Xen’s daughter ducked back out of the fridge. “Next time get strawberries!” She shouted, running off to play with her dinosaurs. Xen tried to avoid Jareth’s eye, until he moved directly in front of her, so that she couldn’t pretend he wasn’t there.
“Want a blackberry?” Xen offered, with her most disarming grin. He smirked silently and her smile turned to a grimace. “I’m really sorry about-“
She broke off as Jareth moved closer and put his hand on the back of her neck. He bent down, putting his cheek next to hers. “We’ll talk about the deodorant tonight,” he breathed into her ear.
Her stomach lurched and her heart sped up. “Ok,” she said in a subdued voice. His implied promise was a surprise; he normally wouldn’t spank her for something they hadn’t already discussed and agreed on. With a jolt of dread, she realized after two weeks of increasingly weak excuses, punishment was both well deserved and long overdue. He hugged her and started unpacking a bag of cereal. She swallowed, winced inwardly, and put the last container of blackberries in the fridge.
She heard more rustling behind her. “Xen. What the fuck.”
“What’s wrong?” Heart jumping again, she froze, hand on the milk.
“What is all this pasta sauce for?” Jareth asked incredulously.
“Oh.” Xen said again. She began laughing. “It doesn’t go bad!” she protested, “It was on sale.”
Jareth glared. “Where am I supposed to put…” he counted, “Six, seven,… EIGHT jars of pasta sauce?”
“There are ten,” she said, still giggling. “You must have missed a bag.” She continued to laugh at his menacing look, until finally he hmphed, and bent down to find a space for 10 jars of pasta sauce.