Jareth's father had always told him that to be a good king, he had to be able to handle any situation. Throughout his five hundred year reign Jareth had gone through many difficult experiences and had come through them all just fine, leading him to believe that he had lived up to his father's expectations, and he probably had. However, everyone finds themselves in over their heads at some point, and Jareth is no exception.
"Please?"
"No."
"Please?"
"No!"
"Pleeeease?!"
"NO GOD DAMMIT!!"
"Jareth, language!" The blonde woman cried "There are children present."
Jareth glanced over at the two youngsters sitting on the floor of his throne room playing with a crystal. The girl had braided black hair, bright blue eyes and rosy cheeks. The boy was blonde and more fair skinned than his sister. His brown eyes were wrought with concentration as he tried to conjure a crystal like his sister had. The Goblin King's gaze returned to their mother and his eyes narrowed.
"They aren't even paying attention, and I say again, no."
The woman sighed angrily, "Well Mother and Father can't do it and we gave our servants the day off, you're our last hope. Can't you do it for your favorite little sister?"
Jareth rolled his eyes, "First of all Ceres, you're my only sister and second of all I can't watch your children because I'm busy, who knows when someone might get wished away."
Ceres snorted, "Oh yeah sure, it's been what? Two years since someone got wished away but hey, maybe you'll get lucky."
Jareth just glared at her.
"Come on, Jareth, I'm just asking you to watch them until tonight, I promise we'll be back by at least twelve. It's just that Hector and I need some time to ourselves, we've barely had a moment's peace since he was coronated last century and besides, the twins are very eager to spend time with their favorite Uncle."
'Only Uncle,' Jareth thought silently.
Ceres turned to her two children and called to them, "Aidan! Nadia!"
The twins looked up at their mother.
"Children, weren't you telling me and daddy how much you were looking forward to spending time with your Uncle."
"Yeah!" Aidan shouted happily.
"We love Uncle Jay-Jay." Nadia added.
Jareth grimaced at the sound of that horrid name. They had been calling him by it since they learned to speak and his disdain for the nickname stayed with him ever since.
"See? They really want to spend time with you Jay- Jareth." Ceres corrected herself at the last minute.
Jareth glared at her and slumped back into his chair with a long sigh.
"So will you to it, pleeeeease?" Ceres whined.
Jareth rolled his eyes at how immature his sister could be when she was married with children of her own! However, over the years he had learned that there was really no point in fighting with her. Ceres was always more hard-headed than her brother (and that's saying something), whatever she wanted, she got.
"Fine, fine," Jareth caved, "I'll watch them."
Ceres grinned brightly and threw her arms around her brother, who went stiff, "Oh thank you big brother. You're the best!"
Jareth only grunted in response.
**
Jareth set the children up in his library playing with some small crystals with one of the more- intelligent goblins watching over them. The blonde fae sighed and squeezed the bridge of his nose while wondering just how he'd gotten himself into this mess.
It wasn't that he didn't like his niece and nephew, on the contrary, he loved them both very much, however he was not fond of the idea of them running amok in his castle; especially not after the birthday party incident last year. Jareth visibly shuddered at the memory.
Jareth entered throne room, which was empty at the moment, and dropped onto his throne. The goblins sensed their sovereign's distress and wisely choose to stay as far away from his throne as possible. Jareth began tapping his riding crop against his boot while pondering his current situation and wishing that someone, anyone would get wished away. Human children were so much easier to handle than fae. Which was why it always made the blonde king cringe whenever his parents pestered him about finding a wife and producing an heir. He remembered how he and his sister were as children, that coupled with his niece and nephew's behavior made him absolutely terrified (although he would NEVER admit, not even under torture) of the prospect of his own children.
Besides, it wasn't like he was just going to marry one of the random fae nobles his mother kept introducing him too, he had already been rejected by the one he loved…
A small and scared cough interrupted him from his thoughts. Glancing over, he was surprised and rather apprehensive to see the Goblin 'baby-sitter' he'd left with the children.
