Ch 16 Oh, Now Why the Concern?

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Charles of the Cheese

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One clear look at Jareth's downtrodden expression (such a contrast to his earlier elation) as he sat next to Toby, who looked nearly as depressed as Jareth, was enough for Sarah to add up the answer to her question. Sitting in the half gloom, both males appeared as subdued as someone who's best puppy had run away. She had expected Jareth at least to have been lecturing Toby on his behavior, but how could he when he was obviously as guilty?

And what about me? She felt her neck muscles tense, her words to Toby about playing with his toys bouncing in her ears. No wonder he sprayed us. Suddenly she felt over exposed and self-conscious in her bathing suit, and wished she'd grabbed her towel as a wrap.

"Are you mad at me?" Toby asked in a small voice, his little eyes hovering at the edge of his folded forearms.

How could she be when she felt so guilty? "No, squirt," she sighed as she walked inside the room, "I'm not mad." She grabbed a loosed t-shirt and pulled it over her head; instantly her backbone reestablished itself. She'd felt Jareth's eyes following her since she'd arrived.

"But I ruined everything."

"No you didn't," she said and sat cross-legged in front of both of them. The motel carpet felt scratchy on the backs of her thighs; she ignored it.

"No, Tobias." Jareth shifted, wrapping an arm around his smaller shoulders. "We allowed things to become too," he glanced to Sarah for a moment, "one-sided and that was unfair to you."

"Exactly." She nodded enthusiastically, damp hair flying. "There wasn't anyone else to play with and we should've remembered that."

Toby sat quietly for a moment, brow furrowed, lips pursed, then asked. "What game were you guys playing anyway?"

"Oh…"

"Well…"

"And why couldn't I play too?"

"We were playing keep away," Sarah answered while Jareth arched a single brow, his eyes sparkling.

"I like keep away."

"I know, Toby, but this is a different version of the game."

"Yes, quite. It is for adults only, my boy." Jareth patted his back and smiled, head cocked to better gaze at him.

Toby's head swiveled back and forth a few times then he shrugged. "I give up."

"Give up?" Sarah asked, leaning in.

"Adults are too weird."

She laughed and Jareth smirked. "Yes we are," she said ruffling his hair. "You hungry, squirt?"

"Yeah."

"Good," she said as she shared a look with Jareth over Toby's head. "Cause I know just the place."

"Indeed?" Jareth said, cocking a brow.

"Oh, yeah. You'll love it."

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Guilt was an extremely powerful motivator, nearly on par with love. While Jareth had known these highly useful bits of wisdom (and used them to his advantage on more occasions than he cared to recall at the moment) he'd never been on the receiving end quite like this. And never because of a mortal. Blast.

He supposed he should feel a modicum of satisfaction that Sarah suffered equally, if not more than him, as she scurried after her hyperactive brother while Jareth observed from a short distance. Not in comfort. None of the seating offered bore any resemblance to comfort—hard edged and pre-formed to some lazy nod to the seated human body—he shifted again to allow circulation to that area of constriction. He cringed. The things he did for the Williams siblings.

The shriek of children bolting past cut his ears. "Good gods," he said wiggling a finger in his ear canal. Surely he'd be deafened for decades now.

He caught Sarah's eyes, and she waved him over, frantically, insistently, desperately. A single, slow head shake. Ah… no. From the winces she continually glared at her pocketbook and hid from Tobias, Jareth had no desire to partake of the disharmony of competition she subjected herself to in the name of guilt. That he agreed to stay in this … place … was enough.

He remembered the look she'd given him when she'd asked Tobias if he was hungry, he sensed something disingenuous in the glint of her eyes but disregarded it. Telling himself she wouldn't … Jareth should've been more wary. Of course she would. He wouldn't love her half as much as he did if she didn't. His mouth quirked and he repressed a chuckle.

"Amusing yourself?"

He glanced up, his fingertips pressed to his curving lips. "Always, my dear."

Sarah harrumphed, throwing her lovely, denim-clad bottom onto the opposite side of the neon-colored, laminate booth. "At least one of us is enjoying our atonement."

He rested his elbows on the table, resting his chin on his clasped hands. "You know me, able to find amusement where ever I am."

"Yeah, well, you're not really supposed to be enjoying this," Sarah said. "It's torture for adults." She picked up a napkin, shredding it viciously as she pouted.

"Mmm… Would you prefer I admit how the garish colors and lighting have caused me an instant and increasing migraine? Or the aural dissonance makes it impossible for me to think?"

She smiled, flattening the abused paper to the tabletop. "Continue."

Jareth nudged their leftover meal with one finger. "Perhaps I shall tell you how this tastes like old parchment covered in rotten tomatoes and stale dwarf cheese."

Sarah sat up straight, brow furrowing. "What's dwarf cheese?"

"Immaterial and believe me, you don't wish to know."

"Okay," she said, stretching out the word. "Sorry. Kids will eat anything, but messing up pizza is really difficult since usually even bad pizza is like… uh…" Sarah gulped and turned bright red, her eyes flicking from his suddenly.

Oh, he had to hear this. He leaned forward, smirking and drawled, "Like what?"

"Nothing. Nevermind."

Without thinking, he snaked a hand out and lightly touched her hands busily strangling the paper napkin again. Fortunately it was inanimate; otherwise she would've already killed it. "Sa-rah, tell me. What exactly is bad pizza like?"

She huffed and pulled her hands from his. "You're such an ass." She slid from the booth, grabbing her half empty soda and taking a deep drink from the straw. Looking down at him, she said, "Tell you what; you participate in your atonement instead of camping out in the geriatric section, and I'll whisper the answer to you tonight. After Toby's asleep." She stuck her right hand out. "Deal?"

