operation ariadne/arthur (2/?)
Title: Operation Ariadne/Arthur (2/?)
Fandom: Inception
Pairing: Ariadne/Arthur
Rating: T
Summary: The team takes it upon themselves to play matchmaker for Arthur and Ariadne.
A/N: Couldn't resist this prompt for inception_kink . All the feedback and love has been amazing. Seriously. You guys are awesome.
Part 1 (Saito)
Cobb
Six weeks after his impromptu "business" meeting with Saito, Arthur flies to Los Angeles (courtesy of the same Japanese businessman mentioned above) to pay the Cobbs a visit. He can't honestly call it a purely a social visit (though he does pack a suitcase full of gifts for Philippa and James) since its purpose is more or less checking up on Dom, making sure that another round in limbo hadn't caused any irreversible damage to his state of mind or being.
Dom greets him at the airport, relaxed and, dare he say it, smiling. This immediately arouses concern (and suspicion) out of Arthur and causes him to wonder if personality alteration is a possible side-effect of limbo. Because a grinning and genuinely happy Dom Cobb should've been near impossible and nowhere in the realm of reality.
The car ride to Dom's home is filled with pleasant conversation and filling each other in about the last two-and-a-half months since they'd last seen one another. The older man dominates the majority of the conversation, speaking animatedly about his children and Arthur is more than happy to just listen. Because really, how does one go about interrupting the ramblings of a man who had once lost everything with no way of getting any of it back and who, with the help of one insanely rich Japanese man with the power to buy out just about anything he wanted (or didn't want), had just recently gotten said everything back (minus one disillusioned wife)? There's simply no way, not without coming off as a complete jackass.
But as they sit at the kitchen table with warm mugs of coffee (James and Philippa drooling over their new toys in the other room), all of the retired Extractor's attention is zeroed in on his former colleague. Which, needless to say, makes the latter a little twitchy. He brings the coffee to his lips just for the sake of doing something. He would never admit it out loud, but Dom's watchful, eerily blue eyes have always given him the heebie-jeebies.
"So, Saito's kind of keen on the idea of you and Ariadne," Dom suddenly says conversationally, as if that was an ordinary conversation opener.
Arthur balks, causing the coffee to run down the wrong tube and up through his nose. "Keen is an understatement," he manages to cough out through the painful burning in his nose. "I'd say he's fixated on it."
The blond man shrugs his broad shoulders. "Yeah, he gets all cackly whenever he talks about it."
The Point Man's eyes bug out of their sockets. "'Whenever he talks about it'? How often does he talk about it?"
Another shrug. "Often enough, I guess. He keeps phoning out of the blue and puts Eames, Yusuf and me on a four-way conference call to discuss what he calls 'Operation Ariadne/Arthur'."
His jaw drops so low that Arthur's pretty sure it's dislocated. "The entire team is in on this?"
"It's supposed to be a covert operation, you know, very hush-hush. But this is your life that's being messed with, after all, and I thought you had the right to know that we'd be meddling in it."
Somewhere in the back of his mind, Arthur knows he should be grateful that Cobb was endangering himself (because who were they kidding, Saito is a vengeful madman who's inclined to resort to violence when he feels he's been even slightly wronged) in order to be a good friend, but all he can feel is indignation toward these full-grown men for meddling in his love life (of all things) like a bunch of nosy housewives.
"I can't believe this! Because of one little, extremely chaste kiss, might I add, you've all decided that Ariadne and I are soul mates or something?" he all but explodes.
Dom is as cool as a cucumber and only blinks back at the younger man's enraged expression. "Actually, Saito believes your fates are forever intertwined--"
The Point Man's hands are thrown up in the air. "For fuck's sake! --"
"Hey, lets watch the language, alright?" Dom says sharply, eyes narrowing into slits.
Running a palm down his face, Arthur mumbles an apology. With a sigh, he adds, "I just don't understand Saito's obsession with my love life and why all of you are so intent on making this happen."
Dom's features soften. "I'm only in on this because I can see what Saito's talking about."
"What? You're seriously buying all of his bullshit?"
Blue eyes narrow once again.
"Sorry. I mean, nonsense," Arthur amends quickly with an apologetic look.
"It's not all nonsense. Yes, the man's been spewing some ridiculous stuff, but some of it isn't half crazy." Ignoring his friend's doubtful look, Cobb continues, "There's a connection between you and Ariadne. As soon as she joined the team, the two of you sort of clicked. And what I saw wasn't just attraction, it was also understanding. Completely open communication. Total trust and faith in one another. And that's very rare to come by. I haven't seen it since --" (there's a faraway look in his eyes) "--well, you know."
