Get ready to drool.
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o
"It's been a while." he smoothly says as he slowly yet surely starts to advance her.
She starts to back up. "S-so it has," her attempt at bravery is admired.
"It seems that you have been on edge tonight," he says growing closer and closer to her. "Something on your mind, Ms. Williams?"
She struggles to bring her voice back as each step he takes causes her voice to collapse. "W-why are you..." she tries to look away. "Why are you here?"
"Here," he tilts his head in curiosity as he looks around the room. "This is my home, the place of which I live." He smiles. "Why, may I ask, are you here?"
"Y-you know what I mean..." she says backing up even further.
"Do I?" he quirks an eyebrow. "Are you under the impression that I can read your mind?" she hits a corner. "I do hold quite a bit of power, my dear, but the power of Clairvoyance had not yet been gifted." no matter how she might, she is stuck between him and the wall. She is having a difficult time keeping whats left of her strength, and he can tell. "Are you feeling well, Ms. Williams?"
"What do you want from me?" she finally asks.
"Pardon?" he looks to her quizzically.
"Don't act so coy, Mr. Kingsley-"
"You're majesty will do, quite swimmingly, Ms. Williams." he is really close now. "Or Jareth, if you're feeling cheeky."
She is finding it more and more difficult to focus. God, what is happening to her? "Please don't play games with me." she huffs. "What do you want from me- or..." she comes to a realization... 'Toby...' "You are not going to take Toby-"
"Save your silly little misconceptions for the humans, Ms. Williams." he says as he just walks away from her to head into another room. He just lets her sizzle in the moment, dropping his little game to start to cleaning the dining room.
She just stands there, frozen in the corner of the room. But before too long, her body follows in the same direction as he. Finding him in the next room, she sees him gathering what was left of this little dinner party and starts a haul into the kitchen. Almost in routine, she picks up a few leftovers to help with the clean up. Making her way to the kitchen, she sees him filling one side of his sink with hot soapy water. She just suddenly feels so compelled to know what this is all about?
"What are you doing?" she is just so confused by this whole thing.
"I am about to wash dishes,"
"No, I mean, what are you doing here? Why are you here?" she only realizes how rude that sounds after she says it. "I-I just mean-"
"You mean, why else would I be here, correct?" he doesn't look to her, he just starts hand-washing, not showing her any emotion.
"I-I just... I just thought-"
"This is the problem with everyone here," he says stacking clean dishes on the empty side of the sink. "All of you think too much."
Sarah's eyes bulge. "I'm... sorry?" she motions in misunderstanding.
"You think too much." he spins to face her as he dries off his hands with a towel. "So much that you end up overthinking your thoughts, which in turns your thoughts into thoughtless messes." he says opening the dishwasher to his right, just before getting a few bowls to start storing leftovers. "You overthink so much, especially about people whom you think you may know," he is swift with his movements as Sarah just watches him. "Because of this, every thought that you have about them drives you to the point of insanity, because you only think about what they could possibly be thinking about you, when in reality, they just might not be thinking at all." he finishes as he heads to his refrigerator to store the cold food.
...
It takes Sarah a moment to digest, all of what he just said.
He lets her think as he starts hand-washing once more. "Humans are so focused on their negative thoughts, they often forget to realize that their thoughts about, said people, may not be all that they seem, or perceive." he motions to her. "Something to think about." he only smiles.
Bringing in what was left of the table, Sarah puts up what she can as she mulls over what all he said. The room is silent, but the vibe is actually quite friendly. Sarah isn't sure if she likes this vibe or if she should be weary of it, then she mentally slaps herself in the face. As Sarah puts the last of the leftovers in storage, she hands the bowl to him for his last item to clean.
"How kind," he says with a grin, quickly cleaning it before placing it in the dishwasher. She just uses this small window of opportunity to really look at him.
It has been so long since she saw the regal and frightening enemy that she once fought and danced with. She remembers that day well, how well he played such a role in front of her, throwing snakes, moving walls, dropping trap doors under her feet, using his power to frighten the little girl out of her, simply so he wouldn't lose the game he played with her. She remembered how she compared her meek little stature to his tall matriarchal personality. That was a long time ago, and what she sees now is something completely different. She is just so... tickled.
