Such A Fooled Heart

A Oneshot by Atsuibelulah

Sarah's dark hazel eyes followed him. They had been stuck fast to him all night…who the hell was she kidding? She'd been watching him for three years, three long years since he had barged into her heart and then into her life. Well, maybe.

The morning after the storm came, after her dad and Karen had left her with Toby, after he had taken and twisted everything, Sarah had woken with a violent start. Her friends were no longer in her room. But she didn't remember seeing them leave. The party hadn't ended, she'd never said goodbye. Yet, they were gone, it was morning and she was alone.

Sarah remembered everything so vividly. How could it have been a dream if she could remember the feel of the ancient stones of the Labyrinth, if she could conjure the stench of the bog on a whim, if she could still hear the echo of his voice in her mind? But why would her friends not come when she needed them? Why couldn't she remember saying goodbye?

The trouble was, there was no one she could ask, no way she could find out. If she told her parents she'd wished Toby to the goblins and then got him back by defeating their king in under thirteen hours, they would think she was making up a story. And if she told them it wasn't a story they would think she was crazy. She had kind of wondered if she was crazy, or if it all was just a dream, for about an hour. Then she saw him.

A new student from England in her class, every girl whispered to each other as she walked through the halls, every boy fixed one another with the look of a beta male as he stepped out of the main office. Sarah had dropped her books. He had walked past her without a second glance, but had renewed her firm belief for years. Her friend, Emily, had muttered something about them being under the radar of a guy like that as they bent to pick up her scattered notebooks and papers.

Her mind had been reeling with the combined memories of him. He had teased and tormented and tempted her only the night before in what she had just written off as a dream and now he had barged back into her life. He didn't look exactly the same, he was just the spitting image of the Goblin King in looks and manner at, oh, 15 or so. Sarah didn't know what to think as her hands numbly closed around the rest of her papers and she somehow made it to first period.

Over the next three years, she had watched him every chance she got, wondering if and when he would approach her. He had fallen in with the immensely attractive and popular crowd, of course. A girl like Sarah did not just go up to one of those boys. It was like you had to get special permission or something, and Sarah would never have anyway.

She sometimes wondered about her behavior in the Labyrinth. She was not usually so headstrong, so defiant. Maybe it had been a dream, maybe the Sarah in the Labyrinth was who she thought she should be, not who she really was. Maybe he was just a coincidence. Sarah could never convince herself of that. He had come back into her life. It wasn't coincidence, she didn't believe it.

But he had never approached her, had never deigned to notice her. She still watched him, trying to gather her courage, to sort through her doubts. Now she watched him from across the room, the red silo cup in his hand half full, identical to the one in her own. Hers was empty, she'd drained it a moment before, it was her third…or fourth. It didn't matter, she was gathering courage.

She watched him raise the cup to his blithely smirking lips, a few strands of platinum blonde hair falling into his twinkling mismatched eyes. One of the many girls who were always at his heels, obviously trashed, leaned in to whisper in his ear. Sarah smirked herself as he smoothly evaded the little slut, causing her to fall gracelessly against the alcohol soaked kitchen counter. No one got too close. She had seen it a million times.

Sarah was still smirking when Emily came over with two more cups of whatever cheap beer their classmates had scrounged up. Em craned her neck to see where Sarah was looking and sighed, "Come on, Sar! It's frigging graduation! You need to put that guy way in the past where he belongs. Look forward to the sexy, down-to-earth college boys we'll be meeting in the fall." Sarah rolled her eyes at that comment as she took the cup Em proffered. There was only three months difference between high school boys and college boys. "Besides," the girl continued, totally ignoring Sarah's silent retort, "It's not like you ever actually talked to him. If I didn't know you Sar, I'd think it was creepy the way you stare at him all the time."

Her eyes were back on him as she spoke softly, "It's not like he notices. It's not like anybody notices. And after tonight, I'll have talked to him."

"Oh, yeah?"

Sarah downed the foul-tasting beer in four gulps and handed the empty cup back to her friend, "Yeah." She walked through the sea of drunken teenagers slowly and deliberately. Not only because she knew she was more than tipsy, but also because she realized that she hadn't thought about what she was going to say. However, the alcohol rushing through her veins didn't let that bother her and a moment later she was leaning against the counter where that other girl had been only a minute before. She knew she looked good. She'd spent weeks searching for the right dress to wear that night, the perfect dress, silver-blue with beaded sheer sleeves and bodice that clung to her slender frame. She'd even put a feather or two in her curled hair. She looked damn good and she saw him notice. Miraculously all his friends had gone elsewhere for the moment. They were alone.

His presence was almost as intoxicating as those four…or five beers had been and Sarah tried to wade through her increasingly muddled thoughts. She eyed him silently as he gave her a nonchalant glance and drained his cup. It was his seventh and he was probably just as drunk as she was, if not more so, he wasn't really a big guy. It was sort of funny how she had paid more attention to how much he drank than she did to herself.

"Hi," his voice was almost too low to be heard in the din of the party. Sarah inclined her head towards him. She knew she didn't want the first thing she said to him to be as inadequate as just a flat 'hi'. "I don't think I've seen you around before, have I?" His voice wavered in and out of the British accent he'd steadily been loosing as he was gradually absorbed into American culture and his brows furrowed adorably in drunken confusion.

Sarah smiled and shook her head, probably not, she thought. He was still looking at her strangely as she took her chance, not thinking about what it was that she was really doing. She leaned in and whispered softly in his ear, "I had a dream about you, once."

