Again, Disclaimer: Maybe if I wished hard enough? …Nope! Still don't own Labyrinth.

Ch2

Jareth was left feeling rather like throwing a crystal just to watch it shatter. The way the mortal woman, 'Jennifer', she called herself — though they both knew that was not her name — had said his title reminded him of Sarah, whom he still could not find, despite the curse being weakened. Well, this Jennifer was a beautiful woman that he would likely never see again. She had wished her way into his festival, had she? Clever…

He picked up a glass of wine and downed it in one gulp before donning a glamour and leaving for Above to continue his search for Sarah. He began where he had begun yesterday, this time going in the other direction and tearing off the names of each Sarah Williams as he discovered that they were not his Sarah. Eventually he was going to have to sleep, but he could stay awake for a few days running. He would regret it later, but he was too preoccupied with finding Sarah to care.

~~~~~~J/S~~~~~~

Sarah collapsed on her couch, her dress rustling with the movement; her upper arms were sore from where he had gripped her. Had he figured it out a little? Maybe. It was hard to tell.

"Oh, stop your wallowing, Sarah," she instructed herself sternly as she rolled off the couch to her feet. "He'll figure it out," she said, untying the green and gold-glittered ribbons that were twined around her legs keeping her shoes on, allowing her to slip out of her walking-on-clouds-comfortable heels and pad her way to the kitchen in search of a very early breakfast. A smile wormed its way onto her face as she remembered dancing with Jareth, his thigh pressed firmly between hers as he guided them into a turn, his hand solidly against her lower back. Her smile became a grin and her face warmed considerably.

Breakfast eaten, Sarah undid her dress and let it pool on the floor around her feet, stepping out of it and placing it gently on a hanger. It was very pretty, she thought as she admired it. It had a layered chiffon skirt that was just made for twirling and a thin brown ribbon tied in a bow around the waist. The one sleeve and high neck were made of a brown lace-like fabric; the dress itself was mainly green and only came down to her knees. Fastened at the back was a pair of green and gold iridescent wings that looked like they might start fluttering any second. As she admired the dress, her hands sought out the bobby pins securing the two half-buns her hair had been pulled back into. She didn't know how the Labyrinth had managed it but she had really felt like a forest fairy in that dress. She hung it on a hook just inside the closet and closed the door.

Checking the clock, she decided she had plenty of time to shower and ready herself for work, after a nap. She was a book editor and on the side she illustrated for the author of several children's book series'. She'd tried acting for a few years in high school but quickly found that her soul just wasn't feeling it anymore, so she grew up, majored in English literature and got a job at Random House publishing. She slipped on a worn out tank top, set an alarm for 6:30 and crawled under the covers of her bed where she promptly fell asleep for the next two hours. She was going to be exhausted in three days if she was only going to get a few hours sleep and then dance all night, but it would hopefully be worth it — and the weekend was coming so she could sleep all day and not care.

When Sarah woke again she turned on the shower and waited for the water to warm up, which could take a while — she lived in an old building. To kill time, and to try and wake up a little, she picked up her fire poker and began to fence against an invisible opponent, wearing nothing but her tank top and underwear. Round eyes watched from the shadows in the corners of the room, under the bed, behind the lamp. She'd taken two fencing classes in college: she'd needed the credits and had discovered that fencing was really, really fun. She couldn't afford a real fencing sword so she settled for a fire poker. Her landlord had looked at her askance when she'd brought it home — she didn't have a fireplace — perched on her shoulder like a baseball bat. He'd retreated and closed the door with a quiet but wary click.

When the steam began to waft out of the bathroom Sarah gave one final lunge, saluted her invisible partner, and dropped the poker on her bed.

~~~~~~J/S~~~~~~

Jareth turned a corner into a relatively dark alley. From the shadows he conjured a crystal and tried to see Sarah, but all he saw was an empty apartment bedroom and goblins. Oddly enough, the goblins were fencing each other with makeshift weapons; one had a ruler, the other…a toilet brush. Jareth pinched the bridge of his nose, and the crystal popped like a bubble.

