A/N: Sorry for not updating sooner guys, I was really busy this past week! Anyways, I hope you're going to enjoy this chapter :) xoxo, HJ
Ariadne kept looking over at the woman whom she has not been introduced yet. It was obvious for her that there was and – in her opinion- there still is something going on between the black haired woman and the point man. The way Arthur and her both reacted when they saw each other was not the usual way to greet a long time no seen acquaintance.
For Ariadne, Arthur was always the man who had it all together. He was always collected and had a solution for every problem. That Arthur just seemed to disappear as soon as the woman that he earlier called Melody, walked in.
Melody seemed just plain flawless. She was tall and lean, but she had all the curves at the right places. Her long black hair reached down to the middle of her back and it was naturally wavy. Her make up wasn't done in any special way, Ariadne wasn't sure if she had any on at all. Sure, she had some mascara on but other than that nothing stood out. She had high cheek bones, perfectly arched eyebrows, full pink lips and a pair of blue eyes that any woman would kill for. She just seemed perfect, strong…invincible.
But Ariadne didn't know that was only a façade. Melody didn't let anyone see her weak. In a way she was a lot like Arthur. She nearly always had it together and there wasn't really a situation where she didn't know what to do. But in other ways she was the exact opposite of the point man. She was incredibly spontaneous and careless – basically that's what brought her back to Cobb.
Even now, Melody seemed strong from the outside, standing by the window of the headquarters, holding a glass of whiskey in her hands which was previously given to her by Eames. He said that it would help with her nerves. And now she really needed that.
She tried to keep herself together, but she knew that she wasn't far away from breaking down. She thought that things would go just fine, that it wouldn't hurt her to see any of them. She has never been more wrong in her entire life. It was one thing to see Cobb and Eames, but when she saw the man that once was hers, she almost lost it completely.
Arthur didn't say anything harsh to her. To be more precise, he didn't say anything to her at all. He didn't need to; Melody could always read him like a book. He seemed so broken and his eyes were filled pain and heartbreak, all over again. Once, that man was the most important person in her life and until this day, he still is.
"Don't be like that, love." She heard the smooth English voice call out to her, as he stood not far from her.
"I'm not being like anything, Eames." She chuckled softly, not looking at the forger.
She couldn't fool him, though. He knew her too well. "You are crossing your ankles – you do that when you're trying to compose yourself, also your knuckles are becoming white. You're holding onto that glass too tight, love."
Melody's lips curled into a slight smile as she turned to look at the Britt. "I missed you, sugar."
Eames winked at the young woman before saying, "Oh I know that, darling."
Ariadne felt someone standing next to her tense up at the playful tone that appeared between the forger and the yet unknown woman. She didn't need to look to know that the person is Arthur himself. But when she did she saw the color leave his face and a mixture of emotions appear on Arthur's face. It was anger, betrayal and… jealousy?
"You two were together, weren't you?" she asked him quietly, but he didn't answer. That kind of gave the 'yes' away. "Did she leave you for him? Is that why that two of you are always at each other's necks?"
Arthur shook his head and looked down to the blueprint that Ariadne was inspecting. "If only it was that simple… She didn't leave me for him. Eames and Mel, they're just best friends."
"Then why aren't you two together?" Ariadne asks, confused.
"I don't want to talk about it." Arthur said shortly and was quick to walk away from the young architect to do his job, while Ariadne also went back to designing and creating what they needed for the dream.
She was very much into the dream and didn't notice somebody walking up to her. She drawing something which looked very much alike their mark's mansion. When somebody cleared their throat, she snapped her head into their direction only to come face to face with the woman that she's previously asked Arthur about.
Melody smiled at the young architect warily, "I'm sorry for being rude before, but as you could see, I was quite shaken up myself."
"It's not a problem." Ariadne said genuinely, smiling softly back at the woman. "I'm Ariadne."
"Ariadne? Beautiful name you've got." She complimented and extended her hand to her. "My name is Melody."
Ariadne shook her hand, "Nice to meet you too, Melody."
The two grew quite for a few minutes as Melody observed what Ariadne was working on and meanwhile thought about how young the architect looked. She couldn't be older than 20, maybe 21.
"These are incredible." said Melody as she took a better look at the mazes that Ariadne has just finished up. Ariadne chuckled and politely thanked her, when Melody continued. "Seriously, even I couldn't create anything like this after all the years."
Now that was something that caught Ariadne's interest, "When did you start, you know, dreaming?"
Melody thought about that for a while. "Well, I know that I first dreamed with the guys when I was about 17. But I didn't work with them until I turned 18. But to be perfectly honest I don't remember the exact date, it was around the time that I met Dom and Arthur."
"How do you know him?"
"Dom or Arthur?" Melody asked smiling at the young girl. Ariadne reminded her of herself in so many ways; she used to be like her once.
"Both."
"Dom is my brother-in-law, Ariadne."
