The sun was low on a Friday evening. At her desk, Sarah was still working, carefully watercoloring a drawing. Her hand steadily moved across the paper, spreading the soft green on her illustration. Absent-mindedly she blew a strand of hair out of her face, washing the brush, when she felt a tingle on her chest.

Jareth and Sarah chatted at least once every week for a while now. They'd met up a handful of times, in which they normally spent time in her apartment. Jareth had taken a liking to watching movies and had enjoyed her cooking for him on occasion. In that regard he was definitely a bit of a spoiled brat, not offering to help. At most, he would hang around her kitchen to talk and look at what she was doing. Sometimes he pointed out that water was boiling, the timer on the oven was going off or other obvious signals. Signals that Sarah would have responded to anyway, if Jareth hadn't instantly pointed it out before she could even turn to the matter at hand.

Looking at the clock, Sarah decided to call it a day and dried the brush, leaving it on the desk for next week. From her drawer she grabbed the notebook and flipped it open.

"Good evening, Sarah."

"Hey Jareth, what's up?"

"I considered imposing on you again. Would you fancy a visit?"

"Sure, are you up for grabbing a bite outdoors? My treat. I just finished work and can be ready to go in fifteen minutes."

"Sounds lovely, I haven't eaten all day."

"If I can persuade you to wear some mortal fashion, that would be lovely."

"I am used to a dress code with more style, but since you are providing dinner, I will indulge."

"How generous. See you in a few."

Getting up, Sarah stretched and finished her glass of water before heading to her bedroom. Changing into some leggings and a dress, she put on her heels and moved to the bathroom to put on some make-up. As she grabbed her purse she could sense a shift in the air. Moving to the living room she spotted Jareth sitting on the couch.

"Make yourself at home."

"I intend to." He looked around at her as she moved around the couch. He got up and grinning as she looked at him. "Do I look acceptable for your human standards?"

Sarah wasn't sure how to feel about him in more ordinary clothes. Granted, they were just that; more ordinary. He still looked aristocratic. Jeans looked strange on him, especially since they were practically still skin tight, like a lot of his other outfits. On top of that he wore a white blouse with a tan waistcoat, with dress shoes completing the outfit.

"You look almost ordinary."

"I will assume that to be a passing grade. Shall we go? I'm starving."

"Yeah, let's head out." Heading out the door she grabbed her keys and bowed to him, holding out her hand to the hallway. "Your highness."

Jareth chuckled and ruffled her hair playfully, before heading down the hallway with her. "I do have to say, you look enchanting this evening, Sarah. How was work?"

"Thank you. Work was fine. I have been procrastinating, so I have a little bit of catching up to do. How about yourself?"

He sighed a little, holding the door open for her. "Endless meetings, mostly. I have set a new work day record of nineteen hours." She looked at him wide-eyed but he just shrugged. "A monarch never sleeps. Which is slowly but surely becoming a truth rather than a phrase."

"Well," Sarah started as she took his arm to lead him around a corner. "Let's just hope you don't pass out face first into your meal."

As they walked she definitely didn't miss the coquettish smiles Jareth was getting as they were walking down the street. She lived in a busy city and when night approached on Friday evenings, people looking for a good time were plentiful. Looking up at him she spotted Jareth fully appreciating every look he got, flirtatiously grinning back at them. As if he sensed her looking at him, he looked down at her. She put a hand on her chest. "Oh please, don't stop on my account."

The man laughed. "Not to worry, Sarah. I have plenty of attention for all of you." Sarah gagged theatrically, at which he elbowed her lightly.

"Sarah?"

The girl froze. She recognized that voice. Looking ahead she scanned the crowd. It took her a little while before she spotted a dark haired man waving at her. "Hey, Sarah!"

"Oh no…" The woman groaned before schooling her features into a pleasant smile. "Jason! How are you?"

"Good, good!" He walked up to her, completely ignoring Jareth and standing just a tad too close. "Hey look, I tried to call you, but I think you gave me the wrong number. I really enjoyed our time last week and I was hoping we could meet up. Do you maybe want to hit Club Cosmo again?"

Sarah looked up at Jareth with subtle but pleading eyes.

He stepped in pleasantly and without hesitation. "Sorry Jason, Sarah is all mine." That simple sentence had so many implications that Sarah instantly felt her cheeks burning. Jason opened his mouth to object but Jareth interjected, feigning awkwardness. "Sorry, I don't share."

Disappointed, the man's face fell and he walked away uncomfortably, quickly disappearing into the crowd.

Sarah let out a relieved sigh, brushing her hair behind her ears.

"So, Jason…" The Goblin King drawled.

Defensively Sarah continued their walk. "What? I'm a grown woman. I can meet people."

