InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "It's only time"

sarah_williams (sarah_williams) wrote in mirage_rpg,
@ 2009-02-15 20:10:00

Entry tags:

arrival, complete, day 32, jareth, sarah williams

Day 32: Intro
Who: Sarah Williams & Jareth
What: Sarah arrives
When: Day 32, just before sunrise
Where: Garden
Status: Complete
Rating: PG at the moment

It was so quiet that Sarah could have heard a pin drop. If she had been paying attention. She was more focused on something else. Something that had settled in her stomach like an icy ball of dread. Her knuckles were white as she held the blankets tightly to her chest, eyes wide, staring straight up at the ceiling.

It's finally happening.

The clock was ticking in the hallway. The clock that had been there 3 years ago. The one that was safely at her father's house a thousand miles away with Irene and Toby and their perfectly normal, ignorant lives. She had no clocks in this apartment. None that could tick, that is. Yet there it was. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

He's finally coming back for me.

Something about the room changed. It wasn't as dark anymore. Light was creeping in through the blinds? No, it looked more like cracks in the walls of the room. Sarah sat up straight as an arrow in the bed with a muffled cry in her throat. Tears began to stream down her cheeks and she opened her mouth to scream.

Then the garden.

At first she thought she must have passed out or had been dreaming of being in her own apartment a few moments ago. Because this garden looked exactly like the one in which she had been practicing her lines all those years ago on the night she first visited the labyrinth. Upon inspection she saw she was indeed wearing the long, white dress she had used for playacting then and the wreath of flowers in her long, dark hair.

It was all a dream? All of it?

"Am I fifteen again? That's not f-" and she stopped herself, feeling the old petulance rising and the fear subsiding. And as it did she realized that this garden was nothing like the one she had practiced in. In fact, it was so dissimilar that she reached up to be sure she hadn't imagined the wreath of flowers in her hair. But it was still there.

"Where am I?" she whispered.

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labyrinth_king
2009-02-21 01:45 am UTC (link)

There had been women, of course. One didn't live as long as Jareth had without getting into entanglements. But never, even with Mizumi, had he felt so completely out of his depth as he did now. So lost. Of course, he would hide that fact with everything he had in him. So he just stood very, very still and listened to her.

At first, he hadn't noticed the tears. She'd turned away too fast, while he was still trying to figure out what he'd done, and why. But now, there was no escaping them, and immortal or not, it wasn't easy to see the woman he loved in tears. At some point, he would have laughed and mocked her for her reaction, but not now. He sighed softly, and actually seemed a little sad. For that to show on the outside meant it was much more intense internally.

"But we'd gone so far, didn't that matter to you?" They had talked, and he had said things that... but apparently, it hadn't made any impact on her. He was about to turn away, needing time to think, to sort this out, when she came up to him and stood in front of him. He stopped and simply looked at her. He had no clue what she would want now, and her action took him by surprise.

He reacted, though. His lips returned the pressure of hers, and his hands came up to rest on her slender waist. He didn't step away when the kiss was done, and continued looking down into her eyes. "Do you still want to go?"

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sarah_williams
2009-02-21 01:54 am UTC (link)

There had been a claiming feel to his touch on her waist. It had been the first time he'd really ever touched her and she half-melted, half-stiffened at he sensation. Again, he was giving her exactly what she had wanted. He even looked almost... contrite. Asking if she still wanted to go and it frustrated her that he was going to put this on her.

She had tried. She had braved the wrath of her greatest fear and dearest hope. And he had played with her. Hadn't he? Except his tone and his touch conveyed something differen than the mockery she had thought him to be potraying.

"I-" she began. "Yes, it all mattered to me." And if he was going to tug at her to come back and be honest then she would be as honest as he was requesting. "I thought we had started to understand each other and then you just... you made a fool out of me." But the lilt of her voice trailed up at the end as if asking him to disagree with her.

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labyrinth_king
2009-02-21 02:04 am UTC (link)

They had danced at his masked ball, but that hadn't had the same feel this did. He remembered the feel of her slender waist from that time, but now she was even more slim. One hand slid to rest in the small of her back, but he still didn't cling, or grasp her hard. The other raised so that his fingers passed over the smooth skin of her cheeks.

