For You

A/N: Ahhhh! Dreaded part number thirteen. Well, I won't say it came without a hitch, but all in all I'm pretty satisfied. And for all of you who don't love Jim Henson as much as I do, "Jen" and "Kira" are the main characters from the awesome film he made just before Laby, the Dark Crystal.

Disclaimer: Pretend this says something witty.

For You

Part Thirteen

Later that night, Jen showed Sarah to a guestroom that was very beautiful, but also very pink. Sarah smiled to herself, realizing that she rather missed her room in Jareth's castle. Come to think of it, she rather missed Jareth all together. And she was dying to hear the stories Jen refused to tell her!

After Sarah had soaked in a pearly tub that spouted pink bubbles, and changed into a soft, white, smaller-than-she-would-have-liked nightgown, she came out of the modern bathroom to find Jareth lounging on her bed. There were far too many things wrong with this situation, such as the way his soft white poet's shirt had come completely unbuttoned, the way he stared provocatively up at her from her bed, the way they were in his parents' house….

"Where have you been?" Sarah asked, leaning against the doorframe, attempting to keep a fair distance between them.

"Avoiding everyone."

"Even me?" Sarah teased. Jareth pulled himself off the bed and strode over to her. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he hauled her toward him, evoking a startled "Oww!" from her.

"What is it? Are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine." Sarah said, wincing a little. "I tripped when I was out walking with Jen. I must have twisted my ankle or something."

"Let me see." Jareth said, drawing her much more gently over to the bed. He sat down across from her, taking her slightly swollen ankle in his hands, and focused on healing it for her. He tried to focus, at any rate. All sorts of things about the way her nightgown fell over her legs was making it rather difficult for him to concentrate.

Sarah laid back and closed her eyes, reveling in the warm feeling that came with Jareth's touch. But try as she might to ignore them, the memories came flooding in.

"So, you wanna go to a club or something babe?" Sarah sighed and flopped down on her bed.

"Not tonight, Brian." Sarah had said. " I've been on my feet all day." Brian nodded, then sat on the edge of her bed. He pulled off first her shoes, then her socks, and started massaging her feet.

"Better?" He asked. And it was better. For a while. His fingers went around her toes, the arch of her right foot, her heel, around her right ankle. Then his hands crept upward.

"Down boy."… "Brain, get off me."… "I said get off!"… "BRIAN, NO!"

"Of course, he was rather popular with the young women, if you don't mind me saying. I was always helping him sneak girls up to his room."

"Sarah?" Sarah jerked back to attention when Jareth said her name. The dull pain that once resided in her ankle was gone, replaced by a ruddy, golden glow.

"What did you say?" Sarah said blankly. Jareth gave her a curious stare.

"I asked you if you were all right now. Are you?" He repeated.

"Of course." Sarah lied. "Just tired, I guess."

"Then goodnight, darling." Jareth said, smiling sweetly.

"Goodnight." Sarah said quickly, crawling under the covers and closing her eyes, denying Jareth his parting kiss. Brow furrowed with confusion, Jareth conjured a little white box from the air, looked at it for a moment, and sighed, plainly exiting through the door, rather than his usual dramatics.

***

Sarah woke up in an uneasy mood, after a night filled with dreams of violent rebellions and a certain ex-boyfriend… She tried to shake off her bad mood, humming softly to herself and dressing in the gown that had been provided for her (pink, of course. Someone around here was certainly in love with the color pink.)

Trying to decide whether or not to venture out into the palace by herself, the question was answered for her by a knock at the door. Swinging the door open she found Jareth, white rose in hand, and being followed by a bumbling goblin.

"P-p-prince, don't you think it m-m-might be a nice gesture on your part?"

"No." Jareth said flatly, waving away the proffered pair of gloves. "Now run along or I'll throw you…Just run along." He concluded, after catching a stern look from Sarah.

"Hello love."

"Hi." Sarah said softly, turning her head slightly so his kiss landed on her cheek. Jareth frowned, but decided to worry about it later, as they were expected for breakfast. Sarah did, after all, take his arm when he offered it. Perhaps she was still rather uncomfortable in the court.

"So when are all these formalities over? We can't stay here forever, you know." Sarah said. It was clear that she was worried about the condition of the Labyrinth.

"Tomorrow night will be the last of it, some grand ball or other. My parents throw balls every time someone sneezes, so we're actually getting off rather easy." Jareth replied casually, trying to casually rest her fears.

Sarah sat between Jareth and Jen again, the latter keeping her occupied with rather embarrassing but highly comical stories of Jareth's childhood, while the former conversed with his father in hushed tones, most likely about Abien.