"I'm dying to hear this story…" He pressed.

"Well, I'll send your family my condolences. My lips are sealed."

"They are now…"

The woman gasped and the man grinned down at her playfully, daring her to bite back. "That's so not what happened! We just hung out at a club!" His wolfish grin told her that the addition to the story did nothing to steer him away from the path that ran straight into the gutter and her cheeks flared up all over again. Raising her chin defensively, she looked ahead. "If you must now, we danced and drank a bit. And yes, we made out a little, but that's it."

"If you insist."

"I do insist!" She snapped, growing more and more uncomfortable with the subject that he clearly felt no need for dropping. "And even if more happened - I'm an adult. I bet you're not a saint either!" His smug grin that he graciously passed on to a passing woman said more than enough. "So what about you, huh? Anything you want to share with the class? When was your last fling?"

She broke away from her defensive rant when he pulled something out of his pocket. A pocket watch. He pondered it for a second before putting it back. "Thirty eight minutes and twelve seconds ago."

"Ew!" Sarah exclaimed. She side-stepped to put some distance between them but he cheerfully grabbed her hand and wrapped it around his arm.

Jareth laughed and patted her hand with playful reassurance. "I jest. Don't worry."

"Worry," she scoffed. "Well, the last five minutes took care of most of my appetite." She walked him to a large restaurant and looked up. "Here we are. The best grill restaurant in town. I figured you would be a fan of meat."

"Of many kinds." He confirmed, still playful.

Sarah rolled her eyes with a groan and practically dragged him inside. Within five minutes they were seated in a nice booth with comfortable seats and cozy lighting. After ordering some wine for the table they read through the menus. They chatted for a few minutes, gave their order to the waiter and were served their wine.

"To a verbal agreement to never discuss our dating life again." Sarah offered as a toast with their wine.

"I'm not toasting to that." He insisted. "It's too amusing and rare to see you stumble over yourself."

"Don't leave me hanging…" She warned, lightly swinging her wine.

Sighing overly dramatically, he lightly tapped his glass against hers. "Just so you know, I don't consider this a legally binding agreement."

"Of course you don't."

"So, how is your family doing?" He asked before taking a sip of his wine.

Sarah took a small sip of her wine. "They're doing alright. My dad misses me a lot, but they're staying over for dinner tomorrow. Karen is making plans to go on holiday with the four of us."

"That sounds lovely. And how is the boy?"

"Toby?" She looked at him. So far he'd never asked specifically about him. A strange sense of protectiveness washed over her. "He's doing fine. He's a ball of energy and a menace to Karen's Mysophobia. He's turning ten years old soon."

The man smiled wistfully, looking into his wine glass. "Time passes so quickly. It only seemed a year ago that I was bouncing him on my lap."

Sarah looked at the morose expression on his face. Was the mighty Goblin King feeling a little homesick for times gone by? "Yeah, a lot has changed since then."

"A lot, indeed," he agreed. Their eyes met as he looked at her and she averted her eyes shyly.

"Speaking of family, what about yours? You've never spoken of them." The Goblin King pressed his lips together. His mood cooled and he now seemed uninterested in his wine. So much so, that he put it down on the table and lightly pushed it away from him, the contents swishing briefly. The woman looked at him with some concern. She hadn't expected this much of a reaction from that simple question. "I take it that family is a sensitive subject. Sorry, forget I asked."

"No," he insisted. "It's fine." Jareth put his forearms down on the table and laced his fingers. "My parents died many years ago. Long before I became king. As a matter of fact, it feels so long ago that many memories of them have already faded."

"What were they like? You mentioned them briefly before."

He grabbed the salt shaker from one end of the table, twirling it between his fingers restlessly. "My father was a cruel man. Forceful, distant and stubborn. He was the one ruler in documented history that did not make use of advisors or political allies. For context, history has been recorded for tens of thousands of years. Towards his family, he was no different. He is known as, what would be roughly translated as 'the demon of the south'. In his time he conquered twelve kingdoms in blind need for more power. Most of those kingdoms were left near desolate." Jareth took a large swig of wine, as if the mere mention of this man needed to be washed out of his mouth.

Continuing his idling with the salt shaker, he continued. "My mother wasn't an angel, but she wasn't as bad. She had a terrible temper, for one. But at least she was open to the concept of generosity. She was forced into marriage with my father. He practically abducted her and kept her prisoner until she accepted his proposal, or rather his demand. After that she kept herself isolated, no longer talking to her family. As a mother, she was firm, strict, a bit neglectful - but she did have a little bit of a soft spot for me. Possibly because I looked nothing like my father."

Sarah took a second to take that in, thinking back of the time Jareth had told her that he stole food out of his kitchen to give to his childhood friend. A gesture that his mother may not have encouraged, but didn't punish per se.

