"I think I hate you."
Sarah was holding up a silky-something by thin black straps, staring through its gauzy fabric into the bright eyes of her roommate, Winnie. Her cheeks were bright red, and a smile was trying to force its way onto her face. Sarah could feel her eyes beginning to ache and she stuffed the Christmas present back down into its box. Her roommate grinned manically, but didn't make the poor girl take the gift out again.
"I thought you could use it, you know." The honey-haired hell-bringer smiled widely and leaned back against the pillows of Sarah's bed. Sarah tossed the box of lingerie to the floor, drawing her knees in close to her body.
"Thanks." She grumbled grimly. She longed for the kind of normal gift she had given Winnie, a specialized mug covered in beautiful designs Sarah had painted herself.
"I quite like it."
Sarah cussed loudly and nearly fell off the bed.
Jareth was lounging perfectly on her desk chair, the silky-something hanging from his gloved fingertips. He raised an eager brow at the girl and said, "Why don't you try it on?"
"That's my cue to leave," Winnie hopped off the bed to dart for the door, giggling.
Since Jareth's first appearance last year, there had been a number of positive changes in the college girls' lives. Among these, which included major-specific courses, and a severe cafeteria improvement, as upperclassmen they were awarded a double suite for living space, which gave them each a bedroom, one shared bathroom, and one terrible excuse for a kitchenette, with a sink that clogged. This, however, awarded Sarah the much appreciated privacy she longed for, but this, of course, backfired. Having a room of her own meant that a certain Goblin King made ever-frequent appearances, in varying stages of dress and at all hours of the day. He had interrupted late night study sessions or early morning workouts on her hard wood floor. She would never forget rising from a painful push up to a set of leather clad knees.
Just last week, she had woken in the dark of morning to find Jareth curled up beside her in her tiny twin bed. As per some cosmic joke, he was totally nude. At least, at this moment, he was fully dressed in black jeans and a very human looking plaid shirt. She had noticed in the past year or so, that his apparel had eased; he had somehow managed to normalize a little when he was in her dorm room. Leather was replaced with dark denim, elaborate coats with less elaborate, but equally fine looking, shirts and jackets. A little bit like a rock-star, a little bit like a Fae king. When around mortals, his brows seemed to normalize as well, still slightly arched in that wicked way, but far less strange.
The most odd of differences in Jareth when he visited her was his hair. No longer was it a strange mullet-mop on the top of his head, but instead a trimmed and combed back cut. The roots were darker than she could remember, but the tip still seemed to sparkle, like the tiniest of glitter flakes were still interwoven in his locks.
He leaned back in her old desk chair, a wooden monstrosity with no back support. The discomfort showed on his face, but he smiled around it at her.
"So, do I get to see how this looks on you?"
"Why are you here?"
"I can't visit my fiancée?"
Sarah knew better than to argue that particular comment, but fire still rose to her cheeks. She turned to lay down flat against her bed, stretching her legs.
"If you wanted to go on a date today, I am too tired." She closed her eyes to make a point.
She heard him rise form the chair with a terrible screech and stand beside her bed.
"I simply wanted to visit you."
"No tricks?" She let one eye open.
"No tricks."
"No schemes?" The other eye opened.
"No schemes."
"No kidnapping me to your Labyrinth and forcing me to be your queen?"
"I promised to wait for you to graduate." He looked incredulous.
"Fine."
Scooting over on the bed, Sarah allowed the king to join her. The bed was not built well for two, but they made do, laying on their backs and looking up at Sarah's blank ceiling. Their hips and shoulders pressed hard against each other's, and this was comfortable for both of them.
Jareth was not one for silence, and it was not long before he was humming gently. He took one of Sarah's hands in his own and began to fiddle gently with it, amused by her. She was not certain what was so interesting about her to him; the mortal-ness of her, maybe, was what was key to his wonder. Sometimes, when he thought she was not looking, she would spy him staring at her. The expression on his face was always so peculiar: his eyelids would grow heavy, leaving his pupils in dark shadows; his mouth would part so his fang-like teeth would glint; his face would soften, as though it was a painting that was smudged. This water-color Jareth was not just a conundrum because it was uncharacteristic, and that was strange enough, but it was peculiar because Sarah was finding herself softening to it.
The look in his eyes was tempting. She could feel herself longing to be nearer to him when he made that face, she wanted to touch him.
Since their date last year they had certainly gotten closer. Sarah had felt the transformation inside, the release of tension that had eased her around him. Jareth was comfortable to be with. It was less thrilling; she no longer felt the violent warmth inside of her body when he appeared. In its place there was a violent joy, a gentle confirmation of the development of her heart.
"It's stupid." She had told Winnie one day over cold soup.
"No its not." Winnie smiled. "You are in love."
