Ariadne did not delude herself into thinking that what she had done with Cobb and the others was anything noble. In reality the entire thing had been motivated by the entire group's greed and selfish desires. She knew that and she was not proud of it. The look in Robert Fischer's eyes when he woke up had made her heart ache a little. There was no doubt in her mind that the idea had taken. The look in his eyes before they went under and the look after were two completely different things. She knew, she was sure, that the inception had taken. At that moment he was turning against the only person who had shown even a little interest in his well being and forgiving a man who did not deserve any forgiveness. It just did not feel right in any sense of the word.
So Ariadne tried to ignore it. She focused on how happy Cobb looked when he passed through customs with no problems. She focused on Arthur and how he said that they should have dinner one day while he was in Paris. She focused on Eames telling her to keep her nose clean before he vanished from sight. She focused on Yusuf and his polite nod as he passed a business card her way in case insomnia from the dreams kicked in. Ariadne tried so hard to focus on anything else but all she could see was Robert Fischer dialing a number on his blackberry and speaking several words that could ruin his life.
"He's a smart man," Arthur said to her not even two weeks later. She did not ask why he was back in Paris so quickly but she was not going to turn down dinner with him by any stretch of the word. Their time together before the job and the conversations after made Ariadne realize more and more each day just how fond of Arthur she really was. "He won't just throw it all in the fire. He'll have some sort of backup plan so that even if his new company falls apart he won't be left with nothing." Two weeks later and there was no word about what Robert Fischer was going to do with his father's company. Arthur mentioned that Saito thought maybe the idea had not taken but she was still so sure that it had.
"Maybe but that still doesn't make me feel any better," Ariadne said as she took another sip of her coffee after a rather lavish meal. "We did more than steal from him and we even did more than just manipulate him. We invaded his mind and altered his perception of his relationship with his father. That just seems like such a line to cross. And the reason we did that? So Saito would lose his competition."
"Perhaps it was a line. I'm not really one to judge," Arthur replied and he reached over to take her hand. "However I do know that Cobb is ignoring every single one of my calls and I couldn't be happier about it."
"That doesn't make any sense," she said as she creased her eyebrows. "Why would him ignoring you be a good thing?"
"Because that means he doesn't want anything to do with this life anymore," he said. "I don't expect that he'll completely cut me out but I do know that he's going to take his sweet time getting back to me. He's happy, Ariadne, happy and back home and for me that is worth whatever I might have done to a stranger." Ariadne did not reply and he did not push the matter further. Instead they finished their coffee as the sun set in Paris. He walked her home and did not protest when she invited him up. Ariadne opened a bottle of wine and the two of them settled on the couch. Arthur told her about the job and all of the things he had seen through it. He was invested in his work completely and Ariadne knew that he was one of those people who, once they found their calling, did absolutely nothing else with their lives. She understood that, to an extent, she really had no other desire for anything outside of architecture but her focus was not nearly as narrowed. Nevertheless Arthur made her smile and after the bottle was gone she did not protest when his fingertips brushed her arm.
"What will you do now that you don't have an extractor anymore?" Ariadne asked as he eased closer to her on the couch.
"I'll find someone else to work with or I'll freelance. I haven't decided which yet," Arthur replied. "I do have someone in mind as a new partner though." He was close now, so close that she could feel his body heat hidden beneath that perfectly pressed suit of his, and it made her heart pound. His voice was low and it made her smile.
"Oh really? Any idea if that person is going to take you up on that offer?" she said and he smiled.
"I'm about to find out." Arthur leaned forward and kissed her lightly on the lips. It reminded her of their kiss in the dream and how brief it had been. Ariadne knew that he was playing it safe and gauging the situation for the best moment but she did not give him a chance to think it over. She took his jacket in her hands and pulled him forward, deepening their kiss. Instead of letting him get the upper hand Ariadne pushed Arthur back so she was straddling his waist. She kissed along his jawline as his hands roamed over her body. Ariadne loosened and yanked off his tie as she sat up, pulled off her shirt, and tossed it aside before she stole his lips into another kiss. His hands were trailing up her spine and Ariadne began to work on the buttons on his shirt. Arthur sat up just enough to ease off his jacket followed by his button down. She racked her hands down his chest and he hissed into her mouth arching his hips. His hands found the button on her jeans as Ariadne ran her hands through his hair. Despite how fast her heart was racing she managed to keep her movements smooth so as to not go into a frenzy.
"You know, this couch isn't exactly comfortable," Ariadne whispered into his mouth and Arthur smiled up at her.
"Would you like to go somewhere more comfortable?" he asked with a smirk.
