Asha carefully examined every detail of Jareth's ensemble to make sure everything was in place and perfect. He stood with stern grimace across his facial features, his eyes looking forward with a blank stare. His body was tense, his posture perfect, as Asha reviewed him thoroughly. "You're as handsome as ever." Asha finally commented as she took a step back from Jareth, giving him some space. He exhaled, as if he had been holding his breath the entire time, and relaxed his shoulders a bit as he rolled his neck.
"You better hurry and go get ready now." Jareth insisted. "If you're late, I'm late."
"It won't take me long, just have to put on my dress. I don't mess around with makeup and all that like Elle." Asha spoke reassuringly.
"Have you seen her yet?" Jareth asked, almost as if he was nervous.
"Oh yes," Asha smiled brightly, "She looked fantastic." Jareth suddenly felt anxious, curious to see Elle especially after how much Asha kept saying how good she had looked in the dress during her fitting. "By the way, when are you going to show her the room?"
"I was thinking of doing it tonight, after the gala." Jareth informed her simply as he turned to view himself in his looking glass.
"Good, it's been killing me to keep it a secret." Asha exclaimed excitedly. "Alright, well, I'll see you later, I need to go get presentable now." Asha joked before exiting Jareth's room, leaving him alone to his thoughts.
In all honestly, Jareth was absolutely terrified about tonight. The perspective chance that Elle might reject him had been nagging at him for weeks. It was almost enough to make him just want to call off the entire thing. After all there could still be that chance that she wasn't the one anyway, in which case he was setting himself up for an unnecessary failure. Still, something outweighed that nagging feeling, something that told him this was worth giving a real shot. It had been so long since he felt this way, so hopeful and nervous, but he felt some long lost feeling of happiness through it all. He had felt such joy as he had put together the room for Elle; thinking the entire time how happy it would make her as a result of his dedication in turn made him happy. That feeling of elation counterbalanced any feelings of doubt and fear towards denial.
Simultaneously, as Jareth was lost in a sea of his own complicated emotions, Elle was also experiencing a certain anxiety; and not just because she was the only human in a room full of goblins. Her mind kept getting off track, wandering into thoughts of the conversation she and Asha had back at Maxine's shop about her "feelings" for Jareth. Up until then, she had never really stopped to consider the possibility of having any romantic interest in Jareth, yet ever since Asha had brought it up it seemed to be the only thing on her mind. Even now as she wandered aimlessly around the castle ballroom among the other guests her mind was less on the gala and more fixated on the thoughts of Jareth.
"Well don't you look alluring," Asha's voice grabbed a hold of Elle and dragged her back into the reality of her surroundings. Elle turned to look at Asha, who was smiling warmly at her. "I swear every woman in here is jealous of you." Asha insisted.
Elle was of course wearing the red gown Maxine had made for her, with a pair of short heels made by the cobbler Maxine had recommended. Asha had styled Elle's hair for her, pinning it up into a French twist fashion; Elle was impressed Asha had seemed to know so much about human hair considering Asha only had fur. She wore a pair of onyx earrings that matched a rather large and dramatic necklace that looked stunning with the neckline of her gown. Elle had done her own makeup-she was actually shocked when Asha had brought it to her, not even realizing there was any in this realm, especially when Asha informed her how popular makeup was among female goblins who were admittedly awful at applying it. Elle had opted to keep her makeup simple, focusing on a bold red lip with simple, thin, black winged eyeliner. After everything was done and she was all "put together", when she had first looked at herself in the mirror she felt prettier than she ever had before.
Of course, that all went out the window the moment Renee' entered the ballroom. Renee' was wearing a very well fitting white gown; the fabric clung to her every curve. There were silts on each side of the skirt, revealing a good length of her slender legs and her sparkling silver heels. The top of the gown was strapless, but there was a layer of lace covering her collarbone up to her neck and extended onto her arms as sleeves down to her wrists. Renee's hair was styled into a gibson tuck fashion, and she wore large round diamond earrings. Her makeup was absolutely flawless, and just like Elle she wore a deep red lipstick.
Watching as Renee' glided effortlessly into the ballroom suddenly made Elle feel so insecure. As beautiful as Elle felt, she was nowhere near as gorgeous as Renee'. Something about Renee's lipstick also made Elle feel troubled; most likely because it looked do much better on Renee' than it did on Elle.
"Do you have a napkin?" Elle asked Asha as Asha's eyes still seemed to be helpless glued on Renee'. "Asha?" Elle insisted, breaking her concentration.
"Napkin? Oh, yes." Then, ever so casually, Asha pulled a cloth napkin from inside her dress as if that was totally normal. "I keep them on hand during these occasion in case of an emergen-" But before Asha could finish her sentence Elle snatched the napkin, with no regard for the fact it had just been in Asha's bosom more or less, and used it to wipe her lipstick off. "What are you doing?" Asha asked curiously, "You'll ruin your lipstick."
"That's the point, it makes me look ridiculous." Elle insisted as she examined the napkin to discover none of the lipstick had worn off.
"It looks fine," Asha reassured her, "Besides, it's a long lasting formula, it's going to take a lot more than a napkin to wipe it off."
"Miss Asha," a tall dog like goblin outfitted in a well tailored suit interrupted them, "The King is ready to be announced."
"Oh very well." Asha then yanked the napkin away from Elle, stuffing it back into her cleavage and without a word left Elle alone as she made her way to the staircase at the entrance of the ballroom. With Asha's signal, a trumpet player from the band played a loud tone to get everyone's attention. All eyes then fell on Asha as she smiled calmly at the masses of attendees. "I would like to take a moment to thank you all for coming tonight to celebrate another year of our Kings rule over the Goblin City and the labyrinth," Asha begun simply as she spoke loudly to everyone would hear her. "And now it is my great honor to present to you, Jareth the Goblin King."
With that the ballroom erupted into a loud applause as the curtains at the top of the stairs drew back to reveal Jareth. He took a moment to merely stand there, smiling politely and waving to everyone as they cheered for him. Elle watched from a distance, her eyes seeming drawn to him and her gaze was impossible to break away. As he descended down the stairs she noticed his eyes searching as if he was looking for something, more accurately someone. Just then his sight met hers, and Elle felt a shiver radiated up her spine.
She didn't even realize it at first, but her feet began to move, closing in the distance that separated her from the bottom of the stairs which he was approaching at an accelerated rate now that he had his eyes focused on Elle; almost as if he was in a hurry to be within her reach. But then she noticed something out of the corner of her eyes, a flash of white that demanded her attention. Her eyes shifted to see Renee' as she hurried through the crowed to meet Jareth at the bottom of the stairs. Elle stopped abruptly, her feet seeming to freeze to the ground. Her heart sank in her chest as she watched Renee' hold her hand out to Jareth, who seemed to take hold of it without objection.
As the music began to play, they waltzed together accordingly. Seeing them together, both so mature, operating so flawlessly in their dance, shattered any expectations Elle thought she might have had. After all, Renee' was an adult, maybe just a young adult but still older than Elle. Renee' was more mature and far more stunning than Elle. It really wasn't even a question as to why Jareth would be so taken in by her, and for Elle to have assumed that wasn't the case seemed so ignorant of her. Still, the realization gave Elle such a feeling of despair, one she wasn't prepared to deal with among such a large ballroom filled with guests.
Silently Elle navigated through the crowd, heading towards a small door near the bandstand that lead out to the throne room. She was careful not to be seen, she didn't want anyone following after her to ask any silly questions like, "Are you okay?"