As The World Falls Down
Chapter Three
1990
When Toby awoke Sarah watched him closely for any sign of Fae powers and finding none she relaxed considerably, Jareth had been true to his word.
She wondered though if he had been right when he'd said that Fae couldn't live in the human world, it was a scary thought that soon she wouldn't belong in her own world. But that was something she didn't want to think about, ever.
Is it really such a terrible thing spending all eternity with me?
In all honesty it wasn't, she just wished she didn't have to give up her father and Karen to do it. Taking Toby away from them as well was another reason she wouldn't give in without a fight, losing one child to a place of myth was hard enough losing two was unacceptable. With a sigh she rubbed her eyes wearily, she could blame Jareth all she liked but in the end she knew whose fault it really was. Hers! She'd wished Toby away, sure she was only a girl and a bratty one at that but she had still wished that the Goblin King would take Toby. He had done as well. She couldn't fault him, she'd asked him to do something and he had done it, then she'd gotten mad at him and agreed to go through the Labyrinth. It was only thanks to Hoggle and Ludo that she'd managed to get as far as she had, Sir Didymus had helped as well of course, in his own special way.
She hated to admit that Jareth wasn't at fault, it was really much easier to believe it was all his fault and she was entirely innocent. He had gone along with her make believe ideas of good and evil playing the bad guy to her hearts content, he did everything she believed he should but he hadn't really been evil. She had to be the princess rescuing the baby from the bad guy and therefore as the heroine of the story she couldn't possibly be in the wrong. It was a disconcerting feeling that she had been both the heroine and the bad guy. Jareth was merely the catalyst in the story, he made it happen because that was what she needed.
Her feelings about Jareth's role in the ordeal had changed when he kissed her, why did he have to do such a stupid thing like that, of all the arrogant, insensitive things he could have done kissing her was right at the top of the list.
Not that you complained much.
She wondered if her mind's voice was getting more arrogant, she knew she hadn't done anything to stop it, she'd been much too shocked, she didn't need to be reminded of it all the time.
There's no shame in admitting you liked it. The voice said smugly.
"Oh shut up!" It didn't but that didn't mean she had to listen to it, instead she played music loudly and sang to drown it out.
After her third rendition of Silent Night Sarah was exhausted, it was hard enough maintaining a Christmas spirit in front of her family, but singing about it too was killing her. So by late afternoon Christmas Eve Sarah was found fast asleep in the chair by the Christmas tree, a garland of tinsel around her neck and Merlin curled up at her feet.
"Good afternoon Sarah, you're early today." Sarah blinked uneasily and looked around her, she was in a very familiar room, the throne room she had finally faced Jareth in, only this time a large decorated tree stood to one side. Beneath it boxes wrapped in festive paper waited to be opened and stockings were hung over a blazing log fire. Jareth was stood by the fire, one arm rested oh so casually on the top of the mantelpiece and the other held a glass goblet containing a deep red liquid. He was wearing a velvet shirt in a vivid scarlet, black leather waistcoat and black breeches, his cloak was black velvet with a red satin lining. He wore his usual boots and gloves and his wild hair had strands coloured red, he reminded Sarah of a sexy, dangerous, glam rock Santa.
"What do you mean?"
Jareth looked surprised, "Don't we dance every night? Don't we spend every night in each other's arms, though you always leave."
"No, wait that was just a dream, just, a dream." Jareth shrugged lazily and placing his goblet down on the mantelpiece held a hand out to Sarah, without thinking she took it and then looked down in surprise, what had once been jeans and a jumper was now a beautiful red velvet gown, cut low in the neck with a low waist it reminded her of the costume she wore so many years ago when she play pretended fighting the Goblin King for the missing child. After defeating the Labyrinth in reality she had given up the game and put the costume away, she still had it somewhere she just wasn't sure where.
"Maybe this is just a dream too?"
"You're never going to let me go are you?" Sarah asked as she stood next to the Goblin King, with a delighted laugh Jareth conjured a second goblet of spiced wine and a squishy velvet love seat, picking up his own goblet he passed Sarah her drink and sat on the seat stretching his legs out towards the fire, after a moment Sarah sat down as well.
"What makes you so sure this is all my doing? Have you considered the possibility that this is all you?"
Sipping her wine Sarah frowned, was this all her doing? Night after night she danced with the Goblin King, he would always ask her to stay and she would always refuse, surely this was his doing. Or perhaps it was just a dream, memories combined to create an illusion. "Are you a dream?" Jareth grinned in a lazy, sexy way that made Sarah blush redder than her dress, he always did this, the man was pure sex appeal and he knew it, oh! Couldn't he for once be less sexy when she was trying to be serious.
