Hello, everyone :) Super late update I know, I am a horrible with commitments. I am sorry for this inconvenience, really, but I am a sporadic writer. But here's the new chapter, fresh out of my overly-jammed brain. I really hope you like it.

I wanted to thank everyone for the lovely reviews, I didn't expect so many so I feel really happy you're reading my story and giving me new ideas, so many thanks and warm hugs to: Legal-Assassin-006, Kayley Taylor, franks-not-dead, Meda Plaster Caster, lily forever, lily forever, alekeneka, ElfMaidenOfLight, Gigi Walker, Cassiopeia6, you guys are brilliant.

Oh I beg you cannot follow
Oh I ask you wanna always
Be the ocean where unravel
Be my only, be the water and waiting
You're my river running high, run deep run wild

Lykke Li - I Follow Rivers

7.

The seventh phone call was made two hours later by Ariadne.

She wanted to explain why she had hung up, that it had been an accident, and that she hadn't meant to leave him like that, but maybe it wouldn't be such a stretch to assume she also wanted to talk to him a bit more.

She dialled his number and waited.

He answered quickly, but there was a pause. She waited.

'Are you going to sing again?' Arthur asked cautiously.

'No, Arthur, you're safe,' Ariadne replied relieved and started laughing.

'One can never know with you,' Arthur confessed. He was lying in bed with a book in his lap, staring at the clean white hotel wall in front of him, trying to find any imperfections in it. He saw a small crack on the left, towards the desk. It was probably the result of a small earthquake.

'Well, this time you can rest assured. I mean I even called to make sure that my singing won't be the last thing you hear tonight,' she said, tongue in cheek.

'I wouldn't have minded a great deal,' Arthur said quietly.

Ariadne pretended she had not heard that.

'I also called because I didn't want you thinking I hung up on purpose. I dropped the phone in the bath tub.'

Arthur smiled and nodded his head. Yes, now he had official proof that she had been taking a bath when he had called.

'Yeah, I figured.'

'Sorry about that.'

'You know, you needn't have called for such a small thing.'

'It wasn't so small. I hate it when people hang up on me like that without any explanation, so I don't like doing it to others.'

'Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you hang up on me last time we talked? I mean before tonight.'

'That was entirely different. There was a valid reason at hand. And the explanation was obvious.'

'Still, going by what you said, you did to me what you hate being done to. So, you are contradicting yourself, or being a hypocrite.'

'Oh my God. Seriously?'

'I was merely pointing out the discrepancy between your words and your actions,' he said, smiling to himself. He knew this would annoy her.

'Are you really going to play that card? You know you deserved it, logics aside.'

'I never said I didn't. In fact, I recall telling you that. That's why I called you. '

'And I hung up on you again. Seems like I'm not such a great phone person, after all,' she surmised.

'First off, there is no such thing as a 'phone person'. Secondly, you have nothing to worry about.'

'Well, I was not worried about hanging up that time you were an ass.'

'But you felt bad now, even though it was an accident,' Arthur concluded shaking his head.

'A little. Because I wasn't angry. In fact, we were having a normal, pleasant conversation.'

'Don't worry, it was about to veer off into dangerous territory soon.'

'It's become a habit, I know. We should stop.'

Arthur frowned. 'Talking?'

'Um, no...talking about certain things. No, actually, getting into arguments while talking.'

'But that wouldn't really be talking, you know.'

'So...should we just stop talking?' she asked.

'It might be a solution,' he said, feeling his heart dig into his chest. 'But not necessarily the only solution.'

'So what other solution do we have? I mean I'm still going to bring it up. At least sometimes.'

'Bring up what?'

'You know...working, getting back on the team, making sure whoever is your current Architect now gets the sack...'

He chuckled.

'He's not so bad...this new Architect. He reminds me of you sometimes.'

'Oh, come on.'

'He does!'

'No he doesn't.'

'I just said...'

'You're lying. He can't remind you of me. You're just saying that to make me feel like I'm still part of the team.'

Arthur felt attacked by her bluntness.

'I'm not trying to make you feel anything, Ariadne. He's just very keen and passionate about his work and I even told him about you...'

'I mean, Cobb reminds you of me,' she interrupted him. 'Does everyone remind you of me?'

'Don't be silly. I never said that. I said you remind me of Cobb. Not the other way around. This is the first person who reminded me of you. No one else has ever reminded me of you, just so you know.'

Ariadne rolled her eyes and sighed into the phone. The Point Man, always giving long explanations, never using any real words.

'Okay, I got it, no need to repeat it seven hundred times!'

'Well, you were the one who insisted that he...'

'So you told him about me?'

'...yeah.'

'What did you tell him? I hope nothing bad. I hope he doesn't think you hired a mindless teenager.'

'Paranoid much? I just told him general things about you.'

'How general?'

'I didn't tell him about your undying love for the Pina Colada song, if that's what's eating you,' he replied dryly.

'Just tell me what you told him.'

'Why does it matter so much?'

'It doesn't. I'm just curious...to see how you would describe me.'

'A bit self-centred, aren't you?'

'Not in the least, only I would need to defend myself in case you slandered me.'

'I only spoke the truth.'

'Which would be?'

'You know it yourself. I don't need to tell you.'

'Fine. Don't tell me anything. I mean I told my roommate about you too, but I guess you don't want to know what I told her.'

There was a heavy pause.

