By now, the last time Jareth and Sarah had written was over a month ago and the last time they met was at the start of autumn. Now winter was painting the world in pale lights, bringing freezing temperatures, thick scarves and endless need for warm beverages.

Every now and then Sarah's family would visit to stay for dinner and recently she had been at her childhood home to celebrate Christmas. During the holiday trip she had picked up beautiful baby blue gloves for Jareth, which she had found in a boutique near her old home. She hadn't had the opportunity to give them to Jareth yet though. Due to increasing stress at work she had picked up meditating, investing in incense, a yoga mat and some luxurious teas.

It was Sunday. Sarah had been at home, enjoying the warmth of her apartment. This morning she'd had a very brief back and forth with Jareth. She mostly checked in to ask if he was still alive. He'd confirmed, assuming as she was writing to him, that she was too. That was it.

Which is why, when Sarah felt her necklace give the familiar tingle she didn't hesitate to step away from the movie she was watching to grab the notebook and a pen, browsing past the most recent entries.

"There is something I have been meaning to tell you. Are you available to meet?"

"Right now?" She wrote back, her heart skipping a beat as she looked around her messy apartment.

"Yes."

Sarah winced and rubbed her brow knowing that she didn't want to keep him waiting just to clean up the place. But with clothes and dirty dishes littered around it was hardly a proper welcome for 'his majesty'. "Can you give me about fifteen minutes? Or maybe we can meet outside? How about a little stroll in the nearby park?"

"I can offer you ten minutes. Meet me at the park. It won't take long."

Confused at what he was so rushed for but would apparently be something brief she trotted to her bedroom. Quickly putting on some warm pants, a sweater and warm socks she slipped on her boots. While grabbing her scarf and a warm hat she turned off her movie and grabbed her purse and keys. While wrapping her scarf around her neck she ran down the reasonably warm hallway of her complex.

Once reaching the outside she reminded herself that she was not yet ready to be paralyzed from the waist down, so she carefully stepped off her porch's steps that had been covered in ice for three days now. After that she quickly but carefully navigated her way to the park. Cars were cautiously inching forward on the slippery roads and here and there store clerks were trying to keep a clear path to the entrance of their store. People walked with hunched postures as they braced for the cold weather.

Personally, Sarah loved winter. The pale colors of a snow covered scenery reminded her of an unpainted or unfinished canvas. The stillness the cold and dormant nature brought forth during these times almost made it feel like time had stopped, if only briefly. Besides, once it got properly cold, the air was so crisp and fresh that while taking a deep breath she could almost feel the air travel to her lungs. As she passed a traffic light she saw icicles hanging in front of the lights, the green light permeating the ice and coloring it brightly.

Walking up to the park gates she briefly hesitated. While her area wasn't particularly criminal, walking alone in the park as the sun was setting still wasn't a good idea. Letting out a brief sigh, the air clouding in front of her face, she walked through the gates and just hoped Jareth would show up soon.

The last bits of fresh snow on the path crunched underneath her boots with a satisfying groan. Smiling, she side-stepped off the path and into the blanketed grass. Reveling in the deep moan the white powder made she wondered what he suddenly wanted to meet for.

Then she realized that due to having to rush, she completely forgot the Christmas present she'd bought for Jareth. Quietly mumbling several self-directed insults she walked on into the park, kicking her feet a little in aggravation.

Within minutes she heard a haunting screech she hadn't heard in forever. The woman looked up just in time to see a snowy white owl gliding down from the sky. With everything around her dressed in white it would have been hard to see him if he hadn't been moving. On quiet wings he swooped past her. Looking around to follow his path she found the creature gone. "What the…"

"Good evening, Sarah."

She whirled around so fast that she almost lost her footing. Once stable she let out a calming breath and frowned at him. "God, you scared me."

"Evidently," he noted with a chuckle. "I apologize."

"Aren't you cold?" Sarah noted as she took in his usual attire with a low cut shirt, leather jacket and tights.

The man mentioned for them to walk. "Not yet."

As they walked Sarah noticed that she didn't hear a second pair of footsteps but only heard her own as the snow crunched underneath her weight. Looking down at the ground she curiously noticed he was not even sinking into the snow, like he was completely weightless. As she was about to ask about it, he spoke up.

"How have you been?"

Sarah quietly accepted his offered arm. "I've been fine, thank you. Nothing too interesting going on that I haven't already told you about." She pouted, kicking a bit of snow ahead of them. "I was planning on bringing you a belated Christmas gift but your visit was rather unexpected and I forgot it as I was hurrying out the door."

Jareth looked at her with a strange smile. "I appreciate the gesture regardless."

"So," the woman started, a little excited as she looked up at him. "What did you want to talk about?"

Jareth's mild smile fell, his lips evening out to a thin line. The expression instantly filled Sarah with dread. He let out a deep sigh, clearly steeling himself for whatever it was that he was here to talk about. Jareth halted and turned to her. Their arms fell to their sides and even Jareth didn't seem to know what to do with the suddenly heavy appendages.

"You're not breaking up with me, are you?" Sarah joked uncomfortably.

His lips pressed together as he avoided her gaze, the joke not offering any amusement. "Sarah," he started quietly. Somehow just the tone of that spoken name eluded her to the dreadful nature of the thing he was about to tell her. "As much as I hate to do this, I have to break off contact between us."

The woman could feel sorrow rising up in her and she wrestled a humorless smile on her face. "You are breaking up with me."

