"So we are going?" Aidan demanded.

Toby looked searchingly at Jareth, and receiving no word of dissent he nodded, just as excited as his children. The Aboveground! "Yup! We're going Aboveground!"

A communal cry of delight and much carefully displayed exuberance followed. Jareth simply watched. It was no great pleasure for him, happy though he liked his family to be. He knew the Aboveground; he went there often enough and watched it even more, spreading dreams and fantasies into the mortals' world to keep his own in balanced existence. He only hoped it would not disappoint his lover or his children.

A tug on his sleeve had him picking up his youngest to sit in his lap. Ereditha was really too big for that any more, but he wilfully refused to acknowledge it. "Yes, little one?"

"Why are we going Aboveground?" Ereditha questioned, somewhat suspicious.

"We're going to visit your dad's family for Christmas. You remember Christmas?"

"Yes. That winter festival when all the children get presents and Sarah makes a- a … what was it?"

"A turkey," Jareth supplied helpfully, "Something like that. It's actually a religious festival. But most people just like to have a party and have some fun."

"Like down here," she said matter-of-factly.

Jareth raised an eyebrow. His nine-year-old was being philosophical? Well, wasn't that a surprise. "Yes. And your grandparents want to see you."

The solemn little face changed instantly. "Fudge," Ereditha exclaimed happily, "Grandma will make me fudge!"

"Oh Red! Is that all you think about? We're going Aboveground," Aidan pointed out, "There are enormous buildings there, and rich people who drive beautiful cars and television and radio and… just heaps of things. Why only fudge?"

She looked almost hurt by the accusation. "Well, we live in a Castle," Ereditha pointed out, "Can't be bigger than that! And we are rich. And I do not like cars; my pony can do anything a car can do and it's prettier. We don't need television because we read so much and- and who needs radio." She thought for a moment. "What is radio?"

Toby bit his lip to keep from smiling and looked to Jareth, who looked vastly amused at this spirited defence of the Underground as equal to- if not better than- the Aboveground. "A radio is a kind of machine, Red. It plays music," the mortal supplied helpfully, "Though I suppose everything's changed and stereos are out of fashion. A disc-man was already passé when I was there and MP3s were what everyone used. Will radios have survived?"

Jareth shrugged and stood up, gently pushing Ereditha off his lap in the process. "Radios have survived. But there are other versions now. Most people use micro-comps."

"Micro-comps?" Toby was certain he'd heard that term before but since he had no actual memory of what it was… it was rather sobering to think that he was now a stranger to his own world.

Jareth seemed to realize that, because he explained very patiently- "A micro-comp, if I am not mistaken, is a smaller, compact version of a computer that now carries the software to play music or movies as one might wish. I believe they have replaced everything remotely connected to communication and entertainment. People write emails on them, or make phone calls. I'm not quite sure how widespread they are, but I've had to break a few when trying to get the Wished-aways down here in one piece."

"Oh." Toby turned that over in his mind. Then he perked up. "Never mind. Harvey will rescue me from any embarrassing lack of knowledge. So when do we leave?"

Jareth looked to the door. "I thought we would accompany Sarah back. She seemed to expect it, when I told her. She said something about your mother keeping your room ready for when you go back home."

"Mom is just way too sentimental," Toby complained, secretly quite pleased. It would be very cringe-worthy, probably, but it was worth looking forward to.

He said as much to Sarah a few hours later, challenging her to a sedate snowman-making contest. They were currently both neck and neck, patting down the excess snow and trying to give some semblance of shape to the poor things. "I had a single bed, anyway," he pointed out, "Jareth and I both won't fit in that."

"Maybe she'll put you in the spare room," Sarah suggested, "I'd keep you with me, but I really won't have the place. Ben's parents and aunt are coming down too and my spare rooms are full. Aidan and Arradine will have to share with the twins as it is. Dad and Karen have an empty house this year."

"Don't be silly, Sarah. Do you really think that Mom will let me get away with not staying there even if they have a football team camped in the house? She'll throw a fit if I even stayed with you!"

"That's right. You always were her baby," Sarah teased, "She'll pamper you, just you wait." She shrieked and ducked as Toby tried to pelt her with snowballs in revenge. "All right, all right already! I give up!" The avalanche stopped raining down on her.

Sitting up and laughing at the ruins of her snowman and his, laughing at her little brother's look of annoyed fluster, laughing even at the wild white bird with the grey flecks in its wings that whistled at her enquiringly from the branches of the trees. And then finally Sarah calmed down, red-faced and bright-eyed with the cold and the enjoyment.

Toby looked her over and broke into a smile himself. He might only have been thirty-five, but Sarah was forty-nine. She was aging before his very eyes and yet even that looked good on her. Covered in snow with a red woollen cap pulled down over her ears and her gloved hands brushing snowy powder from her face, she looked good. "She will not pamper me," he ended, pretending to sulk.

"Aw! Mommy's little pet," Sarah teased, "Are you hungry, baby? Are you warm and dry? Did you sleep well? Do you want a bath? Shall I burp you?"

Toby flung another handful of snow at her. "Shut up! Another word and I'll suspend you over the Bog until you beg for mercy."

Sarah pulled a face and caught her breath. It was sometimes hard for her to believe that her little brother really did live in the Underground, or that he was the consort and- much though it made her wrinkle her nose- the lover of the Goblin King, or even that he had three beautiful biological children with said Goblin King and was practised in the art of magic. Having seen Toby transform into a wolf in front of her on suspicion of an attack by a Labyrinthian creature, she'd been forced to concede his animus.

