"Hey Josh give me your other arm, I've run out of room again." Sarah reached for the arm of the man sitting directly in front of her. His other already splayed out in front of her covered in flowing script.

"You know Sarah most writers carry notebooks or laptops with them." The young woman rolled her eyes and promptly smacked Josh's hand forcing him to relinquish his unmarked arm.

"Yes well I'm not most writers now am I? I don't have enough room in my bag for notebooks, let alone my own keys. And you can forget a laptop. Children's books don't generate enough income, unless of course you are lucky enough to catch the eyes of a few adults as well.

"And I can tell you now that my Underground series was too childish for anyone over the age of ten." She began to look over the last three paragraphs that she had scribbled out over his left arm before starting the first marks on his right.

"What about your last novel? That one was an adult book, sold over a million copies as I hear it." Sarah stopped her pen halfway through the first word. She made a noise much like an aggravated teacher trying to get the point across to a particularly dumb student.

"Ah yes, well you see it isn't that easy. The children's books helped to get my name out there, gave me enough money to get my own place and such. Also got me recognized so I could get a literary agent. A Labyrinth in His Eyes you see was the next step. Now I have my foot in the mature genres, but I hardly am a millionaire thank you.

"There were quite a few fees to deal with, with my agent, publishers and editors and all. I'm not well known enough to have shows competing to have me on or bookstores lining up for book signings. And what book signings and appearances I do have give little in the way of spendable cash. And don't even get me started on the cost of food!" Josh paled, he hadn't actually realized how much there was to writing. He himself worked at the local college teaching in the human sciences department. He hadn't ever taken an interest in publishing and so had never thought that there was much more than, write the book, publish the book, sale the book. He thought maybe he should really pay much more attention to his girlfriend.

"You know you could always just move in with me. The university pays for my flat, and it is large enough for the both of…" Sarah roughly scratched out one of the lines she had just wrote before she slammed back in her chair, her muse momentarily silenced. She sighed again, Josh had a way of not just silencing her muse but actually beating it over the head a couple of times with one of his stupid text books, sucker punching it and once it was safely on the ground unconscious kick it in the ribs till he was absolutely sure that it would not be able to bother her again for at least two weeks.

In the four months she had been dating him he had been able to keep her muse at bay for at least three of those months.

"Josh I thought I made it perfectly clear, I am not moving in with you. I have my own place. Sure it may not be a palace mind you, but it is no decaying old shack either." Josh pulled his arm to his chest and looked over the small red swelling line she had just caused. Note to self, never piss off girlfriend when she has a pointy object pointed at your person.

"I never said you had to get rid of your house, but think of it Sarah. We could split the cost of food, you would get the entire flat to yourself while I'm at work. You could use my computer instead of that mess of a worktable you have. And my flat is much closer to your publishers, you would save on gas." Sarah just rolled her eyes. Ever since the second month of their relationship he had been trying to get her to move in with him.

He would come up with everything from 'wouldn't it be lovely to have someone to talk to when you get home?' to 'The water at my flat is so much softer, and with your delicate skin it would be only sensible for you to move in.' She had to give him credit, he would not give up. Something that can not be said of another man in her life, or man who was in her life.

She furrowed her brows trying to remove that thought from her mind, no use dwelling on it now. What's said is said, and what's done is done.

"Ok first off I take the bus to my publishers, and since I don't go there often living closer won't save me a penny. Second, computers are nice and all, I have tried using them believe me. But I just don't like them, I much prefer my pen and paper. Third, I get my whole house to myself all day, all night, and every point in between.

"And finally, if we both split the cost of food it makes no difference at all. It would be putting two halves together and splitting it up again. Besides, you eat twice as much as I do. So in fact I would be spending much more on food than I do now." Damn! Must remember girlfriend is a writer and spends way too much time "observing" things. Josh sat back watching as Sarah capped her pen and slipped it into her large bag. He thought how strange her dress actually was. He had seen pictures of her as a teenager, fitting jeans and large shirts. Not the most attractive clothing, but it did have this strange sort of appeal to it. Every time he saw a picture of her teenage self he found himself turned on, not that he would ever tell her that. He wasn't some sort of pervert, it was more along the lines of the comparison of the two Sarahs.

The girl in the picture had this sort of innocent freedom to her, this wild bravery he wished was in the older woman. His Sarah, the older Sarah seemed much more reserved, almost cautious of everything around her.

He had often wondered why such a beautiful woman her age had not yet married. Surely it wasn't due to lack of suitors. But whatever the reason he had set out to remedy the fact.

"Fine, but the offer remains open. I don't care if it is the middle of the night, if you decide to change your mind just come over." He set a key down on the table in front of the both of them. He had been hoping she would have accepted his offer that day, but at this point even if she just took the key he would be happy.

"Thank you Josh, I will keep that in mind. Come on you have successfully knocked out my muse again, we should probably get going. I think those old ladies at the table in the corner have been giving us strange looks for the past hour." He laughed as he allowed his eyes to rest on said table, and sure enough they were giving the couple looks that would have freaked anyone out.

