A story about the Dream Team as teens in high school. They are at a Halloween party where some of them meet for the first time, they go trick-or-treating, watch a scary movie, read to find out more...NOT SCARY! Just more of a humorous, fun story. Eames' first name is Jack.

Hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: I own neither Inception or Halloween. :P

The party was raging when the four friends entered. Jack had insisted on going in first with Mal on his arm-him being Satan and her being one of the seven deadly sins, anger-he thought it was appropriate if they stayed together.

As they wandered off to talk to people, Arthur turned to Dom. "Remind me again what we're doing here? We don't go to parties."

"Because." The one-word answer didn't convince Arthur. Dom sighed. "I just thought it would be fun, that's all. Plus, you really need to get out more, take a break from all that schoolwork. And I thought this party would be a good way to meet new people."

Arthur just stared at him, skeptical.

"Don't look at me like that." Dom replied crossly. "Look, just...walk around and talk to people." he explained, and he walked over to a group of kids hanging out by the punch bowl, leaving Arthur alone by the door.

Arthur sighed. Damn Dominic for bringing him to this. He had no interest in parties, his idea of fun was a good book. He stood firmly by the door, refusing to interact with the teens around him. They all looked drunk anyway.

"Oops, sorry!" someone apologized quickly as they bumped into him. He looked down to see a head of dark hair, and a pair of bright eyes staring up at him.

"Don't worry about it." was all he could manage to say.

She grinned and wandered off to the next room, where the dancing was going on. Across the room, Dom grinned as he watched Arthur's eyes follow the girl as she walked away. He was at his friend's side in a second.

"Go talk to her." he said.

"Why?" Arthur's eyes narrowed suspiciously at him.

"You finally interacted with a girl who wasn't throwing herself all over you!" Dom said excitedly. "And you're interested, I can tell." he grinned like he had just won an argument that they hadn't even had yet. Arthur just stared at him, his eyes had narrowed into slits.

"What if I don't want to?"

"We both know you do." Dom stated matter-of-factly. "And if you don't, I'll tell Jack to go talk to her instead."

Arthur's eyes widened and he quickly hurried into the room next door, looking for the girl. Dom laughed to himself.

"Oy, Zorro!" he heard Jack refer to him by the masked avenger that was his costume. He turned to see Jack gesturing to him madly from across the room. Oh, shit, he thought. Jack was already tipsy...he zipped over to him and pried the drink from his hands. He didn't want to know what happened when Jack was full-on drunk...

(*)

Arthur finally spotted her, standing by the wall and munching on tortilla chips. Oh my god. He knew her. She was in his world histories class, and the thing he remembered about her was...not much. She participated in class, but didn't seem to interact with people quite so much. He definitely hadn't considered her as a party type of person. So what was she doing there?

"Hey." he said, making his way over to her.

Ariadne turned her head to look at him. Well, this was a first. Boys didn't normally just talk to her out of the blue.

"Hey." she replied, looking him up and down. "I like your costume."

"Thanks." He didn't seem to show much emotion, but perhaps she just couldn't see it behind his glasses...why was he wearing them inside? Arthur, on the other hand, was nervous. He had no idea what to say to her, it wasn't often that he had a normal conversation with a girl that wasn't throwing herself at him. Thank goodness she continued talking, so that things didn't become awkward.

"Neo, right?" she continued. "From The Matrix?"

He nodded.

"Great movie." she concluded, turning back to face the dancing crowd in front of her. "Totally unrealistically defies the laws of physics-" she stuffed some more tortilla chips into her mouth, "but still good."

"Yeah." he responded shortly. "I like your costume, too."

"Oh, thanks." she grinned. "I made it myself. I'm Athena." she gestured to the little stuffed owl sitting on shoulder via velcro.

"Ah, the greek goddess of war and wisdom?"

"Yeah." she was pleasantly surprised. Not many people seemed to know much about the Greek gods and goddesses. "I always felt rather connected to her. My name's Ariadne."

"Arthur."

She nodded, she knew who he was. He hung around with that guy, Cobb and his girlfriend, Mal. Ariadne had french with her.

"So, what brings you to the party?" she asked Arthur.

"I got dragged here by a friend." he said. "Apparently I need to socialize more." he snorted. Ariadne giggled. "That's never a bad idea." she mused.

"Is that why you're here?" he asked.

"Nah. Free food," she showed him her handful of chips. "Entertainment better than what's on TV," she gestured to the students dancing crazily. "And no adult supervision." she finished.

