I'm once again drawing from the completely dreadful Return to Labyrinth and borrowing some characters from the comic: Mizumi, Queen of Moraine, and her "daughters", Moulin and Drumlin. Aside from their names, their appearances, and their roles as the antagonists of Loophole, they will probably not resemble the characters from the comic much.

As with my previous eight chapters, this has not been proofread, so if you spot an glaring errors, please let me know so that I might fix them!

Sarah's awaking was much the same as it had been when she'd first woken up in Jareth's bed two days earlier. Her limbs felt overly heavy, as did her eyelids. When she finally managed to convince herself that she really should wake up, she looked around the room and instantly spotted Jareth, who was asleep in a chair by her bedside.

"Jareth," Sarah croaked; her voice was rough from disuse. She cleared her throat, which turned into a coughing fit, but her coughing woke Jareth.

"Sarah," Jareth whispered as he helped her sit up and drink from a glass of water that he had conjured up.

"What happened?" Sarah whispered after she'd had her fill of water.

"You had another seizure; this one was much worse than your first one. It was all that Amael, my healer, Sielel, and I could do to get it to stop." Jareth heaved a massive sigh, sunk down onto the chair that he'd been sitting on, and buried his head in his hands. "Sarah, this is all my fault. If I'd never come to you, then you wouldn't be like this."

"Jareth," Sarah started, her voice low. She started to push herself up, but Jareth jumped to his feet.

"Sarah, no, you had a massive seizure only a few hours ago; you need to rest!" Jareth snapped at her as he tried to push her back onto the bed, but she smacked his hand away.

"I'm not going to stop until you stop on your path of self-pity," Sarah growled in response. Jareth stilled with his hands hovering over Sarah, his eyes wide with shock. "The damage has already been done, and you can't just send me back now like this! We have to see this through! And excuse me if I'm the only one here who seems to have any desire to do that!"

"Yes, you're right," Jareth said. Sarah allowed him to push her back down onto the pillow and then he pulled the covers back over her chest. "I'm going to find whoever did this to you and punch them in the face for you."

"Excuse me, but I'm perfectly capable of punching somebody in the face, thank you very much," Sarah said with a firm scowl.

"Then I do believe that whoever did this to you will be black and blue by the time that we're finished with them," Jareth said with a small smile. Sarah turned her head to look fully at Jareth, who'd taken a seat once again.

"I wanted to talk to you about your latest book."

"Not right now, precious; you need your rest," Jareth told her gently. "There will be plenty of time to talk about anything that you want later."

"Yes, alright. Stay." Sarah's eyelids felt like they weighed a thousand pounds.

"As you wish."

Sarah gave a sleepy smile. "Rodents of unusual size?"

"I don't believe that they exist," Jareth replied with a small smile. (1)

"My mother is in full party-planning mode," Jareth said as he swept into his room. Sarah was standing on a small step while two female goblins pinned fabric around her.

"Milord, you should not be in here!" one of the goblins exclaimed.

"This is my room, and that is my fiancee," Jareth pointed out. "I'm perfectly allowed to look upon her as you pin up the dress."

"Ow!" Sarah protested as the other goblin jabbed a pin in too hard.

"I am so sorry, milady!" the goblin exclaimed before she moved around to Sarah's other side quickly.

"I'm surprised that Amael is going ahead with the ball, despite what happened," Sarah whispered.

"The ball is still some time off, and she has yet to even mail out the invitations," Jareth said. He sunk down into one of the chairs in front of the fire, which he'd spun around so that it faced Sarah. Jareth put his legs over one armrest and his head over the other and regarded Sarah. "Yes, I do believe that that color suits you well, precious."

"I told you, didn't I?" Sarah asked as she looked down at the rich, emerald green fabric that was slowly turning into a dress around her. "Ow!"

"You little shits!" Jareth roared.

"I'm so sorry, milord! I'll just go scrub the floors for the rest of the day!" the goblin who had jabbed Sarah a little too hard with a pin wailed. She ran out from the room in tears.

"You didn't have to yell at her," Sarah told Jareth with a scowl. "It was just an accident."

