AN: hey! I think my brain is trying to make up for all that time I didn't publish anything, haha! I've got a few more chapters I'm putting up within the next few days, one of them at the same time as this one. let me know if things are moving too fast!

When I woke up the next morning, I could remember every minute detail of my dream, which was something that never happened. I found myself drifting off in the middle of class, something else that never happened. Feeling out of it, I muscled my way through the rest of the day and started for home, planning on figuring out what was going on with my head. Moments after I had pulled the door shut and kicked off my shoes, the doorbell rang. I debated on whether or not to answer it, knowing that it was probably Jareth… Once I came to a decision, I walked toward the door and pulled it open before I could change my mind.

Sure enough, standing on my step, looking concerned, was Jareth King. Feeling a headache coming on, I opened the door wider and stepped back to let him in. He slid past me, pressing himself against me as usual, grabbed my wrist and pulled me to sit on the couch next to him. When I landed, he turned toward me with a look of worry on his face.

"Are you alright?"

I sighed, "I don't know right now. I'm having this dream and suppressed…" I stopped, realizing whom I was talking to.

"You can tell me, Sarah. I promise."

That shouldn't have made me trust him, but it did. "I'm having these weird memories that keep popping up randomly, and I had a familiar dream last night. I don't know what's going on, I'm getting a headache from the speed my brain is whirling, and to top it off, my roommate seems to have a weird reaction to a song I remembered last night. One similar to my own. Any ideas?"

"A few. To start with, what triggers these memories? Is there any specific thing you are doing when the memories hit? Something you smell? Hear?"

"Ummm…." I forced down a blush, "not really, no."

"Sarah… you are lying to me. What is it? Something to do with me?"

I nodded, deciding to let him guess.

He sighed. "Is it whenever I am around?"

"Not exactly…"

"What do you mean not exactly? Has it happened before while I am around?"

I nodded again.

"When?" he asked gently.

"The first night."

"When I was playing with one of these?" he asked, taking out a crystal.

I nodded.

"I remember that. It's the crystals, isn't it?"

"Yea."

"Alright. Let's hear it. I won't tease you, I promise."

I took a deep breath, which I seemed to be doing a lot these days, and started to speak. "The first time that I got a flashback was when you pulled the crystal out for the first time. The second time-"

"What did you remember?" he asked, cutting me off.

"Words. Just words."

"What words?"

"'If you turn it this way, it'll show you your dreams. Do you want it?' May I continue?"

He nodded.

"The second time was when you tossed it to me."

"Words again?"

"Yeah. Want to know those as well?"

He nodded.

"'It's a crystal, nothing more.'"

"Go on."

"The third time, I grabbed the second one and reached for the first one."

"And what happened that time?"

"More words. Song lyrics."

"Tell me."

"No," I shook my head, feeling like I shouldn't, not now that I knew the tune.

"You can tell me. I'm safe to talk to about anything and everything. I mean anything."

"I won't tell you the lyrics, but I'll hum it for you, alright?"

"Good enough, I guess. I'd still rather you tell me the lyrics."

"Not gonna happen, Jareth." I started to hum the song, focusing on the tune and realizing that it was easier to remember this time around.

As I hummed the song, I could have sworn I heard Jareth sing the second verse, "There's such a fooled heart, beatin' so fast, in search of new dreams. A love that will last, within your heart. I'll place the moon within your heart," but when I looked at him, his lips were closed, curved into a smile.

"What?" I broke off.

"Nothing. I'll tell you before I leave. I bet you have a lovely singing voice."

I shook my head, wondering what was wrong with him.

"Anyways, I've only had three flashbacks. That was the last one."

He cocked his head to the side, "and the dream?"

I blushed slightly, "Just a dream."

"Sarah…"

"Yes, Jareth?"

"What was your dream about?"

"Nothing."

"Sarah…"

"Oh, fine. It was about a dance."

"With who?"

I pressed my lips together.

"Alright, where?"

"A ballroom."

"Were there other people there?"

"Yes, but I couldn't see their faces, they were all wearing masks."