Arthur laughed, and the conversation was easily spurred forward. He was actually slightly annoyed when Dom came over to talk to him.

"Hey Arthur!" Dom said. He smiled at Ariadne before turning to his companion. "Jack and Mal and I decided to skip out early and go back to my place."

Arthur looked past Dom to see Jack being held up by Mal, he was clearly well on his way to being drunk.

"Ah, good. All this socializing is busy work." Ariadne giggled and Arthur grinned at his own wit.

Dom rolled his eyes and ignored the comment. "We're gonna hang out and watch scary movies. You coming?"

Arthur was silent a moment. "Yeah, sure." The party-aside from talking to Ariadne-hadn't been that great. Before following Dom out, he turned to her.

"Hey...um, do you want to come with us?" He looked slightly nervous about asking her, almost shy. "Can't be any worse than this, right?"

She blushed. "Sure."

They turned to leave, but she hesitated.

"Would it be alright if...I invited someone else? I mean, he's really nice and he doesn't really know anyone here..."

She couldn't tell what was running through Arthur's mind, the glasses covered a good amount of his face and the lights were dim.

"Yeah." he said eventually. "I'll wait for you by the front door."

Ariadne found Yusuf in the next room. He wasn't too hard to find in his elaborate pirate costume. "Hey Yusuf."

"Oh, hey Ari!" he grinned at her. "How are you enjoying the party?"

"Eh, it's okay." she admitted. "But listen, this guy Arthur invited me to go to his friend's house to watch some scary movies. Thought it might be more fun than this. You wanna come?"

(*)

"Okay guys." Dom glanced at the five of them. "Um, I'm not gonna have room of all of you in my car. Do any of you drive?"

Arthur sighed, he knew he shouldn't have left his car at Dom's house.

"Um, I'm waiting for my mom to pick me up." Yusuf admitted, embarrassed.

"Ariadne?"

"I walked here." she said. "I only live two blocks away."

They all thought for a minute.

"What if Yusuf and I walk back to my house, and then my mom can give us a ride to Dom's house?" she suggested.

"Sounds good." Dom agreed, and he gave her his address.

"I'll go with you guys." Arthur cut in. Ariadne stared at him, shocked.

"Why?" Jack asked.

"Because." Arthur stated simply. "I don't feel entirely comfortable with the two of them walking home in the dark, it's safer to go in a group."

"Well, aren't you the gentleman." Jack teased him. "Offering to walk a girl AND a boy home!"

Arthur's hands clenched, but Mal cut in. "I think it's a swell idea." she grinned at him. "He'll make sure they're safe. Especially on this most haunted of nights." She put on a dramatic, scary voice.

"Now, now." Dom said, grabbing her hand. "No scaring us."

"It's settled, then." Arthur said before Mal could retort. "We'll walk to Ariadne's house and then meet up with you guys at Dom's."

"Great." Dom pulled Mal to his car. Eames sent Arthur a wink before following. Arthur just glared, but ignored him, following after Ariadne and Yusuf.

But the three remaining teens hadn't even walked 5 steps before-

"Ooh, look! Free candy!" Ariadne squealed, running up to a house with a bowl on its porch.

"Well, it IS Halloween!" Yusuf laughed, but he followed her.

When the two of them got back to the sidewalk, they found Arthur still standing where they had left him, a playful smile was tugging at his lips.

"I guess we're going trick-or-treating?" he asked them.

"Oooh, yes, let's!" Ariadne said gleefully, and she grabbed his and Yusuf's arms and skipped down the street.

After going two blocks, Arthur spoke up. "Remember guys, we are supposed to be heading back to Dom's house."

"After this block, pleeeease?" Ariadne begged him. Arthur grinned, she was cute. She must have taken that as a 'yes', because she ran up to the next house for candy.

Arthur's phone rang. "Hello?"

"Where the bloody hell are you?" The British voice rang out, and Arthur held the phone a couple inches away from his ear. "I thought we were all supposed to be meeting up here, or are you too busy having fun at the little goddess' house?" Jack's teasing tone practically leaked through the speaker.

"Don't get your hopes up." Arthur shot back. "We're just going around the trick-or-treating around the block before heading over to Ariadne's house."

"Trick-or-treating? Why wasn't I invited?" But Jack got no answer; Arthur snapped his phone shut as Ariadne and Yusuf walked back to him.

Meanwhile...

"That wanker. He hung up on me!"

