Yeah, yeah, you all know the drill...I don't own the Labyrinth in any way, shape or form. If I did, I'd be Underground, entertaining myself with a certain Goblin King -winkwink-
Mmk, this is mostly a filler chapter, mostly explains why Jareth suddenly disappeared, why Sarah's stuff was turning up in weird places, etc. etc. I like it, though. It was fun to write :) Enjoy!
Sunlight pierced her eyelids, making her see red behind closed eyes. Sarah groaned and turned her head away, relaxing as everything went dark once again. Wait...her and Julia's dorm room window had a romantic view of a brick wall, not the eastern sky. And if all beds were as soft as this one, she was sure as hell more students would think it was worth the room and board fee.
"I told you not to get that done"..."Sarah, you actually do things with me"..."Your window was open"...Is that a deer in the road?! Brake, brake, BRAKE!
"You know, my dear, stealing is a crime punishable by law in the Underground."
Sarah's eyes flew open at that soft, smug voice that could belong to no man.
Jareth was sitting at a large oak desk, polished to a such a shine, that Sarah probably could have seen her reflection in it if she wanted to. The king was sitting in a high-backed wooden chair in front of his desk, his feet propped up on the large stacks of official-looking documents and papers, not seeming to care that water dripping off his knee-high boots were staining them.
"Your papers," she rasped, wincing at how terrible she sounded. "You're destroying them."
He cast them a bored glance before setting his feet on the ground. With a wave of one of his gloved hands, the papers rearranged themselves before Sarah's eyes and settled into a neat pile, as fresh and clean-looking as if he had just written on them a few minutes before. She rolled her eyes dramatically. What a show off.
"So, precious thing, how are we feeling today?"
Sarah thought about it for a moment, chewing the inside of her cheek thoughtfully. In all truth, she was feeling fine, which worried her. She shouldn't be feeling fine after driving her car off the road and rolling it. She remembered the windshield shattering and shivered, automatically glancing down at her arms, expecting to see hundreds of little cuts crisscrossing her pale skin.
Instead, to her great surprise, the skin was smooth and unmarred. Her mouth slightly open, she let the fingers of her other hand run up and down her arm, expecting to feel what her eyes apparently could not see. But all she felt was skin, no bumps or jagged edges, just smooth, normal skin. She glanced up at him in confusion.
"But...my car...?"
Jareth leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees and his hands clasped together between his legs, studying her with his mismatched eyes. "Yes, your car did happen to run into a rather slick patch of ice, and yes, it did flip over numerous times. However," he flicked his wrist and a clear crystal appeared at his fingertips, "you seem to underestimate a Fae's power." At the sight of the crystal, Sarah felt her eyes widen, and she instinctively leaned back. The Goblin King laughed at her reaction. "Really, Sarah, if I had wanted you dead, I would have left you in what remained of your car."
He leaned back, tossing the crystal orb from one hand to the other. Sarah followed it with mistrusting eyes. Jareth's eyes, however, were on her.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
He had to admit, he was impressed.
When she had first showed signs of waking, he had mentally braced himself for the screams of anger and maybe even fear, shrill demands of where Toby was, demands to know where she was, why she woke up in a strange bed, how he had known her car had crashed, and (he snickered to himself) who had changed her out of her mangled clothes and into the nightgown she now wore. Hopefully she wouldn't notice that. No matter how well they were getting along right now, if she found out he had seen her naked, well...it was a strange girl thing.
Maybe she spent her anger with me in her room yesterday, and now she doesn't have anything left, he thought dryly. But I doubt it.
Her room...he had been so close to her, close enough to lean forward and touch her long black hair, close enough to brush his knuckles against her cool skin. But then, as the Goblin King, he did have a kingdom to run and challengers to welcome into his Labyrinth.
He mentally cursed the stupid 16 year-old boy who had wished away his little brother, who was only three. The boy had had the look of an arrogant athlete, the kind who strutted around the school with the cheerleaders falling at his feet and who somehow always got excused for cutting classes. He had gone without a wish-away for almost three months, and when one does surface, it had to be when he saw Sarah for the first time in six years. And it had to be some pig-headed prick.
"Oh shit!" The boy exclaimed, jumping back several feet.
Jareth snorted, crossing his arms over his chest in a dignified manner. "Might I recommend an improvement in vocabulary?"
The jock stood there, mouth hanging wide open. Then he glanced over his shoulder to the empty crib behind him, then to the little red book lying open on the ground beside it, and back up to the Goblin King's face. "I-I didn't know-"
"Yes, yes, Goblin Kings actually do exist," Jareth sighed impatiently. "And so do goblins, especially the type who steal little children from their undeserving siblings."
The boy's face paled considerably, and just as Jareth thought he was going to launch into some sob-story on how much he wanted his brother back and how sorry he was, the boy swore again.
"What am I gonna tell Mom?" he turned around and hit the wall, cracking the plaster a bit. "Man, if she comes home and Matty isn't here...Damn, she'll be so fucking pissed...she might even pull me off the varsity basketball team again..."
