It's So Intense

[jenna_marianne]

Title:  It's So Intense
Author:  jenna_marianne
Fandom:  Inception
Pairing:  Arthur/Eames, Ariadne/Cobb
Rating:  PG-13
Length:  3,257 words
Genre:  angst, crack
Summary:   Dom's team has been acting secretive and, he shudders at the thought, giggly.  Worried for their sanity, Dom decides to investigate.
This is a sequel to "Look at that Rainbow," the DOUBLE RAINBOW story, written for this inception_kink prompt.

A/N:  This is rather more serious at the beginning than I initially intended, however never fear, the crack wins out.  The extended canon references are thanks to weatherfront's awesome post.



Dom Cobb was getting concerned.  His team was acting stranger and stranger.  They were being...furtive, and frequently stopped talking when he entered the lab.  The weirdest part was the giggling.  Eames sometimes guffawed, Yusuf was prone to belly laughs, Ariadne occasionally titters, and Arthur might chuckle if the mood struck him.  But they were all giggling.  Often.  Usually over a non sequitur statement from one of the others.  Eames' "It's so intense," had resulted in five solid minutes of giggles.  Dom couldn’t figure out what was “intense,” let alone why it’s intensity was so hilarious.  He couldn't make heads or tails of what was going on.

It didn't help that he was only in the labs part-time.  Now that he was on the right side of the law, he'd taken up a university position in dream research.  None of the others had wanted to go their own way after the Fischer job.  Ariadne had finished her Architecture degree in Paris, and come to UCLA to get a PhD in dreamology (what she kept insisting it was call, despite Arthur's equal insistence on the correct terminology).  Arthur's credentials in the original government dream program, Project Somnacin, made getting the university to hire him on as a co-researcher easy.  Yusuf came on as their pharmacist, though he still insisted they call him a chemist.  Eames was their consultant, mostly because he wouldn't leave, and did contribute, especially to questions about psychology.

The situation was ideal for Dom.  He got to work with the best in the business, and spend half the day with his kids.  His mother-in-law Marie stayed with him, watching the kids in the mornings when he worked, then worked on her photography projects in the afternoons while he stayed with the kids.  Tuesdays and Thursdays they switched, and Dom had the kids in the mornings.  It was better than Dom had hoped for, Marie accepting him back and being more welcoming the longer he was there for the kids, being the devoted father he should be.  Miles even visited sometimes, the tension between him and his ex-wife relaxing under Dom and the children's reunion.  The fact that he didn't have to give up dreaming, and still had his rag-tag crew with him still amazed him.  He felt blessed, even with the gaping maw inside him left my Mal's absence.

But just when he'd started feeling content, and he started relaxing into his new, professorial life, this bizarre behavior of his colleagues had cropped up.  He was becoming convinced that it was related to Yusuf's drug enhancement experiments, since he'd become secretive about the last few revisions.  Equally suspicious was Ariadne's sudden drop in sketch output, though he still saw her drawing something in a sketchbook covered in red hearts, which she kept in her bag and took with her when she left.

And the team was going under in longer and longer dream sessions, but always timing it for after Cobb left or before he came in.  He'd caught them at it a couple times when he'd changed his schedule, but other than a few giggles, he got barely anything out of them.

Arthur, the one constant in his life when things had been at their worst, was keeping mum.  He’d been the person who'd made sure Dom had eaten and slept and got through the extraction jobs that he needed to do to pay his legal fees to fight his murder charges. His long-time collaborator wouldn't talk.  "We're just experimenting, Cobb," he'd said one time, with the corner of his mouth twitching, obviously fighting a smile.  "Cobb, you're blowing things out of proportion," he'd said, when Dom had pointed out everyone was laughing more than usual.

It'd been going on for almost two weeks now, this whatever-it-was.  It was time for decisive action.  He asked Marie to watch the kids all day.  It'd been a production, since he'd had to soothe her concerns that he was returning to the workaholic dream-obsessed lifestyle she blamed for Mal's self-destruction and the break-up of her own marriage.  He'd had to tell her about some of his concerns, and from the gleam in her eye he knew Arthur would be in for some mothering.  Arthur would know he was the culprit, and give him the cold shoulder, but it would be worth it if he could make sure the team was okay.

So, he came to work two hours early on a Tuesday, the day he normally came in at one; any earlier, and they might be awake.  Just as planned, he'd caught them dreaming.  He inspected the Somnacin canisters in the PASIV device; the color seemed a little off, maybe more pink than red, but who could say.  Still, he made sure to select a regular Somnacin canister from their stock in the locked case and hooked himself up, setting the timer for fifteen minutes, and down he went.

