A/N Own Nothing

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The seven of us set up our lanes. Jareth, Carla, Jason and I were on one side. Hoggle, Didymus and Valerie were on the other. I had to teach Jareth and the two kids how to play. Valerie and Hoggle had a harder time trying to explain the game to Didymus. I was glad at least one of the men knew how to play.

We spent a lot of time picking out our bowling balls. Carla was happy because the lighter ones were pink, but Jason did not want to use a pink ball. It took some convincing but eventually he allowed it. To be honest, it took some bribing. However, Jareth was being difficult about it. He was looking for a nice purple shiny ball, it didn't matter what weight it was. I eventually left him alone to look through them while I got the kids started.

Whenever it was Carla's turn, Hoggle would come over to help her roll it down the lane. I was helping Jason but he got bored after a few times and we let Carla play for him. Valerie and Didymus spent most of the time flirting with each other. I laughed to myself wondering if the three of them were actually playing. I brought my attention back to our game for a bit.

"Uncle Hoggle! Uncle Hoggle! I hit a pin all by myself!" Carla was shouting while she was jumping around happily. I noticed just then that Hoggle had put up the bumpers for her.

"Good job, now let's see if you can knock them all down."

Our second game was only on one lane and only Hoggle, Carla, and I were playing. I think Jareth was a little pissy because he was having such a hard time getting the ball to hit all the pins. He wasn't doing a bad job, but Hoggle was beating him and he didn't like that. Valerie and Didymus were too into their own conversations to be paying attention to what was going on.

Hoggle really seemed to like being around Carla. That made my job that much easier. Jason just sat on the floor nicely playing with a little truck he had brought with him. I sat down next to Jareth for a bit. He was sulking on the sidelines.

"What's up? Is bowling not your sport?"

"I would rather be in my office."

"I think you need some mood stabilizers. Either that or learn to have a bit of fun. You actually did really well for your first time. Why not enjoy it?"

Jareth just shrugged and sat there for a bit longer before excusing himself to the restroom. I started to wonder if there was something more wrong than Jareth just being anti-social. I decided that he would tell me if he wanted to and went back to praising my niece for all the pins she was knocking over.

Eventually it was time to go back home, but first we had to take care of Jason's bribe and stopped to get some ice cream. We went to Dairy Queen and got us all sundaes; except Jareth. He just sat with us continuing to be in a bad mood.

"Uncle Hoggle, did I beat you in bowling?" Carla asked once she got her ice cream.

Hoggle laughed, "Almost kid, you beat your aunt though. She is terrible."

Carla laughed at that and did a little victory dance. Jason thought she was funny and tried to copy her. Everyone seemed to be having a great time, with one exception.

"I thought you loved Dairy Queen." I whispered to Jareth while everyone else was talking about what event we would all be doing next week. Looking at Valerie and Didymus, I didn't think they were going to be waiting a whole week to see each other again. Didymus kept pushing a Scrabble tournament which Hoggle kept vetoing.

Jareth just shrugged again. There was definitely something wrong with him. That made me start inspecting him. His skin looked a little paler than usual and I think he was sweating, but that just could be because he was uncomfortable. I decided I was worrying about nothing and left him alone for a bit longer.

Finally Valerie came out of her own little bubble that only included her and her new possible boyfriend and noticed Jareth being anti-social, "Well Jareth since you didn't really enjoy the last two outings, why don't you pick the next one?"

"I'll think about it," Jareth replied obviously not interested. A few seconds later he whispered to me asking me to get him some water. I agreed and went to buy him a bottle, but he was in the bathroom again when I got back.

"Does one of you guys want to go check on him?" I asked hoping one of them would volunteer.

They both immediately said no and that I should leave him alone. Either they knew what was wrong or they knew not to bother him when he was like that. I scooted back into the booth and left the water at his spot. He wasn't gone very long thankfully and he sipped at the water.

"Jareth, will you read us a story tonight?" Carla asked when she was done with her ice cream. Jason looked at him with hopeful eyes. If they were asking me I would have never been able to turn down that look.

"Another night," he answered. I told them that Jareth would be going home after this and they would be staying at my apartment. They got excited and started talking about making a fort with my chairs to sleep in. I laughed thankful that I had lots of blankets for them to use. I took them both to the bathroom to get them cleaned up before getting into the limo.

After all the ice cream, Carla and Jason were hyper on the ride home. Jareth sat with his eyes closed most of the way. I hoped he wasn't angry with them or me. They seemed to think that it was extremely funny to be walking around in a vehicle. Hoggle wasn't helping the situation much by pretending to try and grab them when they walked by calling himself the big bad dwarf.

"You're a dwarf?" I asked thinking about my dreams. I was amused at the coincidence.

"Uh… no I ain't, I am taller than you ain't I?" Hoggle actually looked worried. Maybe he had issues with his height. He was taller than me, but not by much; which made him really short for a guy. I laughed to myself thinking of three brothers he might have had towering over him. It was too funny thinking of him possibly being the runt of the family; he was too muscular to be considered a runt.

By the time we dropped off Valerie, Hoggle and Didymus the kids were coming down from their sugar high and sitting quietly on the other side of the limo. I took the opportunity to talk to Jareth.

"Are you ok?" No answer from Jareth. His eyes were closed with his hand over them. I decided to ask again, "What's the matter?" Jareth just shook his head. I thought for a moment. "You need some aspirin? I think I have something in my purse." I started rummaging through looking for some type of headache reliever. I found a no-name brand and handed him two pills and a bottle of water. I was actually surprised when he took it. I was now satisfied that I knew what had been wrong the whole night.

"We can go somewhere quiet next time. Maybe we can go to a movie or something. It isn't really quiet but there won't be tons of people having a million conversations. Then we could go to dinner at someplace nice."

I expected an argument from Jareth, but he just nodded. Wow, I thought. This must have been some headache. I knew he didn't watch television but I wasn't sure of his feelings on movies. He never got any references I had ever made to any of the classics.

When the kids and I got into the apartment the two of them forgot all about fort building and went straight to sleep. I smiled to myself. They were making it too easy for me to be a babysitter. Speaking of babysitter, they would need one when I went to work. I decided that I would call the college kids next door. I met them a few times and they were very nice. I am sure one of them could use some money.