Sarah Williams woke with her mouth full of the taste of peaches. Her alarm was still the same soft twinkling fairy music it had been two years ago, before the Labyrinth. Actually, very little in her life had changed since then. She was the only thing that changed. A younger Sarah would have hopped out of bed with the sun, but these days she always felt tired and wanted nothing more than to live within her dreams. With her eyes still closed, Sarah's hand stretched out for her phone. The bed under her hand felt much more solid than she remembered it. Her hand patted around a little more, too groggy to make sense of what she was feeling.

It was the chuckle that did it. Small as the sound was, it painted such a vivid, smirking picture that Sarah's eyes popped open. She went from fully asleep to sitting up in a matter of seconds. A few more and she was out of bed entirely.

"Jareth," she hissed.

"Morning, precious," drawled the unaffected Goblin King as he shut off the alarm, still lounging in her bed. Sarah looked at him helplessly. She would not ask him why he was there and give him the satisfaction of making some witty remark. Besides, she already knew his answer. Seeing Jareth every day for the last two years had allowed her to have what she thought was a good understanding of him, though she knew she'd never stop being surprised by him.

"I am here to see you, of course," Jareth answered her unasked question anyway. Normally Sarah would have immediately retorted with 'but why were you in my bed?' but she felt too tired today to deal with him and she didn't want to know his answer anyway. Jareth was masterful in the way he pushed her boundaries every day, always finding just how far she could bend without breaking. With a sigh, Sarah sat at her vanity and began brushing her hair to prepare for the day ahead, one that would likely get no better from here.

"Don't you have a kingdom to run?" Sarah asked at last. She could see Jareth smirk in the reflection of her mirror and she—for neither the first nor the last time—wanted to slap the look off his face. Instead, she looked away.

"I am on an errand for my kingdom," he replied. No matter how much Sarah tried not to give him the satisfaction of his lines, it seemed he could not be stopped.

"And this would be…?"

"To check on the future Queen of Goblins, of course." At this answer, Sarah stilled her hands and sighed again. The brush was maneuvered away from her and gently run through her hair. She hadn't heard him get up.

"I will not become Queen of Goblins," Sarah said, but it lacked energy. Jareth had filled the last two years with allusions to her becoming queen and she'd rejected him each time. In the beginning that rejection had been filled with energy and assertiveness, always reminding him that he had no power over her. Now—two years later—tiredly repeating the same overused line, she understood that he did have power over her and he was using it to his advantage. He was wearing her down. How close was she to just saying yes if only to stop his persistence? He had been in her bed this morning and was now brushing her hair without a word of protest from her. It wasn't love she felt; it was familiarity. That was dangerous.

She had to get away from him but that—as with most things having to do with Jareth—was easier said than done. Her eyes glared into the mirror as she sorted though the possibilities, unsatisfied with the few she had. At seventeen her options were limited and even if she had been older, Sarah hardly had the funds to support herself. Sarah's need for a job had been the only point on which she and her stepmother had ever agreed, yet not even family influence had been enough to get Sarah past the first interview. It hadn't taken her long to give up on the idea, knowing that no one would hire her for the same reason her classmates would barely look at her since her adventures in the Labyrinth: there was something wrong with her. Her gaze fell on the smirking reflection of the Goblin King in the mirror. Maybe it wasn't something wrong with her, just her company. Jareth caught her eye and only looked ever more smug.

"Ready to come home, my Queen?" he whispered in her ear. With a huff, Sarah pulled away from his hands and stood from her vanity, shooting him a glare as she did so. Sarah wished she was only angry and that a fleeting quirk of amusement hadn't crossed her lips, but it had. And Jareth had seen it. At least it satisfied him in the moment and he put up no fuss as she grabbed her school bag and trudged down the stairs, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like 'glittery git' when he disappeared. It would have been more effective if that odd quirk of a smile hadn't mysteriously surfaced again. Jareth was an acquired taste; one that any sip had the chance to poison her. It was a gamble she shouldn't have found so exciting.

School passed as boring and uneventfully as was possible. Her classmates barely even noticed her presence and even her teachers seemed to go out of their way to avoid her. It might have hurt if she wasn't so used to it. Home was no better refuge. Stepping through the front door, Sarah could see Karen in the kitchen. Stifling a groan at her misfortune and cursing herself for stopping to window shop antiques, Sarah carefully tried to creep past the door to the safety of her bedroom. Try as she might, it had been two years since luck had ever been in her favor.