"It's odd," she suddenly speaks.
"Very," he slightly chuckles, unplugging the sink and closing the dishwasher. "All you humans are odd."
"No," she she says leaning up against the counter. "You putting away leftovers and hand-washing dishes after a meal. That's odd,"
He looks directly to her. "Is it?" he focuses his attention to her, expecting her to explain herself.
"It makes me think," the irony makes them both grin. "Why would a king of another realm be in a townhouse the middle of New Your City, washing dishes while his -niece, is it? - goes and eats ice cream with a human boy down the street? Any being that would know, said king, would arouse such a suspicion, human or no."
Whoa.
"Are you willingly admitting your curiosity to a Fae being, Ms. Williams?" he asks crossing his arms over his chest. "Because, if you are as informed as your brother parades you to be, you should know that, this is a very dangerous notion, you are making."
"I am merely asking the same question that any other person would ask. There is a factual reason for, said king, to be in a place like this, and I enjoy the hobby of which I gather factual information."
"Yes, but any yearning for factual information derives itself from some thought of curiosity. And you should remember what I said about humans thinking." he is quite enjoying this.
"The fact still stands, there is a reason, even if it were something as simple as taking a vacation, for which, learning of what I learned in my past experiences with the place of which you rule, I would understand." she looks to him, a little more bravely than before as she starts to lean a little more forward, knowing that she almost has her answer.
"My, my, my." he stands up high with a grin. "You sure have grown," he advances her further. "There is little left of the snobby little know-it-all that I had the extreme pleasure of meeting, those few short years ago."
She smiles a proud smile. "And you haven't changed a bit."
He finally shows a toothy grin full of mischievousness. "I may not have changed, but your perception of me sure has, in the last 20 minutes alone, no less." he says turning away from her to reach a cupboard on the far side of the kitchen. Opening it, Sarah sees a collection of wine. Grabbing a bottle, he also grabs two, very nice looking glasses as he continues. "If you must pry into my business, then humor me with a drink in the next room." he says walking, expecting her to follow. They eventually make their way though the narrow corridor, passing the dining room, and the living room and making it to a quaint library with a desk, lovely embedded chairs and a long end table. He invites her to sit as he starts to pour each of them a glass.
"My lovely, yet extremely naive niece has been studying human culture here back in her home, and through her studies, she had become so intrigued that she asked her father, my brother, a ruler of the neighboring kingdom in the land of the Fae, if she could take a closer look." he says before taking a sip. "Being the little daddy's girl she is, he willingly accepted. Thus was the reason for coming to me." he rolls his eyes. "Because of my, rather... unique job." he looks to Sarah knowingly. "I was the perfect candidate as her escort for her little mission." he makes himself comfortable in one of the chairs. "In my realm, my kingdom is the closest to that of a portal to your world. And because I have had the pleasure of doing my job as long as I have, I had built a resilience to this world and it's reactions to creatures such as myself." Sarah starts to take a few sips herself. "After some discussion of what I get out of this deal, she proceeded to start her research on your world, and made all of the plans herself, right down to what exactly what she would be doing here, and why."
"Okay, so wait a second," Sarah stops him from going any further.
"Yes?"
"She could have done anything here, and she chose high school?"
"Well, she understood with her age, that it would be abnormal for someone such as her "human" self to not be in school. She knows a lot about human customs. Almost as much as me." his smile is full of pride. "So she found a school of her choice and attended."
"So why here?"
"I don't know. Ask her." he downs his first glass. "All of this was her endeavor, after all."
"And you don't find it at least a little strange that you end up here?" she continues to drink her answers away.
"Knowing her for as long as I have, as clever as she may be, I have learned that the less I know about her, the better off I will be."
"And how long have you known her, exactly?" Sarah pops a curious question.
He quirks a brow. "She's my niece, Ms. Williams."
She sighs. "How old is she?"
"Which do you prefer?" he asks.
"Huh?"