The dream seemed strange, but he couldn't pin down exactly what threw him off at first, except that he was in a woodland grove instead of Ariadne's typical cityscapes.  Then it came to him, it was the colors; everything seemed super-saturated, the greens of the grass and trees an intense St. Patrick's Day green, the sky where it was framed by the bows of the trees so blue it practically glowed.  The flowers scattered around the clearing were incredibly pink and purple and red and yellow, and they swayed back and forth hypnotically to a non-existent breeze.

None of his team was anywhere in sight.  Turning around slowly, he saw a castle parapet in the break between some trees, a lavender flag waving from its top.  Figuring it as a good place to start, Dom headed in that direction.  Occasionally, a jewel-toned butterfly flew past him, and once a squirrel with huge brown eyes paused in his path, chittered melodically, then scurried past.  Dom shrugged then moved on, past a charming babbling brook and onto a gleaming silver cobblestone path, gently shaded by trees arching up on either side, forming an extended canopy.  He rounded a bend in the road and finally the castle came into view.

It was reminiscent of Neuschwanstein Castle, but instead of being perched on a craggy out-cropping, it stood proud and tall in a field of verdant clover.  The castle itself was a glowing dove gray, with the tower and parapet roofs in pastel pinks, lavenders, mint greens and creams.  It looked like a cake.

Finally able to see the whole sky without the interfering tree canopy, Dom could see an impressive rainbow sparkling above him, arching directly above and behind the castle's main tower.  Then Dom looked up, and saw a perfect twin of the first rainbow, shimmering above it.  A double rainbow.  Who had ever heard of such a thing?

Dom still hadn't seen any of the others, but he heard laughter and a deep, melodic singing coming from behind the castle walls.  The cobblestone path lead straight to an arched bridge over a clear-watered moat.  As he crossed it, a fish leaped from the water to head-height, looked right into Dom's eyes and winked, then dove back into the water and swam away.  "Oooo-kay," said Dom, and continued on his quest.

Beyond the castle walls was an idyllic garden.  He'd finally found one of his friends.  There Yusuf was, splashing around in a pond, in between the lily pads.  A frog was perched on his chest.

"Yusuf, what are you doing?" called Dom.

Yusuf paused in his splashing and beamed at Dom, "Helllooo, Cobb, why the backstroke, of course!"

The frog said, “Ribbit.”  It didn’t croak, it just enunciated ribbit very clearly.  Yusuf patted it on the head.

“Come on, Yusuf, what’s going on?  You guys have been acting so strange, and then I find you here,” waving one hand to encompass the whole dream, “playing with frogs?”

“What, you don’t like the results of our experiments?  Isn’t it wonderful?” asked Yusuf, grinning.

“I’ve been worried about you all.  You’ve been hiding things,” said Dom, “M-Mal...I missed some of the signs...I ignored,” choking off the last few words.

Yusuf set his frog on a nearby lily pad and stood up in the pond, which only came up to his thighs, and waded out.  The water flowed off him, then evaporated into a sparkling mist, with reflections of the rainbows twinkling in them momentarily before dissipating.  “Cobb, maybe we should go talk to Ariadne.  She’d be better at explaining.”

Dom nodded, then followed Yusuf past an rounded hedge, covered in swaying vines of morning glories, to a courtyard circled by heart-shaped and rose-shaped topiaries.  In the center of the courtyard, Ariadne lounged on the back of a cotton-candy colored giant horse, which was ambling about the open area.  The deep, resonating singing was coming from the horse; Dom didn’t recognize the song, but it seemed devoted to the overarching rainbows and their magnificence, and a few of the lyrics were the phrases he’d heard his team giggling over in previous days.  As the horse turned, Dom saw it was in fact a unicorn, with a mother-of-pearl horn coming out of its forehead, contrasting its fuchsia mane and pale pink hide.  Ariadne’s face came into view, and she looked surprised but pleased to see them waiting for her.  She smiled and waved, before sliding off the unicorn.  “Thank you, Barry,” she said, and patted its back.

“My pleasure,” rumbled the unicorn.  Ariadne stepped back as the unicorn reared up on its back legs, stated “Neigh,” then trotted off, disappearing between two topiaries.

