Chapter Text
Ariadne decides against spending Christmas with her family this year. She’s still too worked up from Inception. She still has too much unused energy from discovering dreaming and from being part of the team that accomplished the impossible.
She almost died for God’s sake, there was no way she could have just gone back home and acted like nothing had happened, like she was the same boring Ariadne who was studying architecture in Paris.
Instead, she accepts Cobb’s offer to spend Christmas in California with him and the kids. After Inception, Cobb started treating her like family. She didn’t know if it was out of some misguided sense of gratitude, or if he wanted to make sure she didn’t make the same mistakes he did, but Ariadne was grateful. She loved the kids and she loved having someone she could go to for advice when she needed it, a veteran she could fall back on.
Her flight out of Paris was delayed because a flight from Germany was late, she misses her connection flight and ends up arriving in California approximately 15 hours later than she was supposed to, so Ariadne ends up taking a cab from the airport to the Cobb residence. It’s 2 in the morning, so she opens the door with the spare key that Cobb tapes to the back of a loose plank and tries to be quiet about lugging her bags through the foyer.
“Can’t you give them each one present, from both you?” Ariadne hears Cobb’s voice in the kitchen. He has the phone tucked against his shoulder and is whisking something. Apparently getting his children back wasn’t enough to cure his insomnia.
“You bought my children a cotton candy machine?” Cobb asks, sounding horrified. Ariadne smirks and waves as she catches his eye. She isn’t sure who he’s talking to, she’d guess Marie or Professor Miles, but neither one seem the type to buy a cotton candy machine and Marie is flying in tomorrow.
“My house guest is here, we’re discussing this cotton candy business tomorrow.” Cobb says, trying to sound threatening, and hangs up. “Hey, Ariadne. How was your flight?”
“You mean aside from the part where I was stuck waiting in JFK for ten hours?”Ariadne says grinning.
“The guest room is all made up if you want to try to get some sleep.” Cobb says and Ariadne nods, sensing Cobb really isn’t the mood to talk right now.
“Yeah, sure.”
The next day is crazy, Marie shows up at 6AM and the kids wake up at 8 demanding that Ariadne help them make a gingerbread house and little gingerbread men and women to go with it. She tells them her elf spies up at the north pole said something about a really big surprise, just in case Cobb gets any ideas about stealing the cotton candy machine.
She manages to sneak away and peek at the presents that are being hidden in the hallway closet, and is surprised to see that the card on the biggest box has Arthur’s name on the inside. She wonders who the other person Cobb was talking about. There are a lot of presents from people Ariadne doesn’t know, apparently the children are well loved by many, and any one of them could be Arthur’s partner.
She’s surprised to find a small pile of presents with her name on them. Phillipa, James and Cobb have all gotten her something, but she’s surprised to see presents from Arthur, Eames and Professor Miles too.
Ariadne realizes that she has no idea what Arthur or Eames are doing this Christmas. She knows Cobb mentioned that the two of them were coming to visit after New Year’s and spend some time with the children, but she had no idea if either of them had any family or friends.
Arthur avoided all personal questions and resisted any opportunity to extend his relationship with Ariadne past a professional one. Eames was more forthcoming, but every other answer he gave was so obviously a lie that she had just stopped asking.
It frustrated Ariadne, because there were only a handful of people in the world who had anything to do with Inception, and aside from Cobb none of them wanted anything to do with each other afterwards. They’d all put their lives on the line together, they’d all done what everyone thought couldn’t be done, and yet everyone was content to just walk away. Ariadne at least expected top secret Skype calls once a month.
But, Ariadne thinks, looking at her presents, she might have been wrong about Arthur and Eames. They’ve both done a lot for her, more than they needed to. They hired her when no one else would, back when the only thing on her resume was Inception (which actually meant she had nothing on her resume). They put up with her because Cobb asked for their help and really Cobb had no right to ask Arthur for anything anymore.
Maybe Ariadne needs to stop trying to define her relationships the way she used to. Maybe friendship means something different now.
She set her presents down before she could be tempted to open them, and went to finish putting the finish touches on the gingerbread house she’d helped James and Phillipa construct. Later, when the kids have put cookies and milk out for Santa and gone to bed, she approaches Cobb and asks about Arthur.
“He’s with his family.”
“So ...he does have a family?”
“Oh yeah. A pretty big one. He’s Jewish on his father’s side.”
“Do you have a phone number or something I could call him at?”
Cobb dials the number for her, saying Arthur would probably kill him if he just gave her the number, and she has to wait for a few rings before the someone picks up.
“‘ello?” a little girl’s voice says.
“Um, hi. I’m looking for Arthur?”
“Uncle Arthur!” the little girl yells and Ariadne wonders if she made the right decision, calling Arthur like this. She has a split second of panic where she considers hanging up before Arthur can get to the phone, but then she hears his voice on the line and the panic passes.
“Mimi, who is it? Hello?”
“H-Hey Arthur, it’s Ariadne.”
“Oh.” Arthur says, and there’s an uncomfortable pause. “Merry Christmas, Ariadne.”
“You too. That’s why I called...to wish you a Merry Christmas. Oh, and to say thank you for the present. I haven’t opened it yet, but thank you.” Ariadne knows she’s rambling but she feels like she’s overstepped some kind of boundary and is trying to cover it up.
“Thank you, I appreciate the thought.” Arthur says, and his voice sounds warm and welcoming and Ariadne lets out a breath she didn’t even know she was holding. “And you’re welcome. You’re sticking around until New Year’s right?”
“Yeah, I am. See you then.”
“See you then.” Arthur says, and hangs up.
Ariadne thinks maybe she’s one step closer to those top secret Skype calls.