know." Dom replied with a long sigh.

"Wait." Ariadne said as she turned and faced him fully. "Is there really something going on between them?" She asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. Dom looked at her, all seriousness in his eyes.

"If there is, then it is between them and none of our business, understand?" Ariadne nodded and went back to work on her model and trying to fit this stupid shortcut in.

Arthur and Eames were quite the curious pair. They acted like an old married couple when they bickered and put each other down. It was like they had known each other their whole life. They were so different but when put together, they were unstoppable.

Ariadne shook those thoughts from her mind. She had more important things to worry about. She didn't need to be thinking about Arthur and Eames and what was going on between them.

That night seemed normal, except the room was quiet. Usually Ariadne could hear Arthur and Eames whispering to each other. She could never understand what they were saying to each other, but they were talking, that was the main thing. And sometimes Eames would say something that would make Arthur laugh like a five year old. It was like they were children all over again.

Now, it was just silence.

The four of them all made their way into the prison. The mark would be in the conjugal visit room. It had all been arranged by Dom. The guards had been bribed and they would knock him out after his visit with his girlfriend.

So he was already asleep by the time they got there.

Arthur pulled out the PASIV device and gave everyone their needle as he hooked up the mark.

When everyone was ready, Ariadne watched as Arthur pushed down the button before sleep overtook her.

The job seemed to be going quite well. A lot better than Ariadne had thought it was going to go. Everything was going all according to plan. But Ariadne was bored. She didn't really have anything to do. She was just there to make sure everything went smoothly. She had no reason to go under, but she did anyways.

She was with Dom for most of the job, but after Eames had finished with his forge of the mark's brother, Dom left her to try and get the information from Elijah. Arthur was out doing security runs of the dreamscape so who knows when he would grace them with his presence.

So, Ariadne made her way to the bar which was meant to be the rendezvous point before the kick. She walked into the bar and found that Eames was already there.

"Hey." She said as she sat down next to him.

"Hey." He replied back quietly. She looked at him and saw that he seemed nervous. Eames was never nervous. And if he was, he never let it show like he was doing right now. He was usually pretty good with hiding his emotions. It all came with being a con-man.

"How did it go?" She asked. She might as well ask. It looked fine from where she was, but it might have been different up close.

"I did as much as I could do with what I had. It is up to Dom and Arthur now." Ariadne nodded. That was true. All they had to do now was just wait until the job was over.

"Eames." Ariadne looked over and saw Arthur walk over and sit down on Eames' other side. Ariadne could sense that something was wrong. It was the tone of Arthur's voice. It was different than it usually is.

"Arthur." Eames said as he turned and looked at Arthur. Arthur shouldn't be here. It was way too early for him to have shown up. Why was he here? Ariadne was about to ask him why he was here when she was stopped by what Arthur was doing.

Arthur leaned forward, running one of his hands along Eames' leg, going up his thigh to rest on his crotch as he planted tiny kisses along Eames' neck. Ariadne's eyes widened. She never pegged Arthur to be one for PDA, especially during a job.

"We are in public." Eames said as he pushed the hand away. Arthur laughed.

"Fuck that." Ariadne's eyes widened again. She was sure Eames' did too but Eames didn't get to respond because Arthur had hooked a hand around his neck and pulled Eames over to him and crashed his lips to his.

The kiss became very intense very fast and Ariadne was getting on the verge of feeling awkward. Ariadne was about to walk away when Arthur pulled away. He then grabbed Eames and threw him across the bar.

"Arthur!" Ariadne shouted. He turned and glared at her with so much hatred that she took a small step back. If looks could kill, she would have been dead right then.

Arthur then jumped over the bar and picked Eames up and shoved him into the wall, punching him and kicking him.

Eames was trying to fight back but Arthur was too quick. Everything was happening so fast, she had no idea what was going on.

Arthur then had him pinned to a wall. Ariadne was close enough that she could hear that Arthur was talking to Eames.

"Oh poor baby Eames. Where is your shortcut now?" Arthur said with a smirk while stabbing a knife in his gut.

Ariadne shouted just as Eames did.

"You are nothing to me." Arthur hissed out. "How could someone like me ever like you. Hell, I know you love me, but you are," Arthur dug the knife in deeper. "A pathetic excuse for a man and I could never love you."

Ariadne just watched wide-eyed and shocked. She couldn't move.

Arthur was laughing as Eames just stood there, not being able to do anything. Ariadne took a step back and looked at Eames.

