ALLO AGAIN! sorry I left everyone hanging last chap, it was the only stop I could find w/out going on another thousand words. As always, thank you MUCHO to all that review. This is getting weird but I promise there wiil be twistedness eventually, although my updates may become fewer and farther between since I'm in a class that seems to suck the life out of me right now, but I will do what I can when I can. Stay with me PLEASE!

Disclaimer: I'm getting tired of writing these so if you want to know read the first three chapters!

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He stopped just outside the door and down the hall a few steps from her room to calm his violent heartbeat. How he wanted to let her ravage him, or vise-versa. He wouldn't mind that either. He heard her yell, then begin to cry, and it broke his cold little heart. 'This is for her own good, for now,' he justified to himself, 'I must bring her back slowly, she will understand eventually.' He chewed on his thoughts as he walked quickly to his chamber. 'You better hope she's understanding if you want to fix this little quandry thats hovering over your head like an anvil.' He locked the door of his chamber, stripped and sprawled out on his bed.

"Who exactly are you trying to convince, hmm?" he asked his reflection as he stared into he mirror above his bed.

ooOOoo

The next day not a word was spoken between them. They ate breakfast and lunch in silence and Sarah avoided Jareth when at all possible in between, which in a big castle such as his was not difficult. He could have found her, but she didn't want to be found for the moment, so he left her alone. She felt like a fool. Her pride was hurt, but not as much as her heart.

She decided to take a walk through part of the Labyrinth she'd never seen to try and ease her thoughts but she could not relax. She kept thinking about the previous night, then she'd start crying, then she'd console herself that it was NOT her fault and she would try to tune everything out. She would concentrate on the sights and scents around her, and they would remind her of Jareth and the way he smelled and so the cycle would start all over again. How could she have been so stupid! She rounded a corner not long into her walk and found Hoggle and they talked for a while. She told him what had happened the night before (not EVERYTHING of course).

"Me thinks there might be some other reason behind it. He was so sad and lonely when you left, why would he treat you like this now that you're here?" Hoggle surprised himself with how reasonable he sounded.

"I just can't believe what a fool I've been," she said on the verge of tears once again. Hoggle consoled as best he could. Jareth couldn't bear to watch this wallowing any longer.

"Why are you so distraught?" he asked suddenly appearing and making her and Hoggle both jump in surprise. After she swallowed her heart down out of her throat she glared at him wondering at his audacity.

"You have to ask?" she retorted, noticing only briefly that he was looking particularly sexy today. 'FOCUS' she scolded.

"I thinks I should go," Hoggle excused himself and ran away to get out of the line of fire.

"Yes, actually," he said folding his arms patiently. Sarah's mouth dropped with disbelief at his utter lack of couth. She began pacing waving her arms erratically. If Jareth hadn't known any better he would have mistaken her for a lunatic.

"DUH, you tricked me! I revealed part of my most vulnerable self to you and you threw it in my face and left me hanging. You're dispicable, you know that! And another thing, you...you...why do you look like you're sorry?" She stopped.

"Because I am," he said it so simply that all the anger she felt for him vanished, "I am sorry if I hurt you, I hadn't intended to." He now started pacing, "You couldn't possibly think that I actually wanted to leave, no red blooded man would with the way you were behaving. You didn't once in all your anger stop to think that maybe I had reasons for leaving you the way I did?" Sarah thought for a second.

"No, actually, I didn't." She said quietly, shamed once again by her bad habit of jumping to conclusions, "I thought you were just being your normal asinine self. I thought it was all just some elaborate trick." He looked wounded at her words, and now she really knew what it was to feel low; it wasn't pleasant.

"Oh Sarah, would I go to all this trouble if I just wanted to trick you? Other mortals, perhaps, but I do not take pleasure from hurting the ones I care about," she looked into his eyes and saw true sincereity and it almost made her cry agian, "Now would have been a good time to use that overdeveloped logic of yours," he chided her gently as he brushed the back of one hand down her cheek, "You're just not ready for me yet, that's all." She raised one eyebrow in challenge.

"Excuse me?" 'There it is,' she thought, 'there's that arrogant -'

"You see, you must be in love with me before I will make love to you. I will not settle for... how do you Abovegrounders say it... oh yes, I will not settle for screwing you, Sarah." Once again her mouth went slack both in shock of the wording he used and the realization of what he was saying. "I've gotten you to admit to yourself that I'm even real, and that you indeed want me, now I will make you love me, as it should have been ten years ago." He ended the sentance with a classic smirk for punctuation.

"Oh no no no, I ... I can't. I... I...why? Why me, Jareth, and why now after all these years? I have so many questions, and you won't give me any answers," Her frustration with him was reaching record heights.

"It's very complicated," he dropped his eyes for a moment as if debating something inside himself, then he sighed and looked back up at her, "I want to show you something."

He took her hand and they walked through parts of the Labyrinth that she hadn't ever seen. She knew she hadn't seen it all the first time she was here, but the very walls of it seemed to move out of Jareth's way then reform behind them.They ended up in the most beautiful garden she'd ever seen. Enormous rows of flowers that resembled the ones from Aboveground, but they were so different at the same time. The smell as they entered took her breath away as she turned to take it all in. As she turned she realized that the way they had come was now blocked off, as though no entrance had ever existed there.

