A/N: Oh my God, you guys! I am SO sorry for the wait. Two words: Research. Paper. It's taken up all my time this week, but I finally finished it yesterday.

Sarah pressed her body against Jareth's lean frame and tangled her fingers into his feather-soft hair. She felt him hum with approval against her lips and tighten his grip around her small waist.

He ravished her willing mouth with wild abandon and it felt right.

It felt natural.

Like it's meant to be. She thought blissfully.

When the need for air became impossible to ignore, she forced herself to turn her head and break contact, but he wasn't finished with her yet.

"…Sarah…Sarah…my beautiful…precious Sarah…" The Goblin King murmured heatedly between hungry kisses down her jawline and neck.

She was definitely going to faint.

Thankfully, he stopped before she could ruin the moment, and stared unabashedly into her eyes. His expression was a mix of adoration and lust.

"You don't know how long I've been waiting to kiss you that way, my Sarah." He whispered, heavily.

She tried, unsuccessfully, to keep her voice from wavering.

"W-well, what kept you?"

He stroked a gloved hand across the curve of her cheek.

"Do you really need to ask? I hardly think you would have been as…receptive fifteen years ago, considering how you smashed my lovely present." He reminded her with a slight grin.

Sarah's eyes widened and she felt her face flush scarlet.

"You…you mean…all that was…real?"

He nodded.

"In a sense, yes. Not physically, of course, it was only an illusion, but the message behind it was very real. It was my way of showing you what I could give you, and what you could give me."

"And that was…?"

"A queen."

She swore her heart stopped.

Oh my God! Is he…is he really?

"So…y-you actually were…proposing to me back then? A-and you meant it?"

"Every last word, precious."

Sarah's mind was assaulted with visions of her first visit to the Labyrinth. Every look he gave her, every gesture he made, and every sentence he spoke was now altered in her memory.

Unconsciously, she stepped away from him and moved to the edge of the tower, placing her hands on the parapet.

"Sarah?" He sounded quite nervous.

"Just give me a second." She reassured him with a wave of her hand. "This is kind of a lot to absorb. You realize I was only fifteen years old when we met? That I was, legally, still a child?"

"Only by human standards," Jareth pointed out, "but I understand your concern. I should have been more patient, but I couldn't help myself. I'd been waiting so long for the opportunity to make you mine."

Her brow furrowed in confusion for a moment before she turned around to face him.

"Ok, spill it." She demanded curiously, crossing her arms and leaning back against the battlement.

The fey smiled gently and fiddled with his cuffs.

"We met long before that night. Not officially, but I knew of you. As you know, I often travel to the Aboveground and observe human culture. One day, I was flying through a quaint little town in New York when I happened upon a small park. As I stopped to rest, I heard a child's voice." He lowered his arms and gazed at her tenderly. "It was so soft and clear, like a tiny bell; the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard.

The woman blushed again.

"I followed it to a stone bridge," he continued, "and there you were. A little five-year-old angel, playing by yourself, dressed like a medieval princess, and reciting Shakespeare of all things!"

He chuckled endearingly at the memory, and Sarah cracked a bashful smile.

"All I could think was how extraordinary you were. I watched you play Lady Macbeth and a female Hamlet all that afternoon. Over the next few years, watching you perform in that park became my favorite past-time. I couldn't understand why you fascinated me so. I was half-convinced you were part fey," he smirked, "you certainly didn't behave like a normal human child. You never played with other children, and you were never with your parents, it was always a nanny you seemed to have no connection with."

Sarah's face darkened sadly and she dropped her eyes to the floor.

"Mom was always on the road with her plays or rehearsing, and Dad worked all the time, even at home. All the other kids thought I was weird, dressing up and reading grown-up plays."

Jareth crossed to her and gently took her hands in his own.

"I understand how you feel, Sarah. I've been alone almost my entire life."

She looked up at him.

"Why?"

"I told you that I'm the most powerful being in the Underground. You'd think that would make me highly desirable among my own kind. It's quite the opposite actually."

"You-you mean…?"

"I'm an outcast." He admitted solemnly. "A bitterly hated outcast."

She couldn't believe her ears.

"B-but, I don't understand. Why would they hate you?"

He shrugged.

"Because they're afraid. They're afraid of my power. Of what I'm capable of."

Like moving the stars! Her mind shouted.

"Their fear isn't entirely unjustified." Jareth explained, squeezing her fingers comfortingly. "I'm somewhat of an anomaly. There is always one fey that possesses more power than the rest. When one dies, a new one is born to replace him. Throughout history, those…like me…have been known for committing monstrous acts. Not all, but most. They're driven mad by the rejection and isolation. They can't be killed, not by an outside force. They can only die of natural causes, so when they lose control and go on a rampage, so to speak, there is nothing anyone can do except wait until they come to their senses. That can take centuries."

"What about the ones that don't do anything wrong?"

He shook his head.

"It doesn't matter. The fey have been conditioned to believe that creatures like me are nothing but a threat and should continue being treated as such."

"But that's not…fair."

Jareth pulled her into his arms.

"That's the way it is, precious. But it doesn't matter."

Her eyes welled with tears.

"How can you say that? You mean your mother and your father…?"

"I am despised by all of my race, Sarah. Every last one."

She pressed her face into Jareth's chest, unable to stop the sobs racking her small frame. She cried for him, cried for his undeserved loneliness.

"There, there Sarah-mine." He soothed, massaging her trembling shoulders. "I don't care what they think. I have all the company I need right here with the goblins."

