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ladyofstardust · 7 years ago

Text

Thursday night is just okay for fighting

Word Count: 7k

Rating: T

Summary: In which Sarah just wants some freaking chicken piccata okay? Oh and also there are some witches when Jareth and Sarah Scooby Doo their way into hijinks with the local coven as Crocodile Rock plays in the background.

Notes: Apartment-verse fic. Set some months after the events of This Forever I Keep Hearing About.

Sarah let herself into her apartment's lobby and pulled out her keys to check the mailbox. As per usual, there wasn't much there save for a few bills and some junk mail. She also grabbed the pile of discarded junk mail her neighbours had left forgotten in the mailroom. If anyone ever wondered where all the junk mail went, they never asked. But the goblins just loved the bright colours and all the little product samples that sometimes came with them. She'd dole them out as rewards for good behaviour. She knew it was weird, like "good job Crumple, here's a Chinese food menu for not eating all my soap this week." But hey, it worked, so who was she to complain.

Jareth on the other hand was getting annoyed about the black market of coupons Sarah had unleashed upon the Underground but ever since he had more or less moved into her bedroom, (and kitchen...and living room) he was much more willing to tolerate goblin shenanigans.

She didn't bother unlocking her front door. Jareth knew what time she got home from work and would leave the door unlocked for her. She could smell the dinner he was cooking wafting through the hallway.

"Babe?" she called out as she walked through the door.

"In the kitchen," he replied. "I'm just doing up the leftovers from last night. Can you just grab the bag of asparagus I left in the living room? I want to toss it into the pan before I pop it back in the oven."

"You went...grocery shopping?" she asked confused. Sarah wasn't sure Jareth even knew where the grocery store was. She was struggling to picture him in full Goblin King regalia wandering through the aisle wondering if they needed more cornstarch. Though she knew that if he had gone to the grocery store he would have dressed in his human disguise. He only ever left the house dressed like an otherworldly fop from 1890 when he didn't have to interact with anyone but her. One of the benefits to living in the city, people just wrote him off as weird. Though they had no idea just how weird.

"No, I got it from the palace gardens. Your little dwarf friend does have a gift for making the plants sing."

She wasn't sure if he was being literal and gave the asparagus a second look to make sure it wasn't secretly sentient. It was near impossible to bring food over from Underground - unless you were a Faerie King that is. The first time Sarah had tried to bring leftovers home from a picnic with Ludo and Hoggle, they'd turned to dried leaves in her hand the minute she stepped through the mirror. Apparently it was part of the old treaties or the Goblin Fruit Law. If Faerie wanted to be left alone, it had to stop tempting people to go find it. This meant no more changeling babies, no more Goblin Fruit, and the free passages had to be sealed. Unless called on specifically. General thought was if humans wanted to be stupid, Faerie would let them. While Sarah didn't agree with their loopholes and semantics arguments, mostly Faerie kept to itself and she didn't want to poke that bear.

Which is why she'd rushed home to talk to Jareth.

"So I think something weird is happening down by the university," she said, bringing the non-sentient asparagus into the kitchen.

"Weird how?" he said with muted interest. He was busy fiddling with her oven again. Luckily she had a gas stove and he couldn't break that too. Or she hoped he couldn't. Jareth had a talent for frying her electronics in new and physically impossible ways.

"Yeah that's the thing. I don't know," she began rinsing and chopping the asparagus to throw in the pot. "It was just this feeling. I was taking a shortcut through the field behind the auditorium and it felt like there was something there that shouldn't be. It was an open field, and I could see there was nothing...but it kind of smelled and felt like magic."

He stopped playing with the oven.

"Well, are you sure?"

She nodded.

"Alright then, what would you like to do?" he carefully removed the "Kiss the Cook" apron he was wearing. She didn't own a Kiss the Cook apron, he'd just shown up one day wearing it.

"I want to go check it out, and stop it if I don't like what it is."

His grin could have split the city it was so wide. "There's my Sarah, nothing like a bit of magical mayhem to spice up a Thursday night."

