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Good thing I'm mostly talking about you, then. [She looks at him curiously.] It's just... I know I can trust you. That's all. The people who contacted me, well, I wouldn't want to work with anyone you hadn't vetted, anyway.

[He takes a drink.] I understand, but you don't have a reason to trust me. Perhaps you have trust in my abilities, bit there is a difference.

I have lots of reasons to trust you. Cobb trusts you, and by extension Miles.

Cobb and I have worked together for years. He knows me.

I know. So I know I can trust you, too.

You're awfully trusting. I'll try not to let you down.

I am not! If I was that trusting, I'd be taking jobs with anyone who asked, and then I'd get into trouble and you'd have to rescue me or something ridiculous like that.

[He smiled, but hid it behind his drink.] You may have a point.

[Of course she has a point. It's a damn good one, too.] So see, all you have to do is take me on as your new business partner. Exclusive services, and all of that.

Well I don't have Cobb any more.

[She looks at him intently, totally serious.] You need someone to build your dreams. You're used to working with a partner, right? And you know what I can do - what I have done.

I'm done with school at the end of the term. I don't want to be a low-level grunt in a real-world architecture firm.

Sounds like a good business arrangement.

Cobb really got you hooked, didn't he?

You hadn't noticed? Besides. [Now she's just being cheeky.] With your experience and my raw talent, we'll be the best-paid extraction team in the world.

Well aren't you modest. [He teased.]

No room for modesty in this business. Right? [She sloshes her glass a little.] Another drink?

[He smirks. She learned fast.]

[Arthur called over the bartender and ordered another round.] So do you have any plans for next weekend? I can probably set something up in Marseilles.

Marseilles it is, then. Shall we clink glasses to seal the deal? [She returns his smirk.]

Why not? [He raises his glass to hers.]

[Clink! She's grinning a bit like a kid at Christmas.] You'll have to teach me all the skills of criminal mastermind...ery.

[He takes a drink.] I'll do my best. Can you fire a gun? We'll also have to train your subconscious. Most of the time we do that first, but the Fischer job wasn't like most.

[Can you fire a gun? Such a simple question. Her smile fades a little and she glances at her drink, voice quiet.] I did once, in Limbo. But I can't say I know how, no. But I'll learn whatever you have to teach me.

[Limbo was not a thing Arthur liked to talk about. He nodded.] Good. Come by the workshop after your classes tomorrow. I can train you until we leave.

[Good, because she doesn't want to talk about it, either. She only told him in the interest of full disclosure. If they're going to work together again, if she's going to trust him like she says she does, then he should know at least the basics.

Everything else that happened, well, that's as much Cobb's story to tell as hers. If he's not talking, she won't.

But his words make her smile, an anticipatory gleam in her eyes.]

Three o'clock is when I'm done. I can make it there by three-thirty.

[And maybe, just maybe, he'll keep playing the gentleman long enough to take her to dinner.]

[Dom and Arthur had a 'don't ask, don't tell' sort of relationship. In the end, it probably contributed to the problem. Buy it wasn't like Arthur didn't know about Mal's inception or how bad she was bursting through the subconscious. They just didn't talk about it. Arthur was good at avoiding.]

Sounds like a plan. [He had to smile at the look she was giving him.]

[She polishes off her drink, then glances around.] I'd suggest another round, but, I'll confess, I can't hold my liquor well, and I don't think it'd be a great start to a working relationship for you to have to take me home totally sloshed and put me to bed.

[It's only after she says it that she realizes it could be taken the wrong way.] I mean... uh. [There's really not a good way to reword that, not that she can think of, not after two G&Ts. Woops. Note to self: don't have more than one drink in Arthur's company if you can help it.]