Another Brick in the Wall | Inception | PG13 | Ariadne/Dom

Oct 10, 2010 23:08

Title: Another Brick in the Wall
Fandom: Inception
Pairing: Ariadne/Cobb
Rating: PG13
Spoilers: For the movie.
Summary: After inception, Ariadne goes back to school. To her surprise, the professor that teaches her M/W/F class is Dominic Cobb.
A/N: This is definitely a distraction from my bigbang, but I needed to write something student-teachery. Enjoy y'all!

Ariadne glances lazily down at her vibrating cell phone, which flashes the name "COBB" across its front in yellow capital letters. She grins, flipping over her phone.

"Helloooo, Cobb," she says.

"Ariadne."

"Are you calling to wish me well on my first day of classes? Because really, that's rather sweet," Ariadne says cheerfully, walking through the campus quadrangle. Ariadne had transfered to a state-side institution, and her references (so accomplishedly dreamed up by one Mr. Eames) had allowed her admittance to one of the finest architecture programs in the world, which also happened to be in the US of A. She was rather surprised by the phone call, for Cobb had been acting rather strangely in the past few weeks: whenever she would call to touch base with him and the kids, he would make vague references to some job that he had been lining up... every time, however, that she tried to question him about it (and its legality), he shied away from the subject, always diverting the attention back upon Ariadne and her future plans.

"Uh," is what Cobb replies, and Ariadne quirks an eyebrow. "Well, yes, good luck and all. But there's something else you should know before you go to class today."

"Well, I'm about to walk into the classroom," Ariadne sighs impatiently. "What exactly is so urgent, Cobb?"

"Just, well... I guess you'll see when you get in," Cobb tells her. Ariadne stops before the classroom door, her hand frozen on the doorknob.

"No," Ariadne says, her subconscious realizing what her conscious mind refused to acknowledge.

Inside the classroom is a crowd of students, all spread throughout the auditorium; Ariadne allows them a perfunctory glance before turning her eyes toward the professor's podium, where one Dominic Cobb is waving at her with an apologetic smile etched upon his face. He's still got his phone pressed against his ear.

Ariadne hangs up on him and takes a seat in the front row of the class.

-

"So this is what you've been hiding from me for the past three months." Ariadne can feel the fury radiating off her tiny being, filling Cobb's office to the brim.

"It was all just so coincidental, I didn't want it to seem like I was... as if my intent was to--" Cobb can barely get the words out.

"Follow me across the country?"

"Really not my intent. But god, Ariadne, you know how fickle academia is. And you know what? I really don't think office hours are for grilling the professor on how he got his position at the university. I have... things. To do." Cob crosses his arms, nodding toward the door.

"Dom--"

"That's Professor Cobb to you, Ariadne."

"Oh wow, so you're going to play that card. Alright, alright. Professor Cobb, it's the first day of class. You definitely don't have papers to grade yet."

"Don't you have some reading to do, Ariadne?" Cobb raises his brows.

"For God's sake--"

"I'll see you Wednesday."

She seethes as she closes the door behind her. A blond girl by the name of Susan Grace is waiting by the threshold, a confused expression on her face. Ariadne gives her a sour look before storming off.

-

Two weeks into the class, Cobb is fifteen minutes late to class.

"Sorry folks," he gasps as he races into the classroom. "The babysitter didn't show up today, so I had to drive my kids into school."

Ariadne hears a faint sigh from behind her.

"God, he's that gorgeous and he's a great dad?" says Susan, who was currently to her left. Her fellow blond friend, Lauren Kelly, nods in agreement.

"Sign me up," Lauren sighs, resting her head in her hands and gazing at him. Ariadne feels something flare up within her that reminds her rather horrifyingly of jealousy.

"James and Phil got to class alright though, yeah?" she says loudly. Cobb's head turns to her, a strange look upon his face. Lauren and Susan are gawking at Ariadne silently: the familiarity in her tone clearly confused them as much as it confused Cobb.

