A/N Am sorry I do not own Labyrinth. Write for fun. Grammar awful tra la la.
The house was still empty when Sarah and Jareth arrived back. The old grandfather clock began to chime the hour of midnight as the two stood in the hall. A small shiver ran up Sarah, any minute now he would let go of her and fly away leaving her alone just as he had done once before. The ball had been enchanting until that song had played and flooded her memory with past experiences and now here she was again reliving the past. She felt Jareth arms loosen from around her and she glanced up into his face. What she saw in those mismatched eyes of his caught her off guard. There was no arrogance or determination, no fierceness or cruelty. She saw in his eyes a look of uncertainty and sadness. For the first time she was not seeing Jareth King of the goblins or lord of the labyrinth but jareth the man.
Her breath caught in her throat as she held his gaze. She did not want him to leave, she did not want to be alone. But this was Jareth. She could hear each chime of the clock count the hours away in mere seconds. In an instant she made her decision as Jareth's arms slipped completely away from her body she locked eyes with him. The rational part of her mind was screaming at her not to do it while the other part willed her on. Maybe she would regret it later or maybe not, it could well be worth the risk.
"Sod it"
She grabbed hold of his shirt with lightning speed and pulled him towards her quickly capturing his lips with hers. Sarah felt him stiffen in her arms then just as suddenly he seemed to relax the kiss was gentle and lasted mere minutes. She noticed how incredibly soft his lips felt against hers and how she now missed them. Slowly she released her grip on his shirt and moved away. As she looked at him once more she noticed the surprise on his face and the unmistakable sparkle that seemed to light up his eyes. Had she got it wrong, were the signs she thought she saw not real. Maybe the King had not fallen in love with the girl after all. She raised her head up and just as she was about to say his name. he had placed his lips upon hers, pushing her back against the wall he kissed her with such passion she thought she would faint from lack of breath. But it felt good so good and she quickly lost herself. As she let out a soft moan his tongue found entry into her mouth and the kiss deepened. His kiss was everything she had dreamed it would be and it sent the blood rushing through her veins and her heart pounding. If it wasn't for his hand gripping her waist and his body pressing her against the wall she was certain that she would have collapsed to the floor.
Neither one noticed the door open or the person walk into the hall both to lost in the kiss until he spoke
"Get your filthy hands off my sister you creep"
Toby walked towards them wielding a baseball bat he had found near the door. He kept his eyes firmly fixed to them. Jareth immediately released Sarah and stepped back and Sarah's face shone crimson. She had completely forgotten about Toby. In fact, he was late and should have been home an hour ago. He had seen her kiss guys before so why the sudden reaction.
"I have heard about wierdos like you"
Sarah starred at Toby and then back to jareth. Her eyes grew wide with horror as she realised that with in the heat of the moment Jareth had been unaware of Toby's arrival and had not adopted his glamour he now stood in the hallway in all his goblin king spender.
Sensing the danger to their King the goblins appeared from every hiding place possible they surrounded Toby creating a barrier between him and the King. Toby was not easily intimidated he swept the bat back and launch the goblins nearest to him across the room.
"I know who you are, I've seen the statue on Sarah's desk. Get out of our house Goblin King you have no power over us"
Jareth winced at the sound of those words falling from the boy's lips but he had no intention of showing this to a child.
"Then boy if you know who I am you know better than to cast ideal threats" Jareth smeared
"You don't scare me mate. You and your maze might work on my sister but I am a man "
Jareth let out a tremendous laugh that seemed to echo around the hall and sent a shiver through Sarah she saw the intense glare that Jareth gave Toby she had been on the receiving end herself once. How had things got so off track
"Lucky for you I am in no mood for playing games this evening" Jareth smirked and adjusted his glove "not that you are any match for me young Tobias"
"Want a bet"
Sarah groaned, no please no, of all the things to say to him he had to go and say that. Jareth's smirk grew even wider. How could he pass up such an offer?
"What did you have in mind" Jareth asked quite intrigued by the boy and his threats
"Whatever it takes for you to leave my sister alone"
Jareth raised an eyebrow and thought. He twisted his wrist and a crystal appeared in his palm. He danced it expertly back and forth across his hand and in front of Toby. Toby found himself staring into the small orb as it floated effortlessly back and forth. Sarah also found herself following the crystal before realising what she was doing. She went to move but the goblins held her back as she tried to speak Jareth turned to her and raised a gloved finger to his lips. Sarah felt her temper rise what the hell did he think he was doing to her brother.
"I offer you a deal Tobias. Complete my Labyrinth in thirteen hours and I will grant your request"
"What" Sarah shouted "Toby no"
Toby smiled over to his sister and then back to Jareth.