"Y-you're Majesty," The goblin stuttered, "I-Y-W-We have a b-bit of a pr-problem with the children."
Jareth inwardly sighed, "What have they done now?"
"You must come see your Highness." The goblin proceeded to (gently) tug on the king's sleeve, further emphasizing his point, "Forgive me, I tried to stop them-"
"Let's just go." Jareth angrily interrupted the goblin's groveling while rethinking his decision to call this particular subject of his 'intelligent'.
Whatever Jareth had been expecting, it was not what he found upon entering the library. The entire floor was covered in books and toppled over shelves. For a moment, Jareth's stomach dropped in fear that the twins might have been injured, until he noticed them sitting on top of his desk, coloring in books he recognized as very old and priceless tomes.
"Wha-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" He screamed at them.
The children looked up, completely unfazed by the outburst. Aidan proceeded to hold up his book,
"We're coloring." He answered innocently.
Incredulous, Jareth rounded on the now terrified goblin, "How did this happen?"
"W-well…" The goblin stammered, "I-it seems that for children their age, their c-crystal magic is quite strong. Aidan accidentally threw a crystal at a book shelf and it fell over from the force. They thought it was funny I suppose, and I couldn't stop them after that.""Uncle Jay-Jay." Nadia stepped in between the goblin and her Uncle, "Don't you like our drawings? I made one of the three of us."
With that, she held up a book opened to the first page. On the front cover was the promised drawing of two small stick figures holding the hands of a much larger stick figure clearly meant to represent himself. Jareth switch glances from the doodle to his niece's puppy dog eyes and almost instantly caved.
"Yes Nadia, I like it very much but- wha- is this my hair?" He gestured toward the enormous yellow mass surrounding his stick self's head.
"Uh-huh." Nadia nodded with a grin.
"My hair does not look like that." Jareth stated.
"Yeah it does!" Aidan piped up, "You've got big funny hair Uncle Jay-Jay!"
"No I don't." Jareth retorted, not noticing how silly he looked arguing with a child.
"Yeah-huh! Uncle Jay-Jay has funny hair!" The small boy shouted, and then to Jareth's supreme annoyance, began singing the declaration.
"Jay-Jay has funny hair! Jay-Jay has funny hair! Jay-Jay has funny hair!"Jay-Jay funny hair!" Nadia joined in.
Growling, Jareth walked out of the room, his niece and nephew skipping behind him still singing their little song.
"Jay-Jay has funny hair! Jay-Jay has funny hair!"
By the time they reached the throne room, they had quieted down…until Nadia noticed the group of Goblins playing with a chicken in the corner, at which point she began tugging at her Uncle's sleeve.
"Uncle Jay-Jay, why are they're so many goblin's everywhere?"
Jareth smiled at his niece, "Because I'm the Goblin King sweetpea."
"Oh…why?"
"Because- well- because that's the role you're Grandfather bestowed upon me."
"Why?"
"Because he wants to see if I'm capable of running a kingdom."
"Why?"
"Because he wants to be sure I'm worthy enough to inherit the High King title from him someday."
"Why?"
"Because High King is a very important role."
"Why?"
"Because the High King rules above all other Kings."
"Why?"
"BECAUSE THAT'S JUST THE WAY IT IS!!"
"…Why?"
"It just is! Go play with your brother." Jareth finally lost his temper.
Nadia scowled and stuck her tongue out at him, "You're a meanie Uncle Jay-Jay! And mommy says that's why you'll always be single!"
Before Jareth could apologized for shouting, his little niece had run off to find her brother, leaving her unhappy Uncle to sulk in silence.
**
As fate would have it, Ceres's sarcastic prediction wound up coming true around 3:00, when Jareth a familiar tug at his naval signifying that someone had been wished away. So now, he was watching through a crystal as yet another runner braved his labyrinth in an attempt to get back their young sibling. The baby boy was being watched by the goblins at the moment as were Aidan and Nadia. Everything remained peaceful…ish, until the baby started crying, and not just any cry, this was a full blown wail. The goblin's clearly had no idea what to do while the twins shrunken back from the sound.
