Her laughter fills the room.
It was dark by the time Ariadne finished drawing the layout of a small town for their next heist. She didn’t mind staying late, not when Arthur was across the room from her and in her line of sight. If she could have it her way, she’d sit there all night and just stare.
As though sensing her eyes on him, Arthur looked up and met her eyes. His lips lifted on one corner in a half smile and his eyes lost the concentrated, business only edge.
Ariadne struggled to breathe at the sight. Her surroundings disappeared and she wondered if this was how it was supposed to be when you were in love with someone.
Arthur didn’t break eye contact and placed his pen on the desk, moving to get up, intent in his eyes. There was a clattering and Arthur looked down in annoyance as the pen rolled further under the desk. His head and shoulders disappeared under the desk in pursuit and Ariadne admired the way his crisp, wrinkle free dark blue shirt pulled taunt against his back.
There was a thump and swearing as Arthur’s head reappeared, his fingers finding the back of his hand and rubbing tenderly.
It didn’t take long for Ariadne to process that Arthur had just banged his head on the underside of the desk. Laughter bubbled up her throat and she couldn’t hold it in. She threw a hand over her mouth to keep the giggles in and with wide eyes met Arthur’s gaze.
He smiled and dropped his hand, tossing the pen onto the table, making sure it didn’t roll this time.
Ariadne’s hand fell to her lap as she laughed, unable to hold it in. Faint chuckles could be heard from across the room.
She would never forget this moment.
/|\
Ariadne spent the afternoon going over her plans with Arthur on how the hotel would look and the three blocks surrounding the hotel. With a pen in one hand, the other braced against the table, Ariadne made sweeping arches along the exterior of one of the buildings, an exact mirror of the real life New York City business building.
The scent that was pure Arthur overwhelmed her and it took everything in her to not grab him by the tie and make good use of the table. He smelled of leather and mint and she wondered how he could smell of mint when she never saw him chew gum.
“The lamp posts are going to need to be slightly taller,” Arthur told her as he placed a finger on the drawing, right on the lamppost.
Ariadne moved her hand towards the lamppost to make a note, her fingers warming when their hands brushed.
Looking up, Ariadne froze, her eyes trained on his face as his fingers lowered from rubbing his cheek in a habit she’d seen him do many times.
Being an artist, Ariadne knew how messy drawing could be. So when she saw the tiny black splotch on Arthur’s cheek, she couldn’t help the snort that escaped her lips.
Arthur glanced up from the drawing with curiosity, his eyebrows rising slightly.
“What?” he asked in confusion as Ariadne’s cheeks warmed while she chewed her lip, her smile growing large and larger. Before she could stop herself, she was laughing lightly, her eyes crinkling in the corners in amusement.
“Uhh, you have pen on your cheek,” Ariadne informed him in an amused voice, pointing at his left cheek. She watched Arthur’s eyebrows crease as he reached up and rubbed at his cheek. Shaking her head, Ariadne licked her thumb and reached up, rubbing away the pen mark in smooth back and forth strokes.
Once it was gone, she pulled back immediately, embarrassed by the fact that she’d just smeared her saliva on Arthur’s cheek without his permission.
“Thanks…” Arthur looked hesitant and Ariadne opened her mouth to apologize for not grabbing a wet paper towel instead. “Do you want to go out and catch a movie later?”
With wide eyes, Ariadne fought the urge to check her totem. She nodded and said yes quietly, not trusting her voice to work if she tried to speak any louder. It would crack in her attempt to remain calm and collected when on the inside she was jumping around like the cliché fifteen year old girl she had never been.
He gave her a small smile and a promise to pick her up at seven before he turned back to the drawing. Later, when she was safely in her apartment and her totem was on the side table next to her front door, she tapped it lightly and it fell with a resound clink, rolling to the edge of the table where she caught it.
The moment of the pen on his face, him asking her out, the smile he gave her, replayed in her mind and slowly, a smile crept onto her face.
/|\
Arthur keeps his promise.
There is a sharp knock that echoes throughout the house and Ariadne forces herself not to full out sprint to the door. Instead she opts to put her jacket on at a normal speed and slips on some flats she miraculously found in the back of her closet.
When she opens the door, he’s in a three piece suit and impeccable as always. The suit is midnight black, like his hair, and all Ariadne wants to do it watch him take it off slowly with his smothering gaze focused on her.
She smiles at him and closes the door behind her with a soft click, her hands buried in her pockets. The temptation to reach out and take is hand is strong and she almost gives in but she rubs her totem in her pocket between her fingers instead.
When Ariadne asks Arthur what movie they’re seeing, he gives her a secret smile and keeps his mouth shut. There’s an excited tingle down her spine and he mistakes it for a shiver, walking closer to her to block out the wind from one side as he easily keeps stride with her.
