[Inception][Cobb/Ariadne] Burning Everything In Sight
So I know I haven't posted fic in like, over six months. This might be my last fic for...quite awhile, since I'm going to be serving abroad for 2.5 years with minimal internet access as of September (although if I have my way, I'm going to write a shitton more Inception fic!) Anyway, I was trying to write some Arthur/Eames and...somehow I produced this. And then I was going to make it cracky and humorous, but it turned into this weird mix of crack humor and then Cobb's manpain. I don't even know.
Title: Burning Everything In Sight
Fandom: Inception
Rating: PG
Pairing: Dom Cobb/Ariadne
Word Count: 5,004
Warnings: Spoilers for most of the movie; probably not a good idea to read this if you haven't seen it.
Summary: Ariadne forces Dom to go on a series of dates in order to get his life back together, but things don't go quite according to plan.
Disclaimer: Inception, the ideas behind it, and these characters do not belong to me; I'm just playing in their universe.
Burning Everything In Sight
Of course it’s Ariadne's idea, because nobody else has forced their way into his life and rearranged it as completely as she has. He's just getting back into the routine of being a single dad, taking care of the kids and the house and trying to find a job, when she reappears and throws it all askew again.
"You deserve so much more!" she argues, sitting on his living room couch like she's not trying to reorganize his life. "Why won’t you go out and see what the rest of the world has in store?" Phillipa runs by with James chasing her, roaring something about dinosaurs, and Dom smiles fondly after his children. Ariadne clears her throat, hands on her hips. "It's not like you can never love again after Mal, you know."
Dom considers this statement for a moment, hoping to find the best way to deconstruct its logic and keep it from cropping up again. Unfortunately, there is really only one way to say it. "I don't want to love anyone other than Mal," he tells her stubbornly. "At least, not yet. Give it a few years."
"Years?!" Of course, Ariadne is outraged, as years sound like a lifetime to the very young. "Years in which you'll be alone, raising those two children without a mother. Years in which you'll be pining away forever for Mal. You have to heal!" Dom wonders if Ariadne has been reading a few too many self-help books, but he lets her continue. "She would want you to move on."
"She wanted me to die with her," Dom points out, since this seems to be the antithesis of 'moving on'. Ariadne ignores him.
"There are plenty of women - and men! - out there who you could date. If you tried." Her face is firm, stubborn, set similarly to when she'd demanded to follow them into Fischer's head, all those months ago. She is obviously not going to take no for an answer, and Dom realizes he's going to have to go on a few catastrophic dates before she takes a hint. "You're still young, Cobb. You're good looking, you're intelligent, you love your kids more than life itself, and you're not even really a criminal anymore. What more could a person want?"
He's going to regret this. He can tell even as he pinches the bridge of his nose and nods. "Alright. Fine. I'll go on a date." Maybe if he says that much, she'll leave him to determine when and where, and then he can go, like, never. Unfortunately, Ariadne is smart as a whip in addition to being a busybody. She immediately has her cell phone out and is making a call, eyes bright with excitement.
"Who are you calling?" Dom demands. Again, she ignores him.
"He said yes!" she says into the phone by way of greeting. "Good. He'll be there." She gives him a thumbs up; he resists the urge to groan audibly. "I told you it would work. See you then!" She hangs up and grins at him. "You have a date for Friday night."
"What if I had plans on Friday night?" he asks.
"You don't."
"But what if I did?" He feels a headache coming on.
"I stole your phone and checked your calendar. You don't." A throbbing behind his temple is definitely starting, but there's not much he can do at this point. He gives in.
"I'll do this on one condition. You're babysitting."
The look of horror on Ariadne's face makes it almost worth it.
******
Dom arrives at the appointed hotel in downtown LA precisely on time, his biggest concern being that the date doesn't go too long so that he can get back to his kids before Ariadne accidentally poisons one of them or something. The hotel is large and elegant, owned by Saito, and has a four-star Italian restaurant. Dom knows that the fact that this is Saito's hotel means that the others have also been plotting against him, and this makes him a little concerned. His concern increases when Eames spots him and leads a tall brunette over to him.
"This is Nancy, a colleague of mine," he says by way of greeting. Nancy is in her thirties and good looking, but nowhere near the level of Mal. She has bright eyes and a cheeky smile, much like Eames himself, and she looks Dom up and down with approval. Dom tries to feel less indifferent towards her, but he can't help it; it's too soon, and he has no interest in dating. This is a sham, nothing more.
Eames leaves as they are being seated, and they make it through the preliminary small talk without a mishap. Nancy is a 'private contractor' (Dom mentally translates this as "thief or con artist") and she has a lightning quick wit, but there is just no spark. She's worked within dreams once or twice before and didn't enjoy it. She talks with the twang of an accent in her voice, but Dom can't quite place it. She seems to sense his apathy as the date goes on, and by the end of the night, as he's paying the bill, she has gone quiet and distant, obviously scanning the room for something more interesting to pay attention to.
He stands and gets her coat. "It was nice to meet you," he says stiffly and politely, and she surprises him by straightening the lapels on his sport coat and giving him a quick, chaste kiss on the mouth.
"I'll be seeing you around," she says with a grin, and then she is gone quickly out the door, climbing into a taxi and disappearing into the night. Dom is a little bemused until he feels into his coat and finds his wallet gone.
******
He arrives home to find Ariadne curled up on the couch with Phillipa, watching The Little Mermaid. James is already asleep. Ariadne's dark head is slowly drooping towards Phillipa's blonde one as the two start to doze, and Dom is almost sad to disturb the scene to send her home. His kids look well fed and not injured, and Ariadne has the ghost of a smile on her face.
She sees him lurking off to the side of the TV room and smiles sleepily at him. "How did it go?"
