"Citizens and Guests, you have been gathered here today to witness the formal binding of your King to his chosen mate."
Jareth sighed impatiently and wished that the old goblin would hurry up. The Underground did not have priests- not following any religion as such- and so the celebrants for marriage were usually the head of a household or someone of great authority. As the King, Jareth was really the highest authority in the land, so he had asked his father's adviser to conduct the ceremony for him. He himself had done this often enough, and was well aware of the formal introductions that needed to be made. But he still wished the old goblin would hurry up.
"Sire," someone hissed.
Snapping out of his mental ramblings, he blinked at the expectant look on the goblin's face. "Oh." he stepped forward and ignored the sniggers he could swear Archer was indulging in at his side: "I do swear that I consent to this binding. It has my permission and is my conscious desire. All here bear witness to it."
The Celebrant nodded and Jareth sighed inwardly. Toby's turn now.
The mortal shot a panicked look at his soon-to-be husband from his corner of the low platform and twisted his fingers restlessly by his side. Jareth gave an unsympathetic smirk and turned a mock serious regard back to the Celebrant, who was well aware of the playfulness of the two before him and enjoying it quite as much as Jareth was.
Toby, unlike his counter-part in this ceremony, was ready when his cue came. Now if only he could remember what exactly he had to say: "I do swear that I consent to this binding. It, uh, has my- my permission and is my desire. All here bear witness to it."
He let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding and gave a small grin. Jareth didn't exactly smile back, but the look in his eyes was good enough.
The two were then asked to come to the middle and stand together. They did so, seemingly unconcerned but with identical glances of worry at each other. Jareth had explained what the next step involved and he had hunted through his books for two nights to find another way to obtain the desired result but nothing had been forthcoming. Toby was about to confront something he really wished he didn't have to; and Jareth only hoped that the boy was strong enough for it.
"Hold out your right hands, please. Thank you. Your Majesty, do you have an aide here present?"
"I do," Jareth nodded, beckoning Archer with a simple look. The fairy instantly stepped forward and pulled an ancient jewelled dagger from the beautifully wrought leather sheath at his side. Toby shivered and Jareth took his hand in a firm grip as he took the knife and positioned it over his palm.
Moving quickly, he put a shallow cut in the soft flesh. Toby flinched and tugged a little to draw his hand back, but Jareth wouldn't let him and he steadied himself. He made a silent vow to throw every knife in the near vicinity out the window when the day was done.
But the worst had not happened yet. Jareth handed him the dagger and held out his own hand. Toby looked from the wickedly sharp edges to the delicate white skin. Flashes of what had happened the last time he had held a knife raced through his mind, accompanied by a pair of evil dark eyes and the suffusing sense of shame and helpless rage. He took a step back and almost dropped the instrument, the gathered crowd of nobles and Ivory Tower humans gasping behind him in shock.
Jareth could have cared less about the shocked nobles and the humans from the Ivory Tower; he knew what was going on beneath that golden hair. He could only imagine what memories the singular touch of a knife might bring from the shadowy trauma that Toby refused to talk about even with him.
"Your Majesty, is everything all right?" the old goblin asked, concerned and not a little suspicious.
Jareth held up a hand for silence and simply waited. "Toby, we can stop now if that is what you want."
"The knife..."
"You have my permission for this, my elf. You won't hurt me, I promise you," the Goblin King murmured, "Come here."
Toby came willingly enough, letting himself be wrapped in a gentle embrace even while his senses screamed at him to make Jareth stop. The Goblin King was dooming himself, he knew. No one touched him but was poisoned; no one should have to touch him. He should have died.
"Take your time," Jareth whispered.
Toby laid his head against a safe shoulder and wished that he had the strength for this. Strength... what was it that Jareth had said about strength?
"After the ceremony, the bond will strengthen to the maximum. We will share emotions and awareness, perhaps even thoughts. And I will have your strength, my elf, for those times when I have not the heart to do what needs to be done."
Which was all well and good, but Toby knew that Jareth was the strong one. After all, he kept breaking down while Jareth was patience itself with helping him stay sane. Just look at how he was embarrassing him even in front of his entire Kingdom!
