Sarah slowly became conscious of Carla shaking her shoulder.

"Sarah, are you ok?"

Sarah looked up flushed and confused, she was slumped over her desk. When had she fallen asleep?

"What time is it?" Sarah asked groggly.

"1: 03" Carla had her hands on her hips. "Have you even had lunch?"

"No" Sarah mumbled sheepishly

Carla took her by the arm and led her to the break room. Sarah opened her lunch bag and pulled out the contents. Carla eyed the instant noodles disapprovingly but said nothing as she turned the kettle on. Sitting down she asked "What's wrong Sarah? You've been so distracted this past couple of days, and I think you haven't been sleeping or eating enough. You don't usually fall asleep at work."

"I'm fine!" Sarah scowled, crossing her arms.

Carla glared at her, not buying it.

Sarah tried giving a partial answer. "Okay, okay, so I haven't slept well the past couple of days and because of my cat, most of my supper ended up on the floor last night"

"Is that all?... Are you sure there isn't a guy involved?" There was a glint in her eyes, sure that she was on to something.

"What!" Sarah was sure her blush was giving her away.

"Come on Sarah, the way you've been mooning around? I would have to be blind not to see." She was clearly hoping for details."

"Not your business." Sarah snapped, frowning.

"There is a guy! I knew it," Carla looked about to barrage her with more questions when the kettle whistled. Sarah got up and grabbed a bowl from the cupboard and poured the noodles and water in. Taking a spoon from the drawer and an apple from the counter she sat back down and began to eat, ignoring Carla's questions.

Seeing that Sarah had clammed up Carla looked at the clock. "Okay fine, we need to get back to work. Eat, and after we'll get those those glitter print t-shirts done."

"Working, not interrogating, right?" Sarah frowned, sometimes Carla was worse than Karen.

Carla pouted but went back to her desk, leaving Sarah alone with her thoughts.

As she ate, she reflected on what had happened. It seemed so preposterous, an insidious fear crept in.

What if it had only been a dream?

Her inner voice quipped. If that was a dream, what the heck did Carla put in the coffee this morning?

She finished her noodles, washed the dishes in the mini sink, picked up the apple and headed back to her desk.

Arriving she noticed that the crystal and paper were still on her desk. She looked inside. There was a new message on the parchment.

It read "May I take you out to dinner tonight?"

Sarah clapped her hand over her mouth to contain her squeal. She flipped her paper over and quickly wrote her answer. Then got up and headed to the workshop area to help Carla.

...

Jareth read her answer and smiled. He went to his chambers to prepare for the evening.

...

Sarah spent the rest of the afternoon printing t-shirts, skirting Carla's questions and daydreaming about a certain smexy Goblin King.

At five o clock Sarah finished cleaning up the machines, took off her smock and headed for the bathroom to freshen up. She unbraided and finger combed her hair and dug in her pocket for some lip gloss. Something else was there. Pulling it out she saw the pendant.

Not sure what to think about that, she put it back and put on her lip gloss.

Sarah and Carla had just locked up when they heard a smooth, accented voice say "Hello Sarah."

She turned around to see Jareth and her jaw dropped.

Jareth was wearing fitted dark grey slacks and a royal blue dress shirt open at the neck, he had the jacket tossed casually over his shoulder. His hair looked a bit shorter, a bit darker and was combed back except for the front, which was swept to the side just grazing his eyes, which Sarah belatedly noticed were bare of any sparkly markings. His sly smile as he noted her checking him out caused Sarah's cheeks to warm and her heart to flutter.

Carla looked him over and then looked at Sarah with an expression that clearly said O.M.G!

"So you're the mystery man." She extended her hand to greet him. "Hi, I'm Carla."

"Miss Carla, pleased to make your acquaintance." He took her hand and kissed it.

Carla blushed. "Uh...likewise..and you are..?"

"Pardon my manners, you may call me Jareth" He turned to Sarah, "Ready to go Precious?"

"Yes." She figured they'd better get going before Carla began swooning. "See you tomorrow Carla." Taking Jareth's arm, she waved to Carla and began walking down the sidewalk. From the look of envy and curiosity that Carla was giving her, Sarah knew she was going to get grilled tomorrow.

They began walking down the sidewalk. Sarah pulled the pendant out of her pocket. "So, your Majesty, it seems that I still have the symbol of your office on my person."

Jareth smirked, "Well, your Majesty, it is befitting of the Champion of the Labyrinth."

At that, Sarah stopped walking and turned to face him, poking his chest. "Whoa! Wait a minute, I never agreed to be your Queen!, I agreed to go to dinner!"

Jareth held out a hand, asking for a pause. "Do not worry, keeping the pendant does not make you my queen. You are still free to choose if and when you would like to lake that step."

Sarah put her hand to her temple. "Okay, now I'm confused!"

Jareth indicated a nearby bench and they sat down. "Sarah, you beat my Labyrinth, you can transport yourself between our worlds, you have the power to transform my realm and its inhabitants, your quick thinking avoided possible conflict and injury this afternoon. I believe that you are already Queen. That pendant belongs to you. No matter what our relationship status."

Seeing her eyes widen with panic, he gently took both of her hands in his. "You do not have to decide all of this tonight." He looked into her eyes, "But if you allow me, I am asking permission to court you."

Sarah's mouth opened and closed a couple of times before she managed to make a sound. "I...Jareth...you want to court me?"

A brow arched sarcastically. "Kissing you in my throneroom wasn't enough of an indication?"

Sarah was beginning to wonder if red wasn't becoming her default face color. "...It's just that...dating means that you are considering this person as a potential life partner. And then there's your kingdom to consider and the goblins, and..." She blanched. "... is there politics in the Underground?"

His hands tightened on hers. "I am not asking for you to run away with me tonight Sarah. I simply wish for us to get to know each other better. I promise to answer all of your questions to the best of my ability."

Sarah bit her lip and placed her hand on his chest. She gently grasped his shirt and pulled him closer so that they were eye to eye. She brought her lips to his in a brief but tender kiss.

"I accept." She said finally, pleased to see that her reaction had surprised him.

He quickly recovered and grinned. "So, since you asked to choose our destination this evening, where are we headed?"

Sarah looked thoughtful. "Well, since I didn't get to finish my supper yesterday, how do you feel about Thai food?"

He arched a brow. "I've never had the opportunity to try it"

Grinning Sarah began to count off her fingers. "Okay, so do you want to try the very spicy, medium spicy or mild?"

Jareth wiggled his eyebrows at her. "You should know that I am anything but mild."

Sarah blushed and snorted, "Whatever." as she took his arm and steered them in the direction of her favorite restaurant, looking forward to take-out and TV and watching the Goblin King try chopsticks.

...

Author's note

This was going to be 'The End'... but the plot bunnies kept coming so there is much more to come.

In the meantime though, if you need to go to sleep or get something done you can take this opportunity to do it.

Thank you to mae-E and Guest 2019 for the reviews, and to those who have faved and followed.

I don't own Labyrinth.

If you're wondering what Jareth's hair looks like in this scene, go check out the Time will Crawl video.