#68: fic: The Woman Who Could Not Live With Her Faulty Heart
Title: The Woman Who Could Not Live With Her Faulty Heart
Fandom: Inception
Characters: Mal/Cobb
Rating: G
Warning: Character death. Spoilers.
Summary: "What was he like?" Ariadne asks. "He was lovely," says Arthur after a pause. AU. In which Mal and Cobb's positions are reversed.
Notes: This was an idea that took root after reading some stuff about Chris Nolan and female characters - what if Inception had been about Mal trying to get back, and Dom as the shade. It didn't want to go away, so I took it and wrote it using the music meme method (each drabble within the time frame of a track from the OST). Thanks to illuvium and KY for enabling. ;___; I should really be doing work. Title taken from the poem by Margaret Atwood.
1. Half Remembered Dream
"What was he like?" Ariadne asks.
"He was lovely," says Arthur after a pause.
2. We Built Our Own World
Dom walks all of Mal's dreamscapes, a vengeful shade, everything about him anger and hurt and accusation. What throws her off every time is that despite everything he is still him, still a solid weight she would like to press against, still the missing half to their whole.
She can spot the back of his head and the familiar line of his shoulders in any crowd of projections and still feel her heart leap in its chest.
3. Dream is Collapsing
Saito is not the type to be won over by soft smiles and charm, but this does not surprise Mal. She knows what Dom would say in this situation - because I am the most skilled extractor; what's the most resilient parasite?
"We all have secrets, Mr. Saito," Mal tells him, smiling softly; charming.
She doesn't miss the way Saito's eyes immediately dart towards the safe.
4. Radical Notion
The world Ariadne creates is painfully familiar, and as they walk down the sun-drenched streets of Ariadne's Paris Mal cannot help but be enchanted.
"This is the route I take to school every day," Ariadne tells her. She rearranges two immense mirrors to face each other; presses her fingertips against the cool surface of the glass. It shatters. They are standing on a bridge.
"Beautiful," Mal murmurs. She knows Dom would be horrified by this. We'll lose track, he had once told her, back before they went too deep, before they built their own world.
Before he did.
And then Dom is there, dogging her footsteps as always, face twisted -
5. Old Souls
"I had a dream that we'd grow old together," says Dom. "Remember?"
It is easy to confuse this Dom with her Dom, the young man who was so in love, in love with dreaming and with her. And Dom in this house that is theirs in this dream that is Mal's appears as old as he is young. Their hands still fit together though, perfectly as always.
6. 528491
Robert Fischer is the sort of young man who has taken pains, over the years, to protect himself. Mal sees his attempts at callousness, the lurching look he gets when Eames makes the choked-off sound of Robert Browning being beaten in the next room, and feels for him.
This last job is hers to do, however. One of them has to get home, after all.
7. Mombasa
Eames is an old friend, old enough for them to have shared cigarettes in the dingy student union bar when she was on exchange in England, old enough to have known Mal before Dom, before all of this. She doesn't trust him one bit, but that doesn't mean he doesn't come through.
"I'll run interference," he tells her, as if she needs protecting, and winks, rakish and foolish and sweet as always, before turning towards his target.
Mal launches herself over the balcony clambers easily down the side of the building. There are more men waiting for her below.
She runs.
8. One Simple Idea
Arthur has already set everything up at the warehouse when Mal arrives. It doesn't stop him from asking, though.
"Are you sure you want to go through with this?"
"For the last time, Arthur," Mal snaps.
"I don't see why you can't design the dreams yourself."
"Ariadne's better," says Mal, not answering the question. "Even better than Dom."
9. Dream Within A Dream
So she's not entirely honest. Then again, she never claimed to be.
They all have their blind spots, on this job. Yusuf isn't certain about the exact effect of the sedative in the compound, but he suspects strongly that dying will lead to Limbo. Arthur neglects to uncover anything about Robert Fischer's training.
Mal's blind spot is Dom.
"Your guilt defines him," Ariadne says urgently, and all Mal can think is and who is she to say this even though she knows it is true.
"You're going to have to forgive yourself."
But that's what Ariadne doesn't understand. Mal can't. Won't.
