I don't own any of the characters of Inception other than my own and am purely doing this for fun! Just to putting that out there, Now on with the story! :)
Chapter 3.
This is where it all begins…
Flashback:
It was Dom's final year in college as he was unpacking his boxes for the New Year. He and his friend Arthur had decided to get an apartment since they both were going to graduate by the end of their year's semester. Dom was now placing more boxes down in the living room, as Arthur followed suit.
"So Dom… When are you planning on asking Mal to marry you?"
Arthur simply asked as he placed his box down in the kitchen. Dom smirked over at Arthur as he placed his hands into his pockets. "Soon… I just gotta wait for the right moment." Arthur snickered, as he wiped his hands and walked over towards his friend.
"I don't see why you don't do it now… you two are obviously meant for one another."
Dom chuckled as he continued to walk back out of the apartment with Arthur. "I want it to be perfect when I ask her… plus when are you going to ask Claire? You two have been together for like ever now!" Arthur sighed, giving Dom a serious look.
"I'm honestly not sure… she's changed Dom. It's like we have no connection anymore, I almost wonder if it would be better if I had just let her go."
Dom frowned, as he pulled another box out of the truck. "What do you think made her change?" Arthur shrugged, as he pulled a box out as well.
"Well, ever since she has learned of our side work with extractions she seems to be very put off by it. She doesn't believe what we do is worth a living and she wants me to become a lawyer. That's not what I want! Being a point man and doing extractions is what I want to do! I want to be a master planner, sharing dreams is fascinating. It's not just a job for me. I've tried explaining to her that the technology of dream sharing is something that has inspired me since I have first heard about it. So, ultimately, it's not the money I'm doing this for. I wouldn't risk my life for a good paycheck. I love this job! I just wish she could see that, like Mal sees it with you."
Dom gave Arthur a sympathetic smile as they both placed the boxes down in the apartment. "I'm sure she'll see it one day Arthur, it'll just take some time." Arthur scoffed, as he readjusted his vest. "I highly doubt it." Dom looked over at him and was about to say something until they both heard a knock on the door. He immediately looked up and saw his baby sister smiling over at them.
"Hey! I thought you two would like some help moving in."
Dom smirked over at his sister and automatically walked over to her. "Well how sweet of you to offer Alex but I think we're fine for right now on carrying stuff in." Alexandra smiled at her older brother and gave him a warm hug and kiss on the cheek. "Well I'm sure you two could use some extra help with unpacking then?" Dom chuckled and nodded his head.
"That I think we could have a huge help in." Alex grinned up at him and then looked over at Arthur who was watching the two siblings, with his arms crossed over his chest. "Hey Arthur, how are you today?" She asked sweetly, as she walked up to him and gave him a hug as well and a kiss on the cheek.
Little did Alexandra know was that every time she did that little gesture it made Arthur's heart race. She was absolutely beautiful in his eyes; she had long dark brown hair, crystal blue eyes, slightly tan skin and a figure that could make any woman jealous. And even though she was insanely beautiful she really did have a heart of gold and Arthur admired that immensely.
"I'm well Alexandra and yourself?"
Alex shrugged, placing her hands into her jeans pockets. "Good so far, I have a paper for my Psych class about how dreams can affect the human sub-consciousness of the everyday world due within the week and so far my procrastinating habits are out doing me on doing this elaborate paper." Arthur smirked down at her and started to laugh.
"Well you could always come with Cobb and myself to learn a little more about the human psyche."
Alexandra smirked at him while Dom immediately spoke up. "I've tried convincing her but she's reluctant in doing so." Arthur arched his brow at her; he knew she was more than capable of taking care of herself. Especially, since she had a gratuitous amount of training in all sorts of fighting techniques from childhood on. As a hobby Alexandra would train in all sorts of hand-to-hand combat maneuvers and he had to admit that after seeing a couple of her competitions he learned that she was extremely good.
During their off time from school and work he, Dom and Alexandra would practice together. It was extremely beneficial for he and Dom to learn since they were involved in various amounts of extractions with some very dangerous people, but Alexandra… she did it because she loved the art of it.
The extreme discipline that came along with the intense training and most of all she loved the over exceeding adrenaline it gave her. Arthur could see that and he honestly had to admit that he found it incredibly sexy that she was able to be so versatile.
However, on a side note he also knew that she loved music, she loved to dance which she had claimed once helped give her more finesse and flexibility to her training, and surprisingly enough when you could get her to be brave enough she could sing a tune here or there.
From the first time he has met Alex, he was completely smitten with her. However he was also worried that Clare would start noticing so he hid his attraction for Alexandra and tried to be there more for Clare.