Jareth sighed and scooped the child up. In his attempts to soothe him, he failed to notice the terrible twins disappear, only realizing when the goblins suddenly began screaming and running for the exits. At that moment, Jareth knew something was very wrong. There were only two instances that could cause such a reaction from them: If Jareth was very angry, or if he was about to become very angry.
The situation proved to be the latter as Jareth turned around to find his nephew…sitting on his throne. With his riding crop in his hand.
"What the- AIDAN, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
"I'm the Goblin King!" The boy declared, waving the riding crop in the air.
"Aidan, get down from there." Jareth ordered.
Aidan responded with a raspberry and the loud declaration,
"I don't have to listen to you peasant! I'm the King! Bow down before me!"
The intimidation was lost however when Aidan broke down in a giggle fit.
"Aidan," Jareth ground out between his clenched jaw, "I'm not going to tell you again- wait," He looked around in confusion, "Where is your sister?"
**
Meanwhile, the current runner, a 13year old boy named Drake, was having a bit of a hard time. A dwarf he had talked to gave him a path to follow, promising it would lead him straight to the castle, but so far he just seemed to be going in a big circle. Everything looked the same! The bushes, the stones. It was like ever aspect of his surroundings was there for the sole purpose of confusing him.
"Hello!"
The high pitched voice startled him to the point of almost falling on his behind. He whirled around and saw that the speaker was a small dark haired girl who couldn't have been any older than five.
"H-hi there." Drake awkwardly waved to the child.
"Whatcha doin'?" She asked innocently.
"Uh…" He trailed off, "I'm uh, Im trying to find my way to the castle."
Her brow furrowed, "Well you'll never get there like this. You're headed back to the beginning."
Drake gawked at her, "I WHAT?! That dwarf lied to me!"
Nadia giggled at the angry young man, "If you want to get to the castle so bad, you should just take the shortcut."
That perked the boy up, "There's a shortcut?"
Nadia smiled and nodded, "Uh-huh, it's right through here. Come on I'll take you."
She seized Drake's arm and pulled him through the bushes. Drake was confused at first until they came out on the other side and found themselves right front of the imposing castle. After a moment of shock, Drake broke into a grin and after a quick thank you to his new friend, sprinted through the castle door toward his brother.
**
"Now Aidan, what have we learned?" Jareth sternly lectured the boy.
He hung his head sadly, "Never sit on your throne."
"That's right." Jareth answered with a smile.
"Your highness?" A goblin asked while tapping the king on the shoulder.
"What is it?"
"Uh, excuse me?"At the sound of the voice, Jareth craned his neck around to find a shocking sight. The runner, standing right behind him. The boy's brother was now cooing loudly and reaching for the older boy.
Jareth stood up at full height, towering over the nervous looking boy.
"How the hell did you get here so fast?!" The goblin king seethed.
The boy was now paralyzed with fear, but luckily his need to answer was soon erased by the happy laugh of Nadia.
"I brought him Uncle Jay-Jay, he said he was lost so I helped him."
Jareth stared at her, his anger and frustration dangerously close to boiling over.
"You did- You helped- you- you," He sputtered trying to find the right words.
"Can I have my brother back now?" Drake timidly piped up.
Jareth glared at him, then snatched the baby from a goblin's arms and shoved him into the boy's.
"Just go now!" Jareth shouted, hurling a crystal at their heads.
It burst just before hitting them and sent them back to their home in a cloud of glitter. He turned now to his goblins.
"GET OUT!" He roared and for the second time that day the goblins hightailed it out of his presence.
Now he was alone with the evil twins. With a wave of his hand, the throne room dissolved around them and they appeared in one of the guest rooms.
"You two," He hissed, "Are hereby confined to this room for the remainder of the day, and I will be telling you parents about your behavior as soon as they return."
