slipping through my fingers - JARETH

[sarah]

"You have to hold the girl as if she were a photo, and you were the frame. Not the best analogy, but if it helps, think of it." Sarah said as she moved between the couples in her latest dance class, watching as they kept up with the music in the waltz she had taught them. Most of them moved with elegance and grace from their training, but some were struggling to keep up. A more complicated part of the dance was coming up - more of them stumbled through the complex and repeated turns.

"Hang on. Here, watch." She took the hand of one of the more skilled of her dancers that had made it through the turns. She took two steps and they began the dance halfway through, just before the turns. She spun and twirled with natural grace, spinning away from him and twirling back in before he lowered her into a dip and back up, launching her into a lift.

She felt the move was off before he even picked her up, and she felt his arms waver. His grip slipped and she felt herself fall, slamming hard into the hardwood floor on her side. She flinched, waving off the student as he tried to help her.

"I'm fine." She assured and picked herself up off the ground a moment later, her hip and shoulder throbbing. A wave of nausea swept over her and she swayed on her feet for a moment.

"That'll be all today." Sarah announced to the class. "You did well - practice before you return tomorrow, please. I expect to get through the entire dance." She added as they began to gather their things. Sarah walked over toward the bar that lined one side of the mirrored room, clutching it for dear life while she waited for the wave to pass. How the hell was she supposed to teach if her stomach kept protesting against her every class period?

She studied her reflection in the mirror. She looked a bit like hell, for lack of a better phrase - she had been up half the night. Exhausted and sick, she tugged the sleeve of her shirt up to examine her shoulder - nothing yet. She mirrored the action in pushing down the leggings on her hip, noticing a purplish bruise was beginning to form there. She swore quietly and leaned against the bar again, resting her forehead against the cool glass of the mirror and shutting her eyes.

outfit

[jareth]

Jareth really did not miss teaching. Not even in the slightest. The only reason he'd been doing it was to be closer to Sarah, and now that he'd achieved that, he couldn't think of a single thing that would ever make him want to go back to teaching those ungrateful children how to dance. They didn't even want to learn, and even if they had, they were so massively untalented that they'd be stepping on each other all day anyway.

He didn't have the smallest clue why Sarah would be interested in taking up the job after he'd left it, particularly not when he came in and saw her being thrown on the floor like that. A twinge of anger ran through him, and he wondered why she tolerated such treatment. She didn't have to now, not with the magic she possessed. She could have turned the child into a goblin, could have banished him to the Bog of Eternal Stench for pulling a stunt like that.

Jareth stood just inside the door, moving over slightly as the students streamed towards the exit, and waited until they were gone to approach Sarah.

"You oughtn't let them treat you that way," he commented, pulling off his gloves and holding them loosely over his scepter in a fist. "You know how much it displeases me."

[sarah]

Of course he was lurking. He always came in at the times that were most in-oppourtune - like right then, with Sarah pale, sick, and about to pass out as she clutched the wooden bar. It took her a few moments longer than she would have liked to form a response to him.

"Yes, well, it's not like they do it on purpose. They're here to learn, and one learns from mistakes." Sarah replied, twisting around to face him. "And I'm here to teach them to do better." A teasing smile came to her lips for a fleeting moment. "If their previous teacher had taught them something, perhaps they wouldn't be so difficult to work with."

Yes, she knew he had taken the position only to grow closer to her - and it had worked, of course - but now that she was left with the students he had in class previously, she discovered they were no where near the level they needed to be at, leaving her to give them a complete crash course in practically every thing.

"Anyway, I thought you were busy." She continued, stretching her arms across her chest in turn, flinching slightly when her newly bruised shoulder twanged in pain. Hopefully it would go away before tomorrow. Focusing on something else was starting to help her sick feeling wane as well, so she pushed on and moved to stretch her legs as well. "Not that I don't appreciate you coming to see me."

[jareth]

"Of course they don't do it on purpose," Jareth scoffed. "That's the problem. They're so terribly good at...failure, they don't even have to think about it. It comes naturally. Failure is human beings' chief ability." He pulled a crystal out of the air and toyed with it briefly, looking into it before a frown passed across his features and he tossed it away into a corner.

