Inception Advent Calendar Part 5
STRANGE TEAM DYNAMICS
AN INCEPTION FANFICTION
PAIRING: Arthur x Eames, Ariadne x surprise partner
AUTHOR: Djap
DISCLAIMER: I don't own them, and I won't make any money by borrowing them. Promise.
RATING: probably R for suggestions and language
GENRE: First time, Humor, Romance, Established Relationship, long Drabble (supposed to be 2000 words)
SERIES: Epiphany-Series
LANGUAGE: English
BETA: Neenabluegirl - your patience with me is amazing. Thank you.
…
Strange team dynamics
A Djap story
…
Ariadne was in a very bad mood when she reached the kitchen in their hideout. Within a few minutes she'd found every available chocolate, cheesecake, cookies and ice cream and sat down to destroy every ounce of it as fast as possible. Half an hour later the door to the kitchen opened cautiously, revealing only the head of her boss, Dom Cobb.
"May I come in?" He finally asked the young woman, who sat in between all the sweets, still munching away on some chocolate cookies.
She threw him just a warning look before turning to the cheesecake.
Dom sighed and inched his way into the room, quickly closing the door behind him.
"This doesn't look particular healthy." He said looking at all the sweets.
She threw him another look, full of scorn and pouting, before deliberately eating another piece of chocolate.
"You could tell me what brought this on." Dom pointed out and grimaced as a cookie hit him in the face.
"You might want to stop eating. You probably gained four pounds today just because of those sweets and I always thought you were proud of your weight…" his voice trailed of as he finally managed to get her to speak.
"As if anyone would care about that…" Ariadne spat and started in on another piece of cake.
Dom was taken aback. "Of course we do…" he tried to defend his team, but Ariadne's look hushed him.
"I've been working with you for over a year now" Ariadne suddenly said and stared directly at Dom "and although there is only one woman - me - on this team nobody has tried to bed me or anything more for a whole year now."
"Ah." Dom said carefully not sure where this was leading.
But Ariadne was ranting now anyway, so she didn't need extra stimulation to keep going. She must be high on all the sugar or something, Cobb figured.
"Of course I knew having a relationship in this line of work would be difficult" Ariadne said and started frantically looking for another chocolate cookie before adding "but I didn't worry because of all the men on this team."
Cobb nodded trying to keep his face carefully neutral. Suddenly he had an insight where this might be going, but he didn't want to give himself away too early. If he read the signs right, this was Ariadne's big hour and he didn't intend to take it away from her.
"Well, obviously I was totally wrong. Okay, there's Yusuf with his cute little girlfriend. I'd never try to split them up - they are just such a cute couple and I'm not someone to do that anyway."
Ariadne looked frustrated as she stuffed herself with another piece of chocolate. She munched away on it for a few minutes, lost away in her own thoughts, before she looked back at him, looking a little lost.
"And then there's Saito, of course. I needed some time to see it but when Fisher started to work with us, well… anybody would have seen how infatuated he is with that man. There's only him on his mind and vice versa."
Dom nodded again patiently because her assessment of the situation was very accurate.
"So I thought, okay, what about the forger and the point man? They don't seem to fuck anybody else, so why the hell aren't they going to fuck me?"
Dom blushed a little at the overuse of the f-word. Since he was back around his kids he'd seriously turned down the swearing and had to suppress the impulse to chide her for the crude language. It wasn't becoming on her, but he could see why she would be so frustrated, so for once he could forgive it.
"So, why don't they?" Dom asked quietly and when her head whipped around to stare at him, he knew that she knew that he knew. Well, that sounded confusing even in his own head, but he had no time to consider that as he realized, he'd just blown his cover.
"You knew." She finally said looking annoyed and frustrated and very very dangerous. Arthur had taken her to the side a few months ago and taught her how to use a gun properly for her own protection, but right then Dom desperately wished she didn't have that knowledge.
Still, denial was futile right now so he bravely nodded before adding "We all did except for you."
"So why didn't you tell me?" she sounded calm and collected and only a little hurt, but Dom knew that she was anything but calm or collected. H searched for his gun, because one could never know what a person could do when in a proper chocolate- induced rage.
"Because you needed to find out for yourself." He tried, and was quickly interrupted.
"And why do you think that is so?"
"Because it's some kind of initiation rite. If you've learned to read two of the best in the field in their most privet business, than you've finally become a full team member."
"Are you kidding me?" Ariadne stared at him with big unblinking eyes.
"No, I'm not. And I'm very proud that you finally figured it out. Congratulation."
Dom made motions to shake her hand but she just stared at the hand as if it could bite.
"You can't be serious."
"I assure you, I'm very serious." Dom said and hoped she wouldn't get too mad about all this.