"It's ok sis I got this. Bring it on King if she can get through so can I, be a piece of cake"
Sarah put her face in her hands god Toby why did you have to say that. Sarah remembered uttering the exact same thing a long time ago and how it ended with her running for her life away from a mechanical cleaning machine. It seemed jareth was rather touchy when people insulted his Labyrinth and unlike her Toby had no idea what he was letting himself in for.
"Jareth please don't do this" Sarah pleaded
Jareth so wanted to comfort her, to reassure her but that could not happen right now. The plan was in place unfortunately the damn plan was happening sooner than he would have liked. He hoped she would understand. With a flick of his wrist Sarah vanished from the hall.
"Where is she" Toby asked in alarm
"She is there in my castle. Still wish to challenge me"
The hallway faded away and Jareth stood on top of the same hill as he had with Sarah. Toby glanced around him still clutching the bat. The sky was an orangey red colour and spread before him with the largest maze he had ever seen. Rising in the centre stood a large castle
"You have thirteen hours to reach the castle at the centre of the Labyrinth" jareth said
Toby spun around to see him fading
"Bloody jerk" Toby called and quickly ran down the hill towards the Labyrinth.
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Sarah landed in the pit at the centre of the throne room. A large number of curious goblins gathered round and stared long and hard at her. She crossed her arms in annoyance her anger growing with each second. How could he do this. She had thought things were going well, why would he spoil it all by sending Toby into the Labyrinth. Why the hell did she kiss him. The goblins began to poke and pull at her and Sarah hit back pushing her way out of the pit and throwing the goblins to the side, as she reached the rim a gloved hand reached down to her. She glanced up to see Jareth stood there. She reached up and grabbed his offered hand and quickly pulled him off balance causing him to fall into the pit with her. Although she had misjudged his trajectory and instead of him landing to the side of her he had landed on her throwing her back onto the cushions and pinning her in place.
The assembled goblins giggled at seeing their King fall so ungracefully into the pit. Jareth lifted his head to be met by Sarah staring back at him with anger.
"Precious I know we have thirteen hours to fill but this is definitely not the place to do such things"
"You just threw my brother in the Labyrinth and you are flirting with me, seriously"
Reluctantly he removed his body from on top of hers and stood offering Sarah his hand once more to pull her up.
"Yes about that, I had not quite planned for it to happen this evening"
"You should not have it planned at all. I know he has been a pain but he has started making an effort and"
"Sarah" Jareth crossed his arms "do you know where your brother was earlier this evening and exactly what he was doing"
Jareth voice had lost its humour and taken on a rather more serious tone. He waited patiently for Sarah to answer him.
"He went out with Sam, movie and dinner" she replied
"Wrong" Jareth responded "Let me show you what he did before I reordered time which I must confess is getting rather a habit with the Williams family"
Jareth flicked his wrist and a crystal appeared he blew on it and it floated out of his palm and towards Sarah. She stared at it for a long time as it hung in the air before her
"Don't worry it doesn't bite"
Sarah tentatively reached out her arm and wrapped her fingers around the orb bringing it before her eyes. The crystal began to swirl with mist before clearing to display the well-known streets of where she lived. She watched in growing horror as her brother eagerly stepped into the stolen car. The whole event played out before her until it froze completely just before the car collided with the tree. Sarah slowly shook her head; she had believed he was making an effort to improve his behaviour how could Toby do something so stupid. If the goblins had not been watching over him, if Jareth had not been there in time she would have lost him. Jareth gently took the crystal out of her hand and wiped away the tear that had escaped down her cheek. He wrapped his arm around her and brought her flush against his chest resting his chin on top of her head. He just stood and held her saying nothing for some time.
The silence was shattered by the sound of the door being pushed open and crashing into the wall. Cursing and moaning could be heard as the visitor entered the room. Sarah gently unwrapped herself from Jareth's embrace a small smile spreading over her lips. She knew that voice and only one person moaned and cursed in such a manner.
"Hoggle"
She scrambled up the side of the pit with some help from Jareth and ran over to the startled dwarf
"Sarah"
"O Hoggle I have missed you so much"
Jareth watched as she hugged the small man tightly. Hoggle caught Jareth's warning look over Sarah's shoulder and quickly shook himself free
"I missed ya to little lady" Hoggle replied before walking to Jareth
"Ya sent for me ya majesty"
"Yes Hoggins, /I have had to action the plan sooner than intended. The boy may need a little assistance getting into the Labyrinth"
"Its Hoggle and you may not av noticed but he is already in the stone maze"
"What" Jareth summoned a crystal immediately "Impossible"
Sarah smiled at Hoggle knowingly. It seemed that Jareth had forgotten one rather important fact when he had decided to subject her brother to the Labyrinth.