"I am busy," he went on. "Clearly, I am busy making sure these inept mortals don't drop my queen onto the floor and shatter her into a thousand pieces. I do have to look out for the things that are important to me, you know."

He rested a hand on her shoulder, his bare fingertips grazing the skin of her arm as he did so. Magic crossed the path between them, and rippled across her injured shoulder like a small, cresting wave of electricity, then sank into her skin.

"That should help with the pain. Unnecessary pain, I might add."

[sarah]

Sarah rolled her eyes, but her small smile stayed on her face. "Everyone makes mistakes." She shrugged. "I do." Of course, she didn't make many mistakes anymore - none, practically. She now had magic to prevent mistakes, and fix any accidental ones that popped up. If she'd thought about it, she could have used magic to stop herself from hitting the floor.

She frowned slightly as he threw a crystal in the corner though. With a simple twist of her hand, she brought it back to her where it landed gently in her palm. She looked at it for a moment. "You know, if you keep frowning like that at things you see in here, your face will stick like that."

"I'm not glass, I won't shatter." She assured him, rolling the crystal around on her palm for a moment before she clenched a fist around it and allowed it to disappear. She was getting better with the magic she posessed, although, it would clearly never match Jareth's. "If it makes you any happier, I won't be able to teach dance in a few months. You'll have me all to yourself."

She allowed her eyes to drift shut as his fingertips grazed her arm. Relief spread through it, much to her delight, and she smiled again. She could have probably done it herself, but again, she kept forgetting that she did actually posess the ability to. "Thank you. And what would you have me do? Land on my back next time? I don't predict when my students will falter and where on the ground I'll end up - as far as I know, I haven't developed psycic abilities yet."

[jareth]

Jareth sighed. She was being ridiculous, offering up little clichéd bits of advice like "your face will stick like that."

"That's absurd," he told her calmly. "My face will never be "stuck." You are aware that I can transform myself into an owl at will?" The idea that his face would be stuck in any form that didn't please him was outrageous.

"At any rate," he went on, "You've said nothing to convince me. Their lack of predictability is precisely why it's pointless for you to be associating with them." He glared at the crystal as she let it disappear, and turned away, one arm stretched out at his side, fingertips resting lightly on the jeweled end of his scepter.

"The only way to keep yourself from being at risk is to avoid interacting with them entirely. You know you needn't teach this silly class...only a handful of them actually want to learn anyway, and even those have so little talent that it hardly makes a difference."

[sarah]

Sarah's lips twisted into a pretty smirk. "A lot of things are absurd, and I've found myself recently taking to absurd things." She replied as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "You'd better get used to it, too. Children are quite absurd most of the time and you have to play along with them, as a parent." She rolled her shoulder and tested it out before stretching it across her chest, repeating the motion with the other arm a moment later. "And yes, I'm aware it won't get stuck, Jareth. I was joking. Goodness."

She rose up on the tips of her toes, stretching her legs as much as she could for a moment. "I associate with them because I'm their teacher. I'm here to teach them to dance. They've gotten better." At least, they hadn't dropped her as many times. She'd neglected to tell Jareth they'd dropped her several times the first few days. Now it was only down to once or twice a week. Soon, perhaps, it'd be a month.

"They have talent, you just have to draw it out of them. Much in the way you drew the ability to be a Queen out of me - although, the principles here are quite different." Sarah sighed softly and leaned back against the bar that ran along the side of the wall, folding her arms across her chest for the time being. She eyed him suspciously.

"You haven't tried to strike an arguement with me yet - is something wrong?"

[jareth]

Jareth hoped she didn't think their child was going to be played with when it got into destructive or absurd moods. As far as he was concerned, it could entertain itself with the goblins when it was in such finicky states of mind. He certainly wasn't going to be making googly faces at it or trying to get it to smile at him by humiliating himself repeatedly with stupid gestures and ridiculous antics. No, not him.

"Hilarious," he remarked dryly, because he hadn't thought it funny in the slightest. He was aware that Sarah had a well-developed sense of humor, but that, he thought, had been a poorly conceived and only decently executed attempt at a joke, and he wasn't going to encourage her if she wasn't putting any effort into it.