(*)

The ride to Dom's house was a slightly awkward one. The three kids sat together in the backseat, Ariadne had secretly just wanted the chance to sit next to Arthur. Luckily he couldn't see her watching him out of the corner of her eye...while pretending to stare out the window. Luckily, the ride to Dom's house wasn't a long one, and they arrived to find everyone patiently-or in Jack's case, not so patiently waiting. He was holding a cup of coffee, clearly forced upon him by Dom and Mal.

"Finally!" Jack sighed loudly the second they walked through the door. "For a couple minutes there, I actually had my hopes up that you just wouldn't show up at all."

Arthur rolled his eyes. "You guys can sit wherever you want," Dom instructed, leading them into his living room. Ariadne eyed the couch, coincidentally it was also Arthur's spot of choice. Yusuf grabbed a pillow and plopped down on the floor in front.

"So, what do you guys want to watch?" Dom asked them, but the words were barely out of his mouth when Jack bounded out of his seat - a cushy armchair by the door.

"I KNOW THE PERFECT ONE!" he yelled, running into the next room where the movies were kept.

As they all waited for him to get back, Ariadne let out a shaky sigh. She was pretty excited, but also a little nervous; she hadn't admitted to all of them that she wasn't the biggest fan of horror movies. But as she glanced at Arthur sitting next to her, she smiled. Maybe one scary movie would be worth it.

"Texas Chainsaw Massacre!" Jack shouted from the other room. He entered holding said movie, with a huge grin on his face.

"Perfect!" Dom exclaimed.

They were all set in place as Jack inserted the DVD into the player. Yusuf was sprawled out on his stomach on the floor, with a bowl of popcorn in front of him. Dom and Mal were curled up together on one side of his huge couch. Ariadne was on the other side of said couch...and Arthur was sitting awkwardly in the middle.

"I've never seen this movie before." Ariadne admitted nervously.

"Do you like scary movies?" Mal asked her.

"Some..."

"Oh, you'll love this one!" Jack exclaimed. "It's a classic!" Who was he kidding, he'd never seen the movie before. But she needn't know that.

Ariadne looked hesitant.

"Don't worry, Ariadne." Dom said comfortingly. "If you get scared, Arthur can protect you." Ariadne and Arthur blushed, Jack giggled appreciatively, and Mal smacked Dom smartly on the shoulder.

Not a word was said after that as their attention was directed towards the TV screen. Ariadne secretly hoped that Dom was right.

"Boooooo!" Jack yelled, throwing popcorn at the couple that had stopped making out onscreen. Not even ten minutes in, and Jack was already interrupting. "Why'd you stop?"

"Shhh!" Ariadne chucked one of her chocolate bars at him. She wondered if he did this often. "Something's about to happen!" she whispered in a dramatic voice. She was clearly very tense, her eyes were glued to the screen.

Jack just glared at her, but turned his attention back to the TV, unwrapping the candy. They waited. Nothing came.

"Well, looks like you're wrong, darling." he smirked at her. She merely stuck her tongue out at him.

After a repeat performance of the same conversation twenty minutes later, Jack felt confident in telling her, "wrong again," but the words were barely out of his mouth when the chainsaw wielding killer burst out of nowhere. Jack nearly jumped out of his seat. Ariadne let out a tiny shriek, and her hands immediately latched onto the first things they fell upon-one being the couch armrest...the other being Arthur's wrist. He glanced at her and she blushed.

Luckily nobody else had noticed this, and Ariadne quickly drew her hand back before they could.

(*)

Another thirty minutes later, Arthur decided that the only thing more annoying than Jack's constant interrupting to talk to the character's onscreen, was Yusuf. The boy would not stop screaming. And it was quite annoying, he screamed like a little girl. Jack suppressed another groan as Yusuf twitched and squeaked, sending a handful of popcorn scattering across the floor. They were only halfway through the movie and Jack felt like killing himself, he couldn't stand another minute of the boy's overreactions.

"Shhhh! Bloody hell, I think I might kill myself..." Jack groaned, he launched a popcorn kernel at Yusuf's head. Yusuf glared at him and threw it back.

"Hey, hey!" Dom said sternly, as they continued to exchange blows. "Don't make me come down there." He nudged Yusuf's leg with his foot. Yusuf sighed and popped the popcorn he'd been ready to throw into his mouth. "This isn't over." he mumbled.

The movie continued in almost complete silence, save for the occasional muffled squeak of terror from Yusuf-it was a wonder how he hadn't managed to choke on a piece of popcorn, or the near-silent gasps from Ariadne who practically jumped out of seat every 30 seconds.

"Shut up!" she whispered at Arthur who had been chuckling at her, and she smacked him lightly on the shoulder. "This is really scary!"

