A Fortnight's Apology

[vicioussweetie]

Even Ali, all unforgiving as she is, can only withstand so many apologies before even her impressive walls of resistance crumble. For two weeks, with efforts unrelenting and unmissable, Jareth had been apologizing for his case of foot-in-mouth. Not with words; that wouldn't suit either of their temperaments very well. And neither was it with

Comments

[labyrinthking]

"How pleased I am, to hear you say that," he croons, in that dangerously pleasant way of his, from behind her. The efforts to gain an upper hand with his entrances have resumed, it seems.

[vicioussweetie]

Damn him and his voice. Ali now has a new rule: desensitize herself with Bowie songs before these little meetings. Still, she's proud of herself for maintaining a calm tone, once that shiver is done running down her spine. And with him behind her, he can't see the interesting colors her cheeks have turned (pity nobody's ever told her her shoulders turn the same colors).

"You're depressing my plants."

[labyrinthking]

"Depressing your plants, what calamity," he drawls. "I have been begging forgiveness for your misunderstanding for two weeks now, and the first I hear is that I've upset your posies?" Someone has a burr in his codpiece.

[vicioussweetie]

Such are the dangers of tight pants.

"Well," she points out in a reasonable tone, finally turning to look at him, "would you like to live in a house decorated with the dismembered bodies of your relatives?"

[labyrinthking]

"I suppose not," he replies, "but that avoids the point. My efforts to make amends have been met with nothing."

[vicioussweetie]

"Poor, sorry Goblin King. This will never do," she teases gently while her hands creep up from his stomach to his chest and into the ruffles of his shirt, which she uses to pull him forward. "Let me assure you, your efforts have not been in vain." Unless of course, his aim wasn't to get more kisses. If that's the case he'll just have to suffer through this one.

[labyrinthking]

He certainly sounds pleased, and his own hands slide down to her hips to encourage more. After a fine slew of kisses, though, he starts slipping words between them; "then you, mmm, accept--my apology?"

[vicioussweetie]

Ali first purrs her assent, as she wants a few more kisses before she tries to encourage serious conversation.

"I accept," she repeats, once she can drag her lips from his. "And I hope you never give me reason to be so angry with you again."

[labyrinthking]

"I?" He draws back, regarding her with offended incredulity. "I made an offer, out of generosity and care for you. There was nothing in that to offend, yet angry you became. Now how am I to fight that?"

[vicioussweetie]

Ali's answering look is equally perplexed. "There are rules," she reminds him with a hint of frustration. "And it seems a little more than likely that goblins, given any sort of authority over children, would do something really stupid in an effort to please you."

[labyrinthking]

"Does it?" he scoffs. "Have they done so with the legion of children now in their care?" He's avoiding the argument about rules because, well, there are rules and he can't refute that.

[vicioussweetie]

"That's different, and you know it." It's more than a clichéd retort: she knows he really does understand that, and she's in no mood for him to be purposefully obtuse. And this'll teach her better than to accept his apologies in the future.

[labyrinthking]

"Is it?" he counters. "How does their watching hundreds of children make them less able to watch a few more?"

[vicioussweetie]

"I would expect my children back," she snaps. "But if you really want to babysit them, fine, but don't come crying to me when I have to save them from you and end up burning the Labyrinth to the ground."

[labyrinthking]

"I offered to babysit them!" he snaps back, "and didn't even suggest I wouldn't return them. You supplied the offense I had yet to commit!"

[vicioussweetie]

"Waiting until after someone's been hurt to act doesn't seem like a good way of protecting anybody," she huffs, arms folded. "Or are you saying the rules aren't quite so unbendable as you'd previously have had me believe?"