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

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

“Alexia. Alexia, stop ignoring me.”

“You’re giving me a headache,” I told Dom, staring down at my sketches blankly. It was the same position I had been in for nearly an hour after returning from lunch. I was completely stuck on what to do.

“Maybe if you hadn’t had so much to drink last night,” Arthur added, strolling into the room. “I need the new sketches that you’ve done. And preferably you as well to lay them out better.”

“I’m talking to her,” Dom tried, but I stood up, the chair scraping noisily against the ground.

“Nope, sorry, they need me.”

Dom’s grey eyes showed his frustration as I followed Arthur out, jogging a few steps to catch up to him. Arthur grinned down at me, surprisingly in a good mood. “I see you’ve been having a productive morning.”

“I’ve gotten a total of nothing done,” I confirmed, smiling back up at him. I nudged him with my shoulder. “But don’t tell Dom.”

“I’m pretty sure he already knows. But alright.”

Richard was waiting for us in the main room, arms folded. “Are we ready?”

“Yes, Mr. Grumpy Pants,” I muttered under my breath. Arthur sent me a look, which I returned, and pasted a smile on my face. “Yep, I have the levels.”

“Then let’s go.” I made a face behind his back, and hurried to sit down in the chair next to Richard. I watched as Richard allowed Arthur to stick the needle into his arm cleanly. Within seconds, Richard was out. Arthur turned to me, holding up the needle questioningly. I sighed and leaned my head back, letting him stick me with it. I let myself fall into the dream state willingly.

Creating the world was easy. It came to me as if I was born with the skill. As I walked down the street, the buildings rose up, taking on designs that I had dreamed of creating. Arthur and Richard trailed behind me, watching the city rise and people appear. When I was satisfied with the basics, I paused and turned around. “This is Robert’s home city – Chicago. Of course, I have been there a few times, so I based a little off of that, but changed some. After all, we can’t have the projections finding us so quickly.”

“But will Robert recognize this as his home city?” Arthur questioned. “Of course, some changes are necessary, but the rest…”

I smiled to myself. “I’m one step ahead of you. All the buildings that Robert may go into, or we plan for him to enter are almost exact replicas, except with more hallways to make it a bit more confusing. Everything else is a giant maze, and we shouldn’t be going into those, so he won’t know the difference. But if the projections follow…”

“We have a place to hide,” Arthur finished. “Brilliant.”

I shared a smile with him, then turned to Richard, who was walking around, examining the bricks, as though it was the first time he’d ever been in the dream world. “Well, Richard? Do you approve?”

“Of course,” he said, still touching the building. “What’s the next layer?”

“Uncompleted.”

“Can’t you just make it up now?”

I scoffed a bit at him. “Yes, I can make up a world now. When making a multilayer dream, it becomes a bit more difficult. I would suggest we go into the next layer now, but we need more people to help synchronize the kicks.”

Richard’s eyes flashed with annoyance – the first real emotion I had seen from him. I could help but smirk. I must really get on his nerves. Richard spun on his heel and walked away, doing something or another, I wasn’t sure what. I turned back to Arthur, only to find Dom right behind him.