"Three curse words in two seconds, little boy," Jareth sneered coldly. "When I said improve your vocabulary, that's not exactly what I meant."
"Yeah, yeah, what are you, my mother?" He snarled in return. "Listen, what do I have to do to get the stupid kid back, anyways? Run your little mouse maze?"
The Goblin King narrowed his eyes dangerously. I'll show you mouse maze. The corners of his lips curled upwards in an evil smirk. "If you want your baby brother back so you can stay on your little sports team, then this is what you have to do..."
In the corner of the room, two goblins were witnessing the whole experience. They exchanged frightened glances as they watched their king's expression go from annoyed to a look that was so evil, a name for it hasn't even been invented yet.
"Why's the brat still standin' there?" One asked the other.
"Search me, if King was lookin' at me that way, I'd be throwin' meself in the Bog o' Stench."
Upon hearing their whispered conversation, Jareth's smirk grew, if possible, even broader. He reached out and grabbed the boy's shoulder tightly. "Brace yourself, boy. You're in for the worst thirteen hours of your life."
Jareth sighed, threading his gloved fingers through his hair, balancing the crystal in the palm of his other hand. The boy, Christoph, had not lasted long. He hadn't even gotten into the maze, and had had to content himself with watching that dwarf – Higgle, wasn't it? – relieve himself in the pond every so often before Jareth had returned to inform him his thirteen hours were up. So it was a frightened boy who was returned home to his family. No doubt some strange questions would be raised when his parents returned home to find their three-year-old missing. The King smirked cruelly. Oh well. Not his problem.
His thirteen hours, on the other hand, had been nothing less than exciting. Why should he have wasted his time watching the foolish boy lean against the outer wall, moaning in self-pity? No, it was Sarah he had watched in his crystals. He had grinned in amusement when she had reluctantly packed his riding crop in her already over-packed suitcase. He had noticed it was missing when he had gone to retrieve the challenger, but had not made too much of a fuss about it. He was a King, after all, and had dozens of crops at his disposal. But it was always nice to recover a lost item, as trivial as it was, and the item in question was currently resting against the edge of the desk.
He had watched her frustration mounting as she found things like hair clips and underwear (very lacy, very red underwear, he might add) in the most queer of locations, such as under the kitchen sink. Of course, it was his goblins that had been moving things about. As a Fae, he had a very heightened sense of atmosphere, and had felt the chill coming in the air. Freezing weather after rain had fallen usually resulted in ice, which did not mix well with the method of transportation Sarah's world had picked. In an attempt to keep her in the house as long as possible, he ordered the goblins to scatter her belongings, a task in which they took to quite enthusiastically. But, of course, Sarah had stubbornly sniffed out every last one of her missing items, thrown them in her suitcase, and loaded up her car. As soon as she had pulled out onto the road, Jareth was after her in owl form, gliding silent and unnoticed above her.
He knew if he showed himself to her, she would only panic and go faster, resulting in a crash, so that was out of the question. But he wasn't about to wait for her to get tired and stop on her own, either. As he was busy thinking of ways to get her to pull over, he saw a large deer not too far off ahead, pawing gently at the snow, searching for whatever grass remained that had not been killed off by the storm. He had sped ahead and spoken to it gently in Faerie language, trying to coax it out into the road with promises that it would not be harmed. The deer was reluctant, and had only just stepped out onto the asphalt when Sarah's car had come up, Using his magic, Jareth transported the deer to the other side of the road, but not before Sarah had seen him and swerved.
What the king had not expected though was her car to flip over completely. After the deer was out of sight, he had flown down from his tree and ripped the metal clean in half, reaching in to retrieve his Sarah. Blood poured from her nose and mouth, and her entire body had been mangled with cuts from the shattered windows. But she was still breathing all right, and didn't seem to have broken anything major, though she seemed to have a concussion. But he could save her from that. He could save her from that.
"Hel-lo, have you done the world a favor and taken a sudden vow of silence?" Fingers were snapping in front of his face, and his hand automatically flew up to snatch the offending digits. Sarah was sitting up now, her feet swung over the edge of the bed. Her gown hung off of her shoulders by thin straps, and the neck was cut low. The way she was leaning towards him...well, let's just say he appreciated the view he had right now. Sarah saw where his eyes were, and, flushing in embarrassment, tugged the neck up furiously.
"Rude child," he admonished, releasing her hand slowly. She drew it quickly to her chest, cradling it in her other hand as if he had burned her. "Someone needs to teach you proper manners."
Her eyes narrowed, and he could see her back straightening stubbornly. "And I suppose you would be the one to teach me?" she growled, glaring at him. "What do you know about manners?"
Jareth cocked his head to one side. "You speak in a disdainful tone, Sarah. Do you think you know me? Do you think the short time you spent in my labyrinth was enough time to know me? To assume to know what I was like and what I know?"
Sarah at least had the sense to look slightly abashed, and she cast her eyes downward. Jareth's eyes softened in spite of himself. Get a hold of yourself.
