Author's note: What's this? A new chapter already? Why yes, I do believe it is! Brief note from me today as my internet is crapping out, so your song today is 'Every Little Thing She Does is Magic' by The Police. Thanks for reading and following along!
The sun slipped below the edge of the horizon, leaving a full moon in its place. The deck of Jareth's ship was bathed ghostly in its light. The water was smooth and shimmering with the reflections of a thousand stars. An enchanted wind filled the sails, propelling them across the mirror of the sea.
"It's beautiful", Sarah said softly, leaning over the railing. Jareth leaned back beside her, body a lean and casual curve in the white light. He angled his head ever so slightly towards her, eyes open just enough to watch her movements.
"Careful, precious. You wouldn't want to fall in." He contemplated the practicality of trying to trip her unnoticed and then catch her heroically. "I'm not sure the goblins are quite as efficient with a life raft as your ridiculous friends back there."
"They're not-" Sarah signed deeply through her nose. "I think the less said about that the better."
"I couldn't agree more." He reached out and stroked the ruffled fabric of her skirt, rubbing the silk between his fingers. "A preposterous scenario if ever I saw one. And you used to have such impeccable taste..."
"Yeah, well, there aren't a lot of options in my town, ok?" she said, snatching back her skirt. "Now can you get me out of this ridiculous dress?"
Jareth's whole demeanour changed. He turned towards her, grinning wide enough to show his eyeteeth, eyes sparkling with glee. Sarah's face flushed crimson.
"That's not what I meant and you know it!" She crossed her arms over her cleavage and glared.
"Ah, how you tease me, precious thing..." Jareth purred, brushing her cheek with his finger for the briefest of moments.
"Are you going to give me a change of clothes or not?" she mumbled through clenched teeth.
"Very well. I have a few things on board with me, I'm sure we can find you something." His expression was still one of absolute delight. "I suppose your little friend will want to change as well."
Sarah realised she hadn't heard a sound from Meg for several minutes. She looked around the deck of the ship, quickly realising that both Meg and her accountant were missing.
"Ooooh no..." she sighed again. "Her mum's going to kill her."
"Wandered off, has she?" Jareth rolled his eyes. "Even that ridiculous dwarf friend of yours was more reliable than this."
"Oh, I think we can pretty reliably assume what she's up to." Sarah strode over to the doors leading to the captain's cabin and pressed her ear against them. "Yep. Thought as much."
Looking confused, Jareth followed suit. He drew his eyebrows together, frowning, then opening his mouth in shock as he realised what he was hearing.
"But they're- what are they- that is MY cabin!" he shouted indignantly.
"Come on, why don't you show me the stars or something?" Sarah dragged Jareth by the front of his shirt to the ship's bow. He kept opening his mouth like he was going to start yelling something, then closing it again.
"That is so rude." he finally managed.
"It also means I have to stay in this stupid dress." Sarah said, crossing her arms.
"Well, at least that's something." Jareth leaned against the railing, scowling blackly.
"Oh, let them have their fun, you big grump." She rolled her eyes.
"And what about my fun, Miss Williams?" there was something of a purr back in his voice, but the (newly reinstated) Goblin King still looked deeply annoyed.
"Well, if you're planning on waiting your turn for the cabin, you can just forget about it." She warned.
In two strides he was in front of her, arm around her waist and pulling her into him. He took her hand in his, raising their arms stiffly outwards.
"What do you think you're doing?" she cried, but made no move to escape.
"Dancing, Sarah." With some effort Jareth smoothed his face from a scowl into a teasing smile. "Isn't it a marvellous night for a moon-dance?"
Soft music wafted around them on the breeze. He led well, just as she remembered. Neither of them said a word as their bodies moved together in perfect unison. The steps of the dance grew gradually less complicated as they moved closer to each other, until they were barely moving at all, her head resting on his chest and a soft song drifting from his lips. For what could have been forever they swayed and stepped together under the silvery light.
Suddenly the whole ship gave a terrible shudder, and they were knocked to the ground. Sarah landed right on top of Jareth, hands planted either side of his head. He grinned, hands wrapping around her waist, but they were quickly distracted by the shrieking of goblins.
"What's going on?" Sarah pushed herself to her feet, leaving a very frustrated Jareth lying on the deck.
"We're here!" a goblin declared proudly, waving a map. The rest of the goblin crew were running around yelling and bumping into each other, clanging loudly whenever a pair with especially big saucepans on happened to collide.
"And where is 'here', exactly?" Jareth drawled, brushing himself off. "Don't tell me you've gone and run my ship into a reef."
The goblin pointed to a blank stretch of sea on the map which bore the marker 'Bermuda Triangle'.
The colour drained from Jareth's face and he snatched up the map. The goblin, still holding on to it, dangled limply underneath.
"You idiot, I said Barbados!" Jareth raised the map over his head until the dangling goblin was at eye level. "You went the wrong way."
The goblins had stopped running and shrieking and were now staring at their King, wide-eyed and expectant. Meg and her accountant had emerged giggling from the cabin and were now looking around to see what all the fuss was about.
"There were a lot of 'b'-words on the map!" the goblin said. "So we thought, well, the king likes places starting with 'b', and Hurk said he thought triangles were quite nice, so-"
"Enough!" Jareth bellowed, dropping the map and the goblin in disgust. "To the Bog, the lot of you!"
The goblins squealed and covered their heads. Nothing happened.
"Oh, blast!" Jareth kicked the nearest goblin. It landed on top of one of the sails.
"Land, ho!" it called.
"Jareth, what's the matter?" Sarah asked.
"My powers don't work in the Bermuda Triangle." He breathed deeply, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. "Blasted bloody goblins..."
"Did you say the Bermuda Triangle?" The Norwegian pirate asked. He crossed himself, and clutched Meg to his side.
Meg waved at Sarah, pointing to the pirate and giving her the thumbs up. She rolled her eyes in response.
"Jareth, what do you mean your powers don't work here?" She stood in front of the Goblin King, hands on her hips. "Does that mean we're stuck?"
"Get us to land, now." Jareth barked at his crew. They scurried to their stations, clearly relieved to have avoided a mass Bogging.
"Jareth, answer me." Sarah said, grabbing him by the arm.
"Yes, precious, I'm afraid we are a little stuck." He gave her a wry smile. "Looks like my little holiday is going somewhat differently than I had planned."