"So what? They've been together for how long? Since Inception?"
Dom shook his head, smiling softly.
"They've been together since the first day they met."
"You can't be serious. Arthur kissed me in Fisher's head."
"Yes, he did. Did you think he meant it? Well, other than to tease you, that is?"
Ariadne blushed a little around her nose "No." she finally said truthfully. "But still, they can't have been together for this long. I always thought they couldn’t stand even being in the same room for any amount of time."
Dom sighed wistfully. "Yeah, they tend to make things complicate for each other, but that doesn't change anything about their feelings. I thinks it's a classical case of can't live with them but can't live without them either. But they have always been there for each other when they needed a strong shoulder or a friend."
Ariadne looked down at her hands, which still gripped a bar of chocolate, contemplating the truth in Dom's words.
"How did they meet?"
Dom shrugged. "They never actually told me, but I think they go back to the military. From then on their relationship must have been on and off whenever they felt like it."
"So they have been with other partners as well?"
"Yes, on occasion. But it never lasted long. I never saw one of them openly act jealous, but I have a suspicion they really were."
Ariadne nodded. There was probably nothing that could shake her about this relationship anymore.
"Why don't they ever show it? I mean, they never even touch in front of us and mostly they just bicker when they have the time."
"Were they romantic and possessive when you found all this out?"
Dom smiled at the severe blush creeping up on her cheeks.
…
Flashback
Finally she would find out whom exactly Eames was bedding. She had secretly observed the forger for over three weeks now and knew he was at this hotel room for an amorous date. She tiptoed into the room, all the time aware that Eames could shoot her as soon as he became aware of her presence.
But when she peaked into the bedroom she could barely suppress the gasp of surprise.
As expected Eames was lying on the bed, stark naked, sweaty and still panting heavily. Another person was lying next to him, who was surprisingly male as well. Until then she'd still believed he'd meet up with some nice lady, but now that she thought more closely about it, she wasn't shocked. Eames was known to flirt with both gender, she just hadn't expected it right now. The real shock was to whom this very male and skinny but still muscular body did belong. She looked at the trail of clothes that led to the bed and realized she knew both sets of clothes, because she saw them on a regular base.
At work.
Eames hand was still lazily drawing circles on the sticky, sweaty abdomen of none other than Arthur himself, as he suddenly spoke up:
"It's very rude to spy after your fellow team members, Ariadne, my dear."
Ariadne swallowed hard, panicking. There was just no way how they had been aware of her being there. At least, Eames sounded amused rather than annoyed, so she probably will still be alive after this whole mess.
If she didn't die of shame and a severe case of stupidity that is.
Suddenly Arthur added and she was pretty sure that he was smirking too, although she couldn't see their faces from her position: "So if you don't want to lose any important body parts, before we start round number two, you should probably leave now."
She hadn't left a room that quickly in her whole life. Once out of the hotel she'd driven right to the hideout and had gone for the sweets.
End of Flashback
…
Most of it had happened in a blur, but one thing she was absolutely sure about. Both men had been incredibly tender with each other, despite their knowledge of having a stalker. When Ariadne looked at Dom to answer his question she saw, that she didn't need to.
Dom already knew it.
She sighed in misery before chewing on the chocolate again. "So where does that leave me?" she muttered and Dom looked surprised.
"What do you mean?" he asked and she looked even sadder.
"I'm quite adorable, you know?" she finally burst out pouting. "At university I've had a lot of admirers, but working here, I'll probably never get any attention ever again."
"Aren't you overestimating a little?" Dom sighed and looked a little annoyed.
"No, I'm not. We both know how dangerous it is to look for a relationship outside the team."
"So look inside the team." He said and she stared at him incredulously.
"Didn't we just conclude that there is nobody who wants to go out with me?"
"We concluded that there's a reason why Arthur and Eames certainly have no interest in a relationship with you. Or why Saito, Fisher and Yusuf won't try to get into your pants."
"Yes, exactly. So there's nobody…" she started but was quickly interrupted from an actually annoyed looking Dom.
"What about me?"
And these three words managed to completely shut her up.
For a few minutes both just stared at each other wondering if the other one had finally lost it.
"You can't be serious." Ariadne finally muttered. "You can't possibly want me pointing out why I didn't think about you as a partner."
Dom rolled his eyes.
"Mal's been gone from my head for over ten months now and she's been dead for even longer. There should be an end for the period of mourning."
"So, you are saying that you want to go out with me."
"Well, you finally ARE a full member of this team and you are great with my kids…" his voice trailed off as Ariadne stood and bridged the distance between them.
"Alright." She said and leaned in to kiss him with lips that still tasted like chocolate.
…
Endless End
Finished 20thOctober 2010
