ARTHUR'S DREAM
The possibility of falling asleep in Dream always confused Ariadne; it shouldn't be possible, but then, it is.
She slowly comes back to consciousness, feeling the warmth of the body beside her and listening to a soft breath she missed so much.
It feels so pleasant to wake up with Arthur in her side, even though it happens in Dream. Ariadne shifts her position, so she could face him; he's still asleep, his long eyelashes throw a shadows on cheeks. There's an imperceptible expression of happiness on his face, which makes Ariadne hold her breath.
She doesn't want to wake him up and shatter this perfect illusion of happiness with the truth.
The truth that the mission is still unfinished and Arthur doesn't know he's dreaming.
Arthur's eyes snap open and he looks for a moment at her.
"It feels like we have woken up like that many times before", Ariadne whispers and observes how confusion flickers in his dark eyes and disappear within seconds.
The touch of his fingers is gentle, Ariadne lets herself sink into the sensation of it before they stand up and start a new day.
A day of the job.
Everything goes according to the plan. Mal is waiting for them in the agreed place and smiles widely at their sight.
She knows, Ariadne catches herself at thinking. It scares her a little; she shouldn't mistake Arthur's projections with a living people, it's dangerous.
But there's no time for thinking about such things, as their mark is already going to the place where the job will be done. It's an isolated house on the outskirts of city; the mark is luckily planning to buy a new house, which really comes in hand. Mal, with all her self-confidence is playing a role of estate agent.
Mal waves goodbye and heads to the house, as she's supposed to wait for the client. Ariadne and Arthur will be waiting in the car for her sign.
There is silence between them, a little awkward but not unpleasant; Ariadne decides to lean her head on Arthur's shoulder, as she did so many times before. He accepts her gesture without hesitance, placing a tender kiss on the top of her head.
He's tensed, Ariadne can sense it easily, but she's not sure if the reason of it is a job, or rather all things that happened between him and her the previous day and last night.
"Arthur?", she murmurs, tickling his neck with her warm breath. "Did you think why…"
Arthur's phone vibrates, stopping her in the middle of sentence.
"They're upstairs.", Arthur announces shortly. "Time to go."
He leaves the car and Ariadne follows him, biting her upper lip. She knows that a good moment had passed unused; she didn't manage to question the reality around them and it makes her angry at herself.
They can't stay here forever; nor Arthur, whose physical health is getting worse with every hour in coma, nor she would be able to live in the Dream.
"Arthur.", she starts once again, when suddenly all hell breaks loose.
THREE MONTHS AGO
A huge yawn escaped Ariadne's throat. She shifted her position on the chair, making it more comfortable and once again picked up her phone and checked the time.
3:00 am.
Ariadne sighed, absently cleaning her fingerprints from the phone's display. Arthur had called her from the airport with information that the plain is delayed and "Please, Ari, be reasonable and don't wait for me. You have classes tomorrow."
But it was a particularly complicated job, Arthur had been gone for almost a month now and the longing for he became almost unbearable.
It was still an hour before the plane would land on Aéroport Paris-Charles de Gaulle and at least twenty five minutes until Arthur finally open the door.
Much more than Ariadne could idly wait.
It took just a couple of minutes to wear a pair of jeans and sweater, grabbed keys and coat and run down the stairs to the car.
"I love you and all I want you to do is just hold me", she sung with the accompaniment of She even in Paris streets at about 3 am are almost completely empty so she could let herself for that without gaining suspicious looks from other drivers.
She pulled her totem out of the jeans pocket. It was a relatively long time since her last Dreaming, but carrying the totem with herself became her habit, even though she didn't really use it for destination purpose. She treated the bishop more as a lucky charm, than an anchor to reality.
When Arthur finally appeared Ariadne paused for a moment before heading to him. For a complete stranger he'd probably look impeccable, calm and relaxed. Ariadne's trained eyes without slightest problems caught all the symptoms of weariness: less than usual confidence in walk, almost invisible tension in his shoulders… And, most importantly, he didn't notice her, rushing to the exit.
"Arthur!", she called and run up to him. There was a smile on his face, when he pulled her into embrace.
"I told you not to come", he murmured into her hair, holding her tightly pressed to himself.
Ariadne chuckled. "Aren't you happy I came?", she teased, but Arthur's reaction startled her a little. He gently pushed her away and tilted her chin with hand, so he could look into her eyes.
"I love you, Ariadne.", he said fiercely. "You are the person that makes me happy."
It caught Ariadne's breath in throat; Arthur had confessed his love a couple of times before, sometimes more seriously, in other occasion with a playful note in his voice.
But it had never sounded like that, like a promise of love until death.
The way home Ariadne was silent, not wanting to tear Arthur from the state of half-sleep he was in. The exhaustion made him curled in the bed as soon as they'd reached the flat and fell asleep within second. Ariadne was laying beside him awake for a little longer, listening to his steady and soft breaths and simply enjoying that sound.
She woke up with a slight sense of panic, afraid that she'd be once again late for her classes, but a short glance at watch reassured her that there was still plenty of time.
She stand up as quiet, as she could; Arthur shifted position but stayed asleep, which brought a smile on her face.
