It was morning. She was in the white-tiled room, and Saito and Cobb were still asleep across from her. Saito stirred in his sleep and moaned. Ariadne still felt dizzy and weak, but finally clearheaded. She leaned heavily on the arms of her chair to stand up, and staggered over to Cobb's sleeping form.
"Hey, you," she said, squeezing in next to him on the chair. "Are you in there?"
His eyelids fluttered, but showed no other sign of coming out of his deep sleep. He breathed slowly and regularly.
"Figures," she sighed. She gave in to a compulsion that she'd been fighting for a while, and reached out to touch him. She ran a hand down his face, brushing her fingertips over his lips. She straightened the collar of his button-down shirt and traced her hand down his chest.
There was a scrap of paper in his shirt pocket. She folded it and tucked it into the cuff of her jacket.
Footsteps from the other room. Ariadne steadied herself and made her way back to her recliner. She closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep.
Mal was leaning over her. She sat up with a genuine show of effort, because she still felt dizzy and weak.
"Mal, will you help me up?"
"Of course, dear." Mal beamed and squeezed Ariadne's hand. Ariadne stood gingerly and leaned on Mal for support. Mal squeezed her hand and guided her out to the terrace, with its steep drop and view of the city and ocean beyond.
Mal smiled warmly. "I hoped you would wake for breakfast. It would be a shame for you to miss a morning like this." A fresh, humid breeze blew in from the sea, and the sky was the clear, fresh-scrubbed periwinkle that follows a rainstorm. A table on the terrace was set with coffee in a French press, fresh berries, honey, cream, and crepes.
"This looks great, Mal. I'm starving." Ariadne tucked in and Mal sipped coffee from a porcelain cup. A heavy silence fell over them, now that they were out of small talk.
Mal spoke up first. "We have been close, haven't we, Ariadne? In the years we have worked together…" There was a softness to her voice.
Ariadne remembered her first lesson in dream architecture. She followed Mal up a flight of creaky wooden stairs dusted with snow, leading to the second-story door of a small tudor-style house. Mal's skirts were long, but never brushed the snow. Inside, the space was huge- room upon room of gleaming wood floors, marble columns, and archeological oddities like old fossils or perpetual motion devices. Heavy velvet curtains framed huge picture windows, and the cool, wintery light filtered in.
Ariadne smiled slyly with the realization of Mal's cleverness. "Mal, is this house bigger on the inside than on the outside?"
"You're pretty fast. Can you do better?"
Ariadne created a room where there had been a wall before. Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves slid out of the walls, and in the center of the room a huge amethyst crystal grew and branched out like a tree.
"Hm. A room is a little pedestrian. Can you make me a labyrinth ?"
So Ariadne thought long and hard and built room upon room in the tiny house. She and Mal toured the rooms and got completely lost. Mal laughed, delighted, as they walked through the gothic rooms together. They laughed and joked and traded academic theories until they finally found their way out of the house. Then they stood outside in the snow, arm in arm, and looked at the tiny house.
"Does anyone else know about this?" said Ariadne.
Mal smiled mischievously. "Now that would be telling."
It was only natural that Mal would recruit the best student from her father's class. They had worked closely together for five years.
Ariadne thought about this and answered Mal honestly. "You're like a sister to me." She thought, "Better, even. We know each other inside and out."
Their eyes met and she realized Mal had been scrutinizing her. Mal said, "Then why dream of killing each other? Is there some unspoken point of contention between us? I have something you want?"
Ariadne involuntarily thought of Cobb asleep in his chair. "No," said Ariadne, too quickly.
Mal moved in and out of focus. Ariadne didn't feel so well.