Author's Disclaimer: No, I do not own Labyrinth or Carmina Burana; all rights to respective owners. I present Chapter 2! Also, a reminder about formatting. If you see words in bold, then those are Sarah's personal thoughts, as she tells the story. If words are italicized, then it is a conversation that happened in that past that Sarah is telling. If the words are normal, then it is the conversation between Sarah and the bridal party. And now for more interesting details into how Jareth neatly manages to insert himself back into Sarah's life. I hope you like it!

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Chapter 2: A Party to Remember

"So, Sarah, had you any idea at that time what Jareth was planning to do?"

"No, Jessie, not at all. It was a huge surprise to me. It helped that he was actually staying away from me, making me think otherwise that he was not planning anything. But that's Jareth for you."

"After that, we got to finally get to know him. That was fun."

"Yes, Karen, after you heard from some little bird that I was seeing someone again, I had no choice but to bring him to my graduation party. You were so insistent!"

"But I had to be! Otherwise, you would have had some serious problems of a different sort."

"Yes, well, it was in the end a very good idea."

"Well, what happened? Tell those of us who met you after college, silly."

"Alright, well, about a week before graduation, Karen calls me and tells me that she wants to meet the new mystery boyfriend who went to Jessie' s party, and so I panicked. I had no boyfriend, but then I remembered Jareth. How Karen had found out, I never thought to consider, but I knew that I was going to have to talk to Jareth."

"And so, I called Jareth, and before too long, we met and figured things out."

"Somehow, before I knew it, we had agreed that we had known each other for four years, that he had come along to comfort me after Dick, and shortly after going to the party together, we decided to go out permanently since we liked each other so much. It all worked out so well, almost as though he had been preparing for it or something."

Which he had, of course. I found out, much later after that party. But only after I was secured, naturally. If there was one thing that Jareth was good at, it was making everything very convenient. Jareth was in a very good mood once I called.

"Hello, Precious. To whom do I owe the pleasure of seeing you again?"

"My stepmother, Karen. She wants to meet you."

"Lovely. I want to meet her, too. Though I really want to meet your little brother, Jareth Junior."

"His name is Toby."

"Ah yes, young Tobias. He must be getting much bigger now."

"He is. Gained a few inches. And talks now. Much too much if you ask me."

"I could always take him with me. I have always had a fondness for him."

"No thank you, Jareth. I would like to keep him for a very long time. Anyways, the party is about a week from now, so if you want to meet me here around 11:00, that would be perfect. We will walk in together and pretend to be a couple again, just like last time."

"Perfect. I look forward to the outing."

"And so, the day of the party came, and we walked in together, arm-in-arm, a seemingly happy couple. Of course, my family was so glad to finally meet the new boyfriend, and Jareth was only too ready to meet and talk to them and get into their good graces. It even seemed that Jareth had been planning for this event, too."

"I regretted having to give this lie to my family, but, low and behold, something else happened. Jareth was smirking and smiling away, and then suddenly, stops and looks, prompted by a sound, and he says: 'Why is that loser here? What does he think he is doing here? Does he really think he belongs here?'"

"And so, now that everyone else was looking, I decided to look, and who should be there, but Dick. He was not in a good mood, to say the least. Of course he was alone, and very angry. And then he opened his mouth."

"Alright, where is he, where is this boyfriend of hers? I wish to see him. I don't think he actually exists, as I am far too good for her and she was just trying to get rid of me, but really in fact we do belong together. Where is he?"

There are days when you really should be careful what you wish for. This time was one of them for poor Dick.

"At that particular moment, he really should not have opened his mouth. But you don't hear me complaining about it. And so, not moments after opening his mouth, he finally got to meet 'the boyfriend', as he was termed."

Suddenly, Jareth made his grand entrance, and oh, what an entrance. He had disappeared from his seat, the jeans and normal clothes gone, in exchange for a great black cape, wind, flickering lights, and for some strange reason, there was some very epic music playing in the background. Strangely, it seemed to be coming from "Carmina Burana"….

"And so, Jareth appeared in front of the dearly beloved Dick. Of course he said, 'Why are you here? You weren't even invited. Why would you come and ruin such a wonderful day for Sarah with your nonsense and complete lack of civility and kindness toward her? You were the one who broke up with her, you should be begging for forgiveness from her right now. You, sir, should get up, turn around, and leave now, or else I will help you leave.'"

