LOVE LIKE WINTER

Jareth was sitting in his throne, leg hanging over the arm, riding crop tapping against his boot. His hand was covering his face; he was deep in thought, not an unusual thing for him as of late. The goblins were being unusually quiet and calm as they stared at their king. None of them wanted to risk his anger when he was in this kind of mood. All of them knew his temper was shorter and he was meaner when he was in this kind of mood. This was the mood he always got into when he thought about the human girl Sarah. The only human to ever beat the labyrinth, to ever beat the king;

The first few days that followed Sarah's victory the king was in a constant foul mood. He was dumping goblins into the bog left and right. But as time went on he got less and less angry, and more and more sad. Nowadays he could be found staring longingly into a crystal or on his throne in the state he was in now. He paid the least amount of time possible to his duties and all but completely ignored the goblins. His friends and family was becoming increasingly worried.

One day his mother became fed up with his constant moping and decided enough was enough. She was no longer going to watch her son waste away over some human girl. "Jareth It's been years! You need to move one." Jareth just have his mother a blank stare before looking away from her. The increased tapping of his riding crop being the only sign of his growing agitation;

"Don't ignore me young man! Your little human pet has moved on I'm sure, she probably doesn't give you or this place a second thought!"

The tapping increases a little more.

"There are plenty of Fae women here who adore you" More like they adore my title and power "Forget about the human." 'Forget about the baby' 'I can't' "what?" "I can't" He spoke firmly while glaring at his mother. "Don't you understand that I can't?" He said saying the exact words Sarah had once said to him. "Jareth please-"but he didn't stay to hear her finish. He transformed into an owl and flew off. His destination, aboveground, He needed to see Sarah in person.

Sarah was in bed sleeping completely unaware of the Goblin King headed straight for her. Instead she dreamed wonderful dreams. Dreams of another world with strikingly beautiful people and scary looking creatures with hearts of gold and a man. A devastatingly beautiful and frightening man. An insistent tapping was the only noise to interrupt the quiet night. Sarah groaned and rolled over trying in vain to block out the noise.

When the sound persisted she gave up and tossed her blankets aside in frustration. Looking for the source of the noise she saw a pure white owl next to the window. When It saw it had her attention it began tapping the glass again. Sarah was filled with a sense of dejavu as she walked over to open the window and let the bird inside.

She had no idea what compelled her to let the bird in but as she opened the window the bird flew in and transformed right in front of her. Not only did he transformer but he transformed into, literally, the man of her dreams. "W-who are you?"

A flash of hurt crossed the man's face but it disappeared quickly, but Sarah still saw it. She felt her heart clench in her chest. "Have you forgotten already Sarah?" "No" she answered quickly. A little too quickly, "And yes," she stepped closer to him, though she didn't know why. "You're the man in my dream. I dream of you every night, but I don't know who you are. Who are you?

Jareth was happy to hear that Sarah had not forgotten him completely, and even happier to know that she dreamed of him. He circled around her, like a shark circling its prey. "Tell me about your dreams Sarah." She blushed and looked away from him, Jareth grinned. She looked back up at him, "A ball room and a song, a beautiful song. You're singing to me." Jareth walks closer and places his hand on her cheek, caressing her face. "That song was for you. Only you. I've never sung it to another."

"Who?" Jareth sighs sadly "I am The Goblin King. Years ago you wished away your brother. I took him." Her eyes flashed and something in her mind seemed to click and all her memories of the labyrinth, her friends, and Jareth came flooding back. She meets his mismatched eyes "Jareth" she breathed "Sarah-" she cuts him off by throwing her arms around his neck and pulling him down into a kiss.

Shocked at first he doesn't respond, but he quickly recovers and wraps his arms around her waist and pulls her tightly against him. When the need for air becomes too great they pull apart panting. "Sarah, I admit I am a little confused." She smiles "I was young, too young to understand what you were offering me back then and confused with what I felt for you. Now that I'm older I know what it was you were trying to tell me and now I understand what I had always felt for you." Jareth smiled and held her closer to him. "Come back with me Sarah. Become my queen." She smiled and kissed him softly. "I would love to."

927 words

Third story in the shuffle series.
Song: Love like winter -AFI