Sarah was grateful to be out of the flat. The tension still seemed to hang in the air even after all its occupants had vacated it. If it hadn't been for her sister's artful words a whole lot of blame could have been set upon her shoulders regarding Toby's adventures in the Labyrinth. She would have deserved it, but she would have never forgave herself if she was the reason that yet again her sister was deprived of her little brother.
Even still Irene wasn't the happiest camper when she found out that due to a fairy placed book her Toby ended up in the Labyrinth with Sarah having to complete a challenge to get him back home safe and sound. After speculation she seemed to be less worried about the magic itself and more about its effect on Toby.
The king assured her that many children who were 'acquired' (not wished away, those words were never said) by the labyrinth would dream about the Underground for as long as their imaginations were alive and fancy free. He also assured Irene that Toby was not in any danger of being 'carried away by fairies' at any point, which caused much disappointment to Toby himself.
A familiar gruff voice ahead of her caused Sarah to jolt from her thoughts, a man with a head of dark shoulder length hair was several paces ahead of her about to cross the street. As he began to stride across it, she knew it indeed was her mystery flower giver.
Nearly running after him, she sprinted across the cross-way calling, "Mr. Flowers!"
He turned his head, his bushy eyebrow raising at her inquiry as she dashed up to him in the middle of the road.
"Fancy seeing you here."
He turned as if to continue walking, but she caught his arm.
"Would you like to grab a cup of coffee or tea with me?"
He opened his mouth a frown upon his lips, when a honk came from a taxi to their right.
"Are you bloody daft woman? You are suppose' to walk not stop!"
Sarah turned red and before she could stop it her ire rose, "Watch it, buster! Just because you are in that car doesn't mean you are safe." She raised her head like the queen she once was offered to be and strode over to the sidewalk. A touch on her elbow had her spinning but she stopped just in time as she saw the dark gentleman with a surprised expression.
"I think I will take that cup of coffee."
Mr. Flowers ended up knowing a nice hole in the wall coffee shop that actually made good coffee.
"I've had a hard time finding a good cup of joe, thanks for showing me this place." Sarah smiled at the dark stranger.
"Why do you keep calling me Mr. Flowers?" His deep dark voice rumbled next to her. Their knees touched beneath the small bistro style tables the small cafe had.
She smiled, "I like an air of mystery." She shrugged, "You were the mystery gentleman that brought the intelligent bouquet of flowers."
His full lips tilted up, "Then shall I call you, Ms Hamlet?"
"If you like." She smiled, knowing that he no doubt knew her name from the playbills.
They parted after a short while but found their way back there the next week the same day and time. Then it happened again and again, until it was a regular cafe 'date'. Sarah found she enjoyed her meetings with her mysterious gentleman. He wasn't like other men she'd dated before, not that they had confirmed that was what they were doing currently but she could hope. It was on their third date that she sat down with an odd sigh and he looked up from his book on chemistry that she had a feeling might not actually be about chemistry.
"I can't keep doing this."
Mr. Flowers whole body tensed, a dark storm cloud came across his features before it suddenly cleared and he was abruptly standing.
"Wait." Sarah stood, "I'm sorry I'm saying this all wrong. I still want our chats, I just know who you are. I don't want to keep pretending I don't know."
He turned back toward her and the tension hadn't left him and his face was still blank.
Sarah bit the corner of her lip, a habit she knew she picked up from her little sister. She stepped forward cautiously knowing from the brief conversations they had that the man was guarded and from what her sister had said he'd had a rough past.
In an undertone she whispered a small smile tilting upon her lips, "You know you are my sister's favorite professor."
His eyes were piercing, dark penetrating holes that seemed to swallow her up. "What else did she tell you?"
"Just that you had a rough past and that she had some plans to make things easier for you in the future." At this Sarah smiled self-deprecatingly, "I'm afraid not even I am privy to my sister's schemes."
His lips twitched ever so slightly, and his shoulders relaxed ever so slightly.
"Perhaps we could start fresh, at least with our real first names. Hello, my name is Sarah." Sarah held her hand out for the professor to shake.
To her surprise though when he took her hand, he did not shake it but instead bent over it and laid a delicate kiss upon her knuckles.
"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lady Sarah. My name is Severus."
His chuckle did something deep within her as her cheeks reddened from his kiss upon her hand.
~Time Skip~
Jareth stared at the candlelight and the crystal glasses upon the table, before peering up at his table mate.
"Did she say when she would arrive?"
Sarah sighed as she pulled her cellular phone from her purse, "She says that her meeting is running late but she wishes us to go ahead and begin with the courses."
Mix-matched eyes narrowed, "I taught her better etiquette than to make arrangements with two separate parties at the same time."
Sarah caught his eye, "Diana is far too calculating though isn't she? Perhaps she thought we needed to talk about something, and that's why she is delaying."
They silently contemplated what she could wish them to speak about as the courses began each with their own wine choice. They were on the third course when a strange thought came to Sarah's mind, she looked down upon her formal wear and then at Jareth's suit and let out a laugh.
Jareth raised an eyebrow. "Are you already inebriated? Humans have such a low tolerance."
Sarah could barely shift her grin into a glare before bursting into giggles again, "I just had a thought."
"Yes?" A pale eyebrow was raised as the king elegantly sipped from the current selection of wine.
"What if Diana set this all up?" Sarah gestured to the candlelight dinner, the private setting and the romantic food choices. Her phone vibrated as if confirming her suspicions, and Sarah read the text aloud, " 'I am terribly sorry Sarah. I very much wished to make it to the dinner but unfortunately I will not be able to. However, please enjoy the food and setting with Jareth without me.'"
Sarah handed the phone over to the king, just so he could see the fact for himself. She started laughing once more as his one gold and one blue eyes widened as he came to the same realization she had.
It was quite a sight to see the stately king dissolve into laughter. Sir Didymus had told her in the olden days of how the king had laughed around her sister but she couldn't truly picture a genuine laugh until now. It was truly glorious. His head was thrown back, his Adam's apple bobbing, the candlelight seemed to reflect silver strands in his hair and he seemed to sparkle. She had to blink a few times to see if she wasn't actually just mesmerized but he was actually sparkling.
It was in that moment she realized how far gone she was for a certain dark mysterious potions master, for in this moment of seeing such great majestic beauty she couldn't help but wonder what her Mr. Flowers would look like with his head thrown back in an expression of pure joy.
They did end up enjoying the rest of the meal and the rest of the night was spent at Diana's expense. Both smiling and laughing at stories of the young girl's escapades in grade and middle school, at Hogwarts and in the labyrinth.
Towards the end of the night as they took the long way home walking through a park towards the flat, Jareth turned toward Sarah an inquiring look in his eyes.
"Why do you think she paired the two of us?"
Sarah smiled, the answer easy and ready, "She loves us. I would even hazard a guess that we are her two most important people and she wishes for us to be happy."
"You wouldn't be happy with me, though, would you Sarah?" Jareth looked at her with wise old eyes. The eyes of the fae that had seen generations of humans live, grow old and die.
"Perhaps in another time and place where Diana hadn't existed." Sarah looked up at him, "But I wouldn't give away being her sister for the world."
Sarah stood back from Jareth and this time he was surprised to see she had her own kind of wisdom as she looked at him, "I enjoyed this evening though. I think you and I have a unique perspective when it comes to Diana. Perhaps a bit different but she's special to us. We've claimed her as ours, and in turn we are hers."
Jareth looked into the young woman's eyes that could have been the Labyrinth's queen and smiled, "Indeed we are."