"Watch your feet," Karen called out as she spotted Sarah. "I just scrubbed the floors." Sarah nodded and—with reluctance—stooped to remove her shoes. The day had been nothing but sunshine and, looking behind her, Sarah could see not a single spot on the floors. She wanted to stomp and whine about that fact, but she was not the same girl as two years ago. It wasn't that she felt more mature, not really. The same thoughts still danced around her head but the moment she thought something was unfair, her heart would seize in her chest and she'd find whatever complaint she had would die unspoken on her tongue. This had also taught her how much easier it was to comply than to fight, especially as the years made it clear that her father would always take Karen's side. He too hadn't looked at her the same since that night. Stepping out of her shoes and holding them up to prove that she was no longer tracking non-existent mud into the house, Sarah made a vague gesture towards her room. Escape, however, was not that easy.

"Sarah, wait a moment," said her stepmother. "I want to talk to you." Nothing good would come of this, Sarah was certain. She waited, but Karen gestured for her to sit down at the table. With a small sigh, Sarah complied though her face clearly said she would have loved to do otherwise. "Your father and I were talking and we wanted to ask you about something." Karen gave her best attempt at a smile. "We know the last couple of years have been difficult for you and we think that maybe a change of pace might be for the best. Maybe it would be better if you spent the rest of the year…." Karen paused, but Sarah knew exactly what was coming next. So that was her game, huh? Kicking her out of the house couldn't even wait until Sarah's eighteenth birthday?

"Somewhere else?" Sarah suggested with a slight note of sarcasm in her tone. She'd gotten better at controlling her frustration at the injustices of life, but it didn't make this any better.

"Somewhere less busy," said Karen, still trying to keep up appearances. There wasn't much use arguing anyway, especially if her dad had already given the okay. The fact that he couldn't look his daughter in the eye and say these words to her himself hurt, but Sarah wouldn't say so. At least, not now. Not until she could bear it no longer. Besides, what was there to keep her here? The only stable relationship she had to look forward to was with an insufferable but powerful fae who was likely able to follow her wherever she went anyway. As long as he knew where to go. Sarah froze. What if… what if he didn't? She'd been looking for a way to escape and here it was being handed to her on a silver platter. All she had to do was say yes.

"Your Uncle Charlie lives out in Washington. A small town called… Spoons or Knives or something silly like that," Karen said, chuckling to herself. "We suggested the idea to him and he said he'd be delighted to have your company. So, if you wanted, we'd be happy to buy your ticket…."

"Yes!" Sarah didn't even wait for Karen to finish. "Yes. Definitely yes." The exuberance in the tone clearly took Karen by surprise. It had been a while since Sarah had shown that much passion to anyone; at least anyone human—though lately even around Jareth she'd been lackluster. There was a slightly complicated look on her stepmother's face as though she was trying to decide just how exactly to feel about such a powerful response. Eventually she settled on relief and happiness. 'To be rid of me,' Sarah thought to herself, but returned the woman's smile with a genuine one of her own. If nothing else, that was one problem solved, and she did always like her Uncle Charlie.

Deceiving Jareth was easier than she would have thought. He rarely appeared any time except for mornings and kept no tabs on her for the rest of the day. Refusing his daily proposals was easier as she could count the days left until she would be on the other side of the country and far away from him.

Even on the very last morning he had not noticed anything different about her. He quipped and smirked and, for a moment, Sarah felt a little sad. His company was stressful and aggravating, but for two long years it was the only real company she'd had. As the rest of the world had pulled away from her, Jareth was the only thing that seemed to be getting closer. On that morning, as she stared at him, a funny thought popped into her mind. Sarah had spent these last two years trying to escape Jareth… but without him she would never have survived.

"And all great kingdoms must have a Queen," said Jareth, finishing off a long and bait-filled speech of which Sarah heard nothing. Any other day she would have fired back in anger, but not today. Jareth's proud posture deflated just a little when Sarah continued staring at him without expression. He was evil and a villain, that much had always been clear, but in the back of her mind Sarah realized some part of her was really going to miss him.

"Jareth," Sarah said, still looking at him more earnestly than she ever had before, "thank you." In two years this was about the only time Sarah had ever seen Jareth speechless, but she didn't even have the time to marvel in that. Complex emotions that she had neither the energy nor desire to sort out battled within her. Jareth still looked so completely out of his element that Sarah couldn't help but laugh. Impulsively she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him. "Really, I mean it. Thanks." Sarah stepped back, lips quirking up at the edges; she hoped her smile didn't look too sad.

"But it's time to go," she said. Sarah paused for a moment before she let out a small laugh. "You have a kingdom to run, after all." That, finally, stirred Jareth back into motion.

"We have a kingdom to run," corrected Jareth. "It's hardly right for a queen to keep neglecting her duties. When can we expect you?" There was much more expectation in his tone now. It was her own fault, Sarah knew, what with her very different behavior today.

"Tomorrow," Sarah said with a bittersweet smile. "Ask me again tomorrow."