There were a couple of things Sarah wanted out of life right now. Among them were a good night's sleep, some mindless TV, pizza, enormous piles of money, good dental insurance, and Disney Land. And maybe a boyfriend. What she got, however, was an unpaid day off (the technical difficulties at the theater had gotten even worse) and a broken coffee machine. And she really wanted coffee. Yeah. That was probably at the top of the list.

In theory, she could walk over to the Starbucks a couple of blocks away, but in all honesty? That seemed like too much effort for an overpriced cup of caffeine. Not to mention that her current outfit wasn't very conductive to interacting with the public and she didn't feel like changing.

So Sarah lay sprawled out on her couch, wearing a pretty damn accurate replica of Xena's costume (circa season one of Xena: Warrior Princess. Shit had been terribly time consuming and expensive, but had definitely paid off.) and watching reruns of said show. Everyone had their hobbies. This happened to be one of hers.

Once she thought about it, it was probably pathetic that both her work and her hobbies revolved around acting, costumes, and fantasy, but then again, her neighbor was a stripper with day job, so it couldn't be all that bad.

Speaking of her neighbor... A little worm of an idea began to wriggle its way into Sarah's mind. Jareth had a coffee machine. She had his key. It's not breaking and entering if you're invited in, quote, "welcome back any time." Sarah glanced at her clock. She had a good twenty minutes until Jareth got back from filling in for Bob. Or Randall. She couldn't really remember his name, and it didn't really matter, anyways.

Clambering up off the couch (with some artistic clinking and swearing as the costume pinched in uncomfortable places), she grabbed her keys and tiptoed over to her door. Opened it a crack. Looked to the left, looked to the right, realized there was no one there, and, locking the door behind her, darted across the hall. A couple of moments of fumbling with the key, and she was inside.

The place was still just as much of a mess as it had been a couple of days back. Sarah sighed, and picked her way past the labyrinth of clothing and into the kitchen, which was surprisingly clean. Well, everyone had their priorities.

The coffee machine stood next to the stove, shining like a beacon in the darkness. It was bedazzled. Sarah snorted. Jareth had a bedazzled coffee maker. Oh, well, she couldn't really say she was surprised.

A couple of minutes of cupboard raiding and intense staring at the machine later, Sarah had finally found the coffee and figured out which button she had to press. This really shouldn't be this hard. When the machine started doing its thing, Sarah wandered back out to the living room and gave the whole thing a skeptical once over.

All the boxes were very clearly labeled to the point where it should be pretty easy to just sort everything. Well, she was using his coffee machine, might as well give something back for it...

Sarah never really liked cleaning, but for the sake of coffee and a friend, she was ready to do even that. The fact that the friend in question was insanely attractive was just a plus.

To her surprise, she soon forgot all about the coffee and completely immersed herself in sorting through dresses and lingerie. The man had a wide collection of both, some of which she had to ask him to borrow sometime later, if such an occasion arose. And she hoped it did, because that red dress was absolutely gorgeous.

She had gotten two boxes out of the way, cleared off the couch, and was onto the underwear when the doorbell rang. Did Jareth forget his key again? Sighing, she got up and went to open the door.

"Hey, nice to see you're back. I was just cleaning up a bit since... Oh. Hello."

"Hello, dear."

The person on the other side of the door was definitely not Jareth. For one thing, they were way too short, and their skin too dark. For another, they were a woman. A little old lady, more specifically, with a short white afro and large, horn rimmed glasses. She was holding a large stack of papers and smiling pleasantly.

"Hi."

"I'm from the school," said the lady, her smile growing wider as she got a closer look at what Sarah was wearing, "Is Jareth home?"

Sarah squinted slightly. School? Was that the name of a club? The lady looked nothing like a stripper.

"No. I'm just waiting for him," Sarah said, realizing that the woman must be from Jareth's day job, "I can just take the papers for him."

The old lady nodded in approval, "Nice to see young man has landed himself a girl like you. What's your name?"

"Sarah."

"Sarah. What a nice name. However, I would rather give these to him in person."

Shit. The room was a mess.

"Um, I'm not sure I can ask you to come in, Mrs...?"

"Mrs. Ket. But really, just call me Anne, it's Mrs. Ket only to the children. And I'm sure it's alright-"

Children?!

"No, Mrs- Anne. I'm so sorry, it's a mess," said Sarah, attempting to block the door.

"Oh, I can deal with a little bit of a mess. Jareth'll be alright with it. We both work with five year olds, after all."