It felt so right to be so close to him and he must have felt it too, because his hand automatically moved to touch her waist. He pulled his head back to look at her again and his smirk reappeared, "That's a pick up line I haven't heard much," his words were husky and slightly slurred.

Sarah's body was moving of its own free will, pulling herself closer to him and running a hand through his hair. She wished that it was longer, that she could really twine her fingers into it, as she spoke again, "Or was it a dream?"

"Well, that's one I haven't heard at all."

She smiled slowly, his arm still around her, her hand still in his hair. Time was crawling and Sarah yearned for it to stay that way. "I know who you are…Goblin King…Jaarrrethhh," she drew his name from her lips languidly, a caress of sound. There was no doubt in her mind that it was him, he was in there, waiting for her.

His smile vanished and he looked at her with a strange hunger in the depths of his mismatched eyes, "What is your name?"

"Don't you know it?" He shook his head and she smiled again, this time pulling away from him, "Follow me, and maybe you'll remember." She took his hand and led him from the house. The park, her park, was only across the street. They walked silently and he never took his eyes from her. The world was spinning around Sarah, but somehow she knew the right steps to take, the right things to do.

A tune came unbidden to her lips and she was humming as they neared the lake. As they crossed the grey stone bridge she broke into a quiet croon, "Within your eyes," she turned to him and he caught her about the waist, pulling her into the familiar waltz, and she continued singing "…there's such a fooled heart…beating so fast…in search of new dreams."

He moved in closer to her, his lips brushing past her cheek to close in on her ear as she still sang increasingly brokenly, the words coming with each intake of her breath, "…A…love…that…will last…"

He broke in, his words slurred even more, his warm breath caressing her ear and neck "Have you enchanted me, lady?"

She smiled again, but her resolve faltered. Shouldn't something have happened? Shouldn't he have dropped the act? "It's nothing you haven't done to me."

He chuckled softly as he began moving his hands lower and higher at the same time and heat blossomed all over her body, "I have no idea what you're talking about, but I think you have enchanted me." She put both her hands on either side of his beautiful face, looking long and deep. He smiled a slow inebriated grin at her and all the magic she had tried to pour into his eyes vanished. She knew he was not there. Maybe he had never been there. She had only dreamed.

The song had stayed in her head and the words came again, unbidden, "Within your heart..." His hand curled into her hair, tangling in the silver feathers as he pulled their lips together for a deep, seeking kiss. Without thinking, she melted into him as he maneuvered them further into the park's greenery. She wanted to keep him there, in whatever way she could, "I'll...place the moon..."

He laid her down on the cool, late spring grass and her dress fell from her smoothly. Sarah tried not to think about what she was doing, and found it surprisingly easy as her hands fumbled with his belt and jeans, "Within...your...heart."

She became lost in the sensations that surrounded her and his voice come from somewhere above her, "Oh, you're a lovely one, but quite the strange girl..." He stopped at her name and a single tear fell from Sarah's eye even as her desire rose to meet him. She felt a sharp tearing pain in her body and her heart right before the pleasure he incited washed over her and her mind became sweetly vacant, the song lingering within her….As the pain sweeps through.

He stayed and held her for about twenty minutes before rolling over to pick his jeans up from the ground…Makes no sense for you. A dull ache had settled in her chest, it had never been him. She'd thrown herself away for nothing….Every thrill has gone. Sarah pressed her face against the cool earth, hoping her tears would mingle with the early morning dew. She felt, empty, drained. She felt slightly used, even though it had been entirely her fault…Wasn't too much fun at all. She wished he would leave.

She looked up and their eyes met. He still looked slightly muddled and Sarah almost smiled, maybe she had bewitched him. "You never told me your name..." his voice was quiet, like he was breaking a reverent silence.

"It's...Sarah."

"Sarah," the name rolled off his tongue like thick honey and she almost thought it was him speaking…But I'll be there for you. Unable to bear it, she turned away, leaving him at a loss. She didn't care if he was confused or hurt; he probably wouldn't remember any of it anyway. He stood slowly, still a little wobbly and spoke to her back, "So, uh, I guess I'll see you around, Sarah."

As he stumbled back to the party, Sarah began putting her dress on. She numbly pulled the feathers and barrettes from her horribly tousled hair and whispered, "As…the world…falls…down..."

A/N: Well, here I am again kids. This oneshot...I repeat ONESHOT...kind of fell out of me this weekend. I had been slowly dying because I hadn't been able to write in a while, but when I finally got the time nothing for The Way Back would come easily so I pulled out this story that was in the back of my head. I had originally thought of it as a multiple chapter thing, but decided it would work better as a oneshot. And yes, I did toy with the idea of a happy ending (i.ehe is really Jareth) but decided that it really would have needed more chaps for that, and I def didn't want to get entangled in another epic. Plus, i think the happy end would have cheapened it, it has more impact this way. I REALLY like it though, and I hope you do too.

Thanks to Heist for her betaing and certain suggestions...i took them and I like the story much more for it XD. I did have some trouble with how to stick the intervening lyrics in there but I have since fallen in love with my solution. And I look forward to what you've got cooking for us next, babe. Mutual love, muah!

So, please REVIEW and tell me what you think, lovelies.

Muah, Atsui

Disclaimer: Don't own Labby or its' song lyrics. I do own Em, but she has almost no character so it's not like that counts... ;D