Author's Note: Merry Christmas if I don't get a chance to post the most important chapter up by Christmas Day. Happy New Year in case my computer goes bust again. And thank you to allmy fantastically kind reviewers who've taken the trouble to sit through four series' worth of this. I'm so honoured by all of your kind words and regards and I only hope this can end in a way that is satisfactory and fitting.

Author's Note 2: Only about three more chapters at most to go! And then entire fic will end!

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The walk to the nearest supermarket was nice, if a little silent. Jareth seemed perfectly content to walk next to his husband and look around him. Toby let him be for the most part, only interrupting his silence to point anything of interest out to him.

As for Toby, he was too nervous about this very public appearance back to the scene of his old life and spent far too much time wondering whether people recognized him. So far he had seen five people he knew and all of them had walked right passed him. It was very disconcerting. He had to admit that it had its advantages, however; it gave him a bit more time to work out how he would introduce his… husband, to his… old friends.

"In here?"

He looked up quickly. "Yeah. I'll get one of those basket thingies and we're there." He looked at the list his mom had pushed into his hand and reconsidered. "On second thoughts, let's get one each. Our arms will break if one of us tries to carry all of this at once."

That settled, they set off.

Jareth suppressed a smirk as Toby bit at his lip trying to read his mother's writing. The little fire-blond was so distracted, he crowed, did Toby really think that he couldn't read those thoughts. They didn't often use the connection, it was true, but it was there and neither of them kept that figurative door closed any more. And Toby never had learned to keep his thoughts to himself. They spilled over- or leaked- into Jareth's mind as regular as clockwork.

He knew exactly what Toby was most worried about.

But he wouldn't talk about it now. That was for the mortal to figure out all on his own. Jareth was too secure in his attraction to pay much attention to Toby's apprehension. Whether or not Toby introduced him as a friend or a lover, the fact was that he had made his bond mates cream in sheer bliss on more than one occasion and was well able to do so again.

"I think," the transformed Goblin King suggested, "That that is milk."

Toby squinted and tilted the paper. "You're right! Bloody hell, that 'i' looked like a 'q'. I thought it was a short-form I was supposed to remember. It's just… down here?" He stared in some confusion at a packet of instant gravy mix. "No, it's not anymore. Okay, this sucks! I'm lost!"

Jareth chuckled, but stood back and let his bond mate storm out of the aisle and look up at the signs. "It's been eighteen years, my elf. Did you imagine they would stay the same?"

"Well, no. But the flour used to be there! I don't like change!"

Toby didn't even realize he was pouting. But Jareth did. And he flicked that succulent lower lip with his finger before taking his lover by the arm and leading him clear to the left of the store. "Let's start here, shall we? We'll take a look at everything they have and if we need it, we get it. All right?"

"Why are you so logical?" Toby accused.

"Being four hundred and seventy can do that for you," Jareth murmured softly. An elderly woman glanced at him as she walked passed and then did a suspicious double take. Jareth smiled at her unabashedly and raised an enquiring eyebrow. She hurried to whatever it was she was looking for.

Toby sighed. The Goblin King was having far too much fun with this. "Stop playing mortal and let's get on with it."

"A little ill-tempered, hmmm?"

"No, I just think we should hurry."

"None of this is that important, my elf."

"Would you please not call me that in public?!"

"You would prefer me to act differently in your public than I do in my own?"

"Yes! These people don't… they wouldn't … look, they won't understand, okay? So just… don't be all… weird with me. And no pet names!"

Jareth supposed he should be insulted. But it was all too amusing. He hadn't seen Toby this mixed-up since those first few months as bond mates; the malicious side of him was enjoying this far too much. "As you wish."

The smaller male looked around with narrowed blue eyes as he turned the corner to get to the milk. There were too many people around to say anything, but those words were sadly flat. The raw silk voice was a light, pleasant drawl, but the words- well, the words were lacking in something. It itched at his already overcrowded mind.

"Grab that bottle there, will you? Two of them. Yes, the ones with the cow on them, next to the packets with the dead pigs. God knows why they think dead pigs are appetizing, but I suppose if your people can eat those weird roasts with the feathers still on them, then dead pig isn't too bad."

"My people are unusual," Jareth allowed, the barest hint of a laugh threatening to break through.

"Stop laughing at me!"

"A singularly impossible request."

"Why? What's so amusing about this? We can't talk about THEM in front of these people. They wouldn't understand!"

A young couple gave them disapproving looks as Toby hissed the last remark to his husband. They left with icy swiftness, wheeling their pram away with a last scathing look backwards.

Jareth let them move beyond ear shot and then leaned in close to Toby's side. "Well done, Toby. Did you not know that acting a part draws more attention? Were you to stop this incessant need to correct me at every turn and twist, these people would notice nothing." He brushed passed, a cool nod at his bond mate's glower.

