Note: My Beta didn't look over it this time. I figured it took me too long without tracking her down, so I just went ahead.

And, urg, the formatting sucks. My asterisks are disappearing and I have no other way to separate sections!

The next morning, Jareth sat in the private dining chamber in his suite with Lily. Their joint decision had been to allow the three visitors to sleep in, since their exhaustion was likely. Jareth had another reason to encourage their prolonged rest: the longer Sarah lay in bed, the longer he could keep her here, in the Underground, where Jareth would know if she was alright. With Sarah in bed, the Goblin King could keep a part of his heart at a comfortable distance. He was sure she would wake and demand to go home and he could not face that yet.

"I'm so proud of her," Lily said as she gazed over her teacup at her elder brother as though she was testing him.

"As am I," he replied without the additional details that his sister longed for him to provide.

"I cannot believe you two planned this, all of this secrecy, and went without the rest of us," the princess replied with some small amount of indignation.

"I would not call it a plan, or even a secret. It was a whim and some gathered courage thanks to a rather large amount of wine," he replied mildly, though a smirk tugged at his lips.

"You know she will leave here now."

"Yes, but I do not want to think of it. Currently, Sarah is safe in a bed, one of my beds, though not the one I would have put her in had I any sway over her will," Jareth replied, more than a little melancholy that Sarah did not warm his bed.

"As I recall, she fainted from wine and exhaustion. You'd have had no pleasure from her last night, dearest," Lily smirked, despite the pity she felt for her brother's pining. When she made this expression, she looked precisely like him.

"Holding her through dreams she must have had, and will have yet, would be sufficient pleasure," Jareth retorted, much like a disappointed child, bitter that his mother refused his prize.

"Dreams she will have, but will no longer be realized because of you," Lily reminded him.

"Saving her was a joy for me, and a reminder, but that only opens a flood gate that will be difficult to shut again. My preoccupation with the young Sarah nearly ruined my kingdom. Now, as a fully grown woman, her appeal strikes me in ways it could not have before. The more I see of her, the more that I love her, and the more I fear that I will never stop. When she is gone, I shall miss her. I fear I won't stop missing her," Jareth said, sinking further in to despondency. His face dropped into his hands, as though he could not face even Lily, whom he trusted so completely.

"Dearest," she said with the look of a sister prepared to slap sense into her elder brother. "This is not you. You are a strong man, and you are proud, even haughty at times. Fight for her if you want to keep her. See her; bring her here to see you. Fight for what you want and stop whining like so many of your human children."

Rage flashed through Jareth's mismatched eyes, a normal occurrence between siblings. However, he saw the sense and decided to forgive the delivery, this time anyway. Lily always seemed to know how to strike at his very heart and, yet, barely leave a bruise.

"So be it," Jareth said.

Sarah woke just after Jareth and Lily had completed their breakfast. Goblins dressed her, a feeling she liked despite how awkward it was for a self-sufficient woman to be dressed by the ugly, though oddly endearing, creatures of the Underground. She wore a pale blue dress, which she could only assume belonged to Lily. They had determined the previous night that the two wore nearly the same size, though Sarah filled out the bust and hips of Lily's dresses somewhat better than the waif-like princess.

After the goblins had gone, Sarah dropped back onto her bed and stared at the furnishings. She did not want to leave, but she knew that she must. There was no life for her here, no job and no family. If not for Jareth's determination to protect her, even after their disagreement, she would have gone so far as to believe she had no friends down here either. Yet, she was upset to depart from such a wonderful place. It was not like her first visit, when she could not have left quickly enough. In the day or so that she had been here, she grew rather attached to everything, from the smallest chicken-chasing goblin to their king himself.

The woman sat up in her bed in what she could only describe as panic. Jareth would not desert her after all of his help, would he? She would miss him terribly if he abandoned her, though she could not blame him if he did. He offered her all the world and she refused it twice: once for honor and once for fear. Could he really wish to be near her ever again?

The bed creaked softly as she pushed herself off of it once more. She had managed to face the man years before, when she had been terrified of him, because she knew that she had to do it. Now was no different, though her fears were of leaving and returning to her world alone without any of the magic she encountered here, or so she told herself. Before she lost her courage, she took a brief glance in the mirror and exited her room. Familiar flutters burst to life in her stomach at the thought of facing a man in a disagreement. It took all that was in her not to think of Damien and turn back to her room with the irrational fear that Jareth, too, will turn from kindness and understanding into the monster that had been in her life for longer than she cared to recall.

