I'd definitely like to thank DarkMoonFox for being very detail oriented and fixing spots that needed to be fixed.

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Despite Jareth's assurances that she could use generic greetings to anyone she might talk to at the ball, Sarah was determined to learn as many as she could, as well as the hand gestures that went with them. Amantial would get either bored or frustrated after just an hour or two of Sarah's practicing and would wander off to read or explore, often leaving Sarah alone in the library. It was during one of these instances that Jareth found her, trying to curtsy perfectly in one of the new dresses that had appeared in her closet the day before. The dress was a deep green with brown trimming, and sleeves that covered Sarah's hands, making practicing her hand gestures difficult. It had been one of the simpler dresses that she found hanging on one side of her closet, with laces in the front instead of behind her. The most difficult part of the dress had been the laces on the sleeves, as she had to do them one handed.

As Sarah swooped down into another curtsy, Jareth took pity on her and pushed off of the wall near the doors he had been leaning against while simultaneously summoning a crystal, which he tossed at the ground in front of her. It shattered and caused a small shriek of surprised to slip from Sarah, who jumped backwards and shot the Goblin King a glare.

"What was that for?" she huffed out, glaring even more at the amused smile on Jareth's face.

"My apologies, I should have warned you," he said with a small bow before moving to stand in front of her, gloved hands reaching out to turn her towards the mirror that the crystal shards had formed. "It would be easier for you to know what you are doing wrong, if you could see yourself. Now try again."

Sarah sighed and performed the curtsy movement again, her breath catching as Jareth's hand slid down her back, pressing against her spine. As she froze, he bent over, his lips almost brushing her ear while his hand stayed pressed against her back.

"Keep your back straight, and quit holding your breath," he murmured into her ear, a small smile playing across his lips when he noticed the way she bit into her lower lip. When she nodded, he drew back to his former position, though his hand still rested on her lower back. Her eyes flicked to his several times through the mirror as he waited patiently for her to try again and she had to really focus on not falling on her face when she dipped down again, his hand going with her.

"Good job, Sarah," he said as she came back to her feet and turned to look at him, forcing his hand to leave her back. She smiled brightly at his praise and raised a hand to brush her hair behind one ear, trying and failing to look like she wasn't a bit embarrassed.

"So this is where you've been hiding the past few days," Jareth commented as he placed his hands on his hips, a small smirk twisting his lips. "I thought you were avoiding me, not practicing your highborn bowing for the ball."

At the mention of the ball she was practicing for, Sarah seemed to straighten up and used both hands to brush invisible dirt from her skirts before looking Jareth straight in the eyes. He raised an eyebrow at the sudden change, waiting for whatever she wanted to say to come blurting out.

It didn't take long, and the Goblin King was completely stunned at the fast spoken, but clear words that spilled from Sarah's lips.

"Will you go to the ball with me?"

Jareth simply stared at Sarah for an unknown length of time, a look of surprise on his face. He was unable to get words out as Sarah started to look more and more uncertain, until she finally dropped her head with a hurt expression. Forcing himself to move, Jareth reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but is it not usually the man who asks the woman to the grand ball in a fairytale?"

Sarah's head shot up again and she gave him a weak glare, her arms coming up to cross in front of her chest. "Yes it is, but you hadn't asked and I'm not some simpering damsel in distress like in a story."

The Goblin King started to laugh and nodded, a wide grin on his face. "You are completely right, Sarah. And I would love to go with you."

"Now that we settled that, perhaps you can help me find a dress in my closet that will be acceptable?" Sarah asked, her eyes shining hopefully.

"Why not ask my sister?"

Sarah frowned and reached up to twist a piece of her hair before shrugging one shoulder. "I trust you more. I know you would never let me look like an idiot at something like this."

"Then let's go look," Jareth said and grabbed Sarah's hand, taking them to the spot outside of her doors in the hallway in the blink of an eye. He waited patiently for her to open the doors and walk in first before following, still lightly holding her hand in his. She didn't seem to care as she pulled him to the closet, gesturing with her free hands to the dresses that lined a wall.

"Oh God, there's more now than there was this morning!" She cried out and threw her hands up in the air, pulling away from Jareth in the process.

"I gave the seamstress free reign and it seems as though she took it to heart," Jareth commented as he started to pick through the dresses, discounting almost all of them immediately until he came across a pale gold, sleeveless dress. He pulled it from the hook it was hanging from and held it out to Sarah, who stepped closer and ran her fingers over the silver beading and jewels sewn into the bodice. There was more beading done on the top transparent layer of the skirt, which looked like it had glitter sewn into the fabric. A small gold flower rested at the hip and from it two wavy tendrils of tiny jeweled flowers snaked their way down the skirt, gradually getting further apart until they reached the bottom. As she turned the dress around, she wrinkled her nose at the lace up back.

