The Goblin King had been wandering the tunnels for awhile, trying to figure out what had happened. He sat down on a boulder and tried to make some sense of his memories, which were decidedly foggy. He remembered finding himself in a dark tunnel, just in time to see a dark haired girl disappear. Sarah... that was her name. Then he had wandered around trying to remember anything else. He had spoken with the stone faces, the... False Alarms... yes.. that's it! Then he had found a pile of costumes, abandoned on the floor. Just as he had kneeled to inspect it, he had heard footsteps running away and seen a poof of glitter. A while after that a wall of mist had appeared and he saw the girl again, but when he tried to speak with her she disappeared. Just recently he felt as if he was being watched, but could not find the source. He decided to return to the False Alarms.

A voice boomed. "BEWARE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE!"

The Goblin King put a finger to the offended ear, "Did I not ask you to cease assaulting my eardrums?"

The stone face frowned in confusion. "But you just said..."

"I said what?" He raised an eyebrow in irritation.

"To warn everyone, no matter what"

"Did I?" His voice dripped with sarcasm.

The stony eyebrows furrowed. "Why yes... you were just here with that dwarf."

"Someone has been impersonating me!" He disappeared in a poof of glitter..

...

The cloud of glitter dissipated revealing The Goblin King arrayed in full armour. His eyes narrowed as he noted Jareth and Sarah still seated on the throne. His voice was glacial as he glared. "What is the meaning of this?"

Jareth leapt to his feet, instinctively transforming into his armour and placed himself between Sarah and the intruder.

Now Sarah was seeing double. The two Goblin Kings glared at each other then began circling the pit, identical ebony breastplates shimmering, identical tattered high-collared capes flowing around them in the wind that suddenly battered the throneroom. Outside a window lighting flashed.

A couple of goblins peeked in the doorway, took one look at the two glaring, glittering monarchs and they fell over one another scrambling down the hallway.

Sarah watched the spectacle and frowned, although quite impressive, this was not helping. Now she was no longer sure which was which.

Finally they stopped circling and one of them formed a crystal. "Show your true form, or I shall be forced to attack!"

"This is my true form, you show yourself, Imposter!" He sneered, then also formed a crystal.

Sarah looked from one to the other frantically. The air felt charged. She couldn't tell them apart and now they were going to fight? The idea of Jareth getting hurt terrified her.

Her inner voice screamed You did this somehow, fix it!

But how? I don't even know how I caused it in the first place!

One of the Goblin Kings began to spin the crystal in his hand, sparks began to form. Sarah rushed towards them, hands outstretched, and screamed "STOP!"

They both turned to look at her, startled by the interruption.

Sarah kept her hands out imploringly but her eyes were glaring daggers. "Both of you stand down! Do not harm one another!"

The Jareth on the left seemed to be afronted by her tone, while the other smirked almost approvingly.

She took a deep breath and spoke, desperately hoping that these were the right words. "I wish for the two beings before me to return to as they were before bed last night"

The Jareth on the right looked nervous at that.

Sarah watched dumbfounded as the left-Jareth shrunk... and shrunk... and shrunk... and shrunk...and got hairier, until all that was left was a football sized ball of beige and white fur.

At the same time on the right Sarah saw a poof, she looked up to see Jareth wearing navy blue silk pajama pants and his pendant. And nothing else.

Sarah turned away, blushing furiously. "I.. I'm sorry, I didn't think that one through, did I?"

"Not a problem, I did manage to salvage some propriety." He indicated the pants.

Sarah blanched. To try to distract herself from the proximity of the half-dressed Goblin King she bent to inspect the ball of fluff, it looked like a cat-sized hamster. She heard Jareth's incredulous voice say "Fluffy?"

Sarah was confused, "You recognize it?"

Jareth nodded. "Yes, he was wished away by your neighbor a month after your run. He had taken up residence in the tunnels."

Sarah raised an eyebrow. "He wasn't always this big, right?"

"Correct, the Labyrinth had already begun to affect him." He seemed unperturbed by the idea of giant hamsters roaming his kingdom.

Sarah struggled to keep a straight face. "You know that if he keeps growing you're going to be dealing with R.O.U.S.'s in your Labyrinth."

The Goblin King tilted his head in inquiry. "I'm not familiar with that phrase."

Sarah burst out laughing. "Oh...sorry... um...rodents of unusual size... It's from a movie."

Jareth's expression said clearly I am not amused. Sarah smothered another laugh and turned her attention back to Fluffy, who on closer inspection had two different colored eyes and seemed to have a bit of a mullet. "Was he always odd-eyed?"

Jareth raised an eyebrow. "No actually, that was a recent development."

She smirked. "I think Fluffy looks up to you."

Jareth smirked back. "That might have been a contributing factor to his transformation."

Sarah frowned in confusion. "But...how...even if I had somehow shaped him into...your shape...How did he... become you?

Fluffy began inching away to inspect a fallen jug of goblin ale, Sarah noticed something glitter underneath him. She bent to pick it up. When she held it up, both she and Jareth were stunned.

It was Jareth's pendant.

But Jareth was still wearing his pendant.

