Wow, it sure has been awhile since I last posted! Anyway, I recently got into a big Labyrinth kick again, so here is the result, hopefully this will stem the many hours of procrastination I have spent with reading/writing/researching I've done so far… but probably not. ~sighs~ Some smuttiness and fluff on towards the end, btw. On with the fic!
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, songs or locations mentioned herein. I do, however, lay a small claim to the ideas and writing in it…
She rushes up the stairs, frantic. The clock is ticking. Anxiously she searches the strange room, with its twisting and turning of gravity and all notion of up or down thrown to the wind. A glimmer of red, or was that black? Nothing made sense; a crystal ball bounces haphazardly in the room, across the ceiling, up the walls. She feels like she's falling. The clock is ticking. She raced up stairs and through the hallways seeking, searching. There! The crystal speeds in front of her path, guiding. She follows. The clock is ticking. She's not sure what will be there when it stops. Red or black. A promise or a moment of weakness. All she can hear is laughter laced with sorrow, resentment, pride, arrogance, pity, desperation, hate, love…
Sarah Williams sprang up in her bed, her sheets soaked through with perspiration. Staring into the darkness it took her a moment to fully accept she was in her bedroom, the small, cramped space she paid too much for. Resting her head in her hands, she sighed. The chase, at its end always made her heart race fast enough to fling her from her dreams. They'd been happening more frequently as of late. Then again, they always did as the anniversary rolled around.
It was the only reason she remembered her father and stepmother's dreaded marriage date. It was that night she battled the Labyrinth for her half-brother's bid for normalcy. Toby was barely 2, his mother and her father's result from the affair. After Sarah's mother had died, her father had waited 6 months before the church bells rang again. Sarah still didn't know why she had never told her mother. She supposed it was because she wanted her mom to hold on to the fairytale she had worked so hard for. And now, at the end result, Sarah's own "fairytale" haunted her night after night. 13 years had gone by, 13 miserable, lonely and boring years. After championing the Labyrinth and its people, Sarah had regularly dreamt of her friends. She never called them when she was awake; perhaps that was why now she merely thought of it all as an insanely bad drunken hallucination. She had stolen a drink or 3 from her father's stash of prized wine, her 15-year-old self thinking it mature, exciting, and befitting one who was destined to be the queen of the Labyrinth.
Sarah glanced at the alarm clock, the red glowing display blaring out 12:00 am. She scoffed. Of course it would be midnight, it only fit in with the fact in her dreaming state she had almost reached Toby just as her time was running out. It was at this time that he had come before her, for the last time. Robed in white, like a heavenly creature, he had given her his final ultimatum. If it weren't for the challenge he had posed those long hours prior, Sarah new she would have graciously accepted his offer. 15 years old and in love? It was laughable, particularly since it had been a dream. And yet, 13 years later and still dreaming of something that did not exist. It couldn't exist. It was the only way she could stay sane.
She forced herself awake the next time she dreamt. The clock read 3 in the morning. She groaned. She'd dreamt of him again. Just him. Platinum locks had tickled her skin, a leather clad figure danced in and out of the shadows. Glowing orbs of blue and brown winked at her from all directions. And she was falling. She couldn't reach out, anything she snatched at was whisked away just as she thought she had a firm grip on it. Just before she had snapped herself awake, two lean and lanky arms had tenderly wrapped around her torso. It was his fault she couldn't make anything of herself. His fault her family, even the devoted Toby, distanced themselves till she was little but a hidden memory. She couldn't ever find it in herself to seriously date other men. All of them were too predictable, too willing to think she was just a little out of touch. Things had always ended when they demanded she admit her love. It never felt real, and one thing she prided herself on was honesty, so telling some guy she loved them was out of the question. And it was all his fault.
Knowing she wouldn't get to sleep again for awhile, and afraid that he might be there waiting in her dreams, Sarah got up. Her light linen sleepwear hardly kept out the chill of the early autumn, so she pulled on a robe and her feet took her to the living room. Before she new what she was doing, Sarah had a hand rested on a small wooden box on her bookshelf. She hesitated. 2 years after her victory, she swore off the book and its apparent adverse effects on her Aboveground life. Unable to throw it away still to this day, she kept it safely locked away in the intricately carved box. Deciding it couldn't hurt to read it once, get it all out of her head so she could have some peace, she fished out the key from its hiding place on the shelf and took out her red bound copy of The Labyrinth. As she finished, and groggily her eyes fell shut, she whispered allowed with a smile on her face, "Goblin King, I wish I could be graced by your presence, if only for one more time." For the first time in months, Sarah Williams slept dreamless.
Sarah knew reading the book would end up being a bad idea. She'd been distracted all day, and hear she was, nearly midnight, and touching herself to images of him. She hadn't done this since she'd locked the book away, and with its return, so did her wildest fantasies. She wept herself to sleep.