What she saw broke her heart. Eames had given up. He just stood there and took whatever Arthur did to him and accepted whatever Arthur said to him.

Ariadne had to get Dom. He had to see this and snap some sense into Arthur. He was the only one Arthur would listen to. Ariadne turned and ran for the door but she was stopped when she ran into someone. She looked up and saw Arthur.

"Arthur?" She asked.

"He knows." Arthur said quickly. "I don't know how, but weird things are happening. We need to find Dom and get the hell out of here." Ariadne was silent. She was still processing the fact that there were two Arthurs. Arthur looked down at her. "Where is Eames?"

"With you." She whispered out. She saw Arthur's face fall as he looked over.

"Shit." Arthur pulled out his gun and ran like a mad-man, shooting every projection in sight. Ariadne ran after him. Arthur walked up to the projection of himself and shot it without hesitation.

Eames slid down the wall. Ariadne ran up to him and knelt down next to him. But Eames didn't look at her. He just looked forward, staring off into space.

"Eames?" Arthur asked, much gentler than Ariadne would have expected. But Eames didn't respond. He even flinched when Arthur tried to touch him.

Before Ariadne could ask anything, she heard the music and that familiar feeling of falling.

"What the hell?" Was the first thing Ariadne heard when she woke up.

"He knew. I don't know how, but he did." Dom said as he made sure the mark was still sedated. Ariadne looked over and saw Arthur glaring at Dom. She then looked over at Eames. He looked like a lost child. He stood up and bolted from the room once he removed the needle from his arm. Arthur was right behind him. Dom packed up the PASIV device and went out next while Ariadne took the back.

She had no idea if the job was a success of failure, but she wouldn't bring it up. She would just wait to be told. But she could guess that it was probably a failure.

The car ride back to the motel was in silence.

By the time they got back to the motel, it was dark. When they walked into the room, Eames was the first to speak.

"I am sleeping on the couch." Eames walked into the bedroom, grabbed his pillow and a blanket and crashed down on the couch without another word. He even turned so that he wasn't facing them.

Arthur sighed and went straight to the pull out mattress. He moved all of Ariadne's blankets and replaced them with his own and went straight to sleep not saying another word. He didn't even change out of his clothes.

Ariadne knew that something was definitely wrong now.

She and Dom got ready for bed in silence. There really was nothing left to be said.

Ariadne couldn't sleep. The look on Arthur's face when he saw Eames was now permanently glued in her mind. The room was silent so she was very alert when she heard movement.

It was dark enough that she couldn't really see much, but she could see an outline of a figure walking out of the room, closing the door slightly. But Ariadne saw a crack still.

She looked over and saw that Dom was fast asleep next to her. She quickly got up and snuck to the door. Arthur had left the room and Ariadne had a pretty good idea of the reason why.

The moon was shining through the window so she could see Arthur walking over to the couch and kneel down in front of Eames, who still had his back turned.

"Eames?" She heard Arthur whisper. There was some movement as Eames rolled over and she saw Arthur reach over and wipe at Eames' face.

Was Eames crying?

"It wasn't real." Arthur whispered. Ariadne could barely hear him, but she can make out what he is saying. "It wasn't me."

"It felt real. Everything seemed real, especially since you were mad at me." Eames was crying. She could hear it in his voice.

She knew she shouldn't be listening. This was an intimate moment between them, but she couldn't pull herself away.

"I know, the mark used our anger to hurt us, but know that I love you Eames. I am sorry I hurt you, but I will always love you."

"I love you too." Eames whispered back. Ariadne was sure she saw a small smile appear on Arthur's face.

Arthur leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to Eames' lips. Ariadne knew that she should leave now. There was nothing left to see. She slowly backed away and went back to bed.

She was able to sleep now.

The next morning, by the time Ariadne woke up, Dom was already up. She looked over and saw that Arthur's bed was empty too. She hoped she hadn't slept in too long.

She walked out and saw Dom sitting at the table reading the paper while sipping on a cup of coffee. She figured today they would go over the job and discuss what exactly happened and what they were going to do now.

She slowly walked over to the kitchen but something caught her eye. She stopped and looked over at the couch.

Eames was still fast asleep on the couch, but he wasn't alone.

Arthur was cuddled up next to Eames. Eames had his arms wrapped around him and Arthur was holding him close.

They looked at peace and they looked happy.

Ariadne smiled before walking over and sitting next to Dom.

Some things were just better left a mystery.

So, there it is. Let me know what you guys think. =)