Labyrinth, Jareth/Toby, Sarah's loss is Toby's gain
He double checked everything and smiled at the preparations he had taken for this first meeting. He hoped it would be the first of many, but that would be up to the other gentleman. The large rock had a cloth covering the surface while china plates were resting on the cloth, and a cold meal was set out in preparation. He sat down on one side of the rock and cleared his throat, his hands shaking.
“I wish Jareth the Goblin King would please show up,” he called, proud that his voice didn’t waiver. He waited as the seconds turned into minutes and several of those to pass before he sighed and slumped. He should have known better, but it felt so right!
“I applaud your tenacity, mortal, and your manners,” mused a voice on the other side of rock, and Toby’s head whipped up to stare at the man who stood there. He was exactly how Sarah had described him in her diary, right down to the mismatched eyes. “Why have you called me here?”
Toby pulled out a worn book and placed it on the make shift table. “Sarah wrote about her adventure in your labyrinth, and although she described you as a villain, I saw something else.”
The regal man tilted his head in a bird like manner, still staring at Toby. “What did you see, young Toby?”
Opening the book to a page, Toby cleared his throat and began to read. “Everything that you wanted, I have done. You asked that the child be taken. I took him. You cowered before me, I was frightening. I have reordered time. I have turned the world upside down, and I have done it all for you.” He closed the book and looked up at the stony face of Jareth. “You did everything she asked, yet she was too wrapped up in the role she was playing to see what you were doing. She believed you to be the villain of her play, infatuated with the heroine but there for the heroine to defeat, thus proving she was more powerful than you.”
“And what do you believe, young Toby?” Jareth’s voice was a caress, an invitation to continue speaking.
“I believe that while you might not have loved her, you were definitely infatuated enough with her to do what she asked,” Toby stated, rising to his feet to show off the tight pants he was wearing and the loose, flowing blouse. “I, on the other hand, am and have been infatuated with you since I read her diary.”
Jareth raised a brow at his appearance. “You have my interest now, young Toby.”
Smiling, Toby walked over to him. “I wouldn’t mind more than that, but I understand wanting to get to know someone first. That is why I arranged this, to peak your interest enough to get to know me, Toby, not Sarah’s brother. You will never be the villain in my plays. The leading man, yes, but never the villain.” His smile became a smirk. “Besides, her loss is my gain.”
“Why should I accept your invitation?”
Toby continued smirking at him. “I turn eighteen tomorrow. Old enough to do what I want, but young enough that no one takes me seriously. If I decide to vanish in thin air, no one can say a word about it, and should I decide to go with a handsome Goblin King, then only he can refuse me.”
He walked over to him and stared up into Jareth’s eyes. “Unlike Sarah, I have never cried out that it’s not fair even when I wanted to, and I have never been a spoiled brat who couldn’t see past her own ego to know a good thing when it’s right in front of me.”
“You would leave this world behind, this family behind, and come with me?”
Raising up on his toes, he pressed a kiss to Jareth’s lips. “I am yours for as long as you desire me, my lord.”
A bark of triumphant laughter echoed through the trees as Jareth swept his cape around Toby, taking him back to the Underground and the Castle Beyond the Goblin City.
When Sarah came looking for Toby hours later, she only found a cold picnic lunch and her diary with a feather from a large owl lying across it.