"Jareth," Sarah hissed, fixing the blonde Fae with a hard glare.

"Hmmm?"

"Cut it out," Sarah was struggling to concentrate on her schoolwork, once again behind on it because of a certain Goblin King. Said Goblin King was currently reclining in her bed, his expression that of pure boredom.

"But, Sarah, I'm bored," was his response to her demand. She rolled her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, wondering what she had done to deserve this.

"Well, if you hadn't dragged me to that amusement park last Saturday and had let me do at least some of my work, I wouldn't have to be cramming right now," she gave him a hard look before going back to her work.

"You make it sound as if you were begging to be brought home, precious, when that certainly wasn't the case," he grumbled, leaning back on her bed and resuming his previous activities.

"Oh for goodness sakes! Enough with the crystal bubbles already!"

Jareth rolled his eyes but put down the crystal that he was getting ready to blow on.

"Thank you, your highness," the sarcasm dripped from her voice. He smirked, opting to juggle the crystal in his hand instead of blowing on it.

"You're very welcome, precious," he purred, earning him another eye roll. He made himself more comfortable on her bed, spinning the crystal in his hands even faster. All was quiet for the next few minutes, the only sounds coming from the crystal spinning on Jareth's nimble leather-clad fingers and the sound of Sarah's pencil on paper.

"Seriously, don't you have anything else to do? Babies to steal, goblins to kick?"

"Unfortunately, no. It seems that less and less people are wishing away their children and all the goblins have already had a good kick or two today," the last part had sarcasm written all over it and Sarah couldn't help but give him an exasperated look. He smirked again, giving her a wink. He went back to spinning his orb, now humming under his breath as well. Although Sarah enjoyed it when he sang or hummed, at that moment it was irritating her more than helping her. It continued that way for the next few moments until Sarah couldn't take it anymore.

"JARETH, STOP ALREADY! YOU'RE DRIVING ME NUTS!"

He froze on the spot, blinking a few times.

And then he vanished in a cloud of glitter.

"Jareth?"

She hadn't really meant to send him away. She actually enjoyed having him around while she worked, even if he distracted her from doing her work most of the time. If nothing, his visits entertained her immensely and kept her from dying of boredom when the assignments were unusually dull. She failed to notice the door opening, too preoccupied with finding the vanishing Goblin King.

"Sarah, what on earth is all this?"

Sarah paled as she turned to the figure that had just entered her bubbly, glittery room.

Her stepmother stood there, her mouth hanging open and staring at all the crystal bubbles floating around in the room. Sarah cursed softly under her breath, trying to block Karen's view.

"Ugh, Karen, ever heard of knocking?"

"Sarah," Karen seemed to be in too much surprise to answer Sarah's rather rude question like she normally would have done, "What happened to your room? Where did all these…bubbles…come from?"

"I…ah…I was doing an experiment," Sarah almost kicked herself for such a lame excuse, "Yeah, a science experiment."

Karen looked doubtful, "With bubbles?"

Sarah nodded, "Yep, I wanted to find out if the bubbles pop faster when they're in a closed room."

"Ah…well, alright," Karen still looked skeptical but decided not to question her stepdaughter further having learned not to ask too many questions concerning Sarah's queer habits, "I was wondering if you could watch Toby tonight."

"Sure, will do," Sarah quickly agreed, she just wanted Karen out of her room. Besides, she no longer dreaded watching Toby. The little tyke was actually fun to watch over. When he wasn't bawling, of course. Still, Sarah had found that the blonde child had a fondness for music. If he was being particularly fussy, she would turn on the radio and dance with her stepbrother and soon he'd be laughing and gurgling, all the previous problems forgotten.

Karen gave her room a last shocked glance before stepping out, closing the door behind her, muttering about how hard it was to clean glitter from the carpet.

"We'll have to work on your lying skills, precious. That pathetic excuse wouldn't have convinced a goblin," the clipped British-accented voice behind her had her clenching her fists in frustration.

"JARETH!"

He deftly moved out of the way as she lunged at him. She fell in a heap on her bed, glaring daggers at him. Her previous guilt over sending him away had shriveled.

"You should also learn to lower your voice…You wouldn't want your father finding out about me, would you?"

"You could have warned me Karen was coming in, you're incorrigible," she spat, stomping over to her discarded homework, "And you could have cleaned up these bubbles."

"You told me that I should teleport out as quickly as possible if there was any sign of Karen or your father coming in," he snapped his fingers and the bubbles disappeared, along with the sparkly glitter.

She knew he was partly right for having teleported out so quickly. She wouldn't want to be around if her father or stepmother ever found out about Jareth being in her room alone with her. Or finding out about him period.

Jareth moved closer to the brunette but wisely stayed just out of reach after a few minutes when it was clear he wouldn't be mauled.

"It's highly attractive when you use long words, Sarah-mine," he purred, "Even if it's to insult me."

"Shut up, Jareth," she growled, "I don't want to hear another peep out of you."

"Well, someone is in a sour mood," the blonde moved a piece of his long hair out of his mismatched eyes, once again taking up his position on Sarah's bed. Anger flashed in her green eyes as she glared at him.

"And that would be your entire FAULT," she threw her pencil at his head, smirking when it hit the mark, "Now, shoes off the bed."

"Really, Sarah, you can be so cruel," he picked up the pencil, twirling it in between his fingers but obliged to her request and moved his feet off the bed. She couldn't help the smile that twitched at the corners of her mouth after a look of his pouting expression. Though every time that Sarah brought it up, he would swear that Goblin Kings did not pout. She could already feel her anger starting to ebb and cursed herself for her inability to stay mad at him. After ten minutes, her anger had completely vanished, leaving behind a residual of guilt for being so curt with her best friend.

She sighed, shaking her head, "I might consider bringing up some ice cream and watching a movie with you if you help me with the rest of my homework."

She couldn't stop the giggle from escaping as he dashed from the bed and moved to stand by her shoulder, suddenly eager to help.

"What are we waiting for, precious? Let's get this revolting homework done with so that we can move on to more pleasant activities," his mismatched eyes twinkled eagerly, the joy in them unmistakable. She sighed, smiling fondly and moving over to let him help.

She knew that by the time the night was over, they'd have some more fights. It was almost inevitable.

But there was no one else who she could imagine doing homework with.