"As the world falls down." He spins her around and shrinks back behind his court again, a smirk gracing his exit. Dizzy, she thrusts out her hands to find some purchase, but the bodies of the others merely laughed and make faces. No, they are masks. A glimpse of black pearls. She spins towards it, looking for the owner. A doll covered in gaudy feathers and glitter, a pearl its focal point resting atop its head. A few wisps of platinum hair. Again she flounders towards it. A lady's pet tamarin monkey, screeching with laughter. Cloth grazes her open skin, hands poking and pulling at her. She nearly breaks down and sobs in exasperation and despair. Her hands are grabbed. She is twisted around and tripped. She falls. When she lands, the room disappears, the King's court vanishes and she looks up into a pair of mismatched eyes. Sarah can't breathe. He gazed down at her, the first time she has really gotten a good look at him in 13 years. She forgets that she's dreaming. She never wants to wake up.
A wind wafted through the window, gently blowing it open. The breeze fluttered through the room and stirred the sheets, its chill creeping down the bed's occupant, softly nuzzling her awake. When her eyes open, tears began falling down her face, the second time that night. She doesn't care that her rickety apartment doesn't have latches on the windows, that even such a gentle breeze was enough to coax it open. All that matters is that she is here, Aboveground and loveless. Hating herself, she remembers his face, the arched eyebrows, the smirk of his lips, his chiseled chin, his mismatched eyes. Her hand slips down her body, snaking its way to her center. She can't forget that look in his eyes; Hate mixed with desire, attraction mixed with pity, love mixed with… rejection. Her rejection. She tenderly caresses her clit, shuddering.
"Jareth…" she breathes, "Jareth, I wish you were here." Half asleep she slipped a finger inside of herself. Breathing heavily, she caresses her most sensitive area, dreaming he's behind her a gloved hand trailing its way up and down her thighs. She can almost feel his body beside her, sensing his smirk as he watches her. Eyes closed, she turns her head towards where his would be. "Jareth, I need you." Its barely audible, but she knows he would have heard it. Her other hand glides up and touches her breast, swirling a finger around her nipple. His gloved hand moves from her thigh up to her other breast, pinching delicately. "Jareth… I…"
"Sarah, open your eyes." Open her eyes? She would love to. But even though she's nearly catatonic, and certain it's a dream, she doesn't want to ruin this moment.
"You'll disappear." The hand on her breast moves to her chin, pulling her head up. Gloved fingers brush stray chocolate strands of hair out of her face.
"Sarah, look at me." She stopped her ministrations with her body. Carefully, wanting not to wake herself from this wondrous dream, she reaches out with her hands. They met resistance. She explores his chest with shaking fingers, hesitantly caressing his skin, moving to feel the features of his face.
"This is a dream. I don't want to stop dreaming." His light baritone voice laughs at her.
"My, my, Sarah. Even in my Oubliette were you never this uncertain." She scowls at him. She sits up, turned away from him, eyes still closed.
"I am not uncertain, Goblin King. I know what happens when my eyes open. I wake up. You disappear. I'm… I will be alone. I'm sick of being alone." She hears him shift in the bed, the movement bouncing her slightly. Sarah smiles softly. "And this is such a good dream, so real."
"Sarah, I am beginning to lose patience with you. You wished me here and I am one to grant wishes, particularly those of yours, even though at times I swear I shall never look in on you again."
"Lose patience all you want, O mighty King. This is my dream, and that's that. Now, being as this is my dream, romance me." Sarah nodded matter of factly and twisted in the bed, her eyes still shut.
"Listen, girl, I am Jareth, King of the Goblins and my Labyrinth, granter of wishes. You lost your chance to order me about when you none to gently won your victory. I'll make the choice as to what I make of myself. And you," she could practically feel the finger in her face. "You will stop gloating in your victory. This is by far the most taxing of your wishes. I have half a mind to dump you in the Bog for your insolence." Sarah twists her head confused.
"My wishes? I haven't made any wishes." He growls in frustration.
"Sarah. You make a wish nearly everyday. Half don't start with the obligatory phrase, but your infamous last words make me powerless to ignore them. Regardless, I have fulfilled my duties this evening. Goodnight Sarah, enjoy your damned dreams." Sarah's mounting anger broke at his threat to leave. Quickly she reached out and grabbed his arm; he was already halfway standing.
"Please! Don't go. What can I do to make you want to stay?" She feels him hesitate, then sit back down. He reaches over and pulls her to face him and places his hands on her face.
"Open your eyes, Sarah." She bites her lip. She doesn't want to wake up. She doesn't want to be disappointed and lost again. It seems regardless of what she does, he'll disappear, so better to appease him than lose him completely. Reaching out, she grasps his shirt for good measure and points her head down. She opens her eyes.