"She stole my wallet," he says quietly and drolly, dropping down into one of the chairs. "I didn't even notice." Ariadne laughs, filling the room, and Dom thinks about how long it's been since a young woman's laughter has been in that house. Phillipa stirs and looks at them, saying softly, "Daddy?" as Dom goes over to pick her up and take her to bed.
He comes back out afterwards and Ariadne has turned the movie off, gathering her things. "So, I guess that's that, then," he says. "Sorry your plan didn't work out." He's not really that sorry, and they both know it.
"What do you mean?" She doesn't look discouraged in the slightest. "Cobb, that was just one date! You can't find the perfect person with one date." Dom is personally of the opinion that most people didn't find the perfect person within one lifetime, but he already had and then he'd lost her.
"I have my children, Ariadne," he explains patiently. "I'm not alone."
"You need someone to share your life with!" she insists.
"I shared a life. With Mal."
"In your dreams." She is firm and insistent, her eyes bright with frustration. "Don't you want to have someone to share the rest of your reality with?" And that hurts; that wound is still raw. He and Mal had grown old together, but in the end, it wasn't real. He's furious that Ariadne brings it up, forces that point home. Her inability to leave well enough alone, to always push him further, to not let him live in his illusions is infuriating. What good is reality anymore?
He turns away from her. "You should go," he says coldly, and the moment she realizes she's crossed a line, she turns and flees, quietly shutting his front door behind her.
******
"I disagree with her entire premise," Dom insists on the phone with Arthur. "What's wrong with being single? With letting my memories of Mal run their course?"
"There's nothing wrong with being single," Arthur tells him. "But you're not talking about being single." Dom sighs. He's known from the start that they were all in on this, that his former team was conspiring against him. He'd hoped Arthur would be the weak link. His oldest friend would surely see his point of view, right?
Apparently not. "You're talking about living in your memories, about maintaining your illusions. You're going around pretending Mal is still there somewhere, that she's coming back," Arthur continues.
"I faced my projection of Mal," Dom insists, because honestly, will no one believe him? Ariadne even witnessed it.
"Her projection," Arthur repeats. "You're past the guilt now, maybe. But there's still grief, and you're not the type of person who willingly snaps back to reality. You need people who will make you face it." Dom is pretty convinced that the self-help book Ariadne's been reading has been passed among everyone else, because normally Arthur just grouses and agrees with him rather than giving introspective advice.
"Thanks. You've been a big help." The sarcasm goes unremarked. "Isn't it almost time for a new semester to begin? Shouldn't Ariadne be getting back to Paris?"
"She's taking a term off," Arthur informs him, like he should have known this already. "To figure out what she really wants to do. There's nothing like building in dreams, and school just doesn't compare."
For the first time, it occurs to Dom that maybe he's turned Ariadne's life inside out as much as she has his.
******
Ariadne wins, of course, and soon Dom finds himself at Saito's hotel once more. The second date is with a friend of Yusuf's from Mombasa named Alice, a short, striking Kenyan woman with a lilting accent and a passion for chemistry (Dom can't help but wonder if Saito flew her into town just for this). She is fascinated by his tales of being inside dreams, and he finds himself getting into the conversation without meaning to.
"I'm always so bewildered by people who claim they confuse dreaming from reality," she says as they're making their way through their pasta. "Dreams always feel so different to me. I could never imagine being confused."
Dom's hackles go up briefly, but he stifles his reaction and instead answers her question. "It was never hard for me at first. But shared dreams become much more vivid, much more like real life. They're easier to remember, harder to escape from."
"I've shared a dream before," she replies. "It may have been more vivid, but it was still like a shadow of real life. Everything was muted." Deep in his heart, Dom knows this is true. Reality is sharp pain, bright colors, Mal falling to her death on their anniversary years before. Dreams are a place where everything is soothing, blunted and blurred, colors softer and feelings less. Dreams are a place where Mal is still alive, even now. After spending so much time in dreams, reality is almost too bright for Dom Cobb anymore; every moment he spends in it is like standing in direct sunlight.
"It gets to be that dreams become your reality," Dom shares with her, surprised at how personal he's getting. "Once you've shifted your perspective, it's easy to get lost in between." She nods as though this makes more sense than it really does, and the conversation lulls. He briefly considers asking if she wants to go out again, but squashes it down; he knows it's just from a desire to talk about his trade and not any real need for companionship. Instead, he gives her his card and tells her if she ever needs a job, she should look him up.
Dom gets home to find Ariadne asleep in James' room, her head bowed over a picture book about ducks. James is out like a light as well, curled up against her, and they make an adorable picture, Ariadne's hand resting lightly in his hair. Dom smiles to himself as he watches them. Ariadne is small and delicate and looks very young when she's not being obstinate and stubborn, but there is also something maternal about the way that she handles his children. Dom lets her sleep while he puts away his leftovers, smiling to himself.
He shakes her awake soon after. She climbs around James, who doesn't stir, and smiles drowsily at Dom as they leave his room. "How did it go?"
Dom's pretty sure she wanted him to date and not network, so he tries to make it sound like he at least attempted to woo Alice instead of trying to get her to join the team. Ariadne rolls her eyes halfway through. "You're a disaster! You're being stubborn! You want to prove me wrong."
"I don't want to date." He doesn't see how this is so hard. He grabs her scarf off of the coffee table and loops it around her neck without thinking about it. "Don't forget this."
"I just want you to be happy!" she insists. "Cobb, you're going to waste away." He thinks there's very little chance of that happening while she's in his life; she continually forces him to face unpleasant truths and move forward. He grabs her jacket off the coffee table and slings it at her. It catches on her shoulder and she laughs again, fully, and he thinks, 'I am happy, just like this.'
"Get out of here," he says, but without any real malice behind the words. "Haven't you upset my life enough?" She grins at him, eyes bright.
