Author's Note: This is a three-part short story and a direct follow-up to my earlier "Let It Snow". This should stand on its own, but if you have a chance, go read that one first (link from my profile page).

Disclaimer: I do not own the concept or characters from Labyrinth.

The Kiss

A Labyrinth valentine.

"Mmmm," breathed Sarah, inhaling the steam from her raspberry latte. Held in both hands, her mug still trembled. She willed herself to relax into the worn wooden seat. Across the table, her best friend, Gi, gave her a crooked smile.

"Geez, Sarah, tense much?" There was a too-loud clatter as the older girl stirred a heaping spoonful of raw sugar into her coffee.

They were the only customers of the little coffee shop, a fact for which Sarah was intensely grateful. She wanted, no, needed to talk, but she wouldn't risk being overheard. Tuesday afternoons were always dead, especially since the local movie theater started showing matinees for a buck. She smiled back at her friend and took a small sip of her drink, wincing slightly as the too-hot liquid scorched her tongue. She always did have a thing for heat. "Maybe a little," she said, eyes on the table, fingers twisting a paper napkin into shreds.

"Well spill it," demanded her friend. "Does this have anything to do with that boy you met over winter vacation?"

Sarah flushed, hating, in that moment, her pale complexion that revealed her emotions so readily. "He's hardly a boy," she said steadily, fingers still working at the napkin, which had surrendered unnoticed.

"Oh excuse me," mocked Gi, "I meant to say man." She reached over and rescued the beleaguered napkin, wiping the shreds smoothly onto the floor and rolling her eyes as Sarah flushed even deeper.

"He's not exactly that either." Sarah considered her words. "He's a magician."

Gi's eyebrows shot up and her smile grew wider and cat-like. "A magician."

"Sort of," said Sarah slowly, "he did some magic for Toby's birthday party and made these incredible snow sculptures..." Her voice trailed off as an image of impossible wings of ice fluttered across her mind's eye.

Gi snorted. "So he entertains kiddies and plays in the snow. Sounds like fun." Her tone implied otherwise. "What's got you so hot and bothered?"

Sarah groaned. This was a mistake, she thought wearily. "I am not 'hot and bothered', I'm just, I don't know, confused." She took another sip of latte to hide her annoyance.

But Gi was savvier than she looked and backed off. "Why?" was all she asked.

Sarah frowned, tried to think of a way to describe her past without revealing everything and then gave up and gave Gi an abridged sketch, both of the night she wished away her brother and subsequently rescued him from the Goblin King and the more recent and puzzling encounter with said king.

Gi was rapt, her coffee untouched as she leaned forward, chin on hand, to catch everything Sarah said. "Unbelievable," she whispered, awestruck.

Sarah frowned. "You don't believe me?" She shook her head, suddenly wanting to be anywhere else. What had she been thinking?

Gi reached across the table and put a hand gently on Sarah's wrist. "I believe you," she said. She smiled broadly. "I can't believe that I do, but I do. I really do."

Sarah looked relieved. "It's been so weird," she admitted. "I think about him all the time."

Gi grinned and wriggled her eyebrows suggestively. "What's so weird about that?" She remembered her coffee then, took and sip and spit it out again. "Cold! I hate that!" She looked around for the counter guy to warm her cup but he had disappeared.

Sarah still felt warm and kind of itchy, like something was buzzing just beneath the surface of her skin. "It is weird though," she said. "Before Toby's birthday I tried never to think about him. I was always afraid he'd come back after Toby again." Her eyes took on a far-away look. "Now I just don't know. All those things he said about doing everything for me..."

"You think he really meant it," finished Gi. "It's like a fairy-tale come to life." She jumped up and carried her coffee cup behind the counter, helping herself to a warm-up. While she was back there, she scooped up a scone from the display case and carried it back in her mouth. "What?" she mumbled through the pastry as Sarah looked shocked. "I'm going to pay for it when he comes back. Geez."

"See that you do," Sarah said mildly. She looked around her then. It really was empty. "He must be in the bathroom," she said, jerking her thumb towards the deserted counter.

