Sorry I haven't updated in FOREVER, it's just that I was having the biggest writer's block of my life. I was actually beginning to consider ending this story or giving to someone else to finish it for me. But I decided not to. This is the best thing I could conjure up. I also want to say a HUGE thank you to all of you that have been reading/reviewing/alerting/favoriting my story. It means a lot to me. You're the reason I decided to continue in the first place. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I only own my plot, not Inception.

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!


Robert Fischer.

Never before in Ariadne's life had she been so shocked. She was more than shocked, actually. She wondered if her eyes were fooling her. However, she knew it wasn't just her that was seeing Robert on the monitor before them when she heard Arthur.

"Impossible…" he muttered, staring at the screen. His eyes looked far away, as if he were ten thousand miles away from Ariadne's tiny kitchen.

"But you saw him jump out of that window, and I saw his dead body. Seems like something like this could only happen in a … dream." Ariadne spoke.

Ariadne watched as Arthur hurriedly pulled out his totem, rolling it on the wooden desk once before pocketing it. She did the same, pulling out her golden bishop and tipping it over. After hearing the reassuring thump it made on the desk, she quickly put it back into her pocket.

"Okay, so we're not dreaming. What now?" Ariadne asked.

She was over the initial shock of seeing the man she just watched die walking around in the supermarket. If going into people's dreams and stealing their secrets was possible, Ariadne wouldn't be surprised if she saw a mermaid one day.

"I… don't know," Arthur replied, blankly staring at the monitor as the video replayed itself.

"What? But you're Arthur, you always know," Ariadne said teasingly, trying to lighten the stiff and serious atmosphere around them.

He got up then, slowly making his way towards her bedroom. She followed him cautiously, staying a few feet behind him. To Ariadne, the Point Man seemed dangerous when he went in full work mode.

Once in Ariadne's room, Arthur headed straight towards the window. She watched as his face developed a very concentrated look. He seemed to be looking straight down, probably trying to judge whether someone could have lived from a fall like that.

"It's impossible that he lived," she heard him mutter momentarily.

"Apparently not," she replied, crossing her thin arms over her chest.

He turned back towards her, an apparent scowl on his face. Ariadne had never seen this side of Arthur before. He was usually always calm and collected, the man with a plan. Now he seemed disheveled and confused. He was merely just a shade of the usually put-together Point Man. Not that she could blame him. They'd just seen a man come back from the dead. Ariadne had similar feelings to the ones Arthur was concealing. She was just too confused to express them.

Arthur was now sat on the bed, staring through the window directly in front of him blankly. Deciding that he was in desperate need of some alone time to sort things out, Ariadne left the room, silently closing the door behind her.


Later that night, Arthur and Ariadne lay in bed together, Arthur's arms wrapped securely around Ariadne's waist. She'd been trying to fall asleep for the past hour, maybe two, but with little success. She just kept drifting in and out of consciousness. Ariadne could tell that Arthur was doing worse than her. He'd hadn't fallen asleep at all. She could hear him groan in frustration and shift his position once in a while. Needless to say, comfort was most likely not the reason he hadn't yet fallen asleep.

Ariadne had just managed to drift into a restless sleep when she heard the bathroom light switch flip. Opening her eyes, she noticed that the bathroom door was in fact open. Turning to the side, Ariadne was met with an empty bed.

She got up slowly, and made her way towards the bathroom. She was met with a scary sight.

Arthur was looking into the mirror, his eyes red from lack of rest, with a gun pointed to his head. The worst part was that it was him pointing it at himself. From where Ariadne stood, she could see that the gun's safety was off. Arthur hadn't seemed to notice her at the entrance.

"Arthur?" she whispered, inching closer towards him, "What are you doing?"

"This has to be a dream," was his response. His expression remained the same. Cold. Dead.

"No. It's not, Arthur. We checked our totems, remember?" Ariadne now stood next to Arthur, rubbing soothing circles on his back and reaching to remove the lethal weapon from his grasp.

Arthur noticed this and shoved her hand away. However, he clicked the gun's safety on.

"Alright," Arthur spoke, dropping the gun on the counter around the sink.

Ariadne wound her arms around his waist tightly, burying her face in his chest. Arthur paused briefly before returning the gesture just as passionately. He kissed the top of her head after they pulled away. They bid each other goodnight before falling into a sleep clouded with dangerous dreams.


They both acted like nothing had happened the next morning

Each of them preferred not to talk about Arthur's near suicide attempt. They ate, washed the dishes, and and took their showers silently. For a short time, they almost seemed like a normal couple. Until Arthur began investigating.

He sat behind his laptop until 10:00 that evening. Even then, he had not seemed the least bit tired. It came to the point where Ariadne had had to drag him away from his chair and force him to eat something, telling him that she'd destroy his laptop if he didn't. That had gotten him to move rather quickly.

Arthur sat in the living room at 10:30, eating the tuna sandwich Ariadne had given him. She lay curled up on the other side of the couch, watching him like a hawk. She was trying to be absolutely positive that he ate every bite of the sandwich.

"Arthur?" he heard her voice after he'd finished his food.

"Mm?" was his only reply as he grabbed her foot and began to rub it.

"I had an... interesting dream last night," she spoke slowly, almost as if she were trying to make sure that the right words came from her mouth. "It was like my mind replayed the entire scene from when Robert jumped from the window."

Arthur sat up straighter almost immediately, his back lining up stiffly.

Ariadne continued, pretending not to notice his reaction. "The only thing that changed was that when Robert jumped, I looked down and he stood back up, as if the fall hadn't hurt him at all. Then I woke up."

Arthur sat silently for a few moments, seemingly pondering her words.

"...It doesn't mean anything," he said eventually. "You're just under a lot of stress from everything's that happening and it incorporated itself into your dreams. It used to happen to me all the time, when I dreamed."

Ariadne suddenly let out a yelp-ish giggle, covering her mouth with her hands to hide her smile.

"What?" Arthur questioned, turning to look at her with a smile on his face.

"That tickles," she responded, pointing an accusatory finger at his hand that was still rubbing her foot.

"It does?"

She nodded.

What followed next was the most abusive thing Ariadne's foot had ever experienced. Arthur tickled it till she cried, and even then he did not stop. He did stop eventually, though, but Ariadne was still laughing, lying on his lap. He smiled down at her lovingly as she continued to let out her hysterical giggles.

Her laughing was, however, cut short by the sound of the front door flying open with a resounding "bang."