Arthur does know, knows that Dom's unspoken words are 'Mal and me.'
The haze lifts from Cobb's eyes as a furrow settles between his brows and his lips purse into a grim frown. "But you've got to be careful, Arthur. Two dreamers in a relationship -- I'm sure I don't have to tell you how dangerous that can be."
Arthur exhales a defeated sigh. "Dom, you don't even know how she feels about me. You can't have a one-sided relationship," he tries to argue futilely.
Amusement lights Cobb's usually wary face, and suddenly he looks like the cat that swallowed a canary. "Is that an admission, Arthur?" he teases. "Are you in love? Was that kiss really more than an innocent peck on the lips?" Giddy Cobb was definitely unflattering, Arthur decides.
And just as he's about to retract everything he'd just said, Philippa races into the kitchen, James in tow, screaming at the top of her lungs, "Uncle Arthur, you kissed somebody?! Who?! Are you in loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove?!" She's jumping up and down in excitement, both hands pressed to her cheeks, looking about as giddy (and deranged) as her father.
Meanwhile, James is none too impressed. "Ewwwwwww. Girls have cooties, Uncle Arthur. You shouldn't be kissing them." His face is deadly serious as he adds, "You could die."
Philippa rolls her eyes. "Girls do not have cooties, James." Her scowl turns into a wide smile as she turns to Arthur. "Kiss all the girls you want, Uncle Arthur. I'm sure they'd love it."
Grinning, Arthur grabs her shoulders and plants a wet one her cheek. She giggles as her brother gags and their father chuckles. "Thanks, Philippa. Your advice is appreciated and duly noted."
With a yell, the children scamper off, leaving two amused men alone with their coffees.
"Alright," Arthur finally relents (albeit with much reluctance and after a long, silent moment of Cobb's creepy eyes goading him into a confession), "I may harbour some feelings for Ariadne."
Dom full out beams like a proud parent whose child has finally mastered the art of potty-training. "That's a start."
"Yeah, well, you're a deadman if Saito finds out you've told me about his secret operation," the younger man says, half-jokingly.
"No, he won't," is the confident response. "I'll just remind him who saved his sorry ass from dying an old man in unconstructed dreamspace."
"Sometimes, I think you should've just left him there."
Fandom: Inception
Pairing: Ariadne/Arthur
Rating: T
Summary: The team takes it upon themselves to play matchmaker for Arthur and Ariadne.
A/N: Couldn't resist this prompt for inception_kink . All the feedback and love has been amazing. Seriously. You guys are awesome.
Part 1 (Saito)
Cobb
Six weeks after his impromptu "business" meeting with Saito, Arthur flies to Los Angeles (courtesy of the same Japanese businessman mentioned above) to pay the Cobbs a visit. He can't honestly call it a purely a social visit (though he does pack a suitcase full of gifts for Philippa and James) since its purpose is more or less checking up on Dom, making sure that another round in limbo hadn't caused any irreversible damage to his state of mind or being.
Dom greets him at the airport, relaxed and, dare he say it, smiling. This immediately arouses concern (and suspicion) out of Arthur and causes him to wonder if personality alteration is a possible side-effect of limbo. Because a grinning and genuinely happy Dom Cobb should've been near impossible and nowhere in the realm of reality.
The car ride to Dom's home is filled with pleasant conversation and filling each other in about the last two-and-a-half months since they'd last seen one another. The older man dominates the majority of the conversation, speaking animatedly about his children and Arthur is more than happy to just listen. Because really, how does one go about interrupting the ramblings of a man who had once lost everything with no way of getting any of it back and who, with the help of one insanely rich Japanese man with the power to buy out just about anything he wanted (or didn't want), had just recently gotten said everything back (minus one disillusioned wife)? There's simply no way, not without coming off as a complete jackass.
But as they sit at the kitchen table with warm mugs of coffee (James and Philippa drooling over their new toys in the other room), all of the retired Extractor's attention is zeroed in on his former colleague. Which, needless to say, makes the latter a little twitchy. He brings the coffee to his lips just for the sake of doing something. He would never admit it out loud, but Dom's watchful, eerily blue eyes have always given him the heebie-jeebies.
"So, Saito's kind of keen on the idea of you and Ariadne," Dom suddenly says conversationally, as if that was an ordinary conversation opener.
Arthur balks, causing the coffee to run down the wrong tube and up through his nose. "Keen is an understatement," he manages to cough out through the painful burning in his nose. "I'd say he's fixated on it."