'Ariadne, I really hope you weren't stupid enough to divulge anything about our field of work.'

Ariadne literally gasped. And Arthur heard it as clear as the tolling of bells.

Her hands started trembling.

'I guess you did hire a mindless teenager then.'

Her voice was so empty that he physically felt cold.

'Ariadne, I swear I didn't mean to imply...'

'Please, Arthur, you have every right to question me. I am the inexperienced novice.'

'I know you would never tell...'

'That is why you were so adamant about calling me stupid.'

'I meant it in another way.'

'What way exactly?'

'Well, let's be frank, what else could you have told her about me?'

'What are you saying?'

'You had to mention work.'

'No. I never mentioned it once. To anyone.'

'That's impossible. Look, you can't say anything about me, except that I'm the Point Man. I am my work. This is who I am!'

Ariadne flinched.

'No...no, you're not...' she began, her voice cracking.

'You don't even know me. You said it yourself. What could you say besides work?'

'If you stopped being a jerk for a second I would tell you.'

'I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry! I'm just really stressed out and I don't need any more worries. I have enough on my plate as it is, I can't be considerate right now. Everything that has to do with the team makes me...unreasonable.'

'...are you okay?'

'I don't know anymore,' he said, his hand covering his eyes like a weak, battered shield.

'Arthur. Tell me.'

'No.'

'I want to know what's making you so unhappy.'

'I'm not unhappy.'

'Fine. Then tell me what's making you miserable.'

'I am just a little bit overworked. That is all.'

'You won't tell me anything else?'

'You know how work can be. Stressful. It can wear you down. Doesn't mean I am unhappy, but I'm not exactly fine either. I'm just in a bad place right now. But tomorrow, I'm going to be okay.'

'Tomorrow...what if you won't be?'

'Then, the day after that.'

'I told her you never wear jeans. And probably never did. In your life.'

'...what?'

'I told her you always wear suits and you always look like you're trying to get out of them, but you don't, because you're responsible. I told her you always respect your rules and make others do the same. I told her you feel horrible about every little mistake you make and that you're way too hard on yourself. I told her you're an engineer I worked with on an internship. I told her you never drank coffee, just strong black tea. I told her you look like a completely different person with your eyes closed. When she asked me how I'd seen you asleep, I told her you had been working late one night and I saw you dozing off at your desk. I told her you still frowned in your sleep. I also told her I never saw you again after my internship was done. She asked me why and I said I heard you'd been promoted.'

When she was done, she felt there could be nothing else left to say. She was barren.

Arthur had lowered on his back and his head had fallen in his pillow. He was blinking rapidly, trying to piece everything together. He felt he was under the ocean and he was barely breathing while his lungs were filling with water.

'I have worn jeans before,' he mumbled after a while.

'Oh...well, see, then, I told her only lies. So no harm done,' she said quickly, feeling slightly hurt.

'... you were right about me. But why did you tell her anything to begin with?'

She didn't answer.

'Did you also tell about Cobb? Or Eames?'

'No.'

'Why?'

'Didn't feel the need to.'

'...you felt a need to talk about me?'

'Arthur, what is making you feel so worn out?' she asked, avoiding the question.

'There's this thought in my head,' he began, 'that I'd sometimes love to be that engineer you were talking about. I'd love to fall asleep on a desk and not have to...think about it.'

'You want...a normal life?'

'I'm the normal guy in a strange world. I want it the other way around.'

'I understand.'

'And it's more than normality. It's about being flawed. I'd like to be wrong without someone paying for it.'

'You know, that can be applied in real life too.'

'You know what I mean. I can never make a mistake. It's...'

'Maddening?'

'Stressful.'

'And maddening.'

'Forget it. I've been spewing shit like this since I started working. Every now and then I get the feeling that I'd be better off being mediocre. It goes away after a while. And then I realize I'm great where I am and that I was a moron before.'

'But it doesn't go away, because it comes back...it's a recurring thing.'

'Yeah. But the important thing is that it doesn't dominate me. I push it back.'

'How far back?'

'As far as I can.'

'Is that where you push me?' she asked.

He groaned and mumbled something incoherently.

'What did you say?'

'I don't have to push you back.'

'Cuz you don't need to talk about me,' she said placidly.

'You're already far away, Ariadne. Life's already pushing you back for me. I have a new Architect, you have your college life in Paris. Maybe we'll work next year. Maybe not. Who knows where I'll be next year.'

'Hey! You promised. You promised I'd come back. Don't you dare take it back! Don't even try it.'

'I'm just telling you, you're not always where you planned you would be.'

'Thanks for the fortune cookie. You're right, you are spewing shit.'

He started laughing bitterly.

'God, there is no winning with you.'

'I am not going anywhere. I'll be here in a year, in ten years, in twenty. I am going to work with you again.'

'You sound very sure about that.'

'I am.'

Arthur smiled.

Ariadne took a deep breath.

'I have to go now,' she mumbled.

'Yeah, it's late.'

'Get some sleep.'

'Not a chance.'

'Why the heck not?'

'I don't want to risk it.'

'Risk what?'

'Being a completely different person,' he said, alluding to her previous words.

'Good night,' she said, smiling reluctantly into the phone.

'Ariadne?'

'Yeah?'

'I didn't tell him anything about you. I thought he'd never understand.'

Ariadne heard him say good night. She nodded her head. But she didn't shut the phone. She stood waiting with the phone glued to her ear.

She was shocked.