10. Waiting For A Train
"This isn't real," says Dom, looking around at what they've built. Beautiful and incongruous and not real.
"No, it isn't," Mal replies. There is a bitter taste to that knowledge.
And she almost forgets - almost. Some nights she lies in bed just beyond the clutches of sleep, and thinks about how easily she could have fallen in, too. How it could have been the both of them on the same window ledge, holding hands and plunging into death a second time.
"We need to wake up, Mal," Dom tells her, fervent as always. This was the man who had swept her off her feet with that one look. Because we'll be together.
Mal nods, and doesn't think of the safe, or the top within it, spinning and spinning endlessly. She thinks of her children. She thinks of how much she loves Dom, that she would do this to him and for him.
11. Paradox
She has never thought of Dom as handsome in his wrath.
She loved him for other things, at first. He was kind, and patient, a little bit boorish, maybe, but he loved her dearly and that was, unexpectedly, the best thing. When they fought - and they had, numerous times - Mal had always been the one engulfed in anger, spitting fury and harsh words while Dom braced against it with his own sullen, quiet aggression.
But this Dom is different. This Dom is the guilty core of her heart, her trammelled rage taking shape and lashing back at her.
"I infected your mind," she tells him, tears blurring her vision, while Ariadne looks on, stricken. "I betrayed you."
Dom's expression softens; always, always he softens -
"Mal," he says, weary and angry and still so full of love. "Mal, stay."
"You said you dreamt that we'd grow old together."
"I know. Mal. Darling, we can."
But they have.
12. Time
They are strangers when they reach the airport, after the heart-stopping moment when Mal turns in her passport at immigration.
Last looks - Ariadne, talented, wise Ariadne looking on. Eames, knowing. Arthur, satisfied. Yusuf tipping his head in the barest of nods. Saito glancing briefly over before turning away. Robert Fischer's gaze lingers on her, the faintest trace of recognition in his eyes.
When Mal steps out of the Arrivals gate and walks straight into her father's embrace, she is not a dream thief, not the world's most skilled extractor, not a fugitive washed clean.
She is merely another traveller, going home to her family.
End
-----------------
2nd Note: I've been really... offline for the past month or so; apologies for that! ): It's been really quiet around here. ♥
Fandom: Inception
Characters: Mal/Cobb
Rating: G
Warning: Character death. Spoilers.
Summary: "What was he like?" Ariadne asks. "He was lovely," says Arthur after a pause. AU. In which Mal and Cobb's positions are reversed.
Notes: This was an idea that took root after reading some stuff about Chris Nolan and female characters - what if Inception had been about Mal trying to get back, and Dom as the shade. It didn't want to go away, so I took it and wrote it using the music meme method (each drabble within the time frame of a track from the OST). Thanks to illuvium and KY for enabling. ;___; I should really be doing work. Title taken from the poem by Margaret Atwood.
1. Half Remembered Dream
"What was he like?" Ariadne asks.
"He was lovely," says Arthur after a pause.
2. We Built Our Own World
Dom walks all of Mal's dreamscapes, a vengeful shade, everything about him anger and hurt and accusation. What throws her off every time is that despite everything he is still him, still a solid weight she would like to press against, still the missing half to their whole.
She can spot the back of his head and the familiar line of his shoulders in any crowd of projections and still feel her heart leap in its chest.
3. Dream is Collapsing
Saito is not the type to be won over by soft smiles and charm, but this does not surprise Mal. She knows what Dom would say in this situation - because I am the most skilled extractor; what's the most resilient parasite?
"We all have secrets, Mr. Saito," Mal tells him, smiling softly; charming.
She doesn't miss the way Saito's eyes immediately dart towards the safe.
4. Radical Notion
The world Ariadne creates is painfully familiar, and as they walk down the sun-drenched streets of Ariadne's Paris Mal cannot help but be enchanted.
"This is the route I take to school every day," Ariadne tells her. She rearranges two immense mirrors to face each other; presses her fingertips against the cool surface of the glass. It shatters. They are standing on a bridge.
"Beautiful," Mal murmurs. She knows Dom would be horrified by this. We'll lose track, he had once told her, back before they went too deep, before they built their own world.
Before he did.