"Yes, but if I don't yell at them now, then they'll never learn," Jareth said with a cocky grin on his face.

"Since my assistant just ran out, there's not much else for me to do right now," the other goblin said. "You can change now; just leave the dress over the changing screen and I'll pick it up later." She stormed out from the room, and the door slammed behind her in her irritation.

"You're a real ass sometimes, you know that, right?" Sarah said with an annoyed sigh as she turned to face Jareth. Only he wasn't in the chair anymore. She jumped a little when he appeared behind her. Jareth spun Sarah around so that she was facing the large, three-paneled mirror; he put his arms around her waist and rested his head on her shoulder. With Sarah standing on the step, they were nearly the same height.

"You are so beautiful, precious," Jareth whispered. "When I announce you as my fiancee at my mother's ball, it would be a wonder if anybody wasn't overly angry at the news." He pressed a lingering kiss between Sarah's shoulder blades. He pressed his fingers into Sarah's hips, and she let out a breathy sigh.

"J-jareth," she whimpered as Jareth's hands cupped her breasts and started to gently play with her semi-hard nipples through the velvet of her dress. In an instant, the dress vanished, which left Sarah wearing only a bra and panties. Jareth's hands dipped under the fabric of Sarah's bra and continued to tweak and tease her nipples until Sarah was panting and leaning back against Jareth for support.

"Open your eyes, precious," Jareth said, his voice low and husky. "I want you to watch yourself as I pleasure you." He pressed a kiss onto the side of Sarah's neck as he undid the clasp on her bra, and slowly slid the straps off from her arms. After it had dropped to the floor, Jareth slowly slid his hands down Sarah's stomach until he came to the top of her panties. But, he didn't stop there, and pushed his right hand under the elastic waistband. There, his nimble fingers slowly started to rub at Sarah's clitoris.

Sarah watched with part fascination, part arousal as Jareth fingered her in the mirror. But, the only thing that she could see was his hand as it moved under the pink fabric. "No, take them off," Sarah moaned. Jareth withdrew his hand, only to push Sarah's panties off her hips; once they had been shoved down, gravity took over and they pooled around Sarah's ankles. She stepped out of them and kicked them to the side before Jareth returned his hand to where it had been a moment ago.

Sarah thought for a moment that she should probably be embarrassed to be this turned on by watching Jareth stimulate her clit. But the feelings that he drew forth from her with only three fingers and the picture that they painted in the mirror was too sexy for her to feel anything but more and more pleasure.

"Do not look away, precious," Jareth whispered into her ear before he ran his tongue along the outer shell and gently nipped at her lobe. But looking away was probably the last thing on Sarah's mind. Jareth's fingers grew faster and faster, and Sarah blindly ran her fingers over Jareth's shirt from behind. "Cum for me, precious."

Sarah let out several halting, breathy moans as her entire body shook. Rational thought left Sarah's mind for a moment, but she never broke eye contact with herself in the mirror. After the maddening tremors in Sarah's pussy had stopped (or at least slowed), Jareth scooped Sarah up, bridal style, and carried her over to his bed. He put her down on the velvet covers before he crawled on top of her, and kissed every inch of her front that he came into contact with.

When he finally reached her lips, Sarah cupped his face and gently pushed him away from her for a moment. "Does my sexy face really look like that?"

"You don't like it?" Jareth asked with a raised eyebrow. Sarah shook her head. "You also aren't looking at it from my perspective." Sarah wrapped her legs around Jareth's waist and slowly started to circle her hips against his erection, which was still encased in his ridiculously tight pants.

"I wish that I could remember why you love me so much," Sarah said breathlessly as Jareth thrust his hips into hers in a poor mockery of what they both wanted.

"I want for you to remember, too, precious, but I'm also not looking forward to you remembering why you hate me," Jareth whispered. Sarah's movements stilled.

"Was it really that bad?" she whispered as she reached up to run her fingers through Jareth's hair.

"Probably not as much as you first thought about the issue," Jareth said. "Maybe being blocked from your memories will allow you to look at them with fresh perspective once you get them back."