"I'm okay," Toby sighed, "Let's get on with it, hmmm? I'm okay now."
Jareth held him at arms' length and ran a trained eye over his face. "Are you sure?"
"Perfectly. Now give me your hand and stop wasting time," Toby grinned.
Jareth chuckled, but obliged him, nodding to a very relieved Celebrant that the binding would go ahead as planned. The dagger was a little unsteady against his hand, and it hovered for two breathes too long, but Toby was very certain when he made the shallow cut.
Toby made a slight sound of disbelief in his throat at the sight of the blood, but Jareth quickly took the knife from him and gave it back to Archer. He sent a speaking look of thanks to his cousin and received a congratulatory smile in return.
The old goblin took a cut palm in each hand and looked sharply from one to the other. That the blood was flowing was fine, but the incisions needed to be deep enough for this step. It could create all sorts of problems if it didn't go as planned. But the tears in the flesh were fine. Jareth's was a little ragged on one corner but with the squeamishness displayed by the human, it was only to be expected.
He let them go with a satisfied nod. Smiling and looking from one to the other, he then bade them clasp hands and mingle blood.
Toby could have sworn that he could actually feel Jareth's blood flowing into his body, and it felt like the most amazing euphoria of his life. Similarly he heard Jareth give a soft gasp and saw his eyelashes flutter closed for a moment.
A whisper of approving murmurs filled the room behind them, as the witnessing nobles and Underground humans signalled their delight at the romance of the situation. It made Toby blush and Jareth smile as their awareness returned. Jareth looked to Toby's family, watchful in case he met disapproval in their eyes. But Karen was slightly tear-dampened and Harold was stiff but not forbidding. Whatever Jareth had said to him in the privacy of his library the night before had evidently borne fruit; the man was resigned to his son being, as he called it, someone's wife.
But the formal binding was not over yet. The Celebrant signalled to the guards around the room to close the curtains and light the numerous sconces of candles.
Semi-darkness was another bad hurdle as far as Toby was concerned, one that Jareth had not considered. He could see the fear begin to widen the blue eyes, and the faltering tremble in the small hands. Working swiftly, he took Toby by the arm and nodded to the Celebrant.
The goblin waved a hand and murmured a string of harsh calls to the magic around them, reaching out a hand to curl into the air around the apprehensive mortal. Archer spared Toby a wince of sympathy. He could well imagine how terrifying it would be for someone who wasn't used to such things.
Toby locked his eyes firmly with the Goblin King's, refusing to let himself fall backwards into fear. It was his wedding, damn it! And he'd make sure it was completed, never mind horrible prickly feelings all over his skin. And then he stared and looked down.
"What the hell?" he gasped.
"I did tell you that your aura would be called upon," Jareth reminded him, "Do try not to forget everything in the heat of the moment."
Toby glared at him but smiled, relaxing as his fears were laid to rest for the moment. He looked down again with not a little interest in the blue threads of glowing light that wrapped around himself. It showed up even more considering that it was a lighter blue than his coat. He traced one of the threads on his shoulder and shivered as it sent an erotic sparkle through his nerves.
"Sire?"
Jareth tore his eyes from Toby's heavy-lidded eyes and blinked at the smirking Celebrant. He brought his own aura up to the surface himself, knowing how to control it. The silver threads were already reaching out to twine with the eager blue ones between them. The bond was still strong evidently, and gaining in strength by the minute.
He waited for a few minutes as the Celebrant addressed a few quick words to the witnesses and spoke the lines of blessing on the union. Then, reaching his cue, he picked one of the silver lights off his chest and guided it with his fingertips to his bond mate's heart. It would hurt Toby for a moment, he knew, but the pain would be worth it.
"From my heart to yours," he promised softly.
Toby bit his lip as the silver burrowed into him, slipping past cloth and flesh to infiltrate his blood and his soul. The world spun on its axis for a moment and then stopped with deathly stillness as the numbness seeped away. Filled with the most profound sense of being loved, he almost stumbled, but righted himself with a hand out to stop Jareth from touching him.