And that's when it clicked. Jareth was a kindergarten teacher.

Anne took advantage of Sarah's stupor to push past her and into the living room.

"Just moving in, I see," Anne said, surveying the room.

"Yeah," said Sarah, deciding to go along with it, "Just been unpacking."

The old woman raised an eyebrow at the blue lace panties hanging from the door to the bathroom, "How nice it is, being young."

Sarah blushed.

"And what's... uh... The pole for?"

Shit. She probably didn't know about the... other... jobs.

"Exercise," said Sarah, starting to weave up a lie,"My sister's a professional pole dancer. Does it for the art. She got me into it a couple of months back. I'm nowhere near as good as her, but it keeps me fit."

Anne nodded wisely, "Sexercise."

"Right," said Sarah, mildly disturbed, "Sexercise. Would you like a seat?"

"That would be nice," said the teacher, placing the papers down on the coffee table.

"What are the papers for?" asked Sarah.

"Oh, field trip forms to the petting zoo. He doesn't talk about work much, does he?"

Sarah shook her head, "Not even a bit."

"I wonder why. He's great with children. They love him, the mothers adore him... Well, that's probably the reason, there."

"Excuse me?"

"He probably didn't want you to be jealous. The mothers are all over him, after all. They eased up a bit after you two started dating, but there's still a steady flow of invitations from some of the more cougar-like types."

"Since we started dating?" said Sarah faintly.

"Well, yes. Jareth's a good one. Keep him close, he'll make a good husband one day. Now. Enough about that, what do you do for a living?"

"Well, I'm an actress."

The woman gave her the look over her thick glasses, "Not that sort of actress, I hope."

"No. No! I mostly do a lot of Shakespearian work, although I've done a couple of musicals lately."

"Well, that's alright, then. I'm sorry. With all the..." Anne waved a hand at the clothes around the room, "I just assumed."

"It happens," said Sarah, forcing a smile.

xxx

After five minutes, the conversation mellowed out and became a bit more enjoyable. After another five, Sarah heard the telltale sign of the key turning in the lock, and jumped up, rushing over to the door just as it opened.

"Honey!" she exclaimed, drawing a rather stunned (and thankfully normally dressed) Jareth in for a hug, and leaned forward in such a way that from the couch it looked like a very passionate kiss.

"Anne's here. She thinks we're dating," Sarah hissed, "I'm saving your ass here, said the pole's mine. So play along."

Still looking rather dazed, Jareth dropped his bag to the ground and hugged Sarah tightly, hands low on her waist. Sarah tilted her head slightly, then moved back, figuring the fake kiss (thank you, acting!) had gone on long enough.

"Must be nice to be young," said Anne from couch, smiling contently.

"Oh. Anne. Hello," said Jareth, keeping an arm around Sarah's waist.

"Hello," said the old lady, getting up, "Just stopped by to drop off these papers, and Sarah and I got talking. She's a nice girl."

"That she is," said Jareth, smiling slightly and kissing the top of Sarah's head.

"Well, I must get going now. So sorry. Got to rush. I realize the two of you must have some evening plans," Anne said with a wink, bustling out the door, "So nice meeting you. Bye bye."

"Bye bye," chorused Sarah and Jareth, still attached at the hip.

Jareth's coworker smiled and shut the door behind her.

The two neighbors stood there, recovering from the little whirlwind of a lady.

"Jareth?"

"Yes, Sarah?"

"You can let go of my waist now."

"Right. Sorry."

Jareth moved away, blushing slightly. Sarah raised an eyebrow.

"Anne can be a bit... much," said Jareth, "Why were you here, anyways? And what are you wearing?"

"My coffee machine is broken and this is a perfect replica of Lucy Lawless's costume from Xena: Warrior Princess."

"Nice. And couldn't you have just gone to Starbucks?"

"I didn't want to change!"

Jareth sighed, "Well, what now?"

"You owe me one, now," said Sarah smugly, "Kindergarten teacher? Really?"

"Yes, really," gritted out Jareth, "What do you want? The moon? The stars? Your deepest desires?"

"All very nice, but paying for my Starbucks should be a good start," smiled Sarah.

"Just that?"

"Yeah. You in?"

"Sure."

"Let me just go throw a coat over this, then."

"Alright."

"Ok. See you in a few."

"Right. Oh, and Sarah?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"Thank me with caffeine. And explaining why she thinks you have a girlfriend."

"Done."

"Fantastic."