"Not yet, but I'll let you know when I have." She disappears out the front door again, her laughter echoing off the quiet streets of the neighborhood. She drives him nuts. Dom rolls his eyes fondly and shuts the door behind her.
******
He hasn't dreamed since limbo. He can't dream now on his own, and hooking up to the device by himself sounds too much like inviting trouble back into his life, especially since he would require more of Yusuf's sedative. Instead, he is bombarded with reality all the time, and it is like being in a club with the bass pounding in his ears all night long.
Ariadne is like glass shards, breaking into his mind. He'll be doing something mundane, like making peanut butter sandwiches for the kids, and she will scatter across his thoughts. He wonders what she made his kids for dinner when she babysat; he thinks about how good she looked, curled up with James with a picture book in between them. Phillipa asks when Ariadne will come back and play again, and Dom just smiles.
After the first two disastrous dates, he'd hoped that she would drop the whole scheme, and two months go by before she mentions it again. She takes Phillipa to the park to get her out of the house while Dom cares for James, who is sick with the flu. When she returns, Dom has passed out in James' room, his head against James' rocket ship comforter, and he wakes up to soft hands stroking his hair back from his eyes.
"Dom," she says, and for a heartbreaking moment he thinks Mal is back in his life. "Dom, we're home." He realizes it is just Ariadne, using his name for the first time. James is still feverish and has kicked off all of his blankets, and as Dom blinks the last bits of sleep from his mind, he watches her pull the covers up over his son, ruffling his hair.
"Why are you still here?" he asks after they leave James' room. "Shouldn't you be back in Paris studying with Miles, or traipsing around the world with the rest of our team? Why stay in LA?" She sits on the couch, pulling her legs up and wrapping her arms around them. She doesn't answer right away, instead looking thoughtful. He sits next to her and gives her time.
"I think I'm lost," she finally confesses, and this is not what Dom expected to hear.
"Lost?"
"After what you gave me, after what you showed me, how can I go back to designing blueprints and buildings? How can I ever work in the real world again?" She chews on her lower lip. "So I figured…I got lost just as you found yourself. The only clear constant in my life was you. So I figured that, until I found my way again, I'd make sure you stayed on your path."
He blinks. "Is that why the obsession with finding me a date?" he asks. It seems a little weird, thinking that he could possibly form a connection with someone he hasn't met yet, a connection that would work better than the one he already has with Ariadne, who somehow fits into his house and his life. Another thought chases this one, fleetingly, but before he can grab onto it, it disappears into the ether of his mind.
"Cobb, you need to move on," she says, and he's slightly disappointed that she's back to using his last name. "You get easily trapped in the past, in your memories, and those kids need you to be looking forward, not behind you." She sounds like Arthur.
They sit in silence on the couch for awhile, and then Ariadne grabs the remote and turns on the TV. It's comfortable, sitting there with her watching whatever's on - they start with the news until Phillipa runs in, and then they switch to cartoons. Phillipa grins and jumps up in between them, burrowing down into the couch and curling up against Dom, and he keeps sneaking glances at Ariadne, wondering when she's going to get tired of fixing up his life and start working on her own.
******
The third date is with a Japanese businesswoman named Hoshiko who Saito recommends. She is stopping over in LA on business, and Ariadne arranges the date. Hoshiko is polite and charming, but there is a ruthless streak lurking below the surface of her brown eyes that Dom can see only because he's dealt with the corporate world for so long. Halfway through dinner, she asks him to do a job. He gives her Arthur's contact information and takes his food home in a doggie bag.
Ariadne shakes her head at him when he tells her but doesn't seem surprised.
The fourth date is with a lovely American woman that Ariadne meets while loitering around LA. Edith has never been involved in dream sharing and expresses no desire to start. She has a sister she lost to the dream, she explains softly, her voice betraying the sorrow she feels. Her sister is now in an institution, constantly demanding more dreaming, no longer satisfied with reality. Her story calls to mind Mal's fits in those final days, the fights, the crying, the obsession with sharp objects. Dom almost asks her for a second date, but thinks of Ariadne home with his children and somehow can't get the words out.
After that date, he locks himself in his room and cries, missing Mal so much he can't breathe. Ariadne yells her concern through the door until she's satisfied that he's okay, and keeps Phillipa and James distracted until he picks up the pieces of himself and puts them back together. As she's getting ready to leave, he wraps her scarf around her neck again, softly. She smiles up at him and the moment passes.
It's during the fifth date that he realizes what's going on.
He's sitting down with a woman that Arthur went to college with when he realizes he would much rather be having dinner with Ariadne instead. The thought is like ice water down his spine, and the moment it's out, he can't shove it back in. It lurks in his mind through the small talk, unlocking all of the other strange moments he's been having lately. It explains the urge he's had to smooth her hair away from her face or call her when he's feeling lonely, and the warm feeling he gets in the pit of his stomach when Phillipa expresses her attachment to Ariadne is suddenly clear.
Ariadne is very young, Dom tries to remind himself. She's barely twenty, she's still a college student, and he's so much older than she is. But age has never seemed an issue in their relationship; she has always ignored the fact that he's older and just run roughshod all over his 'wisdom', calling him on his mistakes and his contradictions and generally not letting him take advantage of anything. No, the age gap is daunting, but mostly because of one simple reason: what would someone as bright and shiny and alive as Ariadne want with washed out, tired Dom Cobb?
"I'm sorry, I've actually got to run," he tells his date. She doesn't look all that offended - she'd been starting to show the bored look that Dom was very familiar with at this point - and he quickly gets up, apologizes to the waiter, and dashes out of the restaurant. He pulls the car into his driveway and sits there for a few moments, unsure of what to do. The fact of the matter is this: he might be falling in love with Ariadne, but there's no way he can act on those feelings.
He wonders what Mal would say, but, like always, Mal is gone.
