Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/6264565.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Underage
  Category:
      M/M
  Fandom:
      Labyrinth_(1986)
  Relationship:
      Jareth/Toby_Williams
  Character:
      Jareth_(Labyrinth), Toby_Williams, Hoggle_(Labyrinth), Irene_Williams,
      Fred_Williams, Sarah_Williams_(Labyrinth), Goblins_(Labyrinth), Ello
  Additional Tags:
      Toby_is_a_trans_male_character, Rated_Explicit_for_later_chapters, I'll
      add_more_tags_later, trans_boys_are_magic, Angst, Humor, a_little_bit,
      Manipulation, Original_Characters_-_Freeform
  Stats:
      Published: 2016-03-16 Updated: 2017-07-24 Chapters: 4/? Words: 2730
****** Say you'll never let me go ******
by UnicornMister
Summary
     Jareth's magic is failing, and he needs a way to strengthen it. Toby
     Williams is the babe with the power, and he may just be the key to
     the Goblin King's heart.
Notes
     The way that I'm planning this fic is for it to stretch over many
     chapters. I've never attempted anything this big before, so it'll be
     an adventure.
     Soundtrack by order of chapters:
     Magic Dance - David Bowie
     Monster (DotEXE Remix) - Meg & Dia
     Enter Sandman - SHEL
     Ghost - Mystery Skulls
     Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) - Marilyn Manson
***** Prologue *****
His labyrinth was dying. Jareth didn’t have to look at it to know that the
magic was steadily crumbling away.
“Hobble!”
It took a few minutes for the little troll to arrive, and when he did it was
with much muttering and cursing.
“Whadya want me for, Jareth?”
The Goblin King smirked and leaned back in his chair. Much as it irked him, the
creature’s petulance was sort of endearing.
“Your report on the Land of Stench, Prince Hogwart. Have you noticed anything
strange?” Jareth purposefully left his question vague. He wanted to know how
apparent the damage was, especially to such a little nitwit of a troll.
Hoggle shifted his weight and avoided looking Jareth in the eyes.
“Er, well, nothing unusual per se. Bog’s doin’ what it does, ya know. What with
the stench and all. Smells just as bad as ever—”
Hoggle would’ve kept rambling if Jareth didn’t raise his hand and stop him.
“You’re avoiding my question.”
The statement was enough to lock Hoggle in place. So the small creature did
know something after all. He feared Jareth’s wrath, and rightfully so, but it
wasn’t needed in this instance. The Goblin King told him as much.
After some hesitance, the troll answered him.
“The magic’s been gettin’ weak, Jareth. Not only what I been seein’, but I can
feel it also.”
Hoggle shrunk in on himself as though he still expected to be reprimanded for
daring to imply that the king’s magic was weak. Much as he wanted to lash out,
Jareth held himself back. He had summoned the troll to him for a reason.
“Do you remember Sarah, Hogin?”
Used to the king’s purposeful butchering of his name, Hoggle was thrown off for
an entirely different reason. Jareth could see that much, and he used the
silence to press his advantage.
“More importantly, do you remember the child she wished I would take? That was
the purpose of her visit, after all. She wanted him back.”
Hoggle nodded after a pause.
“Yeah, I remember ‘im. Wouldn’t stop cryin’, that one. Why, what’s he got to do
with the magic?”
Jareth smiled, but there was no warmth to it. His pointed incisors showed, and
it made him look like the King of Goblins that he was.
“Pay him a visit for me. He and I have got some catching up to do.”
***** Monster *****
                          Monster, how should I feel?
                               Creatures lie here
                          Looking through the window.
                                        
Vague shapes closed in on him like a noxious gas. Gray, glistening eyes and
needle teeth. One held him, but it was sun bright where the others were
smudges. This one cooed at him, and he remembers feeling cotton warm, the way
that lavender smells. Then there’s a sharp ledge and he’s falling, except the
floor rolls away and there’s just nothing.
