OceanFae: Yeah, I know. :( That makes me sad... he's still drool-worthy.

Yes, three fluffy chapters in a row. This one's mildly smutty, but nothing R-rated. It goes downhill after the next chapter, I promise. :) There will be more complications. I'm not anywhere near finished yet. There's gonna be maybe another ten chapters, I think... Give or take a few.

Yay smut!

The rest of the week passed uneventfully. Sarah spent her mornings with Abernathy on Nathan, just talking and learning and forming trust and relationships. The more she talked to her, the more Abernathy reminded her of her best friend in high school. She was bubbly, loud, energetic and friendly, all while being the perfect crying shoulder – sympathetic, honest, and incredibly wise. The more she talked to Nathan, the more he reminded her of a strange mix of her editor, her father, and Toby.

She spent her afternoons alone in the library, from after lunch to just a few minutes after sunset. Then she would go and greet Jareth at the front doors of the castle. She would kiss his cheek and take his arm and he would lead her to the dining room and the great table. The food was always rich, fresh, and delicious.

After dinner, she would go out with Jareth, into the library or the gardens or to his greeting room in his chambers. They spoke of many things, fools and kings, childhood tales of fancy and fun, childrearing methods, values, morals, ideals, and one day, six days after her third return to the Underground, she asked about his gloves. He was disinclined to answer her and instead asked, "Sarah, are you feeling well?" He had remembered her drinking a large amount of wine at dinner. He should've known better than to have it served.

Sarah blinked at him curiously. Her eyes were glazed. "I feel great, Jareth," she replied and smiled. "Why do you ask?" She caressed the skin of his arm, featherlight.

"You haven't asked about returning home yet," he said uneasily Perhaps she'd simply forgotten and now he was reminding her.

She smiled at him and said plainly, "I haven't wanted to." She turned her head from his shoulder and looked up into his eyes. "I've been having such a wonderful time with all of this, and I've only been gone for fourteen hours in my world."

Jareth grinned at her, proudly. "You've been keeping track," he said teasingly.

Shrugging her shoulders, she shimmied herself up slightly and turned around to look at him. "I'm not even sure if I want to go back," She admitted. She either failed to notice or didn't care that her hand was almost indecently high on his thigh.

He noticed. His mouth ran dry and he licked his lips in hopes of some kind of relief. He said slowly, "That's a very big decision."

She grinned at him roguishly. "Isn't it though?" she said mischievously, and brushed her hand higher over the very pronounced protrusion in his trousers.

All in one motion, Jareth had removed himself from the sofa and stood decidedly out of her reach. "Sarah, I believe that is a much larger decision," he began.

With her eyes on his groin, she grinned. "Yes, it is," she said wickedly, moving to get off of the sofa and follow him.

He took several steps back and raised his voice as he continued, "and I think you may have had a little too much wine at dinner. You should go to bed earlier, maybe you can sleep off the morning."

Sarah sat back on the sofa and her lower lip trembled. Jareth rolled his eyes toward the ceiling with a pained look. "Bryan thought I was pretty," she said brokenly.

His eyes flattened as he went and sat beside her, wrapping his arms around her. "I think you're absolutely beautiful, Sarah."

"Then why won't you have sex with me?" she wailed. He cringed at the volume and hoped no one else had heard that.

Jareth took her by the chin and made her look at him. He used his other hand to wipe away her tears. "Because, Sarah," he said softly, "I want to so badly, but with your best interests in mind, I will not take advantage of you." He let go of her chin and she laid her head on his shoulder. With one hand, he rubbed her shoulder, and the other just ran through her hair. "I want our consummation to be beautiful and romantic, something you will be glad to remember... Something you will love and cherish. Something to take with you when you leave this place." He gave her a light squeeze. Sarah didn't reply. He sighed. "You're asleep, aren't you?"he murmured and tilted her head back against his shoulder. Indeed, her eyes were closed and she was breathing evenly. He shook his head and picked her up carefully and stood in his front chamber and thought about which room to take her to – her own, or his bedchamber. He glanced toward the outward double doors and then the smaller door to his bedchamber.

He glanced down at the girl in his arms and smiled fondly at her, and turned towards the smaller door.

The next morning, Jareth's outer door slammed open. Abernathy charged in yelling, "Jareth! Jareth, we can't find Sarah!" She burst into his bedchamber and stopped in her tracks. "Oh."

