Disclaimer: Wouldn't it be nice to own Jareth? I mean, really, wouldn't it? Too bad.
DanikaLareyna: Aw, thanks! Portland, huh? Way cool! I'm envious! Yes… I'm fairly certain that kissing Jareth would feel like flying. He is gorgeous and fae, after all.
Sanoru: Nah, I'm not awesome… just a geek. But, a happily spastic geek, who has wonderful pictures of Jareth around her cubicle at work… not that that matters, I'm just saying, I HAVE PICTURES OF HIM AROUND MY CUBE! Heh…
Anij: Aw, thanks! You know, I'm not fond of writing about the goblins, but this one was kinda fun!
Urgh, I am in a bad mood! I am writing this chapter to, literally, try and cheer myself up.
Okay, music recommendations (I apologize for some of them being a bit on the angry side today):
Something More by Sugarland – my feelings at the moment
The 1812 by Bond – anyone seen V for Vendetta? LOL! BOOM! Ahahahaha!
Pablo Picasso by David Bowie – a good weird song with an angry/snotty twist
Just Like Jesse James by Cher – Oooh… it's like Jareth and Wren's theme! I love it!
Approximately two months after Wren ran the Labyrinth…
In all truth, I was still in shock.
For the next few weeks after I returned from the Labyrinth, I was majorly freaked… well, it wasn't so horrible, I admit, but it was still… odd. Every now and then, most of the time at night, and without notice, the Goblin King would just appear in front of me. Each time, I'd jump and either drop something or run into something.
But, it was nice… he'd just show up to talk – though he never would admit to that, at first. He'd give me some other reason why he was there like, "To see if you still believe in me," or, "To check on your sanity," but we usually ended up doing one of two things: sitting on my bed, our backs to the walls, talking about our day, or he'd take me to the Underground and we'd walk around a garden or something, talking about our day. It was awkward at first, but… once we started arguing about something or other, the awkwardness vanished as if it had never been there.
Some days… some days I wondered if it was all a dream. The only thing that kept me sane, at first, was my ring. I knew I hadn't gotten that ring anywhere else, and I knew, with that on my finger, that it had all happened and was true.
But, I quickly discovered, that ring was a part of my problems.
Two days after getting it from Jareth, I was wearing it and feeling slightly on the giddy side. I was walking around my office at work thinking, "The Goblin King is my friend!", over and over. When I got home, I was still thinking that… and then Orla spotted it while visiting, and gave me the third degree over where I'd gotten it. I knew she wasn't going to give up… but I generally don't like to tell her things, so I didn't say anything. At the time, she let it go.
About a month after meeting Jareth, I noticed he was acting oddly. It happened one night, while the two of us were talking in my room, quietly. (Thank heavens I'm the last kid living at home, and also that my parents' room is farthest from mine). I was exhausted, but he'd come to talk, and I did like talking to him, so I was doing my best to stay awake while we leaned our backs to the wall and chatted.
Well, he chatted. I dozed. It was late (12:30 in the morning… urgh…), and he was talking about some issues with a group of fairies that had managed to get into his personal chambers that morning.
"Ghastly," he was saying, "The rotten things were simply everywhere, even under my bed…"
I was listening, but at the cost of my muscle control. My head was too tired to stay upright. Without even thinking, I put my head on his shoulder. He paused in what he was saying, looking down at me.
"I'm listening, keep going," I told him. He continued telling me about the ordeal. Slowly, my attention span started wandering. It didn't help that his shoulder was very warm. I could feel it through his poet shirt. Then I noticed his shirt… it was a pale blue (the same color as his right eye) and it was loose on his arms. I captured a bit of it between my fingers and started playing with it. This he didn't mind, or even seem to notice, really, but then a wave of tiredness washed over me and his arm was so warm… I linked my arm through his and snuggled against him.
"… all through the wardrobe, the monstrous – Wren?"
"Hmm? I'm listening, I swear. The fairies were in your shirts, right?"
