"SHIT!"
Jareth was startled awake by the oath. As he lay in bed, half asleep, he could hear a few bangs and crashes. Is sleep ever possible with this woman? He sighed, rolled onto his stomach and pulled his pillow on top of his head.
He groaned as he heard her rush down the stairs, praying she wouldn't fall. Who, in the world, was she talking to this early in the morning? One look at the clock told him it was closer to noon than morning, but all the same, people were sleeping. He also wondered who had gotten into the house without him knowing.
Theodora ran past the living room with one hand pressed to the side of her face, while speaking. "No, Mardy, of course I didn't forget about dinner tonight. I'll be there, with a cake for Sally's birthday."
She was silent for a moment. "Also, I'm bringing a guest.
"Yes, he's a boy and it's not like that.
"There's a favor I need to ask of you and Sally."
More silence. "We'll talk about it when we get there, okay? Thanks, Coach. Bye."
Jareth got up and walked to the doorway of the kitchen in time to see the little witch place a small device on the counter and start pulling things from the cupboards. He almost groaned again when he saw what she was wearing.
Theodora was reaching for a box on the top shelf of a cupboard in nothing but a large shirt and under clothes. He should know, he could see them. Being friends is going to be difficult if she keeps doing things like this. He finally was able to break free of the spell her long, white legs cast upon him and walk towards her.
Reaching for the box she was failing to catch, he spoke to her. "What is that device you were speaking into?"
She squeaked "Gah! You're awake! It's, uh, it's called a cell phone." She looked down at her feet. "Oh my god." She stared at him, eyes wide. "You're awake."
"Yes." He quirked a barely there eyebrow.
"No. You're awake and I'm not wearing pants." She said pointing at her rather enticing legs.
"Oh, really? I hadn't noticed." Jareth replied, looking in her embarrassed eyes.
She slapped his arm and ran upstairs, only to return a minute later wearing raggedy, plaid pajama pants, much to Jareth's disappointment. Jareth scolded himself. She is a lady and you must think of her as such.
"Okay, so dinner is at five, I-" She corrected herself, "we have to be there at two. I have a cake to make," she tied her hair back. "I have to let it cool, frost it. We both have to get ready," she washed her hands, "and it is noon. Two hours. We're going to be late. I'm always late. Where is the damn oil?" She threw hands in the air. "Calm down. Calm down."
Jareth watched her panic with amusement. "Could I be of assistance?"
She laughed. "No, I'll handle the modern stuff. You just go make yourself look pretty. You know where the bathroom is." She stopped with an egg poised to crack against the bowl. "Clothes. You need clothes."
He held up a hand to her. "Tend to your 'modern stuff.' I can dress myself, as I've done for many a century." Though, there had been a few phases here and there during his first two or three centuries. He shuddered. Those poor maids.
As he turned, he could hear Theodora mutter to herself something that sounded like "Crush my dreams, why don't you?" Jareth laughed out loud at that as he made his up the stairs; he couldn't help himself.
Once he got to the bathroom where he found his shirt, jacket and britches, he looked at his reflection, something he hadn't done much lately. He saw the same thing every time; himself standing alone. Alone. All his life, spent surrounded by people and yet so alone, no one to truly understand the burden and satisfaction of caring for so many souls; the fate of most kings.
Alone.
He also thought about the Necromancer. Where was she? When would she attack his Kingdom? Would she attack? Of course, she would, he thought. She was always a vengeful person. One thought plagued him, though. If Theodora was destined to save the Labyrinth from the Necromancer, did the villian know of her?
He heard humming a song that sounded familiar to him and footsteps as Theodora walked past the door, to her room. Suddenly the steps back to the door and she knocked softly. "Jareth? You okay?"
That startled him into action; he was supposed to be getting ready to go. He'd known her, but a day, and he knew her bark was bad, though he had a feeling her bite was just as bad. If he made them late, she'd have his hide. "Yes, I'm fine." He heard her mumble her aknowledgement and continue to her room.
He'd showered the day before and hadn't gotten himself dirty, so he didn't have to do that. He stripped of his clothes and laid them on the counter. What to wear, what to wear. He picked up the gray trousers he had beeen wearing and shook them out once, as a maid would shake a rug, and they were instantly transformed into black jeans. These he remembered from watching the rectangle thing in the livingroom yesterday and they fit rather snuggly on his buttocks as he slipped them on. After, he changed the color of his shirt in the same manner, also turning it black. It also fit tautly across his figure, confirming the muscles that his arms hinted at.
