Chapter Eight: You Can Open Your Eyes Now

To say that Sarah had been impressed by the clothes left for her to change into when she awoke would have a lie of the highest order. True she would have loved the stiff embroidered bodice and wide ruffled skirt when she was a teen. But now it just felt oddly restrictive and, well. Unnatural. They just didn't feel right for some reason. Not to mention she felt a bit uncomfortable coming across Jareth showing as much cleavage as she was. And since the bodice pushed up her bust and pulled in her waist to enhance the already noticeable curves she had, she was showing quite a fair amount of cleavage.

But at that precise moment in time she simply could not find it her to care. Not about anything if she was entirely honest. Not that someone was trying to kill her. Not that she was the only surviving member of her bloodline. Not that she was, according to Jareth, slowly turning into a Sylph. Not even that the clothes she would be wearing for the next few days showed an indecent amount cleavage. Nor did she care that Jareth had, without her prior consent, called into the bar she worked at and told her employer that she had gotten one of those twenty four hour stomach bugs that were always going around and would not be able to make it to work, thus giving her three days in the Labyrinth with absolutely bugger all to do.

No, the only thing that she cared about at the moment was watching the Goblin King familiarize himself with his wings once again. She was back on the balcony they had been on the previous night andwas leaning against the ornamental ledge, probably showing even more of her breasts than if she was stood up and yet again, she didn't care. Jareth however, was doing what hehas always donebest.

Showing off.

He was elegantly swooping and diving high above her. Sometimes disappearing into the clouds. He was also the very reason she just didn't care about anything at the moment. Watching him was sort of therapeutic. There was something in his soaring movement that lulled away all of her worries and concerns for a time. She had been watching him for almost an hour. According to the Goblins none of them had ever seen his "pretty wings" before. But from hearing so many legends, myths and stories they were slightly afraid of them, drawn, but still afraid. Even though they had known what Jareth was from the history they learnt, like so many others they had not really taken any notice of it. But one or two of them remembered when the King had been a prince, though they had refused to say much about that time.

With no real expression on her face, Sarah watched as Jareth slowly circled, descending as he did so, until finally he flapped his wings to drag at the air current and landed almost expertly on the opposite side of the balcony. Considering it was only the second time he had been flying for centuries, he seemed to have quite the talent for it. He smiled at her as she struggled to keep her eyes on his face and off of his chest. Well, she certainly could not deny being attracted to him anymore since all of the evidence was to the contrary.

He rolled his shoulders back, something his wings seemed to make him do quite a lot, then lazily folded his wings at his backand walked over to her with his usual arrogant grace.

"You look absolutely stunning in such attire," he announced, not being particularly shy about looking her over. She felt heat rise in her cheeks and she looked away, sure that she was blushing.

"Thank you," she replied shyly. Making sure she stood up straight so that she wasn't inadvertently putting more on display for him.

"I was wondering," he started with a slight smirk in his lips. "Would you like come to the sky with me?"

Her eyes widened at the thought of it. Now she wasn't particularly afraid of heights. But the thought of being carried, up there with nothing but Jareths' wings for support, was enough to make her pale to an almost ghostly level.

"I won't drop you if that's what you're worried about," he almost cooed. It was obvious he was going to pull out all the stops to convince her to fly with him, and judging from the miserable way she had lost her argument about who was going to pay in that coffee house she had no chance of winning this battle either.

"And you won't go too fast?" she asked, taking a tentative step towards him.

"I swear it," he replied sincerely.

"And you won't go too high?" She took another step, biting her lip nervously.

"Cross my heart," he said as he did the hand gesture over the right side of his chest, causing Sarah to frown. But wasn't- "It's on the opposite side to a humans," he explained sounding a little exasperated.

"Well, I don't know . . ." She turned her eyes apprehensively to the sky. What she didn't see was Jareth roll his eyes in irritation.

"Oh, for the sake of Magic-" Nor did she see him dash towards her. In fact she only noticed he had moved when he scooped her up and ran to the ledge of the balcony. . . Then jumped off.

She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, her heart pounding wildly as she felt the air rush past her at their plummeting fall. There was a sharp jerk and she clung to the King all the more fiercely. Burying her face in his neck, whimpering slightly at the unknown. The movement seemed more leisurely now. The gust of air had become a gentle breeze and nothing twisted her at stomach, well, nothing except for the fact that a certain shirtless Goblin King was holding her.