It was like a drugging haze that magnified everything. He could see patterns now; everything was brighter than it had ever been before. People were brighter, as if glowing with their own personal light- something he'd never noticed before this.
Taking a deep breath, he willed a strand to be solid to his touch and held it to Jareth's heart in a mirror image of the half-goblin.
"From my heart to yours," he echoed.
Jareth held his breath against the quick sting of the liking, but the pain was almost instantly eradicated by a sudden surge of feeling. He could feel his bond mate, feel everything that his bond mate felt and understand it.
The rest of the world could have crashed and burned around them at that moment, but they would have remained oblivious. Archer hid a smile behind his hand at the first purely honest look he'd ever seen on his cousin's face. Brown eyes narrowed in speculation at the look on the mortal's face, however, and darkened slightly with sadness.
Jareth saw Toby open his mouth and then shut it again, his words unspoken. The connection between them was humming with emotion and in his heart he knew it was happiness. It had to be; there was nothing else left to them at that moment. So he did the only thing he could- he took the mortal in his arms and brought his lips down as a healing gift. Toby accepted hungrily, sighing slightly as feeling poured right through him.
A lady somewhere gave a loud sob and a goblin guard flicked away a tear. Sarah was clinging to Ben's arm and Harold tightened his grip on Karen's hand as she tried to stop her mascara from running. The Celebrant stepped away respectfully to stand beside Archer, leaving the newly bound couple on their own.
Toby broke away first and rested his heated brow against Jareth's shoulder for a minute before nodding to a whispered question. Jareth wrapped an arm around his elf's shoulders and turned to lead him out. The sight of his audience stopped him for a moment.
"All present here have borne witness," he said clearly, the words echoing around the stone chamber, "This man has my love, my life and my soul. There shall be no parting us."
The witnesses kept silent, sensing the raw emotion in the deep voice. The two exited, holding a soft conversation under their breathes that none but the two of them could hear. And the room held respectful stillness until they were gone.
Sarah let out a deep breath as the nobles began to make their way from the room. The little knot of Aboveground humans were left to their own devises, being foreign and rather condescended to in spite of Jareth's express threats against any who showed them discourtesy.
Ben slipped his arm around his wife's shoulder and hugged her gently. "So now what," he asked, "Where are we supposed to go from here?"
"The ballroom," Archer answered, coming up behind them. The dagger was tucked discreetly back into its sheath on his belt. "Tradition dictates a celebration for all the witnesses. The entire Kingdom will be drinking until dawn."
Everyone looked up at the clusters of crystals that floated around the place like little soap bubbles. Jareth had explained that a Goblin King's formal binding was of necessity witnessed by all his people, which meant that the crystals were links to every household in the country.
Archer sighed and ushered them out, leading them without words down the corridor to a door with an elaborately carved question mark on it. Sarah almost expected the bird perched on a vine to start to sing. "This door opens to whatsoever room you desire to entire," the Fairy Lord explained, inviting them through it with a courtly bow, "Convenient for when one is playing games as a child."
Sarah couldn't imagine Jareth ever being a child. Especially not with those eyes; they were far too knowing. It was almost as if the Goblin King had always known the ways of the world even before his conception.
Following Karen's lead, Sarah was a little self-conscious to be standing in the room with the humans of the Underground- all Jareth's Wished-aways, apparently; the humans were the ones who had also been sucked into her dream dance with the Goblin King. They were every bit as raucous and wild as she remembered them, sweeping around with beautiful clothes and shallow smiles. Jareth kept them physically well and let them steep in their own vices in the Ivory Tower. It was rather sad, when one thought about it. She recognized the aging face of a woman with beautiful red hair curling around her face, full red lips pulling into a slight smile as the lady nodded sweetly to her and then danced away with her partner.
Jareth and Toby were talking to about four young goblins that were only up to Toby's waist, looking down and smiling. But Toby excused himself and bounded to them, shining like the sun he was supposed to represent and grinning like the elf Jareth accused him of being.
"Family!" he cried, launching himself at them, "I wondered where you'd got to."
Karen hugged him back, laughing as the youth he seemed to have lost made a brief reappearance. "We got lost in your Castle, dear. Sorry we took so long."
