A/N: I was playing with this Latin phrase for a while. "In somnis veritas" or in English "In dreams is truth". I figured it would make a wonderful story especially when it comes to Inception. I plan for the story to develop into an Arthur/Ariadne fic while coupled with another job. Hopefully I'll be getting back to the theaters to see the movie a second time very soon so all those details that currently stand out in mind are that much sharper. So I hope you enjoy. Concrit reviews are more than welcome. :-)

Disclaimer: Inception and its characters belong to Christopher Nolan. They are not mine.

In Somnis Veritas

Chapter One: Longing

Returning to Paris was the hardest part for Ariadne. Once it was just the place she studied now Paris held far too many memories. But she managed at first. For a short period of time being able to immerse her in normalcy held a kind of novelty to it. Finally she was actually able to hang out with friends (although Ariadne needed to do serious damage control after the job). No longer possessed by niggling worries in the back of her mind that maybe she belonged back at the warehouse working on her mazes instead of lollygagging.

But it didn't last as the assignments that once left her awake for nights on end were completed with ease. Her friends distant as if worried that at any moment Ariadne was going to forget their existence again. The only person she talked to Miles, he having introduced her to Cobb. He was the only one who seemed to have even the remotest idea of what she was going through.

It all boiled down to the fact that she missed it.

Ariadne couldn't take it anymore; she went back to the warehouse. Just to see it she would repeat in her mind as she skipped class to fit in the time to go there. It was all she needed, or at least she kept telling herself.

When she finally got there Ariadne couldn't stay outside. Going into the space that once had been a meeting room, studio, and testing ground was a necessity. She climbed the stairs trying to ignore the feeling of excitement and apprehension that wound through her stomach. What if it was empty? How would she feel about that?

Stupid. Of course it would be empty. It was her first job so she was having a hard time letting go. Still it would be nice, she thought hand poised on the doorknob, to find someone in there.

Pushing the door open Ariadne took in the bright white walls with their peeling paint, the Parisian skyline that extended for miles around the open room. Empty.

She smiled sadly at the lonely looking room.

"I guess its time I moved on." She murmured to herself as she turned and headed back down the stairs and into the sunlight.

She was barely down the block when her phone rang.

"Hello?"

"The café I took you to, twenty minutes." The person on the other end said and hung up.

Ariadne stared in wonder for a moment before turning around to head for the café. She didn't need to ask who just called her. His voice was familiar enough. He'd spent enough time introducing her to the world that he worked in and then she pushed her way into knowing his secrets. Cobb was in town. There was a job. And a chance… Ariadne wouldn't let herself think that. Any thought of him had been locked up along with the: could haves, should have, and would haves of their relationship.

The café was bustling as always. But it was easy enough to find Cobb in the masses once she said she was meeting someone. He was in a corner with low light. There was a cup of coffee in front of him and another man whose silhouette she knew all too well sitting across from him.

She hesitated for a brief moment before sitting down next to Arthur. Both men nodded to her in greeting and a waitress stopped at the table to see if she wanted anything. There wasn't even a heartbeat of room for her to order for herself when Arthur did it for her. His memory impeccable when it came to her preferred drink.

Silence filled the sudden void that followed. Her coffee was delivered and she took her first sip before Cobb finally deemed it time for him to fill Ariadne in.

"How are your mazes?" He asked.

"Complex. Why?" She queried.

Ever since the Fischer job Ariadne had worked tirelessly to learn how to lucid dream. Maybe in her gut she knew that other jobs would come along that needed her expertise. So she learned and designed. Her flat was full of 3-D models of the mazes she built and tested at night. Not quite to the same degree as before, she was testing alone after all.

"Inception once done becomes a demand from other corporations. Extraction is no longer good enough. They want the ability to destroy competition from the inside before the competition becomes too great." Cobb explained.

Ariadne nodded; sipped her coffee and waited. The excitement from before once more gripped her stomach. She'd missed this but she wouldn't say so aloud.

"The mark is-"

"Doesn't matter. I'm in." She affirmed cutting off Arthur before he could tell her who they were going to manipulate this time.

To an architect that was of no consequence. Designing was everything.