He smiled as Sarah clung to his neck, burying her face in his shoulder with her eyes tightly squeezed shut as he slowly drifted through the air, gently beating his wings. He would have given her warning had she not been acting so timid. Unfortunately for her the only person he accepted meek mannerisms from was his sister and he certainly would not put up with them from someone he knew for a fact was fiery to her core. She just needed a bit of a sharp shock to bring it back out in her.

"You can open your eyes now," he whispered in her ear, making a rather good attempt at sounding innocent, though still failing quite miserably. She made an odd whimpering sound and held on tighter. Then mumbled something he had to fight not to laugh at.

"When we get back to solid ground I'm going to bloody kill you." So here was the Sarah he could remember facing in her youth. He had thought she was in there somewhere. It was nice to hear her voice again. Smirking he gave a reply that was probably far from welcome.

"If you open your eyes and look around I'll consider landing for you to make good on that threat," meaning that if she screamed or started to have a panic attack he would land, anything less and tough. "Though I'll warn you now, I may actually enjoy your attempts on my life; I've always had a little something for strong women." Well, that opened her eyes, he thought as she stared at him in a combination shock and disbelief, her eyes never moving from his face.

"I don't know what you're expecting me to do to bump you off but I can tell you now it won't involve leather manacles and a whip!"

"Such a shame," he answered, genuinely disappointed before moving onto more pressing matters. "Now are you at least going to take in the scenery while you're up here, or are quite content to stare into my spectacular eyes?" Her astonished stare quickly became a fully fledged glare and his heart skipped a beat. Here was his Sarah, the real Sarah. And he had no idea why he enjoyed riling her so much, probably because it was easy and she wasn't afraid to fight back or play along with his games.

Stubbornly, and most likely in an attempt to prove him utterly wrong, she slowly forced her eyes away from the sardonically smirking Goblin King. Her gaze was fretful, not that he could blame her, they were quite some distance from the ground, but not as high as he would like to be. No where near it in fact. They were only around twenty meters from the floor.

Her hold on him loosened to the level where he could once again breathe more easily as she looked over their surroundings with awe. She had not seen the part of the Labyrinth they flew over now since she had come from the other side, the more difficult side if he was honest. Beneath them was a glittering jewel filled maze, more conventional than most of his Labyrinth, but far too easily ensnaring. He had seen many people simply stop and stare at the spectacle if they reached it, but those with a strong will easily overcame it. Ironically it was his lands own enchanting traits that stopped him from noticing the grin spreading across Sarah's face and the glint of thrill seeking spark to life in her eyes. In fact it was only when she said his name in a way that strongly suggested she was after something that he realised those things had been brought forth in her.

"What?" he asked warily, not exactly sure what she was up to. Though he loathed to admit it, he didn't actually know the young woman very well.

"Go faster." He smirked at the way she was looking at him, a look that clearly showed she was after an adrenalin rush.

"You know, if that was taken out of context it would sound quite wrong." Before she could even answer they were caught in the rush of air his sheer speed caused.

"I know I haven't spoken to you for quite some time-oh that's the understatement if the millennia," sighed the Elvin warrior as he stood in front of the vanity mirror in the room Jareth had given him. He stared up at the ceiling as he thought for a while, and then turned back to the mirror. "Celeste, I'm deeply sorry that I have not been able to contact you for so long a time and I am such a dead Elvin." With yet another sigh he shook his proud head and leaned against the table on which the mirror sat.

Taking a deep breath Auranar stared into the reflection of his pearlescent yet rainbow eyes. Celeste had always said that they unnerved her because of how unusual they were, which he had never ceased to find odd since both her and her brother had mismatched eyes, Jareths more extreme than her own because of his condition. However she had liked the contrast between his literally snow white skin and his blue, almost black hair. Probably because with the exception of himself, she had never seen an Elvin who was not as evenly and fairly toned as herself. Though to be honest he had probably been the only person she had seen who was not relatively pale and evenly toned, with the exception of Private "Ribbon Rush", the vampire flitter that had been amongst them, who had been screwing Jareth at that time if he remembered rightly.

