Having made her decision to stay in the Labyrinth, Sarah now has a whole new set of tasks to overcome in order to adjust to her role as future Queen. But not everyone is happy about her return, and what is it about Jareth's past that he is trying so hard to hide from her?
This is the sequel to The Pain Would Come
[edit] I've decided to update this one too, not nearly as much as the last one, but there's some dialogue and bits and pieces I wasn't happy with so I've changed them.
Chapter 1 – Mornings in a new life
Sarah awoke slowly, allowing her brain to gradually become aware of her surroundings; the comfy, outsized bed, secure in its familiarity, the vast room; sparse, yet cheery, the window leading to the balcony with the remarkable view over the labyrinth. Home.
Smiling, she stretched and felt the man beside her shift. He turned over and wrapped his arms around her, telling her to go back to sleep. Giggling she poked him in the shoulder saying it was a beautiful day and they needed to get up. All she got in response was a groan as his arms tightened around her preventing her from leaving the confines of the bed. His reaction made her giggle harder before repeatedly jabbing him in the arm with her finger, telling him he needed to let go so she could get dressed. After a few minutes of this she heard a roar from her companion and within seconds found herself pinned to the bed facing a grinning Goblin King.
"Now why, my dear, do you insist on waking us both up at the crack of dawn?" He said, with mock anger in his voice.
"I think you'll find that I simply wake with the rising of the sun, it's hardly my fault you're such a light sleeper and you know full well that if you'd just lay there I'd be up and gone within a few minutes leaving you to sleep." She replied, giggling at the semi-frustrated look on the face of the man in front of her.
Grinning in return the Goblin King lowered his face until it was mere centimeters away from hers before saying quietly, "Why Sarah, you know full well it's no fun in this bed without you…" with that he kissed her tenderly and for a while all else was forgotten. That is until the door burst open and a small goblin came rushing in holding a letter. Stunned by the scene laid before him he forgot to look where he was going and ran straight into the bedpost knocking himself clean out. That was all it took to send Sarah into fits of giggles contagious enough to get more than a little smirk out of the now slightly irritated Goblin King.
Sighing and muttering something about 'infernal goblins' and 'learning how to knock', the Goblin King got up to retrieve the letter from the unconscious goblins hand. He sat down on the bed to read it while Sarah took advantage of the opportunity to get dressed. She walked into the adjoining room that had originally been intended for her room, but she'd spent every night so far in Jareth's bed, so it had just become a room for her clothes and any belongings she might accumulate. As she opened one of the doors of her wardrobe she once again marvelled at the amount of clothes she now had. Back home she'd had a tiny wardrobe with a minimalist collection of clothes, now she suddenly had a wardrobe that stretched the full length of the wall and was packed full with various outfits. Glancing out the window and realizing it was once again a gorgeous sunny day, Sarah wondered whether the labyrinth had any seasons at all. Looking back at the wardrobe she picked out a simple black cotton knee-length dress. Almost immediately the door or her room flew open and a female goblin stalked in grabbed the dress out of Sarah's hand and throwing it back in the cupboard. Glaring at Sarah with her hands on her hips she said, "Lady Sarah we's talked about this, now I know Aboveground ya only wore black but yer in the Underground now and ya've got to learn to start wearing colours again."
Sarah couldn't help but laugh slightly at the oh-so-serious face presented to her all because of her choice of clothing. It was true that she still wanted to dress in black, she'd been wearing it so long she didn't really know how to wear colours, and so this argument had been happening every morning since she'd arrived here a week ago.
Of course wearing colours again was only one of many things she'd had to adjust to. After making her decision to remain in the Underground with Jareth they'd had a quiet dinner, both trying to come to terms with the events that had thrown them together. Jareth had explained that as a permanent resident of the Underground and his future queen, she would be granted certain powers, how much and what they were was not up to either of them. All the magic in the kingdom came from the Labyrinth and it was the Labyrinth that decided how much each subject of the realm got. Thinking of the labyrinth as a living entity was something Sarah was going to have to get used to. It made sense though, changing walls, doors that led to different places depending on which way they were opened, the Labyrinth was alive and the source of magic for everyone residing in it. As yet she hadn't manifested any powers but this was normal, the actions over the first few weeks in the Underground would determine what amount of power she was worthy of.
Through the course of dinner Jareth had explained a lot about the Underground. He'd explained that the Labyrinth was only one division of a greater Kingdom, his father's Kingdom. He'd told her of his family and their Kingdom's, but at some point during the meal, Sarah's physical and mental exhaustion after her trials in the Labyrinth had taken over. She was soon finding it hard to concentrate on what Jareth was saying, and it wasn't long before she was falling asleep at the table, so Jareth had transported her to bed.
What Sarah was unaware of was that he had spent the entire night watching over her, still stunned by the events that had led to her presence here, even more shocked by the fact she had chosen him. Even faced with the terrible reality of remaining Aboveground, he hadn't been entirely sure her love was strong enough to make her choose to remain here, with him. Whatever doubts he'd once had about her feelings were gone by the end of the night. As he'd watched her sleep peacefully with a small smile on her lips, he knew she was happy here. She was happy with him. However things weren't perfect, nowhere near it. Jareth knew there were going to be many complications due to Sarah's return to the Labyrinth. As the sun began to rise on that first morning of having Sarah back, Jareth knew he couldn't keep her presence here a secret for long, and when people knew about her, there was going to be trouble. His thoughts were deeply disconcerting, memories of his past haunted him and it wasn't long before he had to leave Sarah to sleep and begin to prepare for the trials he knew were to follow.
Author's note: Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, even negative comments, as they help improve my writing.