"Hm, maybe," Sarah agreed and then pulled Jareth down for a kiss. "Maybe having you sex me up before we even knew that there was a problem to begin with might be good for you." Sarah pressed herself as close to Jareth as possible until the only thing that seperated them were his clothes. "Although, if you don't get undressed right now, I might be a little an-" Before Sarah could even finish the word, Jareth was naked.

A second later, and he pushed inside of her completely. Sarah gasped loudly, and her fingers dug into Jareth's back sharply. He nipped lightly at the side of her neck as he slowly started to move within her. "Yes, Sarah. Is this what you wanted?"

"Yes!" Sarah groaned in response. Jareth circled his hips a couple of times before he started to thrust into Sarah wildly. This made Sarah throw her head back and scream loudly; the sound echoed fiercely in the stone room, but it only made Jareth laugh.

"Scream for me, precious!" he said, before he said it much louder in order to be heard over Sarah's answering screams. Sarah screamed Jareth's name over, and then broke off mid-cry. Her fingers scraped at Jareth's back, and she shook slightly as she came. Jareth let out a low grunt and buried himself into Sarah as far as he could as he came.

Sarah's eyes went wide a second later. "Oh shit," she whispered.

"What?" Jareth whispered harshly as he looked to her.

"We didn't use a condom," she replied.

"Sarah, I brought you here to my magic castle after your magically-addled brain caused you to have a massive seizure," Jareth said with a frown. "What part of magic don't you understand?" Sarah looked at Jareth sharply.

"So… you used some sort of spell and it'll prevent me from getting pregnant?"

"Sarah, I've barely gotten you to accept all of this instead of Jared Garfield," Jareth said as he rolled onto his back and tucked Sarah against his side. "Why would I risk getting you pregnant and having you be beyond livid at me?" Sarah only just gave a low hum of agreement.

"I'm glad that sex didn't trigger another seizure, but I'm also a little surprised that nobody came to investigate. After all, we did get pretty loud for a moment there," she said with a slight giggle after they were both silent for a moment.

"What part of 'magic castle' is still confusing to you, precious?" Jareth said as he gave her a sharp look.

"The part where we can scream as loud as we want in this giant echo chamber and nobody comes running?" Sarah replied with a mischievous grin. Jareth rolled on top of Sarah and gave her a slow, lingering kiss.

"I have something for you," Jareth said with a slight smirk after he'd pulled away.

"Not more stupid, frilly dresses, please," Sarah said with a scowl.

"As much as I enjoy seeing you in those dresses, I like seeing you as you are now much more," Jareth replied. He pulled away from her and knelt by her side. "No, I have this for you." He produced a ring, which he presented to her. The band was white gold and braided with an intricate leaf pattern, while the stone itself was a massive diamond, which was surrounded by much, much smaller emeralds.

Instead of gasping in awe at the ring, Sarah only scowled first at it, and then at Jareth. "I thought that you said that this was a pretend engagement?"

"It is, but what kind of King would I be if I couldn't even give my pretend fiancee an engagement ring befitting both her beauty and her future title?" Jareth asked. He grabbed Sarah's left hand, but she pulled it away.

"No, I don't want it," Sarah protested.

"Just wear it for a couple of hours to show my mother, and then you don't have to wear it until the ball," Jareth said. "I promise."

"…Okay, fine," Sarah said. She reluctantly presented Jareth with her left hand; he gently grabbed it and slid the ring onto her ring finger. Sarah stretched her fingers out and twisted her hand every which way as she watched the light hit the gems. "It's a lot lighter than it looks," she said finally.

"Magic," Jareth whispered. He cupped Sarah's face and pressed a chaste kiss to her lips before he pulled away and jumped out from bed. "I believe that we have a couple of visitors, precious. We shouldn't hide away in our room until they're gone, because that would be in very poor taste!"

"What?" Sarah said. She watched as Jareth's clothes appeared on him, much in the same way that they'd vanished earlier. "You could have told me that you wanted me to wear the ring for the visitor rather than for Amael."

"Well, then," Jareth said. A baby blue dress appeared on Sarah, and she looked herself over. She pushed herself out of the bed and stood before the mirror to give herself a better look. "Does this suit you, precious?"