Arthur laughed even harder, the poor girl looked torn between wanting to cling to him and wanting to maintain some dignity. He wrapped an arm around her comfortingly, she was awfully pale.

By the end of the movie, people's positions had changed. Dom and Mal were still curled up together, with his arm around her shoulder. Jack had drawn his legs up onto his chair, his arms clutching them tightly. Yusuf had gotten too scared to sit on the floor by himself, and was now sitting on a kitchen chair that looked as though it was about to topple over, he was shaking so much. Ariadne was practically sitting in Arthur's lap, her head was in the crook of his neck, her hands were clamped on his jacket, and she was also shaking. Arthur looked slightly pleased at this arrangement, though he tried not to show it.

"So..." Dom broke the silence as the credits rolled. "Ariadne, what did you think?" Everyone turned to look at them.

"Never. Again." she muttered from Arthur's neck.

Dom just stared. It was amazing how this change in position had gone completely unnoticed up until this point. Jack giggled. Arthur cleared his throat, glaring at Jack, and patted Ariadne awkwardly on the back.

"I think it's time to take you home." he grinned down at her. She just looked back up at him and nodded her agreement. Arthur stood up.

"Can you walk, Ariadne, or would you prefer to have Arthur carry you?" Jack asked suggestively. Arthur ignored him and held out his hand to Ariadne, pulling her up. He put his arm around her and headed towards the door.

"Wait!" Cobb said. "Yusuf, don't you need a ride, too?"

"Oh yeah!" Yusuf almost fell out of his chair in his urgency to get to the door. He grabbed his bag of candy and headed out.

"What about Jack?" Arthur asked Cobb before following.

"He's staying with me for a while. I don't think his parents would be too pleased with his current condition."

Arthur chuckled, said his goodbyes to the three of them, and left.

(*)

Dom had made Jack wait in the car while he walked Mal to the door of her house, there really was no reason for him to come with them.

"Give her a kiss already!" Jack yelled obnoxiously from the car. Mal sighed.

"Did you really have to bring him along?" she asked her boyfriend. She was slightly annoyed.

"I'm sorry." Dom replied, grabbing her hand and kissing it lightly.

"A real one!" Jack cut in.

Dom pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "I just don't trust him alone in my house when he's drunk...or at all, really."

"I don't think that's the alcohol talking, didn't he have an entire pot of coffee at your place?" she chuckled. Dom didn't reply, he just gave her a sheepish smile. Mal smiled, he was such a sweetie. "You're a really good friend, Dom."

"Thanks." He gave her a kiss-a proper one, he assumed, because Jack wolf-whistled at them from the car. Then he stood and watched her until she was safely inside the house before going back to a grinning Jack.

"Shut up."

(*)

Something was different about Ariadne as Arthur walked her to the door of her house. The normally independent and confident girl was now clutching his arm tightly, her body was very close to his. He cleared his throat, he wasn't entirely sure he liked having her press so close against him. It made him feel...funny.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked her. "Sure you'll be fine by yourself?"

She swallowed, thinking this over. "No," she admitted. She opened the door to her house and stood back to let him in. He entered. "Thanks," she mumbled, embarrassed.

The next hour was spent eating candy, throwing candy, and talking. Ariadne was surprised at how much they had in common, this boy had really grown on her. She yawned and moved over to him, all the sugar had made her crash extremely quickly.

When Ariadne's mother finally came home, she was more than a little surprised to find her daughter curled up on the couch with a boy.

"Ari." she said sternly. Her daughter jerked awake, in turn, alerting the boy next to her to open his eyes."Omigosh mom, I'm so sorry! This is what-Arthur was just keeping me company until you got here-seriously mom, I'm sorry!"

Her mom laughed softly, and Ariadne was turning rather red. "Well, now that I'm back, he can go home now." She smiled at the pair of them, and went to her bedroom. Ariadne scrambled up quickly, and Arthur got up as well. She led him to the door. Before leaving, she stopped him. "Thanks again for staying with me." she wasn't looking at him, obviously still embarrassed from her mother's intrusion.

"It was fun." he replied. He leaned down to give her a soft kiss on her cheek. "See you later Ari." And with a little smile, he was gone.

Ariadne blushed and continued to stand in the doorway long after he had gone. She wouldn't be having any nightmares tonight.

I'm sorry if that was confusing for anyone. It was really frustrating to write, I got writer's block on it for a while, but...hopefully it turned out okay! :o)

Reviews are VERY MUCH loved, so please let me know what you think!

~ByTheBeautifulSea