Title: O amor é a doença or "Love is a disease"
Pairing: Cobb/Ariadne
Rating: K+
Summary: Prompt by tita_undomiel. The city is deserted/ and someone wrote your name in everywhere/ in houses, cars, bridges, streets./ Everywhere the word,/ repeated to the exponent of madness!/ Sometimes bitter, sometimes sweet .../ To remind us that love is a disease,/ when we believe it to be our cure ...
(This is translated from a Portuguese song, I just hope it's understandable. I'm leaving it completely up to the writer's interpretation!)
A/N: This was written for the Architects' Gift Secret Santa Exchange on livejournal. I hope the mistakes I made have been fixed and explanations are cleared up. Also the title might not fit but I couldn't think of what to put so I just used Google translate to help me out. :P

"How long has she been under?" Dom asked staring down at Ariadne's body.

She looked to be in a natural, peaceful slumber; the line streaming from her arm to the PASIV machine suggested otherwise. It'd been months, almost a year since he'd seen her after the Inception. Dom dropped off the map, focusing on his kids and his life away from Dream Sharing. He wasn't even aware Arthur and Eames were in town, let alone with Ariadne. He was surprised the drive to their base was a short drive from the school he'd just dropped Phillipa off.

According to Eames it wasn't an extraction job, at least not in the espionage sense. It was a wealthy family who hired them. Their eldest daughter Alex was a fifteen-year-old social butterfly, happy and carefree. Three months ago, that changed; she became depressed and withdrawn. The parents were familiar with Dream-Share, scientists who'd worked on the PASIV and expanding all its abilities. They retired to raise their family.

When therapy fell through and her condition started to worsen, they contacted Arthur. Scientists knew about the extraction uses the PASIV provided and this family knew if they couldn't get their daughter to talk, they could have someone get the information. Arthur was pulling Point Man and Extractor, Eames was called in to portray the girl's best friend while helping Arthur with point work. Ariadne was architect and the watcher.

They were doing a routine walk through of the layout, when Arthur came back before the timer went up. Ariadne put herself under in the dream. She'd sent herself to Limbo.

"She went down further and I when killed myself out of the dream, the timer was counting down from fifteen minutes." Arthur told him, nervously toying with his die.

Dom glanced down at the timer: it read three minutes and counting.

"So she's been in Limbo for twelve minutes?" He tried to hide the edge in his voice. "That's nearly four years! She's probably lost herself down there!"

The way Eames and Arthur winced, he wasn't doing a good job.

"Well Cobb, it's not like you could teleport here," Eames snapped, "And if I recall you were the one who argued with me for five minutes before you decided to show."

Dom's brows furrowed as he stared at the timer. "Why were you implementing a twenty minute test run?"

"It was Ariadne's idea." Arthur ran his hands through his hair nervously while looking down at her body, "There were details she wanted to me to completely grasp. She said the Mark needed to be comfortable with the surroundings and to do so I would have to be comfortable with the surroundings."

"She's right," Dom said offhandedly. "Someone that young, their imagination is still wide-range. The Dreamer has to know every detail perfectly. If not, the dream will collapse from the Mark's subconscious battling it."

"That's lovely but that's not getting Ariadne out of Limbo," Eames cut in. "You don't have to do this Cobb, but you're the only one who's been there and back."

Dom studied the Forger and knew what he wasn't saying. Eames wasn't saying that he and Arthur would lose themselves if they went down. That's why Arthur didn't go down after her. He wasn't saying that Dom could just walk away without a word and they wouldn't blame him. Rather, Eames wouldn't blame him.

Without a word, Dom sat down in the chair next to Ariadne and Arthur went to getting a new tube to slip into his wrist. The timer was on two point twenty seconds. It was enough time to get her back.

"When the timer runs out give us a kick, just in case."

Dom saw their nods before he blacked out. Washing up on Limbo was his least favorite part of getting there. He'd always wondered why one could only wash up in Limbo. He pushed those thoughts aside as he made his way to the deserted city. Buildings were more worn and decrypted than the last time he was there.

And his name was everywhere.

It was painted on walls in regular and in graffiti; it was etched into the glass on the buildings, written in chalk on the sidewalk and painted in yellow in the street. There was even a statue of the letters of his name.

Dom walked slowly, taking in the sight. His first name seemed to be written slowly, almost lovingly and where his last name was imprinted, it was in sharp harsh strokes, as if the writer was angry. He asked himself if Ariadne had done this. Why would she write his name over and over in this world she built?

