"Ceylon Leifdel at your service," he announced with a small wave and a smile.
Sarah raised her eyebrow, still defensive and shifted her weight nervously.
"Why are you in my room?" her voice was beginning to edge with the anger the more the events just before sat in her mind.
He looked at her with saddened eyes for a moment, then looked around the room taking in all the grandeur of the suite Sarah lived in. His hand traced over the wood of her bed absently as he spoke.
"I simply came to meet you and had the unfortunate consequence of catching you in the middle of a lover's quarrel, I must say I apologize for eavesdropping, but trying to leave seemed slightly impossible at the time where his Highness may have not been so forgiving."
He seemed harmless enough, and Sarah was in the mood to be dangerous, her anger had been set off by something so small she didn't fully understand WHY she was truly angry with him in the first place. She knew Jareth trusted her, so why was this making her so angry? She crossed her arms and eyed Ceylon up and down once again.
"What did you want to see me about?" she inquired, leaving emotion out of her voice.
Ceylon stood under her gaze, trying to decide how to answer her.
"I simply wanted to meet the girl who managed to scare away my older sister, Moirah. You must have truly been intimidating to have frightened her away from here so badly, she'd been after Jareth's crown for years, and was extremely determined on winning it," his voice seemed amused, not one seeking revenge.
"I'm wondering if the reasons I stood up to her were true the more I try to get to know Jareth," she felt compelled to tell Ceylon how she felt, a complete stranger yet she almost trusted him even only knowing him for minutes. She did just that, pouring out all her feelings about Jareth, what she wanted to do for him, and how unreasonably maddening it was, to start to get to know him more.
He listened quietly, nodding occasionally but didn't say anything until she was finished, she was more angry than when he had first arrived, but that hardly seemed to bother him, if anything, his eyes seemed to be glowing more the more angry she became.
"You're right you know," he said and kept an even gaze with her, "he should be telling you about his kingdom if he trusts you, and if he's not talking doesn't that mean that he honestly DOESN'T trust you? What about your privacy anyway? Didn't you say he can read minds? How is THAT trust when he constantly can see what you're thinking?" his voice was rising, it made her feel more. More anger, more malice, things she didn't even knew she could feel towards him. But Ceylon was drawing these emotions out of her, almost as if he fed on them, the angrier she became the more alive Ceylon seemed to be.
Furious, Sarah paced around the room like a caged lion simply awaiting a victim to come into her clutches, her leather boots hardly making a sound as she strode. Ceylon watched her, intrigued, and stood up, backing away into the shadows of her window, which was black out now.
"I'm glad I could be here for you to talk to, and Sarah, should you ever need me simply call," he winked, "but I do think it would be much safer to leave Jareth out of the knowledge of our visits for the time being. From the way you speak, I think he would disapprove of us speaking together, shall we?" he said smiled when Sarah nodded in agreement, backing into the shadows and leaving altogether.
Sarah's anger mellowed out on the surface but was still raging around inside her corset, she called for Dangle.
"I'd like to dine in my room tonight, if you please," it was a simple command and Dangle disappeared in a flash, leaving Sarah to gaze out her window, pondering what she could do tomorrow, or rather, what she was going to do regardless of his Majesty's approval tomorrow.
Jareth sat frustrated in his throne room, rubbing his throbbing temples while tapping his riding crop against his boot. He felt guilty, he had no reason to blow up on Sarah, she was only trying to help him and he knew that, so why had he felt so compelled to hide from her?
His past was a thing of disgrace, when Sarah had left him he not only had gone into a depression, but also had thrown fits of anger for months. Spilling innocent blood he didn't need to, letting his Labyrinth turn itself into a fucking torture chamber, it pained him to remember how helpless he had felt, over this one silly girl who couldn't keep herself safe for more than a few hours at a time.
He buried his face into his hands, wishing he could erase all the memories of things he had done.
When he had let his malice loose onto anyone, uncaring.
When he had gone so far into a fit of rage he summoned up the darkness that had long been sealed away.
