A/N: ...
Sorry guys...
Updates will now becoming irregularly, though still weekly and I will still be AIMING for Tuesdays. Unfortunately, I have terrible aim :P What with school and everything finding time to edit is proving VERY difficult and you guys deserve my best. So, until next week, enjoy! And Review! That Too! (Ooh, look! It rhymes!)
Also, speaking of reviews, I've been getting a lot of negative on the Avatar character's presence in this story. I said it was Zutara in the summary and it is now officially listed as a cross over. These characters are important to the plot and will be staying. To any purist reading, sorry I made changed their baskstories a little, but I needed to stay in one mythology and Labyrinth is the main fandom here. All this to say, if you are not enjoying the fic, for whatever reason, please feel no obligation to keep reading and thank you for sticking with me thus far. Hope you enjoy this chapter! Read on!
The next week passed fairly uneventfully, aside from Sarah getting used to Jareth showing up at random times. He'd never appear when she was with her friends, only when she was on her own. Once, Sarah had been trying to get a book from a shelf just out of her reach for one of her politics classes when a leather-clad hand had appeared from behind her and pulled it off the shelf. That had led to a discussion on democracy and personal space and how those two were completely different things. Another time, Sarah had been getting a cup of coffee at a café and trying to proofread an assignment before class when he had just pulled up a chair across from her and sat down. That had led to the explanation that, while grades were not necessarily representative of a person's abilities or probable future success she still needed to pass this course "so give me back my damn paper Jareth!" He only showed up a few times that week, and each was no more than an hour.
The odd thing was that she was suddenly spending a lot of time alone. The gang had something on its collective mind and it was something she wasn't privy to. There were a lot of hushed conversations that were suddenly cut off as soon as she came close. It was kind of annoying to have her friends keeping secrets from her but Sarah couldn't really blame them. After all, it wasn't like Sarah wasn't keeping certain secrets from them. It was Wednesday night that Sarah finally found out what was going on.
Katara came into the room that night as Sarah was just finishing another one of the stories in Sir Didymus' book. Her friend seemed nervous and Sarah looked away from her book, a little worried.
"Sarah," Katara said, not looking directly at her friend. "Can we talk about something?"
Sarah put her book down on the small table between their beds, frowning in concern and pulling her legs up to make room for her friend at the end of her bed.
"Of course," she said. "What's up?" Katara shook her head.
"Not here. The rest of the gang is waiting at the Jasmine Dragon. We can talk there."
"Katara," Sarah said, slowly standing up. "What's going on?"
"I'll explain when we get there." Katara said. She finally looked Sarah in the eye. "Please come?" she asked. Without another word Sarah grabbed her coat and followed her friend.
When Sarah and Katara walked into the Jasmine Dragon, Iroh ushered them into the back room he rented out or kept for special occasions. When they opened the door Sarah saw all her friends sitting down around the table, a serious expression on even Aang's face. That more than anything had Sarah worried. Katara took a seat at the round table next to Toph leaving Sarah to take the last seat available between her roommate and Zuko. She sat down as Iroh bustled in, a small frown on his face which vanished as he flashed Sarah a reassuring smile, distributing tea before bustling out. Sarah looked at her friends, worried about what this might be about. Had they found out about that she had wished her brother away and were going to lecture her on it? Would they not want to be her friends anymore if they knew? No, that was ridiculous, there was no way they could know, and besides, they wouldn't abandon her. Was it something else? Had something happened? She sat still and waited for someone to start. Finally, Sokka spoke.
"Sarah, there's something, you need to know. You may find it hard to believe but trust us, we are not pulling a prank on you and we are telling the truth. Are you ready to hear this?" Sarah nodded, unsure where this was going. Sokka took a deep breath and continued.
"The Fae are real," he said. Sarah's eyes went wide. They knew. How did they know? How could they know? Sokka took in her incredulous expression and, mistaking its cause, hurried on. "No, really, they are. And all those creatures you love to study and read about? They're real too. We've all had encounters with them. Seriously. Our mom," he gestured to his sister, "was half Selkie."
"Her family managed to get in trouble with a Fae family, who went to the Sozins," Katara said quietly. "That's how she died."
Zuko spoke up then. "My family is kinda the Underworld's mafia. They take care of humans that the Fae have a problem with. My d—Ozai runs the entire thing. Uncle walked away from it years ago," he said, looking only at the table. "So did I." Toph punched him lightly in the shoulder in reassurance.
"I'm a changeling," Aang said. Sarah looked at him in surprise. She hadn't thought changelings were aware of what they were. "I found out on last summer's road trip." Sarah blinked before frowning slightly. Just what HAD happened on that road trip, anyway?