"Human or... otherwise?" he asks as he refills both glasses that now seem to be empty.
"Um...human?"
"Then about 17."
Sarah bites her lip for the next one. "...Otherwise?"
"Then about 1700."
"1700?!" she jerks in her seat, almost spilling her wine.
"Still so young. She has so much to learn of her own home, yet all she is doing is parading herself here like a horny little spring-breaker. But what do you expect of a child?"
"1700?!" Sarah still can't get past that.
"It's not that difficult to do the math, Ms. Williams. Even for an English teacher." his smirk is well placed.
"How old are you?!"
He chuckles "Old enough,"
Sarah just sits there, gawking at the fact that she is THAT old... With Toby... on a date... 'Oh crap,' She decides that it's best to stand and let her body circulate while observing the room.
"Toby has had quite the crush on her since they met at the beginning of the year." she says observing the room full of books. "No matter how much he denied it, he couldn't hide it from anyone."
"So has she," he stood with her.
"This is weird." she says with the slight turn of her head.
"Not really," he shrugs it off. "She has the mentality to that of a teenager, truth is, they are quite close in age and maturity-"
"That's not what I meant,"
"You seem to be needing to explain a lot about yourself, tonight." he says with a cheeky grin.
"I mean, come on. You had absolutely no idea that Toby nor I were at the same school that she specifically requested? That sounds just the tad bit shady to me." her suspicion rises again.
"Not until I took a look at the student and faculty list, no." no matter how much she didn't believe that statement, it is an honest one. "I did, however, enjoy the change of events. What I thought was going to be a boring year, had soon become that of a very interesting one when I gathered the information. Even more so, when she came home one day saying that she had come to fancy a young man named Toby. I found that amusing." he chuckles. "At that point, even I even started to question my own sanity."
"Is this why you offered this scholarship thing to him? Because your niece has a crush on a kid you stole 17 years ago?"
He is taken aback by such a comment. "Now that is quite the accusation, Ms. Williams."
"This has you written all over it," her defensiveness returns. "If he is going to owe you a debt in all of this, then he will not be accepting it, because I will not let him."
"While I do admire your endless attempt to protect young Toby from the danger that is I, I assure you I mean you no harm." he remains mature about the situation. "What he did today was admirable, very brave, and if not for his brave actions, my niece and I would be faced with some serious consequences, far beyond that of the normal judicial system. Francesca and I would be in quite a bind trying to keep our little Faerie secret whilst she faced incarceration. The fact that he happens to be one of the many children that become wished away to me, is irrelevant, Ms. Williams, not to mention that his circumstance was no fault of mine." his sass is noted. "Young Toby has no idea how much he has helped us today, and I hoped, in this way, he could appreciate the small token of our gratitude of what he helped us avoid."
...
'Damn it, Sarah.'
Sarah becomes extremely ashamed of herself accusing him of such evilness, but what else was she supposed to think? The endless reminder of what happened all those years ago certainly didn't help, either. But can anyone blame her for going straight to the worst case scenario? This is just a tad bit coincidental. She just didn't think that anything else could come of it...
Then she realized how hard she was thinking.
She sheepishly looks to him. "I'm sorry." her apology is an honest one. "I... Things like this don't happen very often, and it usually comes with a large debt in return. It's just not something regular people usually do."
"I figured that you, of all people, would know by now that I am not a regular person, Ms. Williams." he says taking a drink.
...
That really sinks in.
"So, what do we do about the love birds around the corner, then?" Sarah asks expecting that this would be rather problematic. "I mean, they can't be together, right? That would just... He just doesn't know of these things, and... She..."
"Whose to say?" he chimes in. "What she does here is her responsibility, I am not going to help her. She needs to make that choice when she comes to it."
"What do you mean?" Sarah becomes frightened for Toby.
"I am not at liberty to take charge of her experiences. If she wants to befriend and take part in a romantic relationship, who am I to stop her. She just needs to realize that the option, and consequences are hers, and hers alone."
"So... what, this is allowed? Toby isn't going to be slaughtered for dating Fae royalty?"