"What do you think?"
Frustrated Sarah placed her goblet down and poked him in the stomach, it was disconcertingly hard and flat, Jareth looked stunned and she knew she had surprised him, "I believe I asked my question first!"
"My, my aren't we feisty today."
"Well you wouldn't have me any other way would you?" There were times in Sarah's life when she wanted to reverse time and stop herself from saying things, this was one of those times, she half hoped Jareth hadn't heard her reply, but no such luck as he was grinning in delight.
"So you admit you're mine now do you?"
"I said nothing of the sort Mr Goblin King, you just assume too much!"
Rather than wiping the grin off his face like she hoped Jareth continued to grin, "Getting a little flustered are we?" To Sarah's discomfort he leaned in close until he was and inch from her face, the grin never leaving his face.
"N, no, why would I be flustered?"
"Come now Sarah, Can't you even admit to yourself your feelings for me?"
"So this is a dream!"
Sighing Jareth placed a kiss on her nose and Sarah blinked in surprise. "You keep avoiding the issue Sarah but we both know you're in love with me."
Frowning Sarah folded her arms across her chest and glared at Jareth. "You must be real, you're more arrogant than usual."
"I, arrogant, I'm only speaking the truth."
Snorting Sarah gestured about the room. "This entire place screams arrogance, stairs leading to stairs that lead to doors that lead to stairs above your head! Only you can negotiate around the stairs, the rest of us mortals just wander about getting confused and looking foolish. You decorate for Christmas but do Fae and Goblins even celebrate the holiday? Do you have saviours to celebrate the birth of?"
Jareth looked put out and sat back sulkily, "I did this for you?"
"You're not even sure anymore are you? You dress up and make a fancy tree, you smirk and say that I can't admit my feelings aloud but can you? Oh sure you say it in song or past tense but can you say it to my face?" Sitting cross legged Jareth placed his elbows on his knees and his chin on his right hand, in his left he twirled two crystals and Sarah sighed, maybe she'd pushed him too hard. "You say you've done everything for me, do yourself a favour, do something for yourself."
With a feral grin Jareth looked up and tossed a crystal, it hit the floor and smashed and instantly the room changed and Sarah was in a bedroom, this one obviously Jareth's, she was sitting in the middle of the double bed and was relieved to find herself still fully clothed. "This wasn't what I meant." She murmured with a sigh.
"What did you expect? The male of the species doesn't differ from race to race, we all only want one thing really."
"Sex, great and I thought you loved me."
"Oh I do, I pride myself on having never had sex with a woman I didn't love. I have morals too you know."
Laughing Sarah turned to look at him and blushed, he was reclining against the pillows covered by only a sheet. "I'm not going to just sleep with you because you want me to. Besides, you have all the morals of an alley cat."
"I always thought alley cats had plenty of morals."
Rolling her eyes Sarah clambered off the bed nearly tripping on her long skirt. "Shows what you know." Walking over to the large window she stared into the garden's below, statues were scattered amidst lush flowerbeds in which flowers of ever colour grew, it was beautiful, the sharp colours contrasting with the sandstone brick of the Goblin city, she hadn't seen this on her first visit, she must have come at a different angle. "I think I should leave now."
Coming up behind her Jareth pointed a finger at a forest to the North of the labyrinth, Sarah was relieved to see he was fully clothed though a bit disconcerted that she hadn't heard him move, though she rarely did when he didn't want her to. "I was born in those woods. My mother, the King's consort was riding through the woods as she did every day. They thought I wouldn't be born for another moon cycle so my mother was unprepared for the sudden labour pains that made her fall off her horse. Her guards thought she had been shot and it was the aid of a maid, who realised what was happening, that prevented my mother from dying."
"What happened?" Sarah asked, her own wishes to go home completely forgotten.
"Using earth magic that only commoners had she poured her strength into my mother. My mother was able to give birth safely and the maid almost died, once the party was recovered enough to move on the maid was taken on a pallet to the royal healer. She survived and was made a Fae as thanks for her aid, she was willing to die to ensure that both my mother and I would live and that kind of loyalty is aptly rewarded in my kingdom." Sarah was silent as she looked into the woods, Jareth had never mentioned his parents before and she'd always assumed that Fae didn't reproduce the same was humans did glancing to the portrait of a beautiful woman and a benevolent looking man hanging on the wall she wondered what had become of them. "They died a few years before I was to be officially announced as the next King, though it was obvious I was going to be the heir to the throne, I had no siblings, my mother could not carry another child to full term after I was born. Ordinarily my father would have been required to divorce her but a male heir had been produced and when it came down to it, he loved her."