At the end of the meal, Dantriven rose, and called everyone to attention by shooting sparks out of his fingertips. Jareth, Jen, Dantriven, and all the other members of something called "the Council" went into a separate room to begin discussions, though Jareth told Sarah that it would most likely be no more than arguments over Abien's general character. At any rate, Sarah was left alone, and to her great dislike, was immediately confronted by Kira and Queen Clarisse.

"Hello, Sarah. It's so nice we finally have a chance for a little girl talk." Clarisse said, in a softer, gentler tone than Sarah was used to hearing from her.

"Yes, a little girl talk." Kira echoed.

"What do you want to talk about?" Sarah tried to be polite, though she really wanted to yell at them to stop staring at her as though she had grown a few extra arms.

"Well, we were wondering if you would confirm a rumor for us, dear. You see, we are simply dying of curiosity." Clarisse continued.

"Yes, we were oh-so curious." Sarah began to wonder if Kira was anything more that a parrot in disguise.

"Is it true that you defeated Prince Jareth's Labyrinth?" Sarah glanced around, realizing that all of the ladies in the room (for it was only the ladies that were left), were staring at her as well, waiting for her answer with baited breath.

"Yes, I guess I did." Sarah didn't really see what the big deal was. Sure, the Labyrinth was dangerous and all, but if a silly, whiny little girl could beat it, couldn't anyone?

Kira had turned several shades of red by this point, ending on a rather nasty shade of maroon, when Clarisse blurted out a question with a surprising lack of dignity.

"So have you set a date?"

Sarah spat her wine across the table.

"Excuse me?" She managed, ignoring the abashed looks coming from all around her.

"A date, dear." Said the Queen, her face a mixture of concern and confusion. "For the wedding."

"Pardon me for a moment, will you?" Sarah garbled, rising from her seat as calmly as possible, and knocking on the closed door of the meeting room across the hall.

"Jareth?" Sarah asked sweetly as the doors swung open of their own accord. "Can I see you for a moment?"

Jareth knew in an instant that this was something important. It could have been the way Sarah's eyes sparked with a certain flame of anger. Or it could have been the way she stood, arms on hips in a very no-nonsense manner. Or it could have been the way she took him by the sleeve of his shirt and dragged him out of the meeting room and through the first door she saw, which happened to be a broom closet.

The rest of the lords and ladies exchanged glances for a moment, before scurrying up to the closet door, to eavesdrop alongside some well-meaning servants.

***

"Jareth, why does your mother think we're getting married?" Sarah demanded, slamming the door behind them.

"Possibly because I told her we were."

"You did what?!!" Jareth could already tell that this conversation was not going the way he wanted it to. "Presumptuous bastard!" No, definitely not.

"Sarah, please, you don't understand –"

"No, you're the one that doesn't understand. Were you even going to ask me? Did you think I would just giggle like a schoolgirl and let you sweep me over the thresh hold? I don't know about here, but Aboveground marriage is a big deal. Just who the hell do you think you are? Gods, I thought you were different. I thought I had found the one guy out there that wasn't sex-obsessed and generally moronic. But you – you are just like them." Sarah had cornered him against the back wall of the small but relatively empty closet, poking him sharply on the chest with one finger.

"Sarah," Jareth said softly, pleadingly, "Sarah, wait, please and let me explain." Some of the color returned to his white face as she waited expectantly. Her hand still rested on his chest, and she could feel each shaky breath he took.

"When I was but a toddler, my father arranged a marriage between Kira and I. A great business deal, he called it. I had nothing against it… until I actually met her. I was a teenager when I first saw her, all dressed up in meaningless finery. Her father, some ambassador or another, was trying to cover up what she was lacking."

On the other side of the door, all of Kira's bright red color faded from her face, settling into a ghastly white. Jareth carried on, either unaware or uninterested in his audience.

"What has this got to do with –" Jareth gently pressed two fingers against Sarah's lips, and continued.

"Kira was beautiful enough, to be sure, but she was dull. I couldn't hold a conversation with her, couldn't argue with her, couldn't read to her, couldn't sit and watch the stars with her. She wasn't you."

"I wasn't even alive then." Sarah pointed out.

"Doesn't matter. I could feel that there was someone special out there, somewhere, and that it wasn't Kira."

Somewhere along the way, Sarah's anger had gotten lost, and now she only felt sympathy, and a little curiosity. "So what did you do?" She asked softly.

"It is a relatively common tradition that if someone is to marry into a royal fae family, they must prove their worth. In the old days it was easier, there was always some dragon to subdue or a jewel to retrieve. My father decided these methods were rather archaic, so Jen helped me convince him to allow me to create a test myself."

Dantriven snorted under his breath, his ear pressed up against the door. "He's going to make it sound as though this mess is my fault." He sighed, feeling the old pains being brought to the surface again.

"The Labyrinth." Sarah whispered.

