A/N: Done with my first semester! Now let's see if I can get this whole thing done and posted before the next one starts.
Hope you all enjoy the chapter. It's a bit short, but big things are coming.
They hadn't changed a bit.
Not that Sarah had ever expected them to. Back when they were still just a dream, she thought of them as metaphors for her childhood. Fantastical creatures out of a bedtime story that her immature self never wanted to end. Constructs she clung to as the responsibilities and realities of her burgeoning adulthood threatened to overwhelm her-
Blah blah psychobabble blah.
Her friends were back!
There wasn't a lot of food in the kitchen beyond some tv dinners in the fridge. Sarah dug deep into her pantry and managed to unearth a box of cookies not quite passed its good-by date. Ludo devoured half the box, chomping happily like they were fresh out of the oven.
While Ambrosius rested in front of the television and Hoggle sat on her couch with a glass of beer, Sir Didymus regaled them with the perilous journey they endured to reach her home.
"We defeated the impish maze creatures, withstood the temptations of the fireys, and forged our way through the many fearsome oubliettes!" Sir Didymus raised his saber. "All to arrive here at your door to save you, our fair and most beloved maiden!"
"What we really did," Hoggle said, "is take the shortcut through the basement. We would've done all that junk if this idiot had his way. Then we would've made it next Tuesday."
Sir Didymus scowled. "My friend, you have no sense of adventure!"
"And you have no sense of time, ya dumb fox."
While they argued, Ludo finished the last of the cookies and reached to hug Sarah one more time. "Ludo happy Sarah safe."
"Thank you, Ludo," Sarah said, hugging back, losing herself in his warm fur. "I'm happy you're safe, too… but this was so dangerous. You guys could've been hurt or…"
She swallowed, unable to finish the sentence without bile rushing to her throat. The very thought of what she might've found behind her door if this fight hadn't gone their way would haunt her dreams for a long time. Maybe forever.
Hoggle snorted. "Ah, weda been fine. Ya know we can handle ourselves."
"No offense, Hoggle, but you used to be pretty scared of Jareth," Sarah said.
"The old fool, yes. His wispy cloud of a mother? Not on yer life. I deal with worse than her every day in my garden. Compared to that, this is nothing."
Sarah tried to smile, though they both had to know The Demoness was a bit more to deal with than a couple of fairies. Still, she took his answer. Why ruin his confidence? Hell, maybe some of it would rub off on her. "I just don't want anyone else to get hurt."
"We all want that," Hoggle said, "but wanting don't do nothing if you don't do anything about it."
"Yes, my lady! We will fight her day and night to protect you and our home!" Sir Didymus declared, Ambrosius barking as if echoing his words. "We shall fight through the fiery scourge and wade through another thousand oubliettes to defeat this vile creature!"
"We didn't do that," Hoggle snapped. "Would ya stop making things up you crazy-"
Sarah didn't bother stopping the argument, even though maybe she should have. Nostalgia had a firm hold on her, and she never wanted it to end. Even with everything that had happened these last few days, and even as Gobble's body continued lurking in her thoughts, the truth of her time in the Labyrinth had never felt more real. Hoggle's grumpiness, Sir Didymus's passion, and Ludo's gentleness. It was no wonder she'd convinced herself they weren't real. How could anyone so wonderful really exist?
Ludo must have sensed what she was thinking. Either that or her face was falling with her heart. "Sarah sad?"
She pulled her smile back on. "No, Sarah happy. Very happy. She… how could she ever be sad with you here?"
Unable to look at those innocent eyes anymore, Sarah went back to the kitchen to search for more food. There had to be something. A cereal box or some fig newtons. How the hell did she forget to go grocery shopping? It had been on her list for…
Sarah stood back. The cabinet was empty. Dozens of spices sat on the counter. Perfect for all the recipes she used to think she'd make one day. She counted them, stopping at fifteen. Then she put them back, one by one, and left the kitchen as pristine as if she'd never been there.
"I'm sorry, guys, I don't have anything else," she said.
"Ah, don't worry 'bout us," Hoggle said. "We ain't here to clean you out. We're here to make sure that old bat doesn't come knocking on your door."
"Here, here, as our dear friend Hoggle has said, we are at your service, my lady. We will defend you with our very lives until the blood has drained from our veins!"
"Would you quit talking like that? Nobody's dyin'." Hoggle shouted, even as his eyes darted to the door again.
Sarah patted his hand, fighting back her own wave of shivers. She wanted to tell him how brave he was. She hoped he had someone back home to remind him of that. The thought almost distracted her from the harsh truth that it should've been her.
"You guys don't have to do this for me," Sarah said. "Especially after the last few years…"
Hoggle snorted. "What are you talking about? O' course we'll do it. Ain't that what friends are for?"
