Feels Like the First Time

By Ja ne, Kat

Okay this is just to see what you guys think before i write out the multi-part story i have finished so i know what to change when i edit it and type it out. So please if you have complaints make them constructive and not just flames. flames will be feed to my cats. other then that be kind first time in this fanfiction.

OXOXOXO

The first time Sarah saw him was not really all that long after her Run. She had come from school one day to find him sound asleep on her bed. After staring at him for a few minutes she decided to let him sleep. He certainly looked as though he could use it, and he wasn't hurting anything.

Trying to remove him would cause and argument and draw the attention of Toby and her Step-mother downstairs, which was not something she'd like to try and explain to them. Besides many the inhabitants of the Underground hid out in her room without any trouble . . . why should their king be any different.

With those thoughts firmly in mind she turned her music down really low and got started on her homework. Math, while simple enough because it was completely logical, was not a fun thing to have for homework. Unfortunately for Sarah she'd had to go and talk to her chemistry during her lunch break rather than doing it then. Her final Chem. project wasn't turning out the way she wanted it to, so she'd gone to ask for ideas and help.

She'd been at her math for about an hour and actually forgotten he was there, because her last problem wasn't working out to match the answer giving. Her humming stopped as her agitation increased.

"Arg! You stupid Polynomials! I WILL solve you! If I can make it Through His Labyrinth then I can certainly solve something as simple as X!"

She growled her complaint at the problem under her breath, but still jerked in surprise when a gloved finger pointed to her second line down.

"You have balanced the equation wrong here, Precious."

Her head snapped around to face his, eyes wide in surprise.

"Oh! Well damn it. I'm sorry; I didn't mean to wake you up. Got lost in my homework I guess." she said as she tossed him a grin. "Sleep alright, Goblin King?"

His mismatched eyes narrowed at her for a moment, before he nodded.

"Indeed I did. Though I was expecting to be woken up when you yelled the house down. Do feel free to call me Jareth, if you please. If we are going to be formal then I shall have to call you Champion."

"I would have yelled, if only to bother you," she told him with a grin, more glad then she wanted to admit that he was there. "But my step mother is here and had just gotten Toby down for a nap . . . Do you have any clue how long that takes? Besides you didn't seem to be up to trouble and even asleep you looked totally exhausted."

"It could be that I was. Thank you for the use of your space."

It was a stiff gratitude, complete with a bow at the end.

"And you're worried about ME being formal?" she said and then laughed at his confused expression "You could have just said 'thanks Sarah'" A pause as she debated her next question. "But why here? I mean, not that I minded but couldn't you have just ordered all of your subjects out of the Castle if you wanted peace and quiet?"

Since she was watching him closely, she saw the exact moment his expression closed down and shut her out, and for some unknown reason her own grin faded with it.

"Does it matter so much to you? The why of it?"

No, it didn't, Sarah decided. Not if it was going to ruin the civil and mostly pleasant conversation they had been having. She had been so afraid since she had uttered those final words and had tossed away his almost too tempting offer that that would BE the last she saw of him. He would never get to hear her tell him that she wanted badly what he had offered her... just not at the price he was charging. That he would never know how very sorry she was for the whole thing. Not that she regretted it, for she would never be able to regret meeting him, but she regretted that she had made the wrong wish.

"No, it doesn't really, only have you eaten?"

The abrupt change of topic seemed to throw him for a moment as he blinked owlishly at her.

"Pardon?"

She shook her head and waved him over to her recliner by the window.

"Here, sit for a minute. I'll be right back. No glittery vanishing tricks."

Edict giving she headed downstairs to poke her head into her father's office.

"Hey dad? I'm kind of full up on homework tonite. You might have to watch Toby by yourself when Karen goes out."

He smiled at his daughter and nodded to his son safely set up in the home offices far corner.

"Yes Karen mentioned that you looked a little bogged down when I got in. No worries I think I've got it. You make sure your school work gets down and if I need you I'll just call. Don't forget to grab some soup."

"I won't. In fact I was just on my way to get some."

Being Wednesday, Karen always made soup. Since Sarah only had one class in the afternoon she sometimes ate lunch late after class. Karen had to eat early before leaving for her pottery class and her father often worked late. So, soup was made and left to warm in the crock pot so that the family could help themselves when they got hungry.

A grin still on her face, she headed into the kitchen and quickly set up a tray with two bowls of soup, 2 sandwiches, a slice of peach pie left from yesterday and added two cokes. Food collected she headed back up to here room glad that her father's office was on the side of the stairs farthest from the kitchen. Elbowing her door open should him still sitting in her recliner stiffly, but there all the same, which was a pleasant surprise.

"Here dinner, before you have to go back to work, sorry it isn't as fancy as you're probably used to. Karen makes the BEST soup however and it always cheers me up after a rough day." After saying so she placed the tray carefully on his lap before reaching out and grabbing her soup and sandwich and putting them on the vanity before grabbing her coke and opening it.

"What is it?" he asked her in a hushed sort of voice.

She turned to stare at him for a second, but it seemed a genuine enough question that she just answered it. Could an immortal and magical being have allergies?

"Its chicken soup and I made ham and swiss sandwich to go with it. A coke to wash it down with and last night's peach pie for dessert. I wasn't sure how much you could eat but I figured this was a good start. If you're still hungry after I can go back down and get you some more soup."

A sly smirk at her explanation, which caused her to feel a sense of foreboding.

"And where is your dessert Precious?"

She quickly lowered her eyes to her food so he couldn't see them and shrugged her shoulders.

"The soup and sandwich is tons of food for me. I wouldn't be able to eat pie on top of that."

That said she raised her sandwich and took a bite and began eating. Which seemed to confuse him for a minute but he started eating soon after. They ate in silence that was surprisingly not awkward, and let Sarah get back to her homework finishing her last math problem and moving on to the outline she had to do for her Macbeth essay.

"Finally." she breathed after another 30 minutes, and looking up showed her an empty chair with the dishes stack neatly on top of it, seemingly cleaned. A piece of paper tucked under them to hold it in place.

Precious.

Thank you for your hospitality, and dinner was actually quite good. You were concentrating so hard on your essay points for the importance of magic in 'the Scottish play' that I didn't was to disturb your work. I feel the need to point out that while you have avoided using the witches themselves because they are too obvious, you should still mention them so that you essay is complete. They are the personification of magic in the play and their whole "fair is foul, and foul is fair" opening scene states the purpose of the play. Magic tells the audience the point.

Jareth G.K

If he'd seen her points he'd been gone maybe only 5 minutes and helped ease the disappointment of finding the empty chair, and besides for some reason the note made her smile. Reading it through one last time she then tucked it into the, till them nearly empty, bottom vanity drawer.

The other items in the drawer?

A small figure of the Fair-haired King the chair had just held.

And a small play-book with a well worn red leather cover with gold embossed lettering stating only:

The Labyrinth.

OXOXOXOXOX

Thanks for Reading!

Ja ne

Kat