He waved his hand and was dressed in a black leather jacket, dark jeans, boots, and his hair was pulled back. He had stopped putting the illusion over his eyes after she told him how she hated it.

"What about dinner," she asked gesturing to the bubbling pan.

"It'll keep," he waved a hand and the pan stopped mid-bubble. "Minor holding spell. Should last a couple hours at least."

He extended a gloved hand towards her and she took it. Jareth pulled her into a spin the way one might during a dance, and when he spun her back out they were a couple blocks from the field.

"I didn't want to get too close. We don't know who or what this is and if you can feel their magic, they might be able to sense mine. Best not play our hand before we know what the game is."

"Makes sense," she replied, heading off towards the campus. They'd discovered she got far less vertigo travelling with him if she moved into it. This often meant a dance or a spin. He'd said it wouldn't be necessary if she stopped fighting the magic so much, but at this point she didn't even know how. Jareth was pretty good at not being seen unless he wanted to be, normally he didn't care (and Sarah suspected he enjoyed the looks), but it was handy for popping into and out of places. People suddenly all got very interested in their phones and didn't notice two people spinning their way out of a back alley.

"So how was work? Did that pustule of a man try any of his foolish games with you again today?"

"Yeah, God, he's the worst. Today he dropped a bunch of papers on the ground and asked me to pick them up for him. I'm a hundred percent sure he was only asking me to stare at my ass while I did it."

"Want me to fill his bedroom with goblin feces?" Jareth growled.

"No," she said firmly, before someone could get any ideas. "I think Robert already suspects there's something weird about me. He's started making comments about how I never seem to fall prey to any of the petty misfortunes that the rest of the office suffers from."

"Like what?" Jareth asked, genuinely intrigued.

"Well for starters the copier is never jammed for me. I always find a fresh pot of coffee in the break room, I've never had any technical problems, a small miracle since our tech was outdated in 1986, and I can always find a meeting room when I want one. Stuff that doesn't seem like much but kinda starts to add up if you draw attention to it. Since he's always watching me, on account of being a giant creep, he's noticed."

"That's not...great," Jareth finally said with a bit of concern. "I suspect it's just a bit of magical interference. Though I should mention so that you are aware," he stopped walking and took her hand in his. Sarah's heart sped up. She didn't like where this was going. "When we began our...relationship, I placed an order of protection on you."

She was right, she did not like it.

"What does that mean exactly," she said carefully, trying not to jump to any conclusions.

"It means that you, and the life you lead, which I'll acknowledge my part in, attracts a certain amount of attention for the magical community. Humans aren't supposed to have this much contact with the magical world, it breaks quite a few of our laws and the punishments for that are relatively serious. Now I was able to hide you reasonably well, but if you were discovered there is a very real risk you could be taken Underground permanently, or have all your ties and your memory of the magical world...taken."

"Why didn't you tell me this?" she knew she was playing a bit fast and loose with the Rules sometimes, but figured if there was a problem, Jareth would have done something. Apparently he did, he just didn't tell her.

"Remember when your apartment started to bleed into the Underground? I tried to explain then but perhaps I was not as clear as I could have been. You however made your position very clear, you wanted everything. Just as you always have. And who am I to deny you?" he smiled wanly. "Parts of the Underground are still very antiquated when it comes to humanity, there's a lot of fear still there. When we began our relationship I had to publicly declare you as under my protection. This means that your ongoing existence with the magical world is my responsibility. If you cause any undue hardship for the Underground, it will fall to me to discipline you and the High Court to discipline me. The order of protection acts like a warning sign to other Fae. That you are not to be harmed and not to be ruled."

Sarah took a deep breath. She had known this. Deep down, she knew she writing checks she couldn't cash.

"Okay," she said placing a hand on his chest. "I do not like that. I don't like having stuff done to me without my express permission. But I know why you did it. I practically told you to do whatever it took before, so I can't really be mad, and it's my fault for just sticking my head in the sand assuming everything was hunky dory. Also this is basically the legal version of that no power of me clause but for the rest of Faerie yeah? Which, as you well know, is something I'm a fan of. But in the future, you do not put anything on me without my express consent. I can't consent if I don't understand and don't know. So I am consenting now to this order of protection, just like I would have before if you asked me. Do you agree?"