He goes inside. Ariadne is in the front hallway with James on her back, running around gleefully, and she stops dead in her tracks when the front door opens. Dom grins at her and calmly walks over and divests her of his son, cradling him and giving him a hug.
"Ended early?" she asks.
"This isn't going to work," he tells her, going into the main room. There is a silly children's show on the TV but no one is watching it, so he picks up the remote with his free hand to turn it off. Ariadne snatches the remote from him before he can blink and shakes it at him.
"It will work eventually! You're working through your issues! You're meeting people other than Mal! Don't you want to be happy?" There is so much passion in her eyes, and for a split second, he allows himself to wonder if her investment in his happiness could possibly mean something. He shakes his head to clear his thoughts.
"Ariadne, I'm happy just like this," he says quietly, giving her a long, piercing look. James begins to squirm in his arms and he is forced to let him down, so he almost misses the thoughtful look that crosses her face.
******
A month later, Ariadne shows up on his doorstep unexpectedly on a rainy day. Miles and his wife are in town again and have taken the kids for the day, so Dom is alone with his thoughts before her arrival. She is excited and her eyes are shining, and he lets her drip dry on the welcome mat while she tells him her news.
"The US Department of Oneirology?" he asks, trying to keep a skeptical note out of his voice. "That's government research into dream sharing."
"You act like because it's legal, it's not a legitimate place to look for work," Ariadne accuses. Dom does, in fact, feel that this is true, but he also knows he'll receive any number of judgmental looks from her should he voice his opinion aloud, so he respectfully keeps his mouth shut. "Dom, they're doing legal research into the uses of dream sharing, beyond just using it to commit crimes or plant ideas. Did you know there's a theory that shared dreaming can help treat mental disorders?" She sounds like a brochure, but Dom hasn't seen that passionate spark in her eyes for her own future since they completed the Fischer job, so he lets it go.
"Do you have the credentials they're looking for?" he asks instead.
"Not yet, but I will." She looks more determined than he's ever seen her before. "I have to finish my architecture degree, of course. They're always looking for good architects, and I already know that I can build dreamscapes. I'm going back to Paris and re-enrolling in school. Miles thinks he can get me legal internships where I can design in dreams, so that I can cite that kind of experience." She goes on and on, but all Dom's mind seizes on is 'Paris' and the fact that she will be going far away from him.
"You're leaving?" he asks a little dumbly.
She gives him a patient look. "Well, I can't exactly use you as a reference, now can I?" It's true; if the government knew she'd been involved in a con job like the Fischer job, she'd be out of the running and possibly at the top of their Most Wanted list in a matter of minutes.
"No, you have to go." He knows it, and yet he feels shocked, like reality is burning him once again. "This is your chance, your golden opportunity. It's just…Phillipa and James will miss you." I will miss you. The words go unspoken but they're there.
"Dom," she starts, and then she stops and looks at him quizzically. Her hair is still wet and her lips are very pink, especially when she chews on the bottom one thoughtfully. Before Dom can really register that she's obviously up to something, she is off the welcome mat and wrapping her arms around his neck, pressing her small body up against his. Her face is startling close. Dom hasn't had anyone in such a close proximity to him in a romantic way since Mal left his dreams, and he's not quite sure what to do with it; his blood rushes in his ears and his heart pounds loudly, seeming to echo in the small entryway to his house.
"A-Ariadne?" he asks when she doesn't move, just stays there, watching his face. Something she sees must give her a green light, because she suddenly breaks into a grin and gently presses her mouth against his.
Dom hasn't kissed anybody in a long time, and Ariadne is obviously relatively unpracticed, but he's so surprised that she would ever even consider him in such a context that he really doesn't have time to register this. She kisses in a slightly controlling way, similar to the way she does everything else, keeping her mouth firmly closed but lightly scraping her teeth across his bottom lip without any hesitation, sighing happily. His breath catches in his throat and a hand tangles in her wet hair as he slowly kisses her back, keeping it slow and even.
They pull apart after a moment, and her cheeks are red. She licks her lips thoughtfully. "I like you, Dom," she says, her voice softer than usual. "I like you, and I sent you on all those stupid dates because I thought you'd never in a million years like me, but you have to like someone. You can't stay single and lonely forever." Her expression grows fiercely protective. "I know I'm young and silly and I don't really know what I'm talking about, and I know I just told you I'm leaving to go halfway across the world to chase my dream, but…these have been some of the best months of my life, spending time with you and your family, and…" She looks away, unsure of how to continue.
"I never thought I'd feel this way again," he says in answer. "Ariadne, you're…" He somehow can't put his feelings for her into words, but she smiles happily and he can tell that she gets it. "But you know that I'm a little bit wrecked. I can't give you what you deserve, what you should have, and I'm-"
She breaks out into a grin, like somehow he'd told her it was Christmas morning. She darts in and kisses him again quickly before he can really register what she's doing, and then she's talking so fast he can hardly follow it.
"That's why it's perfect," she says breathlessly. "That's why it works so well. You said you needed years, Dom, and I probably do too. To grow up, to learn. But I have at least a year left to get my degree in Paris, and the US Department of Oneirology has a branch here in LA, so I can come back afterwards." She licks her lips. "I know I'm asking a lot of you when I ask you to wait for me and then give me a chance when I get back, but…"
He shakes his head. It's not much to ask at all. For a man assuming that he'd spend the rest of his life alone, never feeling this way about someone ever again, waiting a couple years to give it a try seems like nothing. These new feelings for Ariadne are fragile and delicate but something very special, and he'll never stop loving Mal, but healing time will be good for both of them.
"I'll wait," he declares. "We'll see what happens when you get back." She grins, bright because this is reality, but somehow with Ariadne there, it no longer seems as harsh. "And you never know," he adds as she jumps at him and hugs him tightly. "I might just end up in Paris on business."
