I don't know what to say about this. I was reading the Return to Labyrinth book, where Jareth posed as Toby's guidance councilor, and I was just thinking "Gee, if he can come Aboveworld to talk to Toby, what else can he do? He probably goes to talk to Sarah, and somehow convinces her to be in a relationship with him because he's totally not Jareth the Goblin King."
Except that Return to Labyrinth sort of stinks, and most people haven't even read it anyway. So, here's something that's only slightly related to Return to Labyrinth.
But I'm still sticking to RTL canon and Sarah's step-mom is named Irene.
This has not been proof read, so if you spot any sort of grammatical error, please let me know!
Thanks to KieraPSI for the grammatical help!
"I don't know," Sarah said with a massive sigh before she took a sip of her cocktail. "I talk to whiny teenagers who think that they're all the next Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet all day long, and then I come home and I sit in front of the TV. I'm just… lonely, I guess."
"What you need is a good roll in the hay!" Sarah's best friend, Ashley said.
"Ash, I love you, but the last thing that I need on my plate right now is the emotional fall-out from having meaningless sex with a complete stranger that I picked up at a bar," Sarah said with a dour look.
"Just thing about it, Sarah!" Ashely exclaimed before she downed the rest of her drink in one swallow. She slammed her glass down onto the table, put her arm around Sarah's shoulders, and subtly pointed towards an exceptionally muscular and good-looking man who was a few seats away at the bar. "You could have your legs wrapped around that fine piece of… Whoa." A man who was just as muscular and good-looking walked up to the first and the two of them passionately kissed and embraced. "Um, never mind then. Why did you want to come to this place? I think it might be a gay bar."
"I don't know. I've never been here before, and you know how close it is to my apartment," Sarah said.
"Well, I still think that the answer to your problems would be to wrap your legs around some guy's waist and let him completely rock your world," Ashley said as she gathered her purse to leave the bar.
"And I completely disagree with you!" Sarah protested before she tipped back her glass to finish the last of her drink. Then, she grabbed her own purse and followed her red-headed friend from the bar. She'd been feeling a bit buzzed, but the cool air of the mid-October night helped to clear her head a little.
"Okay, fine," Ashley said once they'd crossed the parking lot and started to head for Sarah's apartment. "Since you're the leading expert in Sarahology, what do you want?"
Sarah was silent for a long while as they walked down the cracked sidewalk of urban New York. "I just wish that I could find the one, you know?"
"Oh, Sarah," Ashley said with a sigh. "You're such a hopeless romantic."
In the Underground, in Jareth's throne room, the Goblin King himself sat upon his throne. The room was lit only by the light of the moon as it streamed through the stained glass windows, and it was otherwise silent except for the tinny voices that came from the crystal Jareth held in his hand.
"Since you're the leading expert in Sarahology, what do you want?" her friend, Ashley asked.
Jareth's favorite activity was to watch every single thing that Sarah had done in the past ten years since she had defeated him and his Labyrinth. He was waiting for a moment, a single slip of the tongue from the girl-turned-woman, that would give him the opportunity to go back to her once again.
Much to his chagrin, however, she had not uttered the single, four-letter word that would bring him back to her side since that night, ten years ago. When Jareth was exceptionally frustrated by Sarah's actions, he sometimes wondered if she even was aware of the existence of the word.
But, there was one thing that greatly pleased the Goblin King, and that was Sarah's lack of a romantic life. He'd watched in complete anguish as she'd gone out on a handful of dates during her time at university, but he also realized that she never really seemed to go out on more than three dates with any one guy. But, after she'd graduated and accepted a teaching position at a local high school, the only time she went out was either with her colleagues from the school, or with her friend from university, the overly obnoxious Ashely.
Jareth's blood had boiled when Ashley had, not only encouraged Sarah to have a casual sexual encounter with a stranger, but had suggested the man that Sarah should have it with; he'd been more than pleased to see the other man show up to put the kibosh on Ashley's idea.
But then… "I just wish that I could find the one, you know?" Sarah said after a very long stretch of silence.
Jareth's heart practically lept out of his chest at what she said. Jareth had to go back and hear the words again, just to make sure that she really said what he thought she said.
A giant grin crept onto the Goblin King's face as the words played over and over from the crystal. "Precious, I can work with that," he said softly.
It was a dreary, wet, Monday morning, and Sarah was running late. She tried to blame her lateness on her hangover from Saturday morning, but in actuality, she just hadn't felt like getting up that morning. There was something off about how she felt, and for some reason, a massive sense of dread, even though she knew that there was no logical explanation for why she felt that way.
She ran out of her apartment, and down the hall to the elevator, where she nervously pressed the down button in beat with the opening song that the kids were working on for the upcoming musical. "Finally," she muttered under her breath when the elevator gave a slight ding. A second later, the doors slid open, and Sarah cursed under her breath.
