Author's Note: This is an even shorter chapter. My apologies, but I can't run chapters together and there's a certain reason behind all of them.

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Whatever Karen had expected of the Underground, she had hoped to be proved wrong. Unfortunately, she was not. The Underground really was a half-wild land with perverse creatures and the eternal throb of magic. She had definitely not expected an enormous gothic castle in the middle of a dangerous maze. She said as much, which brought a glaze of fascinated horror to her host's eyes.

"Maze," he echoed blankly, "You call it a maze?"

"It's not?"

Jareth threw off the enchanted claws of his throne and stalked to a window. "This," he growled expressively, "is the Labyrinth!"

"Oh."

Toby sighed. "Try to sound excited," he advised in a mock whisper, "Or you'll hurt Jareth's feelings."

Sarah snorted. "His feelings? Didn't know he had any! You'll hurt his pride though and that, Karen, is completely unacceptable."

Jareth growled low in his throat for all the world like an over-large dog and took a threatening step closer. Toby's smirk, however, stopped him dead. Reluctantly he smiled- a ruefully boyish smile full of charm- and pushed his hair from his face. "You," he pointed to his bond mate, "Are going to pay dearly for that."

A brow rose, arching brown over wide blue eyes. Toby nodded blandly. "I see. How?"

It was nothing more than a blink of the eye before Jareth was behind him, purring softly in one ear as he wrapped an arm around the tiny waist. "Do you remember lesson one?" Jareth chuckled.

Toby did remember, and he subsided after a half-hearted struggle, a cautious look thrown at his parents who simply gazed back at him with identical blank expressions. The way he saw it, at least neither of them had staggered away clawing at their eyes yet.

"Lesson two," the Goblin King continued, "I have ingenious ways of exacting my revenge."

Toby gulped and pressed back, pale blond eyelashes fluttering closed as white fingertips ghosted gently over his arm.

"Lesson three..."

"Yeah?" The sane part of his brain snarled at him for sounding quite so high-pitched and breathless.

"... I play a waiting game."

Toby was still pondering those strange words when he found himself freed and Jareth sweetly explaining the history behind a huge tapestry that graced the far wall. The mortal glared at that white shirted straight back for a good two seconds before he heard the sniggers behind him. He turned slowly to see his sister and her husband trying to stifle their humour.

"Stop," he warned, shaking a finger at them.

"Or what," Sarah giggled, "Which lesson are we going to be taught?"

"The one that gets people thrown into Bogs of Eternal Stench," Toby breezed, a contemplative smile creeping over his face, "After all, I'm the Goblin King's bond mate. I could snap my fingers and Jareth would have you... well, I'm not actually sure what he'd do with you but I bet it'd be something nasty."

"Oh sure," Ben replied sardonically, "I'm quaking in my boots."

"Honey, you're not wearing boots."

"It's a figure of speech! I'm allowed to use those."

And so the day had passed. Jareth had been... well, Jareth. But he had been charming and attentive and at the end of the day Toby was a little less worried about his parents demanding to be sent back home. The goblins had been a little nervous around Sarah, but Toby was overwhelmed by how much they seemed to welcome him back. Kyfrem had been ecstatic to have his young master back with him. When Jareth calmly told him that he needed to get Toby a suit for their wedding, the poor goblin had had palpitations and been forced to sit down and take deep breathes. Even Hoggle's eyes had almost fallen out of his head when Sarah accidentally let the cat out of the bag.

And by the time night fell, Toby could not have felt happier than if the rape had never happened. Everyone else had been shown to their rooms after an informal and very chatty dinner and now it was just the two of them, back in the library like that night so many months ago when his world had come crashing down.

Jareth sat curled up his chair, barefoot and with his shirt unbuttoned, watching fondly as his future consort trailed absent-minded fingers over the delicate spines of the books.

"Is this what you really want?" he asked quietly.

Toby looked around and smiled, coming back to perch on the arm of Jareth's chair. "I couldn't ask for anything more," he promised, "Everything I want is here. Okay?"

"No."

"Well, what more can I say?"

"It's not a question of 'saying', my elf. The truth is that you do not belong here. What will happen when you realize that?"

Toby thought about that for a long minute, searching in his head for one of those slender rays of sunshine that had never yet steered him wrong. Dual-coloured eyes were filled with compassion and sober reflection. Jareth wasn't asking out of an attempt to read his intentions, Toby realized, Jareth really did believe that they would face this sooner or later.

He reached back, twisting awkwardly to stroke over a sharp cheekbone. "Look, we don't have to get married," he volunteered, "I can stay here for a while and then we can decide all this later. It's no big deal. There's no pressure to be more than lovers."

For the life of him, the Goblin King could not help but smile. It was exactly like his elf to say something as innocent as all that. It was charming that Toby still functioned enough to desire in that way, and very gratifying to know that that desire was directed at him. "Lovers," he repeated, shaking his head, "Toby, you would have little or no rights down here as my lover. You would be a- a concubine, at most. I would not do that to you."

"You were going to do that anyway," Toby protested indignantly, remembering how he'd been summarily brought to the Underground.

Jareth shrugged as if it were the most understandable thing in the world. "Times were different," he said coolly, "We were both different people."

Toby studied the face in front of him. Jareth clearly felt no guilt over his possible degradation; he didn't even seem to consider that Toby might be insulted by it. "Well, okay," the human conceded, "But even if things have changed, you still don't want to marry me."

"I never said that. I would not have proposed if I never wanted to marry you."

