"What use have I for this silly trinket?"

The toymaker's whiskers drooped in disappointment. "It's very pretty, Your Majesty," he wheedled. "And it sings."

"Hm. Really." Unfortunately for the toymaker, the Goblin King didn't seem at all interested in his music box.

The toymaker nodded, not trusting his voice, and turned the key on the base of the music box. It shook so badly in his hands that he wondered if it, too, had a bad case of nerves. But after a few seconds, the dancer burst into song just as usual.

"Falling / falling in love..."

The Goblin King slowly turned to look at the toymaker for the first time. It was the most frightening thing the toymaker had ever seen, easily beating anything the Duchess of Batons could dole out. He swallowed past a sudden lump of terror in his throat and held out the music box for further inspection. His monarch's eyes narrowed, and the toymaker brushed a speck of imaginary dust from the roof of the music box.

"Is this meant to look like someone?"

"Erm, no, your majesty," the toymaker apologised. That was odd – both the duchess and the king appeared to think that the music box dancer was supposed to be someone. "It's just a rather pretty doll, don't you think?"

The toymaker worried that said doll would spontaneously combust from the force of the Goblin King's scrutiny. "It looks just like her. Except for the eyes. Her eyes were blue."

"Erm, whose eyes, Your Majesty?"

For a brief moment, the Goblin King looked far away, almost contemplative. Then he abruptly returned to the present. "No one. Just a girl." He sniffed boredly. "Now, get out of my sight, or face a very smelly eternity."

The toymaker bowed and scuttled backwards out of the throne room. It was only when he was out of the palace doors that he allowed himself to breathe a sigh of relief.


Jareth sat in complete silence for a long while after the toymaker left; so long, in fact, that the two attendant goblins, who he'd let into the room on the condition that they shut up so he could hear himself think, began to wonder if he'd fallen asleep. So the smaller of the two was understandably startled when the Goblin King reached out and grabbed him by the ear.

"Wh-what does Your Majesty wish?" he stuttered.

"What happened to her, do you know? The Duke of Batons' daughter?"

The attendant had only the slightest idea of whom his ruler was speaking, and even less idea of why it had come up. But he did his best. "The one who works as a nanny for her stepmother?"

"No, that can't be right. Who do you mean?"

"S...s..." The attendant wracked his brains for the name. "Sierra? No, Sarah. I'm sure that was her name. Sarah. Very tragic, her mother ran away nine years ago to chase some pitiful mortal and her stepmother's lorded it over her ever since."

"The Duke of Batons' daughter..." The grip on the attendant's ear relaxed as the Goblin King mused. "Her stepmother wouldn't be the Duchess Irene?"

"The very same one, sire."


The toymaker adjusted his hat as he finally returned to his stall. The music box was too precious to just let anyone buy, which was why he asked so much for it, but none of the people able to afford it had wanted it at all. He regarded the music box once more before wrapping it in a rag. It would never be sold now, not after both the Duchess of Batons and the Goblin King had turned it down.

The toymaker looked around, watching the goblins squabble in the street. He would hate for any of them to get their hands on the box, but inside knew there was no other choice.

Slowly, he turned to an abandoned alley and placed the box in a pile of rags. Someone would pick it up at some point if it was there.

The toymaker turned back to his stall, telling himself once more that there would be no point in keeping an unsellable item.

As day turned to dusk a small figure darted through the alley. He paused at the pile of rags, hazel eyes lighting as he uncovered the music box. He examined the figure and smiled, amazed.

"Perfect."


Sarah sighed as she sat down by the fire in the kitchen. Irene had returned a little while ago, sending Toby up to his room to sleep. She had taken no note of Sarah, and gone to the study for some reason. Sarah had begun to relax and was understandably surprised when a boy stepped through the door.

"There you are!" He exclaimed, moving over to sit by her. "I've been looking everywhere." Sarah smiled, moving to a more comfortable position.

"Lance, where have you been? Cook's been in a right state looking for you." Lance ducked his head, fishing something out of his pockets. He ran a hand through his muddy brown hair before handing Sarah the bundle.

Sarah gasped as she unfolded the rags, staring at the music box.

"Lance, I-" He grinned in response as Sarah continued. "How could you afford this?"

"The toymaker had thrown it away. He obviously didn't want any goblins to get it, so, I grabbed it for you."

Sarah stared in awe. "She looks like me," she noted, winding the key and listening to the song.

"Yeah, I noticed that too."

Sarah turned to him, smiling, and threw an arm around his neck. "Oh, thank you!"

Lance smiled, hugging her back. "You deserve it."

They broke apart as they heard footsteps approaching the door and Sarah hastily covered the box with rags again. Irene burst in, eyeing Lance uneasily before storming to Sarah.

"Toby's been crying for fifteen minutes and you have not yet gone to see what is the matter." She spat, grabbing Sarah and dragging her upright. Lance jumped to his feet, outrage obvious on his face.

"You can't keep forcing Sarah to do what you're too cold to do!" Irene dropped Sarah and turned to Lance, glaring at him.

"This is my house young man, and I shall do whatever I want, including getting rid of you." Lance took a step back, reality crashing in.

Sarah stepped in between them, clutching the bundle of rags to her body.

"There's really no need for that, I'll go check on Toby now." She left the room, trying to keep Irene from noticing the bundle. For once, things went her way.


AN: OHMIGOD.

It's been so freakin' long since we last updated, I won't blame you for being mad at me. First Chloe and I had to try to coordinate our efforts instead of randomly shooting inspirations all over the place, then I had to do everything that taking a trip overseas entails. But now I'm back, we have our plot hammered out, and hopefully there won't be this epic of a delay on the next chapter!

I hope you guys like Lance. (We thought we were clever.)