Ch 33

Jareth and Sarah stayed there for the rest of the evening, just talking and kissing and enjoying each others company. Eventually, Sarah began yawning and her eyelids drooped.

"Getting tired, my love?" Jareth asked softly, gently tracing the outline of her face with his fingers.

She almost said no, because she wanted to stay there with him longer, but she yawned again, and couldn't deny how tired she was.

"Yeah," she admitted, "I'm exhausted." She leaned heavily against him and shut her eyes.

"Shall I have a room set up for you, or are you okay with sleeping in my bed?" Jareth asked her. He hoped she wouldn't object to staying in his bed, because he loved sleeping and waking up next to her.

"No, that's silly, your room is right here, and I already slept there last night. And I don't really want my own room." She smiled sleepily at him.

"I'm glad," he whispered to her, and with that, he carefully picked her up and carried her to his room.

"Jareth!" she laughed, "I can walk myself, you know!" But she rather liked having him carry her; it made her feel safe somehow.

He set her gently down on the bed. With a wave of his hand, she was wearing soft flannel pajamas. "Hmm, very sexy," she murmured, looking down at herself.

Jareth smiled. He'd chosen those pajamas for Sarah precisely because they weren't sexy. If he was to sleep next to her, and not do anything more, he needed her completely covered up. He discovered, however, that somehow Sarah looked even sexier in simple flannel pajamas.

He went to the other side of the bed and climbed in next to her. She was already drifting off as he wrapped his arms around her. "I love you," she said, so softly he had to strain to hear. He kissed the back of her head. "I love you, too, darling." He closed his eyes, and let the quiet sounds of Sarah's slow breaths lull him to sleep.

The next morning, Sarah woke up before Jareth. She turned over to look at him, and the sight made her smile. His wild blond hair was spread out over the pillow, and his mouth was wide open. He looked completely gorgeous.

As if he felt her stare, his eyes opened. "Good morning, beautiful," he said sleepily. She leaned down and kissed his nose. "Good morning to you." He reached up and grabbed her waist, pulling her down on top of him. They laid like that for a moment, Sarah with her head on his shoulder, then he said, "We'd better get up soon if we're to visit the Merfolk Kingdom."

Sarah grimaced. She'd momentarily forgotten about their plans for the day, and although she was looking forward to visiting a city of mermaids, she wasn't looking forward to meeting Jareth's other fiancée. She smiled inwardly at that thought, but that's what Merelinda was, and try as she might, Sarah couldn't escape a small twinge of jealousy.

Jareth was oblivious to her thoughts as he got out of bed. "I'm going to take a shower, if you'd like to shower as well, you can use the bathroom across the hall."

Sarah was a little surprised that they had showers here, but then, how had she expected them to get clean?

Jareth had closed the door to the bathroom, but he opened it again. "Sarah, I almost forgot, look in the wardrobe, you should be able to find something acceptable to wear in there." He smiled at her and shut the door again.

Curious, Sarah opened the door to the wardrobe and gasped. There must have been dozens of gowns in there, all very beautiful, and they looked to be her size. She rifled through them, and came out with a sleeveless blue dress, made out of a soft material like cotton, but it was something she'd never seen before. She saw rows of shoes in the bottom of the wardrobe, and picked out a pair of dark blue sandals to wear with the dress. "What do I do about underwear?" she asked herself. She opened a few drawers in the wardrobe, until she found a drawer full of underwear. She blushed, imagining Jareth putting these here for her, then she snatched a pair out of the drawer and slammed it shut.

She gathered the clothing and carried it across the hall, where she walked into the most beautiful bathroom she'd ever seen. It had a light stone floor and walls, with a huge mirror above a double sink. Plants were everywhere, and there was a huge sunken bathtub, as well as a large shower stall.

She looked longingly at the bathtub, but didn't have the time for a nice long soak. She undressed and stepped into the shower, and she gasped as the shower turned on by itself. But the water was steamy and warm, and she stayed in longer than she meant to.

She hurriedly dried off and got dressed, wondering what to do with her wet, tangled hair. She couldn't find a comb anywhere, and finally just left it as it was, hoping it would dry okay.

She met Jareth back in the bedroom, where he had just finished dressing. "Ah, you picked the dress I hoped you would," he said, looking her over appreciatively. "It looks great on you."

"Thanks," Sarah said. "You look pretty good yourself." And he did, dressed in his standard tight pants, high black boots and loose shirt.

He smiled as he took her by the arm and led her to the dining room so they could have a quick breakfast. They met Julie and Bayron on the way.

"Hey, Julie! Congratulations, I'm so happy for you and Bayron!" Sarah exclaimed as she gave her friend a hug. "Sorry we just left you last night, but we figured you wanted to be alone."

Julie winked. "Oh yeah we did, and we made the most of it too!" Sarah laughed and shook her head, glad to see Julie back to normal.

"So when are you going to get married?" Sarah asked as they all sat down at the dining room table.

"Well," Julie said with a gleam in her eyes, "we were actually thinking tomorrow sounds good." She could see Sarah's surprise, and added, "Why should we wait? We love each other. I have nothing at home I need to go back for; I don't have any family, so we figured we might as well do it, that way I can stay here for good."

Sarah gave Julie another hug. "That's great, Jules, I'm glad you're so happy." She was worried, though; Jareth had said she had to go home tonight, but she didn't want to miss her friends wedding.

Jareth was quick to reassure her. "Don't worry, Sarah, I'm sure I can arrange for you to stay an extra day. After all, it's not like you're any old visitor-you're the future Queen."

Sarah smiled at him. "Thank you." She turned her attention to her breakfast, the others chatting around her. Her thoughts turned to that day's visit to Merelinda, and she couldn't help being somewhat nervous about what events the day would bring.

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A/N: That chapter was for you, SnapeMoment! Thank you for reading, I'm glad you like it. I have ten more chapters ready, but I'm trying not to post them all at once, I want to drag it out a little bit! So thank you to everyone who is reading this, and extra thanks to those of you who reviewd cause I would have stopped a long time ago if no one reviewed! So thanks and enjoy!