"If you do, you'd better look me up," she says pointedly, and then she's kissing him again and it doesn't matter that she's younger, or that he's jaded, or that life has kicked him in the face a couple dozen times. This is his second chance, and it's time he actually took a leap of faith.
Title: Burning Everything In Sight
Fandom: Inception
Rating: PG
Pairing: Dom Cobb/Ariadne
Word Count: 5,004
Warnings: Spoilers for most of the movie; probably not a good idea to read this if you haven't seen it.
Summary: Ariadne forces Dom to go on a series of dates in order to get his life back together, but things don't go quite according to plan.
Disclaimer: Inception, the ideas behind it, and these characters do not belong to me; I'm just playing in their universe.
Burning Everything In Sight
Of course it’s Ariadne's idea, because nobody else has forced their way into his life and rearranged it as completely as she has. He's just getting back into the routine of being a single dad, taking care of the kids and the house and trying to find a job, when she reappears and throws it all askew again.
"You deserve so much more!" she argues, sitting on his living room couch like she's not trying to reorganize his life. "Why won’t you go out and see what the rest of the world has in store?" Phillipa runs by with James chasing her, roaring something about dinosaurs, and Dom smiles fondly after his children. Ariadne clears her throat, hands on her hips. "It's not like you can never love again after Mal, you know."
Dom considers this statement for a moment, hoping to find the best way to deconstruct its logic and keep it from cropping up again. Unfortunately, there is really only one way to say it. "I don't want to love anyone other than Mal," he tells her stubbornly. "At least, not yet. Give it a few years."
"Years?!" Of course, Ariadne is outraged, as years sound like a lifetime to the very young. "Years in which you'll be alone, raising those two children without a mother. Years in which you'll be pining away forever for Mal. You have to heal!" Dom wonders if Ariadne has been reading a few too many self-help books, but he lets her continue. "She would want you to move on."
"She wanted me to die with her," Dom points out, since this seems to be the antithesis of 'moving on'. Ariadne ignores him.
"There are plenty of women - and men! - out there who you could date. If you tried." Her face is firm, stubborn, set similarly to when she'd demanded to follow them into Fischer's head, all those months ago. She is obviously not going to take no for an answer, and Dom realizes he's going to have to go on a few catastrophic dates before she takes a hint. "You're still young, Cobb. You're good looking, you're intelligent, you love your kids more than life itself, and you're not even really a criminal anymore. What more could a person want?"
He's going to regret this. He can tell even as he pinches the bridge of his nose and nods. "Alright. Fine. I'll go on a date." Maybe if he says that much, she'll leave him to determine when and where, and then he can go, like, never. Unfortunately, Ariadne is smart as a whip in addition to being a busybody. She immediately has her cell phone out and is making a call, eyes bright with excitement.
"Who are you calling?" Dom demands. Again, she ignores him.
"He said yes!" she says into the phone by way of greeting. "Good. He'll be there." She gives him a thumbs up; he resists the urge to groan audibly. "I told you it would work. See you then!" She hangs up and grins at him. "You have a date for Friday night."
"What if I had plans on Friday night?" he asks.
"You don't."
"But what if I did?" He feels a headache coming on.
"I stole your phone and checked your calendar. You don't." A throbbing behind his temple is definitely starting, but there's not much he can do at this point. He gives in.
"I'll do this on one condition. You're babysitting."
The look of horror on Ariadne's face makes it almost worth it.
******
Dom arrives at the appointed hotel in downtown LA precisely on time, his biggest concern being that the date doesn't go too long so that he can get back to his kids before Ariadne accidentally poisons one of them or something. The hotel is large and elegant, owned by Saito, and has a four-star Italian restaurant. Dom knows that the fact that this is Saito's hotel means that the others have also been plotting against him, and this makes him a little concerned. His concern increases when Eames spots him and leads a tall brunette over to him.
"This is Nancy, a colleague of mine," he says by way of greeting. Nancy is in her thirties and good looking, but nowhere near the level of Mal. She has bright eyes and a cheeky smile, much like Eames himself, and she looks Dom up and down with approval. Dom tries to feel less indifferent towards her, but he can't help it; it's too soon, and he has no interest in dating. This is a sham, nothing more.
Eames leaves as they are being seated, and they make it through the preliminary small talk without a mishap. Nancy is a 'private contractor' (Dom mentally translates this as "thief or con artist") and she has a lightning quick wit, but there is just no spark. She's worked within dreams once or twice before and didn't enjoy it. She talks with the twang of an accent in her voice, but Dom can't quite place it. She seems to sense his apathy as the date goes on, and by the end of the night, as he's paying the bill, she has gone quiet and distant, obviously scanning the room for something more interesting to pay attention to.
He stands and gets her coat. "It was nice to meet you," he says stiffly and politely, and she surprises him by straightening the lapels on his sport coat and giving him a quick, chaste kiss on the mouth.
"I'll be seeing you around," she says with a grin, and then she is gone quickly out the door, climbing into a taxi and disappearing into the night. Dom is a little bemused until he feels into his coat and finds his wallet gone.
******
He arrives home to find Ariadne curled up on the couch with Phillipa, watching The Little Mermaid. James is already asleep. Ariadne's dark head is slowly drooping towards Phillipa's blonde one as the two start to doze, and Dom is almost sad to disturb the scene to send her home. His kids look well fed and not injured, and Ariadne has the ghost of a smile on her face.
She sees him lurking off to the side of the TV room and smiles sleepily at him. "How did it go?"
"She stole my wallet," he says quietly and drolly, dropping down into one of the chairs. "I didn't even notice." Ariadne laughs, filling the room, and Dom thinks about how long it's been since a young woman's laughter has been in that house. Phillipa stirs and looks at them, saying softly, "Daddy?" as Dom goes over to pick her up and take her to bed.
