Author's Note: Thank you for your observations Midnight Lady. I knew that Alucinor was not quite all 'there' and have been pondering ways to make him more real. Hope this works.

Betrayal?

It was a quiet Sunday afternoon. Everyone went about their own business, trying to push the coming work day to the back of their minds while cutting the grass, weeding front gardens, or playing with their children up and down the sidewalks. I sat out on Sarah's front porch swing, enjoying the summer breeze, and wondering about the outcome of all the twists my life had taken. With the return of my dreams, I suddenly found my mind darting off onto crazy subjects and possibilities. Things I never took notice of, because it had no impact on me personally, now became things of curiosity. I found myself considering dozens of new hobbies, and two dozen new career changes. The flood of information and thought were rapidly giving me a headache.

Kay had gone to the nearby convenience store to buy the necessities of daily life. Sarah had gone to her weekend job at a coffee shop downtown. I opted to stay home. Alucinor had vanished not long after his introduction, promising that he would consult his king, and return in the evening.

"Dream gatherer… what the heck?" I muttered, pushing one toe off of the porch to keep the swing moving.

"After everything that's happened to you, you still don't believe?"

I looked up to find Jareth leaning against the porch railing, dressed in a simple dark blue silk shirt, and black pants. Alucinor stood just behind him, looking slightly distressed. I was too weary of surprises to even blink twice.

"Goblin king, you could have just left me alone. I was doing fine until you came and screwed things up. I didn't need my dreams, I didn't even really remember Sarah, and I didn't need you to come back and reaffirm that my sister died for absolutely no reason."

Jareth's eyes were shadowed and for a moment I thought I saw something like pity in them. "I have no hand in the events of the Overworld. I only do what I must. Your sister's death was most unfortunate, but do not hold a grudge against me."

"Why shouldn't I? I beat you, and then lost my prize."

His lip curled. "And now you're going to whine that 'it's not fair'. Please, spare me."

I returned his glare and snapped, "Why are you here?"

Alucinor broke in, most likely to keep our hostilities at a minimal. "His majesty has agreed to the meeting in a dream world. But there are certain rules that should be observed by Sarah. I was hoping you could coach her."

With a groan, I buried my head in my arms. "Look, I already told you what I thought you should do. But the last time I gave you advice, it came back to bite me. You did it all wrong and then blamed me for your problems. So forgive me if I seem reluctant to go through that again!"

"It is rather cruel to ask you to assist a rival to win my affections." Jareth's cool voice replied. "To be expected -"

My head shot up. "Rival? Sarah a rival over you? I think not, goblin king."

He raised an eyebrow. "Then you think yourself so highly above her? Do you think you can win my attentions just as well as she?"

I ignored the pleading looks of Alucinor and ran a hand through my hair in complete exasperation. "This is your problem! You are so gosh, darn focused on you, that you won't look to help someone else. What does Sarah want? Do you know what she likes to do in her free time? Do you know what she hopes for in her future? Have you ever actually talked to her, instead of haunting her dreams, watching her from treetops, or just plain stalking her?"

Not like you really know her either. You only met her again less than twenty-four hours ago. The logical voice in me whispered. Maybe he's right. Maybe you are jealous.

When I looked up, Jareth was gone. I shifted my gaze to the sad blue eyes of Alucinor, the golden star on his forehead hidden under his bangs.

"I take it back." He leaned against the rail. "You did not wither when your dreams were taken, but you buried your heart and forgot about it."

To my surprised, my entire body flinched at his words. "Why do you say that?"

With grace that matched the goblin king's, the dream gatherer slipped onto the swing next to me. "You have your own ending for this story. You want two things – one, that you will stop feeling so alone, and two, that there will be no change."

I drew a knee up to my chest and rested my chin on it. His legs were longer and easily kept the swing in motion so I simply let him take control. "How do you know?"

"I watched your dreams, remember Mia? Your head is full of reason and logic. Honesty screams at you, but you're bleeding on the inside from feelings of betrayal. That is why," He turned to look at me, face set. "Your relationships, no matter how long you have had them, or how close someone becomes, you still hold back."

My chest hurt and I had to look away. Trying to cover up the pain that his words stirred, I said casually, "It's rather unfair that you know all these things just by gathering dreams."

"It is what I do."

Trying to rebuild my confidence, I shrugged. "Well, all my relationships with guys were all on friendships that were doomed from the start. And I wasn't betrayed. I saw it coming."

"And your sister?"

"What about her?"

