Several thoughts passed through Jareth's mind at the same time. First was his indignation at her description of his weird time magic, the second was amazement that the world was an inch away from falling apart and she wanted to stall for a whole two weeks, and a close third was a strange fondness that he couldn't crush despite himself. Sarah, at least, seemed relatively unchanged despite the years that had passed for her.
Offering to rewrite time for her was probably the best and most logical course of action. If they succeeded in their quest, then she could simply be deposited back at the moment they left so that she could complete her class. If they failed, then they would most likely both be dead and she wouldn't have to worry about it anyway. They could set out now and try their luck at defeating the beast that slept behind the sun-like disk and get it over with. Giving Sarah her two weeks only allowed for the dread beast to grow stronger.
But…
"Do I have your word that at the end of this period you will join me in fulfilling your destiny and vanquishing Berwyn's ancient foe?"
"I promise," said Sarah, holding out her hand. He took it and shook it gingerly.
But giving Sarah this time would allow her fourteen whole days of peace before the tempest bore down on both of their heads. She would have fourteen whole days before they put their probable deaths into motion.
"Then we have an agreement," the Goblin King said.
When Sarah had asked for two week's reprieve before she dove headfirst into another magical adventure, the end result was not exactly what she had in mind. Not for the first time, she thought that next time—if there was a next time—she made a deal with the Goblin King, she ought to get it in writing, triple-checked by the best lawyers she could find, and then signed. Perhaps in blood, as that seemed appropriate.
Though the class she was in didn't really have that much homework, the final was a group project that required frequent meetings so that they could get everything together and make their presentation. Luckily, Sarah had worked ahead and gotten her part done well before the actual due date; all that she really had to do now was sit back and wait for her groupmates to finish theirs. Unfortunately, she still had to go to meetings and provide input. Even worse was that the meetings were held, generally, in the school's library workrooms. Normally this would not have been a problem; under normal circumstances, Sarah enjoyed the library.
These were not normal circumstances. She knew they were not normal circumstances a day into the whole affair, when the Goblin King wandered into their private library room and invited himself to sit next to her. The whole thing had only gotten worse from there; when one group member expressed frustration with the professor and the class as a whole, Jareth kindly suggested that they all stage a violent coup and offered to acquaint them with a few people he assured could help. One of her groupmates had begged her to leave her boyfriend at home, next time, and Sarah told them that she really wished she could. She hadn't bothered to expand upon her remark, and her classmate didn't feel confident enough to ask about it.
Sarah also learned another horrifying truth: where the Goblin King went, his goblins followed. Only some of them seemed capable of taking orders, at least from her. Efforts to keep them from wreaking havoc in her apartment went largely in vain, so Sarah tried to offer a compromise; they could trash her room as long as they left the rest of the apartment alone. That was also fruitless, mostly because the goblins could at least tell that they were being offered a smaller space to explore. Sarah convinced Alyssa that Jareth had a truly ill-behaved cat that he brought over sometimes, and the issue was dropped, for the most part.
What Sarah drew the line at was the goblins escorting her about her daily life whenever the Goblin King himself couldn't. They made grocery shopping absolute hell, and Sarah was downright terrified to fill her car up with gas while they were around. She took to calling them "little beasts," and learned that they hated smooth jazz.
"Their purpose is simple, Sarah," the Goblin King said after Sarah cornered him. The goblins had somehow managed to get into her makeup bin—which she was sure she had locked that morning—and smeared lipsticks and foundation all over her bedroom walls. "When I cannot be with you, they are there to both protect you and make sure that you don't get any ideas of running away."
Sarah burrowed her face in her hands and groaned loudly; Alyssa would be at her job and out of the apartment all night, so Sarah and the Goblin King sat at the tiny eat-in kitchen table with a delivery pizza between them.
"Oh, my God," she said, ignoring the crash in the background which meant that a goblin had knocked over the CD tower again. "Then there's no reason for them to be here right now, is there?" She asked, glaring at the king from between her fingers.
"As you wish," the Goblin King said, snapping his fingers. The goblins disappeared and, judging by the noises coming from behind her, the CD tower righted itself. Sarah wondered, for a second, how many times the Goblin King had watched her videotape copy of The Princess Bride while she wasn't around.
"And I can't believe I'm saying this at all, but I think that for my sanity and Alyssa's too, probably, I'm going to have to either ask you to stop being a control freak—which I doubt is going to happen—or make sure that you can be here so that the goblins have no need to be. And," she said, holding up a finger just as he took in a breath to speak, "if you say 'as you wish,' then I will have no other choice but to hit you, Goblin King. Hard."
"You wound me, Sarah," he said with a smirk as she groaned again. "And furthermore, I insist that you call me by name while we are together; 'Goblin King,' sounds too formal to be coming out of your mouth. You yourself said that it was growing bothersome to throw about one of my titles."
"I changed my mind," Sarah grunted. "But fine. If you promise not to be too annoying—what I would consider annoying—then I'll use your name." It felt a little too Rumpelstiltskin-adjacent for her to be comfortable, but at least she didn't have to guess the name and there was no baby up for grabs. This time.
"Perfect," said Jareth as he clapped his hands together. The sound was somewhat muffled from his gloves; when not around others, like Sarah's classmates or Alyssa, he reverted back to what Sarah had started to call his traditional Goblin King gear, too-tight pants and all. Wonder how he can even walk around in them, she thought idly, before catching her own thought and squashing it with a speed and vehemence usually reserved for… other things. She felt a faint blush spread across her face.
That evening she made him sleep on the floor, though she took enough pity to throw him a few extra pillows and blankets. Personally, she thought bunking together in the same room was going just a touch too far, but it wasn't as if she was actually going to share her bed—and it was still leagues better than waking up to find an actual goblin sleeping at her head.
When she woke, he had somehow conjured himself not only a bed but space in her room in which to place it. Sarah sat up, stared at it, and then decided she didn't care, really, and it was too early anyway to contemplate how many laws of physics he had just broken. Instead, she brewed coffee in the apartment's tiny pot and dropped two slices of bread into the toaster. By the time she was pouring creamer into her coffee and spreading peanut butter on her toast, Jareth was stalking out of her bedroom.
It hit her, suddenly, how strange the picture was. He was dressed, thankfully, but looked for all the world like some one night stand she hadn't quite managed to get rid of yet. His hair was even still tousled—she wondered if he would have to use her shower or not, or if magical creatures didn't get dirty. Thankfully Alyssa was still asleep, as Sarah hadn't technically cleared having anybody over with her, and Sarah didn't particularly relish having to explain why, exactly, her "boyfriend" needed to spend the next few nights with them. Sarah felt uncomfortable enough just thinking of him as a romantic relation; she didn't feel the need to add thoughts of a physical relationship to anybody's head. Let alone hers.
"Coffee?" she asked, pointing towards the pot. "You can have whatever is in the kitchen for breakfast, so long as you clean up. I am going to take a shower."
And then the flounced out of the tiny kitchen before they had to stand too close. Jareth quirked an eyebrow at her departure and then turned to sniff at the coffee.
Sarah emerged twenty minutes later with half-dried hair and smelling of coconuts. She quickly cleaned up her things from breakfast and hurried Jareth out of the kitchen and towards the door; she dragged them both to her job at the library, where she sat behind the front desk and tried not to watch Jareth out of the corner of her eye too much. He was behaving perfectly well, which she found deeply suspicious.
"So," she finally said as the fourth hour ticked by. "Explain this whole magic thing to me. Mine, I mean. Since it seems that I have it."
Jareth snorted and placed a thick book back on the shelf exactly where he found it. "I would say we are well past the point of you seeming like you have magic. Really, Sarah." She shot him a withering glance and wondered if she could get away with throwing a pen at his face.
"I imagine that it works exactly the way you expect it to. Not the universal you, of course, but specifically you. I wouldn't be surprised if you accidentally put limits on your own powers, either." He leaned on her desk and knitted his fingers together so that he could rest his chin on them. "It is fascinating, really, how it seems to work through wishes for you."
Which, if she let herself think about it, really put that first fateful wish into frightening context. Sarah recognized that fact, but didn't let herself dwell on it, at least not too much.
"And I take it that yours works through those… crystal bubble things you're always waving around?" Sarah asked.
"Apples and oranges, dearest," Jareth said, materializing one in the palm of his hand. "We derive our gifts from different sources, and while we may both be bound, it is by different people." He narrowed his eyes as he looked into the crystal, as if it offered him an unpleasant vision. Then he raised his gaze to Sarah, who found a shiver creeping up her spine.
"Berwyn," said Sarah. It was not a question; she could figure out enough to know that whoever Berwyn was, he and Jareth had not gotten along, and was most likely the root of a lot of the Goblin King's troubles. And possibly hers as well.
Jareth turned his attention back to the crystal in his hand without giving her a reply. The frown that was etched across his face spoke enough for the both of them.
The rest of the time passed quickly.