He comes back out afterwards and Ariadne has turned the movie off, gathering her things. "So, I guess that's that, then," he says. "Sorry your plan didn't work out." He's not really that sorry, and they both know it.
"What do you mean?" She doesn't look discouraged in the slightest. "Cobb, that was just one date! You can't find the perfect person with one date." Dom is personally of the opinion that most people didn't find the perfect person within one lifetime, but he already had and then he'd lost her.
"I have my children, Ariadne," he explains patiently. "I'm not alone."
"You need someone to share your life with!" she insists.
"I shared a life. With Mal."
"In your dreams." She is firm and insistent, her eyes bright with frustration. "Don't you want to have someone to share the rest of your reality with?" And that hurts; that wound is still raw. He and Mal had grown old together, but in the end, it wasn't real. He's furious that Ariadne brings it up, forces that point home. Her inability to leave well enough alone, to always push him further, to not let him live in his illusions is infuriating. What good is reality anymore?
He turns away from her. "You should go," he says coldly, and the moment she realizes she's crossed a line, she turns and flees, quietly shutting his front door behind her.
******
"I disagree with her entire premise," Dom insists on the phone with Arthur. "What's wrong with being single? With letting my memories of Mal run their course?"
"There's nothing wrong with being single," Arthur tells him. "But you're not talking about being single." Dom sighs. He's known from the start that they were all in on this, that his former team was conspiring against him. He'd hoped Arthur would be the weak link. His oldest friend would surely see his point of view, right?
Apparently not. "You're talking about living in your memories, about maintaining your illusions. You're going around pretending Mal is still there somewhere, that she's coming back," Arthur continues.
"I faced my projection of Mal," Dom insists, because honestly, will no one believe him? Ariadne even witnessed it.
"Her projection," Arthur repeats. "You're past the guilt now, maybe. But there's still grief, and you're not the type of person who willingly snaps back to reality. You need people who will make you face it." Dom is pretty convinced that the self-help book Ariadne's been reading has been passed among everyone else, because normally Arthur just grouses and agrees with him rather than giving introspective advice.
"Thanks. You've been a big help." The sarcasm goes unremarked. "Isn't it almost time for a new semester to begin? Shouldn't Ariadne be getting back to Paris?"
"She's taking a term off," Arthur informs him, like he should have known this already. "To figure out what she really wants to do. There's nothing like building in dreams, and school just doesn't compare."
For the first time, it occurs to Dom that maybe he's turned Ariadne's life inside out as much as she has his.
******
Ariadne wins, of course, and soon Dom finds himself at Saito's hotel once more. The second date is with a friend of Yusuf's from Mombasa named Alice, a short, striking Kenyan woman with a lilting accent and a passion for chemistry (Dom can't help but wonder if Saito flew her into town just for this). She is fascinated by his tales of being inside dreams, and he finds himself getting into the conversation without meaning to.
"I'm always so bewildered by people who claim they confuse dreaming from reality," she says as they're making their way through their pasta. "Dreams always feel so different to me. I could never imagine being confused."
Dom's hackles go up briefly, but he stifles his reaction and instead answers her question. "It was never hard for me at first. But shared dreams become much more vivid, much more like real life. They're easier to remember, harder to escape from."
"I've shared a dream before," she replies. "It may have been more vivid, but it was still like a shadow of real life. Everything was muted." Deep in his heart, Dom knows this is true. Reality is sharp pain, bright colors, Mal falling to her death on their anniversary years before. Dreams are a place where everything is soothing, blunted and blurred, colors softer and feelings less. Dreams are a place where Mal is still alive, even now. After spending so much time in dreams, reality is almost too bright for Dom Cobb anymore; every moment he spends in it is like standing in direct sunlight.
"It gets to be that dreams become your reality," Dom shares with her, surprised at how personal he's getting. "Once you've shifted your perspective, it's easy to get lost in between." She nods as though this makes more sense than it really does, and the conversation lulls. He briefly considers asking if she wants to go out again, but squashes it down; he knows it's just from a desire to talk about his trade and not any real need for companionship. Instead, he gives her his card and tells her if she ever needs a job, she should look him up.
Dom gets home to find Ariadne asleep in James' room, her head bowed over a picture book about ducks. James is out like a light as well, curled up against her, and they make an adorable picture, Ariadne's hand resting lightly in his hair. Dom smiles to himself as he watches them. Ariadne is small and delicate and looks very young when she's not being obstinate and stubborn, but there is also something maternal about the way that she handles his children. Dom lets her sleep while he puts away his leftovers, smiling to himself.
He shakes her awake soon after. She climbs around James, who doesn't stir, and smiles drowsily at Dom as they leave his room. "How did it go?"
Dom's pretty sure she wanted him to date and not network, so he tries to make it sound like he at least attempted to woo Alice instead of trying to get her to join the team. Ariadne rolls her eyes halfway through. "You're a disaster! You're being stubborn! You want to prove me wrong."
"I don't want to date." He doesn't see how this is so hard. He grabs her scarf off of the coffee table and loops it around her neck without thinking about it. "Don't forget this."
"I just want you to be happy!" she insists. "Cobb, you're going to waste away." He thinks there's very little chance of that happening while she's in his life; she continually forces him to face unpleasant truths and move forward. He grabs her jacket off the coffee table and slings it at her. It catches on her shoulder and she laughs again, fully, and he thinks, 'I am happy, just like this.'
"Get out of here," he says, but without any real malice behind the words. "Haven't you upset my life enough?" She grins at him, eyes bright.
"Not yet, but I'll let you know when I have." She disappears out the front door again, her laughter echoing off the quiet streets of the neighborhood. She drives him nuts. Dom rolls his eyes fondly and shuts the door behind her.
