DISCLAIMER: I know you're surprised...but I do not own the Labyrinth

WARNINGS: fluff and language

A/N: This is a book of simple fluff but it has deeper things coming up. Be patient my friends :)

I was sitting in my new and amazing room. It had been two days but I had finally gotten all my stuff into the basement. Oh the joys of moving to a quiet atmosphere.

I think I am truly starting to scare my parents, though. They claim I've been overly happy. They seem to think that I've gone truly insane. That's fine with me.

I decided that I should start working on my homework because tomorrow is the big party. I don't have to show up for long, only about an hour, but Karen wants me to at least visit a little bit. Thankfully, the basement will be closed off so I can have some privacy but it still won't be quiet enough for me to do my homework.

I sighed as I looked at everything I had to do. Teachers loved to give me homework right before a really big break like this one. I had two essays, a book lecture (basically an essay but given in speech form), and a powerpoint presentation to set up. Plus, I SHOULD be doing my math homework for this week so i don't fall behind but given everything that I've already been assigned, I seriously doubted that was going to happen.

Well, c'est la vie. I turned on my laptop and prepared to do an enormous amount of work when I heard something fall into the couch across from my chair.

I looked up to find...The Goblin King? What the hell is he doing here?

"Hello, Sarah." He sounded almost bored.

"Umm...hello...can I help you? I don't remember wishing away any babies recently."

He chuckled at that. "Well, honestly Sarah, my little spit fire, I am bored."

I was speechless. A king of a WHOLE labyrinth was bored?

"Well, you could make ME the King. I would rather do that then all this homework. Why are you here of all places, if you are "bored"? I'm sure there is far more interesting things to do in your world than mine."

"Actually, Sarah, there is not. The creatures in my world like to fight and moan about who gets to be in the Labyrinth to catch all the runners or who is the better of them all in pointing people in the wrong direction. You see, my dear, the Labyrinth is like a sport. You would think that all the attention would be on the person that is running it, but actually, it is on the ones who distract from the castle. They are all in competition with each other because it is how they all make a living. Therefore, stupid arguments, much like sports, break out and cause me to do hours and hours of boring work that consists of The Goblin King breaking up fights and making new laws, which, also end in fights for the most part. Does that sound fun to you?"

Wow. Now that I actually started to think of all the planning and things that go into being a Goblin King, I kind of get why he's willing to get away from it for a while. I would still much rather be doing that than homework, but I get it. Although...

"Well...why me, then?"

He looked confused. "Well, you beat my Labyrinth...why not you? In the past 300 years, you have been the most interesting person I have ever talked to."

I blushed, to my chagrin.

"Oh...well..I guess if you're irritated with everyone in the underground...I wouldn't mind if you kicked it in here for a while. You're helping me with my homework, though."

He cringed. Apparently, they had homework in the Underground, too. I laughed and assured him that it wasn't so awful. I'M the one who had to do most of the work. All I did was show him how to use Powerpoint on my laptop. He look truly pleased with himself as he got the hang of it. I suppose when he was in school, he didn't have access to the computer so being excited was normal. After about an hour of him grinning at the computer, I started to grow worried about what he was doing, though. Sometimes the creatures of the Labyrinth grew very proud of things that weren't so agreeable in the Aboveground. Whatever, I can always fix what he does wrong. Hopefully.

I truly think that this is the most fun I have ever had working on homework in my whole life. Showing Jareth such simple school things was hilarious. He picked up a bendy ruler, in awe, and asked where he could get one. I laughed hysterically.

"Probably the nearest Smart Buy."

"I have heard of this Smart Buy. People buy really cheap things there. Am I correct?"

I grinned. "Yes. It's a really bad place for workers because they are poorly treated and payed but it is nice if you don't have a lot of money."

He looked astonished. "People work to give other people cheap things, basically doing them a favor, and they barely get PAYED?"

I was surprised at how passionate he got about this. Generally, I didn't really think about it all that much.

"Well...it's a little more complicated than that, but basically, yes."

He shook his head. "Sometimes I don't understand the Aboveground people."

I nodded. "Sometimes I don't either, and I live here."

He looked up from fiddling with the bendy ruler and massive eraser. "Sarah?"

"Yes?"

"Well, what do you plan on doing here? You really don't belong. You admit that Earth things are foolish...so why stay? You know as the defeater of the Labyrinth you're welcome to live there anytime you choose."

I mused over this. I've already answered this question so many times to my self but it sounds so much more practical when he says it.