"Yes," he said quickly. "I was afraid how you'd react, hearing your fate was so tied to mine."

She shrugged and walked into his arms, letting him kiss the top of her head. "In a way our fates have always been tied. Plus you practically live in my apartment now so like, I figure this is just the fae equivalent of making ourselves Facebook official."

"Facebook official?" the relief in his face was momentarily eclipsed by his confusion and Sarah laughed.

"Don't worry about it. Also I'm not sure if this is one of those Big Relationship Defining Moments and while I'd love to keep kissing you in the middle of this street-"

She was cut off by Jareth kissing her properly this time. All heat and magic, pulling her in and taking her breath away. Feeling him pressed up against her, and the way his hands always managed to find their way into her hair. There were several other things she wanted very badly to do that were not kissing. That involved her dragging him into that alley. Letting him throw her against the wall and showing her just want it meant to be his. His hand snaking up her legs and, well. A lot of things.

She eased herself out of his embrace. "Yep," she said slightly more out of breath, slightly higher pitched than before. "Yep, like that. That was...good demonstrating. Good job, at the kissing of the me."

"Ah yes the girl with the right words, enough to bring down a kingdom," he laughed pushing a fallen strand of hair behind her ear.

"Shut up," she batted away his hand. "Come on, we've got a magical mishap to deal with. After that we can go home and you can kiss every word from my lips if you want."

"Impossible, but I promise to give it a good faith effort," he said wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"Loser," she poked him in the ribs as he slid an arm around her shoulders.

They reached the site of where Sarah had felt the disturbance. It was dark now but the lights from the nearby buildings provided enough coverage that it was plain to see there was … nothing. Just an empty dark field.

Except Sarah could still feel it. It passed over her like a chill and she shuddered, wrapping her arms around her.

"Yes," he said quietly. "You were right, there is definitely something here."

"What is it?" she whispered, just in case someone was invisible. There was a time when she wouldn't worry about invisible people, but that time was done now.

"If my instincts are correct, and they often are," she rolled her eyes but let him continue. "This is man made magic, which makes it infinitely more dangerous."

"Man-made?" she said, skeptically.

"Yes," he pointed to a lit window in a nearby dormitory. "And I think it's coming from there."

"Tell me more," she was intrigued now.

He turned over his gloved hand to reveal a crystal. Sarah could never see anything in them but he looked at the fogged glass intently.

"As I thought," he said finally, vanishing the crystal with a roll of his wrist. "We've got a coven on our hands."

"A coven - wait there are witches in there?!"

Jareth let out a low chuckle at her excitement. "Indeed. They're rare, though I'm not surprised to find them congregating around a university. Most witches I've found have been scholars who happened to stumble upon the rare text that actually has some practical advice."

"Well, what do we do? I'm not burning anyone at any stake," she said with a warning. "Also I didn't even know witchcraft was an option."

"It's not," he said darkly. "Some humans still carry a few latent magical traits in their genes. From their oldest ancestors who may not have been strictly human. Sometimes it pops up stronger in certain generations. Usually just results in a bit of general oddities, similar to those you're experiencing around your office. Though different because that is good magic that I control."

"You control the goblins on a technicality at best," she interjected. "They're controlled by chaos and two for one coupons mostly."

"As I was saying," he huffed. "This is uncontrolled magic that has now found an outlet. It'll burn right through them until there is nothing left. I'm impressed you were able to sense it, witch magic is very hard to find before it's too late."

"So basically we have to stop them then? Right well," she grabbed his hand and started marching off in the direction of the room he'd pointed towards. "Let's go then. I'm not bringing about the new Salem listening to you monologue."

"You asked," he intoned.

"I did, and now I'm gonna have to teach some wannabe Harry Potters that magic has consequences. They can count themselves lucky they're dealing with me. Last time you had to teach that lesson I had to run for 13 hours and get felt up by a tunnel of disembodied hands."

"What is a Harry Potter?"