Toby watched the slender back move down the cold aisle. To his ultimate chagrin, Jareth seemed completely at home in the mortal world! He paid no heed right or left, but went about his business with a quiet, if somewhat impatiently regal, air. Even with the soft, short hair and the craggy older look, Jareth looked like a king. Dressed in faded jeans and a blue sweater, he looked as if he could step into a formal occasion and carry it off simply with the force of his personality.

And that wasn't fair! Toby was the mortal! Jareth wasn't. Toby should be the one completely comfortable in this world, not Jareth. Toby should know where things were, and how they worked. He shouldn't be confused and lost and generally inescapably unsure of how to act IN HIS OWN WORLD. Or that was what he told himself.

Jareth looked around at the melancholy thoughts, his sympathy aroused. Once again, it had been easy to forget that Toby was still, in so many ways, a child- still uncertain, still unsure, still finding himself. Jareth had been King for so long that public reaction did not bother him. Hell, two hundred years as the most notorious synonym for willing incest and cruel insanity was guaranteed to immunize him. Besides, his nature was a very confident one, very secure in himself and in his ability to manipulate his way out of any difficulty. He was over four and a half centuries old; Toby was only a sheltered thirty-five years.

He dropped the basket where he stood and went to his husband, all other concerns tuned out over this all-important being. "Does it worry you so much?" he asked softly, not touching because he knew Toby would flinch away.

"It doesn't worry me…"

"That is half-hearted at best and an outright lie at worst, Toby. I once told you that I would never put limits on our relationship. It is only what you make of it. We can be just friends to those who don't know. I do not care."

"You don't?"

A brisk shrug under the black jacket and Jareth smiled down at him in friendly fashion. "The truth is the truth. We simply won't break the crystal for them."

He was rewarded with a rueful smile. "So… friends?"

"Friends. I am an orphan with no family and so you take pity on me for these Christmas holidays."

Toby cocked his head like an inquisitive sparrow, intrigued by this seemingly simple plan spun by Jareth's quick mind. "What about the kids?"

"My wife died five months ago, leaving me alone to rear my two children. Her only sister is in Australia and I cannot afford to fly all three of us down there. Your son Aidan is good friends with my two girls, however, so spending this difficult occasion with friends is calculated to help them cope with the misery of the first Christmas without their mother." He tried to think of something else. "My wife's name was Gertrude."

Toby made a face. "Why Gertrude?"

"Because I don't like my wife," Jareth explained, composedly, "And I knew a Gertrude once… a more disagreeable woman I have yet to meet."

Toby might have laughed at this if a hand hadn't tapped him on the shoulder. His wolf instincts went into overdrive and he spun with a snarl. The woman behind him leapt back with a small shriek, her hand snapping back to her neck.

The sense of danger passed away with just one look at those terrified cat's eyes. Long lashes and grey-green irises… a pretty face with blond hair stylishly pulled back in a sleek chignon.

"Elaine? Hey!"

"T-Toby? Toby Williams?"

"Yeah. Elaine Harris, right? Of course! I'm so sorry, I didn't realize there was someone behind me and… er, how are you? Are you okay?"

She straightened up and settled her business suit with a self-conscious giggle. "Well, I'm fine now, so long as you don't suddenly grow fangs or something. What happened?"

"I was startled," Toby apologized.

"No, I mean what happened eighteen years ago? You were supposed to meet me the next day at lunch to help me with that science project and you never showed. I had to do it all myself, you selfish prick." She grinned at him mischievously, enjoying the look of surprised uncertainty on his face.

"I- I…"

"Oh, come off it! You ran away. Karen told me. She never said why, but she said you were happy. That's good. Are you still in Italy?"

"Italy?" Toby's mind was a complete blank.

Which is when Jareth decided to insert himself. His lover really was no good with the imaginative white lies. "No, he's not actually. He works in London now. Sorry to interrupt, Toby, but I'll just take that list off you. You and- Elaine, was it?- can talk in peace."

Blue eyes looked frantically at him and Jareth was not going to give him that satisfaction. He simply held his hand out for the list. Toby handed it over in a daze.

Elaine was very intrigued. "I'm sorry, but you have the advantage of me," she said, charming him with her best business-like manner. Being a smarmy lawyer came in handy sometimes. "I don't think I know you."

Toby snapped out of his daze. "Oh! Elaine, this is Jareth, a friend of mine. Jareth, this is Elaine, an old friend of mine."

"Don't use the 'o' word, darling, I swear I break out whenever someone calls me an old something-or-other."

Jareth grinned devilishly and shook hands. For all that she was his elf's ex-girlfriend he rather liked her. Her hand was cool and dry, her handshake firm and confident. The look in her eyes said that she played the role of the little woman but didn't get pushed around too easily. "Toby's told me so much about you." He simply couldn't resist.