"It's beautiful, but I'd need help with the back," she said, idly tugging at one of the ribbon laces.

"Sarah, you have a whole castle at your fingertips. Someone will definitely be around to help you with your dresses," Jareth told her before returning the dress to its hook, then moving over to rummage through one of the many jewelry boxes that lined a dresser nearby. He was on the third box when he plucked out a gold necklace that had what looked like mini versions of his magic crystals throughout it, and the earrings that matched. Sarah was staring at the boxes with a dismayed expression on her face, one hand pressed against her chest.

"Why are there so many jewels in there? I didn't ask for anything like that," she whispered, much to Jareth's amusement.

"The fairies enjoy making jewelry and having a woman here that can wear it seems to have sent them into overdrive. I wouldn't worry about it, they do it for fun."

Sarah nodded slightly as Jareth put the jewelry back, ignoring his amused expression as he turned back to look at her. He waited patiently until she got over the idea of so much jewelry and looked at him, then smiled. "If your dress is all picked out and you have no other need of my fashion sense, I should excuse myself from your rooms."

"Why?" Sarah asked with a confused expression, the corners of her mouth turning down in a frown. "For that matter, why do you never come into my rooms? I know I've given plenty of 'Go Ahead' signals, but you always leave me right at my door."

The Goblin King looked vaguely uncomfortable as he glanced around the room, hands tugging his gloves further up on his wrists. "It's… improper."

Sarah almost started to laugh, but stopped herself when she realized Jareth was being completely serious. It then occurred to her that if they dressed like they were from medieval times and curtsied like they were from the time period, the people of the Underground probably viewed the world around them the same. It made Sarah want to force Jareth to come with her to the Aboveground and take him to the beach, where girls wore bikinis. He'd probably have a fit. Completely amused by this idea, Sarah nodded and gestured towards the door with a sweep of her hand. "Alright, you may go act proper somewhere else then. I'm going to change so I can go run through the Labyrinth."

The Goblin King nodded and quickly left the closet, and out of her rooms altogether, leaving Sarah to change into leggings, her trusty boots, and a plaid shirt that one of her ex-boyfriends had left when she broke up with him. As she started to pull her hair up, she caught sight of herself in a mirror, then smirked when an idea came to her. Quickly securing her hair in an elastic band, Sarah left her rooms and went down the hallway a bit until she came to Jareth's. She knocked at the doors, but when there was no answer, she opened one and peeked inside. No Goblin King. Humming happily, she darted to his closet and hunted down a poet's shirt that had laces in the front that would keep her chest covered, then changed into it.

"He did say I could borrow something of his," she murmured to herself as she left his closet and went to his desk, looking for paper and a pen. Finding some, she quickly scrawled a message on the small piece of parchment she located and left it and the plaid shirt on his desk before leaving the room and heading for the entrance to the castle. She was disappointed when she didn't run into the Goblin King on the way down, but shrugged it off and headed to the closest entrance to the Labyrinth. She started through the maze at a jog, taking turns whenever she felt like it, and overall not really paying attention to where she was going. She came to a fork in the road that was exactly the same, with absolutely no differences that she could see, though she tried to find one for over ten minutes. Shrugging to herself, she decided to take the right passageway and walked for a while, until she reached a garden. Pretty flowers were everywhere and she knelt down to smell a bright purple one, not registering when a sparkle of magic released itself into her face when she touched the blossom. A sense of calm washed over her and she sighed quietly to herself as she sat down in a patch of the purple flowers, continuously bringing the petals to her nose and releasing the magic dust from them.

A faint rustling caused her to look up and she smiled at the small boy who padded his way over to her, his small legs shaking slightly as he had obviously just learned to walk by himself and hadn't gotten the hang of it yet. She instinctively caught him as he started to fall right in front of her and cradled him close, her fingers brushing through his wild blonde hair. A small smile formed on her lips when he reached out and grabbed her hand in his tiny one.

"Mama," he happily said, blinking his eyes that were a curiously mismatched. One green and one blue, that reminded her of something, though she couldn't remember what.

Leaning down and pressing a kiss to his head, she quietly replied, "Yes sweetheart, Mama's here."

The little boy made a happy noise and cuddled closer, giggling when she broke off a nearby flower and tickled his nose with it. She was so busy playing with the child that she didn't notice when hours passed and it got dark in the garden, with the exception of the area around her, which glowed brightly. Somewhere along the way she had started to call the boy "Diormid" and to her surprise, he answered her every time she did. A small bird landed on her knee and both Sarah and Diormid took turns petting it and Sarah made up a silly story about a baby bird that seemed to amuse the child. So involved in her story and the child's reactions, she let out a startled cry when a gloved hand roughly pulled her from the flowers and pulled her against a warm body. She struggled and tried to reach for the child that had been left behind, a confused expression forming on her face when she couldn't find him. Looking up at the person who was holding her, Sarah was surprised to see the worried face of the Goblin King staring down at her.

