ok, so I guess where I got the idea for this one is pretty self-explanatory...this was mainly just an outlet for everything that been going on...anyways, hope you like, maybe the next installment will be better.

Of Dramatic Goblin Kings

You know, men's minds are funny things.

To me, it seems like sometimes they speak a completely different language. You know, like how they act like they aren't interested in you THAT WAY (or they know FOR CERTAIN that you aren't interested in them), and then when they find out that you are interested in someone else they get all jealous and huffed up? You've given them no indication that you want to be more than just their friend (or surrogate little sister, in my case), but they still think that you are their property? Imagine that with POWERS.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

It started a few months after the farm incident, in which Jareth saved me from some creeps that would steal my virtue, as well as my life. So I guess he did have reason to act possessive of me. And it was nice for a bit. Every girl likes to feel like they have someone watches over them and protects them constantly. So I was good.

Until Samuel came along.

Now I'd known Samuel since before the farm incident. He went to my church and we had talked a bit. He was a pretty nice guy. But after the farm incident we started REALLY talking. Getting to know each other. Talking to our parents about each other. You see the direction I'm heading here?

We're not past the getting-to-know-each-other-better-to-make-sure-this-is-a-good-idea stage yet, but Jareth is all in a huff about it. I mean, he IS the goblin king, so I guess he's pretty used to getting what he wants all the time. But I'd been under the impression that this particular aspect of his character had been improving.

Apparently not.

So as I sit here, locked by myself in a room in the castle at the center of the Labyrinth, Jareth and I are having a shouting match.

"This is ridiculous, Jareth!" I yell. "You're completely overreacting! What's the big deal anyways?!"

"You know perfectly well!" he roars back childishly.

"I would if you would tell me!"

This silences him for a while. I think of how human men back home don't like to talk about their feelings. I'd seen it in several of my guy friends when I would bug them about girls they liked, or in asking one of them why he was depressed that Sam and I were talking, or even in talking to Sam himself.

"You're lucky I didn't send you straight to the dungeon," I hear Jareth growl from the other side of my door.

Looking back, I realize this is probably true. "Why would you want to send me to the dungeon anyways?' I ask, just loud enough that he can hear me through the door.

Once again, there is silence from the other side of the door. It stretches until I begin to worry that Jareth has left me here alone, and has gone back to the human world to cause some mischief, presumably to people I knew personally.

"You are allowed to leave your room only under the condition that you stay on the palace grounds," he says finally, and I hear the sounds of his boots on the stone floor. Walking (stomping?) away from me.

Exasperated, I drop onto the bed, face-first in a pillow, and heave a sigh. Really, it's not such a bad room. I assume it's one of the guest rooms in the palace reserved for visiting diplomats or some such. And once you get past the dark and scary version of the palace that normally scares such visitors away, it's really a nice place. Seriously, the whole back half of it is quite luxurious. The gardens are really quite lovely.

As I lie on the bed considering each vain attempt of escape that comes to mind, my brain wanders back home. I wonder if the reason Jareth brought me here was because of all the drama that Samuel's relationship with me had caused. There were three other girls that were quite upset, including a girl who had been his "best friend". A guy friend of Samuel and mine had been hurt too, though he tried not to show it, and it killed me hurting him. I remembered often that I had wished to get away from all the drama for a while, all the humans, and just be in solitude for a while.

Trust an older brother to be listening in on your private wishes.

One thing that Jareth didn't seem to understand was that when humans make wishes, especially subconsciously, they often don't mean them.

Oh well, I think to myself, as I rise up off the bed, May as well get some work in while I'm here.

Over the years I had grown quite close to the head gardener-goblin, a lovely (for a goblin) old woman by the name of Glubula. She's too old and arthritic to work much any more, but she knows more than any other goblin in the Labyrinth about plants. And she knows every plant in the Labyrinth. She has many gardener-goblins under her, and takes great pleasure in ordering them around. And even though my human fingers are large and clumsy compared to the smaller goblin ones, she never hesitates to put me to work either.

So I went in search of her, and was soon in charge of weeding the rose bushes. It was an ideal task for a human, as the roses in the Labyrinth are quite a bit larger (thorns and all) than ones in the human world, and the thorns can be quite lethal to the smaller goblins. To me they are perfectly harmless aside from a shallow scratch, so the other gardeners are visibly relieved that I got stuck with the job.

At first, my muscles complain with the labor, but as the exercise releases the endorphins into my system, I grow more cheerful. It is nice to get away from the drama in the human world, though in the back of my mind I sense Jareth might just cause more of it. However, these thoughts are soon pushed from my mind, and I become absorbed in my work.

I'm almost finished when I hear heavy boots walking towards me. Too heavy for little goblin feet, that's for sure. Memories from hours earlier flood back into my mind, and I grit my teeth.

Jareth had taken me quite unexpectedly from my church. It was a Wednesday night service, and I had just given Samuel a hug goodbye. When I opened the door and stepped through, I had found myself in the room Jareth had imprisoned me in. When I turned to try to go back through the door, I had found it locked. Then Jareth and I had had our little shouting match…

"And what, may I ask, are you doing, ruining your hands with that toil?" his imperious tone surprises me, but I don't let it show.

"Oh great ruler of the Labyrinth," I say sarcastically, "I only wish to be of service to your people, and to myself by working in this lowly garden of yours."