"Don't tell me that you weren't the least bit angry that you beat the Labyrinth, only to lose her in the end." Alucinor's gaze hadn't wavered for an instant from my face. "That is the betrayal that you feel."

The pain in my chest doubled, and I suddenly had a hard time breathing. I wanted to reach over and slap the knowledge and the pity out of his eyes. It was true… not that I would ever tell anyone. And it was illogical to be angry at Min, I knew that too. But I had sacrificed my dreams and nearly my life to save her, only to have some drunk driver smash her in the back seat of our car two days later.

"Have you ever heard of something called privacy?" I bit out. "Dreams are personal. What gave you the right to look at mine?"

He shrugged, the wind playing with his hair and letting the gold mark peek through. "It's my job."

"But why mine? Why not anyone else's? Why is it always me – or someone close to me? That's how this all got started and I never asked for it!"

"That is a question everyone asks. There is no real answer, you just deal with it."

We sat in silence for a time, listening to the squeals of two children across the street as they played in the yard sprinkler. The swing creaked now and then and I tried to ignore the strange, but still handsome man next to me.

"Don't." He said softly.

"Don't what?"

"Don't push me away. I can feel it – you're using that logic of yours as a wall."

My anger was getting tired. "Then stop playing around in my head."

"I'm not. Remember that I'm not from your world. Asking me to stop sensing dreams is like asking you to stop breathing."

"I'm not dreaming. It's the middle of the afternoon."

Alucinor smiled. "You're stopping a daydream."

"I am?"

"Do you want to know what it was?"

I started to frown as he slid closer to me on the swing. "Not real-"

He leaned in, ignoring my obvious flinch, and breathed into my ear, "You were wondering how sensitive my ears were, and then how your own would feel, if someone were to do this…" He gently closed his lips around the outer edge of my ear, nibbling down to the bottom. Delicious shivers shot through me. When he moved back upwards, I managed to pull away, face on fire, and breathless. He smiled.

The only thing I could think of to say was, "That tickled."

The smile widened as he drew back. "You should let your mind wander a little more freely. You never know what might come of it."

"You get a thrill out of people's fantasies, don't you." I muttered, still trying to regain control over my blush and heart rate, I searched for a new topic. "So, what were the rules you wanted to tell Sarah?"

Alucinor leaned back in the swing, laughing at my first comment. "Only yours, dear Mia, but as to the rules of the dream world, it is really only a matter of control. I will create a setting, but neither of them can try and force a change. If they do, then the dream will be over."

"Is this dangerous?"

His smile dimmed. "Only if they get violent, however, I think they hold one another with enough respect to keep from physical harm. Verbal tongue lashing will be unavoidable, unless they find a mutual agreement."

I sighed. "Well I think I've done all I can." I stood up from the swing and headed into the house.

He looked away, "We shall see."

The tone of his voice made me hesitate at the front door. "Alucinor," He smiled at his name like a little boy. "Why were you so interested in my dreams? I never knew you existed – I completely forgot about the Labyrinth until Jareth came back, so why did you pick my dreams?"

The dark haired man sighed, "I follow Jareth everywhere. And when I am not with him, I am still gathering dreams. But like he said, when the five of you were together that night, the power of your imaginations was something I haven't felt in a long time. Sarah caught the king's attention, but you were something more to me. And when I took your ability to dream, I still watched over you, watched you continue to live, grow, and even thrive after a fashion."

He stood and approached me. Before I could step back, he bent and pressed his lips to my forehead. When he pulled away, he reached up and let something fall from his mouth into his hand. It was a small pearly marble, no larger than a drop of water.

"Your dreams were amazing. Vivid, full, and complete, to the point that all I wanted to do was to keep them for myself. Even if you never experienced them for yourself, I wanted to honor them by keeping them separate from those feeding the Labyrinth. And then I found myself falling in love."

He took my hand and tipped the small dream into it. I stared at it, then up at him, unable to find a response to his confession. He seemed to understand, "Mia, I'll wait for you to come to terms with all of this. I know it must be hard to learn to live with dreams after a lifetime of nothing."

I pocketed the dream marble and felt a strange wave of gratitude for this Underworld being. He knew so much about me, more than even I knew of myself. He knew the good, and the bad - this thought made me flush - and yet was still here and willing to help me reorient. But first things first, I had to help Sarah sort things out with Jareth.

I smiled up at Alucinor.

Author's Note: So I have only two more weeks of steady internet access. I'll see if I can finish this before then.