"You know, you'll have to be very careful Aboveground," she offered, "You guys use a lot of magic down here. Even Ereditha speaks of magic or crystals like it's nothing special. It is, you know, in the States."

"I don't really use that much magic, Sarah. Usually only when I need to get from one place to another very fast or I need something instantly to hand; the rest of the time I act like any mortal."

Sarah looked amused. "No, you don't. You treat magic like it's part and parcel of who you are. Which is great. But no mortal can see that without thinking you're crazy. You have to be careful. And no turning into a wolf at a moment's notice!"

Toby looked guilty. "Yes, mother," he sighed, "At least I don't just lob a crystal at them, okay? I fight naturally. Jareth boosts his strength with magic when he needs to or just tosses a crystal at whatever it is."

Sarah giggled. "All well and good. But people are going to want to know why they're facing off against this skinny guy in a dark alleyway and suddenly there's a wolf snarling in front of them."

"Yeah, but…"

"No buts," Sarah said sternly, shaking a gloved finger at Toby, "No going wolf!"

"All right, all right! See if I try to save you from a nasty little Labyrinth surprise next time." Toby looked positively evil as he magicked up a bar of chocolate for the both of them. "The Labyrinth doesn't like you, you know. It respects you, but it doesn't like you. You beat it, and you beat Jareth. I would advise you to stay close to the Castle or in the Goblin City itself. It's, uh, in a bit of bad temper these days."

"I heard," Sarah remarked, "Jareth's been using black magic. Was that why he cut himself off from people? Is like a drug addiction or something? Because that would explain the fear."

Toby shifted uncomfortably and tried to think of how best to phrase it. "He wasn't addicted to black magic," he said slowly, "It's physically impossible to be addicted to black magic. People use it because they choose to. Jareth chose to use it for… quite a while. That wasn't the reason for the fear, no."

Green eyes looked up and narrowed at him. With her shortsightedness, Sarah's glares tended to be even more piercing. "What aren't you telling me?"

Truth. "Jareth had some… issues, from his childhood. Watching Aidan grow up made him fear that Dan would go through the same thing. The seven years as Archer's prisoner didn't help matters much; they made them worse, in fact. So he pulled away from everyone. We're still sorting them out."

"And would this be that big, dark secret that no one would tell you about earlier?"

"Yeah. Silly sods! If they'd told me, I could have done something earlier. It's been hard going."

"Not that you regret it," Sarah pointed out, smiling at him, "I happened to walk into you two kissing at the breakfast table so don't give me that baloney."

Toby grinned up unashamedly, the phantom memory of that burning kiss dusting across his mouth again. "Don't start with me. I once saw you and Ben at it on the kitchen table. And you only saw me kiss!"

"Oh come on! It's not like Ben and I were having sex," Sarah pouted, "We were just making out. No big deal, really. And you ruined the mood by cracking up laughing."

"Like you never laughed at me and Elaine?" Toby countered.

The name made them both stop and think for a minute.

"Sarah, Mom's become rather good friends with Elaine, hasn't she?" Toby asked delicately, "Will she be there for Christmas? Because if so…"

Sarah scratched her head under her woollen hat and considered the possibilities. "She might," she ceded, "But she's married now, and you know she broke up with you. Elaine's hardly going to be all over you now, is she? You're not that cute. I don't see that she has anything to do with it."

"Yeah, but… introducing Jareth to her?" Toby was undecided. He couldn't even picture that happening! "It will be too weird. Elaine and Jareth together in the same room- it makes me shudder."

"What you mean is, she'll know you're with a guy. Almost twenty years, little brother, and you're still singing the same tune?"

Sarah stood up and made for the Castle, tired and wet. It was a little irritating. They all knew damned well what Jareth and Toby got up to- Arradine, Aidan and Ereditha were evidence enough- why did he feel the need to defend his choices all the time? It wasn't as if it even mattered any more. He was happy; why was that wrong?

"Sarah!" Toby jogged after her and joined her at the door to the Castle, taking her arm and tugging her to the small door at the side that led down to the kitchens. "Come have some coffee with me. Look, I'm not trying to make trouble, really. But if you had been dating a girl when you were fifteen and you suddenly had to introduce her to Ben as your ex-girlfriend, would you like it?"

Sarah groaned and slapped her forehead. "Toby, get it through your thick head that it doesn't matter! What Elaine thinks does not matter! The most you'll see her for is a few hours and then you'll come back here to live with the person you love in the place that you love. Does it matter?"

"Not really, I suppose. But you've seen Jareth. I'm just afraid they'll insult him. It's not me. My kids grew up thinking it perfectly normal to have two birth fathers and stuff, but they'll go Aboveground and people might give them crap because of it."

"And what do you propose to do?"

"Have Christmas down here?" Toby pleaded, "Jareth will agree if you ask."

"I am not asking your husband if we can use his Castle for a mad Christmas holiday. And all the rest of the family is Aboveground in the States. We can't just take off! Ben's parents can't come down here; they'll have a heart attack with one look at this place."

"Okay, okay. But if something goes wrong, I'll hold you personally responsible."

He was still grumbling when Jareth kindly told him to shut up when they apparated down to his parents' house in his quiet little town.