"Of course, being as big as Dick was, he was not entirely worried at first. After Jareth's entrance with a large flowing black cape, wind, and lights, it did not daunt him completely, to his misfortune. And so, he did what all self-serving, self-righteous, ignorant men do on such occasions: they open mouth and insert foot. Royally."

"So you're Jareth, I believe. You haven't even been here all that long. My friends don't even remember you at all. Do you realize what she is doing to you? She is stringing you along, just to get back at me. We both know that she is a liar, and that she is not to be trusted. But we also know that she has many feminine arts and guiles, to trick us. And so I am here to save you the trouble by taking her back. However, before I do, I will not take her back until she begs for my complete forgiveness. You understand don't you?"

"No, I do not. I don't quite see it the same way as you. You see, I am dating Sarah currently, and I will never give her up. That I can promise you. This was not a form of convenience for both of us. Certainly, if it drives you away, sniveling, obsequious, little snot of a bum that you are, then yes it is a good thing to happen as she would never want to pollute her good name with yours. Now, you must leave, or else you leave me no choice but to throw you out. Believe me, I will. I will not stand to have my Precious Sarah's name to be bandied about and besmirched like this as you do now. Beware, I have been generous up 'til now. I can be cruel. This is your last chance to do as I ask, or else."

"Now, despite the fact that Jareth is now standing over Dick, wearing something to appear taller than Dick (or maybe it was just the great hair), Dick was ready for a fight. He really should not have gone there. So what does the great, blithering idiot do? Why, he just begins to yell even more."

"What do you mean, "Your Precious Sarah"? I doubt she would want to belong to someone who looks as silly as you. You practically sparkle. What men these days sparkle? Not real men at least that I know of. But, nonetheless, you sir, do not know what you ask for. You are asking for eternal torture, to always be left wanting more all the time. You really don't understand what you are getting yourself into. I highly suggest that you do not go through with this. Don't tell me what I can and cannot do! I have known her and dated her for far longer than you have known her, so you can just leave now while I am still being kind to you. I have been nice until now, but Sarah owes me an apology. And you are still standing in my way. Get out of my way!"

"As you can imagine, Jareth was not pleased at this prospect. And so, he would have to straighten the poor loser out. If he was going to try his patience, he might as well give him an idea of all that he was capable of. How bad could that be? Karen, stop chuckling and ruining the story!"

"I can't help it, Sarah."

"At least try to keep a straight face. You know perfectly well what he is capable of, but the rest of the girls want to know."

"And so, in his condescending, most regal, nonchalant, "get lost" tone, Jareth responded, 'Oh little beast, you do not understand who you are dealing with. I am not leaving for a very, very long time. That I can promise you. Getting rid of me will be much harder that getting rid of you, as at least I will fight for her, unlike you. You run away, criticize, make fun of her, and do everything possible to hurt her. She is a strong, beautiful woman who deserves every bit of respect that you can muster. I don't think you realize how much trouble you are in right now for saying that.'"

"I am perfectly aware of what I am saying. So what are you going do about it, sparkly pants-girly boy?"

"Oh, I'll tell you what I am going to do about it, insolent fool who does not understand. I will make you pay dearly. I hope you like being publicly humiliated, because that is what I am going to do to you."

What followed was laughter from a guy who didn't realize that the very serious look on Jareth's face was not a face to laugh at. In fact, it was the one that was feared, had nightmares about, and was avoided by all costs by all goblins who lived there.

"I suggest that you retract that statement right now. I am most seriously displeased."

"But, poor Dick, being who and what he is, only continued to laugh. Oh, how Jareth was going to enjoy this. It was easy to see what form was best for Dick to make the poor sucker pay most dearly and run away the fastest. Dick was broad-shouldered, could bench press a lot, could have joined the football team had he been so inclined, and overall was very proud of his achievements."

Light bulb.

"Jareth could take care of that slight change in stature quite quickly. The poor guy didn't know what hit him, literally and figuratively."

"While laughing at Jareth, Dick did not notice the slight change in Jareth's face, a look of cold condescension, to something like anger."

This was the face that goblins saw right before they were sent into the bog of eternal stench and begged for mercy. This guy, however, did not have the good sense, if he had any to begin with, to beg for mercy. Poor guy. It was nice knowing him.

