Author's Note: Well, children. We're at the part where we've been working towards for two chapters now. And finally, the day has dawned. The actual ceremony takes place in the next chapter that must be read directly after this one.

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The sky was overcast, and the day seemed the perfect blend of sunlight and shadows- an auspicious day or so Kyfrem had commented. Jareth and Hoggle had managed to do something spectacular to the Goblin King's private gardens, making the delicate fragrances drift intoxicatingly on the air that gusted through the open windows of the draughty castle. And all in the Goblin Kingdom rejoiced- more because a severely annoyed Goblin King was not the most comfortable thing to have around than because they actually liked his choice of consort.

True, there were rumours that the Goblin King's mortal was very beautiful, and true, the goblins held no animosity to those who desired a homosexual relationship. But even so, such relationships were rare in the long term and for their King to so far forget his people just to indulge his lust was ludicrous! There were calls from many quarters that the King had gone too far; the goblins had been very indulgent with Jareth's idiosyncrasies in the past, but this was Just Too Much.

The only two reasons that the dissent had remained murmurs and nothing else was that Jareth would make life miserable for anyone who questioned his decisions and that the mortal was also notoriously his bond mate. Very few inhabitants of the Underground ever married their bond mates.

As Jareth had explained it- "The marriage, or formal binding as we call it, serves as a type of created bond that is just as powerful as the psychic one- generally because most of the goblins and faeries marry at a young age, but bonds can take a whole lifetime to form. Both together rarely happens. It makes you, my elf, a very fascinating subject for my people."

Jareth spent the rest of the morning thinking of that for himself. There were times that he still could not conceive of his bond with a sixteen year old mortal. Not only that, but the damned thing had been formed when Toby was a babe in arms! Snappishly settled his jacket into a far more comfortable position, he wondered tiredly if he had perhaps stumbled into a dream and forgotten to wake up.

"You know, you can scowl out that window all you like, but those clouds won't go away."

He started and turned, shaking his moon-blond head at Sarah with a frustrated frown. "Must you sneak up on people?" he questioned irritably. Then he got a good look at her and started to smile.

Sarah took a step back and self-consciously smoothed the dress down. "It's not that bad," she muttered.

Jareth turned fully from the window and languidly took her hand, kissing the back and handing her into a chair. "Enchanting, Sarah; truly enchanting," he laughed, "But I miss the sleeves."

It was Sarah's turn to scowl and she did so with great enthusiasm, considering that the hideous dress from her one dance with the half-goblin still haunted her worst nightmares. And those sleeves! She felt almost faint even remembering them.

"Never," she pleaded seriously, "Never bring up those sleeves in my presence again. What possessed you to make me wear that dress, I don't know."

"I?" A dark, slanting eyebrow rose, quirking over an amused brown eye. "I made you wear nothing of the sort. I gave you a dream crystal laced with a forgetting spell. You would simply have lost yourself in your dreams. I could only be flattered that they included me."

Sarah blanched. "You mean?"

"Yes, Sarah. You did it all on your own." Jareth took great delight in watching the range of emotions flit across that mobile face. Even the green eyes cooled and heated according to the jumble of thoughts tangled under the prettily dressed dark hair.

Now that he thought of it, Jareth decided that he really did like the dark hair dressed simply in a sleek roll at the back, just as the grey-green gown suited her. Were he feeling poetical- and he was horribly suspicious that he was- he would have said that the colour made her eyes look enormous. But there was something missing. "Hold still," he ordered, stepping closer to run his fingers from the peak of her forehead, over her hair and round to the back of her head. She held still, probably out of curiosity, and then blinked when he smiled and nodded.

He'd been right: the simple strands of pearls imbued an exotic touch to the austere elegance. He did it once more around her slim throat and then in a winding bracelet down her bare right arm. The gold chain and locket he removed with a disdainful flick of the fingers that made her grin and then he touched up her make-up with careful fingers.

Sarah held still, knowing that under all the fierce concentration locked on her was a simple desire to focus on something over than the butterflies in the flat stomach beneath the surprisingly less formal outfit. She would have expected Jareth to wear something utterly extravagant in blue- like at the ball he had so pleasantly reminded her of. But no, Jareth was wearing simple black and white. The white shirt was a plain light silk, not frilled or fantastic, with a high rounded collar and the tips over the front of his throat cut away to fall to the first pearl button. The sleeves were loose with tight cuffs that seemed to somehow make every movement graceful. Which was all well and good, but his trousers were simply heavy black velvet, the material repeating in the long sleeveless over-tunic that he affected.

"What is this thing?" she demanded, tweaking gently at the black tunic.

Dual-coloured eyes looked startled, as if Sarah's voice had interrupted a private thought, and then smiled. "You do not like it?" Jareth purred, stepping away and pirouetting.

