Aaaaaand we're back. I wrote about four completely different versions for this chapter. But this one worked the best so this is what we're going with.
Sarah woke to the sound of birds twittering.
She blinked, then shifted a little. She was laying on a bed now. It felt exactly like the bed at her grandmother's house, down to the feather mattress and the soft heavy down in the blankets on top of her.
The sun was warm and bright in her face, she groaned and stuffed her face under the blanket. She regretted it a moment later. It was sweltering underneath the sheets and the stuffed quilt. Her skin was just two degrees shy of breaking into a sweat. She threw off the blankets. It only went halfway down her waist, something was stopping it from going father.
Squinting against the sun, Sarah shuffled her way out of the bottom half of the blanket. Sitting up, she shielded her eyes and gazed about the room.
It was a tiny picturesque room, with white washed walls, delicately carved wooden furniture and flowers on a table. The sunlight was spilling through a paneled window, someone had forgotten to draw the lacy curtains.
That someone shifted next to her, grunting.
Sarah jumped, giving out a little squeak.
Jareth was laying on top of the blankets next to her, soundly asleep. He was crumpled against the mattress. One arm hung off the edge of the bed, the other on his chest on the stain on his shirt. His feet were wearing red and white striped socks. There were dark circles under his eyes, and he looked small, almost delicate among the blankets.
Sarah blinked at the socks for a moment, then around at the room. The embroidered curtains at the window, the rug on the floor, the oil lamp on the bedside table.
It all seemed so real.
Some part of Sarah, probably because of the sleep deprivation, had half expected everything happening around her to be some sort of freak dream. No way had the Goblin King come and swept her out of her boring essay-filled life, gotten thrown up on, and brought them both to this fairy tale cottage.
Yet, there they were. Laying on a cloud bed. Having done all that.
"Weird." Sarah muttered, and slipped on the side of bed to stretch. After getting out all the kinks the busy day had worked into her body, she wandered over to the window, pushing aside the curtain.
There were hills and hills of grass outside, speckled with flowers and bees floating from bud to bud. There was a dark green line on the horizon that Sarah guessed was a forest. The line was dwarfed by the tall gray brown mountains in the distance. The tops were speckled with snow like powdered sugar on a cake.
"Does it please you?"
Sarah jumped, turning to find Jareth up on his side staring at her with soft, adoring eyes. Her stomach twisted, and she nodded shortly. "Uh, yeah. It's… it's really pretty."
Brilliant, Williams! Your prose will be wept over by poets for centuries to come.
She crossed her arms and glanced around the room. "I was kind of expecting a basement somewhere with a cot, so anything's better than that...'' she trailed off, then coughed. "So, um. Where are we?"
Jareth sat up, stretching up to the ceiling. "An in-between realm." A smile quirked at the edge of his mouth. "Are you rested enough now? You seemed quite exhausted earlier."
Sarah snorted and rubbed her eyes. "Turns out staying awake all night three times in one week isn't consecutive for attentiveness. But I think I've caught up."
He slid off the bed, his candy cane socks padded silently across the floor. A grin split across his face, surprising her with it's sincerity. "Wonderful."
Then he cupped Sarah's cheek with a gloves hand and kissed her.
Her brain exploded.
Wh-wha-what? But- why? What is happening?! He's kissing me? Why… what? I mean, obviously he wanted to, no duh. He wanted me for his wife. Who doesn't want to kiss the woman you plan to make your wife? But I'm not his wife. How does he think he can… Am I even mad? Do I want to kiss him?
Yes! Yes! Yes! Said the hormonal side of her brain.
Not yet. Argued the sensible side.
Both sides started fighting with each other, kicking and biting and screaming while Sarah remained frozen until it simply devolved into-
Skiekdfjscnbueawpsd,nguwedhgiewpsmvnewiawnnmmmmmmmmmm
The last part being after Jareth slid his arms down her back and around her waist, pulling her tight to him while deepening the kiss.
When he finally did pull away, probably because she wasn't responding (much), it took a solid five seconds for her sensible side to shove her hormonal side aside and take over.
She slapped him.
"What. On. Earth?" She hissed while he clutched the side of his face looking shocked. "What made you think you had the right to do that?"
"I assumed you felt the same as I did when you leaned against me to sleep." He said sullenly.
"Okay, leaning against you while I'm in pain and slightly out of my mind from sleep exhaustion does not equate to me being comfortable with passionate kissing."
His mouth tightened. "I see."