'Good friends, maybe,' Sarah thought.
Ludo dragged her back onto the couch, disrupting her self-deprecation with a crushing bear hug.
"Friends!" Ludo cried.
"Yeah, friends," Sarah wheezed, gently prying at his hands. "I know. You don't have to strangle me over it."
"Friend Ludo, do mind your grip!" Sir Didymus said, wagging a finger at him.
"Sorry," said Ludo.
He let go and Sarah settled between him and Hoggle. Ambrosius wandered over and plopped his head on her lap for her to scratch behind his ears. His little whine of happiness was so much like Merlin, her old friend who left her a month before her freshman year, it made her already shattered heart wither.
"Don't apologize, Ludo. I'm the one who should be sorry. I've been ignoring you for years and you still came for me."
"Ah, what're a few years?" Hoggle said, drinking down the rest of his beer. "Still feels like yesterday to me."
"But it wasn't yesterday," Sarah sighed. "You know, when I first came back from the Labyrinth, I really did try to grow up. I didn't fight with my stepmother anymore. I helped out with Toby. I even got involved in theater. My dad had been trying to get me into it for a while, but I'd always say no because… well, I thought the other kids in school were shallow and boring. Not like me. Turns out, theater is full of kids exactly like me."
She had a picture of her theater friends buried somewhere in her closet. It had been taken after their last big show of the year, Les Miserables.
No wait, it was The Phantom of the Opera. They did Les Mis the year before.
Right?
Could it have been so long since she'd thought about it?
"I made more friends, I went on dates. I thought about the Labyrinth less and less, until the day I picked up a psych textbook and let it turn back into a fantasy." She laughed hollowly. "I thought I was growing up. I thought I'd finally cracked the code. Turns out, all I did was forget the lesson I'd already learned. I let myself forget you guys."
"Sarah," Ludo said, gently patting the top of her head.
"Hey now, you didn't forget nothing," Hoggle said. "You fought those shadows all on your own, didn't you?"
"You were glorious in battle, dear Sarah!" Sir Didymus proclaimed. "Well, I didn't see it for myself, but as I imagine it in my head, you were a powerful warrior wielding your weapon with expertise and grace. You were-"
"We can keep talking. He's gonna be at it for hours," Hoggle said as he and Sarah turned away. "But what do you mean you forgot who you are? You haven't changed a bit, Sarah."
"But I did," Sarah said. "I grew up, or at least I thought I did. Now I'm thinking maybe I just become another kind of childish. Easy to pretend you know how the world works when you've convinced yourself there's only one."
As she heaved an empty sigh, Hoggle tapped his fingers on his knee, looking out the window at the shrinking number of cars on the street. "You don't get much by way of magic 'round here, do you?"
"Not really," Sarah said. "Not outside conspiracy theorists anyway."
"Well, then of course you made yourself think it wasn't real. I'd have done the same thing," Hoggle said, folding his arms. "Heck, if I could live in a world without fairies I'd take it in a second."
He started grumbling to himself, the way he always used to. Even when he was cowering before Jareth's wrath, Sarah never thought she'd appreciate grumpiness so much. Hoggle didn't look like he wanted to be hugged, but she couldn't help it. She hugged him anyway.
"I'm so grateful to all of you," she said, wiping a tear from her eye. "How did you even know where I was?"
"Oh, it is a grand story, my lady," Sir Didymus said. "You see, we-"
"The rat gave us a direct path," Hoggle shouted over him. "Most useful thing he's done in a while."
"Jareth sent you?" Sarah asked, perking up.
"His Majesty sends his deepest apologies," Sir Didymus said, "but as protection of the Labyrinth must be maintained, he commanded us to watch you when he could not. He asks that we inform you that he is safe and you have nothing to worry about."
That sounded only half-true, but it could've easily come from the Goblin King's mouth regardless. Which could only mean things were getting worse. Or that she was losing it. Or that the Labyrinth was about to fall for real.
Also, why was her face hot?
"He's… pretty great, isn't he?"
She didn't know it was out loud until Hoggle harrumphed. "He's a rat bastard is what he is, always has been. But compared to the kind of witch we almost had, he might as well be a saint!"
Sarah sat up straighter. "Wait, you knew Jareth's mother?"
"Of her," Hoggle said. "Never had the pleasure of meeting her proper. I'd like to keep it that way."
"Shadows bad," Ludo said again, shaking his giant head.
"Indeed, friend Ludo," Sir Didymus said, suddenly very serious. "His Majesty works day and night, even through his recovery, to keep us safe from the witch's poison. Why, if it weren't for his fastidious care and numerous precautions, we may have already fallen."
"She's that bad, huh?" Sarah muttered.
"Ain't he told you anything about her?" Hoggle asked.
"Some things. I know she's a demon or something."
