"Welcome." Dream held out his hand to Esme, offering to help her off her mount. Recalling the dream from the night before, Esme recoiled slightly. However, after seeing the rather hurt look on the man's face, she reluctantly took his hand. It was cold, as if he had been outside in the snow without his gloves.

Esme hopped down, trying to do it with minimal help from her pale host. Dream took both her hands in his and smiled down at her ever-so-slightly. Still a little wary, Esme backed off from him a little bit and started to stroke Tranquil as she watched Dream introduce himself. His smile disappeared, but he went on anyway. "I, as Tethys might have told you, am Lord Dream of this realm. This is my castle."

The girl looked back as if he was saying the most obvious things in the universe. He might as well say "The sky is blue." Well, she thought, I guess that wouldn't count here. Still, he is trying. She extended a hand to shake his. "Um...I'm Esme."

"I know." To Esme's surprise, instead of shaking her hand, Dream kissed it.

She grinned, forgetting her situation for a moment. "Quite a gentleman, huh?"

He raised a brow slightly.

Esme shook her head a bit, still smiling. "It's rhetorical."

"Indeed." He turned to the raven pruning herself on the steps. "Tethys?"

She looked up. "Yes, M'Lord?"

"Lead Tranquil to the stables."

Tethys paused. "I'm afraid that we have none."

Dream closed his eyes for a moment and flicked his right wrist slightly. He opened his eyes again. "We have one now."

"Yes, M'Lord...." Tethys took to the air. "Come along, Mister Unicorn."

Tranquil stayed with Esme, nuzzling her neck. She scratched his nose and pointed. "Go on. I'll see you later." She kissed him on the head and sent him off with the raven, leaving her alone with the Dream King. She looked back up at him, not sure what to say to such a powerful being now that it was just them.

Sensing her discomfort, Dream took ahold of one of her hands and led her up to the doors. Pushing open one of the large doors, he turned to her. "Now, for the castle tour." The two entered, and the doors shut heavily behind them.

"Of course, there is far too much to my home to give you a truly complete tour," the tall, pale man stated as he and his guest slowly walked down the halls of the castle. "Its structure changes everyday. Some rooms disappear or are uncreated by me. A staircase could suddenly lead to nowhere." Dream glanced down at Esme's face, wondering if he'd impressed her.

He could tell by her wide eyes that he'd succeeded. Esme took in every facet of the passageway, quite convinced by Dream's talk that it would disappear as soon as they turned the next corner. As soon as they did, it was all she could do to resist turning around to see. Suddenly, she noticed a large, rather conspicuous doorway, which took her mind off of it. Finally, she said her first words since Dream had greeted her at the door. "What's this?"

Dream was glad to at last see Esme do something other than walk and listen. "That is Lucien's library. You can go take a look, if you would like."

Without a second thought or look up at Dream's face, Esme stepped through the entry and into a huge room, neat shelves of countless books reaching all the way up to the high ceiling. It was a wonder they didn't topple and scatter everything in a tremendous domino effect. Esme was sure that that would upset the librarian beyond belief. Where was this Lucien, anyway?

"Hello, Lucien," came Dream's soft voice from behind Esme. Though the voice was far from frightning, she almost jumped out of her skin. Esme hadn't been aware that he'd even followed her.

A strange, pointy-eared man looked up from a book on a desk that had eluded Esme's attention. He adjusted his large, round spectacles. "Ah, my Lord. Good to see you again." He bowed and caught sight of Esme. "And who is your female guest?"

"Lucien, this is Esme. Esme, Lucien." He gave her a small push towards Lucien, who stood up to shake her hand. While Dream was quite a bit taller than she, Lucien utterly towered over her. It was quite awkward. He shook her hand quickly and sat back down again, hoping it didn't seem rude to Dream. "Feel free to browse whenever you like, my dear."

Esme smiled. "Thanks. I think I might."

A thought came to Lucien. "Young Esme, what is your last name."

She hesitated. Dream said nothing, interested in what Lucien had planned. "O'Sullivan."

Lucien smiled. "Yes. I have quite a few works by you.... Would you care to see?"

Esme was taken aback. "But I've never even written a book!"

"Exactly!" the tall man exclaimed, standing up once more. He moved swiftly to a section of the library with several works by an Esme O'Sullivan, the young woman on his heels. He handed one to her. "I've read it. You're quite gifted."