She can’t help but tease him as she tries to guess what movie they’ll see. He laughs, a sound that is easily her new favorite music, and it triggers her own. Their arms brush and tentatively, Ariadne loops her arm through his when she shivers again, this time from coldness.
Instead of going into a modern movie theater, Arthur takes them to an older style one with red velvet seats worn from years of being sat on and a concessions stand that only has popcorn and three choices of soda.
When they’re settled in their seats, they chat about different things. Surprisingly, they have a lot in common and Ariadne feels her chest bloom with heat as she giggles at something Arthur said. She takes in the way his dimples appear when he smiles, an expression so different from the serious demeanor he always has during jobs.
The lights flicker several times and they settle down as the lights dim and the screen lights up. Throughout the whole movie Ariadne has a smile on her face. The movie makes her laugh, chest achingly hard, and she wonders if Arthur knew this would happen because he always seems to know when the funny parts are coming up and turns to look at her out of the corner of his eye as she clutches her ribs and laughs.
/|\
He asks her out again the following week. Several weeks after, they’re in his apartment watching a movie on TV as they talk about modern issues. Somehow Ariadne’s feet end up on his lap and he plays with her toes absentmindedly, her foot jerking when his thumb runs up her instep lightly.
Arthur gives her a questioning look with raised eyebrows, his eyes smiling with mischief. Without having to ask, he runs his fingers along the bottom of her foot, smirking when she squeals and tries to wrestle her foot out of his grip.
Instead, he grabs her ankle and pulls her body closer, his hands reaching out to find her sides. She squirms in his grip as he tickles her relentlessly and soon they’re both laughing like hyenas as they try to tickle each other.
Ariadne straddles his stomach as her fingers dance across his rib cage, trying to find a ticklish spot. She fails to realize how provocative her position is until he leans up and kisses her.
It doesn’t take long for them to get off the couch and stumble across the room, down the hallway, and into his bedroom. His sheets are cool against Ariadne’s bare back as she takes and he gives and vice versa. For the first time since she had met Cobbs, she knows for sure this is reality.
/|\
It doesn’t take long for Eames to notice the longing glances they share across the room as they work. He uses this to his advantage to make snarky comment after snarky comment whenever he gets the chance.
Ariadne goes into the dreamscape with him and Cobbs to fix last minute details for the heist and when she wakes up, she bursts out laughing when she looks at Eames.
Scrawled on his forehead in pen is “I don’t know how to shut the fuck up” in Arthur’s recognizable handwriting. Eames’ forehead crinkles in confusion and that sets off another round of giggles from her as she rolls off the lawn chair and heads towards Arthur’s office, her hands splayed across her ribs in joyful pain.
Cobbs doesn’t bother to tell Eames why she was laughing and leaves with a smile on his face. Eames leaves a couple of minutes later without having a clue as to the ink scrawled across his forehead.
The next day he comes back with a sharpie in his hand and revenge evident on his face. Arthur is nowhere in sight and Eames stalks the warehouse looking for him before Ariadne informs him Arthur is out doing something.
/|\
Arthur finally asks her to move in with him a year later. They keep base in Paris, near the warehouse that has become a second home, and her scarves look surprisingly good next to his shirts in the closet.
They’re walking down the street when they arrive at the movie theater they had their first date on. Ariadne looks up at Arthur with a questioning look but he has that closed lipped smile on his face again, a secret in his eyes.
Hand in hand, they walk into the theater and she’s surprised to find it empty of people. The lights flicker several times and they find seats in the front and settle into them.
As the lights dim, the screen goes bright and suddenly Arthur’s face is on the screen. He looks restless and Ariadne turns to look at the love of her life sitting next to her. His brown eyes have a nervous glint and are on her as he nods his head towards the screen.
Turning, Ariadne watches as the Arthur on the screen starts to talk to her. He’s sitting in the movie theater, in the front row, and he starts listing off everything he loves about her: her brown wavy hair, her scarves that he wants to see hanging in their closet for the rest of his life, her rebellious attitude, the stories about her childhood that she tells him about fondly even though she broke her arm or fell off her bike, the way her eyes crinkle at the corners when she smiles, the way her laugh fills the room even when she’s laughing quietly, and the way he wants to spend the rest of his life with her even when she does something to piss her off.
At the last part, Ariadne turns towards Arthur with parted lips, her eyes welling up as she takes in the sight of him down on one knee in front of her, a velvet box open in his hand with a shining ring inside. In unison, him and the Arthur on the screen ask her to marry him. With shaky hands and tears spilling down her cheeks, Ariadne tells him to get up so he doesn’t get his expensive trousers dirty.
He merely shrugs and remains on one knee. At that moment Ariadne realizes he’d do anything for her, even kneel on the sticky floor of a movie theater in his expensive, tailored suit, because he loves her.
