Ariadne was not, on the whole, a timid person. She'd always had a tendency to jump head-first into things, so if there were any butterflies in her stomach, they were anticipatory, not nervous.
Not that there was a whole lot of difference.
And she knew Arthur. Okay, not long, and not very well, given that most of their conversations up to this point had always been about work - the job. But she knew enough to know that he liked her, he liked spending time with her as much as she liked spending time with him. And he was attracted to her, if their make-out session in her dream the day before had been any indication.
She wasn't any kind of seductress, but the skirt she wore showed off her legs, just a bit, and the lipstick was just red enough to draw attention to her mouth. Chalk it up to vanity.
When the buzzer rang, she had just taken a curling iron to her hair, why, she wasn't sure. It was already wavy, down around her shoulders.
Oddly enough, when she got downstairs and actually saw him, she relaxed, instantly at ease again.
( ... )
"Historical preservation is a tricky business," Arthur said, accepting his plate of food with a nod of thanks and absently shifting his napkin to his lap. "But I think it's always better to upkeep something from the start than to have it break and then try to fix it. It's never the same. Rome is... amazing. Did you go to Venice?"
"Oh yeah," she said. "Now there's a place where preservation would be tricky. Makes for a good maze, though." All those canals, and arches. One always ran out of solid ground eventually. She ate, but it was sort of mechanical, because she was suddenly thinking about a canal-city in a dream, all the impossible things she could do with it.
"Any trickery and the entire city's going to sink before they can catch it. But it's a beautiful place." The concept of what to do when one ran out of solid ground was actually a good test for an architect, Arthur supposed. It could add a layer to a layer--if you would.
He ate too, watching Ariadne unobtrusively. He enjoyed her company like this, was glad that it was still easy outside of the job, just to talk to her. Arthur didn't find a lot of people like that--for a myraid of reasons.
It was possibly something to do with the fact that she was young, and had never done this before, but Ariadne simply hadn't given any thought to the fact that criminals might not go out to dinner and socialize much.
Frankly, during the entire job she'd barely given a thought to the fact that it was illegal - she knew it was, but (again, if she'd thought about it), she'd been very sheltered.
So she had no problem eating dinner with a man who'd been doing dangerous and highly illegal things since before she'd considered smoking weed and necking in the backseat of a car to be a risky venture. All she thought about was how attractive he was when he smiled.
"So what's the most interesting place you've ever been?" she asked next.
Arthur didn't like to think of his job as illegal, he liked to think of it as...
Alright, so it was more or less illegal. But the truth was that most of their marks were high-payed and -powered men and woman whose morals were as loose as those of their targets. Fischer hadn't been a saint, for all his daddy issues. It just helped, Arthur thought, to keep a little perspective. And with his specific position it was easy.
Arthur swallowed his mouthful and wiped his hands on his napkin, considering. "Interesting?" He'd been all over the world; sometimes it felt like he'd been traveling all his life. "There's a mountain in Japan... it's a tourist trap." Arthur smiled, a little. "It's actually called Monkey Mountain. Monkeys all over the place. But when you get to the top..."
He paused and shook his head, picking up his wine glass. "I've never seen a better view, anywhere."
"Really." She studied him for a moment over the rim of her own wine glass. "I haven't been to Japan yet. I'll make sure Monkey Mountain is on my to-do list when I go." There was no question of if for Ariadne. She'd been making lists of places to visit for as long as she could remember. Her travels so far had been mostly limited to Europe, but maybe with a bigger budget she'd be able to expand her horizons farther.
"Japan is amazing. Culturally they hold onto so much even while trying to find the next new thing... Tokyo's got skyscrapers fighting for space with shrines. It's really something to see."
Arthur took a drink of wine, glancing at Ariadne over the rim of his glass. It hadn't occurred to him that he knew almost nothing about her. "Do you have any family? Siblings?"
"Oh, yeah." She waved a hand eloquently. It had been shockingly easy to set all of that aside over the past few weeks, and lose herself in the dream world - family was just so mundane compared to what she'd experienced. "Mom and step-dad, and a half brother back in Hudson, New York." She gave Arthur a wry smile. "It's pretty there, but nothing much ever happens. Where are you from?"
"Nothing like getting to build a dream, you mean?" Arthur smiled. He took another bite before answering her question. "I was born in D.C., but by the time I was in school we were in Germany. And then Switzerland. And then South Korea." He shrugged. "My dad's Army."
"Even when there's no possibility of altering the laws of physics, I prefer city life," she commented lightly.
"An Army brat, huh. So maybe that's why he's so quiet, doesn't seem to make friends easily." She was teasing, a little, but it made sense. Arthur always seemed very self-contained.
"I think we should try this dancing thing," she said suddenly, "before I lose my nerve."
"There's a difference between being able to make friends and wanting to," Arthur replied, only the twitch of a corner of his mouth telling the lie of his flat tone. Truth was Ariadne wasn't far off the mark--Arthur had learned young to entertain himself and the habit had stuck.
He took one last drink of wine and stood up, offering his hand with a cheerful slant of a grin. "I won't let anything terrible happen, I promise."
Absurdly, she was reminded of her first dream-share, when she'd woken in a panic, feeling the ghost of Mal's blade in her belly, and Arthur had brought her back to reality with a hand on her arm and his low voice telling her she was okay.