Darkness. Nothing. She can't see anything. About to collapse in despair, her face is gently lifted up by hands not her own. She can't breathe. An orb of ethereal blue glints in the darkness, its twin of amber winking at her, still filled with pent up frustration. A tear forms in her eye and heavily falls down her face. His thumb wipes it away.
"Still dreaming Sarah? Am I satisfactorily real?"
"This isn't a dream." She is numb. He scoffs at her.
"You… You… Bastard!" Her hands, conveniently already gripping his poet's shirt, shake him. "13 years! It wasn't a dream! Why didn't you come back to me for 13 fucking years!" Anger, distress and elation floated through her all at once. This sickeningly frustrating man, leaves her be for over a decade. She convinces herself it was all a sham created by her fickle imagination and desperately clings to a life she hates. Finally, after all this time, he shows up? He snarls at her.
"I'll thank you to not abuse my royal person." His hands fall and grip her shoulders, halting any movement she was causing. "How dare you. Poor little Sarah, alone for so long, never keeping a… a lover for more than a few pitiful weeks. What is she doing wrong? Why does she have such good luck in everything but love? I give you everything your heart desires and its not good enough. Even though it nearly kills me each time you try for a relationship." Sarah is taken aback.
"You? You find all those horrid men for me?" There is such venom in his eyes Sarah shrinks slightly in his grasp.
"Horrid men? I look into each and every one of the possible candidates for you, you precious thing, and knowing you're sleeping with yet another man, I find you the best one available. You force me to set up what's mine with other men and you expect me to be oh so sorry when they don't satisfy you?" He pushes her away from himself and stalks across the bedroom, looking very much a pent up animal. Sarah gapes at him.
"Jareth," he stops at his name and she swears she sees a shiver go up his spine. "What do you mean, what's yours?" In the blink of an eye Sarah finds herself sprawled across the bed, a very real man pressing down on her, one hand in her hair, the other caressing her hip and his hot lips crushed against hers in a desperate, repressed kiss. Another moment and he's gone, back to the other side of the room.
"That's what I mean, what's mine. You." Sarah, shocked, doesn't move. She was his? When did that happen? The thing that shook her the most, however, was how much he desired her. As his body bore down on hers, a very hard, thick rod had pressed itself against her abdomen, and there wasn't room in his pants for much more than himself so it most certainly wasn't something more innocent. As she thought about it, it dawned on her that he wanted her as badly as she desired him. This mutual attraction was the source for all the tension in the room, the two sworn enemies desperately vying for one another's affection. Sarah abruptly stood up and marched over to him. The hurt in his eyes is clear now, his dissatisfied mood extremely apparent. As he moves to turn from her she grabs his arm and pulls him back towards herself. As he spins, she can see the remark forming on his lips and before they can escape, closes her mouth over them. He loses all opposition in that moment and wraps his arms around her, pulling her close. Running one hand through his hair, she uses the other as an anchor, once again gripping his shirt. He runs his hands up and down her back and sides, feeling her now very adult body. The sensation intoxicates Sarah and she shuffles a few steps backwards, towards the bed as she slips both hands down the front of his shirt. He grunts into her mouth and they glide to the bed, landing softly in the sheets.
"Jareth…" He has moved onto her ear, tracing circles up and down her neck.
"Hush, precious." Sitting up, he grinds his pelvis into her, eliciting an excited, breathless moan from the girl beneath him. Smirking, he extracts his hands from his gloves excruciatingly slowly. Unwilling to wait for him to torture her, Sarah reaches up and tears his shirt down the middle, exposing his marble torso to her. He wrinkles his nose in mild displeasure.
"There are simpler, and less destructive ways for doing this, precious." As he trails a now gloveless hand down her blisteringly hot body, Sarah cocks an eyebrow at him.
"Would you care for me to show you exactly what you are doing to me, my King?" A savage grin splits his face and she rolls him off of her, flipping to be above him. Slowly, nonchalantly, Sarah begins toying with one of her tank top straps to her pajamas. Smoothing her hands down over her breasts she grips the bottom and wiggles her whole body out of it, subtly thrusting her hips into his. Before it is of, Jareth leans forward and catches a nipple in his teeth, circling his tongue around the hard pink nub. Sarah gasps and clutches his head to her breast with one hand as she quickly finishes throwing off her shirt. He rocks his pelvis up into hers, causing her to buck slightly, and the feeling of him tight in his pants causes Sarah to push him down, slip to the end of the bed and quickly alleviate him from his pants. Taking merely a moment to appreciate how much of a man her Goblin King really is, she swirls her tongue around his head, sucking his initial pre-cum up for a taste. Jareth's hands entwine themselves in the bed sheets as a low growl rumbles up from his belly.
