Chapter Text
Sarah held the ring up to the sun, her freckled nose wrinkling. It didn’t look very pretty. It was a flat steel shiny browny color with a red jewel in the middle. At least it glowed in the sunlight. “This is it?”
Jareth grinned, he was missing a tooth. Not one of the ones at the front, but the ones to the side. And he had another loose one, which was so unfair. It had been months since Sarah had lost a tooth. “These are our entwinment bands, much like human marriage rings.”
They sat under the big oak tree she liked because it was old and huge. Plus, it glowed a little with magic, especially on windy days. It shifted off the tree in waves, vibrating off of the leaves. There was some protection in it, she thought. But she wasn’t sure. Father said she had synesthesia. But Jareth, Jareth knew it was magic. She’d always known, somehow.
“Can you not see it’s power?”
She squinted, turning the ring from side to side. It looked heavy, solid. Almost too real. “It looks… sharp. Heavy? No- strong.” She nodded. “The magic this has is strong. And- like a castle.”
She set it down in her lap and looked at him. “Daddy says only grown ups are supposed to get married.”
Jareth shrugged. “I am a prince. We often marry young for political alliances.”
“I guess…”
“That is why we must marry now, before my mother thinks of it. Then, when we are grown, we can finally be together forever.”
Sarah sighed. “Your mom is so weird. Can I see your ring?”
He held it out. Sarah took it, holding the two rings next to each other. They looked the same, other than the shape of the jewel. But as she held them up next to one another, the air warped. The feelings of the rings snapped together like magnets.
“Whoa.”
Jareth leaned forward. “What- what do you see?”
Sarah had been surprised that Jareth couldn’t see what she did. After all, he was magical himself. She’d known right from the beginning, when he’d first arrived at the playground a year ago. He’d felt prickly and spikey and different. Well, plus the weird clothes. All loose and old timey looking.
Jareth realized she had what he called Sight. With a capital S to prove how cool it was. She could see all magical things, no matter how well hidden. Even normal Fae, like Jareth, had some Sight. But could easily overlook little magic things, or hidden ones. Not Sarah. Jareth had tested her over and over. She had some of the best Sight he’d ever heard of.
Needless to say, they’d been best friends for almost a year. She was starting 5th grade soon. And she met him before 4th grade.
She handed back his ring. “The rings just belong together. That’s all.”
“Just like we do.”
Sarah nodded. “And I don’t want to ever not be friends.”
“More than friends.” Jareth said, smiling wide again. “We shall be a partnership.”
“Married people are friends.” Sarah said. “At least, they should be. My mommy and daddy, they stopped being happy together when they stopped being friends.”
At least, that’s what daddy said. Mommy said mean things about daddy. But she said mean things to Sarah too sometimes. Even when Sarah was trying so hard to be good.
Jareth’s mother wasn’t like that- at least, from what Jareth said. She told him he was wonderful and amazing and the best thing since sliced bread. But his dad had died right before he met Sarah. That’s when he’d started running away. But Sarah knew what it was like to miss a mommy. And her dad had taught her lots. Like it wasn’t her fault. And that it was okay to cry, and feel sad, and miss her. Stuff that Sarah had taught Jareth. Stuff that helped him feel better about it.
“So.” She held up the ring. “How do we work the magic to make us married?”
Jareth straightened. “There are two stages. First, we promise to love and adore one another. Then we swear to be righteous rulers working in tandem with one another. Then we kiss, and it is sealed.” He stared at her in a way that made her feel a little quivery inside. Jareth was older than her, about 600. But he was a kid like her. He didn’t look very different from the 5th or 6th graders at school. But sometimes the way he said things made everything feel very grown up.
She nodded. “And that will stop your mother from marrying you to someone else?”
“The bond is made, it is unbreakable, and there can be no other.”
“Good.” Sarah clenched her fist around the ring. She liked how solid it was. “I don’t ever want to be best friends with anyone else.” And, deep down, she liked that quivery feeling Jareth gave her. It was warm and scary and made her feel excited for that kiss. Married people kissed. So when Jareth finished fancy prince boarding school and came back to get her, she could kiss him all she liked.
But that was going to be a long time. A decade, maybe more.
She didn’t want to cry, but tears began to fall from her face.
“Why can’t you stay here.” She said. “Daddy will adopt you. And we can be best friends forever here. Why do you have to go to boarding school? What if they’re mean?” She pushed the hot tears away with her hand. “And what if you forget me?”
Jareth leapt forward, hugging her tight in his arms. That was another thing that helped with grownups leaving. Hugs. “Never!” He said. “I will never forget you Sarah. The stars would die before you would leave my memory.”
“I just wish-”
“No!” Jareth said, squeezing tight. “No wishing. You never know who listens.”
Sarah clung to him, nodding, her hand tight around that ring. Already she could feel it trying to bind with her. It was the emotion, she thought. It was trying to connect the emotion of the two of them. “-I know, I guess I would like for hugs to help with best friends leaving too. I miss you and you’re not even gone yet.”
Jareth pushed her away. He set his forehead on hers, staring into her blurry eyes. “I will come back. You have to remember too, I will come back for you when I am King, and then not even mother will be able to stop me. I swear to you Sarah Rena Williams, your heart might break and your will may falter, but I will come. Then we shall never again have to be apart.”
Then there was a click in the rings. She wondered if Jareth knew they were already connecting them together. She liked that feeling.
“Okay.” She whispered. “Let’s get married.”
They walked to the stone bridge in the park together, holding hands. She swung his back and forth, smiling because it made him happy. They stopped at the top of the bridge, because Jareth said it meant the connection of two parts.