He had certainly been pleased to note that his golden ear ring had remained in tact throughout the centuries, attached to his ear through the cartilage not far beneath the tip. Perhaps if Celeste saw that he still wore her gift she would only take him to the brink of death rather than actually kill him. Well, she would not kill him. That was a little extreme. Maul him was much more realistic. Perhaps dismember if she was already in a bad mood. Though hopefully she would not still be carrying that small dagger he had gotten her, not that he would be able to tell considering she could easily hide it in her cleavage and did so whenever she had it on her.

A snippet of hysterical giggling snatched him from his thoughts, along with the banging of his shutters caused but a rush of air. "What in the name of magic . . . ?" he muttered as he moved over to his window and leaned out, looking for the distraction. Then he rolled his eyes when he saw it.

Jareth winging through the air as though he had never stopped doing so all those years ago, carrying some madly laughing daft tart as always. It had been his favourite pulling method when he had been young. Always asking something along the lines of "would you like to see the stars from above the clouds?" The sad thing was that it had actually worked as well. But he hadn't done that since he was around one hundred and twenty. Wait there. Was that? Oh bloody hell it was! How had he managed to get Sarah to willingly go into the air with him!

It had been about three minutes since Jareth had decided it was time to land, mainly because he felt the presence of his sister in the throne room. He was pleased to note that both Sarah and her dress (which looked bizarre to say the least when worn by a Sylph) were suitably ruffled and she could not give a damn. Having admitted she was curious about his sister, Jareth had offered to introduce her, with the ulterior motive of getting someone else in the room who might stand up for Auranar, because he certainly wasn't going to get in the way of sister when she was on a war path. He was a great many things, but suicidal certainly was not one of them.

Not when he had just discovered that Sarah actually trusted him. Oh she hadn't said it of course, but the fact that she hadn't started screaming for him to put her down and instead had ordered him to go both faster and higher had shown that fact adequately enough for him. After all he had beenthe only thingthat stood in the way of a very nasty fall and death for the hour or so they had been in the air together. Though he had to admit it had been odd to fly like that with someone, rather than when he had used it to awe slow witted but attractive women into his bed. Odd, but by far more fun than any of those flights had been.

"After you," he said politely as he opened the door for Sarah. She thanked him unsurely and shot him a quizzical look. "What?"

"I'm just not used to common courtesy. It doesn't happen very much where I'm from."

"Then why is it called common?" he shot back, following her through the door then once more taking the lead through the corridor.

"Because it used to be," she replied placidly her eyes once again wide with wonder as she took in her surroundings.

The next door he opened for her lead into the throne room and he saw his sister running her had over his horse shoe shaped throne as she waited for him.

"Do you remember when father used to sit here and tell us stories about what he and his wife did in their youth?" Celeste asked softly, her voice humming with nostalgia.

"They used to fight each other quite a lot if I recall correctly," he answered indulgently and she smiled turning to face the pair. Her wide, white ruffled skirt rustling as it swept the floor from the motion and her heavy and pale travelling cloak swung soundlessly at her back.

"With sword, mace, axe and words. I always have found it odd but fitting that two people who have always been at each others throats should find love with one another." Jareth raised his eyebrow at her, the significance of her words had not been lost on him and from the slight blushon Sarah's cheeks nor had they been lost upon her. With a self conscious glance to Sarah his sister stepped forward a pleasant but shy smile on her lips.

"You must be Sarah; I've heard what little a sister can hope to hear about you from an under-descriptive brother." Jareth smiled at the pair as they held their friendly conversation, despite the fact that they were talking about him.

"Well, it can't be helped," Sarah replied with a smile of her own. "Jareth is hardly a writer. If it's any consolation all I've heard about you is that you're his sister and you're name is Celeste." The Seer gave a soft laugh and sent a scolding glance to Jareth who chose that moment to artfully look away and whistle innocently.

"Men, they just don't understand the need to go into the details about anything but their escapades."

Celeste reached forward and took a gentle hold of the other woman's hands in a friendly gesture before elaborating on her (in Jareths opinion) rather unfair statement. Only to freeze as soon as she had a grip on Sarah's hands. The smile slowly slipped from her face to be replaced by a frown that could break the sternest of hearts.

"Cele-" Jareth held his hand up to interrupt her. He knew exactly what was happening.

