a/n: "The Annoying Hardcore Dude Who Goes Too Far" is (c) Bradley Hathaway. The verse Evelyn speaks is John 15:13
3
Jareth's visit was cut short by Aunt Helen's arrival with dinner for the women, so he left with a hug for Trinity and a puff of glitter. Helen commented on the sparkles that seemed to hover around her niece, but it was just in passing. Then she sent Trinity to look for Evelyn.
The black-haired girl found her friend lying down on the porch next to the pool. She had one hand, the one with the leather bracelet, pressed to her heart, and her eyes were closed. Trinity wasn't sure if she was sleeping or not.
"Ev?" she called, "Time for dinner."
Evelyn shook herself and pushed herself up on her elbows. "Jareth leave already?"
"Yes," Trinity said, turning pink, "He had to scoot when Aunt Helen got home with the food. Are you okay?"
Evelyn smiled. "Yeah. Just tired from the trip."
"Tired from an hour drive?" the younger woman raised her eyebrows.
"You'd be surprised." It really had been a tiring trip, with all that Evelyn had on her mind. Even Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart hadn't helped as much as they normally did.
Her friend sighed. "Whatever. Anyways, it's that really good pizza, so you may wanna come inside and get some before me and Helen eat it all."
"Fine, I'll come in," Evelyn mock-scowled and pushed herself all the way to her feet.
The girls hung out in Evelyn's room as they ate, doing some more catching up. They were to be camp counselors at the horse camp Helen Mason ran every summer, and were looking forward to seeing their other friends who were returning as instructors.
"Too bad Lisa's not gonna be here," Trinity sighed.
"Well, she's married now."
"I know!" the dark-haired woman exclaimed. "I was there! She was sooo gorgeous!" Her eyes moistened just remembering it.
Their friend, Lisa, had married a man named Evan a few months before. She'd worked with Trinity's aunt for several years, and her two younger sisters were also great friends of Trinity's and Evelyn's. Evelyn and Trinity had seen each other briefly at the wedding, but not enough to really catch up with each other. Mainly they had been teasing Lisa about marrying the man she had claimed for years was "just a friend".
"So what are we gonna do for the week before camp starts?" Trinity asked, taking another bite of pizza.
"We could take the horses up to Spruce Hill to ride some trails," Evelyn suggested, "I learned how to drive a truck with a trailer on it at my other job. I'm sure your aunt wouldn't mind. You could even invite Jareth along."
"Problem," Trinity said, holding up her hand, "What would Helen think if we took three horses there? We're only two people."
"She knows you have a boyfriend. Surely he loves you enough to drive for a couple hours to meet us there."
Trinity rolled her eyes. "She wouldn't approve."
"You're an adult now," Evelyn said, "She really can't say anything about that."
"Oh yeah," Trinity's eyebrows furrowed. "I keep forgetting that."
Evelyn rolled her eyes. Just like Trinity to forget she'd been a legal adult for nearly a year and a half.
"So that's one thing, I guess," Trinity said, yawning.
"When did you get here?" Evelyn asked.
"Two days ago. It was like the day after finals ended," she said, laughing. "I got out of class and was like 'I'm outta here, bye.'"
Evelyn laughed. "What about your friends up there? Did you get to say goodbye to Jason?"
"Yeah," Trinity said, sighing. "He picked me up and took me out for ice cream after finals. I miss everyone, but they get to see me more than everyone down here. Plus, not many of them are horse people. Really, just Carrie. Jason never took to them, although he liked Trigger."
"Bet Trigger didn't like him," Evelyn said, snorting.
Trinity laughed. "Nope. That horse thinks he's my boyfriend. It took him two months before he'd let Jareth ride him without bucking."
"Do Jareth and Jason get along?"
"Not as well as I'd like. I mean, Jareth is nice to him because of how much he helped me, but they didn't really take to each other. Kinda like how when Jason had a girlfriend, she never really took to me. Now that I think about it, that's probably why Jason didn't like coming to my work. Jareth was there a lot, exercising Trig for me or helping me with my chores."
Evelyn smiled. She enjoyed how Trinity was so open with her life.
"So we have one thing to do this week," the younger woman sighed, "What day is the trip to Spruce Hill gonna be?"
"Um…" the brown-haired woman pulled out her calendar, where she scheduled riding lessons. "Looks like Wednesday is a good day. Do you have any lessons scheduled?"
"Nope," Trinity sighed, "Helen never gives me any."