Toby came to consciousness with his shirt stuck to his back and his pulse
staccato-beating through him. He rubbed the crumbs from his eyes and blinked in
the dusky light of his room. Untagling himself from his sheets, he left his
room and closed himself in the bathroom across the hall. Not wanting to bother
his sensitive eyes with sudden light, he felt his way through the dimness and
dropped his shorts, sat on the toilet and waited for his stream to stop. Once
done, he wiped and pulled his clothes back up, then flushed.
Gripping the edge of the sink, Toby stared at his darkened reflection. He was
so tired, and it showed under his eyes, in the set of his mouth. His face was
rounder than he would’ve liked, making him look younger than his 15 years. Long
lashes and full lips didn’t help his case either. He sniffed at what he saw and
was about to turn away when he caught movement in the corner of his eye. Two
pairs of eyes, his own and another’s stared back at him. Toby gasped and
turned, but there was nothing in the corner, not even when he hit the
lightswitch and flooded the room with sudden light.
He kept his eyes so wide that they burned and held as still as he could, the
only sound his rapid breathing. When nothing moved, he threw open the door and
retreated back to the safe haven of his room. He was about to disappear back
under his covers when he saw something that hadn’t been there before.
A clear crystal ball, just about the size of his palm rested on his sheets. The
longer he looked at it, the more compelled he felt to touch it. This ball was
meant for him. It sung to the energy humming under his fingertips, twitching to
feel the cool surface of the crystal. But if he gave in to that urge, something
momentous and irreversible would happen. He wet his lips and reached forward,
ready for whatever strange consequences would occur. Holding his breath, he
touched his skin to the smooth crystal and waited for something to happen.
Frowning, he picked up the ball and peered into it.
Nothing had changed.
Blowing out his breath, Toby was ready to go back to bed and forget his
disappointment when he saw that his bed was no longer there. Looking around, he
realized that he wasn’t in his bedroom anymore. He was in his dream. Just being
here brought his memories to the forefront of his mind with a stinging clarity.
The dark colors, the dank smell, and the cold stones beneath his bare feet.
Toby dropped to his knees in front of the image that held him in his dreams,
the Goblin King.
***** Into The Labyrinth *****
Chapter Notes
     I don't know why this chapter was so difficult to write, but here it
     is finally. I'd like to thank my partner and Bonnie for their late
     night plot and character discussions with me, as well as their
     infallible support. Puppy as well, for giving me much needed
     encouragement. And of course, I'd like to thank you, Reader. You put
     value to the effort in my words. Thank you all.
                      Hush little baby, don't say a word
                      And never mind that noise you heard
                      It's just the beasts under your bed
                         In your closet, in your head
                                       …
                            Exit light, enter night
                                 Take my hand
                         We’re off to never-never land
                                        
Jareth regarded the sniffling boy in front of him. He hadn’t made a sound upon
arrival, just dropped his shins to the stones lining the floor of his throne
room. (Jareth wouldn’t admit it, but he did have a slight preference for making
dramatic and lasting impressions.) The boy, not even in his sixteenth year,
only stared at him, gray eyes waiting. Jareth clenched his teeth. Of course
this boy, this babe would already be two steps ahead of him, already seeing
past the futility of screams or wild panic. No, he was smart enough to show his
obeisance, (whether intentional or from lack of strength, it didn’t matter) and
now he waited on Jareth to make the first move. How fucking clever.
“Hello Toby,” he decided to be done with formalities first.
The boy below him blinked and presumably processed his words, but didn’t offer
any of his own. Cold sweat ran from the fine hairs on Jareth’s neck, and he
shifted in his seat, the very one he had held Toby in fourteen years ago.
“I suppose you’re wondering what you are doing here? Well.” He snapped his
lips. “Wouldn’t you like to know.” His sneer dripped from his voice, but Jareth
took great pains to hide it from his features. His ace was in his sleeve here,
and he had to take care not to reveal it.