She heard many stories from Eames saying how annoying Arthur is, how he's always the last one to fall asleep and the first one to wake up. Eames claimed than even if you woke up in the middle of the night, Arthur wouldn't be sleeping. Ariadne wasn't sure if that just Eames's imagination, but she liked to think that she's the person Arthur can relaxed with completely, that he's trusting her to the extension no one else has ever gotten.
Way back from the bathroom she picked Arthur's suit from the floor, another things she was sure not many people could know about.
It definitely needs washing, Ariadne decided, spotting small stains of blood and dirt covering the jacket. She pushed away the thought about whose blood can it be; it could wait after her classes.
She absently checked pockets, as she wanted to carry it to washing laundry, while going to the university. There was something in the trousers' pocket, she took it out and frozen.
On the palm of her hand laid a red die with white dots.
"Oh my god.", Ariadne couldn't help but whisper.
What she was supposed to do? Put it back and pretend nothing had happened? Tell Arthur?
Her dilemma did solve itself, though, as she heard footsteps behind her and then got a tender kiss on the nape of her neck.
"Oh.", Arthur finally noticed his totem laying on her hand.
"I didn't mean to!", she turned rapidly to face him. "Arthur, I really…"
"Shh", he silenced her, took the die from her grasp and let it land on the floor. "It's nothing, it doesn't matter."
"You didn't let me touch it back during the first training.", she clearly remembered his calm tone when he said "I can't let you touch it."
Much to her surprise Arthur chuckled. "Everything has changed.", he answered simply.
ARTHUR'S DREAM
Ariadne ducks instinctively when she heard a gunfire and with a corner of her eyes sees Arthur has already his Glock in the hand. He pushes her behind an apple tree, when another bullet pierces the air.
Ariadne is bewildered; it's clearly a trap, but how is that possible? Why Arthur would fight against himself?
There's no time for wondering, though; a window on the first floor explodes to thousands of glass pieces and a human body falls from it, hitting hard the ground below.
It's Mal.
Arthur hisses and for a moment everything goes still and frozen, but soon the chaos comes back. There's a strange, terrifying expression on Arthur's face when he grabs her hand and shoves her toward their car. Another bullet cuts the air and Ariadne catches the picture of Arthur curling into himself, just a moment before they reach the car.
It seems nobody is after them, so Ariadne lets herself take a deep, slightly shuddered breath and look at Arthur. He's crumpled on the seat, his eyes wide, breathing rapidly.
"She's dead.", he announces suddenly, the tone of his voice empty.
"Arthur…", Ariadne starts, but a wave of his hand silences her.
"She's dead for a couple of years. Oh, god..", Arthur leans to the glove compartment and Ariadne realizes two things.
He knows he's dreaming.
He's wounded, the stain of blood becomes bigger with every second.
Without hesitation she pulls off on the roadside and turns off the engine.
"Arthur, I'm real.", she speaks in the sudden silence; he looks at her in disbelief and then, much to Ariadne's fear, he breaks into the broad smile.
The touch of his fingers on her cheek is cold and makes Ariadne shiver, but she doesn't flinch at it.
"I know.", he says suddenly and coughs, blood colors his lips to bright red, but he doesn't pay attention to that. "I would never… I couldn't imagine you… You're too complete, too…". Another cough interrupts him and Ariadne reaches to him, embracing him tight.
"Go to sleep.", she whispers softly. "You'll wake up in the real world."
And she's certain that is what will happen.
EIGHT MONTHS LATER
Ariadne tilts her head, catching sun reflections with the surface of her wedding ring.
It's been a month now since Arthur put it on her finger, but it's cold and simple band still amazes Ariadne; when professor Miles called her and introduce "Mr. Cobb" to her she'd never thought she'll be married to a dream theft and one sunny winter day she'll be standing in her own garden, with the knowledge that the man she loves most in the world it's somewhere in the house.
She takes a deep breath, enjoying the sharp coldness of air, its taste of snow.
She is standing like that for about ten minutes now; her thoughts whirling and flying from one topic to another.
Today exactly eight months pass from the very day Arthur wakes up from coma and sometimes Ariadne still can't believe their luck.
She remembers more than clearly days after awakening; the struggle with physical weakness of body, aftereffects of coma and shot.
Even now, after such long time, not everything is perfect; Arthur's left hand isn't one hundred percent efficient. It's the result of shattered shoulder-blade, most probably it won't be entirely fine ever.
Ariadne grimaces at this thought, but the bad moon doesn't last long.
After all it's a also an anniversary of the first month of her and Arthur marriage.
Ariadne recalls that very day with a broad smile, even though it wasn't perfect at all. Phillipa and James managed somehow to destroy the wedding cake, Eames got Cobb and Yusuf drunk and she herself almost broke a leg.
But it still one of the brightest day in her life, followed with next wonderful ones spent on decorating their new home; in fact they still have much to do in that matter.
She hears a quiet croak of the door and then soft footsteps in the fresh snow. Arthur approaches her and places a "good morning" kiss on the top of her head.
She leans to him, never tired of the sensation that gives her touching him, even through a layers of winter coats.
"Good or bad thoughts?", Arthur asks quietly.
"Both.", Ariadne admits and raises her hand so that sun once again reflexes on the wedding ring's surface.
"Look.", Ariadne says. "How beautifully looks gold in the sunlight."
And so it does.
THE END
A/N: Thanks a lot for reading/reviewing/allerting/adding to favorites. It all makes my days:)
