Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters who showed up in Labyrinth. Also, this fic will suck, if I even manage to finish it. It's the first bit of creative writing I've done in years, and I'm not trying particularly hard. You have been warned!

Chapter One: Ch-ch-ch-changes

Nothing had changed. That was the first thing that crossed Sarah's mind as she crawled out from under her covers and looked around her room the morning after. No upturned three dimensional mazes, no traces of silly string, nothing. She padded across the carpet and sat in front of her vanity, trying to rub the exhaustion out of her eyes while staring pensively at her reflection in the mirror.

"Hoggle? Ludo? Sir Didymus?"

Seconds went by. Minutes. Sarah strained her ears, hoping to hear a telltale pop, or anything signaling the arrival of somebody from the Underground, for that matter, but nobody answered. She sighed as she picked up her hairbrush and began battling with her tangled hair. Had she been the girl she had been day ago in this situation, she realized, she would have lost her patience already.

But of course, she wasn't the same girl any more. Not quite. Some things, she mused, had changed, after all.

Only one question remained on her mind as she walked downstairs to join her family. Had it all been a dream?

"Sawah!"

The girl in question grinned at her half-brother as he waved applesauce everywhere and gurgled. Toby had spoken his first words mere days after Sarah's experience with the Labyrinth ("Danf, danf," he had cried, while flailing about in his high chair in an interpretive dance only he could understand), and had been learning at an alarmingly fast rate ever since. Sarah ruffled his hair affectionately before settling down to eat her yogurt. The kid was a boy genius in the making, and she loved him to death - no way was she wishing him away again any time soon.

Karen joined them gracefully, smiling at the scene. Weeks ago she would have never dreamed of the scene that was occurring in front of her. All she knew was that one day, Sarah had decided to stop hating Toby and villainizing her. Their relationship may still be tenuous, but it was growing stronger by the day. And for that, she was quite relieved. She'd always wanted a daughter.

"Nerd."

Sarah threw an orange at her friend's head in response. Nikki grinned and caught it mid-air. "Seriously though. Straight A's except for PE? How'd you manage to pull that one off with all the doodling you do in class?"

"I honestly don't have any idea," Sarah responded, looking down at her report card for the semester again to make sure it hadn't suddenly vaporized. Could spending her afternoons studying as opposed to reading to empty audiences at the local park have actually made a difference on her school work? Study sessions with Nikki must have helped, she thought. The girl, who she'd met while attending drama club for the first time in her life, had the brain of a chess master, but hid it well.

Sarah went to bed sighing with content that night, stomach still full from the celebratory restaurant dinner her father and Karen had insisted upon, in lieu of their typical private date. She had relished the feelings of pride and joy that were literally rolling off the two in waves - it was something she hoped to experience again and again. Sarah drifted off to sleep with a smile on her face, newer dreams taking root where old ones once dominated.

"Hey Sarah, you wanna check out that new Thai place during lunch break tomorrow? My treat."

"Yo shawty, check out my new ride!"

"Sarah, would you like to go ice skating with me this weekend?"

"I was wondering, Sarah, if um…"

She never said yes. The boys simply weren't her type, she told herself. After all, the voice in her mind reminded her, they weren't lean and tall, devastatingly beautiful, annoyingly arrogant…

Sarah blew out the candles on her birthday cake, enjoyed the company of her family, eventually made it back into her room, before she once again found herself facing her vanity. She gazed at the mirror, looking at the room where no creature of the Underground had stepped foot in months. "Goblin king, it's my birthday," she whispered. "Please, if you are real… if you are really so generous…"

She waited for hours, until long after even her father and Karen had gone to bed, absentmindedly playing with a loose thread on her pillow. He's not real, she told herself fiercely. Get over yourself like you got over your stupid park plays.

When she finally succumbed to exhaustion, feeling ever so mildly heartbroken, the sun was already making its slow journey back into the sky. Birds chirped and dogs barked, but Sarah slumbered on, dreaming fitfully of shattered crystals and abandoned ballrooms.