Dom finally found her back at the beach on the near opposite side of this part of Limbo. It was different from what he remembered. Rocks were scattered everywhere, some looking like rubble. Her clothes were tattered, jeans ripped at the knees into long shorts, her orange button-up shirt hanging open to reveal a red tank and stained with what looked like paint. Her hair blew out around her despite the lack of wind and her face was contorted in concentration. She hadn't aged since he last saw her.

She was painting a large rock that he realized was actually a piece of metal. Wreckage from an old building that looked to have washed ashore eons ago. The closer he got, the more he realized she had been crying. Her face was patchy and her eyes red and swollen. She didn't notice him approaching until he was a meter from her. She did a double take and froze.

"Wha-what are you doing here?" She whispered with wide eyes.

"I came back for you." He said cautiously. "Ariadne… you're dreaming. You're in Limbo."

"I know," she replied matter-of-factly in a cold manner and went back to painting.

He walked around keeping his distance. She was finishing what looked like a large C.

"Ariadne, are you- did you write my name back there." He pointed back to the ghost city.

"I did," she said without looking up.

He was confused; why would she do such a thing? She was working on an O now, putting all her strength into jumping to reach the top of the curve of the letter.

"Why my name?"

She stopped and snapped her head back to look at him. He stepped back out of instinct from the cold glare she was giving him. Even the worst projections he'd faced never looked at him with such hatred.

"I don't know Cobb, why do you think?"

Her words were filled with anger, hatred, and sadness. He just stood there in disbelief wondering what Limbo had done to his young architect, searching for something to say. She let out a yell of frustration when he didn't speak.

"I hate you," she whispered, her face becoming wet with tears.

"Aria-"

"I HATE YOU!" she screamed, throwing the paint brush at him but missing him by a foot. "I can't get you out of my head! I tried to forget you, I came here to forget you but I can't! You're a disease; you're name eats away at me! You left, walked out without even a goodbye. Now you won't even let me waste away in peace."

He didn't know what to say; what could he say? She sobbed, her shoulders jerking and he stepped forward to try and comfort her. She stepped away from him and wiped at her eyes.

"You need to leave," she said stoically after a haggard breath.

"Ariadne you can't stay here. This isn't real," he whispered.

"It can be real. It will be real." She looked back at the city she built. "You need to leave."

"Not without you."

She snapped her attention back to him.

"Don't you get? Are you that ignorant?" She screamed, running her hands through her hair and breathing quickly. "I don't want to leave!"

"But you need too," he whispered trying to step closer to her. "Why don't you want to leave?"

She backed away again and clung to her arms around herself while more tears feel. She started shaking her head and finally stumbled onto a large rock where she sat. Wiping her face she looked away from him and stared at the ocean.

"I came here to forget you," she said with a sniffle, "But I forgot the one important thing: you'd been here; twice. You're everywhere, your taste in style, design, your personality; it's in the very essence of Limbo." She looked back at him, more tears staining her cheeks. "This place… it's the closest I'll ever get to having you."

She got off the rock and walked slowly to him. The wind stared blowing and clouds formed, blocking the sun. He wondered if that was her doings or his own or maybe Limbo grew a mind of its own. She stopped in front of him close enough for him to look down at her but still within just arms reach.

"Go home, Dom. You worked too hard… I'll be fine."

"Ariadne you can't-"

"But I want too."

Her gaze didn't waver as they stared each other down. He couldn't leave her here; alone in Limbo. Thunder rumbled in the distance and suddenly, rain descended upon them. Even with the rain they stood no moving. Ariadne was giving him a pleading look, waiting for him to leave.

"I'm not leaving," he yelled firmly over another roll of thunder. He waited for it to pass and continued. "I'm not leaving without you."

"Dom please don't-"

She stopped when he put his hand on her cheek. He could feel her start to pull back when he leaned this forehead gently against hers. The back of his mind was racing with thoughts of why he just did what he did. He wasn't thinking; that was the point. He was following a part of him he'd ignored since he'd stepped off that plane, fighting the urge to not look for the little brunette he was certain was watching his every move.

"Come back with me," he whispered, pulling back to look her in the eyes. "Let me fix my mistake."

"What mistake?" She said slowly.

"The one I made when I left you behind."

He leaned in and his lips brushed against hers just as he felt the ground give under him. He woke up on the floor and panicked. The timer hadn't gone off yet Arthur and Eames gave him a Kick. His eyes immediately went to his left, praying he wouldn't meet a sleeping Ariadne. When his eyes met brown staring back at him, he let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. She was awake; everything was going to be alright.

So I hope everyone had a good Holiday and is looking forward to the New Year! Thanks for reading!