"Why is that Alexandra? Afraid that you might get lost and not know what the true reality is?"
Alexandra smiled over at Arthur and shook her head. "It's not that it's just I'm afraid I would ruin the entire operation and you guys would get mentally hurt or something." Arthur smirked down at her and placed a strand of hair behind her ear. "I highly doubt you'd ruin our mission Alex. After all Mal comes with us a time or two, you really should try it out." Dom watched the whole scene between his sister and his friend.
He knew of Arthur's interest in his sister and knew that it was probably one of the reasons why Clare has been so argumentative with him. But even Dom had to admit that he would like to see his friend and sister be together, to at least have a relationship with one another.
"Honestly Arthur I'm just worried of what my subconscious would lead out… and if I cannot control it then it will manifest and ruin everything."
Arthur still kept on that warm smirk on his lips and moved closer to her. "Well whatever it is I'm sure that I can take care of it." Alex smiled and was about to say something until a small woman with blond hair came walking in. "Geez! Could you guys get a smaller apartment?" Alex and Arthur broke their eye contact and immediately looked over at the girl.
"Clare what are you doing here? I thought you had class."
Arthur said pointedly, he was extremely aggravated that she showed up now of all times. Clare noticed how close Arthur and Alex were and was strongly glad that she came when she did. "Sweetie I just came to see if you boys need any help! But I see that someone already has thrown out her services." Alexandra glared at Clare knowing what she meant and was about to say something until Mal came walking in.
"Now, now Clare… Don't be threatened because Dom's baby sister had come to help our men out. She is after all family and family help one another out when in need."
She smiled and gave Alexandra a wink, Alex smiled back over at Mal. She always liked her and thought that she was very good for her brother but when it came to entering the dream world she could see Mal's obsession growing stronger and stronger and this is what worried Alexandra about joining them.
She feared she wouldn't be able to deal with reality if she entered the dream world and that she wouldn't be able to overcome it. "Yeah well we're here now so Alex you can go and leave us women to tend to our men ok? I mean don't you have some paper or something stupid like that?" Alex smirked at Clare and arched her brow at her.
"So getting an education is stupid? I would like to know what you think isn't stupid?"
Clare scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Well at least I'm not some loser like you who thinks that she's going to get her P.D. or something!" Alexandra couldn't help but laugh and slowly shook her head.
"That's PH.D my dear and you're right I really should get back to that paper I'm already losing brain cells just by talking to you already."
Clare's jaw dropped as Alex smugly started to walk out of the apartment; she then looked back at her brother and said. "Dom if you need me to help you guys with anything just let me know ok?" Dom frowned and slowly nodded his head, while Alexandra stormed out of the apartment.
Arthur on the other hand immediately glared over at Clare and roughly turned her to face him. "What the hell was that! Why do you have to be so damn rude and disrespectful?" Clare scoffed and angrily crossed her arms. "Because she's always with you two! She doesn't have a life beyond her books and she seems to think that she can just spend all the time in the world with you two and you allow it! Just tell her that she's annoying you so she'll leave you and Dom alone!" Dom then glared over at Clare and immediately went into his sister's defense.
"Clare you seem to forget that Alex is my sister and she's more than welcome to spend time with us as much as she pleases!"
Clare then glared over at Dom. "Duh! I know she's your sister but honestly don't you get tired of her hanging around all the time! I mean come on she's such a bore!" Arthur then immediately spoke up, completely furious now.
"She's not a bore! She's smart and funny, and interesting and can actually have an intelligent conversation with someone that doesn't involve hair dye or nail polish!"
Clare scoffed; she was so tired of Arthur's constant defense for this constant thorn in her side. "Why do you always side with her! You're my boyfriend! And yet you act like she is this angel who could do no wrong!" Arthur gritted his teeth and was about to respond until Mal spoke.
"Clare, Arthur is defending Alexandra because she is Dom's sister and I'll be honest you are always very rude with her! Can't you just try and be friends with the girl? I actually enjoy her company."
Clare pouted and crossed her arms over her chest. "She's just so annoying!" She whined, Arthur rolled his eyes and started to move away from her. "Dom I'm sorry, Alex did not deserve to be treated that way." Dom nodded while Arthur started to walk out of the apartment, Clare watched Arthur in horror as she watched her boyfriend leave her behind.
"Where are you going Arthur!"
She screeched, Arthur glared over at her and said in an aggravated tone.
"For a walk! Oh and do me a favor do not follow me!"
He growled, as he stormed out of the apartment leaving Clare in a haze of complete unexpectedness.
