The idea for this story came to me while listening to a Jane's Addiction Song called 'I'm not an Addict' and then 'As the World Falls Down' straight after, and I just had to write it. So putting on hold my other Labyrinth story, 'Make A Wish', for a day or two, I decided to give this one a go. It started out as a one shot but soon grew a bit too long, and I didn't want to overwhelm you lovely readers with a 5 page chapter, so I divided it into three. I hope you like it :)

And here comes the usual disclaimer: I don't own Jareth, Sarah or any other Jim Henson/Terry Jones creations. I wish.

But on with the story...

A New World Falls Down

Chapter 1

Jareth gazed through the crystal ball at a smiling Sarah; watching as she weaved through a crowd of heaving strangers, her hands clasped around a glass of wine. He'd come to sit on his throne on this particularly boring afternoon in the Labyrinth, and had, with a sinking feeling in his stomach, turned to a habit that had often threatened to overwhelm him: watching Sarah.

He was alone, as usual nowadays. His sigh echoed off the stone walls of his throne room as he willed the crystal larger, and watched the woman inside. Sometimes he barely recognised her, but he'd watched her change before his eyes into a different girl, a different woman. And he still felt that damned pulling in his chest when their gazes connected; of course she had no idea she was staring right at him, but sometimes she would turn unknowingly and look straight at him. Of course she wasn't; she was staring at someone else, through something that wasn't even there. He willed his viewing orb larger again as he slumped into his throne.

She wasn't the only one who had changed. Perhaps to the same extent Jareth had changed too; crippled emotionally by that girl who'd turned his world upside down. His subjects now accepted that their King could only be snapped out of his stupor very occasionally; the powerful authoritarian that had ruled was distracted now; always found staring through a ball.

Of course he'd stop looking sometimes, or he made himself stop out of guilt. He'd often accidentally summoned an image of her when she was changing and had forced it away within milliseconds; the bubble popping before his eyes as quickly as it had formed. And sometimes she was with a man… he'd watch as they walked through parks together, full of spite for the men unworthy of this creature more magical than anything in his kingdom; then he'd force the image away as the man took her in his arms.

He remembered the shock he felt when he returned to watch her through the crystal one evening and found her kissing a teenage boy, mere months after their encounter in the Labyrinth. He was full of guilt to think of her that way, at least until she was older; but she was always so mature. And he'd watched in horror, realising its true meaning, as she gleefully cleared her toys away a few months later, saving space only for a few dolls; a little fox in armour, a woolly dog and a toy goblin, placed by her mirror. But she had saved one little red book, and his heart had leapt. Maybe there was a chance she felt the same after all! He's watched too, with obvious glee, as Sarah and the boy spent an evening screaming at each other; it took so much power to be able to hear them that he could only do it on very rare occasions, but he'd done it then. He'd actually clapped as she forced him out of the house, while also being torn apart by the tears that ran from her beautiful eyes.

And now he watched her force her way through the crowd. It pulled back memories of Sarah's actions in the Labyrinth, and he felt his heart leap again. Finally, a chance. For her to come back! He made up his mind; it has been 6 years in the making, and now it was time for him to see her again. He watched for a few more seconds, wondering at the coincidental similarities in awe, before the bubble burst, and he was gone in an explosion of glimmering dust.