Sarah gasped; in the bleak sunlight, the material glowed, shimmering with wisping embroidery as it were an extension of the life around it. The tunic was cut tight to his body, highlighting the breadth of his shoulders and the narrowness of his waist, and then falling in sleek gathers over his hips and thighs. Somehow, it made the Goblin King look very young.

"You really do not like it?" Jareth was enjoying himself enormously, it seemed. And really, he wouldn't have minded if Sarah had said no, for it wasn't for her that he dressed this way.

"It looks magnificent," the mortal sighed, clapping her hands and nodding. "Gee! I'd never have thought you'd wear something so..."

"Delicate?" he supplied, waving her into a seat and taking one across from her, "Why ever not? I am hardly a monster, much though I may seem it."

"Yeah, well. I guess it depends on how one meets you," Sarah pointed out, "You have to admit you were a total creep when we met."

"Rubbish! I was kindness itself," Jareth huffed, "You asked for the child to be taken and I took him. You asked for him back and I could not undo what had been done; the Underground doesn't work like that. The Rules clearly forbid it. So I made you run the Labyrinth. I put Hoggle in your path to help you..."

"To fail," she put in indignantly.

He ignored and continued- "...and even offered you a gift in exchange for not trying to kill yourself. Luckily, you were a child and the Labyrinth would not have killed you. It could have, however; which is the whole point."

"It is not the whole point! You just wanted Toby!"

"I never knew his name," Jareth pointed out reasonably, "Except that he was your brother. You were amusing in those days. Did you know? I used to watch you play sometimes, just for something to do."

Sarah sniffed and turned away, fiddling with the end of her new bracelet in her annoyance. Jareth watched her with a knowing smirk. Oh, but those green eyes were too easily read.

"Sarah, when I offered you another life, I meant it in marriage," Jareth said gently.

"What?" Sarah looked startled, her jaw dropped as if this was news to her. Which it was! She had always supposed that the Goblin King was simply throwing her off balance or playing a game of seduction. She'd been so young, she hadn't known how to play along and protect herself. So she had blustered and raged and whined like any other child in a frightening situation.

"I would have married you," he agreed, a hand brushing her knee, "I would not have used you so badly."

They sat in silence, contemplating what life might have been if she'd agreed. Jareth- since he was the one less in control of his tongue that morning- was the first to break his silence.

"You accused me of seeking to harm your brother," he began softly, "I could not have done so. Not because of any kindness on my part, but simply because it would not say much for my honour if the child had been harmed in my keeping. I do not have the power to change anyone into anything. Naturally, there are some who deserve to be turned to ants and then stepped on, but I shall not speak of them. Toby was always, and will always, be as safe in my keeping as I can contrive."

Sarah nodded silently. She had heard Toby express the same sentiments to Archer, strange though it sounded to her ears. After all, why would the Goblin King of fame and legend need protection from a scrawny little mortal? Now, glancing through the vulnerabilities in the mismatched eyes, she shuddered to imagine what would happen when or if Jareth's strong pride was ever broken. Without that pride, he seemed so defenceless; almost as if he were too breakable for the role he needed to fill.

"That's okay, then," she sighed vaguely, "Look, I think my Dad wants to talk to you so I'll just go- why are you looking like that?"

"For the love of the Gods," Jareth gulped, "Do you want to punish me in some way? Torture me? Why in the name of all that is pure would I want to speak with your father now? Especially when he is likely to be in an even worse mood than usual?"

Sarah gurgled merrily at the look of mock terror on the face of her childhood's villain. Who would have thought- Daddy really could chase the bad man away! "I think you're being a little melodramatic," she remarked.

"Melodramatic? Oh no! If I were, I would be tearing my hair out and running down the hallways screaming." Since Jareth was sitting comfortably in his chair looking very relaxed, the image was the most insane one Sarah had ever heard. "If I were being melodramatic, I would be biting my nails off and trembling like a leaf." There seemed no immediate danger of either happening so Sarah's giggles got worse. "And if I were... yes? What is it?"

Kyfrem found himself being glared down at by an exceedingly moody Goblin King. He bowed and bobbed on his heels formally. "Lord Toby asked when- and I quote- "the bloody thing is going to get off its ass and start"." Kyfrem said solemnly.

That was too much. Sarah burst into fits of helpless laughter. She could just picture her brother twitching around his room and snarling at anyone who attempted to talk to him.

"Tell him to come to the hall in fifteen minutes," Jareth grinned, running an absent hand quickly over his clothes and through his hair, "Any longer and I will have his dragged down by the scruff of his neck. Understand?"

"Yes, your majesty," Kyfrem intoned, scuttling away with a light heart. Oh, he was very glad that Jareth had taken his advice to wear that suit. Kyfrem had had it made in those few weeks when he'd been valet to the Goblin King. Jareth had never worn it but Kyfrem had known; and he'd been right! One look at him in that get-up and Lord Toby wouldn't be able to keep the smile from his face.