Author's Note: Thank you so much for the reviews once again. Feedback is always much-loved. Things have been building up a bit until this point. There are more doses of A/A action in here. I want to warn you right now, I'm trying to keep them in character while developing their relationship slowly, so if it seems that there are lulls then I'm sorry for those who wanted more development. But it picks up considerable speed here. I envision their relationship more like something that would build momentum after time. I like this chapter the best so far, maybe it's because I had the best time writing it though. I hope you enjoy it.
Disclaimer: Inception belongs to Christopher Nolan.
Chapter Three
Tourists and other admirers buzz around the different works of art, their voices echoing off the high-ceiling of the museum.
Ariadne is wearing a little black dress, which she doesn't remember owning, her hair is delicately pulled back, half-up with a barrette. Her eyes scan the statue in front of her: Canova's Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss. She admires the two figures entwined with one another in a celestial embrace, framed by Cupid's wings.
A throat clears and her gaze is brought upon her companion. His blue eyes look her up and down with a smile.
"Lovely isn't it?" he inquires.
She contemplates answering and playing along. She decides against it, and she glares poignantly at "Fischer".
"In the actual work, Psyche is much less endowed." Her head gestures to the sculpture, the female's nude figure showing a rather gratuitous amount of chest.
"A man can dream can't he?"
A chuckle ripples through her companion, as Eames breaks his impersonation.
"Accuracy, now that's what we have you for isn't it darling. And you should wear things like this much more often." He refers to her dress with a wink, noticing her chagrin from having no choice in the matter since this was after all his dream.
"So what are we doing here?" She turns to look at the parts of her subconscious that have come to mill around the hall.
"Practicing." Eames resumed Fischer's guise once again, his trademark smirk seemingly out of place on the heir's face.
"We're going to have you get close to Fischer subconsciously in the context of a dream. But in order to be convincing you'll need to be able to 'woo' him successfully in reality as well, to enforce the message." Eames-Fischer gestures to the setting of the museum around them.
"And how does getting closer to him subconsciously help him forget about me existing?" Ariadne's gaze is scathing. Impatient with not understanding, and wishing Eames would care to specify what he meant.
The click of determined steps comes to settle next to her side, and she suddenly feels much more exposed in the dress than before, self-conscious. Her shoulders are barely covered, her neck line exposed without her usual scarf. The fabric hugs her petite form and falls just above her knees. Though she is sure Eames could have done much worse, she still feels exposed.
"After you reverse you're current aversion to Fischer and start to get close to him. The plan is to then have Fischer dissuaded to pursue you once he realizes your change of heart is because of you're after something from him. Or at least what we want him to believe you're after." Arthur informs as he arrives next to Ariadne, dressed in what he was wearing in reality; apparently Eames had only treated her to his imagination.
Arthur turns to her, she chances looking into his eyes and regrets doing so as she immediately feels inclined to cover a blush that she swears isn't part of the make-up she has on.
'Damn dress.'
"So I get close to him, and then break his impression of me being someone he should be close to… seems… elaborate." She turns her head toward Eames, seeking more information while pointedly trying to avoid eye-contact with Arthur lest she embarrass herself.
"Think about it Ariadne. A powerful and wealthy bloke like Fischer, what do you think he's used to having girls, other than yourself, want from him?" Eames-Fischer asks.
Ariadne purses her lips as the answer clicks: "Money."
Arthur nods.
"We're going to set it up so when you really meet him on Saturday, he won't be as inclined to get to know you."
In theory it sounded rather impressive. She could tell after she left the previous evening, Arthur had already worked out a plan. Her heart slumped a bit.
'Meaning he never believed that it was a one-time thing. He was just trying to comfort me.'
"Well, if he isn't turned off by the fact you're just in it for the money. We have a more drastic means of breaking his perception of you darling…" Eames-Fischer smiles suggestively at Ariadne, who is only perplexed.
"We'll worry about that part if we get to it." Arthur's voice is clipped, as he cuts the Forger off. A glance is shared between the two of them that is not lost on Ariadne.
Her natural curiosity does not fare well when left out, she begins to open her mouth to protest when Arthur surges forward as if on cue to cut off her inquiry.
"The plan, for now, is for Eames to impersonate you in a dream with Fischer, and do some drastic hinting that you're after his money." As if on cue to Arthur's dictation, Fischer-Eames now morphs into a reflection of Ariadne, who smirks suggestively.
"I don't smile like that. So knock it off." She says bitingly to the Forger, with a chuckle he obliges, and then shrugs.
"Just thought you were more a visual learner…" Eames resorts back to being himself for the moment.
"And then I meet him on Saturday, fulfilling his hunches that I am interested in him superficially…" Ariadne concludes, still visibly perturbed at the idea of Eames impersonating her at all. She shifts the weight of her body uncomfortably.
'Why is it that we have a knack for destroying any sign of positive relationships in this poor man's life?'
She doesn't dwell on it. She is sympathetic, but not stupid. This could affect all of them.
"Right then, so shall we practice?" Fischer-Eames is back in place, his blue eyes having a much more devilish sparkle than the real Fischer.
She knows she should practice with Fischer-Eames to be on the safe side, but deep down she knows she can't take him seriously knowing who he is. She's confident that she should be fine, her former lack of response to the heir only because she didn't have a plan. Now that she knew her part, she could play it well.
But most importantly, she doesn't feel like being the subject of Eames' teasing at the moment.
"No, I can handle it." She says dismissively, still vexed.
"Come now, we shouldn't let that pretty dress go to waste" teases Fischer-Eames as he moves purposefully next to her, resting his hands on her waist "would you like to practice kissing?" he whispers suggestively.
She's about to respond scathingly for Eames to knock it off.