******
He hasn't dreamed since limbo. He can't dream now on his own, and hooking up to the device by himself sounds too much like inviting trouble back into his life, especially since he would require more of Yusuf's sedative. Instead, he is bombarded with reality all the time, and it is like being in a club with the bass pounding in his ears all night long.
Ariadne is like glass shards, breaking into his mind. He'll be doing something mundane, like making peanut butter sandwiches for the kids, and she will scatter across his thoughts. He wonders what she made his kids for dinner when she babysat; he thinks about how good she looked, curled up with James with a picture book in between them. Phillipa asks when Ariadne will come back and play again, and Dom just smiles.
After the first two disastrous dates, he'd hoped that she would drop the whole scheme, and two months go by before she mentions it again. She takes Phillipa to the park to get her out of the house while Dom cares for James, who is sick with the flu. When she returns, Dom has passed out in James' room, his head against James' rocket ship comforter, and he wakes up to soft hands stroking his hair back from his eyes.
"Dom," she says, and for a heartbreaking moment he thinks Mal is back in his life. "Dom, we're home." He realizes it is just Ariadne, using his name for the first time. James is still feverish and has kicked off all of his blankets, and as Dom blinks the last bits of sleep from his mind, he watches her pull the covers up over his son, ruffling his hair.
"Why are you still here?" he asks after they leave James' room. "Shouldn't you be back in Paris studying with Miles, or traipsing around the world with the rest of our team? Why stay in LA?" She sits on the couch, pulling her legs up and wrapping her arms around them. She doesn't answer right away, instead looking thoughtful. He sits next to her and gives her time.
"I think I'm lost," she finally confesses, and this is not what Dom expected to hear.
"Lost?"
"After what you gave me, after what you showed me, how can I go back to designing blueprints and buildings? How can I ever work in the real world again?" She chews on her lower lip. "So I figured…I got lost just as you found yourself. The only clear constant in my life was you. So I figured that, until I found my way again, I'd make sure you stayed on your path."
He blinks. "Is that why the obsession with finding me a date?" he asks. It seems a little weird, thinking that he could possibly form a connection with someone he hasn't met yet, a connection that would work better than the one he already has with Ariadne, who somehow fits into his house and his life. Another thought chases this one, fleetingly, but before he can grab onto it, it disappears into the ether of his mind.
"Cobb, you need to move on," she says, and he's slightly disappointed that she's back to using his last name. "You get easily trapped in the past, in your memories, and those kids need you to be looking forward, not behind you." She sounds like Arthur.
They sit in silence on the couch for awhile, and then Ariadne grabs the remote and turns on the TV. It's comfortable, sitting there with her watching whatever's on - they start with the news until Phillipa runs in, and then they switch to cartoons. Phillipa grins and jumps up in between them, burrowing down into the couch and curling up against Dom, and he keeps sneaking glances at Ariadne, wondering when she's going to get tired of fixing up his life and start working on her own.
******
The third date is with a Japanese businesswoman named Hoshiko who Saito recommends. She is stopping over in LA on business, and Ariadne arranges the date. Hoshiko is polite and charming, but there is a ruthless streak lurking below the surface of her brown eyes that Dom can see only because he's dealt with the corporate world for so long. Halfway through dinner, she asks him to do a job. He gives her Arthur's contact information and takes his food home in a doggie bag.
Ariadne shakes her head at him when he tells her but doesn't seem surprised.
The fourth date is with a lovely American woman that Ariadne meets while loitering around LA. Edith has never been involved in dream sharing and expresses no desire to start. She has a sister she lost to the dream, she explains softly, her voice betraying the sorrow she feels. Her sister is now in an institution, constantly demanding more dreaming, no longer satisfied with reality. Her story calls to mind Mal's fits in those final days, the fights, the crying, the obsession with sharp objects. Dom almost asks her for a second date, but thinks of Ariadne home with his children and somehow can't get the words out.
After that date, he locks himself in his room and cries, missing Mal so much he can't breathe. Ariadne yells her concern through the door until she's satisfied that he's okay, and keeps Phillipa and James distracted until he picks up the pieces of himself and puts them back together. As she's getting ready to leave, he wraps her scarf around her neck again, softly. She smiles up at him and the moment passes.
It's during the fifth date that he realizes what's going on.
He's sitting down with a woman that Arthur went to college with when he realizes he would much rather be having dinner with Ariadne instead. The thought is like ice water down his spine, and the moment it's out, he can't shove it back in. It lurks in his mind through the small talk, unlocking all of the other strange moments he's been having lately. It explains the urge he's had to smooth her hair away from her face or call her when he's feeling lonely, and the warm feeling he gets in the pit of his stomach when Phillipa expresses her attachment to Ariadne is suddenly clear.
Ariadne is very young, Dom tries to remind himself. She's barely twenty, she's still a college student, and he's so much older than she is. But age has never seemed an issue in their relationship; she has always ignored the fact that he's older and just run roughshod all over his 'wisdom', calling him on his mistakes and his contradictions and generally not letting him take advantage of anything. No, the age gap is daunting, but mostly because of one simple reason: what would someone as bright and shiny and alive as Ariadne want with washed out, tired Dom Cobb?
"I'm sorry, I've actually got to run," he tells his date. She doesn't look all that offended - she'd been starting to show the bored look that Dom was very familiar with at this point - and he quickly gets up, apologizes to the waiter, and dashes out of the restaurant. He pulls the car into his driveway and sits there for a few moments, unsure of what to do. The fact of the matter is this: he might be falling in love with Ariadne, but there's no way he can act on those feelings.
He wonders what Mal would say, but, like always, Mal is gone.
He goes inside. Ariadne is in the front hallway with James on her back, running around gleefully, and she stops dead in her tracks when the front door opens. Dom grins at her and calmly walks over and divests her of his son, cradling him and giving him a hug.
"Ended early?" she asks.