Ariadne’s not sure why she’s crying as she gets down on her knees in front of him and kisses him with everything she has. That’s all the answer he needs as he slips the ring on her finger and seals their fate.
As though sensing her eyes on him, Arthur looked up and met her eyes. His lips lifted on one corner in a half smile and his eyes lost the concentrated, business only edge.
Ariadne struggled to breathe at the sight. Her surroundings disappeared and she wondered if this was how it was supposed to be when you were in love with someone.
Arthur didn’t break eye contact and placed his pen on the desk, moving to get up, intent in his eyes. There was a clattering and Arthur looked down in annoyance as the pen rolled further under the desk. His head and shoulders disappeared under the desk in pursuit and Ariadne admired the way his crisp, wrinkle free dark blue shirt pulled taunt against his back.
There was a thump and swearing as Arthur’s head reappeared, his fingers finding the back of his hand and rubbing tenderly.
It didn’t take long for Ariadne to process that Arthur had just banged his head on the underside of the desk. Laughter bubbled up her throat and she couldn’t hold it in. She threw a hand over her mouth to keep the giggles in and with wide eyes met Arthur’s gaze.
He smiled and dropped his hand, tossing the pen onto the table, making sure it didn’t roll this time.
Ariadne’s hand fell to her lap as she laughed, unable to hold it in. Faint chuckles could be heard from across the room.
She would never forget this moment.
/|\
Ariadne spent the afternoon going over her plans with Arthur on how the hotel would look and the three blocks surrounding the hotel. With a pen in one hand, the other braced against the table, Ariadne made sweeping arches along the exterior of one of the buildings, an exact mirror of the real life New York City business building.
The scent that was pure Arthur overwhelmed her and it took everything in her to not grab him by the tie and make good use of the table. He smelled of leather and mint and she wondered how he could smell of mint when she never saw him chew gum.
“The lamp posts are going to need to be slightly taller,” Arthur told her as he placed a finger on the drawing, right on the lamppost.
Ariadne moved her hand towards the lamppost to make a note, her fingers warming when their hands brushed.
Looking up, Ariadne froze, her eyes trained on his face as his fingers lowered from rubbing his cheek in a habit she’d seen him do many times.
Being an artist, Ariadne knew how messy drawing could be. So when she saw the tiny black splotch on Arthur’s cheek, she couldn’t help the snort that escaped her lips.
Arthur glanced up from the drawing with curiosity, his eyebrows rising slightly.
“What?” he asked in confusion as Ariadne’s cheeks warmed while she chewed her lip, her smile growing large and larger. Before she could stop herself, she was laughing lightly, her eyes crinkling in the corners in amusement.
“Uhh, you have pen on your cheek,” Ariadne informed him in an amused voice, pointing at his left cheek. She watched Arthur’s eyebrows crease as he reached up and rubbed at his cheek. Shaking her head, Ariadne licked her thumb and reached up, rubbing away the pen mark in smooth back and forth strokes.
Once it was gone, she pulled back immediately, embarrassed by the fact that she’d just smeared her saliva on Arthur’s cheek without his permission.
“Thanks…” Arthur looked hesitant and Ariadne opened her mouth to apologize for not grabbing a wet paper towel instead. “Do you want to go out and catch a movie later?”
With wide eyes, Ariadne fought the urge to check her totem. She nodded and said yes quietly, not trusting her voice to work if she tried to speak any louder. It would crack in her attempt to remain calm and collected when on the inside she was jumping around like the cliché fifteen year old girl she had never been.
He gave her a small smile and a promise to pick her up at seven before he turned back to the drawing. Later, when she was safely in her apartment and her totem was on the side table next to her front door, she tapped it lightly and it fell with a resound clink, rolling to the edge of the table where she caught it.
The moment of the pen on his face, him asking her out, the smile he gave her, replayed in her mind and slowly, a smile crept onto her face.
/|\
Arthur keeps his promise.
There is a sharp knock that echoes throughout the house and Ariadne forces herself not to full out sprint to the door. Instead she opts to put her jacket on at a normal speed and slips on some flats she miraculously found in the back of her closet.
When she opens the door, he’s in a three piece suit and impeccable as always. The suit is midnight black, like his hair, and all Ariadne wants to do it watch him take it off slowly with his smothering gaze focused on her.
She smiles at him and closes the door behind her with a soft click, her hands buried in her pockets. The temptation to reach out and take is hand is strong and she almost gives in but she rubs her totem in her pocket between her fingers instead.
When Ariadne asks Arthur what movie they’re seeing, he gives her a secret smile and keeps his mouth shut. There’s an excited tingle down her spine and he mistakes it for a shiver, walking closer to her to block out the wind from one side as he easily keeps stride with her.
She can’t help but tease him as she tries to guess what movie they’ll see. He laughs, a sound that is easily her new favorite music, and it triggers her own. Their arms brush and tentatively, Ariadne loops her arm through his when she shivers again, this time from coldness.