Two straight blond brows rose in a synchronised show of astonishment on the highly domed forehead. "Really," Elaine exclaimed, "I can't think why! We parted on… not so friendly terms. I'm surprised Toby hasn't spit in my face."

"Toby is right here," Toby fumed, "I'm hardly a part of the furnishing, you know. And why would I spit in your face? You said some horrible things; I burned a few photos. It was years ago. All good, now."

"He did mention that you two broke up with strong resentment," Jareth remarked, patting Toby's shoulder in mock sympathy, "But haven't we all at one time or another."

'Watch it,' Toby warned silently, 'You're laughing at me again.'

Elaine didn't hear a word of Toby's irritated reaction. She didn't need to. She could read people better than most gave her credit for. She sensed things. And she sensed that Jareth was enjoying a private joke that Toby didn't share and that she didn't choose to acknowledge. But the appraising stare from those mismatched eyes- and boy, but she was caught by those furiously wild eyes- told her that Jareth already had her measure.

She pretended to remember the list and pointed it out in an embarrassed way- "I'm sorry. I think I'm distracting the two of you. I'll let you go, now, but it was great meeting you again, Toby. I wasn't here the last time you came back, so I'm hoping we'll meet up again soon. If I can ask, how long do you plan to stay this time?"

"A few weeks," Toby approximated with a wave of his hand, "About three, I'd say. The kids have to get back to England to get ready for school."

"Kids?" Elaine looked amazed now. "You have kids?"

For some reason she looked at Jareth, still calmly standing behind Toby with his basket at his feet and a knowing smirk hovering over his thin lips. The light shadow of stubble on his face gave him a singularly scruffy look, but it somehow didn't seem too wrong on his strong features. She wondered why; most pretty men didn't look too good like that. Though Jareth wasn't pretty in the conventional sense.

"… two," Toby was saying. She hurriedly snapped her attention back to him as he paused. The flash of wary mistrust in those familiar blue eyes settled her mind. She smiled at him encouragingly. "I have a son. Aidan. Jareth has two girls. They're friends."

"Wow. That's a good thing, then. I have a little daughter, about eight. She's all excited this year because Santa's going to get her a bike and a computer game."

"Really?"

"No! Well, the bike, yes. But no more computer games. God, the kids these days! Toby, do you remember being as mad about computers as our kids are? I mean, I remember surfing and downloading things and chatting and stuff, but I never spent hours on it the way Celia does."

"Celia?" Toby grinned suddenly. "Is her name Celia?" Elaine's blush answered his question. "You've always wanted to name your kid that if you had a girl. You told me that at the beach."

"Yes," Elaine said tartly, "Right before you told me you never wanted kids… ever!" She looked at Jareth with a frustrated expression. "You have no idea how much trouble this guy gave me. I swear I let him get away with crap that I would kill anyone else for even attempting. Point in case- we went to the beach for a romantic walk and I told him all about how I pictured this perfect life with a dog and a house and two kids, the names of which I had already thought of, and this prick turned around and said I could bloody well have them with someone else because he didn't want kids! Can you beat that?"

Jareth thought back to the passionate child he knew, the lover who hated what he loved and loved it anyway because of who did those things to him, the husband who savagely adored their three kids. "Actually, no, I can't," he said.

Toby calmed his ruffled feelings, not quite knowing where to look because Elaine insisted on discussing their long-gone relationship right in front of his- admittedly secret- husband. "It was a long time ago," he ended, "At fifteen, who does want kids?"

Elaine ceded the point with good grace. "I didn't help matters, did I? But that's what you get if you date a girl only bothered with the latest fashions. Anyway, I've got to go. Oh! If you guys have the time, I'm having a few friends over to my place this evening for dinner. If you'd like to come, you'd be very welcome."

Toby looked at Jareth as a matter of course. The Goblin King shrugged and gestured to him to make the decision. So Toby tried to decide. "Not this evening, Elaine, sorry. We just got in today. But if you're free any other evening, why don't we go out somewhere?"

A brilliant smile was directed his way and he noticed that the chipped tooth that had been a trademark of that smile was now capped and fixed. "An evening out sounds good. I'll call. You're staying at your mom and dad's place, aren't you?"

"Yeah. Just call there and we'll arrange something. Knowing Mom, she'll offer to cook. You know her!"

Elaine laughed and settled her bag firmly on her shoulder, half-turned and ready to leave. "If she makes steak, I'll say yes and camp on the doorstep. It was nice meeting you, Jareth. I'll see you both later. Bye!"

And she was gone.

Toby watched her walk away and was acutely perturbed to find he found nothing attractive in the gentle sway of her hips and the grace of her lithe body. He wasn't attracted to her. And at the ball in the Underground, he hadn't found any of the females overtly attractive either. The males barely even registered, as per usual, but he liked women. He was attracted to them. What was up now?

"Come on, fellow shopper. We have work to do."

Now he was watching another blond walk away. And glory of glories, it was actually very attractive.