"I believe her to be a corrupted sprite," Sir Didymus proclaimed. "Her magic resembles theirs to a degree."
"Corrupted sprite?" Hoggle laughed. "That's gotta be the stupidest thing I've ever heard. She ain't no sprite, just some abyss thing got into polite society somehow."
"There are those who say she is part goblin," Sir Didymus said.
"He told me she challenged the High King, and that's how she got banished to the Labyrinth," Sarah said. "I feel like he's leaving something out."
"Hmm…" Hoggle mumbled, an odd sort of darkness coming over him. "Guess that's the question o' the century, in't it?"
Sarah searched his face for something. Anything. He was rock solid. "You know something, don't you, Hoggle?"
He looked away. "It ain't my place, Sarah. I'd tell you if I could, but even if I can't stand the bastard, I know he's got our best interests at heart. He's breaking his back to keep us safe. Least I can do is leave him his secrets. I'm sure he'll tell ya when he's ready."
'If he's ready,' Sarah thought she heard under Hoggle's breath. She'd never know for sure, as Sir Didymus seized that moment to start telling a story of the time he stopped a group of wandering trolls from having a mud fight in the bog of eternal stench. If Sarah didn't know better, she'd think the timing was intentional. Hoggle sure did look interested all of a sudden.
The rest of the night passed quietly. No matter how Sarah tried to reassure them, they didn't want to leave her alone until the sun came up. So once Sir Didymus finished his story, Sarah pulled a movie out of her small collection and they settled down to watch it and kill a few hours. Eventually, Ludo fell asleep. He snored like a broken chainsaw and it was a wonder Sarah didn't get any phone calls from the landlady.
After getting Ludo settled with the biggest blanket she owned (it barely reached his knees), Sarah prepared to turn in. Sir Didymus insisted on standing guard by her bedroom door, and for the next few hours, he paced back and forth, his steps light but fully audible. She didn't know how long he planned to stay there, but it didn't matter. She was never going to sleep well tonight anyway.
A guy was picking his nails two rows ahead of her.
Sarah didn't know why she cared so much. She'd already checked his shadow thoroughly and it was just as tall and lanky and perfectly average as he was. Everyone else in class was the same. All the people she'd been studying cognitive behavioral therapy and early childhood development with since the start of the semester. A few she knew by name, most just by face. Nothing had changed. Their yesterday was the same as their today and their tomorrow wouldn't be much different.
The guy she did that project with last month. The two girls that passed notes like they were still in high school. The guy two rows up that Sarah almost asked out once before finding out he had a boyfriend. All were present and accounted for. All completely normal.
She eyed the nail picker for the last ten minutes of class, tapping her pen against an empty sheet of notebook paper. Stupid nerves. She could've had two full pages of notes by now. It was insulting to Professor Twill and all her hard work to ignore her like this.
"So it was through this experiment that Drs. Nesbitt and Wilson further expanded on Thorndike's halo effect." Professor Twill wrote a few more lines on the board. Her handwriting wasn't the best, but her passion was clear in every word. "By confirming the cognitive biases inherent in modern-day society, we understand how we might often make judgments about a person's character solely based on aesthetic appeal. In other words, be careful about trusting a pretty face."
A few students laughed. Sarah wished she was one of them. The clock struck two and that was the end of class. Everyone was packed up and out the door by the time Sarah got her bag open. She put away her textbook, then her notebook, then her pencil case. Slowly and deliberately, with Professor Twill always in her peripheral. The teacher sat at her desk, writing something on a piece of looseleaf paper. She never looked up and Sarah wondered if she even knew anyone was there.
"Um…" Sarah said, but she didn't know why. She wasn't ready to talk yet.
Too late. Professor Twill had noticed. "What's up, Sarah? Did you need something?"
Technically, Professor Twill was a professor of psychology, not a licensed therapist. It was probably unethical to even bring this up to her. But that was just it, she didn't know anyone else.
"I wanted to ask you something," Sarah said. "It's kind of important."
Professor Twill frowned, but didn't immediately balk. "Go ahead."
"Well, I have this friend… an actual friend, I mean, not like when people are talking about themselves and trying to hide it."
"Right," Professor Twill said.
"So, my friend is dealing with some trauma. At least, I think it's trauma. It might just be bad memories… which is exactly what trauma is, isn't it?"
"In most cases, yes.".
"Right, so I know he's got a lot on his mind and I'm trying to be understanding, but he's keeping something from me, and I don't know if I even have the right to ask."
"Do you think it's important that you know?"
'Well, the fate of two worlds may depend on it.' Sarah chewed her bottom lip. She always hated it when no one believed the protagonists in fantasy books about their otherworldly adventures. 'Believe them!' she used to scream at her books. 'Just look in the closet. That's where the fairies are hiding!'