"It isn't my Castle, mom," Toby protested, "I haven't agreed to co-rule, you know. I'm just his husband. They only call me Lord out of respect. But I don't think it's my Castle."
"Yes, it is," Karen insisted, tucking a loose strand of golden hair behind an ear, "You are his mate, now. What he has is yours whether you accept it or not. And don't you take anything less!"
Toby smiled at that. "I won't," he promised, "Hey, Sarah, Ben; glad you could come."
"As if we'd miss it," Sarah quipped, "I mean, what? My baby brother just got married or bound or what-have-you to the Goblin King!"
"You keep saying that," Toby grinned, "And oh, God, yes! I just got married, didn't I? But it... I can't explain it but it feels like so much more. I can't describe it."
Harold clapped his son on the shoulder and nodded behind him. "We hope you two will have a good life together, Toby. But I think you will."
An arm slipped around the tiny waist, pulling him close to Jareth's side as the half-goblin took his place with possessive enjoyment. Toby came very close to rolling his eyes but didn't, stifling it and sticking his tongue out at Ben's humorous grin.
But apart from the blatant caress, the Goblin King's face was bland and controlled. Holding one hand out to Harold and keeping the other exactly where it was. "Thank you," he said simply, "I believe we will."
"Congratulations, Jareth," Sarah teased, "You've finally got exactly what you've always wanted- my baby brother. And now he really will be one of you forever. Happy?"
"Ecstatic," Jareth retorted, "While I am glad you could make it, you must excuse us. The first dance is traditionally to be opened by us. Perhaps you'll join in?"
Toby twinkled back at them but followed his husband happily enough. Until a thought struck him- "We're dancing together? Two guys are going to slow dance? Why haven't you mentioned dancing before and who's the girl?"
Jareth sent a mocking glace down his slight partner and smirked wickedly. "Just follow my lead," he murmured, swinging Toby into his arms and firmly taking the lead.
"Why do I have to be the girl?"
"You're not. But I am leading. Therefore you have to follow."
"Well, why can't I lead?"
"Do you not think that it would look strange if the Goblin King were to be led around the dance floor by his shorter- need I add mortal- partner?"
Toby growled a warning, but it passed as Jareth threw back his head and laughed at the righteous indignation. The half-goblin pulled his bond mate closer and nuzzled lightly at his ear, bringing a very amusing blush to the mortal's face. After that, there was no chance that he would stop dancing. Every so often he would stop to speak with his guests and every so often they would part ways and go to separate sides of the room to talk to separate people. But eventually, they always gravitated back to each other, whether they meant to or not.
Toby found it freeing to be able to take Jareth's hand in public or to find a white hand take gentle hold of his shoulder; and the emotions that pulsed through the both of them were enough to make his head swim. He knew Jareth could feel his giddiness, and he in his turn could feel Jareth's steadying sensitivities. After all, the King could not do and say whatever he wanted whenever he wanted, even if that King was Jareth. There were certain boundaries to be preserved and for Jareth's sake he preserved them.
Jareth, for his part, was not aware of any restrictions he was imposing. But then he did feel rather much older than his bond mate who was a study in childish good humour and mature grace. Relaxing with an old gentleman from his father's reign, he enjoyed a 'proper' argument peppered with juvenile name-calling and frequent expletives. It only ended when Toby breezed past them, stopped, listened to the point in question and remarked that the argument was ridiculous all things considered, after which he breezed away again. The crusty old man had chuckled and promised one day he'd get the better of 'that little boy'.
Wine and food circulated all evening on golden trays, carefully fluted crystal glasses raised numerous times in ever more sordid salutations to the formally bound couple. Jareth simply laughed them off, replying in kind to most of them but managing to deflect the attention with a few skilled sentences.
Karen and Harold found themselves taken in hand by a young goblin noblewoman called Cornelia and introduced to everything. She told them all about Jareth- most of which no parent should ever have told them when their child was involved- and related all the gossip of the Goblin Court. By the time Karen stood up to dance with Archer, she was sending the unaware Goblin King some very searching looks.
"Is your cousin quite sane?" she asked bluntly.
