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Tweak says, "No Jess, Doug is mine."

Eames (dream_bigger) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2010-10-28 15:41:00

Entry tags:

!closed, *log, ariadne, eames

WHO: Eames and Ariadne!
WHAT: Rooftop mopery
WHEN: Nowish
WHERE: Rooftop of Building A
RATING: Mopey
STATUS: In progress

Eames had spent most of the day painting. Alternating between his dancers and the first of the pair of Warhol-esque motorbikes he was painting for Sirius, he'd lost complete track of time and hadn't even managed to stop for a tea-break, which was shocking behaviour altogether. He'd moved his easels over to beside the window so that he could make the most of the natural light, and so that he could smoke continuously. Priorities, he had them.

Eventually, the frantic "feed me!" feelings in his stomach got through to his brain, so he managed to stop painting and went to rummage around in the kitchen for the makings of a sandwich. He'd been having horrific ideas about getting an actual job and needed to get someone to distract him from those thoughts, so he made enough food for three, and then decided to go looking for Ariadne because he knew if he went looking for Arthur, he'd only end up letting himself get distracted by Arthur's ...well, everything, and coherent thought would go straight out the window. They weren't on a job now, after all. Ariadne, as gorgeous and brilliant as she was, did not yet possess the ability to steal Eames' higher thought processes without even trying, so he would go and talk to her.

Then he realised the time.

Then he realised that he hadn't seen Ariadne all day, which was odd. She should have been back from work a while ago if the clock was actually correct, and he had no reason to doubt it. How bizarre.

He found his PDA and checked it to see if she'd posted, but there was nothing. Huh. He searched for her last few posts and found where she'd told Sirius she was on the roof (and he felt like protesting but then remembered that he could be quite noisy at times, no matter what he was doing, and so he just shrugged and let it go) so he lifted the sandwiches and headed up there just in case.

He hesitated before opening the door, remembering the last time he'd been on the roof, but that was over and he seemed to be the only one who still thought about that horrible evening, so he shook it off and went outside. "Ariadne, my lovely, are you here? I've made some sandwiches, if you are and want some."

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labyrinthine
2010-10-28 05:28 pm UTC (link)

Ariadne had been spending a lot of time on the roof lately. Sure. it had been the site of one of the strangest nights she'd ever had, but it was spacious and afforded her an excellent view of the sky. More importantly, it was usually empty. And she had been craving privacy lately. So she would climb the stairs (not thinking about Penrose steps or Escher drawings if she could help it) and sit on the roof. Most of the time she spent sketching, not just designs for dreams but other things as well.

Currently she was working on a drawing that referenced Escher. hopefully without ripping him off too blatantly; a braided waterfall with stylized waves and curls of water, with fish leaping from place to place. She had her ipod on and didn't hear the door open. and she started when Eames called out. "Sorry, what? Hi." Ariadne took out her earbuds and turned, not bothering to get up. Oh, great, this was why she'd come up to the roof in the first place.

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dream_bigger
2010-10-28 07:42 pm UTC (link)

He looked round when he heard her and smiled despite her obvious irritation. "Sandwiches. Would you like some? I made too many for myself." He crossed over to where she was sitting, and sat down facing her, stretching his legs out and crossing them at the ankles. The sandwiches were placed in between them, and then he lifted one of them and started eating it.

"If I'd planned better, I'd have brought up some napkins, perhaps some entrées, definitely a bottle of wine or two. As it is, I could nip back down and make us some tea, if you'd like?"

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labyrinthine
2010-10-29 02:11 am UTC (link)

"No, I'm good, thanks." Actually she hadn't been eating much at all lately - and didn't that make her feel like a fucking cliche? But the thought of food still made her stomach churn and her throat feel like it was closing up. The pencil spun between her fingers before drumming on the paper. "And don't trouble yourself." A bottle of wine? Sure. Right. Her tolerance for his teasing was much lower these days.

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dream_bigger
2010-10-29 01:46 pm UTC (link)

"You're good. Of course you are. Well then, don't mind me," he said, and continued to eat his rather lovely cheese and raspberry jam sandwich. A huge mug of tea would have gone down an absolute treat with the sandwich, he realised, but he didn't fancy risking Ariadne walking off while he went back downstairs. Not when she so obviously needed to have a right good bitching session about something or someone.

He very carefully paid her no attention at all while he ate. Then he shifted positions and sat facing her with one knee up in the air, and bracing himself with the opposite hand. Huh, he had a big streak of red along his forearm. How had he missed that? He looked up from discovering where he'd painted himself and looked at Ariadne. "You know, I'm not sure if I believe you. That you're good. There's a little something niggling at me, that makes me think you're a lot more not-good than good. But perhaps I'm wrong. Am I?"

