The soft, heartfelt honesty of his request for her to sleep in his bed every night almost spilled agreement off her tongue before her brain kicked in. Sarah swallowed hard and yawned, trying to get her brain to think clearly. This was an important discussion, why were they having it when they were both so out of it?
"Very tempting," she managed levelly, shying away from any sort of outright refusal. She then tried for levity. "It'd be the quickest way to get my father to kill you though. Toby might not give you any warning before chasing you with the poker."
"Yet you have no qualms aside from the fear of your male relatives."
"Mmh, they're just a good excuse." She yawned again. How to explain in a manner he would understand? "We have a weird enough relationship without bringing sex into it just yet. I want to get to know you first. Who you are as a person. I've watched too many of my theatre friends mess things up because they just spent their time in bed and not enough time working things through."
His eyes drooped closed.
"If you can think things like that in this room then you honestly can see through my glamour."
"Why?" She breathed.
"'cause the room only looks like this when I'm feeling miserable and in need of comfort. Tiny, contained, bare essentials, and comfort."
"What does it usually look like?"
He chuckled lasciviously.
"Visit me and see," he purred.
"Go to sleep, your head's taken a vacation and you're happily thinking with the other one."
He laughed at that, but it was soft and sleepy. He was soon asleep and she wriggled away slightly so she didn't crowed him and accidentally knock his hurting head then settled down.
.
She woke to someone tapping her shoulder. She didn't want to move she was so comfortable. Groggily she cracked an eye open. Howl stood with a sardonic expression on his face and gave her a little wave in the morning light that streamed in at the windows. The three windows that hadn't been there last night. They overlooked a range of snow capped mountains she had never seen before. She tried to move then realised the soft comforter wrapped around her was a combination of down duvet and Jareth. He had curled almost entirely around her and the large pale silk pillow they both occupied.
"Not moving," she told Howl.
Howl put both hands on his hips. He was dressed in his own ragged trousers but wore a simple shirt borrowed from Jareth's cupboard.
"Sorry princess, but at very least that king of yours needs to wake up. There is this very fancy ambassador waiting for him."
"Ambassador?" Sarah squeaked.
"As far as I could understand the frantic gathering of goblins that ambushed me in the outer room. Something about a sneaky elf, nasty High King, tricky trade and a query about my bet on which oubliette he'd end up in."
Sarah wriggled into a sitting position and shook Jareth. He was dead to the world. It took her slipping out of bed entirely and stealing the blanket before he came to consciousness. He made a half-hearted grab and snapped something in a strange tongue.
"I don't speak that language, try English," Sarah declared.
Jareth's eyes sprang open and he blinked at her.
"You weren't a dream?" he breathed as if he did not quite believe his eyes.
"Nope. Still here. How are you feeling?"
"Cold," he closed his eyes.
"If that's all, you have some elf in your castle annoying your goblins enough they want you to assign him residence in an oubliette."
"Wha?" Jareth croaked and pushed himself up, only to wobble and land on his back hissing in pain. He turned his head then pressed his hand over his eyes.
"Ow. What happened?"
"Magical accident yesterday? We had to drag you across the Labyrinth and get the goblin healer to patch you up?" Sarah reminded him.
"Goblin healer?" Jareth croaked.
"You had iron in you."
"No wonder I feel so dreadful." He shakily pushed himself up and swung his feet over the edge of the bed and pushed himself upright. He managed two steps before stumbling on the burgundy and gold silk rug under his feet. Howl lunged over and caught him and they both went over in a more controlled slump.
Jareth sat with his head hanging, swaying slightly. Howl regained his feet, rubbing his rump with a wince.
"Close your eyes!" Jareth barked and startled at the urgency of his command, they did so. When Sarah peeked again, the room had reverted to the one they had found the night before. She now held the crochet blanket in her hands.
"I can't even control my magic," he whined.
"You need a healer of your own people," Howl declared.
"No," he said flatly.