"Wasn't there just a...oh who cares," her voice was so breathy even she almost didn't recognize it. She hurried up one row and down another examining the blossoms that she saw. Stunning colors unlike any she'd ever seen surrounded her. Jareth just stood and watched the delight dance across her face. In that moment he saw the girl he first fell in love with dancing among his most precious treasures.

"This place is the most secret part of the Labyrinth, none but I and those I desire may enter it. It is hallowed and safe, the heart of it, and the heart of me," he explained.

"It's so beautiful, no that's not the right word," she thought for a moment as she looked around drinking it all in, "I'm not sure there is a right word to describe this place. It's like a painting, only better...but not at all and, it's perfect."

"Listen to me, Sarah," his tone was firm now and it startled her a little, "this place was all but dead a few days ago," he looked around, taking a blossom in his hand to smell it, "Mortals don't understand the true magic they hold inside them. Yours is particularly strong. You wanted to know why I brought you back here, this is why. You set something in motion ten years ago that has changed myself and the Labytinth," he stared deeply into her eyes, "You breathed new life into it. Your magic saved this place in a way I could not." That fact seemed to bother him a little, but not enough for her to keep a civil tone.

"So I saved it, so I have some sort of power here, that doesn't explain anything, like whymy life can't just be the same and whyI have to fall in love with you," she crossed her arms stubbornly. His patience was wearing thin, even with her.

"You have to fall in love with me so you'll stay because if you ever leave again this whole place, the Labyrinth, the Goblin Kingdom, everything will wither, crumble and fade! It's all from you Sarah, and if you disappear so will it."

"But it can't...how?" her head was spinning, it was all so much for her still so logical mind to hold onto. So she did the only thing she could do. She ran as far and as fast as she could and Jareth opened walls to let her go.

ooOOoo

Some time later Sarah was sitting on a rock lost in her thoughts trying to absorb what Jareth had told her. She couldn't stay here forever. What about her family? Toby in particular. He needed her. He was only eleven and his parents were pushing him so hard into everything he didn't want. They were harder on him because of her, she knew that, but they were going to ruin him if they weren't careful. He needed someone there to stick up for him, to be on his side. Unless...

ooOOoo

"Are you completely mad!" Jareth threw the question out as a hypothetical one; he already knew the answer. "Number one, he is a child so he must be wished away. Number two, even if I get him here he must become a goblin because he is a child that was wished away," he took a deep exasperated breath, "Number three, even if we get past one and two somehow, I am the only remotely humanoid creature in this place. He would never lead a full life and never find love. He would be happy for a time, yes, but would he ever be truely happy with this? Would you do that to your own brother?"

"Then I cannot stay here, I cannot leave him to fend for himself," He saw the tears comming to her eyes, damn his callousness but he'd spoken the truth.

He wrapped his arms around her and leaned down and kissed her deeply, not needy like before. Just a kiss, nothing more. She stared into his eyes and things around them became blurry once again, but this time there was no woozieness, no blackout. 'Must've been the distance' she thought absently as she looked around. They were in the royal chamber; Jareth was changed into nothing but what resembled baggy PJ pants that rode low on his slender hips and made her mouth water. Quite an attractive switch from his usual breeches.He pulled the blankets back on the oversized bed.

"I thought we couldn't..." she prayed he wouldn't make her finish that sentance for fear of making her blood boil.

"We can't, but that doesn't mean we cannot just lay together," he looked down, shamed at how compassionate he sounded, "I want to comfort you."

She couldn't belive what she was hearing. Could this tender man before her bethe same Jareth she'd always known? Maybe she really had effected him. She crawled into the bed and they lay together stroking each others fingers, feeling and absorbing the energy the other put out. Sarah felt at ease with his warmth at her back. She was suddenly aware of his hand moving ever so slowly down her side, moving back up a little then continuing down until it got to her hip.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked unassumingly.

"Hmm?" 'Like he didn't hear me the first time' she thought to heself rolling her eyes.

"I said what do you think you're doing?" she repeated.

"Iwant to pleasure you, not fully, just a little to take your mind off things," his words melted away her best argurment and she stiffled a small gasp when his fingertips slid benieth the fabric of the long shirt she was wearing and moved back up the inside of her thigh.

"I don't think...ahh," her protest was lost as his fingertips ghosted across her most sensitive flesh.

"That's right, don't think," he smiled against her ear. He moved her other thigh back just enough and she arched against him as he dipped one finger inside her. He toyed with her, relishing every moan and whimper that came from her. 'I could do this forever' they both thought it at the same time.

"Jareth, ooh, if you keep that up..." her words trailed off as his hand left it's delightfulminstrations. After a moment she was taken aback when she realized that said finger was now at his mouth. He was tasting her!

"Mmmm, I'd love to taste you more directly, perhaps some other time," he mused. The thought gave her chills, and that thought is the one she fell asleep to. Jareth lie in silence listening to her breath and feeling totally at peace. 'I do hope she comes around entirely,' he thought, 'it would be a shame for all this effort to go to waste.' He kissed her neck and fell asleep himself

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