Rites of Passage by Betty Bokor
Jareth/Sarah. When Sarah is called to save the King, her life takes a whole new course, again.
Spoilers: The movie, the book, and some of the Return series.
Disclaimer: The Labyrinth original characters belong to The Jim Henson Company and Lucasfilms Ltd. This was written strictly for the purpose of entertainment. No attempt at copyright infringement has been made.
A.N. Dinner time.
Rites of Passage
Chapter 16
Jareth had silently appeared in the room and spent a few seconds looking at Sarah before making his presence known.
For weeks he had thought often of her. Whenever the duties of his command had allowed him a respite, he had found it hard not to think of her again. He had wondered for what reason she had come back to his life when there was so little time left or for whose benefit it had happened. He had tried to guess if she had already altered his fate with her return or if he was the one supposed to change hers. But, mostly, he had asked himself if she could have been the one who finally solved the Labyrinth.
To solve the Labyrinth, the contender had to find his heart. That was what he had told Mizumi and she had tirelessly searched for his heart as if it were an object that could have actually been found hidden in a physical section of the Labyrinth. She had never understood that his heart was not concealed; it simply was not his to give anymore. It belonged to his subjects and to his mission to save those who could not defend themselves, because, from the moment he had realized how vain his life was, he had changed. Mizumi had been an unforgiving mirror where he had seen his own defects, magnified. He had had to change.
Of course, he recognized that he was still passionate, rather haughty, and quite impetuous, but now he considered every creature in his kingdom his responsibility and he embraced his charge with an enthusiasm he had not felt for anything before. Mizumi had remained as superficial and conceited as always and he had found there was no more place for her in his life.
But Sarah was different. For starters, the profession she had chosen was a sign of her compassionate nature. Then, the days he had spent with her had shown him that she was kind to everyone. And, ten years ago, the way she had befriended different creatures in his Labyrinth, making them willing to betray him for her, had been evidence of how special she was. But, more importantly, for some reason he did not understand, she liked his subjects; she cared about them. She had kept a long relationship with them in spite of how bothersome to humans they could be.
Jareth was amazed by her.
True, she had been a spoiled and even arrogant teenager –just as he had been– and she had felt no compunction when breaking his heart, but she had changed as much as he had. He suspected that these days she was better than him in many ways.
So, for those and a few other reasons, every time he thought about it, he concluded that Sarah could have been the one to find his heart –truly understand him and accept and embrace his mission as her own– and, thus, become the Queen of the Goblin Kingdom. Because the day the Labyrinth had been completed, he had promised that, no matter whom he married –the need to leave an heir for his throne would have probably dictated his choice– his wife would just be a queen consort unless she believed in his mission and took on it as hers. Most of the women he had dated had not even come close to understanding what he cared about the most. Many nights, while lying by the side of a woman he did not love, he had dreamed that there would come a day when someone would finally get there and, though he would not be able to marry her if he was already married to the mother of his children, he would make her the Goblin Queen, with as much authority as his and as much power as he could give her. He knew he could have truly loved such a woman, even if she was lost to him.
That was all he had wanted from Mizumi when he had asked her to find his heart.
In any case, the whole matter had become a moot point now, because tonight he had come to say good-bye to Sarah. This was a farewell visit, a last chance to enjoy all the marvelous sensations she provoked on him. One last opportunity to mourn what could have been.
So, he asked his question and Sarah turned hastily to face him.
"Can't you, for once, come in like a normal person?" she asked with a hint of annoyance and a lot of amusement.
"A normal person? I don't consider myself part of the norm. I'm unique, special. And I'm not really a person either… I'm a fae, remember? We're stronger, faster-"
"Yeah, and more handsome, I know," she interrupted with sarcasm.
"Oh, how kind of you to notice," he smirked, handing her his cloak as he would do with his servants.
Sarah sighed, put the cloak away, and started walking out of the room. "Come on, Narcissus. I've fixed you an anniversary dinner."
"Anniversary, you said?" Jareth asked when they left the room.
She lightened up. "Yes, well, here, today is the tenth anniversary of the day I ran the Labyrinth and rescued Toby. I thought we should celebrate."
"Why would I celebrate the day you took the babe away from us?" he asked feigning seriousness.
"Oh, come on; you said he had no reason to stay with you; you said you helped me to make sure he came back."