"Naturally, it would be the most logical thing to do and I do know how much you love your logic," she said as they moved from the couch. Ariadne hooked her fingers through his belt loops and pulled him into her bedroom and did not bother to close the door. They kissed again as he pushed her jeans off her hips and she stepped out of them without tripping over her own feet. She undid the button on Arthur's pants and pushed them down. He kicked them away and she felt his nails dig into her ribcage. Ariadne pushed Arthur back onto the bed and crawled on top of him, laying light kisses along his torso. His breath hitched and when they kissed again his hands moved to undo the clasp of her bra.
"Ariadne," Arthur managed to say between kisses, "we're missing a key element here that I don't think should be overlooked." She grinned and reached into her nightstand to pull out a condom.
"And you think you're the only one who's always prepared for anything," Ariadne said and she laughed when he flipped them over to shed the last of their clothing. He pushed into her slow and Ariadne let out a low groan which Arthur subdued with another kiss. They moved slowly at first before the heat of it all became too much to handle. Any semblance of control was lost and Ariadne cried out when the orgasm took hold. Arthur continued through and did not slow down nor stop until he came with a shout and collapsed on the bed. They lay together in a mess of sweat and tangled limbs. Ariadne pulled him close so his head rested on her chest and she ran her hands through Arthur's hair. "I don't know if I can do it anymore," she said after a long silence.
"Are you referring to this or something else?" Arthur asked and he sounded smug.
"I'm talking about extraction, I'm talking about everything that you do, I don't know if I can do that," she said and he moved so they were looking into each other's eyes. Ariadne tried to find something in those brown eyes but they revealed nothing.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"No, I'm not," she said and Arthur tilted his head to the side.
"Why don't you think it over before you make any decisions?" he suggested and it was so like him to try and think everything through as much as possible. Ariadne did not push the matter any further; she just lay there in bed with him until she drifted off to sleep.
Arthur had a hotel room across town but he rarely stayed in it. He would leave for a few hours to change and shower but he always came back to her apartment. They spent the majority of their days in bed because for the life of her Ariadne could not get enough of this man. The sex was mind blowing and the more time she spent with Arthur, the more she realized that her feelings for him were much stronger than she realized. The way he kissed her each time they embraced, so soft and tender, made her think that he felt the same way. Still she was not sure what she wanted to do. Classes were going to start up soon and she wanted to finish her degree yet at the same time she also knew that Arthur wanted her to go with him. The idea of forming dreamworlds all the time was tempting but the inception had been so hard emotionally that she was not sure she could handle it. Ariadne toyed with both ideas for a month and a half before a familiar face on the television caught her eye.
"Arthur, turn it up," Ariadne said and Arthur narrowed his eyes as he turned up the volume. A picture of Robert Fischer was on the screen.
"Once one of the wealthiest men in the world Robert Fischer has lost everything according to reports," a woman on the screen said and Ariadne felt her blood run cold. "After breaking up his late father's empire with little warning, the backlash from investors came in the form of lawsuits. After weeks in court the claims have left the multimillionaire with nothing to his name. After the breakup Fischer spoke of starting his own company but with no financial backing it seems unlikely. Those close to Fischer have stated that he seems agitated and keeps complaining about how something feels 'wrong' with no further explanations. He is currently on suicide watch as we wait for this story to develop." Arthur turned off the television and the two of them sat in complete silence.
"We did this to him," Ariadne whispered.
"Ariadne, we had no way-" he tried but she stood and stared at him in disbelief.
"We did this, we put that idea in his head, and now he's lost everything. He knows something is wrong up there and now he's going out of his mind. We ruined his life," she said her voice getting louder with each word.
"There are always these risks when we do jobs. That's just the way things are," Arthur said as he stood and he put his hands on her upper arms. "With any illegal act there's always a chance for severe consequences." Ariadne stared at him before she moved out his touch.
"You don't feel any guilt, do you?" she asked and Arthur would not meet her eyes. "You really don't think you're responsible for this, do you? You think that just because you planted the idea, it doesn't mean you're to blame? How could you?"
"Of course I feel responsible, Ariadne. I watched Mal deteriorate in front of my eyes and now I know what caused that. I know, first hand, how damaging inception can be but I also know that we don't have any control over how the mark reacts to the idea," he said and he just sounded so cold, so calculating, as if this was nothing to worry about. As if this was normal.