"I'll lend you my copies," she said waving him off. "You can read them and then tell me all about how Draco is a sympathetic character."

"Do you have a plan Sarah?" Jareth asked, completely sidestepping her comments. Which was his usual.

"Yes, I'm going to talk to them and explain."

"You think that will work?" he asked, skeptically.

"No idea, but we're gonna try. If they don't want to listen, well then on their heads so be it."

"We cannot continue to let them practice Sarah, even if they do not heed your warnings," Jareth said with concern. "This is dangerous for more than just the witches themselves. They do not know what they are doing, and people could get hurt. Not to mention it weakens the already strained portals around this area. Magic does not like being on this side. Too much iron, it fights it and acts like a spoiled teenager destroying everything in its path."

Sarah side-eyed the little smirk he gave her. If he was still trying to bait her then he obviously wasn't too worried about the situation. "No I agree, if they don't listen then we're going to need to do what we need to in order to nip this in the bud. I understand if that means you need to put some sort of charm on them to forget all of this, thems the breaks. But we have to give them a choice."

They were able to get past the security desk with relative ease. Sarah, though she was well into her twenties, could still pass as a college student and Jareth may have let a very loud noise in the hallway distract the guard long enough to let them pass unquestioned.

She didn't need his guidance to find the right floor or room. The magic had its own kind of pull, Sarah just let it lead her to them. It felt different than Jareth's magic, or even the Goblin's magic or her friends' kind. She was beginning to notice how different magics had a different signature. Jareth's magic always felt like him. Wild and bright. Like staring directly into the sun. Goblin magic was more fickle and joyful, like jumping on a trampoline. This magic felt like the first chill of winter and getting tapped on the shoulder by someone who wasn't there. She didn't like it, it felt wrong.

When they reached the room in question Sarah held up a hand to Jareth indicating that he should follow her lead. He inclined his head slightly, and she thought he looked happy to have someone else dealing with this for a change. She knocked on the door three times in quick succession.

She was not expecting the small frizzy hair that popped out from behind it.

The girl could not have been more than five feet tall. She wore round wire rimmed glasses and had a mess of big beautiful black hair. She looked so young and innocent, but Sarah reminded herself that on balance, it probably would have been stranger if an old crone with a wart on her nose had opened the door.

"Hi!" Sarah said brightly sticking out her hand for the girl to shake. "My name is Sarah Williams and this is my boyfriend Jareth, the Goblin King. We're here to talk to you about your witchcraft."

Jareth waved cheerfully to the girl.

"Uhhhhhh," the girl looked confused, and Sarah dropped her hand and moved to walk into the room like they'd been invited in.

"Wait no you can't come in," the girl tried to block their way in but given that Sarah was a good eight inches taller than her, and flanked by a supernatural king, this didn't really work.

"Oh I think you'll find that we can," she said, keeping her tone light and airy. "You see, this is kind of a big deal, and you're going to want to talk to us."

"Sorry who are you again?" the girl snapped, backing into the room.

Sarah could see that she wasn't alone. There were two other people in the room with her. One of them was a tall and skinny young man who wore the same style of glasses as the girl. He was wearing a t-shirt from a popular cartoon and had on a pair of sweatpants which he'd tucked his tube socks into. The other girl had a short crew cut and was wearing an oversized t-shirt and pair of shredded black jeans. She had a burgundy sweater tied around her waist and a small hoop in her nose and eyebrow. Mostly, they just looked like younger versions of the people Sarah went to college with.

"Let me try this again. I'm Sarah Williams. I stop magical bullshit. And this?" she said gesturing around the room. "Stinks to high heaven of magical bullshit. Like it reeks you guys, I could feel it all the way out on the field over there. Jareth is magical bullshit and I have defeated him before," Jareth waved wriggled his fingers waving again. "Now we date. Any questions?"

"Yes a few," the short haired girl snarked. "Let's start with what the fuck you're doing here."