"Yes…" he stiffened. I felt the muscles in his arm tighten, and he quickly disentangled his arm from me. "I should be going, you are very tired from your day." He gently leaned me down onto my pillow, his hand pausing near my face for a moment, and then stood and left quicker than he'd done before.
Eh, I was so tired I didn't think much of it. But, slowly, this kind of behavior started happening more and more often. Two weeks later, while we were strolling through one of his gardens (yes, he has gardens. They're on the other side of the castle, but he has them. My favorite, which was the one we were in at the time, has several fountains… gorgeous) and I was telling him about the hilarity from work.
"So, Dan stood up and just started dancing – it was freaky! I couldn't stop laughing at all…" I was having so much fun telling Jareth about what had happened, and at his reaction to my story (he seemed lightly amused… but he kept smiling, probably at my own excitement to be telling him), that I wasn't watching where I was going.
My flip-flop snagged on a rock. I gasped as I tripped and a surge of fear washed through me when I saw that I was going to surely bash my head against the edge of the fountain we were walking beside. But in a flash, I was upright again… and in Jareth's arms.
He'd lunged forward to catch me, but rather than just grabbing my arm or hand or simply pushing me into the fountain itself, he'd caught… all of me. Literally, I don't know how he did it. He was in front of me, his arms wrapped around me, hugging me close to his chest. So close, in fact, that I could feel his heart beating through his vest.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"I am now," I said, my voice catching in my throat a little. I realized that my arms were around him, too… heavens, his waist felt really nice…
"Ah, good… and now I really have something to take care of in the throne room, those goblins really cannot be left alone for a moment!" He quickly pulled away from me and started walking fast, "Stay as long as you like, Wren. I shall see you later," and he was gone.
I frowned, still thinking of how nice he smelled. Sad that he just left so suddenly, I glumly counted my ring and went home.
And in the two weeks that followed that night, I didn't see Jareth at all. I was wrapped up in school and work, but Jareth didn't come to visit me… and it was quite depressing. I missed him terribly, and I was worried that I'd done something that upset him, so I wasn't about to go visit him uninvited.
I spent a miserable day at work, feeling very crappy, and then came home just plain depressed. I walked in the door to see my family sitting around to dinner… and two of my siblings, Lachlan and Orla, were visiting. Great. Just fabulous.
Okay, I am the youngest of six kids. Gideon, Ezekiel, Persephone, Lachlan, Orla, and myself. Gideon I have never gotten along well with, since he's so much older than me, but the others I do fairly well… Gideon and Persephone moved out of state, Gideon with his family for work, and Persephone in pursuit of a career. Ezekiel is always working, but Lachlan and Orla are always around. Lachlan is very cool, he's Persephone's twin, but Orla… she and I have always butted heads. We, as long as I can remember, have never gotten along very well. And I mean, never. I think she's always resented me taking over as the baby of the family.
But, I tried to be nice. I joined the family, talking with Lachlan (he's a painter) and asking him how his work was going. Orla, though, decided to take the moment to bring up my ring again.
"Oh!" she said in her mocking way, "Wren! Where did you get that ring? Are you engaged?"
Mom and Dad dropped their forks. I glared at her. "Gosh! Orla, no! You are so nosy!"
Lachlan noticed my ring then. He didn't mean to be rude, but his natural curiosity took over, "Well, it is pretty, Wren. Where did you get it?"
I rolled my eyes, trying to be as dismissive as possible. "A friend. He came across it, somewhere, and didn't want it anymore, so he said I could have it."
Orla's eyes widened, "He? Do you have boyfriend?"
I swallowed, "First off, what's it to you if I did? Secondly, no I don't. Thirdly," I said this to my parents, who still looked shell shocked, and I held up my hand to show them, "I'm not engaged, okay? If I were, I'd wear the ring on my ring finger, not my middle one, and you'd guys would be the first to know, okay?"
This seemed to appease my parents, but Orla was still skeptical. "Who's the guy who gave it to you? How come I haven't heard of him before?"
I slowly turned to stare at her, "Do you ever shut your face?" I asked, more than angry at her being so nosy. My mother dropped her spoon.
"Wren! Don't speak that way to your sister!" she said, sternly.
