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Ariadne blinked the haze from her eyes as she woke up. It took her a moment to realize that she did not know how she had gotten here. Instinctively she reached into her pocket and held onto her bishop tightly. The rough edges were enough to convince her that she was awake. Ariadne touched her forehead and her hand came back with some dried blood. The last few hours began to fall into place. The mark had woken up before them and when the world cleared she had seen Arthur fighting with him. She was about to get up to help when someone hit her on the head hard. She saw stars, heard Arthur yell her name and a single gunshot went off as she fell unconscious. The memory of that shot was what made panic settle into her chest as she looked around the room. On the floor, not far from where she was, lay Arthur. Her heart soared but for only a moment when she realized he was not moving.
Ariadne scrambled over to him but almost fell over in the process. Arthur looked like he had been through hell. His suit was splattered with dry blood, there was a deep cut on the side of his head, his lip was split and his knuckles were torn to pieces. The amount of blood made Ariadne's heart constrict in her chest as she felt around for some sort of fatal wound. When she touched a rib Arthur groaned and she had never been more thankful.
"Arthur, Arthur, can you hear me?" she asked. His eyes opened and blinked a few times as if he could not focus.
"I'm sorry," he said and she stared at him.
"You're sorry? Why?" Ariadne asked and she took his hand carefully as to not rip open the wounds on his knuckles.
"I messed up, I made a mistake, and you got hurt," Arthur said and she wanted to hit him for being dense.
"I'm fine, you're the one I'm worried about." She smiled down at him but it felt forced. He did not smile back; he just watched her with his dark eyes. "Do you think you can walk?" Arthur clutched his side and bit his lip hard enough to draw blood as he sat up.
"Barely but I'm useless like this. I can't help," he said and Ariadne helped him to his feet. She smiled and kissed his bloodstained cheek; the look she got from that was priceless.
"Who says I need help?" Ariadne asked and the second look she got was just as amusing. She waited until their captor came to check on them and as soon as he saw Arthur leaning heavily against the door he went for the point man. Ariadne knocked him out with one sharp strike to the back of the head and he crumpled to the ground. She disarmed him and checked the pistol, grinning at Arthur when he stared at her. "Come on." Despite that Arthur was significantly taller than she was Ariadne still helped him through the hallway.
"We're in the apartment building where we were working," he said but he sounded like he was out of breath. "In the basement though."
"So they knew where our headquarters were," she said and Arthur stopped to lean against the door. Ariadne knew he had to be in a lot of pain for him to be wincing like that. She also knew that he was not entirely happy that she was the one running the show right now. Nevertheless she did not really care what he thought because she could hear people moving. "We need to move," she said. Arthur stood up straight and walked quickly with her. Ariadne turned and disarmed another thug. She tossed Arthur the gun and his face was completely blank though she could see the pain in his eyes. They passed a room with two men and they each fired a shot. On the desk was the PASIV and Ariadne snatched it in one hand, her pistol in the other. She was not as well trained with a firearm as Arthur was and was not as comfortable shooting with one hand but the device was too heavy for him right now.
They managed to get through the basement and into the daylight. Ariadne's rental car was still off to the side and she opened the extra key case under the car to get the spare. Arthur eased into the passenger seat and she drove off. They had a full tank of gas and she did not stop driving until it was nearly empty. Every now and then Ariadne glanced over at Arthur. He was too pale, his knuckles were littered with debris, the cut on his head was still bleeding just a little and he was resting his forehead against the window. She reached forward and carefully took one of his hands. He jerked to attention but smiled at her. It was nearly dark when Ariadne stopped in front of a motel.
"I'll be right back," she told Arthur and he nodded without opening his eyes. Ariadne climbed out of the car and walked into the lobby. The receptionists stared at the blood on her hands and clothes but when Ariadne put down an extra $100 and asked for a first aid kit that seemed to be enough for the woman. She handed over a key and Ariadne went out to collect Arthur. She eased him out of the car and he hissed in pain.
"I'll be fine, I'm okay," he said trying to ease away from her but Ariadne held onto his arm. He blinked down at her.
"You're not; let me help you," she said. He seemed to understand that this was not something up for debate and nodded. Ariadne eased him into the room and got him down on the bed. She went back to the car and collected the PASIV. She slid both of the locks into place and rolled her shoulders. "Okay, let's take care of you," Ariadne said. She expected some sort of protest from Arthur but he said nothing. The small first aid kit luckily had some butterfly stitches that were enough to take care of the wound on his head. She thought she saw him flinch when she began to clean out his knuckles with antiseptic. A quick run down the hall and Ariadne came back with ice wrapped in a towel. "I don't have anything that can help with your ribs right now."
"It's fine. You've done more than enough," Arthur replied and his eyes did not leave hers. "I have to say I was, am, impressed by how you handled yourself back there."
"Well after a year of working with you it's about time I picked up a few tricks," Ariadne replied smiling. He smiled back at her despite that she knew it hurt his lip. Ariadne felt exhaustion hit her like a bus and she did not give herself time to over think it; she climbed onto the single bed next to Arthur. He watched her with those dark eyes of his.
"Thank you," he said in a soft voice.
"You'd do the same for me," she replied. Ariadne did not want to hurt his knuckles anymore yet she took his hand carefully to squeeze it. They lay there, side by side, staring at each other for what felt like a long time. There was a line, a professional line, that neither of them seemed willing to cross. There were times when she was sure she caught Arthur looking at her differently and others where he seemed to look right through her. There were times where she caught herself looking at him differently too. Ariadne knew that Arthur would never do anything, he was too careful and had to plan things out too much, so she decided to take it upon herself. She leaned forward and kissed him gently; his lip was bruised and swollen and there was a faint taste of blood. Arthur did not freeze on her though, he stayed right where he was and kissed her back, and she pulled away after a few heartbeats. They were close, noses nearly touching, and neither said a word. Ariadne rolled from her back to her side and curled up next to him. She was careful to keep some distance from him so she didn't hurt him but smiled when he moved very carefully to put an arm around her shoulders.
Ariadne smiled and fell asleep to the sound of Arthur's even breathing.