His needling worked, as it jerked Toby back until he was in a standing
position. His spell of silence broken, his only trouble was in deciding which
question to form first. Taking a chance, Jareth decided to strike first.
He rose and stepped from his pedestal, still platformed over the human below
him. “And now you’re wondering why this place feels familiar. It’s an itch at
the back of your brain, but you can’t quite seem to grasp it.” Jareth summoned
a glass orb, not unlike the one he had used to transport Toby to the
Underground. He toyed with it between his fingers almost idly, bored with the
simple movements he had memorized years ago.
The boy caught every move, his eyes trained on the reflective object. “I know
what that is. It was sitting on my bed, and then I held it when I…” His gaze
snapped to the man before him. “Give it back. That’s mine, it’s what got me
here.”
Jareth tutted and raised a gloved finger. He couldn’t contain his smile this
time. What nerve. “Toby, if you were a cat you’d be dead by now. That crystal
wasn’t yours to begin with, but this one can belong to you.” He raised his
eyebrow, his voice reproachful. “This is a Wish. With it, you could have
anything. Anything that you want, you need only wish for it and it will be
yours. But,” here he moved the ball, and like a trained dog, Toby’s attention
followed. “Like any Magical token, it has to be earned.”
Though focused, the boy remained quiet. Jareth wanted him to ask, wanted to
have him slavering in the palm of his hand. In time. The boy will be yours in
time, he reminded himself with an outward breath. Even caught in an unknown
world, Toby remained proud and cunning, something that his sister had not been.
“As for the matter of how the Wish is to be earned,” Jareth’s voice rang in the
vacant stone room. “You must complete my Labyrinth.” Here his Magic expanded,
and he transported them to the Wastelands.
Toby’s eyes blew wide at the sudden change in his surroundings, but otherwise
he remained unfazed, aside from the faint tremors in his gangly frame. The
Goblin King hissed under his breath.
“Find your way to my castle alive, and you may have your Wish. However, all of
this can be avoided.” He grabbed Toby’s chin, forcing his attention as if he
couldn’t get enough of it. “All I ask is for your partnership, marriage, if you
will. Join me, and you will want for nothing.” Watching as closely as he was,
Jareth couldn’t miss the way that Toby’s eyes flickered at that. He saw the
uncertainty and allowed it.
“Marriage? Why do you want to marry me? Or I guess, why should I marry you?” He
pursed his pink lips, a perfect bow of confusion.
Jareth loosened his grasp. Forcibly made a conscious effort to gentle his
touch, otherwise he’d crush the jaw of this child in his frustration. And of
course, that would get him exactly nowhere. His thumb swept the line of the
bone, a perfect little thing that could fit in his palm.
“Think of all that I could give you, Tobias. Of course I wouldn’t keep you here
against your will, but do you really want to return to your life as you knew
it? Why settle for one small change, when you could rule in my kingdom
alongside me. I would make you a King, because you are special. Exceptional,
and you know it.”
Toby swallowed. “How did you know…never mind.” He shook his head, deciding
against asking how Jareth knew Toby’s unshortened name. Not even his parents
knew his full chosen name. But that wasn’t what he wanted to know most at the
moment. His tongue darted out and moistened his lips. “If I stay here with you,
then I can’t ever go back…can I?”
Jareth’s neck twitched. He shook his head, just once. “Let me put it this way:
why would you want to? You would receive love and acceptance here, even
adoration. And all you have to do is say yes.”
It was enough. The delicious, big apple of an idea that Jareth was spinning was
enough to make Toby consider leaving his entire life behind. Because in
reality, what did he have above ground? Sure his family loved him, but that was
because they were his family. That didn’t mean that they didn’t hurt him
constantly with their misplaced well-intentions and their own guilt. The only
reason he got out of bed in the morning was out of sheer stubbornness. He flat
out refused to be beat down so far that he wouldn’t want to pick himself back
up.
