Just a note: I don't own Labyrinth or any of the characters. Besides, even if I was sued, I only have a few bucks in my wallet anyway.
Have fun!
Ladymage Samiko ;)
To the Victor Go the Spoils ~ Part 2
Hungry?
Sarah made herself a quick breakfast and ate it before a belated idea and an irritating sense of courtesy got the better of her. She ran up to her room and opened the door to find the Goblin King sitting at her window. She had to admit, she had more or less expected him to be gone.
"Um," she began nervously. "Um, Jareth? Are you hungry?" He looked surprised. Sarah wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing.
"You know," he commented thoughtfully, "Fae don't usually get hungry. But now that you ask, I'm starved." He smiled brilliantly. Sarah blinked.
"Uh, okay. Well, I guess you can come on down, then. My parents are gone for the day--"
"Leaving you to deal with that brat next door and a load of housework, too, I would wager." He sounded almost angry, she thought.
"How did you--?"
"My dear Sarah," he interrupted smoothly, "you should know I've been watching you for quite some time. And your 'parents' are very predictable people."
"Oh. Well, are you coming or not?" Sarah turned and ran down the stairs before the implications of "watching" could fully hit her. "What do you want to eat?" she called back up as Jareth made his more sober progress to the kitchen.
"I,uh..." Was that red on his cheeks?
"You have five seconds, Jareth, before the kitchen closes."
"I don't suppose you would have a hamburger lying around anywhere, would you?" The Goblin King was definitely blushing as the words came tumbling out of his mouth.
"A hamburger!?"
"Look," he said defensively. "Do you know how hard it is to get beef in the Underground? I mean, honest to goodness, real Grade A beef? It's impossible! I can't even be sure that what I get might possibly have been beef at some point in its lifetime! So just tell me, Sarah, is there a place I can get a hamburger with everything on it?"
She stared at him, slack-jawed. A Fae King, ruler of the entire Underground, Lord You-Play-By-My-Rules, was practically begging for a plain, old-fashioned hamburger. Sarah felt this was something she could use to her advantage. But how?
Blinking back into focus, she realized she already had used it. Her pause was starting to (figuratively) make him sweat. He looked at her pleadingly.
"I'll make you a deal," she said finally. Jareth looked dubious. "I tell you where, you get us there. I buy you the burger, you tell me everything--and I mean everything--about why you're here and what my being Queen means."
He looked relieved--and somewhat admiring. "That's the girl I know! It's a deal."
Sarah checked on Toby, who looked to be sleeping, then directed him to a small restaurant far enough from where she lived that she wouldn't be recognized. After all, walking around with an older man wearing extremely tight breeches, lace, and hair that would put every 80s pop star to shame wasn't exactly good for her reputation. What exactly it would do to it, Sarah wasn't sure, but it probably wouldn't be good.
Jareth watched their hamburgers arrive with near worship on his face. Still, Sarah noticed, he ate with impeccable manners. Shrugging, she applied herself to her own meal.
The man finished, looking undeniably satisfied and customarily smug. "Do you know," he commented, "that the last burger I had was forty years ago?"
Sarah blinked. "I'm not surprised," she answered. "Given your castle and your servants, I'm surprised you would anything in the Underground!"
"True," he mused. "Having those filthy little buggers roaming around the floor does tend to ruin one's appetite. Well!" he continued, rising smoothly from his chair. "Shall we go have that little discussion you wanted?"
She nodded and tossed a few bills on the table. Jareth didn't appear to do anything, but the two immediately found themselves back in Sarah's kitchen. The girl gestured to the table and chairs next to them. "All right. Let's hear the full truth, Jareth, if you can."
The conversation was long and involuted, with quite a few complicated points that took Sarah some time to decipher, especially given the Goblin King's method of exposition. The important points were:
1) By defeating Jareth, Sarah had won a type of Fae "duel," for lack of a better term.
2) She had proven herself, thereby, "superior" to the Goblin King and now became his Overlord, as well as a subject of the High Fae.
3) She had, by default, been given certain Fae powers.
4) She was now acting Goblin Queen, unless she chose to reinstate Jareth in the position.
5) If she did, she had the power to revoke his position at any time, unless she made it a binding contract, which he would have to break to be taken from power.
6) She could not fault Jareth if he "misinterpreted" her orders. In other words, if he twisted her orders to suit himself, she couldn't do anything to him unless it was a against her exact words.
7) There were some things even an Overlord didn't mess with.
"Okay," Sarah concluded. "So, basically, we're working on a feudal system here, where I can give you power under certain conditions and you're bound to do as I say. Of course, I know if you can find a loop hole in my orders, you will, so I have to make any order I give you as clear as I possibly can, otherwise, I'll end up with goblins overrunning the city and my entire family in the Bog of Eternal Stench." She looked at him dubiously as he lounged comfortably in the wooden chair. Maybe she should just send him back to the Underground with a few new stipulations and be done with it. Keeping the Goblin King, er, Jareth here would be like living with a case of dynamite next to the kitchen stove. No, Sarah decided firmly. Jareth had put her through hell since she first met him. He could damn well stand to do a few things while he was here to make up for it. Yes, she was about to be mean, petty, and spiteful. It was going to be heaven.
"All right. First things first. This place has to be clean for tonight. You can help," she announced.
"Just what I was about to suggest," he replied smoothly. Sarah tossed him a small bundle.
"You, Jareth, will now wash the dishes in the kitchen sink." She strode out of the kitchen. "I'll be cleaning the living room if you have any questions!" she called back.
The former Goblin King blinked at the apron and dish towel in his hands. "That was not how I was going to do it," he told them.