The blond man shrugs his broad shoulders. "Yeah, he gets all cackly whenever he talks about it."
The Point Man's eyes bug out of their sockets. "'Whenever he talks about it'? How often does he talk about it?"
Another shrug. "Often enough, I guess. He keeps phoning out of the blue and puts Eames, Yusuf and me on a four-way conference call to discuss what he calls 'Operation Ariadne/Arthur'."
His jaw drops so low that Arthur's pretty sure it's dislocated. "The entire team is in on this?"
"It's supposed to be a covert operation, you know, very hush-hush. But this is your life that's being messed with, after all, and I thought you had the right to know that we'd be meddling in it."
Somewhere in the back of his mind, Arthur knows he should be grateful that Cobb was endangering himself (because who were they kidding, Saito is a vengeful madman who's inclined to resort to violence when he feels he's been even slightly wronged) in order to be a good friend, but all he can feel is indignation toward these full-grown men for meddling in his love life (of all things) like a bunch of nosy housewives.
"I can't believe this! Because of one little, extremely chaste kiss, might I add, you've all decided that Ariadne and I are soul mates or something?" he all but explodes.
Dom is as cool as a cucumber and only blinks back at the younger man's enraged expression. "Actually, Saito believes your fates are forever intertwined--"
The Point Man's hands are thrown up in the air. "For fuck's sake! --"
"Hey, lets watch the language, alright?" Dom says sharply, eyes narrowing into slits.
Running a palm down his face, Arthur mumbles an apology. With a sigh, he adds, "I just don't understand Saito's obsession with my love life and why all of you are so intent on making this happen."
Dom's features soften. "I'm only in on this because I can see what Saito's talking about."
"What? You're seriously buying all of his bullshit?"
Blue eyes narrow once again.
"Sorry. I mean, nonsense," Arthur amends quickly with an apologetic look.
"It's not all nonsense. Yes, the man's been spewing some ridiculous stuff, but some of it isn't half crazy." Ignoring his friend's doubtful look, Cobb continues, "There's a connection between you and Ariadne. As soon as she joined the team, the two of you sort of clicked. And what I saw wasn't just attraction, it was also understanding. Completely open communication. Total trust and faith in one another. And that's very rare to come by. I haven't seen it since --" (there's a faraway look in his eyes) "--well, you know."
Arthur does know, knows that Dom's unspoken words are 'Mal and me.'
The haze lifts from Cobb's eyes as a furrow settles between his brows and his lips purse into a grim frown. "But you've got to be careful, Arthur. Two dreamers in a relationship -- I'm sure I don't have to tell you how dangerous that can be."
Arthur exhales a defeated sigh. "Dom, you don't even know how she feels about me. You can't have a one-sided relationship," he tries to argue futilely.
Amusement lights Cobb's usually wary face, and suddenly he looks like the cat that swallowed a canary. "Is that an admission, Arthur?" he teases. "Are you in love? Was that kiss really more than an innocent peck on the lips?" Giddy Cobb was definitely unflattering, Arthur decides.
And just as he's about to retract everything he'd just said, Philippa races into the kitchen, James in tow, screaming at the top of her lungs, "Uncle Arthur, you kissed somebody?! Who?! Are you in loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove?!" She's jumping up and down in excitement, both hands pressed to her cheeks, looking about as giddy (and deranged) as her father.
Meanwhile, James is none too impressed. "Ewwwwwww. Girls have cooties, Uncle Arthur. You shouldn't be kissing them." His face is deadly serious as he adds, "You could die."
Philippa rolls her eyes. "Girls do not have cooties, James." Her scowl turns into a wide smile as she turns to Arthur. "Kiss all the girls you want, Uncle Arthur. I'm sure they'd love it."
Grinning, Arthur grabs her shoulders and plants a wet one her cheek. She giggles as her brother gags and their father chuckles. "Thanks, Philippa. Your advice is appreciated and duly noted."
With a yell, the children scamper off, leaving two amused men alone with their coffees.
"Alright," Arthur finally relents (albeit with much reluctance and after a long, silent moment of Cobb's creepy eyes goading him into a confession), "I may harbour some feelings for Ariadne."
Dom full out beams like a proud parent whose child has finally mastered the art of potty-training. "That's a start."
"Yeah, well, you're a deadman if Saito finds out you've told me about his secret operation," the younger man says, half-jokingly.
"No, he won't," is the confident response. "I'll just remind him who saved his sorry ass from dying an old man in unconstructed dreamspace."
"Sometimes, I think you should've just left him there."