"You have quite the imagination, Ms. Williams."
"Well, what will happen to him if this friendship does become something more?"
He sees this as a worrisome topic for her. He indulges in it for himself with a grin. "It looks like our destinies have been intertwined, Ms. Williams." he turns to her. "If not in one way, then in another." Sarah took that moment to down her second glass. "More?" he politely asks.
"No, Thank you. I... do have to drive." she says walking away from him to "observe" more of his collection, taking a breather, so she wouldn't start anything. She then remembers the truth of what Toby had said just before they entered this house about her use of alcohol. "You have quite the extensive collection." she says, previous subject aside, as she stands in awe of what he has in here.
Jareth, agrees to change the subject. "It's refreshing to meet someone who admires the great human authors." he says looking to the shelf she stares into. "Human authors are more interesting than Fae authors. The emotion in that of a Gaelic novel fails in comparison to that of an Earthly European poet. I don't meet many people who share the appreciation that I have possessed through the years."
"Rarely do people even read anymore." she says in wonderment. "What had become classics here, are now just dust-filled paper bindings that does nothing more than take up space in a library." she says as she starts to feel the spines of each title she reads. "It saddens me how people don't take the time to find a new adventure within a book, and create the story with their own imagination." she starts to be come a little saddened as she looks to him. "People nowadays look to other forms of entertainment, rather than the classic. But, I suppose evolution is a stark and rebellious cousin of ours." she returns to her admiration of his collection.
Though she can't see it, his eyes glisten as she speaks the harsh truth of what has become of her people. Never has he been challenged to further pursue a conversation of intellect and thought, and it sends a slight bolt of intense endearment through his spine. What she had just said was smart and well thought out, as well as what all she had been saying through the whole night. He observes her from behind, really taking a look on how she really has grown, body and mind. He is quite intrigued by Ms. Sarah Williams, more now than ever, not really knowing how much she had grown until now.
She then turns back around to see a different look in his eyes, one of intrigue and curiosity of his own. She wasn't expecting such a change in atmosphere so soon. His stare to her sends butterflies through stomach.
"Y-you know, I think I will take that last drink," she says out of extinct.
Sarah uses this moment to gather her bearings. She puts herself in prospective, watching him, realizing where she is, exactly. She is in the Goblin King's "summer house", discussing literature and how his niece and her brother are dating, over a really expensive bottle of wine, all the while fighting the initial instinct to get drunk, in which, this 3rd glass of wine won't really help.
Has she gone completely nuts?
She takes another large sip as she starts to think of other things, things that she hasn't thought about in years. Remembering her past with him, she suddenly has her plagued with questions involving the people she had encountered on that fateful day.
"So," she starts. "How is... everyone?" she shrugs.
"Everyone?" he insinuates. "Like whom?"
"Um... Every-one? Your citizens? The friends I made while... visiting... your kingdom?"
"Ah," he takes a sip. "Well, I like to believe that all of my people are doing fairly well. I haven't come across in any deaths resulting in the little clan that you had created, so I imagine that they are all trucking through life well enough."
"So, you just don't know anything about your people?" she starts to feel a little concerned.
"Regardless on how long you may have spent in my Kingdom, Ms. Williams, you only experienced very little of it. I rule over more than one Kingdom, and they are all overflowing with different people and creatures. In my Labyrinth, which is just a small fraction of what I rule, you only explored maybe a tenth of it. When your rock calling friend destroyed The Goblin City, he, thankfully, only destroyed a small suburb of it," she looks down in shame. "-of which all of those goblins thanked because that granted them money for re-build which is something they had been asking for, for several years." he says with a hint of irritation, "All that being said, I can't possibly know how every single person is doing every single day." he finishes as he starts to swirl his drink.
Sarah had never taken into consideration on how much she didn't know about such a place. She only spent a day there, how could she think that she knew so much about it? It had been so long, when she was there, she thought that she had seen everything, because everything she saw was something that she never imagined would exist. She had traveled, what seemed to be so far at the time, hearing him explain how large it actually is, gets her gears rolling, on what she might have missed, and now has a sudden craving to see it.
