"Well if you didn't want me, what kept you from seeking out others? Others more obliging, softer, gentler, more generous than me…" His twisted smirk contrasted sharply with the dead weight in his eyes.
"I refuse to be with anyone who cannot shake me to the core and touch the very heart of me. Even if it means being alone forever."
He snorted lightly and trailed the old quip, "It's only forever."
"Yeah, something like that," she sighed, keeping her gaze studiously square, fixed on the window across from them.
Raising his chin in a barely visible shrug, he looked her over and found himself in awe of her ability to appear totally stoic. How formal and reserved she was when confronted…Especially when he knew the truth behind her internal workings. He'd laugh at the disparity except that same reservation had cut him more than once already. So instead he fidgeted, ostensibly making himself more comfortable in his seat at the edge of her bed.
"Well, if it's forever that you want, what kept you from reaching out to me?"
"I called on you and you never came," she replied flatly, then in an afterthought added, "But it's true, you know. You shake me to the core."
"Say your right words…" he insinuated lowly. The depths in his voice made Sarah sit up straight from the goose bumps rising all over her flesh.
"I guess I thought I had." Jareth winced at the pain suddenly evident in her voice.
"Well, if that's how you feel about it, enjoy eternity…" he made motion to get up.
"Stay…please," she uttered in barely more than a whisper.
"Stay?" he was standing now, looking down at her with his typical guarded yet mischievous façade.
"I don't care how, just stay. However it has to be, then let it be. I want you. Even if I can't have you with me."
He felt his heart rate climb, keeping his mask in place.
"Who told you I can't be with you?" His question hit a place inside Sarah. She could feel some sort of wall coming down.
"Maybe that's what I told myself after you didn't respond."
"Hm…That's a bit rash and presumptuous of you I might say. Though also quite typical if I know you at all."
"Not that you care, but I missed you," she muttered in an impulsive and ill thought reaction to his guarded tenderness. He winced again, doing his best to condone her little jabs as she struggled with expressing how she truly felt toward him.
She continued after a long silence, expending her last reserves of inspiration in the process, "So what are the right words?"
"Wrong words," his quick parry.
"Right…gotta figure it out myself then…" her disappointment was only further confirmed. He watched her deflate an inch or two.
"No." Her head perked up at his curt negative. Not what she'd been expecting.
"What then?"
"You tell me."
"Wha?" She was getting exasperated again.
"Tell me, Sarah. And do it right."
At that, Sarah threw her hands up in the air and let out a cry of absolute confusion mixed with a strange sort of relief. Still a corner or two to round in this strange labyrinthine dance of hearts?