Disclaimer: I don't own Labyrinth.
A/N: Birthday fic! For my friend, Blackberry. I saw the notice on DA and was like, yeah, I can do something for that. Hope you like it, darling. It's a bit late, 'cause I wanted to be sure you saw it.
He is the Master of Dreams, and as such he goes where he pleases when sleep claims him. And tonight, he pleases to go… everywhere…
000
Toby watched in amusement as the large, sleek, tawny colored cat with the mismatched eyes stalked the slightly smaller, darker kitten around the room, alternating between purring coaxingly and hissing in frustration when she ignored him.
000
The first time Sarah comes home to find Jareth stretched out, sleeping on her couch, she is slightly horrified to discover that her main source of annoyance isn't that he's in her apartment, but that he makes even her worn, pattern-less sofa look good, the git.
000
He was beautiful and weird and weirdly beautiful and intriguing and frightening and so, so strange and when he showed up and offered her his hand, she hardly even listened to the little speech he was making before she was clasping it with her own and saying yes; it was all so magical –she'd wonder about the "slave" thing later.
000
Everyone knew that little Sarah and Jareth were inseparable, so nobody really bothered or wondered much about how the little boy had found his way across the street and into the Williams' house (and Sarah's bedroom) all by himself one night; they just laughed and told each other that it must have been magic.
000
The second time Sarah finds Jareth on her couch, he is bleeding all over it from a rather messy looking head wound, and though Sarah is of course very concerned about him and extremely curious to know what happened, she is (naturally) aware of his status as a creature of fey and thus is rather more concerned about the fact that her couch will now, in addition to being old and ugly, have bloodstains.
000
I want my little brother back, he says, and she just laughs and gives him 13 hours; but, as she watches him run her Labyrinth, she can't help but feel that his boy with large, discolored eyes and flyaway blond hair is far too good, too lovely, too magical for the likes of Above, and maybe she'll just have to keep him for longer than 13 hours.
000
The crews of both ships have a little bet going: will Sarah Williams, Pirate Captain of the good ship Wish, and Jareth, ruling monarch on the ship Labyrinth, ever break down and snog during one of their legendary battles, or will they all just be doomed to watch what could be an epic romance simply go over the same old territory, forever –this possibility is a rather scary one, so First Mates Toby and Goblin begin to make some plans.
000
The third time Sarah finds Jareth on her couch, she has just spent a very long day at her parents', and is completely not in the mood to deal with annoying Goblin Kings and glitter all over her living room carpet; she snaps at him and he leaves her with a slightly hurt look that she absolutely does not feel guilty about.
000
She is not happy about this and she makes her opinions known quite loudly, flustering her short, ugly, dwarf of a jailer so badly he nearly trips over his own feet trying to escape, but she doesn't care because she's been kidnapped and she's not happy about this at all and when her true captor comes at last, she cannot understand why he looks so satisfied, nor what he means when he says, "She'll make a fine queen, will she not, Hubble?"
000
Sarah isn't sure what to make of this solemn little boy with big eyes and crazy hair and magic sparking at his fingertips, but she does know that she's getting paid ten dollars an hour to watch this kid for half the day and for that kind of cash, she thinks she can handle a little bit of weirdness –ten dollars an hour for 13 hours is nothing to sneeze at; besides, Jareth is an adorable kid.
000
The fourth time Sarah finds Jareth on her couch, he is pouting because of how she treated him last time he was here, and she can't help but wonder why he keeps coming back if it bothers him so much, but then she's apologizing and sitting down next to him and turning on the TV and they spend a comfortable afternoon squabbling about whether or not there really is any such thing as Time Lords (Jareth says yes, he had a baby one wished away to him once, and Sarah says no way, she isn't falling for that, and the Jareth says that he'll just have to take her back in time to when the "little Master" came to call at the Castle).
000
Her friends all think it's kind of weird, having an owl for a pet, but Sarah doesn't care at all for what they think, because Jareth is gorgeous and wise-looking and he nips at her fingers but he doesn't really bite her and when he looks at her with those odd, blue-colored eyes, she knows that he can see straight into her soul; when he cocks his head just so and hoots, she knows he likes what he sees.
000
Toby waits impatiently by his open bedroom window, ready for Jareth to come and get him and take him to the Underground where they'll spend the day learning magic, kicking goblins, and having glorious fights with fierys and then Jareth will take him flying and finally he will arrange things so that Toby's mother doesn't notice that he's been gone all day and he'll be dropped off in his bedroom with a "tell your sister such and such" and a promise for next Saturday and he'll go to bed and dream up things to do on his weekends with Jareth and laugh to himself about how he can never tell anyone that his best friend is the Goblin King.
000
The fifth time Jareth appropriates Sarah's couch, he is doing nothing more than waiting for her to get home so he can whisk her off once more –apparently he has something to show her and it cannot wait for even a second, which is how Sarah finds herself being presented to the Seelie court in her sweatpants.