That clearly did it as their eyes practically bulged out of their skulls.
"But Uncle Jay-Jay-" They began together.
"No 'buts'!" Their Uncle cut them off, "Now I'm going to go clean up the library and you are going to stay in here, understand?"
The twins nodded sadly.
Satisfied, Jareth walked out of the room, shutting and bolting the door behind him. As soon as he was gone, Aidan turned to his sister.
"He's mad at us."
Nadia hung her head, "I know."
"What do we do now?"
Nadia thought for a moment, and then gasped, "I know! We can give him a present!"
Aidan looked confused, "A present?"
"Uh-huh," Nadia nodded furiously, "Whenever Mommy gets mad at Daddy, he always gets her a present like a Necklace or something, and then Mommy's not mad anymore."
"Really?""Yup," Answered Nadia, "And then they go up to their room, and they don't come out for all night long."
"What are they doing up there?"
"I asked Mommy one day, she said they were talking things over, and then she made me go play outside until dinner."
"Oh." Aidan nodded, "But what can we get Uncle Jay-Jay?"
Nadia frowned, "I don't know."
Both were silent, until Aidan suddenly smiled, "I have an idea!"
"What? What?" Nadia eagerly asked.
"You know that story Mommy tells us about the lady who beat Uncle Jay-Jay's Labie-rinth?" The boy asked.
"You mean Miss Sarah?"
"Yup, Mommy says that he tried to make her stay with him 'cause he really liked her, but she didn't like him 'cause she thought he was a bad guy, and now he won't get married 'cause he still thinks about her all the time. So maybe we could bring her to Uncle Jay-Jay as a gift, then he won't be mad at us anymore, and he can say sorry to Miss Sarah for making her mad, and then they can go talk things over just like Mommy and Daddy!"
"Yeah!" Nadia cheered, "But how do we get her here?"
Aidan smiled and conjured a small crystal, "I can do it, Daddy showed me how to teleport."
And in a flash of light, the twins disappeared to bring their 'peace offering' to their dear Uncle.
**
"Uncle Jay-Jay! Uncle Jay-Jay!"
Jareth felt a weight attach itself to his leg and looked down to find his little niece looking up at him with big blue eyes.
"Nadia, what are you doing here? I told you to stay in that room." He scolded her gently.
"I know, but me and Aidan are really sorry we made you made, so we got you a present, come see it!"
She tugged at his arm, half dragging him down the hall.
"Nadia, slow down, where is this present?" Jareth couldn't help but chuckle.
"Come on!" The girl repeated, "She's right in here."
Jareth smiled at the child's enthusiasm as she led him to the guestroom he'd confined her and her brother to.
Wait a minute, 'she's right in here?'
The door opened with a loud bang and Jareth had a full view of it's occupants. His fears were confirmed at the sight of a young brunette in her early to mid twenties, standing behind a grinning Aidan.
"Sarah…" He whispered, almost not believing his eyes.
The green eyed woman observed him briefly before turning to the children.
"Aidan, Nadia," She addressed them, "could you two leave me and your Uncle alone for a few minutes?"
"Are you going to go up to his room and talk all night?" Nadia questioned.
Jareth nearly choked on his own spit while Sarah just looked taken aback.
"Erm, no we're going to…do…somethingthatdoesn'tinvolvetalkinggoonnow."
She quickly ushered the children toward the door and they stopped only to smile at their Uncle before running off. Jareth closed the door, his heart beating hard against his chest. He couldn't believe what was happening, that they had actually brought her here. And by the Gods, she was even more beautiful then he remembered.
Jareth took a deep breath, he would not let himself be intimidated, especially not by Sarah Williams. He turned around intent on apologizing and explaining the situation…
…when he was forcefully thrown back by the weight of Sarah's fist slamming into his face.
"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" She shouted at him, "How DARE you send those children to bring me here. It's bad enough that you just barge into my life after TEN YEARS and drag me back to this place, BUT TO SEND THOSE CHILDREN BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE THE BRASS BALLS TO DO IT YOURSELF, YOU HAVE REACHED A NEW LOW!"
