Okay, Jack and the Cuckoo Clock Heart is the single most amazing movie I've ever watched. I know I've never talked about it before, but there are literally four fics in the fandom. It's available to watch on YouTube, if you do a little searching. It is also on Netflix.
It's not for everyone, actually. It's somewhat bizarre, but it's a veritable feast for the eyes. Absolutely breath-taking.
Disclaimer: I may be creative, but this movie is too brilliant to even put into words. Eff off, lawyers and crap.
In retrospect, there were plenty little remarks he'd made. Sad ones... odd little nods to his disfigurement, or whatever you would call Jack's clockwork heart.
Sometimes he would hide his little clock,
(What's that odd pitter-patter?)
(It's the rain. Do you like the rain?)
sometimes it seemed he would show it off, in his own way.
(I don't think my heart can take all this!)
(Nor mine.)
Perhaps it was just her imagination. The way he spoke of that bouquet of flowers, seeming almost as if they were a metaphor for himself; his heart...
(They're all bent out of shape or broken!)
(I got them like that, so you wouldn't have to worry about breaking them.)
Perhaps she was reading too much into his words. But the key. Did he really feel it was worth it? She would rather him be alive and have his death be her fault when it happened than have it end like it had.
(Now, whatever happens, I'll only have myself to blame. So now you can kiss me.)
Oh, if only she had worn her glasses more often! She could have recognized him for who he was at the first sight of him in her dressing room mirror. They would have run off together, long before the whole Joe mess could have even began.
Jack would still be there with her, singing and laughing and dancing.
She couldn't help but be angry with him in certain matters, though. Besides throwing his very life away just so she wouldn't be able to blame herself it something had happened later on. That was something she tried not to dwell on more than necessary. Enough tears had been shed already.
He should have told her of at least the first two rules he had to follow.
He should have told her he'd accidentally stabbed Joe's eye out.
He should have told her it was him the second time they'd met.
She should have run for the key and forced him to let her use the bloody thing to wind up his clock.