"Stop being so stubborn and look after yourself!" Sarah crouched down and wrapped the blanket around his shoulders.
"It's," he slumped against her, shaking. "It's not stubbornness."
"Then why can't you admit you need help?" Sarah asked, irritated.
"Because if I show any weakness, they'll send more assassins and might just succeed this time."
"This time?" Sarah growled. "Who has been trying to kill you?"
He chuckled.
"My Sarah, my own avenging angel."
"It's not funny!"
"Everyone," he breathed.
"I can't imagine why," Howl remarked blandly.
"And you're not running away from assassins yourself," Jareth sneered at him.
Howl opened his mouth to retort as a pained expression crossed his face and he subsided.
"You're in danger?"
"Not if no one knows."
"How long are you going to be out of it like this?"
"Don't know," Jareth whined, "I'm never sick."
"You're impossible, you know that?" Sarah lightly put her arms around him. "How well guarded is this room? Should I set Toby with his iron poker at the door?"
"No, but ah ha!" he turned and smiled slightly cross eyed at her. "You're part of the Labyrinth!"
"What's that mean?"
"You could get in here! The magic recognises you. See if you can take it up?" He turned in her arms and kissed her on the forehead. It was no ordinary kiss, it burned. It set fire and ice tingling through her, and then she felt it, the entire roiling mass of chaotic magic that cooled and burned and twisted through not only the Labyrinth but pooled in various placed around the kingdom.
"That was a very foolish idea." Howl ground out as Sarah came to awareness, still hugging Jareth. Howl supported them both.
"Worked though," Jareth smirked.
"She has no discipline! That was your chief complaint. She'll turn your kingdom to ashes and cinders!"
"She can find this room. No she won't, she loves it too much for that," Jareth smiled as his eyelids drooped.
"No! You're not passing out on us! What did you do that for?"
"Sarah is queen, let her rule."
"You fool, she knows nothing!" Howl barked at him.
"She's just needs to delay them. I'll be able to sit up by tomorrow, right now, can you find a basin? I'm going to throw up."
Howl found a pitcher and Jareth hugged it for several miserable minutes.
.
Sarah stood and rubbed her forehead, it still burned, but not in any way she could soothe with a touch.
"If you've made me queen, does it mean I have to deal with that annoying elf?"
"He's probably the trade negotiator from the High King," Jareth croaked. "I usually make him cool his heels then give him the run around and send him back to ask for better deals. I never agree to anything. They don't have anything we want that we can't get elsewhere with a little hard work."
"What do I say? How do I introduce myself?" Sarah panicked.
"Queen of the Labyrinth, and make it up as you go along. You know how to run a household, a kingdom's the same, only bigger."
"I only have to feed four people back home!" Sarah snapped. "How many citizens do you have?"
"Don't know, several million, I assume."
"Don't you do any census for tax purposes?"
Jareth snorted.
"Just try to explain to goblins about taxes, I'd get shiny rocks and leaves as tribute."
"But you said, the other day, that taxes are regulated."
"They are, just not here."
"What a good idea," Sarah breathed with a smile.
"Of course, it's mine," Jareth preened, "which one, precisely?"
"Aggravating ignorance, nothing drives anyone up the wall faster!"
Jareth grinned and with a grimace of concentration and a twist of his hand produced a crystal.
"Take this with you, Howl and I will watch."
They helped him back into bed and propped him up against pillows, but he soon sank down in a half doze.
"Wake me if she says anything good," he mumbled to them then drifted off.
Sarah clasped the crystal in both hands.
"He's going to be impossible when he's back to normal," she breathed as they left his chambers. "If he's not mortified and trying to cover it up, he'll be insufferably smug."
"The way he roped you in I'd be inclined to bet the latter," Howl declared, then grabbed her arm before they reached the door.
"What?"
"You're only clad in the King's shirt?" Howl reminded her.
Sarah flushed with embarrassment.
"And my hair is an absolute mess!" She waved Howl out of the room. "Go and ask the goblins if there is anything I could wear while I wash."