Archer looked a little nonplussed, but repressed a laugh at her distasteful face. "I think he is, Mrs. Williams. However, I do not see him as much as I would like any more, so I may be mistaken."
Karen blinked but then relaxed and laughed ruefully. "I've just heard some rather dreadful things about him. Does he really lock all his human captives in an Ivory Tower in the middle of nowhere?"
"Well, yes," Archer acknowledged, trying to see where the problem lay, "They are wished to his care and he provides for them."
"By locking them in a Tower?" Karen was very dubious about the generosity of such a course of action. "Couldn't he give children to a family of some kind? Perhaps let the adults roam free?"
"Oh Gods, no! There are very few families that welcome unrelated mortals into their homes. Mortals are not held in high esteem, you know. It is the sole point that both goblin and fairy agree on. As for allowing them freedom, such a thing is simply not possible. The Labyrinth is not a friendly place. Even goblins do not traverse its pathways unless needful."
"Oh. Well, if it is to protect them," Karen agreed reluctantly, "But what about his- his affairs? Has he really been with so many men and women?"
"Naturally," Archer replied in surprise, "Jareth is four hundred and fifty one. He lives alone and, until Toby, had no other form of companionship. The Kingdom would have been worried if he had not had his mistresses."
Karen raised an arch eyebrow and leaned closer. "It's not his mistresses I'm worried about," she confided, "But I heard he was with a transvestite."
Archer stifled and laughed and directed their steps to a more private corner of the dance floor. He was enjoying himself, all things considered, and he couldn't wait until he brought this up with Jareth later on. "Henry was very popular," he explained, "Jareth was very lucky she chose him." The fairy Lord sounded as if such a thing was the most reasonable in the world. "In fact, she's here today. If you want to know- that is Henry."
Karen stopped to stare at an attractive woman sitting at the side of the room with a cluster of men around her. She was older than most of the young men at her side, but the skilful use of make-up hid a lot of the fine lines that Karen guessed at. The rich chestnut hair was coiled charmingly at the base of her slender neck, a few select curls falling around her face and onto her bare shoulders. The creature looked every bit a lady, with a sweet smile but a palpably sexual air. But on closer inspection, the hands were too broad and the features a little too masculine.
"Henry was Jareth's first lover, I believe," Archer murmured, unable to help stoking the fires, "That's right! He was eighteen. His father was not very happy about it, I remember. It took all Jareth's persuasion to smooth the matter satisfactorily." Archer spared a thought to such simple times. Times without mortals and bond mates. Times that were easy and fluid and needed nothing but companionship.
"And he- she- slept in the Castle?"
"Of course. Do not humans do the same?"
For which Archer was treated to a short, pithy lecture on the morality of humans and how they do not- and Karen was emphatic with the 'not'- keep mistresses or transvestites in such a public manner. Lovers were fine; but no man would keep a woman at his family home... or even a man if he bent that way. Archer sat back and enjoyed himself.
Toby managed to get away once people stopped making embarrassing remarks to him. He had even managed to get away from a woman from the Ivory Tower who wanted to know if Jareth still did that wonderful thing with his fingers, to which he'd evaded the issue and asked about the style of her hair. Sarah eventually found him still perched in the window seat, a dreamy expression on his face and his gaze pitched somewhere amongst the dancers where his husband was being the good host he hated being. She stood to the side for a few minutes and watched him think.
Toby shivered when he thought back to that dark evening in the park. He had fought that evening, refusing to simply give in and let it happen. It had cost him dearly, more dearly than he liked to think. Being raped had seemed almost an afterthought to him. Everything after the beating had seemed so. Until his final torment...
He shivered again. It had been like waking from a nightmare to see his Goblin King singing softly above him. And was that why he loved him?
Toby couldn't be sure. But he was certain that it had started years before, when a Goblin King had sat a mortal infant on his lap and played with him. He'd always loved him; he knew that now. No one else had even stood a chance! Which was why Elaine hadn't worked. That was also why he had fought so hard against it- having grown up believing it was wrong, he simply couldn't put himself in the hands of someone he'd never heard was any good. But then Jareth had saved him. Time and again, he'd held him safe. He'd made him feel worthwhile. And he'd shown him love like Toby had never thought to know.