She probably should have left it at that, but she was on a roll and despite him being very handsome and she accepting her faults when it came to that incident, she still had a bone to pick with him.
"And for that matter- what on earth possessed you to think that romantically pursuing a fifteen year old child was okay? Do you know how much that traumatized me? The thought of going on a date made me panic for the next five years. It messed me up, man. I was a child, Jareth, that's messed up."
She paused, mostly for breath, but Jareth seemed to take it as she wanted his answer.
"Things are… different… in my world."
Sarah rolled her eyes to the ceiling, throwing her ups up. "Ah yes, cultural excuses. Sure. Right. The age old excuse."
"I do not excuse." He snapped, and his eyes flashed with anger. "You know nothing of my people's culture."
She moved her arms helplessly. "How would I even know that? What even are you?"
"Fae." He answered without hesitation. "And yes, we do have heavy rules against pursuing children. But understand, we are immortal. If there is one you think you should love, who is too young to accept your affections, then there is no harm in waiting until they are older to pursue them."
"Like you waited." Sarah spat. "Not to mention-"
Jareth held up a hand wearily. "Please, let us go into the kitchen. There is coffee there." He added when she looked close to bursting. "You are not the only one who cannot wake up entirely without it."
She let herself be let to a kitchen with a wood stove, some table tops, and lots of cupboards. Jareth opened up a cupboard and searched around inside before moving on to the next. "If you must condemn me, love, at least hear my part of the story first."
She regarded him skeptically, then sat in a padded chair. "Spill."
He pulled out a metal canister and popped the lid, wrinkled his nose, and put it back in the cupboard. "Let us begin with Fae custom. We are immortal, we remain forever young, therefore having an interest in a youngling is not necessarily taboo as it is in your society."
Sarah opened her mouth to argue, but he held up a finger. "It is taboo to pursue the one in question while they are a child. You are expected to keep your distance, not even friendship is allowed, for fear of- oh, what do you humans call it- grooming."
He popped open another cupboard, this one had a can labeled with squiggly words Sarah couldn't read. His face brightened, however, and he pulled it down. "What you do is inform the parents of your interest, then sit back and wait for them to grow. Generally your are expected to hold yourself back from any other lovers, even casual ones, as proof of your interest. If you manage this by the time they are of courting age, which you looked to be very close to at the time, the parents will allow you to court the one in question. However, and this is written in law, my love, if the one in question finds they do not like the interested party, they are more than welcome to send them away."
He found a tea pot as he spoke, setting it on the stove. A snap of his fingers had a fire crackling merrily in the belly of the stove and water in the pot. "It will be another portion of time before you are allowed to marry. Generally among the Fae this is when you leave your parents abode and make your own way in the world. Only then are you considered mature enough to be married." He turned to Sarah. "Does that satisfy your human morals?"
She glared up at him. "Sort of. But it doesn't resolve my issue with you. The peach dream-" The grin that split across his face made her stumble. "Uh- the peach-"
He stepped a little closer. "What did I do in your peach dream?"
Sarah felt her face flush. "Well… um… that wasn't you in it?"
He practically purred the next sentence. "The peach was merely enchanted to indulge your deepest desires, love. I had nothing to do with what happened inside them. Whatever happened inside was entirely your own doing."
"Oh." Sarah watched him prepare the coffee grounds with clenched fists. "I suppose you consider yourself to have acted well within the range of all those rules?"
"Naturally. I intended to wait to pursue you until your graduation and when you began your own career to pursue you, as your father is still paying your tuition. Then this-" he waved vaguely around the room. "It was only a week until that was accomplished. And I think you are considered old enough to be pursued by the humans."
She watched him prepare the coffee for a second. "I have one more question." She said shortly.
"Yes, love?"
"Where does, fear me, love me, do as I say fall into those rules of yours?"
He froze in his work, looking slightly disgruntled. "Ah, well… considering the situation… I'd hoped..."
Sarah sat back in her chair. "Thought so. Creep."
"Well, I hardly wanted you to win." He said sulkily. "I've made similar false offers to many others, and if a touch of my feelings entered into the words… well… you can hardly blame me, can you?"
Sarah regarded him dryly. "I think I can very easily do that."
His shoulders slumped. "You have my apologies then."
She regarded him for a moment, reminding herself he'd saved her life. "That's assuming you aren't making this all up. But it'll do for now, thanks."
"Good." He held out the steaming pot. "Coffee?"
Once again, no promises on when the next update will be. Only that it will happen eventually.
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