"Ah yes, well that might be because you have spent the last two hours using your boyfriend as a notebook. Normal people don't do that." Sarah merely set her tip on the counter and walked to the door.

"Yes, but then again I'm not normal am I? I think we have discussed this already. Plus As I recall I have only been using you as a notebook for the past hour, the first I used myself." She lifted up her arms and lifted up the long skirt to reveal the same script that covered his arms. Josh just rolled his eyes following her out of the café.

"I wonder, did you use your last boyfriends in the same manner?" He opened the door for her but not before planting a soft kiss to her lips.

"Yep! You should be happy that we were only at lunch. Ben, my last boyfriend, and I were at the pool last summer. We never did get to swim." Starting the car Josh lifted an eyebrow at his girlfriend.

"And why?" He really was hoping this would not end up as a sex in the showers story. He had met Ben once before and the idea of his girlfriend doing anything of the sort with that wall that someone had the nerve to call a man just made him cringe.

"Not what you are thinking you perv! No, I had gotten an idea and we left after I ran out of room on his chest and back. Got a full half chapter that day." He just shook his head, he was surprised she couldn't have just fitted her entire novel on that man. He cringed, that was a stupid thought to have.

--------------------

"Ok, I'm going to head off. Should probably get started on grading those essays." Just as Josh had turned around to head back down the few steps of his girlfriend's house he found himself being flung back towards the door.

"Oh no you don't! You have a good deal of the third chapter on you. And after your beating of my muse today I will not let you go and wash off what I did get. Once I copy everything down you can go." Sarah held a hold of him as she unlocked the door to her little house. The place was not much, she knew it was far from the old Victorian she grew up in or the huge flat her mother had. But it was still hers.

The two of them walked silently into the house, Josh ignoring the way his girlfriend decorated her place. Most women her age would have pictures of her family scattered around with some simple furniture. Maybe a vase of flowers or a figurine. But not his Sarah, Sarah's house looked much the way her room at fifteen looked.

Stuffed dolls littered the front room, some set on bookcases that were also filled with children's books, hers included. Others simply were pilled on the couch and chairs. The coffee table which in a normal house would be covered with candles and random books about tea and table settings were instead covered with games such as candy land and pretty pretty princess. The latter looking much as though it had been played with recently.

The walls were covered not with prints of flowers or fruit like his mother's house, but instead brightly colored pieces of paper with messy images of dwarves and goblins. This he knew he should find endearing, every piece of fan art Sarah received from children she put up.

While The Underground series may not have been popular to adults, children just ate it up. He himself had read the entire series, quite interesting he had to say. But it did tend to worry him.

He knew that writers had a tendency to stick to one particular world, and for a children's author it made sense. But when she had branched out into writing adult books one would have thought she would create a new world and characters.

She hadn't. In fact she had used the two characters, Mary and Gareth, from her books. While in the children's books the two rarely were dealt with, besides the first book of course. The Goblin King had featured both Mary and Gareth as main characters, as well as the star of The Underground series, Charlie.

He had taken it onto himself to make a study of her work. Most of the other children's books after the first were mostly about Charlie and his continued adventures in the Underground. Though they were quite dark, The Goblin War her fourth book being the darkest in his opinion. The first book and her first adult novel had more in common than most likely even her publishers knew.

The Goblin King had introduced the character of Gareth, a self-absorbed, stuck up king who ruled over the Goblin Kingdom and the Labyrinth. The character in itself was nothing special, a pretty typical villain. That was unless you read her novel.

When Josh had first met Sarah he had been fascinated by her abilities in writing, for him the idea of someone who could create all these characters out of nothing was truly amazing. But the more he got to know her and the more he read of her work the more he realized she wasn't creating from nothing.

He had heard her say one time that an author can only write what they know. He had thought she had meant something along the lines of technical things. But now after talking with her, spending all his free time with her he realized what she had actually meant.

After that revelation it didn't take him long to figure out that Mary was in fact Sarah. He figured Charlie was most likely her brother Toby. But what he couldn't figure out was who in the world was Gareth, and why would she ever want to know someone like that?

"Ok Josh, could you come here? I finished copying what I wrote on myself." Pulling himself away from his thoughts he entered the small alcove that was just off to the right of the front room. The alcove wasn't very deep, but did allow Sarah to comfortably sit at her desk as she wrote without worry that she would be in the way should she have any guests. Not that she had many mind you, normally just Toby and about once a month her father and stepmother would come for lunch.

"By the way how is the novel coming anyway? I know last month you were fretting over it." He sat down on the small office chair she normally used to prop her legs on.

"Good I think, I know where I want to go with this one it is just getting there that can be the problem." Josh simply nodded and waited in silence till she finished copying her work. Once she was done and had closed her notebook he dipped down to place a kiss to her lips.

