Christoph stood in the doorway of the Library watching his sister pace back and forth. For someone who complained of the full regalia, he was surprised to see she was still wearing hers, though the Delegation had been gone for hours. He had been there for fifteen minutes but she had yet to notice him. He was not even trying to be inconspicuous, so her obvious inattention amused him to no end. When he walked in, closing the door gently behind him, she was seated at one of the reading desks, chin resting on one hand, fingers tapping her face. The tome brought by the Delegation lay open in front of her, one page held ready to be turned by her other hand. Next to the tome sat her closed laptop.

At first he thought she was concentrating so intently on digging information out of the old book that she was left completely unaware of what went on in her surroundings. Then he realised that she was in fact staring at her laptop. This bore some contemplation on his part. It was not open. He did not even think it was on and in sleep mode. She was just staring at it.

Suddenly, she sighed and threw herself back in the chair. "Katrin," he heard her mutter, "don't be stupid. You have better things to do with your time." Thus said, she got out of the chair, picked up the tome, and walked over to the window. She looked down at the page she was on then turned it. Silence fell over the room. The next thing he knew, she had slammed the book shut and returned to the desk. Plopping gracelessly into the chair, she set the tome aside and pulled her laptop closer. With a click, the screen popped up and she pushed it the rest of the way open. A loud bell sound rang out as she turned it on.

"What are you doing?" she had asked. Christoph initially thought she was talking to him and made to respond, when she continued. "There are more important things to be doing than checking your email on the off chance that he'll have replied." As she shut her laptop, putting it to sleep, and set it aside to pick up the tome once more, he had little trouble guessing who 'he' might be.

Once again, she got out of the chair, returning to the window with the book in hand. As soon as she got there, she turned around and went back to the desk, muttering, "But it has been over a day since I checked it at all..." Before she opened the laptop, she sighed, hung her head, and went back to the window. She repeated the ritual twice more before gritting her teeth and settling for pacing back and forth while, he assumed, attempting to look through the book without distraction. It was not working, though, for she kept throwing glances at the laptop every other time she passed the desk.

Finally, Christoph decided to be helpful. "Oh, just check your email already."

Katrin screamed, jumped a mile, and dropped the tome. She whirled around, eyes narrowing when she saw her brother grinning at her. "What?" she asked, sharply.

He came further into the room and pulled up another chair to the opposite side of the desk. "Just check it already. You know you want to. And I'm sure our beloved parents would prefer you to do that rather than wear holes in their carpet."

"First of all, you know as well as I do that these carpets are impervious to wear due to pacing. That is one of the joys of having a Fae of Dad's magical calibre as a father." She picked up the tome and walked over to the desk. Setting it down, she sat in her own chair and crossed her arms. "As for me checking my email, what do you know about it?"

"Well," he replied, leaning forward, "I know you've been trying to convince yourself that you actually don't want to check it for the past fifteen minutes or so, though I would not be surprised if it was longer than that. I also know how to put one and one together and can guess that you are hoping to receive a message from a certain person about whom I'm not supposed to speak. " He grinned at her raised eyebrow. "Look, from what I saw, you can't focus. Your part of this huge shenanigan is to figure out what I need to know from that book. That'll never get done if you can't focus, right?" Her expression didn't change. "Of course I'm right. Stupid question. So put yourself out of your misery and find out if you've got a love note waiting for you."

"Why are you so interested, anyway?"

He found himself on the receiving end of a full glare and held up his hands defensively. "I'm not! I'm just trying to help myself here. The more info you give me out of that book, the better off I'll be when I get going." Plus I will get some insight on the character of this guy of yours, dear sister, he thought.

She snorted and began ticking off her fingers. "One, I am supposed to be looking for information that could prove to be dangerous to the Underground if known by outsiders. Two, even if any of this was meant to be helpful, that help would be needed by this employee of the Bank not by you. And three, you wouldn't need the help in any case as you are half Fae and the Heir to the Throne of the Goblin Kingdom."

"Hey, you never know. I will be in owl form, after all. Something out there might not make the connection that it is me."

"And do what?"

"Um... eat me?"

"You forget, o genius brother of mine, that owls are not native to the Underground and are a common form taken by members of the High Court. I highly doubt any creature would chose owl for a meal unless you aggrivate it first."

"Come on. Just check your email."

They stared at each other for a full minute, Christoph with an eager and innocent grin, Katrin with suspicion. "Fine," she said finally. "But if I get in trouble for unnecessary use of holes to Aboveground at a time like this, it's your fault." Christoph's grin widened as she pulled her laptop close and popped it open once more. Though he was not connected to the magic of the Kingdom as his father was, he could still feel the power waves flow as Katrin opened a tiny portal. After two and a half minutes, she closed it again.

"That was fast."

She shrugged. "I only needed to connect and then download messages. I pay for fast access." She then reached up as though to shut her laptop.

Christoph grabbed the sides of her screen. "Hang on. Aren't you going to read it?"

"I can do that later. Let go."

"You went through all that trouble just to read it later?"

"No, but that's what I'm going to do. Let go, you're making smudges."

"Well, why don't you read them now?"

"Why are you pestering me about it? Will you let go already?"

"Not until you read them now."

"I don't have to if I don't want to."

"I'm not letting go until you do."

Katrin rolled her eyes. "Fine. You are so immature sometimes." His smile of triumph was forestalled when, instead of going back to her laptop, she reopened the tome and started flipping through the pages to find her place. Christoph made a sound of frustration. Then, a wicked grin slowly grew. Moving his hands lower on the screen, he got hold of the laptop and turned it around.

The movement caught Katrin's attention. "What are you doing?"

