Disclaimer: I do not own Labyrinth. All rights to the Jim Henson company.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

I wish

Chapter five

Testing the waters

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Sarah blew a dark strand of hair that had escaped from her messy bun away from her face before she straightened and wiped her brow with the back of her hand.

Today Jareth had asked her to clean his room, starting with changing his bedclothes and dusting away cobwebs. But now she was onto the job she'd been looking forward to the least; scrubbing the floors.

She glanced over at the clock.

5:15 pm

She sighed and dipped the scrubbing brush back into the bucket of water, cleaning the brush from any dirt that it had picked off from the floor. As she began scrubbing the ancient flagstone once more, she began to hum a tune to herself, thinking it would make her work pass faster.

Being so distracted by her work and her humming, she didn't hear as the bedroom door opened and heeled boots clicked on the stone floor as he approached her.

A smirk turned up the corners of his mouth as he watched her; blissfully unaware that he was even in the room.

Seeing Sarah on her hands and knees, her hair up, her dress stained, sleeves rolled up, all while she hummed softly. It warmed his heart. It hadn't gone unnoticed to him that she'd really been working hard to make his castle beautiful like it once was when his Father had been King. He'd entered the throne room a few days earlier, surprised to find it spotless and smelling cleaner than he thought was ever possible for that room, given that the goblins pretty much pissed and spilled uncountable amounts of beer on that floor.

What warmed his heart, even more, was that he hadn't even asked her to do it. She'd just done it out of the goodness of her heart on her day off.

Sarah straightened once more, placing the scrubbing brush back into her wooden bucket. In the corner of her eye, she spotted him leaning up against the wall, watching her. She gasped and lost her grip on the scrubbing brush, and it fell into the water with a little 'plop!'

Jareth chuckled "I'm sorry if I startled you,"

Sarah laughed anxiously and shook her head "I just didn't hear you come in."

"I didn't think you had, you seemed quite occupied with your work and your little song,"

Sarah blushed, embarrassed that he'd heard her singing to herself, "Oh… you heard that, huh?"

Jareth smiled at her bashfulness "I did. You should sing more often, Sarah. Your voice is quite lovely,"

Sarah shook her head, glancing up at him from her place on the floor "Oh, I'm not a great singer. I just sing to pass the time, really."

"You do have a good voice, Sarah. Try to accept a compliment,"

"Thank you, Jaret- Your Majesty." She kicked herself for almost saying his name.

He nodded before heading over to his wardrobe; He pulled out a deep red velvet shirt before disappearing behind the dressing screen. Sarah watched as he threw the previous shirt he'd been wearing over the top of the screen and she blushed to herself when he walked out from behind the screen once more, muttering something about how the shirt he picked was too hot for him to wear today.

She looked away as a deep blush appeared on her cheeks from seeing him without a shirt. She hated herself for blushing like a school girl would when seeing a boy she had a crush on. She wasn't a child anymore so why did she feel like she was behaving like one?

She glanced up once more, just wanting to gaze upon him once more before he pulled on another shirt, however, she wished she hadn't, for Jareth was staring at her with a huge grin spread across his face.

He'd caught her looking.

Fuck.

She quickly looked away and began scrubbing the floors once more.

Jareth smiled to Lilium was right. Sarah did find him attractive. If he hadn't been sure before, he was now. He should strike when the iron was hot.

"Sarah?" he called her softly, watching as she looked over at him, her cheeks still flushed with embarrassment.

"Prepare me a bath, please."

Sarah's blush deepened but she nodded "Yes, sire,"

Jareth smiled to himself. Things were finally working out for him. He could already feel Sarah's attitude had changed towards him, so as long as he kept this up, they would continue to progress and soon he'd have power over her once more.

Sarah put down the scrubbing brush and got to her feet; drying her hands on her apron she walked passed him into the bathroom. She sat on the edge of his large black tub and turned the silver taps, watching as steam rose from the water.

"You can do this," her brain whispered to itself "Remember, he has no power over you, no matter what he may has no power, and he never will."

The bath filled quickly and Sarah poured some of his favorite peach-scented bubbles into the water, watching as the bubbles started to build up.

When the bath was full, Sarah switched off the taps and turned to see Jareth watching her from the doorway. Her breath caught in her throat when she noticed he was still shirtless.

"I take it that the bath is ready?" he asked, still smirking at her.

"Um, yeah, it's ready; I'll leave you to it," She turned and went to reach for the door handle, her hand stopping midway as she heard him call softly

"Wait,"

She swallowed, almost afraid of what he was going to say to her

"Do turn around, Sarah…"

She turned slowly "Sire?"

He approached her, gently lifting his hand to caress the side of her face. He leaned in close, whispering in her ear "You don't have to leave you know…"

Oh god

"Yes, I do…" She looked up at him "I still have to finish cleaning the floor,"

Jareth chuckled softly, shaking his head before he moved aside. "Don't look so frightened, Sarah. I'd never force you to stay if you didn't want too. But I think that somewhere deep down in your heart, you'd like to stay, maybe even join me?" he raised his brow for emphasis

Sarah's jaw hung low, her eyes large "What?"

Jareth pulled an innocent expression "What? Isn't it true?"

"Of course it's not!"

"So you can honestly tell me, hand on heart, that you wouldn't like to join me right now?"

Sarah looked away from him, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable. She could lie. Tell him that it wasn't true, but the more she thought of it; the more she realized she actually did, in a strange way, want to stay. She felt horrified at this discovery, and ashamed of herself. Jareth raised a brow, awaiting her answer.

"Ok… so I'm attracted to him. That is normal; I am a woman, it's normal to feel sexual attraction to someone. Just a shame that it has to be him…"

"I can tell you this, sire, that even if I did want too, I wouldn't. I'm not a girl who'd just jump into your arms as soon as you ask me too,"

Jareth gazed at her in surprise, he hadn't expected that answer. He'd expected her to lie and pretend that she felt no attraction to him whatsoever.

He smiled softly "Of course you wouldn't. That's why you captivate me in such a way,"

Sarah furrowed her brow at his confession

"We always want what we cannot have, don't we?" He sighed as he moved away from her, but kept his eyes on her, watching as her green eyes stared back at him. "I didn't mean to offend you, I'm sorry if I overstepped my boundaries,"

Sarah nodded, grateful for his apology but her heart was racing in her chest after hearing those words.

He wanted her.

"T-thank you."

He nodded and motioned for her to leave and she did, as quickly as she could.

Jareth stripped from his clothes and sunk into the tub, sighing as the warm water relaxed his muscles. He lay there for some time, praying to the gods that he hadn't just messed up everything he'd been trying hard to achieve with Sarah.

O0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

AN: Okay, so it's super short chapter but I hope you all enjoyed it! The next chapter will be longer! Please don't forget to review!