He should have ripped the accursed page from that little red book before Sarah had ever found it. Not that it would have made a difference; the book was a story woven by the Labyrinth, and if he tried to destroy it or alter it in any way it would mend itself within moments. If he had tried to hide it, perhaps by burying it in the woods, it would have appeared in a used bookshop where it would be picked up. Most recently, it had been found by a little girl with an overactive — wonderful, to be sure, but overactive — imagination.

'You have no power over me': that wretched phrase haunted him, shattering his crystals when he tried to look in on her. It forced him back to the Labyrinth when he tried to appear before her, in any form. He had not loved the seven year old with her green eyes and dark hair, but he'd been relieved when she had been the one to choose it, an only child loved by both her parents and spoiled. There had been no one for her to wish away, no need for her to learn that damning phrase, until her parents had divorced and her father married another, begetting an heir, a son named Toby.

~~~~~~J/S~~~~~~

Sarah scrubbed the glitter from her skin one last time before shutting off the water and wrapping herself in a towel. Once dressed, she twisted her dripping hair into a loose bun, grabbed her purse and keys and headed for her scooter. New York was no place to keep a car and the subway didn't take her where she needed to go for work, so she kept a midnight blue scooter to get her around town. It felt ridiculously early, due to her lack of sleep, but it was nearing 7 am and she needed to get to work.

Jareth wasn't sure when he had begun to truly love Sarah. He'd come Above when she first read his title out loud and found her acting in the park, her very soul laid bare for him to see as she read the part of the plucky heroine to her dog. Acting was her only means of escaping a life, which, from her perspective, had been perfect until her father had met Karen. He'd continued coming Above whenever she went to the park, and then he began following her home, just to make sure she arrived safely. He'd known he loved her when she ran the Labyrinth for Toby, known it in the heart he had offered her only to have it shunned and returned with a curse.

He conjured a crystal and tried to see her. Even though the curse had been lifted, albeit temporarily, an annoying remnant remained; luckily the crystals no longer shattered, but unfortunately the crystal would only show him the last place Sarah had been, so he had no idea where she was or how long it had been since she left. The crystal showed him inside the little office in the building half a block away. The lights were off and Sarah was nowhere in sight.

Sarah wasn't the first person to pick up the Labyrinth's book, nor was she the first person to believe the story was real; that was the book's purpose, after all, to provide an out for those who wished children away. Once, a long time ago, such a story had been told around a campfire or to children at bedtime, but now myths were written down, nothing was passed down by word of mouth anymore and so the Labyrinth wrote a story, always the same words, always the same little red cover, and always found by a different person.

The few who read the book and wished a child away these days frequently did not want the child back and as such did not become runners. A few tried to defeat the maze but all inevitably failed because the only way to beat the Labyrinth was to become worthy of having the child returned. Sarah had done that. She had wished away her brother, taken the challenge and met him at the end better for having run the Labyrinth; at the end she was worthy and Jareth had loved her. She had already won when she cursed him. He did not blame her for the curse; she had thought his offer nothing more than another trick, another deception, and she had been a child on the cusp of becoming something more. That didn't make it hurt any less when it happened, but it was something, he supposed.

Jareth was suddenly quite finished with chasing Sarah across town and decided on a simpler method of finding her, by letting her come to him. From the shadows he conjured a new crystal and called up the last address on his telephone book page. The apartment swam to the front of the crystal and he recognized it as the one he'd seen earlier when he'd tried to look in on her. With a shower of glitter he found himself on her street corner. From there he snuck his way into her living room. He gave himself a quick tour. The fencing goblins had gone, likely back to the Underground, and the apartment was quiet. He glanced through a sketchbook on her desk; drawings of goblins and other beasties, the drawings were goofy and cartoonish but still lovingly crafted. Little sketches of him lurked in corners, ranging from memory-accurate to caricatures. He dropped the glamour and settled himself on a chair by the window, much in the same way he sat on his throne. Summoning one of her books to him, he waited for her to return.