"Yes... yes, they did," Cobb says slowly, uncertainty plastered across his face. It was clear that he didn't know exactly how informal the two of them should appear in class. He didn't know where the line was drawn.

Ariadne detects an ugly smugness radiating throughout her core. She was the one who knew the truth about their relationship: sooner or later, Cobb would realize that there was no line. Not after what they'd been through together.

"So James is over his flu?" Ariadne presses onwards, leaning forward on her desk.

"Yeah, his fever broke over the weekend," Cobb says softly.

The information she knew about his family, and the way in which he responded to her... well, it gives the classroom a bizarre electricity that Ariadne savors. She holds it above the other students, and although it makes her feel a bit guilty, her illusion of intimacy with Cobb is more than worth it. She likes feeling special, different from the other students in the class. What they don't know is that she's been deeper inside Cobb than most other people could ever imagine, and there's a certain amount of privacy that must be sacrificed to create that connection. She flaunts her intimacy because she can.

After the class is finished and Cobb has left the classroom, they descend upon her like scavenging birds upon a rotting carcass. It is then that she realizes she has made a mistake.

"So you know his kids? Isn't that... weird? Do you babysit or something?" Lauren asks her quizzically.

"Do you know if he likes to get to know his students... on a more personal level?"

This last question comes from Susan, a girl that Ariadne has decided to loath.

"No," she responds to her. "He definitely does not." She attempts to gather her things in the midst of the mayhem around her.

As she's about to walk away, she can hear a loud, unidentified whisper: "Or maybe it's just you he's wants to screw! That's probably why you're the only one getting A's in this class."

Ariadne turns around, her mouth halfway open to object.

"You don't see the way you look at him," Lauren murmurs, approaching her slowly. Susan stands behind her, nodding her head. "Like he's goddamn Superman or something. But you must see the way he looks back at you, for fuck's sake. It's like you're the only student in the room, Ariadne. How sick is that?"

"He must be a great fuck," Lauren continues. "Tell us, does he make you scream?"

"Shut the fuck up," she growls at them. Her heart is beating hard and fast, but she's not sure what's causing it: the thought of her and Cobb having sex or the thought of them ruining her academic career. She opts for the latter. "Your lies are pathetic. Just because you're failing the class doesn't mean you can sour Professor Cobb's reputation like this. Fuck off, the lot of you."

She turns on the spot and runs to the door, hustling herself through before they can hurl more poison at her.

"Ooh," Susan says before she can get the door closed. "Does he make you call him Professor in bed?"

She stops in her tracks, the door closing quietly behind her.

Cobb is waiting outside the classroom. From the shock on his face, it's clear he's at least heard the last line of the argument, if not the conversation in its entirety.

"Ariadne--" he attempts, raising a hand to her shoulder, but she brushes him off.

"They already think we're fucking, Professor Cobb, we wouldn't want to add any more fuel to that particular fire," Ariadne says bitterly. His brief touch was like fire on her skin, and she needed to get away. She needed to prove that she got A's in Cobb's class because she deserved them. She also needed to clear her head of Dominic Cobb...

Cobb's eyes are wide as he takes a step away from her. "Is that was this is really about?" he says, a question in his voice.

She shoots him a sad glance and flees.

-

She doesn't come to class for a week. She doesn't think she can face her peers in light of what they all thought of her. Ariadne had always prided herself on her academics: how, by only using her brain, she could rise to the top of any class she set her mind to. She was a student by trade: even during the inception job, she had utilized her skill of knowledge absorption so that, by the time the job was ready to go, she fit in as a member of the team, even with extremely little experience in the dreamscape.

The inception job. It seemed like so many years ago, but in fact, it had only been a year and a half since they had succeeded in convincing Robert Fischer to dissolve his father's company. And suddenly, Ariadne knows who she has to call.

-

Arthur and Eames arrive the next day, each looking ridiculously dapper, each in their own horribly handsome way.

"Fuck, you both could not have come any sooner," she breaths, hurling herself into both their arms.

"Bloody hell, love, what's gotten into you?" Eames chuckles, giving her a squeeze. Arthur pats her back gently.