Dom stared after it for a moment, before pulling his attention back to his concerns and the others.  Yusuf was whispering something in Ariadne’s ear that sounded suspiciously like “Dom’s freaking out that we’re pulling a Mal.”  He’d be enraged at the crass reference to his departed wife, if he hadn’t just brought her up and Yusuf hadn’t been entirely right.

Yusuf said, “I’ll just wait by my frog til you’re done,” and ducked back toward the pond.  Dom turned to Ariadne for answers.

“Wow, you’ve been really worried?” asked Ariadne, turned to Dom, her nose wrinkling in concern.

“Worried!” Dom practically shouted, “Yes I’ve been worried.  You’ve all been clocking more hours on the PD the last week than you have in the month before that, you and Yusuf both have been reticent to share anything on your new focus, Arthur has been giggling, and,” gesticulating wildly, with on hand pointing in the air, “Eames,” now he was shouting,” Eames, blushed the other day!”

Ariadne had the gall giggle behind one hand.

“Then I follow you down into a dream and discover you’re all on some Disney acid trip!  What is going on!” yelled Dom, before running out of steam and slumping a bit.

“Oh, Dom, if you were that worried, why didn’t you ask me about it?” asked Ariadne, patting Dom on the shoulder.  He would have found it more comforting if he hadn’t just seen her doing the same thing to a pink equine with soul/funk singer aspirations.

“I asked Arthur, and he wouldn’t give me a straight answer.  And I did ask you.  Over and over.”

Ariadne looked puzzled, “When did you ask me about all this?” shaking her head, “I would have told you.”

“You’ve been hiding your sketch book, I know I asked you about that.”

“You mentioned it.  I thought you liked the glitter hearts I put on it,” said Ariadne.

“Well, yeah, the sparkles are nice.  Phillipa would like it.  Wait, that’s not the point, why haven’t you been sharing your latest work.”

Ariadne blushed a little, “I was embarrassed.  Yusuf and I are experimenting with ‘hyper-reality.’  I wanted it just right before I showed you.  You’re an amazing architect, and I wanted it to be perfect.”

“Right, that’s why all the cloak and dagger?  And where are Arthur and Eames?” insisted Dom, knowing he wasn’t getting the full story.

Ariadne sighed, “It’s complicated, Dom.  It started with Yusuf’s enhancements of the drugs, trying to achieve a more relaxed dreamer and a more vivid experience.  You know sometimes the dreams seem all washed out.”

Dom nodded encouragingly.  He was relaxing as Ariadne talked.

“Well, the first time we went down, it affected us way more than we expected.  I made up something closer to a fairytale than I expected, complete with well, yeah, that,” waving at the rainbows.  “Eames and Arthur were really taken with it,” and she laughed a little.  “It really dropped our inhibitions, and,” here she blushed deep red, “Arthur and Eames finally relieved all that pent up UST.”

“Ooo-st?  What the hell, Ariadne?” said Dom, peering at her through one skeptical eye, the other squinted closed in concentration.

“You know, UST,” said Ariadne.  Dom looked at her blankly.  “U. S. T.?  Unresolved Sexual Tension?”

Dom sputtered, “Unre...Sexual...Arthur and Eames?  Those two can barely stand to be within the same room without teasing each other!  Eames is constantly tipping Arthur’s chair over.  The only time they aren’t sniping at one another is when they’re in a dream shooting at projections instead!”

Ariadne grinned, “So you noticed, too.”

“Huh, okay, I guess I see your point,” said Dom, rubbing an eyebrow.

“Yup, so after the first time, we all had so much fun, we went right back down, and while Yusuf and I experimented with the effects, Arthur and Eames, um, enjoyed the double rainbow,” she elbowed him in the side twice and winked, “know what I mean?”

“Know what you...what does that even mean?” asked Dom, perplexed, “and don’t poke at me.”

Ariadne blew a raspberry at him, “Dom, they loved being together, but they’ve been using Yusuf’s new cocktail as a crutch, only admit how they felt when they were dreaming.  Honestly, guys can be so dense.”

“So, you’ve been going under again everyday to, what, set them up?  Ariadne, messing with dreams and untested drugs is dangerous stuff.  Who knows what could happen to you all.”

“Oh, Dom, I’m sorry you’ve been so concerned.  We know we have to be careful, that’s why Yusuf’s only been giving the two of us a regular dose of Somnacin ever since.  As fun as it was the first time, we were a little too out of control to conduct our research.”

