Thunderstorm Romance
AN- Not to deter myself from OWAC, but I have had this playing in my head for a couple of days and I wanted to try my hand at fluffier Labyrinth. You might notice I write rain a lot, I'm a little bit in love with the stuff. Especially in the summer.
A note on Jeremy's appearance here, I've used a bit of information from the novel of the movie (which isn't just a transcript so, read it!), mostly to do with Sarah's relationship with Jeremy (the hottie her mom left her dad for). I've added a few elements of my own (them ever getting married) as well.
Sarah Williams had a long-standing relationship with thunderstorms.
She was born on a stormy day in summer, she said her first word while staring out the window at lightening in the sky. On her first day of kindergarten, her mother had to come get her early because the school's backup generator failed during a terrible storm. In the third grade, Sarah's first puppy love, Jackson, passed away during spring break, when his parents got into a terrible car accident during a storm. She had come home from school with tears as heavy as the rain the day after school resumed and her parents had kept her home for a couple more days to try and help her grieve through the whole incident.
On a dreary day in October, many years later, Sarah had listened to her parents holler at one another through the paper thin walls of their home. The next day, during a torrential downpour, Sarah had watched from her window with a breaking heart as her mother and Jeremy had loaded her things into his car. Linda had paused briefly, glancing up at the second story window in the front of the house, she said something to Jeremy and waved her down.
And as they had hugged and kissed and said goodbye, Linda had given her a choice. Come with me or stay with Daddy. She didn't guilt her or pressure her and in the end Sarah chose to stay with Robert so he wouldn't lose them both, and Linda had glanced around them at the weather, and at Jeremy, his hair tamed in a wild way, and his face handsome, as he sat in the car, bopping to the radio. "You know Sarah, my girl. Thunderstorms are the most natural thing in the world," Sarah had looked at the sky, at Jeremy, at her mother. At the house they had always been a family in. "They're a lot like love. They come and go as they please."
Sarah hadn't really understood. Not at that point. At that age. She had nodded though and said her goodbyes once again. When Robert had come home that night, she had been sitting in the front window with her legs curled close to her chest, watching the rain pour outside. He had known right away that if he went upstairs, Linda wouldn't be there, and that she wouldn't be coming back. So he had taken Sarah out to dinner and ice cream, hoping it would help ease the pain before she really broke into her teenage years and ice cream wouldn't fix things anymore.
Secretly, Sarah had dreamed that Jeremy and Linda would come back and tell her they wanted to make her a star, too. They did come back, from time to time. The first time she saw them both was when they came to finalize the divorce, it had rained that day, but only mildly. Sarah could accept her parents splitting up so long as she had them both in her life. Over the years Jeremy would come and get her and they would spend time together, with and without her mother. And he was always very kind to her, and Sarah couldn't pretend the suave actor with mis-matched eyes wasn't incredibly handsome. It felt like getting swept up by a prince in a fairytale.
The storms started again when Sarah turned 13. And Robert brought home his new girlfriend, Irene. Sarah had been outraged that he had brought her into the house and, moreso, that he had the nerve to introduce them to one another. She had spent the whole night in her room sulking by the window, occasionally calling her mother's line to leave a message. Jeremy called back the next day to make sure she was okay and to remind her that she didn't have to have any relationship with her father's dates if she chose not to. She was uplifted by that knowledge, if only ever so briefly.
It stormed when they got engaged and it stormed every night Irene stayed over. Three weeks before the wedding, Sarah couldn't stand the rain anymore, and she bolted from the house during the middle of the night. For three days she wandered the streets, getting short rides across the city until finally she found herself at the home Linda and Jeremy shared together when they were in town. She hadn't even made it across the lawn all the way when the door had flung open and her mother and pseudo stepfather had come running out to meet her. He had scooped her up in his arms and they had both cried and told her to never, ever pull a stunt like that again.
After explaining her pain to them between sobs, Linda had promised that she could come stay with them so long as they were in town. However, when Robert and Irene arrived, her father lost his mind. He accused Jeremy of some unsoundly things, and Sarah had become so frustrated by it all that she had slapped her father in the face, and he had vowed that she wouldn't see Linda ever again if he had anything to say about it.