Gi just shrugged and gobbled the rest of her scone in huge, messy bites that made Sarah laugh. Her friend was a bottomless pit and you could always tell her last meal by looking at the stains on her shirt.

"What I want to know," said Gi, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and taking a swig of coffee, "is what you're going to do about your goblin-guy." She gulped the rest of her coffee down and looked over at the counter again, but it was still empty. She jerked her thumb in the direction of the men's room. "Do you think we should see if he's okay?"

Just then the store phone began to ring. Both girls turned to stare at it, the sound strangely loud in the empty shop. On and on, it rang with no one to answer it.

Sarah felt a chill run down her spine and she suddenly felt cold, as though someone had dropped an ice cube down her shirt. "Do you think we should get that?" she asked Gi, then leaped up to do just that, not waiting for an answer. It stopped ringing as she lifted it to her ear and she slowly set it back down.

Gi was knocking on the men's room door. "Hey!" she shouted, "are you okay in there?" There was no answer. "Hey!" she called again, "do you need help?" She turned to Sarah who had come over to stand with her. "Should we go in?"

Sarah shook her head. "We should call the police." But she made no move towards the phone, still staring at the bathroom door.

Gi put her palms on the door. "He might need an ambulance. We should check." She pushed it slowly open. "Hello?" she said, no longer shouting.

Sarah began to back towards the front counter but Gi whipped her head around and pinned her halfway there. "I...I..." She couldn't seem to explain the sudden dread she was feeling.

"Come on, Sarah," mouthed Gi, turning back to the open door in front of her. She began advancing.

Sarah shook off her paralysis and grabbed a broom instead. With something solid in her hands, she felt better. She crept back over behind Gi, who was bending down to peer beneath the three stalls. They all appeared to be empty, but Sarah was taking no chances. While Gi investigated a small closet at the rear of the bathroom, she pushed each stall door in turn with her broom.

Gi returned from her fruitless search. "You think he's standing on the toilet?" she asked.

Sarah had just finished and threw down the broom. "Obviously not, but it never hurts to check."

Both girls retreated to the brightly lit shop. "What about the women's room?" asked Gi. "Should we look there too?"

"Might as well," said Sarah, but instead of moving back towards the restrooms she retreated to their table and sank back wearily in her chair, closing her eyes.

From across the empty room, she heard Gi cry, "All clear in here!" and then the heavy tread of biker boots returning to her side. "Are you okay, Sarah?"

Sarah couldn't escape the feeling that she was somehow to blame for the disappearing coffee shop employee. She felt certain of it without any rational explanation whatsoever, but all she said was, "Just peachy, thanks."

Still sitting in darkness, she heard Gi clomp back over to the front counter.

"I'm gonna call the police now," said Gi and Sarah heard the beep, beep, beep of phone buttons being pushed.

I wish the shop guy would return, she thought with despair. Sounding much too far away, Gi's voice rose and fell as she reported their situation. He's got to be here. He MUST be here, we just didn't see him.

Sarah heard Gi replace the telephone and then "What the hell? Where did you come from?" Her eyes snapped open.

Gi was gaping at the no-longer-missing employee who had just waltzed out of the men's room.

He spied the girls' expressions. "What? Everything okay, ladies?" He nimbly sprung across the counter and reached for a bar towel. "Sorry 'bout that, but you know," he blushed mightily, "nature calls." Lowering his eyes, he busily wiped the pristine counter.

Gi had closed her mouth and silently deposited $1.50 in front of him for her scone. He kept wiping and didn't acknowledge the cash.

"Let's get out of here," she said to Sarah and grabbed up her own purse.

Sarah had no choice but to follow. At the door she paused and turned back towards the still-busy counter-man. It was me. It was all me. She felt vaguely sick and also, vaguely excited. It was just the same way she had felt when Manny Fisher had kissed her in the seventh grade. The two feelings made her voice shake, just a bit. "Oh, um, if the police show up, tell them it was a mistake. And, uh, sorry about that." With a last look around, she fled out to the sunny afternoon.