Sarah gagged on the soup and turned pink.
"You totally are!"
"I don't think that's it. Love is supposed to be…"
When Sarah couldn't think of proper adjectives, Winnie filled in for her. "Love is being comfortable with someone, enjoying having them around. You know, like old people stuff."
"Excuse me?" Old people stuff?
"Well, like, when you're young you want everything to be fun and wild and new. But with Jareth, you are like a married couple already. You don't need that fun garbage. Always in sync."
"Nothing wild about dating a Goblin King."
"The sarcasm is strong with you."
Regardless of how strange it felt, Sarah knew Winnie was right. This did not mean that she would, by any means, admit that to Jareth. The mockery would be endless.
"Think about it, Sarah. You have basically landed the best fish in the pond and you are still getting a college degree. You're gonna be Queen of the Goblins! What queen needs a B.A.?"
"I want options."
"No, you want equality."
Side by side in her bed, Sarah did feel equal to him. But it was only an achievable feeling when they were horizontal and staring up into nothingness. Even in his sleep Jareth was a mite bit possessive, clinging to her longingly, his face nuzzled in her collarbone.
His humming stopped and she turned to look at him.
"Can we talk?" He said.
"Certainly." She rolled onto her side. He stayed on his back, but never let his gaze falter.
"You have one year and a half left." He said. The tone in his voice was so serious that she thought he was joking and laughed.
"Oh." She stopped when his expression looked strained.
"As I said, one year and a half left before I am going to formally request something of you, Sarah." He stopped to breathe deeply, and then continued. "However, I do not want to make you feel in any way obligated to accept me. Seeing as you are determined to maintain mortal standings with your education, I would like to test the waters on another offer."
"What?" She was seriously beginning to worry. No other options seemed plausible.
"I have a younger brother."
"News to me." She grumbled.
"Yes, well, he is quite a number of years my junior, but has just reached adulthood. My dear, I may offer him my domain in the Underground, as well as my inheritance as the next High King if you ask of me to." He paused to let this soak in. "I can adopt the identity of a mortal, extinguish my immortality and subsequently, we can be an ordinary couple in this world. Your world."
She blinked.
He blinked back and sighed. "I will not ask for your answer as of yet. But please think about this, and I will accept any request you make of me. I thought that asking you to change worlds so young was a mighty request of me. I was selfish, years ago, and now I wish to pay back my harm in allowing you the choice. If even you choose not to be with me."
He surprised her by kissing her forehead and vanishing away before she could say a word.
Alone in her bed, feeling ready to cry, Sarah only yelled out one word:
"Hoggle!"
Wrapped up in Sarah's giant comforter, two girls and a dwarf sat crouched around one tiny television set with a bubbling screen. Each held in their hands a mug filled with hot chocolate and marshmallows. Across the room a giant, red-furred creature and a tiny fox were fighting over the bag of marshmallows themselves, and the giant was definitely winning.
On the TV screen a cartoon played loudly, Nickelodeon's bright orange logos bursting to life every few minutes for commercials.
"So," Hoggle said softly.
"So, indeed." Sarah sipped her drink.
"He's being generous." Winnie said. Both Sarah and Hoggle shivered at the word, and then shared a smiling eye with each other. The other girl looked on at the light of the TV, allowing the old friends their moment.
"The real question is what do you want?" Winnie said.
Hoggle, sitting between them, scratched his head. "Who do you want to be?"
"God, I'm only twenty!" Sarah exclaimed and disentangled herself from the blanket they shared. Ludo and Dydimus had stilled and were sharing the puffy candy together, but they looked up when she stood. "I'm not supposed to really know yet."
"But, Sarah, you've always loved him. So that at least is somewhat decided."
"Somewhat." Hoggle echoed.
"But, how can you expect so much from me? I want to do something with my life… I don't want to lay around on my butt doing nothing for forever." She put down her mug on her desk and slouched against the blank space of wall.
"You can do anything with your life!" Winnie suddenly yelled, sending Dydimus up Ludo's arm. Hoggle jumped and spilled on Sarah's rug. Then the whole room stilled because Winnie was bright red with frustration and staring angrily at Sarah.
"What…"
"Sarah, as shitty as this sounds, you have more opportunities to do anything in your life than I can, and it makes me so angry sometimes that you refuse to see it. You just want to make yourself miserable!"
"That's not true!"
"Sure, it is. You love Jareth. He can make literally anything happen. And you are sitting around on your butt making a fuss about deciding what to do with your life."
She got up and left her mug on the floor, her hair looking a little more frizzy than normal. "I would do anything just to have someone to love and love me back. You get that, and he's a fricking king with super powers!" She threw her arms up in the air and marched away to her own bedroom.
Sarah slid down the wall and landed on the floor with a gentle thump. "Damn."