I turned my glare to my mother, "And she's allowed to just demand personal information from me?"
"Oh," Orla leaned across the end of the table, completely oblivious to the fact that I was furious with her, "So he's really personal, is he? What's his name?"
Lachlan sighed, "Come on, Orla, let her be."
Orla waved a hand at him, "Well, I want to know who my baby sister is dating!"
I stood up, abruptly, throwing my chair backwards, "Orla! It is none of your business who I date – and I'm not dating anyone! And," I dropped my voice and pointed a finger at her, "Just because you're so nosy, and can't seem to mind your own business, I swear I won't tell you. He's my friend, okay? Friend. You haven't earned the right to know his name. In the far – and I do mean far – future, I will tell Lachlan. I will tell Mom and Dad. I'll call Gid, Zeke and Sephy, and tell them his name. I will not, under any circumstance aside from absolute necessity, tell you his name. Got it?"
Surprisingly, Orla didn't seem put off by this. Instead, as I feared she might, she steeled her face with determination… it was war, now, for Jareth's name. Five more minutes of arguing, I apologized for ruining dinner and just left the house. I got in my car and drove off. My day had been sucky enough… I couldn't deal with Orla anymore.
Seeking a sanctuary, I drove to the public library. I hopped out of the car and went in, going to the uppermost level and the far back wall, where it was really quiet and not many people were around. This was my favorite part of the whole place. The shelves were huge here, so tall you had to have a ladder to reach the topmost shelves, and the books were huge (was this the history section? Eh, it didn't matter much to me. I think it was some kind of research section… maybe…)
Along the back wall, they had these table-things that lined the wall. I want to say they were half-cubicles, half-tables… they were long tables, but they were sectioned off where people couldn't look at your research or whatever. No one ever used them. I didn't bother with the chair, but instead climbed up on the table and sat cross-legged with my back against the wall…
Like Jareth and I do, at home, on my bed.
I realized I was heartsick. I had a crush on him. And, after him not being around for two weeks, I was heartsick. I really missed him… and, so help me, I wanted to smell him again.
Horrible thoughts ran through my mind. Why had he left? Was I that hideous, that he couldn't stand me anymore? Did he notice how jelly-fied I got in his arms? What was wrong with me? What would make him stay away for two weeks, without saying anything?
I was overreacting, I knew it, but all the same, I felt rotten.
I sniffed, fighting tears, "Two months… two months, and I've already driven him away… I am cursed when it comes to men…"
"Whom have you driven away?" demanded a voice I knew too well. I looked up to see Jareth standing in front of me, his hands on his hips, his face angry. "Are you seeing a man? Who is he? Did he curse you?"
Considering the conversation I'd had earlier, his words only made me cry. "No!" I sobbed, "I'm not seeing anyone! Why is everyone rubbing my singleness in my face, today?"
His hands fell slightly from his hips, and he looked stunned, "If you are not seeing someone – not that I would care if you were, you could see anyone you like – then whom have you driven away? I… I do not understand."
I brought up my sleeve and wiped my eyes, "You, stupid!"
Jareth fell a step back as though I'd hit him, "Me? What ever made you think that?"
I glared at him. "Two weeks, Jareth. You go and do one of the cutest things, like, ever, and save my neck at the fountain, then act all weird, dismiss me – you actually dismissed me! Well, kinda – and then I don't hear from you for two weeks. What am I supposed to think? I must have done something to make you hate me! I always do that with men…"
All façades about him fell. Even his shoulders slumped. "You thought I hated you?"
"What was I supposed to think!" I hissed, trying to stay quiet in the Library, even if no one was around.
He frowned to himself. "I was… dealing with some new developments. I am sorry I upset you, Wren."
I uncrossed my legs, sticking them straight out, so they hung off the table. "You don't hate me? I haven't driven you away?"
A strange look passed over his face, and he closed his eyes. "No," he shook his head, eyes still closed, "You are my friend… you would not drive me away."