Uuhhoohh, the vixen! He never could resist a game or a bet or a taunt, etcetera, etcetera. Jareth reversed poured his lithe frame from his seat (made slightly less impressive by his Wal-mart clothing-shudder-he'd better get his magic back soon, dammit) and grasped her hand.

"Accepted, Sarah." His lips brushed her ear as he used her held hand to pull her close. "Be warned; I fully intend on collecting on your bet and more."

She shivered and exhaled. "I expected no less, Jareth." Then she stepped back, grinning and used the same handclasp to drag him into the play area riddled with children and frazzled parents.

"You know," he said as they walked. "When Charles of the Cheese created this establishment, he should've invested in more games of chance and riddles."

Sarah choked and spit her soda, laughing.

"What?" he asked, head tilted.

"Oh my god," she pulled her hand from his and wiped her funny tears, "you're hilarious!"

"I wasn't intending to be."

"I know; that's what's so great."

"I wish to add an amendment to our deal."

"Yeah?"

"You will explain this humor too." He grabbed her hand again, stopping her and said in a low voice, "And you will do so in the same whisper in my ear while I'm allowed to distract you by any means at my disposal."

"Ah…"

"Deal?" She licked her lips; his hand involuntarily spasming around her fingers. Blasted girl!

"Deal," she said with a sly smile before resuming their walk. "By the way, have you ever heard of skeeball?"

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"Woohooyeah!" Tobias hollered, jumped up and down like a spider monkey on crack. "You are so awesome!"

Jareth couldn't help the flush of ridiculous pride that overwhelmed him at Tobias' display. After all, it was merely a large wooden ball rolled into a specific plastic target deemed a hundred points. That he was able to deposit said ball into the highest score repeatedly and reliably wasn't due to magic (still on vacation) but his prowess—because he really was just that awesome. Of course, centuries of rigorous training in various martial arts hadn't hurt his eye/hand coordination. Still, he preferred his theory of awesomeness. It tended to work better as a conversation starter at royal galas and such. Women rarely swooned over tales of fighting techniques (now war stories with blood and gore—check). But back to the issue at hand.

Skeeball.

"Yippeee!" Tobias shouted again. Really! Sarah needed to cut back on the boy's sugar ingestion. "I've never seen anybody get so many points before!"

Jareth happily hefted another skeeball. "It's quite simple once you understand the mechanics of the game."

"Really? Will you teach me? I want to get a pile of tickets too!"

"But of course, Tobias." Jareth handed him the ball and stepped aside. "Though I still don't understand the purpose of the tickets."

"It's for the prizes afterwards, remember?"

"Yes, but why bother with tickets when one could just win the prizes directly?"

Sarah snorted behind him, rejoining them after refilling her soda. "It's part of the financial scam."

"It's not a scam!"

"Sorry, Toby." She surrendered up a hand. "I meant game." Jareth, however, continued to stare at her while Toby rolled the ball, scoring ten points, then groaning. "You see," Sarah said to Jareth in a quiet voice. "Each ticket is worth one point. You collect a certain amount of points to earn the option of picking prizes worth those point amounts. Simple."

"Aha, but if each game costs from .25 to a dollar and you don't know how many tickets you'll win, then you could spend ten times the cash value of the prize. Correct?"

Sarah tilted her soda cup slightly, pointed the straw at him. "Now you're getting it."

"That's positively evil."

"Yep."

He grinned. "I love it!"

"You would."

"You don't?"

"It's my money, which I have little of, which we're giving away." She sighed, then shrugged. "But hey… atonement, right?"

"Jareth," Tobias tugged on his shirt, "I can't get the high points."

"Let me help you, Tobias. Hold it like so, crouch a bit…"

"Okay."

"Bring your arm back, then smoothly release forward." The ball hit the skeeball deck with a smack and rolled abrasively, hitting the end with a thump and launching up, over and down.

"Wow! Forty points! I've never gotten that before!"

"Improvement then, shall we continue?"

"Oh yeah!"

Sarah rolled her eyes. "I'll be at the sniper game." Jareth mumbled a reply as they played another ball. "I have a sudden need to kill things," she said.

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"I still can't believe you picked out the whoopee cushion," Sarah said, parking her car in the motel parking lot.

"Why? I am a creature of mischief. It seems perfectly logical to me," Jareth said.

Sarah nodded toward her brother zonked out in the back seat. "He's supposed to be the immature one, not you."

Jareth tsked, shaking a finger. "I may have to suffer without my magic, but I will not continue without some form of fun. However immature you deign it to be."

"Fine. Whatever." She opened her door and stepped out. "Just don't use it on me or you'll be suffering from an entirely new kind fun lacking."

"Sarah!" Jareth paused as he was scooping Tobias from the back seat. "You wouldn't use such a tired, feminine threat so early in our relationship, would you?"

"Is that what this is?" she asked with a smirk.

Jareth walked to her side of the car, a sleeping Tobias snuggled to his chest. "I'm insulted that you'd think it anything else," he said without humor or malice. Sarah inhaled and the moment stretched, then Jareth's lips curled and his eyes sparked. "Truly insulted."

She playfully slapped his upper arm. "Stop."

"Never," he said dramatically, walking to their motel room. The strolled in companionable silence to the door and Sarah fumbled as she unlocked it. As Jareth passed her from the moonlit parking lot into the heavier darkness of their room, he said softly, "Don't forget what you owe me, Sarah." Then he winked in the gloom, knowing she saw because her breathing stuttered.

Things were definitely quite better since…

Jareth paused in his stride to Tobias and Sarah's bed. There, so subtle he nearly missed it, but it was at the edges. His magic tingling and teasing him and why wasn't he relieved?

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