Just let me lie here on the tile

More Five Things, coming up! Man, this is fun. Many thanks to falzalot and aka_arduinna for helping me out with these.

For halimede:


Five things abandoned under a chair or in a corner in Jareth's throne room.

1) Underneath his throne: a scattering of owl pellets. Some have bits of mice in them, some have...other things.

2) Stuffed into a drafty hole near the window: a white silk handkerchief, monogrammed in a crabbed goblin hand.

3) Kicked into a corner: a crystal ball with a crack in it. One day he will invent a better scrying glass, to watch her across the worlds.

4) Lining a goblin's nest: an old, blood-stained map of the Labyrinth, with all the death traps marked in pencil and notes like, "Seed eyestalks here."

5) Behind his throne, safely out of sight: a bracelet, dangling plastic charms. Jareth pretends he doesn't know it's there, but he won't let any of the goblins use it for a teething ring.


For roo2:


Five things Hercules never told Iolaus. And vice versa.

Hercules never told Iolaus:

1) That he arm-wrestled Atalanta and lost. If he told that story, he'd have to explain just how he lost, and Iolaus would snicker his head off, and. Well. Just. The subject never came up, okay?

2) How much he missed the jester's cooking. And how much it worried him that apparently, he shared the Sovereign's taste in food.

3) That he won a dance competition in Rhumba. Iolaus and the widow Twanky would probably get on like a house on fire, and Hercules would rather be eaten by another giant snake than see it happen.

4) That in Sumeria, he lay on the marble floor for days, staring up at Iolaus' dead body, waiting for the impossible. That he cursed himself, the gods, even Iolaus for not coming back to him. He would tell, if Iolaus asked; but Iolaus never asked. Maybe he already knew.

5) That he was already working on another blanket, for when this one fell apart.


Iolaus never told Hercules:

1) That sometimes, he could really see a family resemblance between Ares and Hercules, especially when they fought, and that he suspected Ares of pulling his punches.

2) That even when he was running from her, he thought Callisto was really hot, in a batshit insane, we're all going to die sort of way.

3) That he saw Gabrielle tortured in another reality and didn't save her, because he chose Hercules' life over hers, and that he could still hear the screams.

4) That he loved making Hercules explain things, and sometimes he acted dumb just to see Hercules use gestures that would get him arrested if he wasn't a demigod.

5) That he still dreamed of the Light, and when he woke up, everything felt unreal and out of focus, and he had trouble remembering to breathe. Hercules never said anything, just wrapped the blankets around the both of them and held on.