Dream a Little Dream (Inception: Arthur/Dom) For Me

Dream a Little Dream (Inception: Arthur/Dom) For Me (Chapter Two)

“Coffee, please,” I told the waiter, closing the menu carefully. I didn’t listen as Dom and Arthur ordered as well. Instead I let my eyes drift around the quaint restaurant. It was all reds and browns and oranges, with a warm atmosphere, and not many people, making for a low noise level.

            I touched my jeans, feeling the worn denim of them, fingers brushing across the threads. I tapped my foot against the ground and brought my hand up to my hair, running it through the ponytail.

            “So are you going to tell me about this job?”

            “Well, I think first it’d be wise to tell you that you’re in a dream,” Dom said plainly. I snorted.

            “Yeah, okay.”

            “It’s a good test to remember how you got somewhere,” Arthur told me. He leaned across the table, resting on his forearms. I tried not to make a face at him. How had I gotten to the restaurant? I knew how I should’ve gotten there, but…that didn’t seem right.

            “What do you mean dream?” I asked. My heart rate picked up. A dream couldn’t be this real. I could feel the threads of my jeans, feel the cool air brushing across my skin. “This isn’t a dream.”

            Arthur pointed to outside of the restaurant. I turned and peered out the window. Outside, it was as though there was a hurricane hitting. Papers whirled up and down the streets, chairs flying. But the weirdest part was the people. They were walking as though nothing was going on. My breath caught in my throat.

            “Dom – “

            “It’s a dream, Alexia. Just relax your mind, relax your heart rate.”

            I nodded, trying to do what he said. I couldn’t take my eyes away from what was happening outside. “What’s going on? What do you mean this is a dream? Is that even possible?”

            “You ask a lot of questions,” muttered Arthur. He quieted when I sent him a look. Dom took over.

            “We gave you a sedative, and now you’re in my dream. When you’re in a dream, it is as though everything is real, but odd things can happen. You’ll notice, but no one else will. It’s important that you keep calm, and don’t change too much, or else they will start to notice. They being the people around. My subconscious. If you change too much at once, they’ll turn on the person changing the dream.”

            “Okay, but why do you want to be in a dream?” I questioned. I rubbed my head. I didn’t even want to get into the science of getting into the dream. This was already enough to handle.

            Dom accepted his drink from the waiter. “Since we are in the subconscious, this is where the most secret parts of the mind are. That’s why we do. We call it inception. We get in, and we steal secrets.”

            I sipped at my coffee, letting the warmth calm me down, bring me into a state where I could think calmly. “Alright, so you do this…inception thing. And you control dreams and steal secrets…why do you need an architect?”

            “To build the dreams,” Arthur answered. “Ariadne usually does that for us, but we’ve accepted a new job that needs another architect. Are you interested?”

            “So in this job I…” I trailed off, still mesmerized by the dream world. “I build things? Worlds like this?”

            “Basically, yes.”