A Higher Law Chapter 1 - A Fully Formed Idea
Title: A Higher Law
Fandom: Inception
Series: Three Is More Than Just Company
Pairing: Ariadne/Arthur/Eames
Summary: Just because there's no way for the three of them to get married outside a dream doesn't mean they can't thwart the system.
Author's Note: A fill for this Round 7 prompt: They can't all three be legally married, so they decide to sneakily get married in twos in different countries (e.g. Arthur/Eames in Canada, Arthur/Ariadne in France, Ariadne/Eames in the U.S., you get the idea). Let's see their three marriages, and one in a dream for all three.
Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law. - Boethius
Ariadne is lying in her usual spot between Arthur and Eames, feeling pleasantly exhausted after a job done well and a celebration gone even better - her scarf and Arthur's tie will probably never be the same, but they're sacrifices well worth it to her mind - when she gets an idea. She doesn't say anything at the time, because ideas like that which pop up in afterglow need to be thought over when a girl's mind is just a bit clearer.
So she thinks it over the next day, as she works on a sketch of a garden maze, inspired by pictures she's seen of the royal gardens at Hampton Court and Versailles. Right now it's just a basic idea, not for any job in particular, but these sketches are what she uses to develop more specific things later. But while she sketches, she looks at the silver ring on her left hand and thinks. By dinnertime, she's decided that her idea is actually a very good one. Now to convince the boys...
“You know, I've been thinking,” she says after swallowing a bite of green beans.
“Uh-oh,” Arthur teases. “What about?”
“Well...” She twists the ring on her finger, and both men's eyes fly to her hand. “I know there's no legal way for all three of us to make these official, but I don't see why that should stop us. We could do it by twos, three times, under different names. Even different countries, if we wanted. We have enough aliases for it.”
Arthur looks surprised, but not unhappy with the idea. Eames, on the other hand, is looking at her with narrowed eyes, but she doesn't think he's upset either. Rather, she thinks he's got an idea of his own. “We could follow those up with a dream,” he says, tapping his fingers on the table. “We can do whatever we want in a dream, so we could set up something for all three of us. A finale, if you will.”
“This is crazy,” Arthur says, but then he grins. “And it's also a great idea.”
“The best ones usually are,” Ariadne says easily.
“Just out of curiosity,” Eames says, “does this have anything to do with you catching your cousin's bouquet? You know, fulfilling tradition?”
Ariadne blinks, surprised by the question. “No, it does not,” she said with mock-outrage.
Arthur just laughs at the both of them.
~ ~ ~
They have logistics to work out, of course. Normally that's Arthur's job, but he's not going to set this up on his own. So they talk it out after dinner, debating where to go and what aliases to use. Eames says he and Arthur should have their civil ceremony in England, since it's legal across the country there, not in just some parts like the U.S. Ariadne wants one of the ceremonies in Paris, sinceshe lived there for two years, and Arthur wants one of them in the States. Finally they decide that Eames and Arthur will have their ceremony in London, Ariadne and Arthur will be in New York City, and Ariadne and Eames will be in Paris.
As for the dream ceremony, they debate layouts for hours, and then Ariadne has another brainwave. She gets her sketchbook and shows them the designs she'd been working on all day. “How about this?”
Eames and Arthur look at it, at each other, and finally at her. She can tell she's won before either of them say anything.
Now the question is who the witnesses are going to be. Arthur and Ariadne are going to be first. They're going for a civil ceremony, which is nice and simple. Those require that a person applies for a license and then waits three days. They also need two witnesses. One of those is going to be Eames because they've decided that whichever one of them isn't getting married will act as witness, but they need someone else.
“What about Cobb? I mean, if it wasn't for inception, we probably wouldn't be together now,” Ariadne points out.
“Please tell me you're not going to thank him for that miserable cock-up,” Eames grumbles.
“Of course not, but Ari has a point, and he is our friend. He can also be trusted to remember we're using fake names,” Arthur says mildly.
So they call Cobb. He's happy to do it, though he asks them if they really want to use aliases. After all, Eames could forge divorce papers, but Ariadne points out that doing that would just complicate things. “It makes it more likely that we'd get caught, and that's trouble we don't need,” she tells him over the phone. In the background, Arthur mutters that this is why Cobb needed him; the other man never thinks about the little things. Eames laughs at him, and Ariadne tells them both to be quiet.
Cobb agrees to meet them in New York City in a week's time, and then Ariadne gets off the phone. “Well, we're set,” she says with a smile.
~ ~ ~
The thing about weddings is this. They're not simple things, and even when you try to keep them simple... Somehow, they just don't stay that way.
Chapter 2