"He was going to pay through the nose. That much was certain. Seeing as Jareth was in a generous mood, he planned to enjoy every second of it. He was not normally insulted, so Jareth loved being the cause of such dreadful humiliation. Oh the many joys of public humiliation. He decided that the first humiliating thing to be done was to give proper verbal and physical humiliation in correct doses."

"Your time has come to an end, Dick. You must go now."

"Dick of course was still laughing at this point, but he had presence of mind to see Jareth move, and so he moved into a better position to better injure Jareth when Jareth came at him. This was easy enough for him as he was a wrestler by nature. He was all ready for Jareth."

"Give me your best shot! I dare you!"

"Oh, I dare."

"And so, in only moments, there were flying punches to the head/nose and stomach, followed by a flying tackle to the ground. They then proceeded to wrestle while yelling at one another. The first thirty seconds were interesting, as Jareth continued to smile while everyone paid close attention as he fought valiantly for me. But, Jareth was not in a sporting mood now, so there was a quick punch to the head, knocking out poor Dick stone-cold to the ground, while Jareth sat as regally as possible on top of Dick, smiling smugly."

Jareth announced, "I don't understand; one moment he was fighting, the next he was on the ground. I guess he really doesn't care about you that much, Sarah. I don't know why you chose such wimpy men. Anyways, here is dirt and trash. Let us be rid of it. Let us continue with our party for Sarah. This is her day, after all. We shall not have any more interruptions of this sort, I think."

"Jareth continued to try to sit regally on Dick, but what he was not expecting was my response to this. I was watching this, open-mouthed and surprised by how he had fought for me and supported me throughout the fight with his words. My favorite phrase while fighting had been, 'If you ever try to see Sarah again, I will personally make sure that you never see a wrestling mat ever again! Never again will you be able to see a wrestling mat without screaming in pain and begging Sarah for forgiveness. You will ask for forgiveness from her, and you will learn how to obey me, and how to respect Sarah, and how to treat other women well. You, sir, have no concept of this, and so you shall learn from me. Prepare, sir, for this is your last battle with me.'"

"After that, poor Dick was quite gone, with one last look of complete terror as Jareth proceeded to punch whatever life was left in his body quite out of existence. By now, Jareth was concentrating on taking care of Dick, and I was in shock. That shock soon turned to happiness."

"As Jareth got up and wiped the dirt away, I came running at Jareth and proceeded to hug him and gave him all the thanks he could ever ask for. A very happy Sarah was now surrounding Jareth, which was more than he was hoping for, so we enjoyed our moment as everyone looked on with pleasure. Jareth was only too willing to carry out this moment for as long as possible by reordering time in order to get more time with me. Nonetheless, he got his time, and he could easily let go and my hand, and escorted me back to my seat to comfort me further."

"It only took fifteen minutes, however, before his self-serving thoughts intervened, being Jareth and all, to take advantage of the situation."

"Jareth, how can I ever thank you? I owe you so much!"

"Well, I know you would do the same for me, and I only want the best for you. Consider this a small token of how much I care about you. I will never let anyone or anything come between us."

I did not take this promise as seriously as I should have, but then it had been some time since I had seen him and had forgotten how seriously he took his promises.

"Well, you have to let me pay you back somehow, in some small way for this. Isn't there something that I could do for you?"

"Well, I can think of something," said Jareth casually, heading to the center of the room. "Let me put it to you this way," he said, as the noise in the room suddenly died down and everyone watched expectantly. "I know how you can make it up to me, Sarah. You can agree to go out with me in a week. Next Saturday, together. Just agree that you will spend time with me and no one else."

I was, to say the least, a little shocked that he had wanted to do it. Certainly he cared based on his words and deeds of the day, but did he really feel it, after all this time and my responses up until that point?

"And so, I did what any flattered girl would do in such a situation: I said yes."

"Just pick me up at six, Jareth."

"Jareth smiled his smug little smile, kissed my hand and cheek, and led me back to my seat. It was not until I was walking back to my seat that I realized that everyone had been watching. Why was it necessary for everyone to be watching?"

"Little bells were going off in my head then. Uh oh, he is planning something."

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Author's Notes: Another chapter, yay! Here, we have a party gone wrong, and a face-off to remember. I always imagined that if Jareth were confronted, his jealous, protective side would come out in full force. And he is not afraid to speak his mind. Thanks for reading/commenting!

Labyrinthlovers5: Yay! Thanks so much for the positive feedback! I'm so glad to hear from you! Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter, too!