With renewed vigor, she forced herself down the hallway. It took her several minutes to realize that she had no idea where Jareth was, that she had never navigated these corridors without one of the royal siblings to escort her. Frantically, she searched for a goblin to assist her in trying to find Jareth. When she did, the little thing escorted her to the king's chambers, where she was told he dined with his sister. The goblin cowered before Sarah and did not speak a word, except when it was prompted to with questions. It fled as soon as they reached Jareth's door. The mannerisms of this particular goblin confused Sarah greatly, as most of them had seemed to have no thought to fear, despite the way they were treated. Perhaps Jareth was in a poor mood today.

There was no point in dwelling on the goblin; it only derailed her from her task. Sarah rapped her knuckles on the Goblin King's door. She had to do something to stop him from sending her away just when a real bond of friendship had appeared between them. She only hoped that Jareth was not angry at her for nearly collapsing on him last night, irrational as this fear may be. If he was, he would surely send her home. How could she return to her world to reclaim her old life without such friends as these to help her through the difficulties? She had known them such a short time, but could already hardly imagine living without them.

"Enter" a male voice, Jareth's voice, replied and pulled her from her thoughts and fears of leaving so soon.

When the brunette entered the room, he began to feel ill. He was certain that she would beg to go home, back to the family that loved her, and whatever friends she could salvage from the time of Damien's control. However, the Goblin King managed to retain his cool, emotionless mask when he bid her good morning.

"Good morning," the woman replied. She was unsure if she should curtsy to him, so she did it anyway. It could only help her and, judging by the cold, detached expression on Jareth's face and tone of his voice, she could use all of the help that she could get to earn his favor.

"Please, sit, have a little breakfast," Lily offered politely as she shot her brother an annoyed look and poured Sarah a cup of tea.

"Thanks," Sarah said as she sat nervously with her hands in her lap. Staring blankly at the cup Lily placed before her.

"Is there something you needed?" Jareth inquired brusquely.

"I, well-," Sarah began.

Jareth felt deflated. The illness was replaced by an emptiness. "You want to go home?" he finished for her without any change of tone, a feat he was surprised that he could accomplish.

"No!" Sarah said before she could stop the outburst. She scrambled to provide her explanation before Jareth thought her any crazier than he must have already. "I was hoping that I could stay a few more days. I haven't seen Hoggle, Ludo or Sir Didymus since, well, since…"

"Since that bastard killed your imagination?" Jareth asked, inwardly kicking himself for forgetting about the friends Sarah had in the Underground. Of course she would want to see them. When he only received a shrug from the struggling young woman, he continued. "I will arrange a meeting for tomorrow. You should relax today, gain back the strength it took to stand up to Damien. Lily will order you a private lunch and your guests will be welcome to attend dinner with us tomorrow night, if Hoggle can handle sitting at the table with me," Jareth finished with a smirk.

Sarah smiled hesitantly and accepted the muffin that Jareth's silent sister offered to her. "Thank you, Jareth. I owe you again."

Jareth laughed, his tension gone. She would stay. He had her for at least a few more days. This provided him with the opportunity to win her over, make her understand how well they fit together. "Repay me by showing Lily and I the same kindness and hospitality when we travel to the Aboveground to pay you visits," he replied jovially, taking the chance that Sarah would refuse them as visitors in her home.

"Of course," Sarah replied with a smile, and pure joy tugged at Jareth's heart.

The rest of the day was pleasant. Sarah, Katelin and Tessa spent the duration in the gardens. When Lily had completed her tasks, including the preparations for Sarah's visit with her old friends from the Underground, she took them through a part of the Labyrinth that was nearer to the castle. These were passages Sarah missed because she had fallen into the oubliette. The young woman found it to be quite pleasant when she could walk through it leisurely instead of with great haste and the pressure of possibly losing her little brother.

Jareth, however, spent his day conducting affairs of state and dealing with his subjects in the throne room. It was a much more tedious process than normal because he had double the problems to deal with, as the previous day had been spent in comforting Sarah and leading her through the difficult task that she had completed so wonderfully. It was a thought Jareth had to banish from his head or else he would never be able to assist his subjects in their needs, from disputes between the landed gentry to concerns over possible food shortages in distant provinces. The humans he dealt with were obstinate and the goblins were tedious creatures; Jareth felt incredibly lucky when a pair of them would listen to his entire decision before further bickering. By the end of the day, Jareth was in a poor mood, to say the very least.

Sarah was the first person he saw as he retreated to his room in order to change for dinner. She waited on the floor beside his doorway, her knees pulled up to her chest. The image made him smirk, despite the mood. The young woman, however, grinned broadly when she saw him. She pushed herself up off of the ground and wiped the dust and dirt from the back of the dress she now knew to be Lily's.

"I came to get you for dinner," Sarah said, offering an explanation in lieu of a greeting. "We decided that we wanted to eat outside tonight, since it's a great day and we were already having a lot of fun out in the garden. Lily had a table set up out there. They're all still playing Bocce Ball on the lawn, but I figured I'd meet you on your way up here."

