After a couple of hours in the mess, Sarah was certain that the only thing more awkward than your own family dinners were other people's family dinners. And not only awkward, but terrifying.

"So, Sarah," said Jareth's mother, pleasantly enough.

Sarah smiled professionally and scooted closer to Jareth until she was practically on his lap. Safety in numbers and all.

"Yes, Tina?"

"Oh, don't be so formal," said the pale woman with a wave of a hand, "Call me mother!"

"Alright, Tina."

Ron laughed softly, earning himself a glare from his wife.

"There's no winning with some people," the man said, giving his wife a pointed look.

This prompted a flurry of words from Tina and quiet rebuffs from her husband. The argument grew more and more heated, and before Sarah knew it, Ron was the one with his voice raised and Tina was the one smirking with a bit too much self satisfaction.

"Mother, father," said Jareth eventually, yawning, "How about you two stop flirting get back to your scheduled interrogation. It's getting late, and the children are a force to be reckoned with."

The married couple fell silent, looking rather sheepish.

"What? Would you like me to get out your list of threatening questions?" asked Jareth mockingly.

"I think they've got it," said Sarah mildly, leaning over to put her head on Jareth's shoulder, "Or would you like a minute to go over your notes?"

Tina smiled a serpent's smile, "So, Sarah, where is it that you work?"

"Jumping right into the deep end, mother?" muttered Jareth.

Sarah elbowed him in the side. To Tina, she said, "I'm an actress. The show I'm working on is currently a bit behind schedule, but I'm looking into auditioning for one or two others on all of these down days."

"And what's your day job?"

"That is my day job," said Sarah, smiling tightly, "And I'm good at it."

"We don't doubt that," said Ron quickly, "I'm sorry. Rudeness runs in her side of the family. Now, how did you say you met Jareth? At his... night job?"

"Yeah," Sarah shrugged, "Hoggle introduced us, you could say."

"Hoggle?" Tina's face brightened in much the same way that a funeral pyre blazes up, "He willingly introduced you to my son?"

"Not willingly," said Jareth, "More like-"

"Hush, child," said Tina imperiously, "Let Sarah answer."

Sarah and Jareth exchanged a look. Like the mature, responsible, adults that they were, they'd had their story straight for a while now.

"More like he told me to stay away from Jareth," continued Sarah, "And then the two of us met by accident. Sharing a mutual friend, and I'm using that term loosely, we struck up a conversation."

"And it was you that offered him a ride home?" asked Ron.

"I was doing some character study that day," said Sarah, "We'd known each other for a bit, gone on one or two dates, and it seemed like the good thing to do. It was then that we figured out we live in the same building."

"So you're neighbors?" asked Ron.

"I told you we were," said Jareth.

"Yes, dear, but we assumed you were lying," said his mother sweetly.

"That's a pretty fair assumption," smiled Sarah.

"Does no one in this room trust me?" asked Jareth, dramatically throwing his hand over his heart.

"No," said Sarah and Tina simultaneously. Ron shrugged.

Jareth gave the two women a look of true horror, "You two aren't going to be getting along all of a sudden, aren't you?"

"I certainly hope so," said Tina primly, "If she's going to be around for a while."

Sarah grinned, nodding slightly.

"I swear, if you two were children, you'd be fist bumping," Jareth muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose.

The two women exchanged a look. Tina held out a fist. Sarah did the same. Their hands collided. Jareth looked physically pained.

"You know, that's the first time that I've seen you getting along with one of your... people," said Ron.

"She liked some of them!"

"Just the Jenkins boy," said Tina, "I like people who are on my level of... How should I put this?"

"Bitchiness?" asked Sarah thoughtfully.

The pale woman snapped her fingers, "Exactly!"

"You know most people would take that as an insult?" asked Jareth.

"I have no idea why," shrugged Tina, "I'm confident, I'm in charge, and I get what I want. If that's the word I have to use to describe it, so be it."

Sarah let out a laugh, relaxing visibly. Perhaps other people's families weren't that bad.

Author's Note:

Oh man, I know I should be updating more often, and I do have a bunch of ideas, it's just it's been a rather stressful time. School's almost over, I've had chicken pox for two and a half weeks, and there's so much make up work I have to do now! Plus I've started an original work of my own, and oh my god there's just a lot going on. Give me three more weeks, and I'm sure I'll have chapters pouring in at a faster rate. I'll try to get another one or two in next week.
Meanwhile, would you just take a look at Tina and Ron's failed good cop/bad cop routine. I'm sorry if this chapter wasn't worth the wait, I just typed it up in like twenty minutes because I felt bad for not updating. I'll try for something more exciting next time.