Sarah smiled sweetly but pulled away before he could deepen the kiss. Which of course caused Josh to groan in protest. She had been refusing his advances for two weeks now and he was getting unnerved by it.

"Sarah I…" She sighed slightly and rose from her chair. A muffled snap sounded through the room as Sarah's back popped back into place. Lord! I'm not even thirty yet and my body is already falling apart!

"Josh I'm sorry, it's just I'm tired. I still need to try and jump start my muse so I can at least get another few pages of this novel done tonight. I do have a dead-line.

"Plus you did say you have essays to grade." Standing Josh pulled the sleeves of his shirt down over his arms. He really didn't need a repeat of the week before. He was surprised that he didn't get a good reprimand after he had been caught with a particularly smutty opening scene to the second chapter on his right forearm.

"Yeah of course. I guess I should be off then…" He walked his way to the door, turning before leaving knowing she would not be there for a kiss goodbye. Those stopped three months into the relationship.

"Remember my offer still stands, if you decide otherwise just come over. I don't care what time it is." Sarah smiled and nodded before turning back towards her work. She didn't even wait to watch him go. As soon as she heard the click of door she groaned and plopped back down in her chair. Great! Now how do you waken up a muse?

She looked around her room, her lips pursed together tightly. She really needed to clean, the place looked worse than Toby's room. Too bad it would have to wait till she was done with this novel, she really didn't even have time to be having lunch with Josh. But he had insisted upon it. Maybe she would hire a maid?

Nah, too costly and way too nosy! Her eyes glanced towards the kitchen and back to her desk.

Ok, so ice cream it is! You know I have one really weird muse. She laughed at her thought as she made her way to pull out her trusty pint of peach ice cream. It was weird actually, and perverse in a way how she wrote about Him. Even if it was by another name, she hadn't covered up his identity very convincingly.

Not that she thought she had any need to. She really doubted Jareth would show up at her doorstep for the use of his character. Hell she doubted he would ever know. Goblin Kings don't go around reading mortal works of fiction.

--------------------

Sarah leaned against the back of her couch, the empty pint of ice cream sitting beside the various games on her coffee table.

She knew she should be thinking on The Velvet Underground, the scene she was working on before Josh crushed her muse was quite an important one. It would set the mood for the entire novel. But at the moment she just could not seem to think on Mary and Gareth, no matter how intriguing they were.

No her mind was too busy trying to figure out Josh, or really trying to figure out the situation with Josh.

Sarah had never actually had a long term relationship. She had tried after she got back from the Labyrinth, one of her crushes from her math class had asked her out. Karen had been so excited that Sarah accepted just to get her stepmother to leave her alone.

The relationship had lasted the year, to which of course she was surprised. After that she had dated a few other times in high school, and had a few short term relationships during college. But since she published her first book things had been different.

She hadn't intended to push the men away, but they seemed to be all the same. She supposed it had something to do with her writing. Well not the actual story but more the fact that they never got to see their girlfriend for more than an hour or so every other day.

And then once she started writing her novels it became even worse. Not that she minded by then. It wasn't that Sarah wanted to be alone, but more that she couldn't see herself as the attentive and clingy wife that everyone expected her to be.

She wanted children, that she knew. She could just imagine tiny little girls and boys running around her house asking her to read them this story or to play goblins with them. But she just couldn't bear the thought of any of the men she had dated being the father.

Karen had thought her crazy when she had dumped Ken a few years ago. He was a nice enough bloke, but she couldn't help compare him to his plastic namesake. And she was far more than sure that she was no Barbie.

And now here she was presented with another young man who everyone seemed to be pushing her towards.

Her family loved Josh, her friends, of what friends she had loved him as well. He had a steady job with good enough pay. He was smart, which was one thing that was not negotiable in Sarah's eyes. He was quite the looker with his strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes. He had rugged pretty boy painted all over him.

And yet Sarah couldn't help but feel anything but friendship for the guy. She enjoyed his company greatly. He had wit and loved to talk about most anything, he was even content to just sit there as she worked.

He never actually complained when she used him as a notebook. Oh he would make a fuss about it as he had done at lunch, but she knew it was all in good humor. If he had really been opposed to it he wouldn't have let her do it.

But even though he seemed like the perfect man, the perfect husband she just couldn't see it. She had been trying to let him down easy. For the past couple of weeks she had been growing distant with him. Withdrawing from kisses, coming up with excuses for not joining him for dinner or other dates.

She had hoped he would get the hint and back out with some grace. But it seemed Karen had been right, men were clueless when it came to women. And now she was stuck with the only choice to come out and break it off with him.

She wanted to stay friends, but she would be damned if she would deliver that speech. She had it given to her a couple of times, and whether or not the person means it to be that way or not it always comes out more as an insult than anything.

If he wanted to remain friends than he would have to approach her.

With this last thought she rose from the couch and sat at her desk. Her muse had better wake up soon because she had a deadline to make, and she doubted her publishers would find the excuse of her boyfriend killing her muse to be good enough to extend the date.