"Did you spy on me like that" Sarah asked
"I am not spying merely observing the progress and yes" Jareth casually replied "How has he got so far so quickly even you struggled in the beginning"
"Yes, but then I never had an older sibling telling me the story every night before I fell asleep and I mean the full story, riddles, turns to take ect ect"
Jareth looked up from the crystal to see Sarah smiling back at him. So she had given her brother a rather large advantage in navigating his way to the castle. But unlike Sarah he knew the Labyrinth would not allow such a thing. A piercing shriek filled the room as a shadow briefly fell across the window. Sarah ran forward to see what was going on and gasped as her eyes found the source of the strange noise. Before her flying high and heading towards the Labyrinth its scales glistening in the light was a large dragon.
She turned away from the window and back towards Jareth who had now seated himself upon the throne.
"A dragon, there was no dragons when I was here"
"No but then you were playing the heroine princess, Toby on the other hand is being the gallant night battling to save the maiden"
Sarah still didn't understand and looked down at Hoggle before looking back to Jareth. He could see her mind working overtime trying to unravel everything and simply took pity on her
"The Labyrinth changes Sarah, not just the pathways the whole thing. It moulds itself to fit the runner which at this moment is Toby. You wanted friends and an adventure so that is what it gave you. Toby wishes to be the hero"
"So it gives you what your heart desires most then"
"Yes exactly precious"
Sarah starred back out of the window watching the dragon as it circled over a particular section of the Labyrinth. It made complete sense except for the oubliette, cleaners and the peach, damn she needed to ask about the peach. Suddenly she jumped back as fire shot from the dragon's nostrils towards the ground below.
"Jareth do something" Sarah pleaded
"He is fine, another thing you don't know about the Labyrinth is it can't harm you, nothing can harm you. It just makes you think otherwise. It is an excellent teacher of the important lessons in life"
Realisation hit Sarah at that very moment. He had brought her here all those years ago to help her grow up and turn from a selfish whiny brat into the person she was now and he was hoping the same thing would happen with Toby. She smiled over to Jareth in understanding.
"I get it but I am still mad" Sarah said rather half heartedly
Jareth stood from his throne and walked back down to join her near the window he quickly wrapped his arm around her waist and kissed her. A look of complete shock crossed Hoggle's face
"Still mad now" Jareth asked
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Toby gave himself a pat on the back. He was racing through the Labyrinth in great time. Listening to Sarah tell him stories every night had certainly paid off in the long run. He knew that you just needed the right words to get in and that although the corridor looked like it had no twist or turns or openings it had plenty they were just hidden. Now in the stone maze he was aware that the walls move constantly so making any marks was pointless. He just needed to keep moving until the knights appeared with their riddle.
The sudden shriek from above him and gust of wind that blew around him drew his attention upwards towards the Sky and there circling right above where he now stood was a large scally green and brown body about ten feet long. The wings spread out and beat at regular intervals creating a fierce downwards draft. He watched hypnotised as it circled around. He saw its yellow eyes glisten as it looked down at him and its nostrils flare. Tobies sense of preservation kicked in and he ran as fast as he could. He recalled past stories of dragons and remembered that their nostrils flared just before the fire erupted. He felt the heat of the flames behind him as they hit the ground with a thunderous crack.
He cursed as he ran, how the hell had Sarah forgot to mention a dragon. Surely it cannot have slipped her mind the thing was massive. He willed himself to run faster as the dragon followed just behind him. His legs now burned with the exertion of running for so long and his lungs ached. Giving up the running team in favour of hanging out with Dan suddenly seemed like the wrong decision.
The dragon seemed to be gaining on him and he felt the heat as its fiery breath flashed at the side of his head. He quickly turned to the right and found himself in a round courtyard with a central fountain there was no way out other than the one he had come in by. As he spun back round his eyes locked with that of the dragon. As it moved towards him Toby took steps back. This was it he was about to get toasted. He began to think of Sarah, how hurt she would be and totally alone without him. She had worked so hard for them since their parents died and he had done everything possible to make it more difficult for her. He gave a silent promise that if he by some miracle got away alive he would stop being such an insensitive brat.
Suddenly there was no space left for him to back up into and the back of his legs came into contact with the fountain. The dragon was so close now he could smell the smoke as it breathed. Its eyes were wide and piercing. This was it, the end, he had nothing to fight with and nowhere to go. The nostrils flared and Toby brought his arms up to his face as the flames shot forward.