"Oh I'm here to stop this little coven you guys are running out of your dorm room. Pretty impressive you guys, in the decade plus that I've been in and out of the magical world, you're the first humans I've met who are not only aware of its existence, but are actively engaging with it. That's cool and something I'd like you to always have as you move on from this. But unfortunately if you cannot stop what you're doing and think back fondly on this as a distant memory of your misspent youth, my charming friend over here," Jareth waved a third time just to really hammer it home. "Will have to bespell you so that you forget. I'd like to avoid that, so let's see if we can't come to an agreement."

"Okay," the frizzy haired girl who opened the door spoke up. "This has been a fun little distraction from our exams but we have actual work to do. So if you wouldn't mind leaving before I call security? Maybe you'll listen to the cops."

"You can try," Jareth said just as cheerfully. "But I think you'll find that your technology is of no use. I've placed a bit of a blocking spell around this room for now. Nobody enters and nobody leaves without my express permission."

"I've had enough of this," the crew cut girl spoke again, pulling out her phone to dial 911. There was a few seconds pause before she looked at her phone again, with a mix of confusion and anger. "Hey someone want to explain why when I dial 911 I get nothing but Crocodile Rock blasting at me?"

"Elton John?" Sarah said cocking an eyebrow in Jareth's direction.

"Little trick I picked up from a couple of friends of mine...and I have been enjoying his greatest hits album," Jareth huffed. "He is a very talented singer you know."

"Kay well I'll be making fun of you for that later don't you worry," she said barely containing her laughter.

"I'm leaving," the scrawny boy said nervously, trying to make a break for the door. "It's stuck!" he cried pulling on the handle.

"Let me see," the frizzy haired girl tried pulling on the handle with him.

"It's stuck Margo!" the boy snapped. "They've trapped us here!"

"Okay Margo!" Sarah said clapping her hands together, ignoring their obvious distress. "That's a good start. So what are the rest of your names?"

"I'm Tommy, and that's Carmen," he said pointing to the short haired girl.

"Idiot!" Carmen cried, throwing her phone at him. He ducked out of the way, narrowly missing having it beam him in the head. "You don't tell them our real names!"

"They'd have figured it out eventually!" he yelled back. "They're fucking MAGIC!"

"Well actually just him," Sarah corrected gesturing to Jareth.

"Ah my darling, you are always magical to me," Jareth said with a wink.

"Aw thanks babe," she beamed, planting a quick kiss on his cheek.

"Are you guys seriously flirting with each other after holding us hostage in Margo's dorm room?" Carmen growled.

"I was not flirting," Jareth huffed. "I was simply correcting my beautiful girlfriend here."

"Yeah see listen," Sarah said, refusing to let herself be distracted by pedantic morons in tight jeans. "You interrupted our dinner and that holding spell won't last all night. I'm hungry and Jareth has been cooking all afternoon so let's cut right to the chase. We know you're doing magic in here, let me repeat that for emphasis, we know you know you're doing magic in here. Let's all skip the song and dance where you deny it and we prove it and then you say what are we gonna do about it. I'm asking you politely now to stop. You don't know what you're messing with -"

"You can't tell us what to do!" Carmen interrupted. "And who the hell are you to-"

This time Jareth cut her off. Carmen's lips were still moving but no sound was escaping. The girl began to panic and grab at her throat while Jareth just rolled his eyes.

"Please do not interrupt Sarah, she is trying to be fair. Never one of my strong suits you see. So you're much better off dealing with her in this matter. You'll get your voice back when she's done."

"As I was saying," Sarah continued. She didn't love Jareth's methods, but they got results so she was disinclined to argue with him, particularly because she was getting impatient. "What you're doing is witchcraft. Now I don't have any problem with some tarot cards or ouija boards here and there, but you've actually stumbled upon a real text with real magic. I know it is tempting to have all that magic and wonder at your fingertips, believe me nobody knows that better than I do. But you have to stop and hand over the text to us. It's dangerous, both to you and others. You don't know what you're doing and people will get hurt. Most of all the three of you. Humans aren't supposed to have magic. It'll burn through you like a flame until you're just ashes in the wind."

"How do you know all this," Margo asked her. "You just said you've never met another human involved with magic."

