I'm gonna keep going with this one, I think. I don't know if it will go anywhere go anywhere, but I like it so far. This one's a little shorter, but what happened happened.

Song's still If I Had It All and still belongs to Dave Matthews. Inception and Arthur and Ariadne are all Chris Nolan's. I wish Leo was mine, though :)

Short and sweet, and we're off.

After Ariadne left, Arthur just lay on the bed, counting ceiling tiles and stripes on the wall. He didn't need to move, and he didn't need to think about what happened. He already knew. And he needed a drink.

Now, three hours later, it's midnight and there's an empty glass of gin on the bedside. Once again, Arthur's on the bed, looking up at the ceiling, wishing that he didn't always feel so in control. That he didn't know everything about everyone all the time. Sometimes, mostly when he's a little buzzed, he just wants to let go. And he misses her already.

He decides the better course of action would be the usual one: to roll over and proceed to not sleep. To wait.

Sometimes I feel lost

As I pull you out like strings of memories

It's probably around three in the morning when Ariadne pads back into the room, attempting to be quiet. He knows she's there, of course he does, he can hear the soft shuffle of her feet in the plush carpet and the brush of her hands against the walls, but he pretends he doesn't notice, and she appreciates that. She needed a little time. She always needs a little time. And he knows that, too.

But what she also needs is comfort. What Arthur said earlier had scared her, maybe even more than she let on. She can never quite understand him, understand how he says some of things he does, with utmost confidence and no thought to their effect on those around him. He knows what happened to Dom and Mol; he's lived it even, while she's only caught glimpses. He knows what he's saying when he talks of dreams and forever and getting lost.

Sometimes she feels like she can't make him understand that she still had things to live for here: her schooling, her parents, her cat. But as far as she can tell, from the little he opens up to her, he doesn't have much besides Dom, and the job. And her now, too, she supposes.

Wish I could weave them into you

Then I could figure the whole damn puzzle out

"I'm sorry," Arthur whispers when Aridane finally decides to slide into bed, into is waiting arms. He has yet to tell her this, but here is really his favorite place to be. It's hard for him to sleep now without her. Actually, it's hard for him to sleep anyways, and has been for a while, but he never noticed before. Now, the yearning is acute, although he tries to ignore it like he tries to ignore everything else.

"Would you like to talk about it?" he questions as he kisses her gently on the forehead and then on the lips. Trying to make everything alright.

"No. Let's just forget about it," Ari replies. Arthur can't tell if she's being short, or if she's just tired. He suspects the later, but he can't be sure.

If I had you, I could give you your dreams

He kisses her again, harder this time, like he wants to make sure she's still there. Still real. She responds with equal force, tangling her fingers in her hair and entwining her legs with his. This doesn't last long though. They're both tired, and they decide that, for now, they need sleep more than they need each other.

Ariadne knows that she's happy, and Arthur knows that he's content.

She snuggles deeper into his embrace, reveling in the warmth and comfort of it, letting herself relax for the first time since the beach-dream. Lost in her thoughts, she barely notices when Arthur slips into his usual restless sleep. For once, she knows she knows something that he doesn't: everything's fine. For tonight at least. She wonders if he ever feels the same uncertainty that she does. Probably, she decides, somewhere deep down, he isn't sure of much of anything.

He hides most things, but she keeps secrets too. Her biggest is one that she doesn't even like to admit to herself. What scares her the most, when Arthur says he want to stay in their dreams, is that secretly, she agrees.

AN: Oh man, that was actually really short. I'll make it up to you next time. Promise.