"Is that how you sleep at night? How do you live with yourself knowing you destroyed someone's life? How do you live with yourself knowing that you've broken into someone's mind and stolen their secrets like a petty thief?" Ariadne was shouting now as she pointed at the now blank television. "How will you feel if Robert Fischer commits suicide because of what we did? What will you do then?" There was a long silence as her question hung heavy in the room. She wanted to cry, she wanted to scream, she wanted to run to Fischer and tell him how sorry she was. "What will you do, Arthur?"
"Nothing," Arthur said. "I won't do anything, I won't change anything, I will keep doing my job and I will keep taking jobs."
"Without hesitation and without remorse?" she asked.
"Exactly," his voice was steady and she hated him for it. She hated how he could just brush this off as nothing important.
"I can't do this, I won't do that, ever again. I don't know how I'm going to live with myself as it is," Ariadne said and she closed her eyes tightly. "And I can't be with anyone who does." When she opened her eyes Arthur still had that completely blank expression on his face.
"Are you asking me to choose between you and my work?" Arthur asked and the flat tone of his voice made her chest ache.
"Yes, yes I am," she whispered. He stared at her from across the room for a long time and she could see the wheels in his head turning. Ariadne was not even sure if they really had anything long term together but she knew how she felt when he touched her, when he kissed her, because you did not touch someone like that if you were not invested. Arthur walked across the room and pulled her into a soft kiss. She closed her eyes and let the vise that was clenching her chest fade. He was here, he was with her, and that meant he wanted to stay. Ariadne could not hide her smile when they broke their kiss and she pressed her forehead to his. "Thank you," she whispered.
The sun shinning through her window woke Ariadne up. She blinked back the last of sleep and rolled over to greet Arthur but the bed was empty. The clock on her desk flashed 9AM and he was known to wake up early. She pulled on a robe and walked out into her living room. There was no coffee pot brewing or breakfast waiting for her. The room was just empty with no trace that he was ever there. Ariadne picked up her cell phone and dialed Arthur's number with every intention of asking him why he felt the need to sneak out like they were having an affair.
"We're sorry but the number you have dialed has been disconnected," a voice on the phone said and she felt her heart start to pound. She tried the number again and got the same result. Ariadne raced into her room and threw on some clothes. There had to be some sort of explanation for all of this, maybe he needed to change numbers so no one from the mind crime world could contact him? She barely remembered to lock her door as she raced out into the street and called a cab. Under any other circumstance she would have taken the train but panic was beginning to settle in.
She arrived at the hotel and walked too fast to the elevator. Arthur had taken her to the suite once after dinner and she knew exactly what the room number was. The elevator ride felt so slow that she was ready to run a sprint when it arrived on the right floor. Ariadne knocked on the door a few times and when there was the sound of someone coming to answer it she felt relieved. "I'm going to smack him for making me worry like that," she said to no one as the door opened and revealed a maid.
"Yes, may I help you?" the woman asked.
"Yes, is there any chance you could tell me where the man who was staying in this room went? He's not answering his phone and I was wondering if you had talked to him or anything before you came to clean the room." Ariadne tried to speak slowly and calmly but the maid just stared at her.
"No one is staying in this room, ma'am. The person staying here checked out very early this morning," she said and Ariadne tried to keep her face as blank as possible. "Maybe someone at the front desk can help you?"
"No, no, I'm sure he'll call me back," Ariadne managed to say before she turned and took the elevator back down. She did ask the person working the desk and they told her the same thing: Arthur had checked out at roughly four in the morning. She flipped her phone open and called the only person in the world that might know where Arthur could have gone in such a hurry.
"This is Dom, how can I help you?" Cobb's voice said over the line.
"Cobb, hi, it's Ariadne," she said in an even voice.
"Oh, hello, I was wondering when you would call. Is this about what you saw on the news?" he asked.
"No, well a little, I was just wondering if you had heard from Arthur at all. He was here and now he's up and vanished and I thought maybe something came up? Is he okay?" Ariadne asked and there was a long pause.
"He did call me and leave a message," Cobb said carefully. "He wanted me to tell you something if you called."
"What did he say?" she said as she held her breath.
"Just that he wishes you 'good luck.' Does that mean anything to you?" Cobb asked but Ariadne hung up the phone. She sat on the steps of the hotel and tried to even her breathing though the words kept echoing in her head over and over again. No forwarding number, no goodbye, just a message passed on that said 'good luck.' She thought of how he had not said that he had made a decision, that all he had done was kiss her, and that kiss took on new meaning. It was 'goodbye' because he had already made his decision. Arthur had chosen work over her, he had chosen work over what they had, he had chosen work over what they could have been, he had chosen work and left with no explanation and no farewells.
"Good luck, he wished me good luck," Ariadne repeated as she threw a small stone into the street. "Goodbye to you too, Arthur."