000
Jareth spins, magic trailing from his hands and flinging far and wide to blast apart entire squads of trolls and Sarah watches him and laughs because he is beautiful like this, defending his Labyrinth, his home, his subjects, and then she leaps and rams her sword into a troll's arm and she doesn't see it, but Jareth turns and stares at her with delight and something akin to proprietary pride in his eyes.
000
Playing babysitter is sort of in the job description for the Goblin King, so Jareth doesn't mind so very much when little Sarah's wishes draw him Aboveground and to her house on the day her mother is looking for someone to watch the child; it doesn't matter that she is only a tiny tot, Sarah's desires are forever his to deliver and truly, he never grows tired of watching her little eyes light up in glee when she sees him.
000
The sixth time Sarah's couch is taken over by the Goblin King, his shoulders are hunched and his head is bowed and he looks so very, very sad that she can't even stand it long enough to get her coat off, but immediately runs to his side; later, he tells her that three of the goblins were killed by an outbreak of troll violence from the remnants of the group they had smashed last time and her blood begins to boil.
000
It was cute, at first, when she was six, but by the time she was fifteen, her parents were beginning to become a little bit worried about Sarah's imaginary friend; and that was before she told them that she was going to be his queen when she grew up (any hope that all of this would blow over was dashed the day "imaginary" Jareth appeared in their kitchen and said, "I'm borrowing Sarah for the afternoon, don't be alarmed, I'll have her back… in time").
000
It wasn't that Jareth exactly minded playing babysitter to a young wizard child for the few short hours it would take his parents to find their way to the Castle, it was just that he was getting tired of people telling him they had wished their child away by accident (accident, like the boy was a dropped teacup or something) because they thought he was retired –also, he thought darkly to himself as an offended (and well-within his rights to be so) four-year-old Draco Malfoy scowled up at his parents, there were far too many blonds in this room.
000
The seventh time Jareth is on Sarah's couch, they are both so incredibly exhausted from routing the last of the trolls from the Labyrinth, that they both just collapse in a sprawl of arms and legs, shoving each other and shifting until she is lying half-on top of his chest, half-squished into the back cushion, and he has one arm thrown across his eyes and one arm wrapped firmly around her waist.
000
Living in a haunted house is exactly as much fun as Sarah always thought it would be –not least because her otherworldly tenant is a hot blonde in tight pants and knee high leather boots who spends his time doing magic tricks and snarking and making up dance routines and trying to get her to snog him.
000
He says Marry Me and she says No and then he says Oh No, Now Look What You've Made Me Do and she asks What and he says Now I Have To Kidnap You and she snorts and says I Don't Think So but he just looks at her and looks at her and finally she throws up her hands and says Fine, I'll Marry You and he says Of Course.
000
The eighth time Sarah finds Jareth on her couch, she is still lying on top of him from the last time and she quickly shoves herself up and away, jolting him awake in the process and seriously irritating him; he'd been having a rather nice dream before it was rudely interrupted by a very unpleasant sensation of having 120 pounds of female angst jumping on his chest.
000
She loves her king, her master, her fey with all his moods and his dancing and singing and all of his little games: she loves all of it, and she's quite sure that never was there ever in all the Underground a sentient kingdom that is as happy as she, the Labyrinth, is with Jareth, her Goblin King.
000
Sarah says and Jareth said and my sister wishes to inform you and the Goblin King wants you to know and Toby is getting tired of playing go-between for those two; don't get him wrong, he loves them both, his marvelous big sister and his magical babysitter, but they're seriously starting to annoy him –if they want to talk to each other so bad, why can't they just visit each other like normal people, instead of sending him back and forth with messages for each other like some sort of wished-away carrier pigeon?
000
The Labyrinth knows that her master is unhappy and she wants so desperately to help that she allows the Sarah into a very special place through a very special gate and she can't help but feel quite smug when her Goblin King turns around to fix her trellis with a narrow-eyed glare as he turns a corner in his private garden to find the Sarah waiting for him on a bench; the Labyrinth doesn't mind the glare, she loves all her master's moods and she had quite the lovely little chat with the Sarah before he came along, so she's sure that she knows best this time.
000
The ninth time Jareth takes over Sarah's couch, he is holding an impromptu session of the Goblin Court, and she gets to settle into an easy chair across the way and just watch him as he deals out what passes for justice in the Goblins' minds and easily settles the petty dispute that called him into her apartment; it's a very interesting hour: apparently she isn't the only one who makes Jareth's face scrunch up like that, and the way he pinches the bridge of his nose when he's annoyed is startlingly endearing.
000
He's never been menacing before, not properly, not towards her, and she really shouldn't like it as much as she does; but she really can't help it, not when he looks so utterly furious and majestic as he lops the heads off of trolls with a sword in one hand and magic crystals in the other, eyes flashing and face carefully frozen –he is not Jareth here, no, just the Goblin King, meting out justice to those who dare to harm that which belongs to him… and she loves him for it.