"Sarah, look at me." She looks up, half his length deep in her mouth. Slowly, not breaking eye contact, she slides herself off of his throbbing manhood, applying gentle suction. Reaching down, he grabs her under her arms and pulls her up to him, placing a kiss playfully on her nose. Laying her on her back, he leans over her and slides a hand down her porcelain skin. Hooking his thumb under the waistband of her panties, he pulls and helps her rid the garment from her body. Breaking eye contact for a moment to appreciate the sight before him that carnal look graces his features again as he places a finger to her entrance.
"Is this what you want, Sarah? Wish for it, precious."
"Ng, Jareth! Please!" She squirms in his grip. His grin widens.
"Say the proper words, precious thing." Lightheaded she kisses his chest.
"I, Sarah Williams, wish for you, Jareth the Goblin King, to take me in any manner he deems worthy of our union." Lust glazes over his eyes and he plunges his finger deep inside her, the long digits caressing her core. Sarah screams in ecstasy as he adds a second, his thumb rubbing over her clit. "Jareth, take me now." Not one to be told a second time, he retracts his hand and pulls her knees apart, positioning himself above her. The animalistic look in his eyes frightens her more than a little, but Sarah can't help but be excited for what is certainly to be the best time of her life. Without warning Jareth thrusts himself inside of her and begins pumping, setting a furious pace. Locking eyes, she cries out his name, climaxing merely moments after their initial, blessed joining. Pounding into her, Jareth leans down and buries his nose in her hair, the scent of her spurring him on. She cries for more. The bed frame creaks from abuse and Sarah screams his name again grabbing his hips to force a temporary halt for reprieve before he begins again. Jareth, panting by her ear howls in pure bliss as he pulls one of Sarah's legs up farther, granting him deeper access. His stamina quickly running out after desiring this for so long, he pushes harder into her one last time, Sarah's scorching hot cavity becoming too much for him to handle. Their cries mingle together with their final earth shattering orgasm and Jareth collapses on top of her, still sheathed.
What seems like hours later, but still too soon for either of their liking, Jareth withdraws himself from Sarah and begins to pull on the tattered remains of his shirt. Sarah looks at him, unyielding determination in her eyes. "You cannot leave." He glances over at her.
"I must Sarah. My duties as King are calling." Sarah leans over and grasps his hand.
"I forbid you from leaving. I won't wait any more. I need you to stay with me." Jareth cast his gaze down. Hating to deny her, halfway unable, he caresses her cheek with his fingertips.
"Sarah, I…" He stops, startled, when her finger silences him, placed over his lips.
"I'm sure your labyrinth can be left alone for the rest of the night. Any mischief can be set right by its King and Queen when they return tomorrow morning." Jareth froze and turned his head sharply to look at Sarah. A coy grin stole across her face and she retracted her hand letting it hang over her still naked body.
"Sarah… you… you rejected me." She rolled her eyes.
"I was 15. I didn't know any better." He narrowed his eyes at her.
"What makes you think I still want you?" This time she outright laughed at him.
"And this whole escapade of ours was just a fluke? I heard your confession earlier, and I can't imagine you're one to let your claimed things go so easily. Jareth, you once offered me my dreams. Tonight, I accepted them, wholeheartedly. I would have accepted years ago had I but known they were still up for grabs. Now it's my turn to offer you your dreams, O King of the Goblins and his Labyrinth, granter of wishes. Let me grant you yours." Jareth stared at her as she looked away from him. She reached into her bedside table drawer and pulled out a crystal ball. "I passed a glass shop on my way home today and found this. It reminded me of you and I was driven to get it. So, I have brought you a gift. Its a crystal, nothing more." Sarah twisted it in her hand, "But if you turn it this way it'll show you your dreams." Jareth saw the image in the crystal; Sarah, twisted by the light shown through it in such a way she looked regal, commanding. His Queen. His precious thing.
Reaching out, he placed his hand over the crystal, engulfing both it and Sarah's hand in his own. Unsure of what to say, the King of Goblins sat flabbergasted at the woman who had haunted him for ages.
"Jareth, I… I love you." He blinked and the statement she hadn't uttered since before fateful night 13 years ago spurred him into action. Taking the crystal from her hand, he moved to squeeze it between his palms. After a moment, he opened his palm and lifted up a ring and offered it in return to his Sarah.
"Take this, and with it, my heart. My soul. My dreams. I give them to you for safekeeping, they belong to you now. Tomorrow we shall return to our Kingdom. Sarah, precious, I have loved you for longer than you knew of my existence." Sliding the ring onto her expectant finger, he kissed her forehead softly as he scooted up around her. "Your world fell down, but you are no longer falling. I have caught you."
A/N: So, thanks for reading, let me know what you think! Reviews are much appreciated!
~dragonaurora