~~~~~~J/S~~~~~~

Sarah stayed at work much longer than usual. She was too excited for the second night of the festival: if she went home she would just end up cleaning, or sleeping — but she was afraid if she slept, she'd miss the chance she was risking so much for. She read through the manuscripts on her desk, refraining from doodling in the margins. She found herself humming a song from the new animated King and I movie, 'Shall We Dance?'. She was still humming when the Labyrinth decided it was time for her to leave for the festival.

~~~~~~J/S~~~~~~

Jareth paced up and down Sarah's apartment, thoroughly annoyed. Why wasn't she home yet? He conjured up a crystal of her office at work and found her to be not in residence. He growled at the orb in his hand. Someone, somewhere, was laughing at him. He did not like being laughed at.

The Labyrinth was calling to him again, reminding him that he was late.

~~~~~~J/S~~~~~~

Sarah materialized in a cloud of glitter in the same hallway as the previous night. Mildo was again waiting to escort her and again announced her at the top of the stairs as "Pretty Lady of the Aboveground". Sarah laughed quietly; she had a feeling the name was going to stick for a while.

~~~~~~J/S~~~~~~

Jareth heard her announced from the hall. It was bad form to just appear at the ball, oh no, he had to be announced, or so Hobart reminded him as Jareth adjusted his gloves. The goblin was big on etiquette. Tonight the Labyrinth drew on his thoughts of Sarah and dressed him in a high collared black shirt with a standing collared coat that was pale green, with embroidered silver designs surrounding sparkling emeralds on the inside of the collar. The armor on his shoulders was black, as were his boots and gloves. His pants were of a dark green similar to, but darker than, the emeralds on his coat and the cape that attached under his shoulder armor and flowed down his back was of the softest feathers of goblin birds and dyed a green paler than his coat and lined with goblin silk. Hobart opened the doors and signaled the trumpeters. "Announcing," he called, "His Majesty, King of the Goblins!" Everyone bowed and curtseyed, including Jennifer, this time with no prompting.

Jareth saw her from the top of the stairs and began heading in her direction but was sidelined by a blonde woman in a white, gold and teal Venetian style mask. The blasted woman waltzed him — HIM! Jareth, the Goblin King, did NOT follow anyone's lead! — across the floor, away from the mystery woman. He could still see her though. She was laughing at him, impertinent creature! Jareth put a stop to his dance, and then restarted it, properly this time.

~~~~~~J/S~~~~~~

Sarah watched in amusement as Jareth was forced to dance to someone else's tune; his face was priceless. Her train of thought was derailed as a familiar Fae snagged her around the waist. She made a noise that sounded remarkably like "Ouwaah!", and her dancing partner looked at her askance.

"Hello, Slick," she said, recovering.

"What kind of noise was that?" Drake asked.

"It's the kind of noise a girl makes when she's unexpectedly pulled into a waltz!" Drake smiled and Sarah tilted her head at him, her mask— a frosted glass affair with a golden edge and a gently curving beak— making her resemble a curious owl. "Tell me, Slick, why is it you are the only one who seems willing to come near me, let alone dance with me?"

"They did not render your invitation, therefore you are off limits to all but the one who invited you and, of course, the King."

"So why am I not off-limits to you?"

Drake shrugged. "I don't much care about the rules, and you could use a friend; besides, if he decides to bog me for dancing with you then I'm depending on you to save me." Sarah laughed.

Jareth strode purposefully across the room when the song ended and stole her away from Drake. "You returned."

"Is that a bad thing?" Sarah asked. Jareth didn't answer. Sarah narrowed her eyes at him and cocked her head. "Something is bothering you. Care to get it off your chest?"

Jareth looked at her briefly and then said, "I'm looking for someone… she's proving remarkably difficult."