"She can't hear you," he said softly, his eyes not leaving those of his sisters. "She's Seeing your future. Physical contact must be enough to break through whatever magic is keeping her from Looking."

The pallid Angel began to pant, dragging the air into her lungs as though there was none to take. Her chest heaved as both of the rooms other occupants looked on in concern. Her shoulders shuddered, but it did not scare Jareth. He had seen her far worse than this when the future assailed her without warning.

Then somehow she had a tight hold on Sarah's wrists and had pulled the shorter women so that they were almost nose to nose.

"Stay away from water!" she gasped in a panicked voice that was a far cry from the timid tones she had employed before. "Though it gives life to others it will take life from you! I know not if it is a river, a reservoir, a lake or harbour, but you will be drowned in such places when you are truly the last."

"Celeste," he cooed softly as he gently began to pry her away from the much younger woman before she bruised her wrists. She looked to him dazedly allowing him to move her body for her as his brotherly instincts started to kick in. "It's okay. Calm down-"

Her head snapped to the door on the other side of the room as it banged open. Oh not now, he thought irately as the oddly coloured Elvin stood and stared at the scene.

"Celeste," he murmured wide eyed and his chest heaving staring at the now smiling Angelic woman who pulled her hands away from his.

"Auranar," she breathed happily. But Jareth knew that tone all too well and he felt silently sorry for his old friend.

In supposed glee, Celeste ran to the Elvin, her skirts rustling madly. Then a sharp single clapping noise echoed through the room, closely followed an almost manly cry of pain as the exceptionally pissed off Seer grabbed the Evins' ear and dragged him down so that he was bent down to her hip. A hand shaped red mark clearly visable on his cheek.

"Do you have any idea what you've put me through you bastard! Fourteen centuries! Fourteen! I thought you were dead! I thought you had ran off with another woman!"

"I arr-rr-rrgh, can explain." He yelped again as she dug her nails into the back of his ear, causing Jareth to flinch. Then at glancing to Sarah and seeing her puzzlement, most likely caused by the fact that if that was done to a humans ears it didn't hurt as much as Auranar was making out, he leaned slightly towards her and explained.

"An Elvins' ears are incredibly sensitive; it would be far less painful for her to go for the more common target that women use." She moved to go to her friends aid but he stopped her by putting his arm in her way and shaking his head. "This is not something you need to get involved in."

"I was worried sick! I didn't know where you were! What you were doing- who you were doing! If you were hurt! Ill! Dead for Magic's sake-" She stopped suddenly, catching site of something.

Herface softened as tears rose in her eyes and the slightest smile touched her lips. Slowly she released her hold on his ear and Jareth grimaced at the large, ugly red mark she had left on the stark white skin. "Oh, you still have the earring," she murmured dreamily staring at the tiny golden loop the was just above where she grabbed.

"Of course I still have you dizzy bint!" The Elvin snapped fondly. "I love you, I have all these years." Jareth scowled at the couple, Auranar, don't you dare. Don't you dare do what I know you're going to do In front of me.

"I ca-"

"Celeste, shut up and kiss me," he interrupted, causing Jareth to clench his fist as his sister literally dived onto the Elvin, knocking him to the floor. Swearing quietly he turned from the spectacle, only to see Sarah smirking at him.

"What?" he snapped irritably. Shaking her head and smiling she answered his query quite simply.

"He would do exactly the same thing if he saw me kissing you."

Despite himself he found a small smile creep onto his face at her words. It seemed that there was some hope. After all, she didn't speak of such a thing with disgust.

A/N Thank you to Naa-chan, orientalbunny, websurffer, White Rose Whithering, angeloneous, battousailove, DanikaLareyna, Anij, AngelMusic and LadyAlira for reviewing the previous chapter. It is hugly apriciated. (YAY! Over half a hundred reviews, I feel loved.)

I've changed what you can vote for, sorry to be a neusance but I had too. If I write a sequel it would just be far too corny and cliched. So please vote because I geuinly don't know which one to write because I have so many ideas for both.

A) A prequel about the war. ( Winning so far with 5 votes.)

B) A completely different story, still Labyrinth of course. (Loosing horifically with 1 vote.)

And no, this story is not finished yet, no where near infact. There is still a fair bit to go.