Behind Jareth I can hear goblins giggling, but they are silenced when he turns and glares at the suddenly still hedge. He turns back to me, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh come on," I say, "It's good exercise, and good busywork, to keep my mind off things. It's been quite relaxing."

Silently, Jareth kneels next to me. It's only then I notice he's wearing his grubbiest riding pants. He reaches into the rose bush I am closest to and pulls out a weed from close to the heart of it. Pulling back, he hands me the weed to put in my pile on the garden path, though his hand is now bleeding from a thorn wound.

Momentarily speechless, I turn to see that all of the weeds had gone from the patch. Sighing, I gather up the ones on the path, and begin walking away from Jareth, to put them pile to burn with the trash.

"Ichobana, I've been meaning to ask you" I hear from next to me. Jareth has silently joined me in my trek to the burn pile. "What is it that you see in that…boy?"

Right, subtlety is Jareth's middle name.

"Why do you need to know?"

"As your brother figure, I would assume that I should fulfill the responsibility of protecting you, however difficult that task might be on occasion."

My face burns. I know he is referring to the fall, when I had been nearly raped and murdered by escaped convicts.

"Because you of course need to protect me from perfectly nice guys like Samuel," I say sarcastically.

Jareth is so free with his moods that I can practically feel his anger flash. "Why else would I ask?" he says bitingly.

"I think you're jealous," I shoot back, the peace of working in the garden momentarily forgotten. We've reached the burn pile. I throw the weeds down, and turn to face him, hands on hips. "Look, just because I've known you since I was six doesn't mean you can tell me who I can and can't get in a relationship with. You don't even know him!"

His anger is barely restrained now. "Ichobana, you know fully well that I wouldn't approve of your cavorting with anyone, even if they were one of my own subjects, unless–"

But he has to stop because I have burst out laughing. "Your subjects?" I giggle, "Jareth, they're not even remotely human."

"Only during the day," he reminds me. "At night they are as human as I am."

"Well, you're not exactly homo sapien yourself," I say, still giggling. "The only reason you're human 24/7 is because someone has to control them when they're not in their human minds. And what has this got to do with you being jealous?"

His face colors slightly, so I know I have hit home somewhere. Signing, he runs his hand through his wild mane of blonde hair. "You told me once," he said, "That…"

I see that the time for silliness is over. I think back to nearly two years ago, when I had –ahem– helped Jareth get over his flighty infatuation with Sarah Williams. I had been fifteen then, and was seventeen now.

"Jareth," I say quietly, "I don't think I ever said that I cared for you as more than a brother. And if I did hint at it, you must remember that I have grown up quite a lot in a short period of time, unlike what you're used to. I was younger. Now I'm closer to being an adult. And Samuel is even closer to being an adult than I am. My mind works differently from yours, O goblin king."

With that, I smile at him.

He sighs again. "Alright," he says, resigned. But then something changes in his face, and I shudder. It's his mischievous face he's put on now, which almost always means trouble.

"Oh, no," I say, "Jareth, what are you–!"

But he's gone, and the faint sound of his laughter rings in my ears.

XxXxX

When I wake, I'm back in my own bed in the human world. I look at the alarm clock, which had woken me by playing David Bowie music at the loud volume it takes to get me up in the morning. It's Thursday morning.

I groan and roll over, but don't turn the music off. I'm going to get seriously ill one of these days. It can't be good for the human body to constantly live out entire days in one world that never existed in the other.

The school day goes by quite as normal, with only a few comments on the scratches (nearly healed) on my hands that hadn't existed the day before. Samuel didn't go to my school, so I had to wait until after the school day was over to communicate with him.

When I flipped open my phone when I got home, there was only one unread text message waiting for me. It was from Sam:

Icho u didnt tell me u were engaged!

At first, I'm confused. Where on earth did he get such a notion? But of course, as I think on it, it's obvious. Angrily, I mash the letters in reply:

Im not. Im not even old enough!

Sighing, I resign myself to homework. It isn't long before my phone vibrates in my pocket. Samuel again.

Omg this guy came up to me today after school and told me he was ur fiancée.

It feels like my stomach has turned to lead. Even though I know perfectly well, I respond:

What did he look like?

Samuel's response was a rather exact description of Jareth. Angrily, I throw the cell phone into my pillow, then grab the pillow to hold it over my mouth as I yell Jareth's name. That way my parents wouldn't hear me, but the goblin king certainly would.

"Now, now, Icho," he says as I feel his weight on my bed.

I glare at him. "You sure got over me quickly."

He grins. "Like you said, our minds don't work quite the same way." And not giving me any more explanation, he leaves.

Groaning, I pick up my phone and text Samuel.

Im not engaged. That's my adopted bro. Hes a bit protective, specially since he graduated college and moved across the country. Dont listen to him. Hes going home today.

It's the best explanation I can think of.

When he texts back, I think it's funny how Samuel's relief is palpable even through his texted reply, and invitation to dinner tomorrow night. Although I don't see exactly why he's so relieved. He's taller than Jareth, and plays basketball, so they might be equally matched. However, then I remember that since Jareth isn't human, and has a lot of powers, most humans feel a natural fear of him, even when he disguises himself as one. It's instinctual; I've come to believe.

I only hope that he doesn't try to make a surprise visit during my date with Samuel.