"I said NO!"
"But..."
If Jareth had been a normal man (a human man, rather), he would have stormed out and slammed the door. Fae, Sarah noted from her place on the floor/ceiling, simply dealt with annoyance differently than humans. Instead of wasting time looking petulant, he'd merely removed HER to the Staircase Room...the one that had always reminded her of an Escher portrait in 3D. It was an elegant solution, truly: a casual show of power that both reinforced his authority and gave them the time they each needed to cool down.
In theory, at least.
Jareth was slightly shocked when, not ten seconds after removing his lovely (but sometimes insufferable) fiance, she reappeared right back where she had been standing. Bogdamnit, he would have to talk with the Labyrinth about granting powers to irresponsible humans...again. He pinched the bridge of his nose lightly. "Really, my dear..."
"Jareth, we are GOING to talk this out!"
"I already told you, my dear, the conversation is over. I said no, and I will not go back on my word. Even for you."
When dealing with Fae, Sarah reasoned, one had to be twice as tricky and three times as clever. Otherwise, they ran right over you without fully realizing they did it.
"All right, Jareth. You win."
The surprise on his face was clear.
"Yes, you win. Clearly, I - the poor, weak, helpless human - can't be expected to take care of a child. A human child, no less."
"Sarah..."
"Oh, and I thought you should know that the goblins were given their daily rations of ale about half an hour ago. The population of the Goblin City has likely drunk themselves into a stupor...or did we lower the rations again? Maybe they're still conscious. At any rate, they're probably better babysitters drunk than sober; they're less likely to get into mischief.
"Though I'm not sure what you'll do when you go out to torment-"
"TAUNT, my dear; I don't cause them any lasting harm."
"-the runner. His mother, wasn't it? Yes, I think seeing her baby boy in the hands of the wicked Goblin King will be properly motivating, don't you?"
As if Sarah didn't know that the mother had thrown no less than three small appliances at him when he'd shown up at the tiny apartment where she lived. That the child in question currently had Jareth's hair in a deathgrip and was trying his best to eat it had no bearing on the conversation either.
"Fine, my dear. You have managed to inveigle yourself into a babysitting job. Though I'm not entirely sure why you'd want it, after the way your LAST one went..."
"Afraid I'll meet another handsome Goblin King who will fall madly in love with me and swoop me off to his castle?"
The little boy found himself in the middle of a big pile of pillows. Though not sure where the puffy-haired man who'd been holding him had gone, he contented himself with trying to eat the pillows instead. They sure were tasty.
And, being quite young, he didn't question why the pretty lady who'd been arguing with the man appeared next to him a few moments later, nor why her lips were noticably redder than they had been. Really, the blue pillow was especially delicious...
Inveigle: to persuade or obtain by ingenuity or flattery.
"Bogdamnit" is, to my knowledge, the invention and intellectual property of Pika-la-Cynique.