Nightmare's & Dreamscape's

Summary: When secrets that Ariadne had hoped to keep hidden in her start to appear in her dreams, Arthur feels helpless and unable to protect her.

Author's Note: Ok...so it's been awhile since I last wrote something and I'm afraid that I might be a little rusty, but after watching Inception for like the 4th time and after completely going fan girl crazy and making Arthur x Ariadne my new OTP this idea came into my head. I knew that I simply couldn't just sit by and not write this story, or at the very least get the idea off the ground since even I don't know where this story will go. I'm just going to let my writing take me wherever it wants to go this time and I hope there will at least be someone who will join me for the ride. ^_^

Thank You and Enjoy! :D

Disclaimer: Inception belongs to Christopher Nolan.

Chapter 1

Wednesday. To most people it was the middle of the week. A sign that the week was almost over and soon it would be Friday, which to everyone else was the best day of the week. The start of the weekend and when everyone would be free from the normal duties of school, work, and whatever else it was that made people so moody during the weekdays. Arthur took a deep breath of the clean fresh air that always came after a rain and focused only on the sound of his feet hitting the still wet pavement of one of the streets of Paris.

It had been a few months since the Fischer case and the team had pretty much gone their separate ways going about their lives. Instead of going on his way though Arthur found himself following Ariadne back to Paris. The young Architect student of course had to return to Paris since she was still finishing up college and she had taken a lot of time off from school in order to help Cobb and the others with the Inception. It had surprised Ariadne a bit to find Arthur on the same flight as hers back to Paris, since the first thing she had thought after the job was over was that she might not really see any of the others again. Arthur had just smiled at her and moved his bag so she could sit next to him on the flight back.

The two had hardly talked with each other on the flight and when the plane landed Arthur had escorted Ariadne through the airport, helped her with her bags, and then they both went their separate ways. Both of them had thought that it would be the last time either of them would see each other and even though neither of them would admit it out loud, that last good-bye at the airport terminal was the last thing either of them had wanted to do.

A couple of weeks had passed and life went on for Ariadne. She had gone back to school and wasn't too surprised to find the load of work waiting for her. It didn't take her very long to be able to catch up on what she had missed, though it would have gone a lot faster if her imagination hadn't gotten the better of her. Ariadne had constantly found herself daydreaming about Arthur and of course usually when the Point Man had entered her thoughts it lead to that kiss that they had shared on the second level dream. Even though a big part of her kept screaming that there was no way Arthur would have those kind of feelings for her and that the kiss meant nothing to him, she still just simply could not let him go.

Even though Ariadne didn't know it, Arthur was going through the same thing as well. Coming back to Paris was just an impulse that he had and when he got there he honestly had no idea what it was that he should do. After a few weeks of finding a nice apartment to stay in he had been able to find odd and end jobs around Paris. There was always work for a Point Man and even though the jobs were extremely petty and pretty much pointless, it at least paid the bills and he was able to live out his life easily.

As the weeks went on Arthur one day found himself laying on the couch with the TV on but the sound was muted as he played with his loaded die. His mind had been drifting off to a certain Architect. After almost two months in Paris he had never once stopped to think about going to see Ariadne. It wasn't that he didn't want to, in fact he had wanted to go and see her for some time now. Just because they weren't on the Fischer case anymore didn't mean that they didn't have to see each other. After all it's not like he and Cobb had stopped talking. Just the other night Cobb had gotten a hold of him to say hello and had told Arthur all about his kids and how great life was. Arthur had just half listened during that conversation since at that time as well he had been looking out the window, rolling the loaded die in his hand, and thinking about Ariadne.

On the other end of the line Cobb must have realized that Arthur was only half listening because he had piped up and said, "So how is Ariadne?"

At that Arthur snapped his attention back to the phone, "What!"

Cobb laughed on the other end, "Ariadne...you know... long brown wavy hair, our Architect on the Fischer case...That Ariadne."

Arthur had shoved his loaded die back in his pocket and paced around the room, "I wouldn't know...I haven't seen her since we went our separate ways at the airport."

"Oh...Really? You haven't seen her at all?" Arthur could practically see the surprised and confused expression on Cobb's face. Arthur couldn't help but be a little surprised at himself as well. What was holding him back from seeing her?

"Well," Cobb had broken the silence first, " I better get going...and go and see Ariadne. I'm sure she would like that."

Before Arthur could even answer back Cobb had hung up on the other end and all that was coming through was the sound of the dial tone.

Another week had passed since that call and now here he was still laying on the couch wondering if he should either try and call Ariadne, go and see her at her school, or just simply ignore her all together and let his imagination take care of any thoughts of her. Though after that little internal battle Arthur stood up, grabbed his coat, and walked out the door.

Now here he was walking down the streets of Paris after the rain fall the night before. He had gotten the address of her school a long time ago and had never forgotten it and even though he would never admit it out loud Arthur even knew where Ariadne lived. Though he figured that it would be a little to creepy for him to just show up on her door step. Part of him was still debating if she would be happy to see him or not. After all it wasn't like they had the most deepest of friendships, but still Arthur couldn't help but feel himself be pulled towards her.

As he finally reached the corner that turned to were the college would be Arthur stopped to look at his watch. It was almost 4:30. Would she be out of class? He really was taking a wild shot at hoping to run into Ariadne here at the school. Considering the fact that what if she didn't have class on Wednesday? Or if she did have class would she have already been done for the day or maybe she was taking an afternoon class? Another million possibilities rammed into Arthur's head as he was starting to realize how much he was just putting to chance. Yes, he was The Point Man and normally he would know almost everything about a person he was working with, or in Ariadne's case, had worked with, but that didn't mean he had to memorize her entire school schedule and for all he knew she could have changed it. Arthur sighed and fingered the loaded die in his pocket.