"And my family's been trading with the Underground for centuries," finished Toph. "Which is how I knew the Goblin King by his voice. That's right Queeny, the man who's in your life with, from what Katara and Suki tell me, VERY tight pants is a Fae and the King of the Goblins, Lord of the Labyrinth."
"We know there's no way you'd wish Toby away. You love him WAY too much. Toph thought that might be it," Sokka said, raising a placating hand at Toph, "but we all agreed that it couldn't possibly be true, and since you said you met him in a game, we figured he joined some human competition. They do that sometimes, they love games. Now, we know this might be hard to believe but—"
"It isn't," Sarah said, interrupting him. "Because you guys were wrong." She met each of their gazes. "I did wish Toby away."
And so the gang sat silent and amazed through Sarah's story. Sarah was an expert storyteller, her stories at open mic nights were a very anticipated event. She used all the tricks she knew to tell this story. It fell familiarly from from the tongue as she had told it so many times to Toby. The start with the storm, (even though 'It was a dark and stormy night' was such a cliche), her meeting with Hoggle, the hours spent in that first damn trick corridor, the riddles she'd had to overcome, the overly friendly helping hands and so on. She took them into the oubliette with Hoggle, the hallway with Jareth and the cleaners, the forest with the dancing dismembering Fireys and on and on through her ten hours there. The only part of the story that changed with each retelling was what the Goblin King had said during their final confrontation. At the time Sarah hadn't been paying the slightest bit of attention, she'd been trying so hard to remember the lines that would get her Toby back and so in each telling she came up with something appropriately intimidating and Goblin King-y and said he'd said it.
"And that was the last I heard of him," Sarah said, concluding the first part of her story. "Until the anniversary of my father's death."
And so she started weaving for the first time the completish tale of their latest encounters. This one was far more heavily edited. She was close with all of her friends, even if they hadn't told her their knowledge of the Underground, but there were some parts, like the bits where they ended up in bed together, not the way it sounded she knew better than to tell her friends if she didn't want to hear endless teasing and FAR too many of Sokka's lame puns. What he would come up with, she didn't know, but it was Sokka. He'd find something to make a pun about. When she talked about how he was with Toby her voice softened. Toby had been so happy with Jareth around and Jareth... well, he seemed to really look out for her kid brother. The story came to a close with him disappearing from her kitchen, although Sarah neglected to mention the bit where she cried, and there was a stunned silence.
"So," Katara asked, trying to clarify the situation. "You're seeing the Goblin King?"
Sarah spat out the tea she'd been sipping on and choked while Zuko patted her worriedly on the back. "As in with my eyes—sorry Toph— yes."
"But are you together?"
"No," Sarah said assertively. Then she remembered what nobody knew and corrected herself, "I don't think so."
"But he's into you?"
"Sweetness," Toph interrupted, "I could smell the testosterone off him. He's into her."
Sarah remained silent on the subject.
"We should meet him," Aang chimed in. Everyone turned to look at him. "I mean," he said, scratching the back of his neck. "He's made it pretty clear that's he's reentering Sarah's life. She's our friend. We should get to know him. No pretenses this time. Gang meets Goblin King and all. I'm sure it will go great!" He smiled.
"He said something about being free Friday night. I'll try to get him to come meet you all," Sarah said, unsure of the whole situation.
"Right," Sokka said, nodding. He pointed at Zuko. "You're in charge of food and drinks. We meet here on Friday at 8 without fail!"
"What?!" Zuko cried. "Why am I in charge of that?"
"You're the best cook and mixer of drinks we've got, Sparky! If someone here can make food fit for a King, it's you," Toph told him. "Suck it up."
"I thought we agreed never again with Zuko's drinks after last time..." Aang said slowly, looking a little uncertain.
"Look Twinkle Toes," Toph said. "We're going to be dealing with an all powerful Fae who probably wants to whisk Queeny here away to his Underground castle forever. I don't know about the rest of you, but before doing that, I want a drink." The gang nodded variously in understanding, sympathy, and agreement.
"And besides," said Katara placatingly, placing her hand over his, "you don't have to drink if you don't want to."
"Okay..." said Aang, still sounding a little unsure.
"It's decided then," Sokka said with far too much finality for Sarah's taste. "On Friday night we meet here to have drinks with and interrogate the Goblin King."
"Don't you mean meet?" Aang corrected.
"Right..." Sokka said, looking a little sheepish. "Meet."
Sarah shook her head. Now all she had to do was get him to agree to show up to this. Somehow, she knew it would be anything but a piece of cake.