"I know it because Jareth says it's true," she answered. She glanced over to him and felt her cheeks flush slightly, thinking about how he'd hold her in the early morning just after they woke up. He'd said to her then that she could ask him anything and it would take multiple armies to keep him from answering her. "He would never lie to me."

"That's great for you, but what about the rest of us. How do you know it's not in his best interests as far as control over this magical bullshit to get us to stop?" Tommy argued with her.

"Well I'm sure it's also in his best interests," she said carefully raising an eyebrow in Jareth's direction. He simply inclined his head and indicated for her to continue. "But it's also in yours. As in if you keep this up you will die. Not maybe, and not on some vague unnamable future date. You will die, you will die soon, and then you will be dead."

"How can that be true?" Margo said quietly. "We weren't doing anything bad. Just trying a few things like levitating pens and stuff. Carmen did a bit to give herself a little extra time on an exam, and Tommy and I were using it to convince our roommates to share their snacks. Nothing big."

"So you're doing some time manipulation, compelling other humans, and flaunting the rules of physics and calling it nothing major," Jareth replied sternly, but Sarah heard the hint of humour in his voice. "These may not seem big to you, but I assure you they are. Those are complicated bits of magic, and all magic has a cost."

He walked over and plucked a strand of stray hair from Margo's head.

"Hey!" she reacted, grabbing her hair protectively.

"You see," he said showing her the strand. It was pure white. A stark contrast to her dark curls. "Your hair will go white, your teeth will fall from your head, your eyes will go cloudy and then blind. That is, of course, if your heart does not stop from the strain. Every time you cast a spell, you are taking a piece of your life force, your energy, and using it towards that magic. Soon the supply will run out. Do you understand?"

Margo nodded quietly, still staring at the hair.

"I had to dye my hair last week," she said quietly. "I just thought it was stress."

"It is," he replied putting a kind hand on her shoulder. Sarah noticed Tommy and Carmen glaring at Jareth. "Though not the kind you thought."

"Can you give my friend her voice back please," Tommy said sharply, not taking his eyes of Jareth's hand on his friend.

"That depends," Jareth said withdrawing his hand, making note of Tommy's stare. "Is she going to be polite?"

Sarah didn't need to be able to read lips to know what word Carmen mouthed at them.

"Unlikely," said Tommy wincing. "But this is about her too and she should get a say."

Jareth looked at Sarah and she sighed heavily. "You make a fair point, okay Jareth, give it back to her."

Jareth rolled his eyes before waving his hand in Carmen's general direction.

"Man screw you guys," the girl said in a much higher pitch than she'd spoken in previously. She clapped her hands over her mouth looking horrified. "What did you do to me! I sound like a fucking chipmunk!"

"You asked for your voice back," Jareth said with a smirk. "You did not specify in what condition. It'll wear off, but maybe this will teach you some manners."

Sarah bit her lip to keep from laughing. There was a certain labyrinth that she thought this girl could do with a run through. But that wasn't her decision to make.

"So what do we do now," Margo asked. "I don't want to die, I just wanted something … special."

"I know," Sarah turned back to the only person who seemed to be understanding what she was saying. "I wish it wasn't like this. Believe me. But I have to ask you to stop. Jareth is going to remove all the magical elements in this room, and my gift to you is letting you remember this all happened. That you do have magic, even if you can't use it. That's still pretty special."

"Why does he get to have magic and we don't?" Carmen interjected, voice still stuck in high pitch.

"Because Jareth isn't human," Sarah replied simply. "He's not from here and magic is as second nature to his kind as breathing."

"You're not human?" Tommy's brows shot up to his hairline. "Then what are you?"

"A story, nothing more." Jareth replied. "One that you will tell your whole lives. Normally at this point I would offer all of you a choice. The chance to live in my world. As humans of course. You couldn't do magic there anymore than you could do magic here. But you could live in a world with magic."

"They don't know enough to make that decision," Sarah hissed.

"I'm twenty years old I'm not a child," Carmen replied. The current state of her voice made the statement sound more ridiculous than Sarah was sure she intended.