But what of the ruler? What of him? He stands looking at his vast collection of books as he had just had to explain himself to her, yet again for the uptinth time tonight. Sarah suddenly wondered how much of a menace she had become? When she first walked in this house, she thought that she was going to be the one drilled and interrogated, but it is the exact opposite. Now that she thinks about it, he really has changed, or maybe it was just her perception of him. Looking to him, she sees that he has changed a little, if not just to fit in, his hair is shorter, just still quite unruly for an earthy haircut, and dressed in a white button-up and black slacks, it almost looks like the same person, almost re-imagined.
And with this realization, through all of the topics that she had created, not once has she asked about him.
This saddens her a little, but maybe it's the wine talking. "How about... you?"
"Hm?" maybe he didn't hear?
Sarah struggles to repeat. "H-how are you doing," she asks putting her glass down. "Jareth?" yep. It's definitely the wine.
He had become pleasantly surprised, smiling in thanks. "I'm fine."
"Good," his smile was contagious, finally smiling to him with a genuine feel. But this changes as she releases the tiniest blush before turning back to face the books. His grin only grows, realizing her shyness, and slowly floats closer to her.
"And how about you?" he says inching closer to her. She acknowledges his presence, but keeps her gaze away from him.
"Me?" her slight nervousness returns as she glues herself to the bookshelf.
He leans up against the bookshelf next to her to catch her attention. "How are you, Ms. Williams?" his smile never leaves.
She loses interest in what she pretends to look at in front of her, but still refuses to look to him. "I'm... good," she slowly nods "Good."
"Just "good"?" he entices her further.
"You're just "fine"?" she retorts while making the mistake of meeting his eyes with hers. There is just the smallest moment between the two, as they study one another, she with his mismatched eyes, and hers with her beautiful pools of green... so deep... so cruel.
"I wouldn't mind a little more." he admits to her, very softly.
Sarah doesn't realize just how close she is getting.
"Neither would I..." she speaks just above a whisper.
"And, what would you like, Ms. Williams?" closer they became.
"I don't know," she has lost all control.
"I do," his honesty had become the better of him.
So close have they now become. Close they now stand. Closer, they both wish to be. So close has she traveled, herself.
So close are their lips about to touch.
"Sarah?" a distant voice awakens her, as if she were comatose.
"Uncle-" a distant voice is internally cursed, as it comes from the other room.
Dropping a gasp that she didn't know she had, she pry's her stare away and retreats from the room, in a hurry, with weak knees. He watches her until she disappears, taking the moment to down his last glass to follow and find the kids in the foyer with smiles aglow. The couple speaks of their mini adventure to the shoppe around the corner as they hold the evidence in their hands. The kids continue with endless tangents about school and their social comrades, making their way back to the living room. Jareth, however, heads back to the kitchen to catch anything he may have missed. Refusing to be by herself, she follows the kids into the room for a few more minutes before Sarah looks to see how late the night has gotten.
They do have somewhere to be tomorrow since it pertains to Toby's punishment, but Jareth agrees to ending the night. The two kids say their goodbyes as Francesca walks Toby on out, leaving Sarah and Jareth left to walk together.
"I was not expecting this night to be so..." Sarah struggles to say.
"Interesting?"
She chuckles. "Interesting, is what I expected." she looks to the two kids down by her car. "Just not so..."
"Nice?" he looks to her.
"Yeah," she looks to him. "Strange, but nice."
He is satisfied with that, since he very much agrees.
Not much else had been said before she finally leaves for the car. Francesca says her goodbyes as the siblings get in and drive off. Their whole ride home consists of Toby talking endlessly about his adoration for Francesca, and how he thinks he is in love with her. But when Sarah asked if he asked her to the prom, she wasn't surprised to hear him say no. But that didn't stop him from talking about how perfect she was.
Sarah screams internally, not excited on how she is going to be blurting this to Sheena. While sweating profusely on how she is going to explain this one, she vows to never have another drink for as long as she lives.
O.o
*Later That Night*
Finally... He has a face...
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o
Go clean that drool off the floor.