"Oh, I'm sorry," said a soft, masculine, British voice from behind the massive red sofa that took up most of the elevator.
"No, no, it's alright," Sarah told the unknown voice. "I enjoy walking down five flights of stairs when I'm running late for work." The doors to the elevator started to slide closed, but a slender hand shot out and held them open. A moment later, the man adjusted the sofa barely enough for Sarah to get a glimpse of him.
"Please, squeeze in. After all, it would not be polite of me to be the sole cause of one of my new neighbors being late to work," he said. Sarah squeezed into the elevator, and pressed the L button before she ducked under the sofa to allow the doors to close. The man in question had short, choppy blond hair and was dressed in a worn The Who shirt and faded blue jeans. But his most striking feature were his odd, mismatched eyes. Sarah stared blankly at the man for several seconds.
"Do I know you?" Sarah finally asked.
"I don't believe so, no," the man said. He held out his hand. "Jared Garfield, at your service."
"Sarah Williams." They shook hands just as the elevator came to a stop. "Thanks for inconveniencing yourself to let me down faster. I'll… see you around, alright?" Sarah squeezed herself out from under the sofa once again and quickly left the elevator. She paused for a second as the doors slid closed and the elevator indicator light moved from the down to up. She looked at the brushed metal doors with an air of confusion. "Nah," she said as she shook her head and hurried from the lobby of the apartment building.
The doors of the elevator were just about to close when somebody shouted, "Hold the lift, please!" Sarah quickly slammed her hand onto the door open button and a man carrying two large boxes ran in. "So sorry and thank you," the man said. He set his boxes down on the ground— it was Jared. "Oh, hello. It's Ms. Williams, isn't it?"
"Um, yeah," Sarah said with a tired but sincere smile. "What floor?"
"Seven, please." The fifth floor button was already pressed, and Sarah pressed the seventh one as well.
"Do you need any help with those?"
"That would be greatly appreciated, Ms. Williams," Jareth said with a friendly smile.
"Sarah, please."
"Yes, of course."
"Where did you move here from?"
"London, actually."
"I see. That would certainly explain the accent," Sarah said with a slight laugh.
"Yes, I believe that it would," Jared agreed with a cheerful grin. The elevator came to a stop at the fifth floor, and the doors slid open, but Sarah pressed the close door button. After a moment, the elevator started to move again.
"Did you move here for work?"
"Work, yes. I came to New York for a change of surroundings while I try to work on my latest novel," Jared explained.
"Oh? You're a writer? Anything that I might have heard of?"
"I'm not exactly topping the New York Time's Best Seller List, if that's what you're asking."
The elevator was filled with awkward silence. Sarah watched as the lights switched from six to seven, and then the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened with a slight ding. "Ah, if you could please just grab the top box," Jared said. Sarah grabbed it— it wasn't all that heavy— and moved aside to follow Jared from the elevator. They walked in silence down the dark hall before Jared paused outside of unit number 704. He fished a couple of keys out from his pocket and balanced the box he was carrying on his hip as he unlocked and opened the door.
"Where do you want this?" Sarah asked as she followed Jared inside. The red sofa that Jared had been transporting in the elevator was the only piece of furniture in the living room, but there were boxes stacked up nearly as high as Sarah was tall in the corners of the room.
"Ah, right there's fine," Jared said with a vague wave of his hand. He set the box he was carrying down at the edge of the sofa, and Sarah stacked hers carefully on top.
"Looks like you're just about finished," Sarah said as she looked around the room.
"Yes. These were the last two," Jared agreed with a slight nod. "You wouldn't happen to want to go to dinner with me, would you? Since I am new here, I don't have the first clue where to even begin to look for food."
"Um… I… I guess," Sarah said a bit nervously. Jared offered her a slow and somewhat sensual smile.
"Fantastic," he said. "I trust your judgment on food completely." Sarah gave him an odd look before she turned around and started to leave Jared's apartment.
"Are you coming or not?" she said once she was out in the hall. Jared hurried after her, paused to lock up his apartment again, before they went down to the elevator.
"Since I've already told you what I do for a living, how about you tell me where you were running off to in such a rush this morning?" Jared asked.
"Oh, work," Sarah said. "I work at the nearby high school, PS 153."
"Teaching?" Jared asked with that same, overly-sensual smile as before.
"Um, yes. Drama."
"I would quote some Shakespeare, but I have a feeling that you only wish that your students were good enough for that," Jared said with a teasing smirk.
"Hah, yes," Sarah agreed rather bitterly. "But we are getting ready to put on a musical in about a month."
"Oh? Anything good?"
"Something that the choir teacher and I wrote in our spare time," Sarah explained. "It's nothing that you'd likely ever see on Broadway, but it's decent enough for the theater group."