"Then… urgh," I flicked my ankle at him, smacking him in the thigh. His eyes snapped open at that, and I met his gaze head on, "Then why? I mean… Okay, I know I really have no right to be so needy with you, or anything, since… we've only been friends for two months and everything, but… things were going great, we were having so much fun, and then you start acting all weird around me and then stop coming to see me all together. Why?"
He grabbed onto my ankles gently and pulled me forward to where I was sitting on the edge of the table. Then he stepped forward, less than a foot away from me.
"You could have come and seen me, too. And yet you did not. I did not know you cared so."
I went red. "I didn't think I was invited, after the way you were acting lately."
He laughed a little and took hold of my left hand, with his ring on it. "If you were not welcome, Wren," he said, fingering the ring, "I would take this back from you."
He didn't let go of my hand. Instead, he kept a hold on it, with both of his hands. There was a great pause between us, even if not much else. He was so close to me, I could smell him again. I then noticed that he was standing between my knees, and my knees were touching his thighs, and that's why we were so close together.
I swallowed, trying not to think about it, "Uh, so… what were the new developments?"
He looked up and met my eyes – I gasped! They were so… I don't know… intense, I guess. So honest… I was used to him hiding something, or pretending to be a snoot with me… but no, this was just… just Jareth. No kings, no magic, just him. It was startling. The last time he'd been so honest was in the ballroom.
"You."
"Beg pardon?"
He frowned a little, pulling a face, "Not you, per se. Well, it was you, Wren, but not you physically… ah," he sighed and looked up at the ceiling, "Yes, you, physically, but not you as in you…"
I must have looked confused, because when he sighed again, after seeing my face, it came out as a kind of frustrated growl.
"You are my friend," he ground out in a hoarse whisper, pulling another face while looking at my hands – which he was still holding, "I am not supposed to…"
I felt light headed. What was he getting at? He couldn't mean…
"Supposed to what, Jareth?" I asked in a small voice.
He took a deep breath, "I am not supposed to… feel this way…"
"What way?"
He growled in earnest, releasing my hands and taking each side of my face in their place, "Will you be quiet and let me finish!"
I raised an eyebrow, "Well, sheesh, do you plan to finish anytime this century, or are you waiting until I turn eighty? Eeep," he pulled my face forward, an inch away from his own. My mind went blank…
"I am not supposed to be attracted to my friend," he said, his breath brushing against my mouth. I whimpered. I have no idea why.
A cart came bustling around a corner, being pushed by an elderly librarian. I gasped, and Jareth grabbed me around my waist. There was a blink in which I saw the librarian turn back for just a moment, as if someone had called his name, and then my vision was of a fountain.
My favorite fountain, in fact. We were in the Underground, standing almost in the exact spot where he'd left me, two weeks ago.
And then I noticed he still had me around the waist. When he started to let go, I grabbed him by the shoulders and held him fast.
"What to you mean, attracted?" I asked, suddenly, watching his face closely.
He blinked a few times. "Do you need a dictionary?"
I scoffed, "No, I'm not stupid. Gosh, Jareth…" I let go and sat down on the edge of the fountain. "No one has ever been attracted to me. And you, of all people… I mean, you're a king! Heavens! You don't deserve me, Wren; you deserve someone like Orla, a golden princess. That's what her name means, you know. Golden princess… sheesh, I'm just a pitiful songbird. Boring, annoying, short, fat, plain… I…" he dropped onto his knees in front of me, so we were at eye level as I sat on the fountain edge.
He brought up his hands and cupped my face – a touch no one has ever given me. It brought tears to my eyes. He traced his gloved fingers over my face, through my hair, over my mouth…
"Do you not see?" he whispered. "That was my problem. You brought me back from darkness, creating such a light in my life. Do you think I have not met beautiful women before? Well, beautiful by your standards? I have. They are… bland. Dull. You, Wren, are bright. You make me come alive," he brushed his thumbs across my cheeks, wiping away tears I hadn't realized were there.
