Work Text:
Pairing: Jareth/Sarah (Labyrinth)
Setting: several years post-movie
At the age of twenty-one, Sarah had realised her greatest wish was to take Jareth up on the offer he made to her years before and be with him always. Of course, she wanted to have things on her own terms as much as he did. In the end, the compromise was that he would live in her world, in a slightly less-eccentric guise, until such time as she felt ready to become queen of his land and rule at his side.
It was obvious to Sarah that it would take time for Jareth to adjust to her world. Though she had conquered the Labyrinth at a young age, she was sure it would have taken a very long time for her to get used to living down in the Underground, if she had to. Just because Jareth was a goblin king with powers beyond human understanding, that didn’t mean that the intricacies of the mortal world were easy for him to grasp. In some ways, she supposed, it only made it harder.
When it came to their first Christmas spent together, he seemed more overwhelmed by all the details and the trappings than she had ever seen him before.
“The book I read on the subject said nothing about any of this,” he noted, making a face as they walked down the store aisle together. “There were angels, animals, a stable, and a star. None of this glitter and certainly none of this noise.”
The Christmas-adjacent pop tunes playing loudly on the sound system were pretty grating after a while, and they were surrounded on all sides by ornaments, banners and bows, stockings and more. Everything was red and green with gold and silver thrown in for good measure. It was quite intense, even for regular humans, Sarah supposed.
“Well, a lot of Christmas traditions don’t exactly tie back to the real story,” she explained. “I mean, some do. We give gifts because the shepherds and the wise men brought gifts for the baby Jesus. Some of the decorations are related - like you said, there were angels and a pretty important star,” she reminded him, picking up a topper that might work for their tree - the glitter came away on her hands at first touch.
Jareth wrinkled his nose, then leaned in to speak in a low voice. “Speaking as a being from a realm of magic and wonder, even I find this to be an over-use of both.”
Sarah looked around herself and sighed. He was right. She had thought that Jareth just didn’t understand about Christmas, but maybe he actually understood it even better than she did, better than most everybody. It really wasn’t supposed to be about all the tinsel and glitter, not even the gifts or the tree. Those were nice things to have, but they weren’t all that in-keeping with the spirit of the season.
Pushing the half-filled cart to one side, she held out her hand to Jareth and smiled as he tentatively took hold. “Come on, let’s go home. I think we’ll have a perfectly good Christmas without buying any more of this stuff.”
Without argument, he walked with her to the door and out into the chilly December air. Just as they were about to head home, Sarah stopped, making a quick decision to buy just one thing for their celebrations from a seller on the corner outside the store.
“What’s this?” asked Jareth, eyeing the plant sprig in her hand suspiciously.
“A non-religious Christmas tradition that I promise you’ll like,” she said, grinning wide as she pulled him around in front of her. “This is mistletoe, and when two people are standing under it, they’re expected to kiss,” she explained, holding said mistletoe as high as she could between them.
With a smile to mirror her own, Jareth wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her ridiculously close. “Merry Christmas, Sarah,” he said softly, before he kissed her.