When he had laughed so proudly when he snapped his fingers, broke the chain, and willingly allowed the darkness to entirely overtake him.
The darkness invading him, increasing his power, responding to his dangerous emotions, it would lash out, attacking anyone near him. Children, women, Fae and Goblin alike.
It was the dark time in his kingdom's past, and things only grew increasingly worse when Moirah had come into his life, breeding lies right under his nose without his knowing. When she had told him that she'd discovered Sarah Williams had died, sorrow and anger blended together in a combination of terror. Jareth had refused to see anyone for weeks, letting his kingdom rot away and helping it destroy it in his sadness.
So much blood had been spilled in such a short time, one could have repainted many of the Labyrinth's walls.
Things only began to get better after he hit rock bottom, he had struck out at Dangle, his care Goblin who had helped raise him, and injured her for life, the limp she walked with he couldn't heal. He finally came to his senses and began restoring everything he had so easily destroyed. Moirah had been helpful at one time, easy to let everything else from his mind vanish, until he had seen she was only after his crown.
Jareth took a deep breath as he came out of his memories, sitting in his window watching his kingdom in the night. It had taken time, and growth on his part, but he had restored the Labyrinth to its finest and was ever vigilant about the decisions he made towards it.
The Darkness being out was his fault, and it took most of his power to lock it away to the forest, but as things were showing, the border wasn't going to hold much longer, and the goblin that had burst in earlier had a report in his mind showing him there were mere weeks away from losing all control.
The next few days were nothing short of disasters.
Sarah refused to see the Goblin King in the slightest, and was in such a mood to go off and disobey any rule she could find. One day she took Sky off and flew over the wall and disappeared into the market for the entire day, eluding the guards sent to find her, and managing to start a fight with a water goblin at the edge of the Black Rose Forest, not a creature any other creature was particularly fond of.
The next she proceeded to allow any of the goblins in the castle to do whatever they pleased, and they took her up on it to the extreme. It took Jareth the entire day to put his castle back into order there had been so much chaos so quickly. He had caught a glimpse of Sarah briefly before she disappeared into her room, smiling like proud cat who had caught her mouse.
The following day was probably the worst, she managed to take Sky, yet again, out of the castle limits and straight INTO the Black Rose Forest. She wasn't lost, at first, and thankfully she had taken the sword with her so she did have SOME sort of defense from whatever it was she had run into. Jareth had spent the entire day, trying to organize the ball for day after tomorrow, going through his routine checks, and worrying about Sarah since he knew she'd only run off again the minute she saw him. When she had returned she had dirt smeared all over her face, one of her dresses was pretty much damaged beyond repair, she had a small bruise behind her neck, and little scratches all over her arms.
Today, however, she had been reasonable and kept the chaos within the castle walls, after scaring the cook, playing pranks on the gardener, and "reorganizing" all of Jareth's books in his study. How she managed to get around the entire castle without him knowing was beyond him, but he had a couple ideas of the goblins who had been helping her.
He sighed, things were going to become very complicated very quickly he feared if he didn't resolve the situation immediately. He had sent Dangle on an errand recently after the fight and she was only due back at the castle this evening, but, when he summoned Dangle, she walked in with a very…upsetting look.
"What did ya do?" she asked a bit gruffly. Her little arms were crossed and foot was tapping impatiently.
"I hid from her…what's really happening, and how I was feeling about something. How is she?" he asked anxiously.
"She's on er' balcony at the moment, I'd go see er' if I was you, you have some talkins' to do I bet," her mouth turned into a familiar goblin smile.
His Majesty gave her a brief smirk before flying out the window, circling the castle with practiced ease and landing quietly on the roof above her. Sarah was singing a Celtic lullaby he knew.