"Who are you looking for?" Sarah asked, her heart racing and her thoughts chanting, 'Me, me, me, say you're looking for me; me, me, me, say you're looking for me'.

He didn't answer, choosing instead to scrutinize her dress. Unlike the short green dress she'd worn the night before, this dress was incredibly voluminous, floor length and white with a short, barn owl feather bustle that extended down into a train behind her. The bodice laced up the front, like a typical medieval princess dress, with gold ribbon and had short, fluttering chiffon sleeves.

Several dances, and hours, later—how many exactly Sarah had long since lost count— Jareth spoke again. "You wished yourself here?"

"I did."

"Why?"

"I too am looking for someone. Someone I met a very long time ago." This time it was Jareth who tilted his head. "Tell me something," she interrupted his thoughts, "why am I referred to as 'mortal'?"

"You age, you die, you are mortal."

"Do you age?"

"Slowly."

"Do you die?"

"It takes effort, but, yes." Jareth looked at her out of the corner of his eye, his mouth in a tight line; he was unaccustomed to being questioned, or at least, he was unaccustomed to being questioned by anyone more intelligent than a goblin.

"You age, you die, ergo you too are mortal." Sarah smiled self-satisfactorily; she knew when she was right and, if the look on his face was anything to judge by, she was right. Jareth's lips twitched into a smile of their own accord. "It would be more accurate to say— now, I'm not suggesting you actually do this, you're more likely to insult someone this way— human," she placed her hand just below her throat, "or Fae," she placed her hand just below his cravat pin. "Or, whatever the hell you are." Jareth laughed at the flippant tone of her last statement. "Well, you've certainly got the smile of a Fae! All pointy-sharp canines and malicious molars."

"And how, pray tell, would you know if my molars are… malicious or not?" He grinned, displaying those afore-mentioned canines.

Sarah gave him a look and ignored the question. Obviously, she couldn't actually see his molars but she was sure that, if she could, they would be malicious. "You're either Fae or a shark in disguise. …Actually, I wouldn't put it past you to be a shark."

Still grinning, Jareth admitted, "I am not a shark."

"Hmm, well, with that nose you must either be a possum—" Jareth bristled and gaped at her, "or… a hedgehog? You've got the hair for it!" Sarah was enjoying teasing him; she'd always thought it'd be fun.

"I am neither," Jareth growled and Sarah couldn't help but laugh.

"Mandrill monkey?" she suggested brightly. He scowled darkly at her and she grinned. It really was unfair of her to go that far. His nose wasn't that large nor nearly so colorful. It was only that she was having way too much fun teasing him, and was momentarily forgetting that he didn't know her and that it might not be the best idea to tease a very powerful fairytale king, even if she had known him since she was seven.

"Are you quite done?"

"For now," Sarah grinned.

"Why are you here, Jennifer?"

"I told you, I'm looking for someone. I met someone else who told me I could find him here. Unfortunately, if I can't find him, I'll forget him and I won't be able to love him or anyone else."

"Why would you make such a deal?" he asked. It was quite the gamble she was taking and it intrigued him; she could see it in his face.

"It seemed worth it at the time. Maybe it still is worth it, or maybe it was a colossally bad idea. I'm hoping for the former."

~~~~~~J/S~~~~~~

"Is this," he gestured to her mask and dress, running the tips of his fingers down her ribcage and waist, lingering on the feather overskirt, "a coincidence?"

"No," she said simply. Jareth let his gloved fingers trace the curve of the beak on her mask, the painted golden edge, the markings at the edges of the eyes. She had come dressed as a barn owl; she knew him! His fingers ventured back to the bridge of her nose and, grasping it gently, tried to remove the mask, but it wouldn't budge. Suddenly, in an annoyed huff, she exhaled the breath she'd been holding.

"I'm the one you are looking for," he said. It wasn't a question.

"Yes," she said.

"Why?"

"Because, once upon a time, there was a little girl who fell in love with a made-up King who offered her a path between the stars," she said, as she began to vanish back to her world above.