“Yusuf isn’t high right now, and neither are you?” asked Dom.

“Nope, he’s just regular old Yusuf, free and clear.  Same with me,” said Ariadne, nodding.

“...and the thing with the frog?” asked Dom slowly.

Ariadne shrugged, “He likes frogs.  Says they’re good listeners.”

“Alright,” he said, deciding to move on to the crux of the matter, “and Arthur and Eames?”

“Yusuf’s been giving them a little less of his special mix each time, and compensating with a proportionate increase in the regular mix.”

“And you didn’t tell me any of this before because?”

“You only work half-days; we wanted to focus on your projects while you were in the office, and run our experiments when it wouldn’t waste your time.  Besides, why bug you to say Yusuf and I are trying to help our repressed co-workers finally get together and stop behaving like third-graders.  And you’ve seemed so stressed lately; we though you were having separation anxiety about Phillipa starting kindergarten, so we didn’t want to bother you.”

Dom shuddered at the though of Phillipa’s impending school term, then focused back on Ariadne.  “You have a point there about the matchmaking, but I was stressed about you all!”

“Well, I know that now.  But we’re okay,” Ariadne smiled and patted his shoulder again.

“I still want to see that they’re okay for myself,” said Dom, setting his fists on his hips, trying to look serious and determined.

“All right, but, well...I guess you can come see,” she said, trying to suppress a mischievous smile.  

Yusuf peeked his head around a topiary, “All done explaining, then?”

Dom jumped, and Ariadne laughed, “Yeah, we’re just going to see what the two love-birds are up to.”  She slipped an arm through the crook of one of Dom’s cocked elbows, and tugged him deeper through the gardens, past the heart-shaped topiaries, and cascading fountains, and overflowing flower planters.

They finally reached an archway, which lead to an inviting sitting room, complete with roaring fireplace, plush couches, mint-green shag carpet, and a harp.  Through open door lay a balcony, with wrought-iron benches and a bird-bath, filled with tweeting electric-blue birds.  They didn’t hold his attention for long, because the balcony afforded a spectacular view of the vast field behind the castle, surrounded by swaying groves of blossoming cherry trees, backed by misty snow-capped mountains.  The rainbows above were even more impressive up close, each band of red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, and violet shimmering and intense.  A hot air balloon was sailing between the rainbows, and they could see Arthur reaching out to run his hand through the red band of the lower rainbow, splashing the color at a laughing Eames next to him in the basket.  The unicorn pranced below, humming its song.

“Saito is never going to believe this,” said Dom, dumbfounded by it all.

“Oh, he liked it.  The waterfall was his idea,” said Yusuf, gesturing at the cascading water washing down the craggy peaks of a mountain.

Dom tore his gaze away from the panorama, looking back and forth between Ariadne and Yusuf.  “Saito’s been here?”

“Sure, when he visited last week.  The carpet back there was his idea, though I made it that pretty color,” said Ariadne.

“Why’d you show Saito?” asked Dom, not a little jealous.

“He asked.  You should try it sometime,” said Ariadne, leaning into his side and smiling up at him.

“I guess I should,” said Dom, returning her smile before looking back at the technicolor vista.

Eames and Arthur were now locked in a passionate embrace, and dripping more shades of rainbow, which they’d evidently splashed each other with while Dom was distracted.  Dom turned back to Ariadne and Yusuf.  “They’re always like this, down here.”

“Yes, it’s practically Pavlovian now.  Wave rainbow under their noses, and it’s instant snogging,” said Yusuf, laughing.

“Shouldn’t we give them some privacy?” asked Dom.

“What do you think we were doing when you came in?  You’re the one who insisted we check on them,” said Ariadne playfully.

“You’ve got me there.  So have I seen everything now?” asked Dom.

“Well, we just bypassed the hedge maze, we could go explore that,” said Ariadne, looking up at him through her eyelashes.

“Hedge maze?  I didn’t even notice,” looking back over his shoulder.  “That sounds great.”

Grinning, Ariadne grabbed his hand and drew him back through the luxuriantly carpeted room, past the planters and toward the rounded curves of the morning glory covered hedge maze.

Yusef watched them go, then turned to the frog on his shoulder, “Ah, young love,” he said.

“Ribbit,” said the frog in agreement.

Behind them, Arthur and Eames floated past, covered head-to-toe in red and blue, looking like they were trying their damnedest to mix it into purple.

Barry’s resonating voice lifted up in song, “yeah, yeah, it’s so intense.”