It was mid Thursday afternoon by the time Sarah had enough time and privacy to call on Jareth. She stood in front of her little mirror as she always did when calling on the Underground, fingered the pendant she now always wore and murmured,
"Jareth, I need you," which always seemed to work when she called on her friends. She looked in the mirror but there was no change in it. Damn him, he'd said he'd come if she ca—
"You called, precious," a voice purred from behind her. Sarah whipped around to see Jareth lounging on her bed. Seriously, what was it with him and beds? At some point soon they were going to have a talk about that. "Oh, yes please," Sarah's back brain said, with just the tiniest hint of drooling.
"Yeah," Sarah said, ignoring her back brain. "There's something that I wanted to ask you."
He raised an eyebrow at her, inviting her to continue.
"First," Sarah started, "you should know that all my friends know who you are."
"Of course," Jareth nodded. That brought Sarah up short.
"Of course?" she asked. "What do you mean, 'of course'?"
"Sarah," he said, slightly condescendingly. "They all in one way or another have ties to the Underworld. I am an important figure there. They all probably grew up hearing stories about me. 'Be in before dark or the Goblin King will come get you', that sort of thing. Once Toph had identified me to them, it was obvious they'd recognize me."
Sarah glared at the Goblin King who shouldn't have had anything to do with her life at all any more and yet somehow still managed to. She shook her head at his confidence that simply everyone would know him.
"Well, they want to meet you for drinks. Tomorrow. Eight o'clock at the Jasmine Dragon."
This time both of Jareth's eyebrows went up in surprise.
"They want to meet me?" he asked, just to be sure. He would have thought they'd have been scared of their childhood boogie man—with the possible exception of Toph, whom he didn't think was afraid of anything—not inviting him out to drinks.
"Yep," Sarah replied. "Apparently, as you are part of my life, they want to get to know you better." Jareth preened internally slightly at being called 'part of her life'. Admittedly it was some distance from 'part of my life' to 'my husband' but it was certainly a start.
"And I assume you want me on my best behavior?" Jareth asked, far too mildly.
"That would be nice," Sarah said, surprised at him offering without her having to ask. Really, she should have known better.
"What do I get in return for such a promise?" Jareth asked.
"What do you mean?" Sarah asked warily.
"Well, precious," Jareth said, "You are asking for my time and good behaviour so that I can impress your friends and make your life easier. What do I get in return for promising to make this as easy as possibly for you? What would you do to make it worth my while."
Sarah looked at him uncertainly. She didn't really like where this was headed.
"What do you want?" she asked, almost certain she wouldn't like the answer. Jareth looked her up and down with lidded eyes, and then let his eyes drift down to the bed beside him. Sarah swallowed nervously. He smirked at her, before getting up and stalking over to her, like a large cat stalking something small and furry. He paused inches away from her and moved so his breath was tickling her ear as he spoke.
"Dinner," he said simply.
"What?" Sarah said, jerking back. That was not what she had been expecting. While Jareth had entertained the idea of trading this for a kiss or five he would rather Sarah kiss him because she wanted to, not because she had to. Besides, he felt that he could get her to want to fairly soon and it was so much fun to watch her blush and her eyes turn dark at the hinted possibilities.
"Dinner," he repeated, smiling, sharp canines showing. "Next Thursday is my birthday and I was hoping you'd attend a dinner with myself and Klio in celebration of the event next Friday." Sarah blinked for a moment trying to figure out what days he was talking about exactly.
"Wait a sec," she said, laughing a little. "You're born on April first?"
"Yes," he replied. Sarah started laughing louder. "Is there a reason that date is so funny, Sarah?" he asked indignantly as she continued to laugh.
"Not really," she choked. "It just seems appropriate. That's all." Jareth wondered what she could mean as Sarah decided to wait until AFTER the event to inform the King of the Goblins of April Fools'.
"Alright," Sarah said, thinking over his offer. "A dinner with your fiancé in return for good behaviour during drinks with my friends?" she asked, making sure she had it straight. While Jareth had flinched internally at her choice of title for Klio, he simply nodded.
"Deal," she said, reaching out her hand. Jareth took it and pressed his lips against the inside of her wrist and murmured, "Deal." Sarah shivered a little at the sensation. "Until tomorrow at eight then," Jareth said, before vanishing, leaving Sarah annoyingly hormonal and wondering how to deal with the glitter he'd left on her bed. Most importantly, though, filled with curiosity about how tomorrow night would go.
A/N: Something that I've always found when watching the Movie is that, at the end, she really isn't focused on what Jareth's saying. In a lot of fics she didn't realize what was being offered, or knew but wasn't willing to give up Toby for him (which seems pretty reasonable, given their relationship, even if he DOES have REALLY tight pants :P). I always wondered what would Sarah's reaction be if she found out he'd offered that to a 15 year old her years later... ^_^