Disclaimer: I still own nothing, except for my OCs and my dastardly plot bunnies.

Chapter 2

Sarah blushed as they reappeared in the hall of the castle, realizing Jareth still held her pressed against him. Not meeting his gaze, she pushed against his chest to get away while trying not to notice just how nice a chest he had. She took a deep breath after managing to pull away and finally looked up to glare up into his mismatched eyes suspiciously. "You've got what you want. Here I am, in the castle beyond the goblin city. Now what?"

"I can't simply want only your company, precious?" he asked, putting a gloved hand to the chest as though her doubt had mortally wounded him. The mischief in his eyes kept thwarted his attempt at innocence.

Sarah rolled her eyes, exasperated. "We both know very well, Goblin King, that things between us are never so simple."

Even when there is a mirror and a entire realm between us, she mused to herself. She had kept in touch with her friends off and on through the years, more off than on, if she was honest. One day, it hadn't been Hoggle, Ludo, and Sir Didymus waiting in the mirror though. It had been Jareth, imperiously informing her that her friends were off on an important mission, and if she wanted any assistance from the Underground, she would have to bargain with him for it. She had of course covered the mirror as fast as possible. Of course, he was there the next time she tried the mirror, ready with a scolding for her rudeness. She had again quickly covered the mirror in righteous fury. It had gone on this way for quite awhile before she had actually given in and spoken with him, though she had quite successfully avoided any bargains with him. Until now. She sighed and glared up at him.

"Such a weary sigh, Sarah." he said quietly, and she valiantly tried to ignore the beautiful, melodious quality to his accented voice. "Is it truly so terrible to be back here, in the Underground?"

"I suspect that will depend. How long are you keeping me here?" Sarah asked, still glaring.

He smirked, " I did promise that you would be returned before the next time you have to try to instill some intelligence and culture in those dreadful children you insist on calling young adults." Sarah felt herself starting to relax. "Of course, originally I would have been happy returning you after only a few hours per week. But then you offered me entire weekends of your time. As I understand it, today is Friday in the above world, and the weekend does not truly start until tomorrow," his smirk grew bigger and Sarah began mentally kicking herself. "I suppose that means I shall have to return you to the above world until then."

With a flourish of his hand, a crystal appeared and Sarah abruptly found herself in the hall outside her apartment. She supposed she really shouldn't be surprised that he knew where she lived, should perhaps even be slightly grateful that he hadn't teleported them directly into her mess of a bedroom.

"Oh, Sarah," he called as she went to open her front door, causing her to turn back to face him where he stood looking utterly out of place among the neutral brown and creams of the hallway. "What exactly caused that girl to summon me?"

Sarah felt another burst of annoyance as she thought of Emily, oddly mixed with a bit of amusement at the poor girls expression when her invocation worked. "She had just gotten in trouble for writing this and calling it her own," she said wryly, handing him the paper copy of Emily's work Sarah had in her purse. She laughed softly as Jareth's expression turned to one of affront as he skimmed through the story. She frowned as a thought occurred to her. "Jareth? What will the principal think happened today?"

He glanced over the paper. "He will remember nothing from the point before the girl summoned me onward, of course. I can hardly let too many mortals run around with knowledge they shouldn't have. As far as he and the rest of the school are concerned, you were feeling unwell and left early, after your meeting. This Emily was suspended from school for an indefinite period while the administration of your school looks into the situation of this rubbish," he said with distaste, gesturing with the papers before making them erupt in a rain of glittery smoke before disappearing completely.

He glanced over Sarah as if just now noticing what she was wearing. She told herself that was most certainly not appreciation he was looking at her with. And any feelings she had were simply relief that the situation with Emily was handled and she still had a job since her boss remembered nothing. His gaze returned to her face and his habitual smirk reappeared. "I'll see you tomorrow Sarah. You needn't dress quite so stuffily. I expect you'll bring a change of clothes with you, since you will of course be spending the night at the castle." With one last glance down at her bare legs below the knee length hem of her skirt, he finally disappeared himself, right back out of Sarah's life. At least for the moment.

Sarah definitely felt another migraine coming on as she let herself into her apartment. She set her purse down on the table just inside the door and was setting her keys down as well when she realized her car was still at the school and groaned. She would have to call one of her friends to drive her to her car. First, though, she was getting out of these ridiculous heels and skirt and into some nice comfy jeans and a tee shirt. Some days she really wondered why she had thought dressing in such outfits would be fun when she was a teenager. Her aching feet certainly assured her that this one aspect of growing up sucked.

She glanced at the clock. Somehow, it had managed to go from eight in the morning to five in the afternoon, just in the short time she had spent in the underground. She shook her head at the apparent mutability of time anytime it suited Jareth, then headed to the bathroom. Refreshed after a quick shower and wearing much more comfortable clothes, Sarah settled onto her couch before reaching for her phone to call her friend to get her car. That done, she leaned back and just sat for a minute, rubbing her head and trying in vain to think of anyway to keep from having to fulfill her bargain, or at the very least, to not have to stay the night at the castle. It had been rather grungy last she was there, with the chickens and goblins running amok making disaster areas wherever they went, and she hoped any guest rooms the castle might have were nothing like that. She certainly couldn't imagine Jareth sleeping in such squalor, then mentally kicked herself again for thinking of Jareth and sleep. She was so not letting her mind go there.

There was a knock on the door, and Sarah rose, gathering her keys and purse before heading out to her friend, who was known among their mutual friends as Sara without the h. Maybe she'd see if Sara wanted to go to a movie after they got her car. She would suggest drinks, but tomorrow promised to be trying enough without adding in a hangover. Whatever they ended up doing, she was going to do her best to relax tonight, and not worry herself half to death about tomorrow.

Authors Note

Sorry if this chapter seems a little short or feels like filler to anyone. It seemed necessary to me, particularly in relation to the first paragraph of chapter one.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorited, or added this story to their update list. All of it makes me ridiculously happy. I declare cookies for all. Also, a happy little animation can be found at my live journal, which those interested can visit by clicking the webpage link in my profile. My fanfic is also posted there.

Shahrezad1 : Glad my twist is interesting :-) The author in question isn't really a friend-to be honest, I don't know her at all and she probably doesn't realize I exist, but I appreciate your words greatly and quite agree with them none the less.

Kyra Kitsune: Truly, I don't understand it either. The only thing I can think is that perhaps people plagiarizing fanfics have tried to post their own before and have been so dissapointed by the lack of reviews that they saw this story, by an author who hasn't been very active here in a couple of years, has over 1,000 (or was it 2,000?) reviews, that they decided to copy it, changing a few things, so they could enjoy all those reviews themselves. Still certainly no excuse for such behavior.

Anyways, I'm happy you are enjoying my little fic here.

HachimansKitsune : lol thanks, and here is your more. Hope you enjoyed it as well :-)