As Ariadne explains her situation to the two of them, Arthur gives Eames an odd glance.

"You have anything better to do, Mr. Eames?" Arthur asks as Ariadne finishes her tale.

"Not really, darling. Fancy going back to school?" Eames asks.

Eames and Arthur are enrolled as part-time students within the hour, thanks to a well-known Japanese business man and a few well-placed bribes.

-

It is Cobb's reaction that truly makes Ariadne's stomach do a backflip. It is not the reactions of her fellow classmates, however gratifying, as they let their eyes rove upon the lovely male figures of Arthur and Eames, shocked expressions etched upon their faces.

Susan approaches her, dumbfounded. "How the fuck do you get them, Ariadne? You don't even have any tits."

In a quick but subtle move, Eames has the girl by the front of her coat and is whispering what, to any passerby, would appear to be sweet nothings into her ear... except for the horror-filled expression on the girl's face.

"What in God's name did you tell her?" Ariadne whispers at Eames. He shrugs and gestures at Arthur.

"Let's just say that in my research of your classmates, Ariadne, her recent nose-job popped up," Arthur sighs casually. Ariadne suppresses a giggle as the door opens to reveal a disheveled looking Dom Cobb come in from the cold.

Cobb glances at the front row and drops his briefcase on the floor. Leaving it there, he jogs brusquely to his desk, takes out his top, and spins it. Once it has fallen soundly, he glances back up at them, a dark smile coloring his face.

"It appears we have some new students in the class," is all he'll say, but he teaches the rest of the period with a smile on his face.

Ariadne, Arthur and Eames stay until the rest of the students have left.

"This is quite the surprise," Cobb says as he erases the chalkboard.

"Well, Ari here needed some support, and we were in town," Eames says.

Cobb quirks his eyebrows. "Support? And I thought you two were in Istanbul, last time I checked in."

"Istanbul is only an international plane flight away," Arthur reminds Cobb cooly. "And yes, support."

"Why does she need support? You've got me, Ariadne," Cobb says, looking her in the eyes. She holds his gaze for a second, then breaks it.

"I've got to go to class across campus. I'll see you all later."

The other students stop bullying Ariadne. She thinks it's because she's constantly shadowed by Arthur and Eames, but she also suspects that the appearance of the two seemingly eligible bachelors may have distracted the ravenous flock from herself.

-

The months pass quickly. Arthur and Eames float in and out of class, but are always there at least once a week to keep her sanity in check against the bullies in the classroom. Cobb's amusement at their occasional appearances bubble to the surface only every so often when he'll call them out in class to recite certain verses from the text--which, of course, they both recite flawlessly.

"I can never catch you two off your guard, can I," he mutters to them after one particularly challenging question had been answered, yet again, flawlessly.

"Not your fault, Cobb," Eames says pleasantly (he had refused calling Cobb Professor since day one, and nothing Cobb said could convince him otherwise). "We're just a step ahead. Ariadne's study habits are really rather good."

Ariadne blushes at the recognition.

"Study group, eh?" Cobb says, grinning. "That's a good idea for everyone," he announces to the class. "Everyone should find a study group and stick with them. It'll improve your grade, I'm certain."

He gives Ariadne a small smile and then goes on to continue his lecture.

-

She checks her watch; his office hours should have begun a half hour ago. No need to seem too eager by arriving exactly on time.

She knocks twice.

"Come in."

The door reads "Dominic Cobb, Associate Professor." The lettering appears new, unchipped, as if applied within the week.

"Nice door," she grins, gesturing at the sign. Cobb's eyes crinkle as he smiles, gesturing for her to take a seat. She sits, dropping her back into an empty adjacent chair.

"It's nice to actually see students during office hours... god, Arthur and Eames have been misusing office hours to corner me with potential job offerings since they entered the class... it's nice to see someone who actually wants to learn things, even if it is just you," Cobb says off-handedly, but the last part of his sentence cuts her surprisingly.

"Just me?" she repeats, and her expression betrays that he's said something wrong.

"I mean," Cobb begins, but she waves him off.