"Sarah, stop." He snapped, causing her to flinch. "I have been enjoying our conversations and time together. I have. But I am facing some very important and radical changes and difficult decisions. Other matters require my attention and I can't afford to be distracted by frivolities. I need to give my full focus and time to my people and to my duties. I have been prioritizing spending time with you over my responsibilities to an extent where it has started to affect those around me."

"Jareth, what is going on?" Sarah asked insistently. When he remained silent she put her hands in her jacket's pockets and curled them to fists. "You have been so secretive about everything happening on your end. You have these requests to visit on incredibly short notice or without notice at all, whether they're in the wee hours of the morning or late at night. Whenever you visit you seem either tired, depressed or distracted. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy your visits and I don't want to pry, but it's not fair to me to just cut off contact seemingly without reason. If my pathetic mortal life has bored you to tears, at least be a man and tell me so."

"Your life is not pathetic, Sarah."

"Thanks," she snapped. "If you're just going to cut me out, at least tell me why."

The Goblin King looked at her, his long sigh creating wisps of warm breath in the cold night air. "I understand that you are upset, but I don't want this to end in a scene. I simply want to ask you to accept my decision and understand that it has nothing to do with you. There are serious matters that I must attend to due to my position as monarch." Clenching his teeth, he noticed the brimming tears in her eyes. "And while I do not wish to say it, the situation outweighs the priority I can give to our relationship."

Sarah buried the lower half of her face into her scarf as far as she could. Her hair fell over her face to shield her. While she didn't take it personally and she did realize that as a king he had certain duties to fulfill, it did still hurt. With her eyes squeezing closed, tears started running down her cheeks and onto her scarf.

Jareth looked down at her, the rapid puffs of breath and her jerking shoulders betraying that she was crying. Looking away briefly he determined what to do.

While Sarah was figuring out how to deal with the situation she could see Jareth stepped closer through her blurry vision. A moment later she could feel his arms wrapping around her. Despite the woman not feeling cold the embrace provided her with a soothing warmth. Rather shamelessly she snuggled into his chest a little bit, trying to remain calm. He chuckled quietly as he encouragingly squeezed a little bit before one of his hands moved to her head. She could feel the now more familiar feeling of his magic seeping into her skin. It wrapped around her like a warm blanket, calming her senses whether she wanted to or not.

While she'd always liked how he could just soothe her with a simple touch, right now she didn't want to be soothed. She wanted to be upset. She needed to be, even if it was just so that later she would know it hadn't been some kind of dream.

Struggling, she tried to break out of his grasp. She wanted to struggle, to yell. A sob fell from her lips as he hugged her tighter. She didn't want his comfort or his kindness. Yet at the same time, she wanted to hold on, even if it was for just a moment longer.

When he showed no intent of letting go she gave up. The strange mix of being upset and magically being soothed, wrangled for a second like two same sides of a magnet before the soothing feeling took over.

Her feeling of sadness turned from a sense of powerlessness to a strange sense of something not unlike nostalgia, like a switch. The woman thought back to his visits. The times they had just been hanging out on her couch all day or all evening, his near childlike curiosities with new things he'd been introduced to, their conversations. The woman felt like she'd known him all her life and simultaneously realized there was so much she still didn't know about him. And now, she would never learn those things either.

As if he was reading her mind he spoke up quietly. "I can make you forget…" It was a suggestion but it leaned into being a recommendation.

With renewed strength, Sarah struggled in his arms again and managed to break free. "Don't you fucking dare!"

"Language," he chastised with a little smile. Jareth cupped her cheek, briefly forgetting he wasn't wearing his gloves at the moment, and brushed a tear from the corner of her eye. "While I hate to see you saddened like this, if you do not wish to forget, I won't make you. If you're certain."

"Five hundred percent." The woman affirmed, rubbing her eyes with the sleeve of her coat in a rather childlike manner.

He smiled sadly. Looking down he summoned his gloves again, putting them on. "I have to go. For what it's worth, I really am sorry that I have to do this and that I have to do this on such short notice without providing much of an explanation. Just know that I am not telling you why because I don't want you to worry. If it was up to me, I would elect to visit you each and every day." The Goblin King smiled down at her.

"For what it's worth," she started, hugging him. "You're a kiss-ass." A low chuckle rumbled through his chest as he returned the hug. "But in all seriousness, this is not a goodbye for me. If you ever want to visit or even just write, I will be here. Good or bad, day or night."

He pulled back then, looking down at her huddled appearance in the thick winter clothing, her cheeks flushed from the cold and from crying. Her hazel eyes looked up at him sadly. Brushing a lock of her dark hair from her face he pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. "Goodbye, Sarah. Whatever it is that life will throw at you in the future, never be scared. I have full confidence in you that you can achieve whatever your stubborn heart sets out to do."

Swallowing the lump for her throat she nodded. "Goodbye, Jareth. Whatever is going on in your life, I hope things will get better soon."

"Thank you, precious thing."

The last thing she saw was his smile. A shift in the air and bright light faded into the view of a snowy white owl flying up, circling her once before it flew off into the darkening sky.

Sarah swallowed, looking down at the snow. Tears started rolling down her cheeks freely again. Looking at the single set of footsteps on the ground it was like he'd never even been there. Sighing, she felt the cold drift into her skin again and she turned around. "Well… come on, feet."

Small specks of snow started floating down from the sky, descending in a slow and gentle dance. A sharp screech echoed into the night as the silhouette of a young woman disappeared into the distance.