Jareth combed his wild hair and admired his form in the mirror. She said make myself pretty. I think I succeeded. Then he chuckled at how vain he sounded.
Grabbing his coat, he took off down the hall towards the livingroom, where he found his bedding folded in a neat pile. Then he proceeded to haul the mattress upstairs and leaned it against the wall near Theodora's door, balancing the sheets on top. Once downstairs again, he pulled a few crystals from the depths of his never ending pockets and juggled them. He'd forgotten how long women take to dress.
She tramped down the stairs just as the timer went off and rushed to the kitchen before he had a chance to take a peek. "Ow, ow, ow, HOT!"
Jareth rushed to the kitchen to find Theodora bouncing in place with the pad of her first finger in her mouth. He was halted by her beauty, for a moment, unable to do anything but just look. She looked stunning in her corseted, dark blue, black lace shirt, black jeans and sturdy boots. Her dark hair hung straight around her shoulders and her large brown eyes were framed by thin black lines, her lips stained red. He found her beautiful despite the thin strawberry colored scar marring her right cheek.
Their clothes matched, he realized.
"What did you do?" He chuckled, shaking out of his stupor. He walked over to her and took her hand in his. The spot was slightly redder than the rest of her hand.
"The damned oven mitt had a hole in it and I didn't know it." He ran his finger over it. "Ouch."
"Sorry." Jareth suppressed the urge to kiss the hurt digit and released her hand. "What am I going to do with you?"
"Oh, shut it." She grabbed the pan, using a different oven mitt and shoved it in the ice box. They chatted mildly, waiting for the cake to cool enough to frost. After about twenty minutes, the young woman tied up her hair and retrieved the pan. Working her womanly kitchen magic, she decorated the cake in, what seemed to the clueless king, record time. Using a tube of pink icing, she wrote the words 'Happy Birthday Miss Sally' and wrapped up the cake.
Checking the clock, she said "We have about twenty minutes to get there, and there is a bus soon, so we should get going in a few, so we don't miss it."
"Nonsense. I don't know what this 'bus' is, but we have no need of it."
"What? Why not?"
"You wound me, yet again, Little Witch. Why would we journey using a bus, when I can-how did you put it? Ah, aye, when I can poof us there?"
She reddened. "How can you do that when you've never seen the house? Don't you have to picture the place you are going?"
"I can show you. Are you ready to leave?" Theodora told him to wait and ran up to her room. When she came back down, she had a chain trailing from her back pocket to a hook on the front of her trousers and a jacket hanging over her arm. She returned to the kitchen after retrieving his, as well. Grabbing the cake, she stood in front of him, expectantly.
"'Kay. Ready when you are."
He took both coats and the cake from her. "It's best to not be holding things when you Shift for the first time. Especially when holding it with one hand; it's a bit messy." He grabbed her smaller, warmer hand. "Alright, this is where you come in. I want you to picture the destination in your mind. The clearer, the more detailed it is, the easier it is for me to transport us. Once you think the picture is clear enough, I want you shove that image into my mind."
It took a moment, but suddenly, he could see a tall, brick house with a big metal door with small windows on the left side. Two steps led up to a porch with a white railing and a red front door, there were also two windows overlooking the porch. There was a large tree in the front yard and an assortment of flowers in a bed near the porch.
Jareth let the magic flow and he could feel Theodora's magic trickling down to help him. The remaining bit of the Labyrinth in his mind purred happily. There was still a large part attached to him, but he suspected that as she learned to control her magic and come in to herself, bit by bit, bit by bit, the Labyrinth's mind would make a home in her head.
Then, there it was; the falling. They were both falling in between the air, through the magic and the mundane, through the gap between earth and sky. Her grip tightened and he rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb, comforting her during the trip that lasted an eternity.
They land on the porch in front of the welcoming rug. The girl ripped her hand from his and placed her hands on her knees. "Holy shit, I think we left my stomach at home. That's worse than any roller coaster that I've ever been on."
He rubbed her back as she caught up with herself. "The first time is always the worst. I stopped breathing." He could smell smoke in the air.
She righted herself, took her hair down and run her hands through it, straightening it, smoothing it out. She fusses when she's nervous. He noted. Why was she nervous? She trusted these two with everything she had. He had seen as much. It must be his presence here.
Theodora seemed to gather her courage.
She took a deep breath and opened the door, whilst knocking on it and calling into the house.
She stepped over the threshold and he made to follow.
This should be fun.