Jareth stood back up, leaning against the wall for support.
"Sarah, I can assure you, I had nothing to do with this."
"Don't give me that!" She snapped angrily, "Who are those kids anyway, are they really you niece and nephew or just some pawns in another one of your sick little games?"
"Sarah, please calm yourself," Jareth brought up his hands in surrender, "I swear to you, I had no idea what they were doing. Yes, they are my sister's children, and they brought you here because they felt bad for misbehaving before, and they-"
CRASH
The loud sound jolted the two away from the tense atmosphere and Jareth quickly realized he had actually sent the twins away. On their own.
"Oh no," He moaned, tearing from the room.
As he headed to his chambers, he found the door wide open and ran in. His jaw dropped at the sight of his over turned wardrobe, his clothes strewn all over the room, and the twins standing before the mess, guilty expressions on their faces.
"S/He did it!" They both cried, pointing at the other.
Jareth was on the verge of ripping his hair out and screaming when he heard something. Something behind him. Something that sounds like…laughter?
He turned and was surprised to find Sarah standing in the doorway (she followed him?) laughing her head off at the scene before her.
Jareth stared, then became angry, "I fail to see the humor in this situation."
She ignored him and kept laughing.
"Unbelievable!" Sarah finally managed to get out, "Of all people to be unable to deal with children."
Jareth scowled, "I'll have you know, fae children are quite a bit different than human. Especially ones with such strong magic as these two. They have been driving me insane all day! And all because my devilish sister waltzed in here unannounced and saddled me with her delightful monsters while she and her husband are of doing God knows what, ALL BLOODY DAY!!"Sarah clicked her tongue, almost completely unfazed by his outburst.
"Sounds like your in over your head." She commented.
'What was your first clue?' Jareth's mind reeled.
Sarah's green eyes turned away from the Goblin King as she lowered herself to the children's level.
"Alright guys," She addressed them, "what you did just now was wrong, you should never touch someone else's things without asking first, understand?"
The twins stared at her, and then nodded slowly.
"Good," Sarah smiled, "Now what do you say we clean up this mess while Uncle Jay-Jay here takes a short nap, by the looks of things, he needs one."
Jareth huffed, "Don't presume so much, I feel just fine."
"Uh huh." Sarah muttered, clearly not listening to him, "Go on now, lay down, cool off, get some rest."
Her insistance made him realize that his eyes were feeling rather heavy. She lightly pushed him down onto his bed and before he knew it, he was out.
**
When Jareth woke up, he could tell that only a half hour or so had past. Examining his surroundings, he found that his clothes were back where they belonged (though not necessarily as organized as he liked), and Sarah and the twins were nowhere to be found.
Jareth stretched and stood up, leaving his room and demanding to know their location from a passing Goblin. He learned that they were in the throne room and immediately teleported himself there.
He looked around, annoyed at finding the room empty. Just as he was going to continue his search however, he was alerted to another presence in the room by small, childish footsteps.
Jareth whirled around to find himself face to face with a determined Nadia, who had her index fingers extended toward him as if they were one of those human killing devices he'd heard about.
"Freeze Uncle Jay-Jay!" She cried out.
Jareth stared at her, completely confused. Slowly, Sarah and Aidan stepped out of the shadows, their hands in similar formation.
"What's going on here?"
Sarah smirked, "Why, we're playing cops and robbers, right guys?"
"Yeah!" Nadia answered, "We're the cops and you're the robber Uncle Jay-Jay, and you gots the right to amain silent! Anything you say can and will be used against you in…um…" She looked pleadingly at Sarah.
"A court of law." The young woman supplied.
"Yeah a courta law!" The dark haired child repeated, "And you gots the right to a turnie, and if you can't afford a turnie, one'll be pointed to you…did I say that right Sarah?"
The woman in question smiled warmly, "You did just fine sweetie."