"So, it was a masquerade ball? And you were dancing in it?"

"Yes."

"With who?"

I kept my mouth shut.

"Alright, were you wearing a mask?"

"No."

"And the person you were dancing with?"

"No, he wasn't… well…"

"Well what?"

"I had to look for him in the beginning and he was wearing a mask, then. He wasn't wearing one once we started dancing, though."

"I see."

I nodded.

"Was your age changed at all?"

"Yea… I felt more like I was fifteen again, not twenty-two."

"Who were you dancing with?"

I started to answer automatically and caught myself in time. The last thing I was going to admit to Jareth was that I was dancing with him…

"Just tell me, Sarah…"

"No."

"Do I have to guess again?"

I kept quiet.

"Okay, fine. Was it Mr. Dirkson?"

That startled a laugh out of me. "No!"

He smiled, "then, was it Leslie? No wait, you said it was a man."

I giggled a little at the thought of it being Leslie.

"Please don't tell me it was that idiot William?"

I stared at him in amazement, wondering what gave him that idea.

"I'm right aren't I?" he sighed, "It was that idiot, wasn't it?"

"No! It was you, you moron," horrified, I clapped my hands over my mouth, silently cursing myself.

He smirked, "I know. Why else would you be so worried about telling me? It was the same thing when you didn't want to admit it was my crystals giving you the memories."

I just stared at him, baffled. "Why didn't you just guess correctly, then?"

He shrugged, "Because I wanted you to tell me."

I glared, "Jareth, you are a jerk…"

He just smiled infuriatingly and looked at me. "Do you want the memories to keep on coming?"

I thought about it for a minute, "Yea, I suppose. I mean, if I forgot something so thoroughly that I'm getting headaches and dreaming about it and it's still not kicking in…. I want to know what it is that I forgot."

"Even if it's bad?"

"Yeah, even if it's bad."

"Then I suppose the only way to do that is to give you as much of whatever is triggering it as possible."

"Yeah, I guess s—wait a minute! That means I have to hang around you more!"

"So it does."

"Jareth…" I growled.

"Sarah," he purred, actually purred, and I felt myself shiver at the sensation of his voice creeping up my spine.

"What?" I whispered.

"Is it really so bad to spend time with me?" he asked in a velvety voice, accent thicker.

Feeling oddly dazed, I took a breath to clear my head and shrugged, "I guess not. As long as you promise to respect what I want!"

"Done," he smiled.

I looked at him for a moment and wondered what I had gotten myself into.

"Sarah, now that we have established what causes memories to surface, would you like to try bringing up another one?"

"I actually did while I was humming the song to you, I remembered the second verse."

"That's excellent. Since most of your memories seem to be tied to my crystals, would you like another one?"

"I suppose so."

He put his hand over mine and pulled away swiftly. I felt a crystal land in my palm and looked down. "How did you do that?" I asked.

"Magic," he smirked.

Before I could retort, another memory surfaced, and I found myself dragged under.

I was standing in my parent's room, looking down at Toby, who wouldn't stop crying. Wondering if a story would quiet him, I began to speak, "What do you want? You want a story? Okay. Once upon a time, there was a beautiful young girl whose stepmother always made her stay home with the baby. And the baby was a spoiled child, and he wanted everything for himself and the young girl was practically a slave. But what no one knew was that the King of the Goblins had fallen in love with the girl and he had given her certain powers. So one night, when the baby had been particularly cruel to her, she called on the goblins for help.

"'Say your right words,' the goblins said, 'and we'll take the baby to the Goblin City, and you will be free.' But the girl knew that the King of the Goblins would keep the baby in his castle forever and ever and ever, and turn him into a goblin. So the girl suffered in silence… Until one night when she was tired from a day of housework and she was hurt by the harsh words of her stepmother, and she could no longer stand it." He cried louder. "Oh alright, alright!" I picked him up, "Knock it off - come on. Stop it! Stop it! I'll say the words!"