He'd been right. Her visits with her mother and Jeremy became thin and far between. She sat rain-soaked and miserable through Irene and Robert's wedding and go to spend their honeymoon with her mother. It was then that they informed her that Robert had gone to the courts to have Linda's visitation extremely limited. Jeremy had been quiet and finally, hurt by her tears, explained that he had a record (although it had NOTHING to do with harming children in any way) and that her father had used that information against them. Sarah had begged them to fight for her, and they had promised they would.
So when Irene became pregnant and a series of storms passed over the course of a week, she was horrified by the lack of contact with her mother. She chalked it up to work, and saw them a couple of weeks later, when they took her out to dinner and a movie. They saw her again three months after that, and then four months after that, shortly after Toby had been born. Jeremy had asked what being a big sister was like, and she had told him she hadn't even held her baby brother because of her disdain for his mother.
He had surprised her by sitting her down and telling her that she ought to have a relationship with the baby, because one day, he might hate Irene as much as Sarah did. And she took the advice to heart. For a long while the thunderstorms were gone. She watched Toby from time to time and played with him and fed him when her father and Irene were home. She even worked up the spine to chat with Irene about boys and school on occasion, when the woman wouldn't just pry into her business, and Sarah figured she might not be that bad.
On her fifteenth birthday, Irene baked her a cake and made her favorite breakfast, and she spent the day with her paternal stepfamily. Come evening, Jeremy arrived and she had rushed out the door to hug him, having not seen him in a long while. He presented her with a gorgeous blue evening dress, and she changed hurriedly, and snuck a little of Irene's lipstick before hurrying out the door before her stepmother could see. Jeremy and Linda took her to a musical and then to dinner at a very fancy restaurant, where Jeremy had danced with her like the other couples there. That night, they drove her to her favorite spot in the park and informed her that they were getting married.
Their wedding was just a few weeks after the biggest storm that Sarah had been apart of. The storm that had brought the Goblin King through her parents' bedroom windows. She had been different there, had behaved, had smiled. Had posed with photos with a new radiance in her eyes. Linda had asked her to be her maid of honor, and Sarah had taken the role very seriously, and many of their famous friends had complimented them on having such a well-rounded teenager in the age of rebellious rock and roll. That whole day had been sunny, in fact, it was months before there was another storm.
Sarah was four months away from her sixteenth birthday when he had shown up again. She had been terrified at first. Stood in the middle of the street with her Christmas shopping clutched in her hands when she had seen him standing across the way in his leathery, glittery goodness. Stop it Sarah! She had nearly smacked herself in the forehead when she had had the thought, and just as quickly as he had been standing there, he was gone now.
But not gone for good. As soon as she had started home she had run into him again (and wanted to wipe that smirk off of his face!) on the sidewalk on the way home, holding an umbrella. When she had tried to just walk past him, he had followed.
"You know, you wouldn't be soaking if you had thought ahead, Sarah." He was holding the umbrella over them both, curiously studying the neighborhood as they hurried toward her street. She half expected he would jump out of the way for some lightning to strike her dead, perfect revenge for besting him at his Labyrinth, but Jareth just walked at the same pace, careless to the peering eyes of her neighbors.
"Why are you here?"
"It would seem to alert you to the fact that everyone can see through your blouse," He replied dryly, annoyed at her lack of thanks. His eyes flicked to her as she threw her arms over her chest, and he chuckled under his breath.
"Thank you, very much." She snapped. "Now that you've seen…"
"I wasn't looking, stop your fussing and get over here where you can get warm." His tone was nearly fatherly. And she wouldn't have obeyed but he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and drew her close, and he was much warmer than her. She had snuggled in and shivered the whole way home, and he had walked her to the porch. As soon as she turned around to give him some more lip, she could see that he was truly gone now.
His visits became regular after that. Sometimes two months apart, sometimes two days. It started with little episodes like him helping her warm up, coming to sit and talk to her when Irene had forgotten to pick her up from school one evening. He had even come when she had been sitting with Toby, almost four years old by then to keep her sane. It hadn't been too bad. Toby had been delighted to have a guest, Jareth had been delighted to play with the little boy. And they had sat up half the night talking about her graduating from High School and what she would do afterwards.
Around that time, Linda and Jeremy finally had a baby of their own. A little girl. And Sarah had been overjoyed. She saw Jareth the week Angela was born, for just a moment, at the hospital. He had been standing in the hall, staring into the glass window at the room of babies. Her belly had bubbled with worry and then with compassion when she had seen the sweet little smile on his face as he watched Angela gurgle and wriggle in her little bed. He had turned to look at her and smiled before walking away around the corner. She had run to catch up but when she turned, he was gone.
