Chapter 4

Feeling as if she stepped of a ledge, Sarah answered him: "Dare."

He smirked, letting go of her wrist. "I dare you to show me a memory of a time you lost this 'truth or dare' game."

Her eyes widened and she barely caught herself before blurting out: "That's not fair!"

From the infuriating grin on Jareth's face, she gathered that he fully expected her to revert to her teenage self. Steeling herself, she settled for glaring at him. So he found a way to extricate answers from her even if she stuck to dares the whole game long. Good for him. She should probably be glad he hadn't thought of asking her to explain her motives more fully.

"How do you propose I manage that? I didn't take any pictures that day," she said, icily.

If possible his grin got wider. He lifted both his hands out of the water, water dripping down his long, pale fingers. Despite her frustration – or maybe because of it – she found it hard to tear her gaze away from them. No gloves. He moved a hand to her temple, and she jerked back before he could touch her. "Nuhuh. No way, Goblin King," she said, kicking her legs out with a bit more force than necessary.

"Afraid of me, Sarah?" he taunted, smirk still firmly in place.

"Afraid of you messing around in my head with fairy magic, yes," she said.

He laughed out loud. "I won't be 'messing around', as you so eloquently put it," he said. He twirled his hand and a crystal appeared.

She narrowed her eyes. "You have no power over me."

"Quite right," he said, seemingly unperturbed. "I can only see what you show me." He leaned towards her, still seemingly floating in the water, and she willed herself not to jerk back again. She could feel the heat radiating from his upper body. "So show me."

She bit her lip, thinking hard. As she'd boasted to him, she was good at truth or dare. She was honest and open by nature, which meant she usually had no problems answering truths, and she was bold enough to accept any challenge thrown her way. Nobody could win every game, though, and she hadn't always been comfortable with the aforementioned naughtiness that often went hand in hand with truth or dare, because there were people in this world with whom you just didn't want to be naughty. However, it might get Jareth thinking in the right direction if she showed him such a case, and she could hardly think of a situation in which a naughty dare by him would be unwelcome.

"How do we go about this?" she asked, looking at the crystal warily.

He smirked. "It's a crystal, nothing more. But if you touch it this way…" He demonstrated touching the crystal with the index finger from his other hand, "…and think of what you want me to see, it will show me your memory."

Sarah raised her eyebrows, still rather unbelieving, but what the hell. It wasn't as bad a dare as she'd expected, and he probably wouldn't get any ideas of impossible dares from the situation she planned on showing him. "Very well," she said out loud, and confidently put her index finger on the crystal.

Turns out Jareth hadn't exactly given her a clear explanation of what was about to happen, though his words technically had been correct. She had thought she would simply recall the situation in detail and Jareth would somehow telepathically be able to see the whole thing in his mind. Instead, however, it seemed like the crystal sucked her in. It was too quick to scream, and then she was back in the memory, reliving it, but with her present conscience in the back of her mind, and a shadow that looked remarkably like the Goblin King in the background. Should have remembered that dreams are his prerogative, not mind reading,she thought drily, before the memory swallowed her whole.

She was sitting on a picnic blanket in a garden on a hot summer night, pleasantly inebriated and feeling pretty much on top of the world. They were just a small group that had separated from the frat party, which concentrated around the pool. Her and two girls, both of them friends of hers, and four guys that they knew from class and were on the verge of getting to know better (in the literal, not in the biblical sense of the word). One of them was Tom, a nice guy from her latest literature class, on whom she had a little bit of a crush. He was just her type – intelligent but mischievous, with a playfulness that belied his dark eyebrows and good grades.

"Let's play 'I've never'," had Kim said. The guys had heartily applauded that idea, but Sarah didn't feel much like a drinking game.

"Nah, let's play truth or dare," she lazily suggested, and they had complied.

The game was on by now, and they had quickly progressed to the more naughty truths and dares, partly thanks to the bottles of wine that they had snagged from the party before heading off on the grass. She was enjoying herself a lot, laughing often both at her own and at her friends' expense, and stealing none too subtle looks at Tom, who seemed to be reciprocating. She had kicked off her shoes earlier, when they'd sat by the pool, so she could cool her feet off in the water. She had no idea where her shoes were now, she thought vaguely, but then again, she didn't care much.

"Your turn, Sarah," Tom said, poking at the sole of her foot.

She eeped and pulled the appendage away from him. "I know, I know," she said, "just thinking of a dare." Her eyes locked on him and she smirked.

His eyebrows raised and he held up his hands. "That doesn't promise much good for me, does it?" he said.

"Nope," said Lana, her other friend, drily.

"Tom Kenny," Sarah said, standing up on the blanket, giggling when the background swayed just a little bit, "I dare you to kiss my feet and call me your queen."