But he was startled by her accusation. It had never occured to him that she had thought that way. He'd been rather sure that she hated him, actually, and that she had tried to leave because of that hatred. But why had there been tears in her eyes?

"I..." He simply stared at her, his hand still lightly touching her cheek, his eyes narrowed slightly in disbelief. "You think I did that to make a fool of you?" He, of course, could not claim innocence and say he had never done such a thing. But now, that had been the farthest thing from his mind.

"Tell me, Sarah, why would you find it so extraordinary that perhaps I just wanted to kiss you? Why would there have to be..." He shook his head, and his hand finally slid from her cheek to rest on her shoulder. "And do you think that everything I've said and done here was for that?" If she said yes, he didn't know what he would do. But he did need to know.

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sarah_williams
2009-02-21 02:18 am UTC (link)

His touch set her heart racing and she felt her cheeks begin to flush again -- damned betrayal! -- but she shook her head. "N-no, I had mostly expected you to snap your fingers and instead of a riding crop, I'd be dead on the floor in front of you. But this Planet, it - it doesn't allow for death and so I've been bracing for you to be purely angry with me for those words I said 3 years ago. The ones I never knew would cause so much trouble."

She took a deep breath as his hand slid to her shoulder and closed her eyes to calm her mind and focus her thoughts. When she opened her eyes again there was nothing left to say to him but three small words. It was a huge step for her, especially in the midst of feeling so foolish and so used even though she wanted to believe so much more from him.

It had been weighing on her mind the entire time they'd been together. She had brushed it aside several times in order to appear more composed and level-headed than she actually was. But now all she wanted was to stay as close as she was to him, be right here in this moment and tell him.

Just say it, Sarah! Just tell him now before it's half-past thirteen o'clock and you're too angry again.

Swallowing hard, she looked into his eyes again. She held his gaze for a long moment, then simply said, "I forgive you."

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labyrinth_king
2009-02-21 02:32 am UTC (link)

Had she really thought he had that sort of power? It was a little flattering, actually... but he never could have killed her. The most he could have done was trick her into killing herself, but he'd never, even when she was nothing more than an annoyance, considered doing so. He shrugged a little.

"Angry... yes, I suppose so." He frowned, knowing he should be more so, but he'd been very busy since his world had imploded. And anyway, he couldn't quite keep any of that emotion for long, not when it was directed at her. Yes, it would come back in flashes, and he suspected it would for awhile. But the long term grudge just wasn't shaping up to be there.

"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow at her, but something in his eyes showed just how touched he was that she'd made that offering. There was a very, very long pause as he looked down at her, not moving away in the slightest. "I said I would be there for you when the world fell down, but instead, you caused my world to fall down." He tilted his head slightly to the side consideringly before continuing. "And I forgive you for that."

It was an odd sort of conversation that they were creating between them, one full of things unsaid, at least on his part. But it was more than he'd expected, if he'd expected anything.

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sarah_williams
2009-02-21 02:41 am UTC (link)

This was not anything she had expected in any scenario she had played out in her thoughts over the years. She had imagined so many things but this was not part of any of it. He had always been fearsome, even as she surrendered to his will once and for all. Yet here, in spite of the fact that she had been right about him either consciously or unconsciously always displaying his vast power to her, he was not fearsome. He was simply an almost entirely unknown quantity who kept surprising her with small tendernesses.

"Why... why would you forgive me? And why would you have said you would be there for me when the world fell down?" None of that made sense. Why would he have had any reason to make such promises to her? He'd already said that he didn't - oh what was the use trying to understand anymore? Her liquid courage was gone and she was standing so close to him that she could feel the warmth of his breath on her face.

Dreams didn't come close to this and neither did nightmares. She wanted to not be afraid. She wanted him to kiss her again but in such a way as to calm her fears. She doubted that would ever happen and so she shrank into herself slightly, falling silent while looking into his eyes still.

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