Blue eyes casually slid away to look at the empty fireplace. "You proposed to Sarah."

Ah! So he knew about that, did he? Jareth swore a few times in his mind and then pulled Toby into his lap, efficiently arranging him so that he could look up into that young, unguarded face. Toby had grown, he noticed, which was only to be expected because the boy was only sixteen and still maturing.

"I have never," Jareth swore, "Loved Sarah. Admired her? Yes. Lusted for her? A little. But loved? No."

"Then why offer the chance? You went out of your way to win her."

"She was interesting," Jareth answering, trapping those restless fingers and bringing them to his lips to kiss, "She was regal and decisive and pretty. She was also an innocent. It seems I have a fondness for that." The flippant joke died its well-deserved death as Toby simply waited for more. "I became a King very young, Toby. And traditionally, the King takes a wife as soon as possible, to ensure heirs and such. I believed Sarah would make an admirable Queen. And I thought I could tolerate her. Marrying without a bond happens in most cases in the Underground. For all that bonds are easy to forge, they are still very complex. I would have let Sarah lead her own life after a fashion, when her duties were done, and I would have led mine."

"I don't know about you, but that sounds heartless," Toby snapped, "What's the point of marrying if you don't truly want to live your life with someone?"

The Goblin King shifted uncomfortably and if he looked as if he would rather not talk about this, he showed a remarkable interest in Toby's fingers instead. "Royal marriages are rarely for love," Jareth reminded him distractedly, "I was not even certain that I could fall in love at the time. I still have my doubts. But I do know that I want you with me and even if I saw Sarah as a logical choice, you had better feel flattered because you have been anything but!"

Toby didn't quite know whether to blush or look mortified, but the raw silk voice was loving and soft, covering him in warmth. So he blushed and looked away, hastily clearing his throat. "I, uh, get the feeling that I've been a bother," he said lamely.

"Oh yes," Jareth replied feelingly, "There are things I have done for you that even Archer would have said I was incapable of. Letting you cry buckets of tears all over me was one of them. Archer almost had a heart-attack when he heard about that."

"Archer doesn't like me," Toby remembered. It had been a sore point for quite some time and he felt it was only fair to tell Jareth not to expect great shows of exultation from that quarter.

But the Goblin King was already well aware of his cousin's reservations and he waved them away with a flick of his long fingers. "Archer is a nationalist," he said baldly, "He believes I should live for my Kingdom alone. He thinks me very irresponsible for formally binding myself to you. Had you been a woman, he would have been happy for me. But you're not, so he will sulk for a few days."

Toby giggled at the thought of the tall fairy sitting in a corner with a child-like pout on his handsome face. It was too much to hope that he would ever see it, but a boy had to have his dreams. "So we're... going through with this?"

"Do you mind?"

"Do you?"

Jareth raised a hand and tangled it in fire-blond hair. "Perhaps one day I might," he revealed, "We will argue, you know, and get things wrong. Can you stand that?"

"Jareth, how many times must I say yes!"

"I still remember being told that I would have to wait forever," Jareth teased.

Toby scowled and dared to whack him lightly on the back of his silver-blond head- "Look, I only pushed you away because I was scared. I thought those dreams were wrong and sick. What else would I say? But after the rape, you helped me. And then you sent me back and I went psycho because I couldn't spend time with you. So don't you start on about what I said in the beginning because I seem to remember you being quite a bit more sleazy too, you know."

Jareth shrugged. "Point taken. Am I still sleazy?"

Toby considered this. "Well, at least you're offering to marry me before jumping my bones. I don't know. Does that make you desperate or even more sleazy?"

"I thought it was romantic."

"I'm not a romantic kind of guy," Toby protested, "The flowers and jewellery has never been a big issue for me." He saw the look on Jareth's face. "If you show up at breakfast with a big bunch of flowers tomorrow, I'll throw them at you."

The Goblin King laughed and promised faithfully that he wouldn't. Though he had been considering it! The potential embarrassment on his young lover's face would have been enough to pull such a juvenile stunt. But he wouldn't. Though he might have something for Karen and Sarah… he quite liked both the women in Toby's family. They were much more interesting than the men. For one thing, they responded to his charming flattery. Much easier than trying to win over either Harold or Ben. Not that Ben had any objections, but Jareth got the feeling that he was tolerated rather than liked in that quarter.

"You know," Toby said suddenly, "Everyone's talked about how a mortal will manage in the Underground, but I wonder how much you'll enjoy having a mortal family as a part of your life. We do things a little different. What if you don't like that?"

"How different can it be?"

"Hmmm… as far as the wedding goes, Ben might just have to throw us a bachelor party."

Jareth began to smirk, and then he began to laugh and then he had to hold his side because he was getting a stitch from laughing with Toby still sitting in his lap. The mortal thumped him helpfully on the back and shook his head. Jareth spluttered a little but got his voice under control- "You had better ask Ben not to bother. Archer has already planned everything. And no one ever throws a bachelor party like the fairies."

"Hey! When was I going to be invited?"

"Tomorrow."

"I wasn't going to be left here like some virginal bride, was I?"

"Are you a virginal bride?"

Toby cast him a look of withering scorn.

"I never said you were," Jareth protested, "So are you still sure you want to go through with this."

"Do we have another choice?"

"Quite a few actually."

"Yes, but will it allow me some semblance of legality, along with recognition as your partner, and will it keep my parents happy enough to let me stay in the Underground until such time as you decide to send me away?"

"Put like that- no."

"Then we get married?"

"Then we will get married," Jareth promised.