XXXXX
A couple hours later, Alex was in her dorm staring at her laptop just willing the words to come and appear for this stupid paper of hers. "Come on your usually good at doing this!" She muttered to herself. She then started typing out a paragraph and read it to herself to realize that she hated it; she growled in frustration and deleted the entire paragraph.
"Why can't I come up with one damn sentence for this paper!"
Just then, she heard a little snicker in the background. Alex then immediately looked back to see that it was Arthur leaning against her doorway. "Well maybe if you'd stop talking to yourself the paper would actually be easier to write." Alex sighed, her hair was so tousled by the amounts of times she ran her fingers through it which he could tell was a sure sign that she was extremely stressed and still a little upset from what happened earlier that afternoon.
Arthur also noticed that she was only wearing a pair of black yoga pants and a white camisole that led little to the imagination and to be honest he was very; very thrilled her roommate wasn't here right now.
He saw the pleading look she was giving him, as she turned further into her chair to face him. "Could you possibly help me? You're better at this than I am!" Arthur couldn't help but laugh as he walked further into her dorm and closed the door behind him. "What do you need help with?" Alexandra dramatically scoffed and leaned back into her chair.
"Everything!"
Arthur chuckled once again and slowly sat down on her bed, looking over the notes she wrote. "These look good why don't you add them into the paper?" Alex shook her head and turned her head towards him. "They're good but that's all they are. I want great you know phenomenal this paper is really important to me." Arthur nodded, he knew how hard it was for Alexandra to get into this school and he knew that she had to work ten times harder than her brother or anyone else to get here and with the scholarship she earned they demanded almost top of the line grades pretty much saying that you do not have much room for failure.
He respected the fact that she did work so hard and gave her so much credit in devoting her life into her school work which didn't allow her much time for being social but when she did he had to admit she was a lot of fun.
"I gotcha… I still think you need to come with Dom and myself to see what it's really like. You'd really appreciate it, trust me."
Alex sighed and gave him a sad smile. "I think I should be staying away from you and Dom for awhile… or at least not hang out with you but hang out with Dom more. I don't want Clare getting any bad ideas that could ruin your relationship with her." That sentence right there felt like someone slugged him right in the gut! If Clare even knew how much power her words had on Alex she would probably demolish this poor girl's self-esteem to the ground and that was something he was determined to never allow happen.
"Alex… um the real reason I came here was because I wanted to apologize for Clare's actions. She has no right to talk to you the way she did."
Alex gave Arthur a small smile and slowly looked away from him.
"Arthur that's sweet and all but in a weird twisted way she's right. I do spend way too much time with you and Dom and I'm kind of like a third wheel. I mean it's true that I don't have much of a life outside of school and I probably am getting way to much in the way of your private time with Clare and Dom with Mal… So I just think it's better if I just kinda stay away for awhile, just until it gets a little less overwhelming."
Arthur sighed and immediately rose up from the bed and got down on his knees and took her hands into his. "That is the biggest load of shit I have ever heard." Alex frowned and slowly looked away from him; Arthur then took his hand and softly placed it on her cheek and forced her to look back at him.
"Alexandra listen to me. Mal just lo ves you to death! She always wants you around and doesn't look at you as a third wheel and screw what Clare says! She's nothing but a self conscious insecure human being who only feels good about herself when she's knocking down others. She's not worth your time."
Alex sarcastically smirked at him and shook her head. "And yet you've been with her since the first day I've met you. Please Arthur do not contradict yourself when it comes to something like that, it almost makes yourself a hypocrite." She said venomously as she rose up from her seat and gently walked towards the door and opened it.
"If you don't mind Arthur I think you should go because I really need to work on this paper."
Arthur glared at her and rose up to his feet and stormed up towards her. "I'm not leaving until you stop being mad at me. I just wanted to come here to make sure you're alright, I know how Clare is and trust me I plan on having a talk with her and to be honest I don't want you to stop spending time with me! I enjoy your company and honestly look forward to it. Alex I value you're friendship just like I value Dom's. So just please reconsider this whole staying away thing ok? I don't want you to ever feel like you're the third wheel because you're not." Alex sighed as he gently cupped her cheek in his hand.
"You're my friend and I love spending time with you. And if you disappear on me I'd hate myself for allowing that, I'd hate myself for allowing you to just walk away and allow Clare to take that friendship away from me."
He then slowly moved closer to her, their faces mere inches away from each others.
"You are very important to me Alex… So… Important."
In their lackluster of truths Arthur slowly leaned towards her. Alex couldn't help but be completely paralyzed by the close proximity she and Arthur were sharing. She'd be lying to herself if she didn't admit that she always had a crush on Arthur but the fact that he was with Clare always took the shiny bright light away from that idea.