She picks up her bag abruptly, swings it over her shoulder, and has the door half open when Cobb pushes it shut in front of her with a slam.

"Wait," he asks her, hand pressed against the door. "You know I didn't mean that. You know."

She doesn't know what exactly tips her over the edge, but in one moment he's staring at her with those bright blue eyes and in the next, she's pressed him up against the door, kissing him frantically as if it's the last thing she'll ever do.

A knock on the door is all it takes to send them flying back to their seats, both breathing heavily. Cobb takes a second before responding.

"Yes?"

"Dom?" The door creaks open, and an old woman who Ariadne recognizes as Dr. Gray, a professor with an office down the hall, appears in the crack. "I heard a door slam. Is everything alright in here?"

Cobb's duplicitous nature kicks in so quickly that Ariadne finds herself unsurprised that he was, at one point, the most skilled extractor in the world. "A certain student wasn't so happy with his mark on a recent paper. Stormed out of here like nobody's business."

Dr. Gray put a withered hand to her mouth in shock. "That's horrible, Dominic! Just dreadful. Are you alright? Should we... I don't know, call someone about this?"

Cobb waves her off. "No, no, I think I'll let it slide this time. He's a good kid, just a little rattled."

Dr. Gray bids them both a good afternoon before departing. The second she's gone, Cobb's eyes lock on Ariadne.

"So," he begins.

"So," she finishes.

"We've having left-over pizza tonight," Cobb says in non-sequitur. Ariadne raises her eyebrows.

"Is that an invitation?" she asks. He smiles.

"It might be. Just as a warning, I think James broke the microwave the other night, so it could be cold pizza."

"Cold pizza sounds dreadful," Ariadne sighs, coming to a stand. Cobb's smile breaks.

"You're not joining us?" he asks, his voice heartbroken.

Ariadne rolls her eyes. "Of course I am, you stupid idiot."

He comes around his desk, locks the door, and then takes her hand.

"Good." He slips her bag off her shoulder back into the empty chair.

"I need that, you know," she says softly.

"Not right now, you don't," he whispers, pushing her toward his desk and effortlessly hoisting her upon it. "We appear to have some time to kill."

"We do... you know what," Ariadne murmurs as Cobb cups her head in his hands. He kisses her lips softly, affectionately.

"What," he mumbles into the skin of her cheek.

"I don't think I need much of anything right now," she thinks aloud. "Not this shoe." A clunk resonates through the office, her combat boot slipping off and landing on the floor with a thud. "Or this one." Another clunk.

"What about this," Cobb asks playfully, unbuttoning the front of her cardigan.

"Nope," she giggles. "Not necessary for what I've got in mind."

"I think we're on the same page, then," Cobb grins, slipping the sweater off, letting it pool around her on the desk. She wraps her legs around the backs of his thighs, behind his knees.

"You are far too clothed."

"I know."

"Fix it."

-

A long, drawn-out moan is interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Shitfuckshit."

"Dominic? Is that you in there? I heard some strange noises from down the hall..."

A moment of scuttling behind the door, then--

Cobb's face appears in a crack in the door.

"Nothing out of the ordinary here, Muriel!" Cobb says enthusiastically. "Now I must return to my research. I think I've just hit a break-through."

From somewhere within the office, a giggle is stifled.

"A breakthrough!" Dr. Gray says delightedly. "Oh, great googly, Dominic. That sounds fantastic."

"It is," Cobb says vehemently. "It really is. Bye now!"

"Bye," Dr. Gray says to the closed door.

-

"Why the fuck did we wait so long for that," she tells him, fucked out and wasted, lying across his desk. His papers are on the ground, as is one Dom Cobb.

"Clearly we are both mad," he chuckles from the ground.

"That, or we were both planning on becoming nuns," Ariadne sighs. "Chaste, chaste nuns."

He hands her a spare shirt of his. "Let's go eat some cold pizza."

She takes it and buttons it over her naked chest. "Sounds lovely."

fandom: inception, fic, ship: ariadne/dom

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