Loving Her Part Three – Even Though

Chapter Four

Arthur grinned at the sight of his fiancée. It was eleven o'clock and Ari was still asleep, lying on her back, arms and legs sprawled out, snoring softly with her mouth open. It was a sight that would never cease to amuse him. Picking the plate of toaster waffles and strawberries up off the dresser, he slowly waved the dish in front of her face.

Although still asleep, Ari moaned quietly at the smell of syrup and arched an eyebrow in interest. Arthur chuckled and whispered her name. "Ari. Aaarrrriii." He spoke in a hushed tone close to her face. "Ari, honey, wake up," he said grinning.

"Uuungh." Arthur chuckled again, amazed at both the hilarity of the situation and how adorable she was.

"Ariadne, really. It's almost one thirty in the afternoon!"

That did it.

"It's what?" She shrieked, flying up into a sitting position and nearly knocking the plate of perfectly toasted waffles out of Arthur's hand and to the floor. Thank God for his reflexes.

Smiling a full-on smile, dimples and all, he laughed yet again. "Just kidding, it's only eleven," he said, handing her a glass of orange juice. Ari glared at him before snatching the plate of "dough"-based "breakfast" food and fruit from his hands. Arthur chose to overlook the invisible, and quite honestly imaginary (a slight disappointment, to Ari at least), laser beams shooting from her pupils.

"You suck." He ignored that too.

"Besides, we finished unpacking everything except… the last five boxes…of books. Your books. Believe it or not, I think you might have more than me."

Ari groaned. "But that's the worst part!" she sighed, exasperated. She flopped back against the pillows for emphasis, causing a few drops of syrup to spill onto the bedspread. "Why do you think I tried to procrastinate so long the last time I moved in with you?"

"That's not the point," he said kissing her cheek as he got up to get a wet washcloth to wipe the spilled syrup up. Ari rolled her eyes as he gently wiped away the sticky substance. "I don't care if I have to bribe you. We're doing this," he finished with a smirk, which Ari returned, hearing his words.

"Fine," she said nonchalantly. "As long as I get sex out of this I'm good."

Arthur chuckled at her bluntness. "I was actually thinking dinner and those new colored pencil you've had your eye on, but sex works too." He kissed her on the lips briefly, heading for the door. "Get dressed. I'll meet you in the library." He grabbed her now empty dish and glass before making his leave.

Ari laughed as she jumped out of bed and put on a pair of Arthur's sweats and a t-shirt. The sweats were much too big, so she was forced to roll them at the waistband a few times. (In her defense, they were the comfiest sweatpants she had ever come across in her short life. And, to top it off, they were the only pair of sweats Arthur owned, make them special and bringing smile to Ari's face whenever she saw him wearing them.)

After thoroughly brushing her teeth and throwing her hair up into a messy bun, Ari quietly padded out to the library, seeing that Arthur had his back to her. Being as silent as she could (ninja-noiseless, as she called it) Ari raised her hands to look like claws and was about to shout when Arthur turned around.

"You know, you have extremely vast amount of books on architecture, Miss Architect," he said with a smirk, holding up copies of Architecture: Form, Space, and Order, Architecture Now! Green Architecture, and Kissing Architecture. Ariadne's slightly inflamed ego plummeted at least one hundred feet. He had obviously known she was there all along. She pouted, dropping her claws and folding her arms over her chest. "It makes it a little bit pointless to alphabetize them when they all start the same letter."

"Well, I like to do my research, Mr. Point Man. You of all people should know how import resear- Wait! You are not alphabetizing my books?" she asked, cringing. "No. This time we're doing it my way," she said, rolling her eyes.

Arthur looked confused, asking "how else would you organize books?"

"By color. Obviously." It was Arthur's turn to roll his eyes.

After a twenty minute long semi-heated argument on who had the best method for organizing the couple's boundless amount of books, Arthur had had enough. "Okay, okay. How about you take the four bookshelves on the left and I'll take the four on the right," he said, looking at the wall of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. "You go by color and I'll go alphabetical. Sound good?"

"Fine," she mumbled with a nod. And, with that, the two set off to work

-X-O-X-O-X

A week later, Arthur ventured into the library to find a book on bimolecular engineering to do research for the team's new extraction job. Skimming over the titles on the spines of the books, one specific one caught Arthur's eye: The Catcher in the Rye. It was his favorite book in high school and he was surprised Ari had a copy.

What surprised him even more is that surrounding that book, were others not separated by color. Books she had obviously read in school and enjoyed. Books like: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Maus, The Moon is Down, The Crucible, A Raisin in the Sun, Romeo and Juliet,and the Oddesy.

All in alphabetical order.

Arthur smiled wide. It was the small victories…

Hey guys!

So, I wrote this chapter before the previous three because I simply had to get these thoughts down before I lost them. So…you're welcome!

Haha just kidding.

I would also like to point out that summer has officially begun as of a week ago! And, that means more updates for you lovely readers. I might, just MIGHT start my NCIS story back up again. It's been left hanging for almost two years and it makes me want to cry D': )

Also, no, I totally didn't look up names of books on architecture on for this chapter. What are you talking about? And, yes, I have read all of the above mentioned high school reading books. I can't say I liked all of them like Ari did but, what the hell. That's not the point.

Ok, I'm done now.

Love, always,

May