Jareth had moved one hand over Sarah's bare ear and propped himself up on his elbow. The way the sheets hung over them and the way he had Sarah mostly hidden from view, it appeared that they were both nude. He glared murderously at her. Abernathy grinned and waggled her fingers at him, and quietly shut the door behind her. Distantly, he heard her yell, "Hey guys, she's in Jareth's room!" He rolled his eyes and lay back down, shuffling comfortably closer to the still-sleeping Sarah, and fell back to sleep.

Sarah awoke sometime before lunch. Jareth had felt her begin to stir and had left the bed to dress himself. He had his back to her when she finally opened her eyes. They widened at the pale, muscled expanse of skin and she quickly tried to clear her head, tried to remember what had happened, what she had done. She brought a hand to her forehead as she remembered how good the wine had tasted the night before, and remembered what large amounts of alcohol did to her personality.

"Did we..." she began to ask.

He smiled and cut her off with, "No. You made a valiant attempt at seducing me though." He turned to look over his shoulder and smile at her teasingly.

She groaned and whined, "I'm sorry. Liquor does that to me... I should've known better."

He shrugged his shoulders and finally decided on a shirt for the day. He turned toward her and said, "I should've warned you. Underground-made wine is very strong." He pulled the shirt over one arm and then the other and began to button it up. "You managed to drink four glasses. I'm impressed." He smiled at her.

Embarrassed, Sarah tried to hide her head beneath the pillow. "I'm sorry," she said again. She felt a dip in the bed and retracted her head, looking up at him in surprise as he climbed onto the bed with her.

"I was flattered, Sarah," he said softly, brushing hair away from her forehead enough to lean in and kiss it gently. "But I politely declined. I went on a very nice spiel about how romantic I wanted it to be, how I would've loved for you to remember it and to not be intoxicated... but you fell asleep before I finished my first sentence. I kept you here so I could keep an eye on you." Now that he'd had extra time to think about it, that was a really good excuse for keeping her in his bed. Drunk persons had the bad tendency to vomit in their sleep and then choke on it, which was not a very good way to go.

Smirking and propping herself up on her elbow, Sarah replied, "How very convenient a way to get me into your bed."

He rolled his eyes and folded his arms, propping his chin up on them. "For some reason, I remember you asking me to sleep with you on the first night that you had returned here," he pointed out with a mischievous smile.

Laughingly, Sarah shrugged her shoulders. "I had a moment of insanity," she said jokingly. She rubbed her forehead and yawned. After glancing at the balcony curtains, she frowned and asked, "Did we miss breakfast?" She seemed disappointed, and her stomach rumbled loudly.

"Yes," he replied, "it's almost lunch. I've decided to spend the day with you rather than in the Labyrinth. Will that suit you?" He tilted his head at her and smiled hopefully.

Sarah rolled out of the bed and stretched her muscles. "I suppose so," she said disinterestedly. She smiled at him over her shoulder, knowing that she was mostly nude, aside from the mostly-transparent slip that he'd left her with to sleep in. She was conveniently missing both a bra and panties as well. "I wonder how I lost most of my clothing," she said musingly, and stretched her hands towards her feet so that her fingertips brushed her toes. She heard Jareth make a small sound.

She turned around, and he still hadn't moved from his face-down position on the bed, though his back had arched enough for him to be looking straight at her, propped up on his elbows. "I think the wine still hasn't worn off, Sarah," he said, his voice dry.

Bending at the waist, she mimicked his position, though her arms cradled her breasts rather than Jareth's cradling nothing. She had her stomach down on the bed, having to go onto tip-toe to be able to make it into the pose, and smiled at him. "I know exactly what I'm doing, Jareth," she said coyly, dropping one shoulder slowly so that the strap of her slip slid down around her upper arm. "I haven't had sex in six months, Jareth, and I'm pretty sure that it's been longer for you. I'm an adult and I can deal with sex in an adult manner. I want to get laid, and I want to get laid by you, and I want it now." She pushed herself up onto the bed and went to her knees, pulling her slip up and over her head and tossing it to the side.

Jareth's eyes were fixed to her skin, admiring every curve, every freckle, every bump, every bone, every scintillating muscle as it rippled through the movement of her running her hand through her hair. She smiled at him, knowing the effect that she was having on him. "You see," she said flirtatiously, "I have a gift for you, Jareth. But it is not for any ordinary king who takes care of a rotting labyrinth..." She drew a hand between her breasts and traced a line all the way down her stomach. "Do you want it?"

"Yes."