000
She's incredibly frustrated, because she's spent years totally convinced that her entire time in the Labyrinth was nothing more than a convoluted, disturbing dream, brought about by her overactive imagination, her rebellious teenaged attitude, and that book her mother had given her so long ago; but then, today, she turned a corner at her work place and there he was, exactly as he's always been, with his hair flying everywhere and his eyes meeting hers mockingly –she knows a challenge when she sees one, so now she's sitting down in front of her bedroom mirror and hesitantly calling for her friends, and when she sees Hoggle's face beaming at her, she's so full of everything that she bursts into tears.
000
The tenth time Jareth makes his way onto Sarah's couch, she isn't even home, which puts him instantly into what one might call, if one was being delicate, a snit –what is even the point of coming to Sarah's apartment, he thinks, if she is not there to appreciate the way he is sprawled across her rather depressingly clothed sofa (blond hair spread out over the cushions, legs flung over the back and the edge, arms carelessly covering his face)?
000
Her master beckons, and she willingly responds, bowing towards the place where he stands in her center, offering him tendrils and various stones until he has selected which pieces of her he wishes to make use of; she lets him change what he will of her layout, arranging her to suit his interests and she chuckles a little, because it sort of tickles, and lets him know she is amused by sending a gust of wind to ruffle his hair –the Labyrinth is a playful lady, just perfect for the Goblin King.
000
He stole her away, long ago (because he is the Gypsy King and that is what he does), and now she is grown up and lovely with her long dark hair and her fetching face with pouting lips and he is beginning to think that this gypsy band needs a queen to help keep them in line, so he proposes to his stolen bride, (his borrowed child, his wished away) and when she cocks her little head back to look up in his face saucily, and says yes, Your Majesty, I'll be your wife, he smiles a smile of ancient days and goblin dances and says back yes, I rather thought you might.
000
The eleventh time Sarah finds Jareth on her couch, he has one leather-booted foot in the air, and is using her TV remote as a microphone as he belts out an exuberant song about pie that she has never heard before –the entire sight is so delightful that all she can do, even when he starts and stops singing and sits up properly, is sink to the ground right there in the doorway and laugh and laugh and laugh.
000
Toby lounges on the Goblin Throne, outwardly calm and collected but inwardly panicking more and more with every day that he spends ruling the Labyrinth; he never really appreciated before just how much work went into it, being king and queen was just something Jareth and his sister did (in their spare time, really, when they weren't playing with Toby), but now they're gone and he's been trying to find them for two weeks now but there's just no time and he has no idea what he's doing and really, his certain granted powers as the Royal Brother-in-Law only go so far and the Labyrinth is beginning to get restless.
000
She bites into a peach and it tastes like magic and she spares a moment to think that he and his Labyrinth have ruined her, ruined her beyond all hope, because she knows, she is quite certain that no matter what she does, she will never eat another peach but that she'll be tasting magic.
000
The twelfth time Jareth sits on Sarah's couch, she's sitting right there next to him, and they are explaining to her father and Karen that he loves her and would like to marry her, please; though, really, Jareth makes it perfectly clear that the request is a courtesy, and that he will be making Sarah his queen with or without their consent, thank you very much –Sarah tells him to behave, but he can tell that she is secretly pleased.
000
Hoggle isn't fond of Jareth, he really isn't, and Jareth has never displayed anything even remotely resembling affection for the dwarf, so it comes as rather a surprise to Sarah when Hoggle is the first at the Goblin King's side when the Fey returns to the Castle, beat to pieces and completely exhausted; Hoggle explains later, that even though Jareth's a git, he is still king, lord, and master of the Labyrinth and all her creatures, among whom Hoggle is numbered, and he would never dream of allowing his king to fall while there remains breath in his body to prevent it.
000
Dancing with Sarah is an odd experience because she is so short and slight and completely awkward at the undertaking, and yet he cannot imagine a more perfect partner, in any way; it seems incomprehensible that this little mortal girl should captivate him so thoroughly, but when he tries to picture himself with another, every partner turns into Sarah.
000
She refuses the peach, so he offers her a pomegranate, smirking as he does so, because now she's glaring at him: oh, yes, she knows this story too, and she will not be taken in so easily, never mind that fact that she is perfectly aware that if he wants to enchant her, he doesn't need food to do it, but the whole thing is all about symbolism anyway, and then her traitorous thoughts wonder what, exactly, since they were talking symbols, she would do if he presented her with an apple?
000
The thirteenth time Sarah finds Jareth on her couch, he's waiting for her, and as soon as she's in arm's reach, he's pulling her down on the seat next to him and drawing her into a kiss that sets every nerve in her body singing with magic; and later, as she lays comfortably in her usual place on his chest, she thinks that she actually rather likes this sofa, after all, and she's glad she never got rid of it.
000
He withdraws from the world of dreams, pleased beyond measure with what he has seen tonight. Fingers swirling a new crystal into existence, he sets out to turn a few of those dreams into reality.
A/N: One sentence each, 'cept for the italicized. Happy Birthday, Blackberry.
Additional, No-Longer-A-Spoiler Disclaimer: I do not own the Malfoys. They belong to J.K. Rowling.
