Author's note: This is my first fanfic, and first time writing since high school... so R&R with consideration. This was a PWP, but hey, some things develop further than you thought they would.

disclaimer: The labyrinth and the characters within do not belong to me. Lucky, lucky things that they are.

oo00oo00oo

She trembled.

Sarah had never realised how truly responsive nipples could be. For so long they had been nothing more than a nuisance that the boys on the school bus pretended not to stare at on winter's mornings, but now they seemed to take on a life of their own as she brushed over them lightly with her knuckles.

A gasp of pleasure escaped the side of her mouth and she froze under the blankets. Her ears pricked almost as high as her nipples she allowed the soothing sounds of the house – the hum of the refrigerator, the drone of the far off highway – to relax her once again. The stifled a giggle; she doubted her standard excuse of "but I'm rehearsing a play!" probably wouldn't go down too well if Karen or her dad burst into the room right now. Not that it usually worked but—stop getting distracted Sarah! she chided herself.

She allowed her fingers to go lower, smoothing in circles over the belly of her cotton nightdress, exploring the tension and release of muscles underneath. Warmth spread out from her hands, and she followed the impulse to go under the material, inhaling sharply at the chill of her fingers on the heat of her stomach. Vague formless images of attraction wafted through her mind. Snippets from movies, mini-scenarios of her at parties, flashes of various faces as she sifted through her indistinct thoughts of attraction.

Her eyes were open as she made those first exploratory movements underneath her underwear, but began to slide closed as she lost herself in sensation.

Her friend Casey had suggested this little 'private time' to Sarah, after she had turned down once again another guy asking her out.

"You need to know what you're missing! Otherwise you'll just never get interested and then you'll die an old maid, and then we'll never get a chance to gossip about our children together." Casey had declared in her usual dramatic style.

Sarah was old to never have had a boyfriend, despite more than a few opportunities. At eighteen she had left dolls, dress-ups and make-believes behind yet she had never found any boy to have more than a fleeting attraction. She had often wondered whether she was gay, but she felt no more for girls that she did for guys and if Casey's fantastic red hair and athletic figure didn't do anything for her than no girl ever could. Perhaps it was the fact that Sarah was so wilful that she couldn't respect the uncertainty of her schoolmates that asked her out. She needed someone that could stand up to her, someone that knew what they were doing in the face of her own inexperience.

Speaking of inexperience, Casey had said it helped to focus upon one thing, one guy, one fantasy. Her mouth twisted up into a smile as the only possible fancy crept into her head. She was dressed in the finest of ball gowns, twirling through the evening…

There was something growing inside of her as she shoved her hips desperately against her hand, feeling as though even her eyeballs were tingling, straining to burst free. She was reaching out, pushing and pulling with body and mind still twirling now, clasped so close in his arms coming so close to something now, something just out of reach gloves gripping her tightly, possessively, such wanting Sarah felt more than heard the mewling sound that escaped her lips, the vibration of her throa---

---There was no storm, no fancy pyrotechnics. Just a voice crisply cutting through the soft sounds from the bed. "Well, this is a most interesting sight."

Sarah froze beneath her blanket, her body crying out with unfulfilled climax, her mind suddenly a block of ice.

Then she snaked a hand out to flip on her bedside lamp. A horrible sight greeted her… Jareth, His Highness, King of the Goblins…

King of Bad Timing.

He sprawled casually across the armchair in the corner of her room. Usual gloves, hair and uncomfortable tights… She swung her gaze away from his pants to his smirk of a face. "Oh shit".

She switched the light off again.