Of course, now she knew exactly why they didn't believe. And she hated that even more.
"I don't know," she lied, deflating. "I just… want him to trust me."
"Then don't push him," Professor Twill said. "Let him come to you on his own. You're a good friend, Sarah. I'm sure he will."
The way she said it, Sarah could almost believe it was that simple. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
'God, I hope she's right.'
For all that yesterday was a roller coaster, this day was like a dying car. Sarah finished all her classes, got through a meeting with her guidance counselor about grad school funding, and even managed to fold the laundry all before sunset.
She'd sent her friends home with a note for Jareth. While Hoggle had looked like he'd rather chew leather than set foot in the Goblin King's throne room, they all promised to deliver the message without delay. They'd be back before she knew it.
"Anytime," she had told them. This time, she was going to stick with it.
"Anytime," she muttered again twenty minutes later, draped over the couch and staring at the wall.
Was it worth it to turn the TV on? Probably not.
Do some homework? Nah.
Go smack her head against the wall until she lost consciousness? Tempting, but no. That would mean moving.
The phone rang. And rang and rang.
"Hey, this is Sarah, I can't come to the phone right now, so leave a message!"
Beep
"Sarah? Sarah, where are you? I need your finalized speech notes before the end of the week! That is barely four days from now. If you are wasting time or slacking off on your responsibilities, I am so going to have your head. You do not even realize! Call me back when you get this. I don't care what Eric or Ronnie say, they can call me a psycho dictator all they want. This is literally the most important week of our lives, so you'd better be taking it just as seriously as I am, got it? Do you get it? Come on, Sarah. I know you're there. This machine had better not cut me off either because-"
Beep
Answer the phone? No way.
She eventually decided on checking the doors and windows. The curtains were shut tight and hopefully, no one would question the clothes and towels shoved under her door. All the lights were on. Every shadow was accounted for. Nothing left to do except sit back down.
By seven o'clock, she was starting to get worried.
He was coming, right?
Nothing that serious could've happened in one day.
Wait, what was she saying? Of course, it could.
But that didn't mean she had to be paranoid. Paranoid was bad. Paranoid helped nothing and just made her look like a weirdo to strangers. She turned on the TV, the best possible cure for a fried brain, and watched infomercials for the next twenty minutes until someone knocked.
"Sarah, may I come in?"
The momentary stab of fear faded at the sound of Jareth's voice. Her heart still pounded as she opened the door. Before letting him in, she discreetly looked him over. No new injuries, he just looked tired.
"Knocking?" she giggled. "That's a new one."
"I thought perhaps after breaking into your home so many times, it would be a nice change of pace."
Her laughter, already weak, died out as he wandered to her living room, like a ghost confused by the passage of time. He seemed… okay. As okay as could be expected. Not a trace of glitter shined in his hair or on his clothes, but they were just as regal as they'd always been. She was pretty sure his hairstyle was already out of date in 1986, but he wore it well and she couldn't imagine him any other way. The white shirt looked newly pressed and completely covered his injured arm. There were no new bloodstains. That had to be good, right?
"I am healing," he said.
"What?" Sarah asked, waking back up.
He raised his bad arm. "A benefit of home. The wound is almost completely sealed. You need not worry anymore."
"I wasn't-" she stopped. She was worried and there was no reason to hide it. "Well uh… thank you for coming, and thank you for sending Hoggle and the others for me. It was great seeing them again."
"I thought so," Jareth said, leaning against the kitchen counter. "When I told them you needed protection, they were more eager than the goblins."
"Yeah, I bet…" Sarah swallowed. Come on, girl, no time for small talk. "So I was wondering if you wanted to have dinner tonight?"
Jareth paused. He'd been about to speak- perhaps predicting she was going to say something else, but now he was frozen, eyes wide like they'd never been before. It was a candid moment she would've killed for when she was a kid. All-powerful fairy tale king struck speechless by normal squishy human. If only she had a camera.
"Dinner," he repeated, less a question and more like he'd never heard that word before.
"The cafe is closed," Sarah said, "So no cinnamon rolls, unfortunately, but there's a really nice pizzeria down the street. It's usually quiet this time of night."
"You think traveling anywhere is a good idea?" he asked.
Good point. Really good point. She shrugged it off anyway. "Your mom already knows where I live. I'm not much safer here than I am out there."
"I suppose…" Jareth said.
He was weighing his options. That meant he might say no. Sarah's stomach sank. "It would make me happy," she said quickly. "I mean… you would make me happy. If you had dinner with me."
To her surprise and relief, Jareth didn't balk. He didn't sigh like an exhausted parent or lecture her about safety. He even smiled a little. For a second, she saw a flash of that charming fairy tale king who had captivated her in her late teenage years.
"Very well," he said, taking her hand. "Lead the way."