Disclaimer: I do not own or stake any claim to the Labyrinth or any of its characters, nope not one bit of it. They belong to the Henson Company.
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A love that will last
She came to sit, to read, to ponder, but these were all excuses. She knew Jareth came here as well, she didn't bother with 'why's or 'how's, but accepted the simple knowledge of this fact. It was now her move in this game. Though such matters shouldn't be considered games, she came to the full realization that this was her own creation. The game had begun years go, on a day much like today, with silvery clouds overhead, gathering and churning in an invisible turbulence. She pondered the girl she'd been who came here often to carry on with her silly dreaming. She snorted silently, remembering that he, too, had been here those times, though at the time she couldn't have known he was anything more than what he appeared. That was one of the many lessons she'd learned, things were not always as they appeared.
Sarah looked up at the sky as it rumbled in warning, to which she paid no heed.
Memories of that tragic night inundated her mind, the story she'd told the wailing infant, not even mindful of her own words. Her own words, she thought. Certain phrases came to mind, '...had fallen in love with the girl...', '...given her certain powers...'. Like a bolt the words struck her heart at the realization of the daft fool that child had been!
"Oh what power you have over me, over my heart", she gasped softly. She pretended to say it to the wind, though she knew he was near. She simply knew.
The sky was considerably darker now, the clouds filtering out much of the midday sunlight.
Sarah continued with her thoughts: It was her own foolishness, as she now understood the purpose of those 'certain powers', which he had certainly not intended for wishing away screaming babies. Go back to your room, Sarah, you've missed the point. He had done nothing to her that she hadn't asked for. As often as she used to protest and complain about nothing being fair, it was Jareth who'd been dealt the cruel blow of injustice. The arrogant, prideful and insensitive king had his tables turned on him and fallen in love with a wide-eyed, innocent, young girl.
As lightning assailed the landscape behind her, Sarah turned with a gasp, her eyes instead seeing him. No longer any pretense, here was Jareth the man, not the owl. Stoic and solemn, yet his eyes were searching. Full circle. The full spectrum of their torrent relationship hovered in the palpable silence between them. Dream to adversary, now each other's very breath, and they knew it, no denials.
"Sarah, beware..." he started, his voice trailing off. He might have given her another one of his shallow threats about his cruelty, but he couldn't threaten her anymore, that was a façade he discarded long ago. Sarah, beware, he thought, I am not without a heart as well.
The pain belies the endurance of the dream. A silly girl's silly dream was standing (inches) before her. One could cry at the insanity of it!
They stood that way for several minutes, though it could have been hours.
As the storm crescendoed around them, the sky opened up. The deep, cleansing rain washed away the pain, the past, and the world around them. Sarah was crying, but it couldn't have been known in that rain, the same rain that mercifully hid Jareth's own tears as well. They found themselves smiling, smiles that broke into laughter as the rain drenched their hair, their faces, her sensibility and his pride. Strangers... 'til now.
Shaking off the cold brutality of that sensibility, she held out her hand and he gave her his heart.