"Well, that's not a bad thing," Evelyn said, "She told all my old students that I was coming back, and they started calling me like a week before I got here."
"Wow. You're popular."
"I don't know about that." Evelyn shook her head.
The black-haired girl happened to glance at her watch then. "Um, we have church tomorrow. We should probably head to bed."
"Alright."
On her way up to her room, Trinity remembered something. "Oh yeah! Evelyn!"
Evelyn poked her head out of her door. "Yeah?"
"Helen and Gary are leaving tomorrow afternoon to go out of town!" her friend called, "And they won't get back till Monday afternoon. So we got the farm to ourselves in that time."
"'Kay!" Evelyn called back.
XxXxX
Jareth let his fist hit the table with a bang, followed by his head.
"I will never get this right," he muttered.
Crops had been short as of late, thanks to heavy rains brought on by the king's heartbreak years ago. Much of the soil had been washed away, and the land still hadn't recovered. So he had had to import food from a neighboring country, which was embarrassing, and it bothered him to show this weakness. Now, pirates were marauding the seas around the Underground, and the merchants weren't willing to ship goods without extra price for protection. He had tried shipping over land, but it was twice as expensive and much slower than shipping by sea.
It was times like these he wished he could stay in the Aboveground with Trinity permanently.
He thought back to when he had last seen her, two weeks ago in his time. He had told her most of this, because she liked to know what was going on in his kingdom. As well she should, because – if he could get this right – she would be joining him as queen within ten years in his time. He envied her the one year – her time – she would wait.
Of course, that might take longer if he couldn't figure out when and where and how to propose.
Yes, despite all the other pressing problems in his kingdom, the goblin king was ultimately worried about how he was to propose to the woman he loved. It was more complicated than he had thought at first. There was only one person he could confide in at this time, and he spent most of his time in the Aboveground.
"Jareth?" the voice came from behind the king of Underground.
Jareth lifted his head off the table, wondering how Vorian knew when to appear exactly when he was needed. He turned to face his childhood friend.
"What are you doing?" Vorian asked, raising his eyebrow.
Jareth sighed. "I was – working on – something pressing…"
"You were composing your proposal to Trinity?" The prince of water had walked over to the table and picked up one of the papers Jareth had been unceremoniously scribbling on.
The king stood and snatched it back, crumpling the paper and throwing it into the fireplace. "That was not meant for anyone's eyes."
"I'm sure," Vorian said brightly. Then his face clouded. "I actually wanted to talk to you about … something like that."
Jareth raised an eyebrow. "Go on."
Vorian sighed. "Well, it's just that…I was wondering about…" He broke off, furrowing his eyebrows as he tried to figure out how to word what he wanted to say.
"You're wondering about Miss Evelyn?" Jareth guessed.
Vorian smiled, glad that he didn't have to say it himself. "Yes. It's just that…I feel like my world would end without her. But she doesn't seem to feel the same way. Or if she does, she tries extremely hard to not let me see it."
"Does she know of your affections?"
The water prince turned pink around the ears. "I'm afraid not. I confess, I haven't been brave enough to tell her."
Jareth smiled, and rolled his eyes. "How do you expect her to respond to something she doesn't know?"
"Well…" Vorian trailed off, sounding hopeless, "I guess I can't. But what about you? You told me Trinity showed you that she cared about you before you had told her anything."
"Trinity…" the goblin king smiled, thinking of the black-haired woman he loved, "She knew that I loved her even before I did. She has a bold and wild spirit, much like my own, or so people tell me, and so she was sure. But you and Evelyn…you both have quiet spirits. It will not work in quite the same way it has for Trinity and I."
"That is true." The water prince sighed. "I just…I do not want her to feel…pressured. I want her to be free to choose."
"I understand," Jareth said, standing and clapping Vorian on the back. "I'm sure it will work out, though. If it is meant to be, then it will be."
"That is much easier said than applied," Vorian grumbled.
Then they both laughed.
"When do you have to go back Aboveground?" Jareth asked Vorian.
The water prince shrugged. "My boss – that is, my overseer – told me that I could have the weekend off. I wanted to spend more time at the farm with the girls, but I wasn't sure if Evelyn wanted me around. So I took my leave and came here."
"So you'll need to leave…"
"In another week, our time, I'm pretty sure."
