Twelve o'clock. Lunch time. Yusuf slipped out of the warehouse, unnoticed, half an hour early for his lunch break, but no one minded and Eames was forced by Ariadne to take Zoe with him. So then, it was Ariadne and Arthur, alone in the warehouse.
"Arthur, we need to talk," Ariadne ordered when she had finally built up the courage to go over and confront Arthur.
"Uh yeah. Sure, ok," Arthur mumbled, a bit shocked by Ariadne's aggressive tone. He slowly rose from his chair when Ariadne grabbed him and shook him.
"What is wrong with you!" she yelped.
"Ariadne! What the hell!" Arthur screeched, confused.
"Zoe! Can't you tell she just desperately wants your attention? But you neglect her! You treat her like she's a co-worker. She's your sister, Arthur!" Ariadne explained, crossing her arms.
"No, Ariadne, you don't understand. Zoe is not like other 13 year old girls. She… She does this thing that I couldn't explain to you even if I wanted to," Arthur explained.
"You can't really expect me to believe that you are afraid of your own sister, Arthur." Arthur simply stared at her and sighed.
"Oh… Geez. You are…" Ariadne realized.
"Ok, fine. I'm afraid of my 13 year old sister. You know why? Because when I stopped dreaming, I was scared. I couldn't sleep, so I had to use the suitcase. Zoe found me and went in after me. And you know what happened? She extracted information about my job. She performed an extraction on me. She was only 6, Ariadne. That's why I'm so terrified of her. She doesn't remember it, but I can't let her get close to me…" Arthur sighed, resting his head on his hand.
"Oh my god…" Ariadne muttered as she covered her mouth.
"It's alright, Arthur. She doesn't remember it. It'll be ok," she whispered as she wrapped her arms around Arthur's lean body and squeezed him tight.
Ariadne's face turned candy apple red, but she couldn't help herself. She knew she had always secretly harbored feelings for the point man, but Ariadne always refused to believe it.
You're just comforting him. This is not a display of romantic affection… You do not- no. You cannot like him, Ariadne, she thought to herself.
The hug broke off a moment later and Ariadne and Arthur stood, staring at each other. They were both blushing.
"Um. I should get back to work now…" Ariadne muttered, turning to leave.
"Wait!" Arthur called, grabbing her hand. Ariadne stared at him in confusion.
"Quick, give me a kiss," he whispered, smirking.
Ariadne laughed as she grabbed Arthur's face and pulled his face towards hers. Their lips hit each other, hard, but it soon smoothed out into a soft kiss. Nothing like the peck on the lips they shared during the Fischer job. Ariadne's face was burning up so much she felt as if she would just explode at any given second. Suddenly, there was a loud slam.
"HOLY MOTHER OF ALL THAT IS WRONG!" someone shouted.
Ariadne and Arthur whirled around. It was Yusuf. He had returned from his lunch break and now stood a few feet from them, gaping. The couple quickly stepped away from each other, blushing even harder than ever.
"You didn't see that. This is a dream, Yusuf! Check your totem!" Ariadne joked.
"I don't bloody have a totem! I'm a chemist for fucks sake and I don't need one to know whether this is a dream or not right now because I know that I just came from the café across the street and YOU TWO WERE KISSING!" Yusuf screamed, pointing at the two of them.
"Ok ok, fine. We were kissing. Just don't tell Eames or he'll make my life a living hell. Zoe too," Arthur sighed.
"Who the hell's Zoe?" Yusuf asked.
"Yusuf… you really need to stop absorbing yourself in your work. You'll end up like Arthur," Ariadne chuckled.
"What. I'll end up kissing you? Ariadne, you're a wonderful girl, but no thanks," Yusuf joked.
"N-no! Just don't mention it ever again!" Ariadne stuttered, blushing again as she fled to her workspace.
"If you ever bring it up again, I will take you into a dream within a dream within a dream within a dream within a dream and I will keep shooting you until we wake up. And then I will shoot you again in reality," Arthur threatened as he too retreated back to his office.
"Jesus fucking Christ…" Yusuf muttered.
A/N: This chapter is almost pure fluff. Hehe. I told you there'd be some AriadnexArthur action!
