A/N: Wow! Thanks for the positive feedback on the last chapter. I've had so many people add me to watches and stuff, so thank you! I never expected this! :)
Arthur's phone rang and buzzed incessantly in his pants pocket. He snapped his eyes open and glanced at the clock across the room. Hours had flown by and the sun had been down for a long time. He pulled out his phone with a slender hand and glanced at the display. A smile crept onto his face.
"Ariadne?"
"You said to call if I needed anything."
"Did you need something?"
"No, I was looking for a booty call."
"They have people for that, Ariadne. You didn't need to call me." Arthur smirked.
"Is there any way you can come see me?"
Arthur sat up on the couch, running a hand over his forehead. It was late and he was tired. He didn't want to drive around but it was Ariadne. He couldn't say no even if he tried. "Yeah, sure. Where are you staying?"
"I'm staying at the Metro Plaza Hotel. Saito got Eames and me rooms to stay in until we leave."
Arthur felt his stomach drop when she mentioned leaving. In a week's time, he'd only be able to hear her voice on the phone, and even then, they'd be a world apart. "Alright. I'll be there soon. Yeah, don't worry about it, Ariadne. Bye." He shoved his phone into his pocket and stood up. He slipped on his jacket, grabbed his keys and headed out.
After impatiently waiting for the obviously new employee at the front desk to give him Ariadne's room number, Arthur stood in front of the black door, a hand raised and poised to knock on the door. He hesitated, a slight panic started to grow within. He should've asked her what she wanted. Fischer could have suspected something, and this could ultimately be a trap.
Shaking the thought from his mind, he knocked on the door and a moment later, Ariadne appeared. She was visibly agitated, and he was immediately concerned. It was uncharacteristic of her to lose her composure. Out of everyone on the team, she was the one who was able to control her emotions the best. She was always calm, cool and collected.
"Is everything alright?"
"Not really." She stepped aside to allow Arthur entrance into the room.
Everything in the room screamed Saito. Elegant lights affixed to the walls, a secretary's desk positioned next to the window, presumably for a view, a flat screen television, a kitchenette and a king size bed with crisp clean sheets. Rich red walls surrounded them and beige silk curtains, with barely a wrinkle, hid the outside world. There was an island-esque feature that jutted out from the wall to the right of the door, like bar seating. Ariadne's luggage was perched by the wall.
"What was your first mission like?" Ariadne asked, wrapping her arms around her chest. She'd closed the door moments before. It was only them, no suspicious subconscious, no Eames, no Dom, and no Saito. Just Arthur and Ariadne. He wanted to kiss her, to feel her lips on his, but he resisted, at least for now.
"It was…exhilarating." Arthur plunged his hands into his pockets and continued, remembering his first mission with Dom. "Dream sharing was new to me, and I never thought it was possible. I mean, I've heard of people showing up in your dreams but I've never experienced something that…vivid."
"And what about after? Like, after the mission was over. Did you find it hard to go back to normal life?"
Arthur turned to face Ariadne. She looked sullen, eyes downcast to the floor. He took a step towards her, and she looked up at him, a sense of urgency in her eyes. "Yeah, I did."
"Oh."
"And you will too. It won't be easy. Considering your first was an Inception."
"Gee, that's reassuring."
"I wouldn't lie, especially to you." A beat. "After my first mission, I was like a less extreme version of Mal. The only things that kept me from going back to the dream world I craved were Cobb and realizing that I wasn't dreaming already, thanks to my weighted die." He pulled the die out of his pocket, and placed it on the counter where Ariadne's bishop sat. "Mission after mission, it became harder for my brain to process the concept of a dream without the PASIV, and eventually, I stopped dreaming."
Ariadne's brow furrowed, "Will that happen to me?"
"It's happened to all of us. Cobb, Eames and myself. It happened to Mal." He took another step closer to her. "If you don't do any other missions, you should be fine. But, it was an extreme mission. So, I can't say for sure. Everyone's different. It happened to Cobb after Mal passed away, and I'm positive Eames never dreamt in the first place. He fantasized."
Arthur was taken aback by what happened next. Without skipping a beat, Ariadne had closed the little space between them and wrapped her arms around Arthur, like a small child clinging to his mother's leg, seeking safety and solace in something familiar. Her perfume, Fleur de Vanille, wafted up to Arthur's nose. It smelled faintly of vanilla, chocolate and roses.
Instinctively, and somewhat protectively, Arthur enveloped Ariadne in his arms. She was scared, scared of losing touch with reality. Scared of becoming like Mal. They both knew how volatile Mal was, evident to Arthur from Saito's dreams when she shot him in the leg, and evident to Ariadne from both Eames' dreams when she shot Fischer, and from Limbo when she stabbed Cobb with a kitchen knife.
"I don't want to be alone, Arthur." she mumbled, her face pressed against his chest.
He nodded, placing a barely there kiss on the top of her head. "Well, I'm here."
"Can you stay?"
A/N: Thanks for reading. I've legit got half of Chapter 3 written and I will try to update within the next couple days. If I don't update before Thursday, there might not be an update until Monday because I'm house sitting for a friend and I'm not sure if I'll have access to a computer. But if I don't update until Monday, there will most definitely be more than two or three chapters added but more likely three. (:
