"Good morning, Precious."
Sarah jumped about four feet in the air and shrieked in surprise. "JARETH! You were supposed to give me two weeks!"
"Am I not allowed to come and visit my family to see how the move is going?" Jareth asked with a smirk that Sarah could read all too well. "And, what is that music coming from the contraption over there, my dear?"
Sarah literally kicked herself. "It's a boom box, playing my favorite song…" she trailed off, continuing with the dishes.
"What is it, precious?" Jareth sat down in the chair in front of her.
"It's called "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey. They kinda inspired me to continue my life when Phoenix left… stupid really." She blushed.
"Not really, it gave you hope." She fell silent, which he decided to break immediately. "We have to talk about us, Sarah. Can you sit down for me so we can talk?"
"Look," Sarah stated, drying her hands and walking over to him "if you're here about the kiss then-UMPH!" Sarah was cut off when Jareth kissed her again, but with more passion in this rather than force.
She abruptly broke the kiss. "Jareth…"
"Sit down" He commanded happily.
"No, I have dishes to do."
"When you live with ME," he laughed out. "You will have no need to. Sit."
"No! For the time being," she told him. "I'm still a responsible mother who ALSO runs a house, and right now I need to do the dishes." She smiled sweetly and continued to do them. Jareth growled in frustration, flicking his wrist and chunking the crystal that was created at the dishes, causing a spark to fly up and the dishes to disappear.
"Where did my dishes go!" She half accused, half said in awe.
"It's my infamous cleaning spell. Wash, dry, and put away neatly. Sit."
Knowing that she'd been defeated, she slumped down in the dining room chair, where he sat himself down next to her.
"What do we need to talk about?" She said with an exasperated sigh.
"I want to take you out tomorrow evening to dinner." Jareth stated bluntly.
Sarah was surprised. "Really? Well now, that's very nice of you, but I cannot afford-"
"Pad in full by me, my dear Sarah. My gods, is it really so bad to go out on one dinner date with me, the newly announced father of our child?"
She burned holes with her eyes through Jareth's. "No, it's not, but I haven't dated anyone since Phoenix. This is pretty new to me, AND you were my childhood evil lover-"she cut herself off there, blushing. "You may take your leave now."
"But I don't have an answer." Jareth's eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
Sarah threw her hands up in the air. "Fine! Fine! We'll go to dinner! Yes, I accept your most gracious offer of taking me to dinner Friday night, thank you Jareth." After she said 'yes' her words became sincere and she kissed him on the cheek to give a little suspense. "Now take your leave before your red face blows up."
Jareth scowled and disappeared in a flurry of glitter and smoke, to which Sarah sighed exasperated. "Always gotta be a drama king."
XXXX
Phoenix and Vlad stood outside of Phoenix's aboveground house once more, this time not cloaked.
"Master Vladimir," Phoenix stated with a bow. "Jareth has claimed Sophie as his and is taking her and her mother into the castle to live! What are we to do now, the castle is ALWAYS posted and it has a force field around it to block all evil will!" Phoenix was stressed out, for you could tell by the bags under his eyes.
Vlad laughed evilly. "When are the two going to move in, student?"
"Two weeks time!"
"This gives you two weeks to shatter Jareth's world. Jareth claiming the girl and the woman as HIS has showed he has affection for the two, which will make them much more fun to kill! Now, we KNOW he'll be in misery!" Vladimir smiled sardonically.
Phoenix's scowling expression changed to a fearsome, hateful expression which then changed to amusement. "You're right!" he stated loudly as Vladimir disappeared without a trace.
Phoenix laughed for a good hour until he whispered to himself, "Jareth, Sarah, let this be war upon you both." And disappeared like Vlad had before.
