disclaimer: I do not own the Labyrinth

uploaded so fast due to awesome reader response! I'll try to get a chapter up every few days, which shouldn't be hard. These short, light chapters really agree with me.

Chapter Two: In Which a Midnight Visitor is Ousted, and the Morning After

It was the middle of the night. There was a weight at the foot of her bed. Still more asleep than she was awake, Sarah gave it an experimental nudge. It was warm and, somehow, both firm yet soft. A person?

"Maddie?"

"I don't think so."

That was a man's voice. Jolted awake, she sat bolt upright. "Brandon?"

"Two strikes." His soft voice became touched with a certain coolness that hinted at jealousy. "Who's Brandon?"

Sarah was fully awake now, and with the sleep cleared from her head, she recognized the familiar lilt to his voice. Furious, her hands fisted in her blankets, and she gave the sheets a vicious tug. There was a thud and a yelp of surprise as he slid off of her bed and onto the floor.

Maddie practically flew out of bed. "What was that?"

Sarah stared triumphantly at the patch of carpet where the King had been sprawled just moments before. "It came from upstairs," she lied smoothly, her head falling back to her pillows even though she knew sleep would be hard to come by again tonight. "Go back to sleep."

He picked himself up off the floor of his throne room, rubbing his stinging backside.

Damn her.

"It's the perfect daaaay, nothing's standing in my way!"

Sarah rolled onto her stomach with her pillow over her head. "I swear to God, if you don't shut up-"

Her roommate swept the covers off of her and she gave a half-hearted shriek as the cool air hit her body. "Hey!"

"Sarah Marie Williams," Maddie said bossily, her hands on her hips. "We did not just finish our finals to sit around in bed all day!"

"Why the hell not?"

"Just look at you!" Maddie tut-tutted as she wagged her finger in Sarah's direction. "It's a wonderful spring morning, the birds are singing, and Brandon-is-here-visiting-for-the-weekend-can-I-borrow-your-car?"

Sarah rolled over onto her elbow, her other arm draped across her hip as she eyed Maddie shrewdly. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that last bit."

She gave her most winning smile. "Brandon is here for the weekend, he just called. And I kind of need a car If I'm going to go meet him, you know? So can I borrow yours?"

Sarah's car still had the dents from the last time she had let Maddie borrow it. But maybe she could work out a deal. "You get my car on one condition."

Maddie raised her hands in a celebratory kind of dance. "Just name it!"

Sarah got out of bed and padded over to her desk where she had left her jacket the previous night, slung over the back of the chair. She took her time fishing around in the pockets for her keys, and when she finally turned around, the keys dangling from her pinky finger, Maddie looked as though she might have an aneurism.

"We do not talk about Thursday night. Ever."

"Thursday ni…oh, you mean Jar-"

"Starting now."

Sarah could tell Maddie was going through a serious internal debate – on one hand, she had Sarah Wiliiams who, while not exactly ice queen extraordinaire, didn't go through many boyfriends suddenly bringing up a mystery British man. On the other hand, she had her boyfriend who went to school in Florida who she rarely got to see the entire year, save for major holidays, and she didn't have a car with her on campus.

It was a mean card to play, yes, but it was almost worth it to watch Maddie go cross-eyed from frustration.

"Fine," she finally managed to growl, snatching the keys from Sarah's fingers. "But just because I can't ask you anything doesn't mean that Mac and Brenna can't."

Smiling lazily, Sarah fell back onto her bed with her arms folded behind her head. Mackenzie and Brenna were fine – she didn't have to live with them. But she felt as though speaking of Jareth exclusively in their room wouldn't be the wisest of ideas, what with the GK on high alert from the announcement as he was. Her hand absentmindedly wandered underneath her pillow where she had stashed the feather and his response the previous day to hide it from Maddie's prying eyes.

It was warm.

Frowning, Sarah surreptitiously pulled it out to look at it. There was a new message underneath the other two:

Your floor is rather hard, you impertinent brat. Expect repercussions.

Expect repercussions? Sarah raised an eyebrow at the parchment, which had gone cool now that the message had been read. Before she could wonder about the possible consequences of her actions, her train of thought was interrupted by a satisfying mental image of the Goblin King soaking his bruised buttocks in an ice bath. She snorted.

"Something funny?" Maddie asked from the door, where she was putting on a lightweight jacket.

"What?"

"You laughed just now."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Sarah grinned into her pillow, her hand sliding back under it to hide the feather and letter once again.

"Hmm. Alright." Maddie's tone was skeptical. "I'm going now, don't go all crazy while I'm gone."

"Have a good time!"

It wasn't until after the door was shut and Maddie's footsteps fading down the hallway that Sarah sprang up out of her bed, holding Jareth's response in her hand, struck by a sudden inspiration. She went to her desk and pulled a pen out of one of the drawers, and, placing the parchment on the desktop, she sat down to write her own response.

ah, my goodness, so entertaining. And while I love those juicy "Sarah and Jareth meet again" scenes, I felt as though her pushing him off her bed would be a touch more appropriate.

Thank you to those who reviewed! TriciaRio - I'm not graduating from there myself, but a friend is this year, so while I'm not all that familiar with the surrounding area, I might be able to incorporate a thing or two based on the stories she tells me ;)