(no subject)
Title: -none-
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Ariadne/Arthur
Word Count: 975
Summary: Focus is paramount.
Author's note: This was meant to be darker, but it didn't work out.
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"It's important that you don't get too attached to anyone in this job."
"Are you serious?" she asks, sidestepping a projection. "Isn't it just natural? Team bonding, camaraderie, and all that."
"Focus is paramount." he answers.
"If it was between me and Cobb, who would you kill?"
"Depends on who turned on me."
"Say we both did."
"Cobb's the bigger threat."
"And if it was just me?"
His gun is suddenly trained on her. "I wouldn't be here now, if I couldn't do this." he says, and she feels a split second of incredible pain before blacking out and waking up on the lawn chair, massaging her temples.
He smiles briefly at her before getting up and leaving.
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He knows he pissed her off the next time they go under.
A consummate professional, he gives her credit for waiting until their business is done before firing a wayward shot at him, using a gun he didn't know she had. She doesn't even look at him to see if it’s a hit. She knows.
"Oops." she smiles devilishly at him. The bullet's lodged in his lower abdomen, and it's going to take him a while to bleed out. He's coughing up blood under the intense pain, and she shrugs and says "Coffee after?" before blowing her brains out.
It takes him an hour of dream time to finally die, and when he wakes up, muscles still sore from contracting so hard, she's gone but a coffee is left out on the counter for him.
Her way of saying sorry, he figures.
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"You can't do that again. You don't fuck around down there."
"I already said I was sorry."
"Only because you meant to finish me off instead of killing me slowly. Not because you were dicking around."
"I remember you shooting me without much hesitation."
"I was making a point."
She leans forward so her face is only a couple inches from his. "So was I."
She can tell he's infuriated now. "You know, if I told Cobb, you'd be off this team before you knew what hit you." and this is where she suddenly has a moment of awareness so sharp she can no longer keep the look of mild remorse on her face.
"Go ahead." she says, and the flash of hesitation on his face confirms everything she already knew. "I know you won't."
He doesn't talk to her for three days.
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On the fourth day, they're under for real, her back is turned, he's sitting across from her in a cafe and (what was he thinking?) he fires three shots in quick succession, killing the projections that had just entered the store, drawing unnecessary attention to them in the process.
She looks at him incredulously. "Arthur, they didn't even see us." but he doesn't have time to answer her because they're onto them now and he grabs her arm and they run out the back door. They duck into a narrow alleyway, and she shakes her head. "You are so full of shit."
"So now you know." he says sarcastically.
She's still panting. "Not that you'd care, but I'd save you first." She pauses for a second. "All things being equal."
He fires another shot above her shoulder, killing another projection, trying to ignore the sudden warm feeling her words induced at the base of his stomach. "Good girl."
Do as I say, not as I do, he thinks.
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"What the hell was that back there?" Eames isn't mad, he's never mad, but he's curious, and not the type of person to let something drop.
"Look, I saw one of them reach into their jacket, and I thought he was armed."
"Sure you did. You're losing your touch, there, mate." Eames swerves the car abruptly to crash into a cement block, and her eyes pop open, back in the real world.
Arthur glares at both of them, pulling the lead out of his arm and stalking away.
She sits there, stunned for a moment, when Eames approaches and takes the lead out of her arm for her. "I know he usually does this for you." he says. "Don't worry about him. He's just in a snit. He'll be back"
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"You are a terrible liar." Her initial shock had apparently been replaced with giddiness.
He is also somewhat concerned that she no longer seems to be intimidated by him. "Funny, my long list of clients would say the exact opposite."
"Well, maybe I'm just onto you then."
"Can we just drop this?"
"Absolutely not."
"Everyone has a price."
"You'd pay me off?” she chortles. “I have more money than I know what to do with."
"You could start with a new wardrobe."
She stops to shoot him a dirty look. "Thanks Arthur. What would you suggest? A dozen stiffly starched suits?"
"What do you want from me?" he sighs.
"Admit you like me better than everyone else on the team. And that you'd save me first. All things being equal."
"Ariadne..."
They're in front of her apartment building now, standing next to his car. She's grinning like a fiend. "It's ok, Arthur. You don't need to say it. I know already." She kisses him on the cheek, and it's a shock to his system, something he never knew he wanted until that moment. He swears under his breath and kisses her for real, pushing her against his car door, because apparently she's prone to inducing horrific lapses of judgement in him.
When he pulls away, she still has that same evil smile on her face. "Don't worry, Arthur," she says, laughing, before picking up her bag and walking up the steps to her apartment, "your secret's safe with me."
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Her number stays half dialed into his phone all night.