"Ok." He thought to himself, "I'll just wait for a little bit and see if she comes out or not, if not, I'll try something else."

He quickly walked across the street then situated himself against the wall and kept his eyes on the door. The minutes ticked by and Arthur had started playing with his die by tossing it back and fort in his hands. A few people had walked out and not to many of them had really noticed he was standing there. A few girls had passed by him and started giggling as they went by as if they were still freshmen in High School. It was getting close to it being thirty minutes since Arthur had waited and he figured that it might be better for him to try and call up Ariadne, at least that way he wouldn't feel like he was imposing himself on her.

Just as he was pocketing the loaded die the door to the college swung open once more and two girls walked out. Arthur could hear one of the girls complaining about a project that was going to be due and was asking her friend for help, " Please help me with just the start of the project...PLEASE! I swear I'll treat you to whatever you want and I'll even do your homework for a week! Please Ariadne!"

Arthur stopped dead in his tracks and quickly looked at the second girl, who's laughter was now making Arthur's heart involuntarily skip a beat.

" Ok Ok, I'll help you and at the very least set up some kind of outline for the board, but that's it! Last thing we need is for..." Ariadne stood rooted to the ground as she saw who was standing just a few feet from her.

Immediately she reached into her pocket and felt her totem there. Arthur couldn't help but let a little laugh escape his lips. He knew that she was reaching for her totem and he couldn't help but be a little pleased that she still carried it around with her. He smiled at Ariadne and nodded his head to her in a silent hello. Ariadne's friend had noticed that Ariadne had stopped and followed her gaze to see what her friend was looking at. A smile spread across the girls face as she nudged Ariadne, "Well then...I guess I'll just call you later about the project."

Ariadne quickly pulled her gaze away from Arthur to look at her friend who had already turned around and was now walking in the opposite direction. She stuttered a quick 'good-bye' to her friend even though she was now out of ear shot. Ariadne now turned her attention to Arthur who was walking closer to her now.

"Arthur...Ummmmm...Hi!" Ariadne mentally slapped herself, why did she sound so stupid to herself right now?

Arthur smiled at her, "Hi there. I'm sorry if I interrupted something."

"Oh! No don't worry it was nothing, she can always call me later." Ariadne fiddled with the bishop chess piece in her pocket, this wasn't a dream. "So...What are you doing here?"

Arthur simply smiled at her, "I wanted to see you."

Ariadne just stood there dumb struck. Arthur wanted to see her? Before she could let her imagination get out of hand Ariadne smiled back at him, "Would you like to go to a cafe or something? I know a really great place not to far from here."

Arthur smiled, " That would be nice. Lead the way."

As Ariadne led Arthur to the cafe the two walked along in a comfortable silence. It was just like whenever the two of them were alone together when they were working on the Fischer case. Locked in a silence that was peaceful and content, merely enjoying the company of the other person.

When they reached the cafe and sat at a table on the outside a waiter came up and took their orders. After a moment of situating her book bag across the back of her chair Ariadne knew that she couldn't just not talk with Arthur the entire time, after all it had been months since the last time she had seen him. At the same time though she didn't really want to be the one to break the silence. Luckily Arthur saved her from having to speak up, "So how have you been?"

And just like that the seal was broken and they talked for what felt like hours on end. Ariadne told Arthur all about how school was going and how much she had missed him and everyone else on the team. How she had heard from Cobb a few nights ago, something that immediately made Arthur wonder if Cobb hadn't just brought Ariadne up as a joke over the phone or in order to try and set up this whole meeting. Arthur asked how her architect stuff was going along and Ariadne had been more than happy to pull out her sketch book to show him all her latest layouts. Arthur studied each and every one of them with care. He was always impressed by how much she was able to plan out on just a sketch pad alone. Part of him really wanted to get Ariadne back in the dream world so she could try a few of these out, but was distracted when she started to ask about how he was doing and what he had been up too.

Arthur went on to tell her how he had got a place here in Paris and that he had been able to find a few jobs here and there, but there was really not much for him to tell her, or that he was willing to tell her. Arthur was pretty sure Ariadne didn't need to know how the Point Man whom she had always known to have a plan and keep things cool and collected had been for the past few months fighting with himself to come and see her. Along with the fact that she had crossed his mind at least once a day.

As the sun started to set and the cafe was starting to turn on it's outside lamps they both agreed that it was time that they both went on their way home.

"This was really fun." Ariadne said while packing up her things and leaving a tip for her dink on the table.

Arthur smiled, "This really was nice. We should do it again sometime soon."

The smile that lit up Ariadne's face at this suggestion made Arthur's heart swell with joy. "That sounds like a great idea. When do you have free time?" Ariadne asked while getting up.

"How about we meet here next Wednesday?" Arthur said and quickly added, "That is if you're not to busy with school."

Ariadne shook her head, "Wednesday is perfect. How about we go ahead and meet here at about 4:30? I normally get out at 4:00 but you saw my friend Ariel and how she was stressing over the project that we have due in a few weeks."

"I'll be here at 4:30 then." Arthur got up as well and smiled at Ariadne.

There was a moment of awkward silence between the two but they both simply laughed, quickly said their good-night's to each other, and went off in separate directions. They both now had something to look forward too and next Wednesday couldn't get there fast enough.

Authors Note: Well, what did you all think? I'm sorry if it seems like is an entirely different story than what my summary says, but in my stories I can't keep things short and I have to set everything up in order for all of the events to unfold. I am practically going to break Ariadne and then piece her back together for this story. So, I hope there is at least one person out there who will enjoy this story with me.

PLEASE REVIEW!

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