"Kindly draw it out of them in a way that does not threaten my Queen or my heir," he requested, calmly. "Can't they throw one another around instead of tossing you on the floor? Surely you could show them a picture, or let them work their horrors on the other students."

Oh, and then she was changing the subject again...almost as if she was looking for an argument and had to mention it just to start one because he hadn't come in with all guns blazing. Jareth bristled.

"I could be more...confrontational, if you prefer," he offered. "You know how I do love to cater to your expectations of what I should be and do."

[sarah]

She rolled her eyes at his sarcasm. How she was going to put up with him for all eternity, she'd never know. But it was just simply one of the traits about him that made him . . . unique, so Sarah would put up with it. Not happily, but she would.

Sighing, Sarah relented.

"All right. Fine." Her hands on her hips, she glanced around the room as if she expected the students to still be there. "I have a student who excels - I put them as demonstration. I'm sure when I explain the situation, they'll understand." She said flatly, her gaze moving back to him now. She wasn't irritated, just mildly upset that he was probably right. She didn't really need to be doing the lifts and such because of the danger of falling. She wasn't sure if magic could repair the sort of damage that could happen if she didn't watch it.

"I'll save my dancing for when I'm with you." She added. She was quite sure he wouldn't drop her or any of the like, and he was a lot better at it than her students, beyond comparision really.

She waved a hand at him, shaking her head. "No, no, don't. The last thing I need is stress, so I'd love to hold off on the arguements for a while. I was just making an observation. I'm not used to seeing you so calm - I just wondered if something was wrong." She gave a minor shrug, stepping closer with a frown.

"Something's off about you." She added. Something was off indeed. She couldn't place it, but she knew it was there. She studied him head to toe for a moment, her gaze landing on his face again. "What are you not telling me?"

[jareth]

There were things Jareth could be remarkably childish about. He could turn people into goblins if they irritated him, he could laugh riotously at childish humor, and he could dance and sing in a manner that would embarrass most men. But when it came to his role as the Goblin King, as the person entrusted with the deepest magic of the Underground, there was an entirely different side to him, a more solemn nature that few people were ever privy to.

Sarah had seen that side of him once - when he had bonded her to himself at their pseudo-wedding. She had seen the way Jareth and the magic were entwined, and thus, the way she was now wrapped up into all of it as well.

He nodded in acceptance of her new plan. He wasn't going to thank her - as far as he was concerned, he shouldn't have to thank her for doing things she should have been doing anyway, like looking out for her safety and the safety of their child.

"Nothing's wrong," he assured her. And indeed, nothing was wrong, not yet. He had until the baby was born before he could really know how wrong anything would be. "Don't worry. I only want to be sure that you and this one," (there he poked a finger towards her stomach) "are safe and looked after."

[sarah]

Sarah hummed and turned toward the table in the corner of the room where she had stowed her things. She lifted herself up to sit on it as she pulled off her dancing shoes, stretching her legs out in front of her to relieve some of the tension left in them. While she wasn't completely satisfied with the fact that nothing was wrong with him, she would accept his answer for now. That didn't mean she wouldn't keep a closer eye on him now.

"We're quite fine. Although, I would appreciate it if it would stop making me sick every time I eat." She muttered with a slight face, pulling crackers out of her bag that was on the table next to her. They were all she could keep down for the moment, and had come up with several ways to eat them in the meantime. She was still trying to get used to the fact that she would have her own baby to look after in several months. Hopefully she'd be a better mother than her own, and a better mother than a big sister - even though she had saved her little brother from the very man who stood in front of her now.

"And just to be clear - as I've already told my students and the faculty this - I don't plan on being put away on a shelf for the next several months. I'm not breakable." Sarah continued, twisting her water bottle on the table beside her as she stared at him, as if daring him to object. "But I do promise to take care of myself. The last thing I want is for something to happen to either of us."

[jareth]

Jareth watched her closely, as he often did (even when she didn't know he was in the room), while she put away her things.

"It isn't an it," he told her, contradictorily. "It's the heir to my throne. I suppose I ought to ask it whether it's male or female at some point in the near future."