Instead of going into a modern movie theater, Arthur takes them to an older style one with red velvet seats worn from years of being sat on and a concessions stand that only has popcorn and three choices of soda.
When they’re settled in their seats, they chat about different things. Surprisingly, they have a lot in common and Ariadne feels her chest bloom with heat as she giggles at something Arthur said. She takes in the way his dimples appear when he smiles, an expression so different from the serious demeanor he always has during jobs.
The lights flicker several times and they settle down as the lights dim and the screen lights up. Throughout the whole movie Ariadne has a smile on her face. The movie makes her laugh, chest achingly hard, and she wonders if Arthur knew this would happen because he always seems to know when the funny parts are coming up and turns to look at her out of the corner of his eye as she clutches her ribs and laughs.
/|\
He asks her out again the following week. Several weeks after, they’re in his apartment watching a movie on TV as they talk about modern issues. Somehow Ariadne’s feet end up on his lap and he plays with her toes absentmindedly, her foot jerking when his thumb runs up her instep lightly.
Arthur gives her a questioning look with raised eyebrows, his eyes smiling with mischief. Without having to ask, he runs his fingers along the bottom of her foot, smirking when she squeals and tries to wrestle her foot out of his grip.
Instead, he grabs her ankle and pulls her body closer, his hands reaching out to find her sides. She squirms in his grip as he tickles her relentlessly and soon they’re both laughing like hyenas as they try to tickle each other.
Ariadne straddles his stomach as her fingers dance across his rib cage, trying to find a ticklish spot. She fails to realize how provocative her position is until he leans up and kisses her.
It doesn’t take long for them to get off the couch and stumble across the room, down the hallway, and into his bedroom. His sheets are cool against Ariadne’s bare back as she takes and he gives and vice versa. For the first time since she had met Cobbs, she knows for sure this is reality.
/|\
It doesn’t take long for Eames to notice the longing glances they share across the room as they work. He uses this to his advantage to make snarky comment after snarky comment whenever he gets the chance.
Ariadne goes into the dreamscape with him and Cobbs to fix last minute details for the heist and when she wakes up, she bursts out laughing when she looks at Eames.
Scrawled on his forehead in pen is “I don’t know how to shut the fuck up” in Arthur’s recognizable handwriting. Eames’ forehead crinkles in confusion and that sets off another round of giggles from her as she rolls off the lawn chair and heads towards Arthur’s office, her hands splayed across her ribs in joyful pain.
Cobbs doesn’t bother to tell Eames why she was laughing and leaves with a smile on his face. Eames leaves a couple of minutes later without having a clue as to the ink scrawled across his forehead.
The next day he comes back with a sharpie in his hand and revenge evident on his face. Arthur is nowhere in sight and Eames stalks the warehouse looking for him before Ariadne informs him Arthur is out doing something.
/|\
Arthur finally asks her to move in with him a year later. They keep base in Paris, near the warehouse that has become a second home, and her scarves look surprisingly good next to his shirts in the closet.
They’re walking down the street when they arrive at the movie theater they had their first date on. Ariadne looks up at Arthur with a questioning look but he has that closed lipped smile on his face again, a secret in his eyes.
Hand in hand, they walk into the theater and she’s surprised to find it empty of people. The lights flicker several times and they find seats in the front and settle into them.
As the lights dim, the screen goes bright and suddenly Arthur’s face is on the screen. He looks restless and Ariadne turns to look at the love of her life sitting next to her. His brown eyes have a nervous glint and are on her as he nods his head towards the screen.
Turning, Ariadne watches as the Arthur on the screen starts to talk to her. He’s sitting in the movie theater, in the front row, and he starts listing off everything he loves about her: her brown wavy hair, her scarves that he wants to see hanging in their closet for the rest of his life, her rebellious attitude, the stories about her childhood that she tells him about fondly even though she broke her arm or fell off her bike, the way her eyes crinkle at the corners when she smiles, the way her laugh fills the room even when she’s laughing quietly, and the way he wants to spend the rest of his life with her even when she does something to piss her off.
At the last part, Ariadne turns towards Arthur with parted lips, her eyes welling up as she takes in the sight of him down on one knee in front of her, a velvet box open in his hand with a shining ring inside. In unison, him and the Arthur on the screen ask her to marry him. With shaky hands and tears spilling down her cheeks, Ariadne tells him to get up so he doesn’t get his expensive trousers dirty.
He merely shrugs and remains on one knee. At that moment Ariadne realizes he’d do anything for her, even kneel on the sticky floor of a movie theater in his expensive, tailored suit, because he loves her.
Ariadne’s not sure why she’s crying as she gets down on her knees in front of him and kisses him with everything she has. That’s all the answer he needs as he slips the ring on her finger and seals their fate.