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labyrinthine
2010-10-29 01:58 pm UTC (link)

Ariadne had reconciled herself to the company and gone back to her drawing while Eames ate, adding sinuous lines of ripples along the waves and making the spray of foam at the base a little thicker. She glanced up when Eames spoke and was ready to deny his statement. Instead she let out a huff of breath. "You read people for a living, Eames. When you're not actively involved in stealing stuff. You know I'm not okay, and I bet you even know exactly why. So can we skip the part where you tease it out of me?"

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dream_bigger
2010-10-29 08:30 pm UTC (link)

"So you're okay with discussing this, then?" Because asking him to skip forward implied that they were about to be having this discussion. Clarification was always good, though. Not that he'd ever say such a thing out loud, of course. Arthur would probably never let him hear the end of it. "I like your shading, by the way. And the fish looked excellent when I was walking past. But yes. I'm... worried is too strong a word. Concerned, maybe? Yes. Concerned. About you, my dear."

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labyrinthine
2010-10-29 08:44 pm UTC (link)

"Do I have a choice?" she asked, more rhetorically than anything else. Ariadne could already feel a sick flip-flop in her chest. But if they didn't talk about it, it wasn't like they could avoid the topic or each other indefinitely. "I mean, I appreciate your concern, but I don't know that talking it out with you is really going to help." Especially given that he was about half of what was currently upsetting her. Ariadne found herself wishing suddenly for Miles, who would have offered her a cup of tea and a bit of quiet companionship in his office and not asked her uncomfortable questions about her innermost feelings.

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dream_bigger
2010-10-29 10:09 pm UTC (link)

"Of course you have a choice. There's always a choice. For example, you can choose to have a sandwich while we talk, or to stay hungry. They're good sandwiches too. That one is cheese and jam, and those two are peanut butter and jam. Raspberry jam. With the pips in," he said, then paused while she continued talking.

"Talking with me isn't going to help? Well, I can only assume from that statement that it's either something I have no knowledge of, however unlikely that may sound, or... I'm the problem, or at least, part of it."

He had suspected as much, given her reactions to pretty much everything since they'd arrived here. Sometimes he forgot that she was still so young compared to Arthur and himself. Not in terms of chronological age, but in terms of experience. He'd long since given up on counting the amount of extra time he'd gained from dreaming, but in the course of his training, he'd had multiple sessions where he'd spent months in a two-layer dream, only to wake up and discover that he hadn't even slept for a full night. Arthur had no doubt had similar experiences. Ariadne had such a mature head on her most times that he repeatedly had to remind himself that she was still only a student. This was possibly going to be awkward... hence her comment on the network the other day, of course.

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labyrinthine
2010-10-29 10:45 pm UTC (link)

"Cheese and jam? Wow, now I'm really not hungry," she said, making a face. And then he was getting to the point, more or less, and Ariadne let out a breath. "You're not really the problem. It's all in my head." Fuck it: in for a penny, in for a pound.

"I'm just a stupid little girl with a stupid little crush." She looked down, letting her hair curtain her face. "Well. Two crushes. Same difference." Because it wasn't one or the other, and even if she'd had the choice she wouldn't have been able to choose. And no amount of curly hair could hide how red she suspected her face was. "I want what I can't have. It's not like that's a unique problem."

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dream_bigger
2010-10-31 01:35 am UTC (link)

"At least try something before you decide it's disgusting, silly," he said with a small smile. The smile faded as he listened to Ariadne explaining what was bothering her, and it only confirmed his suspicions. Shit. If it had been anyone, anyone else, he'd have simply said something along the lines of "Tough shit, learn to fucking deal with it," but it wasn't anyone else. It was Ariadne, and he really did care an awful lot about her. Just not in the way she obviously wanted.

Shit.

"No, no, no. No, it's not a unique problem, but. Right. You're not some stupid little girl, okay? You're brilliant. You're intelligent and funny, and you have this amazing ability to cut through Cobb's bullshit, it's wonderful, I wish you'd bottle it and sell it to me, and you are well on your way to becoming the best architect I've ever worked with, and that's saying something. Not to mention that you're gorgeous beyond belief. If I was looking for a girlfriend, I'd have to be clinically insane if I looked at someone other than your wonderful self. But... but I love Arthur, and he feels the same about me."

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labyrinthine
2010-10-31 01:48 am UTC (link)

The "learn to fucking deal with it" path was the conclusion Ariadne had come to on her own. It just wasn't working out as well as she'd planned, clearly. As Eames praised her to the skies she felt a wave of emotion rising up. Her eyes started prickling in a way that was becoming all too familiar these days, and she rubbed at them with the heel of her hand.

"Believe me, I know." She hated herself for sounding so choked up. "And it's not like I want you guys to break up, it was obviously really hard for you to even get together. I'm glad you make each other happy. And if I could stop feeling like this, I would. I can't flip it off like a light switch, though. But I don't have an option other than sucking it up and getting over it. Pining for dudes who don't want me got old back in high school." Fuck, she did not want to cry. Not in front of him, not when they were talking about this subject.

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