And then Dom is there, dogging her footsteps as always, face twisted -
5. Old Souls
"I had a dream that we'd grow old together," says Dom. "Remember?"
It is easy to confuse this Dom with her Dom, the young man who was so in love, in love with dreaming and with her. And Dom in this house that is theirs in this dream that is Mal's appears as old as he is young. Their hands still fit together though, perfectly as always.
6. 528491
Robert Fischer is the sort of young man who has taken pains, over the years, to protect himself. Mal sees his attempts at callousness, the lurching look he gets when Eames makes the choked-off sound of Robert Browning being beaten in the next room, and feels for him.
This last job is hers to do, however. One of them has to get home, after all.
7. Mombasa
Eames is an old friend, old enough for them to have shared cigarettes in the dingy student union bar when she was on exchange in England, old enough to have known Mal before Dom, before all of this. She doesn't trust him one bit, but that doesn't mean he doesn't come through.
"I'll run interference," he tells her, as if she needs protecting, and winks, rakish and foolish and sweet as always, before turning towards his target.
Mal launches herself over the balcony clambers easily down the side of the building. There are more men waiting for her below.
She runs.
8. One Simple Idea
Arthur has already set everything up at the warehouse when Mal arrives. It doesn't stop him from asking, though.
"Are you sure you want to go through with this?"
"For the last time, Arthur," Mal snaps.
"I don't see why you can't design the dreams yourself."
"Ariadne's better," says Mal, not answering the question. "Even better than Dom."
9. Dream Within A Dream
So she's not entirely honest. Then again, she never claimed to be.
They all have their blind spots, on this job. Yusuf isn't certain about the exact effect of the sedative in the compound, but he suspects strongly that dying will lead to Limbo. Arthur neglects to uncover anything about Robert Fischer's training.
Mal's blind spot is Dom.
"Your guilt defines him," Ariadne says urgently, and all Mal can think is and who is she to say this even though she knows it is true.
"You're going to have to forgive yourself."
But that's what Ariadne doesn't understand. Mal can't. Won't.
10. Waiting For A Train
"This isn't real," says Dom, looking around at what they've built. Beautiful and incongruous and not real.
"No, it isn't," Mal replies. There is a bitter taste to that knowledge.
And she almost forgets - almost. Some nights she lies in bed just beyond the clutches of sleep, and thinks about how easily she could have fallen in, too. How it could have been the both of them on the same window ledge, holding hands and plunging into death a second time.
"We need to wake up, Mal," Dom tells her, fervent as always. This was the man who had swept her off her feet with that one look. Because we'll be together.
Mal nods, and doesn't think of the safe, or the top within it, spinning and spinning endlessly. She thinks of her children. She thinks of how much she loves Dom, that she would do this to him and for him.
11. Paradox
She has never thought of Dom as handsome in his wrath.
She loved him for other things, at first. He was kind, and patient, a little bit boorish, maybe, but he loved her dearly and that was, unexpectedly, the best thing. When they fought - and they had, numerous times - Mal had always been the one engulfed in anger, spitting fury and harsh words while Dom braced against it with his own sullen, quiet aggression.
But this Dom is different. This Dom is the guilty core of her heart, her trammelled rage taking shape and lashing back at her.
"I infected your mind," she tells him, tears blurring her vision, while Ariadne looks on, stricken. "I betrayed you."
Dom's expression softens; always, always he softens -
"Mal," he says, weary and angry and still so full of love. "Mal, stay."
"You said you dreamt that we'd grow old together."
"I know. Mal. Darling, we can."
But they have.
12. Time
They are strangers when they reach the airport, after the heart-stopping moment when Mal turns in her passport at immigration.
Last looks - Ariadne, talented, wise Ariadne looking on. Eames, knowing. Arthur, satisfied. Yusuf tipping his head in the barest of nods. Saito glancing briefly over before turning away. Robert Fischer's gaze lingers on her, the faintest trace of recognition in his eyes.
When Mal steps out of the Arrivals gate and walks straight into her father's embrace, she is not a dream thief, not the world's most skilled extractor, not a fugitive washed clean.
She is merely another traveller, going home to her family.
End
-----------------
2nd Note: I've been really... offline for the past month or so; apologies for that! ): It's been really quiet around here. ♥