I can't actually believe I got this done in less than a week. Life has decided to throw me several curve-balls, all of which I had strikes... . Anyway, enjoy the next chapter!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Inception because if I did, I would not be writing fanfiction for it; I would be basking in its awesomeness and bragging about how I wrote it, which I sadly didn't.

Admittedly, I was a bit nervous at the prospect of performing an inception on Ariadne. After all there was a great risk of her finding out, and an even greater risk of her completely rejecting my affection (which scared me the most), nonetheless the multiple other risks that come with inceptions and extractions. But Cobb reassured me that everything would go smoothly, and I believed him. So I went along with the idea. After all, it wasn't as if I was forcing her to love me; the idea was to imply that I did, and hopefully she would have mutual feelings.

When Cobb explained the idea to Yusuf and Eames, there were mixed responses. Yusuf was happy in an uncharacteristic way, going on and on about how 'cute' it all was and how Ariadne and I were 'so cute together as a couple'. There were a few other mushy things he had said, which I will leave out for my own dignity.

Now Eames, on the other hand, was a different kind of happy. He just smiled and smirked, knowing full well that his original guess had been correct. This just gave him all the more reason to be Eames and annoy me to the point of steam coming out of my ears. And when we sat down to discuss plans for the dream, he refused to stop.

"Now we must make sure that we have everything planned out this time." Cobb started. "This is Ariadne we're talking about, a person who is already familiar with dream sharing and the like. But fortunately, she never had subconscious training, and therefore the security will be minimal if we stumble across any." Yusuf raised his hand.

"But won't she still be suspicious when we all show up in her dreams?"

"Yes she would, which is why Arthur is the only one she'll be seeing." replied Cobb. I noticed Eames smirking again and gave me a look.

"I'm sure Arthur won't have a problem with that, will you?" I gave him my best scowl, which didn't do a thing to help. Yusuf slapped Eames in the arm, which caused Eames to start pouting and myself to chuckle. "What was that for?" Eames yelled.

"Be nice, Eames!" Yusuf scolded, "Young love is a beautiful thing, and obviously something you know nothing about." Eames wasn't expecting that, judging by the look of surprise on his face.

"Oh, like you know more than me when it comes to women? I seriously doubt that, darling." Cobb cleared his throat, trying to restore order. I still had to chuckle at their little argument; its not everyday you see Eames frustrated like that, and I only wish I had had a camera to save the moment.

The discussion over Ariadne's inception continued over the next couple of days. The part that took the longest to decide was how to approach the subconscious on love. Just like the Fisher job, the idea must be presented in the simplest form possible in order for it to take hold. As every human being on the planet can tell you, love is not simple and has many different forms. I think we spent a full day just on this one part of the plan.

"Because of the risk of Ariadne discovering us, we will be doing three separate dreams, and only one level each." Cobb lectured.

"That sounds pretty simple." I commented.

"Now," Cobb continued, "does anyone have any suggestions on how to approach the subject of love to Ariadne? Remember, it has to be as simple as possible."

"I think the first dream should be something light" suggested Yusuf. "Something that won't cause her to suspect anything for the rest of the dreams. And for the last two dreams, put her in a situation that will cause her to evaluate her relationship with Arthur." Cobb nodded approvingly.

"Good idea, Yusuf. I especially like the idea of a dream to set the stage for the more important ones."

"Will we be able to achieve inception with only three dreams that are spread so far apart?" I asked, still seriously doubting the operation myself.

"It would be just the same as a 3-leveled dream, I would think." Eames answered. For the moment, he had decided to concentrate on work instead of tormenting me.

"Any suggestions at all?" Cobb asked again, trying to get back on topic. Eames raised his hand.

"Why can't one of the dreams focus on why Arthur hasn't told her in the past? After all, this has probably been going on for a while." I gave Cobb a look that was similar to the one I gave him before in answer to his question 'do you plan on telling her?'. Cobb was apparently reading my mind, and analyzing the best way to handle it.

"It would be a good idea, Arthur," Cobb started, and when I opened my mouth to interject he held up his hand, "but you do not have to tell her the truth. In fact, I think it would be best not to tell her the truth at all, for future safety." I nodded, and Eames glanced with uncertainty between Cobb and I, sensing he had brought up a sensitive topic.

"And Eames, don't even bother asking me, because I am not speaking of it anymore, got it?" I gave Eames my best stern look and he nodded. Smart move by him for once. I guess he figured he was in dangerously deep waters, because he was.

"I had a thought for a possible dream scenario." Yusuf spoke hesitantly, also sensing all the tension in the room. "When a person is in love, they tend to do what appear to be ordinary or expected actions, if you will, when in reality they have a duel meaning that may not be so clear to the one on the receiving end, causing angst and frustration to the lover themselves."

"What exactly are you getting at?" Cobb mused, who had been carefully listening to Yusuf proposal.

"What I'm saying is that Arthur has probably done something to that affect. To Ariadne, it may have been just a kind or considerate gesture, but in reality Arthur was attempting to show his true feelings. I propose we bring up a significant event and attempt to show her Arthur's true motives or feelings behind the action.