His current transparency was intriguing. She had so many questions, but she didn't want to impose or scare him off from being so open. His face was unreadable. His eyes downcast to the table, his sharp features almost glowing in the candle light.

"What about siblings?" Sarah asked quietly, carefully. "Do you have any sisters or brothers?"

A strange mix between fear, anger and incredible sadness flashed through his eyes as he looked at her. "A brother and one sister. Currently." He tightened his fingers on the glass condiment dispenser and despite him wearing gloves she could see just how much he was clinging to it.

Carefully, she reached out and put her hand over his. His eyes followed her hand and lingered there. "It's okay, I appreciate you answering that question and I'm sorry. Let's drop the subject."

Jareth took a calming breath, before looking back up at her. As they gazed into each other's eyes, the atmosphere calmed and his expression warmed with a small smile, his eyes lowering.

Sarah jumped as the waiter announced their dishes and she quickly pulled back her hand. Jareth put the salt shaker aside and cleared his throat, thanking the waiter kindly. The woman smiled at him and gestured towards the plates. "Enjoy your meal," she offered, eagerly digging in.

The next few minutes were spent in silence. Sarah had been a little bit surprised when he took off his gloves when dinner came, placing them on his lap. His fingers elegantly twirled the fork and knife as he ate. Not once did his cutlery clink on the plate. It made her a little self-conscious when even the smallest sound was produced from her plate.

Why was he so damn graceful in everything that he did?

She thought back to the information he'd relented only a few minutes ago. In a way he was much like the Labyrinth. Secretive, twisted in a way, fascinating but probably dangerous… and my God, there were so many walls around him. What had he meant with "currently" when speaking of his siblings? Did something happen? Or perhaps, something was about to happen. Was there a family feud going on Underground?

She guessed family matters weren't the only thing on his mind though. There was more. No family squabble would keep someone occupied for so long. Would it? If only she could prod him just a little bit more… But in her gut she felt that she had pushed him enough. Bringing on more tension, bad memories and stress certainly wasn't the way to get him to open up.

"Penny for your thoughts?" She looked up at him, interrupted from her musings. He was looking at her with a lopsided smile, twirling his fork between his fingers. Sarah opened her mouth, then closed it again as she debated whether or not to tell him. Noticing her hesitance, he poured both of them another wine. "Don't worry your pretty little head over my private matters, Sarah. The past is just that, the past. Instead of entertaining the ghosts of time gone by, I prefer to enjoy each other's company this evening."

The woman looked at him. Really looked at him, as he took a sip of his wine. She wasn't sure, but she could swear that ever so slightly there were dark circles under his eyes. His skin seemed a little more pale than usual. His demeanour exuded relaxation, yet the subtle way that he was fidgeting with his fork hinted to some possible underlying stress.

"Well," Sarah started. "I'm here for you if you want to talk. Whether it's about family matters or something else."

Jareth looked at her from across the table, she looked at him with a slightly furrowed brow, clearly worried. Grinning, he reached out to brush across the crease in her forehead. She practically froze as he touched her skin. Clearing his throat he pulled back, only realizing he wasn't wearing his cloves as he felt his fingertips tingle from the chaste touch. "I appreciate your concern for me, Sarah." Leaning back, he suppressed the urge to put his gloves back on. After briefly pressing his lips together, he schooled his features. "But as I said, the past is in the past. And I kindly ask you to refrain from bringing it up again."

She dropped her gaze to her plate, pushing around the few leftover potato wedges on it. She couldn't deny the pang of… rejection? She'd pushed him too far. Sarah might have broken down a wall or two just now, but he was rebuilding them with staggering speed. Protectively, she tucked her hand underneath the table, her long dark hair cascading down her shoulder.

Jareth realized that his request to not bring up his private matters again had hurt her. She'd clearly been worried for him. And while she talked of her private life and her problems freely, he simply didn't want to stress her out with his problems. Frankly, he was worrying enough for the both of them. The Goblin King preferred to deal with personal issues alone. He had always dealt with them alone. He wasn't about to scare her off with his affairs, or worse, have her wrestle herself into them. These concerns were so far removed from her day to day proceedings that she likely didn't even know how to deal with them.

"I trust you have enjoyed your meals? Is there anything I can get for you?"

Both startled as they looked up to the waiter at the end of their table. Sarah looked at Jareth briefly, before looking back up at the waiter. "Thanks, the food was lovely. I think we're ready for the dessert menu."

AN: I am so sorry this chapter took so long. I have been so busy the past month. I have been working my fulltime job, moving house and applying for a new job. Hopefully the next chapter won't take so long. ;) I hope you have a great day, be safe!