"Well, I do enjoy supporting the local arts, so I would be pleased to hear your rag-tag group of misfit actors-slash-singers," Jared said.
"I… Alright." Sarah looked up at Jared. "But, I wouldn't mind hearing some Shakespeare anyway."
"As the lady wishes," Jared said. He cleared his throat before he began. "To be or not to be— that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of-" (1) Jared broke off when the elevator doors slid open. "Ah, well, you know how it goes anyway," Jared said as he offered Sarah an apologetic smile as they stepped out from the elevator. "It's such a pleasant evening, wouldn't you agree?"
"Yeah, but it's getting a little bit too cold for my tastes," Sarah said.
"We could go back for you to grab a jacket?" Jared proposed.
"Ah, no. I'll be alright," Sarah said. "It's just around the corner." They walked in silence for a couple of minutes before Sarah gestured to a small Japanese restaurant under some older apartment buildings.
"I would not have pictured you for a lover of sushi and sashimi, Sarah," Jared said evenly.
"Not a lot, because it's expensive, but it's so close to the building," Sarah explained. Jared opened the door for Sarah, and they walked into the restaurant to a chorus of "Irasshaimasei!" from the staff.
"Sarah-san, you have brought a date?" a balding, middle-aged man asked from behind the counter.
"Um, n-no, not really," Sarah said nervously as she pushed a lock of her hair behind her ear. Jared grabbed two laminated menus before he slid into the closest booth. Sarah slid in opposite him a moment later, and accepted the menu that Jared offered her.
They were silent as Jared looked over the menu. A waitress came to take their drink orders, and then Jared put his menu down to look at the woman sitting across the table from him. Sarah was watching the chefs prepare the food of the other customers behind the counter, but when she sensed Jared's gaze, she turned her head slowly, and offered him a slightly bewildered look. A moment later, she schooled her features into a pleasant smile.
"So, you're a writer," Sarah said casually.
"Yes, I am," Jared agreed with a slight smile.
"What do you write about?" Sarah asked as the waitress came back with their drinks. The waitress took their orders before she left again.
"I think that I write about what a lot of people write about: the human condition. The deeply dark and mysteries of the human psyche, and how it all connects to the way that we see the world."
"That sounds like a psychology textbook," Sarah said blankly.
"Maybe, but you'd be surprised how much meaning that some author's can put into a simple blue dress."
"Sometimes a pipe is just a pipe," Sarah said with an absent shrug.
"That is also true, but you must remember, my dear: 'Ceci n'est pas une pipe.'" (2)
"My French is a bit rusty, but did you say 'this is not a pipe'?" Sarah asked.
"Yes. From the René Magritte, representing…"
"Yeah, yeah. I know the painting," Sarah said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "But what about the authors who did not intend for that meaning? For example, many people seem to be under the impression that Frank Baum's works were about the Great Depression, which I find to be amazing, considering that The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published a good 30 years before the depression hit."
"Of course, you also have to understand that people see the things that they want— and need— to see in things. The movie adaptation came out in 1939, which was in the tail-end of the depression. People saw what they wanted to see, because it made them feel better. But, you will also note that Mr. Baum neither confirmed nor denied the fact that he based the Yellow Brick Road upon the gold standard."
"You know what, I don't understand why people feel the need to psychoanalyze everything," Sarah said with a roll of her eyes. "Why can't people just read 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' and go 'gee, I want to go skipping through Oz just like Dorthy!' and not care about the things that either Mr. Baum might have intended as a metaphor, and how society today might analyze his writing?" She took a sip of her soda and carefully regarded Jared over the top of her cup. "But anyway, if I was to go to a library, what section would I find your novels under? And existential mind-fuck is not a section in the library."
"I mainly write in the fantasy genre," Jared said casually. "I tried to get into the romance genre, but I found that it was a much more cut-throat section than the one that I was used to. Which, of course, lead to my decision that my female main characters did not need men to dictate their lives." Jared paused for a moment. "That's not to say, of course, that my female leads were simpering damsels in distress who couldn't even lift a sword in order to so much as save themselves, but I think that after my exceptionally brief foray into the romance genre, my female characters have become even stronger."
"Well, I do love fantasy novels," Sarah said with a small smile. "When I was younger, I would-"
"Sorry it took so long! Here's your orders!" the waitress exclaimed as she slid the dishes in front of Jared and Sarah. "Is there anything else I can bring for you?"
"This looks amazing, thank you," Jared said as he grabbed a package of disposable chopsticks that the waitress had set down on the table along with their food. The waitress smiled at them and quickly left. They busied themselves with soy sauce, napkins, and chopsticks before they dug into their food. "I'm sorry, you were saying about when you were a girl?" Jared asked after a couple bites of food.