"I suppose," Sarah said with an annoyed sigh. "I just wish that you'd let me wear pants."

"I will procure you some jeans to wear after our guests have left," Jareth said. He offered Sarah his arm, which she took, and the two of them walked over to the door, and out into the hallway.

Sarah was usually overly annoyed at how Jareth always insisted on making an entrance, even if it was just for his mother. But as they walked down the grand staircase that lead into the front hall and Sarah saw who their visitors were, she was rather glad for Jareth's showmanship.

There were three females standing in the middle of the room: one a grown woman, and two who were much younger. The two younger ones looked to be about the same age, and had the same coloration, but aside from that, they could have possibly been any more different. The woman was tall and every bit as beautiful as Jareth was handsome, but it was her long, light blue hair that most captured Sarah's attention.

"Good afternoon, Jareth," the woman said when the two of them had reached the middle landing on the staircase, and paused for dramatic effect. Then, they continued.

Once they reached the bottom, Jareth answered by saying, "Good afternoon, Mizumi. What do I owe this pleasure?"

"Why can't I just bring my girls by for a friendly visit?" Mizumi asked sweetly.

"Because nothing you do is without motive, Mizumi," Jareth said evenly.

"Hm, well, while don't we sit down with some tea and I can tell you why we came?" Mizumi said.

"Mizumi," Jareth said with an annoyed sigh. "In case you hadn't noticed, but I'm not exactly currently without company." Mizumi's icy-blue eyes darted to Sarah for the first time since they'd walked down the stairs together, and Mizumi didn't exactly hide her look of disdain as she took Sarah in. "If you wanted to have a conversation with me, you should have sent me a letter in advance."

Surprise flashed across Mizumi's face before she schooled her features once again. "You never answer any of my letters, so how do you know that I didn't send you any in the first place?"

"Just because I don't answer them doesn't mean that I don't read them before I chuck them in the fire," Jareth said evenly. "Now if you'll excuse us, we must get back to helping my mother plan her latest ball. Such a waste of time, but she insisted, didn't she precious?" He looked down at Sarah, who gave him an odd look and didn't reply. "Mother and her balls."

"Actually, your mother's ball was what I wanted to talk to you about," Mizumi said.

"How could you have known about that? She has yet to even send out invitations yet," Jareth said.

"Yes, but you know how the grapevine works in the Underground," Mizumi said. She gave a coy smile that didn't quite reach her eyes and sent a shiver down Sarah's spine.

"Oh good!" Jareth exclaimed. "Then this ball should hold no surprises for anybody, then!" Jareth said with a coy smile of his own. "It was so nice of you and your daughters to drop by, Mizumi, but, as I said, we're very busy right now. So, I suppose that we will see each other at the ball. Imlin! Theli!" Two stocky goblins that were about half Sarah's height ran into the room from elsewhere. "Our guests will be leaving now. Please escort them off the castle grounds."

"But…" Mizumi stammered.

"Alright, you heard his majesty! Let's go! Let's go!" one of the goblins said as they herded the three women out the door. Jareth didn't even wait to see them out the door before he turned and walked with Sarah through a door off to the side and into a sitting room.

"What was all that about?" Sarah asked as they continued on through the room without pausing.

"I'd say that things just got a lot more interesting around here, precious."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I believe that both my mother and I have gravely misjudged some of the people that will be at the ball," Jareth said. Sarah raised her eyebrows at him.

"The gossip that she was talking about… it was more than just the fact that your mother is throwing a ball, right?"

"I believe so, yes."

"How in the world did anybody hear about our engagement, fake or otherwise? You haven't exactly been shouting about it from the tallest tower of the castle, after all."

"Ah, servants hear things, and word gets around," Jareth said. "Speaking of which…" He grabbed Sarah's left hand and gently pulled the ring he'd given her moments before off.

"You knew that it was that woman and that she'd probably come here to talk to you about our engagement?"

"Not our engagement, precious," Jareth told her. He nimbly twirled the ring between his fingers for a moment. Sarah watched the trick silently and when the ring vanished, she met Jareth's gaze.

"I think that I see now why things just got way more complicated."

1) Lines are, of course, from Princess Bride.