Jareth rolled his eyes. Vorian had been in the Aboveground so long he had picked up a lot of their terminology and idioms. It was already confusing enough trying to keep up with Trinity – when she wasn't trying, which she did when she visited the Underground. He himself had been saved from the human language because he needed a dignified tongue when he faced his people.
"When are you to visit Trinity again?"
"I don't know," the goblin king said, furrowing his brows. "The people are in need of me here…"
"Pirates?"
"Exactly. I don't know what I'm to do about them."
Vorian shrugged. "A visit to the Aboveground will do you good, I say."
Jareth had his eyes closed, and was holding very still. Vorian waved a hand in front of his face.
"Jareth?" he asked.
The goblin king swatted at Vorian's hand. When he opened his eyes, the water prince noticed they were sparkling.
"She wants me to visit soon. They are taking the horses to a place where they can ride on trails all day, and wish me to accompany them."
"How do you know?" Vorian was awed.
"The ring I gave her, that she wears around her neck," Jareth answered simply. "If she rubs it gently, and talks, I can hear every word she says. I can't reply, but once she discovered what it did, it turned out very useful."
"You didn't tell her before giving it to her?"
Jareth ducked his head. "It wasn't the appropriate time."
Vorian rolled his eyes. "She was angry at you when she figured it out, was she?"
The goblin king laughed. "For a while. But then she used it to apologize."
XxXxX
"So why didn't you invite Jareth over?" Evelyn asked Trinity, as they sat in front of the television eating supper.
Trinity's face fell. "His kingdom has been going through a lot," she said, "They're having issues with food imports and pirates. He needs to be there with his people."
"Aww, that's good," Evelyn said, smiling. "We spent enough time getting him back on his throne; I'd have to kick him if he was doing a bad job."
Trinity laughed. "I am hardCORE!" she exclaimed.
"I will windmill kick you in the face!" both girls cried at the same time, and starting laughing.
"Are we having emo pansies for breakfast?" Evelyn asked.
"We'll give their little t-shirts to our little sisters," Trinity said, giggling.
"We'll have to eat a lot."
"For real."
Both of them laughed again.
"How did we get on Bradley Hathaway?" the green-eyed woman asked.
"Your fault," her friend answered, "You said that about kicking Jareth."
"Fine."
They were silent for a time. Then, Trinity got an idea.
"You could have invited Vorian to come and hang out," she said slyly.
Evelyn turned away. "I'm sure he's busy."
The smaller girl rolled her eyes. "Right. Like he doesn't care enough to take time off to hang out with you."
"Well, I'm sure he's busy."
Trinity snorted. To her, it was a pretty pathetic excuse. "Whatever. I'll invite him over next time."
Evelyn blushed.
"You know," Trinity said, "He really does care about you. A lot. More than enough to take off time to visit you. He wouldn't be working on a Sunday anyways."
"I know…" Evelyn sighed. "I'm just…not sure about myself. How do I know I'm not just crushing on him?"
The smaller girl rolled her eyes.
"It's not that simple. Things never are," Evelyn said, getting up and bringing her plate into the kitchen. "I don't quite know what to think or do."
"What is it with that bracelet?" Trinity asked, watching as Evelyn put the bracelet to her heart again.
"It has some sort of power, so that when I put it to my heart, I can hear the ocean and feel the breezes. There's also persistent warmth that's extremely hard to explain. It just makes me feel like…like everything is going to be okay."
She smiled at Trinity, pushing aside her concerns.
"Did Jareth say if he's coming with us on Wednesday or not?"
"He is," Trinity nodded.
"Great! I already spoke to Miss Helen about it all, and she said it'd be fine if we took the trailer and three of the horses. We'll have a great time!"
"You could ask Vorian to come," Trinity persisted.
"And somehow squeeze a fourth horse into the trailer?" Evelyn grinned. "Or, even better, have Vorian and Jareth ride double on Storm the whole time? I don't think so. Don't worry about Vorian."
"I'm not worried about Vorian. I'm concerned about how you feel about him."
"Well don't be," Evelyn said simply. "Everything's fine. We're friends. Neither of us has a grudge against the other. We just don't have a deep relationship like you and Jareth do."
"But what about how you saved each other's lives? Vorian said that took trust and love."
"Yes, love, like the verse 'Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for a friend.' We put down our lives to save each other."
"And you cuddled up against him."
"Trinity!" Evelyn exclaimed, exasperated. "Those were critical conditions, all right?"
"If you say so," Trinity grinned at Evelyn's obvious frustration. "Let's start making plans for Wednesday."