Since then, trusting him had come as easily as breathing to Ariadne.
"Well, when you put it like that," she said, taking his hand and letting him lead her upstairs, to the source of that music. It did sort of make her want to get up and dance, if she just knew the steps.
If nothing else, Arthur could teach her the steps. And he focused on getting them up the stairs instead of the feel of her hand in his; it was... innocent in a way he hadn't been in a long time.
Absurdly, he found himself wondering if she was a virgin.
The quick pound of the music was enough to shake the thought from his mind. Arthur turned to look at Ariadne, pulling her to a spot on the edge of the dance floor. There were plenty of people already dancing--more were packed in around the edges or sitting at the bar around the raised dance space near the band.
"Ready?" The basic rock-step was easy. Arthur slipped one of his arms around her, his hand resting against the small of her back--just where it had been in the dream yesterday. Step to the right, step to the left, lean back, again.
It took her a moment or two, but once she got the feel of the beat it was pretty easy. She only stepped on Arthur's toes once, despite the somewhat-distracting warmth of Arthur's hand on her back.
Ariadne had never been particularly prone to laughter, but she laughed now, because of all the weird things she'd seen and done lately, this was the most completely innocent and relaxing. "Where did you pick this up, anyway?"
Arthur took being stepped on well enough; after all, Ariadne's hardly heavy enough to actually break toes. He is glad when she starts to fall into the rhythm of it, though. "My mother," he says, in the middle of a right-left-rock. "She danced."
He pushed Ariadne out, a light but firm pressure against her hip that was an easy enough direction to spin out to the end of their grip. When she came in they were back-to-front. "Think you can do it backward?" he asked, a soft tease in the words against her ear.
Not that there was a whole lot of difference.
And she knew Arthur. Okay, not long, and not very well, given that most of their conversations up to this point had always been about work - the job. But she knew enough to know that he liked her, he liked spending time with her as much as she liked spending time with him. And he was attracted to her, if their make-out session in her dream the day before had been any indication.
She wasn't any kind of seductress, but the skirt she wore showed off her legs, just a bit, and the lipstick was just red enough to draw attention to her mouth. Chalk it up to vanity.
When the buzzer rang, she had just taken a curling iron to her hair, why, she wasn't sure. It was already wavy, down around her shoulders.
Oddly enough, when she got downstairs and actually saw him, she relaxed, instantly at ease again. ( ... )
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He ate too, watching Ariadne unobtrusively. He enjoyed her company like this, was glad that it was still easy outside of the job, just to talk to her. Arthur didn't find a lot of people like that--for a myraid of reasons.
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Frankly, during the entire job she'd barely given a thought to the fact that it was illegal - she knew it was, but (again, if she'd thought about it), she'd been very sheltered.
So she had no problem eating dinner with a man who'd been doing dangerous and highly illegal things since before she'd considered smoking weed and necking in the backseat of a car to be a risky venture. All she thought about was how attractive he was when he smiled.
"So what's the most interesting place you've ever been?" she asked next.
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Alright, so it was more or less illegal. But the truth was that most of their marks were high-payed and -powered men and woman whose morals were as loose as those of their targets. Fischer hadn't been a saint, for all his daddy issues. It just helped, Arthur thought, to keep a little perspective. And with his specific position it was easy.
Arthur swallowed his mouthful and wiped his hands on his napkin, considering. "Interesting?" He'd been all over the world; sometimes it felt like he'd been traveling all his life. "There's a mountain in Japan... it's a tourist trap." Arthur smiled, a little. "It's actually called Monkey Mountain. Monkeys all over the place. But when you get to the top..."
He paused and shook his head, picking up his wine glass. "I've never seen a better view, anywhere."
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Arthur took a drink of wine, glancing at Ariadne over the rim of his glass. It hadn't occurred to him that he knew almost nothing about her. "Do you have any family? Siblings?"
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"An Army brat, huh. So maybe that's why he's so quiet, doesn't seem to make friends easily." She was teasing, a little, but it made sense. Arthur always seemed very self-contained.
"I think we should try this dancing thing," she said suddenly, "before I lose my nerve."
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He took one last drink of wine and stood up, offering his hand with a cheerful slant of a grin. "I won't let anything terrible happen, I promise."
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Since then, trusting him had come as easily as breathing to Ariadne.
"Well, when you put it like that," she said, taking his hand and letting him lead her upstairs, to the source of that music. It did sort of make her want to get up and dance, if she just knew the steps.
Reply
Absurdly, he found himself wondering if she was a virgin.
The quick pound of the music was enough to shake the thought from his mind. Arthur turned to look at Ariadne, pulling her to a spot on the edge of the dance floor. There were plenty of people already dancing--more were packed in around the edges or sitting at the bar around the raised dance space near the band.
"Ready?" The basic rock-step was easy. Arthur slipped one of his arms around her, his hand resting against the small of her back--just where it had been in the dream yesterday. Step to the right, step to the left, lean back, again.
Reply
Ariadne had never been particularly prone to laughter, but she laughed now, because of all the weird things she'd seen and done lately, this was the most completely innocent and relaxing. "Where did you pick this up, anyway?"
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He pushed Ariadne out, a light but firm pressure against her hip that was an easy enough direction to spin out to the end of their grip. When she came in they were back-to-front. "Think you can do it backward?" he asked, a soft tease in the words against her ear.
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