She stared at the tome in her hands. It looked just bound, brand new. "Dreams of an Artist," she read off of the cover. Esme flipped through the first few pages. It was a complete journal of all the dreams she'd ever had, up until last night, and her thoughts on them.

"Illustrated by the author, of course," Lucien said warmly.

The girl looked up at Lucien's pointed face, warm tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. She blinked them away and looked down at her novel once more. "I've always wanted to record all my dreams like this, so that I'd never forget, like I always did.... But..." She faltered, her tongue seemingly in a knot.

"You see, this is the Library of the Never Published. Any secret story you have that you always longed to put to paper but never did resides here. In this case, the work is still being written. There are blank pages in the back."

Esme checked, and, sure enough, well over half of the book was completely blank.

"It will be finished one day, but that day is a long way off." He took the heavy object from her hands. "You can come back at any time and read it. You are welcome here."

She smiled up at him weakly. "Thank you...."

"Now," the librarian said in a more hushed tone, "I believe that Lord Dream would like me to return you to his company."

Esme turned around to see a pale figure waiting patiently in front of Lucien's desk. He hadn't followed her. At the sight, she felt a bit guilty. "Again, thank you, Lucien. I guess that I should get back to him...."

He placed a large, thin hand on her shoulder. "A pleasure."

If it wouldn't have made her feel so goofy, Esme might have curtsied or something along those lines. Instead, she gave another quick grin and returned to Dream.

The Dream King took her hand and led her back into the hallway. "I still have much to show you."

Lucien gave a light sigh and sat down at his desk again. "Sweet girl," he muttered to himself as he began to get back into his story. "I hope it works out for her and Lord Dream. She's such a sweet girl...."

Dream led Esme out of his throne room. By this time, Esme had begun to feel a little more comfortable around him. "Wow, this building has some of the most amazing architecture I've ever seen." She was still trying to understand how a room could have no ceiling, just a sky full of stars.

"It take it that you like it."

She nodded. "Yeah. It's beautiful."

"I have one last place to show you," he told the girl.

"What could top that?"

At the end of a hallway, not far from Dream's throne room, was a set of humble, wooden doors. Well, it might have been further from the last room than it seemed, for Esme couldn't be sure in this place. Dream turned a knob and let Esme go in first. It wasn't mind-bending or abstract in any way, but it was wonderful, nonetheless.

"It's yours. I created it for you before you arrived."

Esme stood in the middle of the room, examining it. It looked very Victorian, just like in the old houses Esme used to love to explore. The room almost shone with warm orange and gold colors. The walls, carpet, furniture all seemed to glow with the heat of the sun. A soft-looking four poster bed sat in the corner, its polished oak surfaces gleaming. It was stunning. Still, Esme could only think of one thing to say.

"Well, it has a ceiling."

She looked back at Dream, who was noticably disappointed with her reaction. "Sorry. I've just never been good at accepting gifts." She went over to Dream and hugged him, nesting her nose in his white shirt. "It is wonderful. Thank you."

Dream put a cold hand on Esme's neck, causing her to jump. She pushed away from him a bit and glanced up at his face, which looked solemn but not so discouraged as before. He seemed to be expecting something. She just stared up into his star-eyes, not knowing what he wanted.

Finally, he spoke. "Esme, may I ask you a question?"

"Of course, Lord Dream."

"Call me simply 'Dream.' I'm not your lord." He cleared his throat a bit. "I'm afraid that it's a bit forward."

Esme grinned. "Forget the manners. Just shoot."

A confused expression possessed Dream's face. "Shoot what?"

"Just ask me."

He turned his back to her as he asked, "Why don't you love me?"

Esme was a bit shocked. "Uh...why do you ask?"

Dream sat gracefully in one of the two chairs in the room and folded his hands in his lap. Esme stood before him, as if on trial. "Esme, I have given you nothing but hospitality. I have provided your Tranquil with stables, shown you around my home, and introduced you to many residents of the castle, yet you don't seem to care for me."

A little indignant and a little amused, Esme placed her hands on her hips. "Dream, you can't expect that sort of thing right away just because you're nice to me." She crouched down beside his chair, trying not to raise her voice too much. "You have allow these things to grow, okay?"

He looked at her. "You remind me of my sister sometimes."

"Who?"

"Death."

"Oh...well, thanks." Esme smiled and ran a hand through his white hair, trying to make him feel better. It was so soft. He seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. "I do like you."