His eyes widened. Hmm. On second thought, maybe not such a good idea. She could hardly take it back, now, though, and she raised her foot expectantly, trying to look as regal as possible while standing on one leg, pleasantly inebriated.

He eyed her foot warily.

"It's pretty clean," she mumbled, a little less regally. She felt the eyes of the others on her, but she tried to ignore them. This had suddenly turned a bit more embarrassing than she'd planned.

He grinned suddenly and took her foot in his hand, pressing a quick kiss to the instep, and said: "You have lovely feet, my queen." He then proceeded to tickle the hell out of her foot, and she fell over on the blanket, laughing so hard she almost cried, trying to pull her foot from his hands. "No, please, no, no, stop it Tom, please," she begged him, and when he finally relented, she glared at him and cursed him breathlessly.

He laughed. "Serves you right!"

"Well, now we got that out of the way, it's your turn," said one of the other guys, Luke. He was in her literature class as well, she remembered, though he'd never made much of an impression on her.

"You're right," Tom said. "Truth or dare, Sarah?"

Kim groaned. "Your flirting is getting in the way of the game, guys. We're also playing, remember?"

"Just the once," Tom said, not taking his eyes from Sarah.

She stared back at him, her heart hammering in her chest. Was Kim right? Was this full out flirting? She certainly wouldn't mind something happening between her and Tom, but she still wasn't sure what he thought of her.

"Dare," she said, lifting her chin in the air.

"Sarah Williams, I dare you to…" he leaned forward, and she held her breath in anticipation. "Kiss…" She bit the inside of her cheek, not taking her eyes from his. "…Luke."

What? Her gaze swung to Luke, while the others laughed out loud at her surprise. He was looking at her with wide blue eyes, apparently not sure what to think either. She glanced at his lips, considering for a moment, but really, there was just no way she was ever going to touch him like that. It wasn't that he was ugly, per se, he was just – somewhat like a big teddy bear, slow and bulky and utterly boring, and she loved winning, but really, she didn't love winning this much.

"Sorry, Tom, I forfeit," she said, with a sheepish grin at Luke, hoping he wouldn't take it too badly. "I don't kiss random guys, not even on a dare."

"You know what that means," said Tom, a broad grin on his face.

Kim lifted a – thank god – mostly finished bottle of wine to the sky. "Bottoms up," she cried. Sarah grabbed the bottle from her hand, raised it in salute, called "Ad fundum!" and downed the remains of the wine in one swallow.

With a swoosh that turned into a shake of her head, she was back in the lake. She wasn't treading water. Jareth was holding her up, hands on her waist. Holy fuck his skin was hot and he was entirely too close. The sudden switch from her relived attraction to Tom (whom she did manage to kiss by the end of the night, by the way, but then he wasn't a random guy) to Jareth's intoxicating proximity was a bit much, and she floundered back out of his hands, eyes wide. "Wow," she said breathlessly, not sure if she meant the memory magic or being so close to the Goblin King.

Jareth said nothing, infernal smirk for once gone. He was looking at her rather speculatively. She wondered if he had seen anything useful. Knowing him – but really, she didn't – he probably had. She was however unwilling to relive the memory again to try and figure out if she made any fatal mistakes in showing him this particular event. Too shaken to ask him for a truth or dare immediately, she turned around and swam back to the shore, not checking to see if he came along. Back on land she laid down on her stomach on the biggest bathing towel and waited, content for a while to let herself dry up in the early morning sunrays.

"So this Tom Kenny," came his voice eventually from the side. She didn't dare move her head, too afraid to catch an appreciated but right now unwelcome eyeful again, so she just made an affirmative sound and stared on in the distance, leaning her chin on her hands. "He won the game?"

"Actually, no," Sarah said. "I think Kim won, in the end. Although…" she paused, wondering if she gave away too much, but then continued: "It was one of those games that wasn't so much about winning as it was about playing." She could hear clothes rustling and she dared to sneak a glance at him. He was dressed again, wearing a more simple outfit than before. No armor, she realized when she considered him thoughtfully.

"Hm," he said. "And you didn't dare show me a game that was about winning."

It was more of a statement than a question. She narrowed her eyes and rolled on her side, well aware of the way this pose highlighted her curves. "I would have," she said coolly. "But you asked to see a game I lost."

He regarded her intensely, her implication obviously not lost on him. She stared him down, not in the least bit nervous about his look now. This, she knew. Defiance in the face of a challenge. Finally he smirked, and she felt a smile tug at her own mouth. But before she could grin back at him, he disappeared.

She sighed and rolled on her back, closing her eyes. Good, some time to consider her next move.

xoxox

A.N.: Sorry for the wait; life tends to get in the way of fanfiction. Bad life, shame on life. But oh well, there it is.

This is unbetaed, so constructive criticism is very much appreciated. As is non-constructive swooning at sexy Goblin Kings, by the way.