"Come in," Jareth said as he opened the door to his chamber. Sarah hesitated; he frowned in response, his voice acquiring a bit of an edge to it. "If you would recall from this morning, I have a sitting room. I am not trying to make you uncomfortable."

Sarah flushed and looked at her hands rather than face the Goblin King who read her nerves so well. "Oh, I feel silly. I'm sorry, Jareth. I'm still not really back to the old me, not yet and it comes up mostly when I'm around you, since you're the only guy. Its going to take a while, you know?"

"It is alright," Jareth replied, his voice and features a bit softened since last he spoke. Her rambling betrayed more than her words did. He put his hand on Sarah's back and led her into the sitting room. The table in the middle had been cleared of breakfast long ago and a vase of roses replaced it. The Goblin King led his companion to the seat she had occupied this morning and made his way to a cabinet near the table. He withdrew a bottle of fortified wine and poured two small glasses, one of which was given to Sarah.

"I will return in a moment," Jareth said, after having taken a sip himself. "Drink that slowly, or else we'll have you doing reckless things along the lines of what occurred last night. We can't have you slaying more dragons so quickly, my little fairy." His retreat to his bedroom hid the flash of tenderness in his eye, which he was thankful for. There was a ferocity in his compassion for this girl that took him by the throat and forced him to his knees, beating back his pride in the process. It concerned him to watch his sense of dignity fall by the wayside, as he could not afford to break his promise and make the offer to her a third time. His poor heart could not take the blow of yet another refusal.

Sarah blushed, a bright shade of red danced over her cheeks when Jareth exited the room, glad that it was behind his back. His little fairy? Jareth certainly was acting strangely. It created mixed feelings within her. It was all she could do to hide the confusion when he returned, dressed in his best, as she did not know how to take what he said, nor did she know how best to respond.

Jareth offered his arm to Sarah, an arrogant smirk on his face as she took it. It made her uneasy. Over the last two days, Jareth had kept her off balance, to say the very least. His moods ran hot and cold, angry and injured to playful and back again before she truly understood what had occurred.

"You spilled a bit of wine on your dress," Jareth said, his smirk only growing as he spoke. Sarah wanted to laugh. All of this analysis and his smirk was only a reaction to the droplets of dark wine on Lily's dress. Before she could feel concern for the dress, Jareth's hand came to rest in the space between her collarbone and her breasts, just over the stain. The young woman fought the urge to gasp, her companion barely inches away from her. All she had to do was tilt her head up and lean forward just a bit and their lips would meet. She wanted it, but was afraid to admit that she felt desire for the Goblin King, and even more afraid that a relationship with him would be a case of history repeating.

Almost before the idea crossed Sarah's mind, Jareth was again beside her, the stain gone from Lily's dress; his arm rested beneath her hand as he brought her to the door. He seemed unfazed by what had nearly happened. The brunette walked beside him, a comfortable distance between the two, in a sort of a daze, confused by her body's reaction to Jareth's nearness and the lack of reaction from the Goblin King. She was sure he would try to kiss her, especially after his admission the day before, and yet he'd made no move.

The ease Jareth felt was merely a front. He not only dressed his body for dinner, but his frame of mind, though it had not changed anything beneath the surface. It took all of his self control to keep from taking Sarah in his arms and showing her a pleasure that Damien could never provide. His promise rang in his mind, in clear opposition to his desire to possess this woman and be possessed by her. His feelings had not changed from his first offer. He wanted her fear, love and obedience, and, in turn, he was prepared to offer his own. Jareth would daily fear for her, love her and obey her in all that he could if she would only accept him as her lover, perhaps someday even more. Instead, he could only fear that she would never love him, not as he wanted her to love him. The pride of both parties could very well prevent this from ever coming to pass, as well as their all but immobilizing fear of the consequences of such admissions.

So much went unsaid as the pair lazily walked toward the gardens, though both spoke frequently. The trip through the deceptively long corridors felt brief. Before either was really aware, they stood outside and watched as Tessa mocked Katelin's botched throw. Lily simply smirked in such a way that would have proved she was Jareth's sister, had there been any doubt, and elegantly rolled her ball across the grass to attain a better spot.

"Well done," Jareth called as he dropped his arm, leaving Sarah's hand in midair. It felt oddly empty, now that it did not possess him. However, she chose not to dwell on the feeling and hurried forward to call out encouraging remarks to Katelin as she threw, and missed, her final ball. Lily only offered Jareth a significant glance, one he ignored in favor of sitting at the dinner table and enjoying the view of his lovely Sarah before it was no longer available to him.