The man drew in a ragged breath, closing his eyes as Dawn kissed his forehead, returning her embrace gently, as though he feared he would break her, or she would disappear. Yet there was a kind of desperation in his eyes as he opened them again; a kind of primal yearning in his posture.

"Please," he whispered. "I know... You said you aren't her, but... You ARE her, in a way. Please, you told me she won't have me, and I realize... I think I've realized that all along. But... just one thing... Just one thing before I let you go..."

With a trembling hand, he reached up to touch her lips.

"Please," he said again, tears welling within his eyes. "Please, it will be all I have left of her now. Please."

---

Raman shot upright on the rock he sat upon, staring as two crystalline tears trailed down the girl's cheeks. What... what had caused her to cry? Her face was peaceful, but the tears told of something else...

He reached out a diminutive hand to wipe the tears away. He did not even realize that he was doing it until his fingers met the clear drops; and then he snatched his hand away as if he had touched a burning coal. Clutching his hand to him as if it had truly been scalded, he stared at the girl as if he had never seen her before.

For a moment... For just one instant, as he had gone to wipe her tears away, he had felt no disgust, no condescending feeling of superiority. Just... a need to make her stop crying. To wake her from whatever was causing her sorrow...

No! Stop this, he scolded himself sharply. He was with the girl for one reason and one reason only; to obtain her Heart's Tear. And to his magical eyes, the tears shone truly in the sunlight streaming down through the leafy branches overhead. They were tears wept from the heart.

Slowly, he reached into his coat. Slowly, he withdrew the small crystalline Capsule, the unbreakable container that he would use to carry the Heart's Tear back to his queen. He held the jar up to the girl's cheek and watched as a teardrop rolled into it; corking it tightly, he shoved it brusquely back into his coat and flew up from his perch, preparing to leave.

His mission was done, and sooner than he had thought. He could leave, now. Go back home. Back to his one goal in life, guarding his queen, making sure she was happy, safe, satisfied.

Leave the human girl alone, to slumber as long as the enchantment held. Leave her to face the rest of the Labyrinth alone upon waking. To wander lost. To wonder where he had gone. To feel the tears on her face and know the truth.

Something he had not felt for a long time pierced through the shield he had put around himself--the shield of duty, of necessity, of devotion to his one and only ruler. It took a few moments for him to place it, but it was...

Sympathy?

Cursing himself, yet at the same time oddly acquiescent, he sank back down onto the rock next to the girl's face.

"Wake up," he muttered at her, knowing she could not hear. He picked up a pebble and flicked it at her nose, knowing she would not be able to feel it.