"Lay down your head, and I'll sing you a lullaby
Back to the years of loo lee lai lay
And I'll sing you to sleep
And I'll sing you tomorrow
Bless you with love
For the rode that you go
May you sail fast
To the far field of fortune
With diamonds and pearls at your head and your feet
And may you need never
To banish misfortune
May you find kindness in all that you need
May there always be angels to watch over you
To guide you each step of the way
To guard and keep you safe from all harm
Loo lee loo lee lai lay
May you bring love
And may you bring happiness,
Be loved in return,
To the end of your days,
Now fall asleep,
I'm not meaning to keep you,
I'll just sit for a while and sing
Loo lee lai lay,
May there always be angles to watch over you,
To guard you each step of the way,
To guard you and keep safe from all harm,
Loo lee loo lee lai lay,
Loo lee loo lee lai lay."
He watched as a small night fairy flew to her, glowing a soft pale blue, and presented her with a flower, in gratitude for her singing. She took it gratefully and smiled, a smile filled with a sadness, before turning to head inside. The Goblin King breathed deeply as he heard her sing, such a beautiful tune, it eased him from his nervousness, and climbed down gracefully onto her stone railing.
She gave a small start before glaring at him; she kept her eyes even to his.
"I don't want to see you right now, or was the lack of me at dinner too subtle for you?" she added with sass.
Sass was good, sass was very good. Sass was workable, it wasn't malice, and it wasn't venom.
He folded his arms and took up his glittery prideful stance, the dominant side of him trying to stake some ground, but dropped his arms down to his side. That was just asking for another fight, one he'd much rather try and avoid at this point.
"I didn't misunderstand your message Dearest, I simply came to fix things, fighting with you, no matter how exciting it may be at the time, can alter the future I've found and would like to avoid it as much as possible," he said and took a few steady even strides with his long, tight breeched legs towards her.
Sarah crossed her arms in a slow motion, there wasn't a trace of agreement in her face and Jareth furrowed his brows in confusion.
"Would you rather stay like this?" he asked his words laced with sarcasm.
She turned on her heel and walked over to her bed, turned down the covers and went into the bathroom where her bath was being drawn. Confusion flooded her mind at the moment, she wanted to be angry with him, but at the same time she didn't, she wanted to be back in his arms with all this tension gone. Walking back into the other room she went straight to her dresser and pulled out a nightgown, ignoring his Majesty entirely.
"Sarah," he called as she walked back towards the bathroom, still ignoring him.
"Sarah!" he said louder and walked over to the door where she was about to run into him.
"Don't defy me," he warned and caught her gently in his leather grasp, though she kept her head away from him, he pointedly took his finger and turned her chin up towards him.
"Talk to me," he said softly, on the water of the bath disrupting their silence.
"I don't know what to say, I don't even know what I'm feeling at this point! I want to be mad at you," she paused and gripped his arms, holding him away from her (he obviously let her considering he's undoubtedly stronger) "but at the same time I want nothing more than to be over this stupid feeling and back in your arms," the water stopped itself since it was full and they both stood there, not entirely sure of what to say to the other.
"I'm sorry," he whispered trying to atone in some way for all of the things he had kept from her and all the worry and concern he had caused her. Sarah was someone he would always trust, with everything. She was part of his foundation now, and something he now understood he could come back to whenever he was falling apart on the inside.
The silence hung in the air, slowly beginning to thin out as Sarah let go of him and stepped closer. She wrapped her arms tight against him, he hands tightening in his soft poet's shirt.
"I'm sorry too, I'm not sure why I reacted to…unreasonably. It wasn't something I'd normally be so upset about. I know you trust me," she pulled back and looked deep into his mismatched tender gaze, his hand brushing through her hair,
"and I know your kingdom is yours to be run as you see fit, which also includes keeping me out of things if that's what is best. But please," she moved her hands to she was cupping both sides of his face,
"Don't keep me locked out on how you feel, let me share some of your burden, you can always rely on me, please remember that," she leaned forward and pressed her lips into his, both of them clinging to each other for a moment before she pulled away.
He held against him once more, relief rushed through him. Leaning forward by her ear he whispered softly, "Thank you love."