"Exactly. She had thirteen hours to find her way to the center of the maze, to me. I'd built it myself, though there was no castle, nor any goblins or other creatures. Not yet."

"Did she loose?" Sarah asked, already knowing the answer.

"Of course. I designed to be far too hard for her to defeat. In fact, I made it so hard that probably no one would ever be able to find their way through, and certainly not in thirteen hours. But that was not the worst of it. There is a very steep penalty for loosing." Sarah stared up on him, the question in her eyes. "Kira owed me her first born child.

"My father instantly caught on to the scheme I had made. So he issued a proclamation. My bride could only be one who could defeat my Labyrinth. I was outraged! I had created the damned thing to be impossible, I had no idea it would come to this. When Kira's child arrived, I was in such a rage that I –"

"You turned it into a goblin." Sarah finished for him.

"Yes." Jareth confirmed, a smiling sadly. "And such was the new penalty. Hundreds of noblewomen tried, and they all lost. Some never even made it through the front gates. My father banished me to my hell, to be king over the subjects I never wanted. The story changed over time, and soon I was known as a kidnapper, and taker of unwanted children.

"But then," Jareth said, his eyes brightening, "then, my love, I saw you. Playing in the park, reciting from a play written by one of the unfortunate mortals I had to visit. I was only trying to escape my hell, my eternal grave, when I stumbled upon the light of my life."

"Jareth, stop being sentimental and finish the story." Sarah demanded, blushing a little.

"I didn't want you to say the words."

"What? Why??"

"Because. I didn't want to have to take you away to the Labyrinth. I didn't want you to know me as the role I had to play, as the Goblin King. I was afraid you would loose, like all the others."

"Did you cheat for me?"

"No. Certainly not. A little, perhaps. But you won Sarah. I should have known you would. I wanted you too. Even if it meant loosing you. I thought I had lost you, until that night a few weeks ago."

"So, am I the first person that ever defeated the Labyrinth?"

"Yes, darling."

"And thereby your fiancée?" Sarah asked, eyebrows raised.

"This wasn't at all how I wanted you to find out."

"That's okay." Sarah said softly, taking Jareth's hand and moving toward the closet door. "Let's go back out to the sunlight."

The crowd of fae disappeared as the door swung open, leaving behind them a remarkably large pile of glitter.

***

And a big round of applause goes to:

Jessica (woah, Brian and Abien the same person? Wow. Kind of wishing I had thought of that before I started writing. Damn), A Midsummer Night's Dreamer (If you liked the fae court, wait until the ball…), Demeter (I'M WRITING AS FAST AS I CAN, I'M WRITING AS FAST AS I CAN, I'M WRITING AS FAST AS I CAN…), Pix (and here I thought I was being slow), Dawn (thank you, and I have to ask… more accidental encounters? Yes???), Tellergirl, Michiru, Kitty Hikaru (any encouragement works), Lauralye (as always, you figure all my secrets out. How am I supposed to surprise you? Btw, I'm really liking your story so far…more? As in, more now, before I go insane trying to guess what will happen next. Of course, I already am insane, so that isn't saying much…), Tiisis (getting very,very excited for illustrations), Angelhereal (spreading the word? Wow, now I feel like a celebrity), Jania (I love the Bond movies. And they're so fun to make fun of), Xelena (yeah, Abien, Dantriven, and Jareth are my three kings *starts humming christmas carols*), Firebrand (no more school! Now I can actually write!), Raine_Faerie, Lisa (schools out, schools out *happy little jig*), Kappy (You cheated! All right, 10 bonus points and a cookie), Truth (now you can read the rest in handy, bite-sized portions), Jaded, Violetskyknights, Lime (you're very perseptive. Brian = not a guy you want to run into in a dark alley, and pronuciation: Dan-treh-vin and *the letter* A-*the letter* B-*the letter* N), Seeking Serenity (you win for the most reviews so far), Star Bunny, Jazzofborg (you can bet that if there's trouble, Abien's involved), Melissa Davis (Gods, you make my day!), Jennifer (yeah, it was hard to right, I have a baby sister too), Chloe (don't worry, I can't stop. I have to get this plot bunny out of my head before I go insane), Dilandra (here's hoping my story continues to make sense…), Archaic Tears (now that schools out I'm trying to post once a week.), Sarah Beth, Danalas, Seiya's Odango, Lady Shiva, Unicorn Lady (happy to know you read my story close enough to quote it), Jareth&Sarah4ever (the first to win 50 bonus points. Congrats!), Goblynn, L (L?? Is there more of a name with that? 50 bp to the mysterious person on the right), Silver Space, Rainbow (you still got it right, 50 bp!), Lady Guinevere (very nice, 50 points to you), Sunshyne, Genavieve (50 bonus points), Gothangelic (50 bp for you), Alisa, Morgan (I'm glad you found me).