Sarah was humming as she strode down the halls, in one hand was her boom box and in the other was a picnic basket. She was nearly out the door and ready to vanish into the Labyrinth for the day when the achingly familiar voice that had been the bane of her headache filled the air.

"You're still here?" Turning on her heal Sarah looked to the woman; really she should have just ignored her. For some reason she hadn't. Glancing Mandela over she made sure her expression was one of boredom; it wasn't a stretch on her emotions.

"Yes I'm still here, but at the moment I'm leaving." Resuming her previous route she was more than happy to ignore the lady of frills. Sadly blocking the exit was lord hard on. Sighing deeply she shifted the weight of her basket and hoped that her boom box wouldn't get broken before she had time to truly enjoy it.

"This is the pet I told you of brother."

"Yes we've met."

"Unfortunately." She couldn't help but add that little comment. She ignored their combined looks of shock. "Well I certainly don't take being accosted in the hall as polite; I'm just following your lead on the manners expectation department. Excuse me; I have a schedule to keep." Not that her schedule was set in stone on a time table, but she intended to do things and reading under the sun, in the Labyrinth, eating, and listening to music sounded divine to her. And if a certain telepathic feline came by, well all the more joy for her. Slipping into the courtyard before they could think to stop her she ran for the safety of the moving walls. To many the Labyrinth was a danger, and she supposed it was to her as well. But over the year she had been here she had learned where it was safe and what warnings the walls had to give when she was going where she could easily get killed. She liked to think that the Labyrinth was protecting her too. More than once she'd sent he walls move only to hear something walk by.

With a skip that hadn't been there before she was determined to ignore the bad company and enjoy the nice weather. From what she'd gathered the Labyrinth had only a few seasons, frigidly cold, unbearably hot, and drenching rain. Her run had fallen between the time of rain and heat. Finding her favored spot, something she knew the land allowed her to do not because of any skill on her part. She set out her picnic and offered some food to the Brownies that lived under the tiles. She'd lost an earring once and they had returned it to her when she'd come back. Since then she offered food whenever she had it, not that she wouldn't have anyways. She was halfway from one of the books she had bought when out on her shopping spree when a head butted against her side. Without moving her eyes she moved to read with one hand and scratch his ears with the other. Already he had inhaled the meat she had brought, a testament to his breed. She never knew when he was there unless he wanted her to. But she knew how to be known as friend and not huntress. Laughing when she was shoved to the ground and pinned with a large paw she protested the fact that he was distracting her from the book. It wasn't new, she'd found it in the back of a used book box. But it was good.

"Get off, I was reading, you're spoiled you know that." He was half laying on her and she was unable to move beneath the weight. "This isn't fair you know? You weigh a ton." He continued to purr. "And the books tell me to be afraid of you, ha."

:I will not be seeing you for a while. : Her smile vanished, he was leaving?

"What? Did I do something?" She didn't know how frightened she sounded but he heard it, he nuzzled her and she calmed slightly.

:We migrate during the winter, better hunting. I will track you when I return. : He paused, as if considering something. :I will be bigger, do not be afraid. : She relaxed beneath his hold and was soon trying to tickle her way out of her position. Raishi snarled playfully and she was nonplussed by the vision of razor teeth, she knew he wouldn't hurt her; he'd never even torn her clothes.

"Well, you'll have to find something neat to bring back, an IQ perhaps." He knew what she was insinuating and pounced on her again.

"Sarah remain still." She turned her face and saw Jareth. Uh oh.

"Jareth, don't do anything stupid." Looking back to Raishi she hoped he knew she had nothing to do with this. He knew, she saw it in his eyes. In fact he seemed to know who Jareth was, though not as the king, shit Raishi had hinted at her suitor's scent he must have put two and two together and gotten four. "Go, please don't fight." She didn't want them to hurt each other. She knew both to be dangerous and while they seemed not to want to hurt her, they didn't have that aversion with one another. Males were so stupid.

She could see Jareth holding his crystal and didn't want to know how fast Raishi's reflexes were. Gasping when Raishi pushed away from her he snarled and left through another path. Biting her lip she looked to the king, he seemed so worried and she didn't know how to tell him that there had been nothing to worry about.

"Uh, so what sends you out here? You're normally busy." He ignored her words and she was soon being examined. "I'm not hurt Jareth, I wasn't in any danger, we were just playing."

"Sarah do you know what that creature was?"

"I did look him up yes, I helped him out of some snaring vines and he's never once attacked me. I like cats." He sent her a searching look and she gazed back. He had been afraid for her, and she didn't know how to brush that away. "I'm ok Jareth, I have friends in the Labyrinth and we look out for each other."

"Sarah that creature is deadly." She snorted, he was a little kid mentally, he was a feline little brother.

"You should see his mother, she's huge." She grinned but it fell when he paled. "Jareth, I've been doing this for a while, never even a tear in the shirt from him. Now why did you track me down?"

"Randolph, why do you dislike him so much?" She stiffened.

"We had words in the hallway; it ended with my heel colliding with the head he was using." She felt him stiffen and wondered just how angry he was going to get. "Why are you asking?"

"He requested the use of you for the night, something about taking payment from you."

"He started it Jareth, I protect myself, you know that, I can't fight you because you stopped me, he can't do that." Then it occurred to her, could he set the same spell on her. "Can he?"