"I'm sorry," she sniffed, trying to rub away the tear stains on his shirt, "but I can't believe that you've been alone…forever."

Jareth tilted her chin up to meet his eyes.

"I used to think that forever was a miserably long time…until I met you. Then I realized it's not long at all. When you were ten years old, you came to the park, unsupervised for the first time. You had a new play to act out-"

"The Labyrinth!" She exclaimed.

He nodded.

"Yes, and when you opened your mouth to read the first lines from your little red book, my world turned. That book possessed all the secrets of my kingdom. The goblins, the wished away children, even myself. It was a tehta."

"A what?"

"Tehta is fey for sign. It's difficult to describe, but essentially, tehtas are physical objects unconsciously created over time by fey when they encounter a human that holds a certain unknown significance to them. That was the moment I knew. It was you. I'd been waiting for you. You were the one I was destined for. You were meant to be my only mate and queen."

Her jaw went slack in astonishment.

"I waited," he went on, "impatiently I might add, for the day I could have you. I waited for you to wish yourself to the Underground. You came quite close to doing just that several times in the next five years, especially after Toby was born. Then came that night, when you wished your baby brother away. It wasn't exactly the scenario I'd been hoping for, but I wasn't about to waste my opportunity. You were teetering on the brink of childhood, merely a breath away from becoming a woman. So I challenged you to the Labyrinth and you accepted, as I knew you would. You already knew of it, and you were thirsty for an adventure. To be a heroine, just as you always imagined. That's where things became…complicated."

He sighed heavily.

"I had a role to play. The book painted me as the villain and I had to meet up to your expectations and try to hinder your progress, but I couldn't let you fail. I couldn't risk you going home, empty-handed and forgetting all about me. I decided to be selfish and help you win, all the while pretending to be your enemy."

"You…helped me? How?" Sarah questioned feebly

He smirked at her.

"For one thing, I made sure that you met Sir Didymus, Ludo and Hoagie."

"Hoggle."

"Right." He said, dismissively. "I knew you would win them over with your innocence and charm. Who could resist you? It encouraged me, how easily you made friends with them. It proved what a remarkable queen you would be. Though I couldn't make it easy for you, I did ensure that you were never in any real danger. I made sure the door you chose led to the Helping Hands. I had the Cleaners chase you down the tunnel with a collapsible wall. I made sure Hoggle got to you in time to rescue you from the Firerys. When you fell to the Bog of Eternal Stench, I dropped you both down the one hole that led to the opening with something for one of you to grab onto. I knew Ludo would use his gift to save you when the bridge collapsed. I knew the dwarf would give into his desire to be your friend and come to help you defeat the Gate-Keeper. And I knew that with my most noble knight on your side, there was no way my goblin army could stop you."

Suddenly, his smirk fell and his eyes lowered, sadly.

"But as much as I wanted you to succeed, I wanted you to lose just as badly. I never wanted Toby, I wanted you. So I tried to distract you with that peach. I was so foolish. I should have known you weren't ready to give into the adult changes whispering inside you. In that ballroom, I tried to show myself to you as a man, but you didn't want to be a woman, not yet. So then, I tried to change tactics and assure you that you could have your childhood for as long as you liked, but that's not what you wanted either. By the time you reached the castle, I was desperate. I tried so hard to lure you, but you were only focused on Toby. As a last resort, I turned to world upside down and made one final plea, without breaking character, hoping that you'd understand."

He shuddered.

"But alas, you remembered and said those horrible words and I lost. You returned home a champion with your brother as the prize, and I was barred from your life in my alternate form."

He met her gaze then and she almost gasped at the wounded look he gave her.

"I wouldn't wish the heartbreak I felt on my worst enemy, Sarah. I was so afraid that I'd never have another chance with you. That you had rejected me forever, just like everyone else. That you hated me."

"Oh Jareth!" Sarah whimpered, reaching up to cup his cheek. "I never, hated you. I swear."

He turned his head to kiss her palm.

"I realized that when you told your friends that you needed all of us. I was ecstatic. You might not have realized it, but you included me when you said that."

"I did realize it."

His eyes widened in shock.

"You what?"

The human looked away sheepishly.

"I'd always had a crush on the Goblin King in the play. There was no way I wouldn't beattracted to the real thing. I know it's kind of pathetic, but I only went out with boys that reminded you of me in some way. Blonde hair, blue or brown eyes, names that started with a 'J'."

When he didn't answer, she forced herself to face him, only to have her lips captured again in a brief, but thoroughly spine-tingling kiss.

"You precious thing! I love you, Sarah Williams." He breathed against her lips. "I love you. I love you. You are all things to me. Sarah, marry me. Be my wife, my mate, my Goblin Queen. Say yes, my darling. Please, say yes!"

If she were to throw herself off the tower, Sarah was certain that she would soar through the sky like a bird. Her heart felt like it was about to burst with joy.

"Just let you rule me?"

"As your king."

"And I can have everything that I want?"

"Everything within my power."

"Fear you?"

"Respect me."

"Love you?"

"Always."

"Do as you say?"

"And I will be your slave. All these things I will do for you and more."

Standing up on her tiptoes, she delicately pressed her lips to his forehead before inclining her head to purr in his ear.

"Yes, Jareth. I will marry you. I will be your wife and queen."

No more words were needed and the stars shimmered brightly on the couple as they wiled away the evening hours with ardent caresses.

A/N: Am I forgiven?