A gunshot is heard, reverberating through the hall, the people stop to look at them not noticing the museum crumble around them as the dream decays.
Eames is on the floor, Arthur tucking his gun back into his spot at his back.
"I told him you wouldn't need practice to start with, he's going to be doing most of the work anyway…" irritation leaks into his normally professional speech.
When they wake next to the PASIV, Ariadne can't help but notice that the timer only had 10 seconds left on it, and that Arthur hadn't needed to shoot Eames at all.
. . .
The next day, Ariadne continued with life as normal, for the most part.
Arthur, ever thorough, created the opportunity for them to lightly sedate Fischer in order for Eames to be able to work. Having known that his subconscious was militarized, they planned having Fischer host the dream himself.
Meanwhile, Arthur reviewed with her on how she should prepare for the encounter on Saturday, guiding her through a performance that is meant to confirm the superficial hunches that Eames would be impressing upon Fischer's subconscious vision of her. It shouldn't be much work on her part but she appreciates the practice, even though she had turned down Eames' offer in the dream.
She is fleetingly reminded of the way he had instructed her during the Fischer job, her role as student coming back to her. However, the subject matter is definitely more foreign to her.
"Remember, keep coy and suggestive. Bring up the death of Maurice, and try to pry and find out how much money Fischer is worth now… Basically, try to be elusive about "pretending" to be in it for the money." Arthur reviews.
Ariadne nods her head. They're in Arthur's hotel suite, the day before Eames is due to dream-share with Fischer.
She smiles to herself, and a laugh escapes her. Arthur looks at her inquisitively.
"I'm sorry. But I can't believe you just asked me to be coy… I'm not the most seductive person Arthur, be realistic." Her eyes look at him straight in the face, his tutoring momentarily derailed.
"You don't have to be aggressive about your approach with him. It's all about body language." He continues to explain as he walks over from where he was standing near the window and approaches her, she stands up.
She immediately notices that he's positioning his body much closer to her than normal.
"Keep close and in intimate contact as much as possible." She can feel his breath along her neck; she smells his cologne, slightly musky, and incredibly distracting.
"Touch his arm when you want to talk, and lean in to him."
She does as he instructs, pressing her hand gently on his shoulder in an intimate tug before she leans against his ear. She feels really silly, bit more importantly she wonders if he can hear her heartbeats ricochet off her body, because they seem to shudder through her in waves.
"Like this?' Her voice is soft against the shell of his ear. And even though this is practice, there's something so very intentional behind it.
His hand finds its way to the small of her back as he leans into her. For one frightening moment, she thinks he's going to kiss her, but the moment passes and he leans up against her ear in response, their bodies close to touching.
"You were always a quick learner." A smile tinges the warmth in his whisper, and ever professional, he pulls away from her, and the moment is lost.
She's flustered, but doesn't let him see it. She doesn't miss the bit of a smirk on his lips. He returns to his place near the window and picks up where he left off before their little demo, but in perceptibly higher spirits.
"The idea is that the faster you want to tie him down, the more he'll want to run." He continues.
"Be sure to bring up money in every step of your conversations. That, in conjunction with your behavior should make him back off." He turns to her and she is composed once again, only a tinge of pink betraying her.
"Got it, you're right, it's straightforward enough."
The two mull in silence, lost in their respective thoughts.
The silence is broken when Ariadne's laugh escapes from her.
Arthur relaxes at the sound.
"Do I get to hear the joke?" he inquires with a raised brow.
She looks at him with her brown eyes glinting deviously.
"Nothing, I was just imagining Eames trying to 'woo' Fischer." She remarks off handedly, in reference to the role that Eames would be playing soon enough.
Arthur lets a smile leak across his face, a reaction that just seems to happen without his control when he's around her. He had always felt close to Ariadne on a rather unexpected level.
The fact that she also enjoyed imagining Eames in the occasional uncomfortable situation was just a bonus.
. . .
It's Wednesday night when she receives the call that she had been waiting for. Eames and Arthur would have finished with the dream-sharing hopefully influencing Fischer.
She picked up her phone expectantly; she had stayed at her apartment, having no need to take part in this part of the plan, and would rather have not witnessed Eames impersonate her anyway.
"Yes?" She answers a bit breathlessly on the first ring.
"It didn't go well."
She feels her heart plummet into her stomach.
"What happened?"
She can hear Arthur release a sigh from the other end of the phone.
"Fischer's proven he can be quite stubborn. I should have been able to see as much considering how fast he had worked to dismantle his father's work once he had set his mind to it…"
"What are you talking about?"
'How could it have gone wrong?'
"Apparently he wasn't so surprised you would be after his money after all. He didn't really see it as a problem…"
Ariadne is at a loss for what to say.
'How could wanting to be with someone for their money not be a problem when it came to a relationship?'
"It's my fault. I should have seen this coming…" Arthur continues.
"Fischer's mother had left their family at a young age. She had runoff with a wealthier man early on during Maurice's marriage. I'm guessing that Robert has since accepted that was how the way things worked after all. I misjudged the situation."
'So the guy with more money would get the girl.'
Ariadne couldn't help but feel like luck was continuing to work against her. She had never been in a position where wealth influenced relationships, but seeing as how Fischer probably grew up in that very environment, it made sense… in a way.
"Well. You and Eames mentioned something about a back-up plan before." She urged, referring to the dream in the Louvre.
She could hear Arthur clear his throat on the other line.
"Yes. Well. That would require certain concessions on your part." his voice is a bit constrained.
They still had three days.
"What did you have in mind?"
A long pause.
All she can hear is static on the phone for a long time.
She's about to ask if Arthur is still on the line when he starts to speak.
"Ariadne…" His voice is tense, but soft. "How opposed are you to the idea of wearing a wedding dress?"