"But the thing is you are," Sarah replied carefully. She remembered how much she hated being called a child just because she didn't understand something. "When the thing you're dealing with is older than not just this country, but the entirety of western civilization, you are a child. Jareth's world is not kind, it is not gentle. Humans are not treated well there. You would have no money, no home, no family, and no escape. There is nothing for you there."

"Well maybe there's nothing for me here either," the girl snarked back. "You have no idea what it's like to live in a world that doesn't want you."

"I do, in my own way. I won't pretend to know your struggles. Those are personal and your own. I'm sure it hasn't been easy for you, it won't necessarily get easier either. That's life. But you made it this far which means you don't quit easily. If you go to his world that's what it'll be, quitting. I want you to seriously think about what you have here, what you've accomplished."

"Sarah is right," Jareth said, sliding his hand into hers. "You did not let me finish. I would normally offer you a choice, but I am not doing that. Laws dictate you must be aware of the choice. I am making you aware. Finish your schooling, work to become the people you were always meant to be. If in ten years you still wish to give it all up to live in a world with magic, I will offer it then. Then you may call for me."

Sarah felt this was a good compromise. She wished she could tell them just how much they did not want to go Underground. She was special, she knew it wasn't fair that she got to keep both her human life and her magical life. But that's the way it was. These kids wouldn't get the same advantages.

"I'm...tired," Carmen said finally. "Just tired."

"I'm sure you are, it must have been exhausting keeping up that level of magic," Jareth replied. He waved a hand in her general direction. "I'm giving you back your tone. Please use it appropriately."

"Thanks," Carmen said, her normal voice returned to her. "I think, I just want to go home and forget this ever happened."

"She didn't mean that literally," Sarah whispered grabbing Jareth's arm to prevent him from getting any ideas.

Jareth inclined his head towards the door. "You may leave. But just yourself. Take nothing with you, else I will have to come and get it from you. I'll come alone and I promise, I will not be as generous as I have been tonight."

Carmen could not have shot out of there faster. She slammed the door so hard behind her that the room rattled and a piece of paper slipped onto the floor from underneath the bed's covers.

Sarah poked him sharply in the ribs. "No more threats. They get the idea. Let's get what we came for and go."

Jareth walked towards the bed, throwing the covers off. There was a book, a couple additional pieces of paper, and three vials of a dark liquid substance. Jareth vanished the pile save for the vials, which he slipped neatly into his pocket.

"Is that everything?" he asked them.

Tommy shook his head, and Margo sighed. She and Tommy removed their glasses and handed them to Jareth. Jareth, confused, turned them over in his hand before chucking to himself and handing them back.

"You can keep these. They won't cost you anything further and they're harmless."

Margo smiled and placed the glasses on top of her head. Sarah could see her eyes better now and noticed they had an odd white ring around them. She wondered if that was the magic starting to take them.

"Thanks," Margo said. "That was the last thing."

"Understood," Jareth nodded once. He walked over to Tommy and leaned in to whisper in the boy's ear. Sarah saw Tommy's ears go beet red before he nodded furiously. He suddenly seemed very intent on studying the carpet.

"We good here?" she asked Jareth trying to hurry him along. She could hear her stomach's grumbling threatened to reach seismic levels soon and she was dying to just eat some food already.

"Yes," he said dusting himself off to transform back into his regular appearance. Sarah knew Jareth was enjoying the chance to show off a little. He'd been good about backing her up tonight, so Sarah figured she'd let him have this.

"My dear," he said extending his hand towards her.

"Your room has been unsealed. Tell whoever you like about this, it doesn't matter. If you find another way to practice magic make no mistake, we will be back and I don't think anyone wants that. Be good, stay in school, eat your vegetables and all that," she instructed them. She placed her hand in Jareth's. "And remember should you ever need us-"

She didn't finish her sentence before Jareth spun her into his embrace and suddenly they were standing back in her apartment's kitchen.

"They'll call," he finished for her, kissing the top of her head. "Now this chicken piccata will not eat itself."

"Good because I am going to eat it all," Sarah said, grabbing an oven mitt to pull the pan out of the oven. "Crap, it burned."

