Sorry it's been so long! School has been a bitch! I will try to update more often but it may be a while. Hope you like this chapter. It's short, not much, but it's more of a bridge, if you will, to the next chapter. Sorry it isn't as good as I

'~*~'

Ariadne was uneasy and very conflicted. She was uneasy due to her new task, and conflicted due to her troubled heart. Was it possible to fall in love with two men at the same time? If not then she was screwed. Part of her wanted nothing more than to lie under the stars with Robert forever, while another part of her wanted to be wrapped in Arthur's arms and have him never let her go. What was she to do?

"You there?" Eames waved a hand in front of her face.

"Huh? Yeah," she yawned, "Why couldn't we talk about this later? Like after I sleep?"

"Because, you know better than anyone what happened that night, what Mal did, I need to know what I'm doing,"

"I've already told you at least five times," she groaned.

"Fine, fine," he raised his hands defensively.

"So I can sleep?"

"If that is what you want," he shrugged, then with a smile he added, "As long as you don't mind if I hang out here until you wake up,"

"And why on earth would I let you do that?"

"I don't know," he chuckled, "Don't worry, I know your Arthur's play thing, not mine,"

"I'm nobody's play thing," she growled.

"Whatever you say. I'll sleep in the bathtub if you want. I could use a little sleep too. Of course, you may want to set some sort of alarm because it's already six in the morning and we wouldn't want you sleeping the day away now would we?" He smirked.

"Fine," she threw a pillow and a few extra blankets at him, not bothering to ask why he didn't just go back to his own hotel. With him now in the bathroom she could relax and settle into sleep.

Arthur was tired, but he couldn't sleep, not with everything happening. He wasn't personally pleased with the decision he made, asking Araidne to bring Robert to her room and convince him to spend the night. However, he could think of no other way to ensure that their mission went as planned. He sighed settling back into his bed, thinking about her.

He had worked with Cobb many years, he had never been jealous of him ever. That is, until Araidne came around. Admittedly, he had suspected a romantic affair between the two, disregarding the age difference and Cobb's unbreakable attachment to Mal. From the moment he saw her he wanted her. At first it was mostly a sexual attraction, finding her to be beautiful and alluring. As he grew to know her, however, he fell in love with her. It amazed him that one simple emotion could make him think irrationally, thus the suspected relationship between his student and his best friend. He was relieved when he learned this all to be false, but the relief was short lived as Robert began to come into the picture.

"She wasn't supposed to fall for him!" He yelled aloud without realizing it. He slammed his fist against the bed and felt an overwhelming pain in his chest. It wasn't fair! One moment he was sure she loved him that she returned his feelings, the next she was hand in hand with a man he could never compete with. To make matters worse, whenever around her he had to act calmly, sanely, and maturely. He wanted to lose control, to show her how much he cared for her, but wouldn't allow himself. Rather anger with his own emotions he decided he would sleep, and he would be sure that he dreamt of something pleasant.

"Shit," Ariadne cursed, realizing that Arthur still had her phone. He had taken it to write down Robert's number and apparently never gave it back. She would have waited until morning, but she feared that if he was still awake he might get bored and decide to look through her texts, including the ones from Robert. However, there was a problem. She didn't have a key anymore. She had somehow managed to lose the one she had obtained earlier. She thought a moment, trying to think of how to get into his room. Suddenly an idea popped into her head.

Ten minutes later she was standing in front of Arthur's door, holding a key card in her hand. A smile of satisfaction and amusement crossed her face as she recalled the lie she had just told. It was quite easy to convince the woman, the blonde one, at the front desk that she was his wife. The woman had frowned, obviously still unhappy about the fact that Arthur was 'taken', and Ariadne had to fight from laughing.

She slid the key into the slot and opened the door quietly. To her relief he was asleep instead of snooping through her messages. She spotted her phone sitting on the corner of one of the bedside tables and as she reached to grab it she stopped. Arthur was hooked up to the PASIV, and his sleeping form was smiling.

"Nope, don't do it again, you pissed Cobb off last time," she reminded herself. A nagging curiosity began to gnaw at her. What was he dreaming about? She clenched her teeth, wishing so badly that she hadn't been born with such a strong curiosity. "Dammit!" She almost yelled, glad that it had come out as more of a whisper. Giving into her need to know everything, she plopped down on the floor, resting her head against the bed. She stuck the IV in her arm and delved into Arthur's dream.