Nadia beamed happily.
"So do we take him to jail now?" Asked Aidan.
"Of course," Sarah answered as she approached the Goblin King, "…unless of course, he were to escape. Then we'd just have to keep looking."
Jareth noticed her give him a look, signaling for him to play along. Jareth was for a moment shocked that the twins had taken to her so fast, but then he smirked at the three 'cops' and conjured a crystal.
"You'd better start your search then." he told them before throwing the crystal and vanishing before their eyes.
"Aw, he got away." Nadia moaned sadly.
"Well, at least now we can keep playing." Sarah said reassuringly, then stood up at full height, "Come guys, let's go, we've got a robber to catch!"
"Yeah!" The twins cheered.
**
For the next few hours, the four of them played their game. Jareth quickly got the hang of it and did a very good job of evading them up until he decided to hide out in the Labyrinth, he was feeling rather confidant that he would be found until Aidan threw himself at him, holding him while Nadia and Sarah 'shot' him.
Not long after, the twins eyes started to grow heavy. Unfortunately, neither was very eager to go to sleep.
"But I'm not tired!" Aidan complained while Nadia next to him yawned.
"Are you sure?" Sarah asked with a smirk.
"Uh huh." Aidan whispered, his eyes drooping.
"Come now children." Jareth whispered to them, "We know you're lying, now go to sleep."
The kids fidgeted in his grasp but gave no other signs of struggle. Jareth transported them back to his bedroom and placed them on the rather large bed. Kneeling down he brushed the hair out of their faces, marveling at how sweet and harmless they looked. Smiling, he softly sang them to sleep while Sarah stood against the wall, watching.
When Jareth finished his song, he slowly got back up and back toward the young woman who'd haunted his dreams.
"They're so cute." Sarah gushed.
"I suppose." Jareth answered, but with a smile, "That was a rather interesting game you taught them."
Sarah chuckled, "Yeah I know, but Toby and I play it all the time, I guess it was just force of habit."
Jareth nodded, briefly pondering the infant would by now would be nearing adolescence. His thoughts where disturbed by Sarah's cough.
"Look uh…" Her eyes were downcast for a moment as she searched for the right words, "I'm sorry I punched you…I guess I just, well, if you found two strange kids in your apartment insisting you come with them to see 'Uncle Jay-Jay' you might uh…well, you know what I mean."
Jareth eyed her, "Yes I suppose so, I should apologize too. I'm sorry you were dragged into this. I'll send you home now if you want."
Sarah looked thoughtful, "No, there's still something else you have to do for me."
He raised an eyebrow, "What are you talking about?"A cheeky grin, "Well they also told me that you wanted to apologize for what happened all those years ago."
Jareth blinked, then scowled, "I don't need to apologize for anything, I simply did as-"
"As I asked, blah, blah, blah." Sarah imitated him much to the blonde fae's irritation, "No more excuses, now come on."
In spite of her cheek, Jareth had to fight to keep a grin off his face. This was probably what he missed most about her, her stubborness that almost matched his own.
"Yes I suppose you're right," He conceded with a sigh, he looked deep into her gorgeous green eyes and continued, "However, I'm not sorry that I took you brother nor am I sorry for putting you through my Labyrinth."
She looked shocked and was about to say something when he quickly held up a hand to silence her, "I am however, sorry that my actions in our last encounter gave you such a bad perception of me. I'm sorry that I made you hate me for so long."
Her mouth was slightly agape now, until she recomposed herself and gave him a reproachful look, "I never hated you Jareth. I was angry with you, disliked you immensely but…I never outright hated you."
Jareth pondered that. She disliked him, but she did hate him is what she was saying. So that meant there was the possibility that she could grow to like (or more ideally love) him.
It was a start anyway.
"Excuse me?" A small voice rang out, belonging to a Goblin who had just entered the room, "Their majesties, King Hector and Queen Ceres have come for the Prince and Princess."
Jareth blinked and then smiled slightly. "Send them in please, tell them the children are asleep and we don't want to wake them."