Jareth sighed raking a hand through his newly restored hair.

"My domestic spells do need a bit of work I see; shall we order a pizza?"

"Yeah but make it a big one," she replied, pouring herself a glass of wine. Probably not the best idea to drink on an empty stomach but after the night she had, Sarah felt she'd earned a little irresponsibility. "Why'd you keep the vials? What was in them?"

"Blood," he replied, pulling one from his breast pocket. Sarah watched as it danced across his knuckles just like his crystals. "All mortal magic requires blood. I kept it because it is now ritual blood, and must be destroyed of properly to prevent say, its owners dropping dead."

"Yep, let's avoid that if possible," she nodded. She'd suspected it was blood but the idea of those kids bleeding themselves just to get a couple extra Cheetos and some pens in the air disturbed her a bit.

"What was up with their glasses by the way?" she asked, trying to change the subject.

"Ah, just a simple sight spell," he said lightly, vanishing the vial back into his jacket. "The glasses allow them to see through magical guises. It's why I removed my human visage. Seemed rather pointless."

"That's a neat trick," she said grabbing the last remaining pizza menu from the freezer. It was the one place the goblins wouldn't go, she had taken to keeping her valuables in there which definitely included the menu for Mama's Pizza Pie. "Could you make me a pair?"

"You don't need them," he replied, pouring his own glass of wine. "You can see magic just fine on your own."

"Because of you?"

"Because of you," he replied. "Don't you want to know what I told that young man before we left?"

She did, but she hadn't wanted to pry.

"I reminded him that faint heart never won a fair lady. That if he so fancied his friend with the curly hair, he must tell her so that she can decide if she wants him. Otherwise, he'll lose her."

"Is that what that was all about?" she laughed. "I thought he was eyeing you a bit."

Jareth barked out a laugh. "While I certainly am not one to spurn the advances of a handsome young man, I'm afraid my attentions are otherwise occupied."

She paused, before dialling the pizza place. "Yeah actually, about that. Your attentions are singularly occupied right? Like, please don't make me duel for you. I'll do it, but I've never been great with a sword."

Jareth's eyes widened in momentary surprise before settling into an expression of smug satisfaction that Sarah knew all too well.

"There is, nor will there ever be, someone else. Can I ask the same of you? I admit, I've never been fond of sharing."

Sarah snorted at the idea. "Yeah, like I'd have time to go date a regular guy. That'd work a treat, like hey no big deal but I'm also seeing an otherworldly all powerful king who kinda lives in my apartment most of the time, sometimes making me burnt chicken piccata. No babe, you're it I'm afraid."

"Good," he said, and Sarah saw the smile he was trying to hide.

"Oh forget it," she said sighing, tossing the pizza menu back in the freezer. "Lets just go back to yours tonight and you can send some food up from the kitchens. I'm not waiting for pizza, I'm too hungry for that."

"Hungry for food?" he said slyly, sidling over to where she was leaning against the counter, wrapping an arm around her waist.

"Don't you dare," she said batting his hand away. "You owe me one dinner Goblin King. After that, then you can dance magic dance your way into my pants."

"Pants magic pants," he said with a wicked glint in his eye.

She walked over to the mirror, such a fixture in her kitchen at this point it almost seemed weird that other people didn't have one in theirs.

"Come on Goblin King. Lead me Underground and feed me your faerie food and then I will yours evermore," she teased.

"You can count on it precious," he joined her at the mirror, kissing her lightly on the lips.

"I'm sure I can, Rocket Man, I'm sure I can," she whispered into his ear. "Now let's go raid the kitchens."

"As you wish," he replied with a chuckle, leading them both backwards through the mirror. Where the dinner was good, but the dessert was even better.

#labyrinth #labyrinth has ruined me #my ownsome #apartmentverse #fanfiction #yo guys i gotcha some witches for october #remember how this whole series was just supposed to be a humourous take on overused fanfic tropes?#welp we've now reached the solve crimes together phase #though frankly i kinda wanted them to be crime solving buddies who make out from the get go #but then i realized that i was just thinking of the october daye series and i knew there was no better version to be made

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