AN: This is my first fanfic for Labyrinth and like most of them, this one if of course a Jareth/Sarah fic. It takes place 10 years after the movie and it's a one-shot. Kinda short but I think it covers the way Jareth feels about Sarah. I hope it's good...I might write another fic with them in it and make it an actual story. The only thing I ask is that you please review after reading. I really like criticism, even bad ones. Seriously, it helps me improve my writing. Anyways, I hope you enjoy it! R/R!!
The smooth crystal balls floating across his gloved hands, gently rolling over the tips of his fingers then down into his palms. Mystifying in their movement, but the woman he watched was far for majestic. His azure eyes never left the graceful curves of her face, the fallen strands of chocolate hair that parted her dark eyes. God, how he had loved those eyes of hers. So innocent, so young and naive. As she had been, when their paths had first crossed - her, a mere child of 15 while he had been the Goblin King and immortal. But the years had been wonderful to her, the passing of puberty and the glory of full womanhood. He had watched it all pass, every moment of her life had he seen and she knew nothing of it.
He wondered if she even thought of him, at least from time to time. They had shared a quite intimate past. He had almost taken her, brought her to stay in the Goblin City by his side. But his own weakness and arrogance had lost him that pleasure when he underestimated her knowledge. She had been cunning and she had beat him at his own game. She was not supposed to leave the labyrinth or the Underground. She wasn't even supposed to have made it to the city itself, but she had. He had been foolish and it cost him the thing he loved most. Now he craved her, demanded her presence yet was powerless to do anything to help it.
He closed his eyes and looked from the castle window to the labyrinth below. So many challenges he had presented to her yet she managed to find her way out of everyone. No had ever come out of the labyrinth before, or at least not alive. She had been the first, truly proving the strong will she had. He remembered their brief dance - that had been no illusion. He had teased her so much, taunting her...letting her chase him for somehow he did not doubt that she was just as infatuated by him as he was her. She was beyond radiant in the beautiful dress, and he had payed no attention to anyone else there. Her body felt so warm pressed against his, and her hair was like silk to his fingers. It killed him when she pulled away from his spell, and he now regretted ever trying to deceive her.
He regretted many thing now. Kidnaping her brother when he knew that would only anger her, deceiving her by sending Hoggle to bring her back to the beginning of the labyrinth, poisoning her so that he could try to get closer to her. But most of all, he regretted not being honest with her, telling her how much he truly fancied her. How much he wanted her to stay in the Underground with him. He had been his own worst enemy and now it would be unlikely that he would ever win her heart again. Too many years had passed and she had long moved on from her childhood fantasies of dresses and dolls. She was a woman now, grown and independent with no time for trivial mind games. Besides, there was another man in her life now. Though he knew nothing of him, he envied him for being able to have her in his bed every night.
He sighed and looked to the balls once more. There she was, gazing into the distance with a temptress's smile across her beautiful face. Perhaps she was looking and thinking of him? He doubted it, she thought little of this world. She had stopped calling upon her friends years ago, abandoning them to the memories of a little girl. Slowly, the sun set over the empty labyrinth and darkness crept closer to the cold stone of the Goblin castle. His grip on the balls loosened, letting them roll over his fingers one last time before they shattered against the floor. Their time together had been short lived yet he knew there would never be another that he could care for half as much as he had cared for her. His heart ached but it mattered little for she would not want him. He would merely continue to watch her, sit outside her room at night and suffer in silence for the foolish mistakes he had made. Who could ever learn to love a Goblin King?