"That's sweet, but why are you telling me this?"
Jareth smirked, "My mother was born in London, England in 1392, the daughter of a local parish Vicar she had an almost obsessive fascination with folk lore and the fantastical and loved the mythology of other civilisations."
Sarah raised a surprised eyebrow, "Is that where you got the accent from?"
"I spent some time in England during my teenage years, before he died Father felt I should see how other people lived. I made friends with a mortal named William, I showed him my kingdom and he was so inspired he wrote a play that made him famous. Perhaps, given your theatrical background, you have heard of it, A Midsummer Nights Dream?"
If Sarah had been drinking she was sure she would have choked, "William Shakespeare came to the Underground?"
Jareth looked pleased, "You've heard of him, William would be pleased, he was so worried nobody would remember him when he died."
"He's world famous!"
Jareth looked smug, "I always did have the best taste in companions."
There was a million things Sarah wanted to ask about Shakespeare but something more pressing was at hand, "Why did your mother come to the Underground?"
"My father heard her singing, he was scanning the mortal realm out of boredom and he heard her sweet voice echoed over the aeons, never able to resist a good song he spent an entire year spying on her encouraging her to sing. Then one day he appeared and wooed her and after a year of courting he made her a Fae and that as they say was that."
"Is it a habit of all Fae to turn people into something they don't want to become?"
Jareth frowned and conjuring a chair sat down heavily, "Are you still bothered about that?"
With a growl Sarah turned on him, her good mood gone, "In a few years I'm going to have to leave my family and friends behind to live with somebody I barely know in a kingdom filled with malicious Goblins and arrogant Fae when I don't want to!" Tears filled her eyes and she wiped them on the edge of her sleeve, "It's all right for you isn't it? You just gain a subject, I get no choice in the matter do I?"
Jareth folded his arms across his chest sulkily, he never would understand women and their mood swings, with an elegant twist of his hand a crystal appeared and he casually threw it to the floor, it smashed and Sarah was in the throne room. Sighing she stamped her foot and shouted at the ceiling, "Oh very mature!" There was really nothing to do now but leave, if she could, she wasn't sure how long it would be before she would wake up. "I want to go home!" With a whine reminiscent of her fifteen year old self she threw her arms in the air and screamed loudly, nothing happened and in frustration Sarah kicked the wall, the wall was very solid, Sarah's slipper was not. With a cry of pain she slid down the wall into a sitting position and cradled her injured foot, tears poured down her cheeks. "Where's Hoggle when you need him?"
In an instant Jareth was in the room looking down at her with a roll of his mismatched eyes, "I can't leave you alone for two minutes can I?"
Looking up angrily Sarah asked, "Why can't I leave?"
"Because I don't want you to go yet!"
With wide eyes Sarah said plaintively, "That's not fair!"
Jareth scowled and ran a hand across her injured foot, Sarah shifted uneasily when he said, "I thought we'd gone over this Sarah, life isn't fair! Is it fair that my parents were killed in an accident leaving me all alone and suddenly King with no real training? I was seventeen years old and faced with the task of ruling people who thought I was too young. There were civil wars in the kingdom for years, I was constantly at war with people who thought somebody older would do a better job and the only way I could prove to them that I was good enough was to do the job and do it better than anybody previously had done! And while we're on the subject of fair, is it fair that out of billions of people I fall in love with the one girl who claims to hate my guts? And why do you hate me? Because I did as requested and took your brother, life isn't fair Sarah, nobody ever said it was though."
Guiltily Sarah looked down at her feet and Jareth tried to reign in his temper, he didn't normally snap like that, she just made him so angry! She was just so, so mortal! Her mortality was her own worst enemy and now facing the prospect of a long life and magic powers to boot she sulked, he would never, ever understand women.
Flicking a crystal at her he sent her home and sat down to sulk, he'd leave it a few days before invading her dreams again.
In the mean time he had a kingdom to rule.
End of Chapter Three
A/N: See, I said I'd get it up sooner than the last one. Huzzah! I give you this chapter as a birthday present to me as of yesterday, July 26, I was 22 years old. I am now officially ancient in comparison to my friends who all seem to be 18.
Review please I like to know what people think, though before anybody says it, yes Sarah was a complete brat, but she's going through a tough time and the Sarah we all know and love does like to whine when the opportunity arises.