HEY, YOU GUYS!

Whew, I FINALLY finished all my homework (algebra should be illegal), so now I have time to post this next chapter! Thanks for all the reviews on the last one. I decided I'm not going to do any MAJOR revisions on it, maybe just tweek a couple of things here and there. I'll probably do that this coming week. But I don't think it'll change the plot of the story, so you won't have to reread it again (unless you want to, of course.)

So, yeah. Here it is. Leave a review!

We'll Be a Dream

Chapter Five

Arthur jolted awake, heart pounding in his chest. His breathing was heavy, and both his left ear and right hand throbbed. Ariadne's dream had seemed so real, his body was physically pained from the actions that had happened.

With shaky fingers, Arthur removed the wire attached to his wrist, too shocked to feel the sharp pain of the tape pulling at his skin. He sat in silence, trying to process what had taken place.

Ariadne had created a dream world. He had gotten lost. Eames found him and brought him to Ariadne. Ariadne was marrying a projection Arthur had thought to be Emmett, their new mark. Arthur ran in and punched the projection. The projection turned out to be Arthur. Now real Arthur had landed himself into a very bad situation.

Yes, that about summed it up.

Nervously, the point man turned to face his colleagues, relieved to find both of them still asleep. But Ariadne's once serene smile had changed into a look of pure fear; her eyes closed tightly, nervous whimpers coming from her mouth. Beside her, Eames was groaning in his sleep, arms flinging wildly in some sort of defense mechanism.

As much as Arthur wanted for Ariadne to remain asleep (because no doubt she would have a thing or two to say to him), he knew that he had to wake them. Something bad was happening in the dreamscape, and he needed to get them out of there.

The partially-empty warehouse (honestly, where were Cobb and Yusuf?) echoed as Arthur bounded out of his seat towards Ariadne. With two short steps, he was standing in front of the young woman, who still had that look of fear on her face. Arthur reached out to shake her by the shoulders, but before he could even move his hands, Ariadne's eyes snapped open, filled with terror and surprise. She let out a strangled gasp, and Arthur immediately grabbed her hand worriedly.

"Ariadne, are you okay?"

The architect looked at him, still slightly dazed from the dream. But as the sedative began to wear off, the fear in her eyes was replaced with a burning rage. She glared at Arthur, who gulped audibly. "Ari?"

"Get away from me," she snarled, pushing him to the side. She leapt out of her chair and towards Eames, who was still asleep. Grabbing him by the arm, she began to violently shake him. "Eames, Eames! Wake up!"

Worried, Arthur rushed to her side, praying that the forger would come to.

After a few seconds, Eames awoke; his eyes wide with panic. Arthur breathed a sigh of relief and tried to loosen Ariadne's grip on their colleague. "He's okay, Ariadne. He's-"

A deafening smack resounded in the warehouse as Ariadne wheeled around, the palm of her hand colliding with Arthur's cheek. The point man stumbled backward, his own hand reaching up to touch the throbbing flesh. He looked up, hurt and confused, to see Ariadne's eyes brimming with tears.

"You bastard!" She shrieked, pointing at him accusingly. "You selfish bastard! You had no right to do that!"

Arthur gaped at her. "I had no right to enter your dream? Well, you didn't have any right to enter mine six months ago!"

"This is different!"

"How?" he exclaimed incredulously, his hand still rubbing at his swollen cheek. Fuck, that hurt.

"You almost killed Eames!"

Arthur froze, a cold, deathly feeling coursing through his veins.

"I-? Wha-? How-?"

"The projections tried to skin him alive after they killed you! All because you thought you could be a bad-ass and punch a projection in a room full of projections!" Ariadne burst into sobs as Eames, who had stayed unusually silent till now, stood up from his chair to place a comforting hand on Ariadne's trembling shoulders.

"Now, Ariadne, shhh….I'm okay…It's fine-"

"No!" Ariadne yelped, her voice raspy from crying. "It's not okay! He could have killed us!"

Arthur's heart panged with guilt, and he looked down, ashamed. "Ariadne, I'm so sorry-"

"Sorry?" the young woman laughed mirthlessly. "For what? For going into my dream? For ruining my practice run? For almost killing Eames? Or are you sorry for embarrassing me by barging into my wedding? Seriously, Arthur, what the fuck were you thinking?"

Arthur stayed quiet, to overwhelmed to speak.

"Sweetheart," Eames said gently, trying to ease the tension. "Just let Arthur explain. He meant no harm-"

"No," Ariadne choked, tears streaming down her face. "I don't need explanations." She yanked herself from Eames' hand and shoved past Arthur, who turned to watch her.

"Ariadne, please-"

"Tell Cobb I'm sorry," Ariadne muttered, grabbing her push from her desk and storming out the door.

Arthur felt the tears start to form, but he held them back and faced Eames, who was staring at him sympathetically. "Did they really try to skin you alive?"

Eames bit his lip and nodded.

Arthur sighed. "I'm so sorry, Eames."

The forger shrugged and smiled sadly. "S'okay, darling. But I'm not the one you should be apologizing to."

And that was when Arthur let a single tear fall.

Because, for the first time, Eames was right.

I know some of you are thinking 'Why didn't Ariande mention the fact that Arthur thought she was being unfaithful?" But don't worry, there's a reason I left it out. You'll see why in later chapters... =}

Was it too OOC of Ariadne to blow up at Arthur? Leave a review!

-MusicMakesMeWannaCRAZYDANCE