That had been two years ago. Sarah, now living in her own little apartment off campus, had not seen him since, The weather had been unseasonably dry. Too dry. And a chat with Hoggle in her mirror revealed that the Underground too was experiencing a terrible drought. With a little help, and a LOT of hesitance, she had passed through the mirror to seek the absent king out. Luckily, she had appeared in a home in the Goblin City and they little creatures, who had sometimes come to see her in Jareth's stead, bringing little bouts of heat lightning, had bounced around her feet, chattering away as she made her way into the castle.
She'd only taken a few steps inside when she heard the crackle of thunder and turned to look back at the darkened sky, and watched the goblins outside dance with happiness as the rain began to pour. She stood there a moment, watching as the ground was soaked past it's dusty state and then turned to continue on into the castle. She hurried to the throne room, which was, oddly, empty, except for it's regent, lounging over his seat. He clearly knew she had been coming, there was little that Jareth didn't know in his own world, but still, he snapped his head up when she entered.
Sarah sighed at the sight of him and crossed her arms. "You've been gone," She stated plainly, tapping her foot in expectation of his reply.
He just shrugged at first, and when she glanced incredulously at him, he sighed deeply. "I was not trying to upset you. I simply ran out of things to say."
That made her frown all the more and she approached him. Part of her wanted to drop into his lap, just for a little close contact, the other part of her shunned the idea. He might get angry or worse, he might think she had become some silly little harlot that only wanted him around to get into those tighter than skin pants. So she kept back a few paces, her fingers fumbling nervously over themselves. "I uh, well, that is to say…"
He looked up at her with steely eyes, studying the way she carried herself, and the sad distance in her pretty face. That made him frown and he leaned forward in his seat. "Sarah?"
"Yes?"
"Are you all right?"
"Oh yes, I just…" She shrugged. "I missed you."
His mouth curved in an ironic little smile, and he shook his head. "That's why I started coming there," Their eyes met and his mouth became briefly dry. "Er, up Above. I missed you after you left here." He stood and walked to a little tray across the room, where a pitcher of water appeared with a glass. He turned to her. "Would you like some water?" She shook her head in the negative and so he poured it for himself and took a sip. "After you left the first drought came."
The piqued her interest. She tilted her head and watched him with intent eyes. "A drought?"
"Yes. Much like the one now."
"It's dry up there too," She told him. "Drier. We haven't had a thunderstorm since you stopped coming."
She was surprised that he didn't laugh and tell her something like 'of course not, I bring the storms'. He seemed perplexed instead, sipped his water and set the glass aside. Sarah remembered what her mother had told her about thunderstorms, and she realized her life wouldn't be the same without them. Jareth looked at her after it was silent for a while and she smiled nervously, walking closer. "Do you know what my mother says about thunderstorms?"
"I don't."
She was at his side, and he seemed shaken by her proximity. That didn't stop her though, and she took his hand with both of hers, studying his fingers. "She says that thunderstorms are a lot like love. They come and go as they please,"
Jareth's eyes had closed and he turned toward her, his hand lifting instinctively to cup her face, touch her hair. "Are..are you comparing me to meteorological activity, Sarah?"
She smiled at that, not really thinking about it in such certain terms. She just knew with every big thing in her life, there came a thunderstorm. Menacing and unpredictable and yet refreshing and welcome. Lifting her head she brushed her lips against his, and the lightning lit up the sky outside, making them both turn to the window in surprise. But it didn't last long, the burn of her lips had lingered on his and he quickly claimed her mouth again, this time in a more passionate, complete kiss.
When they parted, she was smiling, and it made his heart skip in his chest. "Sarah, what does this mean?"
"I don't know," She told him honestly, her arms sliding around his waist as she looked up into his face. "Maybe if you find the right storm, maybe it never really leaves."
"I'm beginning to like this approach at describing love," He mused before he dipped for another kiss, exploring the way the weather outside reacted to the storm brewing in their hearts when they touched. Sarah didn't know it, but he happily sent a small little squall to the Aboveground, so she'd have something to enjoy when she got back. It wasn't much, but it was the beginning of a thunderstorm romance. The kind that comes and goes but ultimately, if it's the right one, sticks around in the end.