Work Text:
Title: "To End The Loneliness"
Author: Kat Lee
Rating: PG/K+
Summary: Jareth's always lonely but some things, like playing "ball", help.
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, names, codenames, places, items, fandoms, titles, and etc. are always © & TM their respective owners, not the author, and are used without permission. Any and all original characters and everything else is © & TM the author and may not be reproduced in any way without the author's express, written permission. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.
He can be alone in a ballroom full of people or a throne room crowded with Goblins. He's always alone, in truth, for there's no one who can appeal to him. There's no one who can even come close to matching him for intellect, beauty, charisma, or power and few, other than the Goblins and the other creatures of his Labyrinth, who can match him in age. He's seen so much, done so much, and yet been able to love so little.
Sometimes, he wonders if there's a match out there anywhere for him, in any galaxy or realm. Sometimes, he secretly fears that there is none and no one who can ever help him keep from feeling as lonely as he constantly does. Of course, he can voice none of this for a King does not fear or doubt. A King shows no concern for any one other than himself, and whereas Jareth realizes that his need to end his loneliness is primarily a selfish concern, it is nonetheless also a weakness. He should not need any one, and so he does not speak his concerns even to his most trusted adviser, Sir Didymus.
The dogman knows the truth though they never speak of Jareth's loneliness. He knows no one can hold a sword to his King. He knows that even his funniest jokes barely amuse him and that he has no one with whom to share the most intimate and treasured moments of life. He tries with every girl who comes into the labyrinth and every female subject he can find, other than the Goblins of course who are, quite simply, out of the question as a match for a Knight such as himself, let alone his King. He tries constantly to find the right lady for King Jareth, but women come and go, girls grow old, and none are the right lover for His Majesty.
Jareth has dabbled with the thought of taking a male companion, but no man that he knows can hold his interest even as long as almost any woman he's known. The one who comes closest is Sir Didymus, and their relationship is strictly platonic. He could never think of his loyal Knight as being anything other than that and his very dearest, and truthfully only, friend. Of course, he has the Goblins and Ludo, but the latter is more of a pet than anything else and the former his curse.
He'd give anything to be able to leave this labyrinth and never return. He leaves it every night, tries again to woo another woman, but always, he has to return before the sun rises. Should the mortals' sun ever touch its golden rays to his perfectly unblemished flesh, Jareth knows from sour and sad experience, he will be immediately transformed into a Goblin and forced to stay that way until he returns to the labyrinth or the sun sets. He can have no life above ground until he can be rid of the crown he hates to wear and so does so very seldom though still having to wear the title.
He didn't want this life. He doesn't want this Goblins yammering about him or the tiresome responsibilities of being their King. He never asked for any of this, and though he lacks the power that he now wields, he'd give it all up to be able to live a normal life above ground with or without a true companion.
When he rests, Jareth dreams. He dreams of what might have been had the former Goblin King never stolen him from his family. He dreams of what might be yet if he could only find the right woman to love him despite flaws to which he'll never admit and free him of the labyrinth and its Goblins. He wonders, too, if he'd never been stolen, if he might already be happy in life, settled down and married with real kids instead of Goblin pests.
He knows he'll never know, and so he tries to leave his dreams to the land of Slumber. He tries never to think of them while awake, and yet he still can not help but to wonder how vastly different his life might have been if only he'd not been stolen away from his world. He'd steal another baby in a heartbeat if he thought that leaving the brat down here might work to free him of his curse, but he knows the truth. It's not simply having a child heir to his throne that will free him: A woman has to love him.
She has to love him and think that she must stay down here in the labyrinth with him. She has to be willing to sacrifice her world, her family, her brother or child, and her own self to be with him. She has to see him in his Goblin form, believe it to be his real form, and yet still have her love for him unhindered. She has to love him more than life itself and anything and everything her world can give her. She has to choose him above all else.
Jareth sighs and dips down into the Fieries' territory. He is King even to these wild creatures that immediately start singing and dancing out of the magical woodlands, but they do not let his title deter them from playing with him. He grins as they come at him, determined to put his thoughts behind him. He'll always be lonely, but at least, he can have some fun while he is still King, before the time comes that he must steal a child heir from above because he is dying and can no longer woo the ladies of the above realm as his time is up.
He doesn't want his time to be up, Jareth thinks, knocking a Fiery in the head with his cane, which, of course, he carries only for the fashionable sense of it and kicking another's legs out from underneath him. He doesn't want to give up his powers or even his title without having something better to which to go, and death is most definitely not the answer. He'd give it all up for love, gladly return to his world if he could, but he'll never seek to end his life.
He's too powerful to succumb to that temptation, too wise to think it an answer, and too old to want to give up so easily. He'll keep fighting, keep charming the girls who might one day prove to be his answer, keep maintaining a tight fist of power over the Goblins, the Fieries, and all the other creatures of his land, and, when he shuts his eyes in the morning, after a full night of partying and romancing, he'll keep dreaming. Who knows? One day, his dreams might come true. After all, he's managed to do everything else in this land of Goblins that he's wanted to do so far, everything but leave it permanently behind.
"Hey, Kingie, throw your head!" a Fiery cries. Another of the orange beasts' heads flies into the air beside that one, his ears flapping swiftly as though trying to keep his head airborne.
"Come on! Join the fun!"
It is a true smile into which Jareth's lips curl this time. He will join the fun, he decides and ceases his thoughts, ignores his loneliness for now, grabs the head off of one of his subjects, and throws it as far as it will fly.
The End