Determined to not be fazed by her tone, even though he knew it meant he was likely to get in trouble, he finished turning the laptop around and set it down. "Since you won't do it and are so busy, I thought I'd be helpful and check for you." His brow furrowed as he looked for where she kept her email program. Abruptly, the computer disappeared from in front of him. He looked up to see Katrin snapping it shut and setting it down again, resting both hands atop it. "Hey!"

She leaned forward and pointed at him. "Why are you so interested in my email messages?"

He felt as though he had just been caught doing something naughty by his mother. "Geez, Kati. Don't look at me like that. You look like Mom, and it's kind of creepy."

"Well?"

"Ok, ok, I give. I'm your brother, Kati; I want to check this guy out. And since you probably won't let me meet him yet, I have to take what I can get." And pry out how serious you are before I go spy on him. I wonder what Dad would do if he knew that this is the same guy he saw with her... Hm, probably throw him in a hole somewhere.

Katrin rolled her eyes. "You're not going to go away until I do, are you?" He grinned and shook his head. She sighed. "I cannot believe I am agreeing to this. Right, I'll tell you what he says. But, if you try for one instant to read over my shoulder, boy, I'll ream you all the way to the Bog."

He chuckled at her empty threat and nodded his assent. I can always sneak into her room and find out more later, he thought.

"And don't even think about trying to sneak into my room and taking my laptop, either. I'll know if you do."

Damn. How did she do that?

Katrin giggled. "What is it?" asked Christoph.

"Huh?" she looked up, apparently having forgotten he was there. "Oh. Basically he says hi and asks how I'm doing and tells me something about his family. And there's this bit where he talks about his job, but he's really vague. He said before that he works for a bank, but then it reads here that he's being sent on a mission. He's probably trying to just make some excuse so I'm not encouraged to write back or something," she said with a chuckle.

Christoph noted, however, the slight worry in her eyes. Hm... she's got it bad. And yet she's managed to put one and one together and get three. What, does she think it is a coincidence that he works for a bank too and gets sent on a 'mission' of some sort? "I wouldn't worry too much about that, Kati. If he didn't want to encourage you, why would he write back in the first place?"

This time her chuckle was complete. "True. And he does say he hopes he hears from me soon and will check for a reply tomorrow..."

"Hey, what made you giggle though?"

"Oh, nothing."

"No, tell me. Come on, pleeease?"

"Uh-uh. I told you the basics, now go away." She made to close the lid one more time.

"I don't think so." Before she could, he snatched her laptop away from her.

"Hey!" she cried, attempting to get it back. But he ran across the room to another desk. A scuffle ensued wherein she tried to reach around him and close the window, but being that he was bigger than she and his arms were longer. Usually, her agility made up for what she lacked in size and strength, but her haste in trying to get her laptop back, as well as her wearing formal and mildly constricting clothes, gave him a slight edge.

"Aw, he calls you 'Katrin' instead of adopting the ever popular nick name," he said as he twisted her arms behind her and held her back.

"So?" She managed to get one arm free and reached for the keyboard. She pressed 'command' and aimed for the 'w' when he caught her wrist and shoved her across the room.

She ran back and collided into his waist. They both grunted. "You're right, he is being vague... OW! Pulling the hair is not nice, Katrin! Who are all those guys he's talking about?"

"His brothers, dimwit. The clue to that would be in the fact he is talking about 'home' and his parents." He had her pinned against him and she twisted and flailed any way she could.

"Slippers?? Oof." One of her elbows caught him in the stomach. "What the hell is he asking about your slippers for!?"

"I told him I couldn't find them."

"You're talking to him about your slippers?? Katrin!"

"They're just, ugh, slippers. It isn't like I was talking about a slinky night gown or other articles of clothing." He shoved her away again.

"I certainly hope not! And you aren't going to do so, either, if I have anything to say about it! That's it, I'm replying to this Bill and telling him where the lines are." Unfortunately for Christoph, that was not quite the best thing to say. He thought it would just get a rise out of his sister, which it did. However, it also caused her to panic and she tackled him with full force, jumping on his back.

They were still wrestling on the floor ten minutes later when Jareth and Sarah walked in on them to see how Katrin was making out with the tome. She had somehow managed to get Christoph pinned to the ground, but was struggling to make him stay put. Exchanging a look with Sarah, Jareth cleared his throat. His eldest son and only daughter looked up. "What, might I ask," he said dryly, "are you two precious things doing?"

"Oh, you know. Talking... and stuff," offered Christoph as Katrin got off and helped him up.

"You could have waited to 'talk' until your sister was wearing something more suitable," said Jareth.

"Yeah, but that would have made things more even," he quipped. Katrin smacked him in the back of the head.

Jareth threw up his hands and turned to leave the room. "Where are you going?" asked Sarah.

"They're your children. You take care of this."

Sarah's eyes narrowed after him. "Oh, really?" Turning to the siblings, she caught them exchanging glances. "No more for tonight, ok? I'd say I'll speak to you in the morning, but you should be old enough to know better."

"Yes, Mother," they answered, the picture of contriteness.

"Hah. You don't fool me. As your father graciously put it, you are my children, and I know all your tricks." She smiled fondly at them. "Now get out of here. I'm going to speak to that husband of mine about fulfilling one's parental duties."

After she shut the door, Christoph turned to his sister. She was not standing next to him any longer, however. He heard a 'click' behind him and turned again, to find her scooting around him and scampering toward the door, laptop and tome under her arm. How did she manage to get at both of them so fast? he wondered. As she waved over her shoulder and left him alone in the Library, he realised she had won. Unwilling to let it go, he bolted for the door as well and raced after her. Katrin, however, was long gone, having broken into a run as soon as she turned the corner and locking herself in her room.