Suddenly, she looked up, her eyes wide and her face paler than usual. "Are you going to throw me in an oubliette?"
He was confused at the sudden turn in conversation. "Why would I do that?"
"When I first woke up, you said something about stealing being punishable by law in the Underground..."
Jareth threw his head back and laughed. One minute, she was facing him square in the eye, snarling at him straight-backed and proud, and the next she was practically shrinking into the mattress, timid as a rabbit, asking whether or not she was about to be thrown in prison. Typical female.
"Technically, I suppose it wasn't what one would call stealing. It was more...safeguarding, I suppose." He reached out with one of his long arms and wrapped his fingers around the handle of the riding crop. "But if you insist on it being stealing, you did return the stolen item, so no harm done there." He slid one of his gloved hands up and down the length of the crop, almost affectionately. He looked up again to see Sarah frowning at him, her eyebrows pulled together in though, crinkling her forehead.
"What?"
"Your face," she muttered, touching her cheek. "The cut is gone."
Jareth rolled his eyes. "Really, Sarah, if I could heal all of your cuts and bruises, not to mention that concussion you had as well, what makes you think I can't heal a simple scratch on my face?"
Sarah blushed and mumbled something that might have been an apology, but he couldn't tell. Her next words were much clearer. "How did you even get that thing out of the car anyways? Why wasn't it smashed or broken?"
The Goblin King shrugged. "Your entire suitcase was relatively unharmed." He jerked his head in the direction of the wall opposite the bed. Sarah craned her neck around his form to see her suitcase sitting there, looking a bit worse for wear, but all in one piece, at least. She looked back at him, and for the first time, gave him a smile. Albeit, a very small smile, but a smile none the less.
"Thanks."
He grinned. "It was my pleasure, of course."
He could almost see her tensed muscles relaxing as she glanced about the room. In turn, he, too, began to relax a bit. He hadn't left her room yesterday with very high hopes, and yet her attitude today seemed more...soft. Maybe it took a near-death experience to do that. Or maybe it was the Fae medicine he had given her to heal her. Most likely the latter.
"So what do you use that thing for, anyways?" Her eyes had landed on the crop in his hand.
He smirked and slapped it against his thigh, the sound of it hitting the thin material of his breeches echoing through the room. "Would you like to find out?"
"No!"
Ohhh maaaann...if Jareth had asked me that question, I would have pounced on him, heehee. So yeah, as I said, this was mostly just a filler, not too much action going on, but maybe a little tiny bit of fluffiness. I know what you're thinking: "Sarah spends the whole chapter in his bed, and they don't even do anything?!" Heh heh, sorry :D It's too early to be writing anything steamy. Hey, it only took a few weeks this time instead of a few months! Aren't you all so proud of me?
REVIEW REPLIES:
(I'd first like to say thanks to EVERYONE who reviews. You guys are what keeps my engine running -revs up- Vroom vroom! :) )
Asrayu: "Dreaming" is one of my favourite songs. It's just mindblowing!
Fabricated Revolution: Thanks! And, no, a riding crop could never be propped innocently on something...my mistake, heehee :)
ladyguenievre: Wows, that was the longest review I've ever received, and I write fanfiction on all sorts of different accounts. I took into consideration about Sarah's attitude towards Jareth. I can see your point, but...I mean, she defeats the labyrinth six years prior, but then suddenly comes back from college and finds out Toby's being stalked by a suspicious looking barn owl, and then she goes up into her room and the Goblin King is sprawled out all over her sheets, and she reacts badly (don't know what her freakin' problem is, as I've said, I would have pounced him) because she's just surprised. But I can see where you're coming from, and I tried to tone down her temper a little bit (though it's mostly from Jareth's Fae medicine/drugs he used on her, haha). As for Jareth being Fae...well, he's just too damn sexy to be human, and he certainly isn't a goblin. And I never really saw him as an elf, so Fae he is! Thank you for the amazing review, it totally made my day.
biggest'takahashi'fan: "Nothing tra la la" is easily one of THE best movie quotes I have ever heard. And made all the more wonderful by Bowie's sinfully tight pants :)
Blood of the Wolf: I was cracking up when I read your review. It made me smile.
ME: Jareth, stop being such a self absorbed prick
JARETH: WHY YOU!
SARAH: Jareth! stop strangling the authoress!
ME: -gasp- Thanks Sarah!
Alexandraya: Thanks for reviewing even though you hate reviewing. It means a lot to me you made the effort.
Luna: Calling it a naval piercing is just my weird way of speaking, and it kind of bled into my writing, I guess. I just don't like calling it a belly-button piercing. I say it weird :P So I just stick with naval, haha.
I LOVE YOU ALL! EVEN THOUGH WE'RE ONLY ON CHAPTER THREE, THANKS FOR AT LEAST HAVING THE COURAGE TO READ THIS FAR! :DDDDD
Read and review. Or Jareth will come and choke you next. Right Jareth?
JARETH: -menacing glare- Most certainly
-ScourgeChan
