Title: Just Like That
Fandom: Inception
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 683
Warnings: Language, vague spoilers for the film.
Pairing: Ariadne/Cobb
Summary: Written for the Kissing Meme. A quick little 'kissing in the rain' sort of scene.
Disclaimer: I don't own Inception, as if that wasn't already obvious.

And it's just like that.

Ariadne is getting out of a taxi one day, already paid, preparing herself for the running dash through the rain, to anticipate any sudden slipping that occurs because of the heels she's wearing with her business suit, and just like that, Dominic fucking Cobb is standing under the awning of her building.

She stands there on the curb, ignoring the fact that her blouse and skirt are soaked through, that she probably looks like a mess. Her boss had insisted on the cab home, and she'd almost refused, but realized that this was probably part of Saito's plan to keep an eye on her. She'll take care of that, at some point, when her brain returns.

She'd left Dom two weeks ago, left California for school, for the real internship she had been contacted about, through Saito. She'd left him in bed. She'd left him with a kiss and her fucking heart, because somewhere between that rooftop in Paris and praying with all her heart on that plane for him to open his goddamn eyes, he'd stolen it from her. Not even a week had passed after the job and she had literally walked into him on the street. She brought her suitcase over to his place later that day, and hadn't removed it until a month had passed, and she bolted.

He was sweet, he was loving, and the way he made her feel was too close to perfect to be real. She'd left.

She thought the distance, and hopefully some time, would help. It hasn't.

Dom walk slowly over to her, purposely, and she wonders where this is all going. Another job? A problem with Fischer?

"You didn't say goodbye," he says, coming to stand so close it would only take a little tilt forward and she's be touching him. Yes, she's aware of her neighbor standing at the door with his groceries, staring.

She runs a hand through her hair, knowing it's a lost cause in the teeming rain, and shrugs, hoping the action will serve as enough of an answer.

His hands are large and a warming weight on her shoulders where they cup them, cover them.

"Why didn't you say 'goodbye'? I woke up and you were gone-"

"Because I didn't want to!" she shouts, surprising herself even. "I couldn't." 'I love you so much that I can't', she wants to say, but the heavy sentence stays in her mouth, in her heart.

Cobb looks down at her with ocean blue eyes, calm. He licks his lips nervously, but his voice is even when he speaks. "Then don't."

Just like that.

Like being with him, being happy and loved and loving is that easy. It takes work, it will take work. There are a billion obstacles they will need to hurdle if they have any chance in the world.

She wants to let out a frustrated growl, to tell him to fuck off, to go be happy because she wants that for him, but instead she pushes up on her toes, hands grasping at his face, slipping slightly, but then her lips press against his. The kiss is mostly rain and warmth and pressure, but it suffices. It says what it needs to. It says what neither of them can say, just yet.

Later, her hair is finally starting to dry against her damp pillow, across Dom's chest, she looks down at him while he sleeps, and thinks that maybe it is this easy. It's going to take airplane tickets and long distance phone calls and words, terribly awkward words with Miles, with her parents, with her friends, with his children, with Arthur and Eames and Yusuf and even Saito, but maybe it's worth it. Ariadne decides she's willing to try, because those are all a fucking walk through the park compared to what the two of them have wrestled with in the past.

And just like that, Ariadne decides to love him, and be loved, and take that big leap of faith and fall.