He saw the fear in her eyes. "No, since you are under my rule that grants you a certain amount of protection, my spell can be done and lifted only by myself." She relaxed slightly and he knew that she had thought of another trying to take her. He had stopped, he was sure Randolph would not have.

He had promised himself never to break Sarah, and as time went on he was seeing that bending her to his will would be just as dangerous to her. Sarah was one that stood as she was and changed for no one but herself.

The more time he spent with her, and that was not nearly enough he had decided long before this day, the more he wanted her to want to be with him. She had sought him out a few times but they never seemed to remain uninterrupted. "You did not mention that you had befriended a Kasha."

"I don't suppose you would believe me if I said it slipped my mind." He smiled at her and shook his head. When she teased him like this he saw what her friends knew, the happy and playful Sarah that he was only now beginning to experience. He'd seen her act this way with others but never towards him. "We meet, when I come out here he sometimes finds me. I seem to be his official ear scratch-er, better than scratching post though." She laughed and slipped from his hold and moved to her things. Music was playing from her boom box and a small meal had been eaten. With his absence from her he'd had to revoke his eating rule, she hadn't stopped badgering him to eat though. "Don't worry Jareth, he hasn't hurt me and I don't think he will. Why did you come looking for me? Or was it just to question me."

"Randolph thinks I am punishing you for attacking him."

"Self defense."

"I believe you Sarah, but that does not change the fact that you attacked a Lord."

"He's an ass. He was talking about hurting me Jareth, even when I made you mad you never hurt me." He knew that to be wrong, he had bruised her once; she seemed to ignore that incident. She was looking through many of her disks and changed the music that had been playing.

Once she had decided on one she let a new music fill the area, turning she started to clean her belongings, returning items to the basket for the kitchen.

"I do not recognize this music." It was interesting, fast with a beat but he could not see how one would move to it. Unless of course it was that repulsive jumping up and down her kind had taken too recently.

"Salsa, I guess you could call it sexual. Close contact and seductive movement. Mac and I did a number in competition once, we won first place."

"You would dance in public like that?" He didn't know to feel horrified or intrigued. She must have been young when she did such a thing but he pictured her as she was now.

"Its fun to watch, and it wasn't like I was worrying over getting felt up by my dance partner, I've had that before and then dancing is no fun." She frowned slightly before shaking the memory away. "We can go to the ballroom sometime, if you can get one of your crystals to project my memory you can see and hear it. It's not really something you can explain with words when you have no clue what I'm talking about."

He was amazed that she would allow him to see such a thing, Sarah did not divulge her past, those that referred to it knew of the happenings because they had been there with her for the ordeal, she did not like dwelling on the unpleasant memories.

Hour later Jareth sat in his study, Sarah was quietly reading next to his fire with something she called a head set, in the silence of the room he could vaguely make out the melody of whatever it was she listened to. If he were to look at her he would see that he foot moved in beat with the tune, it was past the hour she normally stayed with him, he was thinking she was far too engrossed in her reading to notice the hour.

Dinner had been, interesting, Sarah had blatantly ignored the guests. She had discussed a recently finished book taken from a fae account of the society of mortals. She had pointed out that while there were many interesting aspects and opinions of the observation of her race, it was also considerably insulting and ignorant. He had found the discussion interesting and amusing at the same time, his company had found the sight of a mortal disagreeing with any fae's opinion insulting. Sarah had told them they were willfully ignorant if they refused to see what was plainly wrong.

His Sarah was not as naïve as she seemed to be, he knew that, but there was such an innocence about her. She could forgive easily in some things but could not in many others. He found her rivaling emotions and actions fascinating.

An hour later she had still not moved, glancing up he saw that she had fallen asleep in the cushioned chair that she seemed to favor. The one she had pulled into his room while highly unappealing visually was more than comfortable enough to make up for its lacking visual appeal. He was however still curious how she had conviced the goblins to help her move it, strong she was but the chair was heavy and she wasn't that strong.

Lifting Sarah from where she slept he willed them to his bedchamber. Placing her on the turned sheets he waved his hand and covered her with the blankets. It was only as he dressed for the night and slipped under the covers that he noticed how he hadn't stopped to gaze upon her. Sarah was mortal and from the Aboveground, and while their style was often more revealing than what his people chose to wear, they also were very reserved, some were flagrant other not, Sarah in costume was comfortable, but she did not approve of his freedom to search her revealed skin. More and more he found himself respecting her desire for privacy, her need for time alone. In return she had seemed to cease looking for ways to avoid him at all costs. A few times even welcoming him to her company or seeking out his presence to do nothing else but be in the same room as him. He enjoyed this change and knew that if he hadn't started respecting her wishes this never would have come.

Tugging on the blanket when Sarah tried to steel more of it he smiled slightly when she moved a few inches closer, pulled the pillow closer, and then burrowed into the bedding to return to the deeper end of sleep. Yes. Sarah was mortal, and the perhaps was the most enticing this about her to him. Pulling her closer he took care not to touch what he knew she would not want him to, not yet at least. Resting his face into her silken hair he let sleep claim him. There was nothing quite as relaxing as her scent, he still couldn't compare it or reproduce it, and he wasn't sure he wanted to.

Yes, yes, after a disturbingly long hiatus I have returned. Much pestering of my friends I assure her. I've had a rotten semester, let me leave it at that. But I am back and hopefully will get off my lack of writing ass. So here is a slightly longer than usual update. Hopefully I'll be writing again soon.

BUM