"But I'm-"
He cut me off, "No, Wren. For once, let me finish. All my years, I have seen women that are what you would call beautiful. Fae women look very much like what you would call models," he spat the word, "Even if they do not look so, they use magic to hide their flaws. No one is different… and never have any of them cared for the simple things, like talking about how their day was, or listening about mine. Not one ever took it upon them to wonder what drove me to depression, or to help me out of it… but you did. You, Wren, for all your plainness, height, weight, and argumentative tendencies, are…"
He got to his feet and began pacing in front of me, "I am not accustomed to this. You, of all people, should know I am not the most emotionally stable of creatures. I am a king, as you said, and you confuse me, Wren! A songbird, and I the Goblin King, cannot stop thinking of you with your head on my shoulder! Or how it felt to hold you! Yes, by every right, and every story ever told, I, the King, should want to have the golden princess, like you said, and not the songbird, but I do not!" he threw his hands in the air, "And my friend at that! The only woman ever to come to me with an offer of friendship, even after seeing me at my very worst, temper raging and violent! Do you know how many beautiful women," he said the word as though it was disgusting, "Have run from that? Improper, monster, heathen, they say. They want me to bow and be polite and kiss their hands, aargh!"
He took a crystal from somewhere and threw it at a tree nearby in frustration, where it shattered, then vanished. "Curse them all! Is it so horrible that I like someone who will argue with me? Someone who can frown and cry and actually show emotions? Someone who…" he sighed and dropped down in front of me again, once again taking my face in his hands, "Wren," he whispered, "You… I tried to ignore it. I tried to listen to the vainest voice inside myself these last two weeks. I could not. I do not want the golden princess or Fae beauty. I want the songbird. My songbird… my Wren…"
He raised his face, pressing his lips against mine, so tenderly…
When he pulled away from me, and I opened my eyes, I saw his face was shining… from my tears. My face was soaked. I was near sobbing. A sob choked out of my throat, deflating him.
He sunk downward, his head falling drooping. "And, now I have said my peace," he said, quietly, "I know I should not have, Wren, which is part of why I have avoided you… I am very sorry…"
I sniffed and wiped furiously at my face. It was futile. I gave up and reached out my hands to his chin… I was partly afraid to touch him! He's so gorgeous… I lifted his chin and looked at him.
"That was," I said, blushing horribly, "My… my first kiss."
He said nothing, but his eyes were astonished at that. I nodded to confirm that yes, no one had ever kissed me before. Sad, isn't it? Yeah, and he had wondered why I suffered from low self-esteem.
I ran my shaking hands over his face, taking in his features. He closed his eyes. My fingertips traced his unique eyebrows, his eyelids and long lashes… his cheekbones, so high and so regal, absolutely fascinated me. Then his nose…and his mouth, chiseled and just perfect… it made my heart race. He opened his eyes as I ran my fingers along his jaw line, up to his ears. I shook like a leaf, but I leaned down and kissed him, and his eyes fluttered closed.
I pulled back, crying again, but laughing also. This was so… unreal! I couldn't believe it! I leaned back – what was I thinking? I do not know. I think I tried to pull Jareth to his feet, but forgot where I was sitting…
Somehow, I managed to pull us both into the fountain instead.
We both came up sputtering and wide eyed. Once he wiped the hair out of his face, he gave me an odd look while stepping out of the fountain. "I tell you I have feelings for you, and you pull me into a fountain?"
I spat water, "Well, this is me we're talking about. I am a freak."
He pulled me out of the water, too, and brushed the hair out of my face. "No, you are not. You are… divine. Did we not just go over this?" When I looked into his eyes, he straightened up and pouted his lips, "The Goblin King would never dream of dating a freak."
"And I don't date sexy beasts… but it would appear I am. Get used to it, buster."
He looked at me sharply, "You said I was not allowed to say that term ever again…"
"I said you couldn't," I clarified, ringing out the edge of my shirt, with a sly smile, "But me? Ah, I shall use it to my heart's content."
"Well, just for that, I refuse to dry you off before sending you home…"
A/N: I do apologize for any toothaches I've caused with this chapter. This really was a cure for my bad day. Ah, yes… I feel better now… even at the cause of severe fluff.
Love ya! Please review! Tell me how horrid the fluff is, okay?