The park’s stream trickled underneath them, gleaming in the summer day sun. Jareth held out his other hand, so she took it.
“Now first,” he said, “we promise to love and adore one another.”
So Sarah told him he was funny and the fastest at running, and he was the smartest boy she’d ever met. She said she wanted to be best friends with him forever. To always help him when he was angry that his dad was gone. To be a friend to play with when lessons were too hard, or when his mother felt like a tyrant.
Jareth said she was beautiful and clever and that he was amazed by how “mature” she was. That she meant everything to him. He said he couldn’t wait to be best friends forever, so he could give her hugs and teach her funny words, and make her laugh.
The ring’s pull felt stronger all the time.
Next they swore to their future rolls. This had specific words, but Jareth coaxed her through them. They promised each other to be good rulers, to never allow personal stuff to get in the way of doing a good job, and to always work as one to serve the people.
Then he knelt, and put the ring on her finger. It was too big, but Sarah figured she’d grow into it. She knelt to put Jareth’s ring on too. His was also too big.
Then it was just the kiss.
She knew what kisses were. She kissed daddy on the cheek. But she couldn’t seem to start it. Jareth seemed unsure too.
“I guess…” she said slowly, “we kiss now.”
“Indeed.”
Then they stood there, staring. Jareth’s cheeks turned pink. Sarah’s cheeks felt hot too. It wasn’t a bad thing, a kiss. But somehow it felt dangerous.
Jareth leaned in a little, so Sarah matched him. Then he moved another inch. Then she did. Then he did. Then she giggled. It was silly, all of it. So she reached out and pecked him on the lips.
Sparks flew from her ring, crackling up and down her whole body. She shivered. The ring hugged her finger. She looked down and saw now it was the perfect size now. Jareth was looking at his hand too.
“I think it worked.” Sarah whispered.
Jareth nodded. He stared at his hand, eyes wide. “I can see it now too, the sureness. This is ancient magic. Built by many years and many marriages.” He snapped his head up, suddenly grinning again. “Now I know mother won’t be able to marry me to someone else.”
Sarah squealed in joy, throwing her arms around him. “We’re married forever and ever. A bajillion years!”
“Yes…” Jareth turned his head to one side. “What is a ‘bajillion’?”
“Like a million. Or billion. But bigger.”
“Ah.” He laughed. “One of those words.”
“It’ll be in the dictionary someday.”
“So you propose. I doubt it. The word sounds unfinished and half baked.”
She pushed him away, sticking out her tongue. “Bully! Bully to a poor word!”
He’d been a bit of a bully when she’d first met him. Boy, had she had to teach him on that one. It was like he thought he’d invented sliced bread!
“When I’m queen the first thing I’m doing is making every say bajillion once a day.” She said. “So there.”
Jareth crossed his arms, tossing up his nose. “And my first decree shall be for all to love you for the excellent queen you shall be.”
She laughed too, but she stopped when his head snapped to the side. His eyes searched through the air, his long ears twitching like a dog.
“You have to go, don’t you.” Sarah said miserably.
He nodded, silent.
That made her want to cry again, but she sucked a breath and held it all in. He wouldn’t leave if she cried. He hated it when she cried.
“Sarah.” He grabbed her hand again, squeezing it in both of his. “Don’t forget me Sarah. It’s so hard for mortals to remember the Fae.”
“But I have the Sight.” Sarah whispered, so her breath and tears wouldn’t escape. “I will remember. I promise.”
He nodded, and turned away. The air shuffled around him, tearing open into the other side of the world. He turned back, and she saw tears streaming down his cheeks. But he still smiled, and waved goodbye like a human, like she’d taught him too.
Her breath fought to escape, and at last she burst- “I love you Jareth!”
The smile dropped from his face. He stared that tingly stare again, that felt like grown up stuff. “I love you as well, Sarah.”
Then he was gone.
She looked down at her ring, at the red gem. It felt light now, hollow. Wrong. “I won’t forget.” She clenched her fist. “I’ll be his queen. And I’ll love him forever. I’ll never, ever forget.”
-
Sarah was nine years old when she married Jareth. So young, and yet she held to her vow far longer than any child could be expected to. She refused to choose crushes at recess, never took off her ring except during her baths, and swore to everyone and everything that she was married.
But over time, practical things crowded out her young mind, so eager to believe in magic and elves and fairies. By the time she was fourteen, she thought it quaint that she had ever thought her synesthesia a way to see “magic”. But still, she avoided dates and boys, much to the exasperation of her step mother, who thought it essential for a young girl to date.
She no longer claimed she was married, but other boys always felt dull and uninteresting no matter how hard they tried to impress her. At times she pondered how magical that year had felt with Jareth, but surely those memories were rose colored. Everyone felt like magic was real as a child, and had an active enough imagination to think her best friend was a fairy.
So she steadily grew through high school, through her gap year working, and into college. She went on a date here or there, but her parents dispaired at ever having grandchildren.
What no one could have expected was that she never stopped wearing the ring. It would have been easy for her to loose it as a child, or chosen other styles of jewelry during her teenage years. But she wore, it, year after year. It felt right, comforting and a way to remember a dear friend from childhood. Somehow it slipped her mind how strange it was that it always fit her finger. From nine to fourteen to twenty seven. It never rusted, never tarnished, even when she wore it when she took her showers. Once, she idly thought of testing the metal, but it didn’t stick around. Life marched on with all it’s bills and grocery shopping and such things.
Until Sarah was twenty seven years old, finished with her masters and working her very first grown up job, when she was kidnapped by elves.