maze_builder | (no subject)

Ariadne had arranged a peaceful, quiet life she for herself after the Fischer job. And then he showed up. All smiles and charm that sent her head in a frenzy. It seemed like every time he was in town, he would visit her and she would be conveniently available. She knew the kind of work he was still involved in and the risks that came with it. But she didn't think that he would be under surveillance or that anyone would notice his infrequent visits to Paris.

But someone had found out about her. Someone had been in her apartment and was looking for something other than money. They even went to the trouble of leaving her a note. A friendly enough note to try and inspire her to come out of retirement. That sickeningly sweet kind of note that felt like it was laced with cobra venom. They wanted an Architect.

She called the only person she could think of.

"Hey..."

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He thought he was being careful, creating a zig-zagging trail from wherever he was to Paris to throw off anyone following him. Arthur prided himself on his carefulness, but he wasn't careful enough apparently.

He was currently in London, a mere two hour train ride from Paris. Arthur had ran point on a job that had just finished and he was enjoying a drink at the hotel bar when his phone rang. He smiled when he saw that it was Ariadne calling. Their relationship was in a weird stage of near exclusivity with his nearly frequent trips to see her. they hadn't talked about anything close to commitment. "Hi, how are you?"

"I'm... I'm..." Her voice was shaky as she struggled to find her words. The world seemed to whirl around her as she tried to focus. "Someone's found me Arthur."

Knowing he was on a job, she wouldn't ask him to come back and help her investigate. She should have called Eames. Arthur would... complicate things. His visits had become more frequent and longer. She had even told him to stop wasting his money when he was in town and just stay with her instead of his over priced rooms.

He knitted his brows together. "What do you mean someone's found you?" Arthur waved for the bartender and handed him some pounds to cover his drink and a tip. With his phone pressed to his ear, he downed the rest of his scotch and walked out into the lobby, taking the elevator up to his floor. The fear in her voice had caught him off guard and if he knew anything about Ariadne, it was that she was fearless.

"Someone's... someone's looking for an Architect." Sinking to her bed she flipped the weighted paper between her shaking fingers. Someone had gone to the trouble of finding her. It wasn't like she was exactly trying to hide, but her involvement in the DreamWorld was as far, as she knew, nonexistent. How could they know? Unless...

"I see." When he made it back to his room, he started parking up his things. "Is it okay if I come over?" He asked even as he took out his laptop and started searching for plane and train tickets to Paris. While he believed that Ariadne was a gifted architect, the best he's ever worked with, he respected her decision to stay out of the business and he wasn't not going to let anyone mess that up.

She tried to laugh but it came out huffed and forced. "I get the feeling you'd come anyway." Letting the note drop to the floor she stared off through her window. Though Arthur had teased her with the idea of returning to the business, he never pursued the subject further. She had successfully made a life for herself. A normal life.

"Arthur..." she was worried. She'd thought she'd just be an unknown accomplice to everything. That she would be able to slink off and not have to worry about the things the others did.

"I can be there in three hours," he said. He managed to pack everything up in record time as well as book his train ticket. "Can you do me a favor? Can you check into a hotel room?" If someone found her, then that must've meant they knew where she lived and three hours was a long time. Anything could happen between now and by the time he got there. "Do you have access to a weapon?" Arthur left his hotel room and took the elevator down to the lobby so he could check out and grab a cab to St. Pancras.

"Yes; I'm on my way out." Shifting to her feet, she set about packing a small bag as she balanced her phone on her shoulder, snapping into a focused mindset. "I don't. Just something basic for protection." Halfway through her apartment, she grabbed a pocket knife and some mace from a drawer before closing and locking her apartment behind her.

"Text me which hotel you're at when you get there." He let the doorman hail him a cab and got in, telling the driver where to go. He hated not being there, but he couldn't imagine how helpless Ariadne must've felt. This wasn't exactly something she's ever dealt with, at least as far as he knew.

"See you soon." There had been moments when she had first returned to Paris that she had stayed up late or was woken in the middle of the night expecting to hear someone coming after her. But as the years crept by, she'd relaxed. Gotten comfortable. And now she was in a cab headed to a hotel across town as she tried to keep herself from looking over her shoulder.

She paid for her room in cash and texted him the address. Waiting for him to arrive as she sat on the edge of the bed, uncertain of what to do with herself.