"This isn't going to work," he tells her, going into the main room. There is a silly children's show on the TV but no one is watching it, so he picks up the remote with his free hand to turn it off. Ariadne snatches the remote from him before he can blink and shakes it at him.
"It will work eventually! You're working through your issues! You're meeting people other than Mal! Don't you want to be happy?" There is so much passion in her eyes, and for a split second, he allows himself to wonder if her investment in his happiness could possibly mean something. He shakes his head to clear his thoughts.
"Ariadne, I'm happy just like this," he says quietly, giving her a long, piercing look. James begins to squirm in his arms and he is forced to let him down, so he almost misses the thoughtful look that crosses her face.
******
A month later, Ariadne shows up on his doorstep unexpectedly on a rainy day. Miles and his wife are in town again and have taken the kids for the day, so Dom is alone with his thoughts before her arrival. She is excited and her eyes are shining, and he lets her drip dry on the welcome mat while she tells him her news.
"The US Department of Oneirology?" he asks, trying to keep a skeptical note out of his voice. "That's government research into dream sharing."
"You act like because it's legal, it's not a legitimate place to look for work," Ariadne accuses. Dom does, in fact, feel that this is true, but he also knows he'll receive any number of judgmental looks from her should he voice his opinion aloud, so he respectfully keeps his mouth shut. "Dom, they're doing legal research into the uses of dream sharing, beyond just using it to commit crimes or plant ideas. Did you know there's a theory that shared dreaming can help treat mental disorders?" She sounds like a brochure, but Dom hasn't seen that passionate spark in her eyes for her own future since they completed the Fischer job, so he lets it go.
"Do you have the credentials they're looking for?" he asks instead.
"Not yet, but I will." She looks more determined than he's ever seen her before. "I have to finish my architecture degree, of course. They're always looking for good architects, and I already know that I can build dreamscapes. I'm going back to Paris and re-enrolling in school. Miles thinks he can get me legal internships where I can design in dreams, so that I can cite that kind of experience." She goes on and on, but all Dom's mind seizes on is 'Paris' and the fact that she will be going far away from him.
"You're leaving?" he asks a little dumbly.
She gives him a patient look. "Well, I can't exactly use you as a reference, now can I?" It's true; if the government knew she'd been involved in a con job like the Fischer job, she'd be out of the running and possibly at the top of their Most Wanted list in a matter of minutes.
"No, you have to go." He knows it, and yet he feels shocked, like reality is burning him once again. "This is your chance, your golden opportunity. It's just…Phillipa and James will miss you." I will miss you. The words go unspoken but they're there.
"Dom," she starts, and then she stops and looks at him quizzically. Her hair is still wet and her lips are very pink, especially when she chews on the bottom one thoughtfully. Before Dom can really register that she's obviously up to something, she is off the welcome mat and wrapping her arms around his neck, pressing her small body up against his. Her face is startling close. Dom hasn't had anyone in such a close proximity to him in a romantic way since Mal left his dreams, and he's not quite sure what to do with it; his blood rushes in his ears and his heart pounds loudly, seeming to echo in the small entryway to his house.
"A-Ariadne?" he asks when she doesn't move, just stays there, watching his face. Something she sees must give her a green light, because she suddenly breaks into a grin and gently presses her mouth against his.
Dom hasn't kissed anybody in a long time, and Ariadne is obviously relatively unpracticed, but he's so surprised that she would ever even consider him in such a context that he really doesn't have time to register this. She kisses in a slightly controlling way, similar to the way she does everything else, keeping her mouth firmly closed but lightly scraping her teeth across his bottom lip without any hesitation, sighing happily. His breath catches in his throat and a hand tangles in her wet hair as he slowly kisses her back, keeping it slow and even.
They pull apart after a moment, and her cheeks are red. She licks her lips thoughtfully. "I like you, Dom," she says, her voice softer than usual. "I like you, and I sent you on all those stupid dates because I thought you'd never in a million years like me, but you have to like someone. You can't stay single and lonely forever." Her expression grows fiercely protective. "I know I'm young and silly and I don't really know what I'm talking about, and I know I just told you I'm leaving to go halfway across the world to chase my dream, but…these have been some of the best months of my life, spending time with you and your family, and…" She looks away, unsure of how to continue.
"I never thought I'd feel this way again," he says in answer. "Ariadne, you're…" He somehow can't put his feelings for her into words, but she smiles happily and he can tell that she gets it. "But you know that I'm a little bit wrecked. I can't give you what you deserve, what you should have, and I'm-"
She breaks out into a grin, like somehow he'd told her it was Christmas morning. She darts in and kisses him again quickly before he can really register what she's doing, and then she's talking so fast he can hardly follow it.
"That's why it's perfect," she says breathlessly. "That's why it works so well. You said you needed years, Dom, and I probably do too. To grow up, to learn. But I have at least a year left to get my degree in Paris, and the US Department of Oneirology has a branch here in LA, so I can come back afterwards." She licks her lips. "I know I'm asking a lot of you when I ask you to wait for me and then give me a chance when I get back, but…"
He shakes his head. It's not much to ask at all. For a man assuming that he'd spend the rest of his life alone, never feeling this way about someone ever again, waiting a couple years to give it a try seems like nothing. These new feelings for Ariadne are fragile and delicate but something very special, and he'll never stop loving Mal, but healing time will be good for both of them.
"I'll wait," he declares. "We'll see what happens when you get back." She grins, bright because this is reality, but somehow with Ariadne there, it no longer seems as harsh. "And you never know," he adds as she jumps at him and hugs him tightly. "I might just end up in Paris on business."
"If you do, you'd better look me up," she says pointedly, and then she's kissing him again and it doesn't matter that she's younger, or that he's jaded, or that life has kicked him in the face a couple dozen times. This is his second chance, and it's time he actually took a leap of faith.