Cobb was pretty surprised at the great idea (actually all of them) that Yusuf had. I even thought it was very well thought-out. Either the man really knew that much about love, or he stayed up late at night thinking about it. I personally thought the latter was more probable.

"The only problem I see with that is that I don't think we have any examples broad and specific enough to go by for the dream. It wouldn't be solid enough if had to use fake memories."

I couldn't help but think that Cobb was wrong in that instance. There was that one moment Ariadne and I shared which fit Yusuf's description fairly well, I thought: the moment in the second level of the inception where I had tricked her into kissing me to 'ward off projections'. I smiled to myself as I remembered how soft her lips were for those brief seconds.

"What are you smiling about?" Eames questioned. I silently cursed, wishing that my smile hadn't been that noticeable. "There IS something, isn't there?" Eames practically shouted, grinning like the Cheshire cat.

"Well, there was this one time..." I started nervously.

"Come on, out with it!" urged Eames impatiently.

"It was during the Fisher job on the second dream level. While Cobb was pretending to be Mr. Charles, the projections were, uh, attempting to look for me, the dreamer. And so I, uh, told Ariadne we needed a distraction, and I... uh... got her to kiss me."

All three pairs of eyes grew to be the size of golf balls. And suddenly Eames burst out laughing.

"You've got to be lying Arthur!"

"Do I look like I'm lying?" I asked with all seriousness. Even Cobb looked surprised.

"Wow, Arthur, I'm impressed. What exactly did you say to get her to kiss you?" I shrugged.

"Well, when the projections were looking for me, I just said 'quick, give me a kiss' and after she said 'their still looking at us', and I replied 'yeah, it was worth a shot'." At that Eames looked even more surprised.

"Wait, you were actually telling the truth?" Then he started laughing again, falling into a fit of hysteria. Cobb and Yusuf just ignored him.

"Pretty smooth move for you, Arthur." Cobb observed.

"I agree with Cobb," said Yusuf, "but it was a very... Arthur thing to do, really. It's fitting for you." He smiled reassuringly at me and winked. I wasn't quite sure what he meant by that, but went along with it anyway.

We talked for a few more hours to work out the rest of the plans for the inception. Overall, I felt that this was something we could achieve, and my inward most hope of Ariadne's feelings being the same towards me was slowly starting to become a reality. When it was about six o'clock that evening, we had a good rough draft of a plan laid out. In fact, we had gotten so much figured out that Cobb hoped to give the first dream as soon as the dream layouts were complete (he was going to build them himself). There was only one last thing to do for the night.

"Who's going to be the one to call our dear Ariadne?" asked Eames.

"I'll be the one to do it." replied Cobb. While Eames looked like he wanted to argue the point, he kept his mouth shut. "If you guys would like, I'll put her on speaker, but you have to keep quiet, okay?" Cobb then dialed her number, which was already programed into his cell phone. After a few rings, her quite voice rang through the speakers.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Ariadne."

"Cobb, is that really you?" She practically yelled. The surprise in her voice was evident when she apparently dropped something on the floor in shock.

"Yes, it's really me. And your on speakerphone, so say hello to the rest of the team."

"Hi everybody!" she called through the phone. We all replied in unison.

"Why hello there, darling." Eames smirked. "Have you missed your favorite forger in the whole wide world?"

"Boy, did I ever!" she replied, "I've missed all of you guys so much!"

"Listen, Ariadne," Cobb said, getting back to the reason for calling, "I've got another job lined up and I'm looking for an architect. Are you available to help us out?" there was a slight hesitation on the other end of the line.

"Cobb, you know I've been trying to focus on my studies. I said I wouldn't go into anymore dreams – no matter how tempting they may be – until I graduate."

"I know, but you don't even have to come into the dream with us. We just need two levels designed and your the best architect I know. And besides, its April, and almost the end of the school year." Ariadne wasn't swaying at all, which was a huge flaw in our plan. Cobb sighed. "What if you just came down on Saturday and Sunday? The job would be easy for you, and you should be able to get it done in those two days without much trouble. You would get to see the team, and we get invited to your graduation. Everybody wins!" Ariadne laughed and then fell silent again for a moment.

"Okay, Cobb, you win. I'll come and see what you want me to do."

"Great! I'll send one of the guys to your apartment and pick you up on Saturday."

"Alright, see you guys then!"

"Alright, bye, and thanks again." The line disconnected, and we all let out a breath of relief. She had agreed to come down, and I was going to see her again.

"Phase one, complete." joked Yusuf. I laughed, but inside I knew that I was going to have a hard time waiting for Saturday to come.

Yay, she agreed to come! Although I'm not quite sure I was in character the entire time... what do you guys think?

And also, did this explain some of the confusion I found with some of the reviews? Some of you were wondering how this would all work without her knowing, and I hope this cleared up a little bit of it. If not, let me know and I can try and incorporate it into the next chapter.