The last thing she ever wanted was to be a relationship wrecker and as long as Arthur is with Clare she would keep her distance at least until now… "Alex! I have great news!" Her roommate said excitedly as she came rushing in. As soon as they heard her voice, Arthur and Alex immediate moved away from each other real quickly. Alexandra then nonchalantly looked at her roommate and smiled, acting as if nothing was happening.
"What's up Marley?"
Marley grinned at her as she threw her bag on her bed and waved over at Arthur. "Hey Artie! How are you?" Arthur rolled his eyes and looked over at Marley agitatedly. "I'm fine and it's Arthur, Marley not Artie." Marley scoffed and rolled her eyes.
"Always a stick in the mud aren't ya Artie?"
Arthur glared at her while Alex immediately spoke up. "So Marley what's the good news?" Marley automatically grinned as she looked over at Alex, she knew that Arthur had quite the crush on her and she had to admit that she found it adorable. She really felt that Arthur needed to get away from Clare and just ask Alex out already but she knew that Arthur was afraid that Alex would reject him which was the reason why he stuck around with Clare, she was his safety net after all.
This was the main reason as to why Marley did things like she was doing right now. "Well you know how Robert and I are getting pretty serious right?" Alex arched her brow and slowly nodded her head. "Yeeeah…?" Marley then beamed at her.
"Well he has this incredibly gorgeous friend who is single mind you and I think you two need to meet and have dinner!"
Alex's eyes widened, while to Marley's amusement Arthur looked furious. "Um Marley that's great but when did you plan on doing this?" Marley shrugged, beaming at her.
"Tonight?"
Alex's mouth opened but no words came out. However, Arthur had plenty to say to that. "Actually Marley, Alex is going with Dom and I on a little side trip tonight for something important that we could use her expertise on. So she cannot really make the time for it." Marley arched her brow at him and crossed her arms.
"Oh really? What kind of task would this be Artie?"
Arthur smugly smiled at her and placed his hands in his pockets. "The kind of task that would involve Dom's baby sister to help him pick out an engagement ring for his future wife." Marley's jaw dropped and Alex's eyes widened towards Arthur as he still had that smug grin on his lips.
"Alex you're brother is getting married!"
Alex pulled on a fake smile and gently nodded her head. "Yeah… and he just wants a female touch on picking a ring out for her. So tonight would be baaad… Very, very bad." Marley nodded understandingly and smiled. "Well then I guess we can reschedule that is way more important than some silly date!" Alexandra nodded, while Arthur allowed out a triumphant grin and gave Marley a slight nod.
"Well I better get going, still got some more moving in to work on. So Alex I'll pick you up at 6pm tonight and we'll start ring shopping with your brother, Marley have a nice afternoon."
Marley nodded at Arthur while Alex quickly followed him out of the dorm and closed the door behind her so she and Arthur could have some privacy. Arthur smugly turned towards her while Alex rested her back against the door, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Since when is my brother planning on asking Mal to marry him? And why would he tell you before he would tell me?"
Arthur just grinned at her, placing his hands in his pockets, slightly shrugging his shoulders. "He's not but you are going to be coming with us to our next extraction." Alex arched her brow at him, giving him a slight smirk. "Am I now? How did this become decided?" Arthur shrugged, moving closer to her.
"When it became very apparent to me that you need to come with us so you can really see the truth about what you're writing. Alex this is an amazing experience for you to take just do it for me ok?"
Alex sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine! I'll do it but if I don't feel comfortable I want to stop ok?" Arthur gave her a scout's honor and smiled down at her as they were once again mere inches from each other.
"I promise if it gets too much for you we'll stop ok?"
Alex nodded giving him a warm smile. "Ok." Arthur beamed at this and placed his hands on her cheeks and kissed her forehead. "Trust me you're going to love this." Alex's heart felt like it was going to stop once he had done this and almost wished that he didn't move away from her so quickly.
"I'm holding your word to it."
Arthur laughed as he placed her hair behind her ear once again.
"Trust me you will, see you at six alright?"
Alex nodded giving him a small smile.
"Ok."
And with that Arthur happily walked down the dorms hallway leaving Alex to wonder what she just gotten herself into.
End of Flashback:
"What are you thinking?"
A young man asked who was assigned to escort Alexandra to the airport. Meanwhile on the other side Eames was asking Arthur the very same thing. And at that very moment in time Arthur and Alexandra both said in complete unison.
"Nothing… just reliving old memories."
Thank you guys sooo much for the wonderful story adds and reviews! You all have been so amazing! I hope that you all like this third chapter, I figured it was about time to start showing how Alex and Arthur's relationship was starting out. I though promise that more will be on it's way. So stay tuned my darlings Chapter 4 will be out soon! ;)