Sarah looked back and forth between the two, "How?..were there always two of them?"

"No." Jareth was staring at the pendant in her hand. He turned to her, "What happened next in your dream?"

"What?" Sarah was confused by the apparent change of subject.

Jareth sighed. "After I asked you "How are you enjoying my Labyrinth", what happened?"

Sarah's blush returned. "Well, you leaned in and I thought you were going to kiss me."

"And?" Jareth did not quite manage to hide his smirk.

Sarah looked at the half dressed Goblin King and sighed, "But you halted, as if you were waiting for me to kiss you...Honestly I wanted to... but I felt something was off. I realized that it wasn't you. As soon as that happened the Goblin King in front of me froze. I stepped away and wanted to wake up. Then as my dream disappeared, I thought I saw you move again."

Jareth pondered her words. "Sarah...I believe that you didn't just dream of the tunnels, you were here"

Her eyes bulged. "What... how?"

"You've had a connection to the Labyrinth ever since you won. Just now, I didn't bring you here, you came under your own power. It is likely that last night you began dreaming of the Labyrinth, of our encounter in those tunnels. You desired to see me, unwittingly transporting yourself to the tunnels and transforming a passing creature into my likeness. But the transformation was not yet complete and you saw that it was lacking. When you doubted it, it halted the transformation."

Sarah continued, understanding. "But unconsciously I still wished that it could be you, and so the transformation completed, but only just as I was leaving.

"Your imagination is quite strong, not only did it transform Fluffy into my likeness, it gave him intelligence, and some sense of myself and even my powers, and recreated my pendant."

Sarah looked at the pendant in her hand. "Why didn't it disappear like everything else when he changed back?"

"Because you somehow created a true twin to my pendant, once made it cannot be destroyed. It is the symbol of my office. And the reason why when you called for the Goblin King, that we both appeared."

Sarah looked at the pendant in her hand, and then held it out to Jareth. "This belongs to you then."

Jareth held out his own, "I already have one." He smirked.

"All of this because you wanted to kiss me..." He approached her slowly and raised his hand, tenderly tracing his gloveless fingers across her cheek. "You could have just asked Precious" his smirk was gentle as he leaned towards her.

Sarah looked into his eyes, in the uneven blue tones she saw desire, but also something more. She tilted her face up towards him, absent-mindedly licking her lips. He saw the movement and lightly grazed her bottom lip with his thumb. She shivered. She could feel his breath on her lips. She closed the gap tentatively, their lips just brushing. He pulled her against him and deepend the kiss. Sarah stuffed the pendant in her pocket to free her hands and slid them in his hair; it was soft as down and smooth as silk. She lowered one hand and and placed it on his chest. His still bare chest, and heard him hiss with pleasure at her touch. She slid her arms around him tightly. This kiss was heaven, she didn't want to ever let go.

Suddenly they heard a gruff voice bark. "What's going on?"

A high pitched voice questioned, "Is the Lady going to be Queen?!"

A more gravely voice asked, "Where did other Kingy go?"

They reluctantly broke the kiss and realized that they were surrounded by curious, joyful goblins.

Flushing, Sarah moved to back away but Jareth held her tight with one arm while the other hand formed a crystal. He dropped it and suddenly they were once again alone in the throne room.

At her worried look he assured her. "They have simply been sent the city, that is all."

He put both arms around her again, his intense gaze was giving her butterflies. His voice was low. "Now... shall we continue?" Sarah's voice was suddenly MIA, so she nodded her assent as he pulled her even closer and resumed kissing her breathless.

When they finally paused for breath, Sarah dazedly noted that Jareth had poofed back into the black leather pants and black ruffled shirt from earlier. He led her towards the throne and he sat down, gently tugging her to sit on his lap. She relented and rested against him, savoring the feeling of being close to him. An unbidden thought caused her to tense, she was canoodling with the Goblin King, on his throne, with no idea if he was going to let her go home.

Jareth sensed her stiffen and spoke into her ear. "What is the matter Precious?"

Sarah's voice was small. "I need to get back."

He sighed and turned her so that they could face one another. "Sarah, do you truly think that I would trap you here?"

She bit her lip nervously. "Well...the last time when you asked me to stay, it did seem to be an all or nothing proposition."

His eyes got a faraway look. "And where did it get me? Alone in my shattered castle." His gaze snapped back to her. "I would not make the same mistake again."

"How could this even work? You're a fairytale king, and I'm just..." her words faltered.

He raised his hand to graze her cheek. "Sarah... you are a force to be reckoned with, this whole fiasco proves it. I am certain that we can figure something out."

She leaned into his touch, cracking a small smile. He pulled her back against him and whispered. "Just allow me to savour this a little longer. Then I promise to return you to your desk, before your absence is noted."

Sarah began to nod, but was interrupted by a yawn. "Okay."

Jareth wrapped his arms around her and gently kissed her temple. He whispered, "As you wish"

...

Author's note

Thank you so much to mae-E, Guest and Guest 2019 for the encouraging reviews! :)

Things I don't own... the Labyrinth... spare Jareths... The Princess Bride... R.O.U.S.'s.