"Yes sir." The Goblin answered and walked out.
Not a minute later, a woman, almost an exact copy of Jareth (except female) walked into the room.
"Hello brother and-" She stopped short at seeing Sarah.
It took Jareth a moment to realize what had stopped her and when her did, he inwardly smirked, "Ceres, I'd like you to meet Miss Sarah Williams of the aboveground."
The Queen openly gawked, "You mean this is…"
Jareth nodded, and Ceres broke out in a grin.
"Well it's an absolute honor to meet you Sarah. My brother talks about you all the time you know."
Jareth glared at her.
"It's nice to meet you to your Highness." Sarah answered respectfully.
Ceres chuckled, "Oh don't bother with that 'your highness' rubbish, just call me Ceres."
The two woman giggled, not noticing the twins stirring until their voices were heard.
"Mommy?" Nadia rubbed her eyes.
Ceres immediately went over to the bed, "Oh hello love, did you and your brother miss me?"
"Yeah," Aidan answered for his sister, "but we had fun with Sarah and Uncle Jay-Jay. We played a fun game and got to go in the Labie-rinth and all sorts of stuff."
Ceres grinned, "That's great, I'm glad you both had fun, but it's time to go now so say goodbye to Uncle Jareth and Sarah."
"Goodbye?" Nadia repeated, her eyes watering, "But I don't wanna say goodbye."
"Yeah, me either." Said Aidan.
Sensing their ditress, Sarah approached the two children and kneeled in front of them.
"I know how you guys feel, I don't like goodbyes either. So you know what I always do?"
The twins shook their heads.
"I don't say goodbye," Sarah answered, "instead I say, 'see you later.'"
Aidan's brow furrowed, "You mean…like, we'll see you again?"
Sarah smiled warmly, "That's what I said."
Both twins eyes lit up and before Sarah knew what had hit her, they launched themselves into her arms and clung to her waist.
"Okay, then we won't say goodbye either," Nadia declared, "we'll say 'see you later' just like you Sarah."
"Yeah!" Aidan agreed as he and Nadia pulled away from her, "See you later."
"See you later." Sarah answered.
Now fully awake, the twins walked out of the room following their mother and uncle outside. There, Sarah was introduced to the twins father and helped put them in the carriage. With one last 'see you later', the carriage began it's trip home, leaving only Sarah and her once enemy standing in their wake.
The silence between them was defeaning and Jareth knew he had to say something,
"Thank you for all your help today Sarah, I can't tell you how much I appreciate it."
"It was no trouble," The young woman answered, "They really are sweet children."
"Yes, I suppose they are." Jareth muttered softly, then he sighed and did what he knew he now had to do. He conjured up another crystal and handed it to her.
"Here," He said, "just throw it and it will take you back home."
She took the crystal from him and stared at it for a moment, then looked back up at him. "Well, it's been fun."
Jareth smiled sadly, knowing that he didn't want her to leave but unable to stop her, as she had once said, he had no power over her. And so, he resigned himself to losing her once again,
"Goodbye then."
His voice was soft, she almost didn't hear it. And then Sarah did something Jareth never would have expected, she got up on her toes and kissed him full on the mouth. Granted, it was just a small peck, but it still set Jareth's soul on fire. She smirked.
"See you later."
Without another word, she tossed the crystal in the air and was gone. Now alone, Jareth's mind reeled over what had just occurred, her final words to him playing over and over again in his head like a broken record.
"See you later."
His gloved hand reached up to his lips as they curved into a grin and he let out a happy laugh.
But unbeknownst to the Goblin King, the entire moment had been viewed by another. Two anothers to be exact. Through a small crystal they had conjured, Aidan and Nadia watched happily as their beloved Uncle and new friend said their goodbyes, or rather, their 'see you laters'. When it was over, Nadia grinned up at her brother.
"See, I knew it would work," She told him happily, "and they didn't even have to go up to his room and talk all night."