Suddenly, she felt a strange tugging at the back of her mind. Esme gave a quick groan and sat down on the bed.

"Are you all right?" asked a concerned Dream.

"It feels like someone's yanking at my mind...."

"You're going to wake up soon. Lie down. You'll find yourself back here tomorrow night."

She curled up on top of the soft covers and yawned. "Okay...good-bye, Dream."

"Good-bye for now." He stood by the bed and watched as Esme's form slowly faded away into the Waking.

It had been several nights since Esme's first visit to the heart of the Dreaming. She hadn't remembered much of her dreams from the nights before when she'd woken-up, and she knew she wouldn't remember this one the next morning, either. Still, while she was within the walls of the castle, she remembered everything that had transpired there. It was strange. Esme didn't completely understand it, but she accepted it, nonetheless.

She was curled up on a large, soft reading cushion in the library, her legs tucked underneath her. For the past four hours, she'd been devouring book after un-written book. They were all so wonderful. Last night, she had spent her whole visit there, just enjoying the stories that she knew she would never be able to find in the waking world. She grinned to herself. Her friend Mike was a very good writer even though she wasn't aware of it.

There was the sudden feeling of eyes watching her. Esme looked up from the book to see those two intense dark orbs watching her. She idly brushed a tendril of golden hair out of her eyes. "I...didn't hear you walk up."

"I didn't," he replied plainly. "What are you reading?"

She looked at the cover of the leather-bound book in her hands. "Oh...just some never written poems."

"You seem to be quite fond of this library."

She grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, well, I love to read, and Lucien's nice."

"I wish you would spend some more time with me. Don't you think I am nice?" He kneeled beside her on the polished floor.

Esme tucked another stray stand behind her ear and looked down at her lap. "Yeah, sure I do." Her eyes found their way back up and met his once again. Gently, Dream took her delicate hand in his and leaned in for a kiss. Their lips were less than an inch apart when Esme suddenly pulled away.

Dream opened his eyes when his mouth met thin air. He looked at the girl curiously. "What's the matter?"

Esme took her hand from his. "N-nothing. I'm fine." She tried to smile, but all she managed was a weak grin.

Without the slightest movement of his face, Dream seemed to frown. "Do I...scare you?"

Esme shook her head. "No, it's not that."

He seemed relieved. "I was afraid that you saw me as, some might say, 'creepy.'"

A genuine beam spread across her face, and Esme laughed a bit. That seemingly small sound comforted him somehow. "Creepy? No..." She looked into space as she seemed to search for stray words in the library to catch and use in her sentences. "It's just...you're Dream. I'm just, well, Esme. The thought of you wanting me like that is a little...intimidating." She wondered if he could possibly understand how insignificant she felt next to him.

"I see. Is there anything I can do?"

She knew he couldn't really see what she felt, but he really wanted to try. Scooting over on the large pillow, she invited him to sit. Rather reluctantly, he obliged. "Do you like this kind of stuff? Poems, I mean."

"I've heard quite a few. Some are better than others."

"I'll take that as a yes." Esme opened up to a random page. "Would you like me to read?"

"Of course." For the first time since Esme had met him, Dream seemed to actually relax.

Clearing her throat, she began:

"'My heart is mine and mine alone.
You can never have it.
My soul and mind aren't yours to own,
So don't even try.
I might be willing to lend them out,
If you really mean it.
You may give your heart to me,
But you can only borrow mine.'"

After she finished, Esme just stared at the page, her cheeks turning a bright crimson. "I...I'm sorry. I should have picked a better one...." She turned her head in his direction. "Not very ro-" Esme was cut off in mid-sentence by Dream's lips, which, to her surprise, were quite warm. She had no desire to push him away this time. They kissed sweetly for five agonizingly brief seconds and then opened their eyes. Dream smiled ever so slightly. He knew she was his.

Copyright Diana Marsh, 2000 (Dream and all Sandman characters are the creations of Neil Gaiman and Mike Dringenberg and trademarks of DC Comics and Vertigo. Tethys belongs to The Dreaming comic series. Esme and Tranquil are my creations and not to be used in any stories without my permission. This is a labor of love, and no money is being made off of it. Yadda, yadda, yadda...)

Thanks to queenB and Eden for their help and encouragement on this story. Hi, guys! Also, a huge thanks to the late and great John Lennon and his musical talents.