He had nothing worth staying for, but was he willing to give it all up for a
stranger and his vague promises? Even though Toby was only fifteen, he still
knew not to take anything at face value, especially from a magical man he just
met. He’d been let down enough times to know that.
Wringing his shirt between his fingers, Toby made his decision and began
marching forward.
 Men and their promises be damned.
***** Unexpected *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
                        'Cause the world might do me in
                     It's alright 'cause I'm with friends
                           Guess I'm giving up again
                               It doesn't matter
One thing that Toby hadn’t accounted for was the cold. Walking through the
Wastelands was like sticking his bare feet on the insides of a refrigerator.
Somehow when he imagined magical lands they seemed to be at a more comfortable
temperature than this.
Gripping his upper arms, he rubbed the skin there to try to generate some
measure of warmth. In only his tee shirt and boxer shorts, Toby wished that he
was somewhat more prepared for this giant undertaking that he had decided to
take on while still half asleep.
Also, what the fuck just happened?
Before he could cringe from his stupidity, Toby’s foot caught on a stone and he
stumbled. Hissing from the pain, he spat and swore. There was a bleeding scrape
on his toe now and he had to find some way to clean it.
“Ey boy, keep it down will ya? I got kids ‘round here.”
Toby’s head snapped up at the sound of a voice, but no one was standing there.
The hell, this place was messing with his head already.
“No, not up here. Down here.”
He adjusted his direction and found a small worm thing (caterpillar maybe?)
with a shock of blue hair. He wanted to be surprised, but this early into his
journey he thought it more expedient to accept the oddities as they came to
him.
“Ello!” said the worm.
Toby tilted his head, then remembered his resolve. “…Hello?”
The worm shook its blue head. “No no no, I said Ello, not hello. That’s my
name!”
“Oh, uh sorry. I’m Toby.”
“Great, come and meet the missus! She just put on a pot.”
“I don’t know, I don’t…I really should be on my way.” Resolve aside, he wasn’t
sure he should be accepting anything consumable from this place. That was a
rule of magic, right? Don’t eat anything or you won’t be able to leave, or
maybe there was some sort of curse involved.
“S’alright. ‘Sides, bet you’d like to warm up. Missus got the fire goin’ just
right.”
The worm hadn’t even finished his sentence before Toby gave in to basic need.
He couldn’t see it now through the stone walls and mist, but in the heart of
the labyrinth Jareth’s castle stood silent. It had waited this long; it could
stand to wait a little longer.
                                       …
As it turned out, the residence of one Mr. Ello was a dead tree stump sitting a
few yards away along the path. As he walked towards it the stone walls to
either side of him seemed to stretch towards the sky. The stump was supposed to
grow as he approached, but surely not this much? In any case he could now fit
through the worm friendly doorway with Ello behind him.
In terms of hospitality, Ello and his interspecies family didn’t disappoint.
The missus turned out to be some variant of a field mouse, whose name honestly
was Missus. The children came in a large squeaking tumble, and though Toby was
introduced to all of them, after they had all been introduced, only one child
stood out to him. Marie was the last to greet him, and she did so only after a
long moment of looking him over. She didn’t leave his side, though. Not while
he ate or rested by the fire, but when Missus found him some clothes to change
into he was firm on privacy.
            Marie sniffed at his boots and blinked up at him. He snuck a hand
under his shirt and sweater and tugged at the spare piece of cloth he’d used to
bind his chest. “Well M, what do you think?”
She twitched her nose. “I think you’ll need my help if you want to survive.”
Chapter End Notes
     I can't believe it's almost been a year since I've updated. I'm the
     worst, etc. I certainly would've taken a lot longer if it hadn't been
     for BlackHellKitty. Bless her and my partner, who've given me major
     ideas and support. Thanks to them I'll hopefully get the next chapter
     up sooner.
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