"Are you done moping in a corner?"
"Hey, Sarah. Don't you have someone else to bother?"
She pulled his ponytail and whacked his knee. "Don't be rude to your older and infinitely wiser sister. I just wanted to get you while I still could. Listen, I know you've already said the 'I do's' and whatever, but you're sure, right? This is what you want?"
Toby touched the spot on his chest that still ached slightly from the binding. "Yeah. Couldn't live my life if it wasn't with him."
"It sounds kind of funny to hear you say that," Sarah sighed, "Especially considering what's happened to you in the past six months."
Toby flinched. He didn't want to think about any of that, especially not when he was facing another terrifying ordeal- his wedding night. True, they had discussed it and Jareth had simply told him that they would just go to sleep, seeing as how the couple were usually too tired to do more than that. Toby held his tongue, hoping Sarah would get the hint and drop the subject.
But Sarah was nothing if not persistent. And she needed him to think about this before anything else happened. "Toby, you were raped. Repeatedly. By someone who didn't care a damn about you. Jareth might not do that to you, but he's also no saint. And you're not exactly stable yet. Are you sure you can handle this?"
"I don't know," Toby answered slowly, "I just know when I'm not with him I can't breathe. Even if you don't believe me, the only person left in the world that it won't scare me to death to sleep with is Jareth. And not because it's not scary- it is- but because I desire it more than hate it."
"So you're saying you're really in love with him?"
"I think I always have been. I've just never told anyone that, least of all this Goblin King who I was told was a complete bastard." He gave his sister a dirty look. Sarah had the grace to look sheepish.
"So if you feel so great about tonight," she said mischievously, "I'm sure you'll be quite happy to know it's almost the eleventh hour."
Toby looked blankly at her.
"Gee, you're well informed! It's the custom here that at the eleventh hour, the newlyweds leave the celebrations for their bedroom with a very public send-off and a lot of very loud well-wishes. Sometimes people accompany them to their bed, but I don't think Jareth will let that happen."
"Public?"
"Very public."
"Oh hell!"
The clock struck and everyone turned to stare at the enormous clock that stood in the corner. Toby stared at it like a deer caught in the headlights of a particularly fast car. Once the last deep gong faded off into the silence, an enormous cheer went up. Crystals rained down from the ceiling, spilling jewellery and other expensive tokens amongst the guests.
Jareth came to retrieve his blushing partner with an apologetic smile. "I'm afraid it's tradition," he whispered.
"So is wedding cake but we didn't have that!"
"Have fun, you two," Sarah called, watching as they got to the centre of the room before they were mobbed. Toby had abandoned the deer-at-bay look for the look of a rabbit thrown in amongst ravenous foxes.
The Goblin King was a little more used to it and graciously nodded to everything everyone said and kept moving. Feeling Toby's distress through the newly established mental link, he neatly decided on a way to mover quicker without putting anyone out of spirits. He stopped, shrugged to his bond mate and then picked him up.
Toby almost had a heart attack on the spot. "What the hell are you doing?" he yelled in Jareth's ear, clinging to his husband for dear life, for if Jareth dropped him now, he'd get trampled on for sure.
"Relax, luv. It will be quicker," Jareth called back.
Someone said something particularly crude and Toby decided that he liked being up in Jareth's arms because he was in the perfect position to kick that someone 'by mistake' and apologize profusely without meaning a word of it.
Eventually they made it out of the crowd and through the door with the carved question mark. Jareth put his bond mate down and Toby ran for it, not stopping until he collapsed onto Jareth's bed with an audible huff. The bang of the door sounded especially loud.
"They're all gone," the mortal sighed, "Yes! God, listen to all that beautiful silence."
Jareth smiled and pulled him up on the bed, gently running a hand through the slightly curly gold hair. "Well?" he asked finally.
Blue eyes opened and looked at him, drowsy and halfway to sleep all ready. "I am far too sleepy," Toby muttered, "Can we go to sleep?"
"Why not?" Jareth grinned, still stroking the soft hair he adored so much, "Go to sleep. We have the rest of our lives to live tomorrow."