The sun had set completely when Arthur finally arrived in Paris. He texted Ariadne, letting her know he was in the city and on his way to her hotel. When he arrived, he paid the cabbie and walked in, taking the elevator up to the correct floor. He knocked. "It's me," he said.

Pacing up and down the length of the room, she had to force herself not to flinch every time she heard someone walk past her door. Hearing his knock, Ariadne crept up to the peep hole, trying to make no noise as she approached the door. Seeing him to she cracked the door open slowly before opening it wide enough to let him through. "Thanks for getting here so quickly. I-I didn't know who else to call."

"Don't worry about it. It's probably my fault anyway." He looked around the room before leaving his suitcase by the door and walking over to the desk in the corner, taking out his laptop from his messenger bag and starting it up. "So tell me exactly what happened."

Wrapping her arms around herself, she lowered herself to the bed nearest him. "I had just gotten home before I called you. The lock on my door was secure, or at least I didn't notice anything the matter with it. Inside, my apartment had been thoroughly turned over. All except my room though even that felt... touched. They left me a note on my pillow." Lifting herself from the mattress took more effort than she expected. Now that Arthur was here in front of her it was all sinking in. They weren't after Arthur. They had been looking for her. She pulled the weighted paper from the envelope and handed it over to him. "Here."

There were no identifiers stating who had written her, just contact information and a threat to enlist her cooperation. Other than that, the letter was cryptic enough in regards to how they knew about her.

He listened, angry at how she was targeted, and when she handed over the letter, he read it through, frowning deeply. "I'm sorry this happened," he said, looking at her with such concern and anger. And he was truly angry that someone had done this to her. "But I promise I'll find out who this is and make sure they never do something like this ever again." Arthur turned back to his laptop and emailed a few contacts within the business the contact information that had been left, to see if they recognized the phone number.

"How do they know I was an Architect?" She had gone over it over and over. The only people who knew about her were the members of the Fischer job. And Miles. She never thought she'd have to worry about any of them letting her involvement known. The business of dreams wasn't strictly speaking legal, so the people involved had a tendency to be tight lipped.

"Anything I can do?" Wrapping a blanket around her shoulders she watched as he punched away at the keyboard. There was little she knew she could do past this point; the world of secrets and intrigue was all Arthur's territory.

He blew out a breath. "Someone must've let it slip," he said. But who? He trusted Yusuf, Eames, Cobb, and Saito to a certain point. He didn't think that they were capable of letting anything slip about the inception job. He knew he never said anything about Ariadne to anyone.

"Just relax, okay? Try to sleep or order room service if you're hungry." He sent his emails and then turned to her. Arthur got out of his seat and sat down next to her on the bed, sliding his arm around her shoulders.

Pulling the blanket tighter around her, she barely heard him. She hated the thought of any of them being guilty of letting her name slip, but the conclusion was hard to ignore. Her brows furrowed together like they always do when she was in deep thought. 'That's not what I need to focus on right now.' she chastised herself. Instinctively, she leaned against him when he wrapped his arms around her, even as her mind raced with ideas of how to get out of this. It's not like she hadn't toyed with the idea of returning to that line of work. But would be on her terms, not like this.

"Come on, let's get into bed and watch tv, does that sound okay?" Arthur got up and pulled the flat sheet down for them before taking off his suit, leaving him only in his boxer briefs. He hung his clothes and went to get his laptop, setting it down on one of the nightstands.

Nodding she stood and dropped the blanket on the bed before removing her jacket and shoes, tossing both to the side on a side chair. Leaving her other cloths on she slid under the covers, waiting for him to crawl in and warm her. Right now there was little either could do while they waited to hear back from on of Arthur's contacts and worrying and plotting wasn't going to help.

He got in and wrapped her up securely in his arms, tucking her head under his chin. The dreamshare community was small. Someone would have to know who left that letter unless they were someone new.

"Thank you for coming Arthur." She wrapped her own arms around him, pulling him as close as she could, resting her cheek on his bare chest.

"Of course." He'd come anyway since anything that involved dreamshare and her was probably his fault now that he was back in her life. "Just relax. I'll take care of it."

She gave a soft chuckle as she closed her eyes, finally allowing herself to relax a bit with him around. She squeezed him when her thoughts drifted immediately back to their predicament. "I have a bad feeling about this Arthur. Aside from the obvious things like the intrusion and the threat."