Enjoying my game, I continued to play the part of the poor girl, "No, I mustn't. I mustn't say…"

Grinning, I thrust Toby up into the air and began a chant, "I can bear no longer! Goblin King, Goblin King, where ever you may be, take this child of mine far away from me!"

Slightly disappointed when nothing happened, I put him back in his crib and wished I did know the words to make the goblins take him away. Sighing, I started out the door, realizing that there was a storm coming and the power would probably go out.

I crashed back to the present and looked at Jareth, shaken.

"What happened that time?" he asked quietly.

I just stared at him for a moment.

"Sarah!" he said sharply, jerking my attention to him.

I took in a shaky breath and focused on him, "what?"

"What happened that time? Did you see something?"

"Yea. An odd memory. I didn't realize I had forgotten anything about that night…"

"What night?"

"The night I gave Toby Lancelot…"

"Tell me."

I recounted the memory, going into as much detail as possible. When I finished, Jareth was looking at me with his head cocked to the side.

"What?" I asked, realizing I had been asking that a lot in his presence. For some reason, I had trouble reading him.

"Just wondering what that has to do with the previous memories. Maybe they all happened on the same night?"

"Maybe. I still can't believe I forgot anything about that night. That was the night I realized that I actually loved Toby and that Karen wasn't so bad…"

"Karen?"

"My 'evil' stepmother," I made quotation marks with my fingers.

"Ah. Maybe something traumatic happened that night and your brain sealed it off."

I shrugged. "I guess the only way to know for sure is to keep trying, right?"

"True. Are you still willing to try?"

I nodded.

"I think we should take it slow, try not to force too many memories at once, don't you agree?"

"Yea… You're probably right."

He smiled and stood, walking into the kitchen.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to make us something to eat, it's lunch time."

"I'll do it, I know where everything is."

"Very well," he sat down on a stool.

A few minutes later, I set down a few hotdogs, some chips, some soda, and potato salad. Soon, we were happily munching away and my mind was starting to wander to the man next to me. I wondered why he was helping me remember… was it just because he liked me? I found myself staring at him during my musings and looked away quickly, blushing.

He caught me. "What are you blushing for, Pet? See something you like?"

I gaped at him, fighting back a blush, "No, I was simply wondering why you insist on helping me bring back my memories, if you must know!"

He smiled.

"Jareth! Tell me!"

"Say your right words."

I glared at him for throwing the words at me, but sighed, "Why are you so interested in helping me regain my memories, Jareth?"

"Because I want to spend more time with you and this is the best way to accomplish my goal. Besides," he continued, "I want to know how much we can get you to remember, and I know you're curious about why my crystals trigger it." He smiled as he said this last part.

I had a feeling that there was more to it than that, but I accepted the answer at face value, knowing that he was telling at least part of the truth.

"So, do we have a plan of action?"

"Well, you should write down these memories, as well as the time, date, and how you regained them. In as much detail as possible. Don't you agree?"

I thought about it for a minute and nodded my head. "What about the dream? And what if I have more of them?"

"Hmmmm, well, you should write those down as well, and if you dream about me, I think I have a right to know, don't you?" he filled the last half of that sentence with enough innuendo to make me blush cherry red.

"Jareth!"

"What?" he asked, grinning.

"Nothing," I muttered, looking away and trying to get my blush under control.

He laughed, "Seriously, it would probably be a good idea to write them down, and if I am helping you with this, I need to know what they contain. Even if they are about me."

"I suppose," I muttered, reluctantly.

The door opened and Leslie called out, "Hey, Sarah! You home?"

"Yeah! In the kitchen, Les!"

She walked in and looked between Jareth and I. "Hope I'm not interrupting anything!" she said with a grin.

"Nope, not at all," I replied.

She cocked an eyebrow at me, probably noting my still slightly flushed face.

"Sure, sure. I need some help putting together a bookcase, think you guys are up for it?"

I looked at Jareth.

"I have free time."

I nodded. "Yeah, we can help you. Whatcha need?"

AN: thanks for reading! as always, please review! I've got to know how I'm doing! and besides, they encourage me to no end. :)