"Well, Toby needs me and I want to do something on this planet worth talking about. I want to become a doctor who saved a cancer patient or a scientist who comes up with an injection to cure AIDs or even a teacher who lets kids know that there is hope for people like me who really don't belong. I am living proof that thoughts can be enough to change your life forever. Why not spread that greatness?"

He looked lost in thinking. "I guess I should know by now that you will always have a mind destined for greatness...but should you ever change your mind, you know you are always welcome in the Underground."

I nodded. "Thank you but after steeling my baby brother and informing me that it's really not so great as I thought, I think I shall remain in the Aboveground, for now. Perhaps one day, when I'm a legend worthy of storytelling by my children's children, I shall return and happily die there."

"Well, you can never die in the Underground. Once you are there, you can never age. Which is why I am exactly 511 years old. If I lived here, I would have been dead a long time ago." He laughed as if that was such a ridiculous notion.

I scoffed. "Well, I really wouldn't want to be an old lady for that long."

"Well, then, hurry up and become a legend while you're still young." He said this as if it were the easiest thing to do in the whole world.

"Pshh...yeah okay...I'll work on that." I said.

"Good." He replied.

Clearly, the Underground does not have sarcasm.

We both worked in silence for a while. Each reflecting on the other's regard on life, when I realized that I didn't particularly know anything about the man other than that he was the king of goblins.

"So, Jareth, I know what you do as a king, but what do you do for fun?"

He blinked. "Well, I like to paint, a lot, actually. I enjoy reading, going to plays, watching movies, playing the piano, playing the harp, and anything to do with music, really. I like to swim during the warm weather and sing to the goblins on cold wintery nights in the castle. I'm a rather simple man, I guess. I'm afraid that I'm not all that exciting, my dear."

"Well, I think exciting is over rated. I understand not wanting to be out in the open all the time and living for the "thrills of life". I suppose after living 511 years, you don't really find a lot of things that you like to do anymore."

He thought about that. "Well, that isn't all true. Sometimes, every once in awhile, I'll find something new that I like to do from one of the importers to my island. The latest thing, I've decided that I love, is fencing. This man brought spices and herbs to me but would not let me buy any of them unless I paid double just because I was the King. Usually, Kings have more money than their loyal subjects but this is the Goblin Kingdom we're talking about, so naturally, I was peeved and I challenged him to a duel. Frankly, he was a lot better than I was. When I asked if he did sword practice, he stated that he practiced something called fencing. Clearly, I was intrigued. I asked him to teach me in exchange for buying out his whole cart of spices and he complied without further question. I have been practicing for 124 years since then, and I think I could out best anyone in the sport."

"Wow. What did you do with all of the spices after that?"

He shrugged. "I gave them to the Goblins. I justified it in my mind that I got the spices for free and I was really paying for the fencing lessons." He grinned.

I laughed as I imagined all of this happening and I couldn't help but be grateful that he was here. I was almost done with everything on my homework list when I only expected to get a quarter of it finished.

I never thought that this man could be so agreeable. I guess I could only judge him based on what he did to my little brother. But, I can't even blame him for that because I was the one who wished him away. I also won and got my brother back so really, I think the past is in the past and I should move on. Jareth is different than I thought.

"Well, then, I guess we should see what you've come up with on this powerpoint of yours." I said.

He was ecstatic about it so I figured I would at least humor him.

To my pleasant surprise, he actually didn't do anything wrong. It looked wonderful! Somehow he had made his own templates...except they were real pieces of art from different time periods. This was amazing! I never thought in a million years that he could do something so wonderful after only knowing how to work this for 2 hours.

I was beaming. I felt bad even claiming this as mine in school. It really was that brilliant.

"Well, you have certainly outdone yourself, Goblin King."

"I should hope so, I spent a lot of time on that dreadful contraption." He said, referring to the computer.

"Well, I really appreciate it. I wouldn't have gotten nearly as much of this done if I didn't have your help."

He smiled at this saying, "Well then, it was my pleasure."

There was an awkward pause as we both realized how civil we were being to each other and I decided to interrupt the silence.

"Well, since you like movies would you like to watch one with me? You deserve it after how much you helped me out."

He looked sadly down at his crystal. "Sorry, Sarah, I must unfortunately decline. Three hours in the Aboveground is enough to set my world to pieces and I must leave. One of these days, I shall visit again and make damn sure we watch that movie, though. I haven't watched a movie in ages. Too busy dealing with these fools..." Without even so much as a goodbye, he poofed out of the room in a large cloud of glitter...when will he ever stop surprising me?