"What… are you doing here, Jareth?" She asked in a confused voice.

"You've been out here for hours, Sarah. Stuck in a dream. Did you not see what Garden you were in?" he gestured with his head to the area around them and Sarah blinked several times until she realized where they were.

"This is the garden where my father gave up," she murmured.

"Yes, and you were dangerously close to giving into the dream yourself," Jareth told her, then looked curiously at the spot where she had been sitting. "What was your dream?"

"You didn't see?"

"I was busy trying to send the magic away from you and pull you up," he said, keeping one hand wrapped tightly around her wrist.

Sarah nodded absentmindedly and looked at the spot where she had been playing with the boy, noting that bits of gold magic still tried to cling to her in spots. She waved it away before leaning into Jareth, relying on him to keep her mind clear of the hazy dreams that were still trying to trap her. Turning her face away from the purple flowers and into his chest, Sarah muttered, "Can you take me back now?"

Jareth nodded and used his magic to bring them to the library in the castle, pulling her down to sit next to him on the couch. She turned her head in the direction she somehow knew the garden was in, her body itching to go back and her feet willing to take her there. The Goblin King seemed to realize this and placed one arm around her shoulders, keeping her firmly against his side.

"Let go of the dream, Sarah," he commanded, using his free hand to grip her chin and force her to look at him. Sarah stared at him with a hazy expression for a minute before she smiled faintly and reached up to touch his cheek.

"Your eyes," she whispered as her thumb slid across his cheekbone. Jareth cursed quietly, causing her to frown and shake her head as he pulled back, his hand moving from her chin to pull away the hand on his face.

"Sarah, focus. Now answer my questions, okay?" At her nod, Jareth asked her name.

"Sarah Williams."

"And where did you live as a teenager?"

"Carolina."

Jareth smiled and released her hand, which dropped down to her lap. "Good. Now, what was your profession?"

"A…teacher. I was a teacher," Sarah said in a confident tone, pulling back a little when she realized how close they were. Her eyes had cleared significantly and Jareth breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Did you once defeat the Labyrinth?"

"Yes, after you stole Toby," she confirmed with a nod.

"One last question," The Goblin King said, his eyebrow raising slowly. "Is that my shirt you are wearing?"

Sarah looked down at her chest and blushed faintly, her fingers moving to play with the hem of the shirt as she nodded. "You said I could borrow things from your closet if you got to see me in them. And well, you're seeing me."

Jareth was about to comment on that when Sarah's stomach grumbled and her hands covered it in embarrassment. Shaking his head, Jareth stood up and held a hand out to her, which she hesitantly took. He pulled her to her feet, then started for the doors. "Come on, your adventures in the Labyrinth have caused you to miss another meal. You'll get sick if this keeps up."

"Or I'll finally fit into my skinny jeans again," Sarah muttered as she walked beside the Goblin King, who gave her a frowning glance but said nothing. The rest of the walk was completed in silence but for the sound of their feet on stone and the creaking of the kitchen door. Jareth pointed to a small table shoved in the corner of the kitchen while he started to pick things from around the kitchen and bring them near the stove. Sarah went and sat on one of the chairs and watched the Goblin King stir the ingredients in a bowl, then dropped them in a pan. She had to hide a laugh with a cough as the image of him in an apron with a silly slogan on it appeared in her head, and got a curious glance over his shoulder from Jareth.

Shaking her head and waving her hand flippantly, Sarah turned her eyes away from the cooking king and raised her eyebrow when she saw a dirty little goblin peeking out from behind a crate. Its eyes went wide when he saw her staring at him and he quickly did a weird ducking ninja roll behind another crate. Smiling softly, Sarah looked away from the crate the goblin was now behind and saw Jareth coming her way, a plate in his hand. As he placed it and a fork in front of her, she gave him a surprised look.

"You know how to make pancakes?"

Jareth frowned and sat down at the table, his arms crossed in front of him. "You don't like pancakes?"

Sarah had to hide another laugh at the pouting look he gave her and picked up the fork. "No, I like pancakes. I just didn't think the Goblin King, Mr. "May Dreams Never Die" would know how to make pancakes."

As she cut a piece from the top pancake, she glanced at Jareth out of the corner of her eyes and had to force herself not to roll her eyes at his pleased expression.

"So you learned the Goblin Kingdom's words, did you?" he asked in a smug tone, his arms uncrossing so he could roll a conjured crystal over his hands.

"Well I thought I should know the words for the kingdom I'll be living in. It's my home now, after all."

Sarah then looked down at her plate to cut another piece of food and entirely missed the triumphant smile that appeared on Jareth's face.

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