Sarah paused for a moment, and chewed slowly as she tried to remember what they'd been talking about before. "Oh, right! When I was younger, I used to go to the park that we lived by and act out my favorite scenes from my favorite fantasy novels."
Jared gave her a giant grin. "That sounds adorable. Did you wear costumes, too?"
"Ah, I shouldn't have told you that," Sarah said as her face turned bright red.
"Why ever not?" Jared asked smoothly with a cocky grin.
"Because now you're just going to tease me about it whenever you see me," Sarah said as she buried her face in her hands in shame.
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I was a complete hellion in my youth. I'd torment people just for the sake of watching them squirm."
"I was such an entitled brat when I was younger," Sarah said evenly as she picked up her chopsticks once again. "Although, I think that some of that might have been because my mother walked out on me and my dad when I was little."
"Well, you don't come off as being overly entitled now, so you must have figured out that nobody liked you when you acted bratty and grew up," Jared said.
"Yeah. I… I underwent a massive, life-changing moment when I was 15," Sarah said, her voice low.
"Oh?" Jared asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I… I don't want to talk about it," Sarah said quickly, and then stuffed a massive slice of potato into her mouth.
"Well, I think that the world would be a more disturbing place if everybody remained the same person that they were in high school," Jared said simply after a while. Sarah only nodded.
Jared changed the subject to talk about movies that they'd seen, books that they'd read, TV shows that they'd watched, and they passed the rest of their meal that way. "Dinner is on me," Jared said when the waitress delivered their bill.
"Um, no, it's okay," Sarah said quickly.
"No, really. You helped me move into my apartment."
"I carried a single box from the elevator to your apartment," Sarah argued. "You literally moved everything else while I was at work." Sarah quickly slid her credit card into the bill folder and handed it to the waitress before Jared could pull out his wallet.
"You win this round, Ms. Williams, but I will repay you some other time," Jared said smoothly; a coy smile played around his lips. Sarah flushed a little and looked down at the table. She absently toyed with the wrapper for the disposable chopsticks until the waitress brought the bill folder back.
After Sarah signed the receipt, she slid from the booth, and Jared got up and followed her from the restaurant. "Wow, would you look at that?" Jared whispered as he looked up at the night sky. Sarah looked up at the darkening sky, which was already alight with thousands of stars.
"Oh, right. There's a lot of light pollution in London, isn't there?"
"You'd be surprised how many stars you can see where I lived…" Jared said. He looked back down to Sarah and offered her a smile that she had trouble reading. Then, she shivered violently.
"Well, let's stop stargazing and hurry back to the apartment!" she said. "It's too cold!"
"I offered to let you go back to get your jacket, but you said no," Jared said with a slight laugh as he hurried after Sarah, who was doing a frenzied half-run.
"I didn't think it would be this cold after we finished dinner!" Sarah said with a laugh. They ran around the corner and dashed into the lobby of the apartment building. Sarah threw back her head and laughed; her cheeks and nose were red from the cold, and there was a youthful sparkle in her eyes. "I haven't had this much fun while sober in a long time!" she laughed as Jared called the elevator. The doors opened at once, and they got in.
"I find that exceptionally hard to believe," Jared said with a large smile. "You are an exceptionally delightful companion, Ms. Williams. …Sarah." The laughter faded from Sarah's face as she looked up at Jared; it was such an intense glare, full of longing and desire.
"Jared, I…" Sarah whispered, but trailed off as Jared took a step closer to her. She took an uneasy step back, and then another until her back hit the wall of the elevator. Jared then leaned over and pressed his lips to Sarah's in a passionate, demanding kiss. "S-stop!" Sarah exclaimed as she pushed at Jared's chest. He only pulled his face further away from Sarah's, but didn't back away from her. "Listen, I'm sorry if I somehow lead you on tonight, but I'm not interested in having some meaningless fling."
"I'm not either, but I respect your personal boundaries," Jared said evenly. He stepped away from Sarah, who visibly relaxed a little bit more once he had retreated to the other side of the elevator. She swallowed hard, and her eyes never left her feet until the elevator came to a stop at the fifth floor.
"I'm sorry have a nice night," Sarah said in a rush as she quickly ran out from the elevator without a backwards glance.
Once the elevator started to move again, Jareth let out a slow laugh and ran a hand through his newly shortened hair. "I know that I probably just took a massive leap back to square one, but it was more than worth it to finally have the kiss that I should have stolen from her ten years ago."
1) From Shakespeare's Hamlet
2) "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" translates to "This is not a pipe", and it's taken from a famous painting entitled "The Treachery of Images". It means that a painting of a pipe is not literally a pipe, but in the reference that Jared uses the phrase, he means that sometimes a pipe can be a metaphor.
I would have put the link to the painting's wikipedia page, but this website still does not like URLs. If you really want to know more about it, I think that you are all perfectly capable of googling something.