"True," he conceded, "but that's not something you should go repeating around. It could ruin my Labyrinth's reputation," he said with clearly false concern.
She nodded, exaggeratedly matching his distress. "Sure; I can see how worried you are. Anyway, we can celebrate the day we met, then. What do you think of that?"
"That's a much worthier cause for celebration," he agreed with a little bow.
"Great. Dinner is almost ready. It's late already, so go sit down and I'll be back in a minute."
Instead of walking toward the dining-room, he followed her to the kitchen and started opening pots and spying inside covered dishes.
"What are you doing?"
"Trying to figure out the menu," he said with a smirk.
"Well, it's nothing too complicated. You know I'm no chef and I've had a lot of work this week, so there's a variety of melons –cantaloupe, casaba, honeydew, and I don't know the name of this one – with prosciutto as appetizer; filet mignon with parmesan mashed potatoes as entrée, and… strawberries and cream for dessert. It was going to be strawberry shortcake, but I forgot the cake was in the oven." She took a pan with something dark from the oven and threw the contents in the trash can. "I don't think we can save this."
Jareth smiled. "Strawberries and cream sounds perfect."
"Good. Please, get the champagne out of the fridge while I finish this," she signaled with her head as she cut some fresh bread.
"Champagne, eh?" he smirked again.
"Yes, champagne. We're going to indulge, since neither of us has to drive tonight." She put the bread in a basket and said, "Done. Now, let's take all this to the table and we can start."
He helped her with the dishes and they settled in the dining-room. Sarah had set the table for a romantic dinner for two, but had tried to be subtle with the details. She had used white dinnerware with linens and accents –such as the candles and the roses in a bowl– in shades of coral.
The first minutes of the dinner passed in silence. They both spent time trying to observe the other when not noticed.
Sarah was wearing a dark brown dress that seemed to wrap quite snuggly around her figure. The fabric was some kind of gauze and it looked rather revealing, but she wore a spencer on top of the dress to minimize its translucency.
Jareth was thankful for that.
She also wore pumps that perfectly matched the shade of brown of the dress and very little jewelry.
It was definitely not Jareth's style, but he did not dislike it. He had also chosen something more modest than his usual attires. He wore black trousers and black boots, with a top made of black and dark blue velvet and leather, long sleeved, with a mandarin collar.
Sarah enjoyed the fact that it reminded her of the outfit he had worn in the Escher Room, but she was disappointed that it did not show a thin sliver of pale skin like most of his shirts did.
The rich taste of the food was their first topic of conversation and soon they were engaged in a light chat. Without agreeing upon it, they both made sure none of the subjects they broached was too personal or dealt with their feelings in any way. By the end of the dinner they had talked about the weather, the practice of emergency medicine, the fruits of the season, fashion in the Underground, some goblin idiosyncrasies, and many other entertaining but harmless themes.
"Do you need help cleaning up?" he asked as they both stood by the table.
Sarah was about to decline, when she realized what he was offering. "You know what, the kind of help you can give, I'll take any day," she smiled.
He smiled, too, and a few seconds later everything was clean again.
"Now, you need to open your presents," Sarah declared as she guided him to the living-room.
He followed. "Presents?"
"Yes. I know it was your birthday a short while ago."
"I've never understood that tradition some of your cultures have. Why do you give presents on the anniversary of your birthdays?
"I don't know… To celebrate that we're here one more year?"
He smiled and Sarah hurried to get the packages. "Okay, first is this," she gave him a neatly wrapped small package.
Jareth sat on the sofa and carefully opened the parcel. In it there was a pair of soft, light gray leather gloves.
With a wide smile, he bowed to her. "Excellent taste."
"Aren't you going to try them on?"
"I don't have to try them; they'll fit perfectly."
Sarah was disappointed, but said nothing about it. "Okay, here is the other one." She handed him a larger package.
Jareth opened it to find a photo album. Inside it, the photos showed Sarah and different creatures from the Labyrinth who had visited her house in the last ten years. It was easy to see the transformation from teenager Sarah into grown-up doctor. The faces of Sir Didymus, Ludo, Hoggle, Ambrosius, and many others had remained unchanged, but she had grown from pretty girl to beautiful woman.
Some of the pictures were missing the heads or the feet of the subjects and Jareth stopped to look at them with a smile.
"I had help," she excused the photographic blunders.
"I can see." He was amused and he was thankful. It was an extraordinary present.