It wasn't that he hadn't thought of that before that moment. It was, in fact, something entirely different and much darker that kept Jareth somewhat aloof when it came to the only child he had ever sired (instead of stealing).

"I'm not asking you to put yourself away on a shelf," he reiterated, calmly. "All I'm asking is that you cease this relentless pursuance of things that put you and that one," he pointed at her belly again, "in harm's way. So long as I believe you're taking care of both my queen and my heir, I will be satisfied."

And when Jareth was satisfied, everyone was a lot happier. That went without saying, didn't it?

"You might not be breakable," he reminded her, "but the child doesn't even have bones yet. It is most certainly breakable."

[sarah]

"I assumed you would already know if it were male or female? And what do you expect me to call it? It's not as if we have a name, and I'm not likely to call it Prince or Princess, pending gender knowledge." Sarah replied. It seemed to be a long way off, picking names, but she knew it would be something they would eventually have to do. She was rather looking forward to it - although, the arguement that would probably result in names wasn't going to be exactly 'fun'.

Sighing softly, she nodded. "I know. I just - I'm not exactly used to having something growing inside of me, and I'm still trying to figure out how to act and what to do. Not to mention my body systems are all out of whack, so it makes concentrating on figuring all this out a whole lot harder." She pinched the bridge of her nose for a moment. Truth be told, the whole situation scared her more than anything.

There were so many questions, so many dangerous things that could happen - not to mention she had never even raised a child before except her brother, and she'd wished him away. Would she give up when her own child screamed and cried through the night? Sarah wasn't full of confidence that she would be the better parent. Or a good parent at all. Panic and worry literally radiated from her once she got to thinking about the entire thing - like now - and it nearly made her sick again.

"I'm trying, really." Sarah continued after a moment. "You . . . just have to give me time to adjust. I'm sorry." She admitted quietly and curled her hands around the lip of the table she sat on, clutching it so tightly that they were turning white.

"Everything in the past few months is rather new and I don't think the full reality of it really hit me until earlier this week."

[jareth]

Jareth tapped his foot impatiently. He had to remind himself once and again that Sarah hadn't been raised with a keen knowledge of all goblin customs and regulations.

"There are very specific procedures and traditions regarding the naming of an heir," he explained, in what he thought was a remarkably patient tone. "At any rate, you certainly won't call it "prince" or "princess" anything - you are Queen, and as such, you warrant the right to address your own child by his or her given name."

He held one gloved hand out, tilting her chin up, and gave her a rather wolfish smile, the same devilish expression he had used to plague young girls in his Labyrinth for decades before she had come along and bested it.

"You shall have your time to adjust," he assured her. "And as for the gender...I cannot tell you at this moment, but there are ways, in the Underground. In the meantime, I suggest you refer to it as 'The Heir'." As usual, Jareth had no real appreciation for how odd certain things might appear to the rest of the world, including Sarah wandering around referring to her unborn baby as the heir with a capital T-H.

He twisted his hand through the air, plucking a barely-opened rosebud out of the air, and extended it towards her.

"I hope you understand your own significance," he said, which was some kind of Jareth-ese way of telling her she was extremely important to him.

[sarah]

"You'll have to enlighten me to those procedures, then." Sarah said in an equally patient tone. She didn't know everything about the Underground and it's rules and customs and traditions. She was still learning and trying to learn, but there were so many to keep track of. Sarah had enough trouble keeipng her head on straight most days, especially those days where she craved nothing but peanut butter, pickles, caramel popcorn, and cold pizza.

A faint smile crossed her lips when he tilted her head upward.

"It might take me a bit longer to adjust. You'll have to forgive me if I become irritable and annoyed at everything and anything." Sarah said. Oh yes, hormones were the worst and she was likely to develope bi-polar mood swings. If she happened to kill or maim any of the goblins - well, Jareth was likely to be pleased about it.

"I guess your official name is 'The Heir' for now, little one." She said, looking down at her baby bump. "Just remember it was your daddy's idea. Not mine."

She took the rosebud her offered and gently twirled it between her fingers, nodding.

"I understand my signifiagance perfectly clear." She said, examining the bud with a glance back toward him. His methods weren't conventional, but she welcome how unique it was. "You've reminded me many times before and I've given in to understanding."